Sharing this on a Tuesday! One day, Ive got a chance to talk to a US reader who is about my age. To her, Singapore is a high-tech, clean and strict country. She remembers the country due to the Michael Fay case, and of course asked me whether I would have to go to prison for littering. I said no. As we continued the conversation, she then asked me what time it was over in my country then. I said 9.00 p.m. Prior to that, I had told her that I was in the office. 9.00 p.m. in the office?! I am quoting her word by word. Right, I forgot that SG has one of the longest working hours too! As I sat back on my chair, I thought that she was right. There she was, unable to sleep in the middle of the morning and just enjoying a book on her Kindle (e-reader) without much stress, while there I was, of the same age, working at night and having to go back to work the next morning. Of course, she realized her laid-back life has got to do with her culture as well—here in Singapore, were too competitive. Then she posed another question: Its safe, right? If I were anyone from other countries, I would have understood the question immediately. But me? I looked at the word safe and could have wondered whether it was a typo. Safe? Safe from what? Very soon, I understood her concern. You see, the thing is that while we Singaporeans have to bind ourselves to strict rules, stressful and competitive working environment, and outrageous working hours, we do have something that we might have forgotten that we possess: Safety. While we might not have the laid-back life like my reader does, its merely a compromise that we have to make. Im mentioned this before—in Malaysia, I lock my car even as I drive. In Singapore, I leave the key and engine running to buy food. However, have I focused too much on the summon ticket that I got from Singapore, instead of the convenience that I have, too? While movies and books show that there might be utopia, I dont believe so. There must be some sacrifices. Yeah, while we dont have wireless everywhere, at least each one of us should have a phone. Weve always forgotten these, and take them as entitlement—much so like how the US reader type the word safe and I wondered whether she had meant fast. It might be time for us to start to understand that yes, while were not a perfect yet, weve reached far with some sacrifices. There are still improvements we can make, but now, lets just appreciate the tiny things we have achieved. What do you think? Please share and like this if youve enjoyed reading it! Can a female university grad marry an ITE grad? Read one of my novels, A Singapore Love Story (all my novels are in bookstores now), here: goodybooks/asingaporelovestory.htm
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 09:05:00 +0000
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