Friday, July 27, 2007

Embracing Otherhood

As Singapore plays host to more people from different backgrounds and culture, there are bound to be challenges that Singapore as a small country would face. Being a multi-racial country, discrimination and intolerance against people from different background and cultures is unavoidable. Also, we would also have to face the fact that many immigrants are coming into Singapore illegally.

Foreign construction workers are mostly from the less developed countries like Bangladesh and other Southeast Asian countries. Thus, Singaporeans would tend to stereotype them as the inferior race or culture and do not want to communicate and befriend them. They help us to build buildings after buildings and it is definitely not morally right to be so cruel to them. Example would be that Singaporean would tend to avoid being near to Bangladesh workers giving reasons such as their body odour. One of the challenges facing Singapore is being able to accept and tolerate against people from different backgrounds and cultures so as to be a good host.

Another problem we are facing is the fact that there are immigrants illegally coming to Singapore to find a job. Although the immigrants have usually no choice but to illegally come to Singapore because of various reasons, it is unsafe for them to do so. As mentioned in the article, an illegal construction worker fell to his death while working. His employee not only fails to report his death and he also dump his body at a nearby car park. As we can see, illegal working can cause innocent lives being lost. One way to solve this problem is to conduct checks regularly in construction sites. Through all this, we can be a good host to people from other countries through ensuring their safety.

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