the seven-year itch?

 

Darling and I hallelujahed our public commitment to each other 7 years ago, yesterday. We picked the 23rd as it was a public holiday that year. That ensured every one of our invitees could make it to the catered buffet lunch in our designated hotel ballroom.

 

All 300 of them came.

 

2555 hobbit days later, we are still together. I am not taking anything for granted as first, it is incredulously common these days for people to change partners like nappies and menstrual pads. While modernity has given us so much good in terms of civil liberties and human rights, it does not seem to thumb-print a happy family.

 

Second, the 2555 days were not happily-ever-after, stress-free days. We bought a 4-roomer in a relatively expensive heartlands estate which we only now manage to pay off the mortgage in full. The renovation works cut our wallets by almost 35,000 Singapore dollars. Darling also decided to embark on her Bachelor’s in Radiography into our third year and earned the degree into our fifth year when she was heavily pregnant with our 3rd child! I suffered a battle with depression when I found out I had full blown agoraphobia, anxiety disorder and hypomania, which resulted in very stressful career hops. I also decided to embark on a post-tertiary degree programme in Divinity.

 

I know of married agoraphobics whose wives or husbands divorced them due to severe spousal stress. It is very reasonable for them to do so. Perhaps this is one thing which I cannot reconcile my freethinking humanism with – it was and still is my darling’s spiritual faith which sustains our marriage. It is her conviction that marriage is sacred and is for life – in sickness and in health, rich or poor. I still don’t see this kind of moral strength, if I can call it that, in the much-trumpeted secular atheism of people like the late Christopher Hitchens, or his literary friend Martin Amis.

 

Pure reason allows us to take the easier road, the more beneficial path, for ourselves and our selves alone. It takes something more than just human reason and experience, something transcendent, something beyond ourselves, to tread the moral high ground of perseverence, true love (and not just romantic love) and thus selflessness.

 

My darling epitomises all of that.

 

While it is intellectually and morally impossible for me to claim Darling’s evangelical and sometimes fundamentalist faith for myself, it might be possible to bring the transcendent back into my darwinian and naturalistic picture.

 

Anyhow, we “celebrated” our 7 years of togetherness last evening by nibbling with the kids at Pizza Hut. Our usual for family celebrations is pigging at Cafe Cartel and ice-cream at Swenson’s. But both of us opted for a change this time around since the last time we stepped into Pizza Hut was probably more than 5 years ago.

 

It was a good time, a blessed time.

 

Married life is not all romance, sex or good feelings. It is also about a commitment to each other and a love that goes beyond mere feelings that are caused by chemicals in the human brain.

 

Married life is also about give and take, compromise and mutual apology. There is no place for the spartan male chauvinist in the 21st century marriage. Take it easy, be quick to forgive, quick to apologise, quick to “submit” to your wife’s wishes.

 

Really. It takes more than a man to give in to his wife.

*******

chinese charlatans

 

Yahoo! Singapore recently red-tops itself when it gives attention to the lowbrowed opinions of some self-deluded sinophiles who bleat their superstitious wares to mostly housewived intellects. One suspects the Yahoo! reporter herself to be a follower of such pseudo-scientific babble.

 

 

It does not take a scientifically unschooled geomancer to cock-talk about the Marina Bay Sands’s trinitarian structure as symbols of luck, prosperity and longevity when reasoned common sense can already foretell economic abundance from such a behemoth of vice as the Marina Bay Sands enterprise. Besides, one wonders how shallow the dollar-eyed chinese can get when they seem to be interested in nothing but prosperity and fortune, good luck and abundance. What about respect for the human individual? Human dignity? Freedom of expression and conscience? Equality of all before the law?

 

Marina Bay is Singapore’s hub of prosperity: Fengshui experts

 

This same chinese-speaking geomancer ostriches himself further by mumbling nonsense about the Singapore Flyer being a symbol of a water wheel which rotates to bring in “positive energy” which is “contained” in the Marina Barrage. Huh?

 

 

And while the Yahoo! reporter seems to suggest to her readers about the bloke’s “experience” of forty years in the business and thus lends credibility to his goobledygook, any epistemologically-trained person can tell her that antiquity does not determine truth. It is commonplace to listen to similar loud-hailers by chinese apologists about the “long” history of the Chinese people, about the ancient-ness of its “sciences” such as TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), geomancy and astrology – as though the longevity of these superstitions hint at their truthfulness. If anything at all, it simply suggests the gullibility of homo sapiens to want to believe in super-natural and extra-terrestrial causes of worldly events.

 

One can check out the “business” of this self-deluded crackpot via his campy-named website, Oriental Fortune 21.

 

It becomes more obvious as to the superstitious affiliations of this Yahoo! reporter when she interviews more fortune-telling crackpots. One of them opines that the reason behind Marina Bay’s economic success in recent years is that it forms the “mouth of Singapore”, a supposedly important aspect in “landform” geomancy. Come on – the economic success of the Marina Bay area is due to the excellent judgement of our Singapore government and all of the relevant financial and economic principles it studies and employs to come to that proposal.

 

One wonders if these charlatans would bleat the same tune if it is the opposite situation. Perhaps they will weave some other cock-and-bull story about how the structures of the area spell bad “feng shui”.

*******

survivor: workplace

 

Pre-adult testosteronians and estrogenians may sneer at the prospect of playing kabuki in the workplace, but the nine to five gloomy upper-lipper simply yawns. He knows better than to be shish kebab in an Eli Roth straight-to-video bleeder. The priests of shrink at the University of Greenwich are now preaching the results of their latest study that people who express their authentic selves at the workplace might just be excommunicating themselves from the Jacobian ladder.

 

This is neither novel nor revolutionary. Singaporean employees are traditionally stiff upper-lippers in the workplace who do not mix the professional with the personal. Swing and punt if you must, fuck that underaged call girl if you so wish, but do not get caught! It becomes anathema if you happen to be a government official, a headmaster or a member of a prominent business family. Recreation sucks for people in high society.

 

It is not only about escaping the omniscience of Big Brother and CCTV. It is also about workplace politicking. While many of us try to get our assignments and tasks done well and on time, there are others whose job scopes seem to be more than just their area of expertise. They suck smelly cocks and lick stinky pussies. It is not only the superior’s genitalia that are vulnerable – I know. I’ve been there.

 

They may go down on you, but don’t be scammed – they will sodomise you the moment you are not looking, and leave your arse torn and scorched. I know. I’ve been there.

 

All because of that promotion. That salary raise. That overseas opportunity.

 

While my mates tolerate and are able to accommodate to the realities of workplace hypocrisy, I cannot. The neurons in my brain misfire every time I play Survivor: Workplace and the personality disassociation somehow squeezes my emotions desert-dry. I remember an incident in which I had no choice but to be double agent to two colleagues so as to twister the charcoals of conflict between them. That was the only way I could tai chi their oncoming collaborated assault on me (the walls have ears, you know). I could pull it off because I have one of those forever-young, sometimes blur-like-sotong faces that could only mean boyscout naivete. Many people do not realise that beneath the naive boyscout facade lies a potential misanthropic serial killer.

 

It is no wonder I favour Professor X over Wolverine, Sherlock Holmes over Captain America and the shrewd geek over the dim-witted college hunk.

 

Still…I prefer not to play mind games. It can be addictive and egotistically empowering, especially when one witnesses the efficacy of such conniving. And it monsters you to view people not as human beings who should be treated with dignity and respect, but as pawns on the chessboard to be used and manipulated.

 

That is NOT right.

 

 

*******

confessions of a book lover

 

My private library exceeds a spare five hundred-some, a miserly collection though not easily amassed in light-speed Singapore. They are darlings which accompany my frequent anti-social episodes and psychotic moments. They are treasure.

 

While friends tremble in adolescent mania over the latest iPhone, iPad and MacBook, my only fiscal vice lie in the stuffy fragrance of dust-powdered hardcovers and crumpled paperbacks. As a child, I did not twist my parents’ arms over an Optimus Prime, a collection of Hotwheels cars or some action figure children at that time go bushfire-crazy over. While my sons struggle to violate my already credit-less wallet over a made-in-china Ben 10 action figure or some Japanese spin-top toy called Beyblade Metal Fight, I remember so lucidly how I howled over my father refusing to buy me a Famous Five storybook or a LadyBird hardcover edition on the animated Brave Starr series. I was like any other boy who loves action cartoons like Transformers, Brave Starr and The Visionaries – but when it came to the tangible, I prefered storybook editions of these animated classics instead of action figures.

 

Many of those books are probably either in some second-hand bookshop or have long been incinerated. Besides, I am not the sentimental fool to hoarde, even books, at the expense of pragmatic housekeeping. My one regret though, was when I dumped my precious Stephen King paperbacks down the rubbish chute during one teenage-spurred manic episode as a result of an evangelical delusion concerning the evils of the horror genre. That was the end of my Stephen King days.

 

Books can be vistas through which we elope to either an alternative or gaiman-esque universe where magic becomes real and the macabre an inch away from reality. Sometimes, they are microscopes into the messy human condition. Many great literary works do just that. When I was still cohabiting with my parents, books stacked themselves liberally on my desk and on the floor, frustrating my brother who shared the already cramped room. He must’ve thanked the gods when I finally moved out to my marital nest, just across the street, and luggaging all my books over.

 

I was orgasmic when my wife and I bought our first bookshelves. I begun to shelve my darlings almost immediately.

 

I still love to gaze at my books and rearrange them, sometimes. The books continue to multiply, with more genres and subjects, and thus my compulsive need to reshelve them properly and neatly. According to my intellectual mood at a particular time, I will display certain books, may it be world history, biblical studies, philosophy, or natural science. I will sardine-stack the rest into the roomy cupboard drawers.

 

I eventually occupy myself in the books trade by publishing and wholesaling them. For a sauna-hot five years. Until I realised that people in the books business are not necessarily book lovers. I was shocked that many of my colleagues do not read. Some of them couldn’t even write decent English sentences!

 

Although I continued to loiter in commercial bookshops like Kinokuniya and Times, my colleagues became somewhat satiated and did not want to have anything to do with books. Books mean work, and outside of work, they did not want to be reminded of it. Familiarity breeds contempt? I don’t know.

 

As a book lover, one recognises immediately the dizzying drumbeats in the chest and the slightly crazed sparkle in the dilated eye as one anticipates the deflowering of a newly purchased book. One caresses the spine and rereads the backcover blurbs. Over and over. Then like a hormonal teenage lover, one rips the shrink-wrapped plastic off the virgin covers. One thumbs through the crisped pages and inhales deeply the musty dank fragrance therein. It is all good.

 

It takes some time before one actually reads the book. All that smelling and fingering is foreplay. The prelude to the real thing, which when occurs, will not stop until climax is reached.

 

*******

crackpot comments in a crackpot world

 

Marion Gordon Robertson is one of the most housewife-watched raisined faces in evangelical charismatic crackpotdom. He is vulgarly known as Pat Robertson, and is the founder of many poisonous organisations like the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the Christian Coalition and Regent University.

 

He is also notorious for making so many reptilian-brained comments on his surprisingly influential telly tubby programme, The 700 Club, that his very countenance becomes the epitome of evangelical mental retardation.

 

This is the rambling snake himself:

 

 

 

Here is a delicious sample of some of his most retarded remarks:

 

“Just like what Nazi Germany did to the Jews, so liberal America is now doing to the evangelical Christians. It is the Democratic Congress, the liberal-based media and the homosexuals who want to destroy the Christians. More terrible than anything suffered by any minority in history.”

 

“The feminist agenda…is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practise witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians.”

 

“I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes…this is not a message of hate – this is a message of redemption. But a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It’ll bring about terrorist bombs; it’ll bring earthquakes, tornadoes, and possibly a meteor.”

(on “gay days” at Disney World)

 

“God considers this land to be his…for any prime minister of Israel who decides he is going to carve it up and give it away, God says, ‘No, this is mine’…he was dividing God’s land…Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the UN, or the USA…”

(on why Israeli PM Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke)

 

“It may be a blessing in disguise…haitians were originally under the heel of the French…and they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you will get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, okay, it is a deal. Ever since they have been cursed by one thing after another.”

(on the earthquake in Haiti)

 

“And you don’t want to deal with horoscopes…it has a satanic pull to it.”

(on horoscopes)

 

“You don’t want to fool with that stuff. It is at best demonic, at worst it’s just superstition.”

(on feng shui)

 

“If enough people were praying, God would’ve intervened. You could pray, Jesus stilled the storm, you can still storms.”

(on tornadoes ripping through the Midwest)

 

“There is no such thing as separation of church and state in the Constitution. It is a lie of the Left and we are not going to take it anymore.”

(in a speech in 1993)

 

“Psychics get their power from demons.”

(on psychics on The 700 Club, 2006)

 

“It is happening because God Almighty is lifting his protection from us.”

(on the terrorists attacks, Sept 14, 2001)

 

“Planned Parenthood is teaching kids to fornicate, teaching people to have adultery, every kind of bestiality, homosexuality, lesbianism – everything that the bible condemns.”

(on The 700 Club, 1991)

 

“Many of those people who worked with Adolf Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals – the two things seem to go together.”

(on The 700 Club, 1993)

 

This senile toad also labels any film with ghouls, vampires and witches “demonic”, such as the teenage cheapo Twilight series and Harry Potter.

 

Before anyone claims Robertson as part of the lunatic minority, be enlightened to the fact that the largest and fastest growing segment within contemporary christianity are the pentecostals and charismatics, of which Robertson’s demon-hunting paranoia is a very common theological motif. Educated and hence liberal christians make up a dwindling teeny weeny minority.

 

Charismatic christians in Singapore litter the largest congregations in the country, namely City Harvest Church, New Creation Church, Faith Community Baptist Church, Lighthouse Evangelism, Trinity Christian Centre, Victory Family Centre, Bathesda Cathedral, etc.

 

And despite the deliberate lies in front of a mediacorp camera, many of these third-world, premodern wannabes subscribe to the delusion of an immaterial world cupped to the brim with angels and demons who control world events, natural disasters and human behaviour.

 

It is also fucking difficult to get these people, many of them decent and educated human beings, from being willing specimens of religious brainwashing and deception.

 

Sad.

 

*******

 

bloody friday

 

 

Yesterday. I shivered out of bed at 8am and yawned to the realisation that the sixteen odd hours to follow belonged to what is vulgarly known to the Singaporean Ah Seng and Ah Beng as Good Friday. It also happens to be a public holiday, and the feverish Singaporean worker seems wretched to thank the gods for this chance to sleep in, waterboard some Tiger, fuck a buddy, crystal-ball some chick flicks or just play Angry Birds with the darlings. It is Good Friday, anyhow.

 

For others, it is more like Bloody Friday. They trumpet to church, ogle at either Mel Gibson’s torture-porn classic, The Passion of the Christ, or some campy stage act with titles as B-graded as The Hour of Darkness or as cheesecaked as The Rolling Stone. They then rock-n-roll to some Rowlingian ramblings on magic blood, invisible hands and shaking earths. In world-class Singapore, the crackpot rambler is more often some Jesus wannabe with Brad Pittish aspirations.

 

Worse, it culminates tomorrow when the butchered lump of Jesus is supposed to come back to life. Literally. I don’t suppose it is cause for a Juche celebration to a limping zombie of porked flesh.

 

The home affairs ministry report, in my case, is a bit confused. We – my wife and three kids – trolled to church in the evening, nibbled the potluck (the groupies insist on baptising it potbless), banged chests with the blokes and gossiped with the chicks. The whole rabble then filed into the main hall to watch adolescent bikinis bugger the Hawaiian waves in a film entitled Soul Surfer.

 

The film, although not the usual Bloody Friday fare, is Walking Dead propaganda. It shows the true story of a teenage surfing enthusiast who depended on the zombied Jesus to soldier on even when her left arm got castrated by one definitely drunk Tiger Shark. Many netizens have reviewed the film, so it is superfluous to replay the nail-pullers and the head-bangers.

 

 

I yawned out the hall some two-odd hours later even though the Blu-Ray disc mentions an hour and forty-some minutes. Professional and technical precision is just not a small church’s priority.

 

*******

shame on singapore

 

The Chijmes landlords has morally cowered to the self-censorship of the lunatic public by forcing Creative Insurgence to cancel the Escape Chapel Party.

 

Chijmes Chapel Party called off

 

There is nothing more to be said.

 

*******

escape chapel party

 

Singapore continues to anally rape its nonreligious citizens with its syphillic brand of multireligious “tolerance”, one that strangles our civil freedom to opinion and expression. Singaporeans are brain freezed into glazing only at the Disney channel when it comes to religion (and politics) while nonreligion is open market and can be AXNed by anyone at any time.

 

Many of us are now frostbited to be self-censoring and hypocritically respectful, tickling the scrotums of religious “sensibilities” even if some of us would rather be fingering the heathen. It is just not right. It is immoral.

