Oh To Be A Bigger Dot

I've been provoking people, mostly my Singaporeans friends, with this hypothetical situation for a while now. 

"Would you agree to giving up all Singapore's reserves to buy over a piece of Johor?" 

The reactions I get are varied. Some people very quickly say no. The very thought of even contemplating that our $300 billion was spent on anything strikes fear, apprehension and downright nervousness. They respond with "Crazy lah you" or "Siao. How can touch that money?" and "Malaysia won't sell you anything. Water already want to fight already."

Others think about a little and venture a few questions to which I quickly spit out answers. I want their gut response as much as possible.

"How about some of the money?" Sure, I say, how about two-thirds. 

"How much land?" Let's say up to Muar then we draw a radius across to the eastern coastline. Sometimes, I suggest a 50km radius from Johor Bahru's city centre. 

"Do we keep the people or just the land!" We keep the people. Or rather we give them an option which side they want to join. 

"Wah what will happen ah?" I usually reply with statements like it'll be like when East Germany reunited with West Germany. It took a decade for them to get back on their feet but the whole nation is better for it. And our dollar's strength will be first to plummet of course, to say 1.5RM to the dollar but that's ok. We'll make up for this soon enough. And finally our NS boys would have something real to do. We'll move the airport further away. 

"Why do you ask this question?" Well, I've always felt we've been held back by our lack of land. We were booted out of Malaysia back in 1965 over political differences and have pulled ourselves in front economically with a high degree of affluence and prosperity. But our homes are expensive and cars are pricey. Our people are growing less happy with more people crowding this tiny space. Our supply of fresh water has always been something to worry about. 

There are bigger things too. Space, the lack of it or having enough of it, does things to people. It alters our mindset and perceptions. Things are easy administratively in Singapore because it's small. Public works, telecoms, infrastructure. Getting into the city is 45 minutes by train from the far ends of the island. When things are easy for people, two things happen - we get lazy and start to take the ease for granted. 

The people most affected by this affliction will be the second and third generations of Singaporeans, most of whom would have grown up with some degree of affluence, had one or more colour televisions at home, took taxis regularly, maybe had a car in the family. They experienced clean streets and working trains, nothing that makes life inconvenient or messy as most other people experience. With no need to think around how to solve day-to-day issues, there's a general apathy towards public service (someone else somehow gets the job done). 

Stretching that a little further (well to some extreme really), maybe our tiny, well-run country limits the need for creative thinking or innovation (last great thing we invented might have been Breadtalk's flossss bun) and little drive towards entrepreneurship (it's just too uncertain, give me an office job please). 

Little space also means less breathing room. There's no countryside to go do nothing in. No forest to frolic about in. No mountains to climb. No rivers to cross. No where to stop, take a long deep breath and smell the roses. Stress just kept inside a tightly wound city, accumulating. 

A friend who's been in the USA spoke about losing his job is too unhappy because he's saved. The rest of us felt he was going to be fine because he had options. Getting a cheaper place to stay was an option. Moving to another city or state was an option. Starting lemonade stand was an option. In a small country, options are more limited. In Singapore you'd get arrested selling lemonade on the street. I think there are cops after the folks selling curry puffs at MRT stations. 

There's a song called Big Country also by the band Big Country. The song came out many many years ago but the opening line in the chorus always stuck with me like a scar. "In a big country, dreams stay with you". I guess in Singapore most dreams are shaped by circumstances and decisions out of one's control. How on earth would I have become the astronaut I wanted to be when I was nine. Yes it sounds depressing but the reality is, in Singapore you make a living, you don't live life. I'm not ungrateful for my upbringing in this safe, clean and efficient city, aware that a few billion others wouldn't mind trading places. Perhaps I just need a road less travelled, literally and figuratively, to tread on. Perhaps I am just worried about how my country is going to grow up, how my friends' kids (yes, their kids because my friends are mostly resigned to their circumstances, and various forms of acceptable, non-threatening addictions to deal with their fates) going to look back and wonder if it was worth it. 

A time machine to go back and give Raffles a few ideas about territorial allegiances. If only. 

How Many People Died In The Last 24 Days?

It's been an awful one month, hasn't it?

December 15 - A madmen with a shotgun barricaded himself in Sydney cafe. The world was on its toes, watching every moment unfold. Australians were stunned. He and 2 brave hostages died as an outcome.

December 16 - Taliban gunmen climbed over a wall into a school for army officers' children in Peshawar, Pakistan. They targeted kids as revenge for an earlier army offensive against them. 162 persons, mostly the school students, were brutally gunned down.

December 19 - In Cairns, a mother stabs 8 children to death. Australia is stunned for the second time in 4 days. 

December 20 - Two New York City policemen were shot to death at point blank range by an armed assailant who had earlier told people to watch what he was going to do. After the execution style murders, the gunman took his own life later. Many feel that the gunman was exacting revenge for the recent deaths of black men who were shot by police or died while in custody. The police men involved in these deaths were white. The two cops shot in their car were Chinese-American and Hispanic.

