Seraphim Anthology #04 - Round the Clockwork

Well, I know many have been waiting for the next exposé. Sorry to disappoint but I'm going to have to halt that. Allow me to compensate for that. I realised that the Forbidden Files is not my only column, so I still have to write about other things. Besides, too many exposés will make it boring. Rest assured that the next one will be of high impact, as all my exposés are aspired to be.

I cannot promise a date for the next one, but I can say that I'm postponing the scandal to put the Adam Khoo analysis first. Hope that's good news. Meanwhile, I'm trying to find inspiration for a good story, so help me out here. I have crafted a small handiwork for your content momentarily, so enjoy!

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Seraphim Anthology #04 - Round the Clockwork
A poem by Seraphim

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[By: Seraphim]
Want freedom from this chroniker cage
To find liberation to become the sage
Tree of life the mortals endure
For the sake of living they cannot cure
Five fingers they slowly count till night
Sick of going through the everlasting fight
Seven days straight they loaded their brain
Ate no rewards drank sorrow and pain
Nine tails of wisdom they try to achieve
Tan have their skins yet more sun to grief

[By: PseudoMan / Tarzan]
Has the sun blinded their eyes?
Or is it the moon that's glazed their sight?
For the escape that they so seek
Lies not at the end of the rhythmic tick
Will they not see the trap they've made?
The orb of twelve that counts their fate
Running away from unseen hands
Will their rush lead to good ends?
The monotony of worldly beat
T'would only be silenced by ended greed

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Thanks to PseudoMan / Tarzan for contributing that last stanza. It seemed to continue mine perfectly, so I hope you don't mind me posting them together. I've credited you up there though.

Stopping for a breather

Don't worry, this will be a short entry. I realise that throughout the course of my blogging days, I've created and stopped a couple of series, besides the typical blog entries that I occassionally make. So for now, I'll be clarifying what will be in and what will be out.

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Farewell to the past
The following series will hereby be given the axe. I have deem them too troublesome to continue, more like I don't give a damn about them anymore.


The Sims 2 series
That series was created without premeditated thinking, thus it was simultaneous and rash. I actually created it out of sheer excitement of the then new game. And I still think it's a nice game though. Just that I don't think it will make good reading anymore. Besides, there's only one part to the series. Sims, you are the weakest link, goodbye.

The Tale of the Undecided Tales
The tale of this tale is a more amusing tale. From the creator(s) of the fiction came this new type of fiction. When I first started writing fiction for the blog, I thought of creating a series where the readers suggest future outcomes. Turns out the readers weren't too enthusiastic about it and made the fiction end up with very weird continuations, including eternal darkness in a hole because there was no response and the introduction of a magic wok because the readers were giving nonsensical response. Guess we have to say goodbye now.

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Welcome to the future
Well that was the past. Now I will show you the future of this blog. Let me formally introduce to you my blog columns!

The Forbidden Files
By now all of you should know what this is. Being the centre and the most celebrated segment of my blog, this has been causing quite a stir with just the first article. For those who were left out, this series will be a series of exposés revealing secrets, scandals and conspiracies behind things in everyday lives. Think you can stand up to the truth? Think again.

The Wilderness Series
As abstract as the name sounds, abstract is the content itself. For eons humans have tried asking themselves the secrets and meaning of life. I am no different. This is where I attempt to answer some of those questions and regurgitate my words on the abstract topics that will be discussed.

Gilded Grimoire
This isn't a new series, just a new name to give to an old feature. The Gilded Grimoire shall now be the name for the short stories in this blog. Four have already been written from the previous blog and more are on your way. Previously, each short story was based around a certain emotional theme, and hopefully I am able to continue this.

Seraphim Anthology
Despite my knack for the truth, this small segment is my personal favourite. This will be where I write out my poems! Fine, so it doesn't sound that exciting, but it's still my favourite anyway. Guess there's not that much to talk about this thing eh?


