Vandalism

Few months ago, when i took a bus and went down to KL, i saw this picture in front of my seat. I shall not disclose the bus company's name, but i deeply hope that the company will fix this problem as soon as possible.

Hisap apa?

I wonder who is the desperate person, who left the contact number to the public so as to satisfy his/her lusty desire. I believe there are some other better way, like internet social network, dating service and etc. Why must they involve vandalism?

It's such an uncivilized behavior to vandalize the public property for whatever means. To get attention? Or just for pleasure? Those people are just inconsiderate.

But have you heard this saying: "In our eastern society, you draw something on the street, people will sue you; but in western countries, people will think it's art"

No matter what, i am confident to say the picture that i put above definitely not a piece of art.

Fuel

The price of petrol in our country has been fluctuating since the middle of this year. I still remember vividly the time when the government suddenly increased the price to RM2.7 per litre. It's insane and unbelievable! I remembered it was a Tuesday, because that day me, james and swarna were having dinner at sri petalling. When we met the traffic jam, we thought it was due to pasar malam. But apparently not. People on that night were pretty reckless and seemed rushing to somewhere. Believe me, i was quite scared at the moment, it looked like armageddon was approaching. And the worst part was, i had no clue of what's happening.

So when i reached back at my house, i quickly went online and checked out what's messing up the society. Well, after seeing the news highlight, everything seemed so clear to me. Then i received call from my mum, and she said the lines at petrol kiosk were so long till she rather stayed at home.

Nobody would be happy after the news was out, i assumed. Even i was pretty furious at the government that time. Why must they do this? Shouldn't government take good care of the citizens? .... Well, there must be some reasons behind it that forced the government to do so. After reading their explanation, it sounded perfectly reasonable. The international price for petrol had increased tremendously, so our government couldn't cover the subsidy so much. The most they could gave was 30 cents per litre. Furthermore, they carried out another plan for compensation, whch was road tax rebate.

At last, the raging fire of citizens had cooled off momentarily...

Then the world economy was getting unstable, after the Reymann Brothers declared bankruptcy in september. So as the international price of petrol, it dropped drastically till it reached around USD90+ per bucket. Since the price had dropped, our government also reduced the price bit by bit according to the international standard, till now.

My concern is, when the government announced to increase the fuel price, people were so angry and mad with the government. But when the government reduced the price, nobody expressed their gratitude to the government and just assumed the government was doing what they should be doing.

According to some politic critics, they said the government shouldn't even give any subsidy at the first place. Because of this act, citizens totally rely on this privilege and will regard the subsidy as something they deserve. At the same time, the government shouldn't control and standardize the price of petrol in the whole nation. Instead, they should set a ceiling price and let all the petroleum companies to compete with each another. To further elaborate this point, the critic said most of the foreign countries had stopped controlling the fuel's price, and it's the petrol companies' decision to determine the price. And this will ultimately benefit the consumers.

In my opinion, if the government considers the critic's proposal, it would be a better way in adjusting the price of petrol. By doing so, the citizen wouldn't be blaming the government if the international price reaches sky high. At the same time, it could de-cultivate the reliance of subsidy among the people.

New Tool

Yesterday newspaper introduced a software that can help us to reduce PC's energy consumption. Well, the purpose of this software is not just helping you to pay lesser electricity bill, in fact it's main objective is to save the earth. "save the energy, save the world (lame)"

Anyway, i'm sure you all already know that power generation (especially using coal, gas and to certain extent nuclear, hydro...) is indeed not environmental friendly. But who can survive in this era without electricity? While waiting for the scientists' invention on advanced, clean power generators like solar or tidal, we as commoner actually can also contribute, by simply reducing domestic consumption of energy. "there are ways to get there, if you care enough for the living"

At least save it for our children....

Click the image if you want to download the software, it's totally free

August

5 years later, if somebody asks you what is the most memorable event in August 2008, what would be your answer? Stupendous Olympic in Beijing, or massive weddings among the Chinese communities, or minor reduction of fuel's price, or chaotic election in Permatang Paut? Well, will there be anyone say the upcoming merdeka celebration?