December 26 – 38 people were killed in Iraq when an ISIS suicide car bomb went off. They were after government fighters. That number capped off the most violent year in the country with 76,000 people killed of which 33,000 were civilians. It doesn’t feel like anything’s going to change in 2015.

December 28 – AirAsia flight QZ8501 went down in stormy weather over the Java Sea. Its 162 passengers and crew were on their way from Surabaya to Singapore. The crash was the third in Malaysia related air tragedies in the past year, following the disappearance of MH370 and the shooting down of MH17 over Ukraine. Today, search teams were trying retrieve the downed plane’s tailfin from the seabed in the hope that the blackboxes stored there are undamaged. This one was close to home. Many could appreciate the sense of loss and anguish borne by the families and friends who were waiting to meet their loved ones from Changi Airport. No matter how rationalists will remind us that more people die from vehicle accidents than plane crashes, it’s the sudden massive loss of life that will overwhelm any iota of logic.

January 1 – 9 deaths are reported in Japan as a result of suffocation from choking on New Year’s Day sweets called mochi.

January 7 –The offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were stormed by AK47 wielding gunmen who went on to kill 12 staff and policemen. The attack was apparently in response to the cartoons the newspapers published poking fun at Islam, Islamic terrorists and Prophet Mohammed. The western world came to a brief standstill upon hearing about this attack on the press. This was an unusual target but by no means devoid of controversy. In fact Charlie Hebdo thrived on it. The office as firebombed in the past for other work seen insulting to Islam. This brazen rampage however sent a very strong signal that no one could escape the wrath of sensitive Islamists in spite of whichever civil laws in whichever country. All an angry person needed was a gun and courage. The gunmen didn’t care that a policeman was himself a Muslim. He just happened to be on the wrong side of their guns. It doesn’t bode well for Western Europe where conservative politicians have been hankering for tighter refugee and immigration laws. No doubt this gross incident will be fodder for them, and other xenophobic inclined movements. Already the past weekend has seen pro- and anti-immigration marches in Germany. It’ll be easy now to say that if foreigners can’t even respect established cultural norms in a country, then they can go home and feel sorry for themselves. I’m a little afraid of emotions taking over.

So I’ve recalled 397 counts of loss of life in these morbid paragraphs, not including the grim full year Iraqi tally. All in the span of 24 days. I just felt people should know, and remember. These days, with news barrelling at us at light speed, we take things in quickly, absorb/process/reject it, and likely forget it, mostly because our brains can only hold and appreciate so much at a time. When I list things out like this, it’s clear to me that life is fragile and precious; that we who are clothed, have shelter and food, feel safe when we walk down the street, should feel privileged every day for the luck we are surrounded by; and that humanity has a long way to go to fixing ourselves.

Happy New Year. 

Heartlessness

The past couple of weeks have provided me much fodder/inspiration to write this post. 

First, #Folsom. You may or not have read about a 12 year old boy who had joined his high school cheerleading team. He loved it and the team loved him. He jumped, danced, sang, cheered and stood up for his school football team with pride. What made him stand out also was the fact that he was the only boy on the team. That made him special, special enough to be picked on and made fun of, to be bullied. He endured the harassment for a while till one day a few weeks ago he decided enough was enough. He took his own life.  

When I first read the news reports about Ronin Shimizu's passing, I could feel the onset of tears. The same thing happened just now when I wrote that last sentence in the first paragraph. When you hit your 30s, you sometimes think about potential, the whatifs in your own life. How life could be different, usually better or wealthier, if you had made a different decision or took a chance some time in the past. Your look at the years gone by and wonder at how great things could have been. Robbie Williams sang "Youth is wasted on the young. Before you know it, it's come and gone too soon." It's true. One can only have the luxury of doing this pity party when you're older. This kid was just 12 when he decided that the cruelty of his peers was just too much to bear. No age of youth to consider. I cannot imagine what his parents must be feeling. I think I would just cry all day. 

Words can hurt more than physical things because they have meaning. The sharp stabs of reason and doubt pierce both heart and soul, and worse still, they linger and fester and grow like a disease. The disease is psychological. It kills not the body but the spirit. If not nipped in the bud, it'll overcome and overwhelm, making it easier to slip over the edge. Just mere words. 

So crime and punishment. When someone posted the story on Facebook, I wrote in response that parents need to teach their kids that they should support others for being happy (as long as they're not hurting others), that unkind words can hurt, and most importantly, that they should stand up for others being bullied. Once we let things go, bullies think it's ok to carry on. Nip it in the bud. I added that the kids who bullied Ronin should go kneel at his parents' home on his birthday to ask for forgiveness. 

Second, #sydneyseige. We know what happened and how it went down. If you paid close attention to the Internet, you could pick out a few "outstanding" categories of thought. One tweeter wrote something like "Start the beheading already". Someone else wrote to the effect of letting Muslims into Australia was a bad idea, that this outcome was due. Someone else posted something to the effect of letting Muslims know there was pork in chocolate. (reference to Lindt cafe). 

