Kevin Low

Finally, my interest in argumentative essays and writings have cost me my abilities to spin tales and stories using profound words that I have learnt. Today is the perfect demonstration of my story-writing skills, which is still stuck at around Primary Six level. We are supposed to do a personal recount for our Sabbatical today and I choose this rather dumb story about misplacing my passport and realising it only on the morning I was leaving for some overseas studying course for a year.

The question itself is dumb, and according to the teacher, there is no need for sophistication. Anyway, there’s no room for that. And most importantly, I was supposed to stretch a few seconds into about 100 or so words. The fact: I didn’t manage, and will probably only score well enough to pass this exercise. I must say, I wrote with my best abilities for the question and it wasn’t the storyline which bothers me; it is the language. I am not able to use the suitable ‘chim’ words for the essay mainly because of the 1 and a half year immersion in arguementative essay or exposition. So this exercise is total crap to me.

I seem more proficient in English than Chinese when it comes to blogging. Even so in life, yet I think English is still a stranger to me. I cannot udnerstand some of their cultures, or the way the language is designed to be. Chinese Language appears more logical to me, but it is probably harder; which in turn, may be a result of the environment and lousy system.

It appears that a great deal of people are starting to practice self-censorship, worried that they will infuriate the school authorities because they said something seemingly bad about the school or particular people in the school. This people ranges from the big-size type Bingyuan to timid-looking but sarcastic Ruiyang.

I guess there should be harm making personal attacks in real life. We do it everyday. Except it varies from verbal insults to discrimination or whatsoever. Most importantly, it does not make an impact on the school, the discriminated person, or the person who insults. The punishment should not go beyond feeling guilty and worrying about losing friends or popularity. The whole idea of blogging in the first place is about freedom (of expression), if we exercise such restrains on ourselves, then we should be thinking twice before starting a blog.

Ultimately, the blog acts as a vent for frustration. Why be frustrated about venting frustrations? Why should we be practising self-censorship when our words do not even cause racial riots or aything paramount to that magnitude. I admit sometimes we get political – and I mean school politics or whatever you like to call it (don’t worry, I am a Singaporean). Yeah, right – you would say; then ask about what happened to those criticised for the content of their blogs online and even sued by the authorities. Well, those guys just aren’t prepared enough to embrace the spirit of freedom in Singapore. They have to get an extremely political correct secretary to help with a little vetting before they can proceed to publish their thoughts online.

Well, it is still quite encouraging to see a huge chunk of Singaporeans practising their freedom, in their very own way. It is interesting, though not a great breakthrough. At least you don’t have to pay for the news you receive there, unlike Straits Times Interactive, which is ridiculosuly collecting money from thei readers – even from the print subcribers, for logging on to their website to obtain softcopies of the ‘somewhat excellent’ and accurate news reports. It is not as if Singapore has many news sources to start with, for comparison. It does even have enough news for these sources anyway.

So, I received this crap from Mib.

Here are the rules according to thePropagandaMachine:
1. Write a four line poem with the 1st and 3rd lines being “turd in a punch bowl”
2. Make lines 2 and 4 rhyme, using any topic.
3. Pass along to 3 unsuspecting punchdrinking bloggers and make them put it on their blog site.

I don’t know what is this, and I don’t want to give a damn but I thought it could be quite fun. Just a little copying and brainstorming, I got this:

Turd in a punch bowl,
What the hell is this?
Turd in a punch bowl,
Crappy as it is.

Turd in a punch bowl,
Wonder who did this?
Turd in a punch bowl,
Mib needs a hot dish.

Turd in a punch bowl,
Does it concern me?
Turd in a punch bowl,
Sponge cake is for tea.

Got this in less than 4 minutes beccause I am more poetic than Mib. Standard poem, Iambic Pentameter. That’s what you get for studying Shakeapeare for about 5 months. Now, I am going to end this here. Hope Bok have fun starting his own turd-tagging!

After the 3 month long delay, my first issue of The Economist finally arrived last week. I can’t really blame the company, I got a darn good price for the subcription, they probably want to check my identity as a student first. I quickly read through the first few articles and got quite bored with it. Actually it isn’t boredom, but you can’t possibly expect my attention span on such an academic magazine to be that long. I did not forcefully compel myself to finish it, and hence, I ended reading just half of the whole issue. The main focus last week was about oil. There isn’t really very much to elaborate about oil other than its price, Saudi, and Bush. It appeared to be an extremely eurocentric magazine with some stuff about Asia here and there.

So before I manage to finish that issue, a new issue arrived – once it starts coming, it begins to stream in weekly – this time the focus is not Australia. From Bill Bryson’s ‘Down Under’ I learn lots of stuff about Australia. I also discovered how much the world has forgotten them. This issue of The Economist is probably a breakthrough after these months since 2005 began.

