What's Your Mindset Like? Singaporean, American, 'Third world Carefree' Or Comatosean?

Once the Spanish sailor Christopher Columbus, "discovered" the Americas, life was never, ever the same again for the indigenous people. Those up north, became Red Indians just because Columbus had failed to find his way to India—in a joined quest with his benefactors to control the lucrative spice trade—a much sought after conquest of the seas, by any powerful nation at the time.

To date, the indigenous Americans fight on for their rights as they try hard to preserve their cultural values, given that many Americans today are descendants of immigrants from Europe or enslaved Africans.

The Singaporeans were a colonised lot too but they emerged a better bunch after winning independence, initially from Britain.

Lee Kuan Yew was just as stoic as he was talismanic—leading a people left for dead by Malaysia's 126 - 0 parliamentary vote to expel Singapore from the union, for fighting ethnic discrimination.

With no much land, natural resources and high unemployment, Singapore was viewed through the same lenses as would a preterm baby with no incubator nearby. But their epic rise put to shame all the ney sayers. What mattered was the collectively shared mindset embodied in Lee Kuan Yew.

This is the same attitude possessed by turnaround leaders. Brian Davis was that man for Kenya Airways as was Michael Joseph for Safaricom.

This brings to life memories of Nick Vujicic, who against all odds is famous for establishing himself as a distinct and successful inspirational speaker despite being born without hands and legs. He has lived to raise a happy family and gone on to fulfil many of the things in his bucket list. Mr. Ambwere, the lame self-made millionaire from Western Kenya comes to mind as well.

Clearly, Singapore worked with what it had to attain what it never had at all. And that is where the majority in the world strikes a chord with the Singaporeans, yet they are soon parted with them because of mindset differences. Many feel permanently condemned, hence lacking the Singaporean mindset.

Let's move on.

The modern American says, "I was born here and I will buy American to build America, immigration history notwithstanding. The superpower that is America has thrived on the positive contributions of recent times immigrants who've pledged their loyalty to America and taken up its citizenship or are born into it.

In political parlance, America is a movement that cherry-picks the world's best brains.

Despite its racial challenges, the country holds together and tells the rest of the world what to do using muscles gifted it by brain drain. And like Boda Boda riders, the Americans rally around a common course like we often see of the Halley Davidson riders in American movies. The Boda Boda brotherhood is a melting pot of communities united by the good and bad turns in the business.

At the end of it all, the American mindset is one driven by enterprise. Independence day and thanksgiving are key highlights of American culture. They know why and what independence means to them besides demonstrating an attitude of gratitude for those that deserve it. Unfortunately, the majority of them are ignorant of world affairs despite their government's big brother role at the world stage. The myopic amongst them are herded into line. Let's pack it here for now.

The forced carefree third world mindset is of a back and forth kind like it is with the waters of a sea that has set out to graze at dawn, then suddenly and forcefully returns at midday as the high tide, that washes away innocent lives in its wake. It is a free-for-all mix-them-gather-them-and-confuse-them all attitude, so it seems. It is an induced attitude. Most of this happens in Africa. And if the world was one big city, Africa, obviously, would be the red light district. Everyone else does all the dirty stuff here and then return to the inviting warmth of their spouse's arms overseas.

Sample this. Officially, Africa contributes less than 3% of world trade but the countries that exploit Africa's resources are credited with contributing 80% or more of world trade. What happens in the redlight district passes for hard-earned wealth abroad. Africa is not yet a clandè. It is a commercial (whatever) worker on the cheap. Clandès get better treatment—an accredited observer status at the very least.

But wait a minute, is it not the collusion of powerful senior Africans serving as pimps and the economic hitmen from the East and West that bleeds the continent of its resources? Politically, ruling over weaker subjects guarantees them a firmer grip on power, thanks to the resources provided by such hitmen to facilitate the easy pickings.

This forced mindset supposedly doesn't test positive for the cooperative movement's all-for-one and one-for-all principle.

But all is not lost. Africa is emerging, though not with the uniformity that would instantly impact world affairs. The wheels turn slower in Africa but they turn and bring forth some hope. With all parts of the white-race inhabited world experiencing declining populations and a resultant shortage of manpower to keep their economic wheels turning, Africa finds itself as a fitting source of personnel to plug the shortfalls. This time around, they are invited as free people. Talk about the irony of going to steady the momentum in economies catalysed by African freebies—an opportunity to experience both sides of the blood-stained coin.

Will it be an obvious plug and play situation in these well-established countries or shall we ship in our short term mindsets and thus afford them much relief? The good thing is that excitement fades away soon enough and it is in fixing the fixers problems that the world will appreciate that ours is not a carefree mindset. It is a latent mindset abundantly blessed with agility and emotional intelligence. The latent phase will end once headcount attains critical mass, and possibly, civilization shall once more belong to the originators—as reminders of it are preserved for posterity by the skyscraper pyramids of Egypt, a 100% black man initiative now benefiting latter-day inhabitants. What you do with the information in this paragraph is entirely up to you.

Let us now explore the comatosean world. No dictionary acknowledges the word as I have used it. We derive it from the word comatose further taken from the word coma, a prolonged state of deep unconsciousness, caused especially by severe injury or illness.

Unfortunately, we have parts of the world that never change. As you journey upcountry, the old tin-roofed trading centres that have remained unchanged for years, come to mind. In such places, the usual suspects reign supreme as they show up to preside over every debate or to diligently supervise any new occurrence without pay. The Occurrence Book is of a mental kind and can only be updated or amended by these trading centre majors.

This is the comatosean world. It is both literal and figurative. Literal because it is unmoved by the progress made all around it—despite never making it to UNESCO's list of heritage sites. And figurative because town-raised kids are threatened with condemnation to such a life, should they not work hard enough in school. This must be the 4th world where the play station is unheard of. The prevalent mindset here is hostile to challenge and will go out to any lengths to maintain the status quo. You, the outsider, even though originally from there, is viewed as a potential coloniser, and they just won't let you lest you pull a Christopher Columbus move on them. Were such minds gifted with a trip out there, they just may be the ideal cast for "The gods must be crazy", season two.

But there is hope in the comatosean world. They might snap out of the coma.

So, are you of a Singaporean mindset or otherwise? Please gauge yourself in silence.