Now. Pictures.

Number of people around 10PM. The crowd grew bigger as the night drew on.

The man who would have been my MP short of 382 votes. Respect.

Rest of the shots on my Flickr page here.

And so, the end of the 2011 General Elections marks the beginning of our political awakening. The next five years is a crucial time in which we cannot allow ourselves to fade back into the apathy that our generation has been branded with for the past decades.

Some may have been disappointed with the outcome of this GE. Some people may have expected more. But I believe where we are at this elections is a comfortable and gradual transition to change. Our society is maturing, but we are not ready for an overnight revolution, neither should we be wishing for one.

The incumbents have been incumbent for so long, that if they were to be suddenly displaced, then MM’s fear mongering predictions will be right. We have no one to replace the current leadership should they suddenly lose their portfolios. The PAP obviously never planned for a scenario where they would lose their foreign minister overnight. Something I hope to happen following this GE is that more opposition party members would be allowed to understudy key roles within the Cabinet (I hope lah, sounds like wishful thinking right now). The PAP accuses the opposition of ‘not being there for the past 5 years’, but the opposition firstly, has never had the chance. And secondly, the PAP makes it intentionally difficult for them to do anything beyond menial.

Think about it, if let’s say in the next elections, the opposition suddenly really ends up winning at least a third of the seats and half your capable (PAP) ministers are suddenly ousted, it’ll be too late to suddenly scramble to replace them, and also again, unfair to say that the opposition is too green to take over as they’ve never been tried and tested. If you give then the chance, and they prove incapable of rising up to the occasion, then it’s a different story, right? Also, being protectionist and selfish over guarding the positions for the PAP itself is only in the best interest of the PAP, not necessarily Singapore. When talking, it is getting hard to decipher what you really mean when you tell us that something is best for Singapore. At some point in time, a line has to be drawn between what’s best for Singapore and what’s best for the PAP, and you’ll have to admit that party survival is not the number one priority in preparing for our country’s future.

If your reply to this is ‘Our focus is obviously our PAP people first (let’s say for an understudy role, leadership, etc)’ the same way MM says ‘Obviously we’ll focus on the wards under the PAP first (they get upgrading, etc, yay?)’ then you’re missing the point of why we are voting the opposition. (Also, people who live in opposition constituencies pay taxes that you use to upgrade other constituencies, thanks.) We are voting for the opposition because we want an alternative voice to the tried and tested hypotheses that had once worked for the PAP, ceteris paribus. Well tough luck, reality isn’t ceteris paribus.

We are voting the opposition because PAP has created a system that has institutionalized everything. A system that forgets the fact that how human beings react to things cannot be rationalized in black and white on a sheet of paper. On paper everything looks wonderful doesn’t it? Your KPIs, your leadership grooming tactics, moving people around different leadership roles so that they will be ‘versatile and critical thinkers’. Sorry, I’m not sold. Neither am I sold to the way you ‘groom’ leaders from your pool of elite scholars.

I’ve had friends from elite schools asking me at 19 years of age what SIM (Singapore Institute of Management) was, is it a real university, and why do people even go there when they can just go overseas and study. Friends from elite schools who have never had friends from ITE, who have never have to deal with failure, who don’t understand that not everyone has fathers who can make phone calls that open doors or make problems go away.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it, you say. Well it’s broke, please fix it.

To the PAP, please understand this. You have not lost our vote, not yet, not completely. My generation is voting for change, not for the opposition. There are many of us who are moderates. We don’t want radical change, please don’t make the mistake of pushing us into a corner till we have no choice but to act radically. We like to think that somewhere in our education, there was some merit to the ‘critical thinking’ skills we were taught, and that we’re making critical choices for our future, not being ingrates for not appreciating the PAP of the past.

PM Lee Hsien Loong’s humble speech at the end of the results was well-delivered, kudos to him (and/or his scriptwriter). We ask you to please keep your promise. Please also understand that the 6% drop in votes is not ‘only’ 6% and less than the 8% dip from the 2001 to 2006 elections. It’s like how in secondary school and JC when the principal would announce how ‘well’ the students did for their O’s and A’s when the results had dropped drastically, to a hall full of students who weren’t buying that bullshit at all.

If you want to PR us, do it honestly. (As a media student, I believe strongly in the value of good PR.) We have a very well-developed bullshit filter. I refer to this brilliant comic by The Oatmeal as an example of how to talk to my generation:

We’re tired of false niceties and MPs whom I’ve only ever seen at prize-giving ceremonies who turn up for all of half an hour. Tired of a government that sees itself superior to the people it serves, and completely turned-off by anyone who tries to tell us they know what’s best for us so we should just stay obediently quiet and let them do their job.

We want to be involved in a real way, not just a if you have feedback email us and we’ll get back to you within 10 working days with an automated reply after your email has been tossed around 4 entry-level people and archived way. If there’s anything this elections has taught me, is that people my age can speak up and be heard, that commenting on politics doesn’t need to wait till we’re 50, own a company and sit on a council in a statutory board. This elections has given my generation new found hope that we can truly be the change we wish to see.

