The prologue of the epilogue: Violence

You get numb to these things. Humans, like animals, get habituated easily, be it violence or nonsense. Evil-doing is easier to pick up and once you’ve slaughtered a chicken, the next few become easier. It’s difficult for some to lose their conscience, but with some determination and effort, all’s possible. Just do it–such a beautiful slogan with a tick to assure you it’s right.

Tuesday, Jul. 27, 2010 (Aug 9, 2010; Time print)

Just Pay It: Nike Creates Fund for Honduran Workers

By Tim Padgett

It’s no secret that the global economy hasn’t exactly been a boon to the labor movement. But globalization can be cruelest to the Third World employees it was supposed to raise out of poverty. As developing countries compete for investment from large foreign corporations, they all too often push workers’ wages, benefits and rights so low that many of them ought to be called sweatshop nations today instead of banana republics.

Case in point: In January 2009, 1,800 laborers lost their jobs in Honduras when two local factories that made shirts for the U.S. sports-apparel giant Nike suddenly closed their doors and did not pay workers the $2 million in severance and other unemployment aid they were due by law. Following proper public-relations protocol, Nike lamented the situation — while insisting that it wasn’t responsible for the actions of the plants it contracts. Nike did not match its regrets with dollars; the company was, in effect, taking advantage of the cover that the rules of globalization tend to afford so many companies like it today.

This week, however, Nike finally tossed that disingenuous defense like a worn-out pair of Air Jordans. Under pressure from fair-labor groups, the Oregon-based company announced on Monday an agreement with one of Honduras’ largest trade unions to create a $1.54 million “workers relief fund” for the factory employees laid off in 2009. Under the deal, Nike says it will work with its suppliers in Honduras to get still unemployed workers vocational training and hiring priorities as jobs open up. The value of Nike’s total contribution to the Honduran workers will probably be more than $2 million. But what matters more than the money — petty cash compared to Nike’s $19 billion in revenues last year — is the precedent, one that could help make globalization a fairer game. “This is a significant departure from past industry practice,” says Scott Nova, director of the Worker Rights Consortium in Washington, D.C. “It’s a testament to these workers’ courage.”

True, but it was due as much if not more to the business pressure applied on Nike by groups like the Worker Rights Consortium. They convinced scores of U.S. universities whose athletic programs and campus shops buy Nike shoes and clothes — and which effectively make their students walking billboards for the corporation’s products — to threaten cancellation of those lucrative contracts unless it did something to rectify the Honduras mess. Another labor watchdog, United Students Against Sweatshops, staged demonstrations outside Nike shops while chanting “Just Pay It,” a play on Nike’s commercial slogan, “Just Do It.”

While it’s good to see that college campuses haven’t lost their idealism, the Nike agreement is in reality just a first step in addressing a problem that “costs workers around the world hundreds of millions of dollars every year,” says Nova. A big question now, for example, is whether Nike will require that all its subcontracted factories worldwide set aside escrow funds to make sure that severance and unemployment obligations are met. On Tuesday, Nike would only refer to its corporate statement, which said it hoped to “develop long-term, sustainable approaches to providing workers with social protection when facing unemployment.”

Even if Nike was to mandate escrow funding or some similar economic backstop in countries like Honduras, there’s no assurance that other companies would follow its lead. And it’s hard to see Congress passing legislation requiring U.S. corporations to adopt a practice that only benefits foreign workers. But Nova argues that Nike’s move is important as it “will give labor advocates a stronger basis in the future. They can point to this precedent now and say that no less a brand than Nike agreed that companies have an obligation to do more than just cajole these factories.”

Someone also needs to cajole governments like Honduras’ into enforcing their own labor laws. Technically, Honduras, like so many other developing countries, requires companies to provide unemployment aid like severance. But the two Nike contract suppliers in this case, Hugger and Vision Tex, were apparently able to flout that code as easily as a military coup was able to oust then Honduran President Manuel Zelaya last year.

Again, the root of the problem is globalization’s unwritten code: politicians in impoverished countries like Honduras, which has a near 70% poverty rate and whose economy is run by a small clique of wealthy families, get elected by writing strong labor laws, but they’re convinced that they get foreign investment by allowing weak enforcement of those laws. Nike has at least made a strong start in correcting that perverse principle.

