Rudyard Kipling"
āWhen you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldierā
General Douglas MacArthur"
āWe are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.ā
āIt is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.ā āOld soldiers never die; they just fade away.
āThe soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.ā
āMay God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .ā āThe object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
āNobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
āIt is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
With bans and shutdowns, best to stare at a brick wall - Martin Vengadesan
Sunday, July 31, 2022
Malaysiakini : The truth is that a developed and sophisticated society
needs satire, criticism, creative expression, and open questioning. We
have nothing of the sort. What we have is this conservative
paternalistic attitude from our leaders who seem determined to keep us
stupid and unquestioning.
As someone who was raised Christian, I found the philosophical questions of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar and the Monty Python satire Life of Brian to be absolutely stimulating philosophically.
We need to be able to ask the right questions to find answers.
The
alternative is listening like some automaton to a charlatan telling you
he knows exactly what the afterlife is like and asking for money and
membership for his cult.
The silly thing is that most of the
censorship doesnāt even make sense, considering what sort of material is
easily available on the internet.
Reinventing the music scene
On
a personal level, I feel really frustrated for those musicians who want
to create but can barely get a venue to play it. The simple truth is
that indie music venues are not money spinners because the audiences are
not loaded.
Thus they cannot afford the proper entertainment licenses and/or the regular kopi money that is part of the rotten system.
Recently we lost indie venue Angkasa and the comedy platform Crackhouse, while Merdekarya had its own share of problems.
The
thing is that with the post-lockdown situation, clubs hosting live
music have an opportunity to reinvent the scene and move beyond the
tedious model where music acts merely regurgitate top 40 numbers of
today and yesteryear.
Our
musicians are currently constrained as there are few venues for them
and the revenue model for recording original music is piss poor, if you
pardon my language.
However, to encourage creativity and to get
fresh audiences in, venues should consider allocating a night a week to
local bands performing largely original material. This is something that
should be backed by authorities who recognise the importance of art
instead of being suppressed by the close-minded attitude.
Last month, I sat through the Jit Murad vehicle Spilt Gravy and Rice ā itself a movie that spent 10 years in the vaults due to various censorship issues.
I
also played and attended various rock shows at packed venues,
indicating that there is an audience that is willing to pay for entry
tickets as well as order food and drinks on the night.
If
anything, Malaysians are starved for entertainment and free expression,
which is a real shame given how much talent there is out there.
In the meantime, Iāll just go and stare at the wall.
Martin Vengadesan is an associate editor at Malaysiakini.
