Happy Birthday, boyfriend.

To celebrate, and to cover for the fact that I clean forgot that it was your birthday, I will post a comment you made about me over MSN:

i like how u are such a girl...
and a guy at the same time
u r brash and coarse and loud...
like a frat boy
but smaller
u think that the world is ur oyster..
but u cant even point out where turkmenistan is

Awwwwww....

Remind me.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have no love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs, Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfection disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man (uh... woman), I put my childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And of these three remain: Faith, hope and love. But the greatest of this is love.

~ 1 Corinthians 13

Let me be patient let me be kind
Make me unselfish without being blind
Though I may suffer Ill envy it not
And endure what comes
Cause hes all that I got and

Now I may have faith to make mountains fall
But if I lack love then I am nothing at all
I can give away everything I possess
But left without love then I have no happiness
I know Im imperfect
& not without sin
But now that I'm older all childish things end

Ill never be jealous
And I wont be too kind
Cause love is not boastful
And love is not loud

Now I may have wisdom and knowledge on earth
But if I speak wrong then what is it worth?
See what we now know is nothing compared
To the love that was shown when our lives were spared
And tell him...

Tell him ~ Lauryn Hill

The world laughs AT me, then I laugh with them.

This is taken a little out of context, but the gist is here:

[Jarrett posts a little thing on water, Singapore and Canada's approach to the next big resource.]

Hannah said...

Pffft. Who's smarter then Singapore? C'est faux! Jamais!

Anonymous said...

...

As for Singapore, it's easy to get things done when you're a police state. I loved my time when I lived over there - everything worked fabulously, business was great, food was outstanding - but still, you step out of line or you don't have something to offer and you are gone.

By the way, Hannah, I always consider it prudent when calling someone "stupid" to at least demonstrate grade two grammar skills. (I am assuming that it was intended since it is pretty hard to reach for an "a" and get an "e".

I guess it could have been worse. You could have written "Whose smarter then Singapore?".

Hannah said...

While it's all fair and good to recognize the differences in our socio-political systems(and the resulting differences in any policy decision from the top), it is a completely different thing to judge a society's necessary decisions from an ethnocentric point of view.

I am not able to deconstruct (right now) the lenses from which you must have seen Singapore through. But I would like to point out that the western discourse on neo-liberalism (or whatever you call it nowadays) is insufficient and parochial. Especially in directing the development of post-colonial societies. We do what we must to survive, and we do what we know.

With all due respect, your statement came across as somewhat condescending and myopic. And while we are not looking for the approval of the western traveler/expat/SPG, I think it only fair that we seek the west come to terms with the notion of "difference" in a respectful manner. I know what Singapore looks like to a foreigner, but we know we have no choice, and we do what we must.

I think the bigger issue then, is for foreigners to understand what they look like to Singapore (and to the rest of the developing world, while we're at it). Your comment was quintessential of the western stereotype that is constantly being perpetuated. I hope that there will be reason to do away with this perception of the west, but if this continues, it will be harder to do so.

I understand that Singapore and Canada are completely different societies. And to be fair, I find it hard to refrain from passing judgmental and condescending comments about Canadian society myself. But I think it is possible to have engaged in this discussion without being needlessly ungracious toward myself, and Singapore.

I hope you do not take my comments to be a personal attack, and that you find my grammar acceptable. This was made in the spirit of healthy discussion.

--------------------------

Jarrett spends the rest of the day laughing at my rancid fury and listening to me in an real attempt to understand. I know I overreact, and seem get worked up over the silliest things that seem to mean nothing. That's all fair and good, but I do see things differently, and unless it can be proven that my life experiences ought to be accorded less value than that of the social majority, I won't shut up. This really was just the wrong comment to someone in the wrong context.

But I'll understand if you laugh at me, if you understand that you're laughed at too. And we can together together not take ourselves so seriously, while according mutual respect.

Why does this seem to be too much to ask for?

So I finally meet Tombo! And here I was all worried that he was drowning in a puddle of his own blood. This puts the cherry in my summer cherry pie, and rum in my summer rum and raisin. I can now return to Singapore in peace. Of course, I'll see him in Singapore too. Wth.

You know the going is good when you come home after an amazing day, looking forward to chatting with amazing people on MSN.

To you:

You'll live, and we'll plot revenge on the mofo.

Suddenly, I am itching for destruction. The kind that creates space for beauty.

Live it Loud

It's 10.30 pm on a spring time evening and we're strolling along Broadway in search of a shoppers drug mart. I'm charged and excitable, my usual self. In the midst of my heady excitement I notice a group of boys in front of us, examining a flower bed of black tulips. You heard me - black tulips. Deep, dark and elegant buds swaying in the summer breeze. I go running over, "OOOOHHH!!! Black tulips! WOW!!! I've never seen black tulips."

Disgruntled, one of the boys looks up and with a hint of uncertainty asks, "are you mocking me?!"

I told him not to be so sensitive.

Even though I don't always get what I want, I really ought to be estopped from doing this.

I am a slobbering wreck.



Sniff.