I had a good chat with friend whom I had not seen in ages when I chanced upon him in an MRT train. After the usual "How are you?", he began commenting that Singaporeans are short-sighted.
I looked around me and did a quick glance at faces of people in the train. Indeed the typical face of a Singaporean is one with glasses included. In fact the newspaper once reported that about 80% of teenagers in Singapore were myopic; one of the highest in the world. It is not surprising given the lifestyles teenagers have nowadays. The competitive nature in schools is such that students have to read books and use the computer extensively in order to keep up. To make matters worse, for some of them, free time could be to watch television or surf the Internet. Even adults are not spared from the trend. The use of computers for work is almost a necessity. In short, the eyes of Singaporeans do not get much rest, thus leading to the high number of cases of myopia.
The situation is so bad that I remember local cartoonist Lee Chee Chew suggested in his comic that evidence of Singaporeans being myopic is from the fact that many people cannot see the yellow markings in MRT stations drawn on the floor for safety reasons. But of course, it carried a double meaning that many Singaporeans conveniently ignore the safety markings to poise themselves to rush into the trains.
I was about to giggle to myself when my friend interrupted my train of thought. He asked me if I was aware of the recent debate on the building of a casino in Singapore. The debate brought about by the government had created a small furore that even Straits Times columnist Sumiko Tan gave her two cents worth by agreeing. My friend announced that after reading all the comments circulated so far he felt that Singaporeans are narrow-minded. He explained that instead of harping on whether it is ethical to build a casino or not, the question should actually be what to build to draw tourists. Singapore's concern is to entice tourists but building a casino is not the only alternative. The government and the people he felt should channel their energies into generating more ideas instead of senseless nit-picking. Indeed this is not the first time Singaporeans have displayed such a behaviour. Singaporeans tend to be narrow-minded and like to argue for the wrong reasons, seldom seeing the big picture.
Perhaps Singaporeans are myopic in more ways than one.
4 comments:
ouch...
It is quite sad but unfortunately quite true...
Just like my friend said before we parted that "Hopefully it will all change for the better."
Having never been to singapore myself, i'll take your word for it. although from what little i do know about singapore (i did an essay on it a year ago), i'm suprrised to hear you say that things are as backward as you put it.
the impression that i got from reading about singapore was that lee kuan yew had done a good job overall for singapore in comparison to a lot of the southeast asian countries. course i could be reading all the wrong type of material, not to mention the fact that somewhere in my mind, something is telling me that he's no longer in charge...? Or is that just my tired brain playing tricks on me?
Well perhaps my friend had exaggerated a little to put his point across... after all by telling me all that, it has proved that at least he is not short-sighted.
I wouldn't exactly describe Singapore as backward in their thinking but it is a fact that many Singaporeans are just too caught up in their fast-paced lives to be concerned about the other things that revolve around them. Perhaps they are only far-sighted in matters that involve them. Maybe it is just a social problem that faces developed nations.
Mr Lee Kuan Yew has taken the role of Minister Mentor where his job is as the title implies is to advise ministers. The current Prime Minister of Singapore is his son Mr Lee Hsien Loong. The previous PM was Mr Goh Chok Tong who is now the Senior Minister.
Well, I hope whatever that is said would not actually influence your view on Singapore, after all it would be better to see it for yourself =) I think my friend only expressed such strong views in a hope that Singaporeans would be more conscious of themselves.
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