Merry Xmas 2006 and a Happy New Year 2007

First, a nice and sobering read on the Altantuya case :) The "real" story behind the drama.
http://sloone.wordpress.com/2006/12/11/wither-justice-for-altantuya/

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting for awhile as I've been really busy with a whirl of happenings and what not and I doubt I'll be able to post much (if at all) before Jan 1 2007.

So I hope you will all have a wonderful year ahead. Next year will be a year of more changes for me even as I settle the issues and tasks for this year. And I'll be back with more news. :)

Shit hits the fan

Ok, so this political analyst guy with supposedly "impeccable" background has screwed a model (both literally and figuratively, which led to her death. Who ever says "love" is not deadly? History and literature have proved that) and then wanted to run away from his responsibilities. Now he's caught in the act, yes? I'm sorry for his family. Must be tough on them. As one says in a contraceptive campaign ad, "a moment of passion, a lifetime of regrets".


Next
Much ado has come about over the Malay supremacy issue and how if there's every such a thing as a Malaysian race, it will feature Malays as the main actors. In that case, why not just come out and call the rest of us "infidels" and "tongkang asylum seekers"? I'm getting pissed with euphemisms that are basically only meant to camouflage the fact that the Chinese (the largest minority group in Malaysia) are never accepted anyway, so why not come out and say it and clear the air? I'm not dismissing the ass-licker MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) as being a part of the problem. I dislike chauvanism of every kind, whether it comes from people of my race, or of any race. Didn't the hoohah over the Asli report, the statements made on the "Malay Race" and the recent UMNO assembly suggest how things have become? I'm not going to bother arguing this issue anymore since it merely wastes my time and breath.
http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=253&Itemid=31
(I think that picture in there is not Altantuya's, but am not too sure)
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Thursday/National/20061116085906/Article/index_html
http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/while-malaysia-fiddles-its-opportunities-are-running-dry/2006/11/14/1163266550487.html
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Thursday/Frontpage/20061116101114/Article/index_html
http://patahbalek.blogspot.com/2006/11/sis-vs-abim.html

Another one
So, we are a nation of prudes that refuse to admit that we do the "dirty" behind close doors. Hence this. Come on, be smart. How many people do you know who are virgins on their wedding day? And this include the Muslims (for all the attempts of the religious officers/moral police to catch naughty couples attempting the "illicit"). Some people say you'll a virgin even if you've been penetrated in the arse, mouth, or by dildos, fingers and tongues. Anyway, that's not my point. My point is, have proper sex education already and stop acting coy when educating women about the importance of contraceptives. A few infertile couples trying to have children unsuccessfully does not mean that you wont become pregnant if you decide to lose your virginity to some guy you met at a bar. And what's this nonsense about needing husband's permission to use contraceptives. I think it's just a way of fudging and avoiding the issue. Contraceptives is a responsibility of BOTH parties, and your sexual health is YOUR responsibility as well. So stop putting the onus on the husband to say when you can or not use contraceptives. Discuss with him and stop acting like the hubby is your daddy (or is Freud right in saying that women marry men because they wanted someone who can be their daddies as well as someone whom they can fuck?). Also btw, I always thought Islam provides the privacy of the persons, so wouldn't thie kind of moral policing be wrong?


Disclaimer: If you're offended by the language of this post, just leave.

Sex, Love and Companionship

Does marriage provide that? Maybe, but perhaps not enough. It is always a wonder to me why sex is considered such a taboo subject (when a huge percentage of the world's population are doing it) and when scandals of a phenomena size have all involved sex of some sort.

So, why the faux-prudishness when one talks about sex and sex positions in a tabloid? After all, everyone can read about it everywhere else. And do you think reading about sex is the only reason why it has aroused such interest? Obviously, the people denying sexuality in a human either are frigid to the point of being in deep-freeze, or have a problematic relationship with their sexuality.

So, now we have the political analyst who is probably a lover of the presumably dead model, most probably unbeknown to his wife. Doesn't matter whether he has fathered the child or killed her off to silent her. The thing is, he has a wife, and now, as we found out, a lover. Is it a bad thing? Has he cheated on his wife (whom he must have married for more than 19 years, since he has a daughter of 19)? How does she feel about that? Is she in denial or is she merely putting on a staunch face? If it is true that he was really the lover, his wife will have to put on a brave face IN PUBLIC, which is difficult since this is Malaysia that we're talking about, where everything is about having face and "moral" values. If she's been confident of his fidelity, what is her faith now? But if the wife knew about his lover, why did this analyst, whose name you can now see plastered over the papers, be avoiding the possibly murdered, beautiful model? I knew of him slightly due to his ties to some of my former bosses.


Sex governs all. Why deny it? You can use religion to argue your face black and blue, you can call yourself a religious person of all stripe, does it make you a less sexual person? And as was written of yore, youth attracts beauty and sex. Age difference no longer matter where attraction is concerned, as long as both parties are willing.

Self-control can be difficult when the attraction is high. How many is willing to break away and run from such a situation?

So, why even insist on fidelity? Why use religion to coerce fidelity? Why not make it socially acceptable each partner draw up their own prenuptial agreement, including that governing extra-marital affairs. And is there a point for men and women (mostly women) to continously dream idealistically about true and one love that will chain their partner? It is true that such relatinships exist, but why kid yourself when you know your marriage to someone is based less on that than you secretly think?

And I wonder what has the daughter of the analyst responded to the situation? It will certainly be tough on the progeny, what with a censuring, self-righteous society such as ours.


P.S On an unrelated note, how did the police know exactly from the special force to arrest, when they've not even properly conducted the investigation? I wonder...


Chronicles an event that made the headlines of Malaysian newspapers
http://powerpresent.blogspot.com/2006/11/more-pics-part-2-murdered-mongolian.html

This was what got the Weekend MAlay Mail in hot soup
http://72.14.235.104/search?q=cache:6nQiqAnpBw4J:www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/mm/Weekend/Frontpage/20061104121746/Article/index_html+Weekend+Malay+Mail+%2B+Sex&hl=en&gl=my&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a
More news on it
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061106/od_nm/malaysia_sex_dc
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/11/06/asia/AS_GEN_Malaysia_Newspaper_Apology.php
(I like this particular report because it actually points to the living contradiction that is Malaysia)

http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article-southeastasia.asp?parentid=57337
(I don't think anyone wil be distressed by this article, and the only person shocked by it would be someone who, to go by the Malaysian proverb, lives under the coconut shell.)

A life of hiccups

Just when you think things are going swimmingly, something will always crop up against your will.For every rung one steps on, there are a dozen more of problems to push life further towards the pit of pain and despair.

Perhaps awareness that all these feelings, and even the realities, are transitory and will matter little as one moves on. But, what if moving on is always the difficult part? The feeling of conceded failure, that perhaps you aren't good enough for what you thought you had a chance in. An infectious strain in this feeling can lead to dire despondency and retreat. A person beaten down, mangled and thrown from the wash onto the line to be sun-dried and crinkled. When one feels that there is no more bright spot left to pull one up and to make it all worthwhile. When the churning in one's bowels refuses to halt.

A life a little unbalance, perhaps? Or maybe one is on the verge of being tipped over, completely.


Good Day

Books are expensive!

Do Malaysians become bankrupt from buying too many books? After all, books are even more expensive here than in the US. But, if the reading habits of the nation is as it is touted to be, which is two books per year, I guess that's not likely. But then, the statistics did not account for journals, magazines and newspapers. One is unlikely to be bankrupted by newspapers, but it may be something else altogether if one buys lots of imported journals and magazines...


Read on

Passion for Mathematics book review

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/11/5/lifebookshelf/15468056&sec=lifebookshelf

Mad about mathematics


Review by CLARISSA LEE

A PASSION FOR MATHEMATICS

Numbers, Puzzles, Madness, Religion, and the Quest for Reality

By Clifford A. Pickover

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 408 pages

(ISBN: 0-471-69098-8)

MATHEMATICS is not a book confined within a cover and bound between brazen clasps, whose contents need only patience to ransack; it is not a mine, whose treasures may take long to reduce into possession ... It is not a soil, whose fertility can be exhausted by the yield of successive harvests ? It is limitless as that space which it finds too narrow for its aspirations; its possibilities are as infinite as the worlds which are forever crowding in and multiplying upon the astronomer’s gaze; it is as incapable of being restricted within assigned boundaries or being reduced to definitions of permanent validity ?”

These are the words of James Joseph Sylvester, a mathematician who has summed up the task that all writers of mathematics have to face with when they try to present the subject in all its multifaceted glory.

The way mathematics was (and, maybe, continues to be) taught in schools has made most of us think of it as a cut-and-dried subject. Clifford Pickover attempts to – rather successfully, I would say – have us think of it as we would an exciting game, as well as to appreciate its rhizomatic (or, in local parlance, lalang) effect because it crops up when least expected. Well, it has popped up in Hollywood and the holy books.

