My life experience in Changi Prison (Cluster B)

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:12 am

I'm not sure the US is a good example of inequality. There are so many new immigrants at any point in time and almost all are going to be poor.

My lasting memory of living in the States is of the people's zeal to make it, and believing that anyone can if they knuckle down and work hard enough.

A better measure would be one that measured long-term entrenched class divisions. But maybe it is a moot point, i.e. why would one wish to see financial equality anyway?

p.s. The poor in the UK are subsidised and kept that way, so they will remain dependent on the state and keep voting for the party that pays them most (Labour). But don't get me going on politics eh hehe

earthfriendly · Post by **earthfriendly** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:16 am

So how do I see myself fall into all this? I am still learning and figuring out how I fall into this one big universe rather than being confined to my immediate situation (upper?) middle class. I find it stiffling to be confined to one way of life, one way of thinking, one way to behave and act. I want to open up the world for myself and my daughters.

Next summer, I want to take them to another country to experience a different way of life. I want to open up a world of possibilities for them and for myself. Either that or I will wilt!

earthfriendly · Post by **earthfriendly** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:22 am

JR8 wrote:There are so many new immigrants at any point in time and almost all are going to be poor.

Not all new immigrants will be poor. I am referring to economics. Well yes, they have to start from scratch, start building a new network in a new country and learn a new lifestyle. But if you have a good education, knows English and work in a field that's in demand, you can land a good job. How well they integrate into the existing culture, that's a different matter.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:25 am

earthfriendly wrote:So how do I see myself fall into all this? I am still learning and figuring out how I fall into this one big universe rather than being confined to my immediate situation (upper?) middle class. I find it stiffling to be confined to one way of life, one way of thinking, one way to behave and act. I want to open up the world for myself and my daughters.

Next summer, I want to take them to another country to experience a different way of life. I want to open up a world of possibilities for them and for myself. Either that or I will wilt!

Isn't that a luxury of the very privilege, that you er, aspire to be without?

earthfriendly · Post by **earthfriendly** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:27 am

So true JRB! I am part of the system

. No one escapes the system!

earthfriendly · Post by **earthfriendly** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:30 am

Let me know if you find a way to escape the system. I will elope with you. LOL!

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:32 am

Hehehe....

Have you thought of buying a holiday home in say Malaysia or Indonesia. You can 'go back to the land' but still have a return ticket out.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:34 am

earthfriendly wrote:Let me know if you find a way to escape the system. I will elope with you. LOL!

Ooh heavens!

p.s. I think the way to escape 'the system' is to just not give a shit. It feels uncomfortable at first, but after a while you just stop caring.

earthfriendly · Post by **earthfriendly** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:55 am

JR8 wrote:Hehehe....

Have you thought of buying a holiday home in say Malaysia or Indonesia. You can 'go back to the land' but still have a return ticket out.

Something worth thinking about. Not so much about buying but more of a long term vacation stay. Any spot in Malaysia that you would recommend?

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 1:13 am

earthfriendly wrote:
JR8 wrote:Hehehe....

Have you thought of buying a holiday home in say Malaysia or Indonesia. You can 'go back to the land' but still have a return ticket out.
Something worth thinking about. Not so much about buying but more of a long term vacation stay. Any spot in Malaysia that you would recommend?

Well I suppose what matters is that it's down to where you feel genuinely at home.

I'm considering building a house on Tioman. London <> Singapore <> Tioman. A 3-centred liefstyle. Hmmm.

The Perhentian islands are also meant to be nice. But again, I think you need to find a place where you feel like you just naturally 'slot right in'. Tioman does it for me, and life is too short.

BTW I know chalets in Tioman that go for (from) RM800/month. You see yachties up there who stay for a few months a year. Maybe that kind of arrangement (not necessarily Tioman) could be a starting point? A toe in the water as such.

Brah · Post by **Brah** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 9:18 am

Hey, I didn't write that!

earthfriendly wrote:
ksl wrote:
The evolution appears to have an American slant to it, with the social structure of building walls around the rich and middle class, they very rarely see what goes on in the more depressed areas of society, where local politics and police tend to ignore the problems the term 'Hoodies' and rap is now a favourite cult, and lets face it the baseball caps really does suit some of the idiots.

Times had an article on the English riot. There's a huge divide between the haves and have-nots and the USA being the next country with huge inequality. Which I am being more aware. Each class (upper, middle and lower) lives in its own cocoon with all its insularity, quite separate from each other. Much as I would like to see the world / country as one big place friendly to all human kind, it ain't gonna happen soon. There seems to be more dividing rather than unifying us as a race. I see more judgmentality and intolerance rather than acceptance. More close-mindedness rather than open-mindedness.

edited by mod to eliminate extra quotes.....

Brah · Post by **Brah** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 9:20 am

That was actually my point, awkwardly phrased.

JR8 wrote:
Brah wrote: Case in opposite point is the use of guns by police in the States and the amount of gun-related crime, whereas before in the UK was less so and with less guns there were less homicides per capita. I am not a facts and figures guy, but I do believe there is a parallel, albeit opposite one, here.
Don't know how relevant that might be.

Case in point. Guns used to be legal in the UK, and there was little gun crime. Now guns are illegal and the rate of gun crime has gone off the chart.

Where is the correlation, if any?

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 9:40 am

Oh I see what you're saying (violence begets violence?).

Can I have my old gun club back then?

Brah · Post by **Brah** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:23 pm

Yeah something like that.

Also if it's in the minds of the rulers it gets in the mind of the rulees. And if it wasn't in the rulees minds there before, it legitimizes it.

Then it takes its place in lesser ways as it becomes what's acceptable by society's standards. I'm no psychologist but these ideas come from somewhere, people don't make this stuff up themselves. And often those standards get stretched, just like the ever-increasing profanity on TV, or ever-increasing overt sexuality in music or clothes or mores with increasingly younger and younger children.

For me, while they seem pretty cool to try out and maybe play once or twice (I'm not a gamer), there's no way violent computer games, or movies and the like don't get into people's subconscious-es , and in some cases that's gotta have an effect that comes out some time down the road.

Same for guns, same for accepting things like capital punishment.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sat, 10 Sep 2011 12:41 pm

Why is the crime rate so low in SG then?

I understand your argument about, setting an example and it embedding in the subconscious. But I think it only embeds in the subconscious of liberal voters. The criminal underclass, the ones with guns, couldn't give a fig, who, or what, or how. Let's be honest most of them, the criminals (not the Libs hehe), are so whacked off their heads they wouldn't know what month it is.

I don't see them looking at an armed police, and considering that 'Oh, well, if they can, we can too'

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