New Ideas

what I thought was lost..

2011-01-23T22:04:00.000+08:00

but now is found.

Sieh Jin's Wedding

2007-07-23T12:42:00.000+08:00

I finally got down to writing,
Even though his wedding was two months ago in May I just want to record these thoughts for posterity. One of the thoughts that crossed my mind as i helped preparing the wedding is how every human relationship gives us a bit of the understanding between God and us. Though it is a glimpse but the love the groom has for the bride as mentioned in the Bible is made clearer by the illustration of Jin's and May's wedding. And as Jin becomes a daddy:) I think he will even then start to grasp the meaning of the Father's love.
Secondly, I come to realise that in the end no matter how much we try to change something or make them work it is still in the hand of God. Of course give us many choices and if we work towards those choices it will succeed..so there is still an element of choice but anything beyond that parameter will doomed to failure so a certain level of determinism is still there.

Liberalization of knowledge

2007-06-18T17:20:00.000+08:00

Why is it that only people who have to medical school can be doctors?
If the passed the same rigorous examination even though they have not had formal training shouldn't they be allowed to practise. The examination already tested their knowledge and clinical skills. However why is it that the exams is limited to only a few? The more people in a field the richer it will be and with that amount of competition. Prices will be driven down and quality will go up as doctors try to outdo each other. In the old days that is how it was done. There were medical schools to speak of so people are apprenticed to a doctor help the person do all the menial tasks in exchange for knowledge and skills and when they are ready off they will go to the Royal Colleges and take their fellowship exams. I believe the current and this old system should be used as both as it strenghts and weaknesses but since they are there why not use them all?

I am back

2007-06-18T17:00:00.000+08:00

I've finished my examinations and passed them,
I am happy for maybe a grand total of two seconds because this is merely a small battle in the grand scheme of things. As I move to phase three of the Failure Defense League objective of reforming the way we see things there is a sense of excitement and at the same time weariness due to the fact that many times things don't turn out the way we imagine it. I have a feeling that it will like what happened to Abraham. He was a relatively young man when he got the promise that he will be the father of a great nation and yet it took 50 years before he achieved the prerequisite of becoming a great nation: the birth of his son Issac and then he didn't see the rest of it though God was faithful and fulfilled the promise in the end. Same the thing with the Failure Defense League, we feel we have a such a great calling but you know what probably only future generations will see the fruits of our labour and the members of the league will probably die wondering they have fulfilled God's purpose for their lives.

Sorry

2007-05-26T16:31:00.000+08:00

Dear ladies and gentlemen,
As me finals is in two weeks time I would like to announce that there will only the new posts after the 16th. This is just to let you know I am still alive.

Congratulations

2007-03-15T21:10:00.000+08:00

To that girl from Bukit Mertajam,
Who got 16 A1's. I think she is hot too. Beauty and brains, always a good combination. Anyway some people might make fun of people who are trying to score so many A's but I sympathise with these scorers because it is getting harder to distinguish yourself from the rest. Look at the current history book which is more like a comic book(sacrilege. Anyway what I suggest to be done is making all the subjects and introducing higher level material and why not? 200 years ago one can only learn calculus from the university of Cambridge. The thing as knowledge increases so does understanding and when one truly understand something it becomes common knowledge. 7 year olds oday know more about bacteria then the great Aristotle. the textbooks should be getting thicker and people spend more so much time studying the basic core subject that they don't have time for 18. When there are people still doing more than 12 subjects you know the system isn't teaching them enough.

The nation that blessed the world.

2007-02-28T18:14:00.003+08:00

Guess who they are are?
Could it be them or them? Well they pale in comparison to the answer. Imagine a world without the 'answers'. The only good thing would be my medical textbooks would be a whole lot thinner and exams whole lot easier to pass.

A vision of future education

2007-02-28T18:14:00.002+08:00

Nowadays we have choose between two extremes,
Either too much spoon-feeding and have all our ideas dictated to us by the professors or too much self-directed learning with no guidance whatsoever to the extent that students grow too much like weeds. I propose to remedy this problem by converting lectures into debate sessions between professors of differing point of view. Students are presented with the facts and an idea of what is important to know but they make the synthesis and decisions of what to believe themselves.
Take for example there are many differing views as to how teaching should be done in universities as the above. Instead of forcing students to be captive audience we should have professors duking it out with proofs and rebuttals. The only weakness would be that the more eloquent person will influence more people at the expense of truth but this is preferable than to have indoctrinated people. If people can't be taught to value substance over style and think for themselves then they probably can't succeed in whatever system.

Why must the Prime Minister be local?

2007-02-28T18:14:00.001+08:00

Does being born in one country automatically make that someone,
More virtuous, more loyal to the country, less likely to concentrate wealth unto himself, a better leader and other arguments for only having local people for the job. Sadly the answer is no. If you look a at the most African nations there are as worse off and have as much wealth plundered pre-independence and post-independence. The colour of the skin and or land of birth is not as important as the character. Better to have the best person for the job than anyone less just because he is my brother.
Carlos Ghosn turned Nissan around and not some Japanese man. Now I don't think anyone in Nissan if given the chance to do it again will choose anyone other than Carlos just because he isn't Japanese though this was an argument used as reason for not agreeing to his appointment.
The day I know Africa will turn for the better i the day they hire someone who is good at his job to be Prime Minister whether white , yellow or red or even stripped instead of just choosing some warlord because he is local.

On speculative theology

2007-02-28T18:14:00.000+08:00

In the New Testament there were two groups of Jews,
The Pharisees who believe in resurrection and the Sadducees who don't but both are considered orthodox and well Christians could have been either side until it was revealed by Christ there is an afterlife. And this is a lesson that Christians can learn. Except for the major tenets such as the nature and divinity of Christ most finer points of theology can be argued both ways. What is the really the problem is we have yet to receive perfect and total revelation maybe because we are not ready. And someday many hundred of years later it will be revealed until then i would be pretty petty to kill each other over whether the rapture come before, during or after the tribulation. Speculations on theology is fun but not a matter of life and death or even salvation.

What pretty girls should do.

2007-02-26T18:20:00.001+08:00

Just to let you know I am not one,
But I have experiences with many as in I have been rejected by many a pretty girls. We all know the rigmarole of rejection which is once the girl knows she turns nasty. I understand they have the guy's best interest at heart as they want to help the guy get over them but I feel it is a waste of many a friendship especially if the guy is going to be a somebody one day. The following advice will only be of benefit to a small minority of girls.
Experience states that most girls will probably have at most two or three guys interested in them in their whole lives. A smaller group will have a long list of guys who will be nobodies and even smaller group will have nobody. But the group I am talking to are the ones whose list of "guys who have ever liked them" reads like a Who's Who list.
The fact is you won't know who will be somebody so you might as well play safe. So when rejecting a guy use the "Helen of Troy method". If it is good enough for the most beautiful woman ever it is good enough for any girl.
The first step is to be calm when the guy declares his undying love no matter how geeky he is because he might be controlling the most powerful army in the world in thirty years time. Second, go straight to the point tell him you don't share the same feelings. Third use the Helen of Troy method which will give him a ray of hope while preventing misunderstanding and this will definitely save the friendship. What is the Helen of Troy Method?
Well basically it makes use of the fact when the guy is in love with a girl it is almost impossible to make him hate you even when rejected though this last for about five minutes so strike while the iron is hot. Tell him that if he truly loves you then he will respect you enough to honour her choice and here is the killer: make him swear an oath of allegiance to protect your honour and the man who will be your husband. Most real guys who like the girl enough will do it without thinking twice. So there you get to keep a friend and make a potentially very very powerful ally.
So if your husband cheat on you twenty years down the line invoke the oath and watch the now-powerful men (Prime Ministers, warlords) give you sweet revenge as they rip the flesh of your husband's bones and his mistress with meat hooks with no repercussions. If they refuse to honour the oath shoot back by saying "I am glad I rejected thee for if thou art unable to uphold an oath of allegiance what more a vow of marriage". He will be doing your bidding in no time.
Finally never berate the guy, never shout at him, never ever be mean because the Helen of Troy method not only save your life from future powerful rejectees but also give you all their combined powers.
p.s. This only work if the sum total of the pwoers of all the guys who ever went after you are greater than that of your spouse.

Working hours of House Officers

2007-02-26T18:20:00.000+08:00

There has been much talk about house officers working for 36 hours straight,
First a clarification: when one is on call is doesn't mean they do not sleep at all. The amount depends how busy the ward is. It is undeniable that human error increases with such insane working hours however can the government hospital afford not to either by decreasing service to patients of increasing manpower. The only to about is to stagger the hours. Instead of 36 hours straight in 48 hours why not 18 hours in 24 for two days. This allowed at least more than 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep which is much more than most HO's are getting.

Who needs teachers?

2007-02-15T18:06:00.000+08:00

Nowadays with the great availability of the interenet,
And also access to knowledge either through the printed or electronic media, it seems the roles of teachers are diminishing. As we can see fromt he previous post I can get knowledge from a professor in the UK without ever even needing to go overseas and spending the money. Having read his article and memeorised it one can say one is as informed as him on that particular matter.
However without teachers how are we to know what is crap and what is not. Teachers are still needed to guide us. Teachers are needed so we can avoid rediscovery. Put simply they are compasses. Textbook are charts. these by themselves do not make a voyage which we must undertake and be responsible for ourselves.

Better than anything I can say

2007-02-15T17:58:00.000+08:00

I am for education reform and most of the time I believe the market,
Can the do a better job than the government ever can. Professot Tooley here say it in much better words than I ever can and offers empirical evidence. http://admin.fnst.org/uploads/1044/OP3.pdf to get the rest of his papers go to his website http://www.ncl.ac.uk/egwest/tooley.html

Robin Hood

2007-02-15T17:51:00.000+08:00

Whoa I have been lazy for a while but,
Here is a thought. Robin Hood claims to rob the rich to give to the poor. Sure some rich people are evil but most worked hard for their wealth. Being poor does not give special moral authority to ensure others don't enjoy the fruits of their labour. What if the rich decide that working hard isnot worth it any more? Who will there to be robbed?
But Robin Hood is an interesting story in that is illustrate what can go wrong with socialist scheme. Robin Hood is not so much an endorsement of progressive taxation as much as it is a condemnation of government taxation. Many times he robbed the tax money.
WHile many socialist governments claim they are 'Robin Hoods' they are actually the 'Sheriff of Nottingham' with all the heavy taxation. If not for the taxation people won't be poor.

Ultimate activity for nerds.

2007-01-18T13:08:00.000+08:00

Do you think nerds are boring?
You thought they have no social lives? Do you know they go clubbing but not the drunkard and debauched ones. They go library-clubbing! Some go book and journal clubbing too. What is library clubbing. basically it is studying in the library until it closes and going idnner together. And it is an all-guys club. One of the last bastions where feminism has not touched it! SO start one in your uni today!

Accounting.

2007-01-16T20:31:00.000+08:00

The government is like a giant corporation,
but unlike other giant corporation it has no external audit. There should. I would rather part with 150 million ringgit of tax payers' money to hire KPMG or something so I can have the peace of mind the 150 billion ringgit in the annual budget is well spent. However this is not the case so does the government's books add up?

Floods in Johor again?

2007-01-15T16:08:00.000+08:00

Two things that people can do,
Move out of those areas or spend money to improve the drainage. But before doing anything can't we get the many geologist in the local universities and make prove their worth by studying the cause of this flood and the many floods that happen all the time. Time for some canal bulding if it need be.

Mat Rempits?

2007-01-15T16:02:00.001+08:00

With certain politicians trying to legitimise them,
I will give them the benefit of doubt but there is certain similarities to Hitler and Ernest Rohm setting the SA or Sturm Abteilung. It hires thugs and turn into a personal army faithful to the National Socialist Party. Legitimising people rightfully in prison is akin to buying their loyalty.

A new party?

2007-01-15T16:00:00.002+08:00

The Malaysian Liberal and Libertarian Party will never win a sit,
But hopefully what it will do is create a market of ideas where people will need to sell their ideas with proof and strong arguments and not because they control the media. Debate is the key for it both educates and inform.