A Passion for Mathematics is not easy to describe because of the non-linear, modular way in which it’s written. Pickover has divided it into seven main chapters, with titles ranging from “Numbers, History, Society, and People” to “Algebra, Percentages, Weird Puzzles, and Marvellous Mathematical Manipulations”, before ending his amusing proselytising by calling the final chapter “Mathematics and Beauty”.

Each chapter has diverse entries, from unsolved puzzles that had intrigued generations of mathematicians, to recreational puzzles that will delight both amateurs and professionals (entertaining stuff to mull over when caught in a traffic jam), to historically exotic arcana that promises to entice and titillate history buffs and trivia collectors alike.

The author’s passion for his subject is obvious and it comes across in his approach. You may find yourself staring at an exotic-looking equation that only those with a PhD in mathematics will tackle, but Pickover usually has a simple (and engaging) explanation on how it works. Sometimes, you do not really need to understand every detail but just appreciate and admire the beauty of the form and shape of the equation – much as you would a work of art – and understand how the subject can inspire countless artists, writers and movie-makers in their creative endeavours.

You will also find that the mathematicians he discusses are either mad, eccentric, or normal creatures like us who live ordinary lives – except that they are passionate about and dedicated to working in mathematics. And in case you think that women are not as good as men with figures, there are accounts of female mathematicians who are as good, if not better than, their male counterparts.

Take as long as you like to read to savour each section. Some of the puzzles in this book may engage two people in hours of debate, and provide stimulating fun amongst family members and friends. And they can certainly spark conversation at a party and change your perception that mathematics is boring.

Hello Sunday

I've been having an exam-filled week last, and it took me the entire of yesterday and part of today to recover, not to mention easing my fears that my scores may not be good enough to apply to my dream programs. I don't know my full results yet and will only do so in two weeks time, but I think now is the right time to work on perfecting a writing sample, work on my statement of purpose AND fill in the application forms (on top of chasing up on two more of my referees, I think I'll get a fourth referee from the head of my former department). I was trawling the net most of yesterday night, after spending my afternoon to evening at the mall (yeah strange choice but I sort of like the bookshop there, nice for reading) and a spa, relaxing, finding out how and what I should do in preparing for grad application. I think I should pay a particular centre a visit before the end of this month, because at this point, I am highly dependent on the Internet for MOST, if not all, of my information.

Anyway, in my feverish hunt, I came across some interesting sites with interesting articles. Some of the issues explicated actually resonate with the conditions in Malaysia, which kinda arouse my interest. If the US is trying to move towards cultural-sterilization in its curriculum development, Malaysia seems to be moving towards cultural dogmatism (but it's been awhile since I last check but I hear things haven't changed radically).

Anyway, I am going to relax tonight before returning to a very busy day tomorrow, courtesy of my having been on leave for the last 2 1/2 days beginning last Wed.

I can't wait for Dec to come because that's when I freed from the application processes and can take my long-awaited holidays.

http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/1/cornog-readers.asp
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2004/12/08/15stotsky.h24.html?querystring=stotsky&rale=l4RcsgF70mPtCaS2ek8aL%2FHim3s5xG%2FFRSzhnM6nFXwtmUpH4yIKkb2JOlH8bB%2Brcg16gPcZvjWZ%0A3NC%2BysLspgFDXmI%2FlcT0UFD0QeYmHbfC%2B%2B2nsQk1apFKk3%2FHmsYssdFDTXoPXGS%2F2wCx

On a different note, the war against postmodernism continues here and it seems many are calling for the return to the kind of educational direction hailed by Allan Bloom and his didactic colleagues

http://www.grecoreport.com/bring_back_the_greeks.htm
http://www.grecoreport.com/the_founding_fathers_&_the_classics.htm

To take this to a different level (and away from the wars), how important is the study of classics? Personally, I think it is though not many would share my view (in Malaysia, we do have some sort of study of 'classic' works by having Malay Literature incorporated into the Malay Language studies syllabus in high schools. In fact, if one talks about ancient classics, they are likely to be less culturally-specific than the more 'modern' ones and can be appreciated by students from all backgrounds, with the aid of a well-trained and astute teacher. However, where will one find such a teacher in numbers that can fill the schools, especially third world schools? Perhaps one way around it is to stock the school libraries with the books and attempt to encourage the students to access and read them via publicity-type exhibitions or activity weeks. When we have a generation of students who know the classics, we will be able to have more teachers in this area and the anti-intellectual sterility of most public and corporate orgnizations can be countered.

As I wrote my exam essays, many ideas assaulted my thoughts (and my concentration) and it was unfortunate that I could not write them down at the time. Perhaps they may return to me sometime soon.

Happy Halloween and the time to take stock is coming soon

I apologise once again for the dearth of posts. The only writing I've been doing for the past week until now is just that related to work or practice for an exam. I promise I'll have more to say after this weekend (if not during the weekend itself).

Happy Halloween to all those planning to celebrate it. It's going to be November tomorrow, and soon, Christmas and the New Year will have begun. Have you begun to take stock on which direction you want your life to go? For those still cruising along yet getting older, it may be time to ask yourself what do you want, before it is too late. I have been doing a lot of ruminating on that issue that for the past few months, and am still at it even as I prepare for the next big thing that may come my way.

Until the next post.

Groggy

Earn a place in the Hall of Anonymity by writing copies, however clever, exciting, delightful, shocking or attractive, will never earn you any recognition from anyone outside the industry in which you work.

It's Friday and I'm groggy. Being having too much of a life and I think it is time to return to the coconut shell.

Adieu

A sad but thoughtful quote

Do you know what the most important thing is in my life?

Your son?

I thought so too. But as he grows up, I know he'll be leaving me one day. Nothing's important to me now. I thought the words 'I love you' really mattered. I thought they meant a lifetime commitment. But looking back, nothing matters... because everything changes. I thought I was the winner, until one day I looked into the mirror and saw the face of a loser. I failed to have the person I loved most to be with me in my best years. How wonderful it would be if we could forget the past...

"Ashes of Time"


(Excerpted from http://www.mediacircus.net/wkw.html)

Men, women and relationships? Advice from Greg Behrendt

I don't normally read such articles so this is the first time I've heard of this guy. Maybe it is time that I should read relationship articles on a more personal level, and learn something beyond the usual skepticism with which I'd always approached them, although a pinch of salt is still a necessary flavour.

I tend to read this subject matter only when I'm ask to review such publications (or if I'm bored and stuck in some place with nothing to read and the only magazines available feature such articles), a long time ago, but seldom have I read them for any reasons other than for attempting to glean sufficient ideas to stick into a review, now long forgotten. Furthermore, these books don't stay with me after the review is done - and I've only ever reviewed two; one's bagged by an editor and the other is in someone's library.

Here's the article for those of you dealing with breakups and affairs of the heart.Anyone heard of/ know of this guy who is interviewed? Apparently he's got his own show on the same subject.

http://msn.match.com/msn/article.aspx?articleid=6963&menuid=6&lid=428


There is a lot to be said about such stories. If one were to look at blogs with high hits and many comments, they tend to be blogs writing about aspects of life, love, relationships and sex, and are written in an entertaining and occasionally provocative manner.

A report for Malaysia, courtesy of Asli

To quote from their website

"This study was undertaken by a multi-racial group of scholars and consultants as part of work in connection with the Ninth Malaysia Plan. It was submitted to the Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers and other government leaders in February 2006. Following initial release of the report to the Government, the report was made widely available to various political, social and economic bodies in the country."


The reports can be downloaded from there


I wanna read Deleuze but have to work on some corporate identity stuff. Grr

TGIF

The tales of two book reviews

This is the edited version of my book review (which means extraneous information was cut off) in the Star
http://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/10/6/lifebookshelf/15030136&sec=lifebookshelf

This is my edited but uncut review in an academic website :)
http://rccs.usfca.edu/bookinfo.asp?ReviewID=389&BookID=318

Scrutinising the Pope's speech

First, read this carefully. This is the unedited version, that differ in some ways from the one found in the newspapers. And it is from this version that I will get my quotes here. I am not an expert on thelogy, religious history or philosophy. But I take my own background in critical inquiry, research methodology, philosophical engagement and Christian upbringing and education to help me formulate my thoughts as succinctly as possible in this blog entry.

Now

Once again, I believe that the opportunity for a point-to-point critique of the Pope's speech has been lost as the world at large is more interested (regardless of the religious background, though one can tell which group has the largest fervour) in old-school style of mass-mob revolution rather than critical engagement. This is what should had been done,


Firstly, there are so many points in the speech which would had been very interesting departure point to rethink the historiography of secularism and theology, and I have to agree when the Pope says that the point of his speech is completely missed, even if I might not altogether agree on the same things as he. Even those with more intelligent answers to the Pope's speech had unfortunately completely ignored the gauntlet thrown down by the Pope, which is his framing of reason, his critique of certain philosophers use of reason, his argument against what he considered to be the 'dehellenization' of Christianity, targeted at none other than the Protestant groups and Fundamentalists who seek to return to what they consider to be "the simple word of Faith/God" and his contention with particular others who intend to frame/reduce Christianity into a religion that is scientifically answerable (though he failed to take into account the active debate in the past decade concerning the sociology and epistemology of scientific knowledge that had waged across the two cultures of science and humanities). Hence, I (mis)quote Feyerabend (a anarchic philosopher of science) in saying that not everyone is born of a sublime spirit (though he was actually using this quote to frame his argument against the humanists and philosophers whom he considered as having been so caught up in masturbatory theorising that they've lost credibility and connection with the world at large. I agree with most critics that there is nothing groundbreaking in what he said (a lot of the points he brought up had come in many other forms through the decades, if one were to follow the debate of on the epistemology and culture of knowledge and intellectual history closely, particularly that in the West). From his speech, we gather that he was formerly a theologican and academic at the Universty of Regensburg and his training had acquainted him closely with the secular tradition of the German philosophers, though unfortunately, it has not led to a closer reading. But then, this is just a short speech after all and when one makes oration, one pick and select points to provoke the audience in the way you want them/hope for them to react.


