Hm.

*points to self* is a middle middle class child. mmm.

I think that children in our society today are too protected. Pampered and spoilt would be more negative terms to describe this. There is this particular J1 i met in RJ not too long ago, and i can safely say that if he had not gone to RJ he would have gone to the hospital a few times before january ended. His (yes, its not a girl) incredible lack of the ability to phrase his sentences in a way that does not offend is indeed a double-edge sword. That is, if you intend to piss off anyone you speak to. He... seems to be very full of himself. I cant say thats a bad thing, but when he speaks to fellow J1s with such confidence, such lack of any form of respect, its difficult for me to say that thru-train is a good measure.

Well, enough said about that one bad example, I feel that most kids/adolescents are very protected by their parents. Me, being self-proclaimed middle middle class, has not done house work (excluding washing shoes or ironing my own clothes) for about a year now.. basically am not asked to help. How many people you know can say they know how to eat fish stomachs? Currently i cant eat most of it unless i use my hands to pick off the bones. My parents were both in poor families and keep telling me about how their lives were like when they were young, but we still throw away food that we cant finish (if this sounds perfectly normal to you, youre in the same boat as me).

What i'm trying to say is that this protective barrier we have around us might actually have negative effects... its like how, if a [very very rich] kid lives in a very very clean house when he is young, and almost never has to leave the house, the day he finally does he may find that he is allergic to dust, allergic to grass, and end up in a hospital from normal bacteria we face everyday. When we finally leave this protection to strike out on our own, how far can we truly go before we meet something we have never had to face before? Singapore's no guns, no drugs, no pr0n, and all those death penalties; all of which would only amount to a fine in another country. Racial and Religious harmony is such an important aspect of our society that our tolerance towards Race and Religion has become a given; Racist comments (among people who know each other) are easily taken to be jokes. Such is not the case in other countries. With the recent terror events that have shaken the world about (but apparently not Singapore) people are becoming intolerant and untrusting of others of different race or religion.

In the end, how far can we truly go in this world, after being in our protective environment for so long? Only time will tell, if the tenderf337 of Singapore can survive the world outside the Matrix.