Thursday, September 29, 2005

losing the cool

plato vs aristotle...

descartes vs hume...

patriarchy and the catholic church...

singapore's realist foreign policy...

america's surreal relations with saddam...

decency of dress and masculine fear of feminine sexuality...

interchangeability of gender roles...

black and white rights and wrongs...

vatican expenditure...

the reality of the family...

that last topic was unfortunately discussed when i was most weary and mistrusting of the social fabric i've been woven into - and with my poor unsuspecting mother. imagine her astonishment when her son whom she misses so much questions her about the validity of her rudimentary notions of 'family' and 'sonship'.

"why don't you call back? everytime i call you you're busy..."
"you didn't expect me to be doing nothing in school right?"
"then don't need to call back? don't need to see your family?"
"what is family?"
"your own parents and your own brother in your own home... don't you miss them?"
"when i was home two weeks back i didn't get to see most of you anyway."
"but we saw you for a while..."
"a while only, then what's the difference!"
"doesn't it mean anything to you?"
"if family is seeing some person for a while once in a week, then you better think again."
"why... call you for a chat and end up talking like this..."
"that's family. gotta go, keep praying."

and i just wrote a philo essay supporting plato's proposal to take children away from their parents before they get to know each other. how much less critical would i be of the family? once again, the cool is lost at the most crucial of moments. poor mum.

Sunday, September 25, 2005

read more la.

"Cruel Irony Defined: A PAP Minister who takes home SGD100,000-SGD175,000 PER MONTH in tax dollars telling a worker (who earns SGD2,000 a month) to be "less choosy" and to work harder."

where is social activism in singapore?
Singapore Review (Yahoo! Group)

it's not non-existent. you just need to look for it.

on another note, perhaps you'd like to try out my survey! haha...
Readership of Alternative News Media

for others, here's a little something from God:
A Lamp Unto My Feet

Saturday, September 17, 2005

a christian love story I

Jesus says: "love one another as I have loved thee" how did He love us? by dying for our sins of course. He also says: "whosoever strikes thee on one cheek, offer the other to him." but of course, this is not without disclaimer: "whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto Me," he also says.

therein lies multiple dilemmas...
  1. are we to die for others' sins as well? it so seems that we should offer ourselves up for torture should anyone so desire to do so. in so doing, the christian thing would be to pray for the sinner even as that person rains suffering upon us. ultimately, either the prayer touches the person to stop, or we die for that person's sin. is that the way to go?

  2. unfortunately, dying for another's sin may not necessarily change the sinner's fate... for that person has seriously hurt Jesus as well! if God were to take a sinner's sins personally, God knows what's gonna happen to that incalcitrant peccant. won't you make sure that the bully who beats your kid up gets just punishment? and, if the bully is incalcitrant, that the kid gets expelled (or at least distanced permanently from your child)? in God's terms, defending his children would most likely involve limbo, purgatory, or eternal damnation...

  3. but then again, wouldn't that negate the poor christian's efforts? imagine the poor sucker who followed Christ's command and martyred himself so that a sinner may be saved - that fellow would have died in vain! couldn't it be said that the martyr-wannabe had given up God's most precious gift - life - for another to receive eternal punishment?

  4. this isn't the end of it... elsewhere, Jesus says: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are." the second part is so far in line with the reasoning above, but the first part leaves us with much to worry! isn't he calling those who try too hard for one convert hypocrites? isn't he saying: "woe to you, martyr-wannabe"?

  5. the crux of this whole dilemma: should one offer one's life in an attempt to save another? it seems if we offer up God's gift in vain, the consequences are dire! so i'd say we offer the other cheek, but not to the extent of doing anything more drastic than that, or losing something dear to ourselves. ultimately, it is measured altruism and not flat-out selflessness that we should be aiming for, right?
on the other hand, the way i'm approaching the problem of this love story may be wrong from the start, of course. perhaps by putting these various verses of the New Testament together is already using them out of context, and i've already lost sight of the "spirit of the Word" in so doing. perhaps Jesus meant 'be tolerant and calm in the face of violent oppression' when He said "offer the other cheek." perhaps it was only meant as a teaching on revenge anyway.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

finger biting

i would like to stop biting my fingers. my fingers look in really bad shape... i am filled with pity for them. and i am appealing to all to lend your assistance: stop me if you see me inadvertently bringing those innocent fingers near my gaping mouth again! save them from the inhumane torture of the unfeeling finger-biter!

finger biting is wrong. finger biting must be cured. you can be a part of this noble mission.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

what is religion?

i'm stealing this from Oxygen (one of my healthier addictions):

DIFFERENT RELIGIONS

Jesus Christ said he had never been to a football match. So we took him to one, my friends and I. It was a ferocious battle between the Protestant Punches and the Catholic Crusaders.

The Crusaders scored first. Jesus cheered wildly and threw his hat high up into the air. Then the Punchers scored. And Jesus cheered wildly and again threw his had into the air.

This seemed to puzzle the man behind us. He tapped Jesus on the shoulder and asked, "Which side are you shouting for, my good man?"

"Me?" replied Jesus, by now visibly excited by the game. "Oh! I'm not shouting for eitehr side. I'm just here to enjoy the game."

The questioner turned to his neighbour and sneered. "Hmmm, an atheist."

On the way back we briefed Jesus on the religious situation of the world today. "It's funny about religious people, Lord," we said. "They always seem to think that God is only on their side and against the people on the other."

Jesus agreed. "That is why I don't back religions. I back people," he said. "People are more important than religions. Man is more important than the Sabbath."

"You ought to watch your words," one of us said with concern. "You were crucified once for saying that sort of thing, you know."

"Yes, and by religious people," said Jesus with a wry smile.

- De Mello (1000 Stories You Can Use, Volume One by Frank Mihalic, SVD)

Who do you back?

saturday morning

it was 9am when i first assumed i was awake. with seeming ease i had gotten out of bed, but then i had no clue why i woke up. why did i wake up? i spent the next few surreal minutes trying to elucidate. i even spoke to God. but all i had was a bunch of prescribed reasons for waking up: one shouldn't sleep too much lest one becomes a lazy ass, one has many things to do which require a state of awakeness, one could not reasonably exist in the real world while still stuck in dreamland.

by then i had washed up and was sitting in front of the ol' lappy. maybe i can continue reading stuff off the net? seems helpful... to get some momentum into doing whatever it was that i had to do. unfortunately, i sorta got stuck once again. the net is a powerful magnet, even when it's surfing something benign like wikipedia. the worse part of the deal is that this magnet drains you of your energy. and before i know it... i was back in my bed.

so there, i spent saturday morning pretending i was awake. now i could only wonder what saturday afternoon will be like...

*note to self: stuff to do includes media write-up (4/10), gender poster (11/10), prepping for social theory (24/10) & IR essays (4/11), finding out what to do for philo (?), catching up on (about 30) readings, shopping for hostel stores, collecting money from various various ppl, fixing lappy wireless, cantoring+guitaring for arts comm mass... should be all for now.