#SG50: Celebrating a multicultural Singapore

Rica Facundo

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'While Filipinos fixate on using language or skin color as our national identifier, Singaporeans, proudly celebrate their multicultural society'

Every year the thunderous sound of F-16 jets soaring over parade grounds reverberates across Singapore, counting down the days to the highly anticipated National Day celebration. There’s a momentary period of silence, as the citizens below look up to the skies in awe of this grand, aerial salute to the nation. (READ: Singapore turns 50 with huge parade, tribute to Lee Kuan Yew

For locals, hearts swell with pride and love for the country they know as home, which despite its tiny size has accomplished colossal feats in the last 50 years.

But for foreigners and expats like me who call Singapore home at a certain time in our lives, ours is a different story.

SG50 CELEBRATION. A firework display over the Singapore skyline during the National Day Parade celebrations, Singapore 09 August 2015. Photo by Tom White/EPA

Inevitably intertwined

While we may not be connected to Singapore by blood or race, our histories are inevitably intertwined. I may not be Singaporean, but without the vision and leadership of the late Lee Kuan Yew, who knows if I or thousands of other OFWs would find ourselves living here. I too can’t help but reflect how this country, for all its endearing idiosyncrasies, continues to shape me – from my ever-growing love of hawker food and tendency to use Singlish slang, to how I view the Philippines. (READ: #SG50: ‘Philippines can succeed like Singapore

It’s all too easy to compare Singapore and the Philippines, which at times seems like a stark contrast, a study in opposites: first world versus third world; the least versus most emotional country in the word; manmade power versus abundant natural resources; a censored media versus freedom of press; a small island state versus a vast archipelago.

But from this constant state of comparison emerges a particular kind of insight, or global-local observations that are nakedly apparent for those living in close proximity to home.

The ‘insight pasalubong’

I once dubbed this “insight pasalubong (gift)” or in other words, the newly informed points of view we bring home from our experiences abroad. It can go either way – complaints about what the Philippines is lacking, or critical yet constructive recommendations about how to harness our nation’s potential. Since moving to Singapore 3 years ago, my aim is to imbue the latter, a way for me to give back and build the nation beyond my monthly OFW remittance.

When I left Manila, my baggage was heavy with questions regarding the Philippine identity. And it was my time spent in Singapore that provided the exposure I needed to review traditional constructs of home from a different angle.

While Filipinos fixate on using language or skin color as our national identifier, Singaporeans proudly celebrate their multicultural society. Due to our complex history of colonization, role as a trading port, and formation as an archipelago, diversity is ingrained in our culture. Whether or not we choose to embrace it is a different story.

Paving new roads to progress.

Singapore, as one of Asia’s most envied global hubs, has shown me that globalization will continue paving the way to progress; where the reality of mixed-race couples and immigrants-turned-permanent residents will often cause cultures to collide, moving if not jarring us to look at the world we thought we knew otherwise.

Looking back, I realize my quest to understand what one’s national identity was just the starting point to more insight pasalubongs – from the plight of foreign domestic workers, dealing with racial stereotypes to income inequalities between Filipinos and their local counterparts.

Certainly, living in Singapore has forced me to observe and question with a more discerning eye and open mind. The next time you travel to Singapore or move to a new country, what insight pasalubongs will you have? Perhaps, yours may one day give us more causes to celebrate, with or without fighter jets in the skies. – Rappler.com 

Rica is a “foreign Filipina,” born in Indonesia, raised in the Philippines, and now working in Singapore. She writes beyond the border, about experiencing the world with foreign eyes and with local heart. Follow her adventure on ForeignFilipina.com,Outandabroad.com as well as on Twitter and Instagram.

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