Igkh, China

Many predict that in twenty to thirty years, China will overtake America’s economy and become the world’s greatest economy. To the Chinese – in and out of China, - this serves as a shining beacon of hope. These people hope that in the supposed future-bound victory of the oriental dragon, they will be finally viewed equal to the Caucasians and Japanese – the crème de la crème of international society.

The tragedy is that despite my obviously Chinese appearance – with the characteristic one-line eyes, pear-shaped nose, and pale yellow skin – I am not one of those people. Rather than basking in the joys of this hope, I drown in lamentations of the possibility that in its increasing momentum, Chinese culture, mainly its language of ugly complexities will overtake American culture and the language of which I am currently writing with.

These nightmarish speculations are, however, merely speculations – as nightmarish as they may be. English is already deeply rooted in world society – from England’s colonial dominance – to America’s twentieth century cultural dominance, that a gigantic shift between two languages of completely different characteristics is highly unlikely. The likelihood of the world being forced into dumbly memorizing three thousand characters is outlandish – simply because most of us aren’t willing or sharp enough to do so.

It is, of course, moronic to believe that an economy reliant on inferiorly copying and manufacturing American/Japanese/European products will overtake the economies responsible for the original innovation and artistic developments. After all, the land is known as a land of unoriginality and aesthetic distaste, that for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, they consulted with Caucasians for its architectural and systematic development. Sure, these people invented the compass, gunpowder, paper, whatever. But that was ancient – many centuries ago. It has since devolved and only recently did that devolution halt to a positive outlook for the nation.

It doesn’t stop there. Chinese music has never been viewed as one of high sophistication – contrary to the great music produced by Europeans. Their opera singers sound like drunken idiots shrieking, and while Western music have left boybands and their effeminate crud behind in the nineties, the people of the orient are still caught up in the inferior Eastern renditions of melodramatic vomit – F4, rain, Jay Chou, that lot.

The exponential growth China is currently experiencing is like the growth Europe and America experienced in their industrial revolutions. Today, while America, Europe, and Japan are already moving from the information era to the biotech era, China – still predominantly a land of primitive peasantry – is only moving from its agricultural era to its industrial era – leagues behind its Western and Nippon counterparts.

Economic dominance does not always result in the same occurring for cultural realms. Take a look at the USSR, whose political and economic dominance spanning for over half a century did not result in the global popularization of Soviet culture and language.

Why I rant about things that are decades ahead of our time is – in truth – due to this overwhelming fear of the things everyone predicts – and a secret fear that for once, my foolish father may actually be right.

LAST NOTE: to 'Nicholas', to everyone

To 'Nicholas',

I have never felt so upset about a person I do not know. I haven't even been directly involved in this issue and I cannot believe how angry I am right now. You have driven me to boiling point.

"As for my bashing of homosexuals and others, haven't you ever felt like pissing people off?

Hey, apparently you people are pissed off. I'm glad to see that my efforts have not been futile."

You just admitted that you're simply out to annoy us. Not only are you a pathetic person who corrects other people and doesn't look over his own writing; you're doing it because you have nothing better to do.

We're here to learn and practice our writing and we would love constructive comments. If you think cynix is "rash" then why do you comment and criticize in the same tone? You're no better than us, 'Nick'. You're so much more pathetic. And as a side-note; some part of me is beginning to think that you're even targeting certain people as victims to your poorly written bouts of verbal abuse. I have reserved judgment in the past, but honestly, no wonder you don't have a blog of your own. How embarrassing would that be?

'Nicholas', this is a last warning. You are seriously getting on my nerves. I don't think I'm alone when I say that I think you're from SPH. Perhaps from our own grade, or the 12th (in which case you are a socially retarded person with no other purpose in life but to make others' lives living hell) If you are then you had better stop and not cross the line. Worst case scenario; don't think that having an anonymous profile makes you invisible. We can trace your IP.

If you're not from SPH, I will ask to close our blog to the public and make it exclusive. I don't need to be subject to a pathetic, pompous scholar's pointless, poisonous commenting.

Last warning; back off and criticize your own aimless and otherwise negative existence. The rest of us have better things to do with people who are worth our time.


