Scars and Tattoos.

"TRAUMA , MEMORY AND TRANSFORMATION:
THE MALAYSIAN AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN EXPERIENCE
Monash Sunway Campus - 22-24th June 2010. - DAY 2"

Generally in all histories in South East Asia, traumas are sanitized in invented histories was very intriguing. However, it can be said that these traumas it should be out in the open to remind the young the painful process of Nation building. Just as trauma can be 'scars', trauma can also be treated like a 'tattoo'. - Not in the exact words, however but this is what I got from Farish Noor's talk this morning about 'history'. Even if both lasts forever in every sense of the word, one is seen with regret, the other is accepted as part of life which one lives and moves on. Whether a from a macro standpoint of a nation's history formed through collective memory, or a more micro notion of 'the-self', trauma ideally should be the latter. Or so I wish to turn my scars into tattoos.

side note.

Trauma Conference Day 2 ended with a lot of fangirliness.