Kaleidoscope #5 | July 2020

 

Kaleidoscope: Issue 5, dated July 2020

SINGAPORE

2020 General Election (GE2020)

The general election is a form of a parliamentary election, where all incumbent members of the parliament (MPs) are dissolved and an opportunity arises for all able men and women to become election candidates to compete over their position in parliament. Usually, most of the dominating party (the People’s Action Party) will still remain, so in order to ensure a good level of representativeness of Singaporeans, there are other positions such as non-candidate MPs (NCMPs) and nominated MPs (NMPs) to bring in different people who will introduce fresh perspectives to the conversations surrounding the governance of the country.

First, the results:

Of interest is the process of the election this year, not the results. This year’s general election is a breath of fresh air for a few reasons:

New norms for voting - time bands, self-inking pens and more eco-friendly booths

Since 2019, the Elections Department has pushed for changes to make the voting experience better for everyone. These included polling booths made of recyclable materials like cardboard (though it is still a prototype), self-inking pens (basically a stamp which is more elderly-friendly than normal pens), and more electronic documents such as online forms for nomination of candidates as well as electronic voting slips.

Thanks to the pandemic, more safety measures have to be in place. Recommended time bands are given in the voting slips mailed to those eligible for voting to avoid crowding at polling sites (since most people are still told to stay at home then). However, this could not stop long queues from forming due to safe distancing measures. Many voters complained of how inefficient the whole process was, and some were told to go home and come back later due to the long queues.The voting time was even extended from 8 PM to 10 PM at the last minute, causing a lot of dissatisfaction among voters and the opposition parties.

Campaigning goes digital

Due to the pandemic (again), most of the campaigning have to be brought online. Still, the human factor and the intimacy that can only be realised in face-to-face meetings are still extremely crucial. As a result, we see political candidates engaging with people in the heartlands - doing home visits and making their rounds in hawker centres and wet markets.

The digital space had brought in more engagement and conversations during the campaigning period. There were even memes surrounding candidates who stood out, such as Jamus Lim, who was the sensation online after his performance at the televised debates. Such conversations showed that Singaporeans are actively involved in politics, and are open to discussing their opinions online.

However, digital elections can have a lot of risks too, as evidenced by the 2016 US Presidential Elections, which revealed signs of intervention from other countries through hacking of emails plus the creation of widely-circulated misinformation and fake news online. We cannot even trust videos anymore because of deep fakes, where artificial intelligence can create convincing scenes of any person speaking without it actually happening.

More women running for candidacy

39 of the candidates are women, which is the highest number of female candidates in any general election. After the elections, more than 20 of them will enter parliament, making up nearly one third of elected seats, which is a major improvement from the past few election cycles.

Female representation in the parliament is important. According to an article by Channel NewsAsia:

“There was a conscious choice to include more women candidates in this term of Parliament as women bring important issues to the table and also offer different perspectives,” said Ms Sun Xueling, the Punggol West SMC MP-elect and the Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs and National Development.

The same article gives a good example of how female MPs usually bring up issues like caregiving that are unrelated to economic development, and pushes for more urgency in developing policies that seek to address such issues.

“Female politicians are known to be more inclined towards engaging on topics outside the traditional bread-and-butter concerns like the economy, said Ms Nydia Ngiow, a senior director at public policy consultancy BowerGroupAsia.

Citing the example of MacPherson MP-elect Tin Pei Ling, Ms Ngiow said that the parliamentarian has championed issues that were not widely discussed such as mental health and difficulties facing single parents.

Her work appears to have paid off. This election, Ms Tin won 71.7 percent of the votes in her constituency - more than she garnered in 2015, and putting her among the candidates that won with the highest election margins this year. “

Opposition parties now have more influence and powers

Workers’ Party (WP) chief Pritam Singh has been appointed by the Prime Minister as the Leader of the Opposition. This will give him more staff support and resources to carry out his duties. With such a decision, Singapore will be able to move away from a one-party state and see more balance in policy-making, as well as increased competition in the local political scene, which brings out the best in future batches of MPs. Although the concept of opposition leader has been emerging since the last few GEs, with opposition parties trying to band together in their face-off against the PAP, having it as an official position is a first for Singapore.

This is slightly off-topic, but there has been a coalition that opposition parties have been striving for in 2018, which did not go very well. It was inspired by the elections of other countries such as Malaysia and those in the West, which saw opposition parties reign over their countries. Read more here.

So what can Mr Singh look forward to?

Privileges:

• His speaking time will be doubled from 20 minutes to 40 minutes, which is on par with office holders.

• An office in Parliament, staff support and resources, as well as additional allowance.

• He will generally be given the right of first response among MPs to ask the lead question of ministers on policies, Bills and motions in Parliament. This will be at the discretion of the Speaker and subject to existing speaking conventions.

