Meddling with love - the govt's visible hand
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Meddling with Love – University in Singapore
Posters which promote events promising romantic encounters fill the walkways spilling with couples. The school encouraging boys and girls to grab some hand they can hold onto. Even though it can be as little as a year ago when these boys and girls were prohibited from doing so in JCs. Now you see signs everywhere that tells u to get a girl or guy. Overt and subvert social pressures for you to get attached.
The university has got to be the biggest and most intrusive match-making agency in Singapore. It can’t wait for you to fall in love. It has to meddle to make sure you would. It orchestrates moves that cultivate this oppressive couple culture which pushes you to date. Maybe it does so to be in line with govt’s plan that we should all start dating as undergrads so we can get hitched n have babies immediately after we grad. But what horrible implications these stuff bring onto people like me. I was happy to single until I went into university. Once, twice, thrice…perhaps for at least a hundred times I resisted the kind of message that says u should be dating. But as u know even a drip of water can make it thru a stone if it does so persistently over time, after these images and messages were flashed at me for countless times I started to wonder if I needed to be attached in order to be happy in university. From the speed I see my friends settling for mates it seems so. And I feel so much of an outcast that I m single. Like I m somewhat inferior. Like I m not part of their community anymore. Everyone no longer has time for friends as their beau is of supreme importance and takes up most of their time n attention. These things haunt me so much that they make my university life miserable. I yearn for companionship but it needn’t come from a lover. Yet things don’t seem to work that way. Everyone’s top agenda is to look for a date and where’s friend on the list? For some, I doubt it is on the list even. Why must the varsity turn everyone into “desperate housewives”? Why can’t they just let things be?
I hav posted the above in AA but just want to discuss it here with an additional note: is it acceptable for the govt to "strongly suggest" a certain timeline for us and decide for us when we shd date,get hitched and hav babies?can love be regulated?are things like getting married smt mechanical that we can adjust quantitatively?how much of the private sphere would u allow the govt to interfere in the name of achieving national objectives? -
Welcome to the modern police state! If itÂ’s good for the state, itÂ’s good for you!
What is good for the country is good for you. And if something screws-up with the meddling, we have a well-oiled the state media machinery to assign the blame.
I remember some time back the competitive pressure cooker education system was getting stressful for kids. The government managed to cleanly absolve themselves from any blame by passing the buck to the parents. ItÂ’s the kiasu parents they claimed. If the parents are not kiasu, there should be no stress. There was even a research produced by NIE to show that most students are happy in school but itÂ’s the parents who cause their children to have a stressful life. They conveniently forget their mistakes in policies.
And even if you disagree with the government on many policies, you donÂ’t have a choice. Just like the presidential elections, just like your walk-over GRCs, just like Microsoft vs Netscape, you donÂ’t have a chance, your views donÂ’t matter. If itÂ’s good for the state, itÂ’s good for you! -
Without the romancing singapore campaign, there may not be enough singaporeans to serve the foreign talents and the royal familee!!!
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I would like to add that the modern police state usually dare not tackle the real problem because it will hurt their economic competitiveness. There is little time for the the average working adult to rest, play and spend time with family, little time for the average teen/ young adult to have free time in the educational system.
Japan is also faced with a very high singles and low birth rates. The blame has been the usual suspects - independent young woman, the career minded man. No one dares to blame their excessive working hours, nor their cram-schools coz it will hurt the viability of their economy or lower the educational standards. Singapore in comparison is still better but i believe we will be like them eventually. -
In short, more family-friendly workplaces are needed.Originally posted by Calvin86:I would like to add that the modern police state usually dare not tackle the real problem because it will hurt their economic competitiveness. There is little time for the the average working adult to rest, play and spend time with family, little time for the average teen/ young adult to have free time in the educational system.
Japan is also faced with a very high singles and low birth rates. The blame has been the usual suspects - independent young woman, the career minded man. No one dares to blame their excessive working hours, nor their cram-schools coz it will hurt the viability of their economy or lower the educational standards. Singapore in comparison is still better but i believe we will be like them eventually.
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s'porenas are not like b4. they follow western culture where ditching hubby and wife or switching partners like clothes are acepted as norm. can u see singns of this culture creeping in now?