Roar

Inspired by Allen Ginsberg’s Poem entitled Howl

There are no best minds of my generation.
We are merely abject failures perpetually poised on the cusp of greatness
Constantly apologetic for our pursuit of freedom and independence
Caught between the dichotomy of suburbanite expectations and an urban lifestyle.
These are the Confucian horrors of our times.
Lest you worry I am being racist, I will spare you the pedestrian angst – I do not blame our ancient fathers of varied colours, I only blame us.
We are living their legacy with only the fortitude of preservation. The wanton spirit of creation is lost in the rhetoric you spew about my colour versus yours, my country versus yours, my religion versus yours.
War on the streets has been helmed but the war of words has grown.
To what end, at what cost?

We are a land of myth and magic;
Recall the geographically impossible sighting of a lion by Sang Nila Utama,
The mythical Merlion that guards our shores,
We are the land of transformation, impressive and impossible in scope.
Ignore this at our own peril,
Becoming the land where only the reinforced myth of conservatism prevails.
If I tell you, you are better than everyone else, you will listen to me.
If I tell you, you can be better than yourself, you do not hear me.
If I tell you marriage, children, a HDB flat is not my choice of life, you stare befuddled and ask, ‘but doesn’t everyone want those things?’
People, who know us not, look at this mindlessness and think this must be the product of a long sustained suppression by an external form, a government.
But the repression is within.
An island tied to none, mistaken for bigger continents, we are entirely consumed as a negligible civilization with being the best of the best.
To what end, at what cost?

See the earth we dig deep, the rage that flows out of it, it is our rage.
We are angry,
We are alienated, locked away from our own psyches, oblivious to the varied lives, the diverse options, the endless possibilities.
We see only our fractured selves in each other and rage and rage and rage.
We fuss over identity like mannequins in a store window
Grappling for the insides with only frozen smiles on plastic faces.
We love,
Not as a voyage of discovery,
But as a necessary step in the narrow ladder of social acceptability.
Look upon this mirage of a classless society,
Witness social mobility becoming a foregone conclusion of another era.
To be asked to forecast the trends of the future
Then shut down by the soothsayers of the past,
It is cockblocking for the brightest minds;
This intelligentsia the world sees as powerful sharks,
But you, with your breakable ego,
Only willing to acknowledge mediocrity,
Irrationally look upon them as guppies in a small pond.

Surely this vicious cycle has only one doomsday conclusion
Yet we float, buoyed by the sheer tenacity of a structure laid in place by foresight
Foresight, my friends, is the ability to look out of the past into the future,
To view the immortal land of being with the steady gaze of a pragmatic.
Who can do this?
Now you see what I see
There is no greatness in my generation
We have swallowed the past or spat it out, whenever it suits us.
We live in the present, drunk on the power of potentia.
You have it all, you have what it takes, you are the leaders of tomorrow
And yet we are none of this.
In this age of diversity and discernment and power to the agile,
To lead is not to redeem or conserve, it is to break and build, time and again,
Till death and birth become one and the same,
The shadows of the unknown resurrecting the powerful and the wise.

Reena Devi

This poem is for the ones who love me best uncaged…

What Lies Beneath

Sex is in the air.

In Singapore, forty-eight men, including businessmen, a former school principal, a Navy captain, a police superintendent, were charged in court this week with having paid sex with a minor. They allegedly procured the services from an unlicensed online vice ring, which had employed the under-aged girl or girls.

Concurrently, President Obama’s advance Secret Service detail have been recalled from Columbia, where the President is currently attending the Summit of Americas, over allegations of misconduct involving local prostitutes. The United States Southern Command has announced that five members of the U.S. military may have also engaged in “inappropriate” behavior at the same hotel as the recalled agents.

In Rome, Italy, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is on trial for allegedly having sex with an underage prostitute. A witness even recounted in court that strippers in nun costumes danced for him at his villa.

Salacious (and clichéd) details aside, it is usually nobody’s business what anyone does in their personal lives.  However, it becomes state prerogative when it involves an illegal act such as solicitation, sex with a minor, and using the services of an unlicensed prostitution ring.

