Curtains Closed

The whole fiasco was a huge and elaborate infatuation.

Nobody deserves to go through this kind of misery twice if they can help it. But it is tough to be a discerning customer of love because it is so easy to surrender to the luxury of feeling in love but we can't be lazy. In fact, I don't think it should take more than one failed relationship to see that real love is worth the wait but life is really unpredictable (it is a hackneyed truism, I insist). And it is true that we learn from our flawed pasts. I believe nobody goes into a relationship seeing its end. We are only blind scavengers searching for the love that will exalt us to saintliness, or fall forever into the abyss without it. Sometimes, we face mirages and scramble towards it in unseeing haste, only to find that it is not the real thing. And we cry. Our hearts break. But the people before and around us will tell us it is only part of life and we learn. Because it is part of life.

But the funny thing is that we never actually learn. We think we learn but we just become more deluded. The next time we see a mirage, we may be cautious but we may still find ourselves tricked. And that is the biggest mystery of life. We never even really know if we have found the real thing. When do we know? When we take our last breaths and find that the person is still with us, and the feeling that remains is still so profound and real. It's like taking an examination and never knowing whether we passed or failed until the very last moment of our lives.

Love is such a profound concept. To people who seek to understand it, the meaning eludes us time and again. Like how we can never comprehend the vastness of the universe. But the elusive Love is such a beauty, nobody can deny they strive for it. Some people’s whole lives are a consecration to it. True love for me is an ideal and cynicism does not stand in my way.

Stardust

You know the movie Stardust?

They should become a binary system and orbit around each other instead. How aching is it to spend the rest of eternity staring at each other from a distance (of a few light years! gosh), not being able to hold and touch one another?

It's such a tragic end for a beautiful story. But then again all great love stories are beautiful because of the tragedy. Exquisite misery. Only when you're the one watching it.

And slightly digressive, Karen Carpenter sang it well with 'because the best love songs are written with a broken heart'.

Remember, remember the 5th of November

Remember, remember the 5th of November
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot
I know of no reason why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot

This is my tribute to the movie, V for Vendetta, and also of course, the man from whom this celebrated day originated. I haven't really taken a stand on this whole Guy Fawkes episode but what I know is that the movie touched me deeply (and I never even read the comic series).

Watching people get tortured strikes a deep chord in me, especially if the victim (or perpetrator, depending on how you see it, since they are usually deemed to have done something to deserve it) is humanized. It makes me break down. And that is saying something because I am a fan of gore, albeit mindless gore.

I have a decided partiality to V, since we share the same initial, childish as it is. But more importantly, he is so articulate and emanates so much quiet strength and raw, concealed wounds from the sufferings he has endured, that it makes it impossible not to like him. I have a feeling I'm starting to sound delusional but really, I am certain there are others like him out there in the world; V is really a fictional portrayal of these legitimate living (or once living) beings.

Think about the POWs, the people taken by terrorists, and even the terrorists themselves. When you begin to attach a face to these people, it puts all the things you’ve heard, about their suffering and torture, back into perspective. I recently watched 'Rendition' and sobbed while I sat through the torture of the lead actor because I was alternating between imagining he was my husband and pretending I was him.

I honestly question how it is fair that people can be tortured without their identities and accused misdeeds even being properly verified in the first place. 'Extraordinary Rendition', these guys even have a euphemism for it. I wonder if, in between all their detached proceedings and handling of such 'renditions', they have ever fantasized about what would happen if the suspect was someone they loved or, in fact, themselves. Would they be so cold and callous then? But that is another issue for another day.

My Take on Politics

My uncle's friend once commented: "I don't care if the opposition is blind, crippled or stupid; I'll still vote for them."

To some, this may sound impertinent but even at the risk of seeming naive, I am not afraid to declare that I share the same sentiments. No personal grudges against our current governing party, I am just unwilling to risk possible bigotry should the day come when Singaporeans show unanimous patronage to one political party. I am relieved, though, judging from my own interactions with the people around me and the local political climate, that such a day has almost zero chances of actualizing.

My mom assumes a very compassionate stance when it comes to elections. Her main concern is for the opposition to not lose the deposit they pledged in order to run. Of course, she also has her personal agenda, that is, fear that opposition parties will no longer dare to step forward after repeated defeats. That is probably where I derived my preoccupation with the bigotry. Although if you ask me, I would prefer to say that I came to that conclusion through my own logical deliberation. But such was my more dominant 'political conditioning'.

My dad, on the other hand, demonstrates steadfast loyalty to the PAP, having seen how they had a hand in moulding Singapore into what she is today. I cannot deny that despite all the prevailing issues we face, Singapore's progress against all odds is a testimony to the competence of the PAP. However, come elections period, debates with him are inevitable and almost customary.

