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The poor children at the Sabah Goducate Learning Center

Three hundred and ten children! Where did they all come from? Good question. How did they find their way to the Goducate Learning Center? Better question.

I was sitting on one of the front row of chairs reserved for our special visitors that morning. This is the year’s school opening and the nine classes are giving presentations – yes, nine classes! Each class wanted to present something. Can’t blame them. It was the only time for parents to see their children performing on our simple stage. And that day, it was not just a performance. Their children are singing, reading, dancing before Singaporean audience!

As all eyes are on the children on stage, I watched the parents sitting behind us. In their faces I read, it does not really matter that they do not fully understand the English songs. What matters is that their kids understood. Their kids are speaking, writing, reading and singing it. Their applause were thunderous. Every parent has the right to be very proud. The bondage of illiteracy has been broken and for most of them, this breakthrough came after the fourth and third generation.

I look at the kids. The tears come flooding again. They are so different than the last time I first saw them. They know now how to line up. Most of them are very comfortable performing on stage. Even the tiny new ones would stop sniffling and join heartily once the music starts. I love it when they converse with me. I love it when I see excitement and hope in their eyes.

I remember their stories. And I am grateful for the opportunity that came our way. Our kids will have a chance in life. A chance to rise above the oppressing circumstances of poverty, hard core poverty.

I glanced at my friend seated a couple of seats away from me. What was in her heart was written all over her face. And the tears just keep on coming.

How do kids find their way to a Goducate Learning Center? For as long as there are people like my friend who realizes how privileged she is and her kids because life is kinder to them. And how privileged she is to have the chance to change a child’s circumstance. And how she can take part in giving not only one child a future but a community of children a future, one after another.

The visitors left that day. But the singing, reading, writing, dancing continues each day. And how beautiful that is.

to be continued

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Lessons from an Indian trip – Prejudice and Potential (2)

Twenty years ago, when I first visited India I encountered Indians that were very similar to my parents in many ways. India and Singapore (and about a quarter of the world’s land surface) were all once part of the British Empire. Of all the colonialists, the British were by far the best (at least in my opinion) but they were nonetheless colonialists. In other words, they were blatant exploiters of others. And probably the most powerful exploitation of all was that that on the human mind.

To maintain their control over the locals, they used military power and more importantly, psychological power. They brainwashed the locals to believe that since they were inferior to the Westerner, they were privileged to be “civilized” by them.

It is interesting to note that most Asian countries that were colonized fought for, and gained, their independence after World War II. As my father (who was a dedicated Anglophile) said: “It was only after we saw how the Japanese thrashed the British, that we realized that the Asian is not inferior to the Westerner!” Sad to say, in spite of this obvious lesson from the Japanese, the people of my father’s generation continued to suffer from an inferiority complex. This is the power of brain-washing and prejudice. Its scars often last till death.

When I first visited India in the mid 80’s, India had already gained its independence from the British for forty years but the scars of a brow-beaten colonial mentality were still evident. The people seemed to accept the fact that things could not change for the better because they were incapable of improving things. It seemed that everything that was of good quality (eg. railway stations, offices) was made by the British and everything that didn’t work was made by them!

On my recent trip to India, I noticed a totally different mind-set in the young educated Indians. Unlike their fathers who were trained to be clerks and workers for their colonial masters, they had received a good education and were confident and hopeful for their future. Many of these bright young Indians that I met were children of dirt poor farmers. I am confident that they will build a better India. And a better India means that 20% of the world will live in a better world.

We're all the same!
We're all the same!

I write this blog not as one who is anti-colonial, which I am not. In fact, I’m thankful for what the British gave me – especially an English language education. But I write this to highlight two important lessons.

Firstly, that it is wrong to be prejudiced against people just because they are of a different race or religion. It is wrong to think that we are better than someone else because they are of a different race or religion. It is not only a lie but it breeds pride in self and hatred for others. Prejudice hinders us from knowing others and helping others. Too many people will not even visit another country because of the prejudices (aka lies) that they have been “brain-washed” with!

Secondly, there is great untapped potential in every human being – and our hope is that each one will be given the opportunity to fulfil his potential. Education often provides that door of opportunity! It did so for me and my Indian friends!