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Here's to pacifism
Jun. 23rd, 2009 | 05:28 pm
And you don't fight ignorance with a sword or a gun.
You turn on a light."
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The war is over and we are beginning
Jun. 19th, 2009 | 05:36 pm
The Iranian protests really get to me.
I badly wanted to do a story on it at work but my producer tells me, "Singaporeans aren't interested"
I was like "Why not?"
and he said, "Iran is so far away. Usually local readers don't care much about such things.
Why don't you run a story on Edison Chen instead? Everyone reads that."
(which is true, of course. everyone loves a little bit of salacious gossip.)
but this is something we'll never have.
granted, we wouldn't want to die or have to set cars on fire and get beaten up by the police.
but because we don't know what it's like to fight for our freedom,
we will never truly enjoy its sweetness.
our political apathy seems pretty much set in stone here
so i guess i'll be fulfilling my periodic martyr complex tendencies on youtube where all the action is.
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Jefferson on Power
Jun. 11th, 2009 | 03:24 am
i've always wanted to try my hand at some form of journalism so i'm pretty excited about starting work.
it's been awhile since i've been doing something constructive anyway
(unless you consider shopping, clubbing and watching Friends all day constructive).
while doing my research i came across Obama's recent much-anticipated speech in Cairo to the Muslims.
even though it remains to be seen what can be done about the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts, relations with Iran or the withdrawal of troops from Iraq,
Obama sure is a brilliant communicator.
i got goosebumps at some point listening to this speech.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5
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mentioned is one of my favourite quotes:
"I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be."
- Thomas Jefferson
it's pretty sad how the Americans have forgotten the wise words of one of their founding fathers.
perhaps Obama really will be the beacon of hope for the US.
pity the milk has already been spilt.
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no more sit-ups for me!
Jun. 1st, 2009 | 11:15 pm
it was most random, but the best things are done on a whim!
i went to Primitive which was where Jacq Jo and I got ours together in sec 4.
sadly, none of ours lasted; Jo got hers ripped out by a slide at Wild Wild Wet (ugh), Jacq's stud got completely rejected by her skin (oww) and mine fell out during a game of frisbee during our PE lesson in AC.
on a scale of 1-10, i'd say navel piercings are like a 6.
perfectly bearable yet still painful enough for you to wish it would end.
but then again, i'm quite a wuss, so there.
anyone looking to get piercings done should look for Aidil at Primitive.
he was really fast and patient and it hurt alot less than the first time i got it done.
i think it looks great and i swear piercings (and tattoos, so i heard) are really addictive.
tongue piercings look fun but that's if you don't need to get a job.
i could barely tolerate weeks of not eating solid food but losing my articulation,
no way.
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here's what we don't know about North Korea
May. 30th, 2009 | 03:31 am
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In the last 10-15 years, 10% of the population has died from famine and floods.
13 million people are malnourished and yet rations from the UN, US and China end up being sold on the black market for profit by the government (no doubt to develop yet more missiles they do not need).
North Korea today is also home to a network of several dozen concentration camps rivaling those of Auschwitz and Dachau of days past, hosting over 250,000 political prisoners and their families.
Being communist, North Korea is a prison state- there are no freedoms of religion, speech, movement, assembly- even the right to leave the nation is barred from the people.
Children are criminalised for political crimes and are sent to concentration camps along with their families in which public executions, forced rapes/abortions, infanticide, hot boxes, gas chambers are used as punishment to keep the nation in check.
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the world's eye is on Darfur when all this is happening right at our doorstep.
the West seems to think that the North Koreans are a bunch of crazy, trigger-happy weirdos, so i guess we can't blame everyone for getting their knickers in a knot over the missile launch. The revoking of the 1953 armistice must mean that the communists are going to nuke everyone and take over the world.
oh come on. have we learnt anything from the Cold War? Communism is dead and the West needs to stop over-reacting.
the nuclear weapons are merely the tip of the iceberg. what we should really be thinking about is the human rights crisis in the country.
