I definitely agree that the public should be further informed about how Christian fundamentalist groups are somehow getting invited to give fairly misleading and unfactual sex ed talks in Singapore's state-funded schools. I also believe that the public should be further informed about how PLU's leadership has a equally non-reality-based hangup on Christianity.
Kelvin Wong says so himself:
The japanese are quite unabashed about their bodies or being naked, unlike the hangups that Singpaoreans have, most of which comes from conservative Christian values. Whatever hangups the japanese have about being naked probably comes from the American christian and other Jesuits Priest when they landed in Japan.I believe in freedom of speech. And I also believe the forthcoming Christian crackpot vs PLU crackpot ST forum deathmatch will be very, very entertaining.
9 comments:
Shame is indeed not a very Japanese thing, but I believe the contention lies with the assertions that:
1) Singaporeans feel shame because of conservative Christian values - what about all the non-Christians? What about shame in Chinese tradition (dating from the Ming era and later, which saw a crackdown on acupuncture since it involved disrobing) (Major point)
2) The Japanese having hangups which comes from Christians. What about all the other groups influencing them? (Minor point)
This is quite simple.
You don't see Japanese nudist colonies. Neither do you see those people walking around naked in their homes as a normal thing. Neither would you expect a host to unrobe for dinner with their guests.
Nudity has very restricted socially-approved venues of expression in Japan, namely onsen and fertility festivals. That doesn't mean that they have no shame about nudity per se.
Historically, the samurai bakufus had attempted in Japan, way before the Meiji era, to regulate behaviour and social/sexual mores, especially within the samurai classes. In case you're ignorant, that's way before Christianity and what Kelvin Wong lisps as "Jesuits Priest" arrived in Japan.
And that's why Kelvin Wong is a crackpot, and an ignorant CRACKPOT at that. One must forgive Pantalaimon for being a PLU supporter. It's very hard to stand loyally by your incompetent, mendacious, and malevolent leaders.
Pantalaimon, you don't know much about Japan. I won't make fun of you for that since it's clearly unreasonable to expect anyone to know everything.
It is, however, fair game to make fun of PLU's leaders when they speak so authoritative about the history of Japan, Christianity, and the anthropology of shame.
It have disappointed you greatly that I do know suffiently about the history and religious anthropology of Japan to comment on this matter, yes?
Here's yet another piece of information that the crackpot leaders of PLU might want to digest: the moralising samurai bakufus all resorted to Confucianism to justify their attempts to tighten the social and sexual mores of Japan.
"conscientious grounds for disagreement" being?
I'm going out on a limb here, but I hope they don't involve PLU mollycoddling. That organisation is not irreplaceable. It is not so precious that it can be torn down, razed, and the ground salted and time given for some less crackpotish, less incompetent activists to fight for gay rights in Singapore.
"I have mild sympathies with PLU on the basis of their general aims and on the basis that they don't appear to me to be causing harm"
Good, we're getting some progress here. I'll make my point and reasoning rather clear now:
Every time PLU or its officials make crackpot statements, every time they make a PR gaffe, every time they shoot themselves in the foot while dealing with the bureaucracy... No one is hurt except those whose interests they purport to fight for, those who they purport to speak for.
Being unelected and hence their actions unaccountable to the people they claim to represent, I hold that there is a conscientious obligation to those officials each time PLU stumbles.
Frankly the more you deny being a lackey, the more obvious it is. Why else does Pantalaimon actually register on blogspot, yet write no blogs, and only post when anyone criticises PLU on Singabloodypore and here?
Ladies, ladies... me no more secretary of PLU (although this has not changed in the website... sigh), me no based in Japan, me on project in Tokyo, but will be back after that, like this year (duh!).
The quote was taken entirely out of context. I was just give a casual observation at the pools and initial observation during my 1st few weeks there and conversations with some of my Japanese friends. Yeah, probably I have Christian-value phobia, but I never asserted that I was scientifically or factually correct in my blog.
Yes, I agree to some of the point agagooga made. Singaporeans are not screwed up by conservative-christian values per se, but the so-called victorian values covered up as Asian values as admitted by PM Lee himself, and incidentally Victorian values as we know it has a strong correlatioin to English-Christian/Catholic values which has strong "moral" views. The case of the Ming dynasty is far-fetched becausse it so far back, if we say Qing or Commie China values, maybe we are a bit closer. But then again, China also have bath houses and everyone's naked and their toilets (not all but still has) don't have any doors.
Btw, one don't have to be a christian to be affected by their value. Its their pervasiveness of ideas via mass media and language. My last point was just a postulation. Didn't I say "probably comes from"?
Lastly, thanks for thinking about me. Next time, do let me know when you are writing about me, I feel so honoured, that I have so much influence.
Oh Kelvin Wong, I'm going to write more about you until PLU gets its act together and updates its website!
Now since you suggest that you didn't mean to make anti-Christian remarks, and that you're not an anti-christian crackpot, you should be able to explain to my readers how, barely a day after you comment here, you posted this on Signel, on the legal status of homosexuality in the world:
"2) How many of these countries are catholics majority and have strong
catholic links and ties. Do we not for once think that if the Vatican
could still hang/burn people, they would still do it to homosexuals?"
That's the type of question I'd expect from a rabidly anti-Christian PLU crackpot.
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