A Study In Elegance

Some weeks back, I commented on a Malaysian film which I enjoyed immensely. Today I will do the patriotic thing.

If you haven't seen Blue Mansion, please do yourself the favour of watching it. I have thus far yet to see a Singaporean film as sophisticated, elegant or beautiful as this. Great script, fantastic acting, superb dialogue and not to forget the cinematography. What more can you ask of a film? Most importantly, the score provided the elegance and the mystic, steeped within a beautiful rustic set. A true tragedy of Shakespearan proportions enshrined within the guise of a black comedy.

The best thing is, it reminds me of how much I love mysteries, whether in film or literature. The constant suspense and all the sordid secrets that emerge as layer after layer of plot is unravelled.

I remember Miss Thoo making us read Agatha Christie when I was in Secondary One. Although everyone hated it, I secretly enjoyed reading the Miss Marple novel I happened to have picked. That led to Hercule Poirot and a whole range of witty and cynical characters. The murders in the Rue Morgue also showed me that Edgar Allan Poe was a mystery writer through and through. Sherlock just seemed so dull next to all this.

There is one book which I have recommended many to read, Honor Thy Father by Lesley Glaister. This is the sort of unravelling that I witnessed in Blue Mansion, the same shiver down your spine as you get to the dark, bitter core of the mystery. That moment when you realise that all criminals pale in comparison to the things that dwell within the human psyche.

deja vu part 2

What if you were wronged by someone a long time ago, say 7 years. Its a long enough time. Today you meet someone who resembles that figure from the past, to the T. Of course the difference is that the you of today is totally different from the you of the past, the one who always got rejected and thrown about as a joke. How do you not treat this new person indifferently?

What if every time you see this person, you get that awful taste at the back of your throat, that horrid reminder of dejection? Worst still, if you catch yourself giving preferential treatment (positive or negative) to this person because of your own contextual bias, what does that say about you?

Youth may be a curse, but age is surely a slow-acting poison, the kind that kills you by accumulation.

Ang Heng

Finally a response...

It was the reply I half expected, but at least I got a Senior Correspondent to admit he made a mistake.

alvin

~ MID-AUTUMN FESTIVAL ~

DATE: 3 October 2009, Saturday

TIME: 6pm till late

VENUE: Bishan Park (Open to ideas!)

BYOL

coming?

*amendi*

An article that made my blood boil..

Hi guys,

I was flipping through today's straits times and got a rude shock on PAGE 2 of the PRIME SECTION. If any of you haven't read it yet, I STRONGLY recommend u to go read it. The journalist wrote a 3000 word article which offers no alternatives watsoever and basically told us to bite the bullet and 'just pay'.

I have never replied to a newspaper in my life and this article got my virgin reply. Immediately I emailed that journalist on what I felt. I could have used a harsher tone and language but figured if it wasn't subtle enough he may not read it at all.

Anyway I've already sent the email. It is below. If anyone clearly feels that same way as me I strongly urge you to do the same. Of course if you don't feel a thing and will subcribe anyway, ignore this post.

Dear Sir,

With all due respect, in times like these, asking the general public to 'bite the bullet' and subcribe to the new service for football fans is hardly the objective opinion we would come to expect from an article in the most established print media in Singapore. Why not address the issues of the common football fan and offer alternatives rather than telling people the most obvious thing of 'just paying'?

Just to name a few, giving us a list of coffeeshops which offers screenings or advising the 'poor' football fan to pay a visit to a fellow fan who can well afford to host a couple of people in their homes to cheer on their favourite teams.

A 3000 word article in page 2 of the 'prime' section that offers absolutely no insight on the thoughts of the common folks, no alternatives whatsoever other than stating the obvious of 'biting the bullet' is shocking.

You do realise that such an article serves only one purpose of feeding the greed of the parties involved in making sport only accessible to the rich. The last thing we want is for the average fan to just bite the bullet and keep paying exorbitant subscription fees through their noses with little knowledge that doing so is simply depriving the poor folks from access to future sports events.

It is indeed regrettable that your article has just about summed up what is wrong with society today, encouraging people to submit to what is thrown at us, continue down the slippery slope of increasing fees just to watch a sport that is supposed to be accessible to everyone.

And Sir, again with all due respect, not subcribing does not mean we are giving up football, it means we are not giving in to the people who think they own football and try to suck every penny out of the common folk. There are plenty of alternatives of watching football without 'biting the bullet' which you clearly ommitted, maybe due to the fact that you may have thought it was too obvious to point out, or simply ignorant of.

I do not mean to offend, just merely voicing the opinions of the people sitting in the same office as myself and wondering almost in unison, on how on earth you managed to equate not subscribing to giving up football in page 2 of the nation's top newspaper.

