Kopi Tiam: Irony of Being Ironic

Every so often something weird happened for no apparent reason, which can be particularly annoying because it is likely to baffle your logical thinking. And the weird thing is these happening are usually associated with the doing of some peanut brains. To be resolutely fair, it merely reaffirms that the basics in the fundamental organizing principle of the world is irony. Yes, I am speaking about the US presidential election whereby you have an old man, with all his wisdom ironically chose a young but naive lady as his running mate. His irony is perhaps to average out the age of his team but not the wisdom. Who taught this guy the rights and wrongs? I wonder…… And then, would you believe it? We have a coloured young chap choosing a much older but uncoloured man. This time the irony is to balance out the colour but not the age, nor the wisdom. I can’t think of a better word to best describe this sort of ironies except only in America where complete jerks choose the wrong people for the wrong place and at the wrong time. This is a land where you vote the same jerk twice just to be doubly sure you made a mistake.

I also recalled, once upon a time in China many many years ago, where I would constantly wake up to the silent rhythm of music less exercise. Every morning of the week, groups of harmless looking people, comrades or even peasants would stand in deep concentration, arms raised above their heads practicing a form of exercise known as qigong. It involves controlled breathing and meditation. Literally millions of people around the world swear by it that it is good for the body even though all you did was to stand motionless for hours. Ironically, this is where you are able to achieve good health without running around and sweating profusely. Had you run and sweat, you are quite likely to end up taking a hefty breakfast of congee, noodles and some fried yau char kuai. And that really defeats the whole irony of exercise.

The other irony about this school of qigong is as fast as it comes; it became a subject of China’s fondness for demonising things it cannot control. Yes, Falungong was ban because the founder is from the US (again a bloody America) and China just wouldn't have it……..it just doesn't like anything controlled from another country. The irony is all good things in China must come to an end, an abrupt end if you are pedantic about the timing. And so…..the morning after, all the people, comrades or even peasants vanished. Some, I was told, from a totally unreliable sources, were send to the space programme since learning Falungong allows them the gift to control the level of oxygen intake to the body.

Strangely but truly one silly country in Asia is emulating the same feat on Yoga. What is so strange about people so bent on bending their limbs, articulating the joints and defying gravity? But some people in some quarters of some government agencies had this notion that this would be a bad thing. And, to be more ironic, they thought that the whole idea about yoga will somehow divert the religious belief if one keeps bending the unbendable part. I am not a Yoga expert but you can start bending any part of my body and limbs, toss them up and down, and still I won’t start tossing my head (left and right) and yell “aarche, dey yen na ne?” Nor would I hastily embraced Hinduism because of Yoga. That is not an irony, that is me being me and sound minded! And so are the many others who love bending themselves for no apparent reason. What do you have to ban them from bending??

Saying that, I did have the unpleasant experience of trying out Yoga in Hong Kong under a Mainland Chinese teacher (I suspect she practices Falungong and personally knew both McCain and Obama). But after trying some basic forms under a 38 degrees Celsius environment, I could see the irony of why more people prefer to run/jog/skip the marathon. It is, by far, relatively an easier task to run/jog. That one hour in the room doing the impossible bend/twist/curve is enough to make your body ached so much and so intense that the end of the world seemed like a really attractive idea.