tjc09_violence_01/ Wen Rui

According to the author of Passage 1(Newsweek), he believes that “rates of criminal violence are higher in mobile and heterogeneous societies where it is hard to put down roots and establish the social glue that binds people into a community”. This implies that if people of different culture and race live together, it is difficult to maintain social cohesion and harmony as they have no common background or history to relate to. This can be seen in my society where there had been criminal violence by foreign immigrants. For example, in the recent Kallang rampage in Singapore, a gang consisting of foreigners - Sarawakians organized a gang robbery which resulted in one foreign worker dead and few others seriously injured. Hence this shows that in a country with many migrants like Singapore, rates of criminal violence have increased due to lack of mutual understanding and care for each other. Hence the author view is applicable to my society as Singapore has over 1.35million of foreigners in a total population 4.48 million and that criminal violence by foreign workers has been on the rise.
However, the author’s view may not fully applicable to my society as there had been ongoing efforts to prevent criminal violence and to promote harmony between people of difference races. For example, 800 Integration and Naturalisation Champions from grassroots organisations, go about helping newcomers settle in and integrate into their communities as part of their daily lives. Hence, even if Singapore is a heterogeneous society, rate of criminal violence may not be necessarily higher as there is prevention to curb such problems.

The author’s view of Passage 2(New York Times Syndicate) may not be applicable to my society. The author believes that criminal violence - riots in France were mainly due to “social and economic exclusion”. As the immigrants were not given equal chances in work and other opportunities, it bred dissatisfaction and generated unhappiness. The occurrence of riots in our society would be of concern as it would affect Singapore adversely. This could be seen from the 1964 race riot in Singapore that occurred during Prophet Muhammad birthday celebration which resulted in thirty-six people dead and five hundred injured. Hence, criminal violence – riots would be of concern to our society. However, the author’s view is not applicable to our society as everyone is treated fairly in Singapore, regardless of race or religion and everyone would be given equal work opportunities. According to one of the four guiding principles of governance – Reward for Work, Work for Reward, people should be rewarded based on what they do, not who they are. Hence, “social and economic exclusion” would not happen in Singapore.

In conclusion, the author’s view from passage 1 is more applicable to Singapore.