I have a picture I took in Bombay of a beggar asleep on the pavement; grey-haired, wearing shorts and a dirty shirt, his shadow thrown aside like a blanket.
His arms and legs could be cracks in the stone, routes for the ants' journeys, the flies' descents. Brain-washed by the sun into exhaustion, he lies veined into stone, a fossil man.
Behind him there is a crowd passingly bemused by a pavement trickster and quite indifferent to this very common sight of an old man asleep on the pavement.
I thought it then a good composition and glibly called it 'The Man in the Street', remarking how typical it was of India that the man in the street lived there.
His head in the posture of one weeping into a pillow chides me now for my presumption at attempting to compose art out of his hunger and solitude.
If there is an award for figuring Life out, Singaporeans so deserve it.
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So I was buying some shoes yesterday when this auntie came up to the nice salesperson and asked for US Size 3 shoes for her son because he was 3 years old.
Please lor. Americans are bigger than Asians; how can US size 3 be for 3 years old?
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Amongst all the condolences for the 5 unfortunate dragonboaters, a friend came across this guy calling the dragonboaters typical Singaporeans: arrogant bastards who they we are Gods especially when we go overseas.
I am pissed. There is actually someone more offensive than I am.
According to Frederick from Singapore who writes in the condolences book for the millions the Khmer Rouge slaughtered, Cambodia is the abode of Satan, or at least his summer getaway.
I think so too.
How else are these children able to stay afloat in wash-basins in the river that killed 5 able-bodied swimmers in nothing more than a wash basin? This must be the work of the Devil.
Also, the Tonle Sap, the river the dragonboaters died in is the only river in the world that reverses its flow on a regularly basis. Paganic.
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Moral: If you think you are God, don't go to the Devil's country.
"We regret to inform you that we are unable to assist Mr XXX in our meal delivery service.
According to our records, Mr XXX's wife was our client, and the food that the household was previously receiving was stopped upon her unfortunate passing in the June of 2007. The social worker then had also assessed Mr XXX of being in good health.
Upon receipt of your letter, we have extended our service to Mr XXX. I made three attempts to locate Mr XXX at his residence in order to re-assess his condition: on the 21st Nov Wedenesday in the afternoon, and subsequently on the mornings of Thursday and Friday. They were in vain. In addition, during the visit on Wednesday at 3 pm, I found the lunch we delivered still hanging upon his door [the picture is included].
As such, we are unable to assess Mr XXX and ascertain his eligiblity for Home Help Services.
As stipulated by the Home Help service model by the National Council of Social Services, Home Help service is extended only to home-bound in-ambulant elderly having difficulties with the activities of daily living [ADL-dependency]. Many elderly request for Home Help services because it supplements their meagre income but we need to draw such lines because we have limited resources.
We ask for your understanding and look forward to further co-operation with yourself and the Tanjong Pagar GRC."
I'm drafting a letter to turn down one of Indranne's referral for one of her resident. This is the version that won't ever make it to the final letter of course, but it needs to see the light of day:
"To Indranee Thurai Rajah, MP for Tanjong Pagar GRC, or whoever wrote the letter for you:
We regret to inform you that we are unable to assist Mr XXX in our meal delivery service.
Mr XXX's wife was our client, so the food delivery was stopped upon her unfortunate passing in the June of 2007.
We have extended our service to Mr XXX upon receipt of your letter out of goodwill. I made three attempts to locate Mr XXX at his residence: on Wednesday 21st Nov afternoon and Thursday and Friday morning. In addition, on one visit, the Wednesday one at 3 pm, the lunch we delivered to Mr XXX was hanging upon his door [a picture is included in Appendix 2].
As we are unable to assess Mr XXX and ascertain his eligibility for our service, we are unable to assist him.
As stipulated by the Home Help service model by the National Council of Social Services [the relevant pages are attached in Appendix 1], eligible clientele for Home Help extends only to home-bound in-ambulant elderly with difficulties in the activities of daily living. This precludes elderly folks who require our services to cut costs."