More thoughts on equity

2007-01-10T16:25:00.001+08:00

This letter is from Malaysiakini,
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/61858 well it stimulated a lot of thoughts on my mind. I think it is important that people should know that it should about the size of the pie and not the size of the slice. Usually a small slice of the big pie is better than a big slice of a small pie. Well it is sort of unfair to insinuate corruption because the presumption of innocence until proven otherwise and I am not for conspiracy theories but I would like to suggest like in a my previous the Gini coefficient be measured and we will have our proof.

Monopoly of ideas in education

2007-01-10T16:25:00.000+08:00

This is crazy,
But when you have one lecturer on a subject in the soft sciences he is basically monopolising the dissemination of information. If he is capitalist his lectures will be biased towards capitalism. Why can't lectures be debates between two opposing camps, for example capitalists veruss socialists on the need ofr minimum wages. Both have to justify their stand but at the end of the day the student thinks for himself.

On the Failure Defense League

2007-01-09T17:17:00.000+08:00

What does it mean to be a member?
A member uses his skills, knowledge, abilities, wealth, power and influence to help the marginalised in society be it the urban poor, rural poor, indigenous tribes or simply some weirdo in class that needs someone to talk to.

A haiku

2007-01-09T17:04:00.000+08:00

easiest to write,
most difficult to master,
and now for some verse:

spring petals falling,
children squealing in delight,
summer's reign begun.

fire cooking fish caught,
in lake full of maple leaves,
autumn's rule proclaimed.

fox tracks made on snow,
lead hunters among naked trees,
winter now resides.

farmers planting rice,
in melting-snow-watered fields,
spring has returned.

Real oppression and war for oil

2007-01-09T14:11:00.000+08:00

Nobody here heard of the Saharawis fight,
For an independent Western Sahara against the Morrocans. http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=62889 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polisario

So will the smart ones be there?

2007-01-09T12:28:00.000+08:00

It seems like a great idea,
To nationalise all healthcare. I thought of it once but then again doctors aren't economists http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/58533 If what that guy says happens smart people will stop becoming doctors. Only people with good hearts will be doctors but good-heartedness doesn't guarantee technological breakthroughs that will bring down the cost of medicine. Nokia is full of smart but greedy executives but now everyone can afford handphones.

Where to buy medicines?

2007-01-09T12:21:00.000+08:00

It doesn't matter who is selling,
As long as it is the best for the lowest possible price for the patient. http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/61803 This only happens when the consumer doesn't have good knowledge( have second opinion), no choice( not to buy from the doctor) and no easy access( of course he is going to pay ridiculous prices instead of travelling two hundred miles to KL to get it). Freedom to choose.

Competition and choice

2007-01-09T12:14:00.000+08:00

One reason why private companies aren't,
allowed in certain sectors is the argument that they will cheat the poor. What happens when the self-proclaimed protector of the poor is incompetent and not doing its job? http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/61809 To make more money private companies have to continually satisfy customers. Government monopolies don't have to. Private investment companies anyone?

Ending the government's monopoly on education

2007-01-09T12:10:00.000+08:00

This is one reason why it should be done,
It is hearsay in court but that doesn't mean it is not truth. People be the judge. http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/61811 Competition makes things cheaper and give more choices. The parent will have choice to change to school that is better and lousy ones that try to be funny as above will wither adn die. Fancy losing your job?

GINI coefficient

2007-01-08T15:37:00.000+08:00

I always thought this was a lousy measure,
but I realised Malaysia Gini is 0.49! This is higher than the US which is at 0.4. It is a measure of the distribution of wealth compared to an ideal in which every segment of society owns the same amount.
If it is high in rich countries it is okay because no matter what the poor is still rich by comparison(e.g. Bill Gate's billions is of many percentage points of the economy compared to my thousands but I am not poor by any standard) but in a relatively poorer nation it is bad because it means to a certain extent the elite is benefiting at the expense of the poor especially if the economy is not growing or growing slowly.
I wonder what is the Gini co-effecient among the bumiputeras. I think it highlights the Malaysian leadership's ineffectiveness more than the equity issue. And its calculations is well much more standardised. ASLI should find out.

Time for a change in management?

2007-01-08T15:21:00.000+08:00

Every ruling party after spending too much time in power,
will grow complacent and sooner or later will lose the elections or experience a change of regime. Sometime soon someone will be setting a viable alternative opposition party that will encourage debate and the momentum for change will be too great to be resisted. Until then there will other alternative parties that will come and go. However they need to come by to pave the way.

Can Keynesian work?

2007-01-08T14:51:00.000+08:00

I don't believe in it,
But I suspect it might work if the government gives up its monopolies and be as accountable as other companies with whom they will be competing against when it comes to providing services.
Seriously I do believe private companies can build low-cost housing at a lower cost and with higher quality albeit at a higher price due to the limitations of technology. But remember even the richest most glorious emperor two hundred years ago didn't have flowing water and indoor plumbing. And what is the point of affordable but low-quality housing?

The ideal civil servant

2007-01-08T14:46:00.000+08:00

I posted about him before,
but now I know his name. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_%28Xia_dynasty_ruler%29 . This man examplifies what it "he who is greatest is the servant of all". Okay he was kind of cruel the part that impressed was never going home for 13 years. If only our leaders will serve masses with one tenth of the perseverance.

Need for accountability

2007-01-08T14:44:00.000+08:00

the government is like a corporation,
and the tax-payers its shareholders. If private companies are required to be externally auditted to make sure they don't cheat why shouldn't the government also be externally auditted?
We are after all entrusting them with a lot and alot of our money.

2007-01-03T19:57:00.000+08:00

New year resolutions,
1. Talk less
2. Bear my cross with less whining and complaining.
3. Pray more.
4. Shorter blog posts.
5. E-mail and text friends more.
6. Go online less.
So far so good except for 6.

2006-12-30T10:10:00.000+08:00

On solving the public transportation system,
There have been many suggestions but most include planning done by the government and operation or something by government. Since when did the government become an expert in public transportation. Conspicuously missing are the opinions the many thousands of people who make sure hundreds of thousands of school children reach school and back on an almost daily basis, the operators of school buses. This is one of the few areas that the free market is allow to work itself out and as you can see thousands reach school and home on time at affordable prices and it rarely ever fails. How much more can you for a public transport system. From the aunty who has an extra space in her car to the company with many buses they can tell you a thing or two about competitive pricing, punctuality, route routing, and other details that only many years in the industry will that bureacrats with MBA's don't learn from business schools.
These operators know that if they don't use the most efficient route, don't come on time, don't charge the lowest price possible, don't have comfortable buses(as in the mind of the consumer), have buses that breakdown or if they are too greedy and try to cover too many stops of routes the end up not serving the customer well and they will lose money because they always have competttion to take the business away from them. This is something that bus companies who have monopoly of a route will never understand.
So instead of spending millions to research the best possible routes and pump money in why not just use the knowledge and expertise that is already there. Ah Heng the 'bas sekolah' man knows where the most kids who take his bus lives. And so he will also know where people most likely take public trasnport live and where they want to go.
So the solution: Anyone who wants to be involved in the business after being registered they can and there should absolutely no government telling of where they should go or any intervention at all. They only follow the money because the money is where the consumers are.

2006-12-23T11:30:00.000+08:00

On pharmaceutical companies,
We like to complain of biopiracy when a pharmaceutical company uses the knowledge of a local, who just so happened to discover the medicinal properties of a plant because he sat on it, to identify the the active chemical compound, look for an efficient way to mass produce it, hire clinicians to initiate first phase and all the subsequent phases of clinical research, buld factories to make sure the drug reaches all and basically psend many millions to to produce something that is effective most of the time and prove that it is not just from the placebo affect. I don't there is great injustice if that person only got twenty cents because he merely sat on it compared to amount of other work put in.
Same thing with oil and tin if it was not for the Brits coming in and showing us how to use it would probably still sit int he ground. Alright exaggeration, sure the tin would have been used to make decorative objects of no significant value compared to its anti-corrosive properties used in the canning industry which enabled food to be stored for a long time.
If we are so worried about biopiracy( in fact it is not) adn so confident of Tongkat Ali and all the rest why don't we don't take half the money meant for the new palace complex and set up a pharmaceutical company that explore the potential with all the latest equipment. Since we have the manpower but not the infrastructure. And if the enterpirse fail well at least the research centre which will be of greater use to more people than a palace for a precious few. Tourist? Come on, if they wanted to see palaces and castles they would have gone to Europe where there are better-designed, maintained, authentic and actually ancient palaces with rich histories. A research centre may produce soemthing one day, a place never will unless by stroke of luck the next Einstein is pbron there but in a world of probability success with the research centre( part of the pharmaceutical company) is more likely.

2006-12-23T10:31:00.000+08:00

On books and culture,
Malaysian complain that books are too expensive. Instead of seeing this as a problem we should look at it as opportunity and a niche. Instead of the government pumping money to subsidise books (though I support tax rebate for buying books however the money shouldn't tax in the first place. When money goes to the government then comes back to you some of it is lost because of postage and administration cost so it actually a waste). This is what they should do take some of the money and use it as loan money to set two or three competing press. This press will print books by local authors and university professors. I am sure because it is locally printed and the cost of living and wage demands of the professors are so much lower it would be easier to produce textbooks that are cheaper for the local undergraduate.
Given the choice I think people would prefer to own an original rather than photostated copies of the originals if the original is only marginally more expensive. The competition between presses will ensure they get the best writers and offer value for money to the consumer and since it is a loan it will ensure the people taking it will work hard as they have to repay the government. And why is that so because it is a potentially lucrative business that require quite a large capital. I would prefer to have it raised in the market but then again Malaysians aren't exactly informed investors and quite risk averse. So if government intervention is needed it is here but then again it is limited. It basically involves loaning the money and asking it back and the rest of the of the time the government can shove it.
How sure are you Guo Jeng that it will work? Well if you look at Sasbadi, Preston, Pelangi, and Fajar Bakti..you will realise that these guys produced books that have virtually displaced government sanctioned textbooks even the teachers don't use the official textbook anymore..it is only used as a reference as to what the syllabus is. And why is this? This is because these books are better. Another reason why there should be less government intervention. People always choose the best for themselves and do not need the government to tell what to buy. They should scrap the official textbooks and just publish booklets as to what is needs to be convered for the exams. Save money for everyone. The only losers are the cronies with the government contracts.
I just wonder why don't they publish textbooks for the local undergraduate. It is something they can go into? Is it there is no market? Or do the undergraduates only read powerpoint presentations of their lecturers which is plagiarise from some western textbook?
But this globalization isn't it? Easy access to foreign textbooks and knowledge. Where is the complaint about cultural imperialism? Superior cultures deserve to subjugate inferior ones. In fact inferior ones should be discarded and the best of superior ones minus their weaknesses be absorbed. There is no such thing as traditional culture that is essential to identity. Look at Japanese and Korean culture absorbing Chinese culture to the environment and needs. It doesn't make their culture any less unique or original. In fact they have expanded and improve on certain aspects and in turn it has influenced the mainland. Defending inferior cultures because it is traditional is for the feeble. Though what constitute superior culture wshould be vigourously debated and not be dictated and it only in the arguments and debates that weaknesses and strenght can be identified.

