Just met Warrent Jabbar and his family just now around my block. He said he'd come to visit SWO Francis Ng, who was sick. I don't know Francis, but Jabbar was my former APC CSM, quite a friendly nice and reasonable guy. We smiled and exchanged pleasantries.

The funny thing is that I met him just whilst I was musing to myself about my own prejudices about people. I don't think I'm racist, in fact I like the Malays and Indians in my own country (in general, there're always unpleasant people from every race): I feel they add spice and colour and commitment to the country. And I like WO Jabbar, and other Singaporeans from other races - they are pleasant, committed, and very good friends. I consider them my brothers.

It's the immigrants that I feel a sense of aversion towards. Well, particularly from a particular C-country. The darker-skinned foreign workers have been known to disturb Singaporean girls, but I'm even quite fine with them. It's the C-people that somehow disturb me, partially because they're all over ... extremely ubiquitous. Partially because ... they are a part of me, yet so different. Culturally, even linguistically. I find myself speaking a lot in Cantonese to distinguish myself from them.

But I have good Chinese friends, from NUS. I helped out in the PRC Camp and I loved my group members - a lot. And they are fine, nice, decent, fun-loving. It's just this feeling that they're different, that they haven't assimilated into what is effectively a Singaporean-Malaysian culture (yes, we're all culturally Singaporean-Malaysian more than Chinese. We are all so NOT Chinese in terms of culture). And the fact that there are so damn MANY MANY of them. It's a fear that they'll outnumber us eventually - it's not a misplaced fear, considering the government's policy of importing Chinese people from China in droves. And there's the feeling that they are not committed to this country. (Not that many locals are committed too, considering emigration rates. But that's another story for another day). It's this feeling that these MANY foreigners are here to take our country for a ride, and our government is letting them do so.

It's Xenophobia, prejudice all over again. And the best way is to make friends from the race/people group that you are afraid of, to give them human faces.

To find out that at the end of the day, they are humans like us.

True, there are materialistic, scheming, evil, downright manipulative Chinese people who treat our country like a stepping stone. But there're evil, manipulative people from every race and country - even from Singapore - and we must recognise this.

Random Thoughts

1) I'm really blessed to be educated in Economics. I hear laymen talking about inflation, and I'm really blessed to have intimate insight into the means, reasons and solutions for inflation. Economics is really useful. I'm trying to remember the historical incident in which Mahathir Mohammad proved the world's economists wrong by trying to fix and control too many policy instruments in his country. I think the policy instruments are the interest rate, exchange rate, and capital mobility, and normal countries can only fix 2 of them and leave one floating, subject to market forces, but he fixed all 3. And apparently it worked for Malaysia.

I've forgotten all the details, but we learnt it in Macro 2 under Prof. Dixon How. Anyone care to fill in the details for me?

2) The recent court case against Novena Church for aggrivated assault and forcing the lady to go through the exorcism confuses me. Firstly, the court realises it is a spiritual case - involving prayer, God, exorcism, spirits. Yet it is a civil court, trying to resolve what is commonly seen as a religious dispute, between Christians. How can it be expected to rule? It is extremely confusing.

Also very interestingly, the language used in court and in the newspapers regarding this case shows that Singapore's society and government recognises the power, reality and role of the spiritual - such that the court will even entertain a dispute because of very spiritual matters. It seems that the court recognises the role and power of God, angels, and demons.

Which of course, fits in with what I understand Singapore's Secularism to be (haha thanks be to the Inter-Civilisational and Inter-Religious Study Trip for opening my eyes to these issues). For Singapore's Secularism is an Anglo-Saxon Secularism, which recognises the separation of church and state, while recognising the validity and truths of religion. Under this school of thought, religious ideas are to be respected, even accepted in society; they are just not to interfere with the political process.

This, of course, stands in contrast with French-Turkish Secularism, propogated most famously by the late Mr. Kemal Ataturk, founder of the Turkish Republic. Under this school, religion is to be subjugated to the state, having no role in public life and expression, and basically to be forced to take a back seat in society. From the outside, such a society can look somewhat religious, yet very atheist.

Of course, Singapore is hardly atheist. It's so religious, and the court case shows it: even the courts get religious sometimes.

Again I'm thankful for the exposure my education offers me. It is very exciting to see classroom concepts actually applicable in the real world.