Art and Censorship

Its good Friday people, and a public holiday. I am in a good mood.

Today i would like to share my thoughts on art. So what is art? I like to define art as any form of ones expression. Even someone walking on the street is art am i right?

So there has been a lot of debate going on art and the freedom that we are given in Singapore to express ourselves in the form of it as a medium. The story of "sticker lady" is a famous incident where a lady pasted stickers on traffic like control boxes and spray painted words on public roads around the country. It brought smiles to many people's faces. Or at least it did on mine. But what she got in the end was a court case where she was charged with mischief.

So the question arises- is the scrutiny of art here too strict?
                                                                                         
I personally disagree to this statement. I believe strongly that the government has a duty of care to ensure the sustainability of its art form for its people and therefore they censor and limit the freedom given to its people. Here is a in script of a speech i once heard that elaborates more on this point.

"There are people in the society who are unable to understand and interpret some intence forms or art and as a result, have some implications on their lives and society. What the government is trying to do is protect these people who do not have a mature and rational mind to understand and interpret some form in intense art and extreme arts and this is done by censorship, and if these susceptible people are not protected, it can lead to detrimental consequesnces such as normalization. Normalization, to put it simply, is a process where certain people adopt certain traits about themsleves. For example, if there is a picture shown to you that dipicts a afghan child golding some sort of weponry, would we able to to understand and interpret this picture in an approprite manner? I don't think so. He might get the wrong imppression from the true meaning of the art form and he does not have a mature and rational thinking as yet, if he were to be a teen for example. Similarly, this applies to all other art forms which are difficult to interpret and would lead to similar behaviours to these vulnerable viewers.This in no way depriving the person from arts as they are not able to apreciate it in the first place so there is no point in potraying these art."

Can you understand what the main point of the speech is? And if you can, do you agree to it? Leave your comments below. What do you feel on the censorship of art?

Signing off,
Just another Singaporean

Boys and Girls

Gender. Something that all of us are part of.

I hope.

On the serious side, today i will talk about feminism. So what is the difference between a male and a female? Apart from the obvious. Why in so many societies men are seen as higher than females? There are so many countries in the world that are patriarchal, but there are matriarchal societies in this world.

Let me throw a classical debate topic here in Singapore: This house believes that women should serve National Service. Will you serve NS here in Singapore if you were a girl?

Gender is defined by society. In my previous post i mentioned that gender is a social construct. Don't we decide what are signs of masculinity? Lets say we have a doll. Dress it with short hair, "manly clothes" and add a floating cap on him one will say he is a dude. Dress it with long, flowing hair in a skirt and it becomes a girl.

I want to discuss the idea of American femininity vs the idea of french femininity.

American femininity is the idea is the idea that- Anything a man do, i, as a woman can do. Sometimes better. Why must men always be treated differently? I should be able to do what men can.

French feminist believes that OK, when men can do it better, let them do it. Let us as the women do what we are good at, but reward and accept us for the way we are. Because of the simple fact that men and women are engineered differently.

So what do you think? What do you believe in? Leave your comments below.

Signing off,
Just another gender.

Social Constuct

 Unfortunately i havent posted for about a week now, and i apologize for that, but fear not.

Today i will be talking about social construct. Dictionary.com defines social construct as:
a social mechanism, phenomenon, or category created and developed by society; a perception of an individual, group, or idea that is 'constructed' through cultural or social practice.

Social construct basically means what society is based upon. Let me give you an example. You are a blogger, because i call you a blogger. Because anyone on the internet reading my opinions is called a blogger. 

A train is a train because i call it a train.

So what i would like for you to think today, is that has everything around us been constructed by ourselves? Have we in fact constructed faith, the government, everything basically?

Some food for thought- If there are enough people on the planet that would say that I, the writer of this blog, can fly, will you actually start to believe that i can fly?

Then comes the point when i start to question the truth about everything around me. Somewhat, becoming paranoid. The questions i ask myself are-  Has man really been on the moon? Is there really a god? Are there UFO's, Alians, Ghosts?

So what do you feel?  Is everything around us a social construct? 

Do comment below. I wait for your response eagerly.

Signing off,
Just another Singaporean
   

"Eh, Racist la"

Evening bloggers!

Today i will be talking about the issue of racism. Below is a speech i had written last year on the issue. It is exaggerated though. I find that racism is becoming  bigger and bigger problem in todays society. Especially in a country like Singapore, which is a multi-racial society. 

Black, white or yellow. I can already see some puzzled faces. You must be thinking, huh what is this black,white or yellow? Are they some random colours?

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, I will be Touching on the issue of racism, and the effects that racism has on us individuals. As a child, I have been bullied many a times. Some people my age just walk up to me and say,  your black colour, you worship cows, you have no rights. Why, just because some people have the misconception about my race, language or religion because I am a minority in this country they can judge me on prejudice and stereotype us?

Firstly we must see why people do this. Isn't because our schools teach us these values? Is it that some parents teach their children to hate who look different? I don't think so. I see no reason why there is a need to make fun of someone other than the fact that this person is trying to inflict emotional pain on these people or maybe they just want to see a reaction from their prey. Most children, especially in their early teenage years are prone to be easily influenced by their surrounds and the comments some of their peers make.  

I can remember when I was a primary schooler friend once made this joke. It goes-what do you call one thousand Indians falling from the sky? Nightfall. Pretty funny right? Well, it's not funny when the joke is made at you. I used to laugh alongside trying to push aside my hurt feelings, but inside I knew that  y friends were not laughing with me, they were laughing at me. I can tell you that it's not funny when other people are discriminating against your looks and culture. That's when it started to hurt.

