Hidden Underbellies

We moan and groan in Singapore about how life is hard, about how things are expensive, jobs are hard to find, and how the gahmen could do more for its people.

This is a particular pet topic of Turtle's. The way he talks sometimes, about how wonderful the welfare system is in Sweden, and how uncaring our government is, and how it could do more, give more, pay more to its citizens, make you secretly wonder whether he's turned commie on you, and make you want to place bets with Jules on how long it takes before the ISD carries him away. (^^!)

And then I read about people like the Wongs, in today's Straits Times.

The Wongs are a pair of jobless siblings, 47, and 48, who have been living in the void deck of their block for about a week now. They've done that because they received a notice from HDB stating that HDB intended to acquire the flat, because they hadn't paid the instalments on it for the past 5 years. (^^!) The Wongs took it as an eviction notice, and moved all their belongings to the void deck. They even cordoned off an area of the deck, claiming their territory with raffia string.

On first glance, [or rather, after reading the first paragraph] you may feel a stab of sympathy for the Wongs. It's like another example of Big Brother shoving poor needy Little Brother and Sister out the door, because they didn't have the money to pay for their flat, and living them out in the cold, lonely snow [ok, no snow in Singapore] confiscating their home, and making himself richer, and them poorer. [cue to evil laughter here]

And then I read the rest of the article.

The letter from HDB was NOT an eviction notice. HDB did NOT confiscate the flat from the duo, since the brother was still in possession of the keys to the flat. It was a notice to "inform them of the board's intention to acquire the flat" and the Wongs could still approach HDB to work out a payment plan for themselves, which would allow them to keep the flat. The Wongs apparently read the notice to mean that they had been evicted, and the sister even indignantly said,

"How can they tell us to move out, and now tell us that we have to move all our things back?"

Not only that, but help had been repeatedly offered to the siblings over 6 years, and always solidly refused. Food had been left at their door, which went untouched. [they preferred to pick up discarded vegetables at the markets for food]

They had another 2-room HDB flat, fully paid up and left behind by their deceased sister. Thus, they could sell the flat they were living in back to HDB, which would deduct their arrears, and move them to their sister's flat. This would still leave them about $160,ooo to live on, and a roof still over their head.

They could rent a HDB flat for about $26 a month. $13 a month for a roof over your head seems a pretty fair deal.

They refused all options. According to the sister, "Our mother told us before she died never to trust anyone and sign anything. If not, we will surely be cheated. We don't want to pay. We want to go to a welfare home. What's welfare if we have to pay for it?"

Now my response becomes: WAH RAO EH. People help you. You don't want. Then what you want?

There's a lot about the story of the siblings that intrigues me. For one, they're not exactly very old. They're 47 and 48, and while they might have trouble finding a job, it won't be impossible for them, even as a cleaner or a dishwasher or something. Even with a cleaner's job, they'd still have enough to live on, and pay for the rental of the HDB flat of $13 each a month. [considering that now they're subsisting on discarded vegetables, I'd say their food needs aren't that expensive. (^^!)]

I'm not sure what education they have had, but considering they're asking for dishwashing jobs in the article, and from their replies, I'd say they weren't university graduates. (^^!) So fine, you won't be able to get some highflying corporate job earning you thousands a month. Is it so bad to rely on a <$1000 salary as a cleaner or a Macdonald's waitress or something?

And importantly, have they been looking for jobs at all?

And they haven't always been poor apparently. From the article, you learn that their father owned a chain of hardware shops, but apparently had gotten cheated of everything. That's when the family became very suspicious and untrusting of people too.

According to a neighbour, the siblings never seemed to work, hardly left the flat, and relied on their mother to pick up discarded vegetables for food, and sell drink cans for money.

My question now becomes: What have these 2 siblings done to help themselves?