For more information, check out this video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHvf8OhYN
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the attack of the clones
May. 22nd, 2009 | 03:40 am
it's funny how we are content with so little depth in our lives,
with walking such a paved way and then becoming consumed by it.
i'm pretty much still the stubborn idealist but the circumstances have changed;
there are hardly any dreamers left. most have grown up and given in (or given up, to put it harshly)
or maybe at this age, we no longer have any dreams or ambitions beyond ourselves.
the world has taught us to be selfish and the more we do everything for ourselves, the more lonely we feel.
anyway, the point is, i've been itching to travel abroad, see the world and try on a different pair of glasses.
it's a real pity because people here are so intelligent but we desperately lack perspective.
it's like we're all happily myopic and cast in the same mould.
there has got to be more than the narrow-minded chatter about GPAs and which banks people are working for.
i mean, seriously. that's it?
thank goodness i have friends who think.
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i wanna be a Kennedy
May. 21st, 2009 | 06:05 am
and kiss the girls of centerfolds on the tongue
and die young
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Just back from a pretty swell night with the girls.
nearly everything was perfect minus the creepy guys.
right now, i'm just looking forward to sleeping the next day away.
not many years left to do that without feeling utterly irresponsible.
goodnight, world.
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do veggies feel pain?
May. 16th, 2009 | 12:35 am
okay so maybe the thought lasted for like a minute, but i'm a carnivore and it's a near miracle.
No more live seafood from now on
or any delicacy prepared with prolonged animal suffering.
I feel impossibly guilty. time to accumulate some good karma.
(veggie week, perhaps?)
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And we will spend it all at sea
May. 15th, 2009 | 02:43 am
in our yellow submarine
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I doubt there are many beaches in the world as constructed or commercialised as those in Sentosa.
But then again, any chance for a couple of days worth of a quiet beach getaway is always welcome.
I don't think I could ever get enough of nights out by the beach with a good glass of wine and free conversation.
Nor long afternoons in the sun covered in sand and salt from the sea or lounging with a cool drink by a pool.
I tried kayaking for the first time (albeit within the pathetic confines of the lagoon) which nevertheless was a combination of a
good arm workout followed by a nice break with both of us sprawled on the floating kayak
with only the waves and each other for company.
The realities of adulthood and working life are catching up with me whether I like it or not
and just in time too for when I turn twenty one in a couple of months.
I'm just glad I know where to go when I need to get away from the mindlessness of it all now and then.
May we always have our heads in the clouds and our toes in the sand.
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on a slow boat to China
May. 7th, 2009 | 02:02 pm
To say I've learnt alot from the trip is a gross understatement.
Amid impossibly spicy and oily food, free flow of cheap beer at every meal, company/factory visits and formal networking sessions, we had our fun.
We went horseriding in the mountains,
ate freshly-caught grilled fish from a boat in the middle of a lake,
made snow angels and had our toes frozen off at 4000 metres above sea level on Lijiang's Xueshan,
cycled for hours on the 5000 year-old city walls of the Tang Dynasty
got high on more than a 100 bottles of beer at our KTV sessions (beer in China costs less Coke)
before stumbling home on heels to our hotel rooms,
went late-night shopping in the city centre of Xi'an,
visited Qin Shi Huang's terracota army, the stone forest, museums and villages belonging to the ethnic minority groups in China (who make the most delicious sweet wine).
We had carnivorous all-meat meals at the Muslim street in Xi'an to offset crappy tour food in the day
and drowned in an endless supply of yummy Wang Lao Ji which puts Singapore's JiaJia herbal tea to shame.
The life lessons I took away from meeting with Chinese businessmen during the social networking sessions were most valuable.
And hanging out with the rest of the people in class really put into perspective how different we all were when it came to our plans and ideas on life and the future. People teach you more than anything else can.
And as always, it being China, here are the customary bad grammar signs:
( fire bursts in a moment, please be careful! )