Friday Philosophy : Most Singaporeans Should Go To Heaven

I often marvel at my life and the happy Utopia of this beautiful place I call home.

Why not ? Unemployment is 1.9% announced just.  The main things the 98.1%, like me, worry about would be which car to get next year when the 3 year warranty runs out.

My life is pretty great. I can eat at any restaurant I want and also go to the hawker centres for my fix of local fare.  It is hard to run afoul of the law but for the occasional speeding or parking fine. Public places are copiously clean and air quality is good. The enforcement agencies are efficient in keeping all manners of vermin and toxins out of our food and society.

Elsewhere around the world, the 7th Tibetan to self immolate in a week; Hurricane shuts down New York; UBS employees find themselves unceremoniously shut of their jobs; Syrians are cowering in fear as the ceasefire deal breaks down; Argentina debt rating is cut to B- from B by S&P.

Singaporeans do not have to deal with rampant official corruption, poverty, religious or racial or gender discrimination; and alike, they do not have bold opportunities  to indulge in crime, human exploitation, abuse or acts of malevolence of any kind. There is no environment to plunder and there is nothing to hate very much.

Complaining and grumbling is the Number 1 national past time although there is really little to grumble about when you get down to considering between needs and wants.

Economically, socially and politically, the country is stable. There are compromises, of course, for that stability. There is the internal sedition act which does not tolerate deviant view points on social and political issues. For the general populace, it has worked well and made Singapore the efficient labour machine that makes good investment.

Even China has half dozen strikes a day and try as I may, I cannot recall a single labour strike here in my entire lifetime. Perhaps because labour unions are discouraged or disallowed, I am not certain.

Argument : Criteria for Heaven

Discussion over 2 bottles of whisky nearly turned into a fight with bellicose fellow Singaporeans, who took turns to  “diss” my suggestion that most Singaporeans and, for that matter, people who live in Singapore, will have a higher probability of going to heaven !

The natural line of defence I fell back on is the definition.

I have a theory that anyone who has been through the rigor of the education system here have a head start in the legal profession. Arguing and weaving our way to top grades is a natural skill that is reflected from the top.

Its all about statistics that makes everything look good. We were all taught in school to study smart and not hard, honing our instincts to answer exam questions according to the wants of the examiners and not ourselves.  Its not too hard to understand if you step back and observe the roomful of accolades Singapore has accumulated over the years – best port, best airport, wealthiest country, least corrupt and it goes on.

And so I will draw the battle lines as these.

Assume sin keeps us out of heaven.

Firstly, sin should be restricted to largely, crimes towards the future of humanity for instance, the melamine in infant formula scandal in China.

Secondly, I am arguing about the relative propensity to commit sin in Singapore as compared to other nations.

Thirdly, sin should be segregated between actions and thoughts.  I am unable to comment on the unseen aspect although we could roughly surmise that thoughts and motives spur action. Distill the motives and we have morals or we have restraints (rationale). I will not go down that path of argument.

It is therefore safe for me to conclude that Singapore has the conditions for its inhabitants to lead la dolce vita (the good life) and the life that I presume would lead us to heaven.

Now, I await your rebuttals leaving you with a joke.

He was a good man. He never smoked, drank, had no affairs. When he died, the insurance company refused the claim.

They said, he who never lived, cannot die!