I CAN SAY IT THIS WAY AND I CAN SAY IT SOFT SOFT , BUT I DON"T MEAN A THING.
A counterreply to Time article - The Lion In Winter
Mr Goh actually said, “"We are born this way and they are born that way, but they are like you and me,".
He was referring none other than the entire Singapore gay population (and possibly foreigners, in fact, I think he was referring more to the foreigners.). I’m sure gay Singaporeans who always wanted some form of official recognition from our leaders are now weeping with joy because our great leader has finally broken the silence.
Yes. It has taken Mr Goh more than 13 years to say it from the time he became Prime Minister and as the saying goes, better late than never. Though he could have said the “G” word to prove that he’s not a homophobe and instead of stating it clumsily and crudely as “we” and “they”, as if Singaporeans are divided into two separate camps. I thought this statement was meant to reinforce unity, not differences, or am I reading it wrongly?
I must apologise for my nitpicking but i almost froze when the article quote from the Prime Minister that the Singapore government NOW allows gay employees into its ranks, even in SENSITIVE positions.
It sounds congratulatory because gays in Singapore can NOW finally see the light of working for the government and even in SENSITIVE positions! Think about that.
It implies a dark past, that gays = not accepted by government no matter how talented you are. I always thought I could believed in our national values. The one about Singapore being a meritocracy, that one can succeed in their own fields, regardless of race or religion, so long as they work hard for their goals and the least you would expect is the government implying that they never hired gay employees or even if they do, never in SENSITIVE positions in the past. Get my point? Was I living in delusion or being too naive?
The statement of course begs: Why were gays incapable for working in the government? What makes them so vulnerable they cannot hold SENSITIVE positions? I’m afraid Mr Goh hasn’t told us what the difference was between now and then to allow the government to make that change.
Sidetrack a little.
Compare that to our Senior Minister’s reply a few years ago in an interview (I think with Channel News Asia) when a gay man asked about his future in Singapore. Mr Lee had replied that it depends on how society reacts to the gay population. In my opinion, that is an answer that might as well be left unanswered because it means nothing. At the same time, I doubt the intelligence of the person who asks the question because I’m not exactly sure what he was hoping to hear. Was he expecting our SM to tell everyone on national TV that gays has the same rights as their straight counterparts in Singapore aka Gay Rights in Singapore?
So now that we heard Mr Goh’s reply a few years later and now, I should be glad that at least Mr Goh thinks that they can allow gays some leeway. Give them gay saunas, bars, dance clubs and the island wide gay party, Nation held annually so that Singapore is now free to come out and play.
NO!!!
My skepticism of the government is proven valid once more that everything is driven down to dollars and cents, that they don’t really think of the welfare of gay Singaporeans.
The article continues, “The change in policy, inspired at least in part by the desire NOT TO EXCLUDE TALENTED FOREIGNERS who are GAY, is being implemented without FANFARE, Goh says, to avoid raising the hackles of MORE-CONSERVATIVE Singaporeans. "So let it EVOLVE, and in time the population will UNDERSTAND that some people are BORN that way,"
Notice he says some people, not gay people again. How disappointing. Is the G word really so offensive? difficult to pronounce? After all it’s only three syllabus.
I gather that the government is desperate. If they can’t convince Singaporeans to make babies, and indirectly attract talent, then at least we can lure the gay ones with our young gay boys or girls. If our talented young gay boys or girls wants to leave for greener pastures, why not persuade them to stay by “seducing” foreigners with our new found “liberal” environment thronging with night life and beach parties?
I dare say that if we are still a “prosperous” nation and not worried about the outflow of talents, the government would have continued to allow local gay men to suffer in silence and continue to impose their Confuse- Cious values.
He might not as well have said anything. Mr Goh mentions that everything was done without FANFARE because the government was afraid of offending a group of ultra conservative Singaporeans deemed the majority. I wonder what my mum will think of that. She believes the government wholeheartedly and might find that confusing. So to be gay is ok or not?
