What does it mean to a singaporean? Why am i proud to be singaporean?

We believe these are some pertinent questions that we, being Singaporeans, should ponder about. NDP is an opportunity for us to slow down, put aside our work and reflect on these issues.

'not just a spectator, but also a participant' - Chairman Exco

A Singapore event for Singaporeans. ndp is not just about ndp. It's not just a one-day parade and show for the sake of entertaining. It is not a discrete event. It is about involving all Singaporeans from the start throughout the entire journey before culminating in a nation-wide celebration.

Anchoring on the meanings of our pledge, this year's parade promises to gather all Singaporeans regardless of race, language or religion, despite their social and economic status.

Schools are invited to get their students to discuss ndp. Community centres are prompted to hold screenings of the parade to get family and friends to join in the fun. Every Singaporeans matter, including the less privileged. Netizens and overseas Singaporeans can join in the celebrations virtually, be it through facebook, youtube, twitter, blog or flickr.

Our chairman exco expressing his hopes that everyone
will come together to celebrate National Day

Welcome to Nee Soon Camp, this year's training ground for our nation's birthday parade!



Thump! thum-thum! thump! (sound of drumroll) Presenting to you the various uniform groups and our civilian volunteers. Here comes our marching contingents!

Ahh.. a much deserved break after so many hours in the sun:)

Their rehearsal don't just end here, after this break, their practice continues... Many more days will be spent for run-throughs to perfect their performations solely to bring to us a flawless display on National Day. I do urge the remaining singaporeans out there to take an active role too wherever they can in contribute to our nation's B'day!

I went for the debate finals between vjc and acjc at vjc itself. Well kudos to vj for winning =). It was a rather close fight though. Here's what the debate was all about..Topic was on whether censorship is irrelevant in this age of new media, with acjc on the proposing side and vjc opposing.

Hello.

Its another weekend of freedom. Doesn't the weather just make u feel like sitting at home with the aircon blasting 16deg high mode? Not the most eco friendly, but its rather hot. 2weeks ago, someone told me, we hit a record high of 40deg in the afternoon. Insane weather. Strangely enough, the foreigners love it. How they enjoy sweating buckets, i'l never comprehend.

I know u'v been reading the Newpaper. Headlines: Aware saga. I'm honestly appalled at the lack of professionalism in this organisation. Really rather petty.

Another tabloid story caught my attention this week: We HATE S'pore(http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,199816-1240610340,00.html). The gist of the story is that there's a facebook group(Singapore sucks!) with over 400 members simply committed to criticising Singapore and Singaporeans. I visited the group and read a forum dedicated to complaining about Singapore and Singaporeans(vent ur frustrations on Singapore and Singaporeans here!!!). The members just complain complain complain. Slightly insulting. Water on a ducks back really. But the question i asked myself was "why would someone set up a group to complain and insult our country and us?"

The main irks, i find, are over courtesy, service and restrictions. And i actually agree(although not as immaturely) that we can improve. Hence the long lived courtesy lion campaign and the cheesy "Singapore service star award" advertisement.

In fact, we are improving. Service in some restaurants and shopping centres is impeccable. I recently had dinner with my family and our friends, visiting from Switzerland, at the Palm Beach restaurant on One Fullerton. Great time, great seafood, amazing service(yes, with "Singapore service star award" all).

But every country has its plus and minuses. Why do we get the honour of having our own insulting facebook group? Please please please educate me if u understand.

Happy reading!

Hello.
Since this is my 1st post on this blog, i think its only proper for me to introduce myself. Call me Garangutan. I'm a 20yr old male man living in Singapore.

Like all of u, i hav a love-hate relationship with this garden city. There's always something to complain about. The humid/hot/still/sticky/wet/tropical/snow-free weather, kanchiong taxi drivers, expensive bus fares, excessive erp, crazy drivers, outrageously overpriced alcohol and cigarettes, overzealous traffic police, paperwork paperwork paperwork...

But, there's always something to be thankful for. Safety, political stability (i know some will have their "gahmen" qualms), racial harmony (starting to sound strangely like total defense?), freedom (yes, we are), familiarity, family, friends, zouk, the courtesy lion, cheesy mediacorp shows, gurmit singh, paul twohill, singapore idol (how did we get to the 3rd season?), 4th generation chinese who only speak English....

And like all of us Singaporeans (although some of u won't admit it), i love my country. Our families are here, our friends are here,our lives are here.

When a friend asked me to blog about Singapore and my experiences, i couldn't say no. I'm glad to do it. There'll be 2 entries a week about life as a Singaporean and my views on current affairs within the context of Singapore.

