empathy...

Today, I saw 2 people from an opposition party handing out booklets along an underpass at Orchard. They were trying to garner support for democracy. I say try because that all they could do. They proclaim that democracy needs YOUR help. If we don’t do anything about it, democracy will die. If they didn’t know, democracy cannot be dead because it has never been alive.

No one in the underpass even gave them a second look. Perhaps they heard, but they just didn’t want to hear it.

Empathy is what’s truly dead in Singapore. When we are young, we help because we can. They don’t see differences, they see someone in need. The older we get, the more we see our interest over the common good. Children learn what they see, what is modeled for them. How many times have your parents told you not to be ‘kaypoh’ and ‘mind your own business’?

Empathy might the superhero that can save democracy.

arm chair ping pong...

You've heard of arm chair tacticians.... here is ping pong in relative comfort.

$70...

Are you feeling feverish?

Is it the weather? The crazily humid days that pour without warning?

Or is it a fever of another kind? The kind of fever that can only be solved paying $70.

Pastor asked me what where he was going to find $70. I thought that was such a random question. But I did tell him that maybe he should just watch it at a random coffeeshop.

creativity...

I can't remember where I read this, but a photo Mic*helle sent reminded me of this.

What is the colour of the sky?

If your first reaction is to say blue, then I must say that you have been curbed. You have been told to colour within the the lines so often that your reflex response is so tuned to the right response that you cannot fathom the sky being any other colour.

BUT, I can tell you that the sky can be made up of a multitude of colour. It's not just blue in the day and dark blue at night. It can also be a violet hue in the dawn, searing blue in the noon, orange-red in the dusk, and black at night.

What is the point of all this? I think MO said it best when he made a comment about how the system tends toward promoting the right answers rather than the exposure to the multitude of possibilities that are out there. Is the right answer always the best answer? In fact, is the right answer even important? Sure it is, but only to an extent. How far does this extent extend? That's a personal choice.

Do we only want people who would only tell you the sky is blue? Or do we need people who can see the possibilities that others cannot?