Crazy assumption

A few days ago, my husband and I were walking to our condo from the MRT station. One young man walked pass us with a limp, kind of dragging his left leg and clutching the front of his shorts. My husband asked me 'Ano yun bagong tule?' I replied with a shrug, 'Siguro.' But then, I remembered that it's not widely practiced here in Singapore, not like in the Philippines that teenage boys must go through that passage to manhood, or else you'd be called 'supot' for life.

Here in Singapore (and I'm basing this from a friend's ordeal, for his son, of course), you've got to schedule such minor operation about three months beforehand, aside from the fact that you have got to find a doctor who does it. Unlike back home, you can find signs in any clinic scattered all over the islands saying 'Summer Offer: Free Circumcision' or there's a funny one '50 Pesos – Tule; 35 Pesos – Gupit' (for just 85 pesoses tuli ka na, may bagong haircut pa). To top it off such operation done here in 'gapor would cost you around $700-800, pretty high compared to free offers 'onli in the Filipines'. And come to think of it in other provinces, boys would only line-up under the heat of the sun one summer day, munching guava leaves under the mango tree perched near a river, where Mang Inggo is waiting with his sharpened bolo. Ouch!

For more information on this topic try this one. One site even mentioned that circumcision alters the sexual performance, I can't comment on this one, though. Some don't see the merits of taking out the foreskin and saw it only as a religious practice. I have a son, but the decision for him to get the cut has already been done, though we still have a long wait for that. I'm pretty sure we're not going to do it out of piety – showing religious devotion and reverence to God – nor for medical reasons, because some of them were not really proven, but for hygienic reasons (ayokong matawag na kupal ang anak ko) and of course, it is a rite of passage to manhood. I’d rather have him go through that little pain than have him curse me to high heavens when his friends would call him 'Supot'.