Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Rearing Ugly Racist Heads
Sometimes I'm almost ashamed to wear the brand-name of "Singaporean".
Sometimes I remember all the things I hated about Singapore, that I only began to appreciate drifting alone out there in the "big bad world" of the united kingdom.
Sometimes I really miss London, and sitting by the Thames. I never did visit the London zoo, and I never did go to the beach near Colchester. I didn't ride the London eye, and I didn't blade through Hyde Park.
Oftimes I find myself at a loss to answer the questions everybody keeps throwing my way :
"Why did you come back?"
and
"Why didn't you get PR-ship?"
Sigh.
Perhaps it takes going away to really appreciate how many racist cunts there are in Singapore, and also how pervasive the mindset is. It's ingrained into the minds of the nicest people, who simply don't see it as racism, but as part and parcel of life. I'm a realist and I acknowledge that racism exists everywhere. But racism is part and parcel of ordinary life for us Singaporeans, and we don't even realise it sometimes.
This is but a weak illustration, and I'm sure most of you won't agree that it's a form of racism :
Everybody in Singapore carries an IC (Identity Card) with a unique alphanumeric IC number.
"Foreigners" (ie Permanent residents) (Question, do Eurasians qualify as "foreigners" or was the eurasian I saw in clinic today just born abroad?) carry a different coloured IC with different prefixes to their identifiers. This is of course only natural, they are, after all foreigners, and we need some way to distinguish them from us locals, nevermind that they talk different and have different skin and hair colours a lot of the time; and those that have the same skin and hair colours are really just second-class second-rate trash stealing away our jobs and raping / stealing our women. (that last phrase was satire of the national mindset by the way, I don't believe that at all. But this is to pre-empt all the angry comments I'm going to get by people who want to string me up as a KKK man for daring to be un-nationalistic.)
I just learnt to my disgust the other day that Foreign PRs who are considered skilled professionals get one letter as a prefix, whilst unskilled labour get another. (Is this true, anyone? Or do the different letters stand for something else entirely?)
It's all very nice and categorised. Very organised. Very neat.
Very wrong, to my mind. It's not just racism, it's preferential racism. Groan.
It also used to perturb me that (foreign) maids are obliged to have pregnancy and HIV tests done whether they agree to or not. Apparently there is a nationally sanctioned assumption that their employers will sleep with them, therefore they must be "clean" before they start work, and they must be un-pregnanant or else they will not be cost-effective.
The bite was dulled a little when a Canadian friend of mine told me she had to have the same tests. She's a teacher. Apparently teachers are vectors for disease as well; clearly they will shag all the impressionable young children. Laugh. Oh no, she said - it was probably just implemented to standardise things across the board.
Mmm. You can't call it discrimination if you discriminate against all foreigners equally, can you? Good one, that.
******
Fishy Story
I came back from my on-call to discover that my brother has started an aquarium. It currently holds four rather scared-looking fish - that can at best be described as "longkang fish" - in a total volume of approximately five litres of water.
The tank is pristine and the only decorations in the tank are a fine white sand that my brother has swept into a crater in the middle, ostensibly to give the fish a water-feature of some sort to appreciate.
I can't help but think that if I was a fish living in that tank, I'd pine away and die of sheer boredom.
Oh wait, in a very real sense, I am.
Sigh.
*****
On the flip side, I've just realised how much I really missed having hot meals for lunch. The rest of the world simply doesn't get it. A salad or a baguette is NOT lunch. It is not. Not.
*****
Sometimes I can't help but wonder what exactly it is in my head that makes me see a woman as attractive.
It doesn't happen very often, but if I only knew how to pin it down I might be able to find that elusive Mrs Right a lot quicker. Heh.
Personal ad :
Twentysomething year old male, GSOH otherwise grumpy git, looking for tallish, stunning, humourous female to strike with sword on regular basis, preferably good in kitchen and laundry-room.Cooking and washing abilities optional...
Bugger. Think I'll just go join up with some monastic order.
(THIS POST IS A JOKE. PLEASE DO NOT SEND TELEPHONE NUMBERS AND PRANK MAILS. Unless you are tallish, stunning, humourous, female, and enjoy being hit on regular basis with sword.)
*****
One of my bosses gave me my orientation talk today.
Ohh, so that's how the team is laid out. It's a two consultant team! Ohhh, so that's why we visit so many wards, it's team based rather than ward based!!! Oooooh. now I get it.
Grr.
I shoulda asked him "so are you a consultant?" like one of my colleagues suggested. heh heh heh.
One of the more useful things he did mention (wish he'd said earlier) was this : Do not drive home after on-call, there have been several accidents already amongst our MOs.
Hmm, on 3 hours sleep in 48 hours? Small wonder I almost drowsed off driving home last night, and had to keep pinching myself to stay awake. I pity those poor MOs who crashed their cars.
