Happy National Day, fellow Singaporeans!

Remember last National Day where I said I feel like writing an email to PM Lee after watching his National Day Message?

Well, I did!

And I received a 'thank you for your concern' reply from his staff. Haha..

Ok, it must have been one of the boldest things I did, but I really wanted to speak my mind. I hope what I said was constructive, no matter how small the extent of impact.

This year's National Day Message was better, and I love it that there's heart. Indeed, we hold our heads proud everywhere we go because we are Singaporeans!

We celebrated our national day, Singapore time zone, with fellow countrymen and women at the Foster City park concert.  Lennon played the national anthem from his speakers, and I nearly bounced up from the picnic mat to stand at attention. Seriously, what you were trained to do from young never leaves you.

Of course, Panda HAD to do his version of Munnaeru Vaalibaa. I never bothered to look up the lyrics of this tamil folk song until now. I learned it when I first moved to Singapore at the age of eight. Didn't know what on earth I was singing... but now I do!

Lyrics:
Munnaeru vaalibaa munaeri endrum

Thoduvaan noakkuvaai

Kann theriyaatha Kaari rulil

Olirum vinmeenae

Thanimaiyaalae payantha naadugal

Irulil oli pera unnai naadum

Mael noakku vaaliba endrum munnaeri

Thoduvaan noakkuvaai thoduvaan noakkuvai

The lyrics in English are:

Forward o'youth forever advancing

Look to horizons far

Eyes do not grope in the depths of the night

That look on a shining star

Nations fearful in apartness

Need your sight to light their darkness

Look up o'youth forever advancing

Look to horizons far...

(from wikipedia)

Happy birthday, Singapore!

[P/S: The following day, a gathering at the park in the US time zone to mark National Day. We had fried bee hoon, chicken curry, spring rolls, chiffon cake and home-made gem biscuits! What a spread - and this explains why you don't see much food left on the table. Red and white was out; the Garden City theme was in!]

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?