Monday, July 19, 2004
Will White Influx Put Down Roots in L.A. Core?
"Central Los Angeles is getting a makeover. From Koreatown to Silver Lake, Echo Park to downtown, the city's core is becoming aggressively hip. It's also becoming noticeably whiter. After 40 years of inexorable decline, central L.A.'s white population is edging up.
Over the last few years, Silver Lake has been dubbed Brentwood East, Echo Park the new Laurel Canyon and Koreatown a "blossoming bohemia." Though hardly Santa Monica, downtown's central business district is beginning to feel like a yuppie neighborhood. Is L.A. undergoing a quiet Anglo reconquista? It seems certain that young whites are increasingly comfortable settling in multiethnic L.A., but how rooted in its life and culture will they really become? "
Will White Influx Put Down Roots in L.A. Core?
"Central Los Angeles is getting a makeover. From Koreatown to Silver Lake, Echo Park to downtown, the city's core is becoming aggressively hip. It's also becoming noticeably whiter. After 40 years of inexorable decline, central L.A.'s white population is edging up.
Over the last few years, Silver Lake has been dubbed Brentwood East, Echo Park the new Laurel Canyon and Koreatown a "blossoming bohemia." Though hardly Santa Monica, downtown's central business district is beginning to feel like a yuppie neighborhood. Is L.A. undergoing a quiet Anglo reconquista? It seems certain that young whites are increasingly comfortable settling in multiethnic L.A., but how rooted in its life and culture will they really become? "
Will White Influx Put Down Roots in L.A. Core?
Saturday, July 10, 2004
"Singapore is the meeting place of many races. The Malays, though natives of the soil, dwell uneasily in towns, and are few; and it is the Chinese, supple, alert and industrious, who throng the streets; the dark-skinned Tamils walk on their silent, naked feet, as though they were but brief sojourners in a strange land, but the Bengalis, sleek and prosperous, are easy in their surroundings, and self-assured; the sly and obsequious Japanese seem busy with pressing and secret affairs; and the English in their topees and white ducks, speeding past in motor-cars or at leisure in their rickshaws, wear a nonchalant and careless air. The rulers of these teeming peoples take their authority with a smiling unconcern."
Singapore in the 1920s, observed in W. Somerset Maugham's story "P. & O."
Singapore stop yelling and calling me names.
How dare you call me a chauvinist, an opposition party, a liar,
a traitor, a mendicant professor, a Marxist homosexual communist pornography banned literature chewing gum liberty smuggler?
How can you say I do not believe in the Free Press autopsies flogging mudslinging bankruptcy which are the five pillars of Justice?
And how can you call yourself a country, you terrible hallucination
of highways and cranes and condominiums ten minutes' drive from the MRT?
Tell that to the pawns of the Upgrading Empire who penetrate their phalluses into heartlands to plant Lego cineplexes Tupperware playgrounds suicidal balconies carnal parks of cardboard and condoms and before we know it we are a colony once again.
From "Singapore You Are Not My Country," by Alfian Sa'at
"Talking about the complexities of Singapore in America, you hit a wall... I was a young boy, when Singapore became independent in 1965. Our per capita income was the same as Ghana's. Today it's probably higher than our former colonial master, United Kingdom. To the best of my knowledge, this kind of historical feat has not been accomplished by any other society in the history of man, and that's what makes the Singapore experience so unique. If you wanted to find a place in the world where the best practices of the West work with the best practices of the East, Singapore is a good laboratory."
Kishore Mahbubani, Singapore's out-going ambassador to the United Nations and author of "Can Asians Think?"
In material terms we have left behind our Third World problems of poverty. However, it will take another generation before our arts, culture and social standards can match the First World infrastructure we have installed.
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, in From Third World to First, The Singapore Story
"I suspect even if we do find this Singaporean voice we wouldn't want to recognize it unless someone from the US or the West would give us a prize for it...
Now, everything in Singapore is about fabrication. It's an air-conditioned nation. It's comfortable, it's safe. Everything that we need could be easily imported. So why struggle with a local culture? Why struggle with a local voice? Why struggle with anything that's indigenous because you can always import a ready product from abroad. The whole idea of Singapore being a port has run insidiously into the psyche of the Singaporean. We don't value what we have. We are a throwaway culture. In a sense we're spoiled. We have everything in the world we could possibly have but nothing that we can claim really truly belongs to us. That so far has been the struggle and the metaphor. Kuo Pao Kun described it clearly and eloquently in a play he wrote a few years back, called: "Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral." We are all emasculated in that sense."
Chong Tse Chien, playwright
"I resigned as a teacher in the premier school in Singapore, the Raffles Institution, because they made literature optional.. It's easier to score distinctions in subjects like mathematics and science. And if the overall grade is low for literature, it will bring down the ranking of the school.. It's a very pragmatic society here. So if it doesn't translate to good marks or a good ranking for the school, it's a liability."
Alvin Tan, artistic director, The Necessary Stage
"The magic of Singapore is that when you come to Singapore you see the whole of Singapore as one piece of artwork. In fact some time ago a university student asked Norman Foster what is the most important building in Singapore. He said: why do you need important buildings or monuments. He said: when I get off at the airport, the drive from the airport downtown is your monument."