The system here is very nice, very efficient, very pretty, and very patient orientated. They sure as hell hate us doctors (and nurses) though.
Sometimes I remember all the things I hated about Singapore, that I only began to appreciate drifting alone out there in the "big bad world" of the united kingdom.
Sometimes I really miss London, and sitting by the Thames. I never did visit the London zoo, and I never did go to the beach near Colchester. I didn't ride the London eye, and I didn't blade through Hyde Park.
Oftimes I find myself at a loss to answer the questions everybody keeps throwing my way :
"Why did you come back?"
and
"Why didn't you get PR-ship?"
Sigh.
Perhaps it takes going away to really appreciate how many racist cunts there are in Singapore, and also how pervasive the mindset is. It's ingrained into the minds of the nicest people, who simply don't see it as racism, but as part and parcel of life. I'm a realist and I acknowledge that racism exists everywhere. But racism is part and parcel of ordinary life for us Singaporeans, and we don't even realise it sometimes.
This is but a weak illustration, and I'm sure most of you won't agree that it's a form of racism :
Everybody in Singapore carries an IC (Identity Card) with a unique alphanumeric IC number.
"Foreigners" (ie Permanent residents) (Question, do Eurasians qualify as "foreigners" or was the eurasian I saw in clinic today just born abroad?) carry a different coloured IC with different prefixes to their identifiers. This is of course only natural, they are, after all foreigners, and we need some way to distinguish them from us locals, nevermind that they talk different and have different skin and hair colours a lot of the time; and those that have the same skin and hair colours are really just second-class second-rate trash stealing away our jobs and raping / stealing our women. (that last phrase was satire of the national mindset by the way, I don't believe that at all. But this is to pre-empt all the angry comments I'm going to get by people who want to string me up as a KKK man for daring to be un-nationalistic.)
I just learnt to my disgust the other day that Foreign PRs who are considered skilled professionals get one letter as a prefix, whilst unskilled labour get another. (Is this true, anyone? Or do the different letters stand for something else entirely?)
It's all very nice and categorised. Very organised. Very neat.
Very wrong, to my mind. It's not just racism, it's preferential racism. Groan.
It also used to perturb me that (foreign) maids are obliged to have pregnancy and HIV tests done whether they agree to or not. Apparently there is a nationally sanctioned assumption that their employers will sleep with them, therefore they must be "clean" before they start work, and they must be un-pregnanant or else they will not be cost-effective.
The bite was dulled a little when a Canadian friend of mine told me she had to have the same tests. She's a teacher. Apparently teachers are vectors for disease as well; clearly they will shag all the impressionable young children. Laugh. Oh no, she said - it was probably just implemented to standardise things across the board.
Mmm. You can't call it discrimination if you discriminate against all foreigners equally, can you? Good one, that.
******
Fishy Story
I came back from my on-call to discover that my brother has started an aquarium. It currently holds four rather scared-looking fish - that can at best be described as "longkang fish" - in a total volume of approximately five litres of water.
The tank is pristine and the only decorations in the tank are a fine white sand that my brother has swept into a crater in the middle, ostensibly to give the fish a water-feature of some sort to appreciate.
I can't help but think that if I was a fish living in that tank, I'd pine away and die of sheer boredom.
Oh wait, in a very real sense, I am.
Sigh.
*****
On the flip side, I've just realised how much I really missed having hot meals for lunch. The rest of the world simply doesn't get it. A salad or a baguette is NOT lunch. It is not. Not.
*****
Sometimes I can't help but wonder what exactly it is in my head that makes me see a woman as attractive.
It doesn't happen very often, but if I only knew how to pin it down I might be able to find that elusive Mrs Right a lot quicker. Heh.
Personal ad :
Twentysomething year old male, GSOH otherwise grumpy git, looking for tallish, stunning, humourous female to strike with sword on regular basis, preferably good in kitchen and laundry-room.
Bugger. Think I'll just go join up with some monastic order.
(THIS POST IS A JOKE. PLEASE DO NOT SEND TELEPHONE NUMBERS AND PRANK MAILS. Unless you are tallish, stunning, humourous, female, and enjoy being hit on regular basis with sword.)
*****
One of my bosses gave me my orientation talk today.
Ohh, so that's how the team is laid out. It's a two consultant team! Ohhh, so that's why we visit so many wards, it's team based rather than ward based!!! Oooooh. now I get it.
Grr.
I shoulda asked him "so are you a consultant?" like one of my colleagues suggested. heh heh heh.
One of the more useful things he did mention (wish he'd said earlier) was this : Do not drive home after on-call, there have been several accidents already amongst our MOs.
Hmm, on 3 hours sleep in 48 hours? Small wonder I almost drowsed off driving home last night, and had to keep pinching myself to stay awake. I pity those poor MOs who crashed their cars.
The system here is very nice, very efficient, very pretty, and very patient orientated. They sure as hell hate us doctors (and nurses) though.
