From TODAY, Voices
Friday September 5, 2008
BUDGET TAI TAI
The Others have breached our shores, and we are fighting a losing battle
Tabitha Wang
news@newstoday.com.sg
TO EXPLAIN my excitement to a Hong Kong friend — when I was watching the women’s table tennis team final of the Beijing Olympics — I told her: “It will be Singapore’s first medal in 48 years”.
“Big deal,” she said. I thought she meant that one medal was nothing in comparison to China’s 98 but no.
She continued: “It’s an all-Chinese podium finish anyway. No matter what the flag — China, Singapore or Australia — they’re all China-born.”
Ouch, the same old argument again, just in a different country. But I remember the same comments being made by Singaporeans four years ago, when Beijing-born Li Jiawei stood a chance to win a medal for Singapore for the first time since independence.
Honestly, what does it matter where they were born? The women who did Singapore proud played their hearts out for the Republic and deserve their place in our history books.
That’s my rebuttal every time I hear someone say that but I’m afraid I’m fighting a losing battle. Despite all the Government’s efforts to integrate foreigners into our country, many Singaporeans still remain suspicious of people who are not born on Singapore soil (and preferably at KK Hospital).
In my last column, I wrote about how it seems that more commuters are behaving badly on board public transport.
Most of the readers who wrote in agreed, with one noting that she’d even seen NSFs in full uniform blatantly disregarding the “No Eating” signs.
But one reader, however, said the anti-social behaviour had nothing to do with us locals. It was the foreigners, she insisted, the tourists, maids and construction workers. They had to be taught how to behave.
I can understand where she’s coming from. It’s human nature to want to blame The Others when it comes to uncivilised behaviour. The Others are the ones taking our jobs, stealing our women and, worst, eating on board our nice, clean trains. Never us.
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Foreigners are here to stay. If you try to run away from them in your home country, you’re going to end up a foreigner too.
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A survey carried out by a Singapore newspaper last year showed that nine out of 10 Singaporeans still fear losing their jobs to overseas professionals. And this fear translates to extreme keep-‘em-out behaviour.
I know a couple of Singaporean friends who constantly refer to all white people as chao (smelly) ang moh. These smelly foreigners are blamed for everything undesirable — rise in property prices, their inability to find a job, even dog poo left unscooped in public parks.
And a few years ago, an expat friend pointed out to me an article in a local magazine about “white trash criminals” in which it hinted that some of the white men could be criminals.
“Don’t they realise how racist that is?” he wondered.
To my shame, I used to just keep quiet when my friends went on their bash-the-foreigner rant. Then I came to Hong Kong and officially became an Other. And worse, one who didn’t quite fit into any category.
Though I look local, I can’t speak Cantonese and prefer toast over their weird instant-noodle luncheon- meat breakfast staple. Yet, I don’t have the blonde hair and blue eyes necessary to be called gweilo.
Not being able to place me, most locals just ignore this oddity — until it is time to play the bash-the-foreigner game. Once, I was held accountable for singlehandedly raising the rents in the Mid-Levels so that no local could afford to live there anymore. Now I know what expat friends in Singapore mean when they talk about “reverse racism”.
The fact is, the world is getting smaller and increasingly, experts are talking about global citizens — people who go where the money is. Small economies like Singapore will always need more talents than locals can provide.
Foreigners are here to stay. If you try to run away from them in your home country, you’re going to end up a foreigner too. So sniff yourself first before you accuse anybody of being smelly.
Tabitha Wang can’t understand why she has been scolded for not scooping dog poo – especially as she doesn’t have a dog.
Friday September 5, 2008
BUDGET TAI TAI
The Others have breached our shores, and we are fighting a losing battle
Tabitha Wang
news@newstoday.com.sg
TO EXPLAIN my excitement to a Hong Kong friend — when I was watching the women’s table tennis team final of the Beijing Olympics — I told her: “It will be Singapore’s first medal in 48 years”.
“Big deal,” she said. I thought she meant that one medal was nothing in comparison to China’s 98 but no.
She continued: “It’s an all-Chinese podium finish anyway. No matter what the flag — China, Singapore or Australia — they’re all China-born.”
Ouch, the same old argument again, just in a different country. But I remember the same comments being made by Singaporeans four years ago, when Beijing-born Li Jiawei stood a chance to win a medal for Singapore for the first time since independence.
Honestly, what does it matter where they were born? The women who did Singapore proud played their hearts out for the Republic and deserve their place in our history books.
That’s my rebuttal every time I hear someone say that but I’m afraid I’m fighting a losing battle. Despite all the Government’s efforts to integrate foreigners into our country, many Singaporeans still remain suspicious of people who are not born on Singapore soil (and preferably at KK Hospital).
In my last column, I wrote about how it seems that more commuters are behaving badly on board public transport.
Most of the readers who wrote in agreed, with one noting that she’d even seen NSFs in full uniform blatantly disregarding the “No Eating” signs.
But one reader, however, said the anti-social behaviour had nothing to do with us locals. It was the foreigners, she insisted, the tourists, maids and construction workers. They had to be taught how to behave.
I can understand where she’s coming from. It’s human nature to want to blame The Others when it comes to uncivilised behaviour. The Others are the ones taking our jobs, stealing our women and, worst, eating on board our nice, clean trains. Never us.
----------
Foreigners are here to stay. If you try to run away from them in your home country, you’re going to end up a foreigner too.
----------
A survey carried out by a Singapore newspaper last year showed that nine out of 10 Singaporeans still fear losing their jobs to overseas professionals. And this fear translates to extreme keep-‘em-out behaviour.
I know a couple of Singaporean friends who constantly refer to all white people as chao (smelly) ang moh. These smelly foreigners are blamed for everything undesirable — rise in property prices, their inability to find a job, even dog poo left unscooped in public parks.
And a few years ago, an expat friend pointed out to me an article in a local magazine about “white trash criminals” in which it hinted that some of the white men could be criminals.
“Don’t they realise how racist that is?” he wondered.
To my shame, I used to just keep quiet when my friends went on their bash-the-foreigner rant. Then I came to Hong Kong and officially became an Other. And worse, one who didn’t quite fit into any category.
Though I look local, I can’t speak Cantonese and prefer toast over their weird instant-noodle luncheon- meat breakfast staple. Yet, I don’t have the blonde hair and blue eyes necessary to be called gweilo.
Not being able to place me, most locals just ignore this oddity — until it is time to play the bash-the-foreigner game. Once, I was held accountable for singlehandedly raising the rents in the Mid-Levels so that no local could afford to live there anymore. Now I know what expat friends in Singapore mean when they talk about “reverse racism”.
The fact is, the world is getting smaller and increasingly, experts are talking about global citizens — people who go where the money is. Small economies like Singapore will always need more talents than locals can provide.
Foreigners are here to stay. If you try to run away from them in your home country, you’re going to end up a foreigner too. So sniff yourself first before you accuse anybody of being smelly.
Tabitha Wang can’t understand why she has been scolded for not scooping dog poo – especially as she doesn’t have a dog.
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