The Little Booger that Could
While some individuals might (mistakenly) equate the size of a country with its capabilities and general legitimacy, those of us with inside knowledge make no such mistake. In a flash of patriotic fervour, we get misty-eyes counting the ways this snot-sized island nation makes us think twice.
1. We really don't mind being one of the cleanest cities around. We get to walk down the street while admiring the clouds for more than two seconds without stepping into a pile of dog shit.
2. On this bureaucratically pristine dot we call home, "coffee money" just means 70 cents (kopi tiam) or $4 (cafe).
3. Big cars and bigger gardens may be scarce, but those who enjoy them rarely fall victim to kidnappers or drive-by shootings.
4. Hindu temples exist in Chinatown and mosques in Little India without incidence of bloodshed.
5. At hawker centers, we sometimes leave our handbags unattended - oops ! - and troop off to buy char kway teow, only to return to find them still in place.
6. Our international record-worthy feat of furnishing the squatter settlement hordes of the 1960s with proper - albeit rainbow coloured - public housing in just over one generation.
7. Singapore-made boots that save lives - seriously, Steel-soled Blast and Fragment Resistant boots invented by Andrew Vaz, formerly of the Defence Ministry, are of bullet proof material. A landmine-clearing worker in Sri Lanka escapes a blast with just a broken leg - thanks to these babies.
8. We can turn on the tap and guzzle what spurts forth without fear of contracting dysentry or cholera, despite a percentage of our water being recycled from the depths of the city sewers.
(Taken from I-S Magazine, Issue No. 226)
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