Stuck In North Korea

I saw SDP leader Chee Soon Juan outside Clifford Center today. He, and two other persons, were trying to get the attention of passersby with utterances like 'Elections are coming. Help the opposition' and another about democracy in Singapore. Few people gave him the time of day. I sat some meters away, ate my post-lunch fruit and read my copy of TODAY while keeping an eye on this display of public exhortations.

Given he was not having much success, Chee Soon Juan sorely needed to raise his PR profile. The next thought was he should go to the Pitbull concert tonight and hang with the youth, and show them some moves. I laughed in my head but then seriously, it wouldn't do him any harm. He was entitled to attend concerts wasn't he? He should have hung out a sign that read "Singaporeans are bo chup" or "Free tissue paper" - that would have got some attention. Democracy? No way we're keen on talking about from our heads instead of our hearts and wallets.

I also realised that one reason he didn't manage to gather an audience was because Singaporeans really don't care about politics and less so, about a man highly publicised for being at the wrong end of the gahmen's favour time and time again. He's still a bankrupt, yes? I also came to conclude during that quarter of hour in public that Singaporeans are afraid. We are so afraid of even approaching a man who is the gahmen's bad books that we might be guilty or similarly treated as public enemy no.1. We are like a child who's threatened so often with a painful whack on the behind if he didn't behave that we dare not step out of line, whatever that perceived line may be. (In this case, consorting with a opposition party member). Even that painful whack on the behind is a mysterious legend, a story passed down from father to son, neighbour to neighbour, a powerful psychological deterrent handed down through the generations. Everyone who criticises the gahmen over coffeeshop talk ends of their conversations saying "Joke, joke".

This child knows about following the right path to make his parents happy. His parents take care of him with the right sustenance. He does not waiver from this path because he does not want to make his parents unhappy. He does not attempt at creativity because in case he has a bad idea or fails at succeeding, he might make his parents unhappy. He doesn't even talk to strangers. Then the painful whack on the behind. This child is afraid. What happens when the parents leave? Will the child be happy then? What is happiness for this child?

Deep questions but seriously, is that what most of us have become? Afraid? We are surrounded by creature comforts, clean and safe streets, running water at the touch of a tap and yet in our panadol-fed heads and cholesterol-laden hearts, we are perhaps no better than those stuck in North Korea.

Man Vs Nature

It's funny when one takes a step back to comprehend what we humans have done to the planet. Ok, perhaps not funny but sad. But also funny because we try our darndest to control nature and make use of nature for our own end. Ok, that sounds sad but it's also easy to laugh at how hard we try to control things and then complain about it. Ok, dark dry humour there.

Let me explain. Everyone say this out loud: AY-YAH-FYAH-LAH-YOH-KUUL. That's how you pronounce the name of the Icelandic atmospheric terror that spewed this guts out into the breezy Altantic. Eyjafjallajokull is the way the volcano's name is spelt. It also suddenly put Iceland back on the web searches and newspapers. Iceland is borne from volcanic activity. It essentially is the big pimple that burst out from the crack in the skin at the bottom of the Atlantic. Instead of pus, hot magma flowed outwards and upwards and formed islands upon cooling at the surface. Over time, Iceland became the delightful rocky outcrop it is today. Story of the Earth, nature at its best and worst. (Iceland is also famous for some fishing hullaballo in the 70s, Bjork in the 90s, the financial collapse of the government last year and today, the chimney we can't pronounce.)

So back to the nature plot. So the volcano blew and sent smoke up and suddenly we were all in emotional turnout. Planes couldn't fly about and people were stranded. Yes, that's sad but seriously, we can't blame anyone or anything. It's nature acting up on its domain we are privileged to exist on. So when we can't really assign blame on something that can't argue back, we blame each other. Governments for shutting down airspace, the airlines for the lack of plannning, the hotels for not having enough rooms. With fingers pointed and crossed, we waited for the ash cloud to pass.

Imagine if it didn't. What would the hundreds of thousands of stranded do? Scream and shout for sure. Imagine travellers stuck in Changi airport for a month. What could our tourist-centric gahmen do to appease the spending now upset traveller?

Big picture folks. We're nothing compared to nature and sooner or later, we're gonna be taken over as victims of our own success. Global warming, we're still denying or confirming it. The extent of melting ice seems to be up for discussion too. We all know there's too much forest being cut but no one is seriously doing anything about it. (I once proposed that the UN be put in charge of overseeing nothing is done to the forests of the Amazon and Borneo. Overseeing with force. Overseeing for the sake of the planet.) We throw our trash into the sea and wish it away with every passing wave. Bye plastic bottle, don't end up on my shore. We extract oil like nothing and we're all sure of the scramble that's gonna happen when it really starts to run out in my lifetime. Yet we don't seem very concerned, are we? Strange. That BP oil leak in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico isn't alarming as many people as I thought it would. The matter seems were placated by the oil giant that announced quickly it would foot the bill. Try footing nature's bill.

Let's face it, we treat our planet like crap. All for economic gain and the survival of the fittest, we plunder its resources. Who are we to take everything without a care? Why aren't we concerned that our kids are going to behave in the samw way? We're selfish that's why. We are inherently selfish. Ok, that's sad but still funny in a cynical kind of way.

