A Vision for Our Lives

We live a wonderful life in Singapore, and it came about not by accident, but through the hard work of many people working together to create a better life. We must continue to further improve and do better. There is no need to do this as a chore. We can do this with enjoyment if we are passionate about it and tap on our many experiences to help contribute to this goal.

Is There a Caste System for Insects?

When we observe insects and many other non-human animals and try to understand them in human terms, we give them labels. For example, we have queen ants, queen bees, worker bees or terms like bedbugs and houseflies. One species of bird called the Scarlet-backed flowerpecker (Dicaeum cruentatum), for example, can be seen very often by bird watchers on a Melastoma plant, eating the ripened fruits. As a birdwatcher, I have, however, never seen this species of bird pecking at flowers, although it is called a flowerpecker. Perhaps this bird could have been better named Scarlet-backed fruit-eater. This is how we usually see the bird when it eats the ripened fruits of the Melastoma plant. To help address the possibility that names could be wrong and there could be different names in different locations, many species of living things are given scientific names. While scientific names have some rules in a binomial nomenclature and use Latin, they still don’t fully address possible errors.

Bees, like ants, appear to sometimes live in communities, and in such communities some of them appear to have different roles. There could be ants, for example, who live their lives dedicated to gathering food for the community. There could be specialised ants that act as guards or bees that appear to do nothing except produce eggs and who are well cared for and fed by other members of their community. Humans call them queen ants or queen bees. In insects, however, such specialised members of a community could not only look different from other members who perform different tasks but could have distinct physical attributes that enable them to perform their tasks more effectively. A queen bee, for example, is usually significantly larger than other bees in the community. Similarly, a queen ant is the largest ant in a community of ants and is often mistaken for another species by humans. Unless we are bees or ants, it is unlikely that we can fully understand them.

The caste system

Several news articles on the Internet covered the recent elections in India held in June this year (2024), the caste system became an important issue affecting the choice of representatives to the Lok Sabha, the Indian parliament.

It appears that Indian society and politics are stratified by a caste system. A record number of Dalits were elected to the Indian parliament this year. The Dalits are considered the lowest class in the caste system and are, at times, described as untouchables. The caste system has roots in long-held beliefs that originated hundreds of years ago. These beliefs entitle and give rights and privileges to persons based on their caste, regardless of any merits, abilities, or disabilities that such persons may have.

The Singapore pledge

When Singapore was formed in 1965, a pledge was approved by the cabinet as follows:

We, the citizens of Singapore,
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society
based on justice and equality
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity
and progress for our nation.

The essence of this pledge is that all Singaporeans are equal regardless of race, language or religion. In addition, it requires us to work as a team, as the description indicates that we are one united people. In my view, we should go one step further and enhance our ability to collaborate and take advantage of the differences in our abilities and experiences to continuously make Singapore a better place for all who live here. Many retirees share this view and have a wealth of experience that can contribute to this vision.

During the COVID years, several of us met over lunches when restrictions were eased to talk about the interesting times we had when we were younger, working together to solve many issues. In addition to enjoying our meals, we also put together some thoughts about how Singapore can continue to be a happy place for everyone.

Here is the document we produced:

Binders – Points for Discussion

1. To draw attention to the fact that we are all naturally prone to bias and understand how this can affect our behaviour.

2. To accept that we are all limited in our abilities to be able to understand the various issues that affect our lives, be it science, religion, culture, nature and more. Consequently, we must rely or depend on others we trust for our views and actions, whether consciously or unconsciously.

3. To seek ways to reduce racial discrimination.

4. To encourage people of all races and religious beliefs to live peacefully and bind together.

5. To learn from those countries where there is serious strife between people of different races, languages and religious beliefs and, in some cases, the way they have mistreated the natives and immigrant workers and slaves and other minority races to help prevent or reduce the likelihood of us doing the same.

6. To be aware that there have been many historical lies and propaganda that had and may continue to influence our behaviour and views and that such propaganda and false news will continue in different forms and may be exaggerated with Artificial Intelligence. Instead, we should find ways to use AI to curb the proliferation of fake news and disseminate what is factual.

7. To achieve a position where all Singaporeans would think and live as Singaporeans are not separate races and religious groups, even though they continue to follow different racial and religious beliefs and practices.

There is no reason why retirees cannot contribute to our Singapore vision for our lives. Perhaps one way is for retirees to share their knowledge and experience of cooperating with each other—how to empathise and how to collaborate by leveraging each other’s different abilities and experiences for our future.

We can be passionate about our future in Singapore.