Evaluating Intercultural Behavior

A few days back, my boyfriend (BF) confessed that he had been insensitive to people of another culture before. This was what happened:

BF approached a Malay satay stall and requested: "10 mutton, 10 chicken and 10 pork please".

The Muslim hawker replied with a frown, pointing to the Halal sign: "Excuse me Sir, we are Halal and do not serve pork!"

BF: “Oops, sorry!”

When the hawker served the food (10 mutton and 10 chicken satays) to BF and his friends, she shoved the plate onto the table in an annoyed manner.

‘Halal’ literally means permissible or lawful. It is widely known, especially in Singapore, that Muslims only consume Halal meat. For meat to be Halal, the animal has to be slaughtered in a Zibah ritual. In addition, Muslims are prohibited from consuming pork, alcohol, blood, meat dedicated to false gods, etc. These are stated in the Holy Qur'an as follows:

"Forbidden to you for (food) are: dead meat, blood and the flesh of the swine and that which hath been invoked the name other than Allah."

Holy Qur'an 5:4

BF explained that he was used to ordering pork satay as there are many satay stalls opened by non-Muslims nowadays and they do not have constraints in terms of the type of meat sold. However, he could have been more aware and sensitive towards the possible cultural constraints that different cultures are faced with. This is especially important in a multicultural country like Singapore. He ought to have performed self-analysis and increase awareness of his tendencies in order to avoid intercultural conflicts.

On the other hand, though it was understandable why the hawker was annoyed, she could have explained the issue to BF in a polite manner instead of showing her displeasure with a frown and through her other non-verbal cues.

Through this incident, it is clear that in this global village that we live in today, intercultural issues are unavoidable. We have to face these differences in our everyday lives, from just buying food from a hawker stall to building relationships on a corporate level. Hence, it is important that we grasp the skills of being effective comunicators in an intercultural context.

Hereby, I shall end my post with this short clip illustrating the insensitivity of some towards cultural differences:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBDA_4DKrbM

Potential Research Project Topic

Observation:

There are more than 11,000 persons released from prisons and Drug Rehabilitation Centres in Singapore each year. A large percentage of them are sincere about turning over a new leaf, getting a decent job and leading a normal life. Yet, they are often faced with a social stigma imposed on them due to their criminal records.

This problem not only causes distress to the ex-offenders, but also to their family members. Besides the emotional and economical burden, they also have to deal with the social stigma of being related to an ex-convict.

It is true that there are rehabilitative and aftercare programmes to assist smoother re-integration of an ex-convict back into the society, but these will not be effective if there is no awareness and acceptance from the general public.

After 4 years of launching the 'Yellow Ribbon Project', the same problems faced by these ex-offenders still exist. The level of acceptance may have increased but the bulk of the population still seem to look at these ex-offenders differently.

General Research Question:

Is there still social stigma by the general public towards ex-offenders after 4 years since the launch of the 'Yellow Ribbon Project'? If yes, what are the reasons?

Hypothesis:
There is still an appreciable level of social stigma by the general public towards ex-offenders in Singapore.

Attitudinal Survey:
An attitudinal survey will form an important part of this study. A survey will have to be formulated to collect information about the level of acceptance by the general public towards the ex-offenders. Such information can only be more accurate when collected directly from the general public, hence a survey is required.

Objective of the Study:

The objective of this study is to analyse the existence of and reasons behind social stigma (should they exist) of ex-offenders by the general public.

Objective of the Report:

One objective of this report is to enable the Community Action for the Rehabilitation of Ex-Offenders (CARE) Network to review the effectiveness of their project and to bring forward information about the existence of and reasons behind the social stigma on ex-offenders by the general public to the Community Action for the Rehabilitation of Ex-Offenders (CARE) Network. This is so as to allow the CARE Network to improve on their existing efforts under the Yellow Ribbon Project, as well as to formulate new strategies to increase the acceptance of ex-offenders by the general public. This will aid to improve the lives of both the ex-offenders and their family members.