The Singaporean Salt

RE: 100% home-grown Singaporean artist, Inch Chua, decides to leave Singapore | The Online Citizen

None of our biggest music stars made it because fellow Singaporeans had supported them in the first place.

Stephanie Sun made it because of the support given to her by the TAIWANESE market. Singaporeans lapped her music up as 'good' afterwards.

Inch Chua reminds me of Tanya Chua. Tanya Chua started out singing in English only within the local scene, but eventually had to change to singing in Mandarin, which shot her to Asian fame.

Critical mass aside, we Singaporeans are too insecure to be able to realise and appreciate what's sublime. Always waiting for other 'more progressive' cultures to point it out to us.

When will we ever grow up? This is absolutely frustrating. It's not like we hadn't been educated. There is a limit which we can blame our 'parents' for 'spoiling' us. 你 "爸爸" 不要你了啦! Why is there such a resistance to see?

Time is running out. Soon, there will not be 'Singaporean' as we know it. I'm not refering to 'Singapore', but 'Singaporean'.

We are like a ponding spot that's not big enough to be a pond.
Not big enough to hold back the world's waters rushing through.

You are certainly not the fishermen who have facilitated the channeling of the world's waters into this ponding spot. The fishermen benefit immensely from this rush. They are resourceful beings with access to fishing 'rights' and the attendant equipment, skimming off whatever they can find in the new waters, then selling them for handsome profits.

You are the organism hanging on the rocks lying at the bottom of this currently turbulent spot. You are the plankton that gets pushed around and/or consumed amidst the rising tide. Confused and in fear.

One day when the world's waters find another route, we will be left high and dry. Nothing but a has-been dent in the world map. The fishermen will leave. And there will not even a Wikipedia entry on what being Singaporean means.