Say NO to internet regulation in Singapore.
Daily SG: 12 May 2008
Posted by The Singapore Daily on 12 May 2008
In case you are from out of town (like another planet), The Red Devils has done it on the last match of the season. One more match in Moscow and the women can have their men back on Weekend nights… until the Euro 2008 :)
Congratulations to the Devils!
Fear and Loathing in The Lion City
- People Like Us: Chan Mun Chiong should not have been charged under Section 377A
- Yawning Bread: Here’s proof: Section 377A being enforced
- Sayoni Speak: Broken Promises Part II: HIV positive man prosecuted for s377A (Singapore)
- Musings: Broadcasting Gay Content: S’pore vs. HK
- Yawning Bread: Hong Kong broadcasting regulator’s decision overturned by court
Burma Aid
- Sgpolitics: Converging Parallels - Burma & Singapore
- nofearSingapore: Burma’s xenophobic actions leave me almost speechless!
- The boy who knew too much: Taking credit for the goodwill of the world
21 to Vote
- The Online Citizen: Give credit where credit is due, Andy
- Empty Vessel: You serious?
Inflation
- Diary of A Singaporean Mind: And the pain deepens..
Singaporeans are fed, up with progress!
- Mr Wang Says So: Films That You Won’t See In Your National Education Classes
We Don’t Need No Regulation
- The Void Deck: Touchy Bloggers or Govt?
Daily Discourse
- mrhardy: A theory as to why Singaporean bloggers are so “bo liao”
- The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod: This Is What Happens When you Cultivate A Culture Based On Possession
- Feed Me To The Fish: Kiasi, Kiam-Siap, Chui Kong Lanpar Song!
Life, the universe and everything
- Fresh Brainz: Counterintuitive Science: Grand Complexity From Humble Beginnings
- Insane Polygons: Making Games Is Not Always Fun and Games part 1
- BHP: Who I am and who are you in the age of cut and dried
12 May 2008 at 5:18 pm
Gist of my blog
I’m a Australian based Singaporean blogger whining about Singaporean Bloggers who Whines about Situation that I have not yet experienced about the People in power Whining.
However I was not accepted into NUS, NTU And SMU and so study oversea.I like Xiaxue so maybe I’ll pursue a style like hers to generate traffic to my site however I can.
I write Good English not all overseas Singaporean are like me,I’m special.And I’m coming back soon please support.
I’m a Fake. This is my impression after reading that blog.
12 May 2008 at 9:26 pm
MY INALIENABLE RIGHT TO REMAIN ANON
As some of you may already know, here: http://singaporedaily.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/daily-sg-23-apr-2008/#comment-1851
I am not a very big fan of the proposal to outsource the moderation of blogosphere to a non democratically elected committee. This hardly requires any elaboration.
In fact, I consider it an outright violation of my privacy as an anonymous blogger. Why? Guess what? I am not going to tell you. Yes, it’s not a typo, you read true and right. As I said, I consider my right to privacy an elemental right, one that Louis Brandeis and Samuel Warren, both defined as “the right to be let alone.” So the onus isn’t on me to justify my position by attempting to elaborate as much as it’s incumbent on you to ask yourself whether you even have a right to ask me that sort of question.
I know this sounds a trifle confrontational and conceited even, but do bear with me as there’s really a point to all this wind bagging: consider this: do I have a right to remain an anonymous blogger? The liberal strand of progressive thought, shaped by such thinkers as John Rawls, holds to the view, I do. According to him the case is not altogether dissimilar to a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy. Here it’s not necessary to establish the Catholic burden of proof that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception. It’s sufficient to show such a question cannot be reasonably directed to the aggrieved without legitimately constraining her right to exercise her prerogative as a human being. In short it’s a violation of her privacy i.e her right to decide on an abortion.
The same issue arises about gay rights. Their defense need not turn on the issue of whether homosexuality constitutes a crime; it can be successfully argued here governments don’t have a right to control sexual conduct of not only gays but also heterosexuals. What two consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedroom is really their and their alone.
Now that I have taken the trouble to go around the block a few times; do you now realize why, I don’t need to give you any justificatory reason why my right to anonymity should be treated as an elemental right. Neither do I take it very kindly, when others who may not even have bothered to do the requisite reading on this whole subject treat my right to anonymity as nothing more than a character flaw that needs working on.
The argument that is usually forwarded against anonymous bloggers goes something like this: “If you don’t show up, then you have something to hide” The flaw in this logic presupposes quite incorrectly every anonymous blogger who doesn’t step out is hiding something subversive. Of course usually the tone that accompanies this sort of corrosive mindset is subtle; its couched in terms one usually associates with the Kamikaze movement; “stand out to be counted” – “bravely walk forward” – the whole idea presumably is to differentiate the act of stepping out i.e disclosing identity as being a more been a more enlightened and mature state (please do go and visit Xiaxue vapid blog to confirm her maturity) than perhaps those who choose to remain anonymous.