I mean, isn’t it funny? That our government would want to say something like that without fanfare? After all, if you want to tell people or foreigners its ok to be gay in Singapore, no one would know of their intentions if it is done hush hush.
Let it EVOLVE? Did he mean the evolution of gayness or the evolution of our society’s predisposition towards gays? And then people will UNDERSTAND? AH! He means that acceptance that some gays crave for the general straight to understand someday.
I know I sound irritating but let me compensate by closing up with an exemplary top class suggestion for the Remaking Singapore Committee. Why not, to prove our government’s sincerity, just TELL SINGAPOREANS that being GAY is OK (It even rhymes). After all, this is what our government is good at isn’t it? Campaigns with blaring TV headlines that goes, “GAY IS GOOD”?
TELL SINGAPOREANS THAT BEING GAY IS ALL RIGHT. IT IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE ASHAMED OF. THAT IT IS NOT A PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPAIRMENT, NOT AN INFECTIOUS DISEASE and that you can’t get it from kissing. Then, we wouldn’t have to wait for the population to SLOWLY understand. After all evolution is too slow and we are famous for our efficiency.
Singaporeans will get it right away by tuning in to the latest GAY channel that broadcasts 24 hours of news about gay celebrities and why being gay is ok. It wouldn’t take less than a month before more gay Singaporeans will come out in droves and makes international headlines for being the first country to break the Guiness record for having the most number of gay people coming out within a week. Portray Singapore as the freest gay country in the world, like our best airline, that this is an ideal haven for foreigners to work and play”.
I guess I got too carried away but I strongly believe (no sarcasm intended) that if the government were to do that (initiatives suggested above) and put an effort into promoting “gay” values, the entire Singapore population will be the first country to stand behind gays whole-heartedly and endorse their lifestyle with pride. We might even be the first country to beat Canada by legalising gay marriage.
But then, we all know too well that Mr Goh might as well have not said that, After all, we can say it this way, and we can say it in another way, but if we don’t mean a thing, we might as well don’t say.
It is basically wishful thinking for the government to sincerely think equal of the gay population as their straight counterparts in Singapore and giving them the same rights. As much as Mr Goh tells Time what they have done to open up, they might as well kept quiet because they are not sincere at all about treating gays equally.
Give-away sentence: Vivian Balakrishnan, the government official in charge of the Remaking Singapore Committee.Singapore, says in the article, that they will do “whatever it takes" to attract talent”
Did he say “whatever it takes”?
I fully understand now.
Do you?
Mother Haiku
you
wake
not
knowing
how
it
happen
Explanation for the haiku
an explanation is necessary to explain this haiku which sought to illuminates what it is about life. It is a poem about life – neither for nor against, active or reactive, positive or negative, optimistic or pessimistic, prophetic or regressive.
It is not meant to be minimal though there are only seven words. From a different perspective, the lack of words in this haiku also means the generation of spaces - blanks – whiteness – emptiness- which means space for contemplation.
I suddenly thought of this poem while I was walking towards my office and I remember looking at the trees which seems oddly out of place as they were planted along a dirty looking road and I think of the polluted air they have to breath when the big huge trucks drive past. They have to contend living with the ugly factories beside them. Then, as if I was making a movie, I see everything disappear except the trees but they are in a forest where they rightfully belong; and there is a clear path. I was reading Herman Hesse’s Glass Bead Game and only into its introduction chapter. Perhaps that’s what inspired me for the introducing chapter confounded and mystified me at the same time and I wonder how the story is going to progress. I’m afraid I will not be able to understand it.
