The Ugly Singaporean
It’s been a while since I blogged about anything non-related to anime or Japan.
This is an entry about Singapore. Please do not read on if non-anime entries bore you.
So anyway, I was in a certain shopping centre, located in a certain HDB district starting with the letter “B”, near my school, looking at some HD-enabled LCD TV and feeling sad and poor. I stood there for a few minutes to ogle at the power of High Definition and decided that those TVs were way overpriced. I’d rather have a 24″ LCD monitor from Dell for less. I walked to a DVD store nearby and found out that they had removed their entire anime selection, mostly bootlegs. Looks like they finally realized that selling bootleg DVDs with cheap-looking packaging for exorbitant prices just doesn’t work.
But that’s not what I want to talk about today.
On the way down to the first floor, a woman and an elderly man had stopped in front of the escalator. They didn’t look local and, I know I’m stereotyping, appeared to be foreigners who are in Singapore either looking for jobs or relatives.
The reason why they stopped was because they were afraid of stepping onto the escalator. The woman tried to take a step forward but retreated before her foot touched the moving steps. The man held on to her hands as the both of them looked down, uncertain with hesitation and a trace of fear.
I happened to be behind them and I stopped to wait because they were blocking the way down. I could sympathize with them. I used to have a fear of escalators too. I rolled down one when I was five. (Yeah, the whole way down.) It’s really quite difficult to get the timing right if you aren’t used to it, especially since that particular escalator was on the fast end of the speed scale in terms of escalators.
Of course, it only took a few seconds before a mini line formed behind the man and the woman. And it only took slightly longer before the ugly Singaporeans reared their empty heads. In this case, it was a bunch of school girls.
“Who’s blocking the way?”
“Why (sic) so scared one?”
“Ahahahahaha!”
“Lame.”
These were not five-year-old girls. These were teenagers who looked old enough to know when to keep their mouths shut. The man and the woman in front knew they were causing trouble for everyone else and they tried their best and finally got onto the escalator with half a jump. The pack of bitches behind continued with their mocking the whole way down. The man and the woman looked visibly distressed.
In my 10 years of citizenship, I have never felt more ashamed to be a Singaporean.
Are the girls so stupid that despite all the subsidized education they receive, they cannot tell the difference between right and wrong? Or do they do it despite knowing that it’s wrong? I really don’t know which possibility is scarier.
Stupid kids.
November 16th, 2006 at 8:49 am
hmm i think i understand what dKiWi makes sense.. No offense exalt dragon, you seem to be an ACSian, but i have to say that what dKiWi sas about ACJ girls is right…
November 16th, 2006 at 10:31 am
Agreed with girls being backstabbers. Seen quite a lot of ’sabo’ (sabotage) been done by girls back in secondary school. From my experience, it seems like a bulk of rotten, self-centered teenagers in Singapore are girls. Again, I’m not saying ‘all girls’, just ‘most girls’, in case anyone feels offended.
November 16th, 2006 at 10:51 am
…. coz im from ACJC …
It wudnt be fair to single out other schs.
November 16th, 2006 at 12:55 pm
backstabbing by girls in secondary school? o.O thank goodness im home schooled
November 16th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
oh wow.. the future is doomed
November 16th, 2006 at 8:18 pm
no lar… the future isnt doomed lar.. (haha trying to show Singlish can be typed?)
Even tho the social fabric is being torn apart by these females, there are no adverse side effects for Singapore wad. We’re still doing damn well compared to other countries. Its more like a success as opposed to a failure. That’s how Singapore works, the leaders dont care abt some aspects of the social fabric (not including racial harmony) as long as Singapore is successful. Look at the public perception of anime in SG.. SAF computers block out all websites with the word “anime” in it. Fucked up media I tell u.
How did this come about?
Meritocracy. Females = males, thus females get education easily. Alot of them are smart, and as long as they do well at sch, their parents treat them like god (e.g. buy lots of stuff). Most parents are like that nowadays due to guilt. Admit it lar, in SG as long as u do well at sch most parents let u do whatever fuck (pun intended) u want.
So since females treated like god, and feel like god, and noe that they are god through their results, that’s how it comes about.
Bottom line is: SG wud be a better place if girls get NS as well.. of coz i duno whether its feasible or not statstically so if it isnt, as in we need all these talented young women in the offices, then never mind lar.
November 16th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Actually, be it girls or guys, SG is becoming a little tavern full of spoilt brats like us. And especially so since we haven’t really seen much shit around and about, so we still stay very arrogant and conceited with that “air” of superiority that many would be felt from the WSM incident.
The prevalence of such immature pple around in SG doesn’t go unnoticed thanks to these peeps, but we musn’t forget that they are the few that voice their thoughts out. Many will think to themselves the same thing, but just don’t voice it out due to some sense of decency of respect.
But the bulk of us are still a long way from sympathising with them, much less empathising with them.
November 16th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
…we have our government to thanks for this. In order to achieve economic superiority, social morals have been sacrificed. Studies? Get a good grade and you can just screw everything else. Get that degree? Cool, go work in some top end company but you have already forgotten all the crap thats been hammered into your heads by your teachers.