To English bloggers,

I'm also addressing my team members here; let's stop wasting our time on this person. Just recently, epitath of twilight posted a comment that was unnecessarily rude. This chicken of a man who calls himself 'Nicholas' is seriously interfering in the whole point of the blog here. We're here to practice and develop our writing skills. It is our hope that we will constructively criticize each other and mature together in our education. We don't need--and now that things are this way, we must not have--a pathetic, cowardly something-or-other with too much time in his hands making us unreasonably upset and disturbing the whole process.

I'm aware that some people think it's exciting that this whole comment-war is happening. I disagree. I find it, in the least, heavily annoying, and now it is beginning to border on verbal abuse. I've only been watching the ensuing battle between you guys and this 'Nick', and it's tiring me out. In the beginning I was so happy with the idea of a blog; I wanted to see what other people's writing styles were like and what kinds of things they'd talk about when given the chance.

I don't want to see people spitting fire and using up space on our blogs at an anonymous user who is, honestly, not worth our time. This 'Nicholas' is being given more attention than he deserves (which is to say, none). He's giggling with undisguised glee (see above comment excerpt) at our attempts to bash him. This guy doesn't care--he has no good name to uphold anyway. With his hidden identity, he assumes that he's not accountable for the things he says. But we are; you are responsible for what you say in your comments, just like I'm responsible for what I say here. We can hide under nicknames and aliases, but we know who we are. Sooner or later things are going to get worse and maybe then you'll agree when I say I don't really see how this is exciting.

It annoys me when I see tons of comments on the posts made on 'Nicholas' and so very little on topics you guys have written that I think deserve feedback. On the other hand it angers me when I see this aliased twit making snide and hurtful comments on blogs that I think deserve to be paid attention to in other areas.

I think we should stop this; and this time I'm doing what I can to help it stop. From now on, any more scathing and pointless comments by 'Nicholas' in Monochromatic Rainbows will be immediately deleted. Comments that attempt to egg this retard on will also be deleted. That includes any comments to follow this post.

Please take this seriously. I'm sick of hearing 'Nicholas this,' and 'Nicholas that,' when you could do something else with the breath you're wasting on a guy who's not even brave enough to be held accountable for his own words. Personally, I would rather back off. Worse comes to worst; no more blogging. It's not worth the grief.

-Rachel, English A1 HL, 11 IB.

P.S.: Twilight, I deleted your comment. Please mind your language. 'Nicholas' is not the only person who needs to learn to be civil.

To Inherit Fire

Living fire begets cold, impotent ash. –Things Fall Apart

Earlier in English class we were discussing Part Two of Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, and we got around to talking about whether or not Okonkwo deserved any of our sympathy when his own son turned against him. Most of the class were against Okonkwo, and I suppose their dislike of him is justified. But despite his hotheaded temperament and condescending attitude towards other people, I think Okonkwo is still entitled to a little bit of pity, or, in my personal opinion, a substantial degree of sympathy.

I could never imagine walking in his shoes. If I had been in Okonkwo’s place, how would I have felt? I don’t know what it’s like to be a parent, but I suppose it has a lot to do with placing your hopes on someone else’s shoulders; expecting them to carry it onwards into the future that you can’t be a part of.

Wouldn’t it be heartbreaking, then, if the very person you trusted with your everything shrugged your cherished dreams off his shoulders and let them hit the ground?

Maybe my friends are right, to some extent. Okonkwo has to take some responsibility in causing Nwoye to run away to the Christians. He should never have pressured Nwoye so much. He should never have assumed that Nwoye wanted the same things as he had as a young man. Maybe despite knowing Nwoye wanted different things, Okonkwo was doing all he could to give Nwoye the best out of the life he knew. Okonkwo is a father, after all, and perhaps—even if we’re not willing to acknowledge it—he, like our parents, knows what it’s like to not want to follow your father’s footsteps; your mother’s footsteps. Perhaps when our parents were like us they had decided never to follow someone else’s decisions, and ended up making choices they never thought they’d agree to; walking down paths they’d hoped to avoid while still dreaming that they would end up somewhere different.

I think we sympathize with Nwoye more easily because most of us know what it’s like to fall under the pressure of someone else’s expectations. We readily back him in his decision to tear away from his father’s ways because some part of us has already known what it’s like to want the same thing. If I had been in his position I would have done the same—I suppose I would have at least contemplated running away.

