Epilogos

Empty Peace

2009-10-10T06:48:00.003+08:00

I was traveling on a bus, on my way home. The bus was broadcasting ChannelNews Asia, and that was when I first learnt that President Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I scratched my head and searched my mind what President Obama has done over the last 3-5 years that earned him this prize. Frankly, I couldn't think of any. He is a good orator, ran a good Presidential campaign that eventually wrested the White House back into the Democratic Party's hands. He dared to dream and has achieved the highest office in the land, nay, the world.

But what has he done in the cause of peace? Yes, he has turned back many of "less than acceptable" policy approaches of the Bush administration, but that isn't the same as having achieved a lasting peace in some part of the world. Is the world any safer today than it was 2 years ago? Nothing much really has changed. There is still no peace in the Middle East. Iran is still Iran, despite indication of Iran's concession to have its secret nuclear facility inspected. It is not as if Obama initiated the spying and dug up this shaddy happening in Iran's city of Qom. North Korea is still a problem. If not for China's Wen Jiabao, N Korea will still have indicated that it is willing to resume the 6-party talks, with a caveat that required a US concession. The US has still not spoken. Obama is still sending American troops to Afghanistan, and probably backing up Pakistan in its war against the Taliban in its backyard.

So I am still scratching my head thinking of reasons why Obama won the prize.

Or is the Prize is meant to get Obama to come good on the promises that he has made so far? If so, that will be an onerous task. What if he didn't realise his goals and make a difference to world peace, like for example, getting Israel and its neighbours to sign a peace treaty. That was what got Mr Anwar Sadat and Mr Menachem Begin their Nobel Peace prizes. Will the Swedish Academy take back the prize if Obama failed, despite his best efforts?

I think it would probably be prudent for Obama to reject this accolade at this time.

Legitimizing a regime

2009-06-17T09:52:00.004+08:00

What use is there for a recount of the ballots in Iran's just concluded Presidential Election? Will it make a difference when another 10% of the vote is given to the challenger? You don't think those in charge of the recount will allow more than that, right? Mr Ahmadinejad will still 'win'. He will still continue as President, and with even greater legitimacy.

When that happens, the US, Britain, France, and anyone else who cares can't say a thing about fraud at the ballot box. After all, a recount was done according to the wishes of the people, right? Nothing short of divine intervention will do to bring justice to the land.

Government Gun and Gone

2009-04-13T18:14:00.005+08:00

It is 3 months since my last entry here. And surprisingly, nothing has changed in Thailand. It is still a mess. After tolerating the Red Shirts for some time now, PM Abhisit's government is cracking the whip. I am almost sorry for PM Abhisit because I think the decision to send out the troops wasn't his, but that he was forced to do so, probably by some others who are effectively pulling the strings.

I agree with the Red Shirts. PM Abhisit's government has never been a legitimate one. It was helped into into power precisely by parties that were behaving like the Red Shirts now. Only, that party committed a crime for which they have not been charged. Thus the Thai government under PM Abhisit has lost all moral authority to govern. It still does not have the legal authority to do so. It can only govern through the barrel of a gun.

PM Abhisit's government is finished.

Thai Mess

2009-01-14T08:49:00.002+08:00

One can't really fault the present Thai government led by its PM Abhisit Vejjajiva. PM Abhisit is reportely clean and has the support of the throne. He is the leader of the Democrat Party, which before, was the duly elected opposition party, and before Thaksin, formed the Thai government. But that's all there is going for it. The downside is that Abhisit keeps appointing questionable people to his government.

People like Kasit Priromya, who openly supported the PAD's blockade of the Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang Airports in Bangkok. Now, Prapanth Koonmee, who is a member of the protest group in PAD, has been appointed as advisor to the government. All these makes it look as if the PAD's blockade of its International Airport was all but a picnic. No laws were broken, no lives lost. Except that last point is not true. Some people, in a effort to get out of Bangkok, took an overland route. As a result, at least one man died on the road.

To date, I haven't heard that anyone has been prosecuted for the blockade, which cost Thailand an estimated 500 million baht. Certainly not peanuts by any measure. Perhaps the Thai Royal family has volunteered to bear this cost, I don't know. But like I said, that airport blockade is now being treated no more than a wild party. Its organisers, co-organisers and supporters are now being rewarded by the government.

What type of government rules Thailand today?

Glass and stones don't mix

2009-01-09T05:42:00.002+08:00

The lesson of Gaza 2009:

Those who live in glass houses should learn not to throw stones.

A lesson from History

2008-09-24T15:47:00.003+08:00

It is said that World War II ended the Great Depression of 1929. This was because of the massive deficit financing that had to go into producing things for the war effort - planes, tanks, ships, etc, etc. in 2 theatres of war - one in Europe and the other one in the Pacific. How much did the US public spend? The consensus seems to be $5 trillion (in 2007 dollar terms, after adjusting for inflation). So when Henry Paulson and Ben Benanke asked for $700 billion from the American people to rescue the world from the next Great Depression, it pales in comparison. America lost more than just money in WWII. It lost many lives and made many widows.

Yet some are not convinced that this is a fair solution. What it meant was that greedy wheelers and dealers - the investment banks and the people that ran them, were going to be let off. God knows how much cash they have already stashed away. If we want to make the comparison, these dealers are the equivalent of the German Nazis and the Japanese banzai troops that wreaked so much pain and destruction on the world more than 50 years ago. And the rest of us - well, we will have to manage as best we can. Our houses lie in tatters, no certainty in our jobs for tomorrow, our life savings gone - just like that.

Yet it is an inevitable solution, fair or not. We just comfort ourselves by saying that the world recovered from its economic malaise once, and the world will recover from this financial malaise again. The only thing is - we must catch and punish the perpetrators of these fraudulent investments products, bring them to justice, as much as the Nazis and Japanese Class X criminals were tried and disposed of.

Sickening

2008-09-23T15:07:00.007+08:00

China has messed up big time this time around. In the euphoria of the Olympics, which it hosted twice in the space of two months (the Olympics and Paralympics), it was widely praised by the international community for putting on a great show - certainly the best the world has seen so far. The world Press were almost unanimous in praising China for a job well done. The Chinese are unreservedly proud of their country, as this success went a long way towards erasing the disappointments of the Chinese since 1908, during the last years of the Qing Dynasty, of hosting the games and also erasing the epithet of the "sick man of Asia".

Yet in a matter of days, this achievement now hangs under a cloud with the milk-tainting scandal. The problem was exacerbated by the fact that this was only revealed to the world only now when the problem was known as far back as March this year, with the whistle going off in early August. That the Chinese Government kept quiet till after the Olympics surely lays a charge of recklessness at the very doors of Tian An Men. The Chinese government is doing damage control now with the help of Minister Wen Jiaboa - or Wen yeye, as he is fondly referred to. But that is little use now. So far 4 precious infant lives have been lost - in China and Hongkong, with an incredible 53,000 others at risk in China alone, whose only fault is drinking the melamine-tainted infant milk. Worse, the problem may not be limited to China, but to any country that has been consuming milk and milk products originating in China.

Clearly this incident, and others before it (fake milk scandal of 2004) has demonstrated that the 5,000 year old civilisation has lost its sense of morals and ethics - totally. For the love of money, manufacturers have seen fit to introduce foreign elements (read 'poison') into perfectly good food so as to sell more of their products, thereby reaping more money. Harming people does not seem to have figured in any considerations of their actions. A month ago, I was a proud Chinese. Today, I am ashamed that I am a Chinese.

This time, as 100 years ago, the Chinese well deserves the epithet: The Sick Man of Asia in more ways than one. It is a shame that nothing has changed in 100 years. The only thing is this time around, it is the Chinese's own doing. Sadly, effort to shake off the world's bullying attitude towards China has come to nought.

S-weeping time

2008-05-07T17:24:00.003+08:00

The generals in Myanmar have the gall to ask the international community for aid in the cyclone disaster that has hit Myanmar. When it came to human rights, it is none of the international community's business. When it comes to human suffering, it is the international community's obligation. So far, the cyclone Nargis has claimed more than 10,000 lives - truly a disaster on the scale of the Asian Tsunami back in 2004.

The international community must help Myanmar, but it must not help the generals stay in power one day longer than necessary. These bunch of crooks have deprived the people the option of defending themselves. They reportedly did not do anything when they were warned of the impending cyclone two days before it moved into Myanmar. If you ask me, these generals are guilty of negligence of the highest order and should be court-martialed. The only problem is that the judges in the court-martial will be their own, so it will become a kangeroo court.

Even amidst the suffering and the aid that must be rushed to Myanmar, it is time that the incumbent military government be overthrown. Can this be the cyclone that also sweeps the government into the Bay of Bengal? One hopes so.

Down the torch

2008-04-09T06:14:00.001+08:00

First the Tibetans reportedly destroyed Chinese property, albeit in their own land. Of course China had to respond to this lawless behaviour by sending in the police and the army to restore order and round up the trouble-makers. But world sympathy was with the Tibetans because the Chinese were seen as foreign occupiers and therefore had no business in Tibet. In fact, the Tibetans even have a government in exile in India, allegedly led by the Dalai Lama, who has been feted wherever he has gone, except in China and countries allied to China. So it is no surprise that Tibetans and their sympathizers are making use of the Olympic Torch Relay to demonstrate their opposition to Chinese occupation of their land.

Nobody can deny these demonstrations in a free society, not in London, not in Paris, not even in San Francisco. But I draw the line when these people attempt to seize the torch and extinguish it. Whatever the symbolism of the torch relay, or how it started or who started it and for what purpose, it has become a part of the Olympic games. In fact, the torch relay has been copied by many regional games. As such, a disruption of the relay is a disruption to the games - a direct provocation and challenge to the organisers of the Beijing Olympics and its worldwide participants and supporters. I daresay that, if ask, many in this group of people would agree with the Tibetans that their homeland should be free of occupation. But I also believe that they are opposed to any disruption of the games. So while the demonstrators have scored minor victories, such as extinguishing the torch in Paris, not once but 3 times, they may have lost the support of many. They have certainly lost mine.

It would have been enough to demonstrate along the torch relay route. Make noise if they want to. Tape up their mouths if they choose to. Show their placards to put across their message. The world's press would report these to the world and the point would have been made. But by physically disrupting the relay and engaging in physical violence, now that is something that cannot be condoned, whatever one's grievance. There is talk that the entire torch relay be scrapped. If so, that may be a victory for Tibet, but sadly, they may have won the battle but would likely have lost the war.

Truth or dare

2008-03-30T12:49:00.005+08:00

One should never respond to a criticism by proving the point of the criticism. Yet this is the very thing that some party/parties did when they threatened harm to the staff of LiveLeak.com 'of a serious nature'. LiveLeak.com, if you don't already know it, was where Geert Wilders, the Member of the Dutch Parliament had his 15-minute 'Fitna' video shown originally. In Fitna, Mr Wilders attempted to show the worst side of radical Islam, quoting from the Koran, showing scenes of the Prophet Mohammad cartoon that angered so many Muslims around the world, and recounting terrorist acts from 911 to the Madrid train bombings to many reports of violence and hate speeches made by radical Islamic clerics and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against Christians, Jews, the US and probably everyone else except themselves.

LiveLeak.com has since pulled the video from their website, but not before it was copied and can now be found freely available in several privately hosted website as well as Youtube.com. The video has even been translated to English from the original Dutch (which made sense as much of the major events that are shown in the video happened in English-speaking countries). What struck me as I watched the video was how much of the material were assembled from real events and newspaper reports. In other words, it is not fiction at all. Perhaps some may take issue with the Koranic verses quoted, that perhaps they were quoted out of context to bring out the worst interpretation possible to the texts. As I am not familiar with the Koran, I cannot decide one way or the other. But enough people have formed an opinion for them to leave messages on the internet in support of Wilder's message in Fitna.

Of course, this is not the politically correct view and national governments, including the UN Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki Moon, have condemned the message of the video as spreading hatred. Why should hatred be countered with hatred? Should we kill to avenge another killing? I cannot say so one way or another. But in the interest of balance and allowing people to decide for themselves, the video should be made available. Hiding it would only perpetuate the suspicion that parties on both sides have for each other. Truly, the Islamic radicals have done themselves a dis-service - or are they admitting to what is shown in Fitna?

Sans Bus

2008-03-26T10:47:00.004+08:00

I take my hat off to Mdm Chow Mei-ching, aka Mrs Ma Ying-jeou. She is a legal advisor at a bank (that means she is a trained lawyer), and get this, she takes a bus to work! I think we should all take a leaf out of her! And she still took the bus to work AFTER her husband won the Taiwan Presidential elections! Amazing lady, I'd say. How refreshing to know that she is not affected nor puffed up by power and prestige. Come May this year, she will be the First Lady, and she intends to keep on working, with the support of her President-husband and many in Taiwan. Unfortunately she has had to forego her habit of taking public transport because of the paparazzi, who are following her on the bus, and causing everybody much inconvenience.

They say power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a good start for a cleaner Taiwan. I hope that the first couple-designates will continue to live a humble life and set an example for the people.

Phishy Fishing

2008-03-13T07:34:00.000+08:00

A story just broke that the makers of the G-Archiver software are unethical, and in my view, represents all that is wrong about the misuse of technology. According to this story, reported in Codinghorror.com website, and picked up by Zdnet, using the G-Archiver software, which purportedly backs up Gmail e-mail onto one's computers, one's Gmail account and password are silently sent to the Gmail e-mail account of one John Terry (jterry79@gmail.com). John has been identified as the rogue programmer employed by G-Archiver. It has has reacted to this news by pulling the code from its website and replacing it with a new one - sans the rogue codes. This is all well and good, but who would want to trust G-Archiver anymore when its control process is so lax as to allow rogue codes to be inserted into its commercial products. If it can happen once, it can happen again. Probably the safest thing to do is to stay away from this software and its makers.

This is shocking and it shows once again that you can't trust anyone on the Internet. The horrifying thing is that many of us spend so much of our waking hours on the Internet. Its like going swimming in a pool of crud, and before we know it, a thousand and one germs and viruses are sticking to us, some of which we ingest willingly. The lesson to learn is not to stop swimming, but to take protective gear along with you. Some of these protective gear will cost money, like firewalls and anti-virus software, but they are essential if you spend a lot of time on the Internet. But probably the most important protective gear you should put on is a healthy doze of skepticism and paranoia (remember - "only the paranoid survive" - Andrew Grove) - and this comes free. Its up to you. Don't just sign up for anything and everything that is offered to you free of charge on the Internet. And if your curiosity gets the better of you and you just can't help signing up, use a temporary throwaway e-mail account instead of your regular e-mail. Where can you find these throwaway e-mails. Try these: 10 Minute Mail, Mailinator, Disposable e-mail, etc. Whichever of these or any other service you sign up for, make sure you don't have to give your regular e-mail during the signup process, unless you are very sure of the service you are signing up for.

Hopefully, we can continue to surf without catching all those germs and viruses and those rougue programmers.

Image source: morgueFile.com. Author: Clara Natoli

Hungry for cash?

2008-03-05T06:15:00.000+08:00

Well, how hungry are you? Or greedy? Or delusional? For a moment of delusion, I almost fell into a trap. There is this organisation operating on the web going around offering to put paid advertisements on your website. How does it all start?

They first send you e-mail that reads:
----quote---
We have reviewed your blogger.com blog on behalf of one of our
clients that would be interested in placing advertising with you.

Client profile :

DoingFine (http://doingfine.org)
New project (<1 month old)
Theme A forum dedicated to those things that came out right and worked out fine.
----unquote----

What it doesn't say is which blog it is referring to. You see, I've got several blogs under Blogger, each with varying frequency of updates and visitation activity.

Next, the client website, doingfine.org site, is really nothing but a couple of forums. It is not selling anything, publishing anything substantial. Why would it be interested in driving traffic to it?

The e-mail goes on to say:
----quote----
This would be a weekly, monthly or yearly arrangement. In either case
we will require a one time, one day (24 hours) free placement in order
to test the quality and quantity of traffic your website can actually
provide*. Within this interval, we will make a final determination,
based on the traffic volume, quality, and your asking price. Should
we find your terms acceptable, this trial day will count towards the
agreed interval.

Kindly let us know if you would be interested, which arrangement best
suits your editorial needs, and what rates you would like to charge.
We prefer using PayPal but may be able to accomodate alternative
payment methods.
----unquote----

Fair enough. I wouldn't expect anyone to hand over cash when they haven't got the goods. But how much to ask for? Nevermind if this all look suspicious. Money talks. I googled for the answer. Varying amounts were suggested. But the most sensible advice was to ask for an offer. I did that. The very next day (these guys work fast!), I received further communications to this effect:

----quote----
We've created a button for you, please review it here :

(some URL ending with a gif link that contains string of unintelligible characters)

We feel it goes well with the general look and feel of your blog. Please
link it to

(again, a url link to a php program code)
----unquote----

This begins to look like a scam, but I ignored it. I clicked on the url, but it wasn't meaning. They also provide html code to put on my website/blog. I did that but upon publishing the html codes were stripped out, so the html code couldn't display any icon link. I got suspicious - finally - and did the smart thing - I google 'Polimedia Advertising' and 'doingfine.org' and found out that this is likely a scam of sorts.

Now what made me think that my blog was any good anyway for anybody to pay a single cent towards it? Only Google has pennies to throw my way. Sigh....

