The Obstacle in our Path...

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.
Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.
Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables.
Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road.
After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been.
The purse contained many gold coins, and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.

The peasant learned what many of us never understand:
Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

"Is this the way to Amarillo?"

Hi friends, decided to institute some change into the usual sombre mood of things on my blog (existential ramblings about people all worked up over their gleaming grades, war and killings...etc). Just sit back, and enjoy this video I found on Youtube.com.
Shows just how much you can make out of a situation. (These guys being posted out to the Middle East...in desert conditions...and STILL being able to find time, heart and HUMOUR to do this crazy video of the hit song "Is this the way to Amarillo?" by Tony Christie and Peter Kay).
I say it puts those SAF soldiers who keep saying "Serve and F-O" to shame. If you're gonna be in there for two years, or more...just do your best and take it as an experience. A little humour like this should certainly spice up our lives.
And that includes those of us OUTSIDE...walking around in "civvy street" (as the Brits would say). Take it easy sometimes, ya? And just chill. (Even if you have two exams next week, like me).

Something has to be set straight

I've been posting some comments on Laremy's Blog about a certain issue he's discussed about last week.
Thought that it would be good to share with the good folk out there what has transpired (I've only placed posts here that are relevant to the discussion:

1. i can’t get (a) even if i wanted to but to be honest, i think higher education is about learning, not just grades. i think its more important that you leave the place with knowledge that changes and inspires, than a First Class Honours in modules which were easy to score or something.

   dunno lei. i like to do fun/ interesting modules, regardless of difficulty level. haha. so i guess i’m (b). and that might be partly due to the fact that my future career choices doesn’t rely heavily on my Hons. class.

   Comment by fiza — Sun, 23 April 2006 @ 2:41 pm

2. I’d tend to agree with Fiza…that Uni education is not abt grades (or shouldn’t be made out to be that way). Besides…I’m not for the case where ppl ‘pia’ their lives out just so they get a First Class…but miss out on other great things in life (hanging with friends, seeing amazing sunrises - cos they’re prob still stuck in their little cubicles/study rooms mugging their brains to mush).
   So I will go by (b).

   Comment by Nian — Mon, 24 April 2006 @ 1:13 pm

3. Having said that…I’m still a USP student…who loves to learn about things ‘out of the box’.
   Unfortunately…its kinda paradoxical…cos the entire USP community is driven by the tendency to do things within their ’skill-set’ …and thus not wanting to venture to try something different. Maybe its not just USP. Was thinking that it could be the entire Uni community. Not wanting to be penalised by some ‘crappy-Arts/Science’ module they did…when they’re a Straight A Mechanical Engine whiz.
   The system has got to be improved. Otherwise, whatever we say about ‘multi-disciplinary’ and ‘learning out of the box’ is just empty talk.

   Comment by Nian — Mon, 24 April 2006 @ 1:33 pm

4. all i can say is that, if someone is really intelligent, it won’t matter if you’re a engin student or some IT geek… you will still be able to get ‘A’s for intro/USP arts/science classes… :)

   Comment by jules — Mon, 24 April 2006 @ 11:42 pm

5. Jules, Understand what you mean. And yes, we all wish to think we’re intelligent enough to get our share of complete distinctions, and as a British saying goes…still “be back home for tea and medals”. But oft it doesn’t work that way.
   I’m sure you know as well as I, that school life is very much one or the other unless you are the said “really intelligent” person. And even then, all people - whether “really intelligent” or “plain Jane Average” people have only 24 hours to spare. So its a matter of time management yes?
   Yes…and more.
   Perhaps I’m just ’sore’ about not doing as well as many other ‘USPs’. Maybe my CAP is not as glittering. Maybe I’m using this opportunity to justify why I did so ‘badly’ in my first year. Well, I’d like to state that my case one of a kind. First Sem…USP mod…I did pretty much the entire project. And I still failed. Do you see where I’m getting at?
   I’m not holding it against any of my friends who do better than me, be it from sheer hard work and diligence (kudos to them), or by getting easy tips on spotting ‘ace-able’ modules which give ‘easy grades’.
   All I’m saying is that, my failure was my fault in being unable to keep up with such a system, which penalises students right from the start, when we’re not even attuned to what University education IS - in practice (as opposed to what is stated in theory) - that of being able to outdo one’s fellow student on the bell-curve and reign supreme with the glorious 5.0 CAP.

