post-reservist

There are many things that could be written about for this reservist. I could talk about... allocation of man, expectations of discipline, and so many other things. But for now, I will look at things from a sociological perspective and reflect on the things I learnt...

I realise that being in university exposes oneself to a limited subset of people in Singaporeans. The people who go to university have at least a mindset of a partially secured future, that at the minimum, they should graduate with a bachelor's degree - better than nothing in a qualification-driven society at least for entry positions.

However, I return to reservist, and the norm is for people NOT to have the advanced tertiary education of a university... Instead, these are people who survive through their wits alone, with the accumulation of insights and experience. They live by their cunning, their resourcefulness, and their EQ... However, they don't have a future entirely secured by themselves. They are risktakers, and that means they will resort to illegal activities at times... Sadly, they are also left out in the SG society - they are seen as callous, unruly... when in fact, they are more intelligent than the atas people at university give credit for.

I understand better now, this concept that SG is really on the verge of class warfare - because the cultural capital of the different parties are divergent, that these worlds, if not for the context of NS, do not interpenetrate at all, but are based on so different assumptions of success and failures. In my context, and perhaps for the university students; the scholars; success comes from the ability to participate in the system - notably the public sector, or the corporate sector. For these other people, success is defined by the sheer ability to make money by yourself - forming your own company perhaps... This really strikes me as an issue of empowerment - these people need to be further empowered with the necessary knowledge and skills; to give them more space to grow, and develop. These people do not do well in the current school system that we have - they simply have intelligence(s) that are not measurable by examinations and interviews, but by their ability to form and harness relationships for themselves. These people are the true masters of their own fate - no institution can fit to them - they will test the systems, find the loopholes, and exploit them to varying effects - the mindset of a ristktaker, an entrepreneur, and if given the right knowledge, could be the leaders of a different kind of economy in SG...

But SG institutions have ignored them...

To step into their world is to accept a different set of assumptions about the ways and means to live a life... hard work, perseverance and all these values take on different meanings in their application in their way of life...

Way of life... there isn't a 'way of life' in SG - there are different ways about it.