[People of Singapore]
(31 Dec) The Red Cross Society had received total donations of $4 million in cash and cheques.
The Singapore Heart Foundation (SHF), which successfully raised $2.2 million through its "Affairs of the Heart" charity show on Dec 26, now aims to raise more money for the tsunami victims with a repeat telecast of the show on Jan 1.
[Akira]
(31 Dec) Electronics and home appliance company, Akira, is donating about $300,000 worth of items, including 1,000 portable generators and 5,000 emergency lamps, to help rescue efforts in Sri Lanka.
[Eu Yan Sang]
(31 Dec) Chinese medicine company, Eu Yan Sang, is donating 24,000 large bottles of drinking water and 1,500 boxes of chicken essence to aid victims and rescuers through Mercy Relief
[StarHub]
(31 Dec) StarHub is donating $200,000 to help buy water purification tablets, surgical and sanitation supplies. Half of the money will be used to help Indonesian tsunami victims.
[Telcom United]
(31 Dec) Local telecommunications company Telcom United is providing $50,000 worth of IDD talk time for foreign workers to call home to Aceh, Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.
[ComfortDelgro]
(31 Dec) Besides raising $50,000, taxi drivers and staff at ComfortDelGro Group yesterday helped deliver more than 300 boxes of food, clothing and medical supplies to various collection centres.
[US Government]
(31 Dec) US$35 million after UN officer Jan Egeland criticized western countries for being 'stingy'. The US quickly took that to mean them & promptly went into offensive by adding $20 mil to their original miserly US$15 million.
(1 Jan) When it was known that small Netherland (with 5% of US population) contributed $34 mil, the US increased theirs to $350 mil to avoid further embarassment. The Dutch was probably careful not to 'out-do' the US by crossing the $35 mil mark.
Contributions from round the world (as of 31 Dec):
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/124964/1/.html
Death toll (as of 31 Dec) :
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/124988/1/.html
Lie detector results:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1382457,00.html
(one of the reasons why you have to be careful with what governments say)
Friday, December 31, 2004
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Help For Tsunami Victims
Hi all,
Here are the various pleas & efforts various people had forwarded to me the last hour. If you wish to help in collection or need us to collect from your place kindly include your contact details as comments to this blog, or contact me at 65-9731-6795.
1. Morgan FC member Stanley said:
Kavin & I will provide logistics to pick up as much as we can in our cars, you're invited to join us and help collect from those near your location, if you're free tonight.
2. E-mail from my ex-NUS mate Chi Keung:
Hi,
If you feel that you can do something to help the Tsunami victims, read on. If you are donating items required, I can help to transport the items to the collection point. I heard that Ananda Travel is one of the collection point, but I can't find any info on that.
Donations in Kind
They need:
1. Tents
2. Food (Pre-cooked or ready-to-eat meal packs)
3. Water Purification Tablets
4. Wheat Flour, rice, other staples
5. Drugs: Paracetamol, anti-biotics, wound dressing, suture material,disposable syringes, vitamins, and vaccinations for diarrhea, cholera andmalaria.
6. Intravenous infusions (saline and dextrose)
7. Portable generators
8. Clothes and blankets (sort into boxes or piles within box according toadult male, female, and children, infant). Please only include appropriateclothing. Nothing sleeveless, no impractical cast-offs as well (e.g.evening gowns, fur-lined jackets are not appropriate!)
What to do:
1. Pack the items into boxes clearly labeled FOOD, CLOTHES, BLANKETS,MEDICAL supplies etc.
2. Tell your friends to send items to COLLECTION POINTS (CP) listed below.
Sri Lanka High Commission
13th Floor Goldhill Plaza
Phone: 62544595 (Mr Ranjit)
***The items to be sent during 8.30am-7pm. They will open for at least ONEMONTH.
Sri Lanka Air
133 Cecil Street #13-02
Phone: 62236026 (Shyla from Sales Dept)
*** They are stopping collection by Thursday, and now only want FOOD &Medicine now.
Tisarana Buddhist Association
(has Welfare Service in Sri Lanka providingfree ambulance among other things, and a vocational center)
[Prefer clothes,blankets, tent, medicinal supplies].
90 Duku Road
Phone: 63456741 (Temple), 97884486 (Christopher Lim)
*** The items to be sent during 9.30am-6pm. Please send down within ONEWEEK, for they are sending out a container as soon as it fills.
Ananda Travel Agencies
Many locations, so more convenient. Also, since this is going to more than one country, may be better.
***Please do so by THIS SUNDAY.
Important! Pls CALL before going down to make sure they are open.
NTUC Fairprice
Supermarket retailer NTUC FairPrice invites all shoppers to chip in by buying S$10 food relief packagesto help tsunami victims in the region. These packages will be air flown by partner airline Cathay Pacific to Colombo later in the week. As of January 1, shoppers can also purchase food relief packages that will be sent to Aceh. Shoppers can also donate cash in donation tins placed at all NTUC outlets .
Donations in Cash
1. Customers of DBS Singapore can make their contribution via Internet Banking or DBS/POSB ATM
2. You can also write a cheque to Singapore Red Cross Society, 15 PenangLane, Singapore 2384863.
Please indicate 'Tidal Waves Asia' behind the cheque and include yourname, address and telephone number. The Singapore Red Cross Society will send you a receipt.
4. Donors can also go to the Singapore Red Cross Society to make adonation personally at the above address (from 9.30am to 5.45 pm onweekdays and 9.30 am to noon on Saturday)
More on http://www.channelnewsasia.com/killerwaves/donations.htm#sg
Pass the Message The POINT is to do something. Every little effort counts towards something. Start a positive chain of events, in addition to what the big govt organizations & NGOs are doing. The world is weeping, and we have the responsibility to lessen that suffering.
Here are the various pleas & efforts various people had forwarded to me the last hour. If you wish to help in collection or need us to collect from your place kindly include your contact details as comments to this blog, or contact me at 65-9731-6795.
1. Morgan FC member Stanley said:
Kavin & I will provide logistics to pick up as much as we can in our cars, you're invited to join us and help collect from those near your location, if you're free tonight.
2. E-mail from my ex-NUS mate Chi Keung:
Hi,
If you feel that you can do something to help the Tsunami victims, read on. If you are donating items required, I can help to transport the items to the collection point. I heard that Ananda Travel is one of the collection point, but I can't find any info on that.
Donations in Kind
They need:
1. Tents
2. Food (Pre-cooked or ready-to-eat meal packs)
3. Water Purification Tablets
4. Wheat Flour, rice, other staples
5. Drugs: Paracetamol, anti-biotics, wound dressing, suture material,disposable syringes, vitamins, and vaccinations for diarrhea, cholera andmalaria.
6. Intravenous infusions (saline and dextrose)
7. Portable generators
8. Clothes and blankets (sort into boxes or piles within box according toadult male, female, and children, infant). Please only include appropriateclothing. Nothing sleeveless, no impractical cast-offs as well (e.g.evening gowns, fur-lined jackets are not appropriate!)
What to do:
1. Pack the items into boxes clearly labeled FOOD, CLOTHES, BLANKETS,MEDICAL supplies etc.
2. Tell your friends to send items to COLLECTION POINTS (CP) listed below.
Sri Lanka High Commission
13th Floor Goldhill Plaza
Phone: 62544595 (Mr Ranjit)
***The items to be sent during 8.30am-7pm. They will open for at least ONEMONTH.
Sri Lanka Air
133 Cecil Street #13-02
Phone: 62236026 (Shyla from Sales Dept)
*** They are stopping collection by Thursday, and now only want FOOD &Medicine now.
Tisarana Buddhist Association
(has Welfare Service in Sri Lanka providingfree ambulance among other things, and a vocational center)
[Prefer clothes,blankets, tent, medicinal supplies].
90 Duku Road
Phone: 63456741 (Temple), 97884486 (Christopher Lim)
*** The items to be sent during 9.30am-6pm. Please send down within ONEWEEK, for they are sending out a container as soon as it fills.
Ananda Travel Agencies
Many locations, so more convenient. Also, since this is going to more than one country, may be better.
***Please do so by THIS SUNDAY.
Important! Pls CALL before going down to make sure they are open.
NTUC Fairprice
Supermarket retailer NTUC FairPrice invites all shoppers to chip in by buying S$10 food relief packagesto help tsunami victims in the region. These packages will be air flown by partner airline Cathay Pacific to Colombo later in the week. As of January 1, shoppers can also purchase food relief packages that will be sent to Aceh. Shoppers can also donate cash in donation tins placed at all NTUC outlets .
Donations in Cash
1. Customers of DBS Singapore can make their contribution via Internet Banking or DBS/POSB ATM
2. You can also write a cheque to Singapore Red Cross Society, 15 PenangLane, Singapore 2384863.
Please indicate 'Tidal Waves Asia' behind the cheque and include yourname, address and telephone number. The Singapore Red Cross Society will send you a receipt.
4. Donors can also go to the Singapore Red Cross Society to make adonation personally at the above address (from 9.30am to 5.45 pm onweekdays and 9.30 am to noon on Saturday)
More on http://www.channelnewsasia.com/killerwaves/donations.htm#sg
Pass the Message The POINT is to do something. Every little effort counts towards something. Start a positive chain of events, in addition to what the big govt organizations & NGOs are doing. The world is weeping, and we have the responsibility to lessen that suffering.
How I got Enblogged
This blog was created at the behest of my friend Christopher Lim without whose instigation I would not have bothered.
All postings before this are post-dated items from my writings before the start of this blog.
xxx
Chris said:
CCK, you can reach a wider audience by starting your own BLOG.
Go to this site to start your blog: http://www.blogger.com/start
Some examples of Malaysian blog can be found here:http://www.mycen.com.my/search/blog.html
All postings before this are post-dated items from my writings before the start of this blog.
xxx
Chris said:
CCK, you can reach a wider audience by starting your own BLOG.
Go to this site to start your blog: http://www.blogger.com/start
Some examples of Malaysian blog can be found here:http://www.mycen.com.my/search/blog.html
Reflections of Disaster
The happenings of the last few days are worth us spending some time to ponder and try to put things in perspective. If not anything else, some of us see them as lessons for and on humanity. A bit more comparison between the 2 phenomena in my previous mail below would hopefully be enlightening especially for those who a few years back thought that people warning them of the pending American, British and Australian designs to rob Iraq/Afghanistan were mere conspiracy theorists.
http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2004/12/mobile-disaster-in-perspective.html
Like the African story on the ‘Hour of the Idiots’, it always come a time when idiots, no matter how much they try to avoid it, will have to face the truth. We should and must do that for we owe it not only to those before us who had helped build a better place for us but to those after us who can justifiably expect us to leave it no less than we found it. The 2 things we all should strive to leave behind in a state no worse off than we have are the environment and human ignorance. The latter is included only because of human’s capacity for supreme greed, arrogance and destruction that only awareness (the ‘other side’ of ignorance) can ameliorate. So here’s for the fools in us to think about.
Shock & Awe – Embedded Differently
When one event happened, early TV pictures showed the massive power of tidal waves sweeping everything aside or flinging people and things against anything firm enough to stand its ground. We watched in shock but strangely we felt no anger but renewed respect for the great powers of Nature. Later pictures of people crying and dead bodies strewn all over tugged on the sinews of our hearts and only the most insensitive ones can hold back those tears and shared sense of grieve for our fellow humans. In this event, there was nothing to hide, nothing can or need be hidden. As Nature made clear who is boss few dared to question.
When the other event happened, we were fed pictures provided by so-called embedded reporters who showed us awesome American & British firepower in what they arrogantly named Operation Shock & Awe, but none of the actual destruction to properties and lives they can only be intended for. They made not attempt to hide the fact that non-embedded reporters like those from Al Jazeera are taken care of surgically. Thus many of the less foolish among us had to rely on our powers of imagination to visualise the destruction and sufferings surrounding the deaths of the hundred of thousands of Iraqis. But instead of the shock & awe those Bush-like idiots intended, we had only anger and disgust for these people. Now we are told that those that dare to stand their ground against these idiots are mere terrorists.
Intelligence of Men of Science versus Men of War/Deceit
When one event happened, programs were shown explaining the workings of Nature, the tectonic plates behind the quakes & waves, and how only in June 2004, seismologists were warning governments in the region of the impending calamities that only the last few hundred years or so of modern science and our recognition of the powers of the logical and rational mind could have produced. Despite the lack of action by the governments involved to the warnings from the scientists, we felt enlightened and grateful for the work and intelligence of such men, and saw a chance that humanity can perhaps better survive such future disasters through the help of technology.
In the other event, despite years of ‘preparing world opinion’ the reasons for war were so lame that the whole non-Anglo-Saxon and non-Christian world, and America’s own weapons inspectors went against them. But they went ahead anyway, and pictures of great fireworks and demonstration of American/British technology were explained with much fanfare (as if it was some game show) by men in fatigue whose profession revolved around the art of war. Many governments went along with it. Some did it so quietly it was like walking around with their own face covered in self-conscious shame. Others supported loudly and with enthusiasm - like the Australians, a living proof of the theories of genetic inheritance (from the loud mouth hooligans that their criminal forefathers were). Despite that, millions of informed people around the globe went up ‘in arms’ in our little way and through the Internet and other un-embeddable media made sure that these liars do not get off scot-free. When the force of scrutiny and the world’s conscience were brought to bear on the Bush-like idiots, the excuse to kill & rob so many fellow humans was embedded lamely on faulty intelligence of men whose profession is the art of deception and deceit.
Mother of It All
One event created tidal waves of such magnitude that people had never seen anything like it before. An Indian man quoted by Los Angeles Times described what he heard and saw before his eyes as ‘they came like possessed beasts’.
The other event had the Americans proudly deploying a new bomb they created for Afghanistan & called ‘the mother of all bombs’ and promptly showed us the beast that possessed them.
Taunts & Contributions All Round
For one event, no government in the world had qualms extending their aid & help to the affected countries. But we do not see at its forefront the ‘greatest’ nation in the world. Without prodding, people from all walks of life instinctively came together to contribute in whatever way they could thus making the work of local governments and people from aid organizations like the Red Cross/Crescent just a little bit easier. Enemies left their animosities aside to help those in need as did Pakistan and India, and the Indonesian military and Aceh rebels. Few men will walk out of this event as lesser beings.
In the other event, the Bush-like idiots proudly pronounced that the world needed leadership against global terror that only it can provide but had to cajole, bribe and threaten others into joining them. They even used taunts like ‘you are either with us or you are against us’ and ‘those not in belong to the old world’. To rally their fellow idiots they even revived the millennia old idea of a crusade so entrancing to such idiots. If they had the gall to ask common folks on the ground in many parts of the world for contributions, they will likely get an earful. Many walked into this event as men and will walk out unable to exorcise the devil that will forever haunt them.
http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2004/12/mobile-disaster-in-perspective.html
Like the African story on the ‘Hour of the Idiots’, it always come a time when idiots, no matter how much they try to avoid it, will have to face the truth. We should and must do that for we owe it not only to those before us who had helped build a better place for us but to those after us who can justifiably expect us to leave it no less than we found it. The 2 things we all should strive to leave behind in a state no worse off than we have are the environment and human ignorance. The latter is included only because of human’s capacity for supreme greed, arrogance and destruction that only awareness (the ‘other side’ of ignorance) can ameliorate. So here’s for the fools in us to think about.
Shock & Awe – Embedded Differently
When one event happened, early TV pictures showed the massive power of tidal waves sweeping everything aside or flinging people and things against anything firm enough to stand its ground. We watched in shock but strangely we felt no anger but renewed respect for the great powers of Nature. Later pictures of people crying and dead bodies strewn all over tugged on the sinews of our hearts and only the most insensitive ones can hold back those tears and shared sense of grieve for our fellow humans. In this event, there was nothing to hide, nothing can or need be hidden. As Nature made clear who is boss few dared to question.
When the other event happened, we were fed pictures provided by so-called embedded reporters who showed us awesome American & British firepower in what they arrogantly named Operation Shock & Awe, but none of the actual destruction to properties and lives they can only be intended for. They made not attempt to hide the fact that non-embedded reporters like those from Al Jazeera are taken care of surgically. Thus many of the less foolish among us had to rely on our powers of imagination to visualise the destruction and sufferings surrounding the deaths of the hundred of thousands of Iraqis. But instead of the shock & awe those Bush-like idiots intended, we had only anger and disgust for these people. Now we are told that those that dare to stand their ground against these idiots are mere terrorists.
Intelligence of Men of Science versus Men of War/Deceit
When one event happened, programs were shown explaining the workings of Nature, the tectonic plates behind the quakes & waves, and how only in June 2004, seismologists were warning governments in the region of the impending calamities that only the last few hundred years or so of modern science and our recognition of the powers of the logical and rational mind could have produced. Despite the lack of action by the governments involved to the warnings from the scientists, we felt enlightened and grateful for the work and intelligence of such men, and saw a chance that humanity can perhaps better survive such future disasters through the help of technology.
In the other event, despite years of ‘preparing world opinion’ the reasons for war were so lame that the whole non-Anglo-Saxon and non-Christian world, and America’s own weapons inspectors went against them. But they went ahead anyway, and pictures of great fireworks and demonstration of American/British technology were explained with much fanfare (as if it was some game show) by men in fatigue whose profession revolved around the art of war. Many governments went along with it. Some did it so quietly it was like walking around with their own face covered in self-conscious shame. Others supported loudly and with enthusiasm - like the Australians, a living proof of the theories of genetic inheritance (from the loud mouth hooligans that their criminal forefathers were). Despite that, millions of informed people around the globe went up ‘in arms’ in our little way and through the Internet and other un-embeddable media made sure that these liars do not get off scot-free. When the force of scrutiny and the world’s conscience were brought to bear on the Bush-like idiots, the excuse to kill & rob so many fellow humans was embedded lamely on faulty intelligence of men whose profession is the art of deception and deceit.
Mother of It All
One event created tidal waves of such magnitude that people had never seen anything like it before. An Indian man quoted by Los Angeles Times described what he heard and saw before his eyes as ‘they came like possessed beasts’.
