Rocky Mountain High: Reflections on Yellowstone

“Now he walks in quiet solitude, the forests and the streams

Singing praise with every step he takes,

His sight has turned inside himself, to try and understand

The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake”

I love the wilderness. There is really nothing more amazing than just being in the great outdoors, looking at what nature has to offer. I am convinced that no artist’s canvas is able to best the beauty which nature has endowed.

The best parts about Yellowstone are not the main attractions. Magnificent as they are, Old Faithful and The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone are separated from their viewers by walls and fences and rightfully so, as they do need to be protected from the cold hands of humanity, which would otherwise fling rocks and trash into them as a silly game or try to “tame” them with dams of cold steel and cement.

No, the best experiences in this park come when you park your motor-vehicle by the side of the road and run into an open field, with the wind singing in your ears and the heavens opening up in front of you. You feel limitless, unbounded and, most importantly, free.

I can now say that I have wandered into a mountain valley, and that I have dipped my hand into the cold fresh water of a mountain creek. I love the feeling of being alone in an open field or a pine grove, where I feel there are no restrains on me and I can do whatever I want. The troubles of the world melt away, and I feel that my problems are small compared to the vastness of the lakes or the eternity of the mountains.

I realize that I feel most at ease when I walk alone in a great plain, or sit alone by a river bank, or wandering alone in a forest. While trekking through the plains in Yellowstone, I sometimes felt the uncanny urge to just leave my fellow travelers behind in the car and run for the hills, just run until I could run no longer, and then collapse and leave myself to the mercy of the elements and the spirits who almost definitely roam the mountains at night. Or while walking through a path through the pine trees, I felt the urge to forge on and on and on until I had lost everyone and everything, and give myself up to the ghosts who live among the trees.

Ultimately, I suppose that I’m a loner at heart.

Yellowstone was only the second place where I truly felt the feeling of the sublime.  I had felt that beautiful feeling once before; in Japan, when I opened a screen door overlooking a snowy pine grove. The total quiet, punctuated only by the drip-drip-drop of melting snow falling from the pine needles to the ground below, took me to a place which I had not been to since, until I arrived at Yellowstone. There were times in the park that I wanted to sing, run and cry at the sheer beauty of the landscape.

Night in Yellowstone is magical. The setting sun bathes the rivers and the mountains in a rainbow of colors. Then the moon rises and imparts a silvery-blue sheen on everything it touches.

There was one time during the darkest night when our car was in the middle of nowhere, and we stopped by the side of the road. We got out to look at the stars. The night sky was a deep-blue dome covering the earth, studded with stars which were placed there by the Gods to allow us earthly creatures to walk around by night. Even with one’s modern scientific knowledge of stars, planets and galaxies, while in the woods at night it makes more logical sense to cast all that aside and believe that there is indeed a dome which surrounds a flat earth, and give a prayer of thanks to the gods who were so kind as to place lights in the heavens for us mere mortals to make use of. I certainly did.

And perhaps if you wished on one of these magical creations, your wish would indeed come true. I certainly did. Childlike, perhaps. But isn’t it good to let the inner child out sometimes? While embedded in the social constraints of our offices and classrooms, the inner self is repressed, but when there is no one around to watch you, who cares what the neighbors think? Especially when the neighbors are bison and grizzly bears.

Another time, we were at the lower falls of the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. I took the time to observe the water and listen to its roar as it plunged into the cavern below. The purity and clarity of the river water has yet to be equaled by any human artist, Eastern or Western, from antiquity till now. The miniature pine trees which studded the rock-face of the mountains were more Zen than any Japanese garden designer could dream of attaining, not after a thousand years of tradition and a hundred years of training. No, no artistic creation which man has come up with has yet to equal the beauty of nature. I would suggest that all the artists of Paris and New York, with all their fancy dress and theories of life, love, existentialism and painting, should case their brushes aside for a week and camp out in the wilderness. The ones who the bears didn’t eat up should hopefully become enlightened, and finally learn some humility.

From the point of view of the Yellowstone River, you are nothing. The individual, with his career, education, unrequited loves and checkbook of ten million dollars, is not important. He could be cast screaming headfirst into a raging waterfall and perhaps it would cause a disturbance among his friends and family, but in the grand scheme of things, he only takes up a space of about 5 cubic feet, which is nothing compared with the magnificence of what surrounds him. Most of us work in offices and live in cramped apartments where we are constantly in interaction with other people, which makes us believe that we are the center of the universe. It takes a sudden shock, where man is flung out of his social networks, even for a day, for the individual to suddenly understand that he is not the be-all and end-all of existence.

