The Wind Will Carry Us

 

Not every journey will be smooth-sailing. But obstacles, detractors and cynics often make any trip even more worthwhile. Almost 6,600km away from my base, will I be able to get what I want?

I love quotes.

Because they remind you of things you often forget, even though you might be thinking of them all the time.

Write some quotes on your most prominent wall to constantly remind yourself of stuff that are important to you. Note: it doesn’t just have to be goals or dreams.

On the other hand, it’s been ages since I’ve done something really meaningful. When a small part of you has died (after the firefighting days), it’s extremely difficult to find something else to fill your life with. Some resign to dope, drinking and casual sex to attempt to get back on their feet again. Others try many other ways to make themselves useful again, including helping others, or pick up a new skill. But in the free world where nobody will appreciate you, thank you, or understand you anymore, you either crash and fade into oblivion or emerge stronger from every blow you receive.

All in all, still, I miss those days so much.
“Firemen never die, they just burn forever in the hearts of the people whose lives they saved.” – Anonymous

50

50 questions. An equivalent of 3 meals for the brain.

1. How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
2. Which is worse, failing or never trying?
3. If life is so short, why do we do so many things we don’t like and like so many things we don’t do?
4. When it’s all said and done, will you have said more than you’ve done?
5. What is the one thing you’d most like to change about the world?
6. If happiness was the national currency, what kind of work would make you rich?
7. Are you doing what you believe in, or are you settling for what you are doing?
8. If the average human life span was 40 years, how would you live your life differently?
9. To what degree have you actually controlled the course your life has taken?
10. Are you more worried about doing things right, or doing the right things?
11. You’re having lunch with three people you respect and admire. They all start criticizing a close friend of yours, not knowing she is your friend. The criticism is distasteful and unjustified. What do you do?
12. If you could offer a newborn child only one piece of advice, what would it be?
13. Would you break the law to save a loved one?
14. Have you ever seen insanity where you later saw creativity?
15. What’s something you know you do differently than most people?
16. How come the things that make you happy don’t make everyone happy?
17. What one thing have you not done that you really want to do? What’s holding you back?
18. Are you holding onto something you need to let go of?
19. If you had to move to a state or country besides the one you currently live in, where would you move and why?
20. Do you push the elevator button more than once? Do you really believe it makes the elevator faster?
21. Would you rather be a worried genius or a joyful simpleton?
22. Why are you, you?
23. Have you been the kind of friend you want as a friend?
24. Which is worse, when a good friend moves away, or losing touch with a good friend who lives right near you?
25. What are you most grateful for?
26. Would you rather lose all of your old memories, or never be able to make new ones?
27. Is is possible to know the truth without challenging it first?
28. Has your greatest fear ever come true?
29. Do you remember that time 5 years ago when you were extremely upset? Does it really matter now?
30. What is your happiest childhood memory? What makes it so special?
31. At what time in your recent past have you felt most passionate and alive?
32. If not now, then when?
33. If you haven’t achieved it yet, what do you have to lose?
34. Have you ever been with someone, said nothing, and walked away feeling like you just had the best conversation ever?
35. Why do religions that support love cause so many wars?
36. Is it possible to know, without a doubt, what is good and what is evil?
37. If you just won a million dollars, would you quit your job?
38. Would you rather have less work to do, or more work you actually enjoy doing?
39. Do you feel like you’ve lived this day a hundred times before?
40. When was the last time you marched into the dark with only the soft glow of an idea you strongly believed in?
41. If you knew that everyone you know was going to die tomorrow, who would you visit today?
42. Would you be willing to reduce your life expectancy by 10 years to become extremely attractive or famous?
43. What is the difference between being alive and truly living?
44. When is it time to stop calculating risk and rewards, and just go ahead and do what you know is right?
45. If we learn from our mistakes, why are we always so afraid to make a mistake?
46. What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?
47. When was the last time you noticed the sound of your own breathing?
48. What do you love? Have any of your recent actions openly expressed this love?
49. In 5 years from now, will you remember what you did yesterday? What about the day before that? Or the day before that?
50. Decisions are being made right now. The question is: Are you making them for yourself, or are you letting others make them for you?

Source: friend’s blog, who took this off someone’s tumblr.

Abbas Kiarostami

Abbas Kiarostami speaks about the movies he likes, the characters in his films, and the gift of human beings to imagine and dream.

The Big D

Everyone’s doing things that are getting them closer to realising their dreams. Am I not?

How I wish I was born with a silver spoon so I can focus my attention solely on school, to enjoy and make merry.

How I wish I can be free of worries like what to do with my parents because they’re getting old and the duty to support them rests on me, being the eldest kid.

How I wish I can be financially free so I don’t have to think about the future and the uncertainties they might bring about if I don’t do something about it right now.

Damn, I don’t even have a car to begin with.

You say I should be more resillient because everyone has got their own set of problems and that you have seen people becoming successful doing things ‘the right way’.