 

Advertiser Creative Insurgence has for more than a week red-carpeted its campaign for the coming Escape Chapel Party to be held at the Chijmes Chapel this Saturday at 9pm onwards. The party is a spur to promote UK-based “Escape” nightclub brand to the region.

 

(source)

 

 

Even this one is as benign as my cheeky daughter playing peekaboo under the bed covers. It is as holy as stupid sheep. But many Singaporeans seem to disagree, most of them, I reckon, bleeting among the local roman catholic community. They claim these visuals of beautiful nuns are “offensive” and “in bad taste”. Many even filed reports to the police (!!??) and the various local ministries.

 

Creative Insurgence is perhaps trying to give a tongue-in-cheeky humour to the party, since it is held in a former religious convent and that coincidentally, this week is the fucking holy week. The organisers originally wanted the party to be held over the Spring Festival weekend in January but due to circumstances postponed to the next public holiday, namely the coming Bloody Friday cum Walking Dead weekend.

 

As expected, the organisers promptly apologised to the phallus-crowned supremo of the catholic diocese in Singapore, a Mr Nicholas Chia, whose office is devilishly located a few nun-jiggle steps away at the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. They also recycle-binned the nuns from their main website.

 

This is Singapore, and this is how the pasteurised version of the blasphemy law is enforced in this peaceful and loving multireligious country. The absence of criminalisation does not make it any less vile. What if vice versa? Can freethinkers and atheists file reports to the police if we find posters about evangelistic meetings and christian outreach programme to the non-christians offensive? We have a right to be offended, don’t we? Can the LGBTQ community squeal their offence over schools that promote anti-gay agendas in their sex education programmes?

 

The above pictures are already so mild. I think I shall leave you with these:

 

(source)

 

(source)

 

There are more fucking nuns, literally, out there, but I shall have the christian virtue of self-control and just stop here.

 

*******

email to some friends

 

Hey guys,

 

The recent revival in chinese nationals attempting to steal our sweet young darlings in Singapore is as fist-clenching as they are testicle-squeezing. One woodpeckers the head at the apparent dimwittedness of our particularly and uniquely Singaporean,which is to say, world-class, numero uno, the incredible and fabuluso Singapore Police Force – in allowing these 21st century genghis apes into our peaceful, low crime-rated, pseudo-democratic shopping heaven of a country.

 

Big Brother, to use the deliciously orwellian phrase, has only begun to nod to the will of the common Singaporean by blabbering bull about immigration policies, which in the first place, is supposed to be the One Ring that rules our wonderfully manpowerless economy. It seems that the highbrow-loving People Action Party is now bedevilled to fling this Ring into the ashes of Mount Doom.

 

It will be, to use a theological term, one hell uva effort to hold back the chinese barbarians as they invite themselves into our country. Sinophiles, or the self-proclaimed butt-kissers of chinese culture, often pontificate, albeit very wrongly, of China’s very ancient and thus must be good, historical legacy. Any discerning bloke can tell these racial fanatics that countries like Greece or Egypt too have very antiquated histories – but look at them today. The goodness or rightness of a thing is never determined by the mould on its history books. A country that imprisons its own people for simply opening their mouths against its government, or worshipping in house churches, or participating in activist art; a country that murders its own for the most peculiar of “crimes”; is not a country I will want to associate with. Let us remember how its power-lustful leaders arrested every and any journalist or writer it could locate around Beijing during the day s prior to the 2008 Olympics, just so that they can silence any investigative reporting and deceive the world into kowtowing to China’s olympian spectacle. More like a chimera.

 

Animal lovers too, cringe at how the monsters cull the more than a few thousand doggies and kitties just so that the Beijing streets could be childcare, disneyland-clean for the world to see.

 

It fools no one that its people who are trying to wring a living in sardine-canned Singapore is now trying to steal our sweet young things for money. There was an attempt in Ang Mo Kio several weeks ago. Thank goodness the mother pinched a glancc in time to behold a strange woman walking her son away.

 

There was another, reported in Simei. And probably a couple more of which I am clueless.

 

And recently, a chinese thug grabbed a malay darling off the bench and dump the lass into the back of a van. This took place in Tampines Street 20-something. There were even police roadblocks in the area.

 

It does not take an einsteinian brain to realise there is something amiss on our clean-and-green low-crime streets – yet the Singaporean police is shutting its orifices and playing dumb. Concerned parents receive no answer from the PAP-puppet. Singaporeans have the right to know so that young parents can take the necessary precautions. It is flamboyantly stupid for Singapore to play the nanny all the time by censoring truth so that it can be more palatable to the public. Singaporeans are brighter than that. Besides, since we cannot hold strikes or protests in democratic Singapore, don’t worry – we will be goody goody and not create a ruckus if the police just come out and make the childnappings prime time news.

 

Anyhow, just remember to hold your young darlings close to you at all times.

 

Oh dear, I am getting paranoid again.

 

*******

do the loving ourselves

 

“IT IS ironic that with the days off for maids, employers with young children and the elderly must now have to work even harder (‘Weekly day off for maids a must from next year’; Tuesday).

Otherwise, who will do the chores and look after the children and the elderly when the maids are enjoying their days off?

My annual leave allocation will not increase, so if no one does the chores, it will only mean that the maid will have to do double the amount of work the day after her day off.”

- Chew Kum Chung (source)

 

Many foreign domestic workers are abused by Singaporeans. In order to ensure their nuts’ worth every month, the job scope of a foreign maid, more like slave, reads somewhat like this:

 

• Lick the house clean, until it is dust-free, every day. We have young children in the house.
• Prepare breakfast for, bathe and clothe the children for school. Put on their shoes too. We have to prepare and rush to the office.
• Prepare dinner for, bathe and clothe the children when they come home. Help them with their pyjamas, please.
• Fetch the children to and from school every day. Please carry the outrageously heavy school bags for them – they are only kids.
• When the son reaches the age to fulfil his military obligations, please help him carry his field bag too – poor child has a tender back.
• Sorry, we have no vacant rooms or beds for you. You have to sleep in the store room.
• Please have your meals only after the WHOLE family has finished so that you can serve us when we are having ours.
• You are not welcome to join us for trips to the cinema. When we dine in restaurants, you are welcome to feast on the leftovers. Help us feed the baby and please, keep the children in order. You know we are incompetent in looking after our own children.
• We also go for weekly dates as a couple – so please keep the children in order! Get them to do their homework! We love our weekly pleasures and do not want the parental responsibilities to get in the way.
• Oh for goodness’ sake, no mobile phones please. We will confiscate them if we catch you using it when you are supposed to do the chores.
• By the way, there is no day’s off for you. We don’t want you to have a break so that you can go shopping with your friends and maybe even hook a boyfriend. We don’t want to pay for your syphillis treatment, or your abortion.
• Remember, we are your boss. We paid peanuts for your work and we expect no monkey business!

 

Shame on Singaporeans and the very system that violates the UN Declaration of Human Rights by detaining people without trial, its fabulously totalitarian defamation laws and its maniacal tendency to criminalise people for publishing books and opinions that criticises the autocracy. Shame on the great Yale University for collaborating with the National University of Singapore to start the shamelessly named Yale-NUS liberal arts college. Liberal Arts? Are the academics and students allowed to discuss and criticise any subject under the sun, which includes the ruling regime of PAP and religion?

 

Shame on Singaporean parents. I have three very young children – and I do not employ a domestic helper. I clean my youngest boy when he poops. I bathe my two darlings every night and adore my eldest five-year-old for showering himself. All three put on their own shoes before I fetch them to the childcare. When we eat out, all three will eat by themselves, including the two-year-old who uses the spoon relatively well.

 

We enjoy company with our friends regularly. We bring our children along, yes, we DO NOT conveniently discard them at our parents’. Besides, we are simple hedonists who delight in conversation, coffee and the occasional wine at the verandah or the coffeeclub with our friends. We read, talk with each other (and with friends) and watch films instead of shopping, swinging and dancing insanely to noise for therapy. We fuck like rabbits before the children come back and have quickies after they are asleep.

 

She is my best friend and mate.

 

We, and not someone else, mother our own children, feeding, showering, clothing and loving them. Parents do not just coin up the family coffers. We are also not Clausian incarnates who conjure up iPads and iPhones at the winter solstice and then disappear until the next year. We are not PAP-taught pragmatists who pay and blame others to do the loving.

 

We do the loving ourselves.

 

Besides, Singaporeans are working their domestic workers like lonely and starved bitches on spiked leashes while they themselves whine like castrated swine about being overworked and underpaid.

 

A rabble of hypocrites and hooligans are what these middle-incomed, middle-kingdomed scrooges really are.

 

*******

 

horror show

 

She is light chocolate-tanned, has a raisin complexion, and demonstrates the demeanor of a fiftyish tai tai. She is Lela*, a church acquaintance and new friend in our cosy Sunday small group gatherings contemplating our christian Illiad, the bible.

 

Her rainbowed shadow grows large during the proceedings, as she “shares” about how much she fears God now, after more than two decades of, in her own words, “leading a colourful life”. Isn’t it fun to have a flavoured existence? It seems she believes now that a christian life should be one binary black-and-white affair. Technicolour, plasmic and HD visuals are not the pious christian thing.

 

This mildly megalomaniac loves a confession, and does so augustinianly. She is into real estate, and is working hard to make money for her twenty-somethinger who is heading to university after his mandatory military stint. She had him at twenty two, which means she is fortyish. She blooms into this fiftyish amorphophallus titanium through chain-smoking, binge-drinking and maybe a one-night-stand or two although she makes no admission of any such fleshly pleasure.

 

But – yes, one always expect a conditional conjunction from a pious christian who starts ranting about worldly pleasures –  she no longer smokes, at all. She no longer drinks, not a teardrop.

 

She cannot stomach primetime telly, except the news, and like a hormonal pregnant lass who pisses at certain smells and scents, forbids her son from enjoying his latest fix of contemporary pop noise.

 

She empathises with her son, she says, but she fears God now. I didn’t know this god of hers is petty about people’s tastes in addictions, film and music. She even experiences devilish epiphanies of sweet tobacco at bus stops even though she claims there is no cigarette butt in sight. A “work of the devil”, definitely. One should actually suggest to her that vestigial tobacco scents do linger in the air for a significant amount of time, especially in places like bus stops where smokers enjoy the quickie before their next bus. There appears to be no fag in the proximity because cleaners have done a wonderful job! Unfortunately for them, there will come a time when smokers will be discriminated against, in totalitarian Singapore. Or at least that’s the wish of some ministers in the regime. One can also explain to her that for someone who was a tobacco-addict, there is nothing supernatural about the human brain feeding hallucinations and delusions into the self-conscious mind about past sensory addictions.

 

She fears God now. He gets cross and will bitch if she sits passively by while her colleagues offer joss sticks and suckling pig to some taoist pantheon after a successful transaction. Oh dear, she has become a bigot. A fundamentalist christian bigot who is hormonal against other religions. Oh my fucking Zeus.

 

Several nods of approval from my fellow christian automatons later, it starts to feel creepy. At least for me, the lone sceptic. I don’t wish to be her friend, not now, not later. Never. But she is more than welcomed to divulge her exciting explorations into carnal decadence. I fantasize sometimes, about my embracing the writer’s wretched life with urns of tobacco and caffeine, and waterboarded sips of alcohol. Think of the late Christopher Hitchens. And his oxford mate, Martin Amis. Or Albert Camus, Frank o’Hara, Jack Spicer, Michel Foucault. Damn it, or any human being for chrissake.

 

Anyhow, people like me are just hell money for the bonfire, in her eyes.

 

(*not her real name)

 

*******

 

 

his simple life

 

While ninety-five per cent, if not hundred, of Singapore’s ruling regime live in relative luxury and own at least one private property, the freedom prize-winning Dr Chee Soon Juan lives in a three-room flat in one of the oldest housing estates in the country and drives a nineteen-year-old Nissan sedan car.

 

(source)

 

Dr Chee, given his circumstances as an embattled activist for democracy in a country that is ruled by a vicious empire which is no different, in principle, to any contemporary autocracy in the Middle East; does not draw any salary, apart from the earnings he gets from selling his books to individuals and bookshops as well as the occasional foreign university research fellowship. One wonders how he manages to keep his house in order with his homemaker wife and three young children.

 

I used to be one of the many Singaporeans who find him profoundly odd and a nutcase. But not anymore. If ever there was a cause worth fighting for, it is the cause of freedom.

 

REAL FREEDOM.

 

I salute you, Dr Chee.

 

And thanks to Yahoo News for this piece of precious reporting.

 

*******

 

when will the singapore government (PAP) stop its bullying??

 

Our Great Leader, the Holy Prime Minister, successor to the Holy Father of our beloved Lee Dynasty – all praise and honour to Him – exposes his real nature last Sunday when he issued a legal letter to the editors of sociopolitical website, TR Emeritus (TRE), commanding them to withdraw an article which apparently accused the government of partiality (cronyism), when it appointed Our Great First Lady as head of the Asian investment firm, Temasek Holdings.

 

PM Lee sends lawyer’s letter to editors of TR Emeritus

 

The Great Leader, in the letter, reminded TRE of the government’s (the People’s Action Party) terrible and awesome powers, as was demonstrated by the numerous defamation suits it waged against international newspapers and periodicals, such as the Far Eastern Economic Review, and won.

 

And so our Great Leader warned TRE that a similar fate would await them unless they withdraw the article and post an apology on the website.

 

This is Singapore, my motherland and my home. An autocracy which masquerades as a democracy only in theory. Our people has no power at all in deciding how the country is run. Isn’t this what democracy is all about – power of the people? Although I do not suspect any foul play during vote counts, it does not take a rocket scientist to realise how disparate the arena is during election campaigns, with the ruling regime having an obvious advantage over the opposition by constantly fiddling with electoral boundaries as well as having more press and media coverage.

 

TRE has withdrawn the article although it has yet to post an apology, as our Alex Au had done in his blog, Yawning Bread, when a very insecure Minister decided to play the defamation game on him over some rumours about his moral indiscretions. Competent and intelligent as he is, the minister does not realise he is digging his own grave, at least in the eyes of netizens, by using the law to bully Yawning Bread into silence.

 

Dear PAP, if you are innocent, just say so – and debunk the allegations once and for all by speaking the truth. There is no need to emotionally and psychologically abuse and bully Singaporeans into withdrawing their comments. Where is civil discourse in all of this? Why the need to use the law to threaten and frighten us?

 

WHEN WILL THE RULING REGIME STOP ITS BULLYING TACTICS?? When will the PAP stop its thuggish ways on its people like a hysterical parent brandishing a chopper over mischievous children?

 

The Holy Father, peace be upon Him, claimed in the past that any political accusation against the government taints their reputation and as such a legal victory, via defamation suit, would always be the right thing to do as it vindicates the ruling regime. Besides, this is politics. Shouldn’t we be unscrupulous against our political “enemies”?

 

Our Holy Father thinks he is Cao Cao living in ancient China.

 

On the contrary, the megalomaniacal antics of the PAP has time and again allows itself to be exposed to the world as a strangely first world country with third world ethics.

 

Mature individuals pay attention to constructive criticism and simply ignore unwarranted and unjustified ones. One does not see the governments in the US or UK lash out against all the rude and critical comments made of them by the many newspapers and tabloids.

 

Human beings have the right to say anything they want, even if such speech is irresponsible and rude. This is life.

 

And it takes a mature and self-secure government to accept it.

 

*******

 

this IS christianity in singapore…

 

(source)

Thailand. The land of the free. The constitutional monarchy with a very well-loved and respected King. The country of smiles.

But did you know? Thailand is a place of little true joy. Buddhism is so much a part of the Thai national identity and permeates into every level of society and culture that only about one hundred Thais accept Christ each year in the country of over 68 million people.

Do you share the burden of being that one small change agent, bringing the gospel to the Thais, one at a time?

With its many temples and monks, it is hard to ignore the fact that Buddhism is Thailand’s national religion. With only 16% christians, most Thai students see christianity only as a foreign religion. The land of smiles needs to hear the gospel message. Come and share with Khonkaen University students that Jesus is the way, the true and the life!

Go Change. World.  

 

For someone who lives under the christian subculture in Singapore, it is easy for me to mock the online cacophony over the poster above as white noise. In fact, I invite any practising christian in Singapore, to challenge me on this – that the above IS REPRESENTATIVE, very accurately indeed, of grassroots christianity as subscribed (orthodoxy) and practised (orthopraxy) in this country.