2006-12-21T08:54:00.000+08:00

What is Malaysia's rank currently in football?
Currently we are 152. What does this mean? Well it means Rwanda a nation that experienced genocide and has one doctor per one hundred thousand people is ranked higher than us at 121. I am not saying football rankings is more important than healthcare but shouldn't it mean that with superior healthcare our athletes should be healthier and have superior performance? By the way Rwanda's population is about 9 million only. Iraq at number 83 is a wartorn country or at least that is what the media want us to believe. What does this mean? Does it mean the United States of America have to invade us for out teams to improve? We are definitely richer than most of the countries that is ranked above us so what is our problem?
I am led to believe it is too much government intervention. Who controls the the Football teams playing in the Malaysian League? The State Football associations. In fact most of the football players can be considered civil servants. If you look at the powerhouses fo the world from Brazil to the most lucrative league in the world they have free competition. Anyone can form a football club and if you play well you can progress from the Confederation League all the way to the Premiership and if you don't do well you will be relegated. Look at the MyTeam which came so close to beating the national under-21. What is more remarkable is they have only been playing together for a month and they are amateurs who work by day as a roti canai seller or something. Who do they consist of? The best Shebby and Jason can find. No regard for race, politics, or connection. Sadly the momentum is lost but we should more teams like Myteam and they can play in a whatever league they want.
For those who are race-conscious and are worried that if we allow people to form the teams they want wouldn't it affect the muhibbah spirit. Well I have news for you. In a competitive league where money is important to the owner and victory to the fans there is no place for preferential treatment or any prejudice. Even if you start with an all-Chinese team reality will set in and before long just to satisfy both fans and owner, it will only consist of the best. No Arsenal fan will complain about the team being mostly African or Frenchmen of African descent no matter how rascist they are off the pitch. They only want to win and the players play their best because their rice bowl depend on it. Look at the M league the players still get paid no matter how empty the stadium. In England their pay is the a function of stadium attendance and number of people who watch them on television.
Well you may say that with all these money flooding in it cause the high stake sort of environment that lead to diving. Well the problem can be solved first by breaking tradition and allowing referees to assisted by video replay and most importantly when the fans will have nothing to do with it. That is they are more interested in seeing smooth play than winning. However if they don't that is their choice it is their money and time and not yours. If you don't like it go and go select a league that plays more to your idea of the spirit of the game probably the Somalian National League or something where they play not for nmoney but for the love of the game( You have to really love it, it is banned under pains of death in Mogadishu). I believe a Maradona will emerge and no matter how hard he is tackled he can still run and score a goal and when that happens men of greater talent will stop diving.
Well then what about all those teams with big money won't they crowd out the smaller ones. My answer to that is Malaysia will take quite a bit of time to reach that level but when we do reach that level it is important that we maintain a free entry into leagues. That is to say anyone who can get 10 other persons to play with him regularly will not be hindered in trying to join a league and if there be a thousand team then they shall play off one another to get promotion up to the third then second and finally premier league. This is situation is of course impossible as there are only a certain number of people good enough to play and has that amount of dedication and before you know it all the teams will be merging to make up for each other's lack and you come up with better teams. Even small teams if they train their youth well can become big money teams. Arsene Wenger spent a fraction of what Chelsea does and now all his young players are maturing and they will worth more than when he bought them. He can then either sell them so he can buy other big name players or retain them until they are of no use to use they sell them off for still a tidy profit. This economic situation forces teams to find their niche and if they can't afford open market transfer than they will stop neglecting the youth training. In the end Abrahamovitch doesn't have infinite resources and soon you will be seeing more Wenger style investment which can only bring good as it develops the younger talent.
As to foreign players I don't care if the team is one hundred percent foreign. It will make the locals work harder for a place.
Are the players payed too much? NO WAY. They are payed that much because the owners feel it is worth it and why? This is because the owners make a profit from the fans but are the fans complaining? No they are not. If they feel exploited they can stop going to matches as no one forces them to buy season tickets. Like I say the players pay is a function of attendance and if they fans say their performance is worth their time and money who am I to argue with the masses. When the fans i.e. the consumer is tired of diving let me tell you the diving will stop becasue no matter how many rules there are always ways around it. HTe acting just get better because there is an incentive to. Man work because not for the joy of it but for the incentive positive or otherwise.

2006-12-07T14:56:00.000+08:00

What is this debate about wearing veils?
I believe it is a crime against humanity that BEAUTIFUL women wear the veil. Even if they want to they should be stopped. As for the ugly ones when they wear the veil they are doing us a favour. So let us make a law: BEAUTIFUL women who wear the veil and butt ugly ones who don't will be punished severely including death for the ugly ones.

2006-11-06T16:59:00.000+08:00

Here are some ideas that was originally typed for the viewing pleausre of edmond,
titled quite unimagitively ideas for edmond.....but life is about the exchange of ideas...isn't it?
Ideas for Edmond
In this world we need ideas and they must be written down and also be discussed so that all may learn: those who heard the idea and those who originated it. Discussion either convince the originator the error or convinces him that he is essentially but must be spurred to improve upon the argument so that he may convince more than one. Below are merely seedlings that hopefully be watered and expanded upon.
For many years the government has been trying to get people to recycle but the problem is people don’t do it even millions is spend on education. There is no motivation. In psychology we learn that positive reinforcement is one of the most effective ways of changing human behaviour, followed by negative reinforcement. To devise a successful recycle scheme one look no further than the old newspaper man. Even if it is only one ringgit for one months worth of newspaper people separate the rest of their trash from newspapers. There is money from cans but people deemed the petrol to bring it to the recycling centre is not worth the money. It must be made worth their time but of course that are people already separating cans in the dumpsite so that problem is settled but 70% of the trash is organic and that is what make most of the garbage stink. If we create a market for all these stuff people will collect and pay money like the old newspaper man and residents will separate it because they can make money. How much that will be determined by market forces and sometimes market forces dictate a not good enough price and this is where government come in by using its vast resources it can use the land that could have been wasted as landfill and use it to make compost. At the end of the day all projects must self-sustaining after a short period of say five years or be heading towards that. The compost will sell. At the same time chaff can be bought from farmers who burn it more to get rid of it. This will reduce pollution. We barter it with our produced compost or just use cold hard cash. Market economics to solve a daily problem.
Christians need to idealogues that is people who write down radical ideas and influence people for good. If we don’t do it, some Marx, Lenin, or Stalin will do it. They aren’t the smartest people but they are willing to give all for their ideology. If we believe in Christianity so much why aren’t we as dedicated to it as these are to their ideology.
I am not a prophet but it is possible to use human knowledge to achieve wisdom as though one is an oracle of God like Achitophel. Using human knowledge, I predict that the three gorge dam will fail and there will be floods, the Beijing Olympics will raise the unrest all around the rural areas, great floods on the Yangtze, people will rise up and few Chinese divisions will mutiny and the Communist will rule no more by 2020. An attempt to invade Taiwan might be made but will fail.
Humans seek creature comfort but to be a leader one must be able to rise above basic instincts of man instinct is not to serve but Jesus the greatest shall be the servant of all. Imagine the head of a country that does not a retinue of servant but one servant so he can concentrate on his work and dictate a million policies with out being disturbed.why so many concubines when we have strength for only one. Cost is much lower. Why live in a place when a 7 by 6 would be a bed big in enough. Much has been made a king needs glory but what is his glory except for his people healthy strong and safe and all man reaching his full potential. This is utopia but if we have a leader that cares not for his own enrichment and all that is safe is passed back to the people than truly he will be a servant of all and then a true leader.
1.3 million Arabs in Israel against 4.5 million refugees. Guess who had the higher standard of living?
People want to help all the time but most of the time is not efficient or sustainable. Therefore there should be a new approach to humanitarian aid. One of the examples is the Grameen bank. They required their borrowers to pay back their loans with interest so as to be sustainable and so other people can take loans. We must be aware just because you are poor doesn’t give you a pass for a free lunch. We must be willing to help but they in turn must do their part so that others can be helped. Anyway humanitarian organizations should be audited and compete with one another to provide the best and most efficient services. They should avoid duplication and merge so as to have the force of number. Guderian once said that you hit a man with your fist and not with your fingers spread.
Most Christians treat the call to missions as an opt in thing but it should really be opt out. The ration of people serving should be at least 1 out of twelve just the tribe of Levi was one out of twelve. I think this is the perfect ratio as it is just sustainable by the rest of the tribes. So obviously when the number serving is less than one in twelve there is a large number that is not answering their call.
Independent Sabah Sarawak will be a possibility and it can overtake the Peninsular in a short time. The reason why Singapore won out is the hemorrhage to talents there. Imagine if the Borneo states are independent and implement more free market reforms and less discriminatory policies there will loads of talent flowing there. Anyway in the predicted overthrow of the Communist and the ensuing anarchy, it will be a perfect place for the refugees. How do we do it? 300 good men are all that is needed. Doctors, teachers, engineers all posted in the interior making lives better and there will be voted into power in no time and then after preparations and seeking support for the intelligentsia in the west and also politicians call for UN referendum and then declare independence and we can give all the devil’s excrement to the Peninsular.
Have you heard of von Zizendorff? He was a rich man that gave most if not all his wealth for the extension of the kingdom of course he administered himself so that it will not go into the pockets of greedy individuals or misguided building funds.
Not many know of Zizendorff..While it is most preaching is from the Bible but preaching should be supplemented by study of the WHOLE Bible, church history and also doctrine. Not many know of their doctrine.
When one is said to be called to mission why must one think of sacrifice and suffering. If he goes alone to the middle of nowhere I guess it will be that. But if he goes as a team in a group of maybe 150 people consisting of teachers, engineers and, doctors, preachers of whatever tentmakers and their spouses not only are they more effective and cover more of the needs of the community but they able to fight loneliness and lack companionship while they adjust to the local population and of course their children will then qualify to attend the FDL University so that they will not lose out.
Here re some ideas for Proton. There are many people who can have money for something more than a bike but less than a kancil. Bike is 7K kancil. 24K. There is a gap of 17K why isn’t anyone exploiting this niche. Build a vehicle with which is safer, more powerful and more seating than a bike but less than an ordinary car….I am sure there is a market for people….the whole idea is to provide for that need. I am sure people in a family of 4 will prefer that to a bike if they can’t afford a kancil.

2006-09-27T16:32:00.000+08:00

I believe that people should be able to reap,
the work and effort they put into work and therefore i believe in capitalism and pure comtpetition...which is not only good for everyone to excel but for the loser he knows that is not the real place that he belongs....but then again they good and hardworking people who never seem to get a break like the rubber tappers who work really hard but never seem to be able to better the lives of their love ones..so in effect we must temper capitalism with compassion..how much and where we draw the line I leave it to the economists though some might argue that rubber tappers should quit and do something else..what else? Another problewith capitalism is that is that some people with power and influence and monewill use it so that they don't have to compete like the car parts supplier who bribe the car manufacturer's..so if playing filed is not level..and how is the poor guy with superior technology and work going to survive...this is where we need a referee..he will never be perfect but it will be much better than no referee...this is then the use of of governmentent..their duty is to ensure a level playing field..other than that they don't intervene....the referee don't kick the ball into the goal..he just runs around and thires to intervene as little as possible and get out of the way but will do it if it is necessary.....if a referee can do it..why is it so hard for elected government do it?

2006-09-27T16:21:00.000+08:00

heh,
controlling the price of sugar? ridiculous..on one hand you are trying to get mamaks to reduce the sugar they put in their products and people to take less sugar so that there will be less cases of diabetes and on the other you are trying to keep the price of sugar artificially low....sure it wins elections but who is going to pay for health care when half the nation is diabetic?...the quickest way to reduce the amount of sugar in products and help people live a healthier lifestyle is to make something more expensive...like with cigarettes and alcohol... if they use this rationale to impose sin taxes why can't they just let market forces determine the price of sugar...why intervene to bring down the price of something that is bad for health? Sugar is definitely killing more people than cigarettes but of course lung cancer is a more glamourous disease...the worse thing is they are killed slowly so the health cost is high..whereas in lung cancer you are dead within the year....when sugar is more expensive people will use less sugar and innovative mooncake makers will won't be making mooncakes that are toos weet and before you know it they will be making mooncake for diabetics so those poor old folks won't miss out on the fun.

2006-09-27T16:06:00.000+08:00

Hello I am back,
It has been a while...I am quite lazy to blog but I thought I better keep the thing going.....just a thing about character...in the papers a few days ago a Malaysian-born neurosurgeon was arrested for bribery....man you must be pretty smart to become a neurosurgeon in the US..it is competitive..but no matter how smart you are in the end...you can't excape from greed...and many people do stupid things because of greed...kind of sad to know parents nowadays are pushing excellence instudies and performance instead of the building the of character...give an honest man of average intelligence any day over one thousand corrupt geniuses.

