1st post

i've originally decided to use this blog for grievances. but not today. i need to sort out my frustration on what the hell i'm gonna research on.
argh! how.

my confusion.
on one end, i have pop ed, community art, oppression, activism, creative expression, art and all things art, facilitation activities, organization. etc
on the other end, i have globalization, development, politics, economy, dessent, asian studies, singapore modernity, very academia and no hands on.

the more i study about the globalization part, the more distracted from pop ed i got. i thought globalization is the key to pop ed. ie because of globalization and all the bad stuff that development brought, sg needs pop ed activists for something 'revolutionary'. (whoa.. ) but it seems that it has instead disproved my hypothesis, i think.

what i saw was that sg takes on development and democracy in a different way, a more authoritarian way. the states take charge of the market and the economy to build up the country's economy status. it uses the same passion for many other areas of governing the country.

when i was looking for some organization in sg that i can go to for an internship, i googled community arts in singapore and i realised that it has a different meaning and it is in a different sphere altogether. community arts is government sponsored and encouraged. it isn't organized by the people nor is it grassroots. it is top down, not bottom up. its like a huge collective thing, like a campaign for art awareness. there is community participation but without the personal politics. it seems somehow that community arts is country development, not personal development. and i begin to realise the many other collective activities and campaigns that are initiated by the government too.

so if all these are already initiated by the government to be not political, can the grassroots bring it up as political? or can it not?

what should i research on? should i just focus on the development of singapore? the effects of globalization. and the dessent in sg?