 

NUS student group says sorry for insensitive remarks

 

For anyone blissfully ignorant of Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC), of which the NUS (National University of Singapore) campus branch is responsible for the above advertisement (which caused much noise in the online community), it is an evangelical parachurch organisation founded by an already deceased William (Bill) Bright. Its main purpose is to spread (really, to proselytise) the christian religion all over the world. It has many branches, with sub “ministries” in tertiary campuses, all over the world. The main polytechnics in Singapore, namely Singapore, Ngee Ann, Temasek and Nanyang, have CCC ministries (I am not sure about the newest polytechnic, Republic) along with the two main universities, NUS and NTU (Nanyang Technological University).

 

I was a member in one of those branches during my school days.

 

And so let anyone accuse, dishonestly and deceptively, that I have no credibility to assert what I am asserting now. In fact, in the deluded madness of my youth, I wanted to enter the seminary to become a pastor. This led me to years of personal study and research (and anguish) into christian theology, biblical studies and historical criticism (which eventually led me to my free-thinking secular humanism). I suppose that is one of the reasons why I am still earnestly interested in the academic study of the bible.

 

Now, contrary to what CCC Singapore as well as the rest of the christian community who want to distance themselves from CCC claim; the theological premise which undergirds the alleged poster has always been constant in christianity, at least as practised and believed in this country; which is namely, that the person of Jesus Christ, as the Son of God (jews and muslims would disagree), is the ONLY way to personal salvation (of the soul) and thus upon death, the ONLY way to an eternity in heaven. This means that in the perception of christians, buddhists, muslims, hindus and free thinkers are all DAMNED to an eternity in hell. Full stop.

 

Now, a conniving dishonesty comes when a non-christian confronts the christian in a media or national capacity.  It is common for the christian to make the non-sensical statement that it is not up to him to judge anyone – only god knows – the destiny of all men. No streetwise christian would be so daft as to state the truth point blank that the poor interviewer will be damned to hellfire. But this is a red herring which distracts the public from the real issue – what does christian theology teach?

 

Classical christian theology has always been religiously exclusive – there is only ONE TRUE religion – and ONE TRUE scripture. It is precisely this very deluded view that compels practitioners to proselytise non-christians as much as possible – they are really sincere about it – they want you to go to heaven!

 

So let me be clear. Any christian who claims that CCC is not representative of christianity is being deliberately dishonest.

 

In making this assertion, I am not claiming that no christian in Singapore disagrees with the bigoted exclusivity of classical christianity; there are perhaps many who do privately. But as an institution and a social movement in Singapore, christianity is religiously exclusive, and theoretically unaccepting towards other religious or nonreligious traditions.

 

There is no point in interviewing, let’s say, a spokesperson for the National Council of Churches in Singapore. Or some lecturer in Trinity Theological College Singapore. Folks like these do not represent the average church pastor, let alone the christian person on the street. In classic Singaporean style, bishops and theologians would offer politically correct and nuanced views on the matter, deflecting any potential conflict.

 

Politically correct spin are nothing but half-truths and testicle-licking lies.

 

Anyhow, the alleged poster is very tame by my book. Just drop by any of the tongue-speaking, hand-raising, demon-casting and chriss angel-like magic mumbo-jumbo charismatic megachurches in Singapore and you will see that Jesus Camp and Teen Mania is more closer to the truth than meets the eye.

 

*******

 

a shrewd political move?

 

Some have lauded the recent expulsion of the Hougang MP by the Workers’ Party (WP) as a brave and shrewd political move. They have “taken, boldy, the moral high ground”, to quote Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) Eugene Tan, the assistant professor of law at the Singapore Management University.

 

The expulsion was carried out in response to a very immature Singaporean society which still holds on to very quaint ideas of public civil service and its supposed moral standards. The media cannot seem to keep their partisan hands off the poor gentleman and his personal life. It was also his mistake to remain silent amid the media silliness…he should either reaffirm his innocence, if he is, or come out in the open and confess to his indiscretions and apologise to the residents of Hougang.

 

The latter would indeed place him on the moral high ground. I will applaud him for the moral courage and the strength in humility to be transparent to the people.

 

UNLIKE the schemes of the ruling regime…which only “appears” CLEAN because they are craftier and more skilled in covering up their tracks. I always believe in the adage that there can be no senseless smoke without fire…and the disparity is so obvious for any discerning individual – the media is so quick to pick up on any rumour of moral indiscretion on the part of the political opposition but if it comes to the ruling party, ALL IS SILENT.

 

Of course, the testicle-squeezing silence can be attributed to the classic Singaporean fear of being legally sued by the ruling regime if there is any sign of criticism (think of Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, Chee Soon Juan and Alan Shadrake). The capacity to sue has nothing to do with moral innocence but with resources and power, full stop.

 

We are not fooled, though. Until the day when the Internet is cruelly and senselessly censored and squashed (thank goodness for twinkles of humanity in our current PM) by the powers that be, netizens in Singapore would always be the watchdog against a government that is constantly suppressing our civil rights to free speech and expression.

 

Are Singaporeans so naive as to think that the PAP (People’s Action Party) is really that CLEAN and FREE of moral indiscretions? Have you ever wonder why the people of Singapore are in the dark when it comes to the families of the ruling regime, apart from the Lees? We are hardly acquainted with the kin of most of our parliamentarians, let alone MPs and those on the ground.

 

A very good strategy, if you ask me. If the public knows next to nothing about the personal life of their leaders, there is no way we could hold them to account for any moral indiscretion, if they exist.

 

Contrary to propaganda, the truth is really out there. In the worldwide web.

 

While there is still hope for a liberal society, and a fairly liberal internet, please traverse far and wide for the truth.

 

Before even the Internet is unjustly censored.

 

*******

 

brouhaha over the wrong things

 

It is disturbingly contrary to human decency when the recent public brouhaha over a police investigation of an online prostitution syndicate lingers on the ballooned fact that many of the clients were high-level professionals and civil servants instead of the more pressing problem of human trafficking and “illegal” prostitution practices, at least in the case of self-righteous Singapore.

 

Commercial sex is a crime in Singapore, if the pimps and sex workers practise their trade in places other than the designated legal zones, namely the redlight district of Geylang and some parts of Desker Road, I think.  Wanna-be sex workers have to be “registered” and assigned to the appropriate brothels. This makes freelance sex workers criminal. This makes social escorts who offer sexual services criminal. This makes offering sex services in massage parlours illegal. This makes sex workers roaming around the casinos in Marina Bay Sands criminal. As such, internet-savvy sex workers become criminal too.

 

All of the above are rampant in Singapore, despite all the moralising masquerading as laws.

 

My views on commercial sex (think of Amsterdam) notwithstanding, I personally find it to be grossly immoral to shine the spotlight on the clients instead of the perpetrators, as is the case of the online syndicate that was recently busted by the police. What crime has the clients committed, apart from yielding to their libidos and physical lusts which are but biological?

 

A husband who pays to have sex with a professional lover betrays the conjugal trust of his wife, if she has such a deal with him in the first place. I know of some wives who don’t mind. But this is a private problem between husband and wife and should be viewed as such.

 

Why the loud-mouthed pontificating if he happens to be a school principal? Does that makes the waiter or nightclub owner paying for sex any more moral?

 

A teacher is salaried to teach. Why must he or she account to the institution for recreation he or she does on the bed? Why must a high-ranking lawyer, for that matter, account for his lunchtime trysts when his area of competence and training lies in the interpretation and application of the law?

 

Civil servants, teachers and doctors are not priests or monks. Sexual fidelity or abstinence is not part of the job description. Does it matter if a female teacher happens to moonlight as an exotic dancer or social escort? What is it to you if a managing director of a statutory board pays to be spanked and whipped by a beautiful naked woman every weekend?

 

Really, it is none of your fucking business.

 

Such concerns are misplaced. What of the poor women who might have been deceived into coming to Singapore for better prospects but baited to be hookers instead? What about the potential abuse these women may have encountered by their pimps?

 

Come on Singapore. Quit pretending. 

 

“Illegal” forms of prostitution are rife in Singapore for decades and would continue to be so as long as the human race has the itch to propagate and procreate.

 

Stop pretending that our ministers and civil servants are holy men and women with no vices.

 

Stop pretending that our lawyers, doctors and accountants are boring automatons with no social or sex lives. Yes, they may be married and thus have faithfulness issues. But that is a personal vice or character flaw.

 

Give them a break and let them reconcile with themselves and their families. Life is too short to throw stones at our fellow homo sapiens.

 

*******

 

 

naive & shallow

 

It is episode seven of Singapore Talking Season Three. Host Jagdish offers four guests on the platter to discuss our country’s procreative problems and why the modern Singaporean (and most cosmopolitans for that matter) is marrying less and divorcing more.

 

It is amusing that this programme resorts to being so lowbrow in inviting four very singular individuals whereas a more intelligent approach would be to include at least one steadily married parent. In contrast, individuals whom one would expect the least to get hitched are offered, including one “charisma coach” (what in the name of heaven is that?) and one very young and very naive “dating coach”.

 

Yes, very naive. I thought the chap, looking sharp in his dinner jacket and slim-cut trousers, would at least set the moral example, especially if his trade is anything to go by, by being in a serious relationship. On the contrary, dating coach supremo Xavier See, in all of his twenty-five years of life on earth, presents himself as an immature, fickle-minded (at least in his views on the opposite sex) flirt. It is all a game to him – he used the word himself – a calculated gamble in which one puts on a show in order to lure the bait. The other three panelists, all of whom are definitely older than he is, could probably see through his youthful naivete and it was summed up quite politely in Jagdish’s remark that he is probably very “not ready” for a serious relationship, let alone marriage.

 

He later made a fool of himself in commenting that ladies probably find men who are “leaders” attractive, and that men “should” be the ones leading the women, offering biology as a reason, of which Jagdish claimed was a rather sexist quip. It isn’t biology, dear boy, but probably a darwinian legacy from our hunter-gatherer days. Anyhow, times have changed and as a dating “expert” he should know better.

 

The poor bloke was then schooled at his own game, being told off that in fact, ladies do find men who allow their women to lead rather “sexy” as it often implied that the men have to be very self-assured and self-secure to do so.

 

Very true indeed.

 

Really. If the government wants its people to procreate and have more children, dating coaches and sex experts should be the least of their concerns. It is time to school these youngsters in FAMILY VALUES and the good old virtues of COMMITMENT and LOVE…in sickness and in health, in good times and bad. One does not find a life partner in the bar or pub at Clarke Quay. In Singapore, it is probably a bad idea to expect someone who frequents these places to be epitomes of marital fidelity, let alone parent material.

 

My advice? Make friends, real friends. And be real. Be genuine. Your spouse should neither be a trophy nor a sex toy. He or she should be your best friend and confidante, your lover and your life companion. It is rubbish to believe that one can use the pseudo-science of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) or some other pop psychology system to lure a potential partner.

 

I should know. At thirty-one, I am not only married but have three children.

 

*******

 

evolution sunday

 

Within the community of Christian believers there are areas of dispute and disagreement, including the proper way to interpret Holy Scripture. While virtually all Christians take the Bible seriously and hold it to be authoritative in matters of faith and practice, the overwhelming majority do not read the Bible literally, as they would a science textbook. Many of the beloved stories found in the Bible – the Creation, Adam and Eve, Noah and the ark – convey timeless truths about God, human beings, and the proper relationship between Creator and creation expressed in the only form capable of transmitting these truths from generation to generation. Religious truth is of a different order from scientific truth. Its purpose is not to convey scientific information but to transform hearts.

We the undersigned, Christian clergy from many different traditions, believe that the timeless truths of the Bible and the discoveries of modern science may comfortably coexist. We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests. To reject this truth or to treat it as “one theory among others” is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children. We believe that among God’s good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator. To argue that God’s loving plan of salvation for humanity precludes the full employment of the God-given faculty of reason is to attempt to limit God, an act of hubris. We urge school board members to preserve the integrity of the science curriculum by affirming the teaching of the theory of evolution as a core component of human knowledge. We ask that science remain science and that religion remain religion, two very different, but complementary, forms of truth.

- The Clergy Letter Project

 

Today, February 12, is the birthday of Charles Darwin. Progressive and liberal churches all over the world would be remembering this day by either preaching about evolution, the life of Darwin, or at least wax meaningful about the significance of darwinian evolution on the christian religion.

 

Alas, Singaporean christians, like much of Asia and Africa, still wallow in the dirt of premodernity and intellectual ignorance.

 

Miserable day for me.

 

*******

 

book review: once a jolly hangman

by Ben Bland

 

When a small Malaysian academic publisher printed a book on the death penalty in Singapore by a little-known British freelance journalist, neither could seriously have expected it to make much of a splash in the tightly-controlled city-state or beyond.

 

That all changed when, in the early hours of July 18, the Singapore police arrested the author, Alan Shadrake, in his hotel room, shortly before he was to meet reporters about the content of his book.

 

Shadrake was subsequently charged with contempt of court, with government prosecutors alleging that his book, Once a Jolly Hangman: Singapore Justice in the Dock, impugns the impartiality, integrity and independence of the judiciary. A criminal defamation complaint filed by the Media Development Authority, Singapore’s censorship body, is still under investigation.

 

Singapore’s government insists that its draconian laws, including the mandatory death penalty for the trafficking of even small amounts of illegal drugs, help keep crime and social disorder down, ensuring that the city-state remains a popular center for international business and tourism.

 

Although the arrest of the 75-year-old writer once again thrust Singapore’s strict limits on freedom of speech into the international limelight, the global media interest has quickly, and predictably, faded.

 

It remains to be seen whether Shadrake’s book, which argues that Singapore’s use of the death penalty is uneven and unjust, will have any lasting impact in a city-state where there is little public debate on sensitive issues such as capital punishment because of a combination of government secrecy, repression and self-censorship.

 

Having re-examined a wide range of drug trafficking cases over the last two decades, Shadrake claims that the likelihood of offenders being sent to the gallows is dependent on their socio-economic background and, in the case of foreigners, Singapore’s economic and political relationship with their government.

 

Compare the fates of Julia Bohl, a German student believed to be part of a high-society drug-dealing ring in Singapore, and Amara Tochi, a young Nigerian hoping to carve out a career in football who unwittingly became a drug mule. Bohl was arrested in 2002 in possession of 687 grams of cannabis, well over the 500 gram limit above which a sentence of death by hanging is mandatory. Her predicament generated a lot of press coverage in Germany, an important trading partner for Singapore, and her government came under pressure to try to save her from the gallows. Fortunately for Bohl, before her trial began, further laboratory testing revealed that the drugs in her possession only weighed 281 grams. She was eventually sentenced to five years in jail and released after three years because of good behavior.

 

Tochi was not so lucky. He was arrested at Changi Airport in possession of more than 700 grams of heroin but insisted that he thought he was carrying African herbs. Tochi did not attempt to flee when told by airport staff that the police were coming to talk to him and the trial judge accepted that there was no evidence that he knew he was carrying drugs. But he was executed nevertheless in 2007.

 

Shadrake argues that the judiciary and the police offer a sympathetic ear to members of the domestic elite or overseas citizens from key economic and political allies while showing a disturbing eagerness to expedite the execution of suspected drug mules from poor or marginalized backgrounds, sometimes in highly questionable circumstances.

 

The author quotes an anonymous former officer from Singapore’s Central Narcotics Bureau, who says that zealous undercover police often encourage traffickers to transport larger amounts of drugs so that they cross the mandatory execution threshold.

 

Undercover officers also played a key role in the demise of Vignes Mourthi, a young Indian Malaysian hanged in 2003 for trafficking 27.65 grams of heroin despite his insistence that he believed he was carrying incense stones. One key piece of evidence against him was an unsigned, undated statement from an undercover officer who claimed that Mourthi had admitted to him that he was carrying drugs.

 

Yet just two days after Mourthi’s arrest, the same undercover officer was arrested on suspicion of rape and was subsequently convicted of corruption for attempting to bribe the alleged rape victim to withdraw her complaint against him. Although such behavior ought to have cast serious doubt on the quality of his testimony, the officer was not tried until a year after Mourthi’s execution and no mention was ever made at Mourthi’s trial of the severe question marks surrounding the officer’s conduct.

 

Shadrake argues that Mourthi’s execution is “arguably one of the most appalling miscarriages of justice in Singapore’s history” and the publication of his book has provided new impetus to the Mourthi family’s campaign to clear his name posthumously.

 

In what is a polemical and sometimes repetitive book, Shadrake makes no secret of the fact that he is opposed to the death penalty on principle. But, using a mixture of publicly available legal material and interviews with sources from different parts of Singapore’s justice system, including extensive interviews with the former chief executioner, he seemingly does enough to convince even proponents of the death penalty that it is time to reassess the way Singapore handles capital cases.

 

Furthermore, Shadrake argues that “the egregious record of Singapore in relation to the death penalty cannot be separated from its deeply-embedded structures of authoritarianism and political illiberalism”.