Perhaps I am a romantic at heart; to my mind the New World remains untamed and relatively untouched by the hands of man, as compared to the Old World of Europe and Asia which, as the Chinese say, can be described as 沧海桑田. Despite the fact that Asia is “rising” and “reclaiming” it position in the world system, and despite the fact that China and India are building skyscrapers and parking lots and other architectural monstrosities at a rate unprecedented in world history, the Old World still feels tired, as if it has been weighed down by social conventions and outmoded traditions, and as if its soils have been ploughed through so many times that they do not have the wherewithall to produce so much as a peanut without a generous injection of chemical fertilizers. America is simple and straightforward; some laugh at the New World as being unrefined and crude, but is simplicity of civilization necessarily a bad thing?

The hustle-and-bustle and human artifice of New York and San Francisco is one side of America, where tech wizards and financial engineers create the economic architecture which keeps human society ticking. The quiet of the wilderness is another side of America; fresh, open and untouched, and which will be here long after we are all gone. I ought to visit it more.

Thoughts on the San Francisco Bay Area

Over Spring Break, I visited the San Francisco Bay Area for six days. I travelled rather extensively in the East Bay, through cities which are just a little off the beaten track (Oakland, anyone?); I also went through Palo Alto and the North Bay where I saw redwoods and went wine tasting. In San Francisco itself, I visited a kaleidoscope of places, including the Golden Gate Park, Union Square, Chinatown, Little Saigon, Civic Center, the Mission, the Castro, the Financial District, the North Bay, Fisherman's Wharf, Fort Mason, Japantown... the list goes on.

I was lucky that I had a local friend to show me around. The Bay Area is actually not the easiest of places to get around; BART, the train system, does not have a very extensive reach. My friend therefore took me around using the bus system; the family car helped a great deal too. He has a long history of community service in some of the more blighted areas of the Bay Area (actually, the most blighted) and he brought me through some of the neighborhoods where he volunteered, which in his words "had charm"; many places in the Bay Area look bright, pleasant and clean but are really quite nasty. I guess that I wanted to get a window into the social fabric of Bay Area society, and that is what I got from his tour of the region.

Over the course of my conversations with my friend, as well as our journeys through the good, the bad and the ugly of the Bay Area, we analyzed several aspects of the region’s society and culture.

The Bay Area has a very different feel from New York. New York (and the East Coast in general) has a solid, grounded feel, but the Bay Area has something mildly surreal around it, as if it is not quite settled. (I guess the same could be said of California as a whole). It is a real salad bowl; as someone once said, if you picked America up by Maine and gave it a shake, all the bits which are not nailed down would fall to California. As a result, California attracts all nature of people from across the United States and beyond, from hippies to tech-whizzes to professors to management consultants to strange people declaring that the world will end tomorrow. Their culture is not quite rooted in history, or even the present; it is ultimately based on a repudiation of the puritanical, hierarchically-driven East Coast culture, and to a certain extent cultures in other places in the world; almost an “anti-culture”.

Some less charitable people would say that Californian culture is not quite based in “reality”… but I think this is a bit too harsh. The world needs “laboratories” like this, where ideas and cultures mix and match on a grand scale, often yielding shiny new things that are snapped up by the rest of the world, such as the iPhone, iPad, the internet, Silicon Valley, the California sushi roll, Californian wine, Facebook, the organic food movement, Hollywood, and so on and so forth.

Californians therefore like the unlikely agglomeration of cultural influences, often throwing together things which do not quite make sense. They are real cultural vultures; if you don’t have to think about tradition, you don’t have to care too much if what you do makes “cultural sense” or not. Laotian tacos spring to mind. So does Jack London's cabin; the city of Oakland moved his former cabin from the Yukon to California, placing it in a grove of... palm trees. Well, it is California, and the odd mix of cultures and influences is something that can be termed "Californian culture". It's not quite "Middle American" culture; everything is flung together, with no one caring about the origins of their individual elements. Of course, that the Hispanic influence here is very strong. If you go to the right neighborhoods, you can find plenty of taquerias and small Mexican restaurants which serve really excellent food.

That brings me to another aspect of Bay Area culture; its cuisine. I was informed that Bay Area people place a premium on the quality of their food, and I can safely say that Bay Area food beats the East Coast in terms of both variety and quality. The national pastime is searching for good restaurants. It's an obsession that matches Singaporeans' and Malaysians' quest for good food, except that Bay Area people are also on a perpetual search for the best wine.

They really are spoiled for choice. The town of Berkeley, for example, has every cuisine you want (and probably some you don't!) compressed into two streets. I ate really good quality Indonesian food, complete with Ais Cendol, fifteen minutes from the University of California, Berkeley. You can get Thai, Indian, Laotian, Chinese, Mexican... you name it, they have it. Again, New York has all the same food, but they are spread out around the city, whereas Berkeley is really a food-lover's paradise. Again, Californians in the know know where to get the best tacos or ramen, and will brag about venturing into gang-controlled territory in order to sneak a bite of Manuel's special burritos.

