How much do you really know about Singapore?
January 21, 2012
Alrightie, quick post before I head to bed. Did not blog yesterday because I came home real late and some things (out of the norm) happened so… WHERE GOT TIME TO BLOG A POST YA! Ok, I know I’m lame but it just came to my head.
So, let’s start with AOP day 4 and day 5 shall we, 2 words: ZUOBO (direct translation from hokkien to english; do nothing). So there is nothing much to blog about, except finding the best position to sleep in the classroom and how to siam the lecturer from catching you sleep. HAHA
Anyway, the focus of the past 2 days were the times I hung out with my Iceland friends (just found out that Icelandic is what they call their language). They asked me lots of questions about Singapore and have said many good things about Singapore that I have never even took into consideration before, for example, they were amazed that everywhere they went, Singapore was litter-free.
As they have traveled to many parts of the world before, they were really quite impressed to see such a “phenomenon” like this.
Some other questions they asked me about Singapore were also like “how does your country make money? Since they do not have any natural resources” or “how does your government turn such a small place into a city state in such a short span of time” really left me dumbfounded for a while (in singlish or DOTA terms is like kena stun) before i could answer them. This really led me to think; how much do I really know about my homeland, Singapore? Do I even appreciate the very place where I am staying in? Or does my life just revolve around complaining, whining and blaming the government for the slightest fault we can find?
It’s really something interesting to think about because other countries do have a distinct culture and specific practices that can be rattled off hand by their locals. But how about Singapore? What is our so called ‘specialty”? What are we known for? Who are we as a nation? What is our culture and heritage?
Have we thought of such questions? Or are we just too caught up in what we are doing? It might be a bit hard to have a distinct culture as we have a rojak of races and religions living in Singapore. But how are we going to find that unique taste that defines who Singapore really is and what Singaporeans really are. Singlish? haha..
I feel that these are important questions to ask ourselves because when we know where we came from, we will know who we can be as a person and exactly what we want to be in the future.
Wow, I am suddenly talking about such deep stuffs. I am totally becoming a…. ok nevermind, i cannot fill in the blanks, guess my mind’s getting tired.
What is your take? Feel free to drop me a comment (Singaporeans / PR’s / Non-Singaporeans are welcomed to participate, haha!)
Ok, getting lamer…. and…. lamer.
Anyway, I really do want to travel and see the world for what is really is. In my opinion, as Singaporeans, our lives are too sheltered and we think that it is a norn but in actual fact, it is not! Gaining new perspective about life through traveling and experiencing different cultures around the world will give us a better appreciation of where we stand as a nation now and who we really are as individuals residing in Singapore.
Ok, I will end here. Suddenly feel so patriotic, NS must be getting to me. This shows that their “brain-washing” programmes really quite effective ah? HAHA
Ohwells, like they say, 2 years of NS is really A LOT of time so I am just fully utilizing this time to think about things and probably just pen down these thoughts so as to have a reference that I have thought about such things before. (Yes, thank our Iceland guests who came over to visit.. I had to be Singapore’s brand ambassador for a few days.. hahahaha..)
Ok, the last paragraph is NOT TO BE READ. LOL
I’m done, good night my fellow readers! *talks to self…*
HAHA, I think the only reader of my blog now is myself, talk until like I got 1millions readers daily like that. HAHAHAHA
BYE.