Stunning eh. It's easy when you don't have to face the music for 140 characters one's posts on Twitter, consequences lost in the oceanic flood of messages. Mere words, designed to perhaps elicit more vitriol from the do-gooders. In this age, it's easy to come across violence. Kids are exposed to it from an early age, from TV, movies and video games. After all, they maybe become desensitized to the horror. How bloody was Spartacus the TV series? I watch The Walking Dead and that can get pretty gory. Remember that scene where the Sheriff bit the neck of the another bad guy to save his son? No zombies but real people. The episode started with him having blood all over his face, dripping down his mouth. I'd say it was cool. But really, where do we go from here? More blood curdling horror? How about horror in real life? That's what IS has done with its beheading videos. The Internet was the medium of choice. It's funny that these atrocities are things are used to happen all the time in the centuries past. What goes around comes around.   

So despite a scenario where people are in agony, stuck with an armed madmen in a confined space, people were egging the lunatic on. Or maybe they just wanted something horrific to play out, like it was a movie, not caring that these are real people with real families. Just entertainment broadcast to a screen near you. It's sad that we have become like this, and perhaps worse that there's no turning back. 

Third, #Pakistanschoolseige. What on earth does the Taliban stand to gain from killing all those kids? It will merely spark more outrage and more hatred. With so many lives lost, and so much pain caused, what credibility does the Taliban gain? Only fear and then submission at the end of a gun. Nobody wants to live like that. Maybe it is a Yoda thing - that anger will lead to hate and that will lead us to the Dark Side. (I think we're already there.)

The strange thing about anger is that it can also help galvanize people to a common mission and in this case, a common enemy. There could be political play. Maybe the US will be asked to lend their military might. Maybe there locals will rout out their own corrupt. 

It begs the question on how one brand of Islam can be so different from others. So harsh and unforgiving. Such acts make it easy to point fingers and stereotype. Those who do not wish to look around will paint all Muslims with the same brush. It's already happening with bigoted comments airing on US TV swaying audiences one way and the next. 

We forget quickly how the early Christian faith was also so harsh and unforgiving. Christians burned witches and massacred many during the Crusades. Christian Europe and America took slaves, people they deemed beneath them, fit for labour and hardship, not fit even to worship their same churches. That wasn't too long ago. There are many similarities among religions and all the bad things done in their name. 

What the Taliban has done is unfathomable. Many would add unforgivable. But they are people too. What made them so angry and different?  

So what now? How will this heartlessness that plagues our time seek to unravel us? Has our connectivity bred nothing but a need for instant entertainment, fame and fortune? We may have lost some humanity in our pursuit of the future. We have not yet realised the common things that bind us, only exaggerated the things that separate us - borders, wealth, status, number of followers. Things will likely get worse before they get better. I have been wishing for aliens to make contact so that the Star Trek prophecy becomes reality. Even Independence Day coming true might bring us altogether (the common enemy theory). 

Maybe for a start, let's be nicer to one another. And be willing to stand up for what's right. 

Shake It Off Blank Space

First it was Shake It Off. Catchy like an energetic crab fending off completion. When I was in Spain I think Shake It Off was on TV almost every day. I'd be singing and almost dancing, wiggling really. Such a fun song about not caring what other people think. It's your life, lead it. Think Taylor has had enough flak about her relationships, her move into pop away from country, from amorous lovey dovey "we'll run off tonight" kind of songs to "yup, that's me being me, so what" music. Love it. 

Artists bring truth and reality into their music when they suffer. It's not about everything being rosy, and pouring the associated emotions, messy experiences and crazy missteps into their work often yields wonders. Reality and authenticity works with the millennials. I just hope in all this realism, Miss Swift doesn't pull a Miley and starts taking off her clothes for no rhyme or reason.

And now Blank Space. Bloody. Amazing. Song. Seriously, she needs to at least get some recognition from a songwriting perspective if the song hasn't yet been slated for Grammy gold. (Maybe both tunes will get nominated for Record Of The Year! She's replaced herself at the #1 spot on Billboard. Anything's possible!) 

"Saw you there and I thought oh my god. Look at that face, you look like my next mistake" and "So hey, let's be friends. I'm dying to see how this one ends. Grab your passport and my hand. I could make the bad guys good for a weekend" 

All the innuendo is insane. What innuendo? She's basically saying "I'm a dating nightmare psycho bitch. I choose you and we'll have some fun at my own pleasure and our shared pain." I cringed when she took the golf club to the Shelby Cobra in a fit of jealous rage. (The video is a hoot. No real million-dollar car was damaged btw). 

But the confessions in the song should make you a little sad, no? Going mental is one thing, knowing you're mental and repeating it is well just plain cuckoo. Yes, yes we're all human and history repeats itself and all that. But shouldn't we try to be better? That's two songs where the she's admitting she's playing the field and doesn't care but is emotionally a dating vampire, sucking up some fun and letting the bodies pile up. Maybe the song is replacement for therapy. Maybe I'm thinking too hard about this. 

I really like these songs and I don't care if I get slammed for being too common. Like Taylor. I've had one beer (agency event, nice Italian beer, can't recall the name). I'm a cheap date. Not like Taylor.