Let's also not forget the natural beauty of the Bay Area. My friend took me through the East Bay Regional Parks, which are a set of hiking trails scattered throughout the Oakland-Berkeley hills. The views are stunning, and my friend literally lives five minutes away from one particular park! If you take the effort to get to the parks (and they take quite a lot of effort, often passing through the Bay Area flats) you will be richly rewarded. There are redwoods in the parks, which are not as commercialized as the Muir Woods. It really feels like you are away from it all when you are in the parks. Also, most of the time, the weather is perfect, like an air-conditioned room (however, when it does start raining it rains for days and days and days...)

As a result of the beautiful weather, great food and overall friendly nature of the people, Bay Area people are immensely passionate about their region. They all want to return one day. Apparently, most people who go away to university end up returning to the Bay Area to work; there's some strange addictive quality to the place. I admit that even I am somewhat pulled in by the region, to the extent I want to return, perhaps multiple times. I find that it is a region that is just as multi-layered and interesting as New York City, if you take the time to truly plumb its depths.

This all sounds like a slice of heaven on Earth, but no one really can have it all that good; there must be a flip side, that being that there is something that feels just a little “off” about the area. The Bay Area is ultimately a collection of disparate peoples who are thrown together and forced to live next to one another, whether they like it or not. They don’t really mix and merge; due to the easy availability of land, the rich float to the hills and the poor live in the "flats"; they self-segregate. This causes some very interesting political, economic and racial tensions, as the hills are mostly white and Asian while the flats are populated by Hispanics and African-Americans. A city like Oakland, for example, has some of the highest property values in the hills (as well as some of the most stunning views), which are uncomfortably perched right next to the crime-plagued flats. As a result of the rich and poor living uncomfortably side-by-side, I always detected something slightly unsettling about the Bay Area, lurking right beneath its clean, pleasant and sunny surface. If you're a tourist you wouldn’t really notice it, but if you looked carefully, there are many little things which catch your attention.

For example, in the richer neighborhoods, you see glass crystals mysteriously strewn on the ground. Those are the remnants of some thief smashing a car and running away with its valuables. San Francisco itself has a pleasant enough exterior, what with all the palm trees and abundant sunshine, but look carefully and you notice the homeless and the drug addicts hanging around on the street corners; the city has the highest concentration of homeless people per capita of any major city in the United States. My hostel was in a nice enough part of downtown, but I would not explore the area carelessly; you never know when you end up in the Tenderloin, a rather nasty part of town. The BART stations have announcements warning you to take care in quiet stairwells and instructing you how to guard against carjacking.

The strange thing is that the nasty neighborhoods don't actually look that bad. They are usually equally cheery, clean and sunny, until someone points out that you have taken a wrong turn into gang territory. I recall being taken around the innocuous-sounding region of Fruitvale, Oakland, which looked sunny and cheerful, with no litter on the streets and a newly-built shopping complex. Turns out that you really, really don’t want to go through that neighborhood by night… when talking to other Bay Area people, they sort of looked at us askance when we said that we had a good time in Fruitvale…

Often times, the richer denizens not only do not mix with their poorer neighbors, they actively ignore and deny them. The wealthy neighborhood of Pinole, for example, went as far as to secede from the city of Oakland. Meanwhile, the residents of Rockridge, Oakland, refuse to consider themselves part of Oakland even though they share the same facilities and government. Another observation is the MUNI buses; even though they are all run by the same company, the buses which serve Berkeley are clean and comfortable, while the ones which serve Oakland and Richmond look… like New York buses. This division between the hills and flats was apparent during the Great Firestorm of Oakland in the 1990s, which engulfed the richer Oakland Hills neighborhoods. However, due to poor communication with the fire departments in the flats, disaster relief was immensely slow. This caused a political firestorm (pun intended) and served to highlight the deep divisions which mark society in the Bay Area.

There's so much more I can say, but I'll leave it at that. I guess that the Hotel California verse "You can check out any time, but you can never leave" rings true. The Bay Area is mildly unsettling, surreal and not quite nailed down, but is still strangely addictive. It really does draw you in; after all, given its natural beauty and laid-back attitude, it really is a little slice of heaven on Earth, although you just have to get used to its slightly sinister side. Or maybe it’s the palm trees that do it for me…

And here are a couple of pictures which I think are quite emblematic of the Bay Area...

So How Did I Do With My 2011 Predictions?

With the benefit of hindsight, here is a review of my predictions for 2011. So how did I do? 6 points out of 10.

(1) "Britain lurches into a recession in early 2011 - and possibly bringing Europe into one.......The Coalition government's cuts will - on hindsight - be seen to be foolhardy."

Largely spot on, apart from the timing, which would be late 2011 or early 2012. (1 point)

(2) "Barack Obama finds himself (still) popular - ..........This is the bedrock that propels him to a second term. The world will also concludes that he remains the best they can expect and deals with him on that basis".

Still polling largely at 45 +/- 2. The point was about the core resilience in Obama's electoral prowess. As employment picture improves, the ceiling would also lift to the high 40s or low 50s. I still see a second Obama inauguration on Jan 20, 2013 - and people complaining how poorly it compare to the first one. (1 point)

(3) "Global economies in steady and sustainable recovery ......... The only road bumps are self-inflicted (see Britain above)".

