We need a national hobby!

More safeguards to be introduced to curb gambling addiction if needed: Dr Balakrishnan

[...]

Senior Minister Goh felt that older people have a different problem.

"Not because they have money but because they are bored...you go to the casinos to pass time the root cause is people who do not have interests in their lives," said Mr Goh.

[...]

Mr Goh said a long term solution is to ensure that the younger generation of today develop interests which stand them in good stead when they age. He added that there is also a need for Singaporeans to be more self reliant.

Mr Goh said: "How many of you followed the latest tragic events in Japan with the tsunami...and then put into context our floods in Singapore against that kind of disaster.

"I am not saying we shouldn't do anything about the flood. But the amount of noise you made with just sporadic flood compared to the Japanese. I saw them on TV. Very stoic looking. You don't see them crying. This has happened, just get on, that's the kind of spirit you want to have and you call it nation building."

So this news article is basically about problem gambling in Singapore, and SM Goh tried to put things in context for us Singaporeans who are famous for being out of context every time because we are such non-contextual people. For instance, we like to shit where we eat. But that's beside the point.

The point is that our dear SM seems to have narrowly missed the solution to this supposed lack of interest in our lives that is causing us to become problem gamblers. Then again, it's almost definitely impossible for him to miss it. After all, if I can see the solution, he would have noticed it way before given his intelligence. Maybe the timing is just not right for him to say it openly now in case he needs to stand corrected in the future.

So what exactly is the solution then? Well, as SM already pointed out, complaining IS our national interest! It may not be the kind of stoic spirit the Japanese have, but it's definitely the Singapore spirit (not unlike the Singapore Sling since many Singaporeans do get high from complaining!). So there you go. What we need is possibly more avenues for Singaporeans, especially the older folks, to complain! And I would venture a wild hypothesis that there is a relationship between rising coffee prices and the increasing lack of avenues to complain, which in turn leads to problem gambling. And this may be significantly harder-hitting for the older generation given their lack of access to online kopi tiam (coffee shop) like Sam's alfresco coffee to engage in their favorite pastime i.e. complaining. If my hypothesis is proven, I suggest we open a few more kopi tiam and/or lower the price of my kopi-si peng! Or we can teach the older folks to go online and complain away! =)

On a side note, the typing of this post took up so much time that could have been spent at MBS gambling! So that's definitely a good anecdotal evidence of my hypothesis. Now, we just need some stats to generalize my observation. Then again, stats aren't that trustworthy, and anecdotal evidence seems very much preferred these days.