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Dec 12, 2009
Hollow freedoms and champagne brunch writing
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I REFER to yesterday's Insight article, 'Not for sale', on British journalist John Kampfner's ideas on civil liberties and his book, Freedom For Sale.
Mr Kampfner's ideas are commonly held among some who live in Singapore and this liberal spiel is exactly what you hear from the affluent over champagne brunches. He has elevated champagne brunch talk to the level of champagne brunch writing.
This is easy from the comfort of a nice London home in a nice area of the city, and would be the equivalent of talking about living dangerously. It is a very easy cloak to wear.
The cloak falls away, however, once you venture away from your comfort zone. Not the intellectual one but the physical one.
The poor in democracies do have intellectual freedom but do not have physical freedom - the freedom that comes from being safe at home and at work, from having peace of mind with children at school, from an expectation of justice when a victim of crime.
The freedoms Mr Kampfner writes about are hollow when compared to the very real freedom that comes from safety and freedom of movement.
The answer he sought to the question he put in The Guardian newspaper - Why is it that a growing number of highly educated and well-travelled people are willing to hand over several of their freedoms in return for prosperity or security? - would have been easily apparent if he had gone out and spent time in our HDB estates and compared them to the inner cities in many democracies.
Lim Yu Tang
Hollow freedoms and champagne brunch writing
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<!-- end left side bar --><!-- story content : start -->
I REFER to yesterday's Insight article, 'Not for sale', on British journalist John Kampfner's ideas on civil liberties and his book, Freedom For Sale.
Mr Kampfner's ideas are commonly held among some who live in Singapore and this liberal spiel is exactly what you hear from the affluent over champagne brunches. He has elevated champagne brunch talk to the level of champagne brunch writing.
This is easy from the comfort of a nice London home in a nice area of the city, and would be the equivalent of talking about living dangerously. It is a very easy cloak to wear.
The cloak falls away, however, once you venture away from your comfort zone. Not the intellectual one but the physical one.
The poor in democracies do have intellectual freedom but do not have physical freedom - the freedom that comes from being safe at home and at work, from having peace of mind with children at school, from an expectation of justice when a victim of crime.
The freedoms Mr Kampfner writes about are hollow when compared to the very real freedom that comes from safety and freedom of movement.
The answer he sought to the question he put in The Guardian newspaper - Why is it that a growing number of highly educated and well-travelled people are willing to hand over several of their freedoms in return for prosperity or security? - would have been easily apparent if he had gone out and spent time in our HDB estates and compared them to the inner cities in many democracies.
Lim Yu Tang
