Originally posted by Gedanken:
Oh Lord give me strength, am I doomed to spend the rest of my life
dealing with literalists? 
Of course it's ridiculous, of course it's rubbish, and of course
it's what that idiot Pavin is blathering on about.
You, my literal fellow, have just so astutely picked up on the
obvious flaw in dealing with the [b]intentions Pavil
proposes as grounds for NS exemption.
Surely there is not entirely avoiding it, but when working out aa
agreement, it is best to avoid basing the framework on tentatively
proposed conditions, is it not? Rather, an agreement would be more
soundly-based upon known existing conditions, would it not?
In this case, Pavin can swear black and blue upon his late great
beloved grandmother's grave that, because he has faithfully watched
Sesame Street since the age of six weeks, he WILL become a US
citizen one day, and therefore should not serve NS now, because
theye MAY be a war between Singapore and the US one day and he MAY
have to fight against Singapore.
Alternatively, he can get Daddy and Mummy to ship him out, stay out
until his 21st birthday when he can renounce Singaporean
citizenship and therefore avoid serving NS.
Putting what his porposed intention-based system against a system
that deals in hard fact i.e., he has left Singaporean territory and
renounced citizenship, can you see why his proposal is utter
rubbish?[/b]
OK. Do include sacarsm tags in your post next time. This is a
Speaker's corner and we all tend to take each other's post
seriously.
Well, from the writer's letter, we can conlcude that the writer has
no intention of spending his future in Singapore. Since this is the
case, it would be appropriate that this fact be considered an
"exisiting condition"of the writer.
Again, what is the logic of serving a country which you have no
feelings for it? It is not beneficial to the country and to the
individual. If you were ordered to do something "for singapore" and
you had no feelings or loyalty for singapore, would you be able to
perform the task wholeheartedly?
It would cost his parents 75k to ship him out. Why should the
parents or him even pay? This isnt right. This is akin to coercing
an individual to serve NS by imposing conditions that make it
difficult for one to leave the country.
From what I see, he is merely against a system that imposes
controls of freedom on the individual and the public. This isnt
rubbish.
