Recently, well not so recent as it seems. i was reading this section on national day. Dont you just find it irritating when we always lament that we do not have a national identity. If we would just stop whatever we are doing, look around us, we would notice that we actually share many things.
Let me articulate. It all just starts with simple things, like the most famous, buying 4D and ToTo, the whole of singapore does it! Even teenagers! who doesnt want to strike it rich? Or how all the drivers in Singapore cheats on their parking coupons(this is debatable). What about the love for food? (Proof seen in most middle aged men). We Chinese eat everything. prata, mee siam, mee goreng, nasi lemak. Our malay friends cant eat our food due to religion but with the new halal food courts( i dont know where it is), they are eating our food too.
The Accent perhaps? It is almost a national language, the thing is, not only the chinese speak singlish, so do the malays, the indians, the eurasians. Even my malay friend Madam back in my jc days knew "eat snake" is a chinese phrase and i went like huh? i thought it was english. Where else in the world could you find such diversity or rather community in diversity.
I guess one thing that bonds us all together is the love for the place we grew up in. Even if we were to move out of Singapore one day, we will still love her. We can complain about our country all we want, but others cant do it. Remember (i dont think you all will) 4 years ago, at the sydney olympics, the commentator went:"singapore, a small nation with big dreams but not big potential". something like that, well guess who blasted him? All of us, it came out in the papers the very next day, albeit a small section in LIFE. (this is just like the fat psychic of women, i can call me fat but not you). Its that common things we all share, like watching the National Day Parade and waiting eagerly for the fireworks. In the midst of oohing and ahing in your balcony(if you can see it) you realise some of the oohing and ahing is not coming from you, everyone in your block is probably oohing and ahing together with you. Just think about it for once. Let's say you were in South Africa, near the rainforest on some holiday. You prob wouldnt expect to hear another Singaporean voice. But what if suddenly you heard someone saying:" wah! so many mosquitos...can die ar...bloody blood suckers". would you be glad you met a fellow countryman in a foreign land?Of course! But like all Singaporeans you prob wont have the "face" to go say hi.
And what is the average singaporean going to do without his CAR?? we grow up listening to our dads and mums complain about COE prices, oil prices..or how the car shine shop is forever trying to fleece them or how the indian man who does the car washing is not doing a good job.
And what about our homes? About 70% of all Singaporeans live in HDB flats. We all love Lee Kuan Yew (i do not mean this sarcastically, he gave us everything we have), sometimes i think he is a genius, or rather someone who takes highly calculated risks.
Right here in our home, we get to enjoy an unprecedented level of security. We can walk home at like 12 midnight after a night of clubbing and not have to worry about our lives. And if there is anything u do not like at all, just complain, make a big fuss of it, and you will get what you want. If nothing works out...there is always C.A.S.E. , they will try to help you as far as possible. BUT no one really bothers anyway.
The bottom line is, we complain a lot. but nonetheless, we LOVE it here. Although we always complain it is boring..we still stay here. why? no one really knows, well maybe its because for all of us, our grandparents, relatives, cousins, friends, all stay within a half an hours drive? or that if you go to orchard road on any given weekend, you are bound to see people you know or have known or bla bla bla...The thing is this place is so small, it is so convenient to keep relationships( but still some of us are lagging behind in this department). Imagine if you lived in the USA. you are studying in say...California..and your parents stay in florida??....you would have to take a flight to get home. but here, if you are studying in NTU of NUS.. even if you are staying in the halls. all you have to do to go home is hop onto a bus or train..will take you about 2 hrs to get to where you want as opposed to 2 days.
All of us singaporean women either have had boyfriends who go to NS or have husbands who do reservice. We are all suffering in the same boat ( some women might not call it suffer, more like mental space).
We are Singaporeans. One For All, All For One.
I think this is worthy of the straits times forum...who agrees?
i decided to feel patriotic, so there.
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