Hallo Bali - Bali hier sind wir

Euthanise Me!

We are now having a debate on whether Singapore should legalise, or even THINK about legalising euthanasia. When I first saw the headline, I thought, wow, so progressive, our country! But after reading an article describing how this issue even got tabled made me stop in my track. I told Daniel about it, and he said we are crazy. Daniel has always been pro-life. I figured it's partly to do with his Catholic socialisation (which isn't his fault) and partly to do with the German government's pro-life welfare policies. They give a lot of help to single parents, ageing people and don't discriminate them like the Singapore government.

Then on the way home from breakfast this morning, we talked about the welfare system in Europe and how it's breaking down. I argued that the reason people don't have children here is also partly explained by our welfare system - or rather, the lack of it.

What does welfare have to do with euthanasia, you wonder? Plenty. This is a summary of what we spoke about in the car:

Me: (after putting away the newspaper) Boy, am I glad I am debt free.

Daniel: Yes, you are certainly that free.

Me: DEBT free! D-E-B-T (for the ignorant, "debt" is pronounced "det", so Daniel understandably mistook it for the homonym "that"). Anyway I am glad I don't have debt, I don't have children, and therefore I am rather recession-proof, doncha think?

Daniel: Yeah (not very interested).

Me: Do you wanna know why we pay so little taxes?

Daniel: Why? (still not very interested)

Me: Cos we don't have a welfare system. When we pay so little tax, we don't get much else in return, we basically have to earn, save, otherwise nobody takes care of us. And I am not surprised that people don't have kids, because it's hard enough making enough money to live till I die, it's even harder to make sure my kids look after me till I die. And you know, it's not very different from Europe, when you pay high taxes, at least there is that obligation on the part of the government to take care of you when you're sick and old.

Daniel: But that's not the case, in Europe I don't pay for my old age, my taxes go to pay for some old person's retirement now.

Me: Yeah, that's why you people have to do your part and produce your 2.1 kids so that THEY will pay for your old age, isn't it? And the government helps you to pay for your 2.1 kids as well, our government doesn't! So it makes less sense for us to have 2.1 kids with no state support, and no welfare or pension for our old age. That's why we have to take care of ourselves first, if we don't work, we don't live! That's why we have "family values" - that's our society's welfare system, you expect your family to support you when you are old and sick. At least in Europe, if your kids ar complete idiots, you can still expect the state to support you when you're old and sick.

Daniel: Except your tax dollars go to support the useless bums who don't want to work.

Me: True, so people should think long term, and realise they should start having their 2.1 kids, otherwise you can forget about retirement!

Daniel: But many people don't want to have kids, they are rich enough to support themselves.

Me: Well, over here, even if you have a kid, it doesn't guarantee you retire with security. We still have to work and save or whatever people do to make enough money to live till they die or pay their medical bills. So it's understandable that people don't have 2.1 kids, but in Europe, even with a welfare system, people still don't want to have kids! So what's the problem?

Daniel: They should just realise that the system doesn't work and change it.

Me: (thinking) I don't know what's the better way. I forgot my point.

After returning home and reading about the whole euthanasia article, I realised that many old people had been writing to the Lianhe Zaobao, our Chinese press, to ask the health minister to legalise euthanasia. Their reasons will not just bring a gut-wrenching tug to your heart, but it should make everyone (Singaporean or European) think carefully about the kind of society and social security system we want.

Me: Baby, read this. (I pass the paper to Daniel) See? People here, the old folks WANT to be euthanised if they get old and sick! Isn't it sad? They don't get any state support if they have no retirement savings of their own, and also they don't want to be dependent on their family....it's not just about financial dependency, we don't want to have someone to clean our crap from our asses, change our diapers and feed us every day when we are paralysed or sick!

Daniel: (finishes reading and puts the paper down) Well, I think if there are stringent controls and rules about euthanasia then it's a good idea.

