Our dreams, our singapore? really?

this year's national day song is quite similar to those that were composed years past. all of them instill that nostalgic sense of patriotism and hopes and blahblahblah that subliminally tells you this message:

'this is singapore. she has treated you damn well. you better contribute in return, and remember singapore is your home.'

nothing wrong with that. singapore has done well. we have excellent healthcare (trust me, i know!), a generally hardworking lot of citizens, and a great defense plan amongst other things. but are all singaporeans treated equally? are all singaporeans given the same opportunities?

can we really call singapore our home?

where are our dreams?

let's take kaira gong's example. she was the cute lass that sang this year's ndp song - my island home. gong's song proclaims that she will never forget singapore, nor will singapore forget her, and dreams are born everyday. apart from getting a chance to be in this year's ndp limelight, she is otherwise honing her talent (read: living her dreams) in taiwan. there are many countless examples like her - TALENTS living out their dreams at places that give them the opportunity to do so. can we really say she's 'homegrown'?

the local university turned me down several times. i remember making an enquiry several years back about returning home to complete my university studies. i was blatantly told by a university admissions officer that i will never get a chance to study in singapore simply because i turned down a position to do my undergrad in "a world class (farce) university". my subsequent applications to do my masters were turned down and given to many students who coincidentally have 2-syllable chinese names. and to think that my industry has only a handful of us practicing, this is rather a statistical anomaly. either that, or i've been forgotten. where is my singapore?

i am living out my dreams, but where is the singapore helping me to live up to them?