Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam 5 Jan 1926 - 30 Sep 2008
For the sword outwears its sheath,
and the soul wears out the breast.
And the heart must pause to breathe,
and love itself have rest.
A sombre message to a sombre year indeed. The sobering thing for me this year was the influx of foreigners. The hue and cry over their numbers misses the crux of the issue. Foreigners are merely the symptom. We need to focus on the causes. Not having foreign “talent” will only make matters worse we are told. I agree. What I disagree is that having them is the only solution. What has happened that has made us so dependent on outside help? Have we created a system that is slowly squeezing the life out of this land? Falling birth rates, leaking talent pool, a system that is unable or unwilling to support the old and the sick, meritocracy that has warped into favouring only certain quarters of society. We allowed mom and pop shops to wither away because we prefer the convenience of one-stop shops. We teach our children only one thing - the pursuit of money. Every other endevour is secondary. Our system punishes anyone who strays from mainstream ideals. Where are our artists? The intelligentia? Our poets, our writers, our musicians, our sportsmen? People that define a society, define who we are, what we stand for..
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer.
Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned.
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
We need to change.
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[That's what happens when you write at 2am after a few drinks too many. It reads a tab morbid now that the sun is up.]
Another year has passed. As we count down the end of a rather bad year (for some), here’s a look back at what happened in 2008. Read the rest of this entry »
Erika Toda 戸田 恵梨香 burst into the Japanese Idol scene after emerging co-winner in the 2003 Seikore 制コレ contest (All Japan High School Girl Uniform Collection) when she was 15. This is her Visual Young Jump photoshoot taken in 2005. Pictures after the break.
*UPDATE 24 Dec 2008
TOC is back up but just so you know Andrew gave us a heads up on what happened:
Hi guys,
Our host suspended the account without warning because they say our CPU use exceeds the limit. We’re working on restoring the site. Might take a while. My apologies…
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Say NO to internet regulation in Singapore.
