Ban The Bangla
Today the gf informed me of reports about foreign workers molesting some of our home-grown women during the recent Christmas celebrations in town. Of course, when we now refer to foreign workers, we're referring to the dregs like Banglas and Thais and Sri Lankans and what not.. you get the picture. Of course, heaven forbid we ever call the white man foreign workers... the obvious politically-correct term is foreign talent. Granted, these foreign talents have also been treading on thin ice due to their antics with respect to our local women, but of course that's a white-collar crime altogether. They can easily just say that they were really trying to hit on the women and hopefully offer them a better shot at life itself, since their expat status grants them superiority - political, social and economic.Honestly, I couldn't care less. Who women end up with is ultimately not my concern, nor am I worried about how the much-revered foreign talent treat our women, since our women are independent enough to know what they're getting themselves into.. and if they end up short.... oh well just too bad, just gotta learn I guess, same as everything else.
However, the bigger issue at hand is where our women are being openly harrassed by these dregs. I would love to say that of course you get the rarely occasional foreign worker who's nice and gentlemanly, but I'm sorry I can't say that. Even for me, a person with less than desirable moral standards, it is a chore.
Sure, I can consider the argument that these people are from societies where behaviour like this is commonplace. I can even go so far as to accept that philosophically, there is NO right or wrong, and that sexual harrassment and womens' rights are concepts thought up by society to keep things in order and that there is no actual right or wrong, since if we agree to right and wrong then we're living by someone else's standards of right and wrong, and inherently to fully agree with another human being is just impossible. Hence, it'll ultimately be an imposition of one's values on other peoples. Sure, it is a circular argument, so that is not my point.
However, I do feel that in any culture or society, when a situation arises, for a conflict not to arise the parties involved obviously have to agree that the steps taken during interaction have not crossed the barriers of acceptibility. Once any of the involved parties start to feel that his or her comfort zone has been infringed upon, then civility has been breached.
Of course, those poor party-starved foreign workers may not understand the culture here (I'm giving them a huge benefit of the doubt) and they may not feel they have gone overboard, but shouldn't a scream, tears, shouts, protests, vulgarities etc., obvious primal symbolic reactions, tell them that there's something wrong? Hence, being from a different culture, is not a valid excuse.
Of course, its' difficult for the police to do their jobs as well, due to the sheer immense volume of human traffic. In that case, shouldn't bystanders and other part-goers help? Shouldn't someone out there have some sort of conscience and snap out of that "Oh it's not really my fucking problem is it" phase? Finally.. seriously.. shouldn't Singaporeans do something worthwhile with their brains? It's how fucking disappointing to see people just ignore whatever's going on around them. Sad to say, being educated has not changed the attitude. In that case, we should do away with Dear Mr Policeman, Moral and Civic Education, and probably hang the classic Constable Ah Cai. They're just reminders and references to how our education system has failed miserably to nurture the Singaporean with some common sense. Instead, in its place we've grown up as selfish, overly-competitive individuals all with the same goals in mind.
I'm guilty of not doing my civic duties at times, but I do try. I may seem brash and crass and uncouth, but at least I know my intentions are real. In some cases I do not care about tact, because tact won't help people who need the help. I guess all I can hope for is that one day, I'll see someone actually stepping forward to help a person getting beaten up, more than one person willingly giving up his/her seat to a physically-challenged individual, someone at least bothering to help the victim of a crime. How that would really make me want to stay on in this country to fight towards a life of democracy that we can actually be proud of, towards an econoic and social system where our ideals are realised; and even if we are still being controlled and coerced relatively subtly, there is still some hope that things may change, and that it's worth staying on to improve this soil that we were born on.
posted by Da Buffalo! @ 10:12 PM
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