An old story goes that just before the Russian tsarina Catherine the Great went on a tour of the Russian countryside, there were sights just not for royal eyes—failed harvests, droughts, poverty and squalor. And besides, paychecks were at stake for her courtiers, and any risk to a courtier’s paycheck was a big risk indeed. (All you whistle-blowers out there will likely see what I mean.)
In stepped a minister named Potemkin, who spearheaded a clean-up effort worthy of any Singaporean government campaign, only much more effective—peasants were assembled to cheer the tsarina as her carriage rolled through, and forced at gunpoint to only speak of good tidings in her presence. Beggars were forcibly evicted, and dead crops strategically hidden from view.
In fact, Potemkin’s cover-up was so successful, the concept of sweeping dirt under the carpet, keeping the dregs where they can’t be seen, and putting on an A-OK front came to be known as a Potemkin act, and the villages so affected Potemkin villages.
It came back to mind after I read Transport Minister Raymond Lim’s call to popularise public transport, in last week’s Straits Times—he admits it would be ‘catastrophic’ if private cars were to become the dominant mode of transport in Singapore. His office, meanwhile, cited points of improvement; fewer commuters were complaining of fare hikes, overcrowding and safety. New concessions would be put in place to benefit the poor and elderly, and transport would be made more affordable for everyone, if they’d just stay out of their cars.
Since I don’t drive yet, I rely almost exclusively on public transport. And since qualitative feedback wasn’t a big part of the article, it is my solemn duty to inform anyone reading this of one truth Minister Lim has, I hope, seen for himself.
Once you physically board a bus or train, whatever statistics anyone releases don’t mean anything.
The moment I see a sardine-packed MRT train pull in, I don’t care a hoot how many people complained of overcrowding in the last survey. I don’t care about average response. I don’t even care that people who could have been driving are taking the train instead. And I most certainly am not interested in SMRT's statement that only 1400 people take each 1800-capacity train even during peak hours. Whichever train they got the stats from, it certainly isn't the one I wind up taking on Saturday afternoons.
All that fills my mind is, why did the schedulers wait for the station to turn into a sardine net before canning us in the train?
On Saturdays, MRT commuting squashes you so many people it’s impossible to turn without smacking someone, and you’d better worm your way to the exits early if you don’t want to fight your way past a wall of bodies when the doors open at your stop.
To SMRT’s credit peak hour trains are rarely packed, because they plan for such an eventuality; now if only they could do the same for afternoon travellers.
Yes, SMRT—they exist.
SBS still has some way to go. Just try taking a non-peak-hour bus out of Kent Ridge and you’ll know what I mean.
Which brings me back to Potemkin. Transport ministers and MPs must commute by public transport once in a while; it’s all part of connection and credibility. The trouble starts when they announce their visits to the town council in advance: they will be on the 3:07 train, and take Service No. Such-and-Such to their wards.
So what does the town council do?
They lobby the transport companies to reschedule. They make sure everyone has a place to sit. They clean the accumulated litter, spruce up the air-conditioning, and have the most pleasant trip anyone can hope for waiting for him. Overcrowding? Make them wait for the next train. High fares? Look at our profits! And Mr. Minister sir, if you’ll just look away from the bus beside us…
I’m not accusing our fine public transport companies of anything. All I want is to be able to travel to my dentist, take the day off shopping or swimming, or go anywhere I want in my country without having to wait nearly an hour, get ripped off at the ez-link scanner, and elbow my way through the sardine can.
(Maybe the 1400 occupants are calculated by 3D volume occupied? Sure 1800 people will fit, we just need to stack them up higher.)
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Dredging up the past
The following is an essay I wrote shortly after my hard disk crashed, and that right after I checked out of hospital. The worst problems tend to come together, if I'd learnt anything back then... :(
Funny how problems cluster together. Just last week I was recovering from a major spine operation (I still am) when my computer’s hard disk, for no apparent reason, decided to go crash. BANG. Everything gone. So here was a total system failure at the exact time I was least equipped to deal with it.