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But I am still pissed.
I realized it doesn't matter what I write. Blerdy Indranee probably doesn't care about the outcome of the referral because MPs can't ever say no to their residents. It doesn't matter whether Mr XXX gets the service or not because blerdy Indranee still wins. She wins because she agreed to write the referral for Mr XXX so she looks good in his eyes. If we help the client, blerdy Indranee gets the credit in his eyes because she wrote the referral for him. Now I am turning him down. And the client will say: It's not blerdy Indranee who's turning him down.
Blerdy hell.
There is something disturbingly wrong with this country.
Videos of Chee Siok Chin and John Tan trying to walk towards Shangri-La recently. Basically the video goes something like this:
- CSC and JT wants to walk to Shangri-La.
- The police 'advises them to leave' because it is a protected area or they will be removed.
- CSC asks for a reason. She is just going to Shangri-La for a meal.
- Police says because the area is protected.
- CSC asks why is no-one else stopped.
- The police 'advises them to leave' because it is a protected area or they will be removed.
- CSC asks for a reason. She is just going to Shangri-La for a meal.
Seriously all CSC wants is a reason. Give her lor. Tell her that with all the lawsuits the PAP have and will slap on her, she's bankrupt liao or will be bankrupt liao so she obviously can't and shouldn't be eating at Shangri-La. Every cent counts.
Part 1
Part 2
Other interesting things:
• John Tan is my stats lecturer. He taught me all I knew about statistics and I would not be half the empiricist I was without him. He taught me that He taught me to see through all the lies that evil people in the country tell by abusing stats.
• 'You are advised to leave the area or you will be removed'. Apparently, 'advised' means different things to the police from Uncle Oxford. 'Removed' has a nice sound to it though: nicely threatening and sounds like a vaporizer will be involved.
• 'You are advised to leave the area or you will be removed'. Somehow it sounds better with an American accent. Or at least an accent which doesn't sound like you're really married to Chinese and English is the distant relative in the family you don't want to acknowledge because he's done some shameful things. The same applies to raising your voice.
• Police can't touch you if you haven't done anything wrong. But they do anyways.
• The higher you go, the smaller your balls. Must be the increased air pressure.
• CSC's HQ is in Sengkang. The food there is definitely alot cheaper than Shangri-La's. My HQ is in Woodlands. The food sucks here.
Last week-ish, there was a letter in the ST forum. The writer's grandmother kanna attacked by their schizophrenic neighbour at a very public bus stop and noone helped at all. There were so many sensible things the writer could have lamented about. Probably her grandmother did or had something that triggered off something in their neighbour so she could have talked about the greater need for sensitivity towards mentally sick people. Maybe said neighbour didn't take his medication before leaving home; she could have talked about the challenges of caring for the mentally inept and caregiver's burdens. Or perhaps the neighbour's relapse was caused by the hot weather; she could highlight the challenges faced in combating global warming. Yet, the writer choose to accuse all the people at the bus stop, and by association, all Singaporeans, as apathetic.
In today's ST forum, a Adam Chen Zijian writes:
"I REFER to the letter, 'No one helped when old woman was attacked' (ST, Nov 5) by Ms June Koh Poh Kwan. It is indeed sad and unfortunate to hear that not a single person bothered to help Mdm Tan when her attacker, a young man suffering from schizophrenia, verbally and physically attacked her.
It is common knowledge that the majority of Singaporeans would just stare and keep a distance whenever such situations arise.
Like all Singaporeans, we do not want trouble and, thus, our selfish nature.
This bad habit of ours is definitely one of the traits that make up the 'Ugly Singaporean'.
True, Singapore always gets praised in the international media for being clean and green, for being a safe country, for having the best airport but, when it comes to basic moral values and ethics, Singaporeans really fare badly.
