My main point is this:
"I said that using a certain
language [english]to create a culture,
the culture
created can at best be a commercial culture, or technology culture,
or we may call it pasar culture. It has no
roots, and identifies itself with a certain
material interest. It is the product of expediency.
"It is like duckweed, floating at the harbour. When it absorbs
fertilisers, it will flourish very quickly. But once it rains and floods set in, it
will perish," he said in an interview
conducted in a restaurant in Haadyai, near the Thai-Malaysian
border...
http://ourstory.asia1.com.sg/independence/ref/plen3.html
I was disturbed too, by two
letters published in Streats in July. The writers
are also fair-weather Singaporeans. They said that if life is
less stressful elsewhere, for example in Australia, and less
costly, why not emigrate? They believed that life
would be even tougher for the next generation in Singapore, as
shown by the recent decision to increase bus and MRT fares. In
Australia, on the other hand, the cost of living was very low -
property was cheap, cars were cheap, and parking in most places was
free.
Are these two potential
emigrants so sure that the cost of living will never go up in
Australia? Which other country will they run off to next, when bus
fares go up in Australia?
Fair-weather Singaporeans will
run away whenever the country runs into stormy weather.
I call them
"quitters".
http://www.gov.sg/nd/ND02.htm
using a certain language
[english] to create a culture, the culture created
can at best be a commercial culture, or technology culture, or we
may call it pasar culture. It has
no roots,
But once it rains and floods set in, it
will perish
identifies
itself with a certain material interest. It
is the product of expediency.
Understand bo?
Understand or don't understand my point?