fanboy

An exciting day for me as I just got my hands on this latest!!

And to top that off I shook hands with my idol Kathy Lien (currencies trading expert) at the Asia Investor and Trader Convention at Suntec City! Now my life’s a little more complete I just need a little more love.

Have a great weekend ahead

12 months later

I know my degree will not exactly be very useless but why am I feeling like this little character here.

Source: Facebook group “I Picked a Major I Like, and One Day I Will Probably Be Living In a Box“

The Visitor (Part 3/3)

Bing stared blankly into space. He seemed to be deep in thought, but his eyes gave him away.

“They say the eye’s the window to the soul,” the Thai tourist told Adam, who at once knew what he meant by that.

“One can look at the eye and the inner character of the person will transpire.”

The Thai tourist’s eyes panned across the MRT cabin, curiously observing people as the train cruised down the tunnel in high speed. The people dressed in office attire looked tired and listless. They all want to reach home as soon as they can.

In the tourist’s eyes, these people were not like what he has seen before. They were so different from his fellow countrymen, who were less educated, had much less privileges than them, and led simpler lives. But from their eyes, their soul could speak. In them there were life, unexplainable joy, inexplicable harmony, and impossible satisfaction.

The train door opened. Doses of people rushed in and out of the train. The Thai tourist had not seen people walking so fast like this before.

More people came into the train. They all looked the same – tired and dreary. With their stoic expressions, the train looked like a living graveyard. Their eyes were lifeless, and their minds were preoccupied with thoughts. For some, it was the lack of them. Those who were active were either worrying about how to food on the table, how to get promoted, how to get a pay raise, how to work harder to get their favourite bag, or how to get out of the rat race. The rest were just staring into space, engaging in an activity colloquially known as “stoning”. But there was little doubt that they were all unhappy, and nobody bothered to hide because everyone around them was just the same.

Adam read into the Thai tourist’s mind immediately, and explained, “Singapore is a small country without natural resources, and the people are its only resource. The government discourages welfare or minimum wage to ensure that they work hard to sustain the economy. Imagine if nobody works, the country will collapse.”

“But in Singapore, meritocracy rules. This means if one is willing to be educated and is capable, he can become successful. The infrastructure here is also very conducive for education and starting a business.”

The tourist nodded. Bing was shocked. He has not heard anyone speaking like this before, and he has never questioned the system nor attempted to analyse how things turned out this way. He was a blind follower of the system, and merely went the way everyone told him to. His friends around him were no different, complaining and whining, aspiring to be rich, but never took any opportunities to improve themselves. Some have gone to join MLM syndicates or become insurance salesmen, tempted by the lures of fast and easy money. Many of them do not realise that they have become slaves to the economy, because more often than not, they do not have the slightest passion in their work. They are merely pressing on to keep their ricebowls and pay off their debts and loans.

“Well, many Singaporeans focus on material wants in life, not realising that the intangibles matter more. Materially, they may be happy, but spiritually, they are empty. The arts is almost non-existent in their lives, and this is because they are overly pragmatic. They probably think that the arts is meaningless and they would rather invest their precious time making more money. Oh, talking about this, there’s a famous film director in the country too. His name is Jack Neo, and his works are highly regarded. Singaporeans really like him. You should take a look at his films.”

Bing interupted, with a beam across his face: “Jack Neo oh yes he’s my favourite director! I really like his films!”

Adam gave Bing a glare, and turned to the Thai tourist, “Oh yeah, and our aunties and uncles really love him to bits. He’s so good that he actually got the Cultural Medallion, the highest honour for any ‘artist’ here,” raising four of his fingers to the word he meant to encapsulate with quotation marks if he were to write it out to overtly show his displeasure towards the film director.

The Thai tourist was mildly intrigued by their little argument. “Even these two locals can’t agree among themselves,” he thought, unaware of the obvious social divide between the two of them, perhaps caused by either their demographic or educational differences. His was continually being amazed by everything he’s seeing in the country, including the multiracial and multicultural composition of the society, as well as the art of how the locals managed to maintain balance on a moving train without holding on to the hand grips.

–

The train screeched to a halt.

“My dear Singaporean friends, thanks so much for hosting me on this lovely island. Your country is really very nice and I hope you will love your country like how I love mine. I have learnt alot from this trip, and I realise that every country has its goods and bads. We try hard to be perfect but we know it’s not possible. Bearing this in mind, I think we should appreciate what we have because the grass will always be greener on the other side. Take care, my friends. May we meet again.”