Great. My day is only 4 hours long and its ruined already

last SG · 2005-12-13T15:34:03+00:00

THEN WHEN PEOPLE TELL THEM TO STOP BEING PETTY, TAKE THE BLOODY HINT AND SHUT UP LAH! But noooooooo they have to go on about their petty little matters and m...

[email protected] SG

sounds like... ive..? Laughing

[email protected] SG

oh u want to know? where should i even start?

the whole Melvyn Tan issue?

the homophobia prevalent in Singapore?

the need for a mandatory death sentence?

the education system which makes it as hard as possible for you to choose a career path less common?

the way some important people's sons receive protection despite taking a life?

the way you are considered useless to society if you do not conform to its view of what you should be?

the way everyone think that if you do not carry arms its not considered service to your nation?

the way everyone considers not sharing the same view as the ruling party is not patriotism?

you say love. what love is there when people so vehemently condemn Melvyn Tan, who would have contributed much to our dying arts and culture scene?
what love is there when people in general hold an anti-gay stance? it is not a coincidence that the peace flag widely used to signify love and peace is on a rainbow coloured flag. how can people claim to love their fellow human when they are also hating gays at the same time? that is sheer hypocrisy.

you say patriotism. patriotism is a dangerous word. Just because u love your country doesn't mean u cannot speak out against its government, its people or its social trends. Is it becoming to act like George Bush who can only say "you are either with us, or against us"? His actions jepordize american democracy. Some people who feel his actions are unconstitutional speak up against it. He labels them "unpatriotic". That is the action of a dictator, the actions of someone who does not understand patriotism. If you are patriotic, you will look at your country in its current state, and ask, can u genuinely say you are proud to be a citizen? If you can't and if you are patriotic, you will want things to improve. you will speak up even if it means sounding harsh or critical. "Patriotism" today, is just a word for governments to outcast those who disagree with their policies, be they good or bad. Maybe its time to remind people that when you pledge an oath to your nation, its TO YOUR NATION, not to the ruling party. Remember Yue Fei defied his Emperor's summons to return because he knew returning to the capital meant the barbarians would over-run the border. He did what he did, knowingly breaking the law, because it was the right thing to do. THAT, is patriotism.

Care. The very word alone infurates me. How much does the Sg govt care for us? How much do Singaoreans care for one another? in a kiasu society like singapore's im afraid its not a lot. If the govt even cares, a lot of things that has already happened would never have happened. Does the govt care? No. They don't even bother to seek justice for people who died in NS, in service of the nation. All they care is to protect 2 sons of somebody important. They don't care that the scapegoats who got convicted in their place had spent how many years in the service of the nation, they don't care that the scapegoats are loyal to the nation. All the govt cares for is staying in power thru whatever means necessary, ensuring that their families, friends, associates get the best prefered treatment, at the expense of anyone of us who aren't priviliged enough to know them personally.

Unity. What unity is there? when there are some who are enriched by ensuring the ruling party stays in power forever, they will willingly blind themselves to the truth, or worse, help to hide truth. And as for the rest of the people, the truth about a lot of things, aren't that hard to discover. all you need to do is to put some effort in, and the truth will be clear. The only price is perhaps discomfort or disruption to your life. But everybody wants to be comfortable. Nobody wants to disrupt their own lives to discover the truth do they? So hey, its a shock when someone finally shouts the truth out for everyone else to hear. Now there is a "shuffle in your shoes" sort of unease, because u know its the truth, but you wish it wasn't. Worse you willingly played a part in the deception because you didn't want to disrupt your comfortable little life. Maybe thats what u call unity, but back in 1940s Hitler's Nazi Germany got quite united after awhile too. After they started buying his propaganda.

I could go on and on and on you know? How long do you want me to go on? Should I start on how petty singaporeans are regarding the Melvyn Tan issue? How good it looks to social-bash someone who's almost 50, a man of culture and arts, who's already been punished in accordance to the law? I could point out how many people I know who are wondering if ALL singaporeans are as barbaric as the ones who have been openly social-bashing Melvyn?

Or do you want me to start on the homophobia of singaporeans, and their general ignorance in that anyone who supports gay-rights must be gay/

Or do you want me to start on how being born in singapore means if you have a dream to be a sportsperson/artist etc, means people will all tell you to stop dreaming and work hard so you can get a good office job? How the educational system and social pressure only tries its best to kill anyone with such ambitions, unless you are related to the ruling party somehow?

Tell me. where do u want me to stop.

laosu SG

After reading this whole thing, I got only one question in mind...

Who am I?

And this question leads to several questions.

Is what I am now really what I am or what?
If I'm born somewhere else, will my life now be different?
If I'm not supposed to be like this and I can be something else somewhere, what will I be?

And these question eventually lead back to the same one question..

Who am I?

[email protected] SG

maybe more singaporeans need to ask themselves this question. Who they are, not who they government decides they should be.

laosu SG

Maybe, but then again, how much choice are given to them? Unless they get out of the country.

Since young, I've always aspired to be a professional badminton player. Got the chance to join the national youth team but was out due to an accident which permanently injured my knee.

Then i wanted to go into stage play but parents was deadly against it saying that there's no future unless you shot to fame in Singapore.

The government encourage young adults to venture into business but set the requirement so high. You need to have at least 20K to start something small. I've got no money, how to do that? Bank loans have such high interest. I think they should indicated that only young adults with rich family can start business.

