I Am Very Thankful to be a Singaporean
-=[17th August 2004, Tuesday]=-
Feeling: thankful; venue: at home
Tell me the truth. Which part of me don't look like a typical chinese Singaporean? It was a tiring day for me (and my legs on the pair of killer high heels). I alighted from the mert (my term of affection for the local MRT train) at CityHall Mrt station feeling very lethargic and kinda stoned. As I was walking towards the gates of the station I heard someone beckoning out to me
Stranger: "Excuse me.."
Me: "huh?"
Stranger: "Urm.. Are you a local?"
Me: "What???"
*stunned at the question*
Stranger: "Are you a local?"
*meek look*
Me: "Yah....??"
*still stunned*
Stranger: " I see.... Can we exchange telephone numbers?"
Me: "Sorry but I don't give strangers my number."
*Me trying hard to put on a fierce don't-get-near-me look*
Stranger: "Can we exchange telephone numbers?"
Me: "I am sorry but i really do not give strangers my number."
*Tried to walk off*
Stranger: "I see... it's ok then. Thanks."
I dashed towards the gate, despite my unstable wobbly legs. Nopes i am not afraid of him. I just do not want him to get any more closer to me. I should have just frightened him off by telling him a lie, saying "Sorry but I am a lesbian thus i do not give any males (regardless of human/animal/amoeba/insect/crustacean/primate/aliens) my number". HAHAHA!!
I dunno why, but frankly I do NOT like to be mistaken as a non-Singaporean. Yesh I have the Singapore-blood flowing in me (nopes this has nothing to do with the recent National Day celebrations). I am proud to be a Singaporean, I love my homeland, Singapore. (sings: This is my land, an island where i wanna be. Land of my birth, where my heart longs to be.... la la la) Though it is juz a tiny dot on the world map, with no natural resources, with very limited entertainment, super duper expensive standards of living, no four seasons to play with, strict government, very restrictive etc ... I still LOVE SINGAPORE!! Even if u were to ask me to choose between being labelled me as a Singapore ah lian (*note: ah lians are like the local context of spice girls wannabes. Likes to shriek, speak very loudly, vulger mouthed and attention seeking) , or to deny Singapore and be classified as a woman with grace and class, I will still choose the 1st coz I simply love Singapore too much! And of coz I know that I simply do NOT fit into the ah lian cateogory. Heeeeeeee
Later on over dinner, i post-mortemed over what had happened earlier to Christy.
Me: "Tell me which part of me do not look like a local? Issit my tiny slit eyes? It made me look like a PRC? Or my skinny legs? Or my huge tummy?"
Christy: "The very 1st time i saw you in school, you look like a Japanese to me."
Me: *speechless*
Christy: "Yah you still looked like one now. Even if not so, you will be a half-Jap. I have always visualised your mum to be a half-Jap. That was when I haven't met your mum yet of coz."
Me: *Opened mouth to protest but no sounds came out.*
Ok I lost... But never mind. I still stand firm on my love towards Singapore. Why do I love Singapore so much? I guess it is not about the land, but is more about the people here. To be precise, my family, my friends, and any other people that had impacted me so much, made me feel loved and I love them too! I mean come on! There are no perfect place in the world for us to live in. Singapore itself is a pretty safe place to live in. I will dare to walk home alone late at night of 10.00pm coz I know that Singapore is a relatively 'safe' place to live in. But over in New York? Even if the streets is bustling with people around at that point of time, robbers, snatch thieves etc will still be daring enough to commit the crime under the nose of police!! True, there are no four seasons here, thus the weather is abit dull but hey! There are no natural calamities here for us to battle out too! Its true that there is not much exciting activities, such as snow boarding etc for our local youths to explore. But there are always other alternate excitements for them to choose from. Like bicycle stunts etc.
Of coz whatever I have listed out are just purely my views, out of my naive imbecile pea brains. It is not a representative of many other Singaporeans around. Being the all docile and submissive me, i find contentment in almost everything. I like to compare my situations with the other much-suffering people out there in the more rural world, where modern technology or even medicine is such a scarce. A typical computer that we are all using here will be a pentium 3? Yet some of the villages out in Thailand/China/India/(fill in the blanks) are only starting to learn how to use a 486 computer! The kind where most of the Singaporeans will be throwing out in sneer disgust. Also I do not live among the rubbish mountains, where alot of them exist in places such as Phillippines. "Then go live with them in the villages lah!" You may say. Nopes I won't go. I know that my life here is too comfortable for me, that I will not be able to survive there. Nopes, I also do not live in a comfortable 5-room flat with executive working parents. I live in a tiny 3-room flat, where my dad is only a taxi-driver, my mum is a school cleaner, my elder brother helps out in a char-kway teow stall, and me, a tiny insignificant civil servant. My parents take up a room, my bro take up the other room, and me? I sleep in the hall every night. Yes, that's how tiny my home is. But no I do not complain. I live a very simple and yet happy life. What else can I ask for? There are other Singaporeans out there in fact, without a decent home too! When I do the comparison, I just learn to treasure what I have now even more, and to thank GOD for whatever he has given to me. That is, he has given me a simple loving home, enough money to survive on, a simple life, a group of loving friends and students, no diseases, no physical handicap disability nor of any sort. Isn't that just good enough??
xia0miLk scribbled at 2:42 pm.
: 2:30 am