1. Firstly, his sources on Islam were gained from Theodore Khoury, noted for his work on Islam. But, it is possible that he had selectively quote this sources and then turn it around, via his own interpretation and reasoning, to make it seem that there is something pernicious in the way Islam is practiced or preached (though from the actions of the disciples of this faith, it has unfortunately provided live parody to the Pope's misapprehension). He seemed particularly keyed up about Ibnu Hazm intepretation of religion and how the former separates it from reason. I personally do not know much about Hazm and would welcome anyone who know more about the work of this guy (beyond that mentioned in Wikipedia) to please disect more on this matter, by writing to me or adding to the comments in this blog. But I would definitely now be searching for more works by him. Also, I found that R Arnaldez has done some work on Ibn Rusyd and Al Ghazali.I hope to find a translation of his work, failing that, I'll have to wait til next year, or year after when I can read French at a higher level. :/


However, let me state, obviously, that it is not uncommon among even Western philosophers during the age of Enlightenment and after to find themselves divided when it comes to reasoning about faith, and this is shown in Descartes's Meditations, as he ruminates on the reconciliation between the faith he was brought up in and his study of human/natural sciences. I can't quite comment on Kant right now since I've yet to read properly his "Critique of Pure Reason".


2. Here is the part about Islam that I think may have irked some Muslims and other detractors, but I wonder if some had understood the full weight of what is said. "The emperor must have known that sura 2:256 reads: “There is no compulsion in religion.” It is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under [threat]. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Koran, concerning holy war.

Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the “Book” and the “infidels,” he turns to his interlocutor somewhat brusquely with the central question on the relationship between religion and violence in general, in these words: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

The emperor goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. “God is not pleased by blood, and not acting reasonably (”syn logo”) is contrary to God’s nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats…. To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death….” [Islam Today actually had a comment on this statement]

The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: Not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God’s nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazn went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God’s will, we would even have to practice idolatry."

Prior to the above statement, the Pope had qualify by stating that the speech of the Emperor is reported more fully than that of the Persian Muslim, the former's interlocutor. Hence, there is already a biased in that much is assumed of the mostly "silent" educated "Persian" (and could it even be Hazm himself?) and I have not been able to find Muslim sites that rigorously look into the scholarship mentioned and to critique as to why the Pope is wrong in his selective reading (Bearing in mind, selective readings and misappropriation is the common practice among all, whether religious apologists or academics, though the more honest ones will admit to 'purposeful misappropriation'). And the statement made by the Pope on how the statement of the Surah was set at a time when the Muhammad S.A.W. was deemed powerless is not contested. It has to be faced that no religion of the Book is freed from warfare and violence (and the Pope is right in linking the historical continuity between the Old Testament, New Testament and the Quran)and denying it is akin to historical revisionism. But what is needed is a reasoned look at the war, the human actors and the conduct of these human actors during the War and how God is used as justification for war and their subsequent actions during the war and after. And Jihad is a feature in the Quran (violent or not), like it or not, and though Christianity's Crusade has more to do with the political view of the "Christian" government that the advocacy of the New Testament, their role in the play of violence is implicit in any study of religious history. There is a need to address this issue more clearly, especially when it is buried under all the polemic of violence as justification by radical/extremist sects. If one were able to read writings in languages other than English or that of Modern Europe, one can be appall by the amount of invective, hatred and call for violent wars against the Western "Other", even if the other segment of the Muslims decry such acts. This issue has been ongoing since Sept 11 2001 and I believe it is time for a rigorous and clear deconstruction of the concept of Jihad.

3. I find that the Pope's concept of Logos (the Word) to be Hellenic-inspired and this is argued in detail in Jacques Derrida's book "Dissemination", where there is a lot re-examining of the contemporary age and philosophy of Plato, his predecessors and his peers.And the Hellenism of Christianity he talks about is very much a part of the Roman Catholic tradition that has been propaged by the Scholastics, and is the source of contention by many eminent European philosophers between the 17th to the 18th century as being too rigid and subject to falsification (my term) as well as by more conservative elements within the Roman Catholic church such as St Bernard of Clairvaux.
I suspect, to a certain degree, the Pope is possibly attacking the "positions" of Islam and Protestant/Reformed Christianity, as well as that of the adherents of scientism, through methods of Scholasticism.

4. The Pope's understanding of Science has strong Heideggerian (and of course, influences of a number of German philosophers, the positivists among them) who hold science in a high moral ground which is culture/value free, a principle that does not question the sociological and epistemological construction of science, but is based on the a priori belief that scientific theories are based on objective and logico-deductive reasonings that are beyond philosophical interference.

5."The vision of St. Paul, who saw the roads to Asia barred and in a dream saw a Macedonian man plead with him: "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" (cf. Acts 16:6-10) -- this vision can be interpreted as a "distillation" of the intrinsic necessity of a rapprochement between biblical faith and Greek inquiry.". While he is at it, the Pope did not quote the section Acts 17 that give the reader a glimpse into what Paul actually thought of the philosophical culture of the Greeks, even if he did mention what the Greeks thought of the Christians. Of course, you can either do a literal or between the lines reading of this chapter.

Some of you may have read the news on Robert Redekerand how he had to go into hiding ala Salman Rushdie following the publication of his writing on Le Figaro, the French, right-wing, newspaper owned by Serge Dassault, on September 19, that criticises the Quran. There is more about him in Le Figaro itself, provided you can read French. See notes below.

Maybe, when I've time, I'll do the research needed to write a more comprehensive article on the issue of faith and reason in various religions, and how this area is contested by various scholars, as well as the hermeneutical/academic arm twisting employed by intellectuals,pseudo-intellectuals, scholars and theologians on this issue. For now, this is my short dissection on the matter. And as one googles further, one will find more on this. And I challenge my readers to properly dissect the issue at hand rather than employing the general going around the bush condemnation or examination that seeks to actually mask one's ignorance of the matters raised just to sound "credible" or get one's "piece of mind" into the "borderless" cyberspace.

More notes:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1875800,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,1886814,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,,1875726,00.html


"Menacing Teachings in the Text Of the Quran" (my translation, corrected as of 11:35pm, 5th Oct)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/france/20060929.FIG000000050_un_enseignant_menace_pour_un_texte_sur_le_coran.html
"Redeker's Affair: On democracy, debate and self-control" (my translation)
http://www.lefigaro.fr/debats/20061005.FIG000000096_affaire_redeker_en_democratie_le_debat_ne_se_controle_pas.html

A good critique of two antifeminist 'tracts'

Strangely, while growing up, I was surrounded by the very sort of role models admired by the two antifeminist writers mentioned in this critique, except that they were not exactly upper-class/upper-middle class women. But they were women who lived for their family and children, and in the process, became very uptight and 'unfun', from the eyes of the child. I used to view my married but working aunt as having more freedom and interests outside the home, family and neighbourhood, compared to the non-working moms I know. And strangely, despite balancing between the home and work outside the home, she seems to have MORE free time than the homemakers I know, who always complain to each other about how busy they are (I overhear such conversations from family and church friends). And her husband, my uncle, helps out with the housework. Here's a married couple practising feminism without even knowing what that word means. I also have an aunt who was never married but she's far from being a bitter, old maid who hates younger women because they reminded her of what she once was but am one no longer. Instead, she took early retirement after saving up quite a bit, and started to travel and do things that she wanted to do instead of subjugating her life to work. ANd speaking of work, I suspect that many of my peers are harbouring dreams of becoming 'home-makers' because they despised the drudgery of their jobs (I understand that feeling because I feel 'tied-to-the-desk' and can't wait for the weekends most of the time but I decided to vent my feeling of frustrations through interests outside work and vivid dreaming ;)). And despite having working mothers, I don't think the children turned out any worse, whatever the anti-feminists/conservatives would like to say. In act, having a working mother provides a role model, and helps the young woman growing up to feel that she can achieve what she wants. For me, it is more about having open communication between parents and child, and teaching the child a sense of responsibility. In fact, having a mother who does everything for the child is bad, because the child is unable to be independent when he/she grows up (i've seen that effect on both men and women). Though my mom used to do literally almost everything for me, she still insisted that I took on some responsibilities, and do the tasks she might do for me if she sees me lounging about. And I have to help out in the garden, with the cleaning, the kitchen (which is difficult as she's very exacting) and whatever if I've time, and I think that was good training for me. Despite being a homemaker and a Christian from a conservative church, she did not actually taught me what the role of a woman is, but instead, help me see that there is no such thing as a separation of sphere (women can do repairs do work outside the house as well as men, if such need arises). In fact, most of my training about a 'woman's work' came from the society most of us live in. And the irony of it all is, the more conservative and insistent a society (be it a religious organisation/institution, a home, workplace, etc)is of gendered roles, the more likely you will see the kind of roles expected of a man or woman to do by nature of their sex, nevermind that the guy who rather be doing the cooking because he just loves to cook, or the woman would rather be teaching theology because it is an area she is passionate about.


