I am Singaporean

(In response to Mr. Brown and Mr. Miyagi's "I am Singaporean" meme)

I spend my early childhood running along the mud paths amongst the last kampongs in Hougang. Watching teochew wayangs and enjoy snacking the street hawkers' fare with my cousins. Always on the look out for the "atap chee" man.

I grew up in the shop houses in North Bridge Road before they covert them into Bugis Junction and enjoy the sights and sounds along the back lanes of Bugis Street. "Goo Bak Kway Teow Tng" (Beef Kway Teow soup), "Yeoaw Bak Tng' (Chinese Herbal Mutton Soup), "Heer Chok" (Fish Porridge), "Kway Cho" (Chicken Porridge) and especially "Fun Choy" freshly steam in those tin bowls and the suave move the uncle use to knock the steaming hot "Fun Choy" out of their bowl.

We used to only need to pack 4 people into the car to drive into CBD for FREE or need to just pay once for a CBD day coupon and display them on the windscreen to gain unlimited entry and exit.

I went to a JC instead of going to the Poly because back then you can't go to the university unless your are sure to be in the top 5 percent in the Polys.

I enjoyed the army days even though it was tough and many say I'm "siow". "Cheong swa cheong hai" without anytime to think about the right and wrong but it never fail to creep back into the conversation with your old NS mates. The OO then, was just another appointment holder to me in the unit. Never knew back then that we have the power to complain. But again I still enjoy the rough times in army, because it moulded me to be who i am today.

I embrace everything Singlish in my everyday life and I try to learn different dialects before they are forgotten in the tide of times, though I'm still quite "lau pok" in speaking them. I'm sadden that we are not encouraged to speak Singlish or have dialects spoken in the public media but I do try to write and speak proper English or Chinese at work.

I enjoy the greens of the reservoirs and hope that pulau ubin was still in its rural self I remembered 12 years ago. I'm saddened to see the old buildings torn down to make way for new ones in the name of urban planning and losing our cultural heritage and history forgotten to progress.

My name is Alex, Alex Tan. Like many others, I like to complain and may not provide constructive solutions. Despite all, Singapore is and will always be my home.

And I am Singaporean.

So say we all...

So say we all.

Technorati tag: iamsingaporean

WTF?!!

EMAS
3 years back...EMAS was turn off...because the cost of maintanence was too high.
3 years now...EMAS was turn on...because the information provided was beneficial to the motorist.

WTF??!!...3 years ago it was not beneficial??!!

Native Language
Singlish: Ai jiak lunch mai?
Perfekt Engrish: Shall we do lunch?

Singlish: SMS me to confirm later ok?
Perfekt Engrish: Text me later to confirm our appointment ok?

Singlish: Aiyo...why u so like dat?!
Perfekt Engrish: Oh dear me...what are you doing?

OMG...I wonder if the MOE had ever done a study on the native slangs or the colloquial language used by the english native speakers? Why are we stifling our own unique language culture? Hmmm...maybe we do not have a culture to speak of...*sigh* the sad truth of our life, Singaporeans are already losing our own roots...are you expecting all the uncles and aunties to speak perfect english in our daily lives? How many youngster speaks their native dialect now? I guess the only flourishing dialect is Hokkien. So often heard are such words like CB, KB and KNNBCCB!! Hmm..WTF?!!

Distortion of Truth
Hmmm...some smart woman from MICA wrote to the papers talking about distortion truth by the celebrity blogger mrbrown. Interestingly in the letter at least 2 points pointed out which (i believe) was also a distortion of truth.

Distortion 1 : Mr Brown is hiding behind a pseudonym.
WTF??! Which person in Singapore who read mrbrown.com doesn't know how he look like or that he is Mr. Lee KM himself? Doesn't she do her homework before writing her 'oh so sah kar' letter?! Wonder if she had ever surf the web to read the blog or was she meerely handed the article from TODAY and told to do a letter of rebuttal by her boss??!!

Distortion 2 :Electricity tarrifs and taxi fare revision is due to high oil price
WTF??! Singapore has been using natural gas for a large part of our electricity generation. Remembering the last major blackout islandwide, was it not due to some gas valve defect? So how had oil price actually greatly affect our cost of electricity generation? As for taxi fare, if high oil price cause the cost of operation for taxi to increase, how come the profit made by the "public" transport operator remain high and never a large dip in profit margin? So is the price revision exercise to "help" keep the profit margin high for the shareholders like those MIWs? WTF??!!

Hmmm...will I be implicated for merely doing my not so daily ramblings of the Singaporean's everyday life? WTF?!!

(Afternote: Pardon the use of my language in this post...just trying to destress after a hard day's work....Wah That's Fun!!!)