Let’s imagine it this way; Okonkwo’s modern day equivalent would be a prominent bussinessman with influence left and right in a sprawling metropolis—a highly successful public figure whose life is characterized by outstanding achievements in an Ivy League university and an offer to join a prestigious company upon finishing his second year. It is hard enough to imagine being a daughter to such a man—but to be a son who is expected to continue the legacy? In my head I imagine Atlas with the world on his shoulders, passing it on to a nervous, slippery-fingered, scrawny teen who knows the world will tumble and crash out of his hold.

Then again, isn’t that just what we are expected to do?

In an episode of Heroes, Peter Petrelli comments that “...we’re just cheap knockoffs of our fathers.” For me personally, it feels like a punch to the gut. It hurts more than a little to know that no matter what we do we’ll still be compared to our parents. That we won’t have any trace of things that people thought would still be imprinted in us. That we’ll probably never be good enough to satisfy what people expect. In this sense, I sympathize with Nwoye.

Is it any wonder then that we want to break away from the paths our parents have set out for us? Isn’t it plausible to think that we attempt to build paths other than someone else’s because we’re scared of being less than what they were? I don’t ever want to be known as ash remaining from someone else’s fire.

I don’t want to grow up chasing my father’s shadows and pursuing my mother’s victories and mistakes. I don’t want to destroy what they worked so hard to build. I don’t want to be the one responsible for the look in their faces when they find their life-long struggles are for naught.

Do you still think Okonkwo deserves no sympathy?

A part of me wants to exclaim that I could never forgive Nwoye for tearing down what Okonkwo had given his all to build. I could never forgive Nwoye for taking the dreams Okonkwo had carried with him from childhood to fatherhood—the dreams he had kept alive by pouring out his sweat, blood, and tears for—and allowing them crash and burn. I could never forgive Nwoye for insinuating that Okonkwo’s lifelong struggles held no importance, by walking out on everything his father worked for.

If Okonkwo held true to the hotheaded and violent nature we have associated him with, I would have expected him to take his machete and separate Nwoye’s head from his body. Doesn’t that sound like something he would do?

But people like me who have no idea what it’s like to be a father or a mother will never understand what it is that makes them love their children so much. I may never understand why Okonkwo still allowed Nwoye to pursue his own choices; why Okonkwo would allow Nwoye to build a new life and support dreams of his own when Okonkwo’s hopes had been sullied and broken beyond repair by his son’s betrayal.

I may never understand how Okonkwo can retain love for a traitor. But at least I can imagine him thinking about Nwoye and sighing at the fire. Perhaps at that moment some semblance of weakness crossed his features. Perhaps at that moment we would be able to see the face of a broken old man, mourning the death of his wasted, uncontinued dreams; still harboring an amazing, undying love for the boy who blew out the fire and left behind only ash.

To the delightful Nicholas Vosalalalblah. Person, thing.

Disclaimer: This post is solely the intellectually deficient opinion of Steph/Tank.S, and in no way reflects on her A1 blog buddies, class and or teacher.

~

My post today bears little or no importance to the world or our lives in general. However since I have very little to write on (due to my less than exhilarating life), and I MUST post an entry by tomorrow, I suppose I shall have to make do with the topic or a person that per say, antagonizes (almost) all current A1/2 bloggers.

Nicholas Vosanovic.

Nicholas Vosanovic, for those who have not been paying attention to this blog's, WWJD, etc.'s comments, he is a person, an anonymous person with no blog under his belt, who blocks his profile and who needlessly complains and criticizes everyone’s blog entry.

I’ll give you all several excerpts. (Trust me, there are a lot to choose from)

Nicholas Vosanovic said... (on Dante’s recent blog entry)

…
Considering the fact that your style is meager, your writing feels forced and suffocating to read, your words are not even contextually correct, and your grammar is like that of a child, I am quite sure that you picked these words from a thesaurus and will probably forget what they mean in a couple of hours or days.

I mean, just take a look at what you're writing. Your style is very casual and unstylish yet you use such uncasual words. It makes me feels constipated.
…
Using your thesaurus, you are attempting to glorify yourself and cover up your insecurities about how bad a writer you are. Since NONE of these words in your first paragraph are even used correctly, it makes it look even more obvious that you are using a thesaurus and that you are doing so very ineptly.

