Oh, baby!

I've been reading a fair bit of mr brown's blog lately because it's so damn funny, and because he puts a nice spin on current issues in Singapore. From there, I hopped over to a nice foodie site called AromaCookery, something that may interest Miss DSD.

Anyway, at AromaCookery, I read about this booklet created by MCYS or the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Another make-a-baby campaign. This one runs similar to the Romancing Singapore one. The goverment who knows us so well is offering ideas and tips (even free gifts!) to help couples increase the romance quotient in their marriages, so that they might fulfill their "national duty," as aptly expressed by the writer of AromaCookery.

I can understand if the falling birth rate is a problem, but give us some credit! The way the goverment chooses to handle the problem is insulting and insensitive. Apparently, Big Brother must have detailed records of married couples - how long they've been married for, their fertility years, whether or not they have children. They then select couples to whom they send these wonderful (read: cheesy and horrendously transparent) booklets. But what if they send the booklet to a couple who wants to have kids but are biologically unable to? Salt to the wound. And having children isn't as simple as a have-or-have-not case. Many factors go into deciding to have a child, what gives the goverment the right to reduce it to an issue of have-one-and-have-one-now? Or perhaps they think that when two people don't have children, their marriage must be getting dull and in need of help. Besides, this should be a decision left to the couple and nobody else. That is, if you're not involved in the everyday raising of the child, you don't get a say in whether I have one or not and how I raise the child. Also, aren't they aware of the case of telling someone (particularly children, and this goes to show how much they know about children) to do something and they almost always do the opposite?

If the government wants to do something about the issue, make people aware of it - have their newspaper columnists write about it, encourage journalists to feature it every now and then. But don't presume that Singaporeans are little sheep who need instruction booklets to carry out their duty to the country. If they're going to have babies, they will; and at the time of their choosing, and certainly without the need for government intervention. 364 tips on how to spice up the marriage? Since when was the government an expert at romance? Stick to international relations, economic improvement, and education; leave our marriages and parental choices to us (and while we're at it, leave off censoring movies and telling us what art should or shouldn't be).