Organic-Ally

 I don't remember now what exactly caused me to think of this person. Maybe it was that I was working on a lecture on "sociology of work", accompanied by thoughts of the Marxist concept of "alienation", of meaninglessness, normlessness, etc. I had worked two stints in two different garment factories. By coincidence, they were located in the same general location off Jalan Bukit Merah in Singapore. The first time was straight after my 'O' levels and I needed to get out of school, to earn some money. My friends were vying to get into junior colleges (Sixth Form equivalent) based on their "mock" or preliminary results. I just wanted to try working. I found myself, aged sixteen, a "finishing worker" in a small garment factory. My job consisted of cutting off lengths of thread that the sewists (not sure about calling them "sewers") had left in finished garments just so to increase their piece-rate. Sometimes I ironed out some cre

Credit: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-pen-is-still-mightier-than-the-keyboard-tksdpt77q (as requested by  @letterappsoc) Sorting 1,000 handwritten letters has proved an epiphany: it’s an art form we should cherish Edward Lucas Monday January 01 2024, 12.01am, The Times S pilling out of old cardboard files, the blasts from the past are strewn across my floor. Affectionate, gossipy, grateful, anguished, tantalising, they are scribbled in ballpoint pen on work stationery, typed on flimsy blue aerogrammes or penned in ink on tinted notepaper. They tell of faraway places and distant events — and of a now near-moribund epistolary culture. From the mid-1970s, at school, university and in a dozen foreign postings, I was an inveterate letter writer to far-flung friends and family. This was the result. Brought to light during a clear-out last week, the old letters, and copies of my own missives, triggered memories like a Proustian madeleine. The handwriting of long-dead relatives recall

 It's been another year of ups and downs. A recent trip to Montalbano and Godfather country (Sicily) to celebrate 25 years of marriage was certainly an "up", despite a burst tyre three minutes before reaching our first hotel (the "down"). However, I would place the highlight of my year as learning about goalball and watching it played 'live' at the recent "Blind Games" (IBSA: International Blind Sport Federation).  Back in August I decamped once again to a university in the Midlands to teach EAP (English for Academic Purposes) to incoming international pre-Master's students. Seven weeks away. I really do enjoy teaching these students. Most of them come from university cultures where they do not question the authorities and certainly not their professors. They were used to quoting their professors in order to get a good grade! Talk about stroking egos.  Imagine their surprise when I tell them that, "Look! Teachers do not have all the a

  I've just suffered a most horrendous fortnight of coughing fits that kept me up at night, and now the headaches. But let's talk about WeWork. A few weeks ago, for some unknown reason, I saw on TV a documentary about WeWork (which has since filed for bankruptcy ). I've seen this business being advertised on TV but had zero interest in it. Picture source But there I was having afternoon tea with my family with the TV on in the background, and listening to previous employees of WeWork talk about its founder Adam Neumann. Within minutes I turned to my "boys" to say, "It is a cult." Grounded in my research in sociology of religion, I saw that WeWork functioned essentially as a cult. Its leader could do no wrong. What the leader says, goes, and information is not triangulated, tested against other sets of evidence. If an employee has a problem, "Adam will solve it." Those are just some of the warning signs. Alarm bells should have been ringing. For

  R eading what Michael Lewis says  about the childhood of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) gave me the shivers. https://www.stockvault.net/data/2012/03/06/129760/preview16.jpg In his description of a child who was so bored with school, I saw my son. The main differences were that (1) we intervened when he was six; (2) I decided against pursuing an academic career to ensure making professor by age 60; and (3) we prayed for wisdom. I cried a lot. O, how I cried.  Thankfully, our son appears to be a well-adjusted adult now, because his emotional development finally, in due course, caught up with his intellectual growth. Here's an extract with the focus on the childhood/education of SBF. “Childhood was a funny thing for Sam,” said his father. “He was never comfortable with kids, or with being a kid.” By the time Sam was eight Barbara had given up on the idea that his wants and needs would be anything like other children’s. She remembered the instant that happened. She had been at Stanford for

 I come from a country where we started each school day by reciting the national pledge, either in front of the flag in the classroom or in a school-wide assembly. We pledged, "as one united people" to build a "democratic society", "regardless of race, language or religion". Why do we want to do this? "To achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation". I always thought that it sounded like "The Lord's Prayer". Not my will, but yours be done, O Lord! After school exams we were often herded into the assembly hall where we learned to sing Mandarin, Tamil, Malay and English folk songs, whatever ethnic/racial groups we belong to.  https://www.sg101.gov.sg/social-national-identity/multicultural/ Primary school children celebrating "Racial Harmony Day". Seriously, after nearly 20 years of such practices -- some might call this indoctrination -- multiculturalism has become part of my DNA. One day a much older classmate

 In sharing university campus accommodation with blind and partially sighted athletes at the 2023 World Games, I learned of a most amazing game called goalball . This comes amidst my contemplation of Martha Nussbaum’s “capabilities framework”, which suggests that instead of making everyone “the same” to achieve equality, we start with assessing the individual’s capabilities, and then decide on the resources needed to make that person function at their fullest (God-given) capacity. Athletes arriving with guide dogs and sighted supporters to help them navigate unfamiliar terrain Goalball is a very physical game. Players use their whole body to stop their opponents scoring goals stretched across the width of the pitch. Bells inside the 1.25kg ball allow players to “see” where the ball. If you watched them ‘live’, as I did, you might notice the incredible way players catch and block the ball as it bounces and rolls. You might even forget that they are blind. By embedding bells, the