No Man's Land

Eric Bogle

Well how do you do Private William McBride,
Do you mind if I sit here down by your graveside?
And rest for awhile beneath the warm summer sun,
I've been walking all day and now I'm nearly done
I see by your gravestone you were only nineteen
When you joined the glorious fallen in 1916;
Well I hope you died quick and I hope you died clean,
Or, young Willie McBride, was it slow and obscene?

Refrain:
Did they beat the drum slowly,
Did they play the fife lowly?
Did they sound the Death March
As they lowered you down?
Did the band play
"The Last Post And Chorus?"
Did the pipes play
"The Flowers Of The Forest?"

Did you leave 'ere a wife or a sweetheart behind?
In some faithful heart is your memory enshrined?
And although you died back in 1916,
In that faithful heart are you forever nineteen?
Or are you a stranger without even a name,
Enclosed forever behind a glass pane,
In an old photograph, torn, and battered and stained,
And faded to yellow in a brown leather frame?
Refrain:

Ah the sun now it shines on these green fields of France,
The warm summer breeze makes the red poppies dance,
And look how the sun shines from under the clouds;
There's no gas, no barbed wire, there're no guns firing now.
But here in this graveyard is still No Man's Land,
The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
To man's blind indifference to his fellow man,
To a whole generation that was butchered and damned.
Refrain:

Ah, young Willie McBride, I can't help wonder why,
Did all those who lay here really know why they died?
And did they believe when they answered the call,
Did they really believe that this war would end war?
For the sorrow, the suffering, the glory, the pain,
The killing and dying were all done in vain,
For, young Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again and again and again and again.
Refrain:

Goldbugs Forgiven

I don't care what they do with the royalties anymore.

I have just reached the section on Tom Friedman, a columnist of such naivete that... well. I can't possibly describe it better than they do.

"Among the things Mr. Friedman seems to lack is a feeling for verb tenses. He goes to Bangalore and notices it is backward. His conclusion is that it will always be so."

"But to say his ideas are sophomoric or juvenile merely libels young people, most of whom have far more cleverly nuanced opinons than the columnist. [...] His work has negative merit. Every column subtracts from the sum of human knowledge in the way a broken pipe drains the town's water tower."

"There is no trace of modesty in his writing -- no skepticism, no cynicism, no irony, no suspicion lurking in the corner of his brain that he might be a jackass. Of course, there is nothing false about him either; he is not capable of either false modesty or falsetto principles. With Friedman, it is all alarmingly real. Nor is there any hesitation or bewilderment in his opinions; that would require circumspection, a quality he completely lacks."

Seriously, this book is worth the price of admission. For four glorious pages, they rip the Mustached One several new assholes.

An Empire of Debt

I'm reading this terribly entertaining book called An Empire of Debt by a pair of gold bugs named Bill Bonner and Addison Wiggin.

It suffers a little from its emphasis on goldGoldGOLD as being the only true money, but is vastly entertaining. It details the rise of the American empire -- which I think we can all agree is now fact -- and how it has been funnelled by the boom in consumer debt. It's an entertaining lament on how there are no more conservatives left in the States, how those who seek to change the world usually screw things up and how hollow it feels to be a libertarian howling in the woods of empire (among other things.)

All quite true, all very entertainingly written.

Money quote (re Vietnam and the domino theory): The idea was not stupid. It was just absurd. Einstein had said that things should be made as simple as possible but no simpler. America's empire builders of the 1960s had gone too far. It was as if they had simplified the Old Testament as: "Jews kick butts [sic] in the Holy Land." They had lost the nuances and details that made it interesting.

Unfortunately they fail to get their own details right in some instances, which immediately calls into question their entire thesis.

1) Madame Nhu was executed along with Ngo Dinh Diem in the back of an APC? I don't think she'd agree, wherever on the Riviera she is.

2) MacArthur didn't "recognize[...] what business America had gotten itself into" (i.e. empire)?! The American Caesar himself didn't realize that America had become an empire? Well, maybe so, though it's hard to imagine he wouldn't have turned it into one had he become President. But it rings hollow, hollow, hollow.

Nonetheless, it's an entertaining read and worth buying just to snicker over the cutting language. And after all, every dollar you put into their pockets, they'll put into the gold market, at whatever price it is...

You Can Try This But...

How to eat Sushi

Or not, as the case may be... I especially like the way the towel is used.

It Just Keeps On Going

What else but Bash?

What More Can Be Said?

Sanction your teacher?

Last Post from Tokyo

So soon I get on a flight back to Singapore; and I'm thoroughly looking forward to it.

Twelve days out-country, and it feels like an eternity. I almost forgot I still live in Singapore in some ways; I think I may be a little stranger at home...

Too many things to talk about Japan, from the refusal of responsibility, to the crowding, to the minor alienation to the title of a new film which I saw blazoned all over the internet cafes.

Anyway, I'm off to grab a quick bite before I get on the plane. Later, and see you in Singapore.

By the way, Pat -- I have your series with me. It's not finished yet, but I have the first 6 volumes.

Jin is Right

I gotta learn Chinese.

I had dinner in a Chinese restaurant today (and not half bad either) called Bamboo Garden, right outside JR Ueno. I must confess that I've been feeling a little overwhelmed the past couple of days, especially since my Japanese is no longer anywhere near fluent. Even given my limited vocabulary, I find myself stuttering and pausing more and more.