(In the case of US, the Secret Service takes all allegations of misconduct seriously, having an image of propriety and protocol to uphold in keeping their President safe.)

This raises the question – why paid sex? It is not as if the most powerful man in Italy could not have found himself a lover or two if he so wished. In Singapore, where people never seem to date but rather fall into relationships, perhaps it is a bit harder to find the willing woman for a one-night stand or a purely physical fling. Yet, there are many a men who have managed to do so without resorting to solicitation.

So what makes the world’s oldest profession still exist? Why the ageless ceaseless demand for sex which is paid for?

Perhaps, it comes down to the bi-polar image of women as the virtuous versus the prostitute. Perhaps, this dichotomy has never truly departed from our collective psyches, in spite of the outward changes of laws and legislations and attitudes regarding women and their place in society.

In the classic Iranian Literature Blind Owl by Sadegh Hedayat, the author articulates the impotent male psyche unable to deal with the shifting reality that formulates itself around the shape of a woman. In fact the women in Blind Owl symbolise the two polarized images of the classical Iranian narrative – the inaccessible ethereal women and the all too accessible temptress. There is no integration of the different aspects of women, no understanding that they can exist as a cohesive whole rather than as individual extremes.

The fact is no matter how liberated women are in today’s modern society, there still exists a demand for prostitutes – this shows the need for a type of sexual possession and power which pervades time and modernity.

To pay for sex means you can demand anything you desire from the person you own for that period of time. It is ironic that in the past it was traditional and religious notions which prevented one from exerting such demands on their wives whom they viewed as good, non-sexual, virgin women and now, principles of equality and freedom for both sexes cause men due pause in making such requests to their wives and girlfriends, no matter how sexually liberated the woman may be. The question men now grapple with on a subconscious level is – how do you demand sexual degradation from a woman you are supposed to treat with respect and as your equal?

Perhaps the reason paid sex is always so hotly debated and contentious is because it reflects a depravity in society which will always need to exist, to feed the collective desires of our inner beasts. It is an unavoidable reminder that we are eternally man and animal all at once.

Reena Devi

Duty vs. Love

Lately, the use of the word ‘duty’ seems to cover all manner of sins.

In last weekend’s Sunday Times, a soon-to-graduate university student wrote an article about giving up her choice to pursue her personal dreams so as to be there for her ailing father, an act she considers her ‘duty’ because her father apparently gave up his ‘freedom’ to raise three daughters. She even ends the said article stating that she is putting her plans to go overseas on hold not because she is a Daddy’s girl but because she is her father’s daughter. Essentially, she is emphasizing the fact that she is doing her ‘duty’ as a daughter.

The overall tone was of a young adult fulfilling the obligations of a contract bound by ties of flesh and blood, in spite of her own inherent aspirations, just because that is what is expected.

Furthermore, having children is admittedly a responsibility with its own fair share of challenges but your children should not be viewed as a liability, a loss of freedom. It is a startling reflection of our society that we have come to deem the idea of having children in such cold, harsh terms. If everything is about duty, social expectations and fulfilling obligations, where is the humanity and love behind it all?

The fact is we often make practical decisions and choices based on such social expectations but never prepare ourselves for its emotional consequences.

It is not easy caring for a sick parent, it takes moral courage and sensitivity to commit oneself to it. Ideally, it has to be done not just out of duty, but devotion. The latter is crucial. Putting aside one’s dreams for a loved one is admirable but it has to be done as an act of love so that at some point in the future the regret that gnaws within you about a missed opportunity does not escape and consume you and the person whom you consider holding you back. Even worse, that regret can mutate itself into guilt on the part of the person ‘holding you back’.

It is time to look at ourselves as human beings and be aware of our dichotomous natures. We can only aspire to be better than ourselves when we comprehend our inner demons. Unconditional love exists within our scope of emotions but it is difficult to maintain in this world that pushes and pulls against our better instincts. Yet it is imperative that we constantly strive to give it and receive it, rather than succumb to regret, or worse, envy.

We see the pursuit of dreams by individuals free to engage in the sort of lives some of us do not even dare contemplate. They are untethered by family ties and that cruel and inescapable word ‘duty’. So we take on a moral superiority, a self-sacrificing air that, unlike these carefree individuals, we are abiding the tenets of family piety, being there for our family, be it emotionally or financially or both.

