Managing Globalization

15 Feb

A gut feel says that in 8-10 years, Singapore will “have to do the same thing”:http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/14/business/glob15.php, and I don’t think globalization is the only variable in this.

To be honest, I started thinking long and hard about Singaporean-ness after reading “this”:http://commentarysingapore.blogspot.com/2006/02/language-numbers.html and the link to a “much older discussion”:http://www.mrbrown.com/blog/2005/02/today_reader_ma.html, and I can’t help but be depressed by it. Why it’s depressing: where do I start?

Singapore is great for some things. If I were white and straight and I wanted to marry an Asian woman who spoke English; setting up a (conventional) home, bringing up children, for example. None of which are really on the radar. It’s home. And that’s about all I can think of.

So what? I’m always interested in the “so whats”. Discuss while I pack!

*AND*
“Singapore Elections Blog”:http://sgelection06.djourne.net/
Forum: “The (In)Significance of Political Elections in Singapore”:http://singaporeangle.blogspot.com/2006/01/forum-insignificance-of-political.html

possibly related

Partisan Polemics /Simple, Excellent Microsoft Ad /RIP, Singapore Serf /That Tongue Thing /Good Riddance /
  • popagandhi
    Front page of news today: Police act to keep teens off streets after 11pm [so they will not be provoked into committing crime, or being victims of]; "If they catch teens loitering in public places after 11pm they will notify parents, telling them what their child has been up to.." Now think about ANYTHING else. It's always the same, isn't it? Good intentions, essentially based upon the assumption that citizens don't know any better and need to be nannied.

    I haven't left yet, but.. essentially the answer to all our queries is the same. If you care enough; stay and prove your mettle. "Not open? If we're not open, you won't be able to say so." Stayer/quitter, us/them, party/every one else. I'm exasperated by the dichotomies we are forced to accept. I don't pretend it will be easier or better anywhere else in the world, but I want to see the limits of what I can live with and be responsible for. I don't know if I'll ever renounce citizenship, I just know someday I will have to leave.
  • From a comment by parkaboy in your previous blog article "One More Thing":


    But who wants to be the fall guy? Who wants to take the risk of being the next Chee Soon Juan or Francis Seow, subject to perpetual misunderstanding or ridicule in the case of failure?


    And who would you be being the fall guy for? The welfare (in the deepest, truest sense) of a nation of people who maybe - just maybe - don’t even have it in them, even when slapped across the face with it, to wake up. (It’s not as if Operation Coldstore was particularly subtle.)


    If you want change, that’s the sacrifice that has to be made. You have to be willing to risk being the fall guy. And if Adri - or anyone else - can’t or won’t (for perfectly understandable reasons) take that risk, it’s fair to say the only real option (besides the psychological and emotional mutilation of buying into the system) is to leave.
  • dan
    Jol,

    Hear hear!!! It actually sad when you realise that your own people/citizen hate/loathe you. For almost a decade now, I am without a home, but I'll rather be homeless than call singapore my "home"
  • Jol
    They can't give me what I want without destroying what they want: until one of us changes, I'm not going back.
  • popagandhi
    OOPs. see how i struggle to even imagine..
  • If you were white and straight you'd be looking for an Asian MAN!
blog comments powered by Disqus