I am not disturbed at all by people who change their profile pictures to incorporate the French flag. Some do it because they studied/worked in France, or have learnt French, and therefore have a natural affinity for the country and its people. Some do it because it’s cool to jump onto the bandwagon. Some do it simply because all it takes is to press a button. It is all fine. There is really no need to get upset about that.
Changing your profile picture does not need in any way imply you are fine with killing of innocent people elsewhere, so we must not make such tenuous claims.
What does disturb me though, is when people say that talking about innocent lives being taken away elsewhere, or speaking on how Western foreign policy could be one of the causes of terrorism (not the only one, obviously), is somehow equal to devaluing human life, or is equivalent to justifying the murders in Paris. I think that is just absurdity of the highest order.
Of course, we must in no way justify the Parisian murders, or devalue the lives lost. I just don’t see how saying that Palestinians go through similar stuff, or stating that Syrians have been through worse, or that many other peoples in the world face injustices everyday, ‘cheapens’ the lives lost in Paris.
Worse still, some of the people who are saying such stuff, are usually completely silent when innocent people are killed elsewhere.
If someone is vocal about the loss of innocent lives in Afghanistan, for example, and then says that we should not compare Paris to other countries, i can accept that, even if i may not agree with the premise.
But for those who are silent on other issues, and yet see the need to lecture others who are expressing dismay at the loss of Palestinian lives, i think we know for sure who are the ones that actually ‘cheapen’ the lives of others.
An innocent life is an innocent life: if we rush to condemn one act of terror vociferously, and then are silent towards others, i think it is good to check why on earth we are behaving in that manner, who is it that we are so eagerly trying to please, and whether that is indeed consistent with our own moral codes.
It also seems to me like people who refuse to discuss the causes of terrorism properly, are perhaps not really interested in solving it.
Seven men suspected to be immigration offenders were arrested in connection to a rioting incident that took place on Oct 16, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said on Thursday night (Nov 5).
The seven suspects were arrested on Wednesday in a joint enforcement operation by SPF and Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) officers held in the vicinity of Yew Tee Industrial Estate.
According to the SPF, the suspects are also believed to be involved in the peddling of duty unpaid cigarettes. A total of 917 packets of cigarettes were seized during the operation.
Investigations against the suspects are ongoing, the police said. If convicted of rioting, they each face up to seven years in jail and caning.
There is a viral post going around about a particular lady that seems to have posted a racially disparaging remark about the Malay language on her FB. I was also informed that this was the same lady that labeled me early in the election campaign as Taliban or ISIS for some strange reason.
I choose to ignore her posting but wishes to highlight the following.
I am convinced that Singaporeans mostly are not racist. There will always be that 10% and I hope lesser in any racial community that has this strange concept of racial superiority, which in essence goes against the grain, and teaching of all religion and cultures.
I believe in the maturity of most Singaporeans that have lived 50 years together, and mixed very well too in the region, which similarly is made up of people of many races, cultures and religion.
On this conviction, I decided to run as a candidate to allow me the opportunity to also engage the mainstream majority Chinese community on issues that are close to the heart of my Malay community.
I am heartened by the many more occasions when my Chinese brothers and sisters proudly declare their support for what I explained as discriminatory practices that still exists in Singapore that must be stopped. All the while reasoning that by championing issues of my community in no way mean that I am undermining other communities. These open and dignified dialogues strangely don’t happen often enough, which could have resolved many so-called sensitive issues much earlier.
I am glad that the things I openly said during rallies and in engagements with many people of all races have assured me of the ingrained value of universal brotherhood that is in all our hearts.
Let us strive to normalize the diversity that exists in our country into a true celebration of cultural and religious openness with mutual respect and goodwill that will breed genuine tolerance between us. It is unnatural policies driven by suspicion and distrust that hinders such progress towards unity. Nature and its wondrous diversity displays unparalleled beauty as a Sign and lesson for mankind from the Creator on unity in diversity.
For the lady in question, I do hope we forgive her, as clearly she doesn’t represent the majority of us and probably needed some form of help.
When Captain Mona Shindy climbed aboard HMAS Canberra to test missiles in the Pacific, a locker had to be converted into a sleeping quarters to accommodate her.
Never before had an active Australian warship carried women. But aged 23 and launching what would become a 26-year career with the Navy, this was just the first hurdle of a trailblazer.
Already she had a University degree in the blokey domain of engineering. Weapons engineer. And if this were not unusual enough, Captain Shindy happens to be Muslim, and for most of her career in the navy, has been a mother.
Australian Navy Captain Mona Shindy
On board HMAS Canberra Captain Shindy and her two female room-mates were like celebrities, and not all of it was positive publicity.
“We were an absolute novelty and people knew our every movement, what we got up to and where we were. Overall the experience was a positive experience but there certainly were times that were quite challenging,” Captain Shindy says.
