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Written by Hawk Cut Weis as a Facebook note, 17 May 2012
Of Ferraris, PRCs and Social Integration – Putting Things into Perspective
By HCW
The recent horrific road traffic accident involving a Ferrari, Taxi and Motorcycle which have left 3 dead and 2 injured has no doubt sparked off a furore unlike any other since the General Elections 2011. While many are furious about the reckless behaviour of the PRC Ma Chi, condemning PRCs as a whole, labelling them as reckless, drunk drivers, and all sorts of derogatory terms, others are defending Chinese Nationals, saying that we cannot label all of them simply because of one incident, calling Singaporeans intolerant, uncouth and ugly.
Let's take a step back, and examine the why the accident has sparked off such strong emotions nationwide. It cannot be the accident in itself?
In actual fact, the Ferrari crash is simply a culmination of the tremendous social tension which has built up between the locals and the PRCs. Just like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria which sparked off World War I, this is not an independent event which is revealing the ugly side of Singaporeans, as some say. This is a precipitant. Had the accident involved an Australian, of American, or Arab, yes, there will still be social outrage, but it would have been directed toward the driver himself, and not the ENTIRE race.
Conversely, had the Ferrari crash not happened, there would just be another incident in the near future involving PRCs and Singaporeans, and a similar uproar would have ensued -- It is just a matter of time.
And why such tremendous social tension? There must be a reason why so many Singaporeans feel this way? Simply put, it is a mismatch of cultures and social norms.
The way PRCs act and think, is vastly different from that of Singaporeans. They have grown up in a hostile environment with 1 billion people, where to survive, you need to stand your ground, you need to be aggressive, or you would be pushed around. Where there was immense social upheaval like The Cultural Revolution, where people endured immense hardship and social norms were turned topsy-turvy. Where it is a dog-eat-dog world, where morality takes a backseat, and money and connections are the most important things in their world.
On the positive side, their environment has bred a race which is hardworking, hardy, and fearless. The negative part, evidently, is that the Chinese Nationals are socially backward, integrating with other races poorly.- We cannot blame them for the way they behave - this is the only way they know.
We cannot change the way that they think - that takes time. Sometimes, generations.
Supporters of the government's immigration policies will cite the fact that Singapore is in fact a colony where our forefathers all came from China. Absolutely, but such comparisons cannot be made, for that was generations ago, and the Singaporean today is tremendously different from his ancestor who boarded a junk and sailed across the South China Sea. Comparing a PRC and a Singaporean is like comparing Hematite (Iron Ore) and Stainless Steel - we are all of the same element, but many times more refined.
I have had the opportunity (or misfortune) to interact with PRCs on a regular basis. I stayed in Geylang for more than a year, where PRC prostitutes peppered the streets downstairs right outside my apartment; where women would quarrel at the top of their voices in the middle of the night, keeping me up, where men walk with their bellies exposed and chatter loudly. Where men stare at me walking my dog then proudly tell me: 我吃狗肉的！
I had to move out of Geylang because I felt myself becoming a very racist person. After I did, I thought I would see the less of them, but my new neighbour turned out to be PRC. Worse - a rich one. A businessman, his wife and babies, and a few fancy cars. This man and his wife are worse than the PRCs in Geylang - they are endowed with money, which gives them a natural sense of entitlement. My neighbours have called the authorities on me many times, complaining of my dogs, which are licensed and chipped. This despite me speaking to them nicely. They bang my gates when the dogs bark, scold my maid for having too many items in the recyling bin, accuse me of causing their mosquito problem (your dogs are stray. They are full of insects!), and climb over the dividing wall to take photos of me and my dogs (but failed to get me into trouble cos I am NOT doing anything wrong). Their babies wail at the top of their lungs every morning at 6 - 7am, waking the whole neighbourhood, but they do not seem to think that they may cause anyone any inconvenience - it can only happen the other way round.
Recently I had a string of problems where PRCs created trouble for me at my workplace, barging in, demanding free services, then creating a commotion, threatening to call the media, the ministers and the president, requiring me to engage the police and lawyers. After all the legalities were in place, they toned down, and expressed that all they wanted is for me to continue providing services for them since they did not trust anyone else to do it, and they probably thought creating a ruckus was the best way to get free services.
Buddha reminds us that all living beings do what they do so that they can obtain happiness and be free of suffering. I understand that completely, and I can understand why the PRCs behave this way - they think they can solve problems or make things better for themselves by creating a ruckus and causing inconveniences for everyone else. Unfortunately, they do not understand that this is not China, and things simply do not work this way.
No, Singaporeans are not making the bad behaviour of the PRCs up. One PRC behaving badly will not cause us to generalise that the majority of them are bad. But when 5 out of every 10 PRC we interact with behave like social retards, you cannot blame us for forming the current impression we have of them.
There are very nice Chinese Nationals of course. One of my favourite colleagues is a lady from China. She is cultured, driven, soft spoken, efficient and extremely nice. And she too expresses regret and embarrassment about the behaviour of her countrymen.
I truly believe we are a very tolerant society when it comes to welcoming people from other countries. Filipinos, Australians, Indians, British, Americans, Malaysians, most of us had no problems with them. But problems arise when there is too sudden an influx of a people whose social norms clash violently with ours.
The Bangladeshi men, for example, like to sit in the open on patches of grass and hang out - that is perfectly fine and in fact very charming. They have brought a piece of Bangladesh culture to Singapore, but in the process, they have not disturbed anyone, blending in harmoniously with our social structure.
Immigration policies are not easy to tackle at all. Opening the floodgates to foreigners have undoubtedly made Singapore the prosperous nation it is today. If the ruling party were to restrict foreigners from coming in now, we will all suffer, directly or indirectly. After the last election, steps have been taken to ensure more jobs are given to locals via the restriction of the proportion of foreigners working in a company. The fallacy of this policy is that now, the working class foreigner finds it more difficult to come to Singapore, but our arms remain wide open to those who are rich. And a large proportion of them are the rich PRCs who can afford limited edition Ferraris.
It is important to put Singapore's policies into perspective - Singapore favour economic growth more than anything else. Building casinos are more important than the resultant gambling issues. Building roads are more favoured over preserving Bukit Brown. Relentless development of open spaces - and culling of dogs to make way for it is more important to ensure that the moolah continues coming in. Inadvertently, this grand plan requires the participation of foreigners, especially rich ones.
Don't get me wrong. I have utmost respect for many of our Ministers, and I am fond of our Prime Minister, but we must understand that no matter how much noise Singaporeans make, how unhappy we are, the policies will not change. This is the Singapore that the ruling party has envisioned, and this will be the Singapore that will be. There is no right or wrong. People myself who value the simpler things in life will not like it. And if we do not like it, it is easier to leave than to wish that things will be different here.
The Ferrari accident is not what prompted me to write this long social commentary.
The heartbreaking story one of my fosterers just told me did. She has been fostering one of the Punggol puppies, JackJack for a while now, with the intention to adopt him. But she cannot because of complaints from her neighbours. Neighbours on both sides are foreigners - Filipinos on one side, and PRCs on the other. Her Filipino neighbours are perfectly fine, but her PRC neighbours are giving her trouble, saying that the puppy's barks are scaring the PRC children, threatening to complain to have the dog removed. Everytime I speak about bringing JackJack away, I can sense her bond with him and reluctance, and her helplessness of wanting to keep him but being unable to. The social behaviour of the PRCs has affected all spheres of our lives, including our innate wish to love animals.
It is unfair to call Singaporeans ugly, uncouth and not understanding. Those things we are not. Our society has simply reached a dangerous boiling point whereby even small incidents involving foreigners, in particular PRCs can incite immense emotion.
It is not easy, but the ruling party will have to take strides in improving social integration between the indigenous people and the newly arrived Chinese Nationals, or Singapore will fragment. It is matter of time.
