I have to say, I’m writing this article rather shamefacedly and properly chastised. Previously I belonged in the camp of narrow-minded people who were very vocal about their objections towards the building of foreign worker dorms in Serangoon Gardens; partially because I live just a pebble toss away, hence the emotional investment, and partially because I am an ass with a tinge of elitist prejudice that I wish to dismiss as non-existent and impossible for me to have. And yet I do, maybe a little unwittingly.
That has since changed though; am I allowed to sheepishly retract whatever insensitive remarks that I have stupidly made? It’s as though I get repeatedly smacked over the head and chided sternly with every newspaper commentary that I read. But little girl certainly needed that spanking on her butt, because they were right. It borders on extreme bigotry when we actually accept herding human beings to an isolated compound with restricted access to the neighbourhood as the ‘right’ thing to do, treating them with fear, derision and like lepers. In what ways do they deserve such treatment? Through generalizations and stereotypical portrayals? Through whatever few newspaper articles we can draw out of our minds about their supposed criminal behaviour (and conveniently forget about other similar criminal behaviours done by locals)? Through stories told by friends-of-friends-of-friends about supposed maid dalliances and improper behaviour? And we pride ourselves on intelligent beings with objectivity that is based on fact. Slay the horse because of the flea on its ear.
Sitting on our moral high horses with our justifications and ‘reasonable’ reasons, we do not see the people that we have become. And it is pretty ugly. It is within these very same perimeters that we fall into the risk of self righteous denial, which when left unchecked, can lead to enormous herd mentality of ominous consequences. We don’t want to do anything that even slightly mirrors the horrors of the holocaust.
So ok, foreign dorms it is. And not in prison-like conditions either; they deserve respect and a more welcoming gesture than the fearful and beady-eyed wary glares that we have shown them so far. I don’t know, though this issue has exposed my own weaknesses in all its full glory, it never really hurts to have things like these thump you in the chest hard and make you think about yourself and our people. I’ve certainly learnt the lesson of being a little more gracious and a little more aware – societal prejudices and family influences are still deeply entrenched and whether you like it or not, are insidiously working in every one of us.
it’s a little ironic, given that there’s one of these dorms right across my place.
it used to be dead quiet around here; now there’re people walking around at almost any time of the day. i admit that i still have rather a rather mixed reaction to this, but that there are some services across the street means life is a little more ocnvenient (as compared to.. none).
my family takes security a little more seriously now, actually locking our doors at night (when before there wasn’t really a need to, since.. well, there simply wouldn’t be anyone around).
i guess it’s just the changes from a quiet neighbourhood to a high-density residential area does affect/distress people, regardless of bigotry and other factors. and we all know, people don’t always take change well.
yea you’re right! i guess people are always resistant to new things, but still, ‘foreign workers’ somehow just bring the craziness up a notch. we might try to deny it but i think we’re still a little fearful because of our unfamiliarity with their race, which leads fo discrimination? (I think)
yea you’re right! i guess people are always resistant to new things, but still, ‘foreign workers’ somehow just bring the craziness up a notch. we might try to deny it but i think we’re still a little fearful because of our unfamiliarity with their race, which leads to discrimination? (I think)
i don’t think it’s unfamiliarity.. it’s more like misunderstanding of the different ethnic cultures. that’s not to say that there isn’t any discrimination, nor that there aren’t any real problems, though. but adding that to the stress of change just, as you said, brings it up a notch somehow. to be honest, i think the discrimination is less ethnically-motivated than social status. it hasn’t been, isn’t, and probably wouldn’t be for awhile, to be fashionable to being associated with ‘foreign workers’.