The other event had the Americans proudly deploying a new bomb they created for Afghanistan & called ‘the mother of all bombs’ and promptly showed us the beast that possessed them.
Taunts & Contributions All Round
For one event, no government in the world had qualms extending their aid & help to the affected countries. But we do not see at its forefront the ‘greatest’ nation in the world. Without prodding, people from all walks of life instinctively came together to contribute in whatever way they could thus making the work of local governments and people from aid organizations like the Red Cross/Crescent just a little bit easier. Enemies left their animosities aside to help those in need as did Pakistan and India, and the Indonesian military and Aceh rebels. Few men will walk out of this event as lesser beings.
In the other event, the Bush-like idiots proudly pronounced that the world needed leadership against global terror that only it can provide but had to cajole, bribe and threaten others into joining them. They even used taunts like ‘you are either with us or you are against us’ and ‘those not in belong to the old world’. To rally their fellow idiots they even revived the millennia old idea of a crusade so entrancing to such idiots. If they had the gall to ask common folks on the ground in many parts of the world for contributions, they will likely get an earful. Many walked into this event as men and will walk out unable to exorcise the devil that will forever haunt them.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Mobile Disaster in Perspective
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4126971.stm
25 December was supposedly the 'day of birth' of the Indo-Persian Sun-God Mithra (at least as celebrated in that area) for more than 1,000 years before it was ‘co-opted’ less than 2,000 years ago as Christmas day by the then 'new' Roman Church for their ‘new’ idol. Of course their current ‘fans’ are usually unaware of that and call Mithra’s worshippers derogatorily as ‘pagans’. In historic term, it was just a ‘new dog old trick’ thing.
This year, a few hours after that day, a massive quake the size of 9 on the Richter scale caused massive destruction & death around the Bay of Bengal.
US President George W Bush (my favorite 21st century idiot) offered aid to affected nations and expressed sorrow for the "terrible loss of life and suffering". To see if he is really sincere, I’ll like to see if Haliburton rushes to help ‘re-construct’ the affected places. If 10,000 dead is a ‘terrible loss of life & suffering’ to even a Bush-like idiot, we can imagine what they think of themselves once we make the following comparison:
Death toll from the biggest quake in the last 40 years: upwards of 10,000
Death toll in Iraq involving the most 'powerful' nation in the last 40 years: upwards of 200,000 (from the last 2 ‘outings’).
Any difficulty seeing why those Bush-like idiots are so arrogant? They think they can out-whack Nature and thus deserve a place almost on par with the Gods. Perhaps they accept to be a tad lower only because they compare their actions to that in the story of 'Nolah'.
http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_cckplanetblog_archive.html
To me they are all disasters of Nature except that some of them walk on legs and are mobile disaster generating machines. What great 'creations' those Bush-like idiots!
25 December was supposedly the 'day of birth' of the Indo-Persian Sun-God Mithra (at least as celebrated in that area) for more than 1,000 years before it was ‘co-opted’ less than 2,000 years ago as Christmas day by the then 'new' Roman Church for their ‘new’ idol. Of course their current ‘fans’ are usually unaware of that and call Mithra’s worshippers derogatorily as ‘pagans’. In historic term, it was just a ‘new dog old trick’ thing.
This year, a few hours after that day, a massive quake the size of 9 on the Richter scale caused massive destruction & death around the Bay of Bengal.
US President George W Bush (my favorite 21st century idiot) offered aid to affected nations and expressed sorrow for the "terrible loss of life and suffering". To see if he is really sincere, I’ll like to see if Haliburton rushes to help ‘re-construct’ the affected places. If 10,000 dead is a ‘terrible loss of life & suffering’ to even a Bush-like idiot, we can imagine what they think of themselves once we make the following comparison:
Death toll from the biggest quake in the last 40 years: upwards of 10,000
Death toll in Iraq involving the most 'powerful' nation in the last 40 years: upwards of 200,000 (from the last 2 ‘outings’).
Any difficulty seeing why those Bush-like idiots are so arrogant? They think they can out-whack Nature and thus deserve a place almost on par with the Gods. Perhaps they accept to be a tad lower only because they compare their actions to that in the story of 'Nolah'.
http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_cckplanetblog_archive.html
To me they are all disasters of Nature except that some of them walk on legs and are mobile disaster generating machines. What great 'creations' those Bush-like idiots!
Monday, December 27, 2004
Jingle Bells
I received a mail from a site asking people to 'turn on their creative juices' and create/submit their own Christmas jingles. I did not submit the below to the site as it required another round of registration.
This is in Hanyu Pin Yin & to be sung to the tune of ‘Jingle Bells'.
Note: in Mandarin Christmas is known as 'Sheng Dan' which also sounds like 'laying eggs'.
(chorus)
Wo sheng dan, ni sheng dan
Wo men lai sheng dan
Ni yi li, wo yi li, da jia sheng ji li
Ren ni bu yao sheng, fan er yao sheng dan
Ni shuo hao xiao bu hao xiao?
Tong, tong yao sheng dan…
Hey! (chorus again)
This is in Hanyu Pin Yin & to be sung to the tune of ‘Jingle Bells'.
Note: in Mandarin Christmas is known as 'Sheng Dan' which also sounds like 'laying eggs'.
(chorus)
Wo sheng dan, ni sheng dan
Wo men lai sheng dan
Ni yi li, wo yi li, da jia sheng ji li
Ren ni bu yao sheng, fan er yao sheng dan
Ni shuo hao xiao bu hao xiao?
Tong, tong yao sheng dan…
Hey! (chorus again)
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Amazing!
Hi,
(The mail below is) Amazing! Before anyone thinks there's anything special with number 6, try the same with numbers 3, 8, or 9, or if with your left hand/leg. The morale of this is.... may be the below may help.
Happy Dong Zhi, Happy Diwali, Happy Saturnalia, Happy Novo Hel, Happy Yule, Happy Christmas. They all sound so different but you know what's common among them and which event is merely a 'hitch hiker'?
While you ponder, I will be short & simple: happy winter solstice to all.
As if it matters to people like me who stays near the Equator. But what the heck…
This is a series of quiz questions I gave my young nieces a week ago:
1. Why is polar bear white? I got the answer straight away.
2. Why is arctic fox white? Another fast reply
3. Why is Santa white? They kept quiet.
That’s the logical mind at work. Of course, that’s until some adult fools start mucking around with them in the name of ‘teachings’.
Rgds
CCK
xxx
Dear Friends
Wishing you a wonderful Holiday Seasons and Blessed Chistmas.
Right Brain vs. Left Brain
While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction and there's nothing you can do about it. This WILL drive you crazy. Enjoy!
Warmest regards,
Christopher Leong
(The mail below is) Amazing! Before anyone thinks there's anything special with number 6, try the same with numbers 3, 8, or 9, or if with your left hand/leg. The morale of this is.... may be the below may help.
Happy Dong Zhi, Happy Diwali, Happy Saturnalia, Happy Novo Hel, Happy Yule, Happy Christmas. They all sound so different but you know what's common among them and which event is merely a 'hitch hiker'?
While you ponder, I will be short & simple: happy winter solstice to all.
As if it matters to people like me who stays near the Equator. But what the heck…
This is a series of quiz questions I gave my young nieces a week ago:
1. Why is polar bear white? I got the answer straight away.
2. Why is arctic fox white? Another fast reply
3. Why is Santa white? They kept quiet.
That’s the logical mind at work. Of course, that’s until some adult fools start mucking around with them in the name of ‘teachings’.
Rgds
CCK
xxx
Dear Friends
Wishing you a wonderful Holiday Seasons and Blessed Chistmas.
Right Brain vs. Left Brain
While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles. Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction and there's nothing you can do about it. This WILL drive you crazy. Enjoy!
Warmest regards,
Christopher Leong
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Where Heroes Cometh...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4051755.stm
Forgotten hero of Bhopal's tragedy
By Faisal Mohammad Ali
BBC Hindi service, in Bhopal
Twenty years after the toxic gas leak at Bhopal in central India, BBC News reports on how casualties could have been much worse.
The daily express had been seen off from Bhopal and deputy station superintendent Ghulam Dastagir took charge of the night shift.
----
This 'forgotten hero' was created by the greed of an American company called Union Carbide. Of course, it was people and not a company that was involved but no one knows who/where the people that profited from the 'low cost' operation or caused the event are. That's the beauty of capitalism and the free market.
Heroes often rise out of great natural disasters or actions of supreme idiots (at the expense of many/other's innocent lives). And it seems a lot 'nicer' to talk about them than those sacrificed. Perhaps it is better to numb the fools among us than to enlighten them.
The same goes with the American 'heroes' fighting for Iraqi freedom you read about in some papers nowaday...
Forgotten hero of Bhopal's tragedy
By Faisal Mohammad Ali
BBC Hindi service, in Bhopal
Twenty years after the toxic gas leak at Bhopal in central India, BBC News reports on how casualties could have been much worse.
The daily express had been seen off from Bhopal and deputy station superintendent Ghulam Dastagir took charge of the night shift.
----
This 'forgotten hero' was created by the greed of an American company called Union Carbide. Of course, it was people and not a company that was involved but no one knows who/where the people that profited from the 'low cost' operation or caused the event are. That's the beauty of capitalism and the free market.
Heroes often rise out of great natural disasters or actions of supreme idiots (at the expense of many/other's innocent lives). And it seems a lot 'nicer' to talk about them than those sacrificed. Perhaps it is better to numb the fools among us than to enlighten them.
The same goes with the American 'heroes' fighting for Iraqi freedom you read about in some papers nowaday...
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
King Leopold's Soliloquoy
120 years ago, the Belgian King Leopold II wanted a share of the colonial feast happening across Africa.
At the Berlin Conference (colonial time’s equivalent of the G7 conference) where the Powers conducted ‘orderly’ distribution of rights to the various lands, the British (the superpower of that time) and Americans, against Germany’s protest, ‘gave’ Leopold the right to a piece of land 4 times the size of Germany around the Congo Basin.
The Germans and other European powers were obviously unhappy that their small time neighbour got more than them, to say the least. Leopold being a nephew of Victoria was an obvious consideration.
The British got around the German’s protest on the basis that the area previously occupied mainly by British colonists and under the dominion of an ‘association’ led by Leopold was a ‘de facto state under international law at that time’. Its formation therefore did not need recognition from other states.
The legal argument was for convenience of course. The others did not give in to that but Britain’s sheer power. Sounds like Iraq in the 21st century?
And to keep the French quiet, Leopold signed a treaty to give France ‘first right of preference’ to that property in event the ‘association alienated the natives’.
Leopold gave his ‘fiefdom’ a nice sounding name of Congo Free State, and publicly declared his mission was to free its people from slavery and promote free trade.
The reality as history recorded was of course somewhat different. There were riches to be extracted from Congo the same way it was from the other colonies, and the colonists were never accepted by the natives (otherwise known as insurgents and terrorists in the 21st century).
To ‘run’ the new state Leopold reportedly made use of British and African mercenaries (21st century Bushite term is 'security contractors') the most famous of which included one called Stanley (where Stanley Falls got its name) and another called Rhodes (where old Rhodesia, present day Zimbabwe, got its).
In the 25 years that ‘Congo Free State’ existed, 5 to 15 million out of the 11 to 30 million of the natives were killed – I guess the natives are not quite important enough for them to bother to account accurately (the population of present Belgium is 10 million).
Apparently (only if you believe this), this was not public knowledge for that long (by the way to present day fools, that period is 120 years) because the atrocities were not reported in the press because King Leopold reportedly ‘bought’ them off (i.e. paid them to keep quiet).
As the story went, the world only knew about Leopold’s big lie when a clerk working for a trading firm named Morel noticed that ship manifests from the ‘free state’ had goods going only one way i.e. goods like rubber, ivory and precious materials were shipped in large quantities to Europe but nothing flowed back (so much about free trade).
Some reports had it that Morel was backed by certain Liverpool traders that were left out of the lucrative trades and therefore wanted to spoil it. Hah, greed can save the world...
In his fight to gather public support for his mission to ‘expose’ Leopold’s lie, Morel asked Mark Twain for support resulting in the work known as King Leopold’s Soliloquy. Mark Twain was then already a renowned anti-imperialist fighting among others the US colonization of Philippines (only the first US colonial occupation outside the Americas).
For some reason, this work was refused publication by his publisher (you can try guessing why).
The beginning of Mark Twain’s work had Leopold holding to his Bible pronouncing his great holy endeavor of ‘saving’ the Congolese.
The inspiration for that was probably drawn from Leopold’s speech at the Berlin Conference where he said that the setup of the new state was “for the propagation of civilisation among the peoples of the Congo region by means of scientific exploration, legal trade and war against the 'Arabic' slave traders…To open to civilisation the only part of our globe which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which hangs over entire peoples, is, I dare say, a crusade worthy of this century of progress."
So it seems that every century or so a new set of Leopold-like idiots would think they are the chosen ones out on a crusade. My 21st century name for them is Bush-like idiots - different name, same regenerate idiots.
Now, if we change a few names, actors and terms/notions here and there, the above story will be not unlike what is happening in places like Iraq today.
The powerful will occupy someone else’s land using notions like freedom, free trade and democracy, but in reality does it with the intent to extract its riches. Any opposition to that are labeled anything pest-like from insurgents to terrorists, and brushed aside by sheer force applied with the help of both mercenaries and colluding locals.
At the same time the seemingly noble notions that are their fronts are hyped up by so-called free press and publishers in the hope that they can convince enough foolhardy ones amongst and beyond them of the greatness of their endeavors for them to get away with it as long as they can.
In this way, an entire people or group of people and nations (like the present day Allies in Iraq) end up sharing the stolen riches brought home to a 'thieves paradise' they sometimes like to think is the result of the greatness of either their intellect, or system of government or belief.
The result of such a way of living is at best the hanging out of a few scapegoats as self-repentance once internal or external revulsion from the truth and sheer atrocity of their acts become all too obvious to hide. Llike poor Leopold who was blamed for the whole Congo Free State thing when in fact many like the British, French and of course Belgians were also key beneficiaries.
At worst, it results in disastrous wars with those powerful enough to fight them face to face for a share of the same riches as in the great wars of the last century – for many present day fools Germany not getting their ‘fair’ share in places like Congo is not a reason for those wars, it was merely evil Hitler-likes.
But, as always, it is the small guys that suffer most like the proverbial ants among fighting elephants.
It is they whose livelihood will be taken away and who will have to fight with whatever means at their disposal. To the ‘Powers’ they are like ants to the elephants – mere pests whose various other similar pest-like names (terrorists, insurgents etc.) are but convenient labels for the excuse to terminate them large scale without qualms, and whose deaths in the millions can be conveniently consigned to some corners of history where the fools of the world don’t venture.
At the Berlin Conference (colonial time’s equivalent of the G7 conference) where the Powers conducted ‘orderly’ distribution of rights to the various lands, the British (the superpower of that time) and Americans, against Germany’s protest, ‘gave’ Leopold the right to a piece of land 4 times the size of Germany around the Congo Basin.
The Germans and other European powers were obviously unhappy that their small time neighbour got more than them, to say the least. Leopold being a nephew of Victoria was an obvious consideration.
The British got around the German’s protest on the basis that the area previously occupied mainly by British colonists and under the dominion of an ‘association’ led by Leopold was a ‘de facto state under international law at that time’. Its formation therefore did not need recognition from other states.
The legal argument was for convenience of course. The others did not give in to that but Britain’s sheer power. Sounds like Iraq in the 21st century?
And to keep the French quiet, Leopold signed a treaty to give France ‘first right of preference’ to that property in event the ‘association alienated the natives’.
Leopold gave his ‘fiefdom’ a nice sounding name of Congo Free State, and publicly declared his mission was to free its people from slavery and promote free trade.
The reality as history recorded was of course somewhat different. There were riches to be extracted from Congo the same way it was from the other colonies, and the colonists were never accepted by the natives (otherwise known as insurgents and terrorists in the 21st century).
To ‘run’ the new state Leopold reportedly made use of British and African mercenaries (21st century Bushite term is 'security contractors') the most famous of which included one called Stanley (where Stanley Falls got its name) and another called Rhodes (where old Rhodesia, present day Zimbabwe, got its).
In the 25 years that ‘Congo Free State’ existed, 5 to 15 million out of the 11 to 30 million of the natives were killed – I guess the natives are not quite important enough for them to bother to account accurately (the population of present Belgium is 10 million).
Apparently (only if you believe this), this was not public knowledge for that long (by the way to present day fools, that period is 120 years) because the atrocities were not reported in the press because King Leopold reportedly ‘bought’ them off (i.e. paid them to keep quiet).
As the story went, the world only knew about Leopold’s big lie when a clerk working for a trading firm named Morel noticed that ship manifests from the ‘free state’ had goods going only one way i.e. goods like rubber, ivory and precious materials were shipped in large quantities to Europe but nothing flowed back (so much about free trade).
Some reports had it that Morel was backed by certain Liverpool traders that were left out of the lucrative trades and therefore wanted to spoil it. Hah, greed can save the world...
In his fight to gather public support for his mission to ‘expose’ Leopold’s lie, Morel asked Mark Twain for support resulting in the work known as King Leopold’s Soliloquy. Mark Twain was then already a renowned anti-imperialist fighting among others the US colonization of Philippines (only the first US colonial occupation outside the Americas).
For some reason, this work was refused publication by his publisher (you can try guessing why).
The beginning of Mark Twain’s work had Leopold holding to his Bible pronouncing his great holy endeavor of ‘saving’ the Congolese.
The inspiration for that was probably drawn from Leopold’s speech at the Berlin Conference where he said that the setup of the new state was “for the propagation of civilisation among the peoples of the Congo region by means of scientific exploration, legal trade and war against the 'Arabic' slave traders…To open to civilisation the only part of our globe which it has not yet penetrated, to pierce the darkness which hangs over entire peoples, is, I dare say, a crusade worthy of this century of progress."
