Was visiting a distant relative today, staying at a rental flat in sg. Though I heard of such rental flats from the newspaper, this is my first time going into one. There about 3 such blocks in the area, flats meant for lower income people who could not afford to own their own home.
I grew up learning and accepting meritocracy, and have been taught that in this society, success will follow hard work. Study hard to get into Uni, get good jobs and earn good money. People in my generation grew up believing that fully. But over the years, I came to realise that it's only half the truth. Circumstances matters.
Many times, I had foreign visitors asking me, how is it that we had so many of our old people still working, at coffeeshops, clearing plates, cleaning toilets, collecting cardboards etc. But it is not of their own doing. One economic success have resulted in a different generation of people growing up, with good education and capabilities, opportunities which our previous generation of people did not have. And it have resulted in a whole generation of people left behind, unable to catch up.
Singapore is sometimes a victim of our own success.
If they had grew up in a different world, in today's world, their lives would be a lot like ours. One where they had the options to chose their path.
No comments:
Post a Comment