For such an old publication, I expected more attempts to try catch up with times and hence a little more pictures but unfortunately, they seem as traditional as ever. Even the advertisements are mostly text-based. They’re probably the biggest European Google supporters. Nonetheless, the articles are solid and definitely full of content, which explains why the publication manages to live till today. Initially, I was quite biased against this publication mainly because its name makes it sound like a old radio churning highly technical information that has jargon all over it – I was wrong; secondly, it is because Edwin Tan always tries to show off how much he knows about terrestrial stuff by copying the articles from The Economist and pasting them on his blog. Don’t worry, I won’t do what he does.

I am not that much of an economic kind of person (I am more of the economical kind), though I very much don’t mind being one. I am rather facinated by how complex this whole thing is. It is almost natural arising, it took a combination of circumstances and human brain-work to complete its infrastructure. It is more amazing than the world’s every super computer combined. In fact, it is built by a collection of super-computers, and super-intelligent human minds. Most importantly, every political engine is dependant on this stable collective power to operate and function smoothly.

I told myself to cover this, but somehow I forgot, probably because I was trying not to be too serious on my blog. Mr Wee departed from this world on 2 May 2005. It wasn’t sudden for his family, but it was, for Singapore. His departure have very much reminded us of his wonderful contributions to this little island country. It has been 12 years since he stepped down from his post as president of Singapore in 1993.

He was the president when I was born, and until I was at the age of 4, entering nusery. As an infant, I hardly have any recollections about this president, known for his kindness. He was a reporter before he became the president; he never really stepped into politics. I guess being a reporter really helps you see the world, and probably the guiding principles for a man is formulated this way, through one’s job.

After his death, we raised the flag only to half-mast for 3 days, as a sign of respect. It was almost the same situation as president Ong’s death. People all over Singapore went into the Istana to pay their respect to Mr Wee – a demonstration of his popularity and the respect he has earned from the people.

I wouldn’t be talking about death. Instead, I think the point to this story is life. How you live. Whether you choose to accomodate with everything, accept and tolerate the suffering, then relish the achievements that you get after you finally slogged hard enough to be recognised. Or perhaps some would prefer to make their lives worse by resisting the hardwork, and riot against the authority, then get punished. Maybe you are none of the above – you are one who don’t give a damn about whatever happens to others, you simply pass a day after another, following the general trend and crowd, and remain in the ‘masses’.

Everyone in this world is like a basin of water. Each of us is a molecule of water. We have several options: 1) We sway with the crowd and take the shape of the container, 2) You waste all the potential energy you have got and freeze, isolating yourself from others and become a passive molecule, 3) You gather the kinetic and potential energy others waste, and gain enough energy to break away from the rest of the liquid particles, becoming a gas molecule, part of the whole collection of water vapour, free from the grasp of the intermolecular forces.

I am not initiating a chemistry lesson or whatsoever. I am trying to illustrate the options one have got. In fact, there is more than 3 options. You might even like to try breaking yourself apart, forming an oxygen and 2 hydrogen to benefit other molecules in some way. The possibilities are infinite, you just have to embrace it.

Why would I actually want to write something about when I have no idea what it actually is and why it exist? This time, it isn’t really about sport, it is about our school, a little gathering that everyone had. Because of the sensitivity of the issue to certain people, it is not appropriate to spell everything out.

Anyway, everything is almost like the past years, people come, sit down, some went of running, some went to the steps and chat. We are not allowed to leave the premises as usual, but we are allowed to relax, and heck care about whatever seemingly competitive activity the people down there are engaging. The school knows how lame the whole thing is and why students have tried countless means to escape in the past years. This year, even before the event, we have been warned. This warning isn’t entirely good, nor bad; it just caused the attendance to drop very much because everyone thought it was meaningless to go there and anyway, no one marks the attendance.

In a situation when someone does marks the attendance, they must be students are hence, there is a little biasness again. So far, I have never seen bribery but it is true that there is usually jeering occurring because certain monitors or chairman are being too inflexible.

There is more than 2000 people there if I am not wrong. Mistakes arises when there are less honest people than I expect. And the whole atmostphere is rather relax. The lame marching and carrying of flag is gone and the whole event becomes less solemn. Even as the National Anthem was sung, students are smiling and giggling – this probably never happened before. There is no Milo truck or free drinks today and some of the students are taking the opportunity to raise funds for their councils by selling drinks at normal prices. While some dumb students cheered, others were busy talking about how the economy works, what nuclear fusion is and telling stories of certain movies.

