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Source:
www.gov.sg |
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SPEECH BY MR RAYMOND LIM,MINISTER
FOR PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE, 2ND MINISTER FOR FINANCE AND FOREIGN
AFFAIRS, AT SINGAPORE WRITERS FESTIVAL 2005 OPENING CEREMONY |
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An Excerpt |
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If someone were to ask you: ¡°Is Singapore a
literate society?¡±, what would your answer be? Would your answer be
¡°Yes¡± or ¡°No¡±? Either answer can be right depending on how you define
the word ¡®literate¡¯. |
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If you define ¡°literate¡± by its literal
meaning, the answer is certainly ¡°yes¡±. At least 95% of our population
is literate, that is, can read and write. |
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But if you define ¡°literate¡± as meaning a
well-read, society, your answer would probably be ¡°no¡± and you would be
quite right. |
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A Population Survey on the Arts by the
National Arts Council in 2002 found that only 40 per cent of 1,527
people surveyed had read a novel that year. |
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In 2003, a nation-wide survey of 1,500
Singapore residents by the National Library Board revealed that the
strongest motivation to read was neither for leisure nor for literary
appreciation. Rather, it was for career development. |
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I think that this is a pity because a nation
is judged not just by the power of its economy but the nature of its
society. |
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Do we honour the businessman but not the
artist? Do we admire tall buildings but not the creative spirit that
informs their designs? Are we so caught up with the material that we
forget the richness and diversity of our people, our realities, our
history? |
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As John F Kennedy said in his tribute to
Robert Frost - "A nation which disdains the art invites the fate of
Robert Frost's hired man ¨C ¡®the fate of having nothing to look backward
with pride and nothing to look forward to with hope.¡¯ " |
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Literature is a great civilizing force. It
is the soul of a nation. It is the way in which we voice our histories
and our aspirations; it is the way in which we reflect upon and comment
on our society and our life. |
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Literature is the foundation stone of
culture and civilization. It is our conscience and our interlocutor, our
imagination and our memory. For generations, great authors have created
fictional and factual records of their times through their prose. |
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Without literature, we would never have been
able to understand so much about the world, past and present. |
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Reading widely helps us expand our frames of
reference to understand human beings in a deep, empathetic way, because
we have lived their lives in print ¨C their joys and pain, their triumphs
and suffering, their hopes and hardship ¨C the indomitable strength of
the human will. |
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A well-read society is a society with
individuals who are more empathic, more tolerant, more thoughtful, and
more imaginative. |
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Literature not only holds the key to
understanding the ¡®software¡¯ of a society; it also reflects the
¡®soulware¡¯ of that society. |
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Full Text of Speech |
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Source:
www.gov.sg Press Release 26 Aug 2005 |
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Is Singapore a literate society?
