Celebrating a nation's birthday

It's Christmas already? No, it's the Singapore National Day!

I'm so glad that Wendy came up with the idea for a red and white dinner. It's good to get together and celebrate Singapore's birthday.

I nearly forgot about this big day. I'm definitely more patriotic when I was working in the ministry.

Back in those days, it's our job to do ground sensing, analyse media reports, give heads up on issues which we think are brewing, facilitate media queries, staff events, and deal with public through the QSM line.

Naturally, we need to keep ourselves up to speed on national issues. So when national day rolls around, we diligently tune in to PM's national day message and his National Day Rally speech.

This year, being an Overseas Singaporean for the first time, we don't feel the hype of the nation's birthday. I nearly forgot about it, until I saw photos and status updates from my friends on Facebook.

I searched online for PM's national day message. I personally love our PM because I think he's earnest and he works very hard for the country. But in this message, I only saw exhaustion. He had giant eye bags and he was slouching. 

One thing I've learnt in US is, stop being so uptight, be yourself. Speak to humans like a human.

The message I'm watching seemed too scripted. Like a civil servant writing papers, it's a great summary of what the government has done. But where's the human voice? PM looks pretty awkward reading it off the teleprompter.

I have a sudden urge to send him an email to say, "How are you, PM? I watched your message. You look pretty tired. Don't be so hard on yourself or get too focused on doing things the 'proper' way. Be yourself. And most importantly, rest well!"

After all, PM is still a human who appreciates ground feedback and a word of concern, right?