Joecities

Happy Birthday Singapore. While my thoughts and actions are less Singaporeans these days, my heart still belongs with my family and friends who're celebrating the nation's 41st birthday.

Majulah Singapura.

In celebration of National Day, a link from Tomorrow.sg pointed me to an interview with former Chief Minister the late David Marshall. He apparently speaks quite frankly about Singapore from his viewpoint in 1994. It's an interesting read from someone who saw the early days of Singapore.

And on a related note, an article in the Herald Sun was talking about how "a survey has found people in Greater London are the unhappiest of all people in Britain, despite being by far the richest" with an estimated 250,000 Britons having left the country permanently last year.

The survey found just 28 per cent of people ... in southeast England described themselves as very happy -- the lowest in the entire country.

Sky-high property prices mean any family other than the ultra-rich must live in the distant commuter belt, which means a choice between an hour or more behind the wheel, or being wedged into a train.

Add that to ever increasing working hours, the ghastly cost of living and the notoriously poor weather, and you have a recipe for the blues.

Hmmm.. Sounds vaguely familiar ? Yet, in a poll conducted by Today Newspaper which rated "the developments coming to our shores and about the depths of their roots in Singapore."

(It might be cynical of me to assume this but aren't the topics fairly non-related ? It makes me question the motivation behind this poll to begin with. Anyway...)

"On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most appealing, the average Singaporean gives emigration a 4.0 score. It was the lowest score of 14 items on the survey in total using the scale."

"Respondents gave the highest score — a 7.26 — to the possibility of keeping their roots here while having more opportunities to live and work abroad.

They gave a 6.53 score to the option of living in a Singapore that promises to strive to become vibrant and global."

Here's where I get more confused.

"The appeal of that promise seems to be very much linked to the confidence we have in our city-state's chances of succeeding in its Global City goal. Here, the survey pointed to a confidence factor of 6.52 on the scale of 10.

From what I can tell, the only link between the success of the Global City goal and the keeness of people to stay in Singapore is actually this poll itself.

Which leads me to my birthday wish for Singapore.

I wish that as a people, Singaporeans would pay more attention to individuals, and not as a concerted whole. That way, we'd treat each other with more empathy, respect and dignity. Fancy new structures and achievements might build a nice house to live in, but it's the people who make it home.