Me: I don't think it's about choice at all, this isn't a legal question, it's a social and moral and ethical question. Old people here would rather DIE than live on medical and social assistance, why? Because there is NO ONE to rely on. The government talks about rising medical costs and people abusing the system if it pays for these costs, but when you get right down to it, it's rather petty to talk about the people abusing the system when you have the majority of people choosing to die rather than to live on medical treatment and technology. What the fuck?

Is the answer euthanasia? I'm sorry for saying this, but if we want to talk about legalising euthanasia so that people will not overly burden the current system, so that some people will not ABUSE the state-subsidised medical treatments, then the moral ethics of our state is more fucked up than I could ever imagine. I personally believe it is in every human being's right to decide if he or she does not want to live in pain, to live without dignity, or to become a social burden. But I believe that many Singaporeans would not choose to die if they could get the state support they NEED such as medication and treatment for their illness. They would not have such a negative outlook towards their old-age if their society has more compassion and respect for them rather than the pity and derision people tend to cast on members of the aged.

Case in point: going by the Netherlands example, euthanasia should only be a legal option when there is no hope of living a dignified life without suffering intolerable pain. I believe that apart from these scenarios, no one should have to think about euthanising themselves, and the reason they do, here in Singapore, is because they have no one but themselves to rely on when it comes to living with illness. That is the only problem, whether you help people live, NOT whether you help them to die. This means our entire society has to think about how to help the aged sick. The whole "every-hardworking-man-for-himself" idea is just as broken as Europe's welfare state.

And if it means I have to pay higher taxes, hell yeah, I will pay higher taxes so that I don't have to kill myself when I am 75, paralysed with stroke. I don't know what is worse: to depend on my government to live, or to depend on my government to tell me how to live.

Serangoon Gardens: Who's Afraid of the Dark Man?

For those who recall the debacle some weeks ago, you will know what I mean when I say Serangoon Gardens. For those who don't, it's a cosy little neighbourhood with mainly houses, tucked away in a north east corner of the island. Population of a few thousand, a hefty number of Caucasian expatriate families and the rest middle-class Singaporeans.

The government announced that they would convert an abandoned school building into a dormitory for foreign workers.

Out came the alarm bells, shrill and insistent.

A petition went around and a few thousand signatures were collected in protest against the proposed building. Congestion! Crime! Noise! Crime!
Did I already say crime?

They came from all corners of the neighbourhood, up in arms, giving their MP a barrage a excuses -- i mean reasons -- why this plan should be shelved.

I watched and read the opinions flying fast and furiously in the newspaper, and I waited to make sure that the government listened, responded and then go ahead with the plan anyway. I mean come on, these days, it requires a lot more skill to be unpredictable, but I had every confidence that the plan would go through. What I have to give the authorities credit for is how deftly they handled everything, even the most ludicrous and offensive criticisms were met by a patient, almost placating response that was near to conciliatory.

What's my opinion? At first, I considered how I would respond if my nice, middle-class housing estate were to accomodate a few hundred (I am not sure if it's a few hundred or a higher figure) People of Foreign Nationality. My first vision was that of seeing People of Another Race camping out on my neighbourhood playgrounds, maybe small groups of them squatting on the grass in the small park, a couple more arm in arm crowding at the already congested Chomp Chomp food center.

Answer: I see dark people everywhere.

And that is basically all that the Serangoon Gardens residents see. I hope you realise I am using the work "dark" facetiously, that I am really sarcastically making fun of the xenophobia that this particular neighbourhood of Singaporeans had been openly displaying online, on the national newspaper and in public.

I think before the Government arrests any more people for hurling racist remarks pertaining to Persons of Non Chinese race on their blogs, they should examine the prejudice that was blatantly displayed without proper censure and censorship in the past month. Some of the responses I noted on the Straits Times Forum included:

(1) Caging up Persons of Other Nationalities like we do to Animals or Criminals:
Someone suggested building a fence around the proposed dormitory so that the Persons of Other Nationality living inside would not be able to come outside. If you can't get rid of them, put them in a cage. That way, every one feels safer.

