I open my entry today with this link:

Olympics Immigrants

Why so? Well, I was brainstorming for issues that I would be interested enough to blog about, and Singapore's silver medal in table tennis stood out as the first.

As per the above link, it is obvious that Singapore is far from the first country to import foreign talent to play for her flag in the Olympics. The powerhouses like the United States do so, and often at the expense of their local talent.

So I see negative comments around about how we 'bought' the medal, and it was nothing much to be happy about. Funny how most of us were watching the finals, despite publicly announcing that it was a pure Chinese affair and Singapore will lose. I find it pretty peculiar.

We did capture our second medal in the Olympics ever. I guess many people aren't happy about the 750k that went out just for this. But hey, did you rather this money be invested in the Sports School or something? More than twice that amount has gone into the sports programme, and did anyone really, really think that it was gonna yield us an Olympic medal or the World Cup? Come on, be realistic. Would you rather toss the 750k into investing in our athletes, and twiddle our thumbs at London 4 years later hoping that someone would do something? Or just toss the 750k into a direct silver medal right away? The answer's clear enough.

The fact is, Man United fans don't care that Cristiano Ronaldo is Portugese. True, they jeered him for his altercation with Rooney back then, but that's it. Soccer players change allegiance all the time, even across nations wherever possible. So what is a true Singaporean? Is it someone whose parents migrated here, or someone whose family has been living here for many generations?

The simple fact is that it is getting increasingly difficult to draw borders in today's world. China has enough table tennis players to sweep the gold and silver medals in the table tennis team event (and they even had a chance for bronze in Hong Kong). What PM said is true: going by population ratios they would need 200 medals before we could get one. So instead of calling foul over nationality or anything like that (quite a case of damned if you do; damned if you don't if you think about it: if they won a medal they aren't Singaporeans, if they didn't win they'll be criticized all the same. Why not just admit that you expected them to win just because they were bearing the Singapore flag), I guess we should all accept that these players would be playing elsewhere if not for Singapore, so if that's the case, why not let them play for us?

This makes me think about locavores. Locavores are a group of weirdos who believe that they should only eat food that are grown locally (within a certain mile radius) in order to reduce the impact of commercial farming on the environment. Not sure if I can understand that logic, since growing anything in Singapore is such a foreign concept. But they did find out that it actually costs more, both environmentally and economically, to do so. I guess it is the same old case of people having such a good life that they start to do crazy things in the hopes of 'contributing'.

Ok, the other thing is ERPs and cars in Singapore, as always a thorny issue. I know everyone is railing against the increase in ERPs, and as explained they are clamping down on car usage, not car ownership. Basically, from a macro point of view, this is very true. You know how congested our roads are, and if nothing is done about it, we are gonna get another Bangkok.

The thing is, making cars more expensive does not deter people from wanting one. In fact, in Singapore, a car has become a status symbol because it is so expensive. I know the government realizes this, so instead of attempting to reduce ownership, they will now reduce usage. You can buy cars as per normal, but pay if you want to use it.

More effective, don't you think? I mean, you can buy a car, just make sure you don't use it unless you have to. It's more difficult to attach some kind of utility to car usage beyond the basic transportation needs. You don't have an increase in your social status if you use your car more often than others.

Blame it on Singapore being small, which is why people are leaving the country. A small land mass like this can't possibly support more than a certain population. Hence people will leave when it's getting overcroweded. Being small also means that you don't have much say in alot of things. Oil or rice prices going up? Can't do much, unless you produce your own oil or rice, else you just have to be a price taker and pay whatever other countries are asking for.

So Singapore has developed a self-reliance mentality on our people. Those who prefer a government who will take care of them more choose to leave. Those who don't cast longing glances elsewhere and ask why can't we do the same. Somehow, everyone just sees the green grass, but not the underlying soil. Welfare comes at a cost to everyone. Free healthcare, education, transport, utilities, all come at a cost to someone. Nothing is truly for free; what governments do are just to collect resources from the people and redistribute them in a way that benefits the country as a whole.

If we wanna have free education and healthcare, sure. We'll have 15% GST, or maybe even 20%. Nothing just comes for free.

That's a long rant, and from the looks of it I may seem like I'm pro-PAP. I'm not. I'm just trying to understand why certain decisions are being made. There are things that I still can't justify (skyhigh salaries for politicians), but for those that I can, I try to. Sure, I'm affected too. But instead of just being unhappy and blaming the government for everything that we don't like, why not at least try to understand why things have to be done this way?

The government doesn't really want our money for selfish reasons (well, not all the time). They do so in order to find other ways to use that money in a better way. But that's a whole new debate altogether.

Anyhow, things were looking slightly glum at the beginning of this month. Started RT, had the second eBay crisis and tendered my resignation. However, things are looking up as RT is not that bad, the eBay crisis is over and I found a not-too-bad job just in time. So I guess I should be happy and count my blessings. Next week is Cameron Highlands; can't wait for a short break and fresh air!