Suchergebnisse

Literature in Singapore is written in the country's four official languages: Chinese, English, Malay, and Tamil. The various literatures flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the rise of print culture in the British colony, but after independence in 1965, English became emphasized in both the education system and society at large as part of the new government's attempts to modernize the country. Chinese, Malay, and Tamil were seen as mother tongue languages to provide Singaporeans with cultural ballast while English was regarded as a language for administration, business, and scientific and technological development. Correspondingly, literatures in other languages than English reached a plateau in terms of writerly output and readership during the 1970s and 1980s. However, since 1999, with the state's implementation of the Renaissance City Plan to revitalize arts and culture in Singapore, there have been various initiatives to increase the visibility of contemporary Singaporean writing both within the country itself and on an international scale. Translation plays a key role in bridging the linguistic and literary divides wrought by the state's mother tongue policies, with several works by Cultural Medallion winners in different languages translated into English, which remains at present the shared language in Singapore. Literary anthologies are also invaluable forms through which the concepts of a national literature and national identity are expressed and negotiated. A number of anthologies involving Singaporean authors and those from other countries also highlight the growing international presence of and interest in Singaporean literature. Several anthologies also focus on the topic of urban space, city life, and the rapid transformation of Singapore's physical environment. Writings about gender and sexuality have also become more prominent in single-author collections or edited anthologies, with writers exploring various inventive and experimental narrative forms. A number of poets and writers are also established playwrights, and theater has historically been and continues to be an extremely vital form of creative expression and cultural production. Graphic novels, crime and noir fiction, and speculative and science fiction publications are also on the rise, with the awarding of the Singapore Literature Prize to Sonny Liew's The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye signaling that these genres merit serious literary consideration. A number of literary publications and materials related to Singaporean literature can be found on the Internet, such as the journal Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, the website Singapore Poetry, and the database Poetry.sg. Various nonprofit organizations are also working toward increasing public awareness about literature through events such as Singapore Poetry Writing Month, the Migrant Worker Poetry Competition, the Singapore Writers Festival and National Poetry Festival, and also through projects that exhibit poetry in train stations and on public thoroughfares.

This book is a story about a tiny business, set up by an enterprising 19-year-old, that grew to become one of the largest and most well-respected companies in Singapore's two-wheeler industry. It tracks the opportunities and challenges that Ban Hock Hin faced in Singapore and in the region over eighty years. The story focuses on how the founder's son built up Ban Hock Hin during Singapore's post-independence years ..."--Page 4 of cover

Replying to an article by Lenore Lyons in Critical Asian Studies (March 2009), the author of this essay argues that the tendency to treat a critique of rights as a rejection of rights betrays a modernist hesitation that refuses to treat rights and the subject imbued by them as ontologically unstable. Unproblematically, liberal prescriptions of rights and a "strong" civil society assume the presence of sovereign individuals with inherent rights that can be guarded by a politically independent civil society. The case study of Singapore, however, reveals the substantive "emptiness" of rights that is both susceptible to colonization by the state's instrumental interests and amenable to the humane interventions of civil society groups campaigning for the protection of foreign workers. By framing and reframing the rights of female migrant workers as complementary to the economic interests of the host society, the author illustrates how an awareness of the contingent nature of rights by Transient Workers Count Too and the Humanitarian Organization for Migration Economics allows them to perform their humanitarian work within an illiberal political terrain. By reconciling the seemingly universalistic nature of inherent rights with its situational usefulness for political practice, the strategic maneuvers both groups made also contribute to a greater self-reflexivity about the unproblematic deployment of rights-based instruments in the political projects of our time. The author also argues that in failing to address the formulation of rights as ontologically unstable, Lyons's misplaced criticisms reflect a broader discomfort about the unsettling nature of postmodern critique that disrupts liberalism's moral foundations. (Crit Asian Stud/GIGA)

Psychologists and correctional rehabilitation specialists in the Psychological and Correctional Rehabilitation Division of the Singapore Prison Service have been instrumental in designing and delivering the rehabilitation work with offenders. This book seeks to capture these experiences in the area of rehabilitation, and the anecdotal experiences working with different groups of offenders on the ground.It provides a first-hand look at the application of offender rehabilitation principles in practice. It also provides details on the experiences and challenges of working in a correctional context through the anecdotal sharing. To this end, the book aims to provide a practical and practitioner lens, overlaid with theoretical concepts, to the practice of correctional rehabilitation. While there have been experiences and insights documented, this will be the first book that documents the anecdotal experiences in Singapore Prison Service

Since the late twentieth century, ethnic minorities have agitated against the homogenised nation-state in what is commonly referred to as their push for multiculturalism. Although this term adapts according to context, in Singapore and Australia multiculturalism embraces the cultural identity of ethnic groups and simultaneous aims to achieve social cohesion. To determine the success of each country in achieving the goals of their multicultural policies, this paper focuses on four key areas of analysis: official recognition of different nations within the state, political representation of ethnic groups, social and economic inclusion and promotion of ethnic culture Since independence, the Singaporean government has had to confront the lack of collective identity or social cohesion and social injustices within Singaporean society that were a legacy of colonialism. Multiracialism became the official policy to manage ethnic diversity. Singapore classified the population into four groups (Chinese, Malay, Indian and Other) and recognised them as equal under Constitutional Law, introduced Group Representation Constituencies to ensure ethnic political participation, introduced the Ethnic Integration Policy to enhance social inclusion and successfully promotes ethnic culture through celebrations such as Racial Harmony day. Although these measures have had limitations, Singapore has made significant progress in the realisation of multiculturalism. In Australia, the problems of social injustice and lack of social cohesion that multiculturalism had to confront derived from the Anglo centric history of the country prior to the 1970s. Australia has made progress in the four key areas by removing discriminatory clauses against Aboriginals, introducing extra-parliamentary political representation, improving educational access for disadvantaged ethnic groups and promoting ethnic culture through the funding of local government events and initiatives. Like Singapore, Australia has made significant progress in achieving its multiculturalism ideals. The two key areas of where Australia would benefit from improvement are: official recognition of different nations within the state and political representation. There is currently no explicit recognition in the Constitution of the integral role ethnic groups play in Australian society. Acknowledgement in the Preamble of this document would symbolise the movement away from historical conceptions of the purely 'Anglofragment' society, and may assist in social cohesion and social justice for ethnic groups. Australia is also ethnically under-represented in Parliament. Introducing measures to ensure or promote such representation are necessary are an important means to enhance equality and social cohesion.

India fever : the new Indian professional in Singapore -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1. The Decision Tree -- 2. Dateline 1997 -- 3. The Shell -- 4. Crème -- 5. Mild India Fever -- 6. Support -- 7. Silence -- 8. Tipping Point -- Epilogue: CECA -- About the Author.

Discusses political and economic situation; democracy, civil society, governmental system, political parties, government regulation of business, and other issues.