LETTER TO SINGAPORE
-
I got this from another website after reading it in yahoo singapore and reposted it within this sg forum. In fact there is another blog website "You don't have to agree" that is also currently talking about this. Thought it would be good to share it here too since it is about Singapore. Take a look at it. Sources from related links http://sg.news.yahoo.com/letter-about-leaving-s%E2%80%99pore-strikes-chord-with-readers.html http://stories.sg/issues/1/zing/ http://youdonthavetoagree.wordpress.com/2012/09/02/letter-to-singapore/ Letter to Singapore by Zing Dear Singapore, I’m sorry, but I’m leaving you. I’ve fallen in love with somewhere else, and you wouldn’t like her. But London is the place for me. I’ve fallen for her dingy, narrow streets. The 24-hour bagels on Brick Lane; the club kids in neon and glitter falling out of Boombox at 3 in the morning; the bands with their urgent, clashing guitars, cigarettes and floppy hair. I’ve fallen for boys who play in bands with a copy of The Female Eunuch in their bedrooms; I’ve fallen for girls who write poetry and play guitar in Leicester Square pubs. I’ve fallen for the Chinese boy I saw at Kings Cross holding hands with his boyfriend, while his mother smiled and hailed a taxi for them all. I’ve fallen in love with the Irish. I’ve fallen in love with the Welsh. They’re all here, Singapore, in tiny corners, in crammed spaces, in underground dancehalls and abandoned warehouses. We had a good run, but I was never really comfortable with you. You were always liberal when it suited you, small-minded when it didn’t. You used to say, “Careful you don’t be so open-minded, otherwise your brains fall out�. But maybe some fresh air would be good for your head. You were always scared of my clothes, the way I spoke, what I wanted to do. “So smart, is it?� you used to say. “Have some common sense. Later in life, what matters is money. Sad but true. You have to think ahead.� I’m 20 years old and I don’t want to be jaded, but you’re already feeding me defeatism and banality as a lifestyle choice. I want to be more than an office drone. I want to be more than my salary. You need to dream big to be big, Singapore. I looked into your dreams one night and they were full of dollar signs. They were full of people getting by on their Mercedes, their two maids, their country club membership. Getting by and not living. Getting but not achieving. Buying and selling but not giving. I d reamed we went to a Club Med on holiday, and I told the receptionist, “You live in a beautiful country,� and she replied, “You don’t live here.� That night, I said, “I wish we’d gone somewhere else.� You said, “Like where? All the places you want to go are dirty, no air-con.� I’m in love, of course I take a romantic view of London. But I’ve seen the dark alleys; I’ve seen the feral children with their knives and guns; I’ve been mugged and it wasn’t fun. I almost had to get stitches. I met a drag queen at A&E who’d been gaybashed on night bus number 54. We looked at each other in recognition, and she smiled grimly and said, “Honey, I’ve always wanted a nose job on the NHS.� In London, I can be a saint or a sinner. I can be City boy, goth girl, punk kid; I can be in with the media, in with the cool kids, I can drop rhymes in East End ghettos and I can drop cash in Mahiki on cocktails. I can be posh, p oor, upmarket, downmarket, chav, toff, hippie, indie. I can be gay or straight, man or woman. I can make myself up, make myself down. And London will still embrace me, and I will always find somewhere that will take me in, and raise no eyebrows should I wear hoop skirts and pierce my lip and call myself Bettie Page. I’m not sure you could ever do that, Singapore. You say you celebrate diversity, but really you only grudgingly tolerate it. You know what always pissed me off? When you would shrug your shoulders and say, “What to do? It’s like that, what. I’ll never change.� I would try and try to change your mind, but you would just shrug. That same reply. Then, accusingly, you would say that you were an Asian and you were conservative, and I was trying to make you something you weren’t. Then, defiantly: “If people don’t like it, not my problem!� But I’m not trying to make you something you’re not, I’m really not. I’m just trying to make you see that you’re more than dollar signs. You’re more than people just scraping by, dreaming of money and five-star hotels. You’re a hell of a lot more than just a good air-conditioning system. You’re everybody, not just the dream citizen; you’re the Malay kids skipping school, hanging out at Peninsula Plaza in black jeans and trucker caps. You’re the unemployed kopitiam uncle with his songbirds. You’re the schoolgirl holding hands with her classmate, hoping the teacher doesn’t see. You’re every one of them, but for some reason you just won’t acknowledge this. You like to hold on to this idea of you being this clean, perfectly efficiently city, when really it’s the dirt that makes you who you are. And at this point in my life, I don’t want to deal with this amount of self-loathing and deception. I don’t want to deal with somebody who sees their history as something to be packaged and sold to tourists, who sees every citizen as an economic unit to be moved around on a chess board. We are the only resource? Who said people can be resources? What are we, oil? Trees? (Plus, I don’t want to be with somebody who says “well, you just don’t understand – this is for our SURVIVAL� should anybody dare to disagree. You’re more than surviving. You’ve done well. But now you need to stop holding your breath, stop acting like everything can be taken away from you in an instant. This kind of warlike paranoia isn’t doing you favours. You could be so great if you just relaxed and let go, just a little.) I want truth, beauty… you know the rest. I’m twenty and the world’s an open book to me, but you… I’m afraid that maybe, just maybe, you’re a closed case. I love you, but I can’t do this anymore. xxxxxxxxxxxx http://stories.sg/issues/1/zing/
-
.