My problem with quips like these: “if you have nothing to hide; then you should not fear coming out in the open” is simply this – it’s premised firmly on the belief one’s insistence to a right to privacy is equatable to having committed some unpardonable sin. It’s not. Fact remains people do have maybe 10,000,000 valid reasons to blog anonymously; that may come as a surprise to many; but their right to do so should not only be seen as indelible right, but should also be accorded the status of an unquestionable right that deserves the same measure of respect and dignity that’s accorded to bloggers who blog openly. Besides privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.
Tell me why shouldn’t it be seen in the good view of the ark light?
I not saying; I am against openness per se, not if there’s a compelling reason not to do so. For example: I don’t resist crotch grabbing searches in airports. As it’s conceivable that sort of compromise between the need for greater disclosure and my rights to privacy serves the collective good of making air travel a safer enterprise. I do however consider it a violation of my privacy and even an effrontery when some red neck custom officer who has an IQ of 5 below idiot on shift in either O’Hare or Heathrow gives me that all too familiar, “Okey dokey, what do we have here?” look when they riffle through my belonging only to discover a copy of the Quran – “What’s a China man doing reading the Quran?” See what I mean? Question: would I have provoked the same reaction had he discovered a copy of the Bible, Sutra, Talmud or even the Mickey Mouse Almanac in my suitcase? I really don’t think so! Is that right?
Neither do I mind the panoptical presence of closed circuit cameras in the public sphere these days. As I realize it’s a very efficient way to cover a footprint and it’s even conceivable it makes good use of human resources. However, I do take exception when closed circuit cameras with panning and zooming capabilities are sometimes directed to cleavages or derrieres of the unassuming, instead of the purposes which they were designed for – see what I mean again? The right to disclosure can be abused!
My point is simply this: when does disclosure give way to good old fashion harrying and harassment? It prompts us to consider: not everything; even if it serves the collective good should always be subject to full unconditional disclosure. What if it comes at the exorbitant price of liberty? Here, its important to buy into the idea that even the seemingly reveal-for-all-to-see hobby of blogging which traditionally accompanies parts of one’s life being splayed out in the public square pasar malam style, doesn’t preclude the possibility there may be even chapters of my or even your life which we may want to keep private and take to our grave.
My feel is one serious omission concerning the hubris of “disclosure vs anonymity” is it’s often framed as a simplistic “security vs privacy” conundrum. While this may seem at first justifiable and even logical, all too often it comes at the cost of leeching away the layers of what open and close really means and too often it comes at the unbearable price of surrendering our liberties.
I am reminded tyranny, whether it comes from a terrorist cell or from overzealous pineapple eyed domestic scrutiny, remains I am afraid very much still tyranny – whether it assumes the practical necessities of the Internal Security Act. Or denying wholesale the statistical significant anonymous bloggers the right to participate by deliberately rigging the rules requiring them to give up their elemental rights to privacy is tantamount to spitting in the face of liberty. Here it important to understand liberty exacts a higher onus; for one, it demands security without intrusion, security which even manages to guarantee one’s right to privacy. That may seem anomalous to many who will continue to insist no end on a pure and unfettered stream of data, only because they will claim that’s the most pragmatic approach that yields the best return on the cost and benefit calculations – however, I suspect, it would do our understanding an immeasurably favor if we paused for a while and asked ourselves a simple question like why did the framers of the American constitution struggle to articulate certain fundamental rights and even enshrined them as fundamental rights that should be placed above the ordinary pragmatic and cost effective calculations of the legislature, executive and judiciary? Why I wonder did these wise men put the cookie jar on the high shelve?
If power corrupts, then access to a pure, unfettered stream of data corrupts absolutely and completely.
I have to go now, my Nokia Communicator is running out of batteries. I hope this reaches you from the land of the anon.
Darkness 2008
[Harphoon / Jasta 1 / Aurora - The Brotherhood Press 2008]
12 May 2008 at 9:37 pm
kokopops,
I always take care of everything.
Why can’t you trust me?
Have I ever let any of you down bfr?
Never!
I don’t want this sort of shouting any more, it could spread will wild fire.
When the time comes all will be revealed.
I promise you all. No one will be left behind.
I put the very best ppl who I trust most on ‘SARAL.’
You will stop this! Fuck bitch!
Darkness 2008
12 May 2008 at 9:52 pm
I am sorry Kokopops, pls forgive me. Please, I didnt mean it like it sounded.
Chronicler pls close all comments channels. Run at zero bubble ultra silent mode pls.
Darkness 2008
12 May 2008 at 11:17 pm
So strange… so many words!
13 May 2008 at 1:04 am
Dear All,
Now I know that some of you think that I making a mountain out of a mole hill when I begin accusing even the press for buying into this whole idea of discriminating against anon bloggers.
But I want you ALL to consider why did this bitch write it in this manner?
I leave it to you.
The Straits Times, 2 May 2008, by Clarissa Oon
——————————————————————————–
Bureaucratic ambiguity and Internet freedom
“A group of bloggers have submitted a 20-page proposal on Internet freedom to the Government, a move which reflects a small number of committed netizens willing to stand up and be counted.”
