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To Complain in Peace

com·plain
   [kuhhttp://sp.dictionary.com/dictstatic/dictionary/graphics/luna/thinsp.pngm-pleyn] 
verb (used without object)
to express dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure,resentment, or grief; find fault: He complained constantlyabout the noise in the corridor.

I complain a lot (more to myself than to anyone else). People around me complain a lot. Pretty much everyone I know have complained at some point in their lives.

Not that there is anything particularly wrong with it. To some extent, especially in Singapore, I think it is perhaps the one of the few forms of expressing our dissatisfaction with something. I mean, we Singaporeans are one of the most obedient groups of people you can find anywhere. The government increases GST, we complain, but we learn to live with it. Our schools and workplaces bombard us with endless work, we complain, but we still do it.

In other countries, when higher authorities over exercised their power, people have usually taken to the streets. Good and Bad. Good because, it shows these authorities who is really in power (ie the people). Bad because people, well, only really care about themselves and their present satisfaction, and they might be hindering change that is necessary.

In S’pore, protesting is not really an option. With the amount of permits one has to get through before being able to formally protest, one might as well forget the whole issue and get back to work (then again why should one need a permit to express one’s dissatisfaction?). As such, when my foreign friends tell me Singaporeans complain a lot (which I admit), I hope they understand that we are just expressing our unhappiness in the only means available to us.   

After all why should it matter?

We get the job done in the end.



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