 

In countries where genuine free speech is allowed, local journalists often lead the way in holding the judiciary and the police to account. But Singapore’s leaders have always insisted that the city-state’s reporters eschew “Western-style” confrontational, investigative journalism in favor of a pliant, nation-building “Asian” approach.

 

Little wonder then that they are pursuing Shadrake through the courts, the ruling People’s Action Party’s preferred means of silencing dissenting voices.

 

When his trial opened on July 30, those journalists present, both local and foreign, were warned by the prosecutor that they too could be charged with contempt if they republished any of Shadrake’s “contemptuous” claims.

 

Yet despite the government’s insistence that Shadrake’s book “scandalizes the judiciary”, the Media Development Authority says it has not banned the book, although it admits sending a letter to some bookshops warning them about the legal implications of selling it. The book no longer appears to be on sale in Singapore but it is available in the reference section of Singapore’s National Library.

 

The government’s response has generated much-needed publicity for the book, which the publishers said has sold 4,000 copies so far, making it one of the better selling socio-political works about Singapore.

 

But while the government’s latest act of repression may appear at first sight to have backfired, all the attention generated by Shadrake’s arrest sends a clear message to Singaporeans: delve into sensitive issues such as the death penalty at your peril.

(source)

 

*******

 

discuss disgust

It numbs the intelligent mind and chills the human conscience to conceive a 21st century world that still comprises societies that imprison individuals for simply expressing themselves.

 

It is sickening to read, over the past decade, of numerous individuals in countries such as Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia who had their heads chopped off or their bodies hung to dry for simply expressing critical opinions on the established religion. Similarly, it is commonplace for authorities in places like North Korea and China to imprison and even execute, in the case of the former, citizens who criticise the government. Singapore is no different, however cosmopolitan our tourism ministry would like to paint the lion city to be.

 

In a modern economy like China, it is INCREDULOUS to hear news of citizens being put behind bars for writing poetry. And the Middle Kingdom did just that – one man was recently sentenced to seven years in jail for writing a poem that allegedly “incites subversion” by exhorting the Chinese people to support freedom.

 

This brings to mind the shameless way in which Singapore sought to clamp down the distribution of a book written by a British journalist, Alan Shadrake, which criticises the Singapore judicial system, in 2010. Not only did the authorities confiscated all known copies of the book then, it imprisoned the poor author for the supposed crime of “contempt of court” by scandalising the justice system with his book.

 

It is almost oxymoronic to say that no one in the state-controlled news media made any attempt in offering any criticism of the sentence, let alone fight against it. It is against all human decency to use legal force against contrary views just because the authorities that be are insecure about them. We are not talking about suicide bombers, kamikaze pilots or terrorist groups. We are talking about decent human beings who express their disapproval via civil discourse. It is beyond belief that individuals can be imprisoned just for writing and publishing books that criticise the government or our courts.

 

Do the authorities really believe that the more they behave like tyrants, political or religious dissidence will be kept in check? Do the authorities believe that they will get away with decades of such leadership?

 

I used to admire our justice system, believing it to be one of the best in the world, sheesh, like anything that is Singaporean, I suppose. But with the case of the poor bloke Shadrake, I am having serious doubts.

 

In fact, I am disgusted. We may not be able to stage a protest, but we can do the one thing any decent human being has the right to do.

 

We can vote. And we will bring this war against our right to free speech and expression to the ballot box. I am a human being. I can express myself. And if a government wishes to suppress and repress so fundamental and basic as individual free expression in the name of an illusory “peace and prosperity”, I don’t want that kind of government. It disgusts me to think that in the 21st century, there are still governments which repress their people from speaking and expressing their minds.

 

I am so ashamed.

 

*******

 

can we really look toward a multi-party government?

 

Singapore is as small a nation as it is young, a 46-year-old full stop on a world map, not counting the years between its official founding in 1819 by a Sir Stamford Raffles of the East India Company and its separation from the Malayan Peninsula in August 1965.

 

The first generation of Singaporeans lived through the labour pains of a seedling nation to the turbulent years of its adolescence and has since appreciated the competence in which the founding men of the PAP wield their iron fists adorned in velvet gloves.

 

They knew it would take the cunning genius of a Lee Kuan Yew to reign in a diverse immigrant country and lead it to where it is today – a multinational corporation with over seven million workers.

 

The younger generations, with me among them, will never understand the complexities our ancestors faced and thus may never see beyond the bias we already have of a perceived one-party autocracy. We blame the PAP for its control of the media and the press. We bemoan our legal system which still uses an archaic and barbarous form of criminal punishment. We wonder when will our society stop stigmatising the LGBT community. We wish we could have more liberties in expressing ourselves and speaking our minds.

 

And so we root for the political opposition like the Workers’ Party, the Singapore Democratic Party, the Reform Party and the Singapore People’s Party. We cheer for our champions in the likes of Chen Sao Mao, Low Thia Kiang, Chiam See Tong, Kenneth Jeyaratnam, and even the Freedom Prize-winning self-professed liberal democrat, Chee Soon Juan.

 

They loom large before us as our patron saints of political and civil liberty, and we listened, enraptured, by their rhetoric. We get drunk over the preachers who scream the loudest, we shriek alongside some of them when they conquered Aljunied GRC last year. But the chimera of the reel world aside, when the banal and mundane sets in, we start to witness how the scraps start to fall from the rusty junkyard that they really are.

 

If these blokes cannot even keep their houses in order and their respective parties united, can we trust them to lead the country? Tsk, tsk. If you want to play with fire, you should prepare the extinguishers. Will democracy – the power of the people – be nothing but a dream we erect like sandcastles on the beach?

 

The lesser of two evils will get my vote. And it is no surprise who the devil would be.

 

*******

 

what is wrong with incest?

 

Really. Admittedly, I would certainly not wish to have intercourse with either my mother nor my sister (in-laws included) due to perhaps cultural and societal reasons, but I do not find any convincing justification for criminalising incestual intercourse between consenting adults.

 

Let us put aside the issue of child abuse in the case of intercourse between a parent and a young child, or rape in the case of a forced penetration. These acts would properly be classified as crimes of child abuse and rape respectively.

 

But the very act of sexual intercourse between consenting adult kin or siblings, apart from the cultural stigma, do not cause harm or injury to anyone, let alone becoming a civil crime.

 

Yes, given the knowledge we now have of biology and genetics, it would be immoral if incest was the medium used to produce offspring as there is a higher probability of the offspring having congenital birth defects. It would be inhumane to deliberately procreate despite the knowledge we now have. But what if birth control was used, or for that matter, a guarantee that procreation would not occur, such as the sterility of one partner?

 

Would that be a CRIME?

 

Sibling marriages were very common in certain ancient societies, despite the biological consequences, especially among royalty. This makes the current disdain for incestual relationships nothing but a result of cultural and societal conditioning, not some innate moral code in the human psyche.

 

Often than not, when morality is used as a reason, it would be the religious foolishness of applying an ancient religious text to a modern situation. And it does not take a genius to realise the folly of such a practice, with so many evils against humanity done in the name of religious texts and creeds.

 

Anyhow, there is this recent case of a 24-year-old Singaporean woman being sentenced to a year’s probation because of incest with her 48-year-old biological father.

 

It was a consensual act between father and daughter. While any intelligent individual would expect a similar sentence (at least in draconian and conservative Singapore) for the father, it comes as a shock, to put it mildly, that the father was put behind bars for three years since last January.

 

This is a case of sexual discrimination, full stop. While perceived sexual crimes are often attributed to the folly of the male species, that is not always the case. Why put the blame on the man when many a time the woman is also at fault, if not more so, by purposeful seduction?

 

What if the perpetrator is an underaged (in the eyes of our local law, that is) girl who lies about her age so as to effectively prostitute herself to men? Why convict the man with having sex with a minor when the fact was that he thought otherwise and that he was deceived??

 

Times have changed. And so should the Woman’s Charter. Women in Singapore enjoy the same liberties, if not more so, as their men and are as likely to indulge in the same carnal pleasures, with the same prerogatives. Many also make commercial sex, albeit part time and discreetly, a lucrative trade of choice. Does that still make the men more guilty than the women??

 

Then again, life is not fair. And for the life of me, it has always been so.

 

*******

 

pastor to the royals

 

 

Dr John Robert Hall (born 13 March 1949) is the Dean (somewhat equivalent to a senior pastor in an evangelical church) of the majestic Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, or what is popularly known as Westminster Abbey – the ancient church which serves the British royalty for centuries.

 

It was the luscious venue for the recent royal wedding, by the way, of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

 

The Very Rt Rev. Dr John Hall represents quite accurately what it means to be a Church of England (anglican) preacher, the epitome of what some would call a dignified and intelligent churchman and others the symbol of all things “cowardly” and “pussified”.

 

I rather like him though. Unlike many of my contemporaries who would rather listen to US-type sentimentality and cheap emotionalism over the pulpit with the likes of John Bevere, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren, Joseph Prince, Kong Hee and what-have-you in the world of televangelistic extravagance (even someone as trite as the British charismatic Nicky Gumbel can be boring stuff to them); my tastes are much more down-to-earth.

 

My favourite preachers from the US would include renowned wordsmiths like the late Rev. Peter Gomes of Harvard Memorial Church, whose short (twenty minutes at a maximum) but very literary homilies were a sensual delight to my ears, and Rev. Alan Jones, the former Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, who loved to pepper his similarly literary homilies with poetry.

 

And with no surprise, my all-time favourite would be the current Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams. His homilies and lectures are loaded with substance and intelligent rhetoric as well as a living example of what good spoken English sounds like.

 

Dr Hall is no different. Although his homilies are far too brief for my liking (seven to ten minutes) as is typical with high Church of England sermons, his appeal for me lies in his mellifluous baritone voice, steady and quiet delivery, and good neutral Received Pronunciation.

 

If young people these days do not appreciate beautiful and elegant rhetoric, so what? What do they know? Must we lower our standards to speak like hooligans and ruffians so as to “relate” to them? Must we cuss and swear on the pulpit to attract crowds of equally insolent evangelicals?

 

Alas…evangelical christianity in Singapore is going the way of the loud-mouthed, hand-waving yankee.

 

Sigh.

 

*******

 

another military-related death

 

There is this irrational and somewhat lunatic belief among national servicemen in Singapore, especially the NSFs (National Service Full-time), that because of some ill-conceived notion of camaraderie or ridiculous notions of male bravado, one has to constantly push oneself mentally in order to achieve feats of prime physical fitness.

 

In some quarters, especially among the type As who have this obsession to “win at all costs” or to “be the best” at every opportunity, and in their pursuit of Officer Cadet School (OCS) glory – they psyche one another by preaching the virtues of perseverence and mental strength – as though by the very act of mental perseverence one is able to accomplish anything.

 

Rubbish.

 

And before anyone accuse me of playing the hypothetical game or caricaturing the unwritten cultural codes of Singapore National Service (NS) life in the armed forces, let me say first and foremost that as an able-bodied Singaporean male who could perform more than thirty pull-ups (chin-ups) at one go in my prime, I was an NSF before, and an ever willing participant in the silly game of male bravado.

 

Let me also mention the fact that I was able to perform chin-ups effortlessly and for that matter most feats of upper-body strength – I climb up ropes using only my arms while adorning full battle order (FBO) with webbing, backpack, helmet and rifle – whereas most of my fellow blokes would be using their legs as well. And such a feat was never achieved because of sheer mental willpower or perseverence – I already had the physiological capacity and general propensity towards upper-body fitness and strength – and hence it was just a matter of mild practice before I could handle all those rope and wall climbings.

 

And there were many who were simply not made for such feats of strength as despite all the torturous and gruelling attempts at beefing up their upper bodies, they could only manage the passing grade of six pull-ups in the eventual tests. There were significant others who could not even manage three pulls after all that torture.

 

Come on – there are some people who are just not physically strong enough – and that is that. It is nonsensical to push them beyond what they can offer.

 

The “mind over body” mantra is nothing but a fallacy and a lie.

 

Admittedly, I have NEVER made the passing grade for the 2.4km run in my two and half years in the military. In fact, the one occasion which I mustered all of my perceived inner resolve to pass, along with the verbal “encouragement” (more like verbal abuse) from my then Officer Commanding (OC), I managed to finish the run with a few seconds short of the passing grade.

 

And still…there were idiots who accuse me of “not trying my best” and “not pushing hard enough”. There were even some schizophrenics who thought I was malingering.

 

This is male silliness for you.

 

And although such silliness had indeed “pushed” many to OCS “glory” (which does not prove the “mind over body” fallacy at all but simply demonstrates the fact that these blokes have it in them all along to make it), it had CAUSED MANY DEATHS as well.

 

For the past few years, it has become commonplace to read about this soldier and that soldier collapsing and dying after a run. The demographics have become mixed recently, with deaths coming from both NSFs as well as Regulars (the “professionals”). The most recent case was that of a 28-year-old NSman (reservist) who fainted after completing his 2.4km run as part of his annual Individual Physical Proficiency Test (IPPT), which one has to undergo every year until he consummates his national service obligations at the age of from 35 to 40.

 

He may have completed his run and made a passing grade. But at what price??

 

He lost his life, FOR GOODNESS’ SAKE! And many men like me are wondering if the Remedial Training (RT) for NSmen are anything good after all. For fear of being attached to a RT scheme which distracts many from professional and family commitments, many men choose to push themselves to make the passing grade. There are many who can. But there are also those who simply can’t.

 

And all those senseless deaths in the Singapore Armed Forces are evidence of the simple fact that not everyone is made for physical competence, let alone the soldier’s life of irrational obedience and ridiculous discipline.

 

My managing to “graduate” from national service unscathed has nothing to do with my physical competence or skill. I am just one of those who refuse to be like sheep in blind irrational obedience to authority. As a free-thinking individual, I have always treasured my individualism and independence from any form of autocracy, be it religious or military.

 

As such, I never pushed myself physically beyond what I could manage. When my arms ached from doing too many push-ups, I simply stopped – to the consternation of my platoon sergeants who “punished” me with more push-ups, of which I simply tell them politely that I could not do anymore.

 

Unless they want to pay for my medical bills.

 

Similarly, if my feet ached or I was feeling the strain, I would simply stop the running and started walking – whether or not that would result in my failing the grade. That is my inalienable human right.

 

And no one can force me – unless they want to see another dead man.

 

Of which they did and still are, at the expense of the poor parents who had no choice but to allow the government to torture their young sons.

 

If I have a choice, I would rather my son NOT go through national service. Does national service really make boys into men? Does national service really mature our young men? I don’t think so – there are many countries without military conscription and their men are still…just men.

 

Besides, I know of many friends who were decent gentlemen who, after entering the armed forces, became foul-mouthed and sex-crazed perverts who cannot stop talking about sex and using the f*ck word in their speech.

 

And one calls that “maturity”?

 

Bah!

 

*******

 

the “super league” and all that hype

 

(source)

 

Although an argumentum ad hominem can always be utilised for my not being a soccerphile in general as I would never conceive the sin of ever losing my sleep for a three or four a.m. football match on the telly, one cannot be forgiven for accusing me of treason.

 

Singapore is the beautiful city state in which I was born and raised, educated and plied my trade, a peaceful oasis of calm and prosperity amid the chaotic mess that often reads as the description of our tumultuous geographical region. It is thus utter lunacy and a crime against the state for the ridiculous clobbering of all that is our own.

 

When our table tennis team emerged runners-up in the 2008 Olympics and world champions in a subsequent tournament, idiots all over the country grumble about the fact that we were but a neo-chinese team, devoid of pure Singapore stock. Some lunatics even cry foul when our very own swimming champion Tao Li obliterated the opposition in the 2011 Southeast Asian Games – she was after all, born in China.

 

And it becomes criminal when many good-for-nothing, booze-gurgling blokes become fanatical devotees of foreign football clubs like the useless outfit from Anfield and the devilish thugs from Old Trafford – which still brought back nightmarish visions of cantona-esque violence – while rolling their eyes over our country’s sincere attempts at psyching up support for our national football team as well as our domestic league.

 

What is the warped reason for worshipping a group of thugs so unlike our ethos while trying to desecrate our own? What is the foolishness of going drunk-mad over a group of English hooligans chasing after a ball when the same time could be spent investing in conjugal or emotional bonds with one’s spouse? Or the love of one’s family? Or the support of one’s own national aspirations?

 

And so…it is OUTRAGEOUS to read of the reactions of Singaporean netizens who constantly take potshots at anything Singaporean – our public transport system, the flooding situation in certain parts of Singapore, the PAP, our attempts at brushing up our spoken English, etc. – and now our forays back into the Malaysian football league.

 

The match was aired live on the telly last evening, and of course, rather than cheering a foreign rabble of thugs, it is more reasonable to be behind a SINGAPOREAN team instead. Of course, please forgive my insolence, as I often find it infuriatingly odd as to the belligerent antics of foreign football fans (including that of Malaysia and Indonesia). Football seems to attract hooligans.

