Curry incident in Singapore

Recently there was a "Cook A Pot of Curry" movement on Facebook, urging Singaporean families to cook and share a pot of curry. This movement was in response to an incident happened 6 or 7 years ago, but some people managed brought it on again and it sparked to a hot debate online.

The curry incident happened between a new Chinese immigrant family and their Indian neighbor. Migrated from mainland China to Singapore, this family could not stand the curry smell coming from their Indian's neighbor's kitchen. They resorted to the Community Mediation Centre - an agency under the Ministry of Law, who recommended that the Indian family will only cook curry when their Chinese neighbor are not at home. You can read the fully story here.

Most Singaporeans do not agree on this recommendation. Curry dishes are national dishes in Singapore, as well as in Malaysia. The ethnic Chinese, Indian and Malay love them. I can't imagine someone telling me to only cook curry when they are not at home. Do I need to constantly peep on my neighbor to verify that they are not at home before I cook? This is just unthinkable. We used to go to an Indian restaurant when we were living in the US, it was buffet style and there were different type of curry dishes on the serving area. Asking Indian to not cook curry is like asking Chinese to not eat rice when their neighbor is around.

I wish my neighbor was Indian so that I can smell the curry everyday. On the other hand, I'm glad that no one ever came to my house telling me what I cook is too smelly. I can not imagine that one day the French meditation center would tell me that I can't eat durian in my own house because my neighbor can't stand it. I will most likely tell them to ban their cheeses first before banning my durian. lol