Don't worry, nothing more will be revealed. There are dishonourable lines that I do not cross. Happy 2010. PTADER.
*************************************************
Source: 147th, 11 Sep 1989
Tough to be an immigrant in a minority community
Time to provide Singaporeans with reasons to stay
WHY do Singaporeans emigrate? For that matter why does anybody?
Why do they uproot their families and leave familiar environs to settle in a n alien place where they, their offspring and descendants will eternally be in the minority - despite history's lessons on the fate of minority races?
Economic hardship and political suppression provide some good reasons. Another important one, especially in the past, was the promise of a better life when there were fewer and less rigid national boundaries, and new lands waited to be discovered and developed. But why emigrate now when Singapore is so well off materially?
Long ago, I convinced myself that leaving Singapore for the fabled cities of invigorating Vancouver, laissez faire London, easy-going Perth, or vibrant Los Angeles was out. Study of the human race's genocidal proclivities strengthens that conviction...
Yet people wittingly collect their loved ones to go some place where they may be welcomed momentarily (fleetingly in historical terms) with, I submit, insufficient thought about what may happen 10, 20, 40 years down the road, or the lot of their future generations ... in an age when national and racial boundaries have been firmly drawn.
Not long ago, I had one of the best years of my life as a temporary denizen of London.
There was not enough time to do what I had wanted to, nor to savour the plethora of cultural offerings of that exciting city ... historical sites, artifacts that even their original host countries could not match, theatres with the world's top artistes not available or too exorbitant elsewhere, diversions and attractions for the most narcissistic, and a tolerance of free speech symbolised by the Sunday sideshows of Hyde Park Corner.
What a magnificent place to be a part of, what agreeable pleasures for Anglophiles and Western-oriented gentlemen!
At the end of my year I foreswore settlement in London.
Great for a year's stay. But not home for an onion-skin (they call us yellow ) Chinese Singaporean.
No Asian Singaporean could ever truly belong in Anglo-Saxon England, despite
the inroads of the West Indians, and other Asians. We are a different species.
Recent reports of racial trouble there confirm they will never be accepted, and hint at the troubles to come (former Conservative MP Enoch Powell, like all prophets, was not accepted in his own country, nor in his time).
Hardly any salvation for minority races
The pogrom is not that far off... 50 years, 100 years, 500 years at the most.
Salvation for minority races and the rest of the world may come from that bi g hole in the sky, or a Gaddafi and the atom bomb.
Despite the occasional Asian-European social gatherings (mere window dressin g those) in London, the fact that Singaporeans gravitated towards or confined themselves to each other (so do most other minority races everywhere else), taught me we did not belong.
Nor did the fact that I had to hesitate - then refrain - from unleashing a fluent stream of East End expletives when a native cut into my path on the road.
How can you feel at home when you cannot behave as you would at home?
I have met Singaporean friends who have settled in Perth.
They are comfortable there: cost of living, especially housing, is relativel y low, no hectoring government, and the pace is so leisurely, and there are such generous social security payments that make it so attractive to remain unemployed. But, like all minorities, they behave like minority communities.
In any case, that incident on a civilised golf course when a horde of Australians charged at me mouthing a litany of popular Aussie also reinforced my diffidence in alien environments. And all I did was ask a son of theirs whether he had mistakenly picked up my errant golf ball.
Let's just consider the short-term headaches of emigration:
* THE problem of physically relocating and re-establishing your family in a new community and new country (for me, moving to Seletar was tough enough).
* THE task of re-establishing yourself in your profession or business in a country where you know nobody, apart from the few who emigrated before you, or the odd local friend or two. There's no old-boy network for you there.
* THE realisation at some time that, everything else being equal, your colou r or crook of your nose puts you at a disadvantage in the final award of that contract, a scholarship, a job, a place somewhere.
Even among themselves, a different accent is cause for discrimination. Recen t reports of American universities restricting the number of new Asian undergraduates reinforces this point.
* IF you are a medical practitioner in a government-run hospital, some old lady might ask to be treated by her own kind instead.
* YOU have no or few childhood friends; and how important they are to everybody, not just Singaporeans, especially as we age and our circle of friends and close relatives narrows year by year.
Even if you are young, think of the times you run low on cash, say on a weekend (before ATMs), and have no bank overdraft and no one you are confident enough in to turn to for that loan of $10.
* YOUR children might be the butt of some insensitive remarks by other children (and you know how cruel children can be), and adults ...'chinky chonky Chinese'... 'slit-eye nips'... 'stinking niggers' (all darker skin people are stinking niggers)...
* LAST but not least, you cannot stick your head out of your car at will and
call someone somebody's illegitimate son.
I believe for every point mentioned, someone living abroad will provide rebuttal.
But they should be reminded of the long-term and historical lessons against being a minority community.
By all means emigrate, if you can establish your racial community as a majority in your new land, but there are no uninhabited, unclaimed continents or islands left these days.
In any case, what's the point of going somewhere else to establish another racial enclave, when our forefathers have successfully done it here?