Duties:

• Leading and organising the opposition’s parliamentary business.

• Possibly: attending official state functions and taking part in visits and meetings with members of the Government and the public service.

• Occasionally: receive briefings by the Government on confidential issues, and the matters to be briefed will be determined by the Government

These duties and privileges are based on the conventions and practices of other Westminster-style parliamentary systems, but reflects adaptations to Singapore's political and parliamentary context.

Personally, I find it quite heartening to see the members of the opposition working hand-in-hand with the ruling party to improve how Singapore is governed. I can only hope that as Singapore is able to establish an identity for herself, her political structure will evolve to be more mature and empower talented, caring people to influence decisions that will shape the society of the future. Perhaps, it can even become more robust and innovative, with parts that are uniquely Singaporean, just like our financial system.

National Day SG Together Pack

With the cancellation of plans that involves hosting this year’s celebrations at The Float @ Marina Bay, the original fun pack was repurposed into the SG Together Pack, which would be available for collection by every Singaporean and PR household starting from 20 July 2020, Monday.

I was involved in the packing of this too! More details can be found in upcoming posts of the “My Year 2020” series (will be linked there when the post is out).

The pack has received much attention in its conception stages - but for the wrong reasons.

The opt-out petitioning

The question that everyone wants to know about was, “Do we really need that pack of things as a physical token to commemorate this year’s National Day?”

A lot of Singaporeans believed that the resources poured into the making of these packs could be put into better use, amidst the pandemic crisis. Hence, there was a petition directed at the organising committee to allow Singaporeans to opt-out from this initiative.

https://www.change.org/p/ndp-2020-opt-out-from-receiving-ndp-2020-funpack

Yes, their voices were heard, and as Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen mentioned in his parliamentary address, the production will be scaled down to cover only 80% of households, as compared to around 90% to 95% in previous years. In addition, uncollected funpacks will be donated to homes and institutions who would like to have it.

However, the Minister raised a good point about the need to have these packs. Prudence is necessary, especially when the nation’s finances have been stretched. But it cannot be at the expense of overcoming the mood of despondency that has caused us to be further apart from one another. As with the unwavering, and if I may, defiant spirit that Singaporeans have shown ever since the inaugural National Day Parade in 1966, the unity and collective confidence for the future that it engendered among Singaporeans was priceless.

That brings me to the significance of the SG Together pack this year.

Significance of the pack

As I was involved in the packing of the pack this year, I could tell that it was designed with Singaporeans in mind.

Let us start with the bag. The visual design of the bag was done by students who were mostly at Primary School level. No wonder these innocent-looking designs spark joy in me. What is more impressive is that pupils with disabilities also contributed to the designs. I was told that some of the drawings were done by the visually impaired students. What a powerful message for those feeling depressed under the bleak days of COVID-19! To learn more about the different types of designs, click here: https://www.nylon.com.sg/2020/07/ndp-2020-singapore-together-pack-whats-inside-and-where-to-get-yours/ 

The bag is environmentally friendly too. The cloth is quite durable and my parents like to reuse it as a recyclable bag when they shop for groceries. The bag itself may look a little flimsy, but it has a velcro at the top to help close the bag, which neatly makes up for the flimsy appearance by ensuring nothing in the bag accidentally spills out.

Moving on to the items in the bag. There were very practical things like a thermometer and quite a number of face masks inside. There were also a lot of Singapore flags and symbols included in the items for us to feel that we are a part of the nation. I bet they look lovely in photos and videos. The snacks were quite healthy (biscuits, chips or energy bars, depending on what you get) and the drinks were replaced with cans of chrysanthemum drink. I loved this change because it would be a great help to those who would want to binge-eat during this stressful period and lacked awareness of healthier alternatives to the usual snacks, plus the aluminium cans for the drinks are one of the most recyclable materials out there, satisfying environmental advocacy groups who wished for a reduction in single-use plastics in the pack.

Although there were not many things in the pack, it was a physical touchpoint from the organising committee to all Singaporeans, and symbolised a whole-of-nation effort to celebrate how far our country has come despite all the challenges that were in the way. In this sense, the pack was an uplifting gift that would hopefully bring smiles for all Singaporeans.

WORLD

NASA Mars Rover Launch

As you and I may get tired from reading through all these lines and lines of text, here is a quick video to bring us up to date on what this Mars Rover is all about:

NASA’s Perseverance rover, the fourth of its kind to be launched to the red planet, has taken off in July 2020. It is expected to land on Mars by February 2021.

What will the rover bring us?

In short, it will bring back soil and rock samples from Mars. What is this for? 

