Mid-autumn pictures

Mid-autumn is here again, the best festival of the year. I went to Chinese Garden last week and Bishan park last night. Here's a photo essay.

Chinese garden:

That's the lantern I made for myself.



















Bishan Park:



















Pictures taken by Adam:

Prime Minister dialogue and my crazy life

Finally got a chance to update my blog. The last 2 weeks have been C.R.A.Z.Y. I was having my reading week and was trying to catch up on my essays and readings. Didn't do as well in the catching up as I expected. How I wish I do not have to sleep, where's those sleep replacement pill that was featured in those science fiction novels?

Just turned in my philosophy essay, is working on my South East Asia reflection, and that's a dialogue I'm writing for chemistry class (it's a nonsensical convection between a guy name Ted and Mr. Methane), not forgetting my geography project which is a major worry for me, a couple of tests coming up, I'm also kind of worried about my South east Asia project, haven't thought of what to do yet. Whatever lah.

Moving on to R&R. Mid-Autumn is just around the corner, and I went to Chinese garden last friday to take some pictures of the lanterns. I'll also be going to Bishan park this friday for pictures taking and I'm not ashame to admit, lantern carrying. Mid-Autumn is my favourite festival of the year, just about the only festival I enjoy. On another note, I've planned a trip with some friends to Batam some time in November. Not very sensible since exams are held then, but I figured, what the heck.

I went to the Prime Minister dialogue, both the pre-dialogue discussion and the actual dialogue. I enjoyed myself, saw a couple of friends from NEA, met a few new ones and generally had a good time.

I find the actually dialogue more open that I've imagined, beside the few questioners that were 'appointed' during the pre-dialogue discussion, the prime minister opened the floor for questions. The answers were somewhat 'old hat', meaning that it's nothing we have not heard before but we were actively encouraged to speak up. My impression from the dialogue and talking to a MP at the reception is that there is a big question mark from the government as to why there is a lack of involvement and voices from the young people. Doesn't help that all the voices in the web seems to be against the ruling party. Dr Vivian mentioned that we have one of the most accessible government in the world, that all the MPs' and Ministers' emails are available to the public, and there are weekly meet-the-people session.

A teacher reflected there is a lot of fear of speaking out about race, religion and so on at the ground level. She wanted to set up a prayer area for Muslim students and the school respond is: "shhh!!!" No one dare to discuss it. I feel this has a lot to do with the government tough stand against anything that have to do with race and religion. The goal post shift so often and so sliently that most people just don't discuss it at all these days. I wonder if this is good for the long term healthy of our nation.

I didn't really take in much at the actual dialogue, reading the news have given me somewhat of a spider sense of what the respond will be like. There are a few interesting point I picked up at the pre-dialogue discussion. One guy raised the issue of what's the purpose of oversea volunteering programmes organised by schools and youth organisation? Is it to help the people there, or to educate Singapore students? The cost of sending a team of students oversea to repair fences and paint a school could probably build 2 new schools in the area. That is something for us to think about. possibly if the aim is for the benefit of the student in exposing them to different culture, the parents would be more supportive.

The question of race came up, very strongly. A girl with brown hair said she was booked by a prefect in JC for having dyed her hair brown. Problem is, she is born with brown hair. Her mother, being french I think, has brown hair. The JC prefect gave a master augment against her claim: "No, your surname is Lim, so you cannot have brown hair." Beautiful.

Another lady questioned the compulsory education of mother tongue based on your 'race' . What happened was that a boy who speaks Latin and English was shuffled into our education system and forced at the age of 10 to take Chinese classes. After a many appeals and letters to the MPs was he finally allowed to drop the subject.

Many such responds followed. Inter-race marriage is the norm, globalisation...The common 'CMIO' Chinese, Malay, Indian, others division is been questioned by many as irrelevant in today's culture. The respond to that is the many older folks find a lot of pride in their race and would react negatively to it taken off, not forgetting about preserving the cultures, and roots... blah. Indeed I can understand the difficulty in doing away with the 'race' in our IC. So much of our system is based on 'race', from who can stay in which HDB flat, to what subjects you study in school...

But as Singapore open up, wouldn't there be more and more 'others'? Another funny tale that was shared by this lady with (i'm guessing here, can't really remember) brown hair, tan skin, brown eyes, in short, nothing like chinese, on how she can always start a conversion by saying: 'Hi, I'm a chinese." Turns out that when she was 12, her chinese mother brought her to SIR to declare her Singapore citizenship, and the civil servant sitting behind the desk asked her what's her race. She didn't want to be 'others' but she also don't want to be laugh at by being 'chinese' when she looks nothing like it. Anyway the choice is between chinese and others. That's when the civil servant offered her this million dollar advice: "Why do you want to be one of them, when you could be one of us?" And that's how she was made a chinese.

Janadas Devan wrote:

In my optimistic moments, I sometimes think race is merely a collective delusion that people share about their origins. Just substitute a better delusion for a worse one - call "the race of Abraham", for example, "White", instead of Arab and Jew - and there will be world peace. Regrettably, it is not as simple as that.

P/S: I heard the good news that Singapore Dreaming won the Montblanc screenwriters award. Congrats! They really did a great job. Hope to see more work from Colin and Yen Yen soon.

Joo Chiat walkabout

Hey the prime minister forum post is coming up and so is a short update of what I'm up to lately. School work is really keeping me busy. For example, I'm trying my hand at writing a philosophical paper, among many other things. So far, all of them doesn't look too good.

Anyway, I went to Joo Chiat today on a self-motivated field trip, so I thought I'll share my day.

I was in camp early in the day, there was a briefing. I dug out my uniform, late as usual, but it turned out that, so was everyone else. My camp mate and me spend about an hour talking cock and we're done.