   P.S. Sorry Laremy for using your blog as a ‘rant’ board if it seems like it, I’m just trying to clarify the point. Thanks.
   

To set the record straight, I have made my stand clear about those people who make sweeping judgements about a person, simply by basing their judgements about a person's character ("oh, better stay away from him/her, Ah-Boy...he/she didn't do well for exam ah...somemore selling Mac-Donner part-time...Tch!!") from their academic grades. I do not condone such acts, and I strongly discourage people who do so too. The System we are in makes us behave as such, going up to people and saying "Eh, your CAP ah, this sem how?". Everyone is so keen to find out whether one has bettered the Other, and finding prestige and marvel from peers and people in the social environment in the process.
What then results, is a situation whereby there is a stratification of our little societies into groups which are 1) those who are revered because they do well, 2) those who revere those who do well, and hence want to hang around them, 3) those who still want to be part of "the gang" and therefore stick it out, no matter what, and 4) those who rather not be in this situation, and just switch off.
Perhaps, I'm being cynical and narrow-minded. And maybe, the world is not so dark, and dull, with everyone trying to be kniving and scheming against each other. This could all be a bad, bad dream. An illusion, as Freud would say.
But its not. We think like this, precisely because inherently, society is forcing something upon us that we do not realise its ills.
Let's start, my friends, by teaching and educating ourselves (no matter how difficult), that "segregation and stereotyping" is bad. I put it across to you as a challenge. How simple is it, to talk to someone about the exams, and have the discussion drift to a cross-examination of one's (academic) performance during the past semester?
Let's try not to go there. Let's allow the discussion to drift to something else, say...polka-dotted cows moo-ing across the meadow in the melodious, merry month of May. See? Simple? Try it. I'm SURE it'll work. After all...so long as these thoughts are not too deeply entrenched in our culture, we'll be able to eliminate such biases in NO TIME.
OH WAIT...this is part of our culture.

The "Warzone"

Sigh...exams are next week...and ironically, many of us would be calling it a 'warzone' out there. Contrary to popular belief...the Library is NOT a good place to go to (if One is the kind who gets all-jittery and nervous when faced with a sea of strange tufts of hair (faces being bowed ever-so-dilligently before once-dreaded-now-sacred tomes of academic knowledge).
What's with this use of military and war-like symbolism? Doesn't anyone know that its 'evil' to go fight for one's selfish gain? (haha...yeah...we all know where the counter will come from...that which would go on to say: "well, that's where the Crusades came from eh? All 'holy-holy', and "for King and Country", and the likes yeah?"
Haha...ah well. Resignation, and contempt is in me now. Resignation...to the fact that results will be determined by a two-hour paper I sit through - whether done good or not-so-good (I do not want to use the word "B**"...lest I provoke some animistic spirit which will then take this opportune moment to strike my sanity...and all the knowledge I've crammed into my poor brain...out the window.
Contempt is reserved for those people whom my friends have heard me whinge about. (Usually I do not include transcripts in my blog...but today, I just had to make an exception) YES...I allude to the PLA...and Indian Army below, in the following transcript of a conversation I just had with Daniel. You figure out the rest:

---Dan--- just sent you a Nudge!

---Dan--- says:
tml library or forum
---Dan--- says:
those places have become warzones

---Dan--- just sent you a Nudge!

Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
and so
Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
You want to go and make war in a war zone ?
---Dan--- says:
hehehe
---Dan--- says:
sorta
Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
haha....thanks but no thanks...
I'll keep inside the trenches...till Estab Neut* is over
---Dan--- says:
ok i roger that
Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
after...I CHARGE
---Dan--- says:
but i get what u mean by the need to stay in 'bunk'
Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
my room is not a bunk....its the trenches...
---Dan--- says:
ehhhh ok
---Dan--- says:
i Get it
---Dan--- says:
=P
Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
its HERE that there's a lot of fighting going on
Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
with the stench and putrid smell
Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
of unbathed bodies
Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
and unwashed clothes...(uniforms?)
---Dan--- says:
hehehe
---Dan--- says:
to hell with the chinese army
---Dan--- says:
good luck soldier
Nian Says: "Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь!" says:
haha...yeah....good luck...
give me updates on the frontline situation...
The trenches smell and look grim...
---Dan--- says:
roger


"To hell with the chinese army"...and God be with us all (?).
Ah...we'll have to see about that, my friend. This life has just too many twists and turns. Who knows what God has in store for the PLA?

