With the cosmopolitan city like Singapore, i believe that Singapore is a collectivist society with low individualism. People in the collectivist culture have a high interdependence with others and there are interpersonal sensitivity. The Harmony Day that is celebrated once a year and the low conflict between the ethinc groups show that Singapore is indeed a collectivist society. The citizens here consider the needs of the group to be more important than needs of individuals. They put the communities' interests on the top priority.
On the other hand, the individualist society has people that mainly focusing on their needs rather than the community. They have low dependency which is not shown in Singapore. As we know, Singapore people have highly dependent on other people.
In conclusion, i strongly feel that Singapore is a collectivist country where the people believe harmony is important rather than freedom of an individual( individualist). Singaporean are ready and open to be influenced by others.
So what do you think of this statement?
Do you agree with me?
If not, what is your stand?
I think Singapore is a very unique case where individuality and collectivism finds a netrual point to co-exist.
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt i agree with you that there is a high level of interdependancy in the singapore society today. However i will like to point out that this high interdependecy born from the individualistic wants of a person to achieve. Only when it is neccesary will a person put aside the individuality and embrace collectivism.
Moreover, i do not think that low conflict signifies that singaporean are collectivist. Rather i think that collectivism gives rise to conflict as being together produces more chance for the division of opinions.
I will like to know what you think about my opinion =)
well, it might be true. However, being collectivism, each individual will know others' opinions. It does not necessarily bring conflict because when you have more variety of opinions, you gain more idea. Furthermore, you will also learn to respect one another and prevent conflict which is unlikely to happen in individualism where you put your opinion on top priority without considering others.
ReplyDeletei hope i help you in answering your question.
thank you
i agree to a large extent that you stated Singapore as a collectivist country. For example, Singapore is trying their best to promote harmony.In school they try to tell the student or emphasize that we are from the same country such as doing the pledge to bond relationship.
ReplyDeleteon the other hand,i feel that Singapore is also an individualist. This is because in Singapore context, some businessmen only care for their self, in a sense that they want to gain profit for themselves. They challenge one another in order to see who is better and is the winner. In here, the individual has a low percentage of depend on one another. They are kind of strong enough to do things on their own.
From the statement that you have made, i have agree to you but not totally. i believe that individualism as well as collectivism take place in the Singapore.
Thank you.
Juliana
collectivist.....
ReplyDeleteThe reason i choose this is because i think that singaporean is open-minded and i also feel that they care each other and try to help each other when they have difficulties.... In this way, they are fully dependant on one another. Furthermore, i can also see that the individual do not let their wants to be theri first list.Therefore, i agree with you that Singapore is truly a collectivism country.
I agree with you that Singapore is a collectivist country. Unlike most countries, the people in Singapore live in harmony despite of the variety of the races. This shows that Singaporeans are very open-minded and accept the different cultures and customs.
ReplyDeletecaroline~
I think, when you say about the different culture celebration, it is important to respect what other's are celebrating. Singapore might be collectivist from the shell; however, it is individualistic in the inside. For instance, every individual in Singapore has a high expectation for themselves in school and work. Some of them might work in group, but there are also people who work individually. Hence, both collectivism and individualism exist in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteI think the reason why singapore is so peaceful is because each of the different races respect each others' believes and they would help each other when it is needed. We accept and understand the different customs that different cultures have. Therefore, i agree that singapore is a collectivist country.
ReplyDeleteSingapore is indeed a collectivist country. Singapore is a country that treats each individual equally regardless of race or religion. No one in the country is being treated unfairly. Everyone is equal. Singapore is a country that respects every race and religion. This is why conflicts are being avoided as everyone feel a sense of belonging in the country. In other words, I strongly agree that Singapore is a collectivist country.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you wholeheartedly. Singapore is a collectively. We're extremely dependent on our social circles which, like I believe as many previous commenter said, are regardless of race or religion
ReplyDeleteSingapore adopted individualism (Capitalism) and not collectivism (Socialism). Individualism and Collectivism is normally used to describe economy system and not very often to describe culture.
ReplyDeleteCollectivist desire a society that is based on cooperation not competition.Private ownership and properties are eliminated and they believe that the wealth of a nation should be equally distributed to everybody, regardless of the social status of a person. Not only that, education and medical welfare is provided free of charge. It's a "All for One & One for All" theory.
Individualism, in contrast, reward a person through ability and archievement, regardless of the person's birth in life. However, there are winner and loser in individualism. Winner are proved to be responsible, hardworking, thoughtful, discipline and efficient. Loser are proved to be lazy, irresponsible, inefficient or anything negative.
To a large extent, Collectivism sounds more morally uprising than Individualism. But the truth is that Collectivism promote sloth and penalize hardwork while Individualism promote hardwork and penalize sloth.
Imagine a beggar earned as much as a lawyer or your laziest classmate scored the distinction that you scored. Although you uphold your own moral, you will feel unfair and will not work as hard the next time (unless you are a very self- sacrificing person).
I don't think anyone in Singapore are living in collectivism, considering I haven't heard any individual distributing all their hard-earned salary around to their neighborhood and everyone have private ownership. Actually, wanting to top in class alone is individualism in small scale.
I had met a lot people in Singapore. I made a lot of friends over there. Majority of my friends were foreigner while the rest was Singaporean. I think Singaporean is a collectivist society because each individual has their own needs and they've a limited freedom to express it. As a result, they're able to meet people with the same interests and needs. Thus, they work together to achieve their common goals.
ReplyDeleteWell, singapore is a country of multiculturalism, as you have mention a harmony day is also evident in this country.
ReplyDeleteHowever, i do not agree that it is a collectivist country although harmony is seen somewhere somehow throuh events in singapore.
Like what you have said, a harmony day is held once in a year to reflect the harmony practice between people. Since it is just once in a year, it is actually quite hard to determine it. Like in racial harmony day, people dress up in other races costumes doesnt symbolize much about harmony between them. They may be donning on the clothes for the fun of doing it.
I personally think that singapore is more of an individualist country as we do not see much reliance of people out in the field of business apart from family business.
Most of the people are out there trying to secure their own ricebowl. Given to the increasing influence of globalisation on our world, singaporeans are also drilled to become more individualist so as to stay on their jobs and compete againist their potential competitors. Dependency and sharing is therefore less seen.
Singapore is successful in the sense that the government is capable to make its people to work and live towards the common goal which is to establish a society in harmony. although collectivism is not favored by many, it is helpful for a nation's sustainable development by reducing conflicts.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Singapore is a collectivist country since it can maintain its harmony although there are many races and different people. It can also be said that Singaporeans are Individualist, as they try to achieve whatever they want no matter what.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Singapore is a collectivist country to a large extent. Although some of them are independent and individualistic, many of them are still dependent on other people. For instance, Singaporeans are highly dependent on their government for the improvement of their standard of living and quality of life.
ReplyDeleteTo me Singapore is a collectivist country.In Singapore we have many races and religions all squeezed in a tiny dot.We are bound to have race riots and stuff like that.We are all human beings and not everyone of us is perfect.
ReplyDeleteYears ago we used to have many race riots but we were able to handle it,to a point where until now we do not encounter such riots anymore.Sometimes we still hear people passing racist remarks to one another, but like i said not everyone is perfect.If Singapore is not a collectivist country we would already be having tons of race riots everyday.
However,i cannot disagree to the fact that we are not individualist.Whenever the government propose something such as having casinos and stuff they would ask the public for suggestions before moving forward.In conclusion i would say Singapore is a mixture of both collectivist and individualist.
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