So it seems that every century or so a new set of Leopold-like idiots would think they are the chosen ones out on a crusade. My 21st century name for them is Bush-like idiots - different name, same regenerate idiots.
Now, if we change a few names, actors and terms/notions here and there, the above story will be not unlike what is happening in places like Iraq today.
The powerful will occupy someone else’s land using notions like freedom, free trade and democracy, but in reality does it with the intent to extract its riches. Any opposition to that are labeled anything pest-like from insurgents to terrorists, and brushed aside by sheer force applied with the help of both mercenaries and colluding locals.
At the same time the seemingly noble notions that are their fronts are hyped up by so-called free press and publishers in the hope that they can convince enough foolhardy ones amongst and beyond them of the greatness of their endeavors for them to get away with it as long as they can.
In this way, an entire people or group of people and nations (like the present day Allies in Iraq) end up sharing the stolen riches brought home to a 'thieves paradise' they sometimes like to think is the result of the greatness of either their intellect, or system of government or belief.
The result of such a way of living is at best the hanging out of a few scapegoats as self-repentance once internal or external revulsion from the truth and sheer atrocity of their acts become all too obvious to hide. Llike poor Leopold who was blamed for the whole Congo Free State thing when in fact many like the British, French and of course Belgians were also key beneficiaries.
At worst, it results in disastrous wars with those powerful enough to fight them face to face for a share of the same riches as in the great wars of the last century – for many present day fools Germany not getting their ‘fair’ share in places like Congo is not a reason for those wars, it was merely evil Hitler-likes.
But, as always, it is the small guys that suffer most like the proverbial ants among fighting elephants.
It is they whose livelihood will be taken away and who will have to fight with whatever means at their disposal. To the ‘Powers’ they are like ants to the elephants – mere pests whose various other similar pest-like names (terrorists, insurgents etc.) are but convenient labels for the excuse to terminate them large scale without qualms, and whose deaths in the millions can be conveniently consigned to some corners of history where the fools of the world don’t venture.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Phantom Fury
The Americans call their latest effort at eliminating opposition in Fallujah to their occupation of Iraq operation 'Phantom Fury'. These may be reasons for that name:
1. This is another round of destruction based on the fictitious excuse of eliminating terrorists
2. the Bush-like idiots are genuinely furious at being opposed and they wanted a phantom excuse to kill some one
3. they hope that any anger they generate from this will disappear into thin air and they can get away with it another time
4. they genuinely think that the opposition is a bunch of misled idiots whose fury towards them are unjustified.
Phantomise it any which way you like, but may be these idiots really think the world is as simple as their religion teaches: they are good and all that's against them or react to what they do are evil, and they can do anything they like as theirs is a forgiving God and all they have to do is ask for forgiveness. Supreme idiots of a phantom world indeed.
Oh the phantom of Osama, may thee appear again for such idiots only understand your kind....
1. This is another round of destruction based on the fictitious excuse of eliminating terrorists
2. the Bush-like idiots are genuinely furious at being opposed and they wanted a phantom excuse to kill some one
3. they hope that any anger they generate from this will disappear into thin air and they can get away with it another time
4. they genuinely think that the opposition is a bunch of misled idiots whose fury towards them are unjustified.
Phantomise it any which way you like, but may be these idiots really think the world is as simple as their religion teaches: they are good and all that's against them or react to what they do are evil, and they can do anything they like as theirs is a forgiving God and all they have to do is ask for forgiveness. Supreme idiots of a phantom world indeed.
Oh the phantom of Osama, may thee appear again for such idiots only understand your kind....
Thursday, November 04, 2004
The History & Dynamics of Oil
http://www.geology.ucdavis.edu/~cowen/~GEL115/115CH13oil.html
Very good article about oil and hints on what happened around the world the last century like
- why Russia wants control of Chechya and Central Asia
- why Iraq whacked Kuwait
- why Libya is made an 'outcast'
- why China, Vietnam etc. wants the Spratlys
- why Venezuela claims America has a hand in its political turmoil
- why Bush whacks Iraq and Afghanistan
- why he wants to whack Iran
- why Australia 'saved' Timor
- how 'shares' of profits can be re-distributed by the powerful once they install rulers of their choice
The powerful manipulates everything/anything they can to their benefit. The world is a free market only to fools who know nothing of history and how things really work.
Very good article about oil and hints on what happened around the world the last century like
- why Russia wants control of Chechya and Central Asia
- why Iraq whacked Kuwait
- why Libya is made an 'outcast'
- why China, Vietnam etc. wants the Spratlys
- why Venezuela claims America has a hand in its political turmoil
- why Bush whacks Iraq and Afghanistan
- why he wants to whack Iran
- why Australia 'saved' Timor
- how 'shares' of profits can be re-distributed by the powerful once they install rulers of their choice
The powerful manipulates everything/anything they can to their benefit. The world is a free market only to fools who know nothing of history and how things really work.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Defining Moments
American Presidential Result due Tonight...
Apparently, idiot Bush entered politics after he was ‘saved’ from all his failures by a certain evangelist who made millions giving cheap surmons on TV. Since then he reportedly believed that he was chosen by God to do great things not just for America but the world. That is nothing new as we hear of such idiots every once a while all round the world after they have read a certain chapter in a certain book about ‘chosen people’. But what is different about idiot Bush is he soon got to lay his hands on many of the huge firepower that science had created, and that is worth someone doing something about it.
One of the biggest state where large numbers of Bush-like idiots are found is Texas which was where Bush began fulfilling his ‘calling’ by winning the governorship. He then went on to ‘define’ what Michael Moore called (roughly) a fictitious time where fictitious election results elect a fictitious president who starts fictitious wars using fictitious reasons.
Of course, Michael Moore cannot be fully correct. Yes, those Bush-like idiots cheated in Florida big time. But he also won in many other states like Texas which means that significant numbers of Americans wanted him to be there along with all the ‘fictions’.
But that is not new. Ever since the ‘great wars’ of the last century where making and selling war materiel is big business, that country had been hijacked by what Eisenhower famously called the ‘military industrial complex’ to wage war around the world based on a mix of fictitious concepts ranging from ‘free market’ to ‘freedom’ to ‘yellow threat’ in China, Korea and Vietnam to ‘evil empires’ from Central America to Africa to Middle East.
In the meantime, they do not just ignore but arrogantly refuse to work with the rest of the world on real challenges like global pollution, stability of the global financial system, poverty and hunger.
On top of that, every day we hear them brag about how great the American system and dream is and why everyone around the world should follow them.
In their fictional democracy where their choice of presidents can only come from two organizations, they claim that only their system can produce what people want & deserve.
Indeed the world should take them seriously and hence must make them accountable for everything they choose including their presidents and the ‘fictions’ they use to perpetuate the very real disasters we witness.
That is why today is such a defining moment for the world. You see, great idiots hijacking great inventions of science and reason like Bush can also produce defining moments of history.
And why I have 2 very different hopes depending on the outcome of today’s election.
One is the hope that Kerry will win simply because he has yet to proof as idiotic as Bush, and reason, humility and moderation (less greed) may have a chance to prevail.
The other is a much more sinister hope that if idiot Bush wins someone somewhere in the world will not adopt the Vietnamese’s Buddhist outlook where wallops are taken quietly at home and the plight accepted as fate.
There are many things the world can do if we think about it but one is and has to be to give to them what they do unto others.
The 100,000 families in Iraq which had lost someone they love in one year (that must surely beat Saddam Hussein's records), and the countless others in Afghanistan and elsewhere do not subscribe to the 6,000,000 dead Vietnamese’s concept of fate. Their belief is equally powerful and arrogant as that of idiot Bush which explains why they had been going at each other since about 500 years after an idiot by the name of Paul hijacked the Roman empire for purposes not unlike what idiot Bush and his TV evangelist is doing to America today.
If tonight is a defining moment in history, it can be one where hope, reason and decency prevails or one where the most sinister of actions will be taken to put all of God’s idiotic creations in their rightful place.
Many of us can only hope for the less stupid outcome. But even in the fictitious stories contained in the fictitious book of the Bush-like idiots, even the Gods can be crazily vengeful. They have no qualms about wiping out their entire creation by flood just to proof a point.
See The Story of Nolah http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_cckplanetblog_archive.html
So, what is the big deal with Osama blowing away a few buildings? At least, this guy has the decency to be honest with why he did it. No high-horse cowboy bullshit about the likes of 'freeing' others by killing their loved ones.
Apparently, idiot Bush entered politics after he was ‘saved’ from all his failures by a certain evangelist who made millions giving cheap surmons on TV. Since then he reportedly believed that he was chosen by God to do great things not just for America but the world. That is nothing new as we hear of such idiots every once a while all round the world after they have read a certain chapter in a certain book about ‘chosen people’. But what is different about idiot Bush is he soon got to lay his hands on many of the huge firepower that science had created, and that is worth someone doing something about it.
One of the biggest state where large numbers of Bush-like idiots are found is Texas which was where Bush began fulfilling his ‘calling’ by winning the governorship. He then went on to ‘define’ what Michael Moore called (roughly) a fictitious time where fictitious election results elect a fictitious president who starts fictitious wars using fictitious reasons.
Of course, Michael Moore cannot be fully correct. Yes, those Bush-like idiots cheated in Florida big time. But he also won in many other states like Texas which means that significant numbers of Americans wanted him to be there along with all the ‘fictions’.
But that is not new. Ever since the ‘great wars’ of the last century where making and selling war materiel is big business, that country had been hijacked by what Eisenhower famously called the ‘military industrial complex’ to wage war around the world based on a mix of fictitious concepts ranging from ‘free market’ to ‘freedom’ to ‘yellow threat’ in China, Korea and Vietnam to ‘evil empires’ from Central America to Africa to Middle East.
In the meantime, they do not just ignore but arrogantly refuse to work with the rest of the world on real challenges like global pollution, stability of the global financial system, poverty and hunger.
On top of that, every day we hear them brag about how great the American system and dream is and why everyone around the world should follow them.
In their fictional democracy where their choice of presidents can only come from two organizations, they claim that only their system can produce what people want & deserve.
Indeed the world should take them seriously and hence must make them accountable for everything they choose including their presidents and the ‘fictions’ they use to perpetuate the very real disasters we witness.
That is why today is such a defining moment for the world. You see, great idiots hijacking great inventions of science and reason like Bush can also produce defining moments of history.
And why I have 2 very different hopes depending on the outcome of today’s election.
One is the hope that Kerry will win simply because he has yet to proof as idiotic as Bush, and reason, humility and moderation (less greed) may have a chance to prevail.
The other is a much more sinister hope that if idiot Bush wins someone somewhere in the world will not adopt the Vietnamese’s Buddhist outlook where wallops are taken quietly at home and the plight accepted as fate.
There are many things the world can do if we think about it but one is and has to be to give to them what they do unto others.
The 100,000 families in Iraq which had lost someone they love in one year (that must surely beat Saddam Hussein's records), and the countless others in Afghanistan and elsewhere do not subscribe to the 6,000,000 dead Vietnamese’s concept of fate. Their belief is equally powerful and arrogant as that of idiot Bush which explains why they had been going at each other since about 500 years after an idiot by the name of Paul hijacked the Roman empire for purposes not unlike what idiot Bush and his TV evangelist is doing to America today.
If tonight is a defining moment in history, it can be one where hope, reason and decency prevails or one where the most sinister of actions will be taken to put all of God’s idiotic creations in their rightful place.
Many of us can only hope for the less stupid outcome. But even in the fictitious stories contained in the fictitious book of the Bush-like idiots, even the Gods can be crazily vengeful. They have no qualms about wiping out their entire creation by flood just to proof a point.
See The Story of Nolah http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2004_01_01_cckplanetblog_archive.html
So, what is the big deal with Osama blowing away a few buildings? At least, this guy has the decency to be honest with why he did it. No high-horse cowboy bullshit about the likes of 'freeing' others by killing their loved ones.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
The Advantage of Power
When all other countries get into financial/economic difficulties, the IMF goes in to help by telling them to 'put their own house in order'. But for the Americans it is different. When they run out of money or their currency run the risk of being overtaken by others as global base, they go whack/rob others like Iraq. If that still does not work, the IMF goes round the world to blame anyone they can for their problems. What a great country! They print money for nothing, whack others who do not want to use it to keep it artificially high, give some to some cheap Asian economist to work in the IMF, and this idiot says what their paymaster wants.
A few years ago when I told a man in a petrol kiosk that the USD will fall with the advent of the Euro, he told me not to worry as the USD will always 'retain its value' because it is backed by gold. I told him that he is more than 30 years behind time – Nixon dumped Bretton Woods in the early 70s.
I wonder how many other fools there are out there living with false notions like that....
xxx
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)
The International Monetary Fund has warned China that the cost of maintaining its fixed currency regime was mounting and argued for a widening of the trading band on the yuan by 10 percent to 15 percent to stave off pressures on its giant economy.
"I think the cost of maintaining the exchange rate regime is going to be large and will grow over time -- which is why I think there is an argument for a quick move," IMF's China division chief Eswar Prasad said.
The Chinese yuan, which is fixed to the US dollar, is currently considered grossly undervalued and the United States, Japan, and the European Union have been groaning under the weight of cheap Chinese exports. The IMF has been prodding China for sometime to swiftly adopt a flexible currency regime – like widening the band in which it allows the currency to trade against the dollar -- but Beijing says the time is not ripe yet.
Prasad, answering questions from experts at a conference in Washington on East Asian exchange rate issues, said it was more feasible for China to adopt flexibility in managing the yuan than launching a radical revaluation of the currency.
The yuan, also known as the renminbi and now pegged at 8.27 to the US dollar, is currently anchored in a narrow band to the dollar enforced by the Peoples Bank of China. This range is considered too weak by many financial observers. But Prasad indicated that China had to literally pay the price for not heeding IMF advice to it about a year and half ago to widen the band by some three to five percent. "I think under present circumstances that could be disastrous because the market might see that as clearly inappropriate and just as a first step. But I think the price of having waited this long – the initial move is going to have to be much larger," he said. Now, because of greater pressures to its economy, if China wanted to widen the band, it should do so by, say, 10 to 15 percent, he said.
US President George W. Bush has been talking up the currency issue ahead of the November 2 election, charging that the yuan rate had kept China's exports artificially cheap, undermining US exports and stealing American jobs. Bush telephoned Chinese President Hu Jintao this month to underline his concerns and Hu vowed to "move forward firmly and steadily to a market-based, flexible exchange rate," according to the White House.
China's top finance and central bank officials were invited for the first time to attend this month's meeting of finance chiefs from the Group of Seven industrial powers at the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank annual meeting in Washington. G7 members again pressed for a freer yuan regime but the Chinese officials again offered no timetable, saying they would act "when conditions permit."
A free-floating Chinese yuan, according to some analysts, could boost US exports and thereby help reduce the massive US current account deficit, which has contributed to imbalances in the global economy. Ernest Preeg of US policy research group Manufacturers Alliance said 19 bills expressing concern over "currency manipulation" by China and other East Asian economies were before Congress, warning that they could be integrated into single legislative action.
Some experts at the conference suggested that the yuan be first revalued upwards by 25 percent and then be traded on a wider band. But Prasad said it might not be appropriate. He argued that just a 10 percent to 15 percent widening of the trading band would not lead to excessive market pressure on the currency. "As far as possible, the market will think that once this amount of widening is permitted, that there really is going to be nothing more," he said. "After all, if the Chinese can hold the exchange rate where it is right now when the presumption that it is undervalued by 25 percent or 40 percent or more, they can very easily hold it at 15 percent," he said.
A few years ago when I told a man in a petrol kiosk that the USD will fall with the advent of the Euro, he told me not to worry as the USD will always 'retain its value' because it is backed by gold. I told him that he is more than 30 years behind time – Nixon dumped Bretton Woods in the early 70s.
I wonder how many other fools there are out there living with false notions like that....
xxx
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)
The International Monetary Fund has warned China that the cost of maintaining its fixed currency regime was mounting and argued for a widening of the trading band on the yuan by 10 percent to 15 percent to stave off pressures on its giant economy.
"I think the cost of maintaining the exchange rate regime is going to be large and will grow over time -- which is why I think there is an argument for a quick move," IMF's China division chief Eswar Prasad said.
The Chinese yuan, which is fixed to the US dollar, is currently considered grossly undervalued and the United States, Japan, and the European Union have been groaning under the weight of cheap Chinese exports. The IMF has been prodding China for sometime to swiftly adopt a flexible currency regime – like widening the band in which it allows the currency to trade against the dollar -- but Beijing says the time is not ripe yet.
Prasad, answering questions from experts at a conference in Washington on East Asian exchange rate issues, said it was more feasible for China to adopt flexibility in managing the yuan than launching a radical revaluation of the currency.
The yuan, also known as the renminbi and now pegged at 8.27 to the US dollar, is currently anchored in a narrow band to the dollar enforced by the Peoples Bank of China. This range is considered too weak by many financial observers. But Prasad indicated that China had to literally pay the price for not heeding IMF advice to it about a year and half ago to widen the band by some three to five percent. "I think under present circumstances that could be disastrous because the market might see that as clearly inappropriate and just as a first step. But I think the price of having waited this long – the initial move is going to have to be much larger," he said. Now, because of greater pressures to its economy, if China wanted to widen the band, it should do so by, say, 10 to 15 percent, he said.
US President George W. Bush has been talking up the currency issue ahead of the November 2 election, charging that the yuan rate had kept China's exports artificially cheap, undermining US exports and stealing American jobs. Bush telephoned Chinese President Hu Jintao this month to underline his concerns and Hu vowed to "move forward firmly and steadily to a market-based, flexible exchange rate," according to the White House.
China's top finance and central bank officials were invited for the first time to attend this month's meeting of finance chiefs from the Group of Seven industrial powers at the sidelines of the IMF/World Bank annual meeting in Washington. G7 members again pressed for a freer yuan regime but the Chinese officials again offered no timetable, saying they would act "when conditions permit."