So I had dinner in a Chinese restaurant because I wanted something familiar in a place which wasn't insanely crowded. But even then, things are a little... different. I had tea, which happily came in one of the classic mini teacup-and-pot set. But whereas I'm used to pouring the tea straight into the little cup, spillage and all, there were this extra steps which the waitress demonstrated of pouring into a tall cup, placing the regular cup over the tall cup, inverting the cups and rubbing the tall cup before pulling it up...

But when the waitress came the xiao3 long2 bao1 I ordered, she asked me if I had eaten them before, and while I could explain in Japanese that I had, I couldn't exactly demonstrate proficiency as they came on these strange platter like hooks. Then she asked me where I came from and when I said Singapore, she looked meaningfully at her nametag.

Which of course said Chen something-or-other. And she chatted a bit in Chinese, which obviously was meant to reassure me and which to be honest, was a little reassuring.

But damnit, my Chinese is so bad...

I suppose that's the Overseas Chinese way -- when you see kaki nang (by the way, the definition below kaki nang has a truly brilliant citation from a court record, no less) -- you stop and help them by dropping into a familiar language.

But damnit, it's NOT a familiar language.

So I have to change that.

I never thought I'd agree with my Member for Parliament but I really should learn a language that is more and more useful than English for getting around in a foreign country. Learn both English and Chinese and wherever I am, there'll be someone to talk to.

Cause like cockroaches, we're everywhere and indestructible.

Tokyo is Too Crowded

Staying in Singapore has sensitized me to crowds.

Singapore can be so empty compared to New York, and New York is a rural village compared to Tokyo at its full bustle. I've always known that part of the reason the Japanese seem so repressed to the outside world is that the intense overcrowding means having to retreat into oneself if one is to have any personal space at all.

It never affected me when I was inbound from New York, being used to the subway six inches, where you create your own personal space by glowering at everyone who invades it. But coming back from Singapore, it feels a lot weirder being crammed in an elevator so packed that you can't wear your backpack. No wonder everyone carries shoulder bags here.

Today I think it came to a head; when I was searching for dinner, I was just dying -- dying! -- for a restaurant that wasn't packed knee-to-knee, where I could get a table to myself and eat while reading a book and not feel like I needed to rush out because two thousand other people were waiting for my seat. So I found it in a Chinese restaurant. More about that later.

I suppose this is a consequence of actually having a social life again in Singapore such that I'm no longer used to being tucked away in a corner of myself but still...

It grows tiring and I will not pretend that I am not looking forward to my return to Singapore.

It's Snowing in Tokyo

It's been a while since I last saw snow falling.

When I was in New York, snow either fell when I was asleep or was threatening to fall. Tonight, it's snowing a little in Tokyo.

Little droplets of ice... I'll never forget my first snowfall when I was in class at Columbia and saw the flakes whip around in the wind, like a slow motion typhoon.

I've missed it.

Blah

In Tokyo now, feeling kinda blah.

Last night was the first time I've been rejected from a capsule hotel due to not speaking enough Japanese. Walked till 2am to find another that had capsules.

Ergh. Looking forward to getting back to Singapore and crashing. Also I have some posts on the laptop but can't get to them. Will upload later.

Oh, and I found the apostrophe key. Go me.

There's Still a Hole in the Sky

Walking down from Franklin Street to Chambers Street today.

Felt just like 2000 except...

There's still a hole in the sky.

北方有佳人

I saw 十面埋伏, or House of Flying Daggers, on the flight from Tokyo to New York. Finally. Only one problem though -- the subtitles were in Japanese.

So the dialogue is in Chinese, which I kinda understand and the subtitles were in Japanese, which I kinda understand. Thankfully both were in (what I assume to be) the same style as 英雄, or Hero, which is halfway between the two... I'm going to have to watch it again with English subtitles just to make sure I'm understanding everything I should be understanding.

But just like 英雄,十面埋伏 is incredibly, incredibly beautiful. The scenery is amazing, the costumes brilliant, the actress gorgeous.

Pity about the story though. As far as I can tell...

A lot of people didn't like Hero because of the ending. I wasn't too happy with the ending, but it was respectably consistent. But House of Flying Daggers... it's a sappy, SAPPY love story with the only twist being that one loved her for three years and the other for three days yet she chose the one she knew for three days.

Life sucks, get a helmet, okay?

It may be that the song is prophetic, there are many different symmetries and all that. Still.

Life sucks, get a helmet.

Thankfully, unlike Lucy Liu, 章子怡 is actually beautiful and 和田恵美's costumes are stunning. They don't redeem the story or lack thereof, but do make it worth watching House of Flying Daggers again and again.

On The Ground

It's a lot colder in the city than I remember December being.

A lot colder.

brr....

Right, ENOUGH.

This is the third time my post has been swallowed by my poor Japanese skills and clicking on what invariably turns out to be the wrong button.

No more!

In Narita, getting ready to board. I will let you all know when I hit New York.

Unwired But Connected

I love being unwired.

It's '99ish to be enthralled by 11b, but... No power cable, no mouse, just laptop block and keyboard, preparing to waste other people's times.

I'm at Changi, waiting to get on my plane. I'll be in New York from Friday morning till Thursday afternoon and in Tokyo from Friday afternoon to Monday afternoon. And wherever I go, I will have 11b.

Now if only this silly client laptop had a microphone, I'd be Skyping my heart out... but I don't feel like having to pay again just to make phone calls.

See those of you in Singapore in two weeks and those in New York sooner.