People abuse Power

2008-02-26T08:58:00.012+08:00

I just cannot understand the Philippines. It seems that every year when it comes time to celebrate the occasion when the citizens toppled Ferdinand Marcos from power - the so-called 'People Power' Revolution - they look to topple every sitting leader ever since, except for General Ramos. This time, they gathered to call for the resignation of President Gloria Arroyo for alleged corruption. Well, I don't know if the corruption charges have any basis, but that is for a Court of Law to decide, is it not? You know, lawyers, public prosecutors, defence lawyers, plaintives, defendants, judges, due process, the Justice department, etc.? If is there nothing of the sort in this country, or is the justice system cowered into inaction by 'People Power'?

This rule of the mob is really unbecoming of a duly constituted democracy with a law and constitution. Worst - former leaders such as Corazon Acquino are active participants in this madness. Fortunately, this time around, the military and the Catholic Church very sensibly stayed away from these agitations.

I suppose there are festering social inequity in this country that has not been adequately addressed. But this is so in many other countries, is it not? Corruption? Malaysia and Indonesia are reportedly rife with it. Yet these countries do not demonstrate as regularly on a specific occasion and call it 'People Power'. Impeaching a sitting President is no small matter. It basically means that you are trying to revoke the collective will of the people that elected the President in the first place. Has 'People Power' no respect for the people? You can only impeach the President when you have proved beyond a shadow of doubt his/her alleged guilt. This has not been done at all. It is now basically based on hearsay and bald accusations, however strong that may be. Justice is being turned on its head. Guilty unless proven otherwise. What kind of country is this, anyway?

Come on, dear Filipinos, respect the rule of law even as you demand 'justice'.

Free Burma

2007-10-04T05:01:00.000+08:00

In Memoriam

2007-09-11T05:09:00.000+08:00

September 11, or 911, has been etched into the psyche of many since that day when two Boeing 747 jets full of passengers deliberately crashed into each of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. I rose up that morning to prepare to go to work. As was my custom then, I switched on CNN and let it run while I busied myself getting ready, but there was nothing more busy then than what was appearing on my TV screen that morning.

Over and over, the news replayed the scenes where 2 planes, one after another, drove straight into the World Trade Center buildings, causing them to eventually collapse like a deck of cards, carrying everyone in the buildings with them, including the firemen who had entered the building earlier to rescue people from the towering infernos . My mother, who lived with me then, also witness the scenes, but she seemed nonchalant, as if these things happen all the time. You can't blame her. In her time, she has lived through the Second World War and seen more destruction and brutality and on a much wider scale and intensity than what was showing on TV that day.

Nevertheless, this latest drama was incredulous, it was terrible, it was shocking, and the enormity of the tragedy was yet unfolding though the actual incident had taken place 6 hours earlier half way across the world from where I lived. At work that day, I heard the first people mouthing '911' as if there was no other way to refer to the horror of the incident except through a coded reference. The Chinese media used the same numbers (jiu yao yao) to refer to the incident. I imagine that every other language on earth, including Arabic, used those same numbers.

On this day, 11th September, 2007, six years to the day that that tragedy occurred, we remember the over 3000 innocent people who died in the Towers, we remember the heroism of the firemen who died in the line of duty and we remember the reporters weeping while they reported on the incident near ground zero - it was heart-wrenching to watch these same reporters overcome with grief and yet having to bring the news of the terrible tragedy to the rest of the shocked world.

Of the men and organisations that perpetrated this atrocity, we remember them as we remember people like Hitler, nay, infinitely worst than Hitler. It would not be far from the truth if we remember them as we think of what Satan looked like. Ironically, their action was done in the name of their Islamic God. People of the west in the last 20 years or so had begun to be enamoured of the Islamic religion. Droves were abandoning their age-old religions and converting over to it. After 911, it was timeout and re-evaluation. I would like to think that this has nothing to do with Islam, but somehow, over the last six years, the association has stuck because the terrorists keep on invoking the name of their Islamic God while the moderates among them stand by quietly as if in acquiecense.

6 years on, these Islamic terrorists are still alive and bombing. 6 years on, the moderate and the faithful among the mighty Islamic faith have done little to effectively dent the extreme elements among them. 6 years on, we still have to take off our shoes in some airports, not because we need to walk on holy ground, but to show that we are not terrorists. 6 years on, countries still put up a security wall rivaling the Great Wall of China whenever any event involving 'Westerners' are staged. 6 years on, cities from London to Madrid to Islamabad still suffer aftershocks of 911.

We would like the 3000 odd people to rest in peace, but, sadly, the world continues its war on terror.

Power and Immunity

2007-09-08T05:48:00.000+08:00

It has been reported that Hyundai Motor's Chairman, Mr Chung Mong-Koo, will not be doing jail time even though he was convicted by the 3-judge Seoul High Court for embezzlement because he was deemed too important to the Korean economy. Apparently, Mr Chung is a very hands-on CEO at Hyundai Motor, reputedly the world's 6th largest, in more ways than one (wink-wink). The court reckoned his doing time in jail (he was sentenced to 3 years) would do more harm to the economy and that therefore, he shouldn't be kept in the slammer.

I have never heard a more ridiculous argument from the bench. The less-than-learned judge said, "I am also a citizen of the Republic of Korea...I was unwilling to engage in a gamble that would put the (nation's economy) at risk." Did Judge Lee Jae-hong just deify Mr Chung? In the days when Korea had emperors, this statement, if it referred to the emperor, would have been accepted without question. But in democratic Korea where even its Presidents have been sued and thrown out ever so often?

There is a lesson to be learnt here. If you want to succeed in life and gain immunity from the law, don't do politics. Instead, set up a business and gain influence as much as possible. As far as South Korea goes, that's your ticket to doing whatever you want. The law will always stand on your side, never mind if you are crooked and rotten to the core.

The law in South Korea has sunk to a new low.

The Great Al Qaeda Bluff

2007-07-17T05:39:00.001+08:00

It would appear that Osama bin Laden is either too dead or too tired to make a new video. Al Qaeda just pushed out a Osama video to remind the whole that the dead and tired old man is still very much alive. If he were alive, he would have made a new video. In this day and age, it isn't difficult nor expensive to make a video at all, unless the subject of the video wants to pretend he is alive on video when he is actually dead. Now that's a miracle that Osama has yet to perform.

Al Qaeda should stop doing this because its credibility - i.e. its inability - in making a video of a really live and kicking Osama is rapidly receding. While the US and probably Britain take these videos seriously, for the rest of the whole, it is one old tired bluff.

Bug off, Al Qaeda.

Truth be told

2007-07-04T08:50:00.000+08:00

Japan's just-resigned Defence Minister may have committed a gaffe in Japan, but in the rest of Asia, we cannot agree more with him. He said that the US could not be blamed for dropping the Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki towards the end of World War II.

Whatever the Japanese's feelings about the massive destruction and deaths on and in these two cities, there was greater grief and suffering by the people in rest of Asia in those war years. My parents lost the best years of their lives running away from the Japan Imperial Army and living in the countryside planting and eating tapioca. What Mr Kyuma said may or may not be correct. But he is not far from the truth that the war in the Far East and the Pacific would have gone on for much longer had it not been for the fortuitous dropping of those bombs on the two cities. Correspondingly, my parents would have had to endure much longer the oppression of the Japanese regime in this part of the world. The bombs immediately deflated the arrogance and ruthlessness of the Japanese war regime then and inadvertently led to Japan instituting and maintaining a pacifist stance ever since.

Were it not for this pacifist stance and the strong but benign support of the US after the war, Japan would not have recovered so fast and become so successful in leading the industrial world today.

The US celebrates its Independence Day today. Let Asia, including Japan, be reminded once again of VJ day and the probable role that the two bombs that the US unleashed had in it.

Mr Kyuma, thank you for reminding the world about the truth.

Legend of the undead

2007-06-09T07:26:00.002+08:00

No, I am not referring to vampires. But it does seem like Osama bin Laden is becoming an undead species - though perhaps not a vampire.

More than 5 years have passed since the world saw credible pictures/videos of him alive. Since then, all claims of his still being alive have been backed by Al Qaeda who claim that they have had communications with him. These 'evidence' have turned out to be fiction at best, deception at worst. Now, a chief of Afghanistan's ousted Taliban militia, Mr Mansoor Dadullahsaid, has said that he received a letter of condolence from OBL over his brother, Mullah Dadullah's martyrdoom at the hands of US-led forces recently.

One thing Al Qaeda seem to be doing well is to perpetuate the myth that OBL is still alive. Given his penchant for showmanship (while he was alive), OBL seems to be uncharacteristically quiet for more than 5 years now. He can't speak for himself anymore - he appears in worn videos and he sends greeting cards and furtive messages from time to time. But he doesn't appear in person.

Conclusion: OBL is as dead as the stone in the mountains of Afghanistan. His memory, though, still lives strongly, continuing to bring a threat over mankind.

Oppression of the law

2007-05-31T14:00:00.000+08:00

This is a sad day for justice. First, we learn that the highest Civil Court in Thailand today - the 9-member Constitutional Tribunal - has ruled that the political party set up by Thaksin Shinawatra - Thai Rak Thai (TRT) - has violated election laws and henceforth will be de-registered. On the other hand, Thailand's oldest political party, the Democrat Party has been absolved of any wrong doing although it was implicated in a case for which the TRT was found guilty.

Go figure.

Second, Malaysia's highest Civilian Court just ruled that they do not have jurisdiction over the case of a Christian convert (from Islam), one Lina Joy, who petitioned the same court to have the religion recorded on her Indentity Card to be amended to Christian from its current Islam. Why is this important? Well, if the record on her IC is not changed, she cannot marry a non-Muslim. She is in effect bound never to be married, and never be able to bear a child, so long as she remains under the jurisdiction of the Malaysian Courts, where the Shariah reigns supreme. The land's highest Civil Court has just abdicated its responsibility to uphold justice and freedom for all Malaysians, whether Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikhs, etc. by refusing to be drawn into any matter that has anything to do with the state religion, Islam. It is basically saying that it is incompetent of dealing with any matters that involves Islam, even when that matter involves people who are not Muslims.

Malaysian Muslims and Thailand's current political masters may feel vindicated, but they have merely made use of the highest Court in the land to rubber-stamp their oppressive behaviour. Truly, there is no justice, but only power. Power to oppress, power to sway, power to corrupt, power to silence, This is because the law has abdicated its responsibility to right wrongs.

This is a sad day in Thailand and Malaysia. The Law should hang its head in shame.

See:
Straits Times - Thai Security Clampdown
France 24 - Thaksin's party to be disbanded

VT

2007-04-22T21:02:00.002+08:00

VT
Letters that spell
Doom
Grief
Pain
Anger
Loss
Madness
Taken ahead of time
In their prime
Promises lost
Forever
Never to be realized
Questions unanswered
Unanswerable
Pain excruciating
Anger unbridled
Will Madness never cease
In this mad mad mad world?
It won't be the last
Though the grief
and the loss
will last
an eternity

Expletive as language

2007-04-19T06:37:00.000+08:00

The other day, a student used the 'shit' word on stage in front of over 200 parents and teachers. She didn't mean to offend anymore, nor was she berating at anyone. She was relating a conversation that she had had with her friends who were studying in another school. It was a paraphrase of this conversation and the 'shit' word seem to come out naturally. I don't know what the parents thought as this came out of the mouth of one of the school's top students. The teachers must have squirmed in their seats, feeling uncomfortable, not knowing what the parents thought of the way that they nurtured their best students. President George W Bush, a fervent Christian, was himself caught uttering this word unwares when referring to the conflict in the Middle East some months ago.

The 'shit' word is becoming rather common, much as the f**k word has in movies. But in movies, and elsewhere, the f**k word remains an expletive whereas the 'shit' word is increasingly used as a word to express emphasis, sometimes frustration and often almost as a sort of exclamation that the word 'damn' is used. This is not my opinion only. Wynrub wrote a book analysing expletives and the way and purpose expletives are used in society today. She concluded that some expletives are no longer used in the derogatory / foul connotation, but more to express valid emotions in conversations. Going by this recent experience of mine, I cannot agree more with her. Language evolves over time. This has been true from time inmemorial. So therefore, language standards shift, albeit inperceptibly. The next wave of change will surely come from the almost universal use of SMS language. In this case, the change might take on a leap instead of a quiet shift. Therefore those who still clinge on to a standard will be fighting a losing battle.

In any case, a person can speak and use the language's 'standard', but will switch to a more informal version in informal settings. The fact that a person speaks a non-standard form does not necessarily mean that he/she doesn't know the standard form and use it in an appropriate setting. One of the most unnatural and difficult things about carrying on in a standardised language is the frustration of getting your ideas across in quicker. So it is natural and necessary to revert to a local form. That way, people tend to identify with you more easily because they speak the same dialect as you, including using newly non-expletives expletives.

Toothless Nark Puggsin

2007-02-24T07:43:00.000+08:00

I pity Thailand nowadays. Its military leaders do not seem to be able to get anything right. I do not doubt their sincerity in getting Thailand back on track, economically and socially. Only, there are 'professional protesters' standing by, ready to stage protests once an unpopular decision is made, like that of the appointment of Mr Somkid, once the No. 2 in the Thaksin government, to a senior government position.

The threat of protest forced the government and Mr Somkid to back down. Now I wonder why these protesters (read: PAD) are not the government instead? They seem to wield veto power over government decisions. But of course we know that there are talkers and there are doers. Unfortunately, in Thailand today, the talkers hold sway. And so long as this is so, the government, military or otherwise, cannot expect to do much. The No. 1 task is to keep these people's mouth shut. In fact, if not for these protesters, Thailand wouldn't be in the state it is in today. OK, so the Thaksin government is seen to be corrupt, but the situation hadn't degenerated to one of dictatorship. The constitutional process of government change through elections should have been taken instead of mass protests. You say that Thaksin's control is so strong that it is impossible to unseat him through the polls? But is a military coup an appropriate answer? I doubt many will say it is. Mass protests only presents half the answer, it is silent on the other half when the doing needs to be done.

My only regret over the entire episode is that I cannot visit Thailand nowadays without thinking twice. Vietnam looks to be a more attractive destination, business and holiday-wise. Heck, even Burma seem more peaceful.

Image source: http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/

Decaffeinated

2006-12-28T08:56:00.000+08:00

I was very frustrated yesterday morning when I tried to go to my normal 'haunts' on the net for my shot of caffeine. Yahoo.com just wasn't responding and I thought my 5-year-old Notebook PC was ready to give up the ghost. I thought I'd jog its heart a bit by shutting down the bugger and restarting it. You see, I am used to sending it into hibernation from day to day, because it takes sooo long to startup otherwise. The age is showing. Nope, it didn't work. I tried live.com, almost always reliable and quick. But this time around, it was more dead than alive. Something must really be wrong. Maybe my Internet Service provider screwed up this time, although it has been very reliable so far.

It was the same on my office computer, which boasts more muscle and a thicker pipe. Yahoo just took ages to get to, although I did get to it - eventually. Only it was sooo slow, and my Yahoo Messenger just didn't want to wake up. But almost every other site was jammed - including live.com. Well, when the darn thing won't work, it won't work. The office eventually informed everyone that the internet access was down and very likely due to something on a national scale. I didn't realise how 'national' it was until I got home yesterday evening and found out how the undersea fibre optic cable carrying the bulk of internet traffic in and around Asia was damaged by the 7.1 Richter scale earthquake off southern Taiwan.

Ah well, there was a silver lining in this. I started on and almost completed something that I had put off for ages yesterday. Yes, you guessed it, the internet wasn't necessary for it. How often our time is frittered away by our incessant surfing nowadays.

Today, I am back at broadband speeds again, as if nothing had happened. The good people must have diverted the internet traffic overnight and so we can get our daily shot of caffeine again.

There must be a lesson somewhere in all of this.

Image source: http://www.csh.rit.edu/~cyke/pics/no_to_decaf.gif

A cry of wolf

2006-11-19T07:08:00.000+08:00

One of the saddest thing between the Palestinians and the Israelis is their seeming inability to broker a lasting peace. A while ago, there had been hope that one could be reached - and from a surprising quarter. Ariel Sharon, erstwhile hawk, who now lies on the brink of death due to a massive stroke, quit some of the occupied lands in favour of the fledgeling Palestian state in exchange for peace. But it would seem that not all in Palestine wants peace. This was demonstrated by the Hamas, an erstwhile terrorist organisation, coming to power. But this is, after all, politics.

But the landscape has recently been covered in blood again when the Israelis retaliated againsts terrorists both in Gaza and Lebanon, who, without provocation, killed and kidnapped some Israeli soldiers at the borders. Some may say that Israel's reaction was disproportionate to the crime, but that is for history to decide. What I find ludicrous is that the Palestinian Hamas is now calling for the elimination of Israel ('erase Israel') after 18 of its people were killed by the Israelis. I will not go into the details of this except to say that this situation has been stoked by the Hamas' decision to kidnap the Israeli soldiers in the first place. Now if the Palestinians and Hamas in particular are not willing to reflect on its actions but can only think, like Ahmadinejab of Iran, to wipe Israel off the map, then there is no hope.

Only shallow, naive people and people with an agenda that does not include peace with Israel in the first place will believe in the Hamas' latest cry of wolf. And all this time, they place the blame squarely on Israel's shoulders.

