#002

Ok it's over. National Day, that is.

Anyway, big news now is that the Brits foiled a terrible plot to blast thousands of poor innocent buggers into the Atlantic. Ok scratch the innocent out. There's no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt. So anyways apparently the plan was to blow up as many as ten planes simultaneously and yeah, 10-0, Terror in the lead.

But the stupid fuckers got arrested instead and now its near impossible to take a plane. The problem with this bastards is that they always screw up and get their asses hauled to jail, but even when they fuck up, they still cause problems for people. They don't need to succeed to cause terror. They can cause terror and misery and a hell lot of complications just by failing.

The bastards. The cheating bastards.

I am Singaporean

I Am Singaporean

My name is Warren Benedict Khong. People call me Warren, sometimes they just call me oei. I am a Singaporean. I was brought up in an English-speaking family, and I can't speak Mandarin very well. My friends say that I 'jiak kan tang' one. Which means 'eat potatoes' -I think. I was once accused of being a banana by my Chinese language teacher back when I was in Secondary school. I still remember finding it very funny back then. But looking back, I realised that it was quite embarrassing. Nonetheless, I've been trying my hardest to polish up my Chinese even though it hasn't always been easy. But hey, I can hold a decent conversation in Chinese nowadays, and I'm proud of it.

I was born and raised in the Establishment, taught to respect, agree, and most importantlly, to vote for the Establishment. I'm not sure just how much of it has rubbed off me. I studied in Art College, now I'm an artist in a nation that does not appreciate the arts, even though they keep telling us otherwise. But I'm proud of the local arts scene and I'm happy that its getting better. I complain alot. It is, I think, one of our favourite national past times. Everyone likes to complain, about the gahmen, the weather, the rising costs of living, though I've noted that despite the high costs of living, it remains a popular item. I can't smoke at coffeeshops anymore, it's been banned by the Establishment. But I take it in my stride, just like I calmly accept the astronomical increase in cigarette prices, the increased cab fares, the soon to come increase in bus and train fares, the planned 7% GST charges. I take all these in my stride with nothing more then a few foul curses and an endless supply of complaining. Singaporeans complain because we are resilient, because we never say die but we need an outlet for our frustrations. We are too well regimented to go around breaking the law or demonstrating infront of Parliment House, so we complain. And even though I complain so much against the gahmen, I'm happy that I can walk home safely after a night of partying.

I love my food, even though I can't eat much. I love bak-chor mee and char kuay teow, fried carrot cake and or luat. Sometimes I'm more atas and go for ang moh or Japanese. But most of the time I'm perfectly happy with a good plate of chicken rice complete with the skin or chap chai peng. I love my drinks, everything from milo-ping to teh-ci, kopi-ci and yuan-yang-ping to various forms of alcohol. I used to drink Tiger at kopitiams alot. Nowadays I prefer to have an ale or whisky at a nice pub or bar. But sometimes I still have a Tiger at a kopitiam. Like all good drinkers I have my regular drinking kakis. They are Singaporean too. So is my best friend, even though she's in Australia right now. I party at Zouk, even with MOS around, I guess I'm too attached to Zouk.

I live in a private condominium with my dad, my mum and my three younger sisters. That means that I don't get the upgrades even though I went with the Establishment. My youngest sister is doing her PSLEs this year and just got her application turned down by the sports school. But she's ok about it. The oldest is sitting for her 'A' levels. I'm cheering them on, because I didn't do very well when I was in school and I want to see them suceed. I guess I've been conditioned to view good academic grades as a kind of success as well. I try not be kiasu, sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. But I believe that everyone around the world is kiasu. It's just that we actually have a term for it. People talk about the 5'C's, I talk about the 5'K's.
-Kiasu (Scared to lose)
-Kiasi (Scared to die)
-Kiaboh (Scared don't have)
-Kiaborh (Scared women/gf/wife)
-Kia Cheng Hu (Scared gahmen)
I'm not sure how many of those Ks I actually possess.

I don't have a car. I don't have a class-3 license. I've tried three attempts for my class-3 and I've failed in every attempt. Maybe I'll get it on my 4th try. But I'll keep trying with nothing more then a foul curse and a string of complains each time I fail. Just like I keep buying 4-D, but never won it once, even though there have been many a close call. I think the internet is a great thing, I enjoy blogging. I have made friends through blogs and local internet forums. Some of them are my drinking kakis now. It's a place for me to air my views, and when I don't agree with the gahmen and I put it in my blog, it's just another way of complaining.

Tomorrow is National Day and as always, the parade is going to be at the National Stadium, although this will be the last year for that since the National Stadium is about to be rebuilt. I find the whole parade boring, the new National Day songs lousy and I never get past the march-past segment before I stop watching. But when I see the flag fly past and the National Anthem behing sung and the Pledge being recited my heart aches with patriotism and I too join in the singing of the anthem and the recitation of the pledge. And I still love the old, classic National Day Songs like 'Stand up for Singapore' and 'We are Singapore'.

I love the flag, even though its so plain, and I cannot imagine calling any other country home except for the one I'm now in.

My name is Warren Benedict Khong and I am a Singaporean.

So say we all.
So say we all.