How do you measure a country’s development?

Housing? Education? Healthcare? Crime rates? Economic development? All of the above?

If you go by those guidelines, it would seem very much that Singapore is a 1st world country and highly developed.

Yet, there is this nagging feeling we all have that we aren’t quite “up there”. Why aren’t we really proud to be Singaporean, when our country is just so awesome? What is it that makes you want to be Singaporean? Why is the issue even raised?

What is the Singaporean identity- that makes us proud to be who we are? Why are so many Singaporeans NOT proud to be Singaporean?

Is it the food, which is getting more expensive? Is it the Singlish, which many say should be rubbed out? (My stand is that spoken singlish should be embraced and preserved but the standards of written english not compromised- but I digress) Is it the old, lovely buildings which we keep demolishing? Is it the plentiful trees that our foreign labourers plant? Is it the dirty streets and toilets kept clean by our hardworking cleaners?

Everybody tries to pinpoint the Singaporean identity, but can’t find it. It’s said that it’s intangible, something you cannot measure. Is it really?

I believe that in the persuit of progress, we have missed out on the finer things in life and that is what probably keeps driving people to migrate instead of staying to cheerfully face their troubles. We are not the most gracious society. We can, in fact, be considered rather kiasu, afraid to lose, and that is seriously not desirable.

In the papers recently, there are write-ins to the inbox and forum about people whose dogs are allowed to poo all over the place. People who litter flyers here and there, litter anything and everything everywhere. A couple who refuse to let the elderly have a seat on the bus.

Are these the attributes of a first world country? Is this the place you want to be proud of, to call home? Would you be prouder to be Singaporean and love your country more if the toilet cleaners scrubbed a little harder, if the buses and trains went a little faster, and we all earned more money?

Few of us support local music, local athletes, local soccer, local film, local art- we fail to support the very people who try to bring out the Singaporean identity. There are heartland rockers who want to entertain you more meaningfully than big name international stars who put on a diplomatic, public front but honestly couldn’t care less about a tiny red dot when they have Europe and the US to worry about. Same goes for soccer, film, everything.

I believe that SBS buses used to have newspapers in the back of seats so you could read them and put them back for others to read. What happened? First-world Singaporeans stole them. Why? You can only read the papers once, anyway! What great 70 cent profit have they made? I fail to see.

In some parks in England, they do what is called book-sharing, where people buy brand new books, read them and leave them on park benches for other people to read and exchange. Would this work in Singapore? Why not?

What about the toilets? Why are they in the state they are in? Is it so difficult to flush? Why are they clogged with toilet paper? Why are there footprints on the seats? And why can’t so many of us Singaporean men take the time to aim, or lift the seat before we piss? And if you piss on the seat, is it that hard to take a little toilet paper and wipe it off?

You may argue that it’s a waste of time- Time is money? Money is everything? Really?

Why can’t the majority of us 1st-World Singaporeans treat public property like it’s their own, and leave it for the next person to use?

Why don’t we smile at one another on the streets? Why do we rarely have conversations with people on the streets, at the bus stop? Must we be so hostile? Let’s SMILE, everybody!

Why do we assume that money is the answer to everything? Why do we need money? To buy better things? To one-up ourselves over our peers? Do we need to be superior to one another to get the satisfaction we crave? I don’t think more money is necessarily the answer.

My idea of a great place to live in is not one with the highest technology and the greatest economic development, but one where the society is friendly and comfortable.

Can’t we let people merge into lanes in traffic? The simple act of waving on the driver with the right of way, and waving back in thanks is hardly observed on 1st-world Singapore roads.

Slowly, there is some improvement, in everything. I hope we can all make Singapore a nice place to live in, and that doesn’t mean just earning as much money as possible. When we can sit at the bus stop and have a nice chat about one another’s days with people we don’t know at all, that would be beautiful.

I hope we can all be a little more friendly, be a little more considerate, and become a gracious society. If we do, I bet good service will come naturally, not because of campaigns, but because of the goodness in the hearts of both sides of the deal- both the sales crew and the customer.

If we all want to use our lives to make it better for everyone we meet and come in contact with, our own will become so much more fulfilling. And then we would be a 1st world country. And more importantly, it would be really nice to be Singaporean.

If I’ve been harsh or politically incorrect anywhere, I do apologize. I don’t mean to point fingers or demand that some action be taken- there’s really enough of that. I’d just like to urge everyone to try to make a difference, because we can. =)