Us, we are calling out for sincerity and a voice that isn’t so far removed from our reality. This is something that if we fail to see within the next 5 years, then good luck and goodbye when the next batch of first-time voters enter the picture. By 2016, the legal voting age will be those born in 1996. If this isn’t sinking in and scaring you, it should.

That’s all we’re asking for.

To the Workers’ Party, you are the most credible voice of the opposition camp right now, but there will come a time where PAP-bashing and harping on the anti-foreigner sentiments will be unacceptable. I find it difficult to stomach how the anti-foreigner sentiments were played up during the rallies by some of the MP-elects, and I hope that while this helped to get the crowd on its’ feet, will be something that is handled more sensitively and wisely on the Parliament floor.

We will be watching closely for the next five years. Clearly, now that my generation has been awakened, we’ll be keeping a keener eye on how thing evolve. Quoting a man that I respect a lot, and still hold in the highest regard as the most important person that gave me the Singapore I know today, “The PAP must rejuvenate or stagnate – democracy will only come when the PAP proves incapable of responding to public expectations as a result of stagnation.” (Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew)

May the leaders of our country for the next five years serve with wisdom and humility, and not forget that Singapore isn’t just a country, but a people.

Am I particularly well-informed in the sphere of politics? No. Politically apathetic? Hard to be in the current political climate.

For over 40 years, soccer and American politics have been far more interesting for Singaporeans to discuss than our stagnant and immovable PAPlitical scene. But there’s a whiff of change in the air, and regardless of whether the 2011 elections will bring in actual tides of change, it is undeniable that something has cracked in the veneer of a peaceful and contented society that the PAP has tried desperately to mask for the past decade. This little tear in the fabric has now morphed into an fast evolving monster that the PAP is clueless in handling.

I’m no expert, and I’m not going to pretend to be. But there are just a few things I’d like to point out.

I may not know what is right, but I know that something is wrong when

1. Civil servants are tweeting, leaving messages on Facebook and blogging questions such as “If I vote for the opposition, does it mean I won’t get my promotion/bonuses?” And while we may sound like we’re saying this candidly, behind it is a knowledge that our suspicions on this may not be entirely unfounded.
2. I go to an opposition rally and the moment people see the camera, wary eyes dart upwards and faces turn away with immediate effect to avoid the camera in fear.
3. Pedro goes to the rally with a handicam and a member of the public thinks he’s from the secret police.
4. We joke half-seriously that if we don’t vote for the PAP we won’t be able to get a HDB flat.

Don’t tell me that there’s ‘nothing wrong’ with the way things are because no citizen should be making his choice based on fear. People shouldn’t be voting for the PAP just to secure their estate’s upgrading program, a better chance at getting public housing or maintaining their public service jobs. We want to vote for you for what you can do, not what you will not do should we not vote for you.

The fear card may have worked when Singapore first gained independence because the threat of annihilation was very real. But please, three generations down, we appreciate everything the PAP has DONE for us, thank you, but that doesn’t mean we have the confidence in what you CAN DO for us, in the present and future tense, especially when so much of what you’ve done and said (especially online) lately seems so far removed from my version of reality.

I’m not going to say much else, because as Pedro succinctly phrases it, he admits that he’s no political expert & has no credibility whatsoever. But like everyone else on the internet, he just wants to be a well-informed shit-stirrer.

Here, instead, are some pictures from yesterday’s Workers’ Party Rally at Serangoon Stadium.

Traffic kept grinding to a standstill as the police attempted to distill the human traffic as well as they could. (Felt almost like New Year’s Eve at Esplanade Bay.)

Buying mini Workers’ Party flags for a $2 donation.

Capturing a capture of the crowd.

Ardent fan. For some reason the get-up just makes me think of Twoflower from Terry Pratchett’s Color of Magic.

Little kid waving flags. Doubt he knows what is going on, but that isn’t the point now, is it?

Crowd cheering and waving flags at the right moments. But there were also plenty who were just there to take a ‘listen, watch, wait-and-see’ approach.

Crowd spilling outside the stadium. In true ‘kaypoh’ Singaporean spirit, everyone wanted to just ‘be there’. (Me included) Behind those rows of people behind the fence it is jammed packed to the next building as well.

Roars of applause from the audience would ring out whenever witty jokes aimed at the PAP or related ministers were made.

—

Some articles on the elections worth reading:

Paul G. Buchanan: A Door Cracks Open in the Little Red Dot
“Among the ranks of the opposition are defectors from the PAP, former government-sponsored overseas scholars (who usually pay their scholarship debt by returning to assume bureaucratic positions and joining the PAP), former Internal Security Act detainees (the ISA allows for the indefinite detention of suspects without charge and some of the current opposition candidates have spent long periods in confinement) and political exiles.

