Posted by: joelfirenze on: July 23, 2009
I wrote an email to friends about why I do the things I do.
This was the result of an uncovering from my past, and it was this: because someone from my past told me that nothing can be taken for granted.
And as a result, I developed strong feelings about politics, philosophy, security, economics, equity, society, environment, information, and even extends to my own memory, and the collective memory.
Thus I thank God.
Posted by: joelfirenze on: July 22, 2009
For some strange reason, google blogspot failed to display the text box for blogging. So at least for the forseeable future, I’ll be using wordpress for the time being.
Anyhow… I’ll just briefly touch on the issues that I’ve presented a bit on the blogspot page.
But first, I want to talk about a run that I had. It was, I think a run of faith. It was a run where I prayed to God, for myself, and rededicated my life. I am constantly remembered that we are living in His grace, and everything that I have comes solely from him. And that includes the talents, the gifts, even the desires. My response then, is to ask Him about how His work can be done through me.
The other thing that I want to talk about is this developing part of my life in urban planning, social identity, social memory, design, architecture and SG in general. Been floating around circles of planners, architects, and designers, all connected together in this conversation about moving SG into this ‘next phase’ of development. Its not that there are a lot of ideas, its that the same few ideas keep popping up: gardening-food security-community engagement, thinking of cycling of resources and materials, design for community spaces… all these concepts aren’t really new.
Then I was talking to this veteran architects who belonged to this group of architects who were quite activist. I’m blown away by the fact that HDB void decks had to be pushed for as a space for social interactions! And countless other things.
So yeap. The design of places and spaces for social interactions seem to be ignored by both sociologists, human geographers and architects, and it seems that the three disciplines, though interconnected, are still very much disparate in the way they do things.
And of course, there is still that entire part of my life that seems to be withering. It’s about information! Social Information Systems (SIS)! There is a tremendous amount of highly contextual, specific social information in the social spaces where information is exchanged. A Facebook for the neighbourhood, so to speak.
I’m also thinking of an ‘Urban Information System’, something like GIS, or eventhe SIS I mentioned back there… But what would it be, really? It would document the interactions of people with one another – who they said something to, and why, and what happened after that… but that has serious, serious privacy issues. Still, I think about Kevin Kelly’s ‘Internet of Things’ and how…
ok. stop fluffing now.
Posted by: joelfirenze on: June 7, 2009
I am unabashedly a fan of NYTime, not because its about New York, but rather in the way it delivers an ecology of information to readers. Going through the website and the blogs, the information within an article is always connected to the information of another article or blog, and within that, there is a tremendous wealth of information available to the reader.
And it seems that journalists in the NYTimes seem to have some degree of autonomy as well. I am thinking of Andrew Revkin, and the work that he has done for the NYTimes in covering environment and climate change issues. I know that there are good journalists who cover specific issues, and I’m wondering if in the near future, ST would provide the administrative and the resource support to journalists to cover their issues in more meaningful ways.
But I would think that the dearth of information awareness reflects too, on the SG populace. Long thought to be as apathetic, I am revising my thoughts on this issue. Its not that Singaporeans are dumb and are not concerned – on the contrary, I would think that Singaporeans are too, interested in the going ons in the world, and they know that the media they are getting are just not supplying the information in the most objective manners, but rather through a tinted glass. But still they go along with it, but, there is also a sizable number of people who seek out the news actively. So there is a demand for good, high quality information, that’s is not being engaged.
I’m not getting into any resolution here, just that there probably is an untapped potential here in terms of the satiating the epistemic hunger in Singaporeans. I’m not going to lapse into ‘Singaporeans deserve the media they get’ kind of arguments, but rather, hoping that a constructive position is attainable…
Posted by: joelfirenze on: May 18, 2009
I was sitting at a nice chinese restaurant at kitchener road, which was at Little India area, on a Sunday…
Eating at a chinese place, I felt a sense of dislocation as I saw busloads of india/bangladeshi workers coming in for their weekend jaunt, I guess. And on and on, it happened…
Watching this scene got me thinking, that there really isn’t a single Singapore-ness that can be defined. There are, in actual fact, many Singapore(s) co-existing, and they are in constant contestations with one another. The PAP, with its control of the newspapers, TV, radio, has a ‘Singapore’ to portray and project onto the minds of Singaporeans, while different Singaporeans from different ‘niches’? have different projections of a different Singapore(s). All of these Singapore(s) are coexisting at the same time, and from time to time, a few dominant projections become dominant, only to fade away, and for another to become dominant. It is also possible, in the minds of people, to hold different, contradictory projections of Singapore…
I’m really, thinking, the ‘Affluent Singapore’ has got hardly anything to say about the ‘Heartland Singapore’… all of these are gross generalisations, and of course, reality is far, far more nuanced than that… What troubles me is that people aren’t aware of the generalisations they are taking, and people carry on with the stereotypes that are dominating in their minds. I mean, ‘Geylang’ is more than a word, or a place. It brings with it certain images, some negative, others positive… and I get to experience that, when I say I live in Geylang.
I’m thinking, a photojournalistic project could on on the cards, using photos and intelligent words to depict the microcosms that constitutes Singapore. I imagine a nice decent camera, with a bicycle, and good buddies to do this with… hmm…
Posted by: joelfirenze on: May 18, 2009
I would first say that I need to read more about local writing, since my current sampling has simply been Catherine Lim.
