a note on national day
A couple of years back, when I was more actively involved in volunteer work befriending HIV+ patients, I remember talking to one particular man who I suppose was fairly advanced in the disease, he was quite emaciated, and in addition to his regular treatment, was also undergoing physiotheraphy to help him build back strength in his legs so he could walk.
Still, he remained cheerful and would often talk to us at length about his life, his experiences, and his hopes for the future. He mentioned that he was, previously, working in a high paying job that afforded him many opportunities to travel to other countries - for work, not leisure. Now that he finally had the time to travel, one of the places he wanted to see again was Vienna, where, he said, you can always hear music in their beautiful streets.
The idea that he had, only now, in that state, the time to travel and live life, is one that struck me at the time as deeply indicative of something terribly wrong about the pursuit of the singapore dream.
Meanwhile, a televised crowd is singing maudlin celebratory songs and making banal pronouncements, a crowd who - who can blame them? - is turned away from him by policy, sentiment and community. Each day, I find myself thinking more and more of funerals with closed coffins - for the bodies must, by law, be burned as biohazardous material - while the guests stand united as a people, a nation, a singapore apart.
I never saw him around the wards after that. I hope you've managed to see Vienna.
Still, he remained cheerful and would often talk to us at length about his life, his experiences, and his hopes for the future. He mentioned that he was, previously, working in a high paying job that afforded him many opportunities to travel to other countries - for work, not leisure. Now that he finally had the time to travel, one of the places he wanted to see again was Vienna, where, he said, you can always hear music in their beautiful streets.
The idea that he had, only now, in that state, the time to travel and live life, is one that struck me at the time as deeply indicative of something terribly wrong about the pursuit of the singapore dream.
Meanwhile, a televised crowd is singing maudlin celebratory songs and making banal pronouncements, a crowd who - who can blame them? - is turned away from him by policy, sentiment and community. Each day, I find myself thinking more and more of funerals with closed coffins - for the bodies must, by law, be burned as biohazardous material - while the guests stand united as a people, a nation, a singapore apart.
I never saw him around the wards after that. I hope you've managed to see Vienna.