On Babble

And so there is a lull. Catching up on movies and some books. There is a movie called "Babel" by Alejandro González Inárritu, its probably not showing in singapore yet. Its a multiple narrative, non linear film in the tradition of Traffic, 21 Grams and last year's Academy Best Picture Crash. Its a style favoured too by Wong Kar Wai, most notably in Ashes of time and 2046.

Babel is an intense movie. The title is an allusion to the Genesis story of the Tower of Babel; a mythic tower supposedly built during a time when humanity was unified by a common language after the Flood. Tired to be beholden upon God's grace to enter Heaven, these humans embarked on the grand construction project of the Tower to ascend Heaven without judgement from God. To stop these arrogant and ambitious humans, God confused the builders by creating a multiplicity of languages. The builders could not understand one another and the Tower collapsed. The builders were dispersed across the world. Humanity never to be united again.

The movie has three stories. They are set in Morocco, Mexico and Japan. The characters speak a myriad of languages. As with Inárritu's previous films, there is a relentless bleakness in this story. A fatalism that pervades throughout, a helplessness of humans in the face of larger forces, of Fate. If there is one common language in this film, it is the grief of the characters. In the end, the stories end with tears as stated in the NYT review of the movie. That seems to be the common language, the emotions which are intensely amplified by several powerful scenes, powerful close-ups. The isomorphosis between the diverse characters is grief, they share grief. Perhaps the Japanese character, a deaf girl, symbolises the only way to understand the language of humanity. But as she understands, so too is she cut off from society because she is deaf. As she understands, no one understands her.

Babel is etymologized with the Hebrew word "balal" which means to confound or confuse. The art of Babel is well practised in Singapore, especially in application to politics, or issues which have political resonance. For example, the respected MM, Molly Meek, recently dissected the myth of the P65 MPs with absolute clarity. No matter how the media tries to portray these MPs as different, as promising a more diverse, a more differentiated Parliament, they are fundamentally still PAP and governed by the Whip. Babel. In the building of Casinos in Singapore, semantic displacement was artfully practised. Casino is replaced with IR. All the three proposals for the Sentosa casino, as reported in the public media, makes little if no reference to the casino itself. A child born today would not know that all the three exciting proposals have in their hearts, a casino. Babel. The sweeping legislative changes to the Penal Code to make the laws more relevant, more in line with current reality. But like another language, it becomes Babel. The cleansing of TODAY, moving it towards a new direction. Babel.

But occasionally, a common Singapore language surfaces in the political landscape. During the NKF scandal, it was outrage. A common language of anger and outrage. In the recent MRT suicide of a desperate Singaporean, there was a common language of sympathy, of shock. In the WSM issue, there was a common language of anger, indignation and outrage. Despite the attempt at Babel by WSM and her father, the common language of Singaporeans shone through clearly, refusing to be confounded, to be confused. Sometimes, when Singaporeans articulate in a common language, there are positive effects even if it is limited. PAP MP Sim Boon Ann's opening Parliament speech is an example. That is some form of differentiation, to his credit. Even though he is not seen as a P65. Its a welcome riposte to the attempt by his party to manufacture a common language and build a state-sanctioned Tower of Babel for Singapore, a Tower which has some commonalities to the biblical story.

A common language in Singapore remains mostly elusive though; usually an anomaly rather than a norm. Without which we cannot build a tower to reach those ensconced above who are building the Tower of Babel. Instead, we are confounded and confused most of the time. And we lose the determination of our selves. And we end up as helpless citizens in the face of larger forces. And the promising share in emotions of disenchantment and disillusion to be dispersed across the world. Victims of balal, fragments of Babel.

Quote of the Day --

""Lo! [they are] one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they have commenced to do. Now, will it not be withheld from them, all that they have planned to do? Come, let us descend and confuse their language, so that one will not understand the language of his companion". And the Lord scattered them from there upon the face of the entire earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore, He named it Babel, for there the Lord confused the language of the entire earth, and from there the Lord scattered them upon the face of the entire earth." -- Genesis 11:1-9