Jackie Chan recently made a comment about Singaporeans; that we have no sense of self-respect because chewing-gum is banned in Singapore due to our irresponsibility. While this comment is somewhat a stereotype, I believe there is a large extent of truth in it. The Straits Times featured another bunch of comments by some other well-known figures in the world just yesterday or today (can't rmb..), including harsh words like 'stupid', 'insignificant', 'hostile' etc.
I mean, by the very fact that chewing gum is banned in Singapore, and for that matter, being one of the rare countries that actually have this law, it already says a lot about us as citizens. To me, one of the biggest problems we face as a nation is our lack of national pride and unity. To clarify, national pride can be seen in many aspects - through regional and international competitions, through national economic progress, NS and so on. We talk about big things like becoming a globalized city, bringing in the MNCs and welcoming foreigners. Yet, we have overseen the smallest of tasks in our giant to-do list - to become more civic-minded citizens.
While one might argue that he is trying his best to be a responsible citizen, that is barely sufficient. Many Singaporeans fail to recognize that when foreigners craft their impressions of Singapore in their minds, it is a collective effort by all of us, as one nation, to make sure that the impression we leave behind is a positive one. Think
kiasu-ism
. How many of us can actually step out and say that we have not been selfish in our entire lives? No one in the world can. However, this trait is especially prominent in the average Singaporean relative to a person elsewhere in the world, simply because we are sucked way too deep into it. Our lives start to revolve around ourselves.
Another example. Check out the numbers which prank-called the emergency hotline for people who suspect they might be infected by the H1N1 virus - about 6 in 10 calls have been prank-calls. The virus that has the potential to be many times more deadly than SARS. While it is true that we cannot exactly draw a hypothesis that Singaporeans are totally immature simply from this statistical result because the prank-callers might have been kids or teenagers, it still utterly disappoints me as a Singaporean. If the above mentioned is the case, why do parents not teach their children properly then? Why do we even do this? It is disappointing because such people do not see the bigger picture. They do not see that for every prank call they make, they might delay an ambulance getting to another dying or suffering person out there. Again, why? Because it doesn't concern them.
It's really shameful to be a Singaporean sometimes because of things like that. However, I still have faith in Singaporeans, in ourselves, because I feel that we just need time. It has only been less than 50 years, and we have already come a long way. If we can already fly and soar in the skies, why can't we relook at the way we walk?
yay okay. back to econs :D
1:08 PM
