Every year Aug 9 rolls past, one image remains: Mr Lee Kuan Yew crying on telly saying we're on our own.. sigh.. what happened? (Sorry, I tried to find the clip from youtube, but nobody's posted it. The last time I saw that clip was in Sentosa, when they still had the museum there.) Anyway, my mother remembers it, she was 15 at that time. Cognizant.
Anyway my point is, it's been 43 years, and that "brotherhood" is lost. That desperation in his voice when he said "all my adult life I believed that Singapore was part of Malaysia." that part I understood, the plea in his voice for our nation to work together to put food on the table cos we are an island with NO natural resources. All we had were less than two million people with limited skills. That "brotherhood" I understood. My mum gave her best years in the 60s and 70s to Singapore. She worked in shipping, in the accounts department, sometimes chasing debts all around the world, getting companies from New York City, London, Paris, Milan, Athens to pay our Singaporean companies for services rendered.
I remember being about 3 and always begging her not to go to work, to hang out with me. But she said she had to, the company needed her. So I made sacrifices too :-) Well it wasn't all bad, my "deal" with her was, ok, if you have to go to work, can I get a baby brother? Which was granted on 27 Jan 1981. I love my brother! All 5 feet 10 inches of him!
The Singapore today, I don't understand. I really don't. What's this rat race about? to get a faster computer, a more prestigious job title, a bigger car, to get a nicer condo, to go on a more luxurious holiday. Rubbish. Utter rubbish. Chasing the wind!
I think Corporate America with all it's capitalism leanings has confused the world. Singapore included.
I still recall Prof Ken Bleile from the University of Northern Iowa was visiting here a couple of years back and we were having a conversation about Bush, and Prof Bleile was saying that the whole state of Florida was not very bright for voting him in! That was funny. But then the whole state of Florida is predomoinantly made up of blur retirees anyway. Their main aim is life is:
STATUS QUO.
So you can't really blame them, they just wanna make it to their coffins. As smoothly and painlessly as possible.
On another note, Mr Adrian Tan author of The Teenage Textbook and The Teenage Workbook is my hero. One of my heroes actually. My three Singaporean heroes. Mr David Saul Marshall (God rest his soul), Mr Richard Lee Peng Boon, (aka Dick Lee) and Mr Adrian Tan. Hmm a Jew, a Peranakan, and an ACS boy!
have a look at what he says here. Mr Adrian Tan, that is. http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2008/08/life-and-how-to-survive-it.html
and er.. Have a good time watching the fireworks on Saturday. That's the only thing worth looking forward to. Oh and Dick's music of course. He's DA BEST!
Anyway my point is, it's been 43 years, and that "brotherhood" is lost. That desperation in his voice when he said "all my adult life I believed that Singapore was part of Malaysia." that part I understood, the plea in his voice for our nation to work together to put food on the table cos we are an island with NO natural resources. All we had were less than two million people with limited skills. That "brotherhood" I understood. My mum gave her best years in the 60s and 70s to Singapore. She worked in shipping, in the accounts department, sometimes chasing debts all around the world, getting companies from New York City, London, Paris, Milan, Athens to pay our Singaporean companies for services rendered.
I remember being about 3 and always begging her not to go to work, to hang out with me. But she said she had to, the company needed her. So I made sacrifices too :-) Well it wasn't all bad, my "deal" with her was, ok, if you have to go to work, can I get a baby brother? Which was granted on 27 Jan 1981. I love my brother! All 5 feet 10 inches of him!
The Singapore today, I don't understand. I really don't. What's this rat race about? to get a faster computer, a more prestigious job title, a bigger car, to get a nicer condo, to go on a more luxurious holiday. Rubbish. Utter rubbish. Chasing the wind!
I think Corporate America with all it's capitalism leanings has confused the world. Singapore included.
I still recall Prof Ken Bleile from the University of Northern Iowa was visiting here a couple of years back and we were having a conversation about Bush, and Prof Bleile was saying that the whole state of Florida was not very bright for voting him in! That was funny. But then the whole state of Florida is predomoinantly made up of blur retirees anyway. Their main aim is life is:
STATUS QUO.
So you can't really blame them, they just wanna make it to their coffins. As smoothly and painlessly as possible.
On another note, Mr Adrian Tan author of The Teenage Textbook and The Teenage Workbook is my hero. One of my heroes actually. My three Singaporean heroes. Mr David Saul Marshall (God rest his soul), Mr Richard Lee Peng Boon, (aka Dick Lee) and Mr Adrian Tan. Hmm a Jew, a Peranakan, and an ACS boy!
have a look at what he says here. Mr Adrian Tan, that is. http://mrwangsaysso.blogspot.com/2008/08/life-and-how-to-survive-it.html
and er.. Have a good time watching the fireworks on Saturday. That's the only thing worth looking forward to. Oh and Dick's music of course. He's DA BEST!
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