But as time goes by, I think my son has forgotten about this saga and he is hot on becoming a spy again.
In the last few weeks, he has been borrowing and buying lots of books about spies.. during the "Dress As Your Ambition Day" in school where they have to dress up according to the occupation that they want to become when they grow up, my son dressed himself up in black shirt and dark jeans with his toy spy watch (he initially wanted to wear orange shirt with beige bermudas but I told him spies have to be low key and not be loud and flashy in bright colours like orange...)
He says other than just being a spy who spies on others, he also wants to invent machines that help spies do their work and the below are some of his inventions...
But hor, I feel that even though I think Ace might make a pretty good engineer (he likes to fix things up like me and has pretty good ideas about what to build using his engineering set and lego set), given his character hor, I think he might make a better politician! hahahha
And I have good reason to think so! The other day, while having a discussion in the car about the state of the public transport in Singapore, Ace gave a passionate speech about making the people in the country happy.. I really think if he ran to be president or PM or MP, he will get it! hahaha..
Maybe it is all the influence from Mr Brown (his fav podcast show), or maybe he is just a natural.. I dunno..
It all started with me and Max exchanging info about Singapore that we read on FB... and the hot topic was the breakdown of the MRT yet and again... When Ace heard that, Ace asked me why has the MRT been breaking down.
I told him as per what I believed.. that they were using cheap parts for the MRT lines and not maintaining the trains well enough even though there are now alot more people using the MRT and they have raised the prices and have been making lots of money. Ace asked me why there are now alot more people using the trains and I explained to him it is because the government has allowed many people from other countries to come to Singapore to stay or to work and therefore, there are alot more people in Singapore now than compared to in the past.
I told Ace that this is making people unhappy and Ace suddenly told me that Singapore is indeed going to the Poopside. I asked him what is the poopside and he says it is the place where a country goes when it is going down, down down... (Duh, even a 7 year old can see tat!!)
And then Ace started asking me why the government is not helping. "Singapore is going to the poopside and the government has to make life better so that everybody can be happy!" And there goes the start of his very passionate plea to build a better Singapore! hahaha
Ace then asked me why the government is letting so many people into Singapore and I explained to him that the government believes that this will help Singapore remain competitive and productive as many of these migrant labour are much cheaper... also, the government wants more talented people to come into the country to help the country grow.
To give a fair point of view, I asked Ace to imagine himself as a boss of a company. "So if you want to make more money, would you hire the more expensive singaporean worker or the less expensive worker from another country?"
So I explained to Ace that it is not WRONG to allow other people to come to your country to work or to stay. The foreign talents are important and they do contribute to Singapore. But it is the way it is being done that is making Singaporeans complain. Too many people from overseas are coming in at one shot and they are making life relatively more difficult for singaporeans with their differences in cultures and values and their existence has made housing, food and transport alot more expensive and the whole experience of being in Singapore more unpleasant for most people as it seems to be getting "too crowded". And the most important thing, I told Ace, in my opinion, is that Singaporeans are a welcoming lot actually and usually very tolerant of people who are different but this time, they are very unhappy because they feel that their government is not taking care of them... and not listening to them at all even though they have been trying hard to tell the government how they feel and what they want.
"It is the same like your daddy and mummy are not taking good care of you but they are nice to other people's children and they are much nicer to them than they are to you even though you are the child they gave birth to and have been listening to them and doing everything that they told you to... If you were in this situation, Ace, how would you feel? So now, you understand why Singaporeans are really unhappy.. " I tried to explain the situation to him in a language that he understands..
My son surprised me by having deep insight into this issue and his solution is one needle see blood lor. He asked me why has the government not been conducting meetings with the people to listen to them. "If they listen to everybody, everyone will feel better.." he said. "The government should hold a big meeting and invite everybody to the meeting and they should talk to each other.." declared my little future politician-to-be...