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I think when you are a minority by definition, good luck to you. Luck on its own might not be powerful enough, and in the year of the rabbit, there might not be enough rabbits’ feet to go around. Violence is another way to get one’s attention. Maybe Lisa A. Goldstein (a deaf journalist, writing in USA Today on the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act; in Time [print], Aug 9, 2010) ought to consider this, especially when “it’s been 20 years”:

Though the ADA established rights, it has not reduced the need for advocacy. People with disabilities have always had difficulty finding jobs. In fact, there is a 42% employment gap that separates working-age people with and without disabilities … Right now, a real problem is the gap in the ADA regarding the Internet. People with sensory loss are routinely being left out when it comes to online content … It has been 20 years. Why are we still struggling?

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Life is unfair and it’s all about sympathy or action. Real action. “People’s action” gives people the impression that all the people will take action for any problem when in fact those who are not affected by an issue will not take action, or the majority sees no need in taking action to help the minority; given the fact that it is almost never frequently possible to find a cause which 100% of the people believe in, no real action will take place. “People’s action” is then a mirage, an illusion in contemporary times. For the minority then, they can only bank on sympathy. Or violence.

Yet the minority may well be the subject of violence…

Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 (Aug 9, 2010; Time print)

The Plight of Afghan Women: A Disturbing Picture

By Richard Stengel, Managing Editor

Our cover image this week is powerful, shocking and disturbing. It is a portrait of Aisha, a shy 18-year-old Afghan woman who was sentenced by a Taliban commander to have her nose and ears cut off for fleeing her abusive in-laws. Aisha posed for the picture and says she wants the world to see the effect a Taliban resurgence would have on the women of Afghanistan, many of whom have flourished in the past few years. Her picture is accompanied by a powerful story by our own Aryn Baker on how Afghan women have embraced the freedoms that have come from the defeat of the Taliban — and how they fear a Taliban revival.

I thought long and hard about whether to put this image on the cover of TIME. First, I wanted to make sure of Aisha’s safety and that she understood what it would mean to be on the cover. She knows that she will become a symbol of the price Afghan women have had to pay for the repressive ideology of the Taliban. We also confirmed that she is in a secret location protected by armed guards and sponsored by the NGO Women for Afghan Women. Aisha will head to the U.S. for reconstructive surgery sponsored by the Grossman Burn Foundation, a humanitarian organization in California. We are supporting that effort.

I’m acutely aware that this image will be seen by children, who will undoubtedly find it distressing. We have consulted with a number of child psychologists about its potential impact. Some think children are so used to seeing violence in the media that the image will have little effect, but others believe that children will find it very scary and distressing — that they will see it, as Dr. Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital Boston, said, as “a symbol of bad things that can happen to people.” I showed it to my two young sons, 9 and 12, who both immediately felt sorry for Aisha and asked why anyone would have done such harm to her. I apologize to readers who find the image too strong, and I invite you to comment on the image’s impact.

But bad things do happen to people, and it is part of our job to confront and explain them. In the end, I felt that the image is a window into the reality of what is happening — and what can happen — in a war that affects and involves all of us. I would rather confront readers with the Taliban’s treatment of women than ignore it. I would rather people know that reality as they make up their minds about what the U.S. and its allies should do in Afghanistan.

The much publicized release of classified documents by WikiLeaks has already ratcheted up the debate about the war. Our story and the haunting cover image by the distinguished South African photographer Jodi Bieber are meant to contribute to that debate. We do not run this story or show this image either in support of the U.S. war effort or in opposition to it. We do it to illuminate what is actually happening on the ground. As lawmakers and citizens begin to sort through the information about the war and make up their minds, our job is to provide context and perspective on one of the most difficult foreign policy issues of our time. What you see in these pictures and our story is something that you cannot find in those 91,000 documents: a combination of emotional truth and insight into the way life is lived in that difficult land and the consequences of the important decisions that lie ahead.

Time, Aug 9, 2010

*

Life is unfair and some crimes committed are beyond redemption, yet life has to move on unless you become the monster yourself:

Monday, Aug. 09, 2010

The Moment

By Christopher Shay

After a decade’s work, a U.N.-Cambodian court has found former Khmer Rouge torture chief Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, guilty of crimes against humanity. From 1975 to 1979, some 1.7 million died as the Khmer Rouge pursued their macabre vision of a collectivist utopia. At Tuol Sleng prison, where more than 14,000 lost their lives, Duch’s guards smashed babies’ heads open and performed “autopsies” on living inmates. His punishment? Thirty-five years, reduced to 19 for time served. Khmer Rouge survivors wept with outrage at the sentence, which could see Duch end his life a free man if he makes it to 86. The four most senior living Khmer Rouge leaders go on trial next, but may not even live to be sentenced given their frailty. Like those who have lived through horrors elsewhere — in Rwanda and Bosnia as much as in Southeast Asia — Cambodians may never be happy with the punishments meted out to the monsters who still haunt their memories. But in their way, surviving and prospering are their own forms of vengeance.

