Project task B

we are to present a blog to your community on your study of how one other multi-ethnic society such as Switzerland, south Africa or USA manages multi-ethnicity and forge social cohesion to create a national identity, you are to show in your blog lessons Singapore can learn from the country understudy and invite comments from you community.

Project focus:

students to learn how other societies manage multi-ethnicity and how Singapore can learn from them.


Guiding Question:

-How different are people in the country?
-What are the challenges faced by the society?
-How has their history shaped the way they manage racial and religious issues?
-What are the policies and measures taken to manage racial and religious issues?
-Have these Policies and measures been successful?



Racial Riots Documentary video(:





-zhilin

How different are people in the country?

answer:People in multi-ethnic society like Singapore and USA are different in terms of their races,cultures,beliefs and many more.
(However we united as a nation regardless who we are.Unity is very important,especially in Singpore,as we are a small country
and we do not want other countries to take advantage of us.)

Now,let me talk about how different the people are in both countries.

Singapore
*total population is about 4.6 million and is still growing as Singapore attracts more foreigners to migrate here
due to our advance technology and facilities.
*consists of four main races living in the same state.
The 4 races are: Malay
Chinese
Indian
European
Let us explain the different cultures of the different races.

MALAY
*Population of Malay in Singapore:
based on the year 2006,malay is 13.6 percent out of the total population.
(about 652800 Malays)
*98 percent of Malay are Muslims and goes to the mosque.
*some traditional food:Fish cracker keropok lekor ,Cucur badak ,Ketupat
*some traditional games:Sepak Takraw ,kite ,Gasing ,Congkat

*Some traditional costume:
Men
*Baju Melayu ,Tanjak

Women
*Baju kurung ,Baju kebaya ,Baju kebarung ,Tudung

Chinese

*Population of chinese in Singapore:
75.2% based on year 2006
*Of the Chinese population,68% practises Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism
14% practises Christianity, Catholicism.
*some traditional food:nian gao, sweet steamed glutinous rice pudding and zong zi
*some traditional games:Chinese chess, checkers, mahjong and dominoes.
*Traditional costume:
Women
*Cheongsam

Men
*Qifu

Indians

*Population:8.8% of total population based on year 2006
*Of the Indian population,53% practises Hinduism
26% practises Islam
13% Christianity
7% Sikhism, Jainism
*some traditional food:Roti (baked wheat pancakes), dosa (fermented rice pancakes), macherjhol (fish curry)
*some traditonal games:Dayakattai Game, Aadu Puli Game, Paramapadam
*traditional costume
Women
*Sarees, Shalwar qameez and dupatta, Lehenga, choli, and odhani
Men
*Dhoti, Kurta, Lungi

Europeans

*total population:2.4% of total population
*formal wear. no taditional food , costume and games

USA
*Population: 301,139,947 (July 2007)
*consists of 2 main types of people:
'white'(Caucasian Americian)people and 'black'(African American) people

The 'white'(Caucasian Americian)people
Total population
White American
221,331,507
73.93% of the population
Non-Hispanic White
198,176,991
66.20% of the population
White Hispanic
23,154,516
7.73% of the population
Main Language:American English
Other languages:Spanish, German, Italian,etc..
Religion:Protestantism, Judaism, Ilsam

The 'black'(African American) people
Total population
African American
39,151,870
13.1% of the total population
Non-Hispanic Black
38,167,719
12.7% of the population
Black Hispanic
984,151
0.33% of the population
Languages:American English, African American Vernacular English, Spanish, etc..
Religion: Christianity,

-weiling

What are the challenges faced by these society?

Singapore


• Need to maintain peace between different racial.

My personal views: It true that it is difficult to maintain the relationship between 2 different racial people. Because of their religion, these people tend to have different opinion between these same things, as a result conflict between them happened.
To solve it, try to organize some interesting activities which participator must pair up with others racial people then can participate.


