10 months

I know this was meant to be up yesterday, but time was not on my side…

Happy 10th month, baby.

Here’s a dancey song for you!

Chimps fighting over bananas

Hate begets hate.

How would you feel if someone told you that everything you were was stupid, ugly, and everything you touched would rot?

I don’t often buy the new paper, and when I do, it’s probably to satisfy this need for gossip and scandalous news running amok amongst the aunties of the marketplace. Today I bought a copy and amongst the articles that piqued my interest was a small commentary tucked away deep within the pages titled “Singlish ’sounds like chimps fighting over bananas’”.

The article was written by a youtube frequenter who noted some comments written on PCK (Phua Chu Kang) videos. These were written by a fellow named KaydenKolldy in which he asks “What kind of language is this? It sounds like chatering chimpanzees fighting over bananas. Do Singaporeans speak like this? PS You Asians are (expletive) ugly.” Then repeated this comment on several other videos to which he got replies like “You Australians are (expletive) stupid” or “(expletive) you (expletive). Don’t be a racist douche bag”. Another viewer tried to clarify KaydenKolldy’s understanding  of Singlish by explaining that “This is ‘Singlish’, a kind of English mixed with Hokkien and Malay”. To which the 23 year old Australian replied “Geez, it sounds horrible. You Asians see to rot everything you touch. Languages included.”

Now, I’m not going into how racist this young fellow seems to be, but more about the reactions from both sides. The author is right. Hate begets hate. But I strain to keep my tongue in check when I feel so insulted.

Insult. Why is that? I suppose pride is the source of this. I’m proud to be everything I am today. An ethnic Chinese. A Hainanese. A Singaporean. A woman. An arts student. A medical student. A not-entirely-straight human being. Thousands of people around the world worked hard over centuries for me to be able to stand here today as the person I am, with the culture I have. And to have someone come and spit upon everything I stand for just takes the icing off my cake.

I can’t help but feel like I have to retaliate. Protect this which is my life. I feel like if I just stand by and let comments like these pass, I’m perpetuating a growing trend of racism, sexism, bigotry and discrimination. Perhaps many others in the world feel this way. That we have to put in our comments. Protect what we feel is right. And try to sway these people with our words filled equally with anger and disdain. I feel slightly ashamed to say I do have a sense of gratification when I see these people get soundly beaten up by others in rows upon rows of text and compounded expletives. But at the end of the day, the world is just filled with more words, more shouting, more ****** and less understanding.

One part of me wishes I could come up with a device that can help me see the way others think, understand why they feel the way they do, and why I can’t seem to share the same sentiment. Perhaps the sound of chimps fighting over bananas is in reality the bickering we have over who is right in this war of words. The other part of me wishes I could come up with a machine to eradicate all those discriminatory thoughts from the world.

How would you feel if someone told you that everything you were was stupid, ugly, and everything you touched would rot? I feel pretty damned pissed.