I've always thought tht Sgpeans were pretty shallow pple. (sorry guys) Hear me out before ya guys go whingin. The thing tht has always made me uncomfy with Sgpeans (me included) is tht we tend to stereotype pple by their skin colour, qualifications or status. I'm not sayin I'm totally innocent of tht, which make me even more ashamed because for one to acknowledge tht fact and not act upon is simply failure. For example, I notice now pple always associate construction workers with Bangladeshi workers. I'm not sayin tht is not true, a large proportion of workers are indeed frm the dark-skinned countries. But have a pause and think, have we not once tried to avoid them or even make fun of them?

Their life isn't as pretty as ours. It isn't as comfy as ours which is precisely why they are here to seek a "better life". I think they are only exposed to the harsh cruelty of racism. if they had stayed back in where ever they come frm, they make have a much tougher and poorer life, but they wldn't need to be treated as 3rd grade pple, like dogs even. Like I said, I'm not proud of the fact tht I sometimes shun them on the bus. We need to make a conscience effort to respect everyone. Tht is the beauty of Aust or US, where every job is respected and appreciated. In Sgp, pple look down on rubbish collectors, toilet cleaners and construction workers, but is tht fair? They are havin a decent job, doin legal stuff. Why shld we look down on them? They shld, in fact, be honoured and respected, as they dare to tk on a job tht most Sgpeans wldn't want to do. And for tht, keep our country clean and build the basic infrastructure of our economy.

Every day I have been remindin myself to make the extra effort to be warm to everyone, frm the cleaner arnd sch, to the Zambia girl in the lib. I hope tht pple arnd me will do so too.

Why I specially raised this issue today is because I read someone else's blog (no names here, but pple frm Murdoch College will know her) and she made fun of this other girl frm tht sch, who happens to be Indian. Tht Indian girl is Sgpean like she is, but the way she made fun of her skin colour wasn't nice, callin her "blacker than pot" and "bluish purple". And I really didn't see a need for her to do so. It was a re-enforcement for me and my principles tht I can't tolerate pple who treats others like 2nd class citizens.

So pls make a personal promise to yaself today tht everyone shld be given the same amt of respect, "regardless of race, language or religion". Tht's frm our pledge remember? Don't do to others wht ya don't want others to do to ya.

Tk care guys. *hugs* *muacks* Cheers.