Anyhow, I suddenly thought of a line that is longer than this line that I actually have written but somehow I think it wasn’t succinct enough to let the words jump out. There were too many words though it was only a line. By the time I was in the office here and typing this out, I thought of putting this down and writing down the explanation of this haiku or poem because I felt it was so simple that if I don’t try to explain it, people might not get what I’m trying to say. After all, its just 7 words. How difficult it is to come up with 7 words in a sentence but because I suddenly fathom piecing these 7 words which I knew all along together and putting them in a form which I never thought about it, it dawned on me how they mean so many things. Note that God also created the world in 7 days. 7 is also a common religious and traditional references such as the seventh seal, the seventh month (for the chinese – it is the month equivalent to Halloween)
Title: Mother Haiku
No one knows how humans are born. Science can tell us we originate from apes but where do apes come from? Science tells us we are the product of evolution from a single cell organism but how do you prove that and even if they are correct, where did this single cell that multiplies to form humans as we all now know comes from? Sometimes I think Science is a joke because it seems the more we progress, the more we are lead to studying more subtle things which seems to suggest something more mysterious and perhaps unable to understand.
Buddhism does not seek to explain origin like Science does because it knows it is unable to. In fact, as far as I understand, it does not seek to explain the conception of life. It is more about transcending life as we know it, of the way that we are living now.
Actually I’m not sure why I brought in Science and Buddhism but perhaps to show you why beliefs (Science and Spirituality or Religion – in this case Buddhism) are not related to this title – at least to my knowledge when I was writing this haiku.
In a sense, I am contradicting myself because “Mother” as a universal term is the living thing to give birth to another living thing and by using Mother, I am trying to explain scientifically and spiritually (and which satisfies on both counts) that Mother is the origin of all things born though it is not a perfect answer for either because Science and Religion knows that life (whether one or mass) origins beyond and before that. I will try to explain it as a metaphor: A writer who starts writing a story writes on a fresh page. He is God/ Mother but where does he comes from. the fresh page he writes and the characters he gives a life to is that new life, which does not know of anything that is not possible within his knowledge of existence. He is hence that new life out of which mother is born. But then, we all know that mother is born from another mother and so on and so forth.
Mother is also a term that is used in many folklores and religions to denote the giver of life. Virgin Mary in Christianity or Nuwa in Chinese mythical legends are two classical scriptures I can think of to support my example. Of course, there are more folklores of other traditions and customs which have the same parallels, unbeknownst to me.
Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry practised by Zen practitioners and it often follows a 7 word format. In fact, before writing this, I have never known what a Haiku is except I know that it uses minimal words and they should spring from one concept to another within the poem, without leaving its theme. I got this definition from a Jack Kerouc book or collection of letters that I read sometime ago.
It is not called Mother Haiku because it is a haiku about life. Mother Haiku also means “Mother of all Haikus”. I know this will sound overtly arrogant for practitioners of Haiku who thinks an amateur can lay to such a claim but as I’ve explained again earlier, this is not the origin of all haikus even though it explains about the origin of a fresh start of a new life. It is a life but not the starting of life. I hope I have been clear so far.
Meaning:
We all seek meanings in things we do. In reading, writing, working, finding love, even in dying even though that is much a dreaded thought in all of us, me included. I don’t claim to be any different at this point in time.
In writing a Haiku, a reader, like the writer, wants to understand what it is about – which is why I provided this explanation. This haiku, ultimately is about searching for a meaning. Read the whole sentence at one go and you understand that it means the “you” as a character does not know anything at all at something that has happened.
Perhaps a lot of people would disagree and say that they know why certain things happen. A car accident occurred because of carelessness or you didn’t get promoted because your boss practises favouritism. But then, such explanations explain only why it happened. I could be difficult and ask why was the guy who crossed the road careless or why you r boss practise favourtism in the workplace. Seen, in this manner, we could never pacify ourselves with apparent reasons because all reasons lead to more questions that requires us to answer the “why”.
The question of “why this happen” means something more bigger in scope – life in general. We all wake not knowing why it happen. We wake not knowing why we wake up. Why did we wake up when we have slept? Why did we not sleep forever? What causes us to wake up?
There is also a contradiction in this statement because whenever we say we have woke up, we are supposed to be “clear headed”. When we say we have wake up, we mean we know what has happened.
You
You can mean anything from the reader, that is, you to the writer who reads it. Those who never reads this haiku, who will not know of its existence, will not be included because they have never read it before. As You also means to every reader who has read it, it also implicitly means that every reader who has read it will identify with it because all the different “you” share that common trait of humanity and upon reading this haiku, will understand it because “you” all are part of this consciousness of this haiku.
