my memory gets in the way of my...friendships

I don’t know how to do this. I don’t know how to reconnect with folks I haven’t seen or talked to in five, six, seven, ten years. Am I just supposed to call them up and say, “hey, remember me? That nerdy girl with long braids and pink plastic glasses who didn’t get out much and never ever said anything of significance anyway? So how’s it going?”

I don’t know how to rekindle relationships that are so wrapped up in pain/anger/love/betrayal/confusion and linked to a childhood past so much of which I’d rather not remember.

My memory is like a cloud. Cumulo nimbus. Big fat dark mushroom. Parts of which i breeze through; clear, colourless haze, fluid and easy to navigate around, cushy even. Most of which I get lost in; full and heavy, strangely seductive yet simultaneously repulsive, threatening to break loose in a mad downpour of emotion at any second.

What’s so bad about denial and dissociation anyway? I say go ahead, block your memories out if you have to in order to get through the days. Sure is a lot easier than facing shit.

Oh well, there’s always small talk.

look pa, we can be imperialists too

The StanChart springboard
Temasek's big buy fuels talk of global banking ambitions
Christie Loh
in Today

conformity

'cost-effective' businesses

Well doesn't this make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside now. The 2 countries that i've spent the most portions of my life in are tops in 'cost-competitiveness' for businesses, especially because they're so good at keeping 'labour costs' low. Translation: they pay their workers shit-ass wages and attract big businesses that extract the most profit from exploiting their workers. Ahhh, lovely.

Read the story here.

cuban health workers

Funny how this didn't make front page news anywhere in the rest of the world. Betcha if it was any 'First World' country the horn-tootin' would have lasted weeks.

"One of the most horrendous tragedies of recent years was the earthquake in Pakistan last October. Besides the huge death toll, unknown numbers of survivors have to face brutal winter weather with little shelter, food or medical assistance.

"Cuba has provided the largest contingent of doctors and paramedics to Pakistan," paying all the costs (perhaps with Venezuelan funding), writes John Cherian in India's Frontline magazine, citing Dawn, a leading Pakistan daily.

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan expressed his "deep gratitude" to Fidel Castro for the "spirit and compassion" of the Cuban medical teams - reported to comprise more than 1,000 trained personnel, 44% of them women, who remained to work in remote mountain villages, "living in tents in freezing weather and in an alien culture", after western aid teams had been withdrawn."

Noam Chomsky, in the Guardian

sikhi on my mind

"Feminism gets bad press not because it's dead, but because it's dangerous."
- the Editorial Collective in this month's issue of Briarpatch

I’ve been thinking a lot about patriarchy lately, for various different reasons, not the least of which is my terribly depressing IWD blog entry. Have also been involved with collectively writing a sort of position paper on patriarchy with some folks as a report to an organization I work with where male domination has been a long-standing issue. We started writing the report after I came back to Singapore earlier this year, though, so I’ve been thinking a lot about the myriads of ways in which patriarchy manifests itself and how context changes everything about the struggle.

I’ve spent most of my free time in the last week helping my mum out with preparing for a Sikh history and prayer competition that she’s organized with her friends for the gurdwara children and teenagers. Since my mum’s computer literacy is fairly low (although I’m really proud of her for having learnt how to check her email on the Internet), she asked me to help her with the Power Point slides (although, if you want my version of it, I was bullied and guilt-tripped into doing it.). So I spent all week looking at questions about the Sikh gurus, Sikh history and Sikh prayer. And I was reminded, once again, of why I am a feminist.

Ofcourse all religions are patriarchal. How can they not reflect the pervasive forces of oppression that already exist in the societies in which they function? The thing that always gets me about Sikhism, though, is its grand claims of ‘non-sexism’, of advocating for women’s rights, of putting women on an equal footing with men, at exactly the same time as it does the complete opposite. Never mind the fact that all the Sikh Gurus were men, and there is only one (yes, read 1) woman in popular Sikh history who is not a wife or mother or sister of a Guru. Her name is Mai Bhago, and she was strong and militant, but she is all we have, and that is not good enough for me.

