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Quote by Madeleine George

“Once," Fran says, settling against the worktable, folding her arms, "I knew this kid who very bravely and bossily came out of the closet when she was only fourteen years old. She told me then that we can't choose who we love. We just love the people we love, no mattter what anyone else might want for us. Wasn't that you?”

Quote by Madeleine George

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The Difference Between You and Me

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Madeleine George

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“This will pose a serious dilemma for the PAP; the more unprepared the Opposition is to administer Singapore, the more likely the PAP will remain in power. However, as one-party dominant states do not last for too long, and simply waiting for the PAP to fracture and for one faction to lead the Opposition to capture power, or worse still, what if the PAP is suddenly voted out of power, the harm to Singapore could be irreparable. Would it not be a duty and obligation for the one-party dominant state to also think of Singapore and its interests to prepare an alternative government that will continue administering the Republic in the best interest of its people?”

“In short, a one-party dominant state can advantage a polity. It can bring about stability through continuity of leadership and policies. This can enhance the predictability of government and its policies, thereby contributing to long-term goals. Such a state would be able to organise relevant groups through co-option and if this fails, through coercion. Such states can undertake effective mobilisation of its people and successfully maintain diversity. One-party dominant states are also adept in pursuing long-term based strategies, policies and objectives that can result in the development of strong economies as happened in Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea.”

“Those who tried to demonstrate some form of independence and fairness in their reporting and editing have paid a high price. The Straits Times editor, Han Fook Kwang, was sidelined and made managing editor after a rare display of fairness in political journalism when he gave the Opposition, especially the Workers’ Party, more editorial space than what was allocated during previous elections.”

“When the Japanese invaded, informers said mother was an important member of the resistance. She was taken in, badly tortured and never confessed. Her life was spared because the Japanese interrogators could not believe a woman could have held such a key role. When her children were grown-up, mother would tell us, ‘It’s not as bad as it sounds. The first time, you’re scared you’ll give away your friends. But there comes a point when you pass out. Once that happens, you cannot feel pain anymore. Once you have learnt that, you can beat your torturers.”

“with you, the sense i have lost my place in a book or simply lost — misplaced the memory which isn't in the last place where I looked. a thought that the clouds don't move — that it is we who thunder past — there it is! an old vacation, a train ride — sense of immobility. as sky and forest scroll past in relation, we are not moved, pretend to love the view, resort at length to scripted conversation by a poet-turned-screenwriter who didn't want this job, career gone grossly wrong and now drafts action film scripts wholly two- dimensional unless you choose to don the 3d glasses that do not stay on —”

“In the early '80s, I spent a year working on a verse-play -- based on the life of Anne Maguire (whose sister, Mairead, founded the Peace People movement after Anne took her own life). Anne's three children were killed on the pavement as she was wheeling the pram one day in 1976 by an IRA fugitive's getaway car -- the driver fatally shot by a British soldier; this singular incident crystallized for me so much of the terror then in the air. Writing was a way of keeping clear -- in the sense of fixing it, restoring it facet by facet, to clarity. Catching a moment of history like a fly in amber with the chorus of witnesses alive, outside. After all, poetry affords this license and extreme economy. I have no business, of course, to write about such matters, being a complete foreigner in Ireland. But you do it because it is nobody's business. What you write is nobody's business. Isn't that poetry? - "What You Write Is Nobody's Business": An Interview With Wong May (The Believer, May 2014)”