Joecities

Americans are from Mars, Singaporeans are from Venus
Came across this article by Colin Goh and his wife who live in New York. Their comments are based around their personal experiences as a result of living overseas.
Thought it was interesting, especially after I overlaid it with what I've also been reading "Men are from Mars..." in a bid to understand my wife a little better.

Some of you may know I've had a short brush with journalism mainly during my military stint. Talking to people (both civilian and military) from all walks of life, I've learnt that Singaporeans are really good at identifying the problems. From your corner kopi-tiam uncles and taxi drivers to the NSFs 'suffering' their first week of Basic Military Training, Singaporeans have gotten complaining down to a science.

As the Mars/Venus book describes (and what I've learnt from marriage life so far), Venusians deal with problems by talking about them. They don't neccesarily go out and solve them, they just feel pent up if they don't express their dissatisfaction.
Americans on the other hand are from Mars. They focus on fixing things. The management consultant role (which i'm working as now) was essentially born out of this whole problem-solving mentality where with the right know-how, one could fix almost anything.
Americans cry : "To achieve our goals in the pursuit of happiness, that's the american dream."Singaporeans cry : "Why they got nice TV/Car/House/Job I dun have. Cannot, I must have better one."

Anyway, before I go off rambling further, back to my original point. Colin's article was interesting because it provided a great depth with the issues around what was wrong with Singapore. Despite being Americanized, he didn't offer any solutions. The article merely pointed out the differences between Singapore and America.

*cheh*. I also can.

Singapore Chicken Rice : Steamed or roasted with sometimes fatty skin, together with fragrant rice and MSG soup

Australian Chicken Rice : Stuffed and Roasted with chips showered in Salt.

There you go.

Seriously though, I've developed a new respect for the leaders of Singapore. Not neccesarily the leaders who are in place now, but at least the spirit of the ones who have taken up office with the intent of making the country better. LKY who started out at as whiner eventually formed a party and was later threatened with his life. Yet he held firm to the belief that Singaporeans could have a better life and that he knew how.

At least they have the courage to try and fix things. Whether they take responsibility for it if it breaks, is another matter.

As for myself, I've reduced my Singapore-whinging ever since coming to Australia. Yes, I know that it means I'm a 'quitter' (at least temporarily), but it also means I've done something about it. Maybe at some stage in my life I'll be better equipped to return home and make a difference. In the meantime, I'll leave that in the (hopefully) capable hands of the scholars and their Harvard Public Administration Degrees.

On a side note, while Chee Soon Juan may be a 'Martian', I don't see him as being a very good one. I feel that if he had his way, he'd want Singapore to be a clone of America. If this were truly the right way to go, all those Harvard trained civil servants would have already made it so by now. Revolutionary-style change is only neccessary if there is a critical underlying problem - in which case, the elections would prove there was.