Sunday, July 05, 2009

Musical Interlude: Independence Day ... Ma B'day


Since the release of Bruce Sprinsteen's 1980 album, one song I kept playing on the night of July 4th (US time) would be Independence Day. My favourite on that album is album title, The River (Go hear here).

The night of July 4th is the early morning of July 5th in Malaysia. One morning several decades back, a child was born in a kampung in Johor. The mother returned to her mother's home to deliver her first baby and it was her mother's first grandchild.

That child was me. I was born just before subuh at around the time this posting is uploaded. The azan greeted my arrival.

Why do I associate my Birthday with Springsteen's Independence Day?

One reason would be my birthday coincide with the night they celebrate Independence Day firework by the Charles River in Boston or at Times Square New York. I happen to have celebrated Birthday at both these places.

Secondly, the song title gives a patriotic sound to my Birthday.

Thirdly and last, it is a soulful song about the coming of age a young man whose time has come to leave the nest. It has a rebelious ring to it.

At one stage in my life, I had suppressed my desire to be more expressive and forthright. It is this song that keep reminding to be my own.

Listen to the You Tube and the lyrics are below:

Well Papa go to bed now it's getting late
Nothing we can say is gonna change anything now
I'll be leaving in the morning from St. Mary's gate
We wouldn't change this thing even if we could somehow

`Cause the darkness of this house has got the best of us
There's a darkness in this town that's got us too
But they can't touch me now and you can't touch me now
They ain't gonna do to me what I watched them do to you

So say goodbye it's Independence day
Its Independence Day all down the line
Just say goodbye it's Independence Day
It's Independence Day this time

Now I don't know what it always was with us
We chose the words and yeah we drew the lines
There was just no way this house could hold the two of us
I guess that we were just too much of the same kind

Well say goodbye it's Independence Day
All boys must run away come Independence Day
So say goodbye it's Independence Day
All men must make their way come Independence Day

Now the rooms are all empty down at frankies joint
And the highway she's deserted down to breakers point
There's a lot of people leaving town now
Leaving their friends their homes
At night they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone

Well papa go to bed now it's getting late
Nothing we can say can change anything now
Because there's just different people coming down here now
And they see things in different ways
And soon everything weve known will just be swept away

So say goodbye it's Independence Day
Papa now I know the things you wanted that you could not say
But wont you just say goodbye it's Independence Day
I swear I never meant to take those things away

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday. Teruskan perjuangan anda dalam dunia blog ini. Tegakkan kebenaran dan tunjukkan kepada ramai mengenai dakyah dan kepalsuan

nightcaller said...

Happy birthday,

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Brother Voicey,

May you still continue to stay tall because we still need your shoulder to stand on, to scan the horizon to see what is beyond NAJIB's HUNDRED DAYS.

from

Prof Awe Kecik

Unknown said...

Here's wishing you the happiest birthday ever

May you continue to blog

Anonymous said...

Voice,

Happy Birthday & many happy returns!

We know you have many more exposes in weeks to come. Semoga Allah melindungi Saudara & keluarga saudara.

Azad

bro brotherhood, said...

As-Salam Bro Voicey,..heheh,..many happy returns of d day to u,..heheh,..wat else can I say,..'Happy Birthday Bro Voicey,..may u b blessed wth a joyous & prosperous life aheads,..insyaallah...apo nak dikato,..(,")

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Tok Pawi said...

Happy Birthday. Selamat panjang umur dan murah rezeki.

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday.

May you have a great year ahead and more a proKhairy slant :)

A Voice said...

Wenger

Ultimately I only want to go for the truth and nothing but the truth.

Everyone else

Tks for the wishes

Anonymous said...

Bro Voice,
Hope not too late to wish u Happy Birthday.

Anyway,found this intersting article article frm down under by Singapore dissident on Emperor LKY (with permission):

How Lee Kuan Yews blind the world on Meritocracy.


If you read the article in Singapore's state controlled newspaper Straits Time's online edition of July 6, 2009 titled "Meritocracy not quota. That's affirmative action the Singapore way" you may think Lee Kuan Yew's recently handpicked Minister for Law is advocating affirmative action for his oppressed Tamil Singapore brothers and the equally oppressed Malays there. In fact, sorry to disappoint you, it was not the case at all!

So what you have here is a newspaper article about what this Tamil Lee Kuan Yew's recently handpicked Minister has said; where in fact he has said nothing at all!

The article starts off by stating that about a decade ago, he had advocated affirmative action for Malays. But how this fact has any relevance to the rest of the article, except to mention that recently some Malay Singaporean was made a General in the Singapore Army (what his actual job duties are, we will never know, perhaps distributing the paperwork in the office!).

What is true is what we see. The Malays and Indians continue to be discriminated in the workforce by Chinese employers who demand a knowledge of Chinese for the job, when in truth none is necessary. In fact there was an comical but tragic nevertheless, incident, where the Indian in fact knew Chinese but when the employer discovered this, placed yet another requirement; knowledge of ancient Ming Dynasty caligraphy, and on this impossible requirement the Indian linguist naturally failed!

Just ask any Malay or Indian in Singapore. Blatant unashamed racial discrimination goes on before the very eyes of this Tamil, Lee Kuan Yew's poodle, K Shanmugam. If he had any decency, he should help his downtrodden Tamil brothers and sisters in Singapore in Serangoon Road to ensure they receive some modicum of fairness from the Chinese majority, instead of having to sleep on alleyways in Buffalo Road and Norris Road, high on traditional Chinese 100% proof spirit!

And coming to the word majority, if the Singapore Malays had their way, the Chinese in Singapore would not be majority at all, but would have been relegated a long time ago to being a very small minority.

Look at the facts. The Malays procreate and at a much faster rate than the Chinese, where every Chinese couple have either no children (too much stress, or unable to have sex, I don't know which) or at most one child. Take the Malay families. Every family has a full compliment of 3 to 5 children, and they should be very proud of it. And if this Singapore tyrant Lee Kuan Yew and his one party government had complied with the Singapore Constitution which demands equality between the races, the Malays would now be the majority race in Singapore, the Indians coming in a close second and the Chinese would have been a distant minority.

But this did not happen. Lee Kuan Yew, an ethnic Chinese himself, in blatant violation of the Singapore Constitution, brought in and continues to bring in disproportionately large numbers of Chinese from mainland China to ensure the Chinese continue to make up 75% of the Singapore population, in total violation of the rights of Malays and Indians.

And the discrimination against the Malays is particularly hurtful as they were the true sons of Singapore. They were there before anyone else. They were there before the British colonials brought in the Chinese and Indians.

And now this recently appointed minister in Lee Kuan Yew's dictatorship has the cheek to talk about meritocracy, when what he is actually saying is this. He intends to continue the discrimination of his government against his own Tamils and Malays as long as he is comfortable in his million dollar ministerial job, thanks to the continued patronage of his master, Lee Kuan Yew.



http://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/

Wonder why the recent visit?

stonehead

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