(When I was in hospital a major earthquake hit Kashmir, killing thousands in the worst natural disaster since last year’s tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Plus avian flu, dengue and evil terrorists. True in the world and true in life.)
But since a technician came and installed a new hard disk yet more problems have cropped up, none of which were there before. I can’t get some of my games working, and my computer can’t download Spybot Search & Destroy right. I’m starting to think my machine is cursed.
And it takes a freakishly long time to shut down, something that baffled the Dell techs I called. So here I am with a painful back, an uncomfortable plastic brace, and a computer that doesn’t work right.
AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, computers are like that… if anyone round here can help it would be much appreciated. Why, O Lord, are we being afflicted like this?
Enough self-pity. I’ve found out that when your very spine is at stake you aren’t fazed by lesser matters like your remaining NS time or your computer quitting on you. There are far more important matters—the love of your family, the fact they are always there for you, and the love of a God who provides all these things. Food to eat, fun to have, air to breathe, exercise to do; all these take on a whole new meaning when they are taken away for a season.
But I want to focus on what happened when I saw the system failures in the light of God’s message, and what He might be saying to me. I was pondering on this (trust me, when you’re in bed half the day you’ve plenty of time to think) and was reminded today of the scene in Genesis in which Jacob wrestles with a man at midnight, the Rumble in Bethel that left him with a dislocated hip, a new name and a blessing.
In his book He Chose the Nails, Max Lucado points out that God dislocated Jake’s hipbone so he walked with a permanent limp and therefore would never be able to run away from Him again. I guess God knew these problems were going to come our way, and gave us the strength to deal with them. But why doesn’t He take our computer problems away, since that’s really something we can do without? As I write this my brother is swearing at a system that refuses to run Call of Duty: United Offensive.
I’m sure Jacob felt the same way as he staggered back to his tent to pack up. But given our propensity to turn from the God we pledge allegiance to every Sunday and sin against more times than can be counted in the next six days, can it be that a gaming rig running at full capacity would actually hinder God from speaking to us, and hinder us from seeking Him as we should? Perhaps He has allowed these problems so we can find something other than this horribly dispassionate machine that we rely on but cannot love us back?
A working computer is a wonderful tool, just like a working body. It opens up worlds we could never have dreamed, possibilities we could never have achieved. From the smallest blog to the largest Battlefield 2 online server, from the trenches of World War II to the juggling of a virtual person’s life, a computer opens you to a vast network of fun, utility and convenience. But our PC is blind. It ignores the call of the user and the DVD drive. And it is deaf. It can’t hear our pleas that it work.
Just like our bodies, computers only enslave us when broken. And they break so much more easily too. Don’t believe me? Jump from a metre and likely nothing will happen to you. Jar a PC’s contact points with much less pressure, and well…
And when our PC does work it loads our world with games. Don’t get me wrong; I love computer gaming as much as the next guy. But it is when we rely solely on it for pleasure, fun and occupation of time that we’re in trouble. Extreme cases of people dying after 50-hour game marathons aside, how many of us spend so much time fragging the crap out of each other that our families question our very sanity and existence? How many of us trust mortal, fallible computer game developers with our entire psychological well-being? PCs are inherently unreliable and merciless when they fail you. Dare we trust them so completely with our time and fun? I can’t remember the last time I played a board game with my family, be it Monopoly, Hotel or even chess.
Are you so preoccupied with a computer, working or not, that your physical health is failing? Are relationships with people straining? Health and family and friends—these are infinitely more important than the one-eyed monsters on my desks. Love is way higher than anything circuits are capable of, and it is our parents, our brothers and sisters, and our God that keep us going. Something beyond hardware faults and toys and games is needed for us not to self-destruct as these marathon gamers whose bodies pay too-high prices are wont to do. The Bible is filled with calls to love God not possessions, people not things, and the Spirit not games.
