There is a perpetual exchange between two schools of Singaporeans.
1) Those who complain about everything we have in Singapore and always compare with countries which have (that specific thing) better, and
2) The Singaporeans who have generally lived amongst the (real) poor people in less developed countries and realised how much better Singaporeans have it, and appreciate everything we have.
The usual response from the group 1 of Singaporeans is to always complain again (obviously) about why group 2 always compare Singapore withe less developed countries.. why don’t compare with countries better than us.. interestingly, some even go on to say “how are we going to improve ourselves if we keep comparing to 3rd world countries..”
Are these two schools of thought incompatible? Is the only way to improve yourselves by following group 1′s complaining route?
I don’t believe so. A hybrid can work. You can appreciate everything you have, appreciate that we are better than at least 100 other countries in the world, in spite of our limitations, and still want to be better. When we want to seek inspiration on what or how we can improve, we can look at different systems around the world to learn from. But just because we try to IMPROVE something, does not mean it is not already AWESOME. Being awesome is not about being the absolute best, it’s about being really good. About being better than MANY others.
Always remember that there are 197 countries in the world, and no matter how pessimistic you want to be, (besides our media ranking) we are better than (at least) over a hundred countries in every other metric.. but that does not mean we can’t or should’t improve.
It’s all about the attitude. You can have a negative attitude and be unhappy (and thus complain) about everything or you can have a positive attitude (and appreciate) everything …Cup half full or half empty thing.
But either way, we still can STRIVE for better! You don’t have to be unhappy to improve! You can get 90/100 for your exam, but still strive to do better! You don’t have to (think) you got 10/100 before you can motivate yourself to improve.
I hope Singaporeans will lead life with a more positive outlook and keep improving at the same time. This way, we ALL can live happier 
Sg Bangala
*The writer blogs at http://sgbangla.wordpress.com/
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