Customs Woes

In the same way that we cannot fathom the thought processes of the mentally retarded, the workings of the local immigration service is likewise lost on me, and indeed a lot of people. I just can't understand why it takes so long to stamp a few pages, check faces, and do that little thing with the computer that the officials do... if matters are already computerised, how difficult is it to clear cars and people waiting to cross the causeway for whatever reason they might have? Instead, the jams at the causeway checkpoints between Malaysia and Singapore are always so bad, it's got people muttering murder.

But perhaps i've been hasty. No disrespect to the state employees doing the best that they're capable of, given the tools and training they've been issued (whether it's part of Asian manners, an actual legal requirement, prudence or whatever, this “no disrespect” clause is a given when discussing public affairs and officials in Singapore, and I shan't be found wanting), but perhaps it can't be helped. Perhaps customs clearance the world over, at least in places where people actually care enough about doing it right, needs to be done at a ponderous pace to for it to have some meaningful effectiveness.

But again i say, i don't understand and don't know, what it is these customs guys do. My only participation in all this, which should entitle me at least a grouse, is sitting in my car on “neutral”, for too, too long, along with hundreds like me, burning fuel, boiling tempers and going no where. And even then, i thnk truck drivers get it worse...

Not pointing fingers, but it's a deplorable situation. Movement is the lifeblood of the world. Be it capital or blood, if either of these stays still, what we've got, is stasis, or a bruise. Perhaps things need re-thinking. Maybe we could look to the library service... they've got lots of stamping to do, no? Well they seem to have worked out the kinks and you don't see queues that often these days. But then again, maybe it's because most people hit the public library for a place to nap in cool quiet. And there's no stamping required for that.

Singing in Church

I'm pretty old-fashioned with regards to music in church, and am thankful that the one i attend only has a very limited (relatively speaking) repertoire in praise of God, comprising psalms, and hymns. Limited in the sense that we're not very adventurous and would baulk at say, Christian Rock, Christian Jazz or whatever. But still, it's better than singing some three-line thing and repeating it over and over, which in this day passes for devotional music in not a few churches.

But let me leave church music proper for a future post; its importance warrants exlusive treatment. Here, i should just like to comment on the singing. I don't know if many Christians realise this, but singing in church is an act of sacrifice/service to God. It is a part of worship. As the heathen offer incense, meats, etc., to their particular gods and deities, Christians offer up our voices to God in worship.

What does this entail? For me, several things. The singing is not about us, but God; so any egoism should be purged. We should not be carried away with technique, flair and polish of execution; but rather, focus on devotion. In singing too loud, too fast, or too slow, we sing for ourselves. So i would urge to sing in harmony. And i notice that there are people who sing half-heartedly, just going through motion while their minds are elsewhere (we cannot see thought bubbles but it's not impossible to tell when someone is distracted; and have we not been guilty of this at some time ourselves?), and there are also others who cross their legs when singing in church. Do we cross our legs when we talk to our superior at work, or at job interviews? We don't. All the more then, that when worshiping God, we should be a little more mindful about our posture.

Of course, these are my personal views; just that taking singing in church for devotion and worship requires that it be done in seriousness, sobriety. I don't think worshipping God is a thing of levity, and so the same applies to the singing.

Literal or Figurative?

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” John 1:1-4

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63


One of the questions that keeps coming up among Christians, is whether one should read the Bible literally, or figuratively. Loosely speaking, the ultra-conservatives preach the former – hell, the great flood, the resurrection, etc., are all real; whereas Christians of the more modern ilk take greater liberties with the scriptures, such that bits in the Bible that are hard to imagine, to reconcile to our conventional understanding, or to stomach with contemporary sensibilities, are understood figuratively.

It is beyond my ability to quote many references, so let me leave this to the reader; but i shall like to offer an answer/perspective by bringing your attention to the verses quoted above. The Word is Christ. How then do we understand the Bible? For a friend, say, the more we know him, the more we're clear when he's being serious, when he's kidding, or when he's being ironic. In the same sense, the more we know God, the closer we walk to Him, the more we know when He should be understood in the literal sense, when it whould be figurative, when God is approving of something, when something is merely being described as a ppoint of information, etc.

Thus it is futile to adopt or construct a 'rule' via which to interpret the Word of God, but that our understanding should be God-centred, that is, based on communion and relationship with God. So literal or figurative? My answer, if you must, is neither.

Jiang Meiqi 江美琪

I feel I ought to say something about this matter; I owe her this much at least, for the pleasure she has given me through her soul-rending music -- I am talking about Jiang Meiqi, one of my favourite singers in Chinese Pop. She has a most beautiful voice, but for some reason, she's never quite hit big time, even if people generally have praise for her work.

Perhaps it's because she's not impossibly pretty -- at least in the conventional sense, which seems to be the necessary ingredient for pop starlets that the record industry wheels out like pretty confections on a conveyor belt.

But Jiang Meiqi is pretty. A bit on the tanned side, and she looks ordinary even; there's a certain willfulness in the shape of her jutting jaw and lips, and her nose is a little too large. But what an ensemble they form with her eyes, which are large, full of emotion, vulnerability and yet an utter absence of self-consciousness. A picture of perfection in imperfection, I would say. Of course, I'm biased. And from the looks of album sales and her non-existent career, this perception is largely my own.

