Proud to be a Westerner

I have been living in Jurong for the past 18 years.


It is a place where most people associate badly polluted air, cheap housing and foreign workers with. In fact I had worked in Jurong for the last 5 years, and gradually had forgotten what it feels like to enjoy a nice breathe of fresh air. Foreign workers have become my "best friends", accompanying up and down the crowded journey to the work. I mingled with them day in day out, at the MRT station, Jurong Point, and even at my void deck. I became frequent customers of Indian "MAMA" shops, which sprung in numbers in my neighbourhood serving the pool of Indian worker-drinkers and merry-makers who ventured to my estate late at night. Slowly, they became a part of my life, as I grew numb to their existence around me.

Until recently after I switched job, I travel half the Singapore island to the north eastern side. I don't see my "best friends" anymore on the north bound MRT trains, AMK Hub or the Yio Chu Kang neighbourhood. To many, such an environment had been inherent until the news of a foreign worker dormitory to be located at Serangoon Gardens caused the population to break into cold sweat overnight.

What's wrong with staying nearby the dormitories? And why don't you see the Jurong population complaining? Is it that no one cares about the voices of Jurong-ians? Or so you thought that workers work in the west and so naturally their social radii spill over to the Jurong neighbourhood? Maybe because Jurong is the industrial community of Singapore anyway and that is the best and cheapest place to house them?

I am not implying that I LOVE the company of our dear friends who are helping us build our economy. In fact, there are many times when I saw them fighting after they got drunk at my void deck. At late night, I still go home in fear if I am alone. I don't exactly find them gracious, judging from the rubbish they generate every weekend at Boon Lay MRT. How I wish that my neighbourhood is spared from the potential hazards they offer, since we are already suffering from the poisonous acid rains, bitter cocoa smells mixed with industrial smoke and transport inaccessibility.

Over the years, I have learnt to live with them peacefully. Nobody is born to master the art of compromise but someone just has to do it. So why can't you? =)