BALOH 2019 with Urbanscapes Festival!

In November 2019, I had the opportunity to participate in BALOH! with the Urbanscapes Festival at Kwai Chai Hong in the heart of Kula Lumpur where my dad used to grew up. I went head to head with MC Stiff in a poetry debate.

Topic: College VS Life

Foundation


Would you rather be thrown into the deep end?

Have the risk of drowning or learning how to swim

Would you trust a lifeguard without training

A doctor with no paper

Would you trust a lacky with subjective truth?

Or a professor, mentor and teacher

Higher learning is the higher ground

Having a foundation that you can depend on.


Test of Life


You have to understand,

Quantification of your qualification

Comes from structured education

Having consistency in efficacy

Pre-testing in safe zones

Trumps trial and error in a real fire

Pressures of well designs simulations

Instead of free reign experimentations


Guidance


My cikgu says to learn how to do it right the first time

My mother says that experience is gathered over time

My sensei tells me wisdom is caught and not taught

My professor said wisdom without knowledge is blind

3 years for a paper cover interning with yourself, your mates and your future

To come of age, to navigate your path, to follow a map to reach your destination

A sharpened edge is better than stabbing in the dark with a blunt knife.


Topic: Money Is Evil


Desperation


Separation with daily necessities breeds desperation

The struggle to make ends meet triggers a chain reaction

Like a string undone in a sweater, it all falls apart

How far would you push to put out food for your child?

What corners will you cut to pay your bills?

Who would you cheat to intentional forget paying back for your own lack?

How much will you sell your ethics to pay in crime?


Greed

Every mega-corporation aims for development

A drive to make a cent turns into pushing for a million

How often have we heard of people working more than their wages?

Staying overtime off the pages

Downsizing of all stages

The king steals by not paying

Out of desparation we stay and keep working


A vicious cycle of discontentment

A constant source of resentment

A hunger that desires luxuries in life

The relentless badgering for a new bag from the wife

A debt to pay for a week in Phuket

May lead to selling off your soul in a regret

Tensions rising as the economy is collapsing

No sleep, no peace of mind, what kind of dirty money you will find

Which head will you decapitate to capitalise finances for your barebones needs?


Topic: Marriage Expires


Commitment


A holy matrimony is a bond for eternity

There is a sanctity in the promise of

Stability and security

Reliability and responsibility

Imagine a family with an expiry


Breaking that trust in fickleness is the bargaining chip

Bitterness becomes the currency of broken marriages

There is no incentive to work through problems when its a life with options


Expiry means temporary

Temporary terms

Temporary time

Temporary housing

Temporary conditions

Temporary love

Temporary children

Temporary cost

Temporary contracts

Temporary promises

Temporary shares

Temporary decision

Temporary happiness

Temporary eternity


Is the quality Is your marriage

A loaf of bread

A can of beans

A preheat meal

A freshly baked cake

All relationships decay over time but it is the efforts of the partners to give leaven to the bread

The weight of the commitment brings people to think through what they do,

Make the right decision at the get-go

Be sure of what they really know

A commitment is an incentive to invest, to build interest

To adjust and evolve, avoiding ultimatum and extreme actions

Nothing is set in stone until you carve it and 

sign the dotted line.


Topic from the crowd on Ghosting

Word cloud: Ghosting, Teenager, Politics


Jangan la membantu hantu menantu yang menunggu siapa yang anda nak temu


Autonomy policies


Politically correct

Overbearing 

Playing the game right to win

Existence is presence and making your presence known will be known by speaking out


Why have double standards

If you ghost how would you even set up a face to face

All we need is a little grace

Why not choose a merit of methods of compromise

Boundaries

Resolutions of avoidance bring unsettled grievance

How effective is the silent treatment

AN experiment of assumed determination

The break down of communication

Is throwing in the towel

Words carry weight

Write a letter

Send a text

Giphies and Snapchats

Don't default to not replying and defying the right to have your thoughts heard

Materialised

Realised that your gap will not make your parents tap


- Swit Marie

20:21H 23rd November 2019

Baloh, Urbanscapes



Swit Marie is a 'Jacqueline of all trades' who loves wearing plaid
When words fail, she allows movement and emotion to carry her through
A believer in making dreams come true, she would love to collaborate with you
An explorer starting fresh and would only give her best
She stands in the gap and will only call it quits when it's a wrap.


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