The One that takes the prize for Lame Excuses.

One smarty pants who decided to name his bar Aushwitz (that's not a typo btw- see the image above), commented to the media, "I picked 'Aushwitz' from a list of pub names I found off the Internet. I did not immediately associate the name with Auschwitz, which I knew was the name of a concentration camp." Yes of course love, your bar sounds like Auschwitz, and the spelling is one letter off, but NOOO one is going to mistake one for the other!


And so once again, we encounter the ugly face of the racist ideologies that exist in this country, and how little is done to educate children/adults about it. First- an idiot called a bus full of kindergartners "Terrorists in Training" and now, this fool shouts his anti-semitic views to the whole world by naming his business after one of the worst concentration camps in human history.


I've seen the type of 'racial harmony' education in schools! I recall being at the Mariamman temple a year ago, where a teacher was pointing out one of the deities (it was the statue of Aravaan), and explaining to a group of some 40 students that this was one of the "Hindu Demons", and that "Hindus practice a lot of demon worship". 


People- this was my second such encounter of the racist kind, in the temple. Go figure.


It was one of the few times I truly lost my temper I must admit. But it was quite a spectacular crushing I had in store for the teacher. :D


So I walked and took my place at the back of the group, intently listening to the other nonsense she was spewing. When she noticed me, she asked me, "Yes what are you doing here?", to which I answered, "Listening to a non-Hindu woman teaching about the practices and beliefs of Hinduism. Its very fascinating, do continue."


She must have picked up on the sarcasm- because she asked me what my problem was. I, who had noticed the crucifix glinting around her neck by that time, said, "Well my problem is this- right now I feel the same way you'd feel if I walked into your church with these children and told them that people come to the Church to worship a ghost and celebrate the brutal and bloody murder of a man."


She turned an interesting shade of puce, and then blurted out, "Well what's wrong with what I said". I just told her that if she needed to ask- she's clearly not qualified to teach children about racial harmony, and Hinduism, and that I'd be writing to her school and the ministry about the matter of her blatant ignorance and passing along that ignorance to impressionable young children.


At this point- she challenged me to teach the class. So I did. I told them the story behind Aravaan, his role on the epic battle between good and evil, and what it teaches us. I told them that Aravan's story is also re-ennacted in Shadow puppet plays in Indonesia, and other parts of Southeast Asia.


I'd like to say the kids were enthralled- and quite a few of them were to be honest, especially when I spoke about the blood sacrifice, and the miracle that allowed Aravan's severed head to watch the war. But after the gory bits were over, most of them started to fidget. At which point I realized she could have said that Hindus turn into were-monkeys at night and eat tiger penises to become human again because they wouldn't have learned anything anyway.


Is it any wonder that people in this country pick up all these strange prejudices. They never listen in classes on racial harmony, and then they form half-baked ideas based on some half-arsed website or forum they read. Or on preconceived notions. Not that the classes are much help to be honest.


Either way everyone is screwed!


I wish racial harmony classes were more open and interactive, and spoke directly about prejudices-- brought them out to them open, examined them, and dismissed them for what they are- prejudice based on myths.


Since that's never going to happen... Sigh- all you unenlightened Singaporeans and Singapore residents. 


Nevertheless, I'm not going to give up on my one woman crusade to educate these uneducated, idiotic masses- a Sisyphean task I admit, but not doing anything would make me angrier, and anger I've found, gives one unnecessary heartburn. ;)


~deviousDiv