Urbanisation and development is good... right?

Nowadays I find myself contemplating life more and more, partly due to the usual teenage hormones that make us question our place on Earth compared to the people before us and partly due to my exams when I sometimes just think "how far would be grades in this take me in the course of my lifetime?". Of course I know the answer to the latter question but this train of thought often leads me to think about urbanisation and development; I could never answer the question of if urbanisation and development, as well as education, are ever really a good thing. 

In this case, I would be arguing that these three aspects, heavily linked, are bad. I can often argue both ways (although slightly more on the side of the development, being the comformist I am), although for now I wish to be the devil's advocate.

One of the reasons I ask this question is often because of the problems I see in many of my friends, who are suffering academic stress and relationship problems (this is essentially why I never decide to invest my time in things regarding emotions as well as relationships). I take notice of all the suicides that happen due to these two issues alone and how these would rarely occur in undeveloped areas (or rarely reported, although I think my initial answer was correct). The concept of suicide itself was never natural. Why would any organism on Earth decide to commit suicide without benefitting anyone? I recall a few animals willing to commit suicide for the protection of their herd/colony. However this doesn't happen in humans, who only wish to do it for their own selfish reasons (typical). I remember reading one of my favourite behavioural economic books a long time ago(Either Freaknomics or Superfreakonomics if I remember correctly) and it addresses the topic of suicide and how it was introduced and spread through the media. Apparently there was an island in the west and as soon as the television was exported there (or a TV show. How I wish I had photographic memory), the number of suicides shot from 0 to 3 in a year alone. Needless to say that this TV show had images of suicide on it. 

Therefore without development and the spread of the television, would we have a lot less suicides in the world? 

Second point. The concept of education itself seems to have a negative correlation to me. I see countries such as Singapore being one of the most unhappiest people on Earth. Living there as a child, I can remember why. The amount of pressure for one to do well is immense. I recall how much my mother constantly stressed upon me how "China is on the rise" and that "in the future they are the ones that I have to compete with for a job. There are a 100 people waiting for a job, but only one seat for it. How much are you willing to go to get that job?". Sure enough these questions are often true (except perhaps for the 100 people and one job bit), but did they have to illustrate the fact to children at such a young age? I was not the only one to be told this by their parents, and I often see classmates with tuitions for every single subject every day after school. It's as if they never really left school at all.

The amount of stress from the government was huge as well, with the syllabi being crammed with topics far above our level when compared with the UK standard, American standards and perhaps other Asian standards (although I will need to do some research on that). It doens't help that the government, spurred on by the proposition of Lee Kuan Yew implementing a streaming system, which puts the underachieveres in the same class and the overachievers in a similar class, often in a different school by the time we reach secondary education. This of course affects morale, expressing the thought onto these poor young souls that they will never do well in life whenever they 'move down a class', which often brings them down further even more. On the other hand it boosts the ego of those who 'move up a class' creating a highly egoistic and overconfident but unfortunately highly educated labour force. 

As predicted we often see two types of children. Of course we see those who withstand the pressure to excel and are often regarded as the "shining light of Singapore" and those who crack under pressure (myself included) and become students who often can't be bothered, or try really hard but not enough to succeed. And often these are students who belong to family's of low income which often acts as a limiting factor academic wise. 

It's not surprising that we find cases of teenage suicide for some even for those as young as 15. This often takes the form of them jumping off roofs and ledges. Sound familiar to you? These are often the methods of suicide adopted in movies. 

Furthermore it is not reported by the Straits Times previously that over 8 out of 10 people in Singapore at the current moment are undergoing stress and thus chronic headaches. 

This was an actual picture of a boy in Singapore, aged 12, undergoing PSLE stress (Primary School Leaving Examination). He went missing for three days, but was reunited shortly after. Sleeping in car rides was the only opportunity he got to sleep. 

On the other hand I see Jakarta and other places in Indonesia where the people are uneducated, albeit not dumb, but completely happy. They may take a stroll and enjoy the beach or enjoy the cool air (I mean this in rural areas of course), with not a care in the world. This includes those in poverty are happy as well. As my friend likes to quote "they have nothing in the world to lose". 

If I were to choose would I rather be educated and completely unhappy and depressed in life, or uneducated and happy and content? I'd pick the latter to be honest. 

Cheers,

Matthew Tan

(A bit lengthy today. Apologies)