Mothers will continue to weep for their slain sons, brothers and husbands, sons will lose their fathers and mothers on BOTH sides.

Image source: http://www2.aya.yale.edu/

Veil of separation

2006-11-15T05:19:00.000+08:00

I am reminded of the cowboys and indian movies that I used to watch on Saturday afternoons way back in the 1970s. Besides the Red Indians, a town was often terrorised by 'Cowboy' robbers who almost always masked their faces using a handkerchief or something similiar. They looked sinister and everyone except the town sherriff was afraid of them. The Red Indians never did rob banks. Instead, they tend to go for the throat.

Well, ok, much of this is fantasy and a slur and typecasting of certain types of people. If was unfair to cast Red Indians as always the evil aggressors and the 'white men' as whiter than angels. But the men and women with the covered faces robbing banks and shooting indiscriminately in the air and at people stuck. Which is why when I see people with covered faces, that sinister imagery comes to mind.

Some Muslim women veil themselves in public today. The veil hides everything except the eyes. Like the masked cowboys, they look sinister. I know that putting a veil over oneself is a very personal and religious thing, but when one lives in a community consisting of different people with different faiths and beliefs, you cannot blame anyone for saying that he wishes these women would lose their veils. That is what Jack Straw, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Salman Rushdie wished. I support them. If I read it correctly, even the Koran does not insist on the veil. So people who veil themselves are not so much following a religious injunction as much as they are submitting to an arbitrary human craving or rule imposed by certain people. At its worst, this is akin to slavery. Now, is such slavish behaviour something to be proud of, even in religious context?

It is sad that in the modern world today, in an age of universal suffrage where men and women have equal rights, duties and responsibilities, there are women who still go around publicly asserting their submissiveness. Now I am not saying that this is wrong per se, but that if you want to indulge in submissive behaviour, then do it at home and not on the streets and certainly not when you need to see your MP.

Otherwise, what message are they sending to the rest of the community? That they are separate, holier than thou, mightier in spirituality, or what? All of which reminds me that some time ago, the Singapore Education Ministry disallowed all Primary school students, particularly those from Muslim families, from wearing the tudung or headscarf within school compounds. The government's justification then was that it doesn't want a separate identity to be established within the school system, which might become divisive over time. What Mr Straw, Mr Blair, Mr Rushdie and Mr Brown have said echo this same position espoused by the Government in Singapore as early as 2002.

Orphans forever

2006-11-05T20:12:00.000+08:00

Among the entertainment fraternity, Angelina Jolie did it first. Now Madonna is doing a me-too. Angelina has two adopted orphaned children - one a Cambodian and another an Ethiopian. She subsequently gave birth to a daughter with Brad Pitt, her current husband. So her family is now a veritable United Nations of sorts. Angelina is herself of Czech and English descent. Will blood become thicker than water in the years to come? Only time will tell.

Madonna has only just started the adoption circus. Her attempt to adopt a hardly orphaned child - the child's father is still very alive and kicking but who practically gave his child away - had faced difficulties but the Malawi High Court, in a travesty of common sense, has granted adoption custody to the singer. One wonders if there is not some under-the-table shananigan going on here. Well, lets be frank about this and call a spade a spade. This has been a highly sophisticated and legalised kid-napping.

Madonna's natural children are said to have taken to their new step brother. For now, that is. Will they grow up to love their coloured step brother and will the mother love all of them equally? Again, only time will tell. Then we will know if blood does not count.

Suffice to say that this type of 'doing good' is highly selective and benefits only a few - one to be exact. Can't these incredibly rich people see beyond one child to help more? They don't have to adopt everyone, just give them the wherewithal to grow up in a peaceful environment where they can be educated to lift themselves out of the vicious cycle of poverty - on their own and among their own peoples and within their own country. For after all, when a person grows up, they would want to know where they came from, and who their own people are. I would hate to think that 'orphans' transplanted out of their natural homes will remain orphans from their own people, culture and history - all the rest of their lives.

Image Source: http://www.cbc.ca/

Walking the talk

2006-10-09T05:36:00.000+08:00

Mr Irfan Husain, a columnist for the Pakistani English-language Dawn newspaper, has written a well-considered, honest and balanced piece on the age-old conflict between the Muslims and Christians (read Western civilisation), the Pope and Rushdie, that I feel compelled to reproduce this in full here, with due acknowledgement to Dawn.

Irfan Husain
- News Comment

I HAVE a theory about riots: Those out on the streets often don't have a clear idea what they're rioting about. And invariably, they have a lot of time on their hands.

After all, how often do you find an employed person asking for leave to join the demo of the day? But when you have time to kill, you'll join any crowd that's out to protest, no matter what the cause.

When Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses inflamed parts of the Muslim world, how many people demonstrating had actually read the book?

I didn't either, but it wasn't for lack of trying: Struggling manfully, I ploughed through the first hundred pages before admitting defeat.

So, I never actually read the passages that gave rise to the famous fatwa. But I doubt very much if the people who rioted even saw the book.

The same is true for those now up in arms about the Pope's address at the University of Regensburg.

I have printed out the speech, and must confess that it's heavy going. The offending section is a tiny part of the paper, and it remains a mystery why Pope Benedict needed such an obscure quotation in his discussion of faith and reason.

Having said that, he has addressed an issue that needs to be debated: How should believers reconcile their faith with the dictates of reason? According to him, modern Christianity has bridged the gap, while Islam has not.

We can debate his conclusion, and criticise his choice of supporting material, but we can hardly deny his right to hold an opinion.

When some Muslims demonstrated their opposition to his views, many carried placards threatening the Pope with death. It seems that some Muslims' stock response to the slightest provocation consists of death threats and violent demonstrations.

These undignified protests reinforce the worst prejudices others have about some Muslims. After all, why should some cartoons in an obscure Danish newspaper, or a papal address at an unknown German university, send hundreds of thousands pouring into streets around the world?

When we were children, when somebody said anything offensive, we would chant: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me."

As we grew older, we learned that some words are deadlier than any stick or stone, festering long after bruises and wounds have healed. But, we were also taught to be stoical, and not to complain.

In a letter to the Guardian of Sept 20, San Cassimally of Edinburgh wrote: "As a Muslim, I am much more saddened and shocked by the murder of the Somali nun than by what the Pope said in Regensburg ... even if he knew exactly what he was doing."

I would add that I am far more horrified by the endless Muslim-on-Muslim killing going on in Iraq than by anything the pontiff could possibly say.

According to United Nations estimates, an average of a hundred Iraqis are being killed every day, almost invariably by other Iraqis. And all too often, many of the victims are tortured to death.

When Israel killed a thousand Lebanese civilians in a month of senseless bombing, Muslims (and others with a conscience) around the world were rightly incensed. But approximately the same number of Muslims are being killed by other Muslims every 10 days in Iraq, and there is no protest anywhere.

Before the invasion of Iraq, when Saddam Hussein tortured and gassed his own people with impunity, I do not recall any Muslims condemning him publicly.

Applying these same double standards, when Nato forces accidentally kill Afghans, we are furious. But when the Taliban kill innocent Afghans in suicide bombings, and assassinate teachers for teaching girls, we look the other way.

This kind of moral inconsistency is reflected in the treatment non-Muslims generally get in Muslim countries.

For instance, while the 300,000 Iraqi Christians were treated as equal citizens in Saddam's secular regime, two-thirds of them have fled the increasingly-Islamic nature of the present government.

Saudi Arabia, while funding Wahabi mosques across the West, refuses to permit non-Muslims to build their places of worship on its soil.

I am often asked why Muslims in Pakistan get so worked up about Bosnia, Chechnya and Palestine.

I try and explain in terms of the ummah, and the feeling of connectedness between, say, Indonesian Muslims and Turkish Muslims. But I fear this is only a small part of the real answer.

The truth is that the problems we face in much of the Muslim world are often so intractable that we escape reality by looking abroad.

Matters like poverty, disease, political instability and institutional meltdown are too difficult to be tackled by the inefficient and corrupt elites much of the Muslim world is cursed with. To deflect blame, they fulminate against the West for its perceived anti-Islamic attitudes.

It is this mindless, knee-jerk anti-West sentiment that sustains the jihadi groups, and is now propelling us to a very real "clash of civilisations".

As Islam becomes more heavily-politicised, it is evoking a strong reaction in the West. More and more, the Muslims who have migrated to Europe and America, as well as their children, are being seen as a fifth column.

The sight of perpetually-angry Muslims from London to Lahore, marching with placards calling for the death of somebody or the other, is moving normally liberal people to anger.

For me, the really worrying part of the Pope's address was his demand for the subordination of reason to theology: "Modern scientific reason quite simply has to accept the rational structure of matter and the correspondence between our spirit and the prevailing rational structures of nature as a given, on which its methodology has to be based. Yet the question why this has to be so is a real question, and one which has to be remanded by the natural sciences to other modes and planes of thought; to philosophy and theology."

Sorry, but I'm not buying this. This is precisely why I don't think faith and reason can ever be reconciled.

Japan's new PM

2006-10-03T05:40:00.000+08:00

Shinzo Abe worries me.

He wants to change the Japanese Constitution, which has stood for 60 years, albeit drafted by its victors, the US. "I want to write the Constitution with my own hands", he said. Question: What is wrong with the present Constitution that has enabled Japan to recover and become an economic powerhouse second only to the US?

He does not discourage revisionist historians who play down and deny the horrors and the wrongs that the Japanese caused in Asia and Southeast Asia during WWII. He wants to encourage patriotism. I wonder if Japanese are not already patriotic? So what does Abe mean by patriotism?

He is non-committal on visiting Yasukuni. He should say 'yes' or 'no'. Anything else and he remains a suspect case.

Less than one week into the job and one of his appointed Ministers has been found out as a crook. How well does he know the people around him and how much control has he got over key appointments?

Shinzo Abe worries me.

Image source: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/

Osama alive or dead?

2006-10-01T06:42:00.000+08:00

Is Osama Bin Laden dead or alive? Some French think he is dead, the Americans would not commit on it in spite of its vast intelligence operations and network, and the Muslim world are one in insisting that he is alive.

When somebody doesn't appear in public, alive, for 5 years, his living existence is suspect. In another two years, the law will consider him missing and presumed dead.

Videos and audios can all be faked.

Period.

Translation: [37:164] Except only him who shall burn in Hell. (The Holy Quran : Chapter 37: Al-Saffat) - Source: http://www3.alislam.org/showChapter.jsp?ch=37&verse=163

The Thai Dilemma

2006-09-27T06:51:00.000+08:00

They (coup leaders) are asking people with strong democratic principles to become prime minister of a government appointed by a dictatorship. And they are asking them to accept the post without any guarantees of some democratic freedoms...

as told to Dow Jones Newswires.

Well said. The Generals and even the Thai King, with all due respect, are deceiving themselves. The military junta will not soon cede power. It cannot. It has trapped itself in a conflicting and contradictory situation. Any civilian government installed by them will be nothing but a dead duck, a puppet beholden to the military, who will be defacto kings of Thailand until they voluntarily give up and retreat to their barracks where they belong in the first place.

That, or they do a Pakistan or a Myanmar - both of which represent extremes of possible though no more desirable outcomes.

Image source: http://www.cbc.ca/. Image originally owned by the Thai Army.

Politics and Shrines

2006-09-13T06:33:00.000+08:00

I cannot understand why Shinzo Abe, the front-runner to succeed Koizumi as Prime Minister of Japan, says that he will visit the Yasukuni Shrine where many of Japan's Class 1 war criminals from WWII are interred. Koizumi says he did it because of a campaign promise he made to the electorate, but Abe says he will be doing it to keep up the practice. Obviously, Abe sees these visits as advancing his political cause, if nothing else. It doesn't matter if the visit is official or unofficial, as Abe promised the latter. As far as the Chinese and Koreans are concerned, paying homage to War Criminals in any guise is criminal enough.

Well, it looks to me that Abe does not really need to keep up appearances at the cost of good relations with its neighbours, Korea and China, as well as continue to hurt the sensitivities of many in Southeast Asia. It would be an unwise, unnecessary and possibly a suicidal policy given that Korea and China are becoming major powers in their own rights and that Japan will become increasingly isolated in the process. While we do not want to forever remind Japan about its war past, we also do not want them to forget.

Image origin: http://www.journeythroughjapan.org/

Shotgun religion

2006-08-30T06:43:00.000+08:00

Islam continues to be plagued by extremists among its midst who very loudly and insistently push their religious agenda through the barrel of a gun, or should we, in keeping with the times and reality say, 'the cannister of a bomb'? With September 11 around the corner, we can expect these religious fanatics to want to commemorate the occasion with a couple of their own bombing exploits to hasten their entry into heavenly bliss.

Besides death and destruction, some of these extremists also wish to convert people to Islam through the barrel of the same gun. American Fox News journalists, Mr Steve Centanni, 60, an American correspondent, and his freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, a New Zealander, who were later released, were reportedly at the wrong end of a gun when they 'converted' to Islam. I am not sure that both reporters have the conviction to remain Muslims, unless they are forced to look down the barrel of a gun again.

Adherents of Islam are exhibiting some rather oppressive behaviour in recent times. But since most of them are extremists to start off with, though one cannot understand their worldview, their actions are not surprising. What is surprising is that Islam can be oppressive even when it arises from the law of the land.

It was reported recently in Malaysia that a woman, aged 26, had renounced her Muslim faith to become a Christian. Nothing wrong with that in a country that professes freedom of religious beliefs. She legally changed her name to Lina Joy, but the State would not allow her to change her stated religion on its records, which remains Islam. Well, one can live with that too, I suppose. If one's faith is true, it really doesn't matter what others say, or what the National Records office states. Well, that is turning out to be a nightmare, it seems. Because her official religion is still recorded as Islam, she cannot marry a non-Muslim. Sadly, we are not talking about an extremist body anymore, but the Islamic Courts in Malaysia. What can be more legitimate than that? According to Syariah Law (Islamic Law Court), a Muslim cannot marry a non-Muslim. So we have a situation where a Christian cannot marry a non-Muslim because she is deemed still a Muslim although the law granted her a name change to reflect her new religious beliefs.

Islam is suffering from multiple identity disorder today. Do we ever wonder why Islam, both of the extremist and state-sponsored types, conjures up suspicion and distrust nowadays? It is not a Western-worldview problem anymore. Before it sets out to rule the world, it had better sort out its identity and existence in its own back yard first.

Image origin: http://www.claybennett.com/

Hornet's nest

2006-08-23T05:17:00.000+08:00

From the peacekeeping point of view, I cannot understand how the Malaysian and Indonesian Armed Forces can send soldiers to Lebanon. These countries, especially Indonesia, has one of the loudest supporters of the Hizbollah cause. Even though the soldiers may not be as fanatic (one assumes), there is always the perception (and a fact) that they come from a country that is against Israel. Both Malaysia and Indonesia do not have diplomatic relations with Israel. So if the UN accepts their offers of troops for the peacekeeping contingent in Lebanon, it would be nothing short of waiting for a disaster to happen.

Even on this issue, Indonesia wants to argue against Ehud Olmert's objections that the peacekeeping force not include soldiers from countries that do not have diplomatic ties with Israel. This goes to show that Indonesia is not a neutral party after all. As few weeks ago, it was reported in the press that a number of Indonesian Jihadist - extremist Muslim - were preparing to fight the 'Zionists' over the recent conflict with the Hizbollahs in Lebanon. Even if the Indonesian army and the government were to dis-associate itself from these extremists elements, prudence dictates it not send any Indonesians to Lebanon. This is after all, a peacekeeping effort, not a 'Brother for Brother' party. Lebanon and Israel have had enough of the Hizbollahs without the injection of more terrorists on their soil.

Having 'won' the peace, the UN must act with extreme caution and prudence in ensuring that the peacekeeping force can and will keep the peace.

Image origin: http://old.gulfnews.com/

War and diplomacy

2006-08-15T07:04:00.000+08:00

At last, both sides, the Israelis and the Lebanese (or should I say, the Hizbollah?) have finally agreed to a UN brokered ceasefire, effective Monday, 14 August 2006 at 0500 GMT. Even so, it is reported that both sides are still lobbing bombs at each other even after the accepting the agreement. We now hear that there are problems in the Lebanese government cabinet, where the Hizbollah has two representatives, about the implementation of the terms of the ceasefire.

Yes, all of us want to believe that the ceasefire agreement will end the bloodshed and bring permanent respite to the innocent Lebanese citizens. But the reality is that both sides are still simmering, ready to start the war all over again at the slightest opportunity or provocation. Both sides will view the ceasefire as a chance to regroup, relocate and rearm for another day. Fundamentally, no peace agreement has been reached, only a ceasefire. And when the war starts again, as it inevitably will, the world will see that nothing has been resolved. Diplomacy has merely won a stay of execution. The final solution will only be reached until one side destroys, or at least neutralizes, the other side permanently.

So yes, Mr Kofi Annan can claim a sort of belated diplomatic victory, but the UN, being the UN, can never bring lasting peace to the two sides. What is tragic about the whole incident is that the duly constituted and elected government of Lebanon was never able to exert any meaningful influence and control over the Hizbollah faction, in spite of the fact that it has at least 15,000 troops under its command. A government that cannot, or will not, govern and control the country and the various factions among it must ultimately take responsibility for the death of its people and destruction of its property. If it still does not recognize this fact, and take action to bring the Hizbollah under its control, then it should cede control totally to the Hizbollah. It should not continue with a pretense that serves to hoodwink charitable souls of the world, including the Lebanese women and children.

