24::Singapore
2.14.97
Walked through Chinatown to Clarke Quay
Tanglin Shopping Center - antiques
Clarke Quay: Chinese street opera
My impressions of Singapore: an endless shopping mall surrounded by theme parks. Coming back from mall across the street, I got lost in the maze of malls encasing the Orchard Hotel – each promising to deliver me to the lobby but forcing me to retrace my steps and try a new entrance. I was tired and it began to feel like one of those nightmares where you never find your destination. There is no hint of the "old" Singapore here.
Okay, St. Augustine was right. Original sin exists. While we long to be good, we are basically corrupt. That’s what the great religions (and great dictators, perhaps) are about - fulfilling that basic longing, helping us overcome our corrupt nature. Even when we strive to be good, our combined minor corruptions combine to make corrupt systems. That’s where the transcendent leader comes in - the one who can shift the dynamics away from corrupt practices to the high road. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Indonesia was a great place to observe the place of religion and ritual in people's lives. It defines goodness and what you have to do to be good (e.g., Ramadan and the two funeral rituals we observed). Even the traditional entertainment of the wayang (puppet theater) and the Balinese dances tell the story over and over again of what is virtue and what is vice.
And Suharto is a great example of the culmination of our corrupt nature. He is a corrupt man hanging on to power because of our cumulative greed -- for those who support Suharto the goal of wealth (and the illusion of wealth for all) represents "goodness." National stability and lots of exports are virtues overriding human rights and democracy.
I'm on my way home.
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