Each time Mr Seelan Palay has had to fill in the “race” column in application forms, he feels “awkward”. “I’ve cultivated a practice of avoiding to fill it in completely, and many of my friends do the same,” he says in a brief interview with The Online Citizen (TOC).
Mr Seelan feels so strongly that “race” should be removed from the NRIC, an identification card which all Singaporeans carry, that he has started a Facebook group asking others to support the call. The Facebook group currently has 710 members.
A member of the newly-formed non-governmental organization, Singaporeans for Democracy (SFD) (website, Facebook group) headed by Dr James Gomez, Mr Seelan is not new to being at the forefront of championing causes. His latest endeavour saw him and his group make representation to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for Racism on 22 April 2010. At the meeting, SFD raised the issue of having “race” removed from the identity card (IC).
The Facebook group “will form part SFD’s efforts to monitor the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Racism who will present his findings on Singapore before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva (in June 2011) and the UN General Assembly in New York (in November 2011),” it says on its information page.
Dr Gomez says on the Facebook group: “I believe the removal of ‘race’ from the Singaporean IC, will help us move one step closer to a Singaporean Singapore and faciliate a more genunie multiculturalism. And I will be prepared to defend this position electorally.”
Here’s TOC’s brief email interview with Mr Seelan on the issue:
TOC: Why do you feel ‘race’ should be removed from the NRIC?
Seelan: It removes the psychological barrier on “race issues” and releases a latent feeling many Singaporeans have to be together and to share our common identity. It would also be good to take note of migrant societies like Australia, Canada and the US where more national identity is stressed.
TOC: Are there any personal reasons or personal encounters which you have experienced which makes you start this initiative? Could you share them with our readers? As a member of the Indian community in S’pore, have you encountered any discriminatory practices, particularly from govt depts or the civil service, for example?
Seelan: My personal encounters with Singaporeans young and old show that there are positive views about removing such social classifications to build a better society in Singapore, and that is the main reason I’ve started this initiative. To show that there are people from all walks of life who share this sentiment.
As for discrimination from official channels, I definitely feel awkward when I have to fill in the “race” column in application forms. I’ve cultivated a practice of avoiding to fill it in completely, and many of my friends do the same. There are also other factors like the HDB’s racial quota and the GRC system, but as I’ve mentioned above, the main reason for this project is to build a better society.
TOC: What is the main goal or end-goal of the initiative? A more inclusive society? A race-blind society?
Seelan: The main goal of this initiative is help create a truly Singaporean Singapore, something which a certain octogenarian claimed he’d create. But we might be well aware of his views on Race, Culture & Genes by now.
Beyond Facebook, Singaporeans For Democracy (SFD) will also be present at the UN Rapporteur’s press conference tomorrow (TOC note: The press conference was held in April 2010), where it will launch a monitoring committee. The committee will be headed by Dr James Gomez and will issue a reply to the Rapporteur’s findings.
TOC: What’re your views on the recent changes whereby the govt is allowing parents/S’poreans to choose their race to be included on their NRIC/birth certs as a result of mixed marriages?
Seelan: The changes only go to show how ineffective and complicated such classifications can be, so its best to remove the classification altogether.
TOC: What do you think of the consequences on security matters? Such as, the police would be better able to identify a person if his race was known to them, for example.
Seelan: International crime investigation practices have progressed quite a bit, if anyone in the Government has been watching CSI at the very least. There are face recognition systems and forensic DNA analysis which are far more efficient.
And even if someone identifies a suspect as looking “Chinese”, how would that information be of any use to the police if its printed on the suspect’s identity card which the police don’t have in the first place?
HELP keep the voice of TOC alive!
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Wow, seems like Singaporeans could kill in defense of ‘race’. Sigh.
I thought we make it to the top solely through our individual hard work.
Someone quoted Lao Tze on leadership in the other discussion and I thought how beautiful and that is exactly how I would like to think of leaders. But I am not Chinese. Am I mistaken to be attracted to Lao Tze? This is our Singapore dilemma and I think such burden of race is totally unnecessary. Its not in the name – its in the false boundary that race imposes.
Should anti-discrimination legislation be passed sometime in the future, removing race from the IC would effectively prevent such legislation from being enforced. Officially, France does not recognize race or ethnicity in its population; everyone is simply French. This also means that officially, there is little that can be done to tackle racism (in job hiring practices, in the workplace, etc), which is rampant in the country. Removing official racial / ethnic categories does not mean that such categories will just disappear socially, as everyone on this board naively thinks they will.