The Hizbollah, by some combination of warped logic and delusion, are claiming a victory in this conflict. It has sustained 900 over deaths (probably mostly civilians - which do not matter much?) on the Lebanese side versus 150 odd deaths on Israel's side. Much of their homes are buried in rubble and it will take a lot of charity from the rest of the world to rebuild their homes and feed their people. It is a strange victory when you have to depend on charity.

Israel, on the other hand, is more subdued over this war and is certainly not over the moon regarding the achievements (or lack) of its original objectives - the return of its two soldiers.

Do we now wonder why the fight is not over yet? Dare I say that the diplomatic world is facilitating a conflict more destructive than the first?

Image origin: http://www.opceasefire.org/

God and History

2006-08-12T05:28:00.000+08:00

In a world that is in chaos politically, socially and environmentally, how can the human race sustain another 100 years?

So ask Britain's most significant scientist since Isaac Newton. Dr Stephen Hawking posed the question but admitted that he does not have the answer. 25,000 people reportedly weighed in on the question. My take on this issue although it is now closed in Yahoo Answers?

The human race has sustained thousands of years through wars, natural disasters, famine and political intrigue more complex than today's. Some social upheavals in the past are even more revolutionary than today's, yet history has shown that these ebb and flow with the sands of time, many discredited and forgotten, only to be resurrected under another name in another time. As King Solomon, the wisest man that ever walked the earth was to write, in the Book of Ecclesiastes, that

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Ecclesiastes 1:2

He made the observation that

The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose.
The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits.
All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.
All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.
The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
There is no remembrance of former things; neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. Ecclesiastes 1:5-11

Solomon's answer to the question posed by Dr Hawking, is that, yes, God willing, the human race can be sustained for another 100 years, 1000 years even. We give too little credit to the creator with this so-called conundrum. Let us not over-rate Dr Hawking here at the expense of the Almighty.

The discussion:
Yahoo answers on the conundrum
The rest of the chatter

Image origin: http://library.thinkquest.org/

Cycle of Tragedy

2006-07-31T06:58:00.000+08:00

Once again, the tragedy of war was brought home with the death of more than 50 civilians in Lebanon, including women and children, all of whom were taking shelter from a bombardment launched by Israeli planes. The Israelis claimed that they had given prior warning for residents to flee. Indeed many did, but this extended family chose to stay. Apparently, the Hezbollah 'martyrs' are again hiding behind women's skirts and children's cots when they launched missiles against Israel in the vicinity of these now collapsed houses.

War is never pleasant, it is destructive of lives and property, of a livelihood and opportunities. The world admits that the Hezbollah provoked the conflict first where they continue to lob bombs into Israeli residential areas. So what happened to the women and children in Lebanon today could very well happen to Israel's women and children tomorrow. I think the Israelis want to stop, but if stopping means that the Hezbollah can re-group in Southern Lebanon to fight another day, then any such armistice, such respite from the carnage, can only be temporary.

Can the world community, and the UN in particular, which already has its hands full with Iran's and N Korea's nuclear ambitions, stay focused on keeping the two sides apart when the guns stop and rebuilding takes place? Is there political will in Lebanon and the rest of the world that is calling for a stop to the current conflict to rein in the Hezbollah and their openly avowed mission to destroy Israel? Will Iran and Syria stop fighting via proxy?

If the answers are NO, then, sadly, tragically, the war will go on, must go on for otherwise, it will just be a reprieve to salve the souls of participants and onlookers before another war begins. It is well to remember that this conflict was started by the Hezbollah for no good reason than to join in the kidnapping game than the Hamas first started in the Gaza Strip. Hezbolla never expected such as ferocious response from the Israelis. Thus was the relative peace and development for more than a decade in Lebanon broken, engulfing innocent women and children into a conflict which the Hezbollah was and remains trigger happy about. As much as bombs are lobbed into Southern Lebanon, missiles continue to rain down on Israel, though, fortunately for the Hezbollah, their missiles have not had been as accurate nor destructive as the Israelis'.

The Hezbollah was in Lebanon 10 years ago. If the Hezbollah is given a reprieve and peace comes again, how long will it last before they break the peace again? Another 10 years? The key question to ask, after all is said and done is, who broke the peace? and so who should mend it - permanently?

Image origin: http://www.graphicwitness.org/

Damned if you do and damned if you don't

2006-07-20T06:56:00.000+08:00

The press went to town gleefully telling everyone who would listen (and of course everybody loves a juicy story) of how they got recordings of private conversations at the dinner table by Mr George W Bush and Mr Tony Blair, amongst others. Mr Bush reportedly said "Hezbollah to stop doing this shit", referring to the weeklong conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Hezbollah.

Well, I think its refreshing to hear that, because most of the sentiments that we express privately isn't all that different from the US President's - at least not mine. Many others would hold a diametrically opposite view, but few would want to be open about it - not that Mr Bush is - he was caught unawares.

While the G8 did issue a statement regarding the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, it got interpreted in a 1001 ways, so much for the usefulness of such joint statements. Nobody takes them seriously, and worse, they are not actionable.

As Israel continues to pound Southern Lebanon, I am hearing people condemn the US for not getting into the region to stop the conflict. Well, well, well. And I thought that people were condemning the US for going into Iraq. Damn if you do and damn if you don't. Foreign policy and adventures are always fraught with danger, but I would say the greatest danger lies with people who cannot decide one way or another. At least Mr Bush is staying the course and trying to complete the job that was left hanging in Operation Desert Storm. By the same token, I'd say let Israel complete its job so that Hezbollah will not soon stir the hornets' nest again any time soon.

Image Origin - http://www.ceosforcities.org/

The tragedy of war

2006-07-14T07:20:00.000+08:00

As the bombs drop from Israeli planes onto Lebanon, I feel a tinge of nostalgia. I remember twenty years ago, when I was still in my youth, the names of places such as Sabra and Shatilla where Israel met with infamy, and the almost incessant news and reports of bombings and conflicts in Lebanon. Today, after 20 years of relative peace, war in Lebanon is again rearing its ugly head.

War is, obviously, never pleasant. And while self-righteous people go about provoking war, it is the ordinary people who bear the brunt of war. Their lives are suddenly disrupted, their homes subject to damage, if not destruction, their kith and kin separated, their livelihood adversely affected. I remember my mother relating how her life and opportunities were disrupted due to the Second World War in this part of the world. It was truely a tragedy.

And yet, people still provoke war. The Hizbollah and the Hamas have thrown the entire Middle-East yet again into a conflagration that will not soon go away. Whatever trust and opportunities that have been built-up over the last fews years with the eventual establishment of the Palestinian Authority is all but gone. Old foes such as Syria and Iran are working behind the scenes to further stoke the fire. More innocent lives will be lost.

Can Israel be blamed for protecting itself? After all, the incidents that provoked their present response were the blatant kidnap and capture of their own people by the Hamas and the Hizbollah. For Israel to continue holding the olive branch is nothing but suicidal policy. Can the Islamic world blame the Israelis, as the OIC under the leadership of Malaysia, has done? What if the role were reversed, that Israelis kidnap the Hamas and Hizbollah terrorists for ransom? What would the OIC say then?

Surely there must be impartiality and justice? But this has never characterised the relation between Israel and the Muslim world. What can anybody say that can bring this latest conflict to an end? Simply NOTHING, because the relationship has never been built on trust, if at all. Only the barrel of the gun will broker a truce, but peace will never come.

Painting is "The Visage of War" by Salvador Dali. Refer to http://clogic.eserver.org/

A teacher who destroys

2006-07-07T06:47:00.000+08:00

Predictably, some Indonesia Muslims have jumped into the worsening Palestinian situation in the Gaza by urging its adherents to take up arms in Palestine. And the biggest 'head' in this rallying call is reportedly non other that Abu Bakar Bashir - he who protested and vehemently denied his role in the Bali bombing in open court. I don't know what kind of Muslim he is, but obviously he is a liar, a cheat and by any standards, an immoral person. Now, he wants to reprise his role as murderer as well. There is a Chinese saying - "Borrow a knife to kill people". Bashir is bent on borrowing, yet again, the young lives of Muslim youth to do his dirty work in the name of Allah. Does he want to rise to the seventh heaven on the coattails of the young and pliable Muslims in the schools that he runs?

The teachers' vocation has always been an honourable one. But in him, we see a teacher not as a shaper of lives for the better, but a teacher bent on destroying lives. It is unfortunate that he was even released from prison so early. Now he has the freedom to go about committing more crimes against humanity. Going by what he is doing now, he should have been locked up for good.

Image origin - http://www.aijac.org.au/

Moderates need to play ball

2006-05-28T12:39:00.000+08:00

And you thought you've heard it all. About the extreme 'moral' requirements that extreme Muslims practice and enforce on others. An example from recent months is the no-kissing/ no-hugging / no-touching rule between male and female in public, and therefore no public display of affection. In Iraq, extremists have gone even further. The Associated Press reported, about 3 hours ago, that in Baghdad, gunmen stopped a car carrying the Sunni Arab coach and his two Shiite players, asked them to step out and then shot them.
And their 'crime'? This, according to leaflets distributed by these extremists:

Wearing shorts by youth are prohibited because it violates the principals of Islamic religion when showing forbidden parts of the body. Also women should wear the veil...

As expected, moderate Muslims and clerics have come out to condemn this act and state that there is nothing wrong in wearing shorts like those than an athlete would wear during training and competition. The problem is that the Islamic religious agenda has effectively been hijacked by these extremists for some time now. The moderates are now seen to be forever playing catchup and apologising for the actions of their fellow religious brothers. In the long run, this will not do. Justice must be seen to be done, not just talked about and verbally condemned.

Mere pronouncements without the active pursuit and prosecution of these extremist factions do no good in righting the increasing perception that Islam is a religion of hatred, revenge, and even worst - lawlessness. We need to see action in the pursuit and elimination of these factions worldwide, wherever Islamic extremists ply their brand of hate religion and moralistic judgements. Continued inaction will lead to gradual erosion of adherents and condemn the religion to defections and desertions, for who can live under a cloud where what he/she believes in is equated to violence, hate, and selective lawlessness.

The ball has long been on the moderates' court. The way I see it, either they do something concrete to right this wrong quickly, or they join those whom they refuse to actively discipline - a guilt by association. The third alternative is to abandon a religion that has gone horribly wrong.

Opiate of the masses

2006-05-24T06:34:00.000+08:00

Karl Marx, that father of communism and its chief atheist, called religion the "Opiate of the masses". I suppose what he believes is that religion is a drug that the masses are driven to take and in the process, becomes addicted to it. Non-religion is therefore the only rational process and thought that mankind should adopt, if not believe in. I do not agree with this sage (as some still consider him to be one). His own 'religion' today is in shambles. It has not withstood the test of time.

On the other hand, I am horrified to learn that schools in Saudi Arabia, which is supposedly friendly to the West, routinely teaches its young ones to, among other things, hate Christians and Jews, and advocates Jihad, or Holy War against all infidels, of which Christians and Jews are identified as. If this is what is being taught systematically in Saudi Arabia's public schools, then I cannot imagine what schools in Iran teach their young. In fact, I am now paranoid of every Muslim school, official nor non-official, sanctioned by the state or not and even if that school is located and administered in Muslim countries that are considered to be moderate in the practice of Islam. It is no wonder that terrorists run amok so freely nowadays and this will not abate so long as young, impressionable kids are taught routinely to hate, that Allah wants Muslims to hate. The message I am getting is that Islam teaches hate, is intolerant of other beliefs and peoples, and is a law unto itself.

All the defences thrown up by countries to defend themselves from terrorist attacks will be ineffective so long as you have waves of youths who are ready to die for their Islamic religion the way they are being trained and intoxicated in schools in Islamic countries. What can you do when leaders in the community, the teachers, the adults, use a religion's holy book to teach such frightening things, not only sanctioning acts of violence against infidels, but actively promoting it? The only problem with Osama Bin Laden is that he brought Islam's teachings to its only logical realisation. With generations of Muslim youth raised on these beliefs, it is not difficult to see that peace will never come to Israel, not in my lifetime, not ever, in spite of the bests efforts of sincere, peace-loving peoples.

Perhaps Karl Marx was right, in some cases, after all.

Band of Brothers

2006-05-14T17:57:00.000+08:00

It is reported that Iran has gotten support for its Nuclear Programme from fellow Muslim states of Pakistan, Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia and Bangladesh, which together constitute the Developing Eight (D-8), in their summit in Indonesia over the weekend. Well, of course they will support Iran. Getting nuclear technology has been the ambition of many countries if only because it provides one with International recognition in terms of scientific and technological achievement, not to mention the potential military might that will endow it with a strong bargaining position anywhere in the world where muscle flexing is required.

To their credit, they did say that the support is for peaceful purposes, which is to be expected anyway. However, Iran is still openly against the existence of Israel (or to put it more 'positively', for the destruction of Israel) and any forces aligned with it. It must be pointed out that this support for Iran's nuclear technology is not universal among Muslim countries in the world. I believe Iraq is non too happy at this development, having fought a near decade war with Iran back in the 1980's. I am not sure about the Gulf countries either. So far they have chosen to remain silent on the matter. The US and Europe believe that Iran's ultimate aim is the production of nuclear weapons. Given Iran's their belligerence towards Israel and the fact that it has the world's second largest proven reserves of oil, only a fool will believe that Iran's nuclear ambitions are anything but peaceful. I fear that those whom it calls its brothers today may live to regret the day that it did not exert friendly pressure on its 'brother' to stay away from nuclear weapons production.

Even brothers quarrel, with some ending up betraying and killing each other. Look no further than Cain and Abel. This fact is almost as old as history itself.

A more dangerous world

2006-04-18T09:14:00.000+08:00

The price of oil is soaring again, hitting US$70 a barrel, no thanks to events in Iran. Iran has very smugly announced success in producing Uranium and they are not going to bother about International community urging them, on pain of un-specified sanctions, to abandon their nuclear programme. Compared to North Korea, this threat seems more real. The world is now a much more dangerous place to live in today. From the looks of things, it will not get any better. Iranian youths are primed to commit suicide bombings (using conventional bombs as a start, I suppose) on enemies of Iran and Palestine and Islam and who knows what else.

To these Iranians, the principle of MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction), which has held back the old USSR and USA from ever using their nuclear arsenal for over 60 years, means exactly that - real MADness. Post 911, Iran doesn't seem to want to understand the contradiction in possessing nuclear weapons. Neither do its leaders, who, I am sure, are all too ready to drop a couple of nuclear bombs on middle-eastern and western soil, come what may, to make their point that they can no longer be bullied. Western soil also includes Australia and Japan, erstwhile friends and allies of the US. So the threat is felt worldwide.

It is at this time that moderate Muslim nations (through the OIC?) must band together to get Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. It alone, among the world community, has the leverage to do so. My worry is that these nations are secretly happy that one of their members now has nuclear capabilities, so they will not do anything at all to rock the Iranian nuclear boat. Perhaps they think that one day, through their brethren, they too can possess nuclear weapons that will enable them to force others to kowtow to their demands, whatever these may be. The frightening things is that Muslim countries are not all agreed among themselves, which the Iraq-Iran conflict more than 10 years ago has demonstrated and the conflict between Shiite and Shia Muslim sects have shown today in Iraq.

May God help us.

Little Entrepreneurs of China

2006-04-13T05:35:00.000+08:00

We have heard of Little Emperors before. These refer to the children of parents who live in China. These children are typically pampered because, for many couples, that's the only child that the State will ever allow them to have.

Now, we hear that children as young as 5 years old in China are taking MBA (or Early MBA as they are called) type classes to master business at a very very young age. Modules on economics and business sense are covered in these courses. And the place most prevalent with these classes? Unsurprising, it is Shanghai.

My worry is that parents are placing the cart before the horse. Not in terms of skills, for we know how gifted some children are, but in terms of ethics and values. If so much of a child's time is spent 'educating' them on the technical aspects of life that they neglect values and society, morality and ethics, etc., we might end up seeing very wealthy, perhaps 'successful' individuals, but individuals who may not understand how to do the right thing the right way. Worst still, we might end up seeing more psyschiatric cases given the early onset of stress so typical in the business world of dog-eat-dog. Ultimately, society is going to suffer. Worst, if children are not taught how to value and respect their elders, etc., the parents who so eagerly send their children to such classes may end up reaping the effects of their neglect in critical aspects of a child's upbringing.

Triumph of the mob over democracy

2006-04-05T05:35:00.000+08:00

Mr Thaksin Shinawatra announced his resignation as Thailand's Prime Minister yesterday. Ironically, his TRT party won Thailand's snap elections held on 2 April 2006, but it proved to be a hollow one given that three of the main opposition parties boycotted the elections. So here, we see the triumph of mob pressure over the democratic process. Things are never going to be the same in Thailand anymore. I think that Thailand, economically, socially and politically, will enter into a period of uncertainty. I don't think there is a political figure at the moment that can take over Thai politics the way Thaksin has. If so, people would not have had to march and live on the streets of Bangkok for over three weeks now.

