i heart sg

"NDPs are depressing. They remind me of everything that is orchestrated, superficial, rehearsed, practiced, and devised from top-down in Singapore. They are artificial cauldrons of whipped up frenzy and heightened emotions where quick spasms of ecstasy are mistaken for patriotism."
~ From groundnotes

Been meaning to post this for some time, and today is the perfect day.

I've always hated the National Day Parade -- different from National Day -- even though I have been to countless ones in my childhood because my dad was in the Army. In my youth, I even took part in three.

In Secondary One or Two, I was in the choir. I recall that I was under an overhead mike on the actual day, after months of rehearsals, and purposely, gleefully, sang out of tune for the mike to pick up my screeching. Which it did.

In Secondary Three or Four, I was in the marching contingent of the Girls' Brigade. I remember trying very hard not to faint and not knowing what was going on during the entire parade. Once we marched in, we just stood still and could not see a thing. Once we marched out, we were fed cold KFC and could only hear what was going on inside the stadium.

In university, I forgot the lesson learnt in my youth and joined the marching contingent for NTU for the sake of a few meagre ECA points (to continue staying in the hostel). At least when I was in the Girls' Brigade, we had a smart costume uniform. The NTU contingent wore baggy track pants and polo tees. There was also no chance to see the displays in the stadium. Stone cold KFC was probably involved too.

Not only do I have bad memories, I also do not like having my emotions manipulated, which is why, in the 14 years since, I have not been to a parade or even watched one on TV. And I intend to keep it that way.

P.S. Not that it is at all significant, but this is my 999th blog post. Who would have thought I had so much rubbish to utter?