These foreigners are getting out of control!

Straits Times columnist Sumiko Tan vented some half-hearted gripes about the invasion of foreigners in Singapore. She laments the cacophony of Chinese dialects other than the ones she’s accustomed to, and the foreigners’ penchant for hanging laundry on playground equipment instead of on bamboo poles, balcony railings, and parapets like real Singaporeans do. Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t noticed much change. In fact, when I’m on the MRT and hear the announcement about reporting suspicious looking characters, I’m thinking they all look pretty suspicious to me!

Ms Tan is lucky she didn’t grow up in Miami, which has been subject to a fifty-year invasion of Spanish speakers who make little or no effort to speak English, monopolize many jobs because of that language divide, and disrupt traffic by selling oranges, flowers, and cocaine at your car window. They paint their houses in shades of papaya, lavender, and aquamarine instead of white or beige. Miami streets are named after foreign statesmen and heroes unknown to most Americans. Politics has been dragged into the gutter (more so and earlier than in other parts of the US) and corruption is off the charts. [Disclaimer: I’m not saying the population shift was the sole cause of all of these ills, but merely point out that they resemble conditions traditionally found in South America more than in North America.] Because they have used their political weight to impose an embargo on Cuba, which has loopholes for themselves, the foreigners have more freedom in America than native-born Americans do.

Singapore has always had a rojak population (see how I’ve adapted!), and most of the newcomers are from the same countries as Singaporeans’ ancestors. Foreigners in Singapore generally speak the language(s), have a hard time getting citizenship, keep their noses out of politics, and rarely venture any harsh or non-mainstream opinions. They pay more for medical and other services and are clearly second-class in many ways. Maids and foreign laborers are treated well below second-class. (Okay, so some foreigners do have stronger opinions!)

The bottom line is the world is changing far faster than most people would like, and we all feel alienated or left behind in some ways. Deal with it.