Sunday, March 18, 2007

My country, Singapore....

I live in Singapore. Except during the period when I was studying in USA, I have always lived on this tiny island in South East Asia. Singapore is a wonderfully efficient and beautiful little island country, no doubt whatsoever. With no natural resources whatsoever to speak of, it is indeed amazing that is managed to get to where it is today. For that, I salute the OLD GUARDS of the Singapore government. Notice that I specified the old guards because I honestly think that the current crop of government officials cannot compare to them in terms of moral/ethics and humility. I will definitely write more of the government when I get the chance.

Singapore got to where it is today by utilising its only resource i.e. its people. In short, we had great quality in terms of human resource and the hardwork by the pioneers (on all levels, top to bottom) built the cornerstone that hailed Singaporeans as hardworking, selfless, and efficient. In part, that propel the Singapore economy to the great heights where it stands today, from a nobody backward country to a modern one.

However, mark my words, Singapore is going to lost this edge because of the growth of a social disease that the Singapore government has unknowingly cultivated into its people through decades of policies. That disease is what we locally term as "Kiasu" which literally means "afraid to lose out"..... In short, anyone who is "Kiasu" will do whatever in his means to "not lose out" in whatever he is doing i.e. gain an (unfair?) advantage through whatever means, moral or otherwise. This has, over the years, transformed Singaporeans to become conceited and self-centered, whereby the "me" mentality totally eradicated the "we" mentality. In short, we have become a "No Money No Talk", "Money is King", or "Better you than me" society.

I will share more of my opinion on this when I have the time to blog in the future.

That's all for now.

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