Most of the new (opposition) candidates are in their mid 20s to mid 40s, thereby representing a coming of age for their generation of free thinkers. In response, the PAP has trotted out the usually ensemble of former bureaucrats and politicized retired military officers, interspersed with a handful of younger neophytes (including one whose qualifications for office apparently are that she is the wife of the Prime Minister’s executive assistant and has a penchant for shopping). What is most revealing is that the PAP is no longer able to hide its internal divisions, with leading officials, Ministers and even the Minister Mentor (how’s that for a title?) Lee Kwan Yew himself openly disagreeing about issues of politics, policy and social construction. Sensing a shift in the public mood, some PAP candidates have withdrawn from the election. All of this underscores something that the Minister Mentor said last year: that the PAP must rejuvenate or stagnate, and that democracy would only come when the PAP proved incapable of responding to public expectations as a result of its stagnation.”

What’s So Bad About Another PAP-dominated Parliament?
“This argument for diversity amidst increasing complexity is the single most important reason why I believe a continuation of PAP dominance is no longer in Singapore’s long-term interests. Given the improved quality of the Opposition’s candidates, a long-standing obstacle to voting for the Opposition has also been removed. But more importantly, the time to build diversity and resilience in the system is when it is still successful and stable. By the time the system runs into crisis, it is usually too hard to develop the capabilities needed for adaptation.”

Yawning Bread – Deadlock Boogeyman
“This year, old bogey has been renamed “Deadlock”. The message is the same, though: if the PAP does not have a sweeping victory, there will be deadlock in parliament and Singapore will grind to a halt.

Old bogey emerged very soon after the Workers’ Party unveiled its key message: Singapore needs to vote significant numbers of opposition members into parliament if we are ever to acquire the security of an alternative government-in-waiting should the PAP one day flounder. This message has since been distilled into the catchphrase: A First-World parliament.

Immediately, the PAP declared that in this respect, Singapore must remain Third World. The First World is a very scary place. There, legislatures are in gridlock, governments do not function. How then these countries managed to reach first-world status in economic, technological and social development, is a mystery left unexplained.”

21-year old disgusted with Straits Times
“A Social Movement, indeed, was what I saw when I walked through the supporting crowd of the Workers’ Party. Never in my life in Singapore have I heard the voices of Singaporeans so clear and articulate. Yes, I was convinced that Singaporeans are talking. You should stop having this mindset that Singaporeans are apathetic. In case you still didn’t know it, I am informing you now. Go write about it. The Singaporeans want to be heard. But I guess you won’t. Because what Singaporeans are saying is what you dismiss as just a rowdy bunch of comments from a rowdy bunch of “uninformed and ignorant” Singaporeans – who didn’t know what the PAP had been doing for them. Mind you, your dismissal of their valuable comments make you yourself ignorant of what the united voice of Singaporeans are speaking.

At this point, I admit, you do look stupid. You sound a tat-bit senile to the massive crowd at the Workers’ Party rally, where you took a photograph of and placed in page A8. Every head you captured has a brain attached, and those brains must be thinking: Is that all you got out of the Workers’ Party rally? It is such an unmoving piece, from a moving social movement. It is not purely emotional as you claimed on the front page. There was some substance, if you were to observe and listen more. I juxtaposed your PAP coverage on page A4 with it, and I see so much more of your enthusiasm, in covering the uncalled-for responses of the wives of contesting MPs.

Honestly, what you covered on voices of the wives in the PAP rally are nothing – kosong – as compared to what you had missed out in covering the voices of the citizens in the WP rally. You didn’t cover how the PAP “crowd” was made up mostly of its own white-shirted people, who are somehow related to the people standing on stage. Almost none of the non-PAP Singaporeans who were there gave a “Majulah Singapura” roar when called to. And yet, you covered an MP wife’s comment that the crowd at PAP’s “responded to him… the response seems good.” Wait till you hear the comments at the Workers’ Party side! But wait… it was not covered.

When I read your coverage of the Worker’s Party rally, much of what I had just read was just another bunch of skewed words, based on the ideology of the PAP which defines what constitutes a “clean and fair fight”, and what does not. PAP calls the shots all the time. No wonder PAP says in Buangkok: “Where were the opposition parties for the past 10 years? They only come out during the elections, wanting you to vote for them.” Have PAP even given the opposition a chance to serve? Come on. They don’t even have the means to. Give them a break. Stop giving them double-standards. I find myself reading in mounting degrees of disgust as I flipped through the papers I spent 90 cents on.”

Letter to a Dead Lover
APR. 12, 2011 By JOSH LIBURDI
(via ThoughtCatalog)

Dear Dead Lover,

I am sorry to inform you of this, but you are dead. Do not be confused by what may appear to be normal signs of life: breathing, a pulse, a thought. I have diagnosed you and you are certainly, unequivocally, without a doubt dead. There will be no eulogy, no funeral. I have buried you in the region of my body farthest from my head. I believe that this is somewhere in the feet, possibly in one of the toes, but the exact location is unknown and better left undisclosed.

