Utopia or Nightmare?

Most of us have thought about how the grass is always greener on the other side, making comparisons between various aspects of foreign countries and our own; living conditions, career prospects, government administration, education opportunities and etc. Remember the guy who created the controversial movie Farenheit 9/11? A few months ago Michael Moore released his latest movie titled Sicko which compared the health care benefits between US, UK and France.

Norway however, was left out of the original movie as Moore thought it was too scary for movie-goers. Was it really that scary? Watch for yourself.

The first thing that came to my mind was “Wow! *_* How do I get a citizenship there?”. It really is paradise! Getting a tropical island vacation during the Winter to help you cope with your illness, police patrolling alongside cute well-groomed poodles, free cars for the disabled, waste-energy generation, no death sentences and much much more. The peaceful and serene environment makes it seem like the perfect place for a slow, comfortable and laid back life. (Not to mention their HIGH GDP! I’d love to feel rich wherever I travel. How did such a small and pristine country get so rich?).

On second thought, it is too scary a place to live in! Everything looks too peaceful and ideal to be true; almost like the scenes you see only in Disney fairytales and The Stepford Wives. It is the relaxing, carefree lifestyle a lot of us city dwellers have been aspiring to have but for retirement? Maybe only a year. For rest of my life? No. Its too peaceful and boring. I need some occasional chaos to make life a bit more interesting or else this utopia will in the long-run become a nightmare. For holiday? Yes, if I can afford it. It’d be fun to live in a fairytale once in a while.

What about for you? Is Norway a nightmare or utopia?

Heritage in Pictures

Highlighting an interesting event by a friend. ^_^

Pictures are a snapshot of moments in our lives, memories which we would like engraved in the stones of our heads as long as we live, to remind us of the few important words among the 1,000 a picture is worth. However, more often than not we fail to capture the tiny significant moments that have shaped our lives, culture and memories indirectly like the traditional ding dang candy stalls that used to roam the sidewalks of Singapore. Speak to elders about the ding dang candy and it should ring a bell with joyful stories of them craving while waiting in queue lines. Speak to the younger generations about it and you will get a model-perfect “o_O?” expression. As expected, these little intricacies have vanished over time as our priorities and lives are continuously sculpted around the ever-changing world. Many of them have waiver off to become only vague words which will only be remembered as long as the older generations live. Once they leave, so will these intricacies.

Some of you might say “Hey we have pictures. Why not just capture them?”. True, but how many of us have captured them? Most of us take pictures of our friends, festivals, beautiful buildings and sceneries but neglect these tiny tiny times. (Who knows, 2 generations in the future we might not have hawker centres anymore). Next time you roam the streets, just take out your camera and start shooting some pictures you had never thought of taking before; the Chinese music peddlers on the sidewalks, the folded grass origamis or even the scene of the 3 ice-cream stall uncles having territorial quarrels at Bugis Junction. Never know what happy thoughts these pictures will spark in your mind when you look back in the future.

Need an incentive?
Not a problem. I’m just as much a procrastinator as every other human being(sometimes probably more than usual). As part of the Explore Singapore! campaign by the National Heritage Board this year, there is a photo blogging competition where you can win a Nikon DSLR camera. Don’t have a blog? Start one just for the competition. All it takes is one blog post with a photo and your personal story. Dunno what to start snapping? Well, the 80 heritage events being organized might be a good place to start getting some ideas.

What would I personally snap? Haha well I already gave some hints about that earlier! (Pretty sure you can guess which of the examples I’ll be snapping right? ).

Till later! ^_~

Resources:
Sweet Sweet Ding Dang (One of the more interesting entries)
Explore! Singapore website
More about the photo competition