According to NASA, a drill on the rover will collect core samples of promising Martian rocks and soil, then will deposit them in a "cache“ (inside very clean tubes to avoid potential contamination from Earth’s microbes) on the planet's surface. A potential future robotic mission could pick them up and ferry them to Earth for analysis in laboratories by equipment too large or bulky to go to Mars. Perseverance will also help us learn more and test technologies that could benefit future human expeditions to Mars. For instance, it brought along Ingenuity, a robotic flying machine, which will be doing test flights on Mars. This will pave the way for similar machines to be used to aid rovers, landers and even humans in future exploration missions.

DISAMBIGUATION: landers vs rovers Landers are spacecraft that are designed to land on the surfaces of another planet and last long enough to telemeter data back on Earth. Rovers are vehicles that are activated upon reaching another planet. On their way there, they will be part of the payload in spacecraft.  One special thing about rovers that aim to land on Mars is that they need some way to decelerate when they enter Mars’ atmosphere to avoid itself from being fried alive by the heat generated from the air resistance. Find out more about the excruciating details of landing on Mars here: https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/timeline/edl/  Asides from landers and rovers, there are also many other types of spacecraft. Fortunately, NASA has helpfully provided definitions to classify spacecraft: https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/postsecondary/features/F_Spacecraft_Classification.html

Why is such a mission important?

Under NASA's ongoing Mars Exploration Program, previous missions have helped us look for signs of habitable conditions in ancient times. The program's series of missions is helping us answer key questions about the potential for life on Mars.  Perseverance will take it one step further by searching for signs of past microbial life itself. This will be done through the search for biosignatures through studying the texture of the rock and soil samples, as well as the composition and distribution of organic molecules. Biosignatures are patterns of texture or substance that require life to form.

We can also look forward to a richer experience of Mars than we have now, as the rover is equipped with microphones that allow us to hear the sounds on Mars, and it will have many high-end tools to research more into the various questions of scientific interest on Mars.

As this is the closest to finding definitive proof of life on Mars, we will finally be able to answer the question of whether we are alone in this universe. There are countless planets out there who have habitable landscapes that are suited for life, but only Earth is currently inhabited by living creatures. If there is life on Mars, everything we know about the origins of life on Earth could change.

Other missions bound for Mars 

July has been a pretty busy period for Mars exploration. I did not plan to include the other missions in this post, but since the Seeker videos have touched on them, I will give them a quick look.

Other than NASA, Japan’s very own space agency, JAXA, has sent its spacecraft to land on Phobos, one of the two moons that orbit Mars. This will finally unravel the mystery behind the origins of Mars’ moons.

For the red planet itself, China and the United Arab Emirates have also launched their spacecraft toward there. The main highlight for China’s mission was that it was the first to send off a rover, lander and orbiter to Mars all in one go. While for the UAE, the star is its objective to better understand Mars’ atmosphere and geology by recording them for a few Martian years.

Find out more through these videos:

Japan: Martian Moons eXploration (MMX)	China: Tianwen-1 probe	UAE: Hope Probe

California’s Wildfires

California has been battling wildfires for some time now, and in the months to come, the fires would only get worse. This natural disaster is unprecedented in scale and complexity, so understanding such incidents will help us to be much better prepared for future waves.

Epic and record-breaking

The fire has been raging, burning millions and millions of acres. In October, months after this issue of the Kaleidoscope is supposed to have been published, the fires have now burned more than 4 million acres, a record for the most acres burned in a single year. The figure, which equals an area larger than Connecticut, is more than twice the acreage burned in the state’s previous record-worst fire season, in 2018.

In addition, due in part to human-caused warming and a drying climate, California recorded its first “gigafire” since modern records began in the early 1930s. The August Complex, a group of fires burning in and around the Mendocino National Forest, has torched more than 1 million acres and counting. 

Effects of the fires

Loss of land, lives and properties, toxic air, the sky turning red… All these descriptions are measly in compared to the visual impact images from the fires have given us.

Here is a video that gives a comprehensive coverage of the wildfire situation:

Causes of the fires

Such devastation begs the question of how these fires came about in the first place. The New York Times gave a detailed overview of the 4 main factors that have contributed to the fires, and over here, I will be expressing them in simple English:

1. Climate change - global warming causes vegetation and basically anything that can serve as fuel to be burnt up to be drier. Drier things catch fire from a spark more easily. That spark could come from lightning or humans setting fire, intentionally or unintentionally.

2. People - downed power lines, the vehicles’ rim scraping against the road surface and fireworks have all been contributing to the sparks that are needed to set vegetation and other objects ablaze. More people have chosen to live in areas that are near to forests (term for it is “urban-wildlife interface”), increasing the likelihood that some accident might cause the vegetation to blow up in flames.

3. Fire suppression - in the history of firefighting in the US, much of the vegetation avoided being burnt away, but that led to an accumulation for more vegetation that fed materials to keep the fires going. As such, now controlled fires are taking place to get rid of unneeded material that will contribute to the spread of fires.

