A new begining, risky but rewarding

Yes! I am now in Melbourne.

I unabashedly proclaim myself as a QUITTER (a term coined by SM Goh).

Good riddance then.

I may not have found a job yet. Yeah, I am taking a big risk which makes no sense in a Singaporean culture/thinking where everything has to have a bottom-line dollar and profit or positive financial figure tied to it (yes, I know I am worth just a figure to you).

If everything is to be spelt out and given on a silver platter, where is the sense of adventure then? How do you 'teach' creativity, thinking out-of-the-box? How do you encourage the entrepreneurial spirit, the dare-discover-the-unknown factor in a venture? The first move is always to step out of your comfort zone.

And we wonder why there is the brain drain.

Anyway, this draft was in my blog for at least 4 months. I hardly even have time to publish it! So here goes:

"Did the government ever cared that for the past 4+ months (the Dec holidays included), I have been working my butt off?!!

I have been going home late after 9pm approximately 3-4 times a week! I hardly see my daughter (now that she goes to pre-school for >3 hours) because she sleeps early by the time I reach home.

I have also noticed how she began to distance herself from me. I come home weary, tired and grumpy. Think a bear with a sore head. I shout at the least bit of irritation or when things don't work out well for me.

Let me spell it out to you clearly: Your labor law sucks! So do your pro-creation carrots-dangling-with-sticks-behind-your-backs policies! Even if I have the means and finance, I will not have another child. And it's not that I don't have the means.

Go figure."

Come to think of it, instead of having really good pro-creation benefits (see Japan, France, etc.) to increase the birthrates and to encourage mothers to stay at home, foreign talent becomes the Singapore answer - to fill in the gap of low birth rates and 'cheaper' labor.

And the result? Singaporean citizens will pro-create less!

Why? It's a chicken and egg thingy.

The more the government employs foreign talent (no offense, rather I feel they do contribute to the society. Personally, it is not the foreign talent issue but the policies supporting it. Anyway, I digress...), the less secure a citizen feels. The less a citizen feels secure, the less he will think of raising a family in Singapore.

And the government brings in more foreign talent. They will pro-create more than a Singaporean couple. This in turns make a Singaporean citizen feel unworthy.

And so he leaves.

So it goes on in an endless cycle.

Except that the foreigners will take the money and leave. 10 out of 10 colleagues I have asked and know of don't want to take Singaporean citizenship.

Well, I have taken the blue (or is it red, but who cares) pill. Let's see how it works in AU. The only thing that matters is - I have more time for my family.

This is something Singapore cannot provide me.