jurong island stinks... quite literally... of smelly eggs at some points of the road, doesn't help that saf dun equip air con into many of their vehicles. had quite a nasal unclogging time there..
overall it was cool, doing something in contribution to the daily stability of the island, which allows us to hv a working economy, which allows many of us to remain employed, which allows ur parents to hv money, which allows u to hv pocket money, so i've protected millions of dollars worth of pocket money sia... WHOA... -_- oh wells, at least i've more or less completed my tour of duty on the island.
went for my ATP range shoot jus 3 days ago... man.. BOBO was the order of the day for me sia,,, really disappointed wif my day shoot, only managed to shoot a grossly indecent amount to pass. but luckily compensated wif a good score wif the night shoot...
went to this national education course held at NEXUS today with Evan n Desmond. yeah yeah, sounds boring n very propaganda-ish, but it was not to be. was given a really interesting insight into the war, through the very eyes and mouth of a war veteran, mr seow i think. he gave a very animated talk about WW II that enlightened us abt many stuff, minor daily routine stuff that our textbooks failed to reproduce, the small little things that give history a very real life feel, HIS-Story. he engaged the audience wif his wild gestures n also his variable tone, not to mention some "politically-incorrect" jokes. didn't fall asleep for his segment at all... amazing...
the rest of the day analyzed the regions countries n our role in this region n stuff... particularly impressionable was a video clip on our immediate neighbours up north. it spoke (but not ridicule) all the controversial and more stormy years in the 1990s when there was a fierce barage of accusations after accusations of insensitivity, arrogance, and what nots abt our actions.
problem is,
our actions are governed by us! we decide who we want to invite to our lands for a foreign dignatory visit, we decide how we want to rule ourselves, we decide how we want to deal with our people. WE decide our foreign policies. WE are our own masters, but here we hv a "big brother" country that feels that we must ask them for THEIR views on OUR foreign policies!?!?! 3 words, what the fish...
n here's the funnier part, they blow up at the slightest issue, while they themselves conduct exercises and all sorts of things deemed as "insensitive" by their standards to us!!! they do not give a hoot abt themselves threatening our sovereignty, and constantly threatening to turn the tap on us. whats even more funny is that we saw, on the same video, pieces of news cuttings that came within a couple of months of each other, one accusing us of being such and such, of doing such and such stuff against them, and yet a few months later, they said they NEVER SAID IT BEFORE.. *all together now... WHOA.....*
even more funny, when there were situations taht they stood to gain, they very easily took back all accusatory statements on us and suddenly, the problem DISAPPEARS! *and again... 1, 2, 3, WHOA.....* by this time of the video i was quietly laughing until my guts were bursting... those yrs were simply so animated, it beats meet the fockers hands down...
these stuff only serve to highlight one key point, that we must not bow to external pressures so easily, and we must hold our grounds, stand our ground and stick to our choices as a country. that we are where we are today only because we hv done that in the past 40 yrs. also, ever wonder why those threats posed by them were never enacted? one very compelling reason that i know, we hv a fierce and poisonous bulldog, its called the SAF. its this deterence value that keeps them from doing and carrying out stuff...
no, this does not mean we are the best, or others are afraid of us, we must never let complacency get to our head. everybody in this region is growing and growing fast, we must not allow ourselves fall into the state where we are unable to provide the strong reprisal that we promised should our national interests be compromised. we live in a region where relations and situations can change within a blink of an eye. our vigilance must always be high.
we are here today only because of what those befor us have done, not because its our birthright, nobody owes us a living, the world dun owe us a country, we owe it to ourselves to bring this cmall cosy and prosperous country ahead, for our children and for our children's children.
we all know this to a certain extent, but we dun feel the urgency of NOW. i was also discussing this to my medic during my deployment, we were talking abt how capable is SAF in countering any threats, i remember clearly that he was abit skeptical but we all knew something, that if Singaporeans do not migrate, and flee our soil when the crunch arrives, and ever singaporean male responds, we will not only survive,
we will thrive.
chill.
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