Q: This is about racism in France again, isn't it?
A: It's more than that. Let's be specific here: it is about police brutality - we saw a very similar case in America where police brutality lead to the death of George Floyd when they literally choked him to death when they tried to arrest him. Of course, such cases of police brutality resulting in serious injury and/or death only affects black and in the case of France, Arab/Muslim men and never white women. The public anger is directed at the French police and against French authority in general, rather than towards white people but they are protesting about institutionalized racism against black, Arab and Muslim people in France by the police. You also need to look at the wider picture about the kind of frustration faced by black and Arab youths in France who face high rates of unemployment and just don't have as bright a future as their white and East Asian counterparts. Hence the killing of Nahel M was just the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Q: Wait what, are you saying East Asian people don't face racism but blacks and Muslims do in France?
A: Oh it's complicated. East Asian people in France did face some racism, particularly during the pandemic when Covid was associated with China. However, in East Asian culture, the Asian parents would punish their kids if they didn't excel at school whilst in the black and Arab communities, the parents really don't care if their kids failed all their exams. The French government is very careful to avoid any kind of census type data gathering activity that will tell us what we already know - that if you are white or East Asian, you're far richer and well educated than those who are black or Muslim. But in the UK, we do have that data and of course, it is the Chinese and the Indian who are far richer than the white people whilst if you're black or Muslim, you're much poorer than the whites. It's not that the East Asians are not subjected to racism in Europe, but East Asians work so hard that you could throw anything at them, including racism and they will still succeed in Europe, but this is another topic for another day about why East Asians are the "model minority".
Q: Why don't the French police use more force to contain the protests like shooting at protestors?
A: The standard answer would be that the police don't want to hurt the young people but the truth is the forces are already stretched as it is. The French government can use every single person in their police force and even mobilize all these armed forces by getting soldiers on the street as well, but the moment you shoot a young teenager looting, more angry poor people would join the violent protests. It is thus a simple matter of mathematics: there are far more poor people in France than there are military, police and other uniformed personnel able to contain them. Shooting the protestors would only escalate the anger amongst the working classes and result in the protests growing so massive to the point the entire France would just descend into complete anarchy. France can only function as a civilized country if the working classes obey the law and not complain about the misery poverty that defines their lives. It is estimated that about 5 million people in France today live in abject poverty, given that the population of France is about 68 million today, that's the bottom 7.35% who are living in poverty. But really, if you take any country in the world and look at the living conditions of the bottom 10%, then they would be living in poverty even in rich countries like Singapore, USA and Norway. By that token, the problem that France faces isn't unique - if all 5 million who are living in poverty decide to revolt and attack those who have more money than them in France, there isn't enough resources to contain such a revolt. Thus the French government are held ransom by the fact that using more force with the protestors would only make more poor, working class French people join the protests and right now, their aim is to stop the protests, not make them bigger and that is why the authorities are showing a lot of restraint. And so, that means the looters are going to get away with it.
Q: So you talk about the bottom 7.35% but what about the rest of French society then - the 88.65%?
A: They are very angry at what is happening because there is a sense of, oh shit, not again. The vast majority of French people, this 88.65% are hardworking, normal French people who wake up in the morning, go to work to provide for their families and would never ever dream of looting or rioting. They live in fear of these rioters and would want to see these riots end as soon as possible, so life can go back to normal in France. The majority of French people don't deserve this, they are not the cause of the problem - yet they are bearing the brunt of the violence when the rioters destroy their cities.
Q: Yes, but why are the French protests so violent?
A: Well I have two ways of answering this. The first answer is that polite protests don't work in reality - I have participated in a lot of such polite protests where you get a permit to protest, you walk around the city on an approved route. Some reporters may show up but if there's nothing dramatic happening, then you're unlikely to get much media coverage or attention. The government then says, there we have let you have your saw, now fuck off and shut up - does anything change as a result of such polite protests? Nope, absolutely nothing is achieved and nothing changes. It's a very white, middle class thing to join a climate change protest and shout things like, "listen to Greta!" But in reality, we all know that such polite protests achieve absolutely nothing and it's a form of moral masturbation where people do it and then post on their social media, "see? I joined a protest today and waved a sign, look how much I care about this cause!" I have been just as guilty of doing that as a rich, middle class, liberal Londoner. Violent, disruptive protests at least make the government sit up, take notice and forces them to react - they also draw a lot more media attention to the root cause of the problem in a way a polite protest never will. This is why groups like Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion have resorted to more and more radical and disruptive ways to protest in order to get that media attention as they really want to achieve something more than moral masturbation on social media. They want to do something about climate change rather than just tell the world how holy they are - therein lies the difference. But in Paris, the rioters looted high end stores including the flagship Nike store in Forum Les Halles - were these young people looting to make a statement about the problem of police brutality in France? Of course not, these are criminals who have taken advantage of the situation to start looting and at this point, there is no political purpose to the protests - they are merely confirming to ordinary French citizens, "see? This is what the blacks and Muslims do, give them half an excuse and they will go rampaging through the streets so this is why the police are totally justified in their use of force when dealing with blacks and Muslims in France."
Q: Why are the protestors so bold? Don't they fear the consequences of such criminal actions?
A: There is a generation of youth in France (and in other parts of Europe including the UK) who have no hope for the future - they come from poor, disadvantaged, working class families and the odds have been stacked against them from the start. They have nothing to lose is they are caught and are thrown in jail. Someone who is applying to a top university or for a job with a prestigious company might think, if I get a criminal record for looting, that would adversely affect my application. But if these people are only going to be doing the worst paid jobs in society or live on social welfare, then they have absolutely nothing to lose if they get arrested looting. So they might gain some expensive goods that they would never be able to afford if they went looting, but if they get caught, they really don't care either and that is a really grim reflection on how these young (mostly black, Arab and Muslim) people really have no future in France. Let me give you an example of something I witnessed recently in London to illustrate my point. I was at my local Korean supermarket when a group of black youths about 15 or 16 years old walked in - they were wearing face masks which I found odd, as nobody wears face masks anymore in London, especially not young people. There was the drinks cabinet near the front door and they each grabbed something from there - then they ran out of the front door laughing, knowing that the cashier would not abandon her post to pursue them. Given that they were literally holding one canned drink in each hand and none of the drinks from that cabinet were alcoholic, what they had stolen was of such low value. It was the typical kind of green tea or fruit juice based soft drink; yet these black youths felt like that had so little in life to look forward to that the thrill of stealing a soft drink in broad daylight made that act worth it - they never thought, "if I get caught by the police, I'd get a criminal record and it will affect my future when I wanna apply for my dream job." These black youths have no future to look forward to - they look at the adults in their families and communities and realize that the adults are either in very poorly paid jobs or long-term unemployed. That's why they behave like that when they feel they don't have a future.
Q: Why are things so bad for these black and Arab people then? Is it racism?
