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| This is where I grew up. |
These are some thoughts I put on my faceback which I wanted to port over into this blog because this is a pressing issue in my mind.
1. Something hurt me today. Was in a conference and there was this person from overseas who was chatting with me. In the dialogue he asked where am I from and and to that I said Singapore. With a puzzled look he asked another question. "No I mean your country of ORIGIN" After I recoiled from that flabbergasting moment I took a deep breath and said firmly, " I am born here. and I am Singaporean. My grandmother was originally from India"
2.Personally I think we cannot and must not let our Singaporean identity disappear. We are truly a unique group of people.
3. Personally lots of first and second generation Singaporeans feel so deeply emotional about this issue in my opinion because it rocks our identity. Yes perhaps it has come of age that as a tiny nation state we need to reinvent our selves to answer gravely pressing economic challenges of being competitively priced and attracting hot money HOWEVER we cannot move forward without a new common identity. It only hurts because we care. Forget who are and we will live to remember the era where Singapore lost her soul.
4.
the one thing people can never take away from us... is eating roti prata with fish curry accompanied with hot fragrant teh tarik next to others enjoying themselves with their family and friends. I have no particular gripes with our friends from overseas other than the fact that be respectful of our culture and if you didn't plan to stay here for long or integrate with the rest us please move to Pulau Senang where you can help our airforce improve their marksmanship. In the bigger picture what can we Nasi Lemak, Roti Prata, Chicken Rice loving Milo Dinosaur gulping Original Singaporeans do? Immortalise our heritage thru instruments of the Arts. It's a call for action not a situation to sit down and lament our woes. Get Arty. Tell Your Story. Fill today with our Feelings of Our History.
funny you mention this. im Singaporean too and am in Aussie now. and i now totally appreciate foreigners asking me, "so where are you from" instead of assuming "you must be from India/Sri Lanka right?"
ReplyDeleteits just irritating how outside Asia, ppl assume that Indians are from India. and when i say Singapore, they say, "oh"... might have been a publicity thing perhaps, cos SG is almost always showcased with a majority race. but I am proud of my Singaporean identity and i want to be recognised as a Singaporean.
haha... things we learn abt the world's impression of things we take for granted. :)