• Major Conflict between local Indians and immigrant Indians
& local Chinese and the mainland counterparts and was reported by News

What Happened: our local Indians look down on those immigrants Indian just because they earn less money than them. While the other hand, our local Chinese thinks that the mainland counterparts do not care about their own hygienic, to the locals Chinese, they are dirty.

My personal view: I think it is bad to look down on others and especially your own racial. I think they should not because people earn less money themselves and just go around looking down on those immigrants Indian. While the local Chinese should not though that all china people are unhygienic actually china people still have people is very particulate about hygienic. Criticize others are bad.


USA


• Being attack by terrorist.

What happened: One hijacker intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and in an hour’s time, the both building was collapsed.


My personal view: I think this terrorist attack is a warning to USA as this make USA realize that the terrorist can attack them anything just they do not know when it would happened. This incident makes the people in USA to protect their country more efficient than before and united as one against terrorist.


• Increases in cost of items, lack of health full care and there was an increase in percentage of children raise by single parent. Less time to accompany them lead to astray.


My personal views: Everything increases in price, which make people difficult to live in.
As the life expense increases, the parent has to work even hard to live off well in that country. As a result, lesser time to accompany their child, without the parents love, they tend to go out to look for love in his life. Most of the time astray was lead to.

-zhilin

How has their history shaped the way they manage racial and religious issues?

Multi-ethnic societies, in contrast to single ethnic societies, integrate different ethnic groups irrespective of differences in culture, race, and history under a common social identity. Two examples of multi-ethnic societies would be Singapore and the USA. Due to the ethnic or cultural heterogeneity present in the society, multi-ethnic societies in general are more fragile and have a higher risk of conflicts. This is also the reason where there is a need to ensure that hosility between the different ethnic groups are eliminated.

Singapore
The 1964 Race Riots were a series of riots took place in Singapore during two separate periods in July and September between Chinese and Malay groups.

July Riots
• 21 July 1964
• 23 people lost their lives, 450 people injured
• There was significant damage to property and vehicles. About 3,000 people were arrested, including 600 secret society members and 256 people arrested for possession of dangerous weapons. The rest were arrested for violating the curfew.

September Riots
• 3rd September
• The race riot ensued in the neighborhoods of Geylang, Joo chiat and Siglap and another curfew was imposed.
• 13 people lost their lives and 106 people were injured.
• 480 people were arrested.


USA
• Tensions between American colonials and the British during the revolutionary period of the 1760s and early 1770s.
• American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 through 1781.

• Tensions between slave and free states mounted with increasing disagreements over the relationship between the state and federal governments and violent conflicts over the expansion of slavery into new states.

An apparent precondition for the success of a multi-ethnic society is the availability of a common language, as was the case in the Roman Empire, and still is the case in the U.S. Similarly, English is a common language used by all ethnic groups. This led to effective communication hence breaking any possible forms of misunderstandings.
In recent times, the USA has been a more or less successful multi-ethnic society; despite past and current racial and ethnic tensions, the various ethnic groups that make up the United States still manage to live and work together mostly peacefully.
The success of Singapore managing the differences of ethnic groups is measurable through cultural links to India, China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. This gives Singaporeans orientations and loyalties that stretch far beyond the national borders. These differences are superseded by an identification with Singapore as a homeland with wealth and stability. Distance and distinction mark ethnic relations within the country.

-Karen

what are the policies and measures taken to manage racial and religious issues?

Policies is a plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes.
The term may apply to government, private sector organizations and groups, and individuals.
Policy differs from rules or law.
While law can prohibit behaviors, policy merely
guides actions toward those that are most likely to achieve a desired outcome.

Taken from Wikipedia

In USA, Many policies have been put up, to manage racial and religious issues.
These are some examples of the polices in USA, that manages Racial/religious issues.

Policy 1 : Investigative Procedures in the Congress of the United States
This policies prevented people from telling unsupported accusations to someone else, espacially when that person
is someone that is different from you. [Eg : A Black American accuses a White american for stealing, when the
white American didn't commit the crime.] This allows fair statements during trials and court cases.


Policy 2 : Religious and Civil Liberties in the United States of America
This policy allows people to have a freedom of their choice to choose which religion they wish to
commit to.