A free-floating Chinese yuan, according to some analysts, could boost US exports and thereby help reduce the massive US current account deficit, which has contributed to imbalances in the global economy. Ernest Preeg of US policy research group Manufacturers Alliance said 19 bills expressing concern over "currency manipulation" by China and other East Asian economies were before Congress, warning that they could be integrated into single legislative action.
Some experts at the conference suggested that the yuan be first revalued upwards by 25 percent and then be traded on a wider band. But Prasad said it might not be appropriate. He argued that just a 10 percent to 15 percent widening of the trading band would not lead to excessive market pressure on the currency. "As far as possible, the market will think that once this amount of widening is permitted, that there really is going to be nothing more," he said. "After all, if the Chinese can hold the exchange rate where it is right now when the presumption that it is undervalued by 25 percent or 40 percent or more, they can very easily hold it at 15 percent," he said.
Monday, October 11, 2004
Monkey
This joke highlights the dangers when one follows what others say without thinking & verifying for oneself before believing/acting (some also call that faith for convenience).
Another example of this is a real life story. A couple of months back, I was having breakfast at a coffee shop. It consisted of a cup of tea, 2 slices of bread and 2 half boiled eggs. I got a seat opposite to an elderly Malay man who was probably close to 80. The sight of me relishing the half boiled eggs, triggered his appetite and probably some long gone memories, and he said to me "I'll go get some eggs too".
After he came back with his eggs he told me that he was afraid of taking eggs because of all the talk about high cholesterol.
To which I gave him my usual views about how many people take things out of context esp. the unthinking ones.
I told him that many foods have high cholesterol if you take them out of proportion e.g. beef that the Westerners eat by pounds per day! Their doctors' recommendation not to take more than a few eggs a day was meant for these people who are already eating too much. But which Asian that does not ape these people does eat meat by a quarter of pound per meal?
On top of that, as far as I can recall, eggs had been a traditionally recognised nutritious staple for Asians, and parents used to make sure their young ones have them daily. And what other natural food has the ability to sustain a young life all on its own? Eggs got to be rich in nutrients to be able to do that.
The old man agreed by saying "ya ah, my father used to have eggs every morning without fail and he lived to 110 years!"
I said "there, that's proof that all the fears you had are unfounded".
The 2 of us laughed as we enjoyed those eggs and wondered aloud how many of us will get to live to the ripe old age of that pak cik's father.
And I wondered how many fools there are out there who will say that they won't touch eggs but will gobble down a bottle of coke without question (like the stupid Americans who drink them by litres everyday).
And that thing does not even carry an expiry date! For such fools, that probably means it is proof of a great product!
One day I will tell you another story of a stupid American woman who sends a chain mail complaining about soya beans and her cancer....
xxx
From: Dion Wan
Re: Monkey
There was once a hat-seller who passed by a forest on his way back. The weather was very hot and he decided to take a nap under one of the trees, so he left his whole basket of hats by the side. A few hours later, he woke up by some sounds. The next thing he realized was that all his hats was gone.
Then he heard some monkeys on top of the tree and he looked up. To his surprise, the tree was full of monkeys. They have taken all his hats!
The hat-seller sits down and tries to think of how he can get the hats down. He started to think and scratched his head. The next moment, he realised that the monkeys were doing the same action. Next, he took his own hat and fan himself. The monkeys did exactly the same!
An idea strikes him - he took his hat and threw it on the floor. And, the monkeys did the same too. Alas, he managed to get all his hats back.
Fifty years later, his grandson also became a hat-seller and had heard this monkey story from his grandfather. One day, just like his grandfather, he passed by the same forest. Feeling very hot, he took a nap under the same tree and left the hats on the floor. Again, when he woke up, he realised that all the hats were gone. He looked up and found that the monkeys had taken all his hats. Remembering what his grandfather had told him, he started scratching his head and the monkeys followed. He took down his hat and fanned himself and again the monkeys followed.
Now, very convinced of his grandfather's idea, he threw his hat on the floor ... but to his surprise, the monkeys still held on to all the hats!
Then one monkey climbed down the tree, grabbed the hat on the floor, gave him a slap and said "You think only you have grandfather meh........???!!!"
Another example of this is a real life story. A couple of months back, I was having breakfast at a coffee shop. It consisted of a cup of tea, 2 slices of bread and 2 half boiled eggs. I got a seat opposite to an elderly Malay man who was probably close to 80. The sight of me relishing the half boiled eggs, triggered his appetite and probably some long gone memories, and he said to me "I'll go get some eggs too".
After he came back with his eggs he told me that he was afraid of taking eggs because of all the talk about high cholesterol.
To which I gave him my usual views about how many people take things out of context esp. the unthinking ones.
I told him that many foods have high cholesterol if you take them out of proportion e.g. beef that the Westerners eat by pounds per day! Their doctors' recommendation not to take more than a few eggs a day was meant for these people who are already eating too much. But which Asian that does not ape these people does eat meat by a quarter of pound per meal?
On top of that, as far as I can recall, eggs had been a traditionally recognised nutritious staple for Asians, and parents used to make sure their young ones have them daily. And what other natural food has the ability to sustain a young life all on its own? Eggs got to be rich in nutrients to be able to do that.
The old man agreed by saying "ya ah, my father used to have eggs every morning without fail and he lived to 110 years!"
I said "there, that's proof that all the fears you had are unfounded".
The 2 of us laughed as we enjoyed those eggs and wondered aloud how many of us will get to live to the ripe old age of that pak cik's father.
And I wondered how many fools there are out there who will say that they won't touch eggs but will gobble down a bottle of coke without question (like the stupid Americans who drink them by litres everyday).
And that thing does not even carry an expiry date! For such fools, that probably means it is proof of a great product!
One day I will tell you another story of a stupid American woman who sends a chain mail complaining about soya beans and her cancer....
xxx
From: Dion Wan
Re: Monkey
There was once a hat-seller who passed by a forest on his way back. The weather was very hot and he decided to take a nap under one of the trees, so he left his whole basket of hats by the side. A few hours later, he woke up by some sounds. The next thing he realized was that all his hats was gone.
Then he heard some monkeys on top of the tree and he looked up. To his surprise, the tree was full of monkeys. They have taken all his hats!
The hat-seller sits down and tries to think of how he can get the hats down. He started to think and scratched his head. The next moment, he realised that the monkeys were doing the same action. Next, he took his own hat and fan himself. The monkeys did exactly the same!
An idea strikes him - he took his hat and threw it on the floor. And, the monkeys did the same too. Alas, he managed to get all his hats back.
Fifty years later, his grandson also became a hat-seller and had heard this monkey story from his grandfather. One day, just like his grandfather, he passed by the same forest. Feeling very hot, he took a nap under the same tree and left the hats on the floor. Again, when he woke up, he realised that all the hats were gone. He looked up and found that the monkeys had taken all his hats. Remembering what his grandfather had told him, he started scratching his head and the monkeys followed. He took down his hat and fanned himself and again the monkeys followed.
Now, very convinced of his grandfather's idea, he threw his hat on the floor ... but to his surprise, the monkeys still held on to all the hats!
Then one monkey climbed down the tree, grabbed the hat on the floor, gave him a slap and said "You think only you have grandfather meh........???!!!"
Friday, October 08, 2004
Another Hour of the.....
This is what happens when 1 set of idiots think that they are special children of God and has a God given right to forcibly take others' land by any means possible, meets another set of idiots that think that they are serving God's purposes regardless of the means they employ to get back at the 1st set of idiots. And nature is such that when 2 sets of idiots are involved nothing gets resolved for as long as they exist.
I was once told that the books that these idiots follow seem to have a 'good' effect on their believers. Clearly that goodness has yet to take effect despite the passage of a couple of thousand years.
I guess that's OK as a century is only a short time as far as their Gods are concerned....
xxx
TABA, Egypt (AFP)
At least 26 people were killed and scores injured when car bombs exploded at resorts packed with Israeli holidaymakers on the Red Sea coast of Egypt's Sinai desert in attacks Israel blamed on Al-Qaeda.
The most powerful of the explosions late Thursday left a trail of carnage and destruction at the 10-storey Hilton hotel in Taba, a town just across the Israeli border, that hosted Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in 2001.
"According to our first information, it appears to be an international terror attack with the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda," said Israel's deputy defence minister, Zeev Boim. The explosions occurred as Israelis were celebrating the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and followed official warnings that Israelis should keep out of the Sinai because of possible attacks.
I was once told that the books that these idiots follow seem to have a 'good' effect on their believers. Clearly that goodness has yet to take effect despite the passage of a couple of thousand years.
I guess that's OK as a century is only a short time as far as their Gods are concerned....
xxx
TABA, Egypt (AFP)
At least 26 people were killed and scores injured when car bombs exploded at resorts packed with Israeli holidaymakers on the Red Sea coast of Egypt's Sinai desert in attacks Israel blamed on Al-Qaeda.
The most powerful of the explosions late Thursday left a trail of carnage and destruction at the 10-storey Hilton hotel in Taba, a town just across the Israeli border, that hosted Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in 2001.
"According to our first information, it appears to be an international terror attack with the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda," said Israel's deputy defence minister, Zeev Boim. The explosions occurred as Israelis were celebrating the end of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, and followed official warnings that Israelis should keep out of the Sinai because of possible attacks.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Immaterial
Interesting article which reminds me of one thing.
According to the writer, people's top wish just before they die always relate to topic of play or regrets of not enough of that on earth. But they did not mention/notice that people of certain religion(s) wish they could die faster (or has such regret) even though by their faiths they are quite sure they will soon be spending time with God which I suppose is a privilege.
I am talking about those whose faith gives them the gall to proclaim quite unbrazenly in obituaries that they have been 'called back to be with the Lord' when they die.
If one is so cock sure that God wants him/her to be on Him, I would think that one will be most eager to go and be with such exalted company without regrets!
After all, their relatives will be joining them there in a matter of time anyway. And like their faiths say, they shall have a great time together throughout eternity in the company of the Big Boss!
xxx
Re: Immaterial?
From: Chung Meng
When it's your time to go, what will you be taking with you ... really?
According to the writer, people's top wish just before they die always relate to topic of play or regrets of not enough of that on earth. But they did not mention/notice that people of certain religion(s) wish they could die faster (or has such regret) even though by their faiths they are quite sure they will soon be spending time with God which I suppose is a privilege.
I am talking about those whose faith gives them the gall to proclaim quite unbrazenly in obituaries that they have been 'called back to be with the Lord' when they die.
If one is so cock sure that God wants him/her to be on Him, I would think that one will be most eager to go and be with such exalted company without regrets!
After all, their relatives will be joining them there in a matter of time anyway. And like their faiths say, they shall have a great time together throughout eternity in the company of the Big Boss!
xxx
Re: Immaterial?
From: Chung Meng
When it's your time to go, what will you be taking with you ... really?
Friday, September 24, 2004
What Can You Do?
(Penned after news report & video pictures of foreign hostages being beheaded by Iraqi ‘rebels’)
Which is more sickening: To slice a head off with a knife or to blow one off with a rocket?
Does it depend on who is doing it or why they are doing it? Or perhaps the question should be who started it?
Some people's responses to mails from people like me complaining about the actions of the US and its allies around the world are the rhetorical "so what if what you say are true, what can you do about that?" "Why should we even bother about that - our lives are not affected nor involved?"
In the meantime, many lives in places where these 'bullies' play their games are directly affected and those rhetorical questions become very real ones. What are you going to do when such bullies and their associates come in to whack you when they like, take what they like, and assign themselves the top positions in the predatory pyramid of life?
Well, it depends on who you are and what you have in hand.
If you are an American idiot, you hide behind a protective tank (or stay at home) but send a missile to the other's house by pushing a button. After that put your goons on the flattened ground, send those idiots a bill, go home, and live off the new rewards like heaven. Oh, forgot to mention - you can also line the next guy up for the time when you run out on milking the last one.
If you are a Palestinian idiot, you bolt a keg of explosives to your body, go to the other's house (which was really your grandfather's), press a button and go to heaven.
If you are an Iraqi idiot, you go to the master bedroom of your house, grab its new occupant (heaven knows how that bastard got there), button him up in yellow jump suit, press the button on your videocam, slice the bastard's head off and send the clip to Al Jazeera.
If you are an Australian or British idiot, you stick an 'I am your Saviour' sticker (can take off any cheap bible) on your forehead, follow close behind the American idiot, pick up whatever crumbs that idiot leaves behind, take pot shots at others just for fun, and say, good heaven, why can't they accept that we are there to save them?
No? Things are not as stupid as that?
Which is more sickening: To slice a head off with a knife or to blow one off with a rocket?
Does it depend on who is doing it or why they are doing it? Or perhaps the question should be who started it?
Some people's responses to mails from people like me complaining about the actions of the US and its allies around the world are the rhetorical "so what if what you say are true, what can you do about that?" "Why should we even bother about that - our lives are not affected nor involved?"
In the meantime, many lives in places where these 'bullies' play their games are directly affected and those rhetorical questions become very real ones. What are you going to do when such bullies and their associates come in to whack you when they like, take what they like, and assign themselves the top positions in the predatory pyramid of life?
Well, it depends on who you are and what you have in hand.
If you are an American idiot, you hide behind a protective tank (or stay at home) but send a missile to the other's house by pushing a button. After that put your goons on the flattened ground, send those idiots a bill, go home, and live off the new rewards like heaven. Oh, forgot to mention - you can also line the next guy up for the time when you run out on milking the last one.
If you are a Palestinian idiot, you bolt a keg of explosives to your body, go to the other's house (which was really your grandfather's), press a button and go to heaven.
If you are an Iraqi idiot, you go to the master bedroom of your house, grab its new occupant (heaven knows how that bastard got there), button him up in yellow jump suit, press the button on your videocam, slice the bastard's head off and send the clip to Al Jazeera.
If you are an Australian or British idiot, you stick an 'I am your Saviour' sticker (can take off any cheap bible) on your forehead, follow close behind the American idiot, pick up whatever crumbs that idiot leaves behind, take pot shots at others just for fun, and say, good heaven, why can't they accept that we are there to save them?
No? Things are not as stupid as that?
Thursday, September 23, 2004
Local Thief, Global Sheriff
History is full of stories of local thief-cum-bullies becoming de facto sheriffs by way of the raw force they bring to bear on others. (Those with no intent or capacity to learn from history need only to watch some John Wayne cowboy movies). This is just another one of those.
And if you wonder why many are not aware of it, it has to do with another very common trick in human history (besides personal shortcomings best left to the individuals): loud mouth bullies always harp about how nice they are while they steal.
xxx
http://www.etan.org/etan/2003appl.htm
From Noam Chomsky
December 2003
Dear Friends of East Timor,
East Timor has been independent for a little more than a year and a half. Many foreign policy experts and Washington insiders predicted that Indonesia would never let go of the former Portuguese colony. Yet the impossible happened—in no small part due to the support of people like you, working in conjunction with the East Timor Action Network (ETAN). But now ETAN is in dire financial straits.
I have been deeply involved with self-determination for East Timor since before Indonesia’s 1975 invasion, and I can attest to the tremendous – maybe even decisive – difference that ETAN’s wonderful work has made. However, ETAN’s ability to continue to work at the level needed is in serious jeopardy due to a shortage of funds. By giving generously, you can help strengthen ETAN financially for the coming year, so together we can meet the many challenges ahead.
Even with independence, the world’s newest country – and Asia’s poorest – faces daunting challenges. Its two giant neighbors, Indonesia and Australia, continue to threaten East Timor’s peace and, indeed, its full sovereignty. Anti-independence paramilitary groups across the border in Indonesian West Timor pose an increasing security threat as the United Nations prepares to end its mission next May. Meanwhile, Australia is openly stealing billions of dollars worth of East Timor’s revenue from Timor Sea oil and natural gas. Australia is flagrantly violating international law and has even withdrawn from international mechanisms to resolve the maritime boundary dispute - leaving East Timor with no legal recourse.
The global powers-that-be continue to deny East Timor justice for the myriad war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against its people from 1975 to 1999. At the same time, the Bush administration, in the name of the “war on terrorism,” is committed to full relations with Indonesia’s brutal military establishment, as the military daily terrorizes the people of Aceh, Papua and elsewhere.
And if you wonder why many are not aware of it, it has to do with another very common trick in human history (besides personal shortcomings best left to the individuals): loud mouth bullies always harp about how nice they are while they steal.
xxx
http://www.etan.org/etan/2003appl.htm
From Noam Chomsky
December 2003
Dear Friends of East Timor,
East Timor has been independent for a little more than a year and a half. Many foreign policy experts and Washington insiders predicted that Indonesia would never let go of the former Portuguese colony. Yet the impossible happened—in no small part due to the support of people like you, working in conjunction with the East Timor Action Network (ETAN). But now ETAN is in dire financial straits.
I have been deeply involved with self-determination for East Timor since before Indonesia’s 1975 invasion, and I can attest to the tremendous – maybe even decisive – difference that ETAN’s wonderful work has made. However, ETAN’s ability to continue to work at the level needed is in serious jeopardy due to a shortage of funds. By giving generously, you can help strengthen ETAN financially for the coming year, so together we can meet the many challenges ahead.
Even with independence, the world’s newest country – and Asia’s poorest – faces daunting challenges. Its two giant neighbors, Indonesia and Australia, continue to threaten East Timor’s peace and, indeed, its full sovereignty. Anti-independence paramilitary groups across the border in Indonesian West Timor pose an increasing security threat as the United Nations prepares to end its mission next May. Meanwhile, Australia is openly stealing billions of dollars worth of East Timor’s revenue from Timor Sea oil and natural gas. Australia is flagrantly violating international law and has even withdrawn from international mechanisms to resolve the maritime boundary dispute - leaving East Timor with no legal recourse.
The global powers-that-be continue to deny East Timor justice for the myriad war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against its people from 1975 to 1999. At the same time, the Bush administration, in the name of the “war on terrorism,” is committed to full relations with Indonesia’s brutal military establishment, as the military daily terrorizes the people of Aceh, Papua and elsewhere.
