This Week

On hope

Lately, I’ve been thinking about hope.

When the outside world is becoming increasingly violent and broken (or when we are becoming more and more aware of the violence and the brokenness of the world), we are told to hope. That there is always hope. That hope is what gets us through. Will it though? Does hope actually help?

From a structural perspective, it points to no. Chelsea Watego, for example, writes at length about hope in Another Day in the Colony. She frames hope as a mechanism that keeps people who are marginalised from attaining anything sovereignty. She draws on the years and years of oppression faced by Indigenous people. Hope, Watego says, is a temporary respite, like the big breath you take before diving into deep water. “It does not give oxygen to your lungs, it just stops the water from entering.” Greta Thunberg, in one of her best-known speeches, says “Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope, but I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic.” These two people arrive at critiquing hope from two different perspectives, but one that shares a foundational ideology: there is a crisis that needs to be resolved. Hope, then, becomes something that actively prevents us from confronting the problem. Hope, in contradiction to what one expects of it, is passive.

This is not to say we should live in despair, which is also a passive state of being. The tension, for me, at least, is that hope helps make the everyday a little more bearable; however, it also enables a passivity that then furthers whatever the horrors that demanded we be hopeful in the first place.

Of course, such ponderings are the for the privileged and the comfortable. I don’t think one could debate the purposiveness of hope when that is all that is keeping one moving from one day to the next. However, for those of us who are able to grapple with these things, what does hope mean for you? Do you see it as something that brings about movement, or is it something that subconsciously hinders it?

On Taiwan Travelogue

Taiwan Travelogue was an absolute treat of a book to read. Treat, is the perfect word for this one, considering how much of the book revolves around food; and it is definitely food for thought, both literally and metaphorically.

“‘Kiâm-nñg-ko and pineapple juice—the Island’s flavours are truly astonishing.’ Those were Aoyama-sensei’s words. And yet the way in which you talk about the Island’s flavours does not sound to me like you are appreciating them for being delicious, but more for being exotic, as one might appreciate a rare animal.”

I had highlighted and made notes on many parts of the book, but this one spoke to me at a personal level. This quote, where an Islander dissects the supposed appreciation and complements of a Mainlander for her country articulated something that I have had difficulty putting to words. When some people speak well of Sri Lanka, whether the food, the nature, or the people, there is an undercurrent to it that leaves me uncomfortable. I did not know why exactly it rubbed me the wrong way until I came across this line in Taiwan Travelogue.

The supposed appreciation by those who perceive themselves to be better in some way or other is couched in a disbelief over its existence. That such richness (whatever it may be) is a rare thing in that context. That such a thing signals a level of ‘progress’ or skill or complexity that the speaker does not associate with that context. It is not a back-handed compliment because the speaker is often unaware of it. And when we raise an eyebrow at the undertone, it is met with distaste. To cite another of my favourite lines from the book, “There is nothing in the world more difficult to refuse than the self-righteous goodwill.”

All of this to say, go read Taiwan Travelogue. It is a great book, both in its own right and in its act of translation.

On Cats

I was trying to think back to what I watched or listened to this week, and realised all I have watched are Jackson Galaxy videos on cats. I don’t think that’s worth linking to, because unless you have a cat, it is pretty pointless to watch them (he doesn’t show many cats in the videos unless it is necessary). What I will say is, I have learnt cats thrive on routine. Which makes them the perfect house companion for me.