4. Strong winds (Santa Ana winds) - each fall, strong gusts known as the Santa Ana winds bring dry air from the Great Basin area of the West into Southern California. These winds drive the second fire season which is thought to be from October to April. As these winds bring fires to urban, built-up areas, the economic losses in this season tend to be more severe.

 V 

Life Challenges #1: Positivity Challenge

Introduction to Life Challenges Series

Sometimes, we are so busy with our various commitments that we forget to leave some time to check in with ourselves and improve one aspect of our lives.

Doing the same old routines and work every day is just going to nurture the mentality of getting by with life uneventfully, but that is not a life well lived, for we are shelled up in our own comfort zone, and we do not experience any excitement or growth. [1]

This is why I have been trying to fight back the busyness and trying to set up some challenges for my self-improvement. These challenges usually include soft-skills that will improve my character and increase my well-being. However, the nature of the challenges can evolve in future, in line with my changing needs and the changing environment.

The first challenge: Positivity Challenge

The purpose of this challenge is to encourage me to reframe my thoughts in a more positive and constructive way so as to improve my mental well-being and feel more in control.

Many occurrences are neutral by nature. But as we colour these events with our own emotions and our biases, they will fall into the category of either what we like and what we dislike. The negative category of what we dislike can be self-defeating, as they may be necessary for our growth but our mind is resistant to change. This workings of our inner selves, combined with the negative thoughts that spring out from our interpretations of the events, make many things in life harder and more stressful than they should. [2]

What did I do for this challenge? Everyday, for one week, I wrote about at least one difficulty I faced and tried to apply positive thinking to it. You can see what I have done here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14wnd-KJfQ5_PRE7wcXqDIpqilT8uBHzYlrnN5YY8DRE/edit

Looking back on the challenge

I surprised myself by generating many positive ways to look at an otherwise negative event. It seems like most of the time when I feel depressed or stressed by the negative things in life, it is more likely because my mind does not want to acknowledge positive side of things.

I hope to be able to gather these thoughts and find out their commonalities, which can help me set up a toolbox for helping me to cope with negativity and inject more positive feelings into my life.

References

[1]
https://www.fastcompany.co.za/inspiration/why-challenges-and-problems-are-important-in-life-12411996
[2]
https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2013/08/08/518/

Kaleidoscope #3 | May Stories (Part 3)

#3: May Stories (Part 3)

Recently, on my social media feed, I have been seeing more opinions surrounding Singapore's responses to Covid-19 and how Covid-19 has impacted to our lives. Looks like the virus is still pretty viral in our social media platforms. 

As much as I want to quickly drop the topic of the coronavirus, it still serves as the context for most of our discussions and lives nowadays, so I will inevitably still be touching on it. Gone were the days of Donald Trump dominating the news headlines when the whole world has a crisis to tackle. But the coronavirus which replaced him in the position for the hottest news was not much better.

So on with the stories that I read up recently...

Commentaries by university professors on Singapore's responses to Covid-19

Within the last week, a very interesting discussion about the Singapore government's responses to the pandemic made by 2 local university professors had been shared and commented on by some of my friends who are studying / working in local universities. Even though the accuracy of the facts were very inconsistent (since errors with the statistics and political motivations coming into the picture), we could see that there were two distinct sides: whether someone disapproves or approves of the government's responses to the crisis.

I append the posts of these two gentlemen here:

I think it is very encouraging that academics are taking the lead to get everyone to reflect on what the government had done well in managing a crisis. I also learnt quite a bit on critique skills while reading on their posts and the comments.

After going through both of their opinions, I am more in agreement with the view that the government has managed the pandemic reasonably well. To show this, I will expand upon the two main issues that were covered by the writers: the decision to mask on, and the management of foreign workers.

With regards to the mask problem, the initial decision to not have the general population put on masks was out of concern for the sustainability of the stock of masks and the availability of information on Covid-19. It was easy to see that there would be a shortage in the global supply of masks, and Singapore did not have the resources nor the equipment to be able to produce masks independently, since there was not much demand for it before Covid-19 became a pandemic for this to be feasible economically. Singapore is in a tight spot because the external sector it relies on to drive most of her economic growth is falling apart, and Singapore will also need to control her spending in order to rebuild her own economy for the post-pandemic world. Until then, masks did not seem very high up on the priority list. The lack of information on the coronavirus also meant that many were ignorant of asymptomatic cases and how easily transmissible the virus was. As such, it would only make sense that the masks were reserved for healthcare workers and those who were sick and really needed it.

To be fair, the government did communicate the mask issue to the masses eventually, and ramped up on production. And amidst this crisis, it would be difficult to come clean entirely about the masks because any irresponsible proclamations made about it could cause undue alarm and influence the willingness of suppliers to produce the masks for us. With all these people-management at play and limited resources, the government would be forced to prioritise its efforts in order to contain the spread of Covid-19. In this case, it meant missing out a few months of not wearing masks and focus its efforts on quarantining existing patients of the virus, most of whom came from overseas.

