Its Aug 9 again!

Its Aug 9 again.....the birthday of the country that i was born, bred (is there such a word? haha) and raised. haha. but do i feel any patriotism? well, not really..just enjoy the day off from work. but come to think of it, spore's success today is not easy to come by. but prob most of us take that for granted. there are pros and cons living in this somewhat plastic country.

i went to bintan 3 weeks back, on the ferry back to spore, there was an awful irritating immigration video warning pple about what to declare, what kinda of tax on cigarettes, liquor...and of course death for drugs. its such a typical spore govt style video!! i mean, must they be so lor sor? the presentation of the video was bad too, using a boring powerpoint style format with cut and paste pictures and a damm lousy narrator! prob one of the male custom officer. with that boring layman spore style english. i mean this kind of vid is broadcast to many tourists etc...how can the standard be so bad? further more, the video is about warning pple coming into spore....is that what you call a welcome? before i can visit yr country, already got 20 rules for me to follow. i dunno lah, i felt a bit paiseh to see that. maybe the narration could be a bit softer and friendlier etc.

i can just imagine the boring, maybe local grad guy behind the video talking in his monotonous voice. are they so cheap to just use their own staff for a corp video?

maybe in other countries, the customs wouldnt bother to say too much before u enter the country. some things are obviously illegal ....... spore is so systematic , sometimes overboard...it may be quite efficient but now...its loosing out to many countries cause its boring to be here.

hope in the near future, the govt would be more relaxed on certain things in spore where the people will be able to make more decisions for themselves.

i think for a start, they shld relax a lot on rules for running a business in spore. lots of youths may have brilliant business ideas but its just too tough to implement them. in the end, what do we do? get a job in the office, 9 to 5pm with a fixed salary is the way to go to survive. is that the young people we want in the future to propel the country future in this competitive world?
maybe this will work 20 yrs ago...but not now.

i chat with some of my customers sometimes and they said their local business....the real headache is getting all the approvals and licenses...it could be up to 20 such approvals before any thing can start! of course, there must be a reason for each approval but this is certainly way to cumbersome esp for aspiring and amatuer people who like to try it out for the first time.

oh well, but in anyway, lots of people do say spore is a safe place for living and stuff (yeah...touch wood....terrorism is on the cards).... yes i do agree with them in a way. but we sure gotta also learn from other countries. they also have their strong points...despite higher crime rates or negative media reports....sporeans cant live in a well, watching those patriotic videos and songs on TV and always think we are the best. that would be our downfall.

ok...Happy 40th Birthday Spore!
i am still proud to hold the red passport and wish spore all the best for the future.