A Tension of Opposites

Here are some gems from Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, 1999, which I reread today:

"Dying ... is only one thing to be sad over. Living unhappily is something else ... " (p 35)

"Life is a series of pulls back and forth. You want to do one thing, but you are bound to do something else. Something hurts you, yet you know it shouldn't ... " (p 40)

"The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it" (p 42)

"The most important thing in life is to learn to give out love, and to let it come in." (p 52)

" ... I know it hurts when you can't be with someone you love. But you need to be at peace with his desires. Maybe he doesn't want you interrupting your life. Maybe he can't deal with that burden ... " (p 177)

In a different less self-indulgent note, here's a take on the tendency to scapegoat youth sub-culture by a writer who is a superior clone. I used to immerse myself in Cult Stud during those heady days at UW-Madison, which greatly enhanced my understanding of minority sub-cultures. I wish mainstream journalism is able to show more empathy and understanding and not victimise youths or marginalised groups just because they lack the social, political or economic power.

(T6 Music StarTwo, 06/01/06)


Rising above

By IZUAN SHAH

Last Saturday saw the usual New Year’s Eve celebrations taking place everywhere in Malaysia.

But for the 380 mostly young people detained at the Brickfields police station in Kuala Lumpur, the festivities was cut short when they were arrested at the venue of a gig in Jalan Klang Lama in Kuala Lumpur that night and carted to the station in police trucks for alleged “black metal” involvement, illegal gathering and other unfounded charges.

Despite being hushed and shepherded like convicts, the group simply continued their New Year celebrations when the countdown came at midnight. What the officers hadn’t counted on was that the group they had just arrested knew their rights.

These were the children of suburban middle-class families. If the police and their media cohorts came looking for the black metal bogeyman, they had come to the wrong gig. With private college students, members of the workforce and practising lawyers among the detained, they had messed with the wrong people.

Get up. stand up ... A section of the crowd, mostly indie musicians and their fans, gathered for a press conference at Paul’s Place early this week.

The generalisation of “black metal” itself is a lazy exercise of scapegoat labelling, a cruel generalisation of an alleged sub-culture of hedonism and “Satanic” practices, a Loch Ness monster the tabloids created with accusatory, non-researched articles and vague, unsolicited photographs of youths gathering at random concerts and music showcases.

To echo just a few heartfelt conclusions made by observers, it takes little more than common sense and a high school education to see music for what it is. Music is music. If media, authoritative or religious gatekeepers are so fearful of its influence on our young, then perhaps it says much about these parties’ own insecurities.

Perhaps the mainstream tabloids in question feel it within their power to seek out a scapegoat for their own shortcomings, to make up for their own laziness, their own failure to keep up with the times.

It has always been human nature to be afraid of and to demonise something they do not understand. It is natural to feel left in the dark about something one is unfamiliar with, and thus feel a strange liberty to condemn a perceived “lesser” group.

Music in Malaysia has always been kept in check sufficiently to be no more than cultural expression and a healthy outlet for the younger generation. Yet how frequently and persistently it is misunderstood is frightening: A bunch of confused adults is a lot scarier than a bunch of confused youth.

In developed Asian countries like Japan, music is valued and appreciation of music is encouraged by the family institution.

Music is also an important part of the community and it often serves as a lens to the state of a society here now.

Film, music, and literature of independent nature here often serve as an extension of creative traditions from the grassroots and can provide us not only with an insight into young Malaysia but can also share with us the multi-cultural impact of the past and give us a greater understanding of the present.

To anyone overwhelmed in the wake of the events, perhaps it should serve as reassurance and comfort in itself that a genuine love for music and the arts should outlast media demonisation and authoritarian muscle flexing.

If there have been complaints that local independent music lack substance, perhaps this is the perfect time for self-improvement – to inject that little bit of satire, critique and message in the music. And if there was never really a reason for young urbanites to really stand up for their rights, perhaps now there is.

The events following the New Year’s Eve raid is a wake-up call for the creative community to band together.

Standing united

The solidarity seen at the emergency press conference the day after the raid is a state aspired by all but in reality, a rare thing. Perhaps a forum designed to create and strengthen ties between musicians, artists, writers, curators, activists, filmmakers, tactical media provocateurs, students, designers, dreamers, architects, critical thinkers and cultural workers – everyone – would do well to ensure that the young and youth culture are not demonised again.

How much longer will young people be made scapegoats? Youth culture here has come so far since the bohsia era to redeem its battered reputation.

From having homegrown alternative rock music at Stadium Merdeka to independent films celebrated abroad and bands being showcased at the KLPac complex, modern young Malaysia is hardly about to shrivel up and be transported through some black hole back to Draconian times just because of a really bad idea by some tabloid “reporters”.

And anyone with a high school education would know that the good idea always wins out over the bad.