Zappa in Sanitized City

Late Friday afternoon, I dropped by Kinokuniya because it was having a 20% off day. With “Seven Years that Changed the World: Perestroika in Perspective” (Archie Brown) not found, I instead bought three novels by Greene, “The Heart of the Matter,” “The Power of the Glory” and “The Comedians.” At HMV, I found a must-see DVD on Robert McNamara, “The Fog of War” but it was the version that does not have English subtitle, so I decided not to buy it. Anyway it is priced more than S$60.

Today, at a small CD shop at TB Plaza, I discovered a Zappa DVD, “Does Humor Belong in Music?”! I had never found any Zappa DVD in this country and it was there at TB Plaza, of all places.

I’m proceeding with “At Canaan’s Edge” steadily but slowly. March at Montgomery, Alabama, Watts riots and of course Vietnam. Nonviolence or violence? Taking a critical stand on this violent war in Vietnam can jeopardize King’s fragile relations with LBJ.

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I watched this Zappa concert in VHS many years ago! This is one of the videos Y lent me.

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According to a TODAY survey of 300 people aged 15 and above, published in its weekend edition, 62.3% think homosexuality should be illegal while only 11.6% say they should not. Meanwhile, to the question, “Do gay people have much to contribute to Singapore’s economy?” 41% say “No” while 32.7% answer “Yes.”

To those who would like to keep homosexuality illegal, Section 377A of the Penal Code is a “necessary moral safeguard, a signal of society’s still-mostly conservative and wholesome family values.” It is certainly a moral issue. Maintaining homosexuality illegal is tantamount to treating gay people just like murderers and thieves. It is not an issue of one’s being conservative or whatever else. I do not understand at all how heterosexual people can claim a moral superiority to gays. You can be a nice person without a “conservative” religious belief. There are nice gay individuals, creative or otherwise, while you can be a heterosexual monster. And what would those who do not accept gays as members of the society say about strongly religious people who have sinned. There is no reason why homosexuality should be criminalized. If you disagree to the lifestyle of homosexuals, you do not have to approve or accept it, which is one thing, and the criminalization of gay people is quite another.

The survey’s third question about gay people’s potentials to economic contribution should shock all sensible people who see others as individuals. What the question implies is, if homosexuals do not contribute economically, they can be safely forgotten, or should remain criminals. In the first place, it is wrong to judge people, gay or not, as if they are only tools for the economy. As Dr Ethan Lim aptly points out in the article, the paramount importance should be “I would rather people see me as a person.” And this must apply to anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, age, race or gender.

If you can put gays behind bars only because they have a different sexual orientation than that of the majority, those who consider themselves minorities in any sense can never be safe from ostracism. A society’s maturity can be judged by its attitude toward “different” people.