Tuesday, September 27, 2005

scrutinised

Its been long since i blog. Sometimes i think, why do i blog? There aren't people who come visit my blog anyway except maybe myself and 1 or 2 occassional passerby who press the " next blog" button. There aren't any nice skins, dry topic, no scandalous juicy gossips or rumours, only boring personaly thoughts and political- themed posts. No pictures of myself or women either. But thats not the goal, the aim of why i blog. I think i blog as i want to preserve these thoughts, i want to capture a still of what is happening now. And when i am old, if i still manage to remember this address, i can view this blog, reflect on myself, laugh at my thinking when i am young. And if i have some serious concussion or suffering from senile dementia, i could perhaps, see this blog but have no attactment to it.

The difference between blogs and personal diary are only a thin line separating them. Blogs are sort of a more advanced ways to record a person's daily happenings, his feeling and his thoughts to be exact. However the catch is, the blog isn't private anymore. A blogger is exposing himself to the world, everything.

Yet, as the intent of the bloggers and the view of people are still, blogs are a reflection of the blogger's feeling and should be allowed. But as a blog is exposed, so should bloggers practise self censorship?

On a blogger view, i am opposed to self censorship. If the intention of blog is for the ease of writing a diary, then a blog should be seen as a private thing. And things being private, if someone pry about it, he or she could not accused the blogger of the content in his blog since the one who pry commit a sin, a mistake already by intruding other people privacy. This goes to people who view others blog and people who hold bloggers responsible for the bloggers view. It is just like the pot calling the kettle black. You are the one willingly to come and see my blog and yet you are accusing me of posting my inner most feeling which in the first place, you come to see my blog because you want to see my inner most feeling. Irony isn't it?

People may argue that since you want to keep the blog, you must be responsible for anything that you wrote. I think the act of publishing each entry is an act of responsibility and that the blogger is already being responsible.

However if we want to see the society as a whole. This thing call blog is seen as the modern day propaganda and revolutionary tool. Ancient people pass messenges to overthrow the Yuan dynasty by stuffing strips of paper in the mooncake, while modern people can rally people using blog.

Racist remarks, insults hurl at teachers. These bloggers are taken to court or disciplinary deal with. But, the action of doing that, aren't painting the picture abit too rosy, sweeping the dirt under the carpet? Racism will always present in the modern day society, students will always be frustrated with the teachers.

Perhaps the idea behind is not racism or hurling insult itself, the idea behind is that for racism,it is inflammatory. That will depend on the tone of the blogger and whether it is just purely a personal thoughts or is there any inflammatory hint inside his post.

But nevertheless, the recent episode of blog-induced trouble certainly make the blogging scene in singapore shaky. Bloggers now do not know what to blog or what not to blog. Since that is the case, has it been steer off the original road, which is preserving of an individual thoughts by keeping it using a more advanced diary?

Saturday, September 03, 2005

tan weilian: Abled or Disabled?

Project superstar had just ended. It was one of the nicest shows i ever watched, given that i only watch two shows. The first is tian long ba bu and the second is of course project superstar.

Perhaps why i watch superstar in the first place is because my mom told me there is a blind busker who went for the audition. And from that onward, i followed practically every episodes. Although it was the blind busker, weilian who induced me to watch the show, but gradually, it were the pretty contestant that followed be through the whole show.

While i am watching this age old question surfaced again in front of me. Should we treat those who are disabled as disabled or abled body. And, are the disabled themseleves want us to treat them as abled or as disabled.

The meaning of disabled i think, is one who can't perform what an abled bodied person can do. The definition of an abled bodied is a wide subject. An impotent man may be classified as disabled by his wife but if he still can walk around unaided by a walking stick, then he is abled.

I keep on thinking that if i bump into a disabled guy, should i see him as being abled. I think sometimes, the disabled hope people to view them as abled bodies but yet, they would want to reserved those special rights that a disabled bodied usually have.

Take for instance the MRT lift. My rationale to the lift is that, how many disabled people actually use the lift in such a way that it would fully maximise the lift potential passengers carrying capabilities. I believe the lift is almost underutilised if we only allow people who are disabled to use it.

However, you could see in the forum of the papers, that disabled people complained that abled body are vying with them, are fighting with them for the lift. So, if they want people, in practical to view them as abled bodied, why go put a tag on themselves by themselves that they are in theory, disabled? I find this totally absurd.

Another piece of article that caught my eye is this disabled guy who said abled bodied guy are hogging the disabled toilet cubicle. I mean, where is the level playing field?

As an abled bodied, i need to wait for my turn to pee, so why can't you?

Back to the person in limelight, tan weilian. The critics says people vote due to sympathy. So do they and can you blame them? It is this tag of disabled that will always remain disabled enable the disabled to truly have the benefits of their own cubicle and their own elevators.

p/s: i may sound crude. but isn't it true? I only want to pass across a message that if you want people to treat you of what you want people to treat you as, then you must treat yourself of what you want people to treat you as first. No more, no less.