Largely correct despite fears of a double-dip and the Eurozone crisis from summer onwards. 2012 will depend on how quickly Europe can get its political will together and how quickly China can prime its fiscal pumps. (1 point)

(4) "Green technology undergoes a breakthrough.......... a combination of national competition, strategic government-led investments in science, internet-speed linkages and collaboration, market forces from demands in the emerging markets esp. China and India and China's manufacturing prowess that lowers costs.

Strangely, the breakthrough was actually in polysilicon prices which is down 95% due to breakneck competition from over-supply of manufacturing capacity in China. (Half point)

(5) "China makes quiet moves towards internal democracy".

Anything but. If there is any, I have not heard of it. (Zero point.)

(6) "Water replaces CO2 as the environmental issues of the day ........Structural changes in the supply and demand of water in Middle-east, India, North-China, Southwest US and Australia will trigger a new global crisis and consciousness about living with less water......".

Small signs but nothing like that yet. (Zero point)

(7) "Asians are the new Westerners - After 200 years, Asians will be considered the global elite".

True, if you count the high-end buyers of real estate and red wine. (Quarter point)

(8) "Gas becomes competitive with oil".

Amazingly, with the production of shale and other unconventional gas, gas prices are now the much cheaper than oil if you are in North America and has access to pipelines. With rapidly increasing reserves worldwide, the race is on to make gas more transportable either in gaseous or liquid forms to market. (1 point)

(9) "Turkey joins BRIC and emerges as an economic powerhouse that Europe finds increasingly difficult to ignore but equally hard to embrace. Turkey forms the new nucleus of influence to be reckon with that stretches from Eastern Europe to Central Asia and the Levantian Middle East.".

With 8.5% growth in Turkey for 2011 and its emergence as the political and economic model for the Arab Spring, yes Turkey is a new powerhouse. (1 point)

(10) "America gets transformed - again - by its army of new Asian and Hispanic immigrants ................"

In progress. The demographic story is compelling but transformation will be apparent only on hindsight. (quarter point)

Harvard, A Pen Portrait. Part One: The Students

Harvard students are overachieving, intelligent, and supremely confident. I always thought that Georgetown students had a “spark” or "buzz" of energy around them, but they pale in comparison with the folks from Harvard.

If there one thing you learn in your first few days here, it is this: Harvard Is Elitist. There is no other way to put it. At the welcoming ceremony for new graduate students, the president of the university told us, "You are all here for a reason. We want you to be here. You are the best in the world"; not in those exact words, but with that exact striking bluntness. While speaking with my academic adviser about my future plans, including careers (as I don't think I want to jump into a PhD immediately) he said in a throwaway manner, "You know, for any big prestigious company, just being in Harvard is enough. Harvard is the Gatekeeper, the standard." This attitude still somewhat stuns me (and to be frank I'm still not very comfortable with it), but it permeates all levels of Harvard society, from the professors down to the undergrads.

Language classes, given their natural leanings towards open discussion, are a good way of taking the pulse of an institution. I am studying advanced Chinese here, and in class I hear students say things like "People from other schools have to worry about finding jobs, but not us!" and "Harvard teaches us critical thinking skills that other places don't!" My teacher once said "有一流的大学，可是哈佛可以算是超一流的大学！”; the scary thing was, everyone nodded in agreement.

Given that Harvard students truly believe that they are Number One, they do not show school spirit; you know you are the best, so why bother shout about it? Why bother letting the riff-raff know? Georgetown people were very upfront about proclaiming their pride in their school. I always felt that Georgetown had a certain sense of insecurity around it. Although my former undergraduate institution is indeed a highly prestigious school, Georgetown students usually carry with them the knowledge that they are not in the Ivy League, hence their need to “overcompensate”. Harvard students, on the other hand, are so confident in their knowledge that they are the best (or that the rest of the country considers them to be the best), that they don't feel the need to advertise their love for their school.

As a Master's student, I am in the unique position of floating somewhere between the PhDs and the undergrads. I get the best of both worlds; I can observe both the maturity, passion and professionalism of the PhD students (who, although they do not have the hyperactivity of the undergrads, are a highly formidable bunch in their own right) as well as the boundless energy and ambition of the undergrads. Harvard's admissions committee is excellent at parsing talent (and are probably no mental lightweights themselves), as all the students I have met here are absolutely top-notch. (Unfortunately, I do not have any interaction with the Law School and Business School students, as they live in worlds completely separate from the School of Arts and Sciences, which I am affiliated with.)

The undergrads, with their irrepressible energy and hyperactive personalities, are truly the stars of the university. They are extreme overachievers, juggling fifteen or more different things at the same time and subsisting on four hours of sleep a night. They talk as if they have so much going through their minds that they cannot wait to get it all out, and they talk really fast; relaxation does not come easily to them.

