For their part, Singapore's leaders have focused on providing parkland, building a functioning subway and recycling city wastes. But these pragmatists show little tolerance for such Western-style species self-hatred. A society proud of its accomplishments, its agglomerated cultures--Chinese, Indian, Malay--continue to value family as the supreme societal unit.At the same time, many leaders trace the depth of their demographic problem to their own campaign to limit families back in the 1970s. "We have been very successful in reducing the birthrate," observes Lui Pao Chuen, adviser to the National Research Foundation and a prime architect of Singapore's defense systems. "The society will die if it goes on like this. We want our society to live on." Full Story
