plum

This is the Fortingall Yew no, I'm just kidding this is the Fortingall Yew.

Michèle Ramis Plum (France)

Plum disgraceful to us Maroons.

This is no plum brandy.

And back to the yew here.

What Comes After Lee Kuan Yew?

Have you swallowed a plum stone?

A plum position you found yourself!

Yes, and plum pudding and gooseberry pie...

This is a ripe plum ready to fall.

I think you've gone plum crazy on this case.

Then as the spring of this year brought forth plum blossoms...

And there is not the slightest excuse for plum or puce

Three apple trees, two pears, one plum and a mulberry, and my roses.

Work yourself to death, then they bring in an outsider to pick the plum.

Now you're living it up with an apartment, a motorcycle, and a plum job.

The question, though, remains What happens next? Lee Kuan Yew dealt with the question of succession by deferring it.

Country girls like to cut red paper into peach and plum blossoms and paste them onto doors and windows.

I hate to see anybody as plum beautiful as you riding in a motheaten old basket like this, let alone those two nags a pulling' it.

CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA The death of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore s founding father, offers an occasion to reflect on his legacy and, perhaps more importantly, on whether that legacy has been correctly understood.

France Didier Jayle, Patrick Villemur, Jean Pierre Vidon, Michèle Ramis Plum, François Poinsot, Claude Girard, Thierry Picart, Nathalie Richard, Stéphane Lucas, François Pellerin, Gisèle Clément, Olivia Diego, Pascale Laurent, Christophe Foulouier

In January 1993, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew announced the Government's new initiatives to generate a larger pool of local entrepreneurs and to build up the external wing of the Singapore economy.

The retirements from frontline politics of Singapore s Lee Kuan Yew and Malaysia s Mahathir Mohamed have deprived Southeast Asia of its senior leaders. Can Thailand s Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra fill the regional leadership vacuum?

And there are actually a number or ancient yews in churchyards around the U.K., but if you do the math, you'll remember it's actually the yew trees that were there first, then the churches.

Lee Kwan Yew in Singapore and Mao Zedong and Deng in China gained their peoples trust as founders and initial reformers. But that trust dissipates succeeding generations of leaders do not inherit it completely, and must earn it.

What Singapore s founder, Lee Kwan Yew, and his colleagues and successors understood is that the combination of single party rule and corruption is toxic. If you want the benefits of the former, you cannot allow the latter. 160 160

And when I complained to my grandmother, a World War II veteran who worked in film for 50 years and who supported me from the age of 13, that I was terrified that if I turned down a plum assignment at ABC for a fellowship overseas,

In these circumstances, straight is the gait and narrow is the path that the Federal Reserve will have to walk hardly an enviable position. And yet journalists not very experienced reporters, to be sure ask me who is likely to get the plum job of Fed Chair next year.

Lee Kuan Yew, who presided over Singapore either directly or indirectly for more than a half century remaining influential right up to his death at 91 had more time in power than most to do so. Several volumes of memoirs attest to Lee s concern about his legacy, although Singapore s extraordinary success under his leadership speaks for itself.

Within the United States, all major presidential appointments must be ratified by the Senate even if rejections are rare, the vetting process is important, for the president knows that he can go only so far. But the presidency of the World Bank is a rare presidential plum an appointment that is not subject even to Congressional hearings.

Above all, effective leadership requires contextual intelligence and an intuitive diagnostic ability that helps a leader understand change, set objectives, and align strategies and tactics accordingly. As Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore, once told me, a leader must be a quick learner, test reality, be prepared to change his mind as conditions change, and act calmly in a crisis.

The other key lesson from Singapore is that single party rule has retained popular legitimacy by delivering inclusive growth and equality of opportunity in a multi ethnic society, and by eliminating corruption of all kinds, including cronyism and excessive influence for vested interests. What Singapore s founder, Lee Kwan Yew, and his colleagues and successors understood is that the combination of single party rule and corruption is toxic.

And when I complained to my grandmother, a World War II veteran who worked in film for 50 years and who supported me from the age of 13, that I was terrified that if I turned down a plum assignment at ABC for a fellowship overseas, I would never ever, ever find another job, she said, Kiddo, I'm going to tell you two things.

Of course, whether America can implement the available solutions is uncertain several commissions have proposed feasible plans to change America s debt trajectory by raising taxes and cutting expenditures, but feasibility is no guarantee that they will be adopted. Still, Lee Kuan Yew is probably right to say that China will give the US a run for its money, but not surpass it in overall power in the first half of this century.

Singapore s former leader, Lee Kwan Yew, an astute observer of both the US and China, argues that China will not surpass the US as the leading power of the twenty first century, precisely because the US attracts the best and brightest from the rest of the world and melds them into a diverse culture of creativity. China has a larger population to recruit from domestically, but, in Lee s view, its Sino centric culture will make it less creative than the US.