Sombre Thoughts

As expected my facebook would be inundated with news of LKY passing. I have chosen not to say a thing. Apathetic? No. Dead set against the man because of who he is? Certainly not. One may not always agree on everything he has done but seriously one important thing we have always overlooked when we cast our judgement of things about Singapore stems from the facts of what we actually do not know.

On that count the bias main stream media certainly isn't helping. Yet by logical deduction.. if many of the things were not done in the way he carried them out or as instructed during his time as Prime Minister and even after... I shudder to think where we are today. This may come as a surprising view from many who know me but I always maintained and strive to be objective. Give credit where credit is due.

Yes I am often critical of things political these days. By and large, the entire country is still run by one political party. But, no, I have not forgotten the time growing up when things were more authoritarian than it is now. Yet many in my generation, largely students then, kids growing up in the 60sand 70s understand why things were done the way they were. No, we did not witness the riots and early chaos right around independence but the ensuing years that followed, the push to grow a nation, that we know. That, we are definitely a part of.

People are nostalgic sometimes for the wrong reason. Chatting in the relative comfort of today's environment, a coffee joint infused with the waft of expensive roasted beans... talks of the old days arise and those old days always seem better. Really?

In all honesty, I just really do not know.  As I a take a whiff from the cuppa while settling comfortably to the soft jazz music overlooking the "longkang" aka Singapore River - I remember growing up looking at the same place. Only putrid smell and rubbish filled waterway is all I can remember... 

Sure, as kids we had fun, paddling out on big Styrofoam boxes scavenged from the nearby Pan-E factory in Kampong Arang, casting nets to catch crabs. Permanently moored bumboats stacked alongside each other were producing charcoal.. hence the name of the place Kampong Arang, Charcoal Village. There were more kilns firing on land but those boats were part of the black sooty landscape for the longest time.

One concrete port hole filled link-way across the river in this area where fisherman dries their shark-fins and other marine goodies assaulted the olfactory sense complete with watery eyes from all the saltiness while walking past.  If this was your childhood "playground", how can you forget.

This is just one vivid scene of my  childhood because of the umpteen hours spent around here. Today as I sit back and view the waterway.. either from one of those eating places near the Indoor Stadium or opposite, in the balcony of my friend's condo.

This place has truly transformed. For the better? Like I said, I don't know. We tend to equate everything with money these days. The neighborhood is now filled with million dollar condos. Things out of reach, so are we not liking how things are because we are not included? We tend to put out comparison with other places around the world, pointing out how a simple less cluttered life is better and or having less people, more land should be a way of life.  Sure! But life is just not fair.. for all the pluses in this country, space, privacy are the kind of things that has to be compensated with.

"Then let's not grow this fast..." would be the counter argument. Again life is not just unequal.. if you are small and you do not dart fast enough-- you are somebody's dinner. We need to move. change and often have to be quick about it. We don't sit on resources to be squandered away like our neighbors. But even for some of them.. hey their oil wells are running dry too.

Yet having said all of these, I'm really dead set against that 6.9m White Paper. Fuck you if you truly believe what they say.. if that magic number on paper is 6.9m-- the reality is probably closer to 8.5m by my reckoning... The top down approach is is about having more people flooding this island and keeping labor cost cheap with a continuous supply of workforce wherever that may come from so long as it is cheap by comparison. Anyone that even has any valid concern to complain or feel deprive can always self-boot to another point on the planet. For every one that leaves, there will always be ten to take his/ her place... On TV and mainstream news, of course the political machinery will only espouse on the importance of progress and reminding everyone on the uniqueness and fragility of the island's economy which has to scream "competitiveness", adaptation and more subtly "boot and change the people" pulsing throughout in order to survive.

Certainly in any country/ society there will be the rich that gets richer. The thing we have to ask ourselves is whether as a whole are we better off than people elsewhere.  This is a really complicated question because, do I look merely at the present or what's in store for the future aka come retirement.

Worldview

Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.

Ok I stole the fucking line from somewhere. Sue me.

But that's precisely just what "worldview" is. No?
What you choose to plug into your world becomes your view of reality eventually. Like everyday living, you need to clean "house" after awhile. The problem is sometimes that house has turned into a hoarder's hellhole, it's better just to move out entirely. Take the shirt off the back too.

Have a clean start.

This applies to various aspects in life. We are simply too attached to things at times which when truly reflected upon doesn't make much sense. More often than not, it's all about soothing one's own ego through one's own opinions held so dear.

Ok it can be a little more complicated than that. Your website, blog, social media pages be it FB, Tumblr, Instagram or whatever has become your "watering hole" of sort. Like any skanky bar... dimly lit in the evenings filled with cheap yet alluring smells each time you walk in. You are too comfortable to do any cleaning.. but very much aware that once the lights come on at closing time, the filth, puke and roaches running around would leave a distaste. Yet this is the same "bar" everyone you interact with comes to and basically comfortable in each others presence yakking over misfortunes popping out from overly exaggerated headlines. Headlines all over the web vying for clicks or chattering over your favorite subjects...Or e.patting each other on a good score over some collectibles or whatever useless junks your hard earned dollars have been expended on.

With settings restricted, you are the bartender that dishes out whatever drink you fancy shaking up. You can give not a fuck what others have to say.. or really is that the case?

I still think that it is very much a case of you spewing whatever you want because that in your view is what is right or matters. Like what you are reading now.

... its 2015 now

Reminds me of the time I cut out the strips from the newspapers and glue them onto a scrap book...