The reason why I mentioned the women in my life will become obvious as you read on. And the kind of polemic advocated below were the same advice dished out my Christian missionary wives to my mother and other women of my childhood church (minus the cheesy mills-and-boons and obvious inexperience of one of the young authors. Though like her, I did not have a public school education, and was relatively sheltered from sexual knowledge while growing up (though I did read certain texts on the reproductive system and also a sex manual written by a medical doctor as a teenager), this young author (Shalit) seems rather naive about the ways of the world than I was at that age (and that age was not that far from my current age). Surprising for a woman with a privileged upbringing and early access to things I could only dream about as a kid (and am still dreaming to have, to a certain extent), as well as one of the best education one can buy (if it isn't free) in a first world country, which I envy her for, since I didn't have one, having to go through state schools with mostly indifferent teachers (with the exception of a few) and an underfunded, illiberal state university (this brings me to the subject of education in third world countries, which I'll talk about later)where thinking isn't always allowed (or even understood). For all the good start in life she had had, I expect her to be a lot smarter than I am, and maybe I'll read her book to see if the critique has misread her, since someone else seems to think she makes a lot of sense, though I am a little wary of this "someone's" intellectual capacity from the way the review reads...

So, here you go...

http://www.thenation.com/doc/19990329/phillips-fein

Turnout for the FOI event

Yesterday's turnout for the Freedom of Information Campaign Launch was a non-event. In other words, almost nobody turned up except for friends of the people involved. Sad but true. It has to do with the last minute confirmation of venue, and also to do with the lack of commitment to this campaign. Either, most Malaysians are not prepared or even aware that there is a need for such an issue. Looks like we have our work cut out for us, going by how things are. And from what I'd gathered, it's the same for many other environmental-related events. Maybe environment is not high in the priority of most city-folks, not until they find themselves personally threatened. The ways of the world....


Sigh

Solving disagreements by negotiations? maybe not

I am sure most readers are aware of the recent coup in Thailand, the recent attention paid to Myanmar (Burma to some people), also a country that had continuously been under the rule of military, by the US government and the recent history of coups within SEA not unlike many other third world regions (including the South America). It is also an indication to the feudalistic condition of many of the third world governments that practice surface democracy but demand unquestionable loyalty (which is translated as patriotism), so much so that much political historiography constructed by certain "scholars" in this region are all about nation-building that privileges a dominant group for the purpose of hegemonic power while creating a big group of the subalterns (second class or marginal citizens). In a way, they are recreating what Fanon had originally spoken as the Manichean communities, and the repression by the indigenous elites (I am quoting him loosely as it's been years since I last read him and I am not referring to his book now) who have their "own ideas" of doing things. Despite the investment of liberal groups funded by First world organisations to deploy a more liberal society in the Third World by way of capitalism and meritocracy, it will not work because of the feudal condition of most of the societies that exists at MANY layers and the prevailing colonial mentality that continue to pervade a postcolonial society (who choose to act the victim and use it as a reason for further repression of personal and civil liberties). Hence superficial liberties give the impression that all is well and progress is imminent.

Anyway, this is the blog from Thailand of the recent events for those who are interested, the. Thailand is a very close neighbour and we have a number of migrant Thai workers in Malaysia, as well as Malaysians (especially NGO workers) working in Thailand in Bangkok. We hope that democracy will be restored and that this will not be a beginning of a sucession of coups to come, and one that will begin a domino effect in the other countries as a way of protesting against unfavourable electorals.

In light of this, Thailand has not too long ago won itself a Freedom of Information Act so we hope this is not a step back for them. And I would like to hear from others with an interest in this subject.

My new poem

For those who are interested and can read Malay. That makes the total of my published malay poems - 3. What a measly sum :/

http://www.jalantelawi.com/karya-06/karya4.asp

A new step

Working in a brand communications and design house, I am slowly learning to appreciate the finer details of design that tend to escape the untrained eye. Though I would had frequent such places more often two years ago than I would now (mainly because I travelled a lot more back then and also because I entered more fancy restaurants than I do now), when I look at pictures of them again, or when I have to enter such places for work reasons (since we deal a lot with property related projects), I will look at everything presented, from the design of the menu and napkin all the way to its bathrooms/powder-rooms (the latter for really exclusive restaurants). I also noticed that even the most exclusive (Read expensive and classy) restaurants have moved away from Old-world, mahagony, oak-panelled decor to more funky, edgy and contemporary sleek, in the name of sophistication and accessibility. Check out the restaurant designs of world-class hospitality interior designer, Adam Tihany, though I must confess, I like some of the designs better than others (I suppose the photographs didn't quite do them that much justice).

On a different note, Wallpaper magazine is full of interesting (though not always to my taste) designs. And the guy who founded it is going to be in Singapore in Nov, amongsts other luminaries. I bought an issue last Feb and was pretty blown away by the visuals of the designs presented, and I have to confess, it was also my first encounter with many edgy designs that are famous among the more savvy. :D I wonder if the boss will so kindly sponsor us to that conference again...the luminaries I met last year were inspiring.


And the best news is, I am taken off a job that's been the bane of my life, not temporarily, but for good. That's a cause for celebration *does the jig around the office when boss is not looking*
I suppose I can use some of the stuff I've written for this prematurely terminated job as samples of my "health-related writing" for future prospecting clients). Drop me a note if anyone reading this is interested. :)


Anyway, since I've just finished with a TV ad, I think I'll go back to some more serious reading/writing while I await my next assignment. If you will excuse me...

A play on paedophilia?

I've not watched it but it sounds intriguing. Join their webchat if you have the time and if you see this post on time :P

http://www.gatecrash.com.sg/ebuzz/crashout_issue3/crashoutmail.html

On an unrelated note, I am glad that I can put what I'm learning at advertising and public communication to good use in the the Freedom of Information campaign we'll be launching this Sept 28. For those in Malaysia interested to participate, watch this space for more information in the week to come.

I'm sorry if I've not been writing as much here because of a rather full life outside (and the time factor but I promise to post more interesting thoughts by next month. For this month, it's merely short titbits

A new kind of "Terrorist"

Now, is only other guerilla tactics are adopted, that require no bloodshed

This is one good example, and I see this as an exemplification of Deleuze's theory of the "rhizome"


See http://www.banksy.co.uk/, one that begins in the middle of all things..or all forms of expressions, both suppressed and expounded

Evolution vs Creationism

How do you think the philosopher of science will handle this?

Article below taken from the January 2006 issue of Physics Today


___________________________________________________________________________________
Issues and Events
Evolution Wins in Pennsylvania, Loses in Kansas

A slate of "real-world" candidates swept the intelligent design majority off the Dover, Pennsylvania, school board, while in Kansas antievolutionists not only weakened science standards, but redefined science itself.
January 2006, page 32

A few years ago, registered nurse Bernadette Reinking, weary after three decades of working with physicians and the medical system, retreated into her house in central Pennsylvania to, as she puts it, "raise my grandbabies"—all seven of them. Then, after two years of full-time grandmothering, she said, "I opened my door and found all of this mess."

The mess was the Dover Area School Board, where, according to Reinking, the school board members "were not very kind to people who were offering other opinions." Reinking, whose four children had gone through the Dover school system, decided to run for a seat on the board.

Credit: Ben Sargent
So did Bryan Rehm, a high-school physics teacher who was angered by school board members "calling people names and spouting Bible scripture at people who disagreed with them." Rehm said the school board also stopped funding school field trips, ended student participation in a national robotics competition, and was cutting back on other activities he thought were important.

Although many parents in the school district were concerned about those actions, the issue that crystallized the opposition was a requirement enacted by the board that biology teachers in the school district read a statement to students saying evolution is "not a fact" and that students can learn about other theories, including intelligent design, by reading antievolution material in the school library.

The nine-member board approved the statement over objections from its own scientific standards committee. Rehm and 10 other parents sued, claiming that the requirement was unconstitutional and that intelligent design was actually religious creationism being brought into the classroom. The trial ended on 4 November 2005, and four days later, eight of the nine intelligent design advocates on the school board were defeated by Reinking, Rehm, and six others running as the Dover Cares slate. (Rehm's election by less than 100 votes has since been challenged and a special runoff election was set for 3 January.) The court decision, which turns in part on whether intelligent design is religiously based, was expected in late December or early January.

