Myopic and discriminative view from straits times journalist

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MYOPIC AND DISCRIMINATIVE VIEW FROM STRAITS TIMES JOURNALIST

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27 Oct 2014 - 9:06am








In the lapdog sheet The Straits Times’ article under it’s ‘Think’ page, this Columnist wrote about her concerns over the government’s recent announcement of the series of measures supporting the surge of transnational marriages in Singapore.

She set the stage by recounting her personal experience; a non-verifiable claim; of accompanying a friend on a bridal window shopping trip to Vietnam. And she had based her entire article on this one account of how Singapore men come to be hitched to foreign spouses.

The reader is reminded that the government’s new measures do not target foreign wives only. They target the foreign husbands as well.

After setting her own stage; she continued with the common stereotyping of what these foreign women are looking for in Singaporean men e.g. their wealthy status, the chance to escape their own poverty and an excellent avenue to provide for their families back home; and for some; permanent residency or citizenship.

This is a myopic and a discriminative view, to say the least – the loudest characteristic that most Singaporeans have come to be known for; that because we think we are better off than our poor neighbours we can look down on them, we are superior to them, we can demean them.

What the writer failed most in her article is to look at the current sociopolitical climate in Singapore.

I know of Singaporean men who, at around the original retirement age of 55 years, have become single again or who are just plain bachelors; the latter due to the need to provide for their families, their sibling’s educations, housing needs etc.

These had pinned a lot of hope on seeing their retirement funds but were left helpless by the CPF stranglehold by the government.







Coupled with the rising trend of disenfranchisement, many Singaporeans, young, middle age and old alike, are looking for ways to escape the local climate altogether. They see a foreign spouse, male and female, as a chance to rebuild their lives abroad.

I have friends who have taken foreign spouses in the same manner described by the writer. These friends are now taking the chance to explore business opportunities in the countries of their spouses’ origin.

In short, it is not only about foreign women in poor countries hoping to land a big enough Singapore fish. It is also about the Singaporean seeking another avenue to escape this place and its political nonsense.

The Alternative View
[source]: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-A...58759327518739


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