 

Still, I admit it did nothing to revive the past age of Malaysia Cup fever in the late 1980s and early 1990s, of which memories of Fandi Ahmad, Abbas Saad, Alistair Edwards and V. Sundramoorthy still linger. Perhaps I’ve grown older and hence the zealous naivete of youth eludes me. Perhaps the fever has indeed been revived last night, but somehow my interpretations of the past-present continuum has been twisted.

 

Yet the experience of last night might well prophesy of better things to come in our hopes of having something of a football culture. The marketing spin on the twelfth “player” in the Singapore Lions is interesting as it is deliciously patriotic. But somehow as mild as we are, as tame as we are, we are too civilised and courteous a lot to become the monstrous horde as our Indonesian or even Malaysian neighbours are.

 

In fact, I would rather believe that for our fans to be able to become virtually the twelfth player on the field – we have to be as barbarous as the Indonesians who use foul language at rival teams and behave riotously when their own team loses.

 

But somehow, I reckon, that we Singaporeans are too civilised and polite for that.

 

We have better things to do and live for.

 

*******

 

 

thank the gods for singapore

 

The significant number of Singaporeans who are dissatisfied with our current government, which is really just the People’s Action Party (PAP), should ask themselves what they are really disgruntled about.

 

Many rant about the inefficient public transport (think of the recent Singapore Mass Rapid Transit fracas) and healthcare systems in our country but do not have the relevant experiences overseas to make such value judgements. Many grumble about the high costs of living but never stop to think how much costlier it is to live in Japan, London and New York. It is erroneous to make comparisons with “cheaper” places like some of our neighbours in Southeast Asia as costs of living are rather relative to the quality of living as well. Many nag on and on about the salaries of our public ministers, even after the proposed paycuts, when they do not realise how morally upright and efficient our government is when compared to governments all over the world. And why is that so? We do not believe in having a populist leadership where any joe blow can run for the top post in the land (think of the US) – political leadership has to be from among the best of the best, the cream of the crop – and such can only be acquired by good salaries.

 

Of course, service and loyalty to the country is paramount – but one has to be pragmatic about it – if a highly competent and intelligent individual can make more money and have the social privacy for his family along with it by being a CEO of a multinational company, why not? There is so much at stake by being a public servant and if the lure of a high salary compensates, why not?

 

Others murmur about the lack of social welfare but do not know how much taxation welfare countries impose on their citizens. Some moan about the prices of cars in Singapore but seem to be ignorant about the social consequences of having highly congested streets (it is already relatively crowded) in a very tiny city as Singapore.

 

And the list goes on and on.

 

Human beings can be very colour-blind, often assuming a greener pasture on the other side, when they do not have all the facts. And Singaporeans especially so, with our notorious “kiasu” and “kiasee” mentalities that make us a very selfish people.

 

It is time we stop throwing stones at our government and wonder where all this resentment comes from in the first place.

 

Besides, I cannot fathom, for the life of me, how an uncouth individual like Low Thia Kiang can be a prime minister of Singapore.

 

Eeeehh.

 

*******

 

it is new year’s eve again…

 

I am afraid of new years and new beginnings. As a person who thrives on ritual and routine, sameness and habit, newness is a word that spawns within me hotpits of fear and dread, probably of uncertainties, perhaps more of unknowns and the primal flight from the dark.

 

Although recorded time is a human construct and that the new year can in fact be any time of the “year” (lunar, solar, chinese, muslim or otherwise), whatever the word year really means; as a human being I subscribe to the universally accepted gregorian timeline. As such, contrary to perhaps ninety per cent of my ethnic kin, I do not see the point in celebrating the chinese “lunar” new year which will begin on the 23rd of January 2012 since in all practicality we live and work by the “real” calendar, the gregorian one.

 

And for goodness’ sake I am not trying to reject my chinese ancestral roots or attempting to be an “ang moh” (a Singaporean slang for “caucasian”), of which I am definitely NOT. My reasons are pragmatic to say the least – unless the chinese lunar timescale is adopted universally – there is no point in celebrating a defunct timescale.

 

I know, I know…many chinese Singaporeans would disagree – prefering to celebrate the lunar new year due to the ill-conceived moral notions of ancestral respect and ethnic identity. As a cultural melting pot which is cosmopolitan Singapore, one wonders if a white American with scandinavian ancestry would be commiting a grievous sin against his ethnicity if he/she does not celebrate the scandinavian new year (if there’s any) or for that matter, speaks a scandinavian tongue (which is his/her “mother tongue”, as defined by the Singapore bilingual system). Similarly, an American with african roots.

 

No one will accuse an american of committing such a sin, if there is any in the first place.

 

Casting the chains of a pre-Enlightenment barbaric age aside, I should at least now focus on enjoying my new year’s eve – the end of a rather stormy year, politically speaking. And would the new chapter bring sweeter tales of pleasantries and peace, or more bloodshed caused by religious strife?

 

I cannot digest the fact that numerous communities in the modern world would soon be lost in drunken revelry and silly shenanigans of the foolish, all in the name of ushering in the new year. Shouldn’t we spend minutes of silent contemplation, remembering the countless numbers who suffered in the barbarous Middle East in the name of religion? Shouldn’t we reflect on what could have been done to prevent the injustices of capital punishment in societies like China and Saudi Arabia? Shouldn’t we contemplate on the stoic dignity of the Japanese in the face of pain and suffering? Shouldn’t we start to rethink our notions of ethnic identity and perhaps move forward to embrace our universal humanity instead of a primitive racial and religious identity that only divides?

 

I suppose the world is just being pragmatic – why not earn more revenue from the foolishness of the masses? Why not sell more booze to idiots who love their bitter concoctions that do nothing but render them intellectually hapless and physiologically unstable? Why not sell more tickets to daft teenagers who love to get deceived by blinding lights, irritating noise masquerading as music and a whole advertising industry that thrives on deception and greed?

 

Really, I am getting very distressed and irritated, pugnaciously so, by the incessant advertisements on the telly and the radio, persuading the Singaporean people to participate in hedonistic craziness. Yes, people have a right to do what they want.

 

I just hope the more discerning and intelligent of our species would refrain from the rubbish and spend more time with their families instead. Such parties are for the irresponsible singles and the foolish young – many would soon grow up when they have families of their own.

 

*******

 

unintentional “dishonesty” in faith stories

 

One of the reasons why anecdotes cannot be used as evidence for anything, let alone the existence of supernatural occurrences, is the rampant intrusion of human error. It is incredulous to note the way in which religious people are quick to accept the veracity of the accounts without a healthy dose of scepticism and empirical inquiry.

 

The passions are readily involved when it comes to the alleged miraculous and the retelling can be evidently so. The culprits may not be attempting at deliberate deception – more likely not – but in the lightning and the thunder, many embellish their accounts with superlatives that are just not honest.

 

A very recent example can be cited and in my case, in the evangelical christian community in Singapore.

 

Let me comment from the start that the individual in question is as decent, earnest and sensible as the next bloke in the church pew. He is neither a charlatan nor a chronic liar who loves to deceive.

 

So there.

 

In an account which he gave in public three to four sunday mornings ago, this youthful grandfather of one was diagnosed with anxiety disorder (he had panic attacks) and depression in early 2010. Apparently, the sudden attack ravaged him during the first few days of 2010 when he was about to leave for work (he is an ordained Methodist minister who now works as a consultant of sorts to missionaries).

 

So started a year-long ordeal of panic attacks, temper tantrums, violent outbursts and mood swings (I empathise totally) which affected both his wife as well as his school-going granddaughter. He was under psychiatric supervision and medication.

 

In short, he shared the anecdote in order to “thank God”for healing him “completely”(yes, he used that word) of his depression and mental issues in early 2011. Even though he did not explicitly mention the disuse of psychiatric medication, his comments on the perceived inefficacy of psychiatric medication in coontrast to divine intervention and supernatural healing gave the overall impression to the congregation (of which I was a part) that he had stopped taking his medicine.

 

Alas – it was an unintentional error – for I found out from him personally after the service that he was still taking his medication (as advised by his psychiatrist) and what was praiseworthy was actually the diminishing of his depressive states.

 

Oh I see. It was disappointing really, as I was sincerely hoping to know the indeed medical “miracle” of getting OFF psychiatric medication (it is an anomaly for mental patients to actually get “cured” miraculously and taken off medication).  

 

Has God healed my friend of his mental problems? I don’t think so. It was probably a case of the psychiatric drugs finally taking effect on his brain and body (psychiatric medicines take weeks and sometimes months to take sustained beneficial effect – thus psychiatrists often change medication for the patient to “try”).

 

Yes – it is probably very comforting to thank something or someone out there for at least using the drugs to make one better – but such is a FAR CRY from claiming that God has miraculously HEALED one of mental illness.

 

Evangelicals love to heap scorn at psychiatric medication, often lauding the much powerful effects of prayer and faith instead. The FACT is that a sufferer of mental illness does NOT have the psychological capacity to evoke a faith-filled disposition! If someone could actually “have faith” in God, he is not mentally ill in the first place. Besides, people who make these accusations usually do not understand the struggles that people with mental illness go through.

 

I have yet to witness a genuine complete ”healing” of a schizophrenic to believe that supernatural healing exists.

 

Or for that matter, an AIDS or stage 4 cancer sufferer.

 

Claims of God healing AIDS or cancer patients are often riddled with inconsistencies and contradictions. I believe I have mentioned this before and I will assert it again.

 

First, there has to be real evidence that the patient is indeed suffering from full blown AIDS or stage 4 cancer. A misdiagnosis can sometimes and does often occur. Second, medical intervention must NOT take place. Otherwise, it is reasonable and perfectly sensible to say that it was the chemotherapy or medical treatment that worked, NOT God. Third, the “healing” has to be either instantaneous (within minutes or hours that prayer is offered) or at least within a time period that natural bodily rejuvenation is not possible. Otherwise, the alleged healing can be attributed to the body healing itself.

 

And so far, no such miracle has ever occurred. And preachers like Rony Tan (Lighthouse Evangelism), Tan Cheng Kee (Bethesda Cathedral) and Francis Khoo (Covenant Vision) can only be labeled as CHARLATANS who make false claims to a gullible public.

 

Come on, “progressive healing” (as Rony Tan loved to wax lyrical about) is NOT supernatural healing at all. Any discerning and intelligently sensible person will tell you that with medical treatment and time, the human body can be aided in healing itself. To make a claim that such “healings” are works of supernatural intervention are unwarranted and inaccurate.

 

But of course, people love the comfort of fairy tales and fables. If they can acquire peace of mind and comfort from such institutions, however false they might be, who am I to rant against their practice?

 

*******

 

inconsistent thinking

 

I had dinner at my parents’ house last night and as a ritual would laze in front of the telly in the sitting room after a quick meal. Not so quickly though, as my brother was seeking an opinion from my wife on wedding preparations in the dining area.

 

The later conversation in the sitting room soon led to medical scams promoted by MLM (multi-level marketing) companies in Singapore, especially ridiculous products like the bio disc and certain silver amulets that are purported to have healing properties. All of us agree that such claims are too incredible to be true and have to be subjected to rigorous tests like double blind control experiments.

 

As it was too tempting for me to resist, I passed a comment on how religious claims have to be subjected to the same quality of scepticism before sweeping statements on the all too incredible claims of religion can be made, especially claims of divine healing, miracles and the paranormal. Incidentally, the classic Poltergeist film was flickering on the telly and how that pissed my wife off as “there were children around”.

 

I personally opine that with the exception of explicit gore (bloody intestines, gauging out of eyes, cannibalism, etc), non-gory horror films are all right with young children as long as parents explain clearly to them that it is all creative imagination and that THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GHOSTS. In this way, our children will not succumb to the nonsense that paralyses other southeast asian peoples under the spell of imaginary ghosts, spirits, superstitions and urban legends.

 

Anyhow, my sister became visibly disturbed and went on a diatribe against human reason, arguing for the superiority of divine revelation over reason. But I wonder – she is simply assuming the revelation of the christian religion – what about that of Islam? Or Judaism? Or other non-revelatory human-centred traditions like therevada buddhism or certain forms of hinduism?

 

I put forward to her that while she was using “human reason” as well as empirical evidence to debunk the medical scams, she now turns her back on these reliable methods and claim that revelation is superior. I also mentioned that while a few thousand years of monotheism had done nothing to improve the human condition, a few hundred years of empirical rationalism has given humankind so much.

 

My peeve was very simple. While I respect the general ethos of all the main world religions, monotheistic and otherwise, I do not subscribe to the religious exclusivism as well as biblical literalism of the christian evangelical worldview that often spurns reason and the scientific method. It is very inconsistent on my sister’s part to use empiricism on a daily basis (and not one ounce of “revelation”, whatever that meant) and yet when it comes down to christianity, empiricism and reason are conveniently chucked aside.

 

What the hell is my problem then, she asked (the word “hell” is mine). No problem at all, really – the problem is people like her and for that matter, my entire family. She accused me of “thinking too much”, of which I disagree, mentioning to her that there are many people out there who have similar ideas about life and philosophy as I do. Somehow it is people like her who “think too little”, or at least cherry picking on issues to think or not think about.

 

Of course, my father chose to avoid the discussion although it is obvious whose side he’s on. He was probably thinking in his heart how far astray his poor son has gone and how he would be frying in hell. As for my wife, she was rolling her eyes.

 

Her darned husband and his big mouth.

 

*******

 

 

any of these familiar??

 

How to Control People (Mind Control methods):

 

1. Do not let them know you are controlling them.

Most people aren’t consciously willing to be manipulated. It is a subtle art controlling people without them knowing it.

2. Keep them ignorant.

Uneducated people are easier to control than educated ones. But we aren’t talking about higher education, but worldly education. Global understanding. There are PhD’s walking around who are experts in their field but woefully ignorant of the greater issues of life.

3. Do not allow for original thought.

Original thought undermines blind obedience. Tell people everything they need to know and that anything beyond that is taboo.

4. Keep them entertained.

Distraction is the best way of keeping people under sedation. Like the Roman stadiums kept the people docile, so too will mindless entertainment and distractions.

5. Use an authoritative tone when speaking.

Appearance is as good as the substance these days. Sound like an authority and people will believe you know what you are talking about.

6. Have the appearance of power

…and the success that it brings. Smoke and mirrors are known deceivers because they work. Dress for success! Fake it ’til you make it. People respect suits.

7. Take control of every situation possible.

Your control cannot be provincial. It must be global. Dominate every domain and notice how people respect you. Every area of their lives, from their sex lives down to the last penny, must be under your jurisdiction.

8. Dangle the carrot in front of them.

Always keep the shiny object dangling just beyond their reach. Their goal. Their destiny. Their fulfilment. Their vision. Tantalize them. They will keep coming back for more.

9. Instil guilt and fear of the consequences

…of not being controlled. Fear is the greatest motivator for aligning other people’s priorities to yours. And everyone knows guilt is the fastest way to get someone back in line.

10. Manipulate their emotions.

Get into their minds to see what makes them tick and take advantage of it. Build a false sense of security. Pretend to be a close friend and confidante. Identify and sympathize with their emotions and make a heart connection. This will form a bond that’s hard to break.

 

(source)

 

Does any of the tips above look or feel familiar? If you are like me, you would probably be chuckling to yourself by now. I did.

 

Most, if not all of the ten tips apply to either evangelical christian pastors of megachurches or self-help motivational “experts”. Take note: they do not apply only to cults and loony sects – I recognise many of these factors at play in most of the megachurches in Singapore.

 

1. Most pastors do not tell their parishioners that they are controlling them. On the contrary, they often let the bible or God do the controlling for them. It is rather easy for the pastor to do as evangelicals view the bible in very high esteem – many see it as the sole authority for their lives.

 

2. Have you wonder why the places in which evangelical churches are flourishing are usually in uneducated regions like Africa, South America and Asia? Even in modern Singapore, much of fervent grassroots christianity consists of people who are ignorant about the natural sciences, darwinian evolution, neurobiology, psychology and especially biblical studies (biblical criticism, history of the church, etc). Worse still, many of the pastors themselves do not even have theological qualifications.

 

3. Hey hey, this part is also easy for the pastor to impose. Megachurches are known to “expect” its members to toe the party line in the name of subscribing to the “common vision” of the church, yadda yadda, as well as “submitting to spiritual authority”. Have you realise how members of certain churches in Singapore (especially the “big four”) all “think, behave and speak alike”??

 

4. Most megachurch pastors are charismatic fellows who can keep their members “entertained” every week, either by the force of their personality and perceived “holiness” or by their conversational style of public speaking. Do note that most scholars and intellectuals do not speak that way – it seems that the televangelist way of speaking is despised in academia.

