According to dictionary.com, the term whine is defined as “to snivel or complain in a peevish, self-pitying way“. It would seem that Singaporeans in general like to whine. Just hop on a taxi and chat with the taxi uncle. Chances are, he will regale you with a ton of complaints/whines about the “gahmen”. Sit at coffeeshops for a day and you are sure to hear some negative remarks about the “cheng hu”. Read Singaporean blogs and you are almost definitely going to read plenty of writings slamming the government.

For some Singaporeans, such “whines” are viewed with disdain. They think that their fellow Singaporens have a “crutch” mentality, and that these people are better off looking into a mirror to see what is wrong with them instead of blaming the government all the time. There is this typical arrogant attitude with such people, who I think typically are well-educated and well-to-do people. The fundamental assumption of such people is that people who “whine” are lazy, unmotivated and just wants the government to babysit them.

This brings into mind the case of the boy who died serving NS because the doctors at the hospital who were attending to him (mind you, they are very senior doctors) accused the boy of malingering (which means pretending to be sick) in order to escape his NS duties. Eventually, the boy died of acute baterial infection, which is something that is likely to have been easily treatable in the early stage with proper administration of antibiotics. I remember reading an article in Time magazine in which a US colonel was quoted to have said, “Assumption is the mother of all f*ckups”.

My point here is that we should not put a blanket label of “whiner” when people complain. Sure, there are some people who like to complain for the sake of complaining. However, does this mean that we thus assume that everyone who complains is like that? When we do that, we conveniently cast aside those who might genuinely be calling for help. In some cases, the assumption that someone is whining won’t kill him. In other cases, such as the case of the NS boy, it killed him. And, as some people like to say, to assume is to make an ASS out of U and ME.

Besides, for those who like to casually dismiss the complaints of others as “whining”, the act itself speaks volumes about the character of the person. To not want to empathise and start accusing others of whining smacks of arrogance. By empathising, it does not mean that a “crutch” mentality will be engendered as a result. That happens when one sympathise, not empathise. To empathise is to understand the situation and work out a feasible solution with them for them to undertake while to sympathise is to solve the problem for them, which is the thing that causes the so-called “crutch” mentality. The inability to differentiate between empathy and sympathy is perhaps the greatest problem with whiners about other whiners.

I bet those whiners about other whiners are going to read this and start saying that I’m a whiner. Their actions are just so predictable. It doesn’t affect me though. I just find it amusing that these people go around so readily pointing their fingers at others and conveniently forget that they too are guilty of the same sin. In anycase, what’s so bad about whining? People need to let off steam sometimes. I think I pretty much let off quite abit of steam with this entry. :mrgreen: