to know sgp and to understand my frustrations, perhaps it is good to understand that the island comprises 4 million second/ third generation immigrants... largely from asia, primarily china and india.
about close to 80% of the population today are chinese/indians, 15% are malays and the remaining a mixed of numerous other minor races.
amongst these mixed of asians, we have a hotchpotch of cultures coming together and together with religious and political sensitivity, (malays are largely muslim, chinese are largely christian and buddhist and taoist whereas the indians are largely hindus), the population is very much so conservative.
the government has all these years since independence, tried to promote inter-religious and inter-culture harmony. as such, what is commonly regarded or taken advantaged of in many countries, in sgp, it is very much promoted and much efforts are put in to ensure social harmony is maintained.
one of the values that have been promoted that is common to all races and religion is that of filial piety and family-centric values. these of course is well and good at the societal level, but it affects glbts. family-centric policies such as housing benefits for married couples, tax rebates for bearing children, etc indirectly also means the glbts are left out...
having promoted family-centric policies invariably also led to the general population being insensitive or for that matter, not well aware of glbts. as such, our lifestyles (a minority) where sex seemed to be the order of the day, so not go well with the community and as such, glbt lifestyle is often frowned upon. coupled with the fact that the society is steep in asian values, glbts and their lifestyle is something that is seen as foreign/ western imports. for example, asian family puts a high emphasis on the males passing down the family names and the sons as the bearer of the family name, pride and honour, having a gay son is therefore considered sacrilegious as many cannot accept the fact that they will not have offsprings and hence the threat of an end to a lineage...
for the younger str8 generation, despite having been exposed to western values, culture, etc, (and hence, glbt movements and sub-culture), it is often a case of `oh, i am ok with glbts... but hopefully it is not my brother, or sister, etc...'
frustrating? well, just facts of daily lives in this crossroads of east and west...
sighs...
thinking aloud…
about close to 80% of the population today are chinese/indians, 15% are malays and the remaining a mixed of numerous other minor races.
amongst these mixed of asians, we have a hotchpotch of cultures coming together and together with religious and political sensitivity, (malays are largely muslim, chinese are largely christian and buddhist and taoist whereas the indians are largely hindus), the population is very much so conservative.
the government has all these years since independence, tried to promote inter-religious and inter-culture harmony. as such, what is commonly regarded or taken advantaged of in many countries, in sgp, it is very much promoted and much efforts are put in to ensure social harmony is maintained.
one of the values that have been promoted that is common to all races and religion is that of filial piety and family-centric values. these of course is well and good at the societal level, but it affects glbts. family-centric policies such as housing benefits for married couples, tax rebates for bearing children, etc indirectly also means the glbts are left out...
having promoted family-centric policies invariably also led to the general population being insensitive or for that matter, not well aware of glbts. as such, our lifestyles (a minority) where sex seemed to be the order of the day, so not go well with the community and as such, glbt lifestyle is often frowned upon. coupled with the fact that the society is steep in asian values, glbts and their lifestyle is something that is seen as foreign/ western imports. for example, asian family puts a high emphasis on the males passing down the family names and the sons as the bearer of the family name, pride and honour, having a gay son is therefore considered sacrilegious as many cannot accept the fact that they will not have offsprings and hence the threat of an end to a lineage...
for the younger str8 generation, despite having been exposed to western values, culture, etc, (and hence, glbt movements and sub-culture), it is often a case of `oh, i am ok with glbts... but hopefully it is not my brother, or sister, etc...'
frustrating? well, just facts of daily lives in this crossroads of east and west...
sighs...
thinking aloud…
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