All of a sudden, I feel so fucking spoilt while our civil
But unfortunately for me, I really can't relate to what that Singaporean PSC scholarship reject who's now studying at Georgetown University on another scholarship or that president's scholar who feels that he is not as good as his peers went through. For the simple fact that I was never a part of that "system".
It was not so much I hated and thus rejected the "system", but rather I was just not good enough for it. And I think my lack of discipline, not knowing what I want then and a general lack of guidance at a young age kind of screwed me for life in that sense. And for that, I hurl no responsibility nor blame at anyone. The fault is mine alone to bear.
For most ordinary Singaporeans like me who belong to the lower rungs of this country's "pecking order", the post on "Commentary Singapore" is an eye-opener. A lot of us assume that once the candidate secures the PSC/A*STAR/whatever scholarship and graduates, he becomes a part of the "elite" civil service/stat board crème de la crème. His career path is more or less laid out with handsome remuneration should they stick with it. While the rest of us worry about job security, bills and debts, we believe that these "elites" have absolutely nothing to worry about at all.
But Maslow's hierarchy of needs puts a different spin on things. Regardless of how secure one seems to be in his career or life, unfulfilled needs will always exist. And needs will always be accompanied by a conscious or unconscious fear of not being able to meet them. But as we all know, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. But I digress. :-)
Anyway, do check out the post linked above (with the letter in question) and the comments it generated. It's interesting to see how present and aspiring members of the "elite" think about "us" and "them" regardless of whether we agree with their perspective of life in Singapore or not.
And here's more:
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