LITTLE MIKE FAY

Akar Masalah Penyebab Terjadinya Kemacetan – Macet Di Indonesia

2011-12-29T22:38:00.000-06:00

Macet! Anda pasti langsung terbayang jalanan yang penuh dengan berbagai jenis kendaraan yang malang melintang tak beraturan. Yah, memang kemacetan adalah hal yang wajar terjadi di negara berkembang seperti Indonesia, yang jadi pertanyaan adalah bagaimana kebijakan yang harus di adakan untuk menyikapinya. Pada dasarnya kemacetan terjadi karena mobilitas urban dan commuter yang terlalu tinggi tetapi tidak di imbangi dengan sarana dan prasarana yang memadai.dan kalau kita tarik lagi dari akar permasalahan ini, maka kita akan bisa menarik kesimpulan bahwa masalah macet tak bisa di lepaskan dengan masalah urban.

Dan sekarang anda tentu berpikir, mengapa di Indonesia terjadi eksodus urban yang besar besaran ke kota kota besar dan menjadi pusat pemerintahan. Dan sudah pasti, jawabanya adalah masalah kesejahteraan yang sulit di dapatkan di daerah asal urban itu sendiri. Sehingga sampai kapanpun masalah kemacetan akan menjadi masalah selama pemerataan kesejahteraan belum tercapai. Dan apabila tidak segera di tangani maka suatu saat nanti akan terjadi stagnasi yang luar biasa di kota kota besar seperti di Jakarta.

Polarisasi perputaran uang juga mendasari fenomena ini. Anda dapat bayangkan, apabila 90 % perputaran Uang masih ngendon di Jakarta, maka alangkah sulitnya untuk mendapat 10% sisanya yang tersebar di berbagai daerah, sedangkan kebijakan harga kadang tidak selalu bisa mengikuti persentase perputaran uang, dan sudah barang tentu gejolak pasar akan meledak tak terelakkan. Hal inilah yang membuat orang rela ber gembel gembel ria di kota besar asalkan setiap harinya Mereka dapat mengumpulkan beberapa lembar rupiah yang notabene asalkan dapur Mereka tetap bisa ngebul.

Gaya hidup yang cenderung ke-ndoro–an, juga membuat orang malas berjalan dan berpanas panasan meskipun hanya untuk sekedar makan siang dari satu gedung ke restoran yang berada di gedung lainnya. Kita bisa lihat, jalan raya pasti akan di padati tatkala jam-jam menjelang makan siang dan makan malam. Hal ini dilakukan oleh ribuan orang di kota kota besar dan sudah menjadi gaya hidup yang lebih sering kita sebut kaum hedonis.

Besaran pajak untuk kendaraan juga di nilai terlalu kecil apabila di bandingkan sarana yang harus di sediakan untuk kendaraan itu sendiri. Estimasi itu bisa kita dapatkan secara hitungan kasar. Pajak sebuah mobil pertahun jauh di bawah biaya sarana yang harus di bangun untuk mobil itu selama setahun. Belum lagi, itu tidak termasuk oknum oknum penunggak pajak, dan manipulasi data serta besarnya pajak yang di korupsi oleh oknum terkait.

Source: http://kopiairhujan.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/akar-masalah-penyebab-terjadinya-kemacetan-macet-di-indonesia/

Note: Sebab-sebab kemacetan di Indonesia ada keserupaan dengan brader-nya, Malaysia. Tidak lain dan tidak bukan kerana ketagihan motokar dan kepentingan uang koporat...@LOW@

Of bigot and Bigotry

2010-10-01T20:09:00.002-06:00

Background
CNN host Rick Sanchez was fired after making controversial remarks: calling out Comedy Central host Jon Stewart as a "bigot" for mocking him, and "complained that Jews — like Stewart — don't face discrimination. He also suggested that CNN, and perhaps the media industry more broadly, is run by Jews and elitists who look down on Hispanics like himself."

Now that is a big, bold statement from a brave man. Even if Sanchez is right and the Hispanics/blacks/etc. is dscriminated, but the thing is, anything related to race, ethnics, blood etc. is easy to turn controversial and tainted with. Sometime this is how some people "gets away with it" - but I wasn't sure who is the winner this time, or most of the time. Most Malaysian knows this all too well.

Nonetheless, I am more interested into the term 'bigot' - and Yahoo! gives me an interesting answer:

Bigot means some who pre- judges or who is prejudiced.

It can refer to anything that is different to the person in question - gender, race, religion, nationality - even sports or hobbies.

What makes people call you a bigot is not the fact you have strong views - as a bigot can actually have weak views but they are unchangeable in their opinions and views.

You mentioned listening to people but there are 2 types of listening

Physically listening - where you politey allow the person to speak without interrupting.

Psychologically listening where you absorb the information that the person actually tells you and understand what they have said.

If you do not want to change a view point a good tactic is to listen politely but not explore deepy what is being said and while being outwardly polite you inwardly, psychologicall and emotionally take a perfunctory or superficial approach to what you have been told and dismiss it.

Because deep down in your psycology you believe you are right and you will not be moved or swayed by new evidence or facts- even if they are stronger than the informaion you have.

If you are this way inclined you would be classed as a bigot as your psychology prevents you from absorbing rationale or factual behaviour in favour of the beliefs and views you already hold which you find emotionally and psychologically pleasing or comfortable.

Bigotry is not always bad as it can be a defense and survival mechanism as it puts the person who holds the bigotry in position where they are not influenced and sometimes can allow you to avoid danger or negative situations.

However it can also be bad as the person also is unable to accept facts or reality if they are at odds or conflicts to their beliefs, opinions or views they hold.

I have had friends who were bigots - not about race, sexuality or religion but things such as academia, study and education. They were simply unwilling to learn and hated anyone choosing to do so.

Their arguments for their beliefs were weak and while they would listen to the pros that outweighed the cons. You could see their concentration fading and mind wadering when the subject was broached.

PS What you have described you have is 'empathy' and a "Theory of Mind"-it means you are aware that people hold different views to you.

It does not prevent you from being a bigot -

Whether you are bigot depends upon if you can truly accept someone who is different from you or whether you can accept the person who holds different views to you has something valid or pertinent to say which CAN change or alter your beliefs .

Many bigots often state "we can agree to disagree" in the belief it makes them diplomatic but this is simply a polite way of saying "I have no intention of accepting what you say and my mind is made up and so just shut up."

I have met many bigots in my forty years on this earth and many of them are the most polite and affable people I have ever met. However they politely dismiss anything and eveybody that does not fit in with their views or life. So remember if you are not psychologically or emotionally listening you are not listening.

Source: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090827031041AAnIibY
and on Sanchez
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101001/bs_yblog_upshot/cnn-fires-host-rick-sanchez-over-controverial-remarks

If We (USA) Europeanize, Europe Is in Trouble

2010-09-12T00:24:00.001-06:00

We can't become Europe unless someone else is willing to become America.

By now you may have heard: America is on its way to becoming another European country.

Now, by that I do not mean that we’re moving our tectonic plate off the coast of France or anything, but rather that a century-long dream of American progressives is finally looking like it might become a reality. The recently passed health-care legislation is the cornerstone of the Europeanization of America. And to pay for it, the White House is now floating the idea of imposing a value-added tax (VAT) like the ones they have throughout most of Europe.

In the egghead-o-sphere, there’s been an ongoing debate about whether America should become more like Europe. The battle lines are split almost perfectly along left-right lines ideologically. Liberals like Europe’s welfare states, unionized workforces (in and out of government), generous benefits, long vacations, etc. Conservatives like America’s economic growth, its dynamism and innovation.

From what I can tell, everyone agrees that you can’t have Europeanization without European-size governments. Hence, America’s government outlays (pre-Obama) have tended to hover around 20 percent of GDP (the average of the last 50 years), while Europe’s are often more than twice that. In France, government outlays are nearly 55 percent of GDP. In 2009, the bailout and the Obama budget sent America’s government outlays to 28 percent of GDP, but that should decline a bit over the next decade, unless Democrats have something else in mind.

To be fair, liberals insist conservatives are wrong to think that Europeanizing America will necessarily come at any significant cost. New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman says that, in exchange for only a tiny bit less growth, Europeans buy a whole lot of security and comfort. Economists such as Stanford’s Michael Boskin say Europeans have a standard of living about 30 percent lower than ours and are stagnating. Others note that the structural unemployment rate in Europe, particularly for young people (it’s over 20 percent in many countries), is socially devastating.

Obviously, I’m in the conservative camp. But I think the debate misses something. We can’t become Europe unless someone else is willing to become America.

Look at it this way. My seven-year-old daughter has a great lifestyle. She has all of her clothes and food bought for her. She goes on great vacations. She has plenty of leisure time. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t look at her and feel envious of how good she’s got it compared to me. But here’s the problem: If I decide to live like her, who’s going to take my place?

Europe is a free-rider. It can only afford to be Europe because we can afford to be America.

The most obvious and most cited illustration of this fact is national defense. Europe’s defense budgets have been miniscule because Europeans can count on Uncle Sam to protect them. Britain, which has the most credible military in NATO after ours, has funded its butter account with its gun account. As Mark Steyn recently noted in National Review, from 1951 to 1997 the share of British government expenditure devoted to defense fell from 24 percent to 7 percent, while the share spent on health and welfare increased from 22 percent to 53 percent. And that was before New Labour started rolling back Thatcherism. If America Europeanizes, who’s going to protect Europe? Who’s going to keep the sea lanes open? Who’s going to contain Iran — China? Okay, maybe. But then who’s going to contain China?

But that’s not the only way in which Europeans are free-riders. America invents a lot of stuff. When was the last time you used a Portuguese electronic device? How often does Europe come out with a breakthrough drug? Not often, and when they do, it’s usually because companies like Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline increasingly conduct their research here. Indeed, the top five U.S. hospitals conduct more clinical trials than all the hospitals in any other single country combined. We nearly monopolize the Nobel Prize in medicine, and we create stuff at a rate Europe hasn’t seen since da Vinci was in his workshop.

If America truly Europeanized, where would the innovations come from?

Europhiles hate this sort of talk. They say there’s no reason to expect America to lose its edge just because we have a more “compassionate” government. Americans are an innovative, economically driven people. That’s true. But so were the Europeans — once. Then they adopted the policies they have today and that liberals want us to have tomorrow.

By Jonah Goldberg, editor-at-large of National Review Online, April 9, 2010 12:00 A.M.

Source: Retrieved 12 September 2010 from http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/229505/if-we-europeanize-europe-trouble/jonah-goldberg

刘亚洲将军在昆明基地的一次震撼演讲

2010-08-12T03:53:00.002-06:00

我是中国文化的继承者，也是中华文化的批判者。过去，我首先是它继承者，其次才是它的批判者。现在，我首先是它的批判者，然后才是它的继承者。西方的历史是一部改恶从善的历史。中国的历史则是一部改善从恶的历史。古代西方什么都禁，就是不禁人的本能。中国什么都不禁，独独禁本能。西方人敢于展示自己，既敢于展示自己的思想，又敢于展示自己的裸体。中国就知道穿衣服。给思想穿衣服。穿衣服总比脱衣服容易。西方鞭挞自己的黑暗，所以得到了光明。它的思想在驰骋。我们歌颂自己的光明，结果带来千年的黑暗。黑格尔说："中国无哲学。"我认为中国几千年来没有产生过思想家。我指的思想家，是像黑格尔、苏格拉底、柏拉图，这些对人类文明进程有重大贡献的思想家。老聃，你说他是思想家吗？仅凭五千字的《道德经》能当思想家吗？且不说他的《道德经》有问题。孔子能算思想家吗？我们后人怎么审视他？怎么审视他的作品？他的作品从未为中国人内心提供一个可以对抗世俗权力的价值体系，提供的是一切围绕权力转。儒学如果是宗教的话，便是伪宗教；如果是信仰的话，便是伪信仰；如果是哲学的话，则是官场化社会的哲学。从这个意义上说，儒学对中国人是有罪的。中国不可能有思想家，只有谋略家。中国社会是个兵法社会。我们民族只崇尚谋略家。一个事业上并不怎么成功的诸葛亮被人反复的纪念着。他心胸不开阔，用人也不当。有资料表明他也是弄权者。但恰恰是这么一个人，被抬到了吓人的高度，这也是我们民族心灵的一种写照。在这种社会形态下，有三种行为大行其道：

　　①诡辩术。我儿子今年考上了某大学新闻系，该大学新闻系是中国最好的新闻系之一。我对儿子说：拿教材来我看看。看过后我说，这不值得看。里面有这么一个论断：中国发明了火药。火药传到欧洲之后，冲破了欧洲中世纪封建的堡垒。真是笑话。你发明的火药冲破了人家的封建堡垒，你自己的堡垒怎么没被冲破？反而更加坚挺？在国防大学讨论台湾问题时，有一个观点颇有市场：台湾象一把锁。如果台湾问题解决不了，台湾这把锁就会把中国的大门锁住。中国将没有出海的通道。这是诡辩。我一句话就可以给你顶回去。西班牙成为海上强国后，并没有能阻止它的近邻葡萄牙也成为海上强国。法国多佛海峡离英国只有二十八海里，英国阻挡法国成为海上强国了吗？中国失去海洋关键是历代统治者没有海权观念。

　　②对外怀柔，对内残忍。欧洲文明和中国文明几乎同时起步，但是欧洲形成了许多小国家，中国形成了一个统一的大帝国。谈及此，我们往往沾沾自喜。其实，欧洲形成这么多国家正是它自由思想的一种体现。它虽然形成了这么多小国家，但是，多少与人类文明有关的东西是从这些分裂的小国中产生出来的，而我们为世界文明做些什么呢？统一江山肯定与统一思想有某种必然的联系。谋略社会是个内向性的社会。我曾经仔细研究过中美两国的差异：中国在国际事务方面基本是柔，在国内事物则是刚。美国正相反，在国际事物方面刚，在国内事务方面柔。我不记得我在哪本著作中提到过这个问题，可能是《对台作战，危险评估》，并做出这样的结论：这是由于文化不同所决定的。中国文化是封闭的，内敛的，内向的；美国文化就是开放的、外向的。大一统的理念也是个内向形的理念。这也是解释我们为什么在外国侵略者面前是羊，在自己同胞面前是狼的原因。近百个日本兵，就能够押着五万名国民party军俘虏到燕子矶去枪杀。不要说反抗，他们连逃跑的勇气都没有。解放战争中莱芜战役，仅三日，我军歼灭敌七个整师，五万六千人。战后，王耀武抱怨："五万头猪，叫共军抓，三天也抓不完。"而中国人要自己打自己人，那才叫勇猛!

　　③鄙俗。精神鄙俗必然带来行为的鄙俗。精神高贵必然带来行为的高贵。大约二十年前吧，我住的小区发生这么一件事：一对夫妻闹离婚，丈夫把新欢带进家，大吵。妻子跑到楼顶，欲往下跳。围观的人很多。有的人兴灾乐祸地大叫："快跳快跳！"后来police把人救下来，围观者甚至感到遗憾。我长叹一声，回到家里，打开电视。正播着一个在欧洲刚发生的真实故事：某国，依稀记得是匈牙利，七十年前，一个年轻的矿工马上要和新娘举行婚礼，婚礼前最后一次下井，但发生了塌方，矿工永远没有回来。新娘子不相信她的爱人就此离她而去，苦苦等了七十年。前些日子重新整理矿井，在坑道深处一汪积水中发现一具尸体，正是七十年前被埋在井里的新郎。由于没有空气，又浸泡在饱含矿物质的水中，他仍如七十年前一般年轻。新娘子已成为白发苍苍的老妪。她扑在心爱的人身上痛哭。她做了一个决定，继续与爱人完成他们的婚礼。那一幕太动人了：八十多岁的新娘子一身盛装，洁白如雪。头发也如雪。她的爱人，依然那么年轻，闭着眼睛躺在一驾马车上。婚礼与葬礼同时举行。多少人都落泪了。

最能考验我们民族道德水准的事情就是美国发生的"9.11"事件了。9.11"虽然没有改变世界，但是改变了美国。同时，"9.11"之后的世界很难回到"9.11"之前去。当"9.11"事件发生的时候，在我们国家，至少在一段时间里，弥漫着一股不健康的气氛。9月12号的那天晚上，北大和清华的学生正在敲锣打鼓。我说中国足球队还没有出线呢，中国队出线要到10月7号，那是最后一场，中国对阿联酋。赢了就提前出线进世界杯。隔了片刻才知道是中国大学生在庆祝美国"双子星"大楼被炸。我国有一个记者代表团，当时正在美国访问，看到世贸大楼被撞，这些记者团的成员情不自禁地鼓起掌来。这是一种文化的浸濡，这不能怨他们，他们已经控制不了自己了。结果被宣布为永远不受欢迎的人。我在北空，那几天部队来人看我，我都问他们对"9.11"什么看法。众口一词：炸得好。后来我讲，这是很悲哀的。如果是这样的人爱中国，那中国还有救吗？媒体就更不用提了，中国最没有新闻的地方就是在报纸上。1997年戴安娜遇车祸去世。你不管戴安娜这个人怎么样，英国王室怎么样，她至少具有新闻价值。世界各大报纸都在第一版登了这条消息，唯独中国的报纸不登这条消息。那天北京各大报纸的头版新闻是"北京市中小学开学了"。这条新闻就等同报道"北京人今天吃早饭了"一样，就这个价值。"9.11"第二天晚上，我坐在电视机旁看《焦点访谈》，我想看看那些国嘴们如何评介"9.11"这个焦点，结果那天的《焦点访谈》的内容是关于农村party支部加强自身建设什么的。你想看什么？偏没有。你不想听的，偏讲给你。国嘴当然无辜。

　　1999年美国打南斯拉夫，中国出了一次头。那次出头的代价就是大使馆被炸。这次差点又出了一次头，后来还是以...同志为首的party中央及时扭转了局面。我们这个文化的列车，带着巨大的惯性，载着我们这批有道德缺陷的人，风驰电掣地驶向终点。有人还在这个时候提出，趁机打台湾。此时动手，一鼓可下。这些同志的心情可以理解，但现在委实不是一个恰当的时机。当时我想，"9.11"死了这么多人，都是无辜的人。丧失的是人的生命，是世界上最有尊严的东西。这些生命本身与美国government没有关系。我们以这种态度对待别人，别人却不以同样的态度对待我们。与此形成鲜明对照的就是多佛惨案。去年，一批福建偷渡客乘闷罐车从多佛海峡进入英国的时候，由于在空气不畅的车里呆了几十个小时，人都闷死，只有两个活的。这个事件曝光后，中国大使馆的官员没有一个出面。最后是英国老百姓在多佛这个地方自发地举行追悼会和烛光晚会，悼念那些死去的人。很多孩子来参加，手里拿着玩具，中国制造的玩具。顺便说一句，现在世界上百分之九十的玩具是MADEINCHINA。记者问孩子：为什么来参加追悼会？孩子说，他们也是人嘛。我们现在手里拿的玩具，有可能就是他们当中的人生产的。在整个追悼会中，没有一个中国人在场。什么叫文明，什么叫不文明？我在思考。
①为KB叫好很KB。中国文化教育出来的中国人。首先漠视和轻视自己的生命，才会对他人、他国的生命也视如儿戏。自己没有珍惜生命的权力，也不许别人有。鲁迅早年前批判过的"看客"心态就是这么炼成的。中国人看杀别人，无不兴高采烈。统治阶级故意把人放在大庭广众下去杀。被统治者就在大庭广众下享受了统治者的快感。特别在凌迟处死犯人时，连续三天，人山人海。连小摊贩都在那儿摆摊。刽子手还出售沾血的馒头。今天没有凌迟了，但当众审判也是这种习惯的延伸。当年如同过节一般去看杀谭嗣同六君子的国人，甲午之役中怎么能不丢掉台湾？他们的子孙——我们，如果还和他们一样，又如何解放台湾？公共汽车上一个歹徒逞凶，万马齐喑。就凭这样的人去解放台湾？就凭这样的人怎么去实现四个现代化？你实现了四个现代化又有什么用？我早上锻炼的时候看电视，《早间新闻》的广告节目，最畅销的产品是什么？防盗门。这是一个民族的悲哀。你看我们住的就像笼子一样。我在成都住的是前几任成空政委的房子。我进去一看，哎哟，我进监狱了。窗子上、阳台上到处都是防盗栅栏。我让拆掉。前些天有一本书叫《中国可以说不》。我说，你是可以说不，但你是在防盗门后面说不。这不是勇士，而是懦夫。乔良说的好："连看见鸡鸣狗盗之徒都要躲着走的爱国者，偏偏胆气粗豪地对遥远的列强说不！"

②要客观、全面地看待美国。美国是什么样的国家？记得早年听过这样一句形容纽约的话：世界上最好的和世界上最坏的加起来就是纽约。用这句话来套用今天的美国，是不是也合适呢？我们这一代军人，担负祖国未来希望的军人，既不当"亲美派"，也不能当简单的"反美派"，而应当做成熟的"知美派"。知道敌人才能战胜敌人。贬低对手便是贬低自己。拓跋焘把柔然的国名改为"蠕蠕"，意即虫子，可他偏偏被这条虫子打败。那你连虫子都不如。美国不希望中国强大就如同中国不希望美国称霸一样。中美关系有冲突，但也有一定的共同利益。如何化解冲突，发展共同利益，是当前中国外交家们应当努力去做的。中国要发展就不能断绝与世界的交往。现在世界是单级的。只有美国衰落才能出现多极世界。我们既不能断绝与美国的关系，又不能对美国抱有太大期望。目前与美国对抗并非是最适当的时机。国家利益应当永远是我们行动的最高准则。我们需要忍耐。忍耐并不是软弱。只有屈服才是软弱。美国当然亡社会主义心不死。美国当然不希望中国崛起，不希望中国经济发展上去。但我们应切记：与对手做斗争，一定要让你的对手见到一种最不愿意见到的局面。美国人希望中国人打内战，我们就真打内战了。他不在被窝里笑得浑身发抖才怪哩。当然，一味地"卧薪尝胆，韬光养晦"也不行，中国作为一个...大国可能象古代一个武侠一样躲进深山里苦练武功，待武艺高强了再出来与敌人决胜吗？以中国的人口和资源。特别是以中国的文化，中国不可能和美国一样强大，况且美国也不是停止不前。还是Mao.ZD说得好："打还是要打，谈还是要谈，和还是要和。"人要机智。外交斗争更要机智。要牵着别人的鼻子走而不是被别人牵着走。赫鲁晓夫就是个机智的家伙。我给你们讲个故事：在一次大会上，赫鲁晓夫大肆揭露并批判斯大林的暴政。有人递上纸条，质问赫鲁晓夫，赫氏本人在斯大林当政时期也是权力核心集团的一员，为什么他在当时不起而反对斯大林的独断？赫鲁晓夫把质问的纸条高声念一遍，随即当众大声道：这是谁递上的条子？站出来！站出来......下面轻轻骚动了片刻，但是没有人站出来。赫鲁晓夫道："你们瞧，我们现在这样民主，这样无须恐惧的情况下，递条子的同志尚且不敢站出来；试想想，在斯大林统治时期的那种气氛中，有人胆敢站出来顶撞斯大林么？"全场鼓掌。我们对美斗争。应该具有赫鲁晓夫这种机智。该韬光养晦时，就韬晦到家。就象小平同志当年对加拿大总理特鲁多讲的一段话：我们所讲的韬光养晦，包括不要脸面，也一定要与世界上最发达的国家保持关系。（大意）Dengxp的意思是，中国一定要与世界文明同步。不能远离世界文明。在"9.11"事件中，除了个别国家，中国一部分老百姓（而不是government）是离世界主流文明最遥远的。该斗争时，寸步不让。"崇美"不对，"亲美"不对。"仇美"也不对。美国government和政客与美国人民既一样，又不一样。有共同处，有异处。你要有高度的智慧把他们区分开来。过去，美国人民为了帮助中国摆脱殖民统治，打败日本，为中国社会文明进步做出过巨大贡献。两国没有根本利益冲突。今天因为美国利益遍布全球，两国有了冲突。但我们仍要以道德之心来评判事物，不可冲动。我曾讲过，对屠杀了我几千万同胞并且没有认错的日本，我们经常说"要世世代代友好下去"，对帮助我们打败了日本的美国人民，我们又有什么理由要仇视呢？

　　③美国真正的可怕之处在哪儿？美国虽然有着世界上最强大的军队，最先进的科技，但我认为这并不可怕。据说它的隐形飞机来去中国很自由，但这也没有什么可怕的。它可怕的东西不是这些。1972年我在武汉大学读书，上政治课，一个政治老师讲："美国是腐朽、没落的资本主义国家的代表，已经日薄西山，气息奄奄了。"我，工农兵大学生，一身军装，立即站起来，反驳："老师，我觉得你说得不对。美国虽然不象中国一样，是早晨八、九点钟喷薄而出的太阳，但它也不是什么夕阳，而是正午的太阳。"老师气白了脸，结结巴巴地说："你这个同学，怎么敢说这话！"他没有问我为什么要说这话，却用了一个"敢"字。其间心态，一眼看穿。就是这个腐朽、没落的资本主义国家，却在上世纪九十年代领导了世界上最新的一场科技革命。我大学毕业后，正逢改革开放。我又有一个观点：美国是由千千万万不爱自己祖国的人组成的国家、但他们都很爱美国。那时很多领导人，一边骂美国，一边把子女往美国送。反差巨大！讲了半天，美国可怕之处何在呢？我自己感觉有三点：第一，美国的精英体制不可小觑。他的干部制度，他的竞选机制，能够确保决策者是一批精英。我们中国的悲剧，大到国家，小到一个单位，多数的情况是，有思想的人不决策，决策的人没有思想。有脑子就没位子，有位子就没脑子。美国正好相反，他的宝塔尖体制，正好把一批精英弄上去了。因此，第一，他不犯错误，第二，他少犯错误，第三，犯了错误他能很快改正错误。我们是犯错误，这是第一。第二，常犯错误。第三，犯了错误很难改正错误。美国用一个小小的台湾牵制了中国整整半个世纪。他把这个棋子走活了，走神了，一个台湾，改变了东亚的国际政治生态。我最担心的中国新世纪发展的战略框架因为台湾而扭曲。

　　现在对强势民族来说，领土的重要性大大下降，已经变追求领土为追求国势。美国人对任何国家都没有领土要求。它不在乎领土，它在二十世纪的全部作为都是造势，什么叫造势？除了经济强大以外，民心啊！有了民心国家就有凝聚力，失去的领土可以回来；没有民心，你拥有的土地肯定会失去。有的国家领导只看一步。美国行事往往看十步。因为如此，所以二次世界大战结束后发生的每一次重大的全球性事件都在加强美国的地位。如果我们被它牵着走，就可能丢掉所有的战略筹码。我一再讲，美国的战略重心不会移到亚洲来，但不意味着它不包围中国。很多同志只看到美国在军事上包围中国，就象很多人只看到中美双方在科技和武器装备方面的差距，而没有看到在大战略、尤其是外交层次上比装备落后更严重的失衡。我们的对美外交，要么有措施没有境界，要么有细节没有全局

"9.11"之后，美国迅速在两个月之内拿下阿富汗，从西面包抄中国。日本、台湾、印度的军事压力也未减轻。看起来我们从"9.11"中得到了一些眼前的利益，但这些利益不出一两年可能就会消失。我认为对我国的战略包围是另外一种，不是军事，超乎军事。你看，近些年，我国周围的国家纷纷改变社会制度，变成所谓的"民主"国家，俄罗斯、蒙古变了，哈萨克斯坦变了。再加上原先的韩国、菲律宾、印度尼西亚...这种威胁对我国而言比军事威胁更厉害。军事威胁或许是短期效应，而被所谓的"民主"国家包围则是长期效应。第二，美国的大气与宽容。你要到欧洲去，再去美国，你会发现一个重大差异：欧洲早晨大街上没有什么人，而美国早晨大街小巷有很多健身的人，甚至全天如此。我有句言论：健身是一种品质。健身代表一种蓬勃向上的文化。一个国家有没有朝气，看看它有多少人健身就知道了。美国人可以把国旗当裤衩穿在身上。我在美国买过一条星条旗裤衩。我常穿。我穿它是为了蔑视它，是出气，是一种心理的渲泄和满足。美国人穿则是一种调侃。本质不同。美国人可以在大街上焚烧自己的国旗。戴旭（作者朋友，《空军军事学术》编辑）说：如果一个国家连自己的国旗都可以烧的话，你还有什么理由去焚烧它呢？第三，精神和道德的伟大力量。这是最可怕的。"9.11"是一场灾难。当灾难袭来时，最先倒下的是躯体，但站的是灵魂。有的民族逢灾难，躯体未倒，灵魂已缴械。"9.11"事件中发生了三件事，都可以让我们从中看到美国人的力量。第一件，世贸大楼顶部被飞机撞击之后，烈焰奔腾，形势千钧一发。楼上的人们通过EXIT向下逃生的时候，并不特别慌乱。人往下走，消防队员往上冲。互相让道，并不冲突。有妇女、小孩、盲人到时，人们都自动地让出一条道来，让他们先走。甚至还给一条宠物小狗让道。一个民族的精神不强悍到一定的程度，断然做不出这种举动。面对死亡，冷静如斯，恐怕不是圣人也接近圣人了吧。第二件事，"9.11"的第二天，世界就知道这是阿拉伯KB分子所为。很多阿拉伯商店、餐馆被愤怒的美国人砸了。一些阿拉伯商人也受到袭击。这个时刻，有相当一批美国人自发地组织起来，到阿拉伯人的商店、饭馆为他们站岗。到阿拉伯人居住区巡逻，阻止悲剧的进一步发生。这是一种怎样的精神啊。我们自古就有报复的传统。我住在成都。邓艾破成都后，庞德的儿子把关羽一家老幼全杀光了。血腥报复，斑斑点点，不绝于史籍。第三件事，在美国宾夕法尼亚坠毁的那架767客机，本来是要撞向白宫的。后来机上乘客与KB分子搏斗，才使飞机坠毁。因为当时他们已经知道世贸大楼、五角大楼被撞的消息，他们决定，不能无所作为，要和KB分子进行殊死斗争。即便是在这种情况下，他们还做了一件事：决定投票通过，是不是要和KB分子作斗争。在这么一个生死悠关的时刻，我都不把我的意志强加给别人。后来全体同意，才去与劫机者搏斗。什么叫民主，这就是民主。民主的理念已经深入到他们的生命中、血液里、骨髓中。这样的民族，他不兴盛谁兴盛；这样的民族，他不统治世界，谁能统治世界。我常作奇想：世界最尖端的武器、最新的科学技术、最强大的武装力量，掌握在这些人手中，还是挺合适的。总比掌握在日本人手中强吧，总比掌握在利比亚、伊拉克人手中强吧？就是掌握在我们手中，我们能做出些什么，也未可知。美国这个国家有很多成功的经验，值得我们学习的借鉴。"9.11"事件后，美国没有成立"9.11"委员会，没有成立什么应急指挥部。我非常反对不实在的东西。我到成空以后，要么不开会，要么就少开会。非开不可的会，开短会。我来成空，首先就把常委学习改成自学。拿着文件念，学习的什么呀。我在同习惯势力抗争。我个人力量有限，但我不能不抗争。哪怕碰得头破血流也不气馁。比方说我一般下部队不吃饭，只要一天能回来的，我都带着干粮，我不吃部队。我到三十三师，在北空也是这样。如果不得不吃，我只吃简单的。虽说一两酒喝不倒红旗，一顿饭吃不垮江山。但是太多了，太浪费了，积少成多，就难说。有人说打台湾不要用什么新式武器，派几个“真正的...员”上岛去吃喝他两三年，绝对把他吃光了。还有一个笑话是说开会的，有一个局长，病得要死了，就是不咽气。老婆说，孩子都来了，你放心上路吧，不行，死不了。老婆说，一切事都安排完了，你放心上路吧，不行，死不了。老婆说，家里财产都放好了，你走吧，不行。后来还是秘书比较了解他，凑过去悄悄在他耳边说："局长，人到齐了，开会吧。"局长心满意足地闭上了眼睛。这故事当然是编的，但是，说明人们对这种东西的反感、厌恶。
"9.11"不仅是美国的机会，也是中国的机会。搞不好中国就是"9.11"最大的牺牲品，关键是你怎么把握，全世界都面临重新洗牌。研究美国，我们应把握它真正的内涵。不能光看小的，要看大处。有一句话说的好：经常议论别人的缺点，你就是一个道德水准低下者；经常议论人类的缺点，你就是一个思想家。

　今天给你们讲了三个多小时，我的目标和我所追求的目标是人的解放。我相信，今天，我来跟大家讲课，与其说是我认识你们，不如说，是你们认识我。我十分坦荡，把我自己全部交给你们。我在你们面前展示我自己思想的裸体。尤其是我在最后谈了对西方、对美国的看法，并没有离开今天讲话的主题。有两条我要再补充讲一讲，第一，我是一个纯正的民族主义者。我讲的一切，都是为自己的国家好，自己的民族好。我在任何情况下，都会以民族利益为最高利益。为了它，我可以抛头颅、洒热血。我脑海中常留着朝鲜战争的一幕：1951年冬，我爸爸所在的部队向美军进攻。因为武器不如美军，必须在夜间潜伏在接敌最近处。一个连队悄悄潜伏下来，整整一晚上。那晚天降大雪，奇寒。天亮时，我军冲锋号吹响了，可潜伏的一百多个战士没有一个跃起来。原来他们全部被冻死了。至死他们仍保持着战斗队形。后来毛主席听了这件事的汇报，他当即脱下帽子，站立，久久不语。1962年中印边界自卫反击战中，我军歼灭了印军一个部队，这个部队当年曾编成在英军序列中，参加过第二次鸦片战争，火烧过圆明园。毛主席接到电报后，拍案而起，说："百年国耻！"同时，同志们还应看到，中国国情和西方不一样。有些事情虽然看到了，但不能一蹴而就。有些事情还没有看到。有些观念的差距，有待时日，方能减小。譬如，前几天德国总理施罗德在竞选时，就因为一个小小的问题差点败北。什么问题？他染了头发。在我国，染头发算什么？爱美之心，人皆有嘛。爱年轻之心人皆有嘛！几乎没有领导不染发。但在西方则不行。因为你染头发，就是给人一假象，就是不真实的表现，就是欺骗。而政治家这样做，则被人打问号。你看，苛刻到任何地步！

　　第一次和昆明基地的营以上干部见面，就非常率真地、大胆地讲这么多，这都是我研究的成果，我对自己的讲话负责。讲对的地方，你们就往心里去，讲错的地方，你们就这个耳朵进，那个耳朵出，莞尔一笑，不要当回事。每个人都是一个个体，每个个体都是自由的。我不能要求我的思想都给你们。我更不能要求把你们的思想都统一到某一个思想上来，那是不可能的，但是我们偏要追求那种可能，这是非常虚无飘渺的，实际上做不到。到此为止，谢谢大家

Source:Retrieved on 12 August 2010 from http://www.taoguba.com.cn/Article/154648/1

Minarets in Switzerland?

