So there's been some discussion here (https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/1gg6npo/purported\_resignation\_message\_from\_li\_hongyi\_as/) on our senior civil servants not having domain expertise. And most ppl in SG are probably familiar with the term 'paper generals'.

But I was hoping to get some insight, esp from those with more working experience/ public sector experience, on why top-performing scholars get rotated around different ministries/ stat boards so much? It seems that the G is doing them a disservice too.

For eg, I can understand (which is not to say approve):

- Parachuting generals - they need a 2nd career cos early retirement age + G policy not to have chief of service stay in their positions for too long

- Rotating scholars to be PPS to groom them for political leadership

But other than that, why not just fast-track them within whatever ministry/ stat board they're in, until they reach PS or CE?

Daiso really isn't wasting time waiting for Halloween or Deepavali to end.

There are alot of misinformed redditors saying it is essentially the same festival, but this is completely wrong. Tamils and North Indians do not celebrate the same thing.

1. Tamil Deepavali celebrates the honor of Lord Krishna’s consort Satyabhama slaying the demon Narakasura (because he ill-treated women). At his last moment, Narakasura realized all the wrongs he did, and said that my death symbolizes the killing of all the wrongs - so it must be celebrated.
2. Diwali (North India) is related to Lord Rama and his triumph over Ravana after which Rama returns to Ayodhya in North India.

 3. Deepavali is also known as Naraka Chaturdashi  and it usually falls a day before the Diwali in North India, except in some years when it overlaps. Some observant redditors would have noticed that SG's Deepavali and Diwali in North India do not always fall on the same day. This year it does.

So pls lets have informed conversations about festivals and not lump all communities together just cause its "convenient".

Some resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narakasura#Death

https://vedicfeed.com/diwali-of-north-india-and-south-india/

EDIT: After reading the comments I see many feel its alright for them to lump Deepavali (as celebrated by Tamils) and Diwali (North Indians) together because the word means the same. The festival is not defined by the meaning of the word but the reason behind why it is celebrated. Also it only matters whether Tamils and North Indians see it as different, everybody else's opinion is just that, an opinion and not a matter of fact.

As far as I could tell, this was not reported by our local media, but I can guess why it wasn't.

Nicolina Elrick is a Singapore Permanent Resident, having lived here since at least 2003. (Source: Her Instagram page and her LinkedIn).

On 29 August, she was on board Blue Origin NS-26, a 10 minute sub-orbital mission. (Rocket goes up and then goes back down again, it does not orbit the planet).

As the flight went above 100km in altitude (the Karman Line), the crew on board were considered to be astronauts and given astronaut wings by Blue Origin. But this is kinda controversial, as for the most part, they are space tourists.

Singaporeans have tried going to space before, but Nicolina Elrick's flight is considered the first time that someone from Singapore has gone to space.

Although she wasn't born and raised in Singapore, her being a PR, and still living in Singapore, makes her "Singapore-enough" in my definition.

First, Happy Deepavali/Diwali to everyone who is celebrating!

I have a stupid question, 20 years ago, the holiday was called Deepavali. Now, most of my Indian colleagues are wishing each other Happy Diwali. What happened? Was there an official holiday name change?

Sorry if the question is tone deaf.

EDIT: The Mods locking this shows how much real cultural discussion and discourse is being discouraged. Political mudslinging, terrible local celebrity news of the day and other braindead conversations are alright, but real discussion? Immediate lock. Dissapointing.

I got this from someone and will post it here.

"I was wondering if you’d be willing to edit your post to counter their misinformation, because some of the commenters are straight-up erasing Singaporean Indians like Andre Jumabhoy, Pritam Singh, Kishore Mahbubani, and many others out of the social fabric by claiming that all local Indians are Tamil, which is not true. Have they all suddenly forgotten about Jumabhoy, who is literally in the news right now? He isn’t Tamil. His ethnicity is Gujarati, and they refer to the festival as Diwali. Likewise for Pritam Singh, who is Punjabi, and whose community also calls the festival Diwali.

Deepavali and Diwali are two different ways of referencing the same festival, and Singapore’s varying Indian communities use either word depending on the language they speak. Imagine what people like Jumabhoy and Pritam Singh must think when they come on here and see ignorant Redditors basically saying that they and their communities don’t exist and aren’t Singaporean."

Sharing a positive story:

I was in a PHV this morning on the way to a friend’s place for Deepavali/Diwali celebrations and asked my driver how his day was going, especially with the public holiday.

He mentioned that it was very quiet, unsurprisingly so, as people would mostly be at home sleeping in or doing Deepavali prep.

I echoed his sentiments, saying people will most likely come out of their homes only in the evening for Diwali gatherings.

My Christian Chinese (I assume) driver continued ‘yes, when they go out for Puja’. I told him I was surprised he knew that word, and all he had to say was ‘I’m Singaporean mah’.

You literally couldn’t make up a better story than this. I hope we can all embrace the melting pot that this great country is, and have similar such connections with our various cultures.

Talk about your day. Anything goes, but subreddit rules still apply. Please be polite to each other!