Thus you are making a complete fool out of yourself.

September 9, 2007 10:58 PM

(Still on Dante’s blog)

… So if you insist on practicing your english and using these words that you don't deserve to use, write in a diary or something. Don't embarrass yourself.

September 10, 2007 8:00 PM

Nicholas Vosanovic said... (on Cynix’s blog entry)

you are repeating the same ending as the one you had for your previous post.

don't you have any new ideas?

by the way I don't think its true that technology is causing people to become socially incapable.

maybe you're just socially retarded and you're blaming it on technology because you have noone else to blame.

September 11, 2007 7:54 PM

Nich V. again on Cynix's gay blog entry.

Nicholas Vosanovic said...

why are you so self-righteous and acting like you know everything about morality?

who are you to say that homosexuals don't choose to be gay? they're so perverted that for sure, they had to make decisions to become so sick.

and you are very passionate in this writing. are you homosexual?"

Alright, honestly, while our dear Nicholas is not always wrong, is it really necessary for him to stalk A1/2 blogs 24/7 for grammar mistakes and errors?

Granted, cynix is often times overly self righteous, and all of us don't have the perfect English he insinuates he has, still, Nicholas honey, whoever you are, you must be a very, very, VERY sad person. Do you honestly find pleasure in criticizing others? This is an ENGLISH CLASS blog, which is meant to be an outlet for people to improve their, wait for it, WRITING SKILLS. Sure, correct our grammar if you so desire, but those malicious comments?

Don’t get me wrong, I adore web fights, it is fun, but you are doing so anonymously and without having a blog yourself. You mock us so indiscriminately whilst shrouding yourself under the anonymity that is the World Wide Web.

If you are so grand, please DO enlighten us of your writing prowess, Nicholas Vosanovic! Do you really have enough gravitas to claim superiority over us all in content, style and grammar?

I know, my blog entry is at the moment sub-par, but unlike Nicholas I actually have tests to study for, essays to write! Why are you so intent on shattering our already brittle shards of self-confidence?

Do you (and in certain cases I) derive instant self glorification from it? A smug sense of superiority? Just as you said to Dante, “Using your thesaurus, you are attempting to glorify yourself and cover up your insecurities about how bad a writer you are.”

Aren’t you doing the exact same thing? You said it yourself; you are using your superior grammar knowledge to glorify yourself!

Yes, we may indeed suck, but what are we, 16, 17? We have more essays to write, grammar mistakes to pen, horrid sentences to articulate, but unlike you we don’t hide behind the system of anonymous commenting.

We type our pieces, hoping that our effort will be rewarded by a kind comment, but what do we get? You, Nicholas dear, stamping whatever satisfaction we had five minutes prior. (Yes, 5 minutes people, Cynix posted at around 7 PM then Nicholas posted at around 7 PM)

You see Nicholas, whoever you are; I commend your love of English and your particularity on word usage. But when that love of English turns to hate and that once beautiful love turns to glaringly spiteful comments, (which probably made someone cry *cough* cynix *cough*)I really think you should take another leisurely pursuit.

Like making your own blog. Enlighten from of our dreary simpleton-esque mistakes; enlighten us all to what blogging is really like. And you know, use that obviously superior talent of yours to actually, I don’t know, WRITE?

What is it with people and their ‘smug sense of superiority’ anyhow? Why do we try endlessly and ridiculously hard to hail ourselves superior to another person verbally and mentally? (Or is that just me and dear Nick?)

Is it because we try to compensate our short comings by scoff at another’s even shorter short comings?

Is it because we simply don't want to become ordinary and therefore boring. The thing is, if everyone is superior in someway, and if everyone is special in their own way, then isn't everyone basically and drearily bland and un-special?

Why are we all so terribly afraid of being ordinary, at being seen inferior, of being seen useless, weak and pathetic to the extent that highlight other’s weakness solely to hide our own from others and even unconsciously from ourselves as well?

Succinctly said, I have no idea.

Maybe, Nicholas does.

Van Wyck Brooks once said, "People of small caliber are always carping. They are bent on showing their own superiority, their knowledge or prowess or good breeding."