Based on that, and from other isolated examples, I’m getting the feeling that the better stories are the ones that revolve around the change in values through the generations. I know, because I feel that change. And people caught in the transition – thats where the pain, the displacement, the disruptions are – where all the drama is, and that is perhaps why it makes for such good writing. I’m thinking of the Rafflesian girl who won the commonwealth essay competition based on the writing of a materialistic woman, and the seemingly antediluvian mother. But the main point was about how things changed, and the emotions from both sides… Like I said, I feel those stories because I’m caught in a similar situation too. I can hardly understand the heritage of my parents, and I do feel that sense of loss and alienation, and it pains me to see my parents unable to comprehend the present Singapore, and even more so when I realise that it is the generation of my (our?) parents who have built it, for us to enjoy, take advantage of. And thats where a part of my anger comes from, from my feel that these people, born from the 1940s-60s, they are just seemingly cast away… Thats where the stories of children leaving their families in old folks home… thats where all our staple of stories come from. Of generations losing their piety in a society that has gone such a radical shift in values that there is a disruption. Of course, these are just pretty words, and the critical reader will realise that there has been little substantiation behind these words. But heck.
But well, a transition is a transition, and barring any more sudden, radical shift in values, there just might be an equilibrium, where people become used to the dynamics of change, and come to realise the importance of their parents…
Maybe when that time comes, future scholars will come aross Cat Lim’s works, and see them for what they are, an expression of an era, a snapshot of a society whose values are in transition…
Posted by: joelfirenze on: May 6, 2009
I might be overlapping some content, but I won’t care.
I had written about some of the writing projects that I would like do, and the global-traveling is one of them. Documenting how people in the world are being helped, or are simply being resilient in their lives, and to inspire kids back in Singapore that the issues are real, the suffering is real, but more than that, there are ways to contribute.
That’s how I want to defeat apathy in Singapore, and I realise that the only way to do that, is to embrace empathy. Share the experiences on twitter and blogs, and then coming back to share personal stories of how the entire ordeal was done, to inspire generations of Singaporeans.
The phrase ‘changing the world’ should really be about changing the hearts of people, and there is only one real way to do it, is by some form of service to them. And defeating apathy, is really about the changing of the heart, from being ignorant, to being empathetic and loving.
I don’t even care whether it’s possible for now, but it is possible, and it requires sheer dedication and planning to get it done, as well as preparations to handle emergencies. But eventually, someone crazy-enough will do it, and that person will be a trailblazer for others to follow. It could be anyone.
Other than that, I would also like to start other writing projects, but they are conceptually problematic.
1. A guide to knowledge. How public intellectuals are shaping the debate. It’ll include Steven Pinker and Jared Diamond, for sure, I think.
2. Also thinking of a book about how messed up the world is, but that it doesn’t have to stay the same. Might be related to that globe-trotting project.
As usual, many exciting ideas, but I’ll end up not doing them, or putting them indefinitely on hold. Unless someone seriously bugs me about it.
Posted by: joelfirenze on: May 5, 2009
Singapore education today is really too fixated in producing hedgehogs – people who are focused on one area, among the nearly infinite choice of possibilities out there.
For an innovation/knowledge-based economy, hedgehogs alone are insufficient, especially when there is no synergy between different areas of knowledge, where innovative and creative ideas cannot surface. But then, people are stuck on this style of thinking, that the future job has to been somehow correlated with what you studied, or it will be a great waste of time. But that thinking just doesn’t cut it anymore. While certain jobs are highly technical and really require the expertise and specialties from learning, the interesting ideas come from where wholly different ideas meet and create something new, or new markets…
Besides, education is no longer correlated to industry or vocation. By that I mean simply this: an engineer is hardly expected to work in an engineering firm, nor is a science major necessarily mean being pushed towards the pharmaceutical or whatever industry. Yes, there will still be specialists who will find employment in their areas of education, but for many others, it will not be the case.
Perhaps its also a phase of life thing. Many people are forced to be hedgehogs at too early an age, at a time where they simply have no idea where their heart really lies. Given our time where there are so many opportunities, where there are so many exciting things to do, it is very possible to fall into the impulse of the moment and fall into something, and realise that its not what it might have looked like originally. People need time to explore, and their time in university is part of that exploratory process. At the same time, the larger issues in the world, and not simply just that – the assumptions that lie behind the bases of our present world – all of them are being questioned. Old models of economics and linear thinking don’t work, and people are beginning to appreciate what complexity really means. It could even be said that the new thinking about complexity and networks are becoming rather powerful meta-skills in examining myriad forms of behaviour across many, many disciplines, from complex biological ecologies to equally messy large-scale interactions… But I digress. Meantime, people are still being led to old paradigms, which is increasinly in cognitive dissonance with the larger developments in the world…
It has been a long blog post, and I have arrive at places I didn’t intend to, but to sum, I’m thinking, that foxes are becoming important, but that doesn’t mean hedgehogs aren’t important – they still are, its just the present trend that societies need foxes. And the other thing: people are being forced to become hedgehogs too fast… time to explore is important.
That’s all for now…
Posted by: joelfirenze on: April 30, 2009
This blog was born in order to remedy my vulnerability to google outages. This is not the first time a google outage has happened, and I now realise how vulnerable my ability to express myself is on the web if google went down. So I hope I will come back often enough to update this blog…
