Disagree with me if you don't like what I say, but I am not going to shut up.

Hi guys. I do monitor the traffic to my blog and once again, I am getting traffic from the HWZ EDMW forum. It seems ironic that no matter how many times I put down that forum in my blog I still keep getting traffic from there! So I followed the links to the latest thread driving traffic to my blog and it is full of people bitching that I had already left Singapore, so I do not have a right to talk about anything to do with Singapore. On the contrary, I think there are some very good reasons why I write about the many Singaporean issues covered on my blog. Please allow me to list them.

Oooh yes one of my pet topics.

1. If you have only known one system all your life, how do you know it is the best or even any good?

There is a huge contrast between people like my parents who have only known the Singaporean system and someone like myself who has lived and worked in many countries around the world. This puts me in a unique position to be able to compare and contrast what is happening in Singapore to what is happening elsewhere on a range of issues from online gambling to charging consumers for plastic bags to the challenges of dealing with the education system.  I'm not saying that all Singaporeans are completely ignorant about what is happening in the rest of the world, but reading a report on a news website or watching a video on Youtube is hardly the same as gleaming a personal insight into the way a society works in another country when you live and work there. The problem is that many Singaporeans then fall into what I call an "island mentality" - they ignore viable alternatives and good solutions from the rest of the world for no better reason than the fact that they are too lazy to interact with others outside Singapore or for some bizarre reason, decide that people like me who do have this insight don't have the right to share that useful information.

I have this problem with my parents who are quintessentially, stereotypically Chinese. That is the only culture they have known all their lives and they have had very little interaction with other cultures. Contrast that to me - I've lived and worked in many different countries for the last two decades, I speak ten languages and have experienced many different cultures and am married to an Irish person. This puts me in an interesting position to be able to examine the way different cultures deal with certain issues such as conflict resolution (which I have blogged about). Now my parents defend Chinese culture all the time not because they have had the chance to compare it to different cultures and have concluded that it is the best - but simply because it is the only culture they know. Their attitude reminds me of when I went to a small town in Vietnam where there was a nice cafe in town which sold (of all things) pizza and the locals just assumed that I wanted to eat it because I was a foreigner. The pizza looked nothing more like pieces of toasted bread with melted cheap cheese and ketchup smeared on top, with what looked like slices of cheap cocktail sausages on top. Yucks, it was rather gross I'm afraid! That's not pizza, I thought - but to the locals, that was the only pizza they ever knew as they were too poor to make the journey to Hanoi and visit an authentic Italian restaurant.

Do you know a good pizza from a bad one?

The locals were very proud of their 'pizza', claiming it was delicious. I begged to differ but do I start berating the chef in that cafe in that small town that his version of pizza was terrible? No, I politely declined to order it, stating that I wanted to enjoy authentic Vietnamese cuisine whilst in Vietnam. You see, I take no joy in showing off that I know so much better than others, I didn't feel the need to brag to the Vietnamese that I have traveled widely in Italy, speak Italian and have had plenty of real authentic Italian pizzas before. That would make me come across as quite proud and arrogant. Nonetheless, when Singaporeans tell me I don't have the right to talk about Singaporean issues just because I have left Singapore, I say this to them: you've lived all your life in Singapore. What insights could you possibly have for these complex issues if your experiences are limited to what you have seen and done in Singapore? Singapore may be an island, but you're also connected to the rest of the world in so many ways - even your government is constantly working with experts from around the world to deal with issues in Singapore. By that token, you should be thanking me for giving you my attention and sharing my valuable insight.

2. It is wonderful to be read by so many people

Perhaps it is a power trip I get each time I look at the number of hits I get on my blog, but did you know that I have had 8.7 million page views so far since I've started blogging? Holy shit, that's a lot of readers, more than I had ever imagined. Now contrast this to the pathetic losers on the HWZ EDMW forums who are posting short comments which are barely read by more than a handful of people given just how many threads there are and how fast a thread becomes obsolete. That's why I stay the hell away from those stupid forums - why should I struggle to get myself heard in such a crowded room like that when I can stand on my own platform here on my blog, write an eloquent piece which will be read by thousands within hours of the moment I publish it? I've always told my readers to stay the hell away from those stupid forums and write their own blogs instead - it is a far more rewarding experience knowing that anything I write will be read by so many. I actually really enjoy the attention from my readers and since many of my readers are from Singapore, I am writing about issues that affect them and they care about - hence the articles on topical issues in Singapore. And quite frankly, if my articles were really that rubbish, then nobody would want to read them. There is, in fact, a direct correlation between the amount of traffic to my blog and the quality of my writing.

Behold the power of blogging.

Allow me to illustrate this with a simple example. I am a big fan of the Amazing Race and love going to the Facebook fan groups where fans share clips about the show. It can be a bit like a forum and I posted some opinions about the latest episode of the Amazing Race Asia Season 5 Episode 1. Two people responded and I really only had any meaningful interaction with one of them. Boo - that was no fun. So instead, I compiled my thoughts into a blog post and posted it today - instantly, I had nearly a thousand hits on that post within the first 24 hours. Now I am not sure where that traffic is coming from - I suspect that fans searching for more information on the Amazing Race Asia are arriving on my blog via Google, but either way, that was far more rewarding than just having two people respond to what I had posted on that Facebook group. If I am going to spend time and effort writing about a TV programme, then I want it to be read by at least a few hundred people, not a handful of people. 