A: It's not that straightforward, so we need to be more specific. It is the legacy of racism rather than racism per se today. Black and Arab people are not indigenous to the UK or France, they came as immigrants as part of the history of colonialism. So the black people in these countries are either descendants of slaves or they came after WW2 to work in very low-skilled poorly paid working class jobs, so these people were never seen as a part of mainstream society per se, but often just as a source of cheap labour. So in France for example, if a migrant worker from Mauritania or Senegal (former French colonies) comes to work in France, they do so because they know they can earn a lot more in France compared to back in Mauritania or Senegal. So even if they are doing some awful, working class poorly paid jobs, they are still very grateful for the opportunity to do that and earn more money. That worked rather well at first but then these migrant workers settled down in France and the UK, they had children who grew up as French or British citizens but these second generation migrants have different expectations and aspirations - they went to school with white students and thought, wait a minute, why should I be content to do these terrible working class jobs for a live in poverty? For their parents, they accepted that fate in life because the alternative was always, "well if I went back to Africa, then I would be a lot worse off, so even though I am earning peanuts in France, I should be very grateful." But for the next generation who were born in France, the concept of 'go back to Africa' or 'go back to where you came from' just doesn't exist as they are from France - that's where they were born, grew up, spent all of their childhood; so this next generation are the ones who are not content going down the same road as their parents, doing the same working class, poorly paid jobs. But when your parents are working class and not that educated, then these second generation migrants already have all the odds stacked against them from the moment they were born - how the hell are they supposed to compete against white kids from wealthy families who were given every privileged whilst growing up? Thus the playing field is not level at all, that's why you end up with these black teenagers who would steal some cheap drinks from a Korean supermarket for a laugh.
Q: You seem quite insistent to remind us that those kids who stole the drinks at the Korea supermarket were black - why can't you just accept that it could be Asian or white delinquents who commit the same crime?
A: That's because race and racism has become such a taboo subject in our society that nobody dares to even mention it as if simply by talking about it would make them racist. We can't talk about the problem of police brutality without bringing race into the conversation, so we cannot ignore the fact that George Floyd was black or that Nahel M was Arab. But if you want to talk about why racial profiling is such a problem with the police then you have to look at the underlying cause of such prejudices and we have to look at why the police view black and Arabs/Muslims with suspicion - this is not just a simple case of white people hating blacks or Muslims, but you simply cannot ignore the fact that far more crimes are committed by blacks and Muslims in the UK and France. This is a vicious cycle, so the police become more suspicious of blacks and Muslims as they have dealt with far more black criminals than white criminals, each time someone like me witnesses a crime committed by a black person the stereotypes are reinforced - then we have a case like Nahel M and things get worse as the relations between the police and those marginalized communities deteriorate further and further.
Q: What is the solution to break this vicious cycle then?
A: Look, if there was a simple solution, we wouldn't have such a massive problem in France in the first place so I don't want to talk as if I have a solution - I don't. What I can say is that one of my best friends is French-Algerian, his parents was one of those migrant workers who moved from Algeria to the city of Lyon in the 1970s to do some really awful, working class jobs because that was still better than the kind of abject poverty they faced in rural Algeria. He was born in 1976 and went to school in France, he got very little help from his parents as they weren't educated at all, they even struggled with the French language as they mostly spoke Arabic at home. Nonetheless, despite having all the odds stacked against him, my friend excelled at school, made it to a top French university where he read economics. Upon graduation, he worked for a German bank before spending 11 years in America with another company, he now runs his own company; he is a success story of how French-Algerian kids can grow up to work in investment banking and become ridiculously rich. He is able to provide for his elderly parents now to ensure that they live in comfort today, so his parents can say, "we moved from Algeria to France to give our children a better future and thanks to Allah, everything had worked out fine - our son has made us very proud, he has achieved so much and we are very grateful." That is the kind of success story that is quite rare, unfortunately. I relate to this guy and we get along very well as there is this mutual respect, we both recognize how hard it is to struggle against the odds in a poor working class family to succeed in this industry and that's why we are now keen to work together, to help each other. Hence it is entirely possible for these second generations to become extremely rich and successful, but that is the exception rather than the norm in places like France and the UK. In my friend's case, I can't seem to pinpoint what exactly helped him succeed, apart from the fact that he has won the genetic lottery in being so much more intelligent than all his peers - he is an absolutely amazing guy.
Q: But why are so many children of migrants not successful and rich like your friend then?
A: Hindsight is always 2020: the French and the British made the mistake of exploiting the migrant workers in the 1960s and 1970s - these were migrants from very poor former colonies who were only too grateful to have the opportunity to do these working class jobs for very little money. So the governments were like, great these people are cleaning our gutters with a big smile on their faces, we now have a source of cheap labour. What they should have done was offered these people more help in educating their children - there was the thinking of, there's no point in paying these people any more money, they won't spend it locally or even on their own children, they are just going to send all that money back home. So the government should have given all these children of migrant workers lots of extra help in school, making sure that a lot of money was spent on their education. Rather than giving their parents more money and hoping that they would spend it on their children's education, the state should have intervened by directed investing heavily in the children of these migrant workers by giving them an excellent education, thus allowing them to assimilate a lot more quickly. But due to overt racism, the governments then just assumed that the children of migrant workers will be equally content doing these working class jobs for very little money and accept their place in society as second class citizens, forever being a source of cheap labour to be exploited. So that clearly wasn't going to be the case now we have second and third generation children of migrant workers who were born in France and are demanding a brighter future. Such major problems are like cancer: it is a lot easier to treat cancer if it is detected in the early stages. But if you go to the specialist when you have ignored the symptoms for years only for it to develop into late stage terminal cancer, at that stage, even the best doctor in the world would struggle to do anything for you and I'm afraid that in France, successive French governments have ignored this problem for too long and with each passing year, it has become harder and harder to fix.
Q: Would celebrating the success stories like that of your friend be part of the solution?
A: In principle yes but he now lives in tax exile in Dubai. Sorry but he take a look at the France that he has left behind and thought, I don't want to pay so much in tax to fix this mess - so he left. After his stint in America, he moved to Dubai and didn't want to return to France. I don't blame him, he didn't cause this problem in the first place so why should we expect people like him to fix it? I spoke to him about the situation in France at the moment, he is disappointed about the way these young black and Arab youths in France are reacting - so in Lille for example, they looted and burned down a local clinic that the government built to provide free healthcare to poor working class people in an impoverished area. They weren't attacking the luxury boutiques that served the rich, they were destroying the local infrastructure that the poorest people in their society depended on. There is a total mindlessness to this kind of wanton violence - the French authorities stopped all public transport in the evening to prevent the rioters from moving too far across the cities to cause trouble, so what they ended up doing was smashing up anything and everything on their doorstep but that meant destroying infrastructure like bus stations, schools, clinics and other things that poor, local, working class people depended on. He called such actions downright stupid and I agree - that's like cutting off your nose to spite your face. If these people wanted to loot the Apple store to steal expensive phones and laptops then I can see why a very poor working class person would do that as they would never be able to afford such luxuries. But then if they burn down a local clinic, then what the hell do they get out of it? They next time they need to see a doctor, they realized, oh shit I shouldn't have burned down the local clinic, now we need to travel a lot further to see a doctor. Yes there is a lot of anger in this community but these young people who are out rioting are mostly just teenagers and they don't have a plan, they're not thinking this through, they have no idea what they want to achieve by destroying local infrastructure in their own communities. So you can see why my friend looked at this and thought, fuck this shit I'm moving to Dubai, au revoir.