Hey I’m NOT racist, but I’m PROUD of my race! Some days when I’m bored I would make a mental list ranking different RACES.
There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with this. We should embrace our DIFFERENCES!
Sincerely,
Anonymous
To Dr Syed Alwi,
I think you’re very convieniently lumping “race” together with religion.
From your viewpoint, I can understand where your cultural and religion stand stems. But do consider the following.
1) “Race” isn’t synonymous with Culture.
Culture consists of practices and beliefs passed down from generation to generation. True enough, this is done within collective groups (“race”), but let’s not forget others who choose to embrace a different culture from the social norm. A caucasian man growing up in a chinese community, a chinese girl growing up in a malay community, etc.
2) “Race” isn’t synonymous with Religion.
Granted that most, if not all ethnic malays in singapore are Muslims. But what of the non-muslim Malay? The Indian-Muslim? Inter-racial marriages resulting in the adoption of religion?
The world is slowly, but surely mixing; the giant melting pot of ethnicities, cultures and faith. Accepting this inevitability doesn’t mean discarding and disregarding your culture; it give us a clearer understanding that what we’re made of isn’t attributed to the rigid classification of race, but the cultures and beliefs we hold so dearly.
Maybe one day, we’ll no longer be judged by the color of our skins, but by the content of our characters.
Anonymous, you are not racist, but you RANK people from entire races based, I suppose on one or two selectively taken examples – how scientific!. Who do you think believes that you are not a racist? How do you actually rank races? From the usual white supremacist standards of whitest on top, followed by the next ‘whitest’ (ie. yellow) and black at the bottom?
Bottom line: There isn’t a single benefit from having race on the IC.
Put in something useful like height, skin tone and shoe size.
If you know I’m Chinese, you don’t learn much. However if you know I’m 1.74m tall, have yellow-brown skin and wear shoe size 10, you’ll have a much better mental image of who I am.
Hi Dr Alwi,nice to have you back.
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An example, using the American context, we do know that its population composition consists of a very diverse range of people who come from just as diverse a range of nationalities, yet, they are all identified first and foremost as Americans, regardless of their racial, cultural and religious mix.
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No matter how we identify each ethnic and racial group that makes up the American people, they are still identified first as Americans.
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Your worry that there should not be a Singaporean Singapore, based on the cultural, racial and religious practices of the Muslims cannot therefore be a point of contention if the desire is to create a Singaporean Singapore identity.
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We can be identified as Singaporean first, and then to go ahead and practice or observe whatever we want.
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If we are to go into every detail of race, culture and religion, then you are right that we will never get there, if our desire is to create a Singaporean Singapore.
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However, I believe it is good to work toward a Singaporean Singapore so that we can each be given a chance to pursue our interests without race, religion and cuture being stumbling blocks.
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By Singaporean Singapore, I take it to mean a people identified by his Singaporean nationality over his race, culture, religion and ethnic composite identity.
Race is a very specific type of poltical technology. It produces a very specific way of thinking about difference – that difference is ‘naturally given’ therefore to cross racial line is to go against nature. When used, it is extended to take for granted that culture, religion, language etc actually
have a biological basis.
It is a potent politial schema to perpetuate thinking about differences in such a way that we think we do not have to learn anything about others and others have nothing worthy to give us because of the mistaken idea that our culture is natural to us.
Race on IC is irrelevant in today’s context. Nobody is denying their race here (even if there is such a metaphor). Having a religion is more appropriate since many of us live our life based on religious dogma. It helps to know one is a Muslim/Christian/Jews etc so as to guide others his preference when it comes to food/prayer/burial. I believe all of us are different purely on language and customs. Only by communicating with each other do we draw bridges so as to dissipate misunderstanding as we move into the moderate territory. Differences exist, live with it!
PAP is a super race, we are lesser mortals. The famiLee are superior beings. Lee Almighty deserves all honor and glory. All hail the PAP. Ten Thousand years.
That clip that was put up – ‘nong nong time ago’. My first reaction is I can identify with that. Nicely made. But no sooner, doubt hovers in my mind – what’s the agenda here? Is it racial? If not, why is hard work and the building up of Singapore presented only through those frames and those selected images? This is what I have become in the current Singapore environment. I want to enjoy and identify ‘nong nong time ago’ without having to second guess the intention behind it. I am ashamed to voice my protest because I know that I have become a failed human being. I am saddened by this. If you can’t understand me, don’t bother comment.
