It’s always inappropriate for us to bad mouth about people of other nationalities or races, but I have this urge to voice out against our fellow Singaporean.
Singaporeans born in the newly-independent era were hardworking, down to earth, humble and friendly; the same couldn’t be said of young Singaporeans now. We whine, we complain, we stomp our feet whenever something doesn’t go our way. When I tell you this, it’s almost certain that you’ll tell me who am I to tell you that. Precisely, that action will justify that thoroughbred Singaporeans have ultra high ‘feel good factor’, ignorant, over confident and to a certain extent, arrogant.
Recently, there was a survey published by a local courtesy movement showed that 43% of the people felt that they were highly gracious while only 15% thought that others were as gracious. Here’s the catch, isn’t ironic when there are so little people around are as good as you when you feel that you are very good? Meaning whenever something happens, you will point fingers to everyone rather than yourself. Meaning when there is a problem you will demand that it to be settled by anyone but yourself. The expert said that when the people are self-centered, it is always bad for the country; and according to this survey, we have reached an unhealthy level. However, these are all the end product of the direction of the nation. When we fight for number one, we need them to show off to the rest; we we compare ourselves to every other country, we just don’t like the feeling of losing; when a renown author commented that Singaporeans are stupid, we only cared to rebut that. We are a bunch of egoistic people.
These are reflections from local news, the recently concluded GE and maybe the rise of ‘citizen journalism’. We see more and more individualism, well, that’s ‘selfish’ in a positive way.
On RI boy who attempted to swim back from Pulau Tekong BMTC. When a psychiatrist commented that it is the parents’ onus to know how better the children can cope with stress and difficulties, a parent rebutted that it is wrong to place responsibilities on parents as the military or whoever their princes and princesses are in their care, should take note of these issues. Is this the current state of parenting in Singapore? Doesn’t your child’s mental well-being concern you as the parent? Parents these days blame the school, you blame the Army, you blame the system. How about one of these days, you take a look at your own mental well-being? We lack self-reflection.
During the GE, while there were many voices which were anti-System but yet constructive; there are even more just to whine about how they were ‘unfairly treated’ by the country. The complained that the $600 were too little, they complained that the cost of living in Singapore are extremely high, they complained that they couldn’t get a HDB flat here, they complained that there are just too many foreign workers here and the list can just go all the way to moon. True, it is pretty negative in today’s life and the government acknowledged that. However, shouldn’t us be thankful as long as we are living in a country where we can sleep safe and sound every night? High cost of living, does people in Switzerland, in Italy, in France complain about these trivial matters? They took to the street for major problems. While there is a bad side of the current social state of Singapore, we should always acknowledge that we are always number 1 in many of the world rankings because of our good economy and infrastructure (hence the high cost of living), you get good prices when you sell your house (of course when you sell high, you have to buy high), you still get $2.50 chicken rice and not $5 a plate (thanks to foreign labours). You see, there are always pros and cons to every matter. Instead of focusing on the downside, why not appreciate the positive ones?
Then we have this ‘citizen journalism’, particularly STOMP. You get people exposing dirty acts and post them online to shame the poor fella, or is it flame? You let your picture tell the story or you tell your own story. When the young man sits on the priority seat on MRT, have you ever thought that he is sick? He hasn’t slept for 33 hours? What is wrong of couples hugging or kissing in the public? Unless you caught someone having sex in on train, stop acting like a police and submit the good for nothing posts. You got Stomped when you revealed your buttcrack; you got Stomped when you ordered takeaway and ended eating at the coffershop, you got Stomped when you are a SIA girl putting make up on a obviously empty Skytrain. There are simply just too many disturbing posts I could list off Stomp. Bottom line, can the editor of Stomp please filter through what is news worthy and what isn’t, that would make that site a tad classier than it is now. On the other hand, there are really some interesting stories on Stomp though, just cut those lovebirds kissing cuddling rubbish. Now, while you are happily exposing the embarrassing sides of people, do you really think that you are such a perfect saint? Usually it’s just a case of pot calling the kettle black.
Well, so why are Singaporeans behaving this way nowadays? Predecessors’ fault? System’s fault? Leader’s Fault? Can we have lesser negative news? Lesser stress in the society? Lesser competition? More time with the family? Better education for the next generation? Focus more on values? Focus more on Arts and Cultures? We need more of these soft powers in our nation, not just money and ranking. That is why people in Bhutan are happy, that is why people in Copenhagen are happy, that is why people in Stockholm are happy.
Geist of the story, Singaporeans today severely lack humility. While we are good in producing results, we are lacklustre in humanity. If this goes on, the entire nation will just become a machine, a high-tech machine which churn out top-notch products but a cold cold machine.
