And so I heard,
"Perfection hurts. Living in a world where perfection is expected, but yet the world itself is largely imperfect. The heart has long been numbed by the flurry of propaganda, especially during this month of celebration of the nation's birthday. In fact, it hurts so much that I could never be proud to declare of my nationality, to declare that I am part of a country that cares more about building its relations with other countries rather than caring for its own people. Evident from scholarships without bonds for students from other countries and lack of unemployment benefits, enough said.
Others view us as a mixture breed nestled within Southeast Asia. We have no long history to be proud of. If probed further about our line of ancestry, we might even face difficulty in answering. Sometimes, I wish hard that I know my roots. Propaganda sure does a good job in trying to establish my roots through "this is home truly, where I know I must be". Seriously, hell no. Just like my ancestors who had floating roots and floated all the way to here, I believe that it is in my genes to have floating roots. As such, if the opportunities do arise elsewhere, I would certainly float there, just like what my ancestors have done. Home is only what you make out of it.
Admittedly, education here is considered to be one of the top. This is especially so since our education system is conducted mainly in English, with the topping of second language classes. Such an education system allows us to be able to study abroad without any language concerns, as compared to some other countries. Moreover, as much as we do actually have no language barrier, most of us have language capabilities that are "neither here nor there". A better phrase would be "jack of both languages, master of none". Of course, this may not be applicable to everyone here. But I am sure some people out there feel the same way as I do. When asked about what is our native language, I could sense both my Caucasian and Chinese classmates shooting their eyebrows up. I know, even I find it hard to believe it myself since I am sharing the same native languages but I could never speak as well as either of them. Perhaps the worst truth is that not many of us even know or use our own national language. Personally, I do not even have any idea what our national song means. It is very disheartening and to a certain extent, pathetic. What is the point of appointing a particular language to be our national language when it is not used daily by the majority in our nation?
It may be so that this country is safe internally and tries to build up its relationships with the rest of the nations to ensure its external security. But as gamers would know, it always sucks to be in a small alliance where you have to constantly defend yourself and your alliance members against the big bully. If given a choice, I would join a strong big alliance."
with love,
bear bear
