for-ren-ners

Just a few nights ago, K was sharing with me a somewhat heated discussion he had with a friend of his. It was on a sensitive topic. One that has been on the minds of many Singaporeans in recent months and maybe even the last year or two.

The issue of foreigners living and working in Singapore.

K asked me what my take was on the subject.

I remember replying him and saying that I am fine with these foreigners coming to Singapore.
That is, provided they don’t bring with them their bad habits, bad attitudes, and vices. I am fine with them living and working in Singapore, everyone is just trying to make a living. But when on our soil, they should respect our country, our culture and our ways of doing things.

I read with horror the recent Kallang slash-and-rob cases. A group of Sarawakians killed a man, left 2 in ICU and one young man with half his hand sliced off. All for the grand amount of $400 and 3 mobile phones. What seemed like petty robbery crimes turned into malicious violent bloody attacks in the hands of this group of men. The attackers were young men too. 19, 22, 30 and so on...

What the hell? What were in their minds? What made them go on such a rampage?

And now we even need to be aware of domestic workers either turning violent or doing strange things or morphing into sexual predators. What with the recent cases of a 29-yr-old Indonesian maid holding a scissors to a baby and forcing its mother to buy her a ticket home, the 27-yr-old Indonesian maid sexually abusing a 12-yr-old boy, a 30-something Fillipino maid putting detergent into the milk formulas of the two babies under her charge...and the list might just go on.

There have been increasing reports of foreigners being involved in crimes here. Some are victims, some are perpetrators. Some cases probably never even reach the news-stands.

You take the public transport and you'll hear the Chinese, Fillipinos and Koreans talking loudly, the Indians jostling with you, the Caucasians leaning on the railings, yada yada yada.

I'll admit it. I do view foreigners here with a wary, exasperated eye at times.

But even with all that said, I maintain, I am not writing all of them off just because of some bad apples.

I do know some of them on a personal basis and they are nice folks. Some speak now with a slight Singlish lilt, some sit at kopitiams reading newspapers and drinking kopi-o just like any of us, some buy groceries with us at NTUC, some buy 4D and toto....Englishmen still holding doors open for ladies and letting them go out of the elevators first. Domestic helpers who guard their charges as if they were their own children.

Others have chosen to make Singapore their home, some have married here, some have left but still come back to visit often because they thoroughly enjoyed their stay here.

I think it's great that these people have assimilated so well within our culture and get along with the locals well.

It's just those who don't bother to observe or understand our laws and ways who irk me.