Happy reading!

just read this thread on NDPeeps,facebook about the giving of nicknames to our iconic merlion.

the suggestions ranged from the insipidly lame to outrageous.

winky, merleo, merly, 大头狮鱼 (in hokkien), singa, leo the lion... pussy...

haha, yes, someone actually suggested 'pussy'. i have nothing against this name but don't you all think that 'pussy' only covers the head part of the merlion. what about the fishy body?!

fishy-pussy? pussy-fishy? kind of ironic to link the name of the prey-and-predator into a name though.

humour aside, i do think that it is time for singaporeans to have a more affectionate name for our icon. calling it merlion all the time causes the statue to seem so distant. in fact, come to think of it, we ought to have nicknames for all our icons ;)

How bad/extreme can the weather in Singapore get besides the usual sweltering heat or torrential downpours? Afterall, we don't see typhoons or snow in our land. Well, we had a little offhand taste of what extreme weather conditions are like on a night this week. Although it's nevertheless nothing compared to what many other countries may have experienced.

Well, i'm sure anyone lucky enough to be caught outdoors late at night on wednesday would have noticed something amiss with the weather, while those under shelter and in bed were possibly oblivious to the upheaval going on outside. haha. At the time, I happened to be having some outfield activity as part of my vocation in NS.

As I was resting on the ground, an arsenal of leaves got blown down onto my face and i awoke, startled. The powerful winds had caused the structure we were looking after to go astray. Me and 2 of my army mates rushed to pull down the ropes securing the structure to prevent it from falling or breaking apart. Never before have i felt such strong winds lol. The winds partially lifted 2 of us off our feet such that we were pressed against our vehicle while holding onto the ropes with every ounce of strength we had. We braced ourselves as the wind subsided slightly only to return in full force. Haha, it was like some tv drama scene. Anyway, we survived the 'crisis' and ran to a nearby shelter to seek refuge. And to think that we were complaining earlier on in the afternoon that our location wasn't windy enough. Driving back to camp the next day, we noticed that the gantry barricade lever had been broken off and blown away to the side. Wow, haha.

Hmm, i'd suppose we should come to appreciate the weather we have here. It's actually pretty alright as we need not worry about getting winter apparel (we just wear what we like and what's comfortable) or impending hurricanes. I had pen-pals from Finland and Australia and they always told me that it'll be really nice to have summer all year round like Singapore as summer is their favourite season. They get to go to the beach, wear lighter clothes and feel free to sweat it out as they have all kinds of outdoor activities. Some even have summer houses to spend the summer vacation. I found it quite amusing to hear that, haha. I guess we're too acclimatised to the weather conditions here. Of course, it'll be good to have some snow during the Christmas season at the end of the year or when we just get sick and tired of the heat. But that's not scientifically possible so we're sticking with the all-year-round summer regime.

I have been following the news on tertiary education for a while now as it is currently peak-period for application to universities in Singapore. What caught my attention though was the media coverage on scholarship bond-breaking issues, which discuss the moral implications on the individuals and impact to the sponsors and society. Most scholarships today are offered by organisations to finance applicants' studies and in return, expect a service bond of up to 6 years. Many are taking up the scholarships available but others are exiting their scholarship schemes prematurely, paying the liquidated damage and calling it a day… Some felt that these scholars have a moral obligation to serve out the full period of their bonds, which goes way beyond the legal obligation of paying up. Others that are sympathetic, believing that bond-breakage can be regarded as an option when job satisfaction is just not there.

My take: Singaporeans are becoming increasingly calculative in terms of benefits received. Some choose to take up scholarships despite being able to pay for their university education (and of course they must meet the required grades first) just for the prestige and recognition. This, I despise. We must learn to give and gain mutually such that both the sponsor and scholar benefit.

However, we cannot exclude possibility of employers exploiting the service bond period of scholars, laying down unreasonable demands and restrictions, resulting in job dissatisfaction and eventually bond breakage. Singapore is already facing a shortage of resources and human resource is the main driving force of our economy, it is a major responsibility for Singapore to retain its talents through provision of scholarships and a follow-up of a conducive working environment.

An article on why a PSC scholar break his bond
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,86038,00.html

Straits Times Discussion page [search: scholarship bonds]
http://www.straitstimes.com/vgn-ext-templating/sti/SearchPage.jsp?fromBN=true

Serangoon gardens is the nice little estate i've grown up in.haha. well, it's changed here and there over the years, but it's fundamentally the same to me. There're many nice places to feast your taste buds on. The famous Chomp Chomp is one of them.




