横眉冷对千夫指, 俯首甘为孺子牛.

鲁迅



America government is indeed very kind.
they send food supplies to Lebanon refugees,
and supplies missiles to Isreal .

i am so proud so happy that i am going america.
God bless america :):):):)



i remember reading one of the diplomatic statements some days ago which goes something like this:

"...we highly condemned Hezbollah for holding two israelis soldiers hostage...and are concerned over the military action taken by israel to invade lebanon and cause the homes of more than 50,000 lebanon people lost..."


i applaud malaysians to speak against Israelis action, in the forms of diplomatic statements and street demonstrations. though it will not change the situation at the slightest bit, it shows some guts and spirits.

let me guess...

"Singapore is concerned..."?

m'sia s'pore

One of the perennial questions that always exists in my head, other than the often cyclical quest on the human nature and the purpose of life, is whether it's better to live in Malaysia or in Singapore. I am often reminded of how unhappy, how stressful, how no-life s'poreans generally are. (Check this out). But then again, when i think harder, i recall that life was exciting and meaningful for me (as a student, as a waiter and as a teacher). Of course i admit that the macro environment in s'pore is generally more competitive and stressful, but that does not mean that at a micro level happiness and purposefulness are hard to attain. Singaporeans are notoriously labelled as cold and bland, but i have found quite a number of very nice and very interesting friends there. While people often comment about the long sour faces MRT commuters in s'pore perpetually put on, this phenomenon is not uncommon among the higher echelons of malaysian society. The difference lies only in the fact that a larger portion of singaporeans belong to that stereotype. It is only a matter of time before cities like PJ to turn into another stereotyped Singapore-like society.


On the other hand, i am trying to gather my thoughts on whether life in Malaysia is really that bagus! I have met a lot of very nice friends and acquiantances here. i love the 人情味, the culture, the customs and the practises here.


but when i say i love malaysia, you can almost be certain that i choose to temporarily close my eyes on some issues of injustice.

check this out.

A proposed Guidelines to Foreign Participation in the Distributive Trades "states that all retailers, wholesalers, and specialty stores would be asked to restructure to meet a minimum 30% bumiputra requirement, to raise its paid-up capital to at least RM1 million and to ensure the composition of the directors and employees reflect the racial composition of the country."

In another word, if your company is big and pro, 30% of your workers must be Malay, and 60% of the board of directors must be Malay. The former is acceptable, but the latter is cut-throat nono. This would seriously hamper entrepreneurship especially among aspiring young Chinese entrepreneurs like me =)

and lots of other issues.

but all can be traced to one root problem: ethnicity

in neighbourhoods and kampungs, malaysia is indeed a multiracial and multicultural society, and people from different races live happily together. But that is not reflected at the higher level of the society namely in the parliament and among the movers and shakers of this nation.

and there was a Malay politician who said something like this: "this land belong to us bumiputra, and we graciously allow you chinese to settle in this land, and now you chinese kakacheowcheow trying to cross the line?"


please dont arrest me.
if our govt do know how to access to blogs.

互别会

知己可遇不可求.

很庆幸我人生尚未过半就能寻到几位这么知心的朋友.

朋友们,在这里我要告诉你们的是,

经过形形色色的人生洗礼,历尽社会的沧桑后,以后我们无论变了多少,我还是你认识的耘豪.

我们还会是朋友.

仅愿我们友谊细水长流

外面的世界

词曲/演唱：齐秦

在很久很久以前

你拥有我

我拥有你

在很久很久以前

你离开我去远空翱翔

外面的世界很精彩

外面的世界很无奈

当你觉得外面的世界很精彩

你我会在这里衷心的祝福你

外面的世界很精彩
外面的世界很无奈

当你觉得外面的世界很无奈

我还在这里耐心的等着你

每当夕阳西沉的时候

我总是在这里盼望你

天空中虽然飘着雨

我依然等待你的归期

Unreservedly wesleyan

Some of the first-year-initiatives that i'm interested in:

Unthinkable Suffering: The Problem of "the Problem of Evil"

This course will explore the difficulties of reconciling the existence of evil and suffering in the world with the existence of an omnipotent and benevolent God. How have Christian philosophers and theologians sought to justify God by redefining, relativizing, or even explaining away evil? We will explore traditional efforts to set forth "theodicies," or justifications of God's goodness, as well as the inadequacy of these schemes in the face of the horrors of the twentieth century. How is it possible to account for evil that surpasses all understanding, or suffering that is too great to explain away? How, in other words, can thinking think the unthinkable.

Philosophy of Love

A philosophical introduction into the classic humanist topic of love and eros which begins with Greek political philosophy and goes on to encompass western theology and romanticism, Freudian and Buddhist psychology, the social history of marriage, the evolutionary biology of sex, literary explorations of gender and eco-feminist love ethics.



Some of the modules that i'm interested in:

Democracy and Dictatorship: Politics in the Contemporary World

An introduction to politics in industrialized capitalist, state socialist, and developing countries. We explore the meaning of central concepts like democracy and socialism, the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of political institutions (e.g., presidentialism vs. parliamentarianism in liberal democratic countries), the causes and consequences of shifts between types of political systems (e.g., the collapse of state socialism), and the relationships among social, economic, and political changes (e.g., among social justice, economic growth, and political democracy in developing countries).

