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The other 1/2 of Day 3 @ 6.6.10
01062010
Nabil, Ezra, Nissa and I had finished our dinner earlier than everyone else and we were outside taking photos when an Australian teenager walked past us in a funny Crab walk. Trying to be friendly, I smiled and said yo. When he stopped walking, he said “Konichiwa. Smell my cock.” Ezra replied by saying, “We can understand what you’re saying” but he had walked away. I then realized that there were two others behind him. They were both smoking and within earshot, the first of the two said the same vulgar words. By this time, Ezra was walking towards the restaurant followed by Nabil. Feeling a bit panicky, Nissa and I followed them. When I looked back, one of the teenager was swinging a chain that’s used for barricading areas and the last thing I heard was, “We’ll be back”.
When we reached the restaurant, Nissa and I were both shocked yet amused by the incident. We stood at the entrance with a bewildered expression on our faces. Mr Rob then entered the restaurant and offered to walk us back to the hostel. Ezra and I talked to him the whole way back to the hostel with the rest of the group behind us. The teenagers were nowhere in sight. Along the way, Mr Rob was commenting about how the teenagers were behaving rudely and referred to them as ‘Idiots’. That made me smile cause it’s funny how he said it in the Australian accent. As we walked, he talked about how a majority of western teenagers are unemployed and they pose as a social problem that most western countries have to handle. These unemployed teenagers are given $100 per month by the government and a majority of them spend it on drugs and alcohol. Firstly, they’re unemployed due to the scarcity of jobs that are available. Furthermore, with globalization, Australia is getting more immigrants from developing countries such as India who came to make a better living for themselves. Due to this competition, getting jobs for these Australian teenagers have gotten doubly hard.
Another factor is how these Australians are complacent, thinking that they would be given jobs more easily than the foreigners due to homeland privileges. Sadly, that is no longer the case. In addition, there is not much incentive for them to work because the money given by the government is approximately the same as the income they would earn if they were to work. Since they are lowly-skilled, the wages aren’t that high and thus, whether they work or not, they still get the same amount of allowance. So, why work?
In contrast to that, Singapore has a meritocracy system whereby citizens reap what they sow. Therefore, everyone has to work equally hard to get the success and reward. This results in productive citizens which would ultimately benefit the country.
Nabil, Ezra, Nissa and I had finished our dinner earlier than everyone else and we were outside taking photos when an Australian teenager walked past us in a funny Crab walk. Trying to be friendly, I smiled and said yo. When he stopped walking, he said “Konichiwa. Smell my cock.” Ezra replied by saying, “We can understand what you’re saying” but he had walked away. I then realized that there were two others behind him. They were both smoking and within earshot, the first of the two said the same vulgar words. By this time, Ezra was walking towards the restaurant followed by Nabil. Feeling a bit panicky, Nissa and I followed them. When I looked back, one of the teenager was swinging a chain that’s used for barricading areas and the last thing I heard was, “We’ll be back”.
When we reached the restaurant, Nissa and I were both shocked yet amused by the incident. We stood at the entrance with a bewildered expression on our faces. Mr Rob then entered the restaurant and offered to walk us back to the hostel. Ezra and I talked to him the whole way back to the hostel with the rest of the group behind us. The teenagers were nowhere in sight. Along the way, Mr Rob was commenting about how the teenagers were behaving rudely and referred to them as ‘Idiots’. That made me smile cause it’s funny how he said it in the Australian accent. As we walked, he talked about how a majority of western teenagers are unemployed and they pose as a social problem that most western countries have to handle. These unemployed teenagers are given $100 per month by the government and a majority of them spend it on drugs and alcohol. Firstly, they’re unemployed due to the scarcity of jobs that are available. Furthermore, with globalization, Australia is getting more immigrants from developing countries such as India who came to make a better living for themselves. Due to this competition, getting jobs for these Australian teenagers have gotten doubly hard.
Another factor is how these Australians are complacent, thinking that they would be given jobs more easily than the foreigners due to homeland privileges. Sadly, that is no longer the case. In addition, there is not much incentive for them to work because the money given by the government is approximately the same as the income they would earn if they were to work. Since they are lowly-skilled, the wages aren’t that high and thus, whether they work or not, they still get the same amount of allowance. So, why work?
In contrast to that, Singapore has a meritocracy system whereby citizens reap what they sow. Therefore, everyone has to work equally hard to get the success and reward. This results in productive citizens which would ultimately benefit the country.
Labels: Australia Reflection Log Book
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