Q: Do other countries provide a better model than the French/British way of doing things?
A:Well let's contrast that to what happens in Dubai and Singapore where migrant workers doing working class jobs are not entitled to citizenship no matter how long they have worked there. So these migrant workers simply retire and go back to their countries of origin after working many years there or find a third country to settle down in for their retirement. I know this lady who has a Tanzanian passport - she was born in Dubai, grew up there, she is working there now but is going to retire in a few years. Thankfully, she is rather rich so she will move to somewhere like Thailand and enjoy her retirement there as she isn't interested in living in Tanzania. It seems callous to cast out your migrant workers once they stop working but such is the way it is done in Dubai and Singapore. They simply get a new generation of migrant workers to replace the old ones and these migrant workers have no route to residency or citizenship - unlike in France and the UK, where the immigration laws are a lot more relaxed. That's why there are no riots in Dubai or Singapore, as they have successfully created a class of migrant workers who have no right to complain and are very grateful to be working long hours under the hot sun for very little money. So the French/British system has not worked as evident from the riots today, but the Singaporean/Dubai system can be criticized for being too harsh - is there a compromise between the two?
Q: But why is the root cause of all this discontent in France now?
A: Let's take a step back and look at the capitalism that defines the French economy, like so many other countries in the world - let's take a typical factory for example. There will be one big boss who is the CEO or MD, then you will have a few more positions which are on the next tier, like the CFO, COO, CTO or anyone else who is chief of a certain function. Then on the third tier, you might have some more middle level managers who supervise those who are on the fourth tier - these are the workers on the factory production line and so we have this pyramid shaped structure with very few well paid jobs at the top of the pyramid and plenty of poorly paid jobs at the bottom of the pyramid. Hence the basic problem is that if everyone wants well paid jobs at the top of the pyramid, there just isn't enough of that kind of job for everyone and so most people would end up with poorly paid jobs closer to the bottom of that pyramid. Thus there is intense competition for the good job at the top of the pyramid and the only way you're going to get a job there is if you're amongst the best of the best - that means having a really great education to prove how brilliant you are or having the right kind of connections to use nepotism to get one of those great jobs. You're never going to have an economy where everyone is very highly paid, that just doesn't exist. Even in a place like Singapore where people are generally very well educated, there just isn't enough highly paid senior jobs for all the graduates so you have the phenomena of some graduates doing jobs that they are grossly overqualified for, such as when a graduate fails to find a job that enables him to use his training, technical skills and education and thus he ends up driving a taxi. The only alternative model is that of Norway, whereby even those in working class jobs like bus drivers are paid relatively high salaries on par with what we would consider a professional job - the Norwegian government does this to keep the working classes very happy and so they would never riot and protest despite having to do working class jobs. Norway's economy is uses capitalism, it's just that they have inflated the wages of the working classes to create more social cohesion and that's Norwegian style socialism.
Q: So would you support more Norwegian-style socialism to cure the ills of capitalism?
A: Not really, Norway is only able to get away with this because they have vast oil reserves and so they can use some of the oil revenues to top up the wages of people like bus drivers so a bus driver can earn as much as an engineer or a lawyer. France doesn't have oil reserves the way Norway has, so there is just no way France can do what Norway did. Thus in a country like Singapore where there aren't any natural resources like oil or minerals, they need to educate, innovate and work hard to add value to earn money. That's why the Singaporean education system is so demanding, they don't have the luxury to do what Norway does. Norway is a unique and interesting case study of course, but the conditions that allows Norway to implement this approach successfully aren't found elsewhere. So we can't say, let's do what they do in Norway, because we're facing very different conditions in our own countries. I don't like the Norwegian system either - I have a Norwegian friend who left Norway years ago, he worked at a government department and he was a well-educated, professional guy. Yet he was fed up with being paid as much as a bus driver there given how ridiculously inflated the salaries of the working class are in Norway, so he eventually left Norway and came to work in London. According to him, Norway is great if you're quite stupid and end up with a job like a postman or bus driver - you're a dumb working class guy earning a really good salary, that's just pure luck. But if you're a graduate with ambitions, you end up looking at the system and thinking, "why aren't I rewarded for all my hard work? Fuck this - I'm leaving Norway, the Norwegian system sucks. I'm better off in London." So Norway is great for some, but not for others.
Q: What will happen next in France?
A: Like so many times before, the riots and protests will run out of steam eventually. There was originally some support for the rioters as there was public anger over the issues of police brutality. But when the rioters attack local businesses, schools, bus stations and other facilities that have absolutely nothing to do with the police or government, that's when the tide of public opinion will eventually turn against the rioters. All French people agree that the shooting of Nahel M was a tragic event that should never be repeated ever again, but most agree that this kind of wanton violence solves nothing and has to stop. Thus in a few days, the protests will eventually die a natural death - what will be interesting to see would be the consequences of those who have been arrested. Thousands have been arrested for looting and rioting, but would they be let off the hook or will they be thrown in jail? Things will go back to normal after a few weeks until the next incident of police brutality will trigger the next round of riots. This is a problem that they will kick back into the long grass.
Q: Should I cancel my trip to France in light of the current situation?
A: No, you don't have to because the worst of the riots is over. Things will go back to normal fairly quickly. Those tourists who were in France over the last few days have had their holidays ruined of course, but if you are still booked to travel to France in July - please be assured that you'll experience very minimal disruption to your travel plans in the coming days.
Q: Finally, do you blame president Emmanuel Macron for his handling of this crisis?
A: No, I don't. He inherited a system that was already in such a mess after over seven decades of France exploiting migrant workers from their former colonies as a source of cheap labour. It is unreasonable to expect him to somehow just snap his fingers and solve it all so it is unfair to blame him for not solving a problem that he didn't cause in the first place.
So that's it from me on this topic, I could go on of course but I really wanted to post this before this episode in French history is finally over and people eventually move on from this. Please leave a comment below, many thanks for reading.
