Dear Stephanie, you talked in your video about why you’re not proud to be Singaporean. And now, I tell you why I am.
Singapore is no place for an artist : Singapore is the best place to be a doctor/lawyer/engineer/Red Indian chief bla bla bla. Yes, I understand that sometime ago, this used to be very very true. And trust me, when an idea/notion is repeated so often so many times over, sometimes ideas stagnate even though times move on. Even now my father’s friends, great lawyers in their own rights themselves, (Arthur Loke, Colin Ng, Glenn Knight), all tell me and my father, they are happy when they hear that young kids nowadays don’t want to be lawyers anymore, they want to be the next Spielberg/Picasso/Margiela. And that’s great, times have changed. Yes, you might still hear adults harp on about the importance and the prestige of being a lawyer/accountant/Red Indian chief but heck, do we as children really buy that anymore? Do we really think in our heart of hearts that every single Singaporean was meant to be a lawyer? That we should all aim for that lofty notion/position simply because our parents told us to do so? Sure, some of us might, but I think it’s fair to say that most of us kids know how to think for ourselves. Who says Singapore is no place for an artist? Then what is there in NAFA, Lasalle, RDI? I find oftentimes we like to just tell ourselves that Singapore is no place for a certain profession simply because we don’t see that profession flourishing. We know it’s going to be hard, and so we just convince ourselves off it, and take the beaten path. Which brings me on to my own point :
Singaporeans like to be comfortable.
It’s true, we all like to be comfortable, what’s wrong with that? And commanding a pay of $700/hour for a senior practicing lawyer is a mighty comfortable income. In this day and age, we want a lot of things. A lot of expensive things, to be exact. And a few other intangible things, such as happiness, which we sometimes foolishly think money will bring along with it. But that’s a whole other story. Let’s face it. If you want something bad enough, if you want to pursue your passion, if you want to prove a point to yourself/the world, you will go out there, and you will do it even if you have to sleep on the streets. Many famous actors/artists/philosophers have gone through much hard times simply because they had enough fire in their belly to see their dreams and aspirations through. Even if it meant going hungry/being shunned by society for them. Of course, this is the most extreme scenario, not everybody has to go that far. But nowadays, if I told you that I give you no guarantee of success if you chose to go down a certain path, you probably won’t push all your chips in. Then again, just because you study hard enough doesn’t mean you’re cut out to be a lawyer, not everybody who studies law makes it. So whoever thinks being a lawyer is a clear as day decision to make is gravely mistaken.
Ever heard the saying, go big or go home? I’ll tell you, not many Singaporeans subscribe to that, and that’s precisely why not many Singaporeans make it in their “off the beaten path” careers. Singaporeans are practical people. If we are comfortable with where we are in life, rarely will you find someone who will risk his comfort to pursue his passion. Which is why you make the frontlines of newspapers when a CEO quits his job to sell hawker food. It’s only human nature. And hey, guess what, last time I checked, Singaporeans are humans too! Don’t say that Singapore is a cesspool for artists. Wherever you are, if you are talented, you will shine. Singapore is not a nation closed off to the world. If you are talented, people will notice, and you will be recognized. Talent is international, talent knows no borders. (Hint hint, Ilo Ilo)
Stephanie also stated in her video, how our Singaporean wage system is in actual fact, worse than the minimum wage.
Do you know what Australia’s tax structure is like? Australia is a welfare state, and so taxes are as such.
So, let’s say you make $50,000 a year. Fair enough, here is what you’d have to pay as an Australian citizen
$3572 + (0.325 x $13000) =7797
That’s about 8000 for 50,000 a year. Which makes it approximately 16% tax.
What’s that 32.5cents? That’s basically the tax you have to pay for every dollar you make over $37,000. So basically, you pay a base sum, plus a tax rate of 32.5% for every dollar over $37,000.
Fear not, the tax rate only goes up from there, to the point of something like 45cents for every dollar you make. Yeah, a tax rate of 45%. Of course, I digress. She was talking about students working as waitresses. But if you want to go to Australia, where you “probably” would make it as an artist, because Singapore is so bloody stifling, and you start to rake in all the millions of dollars, here’s the little heads up for you. Oh, you’re not an Australian citizen? Tax rates will be higher then. In Singapore, the highest the tax rates go are about 20%. Which is much better than fuckin, 45 cents per dollar right. The earning spending ratio? Who you kidding? You telling me your want to buy that Chanel bag magically disappears the moment you take a plane ride down under?
