Response to the video " why I am not proud to be an Singaporean"

  I had not actually took out my laptop for about a few weeks and now here I am here with an topic regarding the video " why am I not proud to be an Singaporean" video. Please watch the video if you have not do so and I will began this discussion. ( P.S: I am only saying how i felt towards this incident. it is all of my opinions alright.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydANJ5qLHG4

  So recently about a few days ago there was this drama kind of online going on lately here in Singapore. I only know about this incident just yesterday evening about 6pm when I began browsing through my twitter. I was in an eye-opener when I actually realised that there was so mentions about Steph Micayle's video stating that it was the truth when the title is so disturbing.

 And all the things I'm going to mention below later are all on my opinions that i truly felt about this video and all the discussion that had been going on.

  There are certain arguments brought up her which totally make sense to relate to the society in here. But of course there are some parts which I don't agree. As you know, there is two sides to everything.

       

   Firstly, I do really like Steph's way of expressing her arguments and her way of saying her points. I myself do posts YouTube videos and I do really use all this platforms to express my views too and I like people who does that too esp with regards to those topics. And I believe most or maybe all of the viewers will agree to this, which is reference to the tweets I found.

  I do agree with a point that Singapore only focuses on those careers like engineering, doctors, lawyers and etc whereby there is not much opportunity provided to those with artistic talents. If you actually look at the courses provided by the polytechnics, only less than 30% are courses that involve the media, design and etc. Because Singapore is very small with scare resources so we need to focus on academic based jobs to survive in this competitive society. Because to speak from my personal experience, I want to go to a media communication course here in Singapore but I was always kept constantly reminded the fact that it will never be easy and it is very difficult to enter university with the limited vacancies available. It is a border for me too. I am not those rich kids that can afford to go overseas studies and that is a very big disadvantage for me. And it is very difficult or almost impossible with a percentage of less than 10% of the fact that you can make it in the industry here in Singapore. I know with hard work everything is possible but we, the people with the dreams, were sometimes taught to be think realistically.

  Though there are critics about the fact that the education system here in Singapore is changing for the better, towards the non-academic side, it does really takes time, maybe years of decades or more.

   "Singaporeans are narrow-minded": I believe this was due to the way of how we behave and act because I sometimes really felt that they tend to complicate small little issues which I really don't get it. I mean take for instance, " Men caught drinking water in mrt" He could be thirsty so he drank the water. It is just small little matter and yet it was posted online. 60% of the articles were mainly one-sided and just small issues.

  I personally do also felt that some follow by the rules. Because sometimes when you do something differently, people just judge you. You can't always follow what others do simply because it is a rule. And also I meant by majority of the people.

   This also explains the next point of "freedom of speech". From Steph's video, you can see there is so many controversy going on, with so many people condemning her and more. Saying that her video might be an negative impact on the impressionable as many of the people, especially the teenagers are agreeing to her stance. However I believe that doesn't signify the point that everyone want's to migrate out of Singapore and etc. Like as I said, people are making a big fuss out of this. Of course, everyone has an opinion on they view certain issues but there is no need to complicate things up.

  Journalist in Singapore or those media related normally do not have freedom of speech simply because they are controlled by the government. And that kinda sucks too. It's like media censorship, I guess.

   Another thing mentioned that '' Singaporeans are not happy". The statistic by the HPI ( Happy Planet Index) has ranked Singapore in the 90th position of being happy in the world.

  So as above, you all could see was the top 10 countries HPI and other statistics. Singapore generally has great life expectancy, ecological footprint and average experienced well-being when compared to the top HPI countries. It's the " Happiness" that Singapore is loosing out.

  Another point mentioned was that "Singaporeans are not nice people." Okay, for this I will definitely disagree. Because I had an personal experience once in the MRT whereby I was almost crushed by the entrance doors, an lady beside me quickly dragged me in. I was quite sleepy at that point of time that I didn't notice the danger I was in and yet this lady had helped in.And there is also quite a number of kindness acts that i observed. Also I remembered that I had fell down when cycling at a park and there was a number of people who came to ask me, "hey are you alright?" And there were many more also. This small simple act could already show the kindness.

   I understand that she is saying based on her personal experience in Australia compared to here In Singapore. In Singapore, there is the difference of the culture. We are generally more conservative and are not too "open" and "over friendly" too. So most of the Singaporeans are generally shy too, with the part of Asian culture that we are not too direct with certain issues too when compared to western cultures.

  With all the agreements and disagreements that I came up with, I am generally proud to be an Singaporean, though there are points which I agree with Steph Micayle. ( Oh wait, I'm actually an PR but I been staying here since I was born. So let's just say I am a Singaporean)

Because every country has it's flaw, so Singapore is considered very good. It makes me feel safe with the low crime rate too. Besides, I can't imagine living in a country with high crime rates too. We just got to embrace it and accept it too. As much as I said, That's all for now. Bye.