Singapore Homecoming - A Hell

iSpeak SG

Have you ever spent a week away from Singapore? On holiday, on business etcetera. How was the feeling like when you touched back down in Singapore after time away from your home island? Personally, I felt suddenly hammered back into the perennial modern rat-race where social indifference and materialism rules our lives.

I spent a week in the Yunnan province of China exploring the scenic beauty of the Tiger Leaping Gorge and the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, on top of all the diversified culture the region offers. I visited both a primary and secondary school and saw with my own eyes the sincere and unquenchable thirst of poor Chinese students who tackle their academic studies as if they might never have a shot at education again. For many, that sadly holds true. In contrast, Singaporeans such as myself have become so jaded with the prospect of going to school that we are simply going through the motions, even though our systems and facilities are easily better tenfold.

The farmers I saw going about their routine manually smiled and offered me portions of their harvest, even if it only were sunflower seeds. Their faces were dark from hours in the sun and a twenty year old might have passed off as thirty five with all the wrinkles that came about from hard labour and a hard life. Yet what struck me most was how their existence was one of purpose, filled with soul and colour.

So unlike the cold calculative affairs of Singaporeans.

As I walked out of Changi Airport I felt as I was plunged back into a hole of unforgiving mind-numbing stress where everyday I had to settle my schoolwork and other pointless admin crap. And for what? So that I could graduate and get a good job, buy a flashy car, afford that posh country club membership? What is the satisfaction behind all this pretentious and superficial materialism. I sank into depression and illness as such thoughts envelop me.

I feel that life elsewhere offers much more meaning and purpose, though it may be harder and offer less affluence. Maybe I am just suffering a severe case of disillusionment. But yeah, life here sucks.

Anyone here share similar thoughts or objections? I would like to hear all views and arguments.

Ito_^ SG

if you were a local there, u think they would smile and give you a portion of their harvest?

Coquitlam SG

Yup I agree with you totally. I have had that feeling many times. To be fair, Singapore ain't that bad and one thing I will always remember is that SG provided me with the means to get out and build a life elsewhere.

The question for Sg now is where does she go from here, cause I do not hold out much hope for SG at the rate she is going. SG will just be a has-been, economically successful on the surface but socially crumbling on the inside. Things had to be done the tough way in the early days and all the side effects of a practical lifestyle has eaten into so so much so we are 30th in the politeness index. This just confirms what many have thought all along, SG is just a load of bullshit...hah! 4 million smiles...oh please....

I've gone thru shit and I can dare say that as a self-employed person...most businessmen/women work much harder than salaried staff in SG and if SG is not careful, it will just be a mediocre society, nothing more, nothing less as most here are still comfy in their idea of an iron ricebowl.

Now I'm off to somewhere else where at least I can enjoy the other little things in life besides economic success that only SG knows...No where is perfect but at least elsewhere has things which SG does not have, besides economic success. Personally, sg ppl have to learn to live with a little more problems in their lives besides being too comfy and staid and apathetic.

Just look as Sim Wong Hoo(Creative Technology) and his NUTS syndrome...no change till today and that MDA reply to paying TV licenses by default is a classic example. So much for entrepreneurship. Hah! There's lots more to be found in Shanghai, NY, KL, Toronto, even in Budapest!

For those in the dark about NUTS...read on the link...
in SG, you do as you are told...elsewhere, you do if you are not told or if its no explicit....So I say, SG looks good on the surface only...Its just a whole load of wayang....

http://forums.rojakpot.com/showthread.php?t=7535

Sim Wong Hoo says we are not hungry enough and most still look for cushy gahmen jobs.....Academic excellence is no more the key to success...
So I say, study as much as you can but not workship academic excellence. The better school is to go out there and get knock around, like in Shanghai and Bangalore, then you all knwo what is the meaning of street smarts and entrepreneurship. Just going on study tours is not enough, only and eye-opener...the students here will just come back and get into their cushy routines again

http://www.stconsultancy.com/Research/Sim_BT31Mar2003.pdf

More NUTS

http://www.hardware-one.com/forum/read_msg.php?tid=202&forumid=seriousth

My belief is that SG must suffer more to learn....its written all over at least several thousand years of history...Its just mankind..so what's so special about SG? SG will just lapse into complacency after decades of success and then walah...full circle, with problems like disease and war coming round

iSpeak SG

Mind you I am not someone who is unpatriotic or whatnot. Just disillusioned with the uninspired lives we lead here.

There are many things I love about Singapore. Efficiency, the food, my family, the food, my friends and the food. Did I mention Singapore cuisine yet?

laoda99 SG

whenever i touch down in sg, i feel safe.

Coquitlam SG

No one is saying you are unpatriotic...am just airing my views

To me, where ever you choose to live is a personal choice. There will be some who stay and some who leave, like me...just following my forefathers' footsteps. It's just a transient place for me, nothing more, cash out my cpf and no more reservist...

