Fair points all, I must say I am astounded by your logic today.
You have overdone yourself :) But to take each in turn:
1. The PRC vs SG housewife situation. Ultimately it takes two to
clap. Also, I agree there have been cases of pei du mamas coming to
Singapore on the pretext of their children's education but
ultimately wanting to land a Singaporean man, but I do not want to
mar all pei du mamas just by some black sheep. Firstly, if pei du
mammas or PRC woman hit off with single local man - it is
absolutely ok. I have seen many hardworking PRCs who come here for
a better life and they wait on tables and do all the menial chores
that locals wouldn't touch ever - and they get tgr with local
single man. That is fine and dandy. What is not so fine, is
breaking up families. But this I blame as much the local married
straying man as much as the PRC. If not the PRCs, the local
straying man will take his infidelity abroad to say Batam, if his
intent is to get a mistress. So having a PRC in Singapore is
inconsequential. One might argue that the presence of PRC exacerbates
the potential of local man to stray. But that is neglecting the
fact that the choice lies in the local man whether to stray. The
root of the problem is therefore the man's propensity to stray and
not just the PRC. Because if it is not the PRC, it is the Batam
mistress. If it is not the Batam mistress, it will be someone else.
The solution to this stealing husband syndrome is to get the
husband to cut it out. Which of course leads to whole other
arguments about female empowerment (so that they can leave their
husbands) which again leads on to other arguments about assumed
gender roles in the whole "family is the building block of
Singapore society" philosophy. But that is another topic
altogether.
2. Foreigners taking bread and butter away. Only for the higher
skilled occupations because the lower skilled foreign immigrants do
work that we shun. And for the higer skilled occupations, I daresay
Singaporeans have a skillset comparable to foreign talent. We just
need more confidence and creativity and boldness in the workplace.
That shouldn't be a problem within the next 10 years. We are in a
globalised world, our competition is not just with the next NUS
grad but with the graduate from another country.
3. Crimes from the lower-skilled foreign immigrants? I don't
deny the situation. But that is a opp cost our society takes in
order to get our skyscrapers, our roads, our HDBs. That is a
solution of course - provide adequate housing and decent living
standards and maybe foreign immigrants may carry themselves with
more decorum.
There are bigger problems than that.
Your concern is too narrow.
It concerns the survival of the Singapore identity.
GARY MORMINO: Exactly. And about one of three Floridians is a
native, second lowest in the Union. Someone said
the state license plate should be “Where Everyone Is from
Somewhere Else.” This has created great problems
for the state in connecting—making Floridians believe
they have a sense of place here. And that’s one of
the great challenges, I think, to modern Florida: a sense of shared sacrifice
and a commitment to the future.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/6/a_ponzi_state
