Singapore has been built by migrants. It rose from obscurity as a fishing village into the modern city we know today. It is still being built into a world class city by lower-skilled migrants who spend most of their time here to better their lives back home. Yet Singaporeans have a love-hate relationship with them.
There are many lower-skilled foreign workers who have been accused of causing social problems. There are many Singaporeans who do not accept them in their midst. Myself included, because I keep running into the bad ones. I've socked a couple right in the face and got hauled along to police stations because I have a huge problem with how they take liberties thinking that women in Singapore are like women in their home countries- meek, easy prey. In fact, the most recent one I punched was just 3 weeks ago. He somehow made the bad call to trail me (right after free-sparring class) into dark alleys up and down even after he knew I knew.
On the other hand, if you have 800,000 lower-skilled foreign workers in Singapore, a quarter of that would turn out to be bad eggs, just like our fellow Singaporeans. The statistics actually don't present scary figures. Singaporeans find it unacceptable probably because we could possibly have lower tolerance for the former.
On the way home from office on some days, when the sky is still bright at 6.15pm, I would pass by a lush green field surrounded by ongoing construction works for buildings. Often, there are plenty of lower-skilled workers on that field playing cricket.
Yes. Cricket. In their technicians/workers' uniforms, they play. Energetically, they bat and deliver. Proper wickets have somehow been constructed along with proper bats used. That field isn't even a proper pitch by any standards. Still they play, enthusiasm shining through.
I don't know if there's an official organizer for the rather regular game of cricket. Perhaps not. But it's kinda nice to stumble upon such a random thing like that in sanitary orderly Singapore. It reminds me that the bad is bad, but there is alot of good only if I choose to see it.
That field is earmarked as state land. I'm not sure permission has been sought to use it this way. That's exactly why I smile each time I see it.
10 comments:
I'm probably a heretic when it comes to flavour infusion ... unless those spices are really *pounded* into the meat within an inch of their sorry lives.
*ducks from the man*
But truly, pounding is also my thing... but my mortar and pestle are in cold storage coz of my plorblerm. Sighz.
Ay, you disable so fast!
you make me want to take up some form of self defence...
u go girl! i would prob aim for below the waist. hehe.
just where the heck do u hang out that u need to deck 3 foreign workers in the face?!? ;)
you ..punch.. people? lol.
attagal! *duck* :P
kachunknorge: oooh! your meats will taste SO good. heh. but u better don't pound. make the boys pound. it'll be fun! every girl must learn self-defence!
nuttyjas: hehehe. it's a myth. DON'T hit below the waist unless u've the element of surprise, or u're faster and stronger than ur attacker. it opens u to all sorts to weak positions unless u can recover frm it fast.
cavalock: decked only 1 lah that time. 1!!!
mistipurple: not a good habit i admit. but sometimes it's necessary in certain situations. and when i'm female, it's easy to do the self-defence argument. of course cannot do that in bar brawls lah!
it is sad that host country citizens just want the foreign labour force to be invisible. i had not run into any trouble with them, and find them kind and well mannered.
sinlady: i'm half and half. mostly ok. but there're the bad ones i keep running into. i hate that.
Hey you got to take care of yourself. I guess all that free sparring practice does help in a way.
Its quite a wry observation you made about foreign workers appopriating state land for playing cricket. There are obvious ironies - the orderliness of the game versus the spontaneity in which they sought to have fun in the sun, and the use of restricted spaces for unabated pleasures. Well, so long as they keep their hands to themselves!
coolinsider: very astute of you. i was grinning to myself when i saw the scene. so many layers of irony in there. i didn't point that out at all. i simply painted the picture and let everyone draw their own conclusions.
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