Hey Alex. Interesting topic about racism where you compare the East Asian immigrant experience vs. the African and Middle Eastern immigrant experience in France. I was just thinking, what is it about being an East/South Asian (immigrant or otherwise, working class or otherwise too), where if you enter a school or workplace environment where you are the only Asian in a room of white people, your default reaction is not to assume there is some type of conspiracy to exclude people like yourself. I have 3 coworkers right now at the law firm I work at, and they are all white men. My first reaction is not "oh there is a conspiracy to exclude women and Asians at this place, I must not be welcome." Instead I think "the pay is pretty good, the hours are good, and I'd like to succeed at the work and get along with my coworkers." One could argue I did not grow up working class, and I have a lot in common with the rich white men who like playing golf, but there's still many East Asians who grew up working class who have a similar attitude to work, yourself included. Anyway, in contrast, when I talk to black or Latino, or even working class white Americans, if they're in a room with only middle class/rich white people, their first reaction is literally "oh I don't feel welcome here, there's nobody like me. I can't relate to anyone." I previously had a white working class labmate who told me "oh my parents are blue collar, I have a working class accent. They don't want to see someone like me succeed." In contrast, I know a Chinese Malaysian professor who grew up working class and did his PhD in America, and he couldn't care less when he had to work with only middle class/rich white people, or even rich Asians. He was just focused on doing well in his career and attaining social mobility, which he eventually did. He wasn't worried people won't like or understand his very heavy Chinese accent, or look down on what his parents do, etc. I dunno if it's because the concept of social mobility is just so baked into Chinese/Indian culture that they think the only thing stopping them from succeeding is themselves. So they just work hard, try to be nice to everyone, and hope for the best. Meanwhile, other cultures focus more on structural barriers, which exist, but the downside of too much of this thinking is that it can cause someone to become hopeless, and also extricates any element of personal responsibility for one's success/failures.
ReplyDeleteAnother observation I have that I think gives working class Asians an edge, is confidence about being working class. I noticed the way the Chinese-Malaysian prof revealed to me he grew up working class and the way my white labmate revealed it to me were extremely different. For the prof, he proudly revealed he grew up working class but worked so hard in his career to attain social mobility, and he also told me I'm a spoiled rich kid who had it much easier. That's also kinda similar to how you reveal you grew up poor but became rich, and also tell me off when I say something dumb haha. Anyway, in contrast, my white labmate was almost embarrassed and very reluctant to reveal he grew up working class and his parents are blue collar. Like, I don't understand why Asians feel less bad about growing up working class compared to other cultures, but it definitely gives them a leg up because confidence goes a long way in life.
Hi Amanda, very good points and allow me to offer some answers: now these are just some possibilities and there's no one size fits all answer for such a complex issue and different reasons may apply on a case by case basis. But to begin with, I think that there's a sense of "ignorance is a good thing" - many East Asian immigrants are blissfully unaware of class based discrimination. Even if the racism is real, being blissfully unaware of it means that it is less likely to affect you and even if you do encounter it, it will take you by surprise rather than confirm the fact that it is genuinely a problem. Let me give you an analogy - Anna and Betty went on holiday together to Costa Rica during the rainy season. Anna is like me, she likes geography and studied the rainfall patterns of Costa Rica before going and she was worried that heavy rain would ruin her holiday. So every time, she sees clouds in the sky she gets her umbrella and raincoat out, hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Betty on the other hand is totally ignorant of the geography of Costa Rica - all she knows is that it is going to be hot and sweaty, but she has no other information. Guess who is going to have more fun there, guess who is going to be more stressed out by the weather in Costa Rica? Sometimes not knowing what you're up against is a good thing if you're going to be facing it regardless - it's not that Betty doesn't have an umbrella or raincoat, but she is simply not worried about whether or not it rains or no unlike Anna, who is so focused on it despite the fact that it is going to rain whether she likes it or not, there's nothing Anna can do to prevent it from raining.
DeleteThe other reason is the 'good luck charm' placebo effect. Now I'm sure you have met people who have either a good luck charm (such as a childhood momento) or they may have a certain ritual that they have to do before a performance or an exam in order to bring good luck. Now we know that good luck doesn't exist, if you wanna do well for the exam, either you've studied hard (in which case you're going to do well) or you didn't (then you're definitely gonna do badly). Luck has nothing to do with it. But in the case of East Asians, we treat our straight A report cards from school as our collective good luck charm that we take with us through life - like we don't even need to show it to others or ourselves, we know that we have earned those straight As so we have that 'good luck charm' effect for the rest of our lives. That's why a working class East Asian may enter a white dominated upper/middle class work environment and think, I'm nothing like them but I have my good luck charm to get me through this, I'll be fine. Contrast this to someone who simply gives up at the first hurdle and thinks, "I have nothing in common with them, they're gonna reject me and hate me." Having the right attitude is such an important first step and if East Asians are going to use this good luck charm placebo effect to get them through this difficult first step, then I say, that's a good thing. It's not about creating your own luck, it's simply believing that you have a fighting chance to succeed like everyone else instead of just giving up before you even try.
Yeah if you tell people "racism exists, it will affect you for your whole life and you won't get ahead", then people won't try. But racism is very complex, and I have a feeling that most of it is unintentional and that when someone gets to know someone else form a different community, then they'll change their mind. It's like how LGBT people were thought of as not welcome in mainstream society only 20 years ago, but after many mainstream TV shows and movies (Glee, Community, Modern Family, etc.), that slowly changed. It took some really bold filmmakers to say "people will like us if they just see we're human", and put out a show like Glee and hope it becomes mainstream.
DeleteOh that good luck charm is spot on. Both the Chinese Malaysian prof and my white working class labmate had good grades in high school, which lead to both of them getting a full scholarship for undergrad. But only one of them proudly reveals it, while the other doesn't. Like are his white parents not proud of his grades and scholarship? As an Asian, I don't get it... Okay, the white guy likes to complain about "Fraternities", which are gentleman's clubs with expensive yearly membership fees at universities. But the 2nd generation working class Asian who goes to university couldn't give less of a shit about not affording fraternities/sororities, they only care about their own performance and future career. I consider this white guy my friend, but focusing too much on what other people have that you don't is very detrimental to succeeding. It's like, "so what if they have more money? What can you do TODAY to benefit you?" Actually I do have one 2nd generation working class Asian labmate too. He proudly revealed he was in the gifted program in primary school, he did well on his high school grades, and got a full scholarship, etc. He has more belief in his own abilities even if he knows rich kids have nepotism and more resources on their side. And he's not as scared to talk to me even though I grew up rich, in fact his boyfriend is a white guy who grew up rich. I think it might be the parents, his Asian parents pushed him to attain social mobility, while the white guy's parents don't even know what he does.
Correct - so let's stay with Anna and Betty in Costa Rica. The hotel reception tells them that there's a big Sunday market in the town square which is worth visiting - cheap street food, loads of local handicrafts and just a fun experience overall. Anna thinks, but what if we get there and it starts raining given that we are in the rainy season now? Perhaps we shouldn't go. Betty doesn't know it is the rainy season, she looks out of the window - it looks quite cloudy but it isn't raining so she thinks, oh well let's just go anyway and chance it. So Anna might not even bother to try to go to the market but Betty will and if she gets soaked in the thunderstorm, okay, she gets wet but at least with her attitude (based on her ignorance of the rainy season), she will try to go to have a good time at the market in the town square and there's a chance that she gets lucky, it doesn't rain (or it rains only a little) and she has a great time whilst in not even leaving the hotel, Anna is not even going to get to experience any of that.
