globo.jpgBy Ney Reed

Organic – adj; Relating to natural way a system works; living nature of living things; not synthetic; constitutional in the structure/make up of something; of which source are alive; of which outcomes are alive; unadulterated; natural disposition.

Culture – noun; Comes from from the Latin word colo, -ere, with its root meaning “to cultivate”. Relating to “the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs”(UNESCO); “made up of the following four elements that are passed on from generation to generation by learning alone – values, norms, institutions and artifacts”

Globalization – noun; Relating to the process of growth of a phenomenon, within a native/peripheral unit/system of the universe, into a phenomenon that exists in many or most or every units and systems of the universe

Globalization is not a recent or purely ill phenomenon. In fact the process of Adam and Eve spreading out with their descendents across the globe after landing onto two different locations on earth, will probably constitute the first globalization phenomenon. Since then knowledge, language, religion etc have all globalized throughout time.

What is particularly distasteful and worrisome of the process of globalization today is that it has conservatively shrunk into a process that is predominantly dictated by corporatization, commercialization and commodification of the world with a clear objective to support and promote capitalism. The global outcomes of such have been a re-definition and re-imagination of the world to the extent that humanity’s equilibrium and sustainability have been adversely affected.

The manner by which globalization has displaced Singapore’s organic culture is by disrupting inter-generational learning process that facilitates the inter-generational transfer of values, norms, institutions and artifacts. Hence globalization has replaced the traditional forms of these in Singapore with its neo-American and/or neo-Western equivalent only to displace Singapore organic culture which provides each Singaporean with his/her indigenous identity. Hence today what haunts us is the reality that a Singaporean Indian, Chinese, Malay or Eurasian is no longer a Singaporean Indian, Chinese, Malay or Eurasian respectively.

Singapore’s organic culture

In other words Singapore’s organic culture is the natural constitutional way Singaporeans live which is shaped by the ethnic groups and their own cultures either working independently or through integration. Singapore organic culture is one that allows us to shut down Singapore today and restart it at any time periods say 1450, 1950 or 2950 and only get different time periods Singapore but which are in essence no different from each other.
Globalization unfortunately has broken down this organic culture whereby should our forefathers be brought back from their graves, they will misidentify Singapore to be “an island floating off North America”. This is the nightmare that globalization has forced us to live in.

“The Marxist critic of postmodernism Fredric Jameson argues that American capitalism, in the form of huge multi-national corporations backed by the Western media, is (re)colonizing the world. This ‘coca-colonisation’ of the globe is seen to result in a cultural homogenisation as ‘native’ cultures are swallowed up by Western values.”

One of the most basic and important set of values of Singapore organic culture is family values which have all along been passed inter-generationally through learning. These values be it Chinese, Indian, Malay or Eurasian governed, promoted and gave utmost priority to the processes of creation of family unit, the maintenance and growth of it. The same set of values also laid out strict regulations on the deconstruction of family.

Hence the strongest institution of the Singapore organic culture had always been its fundamental social unit – the family that comes together through another institution, marriage, and grows and multiplies through its traditional, ethnic, religious values and norms. These values included filial piety, pro-family attitudes, pro-creation attitudes etc. The basic assumption members of the organic Singapore family held will be that they are like fingers of a hand moving together and never apart nor alone.

Globalisation’s effect on Singaporean family values

Secularism radicalism, cynical liberalism and commercialization, which are pillars of globalization, have indeed displaced the organic Singapore family through redefining their family values only to induce the Singaporean to be cynical about family, marriage, children and old aged parents and placing more importance on him/herself selfishly than on the collective unit hereby the Singaporean today values marginal benefit more than family benefit. Hence as Karl Marx predicted, family relations have been replaced with money relations.

Today as a result of all this we can observe Singaporeans being relatively more averse than ever before to marry, give birth, live together with a spouse till death do them apart, to be filial to their spouse, live together or look after their parents etc. A generation or two ago these trends will have been unthinkable given the kind of values then.

Because of this we can today observe dysfunctional outcomes in families where literacy and income are high which only used to be specific in lower literacy, low income families ridden with other problems such as alcohol and drugs. National replacement rate having gone way below the natural rate of 2.1 has resulted in us having to depend on immigrants to balance population growth rate so as to preserve economic growth. Divorces rates are amongst the highest of all times and petty reasons for divorce are increasingly becoming common.

The loss of self-identity has given rise to an identity crisis amongst individuals and one of the forms include sexual identity crisis which results in growth of homosexuality or bisexuality. Sexuality that used to be commonly experimented and explored by individuals within the institution of marriage is increasingly being done outside marriage only to contribute to an unprecedented phenomenon of having to protect sexual activity from threatening diseases contagion.