Life is too short for arguing over whose actions damaged the computer.
People are too important for fights, as I found out when my brother got into a temper tantrum when CoD : UO didn’t run.
And our God is not a breakdown-prone machine that blindly gives us what we ask for (knowingly or not), but a powerful, real and living reality who lovingly supplies our needs. He longs to fill us with Himself, and in this fallen, sinful world, nothing less will do. Paul reminds us in Philippians: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV)
I’m only coming to realise this as I’m unable to fend for myself thanks to my spinal op, and this coinciding with my computer breaking down and then refusing to turn off. I don’t want to oversimplify a problem with potentially devastating consequences, like credit card data loss, online identity theft, and crashes just when you’re booking that airline ticket. But we Christians know we are merely sojourners in this physical world, just as we are in the error-prone digital world that emerges from it. Although the physical and digital worlds are the Lord’s, and everything in them, you can and will be a victim of your own or someone else’s sin and carelessness. We need a Saviour, and thankfully, He has come.
The physical world is a journey, not a home.
The digital world is a vehicle, not a journey.
Heaven is our home, not just a destination.
May I share one final thought? In Revelation the apostle John sees that God will make all things new. The New Jerusalem will have the “nations of those who are saved” walking in its light, “and they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.” (Revelation 21:24, 26)
Perhaps this means man will be able to use his glorified nature to create and control technologies equalling and exceeding anything this world has to offer.
Technical support will not exist, for it will no longer be needed. (Too bad for Dell Computer—they won Best Support some time back. Heh.)
Software bugs and glitches, lost work and frustration, will be things of the distant past.
But meanwhile, this side of eternity, may God help us discover a joy immune to pain, injury or breakdown. I haven’t yet, but I know it will one day come.
NOTES:
1 Good thing Battlefield 2, The Sims 2 and Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault reported for duty. Half-Life 2 is still AWOL as of today, and more than anything else I want to demand why Valve Software ‘sabo’ed me.
2 Every now and then a news report surfaces of online game addicts who have to be taken to hospital and even die after playing for hours and hours on end. Some South Korean cybercafés alleviate this by providing toilets, snacks, drinks and even sleeping facilities.
POSTSCRIPT: One year on, I've had to reformat thrice. Some things never change.
Funny how problems cluster together. Just last week I was recovering from a major spine operation (I still am) when my computer’s hard disk, for no apparent reason, decided to go crash. BANG. Everything gone. So here was a total system failure at the exact time I was least equipped to deal with it.
(When I was in hospital a major earthquake hit Kashmir, killing thousands in the worst natural disaster since last year’s tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Plus avian flu, dengue and evil terrorists. True in the world and true in life.)
But since a technician came and installed a new hard disk yet more problems have cropped up, none of which were there before. I can’t get some of my games working, and my computer can’t download Spybot Search & Destroy right. I’m starting to think my machine is cursed.
And it takes a freakishly long time to shut down, something that baffled the Dell techs I called. So here I am with a painful back, an uncomfortable plastic brace, and a computer that doesn’t work right.
AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, computers are like that… if anyone round here can help it would be much appreciated. Why, O Lord, are we being afflicted like this?
Enough self-pity. I’ve found out that when your very spine is at stake you aren’t fazed by lesser matters like your remaining NS time or your computer quitting on you. There are far more important matters—the love of your family, the fact they are always there for you, and the love of a God who provides all these things. Food to eat, fun to have, air to breathe, exercise to do; all these take on a whole new meaning when they are taken away for a season.
But I want to focus on what happened when I saw the system failures in the light of God’s message, and what He might be saying to me. I was pondering on this (trust me, when you’re in bed half the day you’ve plenty of time to think) and was reminded today of the scene in Genesis in which Jacob wrestles with a man at midnight, the Rumble in Bethel that left him with a dislocated hip, a new name and a blessing.