DeleteAs for the lucky charm, it's a classic case of the placebo effect playing a massive role to make sure that you are in the right frame of mind to succeed.
This "Anna" character sounds like a very pessimistic fearful person. But if she's been rained on a lot then it makes sense. It also makes me wonder, is it the fact that Asia has very low crime and incarceration rates that the working class Asians don't feel overtly discriminated against in their childhood and teen years by "authority"? When you mention that black and Arab people in France have run ins with the police, or that black working class teens will steal from an Asian market in London, you hardly hear of any working class Asians teens doing that, whether in the west or Asia. That white working class labmate told me some of his high school batch were involved with drugs in high school, and became drug addicts or incarcerated in adulthood. Some of them message him on Facebook occasionally to ask for money for rehab. So for him, the stereotype he faces in America is that of a drug addicted/alcoholic redneck. But the two working class Asians I know had no such exposure to criminal activities growing up. They were poor, but their neighborhood was otherwise safe and every other Asian kid was busy studying instead of getting into trouble. There seems to be less of a stereotype against poor Asians compared to poor people of other races, including white people.
DeleteWell actually, I confess I've been a lot more like Betty when I was younger. Let me give you an example - I didn't think about what to expect in NS, I just went into it with little information and a lot of optimism that I'm tough, I'm smart, I'll be fine etc. But I had to do it regardless of whether I went into that experience like Anna (oh shit, I've done my research, the conditions are terrible, I'm going to hate it) or Betty (who knew very little). Sometimes ignorance is a good thing especially if it turns you into Betty who heads on out to the Sunday market in town without even looking at the weather forecast. She takes a cursory look out of the window and thinks, it's kinda cloudy but it's not raining so I'll take my chances. If I had researched on all the factors that could and would hold me back as an openly gay, Asian immigrant in the UK, then I would have realized that the odds are so stacked against me I'd be discouraged from trying but if I was like Betty, unaware of the dangers and risks - then I'm the equivalent of Betty heading out to the Sunday market in the town square and having a brilliant day there on the one sunny day during the rainy season against all odds. Like she wasn't supposed to have a good time but she did - kinda like me in London.
DeleteThere's something else about my experience which is similar to all East Asian migrants in the West, there's a saying in Chinese which translates to "a good horse doesn't turn around and eat the same patch of grass twice." Not gonna bother writing it out in Chinese as you can't read that and Choaniki knows exactly what that saying is (it's so used, it's almost a cliche). But it means that someone in my position would never do a U-turn and say, London isn't working out, I made a mistake and am returning to Singapore as I was better off there. No, instead, I'm a 'good horse' thus I will not turn around like that, I'll never go back to the patch of grass that I've grazed on in the past as that would be an admission that I've made a poor judgment call. Thus based on this 'good horse' mentality, I'll do whatever it takes to make sure that I become super rich and successful in London so I can prove to the folks back home that I'm the horse who has made a good judgment call and that the grass is indeed a lot greener in Europe than in Singapore. We do this as we're Asian, we don't wanna lose face by admitting that we've made a bad judgment call, so we'll do whatever it takes to make sure that our decision to move to the West is the right one by working so hard to become mega rich and successful in the West. Again, a cultural quirk about being Asian but it does help motivate us to succeed here in the West.
Delete@Amanda, having previously worked in a majority foreigner (50% of one nationality) I can tell you that tribalism is a thing. We see it not only in healthcare but IT and finance (SG especially). So when your colleagues refuse to speak English in front of you or regularly don't invite you to gatherings this might be unintentional but the result will be the same. When it is time for promotions (or limited training spots) you are not going to be selected, period.
DeleteDo what I do, leave the environment. That is the only thing we can control. We don't ask God to change the weather for us, do we?
@LIFT and the Mandarin adage 好马不吃回头草 is better translated as: 'a good horse doesn't turn back to eat grass'. If you actually listen to the origin of the phrase it is simply due to the fact good horses run very fast and cover so much ground that it doesn't have the time to turn around to eat grass but is always facing and running forward.
DeleteAnd FYI, for an additional Mandarin lesson, there is a 2nd half to the adage of 好马不吃回头草 and that is 浪子回头金不换. This roughly translates to: "a prodigal son turning back cannot be swapped with gold".
DeleteThis concept is diametrically opposed to the first half of the adage. Basically it is trying to advise someone that if you recognise you are on a wrong path in your life/relationship, etc. It is never too late to turn back to the correct path/change your ways/relationships.
Citation: https://www.sohu.com/a/634723893_121446157
Hey Alex, yeah you're right there's a huge element of "face" in Asian culture where people don't want to fail, but the concept of enduring hardship to succeed is also highly emphasized in Asian culture. So these two aspects of not wanting to return empty handed and the expectation of having to "eat bitterness" to succeed synergize well together to make Asians more tough in the face of adversity. Of course it causes other issues like mental health problems, but otherwise it's great for winning at capitalism. My Asian American labmate sometimes says he does feel like a minority when he is the only working class person in the room, but because he already worked so hard to get where he is, he's not gonna give up just because of short term inconveniences. And his parents would throw a hissy fit if he did, since they already invested a lot in his education. In contrast the white labmate's parents wouldn't mind if he returned to his hometown and got a local job as a plumber or electrician if he felt uncomfortable in a white collar setting and wanted to be around working class people for his mental health. Such attitude would never exist in Asian culture. Asians are like "make money first, then you can live wherever you like and be friends with whoever."
DeleteDid you not research any part of the UK before going there on a full scholarship for uni? Even if you didn't, I would think it worked out great because the UK gives you more rights as an LGBT person than Singapore, while also giving more economic opportunities. And there's highly international cuisine in London so you don't have to eat only one type of food.
On the contrary, I was fascinated with the UK before I had even set foot there. Growing up, being the geek that I was, I consumed an insane number of books, magazines, films, TV programmes etc about the UK to the point where I had a Wikipedia worthy amount of knowledge in my head about British culture. Like I pride myself at being a sponge when it comes to knowledge and sometimes with my husband and I, we have a private joke. Someone would make an obscure reference to something in British culture in the 1980s and I'd know what it is but he wouldn't. I'd then turn and look at him and say, "are you an immigrant? Did you not live in this country in 1987?" So I often joke that I'm more British than him because he was born here, he grew up here whereas I had gone to ridiculous lengths to assimilate and become so much more British than British people like him who were born here (the fact that I am more Welsh than the Welsh people by speaking their language better than them proves my point).
DeleteMy point is simple: I'm a scholar from Singapore. We are freaking wizards when it comes to research and absorbing an INSANE amount of information about any given topic. So in response to your question, yes I was more British than the British people here before I even set foot in London for the first time given the amount of information I have in my head. Yes I'm very smart, but of course you knew that already Amanda.
