Feeling Australian

Would be interesting to know more about how you felt during your time back in Singapore? Was there any sense of displacement? Has Singapore changed in the short time that you've been away? Did your friends and family try to convince you to return to Singapore permanently, or did they express a desire to join you in Perth? 

I met an Australian lady who migrated from Egypt years ago. I asked her if she felt like a stranger in both Egypt and in Australia, and if not, how long it took for her to feel like an Australian. She said that she has never been back to visit Egypt because people have told her how much it has changed, and she wanted to remember Egypt the way it was. And also, she said it too her a number of years before Australia felt like it was truly home and she felt Australian. Yet, when speaking about how Australians raised their children, she referred to them as "these Australian families" and not "we". 

So yes, there is plenty more that we, your readers, would like to know. Please keep writing :-) 

Your Fellow Singaporean in Australia


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Hello, My Fellow Singaporean in Australia,



They say absence makes the heart grows fonder. While generally true, being absent for too long a time could get one estranged from friends or family. Sometimes the claim isn't the absence itself but what you did or did not do in absence. Since you are interested in my thoughts about my return to Singapore after a year being away, I will try to jot down some notes along the way later. In this post instead, I will like to share my thoughts on the interesting story of your friend.


I had written my thoughts about 'feeling Australian' before. Due to globalisation, Australia is fast becoming another multi-national, multi-cultural country. In time to come, I don't think there is a big issue not 'looking Aussie'. There isn't much we can do about our looks anyway. After all, it is hereditary. I thought it would be common sense though if we could try blending in by cladding ourselves in right preferred 'local' attire on the right occasions to get people to feel more comfortable around you. For instance for my case, there is a distinct type of workmen clothes that Aussies wear without large variance. Some workers in light trades even work in bermudas, something unseen in Singapore. As far as appearance, I think it isn't difficult to look the look if we observe a bit.


That is how far we can go, in my humble opinion, as a Singaporean educated and grown up in Singapore. Can we sound the same as locals? No chance, unless you are a gifted linguist. Can we think Aussie? Try as we might, it will be limited. Try explaining leh, lah, loh and the why the usage of knn is never quite literal to a PRC or Pinoy Singaporean PR. Maybe they'll get a hang of it after a while but they'll never be quite there. The same if we think we can think like an Aussie. Don't get me wrong, it is our duty to assimilate but personally I think it is foolish to expect we will be 100% integrated one day.


That is why I feel that if you are born and bred Aussie (probably a next generation?), yes. Else, we are just pretenders if we go around shouting, "I'm Aussie, because I hold a blue passport!" Doesn't work that way. If we cannot sound like one, or think like one, we will never feel like an Aussie. That explains your Egyptian friend's situation. That also explains why you called yourself a Singaporean in Australia instead of an Australian previously from Singapore. Subconscious @ work.


To further illustrate, take a look at these folks


Familiar faces to you I'm sure. For decades they appeared on television and practically ate, drank and breathed Singaporean culture in their line of work. Maximum exposure if you ask me. I'm not sure what are their nationality status now. Singapore citizen, Singapore PR or S-pass holders. Doesn't really matter. The question is, how much do Singaporeans like you and me recognise them as one of us despite them being around for so long and could even utter a few words of Singlish by now?


I'm not sure what is your profile but for someone like me, who came to Perth to work in my 30s, I don't have a chance in hell to be accepted as an local by a local. What I feel is that we don't need to be obsessed about how 'Aussie' we are. I've mentioned this is my friend winkingdoll's blog before. Consider these names:

Lim Bo Seng
Yusof Ishak
Tan Tock Seng
Tan Kah Kee
S. Rajaratnam

None of the above were born Singaporean but had contributed a lot to our country and received admiration and adulation from the people till present. Of course, we cannot compare ourselves with these people. I'm a small person, not a nation builder but I feel we can learn from this. If we go about making the place better for people living around us, we cannot go wrong. With that in mind, I think if we go along the line of contributing in small ways to the community we are living in, or at least take the effort to learn what does an asshole meant to a local and take care not to be one, it will not be long before some chap points a finger at us announces to his friend that, "He's my mate." I think that's good enough for me.

