tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21070055.post114793771334291184..comments2023-08-27T17:31:51.126+08:00Comments on Singapore Life and Times: A house to call homeEpilogoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10968473646396892520noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21070055.post-1148584947294790442006-05-26T03:22:00.000+08:002006-05-26T03:22:00.000+08:00Your post and comment echoes something I wrote a w...Your post and comment echoes something I wrote a while back, "[in Singapore] the past is erased before memories are consolidated". I was relating to my own experiences of growing up in the same vein as you did: the places I once knew are gone. I agree with your observation that Singaporeans seem like perpetual migrants. What I am uncertain is how much of our itinerant mentality stems from the consistent psychological displacement your post discusses, compared to our migrant past. I suspect the impact of the present is substantial. Indeed, this fluxial sense of identity resulting from perpetual spatial displacement of buildings may also be related to our sanitised , repackaged official versions of history (I recall several blog posts writing on this topic: Xenoboy's posts, <I>Small Singapore</I> and <I>Imagi-Nation</I>, would be the most recent and articulate). Our roots may only stretch as far as what is personally relevant to us; without physical tethers and an alien history, amongst other things, our sense of a collective self as Singaporeans may be limited at best.<BR/><BR/>This, of course, begs the question of whether a Singapore identity can truly take root. Would Singaporeans automatically develop a sense of shared identity with the passage of time as MM Lee sanguinely predicts? I am sceptical about it. And that hurts.leopsychehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15637711198368885678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21070055.post-1148538883498270702006-05-25T14:34:00.000+08:002006-05-25T14:34:00.000+08:00I think you are right. The majority of people on t...I think you are right. The majority of people on this island have migrant roots. Who know when our next port of call is, in spite of the Government's best efforts at forging a permanent identity. Looking back, much of what I remember as a child, the places I lived in, the grounds over which I wandered and wondered, well, they are but memories in my mind. I have nowhere I can go back and point to the exact spot where I got that scar. All of that has been demolished to make way for the present razor-thin apartments. This is progress?Epilogoshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10968473646396892520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21070055.post-1148502574532503872006-05-25T04:29:00.000+08:002006-05-25T04:29:00.000+08:00Maybe, more broadly, the idea of permanency is not...Maybe, more broadly, the idea of permanency is not entrenched in the Singaporean psyche.<BR/><BR/>Relatively short life cycles of buildings, cars, planes, to name a few. Somehow, the mantra, "new is good", has ostensibly taken root instead.leopsychehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15637711198368885678noreply@blogger.com