19 Nov 2005

What are you going to do when a bald guy who is taller than you,
Comes in and say we are going to lunch now. Well you stop blogging and go for lunch. Sorry to all my readers for a substanceless post yesterday. Anyway continuing what I said yesterday. I been through all the systems and yet they were all found wanting. In capitalism we assume that the individual is good and will make the right choice that will benefit society. In socialism we assume that the government will make the right choice and make decisions that will benefit society as a whole. But the fact of the matter is individuals and governments are humans and therefore are victims of vices such as greed and selfishness. So in all nations there is corruption at all levels and self-enrichment. Though it can be argued that socialism is worse because if you have one bad nut or a group of bad nuts at the top the whole country is screwed like if a dictator wishes to fill his swiss bank account rather than a hospital with equipment. While in a free-market society though most people are selfish but it can be argued that there will be enough people with a conscience to feed and provide healthcare for the poor to make up for it. This is demonstrated by the number of hospitals around the world that is run by private funds though it must be admitted that there are not enough.
As you can see there are a lot of suffering around the world and we can sometimes act to prematurely before we are ready or prepared to tackle which sometimes can make matters worse. But the urge to do something is that separate humans from animals and one of our instincts that we lose too easily when we get older and cynical. Call me naive but i believe that if we hold on to this trait long enough to acquire the skills and knowledge to do something useful we can actually chnge the world. Unfortunately we most often lose this trait in the midst of getting the knowledge and skills i.e. the years in university and the first few years of our working life.
One of the things we try to do is to change the political system. We are forever trying to search for the perfect one. It can't never be found as all is dependent on the ruled and the ruler. If everything so I can form my opinions in perfect knowledge. in the ideal world i would like to hear the and read the responses of people of all political believes propose and defend their believes adn also read the evidence in history. At the moment i support the American model of capitalism. There are flaws but it really fantastic to see that for a all the bad press the US gets an unlimited amount of Muslims want to go and live in that anti-Muslim and Zionist-dominated nation. You don't hear Malaysian women wanting to go live in Saudi Arabia but plenty want to go to the decadent West.
The basic outline of what interests me at the moment in t he Pentateuch is the combination of the best of what we will call now socialism and capitalism even before these ideas came into existence. Aspects of capitalism are: 1. Low-taxes 2. Welfare in the hands of the individual not the state. A brief look at the Pentateuch will convince that individuals must take care of their parents, then relatives, and if they can still afford it after that their neighbours and so on as they can afford. 3. A small government, in fact no government except for priests who wield no influence outside religious matters and local judges.
Aspects of socialism: 1. The reversion of property to the original owners in the year of Jubilee. 2. No one can take absolute profits. they must in way give chance to the poor.
This is a basic outline that I hope to explore later and debate with people and i hope someone will correct me if get things wrong.

17 Nov 2005

Ahh it is good to be back,
Blogging took a back seat for a while. Not only did I have exams which are actually a pretty lame reason for not blogging...some on some of the most successful bloggers in the Us are a bunch of lawyers who have families and yet still have time to analyse the news of the day ad post it......so not only was it the exams but very much my lack of ideas.
There are a few ideas I ahve been bandying around but they aren't really that developed because for one thing if you don't think through your ideas before you really say them out after a while when you look back that idea will look really stupid.....that is what I am trying to prenvent but it is at the expense that of not blogging for extended periods because hwere can you find the time to read economics and the like and at the same time trying to get on top of your work?
But today I decided to briefly write down the brief outline of some of them.
The first up is the perfect political system. I have been a capitalist, communist, socialist and everything in between. Lunch call will be back.

6 Nov 2005

Was it Menalaus who got Paris in the end?
Paris burns..so says the news..the analysis in the blogosphere is not good...note to all in Europe... visit Paris NOW cause there won't be much left to see...but it could all the overblown....I am skeptical that 900 cars can be torched in one night...sounds like sensationalism...anyway i need someone on the ground to tell whether anything is under control....if this turns out not to be sensationalism then there could very serious trouble...as this could spread..it seems it is already in Denmark next the netherlands then even Germany...the thing is it involves Muslim youths..that make up quite a large minority....and it is not about iraq or poverty because France was against the war and welfare in France..is to put it mildly scandalous...you even get paid for not working.....not much news here in the Malaysian papers..they try to cut the bad news..trying to keep the festive mood....read most of the media...I want to know the ordinary people's perception of things on the ground....that is the most important thing..the people in Paris will the best..but I don't know any Parisians....truth issuch a precious commodity as it will right many wrongs...now if it turns out that the news media got it wrong...our views will be forever coloured by what we read...people will stop visitng Paris..but what is the truth?

You will be cultured once you worked through the list

My current project is listening to all the albums listed on this list titled Best Jazz Albums: 50 Essentials You Need to Hear. And once yo...