More fundamentally than the mask issue, the government did well in communicating its plans with the people and is as transparent as it could possibly be. This excellent communication was lauded by the international community. But we err, for we are all human, and the same goes for governments. In February, when the DORSCON level was raised to orange, many Singaporeans mistook it as some sort of alarm for the virus or something indicative of a lock-down and went on panic buying. Internationally, this incident made a dent on Singapore's generally positive image. Also, this brought out the larger problem of gaps in communication and mental care. Singapore emerged out of that incident stronger. The various communication platforms rolled out, infomercials to spread awareness of Covid-19, responsible coverage by the media to help people make sense and cope with the information and people generally being more helpful toward one another, showed that Singaporeans, along with their government, had the capacity to bounce back from failures and learn from their mistakes. As such, we cannot demean the government's efforts to deal with the pandemic just because of a few failures.

To me, the issue here is not about how transparent any organisation is, but how maturely and intelligently the masses could handle the information regarding the pandemic. In a crisis response, information is extremely valuable, but making a lot of information accessible to everyone at once may not necessarily help in the response as information is not always translated to constructive action.

Next, moving on to the responses to the pandemic involving foreign workers. How Singapore handles foreign workers in dealing with the coronavirus crisis was generally seen as a weakness in the country's overall response framework to the pandemic.

I think Professor Ben Leong's analysis of the root cause of the large number of Covid-19 cases in foreign workers is quite cogent. According to him, Singapore's limited testing capacity is to blame. And this is true. Many cases, especially asymptomatic ones, have not been uncovered in time due to the lack of testing kits in Singapore. Meanwhile, other countries who have undergone massive testing, such as South Korea, had yielded results in containing the virus.

Some people might be inclined to blame the government and the reigning political party for the state the foreign workers were in now. Though I agree with views pertaining to more regulation, oversight and mutual support by the various stakeholders in terms of improving the workers' living conditions, it is unfair to criticise the government for neglecting foreign workers because of any kind of selfish reason. Managing foreign workers is no easy feat, especially when one-fifth of Singapore's population are made up of them. Much of the management was delegated to their employers, who unfortunately have to worry much about the costs of accommodating them as they try to keep up with the standards. We are talking about livelihoods here. Many of them have jobs that could not be worked on at home, unlike most of the local population, and they do not have the means of providing for themselves.

In general, I find that much of the issues surrounding Singapore's responses to the coronavirus was mostly due to the lack of measures targeted at the asymptomatic disease carriers. A disease like this was unprecedented and we could not rely on the same playbook we used for previous pandemics. I think Singapore really shone in terms of its comprehensive and methodical measures to deal with the pandemic, the outpouring of support and sharing of information between the government and the community, as well as the ability to rectify mistakes quickly. This is why I am proud of how Singapore handled the coronavirus crisis.

Anime Review | Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba

Original picture credits: http://shanabrian.com/

Before writing this post, I did some research online to get a second opinion of what other anime fans think about this anime. I was surprised to see that the opinions were quite mixed and divided, despite the fact that this anime enjoyed immense popularity.

With that being said, I will try my best to write something that does not overlap with the other reviews out there. For me, I just watch an anime as a form of recreation, and I am not a hardcore anime fan, so I do not know much about the technical aspects of anime production. My opinions are as good as any person you find randomly on a street, so do not expect too much of this post.

Rather than focusing on how this anime fared in comparison to other works or whether someone should watch this anime, I will emphasise on what I learnt from it and what I enjoyed while watching this anime.

The Visuals

The animation and the colouring looked way, way more stunning than a fireworks show. The movements were bursting with action, and reflected the characters personality well. I have never realised so much information can be expressed by a single movement or a single frame in the anime. It made me understand "a picture is worth a thousand words" all over again.

The smallest, subtlest details, from the patterns used in the clothing and buildings, to the different shades and tones of colours that were masterfully applied in the anime, had a great impact on the overall visual effect. They could even help to express the feelings of the author or the artist, be it the fierceness of one's anger, or how dazzlingly brightness of a city. I learnt to be able to appreciate that the smallest details of life play a big part in a person's success, because when these details add up, they could elevate the performance of a person entirely. Putting in more effort for the details is definitely not a waste.

Many of the graphics in the anime have a purpose too. They communicate the time, location and the culture of the various story arcs in this anime. It allows the audience to learn more about Japanese culture, folklore and history, giving the story more meaning and making the anime more memorable.

The Music

There are a lot of earworms in this anime. Even though it had been a few weeks since I completed watching the anime, I could still remember how the background music, the opening and closing music sounded like. The amount of effort put into creating these beautiful melodies must have been unimaginable.