-
By 40, the next letter by Zing will be
Goodbye London, I have decided that London is not a place for me, all the hooligans, the muggers, the unemploys, the pros, the big fat asses and the ever partying like no tomorrow world, although I love it name, but never the place anymore. Cheers To Authur!!!
-
Originally posted by angel7030:
By 40, i will still luv u, my dear trouble
hey, don't have to be so mushy
-
Originally posted by angel7030:
By 40, the next letter by Zing will be
Goodbye London, I have decided that London is not a place for me, all the hooligans, the muggers, the unemploys, the pros, the big fat asses and the ever partying like no tomorrow world, although I love it name, but never the place anymore. Cheers To Authur!!!
He will find that there are more foreigners than Englishmen in London, and the Englishmen don't like him.
-
Zing is or was still young when he wrote that letter. He should have travelled to more countries to really know his true desires in life.
-
Originally posted by mancha:
He will find that there are more foreigners than Englishmen in London, and the Englishmen don't like him.
Well, maybe he is lucky, met up with Elton John and his life changed completely. Then on his next visit to his birth place, singapore, he could be wear a hat with all kind of head dress, a high heel shoes, a Kate's fashion clothing and a G string by Elton John -
Originally posted by zulkifli mahmood:
Zing is or was still young when he wrote that letter. He should have travelled to more countries to really know his true desires in life.
The question is not him, it is more on the young people of singapore, if all think like him, then true blue Singaporean will be history in near future, maybe in 50 years time, True blue Singapore with ancestor dated to 1940s will become extinct, and to find one, will be very rare, as rare as the 2 pandas -
Originally posted by angel7030:
The question is not him, it is more on the young people of singapore, if all think like him, then true blue Singaporean will be history in near future, maybe in 50 years time, True blue Singapore with ancestor dated to 1940s will become extinct, and to find one, will be very rare, as rare as the 2 pandasTrue blue here refers to the poor chinese from South China or the Malaysians who really owned the land?
-
Say i will be 70yo plus in 50 years time,
Old angel saw a kids: Hello, boy, your english still very much like old singapore time
Boy: My great great grandpa is from the 1950s, tho many young peoples left, my family insist I stay on, so I am a true blue Singaporean
Old angel: Woei!!! everyone....this boy is rare!!! come come and see, a true blue young Singapore...rare species around
-
Originally posted by Bio-Hawk:
True blue here refers to the poor chinese from South China or the Malaysians who really owned the land?
I think it should be consider as those first strait settlement, but for me, a taiwanese, I am not true blue one. -
Originally posted by angel7030:
The question is not him, it is more on the young people of singapore, if all think like him, then true blue Singaporean will be history in near future, maybe in 50 years time, True blue Singapore with ancestor dated to 1940s will become extinct, and to find one, will be very rare, as rare as the 2 pandas
Well, he has his reasons for leaving Singapore and time has changed. Younger Singaporeans are more westernise nowadays and they probably think the west way of life is more liberal and there are more opportunities there. However, if he did leave only recently is a bad time to do it looking at the economic crisis in U.K or Europe now. -
Originally posted by angel7030:
I think it should be consider as those first strait settlement, but for me, a taiwanese, I am not true blue one.Lu si Hokkien lang si bo.
Later only, turn blue.
-
no leh she looks red
-
Originally posted by zulkifli mahmood:
Zing is or was still young when he wrote that letter. He should have travelled to more countries to really know his true desires in life.
yes he is young, but other people who left spore for good, cant be called young anymore right?
I think he is fedup with the life of spore. he is not alone in this, as there are many disenfranchised youths who are getting disillusioned with life in spore. There are plenty of reasons behind his decision to quit spore.
Now lets brainstorm and see what are the reasons. I shall start first.
1) Spore is getting more and more expensive city state to live in. Look no more than the property prices.
2) its a small congested tiny place with 5 million people, locals, PRs and FT.
3) kiasu, kiasi culture and lack of mannerisms
4) boring place with no nature to escape to, like mountains, lakes etc.
