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08/20/2007: "Home"

music: National Day Parade 2007 Soundtrack. XD

Watched the National Day Rally speech yesterday, though I must admit I didn't see the whole of it (overall, including the Malay and Chinese bits, I think it took about 3 hours or maybe more?) since I only watched the English bit (of course. :p) and the TV room sofa was so comfortable that I ended up snoozing a bit during the middle. XD In my defense, so did my dad. Though I don't have the quite same defense that he does since I'm in no way overworked like he is. *sheepish*

I realise that sometimes my friends may think I don't think much of the PAP since I sometimes complain about some of the stuff the PAP does. And I also don't tend to talk about my views on Singapore much since I'm usually afraid that I'll start saying stupid or uninformed stuff. :p But in reality, I think I'm actually a pretty staunch PAP supporter. I suppose it's because I'm ultimately a fiercely relatively nationalistic Singaporean and as much as some people would like it otherwise, you have to admit that there would be no modern Singapore today without the PAP. It really is amazing how far we've advanced in just these 42 years, and I'm quite sure I'll never be ashamed to declare myself a Singaporean.

/ end nationalistic rant

Anyway, the two bits that stuck out most in the speech that I can remember is there are government plans to set up a fourth University, and that they're going to develop the Punggol area. Tiff's reminded me that they've already started to develop it, but seriously, for those who saw the plans that Lee Hsien Loong outlined in his speech, you'd know what an incredible transformation it's going to go under. They're actually going to DAM UP two rivers and CREATE a freaking waterfront so that the houses they build alongside it can have gorgeous views and so that the nearby upcoming Community Centre can let people do WATERSPORTS on it. How "atas". (As Lee Hsien Loong says, it'll be not so much "Punggol Community Centre" as "Punggol Country Club") I suppose we should be glad that the Singapore government has such creative people who can think up of such fantastic plans to keep us going for the next few decades.

Actually, I can't believe how much Singapore is changing and is going to change - I come back after 9 months and I already feel like an alien since so many things have changed, and now the Singapore 20 years in the future is going to be so much MORE different. It may even be a Singapore that I'm completely unfamiliar with. It's both thrilling and scary at the same time. Though with us slated to be an "entertainment hub" (take it with a pinch of salt since Singapore strives to be all sorts of hubs - IT hub, science hub, education hub, etc. etc. :p), I'm hoping this will lead the the eventual loosening up of censorship laws and the like (especially homosexuality laws - I think it really sucks if you happen to be a homosexual who lives in Singapore), though I have a feeling it's going to take quite a lot more years before that happens. I'm hoping that may happen when my generation becomes the working class though, since I think we tend to be more open-minded than a lot of the older conservative Singaporeans out there. Just READ some of the letters to the forum in the local newspaper. It'll make you snort at how some of these people don't seem to be able to do anything on their own and expect the government to take care of everything for us. We're called a nanny state precisely because the government delivers what the people want.

But I digress. Another thing my dad and I noticed and which amused us immensely was that there were several points during Lee Hsien Loong's speech where he actually choked and teared up. XD I still remember his very first prime minister's speech where my sister and I both agreed that he had a very cute little boy's smile that pretty much said, "Hi, I'm new at this so please be kind to me as I use this moment to give a wide grin because this is my cue to smile, only I'm not used to it so it looks a bit happier than it's meant to be". It was adorable. (And yes, I know my friends I am going to think I'm crazy for thinking of the Prime Minister as "adorable. XD) As my dad said, he's more emotional and not a iron-faced speaker like Lee Kuan Yew who likes to scare his audience rather than coax. XD

And to end off this very long jumbled ramble in an even more suitably incoherent way, just a cute little observation a friend of mine made in our beloved Singlish accent: "Wah, you look at Lee Hsien Loong, after he became Prime Minister his hair all turn white." XD