3. I may not live in Singapore but I have friends & family there. 

That's right, I do have friends and family back in Singapore and what happens there does affect the people I love, the people I care about. I realize there are times on my blog where I don't come across as a nice person at all - but is it so hard to imagine that there are people in Singapore I actually do care about? For example, I talk about the Singapore education system because I have a nephew growing up in Singapore, being educated in a local secondary school - this issue directly affects him and his future. As I ponder over these issues that affect the people in Singapore whom I care about, I form opinions and I am trying to be constructive here in furthering the discourse on these issues by comparing the situation in Singapore to what happens in other countries. For what it is worth, I am contributing positively to the situation in Singapore through my blogging, furthering the discourse on difficult issues with my insight.

Issues in Singapore affect people I care about.

4. By all means disagree with me if you don't like what I say - but do you even know what I wrote? 

I don't claim to have all the answers, if you don't like what I write then by all means leave a comment and tell me why you think I am mistaken and I will respond. Some of the most interesting conversations and interactions I have had on my blog have been with readers who do not agree with what I have written and they have presented some very interesting alternative points of views. I may not always be swayed by their arguments but I do enjoy the intellectual exchange with people holding different points of views. I do learn a lot from my readers and have in fact befriended a lot of my regular readers. But these haters - they make no attempt to even respond to the ideas I have presented, they just want me to stop even saying anything because I no longer live in Singapore? Is this because they either have no better ideas to the ones that I have offered or did they not even bother to read any of the articles I have written? Did it occur to you that you might even like some of my ideas if you actually took a moment to read them? If you're going to try to censor me, at least find out what you're trying to censor in the first place.

But here's an important lesson that we can all learn from this: if someone says something that you don't like, how do you respond? Do you tell them to shut up? Do you try to silence or censor them? Or do you respond by telling them that they are wrong and explaining your alternative point of view? In the run up to the 2016 US presidential election, the two camps Clinton vs Trump are bitterly opposed and neither party can get the other one to simply 'shut up' - like, that's just not going to happen. So they have to find increasingly innovative ways to get their message across and one of the best ways is humour, though admittedly, that tends to be more a tool that the Democrats have used effectively. I don't see the Trump camp actually having a sense of humour at all. I really enjoyed the SNL sketches featuring Alec Baldwin as Trump. So there you go, if you can't shut the other party up (the same way my haters in Singapore are never going to get me to shut up), you have to find a more effective way to challenge your opponent. Quite simply, telling someone you do not like to just 'shut up' or 'go away' in the age of social media simply isn't going to work. 

5. What have you got to lose by listening to me? 

After all, what have you got to gain if I shut up and kept my opinions to myself? Nothing. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by engaging me and listening to me. Listen the latest post I wrote about the Amazing Race Asia has just gotten an insane number of hits in the last 24 hours - it has even taken me by surprise. If I decided to just blog about reality TV programmes from now to get more hits on my blog (because clearly many people wanna read what I have to say about the Amazing Race - I am still not quite sure why) then I would be a very happy bunny being a very popular blogger but you Singaporeans are missing out on the insight that someone like me would be able to provide on tricky issues. Indeed, you guys have nothing to gain by silencing me - tell me just one tangible benefit you may gain if I stopped talking about Singaporean politics and blogged about trashy reality TV instead? Nothing, that's right. You will gain nothing. But the fact is, the haters have no influence over what I write anyway - Limpeh will write whatever Limpeh wants to write about and if you're not happy, I suggest you write your own blog and express your opinions there rather than bitch about it on those stupid, vapid forums. Oh please lah, they are such a waste of your time.

6. Criticizing the WP or any other opposition party does not in any way make me pro-PAP. 

Some Singaporeans got very upset the moment they realized I had been critical of some opposition parties on my blog and assumed that by default, that meant that I was taking a pro-PAP stance. Hell no, that couldn't be further from the truth. How many times do I have to say this - I left Singapore because I knew the PAP would always be in charge and I didn't have any faith in them. Seeking greener pastures abroad couldn't be a more significant vote of no confidence in the PAP on my part. In the many years I have spent living and working in various countries around the world, I have had the chance to see how multi-party democracies work and there is much all political parties in Singapore can learn from other countries. The fact is opposition parties in Singapore didn't do well in the last election at all, the PAP increased their overall share of the vote from the previous general election. Something went very wrong. Even if you hate the PAP (like I do), what makes you think endorsing everything the opposition does without questioning them at all would help them win any more votes in the future? They clearly need all the help and good ideas they can get.

Why do people respond so badly to any kind of criticism?

I'm sure you know the concept of constructive criticism. Even those within the WP would not claim that everything has been going swimmingly well in their party - otherwise, they would have certainly won many more seats at the last election and the same could be said about any opposition party in Singapore. Heck, even the PAP cannot claim that everything is going swimmingly well and if they did, well that's just being ridiculously cocky and complacent. Perhaps this has a lot to do with my background in gymnastics, you see, even the best gymnasts in the world are subject to criticisms on a daily basis from their coaches and it is through these criticisms that the gymnasts realize where their mistakes are and can start correcting them. Contrast this to the world of recreational sports where people just wanna get some exercise and have some fun, they're not competitive at all and so instructors who deal with people in recreational sports are very positive, very encouraging and even if they are doing to criticize, it is usually sugar-coated as a kind suggestion. This may be a far less harsh approach than someone who has a demanding coach who yells at them all the time, but whom do you think is going to emerge the champion at the end of the day? Did you think that the great Simon Biles (USA) became the Olympic champion with hugs, kisses and high fives from her coach everyday?

So there you go, that's it from me on this topic. For my haters, I invite you to challenge me on any issue you disagree with me on, but you have to realize that in social media, if you want influence over anyone - if you want them to listen to you, do what you say or even give you a moment of their attention, you must first find an interesting way to get their attention and articulate yourself in an eloquent manner. And do yourselves a favour, stay the hell away from those stupid forums - they are full of retards and you'll struggle to get yourself heard there. It's the worst possible form of social interaction on social media. Let me know what you think, leave a message below. Many thanks for reading.