I took a bus to the SingPost building and was geared to start my stroll to Joo Chiat. Before that, I figured I needed some cash, so to my trusted POSB I went. And saw this:
"due to lease expired" surely that can't be right?
And "with passbook update feature" seems to be straining the English language.
Now, I'll be first to admit that my language skill sucks. So I could be wrong and that 2 lines make perfect sense. I don't know.

Hari Raya is around the corner, fasting month has began, the lights are up, and where better to experience it than Geylang Serai?


There is a giant pasa malam going on at the Malay village. Everything from food, clothing, textile, more food, mic staff that you find at pasa malam. It's huge. I finished 2 can of drinks just to walk through part of it.






These voodoo dolls seems to be getting hot.


Tangjong katong complex is also making an effect. Come to think of it, I used to freelance for a training company in this building. Wonder if it is still around. That experience installed in me a fear of public speaking and children ever since.


And my steps take me to Darul Arqam Singapore. I remembered going to a inter-faith dialog here a few years ago. They fed me well. And the people are nice.

I went on to Joo Chiat Complex where I spoke to a nice malay grandma whom I don't understand.

The chinese community are also setting up stores. Selling plastics flowers that will bloom for the years to come and handphones and what's not.

The wild preparation for Hari Raya can be felt even on a sunny weekday afternoon. People rolling carpets, frying food, washing...stuff, sorting out miles of fabric, basically just been busy.

Going down Joo Chiat road, let's play a game and count the numbers of different budget hotel we can find.


The Masjid Khalid, Khalid mosuqe.


I saw this really, really old fashion tailor shop. 'Yik Seng'. All the ah gong and ah ma there (3) are using those immemorial manual sawing machines covered with a layer of rust. They toil away with a sort of determine grit, that is strangely unsettling. The yellowed showcase contains relics of ancient fashion. It felt as if time is been looped in the shop.


Walking past those beautiful architecure that sparks of peranakan culture, I stopped for lunch.


There seems to be a number of acupuncture and TCM shops around. And you can't miss the South East Asian/Asia influence in the food establishments.
Joo Chait is filled with good food. From Indonianes to Vieminates cuisine, to Indian curry puffs to Haka dishes, and of course Malay Chendol and nonya dumpling. Not forgetting our beloved durian puffs. The pictures of all this food is too much to post so you'll just have to go down and experience them yourself.

Nice huh.


There's the Guan Im Tng. Or Kuan Yin, Godness of Mercy. Very popular bodhisattva.



Game number 2: Figure this out.







I passed by this ahmm..adult novelty & accessories shop call Black Rose. Not a name I would chose but hey, i'm just a guy.
The first thing I saw when I went in are 2 life size blow-up dolls, not for the faint-hearted, and the next things I saw are some very kinky costumes. Nice.
The shop's small and the very nice sale girl told me they just opened not long ago. The target are probably the budget hotels and she told me the ladies are the one buying, guess men are shy.
Well, and then it's time for the introduction to the merchandises. I wouldn't go into details here but at one point she told me to : "here try it... i mean, poke your finger in and feel it",... right. That I did.
Anyway, I am a poor student and any contribution towards the purchase of above merchandise is strongly welcomed. I promised her I'll be back.




Joo Chiat Road, the iconic picture.


I stop by to find out how this come about, turns out it's a branch, main restaurant in KL. Look japanese huh.


Sri Senpaga Vinayagar Temple.


And how can I go without trying the famous Kim Choo damplings. By the way, I'm too full to try the katong laksa, and who can blame me, die die must try next time.



Lastly, tell you people a cool place to hang out. Settlers cafe is where young and smart people go to talk and play board games. All sort of board games are available.


P/S: This just in, a friend told me the 'Red House' at katong is going to be tear down. It's already boarded up when I was there. So much for been "a valuable part of katong heritage".

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Singapore Dreaming

Just caught the movie with Adam, a really good show. What's stunning is that we watched it on a Monday afternoon, usually a quite time for cinemas, and the hall was packed to the first row. Wow.
Posted this message in my sociology class forum:

Hi, everyone. I just watched "Singapore Dreaming" today, and I would like to recommend it to you.
To quote from the website(http://www.singaporedreaming.com):
"Singapore Dreaming is a story about a family with big dreams, living on a small island."
...
"Singapore Dreaming is a poignant, yet darkly humorous story about a typical Singaporean family coming to grips with their aspirations. It weaves a layered and moving tale about a family dealing with loss, ambition and the search for what really matters in life."

Socially (and I guess you could say academically), the movie explores many themes that is worth looking into. The economic straggle of the working class, gender inequality, social mobility, class stratification, family structure...ect, all in a Singapore context.

But more importantly, you should see it because you are in Singapore. If you are a heartlander, you will see some of yourself, your family, and your friends in the movie. If you are not, well you would see Singaporean, as we are. To quote President Nathan: "It's life in its reality."

I urge you to examine the issues and questions raised in the movie closely. Too many of us, for too long, have been following the "Singapore Plan" too closely. In our chase for a better future, we have miss something? Perhaps?
Maybe you have friends who declares righteously that they will only take modules that they are confident of scoring in? Maybe some are switching to faculty that seems to offer more chances of scoring well?

Don't win the battle, and lose the war.
...than again, that's just me.

We seem to be feed a winning formula from young. Study hard, "good" school, "good" result, "good" job, "good" house, "good" marriage, 2 kids. Not forgetting the 5Cs. Once we have them, We're THERE. The movie points out ironicly that the 6th C, is coffin.

In the movie that's a girl from China who said: "you give up your dreams to do something you are unwilling to, for money. To get money, I am doing something I'm unwilling to, for my dreams."

I'm almost afraid to ask people around me, "do you have dreams beyond the 5Cs?"

The movie blog.
The essay that started it all: PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

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