(2) Segregating Persons of Other Nationalities so we can Keep Our Neighbourhood Pure:
Someone suggested in an earlier letter that dormitories should be build in some outlying part of the island, but with infrastructure and facilities like shops and food outlets, making it a "town within a town". How nice to think of the convenience of the foreigners we employ to develop our post-industrial nation. I am reminded of the Native American "settlements".

(3) Imposing restrictions on the movements of Persons of Other Nationalities
Someone else called for the police to set limits on where the workers in the dormitory should be allowed to walk, which places they could patronise, in the interests of the "safety" of the elderly and children of Serangoon Gardens. All I could see after reading that was the Star of David arm band the Nazis forced the Jews to wear in Nazi Germany.

In the space of a few weeks, we had Nazi sentiments, apartheid sentiments and clearly racist and exclusionist sentiments EXPRESSED IN THE NATIONAL PAPER and nobody, not ONE SINGLE PERSON wrote in response to point this out. Personal anecdotes were flying everywhere each day about someone's car being smashed and its cashcard stolen; someone's domestic helper (we call them "maids" in Singapore) was seen interacting with a Person of Other Nationality in a clandestine fashion; urine and abandoned beer bottles greet residents living near Farrer Park each morning, a present left obviously by Persons of Other Nationalities.

Some people blame the "lack of mutual cultural understanding" on both sides, Singaporean and Foreign, for such conflicts. I disagree. We have 5000 Germans living among us, and a few hundred thousand more White People, and I see no lack of cultural understanding on the part of Singaporeans toward their fairer skinned neighbours. I haven't heard anyone complaining that we should send our British and French employment pass holders to learn the social and cultural norms of Singapore.

It's not race, it's class stupid.
Imagine putting 1000 German men in the Burghley Drive dormitory. Imagine that these 1000 German men bathe together, eat together, sleep together and every morning they get on 30 lorries and go to the various construction sites. At night they gather at the parks in their small groups to converse, drink their beer (Germans love their beer) and perhaps barbeque some bratwursts every now and then. They have no airconditioning, so it's bloody hot, and they walk around shirtless and hairy. Germans have their opinions too, and they have a sense of humour in spite of popular stereotypes, so they make a bit of noise when they get together after a long, smelly hard day under the scorching sun.

What will you do in Serangoon Gardens? Will you think the German workers are going to rob your houses, have sexual relations with your domestic helpers (we call them 'maids" in Singapore) and threaten your mother-in-law?

Singaporeans fear the Dark Man a lot more than the White Man, and it has more to do with class than colour. Because of class, they see the Dark Man everywhere, because of what the Dark Man does, Singaporeans see them in the most unflattering ways: living in squalor, living in close quarters like animals in a barn, they have no where to go to do their "leisure" activities but in the small confines of the space they are allowed to exist in. And so they are exposed like puppets on a stage. We can see them, and so we can point at them and make judgments about them.

The White Man lives among us, he works among us, he eats among us, he partakes in his leisure among us. He is free to go anywhere, he does not have to live his entire life among other White Men in Little Europe or Little America. We don't point because we think he is like us and we are like him. Nothing special. (SPGs might defer, but that is another matter) It doesn't help that in our collectively short memories, we remember the White Men being our authority figures, we remember how they strutted about in their white linen shirts in their large bungalows and dining in candlelight at the most expensive and exclusive establishments.

Because of the nobility of that class, we have always associated the White Man with the upper class, but we forget that the Yellow Man was the man in the street, the rickshaw puller, the street hawker, the construction worker. Today we all think we are White because we live almost like the middle class postcolonial and we all ASPIRE to BE that middle class postcolonial.

I think Singaporeans are a lot more racist 40 years after the "race riots" of our post-Independent years than we ever were before. We don't talk about it because we aren't allowed to. The only people who need educating are Singaporeans, not the Persons of Other Nationalities who come here to work on our construction sites. I won't say that I am completely free of prejudice, being a middle class SIngaporean myself, but at least when i have a prejudiced thought, I stop to think about it before I speak. And it is truly ironic that only when people have to co-exist side by side with what they find foreign, and in large numbers, that their prejudices rise to the fore. Xenophobia is nothing but a defensive response to perceived danger borne out of prejudiced fear.