Linda P, don’t preach open-mindedness when you yourself are ignorant to the fact that Halal food is only available in Singapore and Malaysia. For your info, halal certified food is available in most other foreign countries. The fact that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world will make halal food more accessible in the future. Don’t you know that you can even get Halal food in China?
Most of the arguments against the FB group seem to be variations of “it’s not going to change anything, so why bother?”
I agree, nothing will change overnight. Removing ‘Race’ from our ICs will not magically erase racial tensions and intolerance in Singapore. But it is a small step in the right direction. A step that needs to be taken, even if we might not get to see the results of this action in our lifetime.
Other arguments make it sounds as if authorities will suddenly become ‘blur’ without this info on our IC. Please tell me then, how countries such as the USA and UK manage to do it with their multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-religious societies? They don’t even have such a thing as a National Identity Card!
The final argument seems to be that it’s too much bother to issue new ICs to everyone. The solution is as simple as leaving it out of our kids ICs in future. This doesn’t cost anything.
So far there has been NO convincing argument as to why ‘race’ should be included on our ICs. Will we suddenly forget or forsake our respective cultures and heritage because we are no longer labelled as such on our ICs? No.
Will excluding it eradicate racism in Singapore? No.
But our government has recently claimed it wished its people identified themselves as Singaporeans first rather than along racial lines. So why still divide and categorize us according to race? It may have been needed as a tool in the past for their social engineering schemes, is it needed any longer?
This is a Malaysian ad, but it is appropriate for Singaporeans as well. Please watch it and then explain to me why ‘race’ need to be on my IC again?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgvbrL4xGys
stop equating islam to malay is a start. and no compulsion in islam means a muslim can marry anyone outside his religion and they don’t have to raise muslim children either. these children must be given the freedom of choice to choose their religion and discrimination by decree as a belief system should be challenged. they should not be born into a belief system that leaves them entrenched battling race/religion classification. duh.
I disagree with comments stating there is no need to identify race.
One example is the number of halal eating places. If government does not have data on how many muslims are in Singapore and their distribution, how does one ensure that halal food sellers are sufficient in those localities?
I agree with Syed Alwi’s comments in those regard. I also agree that this is really a “for show” suggestion. Better to focus on real racial impact policies eg housing ethnic integration, GRC representation, self help identification rather than sound-bites.
lim,
halal food is dependent on RELIGION, not race.
As for the rest, I agree with you. Focus on places where it makes a difference.
Thanks for the clarification. Most malays to me are muslims but I failed to take into account that there are a number of indian muslims so I stand corrected. Perhaps the example was inappropriate.
The intent is to highlight that such data may not be useless as indicated.
Look people, the Malay community is more than 90 % Muslim and in Malaysia, to be a Malay – one must also be Muslim.
In a multicultural, multi-religious setting such as ours, some form of classification is needed because of the different cultural and religious needs and practices.
If you do not classify according to race but choose to classify according to religion – then what difference does it make ? Discrmination based on religion instead of race perhaps ?
At the end of the day – PRAGMATISM rules. We can never ever be a Singaporean Singapore. BUT we can certainly show UNITY IN DIVERSITY. Binneka Ike Tunggal – Unity In Diversity.
lim,
of course the data is not useless. Not sure what exact it would useful for in the national sense, but for business part, it would definitely be useful, since a customer’s behavior is shaped by culture (much more dependent on race) as much as religion. e,g when you subscribe / buy new phone, they photostate your IC. Thus, gaining a picture of who likes what types of phones (if it shows any trend, that is)
I would push the barrier to state that if the significant majority of Singapore society were race blind, would the Government dare to continue race-based policies?
One can’t even argue that its right vs popular.
Hand to my heart, I don’t think Singapore society itself has become race blind, though the trend is towards that. It may take decades, centuries even or may not happen at all.
Looking at the US experience, its been over a hundred years since the civil war. Has US become race blind? I don’t think so.
To lobo76,
And what is the point of finding out which race likes what type of phone? Is it for one of those useless racial profiling exercises? Or some sinister racial stereotyping? “Hey, he’s Indian/Malay/Chinese. I’m sure he won’t go for the more fancy and expensive iPhone/Blackberry/HTC (just using a random example, no offence to anyone).”
What use is that? It only causes us to prejudge people’s behaviour and preference along racial lines (most times not in a good way). The last thing I need is for someone else to tell me what I am expected to like/dislike because of my race.