To succeed as a Harvard undergraduate, you obviously need good grades. However, this is merely the minimum requirement. At Harvard, you are judged not merely by your academic ability, but by your other activities as well. A successful undergraduate will have straight As in all her classes, but will also be the president/founder of an NGO helping poor children in Columbia and have string of prestigious internships lined up at various financial firms. However, you also need a passion of some sort. It does not matter what it is; it can be rowing, fencing, Chinese politics, Bolivian cuisine, or preserving forests in the wastelands of Siberia. Furthermore, you must follow through on your passion. Given all this, one wonders how these people find time to eat and sleep. The pressure comes not from the classes or the professors, but rather from each other.

There is a strong calendar culture here; Harvard students schedule everything going on in their lives. If you want to arrange lunch with an undergraduate, you literally need to make an appointment and hope that they can find time in their lives to fit you in (I can personally attest to having experienced this). I have had the misfortune of peeking at some of their calendars and they are overflowing with meetings, conferences, club activities and sports events. Oh, and classes too.

(The big exception to the “intense overachiever” rule is if an undergrad manages to join a “Finals Club”. These clubs are gatherings of the sons and daughters of the rich and powerful, and their friends whom they induct into their group. They party all night (and day) and never do any work, but given their connections can land any job in the world. They all become millionaires by the age of thirty; it is rumored that if you aren’t rich by then, the club will give you a million dollars so as to maintain the position of being a rich man’s clique).

This is not to speak lowly of Harvard's graduate students; they are smart and highly dedicated, as well as passionate about what they are studying. They are much more relaxed in comparison to the undergraduates, and seem to have “normal” energy levels. Nonetheless, they carry with them the Harvard traits of supreme passion for their chosen fields as well as a strong sense of confidence. They will become the world’s academic and scientific superstars.

I have also observed that the graduate student body is much more international than the undergraduate one, which is mostly American. There is a large proportion of Chinese graduate students, especially in the sciences and East Asian Studies. This clearly demonstrates one of the main strengths of America; many of these grad students will choose to settle and raise their children here, thus contributing further to the melting pot that is the United States. America’s ability to draw the best from all around the world will help fuel its status as a dominant power for years to come, and institutions like Harvard play a huge role in this.

So, these are Harvard students. One day, they will rule our world. (And be our bosses). Most days, I go about my daily business without thinking about it, but sometimes, when walking through Harvard Yard, I take the time to look at the students passing by. I then ask myself, “How many Bill Gates’s, Mark Zuckerbergs, Barack Obamas, Natalie Portmans and Yo Yo Ma’s are here with me right now?”

The thought still scares me, which is why I try not to think about it too much.

Rethinking Futuristic

Today we went to a beautiful beach - Robert Moses State Beach on Fire Island. It is a place of long white sand, deep blue Atlantic, sand dunes in the breeze, lighthouse in the back and bright-white sunlight everywhere. It's like inside a Ralph Lauren ad.

The sand was pristine. The beach was well-cared for with life guards and police on sand buggies. There was a shower facility, cafeteria and large car park. I was content to pay the $10 per car to be there.

The route there was across a really long bridge and causeway. It is mind boggling to compare the cost of building the bridge with the benefit of reaching the beaches and a few beach front communities.

But back then, in the 50s/60s when those infrastructure - the freeways and bridges - were first built, America was loaded and people then felt great civic works like that was the future.

Elsewhere on Long Island was the typical habitat of the American dream. There were the malls and the big boxes retailers (enormous out of town stores). There were the corporate parks with squat and glassed-over offices. From the air (as I happen to be having flying experience on a small plane), I saw thousands of suburban homes most with swimming pools glistening in the back yard; and a few with waterfront and boats tied up alongside. There were boats and yachts. And gleaming cars and car show rooms. Everything was flat and take up a lot of space - enormous flat freeways with huge center dividers, flat buildings, flat strip malls, multiplexes and parking lots. The whole place groaned with the image of the consumer lifestyle.

For a very long time, when people think of modernity and the future that is what they see. First, the fruits of science and modern industry; and then the good life of comfort and ease - with the Americans showing the way.

2 hours later, after returning the rental car in Queens, I decided to walk the last few blocks to the subway down Jackson Heights. Walking along the bustling streets felt really different from being on the bus. All along the way, I could smell all kinds of cooking from the Hispanic restaurants and read the menus. I walked pass and hear the salsa music coming out of the dance clubs. Afternoons are not too early for dance clubs apparently.

So happen there was a gay parade or street party, so there were many colorful characters everywhere. Just around the corner and on the next parallel street is Little India - with sari shops, Bollywood DVD shops, the Indian supermarket (named, what else but, Patel Brothers) and a plethora of halal meat shops. Women in hijab sashayed passed by lesbian couples. Nobody even blinked twice. Everyone co-exist and mingled a few hundred feet apart.

I reflected on the meaning of future, modern and civilization.

