.sg

the best thing that happened during this conference was to have met AA, my former prof and boss, and other than that, nothing much else to rejoice. and before i board the plane in half an hour, i think this winterson article will serve as talisman for my arrival:

___

Jeanette Winterson

The Times

23 August 2008

Readers of my previous column will know that I managed to boil my mobile phone thanks to an excess of Right Brain activity brought about by immersing myself in writing a book.

Since that unfortunate event, I moved over into Left Brain for long enough to buy a new phone, possibly quite a male phone, if phones play to gender, and I have become fascinated - and horrified - by the Text Templates. Is this how we live, love, and use language now?

I'm not coming home for dinner. What does that mean, other than what it means? I'm having an affair? I'm leaving you? I'd rather do anything than eat your steak and kidney pie again tonight? The message sender clearly has a home, and someone in it who is doing the cooking, but the peremptoriness suggests that if the marriage isn't finished yet, it will be soon. If someone sent me that text I would leave the dinner on the back step on top of a copy of Oliver Twist - just to make it clear that there won't be any More.

I love you. Who is so busy that they cannot write those three necessary words? I love you is always a quotation, and it is the least original thing that any of us can say, but just as it must be often said, it must be sincerely said, and as if for the first time on a planet new-made from love. What shallow software programmer thought it appropriate to turn the stuff of life into a text template? I really worry about these total Left Brainers who foist their deeply unpoetic values on the rest of us in the name of efficiency.

I was at a dinner by mistake recently - by mistake because it was full of people who never read books and feel rather sorry for those of us who do - when a man who advises companies on how to be more efficient actually said without irony or embarrassment that an arts degree was useless to society. I pointed out that from where I was sitting, people who use phrases like “monetise the brand” are insensitive to language and to life. I hate the phoney word and I hate the Gradgrind spirit behind it. “Who is Gradgrind?” he asked.

Send your spare copies of Hard Times care of Times Books, please.

Monetise is not a word. I am all for new coinings but ask that they have some value. Finance types don't seem to understand that language is not signage - it is central to human life. By reducing a rich, robust and poetic language to signage, we impoverish our minds. Yet I could cope better with a text template that says How shall we monetise the brand? than with one that says Get Well Soon. How about one to text back that reads Drop Dead?

I love the speed and compactness of texting, and the playfulness of its zippy abbreviations. Yet tact, sensitivity, compassion, it does not do. If I want to say sorry to someone, the very least I can do is begin by tapping in those eight letters, and not scrolling past Call me at the office, and Merry Christmas, on the way to my inadequate apology.

Communication technology is all about My Shortcuts, and that makes sense in the office. It doesn't make sense in our personal lives. Love and happiness, worthwhile relationships, friendships, depend on time and effort, not the shortcut. We can't treat each other like something in the Inbox, because soon the things we value end up in the Outbox.

A poem is the perfect compact form, and I spend a lot of time reciting poetry to myself - a line here, a line there to keep me in the richness of language, and to remind me that it is worth finding a way to say things simply, but beautifully, and without insincerity or affectation.

Ads, texts, e-mails, jargon, soundbites, straplines, headlines, keep us constantly in a reduced state of language. Information only is fine in any state, but the heart is not for information only; it is the core of us, and a fully developed language speaks to that core. It is why art is so important, never useless, and why a society that misunderstands language as FYI loses the bounce of being alive.

I love you - the three most difficult words in the world, and ones that have been glossed by the best poets, novelists and dramatists all over the world ... not a text template.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article4587829.ece

KL

hello from KL, i'm bored with this place already. why is everyone here only interested in making money and looking pretty? did these people give up their genuine, long-evolving culture and way of life for this hideous rupture of modernity? sounds like another country i know. it was fitting, though unplanned, to be reading herbert marcuse's One-Dimensional Man under the twin shafts of mahathir's historical erection.

and so i was shopping a bit; i've developed a penchant for red ties, and i spotted a beautifullest red tie at the sydney airport, it was a zegna and i thought it'd cost an airplane, but turned out to be a steal. And so here i was zipping in and out of stores looking for another red tie that I could buy; and once again, i found one, and from a least expected place (raoul). i was pondering whether i should get my converse sneakers here or next week in singapore, and guess what - five minutes later the soles of my shoes came off. so that settled my initial dilemma.

then it was the quest for a coffee plunger. someone need to invent a plastic (as opposed to a glass ) one so that i can carry it around wherever i go. clearly this world doesn't understand that i need coffee, and INSTANT COFFEE IS NOT COFFEE. this morning at the hotel cafe:

waitress: *pours coffee
me: excuse me, what coffee is this?
(when it comes to real coffee it's really either brewed or espresso, unless you're so inclined for ristretto - but it doesn't happen very often)
waitress: black coffee (la...) *sustained look of horror*
me: err, i mean, how did you make this coffee?
waitress: from Nescafe (la!!!)

