In Continuum.

Dystopia

A heart that's
Full up like a landfill
A job that slowly kills you
Bruises that won't heal

According to the dictionary, the term 'Utopia' refers to an ideally perfect place, especially in its social, political, and moral aspects. Some people equate an utopia to the idea of Heaven, a realm that is humanly impossible to achieve in reality. It is perhaps the kind of reality everybody would like to live in, the kind of country whereby there is zero negativity and positivity booming in every corner of every street. However, nobody has ever really attempted to claim themselves as being anywhere close to that mark yet. Even in books, you seldom hear of a perfect society - the kind of society you would associate with the term 'utopia'. After all, no matter how close you come to describing such a fictional place, there is little market value in your work. Who wants to read about a flawless society, anyway?

A dystopia however, is what lies beneath an utopia. Not exactly hell, but perhaps a totalitarian state would come close to that description. On the surface, everything is going to be perfectly acceptable, everything and everyone is going to function as per normal. However, underneath the skin is a city of much contradiction and flaws. This kind of dystopia - or 'Negative-Utopia' has been described in several literature materials such as Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, and especially so by George Orwell in his 1984 as well as Animal Farm. All the countries described in the books points to a seemingly perfect state, but not without its flaws that flows in the sewer of the country. All three books explore these flaws, and tells of how individuals would rise up to the government's oppression and attempt to change the course of the world. A brave act, a gallant act. However, like the characters, these 'cities' do not actually exist in real-life. A totalitarian state is an ideology of the past, something that exists only in fiction now. But look around you, breathe the air and smell the sense of doubt floating amidst it. You shall find that perhaps a totalitarian state may not be as far as we may have believed it to be.

You look so tired and unhappy
Bring down the government
They don't, they don't speak for us
I'll take a quiet life
A handshake of carbon monoxide

If you live in Singapore for a long enough time, you are going to notice how close it is to an actual dystopia. That is not to say that our leader is like Chancellor Sutler in Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, or to say that he resembles the Big Brother in 1984 in any way. After all, we do not have curfews at night, and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is certainly not banned in Singapore. We do not have around-the-clock surveillances on our phone calls, and neither do we have abolished or banned any books in Singapore so far(I saw Hitler's Mein Kampf at Kinokuniya). However, there are other areas of oddities you notice only if you remain here in this country for long enough.

Singaporeans are very much on the fence most of the time, they tend to have two opinions about something instead of taking a stand at anything. Because by sitting on the fence, one can be guaranteed to be right one way or another, no matter how you see it. Ask them about the opinion about the recent tax hike, and they are going to say that they are not terribly happy about it, but that is for the good of the country anyway. Or if you are going to ask them about giving more freedom to residential rights to maids working in Singapore, they are going to give you answers that involves a "Yes" and a "No" in the same line. You seldom get a very clear response, nor are you going to get a very certain one either. Being on the fence is part of the culture here, the culture that prefers to be safe rather than taking risks.

No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
Silent, silent

The idea of being 'safe' can be seen even in our classrooms. When given a topic sentence to work upon, most students are going to give a two-sided opinion to everything. They are not going to say "Oh, I disagree with that" or "Yeah, I agree!". They are going to give both views, because that is the kind of essay we were brought up to write in the past. However, that is no longer the case in university, and teachers are no longer eager to read a standardized essay for the millionth time. As Nina so aptly puts it whenever Rajwin decides to give his on-the-fence opinion, she'd retort him by saying "You are either pregnant, or you are not. You are not maybe-pregnant!". The truth is, that is the way that we've been brought up to think, that there is two sides to everything - like coins. It may seem like a small issue from this perspective, but that idea is evident in our daily lives.

Perhaps it is because of this blind fear that we have, the kind of fear that exists within us that repels the idea of unconventional opinions. We'd like to think along the path of the norm, we'd like to talk along the path of the conventional. And whatever the government says should be correct, and whatever that they say "No" to should be the wrong. After all, Singapore is a country of people with an embedded electronic calculator in their heads. They like to calculate the risks involved in things, and there are times whereby they take way too long to do so. The risk of voicing out your opinion that contradicts to the ones agreed by the public is often seen as a risk that is too big to take. Thus, many people here have been brought up to voice opinions only over dinner tables and in bars.

This is my final fit,
My final bellyache with

When talking about the influence of media during COMM lecture, we were told about the monarchy that Rupert Muddock has on the media in America. Owning everything from newspapers to television channels, he controlled what gets reported in the news and what gets left on the drawing board. He was the ruler of Fox Channel in the States, the so-called 'Right Wing' channel over there. When asked about the situation in Singapore, most of the students agreed that as compared to the States, Singapore has a much worse state of media hegemony.

