When Home is Away from Home
My thoughts on the evacuation of overseas Singaporeans in the Middle East
When living overseas, you rarely think about how you would get home if something suddenly went wrong.
As an overseas Singaporean, I was heartened when I read about how Singapore arranged RSAF (Republic of Singapore Air Force) flights to bring Singaporeans home from the Middle East, when commercial flights were few and far between. I cannot imagine the anxiety, the scrambling and the decision making that the affected families went through.
PSA: E-register with the MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) when overseas, so the embassy knows where you are and can reach you when needed. In corporate terms, it’s called visibility.
At the same time, I felt for those leaving the region. For many of them, places like Doha and Riyadh are homes where they built their careers, found friends, raised families and created a life, albeit outside of Singapore.
Through no fault of their own, they had to leave behind friends, routines and the latest version of life as they know it.
Those places may still be there tomorrow, but the life may not be the same again.
Maybe this is part of the overseas journey, where life is inherently more uncertain.
There is no perfect place, only the right place at the right phase of your life.