What do you want to be when you grow up?

"Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief,

Rich man, Poor man, Beggar man, Thief!

Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief,
Rich man, Poor man, Beggar man, Thief!"

What do you want to be when you grow up?

The A-levels have just ended for most and the time has come to give serious thought to this question. Perhaps you might be unwilling to force yourself to choose, after having to do so in MCQ after MCQ. But let me just say that having to answer this question is a blessing - it represents that degree of certainty in our lives that allows us to plan for the future. But then again, planning for the future gives us expectations, which oil the slope called disappointment.

Amongst the meddies in Melbourne, our discussion of this question takes on another form; "What do you plan to specialise in?". Our answers always brim with hope and promise. Yet, since coming back to my sunny island 5 days ago, I've had 3 people answer the former with caution that conceals any modicum of hope they might have once had. You know how we have a PSI index to measure the severity of the haze here? If we had the same index to measure the miasma of despair amongst young Singaporeans, it would have to be in log-scale. And if I got a dollar coin every time I hear someone say 'fat hope' or 'better don't hope', I'm convinced my tax contributions would be astronomical.

Perhaps one day, the guys at Oxford might just add the word 'Singapore' to their dictionary as a synonym of 'Excellence'. Looking around the island, its not difficult to see a nexus between the two; our airport boasts over 250 awards of excellence in 25 years, our government is amongst the least corrupt and most efficient in the world, and our nascent Biopolis has been creeping onto the world map by virtue of pockets of scientific breakthroughs. The price we have had to pay for these achievements is high - our obsession with excellence has given birth to an education system which has pushed generation after generation of Singaporeans to breaking point. This is a system which is architected to sift out the elite, at the expense of the rest.

Do the ends justify the means?