Today’s Reads (May 22)

• Love Deferred: Singapore means

  from To Fix a Mocking Peasant

• The indefatigable JBJ is back!

  from nofearSingapore

• God, morality and Haidt

  from Yawning Bread Sampler

• How safe are our online services?

  from Hear ye! Hear ye!

• The Search For Micro-Financing In Singapore

  from SingaporeSurf

• Singapore’s healthcare system – uniquely Singapore? (Part 2)

  from theonlinecitizen

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Why I Think Singaporeans Just Need To Slow Down

SINCE the advent of the industrial revolution, speed and productivity has commanded a premium. Today in the age of globalisation, life has reached a frenetic mind boggling pace. Technology makes it all possible, e-mail on the go, tele-conferencing etc. The pace of work, life and play is imperceptibly ratcheted slightly higher without us really realizing it. I am reminded we can no more return to the quaint cottage industry days, than we can undo the internet. The age of speed is here to stay. But it doesn’t stop us from questioning this new order.

The hamster wheel is an apt pathos of life under this new order. For one it pokes fun at the imperative of speed but it also carries a serious message, one that suggests the future could be closer to dystopia than utopia. What’s the cost to this preoccupation with speed? There’s always a cost. Our sinews, muscles and brain cells can’t keep on getting larger and better to keep up with the culture of speed – surely something must give.

Is it any surprise these days, there’s a crisis in our preoccupation with speed? It’s a condition that affects people at all levels. From kids to university students and even managers, affecting both the affluent and the poor alike. Don’t assume for one moment you are immune just because it hasn’t hit you – it’s like artery clogging food. You don’t know it, till you’re lying flat on your back while everyone draws straws to see who will give you mouth to mouth.