Dark days and The Force awakens
26 October 2015(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 26 October 2015 issue)
Dear Kam,
My question is simple: The haze. I mean, what the neck?
McGloomy
If there is one subject I have written about more than any other, it is the haze. And even though the haze is now worse than it has ever been, I really want to stop writing about it because it’s now obvious that the haze is simply a fact of life in Malaysia. It will happen every year, and the only variation to the dreadful cycle will be that it will be much worse in an El Niño year, which appears to be about one in every five years. The Indonesian government either cannot or will not do anything about it and the present Malaysian government appears to have little or no interest in the matter. Perhaps they have other things on their minds? So, there’s not much point complaining about the haze anymore and, instead, I will have to adapt to it just as Malaysians have to the lowering standards of education and rising standards of crime. As I gaze at the haze, I feel very gloomy. This feels like a low point in Malaysia’s history. I can’t even console myself by going out and eating some delicious street food because there’s typhoid on the streets of KL. If a volcano suddenly erupted in Pahang, I wouldn’t be surprised. I never thought I’d say this but I chose to return to Malaysia 25 years ago. Would I have chosen to return to this Malaysia?
Dear Kam,
Have you seen the new Star Wars trailer? I’m so excited. I can’t wait.
Yoda
Rarely has 2.5 minutes filled me with such new hope. Maybe it’s just because I’m in a gloomy mood and I need a lift, but I was surprised by how excited and emotional I became when I saw the latest trailer for the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I first watched the original Star Wars in 1977 when I was 11 years old and I can remember how I was stunned by the opening moments of the movie and the sight of a massive space ship that just seemed to go on and on. Since that time, several movies have filled me with rapture and yet nothing has really approached that 11-year-old’s sense of awe. Not only was I dazzled by the fact that these events were happening in a galaxy far, far away and a long, long time ago, but I also had to struggle with the idea that this was just a movie that was made by earthbound human beings. How on earth did they do it? Star Wars was perhaps the first time I really became aware of the amazing capabilities of the human imagination, and I’ve been trying to repeat that experience ever since.
I really enjoyed the next two movies in the original Star Wars cycle, but I really hated the execrable prequels. When watching those movies, it was only my sense of rage that kept me from falling asleep. There will always be a place in my heart for George Lucas because he gave me Star Wars and yet I also feel a deep sense of disappointment that he destroyed his own creation just so he could showcase the technology of his special effects studio. I guess I’m like an 11-year-old who suddenly realises that his parents’ jokes are not actually that funny.
Whereas the god-awful prequels brought out the grumpy old man in me, this new Star Wars trailer has excited my inner 11-year-old. That is perhaps why the trailer made me so emotional, because maybe, just maybe, something that was exceptional and precious can be saved, re-established and imagined anew according to the principles that made it great in the first place. These are gloomy times in Malaysia and perhaps I felt so emotional watching the 2.5 minutes because I need to believe that such turnarounds are possible.
Reprinted with the kind permission of