17 comments:

  1. I agree it is the attitude. First and foremost, don't be an asshole to the Aussies and next is to be helpful in a small way to the community. Eventually it will be viewed as credit earned. LOL

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  2. One day we can say we are australia citizen but no way we can say we are aussies. I get what u mean bud. Stephen

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  3. Hi ASingaporeanSon,

    Yup, you made that comment in my blog post on "Importing PRCs and Olympic medals".
    http://winkingdoll.blogspot.ca/2012/08/importing-prcs-and-olympic-medals.html

    On a side note, I have just reached my 2 year milestone here in Canada. With the passing years, I feel that I am slowly being Canadianized, albeit I still speak English with a Singaporean accent. My thoughts about being Singaporean and living in Canada here.
    http://winkingdoll.blogspot.ca/2012/10/exhaustipated.html

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  4. Son of singapore:I'm a small person, not a nation builder but I feel we can learn from this. If we go about making the place better for people living around us, we cannot go wrong. With that in mind, I think if we go along the line of contributing in small ways to the community we are living in.

    Ans:Whats the difference between communism as they are also related to a community?

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    Replies
    1. The relation of communism to a community is probably as close as democracy to a demon

      Delete
  5. From wiki:

    Marxism holds that a process of class conflict and revolutionary struggle will result in establishment of a communist society in which ownership is abolished over time and the means of production and subsistence belong to the community.


    Isnt Australians practising a certain type of communism without them even knowing it?

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    Replies
    1. Communism is a classless political system or theory based on the sharing of all property and wealth by a classless society and all members of it.


      For a start, I don't see Gina Rinehart sharing her Sentosa Cove property with me. My answer to you is therefore: No.

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    2. That is true about the gina and her own wealth.But what if the community insists that she be forced to share her wealth which is often seen in most human society based on psychology.

      as they are humans and are filled with jealousy and the need for easy access to one anothers wealth,how sure are you to gamble that their community is not composed of biasness,greed and flawed human concept of their standards ?dont forget these sort of "community spirit" was non so more obvious than the nazis and stalins soviet union as well as mao's china.

      how certain would an innocent community club as seen in spore be evolved into a system where they demand by force that u compensate to their community?

      i have come across letters petitioning and demanding gina to pay for training of miners and also the demands of unions on shell oil company in sydney or melbourne to do more for the community when Shell announced it was recently shutting down its oil production in australia.i sometimes wonder what the community and their business plans got to do with anything.

      it all looks like a pseudo- communism spirit mainly based on greed and the demands of a demanding community.i dont find this sort of demands in spore if companies pull out or even if sim wong hoo of creative technologies had a castle.in asia no one in any community would demand the companies pay for their community nor demand of rich people to share their housing even though they year to be in a rich persons shoes.

      what u say of communism is a classless theory based on sharing of property and wealth to the community.
      i find in australia that they too often mention about the community this and that.and how u should contribute to them based on what they need.it makes me wonder isnt the central gov running the show with an organised method and tools?are their supply lines running low and stretched too far that they are crying for help?
      i understand if its a national disaster maybe they should mention that but in normal times i dont think they should be mentioning about the community or kampung spirit.

      perhaps to most city folk ,community spirit sounds like a strange sentence.community spirit is more like this stuff u would get in malaysian villages where u provide neighbourhood watch groups or some village unofficial policeman thingy.in the right hands this would be ok but in the wriong hands thos could end up becoming neonazi groups who would ultimately insists that all jobs belong to white aussies or that their community was white from the start and they dont want a mixed community other than free jobs in looking after kids while they run off to univerity to study.

      they are humans and humans are imperfect.they often make the worse of mistakes which is often unseen in developed parts of asia.

