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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - why r sgporeans angry?</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead vAlign=top><TD class=msgF width="1%" noWrap align=right>From: </TD><TD class=msgFname width="68%" noWrap>bratsalive <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate width="30%" noWrap align=right>6:38 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT height=20 width="1%" noWrap align=right>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname width="68%" noWrap>ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (1 of 7) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft rowSpan=4 width="1%"> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>28466.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>The anger of displacement
Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:17 AM PST
By Choo Zheng Xi, Editor-at-Large
Why are Singaporeans unhappy, the PAP wonders.
It is said that Singaporeans are a migrant stock. Coming and going, it~{!/~}s in our blood. My own mother was born and raised in Hong Kong. She met my Singaporean father while he was helping out at my paternal grandmother~{!/~}s restaurant in Kowloon in the early 80s. And then I was born.
My parents brought me to Singapore in 1988, when I was three years old.
Back then, there were only about 300,000 non-citizen residents in Singapore, out of 3 million people.
All my mother~{!/~}s blood relatives are still in Hong Kong, but we are Singaporean citizens now. We will always call Singapore our first home.
I still speak only Cantonese with my mother. She came here speaking very little English, but she now speaks decent English and Mandarin (though with a strong Cantonese accent), and some pasar Hokkien that she picked up along the way.
My mother recently retired from her sales position at a 3-for-$10 stall near Raffles City where she happily worked for more than five years. She was tired of competing with the Mainlander that her boss had hired last year, who was willing to work longer for less money.
Mum was hoping to quit after receiving the annual one-month Chinese New Year bonus. The bonus, which her boss usually pays along with her January wages, never came this year. Over the phone, she told me how relieved she was that I~{!/~}d be starting work at a law firm later this year.
Singapore now has more than 1.7 million foreigners out of 4.99 million people.
My mother grew to love Singapore at a time when Singapore had more space to grow to love her.
It scares me how little space Singaporeans have been left to integrate foreigners, and how visceral the xenophobic reactions are.
Why are Singaporeans angry, the PAP wonders.
Then there is my paternal granduncle. He was a bookish bachelor, and spoke a crisp Victorian English common among the English-educated of his time. He used to trundle down every weekend to the old National Library at Stamford Road, where he enjoyed reading everything from American thriller novels to Singaporean history books. He was such a loyal library member that the library used to send him commemorative coffee table books on their more significant anniversaries.
He died a few years before they turned the Stamford Library into a tunnel. I guess in a way it was better he never found out, he would never have forgiven them.
Why are Singaporeans angry, the PAP wonders.
If our Ministers took crowded MRTs and buses, ate at neighborhood coffee shops, or worked as front line service staff, they might better understand Singaporeans~{!/~} anger.
If they lived like us, ate like us ~{!*~} if they looked at us ~{!*~} they might know.
Singaporeans aren~{!/~}t inherently xenophobic or hateful, my family will be the first to attest. I trust that Singaporeans can remember a common humanity even as we condemn dehumanizing policies.
But our country is changing so quickly that we now feel overwhelmed and displaced, angry, in a country which is becoming harder and harder to recognize.
It is hard to believe the PAP doesn~{!/~}t know why Singaporeans are angry, but what does our anger mean to them?
Singapore is increasingly losing our physical and emotional space for love, and soon the only thing we will be able to call ours will be our Anger.
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Posted: 10 Feb 2010 10:17 AM PST
By Choo Zheng Xi, Editor-at-Large
Why are Singaporeans unhappy, the PAP wonders.
It is said that Singaporeans are a migrant stock. Coming and going, it~{!/~}s in our blood. My own mother was born and raised in Hong Kong. She met my Singaporean father while he was helping out at my paternal grandmother~{!/~}s restaurant in Kowloon in the early 80s. And then I was born.
My parents brought me to Singapore in 1988, when I was three years old.
Back then, there were only about 300,000 non-citizen residents in Singapore, out of 3 million people.
All my mother~{!/~}s blood relatives are still in Hong Kong, but we are Singaporean citizens now. We will always call Singapore our first home.
I still speak only Cantonese with my mother. She came here speaking very little English, but she now speaks decent English and Mandarin (though with a strong Cantonese accent), and some pasar Hokkien that she picked up along the way.
My mother recently retired from her sales position at a 3-for-$10 stall near Raffles City where she happily worked for more than five years. She was tired of competing with the Mainlander that her boss had hired last year, who was willing to work longer for less money.
Mum was hoping to quit after receiving the annual one-month Chinese New Year bonus. The bonus, which her boss usually pays along with her January wages, never came this year. Over the phone, she told me how relieved she was that I~{!/~}d be starting work at a law firm later this year.
Singapore now has more than 1.7 million foreigners out of 4.99 million people.
My mother grew to love Singapore at a time when Singapore had more space to grow to love her.
It scares me how little space Singaporeans have been left to integrate foreigners, and how visceral the xenophobic reactions are.
Why are Singaporeans angry, the PAP wonders.
Then there is my paternal granduncle. He was a bookish bachelor, and spoke a crisp Victorian English common among the English-educated of his time. He used to trundle down every weekend to the old National Library at Stamford Road, where he enjoyed reading everything from American thriller novels to Singaporean history books. He was such a loyal library member that the library used to send him commemorative coffee table books on their more significant anniversaries.
He died a few years before they turned the Stamford Library into a tunnel. I guess in a way it was better he never found out, he would never have forgiven them.
Why are Singaporeans angry, the PAP wonders.
If our Ministers took crowded MRTs and buses, ate at neighborhood coffee shops, or worked as front line service staff, they might better understand Singaporeans~{!/~} anger.
If they lived like us, ate like us ~{!*~} if they looked at us ~{!*~} they might know.
Singaporeans aren~{!/~}t inherently xenophobic or hateful, my family will be the first to attest. I trust that Singaporeans can remember a common humanity even as we condemn dehumanizing policies.
But our country is changing so quickly that we now feel overwhelmed and displaced, angry, in a country which is becoming harder and harder to recognize.
It is hard to believe the PAP doesn~{!/~}t know why Singaporeans are angry, but what does our anger mean to them?
Singapore is increasingly losing our physical and emotional space for love, and soon the only thing we will be able to call ours will be our Anger.
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