real than the real food itself.
Finally, we have our own LOCALLY produced LOCAL sourvenir-- a genuine representation of our culture, by a LOCAL talent. And most importantly, it is MADE IN SINGAPORE in every sense and that itself is an ever-growing feat in this highly globalised and deeply capitalised era.
The bouquets of fireworks lit up the dark, solemn sky,
in the attempt of projecting the spirit of joy, momentarily,
on this particular day.
The sparks succeeded in blinding the sky with their flamboyant
colours and brightness. And precisely at that brief moment of the array
of sparks that splattered across the sky, it was too when the shadows
of the fireworks were cast on earth.
So for every firework that we saw, we have to endure too, the shadows
that come with it. Unknowingly ourselves.
And so, we happily, intoxicate ourselves, in seconds of joyous flame,
and took with us the shadows that settle here for good.
So, Happy Birthday.
Y让自己的味蕾选择海外的工作地点。对他而言，只有法国无别无他选。文化版图里，他斩钉截铁地选择了味觉的视角。我瞠目结舌。
可是，日本人迷恋绿茶，竭尽所能地将本土食品和异国食品绿茶化。甚至著名的巧克力微化饼也绿茶化了。绿茶化的范围还不限于饮食，也渗透了日用品的领域，以绿茶芳香的选择来示人。
记得那时在台北找原味豆花，难如登天。原来商家已经把单纯的豆花多样化，变化出各式各样配搭的吃法。一桌人在吃豆花，却没有一碗豆花是相同的。小小一碗豆花演绎出何谓饮食个人化。
属于西式饮食文化的薯片，也在中国大放异彩。口味横跨蔬菜、水果、菜肴：黄瓜、荔枝、酸柑、火锅、胡椒牛肉。望着那展示架上五颜六色的薯片，才察觉民以食为天的心理，肯定只限于亚洲。
右手拿起了一包蛋奶挞，眼睛就在搜寻其它的口味。才想起自己处身英国超市。蛋奶挞当然就是蛋奶挞，怎么还会有其他的选择？我如晴天霹雳，英国人则瞠目结舌。
标出英式特色的伯爵茶应该是英国人最大的玩味之举。印度所生产的红茶，加入佛手柑，调配出芳香的红茶。可是，我的眼睛又开始搜索伯爵茶口味的蛋糕、巧克力、雪糕、饼干……在英国境内，自然铩羽而归。
看起来，英国人的饮食态度是有板有眼的。伯爵茶定位在热饮茶杯的领域里，就绝对不能化身为灌装冷饮或是成为附属其他食品的调味。只有盛在杯子里的伯爵茶才算是完整的。
A few years of absence does help to put things at home into perspective.
And the first thing is embracing the many hardware of home, be it the transport system or the convenience of services. Even if it’s only the façade, the cleanliness, orderliness and some modern-looking skyscrapers are at times pleasing to sight and enough to fulfill one’s vanity desires. The luxuries of a fairly comprehensible transport network in operation for more than 15 hours a day at an affordable price (although at an accelerated inflation rate); cheap eateries at all corners of the island day and night, some even with
24 hours service; a labyrinth of retail shops in business for the day and night and most days of the week; the novelty of Sunday full branch banking services at some places etc….. it became a drag each time at the thought of returning to the UK. No doubt, I cherish very much some of the conveniences mentioned above and the safety too.
The Cost of Convenience
The incident to which I was forbidden entry to a shop in Durham, northeast of Britain, at 4.30pm in the evening--half an hour prior to the closing time struck me hard. Not only for the inconvenience that it caused, but the revelation of the luxury of the working life of retail employees in the UK.
Short working hours and with a minimum wage protection. And it doesn’t just stop short at retail services only. And you know what I mean.
While eateries in the UK can afford to close at 3pm on a Sunday—prime time for business in our context, and restaurants operating half day, many of ours run round the clock for business. Special mention to our hawkers who man many hours a day behind their stalls in a small and a high-temperature working environment to provide us with (still) affordable food anywhere anytime; while UK retail businesses can close for the day on the dot, ours allow customers to go on with their shopping well after closing time; our transport workers (bus drivers, cabbies) throng through the chaos of our traffic and endure long working hours too; employees of Sunday banking burning Sundays at work; being instructed by multi-million dollar ministers to work “cheaper, faster an
d better” is further challenged by the influx of cheaper manpower from overseas.
Scratching beyond that surface of convenience, such “luxuries” are enjoyed with a growing sense of guilt. Especially when the thought of it at the expense of our fellowmen (working cheaper, faster and better) creeps into mind.
The Big Picture
The years of absence, especially, saw the increasing growth of senior citizens working at foodcourts, fast food restaurants, toilets or making a living by sales of tissues and collection of cardboards; disabled people too took part in the “professions”—sights that are phenomenally rare in the UK society despite their “poor” infrastructures.
In a span of 5 years, this “efficient” growth of such strata of our society paints a big picture not, as we are often been instructed to focus at the big picture over small personal inconveniences?