It may be true, removing race from the IC won’t make racism go away, but it’s still a step away from institutionalised racism and towards greater equality.
People are forgetting one important aspect here as more voices are being projected here either for removal or stating there is no point in removing the race on the IC.
This is not going to dramatically change anything soon in a place like Singapore but it is a step taken to the direction of bigger racial issues like many have highlighted discrimination on jobs,HDB ect.. which would indicate we are moving more to a Singapore which actually address issues of minority group instead of just agreeing with everything the government tells us to do be it justified in some political way.
I would like to know the reasons for people who raise the point that race should not be taken out? what are the advantages of it being there in the first place besides the financial argument of it being too expensive for the gov to change it.
I would like to share this article for readers who are interested in reading it “Rights and culture in the Asian Values Argument: The Rise and fall of confucian Ethics in Singapore” by Neil A. Englehart HRQ 22 (2000)
It will give you some light to scholar’s view on our system.
Certain races are prone to certain illness and dieseases. Doing away with race identification may actually hinder the development of medical breakthroughs that ultimately benefit the individual races.
Anyways, the removal of race identification from our national records will merely be a token exercise, in places like the USA and Australia while they may not require anyone to record their race, and a name like “Susan Hamilton” could be either black or white, it did nothing to prevent racism. For Singapore, it’s a laughable pursuit because our racial identity is written all over our faces, and our names. A racist employer will be able to pick out who he wants to interview just by looking at the names.
skipper,
And what is the point of finding out which race likes what type of phone?
The point, is that it forms the basis of an entire marketing campaign around a new product/product type.
by the way, you are doing it the wrong way around. It’s not he is (insert race) so I choose this product to sell.
it’s I got this product, who should I be spending 80% of my time/effort/money trying to market to (heard of the 80/20 theory?).
Is race a way for me to identify the target market? (Race might NOT be, but you won’t know until you have data).
Maybe because Malays have usually have bigger family groups, my phone which doubles as a walkie talkie would be really suitable for them. Thus, my advertisements should be on Malay Newspaper/channel.That’s where I would allocate 80% of marketing budget. The rest would go into others, which I might or might not hit a big family group that is none Malay.
What’s in a name?
Many would cross over if you subsume rights, privileges, handouts, entitlements, etc. under a apecific race.
In Malaysia 1 000s have change race from say, Indian Muslim, Indonesian Muslim, Middle Eastern Muslim, Turkish Muslim, Bosnian Muslim, etc., to “Malay”. All one needs is to satify 3 conditions (1) embrace Islam (2) speak Malay and (3) practise the Maly culture & traditions. It’s that simple.
James Gomez and Mr Seelanare championing the elimination of race. Correct me if I’m wrong. Indians are in fact the most sensitive and race conscious people on the planet. Look at India for example. The caste system (though officially outlawed in India is still widely practised by Indian societies). It psychic & it’s in their blood if I may say so.
Perhaps, they re advocating the majority here shd remove their 5 000 year-old identity?
Perhaps we shd all do a Michael Jackon as the last resort to bleach ourselves?
So what’s wrong calling a spade a spade so long as we treat each other respectfully and lawfully and not majority-legislate & practise apartheid like in some neighbouring country.
These activists are attention seekers…and we are giving them what they want…so to summarize the issue at hand : Nothing will be changed on our identity cards. period.
Not so easy to identify just from looks these days. Eurasian, mixed marriages compound the difference.
Lobo,
You have highlighted a very valid point by way of clarification and I thiank you for that.
However, marketing is about maximising profits. Why should I make it easier for companies to realise higher profits? Neither the individual nor the government is obliged to facilitate that.
To Tom Jones’ comment: I didn’t know one could change one’s race in Malaysia. I was under the impression you are stuck with whatever race you were born with.
In Singapore we have comedian Siva Choy who insists he should be Chinese (though he was born ethnic Indian) simply because of his character, attitude and cultural upbringing. Which throws the question into debate: what exactly is race? How does one define it?
The Singaporean Tamils of Sri Lankan descent abhorr the notion of being tagged as “Indian” as an ethnic group, although for all practical purpose their language, culture, religion etc are identical to their brethren who hail from Tamil Nadu. So what should their race be? Sri Lankan? But that’s not a race, that’s a nationality. Or Ceylonese maybe. But the term “Ceylon” is really the old name for Sri Lanka and is not in currency. So Ceylonese and Sri Lankan basically mean the same thing.
