My OB&D group! Less photocopying shop auntie!

Listless.

I am making a response to an earlier post I made titled "Change We Believe".

Recently I got fired up with this notion of "not being a captive of our past, but to be a product of our choices" as conceived by many great motivational speakers. FYI, this quote was derived from an inspirational speech made by Steven Covey. I think most of us would concur with the statement and we can all draw great strengths from the idea. Indeed it bears substantially much positive influence to fuel our psychological drive in life...however, I was caught in great dilemma to the full truth of the notion as of last night after watching Kumar's comedy performance - Stripped Bear and Standing Up. Funny how a comedy can induce so much emotions in me.

I won't go too much into the show (in any case I don't really buy into the idea of arts-related/cinematic productions with traces of local charm). What I want to share is the strong yet subtle notion brought about by the show - about the many external circumstances that act upon an individual that can be very suppressive and influential to a person's choice.

Often we hear that the consequences and outcomes in life come about by the choices we make. Because we are accountable for our own lives. And we jump into quick conclusions like "we are makers of our destiny", "fate is in the palm of your hands", 人定胜天 etc.

Easily said, it can be assumed to be a universal truth in most contexts.

But I tend to think of it as a western idea very distant from a bona-fide truth, if it even exists in the first place.

Homosexuality is repudiated and held blasphemous in many cultural contexts. A high degree of self-restraint and suppression brought about by social stigmas and ideologies that curb variant behaviours/actions away from a standard or convention still exists in today's culture. Poverty is rampant still despite a wealthier global community developed; ironically the income disparity is widening as we are speaking. And generations after generations, mankind fight so hard to break out of the poverty cycle. Some see light at the end of the tunnels, others fumble in despair. I think education is an instrumental element lacking that denies them from the choices they make. Failure seems almost inevitable.

Even in many literature contexts we learn about the inevitability of life. Bing Xin's(冰心) short novel, 分, had a great impact on my life since JC. It talks about the inexolerable differences and inequality in society that determines every individual's outcome in life. The caste system, the preexisting forces of circumstances that act upon us etc.

The ideal Pangaea that many have fought for over mankind's history seems despairingly distant, given what we have achieved so far.

Yet. We continuously grasp onto hope. Helplessly in love with the notion of positivity and hope. With the belief that change is possible.

I think this irony makes one of the biggest mockeries in mankind.

Yet (I think) this is also the most beautiful poetic romance ever created by mankind.

Let's face it - life's never fair. But I think it's commendable for one to keep trying, to maintain the fighting spirit and to break out the of circumstances that bind no matter how futile the efforts may seem.

Nothing comes easy in life. But then again, nothing's worthy in life if it's not worth fighting for.

With hope (and, may I add, love), life prevails.

The issue revolved around founder Richard Branson's smart moves in the industry, his bold marketing strategies and out of the world ideas that captured the hearts of novelty seeking consumers. More importantly, we identified the choice of sex appeal in the airline industry. At first we got put down by the floor because most opinionated conservativists were resistant with the idea of gender discrimination and using sex appeal as a marketing point instead of using conventional elements like customer service and heavy advertising. So I think, we challenged some marketing conventions and it really got quite controversial initially. But thankfully our tutor approved our bold move.

However I think we could have gotten further if we didn't restrain our ideas and tried to pull a less convincing idea of balancing the sex appeal with quality service. We got overly concerned with the fear of threading into moral degradation with the proposal.

But sex sells after all, not?