The Little Sweatshop of Thoughts

went out for lunch with b. tan who has turned out to be a great diva extraordinare. we are in the same class and have found kindred spirits in each other. people who talk loud, are sarcastic and caustic and like to talk in accents to prove the existence of third parties in stories we relate to each other. our other group members tend to disappear after a while since they can’t stand us BOTH at once.

anyway, we went to eat jap food at kuriya in raffles city. very expensive stuff but very nice. and the restaurant itself has many different settings to cater to different clients. like the open setting at the entrance is possibly for the ‘riff raff’ that comes in. and if you want a bit more privacy, they have nicer seating within and then for ultimate exclusivity, they have rooms within where you get your own personal maitre’d (i think). but the menu is extensive and they have vegetarian options too. very delightful. so anyway, i was telling ben about my nightmares of not being able to afford ‘all this high class stuff’ in future because i make a paltry sum of money. also, alluded to the numerous programmes and initiatives (shopping centres, IRs, real estate) that were becoming popular in singapore, in line with wooing the rich.

and ben comes back to me with a ‘darling, focusing on poverty is so passe. no one wants to know how poor you are. its each individual person’s pet peeve, no matter how much they have in the bank. now telling you how others spend their money and how you can have one up against the jones’, that makes good television, conversation and gossip’

(disclaimer: ben was not as eloquent. he actually said: poverty is boring. be atas. i like’)

and then he launched into his theory of how natural disasters hit these places of poverty and help us ‘naturally’ rid the world of these people. social darwinism, he said, and pointed to the tsunami, hurricane katrina and various other earthquakes to prove his point. survivors are the people who are more well off and able to avoid living in those areas, thus leaving the world ‘richer’.

my reaction to this was – eyes widening, jaw dropping and going ‘oh my god, ben!’ at the end of his spiel. like seriously! love your riches but don’t tell me that poor people need to be gotten rid off!! what is that for? to rid yourself of the guilt of not thinking about these unfortunate people while you spend your riches? and what about those who are born into this cycle of poverty without choice? are you going to say that it is better to be rid of them since they were not going to know any better anyway? and in a twisted way, if we did get rid of all these poor people, the next stage of poverty might just be the car owning middle class. now, logically, that target would be ripe for our poverty seeking, non-discriminating natural disaster, wouldn’t it? simply appalling theory.

needed to get that off my chest. the lunch ended well with us making fun of a horrible professor in school. now that is an area which i don’t mind bitching about.