Our culture

I was watching the Noose last night. Admittedly, this is really a slack, no brainer show, yet I enjoy watching it as it touches on issues that are close to my heart. It allows me the opportunity to see my actions from a 3rd party's perspective.

A topic which came up last night & really irked me was the one on using tissue paper packets to "chope" seats. Not that I think this is a really glamorous method of reserving seats, yet I see this as an innovative and witty reaction to our short lunch hours and overcrowded food centres. I won't be surprised that even Neil Humphreys agrees. How else can we ensure that we can buy our food, consume it and make it back to office within the hour? We do not have the luxury like the French to have a 2 hour lunch break nor the luxury of space / cool weather to laze on the grass by the river munching a sandwich and smooching in public.

So damn that woman whom the Noose team interviewed at Amoy Food Centre and who commented that this is really disgraceful and she was concerned about how foreigners would perceive us. Seriously, who gives a damn about the foreigners. They can leave and go back to where they came from if they do not like what they see here. Hadn't she thought about how the phase "In Rome, do as the Romans do" came about. I welcome foreigners to my country but I do not expect them to come with the notion that they can wipe out my culture and take over my land. I'm grateful for Sir Stamford Raffles's & William Farquhar's help in helping develop Singapore into a trading hub. But since then, it was through our forefathers' hard work & efforts that allowed us to come so far.

It's such an irony that these "superior white men" are now lobbying for a greener world and human rights when it was them who originally destroyed the world with their inventions and slavery. Now that they have made it big, they turn around and accuse the less developed or 3rd world countries of trying to prosper without doing enough to preserve our earth. They turn around and point fingers at us for not being democratic and not allowing freedom of speech.

Well, thank you for your efforts but I appreciate the fact that I can wake up each morning, not having to worry if the trains & buses will be in operation to fetch me to work. I can book a holiday with SIA without having to fear that my flight will be cancelled because workers decided to go on strike. I can live without the demonstrations and the violence. I pay a price by having the government dictate certain aspects of my life but it's a small price and I choose safety over full democracy.

The world is moving and we cannot let time stand still. With increasing globalisation, we cannot just live for ourselves without the interference of our "friendly", "caring" neighbours, no matter how far, how near, how small, how big they are. Yet, I seek that they will understand that each country has its culture and it's important that their people learn to assimilate into each culture when they're visiting rather than attempt to change a unique way of life.

So I say, if the tissue "choping" works for us, let's bring it on. We're 45 years old this year, it's time for us to have our own identity!

PS: You're welcomed to have your own opinion on this method of "choping" seats. I recognise that this is a controversial topic with it's fair share of fans & critics.