A mature society is one that reserves its moral outrage for what really matters: poverty and preventable diseases in the third world, arms sales, oppression, injustice. Bad language and sex might offend some, who certainly have a right to complain; but they do not have a right to censor… … After all, it is morally outrageous that moral outrage should be used as an excuse to perpetrate the outrage of censorship on others.
~ A. C. Grayling, The Form of Things: Essays on Life, Ideas and Liberty in the 21st Century
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Censorship - missing the mark?
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“Greening a nation”
» talfryn.netSo there I was, parked at a table full of local and international Shell employees (they were kind enough to sponsor a table and I was there courtesy of the Singapore Environment Council), a youngling challenged to bridge that vast age, experience and sectoral gap in making conversation with people who were asking me about my views on current issues, politics and business over a three-course dinner in a greenfully-decorated marquee full of the who’s who of Singapore’s conservation, environment, landscaping, horticulture, and socially-responsible corporate circles. I didn’t mind it one bit; I miss the intellectual stimulation, and I was at enough ease to have found some dry humour.
I went table-hopping a little. Good to see familiar faces. Keith was there: “Hey! Do you still remember… about four, five years ago… when we guided LKY? I wonder if he still remembers us!” Ah, yes… what an honour that was. I was too shy then, to have asked for a photograph, and I was too young then, to have realised that I had there in front of me the perfect opportunity for a real, personal open conversation with the then-Senior Minister and his wife. Instead, I merely did what I knew best, and showed him the waders, the mudskippers, and my beloved whip spider.
Minister Mah Bow Tan’s speech was followed by a short video (The Garden City Story) which charted the development of Singapore from jungles to a ‘City in a Garden’. Rather impressive aerial videography ala BBC Planet Earth that managed to accentuate the green in our cityscape. So much that we take for granted.
When MM Lee speaks, you listen. Not just out of respect, but because you know that here is a man with decades of wisdom and experience and confident in the knowledge that his vision was what made Singapore, and he is here to share.
I liked the anecdotes. He told of how a foreign expert came and exclaimed that they were (then) doing the wrong things… “Birds feed on insects, and you were using insecticides! Birds like the tall grass, and you cut them all off!” And then they took on the expert’s advice, and the mynahs and the crows came back, birds which MM Lee admitted that he didn’t like (muted laughter in the audience).
When asked about challenges for the future, he lamented that “humans have become to clever for their own good”, sentiments that echo those of other world leaders and scientists. Education should start with the young, who are burdened with a heavier responsibility for future generations.
Otherwise, as the media has conveyed in pretty much the way the media picks up and conveys messages, it was the usual story: Singapore’s green vision was a strategic intent to position itself ahead of the world, building world-class infrastructure, a first world in a third-world region, more green = more happy people, the mark of good administration and leadership, cooperation on all fronts and across all sectors, and so on. The Singapore Story.
It was clear… that it is the political and economic drive that greens a nation. Or this nation, at least.
Ps. This blog post was written while running low on mana. I thought I could’ve managed something more coherent and exciting. I promise it’ll be better if I could talk about this in a conversation… after I get my sleep.