The defeat of the intelligent design majority on the board was widely reported in the national media as a victory for evolution. The National Center for Science Education, the California-based organization that defends the teaching of evolution in public schools, issued a statement under the headline, "Dover voters choose good science at polls."

Religious conservatives weren't happy. Pat Robertson, founder of the Christian Broadcasting Network, reacted to the election by telling the "good citizens of Dover" that "if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city."

The new board took office on 5 December with, Reinking said, "the focus of improving the education of our children. We want them to be able to go out and get good jobs with health insurance. Real-world kinds of things."

While things were good for science advocates in Pennsylvania, they were bad in Kansas. There, the Kansas State Board of Education not only approved a revision of the state's science standards to include criticism of Darwinian evolution, but went a step further and redefined science itself.

The old definition termed science the "human activity of seeking natural explanations for what we observe in the world around us." The new definition describes science as "a systematic method of continuing investigation that uses observation, hypothesis testing, measurement, experimentation, logical argument and theory building to lead to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena."

University of Kansas physicist Adrian Melott, a veteran of the long battle between evolution and creationism in Kansas, said the new definition allows for the possibility of a supernatural explanation in science. Melott said he is dismayed by the resurgence of the creationists on the school board, but not surprised.

"We had the same thing happen six years ago," he said, when creationists organized and won the majority of seats on the state board (see PHYSICS TODAY, November 1999, page 59). They rewrote the science standards, but before they could go into effect, "people woke up and voted them out. Then they promptly went to sleep again and these people took over the board again in 2004."

University of Kansas cosmologist Hume Feldman said he was particularly troubled by "the idea that science can be redefined by this group, most of whom aren't even educators. Their idea, the way they do this, is that they don't insist that intelligent design be taught in the class, but that it be implied. Their focus is on saying evolution is not a fact."

The board is currently rewriting the science standards to reflect the new definition of science, but that task is being made difficult by the refusal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to allow the use of its copyrighted National Science Education Standards. The American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Science Teachers Association have also refused to allow the Kansas board to use their material in writing the new standards.

In an October letter to the Kansas department of education, NAS president Ralph Cicerone wrote, "The revised [Kansas science standard] attempts to portray evolution as a theory in crisis and raises 'controversies' (e.g. the Cambrian explosion) that evolutionary scientists have refuted many times using the available evidence."

Keith Miller, a Kansas State University geologist, said only a couple of the antievolutionist members of the 10-member board have to be defeated in the 2006 election to give the pro-science side a majority, "but it is hard to get people passionate about a school board election." That's made more difficult when creationist advocates equate endorsing science with endorsing atheism, he said. "And we also have to recognize that this is a much longer-term problem. We can't say that if we win the next election, then we don't have to worry any more."

Hello again

I'd been on a one week break, which partly explains my silence. Though I still came online, it was less regularly than when I am at work, and frankly, I needed the time off to think about lots of things (as well as to do some things). I presently begin posting again all the different thoughts that occur to me, but right now, I am too bleary-eyed from my first day at work because of having over-exercised my brain over the hols (wish I'd let it rot more). Thank goodness it is almost 5:30. Think I'll go for a session of workout

Will talk more later

Fame and Fortune

Interesting article from The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/health/psychology/22fame.html?8dpc

The value of trust and complacency

England has come under many terrorist attacks since its involvement with the Iraq war. So had some of its other allies (and even detractors, like France). Now, the Germans find that they are not immune to the hostilities of terrorists. It might seem that terrorists are targeting some of the top capital markets in the world, making it one of the most feared problem next to rising crime rates (or dropping crime rates, depending on the statistics you choose to interpret). Now, for those of us living in the Asian countries, are we immune?

Malaysia has marketed itself as a Muslim country. Heck, we even have a large religious political party not too different from the Christian right wing in the US. But the, so did Indonesia. Yet, the country was not immune to terrorist attacks...why? Because they've more European and American tourists than Malaysia. I may be making a sweeping statement but from what I'd observed, we have more Middle Eastern tourists (in fact, we have such a big market for them that some of our signboards in the city centres actually have accompanying Arabic scripts next to the English translations!) than we do the Westerners. They come here for holidays, to study and to work. The university I belonged to had a big population of Middle Eastern and African students. A neighbouring university, merely 5 minutes away (or less, depending on the traffic), has an even larger population of these students. Add to that, many of our citizens have Arabic ancestors. So, would that mean that we are immune?

Well, we have dissenting sects of Sunnis, Shiahs, Wahabbis et al. I number my friends among them. Perhaps we may be subjected to terrorist attacks when major fights finally break-out between these dissenting sects. But as long as the extremists among them are focused on the common enemy, which to them is 'bigger' than their doctrinal differences, venting their anger on rich Arabs for their ties to the Western elites may not be too high up in the priority list. But, we never know when. And Malaysia, in its eagerness to court the Middle Eastern market, have better be prepared.

P.S. Of course, one of our claim to fame is that we had an engineering lecturer involved in the bomb in Jakarta. Perhaps an attempt to emulate Theodore Kaczynski?

P.P.S A slight detour but relevant to our subject. The German government has decided to pay more attention to surveillance and clamping down on certain rights in their bid to fight terrorism. IN the case of personal relationships, should married people be stripped of certain freedom to keep them from straying? One may talk about trust, but when the trust is such a fragile thing, easily betrayed, is it really worth having? In this day when people no longer understand the real meaning of matrimony, will policing it improve the institution, or should we do away with it altogether for everyone except those who plan to have children? Should we make it difficult for people to have children so that they will take their marriage vows more seriously?

What can I say, humans....

Never ending work

I wish I have more interesting experiences to report but at this point, I haven't been having very much interesting experiences, unless you count the work I do as interesting experience, notwithstanding that I do work with interesting people, in a stimulating environment (well, to a certain degree) . Of course, I am looking forward to the day when I'll soon be going on leave, towards the end of this month, and at that time, I hope to add to the interesting experience category.

My posts have become more sporadic, because I like to have something worth saying before I do post, and this post falls under the category of the inconsequential

Now, back to work

Eve-olution?

Work has floored me for the last two weeks, leaving one weekend dedicated to complete recovery as I could not read anything heavier than popular novels, merely for the escapism it offered....and the last weekend was...well...better...even went out to have a beer at a pub...something I hardly do when in Malaysia (not that I've gotten out of it much in the last 1 1/2 years). Speaking about popular novels...in case you wanna know...they were grouped under the category "chick-lits". I used to read them in between writing my thesis or reading heavier stuff...coz they were pretty quick pick-me-ups. For a person who could never read a romance without skipping all over the place to fastforward the "soap-opera" or glazing over after the first chapter (and the only time I tried to read romances was when I was going through my aunt's collection of books as a young teenager), I surprisingly read a mills and boons novel without realising it was one, all because I was reading the Bahasa Indonesia version (haha, and I was 10!), and I was so taken by the quantness of a Malay language that I didn't learn in school (but understood enough to follow the story, though not remembering a thing of it at the end). Later on, at an undergraduate, I started flipping through women's magazines, though not exactly a faithful reader, usually preferring to buy them second hand at a highly discounted price, if I buy them at all , which of course, would have spelt the death of the industry if their readers were like yours truly. And sometime in 1999, while moshing about a bookshop at an upscale part of town (I think I went to that area to get something else, and decided to visit the bookshop) and lo and a behold, I saw, bought and read my first chick lit. The book was called "Bridget Jones Diary". I shant say how old I was then, other than the fact I had skipped pass the gates into early adulthood and my reason for being attracted was because I wanted to see how it was like to be a woman, from another woman's viewpoint.

