RETURN OF FARTMAN!

Apolitical

I just remembered to blog this down. I was talking to Lau May last night, and I made a note to write this, but somehow I've been so busy literally limping around the whole day I haven't had time to. Till now.

Well, I was at Si Beh Lor temple on Sunday, and the crowd there was enormous! The last time I visited the temple area was months ago, and somehow I never remembered it being this crowded. Anyhow, I was on crutches, trying to make my way through the crowd so that I could find a place to sit, but I had the toughest time sqeezing my way through the crowd. People just refused to give way to a temporary cripple. There were people cutting into my path, people knocking me all over the place from all directions! It's disgraceful how our present generation is so ill-mannered that they don't even have the decency to give some leeway for a temporary cripple to walk. And these people were not first generation uneducated Singaporeans. They're the 20 somethings to 40 somethings. It's alarming how all the years of the stupid Singa preaching his courtesy campaign has all come to shites.

My disappointment culminated in shame a couple of hours later when an old lady held the door open for me. It made me realise how education has not helped the graciousness of younger Singaporeans. In the States, while I was making my way to an exam on crutches, an American stopped by the road and gave me a lift to the exam hall, even though it was in the opposite direction. At first, being the shy Singaporean, I refused, since I found out that he was going for a paper as well. I knew that it was a chore to look for a parking space during exams. However, he insisted, and I took the ride. When I got to the exam hall, people helped me with the seats, and they actually gave up some space to move the chairs so that I could take the exam comfortably. Sometimes, Americans can be cocky and pretentious, but this was certainly not one of those occasions.

Comparing the two scenarios, I really feel that our nation needs to grow up. The trial and error of our education sytem is not helping; the phony courtesy campaigns are not helping. What has happened to us such that we have grown up to be such a selfish nation? It certainly did not stem from the first generation, since I've had the most help from them in my current state of physical challenge. Why has this supposed world-class (this is not my opinion by the way) education system not met its aim: to educate Singaporeans into better people? Do Singaporeans have any pride at all? Americans can be arrogant by some standards, but maybe it's just that they have pride: personal, state and national. Have all the peripheral issues of money, education and competition clouded our looking glass such that we do not feel the need to nurture ourselves as a nation? This is beyond me, really, but I thought the all-knowing men-in-white might have known what they were doing. Evidently, they do not, and we're just a nation of experiments. We're just ghosts.

I AM proud to be a Singaporean, but I'm not proud of the way our country is developing. I want to get away not because I hate this country, but I detest the times that we're living in, and I know that I cannot change these things. I do not have the ability to, but I know people who do. Unfortunately, many of them are as disillusioned as I am. Sad to say, the only ones who have stuck through it all are being watched closely by the ISD. Kudos to you men-in-white! You've outdone yourselves once again. You've managed to keep the people within the barriers. Change will never occur if the equilibrium is not disturbed.

Print your fingers child
and jail yourself
It tags you
Follows you closely
Watches your fledgling movements
with utmost suspicion
Controls implemented
The path is now paved
But is there another way?

Fight, child
with desperation
For wages, a job, a life
Now pass on, child
The time is now
Make way, you're forgotten!
For your time was yesterday
Now was that the only way?

Oh, symbol of governance
Symbol of hope
Symbol of nirvana
You promised us!
You nurtured us!
You used to be so...
Please, tell me
When did you lose your way?

Till next time, goodbye world.

posted by Da Buffalo! @ 2:10 AM