Bear in mind, I can get sued for this, but why did the bitch cut it that way? What you need to ask yourself is how true is it when Cherian says that we should free the press. Its obvious that these bitches didn’t even bother to shore up on the minimum reading on the whole issue of rights.
Why? What is she trying to imply obliquely?
And they expect to be taken seriously - how is that possible Cherian?
Darkness 2008
PS: When is your committee coming in?
13 May 2008 at 1:18 am
If you notice very carefully, the BP has used the word ‘fuck’ in every single article ever since the whole idea of community regulation has been mooted.
Previously, this word featured only in one out of thirty articles. Why?
What message am I sending out here? What is my goal here? I want you to reflect on this small detail.
Pls come after us, pls. we will gladly see you court. I am better educated than you have no idea how sharp I look in a suit.
You know what I am a gambling man.
I don’t think you will take me on.
Darkness 2008
13 May 2008 at 10:44 am
Baby Darkness Bad Boy,
“I am sorry Kokopops, pls forgive me. Please, I didnt mean it like it sounded.”
OK, but I want to be treated like a princess just like the Lady of the Lake.
Do you understand Bambi?
kkp
13 May 2008 at 11:09 am
[...] on Daily SG: 12 May 2008Darkness on Daily SG: 12 May 2008NEW ARTICLE 12-5-08 on Daily SG: 12 May 2008Fake Mr Hardy on Daily SG: 12 May 2008KKP on Daily SG: 29 [...]
13 May 2008 at 4:21 pm
THE WOMAN WHO LIKES TO SCRATCH MY CAR – A STUDY IN ACCOMODATING IRRECONCILIABLE DIFFERENCES.
Occasionally in life we come across things we can’t understand because we have never seen anything similar. The lady who I caught red handed scratching my car one evening a few months ago certainly struck me that way; why didn’t I confront her? Why did I just let it past? I have absolutely no idea; it could have been her composure which betrayed hardly a tinge of guilt; that certainly took me for six; all she seemed to radiate was the calm assurance she could and will get away with it; if I was stupid enough to challenge her. You see she doesn’t like me, not even a bit, not that I even gave her any cause to hate me in the first place. I don’t even know her. Never so much as even exchanged a word of greeting even. Like I said, we come across things we can’t understand.
For the better part, we lead separate lives - occasionally I chance on her in the lift – usually she’s content to slide to one corner and give me that mother of all condescending look that simply says, “I know what kind of man you are.” Usually, I just look up and make teeth sucking sounds or pretend to check imaginary sms and that’s really all there is to it – you see I know what kind of woman she is; she is single, successful and probably a siaow char bor.
Things came to a head one day, when I met her in the lift again – this time, she told me, “I had no respect for her.” To which I replied, “you know what, you need a good…” Before I could finish the sentence, she slapped me and somewhere between gathering my senses making my way to the car. I found myself asking, “Why can’t we just get along?”
It seems like a simple question: “why can’t we get along?” But it isn’t when you really think about it; not in this age at least. When one considers how making as much money as possible these days has assumed a centrality in our culture; its even conceivable against the backdrop of this dystopian landscape we may even need to actively assure ourselves a community is some form of endangered species.
What emerged for me during the course of driving to work was a twofold realization; firstly, she’s possibly an ex Singapore karate gold medalist. The other being her hatred for me isn’t really directed specifically at me, that may seem like a chauvinist attempt at self flattery, but not really when one considers hatred as a state of mind doesn’t just spring out from nowhere; usually from my experience, it emerges deep within the depths of primal fear. And that means her hatred isn’t really hatred of even a personal kind or type, but rather a desperate attempt to preserve the four corners of her known world. The thing being preserved could be her views and assumptions about the world. Or how this or that may stack up to produce this or that – but one thing remains certain as people grow ever more distracted and mesmerized by mass culture so do the waters rise on their ability to beacon out the murk; you could even say somewhere in this binary world; where one is either good or bad, in or out, with or against, successful or failure, right or wrong everything is expected be in its rightful place; as a consequence people will always be typecast; stereotype and even labeled.
You could even say this is how most decisions are made these days; “All Arabs hate Americans,” “all anonymous bloggers have something subversive to hide, that’s why they’re not coming out into the open,” “the internet cannot be trusted, its full of lies and disinformation,” and so forth. Do you ever find yourself stereotyping? What is the allure of stereotyping? I guess one undeniable aspect which accounts for its prevalence in character judgment to even planning a five year plan is it’s a very reliable supplier of one very narrow version of the ‘truth.’ Now it may seem odd that people should decide to make decisions about the nature, profile or even mental make up of people by just skimming over the surface. That a theoretical formulation is desirable because it makes it easier and more efficient to hold and defend a POV may seem odd to many, that it may even confuse understanding in the weak sense of making coherent and comprehensible the complex, may even seem odder, but this does not diminish its usefulness.