You say I am not working hard enough because I have time on hand but I’m not devoting enough of it to do what I’m “supposed to do”.

You say I am doing things the wrong way because nobody gets there using the method I’m using now.

Fact is that, you are not in my shoes. Do you understand me? Or have you even attempted to understand me?

Another fact is that, how many success stories do you hear, really? And those success stories – those folks have gone mad in order to get there.

Hey, I just don’t want to end up like the only guy here who makes “movies” for a living because we all know that we only have that audience to appreciate such “movies” right now. And no, I know that I am not that capable and I don’t aspire to walk that path.

I don’t want to wake up one day in the future lamenting about my sucky job with a meager pay and the horrendous boss I will face all day long

I don’t want to wake up in the future giving up my dream and end up like any other folk out there because I’ve forgotten how to dream.

Because I’ve seen too many dreams being smashed.

Because I’ve met too many people who have given up.

Reality vs fantasy, which prevails? There’s only one answer. It’s a sad fact: our media industry will really not take you places. But more likely, money will.

Hence, I am working on the dough first.

I still have a long way to go. There’ no hurry. I will still get there – one day.

In that way, the bread will be baked. The dream won’t remain as a fantasy. You know it will be well alive and kicking.

Girl: Why am I different from others?

Man: Why…do you have to be like the others?

I’ve been very uninspired to write lately. My senses haven’t been as alert as they’ve used to be and I cannot transform observations into words as easily as I hope I’d be able to.

I don’t know if it’s the issue of being too technical ever since I started trading every weekday 24/5. They say it’s hard to juggle both creative and technical – they’re in conflict with one another. The two seem to make use of different parts of the brain that I feel like I’m re-tuning my mind everytime when I switch trades. I don’t really know how it works but I’m obviously attempting to come up with an explanation for it.

I don’t want to be a jack of all trades, master of none. I just want to be the jack of these two trades. I hope it’s not too much I’m asking for.

My Ideal Singapore

My ideal Singapore won’t just be a country or a city. It will be home. It doesn’t have to be the best yet, but we will be humble enough to admit that we aren’t all there, yes, but we won’t rest on our laurels either.

My ideal Singapore is a work in progress.

In the island of my dreams, we will strive, not pretend towards multiracialism. We will teach children to love each other, to accept that we’re same yet different, to see into each other’s hearts and say “I love you because you’re the best friend I can ever have” instead of “I love you because Teacher says we must befriend those of other races”.

We will accept criticism with humility and grace and learn to improve from it. Our airport doesn’t have to be the highest ranked in the world. It can be the most people-centred, the one place where smiles are genuine and not merely products of overzealous campaigns. (Or it can just stick to what it does best: make Singaporeans returning home cry silently as they catch their first glimpse of Changi in years through a tiny plane window.)

Parents will teach their children to make the best of the talents they have, not force-fit them into a mould. Schools will do more than teach our children the limitations of the real world – they will teach them to defy the status quo, to challenge stereotypes and break new ground. The new generation of Singaporeans won’t just conform to expectations – they will learn to think and fend for themselves. We won’t be a nation of complainers, but of doers.

We won’t bother to try manufacturing patriotism, because we don’t need to. Let us root ourselves here in family, culture and shared values. Patriotism should grow by itself, watered by pride and nourished by a true sense of belonging. We can love an imperfect Singapore perfectly.

My ideal Singapore won’t just be a country or a city. It will be home. It doesn’t have to be the best yet, but we will be humble enough to admit that we aren’t all there, yes, but we won’t rest on our laurels either.

We don’t have to try too hard to appear to be what we aren’t – we can set high standards and work towards them. If we don’t content ourselves with reaching the top, one day we just might touch the sky. (:

Source: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=117042416874&ref=mf
This piece is a submission by Crystal Ong Min Ning, 15, to an essay writing competition “What is Your Ideal Singapore” held by the Worker’s Party Youth Wing. (Essay Entry #5)
If you like it, vote for it here

He embarked on a journey that opened up his mind, and he got to meet many talented people in school. He attended lectures that discussed issues from around the world. Things he had never thought about doing before – he tried. Things he never would have thought he would say – he’s now saying them. Ideals and dreams he would never have imagined having – he now has them.

He looked at his son. His eyes showed signs of weariness – those countless years of toiling for the family as a technician, having barely any opportunities for promotion. You’d look at him with empathy, and you couldn’t have figured that his son is an undergraduate reading communication studies, and who has since become a liberal, open minded character, deviating from traditionalism and has embraced modernity. Family values don’t seem to matter so much anymore, and keeping in contact with relatives has become an obligation rather than the genuine desire to keep family ties intact.

He did encourage his son to take up either engineering or science – the path most traveled, where a stable and successful career was perceived as something that was somewhat guaranteed back during his time. It was an issue of security, the more traditional idea of stability that was still enshrined in the people of that generation when the country was still developing. “Perhaps not Communication Studies. The media industry is a complicated one. Be simple, be happy,” he said.