2006-03-29T16:37:00.000+08:00

After a long long while I am back,
But as I have predicted it turns out that blogging was just another fad for me. It promised to make my voice heard but the number of silly advertisements that I got far out numbered the comments and most of them are from friends anyway. Not that this detracts from the validity of their comments but I don't think my views are going to get far this way. I will have to go back to trying to get myself published which is the only realistic way of doing it.
Thought scame and go and the penalty for not putting them down is you forget them.
The thing that I have been thinking about on lately is seeking the truth and the fact the "Quod Est Veritas" should be everyone'e warcry. Sure we need to do the things to survive but in our psare time we spend some of it seeking the truth. For many imporant things we just take it for granted. We just assume that it is true without investigating it. We may not have the time to verify everything but at least in the most imporant things such as "is Jesus God?"
Christians that take it for granted but Paul says we must work out our salvation. We must ask ourselves do we truly believe? PEople who brush over this often will have faith crises when they are older when it will be much much worse. PEople who have it younger then to resolve it in a happy way though not always. In the end the illustration is chicken pox. If you get it when you are young you might die but it is not as worse as whne you are old.
Some non-Christian just only look at the points against that is not even thougth up and judge by themselves and take it as as true. They have delegated the most imporant duty of seeking the truth to others but even the smartest makie mistakes and one should not delegate this because in the end if one makes a mistake at least one doesn't have to regret delegating this duty even though we enjoy blaming others.
There are many to barriers to truth. Now I will not confined it to discussion about Jesus but the truth can be seeked everywhere and in its own way it is important. It can serious questions like is the universe expanding or collapsing to the best nasi lemak to be found in Kedah. Though the consequences are different but what is perceive as the truth will guide us in our decision making. Not all questions should be pursued with full effort.
The danger is lies can be seen as truth. Lies can masquerade as truth, truth can be misrepresented, the truth be seen as the lie. Whatever the situation the truth is not found and because of that wrong decisions are made. Is a foetus a human life? The answer will determine how we approach the issue of abortion. Even our own eyes can mislead us and witnesses may not be truth. But what differentiate the truth from lies is there is evidence but even in this respect even lies can have "evidence".
In the end we must weigh up everything and to do this we must not be intellectually lazy but strive to consider BOTH sides of the argument and rebuttals to it and make a judgement for ourselves.
Consider the Iraq war. Was it right to invade? I have study the arguments on both sides carefully and at the end of it I support the war but that is not the point. The point is we can see a lot of people taking either position without first determining the arguments on both sides. They just take a default position such as all wars are wrong. My father whom I greatly resepct is a pacifist and I respect him for that because in his eyes and from his analysis of hisotry except for a few exceptions institutions brought about by wars in genral don't stand the test of time. He will compare Malaysia's independence gained by negotiation to Indonesia's which was gained by violence and how both countries subsequently turn out. I would disagree because though force is not always good but sometimes it is necessary. The Khmer Rouge would have gone on killing had Vietnam not invaded Cambodia. Yet Vietnam was never called an imperialist nation though they occupied Cambodia for over 12 years before there were any elections. SO we are both right force was the lesser of two evil but up till today Cambodia is still in the grips of Hun Sen who was allied to the Vietnamese.
History in the end can be the judge whether the was was right or not and the picture will not be pretty. We like to gloss over it but the truth is nothing is perfect and there will be flaws but if greater good comes out of it then I think it is only fair we judge it as correct. However even then we have a problem. We do not know it will turn out and history have shown us that to invade there is a problem not to invade there is a problem. In the end we realise of man's endeavour is in vian and Death devour us all. In the end all we have is the Truth. What is the Truth? IS the truth is there will be reincarnation and amn will get according to his deeds in the next life or is the truth is God is in control and and if we can hypothetically follow his perfect will then all will be solved. Then it leads to a conumdrum: what is his will? And again again it is a crazy thing to explore and much of the ills stem from sincerely mistaken people deluded into thinking they are doing the Almighty's will.
Back to history;can only be so much of a guide. I think the gist of the matter is please investigate and study both isde of the argument so that if history prove you wrong at least you can have the cold comfort of not saying anything daft like " Iraq was much better under Saddam" for the simple reason reason he is a Sunni. Have you read a Shiite or Kurd talk like this lately?

2005-12-08T18:27:00.000+08:00

After a bit of encouragement I am finally,
Putting a bit a of my thoughts into a soft copy. Hve you ever met a person who is better than you in everything and after a period of admiration that person becomes unbearable as your attempts to catch well aren't a match for that person's natural in-built talent. Somehow that person is better than you in things that you are good at. NO amount of hardwork helped you. Well the truth there are things that you ARE good at because God is always fair and love his children but the fallen side wants the visible gifts that can be seen by other men. Girls will crowd roud the pianist who can play any song requested. No guessing how many crowded round the guy who has utmost patience but has nothing else. Yet most will say that the patient person has the greater gift but that is in theory. In reality the the pianist gets the glory. We shouldn't strive for it but we crave it.
I saw this line in No Left Turns which described Beowulf, the hero of the oldest piece of English literature which is translated to modern English: "He made the best of all he had..... putting each imperfection to the service of integrity...was good because he accepted there things of him that were bad."
This is literature seeking to teach us timeless wisdom all the while maintaining the beauty of the language and the naturalness of speech. What it means is he accepts that he is not supremely talented and accepted his lot but instead using his time to compete he used what he had to basically do good.
Not to discourage all the budding guitarist in church but what are your motives? Rather serve integrity. It lacks glory but builts character and at the end of the day it is probably that which matters.

2005-11-19T11:57:00.001+08:00

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.

2005-11-17T12:20:00.000+08:00

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.

2005-11-06T12:02:00.000+08:00

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?

2005-10-31T11:03:00.000+08:00

Wow it has been a while since I was here,
I like to take the excuse that I have exams approaching and i don't have the the time to blog but the fact of the matter is that I have exams and I am not even studying and I prefer to laze a around and let my thoughts wander instead of engaging in some serious thought processes.
So I have assignments deadlines looming but because I am not interested in them they have been consigned to to be done later box. Sad to say i am more interested in other things like articles about all manner subjects that are available over the internet so in the end I might be a very knowledgable doctor but not necessarily in the art of medicine which actually spells the defeat of my original prupose. Why is it so. difficult for me to be a single-minded person? Ill-discipline on my part really, God help me.
On another unrelated front i realise how terrible my prose have been and definitely I wouldn't be able to take on schoolchild of eleven from 19th century Britain. If British education has deteriorated over the pass one hundred years
-actually the rot only started 40 years ago with liberals taking over education-how much more the Malaysian education system. Well I can complain or I can set about doing something that includes improving myself and correct bad habits which I shall do right now by going off-line and start studying.

2005-09-20T11:17:00.000+08:00

Reading my own blog,
Is such a torture. First there is my lousy typing and editing, and then there is my long-winded way of writing prose which is incoherent to say the least. Back in the old the school master would have forced me to rewrite my essays until I have gotten all my spelling and grammar correct. Ah the joys and pains of the odl days. Also after a while you will realise that some of the things you say are quite ignorant and daft but I guess we are always learning and can't have perfect knowledge of everything and make the correct judgement all the time.
That is why we should always have principles that has proven to work for the past two thousand years and also learn from other people's mistakes and experiences. He is wise who learn from experience but even wiser who learn from the experience of others. Because of this I enjoy reading the life stories of other people and of course the Bible which for all its errors and inconsistencies has proven to be quite a remarkable book, in fact miraculous and its principles still apply for today. There are contentious amd controversial points like is Saint Paul a misogynist and women's role in the church but that does not negate its power in anyway if one honestly read throught the WHOLE Bible. The very error and inconsistency is what prove to be a genuine human document of God's dealings with Mankind but because of that one has to read the whole thing to understand what is principle and what was clearly a compromise like divorce in the Pentateuch and also the election of a king in Israel. There isn't enough space for me here and I am lazy to type out everything but let me assure you that the Bible is one book you can't do without.

2005-09-15T13:18:00.000+08:00

Here in Penang Medical College,
The lot of us, yes all 101 of us, are divided into twelve groups. And these twelve groups goes to the Accident and Emergency department every two weeks to observe the going ons in there.
Last night was my group's turn. I went to get some money, crossed a busy road, bought some credit for my handphone, had dinner at Rawther's. He has started opening up to midnight and sells dinner where before he only do breakfast and lunch. Had some nasi minyak with mutton kurma with chapati and kima. drank a glass of air bandung( Bandung is a town in Indonesia, the drink is actually just condense milk mix with syrup.
As I walk into the hospital back gate I can hear the wail of the siren. Interesting night this is going to be. As I walk past the acute emergency room there was a guy lying there. Nothing special. Only later I learnt he had multiple compound fractures which caused me to venture for a second look but by then it was already covered by the piece of sterile cloth.
There was no going ons so I went to the other A&E room. It was the usual stuff. Asthma, a nick here and there. Then a group of guys went for dinner and I followed them.
ANyway I am boring even myself. The guy have to have an emergency amputation. So we were there looking at the slicing by the surgeon, smelling the burning flesh and slash and dosh of the sucker and instruments beign passed around. It was interesting until you realise that the person will never use the leg again and he is only 22 years old. I can imagine him lasying football with his friends and now longer able to join he just drifts away from them. How will he react when he regains consciousness. What about the family? Is he the only that the whole family has put their hopes on? I am sure his parents will be glad that he is alive but ten twenty thirty years down the line who will take care of him? Will he marry? Or will be forever lonely knowing that the only reason is that he only has one leg and can barely support himself?
I can never understand the pain he will go through because I don't I will ever go through a fraction of what and I don't plan to and I pray I don't have to. I am the scion of of the middle class, with enough money to pay for a private medical education. Am I not privilege. But I am too self-absorbed.
The fact is I will be back later. Got something to do.

2005-09-13T13:17:00.000+08:00

As I walked home on Sunday,
I looked back and though the sun has set of it rays were still being reflected on a tall cumulus cloud. Majestic was the description. For a moment i can see th big picture and then when I reached home and had my bath, I lost it and began concentrating on my pathetic little self and whining about my loneliness. In this world there are literally billions less fortunate than me and yet for a moment I lose sight of how truly blessed I am and my vision tunneled where just moments before I was looking at the majestic sky speckled with birds tired from a had days work scavenging and going to the nest to feed the brood. Feeling the slight breeze from passing vehicles, the sight of their drivers not knowing but only speculating the thousand stories of joy and tragedy, of love and romance and how every single thing is interconnected and somehow some hwere in the world we know someone who knows this other person and through this person and so on we connected to everyone, and ancestors whom we never knew may have crossed each other paths by marriage, war and trade. Oh to know the story of every living person on earth and the stories they never knew themselves. The well-traveled asphalt laid over many times. The smell of figs and jittery shadow of the flitting bat darting in and out of sight guided by none but the sweet scent of the mango blossoms blooming beneath the moonlight of a night as hot and humid as humid as any summer in Dublin.
Life is beautiful but still why do I want pity?

2005-09-06T13:26:00.000+08:00

Dear anonymous,
Thanks for the comment. I get that only very rarely so you don't how much it means to me. But more important than being read and given a comment is that I hope someone will practise my ideas.
Marx never achieved anything except writing a few books that weren't even that widely-read or considered best-sellers. But people who bought his ideas changed the lives of billions. Unlike Marx I hope my ideas will be a force for good.
If any case there is no one to practise I then must be the one to do it. Even if I do that fear not for the loss of idea-man for most of my ideas aren't orignal but are rather derived from an umcompromising reading of the Bible. Read the Bible. It is the one book that does not contain everything but enough of everything to amke this world tolerable.