People around the world wish for the comfort and lifestyle of ease and plenty - and see that as the epitome of modern lifestyle and socio-economic progress. In many places now, one can find much that are newer, faster and more technologically advanced than anything in America.

But after finding a clean public beach amidst an open (largely) unspoiled coast an hour from the city, well-cared for by lifeguards, opened equally to all members of public (not just the few) and enjoyed with civility and respect ... And then finding the spirit of tolerance and diversity among immigrants who originate from cultures half-the-world apart; I realized those simple things are something that cannot be bought, or measured by per capita GDP, or judged by statistics, or the shown-off like a gleaming downtown or lapped up like the latest hip-and-happening hang-out.

Indeed, I would speculate that what is truly - boldly and wonderfully - futuristic in today’s global world are whatever the values that honors the environment; that connects different people with each other and with their true spirit and with nature; and that meets the differences amongst peoples only with tolerance.

Why Southeast Asia should pay attention to PAP and Singapore

Not often one could feel excited about Asian politics, especially Southeast Asian politics - but Singapore is a cause for revisiting that notion. Not because of the May 7 election and what it did to the PAP, but I am excited because of PAP's response (so far) and the lessons it can perhaps hold for the rest of Southeast Asia.

Compared to its economic and social progress, Southeast Asian politics has at best been stuck at a stand-still over the past decades. Some places actually regressed. There are very few cases where one saw progress in the past 30 years, Indonesia being one of those rare cases and even then, Indonesia today is hardly a role model. In most countries, the political scene is one of cynicism and disenfranchisement - the only difference is a matter of degree: i.e. whether the disenfranchisement is with the ruling parties (e.g., Malaysia) or with the entire political class (e.g., Thailand). The symptoms are rampant corruption, erosion of national institutions, elevation of political interests over the national interest, increased social division and general deterioration in the quality of governance.

The outcome is usually a rapture from the past either through the ballot box, a coup or violence; when the people got fed up and demanded any kind of change. Right now, in many Southeast Asian countries the people want change and are willing to try for change even if it is doubtful they would get something good in the end. The nation and the political system usually got weaker as a result, not stronger while the quality of government (or even the democratic process itself) generally head downhill. Witness how successive "revolutions" or "changes" in Thailand and the Philippines - a group that arguably can be extended to Taiwan and Japan - led to paralysis instead of national rejuvenation. Indonesia and South Korea fare better but I do not profess to know the reason.

I believe what is missing is the political maturing process. As income level grows and society changes, there is need for some necessary but difficult adult conversations to take place between the political establishment (single party or more parties) and the people to agree on their common national values, on what constitutes good government and to renew the political contract. The key word is "adult" because in most Southeast Asian countries the political class often treat themselves as adults and the people as children, and no conversation as equals could take place.

Enter Singapore. A fortnight after the May 7 elections, many aspects of what I had written in the aftermath is happening at great speed. Instead of holding on to the past, the PAP is trying its best to engage in that conversation with its citizens. The response could so easily be sour sulking, dark threats, denial or dirty tricks but they chose the high road - and I believe it is the right one. The jury is still out but kudos to the PAP for being smart enough to know that, even with their track record, its past is no longer enough and, more importantly, has the humility and courage to embrace the change. Any exercise in self-improvement (or rebranding) is quite risky because the outcomes could please no one while disappointing everyone. These are still early days but the PAP is earning my respect for taking the Singaporean people seriously, treating them as adults, as citizens and with respect.

Many countries would kill for the kind of clean, (largely) competent government that cares about the national interest that Singapore have long taken for granted from the PAP. But by having this crucial conversation with its citizens, Singapore is poised - if it succeeds - to move to the next level of what it means to be a good government in an Asian society and set an example that will be watched closely by the rest of Asia.

The key is - using the contractual analogy - instead of a yes or no answer to the question whether to renew the social contract, there is need for a good faith renegotiation to adjust the contract terms. For this to succeed, both sides must behave in a mature and responsible manner. Until now, there are no good models to follow. Is the enlightened autocracy model doomed with time? Probably. Is a Western style multi-party democracy the only way to go? But how well is this working out in Asia? Being in Southeast Asia how do you protect against racist, tribal or feudal divisions? Is an consensual oligarchy/managed democracy better suited for Asia? Well, that didn't work too well in Japan. How about a highly stable system that allows change of ruling parties but maintain a certain national consensus (like in many smaller European or Scandinavian countries?) - may be, but how do you get there in a multi-racial and dynamic Asian society?

These are important questions that have implications for the rest of Southeast Asia and I do not know of any good answers. The PAP are the region's ace students when it comes to solving tricky questions and moreover, as much as a political party could, they actually want to be a good government. I am glad they are sitting for this exam and I, for one, am looking forward to learning about their answers.

For a start, I reproduced below PM Lee's recent speech during the swearing in of the new cabinet, where he stated the new PAP's intentions for the years to come.