By lunch time the metallic taste in my mouth had all but disappeared – yet I found myself mulling over what had happened in the morning – again and again in mind the question turned are there any lessons here? - personally, spiritually, politically, and otherwise - that can help me to deal with the turmoil and bridge the divide. Somewhere between deciding to stay or go from my averagely depressing sandwich lunch – I decided to do something quite strange. I walked across to Raffles place, pressed a button gathered from a friend who knew her, checked my zipper, slicked back my hair back and when the lift door opened; there she was with a knot of people; her eyes caught mine, she looked surprise but recovered her composure with admirable ease.
She wasn’t sure what it was, but something must have stirred in her. Like a moth being drawn to the naked flame of a candle. Every moment would draw her deeper and deeper into the depths of my fiery eyes – heightening her awareness, she was not simply any woman, but the only woman a man such as myself was content to look upon for the rest of all eternity.
In a while, she became quite still. The slight quivering of her lips as they began to part like the moist petals of a lotus after the rains - her eyes watery reflecting fascination and fear like a ripple in moonlit waters gave the impression of woman who was not all together herself.
Yet I continued starring oblivious to time, space or even the others who had by then begun to peel away as they asked “are you coming?” Even then she could hardly hear them – she might as well be a thousand miles away, as lost in my thoughts as I was in mine.
I realize this post doesn’t make the slightest sense, only because that could be the real point, it’s pointless – but that’s what I said in the very beginning; in life we come across things we can’t or don’t understand because we have never seen anything similar.
But this doesn’t mean we should fight it and not simply let go and go with the flow.
Happy Hunting!
Darkness 2008 (I have to stop here now, my Nokia communicator is steaming up)
(Aurora – The Brotherhood Press 2008)
13 May 2008 at 5:07 pm
Kokopops!
Can! This is what I going to do Kokopops, just for you and that no one else, only you. I sumpah! You know I have a ns buddy of mine who is now a big time chef in Jumbo. So I even get access to into the kitchen and even get to pick the choicest claws. You know I happen to be a very good cook myself. I don’t want to boast but my drunken crab with Cordon Bleu 12 yr cognac sauce is simply a heavenly divine must try gastronomical tour de force.
I tell you what? You can invite anyone you want to the table, it’s all yours; but bear in mind my car sits only 5 and possibly 6 if someone wants to lie down in the boot. So I will leave the logistics to you. How’s that KKP?
My advice is get all the major loud mouths and trouble makers like yourself in the read clubs and we will have a whale of a time.
So make sure all of you doll up, because after that I will take all of you girls for drinks. How’s that? In exchange all I ask is for all you to end your little rebellion.
Tmr 7.00 wait for me at STSP.
Till then,
Darkness 2008
14 May 2008 at 2:13 pm
ONE RAINY DAY SOMEWHERE IN TANJONG PAGAR – PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE IN THE REAL AND VIRTUAL WORLD.
I have always been irredeemably two minded about the whole issue of authenticity; for example: I don’t mind fake tits, but I draw the line on fake people.
Possibly my disdain for fake has a lot to do with where I am presently having lunch, as I tap away on my trusted Nokia Communicator.
Where am I?
Somewhere in the featureless acres of tempered glass, stainless steel and the air conditioned ambient of Tanjong Pagar – it’s certainly one way to keep the rain out along with all the pesky creepy crawlies, but here where pastel antiseptic Peranakan straits tenements (or whatever is still left of them) sit alongside the iconology of modernity.
I can’t help but wonder whether it’s such a great idea to pursue architectural dishonesty?
I mean, as I kid, I remember this place as rough and tumble China town; a place where there were real vendors who once sunned orange peels and splayed out their wares in the open; it was a real community made up of real people; now what do we really have to show for it, after the URA had a go with it?
Well this may sound a trifle conceited but it would not be completely wrong to say; what we really have is a cross between a soviet warehouse and something very close to a form of social Chernobyl – that I am reminded is what usually happens when “form” runs amok and hijacks over “function” so completely, the latter simply puts on a pair of Bata slippers and decides to move out from the neighborhood.
I wonder what really accounts for my parallel longing for the past and present? Maybe it’s just good old fashioned nostalgia; a sobriquet longing that harks back to a time somewhere in my averagely miserable childhood? Here, the sun always shines, only because memory has a strange way of filtering out all the rubber bands, duct tapes and super glues which once held propped up my childhood.
Nostalgia I am reminded is a powerful astringent a sort of rebellion even against the modern idea of the machinization of time. It probably accounts for why modern woman these days are more than willing to part with a hefty fortune for a jar of take-me-back- to-when- my-bum-was-firm moisturizer despite the fact the only active ingredient happens to be water. Yes, at the heart of it all, it has to be some sort of crie de couer that refuses to surrender to the irreversibility of time that plagues even the human condition.
So, our longing for things of old doesn’t necessarily mean we’re all just living in the past. As much as it sharpens our awareness concerning the present and how we may even believe solutions lie somewhere in the distant past. Here, nostalgia takes its cue from religion, it works principally on the power of faith: the past is I am afraid the only lens which allows us all to express a valid desire and concern about our lamentable present.
