Keeping CL Alive for me

The CL site I visit very often was down since yesterday. It was an unintelligible mess then but now at least it is printing some characters that a CL impaired reader like me could follow. If it gets too hard like that July 7 Zaobao editorial, I would have to use a dictionary add on to help me with some of the characters. Good enough to get by.

Without the Web my CL would have deteriorated further.

NLB controversy: What thoughtless writers

I can understand the impatience of cause-based groups trying to advance their agenda but not from our writers.

Are they writing for themselves, our society or the global marketplace?

I am sure they write to advance their careers and would love to be global success. On the other hand the local market is too small but often that is the natural market.

Some write for the sake of writing. Such types must balance their love of the craft with a job or business to pay the bills.

To me the best writers give the inchoate emotions of the society they live in form and substance. Alas too many of the writers do not belong to his category. Certainly not those who have decided to quit NLB events.

Not that I care, my post on NLB pulling books of the shelves attracted must less traffic than the popular topics like CPF and cost of living issues. The 'silent' majority has left the job of defending their conservatism to the government. Do not assume their passiveness as agreement. The same mistake Pink Dot is making and will soon discover.

Writers are thought leaders and the least I expect from them is to show us they care for the society they live in. Patience is the hallmark of caring and I am just disappointed how they are just applying pressure to have it their way. Bring society with you instead of leeching off us. If you will not do your part as our diverse voices in an inclusive way you are as foolish as the Barisan Socialis once were to walk out of Parliament. The vacuum you leave behind will be filled by more patient and socially empathetic writers in due time.

Go if you want, you will not be missed. And if I need to read works that are ahead of our social time there are plenty from foreign writers to choose from. I don't need your kind to try to bludgeon us into a future most Singaporeans have no plan YET to end up in. If only you were patient enough to hold our hands to lead and walk slightly ahead of us. Then we would know how to follow.

A Samantha Vegas for wifey

Bought wifey a Sam Vegas handbag yesterday from Isetan at Wisma Atria. Very Japanese looking!

I couldn't get a good picture with the S3 last night. The white balance was just off. Natural light is the best.

Food for Thought @ SBG

Light lunch at Food for Thought at the Botanic Gardens yesterday before hopping over to Gleneagles Hospital.

I had always thought they won't last but it has been years and they are still a going concern. Once I even witnessed a wedding reception there. Yesterday we gave them a try and it was a success.

Zaobao Chinese Parochialism

A few days ago I debated within myself if I should blog about the family sacrifice caused by LKY language policy. It would have helped my kids understand better the communication difficulties my siblings and I had with our parents. We spoke exclusively in Teochew to our parents when we were very young but as we grew up we switched to English and Mandarin was a struggle except for my sister. Higher order communication with my parents were difficult because we didn't have the vocabulary. Our family experience was hardly unique.

When the kids came along, the grand parents tried to pick up Mandarin in order to communicate with them. It was hard work.

This morning I saw the PMO rebuttal to Zaobao editorial on Monday.

The CL version was printed in Zaobao yesterday and here is the July 7 editorial.

I don't read much CL unless visiting Chinese websites. My CL is good enough for that and this editorial.

Many families have paid a high price to be where we are economically. What is water under the bridge, the self appointed guardians of CL at Zaobao, we can't turn back the clock. Moving forward we will resist the government from unnecessary brutal policies especially those that make their job easy and ours hard.  Our MT policy had been hard going for both government and people. LKY walked his talk sweating blood to master CL. I respect him for it and supported the brutal language policy as a result even when I see my children continue to pay a very heavy price. Yesterday my daughter crashed out of her O levels CL exam in tears. But her dyslexic sister worked consistently hard and scored a distinction in the Orals. We put in the work, try our best. What more do these Chinese chauvinists want? Had China opened up ten or fifteen years before 1978 things would have been very different. We made the best of the cards life dealt us. Today we have bigger problems to deal with than this. And the PM is completely right to point out that CL would be in a worse state without the bilingual policy. We would be monolingual in EL. The Malays and Indians also have MT problems but they don't kick up a storm like these Chinese do.

No more OCBC Cycle Singapore?

The unspoken reason for why OCBC is pulling out of this one is on every cycling enthusiast mind: the tragic death earlier this year.

The savviest cyclists had avoided participating ever since the clueless piled in and the large numbers make the event looked good and popular but risky.

My view is that Spectrum Worldwide do not pay enough attention to the safety of participants and it took a death for OCBC to realize their mistake.

I hope the next Cycle Singapore fails and a more responsible organizer takes its place. Good luck finding sponsors.

NLB pulled two LGBT friendly titles

NLB pulled these two titles from their shelves after a library member complained. VW had posted an open letter about this on FB. We can expect more protests from the LGBT community.

I had warned about the backlash from the broader Singapore society against LGBT if they try to enlarge their space too quickly. I didn't expect them to be patient and this was exactly what happened.

I have no problems with these books remaining on the shelves of our public libraries. Bertha Henson had even just injected a tongue in cheek post, "Ban these books too!" There is more than humor in it.

No point three steps forward, two steps back. If they try for four steps they might have to reverse five! I hope there are shrewder leaders among the LGBT community. Patience my friend, and don't fight Lawrence Khong or Noor Deros. Slowly win the middle ground. You have to give people time to understand you. These are busy people with more pressing priorities than learning who and what LGBTs are.

I think God is really unhappy with the LGBT lifestyle but he also feel the same about most people for calling out the LGBTs as sinners. We are not qualified to judge them and Bertha Henson had creatively pointed out our hypocrisy.

Update: July 10 :10:40 am

When family fails, the village and even beyond help to bring up the child. That is the powerful point of this writer to the Forum today.

To the staunch homophobic Christians who imagine that LGBTs will go to hell, I think it is not unreasonable that you would be ahead of them in the queue. You have been graciously forgiven and yet stood in judgement of people more open minded and loving than you are. For all have fallen short of the glory of God, you think only the rest of us except you eh? Hypocrites. You are known to outsiders for your narrowed minded religiosity rather than faith. Let's not talk about love, you have no blinking idea what love is.

LGBT lifestyle is sinful lifestyle but have you Christians not become aware that God is using them to expose you as even worse sinners then they are? We who are truly forgiven dare not judge them but are instead reminded of how miraculously we were spared. But you homophobic Christians have no idea what Paul meant when he wrote the Roman Christians.

Paul’s Anguish Over Israel

9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises.5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah,who is God over all, forever praised![a] Amen.