One thing I liked about the music was how it incorporated traditional and modern elements. Respecting tradition and bringing it to life via innovative ways such as combining it with modern music to bring a refreshing experience is something that other cultures can seek to emulate. In this way, tradition can preserve its original flavour and still remain relevant enough to be passed down to future generations.

The Morals

The character development in this anime received quite a bit of criticism, but I am not critical of it. I still liked the straightforward and pure personality that the characters in this anime present. To me, what stands out the best in this anime, beyond its highly acclaimed audiovisual effects, is the traditional morals that it promotes through the storylines of every character.

In the beginning, the values of filial piety and industriousness are shown when the main character, Tanjiro Kamado, works hard to sell charcoal for a living to support his family when he was still in his teenage years. The job involves chopping down trees, as well as travelling up and down the mountain he lives in - all of which are extremely physically exhausting. Yet he persists so that his family could get by and be able to live under decent conditions. Later in the anime, industriousness is also demonstrated when Zenitsu only mastered one form of thunder breathing by putting in much effort for his training, but it was powerful enough to beat up demons, proving that anyone can become great by giving their all even at a single thing.

The value that is expressed the most in this anime is the kinship between Tanjiro and his family, especially the acts of kinship displayed with his only surviving family - Nezuko, albeit her being turned into a demon. Tanjiro never gave up on his sister when she turned into a human, and gave everything he had in search of a cure to turn her back into a human, even though most Demon Slayers would not have hesitated to kill her. 

Familial bonds and love were also demonstrated through the backstory of various demons. The story of the "Spider Demons" family in this anime proved that familial bonds could not be gained through fear and subjugation, but by unconditional love and trust toward one's family members. Nowadays, many families are fractured, separated and twisted. Such values are sorely needed to improve the dismal state of families in many places around the world.

Other values expressed in this anime would include respect and gratitude for others. Some humans tried to turn into a demon because their work was disrespected by others and fell into despair. On the other hand, Tanjiro exemplified this value well by not looking down at anyone, including demons. Instead of simply killing demons, he was actively trying to understand the motivations behind their heinous acts and help them overcome their troubles, going as far as to offer them a kind act in their final moments in life. As for gratitude, Zenitsu became a demon slayer because an old man helped him pay off his debts caused by falling for a scam by a woman. Zenitsu wanted to work for him to repay the debt, despite whining a lot about the old man's training.

It is not hard to spot references to these traditional values which had been honoured by millennia in much of Asia. Many of these values come from Confucianism, a philosophy that heavily influenced the politics, society, economics and culture of East Asian countries. Unfortunately, Confucianism did not sell off as well as the American Ideals which were widely known through popular media. Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba provides a promising future to which these Asian values and beliefs can be more widely known and understood by people around the world.

What I learned from "Terror in Resonance"

Terror in Resonance. Zankyou no Terror. This is basically an anime about two beings who technically should not exist threatening to blow up places around Tokyo to get their voices heard. It has a beautiful story.

Poster for Terror in Resonance.

These two boys were part of the three who made it alive from the failed experimentation on children under the age of five using an accidentally developed pharmaceutical drug that is thought to cause superintelligence in the subjects of the experiment. This experiment is called "Project Athena" and as of the end of the anime, all 26 children who were part of the experiment died. The motive for the experiment was to create superhuman intelligence (inspired by people with Savant Syndrome) - the ultimate weapon - that would help Japan to be independent from its misery and humiliation ever since the end of World War II. The desire for a few politicians created such a horrific experiment, as well as the theft of a new atomic bomb prototype created by the US, and resulted in a crisis when Nine (one of the two boys) released the atomic bomb to the stratosphere and its explosion will release powerful electromagnetic waves that destroy all electrical appliances.

What got me interested and started researching was savant syndrome. It is a real condition in which the mentally disabled are able to demonstrate qualities that far surpass others in aspects like memorisation, language learning, creating art, crunching large numbers...

After more researching online, I was amazed by Daniel Tammet's story. Not only he had savant syndrome but also synesthesia, which allowed him to perceive numbers with other senses, enabling to give each number a unique shape, texture, colour and feel. I really think there is a high probability of this person inspiring the anime. Synesthesia was mentioned in the anime too, as Twelve (the other boy) was able to see colour in sounds, and told Lisa that her voice was a rare pale yellow. Incidentally, Tammet was able to learn Icelandic, which apparently is a difficult language, in 7 days and made it in time for an interview. In the anime, there were many references to Iceland, especially in the music Nine liked to listen to, and the Icelandic word von which means "hope".

Although having such awesome mental capabilities might not be possible for most of us, I believe there is something that can be learnt from such mental conditions. They provide insights in how learning occurs, and how we can optimise our learning process to increase the effectiveness of the learning.

