Pink or Blue...

... Identification Cards...

I hold a pink one, my parents were both Singaporeans, my grandparents were all Singaporeans, before that they were Malaysians and before that British subjects, so we all hold pink ones. I know of some friends who hold blue ones, and of some friends who hold none at all.

I know of a friend who was borned in Singapore, studied primary, secondary, JC, and university here in Singapore but holds a blue one because both her parents hold blue ones. I know of a friend who used to hold a blue one and has applied for a couple of times to get a pink one but unable to do so, that friend has since left Singapore, partly due to the inability to get the pink one. I know of a friend who holds a pink one because one parent is Singaporean, the other not. I know of a friend who used to hold the blue one but didn't want to serve NS and has since relinquished it. I know of many different circumstances.

To me, Singapore is my home and holding the pink one seems natural to me, I thought.

I know of a friend, while discussing our Singapore Film project, we brought up the of colour again. Okay, I brought up the topic of colour. I know my friend used to hold a blue one but wasn't very sure, so I asked him what colour was his.

The thing about getting the pink one as I heard from word of mouth that guys with the blue one after serving NS can get the pink one easily after a couple of applications. Apparently, it is said that it is a lot more difficult for girls to get the pink one. Okay, the person who told me that was the friend I'd mentioned earlier. She had the blue one and tried many times applying for the pink one but unable to successfully get it. She said that the criteria for single blue women to get the pink one is CPF, the more money one has in the the more successful, and since she's young and has a neligible CPF account, she was unsuccessful.

Otherwise, another faster way to get the pink one by laws of nature (almost) is to get married to someone with a pink one. But let's put that aside.

My friend whom I asked the colour of his answered that he has the blue one, but is applying for the pink one, and he needs the pink one by the end of the year. So that he can compete in the SEA Games.

My reply to that and the other girls in the project group affirmed, he will definitely get his pink one.

So, it seems like a similiarly quick way to get the pink one is to excel in some sort of sports and compete for the country. Ronald Susilo, Li Jiawei, Jing Junhong, Li Li... There are many more and I can go on.

Then I thought about my friend. Would he be categorised as a foreign talent just like those above sports people since he wasn't borned with the right to get that pink one.

My friend, borned in Singapore to both blue parents, studied in Singapore all his life, has a whole lot of friends here all of whom he knew since way back, and served his due in NS. Is he Singaporean? Or is he foreign talent? Even his sports, he was groomed in Singapore under Singaporean schools using Singapore money, participated and won in Nationals. He took PSLE, O Levels, A Levels, speaks English and Chinese, does this make him stand out from Ronald Susilo who came over here to study in secondary school but unable to make it to JC and ended up playing badminton for the country? And how different is he from Li Jiawei who, actually I don't know much about her, but I think you guys should know anyway.

When Jing Junhong and Li Jiawei played in the Olympics, did you feel for them?

To me, home is where the memories were. (Before I typed "were", I wrote "live", but thought that it wasn't appropriate, then I typed "are", then I thought the tense is wrong, you can live in say US now but home is still in Singapore, where you had all your memories, happy and sad, met all your friends and enemies, home is where the memories "were", your "residence" is where you are creating new experiences.) Of course, you can clean forget the past and live in a deluded memory of some other place, and of course, you can call that "home" to. Whatever you like...

I think my friend will definitely get that pink one, and thus good luck to him in his competitions~

Actually, I've a couple of friends with blue ones from the same country as that mentioned friend, that all hold very disdainful remarks about that country. I thought I was already very discriminatory, it's surprising that they're worse, I always thought I'm the worst already. Okay, not only the ones who hold the blue ones, but also those who are living there, born and brought up there.

To each his own, I guess.