2005-09-03T13:32:00.000+08:00

Anyone familiar with the concept of total war?
Well it is commitment of all its resources, time and manpower of a nation to ensure its victory.
Christians have a more important enterprise...to ensure that everyone hears of the love of God through Jesus Chirist and receive a taste of that love through grace-empowered and love-compelled Christians....why aren't we pouring all resources into it instead of church buildings?
This enterprise is a bit like war..God can do so much of the fighting but a lot of it is up to us.....the US can overthrow Saddam and give the Iraqi people a chance to build a democratic and free nation...but it is up to them to do it but they can also choose to take vengeance and plunge the nation into darkness again...more important than a democratic and free society..though especially the free is important in the spread of the Gospel..is people hearing it...
Personally I am too afraid to do street evangelism but I know I have enough guts and detached enough from the world to work some rural areas...and there be the hands and feet of Christ..
I feel uncomfortable with prosperity gospel in many curches..God blesses but is it not so it can go into the total war effort and not the new church building?

2005-09-03T13:27:00.000+08:00

Revelations tell us how it will be,
But we are the ones who will determine the details...whether in the end it will the majority persecuting a minority or the minority persecuting a Christian majority...we decide by what we do today...that is why feel it is so vague but very clear about the conclusions.

2005-09-03T13:10:00.000+08:00

I have a fascination with cemeteries,
I like reading the epitaphs on the Western..you learned how long they lived and tragically short it is.....I saw this once..the mother died a few days after giving to the baby and the baby followed a few days too..this was in Ireland....it doesn't happen there any more...but it still does in the rest of the world...she was only about 20 or so....I am 23..glad to be alive though I am single...saw this one in Cheras this lady lived till a 106...long or short God determines it...we can't say that God was unfair..because of a short the person..missed out on more misery...lived till a hundred you could have sepnt 50 years of it in misery...sometimes I wonder about the victims of the Japanese who were tortured to death....sure death was a respite but did they really wanted to die...would it have been worse if they survived and have to live with memory of dead friends for the rest of their lives...some of us would like to live when actually it would be better for us to be dead..and the other way round...I am glad my life is in God's hands..so I don't have make the decision and mess it up..at least you know it is int he hands of the omniscient one..or ctnically who to blame.....but don't go quoting this at a funeral...they don't needd answers or rationale just a warm hug, listening ear, and a shoulder to cry on until the grief is over...and soon people will get over it and accept the fact...widows and widowers remarry....not that they don't love the decease anymore but people move on. No one love a person that much that will cry everyday for the next 50 years. ..we are only human....in that situation though you would think you can cry forever..but the truth....
Accept death and live life to the fullest..and love all who are alive.

2005-09-03T12:42:00.000+08:00

I think I will reutrn to the days of regular blogging,
Been having a lot of ideas lately but then some of them are pretty long and I don't have the time but these are only excuses so I am back or try to be back.
First up, about a patinet I saw in the ward. He was in the British Army escaped into the jungles when the British was defeated. Got strafe by Japanese planes. Showed me his wound. Since then he has never been to hospital. He is 81 now and so for the pass 60 years he was fine until now when he is diagnosed with can cer of the ascending colon. Don't know if he will make it but even if he does..most definitely he will need a colostomy bag which is quite psychologically debilatating..imagine to survive so much only to be down by cancer.
Even as I reflect on his situation, one thing is sure: nothing in life is guaranteed. IT may be your wedding day and you are finally going to get what you have been waiting for and then you get killed on the way to the wedding. Those people that you see get killed in accidents with their blank stares looking out of the papers...well they never thought they would appeared as news when they read about a fatal accident the day before....people in New Orleans collected money for tsunami victims not knowing of the great floods that hit them.
Appreciate each day you have. If you feel bored you are not using the gift God has given you..you are taking life for granted.
The people in Noah's days were getting married and getting on with life when the flood came..imagine drowning on your wedding day..OK I am obssessed aabout getting married but..my ideas are relevant..no one expect that it will change..that it won't be same as it had happen for the pass 100 years.
Us Malaysians live a prosperous life especially the middle-class and beyond. Your typical teenager can expect to finish school, go to college, drink at Starbucks, go to some uni overseas, come back get a job, meet someone, get married and knocked someone up or get knocked up or the other way round...and go on living as they have lived....oblivious as they are to the poor and suffering all around the world..and even closer to home the Orang Aslis..but it is not going to last forever..war is going happen one day...Orang Aslis are going to decide one day that they have enough of being treated like second calss citizens and start launching suicide bombs, China with its excess men will need to blow off the energy and invades Taiwan and plunges the whole region into chaos...1930's was one the most prosperous times in Europe...culture was at its height...everyone can be said to be living a decadent life and then bang world war 2..and many years of hard rebuilding..
we should live our lives carefully..ready for life's uncertainty but not to the extent we don't enjoy anything..but when it happens we can't we never thought it woulod because as history, the Bible, logic, science, economics and everything tells us the good times won't go on forever.
Thinking about buying a house and car..live simply..if you are going to have only two kids....a simple double storey will do and Wira..no need fro the Mercedes and bungalow..because when war comes ..will it matter.no difference except you spent your whole life working to the bone paying for that big house when you could have spent more time with your family if you went for a smaller one and it is all wasted by one bomb, or storm, or vandal..when you are starving..you wouldn't care you ahve a mercedes or not....when you are dying of cancer..you won't care about the car you never had but the lost friendships and relationships.
In short, some things are important but we don't like they are and we chase after those that aren't only to regret later.

2005-08-11T13:47:00.000+08:00

Just some gloating before I start,
I just finished reading Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine from cover to cover. Ok to be honest I started on page 253 read until the end and then started at page 1 until page 253. I have covered 1320 pages in seven weeks! Ok It wasn't all text I would have gone mad. There were lots of nice pictures and colour coded diagrams and of course was readin through like you would Harry Potter with as much understanding i can muster. Now my friend owes me a dinner.
Usually people go out and celebrate after such a monumental task. Me? The moment I looked out my window I know I am not going anywhere. At 341 the API is one and a half times greater than when the haze was at its worst in 1997. But for the hazards to my health and social life, it is actually beautiful. The view outside my window looks like some 30 year old faded photo. It even looks lke a scene from 30 years ago because all the tall buildings which are the signs of the times have been occluded. so I geta retro view n the year 2005.
A short note on what I have read during my Bible-reading. In Deuteronomy 26:12 to 14, the recipients of tithes you give out was not only the Levites but also the orphans and widow and et cetera. Nowadays most of the tithes is given to the church which is the modern equivalent of the levites because the serve God full-time. But i have always been uncomfortable that the more often than not misuse such a big amount. If you read the passage carefully the distribution of tithes were in the hands of the person ho gave it not some third party and they give it to whomever they see fit. Whether it is a poor relative or something. Yes support the Levites but they shouldn't be the only one receiving it and it is not the church deciding where the tithe goes but the giver. God gave you that freedom.

2005-07-18T10:43:00.000+08:00

I am just going to blog just often enough to this thing going,
There are a flourish of activities in my head but most of it old and exposition on older ideas.
Just a few thoughts for the London bombers and al-Qaeda. If your reason for bombing London as a act of vengeance for the Iraqi CIVILIANS hurt in the Gulf War 2( well the US did declare war so Saddam and co aren't covered) well then why stop there. Onwards to Beijing( oppresion of Uighurs in Xinjiang), Khartoum( Darfur crisis), Rabat( occupation of Western Sahara), Jakarta( heavy handling of Acheh).
You see given the numbers the Brits killed, at least they are paying reparations by rebuilding infrastructure. Quite unlike settling thousands of Hans to make you the minority, starving the Furs and preventing aid from reaching them, hunting down REAL freedom fighters and the likes. To fight for oppressed Muslims you must fight all the oppressors and not just those in the West...or are you just rascist?
I need to note that I do not think for one moment tat US and Britain are oppressing the Iraqi people. If they are why bother helping them rebuild and forming a democratic society. If they wanted oil they could have much more easily opened the Alaskan Nature Wildlife Reserve or Invaded Venezuala( the US got allies within and without the country and it is much much closer and doesn't have this suicide bomb crap); if it is Saddam Hussein they should have just left after capturing him and dropping a few more extra bombs to make sure the Iraqis don't get out of the Stone Age until sometime the next century instead of helping rebuilding Iraq which is a thankless job and it is the most cited reason for attacks against you.
I suspect a much nobler course. Cleaning up the mess for 4 decades of real-politik that includes turning a blind eye to people like Saddam. Would have saved us this mess and thousands of Kurds and Shiite if George Bush 1 pushed all the way to Baghdad in Gulf War 1. Why he didn't? Most likely real-politik. You see they were only sanction to save Kuwait. Ahh the Un but that will be for another time.

Pretentiousness

2005-05-30T17:38:00.000+08:00

One thing about having a pretentious name as new ideas is,
You realise quickly how pretentious it is because the new ideas after a while seem to run out. But what to do it is already called that and I think it will stay that way. Hopefully I will do more things with my life and then I will have more ideas so for you new readers out there, go and read my older works.

2005-05-10T16:47:00.000+08:00

It has been a while since I visited these parts,
Mostly because I am lazy to update and it is a momentum thing. Once you stop it takes while to get started again or never.
Well my most recent thoughts have been the Law has NO business in being compassionate, it should only just. That is it. The moment it tries being compassionate like in a welfare state there will be fraud( people trying to live off the state)...That is why in the Bible the welfare is most often in the hands of the closest relatives. Only in extreme circumstances is it the responsibility of the state. Even then most of the time it never reaches that level for for it to reach that the death of all relatives, then neighbor's then private citizens must ensue.
When welfare is in the hands of the state what is the picture a centralise and highly bureaucratic disbursement of help. Inherent in this structure is fraud. The money being swindled or lying idle and there is much of the people it is designed to help don't get help. Then there is the dependency where like drugs people get addicted to handouts.
The model propose in the Torah is one where Man is commanded to be compassionate and go beyond that compassion to make sure the person get back on their own two feet.
My thoughts are disjointed now but just for the sake of blogging I am putting this post up.

2005-02-26T19:22:00.000+08:00

The debate about whether Vijay Singh was lucky he didn't Malaysian PR,
Is a non-starter. For one he had unquenchable desire to succeed so whether he went to Fiji or stayed in Malaysia he would have succeeded. Furthermore you could argue that he would have succeeded earlier had he stayed in Malaysia because how many golf-courses can you fit in Fiji?
But I think deep down every Cabinet minister is kicking themselves because Vijay Singh would have the first world champion since the late 80's and early 90's when the Sidek brothers dominated badminton. Furthermore it can be said that golf as a game is more famous and played by a lot more people than badminton.

Doctors I admire.

2005-02-24T21:50:00.000+08:00

I had this conversation with a friend recently and I guess it make for interesting blogging,
So in no particular order: William Gorgas http://www.archives.state.al.us/famous/w_gorgas.html; Norman Bethune http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series/volume4/58-63.htm; Albert Schweitzer http://www.schweitzer.org/english/aseind.htm; David Livingstone http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biorplivingstone.html; Ronald Ross http://stevenlehrer.com/explorers/chapter_6-5.htm; Paul Brand http://www.tlm-ni.org/brand.htm; Hudson Taylor http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biorptaylor.html; Robert Koch http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1905/koch-bio.html.
Well these are the guys whom I would say reading baout their lives changed and shaped the way I view my career and I believe that their lives should be required reading at least to Christians intent on becoming doctors. I might add Jonathan Kaplan to my list but it is not good and can be downright embarassing to include still living persons. Ones work can only be judged when they no longer have the ability to tarnish it.

2005-02-24T01:11:00.000+08:00

This is a weird idea like all my other ideas,
But I have been thinking if frnace has a French Foreign Legion. http://www.info-france-usa.org/atoz/legion/what.asp why can't Israel have a Israeli Goyim Legion. Consisting goys like me who are interested in defending Israel against her enemies. I do not support all of Israel's actions but I do believe that she has a right to exists and thus have a right to be defended. Not that Israel will need any help because as far as I know she is capable of defending herself and of course there is the Divne hand but men are the instrument of God and maybe and just maybe should they need help we will be there. Uriah one David's mighty men was a Hittite and he had a group of personal bodyguards consising of Gittites so using foreign elements has always been a norm.