I guess those four will be enough to keep me occupied for some time. I may be coming up with new series along the way, but chances are quite slim. These four columns should have quite a lot of potential in them and I don't think I'm coming up with any more until I exhaust the possibilities. With that, goodbye and goodnight!

Defining my parameters

Greetings again dear readers. For today, I'll just be commenting on the previous entry and clarifying some other things. Some might find it lengthy, but what the heck.

Ok, so let's put first thing's first. I can't ignorantly say that my so called 'exposé' in the previous entry, or future entries for that matter, are not meant to hurt people entirely. I am no stranger to the casualties of truth and honesty. For the casualties of my writing, all I can offer you is my sincere apology. Besides that you have been warned against reading, am I not correct?

I do realise that the type of entries like the previous ones are rather provoking. Well that's the point isn't it? I'm an attention seeking bastard and I'm aspiring to be a damn good writer, so I can't do that by endlessly stammering my sad life to you right? On a more serious note, I would like to let everyone get one thing clear: my writings and opinions are fairly educated ones. They are based to a certain extent on solid facts, that's the whole point of an exposé. This may be wee bit too harsh and shocking to some but I'm here to emphasize the impact of writing on people. What better way to do this than to slam the naked truth in their faces?

True or false, the credibility of my writing is ultimately up to the reader to weigh. I might even sadistically play on that in the future, but I'll try not to abuse your faith in my writing. Despite the negative or probing comments in the tagboard or elsewhere, I deeply, truly appreciate them. No writer would turn away the words of their readers. Besides, there's no greater pleasure than finding the flaws of a perfect masterpiece. (fine, maybe sexual pleasure might equate)

For those that expressed comments privately, I will hold them confidential. Comments like those made by dear old Wraith, I would take pleasure in addressing publically. Oh yeah, Wraith, if you mind me stating the following, just hint me and I'll gladly take it off.

Wraith said "BTW, crime rates for malays are LOWER than the other races... And what has terrorism got to do with malay's downfall? If so, even some Americans are muslims and some were related in terrorist attacks... What one sees and believes in directly affect the type of person they become?". Well that's a summary at least.

Allow me to respond to that. Firstly, I think that what you have said about the malay crime rates meant there are less malay criminals than other races. The actual fact is, and this is for real a fact, the percentage of criminals within the racial group of the Malays is way higher than the percentage of criminals within other racial groups. Sad, but true.

Secondly, terrorism has got quite a lot to do with the downfall. To clarify, the downfall in my exposé is defined by the failure in terms of academics, social, political, etc and the stance of impression that others have. Having said that, terrorism affects the downfall as being related to terrorism obviously will degrade the impression that others have on the Malay community. If it's religion that you say, Singaporean Malays can be safely taken as entirely Muslims and religion plays a large part in defining them. And do you know how Americans muslims are treated? Like vermin, to summarise it. To a certain extent that is similar to Singaporean Muslims too, especially at the time right after the Sept 11 incident.

Thirdly, Wraith mentioned that I'm assuming what one sees they will believe in. You're totally dismissing the other part dear. I said what one sees AND believe in. Those two can't be taken in isolation. Either way, visual input greatly influence one's response and faith, so the point is valid anyway. If you don't believe that what one believes is what one becomes, don't kid me. Have you not heard the power of faith?

Fourthly, I was said to digress a lot. If you read my definition of downfall aboce, I think that clears it up a bit. It's my mistake on my part to not include that in the exposé.

Well, that feels a lot better. I really would like to thank all those people who've read and responded to my exposé. Though it's just my first, the response was encouraging. You guys make me feel like I'm a White House official responding to the president's comment, It's a cool feeling. But that's just me.

Do continue to return here for your cup of linguistic tea and spread the word so that everyone will experience the liberation of walking on Legal Grounds.
(that sounds so much like an ad tagline, cor-nee...)

Forbidden Files #01 - To be swept away

As promised, I am coming up with an argument on a very politically fragile topic, one that has been close to my heart and dying to write about. What is it? Read on below. I hope that this will be a feature of interest to readers, so please do hint me comments on possible topics that might be of your interest in the tagboard.