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And so it is, even in the most trustworthy tie-up of jurisdiction for the case, the result is still felt to be inequitable.

I myself have been fighting hard over the last few months (it took them quite a while to read my full-page accusation [apparently] against myself, and an important person later commented that my write-up was too lengthy and no one has the time to read lengthy emails). Now, why would anyone want to accuse himself? To be precise, it wasn’t an accusation against oneself at the outset. It was a report. But I finally realised only a couple of weeks ago that a report of my action in the terms of “Off Peak Car” amounts to an accusation against myself, or an act of surrender. When they say “it’s an offence”, they don’t have to catch you; fine, I agree with that.

But what made this an unjust nonsense is the ‘fact’ that they would never have caught me if I had not reported it. And I have all the evidence on my side. Again, the important person and the Low Tech Authority said this has always been inconsequential (and it’s back to the it’s-an-offence-naturally argument).

I don’t disagree with the fact that they have shown clemency and have taken my honesty into account. It could have been a different charge (of cheating) altogether, but given the 50-50 chance of not getting caught and be punished, it’s worth the try–if you really don’t intend to cheat the system.

Now that I know for sure the Low Tech Authority isn’t that high-tech (I guessed it four years ago, actually), I was reminded of my wondering why the bloody money was wasted on the ex-link system which makes life more painful than inserting a thin magnetic card into the gantry for entry and exit at MRT stations since years ago. I still have to take the card out of my wallet while the gantry flaps still occasionally slam against my crotch. That too isn’t so high-tech. Oh, maybe that gantry system isn’t operated by them–it’s not the ERP gantry.

They claim that they are not the one who sells the OPC-e-‘fix’ and they have five vendors doing that. They don’t own any of the five agencies. And I remember damn well the ‘druglord’ I spoke to on Jan 4 saying the daily system down-time from 12-6am isn’t their fault–it’s the vendors’ problem. Well, all five vendors having the same down-time sounds like a kind of cartel in operation:

I was also told this analogy by the same guy: imagine you walking into a store and taking something off the shelf. You walked out of the store with it, forgetting to pay for it. You only remembered that you had not paid for it two days later, and you went to the police station to report it. The policemen would naturally treat it as an act of surrender.

I was kind of baffled, but the aggression in his speech warned me not to pick out the flaws of that ‘perfect’ analogy or I’d suffer the wrath. Kingpin is somewhere there and I left my superhero costume at home.

Looking at the facts presented, if they don’t own the ‘stores’ which sell the dope for my car, and there is no way I can go back to the ‘stores’ to ‘return’ the ‘stolen goods’, where can I go if I want to remain an honest person in the community? I obviously shouldn’t go to the police station because I did not steal from the ‘police station’–the ‘police station’ was not the one who tasked the ‘stores’ to sell the dope (unless of course it’s back to those good old days when the police are corrupt and linked to the drug cartels in the city). So the analogy certainly didn’t suit the situation and it’s once again crappy analogies from civil servants.

They ought to read more epic novels and classics and refrain from skipping lengthy emails. Literature is a beautiful thing and so is that game called Dante’s Inferno. Honesty doesn’t seem to pay in life, but I probably am not going to Hell.

Or they should just admit there’s something problematic with their system. To be fair, they did indirectly admit it’s not a foolproof system. They should invest in hiring quality thinkers who can tinker it to perfection. But what’s there to be gained to improve something which only affects the minority?

It comes to be concluded that certain policies and initiative are crap and they don’t really work. People are perhaps polite to not tell them the truth. The OPC system which I thought was a marvellous thing is bullshit because (1) as proven by the low take-up rate, smart Singaporeans know best it’s a trick (2) it is not intended to curb pollution problem and all other road congestion problem because it should have been more intelligently tweaked.

I’m going to join the majority pretty soon as soon as I can gather about S$13000. I am planning to do some painting and hopefully it can fetch some money. Haha.

This is the post before the last–it’s difficult to end a beautiful mess of a blog this is. But it is time, I guess. Like what Time’s China Blog said, “Blogs are by their nature ephemeral and this one no less than others. Happily they are also in a sense Buddhist in that they can be reincarnated in different forms.”

It’s just one of those things that fall into desuetude. For what it’s worth, it was worth all the while.

The end is near

The end of this blog is near. There will be one more post coming up soon and as it was with my previous post, it will be a serious and justified rant against the same government agency that has been an irritant. It is the agency that just recently made me understand that, first and foremost, honesty is not a virtue and lies can get you off. So this agency has very much revolutionalised the way I see life in Singapore, although I accept their explanation over my predicament.

