We live the way we do because we're Asians

[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>Sep 10, 2009
'HOTEL MAMA' SYNDROME
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>We live the way we do because we're Asians
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>




<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I WAS amused by Mr Peter Huber's letter yesterday, 'Few babies? It's the Hotel Mama mindset'. What a curious way to take a poke at our culture and society by blaming them for declining birth rates.
If what Mr Huber states is true, why do Europe and the United States have low birth rates as well, since the young there leave home early and enjoy independence?
Staying with the family and moving out upon marriage to settle into a new family are part of our Asian culture, just as leaving home once you hit 18 is a part of Western culture. It is such a stereotype that if you live with your parents till you are married, you must be controlled by them and follow rules, just as many in the West assume Singaporeans all live under a dictatorship.
During a trip to the south of France last year to visit a friend in hospital, I was stunned when a nurse took pity on me when I said I was from Singapore. Apparently, her nephew offered her such a negative view of life in Singapore that she refused to believe that I did not lead a miserable, controlled life.
That Singaporeans do not bring home an unmarried partner is more out of respect towards their parents, and many of us prefer to confine these activities outside. Only when we are certain that that person is 'the one' do we bring our partner home to meet the family.
The fact that we choose not to have babies actually shows how 'disobedient' we are, because if we were as obedient to the Government, as Mr Huber insists, or to our parents who want grandchildren, we would procreate again and again.
Declining birth rates in Singapore and the West are due to the attitude that babies mean more expense, loss of freedom and less personal time; exacerbated by the rising cost of living in advanced societies.
Benardine De Britto (Miss)

http://www.gypsymusique.com/Fanfare_2008_101.jpg

 

[makapaaa]

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR>So, how come?
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><!-- show image if available --></TBODY></TABLE>




<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- 4 or less paragraphs so show all paragraphs first before showing the media and bkstry and stuffs --><!-- story content : start --><!-- story content : start -->'Explain why changes in Western Europe in the past 50 years towards non-marital sex have resulted in lower birth rates.'
<!-- story content : start -->MR CHOW KAH HOE: 'Mr Peter Huber thinks the presumably low incidence of premarital sex is responsible for fewer babies in Singapore. He ignores the fact that in Western societies where 'people in their 20s have probably more than one relationship before they settle down', birth rates have fallen drastically. Having fewer babies as society becomes more affluent is a universal social phenomenon grounded in biology. Mr Huber might want to explain why changes in social mores in Western Europe in the past 50 years towards non-marital sex have resulted in lower birth rates. Worldwide, birth rates are highest in traditional and conservative agrarian societies in the Third World. Mr Huber suggests that property prices are artificially high in Singapore and there is plenty of land. How then does he explain exorbitant property prices in London, New York and Shanghai, all in countries with far more land than Singapore?'