His son pondered upon his father’s words, but eventually did not take heed. After two rounds of interviews, he got into the course, and he asked his father for blessings and support. His father didn’t say much. “Okay, as long as you are happy,” he said.

So his son embarked on a journey that opened up his mind, and he got to meet many talented people in school. He attended lectures that discussed issues from around the world. Things he had never thought about doing before – he tried. Things he never would have thought he would say – he’s now saying them. Ideals and dreams he would never have imagined having – he now has them.

In the short span of three years, he saw his son change. His son now speaks as if he is going to own the world, often telling him how most people take things at face value and how they should actually challenge whatever we see or hear. He didn’t think much of them – after all, his son is studying the media, and he should be exposed to lessons like these that help promote critical thinking. It was not until he realised that things had gotten more severe, when his son expressed his desire to travel and make films in the future, and started sharing how working is mundanely repetitive and that no humans being should be subjected to be enslaved by – now that has gotten him a little worried. His son now seems to have many items on his to-do list; the transformation from a humble traditional family guy to a left wing liberal who now questions almost everything he sees and reads – you can say, perhaps, hasnow  become a more cynical character. It was something that he has not anticipate would happen. After all, he hasn’t any friends or relatives whose children have studied in media schools before – his son’s the first.

Did I lose control of my son? He asked himself. Have I wrongly managed my child? Why has my son turned out to be this way? Had I been decisive enough to stop him from reading Communications, he would think more “normally”? And if I did that, he would perhaps be just that fine young professional who’s going to lead an ordinary life, with his mind being occupied with issues such as how to carry on the family line, and how to advance his career, instead of thinking about things like wanting to travel or make films – those that serve nothing close to procreation or contributing to the economy. Other people can go realise their whatever dreams, be an advocate for world peace. For my son, I want him to be successful – in the traditional way. He doesn’t have to be rich, he doesn’t have to be too famous. As long as he becomes a professional who earns a decent income, I’ll be happy enough.

Never in his wildest imagination he would expect his son to have thoughts like these in his mind. His son just does not believe in being stuck to a country for a long time because he thinks that the world is a beautiful place and we should never leave without exploring it first. He wants to understand cultures, see things, talk to people, and he wants to do them all while he’s still young.

And this young man also wants to tell stories, although it won’t potentially earn him an income. He just wants to do things that he likes, and not subject himself to climbing corporate ladders, bootlicking to superiors and handling office politics, just because he thinks it’s a waste of life dealing with such meaningless things.

But unfortunately, he’s not born with a silver spoon in his mouth – he’s just an ordinary heartlander who grew up with swings and seesaws and eating popsicles from that provision shop at the void deck of his 3-room HDB flat. In his time, opportunities were dearth. Without the internet, he couldn’t have learnt so much. Compared to other kids, he thinks he is less fortunate, because mum and dad were not educated enough to groom him since young. That’s why at times, he feels a tad inferior to the multitalented schoolmates around him.

He probably doesn’t know a lot about what his son thinks, because his son often assures him that he knows exactly what he is doing and not to worry too much about him. He gives his son a lot of independence, only reprimanding him when he jeopardises his health or stays out late at night too often. The truth is that when he is on his own, he will raise doubts to himself whether he had chosen the right path to study Communications. He thought: had he been obedient enough and stuck to his dad’s advice of taking the safest route, he would not be worrying about the uncertainties in the future. He’d instead be investing his time on more meaningful things like how to make more money and which career path should he take. He thinks that he’d perhaps be happier, without having to think about how to go about realising his dreams and fulfilling the wants in his life.

But still, he often reminds himself to count his blessings, because he knows that every single event in his life has shaped him to become the person he is today. The people who have come and gone, and those who are still around, he owes everything to them. Whatever the future will be, he will embrace it with open arms, because that, too, is going to be a reflection of the person whom he once was today.has

Goodbye Yasmin

“I hate borders and I hate arbitary divisions between people. I simply want to make films about humanity…I find that in the pursuit to achieve success, we sometimes forget some basic human qualities, like kindness and compassion. I always try to inject these feelings that I have into any film I make, whether it is an advertising film or a movie. For me, film is an opportunity to remind human beings to be human again.” – Yasmin Ahmad (1958 – 2009)

From winning the Cannes Lion advertising award to being sought after by MCYS to create pro-family advertisements for Singaporeans, Yasmin Ahmad was shrouded in controversy and had her films rejected by her own Malaysian government because it dealt with sensitive topics that contravenes Islamic values. However, she stood firm against critics and had her films travel across borders to film festivals and touched lives around the world. She has left a legacy and also a void in the Malaysian film industry that will perhaps be hard to fill in years to come.

She has died – a part of us dies with her. But, a part of her will still live in us.