Well, the reality is that unconditional love and self-righteousness do not make good bedfellows.

Admittedly, there are days when duty outweighs love but the overall aim has to be less about being a martyr and more about being a good daughter/son on one’s own terms. There are children who have pursued their future overseas and wound up being able to support their family and help them advance socio-economically because of this choice. Are we to deem them neglectful and chide them for not doing their ‘duty’?

For social cohesion to exist in a society with an increasing aging population and limited working adults, it is crucial to view filial piety as a double edged sword and engage in a healthy dialogue about what it means to unsheathe it. It varies with each individual and it is time to take these subjective contexts into consideration rather than impose a stringent, overall morality clause on familial relations.

Reena Devi

A Tale of A Thousand Cities

Much ado has been made about New York City receiving the Lee Kuan Yew Prize. The idea that a city with an established status in our global cultural imagination needs an award from Singapore seemed appalling to many. Interestingly, the responses from this side of the pond had an admittedly aspirational tone.

In the past, the cultural obsession to emulate the West has always been an issue much discussed and debated. The recent economic recession, violent manifestations of pathological social apathy (London riots), class inequality (Occupy Wall Street movement) and a general lack of worldliness in the West should have put an end to this. However it has not.

Now, what has previously passed for Western ideals have become entangled with global ones, forming a cosmopolitan philosophy, so to speak. In this instance, the mainstream belief is that as a city, Singapore, has to aspire to be like other cities in the West so as to become a world-class city of its own.

The thing is, New York City became the icon it is today not by trying to be like another city, but simply by being itself, allowing its people to meld and clash, to luxuriate in their varying immigrant cultures and counter cultures, creating a sense of spontaneity and freshness of thought.

Singapore has all the necessary hallmarks of an international hub. It has already established itself as far as economy, education, security, technology and transportation are concerned. During the past few years, policy makers have focused on making Singapore a more culturally vibrant city by building the necessary infrastructure and funneling the required funds to arts, entertainment and media industries. They have relaxed certain laws and legislation and created new avenues to increase tourism. We seem to have it all.

We have the brand but not the substance. Culture cannot be copied, it has to be created. For Singapore to possess the cultural and intellectual joie de vivre it seeks, it has to do so on its own terms. Comments questioning our freedom of expression and blaming government restrictions are excuses being recycled from a bygone era.

It seems that the fundamental thing holding us back is ourselves, our fear to own up to our place in society, our diverse yet shared cultures, our immigrant history, our land.

Perhaps this deep rooted inferiority complex in our collective social psyche has to do with the fact that we have always been a small country surrounded by far bigger ones, forcing us to be an overachieving population, constantly striving to prove ourselves by taking on a path of success and cultural recognition already laid out by older and ‘wiser’ nations.

Or maybe it the shape of our terrain itself inhibiting us. The Ancient Greeks talked about people who lived on land completely surrounded by sea lacking the imagination and depth in thought which their counterparts living in mountainous regions possessed. Apparently, the strangest mythologies and the oldest cities sprung from unbroken and wild terrain. Yet these very same Greeks spoke about the island city of Atlantis, that mythological place where men reached their full cultural and intellectual potential.

Perhaps, it is time for us to release all these preconceived notions about what a great city should be and simply aspire to be greater than ourselves.

At the same time, it should be noted – like any other cosmopolitan and culturally established city, New York City has a dark side, a historically rich underbelly of crime and poverty and homelessness. There is always a cost to greatness.

Reena Devi

An edited version of this piece was published in TODAY newspaper and TODAYonline.

Random Perspectives: Magic & Science in Society

In Lev Grossman’s best selling novel The Magicians, we come to witness a world where power and magic are possessed by flawed human beings who in spite of their schooling and training and brilliance are lost in the real world, trying to find a space for themselves.

Current hit ABC television program Once Upon a Time takes on well-known fairy tales about true love and magical power by showcasing the characters of these fairy tales as real people struggling to find their happy endings, creating a world where good people do bad things and bad people sometimes do great things.