 

5. Of course, of course. Even the entertaining preacher has the aura of authority just by the sheer force of his position as pastor (most evangelical christians revere their pastors of “anointed men of God”), especially when he starts spouting rubbish about receiving “revelation” from God.

 

6. No problem here. The fact that they are pastors of megachurches (with weekly attendances of more than 8000) show how much “power” they have and how “successful” they are. Many also live relatively extravagant lifestyles (they live in condominiums or bungalows and drive relatively expensive cars) and wear “branded” clothes. Many of such preachers use the excuse that they have the “blessings of God” and that men of God can be “successful” too. ALL GLORY TO GOD!!!

 

7. Hmm. This one may not apply to the megachurch pastors here, although I suppose they would apply to cult leaders.

 

8. Ah…the carrot in contemporary evangelical christianity would be personal fulfillment, peace of mind, material and financial “blessing”, finding one’s calling, fulfillment of one’s destiny, having children, good family life…almost the same vices and entrapments of any free thinker and atheist.

 

9. Most christian pastors employ this method (of course, unintentionally) by preaching about sin, damnation, the wrath of God, the fires of hell, discipline, moral courage, etc. However, there are the exceptions who use reverse psychology to accomplish the same thing – the grace of God, the unconditional love of Christ, etc.

 

10. I guess if all of the above are at play, one’s emotions would thus be tapped and utilised. Most charismatic personalities employ the use of vague language and emotive vocabulary to “stir” their followers. Not only do preachers employ this, but much of US politics. Just compare the presidential speeches of US presidents with that of our prime ministers. While Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Hsien Loong have always been rather cerebral and thoughtful, their US counterparts are raucous rhetoricians skilled at playing the emotions of the US public.

 

***

 

And after all is said and done, if you are feeling offended in any form after reading this – you are either a megachurch pastor yourself or someone who has been hoodwinked by one. No intelligent and thinking christian should be attending a church that spurns original free thought and individual freedom.

 

*******

 

where religion has gone nuts

 

Welcome to a world where fantasy and reality collide, a world where Halloween becomes real and zombies walked the earth. It is not Universal Studios at Sentosa.

 

Welcome to the world of the Vatican.

 

 

…and the deluded mind of its former CHIEF exorcist, a Father Gabriele Amorth.

 

I would rather leave him alone with his schizophrenia but when loony religion starts to impose itself on the wider culture, that is where I get pissed.

 

This old man was at a film festival about two weeks ago introducing the US film, The Rite, which is about exorcism, when he made these comments:

 

“Practising yoga is satanic, it leads to evil just like reading Harry Potter.”

“In Harry Potter the Devil acts in a crafty and covert manner, under the guise of extraordinary powers, magic spells and curses.”

Not surprisingly, one of the favourite films of this 86-year-old priest is the 1973 classic, The Exorcist, which also happened to be one of my favourites as well, although I contend that the plot is nothing but fantasy and the fruits of the human imagination. Of course, the producers of the film claimed that the story was based loosely on actual events of which the demonic protagonist was in fact a boy of Lutheran parents – but anecdotes like these are never to be accepted hook, line and sinker.

 

‘Harry Potter and Yoga are evil,’ says Catholic Church exorcist

 

Anyhow, the notion that yoga has dodgy origins is not unique to the Vatican. There are many evangelical christian books in the market that espouse a similar nonsense – and some of these books claim that even the Roman Catholic Church is one big demonic enterprise, the pope being the Anti-Christ!? And of course, the equally ridiculous myth that the visions of the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) were inspired by the devil and that the poor Arab might have been epileptic.

 

There are still churches in Singapore (some of them megachurches) which still hold on to an animistic and premodern belief that many of our vices and “bad habits” can be caused by evil spirits and demons – and would often conduct healing services where an expert in “deliverance ministry” (the evangelical term for exorcism) would try to cast out “demons of lust, demons of smoking, demons of masturbation, demons of pornography, demons of doubt, demons of violence, demons of anger,” etc…and parishioners would then be seen vomiting (as a sign of the demon leaving the body), convulsing on the floor, screaming, etc.

 

And mind you – they are not being metaphorical.

 

And the government of Singapore beware – such books are aplenty in bookshops all across our small island – and circulated within the evangelical community here. Grassroots christianity in Singapore is not as civil and religiously tolerant as the National Council of Churches Singapore want us to believe – many do not view the other religious faiths in a good light.

 

Am I making a sweeping statement? No – I myself am still part of the community!!!

 

*******

 

evangelical inconsistency

 

We attended a birthday celebration last afternoon, held at a unique eatery in Marine Parade Community Centre called “Scoop of Art”, an interesting combination of children’s art and gelato ice-cream. We left the party at about 4pm, after which we made our way to the multi-storey carpark a few blocks away.

 

We met some youths (we assumed they were youths, by their silly hairstyles and smooth faces) along the way who were gathered at the bottom of a flight of stairs in a HDB flat, smoking away. That somehow got a friend of mine going about his pet peeve and he remarked how smoking should be BANNED in Singapore for good. He mentioned of certain individuals who wrote to the Straits Times forum who made the same suggestion.

 

He also mentioned some statistics, the accuracy of which I am uncertain, that suggested the non-smoking state of the majority of Singaporeans. If my friend is correct, almost 80 per cent of Singaporeans do not smoke, and for the majority of adults who do – they do it out of adolescent addiction and guilt.

 

Anyhow – I do not think that a total ban would be solving the real issue, which is coping with life’s problems. Substance abuse reflects, to a certain extent, our infantile past of getting comfort through the suckle of mother’s breasts. A significant number of homo sapiens can’t seem to wean out of it and even though the physical act of suckling our mother’s breasts are long gone, the emotional and psychological need for such comforts still linger. We hence learn to go to the bottle, to the cigarette, to marijuana, to glue, to caffeine, and perhaps even to the opium of religion.

 

Besides, wanting to ban smoking is like wanting to ban prostitution and all forms of nightlife entertainment – one might assume that non-marital commercial sex is morally wrong and damaging to the soul and thus wish for all such industries to be banned – but is this the right thing to do for society?

 

One might be against abortion and even contraception, but does that give a government the moral authority to ban these things?

 

Those in favour of theocracy might think so, as would certain muslims in certain sects as well as the Christian Right in the US. However, thinking about where my friend was coming from – he would agree that God himself is a gentleman of sorts – giving us the free will to choose our own paths and making our own decisions. He would agree that God does not force human beings to do His will. But if that is the case, why do we, as christians, yearn to control other people by forcing society to adhere to “biblical principles” when our very own God does not? If God does not force people to do things, do we as worshippers of this God allowed to do otherwise??

 

My personal opinion would be the softer approach of education – the continual push via the media – to educate Singaporeans of the harms of tobacco and nicotine addiction. Yes, there would still be teenagers who choose to do their own thing (and many would regret when they come of age) – but like God, we should be ever-patient in tolerating these behaviours.

 

Yes, it would be much easier if the government simply bans smoking. Yes, it would be easier if we just force people to follow our bidding. Yes, it would be easier if God simply forces human beings to do His will.

 

But the road less travelled is often the road to righteousness.

 

*******

 

an abrahamic interfaith prayer

 

 

Hidden, eternal, immeasurable God, rich in mercy,

there is no other God than you.

 

You are great and worthy of all praise.

Your power and grace sustain the universe.

 

God of truth without falsity, righteous and true,

you chose Abraham your submissive servant

to be the father of many peoples

and spoke through the prophets.

 

Hallowed and praised be your name in all the world,

and let your will be done wherever people live.

Living and gracious God, hear our prayer:

our guilt has become great.

Forgive us children of Abraham our wars,

our enmities, our misdeeds against one another.

Redeem us from all distress and give us peace.

 

Guide of our destiny,

bless the leaders and rulers of the states,

that they do not lust after power and glory

but act responsibly for the well-being of their subjects

and peace among all.

 

Guide our religious communities and their leaders,

so that they not only proclaim the message of peace

but live it out themselves.

 

And to all of us, and those who are not of us,

give your grace, mercy and all good things,

and lead us, God of the living,

on the right way to your eternal glory.

 

Amen.

 

Amid the tensive currents that underlie the recent brouhaha over certain islamophobic comments made by Singaporeans on Facebook, let this prayer be the desire of every spiritual descendant of Abraham in Singapore - jew, christian or muslim.

 

***

 

The above prayer was composed by the great catholic theologian, Hans Kung.

 

******* 

 

 

a disgrace of a show

 

I have a fancy for the horror genre, either literary or cinematic, the former probably influenced by my love for Stephen King’s novels and the latter by my psychopathic fascination with the notion of the forbidden fruit. As such, not many would appreciate my depraved tastes for gore, torture, cannibalism, necrophilia, the serial killer motif and other similar hellish delights.

 

I do enjoy the occasional vampire (definitely NOT “Twilight” which disgusts me) or paranormal film, but unlike some fans, I do NOT believe in any of such fictions. They are products of the human imagination and nothing more. Films or programmes that claim some form of correspondence to reality are not my cup of tea.

 

And then there is Incredible Tales, a Singaporean telly series that is now in its sixth season. It is a disgrace of a programme that pretends to be “factual” in its fraudulent depictions of “interviews” with people who apparently are the ones divulging these “true” accounts of the paranormal. Stories in this series range from the absurd to the ridiculous – peppered with southeast asian superstitions and folklore, such as the orang minyak (“oily man”), pontianak (malay female vampire), Indonesian curses, evil ghosts, witch doctors, etc.

 

It would be a fine watch if there is no pretence to factuality – like the US counterparts The Twilight Zone or Fear Itself – but to depict falsehoods as having the possibility of truth is appalling.

 

The episode that breaks the camel’s back for me was Episode 12 of Season 6 that was aired just last Saturday, 19th of November 2011 on Channel 5.

 

It featured a group of Malaysian nature researchers who ventured into a forest for research work when they met a reclusive malay man who warned them of the evil which dwelled therein. Although the group ignored his remarks, the two women in the group of four appeared to be more susceptible to such nonsense whereas the two men were nonchalant and apathetic. One of the blokes, which is the male protagonist of the episode – a tubby bespectacled chap of Eurasian ethnicity, appeared to be rather dismissive and more mocking than apathetic, often ridiculing the two women for believing in such nonsense.

 

Silly ghosts and the “third eye” aside, the issue which hit a raw nerve was the response from the two women. One of them reprimanded the chap for mocking the ghosts, saying that “even if you don’t believe, you shouldn’t make fun of things like that.”

 

Although it is just a show, the comment is very representative of a very common mindset among southeast asians, especially the superstitious chinese and malays in the region. In the first place – if ghosts do not exist, what does it matter if one “makes fun” of the fiction? Would it matter if I made fun of werewolves and zombies? Will a werewolf come hunting me down at night because I mocked his existence?

 

Yawn…

 

One of the women also made a remark to the effect that something need not be false just because one cannot see, feel, taste, hear or smell it. That is utterly FALSE. Although a young child is not expected to watch the programme, are the producers trying to send a false message to even a teenager that one can believe something DESPITE the absence of evidence??

 

Anecdotal evidence and spurious claims of experience cannot be accepted at face value, let alone even with a pinch of salt. Anecdotes by their very nature are interpretations of raw data, filtered through the psychological, intellectual and emotional grid of a particular individual. Persons who are ignorant of certain fields of science might misinterpret certain data as apparitions or demonic possession whereas someone else might understand those same data as hallucinatory, illusory or psychiatric, etc.

 

There are many ways to interpret a given set of data, and history has taught us that the natural explanation is often the most reliable one. Most claims to supernatural events are often unverified or have been proven false. The most ridiculous of all are claims to paranormal activities like ghost sightings, UFOs, strange monsters, poltergeists, curses, etc.

 

Some might sarcastically ask why I attempted to watch the show in the first place since I dislike it so much?

 

I have semi-insomniac problems.

 

*******

 

singapore in the eyes of a brit

by Michael Simkins (The Telegraph UK)

 

“Oh, Marmiteland,” said a friend when I announced I was going to Singapore. “You’ll either love it or hate it. It’s really just a huge shopping mall with an airport attached.” Her remark was fairly typical of many who have not visited the tiny tropical city-state in the past five years or so. They still tend to dismiss it as just a safe, clean place for shoppers, a retail utopia where litter louts are arrested and chewing gum is banned. It is, they say, the Far East without the rough edges: perfect for a one-night stopover, and just as soon forgotten.

 

Yet Singapore is booming – and the new-found energy of the place is palpable everywhere, as is its conspicuous wealth. Despite being geographically smaller than the Isle of Wight, Singapore has more millionaires per capita of its five million population than anywhere else on the planet. The World Economic Forum’s latest Global Competitiveness Report places Singapore second only to Switzerland, based largely on an entrepôt trade in which raw materials are imported, then refined for re-export. Despite having no oil, for instance, Singapore operates the third-largest oil refinery in the world.

 

The fruits of all this are apparent in the landmark buildings that have sprung up since the late 1990s, strengthening Singapore’s brand identity, if you like, and attracting overseas visitors. One of the most grandiose is the Marina Bay Sands development, featuring the world’s most expensive casino, a vast shopping mall, a 2,561-room hotel, 14 fine-dining restaurants including Wolfgang Puck’s CUT , and the extraordinary SkyPark, with its infinity pool the length of a football pitch plonked on top of the world’s largest public cantilevered platform, which straddles the three-tower contruction.

 

Other architectural show-stoppers include the Supreme Court building (Foster and Partners’ near-transparent temple of glass atria, skylights and lift shafts, some parts of it clad in translucent Portuguese pink marble); the National Library (two 16-storey blocks linked by dramatic skybridges); and Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (a waterfront complex with a curved glass roof studded with aluminium sunshades, which has drawn comparison with a durian, the thorny-skinned Asian fruit).

 

Then there are the attention-grabbing world sporting events, notably the annual Singapore Grand Prix, held at night in the city’s streets and followed by a 10-day round of parties, music concerts, exhibitions and gourmet dinners. This, and such crowd-pullers as the World Gourmet Summit – a two-week gastronomic festival attracting Michelin-starred chefs from around the world – swelled tourist numbers to nearly 12 million in 2010, bringing in an estimated S$18.5 billion (£9.2 billion ) in revenue. And with the burgeoning middle classes from India and China beginning to flex their tourist muscles, Singapore has been busily re-minting itself as a destination rather than a mere stopover.

 

Mind you, it makes an agreeable stopover, too. Changi may once have been synonymous with a notorious Japanese prisoner of war camp, but nowadays it is claimed by many to be the finest airline terminal in the world. The icing on the cake is a Balinese-style swimming pool in the transit area of Terminal 1, where weary travellers can refresh themselves with a swim before continuing their long-haul journey.

 

Some believe this rampant redevelopment has gouged out Singapore’s soul, replacing its rackety charms with anodyne efficiency, but there is no doubt that Singapore works. Standards of education are among the highest in the developed world, the various ethnic and racial groups (principally Chinese, Malay and assorted foreigners) co-exist in seeming harmony, the transport system runs like a dream, free Wi-Fi is available in all public spaces, there is virtually no crime, and as for Singapore’s health service — well, as one local said to me, “Tell your friends it’s the best place in the world in which to have a heart attack”.

 

I arrived at Changi for a long weekend just as Singapore was about to stage its fourth Grand Prix – the ultimate civic status symbol, and one that cost the government millions of dollars to secure. Even before I had joined the queue at the airport taxi rank I had been given a taste of the legendary efficiency of the place. The concept of an enjoyable arrival at any international airport seemed implausible to my jaded sensibilities; yet the whole process, from disembarking the plane to climbing into my taxi, took a mere 15 minutes. Even the baggage carousel had fresh orchids in the middle of it – not that I had time to savour them, for as I approached my suitcase was already lumbering out on to the conveyor belt.

 

On the way into town from the airport, my taxi driver, Chang, pointed out how the central reservation of the freeway could be removed within an hour should the road be needed as an emergency runway. “You see? This is the best place to live,” he concluded with disarming certainty.

 

The Shangri-La hotel is typical of the sort of five-star hospitality on offer in this brave new world. Even at midnight, checking in was conducted in the comfort of my ninth-floor room – overlooking a magnificent floodlit swimming pool – rather than at the front desk. Despite the lateness of the hour, the restaurant rustled up a freshly prepared mee goreng (fried noodles) and a chilled Tiger beer with which to soothe my jet lag. The room itself was spacious, opulent and comfortable, offering everything from champagne to a “tropical rain” shower in the bathroom. Not that I would need it: Singapore is virtually on the equator and it rains at least every other day throughout the year.

 

As an antidote to all this unbridled modernity, the next day I headed for Raffles hotel, acme of the old colonial centre and, despite the new generation of architectural interlopers, the city’s most famous landmark. Raffles trades on its old-fashioned charms, with marbled courtyards, plashing fountains and afternoon tea served by liveried staff. If you can ignore the gift shops and the piped Muzak, it is still just possible to imagine how it once must have been, with just you and the memsahib.