A big picture of a nation obsessed by tangible values over the intangibles…epitomized by our minister who toyed with the idea of housing our senior citizens in land-cheaper Malaysia while our island could afford large no. of golf courses and private properties; where the collective contributions of our citizens towards nation-building is negligible saved for the elite and politicians; where ethics and morals are bartered for political and social securities and monetary returns; where future generations will be debt-laden for the necessities in life—family time, accommodation, transport, jobs and retirement; where quick fixes are used for long-standing issues with no sustainability and accountability.
Such BIG pictures struck fear right into my heart.
Selective Comparison
Indeed, comparing to the Sahara dessert, we live in absolute heaven. We can spend our lifetime, habitually using the plights of citizens of other nations with not the slightest intention of bettering the lives of those, but instead unabashedly, to glorify our “economic success” and justify our mistakes, notwithstanding the fact that the definition of success itself is disputable.
Is that not ill-mannered, narrow-minded and shallow of us?
Of being more preoccupied with self-glorification than learning the strengths of others so as to aspire to be better. No, we chose complacency instead.
And not forgetting that the act of comparison is always selective.
When I witness our poor being so much poorer than the “poor” in the UK (who has access to free medical care, free housing and benefits) and ironically we have more rich than the UK (we have the most number of millionaire in proportion to our population), it is unsettling for we, as citizens, to be instructed again, to accept that growing income-disparity, a global trend, as a normality, therefore leaving the issue to the wind.
While being mindful and appreciative of what we have, at the same time, we cannot allow these possessions, tangibles and intangibles, to bribe us into the apathy of the universal stand of morals and principle.
The Cost of being A Human
Denouncing socialism or welfare system does not eradicate the need of taking care of our senior citizens or the less fortunate strata.
Having spent more than four decades of achieving the psychological level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, living by the calculator to measure the cost of every human, from discouraging the third child to encouraging more births with monetary incentives; from streaming the more-abled students from the less-abled so as to utilize our resources; from monetary incentives to attract talents into the political arena….but a minister who owes his salary to the public calculates his own worth to the last cent will understand no value of any human lives besides himself. Are we any better in our heartware than 4 decades ago?
And we bear witness to a MP who told us that money brings proportionate dignity and respect; and a multi-million-dollar-minister who scrimped on a $30 allowance for the needy.
But ethics and morals, the fundamentals of any civilized and healthy society, are priceless. We cannot continue to blanket the abnormalities and injustices of our society, or leave them to providence, in exchange for the ever increasing cost of “political stability” and “social security”. Where the cost would be borne by the future generations, in tangible sense, for instance:
(i) Longer and bigger housing loan for public housing at a 99-year-lease.
(ii) Prices of new public housing and medical cost increase in many folds while median income remains stagnant in the last 20 yrs.
Need no rocket science to prove that cost of living outstrips our incomes, rising tangible cost impact quality of life, retirement funds for ourselves and our children: that is the intangible cost. Working longer hours to keep reins of the tangible cost is adding burden to our intangible cost definitely.
* * *
When we begin to realize political and social securities fail to compensate the deep sense of insecurity inside our peoples on our future quality of life and retirement, we know that GDP alone cannot suffice in measuring the quality of our lives. Frighteningly, it plays no role in ethics either.
Surely, a successful nation is not defined by the number of hubs or the number of eye-dazzling architecture, but by both tangibles and intangibles. And only such a nation is truly worthy of respect, which again is neither quantifiable in dollars or cents.
有蒙面侠坐上了我们的地铁。戴上眼罩，就大辣辣地坐在爱心座位上。有了眼罩，对老、弱、残、孕者视若无睹的举止便能合理化。另一批蒙面侠见状而义愤填膺，拍下此蒙面侠画面的举止后上载到网上。然后，隔着键盘的安全距离，戴上面具，在虚拟空间里正义凛然地责备霸占爱心座位的蒙面侠。
可是，群体力量是个体点滴积累而成的。如果连自己都不能为自己所信奉的规范而挺身而出，又何来权利要求他人为我们这么做？
五月前后的两个星期里，让我见证了奇观。
往体育馆的路上，一队又一队的人，井然有序地移动着。并不是一场演唱会，也没亮眼的星星，却让这些人，在忙碌了一天后，脚步坚定不误地从岛国各处蜂拥至此。
原来群众大会就是这么一回事。
馆内座无虚席，跑道上、草地上都站满了人。附近的组屋走廊上也都是黑压压的人头。没有座椅，更没有食物供应。有人席地而坐，但大部分的人只能站立着，一站就是几个小时。也有些莫名其妙的阿姨全副武装上阵，坐在凳子上、扇着风，却在群众里大声地与身边人高声地话家常；也有人正扒着饭盒、有的热出了一身汗、有的站累了又坐，休息了又站起；可以站在泥浆里、也能撑着伞……目的各异地现身参与大会。
毫无金钱的驱使竟能驱动数以千、万计的人。长期以来，浑然不知五年一度的这般奇观的存在。与群众站在一起，我开始听到国人的呼吸声。原来新闻、报章未必能让人增广见闻，反让自己成了井底之蛙。
台上的演讲者各出奇招。只有货比货过后，才知台上的心跳声，不管距离，台下的人是听得一清二楚的。关爱的词藻，说得再激昂，缺了心跳，也只是破绽百出。一个人的热情、谦诚是能透过言语、举止感受到的，以至一名十二岁的小孩还从此决定发奋图强。
让自己的信念触动他人，然后延伸下去，这就是启发的能力。不是恐吓、物质诱惑、愚弄所能及的。也唯有发自内心，才能发出的一种真正力量。
It was trivial but it reveals a lot of our mentality.