Sondhi, Chamlong and others are good protest organisers, but they have yet to prove themselves in ruling a country and bringing prosperity to that country. So far, their loose alliance is based on a common aim to unseat Thaksin. Beyond that, their agendas are quite different and will most likely conflict with one another's. That the opposition parties had to ride on the coat-tails of the protesting Thai public speaks volumes about their credibility, or lack of it. So if the opposition today sanctions protest of the type seen in Bangkok over the last 3 weeks, then when and if they become the ruling party and form the government, they in turn must also sanction any opposition to their rule in like fashion.

The democratic process is a severely wounded animal in Thailand. We do not know if it will ever recover.

New Yahoo UI

2006-04-03T09:23:00.000+08:00

Yahoo is upgrading its User Interface - you know - the page you get when you url into www.yahoo.com. My homepage is set to yahoo.com. When I was surfing the web last Saturday, I hit on the new Yahoo.com interface and was asked to evaluate and provide feedback. Since then, the old Yahoo.com has been restored.

Its a pity I didn't take a snapshot of the new UI. It's more organised (anything other than the present UI must be more organised!). It has three panes across the screen, with all the Yahoo services (such as 360, Auto, Finance, Games, Geocities, etc. grouped in a vertical directory list on the left side. Mail, My Yahoo, Messenger, etc. are also grouped together in a box on the right, although Mail is also located at the top banner location, signifying perhaps that Yahoo Mail is the most popular link on Yahoo's homepage.

There are a lot more UI changes, but I cannot remember them all. It's looking more like My Yahoo! UI, but I am sure there will be more changes I will not have seen. Users who saw the experimental UI were invited to leave comments on improving the interface. I am not sure if Yahoo plans to make the UI user-configurable, like My Yahoo, or Google (www.google.com/ig). I have a feeling that it won't be user-definable, or at least not as extensible as the two.

I believe in...

2006-03-23T10:53:00.000+08:00

It is sad to read that an Afghan national, a Mr Abdul Rahman, is facing the death penalty because he chose to become a Christian 16 years ago. The strength of his beliefs is evidenced by his willingless to face death rather than renounce the religion which he has come to accept. Unfortunately, Afghan Muslims do not see it this way. They see it as a case of apostasy, as if race or nationality has anything to do with religion.

Islam practices proselytising their religion. It welcomes one and all into their religious fold, even if this involves (as it must, unless that person has no prior religious beliefs) the convert renouncing his/her former religion. I wonder if they do not see the conflict and contradiction in their stance? But of course, Islamic Extremism is again rearing its ugly head, but judging from the recent past, it is unlikely that moderate Muslims will come to the rescue of their fellow national, even in a matter of life and death.

This is so very sad.

Netherlands, here we come

2006-03-16T06:02:00.000+08:00

The Netherlands is now screening potential immigrants with pictures of homosexual men kissing and topless female bathing (See Today, 14 March 2006, page 14). With the runnaway success of Brokeback Mountain (and the many copy-cat pictures that typically follow a proven formula in the months to come), as well as the ever popular bare-breasted female form, I'd expect to see a bee-line, especially men, for Dutch citizenship!

Ironically the Dutch are adopting this strategy to try to keep people out of their country. You'd wonder what warped sense of logic this is, until you also read that scenes of crime-ridden ghettos are shown along with these titilating video scenes. Dutch Immigration authorities hope that this will evoke horrors and extreme discomfort and thereby discourage would-be immigrants. Usually, nations want to project a rosy image of their country, the attractions and its pleasant people to demonstrate the beauty and successes of their country. Here, the Dutch are doing the opposite. I say again, what a warp sense of logic.

Of course, there are those who speculate that the Dutch wants to keep out purantical people, especially extremist Muslims, from their country. I think they have learnt a lesson from their neighbours, the Danes, about people who would break windows and demonstrate on the streets just because of a couple of cartoons in the newspapers. Well, this is certainly a novel solution, though I don't know if it will lead to another round of demonstrations or stampede for the doors to the country!

Polarising Positions

2006-03-14T05:37:00.000+08:00

A Debate is defined as

A formal, public political discussion involving two or more candidates for office. In a debate, candidates state and defend their positions on major issues.

The political situation in Thailand continues unabated, with the opposition forces that are arrayed against Thaksin's government adamant that nothing but a public debate will do to resolve the situation. A debate will not resolve anything. If nothing, it will serve to polarise the parties even further in this political quarrel and make the situation even worse than today. So it is disingenuos for the opposition to insist that a public debate will resolve the situation. The opposition hopes to push Thaksin to the edge of the cliff and thereby score points, if not effect an coup. Clearly, they are not prepared to meet Thaksin halfway and negotiate a settlement to their differences. They just want to win at all costs.

Of course, they don't trust Thaksin in a closed-door negotiation, which is what Thaksin offers, but I suggest that that is the only peaceful way forward. If they think that Thaksin will 'do them in' in close-door pow-wows, then they lack confidence in themselves and in the validity of their positions. Lest readers of this blog think that I am pro-Thaksin, let me clarify that I am for the rule of law. That rule of law says that any political legitimacy can only be obtained through the ballot box. Any injustice can only be righted through the court of law. Circumventing these internationally accepted norms is to invite ridicule from the international community.

There is a Chinese saying, jia chou bu ke wai yang, meaning, settle your family's differences internally or behind closed doors. Thailand should do that today.

Nuclear Terrorists

2006-03-13T06:14:00.000+08:00

I think terrorists today, with their penchant for making and exploding bombs, would love it if they have an atom bomb in their hands. It'll be equivalent to seventh heaven for them - the ultimate possession of ultimate power to wipe out the mother of all infidels that walk the earth. If they can blow up such as bomb in the White House, a la Independence Day style, no less, it will certainly promote them to the highest seats in heaven. Immortality of the highest order awaits them, and their names will perpetuate forever. I do not doubt that this course - Martyrdom 101, is being taught somewhere in the world today, and that Iran presents the best opportunity now to getting their hands on an actual atomic bomb.

What does Iran wants with nuclear energy anyway? Nuclear energy presents a lot of problems in the long run, least of which is the disposal of spent nuclear fuel. It also poses a danger to the people and the environment. It wouldn't be pleasant if there is a nuclear meltdown, to put it mildly. Look at Chernobyl. On the other hand, Iran is blessed with the world's 2nd largest proven reserves of oil under its soil today.

So what's the rationale? Has Iran got too much money in the bank? It doesn't know how else to deploy its brilliant scientists and engineers? Then why doesn't Iran do some good by donating some of it to poverty stricken parts of the world where people, especially children, are dying of poverty, hunger and disease, where people suffer from natural disasters? Why doesn't its brilliant people spend time researching and finding cures for diseases that plague the planet? Don't tell me that only 'westerners' are capable of charity?

Iran has stated openly that it wants to destroy Israel. So far, all conventional forces thrown at Israel by the Arab countries have been rebuffed successfully by Israel. It doesn't take a person with a PhD to figure how a nuclear bomb can advance an age-old ambition - the destruction of the State of Israel - an aim which has been publicly stated by the President of Iran.

Restless in Thailand

2006-03-09T07:41:00.000+08:00

The political unrest in Thailand over Thaksin Shinawatra's position as PM is growing worse by the day. Opposition parties claim than the Thai people want Thaksin to step down as premier. Of course, this will pave the way for one of its own to be the next PM.

Now, anybody linked to Thaksin is bad news. These include his erstwhile business partners and political supporters, which can be found among large corporations such as Nestle. Even Singapore companies, like Thai Danu Bank, owned by Singapore's DBS Bank are not spared as the Thai opposition drum up support to boycott these businesses. Singapore's Temasek Holdings, the company that bought a large swat of Shin Corp - the very transaction that precipitated this crisis - must be squirming in its seat. Its analyst who proposed this acquisition could never have expected the strength of emotion it has stirred up.

These are heady days in Bangkok. The Thai King is very upset. Businesses are being disrupted. The nation's economic productivity is sliding downhill as more and more people persist in being in the streets rather than being in the office. Slowly, but surely, the situation makes it more certain that the Thai military will step in to put a stop to all these nonsense.

As a neutral observer, I can't fault Thaksin's bid to restore order through the ballot box once more, but the opposition refuses to play this democratic game. They know that they cannot unseat Thaksin, but they forget that this is the only democratically valid way to remove him from power, if not today, then next year, if the reasons warrant it. Ironically, the mass demonstrations taking place incessantly is proving to be demo-cratic - it is the oppression of the few noisy ones against the many silent ones, quite the opposite from Philippines' People Power demonstrations last decade that toppled the dictator, Ferdinand Marcos.

It is sad to see that a country cannot resolve its political differences through the ballot box, but only through threats and boycotts of parties that provides employment to the Thai worker, no less. I wonder who these opposition political parties stand for? Certainly not the workers, not the farmers, not the poorer Thais in other parts of Thailand and certainly not their King. There is only one party they are interested in: themselves.

After the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, Thailand had pulled itself back to becoming a dynamic and fast growing economy, challenging its Asean partners, particularly Malaysia and Singapore in many areas. Will this Thailand Political Crisis signal the end of its economic resurgence? One can only wait and see.

Finger pointing

2006-02-24T17:12:00.000+08:00

Well, it was bound to happen. Some Iraqis and most likely many Muslims around the world now blame the Americans for the destruction of one of Islam's holiest shrines - the Shia al-Askari shrine in Samarra, north of Baghdad. They say the Americans are at fault for this latest act of terror because they brought terrorists and terrorism into Iraq. Two men, reportedly of the Sunni branch of Islam, were the 'terrorists' that blew up the mosque, triggering anger and retailiation again Sunni mosques in Baghdad.

I think this penchant for blaming Americans for anything and everything gives the lie to the credibility of such claims. Once a black cat is called a white cat and a grey cat in the same breadth, you know that its not the colour of the cat that is the issue. The problem most likely lies in self-denial - a refusal to identify the real problem and conveniently pushing the blame to someone/something else. This does great injustice to the intelligence of Muslims the world over, but what can you do when these intelligent and moderate Muslims do not stand up to refute foolish remarks? This is nothing new, and until the moderate and sensible Muslims wrest the agenda back from the extremists, the world will increasingly view Islam as a trenchant, aggressive, unreasonable religion mired in the middle ages.

The Press goes Dick...err... Duck Hunting

2006-02-19T11:37:00.000+08:00

I am amazed at the American's penchant for hyping everything up. I am no political pundit, and I may not fully understand the American psyche surrounding the accidental shooting of Vice-President Cheney's hunting partner, but to berate Mr Cheney, and President Bush and the White House for not telling the world (read the American Press) about that incident immediately, if not earlier, is incomprehensible, at least to a non-American.

Look, as far as I know through the press (no less), it was an accident, and the first order of things under this circumstance is to see to it that Mr Whittington gets immediate medical attention. I do not see how getting the immediate attention of the press can help, at all. I have a feeling that the Press feels slighted, and is therefore now crying like a baby, but dressing it all up as an issue of accountability and relating to this to the 'typical' way that the Bush White House treats the world. If nothing, I must give credit to these Americans for the very imaginative way in which they are able to add 1 to 1, getting 2.5 as the result, and feeling very smug about it. Simply amazing.

Love and the Valentine

2006-02-17T07:08:00.000+08:00

Well, Valentine's day is over. During the days leading up to this day when love is celebrated, there were the usual commercials and print articles in flashy magazines that reminded one and all of this special and important occasion, to buy that bouquet of flowers, or diamond or book a romantic dinner or better still, that romantic tour for two. All of these make one feel that ignoring the occasion is nothing short of sinful.

So everyone must find someone or something (the Cat or the Dog) to love on this occasion. I am no exception, except that after ten years of marriage, I don't bother about what the commercials suggest I do. I simply gave my wife a kiss on the cheeks. Now, some cynical women would point to me and say, "That's how men behave - once they've got what they want, they hang the conquest out to dry", or something to that effect.

Has romance gone out the window for me? I don't think so. I'd rather think that romance has matured. Nowadays, we appreciate each other for who and what we are. After being together for over 10 years, I know how very different my wife and I are. She is a nocturnal creature, if I may call it that, whereas I am exactly the opposite, sleeping before 11 am most evenings. She loves to shop and buy things, usually ending up with almost nothing in her bank account at the end of the month. I sustain that bank account through my thrift. She is almost always late, I pride myself on being punctual, and suffer the agony of spending half my life waiting for her. So do I still love my wife? You'd better not bet against it.

In fact, I have grown very fond of her in spite of all these differences, and yes, annoyances. Of course, there are similarities in our outlook on life, and all that goes with it. So, no, its not the flowers or dinners that will sustain a marriage or love for one another, it's letting your feelings for each other, good or bad, age with time, like fine wine - bitter at times, but capable of the most unusual sweetness.

A farce and a tragedy

2006-02-15T21:13:00.000+08:00

Muslim demonstrations continue unabated around the world over the 'Prophet Cartoon' incident. Now we know the extent Muslims would go to protect their religion and their Prophet. Unfortunately, even before a single 'perpetrator' of these cartoon images is punished, at least 3 Muslims have died as a result of the protests.

In their haste to burn down a KFC restaurant, movie theatres and offices in Peshawar, Pakistan, 3 people, one of which was a 8 year old boy, were killed. All 3 were Pakistanis (and most likely, Muslims). Additionally, 48 people were reportedly injured. This is a tragedy. Did these people have to die? and who caused these deaths? I am sure some would say that westerners are ultimately to blame, conveniently explaining away the fact that Muslims are inadvertently killing Muslims. Is this the way that Muslims revere their Prophet - by destroying things indiscrimately, ignorantly and hurting his followers in the process? I say indiscrimate because KFC has nothing to do with Denmark in the first place!

It is deeply worrying that we have potentially thousands of Muslims in the world today that will commit acts of destruction at a whim, irrespective of what the truth may be.

IE7 on Blog

2006-02-11T18:47:00.000+08:00

I am composing this blog entry in the Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 (Preview Release) environment and browser. So far, the experience has been mixed. Right after the install, I did some IE7 preconfiguration before I testdrived the searching. Then I loaded Blogger.com in a tab (yes, IE7 has tab-browsing now), and guess what? IE7 crashed, which triggered Dr Watson. Well, this is why IE7 is still in Beta release. I will soldier on.

I have been on IE7 for the last 2 hours. Other than the initial crash, IE7 has been humming along, and I am enjoying testdriving some of the new features. What's new? Well, Microsoft's website has a tour on this, but I'll just summarise some of them here:

Tab browsing - finally, it has caught-up with Firefox and the rest of the world.

You can lay out all the various pages opened in the tabs into a page - ala Powerpoint style. This is great when you want to jump to a particular tab without having to guess which tab the content is in that you want to open.

IE7 can monitor phishing sites. This is good news for those of us who do our banking online.

There are more browsing 'real estate' because IE7 has re-arranged and compacted the top of the brower's menu bar.

Browser zooming. You can now tell IE7 to zoom in to a page, so that you see more of the details in that page. This is great when you want to zoom into graphics and pictures.

Automatic opening of all links in your Favourites folder just by clicking on the green arrow to the right of the Favourites entry. You want to be careful about this. If you have many links in a category, you're in for one looong wait.

On the whole, IE7 is interesting, if only because of the novelty factor.

Explosive media

2006-02-05T07:45:00.000+08:00

In the current controversy over the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, no newspaper, whether online or print media, dares to reprint any of the twelve caricatures of the prophet Mohammad published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten last September. This is sensible self-censorship.

But the story is quite different on the rest of the internet. There, it has been shown that you cannot censor anything. Just as sex, violence, hate, etc., you cannot take away views against a religion nor the cartoons depicting that religion in a way that is considered offensive to adherents of that religion. Ironically, it is the traditional mass media that cannot be free (lest they want their offices to be bombed or burnt).

Some of the digitized images of these 'Prophet cartoons' in question have made their way into personal blogs all over the blog community on the internet. Being digital, they can be copied and tranmitted without any restriction whatsoever, spreading the very cartoons that the Muslim community views as sacrilegious.

This demonstrates the unstoppable power of the internet media, and some would say, free speech. The more one does not want something to be shown or said, the more it will be shown and said. Suppose one had ignored those 12 cartoons in the first place, it wouldn't now be spreading throughout the internet for many more people to see. Unfortunately, the irony is lost on the people demonstrating, rampaging and destroying property in the name of Islam and their Prophet.

I hope that, at the end of the day, goodwill and good sense prevails. Otherwise, this might turn into a religous war - and I mean, a real war.

Peace passes on

2006-02-01T06:52:00.000+08:00

One of the ways you bring about change is, you must change yourself so that you're prepared to lead people in the direction they should go. If your emotions are as bad as those you're fighting, even if your cause is just, you disqualify yourself from being effective. Correta Scott King

So admonished the widow of the American Civil Rights leader, Dr Martin Luther King. Mrs King died on Monday, 30th January 2006, and the world is poorer for an eloquent advocate of non-violence in achieving one's goals. In this age of chronic violence, perpetuated by Muslim extremists, governments (there are 2 now that espouse violence) and hate groups all over the world, Mr and Mrs King's stance opposing violence as a means to an end is becoming rare.

At this point, people should revisit the effectiveness of non-violence as a force that ultimately brought some measure of reconciliation to the American people. Violence only begets more violence. It is my hope that in the new year, it will decrease.