Look, we all have to get some things straight. The world is not fair. This is not just the case in Singapore. All over the world there is inequality. What, you don’t believe me? Why then do you despise the people that flew from their own country to ours to build the roads we walk on and the buildings we sleep in? Hey, that’s racist.
I went to Saint Joseph’s Institution, where I had many teachers that encouraged creativity. But at the same time they told me to be practical. Just because your idea of “creativity” is not recognized, doesn’t mean it’s not good, doesn’t mean this system is draconian and resistant to change. Firstly, the system is changing. Slowly, but changing. You cannot expect the “forward-mindedness” that people have in countries like awstraylia, Sweden, Denmark, the USA to suddenly flood Singapore. Understand that these countries have been in existence much longer than we have. They are centuries, if not millenniums ahead of us. Singapore is only what, 50? Or something. Change is gradual, change is not immediate. Look at what happened to the USSR when they decided to just let loose the floodgates and drop the iron curtain.
Singaporeans are narrow minded? Singaporeans are not narrow minded. You simply just don’t miss what you never had. When the idea to build the IR and casinos came about, so many Singaporeans were against it. There must be a balance with everything. Turn the temperature too high or too low and life would not exist. So don’t say Singaporeans are narrow minded. Singaporeans are a very unique people. We are a very young country where just one generation before us, our parents, they knew what it was like to have nothing, to eat rice just once a day, paired with nothing but black soy sauce and a cup of coffee black. It is a huge paradigm shift from us, the generation where most of us have everything, iPhone, iPod, iPad, iWant, iThis, iThat, I, I, I, Fucking I. Just one generation ago our parents had nothing. They had to build Singapore up. It was survival, and trust me, when you’re fighting to survive the last thing you have on your mind is “what the fuck, we should totally embrace arts and crafts man” They had bigger problems. They probably entrusted our generation to take care of that problem, instead of you know, whining, while they focused on the bigger problems like FUCKING SURVIVING. But they didn’t just survive. Now Singapore thrives. We are a country where there is such a diverse mindset, where east literally meets west. We have been conservative all along, but along with the dawn of the internet, and what have you, there is a lot of western influence coming into us, and we think that we see the “goodness” of other countries over the “old-fashiondness” of Singapore. We cannot be too extreme. We cannot simply disregard our old values and heritage that we should be keeping close to our heart in exchange for the “new cutting edge” philosophies and ways of life that the Westerners bring. You see that the USA has more freedom than us. It is also this freedom that more or less, has the US in danger of defaulting on debts in the hundreds of billions. You take a country wholesale, or you don’t take it at all. Don’t point to all of the other country’s goods and then point to Singapore’s bads and say “WHY LIDDAT, I DON’T WANT THIS BAD POINTS, I WANT THE GOOD POINTS OF THE OTHER COUNTRIES IN EXCHANGE FOR OUR BAD POINTS.” This is Singapore, not fucking Utopia.
Singaporeans are submissive.
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NAHT.
Look, if I told you to just jump into a volcano, and you had all the Singaporeans lined up, just find me 5, no, find me 4, okay find me one Singaporean that jumps in simply because he/she is told to. Now have Singaporeans line up for free investing advice from Warren Buffet, along with a free handout of 10 Berkshire Hathaway shares at the end of each advice session. Singaporeans are not submissive. Singaporeans have brains. It’s just that Singaporeans are “submissive” because they have seen that something works, something is good, and so they follow it. Look, if Singapore was fucking run into the ground by our forefathers, then maybe, just maybe, we probably would not follow that way because, you know, it FAILED. Singaporeans do things a certain way because that certain way works. And if it works, then happy days, you know? And if it doesn’t, Singaporeans are in no way submissive. Heck, they’re really really hardcore in disagreeing. Why do you think Singaporeans complain so much? I rest my case.
Singaporeans are not happy people.