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We have just gone through a watershed general election. Almost all the seats were contested, for the first time in decades. Many Singaporeans were voting for the first time. Singapore has entered a new phase in its political development.

In a rapidly changing world, Singapore is evolving too. Our economy has developed, and our society is changing: from the retirees who experienced our independence struggles in the 1960s, to the generation which grew up with the rapid economic growth of the 1980s, to the teenagers of the 2000s who have never known a world without the Internet. Each successive generation has different life experiences. They see our history differently, view current social issues from their own perspective, and dream new dreams of their future.

The Government cannot stand still. It must evolve in tandem with our society and our people. That is the best way for our Government to serve and to govern, in accord with the spirit of the times and the aspirations of our people.

Our politics cannot remain static either. More interest groups and alternative views have emerged, competing for support. Our political system can and must accommodate more views, more debate and more participation. At the same time, it is absolutely crucial for Singaporeans to stay united on the big issues, understand the fundamental realities facing a small country in South-east Asia, and work together to develop and implement the best solutions for our country.

We must develop a political system and political values that work for Singapore, foster good government and benefit Singaporeans both today and in the long term. Even though we now have more diverse voices, Singapore politics should not become confrontational or worse, divide our people and society, like in some other countries. My government pledges to serve the widest possible spread of our society. We are committed to inclusive growth, and a cohesive Singapore. We will do our utmost to work with Singaporeans to create an exciting and fulfilling future for our people and our young.

I thank the voters of Singapore for giving me and my team a clear mandate to implement our programmes - to grow the economy so that we can create better jobs for all; to educate our young to their full potential; to care for our older generation; and to engage our citizens to build an outstanding city and home for every one of us. All these we will now do.

At the same time, it is clear that Singaporeans do have significant concerns over both the substance of government policies and the way they are implemented. There are anxieties on specific areas such as housing, health care and immigration. Many groups want the Government to be more responsive to their difficulties and predicaments - retirees, single parents, the middle class and young adults, even students.

In implementation, our approach must be more flexible, thoughtful and compassionate. No policy can cover all contingencies. Hence policies must be carried out with judgment, and with heart. Policies are meant to make our lives better. When they have un-intended consequences, we should put things right promptly. When we make mistakes, we should admit and correct them. We must always do what is right for Singaporeans, and Singapore.

We will address all these concerns of the people.

My first step is a new Cabinet to lead Singapore in this new phase. I have comprehensively reshuffled and refreshed my Cabinet team. Many experienced ministers have retired. They have done much to bring us thus far, especially Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong. I thank them all for everything that they have done. In their place, we have a younger team, reinforced with several first-term office-holders. We will work closely with Singaporeans to take the country forward in a complex and challenging environment.

Secondly, the Government will engage all segments of society - young and old, students, workers and retirees. We will reach out online and in the real world. We will listen carefully to different voices, understand the day-to-day difficulties and strains facing Singaporeans, address their concerns and be open to inputs on what the Government can do better. Realistically, we cannot fulfil every request, or accept every suggestion. But by engaging Singaporeans in an inclusive dialogue on making policies and governing Singapore, we can solve our problems better, and shape our new Singapore together. This is vital.

Thirdly, we will take a totally fresh look at our problems and policies, and rethink what is necessary and best for Singapore's future. We will address the issues preoccupying Singaporeans, such as health care, housing and immigration. We will review both the policies and their implementation, as well as our broader approach to tackling these issues. We must move quickly to address pockets of urgent need, even as we think through the more difficult long-term challenges. Though Singaporeans trust that our policies are mostly sound, nothing should be sacrosanct.

One important area for review is political salaries. We will always need committed and capable ministers. Politics is not a job or a career promotion. It is a calling to serve the larger good of Singapore. But ministers should also be paid properly in order that Singapore can have honest, competent leadership over the long term. I know that Singaporeans have genuine concerns over the present salaries. Hence I am appointing a committee to review the basis and level of political salaries. The committee will be chaired by Mr Gerard Ee, chairman of Changi General Hospital and chairman of NKF (National Kidney Foundation).

Beyond dealing with these issues, we should focus our energies on our main task: building a bright future for our people. What Singapore has achieved thus far is remarkable. It is not just about good GDP (gross domestic product) growth, but how growth has transformed and improved the lives of most Singa-poreans and their families - workers getting better jobs, low-income people breaking out of poverty, students getting better education. We all enjoy better housing, transport, health care, leisure facilities, and much more. Provided we continue to work in partnership - government and people, workers and businesses - I am confident we will progress year by year, and achieve inclusive growth to realise the hopes and aspirations of our people and our next generation.

I pledge to work together with all Singaporeans to create a just and fair society, which gives all citizens the best start in life, and leaves no one behind. A Singapore which is open to the world yet puts Singa-poreans first. A Singapore which excites our young and respects our old. A society that nurtures and inspires the human spirit, beyond material success. Rich or poor, young or old, men or women, Singapore is our home. Here we all belong. Here we can work together for the common good, and share our pride in being Singaporeans.

