What happened to the place called "home"?

6.9million seriously?! So we're studying so hard, working our ass off and burning midnight oil now just so that we can squeeze and suffocate more in the future?

Suffocation

As it is, trying to get on a bus in school during peak hour is already a great difficulty. Most of the time, we have to wait for 2 to 3 A2 buses to pass before being able to board one. And even then, the bus is packed to the brim. Packed like sardines. A phrase that we used to use so freely in our primary school essays (90's kids will understand) but something we live through everyday now. 

Having worked the common office hours myself last year, i understand the pains of those who travel by public transport to work during peak hours. We have come to the point where the frequency of the trains are already at their maximum (or at least close to that - waiting time of at most 3mins during peak hours). But the trains are still as packed. This is clearly not an issue about the inefficiency of the train services (maybe the technical faults, yes, but not the inability to accommodate the human flow). We have even gone so far as to station staff on the MRT platforms to direct the human traffic. But really, is that the root of the problem? That we commuters lack the basic courtesy and common sense to move in to the cabins and make a little space for others? Or could it be simply that there are just too many people? More than what our infrastructures can accommodate?

A stranger in my homeland

Taking the internal shuttle buses in school, i look around and wonder if i'm even in Singapore sometimes. I just need to listen to the conversations around me to know that i'm surrounded by non-locals. Not that i've anything against them. It's just that the numbers are so overwhelming. It feels almost as if Singaporeans form the minority in Singapore. Of course, statistics confirm that Singaporeans still constitute the greater part of the population but we should not be taking the absolute values.

Money matters

Indeed, our total fertility rate is too low for our own good. We need to employ the help (manpower) of non-locals to support the economy especially as our population ages. But in the first place, why are Singaporeans so unwilling to have children? Aside from the rocket high prices of flats and the inflation of prices of most commodity today, could there be other factors holding couples back from having children? Say, lifestyle. Having a child/ children is a big financial burden on the family's finances, like it or not. And definitely a greater burden than in the 1990s. Think about the mandatory tuition fees parents have to fork out for at least 10 years of their child's education journey. Mandatory because tuition is no longer for enrichment or for 'slower' students to catch up with their school work. Mandatory because every other child they know attends tuition classes and no parents want their child to be academically disadvantaged. This would mean additional costs to the household (and by no means are tuition fees cheap). Consequently, couples might decide that it is safer for both parties to take on full-time jobs, given the uncertainty of employment and the financial needs of the family. Then comes the problem of who to take care of the child. Hire a maid? Money issues. One party to stay home and do the job? Money issues again.

A rat race

Everything here is a race. Competing to get into branded schools, competing to get good grades (or rather, competing to stay afloat and not get trampled on by others in the bell curve), competing to get on the trains and buses, competing for job positions, competing for a flat... Our standard of living may be one of the highest. But quality of life? A nation of unhappy, stressed out citizens (and a good portion of non-local residents).

Our future

We are keen to project growths, developments, achievements... Higher productivity. Larger population. Better infrastructures. Greater innovations. But is anyone going to project a pathetic country state for the future? How about "More Soul-less Citizens by 2030"?  Maybe it is time to pause and think if trading our happiness, our freedom and that little bit of space we have left for all that glitz and glamour is worth it.