4 years vs 40 years

We went to watch the Grey Cup finals (Canadian Football League) at BC Place (stadium) today, thanks to a gift from DD's relative. At the game, we sang the Canadian national anthem. It suddenly occurred to me how "O Canada!" is actually moving for me now, just as how "Majulah Singapura" was long, long ago.

[30-Nov-2014: Mom/baby-to-be's 1st Grey Cup game]

Other fleeting thoughts while at the game:

1. Sports is such a big thing here in B.C., Canada, especially hockey and football. Even someone like me who has only attended 1 live football (i.e. soccer) match in a Singapore stadium actually enjoyed going to live hockey and (today) football games at B.C. stadiums. [Note: According to my hubby DD: B.C. folks are not considered huge supporters of competitive sports, when compared to other provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan.] IMHO, there is no short-cut to developing a thriving sports culture. It requires a package deal: from developing an appreciation of sports in the general public, to encouraging children to participate in various sports from young, to supporting widespread access to sports training (e.g. specialized competitive sports training personnel, facilities and related equipment may be very expensive -- and possibly beyond the affordability of the median Singaporean family), to supporting budding sportsmen in all aspects (financial, academic, etc), to creating sports-centric jobs/industries (e.g. recruiting soccer news anchors from retired soccer players/coaches).
2. Yes, I'm pregnant, less than 1 year into our marriage. We heard at a recent gathering of (ex-)Singapore folks here that another Singapore-Canadian couple here is also expecting, less than 1 year into their marriage too. Perhaps the problem with fertility in Singapore is not with the Singaporeans, but other "environmental" (e.g. social) issues? E.g. Working too many hours to have time/energy leftover for baby-making? Worrying about how one's child/children will cope in a highly competitive social/educational environment with narrow definitions of success and the trend of unforgiving attitudes towards social "failures"? [Click here and here to see the Finnish baby box that drives home the message that “Every child matters. Every family matters.”]
3. 4 years versus 40 years. How did my host country "win my heart" in 4 years and my birth country lose my "love" over 40 years? It boggles the mind. Something for those residing in Singapore to think about, since Singapore has "welcome" a significant proportion (about 40%) of foreign-born onto its soil -- What policies exist and/or are-needed for the foreign-born to feel accepted as part-of-Singapore? [Click here, here and here for related articles.]

p.s. I still appreciate my Singaporean heritage -- from the "old Singapore" which I grew up in, a very different society that Singapore currently is and continues to evolve into. As I've written before, and a couple of my blog readers commented in agreement, the Singapore that we grew up in no longer exists. What is leftover are the flotsam and jetsam of overseas (ex-)Singaporeans who continue to grasp onto the community spirit of the old days and passing on what's left of their heritage to their children and generations to come. To borrow the words from Battlestar Galactica, "All of this has happened before (overseas Chinese back in the 1900's), and will happen again (new wave of emigrants)".