by Yong Bin
TH has 500 over residents consisting of more than 10 nationalities (sources unknown) living together in a communal area. Inevitably, this will lead to a “clash of cultures”, where present and potential conflicts between hostelites arise mainly due to difference in cultures and nationalities. By extension, our hall will be a much better and peaceful place to live in if residents are willing to accept differences in cultures, and remove their xenophobic lenses when viewing fellow residents.
A recent dialogue with a neighbor went something like this:
Neighbor Y: “Wa lau eh, these people from country X hor, really something leh, go inside their room never take off shoes, and then lie on their bed some more, what’s wrong with that country ah…”
Me: “Aiya, maybe that’s their culture in their home nation? Perhaps their home nation is colder than Singapore, that’s why they got this habit of wearing shoes into their room la. What’s wrong?”
“Its just damn unhygienic lo, they are always like this one, dirty and smelly, can’t stand them…”
“Haha, it’s their freedom to do whatever they want in their room la, as long as they don’t dirty the common corridor and toilets, and clean their rooms before they pass on to the next resident, correct?”
“Aiya, it’s just these people from X la, cannot stand them…”
Some famous guy once said “your liberty to swing your fist ends at my nose,” or something like that. As long as one doesn’t infringe another person’s rights and private space, he or she should be allowed the liberty to carry out whatever they want. Juxtapose to that, why should we care if X’s room is dirtier than ours? Who are we to judge them? On whose standards? On a separate note, if their room stinks up the whole neighboring precinct, then they have a responsibility to clean up their room as they have infringed on their neighbor’s “right to clean and pleasant air.”
In a similar vein, I appeal to the PA committee not to broadcast non-English songs in the communal hall. Not everyone in TH understands Chinese, in fact a significant proportion do not. Imagine having to listen to songs with unfathomable lyrics while eating the com hall food. It is basic courtesy to speak in English in Singapore when there are non-Chinese in the conversation, so shouldn’t this be applied to songs broadcasted during meal times? I have Chinese songs in my music collection, and enjoy listening to them, but I do that in my room, not in the communal hall where some others do not understand Chinese.
I urge residents of TH to be more understanding and accommodating to friends from other cultures and nationalities, and minimize “the clash of cultures”. Let us all, to quote PM Lee in his recent speech on 377A, “live and let live”, and make TH a much better place to live in.
No Comments Yet
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