Consider one possible native view of immigrants: you are an interloper who plants yourself in his house/home after he has established it.
However, I am convinced, genocide - with you, your family and your minority racial community as the target - is inevitable.
It is in the realm of human and animal behaviour to destroy others to ensure
their own survival, roughly in this order: aliens first (other species, then other subdivisions of the same species, then other tribes of the same race), going down the scale till we turn on our own families, then on ourselves.
If you must emigrate, these then must be your only destinations: China for Chinese Singaporeans, India for Indians, Malaysia for Malays, Eurasians...
If we cannot or should not, then let's make Singapore work better.
What if your CPF savings and other assets buy you a bungalow with a heated swimming pool in Vancouver? It does not buy you acceptance or a chameleonic blending with the other colours around you.
Let's return to the question: "Why do Singaporeans emigrate?"
Some, we hear, leave for such frivolous reasons as the desire to own a bette r car. While each reason does not tell much, together they hint at something deeper: a possible loss of faith, a growing alienation, especially among the more mobile higher-income Singaporeans.
Let us study these "frivolous" reasons to trace the genesis of that process that persuades them to leave, against reason.
These valuable Singaporeans are articulate, often only in the privacy and security of their clubs and homes.
They chaff among themselves over perceived injustices, and all manner of ill s - real or imagined.
They often blame our Government, the same one that has made in so short a time such a good living and physical environment possible for all, and for them especially.
The Cabinet ministers, as reported by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, have listed many cogent reasons they would put to would-be emigrants to persuade them to stay. Even if passion was missing, the cold reasons for staying are overwhelming.
Personally, I would probably leave - then only reluctantly - if those reason s and conditions were removed, or if Singapore's position in the sea around us becomes indefensible.
A lot of passion among S'poreans
Maybe, our ministers spoke more with their heads than their hearts. But there's a lot of passion among many serious-minded patriotic Singaporeans, though not adequately expressed.
Singing Stand up for Singapore is great, especially for the masses (more of whom, by the way, are staying and therefore need not stand up so much). But our higher income, professionals and intellectuals, need more than flag-waving to rouse or douse their passion. Maybe we could sit down and think - and then sing, this time with real feeling.
The Government believes it has provided Singaporeans the material reasons to
stay. Perhaps, it should start to work towards providing them with reasons for not leaving.
Why lose 4,000 of our own, and import 4,000 aliens, similarity of colour notwithstanding?
Singapore has provided the conditions for business to thrive, maybe at the sacrifice of other pursuits, though this is being remedied in some limited areas. Complaints against this may appear airy fairy and Western in origin. But it is one cause that has driven some to emigrate.
*************************************************
Source: 147th, 11 Sep 1989
Tough to be an immigrant in a minority community
Time to provide Singaporeans with reasons to stay
WHY do Singaporeans emigrate? For that matter why does anybody?
Why do they uproot their families and leave familiar environs to settle in a n alien place where they, their offspring and descendants will eternally be in the minority - despite history's lessons on the fate of minority races?
Economic hardship and political suppression provide some good reasons. Another important one, especially in the past, was the promise of a better life when there were fewer and less rigid national boundaries, and new lands waited to be discovered and developed. But why emigrate now when Singapore is so well off materially?
Long ago, I convinced myself that leaving Singapore for the fabled cities of invigorating Vancouver, laissez faire London, easy-going Perth, or vibrant Los Angeles was out. Study of the human race's genocidal proclivities strengthens that conviction...
Yet people wittingly collect their loved ones to go some place where they may be welcomed momentarily (fleetingly in historical terms) with, I submit, insufficient thought about what may happen 10, 20, 40 years down the road, or the lot of their future generations ... in an age when national and racial boundaries have been firmly drawn.
Not long ago, I had one of the best years of my life as a temporary denizen of London.
There was not enough time to do what I had wanted to, nor to savour the plethora of cultural offerings of that exciting city ... historical sites, artifacts that even their original host countries could not match, theatres with the world's top artistes not available or too exorbitant elsewhere, diversions and attractions for the most narcissistic, and a tolerance of free speech symbolised by the Sunday sideshows of Hyde Park Corner.
What a magnificent place to be a part of, what agreeable pleasures for Anglophiles and Western-oriented gentlemen!
At the end of my year I foreswore settlement in London.
Great for a year's stay. But not home for an onion-skin (they call us yellow ) Chinese Singaporean.
No Asian Singaporean could ever truly belong in Anglo-Saxon England, despite
the inroads of the West Indians, and other Asians. We are a different species.
Recent reports of racial trouble there confirm they will never be accepted, and hint at the troubles to come (former Conservative MP Enoch Powell, like all prophets, was not accepted in his own country, nor in his time).
Hardly any salvation for minority races
The pogrom is not that far off... 50 years, 100 years, 500 years at the most.
Salvation for minority races and the rest of the world may come from that bi g hole in the sky, or a Gaddafi and the atom bomb.
Despite the occasional Asian-European social gatherings (mere window dressin g those) in London, the fact that Singaporeans gravitated towards or confined themselves to each other (so do most other minority races everywhere else), taught me we did not belong.
