Crap People

I’m seldom surprised when I think about why Singaporean culture is only kinda interesting for magazines like Wallpaper and the Newspapers like the Guardian when they are talking about us in context as to how weird this whole place is. When I read articles about the country in foreign papers, I can’t help but get the feeling that they think the country as this strange place with a basically rather closed-in system, culture wise (hence the terminology oft used- nanny state) but with a capitalist economy. I’ve got no problems with the Capitalist bit, but the truth is many people here are still very out of touch with the rest of the world.

Of course there are the terribly bourgeoisie cash, car, credit, condo *gasp, country club (my god, the ultimate marker for pseudo posh-ness) families that do leave the country and go on European tours, that can afford expensive books, that can send their children to study in some ang moh country or other – they know about the world; I’m sure the people that have actually studied in England back in the 70s view the country differently. But most families don’t have adults that did live elsewhere outside Singapore and Malaysia, and I know people that have only ever gone as far as Thailand even in their 30s, and that’s fine, only they’re there on a shopping spree, and you don’t learn about how different a place is from a holiday like that. And even when they fly all the bloody way to Europe, they’re only concerned with looking at a few stone buildings and some rather bleak landscapes.

I enjoy looking at stone buildings and bleak landscapes, but that’s because they have an inspired charm about them for me, literary, artistically, etc. Whenever I’ve gone out of the country, the experiences I’ve gained the most out of weren’t even in the fine print in any guide book out there (unless it’s Avoiding Prison and other Noble Vacation Goals by Wendy Dale, where she encourages you to fall in love with a Columbian, schtup him on conjugal visits and return to LA with a Cuban acrobat)

There are a whole lot of people out there that work in the most boring 9-5 jobs, don’t have interest outside crap drama serials, only ever bother to read the Straits Times, barely interact with people that have a radically different background in life from them; throw in the fact that most of the ads are mostly uninteresting and have no cultural significance whatsoever, and that the mainstream media is still terribly censored and Just Crap… It is quite the closed-in autocracy, don’t you think.

People are free to read what they will over the internet, 1984 isn’t banned any longer, and if you watch the French channel very late at night, you might see some naked tits on screen, but the thing is, not very many people actually make full use of these liberties. People surf crap online and try to solicit sex from underage girls, they spend hours fussing over the blogs of other people’s lives like it’s really worth fussing about, and they will read Waiting for Godot and imagine it really is a play that has no meaning because it is about nothing, and nothing gets done. When really, it’s actually a play about their lives.

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I’m completely blasting off today aren’t I. PMS aside, I seriously wish I could kick some of the arses of the people in school. Yeah I know, I’m not the best, and I don’t exactly turn up for all my lessons, but when it comes down to it, I’m damn sincere about doing most of the projects. But there are some that aren’t, and it would be none of my business if the entire lot of them were put into the same class and left alone to rot in their passion for idleness, but its so tedious so be held back because of them. And its so painful to waste time watching presentations of work that mean nothing; which is fine, but aren’t interesting in any sort of vague way to boot.

One of the girls said she’d stay back to complete all her work today before the break next week, and someone asked her how that was possible (I don’t think I could finish it within a week, and I’ve not had enough time for Richard or the mood for sex these days because I’m so hell bent on completing stuff, its unhealthy).

So I said something rather snide that went along the lines of, ‘If you crapped it out of your arse, of course its possible’ And she laughed and replied something that kinda meant, ‘Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do. It’s just homework afterall’. And the worse thing is, these people are so nice and so bloody Singaporean, you can’t actually say to their faces, ‘ You suck. Your work is crap, you’re completely lazy, you’ve got no imagination and you’ve got no soul. And you behave like its cool to not put in any effort.

Look, of course not everyone was raised in the sort of environment Sofia Coppola was raised in, and not everyone has the good luck to be born into the Sigmund Freud family tree, but at least put in some effort.

Its not fair, and I don’t think there’s any point in complaining, but sometimes I get the impression that people just think I’ve got innate talent, and that I don’t have to try very hard to produce good work. And that’s absolute rubbish because really, there’s nothing easy about art. I’m impossibly conscientious when it comes to doing something I really want to do, and it is insulting to have my effort shrugged aside.

Anyway, I’ve become a total geek now, but the big, huge break is coming up! And really, I’ve never enjoyed school so much. I mean, I get to print naked girls with the school’s computer (for my projects of course) and I get to do just about whatever I want under very little restrictions, and the only Academic subject (literature) I’m taking is actually quite open ended, and you don’t actually have to study it ‘their’ way like they make you in the A levels. And you know, I really like the lecturers because most of them aren’t academics anyway, and I’m fucked off with having my ability undermined because I find it terribly boring to memorize Cliff Notes and make 1000 preparatory studies of how to apply paint to a picture (it’s kind of necessary for A level art).

xoxox