To be honest, I am not particularly fascinated with politics anyway. Ask me what my political views are and I will tell you 'apathetic', just like what my Facebook profile shows.


The author hopes she had been politically correct and sensitive because she still badly needs her degree.

Bullying the Elderly

I was looking through political weblogs for my project and chanced upon a post that so incensed me, I felt it was my civic duty to share with everyone around me.

Some of you may have come across this news about 3 Caucasians (Brits, if I’m not wrong) who took a trishaw ride from an old man and then evaded payment upon reaching their destination.

If you have not, here is the link to a blog that also provides a video the 3 Caucasians had the gall to film. In fact, whether you have read the news, please check out the website for the video and reader comments.

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2007/11/01/britons-teasing-elderly-singaporean-trishaw-rider/

One guy actually had the heart to condone the behaviour of the 3 men, concurring that $15 was an unreasonable price to pay for a trishaw ride and basically speaking in defense of the 3 perpetrators. Nothing can justify what they did. Their actions were not only dishonest but a trespass on the rights and dignity of another human being. I do not deny that other forms of transportation could have gotten them to their destination without amounting to $15 but they were not forced to take a trishaw. They chose to take a trishaw out of their own free will and had also agreed to the price before the old man took them on board. And may I also add that this is a tourist attraction so they are paying for the gimmick as well.

What really made me blow my top was their insolence in making fun of and laughing at the old trishaw rider, who was already panting in exhaustion from his exertion on the wheels. Have they no heart? I am thoroughly disappointed in the fact that there are people out there who cannot even spare compassion for the elderly.

The comment, I quote, "as a Singaporean, my attention on this piece of news is, why does a trishaw ride cost S$15?", posted by the previously mentioned reader left me wondering if he has really seen the crux of the matter. Does he have the maturity and sense to recognize that it is the behaviour of the men he should be concerned with?

Repeal Section 377A?

Section 377A of our penal code states:

Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years.

With the recent commotion surrounding the issue of repealing S377A, and all the websites sprouting up to propound their manifesto, even I have found it hard to suppress my take on this.

I will be upfront about my view. I cannot rise to support this repeal.

First, let me clarify that I am not homophobic. One could say I am nonchalant. But I am an advocater of rights. Everyone should have their rights, yes, even gays or lesbians. Therefore, I have never ever been intolerant of their presence in society. I just do not see the need to remove this law from our legislation.

My concern, though, is with the unfairness of this stated law. The fact that it only applies to males is a double standard in itself. Why are females exempted from this? I am tempted to think this is due to a mysterious male intolerance of gays and gay behaviour. (It doesn't help that somehow many guys have this thing about lesbianism.)

It may seem senseless to some that the government would claim to abide by the blatant inconsistency that they do not actually prosecute offenders under this law, but this is really the reason behind my contest for the retainment of this law. Admittedly, as MP Hri Kumar argued, this could undermine the credibility of our legal system but come on, what is one more inconsistency in the face of the absurdity of Singapore politics? For once, we could actually have an inconsistency that can be argued to make sense. And my case would be that at least having the law there would serve some form of deterrence. I can hear proponents (of the repeal) screaming that the professed lack of prosecution would already make the law invalid anyway but to take the step to remove it from our penal code is an even more significant promulgation of that admitted invalidity.

Not repealing this section does not make us less tolerant of gays. In fact, I feel that many Singaporeans today are liberal enough to respect the sexual orientation of their fellow countrymen. It is true that sometimes sniggers or excited prattle are generated but none so far as to violently discriminate against them (at least, none that I know of). Our dearly valued equality would not come into question here because as NMP Thio Li-Ann proclaimed in parliament, while all humans are of equal worth, not all human actions are. By 'criminalising' (because I do not see it as really criminalising since the law does not even actually prosecute them) these acts, we are attacking the wrongfulness of the act and seperating the actor from the act, not denouncing them.

I cannot deny that there may be undercurrents of prejudice since I am not an insider and may not feel it first hand, but I believe we can work towards sincerely accepting and integrating them into our society without doing away with the law. I admit that not formalizing this acceptance may already imply our insincerity but I would hate to see the endorsement of homosexuality as being a normal alternative lifestyle that our children could lead if they had so wanted. Homosexuality is a form of socialization and one cannot make the mistake of qualifying it as genetic (save for rare medical cases).

A concluding disclaimer must be added that this author is aware of such views being wholly personal and subjective. She welcomes the comments and opinions of readers, even and especially opposing.

The author further adds that this post is outdated, being that it was written for another avenue before she had a blog, but was not published because of its sensitive nature.