incidents with technology

In just under 48 hours, the calendar says 2009 will be past, and 2010 will come. Hmm... I wonder what celestial mechanics would say. The points of reference to gauge these cycles are changing somewhat - its never quite exactly the same orbit...

On that thoughtful mode, I thought about the technological ecology that we have around us. 'Technological ecologý'? Huh? Well, as with any system composed of many units, it is usually somewhat more advantageous to have many diverse units, rather than to have, say a set of homogenous units. What am I really talking about? Well, I'm using my iPhone, which together with my Mac, means that I'm using Apple for my informational, communication needs. But the transition wasn't easy. I'm not an organised person - my contacts were messy, and disorganised. Also, I forgot to ask the dude at the counter to transfer the contacts from the old SIM card to the new one. Taken together, the transition then posed a serious challenge, the consequence of which I am still working out. As I thought about this, I weigh the pros and cons of going fully Apple-d. Sure, Apple products are nice to work with, but it also means that I have to keep the components sync-ed all the time, even more so now that they can communicate with each other, whereas with the old set-up, the mobile and the computer were quite separate. Well I guess now it requires a greater sense of diligence to maintain the contact list - which would require a lot of diligence on the part of the user.

This incident has also caused me to appreciate how intertwined the different devices are in our lives. By this I mean, not just in our communications, but in many other areas. Transportation, food, accommodation, energy.... Just as there are ecologies in nature, so there are ecologies in the human sphere, and just as there is the biosphere, so there is a technosphere, or rather, an eco-technosphere - that there isn't really a biosphere distinct from the technosphere, but both are now enmeshed intimately, and that this enmeshing is intensifying, yet there isn't a broad consensus about how to handle this relationship, and how it could translate into tangible changes in how people live their lives... Kevin Kelly got there first, again, I think. so... oh well.

So long 2009. Thanks for all the fish!

holidays! - How I missed everything and nothing

For lunch today, went to the main campus, got Subway, and went to Chatter to eat, where, as it happens, there were many people, and many activities were going on. Being my usual self in wanting to stick my fingers into every pie (very bad habit), I decided to ask around what people were doing.

As usual, many things were happening all at once, and I was now thinking then, 'wow'. And they seemed to have a lot of fun, being with friends and all. And there, the thought occurs to me that during the holidays, I missed both everything and nothing - I 'missed out' on the fun that others were having with their own friends... but then again, I didn't actually miss anything - time still passes, and I still did what I wanted to do. In making the choices that I made, I didn't miss out any second or minute in life - there was the same amount of time, just spent in a different place, doing soemthing different. I didn't 'miss' doing anything - what I did was what I did, and in so doing, experiencing the moment in time of doing something...

It's going to be the start of another year.

politics of alienation, compassion in SG + usual frustrations

During a recent ICT, had the chance to meet with all the lao chiao people - the old birds; the veterans who have heard from other friends about their ICT experience... Although there are many things to be said about the entire ICT experience, this post does not intend to look into this; rather, I will explore other issues - in particular, those relating to how people experience the SG bureaucracy.

I am beginning to think of the key words that will shape the vision that I have - they are 'engagement', 'compassion', 'openness''... In essence, I want to mean this: that there needs to be an acceptance of worldviews, of the plurality in SG society - to be aware of this plurality, and to reformulate policies to address those issues. In other words, there is also a requirement for compassionate and empathetic policymakers, who need to step in the shoes of the people whose policies they will affect. I hear of stories of prostitutes being expatriated for two years but foreign wives being expatriated indefinitely... One really wonders about the genuine rationale behind some of the policies, and wonders about the degree of information control and openness to Singaporeans to debate and discuss these issues. One wonders too, about the kind of feedback received by REACH... I've always thought about some of these things in connection to the reasons for the conduct of NS - defending SG - but what kind of SG do I want to defend? An SG that continually closes the doors of engagement by a concerned citizenry? I'm really conflicted at times... If there is something truly worth defending, there will be commitment...

