BENG TANG | Teacher
My wish for SG is that people in SG will become more mindful of the world around them, more aware of how the world works and of the effects of the things they do on it. For example, when they demolish a building and build a new one, they should think about where the sand and cement to build it came from and what effect the extraction of those materials had on the places where they came from. When they wipe themselves with tissue paper, I hope they think about where that paper came from and what making it entailed for the place where it came from and the people and other living things there. When they invest money in a bank or in shares, I hope they think about what industries that money goes on to fund and what effects they have on people and the environment. As they take photos of their food to post on facebook, I hope they think about where that food came from and how it was made, and who the people were who were involved in the process of putting it on their plate, and what it cost them. Singapore may be a small country, but it has a disproportionately large influence on the wider world, an influence that has largely not been a good one. The most populous countries in the world, India and China, are looking to Singapore as a model for their development - looking to follow the ways of a country that overshoots its biocapacity on January 2 each year, looking to follow a lifestyle and economic model that would consume 4.1 Earths worth of natural resources to sustain it if everyone lived that way. I hope Singaporeans think about such things, for the sake of the planet and all the people and living things in it, and for their own sakes, because what goes around comes around. God or karma will hold Singapore to account. Some studies predict that if current trends continue, industrial civilisation will collapse around 2040 as natural resources run out and population increases. There will be famines, riots and wars, a time of trouble. As a country that has all but destroyed its capacity to grow enough food for its unsustainable population, and that is deeply invested in the industrial capitalist way of doing things, Singapore will be very hard hit. Then, Singaporeans will be like the refugee boat people that it now turns away from its shores, saying that as a small country it has no space for them. I really hope Singaporeans stop worshipping their idols, their false gods — money, status and power — and start caring about other people and living things. It is not too late to avert, or at least, postpone the coming crisis, if Singapore repents.