Quote of the week

"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." --- Friedrich Nietzsche 

Which sums up what I feel about the words "right", "wrong" and "truth". Those who took IB before would know that in TOK terms, truth = justified belief. And I don't believe we can objectively justify something (in the purest sense of justify).

My 5-minute thought on corruption

Read a few articles concerning corruption and poverty today.
There's this one main argument that keeps popping out: Politicians are corrupted because it's possible for them to do so, easier in some countries than others.
Just wanna say that corruption is not limited to politicians.
Anyway, yes, I can't deny that having more leniency toward corruption increases the likelihood of having corruption.
But the fact that they could doesn't mean that they would or that they ought to do so.
I refuse to believe that there are people out there who can get a good night's sleep knowing that what they're doing has a direct/indirect link to people dying from poverty.
No matter if they are forced to be corrupt (i.e. so poor themselves that they don't even have room to care for others) or engaging in corruption out of the sheer greed for more wealth (e.g. rich politicians who can't seem to stash away enough money),
I want to believe they have a moral conscience. The very minimal moral conscience of feeling guilty because they know what they are doing is akin to murder, some more directly than others.

What about me and you, then? Is not saving akin to deliberate killing as well?

An Automatic Digression (incomplete)

Jumping off the platform

Landing onto the stone-filled tracks; automatic

Freeing and binding himself to a fate he creates; automatic

Train stops and the train operator blinked; automatic

Announcing a service fault; automatic

His voice rang and touched the cold metal walls of the halted train

Blared across the platforms of the station which name I cannot

Remember

Doors slid open; automatic

Women in heels, men with ties,

children carrying similar school bags with their innocent, wide eyes

Exited and formed a seamlessly long line; automatic

Staff at the counter ready to mark tickets

Passengers got their money back without a hitch; automatic

I felt sick in my stomach; automatic

I felt like vomiting; automatic

I wanted to sit down and stop walking; automatic

I didn't know where I was in this foreign country

But I didn't want to go back to the train station

I wonder how much blood has been shed

Since the very first man landed on the railway tracks

Was it automatic?

Random thought 1

Wrote this on a piece of NUS foolscap paper when I was too bored from sitting in front of my laptop in a humid office in Kojimachi:

I looked to my right and all I see were grey carpeted floors, grey rectangular lockers with the names of every employee in Japanese. I heard the staccato of keyboards; staff members of this company typing away their youth. I might be using the word 'I' a little bit too much in this country that supposedly puts others before the low life of oneself.

People jumping in front of charging trains, innocent lives locked in sarin-filled trains --- I want to get these images out of my head and focus on the perfect front that this country tries so hard to put up. For the selfish sake of my humanity, please leave... The forgotten people of society, left underground, far from the knowledge of everyone pacing above the ground, how are you doing? Did I catch the train too late?

Something that I heard on the radio.

我會珍惜你給的思念。