This year, I gave it mostly a miss, but the bits I saw on TV kinda disturbed me.
Like the lead character in a red costume that looked like a pooch screwed a goldfish and this was the mutant love child.
Then there were the segments.
Maybe it's just me but if I was in the audience and SWAT teams and commandos came charging in with guns, I'd freak out, instead of smile and point.
And then there was Boundless Flight, the one with the winged kids in bicycle helmets (what was up with the bicycle helmets on EVERYONE?). Why were their wings featherless? Why only a skeleton frame? Want to fly but cannot? Have to wear helmet in case crash back to earth?
Maybe I was not listening too much to the commentary (the few times I did, I winced, "...representing many in body, one in vision") so I ended up making up NDP commentary in my head.
Boundless Flight: representing the swift migration of the top talents of Singapore, who leave for other countries, never to come back.
Then there was the Riot Police vehicles rolling in, disgorging riot cops. That just freaked me out even more. Again, I should have had the sound on, but my head went, "This is what we can do to you if you protest on the streets. We have the power to kick your ass so hard, you will think twice about protesting at all."
The mass Taichi display made me think, "This represents the taichi attitude of Singaporeans. Not my department, *taichi*not my problem, *taichi* not my fault, *taichi*"
The radio-controlled butterfly kites segment looked cool, but seeing these high tech kites made me say out loud, "This is the gahmen telling you to fly a kite. Don't like our decisions? Go fly a kite. Don't like the GST hike? Go fly a kite. Don't like the ministerial pay hike? Go fly a kite."
In fact, my mom, dad, brother and family were chanting "Go fly a kite." with me in the living room, and laughing along.
Maybe I am getting older and less tolerant of mass displays of organised propaganda. I felt like I was being force-fed a diet of feel-good cheerleading, designed to make me forget the crap we've been unhappy about this past year.
The flats around my area had a pitiful number of flags out. You could count the flags on each block in one hand.
I am not sure if it was a sign of protest, or just laziness. Maybe both. My wife asked me why people are taking it out on the flag, since it doesn't represent the ruling party.
I told her maybe it was because they had no other way of registering their unhappiness, so the country shouldn't take it as a personal slight. It was probably also because we all grew up with the country being so intertwined with the ruling party, that it is hard to separate the nation and the government in our minds.
On National Day, I spent a quiet afternoon with the kids and the wife at Botanic Gardens, just lying on the grass and watching the kids play. It made me feel happier about being back in Singapore than any fireworks or goodie bag.
The leaves of the trees danced with the wind, without any agenda. We were happy to be invited to watch their display.
