Seems like awhile since anyone posted anything on this lengthy
thread...my turn... 
I just wish to share my experiences with you all out
there...Ged, Viper 52, Xprobe, AzRael, [email protected], I'm with you guys on
your views. Like you mentioned Ged, it wasn't easy making the move,
but we did it! 
I've been in Canada for almost 7 yrs now. Pretty much most of my
20s have been spent in this great country. Like most of you guys, I
came over as an international student initially, but liked it so
much that I stayed on and became a PR. The opportunities that this
country has given me is something I'll never find back in SG. I
know I'll just have the door slammed shut in my face. At least I
don't have ppl here telling me that an Arts degree is useless, that
I can't make a living with it, etc etc...I think what my degree did
was to make me THINK. To think out of the box, but also to question
and never accept conventional wisdom at face value without
questioning.To think enough for me to pursue a grad degree and
hopefully on to a PhD, all in a social science discipline, which
our leaders would have frowned upon, given their practical
mindsets.
To those who think we didn't try to better ourselves or create
opportunities for ourselves in SG or stick around to change the
system, I can tell you with all conviction that we tried. It is
with our baggage of experiences, as Ged succintly puts it, that we
are done trying, and have started migrating. If we can't effect
changes because the elitist bureaucracy has deemed our opinions and
ideas to be of little value, too radical, impractical, and/or just
nonsensical, then we'll just contribute to countries that want
mavericks like us...at the end of the day, I'd rather be a
differing fool than a PAP-sanctioned 'great mind.'
Like Xprobe, I was also from a neighbourhood school...Normal
Stream...hated the way lessons were taught. I'm never good at
memory work or rote learning, so I only passed with a minimum of 3
'O's. Enough to get me to some private business school and earn a
cert in Bus. admin, although I never really wanted to do it. After
being in the Canadian education system, I realized what was wrong
all these years with SG's system....basically everything! I won't bother going into details since many of you
have already done so.
As for free speech, less hectic lifestyles, lower cost of living,
etc, these are just some of the factors that made me wanna say
here. But I think my greatest factor for staying is that I wanna
give back to my adopted country the same chances it first gave me.
Not SG...at least not with the Lee dynasty still in charge. AzRael,
you totally got it right when you said that being a PR in Canada
gives you more opportunities than a citizen in SG. For this, I'm
grateful to the government of Canada.
Am I unpatriotic? Ungrateful? Nope...I even believed that SG was
the best place on earth when I was a kid growing up; there was no
place like home. I served my country with pride like many of guys
in NS...went through Hell in training (Ged... grrr 
...LOL ), saw my fren fade away and die in front of me
because of some freak training accident, lost one sec. school fren
in a drowning accident in NS and yet still gave it my 101% simply
because I still believed back then that I owe this much to my
country...I'm done paying this debt of gratitude to the SG
government...my life is my own to decide now.
To those that are thinking of migrating, ponder no further...take
the plunge with an open mind. See the sights and open yourself to
opportunities that are available only to the selected few in SG! To
quote from Terminator 2 "There is no fate but what we make for
ourselves."