2010-07-26T00:23:00.002-06:00

PROHIBITION OF MINARETS IN SWITZERLAND IS A STEP TOWARD RACIST AND PHOBIA SPREAD SOCIETY IN EUROPE

ISTANBUL. 1 DECEMBER, 2009.

Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation, an international institution affiliated to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) expresses its deep regret over the results of the referendum held in Switzerland on 29 November 2009 banning construction of minarets in the country.

While considering public voting as natural part of democratic process we regret that the authorities of the country haven't exert all necessary efforts to inform public on anti-liberal and anti-human-rights nature of the proposal put forward. As a result this action bearing of extreme Islamophobic character and insulting the beliefs of the millions  of Muslims poses danger of marginalizing of about 300.000 Muslims living in Switzerland as well as threatens hopes for inter-civilizational dialogue worldwide. ICYF-DC representing the voice of leading youth organizations in the OIC countries and throughout Muslim minorities worldwide as well as many young leaders involved in inter-cultural dialogue globally, strongly condemns this act of intolerance and spreading of hatred. We have serious concerns about the negative consequences of the outcome of this vote on the freedom of religion and belief not only in Switzerland but all over Europe.

A blanket prohibition of minarets (part of traditional architecture and symbol ofpeaceful call for prayer) seriously questions Switzerland's own commitments on freedom of religion and belief including those taken by the country as the member of the United Nations and the Council of Europe. While expressing appreciation to the position vis-àvis Swiss referendum taken by several international organizations in particular the statements by heads of the UN, CoE and PACE, ICYF-DC urges those institutions to take practical steps to overrule this decision and work with the government and civil society of Switzerland in order to prevent inter-community tension already instigated by this racist initiative. In particular ICYF-DC calls upon the international institutions to consider implementation of the following concrete actions: 

1. For UN HRC: To initiate a resolution to ensure that rights of individuals, protected by international treaties, should not be subject to popular votes; 
2. For Council of Europe: To support freedom-oriented and mainstream organizations and individuals in Switzerland taking actions to challenge the results of the referendum in the courts including the European Court of Human Rights. ICYF-DC on its part is ready to work together with willing partners to provide legal and technical assistance to such an action; 
3. For OIC: as institution designed to protect well-being of Muslim communities worldwide to mobilize its Member States and institutions to exert all necessary legal and political efforts in order to ensure freedom of belief for Swiss Muslim community and limit the global impact of Swiss referendum; 
4. For UN Alliance of Civilizations: We strongly believe that it is time and strong reason for UN AoC to step in and be more visible in challenging this action threatening sensitive relations between civilizations as well as to adjust its programs including but not limited to youth field to address the danger of marginalization of Muslim communities in Europe.

ICYF-DC also calls upon European Youth Forum to promptly react to development dangerous to the well-being of thousands of young people from minority background in its own domain and express its full readiness to work together with YFJ and other regional youth platforms to address the issue both within modality of bilateral partnership and other appropriate modalities to mitigate negative consequences of this xenophobic act.

ICYF-DC will be closely following the issue and will exert necessary diplomatic actions to achieve the above stated objectives.

Board of ICYF-DC
Further information in ICYF-DC Website

Source: Retrieved on 26 July 2010 from http://www.youthforum.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=515%3Aicyf-dc-statement-on-prohibition-of-minarets-in-switzerland&lang=en

Volunteer, UK and the enlightened west

2010-04-30T10:47:00.001-06:00

Dear All

As you know the UK Border Agency (UKBA) introduced a new system for visas to the UK last year.

NGOs in the UK have been campaigning for change. However, as we are in the middle of an election no-one is interested. We plan to take this issue up with the new government.

In the meantime, we have no choice but to comply.

This means that anyone who needs a visa for the UK will have to be allocated a certificate number NGOs. We have to apply online and pay for this certificate number.

Volunteers who are allocated a certificate and then cancel also cause us trouble because if they do not use the certificate, the UKBA want to know why we allocated it and why the volunteer didn't use it.

So, we are asking that you stress the importance of being serious about volunteering in the UK, and if a volunteer applies that they intend to come here.

Volunteers that do come here on a visitor visa must not mention that they might do some volunteering, otherwise they will be put in a detention centre and returned on the next flight, and their passport will be marked. So if they come back to Britain for a visit another time, they will be refused entry because their passport has been marked as having links to an international volunteering organisation!!

I am not joking, I know people this has happened to!

I'm sure Al Qaeda don't have this amount of trouble.

Oh, I love living in a democracy in the enlightened west!

P/S: Dated April 2010

Education and World Peace

2010-04-24T22:12:00.002-06:00

Education and the Significance of Life
Chapter 4 `Education and World Peace’
J. Krishnamurti
Source: http://www.krishnamurtiaustralia.org/education%20and%20world%20peace.pdf

TO DISCOVER what part education can play in the present world crisis, we should understand how that crisis has come into being. It is obviously the result of wrong values in our relationship to people, to property and to ideas. If our relationship with others is based on self-aggrandizement, and our relationship to property is acquisitive, the structure of society is bound to be competitive and self-isolating. If in our relationship with ideas we justify one ideology in opposition to another, mutual distrust and ill will are the inevitable results.

Another cause of the present chaos is dependence on authority, on leaders, whether in daily life, in the small school or in the university. Leaders and their authority are deteriorating factors in any culture. When we follow another there is no understanding, but only fear and conformity, eventually leading to the cruelty of the totalitarian State and the dogmatism of organized religion.

To rely on governments, to look to organizations and authorities for that peace which must begin with the under- standing of ourselves, is to create further and still greater conflict; and there can be no lasting happiness as long as we accept a social order in which there is endless strife and antagonism between man and man. If we want to change existing conditions, we must first transform ourselves, which means that we must become aware of our own actions, thoughts and feelings in everyday life.

But we do not really want peace, we do not want to put an end to exploitation. We will not allow our greed to be interfered with, or the foundations of our present social structure to be altered; we want things to continue as they are with only superficial modifications, and so the powerful, the cunning inevitably rule our lives.

Peace is not achieved through any ideology, it does not depend on legislation; it comes only when we as individuals begin to understand our own psychological process. If we avoid the responsibility of acting individually and wait for some new system to establish peace, we shall merely become the slaves of that system.

When governments, dictators, big business and the clerically powerful begin to see that this increasing antagonism between men only leads to indiscriminate destruction and is therefore no longer profitable, they may force us, through legislation and other means of compulsion, to suppress our personal cravings and ambitions and to co-operate for the well-being of mankind. just as we are now educated and encouraged to be competitive and ruthless, so then we shall be compelled to respect one another and to work for the world as a whole.

And even though we may all be well fed, clothed and sheltered, we shall not be free of our conflicts and antagonisms, which will merely have shifted to another plane, where they will be still more diabolical and devastating. The only moral or righteous action is voluntary, and understanding alone can bring peace and happiness to man.

Beliefs, ideologies and organized religions are setting us against our neighbours; there is conflict, not only among different societies, but among groups within the same society. We must realize that as long as we identify ourselves with a country, as long as we cling to security, as long as we are conditioned by dogmas, there will be strife and misery both within ourselves and in the world.

Then there is the whole question of patriotism. When do we feel patriotic? It is obviously not an everyday
emotion. But we are sedulously encouraged to be patriotic through school-books, through newspapers and other channels of propaganda, which stimulate racial egotism by praising national heroes and telling us that our own country and way of life are better than others. This patriotic spirit feeds our vanity from childhood to old age.
The constantly repeated assertion that we belong to a certain political or religious group, that we are of this nation or of that, flatters our little egos, puffs them out like sails, until we are ready to kill or be killed for our country, race or ideology. It is all so stupid and unnatural. Surely, human beings are more important than national and ideological boundaries.

The separative spirit of nationalism is spreading like fire all over the world. Patriotism is cultivated and cleverly exploited by those who are seeking further expansion, wider powers, greater enrichment; and each one of us takes part in this process, for we also desire these things. Conquering other lands and other people provides new markets for goods as well as for political and religious ideologies.

One must look at all these expressions of violence and antagonism with an unprejudiced mind, that is, with a mind that does not identify itself with any country, race or ideology, but tries to find out what is true. There is great joy in seeing a thing clearly without being influenced by the notions and instructions of others, whether they be the government, the specialists or the very learned. Once we really see that patriotism is a hindrance to human happiness, we do not have to struggle against this false emotion in ourselves, it has gone from us forever.

Nationalism, the patriotic spirit, class and race consciousness, are all ways of the self, and therefore separative. After all, what is a nation but a group of individuals living together for economic and self-protective reasons ? Out of fear and acquisitive self defence arises the idea of ‘my country,’ with its boundaries and tariff walls, rendering brotherhood and the unity of man impossible.

The desire to gain and to hold, the longing to be identified with something greater than ourselves, creates the spirit of nationalism; and nationalism breeds war. In every country the government, encouraged by organized religion, is upholding nationalism and the separative spirit. Nationalism is a disease, and it can never bring about world unity. We can not attain health through disease, we must first free ourselves from the disease.

It is because we are nationalists, ready to defend our sovereign States, our beliefs and acquisitions, that we must be perpetually armed. Property and ideas have become more important to us than human life, so there is constant antagonism and violence between ourselves and others. By maintaining the sovereignty of our country, we are destroying our sons; by worshipping the State, which is but a projection of ourselves, we are sacrificing our children to our own gratification. Nationalism and sovereign governments are the causes and the instruments of war.

Our present social institutions cannot evolve into a world federation, for their very foundations are unsound. Parliaments and systems of education which uphold national sovereignty and emphasize the importance of the group will never bring war to an end. Every separate group of people, with its rulers and its ruled, is a source of war. As long as we do not fundamentally alter the present relationship between man and man, industry will inevitably lead to confusion and become an instrument of destruction and misery; as long as there is violence and tyranny, deceit and propaganda, the brotherhood of man cannot be realized.

Merely to educate people to be wonderful engineers, brilliant scientists, capable executives, able workmen, will never bring the oppressors and the oppressed together; and we can see that our present system of education, which sustains the many causes that breed enmity and hatred between human beings, has not prevented mass murder in the name of one’s country or in the name of God.

Organized religions, with their temporal and spiritual authority, are equally incapable of bringing peace to man, for they also are the outcome of our ignorance and fear, of our make-believe and egotism.

Craving security here or in the hereafter, we create institutions and ideologies which guarantee that security; but the more we struggle for security, the less we shall have it. The desire to be secure only fosters division and increases antagonism. If we deeply feel and understand the truth of this, not merely verbally or intellectually, but with our whole being, then we shall begin to alter fundamentally our relationship with our fellow men in the immediate world about us; and only then is there a possibility of achieving unity and brotherhood.

Most of us are consumed by all sorts of fears, and are greatly concerned about our own security. We hope that, by some miracle, wars will come to an end, all the while accusing other national groups of being the instigators of war, as they in turn blame us for the disaster. Although war is so obviously detrimental to society, we prepare for war and develop in the young the military spirit.

But has military training any place in education? It all depends on what kind of human beings we want our children to be. If we want them to be efficient killers, then military training is necessary. If we want to discipline them and regiment their minds, if our purpose is to make them nationalistic and therefore irresponsible to society as a whole, then military training is a good way to do it. If we like death and destruction, military training is obviously important. It is the function of generals to plan and carry on war; and if our intention is to have constant battle between ourselves and our neighbours, then by all means let us have more generals.

If we are living only to have endless strife within ourselves and with others, if our desire is to perpetuate bloodshed and misery, then there must be more soldiers, more politicians, more enmity - which is what is actually happening. Modern civilization is based on violence, and is therefore courting death. As long as we worship force, violence will be our way of life. But if we want peace, if we want right relationship among men, whether Christian or Hindu, Russian or American, if we want our children to be integrated human beings, then military training is an absolute hindrance, it is the wrong way to set about it.

One of the chief causes of hatred and strife is the belief that a particular class or race is superior to another. The child is neither class nor race conscious; it is the home or school environment, or both, which makes him feel separative. In himself he does not care whether his playmate is a Negro or a Jew, a Brahmin or a non-Brahmin; but the influence of the whole social structure is continually impinging on his mind, affecting and shaping it.

Here again the problem is not with the child but with the adults, who have created a senseless environment of separatism and false values.
What real basis is there for differentiating between human beings? Our bodies may be different in structure and colour, our faces may be dissimilar, but inside the skin we are very much alike: proud, ambitious, envious, violent, sexual, power-seeking and so on. Remove the label and we are very naked; but we do not want to face our nakedness, and so we insist on the label - which indicates how immature, how really infantile we are.

To enable the child to grow up free from prejudice, one has first to break down all prejudice within oneself, and then in one’s environment - which means breaking down the structure of this thoughtless society which we have created. At home we may tell the child how absurd it is to be conscious of one’s class or race, and he will probably agree with us; but when he goes to school and plays with other children, he becomes contaminated by the separative spirit. Or it may be the other way around: the home may be traditional, narrow, and the school’s influence may be broader. In either case there is a constant battle between the home and the school environments. and the child is caught between the two.

To raise a child sanely, to help him to be perceptive so that he sees through these stupid prejudices, we
have to be in close relationship with him. We have to talk things over and let him listen to intelligent conversation; we have to encourage the spirit of inquiry and discontent which is already in him, thereby helping him to discover for himself what is true and what is false.

It is constant inquiry, true dissatisfaction, that brings creative intelligence; but to keep inquiry and discontent awake is extremely arduous, and most people do not want their children to have this kind of intelligence, for it is very uncomfortable to live with someone who is constantly questioning accepted values.
All of us are discontented when we are young, but unfortunately our discontent soon fades away, smothered by our imitative tendencies and our worship of authority. As we grow older, we begin to crystallize, to be satisfied and apprehensive. We become executives, priests, bank clerks, factory managers, technicians, and slow decay sets in. Because we desire to maintain our positions, we support the destructive society, which has placed us there and given us some measure of security.

Government control of education is a calamity. There is no hope of peace and order in the world as long as education is the handmaid of the state or of organized religion. Yet more and more governments are taking charge of the children and their future; and if it is not the government, then it is the religious organizations which seek to control education.

This conditioning of the child’s mind to fit a particular ideology, whether political or religious, breeds enmity between man and man. In a competitive society we cannot have brotherhood, and no reform, no dictatorship, no educational method can bring it about.

As long as you remain a New Zealander and I a Hindu, it is absurd to talk about the unity of man. How can we get together as human beings if you in your country, and I in mine, retain our respective religious prejudices and economic ways? How can there be brotherhood as long as patriotism is separating man from man, and millions are restricted by depressed economic conditions while others are well off? How can there be human unity when beliefs divide us, when there is domination of one group by another, when the rich are powerful and the poor are seeking that same power, when there is maldistribution of land, when some are well fed and multitudes are starving?
One of our difficulties is that we are not really in earnest about these matters, because we do not want to be greatly disturbed. We prefer to alter things only in a manner advantageous to ourselves, and so we are not deeply concerned about our own emptiness and cruelty.

Can we ever attain peace through violence? Is peace to be achieved gradually, through a slow process of time? Surely, love is not a matter of training or of time. The last two wars were fought for democracy, I believe; and now we are preparing for a still greater and more destructive war, and people are less free. But what would happen if we were to put aside such obvious hindrances to understanding as authority, belief, nationalism and the whole hierarchical spirit? We would be people without authority, human beings in direct relationship with one another - and then, perhaps, there would be love and compassion.

What is essential in education, as in every other field, is to have people who are understanding and affectionate, whose hearts are not filled with empty phrases, with the things of the mind.

If life is meant to be lived happily, with thought, with ourselves; and if we wish to build a truly enlightened society, we must have educators who understand the ways of integration and who are therefore capable of imparting that understanding to the child.

Such educators would be a danger to the present structure of society. But we do not really want to build an enlightened society; and any teacher who, perceiving the full implications of peace, began to point out the true significance of nationalism and the stupidity of war, would soon lose his position. Knowing this, most teachers compromise, and thereby help to maintain the present system of exploitation and violence.

Surely, to discover truth, there must be freedom from strife, both within ourselves and with our neighbours. When we are not in conflict within ourselves, we are not in conflict outwardly. It is the inward strife which, projected outwardly, becomes the world conflict.

War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday living. We precipitate war out of our daily lives; and without a transformation in ourselves, there are bound to be national and racial antagonisms, the childish quarrelling over ideologies, the multiplication of soldiers, the saluting of flags, and all the many brutalities that go to create organized murder.

Education throughout the world has failed, it has produced mounting destruction and misery. Governments are training the young to be the efficient soldiers and technicians they need; regimentation and prejudice are being cultivated and enforced. Taking these facts into consideration, we have to inquire into the meaning of existence and the significance and purpose of our lives. We have to discover the beneficent ways of creating a new environment; for environment can make the child a brute, an unfeeling specialist, or help him to become a sensitive, intelligent human being. We have to create a world government which is radically different, which is not based on nationalism, on ideologies, on force.

All this implies the understanding of our responsibility to one another in relationship; but to understand our responsibility, there must be love in our hearts, not mere learning or knowledge. The greater our love, the deeper will be its influence on society. But we are all brains and no heart; we cultivate the intellect and despise humility. If we really loved our children, we would want to save and protect them, we would not let them be sacrificed in wars.

I think we really want arms; we like the show of military power, the uniforms, the rituals, the drinks, the noise, the violence. Our everyday life is a reflection in miniature of this same brutal superficiality, and we are destroying one another through envy and thoughtlessness.

We want to be rich; and the richer we get, the more ruthless we become, even though we may contribute large sums to charity and education. Having robbed the victim, we return to him a little of the spoils, and this we call philanthropy. I do not think we realize what catastrophes we are preparing. Most of us live each day as rapidly and thoughtlessly as possible, and leave to the governments, to the cunning politicians, the direction of our lives.

All sovereign governments must prepare for war, and one’s own government is no exception. To make its citizens efficient for war, to prepare them to perform their duties effectively, the government must obviously control and dominate them. They must be educated to act as machines, to be ruthlessly efficient. If the purpose and end of life is to destroy or be destroyed, then education must encourage ruthlessness; and I am not at all sure that that is not what we inwardly desire, for ruthlessness goes with the worship of success.

The sovereign State does not want its citizens to be free, to think for themselves, and it controls them through propaganda, through distorted historical interpretations and so on. That is why education is becoming more and more a means of teaching what to think and not how to think. If we were to think independently of the prevailing political system, we would be dangerous; free institutions might turn out pacifists or people who think contrary to the existing regime.

Right education is obviously a danger to sovereign governments - and so it is prevented by crude or subtle means. Education and food in the hands of the few have become the means of controlling man; and governments, whether of the left or of the right, are unconcerned as long as we are efficient machines for turning out merchandise and bullets.

Now, the fact that this is happening the world over means that we who are the citizens and educators, and
who are responsible for the existing governments, do not fundamentally care whether there is freedom or slavery, peace or war, well-being or misery for man. We want a little reform here and there, but most of us are afraid to tear down the present society and build a completely new structure, for this would require a radical transformation of ourselves.

On the other hand, there are those who seek to bring about a violent revolution. Having helped to build the existing social order with all its conflicts, confusion and misery, they now desire to organize a perfect society. But can any of us organize a perfect society when it is we who have brought into being the present one? To believe that peace can be achieved through violence is to sacrifice the present for a future ideal; and this seeking of a right end through wrong means is one of the causes of the present disaster.

The expansion and predominance of sensate values necessarily creates the poison of nationalism, of economic frontiers, sovereign governments and the patriotic spirit, all of which excludes man’s co-operation with man and corrupts human relationship, which is society. Society is the relationship between you and another; and without deeply understanding this relationship, not at any one level, but integrally, as a total process, we are bound to create again the same kind of social structure, however superficially modified.

If we are to change radically our present human relationship, which has brought untold misery to the world, our only and immediate task is to transform ourselves through self-knowledge. So we come back to the central point, which is oneself; but we dodge that point and shift the responsibility onto governments, religions and ideologies. The government is what we are, religions and ideologies are but a projection of ourselves; and until we change fundamentally there can be neither right education nor a peaceful world.

Outward security for all can come only when there is love and intelligence; and since we have created a world of conflict and misery in which outward security is rapidly becoming impossible for anyone, does it not indicate the utter futility of past and present education? As parents and teachers it is our direct responsibility to break away from traditional thinking, and not merely rely on the experts and their findings. Efficiency in technique has given us a certain capacity to earn money, and that is why most of us are satisfied with the present social structure; but the true educator is concerned only with right living, right education, and right means of livelihood.

The more irresponsible we are in these matters, the more the State takes over all responsibility. We are confronted, not with a political or economic crisis, but with a crisis of human deterioration which no political party or economic system can avert.

Another and still greater disaster is approaching dangerously close, and most of us are doing nothing whatever about it. We go on day after day exactly as before; we do not want to strip away all our false values and begin anew. We want to do patchwork reform, which only leads to problems of still further reform. But the building is crumbling, the walls are giving way, and fire is destroying it. We must leave the building and start on new ground, with different foundations, different values.
We cannot discard technical knowledge, but we can become inwardly aware of our ugliness, of our ruthlessness, of our deceptions and dishonesty, our utter lack of love. Only by intelligently freeing ourselves from the spirit of nationalism, from envy and the thirst for power, can a new social order be established.

Peace is not to be achieved by patchwork reform, nor by a mere rearrangement of old ideas and superstitions. There can be peace only when we understand what lies beyond the superficial, and thereby stop this wave of destruction which has been unleashed by our own aggressiveness and fears; and only then will there be hope for our children and salvation for the world.

How Sovereign is Europe?

2010-04-12T01:19:00.001-06:00

How Sovereign is Europe? Washington has Murdered Privacy Rights at Home And Abroad
Thu, 25/03/2010 - 00:08 — admin-b
Source: http://teameurope.info/node/769

In the Swiss newspaper Zeit Fragen, Professor Dr. Eberhard Hamer from Germany asks, “How Sovereign is Europe?”

He examines the issue and concludes that Europe has little, if any, sovereignty.

Professor Hamer writes that the sovereign rights of Europeans as citizens of nation states were dissolved with the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on Dec. 1, 2009. The rights of the people have been conveyed to a political commissariat in Brussels. The French, Germans, Belgians, Spanish, British, Irish, Italians, Greeks, and so forth, now have “European citizenship whatever this may be.”

The result of aggregating nations is to reduce the political participation of people. The authority of parliaments and local councils has been impaired. Power is now concentrated in new hierarchical structures within the European Union. European citizenship means indirect and weak participation by people. Self-rule has given way to authoritarian rule from top to bottom.

Professor Hamer then examines the EU commissariat and concludes that it, too, lacks sovereignty, having submitted to the will of the United States. The problem is not only that Europeans are waging an unconstitutional war ordered by the U.S. in a region of the world where Europe has no interests. Europe’s puppet state existence goes far beyond its mercenary service to the American Empire.

The EU has given in to Washington’s demand for “free access to the banking data of the central financial service provider, Swift, in Europe. All financial flows in Europe (and between Europe and the rest of the world) will now be monitored by the CIA and other American and Israeli intelligence services.” The monitoring will include transfers within Germany, for example, and within individual cities. “The data, even data of completely innocent citizens, have to be stored for five years, of course, at the expense of the banks and their customers.”

How sovereign is the EU when it it unable to protect the financial privacy of its citizens from foreign governments?

This and more in globalresearch.ca article.

Why the Oscars are a Con

2010-04-12T01:10:00.002-06:00

Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17541

Why are so many films so bad? This year’s Oscar nominations are a parade of propaganda, stereotypes and downright dishonesty. The dominant theme is as old as Hollywood: America’s divine right to invade other societies, steal their history and occupy our memory. When will directors and writers behave like artists and not pimps for a world view devoted to control and destruction?

I grew up on the movie myth of the Wild West, which was harmless enough unless you happened to be a native American. The formula is unchanged. Self-regarding distortions present the nobility of the American colonial aggressor as a cover for massacre, from the Philippines to Iraq. I only fully understood the power of the con when I was sent to Vietnam as a war reporter. The Vietnamese were “gooks” and “Indians” whose industrial murder was preordained in John Wayne movies and sent back to Hollywood to glamourise or redeem.

I use the word murder advisedly, because what Hollywood does brilliantly is suppress the truth about America’s assaults. These are not wars, but the export of a gun-addicted, homicidal “culture”. And when the notion of psychopaths as heroes wears thin, the bloodbath becomes an “American tragedy” with a soundtrack of pure angst.

Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker is in this tradition. A favourite for multiple Oscars, her film is “better than any documentary I’ve seen on the Iraq war. It’s so real it’s scary” (Paul Chambers CNN). Peter Bradshaw in the Guardian reckons it has “unpretentious clarity” and is “about the long and painful endgame in Iraq” that “says more about the agony and wrong and tragedy of war than all those earnest well-meaning movies”.

What nonsense. Her film offers a vicarious thrill via yet another standard-issue psychopath high on violence in somebody else’s country where the deaths of a million people are consigned to cinematic oblivion. The hype around Bigelow is that she may be the first female director to win an Oscar. How insulting that a woman is celebrated for a typically violent all-male war movie.

The accolades echo those for The Deer Hunter (1978) which critics acclaimed as “the film that could purge a nation’s guilt!” The Deer Hunter lauded those who had caused the deaths of more than three million Vietnamese while reducing those who resisted to barbaric commie stick figures. In 2001, Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down provided a similar, if less subtle catharsis for another American “noble failure” in Somalia while airbrushing the heroes’ massacre of up to 10,000 Somalis.

By contrast, the fate of an admirable American war film, Redacted, is instructive. Made in 2007 by Brian De Palma, the film is based on the true story of the gang rape of an Iraqi teenager and the murder of her family by American soldiers. There is no heroism, no purgative. The murderers are murderers, and the complicity of Hollywood and the media in the epic crime in Iraq is described ingeniously by De Palma. The film ends with a series of photographs of Iraqi civilians who were killed. When it was order that their faces be ordered blacked out “for legal reasons”, De Palma said, “I think that’s terrible because now we have not even given the dignity of faces to this suffering people. The great irony about Redacted is that it was redacted.” After a limited release in the US, this fine film all but vanished.

Non-American (or non-western) humanity is not deemed to have box office appeal, dead or alive. They are the “other” who are allowed, at best, to be saved by “us”. In Avatar, James Cameron’s vast and violent money-printer, 3-D noble savages known as the Na’vi need a good guy American soldier, Sergeant Jake Sully, to save them. This confirms they are “good”. Natch.

My Oscar for the worst of the current nominees goes to Invictus, Clint Eastwood’s unctuous insult to the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Taken from a hagiography of Nelson Mandela by a British journalist, John Carlin, the film might have been a product of apartheid propaganda. In promoting the racist, thuggish rugby culture as a panacea of the “rainbow nation”, Eastwood gives barely a hint that many black South Africans were deeply embarrassed and hurt by Mandela’s embrace of the hated Springbok symbol of their suffering. He airbrushes white violence – but not black violence, which is ever present as a threat. As for the Boer racists, they have hearts of gold, because “we didn’t really know”. The subliminal theme is all too familiar: colonialism deserves forgiveness and accommodation, never justice.