LivingSon SG

To Heng,
I can't say i relate to all that you've said, neither can i disagree on your views and your truths. What i wish to ask is, what ways can we help to improve/help/share/learn? I still believe in Singapore. I believe we can be what we want to be. It depends on what we want to be. How can we make Singapore a better place to the people around us? How can we let them know not all Singaporeans are selfish, inconsiderate, proud, living in our own world, kia su, kia si, loud mouth and all the negative stuff protrayed daily? Aren't there people around that can lift our spirits up? Show us the little, lighter notes of life? When problem comes, should not we have solutions, rather than facing and awakening to the hard facts/truths alone, should not we have the ability to learn and overcome? Everyone is alive, because we give life. We bring each other along, day by day. Yes, we hurt one another, disappoint one another sometimes. But how can we learn to remember and truly believe that we can make a difference? You and I, the common people, WE make a difference, no matter how big or how small, no matter to just one or two around us. We can make changes if we believe. Do we believe? How can we move towards that? Question

[email protected] SG

condolences about that knee. But... honestly we know that even for govt-supported sports, only a few receive the approving eye of the govt. And even then being a national level player holds no gurantee that you won't starve.

Honestly, Singapore is too 2-dimensional. There is no soul, no passion left.

[email protected] SG

currently, short of the ruling party either changing its policy in running the country(which has about as much chance of George Bush suddenly declaring he is a cross-dressing Satanist and admitting Iraq is a mistake) or another ruling party being voted in, I don't see much else that will help improve things.

The only thing left now, as I see, is for people to be more open minded, and for more people to speak up against the ugly things, even if that means running the risk of being condemned by society, by the government. If more people would put themselves at some risk to speak up, if people learn to be more open-minded, then a lot of things would naturally change. If you look at what I've said, a lot of them are down to narrow-mindedness, greed and selfishness.

People in power who think primarily about their own benefits. The common people who also think primarily about their own benefits. Thats why the former can do many outrageous things and get away with it. They know that the common people won't really make noise because they don't want to risk offending the ruling party and making their lives a tad more precarious. They adopt a "if you don't tell me, I don't want to know" attitude towards things.

The education system also encourages this, with a spoon-feeding policy being the norm. There is no system in place to encourage the development of other forms of careers. Nothing that allows you to defer things like military service so you can establish a career 1st. The only people who are allowed to defer? Why their own scholars of course. Scholars who have passed a multitude of tests and interviews to make sure they think along the same line as the ruling party(I prefer to see this as a QC inespection to ensure the scholars whom them accept have been fully brainwashed by the educational system). Either scholars, or people who want to be doctors(and once again, they get deferment because after they become doctors, they will be useful to the military). What about letting people who wish to pursue a career in the arts, in the culture, in music, to establish a career 1st? What about acknowledging there are other ways to serve the nation? Many people claim its not fair if some people do not need to serve the military. Its even more unfair to dismiss the contribution of people in jobs less ordinary to the nation.

There are too many wrongs to right in Singapore. I honestly don't know if it can ever become a "better place" in my lifetime. And from the resistance of most singaporeans to even acknowledge the truth, I'd say its not likely to happen anytime soon.

LivingSon SG

To Heng,
Hmmm... Smile
hmmmmm... Very Happy

Well, like what chicken little said, 'TOdAy is A NeW DAY!!'

Let's do what we can, a step at a time, with patience and a little faith day by day, bit by bit. Thanks for your time and your thoughts. Wink

[email protected] SG

I hope so. I'm honestly quite jaded, disillusioned and fed-up with both sg society and with being singaporean. if i wasn't singaporean, sg and its society can rot away unchecked for all i care. I would have a much happier time not caring about it.

LivingSon SG

To Heng,

I can see you are a caring singaporean. Smile
Now let's learn to be a caring and happy singaporean too. Very Happy
Remember that there are always people like you and me and he and she. We all are learning and sharing, coping with our lives, using the decisions which we make, with our choice if we really choose, with our own beliefs, only by believing. Smile

Kuali Baba SG

To me, it’s simple: Do what you can that is within your power. If it fails, just bail, and let it collapse. And if you have a family, remember not raise your kids in this way.

laurence82 SG

and his gang

Wink

[email protected] SG

i quite shudder to think about having kids, esp in sg society, looking at the way its going to the dogs now.

[email protected] SG

i can be happy, if i stop caring.

[email protected] SG

ahahaha. i thot it sounded familiar. Laughing

SGpork SG

world is make up by all sorts of pple..

what to do ?

Confused

laurence82 SG

well, anyway, such people dont really bother us

the only thing you have to worry is when they are your family members, friends, classmates, colleagues , government etc etc..people who have some sort of impact in your life

the stuff they decide to do and will be doing is going to bother you directly

you can at most offer them advice, suggestions or perhaps a knock on the head, but at the end of the day, there is only a limit to what you or i can do

why put agony on ourselves right? Mr. Green

[email protected] SG

u see that list of people u say will affect my life? thats why im worrying. because there are quite a few people in there who are the typical backwards thinking narrow-minded, frog in the well, nekulturny singaporeans.

oh im worried alright

[email protected] SG

thats like saying the world is made up by all sorts of people, so we cannot try criminals for their crimes lidat.

there are different people because of ignorance. If they had received a better and more informative social conditioning, they wouldn't be the nekulturny bigots they are today.

anyways, its worse when they end up making the rest of us look so bad. Nowadays when people ask where im from, I just tell them im a Londoner.

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