In his book He Chose the Nails, Max Lucado points out that God dislocated Jake’s hipbone so he walked with a permanent limp and therefore would never be able to run away from Him again. I guess God knew these problems were going to come our way, and gave us the strength to deal with them. But why doesn’t He take our computer problems away, since that’s really something we can do without? As I write this my brother is swearing at a system that refuses to run Call of Duty: United Offensive.
I’m sure Jacob felt the same way as he staggered back to his tent to pack up. But given our propensity to turn from the God we pledge allegiance to every Sunday and sin against more times than can be counted in the next six days, can it be that a gaming rig running at full capacity would actually hinder God from speaking to us, and hinder us from seeking Him as we should? Perhaps He has allowed these problems so we can find something other than this horribly dispassionate machine that we rely on but cannot love us back?
A working computer is a wonderful tool, just like a working body. It opens up worlds we could never have dreamed, possibilities we could never have achieved. From the smallest blog to the largest Battlefield 2 online server, from the trenches of World War II to the juggling of a virtual person’s life, a computer opens you to a vast network of fun, utility and convenience. But our PC is blind. It ignores the call of the user and the DVD drive. And it is deaf. It can’t hear our pleas that it work.
Just like our bodies, computers only enslave us when broken. And they break so much more easily too. Don’t believe me? Jump from a metre and likely nothing will happen to you. Jar a PC’s contact points with much less pressure, and well…
And when our PC does work it loads our world with games. Don’t get me wrong; I love computer gaming as much as the next guy. But it is when we rely solely on it for pleasure, fun and occupation of time that we’re in trouble. Extreme cases of people dying after 50-hour game marathons aside, how many of us spend so much time fragging the crap out of each other that our families question our very sanity and existence? How many of us trust mortal, fallible computer game developers with our entire psychological well-being? PCs are inherently unreliable and merciless when they fail you. Dare we trust them so completely with our time and fun? I can’t remember the last time I played a board game with my family, be it Monopoly, Hotel or even chess.
Are you so preoccupied with a computer, working or not, that your physical health is failing? Are relationships with people straining? Health and family and friends—these are infinitely more important than the one-eyed monsters on my desks. Love is way higher than anything circuits are capable of, and it is our parents, our brothers and sisters, and our God that keep us going. Something beyond hardware faults and toys and games is needed for us not to self-destruct as these marathon gamers whose bodies pay too-high prices are wont to do. The Bible is filled with calls to love God not possessions, people not things, and the Spirit not games.
Life is too short for arguing over whose actions damaged the computer.
People are too important for fights, as I found out when my brother got into a temper tantrum when CoD : UO didn’t run.
And our God is not a breakdown-prone machine that blindly gives us what we ask for (knowingly or not), but a powerful, real and living reality who lovingly supplies our needs. He longs to fill us with Himself, and in this fallen, sinful world, nothing less will do. Paul reminds us in Philippians: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7 NKJV)
I’m only coming to realise this as I’m unable to fend for myself thanks to my spinal op, and this coinciding with my computer breaking down and then refusing to turn off. I don’t want to oversimplify a problem with potentially devastating consequences, like credit card data loss, online identity theft, and crashes just when you’re booking that airline ticket. But we Christians know we are merely sojourners in this physical world, just as we are in the error-prone digital world that emerges from it. Although the physical and digital worlds are the Lord’s, and everything in them, you can and will be a victim of your own or someone else’s sin and carelessness. We need a Saviour, and thankfully, He has come.
The physical world is a journey, not a home.
The digital world is a vehicle, not a journey.
Heaven is our home, not just a destination.
May I share one final thought? In Revelation the apostle John sees that God will make all things new. The New Jerusalem will have the “nations of those who are saved” walking in its light, “and they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.” (Revelation 21:24, 26)
Perhaps this means man will be able to use his glorified nature to create and control technologies equalling and exceeding anything this world has to offer.
