A different view on SG xenophobia

[AngMoG]

I found this blog entry today, very interesting: A richer Singapore is one full of ghettoes populated with identity-hoppers

A small excerpt:
[quote]
It sometimes seems as if the ground is being prepared by a daily dripfeed of xenophobic “news”

[sundaymorningstaple]

It would seem you have stumbled across "The Real Singapore". The wally wanker who runs that spot along with the other wankers who run the other two T sites are the biggest purveyors of purile bullsh*t in Singapore. The Online Citizen (TOC) and TRE (Temasek Review) are the other two T sites. Xenophobes to the Nth degree.

[singapore eagle]

It would seem you have stumbled across "The Real Singapore". The wally wanker who runs that spot along with the other wankers who run the other two T sites are the biggest purveyors of purile bullsh*t in Singapore. The Online Citizen (TOC) and TRE (Temasek Review) are the other two T sites. Xenophobes to the Nth degree.

I disagree about TOC. They sometimes cross the line, but most of their stuff is quite moderate.

Read this piece from Saturday from one of the TOC editors:

http://andrewlohhp.wordpress.com/2013/1 ... -ill-will/

[AngMoG]

It would seem you have stumbled across "The Real Singapore". The wally wanker who runs that spot along with the other wankers who run the other two T sites are the biggest purveyors of purile bullsh*t in Singapore. The Online Citizen (TOC) and TRE (Temasek Review) are the other two T sites. Xenophobes to the Nth degree.

There are sometimes interesting articles on the first page, but 80% or more is just garbage - either due to xenophobia, or due to being pseudo-science or pseudo-informed "journalism". TRE is 100% garbage, and since they use their own anonymous commenting system, the comments are pure hatred. TOC can be interesting, but their website navigation sucks.

With all the laws against fostering racial or religious intolerance, one would think that these websites would be shut down or blocked, but it seems it is deemed necessary for the irate citizens to have an outlet.

[zzm9980]

Yet it seems perfectly ok if I go out with a group of mostly SG Chinese, and they talk in (some sort of) Mandarin, while they know perfectly well I do not understand that language.

So f-in true haha. But don't worry, if you spoke proper Mandarin*, you'd be shunned for being a mainlander.

*- many don't, even when they think they're speaking Mandarin it's more like Sing-darin, a Singlish approximation for Chinese.

[Mi Amigo]

Yet it seems perfectly ok if I go out with a group of mostly SG Chinese, and they talk in (some sort of) Mandarin, while they know perfectly well I do not understand that language.

If my wife and I come across this kind of situation, we get our own back by talking in Spanish. Not many Singaporeans seem to speak that language so we get some odd looks, but the point is made.

Frankly the behaviour described by AngMoG is just plain rude in my book and sadly it occurs quite frequently here. I sometimes recall an example at the opposite end of the spectrum - from donkeys' years ago when I was on holiday with my parents in Greece. We were having lunch at a restaurant and an extended Greek family sitting on the next table heard us talking in English. The gentleman who was obviously the head of the family asked the children to speak in English from that point onwards, out of respect for the visitors. He did this not to show off but purely as a friendly gesture. What style.

[Barnsley]

[quote="AngMoG"]I found this blog entry today, very interesting: A richer Singapore is one full of ghettoes populated with identity-hoppers

A small excerpt:
[quote]
It sometimes seems as if the ground is being prepared by a daily dripfeed of xenophobic “news”

[Mi Amigo]

Fair point, but isn't English supposed to be one of the National languages here?

[sundaymorningstaple]

Only if convenient, if not, Hokkien curses okay.

[v4jr4]

Only if convenient, if not, Hokkien curses okay.

I learn a lot of "that" for the last 5 years