The second time I bought a chicklit novel was at a second hand bookshop in a dangerous part of London (where rival gangs indulge in shoot-outs after 6 pm). By then, I was a graduate student. By then, I had outgrown reading most women's magazines, except when at hair salons or when doing a quick scan for trend-spotting. Of course, as a copywriter, I have to read these, AND, other lifestyle-like magazines, as it s my job to be in touch with what is hip and happening in my country, so I started reading British Vogue, which has little to do with Malaysia, but the trends will certainly come to the shores, at least in the 'big', slick, city of KL. I have a lot to say about the differences between the "haves" and "have-nots" in terms of metropolis/small city divide, but this is a complicated story meant for the next time. Maybe because a friend unwittingly threw a "Shopaholic" (chick-lit reading girls will know what I mean) in my direction, the interest to read chick-lit reignited and I started reading chicklits about single British women, a single Italian woman, and single Jewish women. Seeing that my collection of chicklit did not yet exceed 8 (seems like I read one chicklit a year on the average, since 1999, though one of the copies I owned is actually a review copy), I haven't been able to explore a wider range of this genre (which, having done the research recently, found that there were very many) and I hope that I could soon, because of my interest in feminist stylistics . I suppose, the fact that a majority of the characters were career women, or have a semblance of a career (even if they moaned about being stuck in dead-end jobs), I started being able to identify with them as I started having a "real" career, which was I suppose, late last year. Prior to that, my main focus was on my academic work, with my so-called "careers" being taken up to butter the bread. And back then, little of my life resembled the characters to any degree. But this year, I realised how my life has become like the life of many average woman with a job/career. And I shudder to feel it. And basically, chick-lits appeal to many women because, even in those that are badly written (in terms of plot or even writing itself), the author is borrowing from what she knows, from her life, or the life of those around her, this injects a kind of fictionalised realism (no, it is not an oxymoron) that is reminiscent of the "How-to" articles not very different from that in the movie "How to lose a guy in 10 days" and "I-am-providing-you-council -and-solicitation" tone of many women'ss magazines. Of course, a majority of these novels are about women living in big cities (even if they'd originated from small towns) with "glamarous", or close to "glamarous" jobs in entertainment, media, advertising (I'm in this and it ain't glamarous, at all, unles s maybe if you win a major award or is a big-shot CD), publishing (tried this before, but maybe because I was involved in trade books publishing production involving very dry subject matters, I didn't quite enjoy my stint as much, though of course, they proved very useful in my current position) or fashion. A bigger city like KL will have more of such equivalents but women leaving in smaller towns in Malaysia devoid of such industries (unless you count the small, press offices found in small towns) will not identify with such roles as closely, though they might sometimes think these characters have "exciting" lives. Of course, as a study in "Reading the Romance" (I have to thank my supervisor for asking her students to read this book) had shown, small town women read Romances, especially Romances involving the upper-middle or upper-classes, and especially if they are aristocratic, in order to continue a fantasy world which they've been fed on from the time they were little girls, whether by the story books they read, the toys they played with or the magazines they saw their mothers reading. A lot of these notions were filtered down to non-Western girls by way of cultural import. If one was to write a chick-lit based on a life of, let's say, an Ethiopian woman, how would it be like? Many of the styles of chick-lit writing in the West had found their way to Asian cities, and you will not be surprised to find Chinese or Indonesian or even Malaysian version of the chick-lit, with the same navel-gazing or tongue-and-cheek style of narration, though customised to meet the approvals and needs of local socio-cultural conditions (an example would be to look at a Malay chicklit/romance -the two genres tend to be blurred slightly, and lo and behold, sometimes even written by men! - where the sexy-looking girl about town will sometimes be replaced by a demure-looking hijabed woman). And in all these stories, it is all about looking for romance, the right man and a sort of "hidden" wish to settle to a life of a "lady who lunches"/"happy-homemaker", though of course, some do want the "excitement" of a dream-career.

What started me on this non-sequential diatribe was becaue I happened to come across an article in a trade magazine, which I'd also found online, on how the women of the future will be represented by this creature of suburban creation called the fulltime nurturer and part-time everything else. I can understand if they think that women are moving towards careers or management styles that are more nurturing but the analysis of the article seems to say something else. While I agree that there are many incompetent women, and men, out there who should be relieve of their position so that they will do less damage, should there be such a manner of generalization from interviewing a 100 women who say that they would rather be fulltime homemakers than career women (actually, seeing all things I have to put up with at work, I would rather not have to work in the kind of position I am now, but instead do the things I would really love, and with greater beneficial results. But that does not mean I want to be a stay-at-home mom whose sole purpose in life is to serve my family). I think the simplistic proclamation made here, that women are now more confident of themselves, and thus they are returning home, is unjustified. Firstly, what facts back that up? Have women really achieve such a standing that they are really confident, or is that they have never been taught that they have to be as strong, if not stronger, than most men, and so, they would love to run back to a Martha Stewart and Homes and Gardens -like environment when the going gets tough, and when they have had enough of the tough bosses and sexist promotion practices. Or maybe they are asking women who are seeing the lives of their grandmothers through rose-tinted glasses? Taking up knitting as a hobby is different from having to constantly knit to supply the family's knitwear. Cooking is of course a fun thing to do (Hey, I like it too) but I suppose these women would not be enjoying it so much if they have to do it all the time, 3 times a day, WITHOUT a maid. Are they only asking the urban women who had the privilege of growing completely unaware of the struggles of their foremothers (maybe they were never asked to go to the kitchen and cook for the entire family all by themselves) or did they even try asking the rural woman who has to do A LOT of the work by hand (yes, that still happens in this day and age). But then, if this is consumer research, why bother bout the women who can't afford? Just bolster the dreams of those women with degrees and comfortable lifestyles who thought Betty Friedan is an old crank who should be ignored (if they have even heard of her) that their aim in life is to recreate their homes in the likeness of Ladies Home Journal (the 1950s kind, not the one you see today) or Martha Stewart Living. As marketeers would say, it is all about selling a dream. And I am guilty of attempting to create that gimmick everyday, though I've not really worked on consumer products targeted at women beyond some baby formula. And women, and I can attest to that, are the developed and semi-developed world's most avid consumers. Betty Friedan saw that coming in the 1960s, as she analysed the advertisements targetted at the homemakers.
There's nothing new with what Faith Popcorn is saying.

Anyway, if you want to read that article for yourself and offer your suggestion, you are most welcome

How does chick lit tie with it? Well..it is all about the act of identification, memories and shared beliefs. Maybe, savvy marketeers would start using popular novels such as these to start selling their products in the future. That is if people are still reading that much by then.Who knows, it might all be holographic. Speaking of which, I just started reading "The Holographic Universe" more than 6 years after I bought that book. :D

Competence

There is a purpose for everyone on this earth; I think that incompetence is manifested in a person because he or she is

1. In the wrong job. Think of the cliched circle doing the job of a square.

2. Tries too hard. Everything, even the simplest becomes a real effort. When you start making things hard for yourself, you tend to screw up more. I speak this from personal experience

3. Trying to be someone they aspire to rather than to be themselves. While it is ok to aspire to be like another person, you will not achieve anything beyond mediocrity if you neglect a talent you have just because you think it is "useless" while striving to seem "talented" in an area that you are not, just because you idolise the success of that person you think you want to be. For example, while I might have a real interest in painting, I will not try to compete with other talented artists because I know I will never be the kind of artist that is as good as I would like to be if I want to concentrate my ambition on a particular endeavour. Trying to force myself to be like them will only make me insecure, which will lead to petty jealousies,politicking (if I manage to achieve a level of power), and suppression of other rising talents whom I know will overshadow me to hide that insecurity. I think that is what is happening in most of the world today.


When the world values a particular talent more than another, everyone strives to capitalise on the former talent, sadly neglecting the other talents that are just as important, but are kept under the radar just because the fad or trend of that time do not seem to value that particular aptitude or ability just as much.

To take a very obvious example. Malaysia has many IT graduates but many of whom are incapable of performing their work in this area they're supposedly "trained" in to a level of basic competency, and are thus unemployable. If they managed to get employed, are so inefficient in their work that they ended up wasting more time than actually working. Why? Because many, in their ignorance of self, their ability and their talents, had jumped into the bandwagon, thinking that it would mean automatic acquisition of aptitude and thus security of employment. Sadly, adults who should know better are just as blind to this, as many themselves are satisfied with their mediocre lives and hence think that there is no need to be better, and do something you have a stronger chance of being good at.


Is that the reason why we keepc complaining about the incompetent people we meet at work, who for all you know, would had been very competent had they been given the proper guidance when they were younger, and had took on roles they are better in rather than "falling" into a role for lack of self-knowledge or ignorance of choics. Maybe we never learn to value all the different talents as well as we should because our skewed perceptions are propagated and reproduced in every generation.

FREE E-BOOKS

Celebrating the World Book Fair Day, one can now find many stuff previously available only on paper versions, online.
From now til August 4th

When the law meets alternative culture - The Malaysian Story

PAUL'S PLACE - THE CASE WILL BE HEARD NEXT WEEK

On 31st December last year at about 10.30 pm, the police raided Paul's
Place, a small music venue for the independent music community, and arrested
over 300 people who had come to attend a hardcore gig including David Wong,
an employee who was helping out that night, and subsequently charged as the
owner with four offences.

The case is coming up next week at the Central Magistrate's Court 6
(opposite Dataran Merdeka) at 9:00 am on Monday 31st July.

Do turn up in large numbers and occupy pews in the public gallery - and guys
from the press, do come yourselves or send your reporters to cover this
important landmark in legal history - and hopefully whatever the outcome
will be given space in the media, so that the truth shall be laid bare, and
whoever is righteous will be vindicated (we hope).

To jog your memory:
********************
a) A raid was conducted on Paul's Place by the Brickfields Police Station,
31 December 2005. Over 300 people were detained. Those detained were inside
Paul's Place, in public places and food stalls within a 100 m radius of the
venue. Several police officers we spoke to that night informed us that it
was a "Black Metal" raid.

b) David and 3 other individuals were remanded for 2 days and released
following a press conference and some assistance from Mr Ronnie Lui. During
this time, the reason for the raids was shifted from "Black Metal" to
"Unlawful gathering", "public indecency" and back to "Black Metal".

c) Finally, after several weeks, the police department decided why they had
conducted the raid. David was charged on 4 counts, operating a pub without a
license, selling liquor without a license, not having customs/import permits
for the liquor (I think) and displaying the "Paul's Place" banner without
getting a DBKL permit. In addition to that, the others were charged under
the printing presses act for distributing printed 'zines and t-shirts
without the approriate permits.