Sunday, September 05, 2004
Russian School Hostage Crisis
(Comments after reading report that hundreds of school children were killed in a hostage taking incident by Muslim separatists in Beslan, Russia)
Just before the end of the last century, a biologist when invited to write a contribution to a collection of views, hopes and insights for the 21st century chose to share a letter he wrote to his then 10 or so year old daughter. The gist of what he said to his daughter went somewhat like this (as best as I can remember).
He said that he decided to put his views in a letter because his daughter was too young to understand them, and he hoped that she will find them meaningful later in life.
In the letter he said that the advancement the world had seen in the 20th century and its hope in the next lie in rational thought, and not blind faith as basis for all our actions. From rational thought, we learned to understand and adapt 'better' to Nature than our forebears, and thus saw big improvements in the quality of life for a larger proportion of human beings than ever in history. We can also understand better the effect of our actions on Nature only through rational analysis.
History had proven that the way of life based on blind faith as basis for human conduct is futile and outright dangerous. Based on blind faith, an Irish Catholic is as absolutely sure that his view is right as a Muslim in Arabia and a Hindu in India with theirs. And they are totally disagreable to each other. As by blind faith such people are absolutely certain that they are right and therefore the others must be wrong, how are we going to resolve their differences? In fact throughout history these people kill each other as the only way to 'prove' that they are 'right'.
This Russian school incident is just another example of what this man was trying to say to his young daughter. Sadly, many idiots that operate the way he feared still exist in this new century.
Another man once said: War does not determine who is right, it only determines who is left".
And if you have been following the US elections, those idiots are vying to boast on who makes a better war monger. Such is the character of a country that many idiots I know think is the greatest country on earth.
Just before the end of the last century, a biologist when invited to write a contribution to a collection of views, hopes and insights for the 21st century chose to share a letter he wrote to his then 10 or so year old daughter. The gist of what he said to his daughter went somewhat like this (as best as I can remember).
He said that he decided to put his views in a letter because his daughter was too young to understand them, and he hoped that she will find them meaningful later in life.
In the letter he said that the advancement the world had seen in the 20th century and its hope in the next lie in rational thought, and not blind faith as basis for all our actions. From rational thought, we learned to understand and adapt 'better' to Nature than our forebears, and thus saw big improvements in the quality of life for a larger proportion of human beings than ever in history. We can also understand better the effect of our actions on Nature only through rational analysis.
History had proven that the way of life based on blind faith as basis for human conduct is futile and outright dangerous. Based on blind faith, an Irish Catholic is as absolutely sure that his view is right as a Muslim in Arabia and a Hindu in India with theirs. And they are totally disagreable to each other. As by blind faith such people are absolutely certain that they are right and therefore the others must be wrong, how are we going to resolve their differences? In fact throughout history these people kill each other as the only way to 'prove' that they are 'right'.
This Russian school incident is just another example of what this man was trying to say to his young daughter. Sadly, many idiots that operate the way he feared still exist in this new century.
Another man once said: War does not determine who is right, it only determines who is left".
And if you have been following the US elections, those idiots are vying to boast on who makes a better war monger. Such is the character of a country that many idiots I know think is the greatest country on earth.
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Another Man the Gods Can Talk To
(report on death of Francis Crick, one of 2 scientists that discovered DNA and the double helix)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040729/05
The life of another great mind that helped mankind understand a little bit more of Nature's laws had come to pass. While people like me may mourn their passing, the comfort we draw from this is now at least when the Gods have some time on their hands and want to share their thoughts a bit, they have at least one more soul that can at least talk some sense with Them.
Unlike the other idiots who only want to crowd around Them but can only repeat like broken records the words from the one book supposedly written by Them - which if true, They will obviously not be interested in!
Who wants some parrot to repeat the words one had written thousands of years ago, hor?
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040729/05
The life of another great mind that helped mankind understand a little bit more of Nature's laws had come to pass. While people like me may mourn their passing, the comfort we draw from this is now at least when the Gods have some time on their hands and want to share their thoughts a bit, they have at least one more soul that can at least talk some sense with Them.
Unlike the other idiots who only want to crowd around Them but can only repeat like broken records the words from the one book supposedly written by Them - which if true, They will obviously not be interested in!
Who wants some parrot to repeat the words one had written thousands of years ago, hor?
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Vietnamisation in the Making
AFP headlines:
Powell discusses with Saudis dispatch of Arab-Muslim forces to Iraq
(29/07/2004)
----
Here they go again. Trying to get others to fight for what they started, and the ones they install. That's the best way to make money:
1. bomb the hell out of one guy and expend off old arms stock (i call this animalistic behavior)
2. install your guys so that all the big contracts come to you (many call this thuggery)
3. use that money for new arms development (economists call that Keynesian economics)
4. then get others to die fighting for those fellas you install (I call that vietnamisation)
5. then sell arms to both sides (they would call that free market)
Nice clean strategy for money making. As you can also see, the nicest thing about free market is that the powerful are free to determine what they are free to do to the market - and whatever they do (not others hor) are all part of free market.
Anyone wants them to admit aloud to everything before you realise/accept it? Like the Chinese say, to draw out the intestinals in a painting?
Powell discusses with Saudis dispatch of Arab-Muslim forces to Iraq
(29/07/2004)
----
Here they go again. Trying to get others to fight for what they started, and the ones they install. That's the best way to make money:
1. bomb the hell out of one guy and expend off old arms stock (i call this animalistic behavior)
2. install your guys so that all the big contracts come to you (many call this thuggery)
3. use that money for new arms development (economists call that Keynesian economics)
4. then get others to die fighting for those fellas you install (I call that vietnamisation)
5. then sell arms to both sides (they would call that free market)
Nice clean strategy for money making. As you can also see, the nicest thing about free market is that the powerful are free to determine what they are free to do to the market - and whatever they do (not others hor) are all part of free market.
Anyone wants them to admit aloud to everything before you realise/accept it? Like the Chinese say, to draw out the intestinals in a painting?
Tao of the Idiots
Makes you wonder why some idiots are so idiotic as to scheme to turn others thousands of miles away into idiots just like themselves? And then call the others terrorists when they get whacked in return. I think some of these idiots really do not know why they get whacked in return.
Throughout history men in power had always find such idiots very useful. And conversely so too.
So it goes from the days of the Egytian pharaohs & their priests, to Caesar & Paul, to Bush & his evangelist Graham...
xxx
THE DEADLY BATTLE FOR IRAQI SOULS
Wednesday July 28, 2004
With Christian evangelism deepening the crisis, what is needed is Muslim humanitarian aid - Kalinga Seneviratne
The invasion of Iraq has been followed quietly by another invasion – that of Christian missionaries, mainly from the United States and South Korea, who often disguise themselves as civilian contractors, aid workers or businessmen. Their main objective is to spread the "good word" to Muslims in Iraq, where only 750,000 of the country's 25 million people are Christians. Some of these "contractors" have been taken hostage by Islamic militants.
One of them, South Korean Kim Sun Il, was beheaded. Mr Kim worked for a South Korean company which delivered military supplies. But he was also a fervent Christian who was learning Arabic in order to spread the gospel in Iraq - which made him a prime target for Islamic militants.
Fanatical Christian evangelists, who believe that the "divine spirit" has sent them to Baghdad to minister to the country's Muslim population, are deepening the conflict there.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi recently offered to send a medical team and to help mobilise the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) member states to help rebuild Iraq. It showed a recognition on Mr Abdullah's part that what is needed in Iraq is not more troops or Christian missionaries, but more Muslim humanitarian aid groups to work hand-in-hand with their Muslim brothers. Iraqis need to be reassured that the foreigners offering to help them are not part of a colonialist plot hatched in Washington by President George W Bush's neo-conservative Christian supporters. This suspicion has contributed to the violence against so-called foreign contractors.
In February, an American Baptist missionary was killed execution-style and two others were wounded. They were in Iraq to open the country's first Baptist church.
In April, seven South Korean missionaries from the Korean Council of Evangelical Churches were detained by Islamic militants while en route to Mosul to open a missionary school. They were later released following behind-the-scenes negotiations with the kidnappers.
Recently, an Islamic group in Iraq threatened to kidnap and behead any Korean Christian missionary who set foot in the country. Some missionaries have military backgrounds. Mr John Kelly, the Baptist missionary gunned down in February, was a former US Marine who had studied Arabic. America's Southern Baptist Church, one of the leading lights of the fundamentalist evangelical movement, offers training on how missionaries can disguise their evangelical work.
Two such trainees, Mr Craig Johnson and Mr Michael Jones, told the Wall Street Journal in May that they went to Iraq at their pastor's suggestion in June last year to explore business opportunities. Mr Johnson works for a natural gas utility and he typifies the new breed of American evangelist who believes in "spreading America's good fortune" to other lands through business and proselytising.
One of the leading exponents of this brand of Christian evangelism is Rev Franklin Graham, the former leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, who called Islam "an evil religion" after the 911 attacks. He heads the Samaritan's Purse, a Christian disaster relief ministry which had a budget of US$194 million ($334 million) last year. Rev Graham is a close friend of Mr Bush and prayed with him on the eve of the war. He also delivered the sermon at Mr Bush's inauguration and was invited to lead the Good Friday prayer at the Pentagon this year. Even before hostilities began, Samaritan's Purse stockpiled food, housing materials and other goods in Jordan for victims of the war and waited for the signal to enter Iraq.
Rev Graham's teams now provide for the needs of more than 100,000 Iraqi Muslims made destitute by the war. And Iraqi Christian groups hand out Arabic-language Bibles and related literature produced with American funds
With an estimated 12,000 missionaries worldwide, South Korea is home to some of the world's most aggressive Christian evangelists. South Korean missionary Kwon Hyuk Gan told the Kookmin Ilbo daily in Seoul that nine churches have been set up in Iraq by Korean missionaries since the US occupation began.
Prof Paul Boyer, professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin, warned that these fundamentalist crusaders pose a grave threat to world peace because of their belief in the second coming of Christ and the need to liberate Jerusalem (of Muslims) to facilitate it.
The "shadowy but vital way that belief in Biblical prophecy is helping to mould grassroots attitudes towards current US foreign policy" is a dangerous trend, he has said, and one that must be reversed.
The writer is a journalist, broadcaster and media analyst who currently teaches broadcast communications in Singapore. If you have a view on this, email us at http://us.f416.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=news@newstoday.com.sg&YY=40782&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b
Throughout history men in power had always find such idiots very useful. And conversely so too.
So it goes from the days of the Egytian pharaohs & their priests, to Caesar & Paul, to Bush & his evangelist Graham...
xxx
THE DEADLY BATTLE FOR IRAQI SOULS
Wednesday July 28, 2004
With Christian evangelism deepening the crisis, what is needed is Muslim humanitarian aid - Kalinga Seneviratne
The invasion of Iraq has been followed quietly by another invasion – that of Christian missionaries, mainly from the United States and South Korea, who often disguise themselves as civilian contractors, aid workers or businessmen. Their main objective is to spread the "good word" to Muslims in Iraq, where only 750,000 of the country's 25 million people are Christians. Some of these "contractors" have been taken hostage by Islamic militants.
One of them, South Korean Kim Sun Il, was beheaded. Mr Kim worked for a South Korean company which delivered military supplies. But he was also a fervent Christian who was learning Arabic in order to spread the gospel in Iraq - which made him a prime target for Islamic militants.
Fanatical Christian evangelists, who believe that the "divine spirit" has sent them to Baghdad to minister to the country's Muslim population, are deepening the conflict there.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi recently offered to send a medical team and to help mobilise the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) member states to help rebuild Iraq. It showed a recognition on Mr Abdullah's part that what is needed in Iraq is not more troops or Christian missionaries, but more Muslim humanitarian aid groups to work hand-in-hand with their Muslim brothers. Iraqis need to be reassured that the foreigners offering to help them are not part of a colonialist plot hatched in Washington by President George W Bush's neo-conservative Christian supporters. This suspicion has contributed to the violence against so-called foreign contractors.
In February, an American Baptist missionary was killed execution-style and two others were wounded. They were in Iraq to open the country's first Baptist church.
In April, seven South Korean missionaries from the Korean Council of Evangelical Churches were detained by Islamic militants while en route to Mosul to open a missionary school. They were later released following behind-the-scenes negotiations with the kidnappers.
Recently, an Islamic group in Iraq threatened to kidnap and behead any Korean Christian missionary who set foot in the country. Some missionaries have military backgrounds. Mr John Kelly, the Baptist missionary gunned down in February, was a former US Marine who had studied Arabic. America's Southern Baptist Church, one of the leading lights of the fundamentalist evangelical movement, offers training on how missionaries can disguise their evangelical work.
Two such trainees, Mr Craig Johnson and Mr Michael Jones, told the Wall Street Journal in May that they went to Iraq at their pastor's suggestion in June last year to explore business opportunities. Mr Johnson works for a natural gas utility and he typifies the new breed of American evangelist who believes in "spreading America's good fortune" to other lands through business and proselytising.
One of the leading exponents of this brand of Christian evangelism is Rev Franklin Graham, the former leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, who called Islam "an evil religion" after the 911 attacks. He heads the Samaritan's Purse, a Christian disaster relief ministry which had a budget of US$194 million ($334 million) last year. Rev Graham is a close friend of Mr Bush and prayed with him on the eve of the war. He also delivered the sermon at Mr Bush's inauguration and was invited to lead the Good Friday prayer at the Pentagon this year. Even before hostilities began, Samaritan's Purse stockpiled food, housing materials and other goods in Jordan for victims of the war and waited for the signal to enter Iraq.
Rev Graham's teams now provide for the needs of more than 100,000 Iraqi Muslims made destitute by the war. And Iraqi Christian groups hand out Arabic-language Bibles and related literature produced with American funds
With an estimated 12,000 missionaries worldwide, South Korea is home to some of the world's most aggressive Christian evangelists. South Korean missionary Kwon Hyuk Gan told the Kookmin Ilbo daily in Seoul that nine churches have been set up in Iraq by Korean missionaries since the US occupation began.
Prof Paul Boyer, professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin, warned that these fundamentalist crusaders pose a grave threat to world peace because of their belief in the second coming of Christ and the need to liberate Jerusalem (of Muslims) to facilitate it.
The "shadowy but vital way that belief in Biblical prophecy is helping to mould grassroots attitudes towards current US foreign policy" is a dangerous trend, he has said, and one that must be reversed.
The writer is a journalist, broadcaster and media analyst who currently teaches broadcast communications in Singapore. If you have a view on this, email us at http://us.f416.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=news@newstoday.com.sg&YY=40782&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b
Monday, July 26, 2004
Mousy Ideas
There are people who believe that this entire existence is created for them who were made specially by the Creators in the image of the Creators themselves.
To support that believe, a common example cited by these people, in what seems so obvious to them (unlike people like me), is the number of things 'created' by humans and thus how humans 'control everything around us'.
Thus, we have people like those in this article who think they had 'created' something new which therefore belongs to them (that's what patenting means if you are new to this game).
They thus think that they have the right to milk other humans for it (that's the only thing patenting facilitates if you are new to the history of the last century.)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040726/03
However, what these people refuse (or try to avoid) to accept is that all they had done was discovered and played with the rules of Nature.
Admittedly, that's not a feat that other creatures or life-forms are capable of, thus the arrogance that gave rise to some people's believe that began a couple of thousand years ago (if you know what humans were capable of a couple of thousand years ago, that is a huge dose of supreme idiotic arrogance!).
If anything, all these certain humans had done is observed, analysed, understood and tweaked the way Nature is (and will always be till kingdom come, er, or for some idiots, till their king come again).
Another way of putting it is that the mouse that those people 'created' will not exist if the rules of Nature do not allow it. They had not created anything new, they merely tweaked Nature so that it expresses Itself in a new way (in the form of a new mouse). They can do that as long as they stay within the boundaries of Nature's laws.
What the other humans are saying is that hey we might have discovered a way of manipulating one aspect of Nature but we do not understand at all what its long term effects are on the entire eco-system on Earth (Earth only, a small speck in Nature's creation, hor). So, recognise but don't give exclusive rights to such discoveries if we cannot determine its effects (for those unGodlike ones that don't understand patenting, patent laws, not Nature's laws hor, require anyone who try to use, replicate, reproduce a method or outcome to get permission, after paying royalty, from their 'creators' before doing so. Hey, some people are more godlike than others?).
Another way of looking at this is this. Telling me that you have discovered that pressing a green button on a machine causes it to spit fire is fine and good but what the hell is the machine also doing? If we don't know, we had better make sure anyone that wants to take a look at the machine be allowed to do so without having to get permission from that guy that is pressing the green button.
If those people were to be more concerned about what effect their 'creations' will have on Nature as opposed to making more money through their patents, we would have less quibble.
But then, if that happens, there will be a lot less reason$ to be arrogant humans - which is very unGod-like for many followers of those supreme idiot$ from a few millenia ago....
Patents for Idiots:
Modern medicine and patenting started when some money hungry idiots realised that they could have made tonnes of money if they had laid their hands on what people like Fleming & Louis Pasteur discovered.
They now call those idiots' ideas capitalism & free market, and I can show you many an idiot that will swear by the greatness of these ideas. Over the last decade or so, the chief practitioner of these ideas, the US, had been trying to help the world progress along by doing a few things:
1. accord rights to the person who register any new discovery with their patent office regardless of whether the process or method had in fact been in use already. That means that one can steal an idea from another if that other is not fast or greedy enough to patent it. A good example are all the traditional cures from all cultures around the world which is why countries from Brazil, to South Africa, to India and China are up against them.
2. to extend the duration for patent rights especially medicine to 25 years from present 10-15 year (based on millenia old concept of the longer you milk the fatter you get)
3. doing bilateral agreements outside of the WTO to get other countries to agree on the above arrangements outside the know of the common people.
Some of you like me may wonder why smart people like Fleming and Pasteur are so dumb as not to come up with those same ideas. Such great minds usually don't do something for a good reason. Perhaps they understand that making money and milking others is like pressing a green start button on a fire spitting machine in a house of cards. Within Nature's laws and human-like, but perhaps undesirable and unGod-like.