Nor did the fact that I had to hesitate - then refrain - from unleashing a fluent stream of East End expletives when a native cut into my path on the road.
How can you feel at home when you cannot behave as you would at home?
I have met Singaporean friends who have settled in Perth.
They are comfortable there: cost of living, especially housing, is relativel y low, no hectoring government, and the pace is so leisurely, and there are such generous social security payments that make it so attractive to remain unemployed. But, like all minorities, they behave like minority communities.
In any case, that incident on a civilised golf course when a horde of Australians charged at me mouthing a litany of popular Aussie also reinforced my diffidence in alien environments. And all I did was ask a son of theirs whether he had mistakenly picked up my errant golf ball.
Let's just consider the short-term headaches of emigration:
* THE problem of physically relocating and re-establishing your family in a new community and new country (for me, moving to Seletar was tough enough).
* THE task of re-establishing yourself in your profession or business in a country where you know nobody, apart from the few who emigrated before you, or the odd local friend or two. There's no old-boy network for you there.
* THE realisation at some time that, everything else being equal, your colou r or crook of your nose puts you at a disadvantage in the final award of that contract, a scholarship, a job, a place somewhere.
Even among themselves, a different accent is cause for discrimination. Recen t reports of American universities restricting the number of new Asian undergraduates reinforces this point.
* IF you are a medical practitioner in a government-run hospital, some old lady might ask to be treated by her own kind instead.
* YOU have no or few childhood friends; and how important they are to everybody, not just Singaporeans, especially as we age and our circle of friends and close relatives narrows year by year.
Even if you are young, think of the times you run low on cash, say on a weekend (before ATMs), and have no bank overdraft and no one you are confident enough in to turn to for that loan of $10.
* YOUR children might be the butt of some insensitive remarks by other children (and you know how cruel children can be), and adults ...'chinky chonky Chinese'... 'slit-eye nips'... 'stinking niggers' (all darker skin people are stinking niggers)...
* LAST but not least, you cannot stick your head out of your car at will and
call someone somebody's illegitimate son.
I believe for every point mentioned, someone living abroad will provide rebuttal.
But they should be reminded of the long-term and historical lessons against being a minority community.
By all means emigrate, if you can establish your racial community as a majority in your new land, but there are no uninhabited, unclaimed continents or islands left these days.
In any case, what's the point of going somewhere else to establish another racial enclave, when our forefathers have successfully done it here?
Consider one possible native view of immigrants: you are an interloper who plants yourself in his house/home after he has established it.
However, I am convinced, genocide - with you, your family and your minority racial community as the target - is inevitable.
It is in the realm of human and animal behaviour to destroy others to ensure
their own survival, roughly in this order: aliens first (other species, then other subdivisions of the same species, then other tribes of the same race), going down the scale till we turn on our own families, then on ourselves.
If you must emigrate, these then must be your only destinations: China for Chinese Singaporeans, India for Indians, Malaysia for Malays, Eurasians...
If we cannot or should not, then let's make Singapore work better.
What if your CPF savings and other assets buy you a bungalow with a heated swimming pool in Vancouver? It does not buy you acceptance or a chameleonic blending with the other colours around you.
Let's return to the question: "Why do Singaporeans emigrate?"
Some, we hear, leave for such frivolous reasons as the desire to own a bette r car. While each reason does not tell much, together they hint at something deeper: a possible loss of faith, a growing alienation, especially among the more mobile higher-income Singaporeans.
Let us study these "frivolous" reasons to trace the genesis of that process that persuades them to leave, against reason.
These valuable Singaporeans are articulate, often only in the privacy and security of their clubs and homes.
They chaff among themselves over perceived injustices, and all manner of ill s - real or imagined.
They often blame our Government, the same one that has made in so short a time such a good living and physical environment possible for all, and for them especially.
The Cabinet ministers, as reported by Mr Lee Kuan Yew, have listed many cogent reasons they would put to would-be emigrants to persuade them to stay. Even if passion was missing, the cold reasons for staying are overwhelming.
Personally, I would probably leave - then only reluctantly - if those reason s and conditions were removed, or if Singapore's position in the sea around us becomes indefensible.
A lot of passion among S'poreans
Maybe, our ministers spoke more with their heads than their hearts. But there's a lot of passion among many serious-minded patriotic Singaporeans, though not adequately expressed.
Singing Stand up for Singapore is great, especially for the masses (more of whom, by the way, are staying and therefore need not stand up so much). But our higher income, professionals and intellectuals, need more than flag-waving to rouse or douse their passion. Maybe we could sit down and think - and then sing, this time with real feeling.
The Government believes it has provided Singaporeans the material reasons to
stay. Perhaps, it should start to work towards providing them with reasons for not leaving.
Why lose 4,000 of our own, and import 4,000 aliens, similarity of colour notwithstanding?
Singapore has provided the conditions for business to thrive, maybe at the sacrifice of other pursuits, though this is being remedied in some limited areas. Complaints against this may appear airy fairy and Western in origin. But it is one cause that has driven some to emigrate.
