Musings: NS for Girls

Yo. I decided on posting on a slightly more controversial topic today. Relatively speaking at least. Most of my posts have been pretty neutral thus far, and they are usually internally reflective. Today I decided to reflect on some other general observations/issues. Before I begin, I want to say that the inspiration for this post came from my own personal observations over the years, watching several Jack Neo movies on NS, and several visits to the hospitals to see my grandma and late grandfather. The reason I'm even talking about this is because it seems to address quite a few issues. Namely, feminism & equality, change in mindset and mentality, shortage of healthcare workers, and to a certain extent even national identity.

I shall begin with the slightly more controversial part. I recently saw my friend's post on Facebook talking about Singaporean girls and their princess syndrome mentality. Personally, I have observed this trend as well. It's becoming increasingly widespread among Singaporean girls. It's now a rare occurrence to find a person who is homely, simple-minded and down to earth. Perhaps it is the increasing wealth of our nation, and the fact that children are too pampered these days. They grow up not having gone through any much hardships. That's where NS comes in you see. Just as many claim that National Service is a rite of passage for Singaporean boys to become grown men, to become more mature, to be come more responsible, shouldn't there also be such a process for girls to women?

Then we also want to talk about gender equality and fairness. Yet, many girls are simply not willing to serve the army. I too, don't agree that we should make them carry guns and run around the battlefield. Rather, we should look to our more domestic needs that could be filled. One of the ideas that I had a couple years back, was to have girls serve their national service as nurses and possibly other types of healthcare workers. Before you flame me, let me explain further.

It is simply not realistic to expect girls to serve in the army the way boys do. The very nature of the activities and training is too physically inclined and demanding to expect all of them to do the same. Nevertheless, they can help serve the country by actually learning useful nursing skills that will help them down the road. Let's face it, Singapore has an ageing population together with a shortage of nurses. That's not a good combination. Relying on foreign nurses and domestic maids is not a good long term strategy. Rather, we could not only train but instill care and concern among our young local girls to look after their family and take care of their ageing parents.  This could help change the mindset of Singaporean girls. Perhaps with the training and experience, they would not be as immature in their thinking. Perhaps they would not shy away when they need to bathe and wash the elderly. Perhaps they would make warmer and more caring wives. Perhaps, we could reduce our demand for maids. And who knows, perhaps we could have more family-driven women who want to start their family earlier?

The last topic of note, is the Singaporean identity. How do we identify and unify our locals? How do we bond and form a more cohesive society, such that we don't let the rampant immigration dilute it? One common answer that has come to mind is national service. Almost every male Singaporean would have gone through their 2 years of service and had their own unique experiences. Take any 2 Singaporean males past the age of 20, and they could sit down for half a day chatting about their NS experience. As much as I hated wasting those 2 precious years, it's just about the only thing left that deeply bonds us as a country. Going by that vein, shouldn't we instill such an experience among girls as well? Instead of 'bitching' and gossiping about each other, perhaps they could share about their own NS experiences. Sure, it's not the be all and end all solution to our national identity crisis, but sure goes a long way to bonding local men and women.

The last weird part, is that awkward 2 year gap in universities. Because the men have to do NS, they enter universities 2 years older then their female counterparts. While it's not exactly big enough to call a generation gap, it also means less familiar faces, and perhaps couples who were separated by NS. Imagine if we made the NS for both boys and girls the same length. They could matriculate together, and then perhaps we could have closer long-term friends from the JCs and Polys. In a far-fetched thinking kind of way, this could lead to more couples hooking up early and remaining in long-term steady relationships, and hence more marriages which potentially helps our declining birthrates. Or perhaps that's thinking too far ahead.

Either way, this is just a quick blog post update from me. It's not exactly heavily researched. I don't think I did this topic justice, but I'm just chipping in my two cents. Upon googling, I do see some similar ideas on the internet, so I'm definitely not the only one thinking this is a good idea. Anyway, if you enjoyed reading this post, or think it could help, please do share it on any social networks. Who knows, maybe one day some guy in the government will see it! Haha.