But alas, Muslim's are reported to be rampaging in the Palestinian Territories over a series of Dutch originated cartoons that depict the Prophet Mohammad in a manner that they find offensive. This brings to mind the Rushdie incident some years ago. Yes, such illustrations may be insensitive and offensive, but violence will not gain them any sympathy. Some may even begin to think that Islam is a religion of violence, such is the manner that its adherents behave at any and every perceived offence to their religion. (See Newspaper apologises to Muslims)

If an alien were to visit planet earth today and observed events on earth these past few years, I would not be surprised that the conclusion it will draw is Islam is a violent religion. I think Muslims who are against violence and believe the alien's views to be mistaken should emerge from the shadows and take a strong stance against violence, much as the Kings did half a century ago.

Turning guns into ploughshares?

2006-01-29T08:27:00.000+08:00

The Hamas' surprise victory in the Palestinian Elections may yet be a good thing. For one, it demonstrated that the democratic process is alive and well in the relatively young self-governing Palestinian Authority. This gives legitimacy and credibility to the Hamas as the people's representatives. Therefore, the Hamas must, by reason of choice, form a government that represent these people.

Of course, many peace-loving countries are alarmed because the Hamas has openly advocated violence as a means towards their ends. They have yet to renounced their stated objectives of destroying Israel - the second time within the last year that an elected government has come to power with such bald aggression (the other being Iran).

On the other hand, the world can now deal with a duly elected government, not merely a terrorist group. This can be more straightforward. With the weight of a nation on its shoulders, it is, hopefully, now less likely for the Hamas government to behave purely as a terrorist organisation. If it wants to take its place in the nations of the world, it has to follow the rules of international relations and civil behaviour set down by these nations (and these are not just the Western powers).

But first, the Palestinians must resolve their domestic differences, and quickly at that. Otherwise, it cannot hope to move forward much further in its quest for peaceful home for its people, much less think of pushing a nation into the Mediterranean Sea.

Rise and fall of empires

2006-01-26T07:15:00.000+08:00

I grew up in colonial Singapore in the 1960s and 70s. One of the things the British left behind in Singapore was a system of administration and civil works that exist to this day, albeit modified to suit the people and the times. They were the acknowledged masters and it is the pride of any family to have been able to send a child (or more) to Britain to obtain an education, particularly at its Universities. In fact, the nation's yardstick for academic achievement at the Secondary level, after 10 years of schooling, is the General Certificate in Education (GCE), which is a legacy of the British education system. To this day, we have retained this standard setting benchmark to measure the degree of literacy and academic achievements of our sons and daughters.

Alas, there are reports now that claims that half of all British workers can barely read and write, and that their skills are no better than a 11-year-old's (TODAY - Wed 25 Jan 06 page 17). What has happened to a country that successfully exported its education system but finds half its working adults untouched by that system? If they are working adults, then they cannot be too much younger than I am. Yet I remember the rigours of my own British-inspired education in Singapore. Clearly, the rote set in 15 to 25 years ago, all while Singapore was vigourously modelling itself on the British.

It is shocking and disappointing. Therein lies a warning - that when one has 'made it', the danger is to slacken and live on the legacy and hard work of others. Each generation must work hard, but they can only secure their own survival and success. Our sons and daughters may taste the fruits of the previous generation's toil, but they in turn must secure their and the generation after. So it must be, otherwise, like Rome and Greece, once the rote sets in, the empire will fall away and disappear, literally, into the sands of time.

Blogging has become mainstream

2006-01-17T06:43:00.000+08:00

In concert with the evolution of blogging, it is interesting to note that Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the World-wide-web, has finally embraced blog technology and set up his own blog. Not that he hasn't used the web until now. He has published for well over 10 years on the web, particularly on W3C's website, but this is apparently his first blog (ad)venture. His blog is found on MIT's servers here.

I was a late adopter myself, having started only in 2005. It seems that blogging as a mainstream media has taken one more giant step with the coming on-board of Tim.

Welcome to the crowd.

Blogging evolution

2006-01-11T07:16:00.000+08:00

One of the things about blogging, I discovered, is that it is far easier to do so when you have some photos to display. You can blog about the event's surrounding that photo and the meanings, if there are any. When I mention photos, I mean those that are taken personally, and not just a rip-off from some other website. But taking photos today is not difficult - digital cameras have found its outlet medium on the web. In fact, the next big thing that will take over from e-mail is the combination of digital camera and the weblog - the digitalcameraweblog, that it.

Today, blogging has gone beyond personal journals. Anything and everything that looks vaguely like a blog, or structured like one, is call a blog - never mind about its origin as a personal journal. So there are personal blogs, business blogs, sports blog, community blogs, and whatever else that people can think up. Even Content Management Systems Software are proud to claim that their software offer blog features, such as Mambo/Joomla.

Wounded Dove

2006-01-08T19:51:00.000+08:00

Right now, Ariel Sharon lies in hospital, totally incapacitated by a severe stroke that likely means the end of his leadership of Israel. Just when the world is hoping for a lasting peace in the Middle East, at least between the Palestinians and the Israelis, with the unilateral withdrawal of the Israelis from the Gaza, the architect and leader of this process is now a step from death.

Who could have predicted this outcome? or hoped for it? There are, of course, some people, particularly Muslims around the world who may be celebrating the cruel fate that has befallen the man who did so much to foil Israel's 'enemies' in its bid to survive as an independent nation after 1948 half a century ago. Those who celebrate must feel vengeance obtained, but what matters, really, is what lies ahead. Sharon has shown the way towards peace with its neighbours. Let his erstwhile enemies put aside past animosity and meet him halfway. The tragedy is that few want to, or are able to make the journey to the middle.

I foresee a future where Israel will continue to war with its neighbours, unless someone can take over Sharon's agenda sooner rather than later.

Truly, it is man who plans and proposes, but God disposes.

Picture source: Wounded Dove

Bush and Hitler

2006-01-03T05:00:00.000+08:00

Some of you may be wondering what Bush (George W. i.e.) has got to do with Hitler (Adolf i.e.). I was shocked that Blogger.com should suggest that there is such a close relationship. What a scandal! How can the President, the Numero Uno, of the world's free-est nation be linked in any way to Fascism at all? Besides, didn't many people flee Europe to get away from people like that?

Notwithstanding the controversy over the present American government's alleged secret prisons in Europe and the CIA's covert operations (a open secret for many many years), I believe Americans will not stoop so low as to call its President a Fascist.

But that's what Blogger.com suggested when I used its spell-check feature on my previous post. It couldn't understand 'Bushism', so it suggested 'Fascism' as a likely alternative - and that's the only alternative it offered! I would have expected 'Bushido' (a Japanese art form) as a closer alternative. Don't believe me? Go check it out yourself.

Has Google, through Blogger.com, a hidden agenda here? There has been recent reports questioning whether Google is good or evil. It would seem that these rumours are not unfoun.....

Before I go any further, I'd better not bite (off more of) the hand that feeds this blog.

Bushism is not uncommon

2006-01-01T08:24:00.000+08:00

Much has been written about George W. Bush's language, so much so that his 'language' has now achieved sub-dialect status. It is a constant source of amusement and unkind jokes, not only in his native America, but probably all across the world. Blame this on how fast and wide information and news travel - especially the bad news. For example, Bush has been quoted as having said:

Those who enter the country illegally violate the law.

Well, of course.

But he is not the only one belabouring the point. Last evening, at the Countdown (to 2006) Party on Mount Faber in Singapore, host Gurmit Singh said on 'live' TV that his

birthday falls on the 24th of March every year.

Well, of course.

I think Americans are unkind to its own, but that's also one thing I admire about the Americans - they can laugh at themselves. In some other countries, jokes like this can land you in court and/or in jail!

Happy New Year everyone who live on this crazy crazy Earth.

End of a season

2005-12-31T07:38:00.000+08:00

As the year draws to a close, reminiscing is a natural and useful exercise. It calls to mind the significant events of the year and how they may have affected yourself. Perhaps you have grown a little more, not only physically, but more so, mentally and spiritually.

For me, as for many in the South and Southeast Asia region, the Tsunami brought home the uncertainties that life often springs on us. One moment you are having fun in the sun - something that you may have done for the umpteenth time. But unexpectedly, just on that one occasion when nobody expected it, that trip turns into a nightmare. What impressed me throughout this event was the manner in which the world opened its wallet and heart to the victims of this tragedy. I understand that the amount of money pledged and collected is unprecedented. Which is why givers of charity must be the 'Person of the Year 2005'.

The US also demonstrated that it can not only launch a military invasion, but its very same military hardware built for war can be used for mercy missions, such as bringing much needed food and necessities to the people in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, who lived through the storm of the seaquake and tsunami. Significantly, the Acehnese 'rebels' fighting for autonomy for so long, laid down their weapons to re-build a more permanent home devastated by the tsunami. There is nothing like a disaster to bring home the truth that we are all humans and depend on each other. Fighting each other is futile.

Other disasters also happened - Katrina lashed the shores of New Orleans, making many homeless and destroying an erstwhile thriving tourist sector. The Pakistan earthquake, where many complained the world did not open its wallet enough, compared to the Asia tsunami. Some were man-made. Terrorists continue to hold the world hostage. Bombs are still going off, in Iraq, in Bali, in Thailand, in Pakistan... Hopefully, this will stop as the religion of hate cannot last.

Closer to home, Singaporeans woke up to the fact that the NKF - a charity hitherto supported widely in Singapore for Kidney patients, had mis-used and abused the implicit trust of its donors and supporters in high places. As the year draws to a close, it looks likely that its senior management will be hauled to court for various mis-demeanors. In a 'squeaky clean' Singapore, this has brought into focus the issue of corruption - something that Singaporeans are used to reading about in other lands, but never expect to happen in its own back yard. And then there was SAVH (Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped), which also suffered from questionable corporate governance practices...

Last, but certainly not least, I started blogging this year. Not that its anything new to me. I have kept journals (or diaries as its call then) since I was in Secondary school, at the instigation of my brother, who ironically, isn't a habitual reader/writer. Those diaries, with the juvenile handwriting, are still with me. I had read of blogging several years ago, but I am not a early adopter. I jump in when somebody has beaten out a clear path and when I think it makes any sense to do so. I am learning something new everyday.

So goodbye, adie, auf wiedersehen, au revoir, ciao, Sa-was-dee, zai-jian, Baai baai, Selamat sejahtera, Sizobonana, Ambera, Lòi chào xin cào biêt, Paalom na po, Valete, Annyong-hi kashipshio, Choum reap lia, Sayonara, Sugeng tindak, Daa daa, Caó mun'g chè, Nau'to twibaounme, Aloha, Shalom...

In the New Year, I hope to learn more...

The love of money

2005-12-26T08:59:00.000+08:00

One of the most unpleasant and ugly news reported over the last one week on this tiny island nation of Singapore is the continuing investigations and final report over the shananigans of the old National Kidney Foundation (old NKF). I was away on holiday when the report first broke on Monday, 19th December 2005 and was reported in detail in the local press the next day. Of course, I didn't read any of these reports as the Malaysia press wasn't all that interested. So the first instance I came back, I read through Today's online edition (www.todayonline.com) and later got hold of the Tuesday's print edition of the Straits Times to follow up on the 'gory' details. Somehow, these stories make for great reading, although the ugly details are sad and unpleasant.

Among the many facts exposed, the most shocking must be that only 10% of all donations ever received went directly to the patients. The other 90% went to various parties such as A&P, operations and salaries that would make anyone blush. Some of that was my money. Indeed, the old NKF and the top people who ran it had lost their moral compass, as the Health Minister said. They had simply become greedy and self-indulgent, which reminds me of the words of Paul the Apostle when he wrote in 1 Timothy 6:10 -

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

How very true then. How true now. And it will remain true as this sad story of the old NKF will be repeated because greed will never be eradicated.

A different Christmas

2005-12-24T17:20:00.000+08:00

Somehow, this Christmas is different. In the first place, I plain forgot about unpacking my faux Christmas tree and spending time decorating it. My wife and son did not remind me at all. When I did remember, I thought it was too much trouble as Christmas is just a couple of days away, so difference no. 1 - no Christmas tree.

Difference no. 2 - too many dinners - first it was last evening at mother's and now, this evening, with my mother-in-law's. Tomorrow, there is a Church mini-banquet right after worship service, and in 5 day's time, a New Year dinner. How can anybody lose weight given such a proliferation of meals? But I must be thankful, knowing that there are many peoples in many lands where getting a meal is a struggle. So as we feast on this occasion, let us be humble and acknowledge the grace that God has given us.

I used to spend Christmas caroling with the Church, and well into midnight at that. More time was spent in Church preparing for this occasion, as well as Christmas service on Christmas day. There certainly was a lot more 'spirituality' surrounding the occasion then, compared to now. Well, I suppose that's what happens when Christmas day falls on a Sunday. Difference no. 3.

I'm not complaining though. It is enough to know and rejoice in the fact that God so loved the world that he has sent his only begotten Son into the world to save sinners. (John 3.16).

Glory to God in the highest. Amen

Charity makes the world go round

2005-12-23T08:40:00.000+08:00

Well, I wasn't wrong after all. While none of my nominees received a direct mentioned in Time's Person of the Year 2005 award, I did nominate charity. Time awarded the accolade to 3 people for the good work they have done with the huge amount of money they have made over the years - Bono, Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda. And this is the reason they won:

For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono are TIME's Persons of the Year.

Time went one to make the point that there has been a lot of giving in 2005 by Americans towards the tsunami relief (some US$1.6 billion) and Hurrican Katrina disaster. Time forgot to mention that Asia also gave millions to its own. Bono and the Gates, I suppose, epitomizes the generosity and compassion that people have demonstrated for others who are caught in situations beyond their control and where charity is indeed a life-saver.

To all the givers in 2005, I toast you, for you have demonstrated the true meaning of the reality of the global village.

I'm on my way!

2005-12-12T21:45:00.000+08:00

No, no, not on my way up north to Malacca. That'll have to wait another 4 days. What I mean is that I am now typing this entry on my Notebook PC which is connected wirelessly to my Linksys router. No, that's not remarkable. What is remarkable is that I am running on Knoppix 4.0 'Live' O/S. As any Linux newbie will tell you, it is not easy to get your wireless running on Linux, if only because the wireless drivers are mostly written for Windows O/S. There just aren't that many native Linux drivers for wireless cards.

Which reminds me, more than 10 years ago, I had already started to tinker with Linux, so I am not such a newbie after all. Then the Linux distribution wasn't so prolific as today. Redhat was reputedly the best for a newbie then, so I bought a thick Redhat book, rolled up my sleeves and tried to install Linux. That was an ambitious undertaking. To cut a long story short, I did get Redhat working, but was annoyed that the soundcard did not work. I read up a bit more and found that this was a general problem with Linux on x86/88 PCs. Silence wasn't my cup of tea, so I left Linux alone (yeah, I abandoned it) and went back to Windows.

Sorry for the digression, nostalgia has an effect on the thought process...Now, while the sound problem has largely been addressed, its the wireless that has taken the place of sound as the notoriously difficult thing to get working...until Linux Format (LXF74) explained to me in a short column to use ndiswrapper. That column started me off and after a couple of hours experimenting (spread over several days), I've done it! The wireless is working, and that's why I am on my way to techno heaven!

P.S. Well, actually, there's a lot written about this subject on related Linux forums on the Internet. That helped too, but the article in Linux Format was clear and simple. Can't get any better than that.

A new fox that's still not foxy enough

2005-12-06T14:19:00.000+08:00

Firefox 1.5 was released recently. Like everyone else, I downloaded it to replace my aging 1.07 Firefox.

UI-wise, nothing much as changed except the Tools->Options. Some re-organisation of the options in here, but nothing new that excites.

There is now a separate Tools->Clear Private Data menu item so you can now quickly erase whatever you don't want left behind in your PC.

Otherwise, I believe that all other enhancements are under the hood, in CSS, etc.

But one thing that still hasn't been resolved are some compatibility issues with Blogger.com. Funny thing this - Blogger.com is favoured very much by Google, which strongly pushes Firefox. Hmmm...something doesn't look right here. Google and friends have still some way to go making software interoperate. Who knows, when they do do so, they'd become Goo$le? Just a thought.

More on Firefox 1.5.

War of the software worlds

2005-12-04T08:54:00.000+08:00

Microsoft and Google seems to have had a major falling out (I'm not sure they fell into each other's arms in the first place, so that phrase may not be valid).

In a further sign of this animosity, Google is now promoting the Firefox browser aggressively through its Adsense program. If it succeeds, it will further erode Microsoft's share of the browser market - i.e. till its IE 7.x makes it appearance. This is scheduled some time early next year, when its Windows Vista is officially launched. The odd thing is, Google doesn't own Firefox - at least not yet - and it is therefore remarkable that it should put the full weight of its extensive Adsense program behind something it doesn't own, and therefore has no commercial interest in.

As far as end-users are concerned, this is an exciting development because it will signal major innovative effort in enhancing the features of the browsers, which has so far stagnated under IE due perhaps to its dominant market position.

Let's wait and see. Excitement in the horizon...

For whom the bells toll

2005-12-03T08:17:00.000+08:00

Convicted drug smuggler, Nguyen Tuong Van, was hanged in Changi Prison yesterday. He suffered the ultimate penalty for smuggling drugs through Singapore - a country that has little, if any, tolerance for this kind of criminal activity. On the other hand, it was reported that vigils were held in cities around Australia, with bells and gongs sounding 25 times at the hour of his execution.

