[ghshephard]

The riot in Little India was almost unique in this country's history (which says a lot), and, it's important to note, happened after someone was run over by a bus, was predominantly not involving singaporeans (mostly foreign workers), and involved a lot of alcohol.

They've had (multiple) Riots in Vancouver (though, usually involving Hockey, but also alcohol). I don't find that an indictment on Vancouver.

But, yes, I do agree, it's pretty clear that you don't want to discuss politics, and certainly don't want to get involved in them if you are a foreigner.

[crdoconnor]

>The riot in Little India was almost unique in this country's history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_race_riots_in_Singapore

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_race_riots_of_Singapore

You do realize that one of the core reasons the country EXISTS as a separate entity (kicked out of Malaysia) was because of race riots, don't you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_singapore#Racial_te...

I don't even know of any other countries where race riots have played a greater role in the country's history.

Unique indeed.

>it's important to note, happened after someone was run over by a bus, was predominantly not involving singaporeans (mostly foreign workers), and involved a lot of alcohol.

It's important to note that the itinerant foreign workers are treated like shit and the reason they rioted was because the ambulance took forever and the guy who was ran over was dead by the time it came.

Alcohol was simply the fuel for the anger created by that.

But yea, racial harmony and all that.

[seanmcdirmid]

They promote harmony heavily in china (racial but mostly class-based), to the point that it has become somewhat of a joke: are you a harmonious river crab (和谐, 河鞋) or rebellious grass mud horse (...)?

Singapore is famous for the extreme of this, and the scary thing is it is China's main role model.

[disputin]

Grass mud horse - I went to Wikipedia, thought I was going to see an animal: The Grass Mud Horse or Cǎonímǎ (草泥马), is a Chinese Internet meme widely used as a form of symbolic defiance of the widespread Internet censorship in China. It is a play on the Mandarin language words cào nǐ mā (肏你妈), literally, "fuck your mother"

[venus]

The fact that you had to go back to the 60s to find a similar incident helps the GP's point, not yours.

And do you have any supporting evidence for your claim that migrant labourers are any worse off in SG than they would be elsewhere, including their home countries? I had believed they were pretty well treated.

> the ambulance took forever and the guy who was ran over was dead by the time it came

Wonder how long it would have taken in India.

[crdoconnor]

>The fact that you had to go back to the 60s to find a similar incident helps the GP's point, not yours.

Not especially. Those riots were huge, vastly influential in the country's history and, according to the GP, non-existent.

They are the reason why the government hyperfocused on "racial harmony" ever since.

>And do you have any supporting evidence for your claim that migrant labourers are any worse off in SG than they would be elsewhere

Are you saying that because they would be killed by horrendously unsafe working conditions in Qatar that they should consider themselves lucky?

>I had believed they were pretty well treated.

No, they are explicitly third class citizens - kept in dormitories, bussed around on the back of trucks, banned from public places when their appearances there becomes 'unsightly'.

They are only treated well compared to Middle Eastern hellholes like Dubai, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

>Wonder how long it would have taken in India.

This is disturbingly similar to the rhetoric made during segregation in 1950s America: "the blacks have it better here than they would back home in Africa. Shut up.".

[frankchn]

> The fact that you had to go back to the 60s to find a similar incident helps the GP's point, not yours.

The other fact that one of the examples was in 1964 - Singapore only became an independent country in 1965 - probably didn't help either.

[nubela]

It is unique because it is caused by cheap labour who are not integrated, imported by the big G.

[lazylizard]

singapore's idea of '$harmony' is 'lets not go there..' -> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OB_marker