But here's the thing about researching about a country like the UK - you can pick and choose your case studies. Imagine going to a Tripadvisor review of a hotel, there are 1000 reviews for that hotel and some are 5-star reviews about the best experience ever and some are the total opposite, 1-star reviews of how this is the nastiest hotel in the world. What do you do in this case? Do you read the 5-star reviews and assume that you'll have an experience like those who left those 5-star reviews or do you read the very worst ones to find out what the worst case scenario would be like in that hotel should you stay there?
Part 2 coming up below.
Thus by the same token, if we were to take the United Kingdom for example and look at the experiences of immigrants here - there are some success stories and then there are those who were utterly miserable after they moved here. And there's everything in between. I studied everything and was aware of what I was getting into, but there's something really obvious of course we have to take into account - if you're super intelligent and highly skilled, then your chances of succeeding as an immigrant here are very, very high. But if you came here as a refugee and can't even speak English, then the odds are totally stacked against you. So you can't compare the experiences of say a Malaysian plastic surgeon who moves to the UK vs that of a Somalian refugee who doesn't speak a word of English - what I did was simple: I made the assumption that I was as intelligent if not a lot more intelligent than the best of the best amongst the cohort of immigrants and thus made the assumption that of course I'm going to succeed in the UK. I gave myself the luxury of ignoring the plight of how Somalian refugees suffer in the UK as I'm nothing like them. I don't mean to be unsympathetic or rude about them, but they don't have the skills to make a good living in the UK. Thus I have been extremely selective in terms of the case studies that I would compare myself to and you could say that I chose to see what I wanted to see and ignored what some people may have thought were legitimate concerns that could've applied to me (eg. homophobia or racism). The fact is, if I was going to encounter some form of discrimination, it was gonna happen anyway whether or not I assumed it would never happen to me or I lie awake at night worrying non-stop about it. I hope that explains my take on the situation - I have assumed it would never happen to me and thus I spare myself the agony of lying awake at night worrying about the worst case scenario. It's a bit like when I did this AirBNB in Spain - it was a lovely apartment in an apartment block and I could've been up all night worrying if the neighbours would disturb my sleep in the middle of the night (such is the nature of an apartment block) or I could just give them the benefit of the doubt, not worry about it when I go to bed and que sera sera.
DeleteHence my attitude when I went to bed in that AirBNB in Spain is me being 'Betty' - it's not so much "ignorance is bliss" but more like "I'm going to go out and try to make the best of my experience, if it rains, tough shit, I get wet but it's not going to stop me from going out today and making the best of my opportunity here."
DeleteOh I was about to ask why you picked the UK specifically. I originally thought it was because of a teacher in high school who helped you apply to UK universities for scholarships, but it seems you've done your research beforehand. Lol at the "are you an immigrant?" To your husband. I read a lot about American history too, and when I talk to some of my American friends they're like "even I didn't know that about America, are you sure you're an immigrant? How do you know all these obscure laws?" Wow you must've passed the British citizenship exam with flying colors, they've got some really obscure questions there even the locals don't know the answer to.
DeleteI'm looking at apartments right now and I'm shocked at how inaccurate some 1 star reviews online can be. Some of them are like "they let homeless people sleep in the hallways", when you can't even get into the building without a keycard and app in a luxury apartment. I was even reading the reviews people put online about cities because I'm trying to move to a bigger city. I just concluded that when people say things like "expensive", or "can't find a job", that doesn't really apply to me since I already have a remote job which lets me afford most places to live. And I can afford to get a bigger place further away from the city center because I don't need to commute.
Your point about assuming you were going to slot into the top 20% of Brits, that takes a lot of confidence. I get very surprised when non Asian working class people assume their experience will be the same as their working class parents. It sounds like an extreme case of impostor syndrome. But like you said there's 3 groups of people whose fate seem predictable, rich with low IQ, rich with high IQ, and poor with low IQ. It's the last group, poor with high IQ where things are extremely variable. I think in the non Asian working class communities, there's also a sense of people hating you for "escaping", because it implies you think you're better than them. There is no such thing in working class asian communities, in fact they feel proud when one of their own has done better than them.
@Amanda, may I ask why you chose US of A? Is it simply because of the 'American dream' or did you already have an existing network there?
DeleteI am now researching on places to GTFO to since costs of living are spiraling out of control in SG and a few places are on my shortlist.
You have to realize, the need to leave Singapore was something I realized as early as the age of 5. I knew something was wrong. I knew I couldn't realistically leave until I completed my national service at the age of 21 - thus I had at least 16 years to gather information about which country I could move to. Given that my first language is English, I narrowed it down to the UK, USA, Australia and Canada. But once again, it's not like I knew nothing about all of these countries before I thought of moving abroad, from a young age, I was accessing everything from movies to books to magazines to TV programmes etc to learn about these countries and that research process started from a very young age and lasted 16 years. And like I said before, as a scholar from Singapore, one thing we're really good at is studying, research and amassing an insane amount of information on a given topic and that's exactly what I did. I went through that process thoroughly over the years and settled on the UK. I hate to state the obvious Amanda, but I'm smarter than most people. More than that, I'm a problem solver. I know how to take the skills that I have at my disposal (ie. I'm a good student) to apply those skills to solve a problem (ie. find a country to move to that would suit me) - put the two together and that's the process that I went through. I was a highly intelligent kid who solved his problems using his superior brains to arrive at the right solution. As for the British citizenship exam, it's just an exam. One can study for those simply by memorizing facts from a textbook - it's not that difficult really. They are NOT going to ask you questions from outside the textbook, so in a truly Chinese way, all you have to do is memorize the whole textbook if you wanna score 100%. That's just rote learning with absolutely zero problem solving skills involved.
DeleteThere's a word from Malay - garang - yes I was rather garang in assuming that my experience in the UK would slot into at least the top 10%, though in reality it's more like top 2% at the moment. But it's a moving goal post given that I have just started my new company and it's hard to forecast how much I will earn in the next 12 months given that I have a low, medium and high forecast. So much is dependent on me closing deals and how many I close. Part 2 continues below.
What I really struggled with growing up is that my parents are working class with low IQ, so they didn't even realize holy shit my son is ridiculously intelligent. No, when I did well in the exams, they either chalked it up to pure luck or hard work. When they deal with students, they only base their approach to exams on one assumption, that the student is stupid (just like most working class people) and they might have a slim chance of passing the exam if they dedicate every waking hour to studying hard or else they are doomed to scrubbing toilets for the rest of their lives. But give my parents a super smart kid (ie. me) and they have absolutely no idea what to do or even how to change that approach with a kid who clearly doesn't need to study that hard to breeze through the exams. That's the root of a lot of tension with my parents and why we ultimately do not get along - it goes beyond the fact that they are very working class, it's that they have not even taken the time to notice that I'm not like them, that I'm not stupid and ultimately, if you wanna become a parent, I think you should pay some attention to what the hell is going on with your child and if they turn out to be quite intelligent as in my case, you ought to at least notice that rather than be baffled by it, ignore it or chalk it down to luck. The fact is my parents are typical lower income, working class folks who don't have friends who are doctors, lawyers, bankers, judges or other highly educated professionals so they have absolutely no idea what goes on outside their world. That's why they were mortified when I wanted to move to the West because they assumed that my experience would be that of an uneducated working class person who moves to the West as a refugee and life would suck - whereas my assumption was based on me arriving here and living like the top 2%. The assumptions were so so different and that's mainly based on me realizing a) in terms of that combination of my IQ + social skills, I'm comfortably in the top 2% in the human population and b) in terms of what I'm earning now, I'm also in the top 2% in the UK and by next year, I'll easily be in the top 0.5% if I do close some of those deals. My parents have failed to realize how resourceful and intelligent I am and I hope you do not make the same mistake Amanda.