Of Ferraris, PRCs and Social Integration – Putting Things into Perspective
By HCW
The recent horrific road traffic accident involving a Ferrari, Taxi and Motorcycle which have left 3 dead and 2 injured has no doubt sparked off a furore unlike any other since the General Elections 2011. While many are furious about the reckless behaviour of the PRC Ma Chi, condemning PRCs as a whole, labelling them as reckless, drunk drivers, and all sorts of derogatory terms, others are defending Chinese Nationals, saying that we cannot label all of them simply because of one incident, calling Singaporeans intolerant, uncouth and ugly.
Let's take a step back, and examine the why the accident has sparked off such strong emotions nationwide. It cannot be the accident in itself?
In actual fact, the Ferrari crash is simply a culmination of the tremendous social tension which has built up between the locals and the PRCs. Just like the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria which sparked off World War I, this is not an independent event which is revealing the ugly side of Singaporeans, as some say. This is a precipitant. Had the accident involved an Australian, of American, or Arab, yes, there will still be social outrage, but it would have been directed toward the driver himself, and not the ENTIRE race.
Conversely, had the Ferrari crash not happened, there would just be another incident in the near future involving PRCs and Singaporeans, and a similar uproar would have ensued -- It is just a matter of time.
And why such tremendous social tension? There must be a reason why so many Singaporeans feel this way? Simply put, it is a mismatch of cultures and social norms.
The way PRCs act and think, is vastly different from that of Singaporeans. They have grown up in a hostile environment with 1 billion people, where to survive, you need to stand your ground, you need to be aggressive, or you would be pushed around. Where there was immense social upheaval like The Cultural Revolution, where people endured immense hardship and social norms were turned topsy-turvy. Where it is a dog-eat-dog world, where morality takes a backseat, and money and connections are the most important things in their world.
On the positive side, their environment has bred a race which is hardworking, hardy, and fearless. The negative part, evidently, is that the Chinese Nationals are socially backward, integrating with other races poorly.- We cannot blame them for the way they behave - this is the only way they know.
We cannot change the way that they think - that takes time. Sometimes, generations.
Supporters of the government's immigration policies will cite the fact that Singapore is in fact a colony where our forefathers all came from China. Absolutely, but such comparisons cannot be made, for that was generations ago, and the Singaporean today is tremendously different from his ancestor who boarded a junk and sailed across the South China Sea. Comparing a PRC and a Singaporean is like comparing Hematite (Iron Ore) and Stainless Steel - we are all of the same element, but many times more refined.
I have had the opportunity (or misfortune) to interact with PRCs on a regular basis. I stayed in Geylang for more than a year, where PRC prostitutes peppered the streets downstairs right outside my apartment; where women would quarrel at the top of their voices in the middle of the night, keeping me up, where men walk with their bellies exposed and chatter loudly. Where men stare at me walking my dog then proudly tell me: 我吃狗肉的！
I had to move out of Geylang because I felt myself becoming a very racist person. After I did, I thought I would see the less of them, but my new neighbour turned out to be PRC. Worse - a rich one. A businessman, his wife and babies, and a few fancy cars. This man and his wife are worse than the PRCs in Geylang - they are endowed with money, which gives them a natural sense of entitlement. My neighbours have called the authorities on me many times, complaining of my dogs, which are licensed and chipped. This despite me speaking to them nicely. They bang my gates when the dogs bark, scold my maid for having too many items in the recyling bin, accuse me of causing their mosquito problem (your dogs are stray. They are full of insects!), and climb over the dividing wall to take photos of me and my dogs (but failed to get me into trouble cos I am NOT doing anything wrong). Their babies wail at the top of their lungs every morning at 6 - 7am, waking the whole neighbourhood, but they do not seem to think that they may cause anyone any inconvenience - it can only happen the other way round.