They are suspicious that HDB will cheat them of their flat. They refuse to touch their sister's flat, because the sister never helped to feed their mother. [although it looks more like the mother had to feed them, rather than the other way around] They don't want to go to a welfare home unless it's free. (0_0)

It's starting to look more like a matter of pride and abject laziness lor. The more I read, the more I'm like, "Eh, please lah.." You're in that kind of bottom-of-the-hole situation and then you refuse to do these things to help your situation, out of some weird sense of pride. People's help and generosity can only go so far you know.

This is like that 22 year old guy who used to beg at Orchard Underpass for money. He wasn't sick, he wasn't disabled, he wasn't stupid or retarded, [as far as I could see, anyway] so what was he doing there begging? He was just unwilling to get some job and content to sit there and wait for people to give him money.

And then Turtle comes in and raves about the gahmen and how they never help the people enough. (0_0) Sorry to say this, but for some people, I don't really know whether they deserve the help or not. Because from what I see, they aren't doing enough to help themselves.

If you had lost everything you had due to some external circumstances, say tsunami, or economic crisis, I'm inclined to give you my pity. It's not entirely your fault this happened to you, and I can see why you might need that leg up.

But the extra leg up is just that, an extra leg up. It's not something to support you forever, like a chair. It's meant to give you that one boost so that you can start climbing out of this shithole on your own.

Even the more affluent people are guilty of this. My father complains from time to time that "the gahmen should..." Yea, yea, all familiar phrases by now. (^^!) And even in the forum pages, you see people who write that "the authorities should..." "The government should..." blah blah blah.

And after a while, it's enough to make you gasp in exasperation and make you wonder why no one ever says something like "We should come together, and do something about this." "We should write a petition" "We should organize some rallys"

Then yea, there's the usual complaints as well. "I'm too busy at my job" "I have to look after my kids" "How to watch my ch8 serials??" [Ok, so maybe that last one was a bit off]

Or the best one yet. "The gahmen will never listen to us" Well, is that an excuse for not even trying? Or an excuse to give up?

Because if you're off put by the idea that someone will object to what you're saying, and you're not willing to face the adversity that your ideas may bring, are you sure you are at all passionate about your ideals? Maybe to you, you'd rather live with the problem rather than face the can of worms that it could potentially bring up.

I'm not sure whether that makes you a total coward, or a person who fully doesn't believe in what they're saying.

Crap. We're a nation of people who're just waiting for the next handout.

Cookies!

So my "self-imposed" Internet ban to help me "find myself" lasted all of... maybe 8 hours? (^^!) And here I'm back with a brand new list of cookie links:

Darkness Part 2 is a variation of the highly irritating but yet addictive Crimson road that Krystal and Yenn were so hooked on. [I got fed up after finding 12 items, closed the window, and started Freecell] I didn't finish this one as well [because I got irritated halfway.] but you guys can try if you want.

TYM is a teacher, and she blogs about having students find her having breakfast in her home clothes. Thankfully, a tuition teacher has much less students, so I've never really had this trouble that she did. "Hey, that's my teacher, Miss Tan! The one in the...... oversized tee shirt and the PE shorts with the colourful hairband..." (^^!) And I always avoid my students' parents quickly if I happen to see them around.

mrbrown claims that you are what you drink. So what's your poison? According to him, my taste for gin and sodas means I'm:

"Personality:
Mature, has picky taste; knows what she wants"

"Approach:
If she wants you, she'll send YOU a drink."

Erm, actually I won't. I'd rather drink it myself. (^-^) Pubs are SO not the place to meet potential boyfriends [ie, guys who don't have commitment issues, ie, guys who aren't looking for a one night f**k] as can be seen by the rest of mrbrown's list. Go click on the link to see what I mean. :D

And on a related note, from across the Causeway, Kennysia muses on the type of the people you are likely to see at a pub. I say of all of them, he forget another one, which is:

"Girls who go alone, or in a big group of girls, all drinking amongst themselves, and yet secretly hoping that some hot guy will try to pick them up or buy them their next drink."