I love my famil and food too....efficiency is a hallmark of many other countries, not just singapore...You are right about uninspired....so very true...remember, like someone great in SG used to say, you are just digits here, making the great economic wheel go round, but and what cost and what benefits?? Economic yes, but intangibles??

Like I always say....eat salt here and in other places, make and informed decision and stick by it....as for me and many others, intangible happiness lies elsewhere. Hate it when people always asks us why leave....we tell them its all a personal choice. One should not stop those who want to leave neither should one stop people from staying....equality counts..

cheers mate

Coquitlam SG

LazerLordz SG

I only feel safe. Nothing else.

The life, is not here.

Coquitlam SG

Yup, I agree, SG is very safe...but sometimes, some of us prefer to have a little danger, not the iraq kind of danger, you know, the little sense of danger you get when you walk down a roadside pavement in a moderately upscale neighborhood in say...Seattle, or San Francisco...

I think we can all do with a little danger to heighten our senses....Sure don't want to die a apathetic fool who takes safety for granted in SG

iSpeak SG

The issue I wish to highlight is the problem of social and cultural indifference in our society, as well as that ever present air of materialism that permeates Singapore.

I get on the train platform of Yishun MRT station at 7am every morning and what I see are lifeless zombies with no light in their eyes. Money, or the prospect of securing money, is the key driving force of these undead beings, motivating them to march to their offices or classrooms, attend their corporate meetings or lectures. They are told that they will have a better life, on the condition that they do not break free from the herd. Work hard for that GCE certificate and just maybe you will end up in a cushy and safe government job. Slave away for that next promotion to retail manager.

But let us question ourselves. What is life without passion? What is life if we do not give a flying fu-k about what goes on around us? I do not want to lead a cynical existance all my life here.

Singapore has the capacity to still be an economic powerhouse, if a major reversal of the current mentality is allowed to be implemented. Even then, our lives would only consist of sh-t and stress, and more sh-t and stress. Devoid of the romance, passion and inspiration to be found in other parts of the world.

We have to arise from the dead and redefine what it means to be living in Singapore. We have to stop this trend of letting the government control us as mere pawns. I have always found it terribly insulting that the government keeps harping on us being the only natural resource this country posseses.

Excuse me sir. I am not similar to a gallon of oil or a bucket of coal. I am a human being and I am not content to being to a tool of yours.

We must not suffer the fate of being just a callous cement metropolis city state.

LazerLordz SG

Most of those who want to escape being a EPU all their life, or for their children's sake, found the easier path of moving abroad.

iSpeak SG

Sorry, what’s an EPU?

gd4u SG

The bloody reason why SG kids feel jaded about go to school, is sadly, there is no interest. It is the teaching methods, it may not seem obvious, but slowly, u will start to realise "if i study this qn, i will know how to answer this qn which have very high chances in coming out for exams"

The passion towards a particular subject or topic is not cultivated here. Which spells simply, why our kids top those international maths/science questions competition, but none come out as researchers ....

I-like-flings(m) SG

hmm... still thinking about going back to hell for a short holiday in july or aug... Laughing

iSpeak SG

Speaking of hell..

Seriously f-ck the weather here lah. So damn hot. Sweat like hell.

Makes me smell worse than an unwashed ceeb..

Laughing

LazerLordz SG

my own term for economic productivity unit. Laughing

duotiga83 SG

we live in our own world. simple as that Laughing

vito_corleone SG

hell i'd pick singapore anyday over any other country because of the food. who the fark would wanna make-do with pseudo chinese food when you have a craving for something familiar Laughing china's sort of nice in a way but nothing's like home, believe me i lived in beijing for 3 years way back when i was in p4 following my dad's company posting. i hate the government but singapore will always be home

Coquitlam SG

Sillypore will always be home for some but not for others...there is surely a strong aand growing number of people who do not just look at food as teh all-encompassing reason to stay...

And I sincerely hope that these people will make their home elsewhere

the Bear SG

i'm sorry to burst your bubble but all your bellyaching shows me one thing.. a lot of people seem to want want want...

what do you want?

what are you willing to give back?

if you talk about "people don't care" how about yourself? do you care enough to offer a smile, offer someone some sunflower seed from a packet you're eating?

and if they do, what do you do? do you think he's a nutcase and avoid him or do you smile and accept some with thanks? or even smile back and strike up a conversation?

life is "not there"??

i look at it this way: you make your own life.. if you insist on being miserable, you will be miserable...

i am not saying that everything's perfect.. i'm saying that instead of making the most of the good things we have and striving for the wonderful intangibles we don't, a lot of people fall into that trap of whining about the lack of those things, and BECOMING the very thing they rail against...

so, wipe that sour look off your face, and go out there, be nice to people!

why don't you start for a change instead of demanding everyone be good to you?