I have done this because thinking of you has caused me anguish. I have spent hours reflecting on our time together and this is the right moment to put it all away. I will build walls around every emotion, minor or significant, that I have ever felt for you. They will be strong walls, made from each moment in which you slighted me. I will cut you from every meaningful event we attended together. I will do it with such precision that it will be as if you were never there and, upon recollection, no one, not even your parents or best friends, will notice your absence. As a result, my heart will harden.

I do this not with malice, but with regret. Sometimes I think that, if I were stronger, you could still be alive. I am weak. I cannot bear the moment you will appear in my mind. My mind will play tricks on me, it will deceive me, it will make me miss you. I cannot let it do this. This isn’t fair—I know that this isn’t fair. I must do what I can to cope. I have enough to worry about. I can’t chance that you will appear at random or, perhaps, when I am most vulnerable.

The others who talk of you, they will become quiet when I am around. They will ask me how my day is going, but with a look that makes me feel distraught. I won’t get upset; I will have expected this to happen. Instead, I will feel the need to smoke a cigarette, though I have never smoked one before. I may ask them for one in an effort to change the conversation.

Sometimes I will think about the good moments. How excited you were when we first met. How my heart thumped the first time we laid down together and you casually draped your arm over me. When you put your hand inside my mitten that cold night just so you could hold mine. When you said that “that sound” I make is your favorite sound. When I did anything that was your favorite. When I realized that, for once, I found someone like myself who enjoyed my company, my thoughts, my expressions.

These thoughts, though, will appear during moments of weakness and be fleeting. They will not last. They will be quickly replaced by the feeling of insignificance you put upon me, a darkness that will cloud my mind and cause me to shudder, just as I do when a chill blows by. There will be the memory of you being incapable of returning my love. The memory of how I failed to keep you close. The memory of you telling me, on the drive home to our apartment, that you no longer loved me and how you did this without remorse or any expression at all.

If my life is a book, then there is no chapter for you. You are not scribbled in the margin and you are nowhere to be found in the first draft. You are not even a Post-It note in my research. You are a scrap of paper in my pocket. You are no better or worse than the other scraps around you, buried deep in my pockets. Over time, you will become one with the others, just a collective, forgotten memory.

A number of months from now I will meet someone else. Someone who reminds me why it is I love humanity. Someone who makes me laugh when you could not, someone who understands my thoughts better than you ever did. Someone who doesn’t make me feel bad about myself when I wake up in the morning. Then you will be gone, possibly forever. Until that time, this letter will suffice.

Dead lover, I am sorry for this. I am sorry for all of it. I hope that you will understand.

Kindly, Regretfully,
Your Ex-Lover

1. They are very weird people.
2. There are billions of them in the world, like colors on the screen of your computer.
3. They will analyse conversations in layers.
4. You will spend the day assembling furniture from IKEA.
5. They drink and eat all kinds of weird shit just because they like the packaging.
6. They hate each other.
7. You’ll come out the last out of the movies because you have to see the full list of credits.
8. They cant change a light bulb or without making a sketch.
9. They fuck up all the tables with their cutters.
10. They rather study the paisley pattern on your outfit than listen to what you have to say.
11. They will fill your house with magazines and whatever is out there that has drawings.
12. You never know if it is really an original or a copy.
13. They make collages with your photos.
14. They do not know how to add and subtract, they just understand letters.
15. They idolize people who nobody knows and speak of them as if they were his colleagues.
16. They take pictures almost daily and all are cut in weird shapes.
17. They ask your opinion about everything but they do whatever they want.
18. Everything is left justified, right or center unless they arrive late.
19. They hate Comic Sans with the same passion they love Helvetica.
20. They use iPhone for everything, because everyone has one.
21. You can not decorate the house without consulting them.
22. They steal street signs.
23. Always carry their hands painted with something.
24. They buy dolls unfinished for them to paint.
25. Everything becomes something other than what it really is: cards as tickets, cards as …
26. When arguing, you will be nicknamed like the OSX spinning wheel (not affectionately)
27. Do not know how to dress without consulting the Pantone book.
28. They hate Excel.
29. They read comics.
30. They want to save the world only with a poster.
31. You will spend the day brainstorming.
32. On vacation they will take you to countries that you do not know exist and have no beach.
33. Museums are their second home.
34. They know more positions than the Kamasutra.
35. They can’t go to a restaurant without secretly critiquing the menu design.
36. They listen to music you have never heard of.
37. They can´t cook a normal dish, they always have to experiment with new ingredients.
38. They read rare books: stories of children, Semiotics …
39.When you are going to tell you something, everyone has read it in their facebook and twitter.
40. They have own iPods before you knew they existed.
41. The orgasm they remember is when they heard that Adobe was acquiring Macromedia.
42. They have their own shops just for them and there are the most expensive in the city.
43. They want to spend all the money in the Apple Store.
44. You will never understand their gifts.
45. They see ordinary objects and laugh.
46. You wake up in the middle of the night hearing them screaming “When is the deadline?”
47. They see CMYK and RGB like Neo sees the Matrix.
48. They dream of the day nobody will make a single change to their designs.
49. They rather pay for a font than for a special birthday gift.
50. They are always sleepy because they work 24/7.