“Most female engineers in any work environment _ you really do have to work that little bit harder initially to prove your worth, to demonstrate your competence to really be accepted fully as valued member and a real contributor to the team.”
Then came the challenge of Ramadan, and explaining as a young sublieutenant that she was fasting and would appreciate a meal being put aside for her.
The response was along the lines of: “You’ll eat with everyone else, or you just won’t.” Which left her “the middle of the ocean with a few cans of tuna”.
Once the right ranking officer was made aware of the problem, a solution was soon found.
Anger was never an option.
“My first reaction is to empathise, rather than get angry, and to try and be part of the solution and work on the education piece, through engagement and interaction and just being professional about what I do and delivering professional outcomes and results. In the end, people respect that.”
It’s an attitude that has delivered her to the pinnacle of her career, recognised this week when she was named NSW Telstra Business Woman of the Year. As Director Littoral Warfare and Maritime Support, Captain Shindy advises the Government on the best way to spend billions of dollars on replacement tankers, ships, patrol boats — almost everything except submarines.
She was previously charged with turning around the Fast Frigate System Program Office, from an inefficient organisation with adversarial stakeholder relationships, to a collaborative culture with performance-based contracts. And she shaved 30 per cent in costs from a $130 million budget.
“People were happy at the end of the tenure, ships were leaving the wharf on time with all the maintenance done, when initially they weren’t.”
Soon after her first tour of duty on HMAS Canberra, Captain Shindy married and had a daughter, now 20 and a son, 18, who finished his HSC on Wednesday. Their happy accident followed a decade later in the form of another daughter, now 11.
Captain Mona Shindy at Garden Island Navy Base in Sydney. Picture: Toby Zerna
The job has required service on ships for two-year durations, with time away ranging from two to six months.
“But six months in anyone’s language for a mother with two young children and a young family, is a very significant sacrifice.
“I’m not going to dress it up. It was tough.”
It could not have happened without an extended family backing her up. Crucial were her mother — “who in many ways acted as a pseudo mother for my children sometimes when I was away” — and husband, who has taken many career breaks.
“For me, the only thing that made it easier is knowing that those kids had just as much love and support from those that were with them than I could have given them myself.”
Her family migrated from Egypt when she was three.
“The moment my parents migrated to Australia, they were determined to feel as Australian as anyone else.” She holds the position of Chief of Navy’s Strategic Adviser on Islamic Cultural Affairs, for which she was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in this year’s Australia Day honours for her work bridging cultural divides.
It is her aim to encourage more Muslims to join the defence force — around 100 of the 45000 defence force personnel identify as Muslim, 27 of them in the Navy.
“There’s lots of Australian Muslims who feel very hurt … by previous military campaigns that our defence forces have been on that have I guess resulted in discomfort and difficulty …. where those campaigns have occurred that have caused ramifications for a lot of innocent people.”
She says terrorist attacks which have hijacked aspects of religious teachings to justify those behaviours have created “fear and uncertainty for others who are non-Muslims”.
“For some people that gets looked at as the whole Muslim community,” Captain Shindy says. Some young Muslim see this in black and white “us and them” terms.
“They don’t have the maturity necessarily to see the greys and to understand that this is not everyone that has those views about you. That erodes confidence for those kids.”
There’s lots of Australian Muslims who feel very hurt … by previous military campaigns that our defence forces have been on
Her message to them is this: “You can be a proud Australian that loves everything about this great nation and still love your roots and love where you came from and straddle both worlds and both communities. That’s how I live my life and I like to help other people find their way in living those two things.”
And she can cite her own experience, including active service at the start of the 2003 Iraq War.
“It’s always tough, when you go anywhere, whether that’s Iraq. They were difficult times, they were interesting times I think for the whole nation.
“We are an instrument of our democratically elected government and I think that’s something that is very much accepted, understood and part of the contract that I personally have with my organisation. That’s my role, that’s what I signed up to do.”
“These are Malay kuih, not Peranakan. If you click the link, you’ll see that a vast majority of these kuih are those that you see so many Malay women sell to get by.
“In an accompanying note, he explained that the illustrations were a part of a “proposal” he did for a Peranakan restaurant (which one could it be?). He went on to say that his illustrations for each kueh had led to the “discovery” of more kuehs he “never knew”.”
Wow, ok. You discovered a racial cuisine of a country you’ve been living in for…. How long now? “Discovery”. “Never knew”. Rebranding Malay kuih to Peranakan kueh. Hmmm. Getting serious colonial vibes here.
Peranakans want to claim it’s theirs and commodify it. What else are you going to claim yours? All of Malay cuisine? The Malay language? Fxxx off.”
Editor’s Note: Sangeetha Thanapal posted the above comments by Zarifah Anuar, on Facebook.