At first I thought Invictus, could not be taken seriously, then I looked around the cinema at young people and others for whom the horrors of apartheid have no reference, and I understood the damage such a slick travesty does to our memory and its moral lessons. Imagine Eastwood making a happy-Sambo equivalent in the American Deep South. He would not dare.

The film most nominated for an Oscar and promoted by the critics is Up in the Air, which has George Clooney as a man who travels America sacking people and collecting frequent flyer points. Before the triteness dissolves into sentimentality, every stereotype is summoned, especially of women. There is a bitch, a saint and a cheat. However, this is “a movie for our times”, says the director Jason Reitman, who boasts having cast real sacked people. “We interviewed them about what it was like to lose their job in this economy,” said he, “then we’d fire them on camera and ask them to respond the way they did when they lost their job. It was an incredible experience to watch these non-actors with 100 per cent realism.”

Wow, what a winner.

John Pilger is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by John Pilger

Note: Definition of "redact" from http://searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid182_gci1029839,00.html

DEFINITION - To redact is to edit, or prepare for publishing. Frequently, a redacted document, such as a memo or e-mail message, has simply had personal (or possibly actionable) information deleted or blacked out; as a consequence, redacted is often used to describe documents from which sensitive information has been expunged.

The term is appearing more frequently in that usage because as technology has enabled information to be stored and shared more widely, legal, security, and privacy issues have arisen. As, increasingly, legislation (such as HIPAA , the Sarbanes-Oxley Act , and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act ) is drafted to control the handling of personal information in public sources, it is likely that usage of the term redact will continue.

Short comment: Individualism (The Ambiguities if Individualism, Mythic Individualism), by Robert Bellah, Habits of the Heart

2010-04-08T21:12:00.002-06:00

It strikes me on how the author defended the core of American (i.e. citizen of United States of America) culture and identity– individual dignity is view as sacrilegious as meaning of life itself. I do agree it is morally wrong to violate individual right and freedom to live life as they see fit although I am not so convince about the fact that individualism is not related to selfishness, which I long thought it is. But since modern individualism has grown stronger at the expense of the civic and biblical traditions, individual are increasingly self-centered and difficult to separate from that of selfishness and self-interest.

Hence, it is arguable whether commitment to absolute individual dignity can be view as antidote to inequalities, as the author suggested. To me, such individual rarely pursue decisions that are not beneficial to them-self, or almost certain to have conflicting interest with some other individual in the society that they belong to. This, as Tocqueville warned, is weakening the very meanings that gives content and substance to the ideal of individual dignity.

One way to address this ambivalence is maybe by reinterpret civic and biblical tradition of individualism in the context of today’s society. I felt stronger sense of such urgency after witnessing increasing rate & intensity of globalization (interaction of global actors/powers), and in particular in this article, over glorification of “American mythic hero”: Hero who “saves a society he can never completely fit into.” His significance and need by society is fully self-justified by his “special talent, unique individual virtue and special skill” as cowboy or as the last honest detective who able to resist “money, power or sex” in his lonely crusade for justice. This is another contradiction as democracy does not condone one-sided view.

Like America’s hero-role in the world since World Wars period, this individualism is neither pure “justice” nor completely “selfishness.” Hero should possess the intelligent to solve both the world’s problem as well as of his own: “belong to the society, not isolated or considered antisocial.” What comes after all the positive attributes of individualism should be the wisdom to resolve its ambiguities from within – an even more comprehensive definition of modern individualism.

七色部落--SHOPPING﹕旅遊思古

2010-03-07T19:17:00.004-06:00

【明報專訊】第一次到大馬，覑實有種親切無比的感覺。把她比喻為「老香港」，難免予人「大香港」的印象，而且馬來西亞在保存歷史古蹟、文化遺產方面有覑佳績，種族多元且共融，人口雖不是以華人為主，但處處都散發覑濃厚的華人氣息。跟香港一樣具有殖民地的懷舊布景，著名都市如檳城和馬六甲，可以眺望城區和大海的美景而聞名。

先逃離石屎森林呼吸一下，第一站就到熱帶雨林Taman Negara探秘。在一位懂英語的土著帶領下，我們一行七人由朝至晚攀山越嶺，仍覺得樂此不疲，而我，一心只想覑到後在溪澗游水作樂。路上導遊東張西望，到處瀏覽、搜尋土著生活的素材。原來有些樹葉捏碎後可治癒傷口，有些加了水後還可搓出泡沫供洗澡，更神奇的是，導遊從背包掏出青檸和洋裢，娓娓道出兩寶趕走老虎和大象的傳說。到達目的地後，我興奮地換了泳褲下水，雖然不時被滑石絆倒，仍要上攀下爬；浸在河裏，貪玩冒險地向激流跨出半步，身體險被水底的暗流捲走。回程時，沿覑河流乘坐快艇，遇見了一隻落泊的「濕水鹿」逆流而上，導遊說牠可能跟媽媽走失了！我心想，全程唯一目睹野生動物的機會，竟然是牠落荒而逃，真狼狽！

離開Taman Negara，坐了六小時的車程，便登上了海拔1500米的金馬崙山，是大馬人的避暑聖地。滿山都是小鄉鎮、瀑布和農場，當地人在肥沃的山坡上種植茶葉、豆類和蔬菜。沿覑森林向山上進發，看到風景如畫的茶園，山頂有最值得拜訪的露天茶座，隨了吃西餅、歎杯「Boh 茶」，之後跟隨導賞團到茶廠走一趟，看看採茶造茶的程序。適逢農曆新年，馬路堵得水泄不通，走馬看花地走訪了帕拉斯茶園、草莓農場和蜜蜂農場，市場廣場裏鋪滿色彩繽紛的乾濕貨品，比香港年宵的還要精美細緻、琳瑯滿目。

行過年宵，以每小時140公里車速在公路上風馳電掣，霎眼間又到了檳城﹕一座擁有現代設施的大都市，同時憑藉豐富的文化遺產，展示出古舊世界的魅力。檳城博物館、大會堂、法院和教堂建築成一簇群，華人特色的會館、廟宇及宗祠到處林立。其實，最令人欲罷不能的是檳城美食——藥療味濃的肉骨茶、甜甜辣辣的叻沙、奶油蝦和黑椒蟹。最難忘的是等了半個小時才端上䒷的炒粿條，期間對面舖賣蠔餅的、賣海南雞的會走過來兜賣，人情味十足。我也學了當地人的茶餐廳術語，飲管叫作水草、走糖走奶叫「O」。晚飯走遠一點到西北的小漁村吃海鮮，價格比酒店區的便宜一半，不失鮮味。

如果說檳城像香港九龍，馬六甲就一定是新界離島了！這個歷史文化名城環境清幽，街道狹窄得行人都要避車而行，有許多歷史景點都塞進街角縫隙。一戶戶打開家門做生意的人家，吃的都是家常粉麵、椰漿飯、叻沙，小碟小盤的上，一天幾乎吃了八餐，也忘了早午晚三餐的時候。另外，馬六甲老街保存了不少夕陽工藝，例如﹕剪紙、磨刀、瓷器、砂煲罌諹等，峇峇娘惹文化味濃。晚上沿河一帶燈光醉人，十八世紀建造的教堂旁、婆娑樹影裏有過百隻烏鴉在叫，時而在天空上盤旋。走過美術館，一輛輛精心佈置的人力車熱鬧地跟遊人打招呼；經過咖啡店，傳來一嗓震懾人心的少女歌聲，坐下來喝杯飲品點唱國語或英語歌，只要家傳戶曉都可以。

今時今日的馬來西亞不算富裕，但絕不落後，而且相當重視本土文化價值——文化底蘊豐厚，讓一個地方生氣勃勃；歷史人文薈萃，值得遊人細嚼慢嚥。深深的為檳城和馬六甲被聯合國教科文組織列為世界文化遺產感到興奮，印象中，香港倒沒有這揦完整的、屬於平民百姓的建築群被認真地留存過。「八十後」的我也不禁回首情感風化「百年身」，希望香港政府不要拆卸永利街，讓本地富有六十年代色彩的街頭巷尾得以永久保存吧！

永久保存吧！

文李亭漁

編輯蔡曉彤、陳嘉文

Source: Retrieved on 08 March 2010 from http://news.mingpao.com/20100307/vzl1h.htm

Of public caning and Malaysia

2010-02-19T21:35:00.004-06:00

Source: http://www.thenutgraph.com/

Read the original post here. I thought the comments are more insightful, as ever...

dbctan Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 10.59AM

And all this is happening while bickering politicians (on both sides) make sham pledges to uphold the federal constitution. Islamist advocates may be getting the country they want, but tragically Malaysians are getting the country they deserve by default.

Peter Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 11.48AM

We are always being led by our noses by the country's leadership. Our daily issues and problems are highlighted and "played up" by them. As long as (1) the leaders continue to play the race and religion cards for votes, and (2) we do not grow up and start thinking of the big picture as one nation, we will continue to subject ourselves to this vicious never-ending cycle.

Zaki Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 11.50AM

There is no problem if people don't look for it. However, people like to look for a problem, so they can argue but most people argue selfishly. So in the end, the argument is a waste of time.

Who knows more Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 11.56AM

To those who don't know (especially the author) about the Islamic punishment (caning), they just don't deserve to judge it. This thing is acceptable in Islam since a thousand years before. The author ask why did Hishammuddin take so long to inform Malaysians about this historic round of caning. This is because all the Muslims had accepted it for a long time but nowadays all of the non-Muslims love to interfere with the Islamic religion, practice and administration. I'm not trying to be bad here but to all non-Muslims, stop bothering our religion!

===

For the record, I am a practising Muslim.

Shanon Shah
Columns and Comments Editor

Dahlia Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 12.47PM

It's opportunism at its worst - Umno out to assert its "Muslim credibility", whatever that it is. Indeed, who speaks for Islam?

AR Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 12.51PM

I like to think that my religion is one that encourages dialogue and reflection. Just because this was appropriate (or was it?) centuries ago, does not mean it is appropriate now.

But then someone will tell me that questioning this is tantamount to questioning the Quran and that I "menghina" Islam. And what's the punishment for that according to the Syariah Law as practiced in the Federal Territory? Fine of not more than RM3,000 or imprisonment for no longer than two years, or both.

Z00L Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 1.07PM

Referring to the caricature, does "enjoying their freedom" include having extramarital sex?

As far and wide freedom's borders can go, [there are still borders].

lovetointerfere Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 1.20PM

In response to Shanon Shah, all I can say is that your religion is a cruel and demeaning one indeed. Corporal punishment can never change the inner state of being. For your info, not all non-Muslims 'love to interfere with the Islamic religion'.

===

I think you've got the wrong person. I, Shanon Shah, am the journalist who wrote this commentary, and I sometimes respond to comments here, since I also edit and approve comments. I am not the person who wrote that non-Muslims "love to interfere with the Islamic religion".

In stating that I'm a practising Muslim, I was merely responding to the commenter lest he/she assumed that I am non-Muslim.

And I suppose it is up to you to believe that my religion is "a cruel and demeaning one". I am Muslim and in my column and commentaries I have clearly critiqued the focus on corporal punishment in a lot of Muslim societies. So, I think your response is just as problematic as the comment you take issue with.

Shanon Shah
Columns and Comments Editor

Hidayat Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 1.24PM

Malaysia oh Malaysia - they never really stop using religions for politics. Why so much fuss and efforts on syariah punishment, when there are more important and essential issues to deal with, like improving education, helping families, reducing pollution, improving health services etc. (which are more beneficial to all Malaysians). Something that has been acceptable in Islam for a thousand years (like caning) does not make it automatically suitable for today's times. Not changing our mind and lifestyles for a thousand years would leave us behind in this ever-changing world.

Nurul Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 2.45PM

It is sad to know that many Muslims have failed to understand their own religion, hence failed to make our non-Muslim fellow friends understand and respect Islam as a religion. Do not blame our non-Muslim friends for their confusion and misunderstanding on Islam. They can't be blamed bacause they just don't know.

Forky Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 2.59PM

With Islamisation increasing and being politicised by our politicians for their own political mileage, I am wondering whether Malaysia will end up like Iran. Or worse still, another Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan in the future.

This latest event is also unfortunate since it happened just after the controversy surrounding the "Allah" issue and the ongoing sodomy case against Anwar Ibrahim.

With all these negative publicity and reports about Malaysia, I am wondering whether Malaysia will be able to attract FDIs and remain competitive. The recent PERC report about Malaysia also speaks for itself.

By the way, thanks Shanon, for your excellent article. What you said in your article is truly a wake-up call to all right thinking Malaysians to question whether Malaysia is becoming an Islamic state that we deserve or by default.

Therefore, it is up to Malaysians to decide what Malaysia will become in the future. Therefore, we Malaysians must vote wisely in GE13 for the sake of Malaysia's future and survival.

===

Thanks Forky, and I think it's important to stress that our concerns cut across religious lines - both non-Muslims *and* Muslims are grappling with all that you have pointed out.

Shanon Shah
Columns and Comments Editor

Peter Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 3.14PM

@Nurul

The religion is NOT the issue. The use of religion for political control of the country is.

As long as you are convinced by the leaders that your religion/way of life is "under attack", you (and many like you) are convinced that you will need to protect this way of life.

Question: In Malaysia, we have NEVER subjected woman to public caning before. Never in history. Why is this suddenly "a way of life" to be protected when we have never practised this before?

TK Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 3.44PM

Well...well...well...looks like someone is trying to play God and it's getting me confused. Whatever I do is between me and God and not between me and flesh-and-blood! Being a social drinker, I never borrow money from others to buy a mug of beer or two nor will I disturb others. I will definitely make sure that it's between me and Him. It is better than giving fiery "ceramahs" condemning others. I am really confused about the Malaysian legal system. Damn!

lovetointerfere Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 3.51PM

In that case Shanon Shah, I'm sorry if I offended you. I got it wrong. My apologies. That comment was aimed at 'Who knows more'.

===
No offence taken :-) Thanks for contributing to the discussion.

Shanon Shah
Columns and Comments Editor

fracker Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 3.58PM

Umno is hiding behind the banner of Islam to impose their undemocratic rule and actions. Their selfish actions are destroying the nation and are leading this country into Zimbabwe- [and Iran-]type rule.

Hoyohoyo Posted: 19 Feb 10 : 4.31PM

Ummmm, stoning was and is probably practised for years, so it can be said it's "acceptable" thereafter huh?

Castration was "accepted" by the Chinese for more than two thousands years by the way...

Tipping point of "tolerance"?

2010-01-08T03:00:00.003-06:00

Author Profile Page gravenimage | January 7, 2010 7:57 PM | Reply

As I have noted here many times, Arabic-speaking Christians were using the word "Allah" for God from time immemorial -- the whole controversy over this in Malaysia is just another supremacist initiative.
...................

True. In fact, the tiny remnant of Jews surviving in the Muslim world such as Yemen are often Arabic speakers. I had a Jewish friend in college who had spent a summer in Israel helping new immigrants settle. She was surprised when she realized that her Yemeni clients referred to God as "Allah".

"Allah" is a *pre-Islamic* Arabic word—whatever most Muslims might believe—and is used to mean "God" by most Arabic speakers, whatever their faith.

The odd thing is that Muslims infiltrating the West-and their clueless non-Muslims supporters in the "inter-faith" movement—have encouraged Infidels in Europe to use the word "Allah" as just another word for "God".

This would seem to be hypocritical—or at least contradictory—except that both stances promote Muslim supremacy under differing circumstances.

from above:

The High Court last week ruled in favour of the Catholic "Herald" newspaper which has used "Allah" as a translation for "God" in its Malay-language section. The government has said the word should be used only by Muslims.

The ruling was suspended on Wednesday pending an appeal, after the government argued the decision could cause racial conflict in multicultural Malaysia, where Muslim Malays make up 60 percent of the population....

Racial? What race is Islam? What race is Christianity?
...................

Islam is *not* a race—except in Malaysia, where it is. *All* ethnic Malays are considered, °by state law*, to be Muslim. It is difficult for anyone of any group—Chinese, Indian, Malay, whatever—to apostize in Malaysia, as it is in virtually any Muslim nation—but it is especially difficult for ethnic Malays, who are considered born into Islam.

Imagine the horror of being unable to leave Islam *because of your ethnicity*-and yet some idiots consider Malaysia a "moderate" Muslim nation.

The fact that the word "Allah" is going to be used to denote the Christian God in the Malay-language section of a Catholic newspaper—the fact that a Catholic newspaper *has* a Malay-language section—especially enrages Malaysian Muslims.

Source: http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/01/muslims-fire-bomb-malaysian-church-for-using-the-word-allah.html, Retrieved 08 January 2010.

Ivan Illich : To Hell with Good Intentions

2009-12-01T07:24:00.002-06:00

IN THE CONVERSATIONS WHICH I HAVE HAD TODAY, I was impressed by two things, and I want to state them before I launch into my prepared talk.

I was impressed by your insight that the motivation of U.S. volunteers overseas springs mostly from very alienated feelings and concepts. I was equally impressed, by what I interpret as a step forward among would-be volunteers like you: openness to the idea that the only thing you can legitimately volunteer for in Latin America might be voluntary powerlessness, voluntary presence as receivers, as such, as hopefully beloved or adopted ones without any way of returning the gift.

I was equally impressed by the hypocrisy of most of you: by the hypocrisy of the atmosphere prevailing here. I say this as a brother speaking to brothers and sisters. I say it against many resistances within me; but it must be said. Your very insight, your very openness to evaluations of past programs make you hypocrites because you - or at least most of you - have decided to spend this next summer in Mexico, and therefore, you are unwilling to go far enough in your reappraisal of your program. You close your eyes because you want to go ahead and could not do so if you looked at some facts.

It is quite possible that this hypocrisy is unconscious in most of you. Intellectually, you are ready to see that the motivations which could legitimate volunteer action overseas in 1963 cannot be invoked for the same action in 1968. "Mission-vacations" among poor Mexicans were "the thing" to do for well-off U.S. students earlier in this decade: sentimental concern for newly-discovered. poverty south of the border combined with total blindness to much worse poverty at home justified such benevolent excursions. Intellectual insight into the difficulties of fruitful volunteer action had not sobered the spirit of Peace Corps Papal-and-Self-Styled Volunteers.

Today, the existence of organizations like yours is offensive to Mexico. I wanted to make this statement in order to explain why I feel sick about it all and in order to make you aware that good intentions have not much to do with what we are discussing here. To hell with good intentions. This is a theological statement. You will not help anybody by your good intentions. There is an Irish saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions; this sums up the same theological insight.

The very frustration which participation in CIASP programs might mean for you, could lead you to new awareness: the awareness that even North Americans can receive the gift of hospitality without the slightest ability to pay for it; the awareness that for some gifts one cannot even say "thank you."

Now to my prepared statement.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

For the past six years I have become known for my increasing opposition to the presence of any and all North American "dogooders" in Latin America. I am sure you know of my present efforts to obtain the voluntary withdrawal of all North American volunteer armies from Latin America - missionaries, Peace Corps members and groups like yours, a "division" organized for the benevolent invasion of Mexico. You were aware of these things when you invited me - of all people - to be the main speaker at your annual convention. This is amazing! I can only conclude that your invitation means one of at least three things:

Some among you might have reached the conclusion that CIASP should either dissolve altogether, or take the promotion of voluntary aid to the Mexican poor out of its institutional purpose. Therefore you might have invited me here to help others reach this same decision.

You might also have invited me because you want to learn how to deal with people who think the way I do - how to dispute them successfully. It has now become quite common to invite Black Power spokesmen to address Lions Clubs. A "dove" must always be included in a public dispute organized to increase U.S. belligerence.

And finally, you might have invited me here hoping that you would be able to agree with most of what I say, and then go ahead in good faith and work this summer in Mexican villages. This last possibility is only open to those who do not listen, or who cannot understand me.

I did not come here to argue. I am here to tell you, if possible to convince you, and hopefully, to stop you, from pretentiously imposing yourselves on Mexicans.

I do have deep faith in the enormous good will of the U.S. volunteer. However, his good faith can usually be explained only by an abysmal lack of intuitive delicacy. By definition, you cannot help being ultimately vacationing salesmen for the middle-class "American Way of Life," since that is really the only life you know. A group like this could not have developed unless a mood in the United States had supported it - the belief that any true American must share God's blessings with his poorer fellow men. The idea that every American has something to give, and at all times may, can and should give it, explains why it occurred to students that they could help Mexican peasants "develop" by spending a few months in their villages.

Of course, this surprising conviction was supported by members of a missionary order, who would have no reason to exist unless they had the same conviction - except a much stronger one. It is now high time to cure yourselves of this. You, like the values you carry, are the products of an American society of achievers and consumers, with its two-party system, its universal schooling, and its family-car affluence. You are ultimately-consciously or unconsciously - "salesmen" for a delusive ballet in the ideas of democracy, equal opportunity and free enterprise among people who haven't the possibility of profiting from these.

Next to money and guns, the third largest North American export is the U.S. idealist, who turns up in every theater of the world: the teacher, the volunteer, the missionary, the community organizer, the economic developer, and the vacationing do-gooders. Ideally, these people define their role as service. Actually, they frequently wind up alleviating the damage done by money and weapons, or "seducing" the "underdeveloped" to the benefits of the world of affluence and achievement. Perhaps this is the moment to instead bring home to the people of the U.S. the knowledge that the way of life they have chosen simply is not alive enough to be shared.

By now it should be evident to all America that the U.S. is engaged in a tremendous struggle to survive. The U.S. cannot survive if the rest of the world is not convinced that here we have Heaven-on-Earth. The survival of the U.S. depends on the acceptance by all so-called "free" men that the U.S. middle class has "made it." The U.S. way of life has become a religion which must be accepted by all those who do not want to die by the sword - or napalm. All over the globe the U.S. is fighting to protect and develop at least a minority who consume what the U.S. majority can afford. Such is the purpose of the Alliance for Progress of the middle-classes which the U.S. signed with Latin America some years ago. But increasingly this commercial alliance must be protected by weapons which allow the minority who can "make it" to protect their acquisitions and achievements.

But weapons are not enough to permit minority rule. The marginal masses become rambunctious unless they are given a "Creed," or belief which explains the status quo. This task is given to the U.S. volunteer - whether he be a member of CLASP or a worker in the so-called "Pacification Programs" in Viet Nam.

The United States is currently engaged in a three-front struggle to affirm its ideals of acquisitive and achievement-oriented "Democracy." I say "three" fronts, because three great areas of the world are challenging the validity of a political and social system which makes the rich ever richer, and the poor increasingly marginal to that system.

In Asia, the U.S. is threatened by an established power -China. The U.S. opposes China with three weapons: the tiny Asian elites who could not have it any better than in an alliance with the United States; a huge war machine to stop the Chinese from "taking over" as it is usually put in this country, and; forcible re-education of the so-called "Pacified" peoples. All three of these efforts seem to be failing.

In Chicago, poverty funds, the police force and preachers seem to be no more successful in their efforts to check the unwillingness of the black community to wait for graceful integration into the system.

And finally, in Latin America the Alliance for Progress has been quite successful in increasing the number of people who could not be better off - meaning the tiny, middle-class elites - and has created ideal conditions for military dictatorships. The dictators were formerly at the service of the plantation owners, but now they protect the new industrial complexes. And finally, you come to help the underdog accept his destiny within this process!

All you will do in a Mexican village is create disorder. At best, you can try to convince Mexican girls that they should marry a young man who is self-made, rich, a consumer, and as disrespectful of tradition as one of you. At worst, in your "community development" spirit you might create just enough problems to get someone shot after your vacation ends_ and you rush back to your middleclass neighborhoods where your friends make jokes about "spits" and "wetbacks."

You start on your task without any training. Even the Peace Corps spends around $10,000 on each corps member to help him adapt to his new environment and to guard him against culture shock. How odd that nobody ever thought about spending money to educate poor Mexicans in order to prevent them from the culture shock of meeting you?

In fact, you cannot even meet the majority which you pretend to serve in Latin America - even if you could speak their language, which most of you cannot. You can only dialogue with those like you - Latin American imitations of the North American middle class. There is no way for you to really meet with the underprivileged, since there is no common ground whatsoever for you to meet on.

Let me explain this statement, and also let me explain why most Latin Americans with whom you might be able to communicate would disagree with me.

Suppose you went to a U.S. ghetto this summer and tried to help the poor there "help themselves." Very soon you would be either spit upon or laughed at. People offended by your pretentiousness would hit or spit. People who understand that your own bad consciences push you to this gesture would laugh condescendingly. Soon you would be made aware of your irrelevance among the poor, of your status as middle-class college students on a summer assignment. You would be roundly rejected, no matter if your skin is white-as most of your faces here are-or brown or black, as a few exceptions who got in here somehow.

Your reports about your work in Mexico, which you so kindly sent me, exude self-complacency. Your reports on past summers prove that you are not even capable of understanding that your dogooding in a Mexican village is even less relevant than it would be in a U.S. ghetto. Not only is there a gulf between what you have and what others have which is much greater than the one existing between you and the poor in your own country, but there is also a gulf between what you feel and what the Mexican people feel that is incomparably greater. This gulf is so great that in a Mexican village you, as White Americans (or cultural white Americans) can imagine yourselves exactly the way a white preacher saw himself when he offered his life preaching to the black slaves on a plantation in Alabama. The fact that you live in huts and eat tortillas for a few weeks renders your well-intentioned group only a bit more picturesque.

The only people with whom you can hope to communicate with are some members of the middle class. And here please remember that I said "some" -by which I mean a tiny elite in Latin America.

You come from a country which industrialized early and which succeeded in incorporating the great majority of its citizens into the middle classes. It is no social distinction in the U.S. to have graduated from the second year of college. Indeed, most Americans now do. Anybody in this country who did not finish high school is considered underprivileged.

In Latin America the situation is quite different: 75% of all people drop out of school before they reach the sixth grade. Thus, people who have finished high school are members of a tiny minority. Then, a minority of that minority goes on for university training. It is only among these people that you will find your educational equals.

At the same time, a middle class in the United States is the majority. In Mexico, it is a tiny elite. Seven years ago your country began and financed a so-called "Alliance for Progress." This was an "Alliance" for the "Progress" of the middle class elites. Now. it is among the members of this middle class that you will find a few people who are willing to send their time with you_ And they are overwhelmingly those "nice kids" who would also like to soothe their troubled consciences by "doing something nice for the promotion of the poor Indians." Of course, when you and your middleclass Mexican counterparts meet, you will be told that you are doing something valuable, that you are "sacrificing" to help others.

And it will be the foreign priest who will especially confirm your self-image for you. After all, his livelihood and sense of purpose depends on his firm belief in a year-round mission which is of the same type as your summer vacation-mission.

There exists the argument that some returned volunteers have gained insight into the damage they have done to others - and thus become more mature people. Yet it is less frequently stated that most of them are ridiculously proud of their "summer sacrifices." Perhaps there is also something to the argument that young men should be promiscuous for awhile in order to find out that sexual love is most beautiful in a monogamous relationship. Or that the best way to leave LSD alone is to try it for awhile -or even that the best way of understanding that your help in the ghetto is neither needed nor wanted is to try, and fail. I do not agree with this argument. The damage which volunteers do willy-nilly is too high a price for the belated insight that they shouldn't have been volunteers in the first place.

If you have any sense of responsibility at all, stay with your riots here at home. Work for the coming elections: You will know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how to communicate with those to whom you speak. And you will know when you fail. If you insist on working with the poor, if this is your vocation, then at least work among the poor who can tell you to go to hell. It is incredibly unfair for you to impose yourselves on a village where you are so linguistically deaf and dumb that you don't even understand what you are doing, or what people think of you. And it is profoundly damaging to yourselves when you define something that you want to do as "good," a "sacrifice" and "help."

I am here to suggest that you voluntarily renounce exercising the power which being an American gives you. I am here to entreat you to freely, consciously and humbly give up the legal right you have to impose your benevolence on Mexico. I am here to challenge you to recognize your inability, your powerlessness and your incapacity to do the "good" which you intended to do.

I am here to entreat you to use your money, your status and your education to travel in Latin America. Come to look, come to climb our mountains, to enjoy our flowers. Come to study. But do not come to help.

Source: Retrieved on 30 November 2009, from http://www.bicyclingfish.com/illich.htm

Japanese as Malaysia's third language

2009-11-06T21:39:00.006-06:00

KUALA LUMPUR 3 Nov. - Kerajaan merancang untuk menambah lebih banyak sekolah berasrama penuh dan sekolah menengah harian yang mengajar bahasa Jepun sebagai bahasa ketiga selepas bahasa Melayu dan Inggeris.
Government plans...to add more full-boarding school and high school...that teach Japanese language as third language after Malay and English language.
Ketua Pengarah Pelajaran, Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd. Dom berkata, untuk itu setiap tahun kementerian akan menambah tenaga pengajar bahasa Jepun di sekolah terbabit.

"Setiap tahun kita akan menambah kelas bahasa Jepun di sekolah-sekolah berasrama penuh dan menengah harian apabila pelajar-pelajar kita yang berlajar di Jepun pulang ke tanah air," katanya.
(DIRECTOR-General of Education Tan Sri Alimuddin Mohd Dom)...every year we will add more Japanese language class...when our students who finished their study in Japan return to Malaysia.
Beliau menyatakan demikian pada sidang akhbar selepas merasmikan Forum Osaka University 2009 mengenai bahasa Jepun di Institute Pendidikan Guru Kampus Bahasa Antarabangsa di sini hari ini.

Turut hadir Duta Jepun, Masahiko Horie; Presiden Universiti Osaka, Kiyokazu Washida;s dan Pengarah Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Bahasa Antarabangsa, Dr. Mohd. Sofi Ali.

Allimuddin berkata, sehingga kini guru bahasa Jepun tidak mencukupi kerana permintaan bukan sahaja di sekolah-sekolah malah di sektor kerajaan dan swasta.

"Sejumlah 43 buah sekolah berasrama penuh dan 29 buah sekolah menengah harian terlibat dalam program bahasa Jepun tahun lepas," katanya.
"Last year, 43 full-boarding school and 29 high school involved in Japanese language programme," he said.
Mengenai siasatan tragedi jambatan gantung runtuh di Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Dipang di Perak, Alimuddin berkata, jawatankuasa khas tersebut akan mengadakan mesyuarat kedua pada Isnin depan.

"Kita akan serahkan laporan siasatan kepada Timbalan Perdana Menteri, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin dalam minggu yang akan datang," katanya.

Katanya, jawatankuasa khas yang terdiri daripada wakil Jabatan Kerja Raya (JKR), polis dan wakil kerajaan negeri Perak itu telah mengadakan mesyuarat pertamanya Sabtu lalu.

Source: http://www.utusan.com.my/

Of Malaysian and Malay Language

2009-11-05T22:40:00.003-06:00

Salam,

Sy org Malaysia. Dulu semasa sy tinggal di Johor Bahru, di selatan berdekatan dengan Singapura dan Batam, di rumah sy terjangkau televisyen Indonesia.
I am a Malaysian once lived in Johor Bahru..first time I heard Indonesian news...I was amazed by the poetic and high-culture of Indonesian language...
Pertama kali sy mendengar siaran berita dari Indonesia, sy sungguh kagum kerana bahasanya amat tinggi dan puitis. Sy beranggapan kalaulah sy dpt menggunakan gaya bahasa yg sama, maka sy dengan mudah mendapat A1 (gred tertinggi) di dalam Bahasa Melayu SPM (peperiksaan tertinggi) sy.