Another government agency (which I don’t think I will reveal explicitly) enlightened me on the point that if only more people would read Dante’s Divine Comedy, or any other great literary works, this would have been a better place. But it isn’t. And there’s no point in reading. I have not read too many great literary classics myself.

I think one point about reading is you become a more empathetic person, a more appreciative person. These soft skills are not really required in some parts of the world, though. And I finally would admit that I am too soft to do law even if I had the money to pursue that dream, so I am content with my lot, my position in society.

I will devote more time to finally putting paint on canvas this year and doing a good one. I hope to raise some money LOL but I probably will still find it hard to part with any of my paintings.

Coming up in the last post, a short story. And, finally, the PW tab on this blog will be updated.

Good luck & all the best to you! Reality can be a fairy tale!

The Collector of Things

People collect things as a form of recollection later on, especially if they are things that are unlikely to be easily attained in future, and I think I’ve just been attracted by the bibs used in runs or walks. Have just proudly stuck the two bibs I’ve ever received in my life on wall of my bookshelf. One more to come at the end of the year…

A few days ago, I also received a specially designed class tee from an ex-student, and that was a real surprise too. Such commemorative t-shirts are to be worn with pride, and once I get a wardrobe for my office, I will be hanging it there with the other special t-shirts from students. But this one is special; it’s got a poem on the back. The gusto of the message reminds me of Yue Fei’s mother. *haha*

I haven’t really quite finished decorating my workspace, but I will be moving to the section by the window soon, once my room-mate leaves in December. So I think I will ‘renovate’ the place after that. Currently I have a special shelf with some of the nice paraphernalia from my good friends and ex-students displayed there.

I do wonder why people quit this place (maybe I haven’t been here long enough to know why, and the ‘outside world’ is not as open as the small enclave of teachers in most MOE schools); perhaps I have been through a more gruesome pace and I can take the heat better than most. I think this is the quality of most people who have survived at least two years there in Ang Mo Kio. But I just realised–having been idealistic all these years–that money is number one on the survival kit list in Singapore, and if somewhere-out-there offers me a bigger pay, I will go for it. Hell, I’ve almost maxed out all my savings on a new home in Yishun and my wedding and all. This money misery business could be averted, but I simply couldn’t wait till the end of the month for my supposedly big bonus, and so I forfeited it when I left; I couldn’t wait till the end of next year for my supposedly big monetary reward called the “Connect Plan”, and so I forfeited that too when I left. But it wasn’t a mistake; it’s just opportunity cost–money or sanity.

I’m beginning to love the principle of Cristiano Ronaldo, as Giggs slowly belongs to the past. Rooney has just caused Man U to suffer from a sort of identity crisis where Loyalty, Giggs, Scholes and Neville will all retire at the same time. Old Trafford is no longer the Theatre of Dreams it used to be, but a Theatre of Dreams of the Rich and Mercenary. They might as well merge with Manchester City in future–Great City of Manchester Re-united. Wow. But I am more worried about the rich Indian woman who now owns my favourite club, Blackburn Rovers. She even talked about renaming the club ground to raise funds–I hope Ewood Park will not become Bollywood Park, but if her millions could bring in Messi and Kaka, I don’t mind.

Some collect football clubs as if they were horses because they are a mark of prestige and affluence. Some collect sweaty handshakes from footballers as if sweat was blood because it shows they are one of them at the ground, touching base: some are likely to be genuine while others have been accused of some hidden agenda. I remember about 20 years ago, one PAP member, while doing her rounds at a hawker centre, had to wash her hands at the wrong moment and that cost her the Gombak constituency. I’m not sure if Merkel’s washed her hands after visiting the German national team dressing room–maybe she’s some fetish over sweaty bodies–but she’s received some dressing down from some purists:

 (crying foul over merkel’s dressing room visit)

I would guess that she had to do something like that after saying something like this…germany wakes up

On the topic of naked bodies and integration (we’re not talking about sex, although some people do believe the world will become a better place if we have more inter-racial marriages), Ground Zero is (was) really hot. (See one hot, sexy article here.) In the name of political correctness, I wonder if some rednecks would actually want to come to the primary schools in Singapore and beat up the kids playing Zero Point during recess or after school–or is Zero Point history?

As people and things slowly become history, the green ones hope to make the problem of the environment a problem of the past too. And technology will expand as far as the human will and imagination can stretch to do good for the world…

The human race can one day collect the badges of honour and the purple heart in the fights against evils and recollect the past in the present which would not have a future if there were no dreams of a better tomorrow.

