Wurk Wurk
During the days before WarCraft became MMORPG, you played God, built a fortress, built an economy, raised an army and basically then crush the opposition, the enemy. The most basic unit then was the peon, the peon who automatically collects gold from the mine, chops the trees for wood, construct the buildings and repair stuff. When you clicked on these peons, they had this range of very cute auto replies "yes master?", "wurk wurk".
Peons were very important even though they were infinitely less sexy than an ogre mage or a death knight which had replies like "who u wanna kill?". These wurk wurks collected the stuff that made it possible for God to achieve his final objective of territorial domination. If you played LAN multiplayer WarCraft then, one strategy to strangle your opponent was simply to ghost some mages near the enemy's gold-mine and cast some tornadoes or hexes around the area where the endless stream of peons enter and exit from. The peons died fairly quickly. They did not really have much life-points. So, kill the peons, gain a strategic advantage in resource building. No one can wurk wurk. And you win the game.
-----
In the time before the British came to SEA, wars between different kingdoms, for example the Thai and the Burmese, were interesting conflicts. Forget for a moment the romanticised image of thunderous charging elephant armies and wild carnage. Whenever an army succeeded in conquering a city, they sacked it. They took the treasures (an example is the famous Emerald Buddha residing now in Bangkok) and then they took the people. In those pre nation-state days, there was no point really in holding on to land. Boundaries were non existent. Forest and jungles lay between jewel cities. Land was abundant. But people were not. Each conflict, whatever the lofty justifications, was an exercise in mass kidnapping. Exodus wars.
----
Came into Changi last week amidst the glow of the Budget. It was quaint, flipping through an actual copy of the Straits Times. Speed reading through a book of Hallmark cards labeled Hope and Inspiring. Info-graphics, numbers, choice quotes in an almost surreal holographic presentation. The paper glowed. The poor are saved. No more leaping on the MRT tracks. The paper was heavy with happiness. Heavy with glow. Walking towards immigration, a huge embracing sign "workcome home" beckons. Workcome to Singapore.
Two percent GST increase. To save the poor. It almost makes sense now.
Two percent corporate tax cut. Its an actual tax cut in a climate of a major consumption tax increase and hand-outs to the deserving poor. Two percent. Corporate tax. You see rising transport costs, rising cost of living and there is a God-given two percent corporate tax cut. Happiness.
Corporate tax decrease Goods Services Tax increase the Deserving Poor are Saved.
Workcome to Singapore. wurk wurk.
----
In the taxi, the driver is not very happy. In Hokkien, hor li kway tui, gia doe deng kway. Gives you a drumstick but takes back a chicken. Followed by that same old same old chuckle. Anger? Resignation? Frustration? lies dormant. Or is this hollow chuckle just dormant lies? This same old chuckle, hapless happiness perhaps.
----
Recently received a snail mail that was not from a bank. It was an aerogramme. A piece of paper that you can write something on, fold it into an envelope and send to wherever in the world. When having pen-pals was in. The aerogramme contained CNY greetings and this line "... remember water pump we build down hill? It broken now. :-) but ok, we know to make pump ok next month. Now we pump water with leg haha ..." This aerogramme glowed too. Made it much lighter than a gramme.
----
When you play WoW or DOTA now, peons no longer feature. They did away with this unit. Re-ordered the game economy. Made it faster and more real. No more wurk wurk. In DOTA and WoW just jazz up your heroes. Hurl the sacrifice troops. Keep the heroes alive and all will be fine. You win.
----
It was a relatively quiet CNY this time round. Same questions about wurk wurk from the retired parents. The inevitable slant towards Singapore, but even then, the anger, once expressed with countless classical Chinese analogies, seemed to have become slightly more empty, more hollow. Anger remains but despair has perhaps set in. Helplessness probably.
----
Happy Belated New Year and hope all of you will fare well in the coming year.
