If you only read the Bible more often, you would be less worldly. Use your brain and think. You feel with your heart, but it's not always rational. You have to be practical, you have to use your mind and really think. Look at me... I never really thought about what I'd want to do, I just did art because I didn't want to study and I thought art would be easy. God has provided for me, and everything has now fallen into place.

This was a testimonial I was not happy to hear. It was my brother persuading me to stay. To drop my endless pursuit, or rather, my laboured pursuit of ways and means to get out of here. To escape the system, you might say if you could read me. It just occurred to me that right up to junior college, the next step was so easy, just about well, one step away. And of course it was assuring to know that these government schools would not fail to provide a solid grounding. What seems to make university harder to transition to? Why is it that us Singaporeans wield superior arithmetic and language skills compared to those overseas, but when it comes to tertiary education we flee to 'greener' pastures? Is there really a widespread perception that NUS is simply a bog-standard institution in comparison to other schools elsewhere? Is it simply the environment? The teaching method? The 'brand name'? A cultural bias?What?

You see, I am slowly adapting to the idea of staying back here. Of course it saddens me to see that I'll be sending off nearly all the people on my links list. But I won't be alone here. And I'll be able to catch Suede when they come back again.

posted by beautiful at 3:24 am

It seems as if you can't escape the topic of governments nowadays. Lunch with a friend yesterday brought up the subject of what has our government done for us? I'm no patriot but I found myself speaking in our country's defence. I think she was motivated by the fact that her father had understated his tax forms and was slapped with a hefty 5 digit fine. She was pissed that the government was running checks and that her father had been found out - a lot, and I mean a LOT of people do it. Is the government so hard up that they need to go around fussing about taxes? Why do the top government officials not take pay cuts while people around the country are being retrenched like there's no tomorrow?

I told her her father deserved what he got. Just because everyone does it is not justification for his action. So he got found out, life's a bitch. Does our government suck? Which organisation makes rules but doesn't employ measures (such as spotchecks) in order to enforce them? People are no longer taking responsibility for their actions. Some of the less conservative teachers I've had always tell us that if we're gonna break school rules, then the least we can do is not get caught. Amen to that.

Nothing. The most standard answer to the question: What has our government done for us? You can ask the same question anywhere, you still get the same answer. We can't be pleased can we? I'm not pro-Singapore but I can tell you that I'm pretty lucky. I've read the first 2 chapters of Notes From an Even Smaller Island and already I know. We have a good transport system, a more than adequate education system, a clean environment, proper housing made of concrete and not dried mud, every place is accessible, worldclass healthcare and a standard of living that most people would die for. Where our needs are concerned, we have more than we deserve. And that's why we nit-pick the little things that don't cater to our whims and fancies. That's why we start complaining about repression in school, too much censorship in the arts, we show contempt for Ugly Singaporeans and we turn up our noses at the flamboyance of the Esplanade. Are we not disgusting?

posted by beautiful at 8:48 pm