Demanding Singaporeans

I happened to caught a preview of the upcoming local movie "Singapore Dreaming" while catching a show yesterday. The preview itself moved me, and a particular line caught my eye: "You singaporean are always complaining about how tough your life is...". Ironically it happened to be national day as well.

It makes so much sense to say we are always unsatisfied with what we have, always demanding something more. You strike a 3rd prize in 4D and then as soon as the delirium sinks in you start to dream of striking the top prize, toto or other jackpot. You get a simple car like a Corolla and then soon you get unsatisfied and want a Rx-8. You live in a 5 room HDB flat with accessibe transports but soon you want more, in the shape of a condo or private housing.

Its fair to say no amount of riches can satisfy most people, Singaporeans especially. We often make so much noises about how stressful the exams are, how tiring working is, how pathetic the salary is. But in truth its really quite a bed of roses. Just think, most of us are well fed and provided with education and basically everything basic until we're done with education. We don't have to work and feed ourselves while trying to juggle with our studies or work unlike more unfortunate ones. So whats with the complaining? Its just that we're sinful and greedy enough that we don't appreciate the spoon that is feeding us.

Typical Singaporeans are often obsessed with the 5 Cs - car, cash, credit, condo, country club. This is understandable because while one should have ambitions and goals to aim for in life, one shouldnt be blindly focused on one direction in life. I'm no better, personally I want at least 3 of the 5 Cs. But to make me choose between these Cs and happiness I'd go for the latter.

Different mindsets would make different chooices and for some, glory and power is tops on their life priority list. But to be overly greedy, obsessed, neglecting integrity doesn't sounds right.