—

Guilty of (at least) 24 out of 50. Oops?

Well… in our defense, here are (a few) reasons TO date one.

1. They handmake their gifts for you because they can’t bring themselves to pay for something they think they can design themselves (given of course, if ONLY they had their own printers, cutters, moulds, paper, etc).

2. They make very nice handmade gifts that they would charge their clients hundreds of dollars for… except that you may not be able to appreciate it as much as, say, a new bottle of cologne or Xbox or the Apple computer your overworked unpaid designer friends simply can’t afford to buy for you (mostly because they’ve just bought one for themselves).

3. When they’re in love (infatuated, or engaging in the hunt/chase), they start making a LOT of things for you. Weird drawings, good drawings, notebooks, paintings, poetry, etc.

4. A good designer is normally a good communicator because they spend so much time psychoanalyzing their clients (layers).

Okay I’ve run out of ideas.

Off to do some prep work for Z Academy that I’m taking part in with pohtecktoes. Shall keep dreaming of going to Cannes…

ONWARDS!

Back then I was a freshly minted sophomore. Movies were not yet ruined for me as a result of my film education. The ‘formulae’ of storytelling had not yet become itemized segments in my mind.

Two years down the road and a few more short films later, I’ve become far more sensitive to the nuances, hooks and turning points in the process of telling a story, be it one on screen or stage.

There will be spoilers, but really, how many of you don’t know the story of Lion King?

A regular consumer of media generally just laps things up hook, line, sinker, the fisherman and his boots. But despite all the complaints we (okay, I) make about how a media school teaches us nothing we really need to know to survive in the real world, it has made me very sensitive (and jaded) to many things, especially how we choose to communicate a message to our intended audiences. This is a discussion for another day, but my point is, studying the art of storytelling and scripting for a film has made me observe more closely how stories are told, and why the stories of another actually mean anything to us.

The Lion King is a story with many lessons, more than I will remember to write about in this post. It is a story filled with animal characters, but very human situations. What draws us so fondly to these tales are the mirrors of ourselves and our world that we see in theirs, tales that we can relate to.

There are two main types of observations I drew from The Lion King tonight; the spiritual, and the non. I shall begin with the latter.

—

Why are we drawn so intimately into their stories?

Simba running away and choosing the hakuna matata life, yet his outer veneer of happiness is weighed down by the guilt of his past that he keeps buried deep inside.
The one who makes a mistake he deems unforgivable, and condemns himself to running away forever to avoid facing the consequences of his actions, or to avoid facing the shame and guilt he believes he will wear on his heart forever.

The hakuna matata life.
No worries, no past, no future, no purpose; a hedonist’s existence. All three from a lonely, rejected past. Trying to plug their lives with the happiness of the world, a defense mechanism, a but all hiding inside, the holes they could only temporarily cover but never truly fill.

Simba snarling and walking away yelling “You’re WRONG!” after Nala tries to tell him that he has to go back and claim his rightful place.
The pride and defensiveness that is snappily released onto the ones who care enough about us to tell us to go back and face our fears. (And also, often, the case of men who just simply refuse the gentle advice of the woman who understands him best and who has more foresight than him, if he would only just lay down his pride for a moment to see it.)

The magic of storytelling is this: That regardless of whether you choose to tell a story with animals, or even garden gnomes, is that every story is just merely a reflection of our own existence. Don’t ask me about more abstract writing, but I believe that every storyteller writes a story just as much for another to appreciate as he writes for himself.

Some may argue that an author’s work can sometimes just be his own form of catharsis. I won’t comment on the self-indulgence of writing, but I believe that if you want to call yourself a storyteller, a curator of tales, the act itself is one that involves someone other than the author himself. Story told.

So a storyteller is one who must have stories that can and want to be heard. Stories that live on in the stories of others, because it is a story of others.

As a film student it has become an even more pertinent subject on mind to be able to tell a good story, hence the constant observation on the success of other stories. I think constantly of my subject, of the ones to whom my story will be told to, and how my stories will unfold in their minds to actually mean anything to them.

The human condition is an ageless tale, when adapted well to the context of your audience. It never dies nor goes away, because humans, despite the many lessons they can draw from history, are stubborn creatures and make the same mistakes even when they know the perfect answers to their supposed problems. And this is what I always remind myself of, when I start to weave a story in my mind.

The Spiritual Observations.
You may stop reading here, if you wish. I am candid and unabashed about my faith.

There were just too many to ignore: “He lives in you, he lives in me.”

The above three examples.
The entire story.
Running away from the Father.

