Ceci n'est pas un xīn jiā pō rén

What makes a Singaporean?

huh, I dunno, but I guess most Singaporeans do not know it either. Maybe it's time to look for movies about this....

"12 Storeys" (check out: http://www.zhaowei.com/12.htm)
We watched the film in a Pol. Science class. Pretty interesting study about the daily-life and anguish of 08/15-Singaporeans, narrated by somebody who just committed suicide from the 12th floor of a typical HDB flat (hey man, I also live on the 12th floor). The taxi driver meant, the higher level one jumpes, the higher his soul bounces back to heaven...
Anyway, his spirit/ghost wanders around and reveals some soul-shaking realities.
- A robust woman who has to take care of her (step-?)mother who constantly denigrates her and openly states her predilection for the second (step-)daughter, Rachel, who later drives by in a BMW 7-series car.
- Khor, the mid-20 brother who has to take care of his two adolescent siblings, both unwilling to learn, but eager to party. It's like the old generation (go for education, for a bigger flat/condo) tries to teach the younger (go for fun, sex, alc), but fails.
- Ah Gu, aged 45 or so, owner of a food stall, achieved to seduce a beauty in the PRC to Singapore, but her arrogance , affairs and vanity drives him crazy. It's like a petty pride of running one's own business mixed with the cliché to bring in a cute lady, eager to marry (a would-like to be) rich.

Lot's of half-veiled jokes about Singapore's mentality. The fear to lose out, kiasu, is here, as well as the reproach on ppl who (ab)use elevators as pissoirs (guess what: in my flat we have a plate in the lift that says "urinating is forbidden", funnily they forgot to mention the fine you'll face). However, ppl still do this (as I can smell sometimes in the morning…) there or on the corridor (btw: go once to St. Petersburg in Russia, pick one of the free English "St. Petersburg" and there you'll get as well complaints about ppl shitting in staircases…).
So, what's the success of gov campaigns if ppl do not share does values intrinsically? It's possibly more about bottom-up value building and ownership, rather then top-down inculcating…

All in all, it's depressing, but still worthwile to watch.