A celebration of what it means to be a Singaporean

Singapore celebrates 55 years of independence on 9 August 2020. Emotions and camaraderie are usually high during this period, as we are reminded of our shared values. This is an attempt to pen down my thoughts of what it means to be a Singaporean. #TogetherStrongerSG

Official NDP Logo from ndp.gov.sg

Disclaimer: This article is meant to be apolitical and has no intentions to take a skewed view on matters. Any interpretation to the contrary is not intended.

I have been a technology geek at heart ever since I was young. Back in Secondary school some 35 years ago, I have never had a deep interest in the humanities, and have always favoured the technical subjects. Growing up, politics never interested me, choosing to trust that there are smarter people around who will take care of these important matters.

I recently started being interested in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and have been spending quite some time to understand it technically, and its impact on society. The last six months during the Covid-19 lockdown has seen me spending most evenings and weekends reading and coding.

To this day, I still do not know what pushed me in this direction, but I signed up for a part-time Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology to understand more about society. I’m only about a month into the journey but have had to write a few assignments on multiculturalism in Singapore, public housing, and how the society is reacting to the Covid-19 lockdowns.

Having done the research for my assignments, I was surprised at the amount of information that was right in front of me, waiting to be discovered and understood.

For the last few days, one phrase kept ringing in my head that made me pen down my thoughts, even though I know there is still so much I do not know, so much I will get wrong.

Do not take what we have for granted

We have had years of relative success that brought us to where we are today. There will always be policies that a segment of society is not happy with. For example, one book that awakened me was This is What Inequality…