The divide between real and fake, past and present and even how we should live our life against the broader question of how we really want to lead our life has never been sharper in our age. The advent of the digital age has not only leeched much of our understanding concerning “who” or “what” is our community? Instead of being lengthened it’s systematically narrowed. Here we don’t craft our understanding of “reality,” based on reality, as much as we do on what I call the monologue that’s often churned out by the apparatus of assimilation; they regularly tell us, this is how you should work, live and play and this is how things should be or not be; is it such a wonder the vast of majority of us no longer bother to go beyond the broad line imposed by use by the narrative of officialdom?
And what’s the cost? We revel in finding hundreds of people just like us on the Internet and stop short of going further to build relationships with others who may even see the world slightly differently from us. We encase ourselves in our hermetically sealed bubble of reality; where it affirms no end the collective mentality we are firmly on the right track; never mind that others may even see the wisdom in stepping off the tried and tested path of the yellow brick road; they have to be foolish to do so!
It’s conceivable we may even be living in a lie without even realizing it. A sort of dystopian matrix revisited universe where the delectable lie fulfills the very function of life itself; here we are content to settle for one assembly line of neighbors who are exact facsimiles of us – in the land of the single track, there can be no such thing as the subdivision of people, thoughts and even such a thing as alternate views; only one omnipresent crushing reality that levels off the field of possibilities: what else I wonder can account for the single mindedness in which even the MSM and bloggers themselves hold on to the contention: only those who blog openly are deserve to be rightfully counted; while those who choose to do otherwise are simply dispensable.
If you really take the trouble and think about how destructive this sort of corrosive mentality is: it doesn’t take you very long to figure out how it even made perfect sense for URA to gut out this place where I am writing this; false reality begets false hopes.
That would be fine if only the cost didn’t threaten to drive out the homily sugary notion of: love your neighbor as you love yourself. My feel is somewhere in this sobriquet cliché, lies the real answer to how we should rightfully make sense of the past, present and future. Only because no man is truly an island these days – doesn’t even matter if the internet is the great devil that promises the reduce all of us into tiny island fiefdoms.
My feel is if we are to even reasonably make sense of where we want to go; then we can no more deny the ‘how’ and that simply means we need to address the issue thy neighbor. It really doesn’t matter what the imperative is; it could even be the proposal of the G-15 to deregulate the net or even a broader strategy by Mica to inure the net with greater freedom using a lighter touch. At its very core, it raises the question: Who is my neighbor? What are his rights? Do I have a right to judge him? What’s his history?
Those questions can never be elided wholesale not if real meaning is to stand a real chance in continually working its way into the gaps and filling up the blanks – in certain respects that’s what it means to nourish the idea of diversity, if we don’t want to end up with dead zones like where I am presently writing this.
Honoring the sense of belonging in objects and people is not simply an empty idea. You could even be said, it’s a necessary human condition like breathing; as this longing simply affirms what it means to be part of the greater community. It’s even conceivable we humans may even have come full circle with this realization; as people who were once so convinced that we could only find their answers in the bright and distant future. The past has somehow returned only because it never once left, it can never be denied – how could be it? We were as much a part of it as it’s a part of us, if only we knew. Yes, if only we knew. Then maybe China town would really still be a China town.
Darkness 2008
[Brought to you by Aurora – The Brotherhood Press 2008]
This article may be based on the following archives: Auto Gen /
http://intelligentsingaporean.wordpress.com/2006/09/21/why-i-would-like-to-leave/#comment-33793
15 May 2008 at 12:07 am
Dear all,
First, you must know yr rights.
Once you know this. You will be able to hold your head up high.
Then it will be impossible for anyone to take it away from you.
It’s just impossible.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=cMaMc4HlIjA&feature=related
Happy Reading
Darkness 2008
15 May 2008 at 11:24 am
Bambi Darkness,
We already have our own community. Neither is it small and insignificant either. On the contrary, some of them comprise the leaders in their respective areas of expertise.
Bambi, I don’t believe you really have a full grasp how little it means to ALL of us as to whether Mr Raju of the National Library Board., Dr Cherian George, Bernard Leong or even any of the editorial team in the The Online Citizen does or doesn’t even see, hear and con’t to treat the BP as dead.
Like you always say yourself. What will not kill us will make us stronger, leaner and hungrier.
I want you to know this always, we already have our own community. Do you understand? We already have our own tribe. Our own values as to what, who and how to respect, love and trust. We have all these things and much more. We dont need any more. We dont need validation, affirmation or even edification from anyone. No need Bambi. The door could just as well close and we would not even need a blade of grass or drop of water beyond the walls.
We have our own community.
Rest Bambi, there is no need to fight any longer. Rest Bambi.
KKP
15 May 2008 at 12:52 pm
“We dont need validation, affirmation or even edification from anyone.”
I don’t think that is the reason he is fighting. I believe he has a larger purpose, like defending the rights of anon bloggers. If they surrender their rights to bullies, they will eventually be treated like doormats.
It seems there is more going on behind the scene. In fact, sometimes I wonder if co-opting has begun. Look how favorably the ST writes about them “standing up” to be “counted”. There is a terribly foul and fishy stench to it.
But yes, Darkness has got his messages across and he deserves to rest.