Jadi, inilah keadaannya di Malaysia. Penuturan Bahasa Melayu sangat lemah bahkan di kalangan org Melayu sendiri. Persoalannya bahasa Melayu ada loghat tersendiri di setiap negeri. Bahasa yg diajarkan di sekolah adalah bahasa standard/piawai yg sepatutnya menggunakan loghat Johor/Riau. Jadi penuturannya jelas tidak sama dengan yg standard atau yg baku. Dulu semasa zaman Anwar Ibrahim menjadi Menteri Pendidikan, bahasa baku diketengahkan. Namun kini berbalik ke asal. Bahasa Melayu di Malaysia menggunakan bahasa KL yg ramai org mengatakan ianya standard. Namun tidak.
Hence...current situation in Malaysia...the usage of Malay language is weak...even among the Malays. Problem is...every state in Malaysia have their own Malay-dialect...the standard Malay language (bahasa baku) being taught in school...is of Johor/Riau dialect...unfortunately this is not stressed after Anwar Ibrahim (former Minister of Education) era...
Jadi, gaya percakapan org Malaysia sendiri byk menggunakan bahasa pasar KL. Bayangkan kalau seorg bercakap loghat Jakarta dan seorang lagi loghat KL, pastinya tidak bertemu titik pemahaman. Org Indonesia bila bercakap dengan orang Malaysia boleh/bisa berbalik ke Bahasa Indonesia baku namun org Malaysia tidak ramai yg berkemampuan utk kembali ke Bahasa Malaysia standard. Jadinya, inilah penyebab jurang tersebut. Perbendaharaan kata Bahasa Melayu yg lemah juga penyebab akan hal ini. Cuba tanya org Malaysia berapa ramai yang tahu makna guntur, citra, bening dsb. Ramai yg menjawab ini bahasa Indonesia sungguhpun perkataan ini adalah perkataan bahasa Melayu juga.

..city-dwellers, including Malay people, prefer using English language...sign of modernity and advancement. Malay language, often regard as backward-language...only used when talking to house keeper, Indonesian construction site worker, or Bangladeshi petrol station attendent.

Org bandar Malaysia termsuklah org Melayu lebih senang menggunakan Bahasa Inggeris. Bagi sy, mereka ini menghirup udara Inggeris. Bercakap Inggeris, gaya hidup Inggeris dan mahu kelihatan moden. Bagi mereka, berbahasa Inggeris lambang kemajuan. Bercakap Melayu lambang kemunduran. Bahasa Melayu hanya layak dituturkan dengan golongan bawahan seperti di pasar, memesan makanan dengan pekerja India di kedai mamak, bercakap dengan pembantu rumah atau buruh binaan Indonesia, ataupun bercakap dengan Bangla(desh) yg berkerja di pam-pam minyak.

The Chinese and Indian Malaysian used to speak in Malay with each other...even that has changed. Chinese in Indonesian are proud with speaking Malay, unlike Chinese in Malaysia...

Bhs Melayu yg dulu menjadi lingua franca penduduk Malaysia kini terhakis dengan penggunaan bahasa Inggeris. Dulu Cina dan India bercakap Melayu sesama mereka, kini berbahasa Inggeris. Maaf, ada org bukan Melayu seperti Cina dan India yg langsung tidak tahu bertutur dalam bahasa Melayu hatta bahasa Malaysia adalah bahasa kebangsaan. Org Cina Indonesia berbangga berbahasa Indonesia tetapi tidak di sini. Bahasa hanya dilihat dari sudut wang Ringgit. Tidak tahu berbahasa Melayu tidak apa asalkan wang Ringgit masuk ke poket.

Language is seen from the 'money' angle...it's okay not to speak Malay as long as Ringgit is going into your pocket.

Petikan dari (Source): http://rinaldimunir.wordpress.com/2007/05/10/antara-bahasa-malaysia-dan-bahasa-indonesia/

Because God is both summer and winter

2009-08-24T20:31:00.001-06:00

BIGOTRY (prejudice, racism, intolerance, bias, narrow-mindedness, chauvinism)

Life is not an effort to attain, it is a celebration. Heraclitus says, “Bigotry is the sacred disease.”

Whenever a person becomes religious, this disease is possible. Whenever one becomes religious, one becomes vulnerable to this disease, bigotry. It is very difficult to find a religious man and not bigoted.

It happened: I saw Mulla Nasaruddin drinking in a bar and asked, “Nasaruddin, what are you doing? Just yesterday you told me that you have left drinking and you have become an absolute teetotaler, so what are you doing?”

Nasaruddin said, “ Yes I am an absolute teetotaler – but not a bigoted one.”

Whatsoever you are, remain flexible. Don’t create a fixed frame around you, remain moving and flowing. Sometimes one has to go out of the discipline also. Life is bigger than your discipline and sometimes one has to go completely against one’s own rules – because God is both summer and winter.

Don’t be a victim of bigotry. Be religious but don’t be a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian. Let the whole earth be your church, let the whole existence be your temple. And when the whole God is available, why be satisfied with a fragment? Why say Christian, why say Hindu? When you can be a human being, why choose labels? Drop all labels and drop all beliefs.

From the book: Meeting with People, Chapter on Heraclitus by Osho

Why I Didnt Celebrate Valentines day and Practice Yoga

2009-08-06T00:39:00.002-06:00

Why I Didnt Celebrate Valentines day and Practice Yoga
Posted by: sheikhkl
Source: http://blog.thestar.com.my/permalink.asp?id=21364

Saint Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. The holiday is named after two among the numerous Early Christian martyrs named Valentine.

Numerous early Christian martyrs were named Valentine Until 1969, the Catholic Church formally recognized eleven Valentine's Days. The Valentines honored on February 14 are Valentine of Rome (Valentinus presb. m. Romae) and Valentine of Terni (Valentinus ep. Interamnensis m. Romae). Valentine of Rome was a priest in Rome who suffered martyrdom about AD 269 and was buried on the Via Flaminia His relics are at the Church of Saint Praxed in Rome..

Valentine of Terni became bishop of Interamna (modern Terni) about AD 197 and is said to have been killed during the persecution of Emperor Aurelian. He is also buried on the Via Flaminia, but in a different location than Valentine of Rome. His relics are at the Basilica of Saint Valentine in Terni (Basilica di San Valentino).[

So even some relate it to the the final note a Valentine to his lover before he is excuted " From Your Valentine", Its actually the day the Valentines are honoured for their matrydom.

So , thats why its Fatwa haram for muslims and I dont celebrate Saint Valentine's Day. So sorry mini, bshan and friends... no flower from me.

YOGA

Yoga refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines originating in India. In Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal toward which that school directs its practices.

Majlis Fatwa passed a fatwa, which is legally non-binding, only for Muslims only and does not effect the non-muslims unlike Hudud, against Muslims practicing yoga, saying it had elements of "Hindu spiritual teachings" and could lead to blasphemy and is therefore haraam. The fatwa states that yoga practiced only as physical exercise is permissible, but prohibits the chanting of religious mantras, and states that teachings such as uniting of a human with God is not consistent with Islamic philosophy.

Some of the people doesnt even know what AUM means of imply to , which AUM is always chanted in YOGA.

Aum or it symbol ॐ is a mystical or sacred syllable in the Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist religions. It is placed at the beginning of most Hindu texts as a sacred exclamation to be uttered at the beginning and end of a reading of the Vedas or previously to any prayer or mantra and also is said in the beginning of any puja (religious ritual). The Mandukya Upanishad is entirely devoted to the explanation of the syllable.

So, thats why they came out with Fatwa Haram to practise YOGA as a whole. I opt for praying five times a day and sit khyusuk and do zikrullah. My mind , body and soul will be very strong and healthy.

Comments
sheikhkl : I would be traumatised if you were to even wish me Happy Valentine's Day, let alone sending me flowers :)

I think people who merely greet their loved ones with "I Love YOU"s the whole year through are more sincere than any chocolates or flowers or diamond rings can be ( haha .. I guess I'm too poor to afford all these so I'm being sour grapes .. kekeke ). Valentine's Day is over-commercialised these days and I think St Valentine himself is turning in his grave knowing what a mockery a celebration in his name has turned out to be.

Anyway, I think I have all the Valentine wishes I needed for this year - from my mom, my sister, my ex-gf and a banker :)

But I do hope everyone else had a great Valentine's Day nonetheless :)
By miniaturz, 15-Feb-2009

so? do u think i care?
By benjy8769, 15-Feb-2009

Thanks Sheikhkl, we have been misunderstood of what your kind are professing, you truely deserved an alternative lifestyle of your own. However, I hope the same is practise by the children of the past and present political top brass who messed up the educational system of Malaysia but quietly sent their children to study overseas, I hope they accept the truth that you believed in because like their parents they seem to live their life by telling lies and supported by a diehard like you who willing to accept their lie of them being the factors of stability and others are all devilish. Now I smell the same propagandas of our colonial master.
By tommcruise, 15-Feb-2009 benjy

You wrote, you cared
By matricx, 15-Feb-2009

Benjo.... benjo If you dont care why you write comment. You care to comment la that yu dont care.

To my dear mini, all along i thought u are one who wear 'mini' skirt , drive a 'mini' minor, have a 'minnie mouse' doll at home . but when you wrote 'ex-gf'.. wow.... St Valentine would turn upside down in his grave if i wish u Happy Valentine Day... even I didnt celebrate the V day.

So, to benjo... i dont care if u dont care if i care... this not for u.
By sheikhkl, 15-Feb-2009

But I think it is ok for everyone (including Muslims) to celebrate this special day with someone they loved, be it his wife/ husband or mom/dad. I don't think anyone in this world take Valnetine's Day as a religious worship day anyway.

Of course I agree that, we should show love and affection to our loved ones everyday and not on this single day of the year itself. But, living in a hectic live where people are too busy with their career climbing agenda, it's really hard to find quality time. When 14th Feb every year was coined to be a special day for a showcase of love and affection, why not? This is where and when both side of the couple will spend real quality time together and cherish the special day.
By ahtow, 15-Feb-2009

Your last sentence is very sriking! "I opt for praying five times a day and sit khyusuk and do zikrullah. My mind, body and soul will be very strong and healthy".

Don't say your mind, body and soul will be very strong and healthy. You pray five times a day, sit khyusuk and do zikrullah everyday, and, I hope, you are very strong and healthy. You should be, don't you? Will be is not certain, sometimes, it is not going to be!
By milbil, 15-Feb-2009

So Muslims who celebrate Valentine Day and practice Yoga are weak in the mind? Is that what you're implying?
By chewkc65, 15-Feb-2009

Yoga cannot practice. Valentine's Day cannot celebrate. But bomoh can consult?
By klyong2502, 16-Feb-2009

Mr Chew, if a Muslim celebrate Valentine day and practice 'Yoga with chants of mantra', I believe they did that because they dont know thats haram in Islam. Its not like drinking alcohol or adultery, which all Muslim know its haram. This is still new for some. Still , some Muslims drinks. But in Islam , if our fellow muslims dont know , we must tell them. thats what we called fatwa. If they still insist of doing it, well thats another chapter. You can come to my sermon at the Masjid Negara every friday at 5am and I will xplain.
But dont putarbelit my words ok. I didnt say whoever practice Yoga and celebrate valentine are weak in mind. But for Muslims to do that, its not about weak mind, but its about doing something against your faith.

Put it this way. Its ok and very good for our health to practice the movement or exercise of Yoga excl the chants ( for muslims). You can call it Yoga, Toga, Boga, Soga or even BOTA. Its ok.

We can also make 14th February a day to celebrate with you wife or lover or concubines as a ' Hari Kasih Sayang' or Love Day . Just like we celebrate 31st August Merdeka day. or was it 16 September?? But we cant celebrate St Valentine's Day.

And to my friend 'milbil', thanks for pointing out my mistake. My faith is strong. There are ways to define will be. I thought 'will' means 'surely'.

To dearest tommcruise, tell u that Nicole kidman is much much prettier and sexier than that skinny who's her name... larry holmes..eeekkkk wrong.... Katie holmes right.
By sheikhkl, 16-Feb-2009

Well, that's what we need. A group who think they were given the authority by God to single out what is right and what is wrong and all that stupid people without brains follow blindly. Thanks to people like sheikhkl, these blindfolding groups will prevail.

Good luck to you, sheikh!
By carlitoz, 16-Feb-2009

syeikhkl, Islamic Law is Islam. You cannot separate Islamic Law from Islam.
By soondar, 16-Feb-2009

Haram because bad for 'health', right? then should have a fatwa to stop smoking... bad for your health and also very bad for non-smokers...
By darkblues, 16-Feb-2009

It is a shame that religious and cultural practices have been violated and commercialised to the extent that they lose all their meaning. It is becoming fashionable now to spend hundreds buying a big bunch of roses and chocolates, erect posters and all sots of gimmics to declare one's love for their mate.

Such open declaration of one's love in public may be the norm in western countries but it is certainly not an Asian or Malaysian culture. Many will say that Malaysians are cold and do not know how to show love to their spouses compared to the westerners who shower them with sweet and intimate talk all the time. But the irony is that the divorce rate of these westerners are very much higher. Something must be right about old fashioned love in the heart and genuine care and concern for one another - minus the roses and chocolates. Anyway, everyone has the right to do whatever they feel suits them. Happy belated Valentine.
By ngguanhuah, 16-Feb-2009

Hello Sheikhkl, if this the way of life you want, so be it.
Look around you, a seed is growing to become a tree, everything is moving forward, growing, expanding. Tell me which is going backward?
By soh6299, 16-Feb-2009

"praying five times a day and sit khyusuk and do zikrullah. My mind , body and soul will be very strong and healthy."

I'm surprised with they way your posting "behaves" especially after doing all the things that you have mentioned above. By the way, don’t waste your time explaining about AUM as you know nuts about it. Go and study about your religion first and try to understand that first because the problem with your kind of people is that, you don’t have your own brains to think and justify the reality of life as humans, the difference between mankind and religion. I believe the Prophet himself doesn’t behave like you people and therefore, look back into the things that he has done during his time as your guide and take him as your “GURU”. Nowadays it’s funny that the believers had to be advised by some human clerics when the Quran itself has been referred as total and complete guide to mankind in order to survive in both material and spiritual world. Go and get a life man, by the way I think your sermons are good enough for people with your kind of mentality and therefore stop wasting your time inviting others to join in. When you talk about religion, think first if you really deserve to have one as a human.
By super_structure, 16-Feb-2009

Valentine's day is comercialized money making day. Does by giving gifts really show the love for partner? My parents havent been giving gifts for a very long time but still they love each other. Better think twice before you spend your money. But then again, for my dearest Muslim friends, its your choice on how to live your life because at the end of the day all your practises will be judge accordingly.
By e11e, 16-Feb-2009

It's really up to that couple of they want to celebrate Valentine's in style or treat it as just another ordinary day. To look at it in a more positive way, it's a lot better to show some love even if it's sickly sweet, even if it's commercialized like every other "special days", and that includes Christmas, the Eid, Diwali, CNY, Yom Kippur and etc (and yes they are all commercialized now, okay... get over it already!)... but look, at least it's a lot better than chucking bombs at fellow mankind or shouting racist propaganda.

There's no need to get all superior with your holier-than-thou because that's what this post is really about, isn't it? To blow your own trumpet and suffocate us with your condescending attitude. Very cavalier of you, I'm sure.

I guess I can take the hint and go off and do my own things that by your standards is not Islamic enough. But you know what? It makes me happy and it doesn't hurt other people or annoy them.

So you get your martyred butt out of here and go preach to someone else who may actually give a damn. Someone who might actually worship you and kiss your feet that are too good for the lowly us, o' you saintly one.
By monadc, 16-Feb-2009

religion is just a guidance to our life, but our brain is smart enough to differentiate what is relevant to believe and what is not. Unless you have a disfunctional brain.
By huimyn, 16-Feb-2009

Hey SheikhKL...I, just like darkblues, am very interested to know about why smoking is not Haram by the fatwa. I have actually post this question to my Muslim friends before, and the answer I got is "the effects from smoking is much slower than alcohol"...but my question is, it is still detrimental right? not only to yourself, but worse still to other especially non-smokers (as opposed to alcohol).

I would appreciate your feedback on this as I see that you seem to have an answer for most of the things in the world.

Also I am with super_structure. You have NO idea what AUM is all about. Merely copy-ing and pasting from the internet doesnt make it right my friend.

Cheers
By meesu, 16-Feb-2009

whether one likes this blog or the ensuing comments, this is nevertheless an interesting interchange of beliefs and knowledge. It is good that this topic perhaps is not discussed in public, otherwise, some may have to be invited for RM2 per day free meals with the Home Minister.
By heavearth, 16-Feb-2009

My post reads Why I did not celebrate Valentine's Day and did not practice Yoga. I wrote this because some question me when I wrote , " sorry , I didnt celebrate Valentine's Day". I think maybe most of you want to belittle my believe. Thats way I have to abide by it. And consulting to Bomoh is Syirik, most sinful act in Islam. So we cannot consult to Bomoh.

And i really think you are blind hearted and wordblind mr super, read the post again. Its says, Why I, me , sheikh, .... Not you or your kind.
I said again, why I.... and to my faith , not you or other people. I wrote this because people ask me here.
And if you says what i wrote about Aum is nuts , you should tell that to Swami Dayanand Saraswati whom i learned from.
I didnt invite others , I only invite chew. And that was only a mere say. I didnt do sermon. Infact , i m not even in Malaysia now.
So , dont be too emotional when I wrote there that I can't do what you always do according to your believe. Like Yoga. I didnt say Yoga is Wrong, not healthy or stupid. I say that according to Islam, I cannot do Yoga as I had explained up there.
Everyone has the right to do or dont do. And for you also to say that i have to "look back into the things that he ( the Prophet Muhamad S.A.W. ) has done during his time as my guide.
By sheikhkl, 16-Feb-2009

Pls respond to my question on smoking. I need to understand your belief too.
By meesu, 16-Feb-2009

sheikhkl,

I quote your words below:

"So, thats why they came out with Fatwa Haram to practise YOGA as a whole."

Who are "they" . The fatwa council? You believe them? They had to find out about this after how many decades? What were they doing till then?

All muslims don't need to be told what is halal and haram. They know it because they have brains and are not fanatic.

We respect your religion, you respect ours. Call it fair and don't have to voice out in public that what is our believe is haram for you. Seal it for now sheikhkl. Better talk political issues. You sound better protecting BN.
By carlitoz, 16-Feb-2009

I thought the RM2 free 'like dog meals' per day hv been upgrade to RM3.50 since Ms Kok complained.

1. Hevea, Since you say that i have no idea what AUM is all about, I m sorry, maybe i m wrong, maybe the Majlis fatwa is also wrong , we are humans. BUT i just need u to tell me what i wrote and learned about AUM is wrong up there.

2. I dont have all the answer in the world, I m learning. In regards to Smoking, there is actually already a Fatwa Haram gazetted by JAIS ( Selangor) already. The majority of Ulama ( Islamic Body and Scholars) have put it as MAKRUH, not HARAM. Makruh means if you dont do it, you will be rewarded , but if you do it, its not a sin but its a despicable act. We have 4 'hukum'. Wajib, Sunah, Makruh and haram. Wajib must do, dont do sinful, like Pray 5 times daily. Sunah if do get rewarded ( pahala), dont do its ok, like help super if he fall into the river. makruh if we do not sinful but its not good, very bad, if dont do get rewarded. Haram you cannot do, its sinful. Period!. Thats my faith. never question yours.
I dont agree wth your friend when he say that smoking is not haram because effects is much slower that alcohol. Thats two different cases already. Alcohol is haram not because the effect is faster than Smoking. Its haram ( very long story). As for smoking , it has to be studied again and again whats the status of 'BAD' we are talking here. The fatwa cannot be put on something that the Majlis and people still debating. Until they are satisfied that its 100% Haram, then they will give the verdict. If its just easy to give a fatwa, then, driving above 110km/hr will be Fatwa haram as is more dangerous than smoking.
By sheikhkl, 16-Feb-2009

Mr carlitoz, i didnt wrote this out of the blues. my friends in CB as me why i didnt celebrate Valentine's day. Not a word up there says that what is your believe is haram for me. Its was the people who commented WHY IS YOGA HARAM FOR MUSLIMS? all over the paper. even sisters in Islam voice their objections. Why its haram because its not my believes and sinful for me. Its not haram because its your believes. and I do believe them. I do believe that YOGA is very good for health. I respect your faith. Its brilliant. But as beers are also good to get you heated in winter, we cannot do/drink it.

Sorry if anyone felt insulted, but that must be a misunderstanding as i had put there WHY I, AGAIN WHY I DONT CELEBRATE VALENTINES DAY AND DONT PRACTICE YOGA.
By sheikhkl, 16-Feb-2009

Hey guys, Sheikhkl can live the life he wants to live, that is clear! However, the point we try to make here and this represent Malaysian at large, we have no problem for how one wants to live their life but in return we aspect a fair treatment, after all, religious does not disrespect others only cult does.
By tommcruise, 16-Feb-2009

oh...
smoking can do and cannot do... alcohol is really forbidden... strange...

please enlighten me also... in your religion, 20 years ago I understand that Muslim cannot eat pork... but after 20 years, meaning now, Muslims here even forbids me to mention the pig, pork, khinzir word (oh by the way, I am a non Muslim)... is that a fatwa as well???

by the way, you mentioned "Its says, Why I, me , sheikh, .... Not you or your kind.
I said again, why I.... and to my faith , not you or other people.

do I smell something? discriminating maybe?
By darkblues, 16-Feb-2009

First , again I would to apologise if anybody misunderstood me with the post above and are insulted. Maybe if they read again, they wont be.

Smoking...This is a little complex to xplain to u blues. As I m not really well versed to xplain the indepth of the fatwa for smoking, the simplest way is to say that in Islam and the whole universal law, smoking is Not good. Its bad for your health and others around you. But it does no go to the limit thats its sinful, in Islam. OK bro. Someone up there ask why now came out with fatwas?? In Islam, All the do and donts are actually there in Quran and hadiths ( teaching of the Prophet). When there is an issue that need to be adressed, maybe it came in many different names and words before this, the Fatwa ( Decree) is gazetted so to strengthen the Do or Donts to whom that have doubts. The Fatwa is NOT based of what normal human being think if its Halal or haram, but based on Quran and hadith according to our faith.

In regards to pork, We cannot eat pork. Hindus have reason not to eat Beef, we have reason not to eat pork. Mentioning it is far from haram. For your muslim friends maybe its because its in us already that we cant eat pork and even to hear the word pork we dont like.

Blues wrote "by the way, you mentioned "Its says, Why I, me , sheikh, .... Not you or your kind.
I said again, why I.... and to my faith , not you or other people.

I wrote 'your kind' because super mention that i had my kind of people who according to the brilliant guy that my kind Quote"because the problem with your kind of people is that, you don’t have your own brains to think and justify the reality of life as humans, the difference between mankind and religion."
You see, thats what he thinks right but at the same time he belittle other religion. I dont take any hard feeling as I c him as naive. Discriminating?? dont think so. I m not in Power here to discriminate.
By sheikhkl, 16-Feb-2009

I said "your kind" because if you would have been a religious and pious, you wouldn’t be talking like this because it sounds that you are so “taksub”. Even the Prophet did mention that all living beings on this planet are the servants of ALLAH which I don’t dispute and therefore everyone should be understood and respected just like fellow Muslims regardless from which faith they are or whatever their racial background could be.

When the Prophet preached about fairness and equality, it was known that he is a teacher and many liked his ideas and teachings and followed them. But do you think the Government is being fair and equal towards everyone? Yet they propagate that the nation is being administered in a fair Islamic manner but many out there do not think that way. I don’t belittle your religion because it’s the followers who are having problem getting along with the times or being contemporary in today’s world. While I might not be a Muslim, I still believe that the holy book is “complete and total” and therefore we don’t need plain humans to decide the fate of the followers based on their individual ideas and thinking because the outcome will be a person like you.
By super_structure, 16-Feb-2009

smoking tarred cigarettes eventually kills the smoker. also it is money spent wastefully because the only inspiration smokers get from smoking is to smoke some more. no need to wait for other people to haram smoking.

syeikhkl, making them understand Islam is not the work of ordinary men so don't waste your time. they are just making fun of your explanations.
By soondar, 16-Feb-2009

Actually smoking is deemed "makhrukh" in Islam - permissible but frowned upon by God because of its detrimental property. I remember this from my religious class from school. The ustazah who taught me was one cool lady.

Was that answer satisfactory enough for you lot?

I'm just surprised that sheikhkl or soondar couldn't explain that well.
By monadc, 16-Feb-2009

Thanks sheikh for the explaination
By jayzeg, 17-Feb-2009

No offense my fellow Muslim friends. Talking so much about fatwa, i just have a simple question. Is there any regulation on issue of fatwa(s)? Assumingly, if a Muslim leader issues a fatwa calling for the death of a person, should Muslims abide blindly? In this case, i refer to Salman Rushdie. It is a real and living situation. So if one day the worst happens when a fatwa is issued against non-Muslims, then what will happen? Genuine concern and looking for an intelligent respond.
By klyong2502, 17-Feb-2009

monadc, first, you probably would know that muslims are required in The Holy Revelations to refrain from discussing evil habits in an open forum such as this. That said, it is sufficient to say that smoking cigarettes is evil because it kills and it is wasteful.

Second, you probably would know that Islam not only teaches us the meanings of those terminologies which you so arrogantly accuse other muslims of not knowing (God forbid such misconduct), Islam also teaches muslims to enjoin good and forbid sin. You probably would also know that Islam certainly DOES NOT teach muslims to adhere to some parts of The Holy Revelations and expediently neglect the others.

Lastly, be reminded that muslims remind each other. Muslims do not ridicule each other.
By soondar, 17-Feb-2009

Excuse me? I was being arrogant? I was not the one who was patronizing the other members of this forum, my dear kind sir. I was not the one who superfluously air out my superior views and holier-than-thou attitude. I was not the one who said I am better than thou so and so.

Where does it say that we are refrained from discussing evil habits in open forums? Fellow people are keen to know why certain things are deemed impermissible in our religion. I try my best to answer. I did not mislead any of them, have I? Have I told any lies about Islam?

I'm surprised at you. Seeking and offering knowledge is also part and parcel of the jihad that is encouraged in Islam.

I was not the one who ridiculed my fellow Muslims. I question and I am just being critical. I am not the one who was being judgmental of whom I deem the better/lesser Muslim.

Have I ever come across offensive? Perhaps my sarcasm and "dry-wit" may have missed the mark on occasion, but I am pretty sure that I've managed to be civil so far.

Touchy touchy.
By monadc, 17-Feb-2009

klyong2502, muslims welcome anyone who wants to trade with them, just like the Chinese businessmen from China are doing in the Islamic countries in the African Continent. The Chinese businessmen go there, they do their business, they go home. They do not question or ridicule the ideology of the muslims there. Bottom line - trade only, no need to interfere with Islam.

If all non-muslims can conduct themselves like the Chinese businessmen from China do, then there is no need for any type of decree.

Understand that Sir (courtesy of Tony Blair) Salman Rusdie is one who has continuously ridiculed The Holy Revelations, hence the decree from the Islamic Council of Iran (not from one muslim leader as you said).

If the West and its allies can categorize Malika el Aroud as a terrorist (even though she has never launched an armed attack anywhere in the world), why can't the Islamic Council of Iran declare Salman Rushdie an enemy of Islam for writing book after book ridiculing The Holy Revelations?
By soondar, 17-Feb-2009

monadc....Thats a good piece! At least something moderate that i could appreciate...Wonder how many are there like u out there? :)
By super_structure, 17-Feb-2009

Bottom line is this: You'd have to be living under a rock for decades to not know that smoking is bad for your body, not to mention that it makes you smelly, it costs money and it can harm those who aren't smoking. We have but the one body, given IN TRUST to us by God. Do you really need a fatwa to know that you should not smoke? Are we going to live only by what JAKIM puts out, or are we going to use our common sense and strong will to keep ourselves healthy and our loved ones safe?

God requires us to be healthy. He has given us guidelines... take care of ourselves, don't ingest anything intoxicating or potentially dangerous. That would then cover anything that is damaging to our health and others.

We need to start living by principles and not the little details.
By staceyb, 17-Feb-2009

Fatwa were pronounced by distinguished scholars to provide guidance to other scholars, judges and citizens on how subtle points of Islamic law should be understood, interpreted or applied. There were strict rules on who is eligible to issue a valid fatwa and who could not, as well as on the conditions the fatwa must satisfy to be valid.

1. The fatwa is in line with relevant legal proofs, deduced from Qur'anic verses and ahadith; provided the hadith was not later abrogated by Muhammad.
2. It is issued by a person (or a board) having due knowledge and sincerity of heart;
3. It is free from individual opportunism, and not depending on political servitude;
4. It is adequate with the needs of the contemporary world.

Fatwa is to eliminate any ambiguity as people can have different understanding from one sentence. Furthermore Quran and Hadith are originally in arabic, so fully understanding of arabic is required.

In Malaysia,Fatwa is issued by board of scholars called Majlis Fatwa. And the states have their own board too.

Smoking was pronounced 'makruh' as it was seen as wasteful and not productive. But recent scholars, and Majlis Fatwa pronounced it Haram because it is now confirmed to be hazardous to your health (But to my knowledge,only KL gazetted it).

Since smoking (yoga, and valentine's day) is not specifically mentioned in Quran and Hadith, Fatwa is needed to eliminate any ambiguity of its practice.

As for relationship between Muslim and non-Muslims, there are a lot of Hadith on this. But the problem is that it is not included in the formal religious teaching syllabus in Malaysia, thus not many Muslims in Malaysia really knows about it, plus the propaganda of divide and conquer, most people have misconception.
By zulshah1, 17-Feb-2009

monadc, Q.S.4:148 and related literature from the Keeper of the Two Mosques.
By soondar, 17-Feb-2009

Reading all the comments, I am indeed impressed that such a "sensitive" topic can be debated by both Muslims and non-Muslims in such a rational manner without offending one another. This proves that freedom to express ones' views is very much alive and such discussions and sharing should be encouraged. I myself have learnt quite a bit about haram-halal and fatwah and this knowledge would certainly help prevent me from offending my Muslim brethen as I understand their religion more.

Our church had a forum a few months ago whereby Muslim religious gave talks to our Catholic parishioners. The atmosphere was relaxing and all parties were very comfortable with one another. I am all for such inter-religious dialogs so that we can understand each others' religions - this I believe will lead to more respect for one another.
By ngguanhuah, 17-Feb-2009

Soondar, thanks.