So...... when are we pubbing again, gals? :D

deprivation mode

The following conversations show that Yenn and I could both be lacking in something... Me from the DF and her from...... well, a lack of someone anyway. :p

[Interrupt: I'm getting edgy about DF cos' it's been more than a week since I last saw him. We exchanged a few SMS and chatted a bit online, but I want to meet him, and he's all apparently tied up with work, and possibly if I don't call him he's going to just engross himself in work and possibly never call me and I know I sound so whiney about now but I can't help it I just want to whine.

Ok, back to regular blogcasts:]

Statistics claim that the number of smokers in Singapore has decreased. I say walk down Orchard Road one night and you'll be sorely deprived of that notion. Yenn and I [both avid non-smokers] were performing some weird kind of crab dance down Orchard as we dodged left and right trying to avoid the various people in front of us who were blowing their hideous nicotine air behind us.

After a while...

"Oh god my lungs are being raped, left and right."

"This isn't just rape. This is more like gang rape. They're all around us forcing us to submit to their will."

"Does that make us some kind of prostitute?"

"No, prositution would be when we get paid for inhaling their air. We're not getting any money from them, are we?"

"Comfort women?"

"No, comfort women are when your boyfriend smokes but you don't."

Ouch. Lemme insert a disclaimer: These are all JOKES made in HUMOUR by 2 individuals who have NOTHING against guys who smoke or girls who smoke. These are JOKES. Please DON'T sue us.

And we have nothing against comfort women either.

On to the next one:

"*Groan* Going into school already."

"Ya, we're going into bondage."

"That's a really long period of bondage."

"When we study we're submissives. When we teach, that's when the domination begins."

Like I said at the start, we could both be lacking in something. (^^!)

Cookie Bites

Munch munch... Just shows you I surf too much...

Kein wrote a great piece on how much it sucks to be a guy. Go read!

And speaking of cookies, I'm so wishing I had some right now (0_0) The trouble with Me and the Net nowadays is that I spend more time on it than I do with friends, family and the DF. And that's all 3 combined, by the way.

And not only that, but when I get too engrossed into things, I tend to forget to eat. (0_0) *Wah* Which is why now, even on the brink of desperate gastric, I'm still compelled to type out this blog entry on my keyboard. :( :( :(

It's insane, and I think I'm on the brink of serious addiction here. On my Always-Read list, I have something like 5 or6 friends' blogs, 10 over blogs of People I Don't Know, and 10 over online comics. (0_0) It's nuts! Then comes the other websites, like Tomorrow.sg and stuff.

And of course, at the same time I'm doing all this, I'm MSN-ing with whoever's online. (^^!)

*Desperate wailing* I need help.................

So that's why, as soon as I can pull myself away from this keyboard, I'm SO going out of the house. It's gotten to the point where my life revolves around my blogging, and the Net, and I need to, in a most cliched way, "find myself again". In other words, rediscover the things about me which made my blog so interesting to read before.

[er, was there anything interesting about my blog to read before? :p Or all you all just forcing yourselves through my boring, boring life of a perverted sense of friendship and loyalty? :p]

As soon as I check out that one last website........................

Okokokok..... going...... now........

Another quiz-thingy, courtesy of Krystal's blog. As usual, my comments are in []

The True You

You want your girlfriend or boyfriend to be more open with you. [True, and not yet too sucessful. (^^!)]

With respect to money, you spend carefully and save your pennies. [Altogether now: WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Suffice to say, NOT TRUE.]

You think good luck depends on maintaining good relationships with others. [I think good luck depends on those severed rabbits' limbs and four leaf clovers I have hidden under my bed. Oh, and don't forget the pile of salt in my kitchen.]

The hidden side of your personality tends to be methodical in your ways - with trouble adapting to the rules of society. [I have a bit of trouble understanding this... I'm basically.. methodical in not following the rules? Huh?]

You are tend to think about others' feelings a lot, perhaps because you are so eager to be liked. [No, I'm a regular scrooge. Humbug to the lot of you.]

When it comes to finding a romantic partner, you don't have any particular type in mind, but you are inclined to look for someone who will say yes when you ask him / her out. [And I chose the DF because...................?]

Who's the True You?