2005-02-23T22:15:00.000+08:00

Iraq just just had its elections,
Good or bad, legitimate or illegitimate I let those who are more informed judge but I ask just one thing that the Iraqi people be given the benefit of doubt, trust, and choice to choose the person who they think will lead them best. If it is a mad mullah in the style of theocratic Iran so be it. The only thing is that fair and open elections muct be held so even that when people realise to their horror they have made a mistake they are given an opportunity at the end of it to correct it. Dictators only remain in place because there are no free elections and therefore they don't have t be accountable to the people. Even in politically homogenous Singapore which is a virtual dictatorship the very fact that the epople have a choice to vote some one elase if they want to ensures that it is not a dictatorship in the style of Sudan or Syria and its people are actually enjoying better lives in the of economic prosperity access to health and so on. They is accountability. Free elections must be enshrined in the Constitution and it must stated in such a way so that martial law can't be used to remove this freedom ala Pakistan.

2005-02-23T22:07:00.000+08:00

There have been a lot of going ons in the Middle east,
Iraq and Afghanistan gone democratic. Very soon Lebanon will experience the same and there is talk that the mullahs of Iran and the dictators of Syrian will not last much longer. But ladies and gentlemen there is no denying the value of freedom and the power to choose one's own destiny but what I fear is a repeat of the former Soviet states scenario. They got their independence but their economies are busted and there are signs they are going back to their old Soviet leaders or people who emulate them. Going much farther back we can see a precedence in the independence of many African nations. They got independence and after tat it is pretty much down hill. What can we do to prevent this?

2005-02-22T01:24:00.000+08:00

The UN has so much redundant agencies and so inefficient,
We need someone to clean it up. More money is spent on admin than helping it was design to help. Same with humanitarian organisations. Most of them fail to deliver. For example the eradication of polio is 7 years overdue! Now if Toyota is 7 years late in producing a new model it will go under. Many NGo's don't fulfill their purpose and yet they are still getting money. They should be treated like companies if they don't deliver they must be closed and money should go to the ones that are the most efficient and do the most number of good because at the end of the day we have finite resources and man-power and heck billions been poured into Africa and it is still a shit-hole.
So I am nominating Jack Welch to be the head of the UN. First off fire all the redundant staff, streamline the organisation, merge redundant agencies or subcontract the work to other agencies that can do a better job for a lower price, have reports like you would a in company and audits. Where does our money go? Jack Welch we need you.

2005-02-22T01:12:00.000+08:00

I read in the papers that Malaysia will have new procedures,
For entry into medical school. It includes an entry exam and considering extra-curricular activities as part of the points. I predict that it will degenerate into a farce as always. The point is whatever system they use it will be be discriminating against those who truly want to serve and favour those who 'point-hunters' or people whose teachers are willing to falsify their involvement in extra-curricular activities. Thus we have house captains who can hardly do any sports or any skills save doing well in studies. This is a fact of the Malaysian school system.
A better idea and an improvement over one I have earlier is having a pool of students with the top ten percent results and have write a thirty year plan of their careers and practise an market style in the selection. The student with the most attractive 30 year proposal will be selected and must sign a contract base on that 30 proposal. Just like a tender. No one will begrudge the kid with 90 points who is going to serve the rural areas for thirty year getting a place over the kid with 100 whose only passion is status and money.
prospective students will have to count the cost and we will know that there won't be any with some false idea of what entails and in the end we overcome the reluctance of most graduates to go to the rural areas. You can apply the same thing for scholarships and other fields of studies. It is a win-win situation. No one will complain about the system because it inherently favour future Nobel prize winners, saints, and renown humanitarians who are under no illusions the sacrifices they must make and of course the people get served. I am still waiting for a phone call from the Prime Minister.

2005-02-22T01:01:00.000+08:00

Imagine this hypothetical situation OK?
Some guy in the heart of Africa lost his family ala Job. He wishes he was dead and contemplates suicide. Very normal except I was thinking to myself what if this guy was one of the children I gave up everything to immunise so that he would not be another statistic and live old enough to have loved, be loved and fulfill the first command God give man and one that we are all hard-wired to obey. As I progress in this thought I experiment I find that I was very offended by this person and should his attempt succeed I am angry for I would've said to him that did not give up all that he had a chance to enjoy for him to throw his life away in this manner. If I can live without it and countless others why shouldn't he? Instead of he leaving for the sake let us not waste this tragedy and take it as they leaving it so you can pursue the Kingdom of God. Maybe in way now I understand the sarcastic tone of God's answer to Job.
To all married, engaged, and dating couples out there. Remember and sear into your head all this is temporary and so do not develop too deep an attachment for God has every right to take it away at any moment He so chooses. Yes love your wife as God commanded but know also she may be taken and prepare yourself so that you do not commit the sin of leaving God. You can be angry ike Job butk know that He is righteous.

2005-02-18T03:53:00.000+08:00

Sometimes we continue to serve God even when it is hard,
Because we keep on telling ourselves in our head that is it is worth it. Nothing wrong with that but a sermon recently changed my paradigm and have implications on my life. Basically the sermon can be summed in this line ' don't serve God because it is worth it( whether in this life-doesn't happen most of the time- or in the next-that we have been guaranteed,) but because He is worthy.
There is a difference. So even I am imprisoned all my life and die a terrible death because of my service for God, I must continue to do so not because it is worth it but because He IS worthy. Of course God is not that cruel and after all the trash Job went through God made it worth it while but I think another lesson in Job can be no matter what God is still worthy to be served.
In my context, I know for sure that if I was to serve God with all my heart and go into the depths of the jungle to be a vessel of His love I will lose my chance to marry the girl of my dreams( quite literally), give up any chance of having a big family( the life of Livingstone and Carey, clearly demonstrate missions and family don't mix), while others can live my dream and live a life of poverty( not extreme but a tour of Europe would be out of reach). You know what? It is not worth it but He is worthy. Still I am hoping God will be nice and give me a wife that is willing to the field with me( that is all I ask and of course loads of kids), He might make it worth my while but if not who am I to complain for He is worthy.

2005-02-16T19:42:00.000+08:00

Well a hypothetical situation OK,
not so hypothetical because these people exist. X is super good-looking, so good-looking that in fact he models, he is a medical student in fact and also a top student, plays three different instruments very well, have life, visit old folks, orphans, goes to church..in short he has everything in life. Under normal circumstances a lot of people will envy X and instead enjoying their own lives they make miserable by comparing themsleves with X but that is not my point. Neither is the fact people spend their time looking for a chink so they can tear X down. Why do this to a Christians brother.
Friends these are all superficial. We may perceive that X has everything but deep down he is probably as insecure as the rest of us. By the way X's life can be cut short any moment. Look at the Lebanese billionaire and ex-prime minister. He is the top one hundred richest man in the world. He held the highest post in his country adn now he is just a corpse. Unfair maybe, but the fact in a race you don't look around to see others are doing because it will slow you down from your full potential.

2005-02-10T21:17:00.000+08:00

I heard an interesting question the other day,
Someone asked is God's will linear i.e. that is will is we do that one thing and if we don't we are not in His will. I didn't answer that guy but it made me think and I can bravely say no.
When David conducted the census against God's command. God sent the prophet Nathan with a choice of threee punishment for David...three..had he chose either one....it would have been in fulfillment of God's will though they all have different consequences from the others.
This reminded of the fantasy adventure game books my brother used to read like the Lone Wolf Manakai. In it he is given the choices and they all have different consequences and will affect his quest but the choices and effects are determined by the author long before. Likewise I see God in the same position in His infinite wisdom He has mapped out all the choices and consequesnces so in effect He has pre-determined everything like the author..no one else can give input....yet the reader has the choice..so also we the beings with free-will...and the Bible is like the clue book or cheat book that provides the strategy so that you get the best results...not that you won't be scratch but with as much of your life-points and treasure as is possible.

2005-02-10T21:11:00.000+08:00

This is a quick one,
There are many questions as to whether God provided another paths of salvation. I don't think there are any except Jesus but I am sure that before Jesus He has send many to point to Him but except they sort of garbled up the message for Paul has said God did not leave Himself without a witness.
I am inclined to think that Guru Nanak the founder of Sikhism and Muhammad, founder of Islam did hear from God....they were from polytheistic societies and all the sudden they go monotheistic...however due to human nature and pride the message was diluted and polluted and in time to to peer pressure the 'prophet' doesn't speak as God speaks but out of their own heart or from what the masses think. Even Peter was a victim of this when he refuse to eat with the Gentiles. The difference though he repented they did not and the polluted message goes on today.

2005-02-02T23:27:00.000+08:00

It seems that I have more or less finish milking,
My current account of knowledge and experience for ideas and the ideas have been flowing slowly and they have only been elaborations of older ones. My theory of ideas is that inasmuch as we want to make good and informed ideas( any idiot can come up with ideas even good ones but to the extent we want consistency in giving good ideas that will stand the test of time is what I am talking about) we must have knowledge( which we gain by reading, going to lectures, seminars, conferences, reading journals, magazines listen to debates, reading commentaries), and experiences( talking to people, seeing things for yourself, living the life and understanding the culture which will open up new paradigms enabling new ways of thinking). Since coming to Ireland well I have gaining a bit of knowledge though not as much as I like in some of the fields I want to because namely I spend too much time literally waiting for e-mails and lots of experience coming to Ireland but there is only draw as much water as there are in the cistern when it is empty it is time to humble oneself and go own the pilgrimage of seeking again. So I guess I will be blogging less, e-mailing less and spend less time online and focus more on my knowledge and experience base. I will be back. Hopefully soon, fresher, more knowledgeable and wiser.
p.s. I still will blog rubbish from time to time to keep my page.

2005-01-27T18:10:00.000+08:00

Today is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz,
And today we choose to remember the 'Shoah'. We say never again and yet it is happening. we cannot keep our words. Oh, how fickle we are barely a month after the tsunami and it is already out of our consciousness. It is not that we should let us burden forever for death is such a common occurence. Look at the people who died in the train crash in California. They were probably pitying the tsunami victims and did their part little knowing their time came so soon.
We must a seek a balance be conscious but yet at the smae not let it drain the joy of our lives that we may appreciate which we have and they not. All men's life is but a slow march to his grave. Though he may resist and march he must and in he goes waiting to be reawaken or expecting never again. If go we must at least we as a brave. With music, fanfare like a band down the main.

2005-01-26T00:10:00.000+08:00

This guy is a fellow lizard,
But I like his idea about stopping abortion. Here is the blog: http://wyattstorch.blogspot.com/2005/01/maternal-lien-real-world-solution-to.html however I amnot an economist so I can't really analyse the idea. Can someone do it for me and put the answer in my comment box?

2005-01-24T21:38:00.000+08:00

People are really generous,
And I guess this should be the way but you know sometimes I ask why is the motive epople give? Is it to soothe their conscience? Like we all know that throwing money at anything has never sloved the world's problems. They are solved by people going in and doing the job on the ground.
I never really trusted all this impulse giving because you are just setting yourself up to be scammed and I can assure that there are plnty of opportunists out there. Hwy is everyone holding somekind tsunami fund-raiser? The worse would be the organisation of such an even costing more than the amount collected but I guess it happens. Some out of malicious intent, some people just naive.
But before you give this should at the back of your mind http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/ of course you should always get your sources from other places and not just one place but keep in mind that alot of the time alot of the funds don't reach the intended people.

2005-01-24T19:52:00.000+08:00

It is nice blogging again,
Once you get into the habit and overcome the block there is no limit except the closing hours of the computer lab and the start time for my lectures.
You know every year there are literally thousands of gadgets put out for people who have all our senses but what about the blind, the deaf and both?
For years we know that producing Braille books are expensive and heavy because of the need for thick paper. You can't expect blind people lugging all these books. You know all this talk about getting every child in Malaysia a alptop is pipe dream.
Why not instead of such an attainable goal an iPod with spoken word recording of major textbooks for blind children so that getting educated don't have to be so diffcult for them and draining on their parents parts. This is definitely cheaper and more feasible.
We have eBooks why not an eBraillebook? A tablet size thingie that has movable points that up and down to form the Braille letters that make up the page of a book. Since all the information can be recorded as either 1 or 0 you don't need super memory though you might need a bit more power to generate enough current to moce the plastic or rubber points up and down. At least many books can be fitted into one and there is no need to choose between lugging lods of heavies or stay at home. Give the blind a chance to experience the society which schools provide.