A lot of Muslims of Indian origin I know have trouble identifying themselves as Indians. They prefer to be called Muslims as if that’s a race.
Why am I bringing up these issues? Just trying to bring up the problems with racial identity and why we are better off without racial tagging. For one thing, it is not as easy as one would think to define race. Moreover, all this racial tagging tends to separate people along ethnic lines and is not conducive to nation building. We are already a tiny nation; having it splintered into disparate and tiny cliques/clans doesn’t help.
The United Colours of Singapore wants to be rebranded as Mauve….har har har !
To Skipper (better don’t be one cos you know nuts)
To Tom Jones’ comment: I didn’t know one could change one’s race in Malaysia. I was under the impression you are stuck with whatever race you were born with.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -
In Malaysia, the Malay population is defined by Article 160 of the Malaysian Constitution as someone born to a Malaysian citizen who professes to be a Muslim, habitually speaks the Malay language, adheres to Malay customs, and is domiciled in Malaysia or Singapore. This definition is loose enough to include people of a variety of ethnic backgrounds, and it therefore differs from the anthropological understanding of what constitutes an ethnic Malay. This understanding of the meaning of “Malay” in Malaysia has led to the creation of an ethnoreligious identity,[1] where it has been suggested that a Malay cannot convert out of Islam as illustrated in the Federal Court decision in the case of Lina Joy.[2] As of 2004, Malays made up an estimated 64.5% of the population of Malaysia. It is predicted that this proportion will rise due to birth rates higher than other ethnic groups.
Now we know why the so-called Malaysian Malays are assorted (though not of religion) eg Mamakthir (Indian), Syed Albar (Arab), Krishanmmuddin (Turk), Najib (Bugis, Indonesian), etc. “MALAY” IS A CONSTITUTIONAL CALSSIFICATION BY THE MAJORITY UMNO PARLIMENTARIANS.
The biggest joke on hindsight is that the 280 million Indonesians (minus the Christians & Buddhists) can technically become Malaysian Malays if they continue to migrate there since time immemorial.
Race is sacrosanct.
One is born into it.
Eskimo, Irish, Turk, Chinese, English, Scot, etc.
Unless the race is conquered like the Manchurian (now Chinese) or too insignificant to count as a race (eg Ceylonese Tamil) then it’s okay to not have it and in the process advocate others to drop theirs.
Logical?
After dropping race, what’s next?
As someone said earlier – Bleach the skin like Michael Jackson?
In the world’s freeist democracy which many here hope to follow, Americans like their patrol cars are labelled Black or White. Now colored (mixed race). You can’t miss this on American TVs when they call suspects Blacks, Whites, etc.
Get real lah . . .
I’m chinese end of story..singapore is a city ..therefore that’s a need to identify people according to their race.
If the ‘race’ is removed from the NRIC,then one fine days we will see that our descendents will not know where their ancesters are from,they will lost their cultural roots,they will think that they are Ang Mo and will start calling themselves Koyce and Gerrod etc .They will think English is their mother tongue and start to look down on their own races who cannot speak their language.
So I am strongly against the idea.
Seelan Palay and James Gomes – you have my respect for daring to do what some of these deluded rationalists and hypocrite oppositions are not capable of. I may not agree that that the race name is the problem, thus I may not agree with you tactically but I will definitely not be supporting the wannabe Mahathir-LKY who, even before they get anywhere, preaches the necessary evil. What they would not do to rationalise their bigotry I shudder to think. Bravo Palay and Gomes.
Agongkia,
ask Lobo(tomy)and mickey mouse (or mic mic something) – they will tell you that Stanford Raffles is a liberator. That is why race is here to stay. Ang Mo Ang Mo is your ancestor already lei!!
Jeff,
We all have already been bleached – like Michael Jackson – Dont you watch ‘nong nong time ago’?
Mic o mic – ‘Certain races are prone to certain illness and dieseases. Doing away with race identification may actually hinder the development of medical breakthroughs that ultimately benefit the individual races.’
Hey is this sloppy or what? Thought you said you are anti-religious and of a rationalist scientific mind. Science has once and for all debunk race. Heard of cline and genetic distribution? If you are literate enough fo read up.
