Published May 14th, 2008
in Life.
This post is going to be a plug.
Kevin, the newly self-anointed love doctor, is going to be posting a new series on his blog coming this Friday. To say its ambitious would be understating it. The topic: “What do women really want?”
To those of us who know Kevin, this promises to be interesting at the very least - one way or the other. And to those of us who do not know Kevin, well, I leave it to you to decide whether to peruse his posts.
And Kevin: if you’re wondering why I didn’t post your promotional picture, well, it wouldn’t have fit without some ugly scaling. So let’s not do that.
Normal service will resume shortly.
Published May 12th, 2008
in Thoughts.
6.5 When the answer cannot be put into words, neither can the question be put into words. The riddle does not exist. If a question can be framed at all, it is also possible to answer it.
6.51 Scepticism is not irrefutable, but obviously nonsensical, when it tries to raise doubts where no questions can be asked. For doubt can exist only where a question exists, a question only where an answer exists, and an answer only where something can be said.
6.52 We feel that even when all possible scientific questions have been answered, the problems of life remain completely untouched. Of course there are then no questions left, and this itself is the answer.
6.521 The solution of the problem of life is seen in the vanishing of the problem. (Is not this the reason why those who have found after a long period of doubt that the sense of life became clear to them have then been unable to say what constituted that sense?)
6.522 There are, indeed, things that cannot be put into words. They make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical.
6.53 The correct method in philosophy would really be the following: to say nothing except what can be said, i.e. propositions of natural science–i.e. something that has nothing to do with philosophy–and then, whenever someone else wanted to say something metaphysical, to demonstrate to him that he had failed to give a meaning to certain signs in his propositions. Although it would not be satisfying to the other person–he would not have the feeling that we were teaching him philosophy–this method would be the only strictly correct one.
6.54 My propositions are elucidatory in this way: he who understands me finally recognizes them as senseless, when he has climbed out through them, on them, over them. (He must so to speak throw away the ladder, after he has climbed up on it.) He must transcend these propositions, and then he will see the world aright.
7. What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.
Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus.
And this is why I want to get a dead-tree physical copy of the Tractatus.
Published May 7th, 2008
in Life.
So we were just trying to decide what to get for a pal on his birthday…
A: ROGER!!!
A: GIVE HIM A GIRL IN A BOX!!!!
B: so startthinking!!
C: …
B: wTF?
C: that would be perfect
A: hahaha
C: but it’s not like we can get one
C: i mean the box not the girl
A: PICK ONE UP FROM THE STREET SIR!!!
B: lol
B: the box damn it
A: lol
B: where to find thebox
B: FEDEX GOT SERVICE I THINK SIR!!
C: yeah, but do they have airholes?
A: lol
A: no
A: hahaha
B: hmmm
B: difficult this is
No, I’m not A.
Heh.
Published May 1st, 2008
in Life.
There is a long, uncomfortable silence. Then the padre says, “I have already taken confessions from the other men. Would you like me to take yours now?”
“Is this what Catholics do when they’re about to die?”
“They do it all the time. But yes, it is advisable to confess immediately before death. It helps - what is the expression - grease the skids. In the afterlife.”
“Padre, it looks to me like we’re only an hour or two away from hitting the beach. If I start confessing my sins to you right now, I might get up to stealing cookies from the cookie jar when I was eight years old.”
The padre laughs.
- Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon
Posted because I love Neal Stephenson’s writing and wanted to share.
we take care of our own.
Published May 14th, 2008 in Commentary. 2 CommentsSo look, all right, it’s not that I’m against all those immigrants and foreign laborers coming over to our sunny island to find jobs with work and pay. It’s not that I’m against all those study mamas and China girls taking up places in our schools and universities.
It’s the fact that our own government doesn’t seem to care about its citizens as much as it cares about these foreign interlopers, that’s what really pisses me off. Because when you get right down to it, who should the government be paying more attention to?
—–
Abbas is my friend. He is a Pakistani who came over to Singapore years ago, and took Singapore citizenship last year. He serves NS. There’s nothing wrong with him. I’m not pissed off with him. He’s Singaporean, just like me.
And the foreign scholars I met in JC, Kevin and Roger and Mun Hon, or Zac and Rav, there’s nothing wrong with them, really. They’re awesome people, by and large. You can’t blame them for wanting to study here.
But when it comes down to the issue of places in university and jobs in the Singaporean workforce, I see no reason why Singaporean citizens shouldn’t be given precedence. It’s simple, right: this is our land, not theirs.
People like Abbas throw their lot in with Singapore because they believe in it - generally, that it’s a great place to settle. By becoming a citizen, they put a stake down in this country. They serve NS, they vote, they become our people.
In contrast, no matter how talented a non-citizen is, they are not Singaporean citizens. They are not ours. They have somewhere else to go back to if Singapore fails. They don’t have a stake here beyond their own bank accounts.
—–
The government probably believes it doesn’t matter, because talent is talent, and talent is what drives the bottom line. Our government is a great believer in the art of economic statistics and the bottom line.
The government probably hopes that once these foreigners come in, and see how wonderful Singapore is, they’ll all take up citizenship too. This would be fine if not for the fact that this leaves them, at best, only potential citizens.
A lot of these immigrants are hungry in a way we aren’t anymore, though I wonder whose fault that’s supposed to be, if anyone’s. Either that, or they bring in boatloads of sweet, sweet moolah. What to do?
But if you’re a Singaporean citizen and you’re feeling pressured because of all the foreign competition, whether for university places in our own country or for jobs in our own businesses, you probably know it does matter.
Why aren’t we taking care of our own people first?
—–
And so speaking as a born and bred Singaporean, who grew up in Bukit Panjang and Toa Payoh, attended government schools from kindergarten to junior college, whose friends and family and memories are all here: if the nation-state won’t value me as a citizen, why should I stay?