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Communications class is definitely coming to an end and sure enough i have indeed learnt a lot. Our project would be on Dostana, a Bollywood film. After i watched the movie, my impression of Bollywood film took a 360 degree change. It was a cultural shock for me. I can say i was superficial, i just merely threaded the surface with a mere impression that there were only gorgeous girls in the Bollywood scene. Instead of a cheesy storyline i expected, it was infused with humorous quirks and much applauded acting. The movie was shot in Miami and everything was so modern and beautiful. In the show, you can see the difference in culture between India and The States still, where it is frowned upon for a male and female to cohabitant within the same apartment.
What about Singapore? In our society, we live in a multi-racial country where we have learnt to accept the culture of different races and also in turn mixed it together. Culture is also not overtly expressed and we have learnt to have mutual respect, such as we don’t serve pork to our Malay friends and in turn we speak English when we are in a group of different races combined. Because of these traditions over the years, we have learnt to embrace it and it has become a cultural norm . Cultural normseven have implications for the way individuals approach more abstract concepts like time or silence. We may not be conciously aware of their influence, we are generally quick to notice when culturally defined non verbal terms are violated.
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Hello Stranger, 
I must say i’m pretty happy to live in a multi-racial society such as that in Singapore. The absence of societal disparities such as the Apartheid will only result in the growth of a stronger nation. Where else would you see a table seated with people of different races. This value is one which i am proud to have and hope that this value will not one day be skewed to that of many of our western counterparts
Comment by Darryl November 1, 2009 @ 9:16 amI believe that although Singapore appears to be rather void of racism and our country is relatively peaceful with the last racial riot being years and years ago before any of us can care to remember, much of this peace and harmony is merely on the surface and under that, belies a turmoil that many of us know it exists but turn a blind eye to it and pretend it does not exists. Many of us practice what is called ambivalent racism, whereby we have mixed feelings or contradictory ideas. Our external actions and words may promote a harmonious multicultural society, but internally, we all have our prejudices and biases.
Of course we cannot discount the fact that it is rather amazing for so many different types of cultures to live on a small island, crammed together in close proximity, without killing each other off after so many years.
Comment by Marvin Kyle November 1, 2009 @ 1:31 pmi remember watching bollywood films on vasenthem when i was young! but it’s a shame most of us only know at most 2 languages. i think we should make use of this environment to learn more languages. like the dutch. most can speak 3 to 4 languages
Comment by huiying November 1, 2009 @ 1:35 pmHaving lived in a multi-racial country, we have adopted many values that have successfully taught us how to live in harmony. Accepting friends of other races or religion might not be easy, but Singaporeans have overcome it and through many years, there was no major disputes. English, the common language spoke in Singapore also helped one another in understand each other. In schools, there are modules or subjects that teaches us about other races. These all helped us better in this society that we are living in and the government has played a part in making this happen
Comment by chewwwwww November 1, 2009 @ 1:37 pmI’m glad to be living in a multi racial country as i’ve many friends of other races and i’m able to learn some of their culture and share mine with them too. As compared to other countries,we are fortunate that there is no racism against the other races in Singapore. We’ve learnt our lesson from past experiences and living in harmony is the best thing ever!
Comment by chailing November 1, 2009 @ 1:53 pmTo say singapore is ‘peaceful’ and void of racial tensions are definetly unfounded claims. Latent tensions i should say, are ready to manifest itself into conflicts anytime. As our actions and behaviours, are shaped by our prejudices and biasness(as much as we try to deny it) against one another. The only thing that is preventing us from airing our racial/religious views are the conservative laws imposed on us
Comment by Ben Chew November 1, 2009 @ 2:16 pmyeah and it’s important that we learn how to live and have this mutual respect for the other races. with this, we can stand firm as a nation and stay strong socially.
Comment by rachrach November 1, 2009 @ 2:24 pmindeed i am glad that majorities of us singaporeans have decent level of respect for other races and that enables a harmonious relationship among each other. without this, peace will never be attained here.
Comment by Bryan November 1, 2009 @ 4:42 pmFrom what I saw from your group’s presentation, Dostana looks like a great movie, but I’m starting to wonder if it’s because of Hollywood influence and that it’s not like a typical Bollywood film.
Anyway, considering how in other countries there are continuous clashes and conflicts between people of different races and religions, it’s pretty amazing how Singapore can maintain the peace so well. I think it’s mainly to do with the fact that most topics that can potentially incite racial and religious tension is considered taboo and public discussion of it is highly restricted. That, in a sense, is restricting freedom of speech, but it helps keep the peace.
Comment by Chander November 6, 2009 @ 8:46 am1 of the good thing the government ever did: Introduced Racial Harmony Day. But you do see ‘rude’ citizens , openly ostracizing a race diff from them. Wonders whether they were educated enough in Singapore by the schools if not, by just living here among the different ethnics. aint that exposure enough? also, funny too how some of us even ostracized our own race but from a different country. Go figure. 🙂
Comment by Dewi November 6, 2009 @ 5:50 pm