CSJ has good news and bad news.
3 hrs ·
A very wet but good morning, everyone. I have one of those good-news-bad-news moments for you.
First the good news. Many of you have been asking about the beef brisket that we served when the café first opened. Well, we’re putting it on the menu again just for this Thursday. (It takes hours to bake the beef to succulence and tenderness, and its hard to do this on a daily basis.)
We’re calling it Brisket Day and serving nothing but brisket (we’ll also serve Tuna Panini for those not so much into meat and, of course, our usual sides, desserts, coffee, etc). So, no Creamy Salmon or the famous Poulet Roti or Jambalaya – just brisket, brisket, and more brisket.
So come by on Thursday (15 June) and we’ll satisfy your beef craving (that is, until stocks run out for the day). Remember, lunch is 11:30am – 2pm and dinner is 6pm-9pm.
The not-so-good news. We’ve been looking for someone to help run the café. My children have been helping out (and doing an excellent job. I couldn't be prouder of them, the best thing that has ever happened to me is to work alongside them and see them grow). But they’re headed back to campus when the semester starts in Aug and cannot continue with the job, at least not on a fulltime basis.
I was scheduled to interview someone for the position but she bailed, citing her fear that she might become ‘marked’ for working at Orange & Teal. It’s sad that the climate of fear, although receding, is still there.
One of the reasons of starting this café is so that people can gather, regardless of political beliefs, and have discussions and debates without fear. I had one young man who came up to me and said he was a PAP member but wanted to come have a meal at the café. I told him that we didn’t have to agree on politics to be friends.
This café is for everyone, and I mean everyone.
Even in my darkest hours when I was sacked, sued and jailed, I never wished ill on my opponents, and in the depths of my struggle with Lee Kuan Yew, I never wished him ill.
Politics shouldn’t be about personal destruction, it must be about uplifting the nation.
But we can only do this if we, as a people, are unafraid of those who rule us. We can only do this if we remain the bigger person, proud and unbowed – and Never On Bended Knees.