A Pictorial Of "The Great War" (AKA "World War One" for the Uninitiated)

Grim looks abound...as British and German soldiers share a wintry Christmas together in the December of 1914...

Supplication of bloody hands...to the Saviour.
From madness, atrocity, and sin...the askance of a saving grace.

During Napoleon's final campaign of 1815 both the 42nd and the 73rd which were to become respectively the 1st and 2nd Battalions of The Black Watch played significant parts. They were first in action together at Quatre Bras on the 16th of June where they were hard pressed by French cavalry.

Mistaking them for allies the 42nd had not the time to form a defensive square and had a tough fight repulsing them. Two days later at the Battle of Waterloo it was the 73rd which was in the thickest of fighting and subject to heavy losses from the French cannon.
The photograph on the right depicts actual soldiers from the Blackwatch charging into battle with their legendary Blackwatch tartan kilts and ferocious "highland fury" ...a fearsome charge on the 100th Anniversary of their fateful Battle of Waterloo.

Guns pound on...

Was taking a break today from study...and chanced upon a site of the Great War and found one of my favourite war poems - "In Flanders Fields" (I've put it up in the previous post). As I browsed the site...the sickening feeling in my gut of child-soldiers being sent to the front-line as ill equiped cannon fodder, and the atrocities of war in an environment which would parallel the freezing, wet depths of the Devil's bathroom were utterly mind-numbing and thought-provoking. It just reminded me about the Middle-Eastern Crisis...and how the mad grasp for resources has led to an uncontrollable reciprocal killing of Allied and Iraqi citizens. Perhaps, like Churchill said so ironically in the context of the Americans joining the War then...they should have just "minded her own business and stayed out of the World War".

On another note, I've begun work on a new poem (quite a new one to my collection since my last)...so here's the draft...

"Guns Pound On"

Guns pound on, banging out
their merciless tum-tum,
Demanding to be heard,
By ears which have long fallen deaf to their cries.

----------------------

I watched you cry, as you picked yourself up,
From the fall in the green grass of the garden,
Knees soiled and skinned,
A tear edging its way to the brim.
But fought back...

---------------------

You were sixteen.
All full of promise, and had the world to see.
And so much more.
Gardens to conquer, and flowers for the picking.
Roses, daisies, tulips, lilacs.
But you choose the daffodils, springing from the dormant bulb.
I asked why - and you answered, in a matter-of-fact way:
"It blooms most radiantly, don't you think, Mother?"

And I nodded silently, and smiled.

--------------------

"In Flanders Fields"...

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The Lack of Communication...

Ah...miserable modern existence. Articulated in form, and substance. Lest we forget - here we should remember. Prufrock had not a great time... "And would it have been worth it, after all,
After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,
Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,
Would it have been worth while,	90
To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—	95
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all.
That is not it, at all.”
And would it have been worth it, after all,
Would it have been worth while,	100
After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,
After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—
And this, and so much more?—
It is impossible to say just what I mean!
But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:	105
Would it have been worth while
If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,
And turning toward the window, should say:
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant, at all.” " From The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T. S. Eliot

Things to ponder...

And we invent things...like 3G phones...computers which out-do each other, one after another.
And for What? To invent more stuff to overcome the problems that our hi-tech gadgets and gizmos create? Viruses and hard-disk crashes still manage to put our most powerful servers and portable computers off-line for a substantial period. And in an age where reliance on technology has made a mouse almost akin to a natural appendage for selecting your next meal online, I can only say, its gonna get worse.

And then...how many times have you asked yourself if your life was worth it all? Have you strived for that particular post in an Exco?? A particularly prestigious internship? A Stirling academic record?






How many times have you wanted plain, old tuna?
Simple, no-mayo, tuna...anyone?

To no one in particular...