You know, in all fairness, I think it's admirable that both you and sheikhkl go all out professing your love for your faith. You and I may not agree on many things, but yeah.
By monadc, 17-Feb-2009

ngguanhuah, I think in return the church must organize a forum in one of the mosques, and the i can assure you will end up having your meal in Kamunting.....
By super_structure, 17-Feb-2009

super_structure : haha .. good point you have there! LOL
By miniaturz, 17-Feb-2009

when one person starts to say 'your kind' and 'my kind'... isnt that already a discrimination of different kind? =)
By darkblues, 18-Feb-2009

Basically in short, Valentines is just another one of those commercial gimmick to make quick buck....

You dont need a special day to celebrate love....

Love is the basic in any relationship...it should be celebrated and uttered everyday....

And regarding religion...well every religion has its own underlying principles on who they view human and god.

Therefore, the practise of religion is ones own interests and right.

Dont bring something that is personal to public...

If you practise religion than be with it and do what it says. DOnt by a hypocrate....

If you dot practise religion so be it.

I respect both regardless what you practise....

Be a good samaritan first before you think you belong to a particular regligion
By SuaraRakyat, 23-Feb-2009

World Earth Hour 2009

2009-03-30T03:28:00.003-06:00

Dear @@@ All:

Thank you for the "World Earth Hour" message received here in Gurgaon-India.

We will follow the adage this evening for the stated ONE HOUR to keep ALL our lights off.

As it is, we do NOT have electricity in our homes for 5-8 hours every day due to lack of power, inefficiency and low productivity -- as it is in our parts.

So in a sense we make a contribution for AS MANY HOURS every day of our lives in these parts!

Amities and best regards. Peace!

@@@ Gurgaon/Haryana-INDIA

Ambivalent Communities – (Malaysian) Chinese?

2009-03-25T09:40:00.003-06:00

Chinese settlement in the Malay Peninsula and Western Borneo contributed greatly to the formation of both colonial society and later independent Malaysia. The Portuguese and later the Dutch established a colonial presence in the peninsula, but it was the British who, gaining control during the second half of the eighteenth century, recruited the first Chinese indentured labourers.

Early migrants worked in tin mines, cleared forests for agriculture and participated in the colonial retail economy. Over time these sojourners formed social organizations, temples and schools in an effort to maintain a link with their homeland. Over 150 000 Chinese immigrants were arriving each year at the start of the twentieth century, with the total doubling by the 1930s. Men were the first to arrive, but in the 1930s large numbers of female migrants arrived to work in domestic service, the rubber and tin industries and as prostitutes.

So strong was the Chinese role in the economy at independence in 1957 that the government adopted an affirmative action policy for education and employment targeted at native Malays.

By 1990 the Chinese represented over 28 per cent of the country’s total population, or 4.9 million in a population of 18.4 million. But as job opportunities in the oublic sector began to decrease for Chinese residents, greater numbers of skilled workers re-migrated to Australia, the US, Canada and the UK.

A recession in 1985, for example, led to the outflow of 40 000 Malaysians of Chinese heritage over the subsequent five years.

- An excerpt: Spellman, W.M., Uncertain Identity: International Migration Since 1945 (Great Britian, 2008), pg 196

Roleplaying - Belgian Gender Footprint

2009-03-05T09:14:00.003-06:00

Flanders Today
An intriguing show in Brussels looks at the changing perceptions of gender in Belgium

I am standing in front of a case of dolls while Els Flour explains something to me that is so obvious, I am ashamed that it never crossed my mind before: in the 19th century, girls’ dolls looked like women. It was only around the turn of the 20th century that the “baby doll” was introduced, to reinforce the idea – from an age when girls were practically infants themselves – that a girl’s job is to take care of babies.

Although we still see baby dolls today, this issue is part of what made the introduction of Barbie so significant. If you had looked above my head at that precise moment, I swear you would have seen a light bulb floating above.

Flour is an archivist at the Archive Centre on Women’s History in Brussels and one of four brains behind a new exhibit in the capital’s BELvue museum: Boy or Girl… Destiny for a Lifetime? Belgium 1830-2000. Through the lenses of family, education, and work, Boy or Girl shows changes and advances in perceptions of masculinity and femininity in Belgium over the past two centuries.

The exhibit begins with classic conceptions of gender – the stairs are lined with phrases such as “Boys don’t cry” and “Girls play with dolls”. Then we are introduced to the role of women and men in family life, starting in the early 19th century, with images of women as subordinate to men and showing women working at home, dependent on the independent man.

But the exhibit is also quick to show how these ideas were undermined by reality – drunken men, divorcees, strong women or upper class women who hired nannies to tend to their children.

As we reach more modern times, we see a growing acceptance of gay and lesbian relationships. And there is a quick but fascinating foray into women’s fight for trousers: “It used to be that very little boys would be dressed in girls’ clothing. That’s changing now – from the moment a child is born, they are put into different types of clothes depending on their sex,” Flour explains. “By the 1920s, it was common for women to wear men’s clothes, but you still don’t often see men wearing skirts. Women had to fight for it, but it was easier for them to move into wearing men’s clothing, whereas for men to wear women’s clothing is seen as a step down on the social scale.”

The Belgian footprint

As you move into the “education” section of Boy or Girl, you start to see more of the Belgian footprint on the issue. Boys and girls were schooled separately in Belgium through much of the 19th century. Classes were separated, but so were the subjects. Girls learned all about the home, while boys were introduced to more complex ideas and improved technology.

In 1864, Isabelle Gatti de Gamond opened the first school where girls received the same education as boys. Within 20 years, other schools were following, and Belgian universities even started accepted women to their ranks.

The strong Catholic education system in Belgium had deeply ingrained both the roles of men and women and the idea of their complementary positions: women were valued but served a different purpose from men. According to Flour, this held Belgium back when other countries made advances in equality. With the beginning of a breakdown of these barriers in the school system came the beginnings of the feminist movement. However, it took advances in women’s professional lives – the third part of the exhibit – for the women’s movement to formally take shape.

The idea of “the working woman” is actually both an old idea and a familiar reality. “There was only a short period at the end of the 19th century when women were not working,” says Flour. “Generally, they were part of the work force, often doing demanding, physical work, like in factories.” Boy or Girl highlights women in various professions, including lawyers, nurses, secretaries and mineworkers and shows the progression in attitudes towards women holding these jobs.

One female lawyer in particular is essential to the history of the women’s movement in Belgium. Born in 1846, Marie Popelin followed and completed the law course at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) in 1888 only to be denied admission to the Brussels bar because of her gender.

In 1892, she co-founded the Belgian League of Women’s Rights, thus kicking off the feminist movement in Belgium (and proving how dangerous it is to deny a woman what she wants). Despite establishing herself as one of Belgium’s first feminists, Popelin herself was never admitted to the bar; she died in 1913, and it was not until nearly a decade later that Belgium saw its first female lawyer.

Still, Popelin stirred up a great deal of controversy, and the exhibit includes various cartoons mocking and criticising the idea of a female lawyer who must breast feed while in court and who leaves her motherly duties to her husband to tend to her job. In this sense, professions such as nursing were more amenable to the public perception of a woman’s function.

The First World War, in particular, was an important time for nurses. “It became a respected profession,” notes Flour, “but you see women more in the role of caretaker than as a professional.”

Last in the right to vote

In many countries, the First World War became an emancipating time because men were away fighting, and women took their jobs in the workplace. But in Belgium, the country was officially neutral and, of course, occupied. There were also fewer men in the army, and the German army had dismantled most factories.

Belgium, therefore, ended up with a reverse situation. Men were home and out of work, and women were carrying on with their usual pursuits. Men, like women, were out trying to find food for their families, which undermined the ideas about the man as the head of the household.

Shortly afterwards, the women’s suffrage movement began in Belgium. Initially, voting rights were granted solely to mothers and widows of soldiers and civilians killed by the enemy, as well as women imprisoned or condemned by the enemy during the war. Then in 1920, women were given the right to vote – but only at the local level (and excluding prostitutes and “adulterous women”).

Before that time, men could each vote three times in an election, and the discussion of granting the right to women became wrapped up with the “one man, one vote” campaign. The discussion was divided along party lines: Liberals and Socialists were opposed to women’s suffrage, but the Catholics were in favour (they suspected that women would vote overwhelmingly Catholic). “One man, one vote” and women’s (limited) suffrage were both adopted, but it was not until 1948 that women could vote at all levels of government, making Belgium one of the last Western countries to give women what is now considered a fundamental right.

Party lines

Party lines similarly disrupted the progression of the women’s movement. Rather than a single unified women’s movement, Belgium saw women’s movements within the Socialist, Liberal and Catholic parties. Marie Popelin attempted to set up a more universal women’s party called the General Party of Women, but her efforts failed.

This fragmentation of the Belgian women’s movement continued up to the “second feminist wave” in the mid-20th century. Until that time, most feminist activity came from the French-speaking community. Women’s issues were rooted in the higher Belgian classes, which were almost exclusively French-speaking in the 19th and early 20th centuries. But the second wave took hold in Flanders slightly earlier and more strongly than in Wallonia.

It was under this second wave that “equal pay for equal work” became a legal issue. Belgian laws were finally established in court in 1968 when air hostess Gabrielle Defrenne brought a case against the national airline Sabena for forcing her to retire at 40, while allowing male colleagues to work to 50. The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg ruled in her favour, arguing that this was discrimination on the grounds of sex.

The Flemish Vrouwenoverlegkomitee (Women’s Consultation Committee) held Belgium’s first Women’s Day at about the same time, on 11 November, 1972. With an estimated 11,000 participants, the event became annual, although numbers have dwindled considerably in recent years. They now hover around 1,500.

“When people come, they are glad they came, but it’s hard to get them there,” admits Four. “They worry that it’s all day, and it’s all women – but there are also some men who come.” In general, she sees a stigma developing as more and more people reject the label of “feminist”.

Gender blender

Gender studies have recently made inroads in the academic sphere, but it has run up against the same trends that Flour sees. Universities across Flanders created an inter-university programme in Women’s Studies, but Professor Marysa Demoor, chair of Ghent University’s Centre for Gender Studies, notes that this has now fallen apart – in a way, for good reason. “Universities tend to have mainstream courses on women and gender issues,” she says, and this general interest made a unique programme difficult to sustain. “Students don’t need to make the effort to go to Antwerp just to learn gender studies.”

Even as gender studies becomes more of the norm, some factors start being taken for granted. Professor Chia Longman, chair of Gender and Diversity Studies at Ghent University, notes a more troubling trend in the mindset of her students. “The outlook is very androgynous. They can’t really understand what gender studies are about,” she explains. “They see problems of discrimination in other cultures – ultra-religious societies or the Third World – but they don’t see it in their own.” But when Longman gives them the statistics, “they see how these inequalities creep out, and they become very interested.”

Longman’s course on “Gender and Diversity” also looks at new conceptions of gender – moving beyond the dichotomy of male/female to explore issues of transgender identities or ideas of a third or fourth gender. In Flanders there have been steps at the governmental level to introduce awareness on these issues.

“Gender in the blender” is a project sponsored by, among others, the province of Flemish Brabant, that aims to assist with gender issues faced by teenagers. Their website includes a variety of resources to help young people work through questions of gender and identity, including an extensive and engaging series of lessons to be used in classrooms or other settings.

“Everyone is confronted with their own gender identity and with gender norms – social pressure to conform to norms of masculinity and femininity,” says Joz Motmans, a researcher at the Policy Research Centre on Equal Opportunities at the University of Antwerp, who interviewed subjects for the project. "We wanted to create solidarity among youngsters and in schools...to [encourage] respect for being different, for being gender variant.”

Awareness, then, seems to be at the forefront of a modern gender movement. But as people begin taking for granted how much has been accomplished, there is a danger of losing momentum in achieving more. The BELvue exhibit shows us the remarkable shifts in Belgian society over a relatively short period of time. Even as we take a moment to rest on our laurels and appreciate it, let it be a reminder of how much we collectively have yet to accomplish.

www.avg-carhif.be

Boy or Girl…Destiny for a Lifetime?
BELvue Museum, Paleizenplein 7, Brussels
Until 31 May

It’s in the Constitution

2009-03-01T02:55:00.001-06:00

Thursday February 19, 2009
It’s in the Constitution
BRAVE NEW WORLD
By AZMI SHAROM

Sultans and Rajas are constitutional monarchs and have powers determined by the Federal Constitution.

I WISH that all those people calling for Karpal Singh’s head would just take a minute and pick up the Federal Constitution. Turn to Article 182 and you will see provisions for a “Special Court”.

The job of this Special Court is to try civil proceedings brought against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or any of the Sultans.

This was not always the case. Before 1993, the rulers had absolute immunity. And before 1984, they actually had the power to veto legislation. These powers were taken away by the Barisan Nasional government headed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

DAP chairman Karpal Singh’s desire for the Sultan of Perak to be brought to court is reasonable and allowed for by law. Besides, I think it is a good thing that the King and the Sultans can be brought to court.

You see, the days of the all-powerful king is gone now and that is, for me at least, progress. It shows that we are a society that values democracy.

Yes, we have Sultans and Rajas, but they are constitutional monarchs. This means that they have powers determined by the Constitution and not some divine power to do as they wish. This being the case, surely if they overstep their boundaries, if they behave in an unconstitutional manner, they should be challenged – respectfully, properly – in a court of law.

Now, did the Sultan of Perak act in a way that was unconstitutional when he appointed a new Mentri Besar? It is arguable.

The power to appoint a Mentri Besar is clearly at the discretion of the Sultan. This is one of the few real powers that he has. A power that he does not have is to dismiss an existing Mentri Besar.

Usually this does not raise many problems. During the last general election, we saw the Sultan of Perak and the Sultan of Terengganu both deciding on who should be the new Mentri Besar of their respective states.

They made decisions that went against the desires of the majority party in both state legislative assemblies. The two monarchs thought that their choices commanded the confidence of the two Houses and were the best men for the job. It was their prerogative.

But the current case in Perak is different. The Sultan chose a new Mentri Besar while the old one was still in office. By appointing a new man, he was in effect sacking the old one. And sacking the Mentri Besar is not within his constitutional powers.

I think there is room for debate on this matter and, ideally, it should be settled in the Special Court.

Actually, I am rather curious as to why the Sultan did not just dissolve the state assembly when requested. All this party-hopping business was wreaking havoc on the public’s faith in the democratic system.

Surely, the clearest and fairest way out of the debacle was to have fresh state elections.

For the sake of continued faith in democracy, I would have thought the Sultan, who has spoken many times so eloquently about democracy and rule of law, would have just said “right, let the people decide again”.

After all, the greatest threat to political, and thus national, stability are a people who have lost their faith in the democratic system. It is only when such faith is lost that extreme behaviour emerges.

Anyway, what is done is done; legal battles are being fought over the Perak matter and that particular crisis will be settled in its own time.

Meanwhile, there is much that can still be achieved. The states ruled by Pakatan Rakyat must continue to push their agenda forward and live up to their election promises.

For example, I notice with a little dismay that the new Selangor government has yet to withdraw the case against Sagong Tasi.

In 2002, Sagong obtained a judgment in his favour by the Court of Appeal which held that his Orang Asli community had a propriety interest in their customary land. This meant that when the land was taken by the government, they should have been properly compensated.

This case was against the former state government and, of course, Datuk Seri Khir Toyo and his men appealed the decision.

Considering the fact that Pakatan Rakyat is concerned about justice and fair treatment to all Malaysians, and considering also that the last MB of Perak was making headway in granting proper titles to the Orang Asli in his state, the current Selangor government should just stop the action.

Yes, the battle of Perak must continue. But there are many other battles to be fought and won. Fairness and justice must be striven for on all fronts, continuously. It’s easy to forget this amid the shrill cries of “traitor” by the ill-informed.

> Dr Azmi Sharom is a law teacher. The views expressed here are entirely his own.

Cities of the future

2009-01-12T13:51:00.000-06:00

Cities of the future
By Stefanos Evripidou

ANYONE WHO'S been to the archaeological site at Kalavasos-Tenta will know that a group of people gave up their nomadic lifestyle to settle there some 9,000 years ago.

They didn't know it at the time, but this community of pioneers developed an original civilisation called the Cypriote Aceramic Neolithic.

Ignoring the poor preservation of the site, the first thing that springs to mind is the sense of order to this prehistoric community. The cluster of circular-shaped buildings betrays a level of pre-planning in its organisation. Some are bigger than others, suggesting different uses, and even different rankings within the community. Well, it's nice to see some consistency over nine millennia.

It's a pretty impressive site for a bunch of islanders living 9,000 years ago, though you wouldn't exactly call it innovative urban planning. For that you'd have to fast forward to the third millennium BCE, with the rise of the world's three earliest urban civilisations: Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley civilisation.

The level of forethought in the design and functionality of urban areas varied depending on the totalitarian rulers of the day, technological advances and agricultural development. The early cities going back some four thousand years boasted streets built in grid patterns, laid out to minimise noise pollution and maximise privacy. These ancient cities often had drainage systems, a nod to urban sanitation.

Further down the line were the Greeks showcasing Alexandria, the defensive-minded Romans with their square grid city planning and much later, the French boulevards of the 19th century, which brings us to the last 100 years when urban planning really developed into an organised profession.

In the meantime, globalisation brought down barriers in trade, the economy, culture, knowledge, information, communication and transportation. The shrinking of the planet also coincided with huge migratory flows to cities and urban settlements, which now make up more than 75 per cent of the world's population.

The difficulties are prevalent, with increased strains on infrastructure, transportation and communication networks, yet flows to the cities are also having a supra-municipal impact, with cities looking beyond their territorial and administrative limits.

Networks are being built and decisions taken on a multi-layered level, with greater exchanges between national, regional and local administrations around the world. Cities are spreading out, creating international networks in the process. Our futures are being built in the cities.

So what are today's urban challenges? Population growth, ageing population, urbanisation, social inequality, limited natural resources, mobility, pollution, destruction of the ecosystem and climate change to mention a few.

Following the transhistorical pattern of increasing needs and depleting resources, the buzzword on everybody's lips, from country leaders to CEOs and environmentalists is sustainability. But exactly how are we adapting our cities and landscapes to create a sustainable future?

Last November, 44 delegates from 29 countries in Asia and Europe were invited by the Madrid City Council to discuss sustainability, the future of cities and urban regeneration.

Alfonso Vegara, an architect planner, economist and sociologist all in one, addressed the conference. Vegara is President of Fundacion Metropoli, an international organisation that aspires to contribute globally to creating or developing cities as "ecosystems of innovation".

The global planner noted that in 1950, only 80 cities worldwide had a population over one million. By 2000, the figure increased to 365 cities with over one million souls. Now, there are over 19 cities with populations of over 10 million.

Vegara referred to the "Urban America 2050" project between 40 universities, a bottom-up network of "supercities" that wish to protect the environment and avoid sprawl in their cities as they grow larger and larger. One of the project's conclusions is that by 2050, middle America will disperse to the coasts, adding greater pressure to urban coastal areas. The only way for the US to maintain its lead in the world economy is through strategic planning and innovation to prepare for the changes ahead.

"In today's global economy, competition is not between countries but between cities and regions. Cities are fundamental for the competitiveness of companies, but they are also critical spaces for tolerance, solidarity and creativity. They are responsible for contributing to the sustainability of the planet," he said.

In a nutshell: "The greatest challenge of the 21st century is building a sustainable future through a culture of innovation. Over the long term, cities are not the problem, but the solution of 21st century challenges."

One easily identifiable challenge is how to meet our energy needs. Less than eight per cent of total energy consumption around the world comes from renewable energy sources like solar, wind or biomass energy. As we continue to guzzle energy, we are experiencing loss of biodiversity, water shortages, climate change and so on.

"Without leadership, cities cannot compete. Building cities of the future is a huge challenge in all aspects, social, environmental and political," pointed out Vegara.

"Innovation does not happen by chance. Cities of success must have the capacity to identify their own identity, their component of excellence along with the creativity to inspire new projects, and have a strong dialogue with other competitive cities and clusters of excellence," he added.

In other words, for a city, big or small, to tackle this century's challenges and create a sustainable future, it has to be able to identify its strong points and work on them in a creative fashion, while maximising its connectivity (networks) with other innovative cities.

Vegara gave a few examples of innovative super cities, referring to the bottom up approach in Manhattan, where the meatpacking district has recently attracted a creative class of people who have upgraded a very depressed area.

Philadelphia, which has 80 universities and an excellent capacity to attract talent is now working on trying to keep that talent by creating an area intersected by the Avenue of the Arts and the Avenue of Technology.

Singapore whose capita per income was one third that of Spain in 1965 now has a per capita income 70 per cent higher than Spain after focusing on its own component of excellence. It is currently engaged in a top-down experiment called One North to create a new generation of technology parks dedicated to multimedia and biotechnology. The idea is to combine working areas with living areas to create a symbiosis between business ecologies and urban life, where residents, artists, venture capitalists live and work together in the same spot. By creating such an exceptional location, they hope to attract and retain diverse talent.

The Basque city of Bilbao employed knowledge-based innovation and architecture, allowing them to reap the benefits of the "Guggenheim Effect", whereby the Guggenheim Museum brought global attention to the city and greatly enhanced its self-esteem to even higher levels.

"They say Jesus was very humble, because having had the chance to be born in Bilbao, he decided to be born in Bethlehem," joked Vegara.

The city now enjoys one of the best metros in the world, designed by renowned architect, Norman Foster.

La Rioja is an example in agricultural innovation where the wine industry was transformed into a new tourist destination by creating cathedrals of wine, great architectural designs showcasing the culture of wine.

In Namibia, 60 per cent of the capital's population live outside the city in the Katutura township, which in the local language means "the place where nobody wants to live".

The Fundacion Metropoli convinced international artists to share their art with Katutura, using the township and the morphology of the land as one great big canvas. By splashing colour across the town, Katutura has become a tourist destination, increasing the township's self-esteem through art.

One of the main points repeated throughout the debate on sustainable cities was the need to have a strategic approach. Madrid City Council is a case in point, having employed Madrid Global to work on a long-term strategy to "internationalise" the Spanish capital. The aim is for the city to reach the same global relevance and connectivity as London, Tokyo, Paris and New York. It is no surprise then that Madrid is also vying to host the 2016 Olympics. It worked for Barcelona in 1992. It also worked for Valencia after hosting the Americas Cup. Global events, especially sporting ones, have consistently proved to be catalysts for urban renewal and internationalisation of a city.

So, going back to urban planning, how can we create sustainable cities of the future?

Peter Archer, director of regeneration and housing services at The Old Rectory in Britain stressed that any change or development needed community engagement to be successful in the long run.

"You need an accountable local champion, and some private investment to give a sense of ownership to the community," he said.

Of course, community engagement does not always provide the results urban planners want. Over a million people in Manchester recently voted against imposing congestion charge in the city. City planning and technology play an interlinked role in providing problems and solutions, particularly in transport.

In South Korea, citizens are able to use UV remote controls to control everything in their flat from great distances, lessening travel needs to their homes.

In Tokyo, the train system is highly complex and effective, allowing millions of people to travel to work and home on a daily basis.

Singapore and Estonia provide Wi-Fi access almost everywhere, with residents considering internet access almost a human right. Estonia even employs education buses to go round villages training people on internet use. However, not all countries have the same concerns, like Cambodia for instance, where the percentage of internet users has yet to reach double figures.

In one town in Pakistan, petrol credits are given out in a limited fashion, encouraging people to use bicycles. Barcelona has adopted a bike-sharing system where by residents can pick up public bikes from multiple points across the city.

In Lithuania, there is a website offering cooperation to car pool with someone going in the same direction, showing initiative for greater social responsibility.

It is obvious that there is no standard model solution for every city. Each area needs to find its own solutions, but certain key elements can be shared by all. A successful city needs to possess a number of important elements: innovation, diversity, skills, connectivity, living space quality and leadership. A future city needs to blend public and private spaces so work, home and entertainment are close enough to lessen transport needs. Cities need to be places of opportunity, creating healthy spaces that draw people away from their computers.

As one of the delegates noted, cities are not natural phenomena. They must be developed to allow freedom of thought while maintaining a safety net, so your neighbour does not grow hungry without you knowing.

Malaysian urban planning expert, Dr Goh Ban Lee highlighted two approaches to urban management. One is the building of integrity and social responsibility so you don't need CCTV cameras everywhere or even road bumps. "Like in Germany and Japan, though that took up to 200 years to achieve," he said.

Or the short-cut approach: massive state intervention. Lee referred to Singapore, using the example of the American youth who was punished with painful lashes by the authorities after falling foul of the country's strict vandalism laws.

It's a question worth asking, do you compromise on liberty for clean and crime-free streets?

Lee also stressed the dangers of a flawed legal system.

"When we see non-compliance, like the many illegal food hawkers on the streets in Malaysia, they are there because the system is flawed. If they obeyed the law they would starve. The system requires non-compliance for their survival," warned Lee.

Finally, the debate ends with a series of pertinent questions. What kind of future cities do we want for Cyprus? What is the long-term strategy for our capital, Nicosia? What is our component of excellence and how can we create an ecosystem of innovation which allows us to live in a sustainable manner while putting our cities on the world map? Do we need a bottom-up or top-down approach or a bit of both?

Do citizens want to see "common sense" cities, where public and private spaces attract human contact, where there is trust, co-existence and sustainable living intertwined with technologies that support the infrastructure?

Do we want our cities to be friendly, safe, comfortable, noise and pollution-free, providing us with confidence to interact with other residents?

If yes to any of the above, then what are our plans for capacity building, urban planning and urban management? What compromises are we willing to make and what is our strategy?

If we really are to prepare for a sustainable future, these questions have to be asked and answered by city leaders and residents together, starting today.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

www.cyprus-mail.com (January 11, 2008- feature)

周星驰与后现代@Stephen Chow & Postmodernism

2009-01-03T16:13:00.002-06:00

周星驰是我的偶像。以前有个网站叫做“无厘头部落”(www.zhouxingchi.com)，登入主页面，看到很多不同的论坛名称，其中一个让我吃了一惊：后现代。　　喜欢了周星驰这么久，还不知道，原来他也跟“后现代”有关系。突然间，似乎有点明白之所以研究类似“后现代”这些概念的学科叫做社会学(sociology)，是因为它的研究对象就是社会本身，而它的研究结果及结论也可以用来解释，至少是套用在社会现象上面。

　　那么，周星驰跟“后现代”到底有没有关系呢？

　　很多影评家都说周星驰电影的一大特色就是“小人物的故事”，而且这些故事还有一个共同的特点，就是这个“小人物”一定可以克服困难最终取得成功。这一特色，跟以前香港流行的电影有所不同。无论是李小龙、周润发、或者是成龙，他们扮演的都是一些英雄，这些角色满怀正义感，不畏艰难险阻，最终凭着一腔热血和过人的智慧及武功取得胜利。如果说这样的英雄模式是现代的，那么，周星驰的小人物模式显然是后现代的了。这些人物可能是茶餐厅的伙计（《行运一条龙》），可能是靠骗术混饭吃的流氓（《情圣》），也可能是跑龙套的小演员（《喜剧之王》）．．．而且，很多人物在刚刚出场的时候往往有一些令人厌恶的性格，最后却奇迹般地作出善良的壮举。下面以《百变星君》一片为例，讲解这种特色。

　　在这部电影中，周星驰饰演的男主角李寿星是个富家子弟。他狂妄，因为他爸爸是学校的校董，所以他就在学校里胡作非为；他好色，每天都有无数泳装美女陪伴；他顽劣，日日以发明一些新的手段来整蛊同学为乐；他贪财，为了钱财不肯认亲生父亲；他绝情，在风雨交加的夜晚把生父赶出门。所有这些性格特征，都告诉观众这不是一个好人。但是，当他和生父面对黑社会追杀，在两个人只能有一个人存活的生死抉择之时，他竟然说出了这样的话：“我一辈子也没有对你好过，今天一次还给你”，他救出了生父，自己却被炸得粉身碎骨。在这之前，没有任何转折，没做任何交代，按照以往的观点，这样的情节安排是不合乎逻辑的。但是周星驰的电影就是这样，观众不会觉得唐突，只会觉得感动。在这之后，这部原本是闹剧的电影又变成了科幻片，一个博士的研究成功，只要保存人的两个器官就可以再造，使这个人死而复生，而且在大脑中植入电子芯片之后，更是可以千变万化，就像神话中的孙悟空一样。得到新生的男主角痛改前非，使一班顽皮的学生变得努力读书，也得到了女主角（梁咏琪饰）的爱情。故事发展到这里，似乎接近尾声，但是“后现代”的周星驰是不会这样安排的。在婚礼上，当年追杀他的黑社会再次出现，在彼此的打拼中一度置他于死地。谁想他再次复活，最终取得了这场正义与邪恶之战的胜利。看到这里，愕然发现，这个男主角已经完全变成了正义的化身，这转变没有一个循序渐进的过程，却也丝毫没有突兀之感。看完结尾，观众早已不会理会片中的男主角当年为什么得罪了黑社会，而事实上，是由于他跟黑社会大佬的女朋友去酒吧被撞见。

　　以让人厌恶的性格做开头，却以使人佩服的行动做结尾，这样的设计其实并不算少见，可是周星驰的演绎是不同的。因为在他诠释的角色及故事中，不存在通常被人认可的“逻辑”，所以被称做“无厘头” 。而这种“无厘头”，恰恰体现了“后现代”的特征：对现代传统的否定，带激进的，革命性的；以多元论为基础的思想及艺术风格；不确定性、不清楚、不协调、变化、边际化、及有差异。

　　在《文化理论》(“Cultural Theory”)之中，对于后现代有这样的论述：Postmodernism has several dimensions. It refers, first, to an aesthetic and artistic style that rejects the aesthetic and artistic codes of modernism. It also encompasses a philosophical and theoretical position that emerges from post-structuralism and rejects the tenets of modernist thought.也就是说，后现代是可以有多个衡量标准的。首先，后现代的美学及艺术风格不同于现代主义；而且，后现代这个概念也包含一些从后结构主义引发的哲学及理论的层面，这一层面反对现代主义的原则。

　　这就正好可以用来解释在上面的例子中一些看似矛盾的情节安排。周星驰的艺术风格不同于早已被人接纳和认知的风格，于是被认作无厘头。而他也不会因此就改为遵循以前的约定俗成的规则，这也是后结构主义，后现代主义的表现。

　　现在来看他在另一部电影中的表现，《大内密探零零发》。周星驰饰演的零零发是“保龙一族”的成员，负责保护皇上。开场的时候，四打高手各展绝技，零零恭会金钟罩铁布衫，零零喜会虎鹤双行拳，零零财会碎石脚，而零零发只是表演了一连串极不象样的前滚翻，之后开始展现自己的发明。接下来，就说说这些令人称绝的发明。这些发明包括利用磁石特性的护身牌、手动风扇、抽油烟机、按摩床、鸳鸯铲、左边扫帚右边畚箕的鞋子、防止切菜时候伤到手的假手、还有类似机关枪的可以发射钢珠的小炮等等。这些东西，大部分在生活中早已确有其物，可是经过周星驰的重新创作之后，让人不禁捧腹。而且这些发明大多不止出现一次，对于故事情节的发展有很大作用。这部分内容构思确实精巧，但是更加令人拍案叫绝的是在影片快要结束的时候突然插入上映的一场电影颁奖典礼。剧中的男主角在经过了一番努力的表演之后却没有得奖。而几位演员的对话更是意味深长，以下我凭着记忆作摘录（国语版）：