So like all blog things... Half true and half not. Especially the part about me saving money anyway. (^^!)

You know you're a diehard Internet surfer when you start to memorise the different keyboard shortcuts for your Firefox browser. (0_0) Win liao...

In a more artistic mood... I started to think about

Portraiture

People usually think that the hardest thing about portraiture is drawing the different features of the person. Actually, they could be wrong. The hardest thing about portraiture is actually making YOUR portrait look like the person you're drawing.

Does it sound like the same thing? Not exactly, actually.

To draw the features of the person concerns technical skill. If you want to draw, for eg, the nose of your subject, follow the contours of the nose and repeat the same lines on your paper.

Ironically enough, you may find that even though your lines are correct, the face that you've drawn on paper doesn't resemble the person you are drawing at all. You've captured the lines of the person, but not her personality. This is the hard part of portraiture. To make sure that your portrait is immediately identifiable.

I saw an example of this a few years back, when my friends and I went to the career fair at Suntec. [I forgot which one now] The booth housing a local arts institution [er, in case I get sued for defamation, I shall not say which one, suffice that they're the more ang moh pai one. You go guess which one] had a couple of its students there doing caricature portraits for a few bucks, so my friend and her bf decided to go try.

The result......................... well it wasn't exactly the standard I was expecting from students of that institution. (^^!)

But thinking about it, maybe this was the same problem with the portrait in the first place. The student drawing it only looked at my friend on the surface, and drew what she saw there. Not only that, but my friend and bf were required to hold a fixed smile for the time the portrait was being drawn. Of course they're not going to look natural lah!

And most importantly, they missed the little things of my friend that were unique to her and her alone. Her funky sense of dress, her bright, white smile, and her love for dance. Without those, the cartoon portrait could have been of anyone else in the street.

So technical skill isn't always everything in art. If I were to simply draw a picture of a woman's face, no one would particularly recognise this as anyone.



But if I were to add more detail to the portrait, like clothing and accessories, and add in some colour [to make it nicer mah :p] the portrait becomes instantly recognizable to those who know the subject of the portrait. [or rather, it should lah, to the subject's friends anyway (^^!) If still not, then I really failed big time at this (^^!)]



Note: For background info in the production of this piece, click on the pic to go to the flickr photo page.

Now the picture becomes not just of a woman caught in surprise, she becomes a picture of someone caught in surprise. She is not just an anonymous subject anymore, she has become recognizable to those who know her. Ah, you start to get the idea? ;)

Which is why, whenever people do caricatures of portraits, they usually draw some other detail to make the subject recognizable to others, even if the skill in the portrait is low. [like mine. (^^!)] A girl who loves dolls will be drawn in a sea of Barbies. A guy who likes cars will be drawn driving one. My friend who loves acting will be drawn as a starving actor. [yea, you know who you are. :p]

So to draw really good portraits, you can't just rely on technical skill. You have to know your subject as a person, and bring that through in your piece. :)

Ok, artistic mood over...

The Travelling Convo Gown

[In a slightly museful mood]

Anyone read this book, called the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants? The story revolves around 4 girls, who share a pair of miraculous pants. I say miraculous, because when each of the 4 girls wear the Pants, they look instantly fabulous in it.

[I don't know where they found such a miraculous pair of pants, 'cos no way are my girlfriends able to share tee shirts with me, let alone a pair of pants.]

Anyway, at the time of the story, they're spending their first summer away from each other. In order to remember each other, and have a memento of their summer, they decide to send the pants to each other throughout the summer, and each one is supposed to write a kinda memory on the pants of what happened to her while wearing the pants.

The thought of the book came to me just on Sunday, when Turtle came to my house to try on the convocation gown, since Turtle is graduating from NUSSUX this year, from the same faculty that I graduated from last year.

[btw, those convo gowns are very symbolic and all, but for all practical purposes, they're the most useless piece of apparel you can ever own in your lifetime. I mean, seriously, what ARE you going to do with the gown after graduating, besides taking a few nice pictures?]

