LNY Day 2. Meeting rellies - again good to catch up. Then I left them to it and wandered down to the shops. The only food that was available and looked appealing for dinner was Indian. The little food stall had a tandoor and the naan was cooked in front of me! Hotter (ie chilli hot) than in Sydney or in India.
Over two days of rellie-meeting, I got to talk to three young men who were currently doing or recently finished their compulsory (except for one - more about that later) National Service. All Singapore men have to do this after their HSC. It was introduced about the time I was in Singapore in the seventies, and then it was none too popular.
So I was surprised to hear the fairly positive things these young men had to say. All acknowledged that it was reputedly much harder in the past than it is now. KM remembers Israeli soldiers doing the training when Lee Kuan Yew wanted a full-on citizens force. Now they all do 6 weeks basic military training, then get posted to various parts of the Armed Forces. One had worked as a medic and had learned basic emergency procedures. One had just finished his first month, and we heard about the haircuts - Number 2 - that they all get for S$2.00. So any young man with short hair is probably a national serviceman. They all seemed happy with their trainers/instructors.
One of them was from China and had been to school here on a visitors visa. It wasn't compulsory for him, but if he completed National Service, he was pretty well guaranteed Singapore citizenship. So he probably has a a different perspective on it.
I guess you could think "gap year". And this isn't the first time society has imposed a period of training/socialisation/initiation on its young people - young men in Thailand do a limited period as a monk. And the Singapore arrangement now seems to be a well-tuned machine. One said that if it was too tough, the parents would complain, and the Government wouldn't be too popular. Who needs a multi-party democracy to get your message across? All very interesting.
Over two days of rellie-meeting, I got to talk to three young men who were currently doing or recently finished their compulsory (except for one - more about that later) National Service. All Singapore men have to do this after their HSC. It was introduced about the time I was in Singapore in the seventies, and then it was none too popular.
So I was surprised to hear the fairly positive things these young men had to say. All acknowledged that it was reputedly much harder in the past than it is now. KM remembers Israeli soldiers doing the training when Lee Kuan Yew wanted a full-on citizens force. Now they all do 6 weeks basic military training, then get posted to various parts of the Armed Forces. One had worked as a medic and had learned basic emergency procedures. One had just finished his first month, and we heard about the haircuts - Number 2 - that they all get for S$2.00. So any young man with short hair is probably a national serviceman. They all seemed happy with their trainers/instructors.
One of them was from China and had been to school here on a visitors visa. It wasn't compulsory for him, but if he completed National Service, he was pretty well guaranteed Singapore citizenship. So he probably has a a different perspective on it.
I guess you could think "gap year". And this isn't the first time society has imposed a period of training/socialisation/initiation on its young people - young men in Thailand do a limited period as a monk. And the Singapore arrangement now seems to be a well-tuned machine. One said that if it was too tough, the parents would complain, and the Government wouldn't be too popular. Who needs a multi-party democracy to get your message across? All very interesting.