Technical support will not exist, for it will no longer be needed. (Too bad for Dell Computer—they won Best Support some time back. Heh.)
Software bugs and glitches, lost work and frustration, will be things of the distant past.
But meanwhile, this side of eternity, may God help us discover a joy immune to pain, injury or breakdown. I haven’t yet, but I know it will one day come.
NOTES:
1 Good thing Battlefield 2, The Sims 2 and Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault reported for duty. Half-Life 2 is still AWOL as of today, and more than anything else I want to demand why Valve Software ‘sabo’ed me.
2 Every now and then a news report surfaces of online game addicts who have to be taken to hospital and even die after playing for hours and hours on end. Some South Korean cybercafés alleviate this by providing toilets, snacks, drinks and even sleeping facilities.
POSTSCRIPT: One year on, I've had to reformat thrice. Some things never change.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Blogger?
Wee Shu Min was wrong. I don’t deny that. While scurrilous opinions have been around for a long time now, it’s only recently that John and Jane Q. Citizen began to have access to a worldwide audience… with worldwide consequences.
I hope the whole thing’s blown over, though. Nobody should have to endure the vicious personal attacks the girl went through, elitist remarks or not. Would not a simple pointing out of the facts have sufficed? Why not simply point out that society is composed not of strata but of people, built of classes but cemented in a common respect for all?
Oh, wait, I forgot. We need bogeymen—embodiments of the attitudes we so righteously fight. Elitism is oddly elusive; we search high and low for someone who makes the Education Programme for Gifted Youngsters (oops, seen too much X-men) look like the big bad decider of the exploiters and the exploited we think it is—and just weeks ago one dropped right into our laps, courtesy of the very technology that makes my insignificant self an electronically-published writer.
Oh, we showed her all right. We showed her how ashamed Singapore should be to have produced such a person. We showed just how much we can turn our angry, disapproving faces away from such pernicious talk. And the firestorm led to her blog being shut down, pictures circulating, and journalists studying how and why Wee could have developed her attitudes in the first place.
What I find hard to stomach, along with Wee’s comments, are their responses. Just look at them. Their writers claim to hate and battle elitist attitudes that the French and American Revolutions dealt a mortal blow to, and stand up for the poor and disenfranchised. Cleaners and maintenance workers are people too, you know! Shame on you upper-crust “elites” who think you know what’s good for everyone, who live in a closed-off utopia and make all the decisions from there!—oh, and maid, go clean the floor. We’re expecting guests. And did I mention Third Auntie who ran off with…
In short, we become an aloof, uncaring mob pulling the label off an effigy—becoming the very thing we claim to hate. I believe it was the Kuay Teow Man who quoted: Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
And yet the whole issue of personal responsibility for your opinions seems to have gone unanswered. Has it ever occurred to anyone that accountability for her words are hers alone? Instead we look for issues to blame—the Rafflesian culture, the outward focus of the Educa… (oops, Gifted Education Programme), the lack of contact with the so-called lower strata of society and their view as the “less fortunate”, etc. While these can and should be looked into, shocking as it may seem, it is Wee herself who must answer for her words. They are hers and hers alone to take responsibility for—to repent of, affirm, explain or deny. Basically what the backlash and commentaries over the weeks have done was take this individual accountability away—denying the fact they can and do emerge from a human being’s mind, of said human being’s own volition. Lots of GEP-ers grow up to be good, unselfish people. Lots of poor kids don’t turn to crime. And lots of video gamers don’t take programmed firepower into the real world.
So how could the whole thing have been resolved without the petty squabbling and the personal attacks, many of which were so venom-filled even a king cobra would be hard-pressed to keep up? If she were to cling to that I-don’t-care line, fine. Explain why it’s wrong, why MPs deserve that status they have, and we can accept that. Better yet, what about this—she tells us she’s sorry, her views were wrong, and she is leaving them behind like the faulty lenses they are. Will we be willing, I ask, to accept such an apology?
