The myth of the intelligent singaporean ...

My son and hubby teased me about being mentioned at the Intelligent Singaporean site for two days. The sniggers still linger on ....

I visited the site and found it interesting. So many intelligent people congregating, discussing, arguing and throwing mud at each other in a fun, intelligent way. They are very articulate, mind you. (I didn't know there are so many secret societies in Singapore. Wong Kan Seng is still looking for them in Geylang avenues when they have obviously upgraded themselves).

I am the butt of jokes in my family now. PM, if you're still feeling bad about your gaffe, my plight will make you feel better. I was not even paid a handsome peanut for it.

While I feel a little flattered (strangely nice to be considered intelligent), I am more embarrassed for it. I am an old fogey and everyone around me calls me 'aunty'. I have no grandiose visions for Singapore and no fancy solutions that require me to stage a rally to expound them. Strangely, PM doesn't seem to have, too.

Actually, PM's rally speech could be summed up in two simple words : NO CHOICE.

So, you see, there is some wisdom in "STOP AT TWO".

So, please stop arguing and complaining. Let's get on with the fun and sleazy, er, buzz that will make us rich.

Ok, for those who are still sniggling, I want to have my say hor, aunty warts and all.

Long ago, a foreign talent (an ABC with an MBA from Harvard) proclaimed to a group of lowly bank executives (me included) that "intelligent singaporean" is an oxymoron. Why? Because if they are intelligent, they won't be Singaporeans! I'll let you let off steam for a while if you happen to disagree with him.

Well, six months later, our dear foreign talent had to quit because, er, he had problems delivering his KPIs. Oh, his plans were very intelligent but he had no intelligent workers to execute his plans. We were lowly executives with no intelligence, he forgot. Luckily then, the CEO did not replace all of us with foreign executive talents. We went on to make it a record profit-making year, sans the intelligent plans.

But, I had to thank the foreign talent for having expanded my vocabulary by one word : oxymoron. I had to check the dictionary (no wiki and internet then) to know that he was the moron.

So, to reaffirm my stand, my dear son and hubby, I am happy who I am. I am not intelligent. I prefer to be wise. Being intelligent requires too much hard work. You can't laugh at yourself. You can't speak on emotions without first supporting them with facts, studies and quoting numerous luminaries' opinions. The ME is gone and I know you won't like it.

I like laksa with hum. Despite many studies to show me hum is bad, I'll die for it. I mean, how bad can it be?! You can only die once ... if it's for anything, why not hum?


Singapore, intelligent singaporean