      im sure so0me communities dont accept anyone whom they have no preference of.fopr example,yesterdsay on news they had an interview with an australian researcher who went to china ,india and singapore to study how australia can hop onto the technology bandwagon.the researcher went to the asian country with a german production line and asked........do u have a shortage of german engineers?ans:no.do u get your engineers from america or europe?ans:no.so where do u get your engineers from ?ans:china,india,russia.the australian rearcher then said progress for australia would be difficult or impossible.

      by studying the above QUESTION AND ANSWER ,the australian researcher appears to view engineers in asian countries as not in their quality community.their community consists of german,american and people they view as quality on what they perceive as their type of community.in which case comes nepotism ,nazism and communism and other forms of people who gather together in a group demanding their ways and quality.and most of them may be goat herders,cowboys,cleaners,nannies and people who got to power due to nepotism.

      in whioch case, they would scare off any foreign investor even from europe.

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    3. That is true about the gina and her own wealth.But what if the community insists that she be forced to share her wealth which is often seen in most human society based on psychology.

      > Do you see this realistically happening?

      as they are humans and are filled with jealousy and the need for easy access to one anothers wealth,how sure are you to gamble that their community is not composed of biasness,greed and flawed human concept of their standards ?dont forget these sort of "community spirit" was non so more obvious than the nazis and stalins soviet union as well as mao's china.

      > I cannot claim that any single community is flawless. Do you consider Singapore's version of Kampung Spirit as communism as well? That is the type of community spirit I am endeared to.

      how certain would an innocent community club as seen in spore be evolved into a system where they demand by force that u compensate to their community?

      > I don't think anyone is forced to commit to a community club system in Singapore. Unless the CPF is considered a community building system.

      i have come across letters petitioning and demanding gina to pay for training of miners and also the demands of unions on shell oil company in sydney or melbourne to do more for the community when Shell announced it was recently shutting down its oil production in australia.i sometimes wonder what the community and their business plans got to do with anything.

      > Sorry, but I have to disagree that social responsibility is communism.

      it all looks like a pseudo- communism spirit mainly based on greed and the demands of a demanding community.i dont find this sort of demands in spore if companies pull out or even if sim wong hoo of creative technologies had a castle.in asia no one in any community would demand the companies pay for their community nor demand of rich people to share their housing even though they year to be in a rich persons shoes.

      > It has to be a joke to suggest workforce of Singapore demanding companies to do more for the community. For a start, many workers are unable to even demand for a fair payment of overtime work. NTUC do not fight for workers' welfare and side employers. Cheaper, Better, Faster. Oh come on. The Singaporean employee is disempowered to even fend for himself, much less his community. Is this a very good case to be brought up against Australia's? I feel we should at least compare apple to apple here.

      Delete
    4. what u say of communism is a classless theory based on sharing of property and wealth to the community.
      i find in australia that they too often mention about the community this and that.and how u should contribute to them based on what they need.it makes me wonder isnt the central gov running the show with an organised method and tools?are their supply lines running low and stretched too far that they are crying for help?
      i understand if its a national disaster maybe they should mention that but in normal times i dont think they should be mentioning about the community or kampung spirit.

      > Perhaps you can name some examples which demands of a community is too far fetch even in 'peace' time.

      perhaps to most city folk ,community spirit sounds like a strange sentence.community spirit is more like this stuff u would get in malaysian villages where u provide neighbourhood watch groups or some village unofficial policeman thingy.in the right hands this would be ok but in the wriong hands thos could end up becoming neonazi groups who would ultimately insists that all jobs belong to white aussies or that their community was white from the start and they dont want a mixed community other than free jobs in looking after kids while they run off to univerity to study.

      > To be honest, everything is screwed when they are in the wrong hands.

      they are humans and humans are imperfect.they often make the worse of mistakes which is often unseen in developed parts of asia.

      > I can name plenty of mistakes, seen or unseen, in Singapore. I'm sure you can too.

      im sure so0me communities dont accept anyone whom they have no preference of.fopr example,yesterdsay on news they had an interview with an australian researcher who went to china ,india and singapore to study how australia can hop onto the technology bandwagon.the researcher went to the asian country with a german production line and asked........do u have a shortage of german engineers?ans:no.do u get your engineers from america or europe?ans:no.so where do u get your engineers from ?ans:china,india,russia.the australian rearcher then said progress for australia would be difficult or impossible.

