THERE USED TO be a time when I really felt something for this country I live in; it used to be I considered myself lucky to be born Singaporean, and it used to be that I truly believed life would be great growing up in this prosperous city-state.
As I went through and completed school, and when I started working life as an adult, things still seemed rosy, and I committed myself to work hard and then spend happy days ahead building up a family and finally retiring contented with my lot in life.
Of late, however, I am beginning to wonder if things are still going great. Now that Wifey and I are seriously in family planning mode, I’m beginning to wonder just how affordable it would be to continue living here, what with rising costs and such—and some costs have risen ridiculously high, in my opinion: housing for one, medical bills next.
We live in a reasonably comfortable apartment, but I was just thinking the other day about the extra space we would be needing to house 4 generations—my parents, Wifey and I, and the kid(s) we hope to have. And it would be nice to have a place with a garden where I could finally get that family dog I’ve always wanted (I like larger breeds like retrievers) where in my picture-perfect mind, the kid(s) and the mutt would be running about happily to while away the hours as Wifey and I watch on from day couches on the verandah.
In space-constrained Singapore, my dream home would come across as somewhat extravagant: as it is, there are people who think my 1,860sq ft 3-bedroom apartment is “nice” enough for a small family, but in my little heart of hearts, I beg to differ—not that I am showy or greedy, but I would like to have a house where we could have little spaces of our own, and I like the idea of having a proper library/home office where I could read or catch up on work undisturbed.
Vin Diesel and some other Hollywood stars recently squirmed when he heard how expensive cars can be in Singapore compared to his native United States; I get the feeling he would think this is one impossible country to live in if you tossed in the cost of housing into the picture. Indeed, the other day, I was talking to one of my Malaysian friends, and he commented “I wonder how you guys could survive.”
Well, barely, I guess: I get the notion that regardless of how well you think you were paid, it’s probably never enough.The government encourages people to be prudent and that life would be comfortable enough if we chose to live by simpler standards—in reality, no one wants to lead a mediocre life. We all aspire to reach a certain lifestyle, and I don’t think anyone is really happy or contented living in tight small spaces, jostling for space in crammed public transport or eating chicken rice at hawker centres for every meal—not when there are shiny glamorous posters abound all over that advertise luxury living. This is a highly materialistic society we live in after all.
In other words, we could probably survive and live within our means if we tried, regardless of how much we are paid, but it doesn’t mean we are all happy in the way we lead our lives.
My late father-in-law used to say you cannot afford to fall ill in Singapore, and that you’re better off dead once and for all than to be stricken with some long-drawn ailment, given the cost of medical care here. He said this with even more conviction as he was battling liver cancer, and when he finally succumbed to the disease, truly, there were sighs of relief all around—in part because he was finally eased of his pain permanently; but also true was the fact that the burden of hefty medical bills was over as well.
I have to be very candid here: the standard and level of medical care goes hand-in-hand with how much you are willing and able to pay—at the end of the day, hospital and doctors are running businesses too, and one would be naive to think that just because the Hippocratic Oath is still being sworn today by medical practitioners, doctors and specialists will necessarily be altruistic in their cause. The differences were jarring right from the way you were talked down to by specialist consultants and even nurses if you could only afford a basic package versus how you would be serenaded and danced to if you could easily pay for a course of medicine that costs $90 per pill—and the fact that you’re struggling for the next breath or wear a constant grimace on your face because of the pain you’re experiencing wouldn’t make a difference. Yes, we do have one of the best medical care systems in the world; we’re certainly the best in Asia—but all this, provided you can pay.
And everyday you read comments by people on Twitter and Facebook lamenting about just how much it sucks to be living here. I think it’s not just a case of people whining and complaining for nothing: they want to be heard because there truly is a lot of frustration on the ground, and enough of the teasing sideshows, they want solutions that are tangible and make sense to them. More importantly, they want solutions that they can afford, not solutions that are deemed best-in-class but out of their financial reach.
I don’t believe in simply whining and complaining and waiting for people to come up with solutions to my challenges: I like to take charge of things, and I am of the opinion that the world is a far bigger place than just this tiny dot, prosperous as it may be, and that if it no longer makes sense for me to be living here and starting a family, then logically I should pack my bags and relocate to a place where I can attain the kind of standard and lifestyle I aspire to have.
We started looking, and what we found were pleasantly surprising. For instance, I came across a gorgeous looking apartment in Bangkok that we can easily afford if we’d sold off our place, and with something extra to either purchase another smaller property we could collect rent, or start a small business; if we moved up north a little further to Chiang Mai, I could get a nice landed property with a great view and have the space for a litter of dogs and kidS (with a capital ‘S’) running about.
It would be myopic to say that the standard of living in Thailand would be necessarily lower than in Singapore: it would be synonymous with New Yorkers thinking once out of the States, you can’t find a place that offers all the little luxuries and indulgences you fancied anywhere else in the world.
Don’t get me wrong: I still remain Singaporean at heart, and I don’t think I would give up my citizenship. Being the pragmatist that I am, I think I really should be thinking up options that would make sense to me, instead of idealistically hoping that things would work out themselves—I’m not really a man of faith but what I am is a firm believer of using one’s common sense and logic to go figure how to make your own life better.
So here’s the deal: thank you to my dear homeland for the great opportunities I’d been given—a world-class education, stability and peace in my growing years, and other infrastructures in place that had been great until recently when we started getting a little too crowded—I’m grateful to be born and raised here, but don’t count on me to live out the rest of my life here.
Just think of me as an eagle that needs to (finally) spread my wings and soar above my roost after all these years; it’s time I started moving on to the next big chapter in my life.
RIOTOUS ASSEMBLY
*The author blogs at http://riotousassembly.wordpress.com/