We really should learn from the rest of the world, such as our American and Australian counterparts because chances are if the same scenario happened in either America or Australia, members of the public would get involved and promptly seize the attacker, before handing him over to the police.
Compare that to what happened to Mdm Tan, and you will know that Singaporeans are lagging very far behind and have a lot of catching up to do.
So, being clean and green, having the best airport, honestly, they all count for nothing if we continue to be so selfish and self-centred.
It is only when we learn to be more selfless and self-sacrificing that we can truly consider ourselves to be gracious citizens."
Generally, the stupidity in the ST forum is quite high, but Adam Chen Zijian brings it to PAP politician levels. Personally I like people who are called Adam, and this one shares my surname as well as having a nice Chinese name. Apparently such triply ideal naming goodness can only result in stupidity.
In his letter, Adam's only claim that Singaporeans are selfish is backed only by the previous letter and the 'common knowledge that the majority of Singaporeans would just stare..'. Where is the freakin falsifiability?
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In America, the country which Adam lauds for her unselfish people, a Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death infront of 30 over people over a half hour period, where the attacker left and came back to continue stabbing her. No one lifted a finger. In another case, a woman was unaware she had been stabbed in the back and continued doing her normal marketing. She only realized she had been stabbed after she got home and her daughter pointed out there was a knife protruding from behind her.
As has been researched to death (Berkowitz, Latane & Darley, Bryan & Walbek, Bryan & Test, Grusec, Bastardi & Shafir etc), having other people around makes people alot less likely to help. People generally don't help around strangers cuz they don't wanna pai-seh.They don't generally help aroound strangers cuz they are afraid that the event might not be an emergency, and since noone else is helping, then it probably isn't an emergency. In other words, as clear as being stabbed to the victim might seem, the event is not so clear-cut to us by-standers.
When I was in HK, we came across a crowd.
Odie wastes no time in mingling within the crowd, and chatting up the early birds to find out what is going on. She tells me that this behaviour is not an Odie-thing, and based on observation with this crowd, I concur with her. It seems in HK, it is the culture for by-standers in a crowd to actually communicate with each which generally eliminates the ambiguity of the situation, or eliminates the possibility one will look like a fool for helping because everyone else is also doing so.
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I think the most famous account of America's lack of unselfishness is how Americans, common and professionals alike, risk their lives during the September 11 attacks. I also think that there is nothing ambiguous about buildings collapsing and in flames, or planes being hijacked for suicide runs.
So it's really abit too far, and most unscientific and therefore really stupid, to call Singaporeans selfish and apathetic. Singaporeans are not selfish or apathetic. I think they just have a very generous leeway for what constitutes an emergency, a leeway which is not helped by the general tendency of Singaporeans to keep to themselves I suppose.
A man and woman fighting, never mind how much blood is flowing, is construed as a domestic struggle and therefore private business, albeit in a very public place.
A kid writhing about on the ground, and foaming at the mouth, is simply the playfulness of youth.
An adult savagely abusing a child is nothing more than discipline. Afterall, growing up, who hasn't been caned?
A knife sticking out of someone's back. A bad radio commercial?
As silly as it sounds, but the research shows it. If you want help, just ask for it. CLEARLY. In 4 different languages and 2 different dialects to be sure.
So I made a quicktime slideshow of the yummy food I had in HK. Just click the yellow arrows to navigate [may have to take awhile for the file to load first though].
I can honestly say that food was one of the few things I was looking forward to in HK. We commonly went to Nganlung, situated just below our guesthouse. I went there almost every chance I got.
Having been to quite a bit of countries, I still think that food in Singapore, or at least the food I can generally afford is, is nothing more than supposedly edible foodstuffs ruined in oil. Gross.
Tai-O is a sea-side village on Lantau island. On retrospect, in the cool dryness of my room, and not the pouring coldness I was experiencing then, Tai-O is actually a pretty nice, rustic place, a nice escape from the maddening crowd that characterizes HK and SG [in retro-retrospect, the lack of crowds at Tai-O could possibly be due to the rain].
