Singapore is a small and young nation compared to many developed countries. We only gained independence 44 years ago. Although we are technologically and economically very advanced, we are still way behind in our social and cultural development. The "coolie" blood still flows in our veins... yet, we seemed to have lost our ancestors' resilience and spirit. Anyway, I am beginning to think that our national day has become too commercialised to trigger whatever sense of patriotism that is left in me. Everywhere I go, I see shops selling NDP related merchandise - red and white clothing etc. Retail industry "celebrates" our nation's birthday with great discounts and sales while the hotels provide excellent room rates for NDP enthusiasts to watch the fireworks.
It was a pity that I could not find any books on our national day for young children. Actually, I am quite embarrassed. How can we teach our young ones to be patriotic then? So, we ended up making the Singapore flag this morning. I am quite clueless to what we could do to celebrate our national day. In fact, I can only think of the National Day Parade whenever I think of our national day...
I guess "Patriotism" is very abstract to young children, and they may not understand the concept yet. And also I think wearing red and white, holding flags etc are the first step to teach young children about partiotism since other days they don't see that many people wearing red & white or holding flags, and when they question why, then teaching comes, though they may not understand, but I think they learn something new. Maybe get people to be patriotic for just one day than to forget when Singapore gained its independence...haaa...
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