Racial Harmony Day 2010
One of the things I appreciate about Singapore is the country’s effort in keeping all different races in harmony.
Because it sure is NOT easy to have different cultures, races, religions sharing one common space together.
Anyway, as a way to promote inter-racial understanding among children here in Singapore, every year, on 21 July, kids are encouraged to wear something traditional to school!
And so Anya and Vai went in their chinese costumes yesterday.
(Sure is fun for them to have a little change to their usual school uniform!)
…
Btw, what costumes did your kids put on for Racial Harmony Day this year?
[In their traditional Batik costumes]
Btw, if you’re not familiar with what Singapore’s Racial Harmony Day is, here’s a bit about it:
As part of National Education, schools commemorate Racial Harmony Day on 21 July every year to mark the anniversary of the 1964 racial riots. This is a day for students to reflect on and celebrate our success as a harmonious nation built on a rich diversity of cultures. This event has helped to promote inter-racial understanding among our students.
The theme for this year is “Embracing Diversity, Building Community”. It reminds us of the different races, cultures and languages in Singapore, especially with the transformation of Singaporean society over the years. The celebration is a reminder that promoting social cohesion and racial harmony requires constant effort from our educators, students and stakeholders, such as parents.
[extracted from Ministry of Education’s site]
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natalia:
Thanks for sharing … totally welcome your views on the topic 🙂
Just recently, Straits Times covered an article about how there’re more and more young Indonesians (ie. kids who live and were born there) who speak poor Indonesians as they’re sent to english speaking schools and watch english TV shows.
Some of the younger generation somehow sees its language and Indo culture as ‘belonging to a lower class’. Which actually is sad.
My husband and I spent our teenage years overseas, and yet we don’t feel we should deprive our children from knowing about their roots. Although both Anya and Vai were born in Singapore and visit Indonesia only once or twice a year for holidays, we speak in Indonesian everyday with each other. We have strong Indo community and we attend an Indo church. We teach them Indo songs, and national anthems 🙂
When someone tells us how it’s not possible to teach their kids to speak in Indonesian well since they live overseas, we have a living example that it IS possible 🙂
Uncle Lee:
Welcome to the blog, and thanks for sharing!
Yes, it’s really nice when children are positively exposed to different nationalities and people from all walks of life.
I love how you dress your kids in batik for racial harmony day!!!!! ^_^v
Anyway, just my thoughts… I think indos who have stayed “overseas” through their teens and young adult phase of life usually forgot who they actually are.. whenever I wear batik I receive comments like “indo banget segh loe..”.. i don’t know how to interpret those tones, but ya =p that happens…
I do, try to constantly remind those indos who doesn’t go for elections, doesnt want to touch batik for no reasons, or even to the slightest “indoism” such as indo songs… sometimes i wanna shout to them and say “then stop speaking indo… change your passport to red/blue/wadever other colors you want”…. sometimes, I feel pity for them for some reasons… haha..
Well anyway, the point is, I like how you dress your kids in batik.. sorry the comment went out of topic ^_^;
Hi Lady, I used to go to Singapore very often back in the ’70s, ’80s and yes, the government does a very good job promoting racial harmony.
Where I am, we have 127 different nationalities living together in a city called Toronto.
Sit in a subway, stay in an apartment….in schools, you’ll see all the different faces from you name the country, and most kids are multilingual too.
I have a friend’s daughter, only 8, she speaks English, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese and I think one or two more. She has a flare for languages picking up rapidly from her friends in school.
Everyone one here is a 1st class citizen…..and there’s no favoritism. Have that, and you know the consequences.
You got great looking kids there, love their traditional clothes.
You have a pleasant week and keep a song in your heart, best regards, Lee.