Always Someone Who Wants To Kill You

Imagine if it did happen. One moment the normal sounds of the street in the afternoon - busy, noisy, people peddling their touristy knick knacks, people having conversations walking by shops, walking into shops, people moving through the crowds avoiding others because they're late for a play. A moment as normal as normal could be.

The next moment would have been like a scene from Die Hard. A quick flash of light followed by a giant ever-expanding ball of orange-yellow-crimson fire. Fire that suddenly engulfed everything in a 10 metre radius. There would have been no time to even blink if you were passing by close. One's eyes would be instantly blinded by the heat, mouth and nostrils seared by hot gas. Hands would move up to cover the face next, as protection but it would be meaningless as they would soon lose their first layer of skin. Burnt crisp and irrelevant. Then pain. Hair and clothes on fire, propagating the sheer terror. The brain would have had time to react properly. Reflex would have done as much as it could before the nervous system and sensory receptors connect the dots and suddenly one would realise the unimaginable.

Immediately many around the car would have died, and many more would be hurt by things blowing up, the searing heat, and flying pieces of metal and glass. The shockwave could have caused glass across the street to shard up in mere milliseconds. Sharp, painful slivers of knives. More could be hurt by stampeding crowds trying to escape in any direction. Adjacent buildings could have caught fire pretty quickly and perhaps those trapped within would have been suffocated by choking smoke. Running, screaming, tears. Drama.

That's the first few minutes of reality shattering if the Times Square bomb had gone off. It got me a little freaked. Wow, we are always at war. There's always someone who wants to kill people. Always.

People kill people. Would we be better off as animals? Settled with teeth and harems. Quick, circle of life kind of means to an end. Bloody miserable isn't it? Pop culture to blame? Are we all too desensitized to death because we see gore and blood all the times in the movies? Yet we make fun of the Amish. We are the joke sometimes - too much brain to get along with one another but with no one really laughing except for the mad men who have seen and expected it all. The failure of humanity to save itself. It's hard to think about but seriously this is what we have become. There are countless examples of our stupidity and there seems no end to our capacity for mutual destruction. What do we do? It's quite likely we'll blow ourselves to bits. Maybe that's why all the kids are partying like it's 1999.

Well, fingers crossed, prayers answered, we get to see the blue sky another day.

Foolish Football

This evening I saw live football on TV because Starhub felt like rewardng everyone for not complaining too much about the channel number changes. Might as well take advantage of the temporary kindheartedness.

The football match to watch was Liverpool versus Chelsea. I am a Liverpool supporter and I dare not apply the word fan because I don't have the sufficient passion to carry on with the Liverpudlian spirit. Yes I keep abreast of the matches, wins and losses via the papers because 50% more for cable TV is too much to watch weekend soccer for. Anyway, before the match began, my brother in law asked if I was supporting Liverpool because an Anfieild win tonight would have dented Chelsea's chances to winning the league and exalted Manchester United's chances instead. THere you go, the enemy Man U would gain at the expense of Liverpool's win. How deplorable. I even found it funny, a sort of Catch-22 for the big picture situation. So in my heart of hearts I wanted Chelsea to win. I am sorry but that was the truth. I couldn't take more smug expressions from Man U fans who somehow being 10,000 miles away feel like they contributed to their club's long and way overdue run at glory.

Tonight's match was going to go my way and did. It was a sad performance from the Reds. Sad. Gerrard back pass to the keeper had Drogba's quick thinking wrapped all around it and Chelsea scored from that boo-boo. The next goal was pretty nice too, from Lampard that one. Liverpool played a little like Singapore when it came to scoring. Awkward shots from far away. Their passing in the penalty area hardly connected. Towards the end of the match the commentator said "the match was over for Liverpool a long time ago". Sigh. Later, he described Liverpool's performance as "insipid" and two other 'l' words I forget. 'Lifeless' I think was one. There was also a shot of a depressed looking Torres on the bench nursing his injuries and shame. They were also booted out of the UEFA cup earlier this week too. A truly miserable end of all. And I fear no one knows how to fix them.

So Man U now have to beat Sunderland and at half time it's one goal for them. Bastards.

Speaking of soccer-related tragedies, it looks like Singapore may not get it's World Cup. Well no one is confirming anything at this juncture, a crucial 5 weeks till it begins. It's really odd that we're one of four countries in the world not having secured any rights for broadcast, the others being Myanmar, Somalia and North Korea. It requires a good stretch of the imagination to put Singapore in that league. We have $ and it seems FIFA wants to milk it. The gahmen is leaving it to the broadcasters to settle the matter. My goodness - do our Radio and TV licence fees not count for anything. There are 800,000 households paying at least $100 a year for these fees and couldn't we porportion some of that dough to free broadcast of the World Cup for all men, women and children on this gleaming island? Imagine if it doesn't happen. Hotels, bars, pubs, cafes and coffeeshops would not be able to make their four year lift in income from beer, nuts and coffee sales. All the ad firms which would do up all the ads for these events would not make that business. There may be political consequences I fear if there is all talk and no action. Well time will tell if Singapore is embarrassed on the world stage and everyone clamours to get booster antennas for RTM1 or RCTI reception.