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Tuesday, May 2008 (05/27/08) at 11:08 PM GMT :
Global Madness
mood: Sad
Man, catching up on current affairs nowadays is SO depressing. Rising inflation and costs of living in Singapore, the Sichuan earthquake (amazingly it already has an ), the horrible situation in Myanmar with the even more horrible junta practically committing passive genocide with their non-attempts to help those suffering and focusing on their damn elections instead (I could rant so much about this but I won't here), the insane situation in Zimbabwea where apparently 80% of Zimbabweans are unemployed and hyperinflation is 100,000% a year... and even things are kind of nuts in Nottingham where two people recently got arrested for suspected terrorism in my uni on utterly ridiculous grounds, and according to a friend there was a recent stabbing in a fight between two gangs in the very centre of town.
Sometimes it's tempting to think of all these things as simply happening to "other people" in "other" parts of the world, but I've been coming to realise that things are so much closer and inter-connected than I used to think. In fact, the Zimbabwean situation reminded me of last September when I was helping out with the International Student Welcome Programme, and I had a teammate who originally hailed from Zimbabwe. He was describing how the situation in that country was so bad that the government had actually placed glass ceilings on the price of food there just so that the people could afford to buy food, and that as a result of that the people had all just rushed out and grabbed all the food they could lay their hands on to stock up before the prices rose again. And so he had walked into shop after shop that was literally cleaned out with absolutely NOTHING on the shelves because everything had been bought up. Things were so bad that he had to buy meat from across the border. That's right, HE ACTUALLY HAD TO BUY MEAT FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY. I... I just can't imagine living like that. That's just insane. The whole WORLD is going insane, really. Though as another friend of mine joked, that statement assumes the world was actually sane in the first place. Oh how that statement rings so true.
Growing up really sucks because it forces your ivory tower to crumble and the plummet to the ground isn't exactly a painless one. You start noticing all the things going on in the real world and realise just exactly how stupid and selfish and hopeless human beings can be. Because we never seem to learn. [Karma: -2 (+/-)][link]
mood: Sad
Man, catching up on current affairs nowadays is SO depressing. Rising inflation and costs of living in Singapore, the Sichuan earthquake (amazingly it already has an ), the horrible situation in Myanmar with the even more horrible junta practically committing passive genocide with their non-attempts to help those suffering and focusing on their damn elections instead (I could rant so much about this but I won't here), the insane situation in Zimbabwea where apparently 80% of Zimbabweans are unemployed and hyperinflation is 100,000% a year... and even things are kind of nuts in Nottingham where two people recently got arrested for suspected terrorism in my uni on utterly ridiculous grounds, and according to a friend there was a recent stabbing in a fight between two gangs in the very centre of town.
Sometimes it's tempting to think of all these things as simply happening to "other people" in "other" parts of the world, but I've been coming to realise that things are so much closer and inter-connected than I used to think. In fact, the Zimbabwean situation reminded me of last September when I was helping out with the International Student Welcome Programme, and I had a teammate who originally hailed from Zimbabwe. He was describing how the situation in that country was so bad that the government had actually placed glass ceilings on the price of food there just so that the people could afford to buy food, and that as a result of that the people had all just rushed out and grabbed all the food they could lay their hands on to stock up before the prices rose again. And so he had walked into shop after shop that was literally cleaned out with absolutely NOTHING on the shelves because everything had been bought up. Things were so bad that he had to buy meat from across the border. That's right, HE ACTUALLY HAD TO BUY MEAT FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY. I... I just can't imagine living like that. That's just insane. The whole WORLD is going insane, really. Though as another friend of mine joked, that statement assumes the world was actually sane in the first place. Oh how that statement rings so true.
Growing up really sucks because it forces your ivory tower to crumble and the plummet to the ground isn't exactly a painless one. You start noticing all the things going on in the real world and realise just exactly how stupid and selfish and hopeless human beings can be. Because we never seem to learn. [Karma: -2 (+/-)][link]
Saturday, May 2008 (05/03/08) at 11:08 PM GMT :
Essay progress
mood: Motivated
I'm so glad I decided to drop that dratted CJPS essay for the time being and just concentrate on doing my PIL essay. The ease with which everything is just falling into place makes me want to bang my head against the wall as penance for wasting all my precious previous time with the train wreck of a CJPS essay. ('cept it's not really a train wreck since the train hasn't really been built. ^_^;;)
And it's amazing how fast the typing can go when I'm just going with the flow and writing out whatever I think in horribly worded, ungrammatical and cringe-worthy paragraphs. Though unfortunately this also means that much time is going to be spent going through the entire mess later and pruning it into shape so that it resembles a coherent and hopefully intelligent-sounding essay. (Pruning? I have the feeling it's going to be more like beating and strangling and squeezing and pounding and hammering into shape.)
