Quotes:

“…travelling alone with a backpack and a camera, I depend on people’s generosity for them not to kill me, for them to give directions, and sometimes even to feed me.”

“I literally travel on my own. I get up in the morning and I hit the streets. Sometimes I get in the cab and I’ll say, ‘Give me five dollars that way’ and the guy goes ‘What do you mean?’ ‘That way for a long time.’ ‘And what are you going to do when you get there?’ ‘Get back to the hotel.’ ‘How?’ ‘We’ll see.’ And anything that happens to me will be the history of that day. Anyone I encounter, I get a photo and that will be the day. And I do this. It has taken me through slums and all kinds of situations.”

“By day I’m shaking hands… But I’m a voyeur in that I get back onto an airplane and I leave them to their lives. I go in and out feeling kind of awful and kind of like I’m just some jerk coming in, ‘I’m taking a photo, Bye-now! Good luck, keep on believing, keep moving forward!’ But that’s how I feel sometimes where I feel like I’m some disingenuous idiot taking these people’s photos and I find them to be much better than myself.”

I’m currently reading “Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky” which is essentially a compilation of discussions that Noam Chomsky has had over several decades on a wide range of political topics. Though some of these discussions were back in the 80s, they are still relevant today and I reckon it will remain relevant in the near future too.

Q. Noam, I have to say, I’m getting a little depressed by all this negative information – we need it, there’s no question about it, but we also need a certain degree of empowerment. So let me just ask you, who are your heroes?

Well, let me first just make a remark about the “empowerment” point, which comes up again and again. I never know exactly how to respond to it – because it’s just the wrong question. The point is, there are lots of opportunities to do things, and if people do something with them, changes will happen. No matter how you look at it, it seems to me that’s always what it comes down to.

Q. Well, I guess I’m asking about your heroes so that you’ll be a little bit more specific about some of these “opportunities.” For example, who do you really admire when it comes to activism?

Well, my heroes are people who were working with S.N.C.C (the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a Civil Rights Movement organization) in the South – people who day after day faced very harsh conditions and suffered badly, some of them were even killed. They’ll never enter into history, but I knew some of them, I saw some of them – they’re heroes. Draft resisters during Vietnam War I think are heroes. Plenty of people in the Third World are heroes; if you ever have the chance to go to a place where people are really struggling – like the West Bank, Nicaragua, Laos – there’s an awful lot of heroism, just an awful lot of heroism. Among sort of middle-class organizers, there are three or four people I know who would get the Nobel Peace Prize if it meant anything, which of course it doesn’t, in fact it’s kind of an insult to get it – take a look at who it goes to. If you look around, there are people like that: if you want heroes, you can find them. You’re not going to find them among anybody whose name is mentioned in the newspapers – if they’re there, you know probably they’re not heroes, they’re anti-heroes.

- Chapter Three: Based Primarily on discussions at Rowe, Massachusetts, April 15-16 1989. pp.93-94

Full Documentary:

An essential component in dialogue is the willingness to reexamine one’s faith in the light of how others relate to their tradition and the ability to strengthen or adjust one’s own engagement and interaction with the sacred based on the experiences of the other. Understanding the faith of others should strengthen rather than weaken a person’s commitment to his or her tradition.

For example, I recently read that when Professor Cantwell Smith was asked if he was a Christian, he responded, “Ask my neighbor.” That short yet profound reply made me reflect on my social responsibilities. We become enriched in our own faith tradition by interacting with the other. Dialogue between religions does not only entail relating the intensity or depth of our own faith but also witnessing and growing in it while understanding and respecting the faith of the other. Students in the comparative religions class which I offer at the University of Denver have often remarked that their faith and commitment to their own religious tradition has been strengthened by learning about other religions.

In this context, it is important to note that the etymology of the word “dialogue” is dia in Greek, referring to the act of seeing through. Dialogue should empower us to “see through” the faith of others, and enable us to reexamine our assumptions of the other based on the other’s definition of itself. Each group is able to better express what it believes and, in the process, to understand more deeply the meaning of what it means to be committed to a particular faith tradition. The process of self-definition also requires that each group express itself based on its own terms and for the partner in dialogue to accept and respect that self-definition. In the process, our preconceived notions of the other are challenged and often dramatically altered. This is the first step to moving beyond the stereotypes and misrepresentations of the past.

It is improper for Muslims, for example, to assume that their often-distorted image and understanding of Christianity is how Christians understand themselves. The ability to change one’s views and perceptions about the other is an important component if interaction between people of different religious backgrounds is to lead to a more peaceful co-existence between them. The purpose of engaging in interfaith dialogue is not to reach doctrinal agreement but to increase sensitivity to others. As the Parliament of the World’s Religions affirmed in Chicago in 1993, “The earth cannot be changed for the better unless the consciousness of the individual is changed first.”

This is A-Gan. A man from China. A resilient fighter.

0:00
China’s A-Gan’s Story

00:06
“Being disabled is not a important, the key is mindset!
You must always always press on.
What you want will definitely succeed!”

00:28:
His name is Zheng Xinyi, this year 27-years-old.
A Kuanghe country folk from Luotan County of Hubei Province.

00:40
At 2-years-old, Xinyi unfortunately developed a strange brain disease
–”adversive epilepsy/convulsions/seizures”,
Both upper limbs bent towards the body and twisted around,
Both hands unable to twist,
Mouth muscles slanted to one side, making it difficult to talk.

01:02
Even though he cannot use his two hands,
he can still take care of himself,
even though it is always that hard for him to do anything.

