[On social enterprising youths in Singapore, and the efforts to encourage and groom them.]


I've come to the conclusion that the Singapore Bubble Tea Mentality is nearly a natural reflex of the populace, no matter the age.

Attending a certain youth nation-wide event (mass grassroots!) yesterday afternoon, my biggest take-away was the networking, with a possible internship currently being arranged. And this is kinda 'wrong' really, cos I went with the intention to hear the views and feel the drive of those young people, to cheer their confidence and applaud their creativity. (But of course networking too, because the world's really about guan xi, followed by gan qing.)

I heard their inarticulated views, truly felt the drive, cheered Inexperience and Sloppy, and applauded No Creativity.

Of the three finalists' social enterprise pitches, I have absolutely no idea what the first group wants to propose (tuition services? tour packages? HURH?), thought the second group's was good because the clarity of thoughts was evident, but the idea (Tingkat food catering), tried and tested. And the last group was into child labour. Not to mention their test on my attention span. Well at least they managed to test, the first group didn't even manage that (switch off, anyone?).

But that's not the point. The point is that tuitionservicestingkatsellingart as social enterprises are allofthem already engaged ideas. So was it simply a copy and paste situation? The Bubble Tea Mentality. "Oh that works well! Let's all jump onboard!"

Inarticulation we can give speech classes, Inexperience and Sloppy we can give exposure and etiquette classes, but Creativity? We need to change the entire socialization process.

Or maybe it's all about Drive.
Passion. Just like how Ms Penny Low of the Social Innovation Park put it.

Passion. Creativity.
I believe these two must be Siamese twins in order to function beneficially. And Siamese twins are unique aren't they? Yet still functional within society.

Let's burst the bubbles, and invent a warm mug of Singapore Tea.