Basket.

A good day yesterday - one of the better ones I've had in a while. After crashing Zihao and Elgin's date, I went downtown with Zihao to get birthday gifts for the people whose birthdates are coming up. On the way, we had the luck to run into Winston discussing insurance (which I will now tell anyone who asks is very vital and something you should always have and keep) and after he was done he came to join us. To our good fortune, because neither Zihao nor I have any idea how to pick out a good shirt. A metrosexual friend is a handy thing to have, and Winston did it for us.

We hung around a bit after that, as they picked out books at Borders, then Winston had to leave because he had to book in later. Pity we couldn't have a nice, cosy dinner together. Hahah.

I happened to read the vast feature on the 1968 National Day Parade in the Sunday Times yesterday, and for once, most of it makes sense to me. The idea of a newly-independent nation having to demonstrate resolve, and going ahead with the parade being one way to do so... that certainly isn't far-fetched. What a nation amounts to depends largely on how much its people are willing to go through. In 1968, Singapore's situation indeed looked parlous, if not completely hopeless. We were only just cut loose from Malaysia, poor and backward without any natural resources and facing the impending British military pullout that would both denude Singapore of an effective defence force and greatly hurt the national economy - a list of problems that would give any politician in any era an awful headache. That we overcame all these problems to become Southeast Asia's richest and most developed country in just over two decades is nothing short of amazing.

But that's a story for another day. Back to 1968. I agree with the article that it was indeed important for Singapore, with the world watching and no one giving us a chance of making it on our own, to demonstrate resolve then. When everything seems to be going wrong, the best way to put it all right again is with steely determination. And that's exactly what the government decided we had to do. More than merely showing the world what the new republic no one thought was going to amount to anything could do, it was an exercise in nation-building. With this show of resolve, a new, multiracial country was welded into a nation.

However much we may bash nation-building, it was vital for Singapore. The race riots of 1964 in the Federation and 1967 in Malaysia showed how uneasy race relations could be. I certainly would not want to live in a country where there is a polarisation of the different races and racial unrest is common. In the end nation-building is all about creating a peaceful, harmonious society. There is little wrong with that. Nation-building, along with the resolve of our multiracial population, is arguably what has given us the developed, successful and safe Singapore of today.

Perhaps you may think this post is strange; why am I spouting all this nauseating patriotic propaganda? The thing is, I'm not. Sometimes we have to look beyond the propaganda they dish out and view the facts instead. Sometimes, what they tell us is not propaganda but the truth. Singapore has indeed weathered difficult times, and for all the ruling party's minus points, it has made quite an accomplishment in bringing this small island to whereit is today.

I've realised that in the end, I can't hate this place. There is still plenty to like about it, and I'll always consider it my home. I recognise its shortcomings, which are many and various, and I dislike the way certain things are done, but in the end I was born here and bred here. It will always be a little corner of the world where I can feel genuinely at home, and I honestly can't say that for anyplace else at all.

You can of course disagree with me. I've heard more than a few of my peers consider migration. Any of that has to be far in the future, but I would like them to ask themselves before they make up their minds: Is there really anywhere else in the world you would feel comfortably at home? If you can answer with a snappy "no", I can't say a thing, but give it some thought and ultimately an honest answer that comes straight from the heart.