I explained to him that it is impossible to have a meeting that includes every Singaporean. Also, if we had everyone go to the meeting and everyone express how they feel, the meeting will take way too long and there may be too much talking without ever getting things done. That is why the system is in such a way that we have MPs and we are supposed to tell the MPs what we feel and they are suppose to go to the meeting on our behalf and tell the head of states what we want and how we feel.
"Does it mean the meeting only have a few people and people who never go cannot tell what they think?" he asked me.. "Erm.. I guess you can say tat.. Cos you have to tell your MP and it is up to them to decide if they want to discuss about what you told them..."
My son went silent for awhile and became thoughtful. After regrouping his thoughts, he declared in a loud passionate voice.. "It is very simple, daddy and mummy... To have a good country, you just need to remember this... Number 1, be independent.. number 2, be a master and be good at doing things and number 3, make the people in your country very very very happy..."
I asked him how do you measure what it means to be a good country and he actually had a ready answer.. "It good country is a rich country with happy people, lots of good jobs and houses for people to stay lah.."
I must tell you I am super impressed by this 7 year old!
"You know, mummy," said Ace after a short pause.. :"I really like the old government.. He is very good and wise and he made Singapore very strong..."
"Which old government are you talking about?" I asked him.. "Our Prime Minister's Daddy lah.. Lee... Lee.. Lee Kuan Yew... I think he is very clever and wise and he made Singapore very strong..."
I told Ace that while i think tat Lee Kuan Yew was indeed a great leader and Singapore might be very different without him, I feel that his ways and strategies are no longer in line with the world today. If he were to apply the exact same strategies now, they might not work anymore as the world is changing!
Then Ace started to give a mini talk about being independent, being a master and making your country happy.. hahahhaha and he was so passionate hor, me and Max clapped hard for him lor.. if election now and he is running for MP and even if he werent related to us, we will still vote for him and his passion!:) I mean I figured tat most politicians as long as can talk with passion and very charismatic, already win alot of votes liao.. wahahaha...
Encouraged by the claps, his "hong" come already and he is all fired up... so he continued with little speech... "Don't try to rescue other countries in the poop... if you are already going to poopland.. do something to make your country go up up up...." Hahahahaa.. see, he also understands what it means to mind your own business and save yourself first.. hahaha
"Make Singapore better! And it is very simple.. WIN IT, BE IT! Yes, you just have to WIN IT, BE IT! " he ended his talk.
Wah.. even got slogan somemore! Kauz, told you he is better off becoming a politician.. hahaha
Anyway, after his little speech, we continued our discussion about what it means to be government and how a government's decision can affect lots of people and how sometimes they may make decisions that are very difficult to make. I gave him the example of the casinos.. "The government believes that having the casinos will create more jobs for Singaporeans and thus make more money for Singapore and its economy. It will also attract more tourists coming into Singapore to spend their money in Singapore and so this will make singapore richer.. But this decision is a hard and difficult one to make because having a casino also means there might be more people who will lose their money gambling there and be short of money.. so there might be an increase in crime like robbery or maybe even an increase in murder or suicides related to money."
Ace thought for a little while and told me, "Mummy, when I am Prime Minister of Singapore, I will close down all the casinos because I don't want people to gamble.. because when they lose money, they will become dangerous.."
And he started offering solutions for the problem!
"If parents have children who gamble, call us... the government will have safety rules, we will put signs up and remind people not to gamble... The sign will say:
Government Rules
Please please please dun do anything bad and don't rob others even when you have less money. We are not getting poorer, we are getting better!"
I wish our PM and our MPs had the heart of a little boy like tat and saw our problems for what they are instead of thinking that we are just whining and I wish he has this passion and fervor to help and serve Singaporeans like Ace..:D I would love someone like tat serve us in the parliament anytime!:)
PS: Yesterday, just before he slept, we were discussing about ambitions and he told me that when he grows up, he will want to be a Scientist (who invents spy equipment), a Policeman, a spy and a PRIME MINISTER! wahahahaahha...
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