But then the smarter capitalist idiots ask: how do we know for sure something is not so good? If we don't, we cannot judge and therefore should not change or stop others from doing something. It is within each individual's so-called 'rights' to do what they want, as long as it is done on a willing buyer willing seller basis. But if that's the case, why force (in some cases by killing) others to pay royalty, practice capitalism, stop selling WMDs to others, and so on?
Hah, those are different things entirely for those who don't do that are evil empires... sounds familiar?
To support that believe, a common example cited by these people, in what seems so obvious to them (unlike people like me), is the number of things 'created' by humans and thus how humans 'control everything around us'.
Thus, we have people like those in this article who think they had 'created' something new which therefore belongs to them (that's what patenting means if you are new to this game).
They thus think that they have the right to milk other humans for it (that's the only thing patenting facilitates if you are new to the history of the last century.)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040726/03
However, what these people refuse (or try to avoid) to accept is that all they had done was discovered and played with the rules of Nature.
Admittedly, that's not a feat that other creatures or life-forms are capable of, thus the arrogance that gave rise to some people's believe that began a couple of thousand years ago (if you know what humans were capable of a couple of thousand years ago, that is a huge dose of supreme idiotic arrogance!).
If anything, all these certain humans had done is observed, analysed, understood and tweaked the way Nature is (and will always be till kingdom come, er, or for some idiots, till their king come again).
Another way of putting it is that the mouse that those people 'created' will not exist if the rules of Nature do not allow it. They had not created anything new, they merely tweaked Nature so that it expresses Itself in a new way (in the form of a new mouse). They can do that as long as they stay within the boundaries of Nature's laws.
What the other humans are saying is that hey we might have discovered a way of manipulating one aspect of Nature but we do not understand at all what its long term effects are on the entire eco-system on Earth (Earth only, a small speck in Nature's creation, hor). So, recognise but don't give exclusive rights to such discoveries if we cannot determine its effects (for those unGodlike ones that don't understand patenting, patent laws, not Nature's laws hor, require anyone who try to use, replicate, reproduce a method or outcome to get permission, after paying royalty, from their 'creators' before doing so. Hey, some people are more godlike than others?).
Another way of looking at this is this. Telling me that you have discovered that pressing a green button on a machine causes it to spit fire is fine and good but what the hell is the machine also doing? If we don't know, we had better make sure anyone that wants to take a look at the machine be allowed to do so without having to get permission from that guy that is pressing the green button.
If those people were to be more concerned about what effect their 'creations' will have on Nature as opposed to making more money through their patents, we would have less quibble.
But then, if that happens, there will be a lot less reason$ to be arrogant humans - which is very unGod-like for many followers of those supreme idiot$ from a few millenia ago....
Patents for Idiots:
Modern medicine and patenting started when some money hungry idiots realised that they could have made tonnes of money if they had laid their hands on what people like Fleming & Louis Pasteur discovered.
They now call those idiots' ideas capitalism & free market, and I can show you many an idiot that will swear by the greatness of these ideas. Over the last decade or so, the chief practitioner of these ideas, the US, had been trying to help the world progress along by doing a few things:
1. accord rights to the person who register any new discovery with their patent office regardless of whether the process or method had in fact been in use already. That means that one can steal an idea from another if that other is not fast or greedy enough to patent it. A good example are all the traditional cures from all cultures around the world which is why countries from Brazil, to South Africa, to India and China are up against them.
2. to extend the duration for patent rights especially medicine to 25 years from present 10-15 year (based on millenia old concept of the longer you milk the fatter you get)
3. doing bilateral agreements outside of the WTO to get other countries to agree on the above arrangements outside the know of the common people.
Some of you like me may wonder why smart people like Fleming and Pasteur are so dumb as not to come up with those same ideas. Such great minds usually don't do something for a good reason. Perhaps they understand that making money and milking others is like pressing a green start button on a fire spitting machine in a house of cards. Within Nature's laws and human-like, but perhaps undesirable and unGod-like.
But then the smarter capitalist idiots ask: how do we know for sure something is not so good? If we don't, we cannot judge and therefore should not change or stop others from doing something. It is within each individual's so-called 'rights' to do what they want, as long as it is done on a willing buyer willing seller basis. But if that's the case, why force (in some cases by killing) others to pay royalty, practice capitalism, stop selling WMDs to others, and so on?
Hah, those are different things entirely for those who don't do that are evil empires... sounds familiar?
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Idiots' Paradise
The Americans, British and Australians colluded in bluffing the entire world into believing that their effort of robbing the wealth of an oil rich country was for the freedom of the ones they subjugate.
And every time they get whacked back they label the others (from Sitting Bull to Ho Chi Minh to now Sadr) terrorists to again try and bluff the simple idiots of the world.
As usual, they are successful (but only to some degree). I know of people who really believed that and who tried to argue with me when I first challenged their effort 2 years ago.
These people claimed that people like me were conspiracy theorists, have too much time on my hands etc.
2 years later (that's an awfully long time for our modern world where info travels at speed of light but we can be forgiving) when even the idiots of the world now realised what had really happened, their leaders again tried to bluff the world - you saw how stupid all those 'special commission shows' were? If you believe their findings that all their combined intelligence were useless and orchestrated greed is not at play, then you should check your own (supreme ego notwithstanding).
History offers great lessons to those that try to learn from it. Those who don't will make simplistic conclusions to save themselves the effort.
The history of the hundreds of years of anglo saxon adventures (at the expense of others) are littered with examples such as that in this article:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E3C89C20-6A0A-48F9-9476-A72F4E00A426.htm
Wars can be paradise for idiots like those American soldiers and their leaders who tried to bluff the other idiots of the world.
But then again, for those that never learn from history, this entire existence is an effort saving paradise...
And every time they get whacked back they label the others (from Sitting Bull to Ho Chi Minh to now Sadr) terrorists to again try and bluff the simple idiots of the world.
As usual, they are successful (but only to some degree). I know of people who really believed that and who tried to argue with me when I first challenged their effort 2 years ago.
These people claimed that people like me were conspiracy theorists, have too much time on my hands etc.
2 years later (that's an awfully long time for our modern world where info travels at speed of light but we can be forgiving) when even the idiots of the world now realised what had really happened, their leaders again tried to bluff the world - you saw how stupid all those 'special commission shows' were? If you believe their findings that all their combined intelligence were useless and orchestrated greed is not at play, then you should check your own (supreme ego notwithstanding).
History offers great lessons to those that try to learn from it. Those who don't will make simplistic conclusions to save themselves the effort.
The history of the hundreds of years of anglo saxon adventures (at the expense of others) are littered with examples such as that in this article:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/E3C89C20-6A0A-48F9-9476-A72F4E00A426.htm
Wars can be paradise for idiots like those American soldiers and their leaders who tried to bluff the other idiots of the world.
But then again, for those that never learn from history, this entire existence is an effort saving paradise...
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Jesus in Pencil
(I was forwarded a chain mail claiming that its attached pencil drawings of a Caucasian was that of Jesus. To which I responded to sender with the below)
The guy in the pictures looked like any Tom, Dick or Harry to me. But definitely not like any Ah Kow, Ah Beng, or Ah Niu. Other than that I don't know how anyone can tell he is Jesus...
Perhaps, if all humans are God's children he could make his own son look a bit like Tom here, Ah Kow there, Ali somewhere else, Siva another place? Would make it so so easy to convince idiots like me.
May be it was just a birth defect? Or may be it's the Ah Kows that are defective? Or may be it's just a case of the grass on the other side looks greener...
The guy in the pictures looked like any Tom, Dick or Harry to me. But definitely not like any Ah Kow, Ah Beng, or Ah Niu. Other than that I don't know how anyone can tell he is Jesus...
Perhaps, if all humans are God's children he could make his own son look a bit like Tom here, Ah Kow there, Ali somewhere else, Siva another place? Would make it so so easy to convince idiots like me.
May be it was just a birth defect? Or may be it's the Ah Kows that are defective? Or may be it's just a case of the grass on the other side looks greener...
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
When Idiots Play God or Think God's on Their Side
Every year a new batch of young and hopeful youths in my country has to live with decisions made by men that try to play god. Year after year for the last 30 plus years of my life, the result of the actions of these second group of idiots is either that documented in the below news report, or that I experienced first hand when I was in school.
Each year I read reports of Chinese or Indian children with top grades wondering why they cannot get into courses of their choice pleading to their respective 'politically influential saviours' (MCA or MIC) for assistance to change the fate placed upon them by their own government partly run by those same MCA/MIC idiots.
So each year, the idiots in MCA & MIC get to play nice guys to these bright young men & women pleading at their feet. It must make these idiots feel damn good for they keep retaining the problem caused by a system is blatantly fouled (see later for why). All they can suggest to those poor kids that had slogged for years to get the results they have is go plead to the same idiots that caused the problems in the first place! Otherwise, like a father in the report said, go watch a fish pond or some trees for the rest of your life.
And only dead fools fail to notice that this don't seem to be a problem with the UMNO politicians! And if you want to know why that is the case and the system is blatantly fouled, you only have to study in a government run school like me where children of all the races mix.
When I was about 16, my school had the usual annual O-level (MCE then) trial exams. When the results were published, kids like me were eagerly trying to calculate our 'scores' (like in the news report). As everyone around me was doing that, a fellow Malay classmate that played football with us every day came cycling in with a broad smile on his face.
When I asked him why he was so happy, I was shocked to hear his answer. He said he had no need to calculate his 'scores' for he only has to pass to get into university while everyone else (meaning the other non-Malay kids) had to compete with each other and score top marks. That incident hit me like a lightning and will forever remain fresh in my mind. For it made me wonder what system and parent would have given a young kid like that Malay friend of mine that idea. Before he does anything productive in his life he had already been inculcated with the notion that he did not have to work even as hard as the other kids like me!
So, it was not surprising that 20 years later Malaysia was one of the worst hit countries in the 1997 crisis (thank god they had free oil to coast on!) and PM Mahathir came out to criticise the Malay students (demonstrating against him for jailing Anwar Ibrahim) for not being grateful and more interested in scooting around the campus in bikes bought with scholarship money than in their studies! So he changed the system to be 'more meritocratic' but the problem persists (per today's report)
That was also why years ago when Mahathir came up with his Vision 2020 to bring Malaysia to developed nation status by 2020 people like me scoffed at it. How does one expect to do that if half his country’s parents (like that of my Malay friend's) believe their children don’t have to work as hard as the other kids for the latter will not be there to compete? The only way Mahathir can do that is to play god and control the university admission of all the children on earth so that his 'disadvantaged' Malay students get to all the top courses while the other kids in the world go plead at the feet of his UMNO politicians or be satisfied with watching fish ponds or trees for the rest of their lives. But then, it is nature's way that idiots that try to play god will get played out, and non-idiots will not submissively go watch fish ponds or trees. Which is why I harbour better hopes for the future.
Today, new PM Abdullah said that he will look into the matter with his cabinet. Again I am tempted to scoff at him. But in my heart and for the sake of the future of Malaysia, I hope good sense will prevail. But he will have to go against people that are damn sure it is their god given right to get to those university places. And that’s a big bunch of idiots thinking that god’s on their side - at least as long as their oil gods are around. Perhaps it is really the oil devils but it takes more than idiots to tell the difference….
xxx
Don’t despair, top scorers told
The Star, 1 June 2004
BY FOONG PEK YEE AND LEONG SHEN-LI
KUALA LUMPUR: MCA has asked top scorers to file their appeals and not to give up in despair.
“Please do not give up because of your present frustrations. You may regret later if you do not do your best to appeal and find a way out,” said MCA national education bureau chief Dr Wee Ka Siong
He said the Youth wing had classified STPM achievers who were denied entry to public universities or did not get courses of their choice into categories under a move to help them.
Dr Wee said the groupings are scorers with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 4.0 followed by CGPA of between 3.92 and 3.75 who scored either 3As and 2A- or 3As and 1A- , CGPA of between 3.50 and 3.74, CGPA of between 3.0 and 3.49, CGPA of between 2.5 and 2.99 and CGPA of between 2.0 and 2.49.
He advised affected students under such categories to submit their appeals to the respective universities and the Higher Education Department and forward a copy to his bureau before June 6.
“On our part, we will do our best to help you although we cannot give you any promise or guarantee,” he told a briefing for about 600 affected students yesterday.
About 20 students managed to take part in an hour-long question-and-answer session where the most common question was whether their appeals were likely to be successful.
Dr Wee advised students who did not meet the cut-off point for medicine, a CGPA of 4.0, to put in other options in their appeals if all their original choices in their applications were medicine.
Those with a CGPA of 3.92 were the most affected, he said, adding that this category who did not qualify for medicine, pharmacy or dentistry, were given “way out” courses like forestry, aquaculture and wood fibre.
He advised these students to put in new options which were more compatible with their earlier choices.
MCA Youth chairman Datuk Ong Tee Keat was also at the briefing.
“There are also many others, besides the 128 with a CGPA of 4.0, with very good results who got very odd offers or were not offered anything at all,” he said.
“I don’t want to see a brain drain which is not good for the nation. This is likely to happen when these bright students are forced to accept offers to study overseas after failing to get into a local public university and study courses they are interested in,” said Ong, who is also Deputy Youth and Sports Minister.
Pain and frustration was etched on the faces of students who packed the auditorium.
Many saw the briefing as the last hope of pursuing the career of their choice.
Straight As student Low Pei Teeng, 20, has been crying since she found out that she was not successful in applying for medicine and her 3.92 cumulative grade point average had instead qualified her for aquaculture at Kolej Universiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia.
Her father Ah Kuan had at the question-and-answer session said: “My daughter wanted to do medicine and now they have asked her to go and look at a fish pond in Terengganu.”
With a CGPA of 4.0, Lee Jun Hoe from SMK La Salle, Petaling Jaya, was extremely disappointed at not getting pharmacy, but was instead offered zoology.
Christine Chan, from SMK Raja Perempuan, Ipoh, was shocked to discover she was not offered a place in any university despite obtaining a CGPA of 3.4.
Each year I read reports of Chinese or Indian children with top grades wondering why they cannot get into courses of their choice pleading to their respective 'politically influential saviours' (MCA or MIC) for assistance to change the fate placed upon them by their own government partly run by those same MCA/MIC idiots.
So each year, the idiots in MCA & MIC get to play nice guys to these bright young men & women pleading at their feet. It must make these idiots feel damn good for they keep retaining the problem caused by a system is blatantly fouled (see later for why). All they can suggest to those poor kids that had slogged for years to get the results they have is go plead to the same idiots that caused the problems in the first place! Otherwise, like a father in the report said, go watch a fish pond or some trees for the rest of your life.
And only dead fools fail to notice that this don't seem to be a problem with the UMNO politicians! And if you want to know why that is the case and the system is blatantly fouled, you only have to study in a government run school like me where children of all the races mix.
When I was about 16, my school had the usual annual O-level (MCE then) trial exams. When the results were published, kids like me were eagerly trying to calculate our 'scores' (like in the news report). As everyone around me was doing that, a fellow Malay classmate that played football with us every day came cycling in with a broad smile on his face.
When I asked him why he was so happy, I was shocked to hear his answer. He said he had no need to calculate his 'scores' for he only has to pass to get into university while everyone else (meaning the other non-Malay kids) had to compete with each other and score top marks. That incident hit me like a lightning and will forever remain fresh in my mind. For it made me wonder what system and parent would have given a young kid like that Malay friend of mine that idea. Before he does anything productive in his life he had already been inculcated with the notion that he did not have to work even as hard as the other kids like me!
So, it was not surprising that 20 years later Malaysia was one of the worst hit countries in the 1997 crisis (thank god they had free oil to coast on!) and PM Mahathir came out to criticise the Malay students (demonstrating against him for jailing Anwar Ibrahim) for not being grateful and more interested in scooting around the campus in bikes bought with scholarship money than in their studies! So he changed the system to be 'more meritocratic' but the problem persists (per today's report)
That was also why years ago when Mahathir came up with his Vision 2020 to bring Malaysia to developed nation status by 2020 people like me scoffed at it. How does one expect to do that if half his country’s parents (like that of my Malay friend's) believe their children don’t have to work as hard as the other kids for the latter will not be there to compete? The only way Mahathir can do that is to play god and control the university admission of all the children on earth so that his 'disadvantaged' Malay students get to all the top courses while the other kids in the world go plead at the feet of his UMNO politicians or be satisfied with watching fish ponds or trees for the rest of their lives. But then, it is nature's way that idiots that try to play god will get played out, and non-idiots will not submissively go watch fish ponds or trees. Which is why I harbour better hopes for the future.
Today, new PM Abdullah said that he will look into the matter with his cabinet. Again I am tempted to scoff at him. But in my heart and for the sake of the future of Malaysia, I hope good sense will prevail. But he will have to go against people that are damn sure it is their god given right to get to those university places. And that’s a big bunch of idiots thinking that god’s on their side - at least as long as their oil gods are around. Perhaps it is really the oil devils but it takes more than idiots to tell the difference….
xxx
Don’t despair, top scorers told
The Star, 1 June 2004
BY FOONG PEK YEE AND LEONG SHEN-LI
KUALA LUMPUR: MCA has asked top scorers to file their appeals and not to give up in despair.
“Please do not give up because of your present frustrations. You may regret later if you do not do your best to appeal and find a way out,” said MCA national education bureau chief Dr Wee Ka Siong
He said the Youth wing had classified STPM achievers who were denied entry to public universities or did not get courses of their choice into categories under a move to help them.
Dr Wee said the groupings are scorers with a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) of 4.0 followed by CGPA of between 3.92 and 3.75 who scored either 3As and 2A- or 3As and 1A- , CGPA of between 3.50 and 3.74, CGPA of between 3.0 and 3.49, CGPA of between 2.5 and 2.99 and CGPA of between 2.0 and 2.49.
He advised affected students under such categories to submit their appeals to the respective universities and the Higher Education Department and forward a copy to his bureau before June 6.
“On our part, we will do our best to help you although we cannot give you any promise or guarantee,” he told a briefing for about 600 affected students yesterday.
