epiphany

I made someone happy today.

He was one of the HQ runners, and he was desperately looking for someone to help him book a chalet online. He needed to borrow someone's card, so I let him use my debit card. You should have seen his face light up when he managed to reserve a chalet for the weekend. It was as if christmas came early, and he got all the presents he's been dreaming of for the whole year. His delight was like a kid's, pure and unalloyed, and it was fitting, since he's probably not even an adult yet.

He's way younger than me, but he's booking a chalet so he can spend the weekend with his wife and their son, who's tottering his way to his second birthday.

I looked at the obvious fondness he had for his family, and I couldn't help wondering about his future. His educational qualifications probably aren't the best, and with a kid to feed, trying to make a living seems a pretty daunting task.

And then I thought about last night, when I came across another S'porean-bashing-S'pore blog entry. Except in this case it's some (I surmised from the clues on the blogsite) kid who's currently studying in the UK. The litany was pretty much the generic anti-S'pore rant, lambasting our schools, our stifling government, and our society as a whole. It was all kinda familiar, because at some point or another I've had the same thoughts about this country (some of these thoughts are still hanging around).

I found it quite ironic that the comments came from someone who was obviously well-off enough to be able to afford studying overseas. Someone whose forefathers had profited from building up this country, who was now gleefully declaring his/her disaffection with it, from a comfortable distance. What irony, and what sanctimony.

It's easy to slip into complaint mode, especially if you're already past the stage of scrabbling to make ends meet. It's far harder to decide to roll up your sleeves and do something about what you can't stand (as opposed to running away). Complaining without offering any constructive opinion - well, that's just irresponsible and immature (can that be blamed on our education system too?).

I'm beginning to realize that S'pore is unlikely to become a liberal democratic society anytime soon, much to the chagrin of people who might wish otherwise. Like it or not, we're too fragile, almost always stuck in survival mode. A liberal society might be preferable for the kind of people who have the means to live comfortably, but we've always been led by a firm - and rather conservative - government. As long as its track record remains exemplary, I doubt the majority - which I suspect will have more in common with my runner friend than with a dissatisfied blogger - will be clamouring for change. And so S'pore will remain the butt of unconstructive complaints like what I read last night.

Democracy might be a good idea (as Gandhi once said), but a good idea is nothing compared to the wonderful reality of having food in your stomach and money in your wallet. And there's absolutely no way it beats being able to afford a weekend chalet getaway with your beautiful wife and your toddling son.