There is no clear divide between the bogeyman and the prince, no separation between white wizard and dark wizard. Suddenly, the world of fantasy has taken on a real world darkness.

Surprisingly, mainstream viewers and readers are lapping this up indicating the mass appeal of such concepts and ideas.

In the early years of the previous decade, the blockbuster success of Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings and Narnia movies indicated that the fantasy genre had became a rather more mainstream preoccupation, a culturally accepted form of escapism from the harsh realities and seismic changes of those times.

So why have we decided to let the world we escape to become more like the world we live in?

Perhaps this blurring of lines between fantasy and reality is an indication of the appetite of our collective conscious, a desire for the return to primitive magic, a yen long repressed by the advocating of rational thought and scientific processes.

Already, labeling and categorizing, a methodology associated with the scientific approach, has become a real issue; In the recent analysis of an upcoming revision of the influential Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (DSM), psychologists, psychiatrists and other experts said new categories of mental illness identified in the manual considered ‘silly’ and ‘worrying and dangerous’.

This brings to mind ‘diagnosis bias’, a term discussed in the best selling book, The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. The authors link the increase of diagnosis of bipolar disorder to the modern diagnostic system put into use in 1980 with the publication of the DSM-III, which “broadened” the bipolar diagnosis. They go on to explain how such diagnosis bias can lead to the patient himself or herself changing their behaviors to fit the diagnosis. Once people are labeled, they tend to live up (or down) to those labels, taking on characteristics of the diagnosis.

What if scientific approach and rational thought are merely social constructs and the world around us is actually the world that has been seen and understood since the beginning of the history of mankind, one observed by the likes of Native Indians and the Ancient Greeks, by our various religious prophets?

What if, alongside exploring the realms of sea and space, we had chosen to keep exploring what is within us, the dark spaces of our inner psyche? What might we have found by now?

These questions have been addressed in depth by the greatest thinkers of our past – Carl Jung, Plato amongst them. Yet with our current twenty first century rational minds, we look at them as throwaway questions of a whimsical nature. Perhaps the current issues with scientific labeling as well as the material conflicts of our times will lead to a mainstream contemplation of such questions. Current cultural preferences certainly seem to predict such a shift.

Reena Devi

The Youth: A Lost Generation

A few years ago, news media such as Bloomberg started talking about a ‘Lost Generation’ with reference to the young fresh graduates in America facing bleak employability opportunities and lower wages as compared to their more fortunate counterparts of preceding generations. This was becoming a problem in other parts of the world, such as Europe.

The recession has obviously exacerbated this issue. A few hours ago it was reported that youth unemployment hit an all time low of 51.5% in Greece.

In Asia, specifically Singapore, we seem to be much more fortunate. A BBC report, towards the end of last year, puts youth unemployment in Singapore at a low 5.6%. Statistics aside, it is evident in shopping malls and restaurants in this country that young people are enjoying the benefits of a privileged life, secure in the knowledge of a regular income that is well above minimum wage.

Yet something feels amiss. We are not brats feeding off trust funds, we are working hard and earning our keep, we are maintaining independent lifestyles without burdening our families, we are contributing to society in the manner of productive and functional individuals – so why then do we seem to be staring into such a moral and existential abyss? Why are our policymakers, during recent parliamentary debates, talking about a ‘social recession’?

Mr. Stanley Tan, chairman of National Philanthropy and Volunteer Center, in an interview with the Straits Times last year, stated that Singapore could become a dysfunctional society if it continued emphasizing success and achievement over inherent values.

Given the recent furor over the building of an elderly care center at the void deck of a HDB flat, his words seem to take on a prophetic and ominous tone.

More importantly, if we are witnessing the beginnings of a slippery slide into moral degradation and loss of civic consciousness, why aren’t we, the generation of well educated, independent, opinionated youths, stepping up to do anything about it?

Just like our grandparents, we live in a new world but we need to inculcate their pioneering spirit which enabled them to take on the post-war struggles of creating a viable economy with a strong sense of community.