Quote of the Day --
"The chief's possessions were few: an arrangement of artfully woven floor mats, a couple of spears, a tall blowgun leaning in the corner ... and, incredibly, hanging at eye level on the otherwise bare wall, a trio of framed pictures, the official government photograph of President Suharto, the standard lithograph of a thorn-crowned and teary Jesus, and, in the elevated place of honor in between, a black and white glossy of a smirking Jack Nicholson ... 'My God, this damn photo is actually signed ..." -- Stephen Wright, Going Native
Peons were very important even though they were infinitely less sexy than an ogre mage or a death knight which had replies like "who u wanna kill?". These wurk wurks collected the stuff that made it possible for God to achieve his final objective of territorial domination. If you played LAN multiplayer WarCraft then, one strategy to strangle your opponent was simply to ghost some mages near the enemy's gold-mine and cast some tornadoes or hexes around the area where the endless stream of peons enter and exit from. The peons died fairly quickly. They did not really have much life-points. So, kill the peons, gain a strategic advantage in resource building. No one can wurk wurk. And you win the game.
-----
In the time before the British came to SEA, wars between different kingdoms, for example the Thai and the Burmese, were interesting conflicts. Forget for a moment the romanticised image of thunderous charging elephant armies and wild carnage. Whenever an army succeeded in conquering a city, they sacked it. They took the treasures (an example is the famous Emerald Buddha residing now in Bangkok) and then they took the people. In those pre nation-state days, there was no point really in holding on to land. Boundaries were non existent. Forest and jungles lay between jewel cities. Land was abundant. But people were not. Each conflict, whatever the lofty justifications, was an exercise in mass kidnapping. Exodus wars.
----
Came into Changi last week amidst the glow of the Budget. It was quaint, flipping through an actual copy of the Straits Times. Speed reading through a book of Hallmark cards labeled Hope and Inspiring. Info-graphics, numbers, choice quotes in an almost surreal holographic presentation. The paper glowed. The poor are saved. No more leaping on the MRT tracks. The paper was heavy with happiness. Heavy with glow. Walking towards immigration, a huge embracing sign "workcome home" beckons. Workcome to Singapore.
Two percent GST increase. To save the poor. It almost makes sense now.
Two percent corporate tax cut. Its an actual tax cut in a climate of a major consumption tax increase and hand-outs to the deserving poor. Two percent. Corporate tax. You see rising transport costs, rising cost of living and there is a God-given two percent corporate tax cut. Happiness.
Corporate tax decrease Goods Services Tax increase the Deserving Poor are Saved.
Workcome to Singapore. wurk wurk.
----
In the taxi, the driver is not very happy. In Hokkien, hor li kway tui, gia doe deng kway. Gives you a drumstick but takes back a chicken. Followed by that same old same old chuckle. Anger? Resignation? Frustration? lies dormant. Or is this hollow chuckle just dormant lies? This same old chuckle, hapless happiness perhaps.
----
Recently received a snail mail that was not from a bank. It was an aerogramme. A piece of paper that you can write something on, fold it into an envelope and send to wherever in the world. When having pen-pals was in. The aerogramme contained CNY greetings and this line "... remember water pump we build down hill? It broken now. :-) but ok, we know to make pump ok next month. Now we pump water with leg haha ..." This aerogramme glowed too. Made it much lighter than a gramme.
----
When you play WoW or DOTA now, peons no longer feature. They did away with this unit. Re-ordered the game economy. Made it faster and more real. No more wurk wurk. In DOTA and WoW just jazz up your heroes. Hurl the sacrifice troops. Keep the heroes alive and all will be fine. You win.
----
It was a relatively quiet CNY this time round. Same questions about wurk wurk from the retired parents. The inevitable slant towards Singapore, but even then, the anger, once expressed with countless classical Chinese analogies, seemed to have become slightly more empty, more hollow. Anger remains but despair has perhaps set in. Helplessness probably.
----
Happy Belated New Year and hope all of you will fare well in the coming year.
Quote of the Day --
"The chief's possessions were few: an arrangement of artfully woven floor mats, a couple of spears, a tall blowgun leaning in the corner ... and, incredibly, hanging at eye level on the otherwise bare wall, a trio of framed pictures, the official government photograph of President Suharto, the standard lithograph of a thorn-crowned and teary Jesus, and, in the elevated place of honor in between, a black and white glossy of a smirking Jack Nicholson ... 'My God, this damn photo is actually signed ..." -- Stephen Wright, Going Native
posted by xenoboysg at 5:47 AM
15 Comments:
Dear xenoboy.
