3-month hiatus

Maybe I've reached a point where I'm done experimenting with blogs. Maybe I prefer to share things face-to-face. Maybe there's nothing noteworthy to write about. Maybe I'm just a bad writer.

Whatever it is, this past 3 months of silence (online, at least) got me reflecting about what really was going on when I wrote about things that happened to me, my thoughts etc. I don't miss blogging. Things that I needed to share were shared with Wife & friends.

Maybe it's the end of the line as far as this blog space is concerned. I've enjoyed reading what others wrote. Their writings made me think, mostly about how diverse opinions can be. I suppose if I had a burning issue, I would maintain some form of consistent online presence. Given that I'm not living in a war zone nor under an overtly dictatorial political regime, I don't see a need to write about things happening around me. My thoughts are still there. I just don't see the point of sharing them online. After all, there is only so much one can go on bitching about how the social security system is continually screwed and how disempowered the citizenry really is.

On a personal note, the en-bloc demon has finally claimed the old estate that I used to live in. Rather sad to see it go under the wrecker's ball. Nothing is permanent here, especially not in the face of monetary gains. I dream of a little cottage with a spacious backyard by the seaside. But even that is temporal in the grand scheme of things. Physical things are ephemeral. And I'm still on this spiritual journey until my number is called. Nobody knows when THAT will be.

Anyway, I'll let this space slide on for a while. Let's see what develops before the year is out.

Intellectual vulgarity

This interesting incident related by yawningbread is mirrored on a daily basis at work.

The act of covering one's behind.

Political correctness.

The collective good.

All are forms of and responses to tyranny, disguised in the cloak of civility.

All are forms of intellectual vulgarity.

The world would be a radically different place if everyone called it a spade.



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Why I want out...

Source: Google

Maybe coincidence but entirely fitting that my 301st post is about one of the failings of a cold & efficient society.

Read the background story here.

So now the only government-run hospital in 1984-ville that provides maternity care will be charging its inpatients for the use of labour wards by the minute. 53 cents per minute to be exact. In the name of efficiency, no doubt. I'm sure mrbrown will come up with something witty on this. But on a more cynical note, "efficiency" has become a much-abused word or phrase, like "democracy" or "anti-terrorism". Almost anything may be excused if done in the name of democracry anti-terrorism efficiency.

But let me tell you a story about someone whom I'll address as "Aunty".

Aunty comes by to clear my waste paper basket at 10am every morning. She does her job in a slow, deliberate manner, greeting everyone along the way. Sometimes she misses out on the crushed paper that's stuck right at the bottom of the waste basket. Sometimes she tries to tidy my workstation and I won't find some important note without having to rummage through the neatly-stacked piles of paper - messing the place again.

Aunty likes to chat. We spend a good part of 10 minutes chatting once a fortnight or so. She tells me about her son, for whom she scrimped and saved in order that he receive an education in the UK. Her son has a family in London now and they come back regularly to visit her. She works now not because she needs the dough, but because it gives her a chance to "keep in touch with the outside world" as she puts it, and, I suspect, to see what messy punks like me are doing in 21st century society. I tell her about Faith and she dishes out grandmotherly advice.

Aunty is not very efficient as a cleaner. But her 10am routine is now an integral part of work life for me. Would I like to have someone else who would blitz through the cleaning routine, clearing everything and not missing out on that crushed paper at the bottom of the waste basket? Of course. But would I give up interesting conversations with Aunty, who serves as an unwitting reminder of what it means to be a parent and a human?

Efficiency is not always good.

1984-ville has become a victim of its own success. And I want out. Out to somewhere slower & kinder.

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emigration

Leading the way for ASEAN?

Source: Google

Finally, somebody in Thailand has had enough of Big Pharma and that it's a crying shame people suffer not from lack of medical treatment but lack of means...

Read the BBC report about how the Thais are breaking patent agreements on anti-HIV drugs.

Finally, somebody is admitting to an open-secret. Government is the law


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Big Brother

Source: BBC

The BBC reports that the UK Science Ministry is considering tagging people with dementia.

What about people who are intellectually disabled? So we can help them...

Children? So to prevent kidnappings...

The blind? So we can guide them across the road...

Where does it stop?

The signposts of good intentions point to the slippery road, perhaps ending here.


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