Second days

This is the second day of work at my new place and it’s been fine. I do know I will be taking Teamwork & Cooperation Skills and Critical Reasoning Skills modules, so I am happy! Will be working on a kind of Liberal Arts/GP programme here with the rest of the team too. What’s more impressive is my new workstation; I’m sharing a room with another lecturer here (and I was totally unprepared for this) and here’s a shot of my new desk!

– Bookshelf not fitted into the frame!

The pace is still rather slow currently, but it will pick up from next week onwards, I am sure, and once the students come in, the real test begins!

In the meantime, I shall allow myself the liberty to drift into the mood of tranquility best defined by the days at Scarborough Beach…that was a lovely beach; loveliest I’ve ever been to. Great weather and climate, lovely Indian Ocean. I picked the right hotel! (But there isn’t much to do around here; I was just here to ‘detoxify’ and chill out.)

Here’s dusk at Scarborough Beach as viewed from my hotel room on the second day:

(All pictures here were taken with a 2.0MP camera!)

And that was my maiden trip on a plane!

It’s all plane-sailing.

Important Intermission

This is an urgent announcement. The previous post will be updated (again) as soon as the next post is crafted. Thank you for your attention.

4D = 3D with Details

I can’t believe my eyes when I saw that explanation on the labels of educational toys sold at the Science Centre! Even if I was not sure what the fourth dimension is, I know it is not algebraic where 4d=3d+d. But the first thing that came to my mind was what could possibly in that toy egg: are there 4D numbers in there?

The Pixar Exhibition was rather insightful and it took about 2h for one to finish most parts of the exhibition. I was looking forward to some souvenirs, like a programme booklet, but the beautiful postcards were only available to some privilege card-holders, while the welcome shoot didn’t look convincing with Woody Photoshop-ped in with his arse on the hands of the main subjects of the picture against the dreamy backdrop of Ratatouille‘s Paris (which looked really 2-dimensional in the photograph). It was quite a pity because I really like Ratatouille, and the next best alternative to embrace the memory is to purchase a ‘youth’-size T-shirt at about $25 or the commemorative edition coffee-table book on the exhibition at $60. Perhaps if the ticket price was less than the $22 I paid per head (internet booking fee included), it would have been an easier decision to buy the book! But in all honesty, having a first hand look at the sketches of Pixar’s treasures was a pleasure and a revelation: the paint reminded me that art is hardwork and art demands time for one to be freed in thought, alleviating the pain of blood and sweat.

Time is hard to find for one to be freed in thought and sometimes we are lost in the madness and flurry of work. It is with great relief that on Labour Day, I managed to attend the Chinese Orchestra concert. It was a great performance and I was transported to the various lands created by the harmony of the music. From the second row, I can feel the power of the soundwaves and it makes the experience really “4D”, in all senses of that acronym! I love Sai Ma (Horse Racing) and I think (if I remembered correctly!) it was an encore piece. Lovely. But too bad there was no official recording of the whole performance. Well, here’s the Carnegie Hall performance by Lang Lang and his father: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSYRABNbFdQ

I wish I had gone to the Band and the Choir’s performances, but like Dali’s clocks, time is somewhat warped these days.

Ed: (May 18, 2010) I just learnt that there is a video recording available for the Chinese Orchestra’s performance! I wonder if there’s one for the Band and the Choir too…but the beauty of live performances lie not in the recording but in the live performances themselves; the recording serves as a memory in a less tangible form.

S$30 Iron Fist

It cannot be any more real than that Alanis Morissette song. It is like an anthem or something.

I’ve actually punched an overnight parking coupon but I got a $30 summon too.

It was so unexpected that it is still laughable 17h after discovering that ticket on my windscreen when I was driving. The origami skill of the parking warden was terrific and it stayed clipped and flapping against the windscreen till I reached school.

I think I won’t mind paying the “composition fine”, because my essays are fine. But seriously, it was my careless mistake anyway.

When I returned home just now, I saw them staking out and I stalked them for a while. I wasn’t intending to do so but I was disturbed that one of them looked pissed as if I had intentionally flashed my headlights at her when it was not so. Totally irrational but I was curious anyway. Of course it was a fruitful observation and I learnt something new.

What do you see? What do you see?

Unfortunately or fortunately, I wasn’t sure of their nationality still because I don’t want to feel like a deracinated foreigner in my own country. It is certainly psychological as much as it is a sense of pride in being a citizen. Probably irrational.