Such a pity for me, really, cos I like her music lots -- such a melodic voice, with a clarity comparable to Kit Chan's (another singer I like) but warmer, rounder, impregnated with a greater sense of doubt, haplessness and longing. When I listen to her songs, my heart aches. And what more can one rightly ask of music? So I still kick myself to this day, for missing an interview with her when she was doing some school concert tour in Singapore a few years ago to promote her album. I was supposed to interview Jiang Meiqi for FHM -- I was a staff writer then. But I couldn't go because two weeks (I think) before the interview, I crashed a car, uprooting a lamp post, and when the day of the interview came, I was still nursing a terrific black eye, and one side of my lips was numb. No kissing required at interviews of course, but a black eye is no fitting conversation piece.

Oh well, zip back to the present, to 2008, on my birthday. And feeling a little rough for wear -- 38 years, firmly in mid-life crisis zone, no? -- I was looking for a nice CD to play, and chanced upon one of Jiang Meiqi's later albums. Not one of my favourites, which i bought a few years ago and put aside after playing once or twice. Much as I love Jiang's music, I have not played them for quite a while, partly because EMI is shit and their CDs tend to skip. But before long, with the CD spinning in the shitty Samsung deck, I was feeling that familiar ache again (I shall write about heartaches in a later post). The low and behold, uncannily enough, Track 5 came on, "Happy Birthday"!

Oh my. "Cheek to cheek, I just want to be close to you, I want to sing you a song... I whisper into your ears, 'May all your dreams come true,' because it's your birthday." Oh my. Thanks. From Singapore, and you won't know who I am, but Jiang Meiqi, I hope all your dreams come true, too. Live well.

Gintama

It's an ongoing series based on a popular manga, so on some days, i find myself in a state of withdrawal as I wait for the fan groups to work out the subtitles. Excellent stuff and so off-beat, with the funniest dialogue, and the subbers have done a brilliant job, including the wealth of contextual information and cultural references. In brief, it's centred on the life and adventures of the members of an odd-job agency (more like a surrogate family), who are more than what they'd care to admit, set in a Japan that melds sci-fi (alien oppressors, spaceships, thinking robots) and post-Samurai era where the carrying of swords have been banned except for the police and militia (sort of like Samurai X, or the period of the Meiji Restoration, where samurais were forbidden to bear their swords...). This is done wonderfully, and besides, it's such a wonderful metaphor for change, the hazy transition period between the classical age and a subsequent one taking shape at breakneck speed.

Cut it short, some memorable lines from the series:

"The land of samurai. it's been ages since our country was called that..." is how the narration begins

"An employee who can't use a register is as useless as a mom who can't make fried rice," Gintama picking his nose, riding a scooter.

"The fun's in the jourey, so let's see it to the end, just as a girl becomes a woman!" Gintama chasing a truck on his trusty scooter...

"I don't care if he's loin-cloth masked or an underwear thief; we can't let this man continue to sully women's innocence and mock the pride we men hold dear!" Konda, Shinsengumi commander briefing his men on catching the underwear thief.

"A girl in love is the same as a wild boar. she's only looking ahead."
"Idiots in their own idiotic way have their own idiotic worries!"

"For men, once your lower hair starts growing, you have to start taking care of yourself," Gintama on boys coming of age.

"Wandering in space with my father and becoming the greatest alien hunter in space is my dream."

"Apparently, it's good for your health to have moonlight shining onto your butt hole... Apparently, sun also works, but moonlight's even greater... Hattori-san apparently cured his hemorrhoids this way." Two henchmen chatting.

"Women are all born from compost bins. We're fighting against flies flying arund us." Referring to men.

"Your ass?! How can you care if someone touches your ass? Do you know why your ass is split in two? It's so that it'll still be fine even if one side is touched!"
"Not quite. Asses, you see, are the remaining proof that humans were once angels. They used to be wings."

"A life without gambling is like a suchi without wasabi!"

"Aah what shoud i do from here on in?
if you aren't the one who will love me?
Aah even though my heart is heavy
my body is still fine, so I'll laugh today too!" theme song lyrics...

"The future of Gintama is still undecided... undecided is only undecided and not what is decided upon." Sounds like Greek. And so ends the first year's episodes.

Yet more...
"Maybe, after you grow a little more... and you still remember about me... Come find me again. i'll be glad to do more things with you then."
"laugh a lot, cry a lot, and grow to become an adult. I'll be waiting." Gintama to a toddler who takes to him.

"Xxx civil servant, eat shit!" song lyrics in the anime.

"As expected of someone who squirts liquid medicine up his ass everyday, your aim is perfect." A ninja with a haemaroid problem is complimented

"Well then, if i shove you into this beam of light that contains all of Edo's energy, even your tiny soul would burn, right?" Gintama to a robot...

Beauty and Sadness, Yasunari Kawabata

"He could hardly look at himself after having violated such a young girl. In the mirror he saw her face approaching. Startled by its fresh, poignant beauty, Oki turned round to her. She touched his shoulder, nestled her face against his chest, and said:'I love you.'"