Of course Singaporeans are not happy people. We are focusing too much on things that are practical. Sometimes practical is not good, sometimes practical is miserable. But like I said, we change, our system is changing, and change needs time. But instead of “WA MENG TI WA MENG TI” and “the PAP is bullshit, what can our government do for us?” I think, as individuals who feel the full effects of our decisions to be happy or not, we owe it to ourselves to be happy. Singapore is not North Korea, it’s not a crime to smile. Yes, sure, Stephanie might feel that Australians are nicer and probably happier simply because they say hi to her and ask her about her laptop, (which has nothing to do with whether she’s pretty, of course not!) but it is simply unfair to assume that Singaporeans are not friendly. You know what Singaporeans are? Singaporeans are shy. So many times I have asked people for the time, asked people for a favour, “could you help me hold this, while I search in my bag for this” “Do you know how to get from here to here, do you know which place has the best coffee/food” often times I myself am quite surprised at the warmness behind those cold faces. They even are happy to help. Often people don’t bother to help simply because Singaporeans are afraid. That’s all there is to it. Singaporeans are one of the, if not the warmest people I know. How do you explain fighting to pay the bill, (Go dutch? You want to go dutch go to DUTCHLAND LA YOU)
Offering to send someone home, etc? Singaporeans are actually very warm people, and if this warmness were to spread outward instead of always being kept inside, I’m pretty sure the happiness index in Singapore would be consistently peaking. Singaporeans just need to be more outgoing with their warmness is what I feel. Of course, there are assholes, but there are assholes everywhere, and statistically speaking, there are more assholes in places with more people. (Just sayin’) I have heard horror stories from my cousins who went to study down under about being marginalized simply because they were what, yellow skinned? I’d rather be a first class citizen in my country than a second class citizen where there is more “freedom for expression”, along with the added freebie of incredibly high taxes. Don’t believe me? Just put in “is Australia” in the google search and one of the highest hits you get is “is Australia racist?”
Just like Stephanie I have worked in the service sector. In fact I still do. Working in a tailor shop where people come in and start to talk through the wrong hole, naturally I would want them to maybe, jump in the wrong hole too. But we smile, this is indeed a job. Understand that this is part of the job, and you will naturally, with time, come to accept that there are many different kinds of people out there. Do unto others what you want others to do unto you. So many times I have smiled and thanked people in the service sector and suddenly see them smile, offer to refill my drink, suddenly just change in disposition. One thing we need to change as Singaporeans is the idea that they are service staff and they are paid to serve us and therefore we can treat them like their good service to us is a given. Technically it is, but there’s nothing technical about humans.
Suicide rates high? This is a prevalent problem in other high density first world Asian countries. Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea. Is this a problem? Yes. Is it a problem unique to us? No. I do not have the technical knowhow nor a good idea on how to stop this, but I just want to point out to you that unlike what she expressed in the video, this is not a problem unique to Singapore. She just simply chose to put it in a way that suited her argument. Additionally, I like the idea that I hold the power to end my life in my own hands, rather than in the hands of some rampaging murderer. Having more people killing other people than more people killing themselves isn’t exactly a good problem to have? Or is it just me? Just me? Okay.
I do not argue with some of Stephanie’s points. Some points she made are true. But one thing that I will not stand for, is for her putting down this country that I love, and am proud to be a part of. (Until I receive my enlistment letter, then I shit my pants and cry a bit.) Stephanie looks at Singapore through the perspective of someone who is already way past the point of ever thinking of Singapore as a country that is nice. I too, like Stephanie, am a huge cynic. I’m quite the bastard actually. But I am cynical for Singapore, with Singapore, and against anyone who puts Singapore down. You see, I find that through all these “bad things” that Singapore has, Singaporeans seem to have developed a very good coping mechanism : humor.
Singaporeans, or shall I put it her way, majority of Singaporeans, have a sense of humor. The sense of humor to laugh and accept certain things, even make fun of ourselves and our shortcomings as a nation. This is great, because when someone can laugh about their own shortcomings, it shows that Singapore has come quite far as a nation. Singaporeans have a positivity and a joy for life that is very much shown in their sense of humor. Yes we complain. But often times we also make fun of ourselves, or others for complaining. Because we know, hey, we don’t really have a lot to complain about do we?
Singapore has its goods, it’s bads,and it’s uglies but from a balanced point of view, Singapore has done much and has coped very well as a nation. Can we improve? Yes we can. Are we improving? Yes we are. I’m not going to talk about how fast or how slow we are going, little is better than none. I do not come riding on my high horse, blindly choosing to cut down anyone that is against Singapore. Singapore needs to change yes, but just brushing aside that fact and saying “Singapore is fucked in my opinion and so I am flying away you can be fucked yourselves fuck you I don’t care, byebye” is not going to solve any problems. Everyone can do that. I will not. I don’t want Singapore to be known as the country that got built by one generation, and got left for dead by the next.
I am very happy with Singapore, the experiences I have had, the friends I have made, and most importantly, the family I have. I don’t hate Stephanie for airing her views. It’s good that she did, she probably spoke up for those of you that felt the same way but never bothered enough to express it (you lazy bastards). But as for me, and those of you who agree with me, I like Singapore just fine. PS, if Stephanie wants to argue with me and eventually make friends with me, I am more than happy to. I am determined to show her that not every Singaporean is as bad as she says we are.
Mark Farha Kon
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