*waves pompoms in the air to cheer self on* [Karma: 4 (+/-)][link] [185 Comments]
mood: Motivated
I'm so glad I decided to drop that dratted CJPS essay for the time being and just concentrate on doing my PIL essay. The ease with which everything is just falling into place makes me want to bang my head against the wall as penance for wasting all my precious previous time with the train wreck of a CJPS essay. ('cept it's not really a train wreck since the train hasn't really been built. ^_^;;)
And it's amazing how fast the typing can go when I'm just going with the flow and writing out whatever I think in horribly worded, ungrammatical and cringe-worthy paragraphs. Though unfortunately this also means that much time is going to be spent going through the entire mess later and pruning it into shape so that it resembles a coherent and hopefully intelligent-sounding essay. (Pruning? I have the feeling it's going to be more like beating and strangling and squeezing and pounding and hammering into shape.)
*waves pompoms in the air to cheer self on* [Karma: 4 (+/-)][link] [185 Comments]
Anger, sadness, and the horrible helpless feeling of being unable to change anything
mood: Upset
As much as I love my country, one thing that's always chafed at me is its narrow-mindedness and disgustingly unfair attitude towards the issue of homosexuality. I don't buy the bullshit that the Government gives about "Singaporeans are very conservative and they want the ban on homosexuality to stay, so it will." So what, if Singaporeans got pissed at foreign talent for coming into the country and "snatching" their jobs away, and were vocal enough about their dissatisfaction, you'll listen to them and ban all foreigners from entering the country too? A government's role isn't to be swayed by public opinion, it's to do what is good for the people. And surely encouraging prejudice can't be the right thing to do.
But what is it that my country has done so far, you ask?
So first, it refused to repeal section 377a of the Penal Code which penalises homosexuality, even though section 377 itself is already done away with and it is now perfectly legal for heterosexual couples to engage in oral and anal sex. Just not (male) homosexual couples. How perfectly logical.
Then it turns out to be guilty of editing TV content that even so much as MENTIONS the possibility of homosexuals leading happy, well-adjusted family lives. Because as I'm sure we all know, that is a complete and utter lie. Homosexuals are all bad, evil people who are living miserable and wretched lives and dying alone of AIDs in dirty gutters.
Then there was the incident of a TV station getting fined for showing an MTV with a lesbian kiss in it. Because as the entirely enlightened Queen Victoria would have said, lesbianism is just a myth and a romantic relationship between two females can't possibly exist.
Now THIS.
I am seriously pissed. I am so angry at this that I almost feel like crying*. What the HELL is WRONG with my country!? >:(
This reminds me of how, when I was reading the transcript of Siew Kum Hong's excellent speech appealing for the abolishment of section 377a+, I came across this quote on one of the comments:
"If you care too much about Singapore, it’ll break your heart."
I agree. It's certainly breaking mine.
*Re: the wanting to cry thing, there's the possibility that that's just me being overly emotional since it's that time of the month. But that doesn't change the fact that everything I say in this entry is true to my feelings regarding the issue.
+I recommend reading that blog entry. It truly is wonderful. Reading some of the personal anecdotes of those who supported the call for the repeal actually made me tear up. And it left me with the hope that with people like that, perhaps sometime in the future, Singapore might change for the better. [Karma: 1 (+/-)][link]
mood: Upset
As much as I love my country, one thing that's always chafed at me is its narrow-mindedness and disgustingly unfair attitude towards the issue of homosexuality. I don't buy the bullshit that the Government gives about "Singaporeans are very conservative and they want the ban on homosexuality to stay, so it will." So what, if Singaporeans got pissed at foreign talent for coming into the country and "snatching" their jobs away, and were vocal enough about their dissatisfaction, you'll listen to them and ban all foreigners from entering the country too? A government's role isn't to be swayed by public opinion, it's to do what is good for the people. And surely encouraging prejudice can't be the right thing to do.
But what is it that my country has done so far, you ask?
So first, it refused to repeal section 377a of the Penal Code which penalises homosexuality, even though section 377 itself is already done away with and it is now perfectly legal for heterosexual couples to engage in oral and anal sex. Just not (male) homosexual couples. How perfectly logical.
Then it turns out to be guilty of editing TV content that even so much as MENTIONS the possibility of homosexuals leading happy, well-adjusted family lives. Because as I'm sure we all know, that is a complete and utter lie. Homosexuals are all bad, evil people who are living miserable and wretched lives and dying alone of AIDs in dirty gutters.
Then there was the incident of a TV station getting fined for showing an MTV with a lesbian kiss in it. Because as the entirely enlightened Queen Victoria would have said, lesbianism is just a myth and a romantic relationship between two females can't possibly exist.
Now THIS.
I am seriously pissed. I am so angry at this that I almost feel like crying*. What the HELL is WRONG with my country!? >:(
This reminds me of how, when I was reading the transcript of Siew Kum Hong's excellent speech appealing for the abolishment of section 377a+, I came across this quote on one of the comments:
"If you care too much about Singapore, it’ll break your heart."
I agree. It's certainly breaking mine.
*Re: the wanting to cry thing, there's the possibility that that's just me being overly emotional since it's that time of the month. But that doesn't change the fact that everything I say in this entry is true to my feelings regarding the issue.
+I recommend reading that blog entry. It truly is wonderful. Reading some of the personal anecdotes of those who supported the call for the repeal actually made me tear up. And it left me with the hope that with people like that, perhaps sometime in the future, Singapore might change for the better. [Karma: 1 (+/-)][link]