Now racial discrimination is to be extended even to access to health care? Ya, you are not even original in this thinking – LKY thinks that blood transfusion is wasted on Malays and Indians. Race is a myth. How can do real science based on something which is debunked? You are as sloppy and myth laden as your rationalisations of races and their bigotries which you mistook for rational thinking. As for Lobo(tomy) – good name for him SamoSamo – I would not even hire him for market research if he is to cluster observation by race. Total failures!
some idiot said “race is sacrosanct”. what rubbish. race is man-made. there is no biological basis for race.
look at what our govt is doing now, creating new races, “indian-chinese”, “malay-eurasian” etc. what bunch of rubbish. just get rid of this stupid racial classification once and for all. it does not serve any purpose.
Dr Alwi,
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A Singaporean Singapore may not be something for the near future, but IMHO, we will eventually get there.
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We can look closer to our shores to find an example that supports the possibility of a people coming to grip with a common identity – The Philippines.
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The people of the Philippines took 50,000 years to get to where it is today. It originated from the migration of an ethnic group of Mongoloids which then evolved into the Austronesian people, a group of Malayo-Polynesian-speaking people comprising Indonesians, Malaysians, Malagasyian, Vietnamese as well as non-Han Chinese Taiwanese aboriginals; not to mention the Filipino natives.
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The Filipinos are a product of a long process of evolution and movement of people and the future holds true for Singapore to follow in the same evolution process especially now that the global corridors are no longer there, and the movement of people is so rampant.
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This could only mean one thing, the eventual evolvement of a Singaporean Singapore identity where race will no longer be an issue.
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Dare I say we are seeing the beginning of this evolution process, now that we have two clear camps, one asking for race to be retained and the other for it to be abolished?
Tom Jones,
I appreciate your sharing your knowledge and bringing new information to the discussion. But I do not appreciate your conceited attitude that others know nuts just because you seem to know something they don’t.
SamoSupporter
Mic o mic – ‘Certain races are prone to certain illness and dieseases. Doing away with race identification may actually hinder the development of medical breakthroughs that ultimately benefit the individual races.’
Hey is this sloppy or what? Thought you said you are anti-religious and of a rationalist scientific mind. Science has once and for all debunk race. Heard of cline and genetic distribution? If you are literate enough fo read up.
You read THINK about what you read, and not just absorb them verbatim.
Being prone to certain illness is not just biological. It is also dependent on habits. Habit as a result of race/culture/society. Malays generally use their hand to eat, and maybe this make them prone to certain illness, even if we are biologically the same?
What we usually eat, may also determine our fallibility to certain illness.
So.. who is the sloppy one?
correction:
You should THINK about what you read…
Lobo(tomy)
if you discover that eating with hand gives rise to a problem, you should do a research on those who eat with hands. What do you need race for?
Hand(wanking)
yes … but HOW did you find out that eating with hand gives rise to a problem?
It’s when you look at the statistics of those who have fallen sick. You found that most were malays, and come up with the hypothesis that maybe it was eating with hand problem. then you test it. If hypothesis is correct, THEN you start research on those who eat with hand…for whatever purpose you had in time. I have no idea what kind of research you had in mind.
For me, if the problem was food poisoning, I would simply ask them to take extra to clean their hands when they eat. No research needed for such a simple solution.
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In case, you are lost, the point was that you suddenly jumped from a ‘problem’ to researching a solution without any mention of how you isolated/identified the problem.
Lobo76
mic o mic said this:
‘Certain races are prone to certain illness and dieseases. Doing away with race identification may actually hinder the development of medical breakthroughs that ultimately benefit the individual races.’
how are habits a result of ‘race’? come again?
So because race is on the card it will help science. So all these years I am assuming researches in countries which do not label their citizens with race have been having problems with their research with certain stuff and the gov has never implemented such a law which in that view would be crucial to the develpment of science and most importantly health of the people. Tats a joke right that labeling of race is a crucial factor in science….
Hello Lobo76,
I am not talking about habits.
It was in the news early this year.
Anyways, the report is freely available.
You can just google “Indian Faulty Gene”
Certain races, develops peculiarities that may be due to factors that are unique to their culture and interaction.
To group everyone simply as “the human race” might sound pleasant, but it is actually a step backward in terms of science.
Like I wrote earlier, in terms of race, can we say that we are better off if we all just rename our race as “mauve” ??
If I need to do research on skin cancer, and I request my subjects to be white caucasians, am I being racist ? or is it because people with dark skin rarely gets skin cancer ?
Please, I am not saying that any race is superior, we are different. And different is not a bad thing ok ?
mic o mic
what is race to you? I think you need to clarify that first before you go on and on trying to understand what is being discussed in biomedicine in relation to race.
conception of race used in Singapore is really the 19thC or even 17th C conception
what is race to you?