The good life turning Singaporeans soft...rugged society?

 Commentary: The race to stack internships is hurting young people

The push to take up internships at a young age pressures teens into working before they even know themselves, says CNA's Izza Haziqah.

SINGAPORE: “How many internships did you do?” That was one of the first questions a student from my alma mater asked me when we met at a recent book club.

When I replied, “Just one, in university,” his eyes widened.

He had already completed two internships even before starting his second year, and he still felt like he was falling behind.

This kind of pressure is increasingly common among young people in Singapore amid anxieties about employability. CNA

Our young are so poor things. They need more sayang sayang for being forced to work at such tender age. Why pushed them so hard? Why not let them enjoy their lives, enjoy K pops, J pops, more clubbings, more vapings?

A few decades ago there was a rugged society campaign. Now it is lost in the memories of the senior citizens. In the 1950s, things were quite different. Everyday, mothers, grandmothers and children as young as 6 or 7 years would go out in tow, like going for a picnic, but actually stomping into factories to sieve coffee beans. The whole family would sit around a mat and the mothers or grandmothers would cart a bag of coffee beans to be sorted out. Every member of the family would be busy picking out the spoilt beans, debris from the piles of coffee beans. When fully sorted out, the family would be paid a dollar or two for each bag of clean and good beans. That was life in the 1950s.

Children that did not do well in primary schools, or did not like studies were not a problem. The parents would send them to the kopitiams to serve kopis to feed themselves, a big relief to the family. And some would end up carrying a piece of bamboo and stick, walking around the kampong, hitting the bamboo, tok tik tok, tok tik tok, in search of customers to buy a bowl of noodles. They will carry the bowl of noodles to the customers in their homes, for 20c a bowl. The young boys, probably pre teens or in their early teens, would get a few dollars a month for their effort or jobs. No body complained about child labour and life being tough for the young boys.

For those that were more able, finishing Senior Cambridge was the final hurdle to start job hunting to supplement the family's income. At 16 or 17, many would take on the burden to upkeep the family and looking after their younger siblings. What internship? Getting a job was like striking lottery.

The plight of today's young, to be forced into internship, is a luxury that pioneering generation Singaporeans did not have and would not complain about. To the pioneering generations, getting a job, any job, after Senior Cambridge, ie O level, was a big achievement, a big step in life to shoulder more responsibilities.

The strawberry generation never had it so good. Are they complaining or are their parents complaining that life is too harsh for them?