For more details, please go to http://media-blackmetal-msia.blogspirit.com/
, a web repository on media coverage of this event set up by our friends at
the Center of Independent Journalism www.cijmalaysia.org.

Writing history in Malaysia

Check out this article. Will post my own commentary later

http://www.malaysianbar.org.my/content/view/3555/2/

And what would you think of a course that has such broad scope by is in danger of veering into either stating the obvious, boring official lines or inanity

The Ethnic Relations Course: What it's really about

Part 1 - Basic Concepts on Ethnic Relations
Part 2 - Plurality and Plural Societies in the Malay World: Past, Present and Future
Part 3 - The Malaysian Constitution in the Context of Ethnic Relations
Part 4 - Economic Developments in the Context of Ethnic Relations in Malaysia
Part 5 - Political Development in Malaysia
Part 6 - Ethnic Relations Towards an Integrated Society
Part 7 - Local and Global Challenges for Ethnic Relations

Ma Jian's "Stick Out Your Tongue"

Here is the review as taken from The Star Bookshelf section
http://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2006/7/28/lifebookshelf/14397977&sec=lifebookshelf





Stick Out Your Tongue
Author: Ma Jian
Translator: Flora Drew
Publisher: Chatto & Windus



Sensitively translated from Chinese, Stick Out Your Tongue is the kind of work, maybe because of its subject matter and the political persecution faced by its author, that would be lauded by literary circles, as well as human rights and cultural activists worldwide. It is the kind of work that would be eagerly picked up and read by westerners who want to see what the author had to say about the exotic East, especially one that is as elusive and far from international limelight as Tibet. However, credit is due to the author for not promoting rose-tinted exoticism, and for drawing out the humanity of the characters in his stories, thus making these ordinary actors memorable. It seems that nowadays, whether amongst popular fiction or its more literary siblings, nondescript characters buck the trend and the onus is on the author to spin either entertaining or fascinating narratives out of them.

Stick Out Your Tongue is a collection of five reminiscences and oral tales, which blur the lines between fiction and reality (a style that seemed to permeate a number of the stories I’ve read from Chinese authors, especially those writing about Tibet). In fact, the title of the book was inspired by the tragic tale of a young girl, under the title “The Eight-Fanged Roach”. She was given the name Metok, and was both a product of incest as well as a victim of incest. There is a strong Oedipal complex attached to this story, and the tragedy of incest that had entrapped her father to first impregnate his own mother, and then forced his daughter into sexual intercourse when drunk, had the aura of a Freudian case study, and highlights the universality of incest and tabooed sexual desires. She married an abusive man and finally lost her mind and lived like a bitch (pun intended) on the streets of Lhasa.

When Ma Jian writes in the afterword that the Chinese government had banned this book of his by calling him a purveyor of pornography, it is perhaps due to sexual tension that permeates his stories, and his breaking the taboo in allowing sex to colour his characters. Even the least sexual of his stories “The Smile of Lake Drolmula”, illustrates the unspoken obsession of a young boy, who left his familial hearth in the highlands for the city to further his education in a local high school, with his sister who was approaching womanhood. “The Woman and the Blue Sky” is the story of a woman who practiced polyandry, more out of necessity than real desire, in order to escape the clutches of her lecherous adoptive father. Prior to her marriage, she had been intimate with a soldier, who narrated this story to the author. “The Golden Crown” was about silversmith and his dead lover, the latter depicted as a very sexual woman, who suffered the penalty for her wantonness when she became trapped on the stupa built by her former husband in her bid to wrest the golden crown resting on it. The “Final Initiation”, despite being about the initiation of a young female lama who was an incarnation of a Living Buddha, included sex in one of the rites. Perhaps you might have heard of Tantric Buddhism, which is completely different from the form of Buddhism practiced by most conservative Malaysians. The pubescent girl-lama tragically died during her initiation, when she had to meditate in nude on top of a frozen river.

More importantly, in each of the story, the foibles of the human race is sympathetically depicted, with an awareness of the dejected lives of the people who populated the plateau, thus making each tale an illustration of a world that is both harsh and hostile, as well as patient and determined. At the same time, they show how kindness can be masked under cruelty, and helplessness can be taken advantage of. In a style that speaks directly to the reader, yet poetic, Ma Jian brings us memorable images of the Tibetan highlands that we are unlikely to forget in a hurry.

The religious versus the infidels

Though I usually do not read this site, but I find this article interesting
http://www.malaysia-today.net/loonyMY/2006/03/time-silent-majority-became-outraged.htm#comments

Strange how looking for information on child caregivers in Malaysia (for the purpose of work) brought me to this site. :D


The world seems to work like this, depending on where you are and what your creed of belief is

Christian versus the infidels
Muslims versus the infidels

Erm, do the Judaists have this dichotomy as well? Maybe, but correct me if I am wrong

Judaists versus the infidels


Interesting isn't it, that the religions of the Book, have this I-am-better-than-you-because-God-has-chosen me attitude?

Everytime anyone write any piece of apologist article on their religion, it will be our Brothers and Sisters in (Christianity/Islam) and everyone else is the lost sheep that needs salvation. I was told that the very definition of Muslim, from its Arabic root, means "submitting to God". Hence, the argument runs, if you submit to God, you are a Muslim. And Islam itself, from all the bits and pieces I've seen, should actually be marketed more as a Guiding Principle/Bible (which is actually what the Quran means) which God has given to the world to aid the lost, rather than as a stringent, orthodox piece of work that forces you into strict compliance. Whether in Islam or Christiniaty, are we able to shift our mindset to think that what may be "encoded" many not necessarily be as "set in stone" as we think?

I do know, within Christianity, some more fundamental groups actually create this dichotomous differentiation between "believers" and "Christians". For them, believers are those who believe in God and Jesus but do not necessary practice their beliefs according to the strict doctrine promulgated by these groups. So, there, within Christianity, we have even more subsets that were not in the Bible before.

And it is interesting that in Islam, God is not given an actual Gender. In Malay, God is referred to as "Nya" (bearing in mind that the Malay language used in Islam is very strongly influenced by the Arabic language, as they even share the same script in the past, and that is the script I intend to learn) while in the English Language Christian Bible, there is a strong representation of a masculinised entity.

And of course, within both religions, there are many misogynists, or misogynistic type of regulations pertaining to the woman, which I believe, were more due to psychologically influence interpretations of the text rather than anything else.

And interestingly, Muslims (I am now using this term in the more traditional way of equating this group of people with people who practice the fiqh tenets in Islam) who claim to know a lot about other groups of people are actually as deluded as the Christians who claim that Islam promotes repression of people. Living in a Muslim country, I know just how untrue that statement is. In fact, scholars will have a field day if they come and study the top misconceptions that people of different religions have of each other.

Practices and traditions imported wholesale from the evangelists of Gulf lands (and more recently Pakistan) for Islam and Europe (and more recently US) for Christianity without any form of digestion and integration into the existing traditions in Malaysia have, I believe, promoted some form isolationist tendecides between these different groups. We forget that there are many other groups from these two religions who are living in harmony with their lands and neigbours in other parts of Asia, barring the more extreme sects. And now, we are trying to bring this kind of exclusivity way of thinking via "mission work" to them.

J'ai content

Parce que je connait lire livres des enfants francais. Mais, je voudrais à lire plus livres difficile. Quelque faςon, j'ai prendre francais intensif et j'ai ne pas fois pour ça. J'ai rentrer travaille. Bisous!

The year of crucifixion

For those not in the know, Article 11 is the article in Malaysia's Federal Constitution, guaranteeing the right of religious freedoms to all. Yet there is another Article within that constitutions that state that being a Malay equals to being a Muslim. But this has been taken, interpreted around to say that any person who is not ethnically Malay but has converted to Islam (either by choice or because of parental "coercion") has no recourse out of it, unless they wish to be subject to the humiliation of apostasy under the law (and the law makes it hard for them to change their minds). Marriages with a Muslim in this country can only be made if the non-Muslim converts to Islam, regardless of other interpretation that allows a Christian and Judaist to marry a Muslim. Though of course, in the latter agreement, there is the thorny issue of what your children will be. While the liberals might say, let them learn the religion of both parents, the patriarchal precepts in both religion would prefer that the child follow that particular religion. And of course, as the law of the land gives the men the upperhand, usually, the child will follow the religion of the father. However, in Islam as practice in Malaysia, no marriages is allowed if the non-Muslim partner refuses to convert. Should the couple decide to defy the law and get married outside the country, their marriage is not recognised in Malaysia, which means they can still be arrested for khalwat (close proximity) or maksiat (sexual fornication) under the Sharia jurisdiction of Malaysia. So there.

