Economics Business Music Politics Altruism : February 2009

Dichotomy Between Private and Public Thoughts as a Measure of Pluralism

Recognizing the dichotomy that exists between private and public thoughts suddenly caught my attention as I sorted out the number of occasions in which I myself has on a conscious level attempted to keep my private thoughts from the prying eyes of the public either through a non-participative level or even betray it publicly through sheer denial or expressing a contrarian thought. The frightening thing is that such behavior has at time been a placid involuntary reaction that bypasses the cerebral much like how my eye lids shut in reaction to bright lights. It is only on conscious reflection that I realizes it. So this dichotomy between private thought and public thought is a reality.

Pluralism takes many forms like cultural, political, value etc. I am pursuing pluralism in a broader sense of existence, acceptance and real tolerance of differing, alternative or opposing thoughts within a society.

What are the linkages between the two and why the degree of dichotomy between private and public thought is one of the many means to measure pluralism within a society?

Firstly, in a more pluralistic society, the dichotomy between private and public thoughts would be narrower as there is more tolerance and therefore removes one of the many barriers for transparency. The populace would be more willing to go public on their private thoughts as the repercussions for doing so is less damming.

Secondly, on a more positive note, a more pluralistic societal norm also tend to reward divergent thoughts and therefore provide a more fertile landscape for divergent views to not only grow privately but also to come out in the open more readily.

Thirdly, there is a difference between pluralistic society and a multi-variate society. A multi-variate society is a society where people differentiated along various lines like race, religion etc exists in a melting pot together and does not necessarily means that it is a pluralistic society. More often than not, a multi-variate society tend to be less pluralistic and tend to exhibit a synthetic tolerance because such divergence without pluralism provides for a potential flashpoint for societal unrest. Therefore, it is not uncommon for laws on equal opportunism, affirmative activism and legal framework to diffuse such differential. Most of these tend to narrow the opportunity for individual to go public with their private thoughts especially if it would lead to trespassing of the legal framework. Synthetic pluralism tend to thrive in such societies with strong fault lines that could fractal easily. Such societies also tend to be either a migrant society that resulted from a convergence of a multi-variate nature often without a strong sense of nationhood as such values takes time to take root. Sometimes, such multi-variate society can also be the result of artificial political delineation that forces such a formation or the close proximity with a history of violence between them.

Pluralism is not necessarily a final destination nor a nirvana to be pursued with an endless wit but a form of ideal with its root primarily from philosopher Isaiah Berlin.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

Economic Recession-Inflationary Spiral vs Confidence Crisis-Singapore

The written world is full of recessionista that I thought hard about contributing further to it? The markets seem to react to bad news with a vengeance and good news is being question marked all over that it normally barely moves the market. In such a climate, the down draft is definitely going to be stronger that the bullish tendencies.

Great economists like Alan Greenspan has always put forth evil that lurks behind the inflationary spiral as the most difficult to tame and goes all out to combat it with the weapon of choice which is the FED discount rate. The basic premise being that price stability is important for the growth of the economy in the longer run. That I fully agree with.

However, the reverse which is hardly spoken about is what I would term as a confidence crisis like what we are very much experiencing right now. It is almost like the mirror image of the inflationary spiral ; business expect revenue to be bad therefore hold back on their investment and staffing level leading to lower business volume both upstream and downstream. The consumer that expects to have a rough ride in terms of retrenchment, pay cuts etc will also scale back on spending and all this would translate itself into self full-filling recessionary overtone.

Between the two evils, I believe confidence crisis is the larger of the two as a consumeristic outlook is easier to tame and we have many weapons in our arsenal to fight the inflationary spiral tooth to nail.

In a confidence crisis, our ability to spend our way out of a recession is hampered by issues like shrinking multiplier effect in a recession and for a small and fairly open economy like Singapore, there are further issues of leakages as we tend to import almost everything and the domestic economy is of limited size and amplitude thus eroding the classical economics virtue postulated by Keynesian.