In the past couple of months, his fellow Australians have lobbied long and loud for clemency. This is remarkable, given that Nguyen Tuong Van was a Vietnamese who became a Australian citizen. Some parts of Australian society have been known for their racist attitudes, from the political sphere downwards. Yet in this episode, nearly half of the country spoke out for him - and it isn't as if he has done Australia great service of any sort. Australians can certainly hold their heads high. This incident has demonstrated that Australia is a society full of compassion and backs it up with action - to the discomfort and soul-searching of its Singapore counterparts. But compassion alone is not enough to administer a country well and to protect its people effectively.

It is naive to expect different countries and societies to always agree with one's point of view, or that it will change its laws overnight. While the Australians see the death penalty as barbaric, Singapore sees it as a regrettable but necessary action that is for the greater good. Calling Singapore names is the last thing that thinking, rational and humane societies should do. Exaggeration of the sort that Julian McMahon, one of his Australian lawyers, made (that Nguyen was "completely rehabilitated, completely reformed, completely focused on doing what is good...") does not give any credibility to him, nor the Australian, position at all. After all, how green can a green plant be?

It is done. No matter what our views on the matter, and how strong they may be, let drug runners beware - there is no escape in Singapore if you intend to carry illicit drugs, which only purpose is to kill and destroy families, through its soil.

Gift from above

2005-12-01T17:44:00.000+08:00

There has been as lot of discussion in the local press about the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) that Singapore schools have been running for the last 20 years. The problem, it seems, is that GEPers have formed cliques and socialise among like minded ones to the exclusion of the rest. This has given rise to a backlash of sorts from the 'ordinary' folks who think that GEPers may have an attitude problem.

Well, some time ago, my son took a test to determine if he was 'gifted'. This test is available to all primary school students. As it turned out, my son wasn't qualified to be included in this haloed company, so that was that. Reading the comments from the papers these days about this gifted species, I am glad that he was not found to be gifted. Imagine my having to go back to school at my age, making sure that the additional school work is done, counselling them and encouraging them...gosh, I would have lost my life to make his gifts more striking. So no thanks.

Which leads me to thinking whether one needs to be gifted to be successful in life. And the answer, obviously is 'No'. Of course some of the philosophically inclined would want to engage me in a discussion on the definition of the term and what constitutes success. Well, I'm not really interested. Suffice to say that if my son grows up to be a responsible, honest and hardworking person, that's success enough. All that I ever possess comes from above. As the Bible says, to those that are given more, more will be expected, to those given less, less is expected.

Let each and everyone live a life that improves the community and glorifies his Maker.

Broad or brief?

2005-11-28T05:36:00.000+08:00

It has been reported that many newspapers have been changing from Broadsheet formats to Tabloid formats, for example, the Asian Wall Street Journal. In Singapore, the main English language paper (the one with the highest circulation) is sticking to its broadsheet format although some have questioned whether it should not change that format. Its closest competitor, Today, published by Mediacorp, has been a tabloid from day 1, and it is making money despite it being distributed free of charge.

I must admit that after more than a year on Today's diet, I am getting rather weary with Broadsheets. I find myself getting very impatient with news reported in the Straits Times nowadays because the stories are just *too long*. It used to be that I would devour the paper from cover to cover and read the stories from beginning to end. (hmmm...don't these 2 expressions mean the same thing?) I think I am getting spoilt on tabloids.

The other reason is that my daily diet of newspapers now consists solely of Today during weekdays. I don't read the Straits Times anymore on weekdays, though I still buy the paper on weekends (if only because Today is not published on Sundays). Actually, the reason I stopped reading the Straits Times is not because of free alternatives such as Today, though that plays a part. What really made me give up the Straits Times, which I have been reading for 30 years, is the last price increase of 20 cents a copy, from 60 cents (a whopping 33%). I could not reconcile this with good and free alternatives. Now I am used to not reading the Straits Times, although I must admit that it still has good content. But I just don't have time to read more than one paper.

Civilization that Raffles left behind

2005-11-24T07:02:00.000+08:00

It is my routine to pick up the Today newspaper when I leave home from Sengkang every morning, to read while I travelled the subway to work. However, this week, I was travelling to downtown Singapore to attend a course, and Today had runned out at my usual pickup spot. Well, ok, I wouldn't suffer any withdrawal effects from not reading Today for one day. In any case, I had this fantastic book on Small Businesses with me to work into that morning.

However, I was pleasantly surprised that at 8.30am, when I emerged from the Raffles Place MRT (subway), Today was still being distributed. So I reached out to get a copy (its free, by the way). But so many others were just grabbing the paper that I never seem to be able to lay my hands on one. Being an educated person (ahem, smirk), I waited until somebody would yield and give me the chance to pick up my copy. But no, nobody was interested in me, nobody gave a d*n. It was as if I was invisible!

Well, if that's the way this game was played, I'll join in, since I obviously couldn't beat the vultures. So I grabbed a paper, but lo and behold, somebody else grabbed it at the same time, so we ended up holding two ends of the same paper. Sheesh, its not as if this is gold, you know, so I let go. I tell you, it was quite an effort to pick up just one copy of the paper there that morning. It was an entirely unpleasant experience.

This was the first time I returned to that Mecca of capitalism (i.e. the center of the business district in downtown Singapore) after an absence of about 3 years. I will not be carrying away with me any longing or fondness for that place nor the people that commute there everyday. Its so 'uncivilised'.

It goes to show how free things can bring out the worst in people.

P.S. For those of you reading this and live outside of Singapore, don't get the wrong impression. Singapore, by and large, is a pleasant and interesting place. But sometimes it is these behaviour that spoils the proverbial broth.

The spy who blogged me

2005-11-22T06:32:00.000+08:00

It was reported in yesterday's Sunday Times (the Sunday paper of the Singapore Straits Times) that several Singapore bloggers were told to remove their blogs because they had posted pictures of their recent army training stint in them. One of these bloggers goes by the moniker, Miyagi, and is supposedly a popular blogger. He writes a column for the Today newspaper, a Singapore tabloid, where he discusses blogs that others write. The people who issued this take-down order was the Ministry of Defence. The reason - that the photos in these blogs (and I understand there were quite a few) are potential sources of information for terrorists who may be scanning the environment, especially those of the Defence Forces' training grounds. Terrorists have only one thing in mind - terror and destruction - so the photo blogs had to go. Some people might think this is being paranoid, but I am reminded again of what Andy Grove once warned: "Only the paranoid survives".

I would have thought that these bloggers had greater sense than to put up such photographs in the first place, never mind that there is probably great pride in showing off their, ahem, man-hood to the world.

The repercussion of this is that the Singapore Civil Service will probably issue a circular to the effect that civil servants must declare their blogs (if they have one), and that these blogs must henceforth following certain guidelines. Well, no thanks, Miyagi. You have just inadvertently contributed to the gagging of the blogger community of which you write about.

Excuse me, are you British?

2005-11-21T05:55:00.000+08:00

My family and I (just the three of us) plus my son's Uncle, who is only one year older than him, saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on Saturday. This is the newest (and some say the last) of the Harry Potter books to be made into a movie - at least for those starring the current actors. It seems to me that the stories remain engrossing and entertaining, given my son's wish to re-read the Half-blood Prince (after less than a month of first reading it).

Never having read the book before, this movie was intriguing, suspenseful and long - 2 and a half hours. Even then, it doesn't cover all the material in the book, as my son pointed out to me. The movie is worth the price of the ticket, which is S$9.50 a pop - weekend rate.

It just occurred to me that the most successful children's movies of the last few years that were made from an original book were all written by British authors. Joan K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter series, J.R.R. Tolkien for Lord of the Rings, C.S. Lewis for Chronicles of Narnia (well it hasn't screen yet, but its building up to a major release. We plan to watch that movie in December when it will be shown in cinemas). The Americans, on the other hand, has had more success in original movies such as Nemo, Bug's Tale, Madagascar, Star Wars etc., but their successes are perhaps not on the scale of these British effort. There is something to commend stories that come out first in book form, and then followed by a movie. The irony is that Tolkien and Lewis could never have imagined that their stories would one day garner such a strong following among children 50 years or thereabouts after they were first published.

Epilogos Person of the Year

2005-11-19T08:21:00.000+08:00

Time magazine proudly pronounces a Person of the Year award (used to be called the Man of the Year award until they realised that they were missing half of the world) every year. Speculation always swirls around this naming event, and suggestions are often offered, ostensibly, to help Time's editors make up their minds. Well, I would like to contribute my 2 cents' worth. Nominees for the Epilogos Person of the Year 2005 award (EPOY 2005) are (in no specific order of merit/infamy):

1. Terrorist bomb makers (for redefining the use of fertilizers)
(Also up for EIOY - Epilogos Innovation of the Year, maybe even the Nobel Prize for Chemistry next)
2. The Almighty (for all the natural calamities)
3. Charities of the World (for showing very very very big hearts)
4. (Some) Charities in Singapore (for not being charitable with donated money)
5. George W. Bush (for better or worse)
6. Tony Blair (for his unfailing support of the EPOY. Huh?)
7. Ahmadinejad of Iran (for dreaming of pushing Israel into the Mediterranean sea)
8. Bloggers (for using up a record number of bytes to wash their linen in public)
9. Australian drug couriers (who can never shake off the habit)
10. Australian Parliamentarians - sans one (for supporting Australian drug couriers)
11. The Blind Lady of Singapore Justice (for being blind, what else?)
12. The Gordon Geckos of China (for being flushed with capitalist cash)
13. Chelsea Football Coach (for having a motor-mouth)
14. Saddam Hussein (it is a wonder he is still alive)
15. Dot coms (for resurrection from the dead)
16. Multi-functional Cellphone (for no more idleness in the loo. Ploint! Did something drop into the...?)

Well, ok, some of these are stretching the accolade a little, and some would be opposed, vehemently, to being nominated, as well as the reasons for it, and some would be appalled by my expression of levity over very serious issues, but the competition has never been so keen. In this upside down world, anybody/thing can be winners. Lets take a break, shall we?

P.S. I am sure I will not have problems clearing Australian customs now, unlike other countries like Vietnam, rr..rr..rright?

An eye for an eye?

2005-11-18T04:55:00.000+08:00

By now, the infamous Iraqi woman whose failed attempt to set off a bomb in a Jordanian wedding party last week is well known. She is alleged to have said that the motive for her action was to avenge the killing of her three brothers and a brother-in-law by US forces stationed in Iraq. Little else, however, is reported about these alleged killings by US forces, but it would not be unreasonable to speculate that those who were killed were probably playing with fire in the first place. We do not know if these brothers were involved in opposing the US forces. Very likely they were.

But even if revenge was the motive, the target of this revenge was not the alleged 'killers', i.e. the US forces. Instead, she intended to kill Jordanians, whose only 'crime' was by association - i.e. Jordan's non-opposition to the US-led occupation of Iraq. Surely this is taking reason beyond reason, and more than an eye is demanded for an eye?

Thus terrorists kill without good reason, and their actions can in no way be defended at all.

Holey smokes! Singapore is burning too

2005-11-12T11:27:00.000+08:00

From 1 October 2005, it is a civil offense to smoke in a Bus Interchange or Bus Stop in Singapore. Singapore, and generally pretty much elsewhere, is taking the enlightened step of banning smoking from an increasing number of public places.

I wait for buses every weekday at a bus stop just below the Dover MRT (an above ground subway train stop) station that fronts Singapore Polytechnic (a large post-secondary educational institution) in Singapore. Before 1 Oct 2005, students of this institution light up (their cigarettes of course) and smoke away at this bus stop as if there is no tomorrow. They cannot smoke in the MRT station nor the school grounds because its not allowed by the station authorities and the Polytechnic. There are personnel manning these stations as well as wardens policing the Polytechnic grounds. So poor people like us have had to endure frequent whiffs of smoke that float over while I stand as far as I can while waiting for the bus.

Singapore outlawed smoking at bus stops from 1 Oct 2005 - not a moment too soon, and I had the pleasure of telling a student off for lighting up beside me while I was waiting for the bus. Well, yesterday, a group of about 5 students were smoking away at the same spot, oblivious (or defiant) of the law of the land. The smoke was swirling among them that it looked like a smoking party, minus the pubs. I decided that 1 against 5 wasn't good odds for me, so I sat as far away as possible. Sigh, it would seem that nothing has changed, law or no law.

Paris burning

2005-11-11T05:01:00.000+08:00

One of the biggest news these past two weeks or so has nothing to do with natural disasters - but they are disasters all the same. Paris has been burning, literally, with thousands of cars torched and public places such as schools damaged due to rampaging young French people of African descent. One would have thought that the statement that these youths are trying to make, if at all there is one, would have been made by these acts of destruction, but no, it continues and is spreading to the rest of Europe.

While I understand that these people may have genuine grievances, destroying property is hardly the right way to address their grievance. Well, yes, it will serve to highlight their plight - one of poverty and discrimination in a land of (supposedly) plenty (so I read) - but they will not gain sympathy at all. Instead, it has attracted others, who have raised the art of destruction and evasion through the use of handphone sms and all, to coordinate the burning and destroying. Hold on, did I mention handphones? Now how can anyone be deprived if they can own handphones? How can they be poor? I wonder what's happening?

I suppose that Europe is experiencing a wake-up call and they need to be deliberate about social issues that different peoples of different races present. Singapore has been very deliberate in this instance - often criticised by the 'West' for its suppressive policies, but they have worked to a certain extent in preventing the spill-over of disenchantment onto the streets. Issues are addressed proactively, as in the case of the jailing of bloggers who had written derogatively of other religions.

Like the Chinese say, lets keep (the shameful) things in the family to itself - "jia chou bu ke wai yang".

Moving from a to z

2005-11-08T06:12:00.000+08:00

I just changed my wireless pcmcia network card (i.e. a Notebook Card) from the 802.11b SMC card to a 802.11g Linksys card and, as the McDonald's people say, I'm loving it - for:

The overall better stability. On the old card, the signal keeps getting dropped even though the connection is always indicated as Excellent. Its ironic that I get a more stable and faster connection now with the new g card even though the connection is indicated as low. This goes to show you can't trust some of these software / cards.
The overall increased speed. Well, the new card is connected at 36mbps (it varies) compared to the constant 11mbps of the old card - and I love it.

The investment is minimal - just S$55. Some are retailing this at S$59 - S$62. You just need to shop around. Got it new (no second-hand stuff for me) at Fuwell in Sim Lim Square last Friday. I could only use it today because I forgot my account id and gateway address into my router, so I couldn't configure the card properly for the router. This happens with set-it-and-forget-it type of equipment - literally.

Well, you can see that I'm not the early adopter type. By now, 802.11g has been around for quite some time. My b card was given to me free (in a bundled purchase), so I was quite reluctant not to use it, so I used it - until I got fed-up with the dropped lines while I was blogging. Well, good riddance. Anybody looking for a b card?

Mixed-up relationships on a cruise?

2005-11-07T06:33:00.000+08:00

While looking through tour packages for the year-end holidays, I came across this:

Now, this is going to be a very clean cruise, no hanky panky, you see. But I think the tour organisers have gone overboard this time when they suggested that singles can be married. Hmmm...I take back what I wrote in last Saturday's blog ;-)

Bloggers will understand that I do not wish to reveal the URL from where this originated. Let's have some fun, but not at the expense of others by identifying them. Suffice to say that it comes from a Singapore operator on a Singapore website. Now, now, I am not encouraging the perception of Singapore society as puritanical in any way, just that we desperately need to up our birth rates due to the alarming decline over the last couple of years. That's why singles are a special target. Ahem, I am not suggesting that certain activities oriented to certain groups are planned for on this cruise...

P.S. All these remind me of the hit TV series, the 'Love Boat', back in the 1980s.

Losing posts in blogger.com

2005-11-06T11:50:00.000+08:00

I lost a blog post this morning on blogger.com! I was mad as h**l because I had to re-compose that blog entry all over. When I lost that post, I had already typed in a substantial amount of material! I don't know what's wrong with the blogger servers this morning. Every time I tried to save my post - and no less than 3 times - every time, blogger insisted that it cannot find the post and directed me back to the dashboard. Grrrr...made me re-type the whole blog all over...more grrrr... Well, I've learnt a few things:

Never rely on IE to blog on blogger.com because when blogger reports an error, it'll move to another browser page to say it. Save your uncompleted blogs often. No amount of the 'Back' and 'Forward button would re-display your unsaved post. Use FireFox instead. Firefox pops up a window to report errors. Your unsaved post is still opened.

Alternatively, use Blogger.com's MS Word blogging plugin. So far, I have not lost a single post at all using this method. Anyway, the post is stored on your PC so unless your hard disk crashes or you accidentally double deleted (that's a triple negative) your files, you will never lose what your wrote. But then, not everybody has MS Word.

I have never tried e-mail blogging. Probably might want to try that some day.

The problem with moving away from IE is that blogger.com is programmed with IE in mind. So you cannot access certain blogger.com features in Firefox which you can in IE. Sigh, when will we ever get a truly standards compliant browser? I doubt IE7 will give us that. Sigh again...

