30 May 2009

Things We Take For Granted

Something came into my thoughts and I decided to put it down in writing. I'll share more of my thoughts at the bottom of this post. Do share yours with mine.

***********************
You're in love

So is the man who loves you

You're so in love that you want to make a vow,
To live together in the legal estate of matrimony,
To love him, comfort him, honour and keep him in sickness and in health
and forsaking all others, be faithful to him, so long as you both shall live.

So does he

You're so in love that you want to declare your love to everyone and anyone
and receive the blessings from those who love you

So does he

You're so in love that you'll devote your heart, mind and body to him

So does he

You're so in love that you want to raise children with him
To see them grow and realise their own potential
and to be valuable members of society

So does he

But you can't,
you can't live together in the legal estate of matrimony
you can't declare your love to everyone
you won't receive the blessings
you can't devote your body to him
you can't raise children with him, not even if all you're asking for is adopted children

not only that,

you can't apply for subsidized government housing
or place his name under the beneficiary of your life insurance

Neither can he

Because you are a man

******************************

I wonder how many of you were thinking about the gender of "You". Gender aside, what if the last statement has been changed to

"Because you are of a different race / religion /social class"

What will your thoughts be then?

I realised, after I went through these thoughts, that there are so many things that we, heterosexuals, happily married people, take for granted.

We happily walk into that tiny building in Fort Canning Hill to register our marriage. Declare our marriage vows to our friends and family. We even hold lavish banquet and receive loads of well wishes.

We're granted subsidized public housing, we can put our spouse name as beneficiary in case the unfortunate happens to us. We can adopt children even if we can't have any.

We hug and kiss our partner publicly when we happy, we do the same when we're sad. We can do all these because we love and are capable of loving. Why can't they?

17 May 2009

Pink Dot Sg

Ape is proud to be there, with his wife and daughter.

You be your own judge on how you and your family want to live your lives. Please don't judge others how they live theirs as long as they do no harm to others and are happy.


02 May 2009

We Are AWARE



Updated on 9 May 2009

Ape is really a peace loving person. For that matter, ape is always a firm believer of listening first, decide later, action latest. In order to be able to listen first, one has to be open minded, non-judgemental and empathetic. That is the exact reason why ape supported the original AWARE. The ousted new-EXCO headed by Josie Lau did the reverse of what ape believes in - that is action first (by taking over the EXCO) and listen last. Thus, ape can never support or condone them.