We cannot clumsily discount these trends and observations as modernity since these upset the very equilibrium and sustainability of the family and hence community, society and country.

About the author:

Ney Reed, aged 29, a Singaporean, economist by training, considers himself a conceptual analyst, had been an active participant in public-interests & social-interests dialogue groups, anti-globalization movements and Palestinian human rights lobby in North America during his five years.

Visit Ney’s blog here.

 
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

马国新首相慕尤丁:挑选廉洁、有素质者组阁

马国新任首相丹斯理慕尤丁承诺将会挑选干净、廉洁且有素质的人来组成内阁。 马来西亚在历经上周的政坛风暴后,于周日确定由慕尤丁出任第八任首相。而昨日(2日)在他第一天上班后,首度发表谈话,称目前首要工作即是提升政府的廉洁度,与良好的处理政府事务,包括增强打击贪污滥权的执法力度以及审视相关法令。 “我明白人民想要的是一个干净、清廉且零贪污的政府,我承诺我将会从干净、廉洁且有素质的人当中挑选我的内阁成员。” 慕尤丁说,人民是想要一个能够为人民解决问题的政府。而目前人民最关注的即是生活上的开销、有品质且可负担的医疗服务以及教育制度,同时也是他最关注的问题。 近来疫情肆虐,他呼吁人民照顾卫生,同时向人民保证,对有品质及成本合理的卫生服务保持重视。 此外,他曾担任教育部长长达6年的经验,因此慕尤丁也向人民保证,将致力于提升马国教育水平,确保儿童获得的教育水准能与先进国旗鼓相当。 他强调,如今在他的领导下相信马来西亚能够继续落实2030年共享繁荣的愿景,降低社会中的贫富差距与致力于发展国家经济。 慕尤丁呼吁人民给予他支持,让他肩负这个重大的委托与责任。 “给我机会,用我在政治及政府的40年经验,领导马来西亚走向辉煌。我要为国家献出我的精神及身躯。” “给我一些时间制定政府及国家的主要方向,上苍保佑,我会在近期内向人民解释关于新的施政。”

Some bars and KTVs still operating along Tanjong Pagar Road despite shutdown orders for all public entertainment outlets

According to information TOC received from a reader today (2 April), public…

Political Singlish – OB Markers and Civic Society

By Dr Yuen Chung Kwong – One of the very unique terms…

议员促加强打击不公聘雇歧视问题

人力部自2016年开始,加强打击不公平聘雇现况,目前已将约600家涉及对本国求职者歧视而拒绝招聘的企业列入监督名单,并拒绝了2300个就业准证申请。 昨日(4日),议员安迪(碧山—大巴窑集选区)要求当局提高就业准证的审批标准资格,对此人力部兼国家发展部政务部长扎吉哈在国会表示,为能加强打击不公平聘雇问题,采取削减工作上的优待让企业受到冲击,影响他们的雇佣能力。 安迪:新加坡人的福祉优先 此外,劳资政公平与良好雇佣联盟(TAFEP)则是鼓励企业改善企业文化。据悉,目前许多被列入公平考量框架监督名单的企业已开始聘雇本地专业人员、经理、执行人员和技师(PMET),共3800人。 而原先列入监督名单的610家公司中,其中就有260家企业经调整改善后,脱离监督名单。 另一方面,安迪促请议会应对加强力度打击职场年龄歧视与国籍歧视,他表示,“我们不能持续在缺乏考虑新加坡人的核心福祉下,开放外国人才不断流入,打击他们的工作机会。“ 因此他建议,提高现有3600元的就业准证最低薪金,以及直接公开不遵守公平考量框架的企业名单,以儆效尤。 对此扎吉哈回应,目前获工作准证的员工必须接受定期审查,而最后一次的标准调整则是在2017年。 他举例,3600元的最低工资标准是适用在年轻的毕业生身上,但一名年过40的,有经验的工作准证持有人,应该需要达到更高的标准,甚至是与本地白领阶级平齐。 扎吉哈也表明,政府必须在本地员工与维持我国竞争力中保持“微妙的平衡“,目前大部分工作准证持有者的职位是本地人也可以胜任的。 今年3月,政府公布一份公平考量框架监督名单,该监督名单是在2014年8月研拟,旨在加强以国人为主的劳动力核心,并确保企业在招聘时更公平、优先录用国人。 当时人力部长杨莉明指出,已有350家企业因为未能遵循公平原则录用本地求职者,将其列入公平考量框架监督名单。…