Are you wallowing in self-pity? Are you knocking your head silly on the wall for not planning ahead for a date with a crush? Have you been hopelessly single? Do your crushes treat you like a close sibling of sorts? Do you want to get out of it and bare it all and scream "I AM A (WO)MAN AND I WANT YOU!!!"? Ok, maybe that was a little off, but you know what… ?

Seriously speaking, it doesn’t really matter since Valentine’s Day is already so commercialised. Moreover, if you really love a person, isn’t everyday supposed to be special anyway? Ok, ok. I get it. It’s just a "special day" thing right? So, what can you do if you are prince- or princess-less on Valentine’s Day? Fret not, because there are really a 1001 things you can do without standing out in the crowd as the "unwanted one".

1. Ask a fellow single out for a meal. Dress casual and eat out anywhere and just have some great fun. Really, that can be fun too. Doesn’t matter if it’s 2 guys going out on a dinner date meal together. Everyone else will be too lovey dovey to notice anyway.
2. Ask a few singles out for kopi! Make it a cuppa at Starbucks! Or the kopitiam of your choice … and join the other ah beis looking at the TV box or drinking Tiger
3. Play <insert favourite multi-player game>. After all, this is the best time to up your points and lean over your opponents
4. Join Ridzuan at Starbucks @ Raffles City to light up the place
5. … erm … erm … Form a Singles Support Group?!

Okie… perhaps I am out of ideas, but really, it’s just another day. If you have a loved one, everyday should be like V-day, isn’t it? Not to mention that flowers would cost a fraction

Sometimes, don’t you wonder why Singapore is losing its best and brightest? Have you ever wondered why people would give up their citizenship and withdraw their CPF "just like that"? Don’t you think they have some feelings for Singapore? Well, I have to admit that some people may not, but perhaps not everyone wants to give up their citizenship here… but possible… just possibly… if they get their citizenship elsewhere… then they’d have to give up… something?

And the best solution to this is to bring in more foreigners in the hope that they’d stay here? Hmm… maybe it’s just me, but something doesn’t quite… gel.

SINGAPORE is losing about 1,000 of its best and brightest every year and the numbers are growing, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has said, sounding the alarm on the severity of the brain drain.

And the main magnet for these talents is not regional powerhouse China, but the United States and other developed English-speaking countries, he told the United Press International news agency in an interview earlier this month.

Citing figures of Singaporeans who gave up their citizenship and took out their savings and CPF funds, he said this meant ‘losing about, at the top end, 1,000 a year, which is about - if you take the top 30 per cent of the population - about four or five per cent’.

Mr Lee believes this exodus could only grow because ‘every year, there are more people going abroad for their first or second degree’.

Some of these Singaporean talents head for China, but return eventually because, at the end of the day, they do not want to compete with the Chinese, he said.

‘You go to China, you’re going to compete against 1,300 million very bright fellows, hardworking, starving. Do you stand a chance to be on top of that pole? No.’

‘But if you go there as a Singaporean with a different base, speaking English which they can’t, with connections to the world, then you’ve got a different platform.’

In comparison, the pull of US is difficult to reverse, he said, noting that American firms recruited bright Singaporean students straight out of universities there.

After acclimatising to life and work in the US, ‘if they decide to take the Green Card and settle in America, then I think we?ve lost them’, said Mr Lee.

Singaporeans who do not want the stiff competition in the US go to Australia and Canada, he added.

The brain drain has been a regular issue addressed by MM Lee, who has repeatedly said that this is Singapore’s Achilles heel.

To stem this loss of talent, Singapore has wooed many top professionals from China and India here, he said.

The draw for the Chinese is that their children can learn both English and Chinese, while the Indians like Singapore because it is close to home, yet a step up in terms of First World infrastructure.

‘The trouble is many of the Chinese then use us as a stepping stone to go to America, where the grass is greener.’

‘But even if we only keep 30 to 40 per cent and lose 60 to 70 per cent, we’re a net gainer,’ he said. He said, however, that the Chinese would cease to come in 20 to 30 years’ time, when China’s living standards rise to match Singapore’s.

Article obtained from straitstimes.com on 13th February 2008