I think one consolation of my current situation is that I get to read and write a lot more often compared to during my school days. Of course that’s not inclusive of the academic writing and reading I did in school. I have a lot more time now to think, to read the papers or non academic books and to write my blog, which is perhaps a tiny little good thing in all the shit that I am going through. Maybe I should take the time to improve my writing skills as I am sure I will do a lot of writing in university.
Some time ago I met up with my secondary two English teacher, which was really pleasant as I thought we had lost contact. It was fun catching up with her, talking about how our lives have been. She told me that my blog makes me come across as insipid which is probably true since the main thing I do is to rant about how horrible life is nowadays. She said I could start writing my opinions on issues that concern myself. I think it’s a good suggestion as it’s “aligned” to the fact that I have more time to read the papers and also that I prefer opinion and journalistic styles of writing compared to narrative or descriptive styles. I can think of it as re-living the days when I write GP essays, although GP essays are very different from opinion articles in the papers and periodicals. How I miss reading the school subsidised periodicals, Newsweek, Time and the Economist.
So some issues that have been dominating the headlines recently incude the Singapore conversation, the tightening of immigration and foreign worker policies, the low fertility rate, a more inclusive society etc. Actually I would say that the Singapore conversation can be seen as a big umbrella which encompasses all those that I mentioned after that. After all it is a dialogue among the people on the kind of Singapore they want. I don’t really bother what kind of place Singapore turns out to be two decades later because I am almost certain I wouldn’t be in Singapore then. If A*Star wants me I will be away for eight years studying and be here only for six years before leaving. If it turns out otherwise the day I fly to London will be the last day I am here. That’s besides the point, but the whole Singapore conversation is interesting nonetheless, it will concern my for the next two years at the very least.
The first thing I want to touch on is the immigration and foreigners policy. It’s definitely a right decision that the government is raising the standards applicants must have before receiving their PRs or citizenship. It’s not about easing the congestion on the roads or the trains I am concerned about. I feel that crowded trains and congested roads are part and parcel of every global city. I am sure other cities such as Tokyo, Hong Kong, London or New York have crowded trains and massive jams as well. Not that the government should not do anything to alleviate the problems, all of us definitely would rather have nice empty trains and smooth roads. However as someone who will want to live in either New York City or London in the future, I must accept packed public transport and horrible traffic jams. Back to my point on more stringent criteria for PRs and new citizens, I see it as being fair to the current citizens that the citizenship is not given so freely. It will make the citizenship more exclusive and (hopefully) seen as a privilege. Perhaps the harder it is to get a country’s citizenship, the more it will be valued? I doubt that the locals will like to idea that their citizenship is s easy to get! Nevertheless it’s good that the government is controlling population growth to allow the level of infrastructure to catch up.
Next is about the fertility rate. This is a really tricky situation, since having children is a very personal choice and there is no away an authority “force” their citizens to have more children. I think if I type out my opinion here it’ll probably the same as what everyone has said in the papers, it’s hard to change people’s mindsets, monetary incentives are not the only things that are required to boost the fertility rate, yada yada. Actually I feel that immigration isn’t exactly that bad a choice if we think in terms of the population of the entire Earth. There’s around 9 billion people in the world now and I don’t really have the statistics on whether the food and water supplies of the Earth can keep up with the population. If I am not wrong these resources are not really sufficient for the entire human population. Maybe if Singaporeans choose to have less children and instead accept more immigrants maybe it will do a tiny part in preventing the population of the Earth from growing too quickly? Haha that sounds so silly, but I really think the Earth isn’t going to be able to sustain the rapidly rising human population. We should be reducing the population of the Earth, or at least keep it constant instead of letting it rise right?
Finally about building a more inclusive society. So far our definition of an inclusive society is that the poor, disabled and the elderly do not get left behind when the country continues to prosper economically. Not that there is anything wrong what that, rather I feel that this definition is lacking rather than wrong. What I consider to be an inclusive society should also include the acceptance of certain groups of people who are frowned upon such as single parents (especially mothers who have children out of wedlock) and the members of the LGBT community. A poll by Yahoo Singapore on whether Singaporeans would accept a transgender Ms Singapore Universe shows how intolerant Singaporeans are towards the LGBTs. If my memory didn’t fail me, I remember that an overwhelming two thirds of those polled indicated that they wouldn’t accept a transgender Ms Singapore Universe and there were many anti LGBT comments on that article as well. It’s so sad that people ostracise the LGBTs, who didn’t choose to be like that in the first place. Well at least the Singapore Court has allowed the challenge of penal code 377A to proceed, it’s a tiny step towards a more inclusive society. I realise that I am only talking about the LGBTs but not about the former! Personally I don’t see anything wrong with having children out of wedlock, but I guess Singaporeans in general are just too conservative. All the more I shall move to greener pastures abroad.
Okay I think I quite a bit of my opinion, but it feels to be as pretty random and incoherent. I doubt every post after today’s will be all about opinions. It’s highly likely that I go back to lamenting about my horrible life. Well it’s the weekend and I shall not think too much about it. I am just looking forward to my short term goals, of which the current ones are the start of the 2012 A levels and my trip to Sydney and Melbourne from 10 November to 19 November. 3.5 days in Sydney and 4.5 days in Melbourne, the other 1 day will be taken up by the flights. I am so excited to go! Eight more weeks! I can’t wait!
Protagonist 