I had dinner with my friends the other day at gardens and decided to visit chomps before dinner.It's a nice place to go for dinner or supper once in a while. Recommendations! : The stingray, hokkien mee, carrot cake, the thirst-quenching sugar cane juice, satay, the wide array of beancurd desserts.



Haha, the uncle posing with his beancurd. He was happy to pose to be part of this blog, lol. Anyway, my favourite's the chocolate beancurd.



Anyway, we settled for some indonesian-stlye food at the "village fare". The food was not bad and i found the condiments provided rather unique, haha. The price was reasonable too, below 10 bucks since service charge isn't included.

Well, back to serangoon gardens. Looks like they're gonna build a multi-storey mall where the NTUC block once used to be. (now i've got to get my ntuc stuff from amk hub, hougang mall or jurong point) I guess in such times, new malls are springing up all across Singapore-Tampiness One, the Iluma mall with the giraffe-like escalator, etc. It's all part of development and i suppose it's a good sign as we're still able to execute such progress in spite of the current economic recession we're facing.



Hmm but such change is gonna change the "look and feel" of the estate to some tangible extent. Some traditional stalls might have to leave the area in order to survive. I also heard that they're gonna build a shopping mall larger than the size of Plaza Singapura next to the serangoon mrt..heh, a few of my friends who stay in the area quipped that they needn't go to dhoby ghaut anymore as a new PS is at their doorstep. Singapore's really becoming "smaller" than it already is as the time we're gonna spend travelling will only lessen in the future, especially with the opening of the circle line.

Well, but some shops in Seragoon Gardens are here to stay for a long long time. haha. That includes the good ole' MacDonalds which has been here since i was born? Others include the sweet secrets pastry shop, Pao Seng Restaurant (with scrumptious chicken rice),the Chong Hoe chinese medicine shop, R.K. Eating House and Chomp Chomp of course. I was making an observation of how the chain resaurants like Thai Express, Macs, Sushi Tei are competing against the specialty outlets like Borsche Restaurant (a russian restaurant run by a family), Ice Cube and Pao Seng. Chain restaurants have an edge and tend to survive more easily while speciality food outlets might have some difficulty unless they manage to secure a strong customer base over time which the 3 outlets mentioned above have done so(those that have not have come and gone).






Above are the tantalizing desserts from Ice Cube Cafe! It's desserts are really good, i must say, haha, especially the mud pies. The one above's called "Eyes Wide Open" comprising chocolate chips and syrup and mocha flakes. The mudpie claimed to be the best in town is the "Alcoholic Anonymous", a must-have for rum and raisin fanatics.

Well, that's some publicity for this estate.haha.i guess that's all folks for now! =)

Singapore's reputed to be that clean city as well as a food paradise. have the two characteristics gone hand in hand? well, i guess we are a relatively clean city which is something to be proud of, but areas such as public toilets and certain hawker centres offer room for improvement.

Some news updates..2 victims have passed away after suffering from severe food poisoning.apparently they both had patronised the Indian rojak food stall at geylang serai. over a hundred people have fallen ill after consuming from the stall and some have been hospitalised. Investigations have shown that it's likely due to the consumption of raw or partially cooked seafood.



It's disturbing news..but it does reflect certain issues worth noting, in particular, our responsibilities as singaporeans and our roles played in society. if we're accountants, we work with integrity and strive to prevent fraud. if we're teachers, we do our best to impart our knowledge to our students while caring for their well-being. Similarly, if we're running a food stall in a hawker centre, we take pride in our work to serve our customers well. all form part of the society jigsaw.

It's also about caring for one another. We wouldn't want another fellow Singaporean to suffer would we? I once had this awful food poisoning experience back in JC. i was eating escargot(a snail dish, haha.)in lemon garlic butter and a beef dish where the beef was cooked with alcohol in some interesting manner. the escargot was alright and the beef was not bad. haha it was my first time eating snails though.yea anyway, i had some really bad food poisoning after the meal, not sure was it the beef or the snails or that beef and snails don't go together. but i ended up ill for the whole week of the march holidays. i still went to school for my cca's camp as i was one of the main organisers but didn't stay overnight as i needed rest at home.