15 May 2008 at 5:31 pm
ONE BATTERY CHICKEN LIFE COMING UP IN THE NET?
You know what? I don’t like to humiliate people; neither do I like to be humiliated! That’s to say I don’t like to treat people like kids. That’s why I never micro manage them; it doesn’t matter whether it’s at work, life or play – I just resent the idea no end. And there is a very compelling reason why? Firstly, it’s just plain demeaning and dehumanizing. Everyone deserves their own bubble of freedom. Secondly, I don’t believe it’s a very effective way to manage performance. And thirdly, it makes a lousy case when you plot it against the efficiency / benefit curve – you might as well go and move a train by throwing out cannon balls or something.
Whenever, I think about being treated like a kid; one particular incident stands out during my torrid university days when a lecturer who bore a grudge against me singled me out to resolve a math equation on the black board (I was banging a sweet Italian lecturer he had the hot’s for); it was obviously an attempt to humiliate me before the crowd. Not only did I resolve it in the time it took me to empty my anaconda, to add insult to injury. I even cut in half his wind bag equation and ended it with a hubris that took the entire faculty of mathematics nearly a week to resolve - he failed me of course on a minor technicality, but not before I had reduced him completely into a laughing stock; was it worth it? Probably not, but that should convey to you the degree to which I loath the whole idea of being treated like a child. I am prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to make my point.
That could be one reason why you will never ever find me lunching in McDonalds either; as I consider those sort of hell kitchens nothing more than a reenactment of the perpetual motion life of the battery chicken – again, I have a vague recollection of having worked there during my grinding poverty stricken days as a foreign student in London.
What I resent most about McDonalds as an employer during the period of my youth; was how I do not even have a single recollection of a supervisor adhering to a belief that the best way to manage people might be through a program of empowering them by allowing them a degree of autonomy as to how they should go about their work.
Here in the gridlock ceaseless panoptical soviet style surveillance one is regularly pushed beyond what’s humanly possible; the moment you arrive at work, you’re slaved to a work flow that is designed by time and motion experts; there’s no time to even scratch your bum without having to make up the slack. Your whereabouts is monitored constantly and if they can’t find you, there’s always the dog whistle. Everything one does - from your urination to your next work detail - can be monitored in a score card until you leave 12 hours later.
After a week of impersonating a Bangladeshi hamster on the flywheel – I decided to skip the golden arches and applied instead; for a sedentary post as an apprentice undertaker in the family run firm of James Crook & Sons in Kilburn, London. The only draw back with working with the dead is getting across the mental barrier, but when one compares this to the lack of pesky customer complaints (yes, the dead are terribly forgiving even when you use their ears as handle bars) and the freedom to even cat nap in one of those deluxe mahogany silk lined caskets (that could probably be the reason why so many walk in customers suffered heart attacks when I worked there. When I suddenly woke up to ask for the time) - all in all, it more than makes up for the little inconveniences like sporadic nervous twitches, hearing voices and carrying a leaky water pistol filled with holy water. I stayed on with Mr Crook for a good 2 years and even managed to win the employee of the year award twice in a row that managed to win me a TV and even put me through university quite nicely.
My point, this evening is this; at first glance, the push for greater ‘good’ i.e productivity, hardly seems unreasonable. Isn’t that what all good businesses should do? To continually guarantee lower prices for their customers? But tarry ho and look at how these “productivity savings” are made and what’s the real cost to people and community?
As there are dozens of small, simple hardships that can push life on the minimum wage over the edge from tough to unbearable for those workers. The worst being the constant monitoring – “go here and do that!” – “reverse there and make a right turn, please” (bang in the wall) - to being harassed no end by the watch dog supervisors into never letting up – “Why are you standing still?” Not only is the whole idea of panoptical surveillance demeaning, it’s also dehumanizing as it guts out many of the things that make boring and repetitive jobs bearable - a touch of personal initiative, a chat with a customer in a short skirt, a sneaky cigarette break – all these are surreptitiously stamped out by the all seeing eye of the corporation that is simply dedicated to the whole idea of faster in half the time, half the people and with half the resources.
Well I simply don’t buy it. There should be a better way really. A way that gives back the humanity to people who are simply trying to earn a honest buck.
And this leads me to my favorite bug bear this evening. One of biggest concerns that I harbor about the whole idea of the community regulator is; how it relies implicitly on the same panoptical surveillance that I have just described, as a basis of soliciting ‘good’ compliance – and here I need to be very clear; as some of the G-15 bloggers will probably say, “Hey, this regulator doesn’t have any legal powers.” So the corollary is it’s a paper tiger that doesn’t really have any capacity to instill fear.
You know what? I disagree completely with that simplistic take on power.
As it’s conceivable, the very symbolization of a community regulator, star chamber or people’s court is sufficient to create a very real climate of fear. Yes, here a little goes a very long way. That fear works at many levels is something no one can deny, but the most insidious and corrosive type of fear is not the ‘us against them’ fear which is usually distanced by variations in class, neighborhood or even schools of thoughts, it’s the one that resides within the very fabric of the community where it resembles the panoptical pineapple eyed gridlock world that we so often see in lousy dehumanizing work places.