About 20 students managed to take part in an hour-long question-and-answer session where the most common question was whether their appeals were likely to be successful.
Dr Wee advised students who did not meet the cut-off point for medicine, a CGPA of 4.0, to put in other options in their appeals if all their original choices in their applications were medicine.
Those with a CGPA of 3.92 were the most affected, he said, adding that this category who did not qualify for medicine, pharmacy or dentistry, were given “way out” courses like forestry, aquaculture and wood fibre.
He advised these students to put in new options which were more compatible with their earlier choices.
MCA Youth chairman Datuk Ong Tee Keat was also at the briefing.
“There are also many others, besides the 128 with a CGPA of 4.0, with very good results who got very odd offers or were not offered anything at all,” he said.
“I don’t want to see a brain drain which is not good for the nation. This is likely to happen when these bright students are forced to accept offers to study overseas after failing to get into a local public university and study courses they are interested in,” said Ong, who is also Deputy Youth and Sports Minister.
Pain and frustration was etched on the faces of students who packed the auditorium.
Many saw the briefing as the last hope of pursuing the career of their choice.
Straight As student Low Pei Teeng, 20, has been crying since she found out that she was not successful in applying for medicine and her 3.92 cumulative grade point average had instead qualified her for aquaculture at Kolej Universiti Sains dan Teknologi Malaysia.
Her father Ah Kuan had at the question-and-answer session said: “My daughter wanted to do medicine and now they have asked her to go and look at a fish pond in Terengganu.”
With a CGPA of 4.0, Lee Jun Hoe from SMK La Salle, Petaling Jaya, was extremely disappointed at not getting pharmacy, but was instead offered zoology.
Christine Chan, from SMK Raja Perempuan, Ipoh, was shocked to discover she was not offered a place in any university despite obtaining a CGPA of 3.4.
Monday, May 31, 2004
Do you know what is happening?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3762677.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3762875.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3762217.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3761027.stm
Do you know what all these headline news in BBC today has in common? There are 4 different countries with seemingly nothing in common.
[Saudi Arabia] One country is the largest exporter of oil to the US & ruled by people installed by the British for their common convenience - now they have terrorists don't know for what reason.
[Venezuela] Another is the 2nd largest exporter to the US but whose popularly elected President decided that saving the poor was more important than enriching the oil magnates - now he is not popular don't know for what reason.
[Iraq] The third has the potential to be 2nd largest exporter to the US - it was recently whacked by the US and British don't know for what reason.
[Afghanistan] The last offered a path for the Americans & their cronies to build their pipelines to the rich oil fields in Central Asia that used to be controlled by the Russians and a potential source of oil for India & China - it was whacked by the US and British don't know for what reason.
Don't know who come up with such things. Don't know for what reason....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3762875.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3762217.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3761027.stm
Do you know what all these headline news in BBC today has in common? There are 4 different countries with seemingly nothing in common.
[Saudi Arabia] One country is the largest exporter of oil to the US & ruled by people installed by the British for their common convenience - now they have terrorists don't know for what reason.
[Venezuela] Another is the 2nd largest exporter to the US but whose popularly elected President decided that saving the poor was more important than enriching the oil magnates - now he is not popular don't know for what reason.
[Iraq] The third has the potential to be 2nd largest exporter to the US - it was recently whacked by the US and British don't know for what reason.
[Afghanistan] The last offered a path for the Americans & their cronies to build their pipelines to the rich oil fields in Central Asia that used to be controlled by the Russians and a potential source of oil for India & China - it was whacked by the US and British don't know for what reason.
Don't know who come up with such things. Don't know for what reason....
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Where are Thee, My Fella Nolah?
The world has lost and will continue to lose its natural heritage because of actions by supposed decendents of the great fella Nolah. Despite all their proclaimed God-like nature (albeit borne out of incest), man has yet to recognise that. Let alone control their actions & behaviours to stop/reverse the trend.
As a result, people like me really wish that our great Nolah fella can do an encore of his great feats. Then I'll be really impressed. But the 'smarter' Nolah-likes always say I cannot tell their Big Boss & Nolah what & when to do things otherwise I will be the Big Boss. Smart logic but other than say 'have faith lah' what better idea or solution to this
destruction do these 'smarter' Nolah-likes have? If history is any indication, not for another 2 thousand years at least!
By then bye bye to more life forms. But the good news is that any future Nolah need only to build a small tubby boat which won't need a hundred years to build. Unlike our poor last fella (may be the kinder Big Boss took pity on our last fella).
Just mere passing knowledge....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3700079.stm
p.s. anyone interested in getting a copy of my cheap bible on Nolah can request through e-mail to http://us.f416.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=cheekhiaw@yahoo.com&YY=29333&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b
As a result, people like me really wish that our great Nolah fella can do an encore of his great feats. Then I'll be really impressed. But the 'smarter' Nolah-likes always say I cannot tell their Big Boss & Nolah what & when to do things otherwise I will be the Big Boss. Smart logic but other than say 'have faith lah' what better idea or solution to this
destruction do these 'smarter' Nolah-likes have? If history is any indication, not for another 2 thousand years at least!
By then bye bye to more life forms. But the good news is that any future Nolah need only to build a small tubby boat which won't need a hundred years to build. Unlike our poor last fella (may be the kinder Big Boss took pity on our last fella).
Just mere passing knowledge....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3700079.stm
p.s. anyone interested in getting a copy of my cheap bible on Nolah can request through e-mail to http://us.f416.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=cheekhiaw@yahoo.com&YY=29333&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b
Wednesday, May 05, 2004
After That Then What?
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_733662,0008.htm
When I shared my admiration of the landing of probes in Mars early this year, someone of a certain religious following asked me rhetorically: "so what's next? All that is going to be mere passing knowledge". As if he had found something more permanent and more important.
I did not ask him what 'knowledge' he would consider as non-passing but assumed it is what 'knowledge' he gains from his sacred book
Then I thought, jeeze, these fellas are going to live their lives through eternity (they believe that they will be in Heaven with God for eternity, you know) contentedly with knowing only what they read from that one book?
Phew, that should be real boring, isn't it? I mean, for God.
Imagine billions of these fellas sticking around the Big Boss talking only about what is written in that one book which the Big Boss supposedly wrote?
But I guess that's just a passing question.... unimportant.
But that great being has only one miserable 300 pager of knowledge for all these fellas to admire through eternity? Not a very knowledgeable Being.
Perhaps God has to a lot more to offer that will fill up many books. It's just that because these fellas would not be able to appreciate them, God had left all of them out of it. That's why God wrote only ONE miserable book. The rest He pass off as mere 'passing knowledge'...
When I shared my admiration of the landing of probes in Mars early this year, someone of a certain religious following asked me rhetorically: "so what's next? All that is going to be mere passing knowledge". As if he had found something more permanent and more important.
I did not ask him what 'knowledge' he would consider as non-passing but assumed it is what 'knowledge' he gains from his sacred book
Then I thought, jeeze, these fellas are going to live their lives through eternity (they believe that they will be in Heaven with God for eternity, you know) contentedly with knowing only what they read from that one book?
Phew, that should be real boring, isn't it? I mean, for God.
Imagine billions of these fellas sticking around the Big Boss talking only about what is written in that one book which the Big Boss supposedly wrote?
But I guess that's just a passing question.... unimportant.
But that great being has only one miserable 300 pager of knowledge for all these fellas to admire through eternity? Not a very knowledgeable Being.
Perhaps God has to a lot more to offer that will fill up many books. It's just that because these fellas would not be able to appreciate them, God had left all of them out of it. That's why God wrote only ONE miserable book. The rest He pass off as mere 'passing knowledge'...
Why So Many Idiots
Attached is BBC's chronology of events for Vietnam War.
Even a respectable news agency dare not document the fact that France agreed to free elections that the Americans sabotaged. Worse than that, the nationalistic fervor of the Vietnamese is simply brushed off and 'communist insurgency' used as excuse for causing the death of 6 million people.
I guess, the good news is that idiots can say it is not their fault if they don't know....
Even a respectable news agency dare not document the fact that France agreed to free elections that the Americans sabotaged. Worse than that, the nationalistic fervor of the Vietnamese is simply brushed off and 'communist insurgency' used as excuse for causing the death of 6 million people.
I guess, the good news is that idiots can say it is not their fault if they don't know....
Zorro is Just Another Cowboy
Another hour of the Tonto (Spanish for idiot) for those that live in their own surreal world of American Zorros....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3685043.stm
(news report on abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British & American troops in jails)
Background on 'Tonto' :
In the 1960s, we kids used to eagerly watch an American TV show called 'The Lone Ranger' where the hero is a single American cowboy doing good deeds fighting against bad guys (typically crass looking Mexicans and Red Indians with an occasional sprinkle of bad whitemen) with the help of a Red Indian side kick by the name of Tonto. Only decades later did I find out that the word Tonto means 'fool' in Spanish. Those bastards had no qualm wtih openly using such a derogatory for the people who were helping them and whom they killed and robbed for centuries. Such arrogance...
Meaning of 'cowboy' :
A term used to mean 'one who shoots from the hip'; do things before thinking
(New report)
US President George W Bush is to appear on Arab TV channels on Wednesday in an attempt to regain trust after US forces were caught in an abuse scandal.
Photographs have emerged showing inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad stripped naked and humiliated. Mr Bush will say the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners is "shameless and unacceptable", his spokesman said. The US military has admitted to 25 deaths in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, including two murders.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president would offer 10-minute interviews to the US-sponsored al-Hurra television network and the Arab network al-Arabiya.
Al-Arabiya is a mainly Saudi-owned pan-Arab satellite channel. Across the Arab world, al-Arabiya probably has about 20 million viewers, as compared to al-Jazeera's 35 million.
Like al-Jazeera, the channel has been accused by US and Iraqi officials of encouraging attacks on US troops, giving too much prominence to anti-US attacks and providing a forum for opposition to the occupation. Al-Hurra TV is also a satellite channel. It is funded by the US to the tune of $62m and broadcasts from Springfield, Virginia. Anecdotal evidence suggests that about 20 to 25% of Iraqis have access to satellite TV. Damage limitation "This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," Mr McClellan said.
"These images do not represent what America stands for, nor do they represent the high standards of conduct that our military is committed to upholding," he continued.
Mr Bush's appearances are the latest attempt to limit the damage from the scandal, which has caused anger in Arab states and shock and condemnation around the world. US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice gave an interview to al-Arabiya on Tuesday in which she expressed "the United States' deep sorrow over the US troops' abuses against the Iraqi prisoners". She told the channel that President Bush was "disturbed by the distressing pictures". Deaths in custody Also on Tuesday US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said those responsible for the "unacceptable and un-American" conduct would be brought to justice.
The Pentagon has confirmed that criminal charges have been filed against six US soldiers in relation to the photos, while six senior officers have been reprimanded.
But there have been concerns that the mistreatment is more widespread. A senior army official said there had been investigations into 25 cases of death and 10 of abuse in US custody in Iraq or Afghanistan since December 2002. Of the 25 deaths, 12 were found to be either of natural or undetermined" causes, one was a "justifiable homicide", and two were murders. Ten inquiries are taking place, he says. Fresh allegations of US brutality against Iraqis emerged on Wednesday. The UK's human rights envoy to Iraq, Ann Clwyd, said she has for months been pursuing the case of a 73-year-old woman who claims she was taken to a prison, hooded, made to go on all fours, told she was a donkey and was then "ridden" by her tormenters. Deepening scandal The abuse scandal has deepened with the revelation that a report into mistreatment at Abu Ghraib was commissioned in January and completed in early March, but had still not been read by Mr Rumsfeld as of Tuesday. The report by Maj Gen Antonio Taguba found evidence of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses of Iraqi prisoners", including sexual abuse. Members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee have demanded to know why they were kept in the dark about the report, and have called for an opportunity to question Mr Rumsfeld. The BBC's Nick Childs in Washington says there's no hiding the dismay in the Bush administration and the Pentagon over the political fallout from this controversy. He adds that it is puzzling why, when it knew some weeks ago that these photographs were going to be published, that it didn't do more to try to pre-empt the furore.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3685043.stm
(news report on abuse of Iraqi prisoners by British & American troops in jails)
Background on 'Tonto' :
In the 1960s, we kids used to eagerly watch an American TV show called 'The Lone Ranger' where the hero is a single American cowboy doing good deeds fighting against bad guys (typically crass looking Mexicans and Red Indians with an occasional sprinkle of bad whitemen) with the help of a Red Indian side kick by the name of Tonto. Only decades later did I find out that the word Tonto means 'fool' in Spanish. Those bastards had no qualm wtih openly using such a derogatory for the people who were helping them and whom they killed and robbed for centuries. Such arrogance...
Meaning of 'cowboy' :
A term used to mean 'one who shoots from the hip'; do things before thinking
(New report)
Bush appeal to Arabs in abuse row
5 May 2004US President George W Bush is to appear on Arab TV channels on Wednesday in an attempt to regain trust after US forces were caught in an abuse scandal.
Photographs have emerged showing inmates at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad stripped naked and humiliated. Mr Bush will say the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners is "shameless and unacceptable", his spokesman said. The US military has admitted to 25 deaths in US custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, including two murders.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the president would offer 10-minute interviews to the US-sponsored al-Hurra television network and the Arab network al-Arabiya.
Al-Arabiya is a mainly Saudi-owned pan-Arab satellite channel. Across the Arab world, al-Arabiya probably has about 20 million viewers, as compared to al-Jazeera's 35 million.
Like al-Jazeera, the channel has been accused by US and Iraqi officials of encouraging attacks on US troops, giving too much prominence to anti-US attacks and providing a forum for opposition to the occupation. Al-Hurra TV is also a satellite channel. It is funded by the US to the tune of $62m and broadcasts from Springfield, Virginia. Anecdotal evidence suggests that about 20 to 25% of Iraqis have access to satellite TV. Damage limitation "This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," Mr McClellan said.
"These images do not represent what America stands for, nor do they represent the high standards of conduct that our military is committed to upholding," he continued.
Mr Bush's appearances are the latest attempt to limit the damage from the scandal, which has caused anger in Arab states and shock and condemnation around the world. US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice gave an interview to al-Arabiya on Tuesday in which she expressed "the United States' deep sorrow over the US troops' abuses against the Iraqi prisoners". She told the channel that President Bush was "disturbed by the distressing pictures". Deaths in custody Also on Tuesday US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said those responsible for the "unacceptable and un-American" conduct would be brought to justice.
The Pentagon has confirmed that criminal charges have been filed against six US soldiers in relation to the photos, while six senior officers have been reprimanded.
But there have been concerns that the mistreatment is more widespread. A senior army official said there had been investigations into 25 cases of death and 10 of abuse in US custody in Iraq or Afghanistan since December 2002. Of the 25 deaths, 12 were found to be either of natural or undetermined" causes, one was a "justifiable homicide", and two were murders. Ten inquiries are taking place, he says. Fresh allegations of US brutality against Iraqis emerged on Wednesday. The UK's human rights envoy to Iraq, Ann Clwyd, said she has for months been pursuing the case of a 73-year-old woman who claims she was taken to a prison, hooded, made to go on all fours, told she was a donkey and was then "ridden" by her tormenters. Deepening scandal The abuse scandal has deepened with the revelation that a report into mistreatment at Abu Ghraib was commissioned in January and completed in early March, but had still not been read by Mr Rumsfeld as of Tuesday. The report by Maj Gen Antonio Taguba found evidence of "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses of Iraqi prisoners", including sexual abuse. Members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee have demanded to know why they were kept in the dark about the report, and have called for an opportunity to question Mr Rumsfeld. The BBC's Nick Childs in Washington says there's no hiding the dismay in the Bush administration and the Pentagon over the political fallout from this controversy. He adds that it is puzzling why, when it knew some weeks ago that these photographs were going to be published, that it didn't do more to try to pre-empt the furore.
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Bush's Choice for New Iraqi Flag
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3660663.stm
After the Americans attacked Iraq for dubious reasons and refusing to hand over sovereignty, this is Iraq's new 'inclusive' flag http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3660663.stm
Of course, if they had asked Idiot Bush what his preference would be, he would have loved them to just have an American flag with a little green crescent added among the 50+ white stars! And on the other side of the flag are tonnes of '$$$$' signs.
But may be that is a bit too obvious, hor?
After the Americans attacked Iraq for dubious reasons and refusing to hand over sovereignty, this is Iraq's new 'inclusive' flag http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3660663.stm
Of course, if they had asked Idiot Bush what his preference would be, he would have loved them to just have an American flag with a little green crescent added among the 50+ white stars! And on the other side of the flag are tonnes of '$$$$' signs.
But may be that is a bit too obvious, hor?
Thursday, April 15, 2004
To Make An Italian Hero
What does it take to make one Italian hero?
The gall to go whack a 5,000 year old civilization that refuses to take it sitting down just for money, and the stupidity to remain arrogant even when caught....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3628977.stm
(news report on the killing of Italian hostage by Iraqis, and he supposedly wanted to take off hood just before killing to 'show his captors how an Italian die')
The gall to go whack a 5,000 year old civilization that refuses to take it sitting down just for money, and the stupidity to remain arrogant even when caught....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3628977.stm
(news report on the killing of Italian hostage by Iraqis, and he supposedly wanted to take off hood just before killing to 'show his captors how an Italian die')
Confirmed: Me & Palestinians Have One More Thing in Common
Pls read AFP report below. Now, we can confirm I do have one more thing in common with the Palestinians.
And sometime in the future, some of us will find among the people that talk to us on this topic, idiots (especially those from certain religions) with no idea of what happened years before wondering aloud why the idiotic Palestinians do not accept whatever the nice Israelis had to offer. Not knowing, of course, that those Palestinians had already been short changed by deals cut years before by some superpower.
As history is only repeating itself, there are already such idiots existing today. If you, like me, know of such people you can help them with some history to present day Palestine: tell them to find out about the history & players surrounding the Balfour Declaration, and the Sykes-Picot and Hussein-MacMahon Agreements done about a hundred years ago by Bush-like idiots from Britain (it is not a coincidence if they have the same religion).