Moving over to the monetarist viewpoint, it also suffers from episodes like liquidity traps like what is happening in Japan where the interest rate is nearing zero and monetarist end up with a very blunt tool to fight the confidence crisis. There are of course other policy options like trying to increase the velocity of currency by having the government help the banks to under write part of the credit risk in the hope of the banks being more prepared to extend credit to the businesses and consumers to lift us out of the confidence crisis. A first round of such policy has been put in place in Singapore with limited success as bankers hardly budge on easing credit as they have learnt how fast toxicity can build up in their balance sheets which will at some point in time needs to be de-leveraged in a painful manner like now.

Perhaps, it is during times like these that we need strong leadership with an equally strong mandate from the people not only measured by the polls but by how the leadership can inspire the populace to a greater cause in life and paint a believable light at the end of the tunnel or a rainbow after a storm. Such leaders are normally born and not bred in ivy leagues of the world. Although I do not condone what Adolf Hitler has perpetuated during the second world war, there is much to be learned from his ability to rally people to a cause. Another good example is Robert F. Kennedy but it is unfortunate that his was short lived. Winston Churchill; the wartime prime minister of Britain was another with great ability to rally the populace. Perhaps, this time, Barack Obama would save us.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Mozart Clarinet Concerto K622-The Famous One

I was introduced to this piece by my colleague and lets just call him by his nick name "Ah Lau" as I have not sought permission to include his name. He is far from being what a typical "Ah Lau" and has a strong interest in classical music and also engages in bird photography. A cultured person in that sense.

I did not know that this 3 part clarinet concerto has been used on numerous occasions as a them song of several movies especially the 2nd movement in Adagio. This could partially explains the familiarity of this piece with the general populace especially the second movement and it is definitely one of the many good means to get introduced to classical music.

This concerto is very lyrical and easy on the ears. In a sense, it is like the twin brother of Carb Sav in wine terms as it is difficult to go wrong and difficult to be very right as well. Please do nor mistaken that this parallel is to belittle Mozart but in praise of his wisdom and artistic capability to appeal to both the so called cultured and the general populace.

I own a total of 5 versions of this piece and the 6th is borrowed from "Ah Lau". Here are my humble comments about the recordings.

1. This recording made by Wiener Philharmoniker under the baton of the famous Leonard Bernstein with Peter Schimdl on the clarinet. It is a good display how a strong conductor could impose his interpretation on the piece. It actually helps a lot that this concerto does not have a cadenza where the soloist takes centre stage. Very coherent recording.

2. The second recording is an old one by conductor Thomas Beecham with soloist Jack Brymer and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying. This is one of the slower interpretation and it could be that in that age, it is played that way. The recording moved me and it fairly emotive in character in my humble opinion.

3. Karl Leister partnered Neville Marriner conducting his Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Just the opposite of the former piece; this recording appear a bit rushed especially in the first movement. The saving grace is the second movement where is good balance of technical brilliance and lifting the spirit out of the piece experience if I may say.

4. If lyricalism is your cup of tea, you must listen to this recording by soloist Jacques Lancelot and conductor Jean-Francois Pillard. It is a very soothing recording to play as background music while you work especially the second movement. I can put the second movement on repeat for many times and not get sick of it.

5. If you want to hear the soloist on the pedestal even in a piece without a cadenza, it would have to be the recording by soloist Martin Frost, conductor Peter Oundijan taking care of Amsterdam Sinfornia. Martin Frost definitely shows who is the boss in this recording as it was very soloist and clarinet centric. The orchestra seems just to play a small accompaniment to Martin Frost brilliant interpretation of the piece. I do find it overwhelming at times though.

6. This last piece loaned to me by "Ah Lau" with Anton Pay on the clarinet and Christopher Hogwood doing his stuff with The Academy of Ancient Music is my favorite as it appears to be sonically well balance even though the Martin Frost recording being an SACD is supposed to be better but the miking could be too pronounced perhaps due to the close miking for the soloist in the Frost recording. In addition, the soloist, conductor seems to be one spirit in this recording.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com