Home

I've fallen in love with Joe Ng's version of HOME that is featured in the Sandcastle:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=459012710545

Sandcastle itself is full of symbolism loaded with socio-political critique about this place I call home. And some reviews of the movie chose to add on the criticism and attack on the Singapore.

Sometimes, if you believe all the criticism you read on the web, you would think that this place is really a rotten place. And for a person not born here, why did I choose to call this place home?

The truth is, in the end, it is the emotions that binds. This is where I grow up. This is where my friends and family are. This is where my memories are. It is the bits and pieces, here and there, then and now, that forms the emotional ties that roots me here.

This is not a perfect place. I wish the 377A is not there and gay people won't be discriminated. I wish censorship can be relaxed. I wish there is more political freedom and debate. I wish the government won't be so mercenary, holding economic growth above everything else, and constantly bribing people with money and materialistic things. I wish the government won't be so harsh on criticism, and doesn't have to insist it is right all the time. I wish for more nature space and more preservation of its past.

But things are improving, even if the changes are not fast enough for some people. The silver lining in all the criticisms is that there are people who know somethings are not right. That our Home needs more than material enrichment. As long as there are people who are aware, we can be optimistic that this will become a better place. Of course, there are many people who choose to complain and do nothing. But there are people who get on their feet and do something, through civil groups, through forums and feedbacks, through art and creative works, through individual actions in daily life.

And some, choose to create a movie with a message to awaken the socio-political consciousness of the people.

I think it is significant that Sandcastle choose the song HOME to close the movie.

In the end, this is home, and after all the criticism and self-reflection, we'll get down to make this a better place, in spite of the circumstances.