MEETING FOLKS AND HAVING CONVERSATIONS

I went to an expat holiday party this weekend and met a number of people who are usually outside of my normal social circles. I thought a good blog post would be to record some of these conversations without offering much commentary.

On the way to the party I had to take a fairly long cab ride. Usually I only take a cab ride to work. My ride lasts a few minutes and most of the conversation is me trying to pronounce the street name "Kampong Bahru" in an inteliglble manner. However, both to and from the party I was able to have two contrasting conversations with my cab drivers. On the way there I met a man who was a pensioner and former policeman who worked one day a week and said he made 3K a month (talking about your salary is not as sensitive in Asia). He just kept going on about how much he enjoyed life and was able to take holidays every few years. On the way back from the party I had another cab driver, about the same age, who said that he could only make 1.5 to 2k a month, and he said he had to work about twelve hours a day. He said the only thing that had gotten better in his life after moving from a kampong (village) to HDB flats was that he now had a color television instead of a black and white one.

At the expat party I met two Indian brothers. One of them moved to Singapore seven years ago and the other had just arrived. They both worked in the IT industry. The oldest brother told me that he had lived in Dallas, Texas before, during and after the 9/11 disaster. He told me that America was the greatest place and that he enjoyed life there prior to 9/11. He said that Americans we friendly and that he could not imagine a better life than the one he lived while working for a Texas IT firm. However, after 9/11 he said Americans changed and became fearful of all foreigners. Even though he was a Hindu from India, people still thought that he was a Muslim terrorist. He said people came to his home and smashed out his windows. He said it was the scariest times in his life. He said he called the Dallas police, but they did not show up to his home until six hours after the incident. He even said he tried flying an American flag outside of his home to deter the vandals, but he said his flags were often stolen. Toward the end of our conversation the Indian guy told me about a Sikh that he knew of who was mistakenly shot by police after they thought he was a Muslim terrorist. He said that the irony was that many Sikhs hate Muslims and they often go to war against them. The only thing that the two cultures have in common is that they both wear turbans from time to time.

I met a really nice couple from California, a Fijian and an Indian both with American citizenship, who said that they didn't believe such things would happen in America. Unfortunately, since I am from Missouri and am familiar with the backwoods Missouri types, the Indian man's story does not surprise me.