In the story of the Lion King, Simba ran away because he believed he killed Mufasa. His guilt caused him to flee. Likewise, in the lives of many Christians who have walked out of the church, it is less because God disappointed them, but because of the guilt they bear when they believe they have disappointed God. Those that have not been taught the God of grace but the God of do-good-get-good, do-bad-get-beat, find themselves in positions where they simply cannot live up to ‘expectations’ (set by the institutionalized church, and not necessarily the bible), and decide to just drop it completely because it just isn’t worth it.

They run away to the world, like Simba does, and indulge in its pleasures to try and forget. Most of you have heard Christians rambling on about this ‘God-shaped hole’ that only God can fill. And many of you have scoffed at it. I have had my fair share of ‘debates’ (or confrontations in which many like to challenge my faith) with friends who have flatly told me in the face that God does not exist, that they would never step into a church again, that even if God were real so what their lives are perfectly fine without him.

But the hole is never truly filled, any temporary attempts to feed it remain, temporary. They satisfy but for the moment, and need to be often replenished.

Rafiki appears and Simba asks him, ‘Who are you?’ and Rafiki retorts with: “It is not who am I, but who are YOU.”

Simba sees Mufasa in his reflection in the water. “You have forgotten me,” Mufasa says. “No! I haven’t.” Simba replies.
“You have forgotten who you are, and so you have forgotten me.” the gentle voice of Mufasa replies, from the stars.

The same way, many of us forget God. We forget that when you KNOW you are the child of the King and what this means, you carry yourself that way. A gift is of no use until you stretch out your hand and actually take it. Likewise, you live who you believe your identity to be.

And from that turning point Simba finds the strength he never knew he had to confront Scar.

Knowing your identity gives you strength and boldness to say and do the right things.

—

There are so many lessons jammed into The Lion King that I’d never noticed before studying film became a part of my life.

Off to sleep now, KTM with the boys tomorrow later for Rediscover.

For those of you who’ve not seen a naggy note from me somewhere on Twitter/Facebook regarding the Home video the Rediscover crew worked on, it’s here:

Am extremely pleased to know that we are hitting close to 3,300 views sorry, while I was writing the entry it broke the 3,300 mark on YouTube, regardless of what the votes reflect. Been hearing from a few friends that’s it’s gone viral to people who aren’t our first-degree friends, so I’m really happy that we did something that really nudges at the heartstrings of our fellow Singaporeans. You can read my reflections on making this video and working on Rediscover so far, here.

Recent thoughts on the latest calamity to hit our planet under cut.

I know I am quite an idealist about many things in life, coupled with the irony that many people know me to be cynical. But I deign that it is precisely because I have been hurt in so many ways that have left me cynical, that I must continue to believe in the dreams and ideas that people tell me I will never see come to pass.

I could blog about so many things right now, about the mini review of my new Jill.e camera bag that I wanted to do, or food, I’m always ready to blog about food. But when events like Friday’s tsunami and earthquake happen, everything seems so trivial in comparison. Walking through the IT fair crowd in the Suntec/Esplanade/Promenade area yesterday, watching people squeeze into the train, happy with their merchandises as though it was just any other day… I felt such a sense of urgency and alienation.

As Singaporeans we are sheltered from everything. We can sympathize, but we can never empathize. We sit here and watch the news, read the papers, follow closely the confusion of information on Twitter, watch the live broadcast on BBC and Al Jazeera, gasp in shock and horror but then continue to live our sheltered happy lives, believing that Singapore will never be hit by any possible natural disaster, ever.

Yesterday as many Singaporeans went to the IT fair and spent a heap of money on devices that will be replaced in less than 2 years, thousands others are lost and presumed dead, a tall, strong and powerful first-world country is struggling to come to terms that despite having prepared for ‘The Big One’ forever and having one of the best technology and infrastructure in the world, they were, to put it mildly, not prepared for This Earthquake, This Tsunami, and These Aftershocks.

As I write this the updates on Google and Twitter are telling me that a volcano just erupted in southwest Japan spewing ash 4 kilometres into the air. Not sure if this will affect or hamper anything, but it definitely doesn’t bode well for morale.

It’s such a time of despair and hopelessness for so many, and even as I blog from the comfort of my home I feel so far away from the real pain that others are going through. Even if I give money I have no idea where it goes once it leaves my hands, and with the little that I have what can I possibly do anyway.

Then I think of what I’m doing as I pursue this silly university certificate that society has told to chase since I was a child. A part of me just wants to drop it all, leave and be somewhere where what I do with my hands matters to someone apart from myself. But the part of my brain that has successfully conformed to the norms expected of me tells me to suck it up and finish my last year. And then what? If I’m not willing to leave now, will I be willing to brave unchartered waters once I leave this school?

A jumble of thoughts.

I want to do something that matters to someone other than me.

I have so much going for me, am I really going to give it all up?

How then can I use the talents that God has blessed me with, with these hands, what can I do to make a difference, no matter how small, in the life of someone who needs it?

So many questions to sleep on, so many questions to talk to God about.

Thanks for walking with me through my ramblings, if you made it to the end of this post.

In the meantime, pray for Japan, pray for the world.