零零发（周星驰饰）：这部戏我从头带到尾，堪称水准之作，有目共睹，你竟然把奖给那家伙（零零发的岳父）？！
助手（黄一飞饰）：你也不错，可是表情做作，略嫌浮夸。
零零发：那些都是世俗人对我的看法，难道连你也不识货？
零零发老婆（刘嘉玲饰）：．．．　．．．老公，你真的不是很会演戏。
助手：总而言之一句话，你－不－懂－演－戏！　　

不知道这段对白是不是周星驰的内心独白，努力却不被人认可，创新精神不被理解，佳作不少，票房也很高，但是一直很少得奖的周星驰在电影中安排这样的情节是否出于自嘲不得而知。但是，可以知道的是，无论是这样的设计安排，抑或是周星驰电影本身，都体现着浓烈的后现代主义色彩。除了周星驰，还有哪个电影人会在电影中突如其来安排这样的场景，并以自嘲的方式试图解释？这就验证了如下的说法：后现代主义企图抹去固有的身分，然后按照个人的取向，再任意为任何东西定位(Postmodernism operates in ideological ways to prevent people from connecting with their history and collective identity. It generates confusion and celebrates the superficial)。虽然周星驰在电影中并不是试图将自己的社会地位重新定位，但是，我们可以很明显地感觉到他在进行着自己的艺术的再定位过程。

　　１９９２年，周星驰凭着一部极卖座的电影登上东南亚影帝宝座，这部电影叫做《审死官》。下面我将就着这部电影的特点来解释周星驰跟后现代之间的联系。

　　周星驰在影片中饰演著名状师宋世杰，开头还是惯用的手法，男主角昧着良心替别人打官司，结果遭到报应，１２个孩子没有一个可以活到一岁。终于，在他妻子（梅艳芳饰）的劝说下决定封笔，并发下毒誓。可是，后来遇到一个含冤的女子，宋世杰冒死替她打官司，险些家破人亡，还是靠装疯卖傻逃过一劫。后来在公堂上神机妙算，依靠自己的伶牙俐齿和超快的反应，终于打赢了官司，伸张了正义，惩治了“官官相卫”的恶人。

　　在《审死官》中，以最后公堂上的对决最为精采。起起落落，几经周折，当中不乏利用思维惯性的小骗局，终于使得真相大白，民冤得雪。其中有这样一段，宋世杰夫妇为了让知县何汝大（吴孟达饰）承认曾经收取山西布政司五千两银子的贿赂，合演了这样一段闹剧：

（从宋妻的背囊中掉出一锭官银）
宋世杰：老婆，过来。怎么会有锭官银在你身上？
（经过一番搪塞之后）
宋妻：是何大人的。
宋世杰：你勾引我老婆！
（这是，何汝大的妻子从后面跑出来）
何妻：你勾引人家老婆！
宋妻：不是，何大人买房子，我是中间人，这是订金。
（经过几次争吵之后）
宋妻：房子是何夫人买的。
宋世杰：买房子花了多少？
宋妻：五千两。
何汝大：你竟然花了五千两跟人家买房子！
何妻：我哪有五千两？
何汝大：你没有？！
（这个时候，宋世杰在一旁提醒）
宋世杰：山西布政那五千两呢？
（已经开始露出马脚）
何汝大：那五千两我都不敢动，你竟然．．．
何妻：那五千两我没有动过。
（接下来，是最精采的一幕，宋世杰引出事情的真相）
宋世杰：那山西布政那五千两现在在哪里？
何妻：山西布政那五千两在我房里！
宋世杰夫妇击掌欢呼：哦，山西布政那五千两在她房里！　　

这样一点点套出事实真相的手法在周星驰的电影中几次出现（情节类似的还有一部《九品芝麻官》，影片《算死草》中也有一段这样的表演），虽然略显雷同，但是这样的技巧屡试不爽，收效非常好。这样出其不意的构思，让我想到了在《文化理论》（Cultural Theory）一书中有一个章节叫做“艺术与文化中的后现代”（Postmodernism in Art and Literature），当中说到后现代在艺术及文化领域里面有着独到的审美标准。这无疑最好的描述了周星驰电影的特点。就像刚刚举例的公堂对决，如果按照以前的现代主义观点，可能把这视作不被认可的方法，但是在后现代概念中，这就是最恰当的安排及表演。

　　后现代主义还有一个特点在周星驰的电影中十分显著，那就是反精英主义。“后现代的作品常常向高层次文化同低层次文化之间的界线发起挑战”（Postmodern work can also frequently challenge the boundaries between high and low culture），这一特色在《食神》中有所体现。

　　这里要说的不是这部电影的故事内容，而是其中的一道菜式，那就是周星驰饰演的男主角斯蒂芬周在最后的厨艺大赛上最后完成的作品──黯然销魂饭。而事实上，这是一碗叉烧饭。当初男主角在庙街流落街头，正在饥饿至极的时候，女主角火鸡（莫文蔚饰）给他作了一碗叉烧饭，所以他觉得那是他吃过的最好吃的东西。那样的街边小摊，是市井小民经常出没的场所；而厨艺大赛却是顶级菜肴云集，面对对手的极品用料作成的“佛跳墙”，男主角只是作了一碗看似极为普通，甚至随便在夜市就可以吃到的叉烧饭，却使评委感动的落泪（当然是在洋葱的帮助下）。如此把所谓的“低层次文化”和所谓的“高层次文化”融为一体，与后现代主义中的反精英主义吻合。

　　后现代主义还有一个相对具有一定独立性的特色，就是“全球化”。随着全球性文明的兴起和国民国家(nation-state)的衰落，新的世界主义理想逐渐呈现出来。这一特点反映在周星驰身上，就不再是他的电影本身，而是他的电影的运作过程。曾经传闻和里活(Hollywood)要收购《食神》的英文版版权，改编剧本，重新拍一部美国版本。虽然最终由于周星驰不满意剧本中把美国快餐描述成比中国菜更好吃的东西而使合作计划泡汤，但是，从这种合作意向可以看出周星驰及他的电影在全球化大趋势的影响下，也尝试着一步步走向更广阔的空间。　　周星驰在２００１年推出的新片《少林足球》中，对于自己的风格作了一定幅度的修整。之前有人指出周星驰的电影靠语言搞笑，一旦被翻译成其它语言，将大为失色。我们可以看到在《少林足球》中，大量的喜剧动作代替了很多喜剧语言。而且，就是在动作方面，周星驰也逐渐减少以前惯有例如张大嘴巴的夸张表演，这些变动说明，他也在为自己的艺术风格迈向全球化而努力。

　　李欧塔［法国］(Jean-Francois Lyotard, La condition postmoderne)在《后现代处境：关于知识的报告》(“Rapport sur le savoir”，刘国英翻译)的导言中这样写道：“后现代”所指的，是经历过各种转变后文化的状况；这些转变影响着科学，文学和艺术的游戏规则。　　经过了以上的种种论述，我们可以相信，周星驰及他的风格，正是这种不一样的，经历了并且经历着转变的文化，也必然影响到电影的评判及品味标准。　　周星驰是后现代的。同时，是我的偶像。所以，我也在一定程度上接受了后现代主义的观点,也都是后现代主义下的产物。

Source: http://www.mtime.com/my/sissilenoir/blog/294749/index-2.html#Comments

Dari Malaysia, kepada Malaysian

2008-12-05T11:10:00.003-06:00

Original post here - Keamanan dan Keharmonian

At least (without translation to English) all the Malaysian (?) or even our neighbor can understand this post very well. The message - all hidden in the words...

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21 November lalu, bermula lah program International Workcamp yang mula-mula aku rancangkan sebelum pilihanraya lagi.

Program ini dianjurkan oleh Friends of Environments, satu kelab alam sekitar yang mula-mula aku usahakan di Sekolah Menengah Sultan Azlan Shah Lenggong sekitar tahun 2005. Bukan aku nak ambil kredit..sebab kredit sepatutnya pergi kepada guru-guru SMKSAS yang terbuka minda mereka untuk menerima idea orang luar. Aku cuma jadi koordinator program, cuma sebelah kaki saja.

Sebelah kaki lagi dalam Service Civil International. Satu NGO yang memperjuangkan keamanan sejagat. (Boleh tengok disini. www.sciint.org.) dan disini. www.scimalaysia.org.

Dah lama aku join NGO ni…sejak tahun 1984 lagi. Melalui NGO ini lah aku dapat jadi volunteer kat Thailand, Bangladesh, India dan Kemboja.

Bila aku pindah ke kuala Kangsar..tapi anak aku bersekolah di Lenggong, aku tengok pelajar-pelajar sekolah luar bandar macam katak bawah tempurung. Tak ada sifat inkuisitif, lemah dalam pengetahuan am, dan mengalami inferiority complex. Program-program ko-kurikulum kat sekolah hanya macam melepas batuk ditangga…cuma diadakan hanya untuk mencukupkan syarat-syarat.

Tapi bukan sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan saja macam tu, sekolah-sekolah Cina pun mengalami masalah yang sama. Ada pelajar Cina yang tak pernah bergaul dengan budak Melayu. Ada pelajar Melayu yang tak pernah bergaul dengan pelajar Cina dan India. Akibatnya…wujud jurang kesefahaman diantara mereka. Sampailah ke peringkat Universiti…masing-masing dalam kelompok masing-masing.

SCI cuba mewujudkan harmoni sesama manusia. Dan kalau diberi peluang…sebenarnya pelajar-pelajar ini mampu bergaul dengan penuh harmoni.

Mungkin diperingkat awal.. terdapat sedikit reservation. Masing-masing tak kenal. Tapi bila sehari bergaul…macam-macam perkara menarik didengar.

Jia Ling (kiri sekali)..merupakan pelajar terbaik semasa UPSR tahun lepas dengan mendapat 7A dan sekarang belajar di SM Chung Wah Kuala Kangsar. Memang ulat buku, tapi terlalu pendiam. Tahun lepas..emak Jia Ling menghantar anaknya kerumah aku untuk belajar Public Speaking. Setahun lebih aku melatihnya..baru dia berani bercakap diatas pentas. Dan pada malam perkenalan…aku dengar dia berkata..”I’m very happy to have Malay friends tonight. And now I can tell all my friends that I have friends from all races.” Memang seronok dia…dapat kawan dari berbagai bangsa.

Husna (kanan) menghadapi masalah berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Inggeris. Tapi dia berani bila aku kata…bukan semua orang putih boleh cakap bahasa Inggeris dengan baik. Anne dari Belgium berbahasa Perancis atau Flemish, dan bahasa Inggerisnya pun bukan lah baik sangat, tapi bahasa bukan penghalang untuk berkomunikasi. Binatang pun boleh berkomunikasi.

Pada malam perkenalan, Husna berkata, “This is the first time I handshake with orang putih.” Hey!!! semua orang faham apa yang dicakapkannya! selagi orang lain faham apa yang kita katakan..kita sudah berjaya dalam komunikasi. Tak perlu bahasa Shakespeare.

Dalam seminggu, banyak perkataan Jepun yang dipelajari oleh Irfan (kiri) melalui Makiko, sukarelawan dari Jepun. Malah..pada malam terakhir…mereka menyanyi lagu Doraemon dengan cukup baik.

Tidak ada rasa janggal, tidak ada rasa prejudis sekiranya setiap insan mahu memahami yang lain. Yang penting..ialah komunikasi.

Kalau kita mahu menyendiri, menganggap kita lebih baik dari orang lain..akan berlakulah miskomunikasi. Akan tercetus lah prejudis, syak wasangka.. and disharmony.

Dan bila aku mulakan program ini…bukan ada duit. Satu sen pun tak dak. Sampai la pada hari program…cuma dapat kumpul lebih kurang 500.00 ringgit hasil kutipan dari pelajar-pelajar. Sedangkan kos makan saja hampir dua ribu ringgit.

Tapi…bila dimulakan dengan niat yang baik…sampaikan caterer pun sanggup bagi diskaun (Sapa sanggup sediakan makanan bernilai sepuluh ringgit seorang, untuk lima kali makan?), akhirnya sponsor datang dengan sendiri. Boleh beli cenderamata lagi.

Pada 22 November, aku cabut sekejap dari khemah kerja ini untuk menghadiri Taklimat Penerangan dan Konvensyen Teh Tarik. Dalam sessi forum dan dailog, macam-macam komplen yang aku dengar. orang ni salahkan orang itu. Orang itu salahkan orang ini. Kalau aku dengar dari budak-budak…boleh terima jugak. Tapi bila ianya datang dari kepimpinan bahagian atau kawasan…aku tak tau apa nak jadi.

Ada yang mengadu tak dapat peruntukan, tak dapat bantuan..pasai apa orang tak bagi? tanya balik pada diri sendiri…hangpa pasang niat macam mana?

Mungkin depa ni kena masuk sekolah balik. Belajar dari budak-budak Sekolah Sultan Azlan Shah Lenggong dan pelajar Sekolah Menengah Chung Wah Kuala Kangsar, bagaimana keharmonian dapat dicipta.

Dalam Konvensyen Teh Tarik juga, aku dapat rasakan keharmonian dan sikap keterbukaan yang amat menarik. Aku cuma minta RM600.00untuk belanja makan…tapi aku terima lebih dari seribu ringgit.

Masa mula-mula nak organise…satu sen pun tak dak. Tapi aku beranikan diri…kalau tak dak duit..hutang. Lepas tu Chaah bagi RM250.00, Mamamat bagi 200 ringgit.. sampai hari Konvensyen aku cuma dapat RM500.00.

Tup-tup…hari konvensyen…Pak Karamu huloq RM600.00. Ada duit poket lagi..buat belanja peribadi. Terima kasih Pak Karamu. Lepas tu Cenangau pun huloq, Albanjari bawak tapai pulut, Matcomot huloq lebih 300.00. Dalam sebok-sebok…ada yang huloq macam pergi rumah orang kahwin…sampai aku lupa sapa dia yang bagi. Ada RM150.00 yang aku terima…tapi tak ingat sapa yang bagi.

Kalau takat nak buat projek kecil…dah ada modal. Tak risau dah.

Jadi..sapa kata nak buat sesuatu perlukan dana…yang penting, NIAT.

Source: http://perakexpress.com/www/?p=2679

寫給網球教練的一封信

2008-11-23T13:15:00.001-06:00

老師,

您好.

首先, 萬分感激您這個學期的網球教導. 我慶幸遇到一位盡責的好教練. 我常常以鄉下成長的背景引以為榮. 從小下溪爬樹尊定了以後較靈敏的動作.

回想起中學時期剛接觸排球時, 我總是早到晚退的認真學習態度感動了教練, 雖然他認定了身材矮小的我, 難以在排球場上有所突破, 後來的結果是我連續三年代表州參加全國比賽, 而由始到終我是12位球員當中最矮小的一位.

三年前, 不知天高地厚的我, 沒有充分的練習, 不知高山症為何物? 獨自扛著重10 公斤的背包到尼泊爾. 沒有能力請嚮導及腳夫, 就憑著一股傻勁, 一個人翻越了5016 米高的喜馬來雅山脈. 路途遇到機關槍裝備的反政府人士, 憑著一點點的智慧, 我少付了一般外國人的一半費用. 在登山的第五天, 我為我那雙廉價的中國制登山鞋付出慘痛的代價, 左腳的腳底起了6個水泡, 接下去幾天, 我必須一天穿拖鞋, 一天換回登山鞋的狀況繼續往更高處去. 路途像是無盡頭的, 由較低海拔的幾十家組成的村莊, 到越往高處零零碎碎的幾家逗留, 我對四周的感覺越是強烈, 這裡的運輸還是依靠人力及驢子隊伍, 一杯奶茶從出發點的NT4到5016米已經是NT60, 在海拔4300米, 我吃了用氂牛糞便做為燃料烹飪的食物, 其實感覺還不錯! 在海拔4800米的營地那個晚上, 外頭飄著細雪, 臥室裡除了我那顫抖的微暖身軀, 所碰之處皆是冰冷的, 我蠻以為我會凍死在那裏, 但我那份好強的心態卻在那個時候激發起來, 我慢慢的爬起床, 笨拙地穿上鞋子, 冒著冷風踩在雪地上, 到離我臥室 70 米的廚房, 猜想著在不久前燒過飯菜的廚房必定比我的臥室溫暖. 結果當我踏進廚房時, 看到幾個老外在排隊租借熱水袋, 我當下如釋重負的排在後頭. 您應該可想而知我是如何興奮的抱著那珍貴的熱水袋回到我的臥室. 隔天凌晨4點, 我還充分利用熱水袋的水沖洗了廁所. 我常想, 我現在的節省心態是否在這種物質貧乏的環境裡不知不覺中訓練出來的.

在路程的第12 天, 我遇到兩個從德國來登山的老頭子, 從他們的外表, 我猜想他們不會少於70歲. 但他們那份體力, 我是由衷的佩服到五體投地, 同樣的出發地點與時間, 他們卻很快的超越我走在前方, 當我氣喘喘的到達茶莊時與他們再度相遇. 他們總是會先向我打個招呼後用讚賞地語氣說: 小妮子, 幹得好, 不錯!

今天早上, 我在洗衣機旁等待時, 往下看是紅泥土的網球場, 只不過是早上7點, 退休的老伯伯及老阿嬤已經打得滿頭大汗, 我立即聯想到老師您, 您雖然已經58歲的年齡, 但我卻看到您的體力比許多人好得多. 或許很多同學認為老師您每一次在練球前總是喋喋不休地講道理而感到不耐煩, 但我卻認真的思考老師所說的每一句話.

本來只想給老師寫幾個感謝的字眼, 沒想到卻不禁的長篇大論地說了一些我的經歷, 或許是因為我感覺到老師您會認同我以上在一般人心中認為是瘋狂行為, 在老師眼裡卻是再尋常不過的事情.

最後, 再次感激您這個學期的教導, 還有您給我的那支球拍, 雖然是您曾經用過的一支舊球拍, 但對我而言它的價值是無限的. 謝謝!

在此, 盼望日後能有機會向老師您再次的指教. 預祝老師暑假愉快!

艾梨敬上

The Trust of All Malaysians

2008-10-31T06:06:00.002-06:00

Published: Friday October 31, 2008 MYT 3:51:00 PM
Updated: Friday October 31, 2008 MYT 4:41:38 PM
Respect the rights of all citizens: Zaid
By NG CHENG YEE

KUALA LUMPUR: The Barisan Nasional government must abandon its reworked concept of the social contract, said Datuk Zaid Ibrahim.

He said the Government must now embrace a fresh perspective borne out of discussions and agreements made in good faith with all the communities in this country.

“It is time for us all to practise a more transparent and egalitarian form of democracy and to recognise and respect the rights and dignity of all the citizens of this country,” he said Friday at the 21st LawAsia Conference 2008 here.

Zaid was invited to speak on “Malaysia - A Lost Democracy?” on the second day of the conference.

He said the social contract was restructured unilaterally in the 1980s by a certain segment of the Barisan leadership, which marked the advent of “ketuanan Melayu” or Malay supremacy, that allowed for developments that had resulted in the country’s current state of affairs.

“The non-Malay Barisan component parties were perceived by Umno to be weak and in no position to exert influence.

“Bandied about by Umno ideologues, the social contract took on a different, more racialist tone.

“The essence of its reconstructed meaning was that Malaya is primarily the home of the Malays and that the non-Malays should acknowledge that primacy by showing deference to the Malays and Malay issues.

“Affirmative action and special status became a matter of privilege by reference to race rather than of need and questioning of this new status quo was not to be tolerated,” he said.

He said majoritarianism had become the governing paradigm of governance as the character and nature of rights were defined by Malay interests and the Malays.

He said the institutions of government were such that the Malays were effectively represented and there was no way the interest of the Malays could be taken away other than through their own weakness and folly.

“It was, and still is, impossible to reconcile the principles of equality and civil rights of the people of this country with the primacy of one group over all others,” he said.

Zaid said the country had failed miserably in dealing with complex issues of society by resorting to a political culture of promoting fear and division amongst the people.

“The ketuanan Melayu model has failed and it has resulted in waste of crucial resources, energy and time and has distracted from the real issues confronting the country,” he said.

He said the results of the March 8 elections showed that the Barisan was no longer exclusively speaking for the rakyat.

“Prompting discourse and dialogue is essential as we must learn to talk and listen to one another again,” he said.

He also said goodwill must continue to strive to bring about change so that the trust of all Malaysians could be rebuilt.

“From that trust, we can rebuild the country where we do not live in fear, but in freedom; that the rights of all Malaysians are acknowledged, respected and protected by the system of law that is just and fair,” he said.

For every McCain & Obama within

2008-10-16T03:53:00.001-06:00

Roger Simon
Wed Oct 15, 11:34 PM ET
Source: Yahoo! News

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Debates should not be confused with trips to Lourdes: Few miracles are dispensed.

John McCain needed a miracle in his final debate with Barack Obama on Wednesday night, a miracle that would wipe away McCain’s deficit in the polls and re-energize his flagging campaign.

He did not get one. The clouds did not part. Heavenly choirs were not heard. Instead, the American public heard angry attacks from McCain.

Sometimes McCain attacked directly, and sometimes he attacked sarcastically, but he never stopped attacking. And he never rattled Obama. Obama answered every attack and kept his cool.

How cool? Obama was so cool that after 90 minutes under blazing TV lights, an ice cube wouldn’t have melted on his forehead.

McCain attacked him on everything from wanting to raise the taxes of Joe the Plumber - - now the most famous plumber in America and at serious risk of becoming so wealthy his taxes will go up no matter who wins - - to not traveling enough.

“I admire so much Sen. Obama’s eloquence,” McCain sneered. “Sen. Obama, who has never traveled south of our border.” (This from a man whose running mate got her first passport last year.)

But McCain didn’t just attack, he also defended, including defending those people who attend his rallies and the rallies of Sarah Palin who have shouted nasty and threatening things when Obama’s name is mentioned.

“Let me say categorically that I am proud of the people who come to my rallies,” McCain said. “I am not going to stand for anybody saying that the people who come to our rallies are anything other than patriotic citizens.”

Obama responded to all this — what else? — coolly.

“I don’t mind being attacked for the next three weeks,” Obama said. “What the American people can’t afford is four more years of failed economic policies.”

He never got off his game plan. He never got shook up.

The biggest impact of the three presidential debates for Obama was not anything said or not said. It was impressionistic: Obama simply did not appear to be the scary “other” that McCain needs him to be. “When people suggest that I pal around with terrorists, then we are not talking about issues,” Obama said smoothly.

For McCain, the biggest impact of the debates was visual: In the first debate he refused to look at Obama, in the second debate McCain appeared to careen around the stage and in this last debate McCain would scribble furiously with his Sharpie as Obama was talking or else smirk in response to what Obama was saying.

Moderator Bob Schieffer of CBS often asked provocative questions that sometimes did not get provocative responses. When Schieffer asked each man why the country would be better off if his running mate became president rather than the other guy’s running mate, Obama said Joe Biden “shares my core values.” John McCain said Sarah Palin is a “reformer” and “she has united our party.”

And McCain’s desire to keep his party united behind him — because who else is? — was very much on his mind, dipping deep into conservative Republican talking points. McCain repeatedly accused Obama of “wanting to spread the wealth” around, which doesn’t seem like all that bad an idea to people who aren’t wealthy.

But there was one place McCain would not go: He did not bring up the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is a line McCain seems determined not to cross, even though some in his party are urging him to do so.

What McCain really needed is what he still needs: for Obama to make some huge gaffe, something that makes Obama look like the riskier choice between the two.

But Obama made no such gaffes Wednesday night.

“The biggest risk we could take right now is to adopt the same failed policies and same failed politics that we’ve seen for the last eight years,” Obama said.

The race is not over. It would be wrong to write McCain off. After all, there is still almost three weeks to go. And in politics, anything can happen.

It usually doesn’t, however.

Letter from friends, and their steel-horse

2008-10-06T08:52:00.007-06:00

Hey KC!

It was a long long (....long) time since you wrote to us, and still no answer from our side. Do not worry, we are still alive! yeap. Simply we were running little bit everywhere, as usual. After 2 months in Mongolia, we came back to russia, visiting
all different onlce, aunt, cousin of El, that she almost never saw, living 4000km from them...

After, we took the train from siberia till Moscou, as my parents were coming to visit us for two weeks, between 19th sept and 4th ocotber. Was nice, but even
more tireless than cyclng:)

Now, El went back to Moscou, and I am in Tallin-Estonia. Russia and Europe did new rules, and I can't stay more than 3 months in a semeter. My first 3 months is finish, and my new semester start the 18th of october. So must go to exil in Tallin for some days. Then I will be back to Moscou, where we have lot of paper to do, preparing the visa for Europe for Elena, and preparing already the 'after-trip'.

In beginning of november, we will take the train to go back to the west of siberia, in ural. We will restart to cycle from Ekaterinenburg and cross Ural mountains,
which is the physicall border of europe-asia.Tjhen we will reach again Moscou, by bicycle this time, then go to estonia, still on our sit.

From estonia, we will go down down down, to a small city, something called like antwerp if i remind well;)

Yeap, now you know everythihg about our plans:)

Soon the website will be better, as we plan to make it a new youth during thes two week of foreced rest.

What about you and belgium? How is the job? lot of fun?

See you soon around some french frie in the country of good beer!

/EL & GL

P/S: Steel-horse or bicycle - 铁马(tie2 ma3), literally translated from Chinese mandarin.

One Country, One System

2008-09-16T10:12:00.001-06:00

Tuesday September 16, 2008 MYT 7:15:13 PM
Zaid sticking to his decision to resign (updated)
By SIM LEOI LEOI

PUTRAJAYA: Datul Zaid Ibrahim has set his mind on resigning from the Cabinet, citing his disappointment with “meeting a brick wall” from his own colleagues and party members on many of his suggestions for reform.

The former de facto Law Minister also said he did not want many of the problems arising from his proposals earlier to be a burden on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi at a time when the latter had to grapple with party conflict and other challenges.

Zaid says he is disappointed.

“I don’t want the PM to be beset by problems involving me and it’s better for him to focus instead on other more important matters. Let me not be the problem. Although I thanked the Prime Minister for his suggestion that I go on leave instead, I am not tired. I’m just disappointed so I don’t have to rest.

“I have decided to quit and I pray that the PM will be able to overcome all the problems he is facing, and that he remains as Umno president and Prime Minister to accomplish what he has set out to do.

“I apologise to all Malaysians because of my weaknesses, I have failed. This is my decision as well as that of my wife and my family,” he told reporters Tuesday in a 40-minute press conference at his office here.

Zaid said his decision to quit was thus “best for his party, the country and for everyone”, adding that he had told Abdullah, when he first took up the post, that he would be doing so based on his desire to help the PM and change Barisan Nasional.

“It has not been a mistake to take up the offer,” he stressed.

He however maintained that Abdullah had been supportive of his initiation for legal reforms “within his own constraints” and that he was not disappointed with the premier.

“He’s a nice man. I hope my departure will trigger some change and some feelings of positive reaction from my party,” he said to a question on why he was giving up now when he had been so adamant before on bringing about legal and judiciary reforms.

Describing himself as a “man of deep responsibility”, Zaid pointed out that in the six months he had been Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, he had “gone through a lot”, ranging from having been hurled with accusations of not standing up for his own race and religion to being criticised in Parliament.

“In this short time, I was facing a brick well. I cannot translate what I want to do, particularly on issues such as equal rights for everyone as stated under the Constitution. I think I have failed to convince those in authority and positions of power to effect those changes which will allow this Government to move forward,” he said.

However, Zaid stressed that he harboured no hard feelings for his Cabinet colleagues, many of whom had also been harsh in their criticism of him, and said he hoped to maintain a good rapport with them.

Zaid had tendered his resignation to Abdullah in a meeting at Seri Perdana on Monday but was told to “take two weeks’ leave instead”.

In his resignation letter, the Senator had enumerated his frustrations in achieving the reforms he had been tasked with doing; the straw that broke his back was the arrest of three civilians under the Internal Security Act on Friday

Asked if he would now leave Umno and join opposition party PKR as speculated, Zaid admitted that he had not been “treated well” by Umno - even suspended once on charges of money politics.

“Many of those who have criticised me are from Umno. Sometimes, I feel that I should change, instead of them. I don’t know PKR well. It’s too early to say, I have an open mind. But I haven’t made any decision to join PKR or anybody else,” he said, adding that he however had not been courted.

Asked for his advice before leaving the Cabinet, Zaid said the Government must overcome a psychological barrier and start trusting its own people it if were to build “one country, one system.”

“If you can’t bring yourself to that level of trust, you will always worry which policy benefits which group. You can have race based party but you don’t have to be racist bigots,” he said.

Zaid said there might be “somebody else” now more suitable for the task and denied being a “hero” as claimed by many of his supporters and fans. “I don’t care who the PM is. I just want to see transformation,” he said.

New WORLD Responsibilities

2008-07-15T08:19:00.007-06:00

The map...is based upon the Peters Projection rather than the more familiar Mercator Projection. It introduces several innovative characteristics: an accurate rendition of the proportion of the land surface area; graphical representation of the entire world surface, including the polar regions; the Equator is placed at the centre of the map; the usual grid of 180 Meridians (East and West) and 90 Meridians each (North and South) is replaced by a decimal degree network dividing the earth both East and West and North and South into 100 fields each; angle accuracy in the main North-South, East-West directions.

The surface distortions that do appear are distributed at the Equator and the poles; the more densely settled earth zones, it is claimed, appear in proper proportion to each other. This is projection represents an important step away from the prevailing Eurocentric geographical and cultural concept of the world.

Indeed, a new epoch in man’s history began when the major of nations now in existence achieved their political independence in the period following the Second World War. As a result of decolonization in most parts of what came to be called the Third World, long-established power structures crumbled or collapsed, leaving vacuums and giving birth to new political and economic groupings. At the same time, we witness the revitalization of old cultures. And the end of false superiority-complexes.

All of us on the Commission considered it most deplorable that the process of decolonization is still not complete. And that thus, especially in Africa, valuable human potential continues to be fettered. We want this to be brought to a rational and productive end.

The countries which were released from colonial dependence, which became new or reborn nations, have been struggling to gain equality of opportunity in their development, and to be their own masters, not only politically but also economically and culturally. The new countries made it clear that they want control over their own resources. They were making efforts to increase their share in the international production of goods and in the world’s trade. And they pleaded for beneficial cooperation, assistance and transfer of resources – financial grants, low-interest loans, goods and technologies – in order to overcome their poverty and to achieve equality of opportunity.

There has been a substantial change in the international debate since the 1950s. In those years, people in the industrialized countries and elsewhere saw the problem as one of enlightened charity. And those speaking on behalf of the Third World were essentially right in pointing out that their people, with their own resources, were responsible for the lion’s share of their achievements, for which aid-givers sometimes claimed more credit than was really due.

