inex: You know what?

"We have girls getting molested here and what the fuck do we get? People accusing us of discrimination. racism. Is there any fucking wonder why we rather not push the issue? Why we would rather suffer in silence? Even my fellow LJier who was a victim of their sexual haressment(I read her post, and was astound to see other girls come forward with their own accounts, and yes all their molesters were banglahs.) could not bring herself to make a big issue out of it. "


Me: While freely conceding that from copious amounts of anecdotal evidence, Banglas appear to be committing a disproportionate number of molests, we must, I think, agree that denying that, all things being equal, a bangla is more likely than a local to blind you with foam spray and molest you along Orchard Road on Christmas and New Year's Eve is an unavoidable concomitant of a society that condemns racism and refuses to prejudge individuals based on their biological attributes, even if they are statistically correlated with certain actions, and that the rigors which Singaporean women have been called upon to undergo have been amply justified in the sphere of concrete achievement.

akikonomu: i've read accounts of the incidents in other blogs, and they don't mention banglas

Me: oh?
maybe they were blinded :P

akikonomu: nope.

Me: come, tell me more

akikonomu: what is more likely is the orchard road tourism board hired some teens to sell the stuff
it's their lame christmas = some other festival thing
i remember in 2004, christmas was mardis gras due to all the street performrs and clowns
this year christmas = songkran

Me: so everyone thinks it's banglas because they're racist?
has happened in previous years leh

akikonomu: not everyone

Me: well no one is saying ALL banglas molest
or ALL people who molest are banglas
just that most molests seem to be done by banglas

one thing sociologists like to do, I noticed in the module, is to find exceptions and crow that they disprove the rule

akikonomu: listen to me: some people who got spray blogged about it. their acconts don't involve banglas

Me: did they get sprayed and molested?

akikonomu: they got sprayed indiscriminately

Me: not the same

being sprayed all over
and being sprayed and molested

the first is annoying
the second is criminal and violating

I don't know lah
wait for the police report

I remember that immigrants are believed responsible for crime
but actually commit less crime

OTOH, why do they all congregate there?
and why do we have so many anecdotal reports

akikonomu: mmm. how many people got molested

Me: that's why must wait for police report lor

but this sort of thing, how to investigate?
easy to assimilate into the crowd

akikonomu: aka what is happening now is a moral/social panic, disguised by xenophobia
or rather, it IS disguised xenophobia

i don't really blog about stuff i can't confirm =D
from our conversation, you already see how incomplete my info is.


A: our society condemns racism in name only lah!

all individuals are prejudged based on biological attributes. that is an undeniable fact about being human. or being alive, for that matter... all animals prejudge based on physical appearances. it is hard wired into our genome and a consequence (or cause) of evolution

the simple truth is that, if you don't want to be molested and have foam sprayed in your face, 1) don't go to orchard rd during countdown 2) don't wear revealing clothing.

Me: anyway people (including I) would argue that it's natural, but we shouldn't do it

in this case, everyone does it. just that when race comes into the picture everyone becomes touchy-feely and politcally correct

but actually does it anyway

A: yes. so what i sthe difference b/w discrimination by race vs discrimination by other physical (i.e. non-controllable) parameters?

race is a touchy subject because of historical precedent

Me: precisely
and culture is deterministic also
and people discriminate (or at least pre-judge) by it
there's no way not to without going insane

A: yes, one might argue that to view every single person on an equal level without bias would be, at best, hopelessly naive.

you always need counter-examples to convince you lah. e.g. if a bangla stopped to help up an old lady who fell on the floor
(that said the old lady might sue for molest, you never know singaporeans)

it woudln't be racist to say "a lot of the people spraying foam and molesting were banglas"
it would be racist however to say "all banglas are molesters"
but it wouldn't b eracist to say "a bangla is more likely to be a molester"

it's a fine line

Me: mmm
but people can only think in false dichotomies

A: that is because they are eager to jump to assumptions and see things that are not there.

Me: literature!
to quote my lit friend: "anyway the point, again, is that the intention DOES NOT MATTER"


Unnamed sociologist: is the writer opposed to the discriminate use of full stops in sentences
i cant believe that's an 8 line sentence with nary a stop
painful read.

it's a cultural thing. indian women are objectified in their own countries, and the men bring that culture over here

[Addendum: Someone else - if u ve watched amazing race...there're episodes where the female contestants in india were all molested on trains filled with indian males

i wonder if it's their culture or sth

but definitely..i think women rights need to be protected]


B: lack of a/c can do weird things to ppl
even lky had to acknowledge a/c as the best invention of the 20th c