I saw this quote on a graphic on Tumblr: I hope the living are safe. I hope the missing are found. I hope the dead are at peace.

If you don’t know how or what to pray for, just pray for that.

These ‘others’ don’t often include many current or latest hits because I honestly feel very little for much of mainstream music. (Find it hard to listen to songs without meaningful lyrics). Most of my secular songs come from friends as recommendations, or random songs I hear used in short films on the internet. HAHA.

So for tonight here’s 10 songs from the 10% that are on my favourites list. Be warned that there may (generally) be a lot of Ingrid Michaelson and Regina Spektor on this list!
(In no particular order.)

—
1. Regina Spektor – Laughing With
(Official music video, embedding not allowed)

Personal: I like this song because it talks about how many of us make jokes about God at every other time except when something life changingly devastating happens, then suddenly we’re not laughing so hard anymore and we start to think if God is really real, and if He is, will He help us? The thing about people is that they don’t doubt that God can, but just whether God will. And I know my God is a God that is not just capable, but is a God who will reach out His hand to touch you and say to you, “I am willing.”

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when their airplane starts to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God when they see the one they love hand in hand with someone else and they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door and they say, “We’ve got some bad new, sir”
No one’s laughing at God when there’s a famine, fire or flood”

—
2. Lifehouse – All That I’m Asking For

Personal: I love Lifehouse because every song always subtly reminds me of Jesus, go figure on this one. Haha.

All that I’m asking for
Is that you need nothing more
And nothing comes in between
Our love and it’s fragile scene
All that I’m asking for
You’re all that I’m asking for

—
3. Ingrid Michaelson – Overboard

Personal: This song is something I always felt (when I was in love). I feel mostly what the song says, so there.

I could write my name by the age of three
and I don’t need anyone to cut my meat for me
I’m a big girl now, see my big girl shoes
It’ll take more than just a breeze to make me

Fall over, fall over, fall overboard, overboard
Fall overboard just so you can catch me
You can catch me

—
4. Weepies – World Spins Madly On

Personal: Discovered this song because of the beautifully done animation in the link above. This song came at a time when I knew things were already going south in my relationship, and kind of represented to me the futility as things slipped increasingly out of my grasp and life just went on around me.

Woke up and wished that I was dead
With an aching in my head
I lay motionless in bed
I thought of you and where you’d gone
And let the world spin madly on

Everything that I said I’d do
Like make the world brand new
And take the time for you
I just got lost and slept right through the dawn
And the world spins madly on

—
5. John Mayer – Heart of Life

Personal: A cheer-me-upper, obviously.

I hate to see you cry
Laying there in that position
There’s things you need to hear
So turn off your tears and listen

Pain throws you heart to the ground
Love turns the whole thing around
No, it won’t all go the way, it should
But I know the heart of life is good

—
6. Dishwalla – Every Little Thing

Personal: Don’t we all wish that sometimes.

Let me in
To see you in the morning light
To get me on and all along the tears
They come
See all come

I wish I could be every little thing you wanted
All the time
I wish I could be every little thing you wanted
All the time, sometimes

—
7. Jason Mraz – Sunshine Song

Personal: How can I possibly not have any Jason Mraz on my list?

Well sometimes the sun shines on
Other people’s houses and not mine.
Some days the clouds paint the sky all gray
And it takes away my summertime.
Somehow the sun keeps shining upon you,
While I struggle to get mine.
If there’s a light in everybody,
Send out your ray of sunshine.

—
8. Freelance Whales – Generator ^ First Floor

(The recorded version sounds quite different from the live one above!)
Personal: This song was a playlist that Xiangyun very nicely burned for me just before she headed off to the States. It became an instant earworm and was on loop for days. Love the imagery presented in the lyrics, makes everything come alive in my head.

We get up early just to start cranking the generator
Our limbs have been asleep we need to get the blood back in ‘em
We’re finding every day several ways that we could be friends

We keep on churning and the lights inside the house turned on
And in our native language we are chanting ancient songs
And when we quiet down the house chants on without us

—
9. Nevershotnever – On The Bright Side

Personal: Another cheer-me-upper! And also an adorable music video.

You’re only as tall as your heart will let you be
And you’re only as small as the world will make you seem
When the going gets rough and you feel like you may fall
Just look on the brightside – you’re roughly six feet tall

10. Jon Mclaughlin – Human

Personal: A reminder to forgive ourselves.

After all we’re only human,
Always fighting what we’re feeling,
Hurt instead of healing,
After all we’re only human,
Is there any other reason why we stay instead of leavin’ after all?

Some snippets from the day we covered the bakery…

I loved the experience because it was a bakery and I obviously Iove baking, the magic of ovens and the smell of freshly baked bread and how it just makes you feel all warm, fuzzy and homely inside. :] You can read more about it on Rediscover.sg.

You’ll be seeing more of it later on in the year when we launch our mini video series, there’s good news on that front that I’ll share more of when I can.

Here are the 3 jokers I work with.

