I’m done with the ghastly litany of revision,TOK, Extended Essay, revision that seems to plague my daily life as one of the unfortunates that populate the IB circuit: Devoid of feeling and life, my childhood sucked dry; wandering the endless labyrinth of assignments and grades- a labyrinth hedged with the piles of homework, echoed by the ghostly refrains of those that wandered its indeterminate corridors and guided by the disembodied hands of a pedagogy that barely knows what it is doing. That basically sums up the life of the average teenager in the education-based society we live in today. It’s not so much about learning as it is having homework and more homework shoved down your throat in the mistaken belief that we kids can’t be responsible. Nor is this only applicable to the darker skinned nerds of the human race (read: Asians like me)- our parent’s age-old chorus of “we’re Asian, we work harder” seem to have faded,listlessly, into the background. According to statistics from 2009, up to 80% of American kids are sleep deprived. 20% of teenagers will experience depression before adulthood and nearly 10% have seriously contemplated suicide. And these figures are meant for America. You know- the carefree gremlins who play baseball every night, who drink beer and have High-schools that inspire the lurid flicks we watch? 80% of them are sleep deprived. If those are the figures from the Land of Liberty- we’re pretty much screwed over aren’t we?

// I have come to the difficult and tenuous realisation that my belief of marginalising homosexuals from religious services, vis a vis marriages, is wrong as it seems many chruches, even in xtian revived US, seem to support it wholeheartedly. It is unjust for an unbeliever to dictate religious views on gays. Unfortunately, however, my personal revulsion remains and only gradual erosion of my perception of them will change it. The happenstance stories of Republican senators, notably Grisanti, voting to break the logjam on the marriage equality bill has caused me to rethink and re-evaluate my stance and what it means in today’s world. Nevertheless, I cannot deny that these people still deserve the right to pursue their happiness and am reminded of what Voltaire said: ” Fight for the right…for [them] to say it”- I believe that my personal abhorrence for their acts cannot objectively stand in the way of my logical process.  But for now, I can only say to the gay marriage proponents, “Caveat Emptor”. Though they may rightfully reply, ” Collige, virgo, rosas”. //

Message sent on 25th June, 2011.

Lest I forget the day, time and cause of the greatest volte-face in my life.

On April 29th 1824; today in history, one of the greatest poets the world had and has ever known- a man whose written verse spanned the chasm that separates the realms of mortality and immortality: George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, died in what is now Greece, where he had traveled to support the Greek struggle for independence from Turkey. This vision of Independence and his exotic lifestyle, flamboyant and eccentric, coined the term we know as “Byronic”- romantic, arrogant, dark, and cynical. May his impression and virtue live on in his poetry and his memory-  aspire us to heights mere mortals can attain through appreciation of higher arts. 

Prometheus ( the last stanza)

Where now the horse and the rider? where is the horn that was blowing?
Where is the helm and the hauberk and the bright hair flowing?
Where is the hand on the harp-string, and the red fire glowing?
Where is the spring and the harvest and the tall corn growing?
They have passed like rain on the mountain, like a wind in the meadow;
The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow.
Who shall gather the smoke of the dead wood burning?
Or behold the flowing years from the Sea returning?