Happy Birthday Singapore!!!

My humble way of expressing the love for my motherland that fed me for the past 21 years of my life. HOMAD SENGA-DAH!!!!!
the first national day spent abroad. it seems patriotism is fuelled by an understanding that what defines you from others. it is no surprise that for the first time in my life, i've never felt as patriotic as i was ever before. life goes on as usual today, not a holiday certainly, but it was pretty fun. i borrowed the Singapore flag from the cafeteria, donned it and went walked around uni. Played Count On Me Singapore during Political Science lecture on my burnt CD before the lecturer came in, and the patriotism culminated in a quite off-key rendition of the Majulah Singapura in the cafeteria during dinner with winston, my only other willing partner in singing. sigh...in line with the true nature of singaporeans, none of the others were willing to sing, the fear of loss-of face, the anal rentention inculcated in us through years of singapore education....most of us were the quinessential, model singaporean who dared not contravene (or even thread along it) conventions and 'supposed proprieties'. kia-seeism at its best, when some singaporean guy whom i didn't know, heard about my intention and went like 'Did you inform anyone? Did u tell the Duty Officer? Did You? Did YOU?'....i might as well stayed on in the army if i gave a god-damn shit about bureaucracy. To which i just replied, 'Ya lah, i told Sean, we Singaporeans all kia-see one, confirm got tell one, dun worry'....the truth was that Sean only knew that i borrowed the flag, he had no idea that we're going to sing. well anyway, it's not like the ISD's gonna arrest me or something, if anything, that would be 'theroretically model patriotism' which however contrave all other Singaporean values of face, propriety, and simply shutting up.
That's the whole point of being a Singaporean, the emphasis on collectivism. And when ideals contradict this 'casually defined collectivism', individualism prevails
- to shun away what would be deemed a blasphemy on the norms accepted by the majority. When you try to do something un-attempted, the Singaporean response would be 'to try something funny'. when u try something that seems unconventional we Singaporeans would go 'Mai Siao lah!'..'I dun wanna be part of this, you want u do it yourself'. When something unconventional is attempted and failed, the classic Singaporean response is 'See, i knew that would happen, luckily i'm not part of it', 'Know u dun dare liao', 'Confirm cannot one'.
The most important lessons one can learnt in a foreign land, is not so much learning the foreign ways through Singaporean eyes, as seeing ourselves in a sea of foreign perceptions. to recognise what's so fundamentally different between us, and to eventually appreciate the strengths and the weakness of our collective Singaporean psyche. Why do we choose to see the obstacles over the destination? If that was what our founding fathers believed in? there would be no Singapore, much less a national day to speak about today. Or is this collectivist psyche devised and perpetuated by the 'ruling core' to ensure the 'Singaporean periphery' adheres to the ruling leadership? Perhaps it might be a deterence factor too, u try something funny, you end bankrupt, exiled, unacknowledged by what was your former-community, like the Francis Seows, Tan Wah Piows and Tang Liang Hongs before. To our Singaporean Collectivist psyche, the Wee Cho Yaws, Khoo Swee Chiows and Sim Wong Hoos, serves not as an inspiration but as a poignant reminder of our mortality, and that unlike them who sees the destination, we retract into our basements of fear fearful of becoming the next JBJ, or the former NMP who went bankrupt.
The Singapore psyche was never forgiving to setbacks. The only atonement you can seek, is within yourself, to see the destination, and when you get there and join the ranks of the immortals with the audacity to stare in the eye of the others who only worshipped but never believed. In time to come, to the also-rans, you would not no longer be part of them even if you once were. Not even as the maverick who dared to venture beyond the river bend, but just someone who was already among the ranks of the gods from time immemorial. We never remember that the deities among the clouds, were once mortals like you and me. We avert our eyes from what we pity, and because we pity our destiny as not those who dared to try, we would never recognise those who did, even when they were one of us once upon a time. Success is a chimera in mortal eyes.
Kia-su, Kia-see, insular, pessimistic, dogmatic, unforgiving to failure, disbelief in achievement even if it happens, whatever. that's Singaporean, AND I'M PROUD TO BE SINGAPOREAN!!! If that's what defines us from others, so be it. After all, to us, what attained by the others, would be something that we can never attain or so we believed. Unless of course, when we're singing the lyrics from We Are Singapore.
I LOVE SINGAPORE!!!!!!!! HAPPY 39th BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!


'There was a time, when people said that Singapore won't make it, but we did....' ....We Are Singapore