Does being born in Singapore make us more Singaporean?

As of August 15 this year, the proud nation of Singapore that we live in officially ended its 48 years of Olympic nothingness. For so long, Singapore has never won an Olympic medal. After so long, we’ve finally won a medal, and it’s even a silver medal! It is definitely a reason for us to celebrate and cheer and be happy

So why the sad faces?

Is it because the table tennis athletes who have done this are from China? Of course, we all know that the nation has spent millions of dollars on the foreign-talent problem, finding players from other countries and bringing them back to Singapore to train, and play for Singapore. This applies to many sports, including table tennis, badminton and football. Besides, Singapore is not the only country in the world that does this. So what’s the problem?

Maybe it’s because these foreign players are better the Singaporean-born ones. We want to have the best athletes, but we don’t want to spend money to nurture kids to play sports, but take already-made talents from other countries. Soccer, for example, has a lot of foreign-players in the national team. These Europeans and Africans are better built then Singaporeans, which is probably why they get selected. For teenagers who dream of playing soccer for Singapore, it becomes very difficult, especially if they are competing against Africans who are very strong. For badminton, Singapore chose not to send Kendrick Lee (Singapore-born), but Ronald Susilo (Indonesian-born), and he crashed out in the first round of the Olympics. Then, it would be better to send Kendrick, and then he might get some experience playing at such a big stage.

Definitely, as Singaporeans, we fear that these foreign-born talents are taking over our places in society. As part of OUR COUNTRY, it is hard to think that in the future, we are the minority. In school, at work, on the MRT, whenever we turn around, wherever we look, we always see someone who is foreign-born. These people are at times, smarter, stronger and better looking than us. Their foreign genes give them an advantage here in Singapore, so what happens to Singaporeans now?

Many of these foreign born people are permanent residents or even citizens. They share the same benefits that we have, and are already one of us. Definitely, it is difficult for them to blend in, but they are already trying extremely hard to do so. They eat the same food as us, we go to the same schools, we learn the same things, we are part of the same Singapore.

However, it is hard to say what true Singaporeans are. Even for those people who are born in Singapore, they can hardly be counted as a true Singaporean. They just want to take the benefits that Singapore give and migrate overseas when the time comes.

Yes, we say that foreign-born Singaporeans might never be able to sing the National anthem, but then, for how many Singaporeans actually sing the National anthem?

Our special characteristics, our kiasu-ism and kiasi-ism, these make us special. So when foreign-born people come here and try their best to blend in, for those who love Singapore with all their hearts, we must accept them. No matter what, these people are here to stay, so why not let’s just accept it, and perhaps, enjoy it?

“Democracy creates stability”

Democracy means to have the society govern by the people. Democracy have it owns good and bad. Parties are formed to represent a group of people in which the way they want the government to rule. Each person has the right to support the party which they will benefit from. There are many parties in which they have different ways of governing the people so members of the public will give their vote to the party which they support. But there is a big problem in it. If a certain party did not get selected to become the roles of the governor, the people that support that party will be unhappy and might not want to follow the ways the new government set. Another matter was that there are people with no intention to vote for any party as they are already satisfied with what they now or both the party cannot benefit them, but they have to cast their votes as it is a law. So these people look at the situation. They will vote for this party just because they do not like the other party although no benefits can be gained from them and they do not really support them. Each votes for the party can be a deciding vote to see if they can be the new government. So each vote to a party is important. When they were not given the chance to decide, they complain or even do anything which lead to instability of the society. This creates instability in the society.
But there are some benefits from being democratic. Majority can influence the rest of the community. The rest of the community sees that a party was supported by so many people; they will think that the people can benefit from the party if they support it. Therefore more people will vote for that party. As majorities have a common supported party, there will be stability with the society. Democratic governing gives everyone an equal right to decide the way the government should govern the people. So many people will not be unhappy because the people were given chance to decide they way they want to live in. When the people have the rights to do something, they will not dare to do anything which will lead to instability of the society.
Democracy has it own good and bad point. Although there a worse points of being a democratic country, I think that democratic governing will create stability. As it is stated at the top, when everyone is given equal chance or rights, no one will complain. That is an important factor which leads to stability in the society.

Reflection on the current situation

Massive jams at Woodlands and, Tuas

Diana Othman

The Straight Times

Thursday, March 6 2008

A criminal that have escape from a detention centre is currently still at large and because the police wanted to have him arrested as soon as possible. So they have to check through every single car, lorries and other form of transportations to prevent him to slipping through to the nearby countries which result causing heavy jams at the checkpoints. The massive jam at woodlands causes many delivery men to be trapped within the jams. All these deliverymen are greatly affected because some of them earned the income by the number of times they send the goods to a certain destination. But the jams at the checkpoint cause them to reduce the amount of trips they could make a day. This traffic jams will also greatly affect the people in Singapore as the daily products which come straight from Malaysia such as vegetables, fruits and many more are delayed. But when the daily products reach the market, it will not be fresh anymore because it was on the truck for a period of time. The price for these products also will increase because many people do not want to deliver any goods to Singapore as they will have to join the long queue of trucks. This will affect us greatly as many people will want to have the daily product. As such many people are greatly affected by this massive jam especially the deliverymen. People that come from Johor are affected because they could not reach their working place on time and at night; they will have to join the long queues of cars that wanted to enter to Malaysia and returned home. A man said that he has been in the jam for nineteen hours and he did not bathe, sleep and eaten properly for two days. The coming Saturday is the beginning of the march holidays for students. Many people will want to bring their children to Malaysia for a short holiday but because of the massive jams at the checkpoints, many parents will reconsider whether they should join the queue and proceed with their holiday’s plans or to cancel the trip due to the jams. But the traffic that is coming into Singapore is expected to start on March fifteen and sixteen because the March holidays are coming to an end and the following week, schools will resume. These massive jams have brought inconvenience to many people in Singapore. I think that the police should set up more check point to reduce length of the traffic jams and allowing the people to return to work and to go home.

Test.