Quiet

It is a quiet Sunday evening.  Mum and the boys go out to do grocery shopping.  B3 who was supposed to stay at home change his mind at the last min leaving me all alone at home.  I am blogging with Teresa Teng for company.  I do enjoy the peace and quiet and writing all alone.  The weather today is quite cool.  Because it rained in the morning, most of the weekend joggers are out at 4pm in the cloudy but bright afternoon.  I had a leisurely ride to Punggol Point.  Punggol town will be huge.  So many flats and condos are being built at breakneck speed.  The PCN will suffer from overcrowding in future.

Music helps me relax and reflect.  Sunday Times is not good today.  Not much to read and the articles are not interesting.  I missed my favorite columnists like Janadas Devan, Sumiko Tan, Lee Wei Ling and Chua Mui Hoong.  TR Emeritus has taken over my interesting read diet.  Kinokuniya has 20% but the price is still high with the discount.  So I may have to wait till I go to India or Bangkok to buy my books.

I threw away my Canon Printer as I tried to save money by using cheaper Secom ink cartridge.  I should have print until the excess ink has been cleared.  I thought it will be okay once it dries up.  Instead the error B200 come up and I go to the internet to check and there is no way to fix it.  Canon make it such that once B200 shows up, you have to replace the printer.  Anyway, the ink for the printer is too expensive and it is already giving problems before.

The favorite question for National Day is "What is it to be a Singaporean?"  I am not so sure now.  Before the flood of foreigners, I have clear idea of my Singaporean identity - non-stop working ethics, Singlish, focus on or pursuit of material well being(5Cs), fear of getting fines for any minor misdemeanours, total and complete control by our ubiquitous government and its agencies, apolitical capitalist (okay to make money but no politics).  Today, Singapore Girls marry China men, Ang Moh men, even South African man and Singapore men marry overseas brides from Vietnam.  Our rojak culture is no longer rojak but more toward India Indian, China Chinese.  I wonder if the new immigrants will be able to absorb the Singaporean kiasu identity as they are newly arrived and they now represent 40% of the population.

I am beginning to identify more and more of the insecurity of my fellow citzens. This wet morning at the AMK Ave 10 and Ave 5 hawker center, I saw this old bent woman rolling a dirty trolley filled with empty carton boxes.  She is a scavenger trying to survive.  Singapore, a first world country with third world mentality.  The poor have to survive by collecting and recycling waste.  The picture is like Indonesia or Philippines or India.  So let's see what PM has in store for our underclass as we achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation.