Where I live, in Hougang, I have been seeing more foreigners nowadays, sometimes during my routine walks to the neighbourhood shopping centre and the MRT station, and often while I am on the bus within Hougang.

For the past few years, Indian and Chinese nationals were a common sight in Hougang, but now, it also appears there are Caucasians and Africans in the town.  

If this is representative of a trend happening in HDB towns, it points to Singapore becoming truly more cosmopolitan as people of other nationalities integrate into the heartlands of our city state. 
Should Singaporeans have reason to complain about the perceived demographic change taking place? I see no basis for any complaints.

Let’s face it. We were never a homogeneous population. Our parents and grandparents came from China, India, Malaysia and other countries. They settled down as total strangers in a new land. But, they quickly became friends with people of different races out of a common need for security and mutual help. In time, communities grew out of this motley group of settlers. 

I was reminded of this ease in which older Singaporeans of different races blended with each other recently when I was on the bus back to Hougang.

I was standing on the lower level of a double-decker bus, taking notice of the passing people and vehicles on the road when my ears picked up a conversation between two elderly people. Both were using Malay as a lingua franca, for one of them — a woman — was Indian, and the other — a man — was Chinese. 

I realised that they were total strangers when I paid attention to the content of their conversation - the woman was asking the man where he lived and what he was doing for a living. Here were two perfect strangers, who happened to be seated next to each other on the bus, exchanging their views on a myriad of topics. Yet, they were engaged in an animated conversation that could only have taken place between two persons who had known each other for ages.

Are our younger Singaporeans — those in their forties and younger — as forthcoming as our older Singaporeans when it comes to mixing around with people of other races? Personally, I have yet to see positive signs. 

I have to admit that I am guilty of not being friendly. If you were to put me in the same situation the two elderly passengers were in, I daresay I would have kept mum and remained unapproachable. 

So, what’s wrong with people like me — the younger generation of Singaporeans? Have we not inherited the ‘blending’ skills that our parents and grandparents tried so hard to acquire in order to make living in a new land palatable? 

I remember when I was in primary school in the early 70’s, my neighbours were Indians. I remember I used to visit them every day. On their festive occasions, I would join them and their relatives, seated on the floor in a circle and eating their delicacies. I even followed them when they were doing the Thaipusam walk all the way up to Mount Faber. 

Yet, today, I have difficulty bringing myself to talk to strangers, whether they be people of other races or my own race, in public areas. I hope my behaviour is not representative of a trend taking place in Singapore. If it is, it begs the question: Why are younger Singaporeans withdrawing into their own cocoons nowadays?

I cannot answer for others. For myself, I would say that I have become reticent, unwilling to take the first step. Unlike in the past, there are no disincentives for not taking the first step. Our parents and grandparents would have found Singapore inhospitable if they had not mixed around. Today’s Singapore presents too much of a good life for us Singaporeans. Inhospitable conditions do not exist so we need not take the first step in becoming neighbourly. We are in danger of becoming strangers in our own land.

Alas, what our parents and grandparents tried so hard to build may be lost to future generations through our complacency. But, all’s not lost. Though I don’t mix well with strangers, I don’t look down on them. I treat them as equals. It’s just that I rather not come out of my cocoon. But, rest assured that in times of trouble, I will not fail to help other neighbours, just as I did last month when I alerted my Malay neighbours living downstairs of a fire in their kitchen - the whole family was sleeping in their air-conditioned bedroom though the flat was blanketed in smoke. 

So how do we ensure that our younger Singaporeans do not become withdrawn socially? By actively imbuing in them, when they are in school, racial integration skills and appreciation for other cultures. By actively encouraging neighbourliness among residents in housing estates. Already these are things being done, but needing to be improved upon.

But then, there’s only so much the Government can do. We Singaporeans need to break out of our self-induced reticence too. With Caucasians, Africans and other nationalities assimilating into our community of four races; and with mixed marriages become more common, we don’t have a choice. Singaporeans have to get used to a new Singapore - cosmopolitan and vibrant.