Architect Liu Tai Ker, former chief planner, URA, now chairman Singapore Arts Council
"The underlying philosophy, or psyche, has been one of survival. A sense that somehow there is no margin for error-that no matter how much concrete you pour on this island, it still might go back to jungle if things go wrong.. I suppose we have to ask ourselves: do we have the fundamental underpinnings as a nation so that we can start agreeing to disagree? My guess is we do."
Novelist Philip Jeyaretnam
"Since 1965 when it was cast out of Malaysia into independent statehood, it has been a miracle of post-colonial discipline and development, the air-conditioned nation in equatorial Southeast Asia, also liberally mocked as a perfumed cage, Chinese Disneyland, with the death penalty. Ian Buruma pegs Singapore as "a theme-park version of Chinese authoritarianism" in a scathing attack I was surprised to find on sale in every one of Singapore's superb bookstores."
Christopher Lydon, Parachute Radio, Transom.org
My Singapore Sling
Singapore in the 1920s, observed in W. Somerset Maugham's story "P. & O."
Singapore stop yelling and calling me names.
How dare you call me a chauvinist, an opposition party, a liar,
a traitor, a mendicant professor, a Marxist homosexual communist pornography banned literature chewing gum liberty smuggler?
How can you say I do not believe in the Free Press autopsies flogging mudslinging bankruptcy which are the five pillars of Justice?
And how can you call yourself a country, you terrible hallucination
of highways and cranes and condominiums ten minutes' drive from the MRT?
Tell that to the pawns of the Upgrading Empire who penetrate their phalluses into heartlands to plant Lego cineplexes Tupperware playgrounds suicidal balconies carnal parks of cardboard and condoms and before we know it we are a colony once again.
From "Singapore You Are Not My Country," by Alfian Sa'at
"Talking about the complexities of Singapore in America, you hit a wall... I was a young boy, when Singapore became independent in 1965. Our per capita income was the same as Ghana's. Today it's probably higher than our former colonial master, United Kingdom. To the best of my knowledge, this kind of historical feat has not been accomplished by any other society in the history of man, and that's what makes the Singapore experience so unique. If you wanted to find a place in the world where the best practices of the West work with the best practices of the East, Singapore is a good laboratory."
Kishore Mahbubani, Singapore's out-going ambassador to the United Nations and author of "Can Asians Think?"
In material terms we have left behind our Third World problems of poverty. However, it will take another generation before our arts, culture and social standards can match the First World infrastructure we have installed.
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, in From Third World to First, The Singapore Story
"I suspect even if we do find this Singaporean voice we wouldn't want to recognize it unless someone from the US or the West would give us a prize for it...
Now, everything in Singapore is about fabrication. It's an air-conditioned nation. It's comfortable, it's safe. Everything that we need could be easily imported. So why struggle with a local culture? Why struggle with a local voice? Why struggle with anything that's indigenous because you can always import a ready product from abroad. The whole idea of Singapore being a port has run insidiously into the psyche of the Singaporean. We don't value what we have. We are a throwaway culture. In a sense we're spoiled. We have everything in the world we could possibly have but nothing that we can claim really truly belongs to us. That so far has been the struggle and the metaphor. Kuo Pao Kun described it clearly and eloquently in a play he wrote a few years back, called: "Descendants of the Eunuch Admiral." We are all emasculated in that sense."
Chong Tse Chien, playwright
"I resigned as a teacher in the premier school in Singapore, the Raffles Institution, because they made literature optional.. It's easier to score distinctions in subjects like mathematics and science. And if the overall grade is low for literature, it will bring down the ranking of the school.. It's a very pragmatic society here. So if it doesn't translate to good marks or a good ranking for the school, it's a liability."
Alvin Tan, artistic director, The Necessary Stage
"The magic of Singapore is that when you come to Singapore you see the whole of Singapore as one piece of artwork. In fact some time ago a university student asked Norman Foster what is the most important building in Singapore. He said: why do you need important buildings or monuments. He said: when I get off at the airport, the drive from the airport downtown is your monument."
Architect Liu Tai Ker, former chief planner, URA, now chairman Singapore Arts Council
"The underlying philosophy, or psyche, has been one of survival. A sense that somehow there is no margin for error-that no matter how much concrete you pour on this island, it still might go back to jungle if things go wrong.. I suppose we have to ask ourselves: do we have the fundamental underpinnings as a nation so that we can start agreeing to disagree? My guess is we do."
Novelist Philip Jeyaretnam
"Since 1965 when it was cast out of Malaysia into independent statehood, it has been a miracle of post-colonial discipline and development, the air-conditioned nation in equatorial Southeast Asia, also liberally mocked as a perfumed cage, Chinese Disneyland, with the death penalty. Ian Buruma pegs Singapore as "a theme-park version of Chinese authoritarianism" in a scathing attack I was surprised to find on sale in every one of Singapore's superb bookstores."
Christopher Lydon, Parachute Radio, Transom.org
My Singapore Sling
Saturday, July 03, 2004
What's Hot: Spider-man 2
What's Not: The Hulk
What's Hot: Maria Sharapova
What's Not: Anna Kournikova
What's Hot: Portugal
What's Not: Holland
What's Hot: "biculturalism"
What's Not: "cosmopolitanism"
What's Hot: thefacebook.com
What's Not: friendeavor.com
What's Not: The Hulk
What's Hot: Maria Sharapova
What's Not: Anna Kournikova
What's Hot: Portugal
What's Not: Holland
What's Hot: "biculturalism"
What's Not: "cosmopolitanism"
What's Hot: thefacebook.com
What's Not: friendeavor.com
