After four days on the island I'm convinced Singapore is the ideal society. I mean, the city is aesthetically perfect. Even chinatown smells good. For a city known for its urban sprawl it has an astounding array of nature reserves and parks all manicured to a tee. They've thought of everything, no joke. There is a massive food court in every mall. There is a giant mall to your immediate left, and right. Its like you don't go shopping, shopping comes to you. The outdoor parks have free outdoor elliptical machines. What? There is no traffic on roads because pedestrians cross on over and underpasses. You can't even delay train traffic if you wanted to jump on the tracks. They've encased the platform in a glass cage. There are no homeless people, unless they're hiding in a tree shrub on me, cus I've been looking. It's also the only country I've been in outside of Canada where such a diverse group of inhabitants live in evident respect and harmony. Perhaps I've only brushed the surface and there exist many layered complexities, as with any country. But I.am.impressed. especially after just arriving from the polar opposite nation in wealth, standard of living, and human rights.
On the topic of societal juxtaposition. My mind has been on overload the last while, looking back in retrospect on my time in Nepal. Several people have asked me for a takeaway, and truthfully I was looking for some peace and familiarity in surrounding to be able to place my perspective again. I wrote the first couple of days at Chetana Children's Center that I felt almost a guilt, a self-serving fulfillment, in being there. At night on my hard wooden crate, I dreamed of my warm bed in Canada, the laptop with wi-fi I craved. It was all mine. A few months and a cross-continental flight away. But I was sobered by the transient nature of the kids' experiences with volunteers. We come and go, but what are we REALLY doing for these kids? Are we really helping them or are we just buying goodwill with a two thousand dollar plane ticket? I suspected the latter, I wanted to 'make a difference', but it was the feeling of self-righteousness that I sought in the reflection of the apathetic western world. Some of you wrote that its better that some good is done than no good done at all, and I'd have to agree. But at the end of my stay, just as I suspected, I learned more from the kids than they ever learned from me.
I looked at them and knew that some would never see the world beyond the peaks of the Himalayas. They will be happy within the safety of what they know, but will never brave to leap beyond the progress of their nation. Change only happens with perspective and this doesn't doesn't come easy. My aim at the begining of this journey was to gain perspective, a vague goal, but one that left retrospective clarity open to interpretation. Nepal is a country strife with political and socio-economic problems that locals don't think will dissipate overnight. With a hierarchical caste-system and failing government, promise of reform is a change noone can belive in. I compare the lack of basic rights to life in Canada, where everyone regardless of creed or status in life has access to free education and indirectly, an opportunity at advancement. CCC, as it turns out, is not an orphanage in the strictest sense of the word. Ramji, Sabina's late husband wanted to create a center of opportunity for promising children. A secondary school principal himself, he was moved by the sight of a child labouring in a restaurant one night. He handpicked each of the current six children based on aptitude and poverty. I did notice on the first day how smart they all were.
I worry that Sabina will close the center, as she has often thought about after her husband's death. There are too many expenses and not enough money. I worry that the kids will have to forego university after they graduate CCC because their families can't afford it. I told them that I will do everything I can to be an enabler when the time comes. I realize that my comforts and familiarities are not rights, but gifts. That somehow, against the odds, I made it out of the millions to land in the lap of luxury while members of my own family live in poverty in rural China. What does this mean to me? Among many things, that opening one's eyes to the world through travel is not only a privilege but a duty. To live in blissful ignorance and sheltered comfort is sacreligious when there are those who can't afford to dream up a plane ticket, even if they get passed the first barrier of fantasizing basic human rights.
Travelling makes you realize how interconnected everything is. Nation to nation, nation to human, human to environment. I know most eyes are on the Gaza strip right now. As the Palestinian death toll tops 1000, you think of what tears apart this connection in our social fabric. Its fragility shows in racial tensions, blame games, bloodshed and impasse. Does Marius Grinius deserve criticism for our lone vote on the UN Human Rights council? Was it a decision of "sound judgement"? Based on the wording of the motion's language, maybe. Was it an act of "integrity"? It's harder to say. A ride-or-die friend emailed me two days ago with an epiphanous view of the business world today.
First day of business school
Prof: what does the number 50 billion mean to you now in this terrifying state that the world economy is in? You all read the news, what was 50 billion?
Me: err the worst ever opening guess on the Price is Right?
Prof: No, this is very serious given current economic blah blah blah don't make light of it blah blah Madoff scandal blahhhhh
I also managed to infuriate Sarah when I suggested it was mildly hilarious that Bank of America can fire 35 000 people, that's a fucking municipality of people, a village. She didn't see eye to eye with me...mostly because she is short I guess.
All in all, a lot of comparatively rich people lost money, not a real tragedy, it's not like everyone in Africa suddenly died from fucking Spanish Flu. That would be a tragedy, and semi-ironic. The only downside is it's hitting ppl below poverty lines in developing nations now.
Epiphany? I think so...cash moneys just ain't that important in the grand scheme of things. It's a poisonous mind set that business school implants.
That's some true mind-reading, NPC, ride-or-die, no-holds-barred insight right there. Mad props.
Anyway, this talk about our ignorance of the social fabric's fragility holds special interest to me in the context of art. I, along with the rest of the art world, have been obsessing over Chinese contemporary artists for a long time now. They have sprouted up post-repression style and blossomed to international acclaim. The beauty of these artists lies in that their subject matter is so fresh from recent liberation and social conscience weaves heavily throughout the canvas. One in particular that I've noticed is Deng Cheng Wen and his Blind Walking series, as seen below.
His work highlights ideas critical to understanding modern China. That urbanization and westernization is leading traditional culture down the path of destruction, and that the young generation is oblivious to the adverse effects of these detrimental changes. These pieces illustrate the paradoxical nature of China's socio-environment. The country maintains that progress is only possible if there is stability, and stability is achieved when there is limited dissent. However the collective mentality of people moving in the same direction can be negative and multiplies the effect of obliviousness the individual has to his surroundings, leading to the age-old idiom , "the blind leading the blind". The great thinkers of our time have said that our narrow vision can only be restored by removing our socio-cultural blinders, and it is up to this generation to do so.
See more of his work here:
http://www.hongart.net/?option=art&collectionid=27
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