2005-01-24T19:29:00.000+08:00

Some people are really funny,
Like really they are funny. ( With no disrespect to the victims of the tsunami)
A tsunami hits a Muslim nation the hardest. The Muslims take as sign and punishment that they were not devout and pious enough. The Christian far-away and is safe from all this loses faith.
I don't know but sometimes I fell all these Christians are like the ones growing among the weed. They couldn't care less about God on any given day and hardly read the Bible but yet are quick to denounce God as powerless when bad things happen.
Here is my stand. God is all-powerful and could have prevented the tsuanmi if He wanted to.
He didn't because in His infinite wisdom if would have been better if it happens. We cannot understand it and the factors that led to that judgement but it is consistent with His nature. That was the crux of God's answer to Job. Have you seen this or that and did you know? Then how can you question what had happened.
I believe in the butterfly effect that the flapping of a butterfly's wing in Africa will lead to a hurricane in America. Like in an earlier post where I put the story of man who spared Adolf Hitler's life to the detriment of millions of others. We can never understand the implications of even the smallest of our actions and reactions. We can only believe God has the best and make the best of a situation and react as Jesus would in giving assistance.
If you think I am a cop-out then so be it.

2005-01-24T18:13:00.000+08:00

A body in motion tends to stay in motion,
A body at rest tends to stay at rest. A blogger who blogs tends to stay blogging and one who don't will leave theirs unattended for months until prodded to do so.
Yeah from now on I will restrain myself from over-long posts that few will have the patience to read through so I will be experimenting with shorter posts that I tried earlier but abandoned.
The following is an article concerning Roe vs. Wade and also gives a nice summary of the case.
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=6364

2005-01-12T03:06:00.000+08:00

It is almost certain that when Spetember 11 happened,
Some Achenese was reaing about it in the news and pitying all who died little did he know that 3 years later on Decmber 26th he would be the object of pity for either he died or lost everything. People die everyday of unnatural deaths...fire, accidents, poisoning,acts of God...and yet they escape our notice save for a short mention in the papers.
This is not to denigrate the suffering of the tsunami victims but it so happened that God allow the Angel Of Death to harvest so many souls at the same time that somehow it moves us to part money, time, effort and prayer but even everyday someone dies of a heart attack..we don't notice or donate anything..but he may leave behind widow, orphans struggling to survive....people are still dying in Sudan and all parts of the world lest we forget..now we must not and even after the tsunami of 2004 is forgotten like the Bangladeshi cyclone of 1991 and other disasters..we must always be acutely aware that this im-perfect world will not find true peace until the Prince of Peace is King and all is His footstool..to imagine that there willl be utopia is naive...after this we must be ready for the next big one..it WILL happen...don't be shocked..though man is expert are forgetting unpleasant memories.

2005-01-11T00:34:00.000+08:00

I am back after a quite long hiatus due to exams and holidays,
A word about the tsunami since everyone has an opinion. In a way the many foreigners were like me, going on a holiday. I went to the UK. Except the UK wasn't swept by a tsunami but I can imagine just like me before their eagerly awaited trip they were telling their friends excitedly about it not knowing that they will meet their doom. It could've have happen to me.
On a tragic note it is quite ironic that I do not know anyone personally who was affected but a church friend from Switzerland knows a friend from home who was missing and presumed dead. She was upset. I don't know but to be found dead would've been much better for at least it gives some closure rather than a nagging feeling that that person might be still alive. Witness the families of Missing In Action troops in Vietnam. They are still clinging to the hope that these soldiers are still alive.

2004-12-17T01:58:00.000+08:00

Hello world I am back and actually I shouldn't be back,
But I am confident enough to spend a bit more time to think and blog. I just finished my Central Nervous System module written exam today. It will have to be the most difficult that is why I am confident enough to live a little easier now that it is over.
So what has life taught me these few days that I was away doing real world stuff...ok exams are more real than just blogging.
Anyway we like to complain whne we suffer. Over here in Ireland I complain about my loneliness...how I have no one to talk to....and how hard it is to find anyone who share my view of the world....let me tell you that I know more pro-Israel fella back home in Malaysia than over here....but then again you don't just go up to a guy and ask about his political preferences and you don't find unless the person is interested enough in it to actually bother to hint it in his conversations...but anyway back to loneliness. It is not a pleasurable experience and it is not one that i want or actively seek but from my lonely outpost I have the time to think and contemplate and do things that my friend sback home with commitments to church, family and friends are not able to do because they are so busy...so while everyone is busy preparing for Christmas I have a Torah sitting next to my bed and browse through in my boredom and yes it is true when God wanted to create man He refered to Himself as "Let US createman in OUR image"...the rabbis believe that it was GOd consulting the angels according to the commentary but as a Christians I see this as a reference to the Triune God...I have this tendency to digress but back to loneliness..so it enables me to many things that other people don't have time to...it is great to be with people but sometimes walking by yourself at night and then looking up to see the stars in a clear sky is one of the most wonderful experience..sure you would wosh to share this with someone but have you haven't been by yourself you would not have had this epiphany that you can share with others.....in conclusion, unpleasurable experiences are not things you seek out but there things to be learnt then or even something to be learnt from it if we are not too busy whining and missing the big picture that is.

2004-12-13T22:21:00.000+08:00

Sorry that I have updated in aquite a while but exams have been heavy,
And of course I found that I had a disastrous MCQ with neurology. Anyway I came across this great story in the LGF. It is by a guy nicknamed geepers. Here is it:
A Christmas story:
I remember my first Christmas party with Grandma. I was just a kid. I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"
My grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her world-famous cinnamon buns.
Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus!" she snorted. "Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad. Now, put on your coat, and let's go."
"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second cinnamon bun.
"Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days. 'Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.
I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping. For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.
I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church. I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobbie Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class.
Bobbie Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out for recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobbie Decker didn't have a cough, and he didn't have a coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobbie Decker a coat.
I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that. "Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the ladybehind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes," I replied shyly. "It's ... for Bobbie." The nice lady smiled at me. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag and wished me a Merry Christmas.
That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat in Christmas paper and ribbons, and write, "To Bobbie, From Santa Claus" on it -- Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobbie Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially one of Santa's helpers.
Grandma parked down the street from Bobbie's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."
I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his doorbell and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma. Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobbie.
Forty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my grandma, in Bobbie Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were: ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.
Well it warmed my heart. Yeah Santa does exist.

2004-12-04T21:16:00.000+08:00

Exams are in five days time but I haven't blogged in a while,
Many ideas are running through my head yet the pressure of exams, the need to study, guilt for not studying enough, depression from not studying, lack of mood to study, and one and hundred one excuses prarlyse me from blogging and in the end no study gets done. IT always happen to me towards the exams: The need to study arises, I head to the on-line notes, I get depress, I don't study instead I waste my time on blogs and surfing the net, nomstudy gets done, guilt arises, even more depression, even less study and so goes the vicious cycle. I am sure many people can realte to this...heck if some one finds the cure to this mental disorder..yes it is one...why? First there is the characteristic self-destructive behaviour, symptoms similar to depression...well some people will call it laziness and slothfulness..so whether mental disorder or slothfulness if someone can find the cure, most people in the class will scoring over 80% and they will have to bring up the standard to separate the first class honours and the second. It is my observation that I am not the only affected by it.
What makes us sad, not emotionally sad but behaviourably? I would say boredom has something to with it. I marvel that some people can sit at the same place everyday and put in countless hours duplicating sections from different books, books of the most viscous prose and in effect like an amanuensis reproducing those books except these books are now incorporated and its material organised into one called the 'Student's Notes'. I for the life in me can't even be bothered to take notes in class let alone 'make notes' in the above-mentioned method....though I would argue that this is not making notes as the material and knowledge to be gleaned is not organised or rewritten in the students own words and thus signal a certain amount of understanding but rather it is copied and memorised wholesale...so I read from the online notes which again are the power-point presentations of the lectures and represent the bare minimum but the problem that it is online and I tempted to check my mail box to see if there is mail, my blog to see if there are comments and the weblog community of which I am part of and read the comments of the news items, and so very little study is done and again I lapse into the vicious cycle.
Another unwanted effect is not only am I paralysed mentally but socially as I start skipping my commitments like Kidz Klub( I am skipping the club as I write this) so as to get more time and to make for that which was lost and yet it is in vain as I again lapse into the same self-destructive pattern. Maybe I should go to the library to study.

2004-11-29T00:36:00.000+08:00

We the responsible citizens of the world,
want to save it. So we indentify the most crucial problems that need to be addressed so we can have maximum effect for the limited resources and manpower we have. It is sanitation, clean water, food security, basic education and literacy, and habitation. Most of the we know the solutions. No toilets? Build them. However this is what we will identify next, the obstacles to the solution which are lack of funds, lack of man-power, corrupt governments9 this problem is two-fold; one the money meant for development are usully siphon off and two the humanitarian agencies are reluctant to work in such countries knowing that the effort will come to naught).
In light of these problems I have always been for the using of local people to improve themsleves. Instead of giving them fish we should teach them to fish. teach them to build simple but proper toilets. In doing so not only you give them knowledge that will be passed on the the next generations and the surroundings villages inhabited by relatives but you also give them know-how for that all-important maintenace work. No point going in to build FOR them 5 star toilets when it will be ruined ina years time. Waste of money and time.
A lot of technology was passed on and learnt. We must research all these basic technologies and disseminate it!

2004-11-24T17:17:00.000+08:00

I have always been a crazy medicant,
Sometimes I can't believe the rubbish I come up with but then again that is what makes my life interesting. So anyway I have been thinking: There are lot of pastors in China that are locked up right? And I have this grand dream of forming penal battalions to provide the labour for toilet-digging, food distribution, logistic support, vaccinations and that sort of thing. I wonder if I brkoker a deal with the Chinese government to get these to staff my penal battalions hopefully they will see it as getting a chance to get rid of troublesome prisoners and not needing to spend money to house them and feed them and for me buying them their crazy freedom I get man-power and lastly get their freedom and if they so choose they can pursue theological studies while working in my penal battalions. Now I guess the government won't see t that way..in fact they will deny that thse kind of prisoners exist..sure they will be dying to get rid of the rapists and murderers but I don't they will let these jokers out..then the whole world will know their despicable deeds. An idea is an idea.

2004-11-24T17:08:00.000+08:00

2004-11-23T05:08:00.000+08:00

Just a few random ideas I have bandying around my head,
I am always for teaching a man to fish instead of giving him a fish but there may be circumstances which are so great that he would not be able to fish for himself for a while such as when he is sick and that is when he needs fish given to him. That is my philosophy regarding the distribution of welfare. Only in the case when he is not able to fend for himself such as old widows or orphans with no closest kin do they become wrad of the state.
In the old days relatives are responsible for the welfare of fellow kin and clansmen but with the dissolution of the extended family this is no longer the case and thus have increase the burden of the state. The state must hold family responsible ofr the welfare of their own kin and only in extraordinary circumstances where they cannot to afford then only then does the state make them wards of the state.
In the case of the wards it may be that reliance will in the end breed dependence and such should not the the goal for it is only noble that all men learn to fish for themselves. Therefore welfare should not be distributed to any persons not making attempts to learn to fish such continuing their education in the case of teenage single-parents though the state should provide leeway in providing creche facilities or ensuring that mothers do not need to relie on caretakers that would take significant amount of resources so as to discourage them from continuing their studies and should the ward be working but yet earn not enough to feed the family. The state should give welfare proportionate to the amount he earns, so as to encourage himself to improve himself, for even in receiving welfare he is forced to improve himself, until the total reaches the threshold of sufficiency which must be adjusted for means, area and inflation. To him that works hard more will be given and thus should be the philosophy of welfare for in the current state one has no reward for working harder for all recieve the same amount of welfare depending on the number of people and should the state worry that with increased amount of capital the ward choose no to wisely invest then other mechanisms of motivation should be introduced, such discounts to buying healthy foods rather than junk or subsidies for such so as to encourage healthy eating that is realted with the increase ability for social mobility.
In this modern age the problem of a welfare system that is a hindrance to hindrance social mobility puts it in the league of the caste system and thus is not case originally envisioned by the founders of what we call welfare today, for they have envisioned one that will not hinder rather one that will be the vehicle to enable all men to claim responisibility and equality.