Here fear isn’t distanced as much as it’s omnipresent seeping into the every day litany and this can only elevate it into the status of social engineering – what you need to understand here is this; we are not dealing with fear here in the dictionary sense as much as we are with psychological warfare at its very worst.
That simply means, even if it the community moderator manages to ride on stage under the mandate embodying the belief that the system is more important than the individual, that accountability is more important than individualism or creativity, my feel remains the cost has to be very high indeed – so high to both the mind and human spirit – it could even be said, one battery chicken life is certainly being dressed up as the good life.
Try harder. I am not buying. Not now or ever.
Darkness 2008 [I’ve got to get off the train now, this is as far as I want to go down the line anymore and I’ve start to grow gills like a sardine]
[Compiled by Harphoon, JUMO & Aurora – The Brotherhood Press 2008]
16 May 2008 at 3:46 pm
You are all foolish.You allowed to devil to speak. Now look around you. Its all finished!
The devil should have his tongue cut out and buried somewhere in the seventh levels of hell. Why do you think he has a bounty on his head in the virtual?
You have no idea how dangerous he is.
In the reign of Pandishah IX. During the advent of the age of the machine. The devil and his horde were attacked by the Aryanian. A white supremacy movement based in the US and EU.
Many in the brotherhood fled. But many also fell. Despite the many attempts by the Aryanians to sorround the Devil, he escaped.
200 years latter over the moors of Ashekoleon 3 days march away from the capital city of the Aryanians, Killormorganian. A travelling merchant appeared claiming to have the corpse of the great devil.
Eventually news spread to the gamers in the walled city of Killormorganian, who saw this as a great trophy to be possessed. The great devil had till then commanded the highest bounty in gaming history a sum just over 200,000 imperiums.
When the sehut, receptacle of the dead was brought into the high walls in the Aryanian capital. The entire Laanstrad gathered in the dome of the holy ascension. They all came from all corners of the universe. As all wanted to confirm the demise of the devil.
There placed in a circle guarded by the 10 mastiffs all the nobles from the high and low lands could see, this was indeed the coffin of the great devil himself, adorned with not only his personal seal but confirmed even by the bands of hieroglyphs that ran along its side which read, “Ursu Dah Urulian.” The Battle cry of the people who every gamer knows as the dreaded brotherhood.
There in the dome of the hollies, the sehut was further sorrounded by 13 divisions of pikemen. And ringed by another 30 brigades of archers. Such was the fear the devil commanded over the populace and the nobility and gentry in the entire Laanstrad.
They all feared, there might still be some sign of life left.
Finally when the hour slipped over the brow of the second moon, the coffin was prised opened. It was empty!
Someone shouted, “the devil is loose somewhere in the city walls.” In the months that followed all manner of deaths, plagues and misfortune befell the once prosperous city of Killormorganian.
Today the Aryanians are no more, they fell into extinction some 200 years ago, their history drying up and bleached away for eternity.
I was there. I saw it all. I played the game. And I know the great devil, Darkness. Curse be ontu his name!
16 May 2008 at 3:59 pm
webmaster of the singapore daily, why is all the reads permanently stuck on Daily SG: 12 May 2008? How many days do we need to endure this torture for?
16 May 2008 at 6:15 pm
Hahaha. Yes. Give a man enough rope and he will hang himself.
Darkness 2008
16 May 2008 at 6:35 pm
WHAT HAPPENS TO THE ROUND PEGS IN THE SINGAPOREAN WORLD OF SQUARE HOLES? – A STUDY ON DEFINING PERSONAL SUCCESS.
Most of us who have applied for jobs over the past decade will have been introduced to the Myers Briggs personality test, the personality categories loosely based on Carl Jung’s work on personality types. The whole idea is to beacon out the murk on whether you’re a high performer or an employee from hell. Often the whole process is accompanied with a certain measure of glee and playfulness by the people from HR (human remains), urging you to have a go – these test are really just for fun sake, they assure us all. They could well be right. After all how is one supposed to answer questions like this; Q: If you are stranded in a deserted island with your boss. When will you consider putting him in a pot with some diced carrots and onions (a) one day (b) two days (c) a week (d) or will you just settle for twigs and insects?
You know what? As playful and innocuous as the Myers Briggs personality test sounds. It’s serious stuff – there’s a chilling side to it when one considers its nothing short of an attempt to reduce one’s personality to some kind of numerical or alphabetic code, so they can see if you could fit in with their existing team. Deep down, I suspect, everyone in HR is quite embarrassed by the whole affair, only because they know it smacks of Orwellian zoo keeping.
Hey, I am not saying firms, institutions and even governments don’t have a right to peek-a-booh into your life. That’s probably why most people don’t put people who regularly hear voices in the cockpit of multi-million dollar commercial jet liners. Only, the very thought of either recruiting or rejecting anyone on the basis of such lofty approximations, which attempts to boil down all nuances, all contradiction, all mood, all paradox –rendering us as simple individuals that can be classified – smacks a little of stereotyping. Even of eugenics. Along with marketing the idea of the bottling “the right stuff” and picking it up with a surgical grade forceps.