Sometimes the most brilliant talks irrationally. We’re not even talking about Eric Cantona and his seagulls.

GB Shaw’s famous quip about professions was well met by an essay from Janadas Devan on Jul 26, 2009 in the Straits Times; I reproduce it here for posterity (http://news.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090728-157522.html):

Great teachers in a class of their own

‘He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.’

That has to be among the silliest things that George Bernard Shaw ever wrote. He didn’t originate the jibe – its usual form goes ‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’ – but he certainly contributed to its wide dissemination.

The truth of the matter is that teaching entails as much ‘doing’ as any other profession; indeed, it probably demands more from a person than most other jobs.

Consider how few exceptional teachers most of us have had in the course of our educational careers. Most of us would have had at least 12 years of schooling and some would have had an additional four years of university. In the course of those years, each of us would have been lectured, tutored or supervised by at least 100, if not more, teachers. Many, if not most, of them would have been competent; some would have been good. But how many would have been truly exceptional?

I can name only three among the 150 or so teachers I have been taught by over the course of my own educational career: My Primary 6 teacher, Mrs Ernest Lau at Anglo-Chinese School; Professor Koh Tai Ann at the University of Singapore; and the Shakespearean Prof Scott McMillan at Cornell University. I was fortunate to have had many more good teachers, some of them distinguished scholars, but these three stood out qua teachers.

I have come across many more exceptional doctors, though I’m certain I have been treated by far fewer than 150 doctors in my life. I have had personal contact with many more exceptional public ser-vants, lawyers, corporate executives, scholars, journalists – even plumbers.

Truly exceptional teachers, at whatever level – primary or secondary school, undergraduate or post-graduate – are rarer than exceptional doctors or lawyers. That is so not because the profession is filled with people who cannot ‘do’. On the contrary, it is so because teaching – exceptional teaching – involves a rare order of doing.

You cannot convey values by just reciting them. An exceptional teacher conveys them by example, by osmosis almost, from every fibre of her being, even in her speech and gesture – like the late Mrs Lau.

You cannot teach a method of analysis merely by detailing its procedure. An exceptional teacher reveals the power of a method, an approach or a discipline, by herself becoming its instrument – like Prof Koh.

You cannot convey a love for a subject by insisting mechanically on its attributes. An exceptional teacher communicates through the sincerity of his interests, the genuineness of his enthusiasms, the disinterestedness of his scholarship – like the late Prof McMillan.

Bad teachers insist; good teachers show; exceptional teachers are. The reason the last are rare is that the most important things in any subject, as in life, cannot be taught explicitly. They can only be embodied as examples – in the teachers themselves.

Take, for instance, writing: How does one teach good writing? I conducted a column writing course for some journalists recently and had to grapple with this question.

One can go through lists of the things one should or should not do in writing. Every primer on writing provides such lists. Strunk and White’s Elements Of Style, for instance, has a list of 21 ‘suggestions and cautionary hints’, from ‘Place yourself in the background’ and ‘Write with nouns and verbs’ to ‘Avoid fancy words’ and ‘Do not take shortcuts at the cost of clarity’. Such lists are useful – as far as they go.

Most bad writing is the result of writers not having thought through what they want to say. So they proceed by flinging a mass of words in the general vicinity of their vaguely apprehended intended meaning, in the hope of somehow hitting the target. Lists of dos and don’ts can help writers to be more conscious of their writing. Like the advice to take a deep breath when you are tempted to do something hasty in anger, lists can slow you down, force you to take stock. A competent teacher can, by using such lists, encourage students to be self-reflective.

A better way would be to show what constitutes good writing. There is no good writer who is not also a good – and extensive – reader. That being so, just reading examples of exceptionally good writing and analysing why they are good can do a world of wonders.

‘These are the times that try men’s souls’ – just eight short words, forming a simple declarative sentence, as Strunk and White note. What if Thomas Paine had written instead ‘Times like these try men’s souls’ or ‘How trying it is to live in these times!’ – or, heaven forbid, ‘Soulwise, these are trying times’? Each is a grammatical sentence but none carries the distinctive signature the original does, even more than 200 years later. Why is that so?

Yes, a competent teacher of writing can convey a great deal of information about good writing by telling, by showing, by analysing, even by admonishing. But at the heart of good writing, there is a mystery that cannot be conveyed by instruction.

‘The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.’

George Orwell wrote that in his famous Politics And The English Language, an essay I used in my recent course on writing. I realised that was the heart of the essay, the distillation of Orwell’s wisdom on the subject – and I did not have a clue as to how I might convey its tremendous truth: ‘The great enemy of clear writing is insincerity.’ Only someone as sincere as Orwell, I finally realised, only someone who exemplifies such sincerity in his own writing, can teach sincerity.

