fts

foreign talents? who coined this name by the way? perhaps it has been coined with all good intentions. but the way this term had been bastardized and used, it had been degraded into nothing but a mockery by the ungrateful people of this country to mean anything foreign that do not meet their freaking elitist standards or likings. seriously, singaporeans are a whole lot of self-denying people. frankly, how many of you singaporeans do not have ancestors who come from foreign soils? almost none! and you dare to now throw your weights around people you deemed foreigners! what audacity! and worst still, how dare you degrade and place people lower than you just because they do all the jobs you don't want to do? without them, where do you get your mbs? without them? where do you get your clean hawker centers? do you not realize that these people are no different from your samsui women of the years passed? ungrateful!

this morning, i was reminded about some experiences of mine when i visited australia in 1993 and 1996. in both occasions, i was there to attend some overseas training. and in both occasions, i had the opportunity to interact with some locals. i was reminded by mnay of my friends and colleagues, before heading there, that i should move around in groups and avoid the locals (read - australians). the locals were known to react unkindly to overseas asians. the advice was not unfounded cos personally i did have some rather unpleasant encounters. apart from being spitted at, i also had people shouting "hey, go back to your fucking country!" at me. such hostilities were particularly stark in urbanized areas such as sydney and its surrounding suburbs. in contrast, i found people in the less populated areas such as mount tamborines to be really friendly. in fact, i had made some pretty good friends during my stay there and some remained friends for many many years.

when i was faced with such negative reactions, the feeling was not pleasant at all. and it was not pleasant at several levels. firstly, as a visitor to the country, i was spending good money there and i was contributing to their well-being directly. i definitely did not deserve such treatments from them. secondly, i did not do anything to them to provoke such a responses. well, i know they were not happy that about the large numbers of asians (especially vietnamese) within their communities. on one hand, i could not really blame them cos it was rather clear that the asians were not really making any efforts to integrate with the locals. also, there did not seemed to be any strong initiatives from the local authorities to encourage such social integration. but on the other hand, i could not accept their strong reactions to me. i thought it was a tat too elitist and did not speak well of australian as a whole. i was really glad i came from singapore and i felt really proud to be singaporean. singapore was a country where "regardless of race, language or religion" was part of the national pledge. social policies were all aimed towards integration. after my visit in 1996, i decided i should minimize my visits to australia... to me, the australia then equated to western-elitism and bad behaviour.

fast forward to today, 2011 may.

it seemed like what i saw in australia in 1993/96 is now happening right in front of me. people (read - singaporeans) are selfish, self-centered, elitist, etc. singapore seemed to now equate to western-elitism. hmmm, perhaps, no. singapore is now more of self-centred, singapore-elistism. people attitude can be summed up as - i am a singapore chinese and i don't welcome china chinese becos they are (fill in the blanks), i am a singapore indian (south asian) and i don't welcome india indians becos they are (fill in the blanks), etc... worst still, some people turn nasty when they see anything that seemed foreign (and this includes hanyu pinyin names)! i can understand the tensions. i can accept that singaporeans feel unhappy about having foreigners as they give the society a slightly different and unfamiliar feel. it can be rather unsettling. but from the many readings and interactions, i realized that singaporeans have the "unwanted jobs, give it to them (foreigners), but when it resources and common space, i want it all" mentality. it is quite troubling. it is quite sickening.

anyway, the recent events made me think very hard about whether it is really worthwhile to stay in this country. also, it made me think very hard whether i should simply cut off some of my friends (elitist ones, emotional ones, unobjective ones, and so on). as what many have told me, to be happy, one needs to mix around with happy people. i supposed this also applies to having similar minded friends when it comes to thinking. again, it is nothing against them.

ok, will stop here... just another emotional but aimless reflection while resting at home.