Harmony Day
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Yesterday's Harmony Day and coincides with the UN International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimmination. Couple of weeks leading to the event were some advertisments on television telling people about the sheer diversity of Australia's population.
Get this: 1) Over 200 languages spoken in Australia, 2) Over 43% of Australia's population was born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas, 3) Australia has a net gain of one international migrant every 3 minutes and 51 seconds.
Now that I'm done with the documentary moment, that IS a lot of different people. I applaud the government's stand to eliminate racism and I had several first-hand taste of how vile racist behaviour can be. As small as those incidents were, the bitter taste remained for life.
I counted 3 separate incidents where people yelled from their cars telling me and whoever my group of friends was at that time to "Go back to where you came from!" and then speeding off. Such bigoted cowards. I remembered someone in the group from one of the encounter shrugging it off by telling us, "Sure, we are heading back to Monash right?" I could only muster an uneasy laugh.
Then there was that incident in Brisbane where AO and I were forced to jump away from the zebra crossing when a car surged at us. Immediately after, I heard laughter coming from the car as three Caucasians surfer dudes inside smirked at us.
I personally witnessed eggs being thrown from a bus at some Japanese tourists.
I also saw for a brief moment some kids inside a car throwing ice at my friends in a car park before driving off.
But then, at the same time. I also remembered a kindly elderly couple offering my friends and I a ride to the halls of residence when they saw us struggle with our groceries.
There was also a parade at a festival in Clayton that showcased a variety of cultures within that community. Clayton may not be anything like uptown Toorak or Kew, but the people in that humble suburban town lived in harmony there. I was impressed to see people of various races coming together, wearing the traditional costumes of someone else outside their culture and walking side by side.
I saw an international student struggling to communicate with the cashier in English over some trouble with her credit card. The queue got longer as people behind still waited patiently for the transaction to be done. The poor student looked very embarrassed and a lady behind her told her not to worry and that it must be hard doing all these things alone when she's so far away from home.
I guess as long as you don't intend to live your life as a hermit, you'll meet with the good as well as the bad. It is just a matter of how much hostility runs beneath that calm surface, causing it to ripple and rear its ugly head.
Nevertheless, my stay here makes me realise just how much I'd taken Singapore's racial harmony for granted. History may have told us that it was not the case many decades ago, but I didn't really grasp the full extent of what that really meant at that time. Never in my life did I have to feel this sort of fear. The fear of what might happen to me, as a minority- a foreigner- in this land bursting at its seams with migrants. Would I be discriminated against today? Tomorrow? The next day? As I am part of the majority race (Chinese - 70% of the population) in Singapore, it made me wonder whether the other minority races still feel that way even now. Perhaps they still feel that sense of security when they see someone of their race amongst a sea of Chinese faces nearby? I know I do secretly sigh in relief when I see any Asian people nearby during those days I have to travel alone on the train or bus here.
So anyway kudos to Harmony Day. I'm not sure if it was a big event as there was no ra-ra about it as far as I could remember, but at least it's a tiny step in the right direction to really living in harmony. |