Well i guess everyone makes mistakes, but lets learn from them. Such unfortunate incidents can sometimes be avoided if we play our part, which can actually mean a lot for someone else-enjoying a good meal and week ahead vs. the agony of food poisoning.

kind of nostalgic to listen to this song...



in this current economic climate, it helps to remember that we'll get there...

ssg to cpl: i've been in this camp for three months so far, how do you find me?
cpl to ssg: (awkward silence)... go to the office to find?

kind of nostalgic to listen to this song...



in this current economic climate, it helps to remember that we'll get there...

things tend to get busier as ndp comes along...here's a little tribute to the people behind the scenes

desperate housewives not so desperate anymore! join in the dances at soka for some fun and exercise...

people from all walks of life gathering to celebrate the nation's birthday at people's association

students from bedok north sec taking a break after a long rehearsal. spirits unfettered by the rigourous training they have to partake in

Having witnessed the many years of National Day Parade, the theme song is of course sung by local singers. Many singers have had the honour to be chosen to sing the theme song for the year. In fact, there are several songs which stood out more than the singers themselves. For example, most people would have a deep impression of songs like Stand Up For Singapore, Count On Me Singapore and One People, One Nation, One Singapore. How many of us actually know who sung these songs? However, the songs themselves resonate in our minds, being exposed to such songs since young. Such songs have become classics for National Day songs and are epitomes of National Day songs.

The gradual transition over the years have seen the difference in people's impressions of the National Day songs. The song "Home" by Kit Chan appears to be the first song 0f many to come that gave people a deep impression of both the songs and the perfoming artistes. Thereafter, many singers were handpicked to perform the theme song for the year. To them, it is an honour to be able to perform for the whole nation on the nation's birthday. In the past few years, the artistes chosen, like Stefanie Sun, Tanya Chua and JJ Lin, are those who made it big overseas in the Taiwanese and Chinese Mandopop markets. Nowadays, many Singaporean singers choose to venture into overseas markets before returning back to their homeland. We have seen many artistes making it big in the Mandopop markets and their return to homeland being a glorious one.

Moving on, there are several theme songs that involved people from different parts of the society. In 2004, choirs from Tanjong Katong Girls' School and Tampines Primary School contributed to the performance of the theme song, alongside Kit Chan and JJ Lin. In 2007, one of the songs, "Will You", was performed by 8 Singaporean singers from different music genres.

Personally, I enjoy listening to music from Stefanie Sun and singers like her and Tanya have enjoyed success in the Mandopop market. However, it appears that local singers are having a hard time entering the English music scene. For example, the acapella band Budak Pantai has been established for about 15 years already. However, they do not achieve tremendous amount of fame. Some attribute it to the music genre, after drawing parallels between them and another local band, Electrico. Electrico, established as a indie band, have had more success.

The lastest success story of a local singer is finally not one from the Mandopop market. In fact, as a surprise to many, it came from the Japanese market. Most Singaporeans are more familiar with the JPop scene in Japan. Many did not know about the immense success of this Bossa Nova singer, Olivia Ong, until she performed the opening song for the big television hit last year, The Little Nyonya. Being signed to a Japanese recording company at the young age of 15, she achieved success there with her covers of classic jazz songs. Singaporeans tend to take pride in singers who have made it big abroad and come back to their homeland, holding their heads up high. However, I feel it is also time to appreciate the efforts of those working hard at home, sharing their creations with us. I am not saying that those artistes striving overseas are not trying their best. However, it is only fair that we give credit for all local artistes who are contributing to the development of local music, regardless of the genre.

In a multi-cultural society, we are able to appreciate music from many genres and in many languages. We can see that with the government's relaxation on rules with regards to dialects, many are enjoying the Hokkien songs from Taiwanese dramas. As for the younger generation, a myriad of genres and languages satisfy their palate. There are many who indulge in music from other Asian cultures, with examples including Kpop and Jpop. Of course, the American market is very huge and has its influences on us too. Pop, rock, indie and many genres included. Amongst all these, it becomes pivotal that we appreciate local talent and understand their arduous efforts to make our nation proud.

The opening of TAMPINES 1 yesterday, coinciding with public holi Good Friday, an ingenious way to draw in the crowd! Alighting from tampines mrt, I’m greeted by a performance by ladies in green at the entrance… What an atmosphere!?



Noticed something? The sheltered area from the MRT isn’t extended all the way to the mall, if it rains – ahem ahem… (first pic - T1 mall's on the left, mrt station on the right). Also, the design of the mall entrance is such that its’ below ground level, I wonder if flooding may occur under heavy downpour.

Worries apart - Yes, the place is super crowded though not all shops in the mall started biz yet. Despite the financial turndown rippling through singapore, it is assuring that there are still people willing to visit shopping malls and spend. Or are they just window shopping, who knows? Nonetheless, it's typical of singaporeans to join the crowd on anything new.







The food court ‘Kapitans’ on the 5th floor has a spectacular view. Can see the entire landscape with the other two malls! I’m surprise that the mall management didn’t exploit the view and rent it out to restaurants or those-who-r-willing-to-pay-more…