Intolerance, a step towards downfall?
Couldn't help but applaud when I read the parliamentary comment by Assoc Prof Koo (Tanjong Pagar GRC) when he stated that intolerance, and not the economic crisis, poses the biggest threat to Singapore. Finally, a person who's willing to call a spade a spade, and not deal with the matter in a roundabout manner.
If like what Prof Thio said, that the media had blown up the entire AWARE saga, why on earth did she deem it fit to raise it in parliament again, now that the dust has supposedly settled? If the media were truly biased in their reporting, they could have totally left out your and another unknown MP's parliamentary speech. The fact is that (as Prof Thio would probably know since she lectures on Human Rights anyway), the media is still made up of humans, and humans are entitled to expression, reporters or not. As long as they do not go overboard in their reporting, who are you to stop them from congratulating the new-old exco from scoring the coup against the team led by your mother?
The way I see it (not that my view really really matters, of course), the whole parliamentary speech is like a broken tape recorder played by a sore loser. If the papers had slanted towards your mum's "we-should-bring-down-the-pro-gay-AWARE-people", would you, or Mr Sin still accuse the papers of being biased, for not sufficiently reporting on "the other side"? The fact is, you won't.
Frankly, I totally agree with our Minister of State for Defence (ok, I admit I didn't know he was a Minister of State before this, but that's not THAT bad, right?) that "While we focus our energies on solving this economic crisis, we should never lose sight of the long-term challenge of building a tolerant, diverse and inclusive infrastructure where everybody has a private space within the bigger common space". Lest you or your mum accuses me of being "sexually challenged" (haha.. what a funny term, no wonder people had to write in to the forum to comment on it), let me just clarify that I am not (disliking certain males that I have to deal with on a routine basis doesn't count, I'm sure). My only difference is probably just that I have friends whom you view negatively. But that doesn't matter, frankly, because to me, they are still priceless. Sexual preference does not make or break a person. In fact, some of my dearest friends are way better than those "normal" ones who may be useless, less caring and downright self centred.
Besides, if you look at it from a policy point of view, if you were to argue that it is these people who affect the growth of our population, given that they will probably not form a "normal" family unit, perhaps you may explain the difference between them, and a not-married-and-probably-will-end-up-single-for-the-rest-of-their-lives "normal" being, who too, does not in any way aid in the growth of our nation. As long as everyone contributes to improving the society, who are you to judge others? Just like what our pledge says "To built a democratic society, based on justice and EQUALITY". Justice is insufficent if you do not have equality as well.
To further clarify, I am not exerting that you may not take your anti-gay views. But do not attempt to impose it on others who choose to look at it from another view. As long as one doesn't step past others' boundaries, it is fine whatever you choose because that is your own life.
Which brings me to another point about keeping within boundaries. Audrey mentioned the other day about GLC's ex COO overstepping the boundaries when he called her home after she missed his call on her handphone. That, I truly agree too. In this day and age where mobile phones are a common sight, home phones are really dedicated to certain individuals whom we deem important enough. So it's just pure rude and annoying if you can't get a person, and you have to call the person's home to hunt down the person. If it is not life and death, so be it. In fact, we agree that it is as rude and ill mannered as calling people at ungodly hours of the day for non life-and-death matters. (For the most important friends in my life, for eg. Randall, Gary, Qi, Koon, Lijia, Guoxing, Itak da ge, you guys are obviously exempted. I don't even mind being on call 24/7!)
Now that I'm more or less done with my ranting, I just can't help but realise that changing jobs really doesn't make a different to the amount of time I have in my life. Was just hit with the realisation that the person who seems to see me most, and to a certain extent, see the real me (or hear my weirdest blabbering) most is actually Shaun, rather than any of my closer friends. Perhaps cause I'm really consciously not allowing myself to whine too much to you all (yeah.. i know I still do despite me actively not letting you all in on a lot already). Come to think of it, Shaun really has to be careful, haha.. someday I might just have to kill-person-rid-mouth (translate into Chinese). Haha.. Still, don't worry, I've finally figured that in trying to make you guys proud of me, the other important thing is to be happy too, just like what GK or Itak da ge said when I asked whether I'm useless if I just gave up... I'm sure I'll be able to be successful at work and find the cheerful me (haha.. was suddenly reminded of nespray) again so that you guys can really really be proud of me.
