It was indeed a sad day when I opened the Sunday Times over the weekend. On page 4, a warning that the article might offend some. Next to it, another article that talks about “Why I did not sign the petition?”.

I must say I was offended. I don’t believe these correspondents are angels either. I’ve lived in Serangoon Gardens all my life. Believe me, the residents of Serangoon Gardens are not as evolutionarily challenged as these ST correspondence makes us to be.

These are the same people that write articles I read everyday and depend on them for accurate reporting. Their partiality towards this issue has definitely hurt my confidence in the integrity of their reporting.

Don’t make xenophobia sound like a rude word. It is human nature to be suspicious of people or anything that is foreign or that we are unsure of. Humans would have been extinct if we do not exercise this trait.

The residents of Serangoon Gardens are afraid. We are worried about things that could go wrong. Who are these so called foreign workers? We’ve seen them around but never lived 500 meters from them. The only time we get to know them is when the papers report on crimes committed by foreign workers.

Want us to accept foreign workers? We had a couple of decades to do this. Maybe if foreign workers were given better publicity over the last few decades, it would have been more acceptable for residents to accept this proposed dormitory.

Obviously we did not learn anything from history. The anti-Blacks sentiments that happened in the 50s was a result of fear of people that looked and talked different. Black people that at that time, do not have the power to put a positive spin on themselves. People fear what they do not understand. Did we not learn anything from history?

I live in Serangoon Gardens and I do not understand foreign workers. Be it culturally, or linguistically. I fear them. Did I make an effort to understand them? Well, I never did feel the need to but I guess it is a bit too late now huh? The press over the last decade did not help much too!

• Maids impregnated by foreign workers. - Yup, happened. Read about it.
• Overcrowded buses. - Yup, still hapenning.
• Rape cases involving foreign workers. - Yup, read about it.
• Foreign workers eating up pets. - Remeber the koi incidents a couple of years back?
• Robbery and thefts by foreign workers. - Dunno. But after all these bad publicity, I think might as well add this in for save measure.

Was there any good press about foreign workers in the past? Hardly. But bad press? Well, I’ve been fed enough information from the press to be comfortably uncomfortable in the presence of foreign workers in my estate.

1,500 people who are foreign and different. Suddenly living next door to you. Can anyone honestly tell me that they are comfortable with that? I am not. But hey, its not my fault. This poor peasant here is getting a lot of information from the local press and it sure did not paint a pretty picture on foreign workers till 2 days ago.

Want to turn foreign workers into heroes in 2 days? Try 2 decades.

Am I xenophobic? I’ve neighbours who are immigrants. I studied with foreign students for years. Some have become very good friends. Well, I don’t really think I am a xenophobe. Heck, I’d probably not mind if my next door neighbour rented his house to 20 foreign workers, but if you put 1,500 of them 500 meters from where I live, I think that is probably where I’d draw the line.