Q&A: Why are you blogging about Singapore? Do you wanna come back?

Now one of the questions that was raised in EDMW when my blog became the definitive source for information about the Jerard Lee vs Timetric story was this: Limpeh is already a British citizen living and working in London for a European company - why is he is interested in blogging about Singapore? There was even a suggestion that I was intending to return to Singapore if nothing works out for me in London - so I will address those two questions.

Firstly, why am I blogging about Singapore so much despite not having set foot in Singapore for a while (November 2011 to be precise)? The answer is simple: because my readers are mostly in Singapore. Of the 3.42 million views I have had on my blog so far, 1.91 million of those are from Singapore. That works out to be 55.85% of my readers being in Singapore - the rest are from all over the world with the USA being in second place and the UK in third. Therefore, I know my readers are mostly Singaporeans from those statistics and I am writing for them when I address issues which I think they would want to read about.

I feel I can lend a unique point of view - that of the "compare & contrast" third party observer. There is a famous saying in Chinese,  当局者迷, 旁观者清 (those who are involved cannot see as clearly as those on the outside) and I feel there is an element of truth to that when it comes to looking at a lot of the issues affecting Singapore today. Therefore many of my readers do value my insight on these issues as someone who has spent virtually all my adult life outside Singapore. My blog is there for those who want to read it and if you're not interested - you wouldn't be here.

There was even the suggestion that I should be arrested for trying to meddle in the internal affairs of Singapore by blogging about Singapore - ROTFL. Do bloggers actually have that much power and influence in Singapore? No, they don't I'm afraid and if only we did! As I have explained in my piece about Leslie Chew of Demon-cratic, I tend to attract readers who already agree with me anyway (ie. anti-PAP, pro-liberal reform). In any case, you are unlikely to find the local state controlled me to be critical of the system there, so I am actually filling a gap in the market for frustrated Singaporeans who do want someone to vocalize their displeasure. They come to my blog and seek empathy - that's how it works: birds of a feather flock together.

In any case, I do not blog solely about Singapore - let's look at the blog posts from 2013. Including this post, there are 89 blog posts from me this year. 37 posts included content about Singapore (not all of them were entirely Singaporean topics, but just to keep things simple, if Singapore was mentioned in the post, then it's in the 37) - that works out to be 41.57% of my posts being of Singaporean content this year (for my 55.85% of readers from Singapore). If I was really trying to cater for my Singaporean readers, then perhaps I should have had at least 50% Singaporean content? But no, it is currently just 41.57% and before the recent spate of articles about the Jerard Lee case, that figure would have been much lower. I do write a lot about other issues, things that are happening to me, challenges that I am tackling, the fun holidays, the tough times at work - I share them all on my blog.

As a blogger, I am nothing without my readers. A blog with no readers is no more than a diary - a blogger has a special relationship with his readers and I respond to practically all the comments left on my blog - I even monitor the traffic to my blog carefully every few hours and check where they are from, what articles they are reading, the source of that traffic and I respond to not just the comments but the flow of the traffic. There is the saying, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well life has given me a strong following from Singapore on my blog, so I am going to write about what I think my Singaporean readers are interested in.

I love my readers, my blog is nothing with you. 

Onto the next question - do I intend to return to Singapore if things don't work out for me in London? I think the person who has asked that question doesn't realize just how freaking old I am, LOL! Newsflash people: Limpeh is old. Limpeh 很老了, aku telah tua lah! Let me give you some idea of the time frame regarding when I first arrived in England, okay? I graduated in 2000 and have been working since 2000 at end of May after I finished my last exams at university.  That makes it almost 13 years ago, now that we're in mid-May 2013. That is a bloody long time ago - I am 37 today you realize? Do you think I have only just graduated recently? Duh.

If I still haven't managed to "work things out" in 13 years, good grief, I would be an epic failure. What kind of time frame would you allow someone to try to work things out? 1 year? Maybe 2 years? But 13 years? No, that's too bloody long to try to work things out - I reckon by the end of the first year, you should have a pretty good idea whether you can "work things out" or not. In any case, I did my degree here in England - I got to know the culture here pretty well in my time as an undergraduate and that decision to stay on in England (and not return to Singapore) was already taken sometime in my second year because I had already known by around the end of 1998 that I will be able to "work things out" in London, I wanted to spend my adult working life in Europe and most importantly, that I did NOT want to return to Singapore. That decision was taken in my second year at university in 1998 - an awfully long time ago. If I had any desire to return to Singapore - I would have held onto my Singapore passport rather than give it up to become British.

