Dr Kevin Tan, the president of the Singapore Heritage Society, wants to make Tiong Bahru Estate a world heritage site, citing (lame pun not going to be intended) a Unesco critieria -”an outstanding example of a type of building… which illustrates a significant stage in human history” as one of the reasons why the prewar STI flats would qualify for this designation.

Lets look at some of these outstanding sites such we?

Angkor Wat – hmm yes yes

Pyramids of Egypt – OMG YES YES

Taj Mahal – ZOMG WTF BBQ HELL YES

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!!

Now now, i’m not ignorant or anything, i have actually seen the place in person. Went down to the place itself for a workshop to film a short video before. It is…. quaint. Like, senior citizen’s retirement place quaint. Like no lifts or any of those nonsensesical-modern-conveniences kind of quaint.  But nowhere does this place measure up to the abovementioned critieria. So yes conserve it all you want but please do not embarass us and the hordes of tourists who would inevitably flock to these world heritage sites. Which I’m suspecting, is the stupid motive for such a stupid move.

“Today, Google and YouTube announced the launch of www.youtube.com/vatican, the YouTube channel dedicated to the activities of the Pope and events in the smallest state in the world, Vatican City. Footage on the channel comes from Centro Televisio Vaticano (CTV) and Vatican Radio (RV), so the primary language is Italian, but there will be information in Spanish, English, and German as well. Pope Benedict XVI stated that the page has been set up “so that the Church and its message continue to be present in the great Areopagus of social communications…and so that it is not a stranger to those spaces where numerous young people search for answers and meaning in their lives.“

I’m sorry Mr Pope. Your initiative while well intentioned, betrays a deficient understanding of what young people really do search for online, the contents of which i’m not at liberty to post here for fear of polluting your absolutely pure heart and mind. Its not your fault, its our’s completely. WE FAIL YOU.

Not sure if this is appearing in Singapore newspapers, i don’t really have access to them, but apparently they censored Obama’s speech over in China.

“Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions…To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

In the live feed, the speech was cut to an analyst and on Chinese transcriptions that appeared in the press, they were omitted as well.

Maybe change is too much for China to handle. Let’s just stick to capitalism okay, god it’s so much easier to please the proletariat with.

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In the past week, there’s a bloodbath going on at the technology front, layoffs are coming and they are massive and across the board. Microsoft is cutting close to 5000 jobs, IBM 16000 (?), Intel, Samsung, Sony and LG are all actively “restructuring”, and even Google cut a hundred jobs, most of them in the staff recruitment dept. Since tech is the only sector im monitoring, i can only imagine what the situation must be for the rest.

N.B – I’m not talking about the local Singapore economy, but about MNC’s and the American economy because they are the one’s who will be hurting first, and the effects will gradually filter down to our level. All of the above companies (with the exception of LG i think) have a significant presence here, us being a regional hub and all.

edit*: About 10 mins after writing this i stumbled upon this dummies guide to the unemployment rate. again this applies to the american economy. scaremongering ftw. credits mint.com

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Looking back at my GP assignments and essays, i was made keenly aware that all through the years GP was the only subject i was ever interested about in JC. I remember the male teacher that tried and gave us personality tests to find out what kind of student we were, and printed out topic packages on “media”, “the environment”, “technology” and sourced out writing tips. I can’t remember his name, its disturbing. And then the crappy Mrs Rajan who could only regurgitate the standard stuff. And i realise that my writing has been so insipid  of late because i’m not asking the right questions of import, i’m only content to sit back, idle, chill, engage in repetitive loops of reassuring behavior which does not include thinking apparently. Hmmm how am i going to fix it.

Miss World Finalist has hands and feet amputated after being hit by infection – at least she still has her boobs. damn sad. i have a soft spot for beautiful people.

Young women better at spotting cute babies – evidence for the maternal instinct kickin in thingy

So far for the time period that i’m at my aunts place, i have eaten vegetarian bak kwa, seaweed, vegetarian soybean floss with nuts, vegetarian gummies with (with real fruits!), barley porridge, whole meal bread, lots and lots of banana’s and papayas.

The vergetarian organic lifestyle is taxing foshure, but hey i’m getting used to it

The range of products is really amazing, and the taste is much better than what most people would expect. but the price is a turn off.  My favourite by far is the vegetarian soybean floss, but its like 16 dollars for a medium sized packet that you can just sprinkle over ur other food (the flavour of the organic food is not as ahh intense as i’m used to).

I am producing a ginormous amount of flatulence though. I feel like a cow. Not sure if its related (they are vegetarians after all). Must be the chlorophyll water i’m drinking.

Oh and I can still eat fish, so that’s nice

Well i’m comfortably settled in this new location of mine at Toa Payoh. Only thing is there isn’t any internet here (as my parents like to say) so i am now permanently tethered to NUSopen for my daily source of sustenance. The megahub is nearby, but i haven’t had the time to explore it at all. Curfew’s at 10pm cos my aunt likes to sleep early and she like’s to stay up to wait for people to come home, so 10 it is. Also, morning call at like 8. Ungodly hour for most of my peers i know. Also there are little quirks that i have to get used to like double locking doors and other socially sanctioned habits which i have  to relearn due to my laziness overdependence.