Is that true for you Nick?

Much love, Steph.

P.S. : Please DO engage me in a comment fight Nicholas V.!

I pinky promise you that I shall copy paste your comment onto this post! :)

Indonesia's Incredibly Bright Future

Note: Somehow, this post (Indonesia's Incredibly Bright Future) written and posted on Wednesday was deleted accidentally. So I'm reposting it regretfully.

Disclaimer: I wrote this on caffeine high and this post contains broad generalizations and does not carry the opinions of other A1 HL-ers in my group.

As an Indonesian teenager who is more proficient in writing in English than in her own native language, I often feel ashamed of my incompetence in Indonesian.

I love writing in English, I hate writing in Indonesian.

I love English Literature; I often have problems reading Indonesian Literature.

It is a sad irony and predicament for many young International educated youths today.

I don’t know from where exactly this inadequacy comes from, nor when will it end.

What is the draw of the English language anyway? Is it naturally more beautiful, most audiophilically pleasing? Is it simply a matter of taste?

Are we, young Indonesians ashamed of our country, and thus our native language? Are we just too sick and tired in the reality of this country?

A gloriously corrupt nation whose ex-president (and probably our favorite) stole $35 billion from our country and despite all his crimes still lounges at his Cendana home?

Or is it something shallower, more sinister?

Maybe we decide, hey, English makes us special, makes us more exclusive. SUPERIOR even in comparison to the national school kids.

I think so.

Amidst globalization and the supremacy of American culture, us young people, gradually and not so gradually see our Chinese, Malay, Javanese, Balinese and our hundreds of cultures as boring, ridiculous, retarded and un-awesome.

We adore bule actors while we mock and laugh at Indonesian ones.

Seeing bule’s down the street we stare, we look, we fancy.

Who cares if they really are just average folks with different pigments? They are Caucasians and thus are cooler and awesome than we are.

Secretly we all want to be Americans and or Europeans, what’s so exotic in being Asian? Most of the countries in our continent are a third world country!

We aren’t Asian Americans, but as someone put it, we’re Americanized Asians.

Well, I am. I, sadly and shamefully am.

It a distressing and often irrevocable trait, I have been raised this way; all of my friends are this way. Apparently my love of English Literature is ironical. I may have read dozens and in a few years, hundreds of English Literature, but how many Indonesian books have I read? Probably less than a dozen!

I can name great writers whom I love and adore. How many Indonesian writers do I like? One.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer.

Even his work I first read in English, and then properly switched to the Indonesian version.

Even Pram, the Nobel Prize candidate whom I so revere, is mostly unknown and ignored by most of us.

Who cares? We say, he’s dead, and he’s irrelevant! He’s sooo boring.

But that’s not the point is it? He was someone who loved this nation, this country and the people of the Indies. He who spent so many years suffering and toiling for freedom, and wrote, just wrote for our country.

I called several bookstores searching for his most famous and prominent books today. It took me calling more than four stores to finally find it.

One of the person who answered my call and heard the title of the novels, asked me the author of this book! PRAMOEDYA ANANTA TOER! I almost screamed at her.

In Gramedia, Indonesia’s biggest chain bookstore, there are probably only two racks for Indonesian literature; half of it is used up for translated classics and modern works.

But there is dozens of racks for Japanese comic books, and mindlessly moronic Americanized chick-lits.

It has been sixty over years since our independence, almost ten years since the fall of Suharto.

No one cares about the future of this nation.

We all say, someone is going to come along and change all that. Someone is going to take care of it.

Time will fix our nation. Time will make this nation great!

I know sound like a rambling visionary screaming for a change in a world and society deaf and contentedly ignorant on such matters.

Nietzsche said Visionaries lie to themselves, and liars lie to other people only. Though he is right in certain ways, he’s still incorrect and the insane Nietzsche we all love.

We are already lying to ourselves anyhow. We’re ignoring who we are (genetically), and happily too!

So, to the foreigners I say with a dyed blonde hair, blue contact lenses, black tank top, jeans and a perky smile, “Hi welcome to Indonesia, we are the new generation of Indonesians, oh don’t worry we speak English, we live the American way! We don’t give crap about Indonesia!”