My parents used to tell me how carefree, cheerful and jubilant boy I was when I was younger.but my character started to change. My class,acted would not accept me for who I was as a person and I would succumb to peer-pressure and change my personality just so that I would be accepted. One way or another, I think that everyone here has done that.

There is this really beautiful paragraph in my favourite literature book, the merchant of Venice. It shows how this problem of racism has been going on since well, forever.

 William Shakespeare had written, 
He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew: hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, armed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. 

This shows that the ideology of racism has been the same throughout time and throughout the world. In 2009, a 15 year old schoolboy racially abused a 14-year-old mixed race girl, to the extent that the girl tried to take her own life by swallowing a cocktail of pills after he waged a six-month campaign of abuse on his victim by telling her: "Go back to your own country, you don't belong here." people think that, well this girl is overly sensitive or maybe that this girl was abnormal, but is that really the case? I can read out a hundred more of such cases but I won't due to time constraint.  Take a moment to think about it ladies and gentlemen. Why would a person go to the extent of risking his or her own life due to such comments being made?

We need to make a change in our lives. Ladies and gentlemen, the next time you see someone not responding positively to your comments and being affected by them, stop, and think twice.You never want to cross that line because you don't even know where that line exists. And who knows, we might just change someone's life altogether. So, what do the words black white or yellow mean to you now? I hope it's more than just some random colours. Thank you 


After reading this speech, do you think that racism has negative implications on the victims? Comment below.
Signing off,


-Just another guy living in Singapore

The new daughter in law

Hello again, and today i will be discussing domestic helpers, or in a more colloquial term, "maids". Whilst Singapore is one of the few countries where full time domestic helpers are legal, the debate on should we have them in our homes in the first place is ongoing.

"The new daughter in law" is a quote i heard a few days ago. And i ask myself, is this true? Have our maids taken the role of the mothers and wives of the family? And furthermore we really so dependent on them that our household cannot run without them?

Netmaid, a popular website for domestic help in singapore boasts that they have over two thousand maids for our selection. While that number seems small, there are over 200,00 maids working here already. As a student, and someone who has a domestic helper at home, feels that yes, we are becoming too dependent on them. I see myself, asking my helper to pour me a glass of water, to turn on the fan in the room for me, and do other minute tasks that can be easily, easily done by myself and sometimes a feel disgusted. Forget doing chores around the house, if i can pick up after myself that in itself would be a job well done.

There had also been the recent issue where the maid was seen carrying the NS man's bag. People were outraged when they saw the image being circulated online. But i do know for a fact that harsh actions were taken against the person after the incident.

Do we really need, someone to do all these tasks for us full time? Why not part-time help for families where both parents are working where the maid can come in, cook, clean and iron then leave? I find that to be a much better option as having someone to look after you all the time makes you become lazy and over-dependednt.

What do you think on the issue on domestic helpers. If you had a choice, what will you do?

Signing off,
Just another Singaporean

English Vinglish

Just saw this video. In my opinion, i think that this issue of "singlish" speaking here is really getting out of hand. Singlish is neither a language nor a dialect. As a Singaporean it is embarrassing that other countries are mocking us for our excessive use of singlish.

Sitting on the bus a few days ago, i overheard the conversation between two primary school students. They were conversing on an online game, Blackshot. Obviously there is nothing wrong with talking about that, but the English they were speaking would sound as another language altogether to a foreigner. Ï quote the conversation between them. This is not the exact content of the conversation, but it sounded like this to me.

(A) "Eh you know ah, the granede fly ah, so far that it kill everyone you know. My fren ah, all die you know. Later ah, i shoot them with my pistall and i headshot they all. I tell you i damn pro at blackshot"

(B) ""Aya that is nothing la. Yesterday i play with my brother and i own him i tell you. He got so much skill but he still loose to me. Then later i play team match and i get MVP eh. My kd is 40 pe cent. You think you can win me?

Seriously? Nobody would expect 10 year olds to talk in perfect fluent English but this has gone too far.

When i see between grown up working women, all decked up in the MRT stations going to work, they seem to be real professionals looking very smart, clad with high heels and briefcases. But when they open their mouth, my opinion of them changes. They can seem to pronounce their "r" and syllables.   I ask myself weather they had taken English as a subject in school. Sure i am over generalising singaporeans as a whole when this is not the case for many, but as a whole i think that there needs to be changes, and drastic ones to make a difference.

I am sure you can relate to me. What do you think? What are some things that can be done to improve the standard of English here?

Signing off,
Just another Singaporean

Cows of the world.

I absolutely loved this when i first read it, simply brilliant how different countries have their own ways to capitalize their cows. Haha. I dont agree that all of these are true, but many are hilarious.

 I tried to make my version after i read this, ill post it on a later date. What do you think about Capitalism? Do you have any of your own you would like to share? Comment below.

Signing off,
-Just another, cow?

Pilot

Hi readers, this is my first ever blog post, im calling it my "pilot" post.

This blog will interest those who, like me, enjoy to be aware on current issues, on a more basic level rather than political issues at large. Something like social norms. If you read this website called "stomp" you will know what i mean. But the problem i find with stomp is that stomp is petty and though some of the posts i like, the rest of them, to put it harshly, are dumb. If you agree with me i think you will enjoy my future posts.

Just to make things clear, this blog does not seek to hit a sensitive nerve such as race and religion. But please do not get me into trouble due to conflict of ideas. So if you don't like my writing and the ideas i put forth, please don't read further.

I would really like this blog to become a forum in the future, where other people can comment and share their points of views. I would be elated if the posts would be from teens, as i am one myself and i see that nowadays the youth are loosing their voice. Maybe i should address this in my future posts.

Do check in again soon, signing off now.

-Just another person living in Singapore
P.S. Apologies for spelling errors. Honestly i dont care for my spelling. Modern technology and such, spell check fixes everything. .