Singapore is a very small country yet it is popular with the variety of races, cultures and languages that comes from many different part of the world. This heterogeneity is what makes Singapore a unique country. However, despite the diversity, people might think that living in a such country that has this many of these races could be problematic too. Since each of the group come from different background, there might be conflicts and tension that occur because of the differences. The question that we may ask is, does a multiracial society will work in this country? In this paper I would like to explore the diversity of Singapore and examine further whether despite of the differences, it will create a harmonious society.
Sir Stamford Raffles
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These different races came rapidly after British establishing their new port in 1819. The majority of the immigrant were Chinese at the time which was 76.8 per cent, according to the 2000 census. The rest of them could be categorized into several ethnic groups; ‘Malay’, ‘Indian’, and ‘Others’. To simplify the complexity of the division, they are categorized under the framework that is commonly known as “CMIO” (Chinese, Malay, Indian, Others). The CMIO is introduced to simplify and basically, to homogenise the diversity of each group, because one race group might include several linguistic communities. For instance, Chinese race consists of Hokkiens, Cantonese, and Teochews. By having this framework, only one language and one culture are represented by one race …show more content…
Considering of the past racial riot that occurred after the separation between Singapore and Malaysia, the government aware that in order to prevent from a racial conflict, the state needs to find a certain approach to unify people that comes from different background. They introduced a policy of multiracialism. Basically, it is a tool for the State to control society and prevent from any unwanted conflict that might happen within society. By having this policy, the State can make sure that even the minority of people will receive the same equal treatment as the majority. Therefore, the State could make sure that the minority do not feel neglected or
Despite what one might see on television and what conglomerates may want people to believe, the roots of multiculturalism and multiracialism are in shallow soil. Change does not come by commercial hype, but rather by an evolving process of change in thoughts, ideas and in the racial equation.
When a country opens its gates for immigrants such as America, a heterogeneous mixture of cultures merges into one whole. To cope with such diversity and attain the best results, the melting pot effect would suit best for America. The melting pot builds and develops an enriched society filled with variety. The diversity can be seen all ar...
Human Service Professionals will work with clients which have all different types of cultural backgrounds. Part of the responsibilities of the human service professional is to learn about the culture through research as well as through asking the client questions so they are aware of the client’s culture. Throughout this paper the following will be discussed African American culture, laws that impact a cultural group; how laws can affect the clients we will be working with, what represents a good and bad law, why multiculturalism and diversity are important for Human Services, and understanding global perspectives in cross-cultural work. I chose to discuss African American culture because the area that I will be moving to has a larger population
In today’s society, it is acknowledgeable to assert that the concepts of race and ethnicity have changed enormously across different countries, cultures, eras, and customs. Even more, they have become less connected and tied with ancestral and familial ties but rather more concerned with superficial physical characteristics. Moreover, a great deal can be discussed the relationship between ethnicity and race. Both race and ethnicity are useful and counterproductive in their ways. To begin, the concept of race is, and its ideas are vital to society because it allows those contemporary nationalist movements which include, racist actions; to become more familiar to members of society. Secondly, it has helped to shape and redefine the meaning of
In reviewing this book, I found one dominant sentence that will sum up all of the research and information presented. That theme is this – “all churches if possible, should be multiracial.” While this is idealistic and at the true core is the purest form of Christianity, the question remains on whether congregations want to be multiracial or not. The United States of America is no longer country dominated by one race. The author research in census data says that “the United States has well over 35 million more people of color in 2000 than it did in 1980.” Statistically these numbers will continue to rise to form an even more racially diverse nation. Racially diversity has its challenges even today in this post-modern era. Schools, offices,
Society is defined as people who live in a specific geographic territory, interact with one another, and share many elements of common culture. Within a society there are many components that make up that society. There is crime, culture, social class, gender, marriage and the family, religion, education, medicine and health care, the political order, etc. However, race and ethnicity has a great and powerful influence in society, and has for many years. On the reverse side, society also influences the different races and ethnicities of people. Race is defined as “a group of people who have been singled out on the basis of real or alleged physical characteristics” (Curry, Jiobu, Schwirian 209). Ethnicity is defined as “common cultural characteristics
Mordecai Richler. These writers are not meant to represent any ethnic group as a whole,
Comparative advantage means that an industry, firm, country or individual are able to produce goods and services at a lower opportunity cost than others which are also producing the same goods and services. Also, in order to be profitable, the number in exports must be higher than the number in import. From the diagram we seen above, Singapore is seen to have a comparative advantage in some services. The services are Transport, Financial, business management, maintenance & Repair and Advertising & Market Research, etc. These export services to other countries improve the balance of payment. On the other side, Singapore is seen to have a comparative disadvantage in some services. The services are Travel, Telecommunications, Computer & Information,
For the purpose of this paper, I will define what the term Diversity means, and then I will concentrate on the diversity as a result of geographic origin or ethnic diversity. I will look at how ethnic diversity is managed generally and then how my employer, deals with the diverse ethnic groups in its organization and what it needs to improve on.
Film critics and audiences have dubbed I Not Stupid an excellent commentary on the education system and government paternalism. The movie stars three school children who have been channelled into the undesirable EM3 stream, and shows the trials and tribulation of these children and their parents. I Not Stupid has been described as a "coming of age movie"1 for its rare ability to criticise the government and its policies and bring pertinent issues to light, so much so that many are surprised that it managed to get past the not-too-kind local board of censors. This presents us with an interesting question - with its explicit references to the government and its blatant criticisms of government policies, how did this political satire get past the censorship board? Was it a case of the censors deciding that this sort of criticism was acceptable once in a while? Or perhaps the censors just saw the movie differently. At first mention, the latter might sound very unlikely. However, if we ask ourselves what the real butt of the satire is, we might begin to realise that there is a possibility that this movie is not intended to be a political satire at all. In fact, it is my contention that the butt of the satire in this movie is the Singaporean mentality, and not the government.
Hefner, R. W. (2001). The politics of multiculturalism: Pluralism and citizenship in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Singapore is an island and a smallest country in Southeast Asia. Singapore is one of the “Four Asian Tigers” where the world major cargo seaport occurs. Despite the small size of the nation, Singapore economy have strong international trade link with capitalist mixed economy when the government intervention in the market is minimal (Economy watch, 2011).
Ethnicity is very diverse in Jamaica. Jamaica’s motto reflects this ‘Out of Many, One People’ (NLJ, n.d.). This is the result of the population coming from many diff...
Ethnicity is when a group of people share the same background, race, culture, norms or values. They live together in closed communities and seek to conserve and protect their cultural and political identities. “Ethnic identity categories, I propose, are a subset of identity categories in which eligibility for membership is determined by descent-based attributes”(Chandra Kanchan;2006;4). Knowing that ethnic diversity means having various ethnicities within the same territory, we have to examine if it preserves the oneness of ...
The class activity was simple: draw a self-portrait. As Ms. Caldera began to look through her students' work, one stood out to her. The drawing was of a young fair-skinned, blond-hair, and blue-eyed girl. Normally this would not be a problem, but in this case it was. The girl who had drawn herself was actually quite the opposite: rich dark skin, brown hair, and brown eyes (Caldera). Considering that the United States is such a large melting pot of cultures, it is normal for children to have difficulty balancing between two cultures. Culture, is really important for a child's development because it ultimately influences their morals and values. Although it is difficult for children to balance the traditions and such of two cultures, they are recompensed with a greater knowledge about the world, and understanding of people.