The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]

Brainwashing Peace.

Singapore is gearing up for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, has led a ‘Four Million Smiles‘ advertising campaign – advising the poor locals to grin at those arriving for the event.  Yes, I’m being serious, you have to be happy – by law!

Then there’s the cabbies …

As the entry below shows, they are a special breed altogether sooooooo, to keep up the ‘illusion’ of Singapore being a peaceful, polite, morally clean city/country … they have been given special training to improve their manners. Wonder how long that lasts eh!?

Then, in an act of absolute naivety, the head of the local police has reminded people that Singapore laws state any outdoor demonstration by more than four people requires a police permit – so he is not expecting any trouble over the event.

Sure mate … you have nothing to worry about, the people against the IMF are known for being law-abiding citizens aren’t they. 

The only reason they’ll be no trouble at the IMF event is because even if thousands of protestors do make it all the way over here – they’ll probably have a brain aneurism within the first 2 days because they won’t be able to comprehend how a whole nation can be obsessed with one goal … shopping … and how they’ve got more shopping centres per capita than anywhere on Earth, to do it!

It’ll probably throw their body into wild convulsions … get them frothing at the mouth … and even if by some miracle that doesn’t get ’em, one look at the standard of ads around the place, will.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Singapore … but I just wish they’d be honest and admit it is not a ‘free’ society, but a dictatorship. 

Look, I actually don’t have a problem with that because …

[1] I am a guest in this country, not a citizen.

[2] With what they’ve achieved in such a short time, it’s a great ad for that sort of ‘governance’

… but my concern is this patriarchal control is setting up Singapore [especially the youth] for a major fall sometime in the future – because too many people don’t believe they have to ‘think’, they simply have to ‘do’. 

And if the country really wants to achieve even greater heights, then it needs to ‘let go’ a little bit and encourage the talent that lives within the country to explore, learn and develop on their own terms – because if they don’t, they could get left further and further behind because they won’t know how to cope with the World’s constantly changing dynamics.

Guess it goes back to my earlier entry about Singapore’s value of art versus business eh?  Also guess this will get me kicked out the place, ha!

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