      > That's the researcher's point of view. If we take people's point of view too seriously, we are actually dogs in Lee Kuan Yew's perspectives. We are not going to start barking just because of that are we?

      by studying the above QUESTION AND ANSWER ,the australian researcher appears to view engineers in asian countries as not in their quality community.their community consists of german,american and people they view as quality on what they perceive as their type of community.in which case comes nepotism ,nazism and communism and other forms of people who gather together in a group demanding their ways and quality.and most of them may be goat herders,cowboys,cleaners,nannies and people who got to power due to nepotism.

      in whioch case, they would scare off any foreign investor even from europe.

      > I agree. But eventually Australia has to yield to survive. These are side effects of the sense of entitlement caused by welfare policies in this country. When it isn't sustainable one day, something has to give way. When there isn't anything to give, there isn't anything to give. Another new wave of leaner, hungrier people will take over the system, politically and economically. Change is inevitable. To be honest, I am apathetic to these because like the average employee in Singapore, I am barely surviving here. When I am an owner of 3 properties, earning my keep from rental and gained financial freedom, perhaps I'll sit down and think about these.

      Delete
  6. You forget the Australian political system which swings from a left leadership to a right, each time we change government. It prevents any party becoming too entrenched and extreme in policy and power.It seems to be largely self correcting and so keeps a relative balance. The importance placed on community is probably a cultural one based on a history of small communities having to survive in a harsh land and hence the concept of 'mateship' being a survival tool. Australians also have a cultural mistrust of 'authority' and tend to prefer an independence of attitude where possible, although not to the detriment of others generally. It is more of a' live and let live' approach and the concept of ' a fair go". It is not that Australians resent people acquiring wealth but that it is not attained at the expense of others.

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    1. This community spirit i dont think can be seen in most metropolitan cities.I think its a country bumpkin thing.Even if the government gets changed several times,the community uses its set laws that they have made in an isolated town.this includes forcing others to babysit kids when their own relatives are just opposite the road to even not helping a coloured person seen clutching his heart due to a heart attack by a busy road in the middle of town.

      In which case they shouldnt advertise in papers and television to do it for community.

      We all serve mankind and not a certain community or tribe.

      I wonder if im actually giving sporeson a hard time hwere by vandalising his blog..:)hehheh..anyway have a good weekend all!

      Delete
  7. Singaporean should be a strange or unique lot; trying so hard, so hurried, to be a “foreigner” or blend-in in a foreign community, whereas there are others celebrate coming to a new country by shutting the CBD down for hours, “painting” it green, year after year! (and still with so much pride!)

    Yet, by being away just months and with mere words to contrast scenery/happenings, found in this foreign land, you can kenna hum-tum / excommunicate big time by your own compatriot, your childhood buddy and no less the very person, heaven forbids, whom you might stand shoulder to shoulder, in some ditch somewhere.

    Is defining Singaporean or Singapore-ness, also requires being physically located or confined in a certain area? like in a certain movie, long term residents of Cell Block B become enemies and traitors, the moment they are transferred to Cell Block C….how quaint!

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  8. When I first got here, I went thru a period of euphoria. Finally, I was here! I went so far as to declare (thankfully, only in private) that I would become an Aust citizen once my 4 years are up.

    1.5 years later, I'm not so sure. I've had good and bad experiences. I've surmised that if don't tell them where I come from, they treat me very badly. I will never be Aussie, no matter what passport I hold. However, if I proudly announce where I come from, they're happy to have me here, but "visiting". Accepting foreign diversity apparently, is the politically correct thing to do. It also helps heaps if I don't sound too keen to stay on e.g. when asked "Will you stay on in Aust?" I just give a coy "maybe" type of answer along the lines of "let's see what Aust has to offer me."

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  9. Whether it is communism or democracy, it is all about the powerful guy abusing liberties and calling himself a saviour.

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