Delete@LIFT if you are garang I am straight up suicidal. I have close to 0 support from friends (except you) and family for my career switch. The only people who understand are entreprenuers and people with a "portfolio career" who left full-time jobs for more pay and flexibility. But I like to be different, after all the contrarian who is right is the one who earns the most money. https://medium.com/bullpen-capital/why-it-pays-to-be-contrarian-8821bd88cc42
DeleteHey Alex. I didn't say you weren't an intelligent person, if you need me to say it then yeah, I think you're a very successful inspirational person who is doing very well in life. But the one quality I think you possess that not many intelligent working class kids have is confidence in being able to fit in with whoever you're with("customer services mode"). But then again you talk about social skills all day on this blog. Going back to the topic of why an Asian working class kid has a higher chance of making it compared to a Black or Arab working class kid in France, I think it comes down to social skills. Which is a huge shock because usually Asians are stereotyped as having no social skills. I think that's a misnomer and a harmful stereotype, because being able to navigate a white collar environment when one's parents aren't white collar is a huge test of social skills for the Asian kid whose parents are working class primary school teachers but grows up to work in finance.
Delete@Choaniki I picked America because of two coincidental factors. Firstly, my mom has a greencard, and she applied for me to get one when I was about 3 years old (I eventually got it at the age of 21, there is a huge processing backlog). Secondly, I originally wanted to do a PhD, and America has some really good research universities. Having a greencard meant I could freely work in the country after graduation, so it was just a matter of convenience I suppose. If I picked a different country to do a PhD in I'd have to go through the immigration process from scratch, and I just couldn't be bothered.
@Choaniki - I was in your position as well years ago when I went into finance, having zero contacts, zero friends, in another country but simply being plain garang. I have come an awfully long way to get to where I am today but at least you have one friend in the industry now along with your colleague Samuel who is a good contact, so you're progressing nicely.
DeleteAnd @Amanda, the reasons why I picked the UK were a result of me having studied and compared so many countries - it was an informed decision that I made on the criteria of 'what will make me happy'. A lot of people refused to give me any credibility when I was a young person, a lot of the time, I was dismissed as a young man who will make dumb mistakes then live to regret it, or come home crying to Singapore when things don't work out in the West. Perhaps some young people (and older people) are indeed clueless and can't find their way out of a paper bag as they're that stupid but you have to realize that I was about ten years old when I realized, my parents are complete idiots - I am not going to get any help from them, there's no point in asking them for their opinion so it's time for me to listen to my own opinion rather than seek their approval or permission for what I wanna do to make me happy. I was forced to grow up very quickly, a lot more quickly than my peers. So even as a young person, I gave myself the right to trust my feelings, rely on my own judgment, make my own decisions based on what I like, what struck a chord with me and what felt wrong to me - I learned to ignore what everyone else said and simply listened to myself and that was the best thing to do. So whilst my teacher was very helpful in telling me about the scholarship programmes in the UK, other teachers also told me about scholarship programmes in places like Australia, Canada and USA - I chose the UK over all of those other countries as it was a personal choice. I didn't allow a teacher to push me in one direction over another, I had already learned to listen to myself at that age as I grew up very, very quickly. But with great power comes great responsibility - you even asked me and I quote, "did you not research any part of the UK before going there?" Girl, my research was so fucking thorough I would put wikipedia to shame, that's how good at research I am and part of the reason why I aced all those exams to win a scholarship. A lot of people get the impression that I'm clever, smart, intelligent when I speak to them because I would know about stuff that they're doing. So a Belgian friend has recently come back from Saudi Arabia and I know so much about Saudi Arabia, I would once again put Wikipedia to shame. But did I ever live there, work there or even visit there? No, not yet but this is exactly what I do, I am a sponge for information, I read a lot and I am able to memorize that information; I probably have a capacity to retaining information that puts me in the top 1% of the human population and that's why people get the impression that I'm smart but a lot of it is just me realizing, hey I have a good memory, I only have to read this once and I can retain the information for life - so let's learn everything about every subject, every country in the world, let's learn 25 languages whilst we're at it knowing that I can probably retain a very high percentage of that information. So it's not just me having a gift (ie. a great capacity to memorize stuff), it's me being willing to study bloody hard to fill my brain with that information in the first place to memorize. That's why I always say, I put Wikipedia to shame - my friends have called me the Walking Wikipedia.
Oh I just remembered you said you were like Betty when you were younger, but I reread the message and you meant you didn't concentrate on researching the bad sides of things before doing them, because that's like reading the 1 star reviews of a restaurant rated 4.99/5.0. But that doesn't mean you don't research other things like how laws work, what is the local culture, etc etc. I must say that's a really sad situation to grow up in, not just not having knowledgeable parents to ask, but also not having supportive parents to cheer you on and then having to ignore them and make your own way.
DeleteI don't think Betty is completely ignorant - at best she is hopelessly optimistic. She is traveling with Anna who is very knowledgeable and has done a lot of research, but it is that very knowledge that makes her say, "we can't go to the Sunday market in the town square, there's a 80% chance of rain today and so we have to avoid all outdoor activities." Betty is the one who hears that piece of information, shrugs her shoulders and says, meh what's the worse that can happen if it rains? I have an umbrella in my bag, I'm not made of sugar, I'm not gonna dissolve on the spot if I get wet in the rain. So it is with that attitude that Betty goes out to the Sunday market whilst Anna refuses to do so, there is every chance that Betty will get soaked and Anna will then shake her head and say, "I told you so Betty." But Betty takes chances (often against the odds) whilst Anna looks at those odds and says, hell no. Perhaps I had misrepresented Betty as someone who has zero knowledge and is completely ignorant, but what defines her character is more this optimistic attitude of, "what's the worst that can happen? I'm gonna give it a go!"
Delete@LIFT, well we are so alike it is almost scary. I don't have that good of a memory as you, probably due to malnutrition when I was young (1 meal a day). But my elder brother easily aced all his exams and ended up in RJC then NUS while I was on the bottom end and didn't even make it to a local university.
DeleteBut from young I loved reading (still do I already completed 2.5 books in Jun) and was like a walking encyclopedia when young. I even won 1st prize for a general knowledge quiz in secondary school once!
