race

I am Indian, born and raised in Singapore, a tiny island nation in South East Asia.
I am a minority in my own country

Racism in Singapore exists.  We refer to each other by race and usually not in a very nice way.  We take stereotypes at face value and identify each race by those very same stereotypes.  This post isn't about my rant on how I have been treated in my own country, as frankly that pales in comparison to what has happened in Africa,  Europe and Asia and yes the USA.  In countries where they maim and kill someone just because he/she belongs to a different race.  Lets not get into the topic of religion either and how that has disrupted lives just because of a difference of how one worships.

Singapore leaders try hard to inculcate feelings of tolerance amongst the races, they have to, as we are a melting pot of cultures and left unchecked or not monitored could lead to  potentially explosive situations
We have the potential to create those explosive situations.
We rant and rave online (its safe to direct vitriol while hiding behind ones computers) on how the other races behave.  We direct abuse at people we don't know or care to know, just because they are different.  Its become too easy now to go online and direct hate at how one race conducts their wedding celebrations or how another race cooks food that smells different. 

We should be proud of who we are, race is an integral part of our culture and where we come from but it doesn't give us the right to feel superior to another race.  It doesn't give us the right to criticise another race.  I am no saint, i have done it a hundred times, criticise a person based on his/her race, but I stop and think everytime i do it.  Am I becoming just like the people who have directed hate at me because of race?  I dont want to be that person, I want to be better than that as I know what it feels like to be the subject of derision just because I am different.

Maybe this will be my new year resolution.  Practice tolerance towards one and all.

this post is in relation to the recent remarks one woman put on her facebook page.  Her remarks proved her to be bigoted and stupid enough to post it on facebook and not expect any backlash.