That to me is just plain rubbish!
What’s even more worrying is how seriously managers these days take the results of these test – often they are promoted as the ONLY basis of decision making. If you don’t believe me just check out one article in the official Singapore ghost stories website, here one of those PAP shrunken heads is even talking about quantifying the whole process of character profiling - http://www.p65.sg/ check out the article dated April 18th, 2008, entitled EQ vs IQ.
No wonder all they can manage to produce is articles which use a lot of words only to say absolutely nothing of comparative importance.
Why is that I wonder? Why are decision makers so preoccupied these days with the whole idea of bottling goodness? Be it clarifying the form of the model worker, moral blogger or even model citizen? Why do they invariably lean towards the quantitative rather than the qualitative? Now I happen to know this area very well as math features as a very large part of my vocation; and the reason is really simply this; they’re just plain stupid at best and terminally unimaginative at worst. There’s really no nice way to put it across. When something is completely fucked up, then it completely fucked up – that really the long and short of it.
Stupid people will always gravitate towards clear ideas, not because it works, but because it supplies them endless means of making sense of the world.
And let me share with you why there are in essence a misguided lot. Especially when they go about trotting around their goody do good bandwagon – do I doubt there are people with good mechanical intelligence? Nope. What about those who may possess good mathematical intelligence? Nope. What of good linguistic intelligence. Nope. But there are also people with intelligences that aren’t academic but practical, useful and even jugular – sporting a whole plethora of geniuses which usually escape the metrics which we usually deploy to winnow out cruds from diamonds; here lies the shattered dreams of those who frequently propose to seed the good and drive out the bad currency; it really doesn’t matter whether its in the context of firm, country or even blogosphere.
They slip through the cracks!
As I said, I am very proficient in numbers so I know this area really like the back of my hand and that simply means there is a time to let things be and a time to make things happen; knowing when metrics should and shouldn’t apply is really wisdom; as the limits of metrics really falls apart when one applies it something as abstract as beauty, creativity and innovation. Here we may even be confronted with someone who is all together dysfunctional hardly any where near the ideal; his concept of time may even be elastic; he comes in to work whatever he likes and takes off as he pleases; while that may not be amenable to certain vocations such as banking or fighting fires, its certainly does little harm in an industry like designing games or inventing better mousetraps; he may even be slightly autistic as he doesn’t even have the social skills to network or to manage conflict effectively; but nonetheless, that’s precisely why he can morph himself so successfully to create surreal and fictional characters which continually enthrall the audience – see what I mean?
Here it takes effort, one has to seek out the real value in the way a miner roll up his sleeves and goes into the dark and smelly mine to seek out diamonds. That I suspect could be a big reason why most people are prepared to settle for the questionnaire approach; at the end of the day, they’re just plain lackadaisical lazy and woefully unimaginative.
My feel is when we discuss this subject; it would do us a well from time to time to consider whether its even such a good idea to impose our own criteria of ‘goodness’ and ‘idealness’ on people simply because we want to create a better tomorrow.
That may seem to be a noble enterprise, but what if it comes at the expense of narrowing the field of possibilities? What if all it manages to accomplish is to promote one very narrow and measurable definition of goodness, that really is so useless, you might as well equate it something that is closer to the uninspiring and unforgettable. The danger I feel is when we don’t even have the imagination to realize that much of the wonders that we regularly see in the net is because, someone once said, let’s go with the flow with this; I don’t understand it; I don’t even know where it’s going, but I am sure it will all work out.
I realize all this may not make a lot of sense to some people; but that doesn’t diminish my point as much as it amplifies it; that could really be the point; you’re simply not going with the flow, let go – there is a time to make things happen and a time to let it all happen. You have to decide which is which. I am not telling you.
Darkness 2008 [This isn’t my stop, but I have to get off now. I just saw a girl that has been making eyes at me. No I am not exactly a normal person, but I suspect neither is she either. There may still be hope after all.]
[Compiled by Aurora, Jasta 1 and JUMO – The Brotherhood Press 2008]
16 May 2008 at 6:53 pm
You see at the end of the day, you cannot stop me from reaching out, anymore than you can turn the sky vanilla cream yellow or even stop a baby from crying - it’s simply impossible.
It cannot be done.
Through the years we have developed the core competencies to write at a speed where you could even say thoughts acquire speed.
It just takes me less than 20 min to produce what I regularly post here; nothing more or less; if you have the balls we may be able to compete.
But no amount of official recognition and accolades is going to substitute for that economy of consumption to allow you to negotiate around that simple truth - the sooner you know that, the less you are going to fuck around and really dedicate yourself to the useful and purposeful.
It’s really as simple as that; YOU CANNOT STOP ME FROM REACHING OUT.
Darkness 2008
16 May 2008 at 7:00 pm
My feel is we need to wait for NLB to come up with the remainder of their list.
Raju has another 7 months bfr the time runs out.
Now you see the effect of the community moderator has the reverse effect.
Why? I want you think long and hard abt that.
Darkness 2008