To Be Sure

Yesterday and old friend and i had tea, and we drank to "Uncertainty". Perhaps it sounds a little contrived, a scene crafted for some self-important short film; but I assure the reader, it was not. Every time we gather... which is not often, considering our busy schedules, we feel a little roughed up by life, and just relish the comfort of each other's company like a pair of stray dogs licking wounds. In our daily dealings with lots of people, it's pretty vexing that we seem surrounded by a whole cohort of people who are always so sure of everything. It's like being the sole infidel in a cult gathering. People are always so sure of what plagues the world, along with the necessary steps to make things right thing; never flinching from making bold judgements, partitioning blame; that so-and-so should shut up and die, that so-and-so deserved the calamity that befell him or her; that so-and-so sucks ass.

Why is everyone so sure about everything? So confident? Is it an age thing? I think not, having my fair share of encounters with angry old men. Meanwhile, my friend and I generally falter; when asked my views, I hesitate; there are pauses, qualificiations. It is not for show, not affecting the manners of a circumspection, and I have no love and even less respect for fence-sitting for its own sake. I am all for making the best possible judgement, to the highest degree of certainty posible and acting upon it. But I feel that to be more certain than we have reason or right to be, is insulting to the complexities of the situation, and the intelligence and worth of the parties directly embroiled in it, or else to underestimate the deviousness of some apparently stupid parties.

Take George Bush.... everybody's fave whipping boy. Helps that he looks dim-witted too. But is he? I don't know. I don't know him personally. But through means (stupid, shady, whatever), he has enriched himself and his tribe fantasically. Maybe it feels good to call another person stupid. It sure looks that way when I look at people mouthing "...that guy's an ass!" Or the typical "the world's problem can be solved simply if you..." Yeah, genius. There is only one problem in the world, with a corresponding solution, which everyone wants, because we all want the same thing. Really? Not a chance in hell.

Naruto!!

More than 200 episodes later, probably amounting to some 100 hours, i feel I owe a few words to my latest obsession – Naruto, the anime series. A good friend of mine has used the word “Narutard” on me (it would have been hurtful if not also used with a feeling of endearment), I have not felt any great urge to spend time with people in general (only very close male friends fall outside of this... I shall talk about friends and gender in another post) when I could just go home and watch another ten episodes of Naruto at a go... In the meantime, my reading has suffered. Melacholy Whores lies untouched, a colleague's copy of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises is neglected, while a Japanese for Dummies remains in its cellophane wrap weeks after it was purchased on impulse without a discount.

I think the Naruto series has enough young fans that another glowing review is not really necessary. At the same time, I feel I must give my two cents' worth, so that perhaps those who've already written it off as another piece of juvenile drivel in the mould of One Piece (which is, from episodes I have endured, rubbish), might give it a try.

We've all seen ninjas on the big screen or comic books – these mysterious, cunning warriors who fight from the shadows, running rings around their samurai foe who know more about tea ceremony, martial ettiquette and the Bushido warrior spirit than actually wielding their ornate swords; masked men and women who use a dizzying array of techniques and weapons to fulfil their myriad roles as spies, instigators, saboteurs, and assassins... But bright-eyed ninja brats?! Kawaii!!!

I love the way the young ninjas in Naruto are drawn and animated; how they laugh and play, their youthful resolve in the face of unreal odds; how they throw darts with abandon, zip around with both hands stretched backwards, and how, in all activities from fighting, slurping ramen, to trusting in their friends, they enjoy and fully live the “spring time of youth”. A wonderful, wonderful thing, this.

To be honest, the titular hero, Naruto, is an idiot. Among his peers, he's the first to shoot his mouth off, walk into traps, or else make noisy entrances that are the antithesis to the way of the ninja, who lives and fights on stealth. But, so what? He's a kid! Did I expect his character to be wise? That would be unrealistic. But Naruto makes up for being a loose canon by demonstrating spunk, courage, spirit and a large-heartedness that will make many adults look inadequate and shame-faced. Because that is what many of us have become: petty, without worthwhile dreams, jaded, dull. Not the kind of people that kids want to grow up to be. In Naruto though, while he is an oaf, there is so much worth in his character that he is able to move, inspire and win over those around him. And it is to the writers' credit that all this is expertly and convincingly played out in a series that is both entertaining and inspiring.

Oh well, enough on Naruto. It's more important to watch it than talk so much about it. My thanks to the people who created this for us all to enjoy. And what fantastic theme songs too... I've got them in my car disc changer. Wonderful stuff.

Hardboiled, Banana Yoshimoto

"Time expands and contracts. When it expands, it's like a pitch: it folds people in its arms and holds them forever in its embrace. It doesn't let us go very easily. Sometimes you go back again to the place you've just come from, stop and close your eyes, and realise that not a second has passed, and time just leaves you there, stranded, in the darkness."

Hard Luck, Banana Yoshimoto

"The tears I shed lately, particularly those linked to memories, were all but meaningless. They came out on their own, like bird shit. My dad knew this, and kept quiet."