Those who can, do; those who are, teach – without intending to do so.

With that kind of yardstick, it becomes difficult for anything–Technology included–but a real teacher to be a teacher.

But of course there is always ingratia around us, or those who half-learn all that they think they ought to learn or nothing at all.

A friend brought my attention to a controversial blog written by an alumnus of the college and of a prestigious High School which I was originally posted to in 2007. It was a ridicule of the department that I hold dear and misrepresentation of comments taken out of context. I’ve checked it out and I am sure he can be sued for libel if we so wish, but I’ve no idea what the college is doing about this. Well, to be fair, he seems to have gone through a paradigm shift since then and we can tell from his post on how now he no longer would discriminate against the poor and the uneducated in Singapore.

Sometimes life isn’t fair and it may seem that the haves have it easier, going unpunished with crimes.

Here’s what Rob Hughes has to say (July 26, 2009):

What if Stevie G were a bricklayer instead?

As Steven Gerrard left Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, a free man with his reputation intact according to the British jury system, someone in the motley crowd of hero worshippers outside called out: ‘Come on, Rocky.’

That reference to the Sylvester Stallone street fighter character, followed Gerrard’s admission under oath that he had landed three punches at the head of a bar room disc jockey Marcus McGee that were described ‘as fast as a professional boxer rather than a professional footballer.’

Never mind the seven women and five men of the jury, anyone with access to the Internet from Merseyside to Timbuktu has made their own judgement on Gerrard’s punching power during the brawl last December.

The trial in Liverpool was the reason why Gerrard isn’t available to play in Singapore today. He pleaded not guilty to affray and the jury in his home city accepted his defence that he hit out in self defence.

On hearing the verdict, my thoughts flashed back to Los Angeles in 1995 where a jury cleared O. J. Simpson of murdering his wife and a male visitor in his home.

‘If Stevie G was Steven Smith, a bricklayer from Everton, would he be eating beans in a Liverpool jail now?’ came a question from Singapore to me via e-mail.

The inference, I must point out, was coloured by the fact that the sender is a self-confessed Evertonian.

He makes an insinuation, but also poses a valid question.

Is the jury system susceptible to the celebrity culture which, for better or for worse, we have in modern society?

A glib response to that – and to the many hundreds of twitters bouncing around the Internet suggesting that no Liverpool jury was ever going to convict the captain of Liverpool FC – is that they are wrong.

What if the jury had been predominantly blue? What if Liverpudlians and Evertonians in that jury room had come to blows over the hero/villain whom Gerrard represents in that fevered football city?

We have to presume that Judge Henry Globe QC, the Recorder of Liverpool, is the pillar of neutrality. And the judge summed up: ‘The verdict is a credible verdict on the full facts of this case.’

Turning to Gerrard, he said: ‘You did not start the violence. It was started by a violent elbowing of the victim, Mr McGee, in the face by one of your friends.

‘What at first sight to the casual observer may seem to have been a clear-cut case against you of unlawful violence, has been nowhere near as clear-cut upon careful analysis of the evidence.

‘You walk away from this court with your reputation intact.’

Walk on, Rocky.

By coincidence, as Gerrard walked free, so did the singer Amy Winehouse. She left a separate court, in London, on Friday, acquitted of punching a fan who got too close at a concert last year.

There are disturbing aspects to society’s attitudes towards the famous, and to the inevitable fact that the stars can afford the top lawyers, some of whom have become the highest-paid groupies of all.

Gerrard pleaded not guilty to affray. Five of his mates caught up in that same brawl have neither the resources, nor the reputation, to defend. They, including the man who elbowed McGee before Gerrard threw the uppercuts, pleaded guilty to affray.

They face sentencing on Aug 7. They could be jailed for up to three years. And they could claim that they are taking the rap for a friend.

Gerrard’s counsel, meanwhile, obtained full repayment from the court for the player’s legal costs.

From the Mandarin Oriental, Gerrard’s boss Rafa Benitez spoke about everyone’s relief.

‘Now, Steven can concentrate just on football,’ said Benitez. ‘And hopefully play at the same level as last year.’

The club had shown its own act of faith three days earlier when it extended Gerrard’s £120,000 (S$284,048) per-week contract for two extra years to 2013.

He will be 33 by then. With luck, he will use his strength, his determination, his striking ability to lead his team the way he had a few hours before the fracas last December. Liverpool had thrashed Newcastle United 5-1 away from home, and Gerrard had landed two powerful shots on goal.

