Be Free !!!

I picked up this card in Bleinheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill, earlier this month. Given that the elephant is a bit of a family mascot, it is not unnatural for this card to catch my eye, especially the warm image of a child running into the arms of a parent: probably the safest place in the world for the youngling. It was rather apt considering this was purchased at the ancestral home of a man who made his country, and to an extent the continent and the world, safer. The card is entitled “And as I learn ...” which was a bit off, I felt. It could have been “... running into safety”.

I am now on my way to the Middle East, specifically Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. I have meetings with various government officials in Riyadh, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. This region of the world has unfortunately been (for thousands of years) and remain in conflict with each other and the world. So, safety is high on my mind now.

And in the front page of today’s Straits Times, a harrowing caption, “ Mom, I love you and Dad so much. I’m dying because I can’t breathe”. This were the last words in an SMS that 26 year old Pan Tri Tha My sent to her mom before dying in an unventilated trailer that was smuggling her into the UK. It is tragic she died this way but at least in those final moments, she managed to communicate with her parents, no doubt her place of safety. So, I pray her soul is at peace.

Back home, this morning we met with Tracy and her boyfriend Pedro (who works in the UK) and they are now contemplating of coming back to Asia having appreciated the potential of this region and having just completed a week of vacation in Vietnam, they were thinking of doing business in Vietnam.

The world is full of contradictions like this. People criss-crossing the world to forge a brighter future. The Chinese have a history of emigrating in search of a better life. This type of migration was known as “tao sheng huo”, which roughly translates to seeking a life. It is all the more poignant that in such a search, some lose their lives. But more of such emigration will continue. For there remains this fire of purpose that burns in each of us: to build a better a tomorrow.

It is for this reason, I know, that you are both overseas. To gain knowledge from the world’s most learned. And to do so in places that will better help you understand the world at large. There is however one big advantage you have: safety. Our arms are always open. Like Leonardo Da Vinci who was safe in the employment of the Medicis in Florence, and therefore free to give full rein to his creative genius without fear, you too are free to make the most of your time abroad.

You need not worry about what others think. 

It's the heart afraid of breaking
That never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking
That never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
Who cannot seem to give
And the soul afraid of dyin'
That never learns to live

Try new things. It doesn’t matter at all if you fail in these. Can you imagine how many sketches Leonardo has abandoned and how bulbs that didn’t light up for Edison? Yet the world remembers them today for the geniuses that they are. So free yourself. Don’t be too hard on yourself: Go where you want. Eat what you want. Wear what you want. 

Because unlike the poor Vietnamese girl, you have a real place of safety and our safety platform is not a net (from which you find hard to crawl out from), but rather its a trampoline... that will safely catch you when you fall and bounce you back up again. And you know how trampoline works: the higher a height you fall from, the higher the bounce! So, be free, my darling. 

Rise and fall

I am a fan of Kuik Yishen’s posts (on FB). His grasp of history and his pattern identifying (and if somewhat conservative) interpretations resonate with me. From calling out the tropical botanical gardens as the then silicon valleys of their time: for colonial masters to undertake agricultural R & D and hence take advantage of large land masses they have “acquired” globally to produce the highest value cash crops... to the decisions taken by the British (in particular Raffles) to prioritise Singapore 200 years ago over all its other colonies, his version of history traces success to their sources.

His focus on Asia and especially Southeast Asia meant he cannot but write of Malacca, whom he characterised as part of the quadruplets of colonies which included Macau, Penang and Singapore. Malacca was in fact the big sibling. It was a thriving port along the most important sea lane that connected India and China. The straits is still called after it. So much so that the Chinese Emperor sent Admiral Zheng He to form diplomatic, economic and security ties back in the 13th century. So much so that it is the first state an ambitious new global naval power, the Portuguese, set to conquer. When the Malacca Sultanate fell, in 1511, this empire had lasted just about 250 years.

Credit: vinterior.co

So, recently when Kuik wrote a piece not about the origins of success but of its duration (none lasting over 250 years), I thought I’d capture it here on my blog too. He went on to ask, therefore, what of Singapore who has just celebrated its bicentennial.

A few years ago I visited Westminister Abbey. Here was Raffles, there was Blake and the poets, and there was Newton and the scientists, monarchs, aristocrats, statesmen, on and on.

I realized then Westminister Abbey was the most exclusive club in the world. A distinguished life of service to England was required for burial there. It was an institution to motivate the building of Empire.

