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From http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_738323.html:
Singapore National Games to run in 2012 and be held biennially
Published on Nov 26, 2011
By Royston Sim
The Singapore National Games will provide a unique ( Read more... )
Singapore National Games to run in 2012 and be held biennially
Published on Nov 26, 2011
By Royston Sim
The Singapore National Games will provide a unique ( Read more... )
Oui, sorry about that. I'd like to say that it comes to me naturally but it hasn't quite been the case ever since I came to France (people here aren't abashed in the least in borrowing English words, even if in a Frenchified way; one of my teachers even used "yes" instead of « oui » once >.<); I've had to impose it. This is one of the ways. Maybe I should keep that to my other LJ? Then again, it wouldn't be me speaking. :P
Yes well, I think we can all safely say, regardless of political affiliation, that Singapore's rather screwed.
Y'know, I like this phrase of yours:
we all bond in common frustration.
It makes me think of the words 'protagonist', 'antagonist', 'deuteragonist' and all those that end in '-agonist', because they all contain the Greek root 'agôn', or 'struggle', which is a cause of frustration. If you'll permit me a little analysis (which I'm sure will be worse than what you and Za and all the awesome lot of you managed back in those carefree days when we were all clad in blue and silver/grey), the key cause of this is a struggle between the will of the government and the will of individuals, and in a sense, we're still in a primal society, however much we look to be glittering and sparkling on the outside, however much the CBD skyline may coruscate.
(Just realised that it's a point that many a Singaporean's come to, even if not in the same way I did. Oh well. :( )
You also said that
the arts in singapore will take a long, long time to change. it is changing slowly, i'll admit that much since i've seen it change in the last five years, but it'll take time :/
Yes it will.
In 1969, there was LKY's famous downer line, "Poetry is a luxury we cannot afford", backed up by various reasons as to why.
More recently, within the past decade, we've had the Biennales and SOTA and subsidised play/concert tickets for schoolchildren and the various SYF competitions and Limelight@Esplanade and a whole litany besides, but I'm not sure if we're going about it the right way; after all, in the arts, we need to engage the audience, otherwise we fail, and these are the ways in which current initiatives are failing:
- I was at the Biennale of 2006, and I remember the works - for the most part - being so abstract that I could hardly engage with them. I'm not sure how many others felt the same way, but apart from my leanings towards verse and prose and song, I'm just a lay person;
- SOTA came too late for many, and in any case, can creativity truly be taught? Hmmm;
- schoolchildren may not want to go on such excursions, so forcing them isn't the best way to get them to appreciate the arts;
- SYF competitions have turned into a huge medal chase (as have the sports competitions, one must add), just like all things worth fighting for in our country;
- Limelight... well... sure, it works in getting people to support their friends / family members. Or not. For those on whom it does have that effect, the effect isn't long-lasting.
So we have an arts scene where lots of carrots are being dangled and not that many people (and even that is an overstatement) are taking. From the looks of it, its advancement is crawling at such a slow pace that I'm actually thinking of trying to get published here - in the land where I am, where the tongue spoken is not my mother tongue - because I think it just might be that bit easier. :(
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