NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/soc/culture/singapor/332

Text File | 1993-01-21 | 5.3 KB | 106 lines

Newsgroups: soc.culture.singapore
Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!fuug!anon
From: [e-mail]
Subject: SDU et al
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Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1993 20:39:58 GMT
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This article appeared in clari.news.lifestyle. I'm re-posting without
permission. I think it speaks volumes ...




 _U_P_I _N_e_w_s_F_e_a_t_u_r_e

    SINGAPORE (UPI) -- On posters in the subways of the city's squeaky-
clean metro, a young Chinese father lovingly plants a kiss on the cheek
of his newborn daughter. According to the text, he holds the future in
his hands.
    Like most things in Singapore, there is a specfic purpose behind this
tender image. Nothing much is left to chance in Singapore, not even
marriage.
    ``We are still a very conventional society. It is our job to preserve
the institution of marriage,'' said Susan Chan, Deputy Director of the
Social Development Unit, one of three official government matchmaking
agencies.
    In the complex system of official matchmaking, Chan's agency is the
top of the tree. Formed in 1984, the Social Development Unit aims to
provide the right ambiance to encourage university graduates to meet
with a view to forming pemanent partnerships.
    ``Previously our society had formal matchmakers,'' Chan said. ``The
Aunties would come and visit parents with a marriage proposal. Then the
parties, if they agreed, would get together.''
    The job of yesterday's Aunties now lies in the hands of Big Brother --
or so it seems.
    Chan is quick to defend the system, saying the SDU is a sophisticated
organization that contains no element of coercion. Joining is voluntary
and members pay a joining fee and for the activities ranging from
lectures on diamonds, golf or Japanese language lessons.
    People simply register for an activity and the SDU makes sure the
numbers are compatible, she said.
    The Social Development Unit has 13,000 members who can sign up for
over 400 activities a year. The organization makes no bones about its
intentions.
    Singapore, with 2.7 million people its sole natural resource and with
a workforce that is 40 percent female, needs plenty of marriages and
plenty of children.
    Ironically, the official policy which today encourages people to have
as many children as they can afford, is almost the complete opposite of
one several decades ago which penalized couples for having more than two
children.
    ``In some ways I feel cheated,'' a 55-year-old oil company executive
said. ``We would have liked to have more children. But in those days it
was discouraged.''
    He said he sometimes feels bitter when he sees the posters and the
television advertisments promoting the government campaign, with the
slogan ``Kids make your world brand new.''
    The other two official government matchmaking agencies are the Social
Development Section, with 65,000 members who finished high school but
have no university degrees, and the Social Promotion Section, mainly for
blue-collar workers.
    Activities are tailor-made to suit the various groups. Recently the
Social Development Section staged a ``Perfect Couple'' competition which
Chan said would not be suited to the more educated SDU membership.
    As part of their facilitating service, the agencies also organize
one-on-one introductions selected from a list of mutual interests and
matched characteristics -- but minus names. They also have a computer
matching system.
    Chan said Singaporeans had come to have faith in the SDU agency which
some skeptics once claimed stood for ``Single, Desperate and Ugly.''
    She said rigid controls prevented abuses, and members' names were
regularly checked against master lists in the marriage registrar's
office.
    ``We also ask men to be realistic in their expectations and we ask
them to start early looking for a partner,'' Chan said.
    ``A 40-year-old man cannot expect to be looking for a partner in her
early 20s. I say to them: 'Be realistic. Take a look at yourself.'''
    While the system may seem quaint to Western cultures, it works well
in a society whose younger generation rarely frequents bars and clubs.
It also is a boon to well-educated Singaporean women who have a much
harder time making a suitable match, Chan said.
    ``Singapore men traditionally like to marry down,'' she said, adding
that career-oriented women, especially those with their own cars and
condominiums, often had the most difficulty finding a suitable partner.
    Chan said the bulk of the membership of the three groups came from
ethnic Chinese, which make up 78 percent of Singapore's population.
    She said traditional matchmakers still exist in the Malay and Tamil
communities and there was not as much need for them to seek government-
sponsored help in finding partners.
    So the man on the poster kisses his daughter, and in its television
twin, he tells viewers that life, now that he has a family, has meaning.
    As the swaying gait of heavily pregnant young women is one of
Singapore's most familiar sights, the future, it seems, is secure here
in the island republic.


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