茶果. A local delicacy. Available in sweet and salty versions.
Social worker going around giving out goodie bags.
Turns out to get to Nam Sang Wai, you walk along Nam Sang Wai road, which is along the Kam Tin and Shan Pui river. The walk there, all 4 km of it, is very easy to describe.
The way ahead and back is road:
There are electric wires once in a while.
Right is the Kam Tin River, with flocks of cranes and ducks.
Left is the fenced up mongrove-y area, Nam Sang Wai proper.
Towards the end is a big empty field where people play with model helicopters:
or with their dogs [Keith and Toby, Keith is the one in the picture]:
So I managed to shake off my traveling companions for the day. Rather than spend the day moping and sulking in the room over the internet, I decided to visit Nam Sang Wai, where I can mope and sulk by the swamp and jump in when I've had enough of moping and sulking. I heard it is infested with crocodiles. Sweet deliverance.
Got off the bus at Ang Mo Kio [really!] and this big big sign so deceptively greets you..
I had the day all to myself after I ditched my travel companions to Shenzhen. I took the chance to go back to the Wetlands Park, where I had previously attempted to go the day before but it was closed.
The park itself is basically a free-for-all viewing area built around a nature reserve, which is what you see no touch because pretty to look at, once broken it's a real shame but there's no need to pay. The nature reserve consists of a mangrove ecosystem.
There is the usual visitors' centre, with it's fair share of real and fakeko exhibits including a mudskipper up close!
And some species of swamp crab, where the male is differentiated by a larger right pincer.
The crabs in their somewhat more natural habitat.
There were huts built on the edges of the park to allow people to get closer to the wildlife in a more comfortable position. Oh gosh. I felt so out of my league. Look at all the lenses. HK must have one of the highest rates of dSLRs in the world.
But of course, I will not be outdone so easily. Picture taken from the telescope provided in the visitors' centre.
I remember talking to a friend long ago about zoos and nature reserves. I used to feel that concepts such as zoos and nature reserves are pretty hypocritical. Firstly, it's implying therefore that the right to defile the land is totally ours and defiling the land is okay because we have nature reserves set aside. Secondly, it's kinda half-fucked to want to preserve something you purport to love, and still allow people to go in even if there is some sort of barrier.
If you really love something, sometimes the best is just to leave it alone. Well, obviously, I don't love it that much.
To capitalize on the cheaper rate if you watch shows before 11 am, my travel mate decided we should watch Saw IV, to which I obligingly agreed even though I get really freaked out during horror shows.
The theatre was really small. There is only about 10 rows, and the room was flat and non-sloping, which meant that you get full view of the head of the guy infront of you. For once, I was actually glad for that.
I think I get freaked out during horror shows because I can almost imagine myself being in the poor victims' shoes.
After a while, I think the movie kinda grow on me. Basically, the movie is about some dude who goes around setting up contraptions for bad people to put themselves into where they have to choose between death or cutting off an appendage, either of which they truly deserve. I think the show, and its prior prequels, is about karma or more specifically that karma doesn't exist though people think it does, and the only karma is the kind you put into your own hands.
Karma doesn't exist. It's really just a myth.
I'm indignant. You can live your life the best way you should, but as always, it's the scummy garbage that gets what you deserve, and they're probably laughing at you about it.
So yeah. I was not afraid during the show because I know I will never find myself in the trap to be judged. I will be the judge.
My unfortunate affiliation with HK also extends to its universities.
HKU:
Been here way too many times, but still dragged my sorry behind down. I didn't realize how trouble it was to get here; the route was direct enough but traffic was so bad it took almost an hour to get there, the whole way I was feeling pissy because Odie says that co-ops tend to close at 4:30, her basis being the NUS one.
City U: On the day we went, there was a convocation going on.