-
Originally posted by Jacky Woo:
yes he is young, but other people who left spore for good, cant be called young anymore right?
I think he is fedup with the life of spore. he is not alone in this, as there are many disenfranchised youths who are getting disillusioned with life in spore. There are plenty of reasons behind his decision to quit spore.
Now lets brainstorm and see what are the reasons. I shall start first.
1) Spore is getting more and more expensive city state to live in. Look no more than the property prices.
2) its a small congested tiny place with 5 million people, locals, PRs and FT.
3) kiasu, kiasi culture and lack of mannerisms
4) boring place with no nature to escape to, like mountains, lakes etc.
Well Jacky, not only the new generation of Singaporeans the young ones are leaving Singapore....those who are born in the 50s and 60s already left too like myself, my eldest brother, my second eldest sister and my third eldest sister. We are too tired and too worried about what Singapore has install for us in the future when we are really old and not worthy in the workforce anymore. When I see old people on the streets or at the hawker centres to make their daily living just to survive really worries me. Thats the reason I left Singapore but I'm within range of Singapore. A stone throw away. -
Originally posted by mancha:
Lu si Hokkien lang si bo.
Later only, turn blue.
this I like, can go braless -
Singaporeans leaving their native state is actually working well and in line with Singapore govt national hidden agenda, the more of them left, the merrier, please go ahead
-
If you have money to do business, my advise you open up your business in third world countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines etc...where you can stretch your dollars. The business expenditures will be much lower, labour cost is lower and the market is bigger. If you open up your business in Singapore......your business won't last long....all your capital will be spend on the high expenditures, the market is too small and stagnant.
-
The SG Coversation Website https://www.oursgconversation.sg/ http://www.facebook.com/OurSGConversation http://www.youtube.com/OurSGConv
-
I'm clearing my inbox emails and came across this...thought I share it within this topic. EXTRACTED FROM THE STRAITS TIMES IN 'YOUTHINK' SECTION UNDER THE "SOAP BOX" COLUMN, PUBLISHED ON MONDAY, JANUARY 21 2008. FORGOING THE RAT RACE FOR THE 'LILIES OF THE FIELD' Story by Yen Feng The season for announcing promotiions and bonuses is, for many rookies, the annual measure of success. But it does no account for work we put into out personal relationships, which is harder to quantify - you do not exactly get cash for how good a son, brother, friend or spouse you have been. That part belongs to another race: the silent marathon to show we are more than the sum of our bank accounts. It is a race we seldom talk about over drinks. It is a race that is easy to forget because we are our own arbiters. But it exists. So I consider myself fortunate to have had a reminder of it at the start of my career. A year agp. I turned in my press pass to take care of a dying loved one. In that time, my peers whizzed ahead, bagging awards I knew would give them an edge over me in the company. At first, I was envious. Then I thought: How much of it really matters? A recent e-mail from a senior executive in the newsroom last week brought the point home. It cited a speech by Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Anna Quindlen. In it, she tells a class of graduating students that life's measure isn't about "the next promotion, the bigger paycheck, the larger house", but about cultivating one's soul. "Consider the lilies of the field," she said. As Singaporeans, we have been trained from a young age to covet success in its most admired form: cash. We compute our worth in dollars and cents. We work hard - the result of being ranked and banded in school from the age of nine. And, if you take literally what Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said last week - "Retirement is death" - we will be working not only harder, but longer than ever. But it is precisely because we push ourselves so hard that Ms Quindlen's words are all the more relevant. The Challenge is to expand our definition of the words "success" and "reward", beyond promotion and bonuses. In the end, we are judged in our lives for all our work - not just the work we are paid to do. Since my loved one died, I have adjusted certain priorities in my life. After a year away from the office, I am ready to buckle down and earn my keep. But I am also working on that other, "lilies" race. I know how much it means to listen, to show up, to make time for the people who mean something in our lives. After all, time, unlike money, is finite. At the end of one's life, no one has been known to say: "I wish I spent more time in the office." So me, I am looking up an old friend. Or lighting a candle at dinner. That's the part I'm leaving for the lilies. [email protected]
-
Sure, open business in 3rd world countries. No trusted man power ? U might as well be throwing money and flushing them down the toilet. lol
-
Originally posted by BadzMaro:
Sure, open business in 3rd world countries. No trusted man power ? U might as well be throwing money and flushing them down the toilet. lol
Thats the reason when you open business overseas, you must live there and monitor your business. And you must be strict with your staffs. Thats the way you do it and I've done business overseas before....in Bali....24hrs restaurant...then later I build a hawker centre.. -
Sg is the best.
-
Originally posted by charlize:
Sg is the best.
No..Singapore market is small...Singaporean entreprenuers should expand their horizon abroad where the market is bigger with more target audiences...
