Don't know what to title this

In the Jakarta Post recently there have been articles concerning remarks made by the former Prime Minister of Singapore regarding the treatment of the Maylaysian and Indonesian Chinese communities by those respective governments. The thrust of his remarks was that these communities are marginalized by the society at large because they are "hard working and successful." Both governments took exception to this and suggest that the former P.M. was attempting to meddle in the domestic affairs of their governments. He has since apologized, or, at least, stated that this was not his intention. The Chinese communities here are marginalized, but it is a very comfortable margin, to say the least. It was interesting that in the staff meeting yesterday we were informed that we would be having schools on a couple of saturdays this term as a result of a slew of complaints from parents who believed that there were too many holidays interrupting the school year. The holiday in question is Idul Fitri (the Muslim celebration that comes at the end of Ramadan). This is a national holiday and the nation will shut down--some parents here thought that we should be an exception. We will not be, but we are acting to placate these concerns. This is a change made on the run and will, of course, mean that planning for the term will have to be adjusted as these additional days will give some classes more time than others. I have some classes that meet only once a week, an extra day for them means an extra week or one more week than other classes will have. That's, of course, beside the point but it's the sort of thing that happens here regularly. We are asked to plan, and then are given a moment's notice when a disruption will be commanded. The larger point is that the Chinese community cares not about the Indonesian lifestyle--they keep themselves apart. I am doing a unit with the younger classes about holidays and as we began this week it was noteworthy that few of these children could name the Muslim holiday that is ongoing, not surprising when I learnt last term that few could tell me what a Mosque is. Considering that one cannot toss a stone over their shoulder without hitting one, this is strong evidence as to the extent that these children are sheltered. As for the native Indonesian, they do not show a tremendous amount of respect for other cultures either (unity is stressed, but the Chinese are not welcomed--it goes both ways).

In the academic article I noted once earlier about Singaporean issues, the point was made that in contrast to Taiwan and South Korea (who also developed rapidly), Singapore has no rising political consciousness. Ostensibly a democracy, the ruling party of Singapore today is the only one they have ever had and it also owns most of the industry, control the media (and enforce strict censorship), and there are no viable political options. The society is paternalistic in the extreme and the idea of rugged individualism that is so often linked to capitalism in America can hardly be said to exist in the city-state of Singapore. Our history textbooks come from Singapore and they are truly works of propaganda. In a section designed to teach about political systems and the concept of "society" to 12 year olds it states very clearly that social classes are divisions within the society that are designted on the basis of the importance of the contribution that a citizen makes toward his nation. I wrote this definition on the board and asked if this was true. The students, not getting what I was getting at, said "yes." I asked which social class a successful pop star belonged to and they replied that he/she would be in the upper class. I then asked what a teacher in an orphanage should be classified as, and they answered "middle class"--maybe in Singapore. I then asked where a maid and a nanny would fit in, and they said "lower class." Exactly, I said, is it more important to sing a popular song than to take care of those who have no one or to raise a child? They said "no." Exactly, I said, I don't think "importance" is the correct definition in explaining social classes--"income" is they key ingredient. At any rate, "place" in Singaporean society is very well defined and what makes money is praised above all. I'd say this is true of America as well, but I don't believe we are as blatent about it. I don't think we are so comfortable stating it as fact.