That gown has something of a history behind it by this point of time. The gown was originally Quet's, and it saw HER being graduated, together with the rest of Yenn, Krynn, Kairos and so on. Since Candle and I were taking a double major and hence doomed to spend one more year in NUSSUX, we could only spend the ceremony looking wistfully on, and making everyone promise to come for OUR graduation the next year. [which none of you did, you meanies. *sulk*]

The gown spent one year languishing in Quet's closet, till it was MY turn to be graduated. This time around, Quet, Yenn, Krynn and Kairos had more or less found employment, though with different levels of satisfaction and income (^^!). I had been happily teaching tuition and slacking for about half a year, and fresh back from Europe, and Candle was now in the fruitless quest of looking for a job herself, to buy herself out of her servitude to the spore gahmen. We all proceeded to my house for dinner and drinks, during which Yenn and I got gloriously intoxicated. [these are the best kind of parties. ;) ]

THIS time around, it's been a year since I graduated. I've been teaching tuition all this while, and now am almost about to enter Mr Moe's establishment to teach for real. The gown gets passed on to Turtle, who has also signed up with Mr Moe like me, and also about to enter NIE. It's been a tough phase of life for him, career and love-wise, and he's slightly cynical about life as it is. He was slightly in doubt about his choice, but is willing to take things as they come, and see how this goes.

Quite a number of stories this gown has seen, passed down through 3 generations of bizaders. (^^!) And quite amazing that it has lasted that long. A unique thing about a convocation gown also is that it always accompanies its user in his or her most pivotal point of life. That time when you're just on the brink between adulthood and studenthood [childhood seems a bit juvenile]. You're still fresh with hope about the future, content to take things as it comes, and maybe even a bit eager to jump into your career, and start earning those bucks. [realities like long term financial planning and CPF haven't kicked in at this point]

And the unique thing about this ONE gown, is that by now, it's gone through 3 sets of individual hopes, aspirations, dreams, and fears. It's almost become like one of those family heirloom things, which you pass down from generation to generation, and which is almost always accompanied by the stories of the numerous family members which have held it.

You almost wonder about the stories that this gown has seen.

The Woes of Adulthood

My imminent entry into adulthood [and hence, the so-called 'real world'] meant that I had to begin some serious financial planning. Mainly, the kind that doesn't involve me dunking my $1 coins into a cute savings bank.

And no offence to any personal banker/finance major/financial planner friends, but I FREAKIN' HATE FINANCE! Something about seeing all those interest rates, inflation rates, and numbers floating in front of me just makes my head spin and reduce me to the IQ level of a kindergarten kid again, when I was first learning to add and minus.

"So er, you take this number, add to this figure..."

"No, it's this number, added to this one, multiplied by X and then powered by the coefficient of the Scalar Numeral and then added to your age multiplied by the Zaphod coefficient..."

Yea, that's basically what goes into my mind when someone tries to explain something 'financial' to me. (^^!)

*Deep Sigh.....* The whole thing's just pretty depressing. Firstly there's my imminent entry into Moe, which signals 3 years of bonded servitude, which people are trying to convince me is a worthwhile sacrifice for the future. Then there's the whole financial issue, which I know is a good thing for the future, but which to me just makes me want to spend everything I have. [The logic being, if I'm not going to be able to save enough for my retirement anyway, what's the point of trying so hard now? Haha, ok, it's something I saw in a Cathy comic... :p]

Longevity these days seem to be a double-edged sword. It used to be that longevity was a good thing. Now, longevity just means you have to work longer and harder throughout the whole of your life, and that's assuming in your old age, you even have work (^^!) and you don't end up starving to death in your one-room govt-subsidized apartment.

It's like... Even if you do live that long, and you do have a substantial amount in your retirement account... Then what?

Maybe, in some strange twisted way, humans aren't just made to last that long. I almost wish I could live the way I'm living now for the next 10 years, and then let it be So Long and Thanks For All the Fries. [Wonder if I can get that engraved on my urn. Hmm.]

Why not live a life worth remembering, and then gracefully bowing out at the end?

