Rejected Forum letters:

"Re: NS a social distillery for ethnic cohesion


National Service has always been lauded as a medium for ethnic bonding. Indeed, this is borne out by tales of NSmen acquiring lifelong friends after their 2 or 2 and a 1/2 year stint in the Singapore Armed Forces.

Anecdotal evidence, gathered from some casual observation and interminable NS Stories shared by relations and bosom friends suggests, however, that there are ways to further enhance ethnic bonding during our young men's service to the nation.

One can't help but suspect that race is one criterion in allocating NSmen to their units. I have never seen any Malays or Muslims in the Air Force, Navy, Commandos, Artillery and Armour, and the veracity of this fact is confirmed by some of my brother's friends. A Malay friend of a friend of mine was very keen to enter the Navy, and told the interviewers that he did not mind eating non-Halal food since Halal food was not served in the Navy, but he wasn't accepted in the end. At most, there is a token Malay presence in these wings. In addition, senior Malay Officers are hard to find, though this might be due to the fact that fewer Malays choose to sign on in the Army.

The preponderance of Malays in other areas is also unhealthy. I understand that the Singapore Police Force and Civil Defence Force are overwhelmingly composed of Malays. In fact, a bus I was in once passed the Civil Defence Academy. Of the 20 or so SCDF personnel who got on the bus, all but 2 were Malay. I have great faith in our Malay brothers - in their ability to keep the streets safe and to save our fellow countrymen from burning buildings, but I am equally confident that, if there were a war, they'd leap unhesitatingly to the Defence of Singapore.

Once NSFs ORD and return to the Outside World, they also lose touch with their friends from other racial groups, and fall back into theeir usual racial cliques. Also, racist jokes are commonly exchanged between NSmen when the race in question is not present. They may be meant lightheartedly, but still this is testament to how racial bonding needs to be encouraged further.

Perhaps the supreme irony of the article was that it showed an APC, whose tracks spelled 'Ethnic Cohesion', steaming along. I don't think there were any Malays in that APC. "


Sexism in the Bible:

Ephesians 5:22-33 :: New American Standard Bible (NASB)

"Marriage Like Christ and the Church

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.... Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband."

Luckily most of us aren't too restricted by the Letter of it. The socio-political-econo-historical context must always be remembered - just like how Islam, in its day, was actually rather tolerant and generous towards women.

[Ed: Dec 1st:

Addendum: "Ephesians is not a letter written to Western marriages! It is a letter written to Christians who were living in a culture where marriage was a type of slavery. Young teens were wedded to middle-aged men in order to bear them a legal heir. It is difficult for us to imagine the level of degradation and hopelessness these young wives must have experienced... perhaps more than the slaves. Paul was not intending to set up gender hierarchy in marriage in these passages any more than he was endorsing slavery by encouraging slaves to submit to their masters. He was simply referring to the slavery and male headship that was already a part of their secular culture."]