WASHINGTON (AFP) President George W. Bush broke with a decades-old US policy by stating Israel could keepsome Arab land captured in the 1967 war, infuriating Palestinian leaders who condemned the US leader.
Bush signalled the change as he endorsed a plan by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and some West Bank settlements. He caused further controversy by saying Palestinian refugees should not be allowed to land lost to Israel in 1948.
Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei described Bush's move as unacceptable and in breach of the US-led Middle East peace process.
Bush backed the plan to withdraw from 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank after a White House meeting with the Israeli leader. He hailed Sharon's proposal as "historic and courageous".
A senior Israeli official said the withdrawal would be completed in 2005.
"If all parties choose to embrace this moment they can open the door to progress and put an end to one of the world's longest-running conflicts," said Bush. The president reiterated his support for the "road map" peace blueprint, which calls for the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
But Bush declared that Palestinian refugees from the 1948 upheaval in the region must settle in any new Palestinian state. "In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," he said, referring to large settlements in the West Bank.
The two leaders exchanged letters on Bush's endorsement of the disengagement plan during their meeting, officials said.
In what appeared to be approval of a key Israeli demand, Bush said in a statement that Israel will "retain its right" after any pull-out to strike Palestinian militants in Gaza. The US leader again warned Palestinians that "they must fight terror." "It is very important for a Palestinian state to emerge in which we have confidence, in which any prime minister of Israel has confidence, in which the United States has confidence, that will be a peaceful partner," he said.
But Bush also said the security barrier Israeli is building in the West Bank must not become a permanent construction. "It should be temporary rather than permanent, and therefore not prejudice any final status issues, including final borders."
At a joint press conference with Bush, Sharon was visibly pleased with the results from his ninth visit to the White House since the president took office in January 2001. "I was encouraged by your positive response and your support for my plan," Sharon said.
Washington's endorsement was likely to give Sharon the backing he needs to win a vote in early May on the disengagement plan by his Likud Party. The withdrawal proposal has drawn fierce opposition from right-wingers.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Gaza withdrawal would be completed by an unspecified date in 2005. And Sharon said in his letter to Bush that Israel plans to speed up work on the security barrier in the West Bank, that has faced widespread international criticism, but promised it would be "temporary rather than permanent" in line with Bush's demands. The senior official hailed Bush's comments on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and negating the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel as an historic first. "The United States made unequivocal statements not heard in 56 years," the official told reporters after the White House talks.
The Palestinian premier angrily accused Bush of an "unacceptable" violation of the peace process. "It cannot be decided by the president of the United States what is realistic and what is not realistic," Qorei told reporters at his West Bank offices. "This is a real violation of the road map." Qorei said the borders and the status of refugees must "be decided in negotiations" involving all sides as laid down in the US-backed road map peace plan, which was launched last June.
He also criticised Bush for not demanding that the Israel tear down the separation barrier. "It is not realistic that the Israelis occupy Palestinian territories; it is not realistic that the Israelis build the separation wall on the Palestinian territories." Qorei said he had been let down by the Americans after being told by a group of visiting envoys this month that "the permanent status issues would be negotiated in a permanent status agreement. "Today we are really disappointed," he added.
The Palestinian leadership warned in a statement before the Bush-Sharon meeting that any US endorsement of the disengagement plan would trigger a new cycle of violence. Any deal "would lead to the destruction of any possibility of peace, of stability and security in the region and will launch a new cycle of violence," said the statement.
Sharon has argued that he has no option but to implement his disengagement plan in the absence of a Palestinian negotiating partner, accusing Qorei and his government of not moving to crack down on militants groups who have carried out a string of suicide attacks.
The two prime ministers have not met since Qorei came to office in October and the Palestinian premier ruled out the prospect of talks with Sharon after his visit to Washington. "I do not know what we would have to talk about," he said.
And sometime in the future, some of us will find among the people that talk to us on this topic, idiots (especially those from certain religions) with no idea of what happened years before wondering aloud why the idiotic Palestinians do not accept whatever the nice Israelis had to offer. Not knowing, of course, that those Palestinians had already been short changed by deals cut years before by some superpower.
As history is only repeating itself, there are already such idiots existing today. If you, like me, know of such people you can help them with some history to present day Palestine: tell them to find out about the history & players surrounding the Balfour Declaration, and the Sykes-Picot and Hussein-MacMahon Agreements done about a hundred years ago by Bush-like idiots from Britain (it is not a coincidence if they have the same religion).
WASHINGTON (AFP) President George W. Bush broke with a decades-old US policy by stating Israel could keepsome Arab land captured in the 1967 war, infuriating Palestinian leaders who condemned the US leader.
Bush signalled the change as he endorsed a plan by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and some West Bank settlements. He caused further controversy by saying Palestinian refugees should not be allowed to land lost to Israel in 1948.
Palestinian premier Ahmed Qorei described Bush's move as unacceptable and in breach of the US-led Middle East peace process.
Bush backed the plan to withdraw from 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank after a White House meeting with the Israeli leader. He hailed Sharon's proposal as "historic and courageous".
A senior Israeli official said the withdrawal would be completed in 2005.
"If all parties choose to embrace this moment they can open the door to progress and put an end to one of the world's longest-running conflicts," said Bush. The president reiterated his support for the "road map" peace blueprint, which calls for the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
But Bush declared that Palestinian refugees from the 1948 upheaval in the region must settle in any new Palestinian state. "In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," he said, referring to large settlements in the West Bank.
The two leaders exchanged letters on Bush's endorsement of the disengagement plan during their meeting, officials said.
In what appeared to be approval of a key Israeli demand, Bush said in a statement that Israel will "retain its right" after any pull-out to strike Palestinian militants in Gaza. The US leader again warned Palestinians that "they must fight terror." "It is very important for a Palestinian state to emerge in which we have confidence, in which any prime minister of Israel has confidence, in which the United States has confidence, that will be a peaceful partner," he said.
But Bush also said the security barrier Israeli is building in the West Bank must not become a permanent construction. "It should be temporary rather than permanent, and therefore not prejudice any final status issues, including final borders."
At a joint press conference with Bush, Sharon was visibly pleased with the results from his ninth visit to the White House since the president took office in January 2001. "I was encouraged by your positive response and your support for my plan," Sharon said.
Washington's endorsement was likely to give Sharon the backing he needs to win a vote in early May on the disengagement plan by his Likud Party. The withdrawal proposal has drawn fierce opposition from right-wingers.
A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Gaza withdrawal would be completed by an unspecified date in 2005. And Sharon said in his letter to Bush that Israel plans to speed up work on the security barrier in the West Bank, that has faced widespread international criticism, but promised it would be "temporary rather than permanent" in line with Bush's demands. The senior official hailed Bush's comments on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and negating the right of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel as an historic first. "The United States made unequivocal statements not heard in 56 years," the official told reporters after the White House talks.
The Palestinian premier angrily accused Bush of an "unacceptable" violation of the peace process. "It cannot be decided by the president of the United States what is realistic and what is not realistic," Qorei told reporters at his West Bank offices. "This is a real violation of the road map." Qorei said the borders and the status of refugees must "be decided in negotiations" involving all sides as laid down in the US-backed road map peace plan, which was launched last June.
He also criticised Bush for not demanding that the Israel tear down the separation barrier. "It is not realistic that the Israelis occupy Palestinian territories; it is not realistic that the Israelis build the separation wall on the Palestinian territories." Qorei said he had been let down by the Americans after being told by a group of visiting envoys this month that "the permanent status issues would be negotiated in a permanent status agreement. "Today we are really disappointed," he added.
The Palestinian leadership warned in a statement before the Bush-Sharon meeting that any US endorsement of the disengagement plan would trigger a new cycle of violence. Any deal "would lead to the destruction of any possibility of peace, of stability and security in the region and will launch a new cycle of violence," said the statement.
Sharon has argued that he has no option but to implement his disengagement plan in the absence of a Palestinian negotiating partner, accusing Qorei and his government of not moving to crack down on militants groups who have carried out a string of suicide attacks.
The two prime ministers have not met since Qorei came to office in October and the Palestinian premier ruled out the prospect of talks with Sharon after his visit to Washington. "I do not know what we would have to talk about," he said.
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
25 Reasons Why Bush is Right
See below AFP report on Bush's claim that comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam are false.
Here may be the reasons why that idiot think that way :
1. One happened in the 20th century, the other in 21st
2. One was started by Truman, the other by Bush
3. One the U.S. continued from immediately where the French left off, the other 40 years after the British left off (hey, if you want to pick on this, remember they had wanted to whack Iraq since 1990 hor)
4. One war started after the US torpedoed elections promised by the French, the other started before the US torpedoed free elections (supposedly because it was not suitable for the country they attacked)
5. One started after they claimed Truman’s military advisers did not do a good enough job, the other after they claimed the UN inspectors did not
6. One was supposedly inspired by ‘evil’ Marx, the other by ‘evils’ Saddam & Osama (see there are 2 evils for this one, so more evil lah)
7. One was against ‘evil’ Communism, the other against ‘evil’ Islamism/terrorism (see, more evils again)
8. One was against ‘illegal’ yellow faced commies, the other ‘illegal’ non-yellow Shites and Sunnis (evil nevertheless)
9. One was whacked supposedly for having WI (wrong idea), the other for having WMD (more evil, the US having more of both notwithstanding)
10. One was conducted with conventional arms, the other by high tech weapons (ha, finally a non evil way of killing those evil fellas)
11. One they managed to get the locals to kill each other, the other they have yet to (see, one was not entirely their fault)
12. Which is why one they managed to get 6 million killed, the other only 30,000 (shucks, what a big difference)
13. And the ‘kill ratio’ for one is 1 of theirs to 100 of everyone else, while the other is worse at 1 to 50 (more disappointment)
14. One made tones of money for the US military complex, the other for that, the oil companies and others like ‘security contractors’ etc. (this makes up for all the disappointments. And you see the beauty of free market? Now, thanks to the ingenuity of America’s businessmen, the world has a new business line called ‘security contracting’. Compare that to the Spaniards 500 years ago when they only had the Conquistadors which is why the Spanish were so happy to go along on this one)
15. One they managed to only destroy, the other they have a chance to stay around after the destruction for ‘rebuilding’ efforts (always mean more money that way)
16. One they have to bluff idiots like my parents, the other they have to bluff idiots like me (ha, they failed on both counts on this one! Even my father, as uneducated as he was, could see through them. In fact, one of my most memorable sight was my old man laughing every time a James Bond or Rambo movie came to town. His comment was: if the Americans had a few of those fellas in Vietnam they would have had it easy)
17. One was shown on TVs by reporters they lost control of, the other by reporters they did not
18. One’s war frenzy was whipped up with the help of the likes of Time magazine, the other by Fox TV
19. One took place before the world of internet, the other after
20. One took the world about 20 years to realize what happened, the other the world realized it 2 years before it happened! (why do you think the French, Germans etc. were against it even before it started?)
21. One they tried to be funny at Mao’s backyard, the other at the Ayatollah’s
22. One they lost, the other they have yet to
23. One ended when their own protesters invaded Washington, the other started when some foreigners with nothing to do with Iraq attacked Washington
24. One the Israelis were not there to cheer about, the other Israeli agents were caught cheering when it happened.
25. One ended shortly after Nixon tried to cheat to stay elected, the other started shortly after Bush cheated to be elected.
You see, everything was so different. Bush is no idiot and he is right (the neo-con type, hor).
WASHINGTON (AFP) President George W. Bush was holding his first press conference of this election year, hoping to reassure Americans after the bloodiest two weeks in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad a year ago.
Bush Tuesday warned against the "unthinkable" consequences of failing to rebuild Iraq and set it on course for democracy, saying that would embolden terrorism worldwide. "The consequences of failure in Iraq would be unthinkable," he told a press conference. "Everyone against America would celebrate, proclaiming our weakness."
Bush also said he would send additional forces to Iraq if needed, and vowed to stand by a plan to transfer Iraq to self-rule on June 30 despite deadly clashes between US-led forces and Shiite and Sunni insurgents.
"On June 30th, Iraqi sovereignty will be placed in Iraqi hands," Bush said in a lengthy opening statement at the start of just his third primetime news conference since taking office in January 2001.
Bush flatly rejected as "false" comparisons between deadly fighting in Iraq and the bloody Vietnam war that bitterly divided the US public.
"I think the analogy is false," he told reporters at just his third prime-time press conference since taking office in January 2001.
"I also happen to think that analogy sends the wrong message to our troops and sends a wrong message to the enemy but this is hard work," he added after some commentators and critics raised the specter of Vietnam following the two bloodiest weeks of fighting in Iraq since Baghdad fell a year ago.
Bush warned that radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr must answer the charges against him and disband his illegal militia.
"Al-Sadr must answer the charges againt him and disband his illegal militia," Bush said of al-Sadr, who is believed to be in hiding but has continued to send messages to supporters urging action against the US occupation.
He tied radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters have clashed with US forces in Iraq, to extremist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
In a lengthy opening statement at the third prime-time press conference of his presidency, Bush said al-Sadr led an illegal militia and had in "public supported the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah."
Here may be the reasons why that idiot think that way :
1. One happened in the 20th century, the other in 21st
2. One was started by Truman, the other by Bush
3. One the U.S. continued from immediately where the French left off, the other 40 years after the British left off (hey, if you want to pick on this, remember they had wanted to whack Iraq since 1990 hor)
4. One war started after the US torpedoed elections promised by the French, the other started before the US torpedoed free elections (supposedly because it was not suitable for the country they attacked)
5. One started after they claimed Truman’s military advisers did not do a good enough job, the other after they claimed the UN inspectors did not
6. One was supposedly inspired by ‘evil’ Marx, the other by ‘evils’ Saddam & Osama (see there are 2 evils for this one, so more evil lah)
7. One was against ‘evil’ Communism, the other against ‘evil’ Islamism/terrorism (see, more evils again)
8. One was against ‘illegal’ yellow faced commies, the other ‘illegal’ non-yellow Shites and Sunnis (evil nevertheless)
9. One was whacked supposedly for having WI (wrong idea), the other for having WMD (more evil, the US having more of both notwithstanding)
10. One was conducted with conventional arms, the other by high tech weapons (ha, finally a non evil way of killing those evil fellas)
11. One they managed to get the locals to kill each other, the other they have yet to (see, one was not entirely their fault)
12. Which is why one they managed to get 6 million killed, the other only 30,000 (shucks, what a big difference)
13. And the ‘kill ratio’ for one is 1 of theirs to 100 of everyone else, while the other is worse at 1 to 50 (more disappointment)
14. One made tones of money for the US military complex, the other for that, the oil companies and others like ‘security contractors’ etc. (this makes up for all the disappointments. And you see the beauty of free market? Now, thanks to the ingenuity of America’s businessmen, the world has a new business line called ‘security contracting’. Compare that to the Spaniards 500 years ago when they only had the Conquistadors which is why the Spanish were so happy to go along on this one)
15. One they managed to only destroy, the other they have a chance to stay around after the destruction for ‘rebuilding’ efforts (always mean more money that way)
16. One they have to bluff idiots like my parents, the other they have to bluff idiots like me (ha, they failed on both counts on this one! Even my father, as uneducated as he was, could see through them. In fact, one of my most memorable sight was my old man laughing every time a James Bond or Rambo movie came to town. His comment was: if the Americans had a few of those fellas in Vietnam they would have had it easy)
17. One was shown on TVs by reporters they lost control of, the other by reporters they did not
18. One’s war frenzy was whipped up with the help of the likes of Time magazine, the other by Fox TV
19. One took place before the world of internet, the other after
20. One took the world about 20 years to realize what happened, the other the world realized it 2 years before it happened! (why do you think the French, Germans etc. were against it even before it started?)
21. One they tried to be funny at Mao’s backyard, the other at the Ayatollah’s
22. One they lost, the other they have yet to
23. One ended when their own protesters invaded Washington, the other started when some foreigners with nothing to do with Iraq attacked Washington
24. One the Israelis were not there to cheer about, the other Israeli agents were caught cheering when it happened.
25. One ended shortly after Nixon tried to cheat to stay elected, the other started shortly after Bush cheated to be elected.
You see, everything was so different. Bush is no idiot and he is right (the neo-con type, hor).
WASHINGTON (AFP) President George W. Bush was holding his first press conference of this election year, hoping to reassure Americans after the bloodiest two weeks in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad a year ago.
Bush Tuesday warned against the "unthinkable" consequences of failing to rebuild Iraq and set it on course for democracy, saying that would embolden terrorism worldwide. "The consequences of failure in Iraq would be unthinkable," he told a press conference. "Everyone against America would celebrate, proclaiming our weakness."
Bush also said he would send additional forces to Iraq if needed, and vowed to stand by a plan to transfer Iraq to self-rule on June 30 despite deadly clashes between US-led forces and Shiite and Sunni insurgents.
"On June 30th, Iraqi sovereignty will be placed in Iraqi hands," Bush said in a lengthy opening statement at the start of just his third primetime news conference since taking office in January 2001.
Bush flatly rejected as "false" comparisons between deadly fighting in Iraq and the bloody Vietnam war that bitterly divided the US public.
"I think the analogy is false," he told reporters at just his third prime-time press conference since taking office in January 2001.
"I also happen to think that analogy sends the wrong message to our troops and sends a wrong message to the enemy but this is hard work," he added after some commentators and critics raised the specter of Vietnam following the two bloodiest weeks of fighting in Iraq since Baghdad fell a year ago.
Bush warned that radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr must answer the charges against him and disband his illegal militia.
"Al-Sadr must answer the charges againt him and disband his illegal militia," Bush said of al-Sadr, who is believed to be in hiding but has continued to send messages to supporters urging action against the US occupation.
He tied radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, whose supporters have clashed with US forces in Iraq, to extremist groups Hamas and Hezbollah.
In a lengthy opening statement at the third prime-time press conference of his presidency, Bush said al-Sadr led an illegal militia and had in "public supported the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah."
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