More equal than others

Floods a freak event, or could we have tracked it?

IT IS heartening to learn from Wednesday’s report, ‘Work to expand canals next year’, that PUB intends to take concrete steps in the wake of what was described as ‘an extraordinarily intensive storm on Nov 19′. I hope this will go at least some way to relieve the anxiety of residents in the flood-prone Bukit Timah area.

Although we are into the annual monsoon period when heavy rain is only to be expected, it does seem strange that with all the sophisticated tracking technology now available to meteorologists, there was no advance warning of this ‘extraordinarily intensive storm’ for the public to prepare themselves adequately.

The report informs that ‘this flood comes three years after one of Singapore’s worst floodings in recent history, in December 2006′.

However, this appears to conflict with the comment attributed to the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim (‘Deluge a ‘once in 50 years’ event’, last Saturday) that this was a ‘freak’ event.

I recall from memory that friends living in a two-storey house in Carlisle Road had to evacuate to the upper floor when there was more than 1m of water downstairs – this would have been in 1969. Again in 1979, I was caught along Dunearn Road in a car with the water more than 1m above road level, leaving many cars stalled. Arguably, anyone who had any personal experience would be inclined to believe his was the worst.

As the weather appears to be at the whims and fancy of Mother Nature, it will be intriguing to see how far the ingenuity of man will be able to keep its destructive forces at bay.

Narayana Narayana

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I laugh when I read news like this. Singapore pulls out the stops to woo foreigners, plans for every contingency and caters to their every whim. APEC, F1 to name 2 recent ones.

But when it comes to something as perennial as monsoon floods, the government still can’t get it right. Worse still, reports suggest that the NEA(?)/PUB(?)/god knows who in the usual government body ping-pong already knew of the problem and that they would “accelerate” the schedule only after the flood occurred. I guess stuff happens only when the shit hits the fan.

This strikes me as yet another indictment of Singapore’s government bodies and civil servants. The typical frame of mind of civil servants I’ve met is to coast on autopilot until shit happens or their bosses shoot arrows. When problems arise they either sit on it or endure it, instead of facing the problem directly. Perhaps in a view not to offend people or higher-ups, especially when the problems were created by lousy planning (by the same higher-ups) or from lack of proper collaboration and consultation by the team, usually because when the boss says so, rank and file cannot say otherwise. That to me is a sickness, a rot in any organisation.

One that does not appear to be curable anytime soon.

Winning over minds

The new McCarthyism: Fort Hood shooting may be exploited to cast Muslims as innately un-American
05:55 AM Nov 10, 2009IN ALL likelihood, the Fort Hood shooting will be logged as yet further evidence that Muslims are a dangerous fifth column that simply cannot be trusted in the West. Why? Because the shooter appears to be a Muslim. Worse: A Muslim of Arab origin.

It is interesting to see how the media reported on this tragedy – immediately, questions were posed about the shooter’s ethnicity and religion: Implicitly making clear that such things were not just relevant to the story, but probably causal factors.

The fact that he was born and raised on American soil is irrelevant. Some may declare: “Well, of course it’s because he was an Arab Muslim that he did this!” Others may just secretly harbour such feelings – but all of them forget about people like John Russell and William Kreutzer.

Both were sergeants in the United States military. Russell shot dead five soldiers a few months ago at Camp Liberty in Baghdad; Kreutzer went on a shooting spree at Fort Bragg in the US, killing one, and injuring 18. Neither case received the same amount of media attention as this case is likely to – and in neither did any reputable journalist draw attention to the killer’s religion or ethnicity.

Why? Because those two individuals were not Muslims, and they were not Arabs.

At this point, we simply do not know why the shooter at Fort Hood did what he did. But here is what we do know: Muslim Americans number anything from 3 million to 6 million.

We know that, even without any evidence linking Islam to this tragedy, Muslim organisations denounced the killing, rejecting point blank any connection to religion. We know that around 20,000 Muslims serve in the US military, and their loyalty to the US is unquestioned.

And we also know that people on the far right (and probably on the left as well), will use this sad turn of events to yet again “prove” that Muslim Americans are simply not American. They are merely interlopers on American soil who must be suspected and pulled aside for random checks at airports.

The authorities will take swift action against this man, as well they should. But American society at large must also take swift action against those who use these events to justify a new type of McCarthyism – one that focuses not on communists, but “the Muslims”.

I would like to say that I believe American democracy and American values are sufficient to withstand the temptation to fall into such a predictable trap, which will cause the likes of Al Qaeda to rub their hands in glee – for obviously this is what such extremists want in the first place.

But I am not so sure. I hope America proves my doubts are ill-placed.

In the meantime, Muslim Americans should be aware that their situation will become more, not less, challenging. That’s not to say they should change what they are doing – on the contrary, they should keep doing it, and do more of it. Muslim Americans are incredibly loyal to their country – and show it every day through their organisations, their work, their uniquely Islamic-American culture.

That sort of work is what non-Muslim Americans need to realise is normative and well rooted with Muslim American communities. That sort of work is real – and it will go on beyond this tragedy. But Muslim Americans and non-Muslim Americans alike need to be prepared to defend American pluralism against those who would sacrifice it on the altar of political expediency.

Source

An interestingly written article on the Fort Hood shooting episode which has again put the spotlight on Muslims and Islam. This episodes puts in stark contrast our very own military policy in the SAF regarding Malay Muslims. It has been an oft-held notion that Malay Muslims are bypassed for key appointments as it would be “tricky”. Afterall, MM LKY once said, “If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who’s very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine gun unit, that’s a very tricky business. We’ve got to know his background.”

It wasn’t until the SAF got its first Malay Muslim BG that the notion was dispelled, or was it? If BG Ishak is truly OIC of training, then the myth/truth will likely persist. It is interesting to delve into SAF’s policies to determine exactly how the SAF manages the very same sentiments that American Muslims are feeling right now. Granted, I really doubt that any Singaporean Malay Muslim would ever be in the same shoes as Major Nidal Malik Hasan, as a counsellor for the war-wounded, so understandably the SAF or any Malay Muslim serving in the SAF would truly appreciate what went on in the major’s head. Naturally I’m not privy to the SAF’s policies and I doubt the SAF would be coming forward anytime soon.

The problem for me is, no matter how many media moderates or religious leaders come out to speak in defence of the community and Islam, the damage has been irrevocably done. No one questions the religion of any say white American or Chinese Singaporean when they commit acts of insanity. The sad and ugly truth is, in the eyes of most non-Muslims, even moderates themselves, we have already formed a mental cast of Islam, exactly like how most humans would react positively to encountering a pretty teenage girl walking towards them in a dark alley, as opposed to to say a young man with spiky gelled hair and sporting tattoos. The wiring of our collective (non-Muslim) brains has been reconfigured to react instinctively and negatively to such stories and thus the associations (ie Islam).

As it is right now, how our collective brains have been wired to instinctively despise corporate bankers, investment brokers and Osama Bin Laden. How did we come to this?