This time last year I went to Switzerland with 5 girls, this time this year I’m on internship with 3 guys. Somehow I haven’t managed to strike a balance on this front for reasons I have yet to comprehend.

Oh well.
And here’s a sneak peak of what we’ll be featuring on Rediscover next…

Stay tuned. And if you see this by Thursday and want an A4 copy of my calendar at $20 a pop, let me know ASAP.

This year we went to MELT, which is a great restaurant in Mandarin Oriental. This place is exorbitantly pricey during peak periods but the food is excellent as far as buffets go. Digressing, all the restaurants in Oriental are excellent. There’s Morton’s, of course, which needs no introduction. Cherry Garden, the dim sum place, which according to the author of ieatishootipost is the ‘sort of place you bring your future in-laws to when you’re going to break it to them that you’re marrying their daughter’. [There's the weekend dim sum a la carte buffet here at $45+++ per pax that is worth every penny.] There’s also Wasabi Bistro, the Japanese restaurant. The weekend brunch a la carte buffet is $58+++ per pax but is also worth every cent you put down. In short, you can’t really go wrong with any of Oriental’s offerings. It may be a little pricier than some others, but I subscribe to ieatishootipost’s Leslie Tay philosophy of not wasting my calories on yucky food. (Almost) nothing makes me feel grumpier and more dissatisfied than poorly prepared food especially if it’s going to my waistline.

COMING BACK TO MELT, yes… This isn’t the first time we came here, probably the second. We were here one Christmas as well. Because it’s her birthday month Mom had the option of having 15% off or 1 person dining for free (we took the latter option) when using UOB. They also gave us complimentary yummy praline cake, two big slices of it (which we were so full we had to tar-bao).

Now I don’t know about you, but to me the two most important parts of a buffet are the appetizers (read: sashimi and/or cold seafood) and the desserts. Everything else in between is a filler and forgivable if it isn’t up to par. So I always rate my buffets by how good the sashimi and desserts are.

Sashimi here is one of the best you can get on a buffet line. Fresh, not a hint of having been left out too long. Wasabi that kicks you in the nose and makes your eyes water. [No tuna for me, personal choice the same way I don't take sharks fin.]

On to the other cold dishes there are heaps of crayfish, mussels, crab and scallops on ice. These are not too bad but they do taste like they’ve been out there for a while.

The crab claws are well done because all you need to do is fork the meat and it slides out of the claw without any need to wrestle with it at all.

Cheese platter. I love cheese. Almost every kind of cheese. Except maybe blue cheese. It’s always nice to go for buffets with expansive cheese selections to have a taste of stuff you normally only get on European breakfast tables. [If you really love cheese, try the buffet at Fullerton hotel. They have a cheese selection that will leave you dumbfounded.]

Some antipasta from the appetizers section. Behind it are three types of thai salad. Pomelo, papaya and mango. Good stuff. Okay I’ll move on briefly to the mains although I touched little of it.

If you want to eat anything from the mains, go for the Indian cuisine, of which there is a lot of. They also have an entire Chinese section, pasta, western and all your usual suspects in an international buffet, but the Indian food is pretty yummy. I think it tasted better to me the last time we were here. This time I don’t think anything about it has changed, but my tastebuds have tasted the awesomeness of the cuisine while I was Sri Lanka last year, so it wasn’t as yums to me as it was previously. MELT has one of the most expansive buffet selections ever. I don’t have many pictures of it to share because I nibble on the mains and my plate therefore looks fairly pathetic and unphotogenic. So we’ll move on to the desserts.

Now they don’t stinge on their desserts either. Seriously, they offer more than any dedicated dessert shop any day. There’s drawers and plates full of cakes and creams and fondue with not just fruit but cookies on sticks.

And waffles and ice cream and those fun poppin’ chocolate balls that go pop in your mouth.

And more. All these were not even half of what you can get in that section. There’s was an entire drawer full of luxury chocolates as well which we skipped.

And then the servers brought out two slices of this cake! It’s a praline with a crunchy nutty base. [Conrad has this cake too which we ordered some years for birthdays that is really really good.] Two slices because Mom told them there were 3 of us celebrating birthdays. We tarbao-ed them home because we simply couldn’t eat any more.

The service was great. I guess it’s not peak season for students to work there so most of the servers were filipinos and there was an ang moh manager. (Actually I don’t know if Oriental takes in waiting staff who are students, their service has always been impeccable in my memory.) One of the staff charged us wrongly for one of the glasses of wine and they gave it is to us complimentarily after mom notified them of the mistake.

Good service accompanying a satisfying meal, which is just about all you could want for a happy tummy and a happy mind.

MELT is definitely on my memorable-buffets-list, but it comes in somewhere after Oscar’s (Conrad) and The Line (Shangri-La) and before Town (Fullerton) for international buffets. This is not even including the Chinese and Jap buffets.

(I love food too much and should shut up now.)

Sometimes I think I should just blog about food because it makes me happy.

Kay off now.