Shiva's and Metta's Mother's Sutra

When i used to live here, nearly fifteen years ago, something which always passed the time was taking titles of ST headlines and LKY's latest IPO and playing a wee bit with it, so that it was mostly changed but recognisable at the same time. Like Hard Truths. We could have come up with The Hard Truth is Out There (on a Piazza), The Truth is Hard to Find, Hardly the Truth.... it was juvenile, but it always got us laughing. Anyway, after suffering from indigestion last night i was doing this... in between reading the book. So i'm sort of almost in the middle. I've come to the section where they reinterview him. It is 2010, and Singapore has enjoyed an 'eye-popping' 15 per cent growth. The reporters want to know what the man thinks about this growth and what lessons can be learnt from the last economic crisis. The answer which emerge come across as a the man channelling Yoda and escoteric Zen Bhuddism. That was when i thought, it's not fair to pick at him. He...

I decided that i should start reading Hard Truths. It is the first book that i have ever read that has been written or ghost written about/by Lee Kuan Yew. The nice thing about it is that it is actually more or less in his own words. Since it is mostly composed of interviews. The bits in between are written Straits Timese. Which is to say an admixture of condescension (to the reader), obsequeious grovelling (to LKY), nonsensical use of adjectives and tortured detail... which adds up to being disturbingly like some sort of political soft porn bedtime story. I am now about fifteen pages deep, and i have since learnt three things: (a) Singapore, being a world class city has a piazza - which my mother asked, is it a cross between a pizza and a prata - which is somewhere around Marina Bay. This was suggested by I M Pei and this Jap architect, so we reclaimed less of the Bay, and made it smaller so that we can see from one end of the bay to the other. I asked my sister, where be this...

Being physically incapacitated does not suit me. Or anyone i suppose. But i really felt the length of this week as i hobbled to and fro, sat out on the sidelines as people skated, swam and cycled. It was pretty shite. Anyway, here are some photos from last week. I really miss running... still...\ This photo didn't turn out the way i wanted... but i thought it would be nice to get Ma with the kids against a white background.... However that was quite funny... In Marina Bay Sands, Dali sculptures were scattered about to promote the Dali exhibition. The thing about Dali is, he is everywhere. I must have seen this same exhibition all over Europe like twenty years ago. The other people who follows a body around is Chagall. What's with the Chagall and Dali, enough already.... St George and the Dragon I like the faceless St George. It reminds me of those funfairs which you can put your face into those boards and pretend you are a weight watcher o...

From the ages of 7 till 13 i went to CHIJ Victoria...then we went to Toa Payoh. It seemsed like such a long time and such a tremendous previlege to go here. It was beautiful in its ramshackled past glory and the silences in its old gardens and cool long corridors made an impression on me. Beauty is more than just the shiny newness.... that amazing old school (literally) Catholic upbringing... The chapel, it is now a wedding venue. You can't visit it anymore, unless you fork out ginormous amounts for your wedding The corridors where we played Four Pillars....catching, Hide and Seek The Principal's Office... The winding stairs that took you to Sr Valentine's Art Room These led to the Primary School Behind, the assembly area. This is now all an outdoor eating place. The exterior of the chapel Exquisite in twilight The secondary school... we shared with St Nick's That hole in the middle of the cou...

We went prawn fishing... i caught 4 prawns! Waiting... More waiting... Then we went for a swim... at Seletar... I was having a massage on the Osim chair, Pa took these... Yeah we are the champions... Are we having fun yet?

One of the anachronistic things about living in a place like Singapore is the existence of ski slopes and ice rinks. On Tuesday we went ice skating... it was fun... The screening room I had dinner with Leon, Serena and then drinks with Laurence after that ... here was where it all happened... Rooftop with a view The good life... i felt like a yuppie for an evening, yes they still exist in Asia Sunset happens... Then this most bizarre of signs... the ISD's Big Night Out... in honour of Leslie Neilsen, they're on to us i said to the guys...

This holiday has been a very midlife one. I met many friends during my stay here, and of course made many new ones in Indonesia. We have five more days to go, and looking back on the collected conversations, which i do when i leave them each evening, i think that perhaps it is where i am right now, but taken as a whole, with the news and the general breakdown of social order as well, the failure of politics and morality... the quality that is required over the next 20 years, will be courage. Courage to do the right thing, and the right thing... like reality, is to live equitably with this one planet and the many living beings who share it. There is only one conversation i have with my friends, which is, what exactly is happening right now? We have always been critical of the government and its model of governance because it was so inherently inhumane, but most people sort of went along with it because it meant that economic stability and some sort of quality of life was the result. T...

It is interesting to read Thomas L Friedman's commentary in the my Paper section of the ST today. The article entitled "Why the world is rioting" spectacularly missed the point. It concluded that the reason why people were so pissed off was because they had access to the internet and that they were dissatisfied middle classes who had to now work harder to get jobs. So it is the middle classes who are pissed off. Because of the internet and because they can't join the club. Dear Tom, it is not the middle classes who are the problem. It is the top 1 per cent of society, or possibly the top 5 per cent, the super duper rich who are squeezing everyone and everything dry. Because there is less to go around and they want more, they are screwing people over in a more unaccounted for and inethical manner. As the earth's resources disappear, they are getting more and more blase about the devastation they wreck in order to deliver the profits they believe they are entitled t...

This morning i went for my run and while trying to avoid a pile of rubbish i slipped on some tape and fell. Well i flew in the air before i fell, so i suppose it should be no surprise that the wound on my right knee was bubbling like a merry brook. I had to walk home and by the time i go there i was mostly covered in blood. The only people who inquired after my welfare were the women who were washing cars on the road. Otherwise everyone else looked at me and looked away. Singapore could do with some good Samaritans. However, i did manage to drench myself in some gentian violent and go to a hawker centre before deciding that stitches would be a good idea... Roti prata please... Ghin mopes after i shout at him... to not squeeze my cuts... Rainbow Park at AMK - i discover here that i need to get stitches...