My social psych lecturer was the guy who wrote a letter to the Straits Times Forum, about the teacher unloading a 40pg homework assignment on his son during the National Day long weekend. He spent about 10 years in the US before coming back. Naturally he had a lot of complains, he would occasionally gripe about the system and things like that. Some of us wonder why he just kept complaining, he should have stayed on and not returned. Part of it had to do with his anal retentiveness and thus led us to not like him very much, therefore that 'Go back there, if it's so good' mentality. However, things might be very different if he was a lecturer we truly liked. He was a good lecturer, i truly enjoyed his lectures where he stimulated our thinking using various methods. But i hate his anal retentiveness in marking our papers as a tutor. However i thought about it, if he just didn't return to singapore and continued staying in the US, perhaps visiting here as a holiday destination, wouldn't that really be more like escaping the problem.

For the most of us who lived here, we've sucked in what the system has thrown at us and adapted and actually found ways to excel within such a system. We may whine a little about our annoyances, but beyond that we just take it as that's just life in singapore. We don't complain, we don't try to change the flaws of the system, we just take the good with the bad. I dunno about you, but i'd think that if you love the place enough, you would wanna tweak the flaws of the system to improve it. Sure complaining may not be the most constructive thing, but in some cases, it starts people thinking. That may galvanise others into taking action or spreading the word and resulting in more people of taking action rather than just be sitting ducks and adapt to a system which might not be in the best interests of the people.

So rather than asking people to quit, make them stay, listen, think,.and perhaps join them and do something for yourself and others. The person who stopped feeling with his heart but never leaves the country is no less a quitter who left the country for a "better" government, system, etc.