I could not describe Singapore better!!!! Even if someone spends a few days and tires of the shopping malls, one realizes how close the boundaries are. My biggest fear is throwing cigarette butts inadvertently on the street and getting caught.
I hear the Speaker's Corner in Singapore is now really called Sneakers Corner because more often soccer is played than someone giving a speech. --- Rajiv Baruah <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: --------------------------------- Rajib, There is this corner of the world - disneyland with death penalty I call it, which was my abode for about 2 years. If there was one place where the might of the "danda" successfully turned a tropical vice pit into first world orderliness - it is Singapore. And so successful was the power of the "danda" that well nigh the entire populace turned into duty bound salarymen, always keeping to the straight and narrow. But globalisation came, China became the factory of the world and the old certainities of Singapore, that elbow grease and a 60 hour week will continue to put dinner on Singapore's table vanished. The guv-ment wanted "knowledge industries". But how do you get the creative spark to kick start these knowledge industries. Aha - some bright spark in the Guv-ment said, we must now permit table top dancing and encourage free debate (S'pore style). And so the Speakers Corner was born. It is behind a police station where you have to take a permit in advance before you talk. In my two years there, I did not see a soul talk here. And I cross this place every day, sometimes twice a day, on my way home or to a coffee from office. Let me give credit where credit is due - Singapore is a wonderful place to raise kids, play golf and, and let me think a bit more. But it is so mind numbinly boring. best Rajiv ------ Original Message ------ Received: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:51:53 AM SGT From: Rajib Das <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Subject: [Assam] An evening in Hyde Park In the middle of a tiring business trip around the world I found myself in London - trying to be a tourist on a very hot Sunday a couple of weeks back. The very unimaginative stories around some really great monuments added to the ennui. I landed up around the Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park and was planning to take the train from around there to my hotel. Which is when I saw the crowds milling around folks doing their speeches. It was a most enthralling experience. I found myself in the middle of a debate between a full bearded mullah (perhaps of Arab descent) with a cockney accent and a white punk with spiked hair about creationism and evolution. Into that mix came a wide variety of people across the length of 2 hours I was there. There were many African Muslims and Pakistanis (perhaps a few Bangladeshis too) looking on with admiration at the mullah who was speaking perfect English and holding his ground. There was a black Brit - perhaps an African - that shouted profanities at the mullah. There was this very quiet white liberal woman who was politically very correct and tried reasoning with the Mullah that perhaps evolution can be a part of God's design. And while the mullah (as also the punk) quoted philosophers and scientists about intricacies of the debate, I figured the Mullah's logic was simple - that before there was any living thing, there must have been something that must independently and absolutely exist. Ipso facto there has to be a God and but one absolute God and therefore there has to be just one word (or book) from this one God. Pretty simplistic argument. The guy was aggressive, didn't listen to any other point of view and used a condescending tone when replying to someone else. My observation - no wonder the human bombers on the West are coming from the West itself. Taking courage from this Mullah, a Pakistani middle aged man started talking about many Hindus having converted to Islam till I reminded him how Spain converted back from Islam to Christianity. When I broke away from this group, I found quite a few people accosting a Jewish American and telling him how bad George Bush is and why he is an Israeli and not an American. All along this somewhat crazy Indian (not me :-)) was trying to tell him how he knew more about America than the American - never mind the fact that he had never lived in America for a long period. There were other speeches about crazy topics and using language that cannot be mentioned here. As I wound my way back around 10 when the sun was setting, I was exihilarated and energized by the experience. Is there any other physical place in the world that this kind of thing happens? __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