On the mrt train on a busy weekend.
When the warning bell came on, passengers inside the mrt car were still alighting in an orderly manner, boarding passengers were waiting cooperatively on the platform. Then the voice of the driver came blasting: Doors are closing! Doors are closing!
At that point, not all the passengers had even got off yet, not to mention the waiting crowd.
And the doors shut soon after the driver issued the warning. So passengers outside the car have to scurry into the car frantically because the doors were shutting right on them!
It happened at all the busy stations and the driver refused to wait for the influx and outflow of passengers to take place smoothly and he would sound his impatience through the speakers: Doors are closing! Doors are closing!
So we have comfortable and modern-looking MRT where doors are allowed to open only for a few but precious seconds before the warning bell of closing doors are sounded irregardless of the number of passengers, stations and situations, the exchange of passengers has to follow the “human rules”.
Even on a Saturday afternoon? No surprise at all to see a lot of passengers alighting and boarding. Still all that movement is expected to take place in a speed of lightning. Too bad for mothers with prams, senior citizens or people who simply need extra time to board and alight. You deserve what you get for not cooperating with the “rules”.
We have a well-trained MRT system obeying strictly the length of time it enters and leaves the station in order to achieve designated efficiency. Apparently, that seems to be the only function that it serves. Even if only a handful of passengers managed to get off during that few seconds of grace. Matters even less for the safety and comfort of passengers. You will only have yourself to blame if you are slow!
The function of the MRT perhaps is not to transport commuters? Therefore, explaining the situations where the software, ie. the people who operate it, refuse to maximize the use of the hardware to suit situations and adapt it to the needs of users?
Not that I am irate with this particular driver. It is his mentality and that such is not uncommon which is unsettling. Often, we “deified” our hardware. Using their glittering existence to symbolize the pace of our development and then puts a full stop to the whole thing. NEVER challenging the practicality of the hardware or investigating the needs of users. To the extreme, users are then expected to adapt to the hardware rather than having hardware build for them.
This trivia matters because we keep seeing such mentality higher up in the hierarchy where the impact of such mentality hits hard on the ground, throughout our country where its people will be the last thing that ever come into the minds of policy-makers.
by Chen Show Mao on Friday, May 20, 2011 at 1:08am
Just got home from an evening of meetings at the Hougang Town Council. I went to see the eye doctor for a routine check-up before the meetings began and was waylaid by a huge advertisement in Tang's shop window. The words "local fashion" and "Singaporean designers" caught my eye. I went inside and learnt a few things about Singapore-grown labels such as Chalk, Elohim, hansel, OwnMuse, Peter Kor, Saturday, Thomas Wee and Yumumu.
The clothes did indeed feel more Singaporean to me, more friendly and familiar. It may just be the liberal use of tropical colors, light materials, halter tops and the sleeveless look -- what do I know. The thought occurred to me that even in fashion where individuality is particularly prized, there can be such as a thing as Singaporean sensibilities. It was a cheerful thought -- that we indeed have things in common -- making our future seem brighter to me.
Happy Vesak Day.
Buddhism's past has always reminded me of Singapore's possibilities.
How Buddhism spread from India to China (with the help of indefatigable men of faith from both sides of the Himalayas, including Dharmarakṣa, Kasyapa Matanga，Kumarajiva and a Tang-dynasty monk also named Chen who became well-known to generations of Chinese children as Monkey's master in Journey to the West). How it affected deeply the development of the Chinese civilization and was itself affected in the process. How the fruitful cross-pollination gave China Rationalist Confucianism and the world Zen Buddhism, among other things.
We live side by side on this small island, separated in some cases by race, language or religion . Learning about and learning from one another appears to me so much more within our reach than for other peoples at other places or at other times, that it seems a shame if we didn't do more of it.
Walking about
by Chen Show Mao on Monday, May 16, 2011 at 2:07am
After getting cash from an ATM and top-up for my mobile phone (the two most common types of refills I make these days), I spent most of the day walking around the Paya Lebar division of Aljunied GRC, with friends who joined me for different parts of the day or evening. See photos just uploaded.
We chanced upon happy events and sad ones.
At a birthday party for their six-year-old host, little children learned how to take aim at the pinata without hurting their friends, and how to scramble for the candy but share the loot with those too young or poorly-positioned to get even one or two. Life lessons, no?
At a wake on a void deck, I was glad that I could deliver my condolences in person, but did not feel that I should stay long, since I was in T-shirt and jeans.
Around the corner, a friendly young man said hi. As it turned out, his group of volunteers was taking an elderly resident to dinner. She was as happy as could be.
How much we see just by taking a little walk.