I understood some concepts from a video summary of Barbara Oakley's Learning How to Learn book. It takes a considerable effort for our brain to form neural connections that play a crucial world in our learning process. These connections need to be consistently maintained not by repeating the learning of the content but by actively trying to retrieve the memory. Otherwise, such connections would weaken and eventually break off over time as the brain does its own "pruning" to forget things that are not important for us to know.

Back to savant syndrome and synesthesia, I believe that when we add more flavour to what we learn and incorporate more of our senses, what we are trying to learn can be more deeply etched in our brain. In addition, these mental conditions allowed me to gain a new understanding of how intelligence works - a large number of connections that function to help the brain make sense of the world and survive in it. It seems like this is similar to how machines work - the more the number of connections, the higher the amount of operations they are able to perform, and the higher their efficiency and "intelligence" will be. Each data point represent a new set of connections, thereby causing these machines to increase in complexity and in turn, their abilities. Likewise, if we are able to connect something new to what we already know, to make it more colourful and tangible, our brain will be able to digest this more easily. This could be similar to Tammet's thought processes when doing Math, the numbers change in their shape and form while he processes complex calculations, and memorising more than 22,000 digits of Pi to him was describing what he saw in a film (that conjured out of all these numbers).

However, before we are too quick to accept that this theory of how the brain works is true, my beliefs on these were mostly dispelled by an article on Aeon. It wrote that thinking the brain as a complex machine might not be the most accurate. Our brains do not actually make any signatures of what we learn. That means that all our perceptions and knowledge are not stored physically, and we can only guess as to what the brain is thinking through its electrical activity, which has no obvious pattern that tells us what is going on in the brain.

All these sound so magical. The brain is the most complex object in the universe, and there is so much we do not understand about it. The Aeon article fascinated me so much that I began to wonder whether our brains are even more powerful than quantum computers, which make use of quantum properties like superposition and entanglement to greatly boost the computing power we already have on this planet. It would be a wonder if technology can catch up and even surpass this organ and it is closer to reaching than we think - look at artificial intelligence, and we already have a robot citizen, Sophia.

Tammet is such an interesting person. I cannot wait to view his TED talk once I am finished with this blog post.

References:
https://www.aruma.com.au/about-us/blog/5-amazing-people-with-savant-syndrome-the-truth-behind-rain-man/
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2005/04/man-who-memorized-pi
https://aeon.co/essays/your-brain-does-not-process-information-and-it-is-not-a-computer
https://www.research.ibm.com/ibm-q/learn/what-is-quantum-computing/
https://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_tammet_different_ways_of_knowing/transcript

Neighbours: a reflection

I was doing some Mathematics questions and there was loud music which one of my neighbours started playing. What was more annoying than the loudness was the fact that the songs played sounded quite catchy and got stuck in my mind. I only noticed about this problem today because the music was so loud that it distracted me from my Maths.

I started to think of whether there is anyway I can complain to my neighbours about this, only to realise I have no right to do so because I am also guilty of this kind of inconsideration at times. I remembered my parents telling me to lower the volume of my laptop speakers late at night because its loudness could wake my family members up. I am not sure whether what I am doing in my room has affected my neighbours, but I believed I certainly did cause trouble for them in one way or another.

I should work to become more like Gandhi, to set a good role model for others, before I can tell others what to do.

Mahatma Gandhi and the role of a role model

I remembered this story clearly because the ex-chief commissioner of St John Brigade Singapore once shared this with the Officer Training Course cohort, whom I was included.

As I was not able to remember the exact details anymore, I have to quote from some other sources to augment whatever I remembered. Anyway, The story goes like this:

A mother came to Gandhi complaining that her son ate too much sugar and asked him to say or do something to inspire the child to give up the substance. She felt the boy would listen to Gandhi as the child idolised him.

The pair waited while Gandhi looked at the mother then simply said, “Come back in two weeks.”

When they returned, Gandhi spoke directly to the child. “Boy, you should not eat sugar. It is bad for your health.”

The mother asked why he had not said that two weeks ago. Gandhi smiled, then said, “Mother, two weeks ago I was still eating sugar myself.”

Gandhi believed so much in integrity that he would not counsel anything he did not do himself.

I think what is important in a role model is the integrity he has, so that others will be able to trust him and more likely to follow his suggestions. Otherwise, no one will take orders from a person who has double standards.

That is why from my personal anecdote earlier in this post, I could not do anything until I showed consideration for others.

Extension: neighbourliness in Singapore

This incident made me also think whether we have become less accommodating of each other over time. I live in Singapore, where majority of the population, with myself included, reside in high-rise flats.

To encourage racial and religious harmony, as well as community cohesiveness and bonding, there was a Ethnic Integration Policy to ensure a balanced mix of many different types of people were housed in the same block and neighbourhood. The intention is commendable - to minimise chances of any ethnic enclaves forming up, so people could more or less get along with each other.