As Orson Scott Card has pointed out, the mark of true intellectuals is the willingness and ability to test their theories and beliefs against the real world, and the evidence it offers. To resort to I-don’t-care language and denigration is to tell EVERYONE you can think anything you like, without the added nuisance of having to face up to reality. “Hello, Earth to all…”
Right or wrong, Wee is human. Let’s treat her as such—put down the stones, and get that mind out. We can talk. And hopefully, we can shake too.
I hope the whole thing’s blown over, though. Nobody should have to endure the vicious personal attacks the girl went through, elitist remarks or not. Would not a simple pointing out of the facts have sufficed? Why not simply point out that society is composed not of strata but of people, built of classes but cemented in a common respect for all?
Oh, wait, I forgot. We need bogeymen—embodiments of the attitudes we so righteously fight. Elitism is oddly elusive; we search high and low for someone who makes the Education Programme for Gifted Youngsters (oops, seen too much X-men) look like the big bad decider of the exploiters and the exploited we think it is—and just weeks ago one dropped right into our laps, courtesy of the very technology that makes my insignificant self an electronically-published writer.
Oh, we showed her all right. We showed her how ashamed Singapore should be to have produced such a person. We showed just how much we can turn our angry, disapproving faces away from such pernicious talk. And the firestorm led to her blog being shut down, pictures circulating, and journalists studying how and why Wee could have developed her attitudes in the first place.
What I find hard to stomach, along with Wee’s comments, are their responses. Just look at them. Their writers claim to hate and battle elitist attitudes that the French and American Revolutions dealt a mortal blow to, and stand up for the poor and disenfranchised. Cleaners and maintenance workers are people too, you know! Shame on you upper-crust “elites” who think you know what’s good for everyone, who live in a closed-off utopia and make all the decisions from there!—oh, and maid, go clean the floor. We’re expecting guests. And did I mention Third Auntie who ran off with…
In short, we become an aloof, uncaring mob pulling the label off an effigy—becoming the very thing we claim to hate. I believe it was the Kuay Teow Man who quoted: Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
And yet the whole issue of personal responsibility for your opinions seems to have gone unanswered. Has it ever occurred to anyone that accountability for her words are hers alone? Instead we look for issues to blame—the Rafflesian culture, the outward focus of the Educa… (oops, Gifted Education Programme), the lack of contact with the so-called lower strata of society and their view as the “less fortunate”, etc. While these can and should be looked into, shocking as it may seem, it is Wee herself who must answer for her words. They are hers and hers alone to take responsibility for—to repent of, affirm, explain or deny. Basically what the backlash and commentaries over the weeks have done was take this individual accountability away—denying the fact they can and do emerge from a human being’s mind, of said human being’s own volition. Lots of GEP-ers grow up to be good, unselfish people. Lots of poor kids don’t turn to crime. And lots of video gamers don’t take programmed firepower into the real world.
So how could the whole thing have been resolved without the petty squabbling and the personal attacks, many of which were so venom-filled even a king cobra would be hard-pressed to keep up? If she were to cling to that I-don’t-care line, fine. Explain why it’s wrong, why MPs deserve that status they have, and we can accept that. Better yet, what about this—she tells us she’s sorry, her views were wrong, and she is leaving them behind like the faulty lenses they are. Will we be willing, I ask, to accept such an apology?
As Orson Scott Card has pointed out, the mark of true intellectuals is the willingness and ability to test their theories and beliefs against the real world, and the evidence it offers. To resort to I-don’t-care language and denigration is to tell EVERYONE you can think anything you like, without the added nuisance of having to face up to reality. “Hello, Earth to all…”
Right or wrong, Wee is human. Let’s treat her as such—put down the stones, and get that mind out. We can talk. And hopefully, we can shake too.
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