Few can doubt that when Stevie G is on the pitch, he’s a force to be reckoned with. Indeed, he has captained England, though he stands right now third in line after those two other paragons John Terry and Rio Ferdinand.

All three have engaged M’Learned Friends in defence of their reputations for off-duty incidents. And this weekend, even the elder citizen of fame, David Beckham, has had to be disciplined.

He felt the mighty thwack of a US$1,000 (S$1,440) fine for picking a fight with an LA Galaxy fan who had the temerity to boo him at the Home Depot Center.

When it comes down to it, who can the superstars trust in this life?

England’s Daily Mail yesterday headlined its coverage: ‘Brawler Gerrard Cleared.’ It told of the acquittal and of the mean streets of the Bluebell Estate where Gerrard and his drinking pals came from.

The photographs showed a grey-suited Gerrard leaving the court, side by side with his model wife, Alex Curran, dressed in a fashion walk pink number. Rather like a trio of combination punches, the photographic compilation deceived the eye.

Mrs G. did not wear that sexy outfit to the Crown Court. It was a stock picture from a fashion shoot.

Likewise I’ve always said, those good in the language can get away with murder, figuratively. Don’t misquote Mr K and say on your blog that Mr K is breeding murderers.

Here’s more help for those in need; we’re not elitist. You’ll never walk alone… http://www.brainpop.com/english/grammar/clauses/

Finance Ministers Meet

The Ministers of Finance from Old Fort, Fief-teem and Tweeny Toot met with the Warden of Piggy Bank earlier this morning at 9am in Room 1135 to finalise the funds allocated to each country.

PB$6.9m have been made available in accordance to the guidelines set months ago at the Summit. Each country has been granted PB$1.35m and the Warden will hold on to PB$3.05m to be awarded as Book Prizes.

This monetary aid would boost the countries economy in the Short Run, but in the Long Run, drastic measures have to be taken to ensure the recurring structural problems of Non-English In Class (NEIC), Vulgarities In Class (VIC) and No Readings In Class (NRIC) do not impede the progress of any nation.

The Straight Time

Big Sweep Prize for Good Arguments

If things carry on the way they are, Singapore Pools will be losing money for each argument made better than theirs.

From the Straits Times Friday Aug 15, 2008:

Astounded by Singapore Pools

I REFER to Wednesday’s letter, ‘S’pore Pools defends Nets charge”. I was astounded by the reasons Singapore Pools corporate communications manager, Mr Chan Chong Meng, gave to defend his company’s right to pass Nets charges on to its customers.
If indeed, Singapore Pools does things ‘in the spirit of our responsible gaming policy’, then why did it implement new gambling games like ‘Scratch It’ cards?

First, it was the $1 card, followed by the $2 card and then the $5 card. Singapore Pools dangles tempting carrots of $10,000, $20,000 and $60,000 respectively for the three different cards.

These card games are popular with housewives and other gamblers. It does look addictive and it is common to see gamblers buying not only single cards but five or more each time.

Most ‘winning’ cards earn a paltry sum, and even when ‘big’ prizes are won, the unsuspecting gambler is none the wiser.

Singapore is, to a certain extent, a gambling society.

I remember when I was young in the 1960s, a hawker selling braised duck would ply my neighbourhood. With his two baskets supported by a bamboo pole hung on his shoulders, he had more than braised duck to offer.

Customers could choose to play a ‘three-dice game’ called Si Goh Lak, which translates loosely from the Hokkien and Teochew dialects to mean the numbers three, four and five.

There were times when the customer won and he got the duck for free and sometimes his duck might cost him three times the original price.

The hawker was in on the gambling as well. On a bad day, he ended up losing his duck and his takings.

With 4D, Toto, football betting, the Singapore Sweep and now Formula One. betting is ‘plied’ all over Singapore all right. But introducing other tempting games cannot be a responsible act.

Lim Hong Ghee
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‘Shouldn’t Nets respond as it adopted the double standard?’

MR KHONG KIONG SENG: ‘I refer to the reply by Singapore Pools on Wednesday, ‘Singapore Pools defends Nets charge’. This must be the most flawed argument to expound on the service charge levied on the use of Nets. By the same token, the shopkeeper who got rapped by Nets for passing the service charge on to customers can apply the same argument that, in the spirit of responsible expenditure policy, passing on the Nets service charge to customers is to remind them that shopping is an expense, and they should spend within their means. By the way, shouldn’t Nets be the one to respond as it adopted this double standard in service agreements with merchants, that it is all right for Singapore Pools to levy a charge, but not others.’