I don't want to engage in a long-winded argument about issues irrelevant to my point that I was trying to make in the first place, but it seems that somehow you had a lousy trip.
>I did meet some Indians who were born in Singapore - but alas - had never been to India, and appeared to be basically culturally relegated to a sort of mid level service sector niche. It seemed to me that they'd never built up the courage or economic platform to leave.
Are you saying that all Indians in Singapore are working in mid-level service sectors? Is that really what you're saying?
> Sitting in the airport departure lounge, waiting to fly out, a state-sponsored television channel blared feel-good pro-state propaganda to weary travelers. Suddenly, the national anthem came on. Interspersed with its antiquated, politically-populist, Malay-pattois verbiage were smoothly integrated, carefully contrived scenes of the Singaporean miracle: a multicultural table of youth happily consuming artificial foods, a laughing young man in uniform (doing his compulsory military service), and a couple of friendly, similing police. That was just the icing on the cake.
I'm sorry you don't feel the same way about Singapore. I wouldn't expect you to. Yet patriotism exists in every country at different levels, and if you're saying that this is propaganda, then I have nothing else left to add, because to each, his own.
Oh, but I would like to add that while there are many people like yourself who can seem to turn every good into a bad, there are, thankfully, a good number of people who are more perceptive.
Are you saying you can't read? I commented that the Indians I met were from those sectors, and that generally Indians in Singapore did seem to be over-represented in those sectors. (For example, driving taxis, cleaning, physical security, etc.)
> turn every good into a bad
Perhaps I missed the former, since the fruits of a nanny-state (cleanliness, safety except from the government and their cronies, subsidised identical high-density aircon-free ghetto-housing for low income earners, etc.) don't necessarily seem 'good' to me. Each to their own. I prefer mainland China over Singapore, any day. At least, for all their problems, they have some real freedom and diversity, and a mostly intellectually honest history.
>I did meet some Indians who were born in Singapore - but alas - had never been to India, and appeared to be basically culturally relegated to a sort of mid level service sector niche. It seemed to me that they'd never built up the courage or economic platform to leave.
Are you saying that all Indians in Singapore are working in mid-level service sectors? Is that really what you're saying?
> Sitting in the airport departure lounge, waiting to fly out, a state-sponsored television channel blared feel-good pro-state propaganda to weary travelers. Suddenly, the national anthem came on. Interspersed with its antiquated, politically-populist, Malay-pattois verbiage were smoothly integrated, carefully contrived scenes of the Singaporean miracle: a multicultural table of youth happily consuming artificial foods, a laughing young man in uniform (doing his compulsory military service), and a couple of friendly, similing police. That was just the icing on the cake.
I'm sorry you don't feel the same way about Singapore. I wouldn't expect you to. Yet patriotism exists in every country at different levels, and if you're saying that this is propaganda, then I have nothing else left to add, because to each, his own.
Oh, but I would like to add that while there are many people like yourself who can seem to turn every good into a bad, there are, thankfully, a good number of people who are more perceptive.