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.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
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
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