The Christmas and New Year celebrations have been over for some time. Where were you celebrating? What does this even have anything to do with Singaporeans being no better than foreigners?
Let’s try to summarize the points from these four posts and its related comments:
1. http://singaporesundry.blogspot.com/2007/11/foreign-workers-causing-social-problem.html
2. http://tomorrow.sg/archives/2007/12/23/too_many_foreign_workers_in_sing.html
3. http://anonymousxwrites.blogspot.com/2007/12/too-many-foreign-workers-in-singapore.html (has excerpts from mrbiao’s post which is now protected.)
4. Straits Times coverage of the foreign workers hanging out issue.
Summary:
1. Foreign workers gather at where people are staying.
2. They tend to make a lot of noise.
3. Sometimes they consume alcohol.
4. Sometimes they get drunk.
5. Sometimes they fight.
6. Sometimes they urinate anywhere they want.
7. Sometimes they sleep anywhere they want.
8. Some of them stay in HDB flats.
9. The ones mentioned in the first post make a lot of noise when other people are trying to sleep.
10. They make noise by talking loudly.
11. They create noise by watching TV / DVD / VCD at the times when people are trying to sleep.
12. They like to congregate at public place like grass patches.
13. They tend to leave a lot of litter at those places.
Let’s talk about points 8 - 11 first. I have encountered such behavior recently and for a good period of my life, almost everyday for two years. It happened during National Service and more recently during my reservist. There will always be jokers who after lights off would persist with their conversations when everyone else is trying to sleep after a hard day of training. There will be slightly more considerate guys who will leave the bunk to talk to their gfs on their handphone but still no less irritating when they ‘patrol’ up and down the corridor.
The situation is similar. Like the foreign workers, we are isolated from our loved ones as well as made to live communally. Under similar situations, I have seen Singaporeans behave no better or worse than these foreign workers mentioned in this anecdote.
Let’s talk about point 12 - 13. Have you seen the NUS courts, where people play soccer and basketball, at the end of a Saturday? I guarantee that you will see empty drink cans and bottles scattered around the courts. Sure, not everyone who uses the courts is a Singaporean but a good number of us are. And a good number of us Singaporeans are responsible for the trash. Have you seen the Youth Park where our kids gather? Same thing.
Ok, to points 1 - 7 and how they are related to the recent Christmas and New Year celebrations. Did you observe the scenes outside the places where people celebrate? As an example, have you seen Zouk (where fights have occurred) towards the end of its opening hours? There are people stumbling out of the club drunk. There are people sleeping around the area. There are people puking around the area. There are people pissing around the area (hint - walk towards the bridge and park beside zouk). Sure, a lot of these stuff are happening on Zouk’s property. But a lot of it also happens on public property as well as private property like Grand Copthorne hotel. You think the hotel management has never ever been unhappy with the drunk party animals from Zouk? While it might not always be like that at Zouk, I guess it is easy to forget that Singaporeans also indulge in unruly, rowdy, intoxicated behavior. Of course, we just do it further away from where people stay.
I guess its because we can afford to. How lucky for us.
The thing is this. The foreign workers are just trying to enjoy their lives the way a lot of us do. They just can’t do it in the same places. They can’t do it in the areas we have nicely mentally zoned as the clubbing/drinking/pubbing/vice areas like Clarke Quay, Boat Quay and Geylang. Unfortunately, that means they do it in places which pisses some Singaporeans off. I sympathize with the Singaporeans who have to put up with what happens around their residential areas. If a guy pissed outside my door, I would be quite angry too. If a guy is sleeping outside my house, I’ll be quite worried too.
Reading the posts, I can’t help but get the feeling the situation has been made to be a ‘us’ versus ‘them’ thing. In a way it is. But I don’t think it helps if we say things will only be better if the ‘them’ weren’t around or that although we need the ‘them’, things would be better for us if they behaved the way we wanted them to behave if not behave just like us. There is the feeling that our way of behaving is right and theirs is wrong.
At the end of the day, it isn’t about trying to educate them or change them. They aren’t animals to be tamed to be less of an affront to our sensibilities. It is about trying to help them find a space in Singapore where they can hang out without infringing on a person’s entitlement (privilege?) to live in a safe and clean environment away from such unruly, rowdy, intoxicated behavior.
Why aren’t the relevant people in the government and civil service doing more about this? They are the best people to help create such spaces.
Unless of course it’s because it’s out of sight, out of mind.
Anyone care to give these foreign workers the location of the prime residential estates in Singapore?
Of course, if you do, you’re just mean. Don’t sabo them lah.
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