Loyalty

Made this my movie week because I do get more time off during this week. And since I had my kaki(s) to watch movies, I caught two shows today. Yay.

Madagascar 2

I haven't watched the first but it really didn't matter. Raj was telling me that it was somewhat like the Lion King - which sadly, I didn't really appreciate. But it was a light-hearted show, You've got to Move It Move It ♪ lol

Body of Lies

This was more dense and there was a limitation in terms of the Hollywood trademark of car-chase, excessive explosion, babes, etc. Instead, it portrayed the difficulties that an agent (Di Caprio) faced being in the middle between his superior (Russel Crowe) who was based in American and did not have much ground knowledge yet wanted to move quickly and was a hindrance as a result; and the intelligence organisation headed by Hani Salem who expected the agent to be completely honest and to do the things their way.

I have to say the following: Hani, as a leader in this intelligence industry, he was really a nice guy and a bit too humane to be true. Next, I didn't understand the motivation behind the agent, what drove him to endure all the sacrifices? As for me, I'd probably call it quits when I got divorced at the beginning of the show.

This brings me to the consideration of this article in yesterday's Today newspaper (not trying to be funny). There was this article on a Singaporean in a dilemma: she married a British man and holds a British PR as she is based there. Although Britain allows dual citizenship, Singapore doesn't and she can't choose whether to take up the British citizenship and renounce the Singapore one.

I heard her dilemma and reasons that kids can be loyal to both countries even if he/she holds dual citizenship. I agree. I will lay down my life in the defence of Singapore but I also remember my identity of being born in Hong Kong and I feel sad when people talk bad about Japan because I know the positives of Japan and Japanese. With the issues related to my work and all, I just got more sensitive in this area.

I was thinking that if I was informed of my position 7 years back, I'd have renounced anything because my identity was simply Singapore citizen. But now, with the exposure and all, I feel strongly about my roots as someone born in Hong Kong and nonetheless linked to Japan. My tagline would probably go [Made in Hong Kong, Modified in Singapore, Packaged in Japan]. Can I choose one over the other, I can't because I can't decide which part of my memory to be erased for another but I know my duty to defend Singapore because I am trained to, and I believe I will fight as a foot soldier if Singapore is attacked by Hong Kong (China) or Japan.

Unfortunately, I can't answer for the others and there will be those who favour one over the other. The Organisation has to come up with a guideline and I respect that. The Organisation would probably tell me that [It's business, not personal] and my reply is [It's personal, not business]. I have to stick to my values and principles and be true to myself.