littleworkpage

To begin with, we don't have much of a Constitution to speak of.  Ours is not a liberal Constitution peppered with extensive safeguards against the abuse of power.  Our Constitution does attempt to limit the exercise of power and there are many restrictions on what the respective organs of state may or may not do.  But, there are enough provisions that allow the state to claim expansive powers and enough provisions to allow for the restriction of citizens rights.  But, whatever we might say about our (amendment-ravaged) Constitution, the fact remains that it is a document that is a starting point for any discussion in law about the extent of the state's power and the extent of the citizen's rights.   There are 'silences' in many provisions that enable legroom for a pro-citizen instead of a pro-state interpretation. (Just realised that 'pro-state' unhyphenated is prostate.  There is an accidental link between intellectual alignment with the powers that ...

In Parliament on Monday, 15 October 2012, DPM Teo confirmed that he had a meeting with Archbishop Nicolas Chia on 30 May 2012.  There had been some speculation over the past few weeks as to whether the Home Ministry or the ISD had visited the Archbishop and exericsed their persuasive skills on the latter.  I have blogged on this issue before and the brief background can be found here: http://article14.blogspot.sg/2012/09/mha-walks-into-minefield-when-didnt.html http://article14.blogspot.sg/2012/09/and-mine-explodes.html We now know for a fact that after the Archbishop's first letter to Function 8 (presumably with sympathetic words for the Speakers' Corner event on the call for the abolition of the ISA), there was a meeting between the Archbishop and the DPM.  On the same day as the meeting, the Archbishop changed his mind and sent a letter to Function 8 retracting his earlier letter.  I have reproduced the Minister's answer to the Supplementary question in Parli...

In the wake of extensive online discussion of racist remarks, racial stereotypes and racial intolerance, I thought that it would be useful to highlight the perspective of our first Prime Minister on the issue of race.  "It is in part the difference between the more intense and exacting Sinic cultures of East Asia and the less demanding values of Hindu culture of South and South-east Asia, that accounts for the difference in industrial progress between Eastern and Southern Asia. The softer and more benign Hindu civilisation spread through Burma, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, meeting the Sinic civilisation on the borders of Vietnam.... Gunnar Myrdal, in his "Asian Drama" voluminously sets out the reasons for lower achievements amongst these peoples [of South and South-cast Asia]. He terms them "soft societies." Their expectations and desire for achievement are lower. Had he studied the Sinic civilisations of East Asia - Korea, Japan, China and Vietnam - he would h...

If we desire freedom, we must take the verbal 'shit' that comes with it and be able to walk on unfazed, unbothered and unconcerned.  Remember this:  Sticks and stones may break my bones.  Words can never hurt me.  Let me start this out with the following images.  I am a Hindu.  There'd be some expectation that I should be offended by the following images: The image of a Hindu deity on a pair of shoes can be quite insulting.  Shoes are often accorded a 'lowly' status and taking out one's shoes and waving it at another is considered both an insult as well as a threat.  So, an image of Lord Vishnu on a pair of shoes would ordinarily (and should, objectively speaking) offend a Hindu. If having an image of a deity on shoes is bad, this image of Lord Ganesha on slippers takes the cake.  Most Hindus are brought up to avoid stepping on any holy symbol or image.  In fact, most would scrupulously avoid stepping on books, newspapers and a...

Jonathan Feldschuh, MaDora Frey, Thomas Frontini, Carter Hodgkin  Elissa Levy, Anne Arden McDonald, Jeanne Tremel, Michael Zansky November 30, 2012 - January 13, 2013 / Reception: Friday, Nov 30, 7-10 pm The Active Space  /  566 Johnson Avenue,  Brooklyn, New York There are three questions that occur to anyone who looks at a work of art: What?...Why?...How?  The work of art has a purpose in informing our view of the world, and perhaps, if it is successful enough, in effecting the world itself by adding a layer of meaning to what is known. “The Quantum Effect” explores the relationship between beauty, the known, and the unknown. It relates to a shared understanding through the standards of scale and perspective, parsing the degree to which art represents a paradoxical view of reality.  Looking at any work of art, we at first have to render it as real, and then as beautiful, or at least useful. If it is both real and beautiful, then its use is predetermi...