Semi-orphaned children

2005-11-05T06:26:00.000+08:00

In my years as a teacher, I have come across several sad cases of how children, who are otherwise very bright, under-perform in their school work. Worst, some of these same children become infrequent in classes, and generally do not get on well with their fellow students.

In almost all of these cases, these children come from broken homes - homes where the father and mother are always quarrelling or who have separated or divorced, and still quarelling - over child custody and, possibly, cash. I do not pretend to understand the issues behind these, but it is enough to know that they are in very bad environment for a child to grow up in, even for 17 and 18 year-olds.

So, I can understand the concerns of social workers who are alarmed to learn that, in 2004, nearly 1.5 million babies were born to unmarried woman in the US. The statistics are startling:

By age group, almost 55% of the births for mothers ages 20-24 were to unmarried women. For those between 25-29, almost 28% of the births were to single women.

Teenagers, who accounted for 50% of unwed births in 1970, accounted for 24% of unwed births in 2004.

Source: USA Today

This seems to suggest that this trend is by choice because these groups of mothers are in their twenties - adults who are matured enough to think for themselves. This group of people tend also to have some financial means.

What happens today will affect the US in 16 years time, for that is when children become teenagers and start to exhibit the values they would have imbibed in such single-parent family environments. My concern is that it would likely be unpleasant for teachers then, if not society at large, further down the time-line.

I hope that Singaporeans do not go down this road. Otherwise, those who are still in the teaching profession will have their work cut out for them.

Australia's arrogance

2005-11-03T18:34:00.000+08:00

Australia has been in the Asian press of late - all for the wrong reasons.

First it was about the Bali Nine - all Australian citizens - who were arrested in Denpasar on the Indonesia island of Bali on 17 April 2005. They stand accused of planning to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin valued at AUD$4 million from Indonesia to Australia. If convicted of drug trafficking they could receive the death penalty.

Second, there was Schapelle Leigh Corby, who was convicted, on 27 May 2005, of trafficking 4.1 kg of Cannabis into Indonesia. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison. This has been reduced to 15 years on appeal.

Third, on 21 August 2005, two Ecstasy pills were found in Australian model Michelle Leslie's Gucci handbag during a visit to the Indonesian island of Bali. She faces a maximum of 15 years in jail if convicted.

Singapore has already much earlier on dealt with another Australian. Nguyen Tuong Van was convicted in Singapore for smuggling 396.2 grams of diamorphine through Changi Airport. Unlike the previous three cases, Singapore law prescribed the death penalty. Nguyen failed in his clemency plea to the President of Singapore and now sits in a Singapore prison awaiting execution for his crime.

Ironically, the federal Parliament of Australia, with the assent of the Australian government, has passed a motion in Parliament calling on Singapore not to hang Nguyen. Given the propensity of Australians to engage in such illicit activities, I wonder if these learned Parliamentarians wish the trafficking to continue to feed and wreck the lives of not only the drug abusers, but also the lives of those around them? If their laws and their methods have failed to stem the flow of illegal drugs to Asia and beyond, what rights have they to launch such a motion?

This is the height of arrogance. However, I acknowledge Australian Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey's sensible defence of the execution sentence.

Lesson in non-violent defiance

2005-11-02T05:56:00.000+08:00

Rosa Parks was laid to rest in Detroit, US, today. Many have, over the past couple of days, paid tribute to this simple lady and her simple act of defiance in 1955 that sparked the civil rights movement in America.

I am reminded by this occasion that democracy, freedom and liberty do not all come about in a single day. It is usually a process, and in America's case, it was a long process. Consider that Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on 1 Jan 1863. By 1955, 92 years later, the African Americans in the South had yet to gain real freedom from discrimination. It had to take another man, Dr Martin Luther King, and his death, for the cause of liberty to advance another step.

I am writing this to point out that a country may not have complete freedom and liberty today, but that does not mean that they will never attain these in time to come. So long as you have good, honest and sincere people working towards it in good faith and in a non-violent manner, it will eventually be achieved. It may take some time, but it will be achieved. In this respect, I am thinking of Myanmar (Burma), and yes, of Singapore, where there still remains a underlying concern with the lack of freedom of (political) expression.

But you must be 'IN' and not 'OUT' to effect change.

Farewell to Rosa Parks

Thoughts and trends

2005-11-01T05:54:00.000+08:00

Blogging is about penning your thoughts about life experiences and events happenning around and to us. Our experiences reflect the times in which we live, and our thoughts turn to events of the day. These experiences and thoughts can be as near as home, or, given the swiftness at which news are delivered today, as far as the other side of the world. Some events capture greater attention than others, naturally. Images are more vivid, they are talked about, discussed and disputed more widely, like the ghastly images that are coming up in the press of bombings and typhoons.

Others are more personal where I have a tendency to keep it 'off' the blogs. I am not into washing dirty linen in public, so my blogs are self-moderated, 'sanitized' if you like. I do not believe that you should blog everything and anything indiscriminately. Blogs have an audience. Whoever said that it is personal must be deluding himself/herself. The technology and reach underlying this tool is immense. I believe that readers of this blog hail more from the other side of the world from where I live. Of course, this need not remain a mystery for there are applications that will trace exactly where your visitors came from and go to after visiting your blog! (see, for example Blogflux) Anyway, if you were to stand up and do a monologue in the market, you will be heard and you will elicit, if not provoke, a response.

November is upon us. Very soon, it will be Christmas, then the new year. Looking back at my blogs these couple of weeks, I am concerned that much of my thoughts are on terrorism and natural disasters - events that have no personal bearing on me, but which has filled so much of my time thinking and writing about. I shall move away from this subject and perhaps turn my attention to other less depressing topics.

Hate and love, terror and peace

2005-10-31T05:34:00.000+08:00

I read the Bible everyday. Yesterday's passage was particularly relevant for our times. It comes from the First book of St John, chapter 4 verse 20:

"If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?"

There is simply too much hate in the world today, particularly in certain parts of the world, among certain groups of people who hold certain extreme religious beliefs. If what they do is in the name of God, then killing their brothers disproves their real motives and gives the lie to their religious convictions (if they really hold any in the first place, i.e.).

Today, it is risky to venture out of your own homes, even into your own back yard. You may be shopping happily, as the people in India's New Delhi, not doubt, were to celebrate their Deepavali. But in the blink of a eye, children have become orphans, families have lost a precious son or daughter, plans are wrecked and the joyous occasion has turned into a nightmare that will likely come back to haunt victims' relatives for years to come.

There is no salvation in hatred and selfishness, only eternal perdition. How ironic that those who long for and are promised heaven have prematurely entered hell.

Dangerous talk

2005-10-28T05:42:00.000+08:00

From the day that Israel as a nation was reconstituted in 1948, its surrounding countries, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, etc. have vowed to destroy it. Over time and after many wars, some have made peace (such as Egypt, through the great statesman, Anwar al-Sadat) and now, Palestine is a duly constituted autonomous region which will, given that good faith and sensible minds prevail, one day take its place in the United Nations as a fully independent nation.

However, some things never change. Iran's President Ahmadinejad is now on record as calling for Israel to be wiped off the map. Nothing has been learnt in the last half a century. After 57 years, we still have an Arab leader who continues to espouse violence and destruction to solve a 'problem' - if in fact there is a problem. It seems that no amount of peace overtures and olive-branches will make any difference to some people. So long as we have people that think and behave like Ahmadinejad, the Middle East is doomed to wars and violence.

Now, Iran has always claimed that its suspect nuclear research is for peaceful purposes. The world cannot be sure anymore. Can you blame the US and Europe for taking a hawkish stance all this while with respect to Iran's nuclear ambitions?

A leopard has changed its spots?

2005-10-26T05:39:00.000+08:00

Ayman Al Zawahiri, the erstwhile no. 2 in the Al Qaeda organisation has finally issued a plea to the worldwide Muslim community to contribute to the relief effort already underway in Pakistan for the last two weeks. This was broadcast on Al Jazeera TV on 23rd October 2005

You would wonder why it took him all of two weeks to respond to the work of SAVING lives when Turkey and the US offered their help right from the start. Perhaps Al Qaeda is so used to killing and destroying things that, when faced with a natural disaster that has taken away the lives of so many fellow Muslims (last count was over 79,000 dead, and counting) and threatens the survival of many more, they do not know exactly what the human thing to do is.

To its credit, the US, although facing disasters in its own back yard, has come swiftly to Pakistan's aid, just as they came swiftly to the aid of the Acehnese in Indonesia at the beginning of this year during the South Asia Tsunami disaster. The reality is that the beneficiaries in both cases were mainly Muslims.

How much longer will Al Qaeda continue to mislead the worldwide Muslim community about the truth? What is the truth? There is a Chinese saying, "In misfortune, you see your real brothers" (Huan nan jian zhen qing). I think actions speak louder than words.

Belatedly, Al Qaeda now realises that saving lives is more important, or is it saving Muslims is more important? Or is it saving the reputation of Al Qaeda? It doesn't matter. The Pakistanis need all the help they can get. Better late than never.

Are you In or Out?

2005-10-25T05:28:00.000+08:00

I am happy that a fellow blogger has taken the effort and time to refute my viewpoints on political freedoms in Singapore (refer to my earlier entry Warwick: Freedom of what, from what, for what?) by citing a number examples of how people have been hounded down and, for some, out of Singapore. I do not hope that the Singapore government will come knocking on my humble blog for a 'take-down' order. Nor do I hope to face a judge one day regarding maintaining a 'seditious' blog, for none is intended. To the extent that I harbour any political views, it centres on my family and my children's continued well-being.

Many of these examples of the alleged lack of freedoms in taking a particular stand, especially those against government policies and actions, have been reported in the local press and overseas as well. Having traveled somewhat, I can see the stark difference the same episode is reported in the local and overseas media. But this is a good thing because it forces people to look at all sides of a story. This will surely be an unseen consequence of the government encouraging its citizens, now especially students, to venture overseas to learn. Yes, local reporting tends to be sanitized, and for many, un-exciting. But at the end of the day, I hope that our objective in updating ourselves of the news is to be informed of the truth. If our objective is to twist words to suit our particular orientation to the 'truth', then that 'truth' is suspect.

Every strongly-held opinion or view of the country and the world needs to be defended robustly. It must withstand criticism, or otherwise be withdrawn. If it cannot be defended truthfully and honestly, then it does not deserve to live a day longer. Voltaire famously suggested that, "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it". I disagree. When what is being said is a lie, then it cannot, and should not, be defended, much more with your own life.

But I am not suggesting that everything is perfect on this island state. The Buangkok (White Elephant) MRT is perhaps symptomatic of the problem with the system that has been in place for so many years. Referring to that elephant incident, a former Permanent Secretary commented in private that the government lacks a sense of humour when it found fit to have the police haul people up for questioning. But to the police, they cannot not investigate as the prevailing system is one of due process, logic, fairness and most important of all, transparency. To some, this is yet another example, albeit a light-hearted one, of the probable lack of political or social expression in Singapore bound by a system that a majority has subscribed to (through the ballot box).

My point is that, ultimately, it is more effective, and more sincere, to effect change from the inside rather than from the outside. When you stand by your words with your future grounded to the country, then you can be taken seriously. This is the stance taken by the powers that be, and I am not ashamed to agree with them. That is why I admire people like Nelson Mandela, who, in spite of the unjustness of the then dominant peoples, never quit the country.

Before we ask for more freedoms, do we have the courage of our convictions, or do we quit the country at the slightest threat?

A sailing we will go?

2005-10-24T04:27:00.000+08:00

So, back to the subject of vacation. Many countries in South-east and East Asia, naming Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Taiwan have reported incidences of bird flu. Now, several Easter European countries such as Croatia, Romania and Russia are reporting occurrences of the flu.

I am having a headache deciding where to take my vacation at the end of the year. There is now a natural tendency to avoid places 'contaminated' with bird flu, but this leaves a lot less interesting, yet economic, places to go to from Singapore. As of now, nothing has been decided. If land-based tours are relatively risky nowadays, what about sailing - i.e. taking a cruise, either to nowhere, or to call a one or two ports for a couple of hours and getting back to the ship as soon as possible? Seems to me to be the best thing to do right now...

Which reminds me. Britain celebrated Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson's victory in Trafalgar three days ago, and the French weren't too enthusiastic about it. Why would they be, seeing as they were the great losers 200 years ago to the day. Maybe it is time to sail to commemorate that famous sea victory. For celebrations of this event, see:

Trafalgar 200
Royal Navy Trafalgar 200
BBC celebrates Trafalgar 200
Trafalgar Festival
Trafalgar 200th - A Tribute to Nelson's Navy

The excellent book, "Nelson - A dream of glory, 1758 - 1797", by John Sugden recently, is reviewed in my writing blog.

Birds of a feather

2005-10-23T11:34:00.000+08:00

These are stressful times indeed. Its the year-end and everybody is thinking of a vacation to de-stress before a new year with new challenges dawn upon us. But our feather 'friends' are putting a damper on all the planning. I say 'friends' because, like human flu, bird flu is not to be blamed on birds - they are just the carriers. The problem with birds is that they migrate from one place to another at great distances apart fairly regularly according to the climatic conditions, thereby easily spreading whatever virus they made be carrying. So far, the instrument to tackle this problem has been fairly blunt, which is to cull (or kill) all the birds in the flock so long as ONE of them is found with the flu. But there is no other better way, so far. So I can understand if farmers do not report their sick fowls for fear that their entire livelihood will, literally, be buried. This is the dilemma - not to report means that more than their animals' lives will be at stake, eventually.

How is modern man going to solve this problem, which is widening in geographical scope? Surely, flu pills can only go so far. Herein lies the most serious challenge yet to the survival of many - and I am not referring to our feathered friends.

Warwick: Freedom of what, from what, for what?

2005-10-21T04:21:00.000+08:00

Singapore has been trying to woo reputable foreign Universities to set up shop on the island. It sees the education sector as a big money spinner, besides tourism and gambling. It also wants to ride atop its deserved reputation as the place to get a good education and earn genuine qualifications.

But alas, Britain's Univ of Warwick has decided not to set up shop here after more than a year's deliberations, the reason being the perceived lack of academic freedoms due to the country's laws. Readers will understand my sentiments regarding this in my earlier blog entries here. The other reason cited is that they are not certain if they can make money out of the venture. This is actually easily resolved by spreading the risk through a joint-venture arrangement. Singapore's A*star agency, I am sure, is prepared to co-share risks. The Univ. of New South Wales, on the other hand, has taken the plunge and will set up its foreign campus in Singapore come 2007. Doesn't it have similar concerns? Yes, but I think their response is more enlightened and certainly more enterpreneurial.

I think that it is more challenging to contribute to the development of education, culture and thought than to shy away from such an opportunity. Waiting for the ideal (political) atmosphere to appear before engaging seems to me to be taking the easy way out. By then, all the excitement and potential for enquiry would have died down? Is the Univ. here to agitate for greater freedoms or is it here to teach and learn? Is the support and recognition of gay practices fundamental to the education process? Being one of the top research universities in Britain, I think it has got its brains screwed on (sorry, no pun intended) in the wrong places.

Oops, there goes my scholarship to that haloed institution - or would they practice what they preach and not penalise a person for having different views?

Last rant of a despot?

2005-10-20T07:34:00.000+08:00

Saddam Hussein Al Majid, the last dictator/ruler of Iraq, begins the defence of his conduct and deeds in a duly constituted court of law under the new Iraq. As expected, he remains belligerent, defiant, as only a former strongman would behave. I do not find any of these incredible or remarkable at all. The US has almost always given people their day in court. While most of Saddam's top lieutenants have either been killed or have committed suicide, Saddam Hussein still remains to be dealt with. I do not know which is worse, but I do hope that the court does not buckle under the wily S. Hussein and his defence team, as sometimes happens.

Saddam has nothing to lose and everything to gain if he can extricate himself from this process, so he can proceed to use every available means to do so. Some predict that this trial will be a farce - a process wholly unnecessary. What more proof do you need when you have already driven him from power and in the process, stripped him of everything that he has? His top lieutenants are already dead. Well, such is the contradictions of justice and fair play in the western tradition that this due process must follow through.

Another tragedy another day

2005-10-17T07:48:00.000+08:00

Careful readers of this blog would be wondering why I have kept silent the Pakistan-India earthquake tragedy last week where the death toll has risen to over 40,000. In comparison, Katrina's numbers are insignificant, but I wrote a blog on it. Before anyone goes off saying that I am a racist, and worst, an anti-Muslim, let me just clarify that I am neither, as the record of my blog here clearly shows.

Its just that these tragedies are occuring with such frequency that I am now quite tired of it all. As the year comes to a close, I pray that no more tragedies will take place. The world's charities have been working overtime this year organising relief operations to tragedy-strickened regions and countries around the world that, quite clearly, 2005 must be the year of the charities. Therefore, when Time magazine pronounces it annual Person of the Year award, it should, without doubt, go to the Charities of the World.

Ironically, in Singapore, charities in 2005 have not always been in the positive limelight. 2 charities, NKF and SAVH, have had their carpets pulled under them because of questionable corporate governance issues. We could also have done less with disasters caused by humans, such as the Bali bombings of 2005.

Excepting these, it has been a busy year for Singapore charities, which all started with the Indian Ocean tsunami. Though it did not start in 2005, much of the relief work spilled over into this year.

May God stay the occurrence of any more natural disasters, at least until 2006.