OK, only time for a quick update. I found this interesting site with links to numerous articles highlighting asian racism (focused on China, Korea and Japan) here.
There is also an interesting article here and here
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Digging up Facts of Singapore
One of the more annoying double standards that i have encountered in Asia is that of the Singaporean mindset towards migration. Now, i need to clearly articulate that i mean chinese Singaporean. You see, many chiense Singaporeans are rightly very critical of Australia's former 'white australia' migration policy. It was a racist piece of garbage that belongs on the scrap heap of history. By and large, Australia has moved on from the days of only allowing 'whites' who could speak english to their shores.
But fast forward to the 21st century and we have in Singapore a blatantly pro-chinese migration policy still in place. Indeed, it was set up in the led up to Hong Kong returning to Chinese rule.
Basically the policy is this:
Hong Kong citizens can migrate to Singapore. They are given assistance. No education requirements. At the time the then Prime-Minister of Singapore refereed to the need to keep Singapore predominately chinese to ensure it's economic success (read in between the lines what you will.
The proof of this policy is still out there at the following places here here and here
To be balanced although the migration policy has been publicly linked to keeping the proportion of Singapore's population that is Chinese above a certain percentage, nothing explicitaly states you MUST be chinese, it is very clear that the policy is aimed at recruiting Chinese hong-kong citizens and as this is the only ethnic group that is being targeted in such a way it then lends itself to the question: if the white Australia policy was so racist and so evil, how is this any different or better? The answer to that (IMHO) is none.
Sure, defenders of it will say that Singapore has a non-discriminatory migration policy. They will also say as long as you have the skills you can migrate to Singapore. True to an extent, but if a non-asian country were to introduce such a scheme to keep a certain ethnic mix stable, to proactively recruit a specific ethnic group (which is already the majority) it would rightly be labeled as discriminatory and racist. Why then do many chinese singaporeans feel the need to defend such a policy whilst rightly condemning former very similar schemese hatched by neighboring countries? The double standard is alive and well.
Death to racism.
Wherever it is found.
But fast forward to the 21st century and we have in Singapore a blatantly pro-chinese migration policy still in place. Indeed, it was set up in the led up to Hong Kong returning to Chinese rule.
Basically the policy is this:
Hong Kong citizens can migrate to Singapore. They are given assistance. No education requirements. At the time the then Prime-Minister of Singapore refereed to the need to keep Singapore predominately chinese to ensure it's economic success (read in between the lines what you will.
The proof of this policy is still out there at the following places here here and here
To be balanced although the migration policy has been publicly linked to keeping the proportion of Singapore's population that is Chinese above a certain percentage, nothing explicitaly states you MUST be chinese, it is very clear that the policy is aimed at recruiting Chinese hong-kong citizens and as this is the only ethnic group that is being targeted in such a way it then lends itself to the question: if the white Australia policy was so racist and so evil, how is this any different or better? The answer to that (IMHO) is none.
Sure, defenders of it will say that Singapore has a non-discriminatory migration policy. They will also say as long as you have the skills you can migrate to Singapore. True to an extent, but if a non-asian country were to introduce such a scheme to keep a certain ethnic mix stable, to proactively recruit a specific ethnic group (which is already the majority) it would rightly be labeled as discriminatory and racist. Why then do many chinese singaporeans feel the need to defend such a policy whilst rightly condemning former very similar schemese hatched by neighboring countries? The double standard is alive and well.
Death to racism.
Wherever it is found.
New Resources and Links
It's been a while since i've posted on my blog. I've recently moved country. Now that i have, i can be a little more open in my posts as i don't have to worry too much about being silenced for 'dissent' by the government of the country i was previously living in. So now that is out of the way, i've uncovered some really good resources i'd like to share with my all readers.
First off is the outstanding website Galdu which is a website dedicated to examining the issues surrounding the rights of indigenous peoples around the world. It's a sad fact of life that many indigenous peoples have seen their land stolen, way of life destroyed by various colonial and migrant powers - both european, american, and asian. The website has a great series of articles on Malaysia (which is of particular interest to myself) looking at the plight if the Temuan and Semai amongst others.
It's really worth a look to see how some asian countries that loudly decry the (very poor) treatment of indigenous peoples by other western nations (i.e Canada, USA, Australia) and hold it as an example of the innate racism of those countries have the same issues to deal with with their own indigenous peoples. As i've stated all along, the goal of this site is to highlight racial discrimination that occurs in Asia, white racism is well documented and well addressed by a large number of sites (including the folks at Fight'Dem Back) my goal is to simply collect articles that relate to the same issues in Asia.
On topics related to Malaysia another wonderful article on it's racial assimilation policies can be found here
I've also added Galu to the links in the side bar. I hope it helps all of us gain a perspective on the horrors of colonialism and forced assimilation in the 21st century.
First off is the outstanding website Galdu which is a website dedicated to examining the issues surrounding the rights of indigenous peoples around the world. It's a sad fact of life that many indigenous peoples have seen their land stolen, way of life destroyed by various colonial and migrant powers - both european, american, and asian. The website has a great series of articles on Malaysia (which is of particular interest to myself) looking at the plight if the Temuan and Semai amongst others.
It's really worth a look to see how some asian countries that loudly decry the (very poor) treatment of indigenous peoples by other western nations (i.e Canada, USA, Australia) and hold it as an example of the innate racism of those countries have the same issues to deal with with their own indigenous peoples. As i've stated all along, the goal of this site is to highlight racial discrimination that occurs in Asia, white racism is well documented and well addressed by a large number of sites (including the folks at Fight'Dem Back) my goal is to simply collect articles that relate to the same issues in Asia.
On topics related to Malaysia another wonderful article on it's racial assimilation policies can be found here
I've also added Galu to the links in the side bar. I hope it helps all of us gain a perspective on the horrors of colonialism and forced assimilation in the 21st century.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
updates coming
Some more updates will be coming soon. It's also been a sad week with the death of the former Pakistan prime minister. She will be missed.
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