For those who is reading this for the first time, please check out the previous entry for an introduction and heed the warning above the Harry Potter advertisement.

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Forbidden Files #01 - To be swept away
An exposé by Seraphim


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The Malays in Singapore make up the second largest proportion of people in the country. Despite once being Malay soil, Singapore has developed into a country dominated by the Chinese and surprisingly the foreigners, a group that makes up Singapore's minority group.

Over the years, the hold that the Malays have on the country as a whole has been slowly slipping away. It all began, of course, with the very founding of Singapore. The moment that the land was handed over from the Malays to the British was the moment that sparked off the Malays' downfall. Of couse, many sees this as a wise choice of the locals to let the higher power mould our beginnings, but what they fail to realise is why this was so.

The real reason the land was lost from the Malays was not because of wisdom, but because of greed. In secrecy, the government has managed to slip this piece of information into all youths without their notice. What I'm talking about here is the fact that lower secondary social studies never fail to emphasize how much MONEY the British paid the Malay Sultan in exchange for control over the land.

Thank God the government has enough mercy to spare the real reason why the Sultan needed the money, for the sake of the Malays. But since this is an exposé article, I'll defy the remaining efforts the Malays have put to save their faces and reveal it anyway. The Sultan needed the money for cock fighting, as in cockerel. Before the days of betting on horse racing, the early locals betted on fighting cockerels. Obviously the Sultan was a big fan of this.

I mean, hey, who in the world with the right mind would hand over an oversized island of a swamp to some guy in tights, weird sideburn and an exaggerated English accent when the land has strategic geographical advantages and an economic potential? If that guy wanted money, he could have just invested in the good old Singapore. Too bad he was desperately in debt.

And that concludes the embarrassing beginning, JUST the beginning.

More than a century has passed since then, yet nothing has been improving. The loss of the land to the British is now emphasized with the loss of control to the Chinese. The crime rate of Malays are way higher than the other races, and that goes for pregnancy, abortion, academics, and all the social problems there is.

To make it worse, the Malays are even associated to terrorism and for a reason that they themselves can’t deny. So far, all the terrorist-related prisoners are all Malays, most of which were in direct relation to J.I. and indirectly, the Al-Qaeda. Heck, Osama bin Laden’s a Muslim, and so are Malays. The relation is undeniable.

We can’t say that the Malays do not realize their mistakes. Some time back, the former prime minister of Malaysia himself made a public announcement about the failure of Malays. If that isn’t publicity of the Malays’ failure, then I don’t know what is. In that announcement, through tears he revealed to the Malaysian Malays their non-productivity despite the special rights that they have been endowed with since their birth and since the beginning of that nation. Even at the cost of the prime minister’s humility the situation is still the same.

Back in Singapore, efforts to publicize all the failures has become an ongoing effort. The latest edition to that effort is the weekly show titled ‘Hanyut’ on Monday nights on Suria. (for those who cared, I assisted in the production of the theme song, the singer is a stupid minah by the way). The name means to be swept away, the inspiration to this article and the focus of this exposé. Every week, the series tells the true life stories of some dysfunctional teenagers, with a different topic each show. The stories could be about anything negative, including gangsters, tattoos, extramarital pregnancies, abortion, smoking, drugs, you get the picture.

Now, to shed light on such negative matters to the community that spawned them could have several effects. The first is the classic ‘learn from your mistakes’. Probably when the producers thought of the show, this was what they had in mind. Though other consequences to producing the show were probably dismissed or probably not even thought of, typically Malay-like.

The second effect is to stereotype everyone’s impression of Malay teens. The irony is that the ‘everyone’ I refer to include Malay parents themselves. How many here can deny that Malay parents, after watching the show, will tell their children to not follow what was shown on TV without realizing that their children were the ones committing those offences themselves. As if failing is not enough, now the Malays just had to ensure that everyone thinks that they are failures.

