The Cask Of Amontillado

If you are a fan of Edgar Allan Poe, the above picture is a very refreshing take on the classic, The Cask of Amontillado.

As a kid, I read this story and was morbidly fascinated by the idea of being walled up alive. Truth to tell, I was rather fascinated with various forms of death that were long and drawn out. The macabreness of one's realisation of the impending end yet impotency to do anything about it, sends a chill of horror and titillation down my spine. Much as we homo sapiens behave like we control the world around us, the fact is we control very little indeed. If indeed I could choose which forms of death I would not want to experience, it'd be;

1) Being buried alived.

2) Being walled up alive.

3) Drowning.

4) Suffocation.

I used to list falling from a great height amongst those but I read somewhere your neck snaps mid fall and you're most likely dead before you ever hit the ground so that eliminates its eligibility from "Long drawn out deaths I wouldn't wanna gro through" for me.

Happy Hallow's Eve.

First They Came

First They Came ~ Martin Niemoller

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, it seems with recent times its easier for a state to be overrun by facism than ever. Recent events displaying the callous disregard for external sentiments and feelings not pertaining to what the Government wants sends a silent chill down one's spine if you choose to take a step back and consider it.

Fascism isn't an overnight revolution. It starts insidiously, slowly. The collection of authority and power into the hands of a select few. It stacks up over time like a pile of stones, until one wakes up one day to find a mountain of errors and "its always been this way" excuses and by then, it might be too late.

What *is* facism? According to Wikipedia, it states that "Fascism is a radical totalitarian political philosophy that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, extreme nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism." Another consideration of facism is that "Fascism is also typified by totalitarian attempts to impose state control over all aspects of life: political, social, cultural, and economic".

Cheem siah...

I'm not saying that we live in a facist country. We don't. But we could. The political apathy of the majority of the population attests to this. The complacency of the people to leave decisions up to the policy makers paves the way for this. An election system that sees a party largely returned to power before polling even begins & regulations favouring the incumbent allows this. The lack of credible debate and discussion avenues that affects policy BEFORE it is implemented shows this. The crackdown on dissident voices, opposing views and alternative opinions proves this.

The greatest harm often come of the greatest of intentions. It doesn't take evil men for evil deeds to happen.

The problem is, not many Singaporeans can be bothered about this. There is so much wrong about our systems in Singapore, from;

1) a judicial system that presumes guilt before proven innocence.

2) a collection of government watchdogs that claim to plan for "open-ness" but clamp down hard on any form of alternative-ness other than their own.

3) a one party government that has presided over an ever increasing income gap between the rich & the poor and is so out of touch with real life issues yet gets re-elected thanks to its monopoly on the media.

4) a standard of living that rises every day and every year but minimum wages that hasn't risen to suit.

5) an economy that sees its people working to feed the government multi-national companies that virtually controls every facet of life we partake in.

6) a National Pledge that recites "regardless of race, language or religion" but sees its government persecuting Jehovah's Witnesses, depriving the entire gay community of any form of recognition or expression and recently, even helping a foreign government persecute Falungong activists trying to drum up support for their own plight back home.

7) a government so confident of its own authoritarian rule that it even puts the facade of inviting debate on the casino issue & then steamrolled ahead with its implementation plans anyway and politely telling the World Bank & IMF that it wants it business but it'll ignore their views on allowing peaceful demonstrations outside its meetings.

The list goes on. But it gets more and more depressing if I were to write on. Did I mention that suicide rates are up too? I kid you not.

So what are we to do? The MDA's favourite tag line recently seems to be "give us solutions" (especially over that silly Mr Brown incident) but frankly, what can an average guy like me do when everywhere you turn or whichever corner you round, you are actively blocked, governed and basically conditioned against speaking out?