This morning, on the way to airport, M and I were commenting how our Korean neighbour is willing to uproot her whole family and relocate to our country without any base or existing business or employment here. They even bought a property here to stay. I was wondering what is in our country that has attracted foreigners to base here when our own people keep criticizing our own homeland and are looking forward to relocate to other country.
After much pondering, we decided that the pull factor of our dear country are the relative lower cost of living compared to other countries. If you are considerably comfortable in the finance side, you will be living quite comfortably in our country. The countrymen's somewhat slower pace of living is also a pull factor for those who want a relatively stress-free life. Somehow, there is a lack of urgency in almost everything that is being done in our country.
On top of that, the relative competitiveness of our countrymen makes other adventurous entrepreneur to venture into our country. It actually creates opportunity for these entrepreneurs to build a good base and business in our country. This is discounting the fact that our country is full of red tapes and somewhat lukewarm responsiveness from all quarters involved in setting up a business.
However, being a non-competitive nation is also a double-edged sword that push visitors and tourists away. When we were queuing to get our breakfast at one of the airport's fast food outlets, we waited for more than 15 minutes for our turn. The person behind us kept shouting that he has a flight to catch and he has waited 10 minutes without any progress in waiting time.
Ignoring our impatient stare, the front-line staff kept serving the first person at the counter. I don't know if they were having difficulty understanding English, but there seemed to be a communication breakdown until the manager needed to step in and the second person in line helped to explain what the customer wanted. On top of the difficulty communicating with customers, the fast food outlet staff seemed to have difficulty customizing customer order and order made for eight persons were completed in ten minutes, which is a century for a fast food outlet record.
When our turn came, the man behind us has left the outlet in full frustration. Even our order was taken at a lackadaisical manner. Seemed like the persons behind the counter have just woken up from their sleep and are not energetic to work. All these attitude despite World Cup season being over. And what is worse is that this not even fasting month yet. I wonder what is the speed of service during fasting month when everyone is weak and hungry.
When people are in true hurry, they really loath to come to our country. Even we ourselves are frustrated by the efficiency of our nation. But what can we do to improve ourselves? We can't just depend on our government. Everyone have to start improving ourselves as an individual, a family unit, and subsequently only as a nation.
How many generations will it take for our nation to move forward instead of backward again?
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