HOPE, for A LIFE LESS ORDINARY

Posted: September 25, 2009 by fievel in Labels: ,
8


Recently I have stopped posting as frequently as I used to, partially because I got tired of my own rantings, and partially because I felt it wasn't doing much good going by the response I read on Straits Times.

I realized that bad social circumstances can never be truly or genuinely empathized with by people outside of a situation, and so I decided it was useless going on and on about issues as our Ministers will probably be unable to even begin to apprehend, even if they tried.

In any case, I've decided to shift my blog more towards the theme of HOPE. I have had the good fortune of seeing what life can be like outside of Singapore first hand. Although the world is smaller now and many of us have been around the globe on holidays and stuff, I believe that it takes a person to actually experience working and living abroad to know the good and bad and decide for themselves if this Singapore lifestyle of slogging your whole life away for a bare-minimum set of house, car and retirement savings is truly all the potential life has in store for him or herself.

As cliched as it may sound, I find many Singaporeans' stories to truly be the case of a frog dying, slowly but surely and unknowingly, in a pot of water slowly brought to boil.

I do not know if my intention will be achievable, or whether the stories will be inspiring or if it will be to the opposite, but I intend to document the stories of some ordinary Singaporeans who have managed to, as Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong once said, "quit" Singapore.

This series of interviews and stories will be under the label, "A Life Less Ordinary". So look out for it!

8 comments:

  1. Chee Wai Lee says:
    September 27, 2009 at 5:23 AM

    Heh, interview Skeptic first ... I've yet to manage "escape velocity" to escape the gravity well ...

  1. fievel says:
    September 28, 2009 at 12:42 AM

    Don't tell me you are coming back soon?

  1. Anonymous says:
    September 28, 2009 at 10:07 PM

    Happy ordinary couple -> http://judeandserene.blogspot.com

  1. Chee Wai Lee says:
    September 30, 2009 at 2:11 AM

    Fievel - nothing is cast in stone yet. First things first ... I have to defend the thesis.

    Anonymous - that's a wonderful blog. I've not been to Ann Arbor, Michigan, but I've heard really good things about that town.

  1. Anonymous says:
    October 1, 2009 at 11:56 PM

    Fievel - how old are u again?

    Mr Lee - Jude is your age.
    Had he stayed in SG, NUS would never had given him the chance.
    Btw, u were from NUS Comp Sci?

  1. fievel says:
    October 2, 2009 at 11:46 PM

    Hi anon,
    im 30 this year but I've only had 4yrs of work experience cos of u know, how life for a Singaporean male sorta lags by a few yrs. I'm lucky my wife is only 24 and she is just as keen to get out of here as me, just not as desperate ;)

    So anyway yes that was one thing that struck me most after reading "Ghetto of out mind"...their life is so different and looking at their "about us", I can only imagine how their life would be so different had they not taken the plunge 5 yrs ago.

    I have an admit from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago for Fall 2010 but I'm still in the process of applying for other schools and I don't want to jinx it but UMich is in my list


    BTW, anon, are you Serene from the blog?

  1. Anonymous says:
    October 3, 2009 at 9:48 PM

    Not Serene though same surname.
    A friend of Jude.
    U really should get of Singapore before Mrs Fivel changes her mind!
    (like mine)

    Sorry, I asked about your age cos it rare to find a singaporean who like Don Mclean.

  1. fievel says:
    October 4, 2009 at 10:27 AM

    Hey anonymous Koh,

    Well I'm lucky in that sense, in that our govt seems to be going out of its way to show Mrs Fievel that life in Spore is, indeed, not going to get any easier.

    Don't worry about the age question.

    You know, I find that it is as we go past our 30th yr that we begin to realize what we really want for our short finite lifetime.