History of Modern Christian Thought

This lecture and discussion survey begins with close study of Luther, Calvin and the Protestant radicals. Relations between early modern culture and religion in the 17th century are explored. Enlightenment, romantic, existential and postmodern expressions and critiques of Christianity will be examined in major thinkers from the 18th to 20th centuries. Readings from Wesley, Edwards, Hume, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Barth, Tillich, Daly, etc., will be included.

The Moral Basis of Politics

An introduction to upper-division courses in political theory. The course considers the basic moral issues that hedge government and politics: Under what, if any, circumstances ought one to obey the laws and orders of those in power? Is there ever a duty to resist political authority? By what values and principles can we evaluate political arrangements? What are the meanings of terms like freedom, justice, equality, law, community, interest and rights? How is our vision of the good society to be related to our strategies of political action? What is the role of organization, leadership, violence, etc. in bringing about social change? Readings from political philosophers, utopian works, novels, contemporary social criticism and modern social science.

Unreservedly malaysia politics

There are so many things happening in Malaysia recently.

- The highly played-up dispute btw former PM Mahathir and present PM Abdullah. it is sometimes funny to see how politicians can shift position so swiftly and so unprincipledly.
Of course, who is your daddy now?

- The never-ceasing crimes and the "one eye closed one eye open" attitude of the policemen, claiming that our crime rate is low and it is very safe to live in M'sia. fuck off (i mean wake-up) la esp. those high-ranked police officers. do u need to wait until ur house broke in ur car stolen ur daughters raped then u realise how dangerous it is for ordinary malaysians to live and how perennially fearful we are to go out.

- Ministry of Work screwed-up again. they just never get things right. always need to delay construction, pay godlike amount of debts to private contractors. and the most amazing of it all? the Minister place is still safe...after ten or twenty years in that same old position, commiting the same old mistakes again and again. and he is still shameless enough to sit there still and tight. Out of that 360 millions MYD, how many millions would eventually go to your pocket? how many millions are used to fund your overseas golf trips? How many millions are from the tax money of the people who misguidedly trust you enough to elect you?

- Malaysia was ranked third lowest in the general politeness survey by dunno which magazine or agency. and all the politicians know is just to refute and question the accuracy of the survey, claiming that "our culture of courtesy is not reflected in the survey". the politicians cant even debate at the parliament in a civic and respectful manners...

- a state government recently spent a bomb to educate the civil servants about social etiquettes. Outrageously expensive dinner courses, and totally extravagant tuxedos provided also. and of course, the people's money again =)


what Malaysia really needs is 3 things:
1) efficiency
2) accountability
3) civility

On a macro level, with these 3 qualities, together with careful and professional planning, we can have good governance. though i doubt it is something that's gonna happen anytime near 2020.
On a micro level, we can lead a purposeful and meaningful life with efficiency accountabiliy and civility

a good webby for political and social issues in M'sia
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/blogs/intermission


anyway, president georgie bush just had his birthday on July 6. of course most of the political leaders across the world cant wait to send him birthday wishes and some even bday gifts!

No prize for guessing the best present this year: Missiles from N.Korea!

Happy birthday president bush =)

Desperate Housewives (Season II)
Fahrenfeit 9/11 by Michael Moore (The documentary)


2 of the stuff that i have watched recently. in fact i spent so much of my time watching TV programmes and reading online that as if i am making up for the lack of TV watching and random reading over the past 6 years.

Both hit me the hardest. or rather, coldest. the perennial question of human nature was raised up again at the philosophical theatre in my mind. i feel so cold. and shivel at how dark we are or we can potentially be, both at the micro level as a person and at the macro level as a society as an organisation. but the way our civilisation has turned out is probably a manifestation of our human nature.

of course, as i have always believed, every human being is good in nature. everyone has the potential to be nice. but the way our society has been has made us deviant from our nature as we grow up, to be far from good, far from ideal. in this aspect, Christianity has some truths. Adam and Eve were created to live blissfully (and ignorantly) in the Garden of Eden. But once they ate the forbidden fruit and obtained knowledge, they were expelled from Heaven and needed to work and suffer. In the same principles, human babies came to the world being simple and happy and having nothing substancial in their minds, and grew up and obtained knowledge and started to suffer. Philosophically, the eating of the Forbidden Fruit is seen as the point when human beings started to be less than perfect, less than ideal, and began to SIN.

but the question is, are we a sinner only after eating the Fruit, or are there already seeds of evil in us that prompted us to eat the Fruit? (keep in mind that i am speaking fuguratively, very and plainly figuratively) In another word, my question is whether it is our original human nature to be bad and evil, or it is a part of the shells that we developed to protect ourselves from this bad bad society? In short, is evil nature or nurture?

I always wonder about this question. I don't want to settle for a quick fix-all answer...
Someone said before that "Human being is fundamentally good in nature. but the extent of goodness is merely fundamental."

perhaps so. it takes enlightenment and wisdom to be good in a way further than fundamental.