Policy 3 : Freedom of Association
This policy isn't as major as it is, but this policy protects voluntery associations, those kind of
associations that involved in racial issues.

Policy 4 : Equal Representation is a Right of Citizenship
This policy gives people of USA rights to vote, equal value of votes per person. No large companies
can have more votes. Everyone is subtitled to only one vote. And also states that any blackmailing from any
participants from the parliament to protect their power, will be against the law.

Policy 5 : Religious Obedience and Civil Disobedience
The government wanted to secure justice, peace and freedom and maintain order for all purposes.
And to do this, this policy is invented.
this affirms that Christians can disobey the government if the government's authority is misued.

Taken from NCCCUSA Policies & Resolutions 1997 - 2002

This policies helped USA in many ways.
But how about Singapore? How can we learn from USA ?

Well, i think that Singapore can improve by promote Racial Harmony in a special way, so citizens of Singapore
can remember it well. Also we can have a day in Singapore that different people eats different food, also let
Singaporeans experience different cultures to let them understand different cultures and also prevent
Racism too.


-kian siang

have these policies and measures been successful?

In the past, when slavery still takes place, only the Americans is given the right as they think that they are the more superior than the Negros, they are the “whites”. They do not deem the lives of the “blacks” as a living thing, but more of an object to do their bidding. Cases such as a black cannot take the same bus as the white or that their lives entirely depend on the owner whether he/she decides to let the slave live or die. The blacks have completely no freedom at all. So, can we still say that USA is a multi-ethnic country that everyone is equal and fair? During that time, is there any measures taken by the government that is beneficial to the blacks?
For now, I believed that these measures taken are successful as everyone is treated equally; no matter the person is an Americans or a Negros. As years goes by, there has been a very big improvement as compare to the past. Everyone in the country has the freedom to choose their own religion without any restriction and that fairness is ensuring in all kinds of situations. We can see that by doing this, the government is actually trying to maintain peace and order in the country so that there will not be more race riots, wars and disagreement from happening. While there measures are important, I think that the government in USA should continue to learn from Singapore some of the measures of what they can do that will benefit them very much.
I believed that to be truly successful in controlling religious and racial issues, it not only about carrying out policies and measures, but to also let people know about the consequences and learn from their mistakes before history repeats itself. Examples like racial riots, slavery of the Negros and the terrorists attacks by Saddam Hussein.
In order for policies/measures to be successful, punishment should also be meted out to those who failed to adhere to the policies. The price to pay should be given out in accordance to the seriousness of the offence committed. Serious offences should be given the death sentence and less serious offences should be given imprisonment in jail for a few years or strokes of caning.
Perhaps, due to the fact that Singapore was once a trading port for ships all around the world, we interact with people from different countries (Chinese, Malays, Indians, and Eurasians) who came here to earn a living. This shows that we have been living with each other for a very long time. Therefore, since young, the importance of having peace in the country has been imprints into our mindset, and also the reason why the government emphasizes about racial harmony every time. Furthermore, as Singapore became more advance, our government ensure that everyone is equal by taking measures like the population of people living in a hdb flat must be made up of a certain percentages of different races so that we will learn to get along with each other and we are proud to be Singaporeans for we are able to declared ourselves as a multi-culture countries without worrying that our lives is in danger. However, there are still pros and cons towards how ‘open’ are multi-ethnic countries. Here, to be able to voice out our disagreement, we have to write a proposal to the police to gained permission to speak in the speaker corner, this might restrict us to our freedom of speech but it ensures everyone not one gets too offended by the contents of the speech. But in USA, the people there are able to speak freely of their mind and what they think. However, the price to pay for them is that they might easily start a disagreement due to racism towards each other.
Therefore, the conclusion is that the measures taken to manage religious issues by both countries are successful. However, these measures take a different approach as to how they help to maintain it and both have it advantages in different areas. I think that if Singapore and USA is to combined both of their measures together to enforce these issues, than the success rate will be even higher and better

-yifang