rest well

For fraternity

'http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/action/action.html'

'http://www.petitiononline.com/BUR_2007/petition.html'

'http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/h.php/?cl=20589575'

Derrida 1101: Text as Theory

I read yesterday's Sunday Times, which has the title 'S'pore just for rich? Not possible, says PM' (pg 6) and was really puzzled by the first paragraph:

"Singapore is not a country just for the rich, said PM Lee Hsien Loong. It cannot be. Otherwise, the Government would lose elections because there are not enough rich people around to vote it in."

I thought the statement is either an error by the printing press or maybe PM Lee was really contradicting himself. Won't the statement make more logical sense if he replaces 'rich people around to vote it in' with 'middle class people around to vote it in'?? But I guess it will open up a can of worms if ST/PM Lee did mean 'middle class' in its/his speech act. Or perhaps it is better for ST to make it ambivalent with regards to the definition of 'rich'? After all, his idea of 'equality' and 'poverty' is already pretty vague in a line that says 'if Singapore were a society where everybody was equal, it would be a recipe for poverty'. Maybe we should re/de-construct the line in our national pledge that says 'base on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation' ?

Anyway I thought the whole of page 6 becomes even more interesting when I turn to page 10 and 11 of the ST, where there is a 2-page article about how people aren't saving enough for their retirement. The emphasis of the article seems to center on the inability of Singaporeans to save up for themselves, despite of the efforts by the government to teach us how to be prudent.

Putting the two articles side up side, I think the idea of Singapore as a capitalist kind of welfare state is wrapped with many layers of meanings that either contradicts each other (capitalism triumphs over socialism in terms of Progress [whatever capital P means], but the People [whatever capital P means] are nonetheless incapable of progress in a meaningful sense), or complement each other (we cannot afford to be socialist in virtu, and the government will always be there to remedy the malaise of capitalism).

The employment of newspaper articles that contradict and complement simultaneously is powerful because the reader basically does not know what the hack the Author is implying, nor His real intentions. Throw in the fact that the press is controlled, you really can relegate Straits Times to the status of wrapping paper for kacang puteh. Better to trust in the government then, because the common denominator is that 'it works'. We become stupified and will not be able to progress deeper intellectually and culturally as a nation, even if MOE continues its conceptually sound principle of 'teach[ing] less and learn[ing] more', because the dominant ideology is to screw the socratic purpose of education, trust in the government, and do well in subjects, degrees and majors that bring the bacon home for the factory-nation. In fact, the 4th university might just turn out to be a liberal arts college with a focus on financial management. Seriously, what in the world is that???

Sometimes I do feel a bit sad of my place in society that is suppose to be my home. If I read this landscape as a text, I really do not know if I'm a protagonist or an antagonist in the narrative. And besides, who gives a two-cents' thought to his or her sense/source of citizenship these days? Money! My friend! This land is all about friggin money.

*my two cents' worth of reflection on teaching, politics, and teaching politics, in singapore. looking forward to a break come mid october :) *

Last Request

Ha I like this song but the mtv is a bit off

Friday Inertia

Went to catch The Campaign to Confer the Public Service Star on JBJ yesterday with daniel, angel, jess, adrian and their friends, although we were all sitting at different places. Hmmm.. it feels a bit flat and the jokes kind of cliche, although the cast was quite good. Maybe, for me, 'Asian Boys' and 'How Did the Cat get so Fat' have really set the standard for political theatre this year in Singapore. We later went for supper at this HongKong Cafe in cineleisure that sets a hyperinflation rate of 600% for maggie mee. It was pretty nice la, taste like how I would prepare maggie mee at home. The peanut butter toast was pretty good, though I won't advice one to eat the whole thing by himself, not good for his blood pressure.