Cheers mate. Have a good weekend :)

regards,
alvin

Mid-Week Rantings

What a whirlwind of a week this is turning out to be. I'm finding myself staying in school from morning til night for wed, thur and possibly even friday. What makes it worse is the timebomb that is slowly ticking at the back of my mind, aka assignments and research papers due. Having said that, I have found some time amidst all this for some introspection.

Tonight I watched Sepet during research methods class. Its basically a love story between a malay girl and a chinese boy in Malaysia. While the topic it deals with is controversial enough, I find myself increasingly shocked by the simple beauty and elegance in a film made in Malaysia. I never thought I'd find myself impressed by Malaysian or Singaporean fim-making. But here I am, in RSIS, being taught several whole new lessons, the least of which is never to underestimate the creative prowess of very backward countries.

It is ironic, isn't it? That the very institutions (such as religion, education, work, yadda yadda yadda) that promise to unite us, have driven us all further apart than before. We have all been categorized and compartmentalized into neat little identities which we subscribe to, with much zeal. The minute we take up that identity, then we cease to see ourselves as humans, but you, me and mrs jones. The minute we take up a socially defined identity, we find ourselves at odds with those who do not share this identity with us. And the thought of this possibility surely provides some discomfort.

I think the problem is with intentions. Every time we create an institution with the intention of doing something, we end up failing to do what we started out to do in the first place. Remember the IMF, Durai or Venerable Ming Yi? In stark contrast, when we try to suppress something that emerged universally, it comes back stronger than before. My favourite example is capitalism. Plainly put, a drive for money and success has turned Marxism on its head and given democracy a bad name in some places. Yet, it is so unerringly universal that no country in the world can escape from capitalism anymore.

Doesn't necessarily mean its a good thing, but it sure as hell is super consistent. Plainly put, ego and hubris have resulted in the humongous error of thinking that everything which we create and which we validate for each other is correct. Another seminal film, The Fight Club, proclaims that we made God in the image of our fathers. Yes, there may be divinity, but we have certainly perverted it with the centuries of bias in our construction of religion. Man is the architect of his own demise after all.

So Adam Smith was a political philosopher after all. The invisible hand is still the predominant force for organising society, whether economically or socially. Importantly, where do we go from here? Are we ready to let go of all the preconceived notions of identity we have found ourselves clinging on to for safety and security?

Are we ready to question every teaching, every notion that is passed on to us, just as Buddha demanded in the Dharmmapadda? (Yes, question even his own teachings, that was his mantra and a damn good one if you ask me.)

Ang Heng

Harmless Reptile I Hope..

A Glimpse from Boomerang Road..

Hi guys, this is the long awaited pics of my dwelling. Sorry it took so long. damn busy with stuff.. The leaves are falling off for new flowers to bloom so when that happens i'll take more photos.

Those are the sights that greets me everyday when I wake up. I just realised my garden is a mini zoo. Plenty of wildlife. Can somebody pls identify the reptile in the pic? its damn big but not aggressive at all. I reckon there are at least 5 of those in my garden now.

Yes, we have to take out the thrash every week. haha.. ok that's all for now, next time I'll upload Uni pics..

Enjoy ur weekends!~

God Bless,

alvin

9/11 - 8 Years On

Good day to all,

Friday marked the 8th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that physically took place in the U.S., but mentally and emotionally within all of us. The terrifying events of that fateful day and their repercussions forever changed the lives of people the world over, including ours; never again would we walk down the street thinking and feeling nothing in our world has really changed.

9/11 had a profoundly huge impact on me as a young individual developing his intellectual and cognitive identity in a personal and socio-cultural aspect. I can say I have drawn plenty of lessons from it and have gradually developed insights - I continue to do so today - which have thus far served me well. This may seem pretty pointless or abstract to some of you, but my point is that we must never forget an event like 9/11 for the human tragedy it still is and the significant mark it has made on the history of mankind.

It literally banged home some thought-provoking points regarding our existence in this hyper-informationised digital global village where alot of paradoxes and indiosyncrasies of life have surfaced: how we as a people are so similar and yet so different at times; how people act like they're on the cutting-edge and have it all together when they have no clue what they're doing or how to handle the fast-paced changes in their hectic lives; how we embrace the flashing-lights of materialism and consumerism and yet are slaves to it. Notions of tolerance and understanding, ignorance, bigotry, racism, and the place of religion in public and private spheres are under the microscope more than ever.

I'm starting to sound like Angheng in one of his sibeh cheem posts, so I'll stop here. But I ask you to take a moment - especially if you have not already -to remember 9/11 however you interpret it, and realise that there is an extremely high price to pay for Freedom, in any of its various incarnations.

Kumar