Ideas about kirt karni (working hard to earn an honest living – doesn’t matter if you’re poor or oppressed, but if you’re a hard worker, you will be rewarded, maybe not in this life but definitely in one of your next lives, trust me), naam japna (meditation – oh, you mean to take time away from organizing for your rights and achieve ‘inner peace’ despite your oppressive material conditions instead?), and wand chakna (sharing with the needy – oh wait, unless of course you are the needy in which case you should be eternally grateful to an all-seeing intangible being for bestowing such good grace upon you and continue to naam japo and kirt karo so that you will receive more blessings. And if you do happen to have enough disposable income to do some charity, then you can go ahead and feel morally superior and rest assured that you will be rewarded, yes you guessed it, maybe not in this life but definitely in one of the next); all these ideas only serve to reinforce the status quo and create unquestioning, content-in-their-place people.

Adhering to these principles didn’t stop Balbir Singh Sodhi from being shot to death four days after 9/11 in an Arizona town by white racists who considered him just another ‘turbaned terrorist’. Adhering to these principles doesn’t stop men from beating their wives, doesn’t stop Sikhs from hating Muslims, and it certainly does not stop capitalism from functioning.

Much of the poetry in the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, written mostly by the Gurus and some other saintly men who were part of the Bhakti movement, uses imagery that positions the devotee as God’s bride – which already sets up a power dynamic that renders femininity inferior and subordinate.

The evolution of Sikhism into a Miri-Piri, warrior-saint, religious ideology has completely distorted what began as a peasant-based struggle for land into a misogynist focus on violence that has been easily co-opted by ruling forces to ease the way into successful recruitment of Sikh men as soldiers and pawns of the state and imperialism.

There are aspects of the ideology that I know I draw from constantly – standing up for social justice, not turning away from a struggle even if outnumbered, the struggle for truth, etc. But for the most part, I am cynical and bitter about this (my?) religion, and that scares me sometimes. In some ways I think it would be easier to believe in a ‘higher power’ who ensures that justice will prevail. Not believing this means facing the idea that justice is our fight, and humanity’s struggle alone.

latest on 'Singapore Rebel'

"bowing my head and living with injustice is not what my conscience would allow me to"
- Dr Chee Soon Juan
Singapore opposition politican, now facing more jail time on charges of "contempt of court" for stating in court that the Singapore judiciary is biased and unfair to opposition politicians

"It is of course true that we have freedom of speech in Singapore. It is one of the most important rights. It is clear, however, that those rights are limited."
- Second Solicitor-General Lee Seiu Kin

More info here

watch this

Check it: singaporegaga.com

neoliberalismo

You know that neoliberalism has arrived when the United Nations is talking about contracting out jobs.

happy IWD?

This is the first time in the last 5 years that i haven't been to an International Women's Day rally. It definitely feels like something's missing. I know that rallies and demonstrations simply aren't gonna be enough to change anything, but it sure as hell is a good start. There's just something about taking to the streets with tens/hundreds/thousands of people and being together to collectively give voice to our anger/hurt/pain/visions. The state represses peoples' ability to come together in collective struggle for good reason. Not being able to come together keeps our struggles individualized, keeps us feeling alone and isolated, demoralizes us.

It's demoralized me.

IWD came to me today in a wave of outrageous news bites (South Dakota is fucking banning abortion), pitiful images of poor oppressed brown and black women, celebration stories of women who've 'made it' despite the 'odds' (boo hoo..poor lil' woman CEO), and intense marketing campaigns to capitalize on this day to sell more patriarchal shit to women.

So fuck patriarchy, fuck state repression, and that is that.

All of ya'll who were on the streets today had better appreciate what you've got. This is the only catharsis i get.

migrant workers in Japan

Hard Work, Furtive Living: Illegal Immigrants in Japan
Japan needs, but does not welcome, migrant help

Sharon Noguchi
YaleGlobal, 2 March 2006

As Japan confronts challenges of a low birth rate, an aging population, and a shrinking labor pool, Sharon Noguchi describes the country’s newfound reliance on illegal workers who are employed in low-wage jobs and unprotected from exploitation. Immigrants from China, Latin America and South Asia seek jobs with employers willing to risk legal punishments in order to hire workers at lower wages. Illegal workers are willing to accept bottom-rung pay, risking arrest and finding it difficult to claim all the wages they are owed. Some unions agree to represent illegal migrant workers, yet the country as a whole does little to welcome the laborers it desperately needs. Despite a lack of official policy, Japan continues to draw workers through unspoken promises of steady work and the hope of a better life. – YaleGlobal