Minorities learn to settle for less
At Family Day I met an American deaf man from Florida, Kenichi. He and his Singaporean wife, who is also deaf, met while studying in Massechusets. They moved back to Singapore a few years ago, and now they are blessed with a one-year-old son, who is the friendliest little tyke I have ever met.
I have not heard of Kenichi before, but apparantly he has heard of me. Seems word is spreading among the deaf community here that there is a hearing person here who is fluent in American Sign Language. Since very few few people here use ASL, Kenichi was eager to meet and have a chat with me.
So we did, under the shade of trees, and in brief, startling moments it was as if I were back in New York, chatting up a storm with my deaf mates.
During our conversation, Kenichi described to me his difficulty in adapting to life in Singapore. I don’t blame him. Deaf culture is so different and backward here. Deaf people in Singapore do not enjoy basic rights of access to information, since we do not provide close captioning on television programs, not even the news. There is a shameful lack of social services, the most glaring among them being interpreters. Since it is not a specialised profession here, most if not all interpreters are volunteers, and have little, or no certification in the skill. Many times, their help is limited, but it is all the deaf have.
Whether it is gay, or deaf rights, I do not think we are asking for a lot. We are asking for very basic things. We are asking to be heard. We are asking for our basic rights as citizens of a free country to be honored and protected. We believe that civil rights for minorities can co-exist and be non-threatening to the economic and political stability of Singapore.
Until that happens, Kenichi - and others like him - will just have to settle for less.
Oct 10, 2006
Update: News in Singapore is now captioned. Hooray!