There is still a lot of inertia to do my assignment. Probably the only good thing that come out of this research design module is that I get to know how to use excel in a more pro manner. But the whole module is really painful. The last time I felt so much doom and gloom in going for a class was in year 1. Really a lousy way to start post grad. Bjorn, my fellow singaporean post grad friend, told me "How? Next year must pay school fees already. This module sure fail one". We are both on scholarship, so bad grades means no more funding. Sigh sigh sigh.

Ok, time to snap out of it and do something about it.

Resting Day for schizo me

Finally managed to take a breather today after a rather intense weekend and monday. Decided to step off the pedal a bit today and didn't go to school to mark the remaining bunch of projects assignments. Went to school instead to consult my prof how to program dummy variables into R. Bumped into my previous sup and I'm looking forward to nov when I can start to do something about journaling my thesis. As with all things related to me, the journal will probably not materialize but thinking about the possibility is good enough. Checked my email and was quite happy that at least one student appreciated my mini-heroic effort to help them in their essays. Checked my other email and was quite irritated by a student who thinks pretty high and mighty about her essay. Checked my other email and I'm puzzled and amused by this bimbotic-looking 16 year old who wants to confirm me as her friend in facebook, but I don't even know her. And she really looks super bimbotic. Even her name sounds bimbotic. Ha. Ended the day at west mall with jamie and eunice for la mian. They are my usp chummy friends since year 1! We haven't met up in a super long while. They ask me what are my plans after masters. I told them I'll try to complete masters in 1.5 years and then work first lah. Good to take a break from studying. And I've been increasingly feeling the need to be a practitioner in my field first, before I can gain my own sense of credibility to pursue further studies. Herbert Marcuse was working for german army in WW1 and US army in WWII before he wrote one-dimensional man. I think he started academic only after his wife died. Makes pretty good sense to me. Kafka was a lowly (probably boring) clerk before he wrote Metamorphosis. Alright, going to read my marcuse book and then tmr will resume another 7-day cycle of intense schizo me.

INRI

Where have the flowers gone?

"The work of art is a universe of colors, sounds and words, and concrete characters. There is no death, there is only Phaedra dying" Lucien Goldmann

I like the gardens in Europe. And maybe travelling alone, like what I did last year, enhances the beauty of nature, because there is this deep longing to try to connect with a foreign world, when it is hard to articulate purposeful words to strangers around me. You feel close to nature in the gardens, and perhaps even to the Maker himself. I think that is how I've understood the idea of how we can experience the Maker by observing His creation.

Btw, I think Goldmann meant that there are different ways to experience a singular aesthetic event. Since there are different versions of how Phaedra died, or indeed, if she has really died at all.

Vineyards in Vienna

There is sunshine in this world.




The next 6 weeks will be pretty tough. Promos are coming and I actually feel mildly motivated to help them through the last hurdle. A new prof is coming to nus and I'm half looking forward to seeing him, to see if he likes my stillborn proposal on art and politics. After that, there will be another 40 odd essays to mark for the ps module. I think I do like the idea of having flexible hours of doing what I like. But just maybe, I'm already tired of living in an ivory tower. I probably need some 'real' work after Masters, to take a break from depressive books. Man... 'One-dimensional Man' by Marcuse is really a powerfully insightful yet depressive book. I'm halfway through the book and I feel so compelled to finish it, despite its ability to make me feel that life is pretty bleak and hopeless. At the same time, I turned to Ecclesiates and it says that I can find joy in toil (5:18-20, 9:7 - 10). Maybe, to experience deep rooted joy, one needs to experience heart wrenching sadness from time to time. Perhaps it is tempting to ask God to banish away all pain and sadness, and in the natural process, joy becomes a more surface and less deeply rooted existential sort of feeling. But won't that make life a bit too predictable; relationships become bland and language rendered empty? I think there have been instances in life when we are all chasing something precious - status, power, material, intangibles, love - only to realize that they are indeed a few pieces of golden nuggets resting on our palms after a period of struggle. Maybe the idea of 'joy in toil' can only be easily grasped when we are always in a constant disposition to surrender these golden nuggets to God. Joy resides in the means and not the end. Exploit me then.