One oft heard comment from friends who have just returned from overseas trips especially to Europe is that people there seem to spend so much time doing nothing. 'They just hang around doing nothing and some are even drunk in the morning'. These comments are usually said with eyes open wide with disbelief, as if the very thought of grown adults doing nothing all day is something unbelievable and incredibly amazing.

Even now, I feel a slight tinge when I type that. It seems as if my mind is telling me: 'but really, how do they survive? What do they do everyday?' Truly, what do Australians do after 5pm? Is everyone else besides us and the factory workers in India and China totally clueless about how to lead our lives? It is prudent advice to realize that when you think that everyone on the road is going the wrong way, you are probably the one driving in the wrong lane.

It seems as if the very act of being Singaporean has instilled a drive in us. A drive to keep doing... stuff. Useful stuff, mind you, piano lessons, math classes, tuition, CCAs, the list goes on. Ever since we were young, just things after things to keep us busy, occupied, and learning. So much we learn about outside but how much do we truly learn of ourselves? How much time do we have to ponder the fate our dinner, let alone the fate of our country or that of the universe.

If there's one thing I have learnt from the army, it is that 'doing nothing' actually gives us time to reflect upon our lives, give ourselves goals, and overcome mental barriers. I have never felt more awake then, even though the work I did then could be considered mind numbing. It was then that I felt as though I grew up, not through 'tough, realistic training', but by the simple caveat of having plenty of time for my own thoughts.

Some say Singaporeans are apathetic, some say that their party has created an environment where we have the stability to pursue various interests and so do not care about the government. I agree with the latter, but in a different frame. We are indeed kept busy, so busy that we have no time to look at things that do not concern us. So busy that when things like elections come up, we are too preoccupied to care. After all, we have so much better things to do, why waste it on making the stable things now variable?

We simply are not programmed to think broadly enough.