But I never believe that any problem is impossible and always enjoyed the process of problem solving. I always took the contrarian path to career and life in general. Like when I was denied further training in NUT hospital (not real name) I actually took a paycut and went to the vet industry to not only pickup MRI , CT, but even the basics of ultrasound. Then when I went back to the human clinical side I was immediately given a full-time job doing MRI scans for humans.
In fact when I look at the current path my elder and younger brother took, it is very chilling. If I had gone the traditional study hard and work for the government route both of them took (both my brothers are working in the civil or public service now), I would have ended up barely making ends meet and very unhappy (like your sisters).
Well, if I may clarify the issue of my sisters' financial situation - they're doing better than you think but the devil is in the detail. Firstly, they're definitely NOT in the situation where they're "barely making ends meet" but my eldest sister is single, so she is not having to spend her money on trying to support a family, send two kids through an expensive education system - every dollar she earns, she gets to spend on herself and that's why her situation is quite comfortable. She is living with my parents (hence no mortgage to pay, she's not trying to get on the property ladder), no kids to support, in fact because she works very long hours, she has no time to spend the money she earns, so by that token, she has a lot of money stashed away in the bank for her retirement. As for my 2nd sister, yes she is married with a child, but her husband earns A LOT. He has a good job and thus she can afford to be a housewife if she wanted to, but that's not her style - she is too ambitious to do something like that. It would drive her nuts to stay at home all day and do nothing.
DeleteHowever, the one gripe that I have about their work situation is this - even though the pay is pretty respectable, they are working very, very long hours. Often about 70 to 80 hours a week and thus that results in their hourly rate being much, much lower than mine - I famously work approximately 10 to 20 hours a week and take numerous holidays a year. That's why I have brought up the subject of the Big Mac Index in my blog, it's not how much you earn, it's how many hours you have to work to earn that money. It's also the work regime, so I can be on holiday doing handstands on the beach but still being productive if I come up with a good idea there whilst my sisters have gone right back to a routine which involves very, very long hours in the office and not getting enough sleep - that's my gripe with the Singaporean system and the way most Singaporeans just accept the way things are without saying, this ain't right, I don't wanna do this like everyone else.
Allow me to give you a case study just to make a point: my eldest sister has a colleague whom I'm going to refer to as Mr Johor, as that's where he is from originally. He is the sole breadwinner for his family, his wife works part time but has been mostly taking care of their three young children. He is about the same age as my sister, earns about the same amount of money but their situation is so different. He needs to provide for his wife and three kids + pay off the mortgage for the HDB flat. After all that, he has very little money left for himself whereas my sister gets to spend every penny she earns on herself. So if you were to look at where Mr Johor and my sister are on their department's pay scale, they are on equal footing but the reality is that my sister is far better off than Mr Johor because of their domestic situation. The only thing that really sucks about my sister's situation is that whilst she has the money to spend on herself, she works such long hours and is so dedicated to her job that she would never think about doing something like taking a nice holiday somewhere amazing - that money just sits in the bank. I did address this issue previously already when I compared two gymnastics coaches at my gymnastics club - one with three kids and one who is single and the one who is single is enjoying life whilst the one who has three kids is really struggling to make ends meet. Thus the moral of the story is simple - you wanna be financially comfortable? Never have kids.
DeleteOk, not try to brag here but I made like $1.2k this week from my sideline (excluding my retainer) and have about another 1-2k lined up. So I can cover my costs now while looking for a deal. Going to take a short trip to Chiang Mai next week to meet one of my Thai contact and see who else I can connect with.
DeleteYou actually had to work to get money from your side line - I can do one better than that. I have enough passive investments from being a landlord of a sizable London property portfolio (literally collecting rent from my tenants) + my money in other various schemes so I can't afford not to work and still have a nice sum of money come through every month that's quite a lot more than what you quoted above there. Watch and learn.
DeleteWell I'm working on building a passive income portfolio. I cant control the fact that I have been underpaid half my working life (my peers all drawing 5-figure salaries). But at least I am #debtfree now.
DeleteHaving never join in a protest (violent or otherwise) for good reason, can I ask why you bother attending one anyway? It is obviously not to see change since no protest has ever changed anything.
ReplyDeleteIt's moral masturbation. I have joined protests in the past over causes that I feel are close to my heart. So there's the climate change protest, the anti-war protests, sometimes we protests against certain laws that we want changing, I went to an anti-Russia protest in London and we went through the streets chanting in Russian Putin is a mother fucker, long live Ukraine. Also, it's the one thing my parents told me never to do as it was forbidden in Singapore. And you know the relationship with my parents, if they tell me I can't have something, then it makes me want it even more. Like my parents used to say I can't drink 100 plus, then it instantly became my favourite drink (well during my teenage years anyway, not drank that in years). And if my parents say I shouldn't take part in protests, then that's my cue to drop everything and rush out to join the next protest. It's just a habit to do the complete opposite of whatever my parents tell me to do just to annoy them.
DeleteI don't pretend for a moment that I'm gonna solve climate change when I go join a protest but there's also a good carnival atmosphere to it. There's also an element of fun as well to such protests. But of course, like I said in the post, there's a huge difference between the kind of moral masturbation type protests that I do where a lot of middle class white people take part and the kind of violent ones that have happened in France recently. There was an interview with a policeman in the French news recently, he was talking about how he was facing a group of black rioters in France and they were armed with Molotov cocktails, they were hurling these burning grenades at the police trying to kill them - I had a lot of sympathy for the police when I realized that these are not just young people trying to loot the Nike Store, they're trying to kill the policemen who have been sent out to contain the riots. The policemen are dealing with teenagers with intent to murder - these black kids are told, you're under 18, even if you steal or kill, they can't put you in jail so go out there and kill a policeman. That's how dangerous the situation is in France now, that's a far cry from a polite white middle class protest on climate change.
Delete@LIFT then what is your stand on more disruptive forms of protests like activists cementing themselves onto a road, climbing and staying in a tree, or blocking traffic with their bicycles, etc?
DeleteThere are two sides to the argument: on one hand, these people are sacrificing a lot including getting a criminal record to make a point, the extreme lengths they will go to are often criminal But on the other hand, they change nothing at the end of the day so all that effort is often futile that's why I don't partake in protests like that even if it is for a course that I agree with and believe in like climate change.
DeleteTalking about crazy activists, what's her face here: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/greta-thunberg-could-face-six-153930215.html
DeleteI just realised last Sat was the annual Pride Parade. No coverage here (homophones everywhere) so I had to find out from foreign media. How was the parade?
ReplyDeleteSame as always - I was doing it with a bad knee (gymnastics injury) so I was not exactly having that much fun as I was not feeling 100%. It's getting better but it's gonna take a while to heal.
DeleteBreaking news: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2023/jul/05/coco-lee-dead-hong-kong-mulan-singer
ReplyDeleteToo young!
I must confess I have no idea who she is.
DeleteWell she is the voice of Mulan (original not the live action crap) and sang the OST of 卧虎藏龙
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