I switched on my television to tune in to CNN and BBC to catch the election results this morning. All seemed fine until.. until I got the sense that Donald Trump was leading. And the votes were swinging his way. And he was winning over states. I decided, I'm not gonna be able to sit through this. I'm leaving my house to meet my Myanmar friend who came to Singapore.

Throughout that mrt ride that I was on, I felt a sense of devastation and loss. Really America? Really?? I was so sure you'd do the right thing when it came down to something as crucial as err electing your next President?? And it got worse when I saw updates on my phone - Ohio, Florida - major states - where Trump was winning. I looked around, nobody seemed to really care about what was happening. The balancer to China, and one of Singapore's strongest ally, America, is now led by the biggest bigot in the world. Everything feels like a show now.

And I think this is worse than Brexit because the world sees the US as a global leader and police. What will happen now that we have someone who's so unpredictable and stands by values that are so deviant to the core? It's an absolute nightmare and the world now has a future that is so uncertain.

But as much as I am in absolute aghast by what's happening (and what may happen in the future), the votes that gave way to Trump's win must be analysed. It means something. Why did so many people vote for Trump when the rest of us sees him as this big piece of orange peel with small hands. Why?

Well, simply because people are hurting. And people have been hurting for a longgggg time. By what? By globalisation. Us here in Singapore, we need Globalisation because we have nothing. No resources, so globalisation is great for us, we can go places, people come and go from our little trading hub, we can import things we can never ever grow. But for places like America, jobs were sent away to places abroad where labour is cheap, leaving so many retrenched. Where have the days of the great industrial America gone to? Also, the inequality divide has grown wider. Blue-collared workers are poor in a place that seems to be moving on perfectly without them. Left behind by what capitalism is thriving on. They're sick of this shit and they want out after many years of failed policies that never seem to get them out.

And if you took your A levels in my time, Globalisation was like the IT word. It's like the biggest thing to talk about in GP essays. But we've now seen the devastation of globalisation and its effects. THIS. This election has proven a point. Citizens of the world want to go back to the golden days. And that could mean protectionism. It could mean days of Hitler ruling Germany (just for dramatic effect but seriously who knows)

Also, this isn't just happening to America. If we look closely, and if we look inward, Singapore may very well fall into the same pothole. Our inequality divide has become wider, wider than ever before. We have poor people too. People have lost jobs to India and China as well. We have brought in foreign talent. Singaporeans have become increasingly xenophobic. It's telling. We have also suffered from globalisation.

And we must not and cannot let what happened today, happen to us. I see why the government is always so paranoid about our economy because they have to. We cannot afford to backslide. I don't know to what extent they're helping the poor because the poor in Singapore is so underreported. But I hope we see this as a lesson. I hope our leaders are paying attention.

Brexit was the first signal. The US Presidential Election is the second and I hope the final signal.

What can we do about it? I don't know. I really don't know. Skills Future? Yeah, maybe haha.

So I bought this book on impulse while my friend was walking around Popular Bookstore,

By Devadas Krishnadas

I got interested after reading a few pages. I don't usually buy books cos they're so expensive, but with the culmination of recent events, I decided this would be worth the buck.

Singapore needs to learn from this. Where are we gonna head to in the next 20, 30, 50 years?
And Singaporeans need to pay attention. It could happen to us. Our own changes in the Elected Presidency constitution. Our next PM. All these changes will affect us and we must be ready.

Hillary Clinton lost not because Americans weren't ready for a woman. It could be a reason but I don't think it was THE reason. It was more than that. And it's been felt and thoroughly felt.

In the meantime, let's just say that the Western world seems to be down in the dumps. People, prepare for Asian power. I'm pretty sure that in our time, that's what we'll have and that's what we'll get.