We need to become more aware of the uncertainties and difficulties of the recession climate, even in our own country where middle class struggles are becoming a real issue, where there are people struggling to make ends meet to support their sick and elderly parents, where financially unstable single parent families are on the constant rise. This awareness could be fueled into action towards greater social integration rather than disparity and disconnectivity.

We are the lost generation, only because we seem to have given up our role in community building. The obstacles we face in the process of building a socially and fiscally sustainable future should not deter us but serve as a reminder that we are creating our own legacy, typically an immensely challenging process.

Besides, isn’t it time we be a part of history rather than simply study it and talk about it?

Reena Devi

The Identity Series Part 2 : IDENTITY TODAY: The Undefined Self

At any given social function, the first question individuals most commonly ask when meeting someone new is an obvious tell of what they give importance to with regards to definition of one’s identity.

In other cities, like Edinburgh for example, the question most often tends to be, ‘Where did you go to school?’ – regardless of age or class, everyone gets asked this. (I suspect it has something to do with the city’s pursuit of academic and intellectual excellence throughout its history.)

In Singapore it varies.

A life is charted by a progression, from birth to family, followed by school and making friends, then accumulating the necessary academic qualifications to get the necessary job to pay the bills and buy the house, to support the elderly parents, forming ties of friendship and commitment with people around us, building a life based on these ties, creating a foundation for a family of one’s own.

We tend to define ourselves based on whichever stage we are at in this progression – the school, the job, the relationship etc.

What happens to an individual who is not at any of the aforementioned stages? Does he or she no longer exist as part of the fabric of functional society? In these times of economic uncertainties, material struggles and rapid social changes, people tend to veer off the path – what then defines them?

At this juncture we are often introduced to a series of non-conformist labels and categories for those who do not fit into the requisite mold of society, we are brought to organizations and movements which fight for the rights of these individuals with lesser rights.

Sexuality is an example of this phenomenon. If you are a man who does not favor women in any physical and sexual sense, you become a ‘homosexual’. If you favor both genders, you are a ‘bisexual’. Then you immerse yourself in the lifestyle and community of individuals who share you sexual preferences. Yet this means of defining one’s identity and place in society based on choice of sexual partner is not as foolproof as it seems. In fact, it is shifting.

A quick look at the current hit primetime television dramas, ‘The Good Wife’, and ‘Revenge’ show a development of a new archetypical character, one who displays a high degree of sexual ambiguity and is able to function within the various strata of sexually classified society. These characters are a mere reflection of an emerging trend of such individuals in society, those who are beyond sexual labels and categories – so how do they define themselves?

We are often told that identity is shaped by a sense of belonging.

This usually entails your family’s history and legacy, recognition of your bloodline, the land your grandparents migrated to, the land your forefathers were born. Nonetheless, these are aspects of the past, of a history that has little to do with you as a standalone individual in today’s world that gives more value to ‘now’ and ‘tomorrow‘ as compared to the past.

You may have been born in a specific place but that does not necessarily mean you will belong there. It does not guarantee you will feel as if you instantly fit in with your family and peers, as if every action you carry out and the words you say will be accepted, given its due measure of importance.

Globalisation, migration and travel grant us the opportunities to create lives for ourselves away from our birth countries but we are fundamentally foreigners there too, only feeling a sense of belonging amongst other expats. Your identity becomes defined by your ‘otherness’.

This is the dilemma of the quintessential twenty first century individual – he (or she) belongs nowhere but is connected to everywhere and a part of everything.

Maybe it is time to define identity as an open ended question, opening up our socially ingrained notions of perceiving ourselves based on the narrowest terms, accepting the multitude of possibilities that we can be at any given time and place.

Being able to pin down somebody within the first few minutes of meeting them always makes someone more comfortable, increases their own false sense of security. I know his type, she is exactly like the kind I know – these are the thoughts that create familiarity and hence facilitate social interaction.

Yet, these means of social identification are quickly becoming outmoded in the world that is creeping up on us, a world where the most interesting individual at a party will be socially and sexually textured, technically unemployed (yet working on several fiscally feasible projects in a diverse range of unrelated fields), and will possess a surprisingly strong sense of family history while being relatively untethered at heart.

He (or she) could be the next new social archetype of this century, simply known as the Undefined.

Reena Devi