Please Give Us the Freedom to Cook Curry in Our Own Homes

I long for my Singapore of the ’60s and ’70s (we were living in Everton Park then). I had a neighbour family of 10 belonging to the Hokkien dialect group, another family of 4 Straits Born Chinese whom we affectionately call Baba, then it was us a Sikh family of 5 and in the corner house a south Indian family of 16 children plus their parents.

Everyday i would play with the younger members of all the families. We would share food on a daily basis. Our mothers did not know which house we would eat at for lunch and dinner. My mum would cook curry everyday and so would our South Indian neighbour. On festive occasions and otherwise too, our Hokkien neighbour would give us children goodies. I have never tasted such delicious Bak Changs anywhere else. No one has been able to cook south Indian dishes the way Amah (that is how we affectionately called all the mothers amongst the neighbours) used to cook. Same goes for the Baba Food. How I long for the love and camaraderie that existed amongst us fellow Singaporeans way back then.

When the foreigners came to Singapore, the Govt did not realise that along with their “talents”, some of them also brought their intolerant and judgmental attitude and some form of hatred, which they obviously practised in their homeland towards their own people, into Singapore.

We have spent so much of taxpayers money on the foreigners to assimilate them into our society. Why couldn’t we have spent the same amount of money on our own Singaporeans who were born and brought up here on this soil to enhance their lives? Couldn’t we have tried way back then to see how we could encourage and motivate our own people to stay in Singapore, to study and work here and to have more children? I am very sure if we had spent these $$$ on Singaporeans instead of these foreigners, we would have been a happier lot. I am sure if we had looked into the issues bothering Singaporeans, we would not have been faced with social disintegration of societal values to this extent. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure this out.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/pacific/36669-give-us-freedom-cook-curry-our.html
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=36669

Some where along the line, the rulers of this country have made serious misjudgements and mistakes and we Singaporeans will now have to bear the brunt of it all. This is just not fair.

This curry issue is just the beginning of a whole chain of ugly incidents that might erupt if it’s left unchecked. Please do something and do not let this issue get out of hand. Be fair to us and give us the freedom to cook curry in our homes.

God bless my country and my curry.

.

Kuldeep Bedi

* This comment was first posted on the thread ‘Outcry against CMC for imposing restrictions on Singapore Indian family eating curry at home’ (http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/08...curry-at-home/).

http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/08...-in-our-homes/

 
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Khalsa ji

One thing in particular I am stuck on here. I don't know enough about the demographics of Singapore. Who are the "foreigners" mentioned in the article who have brought so much hard feeling with them?

Spnadmin ji,

I did an internet search with a few key words from this story. It seems that the family who complained about the curry smell came from the People's Republic of China.

There is a similar situation at my work. Some people don't like the smell of the Asians' cooking in our lunch room. The management has decided (rightly, I think) that we can't tell people what to eat and what not to eat, so if you don't like the smell, too bad for you.