Lately, there has been talk of China whiz kids - studying in our schools - posing a threat to our own students. Is it an empty threat - one void of merits?

I have taught our students in secondary schools in the past few years. Whether they be in the Express, Normal Academic (NA) or Normal Technical (NT) streams, I have taught them all, and have seen enough of them to know what makes them tick.

I have also had the opportunity to teach kids from China, keen on settling into local primary schools here. Over a period of six months, I had a chance to teach English and Mathematics to these chaps, aged from ten to sixteen years old, in a local private school. And it was certainly an eye-opening experience for me.

Of the sixty or so China students I had come into contact with in the school, only two did not show keenness in absorbing knowledge. These two boys were typical of the many boys found in our NA and NT streams - they were in the classroom because their parents wanted them to be there, but in their own minds, learning was a chore.

The rest of the China students I found to be eager to absorb knowledge. Though some of them did not know common words such as cat or dog, they did not let their journey into uncharted territory daunt them. They all came into the classroom armed with electronic Chinese-English dictionaries which could even voice English words keyed into them. And they all listened intently as I explained the rudiments of the English language to them.

I admit that the two or three months they spent in the private school did little to help them gain a good grasp of the English language. Tried as I did, I could not get the majority to construct correctly basic sentences in composition assignments given them in the time they were there. But, they picked up enough skills to be able to pass tests having Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ). And they learnt fast, especially with the aid of these electronic gadgets. 

When it came to Mathematics, these China students pleasantly surprised me - I could say without a doubt that most of them would qualify as whiz kids in the subject, for they are nothing short of being brilliant in Mathematics. This is the area where our local students will face intense competition from the China students. I hesitate as I say this, but, I have to admit that I think these most of these China students will surpass our own students in Mathematics, given enough practice in handling the translation of the English text in the questions set. 

An article in The Straits Times of 13 Feb 2005 quoted Mr Wang Yongli, the education counsellor at the Chinese Embassy, as saying that about 30,000 China nationals were studying in government and private schools here in 2004, compared with 25,000 in 2003. It went on to say that one-third of them are in polytechnics and universities, 10,000 in primary and secondary schools and the rest in private and commercial schools.

Rather than worry about the influx of talent that could threaten their children’s future, our Singaporean parents should see these China whiz kids as a necessity for local schools, for our own students, having outdone their own kind at school over the past decades and not having worthwhile competition to spur them on to greater heights, can now count on these brilliant China kids to pace them into greater excellence.
It’s a win-win situation for everyone. If our best local students can outdo themselves, we can certainly breathe easily in the knowledge that they can overcome whatever odds that may fall into their paths in future. 

So parents who are worried about top places going to foreign students and Singapore losing face and having a reputation for producing mediocre students should put their fears behind them.

Did you enjoy your Chinese New Year holidays? Well, the Chinese here have been merry-making the past week. With the first day of Chinese New Year falling on a Wednesday, it meant that the rest of the week till Sunday was a super-long weekend for much of Singapore’s population.

Though there was school on Friday, attendance was less than half in many classes, whether they be in the primary, secondary or junior college levels.

It is said that the Chinese have a propensity for gambling. Chinese New Year is that festive season when everyone, whether gambler or non-gambler, partakes in a tradition that transcends generations. Children and adults put moral rulebooks at the back of their minds as they gamely sit in a circle on the floor of the living room, indulging in games of Blackjack or some other games. 

That’s when the gambling streak in everyone shows up, albeit for a fortnight till Chap Goh Meh*. That’s also when parents tolerate gambling among their young. In fact, many parents, grandparents, and their children join the gambling sessions that go on in almost every Chinese household across the island, and the world.

With the current TOTO jackpot standing at S$3,888,000, long queues have begun forming at the local betting outlets in town. The annual TOTO Hongbao draw on Thursday, 17 Feb 2005, with its jackpot prize of S$10 million, has resulted in queues at betting outlets snaking out of the outlets into the surrounding areas.
What am I saying? That we are a nation of gamblers? No. Not that, certainly. It’s just that we, Chinese, are in a celebratory spirit during the Chinese New Year. It’s that time of the year when tradition takes hold and we all put aside our anti-gambling principles and indulge in merry-making to our hearts’ content.

Once the fifteen days of the Chinese New Year are over, we will return to our old reserved, closeted selves. So, in the meantime, we are all just having fun! 

Chap Goh Meh falls on 23 Feb 2005. That means another weekend of gaming sessions for many, many Singaporeans. Most Chinese will not want to be left out of the fun, for it will mean waiting till the next Chinese New Year before they can let go of their self-imposed moral restraints.

In a rat-race society such as ours, being able to set ourselves free of our inhibitions, albeit for two weeks, does wonders for our stressed-out minds. Don’t you agree?

* 15th day of Chinese New Year

The advertisement in The Straits Times today reads:
“Today & Tomorrow only, 7 & 8 Feb - Free Fresh Eggs 30’s”

Yes! Giant, Shop-N-Save and G’Value are offering a free tray of fresh eggs today and tomorrow for the first 100* customers each day spending S$30 and above in a single receipt.

A line in red reads, “Hurry, When It’s Gone! It’s Gone.”

Giving away free eggs is a good way of rewarding the customer for his patronage. The tray of eggs featured in the advertisement jolted my memory. I found myself staring blankly at it, for in an instant, my mind had been transported back to the Singapore of the early 70’s. 

I remember I was in secondary school then, and living in a three-room flat in Toa Payoh. Back then, with every new Chinese New Year, each household, whether in an HDB flat or a private residence, would receive free eggs. Some received a tray, others were given more trays of eggs. It was the pig farmers’ way of thanking the households for contributing swill to the pigs the farmers were rearing. 

You see, each day, my mother would pour the leftover food into a small bin which she would then leave outside the flat, in the common corridor, for the pig farmers to collect. It was the same thing happening with every household in our block, and in other blocks in the neighbourhood.

At the end of each year, usually just before Chinese New Year, the farmers would pile tray upon tray of eggs in the lift landings and then go from flat to flat to distribute the trays of eggs to the flat occupants. Some received two trays. My family was given one. The number of trays of eggs given depended on the amount of swill contributed during the previous year. We received less because ours was a small family and had not much swill for the farmer to collect each day.

There are no farmers going around HDB flats nowadays to distribute free fresh eggs to HDB dwellers. This is because the pig farming industry was phased out of Singapore in the 70’s. The only thing left are my memories of the whole affair. In fact, I had plain forgotten about the whole thing, till, that is, I saw the advertisement in today’s newspaper.

I am sharing this with you so you have an idea of what people did at home way back in the 70’s. In case you are wondering how it is possible for pig farmers then to have such big farms to consume the amount of swill dished out by so many HDB estates such as Yishun, Bedok, Tampines and Ang Mo Kio, let me tell you this - such estates were not even built then. There were only two HDB towns then -Queenstown first, and Toa Payoh later. If memory serves me right, the next HDB town built was Bedok in the late 70’s, followed by Ang Mo Kio.

But, it’s all history now. Memories of the old ways come back when the mind is jolted. It is times like this that I yearn for the old days, of a time when I was much younger. Can we turn back the clock? Obviously no. But, we can have a good time reminiscing the past. And this advertisement did something that money cannot buy - it brought me back to the past, albeit in my mind.

I look at the advertisement again and read aloud the line in red:
“Hurry, When It’s Gone! It’s Gone.”

It’s true. When that time has gone, it has gone, never to come back, except in our reflections.

So what is the message I have in mind for this new Year of the Rooster?

It is this:
Live each new day to the fullest, for it will never return. What you do today decides whether it is good memories or bad nightmares you store in your mind’s bank for you to conjure up in your twilight years.

Have a good day!

*500 for Giant