Just how many flags do you see being put up when National Day is just round the corner.

Nothing like what it was 10 years ago.

There is no ‘We’ only ‘I’ these days.

Common Singaporeans are no longer citizens but just a digit / commodity / factor of production in name of economic advancement.

Does putting up a flag get you $$$. Exactly…there you see it, the Singapore way.

$$$ talks, BS walks . . .

USA has gone through 2 world wars, became a world superpower in less than 50yrs and has spent resources in every other region. Almost all Americans are safely considered patriots.

Singapore has been very politically quiet for the past 50yrs since independence in 1965. No major incidents happened on our shores except for the recent Mas Selamat’s surprise toilet break. Now with so many FTs, I think I can also safely say that almost all Singaporeans are not patriots, including me.

Just what are Singapore’s ideals? They seem to have been misplaced somewhere in the pursuit of GDP growth.

By this definition, only the second generation which is not yet in the upper rungs of the political administration can be truly patriotic. So, I would say our government (and leaders) is committed and loyal to the country and its development but can they be truly patriotic?

At the end of the day, patrioism should not be a choice but a calling – otherwise there’d be no patriots in horribly run countries around the world. Where, in times of war, a patriot gives up his life and limb; in times of peace, he will give up his time, money and liberties for the betterment of the nation.

Having said that, Chee SJ does not seem to be bettering the society in spite of so much antics and I would deem Mr Chiam See Tong to be more of a patriot.

A Singaporean MP may feel the same when he says , “I am a parrot”.

Get it?

Kaffein

Geez …

In other words, the use of patriotism as a political sword or a political shield is as old as the Republic. Still, what is striking about today’s patriotism debate is the degree to which it remains rooted in the culture wars of the 1960s – in arguments that go back forty years or more. In the early years of the civil rights movement and opposition to the Vietnam War, defenders of the status quo often accused anybody who questioned the wisdom of government policies of being unpatriotic. Meanwhile, some of those in the so-called counter-culture of the Sixties reacted not merely by criticizing particular government policies, but by attacking the symbols, and in extreme cases, the very idea, of America itself – by burning flags; by blaming America for all that was wrong with the world; and perhaps most tragically, by failing to honor those veterans coming home from Vietnam, something that remains a national shame to this day
.
Most Americans never bought into these simplistic world-views – these caricatures of left and right. Most Americans understood that dissent does not make one unpatriotic , and that there is nothing smart or sophisticated about a cynical disregard for America’s traditions and institutions.

But we’re demonized by the Gahmen…and when it comes to Right vs Might Might always wins…