[prepardness]
so they say the best way to face reality is to be well prepared... and because my buddy and i are in-charge of the edusave merit bursary and scholarship presentation ceremony which will be held next week, the last few weeks of last year were spent preparing for the big day...

the presentation ceremony for teck ghee, which is pm lee's ward, was held earlier this week... well, pm mah....

so it was the accepting of applications... vetting through to see who met and did not meet the criteria...

then we spent a few days submitting the applications to the ministry of education... and just last week, the acceptance letters were printed out... and that is not all, it still has to be signed....

i've learnt one thing doing this: singaporeans love to compare... who is bigger, who is better, who is faster...

reason being? just read on...

when residents in other constituencies receive their letters, our residents call up the co to ask for their's...

resident: "hi. i am calling regarding my daughter's bursary... you know? b-u-r-s-a-r-y?"

me: "oh yes... what's it regarding?"

resident: "my daughter's friend ah kow living in longkang hor, got her letter already leh..."

resident (sounding puzzled): "why we haven't get yet?"

me: "maybe the post travels faster in water... she lives in longkang mah.. you know, longkang got a lot of water..."

"also, longkang nearer than hou-gan... you know "hou" means what? means behind leh.... so naturally slower lor..."

duh... the above was intended to illustrate the point how residents in singapore like to compare... it is not meant to be taken out of context...

the next step after the acceptance letters are sent out, it is the appeal period for late submissions...

and the story repeats itself...

resident: "hi. i am calling regarding my son's bursary.. you know? b-u-r-s-a-r-y?"

me: "oh yes... what's it regarding?"

resident: "my next door neighbour ah beng got the letter already leh... he got bursary leh... i also submit same time why never get huh?"

me: "you see... most probably you didn't meet the criteria but you still submitted... i know singapore has the kiasu syndrome..."

resident: "so how?"

me: "well you just have to wait for the rejection letters..."

and after that, it is time for them to appeal and ask why they were not successful.... and the whole cycle repeats itself...

don't be mistaken... i am super proud to be singaporean... i just feel embarrassed when i get into a situation like this... we are world class, we have top facilities and schools, we have a good transport, port, airline, service... but just a few super bad egg citizens tarnish the image of singaporeans...

and when it is time to queue to get free gifts, you know surely how it the story will end... but well, that is another story...