Pride and Prejudice
It’s June, and that makes it Pride Month.
The most visible aspect of Pride are the marches, the celebrations, the rainbows, the silly spectacles. These often elicit eye-rolls and head-shakes. But they’re important symbols of a simple idea: the idea of living visibly, without fear. They’re visible aspects because Pride is about visibility. Visibility promotes familiarity, and familiarity is the best inoculation against hate and fear. That’s why Pride is not a party, and Pride is not a joke. It’s the ability for all of us to be part of public life. To not be threatened by thugs on the street. To not be denied access to employment, shelter or dignity.
Without Pride - without visibility - there’s lack of awareness. However innocent, this lack of awareness leads to ignorance, ignorance then leads to fear, fear to distancing, distancing to othering, and othering to dehumanising. From there it’s very easy for malevolent leaders to victimise us, scapegoat us, menace us. Segregate us, remove us from society, annihilate us. Of course that sounds hysterical, we’re not in 1940s Europe. But the playbook is still lying around in 2025, just waiting to be picked up.
There’s a reason I haven’t specifically mentioned the LGBTQ+ communities in this post. Because there’s somewhere in the world where YOU are the minority. Maybe you’re there right now. Maybe you have to imagine it. Or maybe you experience life as a minority, yet you still victimise others lower down the pecking order. Our leaders can only scapegoat enemies - of whatever identity or persuasion - if we let them. So please don’t be blind to what Pride means for us all in 2025.
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Cultural Correlation and Conflation
If you look beyond religion, and approach being Jewish also as a cultural and racial identity (which most do), then there’s a correlation between being Jewish and being Chinese. If you see a Han Chinese person on the street, all you see is their race. You don’t necessarily know if that person is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China. And even if they are, you cannot equate them with the actions of Xi Jinping and the Chinese ruling classes. Likewise being Jewish is not the same as being Israeli, which is also not the same as being Bibi Netanyahu. Yet in both cases it’s extremely common for people to conflate race, nationality and government into one amorphous blob.
Where the analogy ends of course is that you don’t see people calling for the annihilation of all Han Chinese people based on the actions of a government that corresponds to their race. So yeah howzabout we don’t call for the annihilation of anyone as an appropriate response to any government’s treatment of a minority or neighbour. Let’s debate the opposing acts of aggression which led us to this point; the actions of governments or militia purporting to act in our name; and the ways in which we’re all individually complicit or not. But can we at least all agree on the bit about annihilation?
It’s uneasy times for all of us. But for just one day, I forgot these thoughts as I celebrated the Jewish new year with a lovely group of close friends in Shanghai. And with one of their 9-year-old daughters having hand-made challah like this, how could we not have a little hope in our hearts? 🌈 Here’s wishing everyone שָׁנָה טוֹבָה (Shanah Tovah), and I hope we can all find something to celebrate this year. 🙏
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Alamak! SPR RIP 2006-2022
Alamak! Today marks the end of my status as a Singapore Permanent Resident. SPR RIP 2006-2022. 🇸🇬🙏
Filing my final paperwork here at the Singapore Consulate in Shanghai, I couldn’t help but reminisce about what this status has meant to me over the years. Buying and selling two properties, setting up two companies, getting a driving license, employing three domestic workers, raising two dogs, the list goes on.
I haven’t lived there since 2012, but I will always consider Singapore to be a home from home. I will always have unquenchable cravings for mee siam, nasi padang, roti prata and ais kacang. And I will always remember the meanings of MRT, ERP, CBD, PIE, HDB, PAP, LTA, and - now most importantly - CPF.
As a fitting accompaniment to this event, Shanghai offered up a blazing 39℃ afternoon. So I marked the occasion with a sweaty walk home in the sun, a smile on my face and a twinkle in my eye.
Wa seng zao liao! See you again soon, Singapore.
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Don't Judge a Passport by its Cover
While always mindful of the doors it has opened, I have never defined my identity by the passport I carry. And I’m definitely not going to start now.
Yes, I’ve lived in Asia for 17 years. Yes, my passport has recently changed colour. But the blood that runs through my veins is, and always will be, European.
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