Life & Me

I remembered the publication of Lee Kuan Yew’s book ‘from the third world to the first’ that described Singapore’s rise to richness. It caused an argument in my family, which is really not uncommon. But I always remember argument where the other party doesn’t agree with my stand but can’t give a reasonable reason for it. For this, sometimes I’m labelled as ‘always wanting to win’.

Throughout the years, I’ve learnt to tone myself down, learning when to stop when it becomes obvious when the other person/party refuse to listen or accept. But then again, I still want to be right, everytime .

In this case, it was my father and brother. I said a country cannot move from the first world to the third. It has already been defined. They retorted that how can the president of Singapore be wrong, which is really not am argument at all. But as many arguments, sometimes you don’t need to be right to win in my family. You just need to shout the loudest or hold the racket in your hand.

Anyway, I never accepted it. Singapore can be a rich world, but not the first world. And finally, last week in economist, the definition was stated. First world was the capitalist west while the second world was the communist east. The rest was the third world. There you have it! I was right! ( laughing to myself… hahaha…)

Of course the third world was seen as poor and undeveloped and Singapore was no longer so. And since the fall of soviet, the second world was no longer relevant. That’s the why you no longer see the phrase ‘third world’ being used, its now ‘developing nation’ or ‘less developed countries’ and Singapore does not belonged to that category.

Was Mr. Lee wrong then? Of course not. Who would want to buy a book titled ‘how Singapore became rich’?

But the point is – I was right! And the fact that I need a blog post to clarify this after 7-8 years probably also means I need some treatment and counseling.

*woohoo! Celebrating….