Gracious society

Just the other day, I was having a conversation with my son, PC and among other things I expressed my sentiment, Singapore has become too commercial and perhaps intentionally agressively competitive to the extent we lost our graciousness which was second nature to us during the time when I was young. This is especially regretful as then we were poor and living from hand to mouth. I remember we were happy, we look out for each others.

The government has some years back given some lip service about promoting a gracious society of which not too much have been hear from since. The rich are getting richer, the guys in charge want more and more money while the old and disadvantaged languish in the urban heartland. It is every man for himself, grab what you can.

There are growing voices on the internet, especially people of my age who share similiar sentiments concerning the lack of graciousness in our society as compare to what we experience in say Taiwan, Malaysia, The Philippines, Myanmar or in developed countries such as Norway, Australia.

Perhaps not by coincidence, many Singaporeans, read Mr Tan Kin Lian among many others, feel strongly enough to frequently lament and registering such similiar feeling on the net, on their blogs etc.

It seems like the policy in Singapore is to achieve even more economics objectives first then we may in some remote future, get around to be gracious, perhaps by order or by some acts of parliament to be implemented. I think this is not how it works, our poorer neighbours manage to retain their graciousness, those developed countries such as Australia did not lost their graciousness, they have time for each other, they take care of their elderly and poor while we in Singapore find excuses and reason why we are not there yet. Perhaps in our society, the ethos has become "Graciousness are for Losers", Even so...

If not now, when? Let it start with us even if I felt our government is not providing the basic framework for it to happen as they should.