Without an engaged citizenry, you get a politics of alienation - where people are disconnected from the reality of their lives in not having any chance of engagement with the bodies that formulated the policies. When people are disempowered by the bureaucracy of their countries, then what is left is something that robs the drive of people to live their lives, people that are covertly oppressed in not realising the potential of their lives, in following uncritically the values being told from governments. Surely this existence is a poorer one compared to an alternative where people are given the chance to actively define, and shape their lives - where they can contribute in small but effective ways in the way their lives ought to be run by their country. While the condition is ideal, it also requires compassionate institutions that are willing to empathise with the way people live their lives,and to understand... Concerns of economics? Hmm, I really don't know...

The frustration part has to do with an old complaint: that the not-so-educated Singaporeans from a previous generation are essentially strangers in their own lands - they do not know English, and so are lost in our English-dominated streetscape - they can't get around without an English interpreter for them. This should not be the case... and reflects in a lack of empathy for the condition of thousands of Singaporeans who are lost...

from the BMW showroom

Right now, almost 'live blogging' from the BMW showroom. My dad has decided to 'upgrade' from the Toyota Camry to a BMW 5-series. Similar engine capacity, similar shade even. One of the reason for the change of car, if not an 'upgrade', was due to the unique economic situation of car-ownership in Singapore - which encourages the change of cars every few years - possibly an environmental reason - new cars with better engines are less pollutive...

What bugs me though, is how divergent the mindsets are regarding things like car-buying and notions of success in life. BMW in SG, has been recognised as a status indicator - the 'made-it'-ness of the person who buys the car. They are happy not because of the change in car, parents are smiling because the new car is a BMW and that there are very few BMWs in the neighbourhood parking lot.

I couldn't care less. My idealistic self would like to deny these nearly-arbitrary notions of materialistic success. Also, I think about the cultural capital embedded in buying the car; buying a nice car does not equate to other notions of cultural capital... it still does not change who the person is, and how the person is embedded in some other social context...

I watch as my dad struggles with the technology that's in the car - heck, cars now come with this small screen and all, with additional controls. Although the incorporation of tech in cars is significant in its own right, what I'm interested in is how different generations have issues coping with tech as it comes along...

post-reservist

There are many things that could be written about for this reservist. I could talk about... allocation of man, expectations of discipline, and so many other things. But for now, I will look at things from a sociological perspective and reflect on the things I learnt...

I realise that being in university exposes oneself to a limited subset of people in Singaporeans. The people who go to university have at least a mindset of a partially secured future, that at the minimum, they should graduate with a bachelor's degree - better than nothing in a qualification-driven society at least for entry positions.

However, I return to reservist, and the norm is for people NOT to have the advanced tertiary education of a university... Instead, these are people who survive through their wits alone, with the accumulation of insights and experience. They live by their cunning, their resourcefulness, and their EQ... However, they don't have a future entirely secured by themselves. They are risktakers, and that means they will resort to illegal activities at times... Sadly, they are also left out in the SG society - they are seen as callous, unruly... when in fact, they are more intelligent than the atas people at university give credit for.

I understand better now, this concept that SG is really on the verge of class warfare - because the cultural capital of the different parties are divergent, that these worlds, if not for the context of NS, do not interpenetrate at all, but are based on so different assumptions of success and failures. In my context, and perhaps for the university students; the scholars; success comes from the ability to participate in the system - notably the public sector, or the corporate sector. For these other people, success is defined by the sheer ability to make money by yourself - forming your own company perhaps... This really strikes me as an issue of empowerment - these people need to be further empowered with the necessary knowledge and skills; to give them more space to grow, and develop. These people do not do well in the current school system that we have - they simply have intelligence(s) that are not measurable by examinations and interviews, but by their ability to form and harness relationships for themselves. These people are the true masters of their own fate - no institution can fit to them - they will test the systems, find the loopholes, and exploit them to varying effects - the mindset of a ristktaker, an entrepreneur, and if given the right knowledge, could be the leaders of a different kind of economy in SG...

But SG institutions have ignored them...

To step into their world is to accept a different set of assumptions about the ways and means to live a life... hard work, perseverance and all these values take on different meanings in their application in their way of life...

Way of life... there isn't a 'way of life' in SG - there are different ways about it.