No Need for Colored Glasses

Like most humans, Chinese fear change. There are other terms for this already used by the crass.

Like most fools, it is the stupid that think that inspiration, insight and guidance can be drawn from only one book, or the most beautiful scenery of nature comes in monochrome.

Thus voting for such people to put them in power is to tell the fools with a broom stick they have a working compass and should lead the way around the globe.

Or his monochrome NEP still camera is the best way to capture the beauty and essence of nature.

By following fools you may not run into problem tomorrow or day after but that does not make them or their followers less foolish.

The broom stick may work as well as a compass for our globetrotter, for a while.

The monochrome NEP still pictures may tickle the senses of the half-blind, for a while.

But you will someday have to pay for the fool's acts, it is just a matter of when.

It is as simple as that.

No need for crass, colored glasses, cross, crescent and other complicated notions.xx



14/09: Through a Chinese Looking Glass
Posted in Malaysia Today
By Wang Earn Swey

In a recent posting in Malaysia-Today.net (MT), Raja Petra lamented that in the last general election, the Chinese threw their lot in with BN; this despite the fact that PAS issued a statement that if a May 13-type race riot were to occur, PAS members would stand in front of the Chinese and face death if necessary to shelter the Chinese from harm. Thus, continued Raja Petra, the Chinese deserve the UMNO-led government they get.

The Malaysian Chinese mind is not well understood, and Raja Petra understands it least of all; this despite the fact that his wife is ethnic Chinese. In another article, he branded the Chinese as cowards.The Chinese are a pragmatic race. They value education. They love making money.

And the Chinese in Malaysia have sought to equate the value of education to the value of future income. Talk to any Chinese parents in the 70’s and they would list the ‘good’ careers for their sons and daughters to pursue; doctors, engineers, etc., all the big money careers. Tell our parents that we are studying to become a kindergarten teacher and we very possibly might be disowned. This thinking has deviated from the thinking of the Chinese of the Han Dynasty where the civil service was the ultimate goal. Back then, scholars studied day and night, travelled hundreds of miles to write the civil service examinations, which can last for several days. The subjects of study were mostly from the Confucian texts. All of that in pursuit of titles like “chuang yuan” or “siew chye”, etc. These were high ranks among scholars and they gained ministerial positions according to their attained scholarship.

A similar route to high civil office does not exist for the Malaysian Chinese. Besides, the government model of today is completely different from the imperial Han Dynasty government. So what is left? Education and money! Education itself has been thoroughly transformed by technology. The Confucian Ethics Specialist is just not in demand anymore. The real goal of education is money anyway. The Chinese have never, in the past, thought that having money translated to having economic power. They simply liked being wealthy. It’s about respect. The materialistic (western) world looks at money through a twisted looking glass: money and wealth are exalted, at the same time money is the root of all evil. Not the Chinese. We look with awe at Bill Gates, the richest man on earth and a college dropout. We love every rags-to-riches story, as if that validates that we, too, can become billionaires. We don’t pay so much attention to other equally against-the-odds success stories: such as the one about the child who overcame his severe autism, and struggle now as an adult working as a government clerk.

Back to the general election; any general election. The Malaysian Chinese citizen holds the ballot paper in front of him. BN, DAP, PAS, PKR. Hmm. DAP has never run a government. They have become synonymous with the word ‘opposition’. PKR, a nebulous party with meagre election wins in the past. That leaves BN and PAS. PAS has a track record of running a state government or two. Now, PAS has offered to protect the Chinese in the event of a race riot. Sounds good, right? Not so fast.

Let’s play out the scenario. Say PAS receives a respectable amount of votes, enough to threaten the shrinking BN majority. Say racial sentiments start to brew to a boiling point. But race riots never occur, because PAS members stick to their word and stand in front of the Chinese, confronting any UMNO member. Race riots thus become a thing of the past. Two or three elections later, PAS wins the majority and now expects the Chinese to be supportive of their new government, including support for instituting Sharia laws. After all, we owe them for their past protection.