01:26
Putting on clothes is considered a simple matter.
But to him, it is this difficult.

02:54
Putting on this jacket took him two and a half minutes time.

03:00
“I have never said: “Okay, sure, help me!”
I have never said that before!
I say: “Thank you! No need I can do it myself!”

07:09
Being self-reliant, he never depends on other people.
He believes he can support himself with his own labor.
He supports himself by laying out a carpet selling small goods.

08:02
He never attended a single day of school.
However, by watching the words/subtitles on television,
he learned how to use his feet to write words,
and also send text messages.

08:18
He dreams that one day his body will recover,
So he often endures severe pain to work out his body,
making his two unusable arms receive exercise.

09:45
“No matter how difficult
I will not cry.”

10:18
To be continued…

Service of the people of Aljunied GRC
5 May 2011 Rally Speech
Serangoon Stadium (Aljunied GRC Rally)

Fellow Singaporeans and residents of Aljunied GRC.
Tonight I want to talk about only one thing. It’s my most important topic and so I have kept it for last. And I have saved it for the people of Aljunied GRC.

People of Aljunied, if you decide to elect us, we, the Workers’ Party team, promise to serve you to the best of our ability. We are committed to working very, very hard to be the best MPs we can be – for you.

The Workers’ Party team in Aljunied wants only to serve. We want to serve the national interests of the people of Singapore and we want to serve the local interests of the people of Aljunied.

In fact, serving you is what we look forward to. Why else have we taken this difficult path of running against the juggernaut of the PAP? There is no glamour and there is no big money.

One Straits Times Forum letter writer thought that there is glamour in being an opposition politician. But no, there’s no glamour in it. Yes, there is some attention for a very short period during the general election, but the five years in between elections is all about dedicated work with little notice. I have done door-to-door house visits in Aljunied once a week, almost every week, for about 8 years. There is no media coverage, but neither do I want it, as the purpose of the visits is not publicity.

What I have experienced is frustration that I can’t do more for the residents whom I meet. Some residents have raised concerns to me, a few of which I have highlighted in Parliament. However, as an NCMP, I have no official capacity to write letters on their behalf regarding their specific cases, though I very much want to. The Government has clearly stated that Government departments would not respond to letters by NCMPs on behalf of residents.

If elected, I would really look forward to having weekly Meet-the-People sessions so I can do more for residents.

The Workers’ Party candidates also do not have million dollar plus salaries to look forward to if we are elected. We are not fighting for high-paying ministerial positions. We are fighting only to serve.
Do we have the ability to serve you well? Only you can decide that. But I hope you will consider the following:

Mr Low Thia Khiang has run Hougang Town Council for nearly twenty years without the advantages of being in the PAP. He has been re-elected 3 times and served 4 terms. He will bring his extensive experience to our team.

Chen Show Mao has worked on huge commercial deals that require excellent legal and organisational skills. These skills would certainly help in managing a town council.

Muhamad Faisal is a professional family consultant who has valuable experience in counselling people with difficult household issues.

Pritam Singh will soon embark on a second career as lawyer. He is also a businessman and has a Diploma in Islamic Studies. All of these would be relevant in serving residents.

For myself, I have only been a Town Councillor of Hougang Town Council, so I have much to learn. But I hope to add some value to the team with that experience, with my legal knowledge and with an understanding of young people from my 12 years as a polytechnic lecturer.

Singaporeans definitely demand good performance from opposition MPs. If the opposition MPs do not perform, they’ll be out at the next election. In 1991, 4 opposition MPs were elected. At the 1997 election, 2 were voted out. The voters decided that they wanted PAP MPs back.
We know that we have to work hard, even harder than the PAP MPs, if we are elected. We will do our best to ensure that you will not have to do what Minister Mentor Lee says. If elected, we will do our best to ensure that you will not have to repent.

In the car rental business, the world leader is a company called Hertz. One competitor that is trying to catch up is a company called Avis. Because they are in second place, Avis has adopted a slogan that says: We Try Harder.

That might also be a good slogan for the Workers’ Party. We Try Harder. If elected, we will try harder to be good MPs for you. We will try harder to serve you well.

Let me end tonight by saying something about the name of your GRC. Aljunied GRC is named after Syed Omar bin Ali Al-Junied. He was a successful Muslim businessman who was also a broad-minded philanthropist. He donated money to the hospital built by Tan Tock Seng for poor Chinese people. He also donated land for the building of St Andrew’s Cathedral. He had the spirit of service to the community as a whole, regardless of race or religion.

We hope to emulate Syed Omar bin Ali Al-Junied’s spirit of service. We look forward to serving you to the best of our ability – you, the people of Aljunied GRC.

I’ve been taking photos of Workers’ Party’s rallies. You can check them out on my Flickr. I’ve also shot some high reolution panoramic photos. You can view them at http://yunir.net/elections

Pippin: Maybe Treebeard’s right, it’s too big for us; let’s go home, we still have the Shire.

Merry: Fires of Isengard and Mordor will spread and the forest of Bucklin and Hardbottle will burn, there won’t be a Shire, Pippin.

The speech may have been made several years ago. But it is going viral recently, no doubt because elections is coming. And indeed, the unbelievably large salaries that ministers are getting is really just mind blowing, especially since cost of living is rising but the salaries of the average Singaporeans remain stagnant.

Ministers aside, the President’s salary has also been increased recently to $4.2 million dollars a year. That’s $350,000/month yo!

Can someone remind me what exactly the role of the President is?