There will always be room for humanitarian aid, I believe, even in the most perfect social system imaginable – and, of course, even more so in the world with immense distress to overcome. But the international debate on development, at the threshold of the 1980s, deals not just with ‘assistance’ and ‘aid’ but with new structures. What is now on the agenda is a rearrangement of international relations, the building of a new order and a new kind of comprehensive approach to the problems of developments.

Such a process of restructuring and renewal has to be guided by the principle of equal rights and opportunities: it should aim a fair compromise to overcome grave injustice, to reduce useless controversies, and to promote the interlocked welfare of nations. Experience has shown that much determination and purposeful effort will be required to produce structural changes with a fair balance and for mutual benefit.

A right to share in decision-making process will be essential if the developing countries are to accept their proper share of responsibility for international political and economic affairs. It is the right which nourishes the aspirations of developing countries for a new international order, and these aspirations will have to materialize if relations are to be placed on a new basis of confidence and trust in international cooperation.

On our road towards a new international order, we certainly cannot ignore one of the most tragic consequences of current conflicts and tensions: millions of refugees whose lives have been uprooted and often desperately impoverished. Speaking perhaps undiplomatically: since the death camps in Europe and the Hiroshima bomb, mankind has never been so humiliated as in Indochina recently, and especially in Cambodia.

The whole international community must take responsibility for the conditions of fellow human beings who become victims of intolerance and brutality. The burdens of countries who are close neighbours to regimes which cause an exodus of refugees should be shared in a spirit of solidarity by others who are better off.
---------------------------
Source: North-South: A Programme For Survival - The Report of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues, first published in 1980. Posted is an excerption from the introduction by Willy Brandt, Commission's Chairman.

It's 2008 and nothing is overly out-dated here...

BBC 'HardTalk' interview with Dr Mahathir Mohamed

2008-07-10T02:58:00.002-06:00

Stephen Sackur Introduction:

Last month (March 2008) marked a watershed in the politics of Malaysia. The ruling national front recorded its worst election results in five decades. It's still in power but seriously weakened. My guest today personifies the power of the ruling party for 22 years. He was Malaysia's PM and one of the most outspoken leaders in the Muslim world. His critics called him a racist and a dictator. Has retirement mellowed Mahathir Mohamed?

Stephen Sackur: Dr Mohamad welcome to Hardtalk. Let's start with that election result last month, has it marked the beginning of the end for Malaysia's ruling party?

Mahathir Mohamad: Not necessarily, unless no action is taken, of course it may result in that. But if proper action is taken, including of course the present Prime Minister leaving his seat of power, it may be possible to bring back the Barisan Nasional Front in order to become again a very strong ruling party.

Stephen Sackur: You're saying that PM Abdullah Badawi has to be kicked out for the ruling party to recover?

Mahathir Mohamad: Well not so strong as that. He can step down. I stepped down in my time. It's about time that he steps down because the result of the election shows clearly that many of the former followers, supporters of the Nasional Front had decided that they would work, vote for the Opposition even if they didn't like the Opposition. They voted for the Opposition to send a message to the present government.

Stephen Sackur: Prime Minister Abdullah says that you have been one of the curses that have brought him down, because you've been sniping from the sidelines for the last two or three years.

Mahathir Mohamad: That may be so. I don't see why I should not criticise wrongdoings by him.

Stephen Sackur: What wrongdoings?

Mahathir Mohamad: Well in the first place, the government promises to remove corruption and things like that, but the government is found to be corrupt.

Stephen Sackur: You are tearing your own party apart though, that is the problem. And that is what many people inside your party believe.

Mahathir Mohamad: Well sometimes it may be necessary. I told people that I'm a doctor. If I find one leg becoming gangrenous I remove it.

Stephen Sackur: Now he has said Prime Minister Abdullah, that he will go eventually, but is your message to him that he has no time, he must go now?

Mahathir Mohamad: He must go now, because he will take time to revive the party for the next election.

Stephen Sackur: Isn't the truth of what we see in Malaysia today that the real discontent isn't so much with Prime Minister Abdullah, it is with the system and the ideology that you bequeathed to your country?

Mahathir Mohamad: Well the system and the ideology have been there for the last 50 years. It's worked very well we had always won elections, people always supported us and the country has done very well during that 50 years with that system.

Stephen Sackur: But the indications are and the opposition succeeded by saying to the public, we no longer want this racially defined system inside Malaysia. And it was the racial defined system that was the platform upon which you succeeded in running Malaysia for 22 years.

Mahathir Mohamad: I think that's wishful thinking on the part of foreign critics. But the fact is that this election result was due to disaffection on the part of the ruling party's supporters, with the present leadership.

Stephen Sackur: Well let me just quote you the words of the new head of Penang State and let's not forget that these results saw five very big and wealthy states go to the Opposition. The new head of Penang State Mr Lim Guan Eng, he says 'we want a new state administration that is free from corruption and cronyism, we are here to build a Penang State for all.' You didn't build a Malaysia for all did you?

Mahathir Mohamad: I did. If you look at Malaysia today, everybody is enjoying, has enjoyed, a very good life. They have become very prosperous. Malaysia was one of the fastest growing countries in the world. If you look at the different races, you can find that they all benefited from that government. So it is of course, necessary for Opposition parties to make remarks like that.

Stephen Sackur: But they are not making it up are they? Let's look at your new economic policy which you pursued for so long. It favours ethnic Malays, in so many different ways, from public sector appointments to university places, to advantageous acquisition of stocks, discounts on housing, I don't know where to stop. There are so many different ways in which you ran an unequal system.

Mahathir Mohamad: No this was a policy which was initiated by my predecessors, it was necessary to...

Stephen Sackur: But you ran it for 22 years, you had ample opportunity to change it.

Mahathir Mohamad: Yes I had ample opportunity to implement in a way that will correct imbalances that existed in Malaysia since the British days. And unless these imbalances are corrected there's bound to be another race riot, as happened in1969.

Stephen Sackur: But the point is that 80 thousand Indians for example, were on the streets protesting long and loud last November, because they are no longer prepared to live with the racial division that you set in the stone.

Mahathir Mohamad: Why now? Why not during my time? They were quite free to demonstrate. Many of the people who disagreed with me demonstrated...

Stephen Sackur: But many of the people who disagreed with you, I'm afraid ended up in prison.

Mahathir Mohamad: Who?

Stephen Sackur: Hundreds of them, read every Amnesty international and human rights watch report for the years in which you were in power..

Mahathir Mohamad: The western press, the problem is that you make up these stories and then you take this as the truth, it's not the truth. Tell me who are the hundreds of people who ended up in prison.

Stephen Sackur: I'll discuss human rights a little bit later. I just want before we get distracted from this question of racism in Malaysia, I just want to put to you this final point: Anwar Ibrahim says that he is going to push and of course he your long time friend who became, your political enemy, he is going to push for a colour blind Malaysia where affirmative action is open to all who need help.

Mahathir Mohamad: Well this opportunism for him, now that he is out of the government, he was in the government for a long time, he never made any complaints, he never did anything to.

Stephen Sackur: He certainly made a complaint when you locked him up.

Mahathir Mohamad: Well that was not the reason why he was locked up, he was accused of sodomy, he was accused of abuse of power, he was tried in court, nine months and he was defended by nine lawyers and he was found guilty...

Stephen Sackur: Trumped up charges.. trumped up charges.. says not just Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International but I've been looking through the record, the Canadian government, the White House, the International Commission of Jurists, all of them expressed grave and deep concern with the way in which your judicial system treated Anwar Ibrahim.

Mahathir Mohamad: Yes you're free to say so but...

Stephen Sackur: I'm not saying it, I'm just quoting to you all the people who did say it.

Mahathir Mohamad: But what is the record of these countries? These people, these same countries arrested people without the law, and detained them in Guantanamo Bay and even in Britain here, you arrest people and detain them without any sanction by law.

Stephen Sackur: So does that make it okay that you did it for 22 years?

Mahathir Mohamad: We did it under the laws of the country, but it is not the way...

Stephen Sackur: You used the laws which went back to colonial times, the internal security act, emergency procedures, you feel satisfied to tell me that that was entirely legitimate?

Mahathir Mohamad: No we find that the situation in the country is very very fluid and it is very likely that there will be racial riots, unless we prevent precise people who are promoting racial hatred from talking about it.

Stephen Sackur: Put it this way, Dr Mahathir, you've had several years out of power now to consider your record and what you did, I wonder whether you are now ready to say that you regret what you did to Anwar Ibrahim?

Mahathir Mohamad: Why should I regret? He was arrested under the laws of the country, he was tried in the courts of the country and he was sentenced by the court. If he was not wrong, I don't think, no matter what you think about our judiciary, I don't think he would have been sentenced to prison.

Stephen Sackur: It damaged your reputation though didn't it?

Mahathir Mohamad: Well that's something I have to accept.

Stephen Sackur: You may also find it comes back to haunt you? Anwar Ibrahim is now leading the opposition coalition. We are led to believe that there are certain MPs in the ruling party who may defect to him, in which case he could very soon be running the government. And he's made it plain that he wants to have you answer for all of the things you do while you were in power.

Mahathir Mohamad: Well he's welcome to do that if he becomes the Prime Minister of Malaysia, but if he wins over members of the ruling party to his side, it is the prime minister, the present leader who should be blamed, because he couldn't even get the loyalty of his own members.

Stephen Sackur: It wasn't the current prime minister who was in power when Anwar Ibrahim was savagely beaten during his time in detention?

Mahathir Mohamad: Savagely beaten? I know he was slapped and he had a black eye which was very useful for election purpose...

Stephen Sackur: Why you think he hit himself maybe?

Mahathir Mohamad: Well I don't know what happened..but the police the IGP admitted that he assaulted Anwar, but that wasn't me that was the IGP.

Stephen Sackur: But how do you respond, if Anwar comes to power and he as he said on this programme and elsewhere, that he wants a full and thorough public inquiry into all of your, Dr Mahathir's misdeeds, how will you respond to that?

Mahathir Mohamad: He is welcome to do so, but I hope that he finds people who are neutral, who are impartial, probably foreigners, because I don't trust the people that they put after people they don't like.

Stephen Sackur: Interesting that you say you don't trust people who are currently or maybe in charge of any inquiry, do you trust the integrity of the Malaysian judiciary?

Mahathir Mohamad: I do, at times I do but...

Stephen Sackur: is that because you appointed the judges?

Mahathir Mohamad: I didn't appoint the judges, the judges were recommended by the Chief Justice and my duty is to check whether he has any records or not and after that he is presented to the king who will then appoint the judge...

Stephen Sackur: Dr Mahathir, you know as well as I do, that the hottest political topic in Malaysia today, is the state of the judiciary, the integrity of the judiciary and that a video has been playing in Malaysia for a long time now which shows a top lawyer talking to a top judge going back to 2001, in which the lawyer says to the judge 'believe me in the end all of the positions going all the way to the supreme court are fixed by the politicians', i.e. by you who were the prime minister at the time Dr Mahathir?

Mahathir Mohamad: Did he say that? Did he mention my name?

Stephen Sackur: He didn't mention your name he said this will be fixed, this goes through the political system. You ran the political system.

Mahathir Mohamad: I'm not so sure about that. But the fact is that this man had his video taken because they intended to blackmail him. He happens to be my lawyer, defending me at this moment for libel against Anwar and this tape came from Anwar. Anwar had these things recorded in order to blackmail the lawyer.

Stephen Sackur: But the point is the current government led by Prime Minister Abdullah who is nominally or despite what you have said on this programme, is of your party. Prime Minister Abdullah has now essentially apologised, he said both to the supreme court justice that you removed and to other judges that were suspended or removed during your time in power, he's said sorry to them. He's said that he wants to offer them monetary compensation

Mahathir Mohamad: Fine but it's a political move. Something a man who is very unpopular at the moment, wanting to show that he's going to do something right.

Stephen Sackur: And that Dr Mahathir is my point. The Malaysian people no longer want to live with the system you created. That's why Prime Minister Abdullah is essentially dismantling the system that you created.

Mahathir Mohamad: No no no he's not dismantling the system, he is making use of the system in a worse way. Nobody can say anything against him, he has newspapers which only reports about him and how great he is. And he was mislead by his own supporters, into believing that if he holds the election now, this is one and half years before the end of the term, he would win, he would have a clean sweep. If you look at the records, he made statements that he would win the election, with zero for the Opposition.

Stephen Sackur: The more I listen to you talking about Prime Minister Abdullah, the more I wonder why did you choose him to be your successor?

Mahathir Mohamad: Well these people are very smart in hiding their true character. He was known as Mr Clean and I thought I would appoint a clean person to succeed me. Although he was not the one with the highest votes in my party. But I thought that he was older and I appointed him thinking that he's not going to do anything very wrong. But this man gives priority to his family rather than to the country.

Stephen Sackur: So it was a fundamental lack of judgement on your part?

Mahathir Mohamad: Yes I'll admit that. But we all make mistakes. The British people voted in people like Blair, who told lies, so did the Americans. Lots of people make mistakes.

Stephen Sackur: We all make mistakes you say, was it also a mistake for you to define yourself so clearly, as anti-western and anti-democratic, in the sense that the West understands democracy?

Mahathir Mohamad: No that's the problem, I am not anti-Western, I am against the bad things that were done by the Western countries.

Stephen Sackur: You're not anti-western and yet in June 2003 before you left office, you said anglo-Saxon Europeans are essentially proponents and I'm quoting here: 'proponents of war, sodomy and genocide.'

Mahathir Mohamad: Which is true, you must admit.

Stephen Sackur: But you're not anti-western?

Mahathir Mohamad: I'm stating the fact. This is their character and I will continue to say so.

Stephen Sackur: So when you come here, you sit in the Hardtalk studio, in the heart of London, you regard yourself do you, as in one of the Headquarters of war, sodomy and genocide?

Mahathir Mohamad: Well I come here of course expecting to be lambasted by you, because that is the way you work.

Stephen Sackur: Well I'm not lambasting you at all. I'm trying to tease out whether you believe it was a mistake for you to use this sort of language. Because you clearly cut yourself off, from any sort of meaningful dialogue with the West when you use these words.

Mahathir Mohamad: Well the Europeans used to call us the lazy Malays, incompetent Malays, untrustworthy Malays, we couldn't say a thing about you. So when I was in a position to say what we think about you, and I did and you don't like it. When you said it to us you expect us to like it. We didn't like it, but we had no way of making our voices heard.

Stephen Sackur: I am just wondering how you feel about democracy. Of course in the world since 9/11, the United States and the coalition of partners led by the United Kingdom, have talked a lot about spreading democracy, do you believe in democracy?

Mahathir Mohamad: If you look at the history of the west, they come up with all kinds of ideologies, they use it for sometime and then they found it defective and they dropped it and start on another. One day they are going to forget about democracy because in some countries democracy actually ended up with anarchy. And there were practically no governments. It's not a system that can feed everybody. You must have a certain understanding of the limitations of democracy, in order to make it work.

Stephen Sackur: Is that why you were not a democrat, why you in the end did behave like a dictator?

Mahathir Mohamad: Well that is something that the West would like to say about me, I am a dictator.

Stephen Sackur: Well I'm just quoting your own words from 2002. You said it's good governance people need, you said, feudal kings even dictators have provided and can provide good governments.

Mahathir Mohamad: Well that's very true, that is very true. The great civilisations of the past did not have democracies. And yet they became great. It's not necessary that the system will work for everybody. But if we have a bad leader, even the democratic system will fail. We must remember that it is a democratic country which dropped atomic bombs, killing 200 thousand people.

Stephen Sackur: How do you think the Malaysian public will respond to you saying, look you know what democracy isn't the best system and in fact dictatorship can often work better.

Mahathir Mohamad: I went through five elections and I won all the elections with a majority...

Stephen Sackur: Without a free press, locking up many of your opponents

Mahathir Mohamad: There you go again about locking up many of my opponents, who are they?

Stephen Sackur: I don't know how many times I have to tell you, that I've studied the human rights watch reports, the Amnesty International reports, studies from the state department, from the Canadian government.

Mahathir Mohamad: These are biased reports, the first thing I did on becoming the prime minister in 1981, was to release political prisoners who were detained by my predecessors, 22 or them, including many members of the Opposition.

Stephen Sackur: Under the 1984 Press law which required newspapers to get a new licence every single year. It made it very easy for you to quieten them down, didn't it?

Mahathir Mohamad: No it has always been there, the press law has been there...I didn't do that...but the fact is that we have a multi-racial country and if we are not careful, there will be racial flare-ups. And you look at most of the countries with multi-racial population, they are never peaceful, even Northern Ireland, it took you such a long to stop the war in Northern Ireland.

Stephen Sackur: Talking of peace, you did worry about the stability of your country, didn't you? That's why you were very strong, very tough with Islamist extremism inside Malaysia.

Mahathir Mohamad: Yes it is necessary.

Stephen Sackur: Well I just wonder in that case then why just before you left office, in October 2003, why did you tell the Islamic Summit Conference that and I'm quoting again a very famous speech, it's a little bit long but '1.3 billion Muslims cannot be defeated by a few million Jews,' you said. 'We're actually very strong. The Europeans killed six million Jews out of 12 million but today Jews rule this world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.' You went on to say: 'But the Jews have become arrogant. And arrogant people like angry people will make mistakes and there may be a window of opportunity for us.'

Mahathir Mohamad: I'm stating facts, I am willing to say that again and again that this is what has happened.

Stephen Sackur: Anti-Semitic and racist that was called by many governments and people around the world.

Mahathir Mohamad: Anti-Semitism is created by the Jews themselves. We cannot say anything. In fact journalists have been arrested for saying something against the holocaust and jailed for three years. Where is the freedom of press?

Stephen Sackur: So those words I quoted in your view, are not anti-Semitic?

Mahathir Mohamad: No they are not anti-Semitic? I am just quoting facts. The fact is that the United States obeys what Israel wants it to do.

Stephen Sackur: You call them facts, let's leave that aside for the moment. I am trying to understand your logic. Here you are a man who says that your own country is potentially destabilised by Islamic extremism and then you go out in an Islamic Conference and you use words which could have been used by Osama bin Laden.

Mahathir Mohamad: There's no contradiction, no contradiction at all. I don't want Islamic terrorism any more than I want Jewish attacks against Israel, or American bombs on Baghdad. It is not incompatible.

Stephen Sackur: Do you feel confident that people still listen to your message?

Mahathir Mohamad: I wouldn't be able to say. Why should people worry about me?

Stephen Sackur: In Malaysia people say, and I'm talking about the Prime Minister, the leader of the Opposition: it's time for you to be quiet.

Mahathir Mohamad: Why should I be quiet? You mean to say when they are doing something wrong, to my country and I should not say anything? I would be irresponsible if I were to do that.

Stephen Sackur: Dr Mahathir Mohamad thank you very much for being on Hardtalk.

Mahathir Mohamad: You're welcome.

地震來時，你要躲在哪裡？ Where do you hide during earthquake?

2008-06-02T04:51:00.004-06:00

血淋淋的歷史教訓印證了文章的內容，遇到地震來時，你要躲在哪裡？

給你新觀念！

請大家傳閱，在災難發生時，減少傷害，增加生存機率。如果你依照小時候老師教我們的方法乖乖躲在桌子底下，床舖底下，傷亡率高達百分之九十八！！

那該怎麼辦？

美國國際搜救隊長教你正確的躲避位置，正確的地震保命法。

道格卡普是美國國際搜救隊長，自一九八五年至今，他及隊員已參與全世界七十九次重大災難的救災工作，他曾經爬進近七百棟因地震、爆炸而嚴重倒塌的建築物內，搜索受困的生還者及罹難者遺體。除了參與兩年前日本神戶大地震，美國奧克拉荷馬市聯邦大樓爆炸案救援工作，十二年來國際新聞中的重大災難救災，他都沒缺席。中華民國搜救總隊邀他演講，美國在台協會、加拿大駐華經貿辦事處也邀請他，為美、加外交官員傳授在建築物倒塌時如何求生。

道格來台後，得知國人從小到大，在防震演習中，老師總是叫學生躲在課桌下後，很焦急地一再呼籲：不要躲在桌子、床舖下，而是要以比桌、床高度為低的姿勢，躲在桌子床舖的旁邊。他以先前和土耳其政府、大學合作拍製的地震逃生錄影帶，說明不要躲在桌下避震的道理。透過土耳其政府協助，製作單位爆破一棟廢棄大樓，模擬地震時建築物倒塌的情形。工作人員先依據「常識」，在桌子床舖等家具旁，同樣放置十具模特兒，炸藥引爆後大樓變成斷坦殘壁，他和搜救隊員依序找到二十具模特兒，在桌床下的十具模特兒，有八具被壓成全毀，其中一具甚至頭、身、腳斷成三截。道格放置的十具模特兒，則全部安好無事。

他解釋說，強震倒塌時，建築物天花板會將桌床等家具壓毀，人若躲在其中，後果不堪設想，如果人以低姿勢躲在家具旁，讓家具接受倒塌物品力道，躲在一旁的人可取得生存空間。道格說，即使開車時遇到地震，也要趕快離開車子，很多在停車場喪命的人，都是在車內被活活壓死的，在兩車之間的人，卻毫髮未傷（此段話引圖片說明）：強烈地震發生時，如果你正在停車場，千萬不要留在車內，以免垮下來的天花板壓扁汽車，造成傷害；應該以臥姿躲在車旁，掉落的天花板壓在車上，不致直接撞擊人身，可能形成一塊『生存空間』，增加存活機會。他很慎重地對在場的一百多位台灣搜救隊員說，隊員必須先在地震中自求生存，才能拯救他人性命。他說，希望大家告訴大家，只要傳播這一點求生訊息，地震發生時，建築物內的傷亡率，就可能由百分之九十遽降為百分之二。

附上中華民國搜救總隊在 921 搜救時的照片作圖解說明，正好可以相呼應，更具震撼力及說服力。

MORE LIFE-SAVING INFORMATION: American Rescue Team International

IN REMEMBRANCE OF CHINA SICHUAN 5.12 EARTHQUAKE: 四川汶川5.12大地震

Tibetian uprise...and two personal mail

2008-03-24T20:37:00.004-06:00

Dear friends,

Once again the target is the Muslims. If the Tibetians are fighting for their freedom what did they target the Muslim communitiy. Does this not indicate that there is some othe sinister motive and hands behind this uprise for the so called Tibetian freedom. Who are behind this. It is worth for us to come out and express - WHAT THE HELL OF A CRIME DOES THE MUSLIM ARE COMMITTING THAT THE WORLD IS AGAINST THE MUSLIMS.

Look at Palestine, Look at Iraq, Look at Afganistan, Look at the cold develpments in India, even in Sri Lanka, the Eastern Block. Who is making the Muslims to take upto arms and then call them terrorist.????????????????????????

Have we got a plan, a strategy and action?????

With best wishes,
Z

*****************************************************

Dear friend,

Why to say "if", when it is plain for all that such violence did occur. The point I was trying to make - irrespective of which good cause you may feel strongly about (in this case systematic Chinese repressions against ethnic Tibetans) - it does not give anyone the right to negate or distort the truth.

On the website of the Tibetan government in exile which you supplied to us it is written that Chinese government reacted brutally to the "peaceful demonstration which took place in Lhasa". The first part is true, but the second is obviously not. The original protests were not peaceful - over 20 innocent bystanders were beaten and killed, shops were burned, mosques were burnt down. Tell me, in any country, how would the authorities react to such indiscriminate & senseless violence?

Neither on any pro-Tibetan website, nor in your mails, did I find any apology for this. All I can read is that the Dalai Lama is a peaceful person and had no control or influence over what happened - not guilty. Blame is all to be put at the feet of the Chinese for their policy in Tibet.

Is this explanation satisfactory?

Personally I would believe that it would add credibility to the Tibetan cause if the government in exile would apologize to the families of the loved ones who had been killed. But who - also in many other conflicts in the world - ever cares about the victims? Is a Chinese life less worth than that of an ethnic Tibetan?

No, I am not a sympathizer of the Chinese government! China has made some amazing achievements during the past decades, but at a huge cost and based on exploitation of millions of workers and destruction of the environment. There are many well-known things in the field of human rights (like death penalty or persecution of opposition) that are entirely unacceptable by any human standards. But at the same time, it is also obvious that China is changing its attitudes and is becoming open to dialogue, also because it wants to be recognized and respected by the international community.

It is a very delicate issue and I fear that by simply pointing the finger at China & accusing them from the outside will send them back into a shell. It will strengthen the hardliners & make constructive dialogue impossible. So an end to discrimination & persecution of ethnic Tibetans, full support & solidarity for peaceful resistance, support for peaceful dialogue yes, in all this I can agree with you, but not at the cost of denying the truth, even if as in this case it is harmful truth.

(This is) the original point I was trying to make.

Amities,
N

Time to Act as Statesmen

2008-03-20T20:00:00.000-06:00

By AZMI SHAROM, The Star, 20 March 2008

It's a whole new type of politics out there and the new state governments and the country too need time to adjust to this change.

After the excitement of the election results (yes, I’m still writing about the election, apologies to those of you with insatiable appetites for the new and the “now”), certain unease seems to be creeping into the collective consciousness.

Headlines scream about cracks in the loose coalition of the Opposition, constitutional crises hang over the horizon of at least two states. Are things going to go tumbling down?

Well, a week is a long time in politics as they say, and by the time this article comes out five days would have passed since I wrote it, so I could end up with egg on my face.

However, I just want to say; cool it, chill out, relax, it's early days and the poor little politicians have no idea what hit them.

Some of them have never been out of power and some of them have never tasted it.

They are still stuck in their old mindsets. We, the people seem to have leaped forward but they are still trying to wrap their heads around this new world; poor dears.

For example, the Opposition leader in Selangor; after days of petulant silence he comes out with this grand plan to watch the new state government with beady eagle eyes.

They are going to register the old folks and the young ones and make sure they all get what the ex-Opposition promised them (healthcare and child care respectively). Well, good on you Khir!

I always said a strong opposition is what we need.

But, a word of advice to the handsome ex-Mentri Besar.

Accusing the new state government of being likely to be racially insensitive is rather rich coming from you.

If I am not mistaken, and I am not, some of the most publicised temple destruction that caused such anger and uproar in the Hindu community, and which was one of the impetuses to the heavy setback suffered by the Barisan, happened in Selangor; when you were in charge.

Besides, Khalid and co have not even managed to settle in their new offices. It’s going to take some time to clean up all those shredded documents.

Give them a while to settle in before you threaten to “take action.”

Meanwhile in Penang, Lim Guan Eng had barely sat down when he had to jump up again and put out a fire that is the NEP.

I watched the interview he gave on the NEP and he said that he wanted to weed out the corrupt, inefficient and wasteful aspects of the policy.

Nothing was said about marginalising the poor, of whatever race. Surely this is a good thing. Surely the NEP was meant to help the poor and not meant to be corrupt, inefficient and wasteful.

The NEP’s time is over. For the Malay professional classes, they should be able to stand on their own feet, and if they can’t, then they should not be in that position in the first place.

For the Malay poor, and there are many of them, making up as they do the vast majority of low income families, it would appear that a new approach is needed.

If a policy has been implemented for nearly 40 years and the main group it is aiming to help is still in the same position, it is high time to look at new policies.

The trouble with the NEP and the way it has been enforced is that it promotes Malay interest over national interest. Let’s take a look at public institutions for example; Malay people staff them overwhelmingly.

This is because non-Malays feel they don’t have a fair shot at promotions in the civil service. A worry that is quite valid.

We are too small a nation to shut out talent based on race. The country has to be run by the best people or we will all suffer and the Malay supremacists will then be the supreme masters of rubble.

Obviously not all Malays feel like me. Some were so angry at Guan Eng’s misquoted statement that they have taken to the streets of Penang and Shah Alam. I think this is super.

A democracy needs dissent as long as it is peaceful. The sight of Umno members thronging around Komtar warmed the cockles of my heart.

Umno members have shown the Barisan government that protesting really is part of our culture.

They made a mistake condemning the Bersih and Hindraf rallies. Malaysians do take to the streets when they want to express their feelings.

The country is on the cusp of a new type of politics. It is perhaps no accident that amongst the Opposition in Parliament, the one with the largest number of seats is a multi-racial party that calls for a non-racial method of affirmative action.

And the other two Opposition parties, although more mono racial in their make up are also making similar overtures.

It is odd therefore that the response to the election results by the Barisan component parties has been to reinforce the racial based policies and politics that a very large proportion of the citizens appear to have rejected.

It is also odd to see the old warhorses of the Opposition act like they are still in the Opposition. People, you are in charge of five states now. This is the time to act like statesmen and not like rabble-rousers.

Yes, there is a degree of uncertainty in our country after the elections, but at the end of the day we are going to need to give it some time before we press the panic button; time to see how the new state governments work; time to see how the Barisan reacts; and time most of all to let the old dinosaurs rant and rave using the language of race until they come to the realisation that for the future to be bright, outdated and outmoded politics must be discarded.

The country needs time to settle, let’s just hope the politicians do not take too long in doing so.

P/S: Also read Roger Tan, On Shaky Ground, The Star, 16 March 2008

ASIA EUROPE DIALOGUE - A Proposal

2008-03-20T03:38:00.002-06:00

(or something else?)

Project Backgroud

Following the successful Asian Summer University (ASU) 2006 in Nepal , a call on ASU-II Prepteam and hosting branch was made by 20th Dec 2008 . Subsequently on 17th Jan 2008 , a team consists of 5 prepteam members and 5 supporting members we selected to lead and fundraise for the said project.

Discussions thereon bring us to wider perspective as we now target to apply for EU Youth in Programmed: Action 3.2 funding (EACEA/31/07)*, both Asian and European branches can benefit from this fund.

Based on this, in early February 2008 a Proposal Brief* was shared and prepteam requires more input from the movement, especially the targeted branch: Asian branch. (Note: * data was given in earlier communication. Please contact us should you need another copy!)

This paper, co-written by Tsujimoto Hanae (SCI-Japan) and Low Kok-Chang (SCI Malaysia) aimed at sharing our perspective and detailed project outline for the movement?s comments. Also Low is in the supporting team, so chances are he gets some idea from prepteam and other supporting members too :p

Our proposal is based on these points of departure:

- There is a need to understand local condition of Asian or other inactive branches (target branch) in order for replicability to work better. We may need to restore and reactivate them.
- There is a need to foster stronger brotherhood, cohesion and ownership in SCI, thus ASU and other regional projects should also aim to make branches and/or individual activist are more motivated and eager to contribute
- Project period should spread mainly in target branches for better effect

In a nutshell, we propose to have regional and/or international programmes together, with the venue priority located at target branches.

Objective

General Objective
- To promote dialogue and mutual understanding between Asia and Europe and between participating SCI branches in particular;
Programme Objectives
- To built and enhance the capacity of SCI
- To spread and stimulate SCI pro-active peace work
- To foster ownership and togetherness of SCI
- To contribute to the growth and upbringing of SCI and their partners
- To expose participants with various localize condition / situation of voluntary movement
- To establish regional comradeship and further as a global citizen
- To network and co-operate with other like minded organization

Participants

There is an estimated of 30 core participants involved fully throughout the project, where most fund will be utilized here, on them.