 

Culturally, Singapore is an intriguing mixture of colonial, Malaysian and dazzlingly contemporary (its most sacred works are the Bible, the Koran, and Yellow Pages). My visit to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple proved an unforgettable experience. An oasis in the heart of bustling Chinatown (which itself is well worth a visit), this four-tiered, ancient-looking structure is in fact relatively modern. Such is its ornate splendour, you could be forgiven for thinking it far older.

 

When I arrived, a Buddhist ceremony was under way, and the imposing central hall was filled with lines of kneeling locals, each clutching a tiny prayer book, while a phalanx of monks in orange and scarlet robes chanted their evening prayer.

 

Generally, however, there is little left of old Singapore, though the area known as Joo Chiat offers a few precious remnants of how it must have looked before the high-rise developers moved in; elegant two-storey houses painted in greens and pinks.

 

A Sunday-morning stroll round these sleepy streets offered a faint echo of an older, stiller city, concluding with a delicious bowl of katong laksa (shrimps, coconut milk, noodles, chilli and fresh lime) ordered at a street cafe. You can sample the same delicacy back at your hotel, of course, but you will be charged 10 times the price.

 

Despite a marked absence of open spaces (Singapore is the second most densely populated state on earth), there is plenty for children to see and do. They will love the zoo (especially the family of orang-utans and the white tigers) and nearby Sentosa Island , a popular beauty spot where man-made beaches and a garish version of Universal Studios keep whole families occupied for an afternoon. More sedate by far is the Capella hotel, another Foster and Partners creation – an intriguing blend of the startlingly modern (glass domes, illuminated pools flanked by grey slate) and the reassuringly old (neo-Palladian cloisters and two restored British colonial bungalows from the 1880s) intermingling with the rainforest.

 

By way of contrast, the Singapore Flyer – a larger-than-life replica of the London Eye – offers sensational views across Singapore Bay and the Marina Bay complex, where the casino boasts 600 games tables and 2,300 slot machines. As someone who believes the best way to double his money is to fold it in half and put it back in his wallet, I was content to take a quick spin around the floor. Even on a Sunday afternoon, it was thronged with weekend trippers from China and Malaysia sitting slumped at fruit machines or staring glassily across blackjack tables.

 

The government cannily deters local residents by demanding an entrance fee of S$100 (about £50 ) a head; tourists get in free upon presentation of their passport.

 

As evening fell, I took a taxi to the city’s most celebrated commercial thoroughfare, Orchard Road . A wide street shaded by elegant trees, it is fringed on both sides by glitzy shopping malls; floor upon dizzying floor linked by gleaming escalators, carrying the dedicated fashionista higher and higher into shopping oblivion. With the city gripped by Formula 1 fever, many malls had installed high-tech driving simulators, tenanted by excited teenagers staring at video screens as they negotiated their virtual way round the track.

 

Orchard Road is the weekend meeting place for thousands of Far Eastern immigrants who service the hospitality industry, and tonight they sat on the steps of the malls exchanging chit-chat or lolling on public benches fashioned into gently-rocking swingboats. I bought an attap chee (palm fruit) ice cream from a street vendor and joined some Filipina housemaids who were watching an elderly man clad only in a dhoti and a gap-toothed grin swinging long ropes of wooden balls round his midriff.

 

A laminated sign on the pavement claimed the protagonist had lost 15kg (more than two stone) in two years from his exertions. With the temperature still in the high 30s, I could well believe it.

 

In its cuisine, at least, Singapore already has a prodigious reputation. In recent years a veritable mezze of international chefs has arrived to elevate further the city’s east-meets-west culinary fusion. They include the latest pretender to the crown of Heston Blumenthal – Ryan Clift , born in Devizes, Wiltshire, whose funky restaurant, the Tippling Club , has become the hippest place in town at which to meet for a bite to eat.

 

Singapore has yet to garner its first Michelin star, but the most likely candidate is Ignatius Chan , whose elegant and unshowy restaurant, Iggy’s , on the second floor of the Hilton hotel, was the first in the city to be listed among the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants . My stop for lunch on my final morning was rewarded by a meeting with Iggy himself, a tubby, beneficent individual with a gentle voice and reassuring smile who in other circumstances might have done sterling work as the Dalai Lama.

 

The set menu, which began with a glass of sparkling sake , consisted of five dishes, each more mouthwatering than the last. It culminated in a thin fillet of Blackmore Wagyu beef with pink garlic and wasabi that redefined the term “melt in the mouth”. The service was gloriously unobtrusive, and the bill a mere £40.

 

As I waited in the foyer for my taxi back to the airport, I fell into conversation with an Englishman in his mid-sixties who revealed that he had once been an economic advisor to Tony Blair. “Will our savings be all right?” I asked, only half in jest.

 

He took a long, lingering puff on his cigar, before murmuring “I don’t know.” But if the look on his face was anything to go by, I can think of few better places on earth in which to enjoy yourself – while you still can – than sultry, swanky Singapore.

 

***

 

This article was first published in the Telegraph UK on 21 November 2011.

 

*******

 

what evangelical christians really think of their non-christian neighbours

 

 

 

…even if they could be good buddhists, good taoists, good hindus, good muslims and even good atheists and freethinkers.

 

*******

 

a step forward for singapore, i think

 

Unlike the anti-homosexual sentiments from certain fundamentalist elements of the muslim community in Malaysia, Singapore takes a remarkable step forward by not only inviting the flamboyant performer, the great Sir Elton John for a one-night concert here as part of his world tour; but also highlighted his entire family on prime time news on Channel 5 last night as well as the subsequent Singapore News tonight on Channel News Asia.

 

The bespectabled singer was accompanied by his husband, David Furnish, along with their son Zachary as they were swamped by fans at the 20th World Orchid Conference held at Marina Bay Sands. The special occasion was the naming of an phalaenopsis hybrid orchid after the British artiste.

 

Elton John Orchid, as Colourful as the Man himself

 

It was thoughtful of the news programme to even call David Furnish “his partner” and the beautiful baby boy “their son”. Such an acceptance on prime time news makes a statement that although the ignominous 377A still holds in Singapore theoretically and legally, we are not going to make criminals of the great singer and his husband even though they would obviously be sleeping on the same bed in a hotel suite in Singapore, probably being busy with baby Zachary, probably snuggling and hugging together, probably kissing and maybe even having sex.

 

We in Singapore WILL NOT be making the mistake of demonising the artiste and his family just by being the way God created them to be, homosexual men. We in Singapore are not stupid as some are across the causeway to think that just by allowing Sir Elton John to have a concert here would be “corrupting the morals” of those attending.

 

Aren’t religion about love and compassion, anyway?

 

*******

 

a lesson for secular “liberal democracies”

 

 

The above photograph shows a school bus filled with preschoolers belonging to Huda Kindergarten, an Islamic faith-based kindergarten. The caption below reads “Bus filled with young terrorist trainees?”

 

This photograph could be one among the similar thousands one would view almost every other day in Britain and the US without anyone batting an eyelid. And one of the main reasons offered for such apathy is the liberal dogma of the “basic” human right to free speech and expression.

 

This “right” to free speech apparently comprises anything and everything, from mild criticisms of the powers that be to sheer vitriolic and vulgar diatribe against religion and sometimes even race. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, the Iranian-American islamic philosopher from George Washington University, made a comment once during an interfaith dialogue in the Dalai Lama’s presence in Emory University about human rights. He said that there is so  much talk about rights but almost none about RESPONSIBILITY.

 

He is right. As stewards of the freedom modern civilisation has given us, we have to be responsible in what we do with our liberties. I am so proud of civilised Singapore to have responded so swiftly and efficiently to irresponsible hate speech, whether directed to race or religion. And in the case of the above photograph which was posted by a local Young PAP member, a Jason Neo, on his Facebook page in February, action was taken almost immediately.

 

Young PAP Member quits over Offensive Remarks on Facebook

 

Of course, if there are terrorist elements lurking around in Singapore, it is our right as citizens to criticise and sound the alarm; religious or otherwise. But remarks as the above are unjustified when our madrasahs and “faith schools” are so remotely unlike some of the extreme muslim schools in the UK where male teachers were caught (by hidden camera) physically beating pupils and indoctrinating them with anti-british nonsense.

 

The muslim community in Singapore, thanks to its leadership and our government, are respectful of secular governance, tolerant of other religions and have on several occasions engaged in interfaith events and dialogue. Many are law-abiding and loyal citizens of the country they call home.

 

Incidentally, I have a muslim neighbour who sends her three young boys to a muslim kindergarten and can be seen every morning waiting for the school bus in their cute headcaps and green uniforms. They are polite, courteous and very gentle friends who greet my own children whenever they see them. Both our families exchanged red and green packets during the Chinese Lunar New Year and Eid Al-Fitr respectively.

 

The occupants of the flat before this young muslim family was also muslim – and the patriarch of that family was an active RC (Residents’ Committee) member! Shame on the Chinese living on our level, including myself.

 

This IS how politics should be done, and how a society should function. Zero tolerance for religious discrimination. It is appalling to me when prior to the Pope’s state visit to the UK, there were hordes of people behaving like lunatics, waving placards that said “Fuck the Pope…” and numerous others to that effect. Public intellectuals like Richard Dawkins and AC Grayling added their names to the lunacy as well. Is this what a so-called liberal democracy is supposed to run??!

 

*******

 

reminiscing the good ol’ days

 

If I am able to travel back in time or choose the life I want to live in Singapore, I would choose to be born in the 1950s and be a young man in the 1970s to 80s. Lifestyles were a lot simpler and the pace of living a lot slower. There would be no Ipods and Ipads to distract the young and no proliferation of computer games to divide my children’s attention.

 

 

I can still remember the Identification Cards (IC) which my parents had, pieces of laminated printed paper that looked exactly like the above.

 

 

Or the numerous SBS (Singapore Bus Service) omnibuses that looked like the above, which did not have the luxury of air-conditioning and have windows that rattled and shook every time the bus moved.

 

 

The playgrounds in the heartlands looked like the above, with concrete contraptions and cemented grounds. Children these days are very privileged to be playing in areas that are cushioned with so many “safety” precautions like padded grounds and plastic contraptions. In the past, suffering a fracture or a concussion was a guarantee if you fall from a considerable height. But then again, children seemed to be tougher back then.

 

 

My primary school English textbooks look very much like the above, part of the Primary English Programme (PEP) started by the government.

 

 

…and my stationery cases were that of the above – “pencil boxes” which were multi-purposeful and had several compartments for rubbers, pencils, pens, rulers, sharpeners, etc. We would love to compare our “gadgets” with one another in school.

 

 

This was the video game console I was exposed to during my childhood – the Atari game system, unlike the highly advanced Playstations and X-Boxes we have today. My father later “progressed” to Nintendo, and that was that. He would occupy the console most of the time which meant my entertainment in those days was very much my storybooks…

 

 

…or the Mastermind game which required lots of logical thinking. Such games gave way to the mindless mayhem of the 21st century.

 

 

When I see primary school-aged children chatting away on their mobile phones, I am often reminded of the first time I owned a pager – and that was at 17 (I owned my first mobile phone when I was 21). And it was also at 17 that I started to use the computer…

 

 

…with floppy disks like the above to store data.

 

The world is so different now. There are some things which are for the better, like human and animal rights. There are some things which may not be for the better, like technology and social networking sites which have increased the opportunity for crime and moral decline. Although the Internet has transformed the world in ways unimaginable in the past, books are fast becoming relics as information can be so easily acquired in cyberworld.

 

What will it be like when my children grow up? What will it be like when I enter my senior years? What will it be like when I no longer exist?

 

Sigh. Only homo sapiens have this curse of being so self-conscious and self-aware of the present and of the future.

 

*******

 

Thanks to Remember Singapore blog for some of the pictures above.

 

 

bravo, human dignity trust!

 

There is a new group in town.

 

And its mission? To wage war on the inhumane and savage criminalisation of homosexuality in the world.

 

Welcome to the Human Dignity Trust, which recently launched its global campaign in London last Thursday. It will attempt to overturn the more than 80 nations in the world that criminalise homosexuality, in other words, that claim that to have consensual LGBT sex is a crime.

 

Global Campaign to Decriminalise Homosexuality to kick off in Berlise Court

 

It is revealing that more than half of the 80-odd nations are former colonies of the British Empire, from which those archaic laws derive in the first place.

 

The guilty 40-odd INCLUDE our tiny nation of Singapore.

 

Will the time be near when article 377A be extirpated at the gallows of international law? Will the time be soon when homosexual men and women be proud of who they are, hand in hand, on the streets of Singapore; without fear and intimidation? Will the time come when organised religion stop their evil ways of discrimination and intimidation, fueled by a bloodthirsty history that shed a negative light on its claim to compassion and love?

 

It will be a difficult task for Singapore, with the majority of its citizens children of a premodern worldview.

 

May God (definitely not the homophobic and genocidal god of the Old Testament) help us.

 

*******

 

court allows proselytisation?

 

Last year, a federal court in the US allowed a christian pastor to distribute christian literature to muslims during the annual Arab International Festival which would be held in Michigan. The annual festival is a secular one, celebrating the arabic culture with numerous food booths, an interactive children’s stage, a large carnival, arabic merchandise, etc.

 

Court allows Pastor to distribute Christian literature to Muslims

 

The basis of the ruling is none other than US’ pet topic, the rights to free speech. It seems that because of the rights to free speech, christians in the US have the right to attempt proselytisation of people of other religious faiths, which include Islam.

 

In principle this might be the right thing to do although I sincerely suspect if the authorities would do the same for a muslim who wants to spread the knowledge of his religion in a christian event.

 

Anyhow, the basic human right to free speech and expression, in theory, is inviolable and proper. However, the implementation might be problematic as it leads to all sorts of social conflicts. Does the right to express oneself include irresponsible speech, unwarranted diatribe against authority, public displays of sexual intercourse, etc? Of course there are some countries in Europe that might consistently apply this so-called basic right to its logical extreme and allow its citizens to do whatever they want in the name of free speech; but is it the right thing to do?

 

We may have the right to express ourselves, but I do not believe that such a right includes unbridled irresponsibility – and this includes the “rights” of harmful religious cults who might practise animal sacrifice, self mutilation, rebellion against authority, etc. And thus I am ALL for the Singapore government to BAN “religions” like the Jehovah’s Witnesses (who oppose the military, salutation to the national flag and blood transfusion), Scientology, Satanism, Wicca and all of the other belief systems that run counter to national progress, peace and social stability.

 

The liberal democratic US and Europe can take their potshots at us anytime, criticising our leaders for their “draconian” and “autocratic” rule, but results speak for themselves, really. I don’t want to live in a society where riots and protests take place almost every other day, with scientologists and religious quacks running amok, attempting to brainwash my children with their rubbish and irresponsible atheists who, contrary to what they might verbally claim, are in all practical terms, trying to get rid of religion completely from society.

 

Okay, back to the christian pastor’s case. If such overt attempts at proselytising people of other religious traditions are allowed, it negates the very principle of religious plurality – the acceptance of other religions other than our own as our metaphysical equal. It is plausible if a christian expresses his beliefs and ideas to a personal friend or relative – but to do so in a public space is tantamount to inciting conflict. What if the community one is attempting to proselytise DOES NOT WANT to be handed out literature?

 

Singapore is incredibly wise in criminalising all attempts at instigating inter-religious conflict. Dialogue and discussion among religious groups is admirable and encouraged, but not debate and diatribe. Thank goodness open-air preaching is forbidden in Singapore. Thank goodness religious extremists like the evangelical christian women from Church of Our Saviour (COOS) who attempted to take over a woman’s rights organisation was somehow put down by the public. Thank goodness extremist faith healers like pastor Rony Tan from Lighthouse Evangelism was sanctioned by the society at large for putting down buddhism and taoism (besides, such an exclusivist view is actually the predominant view among christians in Singapore).

 

Anyway, let these liberal democracies be deceived by their own arrogance and delusion, and witness the corruption and downfall of their societies. Europe is now in economic tatters, and so is the US. And with all the rioting and the strikes, let’s see how these nations will continue to run. The more they criticise Lee Kuan Yew and Singapore, the more they will witness the flaws in their own ideologies.

 

It is sad that political loonies like Chee Soon Juan are so blinded by their love for Western cuisine that they seem to think that liberalism would be a better choice for Singapore.

 

Really?

 

*******

 

we are not convinced

 

I was rather surprised when my wife made a somewhat “sexist” remark upon watching the English language news on the telly on Channel 5 last night, in which the CEO of the Housing Development Board (HDB), a Chong Koon Hean, was highlighted making comments about the current state of HDB flats in the country.