My friend used to say that for this particular annual event, a sub-event is the great escape from school, back home. Reasons for doing so includes not being able to justify their presence for the event, not wanting to squeeze with sweaty students in the bus stops and the buses and also for fun, to challenge their skills of slacking. This year, for some reasons, people have given up playing hide and seek with the NPCCs, looking out for the disciplinary master, and camping in the toilet to wait for a good time to sneak out of the compound. It is as though the students have lost their fighting spirit and the love for challenges. The over-control of us have resutled in apathy and cynicism toward the changing of the path one is going to take.

This is a perfect demonstration and the best explanation of why a revolution is impossible. Somehow, it is already taking place, individually. Students have cease being good boys or girls and decided to do only what they think was right. The school compromise sometimes, but also impose certain unreasonable rules, making the hatred even more bitter. Now it has reach a stage of no return. The relationship between the school and the students is dying soon.

It is only until extremely recent when I realised that the term ‘Goodbye’, which is used in parting or bidding farewell is actually derived from a statement, ‘God be with you’. Though some may argue that it has some links with the greeting, ‘Good Day’, continuing the greetings with the word, ‘Good’. Strictly speaking, the greeting, ‘Goodbye’, should have nothing to do with the other greetings such as ‘Good Morning’, ‘Good Afternoon’ or ‘Good Night’.

It is not known how the word, ‘God’, in the statement has transformed into the term, ‘Good’. But for the ‘Bye’, it is still rather sensible. ‘Be with you’ is orginally contracted into ‘B-we-yeu’ (Note, this is the sound, no such spelling in the course of history. This applies for the rest of the so-called contractions), and then to ‘B-weu’, combining the sounds of ‘with’ and ‘you’ because they are somewhat similar. Ultimately, it became spelled as ‘Bye’. Paradoxically, ‘Bye’ means ‘Be With You’. And hence, when you say ‘bye’ to a friend or whoever you are parting from, you are saying that you are with him. Therefore, the word, ‘Good’ is essential in making the greeting meaningful and sincere.

This is partly the reason why in Chinese Language, there is no such greeting as ‘Goodbye’, which is some form of temporary farewell. In Mandarin, ‘See you’ is used instead. But it doesn’t seem to make sense all the time, for example, when you are on the phone with someone overseas; it doesn’t sound sensible to say ‘See you’. Well, that’s my opinion, others may beg to differ.

And for those who have been somewhat vulgar, I am sure you have no idea what the term, ‘Damn’ means. In modern context, there is some idea of ‘condemn’ but its usage is not exactly so. When you say ‘Damn you’, you are telling the person (in Middle English), “Death to thy soul”, which somehow means ‘Go and die’, in the more formal sense.

I agree absolutely with someone else’s view on blogging and why some guys’ blog should just be eliminated (not die, because a blog isn’t living). However, there are simply too many flaws in his line of arguement that I have to add on some more stuff and also disprove some of them.

Firstly, a personal opinion is that the term ‘blog’ has come about rather natural with the modern usage. This word doubles as both a noun (blog, meaning a web-log) and a verb (blogging, the act of logging on the online diary), just like many other words from by students in Singapore, and perhaps everywhere else. Examples includes ‘Don’t Issac’ (Nothing to do with Newton or gravity), ‘Very Haomib’ (Something to do with Mib). Of course, it is rather true that it have been overused in other context, and even misused or ‘badly-punned’, as Mib may have suggested by posting that dumb article on his blog.

With regards to how blogs, with special emphasis on Movabletype blogs, choke the search list of google, I have no doubts and agree fully with how blogs are wasting space on google’s search list. Google probably wants to have a new option for people searching – a checkbox that indicates that you are searching for weblogs or perhaps a radio button for some other sites online. Or even better, a totally separate search engines that search on blogs only.

It is a matter of fact that blogs exist to fulfill the pursuit of journalism for most blogger who failed to be professional journalist. Of course, the rest may be columnist-wannbes without the qualifications to do that. These people are just like you and Mib, undoubtly innocent, have some anti-government sentiments, have ridiculous thoughts about how you can change the world, and not realistic at all. But like Mib, or even me, we hold on to this hope, that someone out there, probably one who shares our thoughts, sees the entry and would respond to it positively or even be inspired to express the view himself.

This is so even for crap-bloggers such as Wap. It is the thought and the self-opinion that matters, not what others think. One man’s food may be another man’s poison, a man’s blog maybe the other’s crap. Nonetheless, there would be someone to appreciate the thought, even if it is just a single person. A blog also presents a different persona from the one in real life. For a person like Ruiyang (this is not real name, he is commonly known by screen name, ‘Jew’ or ‘Jew1’), a quiet boy in class with a tinch of interest for History disappears behind a computer as a blogger, at his blog, dubbed ‘Nameless Until Further Notice’, voicing extreme political and anti-government views.