Singapore's media is a monopoly business, in the sense that it has one single firm controlling every single aspect of the media. Mediacorp controls the radio stations, the newspapers, the magazines, the television channels, and everything that comes into the country from foreign sources. With that kind of grasp over the media, the government then has a full control over what will be shown on television, what the people of the country will receive on their little black boxes, and what they will read on their way to work every morning. It is going to be the single most powerful vehicle in which the government will spread the ideas they'd like people to have, thoughts that they'd like the people to possess, and lies they'd like people to believe. That is not to say that the government is all half-truths and whole lies. All I am saying is that it is possible for them to do so, if they want to.

No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises
No alarms and no surprises please

In the newspaper headlines, we see statistics about how much the economy has expanded, how much growth we have had in the last quarter and the likes. Numbers speak louder than words sometimes, and people usually treat the headlines as being true, as being the undisputed source of credible information. However, making a trip down to the local market will give you a different opinion altogether. You become cynical about such statistics in the papers, especially after you hear about the complains ordinary people in Singapore have to say. The truth is, the air on top is usually clearer than the air below, and it is always hard to tell how it is like down there if you are way up here, anyway.

My mother visits a vendor of fruits at the local market once in a while, and inevitably comes the social and political talks as the owner weighs the apples and the pears. It is hard to believe that the numbers in the morning paper are true once you have a good talk with these lower income groups in Singapore. These are the people who are not exactly benefiting from all the supposed 'growth' in the economy. When the Goods and Services Tax was raised by two percent just two weeks ago, the prices of ordinary goods around the country immediately rose. Months before it was implemented, voices from all corners of Singapore disapproved of such a drastic change, but they were met with deaf ears and we were given a less than average explanation to it all. And it's not like the people have much power, once the prime minister steps out and explains his supposedly justified cause.

Such a pretty house,
Such a pretty garden

Not to mention the incident two years ago, when four silent protesters gathered outside the CPF building to protest for more transparency in the usage of government funds in the areas of NKF, CPF, HDB etc. They were there with signs and words written over their shirts, and that actually attracted more than just a curious crowd and a host of reporters. Riot police were actually activated - a whole troop of them armed with helmets and shields - to the scene, jumping off the back of a van and trying to look fierce and ready for any chaos to break loose. But there were no signs of chaos about to break loose at all. It was just the four protesters, and rows after rows of riot police standing there like idiots behind their shields, as if those boards the protesters were holding was capable of transforming into a Matador to blow up the whole building. They protesters were silenced, not allowed to talk to the reporters, and were whisked off with their hands cuffed to the police station. You start to wonder if it was all necessary, if the government had any right to arrest somebody after proclaiming the country to the freedom of speech.

There are a lot of things questionable about the country that I am living in, things that do not add up in the end. They contradict to the beliefs that we once had about this country, the very foundation this country was built upon in the first place. I mean, requiring a license to speak at the Speaker's Corner is just ridiculous, and it is especially so when you can get arrested for saying the wrong things about the wrong people. There is freedom in this country, but a freedom that is very much under control. Any unconventional acts, any negativities will be silenced and removed, very much like the kind of society that exists in the pages of Alan Moore's graphic novels.

However, no matter how you argue, it cannot be denied that there aren't better ways to run the country than it already is now. There are questionable things in the country, especially the way elections are held(It is possible to have one single candidate for a district, or have one candidate for presidency because the opposition does not qualify - supposedly). It's not like we can dig a hole that leads beneath the foundations of the Parliament and have it blown up on the fifth of November, or have the entire population of the country gather outside Istana with Guy Fawkes masks. A revolution like that is certainly not going to work, because there simply isn't a need to. There is no better way to run this country, and there isn't a single method out there that will please everybody. The government is the player here, and he orders the chess pieces around however way he wants. Neither the king nor the queen has a say in which box they decide to move to.

This is as good as it gets, and we all have to suck it up until someday, somebody, somewhere, stands up to the situation. Until then, the illusion of an utopia shall remain, under the veils of this dystopia that exists so subtly in the lives of every one of us. Including you, including me.

No alarms and no surprises (let me out of here)
No alarms and no surprises (let me out of here)
No alarms and no surprises please (let me out of here)



V, "Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way.

Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.

I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.

So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot."

--- V for Vendetta(2005)