But just a bit of background info for those of you who may be new to my blog and don't know much about me. There was a moment of doubt within my first year of graduation if things were going to work out - I hated my first job so much I left after a year. I only held on that long because I didn't want to look as if I gave up after a few months - it was hell. I hated my boss, I hated my colleagues and the money wasn't great. I then moved on to my second job and things got a lot better - I fell into financial sales and whilst I still hated the people around me, I was earning a lot of money. I got ridiculously rich in the years 2003 and 2004 and from a financial point of view, things really did work out. I was raking in so much money I was able to buy my flat and I have since expanded my property portfolio by buying a second flat (which I let out). How many of you can claim to own two properties in central London?

There's no question about my financial situation - modesty aside, Limpeh is rich, thank you very much. Whilst it is practical to have money, I think it is also important to be happy and follow your dreams. That is why I stopped working full time in finance in 2004 and began to explore my options in the arts and media, allowing my creative side to blossom. I had always been a very artistic person and there was no room for that creativity and that artistry in the world of finance. Heck, how many drama-elective humanities scholars from VJC actually end up working in hedge funds? I was groomed for the arts as a student but followed the money into finance. I didn't want to grow old with regrets of not having explored my artistic talents to see if they were any good - I have done that and have been fortunate enough to now have proven myself in two very different industries.

I have only been able to do this because I have bosses who are totally cool about me pursuing my artistic interests and they believe it is healthy to have a life outside work. So to my Singaporean doubters, not only have things worked out for me financially, I am actually in a very good position whereby I am getting the best of both worlds professionally in both finance and the arts. As we say in Chinese, my position is 求之不得 - I couldn't ask for more, I couldn't be more satisfied. Are there any professionals (bankers, lawyers, doctors, engineers etc) in Singapore who manage to remain active in the arts? Is that even possible in Singapore? Let me know - leave a comment please.

Besides, in suggesting that, "if things don't work out for him in London, he may return to Singapore" - this person was suggesting that it would be somehow easier for me to make it in Singapore than for me to try to do so in London. Now I don't think that is true, having worked in both Singapore (during my 2011 stint) and all over Europe and the Middle East from 2000 to 2013. So let's say hypothetically, if I lost my job and couldn't find work in London (or anywhere else in Europe), would returning to Singapore be the right thing to do? No, it would be like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Here are the reasons why:

1.Is it easy to get a job in Singapore? I don't think so! Even as an FT, sure I would have a lot of competitive advantages over Singaporean men (no reservist, no CPF), but the job market Singapore is a highly competitive and I would have to compete with every other FT from all corners of the world who have come to Singapore in search of a job.

2. Getting a job depends a lot on your connections - the people I am connected to on Linkedin are practically all based in Europe and I have very few Singaporean connections on Linkedin. The last time I had to look for a job, all I had to do was email my professional contacts to say, "I am leaving my current company" - I didn't even have to ask for a job, I received 3 job offers within 24 hours (I am currently working for one of the three men who offered me a job). I am well connected in Europe - I am not well connected in Singapore. Why? My contacts in Singapore are very limited and it would be much harder for me to get a job in Singapore than in London.

3. I have barely spent a few months in Singapore since 1997. I have been away from Singapore for far too long to have any kind of local advantage - I am effectively a foreigner in Singapore now and am a local when in Britain. I have friends in London, I have my professional contacts here, I have former colleagues and a whole network of contacts I can draw upon for my work - I have none of that in Singapore and it is going to be a lot harder for me to strike it out in Singapore without my network of local support.

4. Likewise for my work in the arts & media - I do know a lot of people from agents to directors to actors to producers - if I move to Singapore, I would be knocked back to square one. Ouch.

5. Singapore has changed beyond recognition from the 1990s, when I last lived in Singapore properly and it has changed for the worse. Where do I even begin? The PAP is still in power, too many foreigners, severe overcrowding, pressures placed on locals to compete for everything - good grief. There are so many cities and countries in the world - if things got really bad London (say North Korea dropped a nuclear bomb on London and I somehow survived), I would still not go to Singapore when there are so many other place I'd rather go to. Australia, South Korea, Holland, Belgium, New Zealand, Canada, France, America, Eastern Europe - that list is pretty long and whilst there is a part of me that is very fond of the country where I grew up, I have no desire to return to Singapore to work/live (unless you bribe me with a lot of money and I'll go at the right price) whilst the PAP is still in power.

So there you go - those are my answers to those two questions. I blog about Singapore because over half my readers are in Singapore and no, I am not going to return to Singapore. Any questions or comments, please feel free to leave a comment below - thanks!