This is where the Chinese mind comes in. With the current government, I get to keep 75 sen of every ringgit I make. And I have a fighting chance of getting some of that 30% economic pie allocated to the non-Bumis. (This number is made up. I don’t have statistics to back up the 30% figure.) Under-the-table-money further cuts into my 75 sen. But this has been going on for years. I’m used to it. I have deprived myself of luxuries for the past 20 years to save up and open my own business. Sure, there are obstacles upon obstacles. Money has to change hands under the table again to open my own business. But, finally, I get to open my dream business. I’ve become the local distributor of Christian books to churches around the country. Oh relax, I’m not that pious a Christian. I go to church to cozy-up to the movers and shakers of Malaysian churches, just so that as a book distributor, I have their ears. In fact, I go to a different church every Sunday.

One vote for PAS and all my dreams become fuzzy. Who am I? I am the Chinese Christian Books distributor. I am the Chinese pig farmer. I am the Chinese casino worker. I am the Chinese non-halal food distributor. I am the Chinese temple builder. Pragmatist? My life story virtually defines the word. Coward? Don’t think so. My elderly parents who depend on my 75 sen.

“What more do you want?!” Raja Petra asked. For one thing, dear PAS member, we don’t want your pledge to stand in front of us. We have always been able to take care of ourselves in all adversities. We would rather you stand beside us. We don’t need the “enemy of my enemy is my friend” faux friendship. We want to know if you do take power, what shape will the government take? The Saudi model? The Iranian model? The Taliban model? Or the progressive democratic model that Turkey is struggling to keep? We want to know if you will teach our future children that wars of any kind take two sides, neither of which is blameless. We want to know if your government will be the first to appoint the most qualified persons, bumi or non-bumi? We want to know if our children will be the first to hear you declare that Islam is not superior to any other religion, that we are all God’s children, and that words like infidels, pagans, goyims are all man-made words and are offensive in the eyes of God. We want to know if your government will be the first Islamic government in the world to have permanent Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu Religious Affairs advisors. We want to know if the NEP that we have grudgingly supported for so long will be revamped, so that its goal is to narrow the gap between rich and poor, with income as the only criteria.

Sorry, Raja Petra, pledging to become a human shield for me is the last thing I need.

Economics Sites

Minyanville:

US recession:
- frequency every 6 yrs,
- peak-to-trough in 8 to 11 months,
- adjustment in stock market 20 to 40% (avg 28%)
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/recession-1980-decline-GDP-equity+market/index/a/14069

Sharp ups and downs tend to exhaust themselves after 19-25 days
http://www.minyanville.com/articles/MDR-MON-BG-AGU-QMAR-metals-fundies/index/a/14087

Economist's Views:

Good collection of views from many different economists
http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/

Men of Faith

Do not rely on people whose primary outlook is not based on rational thinking but on faith to make sense of what is fair and proper.

History shows that other than loud bragging and destruction they do not improve anything on earth. All major human progress take place only when there are people willing to break out of the constraints imposed by blind faith.

People that operate based on faith will say things like these :
- My 'true story' said this, your story did not. My story did not say that, your story did.
- My story is 1% right here but yours 1s 1% right only there which is not as holy as my 1% here.
- Therefore my story is better than yours and yours is not as good.
- So my story is the real god story, yours is not.

That has been the story of the various religions for eons. Each of them claiming that their god is the true god and others' are not. But how can that be?

By faith, a Mohamaddan is damn sure his religion is the right one and the others are false. By faith, a Jew is cock-sure his is the special one while the others are crap. By faith, so does a Christian.

But whose religion is the 'real true one' and who is right? They cannot all be right, can they? The rational part of us must admit that it does not make sense for all of them to be so different and yet all be right at the same time.

But a Muslim's faith is as strong as a Christian's and a Jew's. In fact, so 'strong' that some of them force others to accept their stories based on their own logic, and history had shown that they are willing to fight and kill each other just to prove that they are right and the others wrong (there is a saying that 'wars do not prove who is right but who is left').

Instead of facing up to the possibility that all are possibly wrong and faith is just blind parroting of some man-made stories and notions, some of them claim that they 'respect the others'. Perhaps by that they hope that the others will reciprocate and say they are 'right'.

But deep inside these people of faiths will still think that theirs are the true one and the others are idiots who have been misled or under enlightened.

If we want a better future on earth, humans must operate using our rational mind, not by faith.

xxx