Hi friends,
An earlier post inspired me to speak my mind. No fingers pointing, I vouch. Just getting some matters off my chest.
Do you regularly hear people around you - friends or strangers alike - commenting how bad things are in Singapore?EG "Singaporeans, they so rude! Always don't know how to behave!" or "I tell you, Singaporeans nowadays, soooo kiasu!! Have sale only, they rush like mad to buy. Really worth saving that 5c, 10c meh??".
Qn I have in mind. Why are we so self deprecating? A quote by Jamie Teo in the latest edition of 8Days sent a strong reminder across. She said Singaporeans are very prejudiced against our own artistes. No one thought anything of Fann Wong who acted opposite Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in the coming Shanghai Knights but when Shu Qi went to Hollywood, everyone went, 'Wahhhh...'.
Are we truly thus? I have seen and heard enough to say: yes, mostly. I have a friend who swears off local serials. He watches nothing but HK serials which he spends time and money downloading from the net or renting. To him, Singaporean-produced serials suck big time and are not worth his time viewing. Instead he watches crappy stuff (crappy to me, at least) like 'Shuang Mian Yi Ren', starring the 'talented' Ekin Cheng.
Why do we doom ourselves by condemning most things Singaporean? I work in the airport. When my colleagues see the soldiers and police patrolling, they roll their eyes and start making disgusted remarks. Doesn't anyone realise that these patrols act as deterrents against would-be terrorists? Many other airports despatch patrols of similar sizes too, just in case anyone's wondering.
When we point fingers, we always refer to Singaporeans as 'they'. Come on... Aren't you and I just another Singaporean as well? Shouldn't we be using 'we' and not 'they'? Aren't we, at some point in time or another, just as guilty as the Ugly Singaporean whom we're kicking such a bug fuss up about?
I can go on with a whole megawatt list of examples to illustrate my point if anyone cares to listen.
I really hope we as Singaporeans can really sit up and appreciate what we have around us. And not spend 2/3s of our waking time complaining about the inadequacies and inefficiencies around us. We take too many things for granted simply because we're so used to being provided for. Tongues wag when the hands go idle. In that sense, yeah?
I'm not trying to instil any patriotic feelings or acting plain gung-ho. And I do know that ours is not an undercover Utopian society. The Singaporean society and system do have flaws, just like every other society around the world. But I believe if I can drive this message through to a few of my friends and the message spreads slowly but surely and eventually, together we can make our society a more wonderful and beautiful one to live in.
Take some time to stop and smell the flowers. Singaporean flowers DO smell good too, you know.
An earlier post inspired me to speak my mind. No fingers pointing, I vouch. Just getting some matters off my chest.
Do you regularly hear people around you - friends or strangers alike - commenting how bad things are in Singapore?EG "Singaporeans, they so rude! Always don't know how to behave!" or "I tell you, Singaporeans nowadays, soooo kiasu!! Have sale only, they rush like mad to buy. Really worth saving that 5c, 10c meh??".
Qn I have in mind. Why are we so self deprecating? A quote by Jamie Teo in the latest edition of 8Days sent a strong reminder across. She said Singaporeans are very prejudiced against our own artistes. No one thought anything of Fann Wong who acted opposite Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson in the coming Shanghai Knights but when Shu Qi went to Hollywood, everyone went, 'Wahhhh...'.
Are we truly thus? I have seen and heard enough to say: yes, mostly. I have a friend who swears off local serials. He watches nothing but HK serials which he spends time and money downloading from the net or renting. To him, Singaporean-produced serials suck big time and are not worth his time viewing. Instead he watches crappy stuff (crappy to me, at least) like 'Shuang Mian Yi Ren', starring the 'talented' Ekin Cheng.
Why do we doom ourselves by condemning most things Singaporean? I work in the airport. When my colleagues see the soldiers and police patrolling, they roll their eyes and start making disgusted remarks. Doesn't anyone realise that these patrols act as deterrents against would-be terrorists? Many other airports despatch patrols of similar sizes too, just in case anyone's wondering.
When we point fingers, we always refer to Singaporeans as 'they'. Come on... Aren't you and I just another Singaporean as well? Shouldn't we be using 'we' and not 'they'? Aren't we, at some point in time or another, just as guilty as the Ugly Singaporean whom we're kicking such a bug fuss up about?
I can go on with a whole megawatt list of examples to illustrate my point if anyone cares to listen.
I really hope we as Singaporeans can really sit up and appreciate what we have around us. And not spend 2/3s of our waking time complaining about the inadequacies and inefficiencies around us. We take too many things for granted simply because we're so used to being provided for. Tongues wag when the hands go idle. In that sense, yeah?
I'm not trying to instil any patriotic feelings or acting plain gung-ho. And I do know that ours is not an undercover Utopian society. The Singaporean society and system do have flaws, just like every other society around the world. But I believe if I can drive this message through to a few of my friends and the message spreads slowly but surely and eventually, together we can make our society a more wonderful and beautiful one to live in.
Take some time to stop and smell the flowers. Singaporean flowers DO smell good too, you know.