But, for myself, I do not usually converse with my neighbours, and I see no reason too. I am usually stressed out when being with other people, so when I come back home, I am craving for personal space and personal time. Talking with more people is the last thing I will want to do. Hence, neighbours to me are passers-by on the corridor, excluded from my social circle.

I am not alone in this, according to this article from the Straits Times, less people are concerned about being good neighbours.

SKM general secretary William Wan said people's lack of interest in interacting more with neighbours could be due to their lack of time.

"Surveys have shown that Singaporeans have longer working hours than others in the world.... by the time they go home, they have dinner, watch the news for a while, then it's time to go to bed. They're tired after a long day at work."

Dr Wan felt various government efforts to build neighbourly ties had succeeded, but "people are quite content with superficial relationships and have not considered the advantages of stronger bonds with neighbours".

He said it was vital to have more neighbourliness so people could turn to one another for help and could also be more aware of suspicious activities.

National University of Singapore sociologist Paulin Straughan said the year-on-year change in figures was "marginal", and pointed out that not exchanging greetings often is not necessarily an indicator of bad neighbourly ties, but could simply be due to neighbours not seeing one another often.

Retiree David Kwok, 67, was concerned about the growing proportion of people preferring to maintain their privacy. The Tanjong Pagar resident said: "If a lift breaks down, such people may prefer to just wait for others to give feedback about the lift. Worse, if there are emergencies such as fires, such people may just think of themselves."

He added: "We should have good relations with neighbours. You never know when you need help."

And here are the findings from the poll on neighbourliness from the article: (information is accurate as of year 2017)

Maybe... if there are more reasons for us to be reliant on our neighbours for help, will the situation improve? For local communities, there are few events where all of us are able to take part in (and still need register!). I have read that in countries such as Japan, people have obligations (or rather duties?) as a community - they have to clean up their own streets as there are usually no cleaners and inform each other of recent happenings in the community via the kairanban.

We still have a long way to go before we are able to function as one community instead of a group of individuals and families housed under the same roofs.

Social Media is an All-out War

Let's talk about where social media calls home - the Internet

The Internet has been a noble cause which contributes to a greater good. It was designed to be a reflection of humanity, to enable us to be ourselves, or did it?

There are many controversies surrounding how we use the Internet nowadays, from cybercrime and fake news to echo chambers and censorship, the Internet presents a whole new world before everyone. This new world can be quite diverse. In some places, like the Dark Net, it is shady, some sites are clearly illegal and used for malicious purposes. At the same time, there exists authoritative, state-regulated site where important transactions and activity occurs. While for some sites, it can be a mix of both.

The Internet also has a lot of other names to it too. No one can quite pin the one that we agree on using, and that represents how people can view the Internet differently. It is also known as the Net, the World Wide Web, the Web, and there must be more of such variations out there.

I believe it is irrefutable that the Internet has been one of the greatest treasures of mankind. However, our use of it might have diverged from what its original intent. It can seem to be surprising that something of such a large scale and has much influence in our lives originally started out from a purpose.

The inventor of the world wide web always maintained his creation was a reflection of humanity – the good, the bad and the ugly. But Berners-Lee’s vision for an “open platform that allows anyone to share information, access opportunities and collaborate across geographical boundaries” has been challenged by increasingly powerful digital gatekeepers whose algorithms can be weaponised by master manipulators. (The Guardian)

 Let's look at a one challenge of the vision for the Internet.

Enter social media, which connects us on a deep level

The first few social media sites were most likely used for connecting for other people, building relationships, and maintain in contact with your social circle online. Since then, social media has evolved to embody new purposes and new vision. It has become a news aggregator, a gossip centre, an endless flow of entertainment, an education platform, a place to shop... The list goes on and on.

But how we use social media can threaten the very roots of our society - where most of us in the real world learn to get along and develop an understanding with each other. Those who seek to destroy this will pay. However, social media has given all of us power to spout whatever we like. Instead of being something that is beneficial for us, it is starting to look like a landfill with foul-smelling trash, or a battlefield where people start to hurt each other.

What was worse, according to a recent video published by Vox, social media is rewarding these "bad apples".

My opinion on this video

I find that it is generally well-substantiated, with the usually dry and uninteresting research brought to life through dialogues and drama. This has been different from their usual style of presenting their facts using graphics and animations. I feel such a means of presentation can relate to its audience better.

I really learnt a lot from watching this video. It has also reinforced whatever I have been taught about social media in school, and confirmed many more research papers on how social media is fallible.

An interesting thing about social media is it has a profound influence over our emotions. This article from BBC Future is worth a read:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns

I hope that while people respect the freedom for others to speak their mind in their online world, we can achieve some kind of balance that makes the Internet a place where everyone can utilise it to its fullest potential for the betterment of ourselves. I believe it should not just be the worst of humanity that makes it to the headlines, more can come from the amazing things people can do to benefit others using the Internet.