Let’s clarify something, people.

Sat, 4 Jul 2009
1 min read
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Army Daze is Army Daze, and Own Time Own Target (OTOT) is Own Time Own Target.

I think Michael Chiang is a great playwright; I’ve read quite a number of his plays before like Private Parts, Mixed Signals, Beauty World and, of course, Army Daze.

But I don’t think Julian or I referred to Army Daze while writing Botak Boys and Full Tank! respectively. I don’t think Jonathan Lim referred to Army Daze while directing OTOT either.

So maybe everyone should stop conflating the two productions. They are separate entities with their own merits, and the most important distinction that has to be made: one play i.e. Army Daze spoke for an era that had its own challenges (the ’80s – ’90s), while OTOT speaks for another era – our own.

If random people are going to keep on referencing Army Daze or comparing OTOT to Army Daze, it’s not only unfair for all of us, but it’s also very selfish – why stay mired in the past when we have such a beautiful chance to move on and create our own future?

Thoughts on climate change.

Fri, 26 Jun 2009
2 min read
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While riding along the PIE one day, two thoughts about climate change suddenly popped into my head:

  1. Roads = traffic = exhaust fumes = global warming. This probably increases exponentially during traffic jams which occur during the morning and evening rush hours. Why are they rush hours? Because the bulk of the people are commuting to work/school. Why are we still commuting to work/school en masse when technology empowers us to work at disparate locations?
  2. Warm temperatures in SG = increase in usage of air-conditioning = increase in electricity generation = increase in both fuels burnt (at power station’s end) and machines working (compressors and the like) = increase in output of heat = increase in temperatures in SG = global warming. Is air-conditioning the only way to reduce temperatures in SG, and on a macro level, the world?

It seems to me that both of these ‘problems’ are caused by sociological factors.

  1. People, especially Singaporeans, place great value on ‘showing your face’. So be it for work or for school, the indicator people still stick to in order to measure work carried out or amount learnt is physical attendance. Perhaps this entails a paradigm shift: if we can harness the power of technology to delegate work or conduct lessons, we reduce the need for people to ‘show their faces’. Though it might mean an increase in computing power,  electricity generation, etc. which might also contribute to global warming. But at least there aren’t traffic jams, right?
  2. For reasons that I still cannot fathom, we still stick to ‘Western’ dress codes of suits, jackets, long-sleeved shirts, tailored pants, etc. to go to work. Why? It doesn’t make sense to do so especially in our weather. Logically, we should be wearing clothes that aren’t so warm but we aren’t. Inadvertently, this artifically increases our dependence on air-conditioning. So will this blind embrace of ‘Western’ culture secretly be our undoing (and because I cannot resist it: what has happened to our Asian values??? LOL.)?

Your thoughts/comments?