 

 

The very first words my wife remarked were to the extent of, “oh, she’s a woman – no wonder” – it is her opinion that the fairer sex has the propensity to be thriftier with the finances and hence the predominance of much smaller flats these days. Such a comment was probably a result of the numerous occasions when we noticed how woman hawkers would often give smaller portions of food than their male counterparts.

 

Anyhow, I seriously doubt that the arguments made by the CEO in “defence” of the smaller living spaces were convincing to many Singaporeans in the heartlands. The appeal to statistics is a common ploy which hold no weight to many of us, who realised that although it is true that family size has reduced considerably over the decades, that does NOT translate into more living space per Singaporean. What convoluted logic is that??

 

Smaller Homes but not poorer quality of living

 

Besides, one has to remember that in the 1980s, the “Stop at Two” policy was already in place – with many families having to fork out monetary penalties for having a third child. So how much bigger were the families then? With the exception of the more well-to-do who would rather pay the fines than compromise on their love for “big” families, the majority of families would quietly abide by the silly China-like policy.

 

And I contend that there are still many Singaporeans like my wife and I around, who love children and who would prefer larger families but due to the constraints of living space (and standards of living here) would have to do a double take. We were just contemplating if we should have a fourth child last night – and even commented that we could perhaps resume our conjugal exercises after our third kid turns two next month.

 

But when we started to think about the university educations for all three of our darlings, and the rising costs of living, we hesitated. We might not be able to afford it.

 

Then again…the average Singaporean would never be satisfied with all the silly arguments these big time honchos make – many in our Parliament would probably be living in terrace houses, bungalows and condominiums and still drive around Singapore in cars to be able to have the credibility of persuading us of the benefits of HDB living and using public transport to commute.

 

But hey, that IS life. It is never fair.

 

*******

 

parenting woes in britain

 

If the results of a survey revealed last week in the UK was anything to go by, then there is something seriously wrong with parenthood in that country. Apparently, most britons do not like children or the idea of having children, viewing them as wild, abusive and out of control.

 

Does Britain really hate its children?

 

This is what columnist Jenny McCartney have to say in the above article:

 

Britain’s essential contempt for childhood feeds through on a national level: the overstretched and fraying maternity wards, the desultory after-care for mother and baby, the historically abominable treatment of children in care, the patchy provision of adequate NHS dentistry for young children.

 

And when these poor kids grow up, they morph into the delinquents that they are in modern British society.

 

What went wrong?

 

Liberal democracies like Britain herself and the US love to make desultory comments on the way Asians parent our children – but if results have anything to go by, they have to chew and swallow their words and let them sink real deep. There HAS to be something drastically wrong with their parenting philosophies and methods.

 

Although I pride myself to be a child of the Enlightenment and a lover of secular humanism, parenting is one issue which I would have to admit that I am in favour of the traditional “Asian” philosophy of “parent is boss” and of corporal punishment.

 

Contrary to what so-called parenting “experts” love to say about not spanking children and their ridiculous notion that such actions are tantamount to “child abuse”, results and statistics speak for themselves. Britain has a lot to answer for the way their future generations are heading, a generation of drug-crazed, knife-wielding, fist-punching thugs who are insanely addicted to football and booze.

 

And if the younger parents in Singapore are to go the way of the West, this would be the picture of how future teenagers would look like.

 

Even though it is true that very young children may have the capacity to “understand” and “reason”, it is a falsehood to treat them as “friends” when they are young. Very young minds are just not mature enough to handle adult-like conversation and reasoning – a reasonable amount of “force” has to be used to condition them. If left on their own, barbarians would arise, as is the primal condition of human nature.

 

I know many child psychologists today would disagree with me, but who cares? Asian children are better mannered, more civilised and in general have better well-being than the Western counterparts.

 

Just ask the brits.

 

*******

 

are there any liberal “christians” in singapore??

 

Are there any liberal “christians” in Singapore?

 

Are there “christians” in Singapore who accept darwinian evolution as fact, are naturalistic (contra supernaturalistic) in worldview, are pluralistic in their attitudes towards other religions, who value reason, empiricism and the scientific method as one of the main, if not the sole reliable means of discovering the truth about our world, who reject the value of petitionary and intercessory prayer, who sees the bible NOT as an inerrant and infallible but a very human text using the language of myth, fable and metaphor to express spiritual truths, who do NOT subscribe to the mythic elements of the bible such as the narrative accounts of the Tanakh, the birth narratives, miracles and bodily resurrection of Jesus, the Trinity, etc – but view them as symbols and metaphors that aid to explain the ineffable sacred??

 

Or at least “christians” who identify themselves as progressive who realise the very errant nature of the bible and attempts to re-construct a new christianity for the 21st century?

 

I know that there are numerous of such kin in the mainline churches in the United States as well as the United Kingdom, and probably the majority of “christians” in Europe. But there is death all around in this part of the world – only the evangelical and fundamental form of christianity exists in Singapore – a christianity that is anti-intellectual, that spurns the scientific method, that espouses creation myths as natural history, that is homophobic, that consigns practitioners of every other religious tradition to hell, that practically leaves the brain outside the church.

 

Everywhere I turn, there is only wilderness and the desert. Alas, my beloved wife is numbered among such automatons. For almost two hours last night, I almost “exploded” in passionate diatribe against her uncritical acceptance of creationism and her stubborn stance on christian exclusivitity. In her worldview, I am treading on very very dangerous ground, perhaps even bordering on going to hell.

 

I remarked to her that if there is a literal place called heaven after death, it would be APPALLING to any decent human sense to think that good human beings like Gandhi, Mother Theresa and even the Buddha would be absent, burning in hell. It would be insulting to my dignity as a human being to think that genocidal leaders like Moses and Joshua would be in heaven.

 

She would have none of it. Like almost ALL of the evangelical world in Singapore, she is blinded into full acceptance of all of the crimes against humanity as narrated in the bible just because it IS the bible.

 

Can’t I discuss religion without all this idiocy? Can’t I have a civilised and enlightened discourse on religious morality without resorting to fundamentalist tendencies? Can’t I value evolution, humanism and free thought while being part of a religious community?

 

Is there any Singaporean who is going through the same thing as me and understand????

 

Sigh and sob.

 

*******

 

blessed hari raya haji

 

 

Yesterday – Sunday – was the actual celebration of Hari Raya Haji, or what is more accurately known as Eid al-Adha, the “Festival of Sacrifice”, and thus today is a public holiday in Singapore.

 

It commemorates the sacrifice of Ismail (Ishmael in hebrew) to Allah (“the God”) by the Ibrahim (Abraham in hebrew). Of course, in the Christian story, it wasn’t Ishmael but Isaac who was sacrificed. Anyhow, this celebration includes the import of thousands of sheep into the mosques all over Singapore for the ritual sacrifice, after which the meat would be distributed to the poor in the community.

 

As a Christian and a humanist, I need not be an active participant in the ritual or the celebration to know that it is a ritual of great significance as it implies obedience and submission to the sacred, to something more other than ourselves and this plane of existence.

 

*******

 

superstitions at work

 

 

It was just yesterday morning when representatives of eight major religions in Singapore gathered together to recite prayers of “blessing” on the Bedok Reservoir, in which a recent spate of suicides occurred. In fact, an hour before the religious gathering, another body was found in its waters.

 

Although the suicide toll in so brief a period of time at one specific venue is cause for concern for Singapore society, it should not be the reason to indulge in superstition – suicides are caused by factors both psychological or mental as well as societal or cultural – and the predominance of one venue over others is nothing more than a combination of natural factors such as coincidence, residential demographics and what my wife recently remarked – if one commits suicide in Bedok Reservoir, public visibility is 100 per cent guaranteed.

 

To require a gathering of religious leaders to “bless” the reservoir is tantamount to resorting to superstition as a solution to the problem. Suicides are NOT caused by “evil spirits” or some “evil aura” in any particular place – there is no need to invoke the gods. It reveals much more about the state of society in which we live, the trivialities of chasing after the wind, the silliness of men and women to lust after power, wealth and the vanity of the human condition. It simply reveals the futily of pursuing things that do not matter.

 

A culture of pride and pollyanna-ish falsehoods is what Singapore society is – that we are all born to succeed and win in life, that we can all make it big and rich and prosperous if we only try our darn best. Now – I am not trying to advocate pessimism, just a big reality check. Life is NOT fair, and that is a FACT. Although education can level out the playing field, society cannot and will not function if everyone is a “winner”, whatever that means. Values like success, wealth and victory are all relative categories, they do not exist in a vacuum. If there is success, there is ALSO failure. If someone wins, it means there is someone who loses. If one is rich, it means there are many others who are less rich than him/her. It becomes a misnomer, a non-sensical statement to say that “everyone is born to succeed”.

 

I know people like Adam Khoo would be shaking their heads now. Of course, otherwise motivational NLP charlatans like him would have no business. It is good to have a positive mindset, to cultivate a good working attitude, etc – but one has to be sober enough to be aware that NOT everyone can reach the stars just by trying his/her best. That IS life. It is only when we can accept our lot in life do we become fulfilled in our own selves and our own stations.

 

Besides, suicides are part of the human condition. They are morbid for the soul, yes, but nature is impartial and apathetic. It just is.

 

And thus, there is absolutely NO USE to utter empty words to the air, as though some deity or deities would reach down and stir the waters of the reservoir a bit, getting rid of the spirits of death that dwell therein.

 

DO SOMETHING about it!! Create awareness for psychiatry and psychological medicine. Create awareness of depression. Create awareness of certain charities and welfare organisations. Cultivate a society that is empathic to pain and suffering, tuned in to compassion and healing, instead of selfish ambition and more economic nonsense. So what if Singapore is “prospering” economically – as China seems to be currently doing – when many human beings are still suffering and unwanted?

 

Value our fellow human beings. They are all we have, for above us…

 

is only sky.

 

*******

 

good move by cameron

 

The British Prime Minister David Cameron had recently announced that his government will cut off all economic aid to countries that have policies which restrict the human rights of homosexual people, with the focus primarily on some African nations.

 

African Nations angered by UK’s threat to cut aid budget over homosexuality

 

As a result, many of these nations were enraged by the perceived threat on their homophobic ways of life. Some believed that Britain should not mix views on society with international politics while others accuse Cameron of treating them “like children”.

 

My personal view?

 

THREE CHEERS for CAMERON! THREE CHEERS for GREAT BRITAIN!

 

Perhaps he should set his eyes on this tiny island too – and holler for the abolition of article 377A and perhaps the full acceptance of homosexual people into the heartbeat of Singaporean society.

 

*******

 

we finally purchased a vacuum cleaner

 

It has been about five years since we first moved in to our flat here in one of the suburban neighbourhoods of eastern Singapore. And three years ago, due to cold calls, a sales representative for the Rainbow Cleaning System managed to sneak into our home for a “demo”.

 

It became an attempt to sell us the water-based vacuum cleaner for more than SGD$3000, of which I adamantly refused. We are one of those folks who prefer to purchase items of which we have prior intentions and thus we would never buy anything from anyone who approaches us first. And this includes the numerous banks and financial investment companies who unethically purchase personal contact numbers from their “sources” and use them to “hard sell” their services. It is becoming a nuisance of which I have no tolerance or patience for – telemarketers beware – I will simply switch off the telephone on them.

 

Anyhow, three years have passed and my wife has been seriously considering the Rainbow cleaning system. Although there were numerous claims of fraud and “scam” in online forums and blogs about the services offered by the company which produced the cleaner, the product itself seems to be the real deal.

 

My wife invited the sales representative again yesterday and after three hours of demonstration, idle chat and hee haws; she bought the vacuum cleaner at SGD$3200, of which the original price offered was SGD$3500. The gadget included nozzles for cleaning hard-to-reach corners, the living room floor, the kitchen floor, beddings, clothes, pillows and even a “mop” that spurned the traditional squeezing and drying.

 

Although it was a lot of money, if my very thrifty wife is all right with it, then it is all right.

 

*******

 

is it true??

 

A doctoral student from Baylor University in the US was recently awarded a very prestigious student award for a student paper he wrote on the connections between the educational qualifications of one’s fellow church members and how one interprets the Bible.

 

How You read the Bible is linked to whether your Fellow Worshippers went to College

 

The study included more than 380 churches with over 100,000 people and the conclusions were that regardless of an individual’s educational background, he/she is less likely to be a biblical literalist if he/she is surrounded by a greater number of people who were College-educated (equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree in Singapore).

 

The results are peculiar to say the least as it is NOT one’s own educational background that is the issue but that of one’s fellow christians in a given church community. Yet I wonder if education plays a part in biblical interpretation in this part of the world, especially in Singapore where the majority of the church-going demographics belong to the tertiary-educated and above.

 

And one of the unique features of Singaporean christianity is its predominantly evangelical nature – and its primary focus on biblical literalism, creationism and conservative theology. And yet many in the pew who subscribe to such views are very educated individuals, from the basic Bachelor’s holder to medical doctors and even university professors. I know of one university don who is also an elder in a local charismatic congregation.

 

What is wrong with these people?

 

There is apparently a dialectical shift for most Singaporeans when it comes to the Bible. Yes, they may grapple with historical-critical issues when reading world history or English literature or sociology in the university. They may handle methods in logical reasoning and argumentation when reading philosophy or law. But when it comes to the biblical texts, many discard their mental caps and become as little children, reading and interpreting fairy tales as though they were literally true.

 

That is Singapore.

 

*******

 

misinformation from the pulpit

 

My wife woke up rather early this morning, at about 6.45am, at which she proceeded to wake the rest of the kids up and made their way to the nearby market to purchase food for breakfast.

 

I was still in bed.

 

With so much energy, no wonder we reached the church 30 minutes early. I realised it was also an “evangelism” Sunday, which means, in my book, the homily would be somewhat sentimental and mushy.

 

Indeed, the preacher this morning was a pastor Don Wong from New Charis Mission. Looking rather dapper in his black jacket with a full head of neatly combed hair, he reminded me of a sales executive all psyched up to sell me some white elephant. He preached at our church a couple of times in the past, and he came across as an earnest and fairly charismatic bloke.

 

I can’t speak for the others who were present this morning but the moment he read the text, I thought he had preached a very similar homily at our congregation already. It was about the beatitudes. Perhaps it was a favourite passage of his. Perhaps he might be giving a new twist to some old verse.

 

Anyhow, I couldn’t remember that alleged previous homily so it wouldn’t matter either way. And truly enough, it was a new twist. Or rather, a yank at the arm.

 

His first few statements left me at the edge of my seat. I was hooked immediately.

 

My dear pastor Don quipped that in some English translations of the bible, the word “blessed” in the beautitudes are translated as “happy”, which he opined was definitely incorrect. Happy? Isn’t this word so…so trivial? And if one goes through the beautitudes, there would be one verse about persecution. How can believers who go through persecution be “happy”? Or so Don opined.

 

And he proceeded to give the word his own Don Wong-inspired meaning – “approved of God”. Yes, the word “blessed” should infer the approval of God.

 

I don’t know where he learnt his Koine Greek 101, but it seems that the bible school he graduated from did a very poor job.

 

The word “blessed” in the beatitudes, comes from the greek word “makarios” and it originates from the shorter “makar”, which means “HAPPY”.

 

Yes…HAPPY. Synonyms would include “blessed” or “fortunate”. Incidentally, the term “beatitudes”, which did not derive from the bible itself, is derived from the latin “beatus”, which means “HAPPY”! So the translators who allegedly translated the word into “happy” were not that incorrect after all. Besides, individuals who are on translation committees are not your average Christian Joe on the street. They are not even your average pastor – they are men and women who have spent years and decades studying the original languages as well as the textual evidence in order to do the work they did. And thus they would have reasons for choosing certain words over others.

 

Besides, take note the syntactical structure of the texts…they do not say, “The poor in spirit will feel happy” or “those who show mercy will be happy” or “if you are persecuted, you will surely feel happiness.” No – they all start with “Happy are the poor in spirit”, “Happy are the pure in heart…”, etc. Thus the happiness as prescribed in the beatitudes are not the trivial form of happiness that is relative to external circumstance. It is a much deeper form of happiness, and as such, the word “blessed” would be a word that evokes a clearer meaning, especially to modern readers. But that does not warrant dear Don to make naive assertions that the word “happy” is definitely incorrect. In fact, it does mean “happy” – but in a different sort of way to our ideas of what happiness means.

 

And that is precisely the intention of Jesus’ message – that the values he brings counters the prevailing norms and values of ordinary society, that the happiness he espouses is a happiness not of this world.

 

Sigh. I don’t blame Don. He was just doing his job, sharing sentimental sob stories that titillate the emotions but leave the mind screaming “rubbish”.

 

No wonder in the evangelical world, the phrase “thinking christian”, is an oxymoron.

 

*******