an act of nature, never one of god

If you ever thought you were tired of the world; it seems like a sad place sometimes, almost inhospitable and hostile. The loudness is jarring, the silence is choking.

And then it could be beautiful sometimes. This might sound a tad morbid; the other day at the bus stop, there was this dragonfly(I think it was), very much dead and dragged away by this platoon of ants. And that is what nature is, we live and we decompose. Death is mysteriously sad and paradoxically beautiful, an act of nature and never one of god.

I am once again irked by faith peddlers; their efforts tantamount to that of propaganda and ethnic cleansing. Well, in an age of capitalism, being the opportunists that we are, wouldn't we exploit market norms to our advantage? We would, but it is lopsided and there is an economic counter-argument to economic exploits. We only hear the good things, because they want you to hear only the good things. Which is why we always hear people basking in revelry, after triumphs in the monetary(stock markets, 4D, TOTO) sense. Now, what they fail to tell you is that they'd lost 9 out of 10 times, and you certainly would not catch the faintest wind of that.

So, tell me what goes through the minds of faith healers with their fancy Powerpoint slides, citing claims of healing the deaf, mute and the cancerous.

moral demarcation

Ain't it startling how we suddenly adopt moral high grounds, and ain't we the quickest to judge. If you've ever littered, spat on the ground, took a couple of extra napkins from Mac Donalds, you are in no position to judge the affairs(pun intended or not) of others. That makes all of us. One can only wonder what it takes to be in the seat of a judge; fairness, impartiality, equity.

I think the media gives too much attention to sordid affairs; who does not enjoy reading sexual exploits and details of lurid trysts. I do, but for once I would like to see headlines dedicated to conservational efforts. I think we can afford to miss a couple of Foyces and Jack Neos but certainly not another tiger or shark. We reside in an increasingly media-mediated environment, and the least we could do is to balance out this lopsided affair.

budget farce

So it's been eons since I've last penned anything down. Well recently the government called for greater productivity amongst Singaporeans and workplaces; I can safely say it wouldn't happen unless they obliterate MSN and Facebook, out of the workplace and right up into the stratosphere. In any case, its the government's sales pitch.

into another

At which point in time I wonder, that I've begun alienating the concept of competition. Maybe it is a subconscious effort on my part to keep any rage in check. Boy, I remember the hustle and jostle bubbling out of the cauldron called contact sports. A sneaky foul and I go like, 'Goddamn you. I hope you burn in hell for the rest of your natural life you m.......). In my head of course. Then there are those who have insatiable urges to express themselves verbally and physically, and may I add, are of questionable intellect. So, you noted the euphemism. Nowadays, I would rather shun that testosterone charged scene....

...and into another. Well, unless you live on another planet at a remote spot in the galaxy, we still hustle on. For a spot on the bus, for a place in varsity, for a performance appraisal. Books like the Game Theory(first developed by John Nash) have been written specifically to address the borders of competition. There is no escaping it, isn't it? Some of us get so soaked up in it; we devise ever innovative ways to circumvent the order of things, to beat the system. Power struggles, lawsuits, patents.

Let's breathe.

raw

Being happy is of course, nowhere on the same planar as being sad. With that being said, I've personally recognized happiness to be one of fleeting nature. It draws energy from a different 'base'. Grief however, connects one with his/her innermost self. It is raw and there is something distinctively primitive about it. We could relate it to the loss aversion theory; emotions gained from a dollar won is never the same as one with a dollar lost. We are hardwired to value losses far beyond reasonable comprehension. You'd probably spend at most a week in jubilee over a killing in equity markets; the other end of the scale saw countless ending their lives.

So did you ever wonder what ever happened to the bulk of compulsive buyers? Most of them think they are happy when they strip the whole shopping aisle bare; such exaggerated actions to blanket the insidious fact that they are really, lonely people. Constantly buying, mending the void in their hearts. At the end of the day, it is but a fallacy. They are still unhappy people, with a room full of merchandises. They don't go to bed with smiles on their faces.

tale of 2 worlds

Slipping into dreams that are bizarre as they are incoherent at times. Still, it was rather refreshing to dream up something I had thought matter. To sift through some of the ones, I've had simplistic dreams of wind-chimes. I could remember their designs and sounds in vivid fashion. On the other end of the curve though, there was this scenario where I'd tried to snap a god damned shot of a tornado hovering outside my humble abode. Really, if you thought we had bad weather...

Shrugging all(metaphorically or not) dreams, illusions and ethereal worlds aside, you cross over to the tracks of the real world or what have you. To brush away all things abstract, it is important to identify the differential features of both worlds. You would think we're often in control; more often than not you relinquish(subconsciously or not) control and let yourself be mired in all things derisory and apocalyptic. I can and controversially, cannot see why some would spend a counter-productive week on facebook mobile posting really sad updates and paying data charges simultaneously. This is perhaps harsh but the world didn't pause and mourn your updates. It didn't stopped revolving while I was down and out. You know, people in mental institutes cannot perform a differential. We probably shouldn't construct a mental asylum for our minds, but that is just my humble opinion.

progress, then regress

Of late, I've been harping on the notion of solitude. Touching on the strings of humanity. I mean sure, it is all about the camaraderie and communities. Could it also be juxtaposed with the vagaries of humanity? That which saw an impressive long list of conquest, war, genocides spanned over the course of time.

Nuances like public manners and hygiene; I probably devote too much time trying to figure out the distastefulness of it all. The community we're attached to, adopts a rather slack approach to the cultivation of values. Even on my best mornings, the public bus still looks suspiciously like a cauldron of really sick people that would have absolutely no qualms about starting a bio-hazard. As I am penning this down, there is an inane racket going on in the unit above, in the form of more-than-loud drills. So think, as we drive our fancy cars and renovate our apartments, of the externalities involved. Often we do as we will, at the expense of another. Your drills will cost the intrusion of personal space, your car will increase your carbon footprint, your bacteria-fondue cough will ruin another person's week.

I guess with proper education or even campaigns, it might serve to raise awareness. But just look around and you would notice that the budget for such is probably gathered from the few loose coins lying around the minister's office. In any case, it will be further exacerbated by the ever creative ways we devise to damn ourselves. Why, to cite an example, we could look at the theft of intellectual property, or piracy as we all know it. It is such an irony and you could only marvel at the simplicity of its humble origins. The formula for this century looks increasingly like this : Invent something, mop up its mess later. So yea, I guess a few years alone on an island will do us some good.