if only people know how instant coffee is made (chemically and artificially), i doubt they'd continue drinking it. it's not difficult to get REAL coffee. and coffee is NOT expensive. buy real beans from a real cafe, buy a coffee maker (of any type), boil water, pour into cup. that'd just add up to a grand total of 60c a cuppa, and for something that's real and divine, is really very cheap!

i should shuddup now and go have my dinner. i do miss hawker food and i am gonna try their hokkien mee here. conference starts tomorrow, and i hope all the schmoozing would not make me go mad. i really do not like people very much, especially if they're not the ones i know.

happy birthday singapore

When gambling in a casino, the house always wins. individuals' pickings, no matter how rich, will always be mere crumbs in proportion to what the house creams off. Of course, the house will always make sure those individuals feel rich and royal, even though they are not. For those who can, they indulge in the occasional fun and fantasy; for those who can't, it's puzzling how delusional their hopes can be. And for the ones awakened, they stay away from the casino at all profits and costs; they know it is simply not worth the while. And if they are parents and good ones, they would similarly lead their children not to temptation.

___

I REFER to Ms Heng Siew Cheng's letter, 'Why one couple is resettling in Sweden'', (July 17) and the replies by Singapore Senior Minister of State for Finance and Transport, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua (July 22), and 'Where else can you buy your home in 5 years?'' by Mr Peter Wadeley (July 24).

... Mr Wadeley implies that Singaporeans can buy a home in five years. I disagree. Last year, [Singapore's] median household income was $4,870. Even with grants, an average family cannot pay off a flat that quickly. It is also unachievable for Ms Heng and her Swedish husband, even if their collective income barely breaches the HDB's $8,000 bar.

Mrs Lim's comparison is incomplete. Nine in 10 Singaporeans merely lease their homes (HDB flats are typically 99-year leaseholds). Freehold ownership is higher in Sweden: Forty per cent live in landed property, 20 per cent in freehold condos and 40 per cent in rental flats. Swedish rental flats are akin to HDB flats. The main differences are that there is no downpayment, and the rental contract does not expire.

It is true, as Mrs Lim says, that Swedes spend 13 per cent of their income on housing. But for the money, half of us have our own garden - and precious time - to play with our children.

She suggests it is less expensive to raise children here. It is true that consumer goods are cheaper here and Singapore ranks third globally in per capita GDP (purchasing power adjusted) and Sweden 12th, according to the World Bank. But as more of Singapore's GDP comprises imports and exports, the statistic does not reveal the extent of benefit to its citizens.

The World Bank uses Household Final Consumption Expenditure (HFCE) as an affordability benchmark. Including goods and services provided by the government, it tells how much one has for useful spending, either directly or through tax. Sweden's HFCE per capita, in 2005 figures, is US$30,000, (S$42,000) double Singapore's US$14,000.

Ms Heng is concerned about raising children here. Having lived in both countries, I agree. The United Nations' Human Development Index, based on 350 indicators, tracks 'a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living'. Sweden ranks sixth worldwide, while Singapore trails at 25th.

I am not advocating the adoption of Sweden's welfare system wholesale. But, if Singapore adopts a tiny part, giving parents flexibility and cheaper childcare, it probably means a tax hike of just a few per cent.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Ms Heng to Sweden.

Jan Sundström

school/work

i hadn't even had time to breathe since returning to a flurry of back-to-back things. school started and uni is once more a sea of faces and books and hurry. i presented my paper at the departmental seminar and that went ok, i got resounding compliments but i think it's still theoretically sloppy. i've to spend the next 2 weeks writing the proper draft for the conference. the institute that i'd been working at asked me to consider a more permanent position, which is quite impossible given the amount of work and travelling i'm undertaking. and i had my three tutorial classes today, one after another. it's a sorta deja vu standing in front of a bunch of 19 year old kids and writing things on the whiteboard expounding the glories of studying global politics. i suspect it would be a matter of time i start quoting winterson and shoving her novels down their throats. once again, class dynamics (or is it the time, the feng shui?) seemed to play a huge part; the first tutorial was great and i talked so much i ran over time; the second one was a lil ugh ... (why're they giving me cynical, mocking looks, as if i'm spouting nonsense?); and the third was simply fantastic, so very fantastic i thought i wanted to see them everyday. haha. thankfully it's the weekend, and i'll get some breather, and return to the happy grind again.