Participant from Programme Countries (Member States of European Union, et al)
10 M/LTV will be selected by SCI International aged between 18 ? 35 years old.

Participant from Partner Countries (Asia)
10 Change Agents will be selected by SCI Asian branches ( Bangladesh , India , Malaysia , Nepal ) aged between 18 ? 35 years old.

A Change Agent carries more responsibilities compare to normal M/LTV. It?s a term used in many grass-root development ? we have not found another phase carries the exact same meaning and function.

Secretariat
Project will engage 5 SCI members to take charge of Secretariat and lead the project

Facilitators / Traniers
Project will engage 5 facilitators and trainers from within SCI resources to contribute in designated programmes.

Other participants
Hundreds other active international and local activist/volunteer/local youth development worker would join us under various programmes, which is explained in ?Project Methodology? section.

We also plan to communicate with local Youth and Sport Ministry/Agency and also NGO/NPO. In brief is up to the resources, network and the creativity of the said branch.

Project Methodology

This project will encompass various programmes of both study and learning by theory plus assessment on its practicality. Participants will be exposed to local social condition/situation and global perspective. Exchange of experience and social culture will take place as participants, possibly with local community, will benefit through reflective learning in an interactive and enjoyable manner.

After the start of planning and preparation stage (as early as September 2008) in our own backyard, we will kick-start our project in January/February 2008 hosted by European branches. Change Agents will be given a comprehensive exposure and training of technical skills for a period of one month.

Then the scene would shift to the main stage - Different programmes held separately at India , Nepal , Bangladesh , Korea , Malaysia or Australia and USA . We should look at other ways to include Japan, Mauritius, Pakistan and Sri Lanka , as they are not eligible under this fund.

Programmes of the project should and can include: -

- Seminar (Youth Development, etc.)
- Training (Fundraising, marketing strategy, etc.)
- Peace Studies (Conflict betweein Muslim and Hindu in Nepal , Maoist Movement in Nepal , DMZ Korea, etc.)
- Feasibility Study (Reactivate & Restore inactive movement/branches in general and Asia ?s movement in particular, analysis of new potential project)
- Workcamps (Interaction with locals, sent volunteers to industrialize/countries not included in both Programme and Partner Countries)
- Conference/Dialogue (local Ministry, NGOs, academician, researches)
- Awareness Campaigns

Ideally programme in that particular branch should be decided prior to the arrival of change agents, which is why planning stage start ealier than kick-start meeting. Therefore branches are required to do some ground works and coordination, tailored to their needs / social condition / situation.

Depending on the available fund and final level of commitments from everybody, Change Agents should go around these programmes in each branch. It is stressed that Secretariat is doing mainly supervising works while most organizing and coordinating works will be done by each organizing local branch, together with Change Agent and M/LTV.

It will be also good practice to organize programmes in different social background, thus enriched interaction among branches, Change Agents, various NGOs etc is ensured.

Finally we would like to stress on: All programmes should be designed and organized, in a way, tailored to meet local branch?s need. This could only mean more commitments from Change Agents, organizing branch in particular and everyone, in general.

Tentative Programme

September/October 2008
- Confirmation of grant
- Unofficially all detailed preparation starts

December 2008 / January 2009 (official start as required by said EU fund)
- Recruiting participants and confirming related personals
- Preparation stage for sending and receiving branches
- Preparation stage for seminar/training/campaign/etc. for branches in-charged

February 2009
- Kick-off meeting in Europe of all 20 Change Agents, 10 M/LTV with 10 other secretariats / facilitators
- Necessary briefing and fine tuning of programmes in coming months

March 2009
- Programme start in India

April 2009
- Programme start in Nepal/Bangladesh

May 2009
- Programme start in Korea

June 2009
- Programme start in Malaysia

July 2009
- Programme start in Australia/USA

Financial Planning

From what we know, EU Youth in Action 3.2 can fund maximum of 100.000 Euros.

We spent about 3200 Euros for 5-days ASU-I 2006, Nepal ? so assuming we spend about 6000 Euros in each programme (country) with the remaining budget for management, trainiers, special workcamps etc., we looks pretty healthy.

Healthy, in the eyes of layman ? of course we need to judge and estimate based on more technical ground/data.

Closing in (or out): Final Note for beloved SCI friends

As you can see, this is not even close to final proposal. But we thought that this is the most basic proposal before we can ask SCI branches and activists to consider quantum of their contribution and commitments.

Many role and responsibilities are not clearly defined, like can how different M/LTV and Change Agent, can be? Why age limit? How long should a programme last in that particular country? Can we get the full fund ? since our aim is more like strengthening SCI in particular? Can participating branches have extra energy and manpower to sustain such project, came out of nowhere? Why Nepal/Bangladesh and not Malaysia/Australia?

We are pretty sure you guys can bury us with more questions?

Therefore we would like to urge SCI activist, especially those experienced one to help us out here. We thought for the sake of SCI?s future, this is worth discussing, even if in the end we failed to come to agreement or unable to secure the fund.

At this point and thanks to TEM prepteam, Pietro and Gina (ASU II prepteam ? experienced in trainings and getting funds, hehe) have given space in TEM to discuss about this initiative. Catherine, Neelam and other team members are actively (or desperately, haha) formulating more ideas, discussion, getting feedback and finally make decision on final proposal ? in time for April 2008 deadline.

On the other hand we (Hanae and Low ;p) has been in discussion about Asia?s development since ICM 2007 ? at the same we are looking at how we can help each other, even to the smallest effort of replying email or have regional monthly update.

Thank you already for your time, and thoughts, or even better, penned it down and share with us later.

No commitment, no change ? we know it is not going to be easy, either.

Again, thank you, and hope to hear from you guys soon! :)

Kuala Lumpur
11.00pm , 20th February, 2008

New Age Surfers

2008-02-11T21:51:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my world...

I live in South Jakarta,my house is very humble, yet warm and welcoming. I'm just a slop who has no taste in putting the stripy drapes on the right pink spots. It's not far from the highway,and public transportation is not to be worried about.

I live with my maid's daughter and one adorable cat.

I have 2 available guest rooms, a carpeted TV room with sofas surrounding half the place and two more sofas on the front living room.

I can show people around, seeing contented travellers with puppy eyes are one of my guilty pleasures.

I might gonna ask contributions for your food and car gas expenses if you want to use the car for your purposes, when i use the car with you we’ll split the bills. It's up to you to use those facilities or not. If you're in a tight budget just tell me, i can serve you free meals. No financial discussions are taboo.

In the end, for my future guests,as long as you behave nice and jolly i can manage to hold up my friendly face and bend my legs for your space and convenience a wee bit longer. I recommend you to read "People that i enjoy" section, not really about which surfers i'd like to have, just some things i'd like my guests to know. AND if there's a change of plan and you cancel your stay in my house do notify me as soon as possible, that way i know i won't have to expect your arrival.

People that I enjoy...

I like people who see human as human and not classify them in types whether it's races, gender, wealth,etc, i like a child's mind, i like people who are big but don't think they're big and people that are small but never think it will hold them back, well i like all sorts of people actually, as long as they are kind hearted and genuine. I'm trying not to classify people in stereotypes.

FOR MY FUTURE GUESTS: I know from my experience as a host and a traveller that travelling have it's ups and downs, and how travellers can be cranky at times. But still i think it's good to be nice and polite to your host, they've spared you their personal space for your stay for nothing but the advantage of meeting new people and new experience.

Indonesian people are nice and servicing ,and i know as an Indonesian, we'd suffer for the goodness of our guests, still, please respect them as you'd respect your fellow people, don't expect everyone will give you the same attention and services you get from most people here, since all of us are unique individuals.

It wouldn't also be wise to demand your host to be servicing, and for instance, as i've experienced before, demanded me to make a fix tour program, it sounds silly but that's the fact that sometimes we have the capability to do that. Life in third world countries are less than those who are privileged, yes i know, and sometimes it's so appalling that you unconsciously talking about it all the time.

But there's a fine line between sharing your mind about the world and constant nagging how you've suffered along your travel here. Pointing out a poorly conducted matters in Indonesia everytime is tiring for me who have to live here and except that. And also,a person's house is their pride and joy, hence, unnecessary comments are just heartbreaking, although from where you are you have a state of the art way of living.

Try not to make any mess, but if you must, please do clean it up. And last but not least, I believe people often treat surfing as a free hotel, i don't mind with that, but i also believe from the nice things you can get out of surfing, comes along things you must deal with that you dont have to do when staying at hotels.

Relation. Communicate with me, look me in the eye, it's sad to be in my own house and there are guests that make their own zone. I know travellers have their own busy schedule, but a quick conversation, light jokes, a warm sincere smile, it would be nice :) Please dont take this the wrong way, i know in CS we are challenged to except diversities and different things in life, but some values are just universal, i only hope for my future guests, i'd like to call them my future friends, that the meetings we'd have are fulfilling and maybe, even eye opening. Cheers :)

FOR MY FUTURE HOSTS: i would do the same as what i expected from my guests :)

Learning and Sharing...

One guy i haven't met before said something that he got from another surfer. That to become a better host you have to be a surfer, and to be a better surfer you have to be a host.

In a way, i think that's very true, that we have to put ourselves on other people's shoe in any aspect. Especially in surfing, the main idea of having it in your life, besides the unquestionable advantage of free accommodation, is sharing. It amazes me that people that travels aren't necessarily open for changes, differences and lessons in life. That actually human are capable of carrying a bulb with them and conceil it in their backpack, as an icon of open minds and freedom of will. And actually, maybe i even do that.

So i guess what i want to say, as the title said above, learning and sharing is, i think we can learn on how to be a better person, in this case through the idea of surfing, teach ourselves to embrace new possibilities and differences, and then share it to other people. Cheers :)

by SS

Hisham confident varsity students will back Barisan

2008-02-11T01:00:00.000-06:00

Hisham confident varsity students will back Barisan, The Star, Feb 11, 2008

SEREMBAN: The Barisan Nasional is confident of getting the support of university students and fresh graduates in the coming general election.

Its Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein said that although undergraduates were usually anti-establishment, he was certain that they would back the ruling coalition this time.

“During the last university elections, the pro-establishment students won in all universities except one. There was a time that the student councils in all universities were anti-establishment,” he pointed out.

Hishammuddin, who is the Education Minister, said undergraduates were capable of determining truth from fiction on what they read on the Internet.

“I talked to youths in my constituency and ask them what they thought of some of the reports and allegations they read on the Net about the local political scene, and they tell me that they are not easily convinced.

“That is why I am certain that youths, particularly those in urban areas, will continue to support the Barisan despite them having access to all these material,” he said.

Looking to the young to lead

2008-02-11T00:57:00.000-06:00

Looking to the young to lead, The Star, Feb 11, 2008

CERITALAH
By KARIM RASLAN

We are the participants and in many cases, the primary actors. With this enormous power in hand, we must learn to lead with humility, honour and mutual respect.

THE general election is expected within weeks. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration will be submitting itself to the ballot box, testing the people’s collective judgment.

Cleverly, the PM himself, realising the extraordinary mandate he secured in 2004 is unlikely to be repeated, has been downplaying expectations.

He knows that this time around, the population will be judging him on his achievements whereas in 2004, we were casting a vote with regard to his potential.

At the same time, the American primaries with their electrifying contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are making many young Malaysians (especially the YouTube generation) feel distinctly under-served.

We look at and listen to the youthful and energetic senator from Illinois, and wonder what has happened to our own ageing political class, some of whom have been “serving” us for well over two decades.

Still, as a writer who’s been on an extended break (trying to make some money), maybe I’m guilty of misreading the national mood?

Nonetheless, the return to column-writing is both exciting and a little worrying: exciting in that it gives me the opportunity to explore and analyse Malaysian politics once again and worrying because of the fact that I’ve been spending so much of my time abroad.

However, you can never truly leave your homeland behind. It remains with you, embedded in your memories wherever you go – a haunting presence that acts as a counterpoint to everything you hear and see.

Moreover, expatriation, the fact of living abroad and at least for a Malaysian in Indonesia, is somewhat cushioned by the vast number of similarities between the two countries.

Indeed, living for the past seven years in South-East Asia’s largest Muslim-majority democracy has altered my own perspective of home.

For Malaysians, there is a strange mirror-like quality to life on the other side of the Straits of Malacca.

Everything you see and touch is both familiar and yet different. Medan and Penang are the best examples – markets in both cities ring with crackling tones of Hokkien.

There are venerable colonial-era plantation and trading houses, small Hindu temples and quietly declining royal houses.

The only major difference is the presence of the North Sumatra’s ebullient Batak community most of whom are passionate Protestants.

With their church services conducted exclusively in Indonesian, I have yet to hear of the Majlis Ulama Indonesia trying to prevent the word “Allah” from being used.

Of course, the differences between the two countries are the most pronounced when it comes to the media and political life.

In Jakarta, reading the morning newspapers is like venturing into the war-zone. On the one hand there are the tabloid Rakyat Merdeka’s explosive headlines “JK DAN SBY MAKIN KAYA!” – the president and vice-president are even richer).

On the other hand, the more serious and highly influential broadsheet daily Kompas, withering in its disdain for the President, buries its coverage of him on an inside page as if reporting the movements of a small-town mayor.

In short, after a few years in Indonesia, you get used to living with a degree of uncertainty and scepticism (some might even say chaos) and whilst I respect and understand the Malaysian aversion to any form of political upheaval, the superficial calm that we have gotten used to doesn’t reflect the very real fissures and stresses below the surface.

Denying the problems is no solution.

They still blow up as they did on Nov 27 in Jalan Ampang for the Tamil community.

Still, it strikes me that the biggest challenge facing the country now is not so much the poverty amongst the Indians or even the growing dissatisfaction of the nation’s half-forgotten Iban and Kadazandusun communities.

The real challenge is dealing with what I’d call the “New Malay Dilemma” or rather facing up to Malay dominance of the country’s public life.

Look around you – the power and influence wielded by the Malay community and its embodiment Umno is overwhelming. But with that power, I would argue, comes great responsibility.

For a start, I cannot agree with those who would whip up the community’s traditional anxieties: the era of Malay fearfulness must come to an end.

The Malay community must recognise its real achievements and understand that it will not be wiped off the face of the earth.

The Malays – by that I mean “we” - are no longer observers at the banquet that is national development.

Instead, we are the participants and in many cases, the primary actors. Ramping up the level of fear and anxiety within the community is irresponsible and poor leadership.

With this enormous power in hand, we must learn to lead with humility, honour and mutual respect because what we have built here in Malaysia, is a great multiracial nation and one that belongs to all of us – regardless of race and religion.

So my coverage of the election period will in many ways take you off the beaten track from the suburbs of Kuala Lumpur, to Tawau and Penang.

I’m more interested in what is not being said in the mainstream media.

Whilst it is extremely unlikely that the Barisan Nasional will lose its grip on power, we need to look at the younger emerging leaders both in the Government and the Opposition to see whether they will be ready to lead us to a future that is truly Malaysian.

Focus on subtance, not style

2008-02-11T00:41:00.000-06:00

by T.K. Letchumy Tamboo
newsdesk@thesundaily.com

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 11, 2008): It seems that when it comes to conducting youth programmes, it's all about style, not substance. This is probably why it cost only US$2.55 (RM8.24) an hour to conduct such programmes in the United States, but cost a whopping RM82 a person in Malaysia.

Youth and Sport Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said made this observation at the launch of the Youth Workers' Convention 2008 at a hotel here yesterday.

"The expenses allocated for programmes held by the ministry should focus on the programme itself and not on the accessories used for the programme," she said.

"We always complain that we do not have money yet we waste so much money on accessories such as t-shirt and caps. If we really want change, then, we must be committed to be the change."

As if to illustrate her point, t-shirt sporting her image were seen being distributed at teh convention.

Azalina also said her ministry is reconsidering its expenditure because of the price increase of certain goods.

"We cannot go on like we used to. We hope that the related associations will understand that certain changes are expected," she said, adding that her ministry will also focus on specific programmes afer the general election.

"We have received instructions under the National Social Policy, to focus on the 'black' areas where the crime rate, drug abuse and other social issues are serious."

Selangor and Johor are among the states identified as 'black' areas.

The three-day event, which began on Saturday, is attended by 650 districts, state and youth officers.

*** *** *** ***

12 Feb 2008, The Star

No accessories, please
Azalina: Stop giving out caps and T-shirts to youths at events

ORGANIZERS of youth programmes should refrain from giving out caps and T-shirts to participants as this will only add to the costs incurred, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman said in a Utusan Malaysia report.

The Youth and Sports Minister was quoted as saying that such a practice did not contribute to the development of youths.

"Why should a major percentage of the costs be spent on accessories like bunting, caps, shirts and mineral water, when it does not contribute to the development of youths?

"I know this is a sensitive matter but the ministry cannot provide funds for youth activities when most of it are spent on accessories," said Azalina at perss conference after opening the Youth Workers Convention 2008.

Of Gore, The Shock Doctrine, NGO & YOU

2008-01-11T22:23:00.000-06:00

Dear all,

The problems of the world are too big for one person. Isn't this why we are in NGO? First of all, because together we can work better for a better world, and secondly, because NGO can show us how to improve the world in our everyday life?! At least, that is what I always have thought about NGO. It is only one's own life that one can live. I try to live my own, without getting influenced too much about Al Gore and shock propaganda, just by thinking clearly and trying to make the decisions that seem to make sense in my own life, to make the life around me a little better, or at least not too much worse.

And replacing inefficient light bulbs by better ones might not save the world, but not changing them will certainly not improve the world. Or, in my practical world, when I go to the shop to buy fruit and vegetables, I always bring my own used paper and plastic bags to put them in. One might say, it is only a paper/plastic bag, what does it help? But if I only use every bag twice instead of throwing it away immediately after using it, I use only half of the bags and cause thereby half of the pollution I would otherwise cause. One might say, but that's nothing on world scale. That's true, but the world scale is not in my power to change. My personal use is in my own hands, and if I don't do it, then for certain nothing will change.

Forget about Gore, but act in your own life. If you want to do something anyway.

Good luck with it!

All the best,

NV

Peace in Sri Lanka - A Way Forward

2008-01-11T22:14:00.000-06:00

Blue Rose building, Sri Lanka

Dear Raz and Muz,

How are you?

My name is KMP and I am a volunteer in VSI here in Ireland as a member of our National Committee.

As well as my involvement with VSI I have previously worked as a project officer on a post- conflict peace programme with young people between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In July 2006 I took part in a month long work camp in partnership with SCI Sri Lanka and an Irish organisation development education project called 'Development Perspectives' in Tangalle. At that time I had the joyful experience of working with some young people in schools around that district as well as meeting some wonderful members of SCI Sri Lanka who participated in the programme. I am still active in youth work development education programmes and exploring the role of peace education within youth work.

Currently I am undertaking a research thesis as part of the MA programme in Development Studies at the Development Studies Centre, Kimmage, Dublin. This thesis is seeking to research the influence of non formal youth work approaches on the development of young people in areas of military conflict. I intend to carry out the field work research of this proposal something between May and August 2008.

This research is seeking to analyse this topic in the context of the peace education methodologies and attitudes of young people within an active peace organisation.

The 'non formal approaches' section of my will focus on the the effects of the tools, training and approaches of peace education methodologies and approaches to bringing about social transformation and active participation of young people within an agency actively working in an area of conflict. It is also the aim of the research to examine the concepts of the development of young people in engaging in conflict transformation, democracy and social justice through participatory youth work practiced in partnership with young people in developing their own attitudes, beliefs and impacts on these issues as active stakeholders in their communities.

For this reason, I would like to explore with you the possibility of utilising the peace education programmes of SCI Sri Lanka as a basis of my research. I would envisage including semi structured interviews with facilitators and trainers in SCI Sri Lanka and also utilising participatory methods of art, drama, sport, observations and semi and unstructured interviews with the young people involved in programmes. It will be my intention that the issues at the centre of the research will be those offered by the young people involved in the research- be it space for participation in conflict resolution; socialization; educational opportunities; diversity- these are just some of the issues which may be forthcoming however it is my intention that the workshops and participation methods with the young people will ultimately determine what these are.

The purpose of this research is not to assess or criticise the methodologies of the organisation involved in the research. The purpose is to conduct a critical and systematic analysis in order to assess the impacts and the implications of non formal learning within peace education programmes involving young people which may be utilised by the organisation involved in the research and other in future design and implementation of programmes.

Finally, I want to thank you both and your organisation for taking the time to consider this request. I would be grateful for the opportunity to further discuss or clarify anything arising from this proposal. I would be incredibly grateful if this request could be facilitated in any way or if you felt my experiences within youth work, peace and development education could be utilised by your organisation I would be delighted to offer my services in any way which is feasible for your organisation.

Thank you again and I apologise for this lengthy introduction!! However, it would be wonderful to hear any thoughts, ideas or advice you might have on any part of my proposal.

Thanks a million and take care.

Kindest Regards,

KMP

Voluntary, Workcamp, Solidarity

2006-07-12T09:02:00.000-05:00

Voluntary, used to refer to a person who willingly enlist for, in early days, military service. Talk about defending your beloved country or marching into foreign soils to “free” some others. At the time, volunteers are driven by fear, uncertainties and chaos. Volunteers will only be voluntary, if you choose to do it first, or forced to do so, later. Someone is walking through your door and you can’t just sit there doing nothing. It’s a battle you ought to fight; it’s a war you have to win.

Many years after the First World War, however, things didn’t change much. There are still voluntary movements, plenty of “battles” left to be fought. Volunteers are driven by passions, desire and hope to win battle of understanding, sustainable lifestyle, global friendship and solidarity. Most volunteer who are on constant move, either during their gap-year, summer break, long working vacation or any other reason at all, are of the open minded down to earth kind. They believe in exploring by volunteering, thus creating a platform for everyone to learn and communicate among each other. These are the people who go to the ground zero, getting their hand dirty asking for nothing but a glass of clean water to drink, ideas to share, problem to solve, even at the lowest scale and level possible. People who spend years to equip themselves and make things happen there and then.

One of the most direct forms of voluntary actions must be workcamp. From the first ever Verdun village reconstruction workcamp in early 20’s, today we must have thousands similar or if not, diversified workcamp going on annually. Ideally workcamp is a rich mix of few main components like people and obvious cause, thriving at different level from smallest village to biggest city of millions. People came from different background, social status, education level, age, gender, religion, race, color of their skin and eyes to work, sleep and live together for a period of time, in peace. Sounds easy, but we are not talking about “closing your ears” kind of adaptation. This is when you have to eat rice everyday, take only bread and butter for lunch and had cold dishes for dinner. You work in extreme humid weather, communicate in foreign languages and freezes your hand to prepare you first ever dinner for yourself, and everyone else. For me weeks long experience will be just fantastic, but months long project is definitely a challenge. It is not about your willingness to understand and blend, it’s also about some other unforeseen circumstance which may occurs in people’s day to day interaction. The key is, honesty will most like help you survived.

Unless you, well, falls into a workcamp trap?

But like everything else, the downside of workcamp are sometimes, just too embarrass to mention. First of all, it ought to be SIMPLE. You need to know who are you, what are you doing and where are you going. If personal identity is uncertain, you probably need help, not offering. People with not definite self-respect will change with the moody weather, swing few directions at a time. Like my cold-blooded old car, its air-condition turned “warm” during hot day but freezing when driven during cold rainy night. You always have price within you, that everything else has a price, too. Start believing yourself like your belief in God, if you have any.

Moving forward, what you are doing and where you will end up with, are usually closely related. Everything can look good on papers, that ideologies are not served as long as it is not tested. There must be hundreds of way to organize a workcamp, voluntary project. For many voluntary project is just an experience, something that will enrich your personal life and quality of your curriculum vitae having met plenty of “cool” friends and unlimited interesting story to tell. But for some, it is a once in the life time opportunity, a dew point where they reshape again and found motivation to move one step further. I am referring mainly to local community, or some volunteers who are more like “asylum seekers”, but running from no harm of course. Improving (volunteers) and changing (host), are not always similar, or always beneficial. To be responsible for dozens of volunteer is sometime hectic, but to be responsible for a community is just overwhelming.

Priorities are always given to hosting community or organization of any forms, as we are doing our best to help them helping themselves, bringing hope and reels instead of despair-self and fishes. The problem comes as early as when you are selecting a suitable project (location) to start with. If everything boils down to marketing strategies then it’s easy, chose what is on major newspaper, simplest form of help required (just money) and closest to where help is easily available, with highest level of social awareness possible. Even all NGO or NPO ultimately needs money to stay alive and keep operating, we don’t start with single obvious goal to make big money. We might start looking at the most unlikely and difficult place, often where help are much needed compare to above mentioned “strategic” locations. Good news is project started by volunteers are always supported and kept alive by volunteers, that is has become a self-sustainable movement.

You just have to do it to believe it.

Note: This is totally unedited thoughts. I might come back and change a thing or two, so pardon my, huh, language, for one :)

Pulau Pangkor : Story of a Fishing Village

2005-11-24T07:41:00.000-06:00

"This boat can’t move as fast as it used to be. Leakage." Soft spoken Uncle Goh must have felt that I am expecting something else, which I’m not. Ah Ne, the Indian helper in his 30s, seems to agreed with Uncle Goh. Surely, falling into those bottomless water is not funny, even if I can swim well.

Except for my presence, much like a recorder, everything else is just daily routine for both men. The smell of the salty sea, sounds of the wave hitting the old jetty or the ever changing view as old diesel engine pushing us forward and further away from Pulau Pangkor, cruising through the Melaka Straight. As our boat heading south, bustling Lumut town are on our left, mainland Peninsular Malaysia. Further on we can see Teluk Batik beach and resort, almost directly opposite the old Dutch Fort, dating back to year 1690, in Pangkor island.

On this rather quiet Saturday morning, most of the ships are rested, partly because of Hari Raya holiday, or some fishermen are still mending their nets, prepare for the night catch.
Depends of its main catch, either prawns, ikan bilis, ikan kembung, etc. the physical appearance of boats or ships varies greatly.

Uncle Goh then explained theories about finding the location of prawns, together with the proper timing of tidal wave to set the nets. All these are changing, with introduction of radar and trawling technologies, or when the peaceful fishing island turned tourist hotspot.
It is about the same time we embrace information revolution, so-called ‘MTV Generation’ slowly finding their way out of the sea, out of the island.

Out, and often never came back.

As a matter of fact, Uncle Goh’s son, Keat is one of them. Hardly finish his high school education, Keat start working in Kuala Lumpur couple years ago. But enough was enough, I guess. Now, his new destination: New Zealand. To be fair to him, I would understand the reason why Keat is not keen on following his father’s footsteps, other than his seasick problem.

Equipped with 3 numbers of gill nets, one Indian helper and a small diesel powered boat, Uncle Goh could hardly earn a marginal daily net income of RM100++, a job more suitable for semi-retired fisherman, perhaps? Even that depends on the weather, or the drifting gill nets caught more prawns than so-called cheap fish…Keat can either go to bigger ship, or, bigger island, bigger land.

To make the situation worse, series of new developments and environment issues lined up nicely to make their presence felt. Newly constructed shipping ports and jetties means major dredging works, reclaimed lands, etc. which will forever altered the sea current, let alone its damage on ocean’s flora and fauna. No thanks to the trawling activities, officially banned on costal waters, but sometime, laws are made to be broken? ‘Back in those days, prawns and fishes keep coming back in numbers. But once they start trawling, there’s nothing much to expect.’ After 50 years, some fisherman still wish to go out everyday, with the same passion and excitement he had when he was still a 15 years old boy.

Perhaps Uncle Goh already understood and accepted Keat’s decision, having warned him ‘Just remember that no one will wash your clothes out there, you have to manage everything yourself. Don’t tell me I didn’t warn you about that!’ Deep inside, like every traditional Chinese father, he care so much for the son that he would ask all his daughters to keep an eye on Keat.

For some time the population on the island stands at 80 percent Chinese, 10 percent Malay and 10 percent Indian, according to Xiao Chen, Uncle Goh’s daughter who doubted that that figure will remains as time goes by. ‘Who knows what will happen next. Maybe in near future the island’s fishermen are all foreign labors like Indonesian!’ As one of the few young and dedicated teachers on the island, Xiao Chen intends to stay and start her own family here. Even if two of her sisters already migrated to Singapore, some years back.

I prayed that she will find her way in, living on the beautiful Pulau Pangkor, for my support will be always there!

More related stories:

Pulau Pangkor : 'Fishman' Begins
Pulau Pangkor : Routine, Fisherman and Fishman
Pulau Pangkor : Bicycle Trip

バイビーおきなわ@Bye bee Okinawa

2005-11-01T08:30:00.000-06:00

バイビーおきなわ

故郷の沖縄を離れ、内地の大学に通うことを決めたのは、ただもっと音楽のことを知りたいという、きっと、まっすぐな欲望からだった。ついでに親からも離れて生活して、いちばんの環境で音楽を学んで、自分のちからで新しい世界にぶつかってみようと。

なのに私は、神戸の新しい部屋でひとり泣いていた。望んで来たのだけど、ここではすべてが違う。沖縄は東京から2時間半ほど南方に飛んだ、東シナ海に浮かぶ小さな島で、気候・植物・文化など様々な点で本土とは異なる独自の特色を持つ。また経済や科学技術などで本土に遅れをとる沖縄は、時に「10年前の東京」などと言われたりする。そんな小さな都会から来た私は、神戸の高いビルを見上げて、本当に一人になってしまったんだなァと思うと、冷たい風の中で全部が冷たく見えて、自分が家族に、南風に、民謡に、沖縄のすべてに育てられてきたことが生まれてはじめてわかった。

みなみ

Bye bee Okinawa

The reason why I decided to study in main land Japan, far away from my home island Okinawa was quite simple. It was from my pure desire for learning music more, I guess... Besides, I wanted to knock new world by alone while living apart from my parents.

Yet I was crying in my new room in Kobe. Everything is different from my island, I came here expecting it though. Okinawa locates nearly southernmost in Japan, 2 and a half hour flight from Tokyo. The island has its own unique climate, plants and culture, but it’s behind main land Japan on the point of economy and technology etc, and called like “Tokyo in 10 years ago” sometimes. I was from such a little Tokyo, looking up at high rise buildings in the chilly wind, feeling really lonely. Then I knew I’ve been brought up by my family, south wind, folksongs and everything in Okinawa... for the first time in my past life.

Minami

About us, LITTLE people on earth

2005-10-01T08:03:00.000-06:00

This blog is dedicated to all the nature-admirer, peace-maker, flora/fauna-protector, language-lover, cultural-keeper...most of all, residence of the earth who cares.

Not only Jane Goodall alone cares about Gorilla.

There are always some other Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.

The bottom line is, you don't really have to be Michael Fay, to save the forest.

Sometime we are happy just to share some of our own experience, thoughts, things that happend around us, and particularly in our own country. Something that, somehow, might inspire someone, somewhere. Maybe few foreign expert knows something about our country more than we do, but generally, 99% of the rest know nothing.

That's why we have an engineer talks about Dryobalanops Aromatica, musician who shared her エイサ@Eisa outing, or a graphic designer who is doing her part for dry forest.

Hopefully, more of those LITTLE people out there may join us.

Cheers!