You is addressed not by the writer; from his grey cells alone but it is also an address by the poem itself which has a life of its own that originates from the writer of which again its source s never known.
The question arises then of which comes first or earlier – the “addressor” or “you” the reader. That is however another question which we cannot answer simply because we are not sure of the qualities of the addressor except that they appear in words. We can only say that the addressor who appears in the form of words know these words or itself before you do because it appears before you and tells you something about yourself which you do not know or perhaps you do know but are unaware of or perhaps you have already formed these words in your mind before but have yet to put them out for others to read. In any case, it is not important to understand the addressor, because like “you’ we are never sure of its life.
wake
as explained above, wake means to wake up from a sleep or to suddenly be aware of what’s going on. wake also means a funeral. As much as it means understanding “life”, it also means the ending of one.
not
not is a “negative” word in the sense that it is used to denote negativeness of what it comes before or after as in “I am not” meaning the “I” is not or “not after” meaning before. While it is a word by itself, it is a word which means nothing by itself. It needs another word to mean something. It comes after the word wake meaning there is no “wake”. Everything is still in a state of “unwake”. It also comes after the word “knowing” meaning there is no “knowing”
Because by its nature it doesn’t mean anything, it also means infinitely everything because it can be fitted with anything. hence, as much as it is negative, because it can be used to mean anything, its nature is also positive.
“not” is crucial in this poem because by removing the word, the poem means a different thing. By removing not, the duality of the poem is removed because you remove the confusion of the statement which is waking and not knowing at the same time.
knowing
Science claims to know. Religions claim to state the source of life. Every form of belief wants you to believe in what it is saying. They claim they “know” but do they know or do they just want you to know what they want you to know? How do you know what they know is what they really want you to know and when you do know what they want you to know, is it the know that is important? Is the know the “truth” as in what art and science and religion ahs all tried to explain?
“knowing” is different from “know” because it is a present participle which means it is continuously trying to “know”. In a sense, it means we all continuously tries to know what is happening around us. But because it comes after the word “not” it also means we do not know despite we “know” or think we “know”. As much as we know, we do “not know” as well.
how
how implies a question. It can mean many different things such as “how are you going to do it?” as in trying to understand the process or “how are you doing” which is a greeting or consolation phrase that often warrants a “I’m ok” or “bad”, Notice that the former elicits a more lengthy discussion because it involves one or mutliple step or procedures or action whereas the latter induces a remark that sounds remotely passive or describing the state of mind.
The “how” in this haiku encompasses more than the “how” in both examples given. It implies a process which has already happen or happening that can be used to directly imply a question for the reader who has now because of the statement incited a curiosity to understand what is the “how” or process that has happened and hence indirectly propelled this haiku into a question. On the surface though, it is a statement.
“how” like “not” changes the question if removed from the haiku. By removing “how” the addressor is not concerned anymore with the process which indirectly removes the search for the “meaning” that is inherent in it.
It
It is all encompassing. As much as it denotes a process which was what it was implying in this haiku, it can also mean a non-life as in it is a stone or a life as well it is a baby or it is a dog which are generally used for young, the newly born.
This “newly born” is the result of “wake” which is a birth.
happen
to happen means something has been realised. An action has been done. This is the only word here which is least ambiguous because it defines that something has already occurred. This “happening” can mean a lot of things such as the happening of an accident or in a bigger scope, “life”, “knowledge” or “existence”
It also means the existence of this haiku which has already been conceived and put down in words from thoughts from an unknown source.
Afterwords:
I’m not trying to give an “official “ definition of what this haiku means but trying to articulate what went through my mind and become words on this paper while I thought of this seven words and what I think about them when I try to explain them. There is a process whereby I constantly scrutinize the words, read them again and again, to try to find out what it can mean, within my knowledge.
Ultimately, it expresses the duality of thoughts and awareness of living because as much as we know about something, we do not know it too.
