National Day Rally Speech

I kept asking myself this question as I listened to the PM last night. How are we going to pay for all these programs? Especially the additional support for healthcare. Up to a point they will have to raise new taxes. Will they attempt to dress up the plans in such a way that they will tap the reserves in the short term and raise the GST later, in order to fulfill their campaign promise not to hike GST in the next five years?

Encouraging us to take the initiative to solve our own problems is good. May be he doesn't realize that Gen Y is fond of doing so. You don't even need to ask them. The exceptions get all the bad press but I know that is not what they are like. It is the older generation that are more self centered and often look to the government for help. 

Most people have such busy family and work lives. If they were to do more, there must be a powerful passion to do so. Such people will always be few, but I am sure their numbers will grow. 

Tomorrow can be much better provided the government allows, encourage the younger generation by growing their space. The young will eventually bring scary change to this place and we must allow them. We forgot that we had frightened ourselves in our time too. It is all part and parcel of life and growing up. Such shared experience develop not just individual but collective character. Nothing else bond a people as strongly. I just hope we would be wise about them when the time comes. We would then be able to avoid the scenario I wrote about yesterday. We would show that we deserve better.

We don't just want to survive or even live well. We want meaningful lives built on the miracle we have made of this rock. To create meaning you need space, freedom and courage. If we survive but lost the meaning for being, we will discover that we are just on death row waiting for our moment of denouement. Think Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning"

Government must not just do less but also responsibly cede power to the better informed and creative civic groups who can perform specific tasks better. 

Overall the PM made a safe speech most people can't quarrel with. He could have been more courageous but the government is less confident today. I hope they put in more effort to understand the ground.

Compared to many other advanced cities, we are doing very very well. As I write this, images of the riots in British cities are surfacing.