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 ones 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:
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 dont 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 dont 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 wouldnt 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 whos 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.