New Year to you & your family, too.
As usual, very insightful & thought provoking. Please don't ever stop writing.
I'm filled with such utter despair for the future of the working poor citizens in this country called Singapore. I'm so disgusted with the 2 pecentage points increase in gst. I don't care about all this elite mumbo jumbo about the 2 percent being good for the economy, bottom line, its always the working poor who pay the ultimate price of being squeezed when they don't have much to begin with. It will be interesting to see the real suicide statistics for Singapore.
"I'm filled with such utter despair"
Just apply for PR with other countries dude. The only welfare is for the PAP and their running dogs.
Thats why I say, always play undead....
dun need to think so much
1moresg
Arent most singaporeans like undead now? complain abit but at the end still lan lan suck thumb?
the Stark in Winterfell
One night I was playing dota, two kids were quarreling. Their same team heroes were standing at the fountain literally side by side and they were quarreling. They left the three of the team to fight the battle.
As the other team plundered, pillaged, killed and owned.
1moresg
Okay, totally irrelevant comment here, but...
I feel like a relic. I actually preferred to play Warcraft when I was God and I could control my peons and move them around. I derived great pleasure (cheap thrill, actually) from clicking on all my subjects again and again when I was bored so that I could irritate them. Warcraft II was especially fun coz of the exploding sheep.
I however, suck so much at DOTA that I don't even bother playing it. Maybe I'm better as God than as puny hero. Bwahaha.
Wurk wurk. =)
Better than those few who tried to play GOD but still suck big time ;)
is PAP, GOD?
Welcome back to Singapore Inc!
I enjoy your posts as they appeal to something in us, that little splinter in the mind that Morpheus explains to Neo in the film "The Matrix" about something that is so very wrong with Singapore that we cannot quite put our finger to it.
I enjoy how you guide my finger to some of these issues. :-)
Above all, I too feel melancholic that our country is moving backwards for those aliented by globalisation. It is rewarding the young and the smart the elite and the entrepreneurs. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is allowing those who cannot keep up to die by the wayside, economic casualties of this global war on winning investments and capital to our little red dot.
May your thoughts continue to illuminate the blogosphere. :-)
祝你猪年快乐!
Lunatic Fringe
if anything, it's a vain attempt for the pappies to be god. lol
1moresg -- dats why having peons is a good idea, bring them to third earth like battlestar galactica n start afresh, leave the bickerers to die; unlike dune, u cannot bring a harvester and start afresh ... or maybe what ur saying is an allegory for "political" bloggers lol
kitana -- if a peon has a god-complex, s/he will be termed a terrorist, fundamentalist or militant plus gay too, take ur pick lol but yea, i'm slightly better at classic wc than dota or wow. i think its age and motor skills coordination arghs
LF -- Thanks, if you put a finger to it, it may be chopped off, i think molly will say this lol
Anons -- thanks too
Ogre-Mages and Death Knights don't say "Who you wanna kill?"
That's what Troll Headhunters say.
Ninja in white has emigrated to Xenoboy !!!
Hey, you worthless piece of liberal trash. Maybe you can teach us Ninja-in-white some economics and governance by explaining how you will redistribute the wealth and income in Singapore.
Maybe let the gay communists in the blogosphere run the show, the poor will get 100%, everybody else will get 0. The problem is that perhaps need need to be a gay-commie to qualify to have the 'poor' label.
Nah. Of course you won't explain how you will run the show. After all, you don't make millions of dollars like the ministers.
That's why ministers prosper and poets should either be made to starve to death or create anti-establishment blogs in Singapore.
Get out of my elite uncaring ass !
lol
=)
;)
:)
imoresg
Ill time when singaporean are worried for their job and 40's can't find a permanent jobs as most are contract, in the end become taxi driver supposed for retiree. So insecure and how to start a family with many children! Of course those drawing high have no such worries and they do not understand why, why ,why even got baby bonus,don want ah. Until the highly paid government can closed income gap, as they are supposed to be ' highly intelligence' and help singaporean earn more to meet family obligation
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