Had this urge to say something. Perhaps its due to the stresses that are coming from the exams being 2 wks time. Perhaps its from what I learnt at cell today. Perhaps, its a tip from God about my Religion paper...
'Words are meant to be written, said, read, and listened to'. How's that? That's what we always take words to be. Mere icons. They represent something else. But do these icons hold any specific meaning, or translate into any positive action on our part? Do they change from being mere 'icons' to 'symbols' - actually representing an action or other entity?
We could say things that are not meant to hurt others. We use our words with such looseness in this modern time, that speech has been commodified. Commodification of the spoken word has reached the extent of words not being valued as much as they should have been. The gift of sentient beings is the ability to communicate intelligibly. Think about that.
Was just going thru a related thought...and I have come to realise that people continue to perceive me in some light that I just find intriguing. True, I may have been more chatty/outspoken/sociable/even..."full of nonsense" if you'd go to that extent of describing me in when I'd just entered Uni. It is funny isn't it, how we change?
You'd think that Personality sticks with you for life. In a social science argument, you'd say, "oh but it does change, according to political/social/geographical/economic...etc" factors. And I'd say yes. it DOES. I've made it clear to friends who try placing others into 'neat little categorized' holes formed by the Myer-Briggs Test (I call it the "Four-Letter Test"...because it has this odd-habit of classing you into one of 16 four-lettered categories) that I absolutely DETEST it. You can't label a person from young that he's 'ASOB', and expect him to remain an 'ASOB'...just because he pushed you and your bicycle over and stole your lollipop when you were five (although if you could catch those kids in my neighbourhood from ACJS who played dirty...I'd appreciate it. But moving on...)
Likewise, don't expect your EF-Whatever-whatever to stick along with a growing person. True, some people may be more inclined to be open in a social context and mingle. You could call them "E" (for extroverted) at some point. How about other situations when they just sit it out, and not move their lips, and not issue any noise at all. I could name a few...(totally bone debates, ridiculous statements...and really unsocial characters in the vicinity).
As I said before, this article is not aimed at any specific readers. Rather, if you may, absorb and try comprehending what I've tried to articulate. Classing people may seem fine-and-dandy for a 'meritocratic' society...after-all, we DO need people to govern, and others to be governed. But classing people right down to the almost impossible details (and I say this from an anthropological viewpoint) of gender, ethnicity, language, and even personality...is absurd. Stereotypes serve their purpose in governance and control (Foucault will gladly expound his panoptic essays)...but stereotypes to govern interactions with friends and even family are simply ridiculous.
Surely, now, we could be more open to accepting diversity?
Surely we can...or can't we?

New York...New York...

Last night, Joyce sent me this link whilst I had fallen asleep at my table. Woke up today and watched it. Must say its a MIGHTY good rendition of "New York New York".
In fact...that was the song which I had been singing/humming/playing in my head...during the 9-11 disaster in 2001.
It was during my JC 2 Prelim exams...and I had just finished studying for a Geography paper the next day. Having shut my computer off (which had been playing "New York New York" on repeat...I went to bed. Only to be woken by my younger brother awhile later with him exclaiming..."KOR!! YOU GOTTA SEE THIS! AIRPLANE'S CRASHING INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTRE!"
I was too tired...and irritable. I thought it to be another of his late night Hollywood re-runs. Perhaps a Jean Claude Van Damme...played too often. I grunted, and rolled back to bed.
Awhile later...in he came...this time, clearly alarmed..."KOR YOU GOTTA SEE THIS!! ANOTHER PLANE'S GONNA CRASH!!". Figuring I'd probably not do too well...and yet, not really be affected (after all it was only the Prelims)...I woke up, showing my clear displeasure for his over-reaction to an 'old Hollywood' movie, and went to see just what the commotion was all about.
What was playing on the news struck me. The Towers were blazing...and people were jumping out of windows...in a manner which reflected their sheer desperation. Not Desperation to cling on to life...but desperation rather, of choosing a faster option to die - out of the window, plummeting more than 70 stories onto hard tarmac below. Chilling. Real. And non-Hollywood. This was the real stuff.
This was the real stuff that I had written off to be an "old-Hollywood re-run".
This was the real stuff...that has been embedded in my mind ever-since that night...which I spent the entire early hours of the morning, staring blank-eyed at the television screen, as reports after reports of the casaulties were fed on 'live' TV.
This was the real stuff...that I had been whistling the tune to, ironically, just hours before its execution...an ominous undertone of what was to come.

This, was New York.

Friends, let us not be insensitive, and shun our senses to the world around us. It is because of "New York, New York" that innocent people, Coalition and MIddle-Eastern alike, are now bombing and shooting each other over.