What I learned in Singapore

A year in Singapore and these are the good and the bad of what I discovered...

1. The grass is always greener on the other side. I came here full of admiration for this country. How their government is. Their low taxes and efficient use of tax money. How they are given GST rebates. Impressed by how short their history has been as a country and yet they have gone leaps and bounds ahead of other Asian economies. But guess what? A lot are still not happy. They feel that rebates are given to ease the blow of another price increase. They feel that their education system is no good because their island is so little and that their choices for educators are scarce. They do not have enough... Whatever complaints I could hear in the Philippines, I hear here as well...believe me...they even complain about traffic! Once I was talking to a Singaporean convincing her that it is not usual for idle lands to be flat green with bermuda grass and for the streets to be totally free from even dry leaves. She replied smuggly..." Well other countries can have that too...they just have to pay their taxes"....and went on to complain about her tax deductions. Of course, for someone from the third world, I just give her a grin. :)

2. Passion in being THE BEST, THE FIRST, THE ONLY is what paved their lives forward. Everyone wants to contribute to their nations pride. Excellence is in their psyche. Yet, along with that, I can also see simplicity in the way things are done. Whatever things they do, they make life easier, systems user friendly and priorities in tacked. Government programs include, promotion of family building, pairing up singles so they should marry, eating two servings of fruits and vegetables everyday, increasing the practice of social graces, those sort of things.

3. Cultural Tolerance is possible only to a point of Usefulness. Singaporeans tolerate foreigners only because they help to do what they themselves do not want to do. At first, I was amazed of how diversified people are in this part of the world that I thought they were culturally tolerant. This is until I realized that it is only so because there simply isn't enough people here who can do too low or too high demand jobs. But inside, they grudge that the pie is getting smaller and smaller for them to share.

4. This is simply a SMALL country. It is like living in a water pod. Imagine growing up, working, building a family and growing old in Quezon city? In Singapore, you simply have to get out of here sometimes... it could get suffocating.

5. You are what you think you are. Singapore has succeeded in putting up the facade of success, stability, beauty. In most respect, it appeared so true that everyone believed it and so they went. Image is everything. Are they more intelligent than others? Nah. Are they more hardworking? Nah. Are they more good looking? Nah. But look at where they are. They just have a winning attitude. They just think they are more beautiful they dress up well. They just think they work hard ....that's why they feel so tired....ahahahah! Truth is, truth is relative.

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