Recently I had a string of problems where PRCs created trouble for me at my workplace, barging in, demanding free services, then creating a commotion, threatening to call the media, the ministers and the president, requiring me to engage the police and lawyers. After all the legalities were in place, they toned down, and expressed that all they wanted is for me to continue providing services for them since they did not trust anyone else to do it, and they probably thought creating a ruckus was the best way to get free services.
Buddha reminds us that all living beings do what they do so that they can obtain happiness and be free of suffering. I understand that completely, and I can understand why the PRCs behave this way - they think they can solve problems or make things better for themselves by creating a ruckus and causing inconveniences for everyone else. Unfortunately, they do not understand that this is not China, and things simply do not work this way.
No, Singaporeans are not making the bad behaviour of the PRCs up. One PRC behaving badly will not cause us to generalise that the majority of them are bad. But when 5 out of every 10 PRC we interact with behave like social retards, you cannot blame us for forming the current impression we have of them.
There are very nice Chinese Nationals of course. One of my favourite colleagues is a lady from China. She is cultured, driven, soft spoken, efficient and extremely nice. And she too expresses regret and embarrassment about the behaviour of her countrymen.
I truly believe we are a very tolerant society when it comes to welcoming people from other countries. Filipinos, Australians, Indians, British, Americans, Malaysians, most of us had no problems with them. But problems arise when there is too sudden an influx of a people whose social norms clash violently with ours.
The Bangladeshi men, for example, like to sit in the open on patches of grass and hang out - that is perfectly fine and in fact very charming. They have brought a piece of Bangladesh culture to Singapore, but in the process, they have not disturbed anyone, blending in harmoniously with our social structure.
Immigration policies are not easy to tackle at all. Opening the floodgates to foreigners have undoubtedly made Singapore the prosperous nation it is today. If the ruling party were to restrict foreigners from coming in now, we will all suffer, directly or indirectly. After the last election, steps have been taken to ensure more jobs are given to locals via the restriction of the proportion of foreigners working in a company. The fallacy of this policy is that now, the working class foreigner finds it more difficult to come to Singapore, but our arms remain wide open to those who are rich. And a large proportion of them are the rich PRCs who can afford limited edition Ferraris.
It is important to put Singapore's policies into perspective - Singapore favour economic growth more than anything else. Building casinos are more important than the resultant gambling issues. Building roads are more favoured over preserving Bukit Brown. Relentless development of open spaces - and culling of dogs to make way for it is more important to ensure that the moolah continues coming in. Inadvertently, this grand plan requires the participation of foreigners, especially rich ones.
Don't get me wrong. I have utmost respect for many of our Ministers, and I am fond of our Prime Minister, but we must understand that no matter how much noise Singaporeans make, how unhappy we are, the policies will not change. This is the Singapore that the ruling party has envisioned, and this will be the Singapore that will be. There is no right or wrong. People myself who value the simpler things in life will not like it. And if we do not like it, it is easier to leave than to wish that things will be different here.
The Ferrari accident is not what prompted me to write this long social commentary.
The heartbreaking story one of my fosterers just told me did. She has been fostering one of the Punggol puppies, JackJack for a while now, with the intention to adopt him. But she cannot because of complaints from her neighbours. Neighbours on both sides are foreigners - Filipinos on one side, and PRCs on the other. Her Filipino neighbours are perfectly fine, but her PRC neighbours are giving her trouble, saying that the puppy's barks are scaring the PRC children, threatening to complain to have the dog removed. Everytime I speak about bringing JackJack away, I can sense her bond with him and reluctance, and her helplessness of wanting to keep him but being unable to. The social behaviour of the PRCs has affected all spheres of our lives, including our innate wish to love animals.
It is unfair to call Singaporeans ugly, uncouth and not understanding. Those things we are not. Our society has simply reached a dangerous boiling point whereby even small incidents involving foreigners, in particular PRCs can incite immense emotion.
It is not easy, but the ruling party will have to take strides in improving social integration between the indigenous people and the newly arrived Chinese Nationals, or Singapore will fragment. It is matter of time.