I am eternally grateful for my aunt for letting me stay at her place. Also she’s damn nice la. Cooks breakfast, sometimes dinner. Like we had grilled fish in sesame oil and some dark sauce. Damn nice. Also she is really big on organic food. So i have been eating a lot of fruits/grains/seaweed and less of sodium (which i sprinkle liberally on all i eat). All in all its good.

Anybody wanna catch Red Cliff 2? Like on a weekday before 6 when prices are dirt cheap?

Listening to – George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

I first heard it on Woody Allen’s Manhattan, during which i found certain elements of it oddly nostalgic. Sure that i had heard it before, featured perhaps on another movie, i set about tracking down the soundtrack. The piece itself, like other rhapsodies, is epic, clocking in at 16mins 50 seconds. The real beauty of it though, lies in its mishmash of classical music and jazz and hasty improvisation. Real smooth. Its the kind of song i’d imagine Nero would be listening to as Rome burned

I was shuffling through my documents and shredding/tossing the irrelevant ones away when a tiny piece of paper slipped out  from between some harmonica scores i was arranging. It read,

“有志者事竟成,

只要有心, 没有做不到的事”"

Mrs Lim Sheau Horng

2002

Mr’s Lim Sheau Horng was one of my science teachers in secondary school. I imagined her past self projecting wise words of wisdom far into the future. There was nothing else written on it, just those words bordered by a black box on a light-blue colored construction paper. But they were a warm comfort for an otherwise melancholic day.

Well it seems like everything has been finalised. Many of you have heard some of the story in bits and pieces but here’s the whole thing in digestible web 2.0 form

I used to live in a resale flat in Marine Crescent for about a good 10 years, but moved to a rental flat in mountbatten at the end of december 2007 after we failed to upkeep the mortgage. The sale of that flat brought us quite a huge hoard of money but since then we have been paying rent of $1500 a month (expensive i know; but it was, and still is, the height of the housing boom). It was supposed to be a stopgap measure not intended to last more than 2 years because under some 2-strikes-your-out law, my father can’t buy a studio apartment from the HDB (which would be cheaper) until some years have passed. And the rent from this house is sky high.

My parents own a drink stall in Joo Chiat, which they are convinced holds resale value for reasons which i’m still not sure of and i will probably never understand. The thing is, this shop does not earn money for my parents because the cost of maintenance is very high. My sisters and I earn our own keep and we turn to our parents rarely for money, so they only have to cover the basic necessities at home like power, utilities, food but they are still making a loss and using their savings to cover the gap (sorta like what the indian fellow from satyam did).

Anyway i was told recently that my parents, that the money from the sale of the Marine Crescent flat, has run out and we have to move to another place. They told me that the deadline was 31st dec. Around that time, we started packing, but we had no idea where to go. My sister helped to search ads online for a suitable place, but my parents wouldn’t consider places that were too far flung despite them being considerably cheaper and being the only options we had to stay together as a family. Anyway 31st dec came and went and they managed to obtain an extension from the landlord.

I have no idea what my parents were thinking, but they went back to life as if nothing had happened when they should have spend the time looking for a good solution. Well a meeting with the landlord changed all that, its final. We have to move out by the 15 Jan.

All hell broke loose. My mother always uses this term, and i’m not sure it translates well in this generation but i believe its called “Kalam Kabok” or “Hit the panic button”. Similar analogies are :” Want to shit then find toilet paper”. Anyway the makeshift solution is, my two sisters and my mum will stay in a utility room of a friend she just made, and me and my dad will stay with my aunt in toa payoh. Over the next few days i’ll bring to you exclusive access behind the scenes of “Dude where’s my house.”

My thoughts? I love my parents, they are very hard working, but they aren’t very smart. They have assets, but they squirrel them away. They constantly think that change is a very bad thing. Maybe its because my parents were budding amateur entrepeuneurs, but now at the tail end of their lives, they seem scared of losing some things that they have worked hard for, even when that thing is somewhat valueless now. That’s why they keep landing in situations like this. My aunt and I made my Mum sign a memorandium of understanding that she will give up the shop by June this year, only time will tell whether that comes to pass.

In addition to that , I do feel guilty. I’m at a age where for most people, they can effect change in their lives. Pull their families out of poverty. Succeed against the constraints of the environment they grew up in. Yet i haven’t done much. I have only given up on my parents. Left them to their own devices. Carried on with my life too despite knowing that beneath the calm waters a tsunami was brewing. My parents were always too self sacrificing, too determined to show to their children that they could take care of them, too unwilling to let us worry, and i didn’t do my part by falling for it.

I can only hope that whatever happens after the 15th, we still stay together as a family somehow.

An Amazon Kindle. If only it didn’t look so ugly. Too bad i missed Santa’s giveaway.