In the past year, three countries have done away with conscription, or announced their intentions to. Taiwan will be reducing their intake of conscripts until 2014, when it will be completely abolished. Poland ceased their conscription early this year, and Sweden just a couple days ago.
No such luck for the country I live in. On the contrary, our conscript army is getting larger simply because of more foreign nationalities who come here seeking citizenship. Even after two years being in the service, one is still eligible to be called up for reservist duties. This is the only country under no imminent threat of war that has such a long period of military service.
How can I be patriotic towards a country which does not honour articles 4, 20, and 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights, which respectively states that one should not be held in slavery or servitude, that no one maybe compelled to belong to an association and that everyone has the right to free choice of employment?
heyo derrick! just dropping a comment to show that i read your blog once in a while, haha. clarence and i are leaving for melbourne soon so keep in touch yea! we’ll be anticipating your visit to melbourne :)
can visit my blog for updates on our lives there.
take care dude!
Thanks for dropping by. Didn’t know you kept a blog too. Will be sure to follow! See you in Melbourne someday, hopefully!
i don’t quite agree with individualism. that said, d., i think you’re in need for a change of perspective : )
tour europe. begin in switzerland. go to holland and finish in denmark. you can pull all 3 in 30 days on 1 train ticket costing ~150 eur. step in/out and stay at any stop however you like. then, come back to sg and see how the world works.
of course ; ) me and you could also talk with some latte over at sg intl. airport!