Perfection Seeker

02 May 2011

No longer apathetic abt singapore situation

I was once an ignorant young woman who doesn't seems interested in issues like politics.. news etc. As long as it doesn't affects me.. nah i'm not interested. I'm not going to listen to anyone telling me how bad LKY and on and on. I'm bad in Maths and i'm sure most of the creatives are as well. I'm not good in Geography at all. I always have an excuse saying that i don take Geography for my O levels. "Didn't everyone take geography during lower sec?" Yes i do, a guilty smile i gave them. When ppl start talking to me about countries.. i donno a single shit. It's not about knowing individual countries but knowing the states in a country. With little general knowledge, i seemed like another young singaporean who only knows how to watch dramas and talks about branded stuff and not know what was happening around. Erm.. i do noe a bit of IT stuff if i were to squeeze in another plus point to my knowledge. I'm sure many singaporean girls are like me.

After that, my colleague who is sitting beside me pasted a world map on the wall just behind me. So every time when i wanna check out the countries/states i can go have a look and rmb them. Sometimes they would test me too! It's just too bad that i couldn't rmb some. But as time goes by.. i start to rmb some.. i hope i did. Paris in France? London in UK? San francisco part of USA? (reconfirming by looking at the world map fr google). They have actually asked a few female colleagues of my age and they are quite pathetic like me. Except some girls who actually has a globe at home that they could refer to? Or more educated parents who taught them at home? Maybe they are really interested in such things? Maybe these doesn't come across to be important for me. Maybe if i were to travel around Europe, it would be a better way to learn this fast. I've covered most of the well-known asian countries and it makes me understand them better.
Ok enough of geography... that's not the point.

I started reading yahoo news every morning when i stepped into the office because of the peer pressure that my older colleagues are giving me, saying i shld read more and be more aware of things happening. Creatives need MORE general knowledge than other ppl. I could only say..ya if u ask me things abt present situation i might noe a little more than some history/geography related stuff? The guys always tune in to Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, History Channel and NEWS. So that's the difference between the younger women and the older men. Our interests are diff at the beginning. Why did i choose to read yahoo news instead of Straits times online? Yahoo news are summarised, less dry, more casual, more entertainment news and i find it really amusing by reading the threads and comments below. And those are the real voices from singaporeans. After reading so much of it.. i started to realise that.. how am I, as a young singaporean gonna survive in my nx 10 yrs? Rising costs for HDB was one of the factors that hit me straight.

Ppl around me are getting married and suddenly i just feel like checking out the prices and layouts of the new BTO flats. Looking at the prices and hearing the money my frens had to fork out.. make my jaw dropped. Holding a calculator, calculating the 5% cash deposit/down payment they have to fork out initially, set my fingers numbed. Senior telling me...after adding all the interest etc., you are actually paying double of the original price! I chose not to believe it and asked my fren to continue the conversation. After calculating.. it was ard $700k compared to the original of $472k with 30 yrs of HDB loan. She has to borrow 5% ($23k) from her parents for the down payment and i heard she may be able to get it back after deducting from her cpf or sth like that, kinda forgotten abt it. She's getting a DBSS. Their CPF account are empty now! She told me since it's a DBSS, she will have to pay ard few hundreds gradually and eventually $1.6k a mth for max in future. She's 24 yrs old so by the time she pays off the loan.. she's already 54 yrs old. She needs to save a lot because CPF is empty and she needs to continue working till 60-65 yrs old before retirement.

Facebook as well as other social medias really plays a big part in this coming election. I have to vote this year and so i'm no longer apathetic abt sg situation. I have to read through the stuff in order for me to vote wisely. Slowly it became an addiction. Watching videos from fren's wall and sharing them across. Not only from my friends but also stuff fr other netizens fr fan pages. My wall was flooded with politics everyday. Nicole seah played a big part by politically awakening me. Speaking from a perspective of a 24 yr old.. truely voices what we, the gen y feels. That is why, she has so many supporters.

Few more days to the general election and i hope opposition parties can gain more seats in the parliament. I'm not concerned abt having fresh painted walls for my block but a voice to be heard in the parliament.

(Your Name) ♥ 6:50 PM