Then again, what is the end?

What is worth remembering?

Better to have loved, and lost, a million times through life

Than never to have loved at all in one dreary life?

Right, when I get this way, I know I'm starting to think too much again, and veering off into strange mental grounds. So I better stop here, and get some sleep. :p

So long, and thanks for all the fries.

The Saga Continues......

Part 3 of Daniel's 2nd Comic

For those who haven't been following, Daniel is a talented artist who has been doing a local spoof of a very, very famous movie in a galaxy far, far away... :p

Cookie Bites

AMPs are alternative motivational posters, instead of the usual eagle soaring over cliffs things. They're well-designed and have a funky edge to them. Too bad they cost quite a bit. :p But hey, to admire is free, right?

Haro Singapore! has some great pics of the cosplay that I missed last Saturday due to tuition lessons. ("Duh!" Money over love. Wat to do?) Warning to Yenn-san: You will most likely puke at the pic of the one who did your beloved Howl. :p

Ok that's it. Onto the post proper....

---

Goodmeat: I dread to think of what third base could be... No! No! No! *smacks side of head*

I sorta realised that the best way to not think of the DF so much is to keep myself as busy as possible, so that my mind doesn't run wild about the 10,ooo possible futures we could have together (^^!) In a way, it's sorta like eating the same red pill that he does, so that we can stay in the same Matrix-like cocoon together. [Get it? If not, watch the Matrix again.. hehehe]

So for the Saturday night that he had to work, and I had no Jap class, I went out with Doe instead. [Doe being one of my closest friends since sec sch, and something akin to a Ya-ya. Ref: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Great book. Everyone go read it]

In a way, Doe and her bf Tak are the archetypes of non-compatibility at first glance. For one, Doe towers over me by almost half a head, is slim and pretty, and has very Eurasian features. Somewhat of a Amazon princess type. [And if she found out that I said that on my blog, I'll probably get slaughtered amazon-style. hehehe...]

Tak, however, is about my height, and has very Asian features, sorta like those hairy Samurai types. (0_0) Not exactly what you'll call 'husband-wife-face' on first glance... hahaha...

But yet, somehow or another, they've worked it out between the two of them. :) It's been almost a year or two, and they're still at it, and once you get past the physical differences, and look at the actual chemistry between the two, you realise there's a lot there. [Everyone: Awwwwwww....]

So taking her as an example, you realise that sometimes you just can't listen to too many people about how relationships should proceed. Because when they first got together, tons of people were also questioning whether they really liked each other, blah blah blah, and whether they really were gonna stay together, blah blah blah. And yet, they have.

[Here's an ironic thing though. Doe and Tak knew each other for a pretty short period of time before they got together. And our friends still questioned them. DF and I have known each other for a damn long period of time. And our friends are still questioning me. So...... obviously the time you know a person is not quite a factor here. ]

So we both agreed that sometimes, you just can't listen to too many people about how they think the relationship should go. Because inevitably, everyone has different expectations of how a relationship should proceed. [and trust me, I've heard some pretty gag-inducing ones] And if you project your expectations onto that person, then you're not quite living your own now, are you?

BUT there are some caveats you should take note of. Eg the usual overdrinking, flirting, screwing, gambling, blah blah blah. Some things just should NOT be forgiven or let to rest. [Should workaholism be part of them though? The jury is still out on that...]

I also sorta figured that part of why I overthink is because I'm too free most of the time. (^^!) So I should at least try to keep myself somewhat busy during the days to keep from overimagining all sorts of things. And maybe play more Freecell. :p

But there are some things in his character we both felt he could improve on. [Potential Workaholism being one of them... (^^!)] I do know some of the caveats in his character I should look out for, thankfully, so I wanna see whether his flaws become too much for me to handle. If I can live with it, or if he can change for my sake, then good for him and me. If not...... time for me to start looking around again. :p

And if things don't work out in the end......... *wryly* maybe I should spend my energy writing that tell-all national bestseller, eh? At least I know I have most of the material saved on this blog......