November 17th, 2006 at 12:26 am
Yea…its sad but true,im also ashamed,especially when i see how people just wouldnt let passengers alight first at the MRT…….Singapore is experiencing moral decay and nuthings gunna save or stop it….
November 17th, 2006 at 12:30 am
had to agree what elohir said, in Singapore, education is everything, people praise and award you for having the brains to score well in exams and they dun even care whether you have basic manners or moral values…it’s quite a sad thing even we have moral value lessons in schools…sigh….just what is the use of having them?
@DM : those type of girls can be seen everywhere as what everyone had said, and being a teenage girl myself, i feel the shame of being one…perhaps should take up dkiwi’s suggestions…all girls go for NS training >_> seriously, someone has to stop their arrogance somehow….
showing disrepect for the eldery…they really deserved some tight slaps…but then again..i lack the courage to confront them even such thngs happened in my very eyes…some of them are real scary, u just glanced at them and those vulgarities words came pouring out of their mouths which i really cant stand all those plus those high-pitched screaming [OMG], thus i cant help it but act ignorant while cursing them inside my heart….weak sia, it’s all because people like me that these people are all getting their way….
orz…this is just so frustrating…
November 17th, 2006 at 10:50 am
speaking of MRT, i noticed that most people would just stand near the exit and not “move” inner to the seats (unless there are empty seats around) i usually saw the exits cramped up with people and the seat cabins with like only 6 to 7 people (and yes.. theres enough space for others)
November 17th, 2006 at 11:50 am
“And psychical abuse is the same or even worse than physical”
The word you are looking for is “psychological”, not “psychical”…psychical pertains more to the “psychic” sense of the of the mind and metaphysical phenomena, psychological refers to the state of the mind and emotions.
It seems that some of the previous comments have misplaced “elitism” with “misbehaviour”. It is not always so. They overlap but being elitist doesn’t implicate misbehaving, similarly misbehaving doesn’t implicate having elitist frames of mind.
November 17th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
@Tsugari moral lessons? More like free period.
November 17th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
I think somewhere in this discourse, we have become far too myopic and conclusive. What with “experiencing moral decay and nuthings gunna save or stop it”, “the future is doomed”, “most people would just stand near the exit”… and what evidence do we happen to use to prove it? Some anecdotes mostly on one side of the issue: isolated observations and conversations that appear to point to the presence of a moral malaise in Singapore.
Yet, there is little or no consideration for the big picture, or for the other side of the story. What of youth crime? Youth crime has been steadily decreasing since 2004 (link) —perhaps police enforcement has become more effective, but how much changed in these two years?
What of youth volunteerism? According to a 2006 survey by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre, 28% of those aged 15 to 24 are volunteers, up from 25% in 2004 and well above the national average of 15.5%—and ‘volunteer’ doesn’t even include CIP (except those done above requirement).
Moral decay? Worse, one that is inevitable? The evidence presented above doesn’t seem strong enough to support a claim of this magnitude.
“Most” people will just stand near the exit? Really? I would believe this if you were to record the scene in 500 train carriages taken across different times at different places, perhaps use the chi-square test of statistical significance to determine whether there are more people near the exits, and eventually come to a quantitative conclusion. Human impression, especially when it’s skewed by the fact that we tend to over-represent the undesirable, just doesn’t cut it.
November 17th, 2006 at 7:31 pm
@wei zhong
Moral contradiction perhaps?
I would like to criticise the context in which you placed the examples you gave. While I agree with you that the mere essence of individuals’ perception of their fellow singaporeans is not enough to signify a “moral decay” or amageddon, there is an incompleteness in your examples too.
To begin, the rate of youth crime decreasing could be the result of extensive campaigning on the part of the police and youth welfare functions of the government as well as better education standards in Singapore leading to more fear of the consequence of crime. If so, then this is not an improvement in morals, but merely better knowledge of consequences.
Also, I know for a fact that some youths do volunteerism as part of their compulsory CIP hours that they have to tend to rather than the good of their own morals. Also, some are persuaded into doing it through peer pressure rather than through their own initiatives. Where is the increase in moral standards in that? It merely shows a weak link to POSSIBLE increase sense of duty.
I understand where you’re coming from in insisting the use of proper surveying methods for the gathering or empirical data. However, you cannot deny the importance of human impression. When people see Singaporeans, they impression they get is very important. For example, why do you think the four million smiles campaign was set up? It was to give the foreigners a better impression of Singapore. It could work to increase the level of interest in Singapore amongst the other citizens of the world, which in turn could equate investment and other big money spinners. If you were a foreigner, would you like investing in factories of unfriendly, uninspired and unsociable workers? I understand that you should insist on pure, unadulterred knowledge that is as objective as can be. However, you need to understand that both knowledge and beliefs have big roles to play in this society. Belief, even if it is unfounded, can damage the image and association of any country, organisation, or individual.
When people have a cultural meme that says bad habbits, the meme can proliferate through society and lead to a self-orientalism of sorts. This may further lead to more decay in moral standards.
Therefore, it is important to realise that human impression, which contructs beliefs, does “cut it”. Infact, some may say that any and all knowledge is unobjective and subjective and hence the only thing of any importance is belief, instead of knowledge.