Thinking about Singapore...

Singapore's National Day is around the corner on 9th August, and I can't help but feel my heart aching...

Singapore has been highly successful with the casinos since its launch a year ago and they are earning Singapore tons of money... but is it money that we can feel honourable about earning? Are we so greedy for money, that it doesn't matter anymore how we make them? Are we not having enough faith that Singapore and the people living in Singapore can make a good living from good honest means?

Casinos are known to break up families and cause social problems. Singaporeans are openly discouraged by the government to visit the casinos. Singaporeans who want to enter the casinos have to pay a 100 SGD entry levy. If it is bad for Singaporeans, it would be equally bad for foreigners. Are we a nation only caring for ourselves and not others? Those foreigners who come to the Singapore's casinos also have a family behind them. For every foreign dollar we earn from the casinos, how many foreign families are we breaking up indirectly? Is that right? 

We have become a country that partake in such crime against humanity - to both foreigners and Singaporeans, when we scramble with the rest of the world to partake in the lucrative share of the casino pie, and yet it is so morally and wickedly wrong. I plead silently in my heart to our government - Let go of such money. Let the money go elsewhere... faraway from the shores of Singapore. Don't touch it. Whatever we have earned from last year, return it. It really isn't good for Singapore.

I can't agree more with Tan Jee Say on the casinos: "The two huge casinos are the wrong kind of services activities to have. Economic development is more than just about generating jobs and income growth. There is a moral purpose as well, otherwise we might as well turn Singapore into a prostitution hub or a distribution centre for drugs which will bring us untold riches. Economic development is about developing and using human capital to produce decent and worthwhile goods and services in a sustained way.

On the other hand, casinos are a soft option that preys on human weakness to generate profits. They destroy the work ethic and lead to broken families and other social problems. The casinos should be closed down so that Singapore can part company with those who choose to prosper through vices such as gambling, prostitution or drugs; only then can Singaporeans once again walk tall and proud on the high and honourable path to economic development and prosperity."

I quote from Galaviz "The financial sector in Singapore needs Singapore to be known as a stable, serious and very ethical place for doing business." The casinos are not providing that, and would only serve to lead Singapore away from the clean reputation that we have built up over the 5 decades of nation building.

Would we feel proud of our sons and daughters making their living off working in the casino industries?

No, I wouldn't.

May we have the wisdom and integrity to return back to the long and narrow path in generating economic growth through pure hard work that is truly honourable.

May we pray for wisdom for those governing our country.

Dear God, this coming National Day, I pray for forgiveness for the sins we have committed towards the foreigners, when we brought in the casinos and joined the gang in earning such unclean money. I pray for your mercy and I pray for a repentent heart, that Singapore will turn away from this sin.