The history of the Inter-Faith commission is basically to try to deal with the social conflict engendered by religious conflict, and also to deal with issues of greater religious understanding among the different adherents. It is unfortunate that many Malaysians, despite the so called "muhibbah" concept (racial harmony), all it takes is just a religious issue to give rise to fascist sentiments to take place. Even if one is to disagree that Huntingdon's theory of civilizational clash fit the larger picture of the world (and having read the beginnings of his book yesterday, I somehow could not help disagreeing that he has a point on the cultural divide), it goes in pretty well with the Malaysian scene, though there are many other factors which are unique to Malaysia that is not easily explained.

In going in the road show, the IFC proponents and campaigners are trying to introduce and explain the concept of what they are all about to as many Malaysians as possible, so that Malaysians can make their own choices, instead of having their choices dictated by self-appointed leaders. If you want to be pejorative about it, fine, call it propaganda. But it is not any worse than what a lot of religious fundamentalists do when trying to ply their creed. Many people, including myself, suspect, that the rising resistance against this Commission, are due to the lack of security in their own religion's ability to hold its own (which boils down to their own lack of understanding, despite being subject to years of teaching on their religions creed) as well as a fear of the lost of political status quo. If the US is moving towards unthinking democracy in many parts of its state, Malaysia has always practiced unthinking democracy, from the day of its Independence (a sad thing indeed).

While one might decry the fascism of the Zionist in the their dealings with their majority Muslim neighbours, it is unfortunate that the way things have become in this world, every Jew is considered a potential Zionist and every Muslim a potential timebomb. The voice of the bigots, the prejudiced and the extremists ring louder than that of the moderates and clear-thinking person, so much so that they create an image of an extremely unfriendly, patriarchal and repressive condition in religion. Sad to say, many religious adherents, regardless of their religion, has a strong bent towards this (I think psychologists once did a study on people with religious bent and what made them tick, and what made them such zealots) end. I understand this myself because I was once a religious fundamentalist at the very core. But the problem with religious fundamentalism in Malaysia (and I believe, in many parts of the world), is that those with tenuous understanding of the core principles of their religionn can be easily persuaded by those whom they hold up as the demagogue, whose views they follow without too much questioning, because these demagogues are the wise men, the "levites", the "ulamaks", the "minister", the "priest". The way Islam is practiced today, in Malaysia particularly (I do not yet have a strong basis to attempt a comparative study with Islamic practices in the other countries, though I am trying to learn up as much as I could), has the aroma of the Inquisition and the Catholic/dichotomy of Europe in the Middle Ages (perhaps even earlier) right up to the 17th Century. The real reason for the existence of such religions, to guide human behaviour and to turn humanity away from perversions (perversions defined by the standards of morality that humanity had arrived at), had been lost, as we indulge in a catfight over issues of fiqh and practices. However, I can understand where these people are coming from, schooled as I was, from a young age, on the similar importance exacted on practices (and I don't mean moral practices, but religious practices), doctrine and morality. Lo behold someone who does not conform to the strict path as set out within the narrowest of hermeneutics. With so many religion engaged in the struggle for the Human Soul, it is always easy to lose sight of the perspective of why is God allowing such a divide to take place in the first place. Can 1 Corinthians 12 of the Bible be used to explain "diversity in unity". No doubt Muslims are not mentioned in here (though the Jews are) because Islam was not yet in existence at the time this book was written. Many Islamic scholars concede to the shared tradition of the Jews and Christians, with that of the Muslims. Just that the interpretation have some variation, and that which comes last is accorded the highest place of honour (Jesus Christ by the Christians, Muhammad S.A.W. by the Muslims).

I have still a long way to go to understand all that is going on, but I hope to achieve a better measure of understanding as I grow older, should I still have time on this Earth. Or have I gone the way which Paul, the apostle of Jesus in the New Testament warned of

"Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit according to hte tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ" (Colossions 2:8). Is this what the Muslims fear as well? That the proponents of the Interfaith-Commission are wolves in sheep clothing? Even within Christian denominations, there are certain groups that do not recognise the other group, because to the former, the latter have fallen from the straight and narrow dictates of the Bible, using the verse in Revelations 21:18-19 as their justification

18. For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book [note that the book is in small letters in my translation, does anyone know the Greek word used?]: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book

19. and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Now, is the book the Bible or something else? And if one goes back to the Muslims, could that had been their fear as well with regards to the Al-Quran? One will only know as one starts reading the Quran, and that is what I will start doing again.

First the Danish cartoon controversy, now Lebanon's bombing by Israel, US policy that sides with Israel, it is little wonder that the Muslims are feeling threatened from all side, with all that happening to them in the space of 6 months.

But going further, the strong tide of radicalism, in Christianity and Islam, had begun since the end of the Cold War, or perhaps even before, the middle of last century, and I suspect, the pinnacle of it all is still in the works.

Realist versus Anti-Realist (Philosophy of Physics Pt 2)

(Updated entry, so it no longer appears in the original order)

I spent the better part of my weekend immersed in the works of a literary theorist turn philosopher of science, and after having waded through more than half the book, finally all that point of the debate made sense. In the last 3 chapters, he outlined most clearly, if not somewhat repetitively (good for a person like me who needs constant reminders :D), that the realist lies in the category of the alethic-objective (truth value whereas the anti-realist lies in the group of the epistemic approach to quantum theory.

But a question is, why is a person who is considered an instrumentalist be philosophically equated to subscribing to an anti-realist theory just because he is dogmatic? Maybe I might be accused of being a relativist in saying that an instrumentalist might not so much be completely rejecting the possibility of a truth-value out there rather than being convinced that the truth value lies inherently in the system he/she is propagating. Kind of like what fundamentalist believers of any religion believe that whatever truths can be found, is found in the Book/Scriptures/Creed they subscribe to.

Hence, if I were to do a bit of deduction, an adherent to epistemological reasonings (and I assue this reasoning would be logical deduction from a particular arbitrary ideal that one subscribes to) should believe that anything that could not be deduced from a theory that (im)perfectly explains what we see therefore either have to be illustrated by a complementary theory or be rejected. The "realists" (I am using scare quotes here because I am using this term from the POV of the 'mainstream' realist/antirealist camp) seem to argue that the "antirealist" (basically adherents of the "Copenhagen QM Model") reject the idea of an unknown truth-value, when I suspect that the latter's approach to the alethic is more agnostic than atheistic.
And as the author of the book I read himself pointed out, both sides weaved in and out of the epistemic and the alethic in their arguments, thus making their points chaotic in the process (or perhaps chaotic to a philosopher who insists on drawing a territorial border between the "realist" and the "anti-realist"). But somehow, I feel, it is more likely that each camp has their own 'imperfect' ontology of the theories they have each contributed to formin, and are perhaps waffling around in trying to find the most concise way of expressing their thoughts non-mathematically.

While the "instrumentalists" can fall into the trap of dogmatism (and I argue that not only them, but also the "truth-seekers"), they have enabled applications to be constructed based on their mathematical formalism. However, one might also argue that perhaps we are always hitting a cul-de-sac in trying to break the glass ceiling of quantum technology applications because we are using imperfect mathematical formalism.

There is also something else to be said about the descriptivists and mind-linguistic signification-through-the-process-of-assigning-a-signifier. Apparently, the author does not favour the Saussaurean approach of "assigning reality" through the project of assigning a signifier to the signified. While he seems to favour the post-structuralist in his arguments by criticising the positivists and structuralists, his stance does not fall into the former category. So I find myself in a fatigue inducing whirl last weekend, trying to pin down the theoretical foundation from which this realist/anti-realist idea is being worked from. Since I am at this stage unfamiliar with the works of Putnam and Rorty, having only arrived at them via secondary sources (yes I blush to admit that), I cannot critique his criticism of them, yet.



Anyway, as I do not have the book with me right now and am typing this during a short break at work, I can't say much more for fear of mis-citing the author


See "Quantum Mechanics and the Flight from Realism" by Prof Christopher Norris. There is a review of it here

Physics of Philosophy Pt 3 - resource listing

Just some resources I'll like to include in this post. I've been reading news from this site since my undergrad days, though it has been awhile since I've visited it (though I get news update sent me via email). So here it is

http://www.aip.org/pnu

Some writings of Niels Bohr
http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/webdocs/Chem-History/Bohr/Bohr-1913a.html
http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/webdocs/Chem-History/Bohr-Fission-1939.html

Something for the literary person wanting to study the written production of scientists and the science community
http://www.nbi.dk/NBA/papers/docs/cover.html

Literary science historian?
http://www.aip.org/history/nblbro.htm

This is something which I wish the arts and humanities community has:
http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2000/march1/physics.htm

This is the issue of Open Access that will actually enliven the debate in the humanities scholarly community. Perhaps as a place to test the ground for your ideas, especially if the idea presents a radical approach to something well-worn. Apparently Princeton is doing something like that for the Classics.

Ok, I better narrow down my research topic. For now, it's back to the 'day job' :/

The art of self-publicity - Amazon Wish List

've decided to put up my Amazon wish lists for books I would love to have for research purposes, hoping (wishful thinking) maybe some kind soul would like to give them to me as gifts, either from their collection or Amazon. . :D

The list will grow (and change) so you might want to visit it from time to time. It can become a good bibliographic reference as the list grows, and you might find a book you never knew about but would like to have. :)