再造唐家社稷，重睹漢官威儀

這兩段劇詞出於清朝戲曲家 洪升 之作《长生殿·剿匪》（1688 AD）： “誓当扫清群冠，收复两京，再造唐家社稷，重睹汉官威仪，方不负平生志愿也。”

何謂唐家社稷？  一個開放進取，和諧共榮的社會。

何謂漢官威儀？  技術官員的談吐風度，展現了對政策的熟悉掌握，對世局國情的深入理解，以及樂民憂民的情懷。

兩段劇詞道出我對新加坡的期許。

Man was born free and he is everywhere in chains

Spore Sprout re-read Jean-Jacques Rousseau over the weekend ... some choice passages from The Confessions and The Social Contract.  Some ideas on equality appear even more quaint today,  fast receding in the rear-view mirror of the starship Enterprise as it hurtles through the growing great globalized social divide that has been the last quarter century.  Ahh...but how the words keep their hold on our hearts!

Aristotle ... said that men were not at all equal by nature, since some were born for slavery and others born to be masters.

Aristotle was right; but he mistook the effect for the cause.  Anyone born in slavery is born for slavery -- nothing is more certain.  Slaves, in their bondage, lose everything, even the desire to be free.  ...  But if there are slaves by nature, it is only because there has been slavery against nature.  Force made the first slaves; and their cowardice perpetuates their slavery.

...

[T]he social pact ... substitutes ... a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality that nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength and intelligence, men become equal by covenant and by right. ... Under a bad government, this equality is only an appearance and an illusion: it serves only to keep the poor in their wretchedness and sustain the rich in their usurpation.  In truth, laws are always useful to those with possessions and harmful to those who have nothing; from which it follows that the social state is advantageous to men only when all possess something and none has too much.

Once more unto the breach

KING HENRY V:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

Far from perfect

Mrs Sprout organized a small birthday party last night at the Sprout household.  Serena, the 10-year-old birthday girl, has been the classmate of Son Sprout for umpteen years.
Serena's mum observed that the older Sprouts seem to demand a great deal of Son Sprout.  Serena asked what that meant.  Mother Serena explained that Son Sprout "has to be perfect" in many ways.  Serena observed: "But he is far from perfect!"
Upon hearing this, Spore Sprout felt quite relieved.

What one man can do

Ralph Nader's accomplishments:

*Safe Drinking Water Act
*Clean Air Act
*Freedom of Information Act
*Environmental Protection Agency
*Seat Belts/Air Bags/Tire Safety
*Consumer Product Safety Act
*Pension Protection Act
*Whistleblower Protection Act
*Safe Medical Device Act
*National Traffic & Motor Vehicle Safety Act
*Clean Water Act
*Occupational Health and Safety Administration

雙英對

馬英九：「經濟學諾獎得主克魯曼、哈佛大學教授波特、日本的知名學者大前研一，以及其他在台灣投資的外商，如日本工商會、歐洲及美國商會等，都認為簽署ＥＣＦＡ對台灣利大於弊，為何民進黨的評估比美日學者和商會都悲觀？」

蔡英文：「總統，如果你是競爭學或經濟、商業大師，你剛剛講的話我可以接受。但你是這個國家的總統，你必須考慮到開放以後對這個國家所產生的衝擊和政治成本。你剛才說的克魯曼、波特，他們不是政治人物，他們沒有政治責任，你有政治責任，你有沒有想過，ＥＣＦＡ會帶給我們這個社會多大的社會成本、政治成本？身為一個領導人，你難道只是聽商學大師的講法嗎？如果這樣的話，我們為什麼要選一個總統呢？」

To fight the world's fight

Without reminders from time to time, Spore Sprout is apt to forget that he owes much to many others for what he has and for who he is.

In reading the newspapers today, he came across a timely reminder.  A well-known benefactor is once again advertising for needy youths to send in applications for scholarship assistance.  The standards set by the benefactor for youths to aspire to are:

• literary and scholastic attainments
• energy to use one's talents to the full
• truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship
• moral force of character and instincts to lead, and to take an interest in one's fellow beings.

Spore Sprout tries to keep these standards constantly in mind, the better to pay back what has been given to him.

Benazir

Last month, a United Nations inquiry into the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto -- who died from wounds suffered during a gun and bomb attack at a political rally in the city of Rawalpindi on 27 December 2007 -- presented its findings to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Photographer John Moore caught Benazir pensive at the rally and leaving the rally, at the final moment of her life.

Spore Sprout used to take a keen interest in the career of Benazir Bhutto on account of the schools they went to.  Ever since she met her horrific end, he has sometimes wondered, when paying respects to the dead, what it would take for him to face a similarly fateful moment with some measure of equanimity.

Of all the things that occurred to him ... this: that his cause be just.

Courteous cities

Spore Sprout travels a great deal on business.  Wherever he goes, whenever he can, Spore Sprout gets on the local subway train, as much for the close encounter with his host city as for the time saved.

These days trains in many cities in Asia have "courtesy seats" that nearby signs urge you to give up to fellow passengers who are pregnant, underage, elderly or generally infirm.  As he is on the whole curious, and often tired, Spore Sprout typically watches these seats closely.   He finds there are observable differences among the cities in terms of the frequency with which subway train passengers give up their "courtesy seats" to those who may need them more.  In decreasing order of courteousness based on this measure, the four cities below rank as follows:

Taipei  >  Beijing  >  Hong Kong  >  Singapore