Fellow Singaporeans, today marks a milestone in our journey to bond as one people and to build a better tomorrow. I call on all Singaporeans to come forth with your ideas and energies, to join our minds, our hearts and our hands to create a better Singapore. We know not what challenges tomorrow will bring. But I am confident that united as one, we will overcome the odds and secure our future together.

Reflections on American Society from Georgetown University

Graduation is just around the corner. In one week’s time, I will be in possession of a degree from Georgetown University, one of the oldest Jesuit schools in the United States. It marks a transition in my life, as I will be moving to a new city, a new university, in order to continue my studies at the graduate level.

My time at Georgetown was valuable. I’m not the sort of person to show much school spirit. I’m not a party-person. Being a cheapskate, I like to stay home and save money. Nevertheless, I have to thank Georgetown for opening my eyes to the world. When I came into the school as a freshman, I was rather clueless about the way things worked in this part of the world. Four years later, I won’t pretend that I know it all, or that I am properly mature and grown up yet; far from it, I have a lot more to learn. However, I do like to think that me having come into contact with a bunch of interesting people has helped me along this path. Do note that these are “reflections”, and do not constitute an essay with a “point”, so there will be an element of rambling to it. The purpose of this piece is to paint a portrait, no matter how fuzzy, of my impressions of America as seen from Georgetown.

At the risk of over-generalizing, American undergraduates tend to be exuberant and full of energy. Despite the bad economy, the United States is still chock-full of opportunities for those who are willing to seek it out, and many indeed do. Students here (or at least the ones I tend to mix with) are always up to something, and are forever looking for and finding opportunity. I am always astounded by the sheer brightness and intelligence of some young people here. Uptight old-Worlders may sneer, but the fact remains that if you have a good idea and want to test it, you need to go to an American university and bounce it off other bright folk, who will tear it apart, put it back together, and present you with a new, improved version of your thought.

For further reference, look up what the Singaporean leadership, those ever practical, hard-headed individuals, have to say about America. They recognize that America’s freewheeling culture lends itself to an atmosphere of innovation and ambition, the “secret weapon” of the United States that pushed it above its European peers in the 20^th century and will help it remain a major power in the 21^st. The myth of the “lazy American” is one perpetuated by Hollywood (which never shows people working; who wants to watch a movie about people working in an office?). The reality is different; this is a hard-working country, and hard work brings results.

It has helped that for my four years in the university, I never lived alone. I always had roommates and was been surrounded by neighbors living to my left and right. This brought me in contact with an interesting mix of people whom I don’t think you can easily find in the “normal destinations” where my countrymen go to school. I’ve shared my living quarters with one soldier, two bankers, one triathlon runner, a Burmese and a food-loving Hong Konger. Living with wannabe investment bankers is an experience in itself, as you can feel their heat, their intensity, their burning drive to succeed and to strike it rich. Such individuals are very rare in the world, and us non-bankers could do worse than to learn from their drive and ambition. Another group of people with whom I am intrigued are American Sinophiles and Asiaphiles. It is always fun to hear someone else who is not from your culture describe it. You realize that what is familiar and humdrum to you is fun, intriguing and exotic to other people. It makes you realize that everyone is always foreign to someone else.

I also fell in with a crowd of Latin Americans. They’re an interesting bunch of people, and I always felt like I understood what they are talking about, despite not understanding Spanish; it’s all about the gestures and the context. It’s a culture and a part of the world which most Southeast Asians know nothing about. They remind me of folk back home, tropical people who are generally fun to be around.

Another thing which I have observed is the presence of immigrants. America is a magnet for bright, ambitious people from all over the world. They have the “immigrant drive” to succeed, which they pass down to their children who subsequently end up attending some of the top universities in the nation. These young bright things have their feet in both worlds. A typical story goes like this: A baby is born in China and moves with her parents to several European countries before finally settling in America and living an all-American life (with occasional trips back to her grandparents’ farm in China), then going on to attend college and becoming a high-powered banking or corporate executive. Is she American? Is she Chinese? The answer is both. These hyphenated-Americans are totally comfortable in a Western environment and can very well fight and thrive in the rough-and-tumble world that is corporate America. They are also fully rooted in their native cultures, and speak their mother tongues with absolutely no problems. These people help ensure that America remains the “nerve center” of this globalized world.

My time at Georgetown has given me much food for thought. I understand that it may be a rather narrow view, as college life is a bubble. Furthermore, Georgetown is an “elite” university. I imagine that if I went to somewhere else, my view would be quite different. Nonetheless, if this is the world in which the American elites live in, I can say that they have a lot going for them.

So goodbye Georgetown. It’s been a pleasure, and I’ve learnt a lot about how the world (or at least America) works. Next stop, grad school, at an even more “elite” university. Far more lessons to learn, and far more people to meet. Who knows how I will see the world from Boston? Watch this space.