am i a patriotic singaporean? maybe i am, maybe i am not. i know the singapore pledge by heart. both the english and the chinese version. and i can rattle off the national anthem any given time of the day. but how is that so? it is because, correct me if i'm wrong, it's mandatory to recite the pledge and sing the national anthem in sch. yes, 6 years in primary school and 4 years in secondary school to say the least. so that 10 yrs of drilling us with the pladge with the national anthem.
but sometimes maybe i have to ask this question. what does singapore hold, so as to make me patriotic to her? the country have provided me with 22 years of shelter and education along the way. relatively cheap school fees, and cheaper if i had not chose to study in an independent school in my secondary education.
it is a very safe place to live in. crime rates are low. we dun have to worry about our kids taking drugs in school. we dun have to worry about anybody pulling a gun out in school and killing everyone. alchohol and cigrattes are so frigging expensive that it makes ppl more apprehensive when trying to destroy their body.
we have nice shopping malls to shop at, so when you feel that you have that bit of disposable income, you can just walk into any gucci and prada to splurge using that retail therapy of urs. retail therapy jus makes it sound nicer. its buying what we like. and for those with less disposable income, there's always the giordano or friendly neighbourhood shops to get ur stuffs. and buses which comes at a much frequet rate then in certain parts of europe.
and also all sort of food from all kinds of places. 24hr food joints littered all over the country, and a certain popular fast food outles just expanded their delivery services to 24hrs, we can say that we might not need to worry about going hungry either.
sounds pretty much like a wonderful place to stay aint it? but till now, it's only one side of the story. of cos people say everyone have got their own set of problems. so does singapore.
Recently, there have been quite alot of emphasised placed on foreign talents. singapore wants more foreign talents to come in, to do whatever they are good at. they are urging them to come. letting them know that they are important.
allow me to put forward an analogy. The mother have been treating her daughter quite well, but she have just given birth to a new child. and this new child is a boy. as of every traditonal chinese family, the son is held as the more important member of the family as he carries on the family name. hence the daughter is now being neglected and everyone is taking immense care of the son.
maybe singaporeans are feeling like the daughter now. i've been part of the family for so long, but this person just came, and now nobody gives a damn about me all of a sudden.
so are singaporeans now 3rd class citizens?
1st class - Expats 2nd class - Foreign Talents 3rd class - Local Singaporeans
So we are this low in ranking in our own native nation. you might argue that this may not be true. but take a walk into the shopping mall, or restuarant and be more alert when there are foreigners, or to put it Singlish 'angmohs' around, just take notice at how the shopkeepers, salesperson, or the waiter takes care of all their needs.
enough about foreign talents. there are still other issues that we have yet to tackle. issues like the restriction in media. just yesterday, Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) have been banned in Singapore due to an interview that they have carried out with Chee Soon Juan. Now nobody is allowed to bring any issues of FEER into singapore to be sold or distributed. and we are also not allowed to subscribe to it anymore.
i feel kinda sorry for the business students who have been following FEER so religiously for their extra readings. but let's hope that this will not be the last we see of FEER.
still on the media issue, a few months back, blogger mrbrown created quite a hype when he wrote in an article in TODAY, that somehow criticised the singaporean government tongue in cheek. but the authority was less then happy with his sense of humour and came down very harshly on him calling him a 'partisan player' and even causing him to stop submitting articles to TODAY. so you can tell, we are unable to truly voice out what we feel. but we can if we are able to propose a way to correct the problem that we are not happy with as far as i understand.
to think about it another way, we are somewhat being terrorised into submission. instead of being protected by the them.
the cost of public transport is gonna go up tomorrow. and amongst other things (including hot air) that are raising, only salary and wages are not raising. well, to this point, i'm a little worried about getting a lawsuit which i fear i might not have any $$ to fight, so i guess it is to my best interest that i stop typing. till next time.
