I've quite given up on following the news on the political turmoil and successions etc. Just these couple of years there've been so many changes in government all over the world. I ever tried creating a list of the more notable world leaders but then very soon my list became obsolete. So there, I've given up. Just give me what happened in the end....what happens in between I don't want to know. I know Mum's with me on this cos I saw her scan through the newspp headlines only in the morning. My heart goes out to those journalists who hv to write lengthy news reports, really hope there are ppl out there who follow what they write even though we don't. Haha. Lazy ppl like us rely more on the radio or tvmobile for news updates.
There was talk over lunch that our small red dot shld be very worried that all our neighbours are experiencing problems. Why aren't we worried? Perhaps we are that's why we hv our massive displays by the NAF every at NDP. But can you believe we're celebrating our paralymic gold when the whole sea is all the rage abt Anwar and Somchai Wongsawat.
A: What if our neighbours develop the green-eye syndrome? Does Singapore have enough ammunition to stand up to them?
B: That's why we stock up.
C: Don't worry, the Indonesians can have their parangs, the Msians can have their black magic, Thais can have their vodoos, Singaporeans only need their passports.
To me it's not so much an issue whether we'll leave when war comes. To me, war is a remote possibility. Our vulnerability is "understandably" overhyped by the govt.
Just yest I was at a mtg and someone pointed out that one idea that was floating about came about because of one minister's speech. This idea it turns out has been floating around for sometime. I was wondering isn't "floating"= "driftwood"? Everyone's practicing taichi here? Did not dare breathe to anyone that I had treated that particular speech/presentation with reverence, memorised most of the stuff and used the arguements as key points in my answers for the job interviews and tests. Uh-oh....
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Day 28
Our neighbour is our window into the rich men's world. Their home cooked food is our restaurant fare, their parties our Food Fest. I finally undestand why one of my girlfriends can go around declaring she's a taitai wannabe. She's one with foresight. Can you be faulted for wanting to live a life like that? Or put another way, can your be faulted for not wanting to live a life of complaining about rising food prices, haggling over the price of fish, eating leftovers three meals a day, walking a few km to buy that one item on sale at Shop&Save because it's a few cents more expensive at ntuc?
I thought of how commonly people will bring up the plight of the African kids and go into diatribe about food wasting, lavish living etc. Sour grapes argument aside, I feel that it's natural for human beings to want better for themselves. If you are rich and successful, why would you want to scrimp and be hard on yourself. Remember the story of Scrooge?
Recently I started working and I realised that it's actually essential and beneficial to reward oneself. You need not eat lavishly for all three meals a day, but neither need you eat poorly for all three meals. Out of three meals, one hearty meal will give you enough oomph for the day. It's a little like the Joy Luck Club where the ladies celebrate with their "luxurious" food items during the war. I want to feel that I'm lucky too. S. Levitt rightly identified in Freakonomics that everyone is driven by incentives and perks. I'm not wasting food, I'm just incentivising myself so that I can go further.
You can be symphathatic towards the Third World plight too if you're rich. In fact, you can be more symphathatic because you're in a better person to help them. See those rich taitai clubs? You can still live a relatively good life after approportioning a part of your wealth to help others. Of course you can always do more, if you give up that buffet at Meritus Mandarin you can feed 100 more kids, but I don't have the aptitude or inclination to become a missionary. From the bottom of my heart, I want to better the lives of a few others, but I'm not looking to be Father/Mother of Africa. There's just so much that you can do.
Besides reinstilling in me the motivation to work hard, my neighbours' galavanting ways have also put me back in perspective about my cooking skills. I always thought being able to cook homemade dishes put me a teeny-weeny notch higher than my peers who cannot. But when I saw my neighbours homemade dishes, my first instinct was to take out my camera and snap away. Only then did I realise how "country" I was =/
To my neighbours for their 'enlightening' meal.~
I thought of how commonly people will bring up the plight of the African kids and go into diatribe about food wasting, lavish living etc. Sour grapes argument aside, I feel that it's natural for human beings to want better for themselves. If you are rich and successful, why would you want to scrimp and be hard on yourself. Remember the story of Scrooge?
Recently I started working and I realised that it's actually essential and beneficial to reward oneself. You need not eat lavishly for all three meals a day, but neither need you eat poorly for all three meals. Out of three meals, one hearty meal will give you enough oomph for the day. It's a little like the Joy Luck Club where the ladies celebrate with their "luxurious" food items during the war. I want to feel that I'm lucky too. S. Levitt rightly identified in Freakonomics that everyone is driven by incentives and perks. I'm not wasting food, I'm just incentivising myself so that I can go further.
You can be symphathatic towards the Third World plight too if you're rich. In fact, you can be more symphathatic because you're in a better person to help them. See those rich taitai clubs? You can still live a relatively good life after approportioning a part of your wealth to help others. Of course you can always do more, if you give up that buffet at Meritus Mandarin you can feed 100 more kids, but I don't have the aptitude or inclination to become a missionary. From the bottom of my heart, I want to better the lives of a few others, but I'm not looking to be Father/Mother of Africa. There's just so much that you can do.
Besides reinstilling in me the motivation to work hard, my neighbours' galavanting ways have also put me back in perspective about my cooking skills. I always thought being able to cook homemade dishes put me a teeny-weeny notch higher than my peers who cannot. But when I saw my neighbours homemade dishes, my first instinct was to take out my camera and snap away. Only then did I realise how "country" I was =/
To my neighbours for their 'enlightening' meal.~
Monday, September 01, 2008
Day 27
If Midas could turn any object to gold, you can turn any happiness to sorrow. Quit playing. Unless you've tons of money to burn, you'll burn your fingers. And burning your fingers is the least of it cos everyday your family lives as if they're burning in hell. As if ruining your own life is not enough, you've to ruin everyone else's life. You can have nice cosy bbqs in the porch but nothing can mask the fact that the family is nothing more than dsyfunctional. We live day by day believing that it takes more than that to bring us down. Is it?
Anyone in your position would have woken up and tried to mend things. If you're bad at something, do something else and stop making what you're bad at so glaring, even if it takes pretending so be it. Stop hovering!
Anyone in your position would have woken up and tried to mend things. If you're bad at something, do something else and stop making what you're bad at so glaring, even if it takes pretending so be it. Stop hovering!
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