Lim Siong Guan, Head of Civil Service (1999-2005), often quotes from Sir John Bagot Glubb, a soldier-philosopher. Glubb looked at great nations and identified 7 ages as they rose and fell, describing the changing values and heros of each age.

Practical men begin the cycle, borrowing and adapting ideas in free experimentation. Then professionalization ushers an age of expansion, where great men are builders and conquerors who bring glory to the nation. Expansion leads to an enriched nation, which celebrates its artists and intellectuals. Society sheds conservative habits and becomes eager consumers, leading to a worship of the wealthy. Finally, as consumerism gets decadent, the frivolous are worshiped - athletes, entertainers and chefs.

Singaporeans may find it hard to believe that the richest Roman of all time, Marcus Crassus, would choose to lead an army against Syria aged 61 in 53 BC. Despite his great wealth, the pinnacle of Roman achievement was to be granted a victory parade. Crassus died in Syria, molten gold poured into his head as reward for his greed. Then again, Osama bin Laden was from a rich construction family and the Ibrahim brothers who bombed Colombo, a rich spice family.

In Glubb's essay, greatness does not exceed 250 years. Writing in 1950s, he was worried about Great Britain, and proved prophetic when the IMF bailed out the UK twenty years later in 1976.

Thoughts for our Bicentennial
Tan Kah Kee's life did not overlap with my generation, so the power of stories from his time have but a feeble impact on us. The world of Crazy Rich Asians - of Eu Villa, Karikal Mahal, Har Par Villa, of Singapore in the 1930s have receded into the mists of time for Singaporeans below the age of 70, more legend than reality, and fodder for fiction.

For Singaporeans yet to take their PSLEs, LKY is only slightly less distant than Sang Nila Utama. The transmission of values from LKY's generation in the PAP and society is intact today but 30 years hence those in Primary School will be in control of Singapore.

Will we still have a honest Civil Service? Will we still have an unambiguously fair National Service? Will we still trust our Courts and the Police? Will we have a sense of national unity? Will we still have meritocracy? None of these questions should be take for granted. The power of remembered stories, lived by individuals famous or otherwise is an underestimated force in shaping the character and strength of a society and nation.

The living memory of grit, struggle and the values of LKY's generation has served as a cloak of protection around the PAP and Singapore. Kempeitai brutality, Konfrontasi, British incompetence, race riots - these were gifts of history, lending invisible strength to our commitment towards multi-racial self-determination. This cloak is coming off and it will be the challenge of Singapore to see if it will retain its greatness past Glubb's time limit. The old adage of shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in 3 generations might also apply to societies - tripling the human lifespan of 75 years gets close to Glubb's limit.

Hymn

Forth in your name, O Lord, I go
my daily labour to pursue;
you, Lord, alone I long to know
in all I think or speak or do.

The task your wisdom has assigned
here let me cheerfully fulfil;
in all my work your presence find
and prove your good and perfect will.

You I would set at my right hand
whose eyes my inmost secrets view;
and labour on at your command
and offer all my work to you.

Help me to bear your easy yoke
and every moment watch and pray;
and still to things eternal look
and hasten to that glorious day.

Gladly for you may I employ
all that your generous grace has given;
and run my earthly course with joy,
and closely walk with you to heaven.

This is the closing hymn at the first mass at the chapel of SBH to mark the start of Michaelmas term of the 2019 Academic Year. Deeply meaningful words that will help guide all of us, especially M, as she spends the next three years here.

During the Fr O, the chaplain, in his calm Queen's English voice, spoke of servant leadership and how everything we do has to be in service of the Lord. With such foundations, this is indeed a unique place for M to study Human Sciences. As it is, it is a course that marries the sciences with the humanities. And if she adds spirituality to it, it would truly be the Grand Unified Theory of Everything.

(M); or Parentheses

All words have their roots. Chinese words in pictures of the thing they describe. English words mostly draw from Latin. 

Some words though boggle the mind like parentheses = meaning brackets. I never thought of its origins until we were there in a theatre watching Hamilton. M was seated in between us. Flanked by us, or rather bracketed by parents.

And how appropriate it is that the opening line of the musical is,

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore

And a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot

In the Caribbean by providence impoverished

In squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?

For M, her life has been anything but. 

1. Yes, she grew up on a tropical isle but one that is bracketed but other larger land masses and hence protected it from typhoons and hurricanes that continue to wreak havoc over the Carribean islands. 

