[Assam] An evening in Hyde Park

[Rajib Das]

I could not describe Singapore better!!!! Even if
someone spends a few days and tires of the shopping
malls, one realizes how close the boundaries are. My
biggest fear is throwing cigarette butts inadvertently
on the street and getting caught. 

I hear the Speaker's Corner in Singapore is now really
called Sneakers Corner because more often soccer is
played than someone giving a speech. 
--- Rajiv Baruah <rajiv.baruah at usa.net> wrote:


---------------------------------

Rajib,

There is this corner of the world - disneyland with
death penalty I call it, which was my abode for about
2 years. If there was one place where the might of the
"danda" successfully turned a tropical vice pit into
first world orderliness - it is Singapore. And so
successful was the power of the "danda" that well nigh
the entire populace turned into duty bound salarymen,
always keeping to the straight and narrow. But
globalisation came, China became the factory of the
world and the old certainities of Singapore, that
elbow grease and a 60 hour week will continue to put
dinner on Singapore's table vanished. The guv-ment
wanted "knowledge industries". But how do you get the
creative spark to kick start these knowledge
industries. Aha - some bright spark in the Guv-ment
said, we must now permit table top dancing and
encourage free debate (S'pore style). 

And so the Speakers Corner was born. It is behind a
police station where you have to take a permit in
advance before you talk. In my two years there, I did
not see a soul talk here. And I cross this place every
day, sometimes twice a day, on my way home or to a
coffee from office. 

Let me give credit where credit is due -  Singapore is
a wonderful place to raise kids, play golf and, and
let me think a bit more. But it is so mind numbinly
boring.


best

Rajiv



------ Original Message ------
Received: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 10:51:53 AM SGT
From: Rajib Das <rajibdas at yahoo.com>
To: assam at assamnet.org
Subject: [Assam] An evening in Hyde Park



In the middle of a tiring business trip around the 
world I found myself in London - trying to be a 
tourist on a very hot Sunday a couple of weeks back. 
The very unimaginative stories around some really 
great monuments added to the ennui. 

I landed up around the Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park 
and was planning to take the train from around there 
to my hotel. Which is when I saw the crowds milling 
around folks doing their speeches. 

It was a most enthralling experience. I found myself 
in the middle of a debate between a full bearded 
mullah (perhaps of Arab descent) with a cockney accent

and a white punk with spiked hair about creationism 
and evolution. Into that mix came a wide variety of 
people across the length of 2 hours I was there. There

were many African Muslims and Pakistanis (perhaps a 
few Bangladeshis too) looking on with admiration at 
the mullah who was speaking perfect English and 
holding his ground. There was a black Brit - perhaps 
an African - that shouted profanities at the mullah. 
There was this very quiet white liberal woman who was 
politically very correct and tried reasoning with the 
Mullah that perhaps evolution can be a part of God's 
design. 

And while the mullah (as also the punk) quoted 
philosophers and scientists about intricacies of the 
debate, I figured the Mullah's logic was simple - that

before there was any living thing, there must have 
been something that must independently and absolutely 
exist. Ipso facto there has to be a God and but one 
absolute God and therefore there has to be just one 
word (or book) from 
this one God. Pretty simplistic argument. The guy was 
aggressive, didn't listen to any other point of view 
and used a condescending tone when replying to someone

else. My observation - no wonder the human bombers on 
the West are coming from the West itself. 

Taking courage from this Mullah, a Pakistani middle 
aged man started talking about many Hindus having 
converted to Islam till I reminded him how Spain 
converted back from Islam to Christianity. 

When I broke away from this group, I found quite a few

people accosting a Jewish American and telling him how

bad George Bush is and why he is an Israeli and not an

American. All along this somewhat crazy Indian (not me

:-)) was trying to tell him how he knew more about 
America than the American - never mind the fact that 
he had never lived in America for a long period. There

were other speeches about crazy topics and using 
language that cannot be mentioned here. 

As I wound my way back around 10 when the sun was 
setting, I was exihilarated and energized by the 
experience. 

Is there any other physical place in the world that 
this kind of thing happens? 


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