Singaporeans in their little well (a reference to the Chinese idiom 井底之蛙）

I just find that sometimes, Singaporeans need to grow up and grow wiser. It's not like we're isolated from the world; we're quite connected, with the internet, and majority of the population get to travel overseas at least once in their lives (no stats, but I'm pretty sure of this). So, we should be more attuned to world affairs and global issues, no?

I don't usually jump into the fray and do social commentary, but I just need to voice out somewhere, and where better than my own personal blog. I just kinda find it tragic, how we're so caught up with our own "problems" instead of being more concerned about other more pressing issues. Like maybe global poverty (Bill Gates wrote a commentary on The New York Times that is re-published on Today, on The Truth about foreign aid), child labour, forced prostitution, biodiversity loss, climate change etc etc.

I read somewhere (unfortunately my memory is a disgrace and I cannot remember where) about why is it that people dying worldwide due to poverty-related issues (lack healthcare, or education etc) are NOT headliners in national newspaper, though it is a major global problem. It seems that a once-off accident (e.g. the Costa Concordia sinking) generates more news than deaths occurring daily due to totally preventable causes. And though my memory fails, Google saves, so here's a webpage about the plight of children around the world and why such tragedies are not headlines.

Anyway, back to Singapore, this is an example of what circulates (rather wildly) on Facebook.

And then people go on and on about how such people are still humans and deserve a seat and flame the people who put up such pictures and make certain comments. I suppose this is a "localised problem", but really, is this that newsworthy? Though I suppose at least this hasn't made it to the front page of national newspaper yet.

Sighs I am just ranting here, maybe I'm just too idealistic, and I wish everyone would be more concerned about world issues and try to do something in their own little ways to help (like not waste food, or if you can, donate to reputable organisations (not gonna jump into the discussion on whether certain organisations are trustworthy and worth their salt or not) or like one of my colleagues, adopt kids through World Vision, or reduce electricity, buy less consumables, use less disposables, learn more about local biodiversity etc)

But all is not doom and gloom, I do feel that our society is slowly maturing and people are starting to take notice of other things apart from bread-and-butter issues. I suppose in the past it was all about survival, all that stuff about threat of Communism and independence from British and what-not. Whereas now our GDP per capita is reasonably high and most people can live comfortably (though our income gap is widening) and so I suppose people can think more about their spiritual side and invest more time in running, enjoying Nature, and stuff. Though at the same time, people are also rather attached to their iPhones, iPads and babies are born with an iPhone in their hands and stuff. Hmm we're a rather contradictory society I think.


Anyway, I'm just ranting. I hope I make some sense though I think there are lots of loopholes in what I'm saying.