Thursday, October 28, 2004
Observations from a Chow Banana
Singapore is very hot. It is so hot here people's brains melt everytime they disagree. What transpires is a cat-fight very poorly masked (by the few who bother) with vague and fake attempts at almost-civility. Often they preface their nastiness with openers like "Thank you for your kind.." or "Well spoken..." then proceed to make a 180 degree turnaround that would do the men in white proud, and also quite possibly have saved the RSS Sinkalot.
Certain personality traits appear more prevalent in Singaporean society than the rest of the world. These traits include :
1) self-centredness, in a big way
2) defensiveness (lethal combo when coupled with 1.)
3) gracelessness - in speech, in thought, in general attitude
4) die-die-must-win mindset (best in the world! best in the universe! best in own head!)
5) kiasuism (which interestingly seems to be on the downturn)
6) Utter lack of wit
7) A strange tendancy to misapply the term "irony" to things that simply aren't ironic at all.
8) An utter inability to appreciate irony when it IS happening (eg a certain personality telling the country that she always tries her best not to slag off other people... ha.)
9) inability to accomodate other views, without...
10) slamming them
I cannot help but wonder whether these are due to genetic (ie inbreeding) or environmental (eg 40 degree daytime temperature killing brain cells) factors.
Certain personality traits appear more prevalent in Singaporean society than the rest of the world. These traits include :
1) self-centredness, in a big way
2) defensiveness (lethal combo when coupled with 1.)
3) gracelessness - in speech, in thought, in general attitude
4) die-die-must-win mindset (best in the world! best in the universe! best in own head!)
5) kiasuism (which interestingly seems to be on the downturn)
6) Utter lack of wit
7) A strange tendancy to misapply the term "irony" to things that simply aren't ironic at all.
8) An utter inability to appreciate irony when it IS happening (eg a certain personality telling the country that she always tries her best not to slag off other people... ha.)
9) inability to accomodate other views, without...
10) slamming them
I cannot help but wonder whether these are due to genetic (ie inbreeding) or environmental (eg 40 degree daytime temperature killing brain cells) factors.