The third effect is more psychological. Scientific research has proven that what one sees and believes in directly affect the type of person they become. Now let’s theorize what could happen to a Malay teenager who watches the show. I think you can see it already. Heck, just look down at the void deck to get a clearer picture. Now you can see what happened. When we thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, the Malays once again defied that by putting their youths’ future in a vice grip of past failures. They take the saying ‘history repeats itself’ to a whole new level.

What sparked my fury personally was the tone in which the show was delivered. It makes the viewers all seem naïve and innocent, as if the wrong-doers in the series are some bunch of losers from a faraway place. Well that could qualify since their colossal bosoms did originate from their thinking of walking to the bus stop is a marathon (notice that was a metaphor, not a simile).

If they wanted to make a show about how much the Malay community has failed, at least make it like a straight-to-the-head tight slap, like the article I’m writing now. They should produce a show exposing the sick problems that naïve and innocent looking Malays actually face instead of the naked-to-the-eye problems. Retelling the tale of past mistakes is becoming such a cliché. Surfacing newer problems would be such a touché.

Sometimes one would wonder how a disaster at this massive a scale could be kept blissful to the public eye. More importantly one would continue to wonder what could possibly the solution to all this. Day by day, the stakes are getting greater. As the public eye turns towards the direction of the Malays, will we see them scattering about like the filthy rats they are or rise from the ashes to be born anew. Only time can bring the ultimate exposé to that question.

And yes, I am a Malay.

It begins.... Again...

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Epilogue
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Days, weeks, months have passed. Over the past three months, the lone Seraph has dragged his battered body over the trecherous horizon. Three long, painstaking months of smelling rotting flesh upon his body.

It was three months ago that he escaped from the final battle. The last battle of the Seraphim, the battle that took them all, save one. It was the battle of Heaven's Hell Grounds, the last city of the Seraphim. Though he managed to revived the dead bodies of his comrades to strike a second time, the enemy nonetheless prevailed, allowing his just amper time to make his escape away from his doomed comrades.

A battle was lost, yet his hope did not. For the past three months, his motive had been clear. From the remains of Heaven's Hell Grounds he set off for the one place he knew he could seek sanctuary. Setting off for the journey was easy, but heading for it was not, as his destination was nothing more than myth to him.

Ancient Seraphim mythology spoke of a sacred place at the heart of the lands. Numerous tales told of the place's wonders and marvels that supposed travellers once encountered, though no one could account for actually coming there. This place that the myth speaks of is a place of controversy, a place where the forbidden is ordained.

The obstacle to heading for such a place is its exact wonder. A place of controversy means that it exists yet it does not. A myth. Despite this the lone Seraph pushed on. Not out of insanity but out of desperation. If the place truly exist, it would be the only place where his hope lies. For it is there that ancient magic was hidden...

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Well hello again dear readers! 3 months of no blogging, I can't describe how nice it feels to speak my mind again. So before we get on to other posts, let me brief you about what this new blog is all about.

Seraphim Legal Grounds

A place where the forbidden is ordained. Many would wonder as to what that means. In short, this is the place where forbidden topics will be spoke, forbidden opinions will be heard and forbidden information be shared. A place where the forbidden is allowed. This will be a place of danger to those whose minds are too feeble to understand the full expanse of forbidden ideas. For this is what this place will become: the forbidden grounds.

Other than the usual dose of short stories, poems and exaggerated daily reports, there will be new segments as well. The first of which is the Seraphim Jounral. It will be a series following the tale of where our Seraph left off in the previous blog. In this series, he will be exploring the new land of Legal Grounds, in which he will encounter new beings and bestowed with a new destiny.

The second is obviously the Forbidden Files. It is basically a series of political arguments regarding anything that could spark off a riot in some people. We're talking on the level of racism and gossip here, if you catch my drift. I intend this to be a very dangerous grounds indeed.

Other than that, I'll probably pop up with new stuff along the way, so do look out for them. Well, I'm a little exhausted from revamping the whole site, so I will retire now.

Until the fires are ready to burn.