2. No, she was conceived well within wedlock, and have two surviving parents who are holding well to do (and even respectable) jobs

3. She is an Asian growing up in an Asian century in one of the capitals of Asia

Many would give a limb or an organ to have this start in life. Indeed, her circumstances are almost diagrammatically opposite to Hamilton’s though that is not to say their destinations would differ.

M may have been parenthesised, but making it to U of O is all her own making. Dad may have had his aspirations but he didn’t study for it and certainly didn’t take the exams nor got the grades. That’s all hers. And in choosing the course, she decided to, in her words, “go big or go home”. Though preternaturally inclined to Geography, she eschewed that (and the higher probability of entry into a larger intake) for the more relevant Human Sciences, which is the study of the nature and nurture of humans.

One of her classmates commented that it is surprising that a religious person like her would choose this course, with its science of evolution and all. But as a kindly old woman we met serendipitously in University Park said, and I paraphrase her, “it’s important to anchor such study in human spirituality”. That M is doing this course in a hall that still has Benedictine/Roman Catholic ethos underline how the good Lord has and is continuing to watch over her. He has even got her staying in a residence dubbed The Nunnery, for it used to be a convent that helped to educate nuns in the higher faculties like the men. It is so apt, M tells me, that she started her primary education in a convent and is concluding her tertiary education at The Nunnery. God works not only in mysterious and wonderful ways as this completion of her education circle shows.

In fact, a year ago as she was applying, none of us knew any of the colleges in the university to have a preference; though from a strictly touristic (hence, unimportant) perspective, I thought K had the nicest grounds when I first visited this town nearly 30 years ago. In any case, she did an open application and got routed to this permanent private hall that has scored very well the annual student satisfaction surveys (including topping one in recent years) and not least due to its small size where everyone is part of the family: undergraduates, graduates and faculty alike. It’s the best home away from home environment she can hope for.

Her friends (classmates, teammates and gang) all came to see her off at the airport last week. We flew in earlier and helped her settle in over the weekend. Freshers Week started yesterday and she has already connected with different bunches of people: a gang of big boys on her floor and a collection of eclectic exotics. The world is at her doorstep and very soon she will be opening her mind to the world of knowledge of who people really are.

Her journey here has not been without stress. A perfectionist by nature, M strives for the best and would not settle for the rest. It is this attitude that has gotten her so far in life. At this juncture of her life though, there will be more colours that will appear on her spectrum of choice and she will learn how to live with shades, rather than just choose one at the rejection of all others. The fact that there is a bunch of eclectics already speak to it: there are people of different faiths or even no faith; the boy living next door may have bruiser rings on his fingers but will probably protect her. The big girl with bad fashion sense may be the most sensible one around. And the girl in a hijab has the most luxuriant hair! 

M naturally has traits from both sides of the family. The combination though is a completely unique and fantastic one. She has a perfect blend of our good looks (ahem!). She aims high. She also cares about the present. She has also inherited some flaws (both by nature and nurture, and here’s hoping she will understand this better after learning human sciences). With all of these excellent as well as explosive concoction, all we wish for is that she uses these varied traits to help her cope.

Her mom wants her not to overthink things or fret about the future and just enjoy the present. Great advice. Her dad wants her to cast an eye further forward (far forward, I should add), so that disappointments in the present or expected shortcomings in the near future are seen not as failure but merely humps on a longer, glorious journey. 

Indeed, many has been down these roads since the 13th century. Down the road from her main hall is a pub called The Eagle and Child. Nearly a century ago, a group of writers, The Inklings, met here regularly. Amongst them, C S Lewis and J R R Tolkien and it is little wonder that these two writers went on to produce some of the most loved mythology stories of the modern age. We remember them in the rose tint of their fantasy stories but their own journeys were fraught with pitfalls. Tolkien was an orphan. He grew up poor. A girl he loved nearly married another as he had to choose between her and his studies in this university. And he nearly got sent down from the university. Yet he overcame all these to author the magnificent tomes on Middle Earth. He certainly lived and enjoyed his present and when presented with obstacles, he did not allow that to paralyse him but merely worked past it on his way to his desired end state.

M has probably not defined an end state, though in her mind I am sure she has a sense of what she could aspire to be, in her family, in her career and in life. I wish that she can see these as her destinations and treat every encounters she shall have on the way there as just thrills as well as spills on the road. Already, the road ahead of her is so much better than what her parents had. She is in one of the best universities in the world, being taught to by world class tutors and stimulated (and probably exasperated) by equally talented class mates. We are so proud of her. From now on, we are merely parentheses as she forges ahead. 

And the words of Kahlil Gibran ring in my head .......

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.