On the spice of curry

A dispute that happened about 6-7 years ago made its way to the news recently. Here is the gist of it: A family from China that has just moved into a HDB flat complained about the intense aroma of curry whenever their Indian neighbour cooks. The disagreement was so heated up that they had to approach a mediator to solve the fiery problem. The dispute was eventually settled with the Indian family agreeing on cooking curry only when their neighbour from China is not at home.

Read the story here:

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110808-0000102/Number-of-neighbour-disputes-hit-high

This story sparked a symbolic retaliation by a group of people on facebook declaring 21 August to be 'cook-a-pot-of-curry' day. To some of my friends from foreign countries, this smells a lot like xenophobia. However, I believe that this is not what this 'cook-a-pot-of-curry' day truly says about us Singaporeans. Firstly, I would like to point out that although curry is largely associated with Indians, it is a dish that is familiar to all the races in the country and despite its strong aroma produced during cooking, it is unlikely for Singaporeans to find offence to the smell of curry, and even if they do, they probably will not go to the extend of having a mediator to express their displeasure in hope of stopping anyone from cooking their curry and eating it. Curry, in a sense, is part of our national identity, along with other foods.

This 'cook-a-pot-of-curry' day is, in fact, a symbolic movement to reiterate what it is to be Singaporean and the culture that we have come to call our own as opposed to being xenophobic despite the growing sentiment against the increasing influx of foreign talents/workers. To justify my assertion, I should first explain that I think most people here will find it difficult to be xenophobic when our forefathers were all immigrants in the first place. Hence, we cannot even call ourselves 'natives' of this land. The biggest difference between us and new foreigners is that we have come to accept a common culture which we call our own, as so do these foreigners in their own country. Sometimes, it is difficult to accept certain parts of a new culture and it is very respectable when a foreigner attempts to adapt to what is convention in this country even if they do not always agree to it (case in point: reserving seats at food courts during meal times).

Why do we have to reiterate what it is to be Singaporean? Well, the huge number of foreigners have a part to play in this. But the crucial motivation for this event may be due to foreigners not agreeing with what is convention in this country and attempting to change it to what they think is palatable. In this case, it sums up to general intolerance towards the Singaporean culture (ok, curry belongs to many different cultures as well). This country is built largely on the premise of tolerance towards people of different races, religion and practices. Perhaps the only thing that cannot be tolerated is intolerance and in this event has its importance in making it known that as much as we embrace the diverse cultures of our visitors, foreign workers/talents, we expect them to do the same for us. And this, is what makes us Singaporeans.