2004-11-19T18:48:00.000+08:00

Hey people got an interesting story here,
"Consider the story of Henry Tandey, a British infantryman in the Duke of Wellington Regiment in the First World War. On September 28, 1918, Tandey participated in an attack against enemy trenches near the small French town of Marcoing. The British carried the day, and as they advanced, Tandey Cautiously peered into a trench. He saw an enemy soldier, a corporal, lying bleeding on the ground. It would have been easy for Tandey to finish off his enemy, as he had killed many that day; Tandey had played an heroic role in the battle and later was awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest wartime decoration, for his great courage. But he felt it was wrong to shoot an injured man, and he spared the corporal's life.
In 1940, during the Nazi bombardment of Coventry, when Tandey worked as a security guard at the Triumph automobile factory, he gnashed his teeth. "Had I known what that corporal was going to become! God knows how sad I am that I spared him." The corporal was Adolf Hitler. Tandey's human gesture had led to the deaths of millions of people and, in a bitter irony of military destiny, had placed his own life at the mercy of the monster whose life he could have taken."
Everything within the quote is not mine but comes form Michael Ledeen's Machiavelli on Modern Leadership. Interesting story no? Just sort of help me understand that our finite minds cnoot comprehend the repercussions of our seemingly good motives and why the Israelites have to do what they had to do in Canaan.

2004-11-19T18:35:00.000+08:00

Here is the round up of some of the news,
That I read in the Star. 17 year-old burn victim loses fight to stay alive, snatch theft victim in coma dies after baby delivered by C-section, old man dies crossing the street. Indeed we are but grass in the field. Looked through the prism of eternity living a thousand years is nothing but through our finite relativity it is such tragedy these people die. They could have just celebrated the birth of a grandchild, just gotten married. When they were young they could have looked forward and imagined living to a hundred and planeed their lives. There was so much potential. They would have had many moments happy and but never had they wanted their lives to come to an end and never in their wildest dreams had they thought it would come to this. Indeed we are but flowers in a field.
We plan, we dream, we hope and look to a future not quite ours but seemed so sure to become our pasts. We go through the cycles of life as all before us childhood, school and all its drama, our jobs and the material comfort it brings, love and children that is its rewards and everyone does it and is expected to a certain to do it but then tragedy strikes and all comes to naught. I was reading Ezekial and God was saying the troubles would be so bad that it was better that you were dead. Sad as we are over these tragedy cold comfort that they will never see the troubles those thatlive will see but happier still he is that knows the Lord his salvation assured and not balanced before the Throne of God.

2004-11-18T19:07:00.000+08:00

Well the World Toilet Summit just ended in Beijing,
Lots of talk about improving public toilets but hwat really caught my attention is the fact that more than 1 billion people don't have anything other than a hole in the ground or the nearby river. Not that these are bad but given the amount of people alive today, you are almost certainly talking about a cholera powder keg waiting to explode. Millions of kids die of diarrhoea every year and the cause unclean water due to the lack of sanitation. Clean water and samitation is intimately liked though both are considered seprate basic needs yet billions are with.
So this is the problem. Now these are the parameters. A lot of the times people go in build great toilets and they degenerate because there is no maintenance, so there must a low-maintenece design. Second parameter cost. Like if people will spend billions to build a stupid tower butnot millions to fund people like Li Yit to design somekind of cheap low-maintence toilets what are the chances they wil fund its building. Thrid parameter focus. We always want to do everything but I guess we will more efficient if we are focus on one purpose.
So now here are the solutions. We start funding research to people like to Li Yit to design cheap but durable and easily maintained toilets and set up a focused organisation to the name of the United Toilet-Diggers of Malaysia to build these toilets on the cheap. And of course it will be under the umbrella organisation of the FDL.

2004-11-15T00:15:00.000+08:00

Just a short one about prayer,
Of many years now I thought it was wrong to ask God for things because it should never be about things but now I realised it is OK to share with God what you want...Jesus did that too...He prayed for the cup to be taken away..but in the end submitted to the will of the Father...I guess God wants us to pray eventhough He knows what we want because He wants us to talk to him...just like I would everyone to talk to me everyday...especially if it is a person I especially care for..same with God and even better He loves us more than we can ever imagine and err..like the unrequitted lover waiting at the phone....so pray don't be ashamed to ask God for a Ferrarri if that is in your heart..mine is an Alvis Scarab....babies say stupid nonsense to their dads all the time and yet dads are so full of love...it is like I see all these new dads going all koochikoochigaga when their babies make some kind of noise remotely close to normal human speech....they sound ridiculous but you cannot deny the love...pray for what ever you want and don't feel bad....God just want to hear your voice....but don't expect everything to be answered though.

2004-11-14T23:05:00.000+08:00

I was walking to church this morning,
And I saw a plane flying overhead. It was one of those rare clear blue mornings. The sight brought a thought to my mind. I thought to myslef I could be any where looking at this sight. No matter where you are somesights are the same. I was thinking about the people that the plane was taking its passengers from or to. It works both ways.
Probably when I am flying home some guy on ground will look up see the plane and hopefully not shoot it down and think the things I have thought and wondering who are the people onboard and who they will be seeing.
I also thought about airports and 99% of the people there are just there for a while. The only permanent staff are the janitors and the people at the duty-free shops and for the rest the airport is merely temporary stop. Kind of like life on earth. The temporal and transient and ephemeral. life on this earth is merely an inconvenience before we reach the next but we must live it and also die before we can reach our perfect destination.

2004-11-14T22:25:00.000+08:00

Wow I haven't been blogging in a while,
But then again my exams are in less than four weeks time so I have to study.
Someone recently asked me if there are any reasons I support Bush other than because of the abortion issue. Well I have and this is because I am unlike most people who oppose Bush because I have more than one reason but I don't have all the time in the world and of course my major is medicine and not politics so I couldn't expound all of them but I will give you a summary.
One, Bush is a friend of Israel. Malaysian media is biased and that is why you will never hear the full story but if you go online or even read the Bible you will realise that the and belong to the Jews. The Palestinians were suppose to stop the suicide bombings once the Israelis move out of Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinians have no excuse because all except Hizbollah is under PLO which is the umbrella body and if the Palestinians really plan to stop the suicide bombers they can because they have the intelligence. So they did not honour their side of thier deal and still expect Israel to treat them nicely. Arabs can live in Israel in peace but look at the settlers in Gaza and the West Bank....continually under threat this is why Israel have no choice but to send in tanks to protect them. Even when Israel want to pull out of Gaza they launch suicide attacks to make it look like a retreat eventhough this make Israelis unsupportive of the plan. Bush pushed the bias Roadmap to peace aside and say that he will not expect Israel to give further concessions until the Palestinians regconise the right of Israel to exist and stop the attacks. I saw this today....The Palestinians claim Jerusalem is theirs but it is they are the last to conquer it but that would mean the rest of the land belong to Israel because they were the last to conquer...if the land goes to the people who originally settle in the area..we can only conclude the Israelites because the rest of the peoples are gone and Arabs only came to that place after the Jews were driven out...
Secondly Bush is a free-trader. While Kerry to penalise companies for out-sourcing. Out-sourcing means sending jobs to places where there are cheaper labour. Now if this happens place like China and India will collapse even Malaysia because there is so much direct foreign investment coming because of out-sourcing. With Kerry he is going to penalise them until it is cheaper to keep the jobs in the US. Now this not only bad for us but the US because this is very unproductive and with Americans they must be paid American wages. People will have jobs but the won'y be abble to afford anything because well everything is so expensive.
Thirdly, Bush is willing to finish the job no dare to undertake, he is willing to fight the Islamic fundamentalist. Do you think for a moment if we left them alone they will leave us alone? September 11th happened eventhough the Americans did for the Palestinians what three pan-Arab invasions couldn't do: secure land for the Palestinian state and yet they were attcked. It was then that Bush took a hardline against them before that the Americans were happy to live as they were. Now even if the Jews were removed from Israel( something that will not happen), do you think the fundamentalist won't pull out all the stops and try to reestablish their caliphate. You read it even in Berita Harian all this talk about returning to glory days.
Fourth Bush do things. For two decades the South Sudan was persecuted and guess who are the people who forced the Notherners to the peace table. Bush launched a 15 billion dollar anti-Aids initiative in Africa something that Clinton never did. Clinton pulled out of Somalia condenming it to 10 more years of civil war. Recently Somalia elected an interim president the first leader in more than 13 years and it wasn't Malaysians who made this happen but the US! Hey Afghanistan had its first elections and girls are now going to school, the reason you don't hear anymore news coming from Afghanistan is because the US intervention is working now this is something that 10 years of OIC mediation never achieved.
Bush is not perfect and there are thing that I would like him to do better but he is better than what Kerry has to offer and don't give me that peace thing( Keery voted for the Iraq war for heaven's sake) and of course much better than anyone in Malaysia...by the way I don't rate Malaysians as very intelligent people or very informed except for Yew Kong and Li Yit..the rest are just people good at memorising books...OK this is bias but you get my drift and of course there are othe smart people.

2004-11-06T00:18:00.000+08:00

Sudan,
Here you go another forgotten place in the world these past few weeks. People are still dying and in need of medical help, they still lack clean water and proper sanitation.
And when the war is over people will still need help to get their lives in order again. There is so mcuh to do...I am depress...all I am doing now and can do is reading about drugs that affect the CNS...sigh.

2004-11-06T00:09:00.000+08:00

I got this question a while back,
It was meant to be joke but I think it merit serious thought. The question was how would you solve the food crisis in Africa of something to that effect.
Well for onething we can start by slowly weaning First World farmers from their subsidies. African farmers can't export their produce and plow the extra money they could have earn into improving their productivity, their lives, and building up a reserve in case of famine because they can't compete with goods that are not cheaper but are made so because of subsidies. A note to First World nations: instead of sending aid, most of which goes into the pockets of the oligarchs or use as tools of manipulation, reduce the subsidies. The less subsidies the less aid needed to be sent.
At the same time knowledge is power and the most effective tools. Send experts to help farmers increase productivity or jumpstart their agricultural research cantres. In effect teach them to fish, fish better and find ways to learn to fish better.
Both must work together he who helps and those who are helped and both must be willing to achieve the collective goal.

2004-11-05T23:58:00.000+08:00

Haiti,
I can't believe it is more than three weeks since the floods brought about by hurricanes. While Florida in the US was also affected but they have more or less got back to living their normal lives and of course they suffered less casualties. It sucks being poor.
In that time there is the US elections, Iraq war and so on and Haiti is all but forgotten. Even if we remember what is there to do.
People have lost their homes, their crops, their assets to survive adn be independent and their families. we cannot be feeding them forever but we must them fish again by giving new rods and nets or at least material to make new rods and nets. It is easy to talk but so hard to get it done. I can only pray now but pray for what? For God to send workers and am I not one of them..I am depress.

2004-11-05T23:35:00.001+08:00

MSF just pulled out of Iraq,
I don't know but I never like pulling out when people need you the most. They have a valid reason though, their security was increasingly compromised.
That is why I believe the Failure defense League have a niche to fill but to fill this niche we will have to be more aggressive and this why we can't have married members at least in the military and suicide mission wing.
I was wondering why can't they set up shop in tribal chiefs house or something. Nothug will dare risk wrath of a tribe by attcking it and why can't they use tribesmen as their bosyguard. Sure there is always that lelment of treachery but I don't I believe anything is better than leaving and leaving people to their fate.