More than we can chew

Ngiam Tong Dow said that we may become strangers in our home. Don't worry, we are already strangers in some part of the island. Walking through Chinatown or Geylang makes me feel that I am no longer in Singapore. No need to mention Little India. We are becoming a minority in some parts of our homeland. I forgot to mention The Sail and many high end residential estates and Orchard Road. And we are hearing calls on how to integrate the foreigners into our society. Maybe a more practical way is to integrate ourselves into the ways of the foreigners. The docile, nondescript, voiceless and faceless Singaporeans are as good as non existing other than be a digit in the big number games. The newcomers are the ones doing the talking and telling us what we should do to be like them or else.... And according to a 19 year resident PR, Atul Temurnikar, '...failure to integrate newcomers can post political problems, the way it has done in some European countries.' It is an early warning. Europe is big. Each of the European state is much bigger than we are, in physical territory and population, and the problems they are facing with their migrants are mounting. Could we tackle these same problems when our time comes? Maybe we can if we grind the numbers in our calculators. It is all a number game and with money, nothing is impossible. I enjoy the way the $10m integration fund and campaign is being turned into a joke. Maybe it really is.