Excellent point, Atobe – you evolve or you die. The effect of globalisation is that it is no longer sufficient to play by the rules of one’s own country. Because the economic barriers between countries have gone down, we need to remain competitive by setting our rules by a worldwide benchmark, rather than being protectionist and insisting on operating strictly according to our own cultural norms. If the standard set by our cultural norms puts us behind the rest of the world, sticking by them means that we will get left behind.
Farmer Brown, I will address the remaining points made by you in the “Support for our government’ thread:
Originally posted by Farmer Brown:
1. In Singapore, the locals tend to put the white men up on a pedestal even before they show their abilities. Many expats were brought in by large sized firms to improve the way they work or to provide the expertise that Singaporeans could not.
My question for you is that: were you offered a bungalow/big condo apartment, car, enormous wages and other benefits not given to the australian people when you went there? i think not. You were instead, given a fair playing ground and you WON it(congratulations again).
2. I don't know if this is completely true and i am prepared to be badly flamed for this but ang mohs just seem to be a little bit too proud of who they are. I feel that they come to our society and culture and while MANY and i really mean a large portion of them try to blend in and learn about it ( kudos to these people, respect!) a sizable amount of them treat our people, our culture with disdain. And somehow, the very singaporeans that put them up on a pedestal and follow them around like they were revered gods ( i hate these singaporeans even more then i dislike ang mohs) are influenced by it and turn their backs on the society that raised and supported their rise to where they are. You think that they could show a little gratitude? I'm not expecting any replies to this point as i would rather leave it up to all of you to take a look around next time you're out on the streets.
3. Women. Weird creatures aren't they? Nvm hahaha... Actually I'm glad for the ang mohs who steal our women. SPGs Bah! who needs them? I'm definitely not going to go out with one who thinks that local men can't make it. Nuff Said.
Like you said, many expats are brought in to improve the way we work. I am an organizational psychologist, and my professional opinion is that on the human resources front, Singaporean businesses are dinosaurs. Their recruitment and selection processes are ridiculously primitive, and their management techniques are so draconian they belong to the 19th century. If expats who have better knowledge are brought in to improve things, I don’t consider it putting them on a pedestal. Bringing in expertise that cannot be found locally is the common-sense thing to do. In my case, in two of my past roles, I was hired for my combined knowledge of psychology and computing, and in Melbourne, I was aware of only one other psychologist who could match my skill set. Had I been offered the job from overseas, housing and other perks could well have been thrown in to sweeten the deal, but I happened to be in town at the time. As it is, I took on one of those roles while I was a student and limited to working 20 hours a week – my employer went out of her way to devise ways around that rule so I could work full-time. Besides, with the prohibitive property and car prices in Singapore, offering them a house and a car would almost be a necessity to entice someone to work here. As for wages, a high wage would be commensurate for someone with rare expertise, would it not?
As for Caucasians being proud of who they are, I ascribe a lot of that to cultural differences. Asian culture places much more emphasis on modest behaviour than Western culture does. However, underneath the façade, I don’t believe Asians are any more modest than Westerners – they just present themselves differently. I have dealt with Indonesian Chinese who have the most appalling attitudes towards the indigenous Indonesians, and the Japanese have treated other Asians like the Ainu and the Koreans in a most savage and shameful manner. Besides, look at some of the posts on this forum – many Singaporeans treat Singaporeans with disdain, and quite often justifiably so. I know plenty of Singaporeans I wouldn’t spit on if they were on fire. Of course, there are some really obnoxious expats, but these are not necessarily Western. In Australia, it annoys me to no end how some Asians gripe incessantly about how things are not up to their standard.
As for the women, my personal policy is that the personal remains personal. Certain parts of Asian culture have yet to catch up on gender equality, and many Singaporean men I have met are absolutely mysogynistic cavemen. That is not to say that Westerners are all enlightened either – I am particularly unimpressed by the Mediterranean gender mindset. However, again, look at some of the posts on this forum and tell me how you think the average Singaporean male sees women – often, what they really want is a gold-plated vacuum cleaner: something that just looks good and does the housework. Is it any surprise that some Singaporean women have given up on Singaporean men?
My point is that in this day and age, what with travel and communications being so much more advanced than any other point in history, it is inevitable how cultures now mix and occasionally clash. We no longer play by a national set of rules, if you choose to wall yourself off from the globalised environment instead of broadening your scope, you will be the one whoÂ’s not getting with the program and therefore losing out.
Not to imply any ignorance on your part, but have you spent any extended period of time in another country, say at least a year? If you did, I think you would find that what you described is not an exclusive case of West colonizing East. Everybody, in that sense, would be colonizing everybody – welcome to globalisation.