A picture that i took in Pulau Sapi, Kota Kinabalu

This year, the feeling of anticipation isn't as intense as last year, or the years before that. I wonder why. As usual, parade is a must throughout the whole country, and the tv stations will be live-broadcasting it. "i can't remember when was the last time i purposely woke up early in the morning and sat in front of tv to watch the parade"

I am pretty confident to say that this year the citizens are not really enthusiastic for the merdeka celebration. Take a look at Puduraya, where i just came from, it was so crowded and.... "i suddenly feel like singing : how am i suppose to breath in no air, air air.." Anyway, when i was about to get a bus ticket back to ipoh, i saw this notice 'TIKET KE SEMUA DESTINASI PADA 29-8-08 TELAH HABIS DIJUAL' in front of all the major bus companies. Omg, what am i going to do? Lucky me, i managed to get one ticket which would be departing 1 hour later. Glad that my friends cancelled the lunch, if not i would not be able to get a ticket back in time.

See, people are rushing back to hometown, to celebrate Merdeka or to enjoy the holidays with the family? I really wonder which. This year, no minister accusing Chinese for not being patriotic. I really wonder why.

Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!

Weird Rules

We need rules to keep everything in order, but lots of people like to say ‘rules are meant to be broken’, seriously don’t understand why these people like to be so rebellious.

However if rules are too unreasonable, then we have to be smart and fight against it. The 7 rules below actually printed out nicely and pasted at the reception counter in a clinic, take a look at them and you definitely will be very shocked.

1, Provide a clear medical history

2, Maximum 2 people are allowed in the consultation room

3, Only 1 person can talk at one time

4, Patients can only ask questions after the doctor has finished writing

5, Normally there will be 2 groups of medicine being prescribed, and patients must finish one of them. The doctor doesn’t need to explain the prescribed medicine to the patients.

6, If you know what kind of illness you have, and you know how to diagnose and treat it, you don’t have to be here.

7, Please bring along your IC or birth certificate everytime you come here.

I almost can’t believe that this kind of doctor actually existed, and guess what, he/she has lots of clients everyday seeking for the consultation. This scenario happened in Singapore and all these rules written in Chinese, I hope i didn’t make any translational error.

This reminds me of behavioral sciences that I learnt in IMU. Well, it’s true that BS teach us how to be a good doctor, but even without BS, I believe normal people will find the rules above quite ridiculous.

Paternalism, the saddest tragedy that could happen in medicine…

esse est percipi

This is George Berkeley, an English philosopher who believed 'to be is to be perceived'. To further illustrate this motto of him, let's read the story below first.

"One day when Berkeley and his friend were strolling down a garden, the friend accidentally kicked a rock on the path. Then the friend asked: "does this rock ever exist?" Berkeley thought for a while and answered: "the rock only exists when you feel the pain."

.....so, was he trying to say that the rock never exist on the earth if his friend never kicked it? I know this is such a superficial question for a wise man to answer. To make it easier to understand, let's put it into a medical setting:

Let's say Mr. A has pancreatic cancer, no major changes on his body except change of bowel habits. Then he comes to a hospital, does x-ray, MRI, CAT, serum albumin, alkaline phosphatase...you name it. Cannot detect any sign of cancer at all.

Of course Mr. A would not know that he got cancer, as he couldn't perceive any symptoms from the cancer. For doctors, they would not know as well because they couldn't perceive anything from the tests results. Up to this point, Berkeley's quote still works. Let's change the story a bit, says the doctor suddenly feels like doing a biopsy and surprisingly finds out the cancer at its beginning stage. This time Mr. A knows he has cancer based on doctor's evaluation, not what he feels. So he will go back and tells his family that "i have cancer because my doctor told me so", not "i have cancer because i'm not feeling well".

Thus if i tell you a lie, and you perceive it as truth, then something will somehow exists, can i still say "to be is to be perceived"? Duno what am i writing, need some guidance please...

Lesson

I can't really remember when did it happen, i only know that it happened on a sunday, when the whole vista c was quite and silent...

This was an incident that i tried not to remember, because i am very disappointed on myself, but i cannot let it happen again, so i mustn't forget it. In fact, i should face it with courage and avoid the same mistake again.

So the story began with me strolling to the balcony to take in a few breath of fresh air, but before i could do so, i saw clouds of thick and dark smoke coming out from the construction site beside vista c. The smoke expanded very fast and covered almost the whole building within a few minutes. Fire was seen at the base of building, accompanied by some crackling sounds. Basically i stood there and watched the whole process going on. Since it was such a special occasion, i quickly took my camera and took a snap on it. Apparently i'm not alone, i even saw a man holding a professional camera and stood at the vista carpark to took an upclose shot.

Fire at the construction site

On the other block, james also witnessed what's going on at the construction site. He also took a snap on this 'magnificent scenery'. But being a good samaritan, he called the bomba first before he took out his camera phone and capture the scene. Less than half an hour, the bomba squad came and put off the fire.

I'm so ashamed of myself, for being such a bad civilian, who ignored the most basic responsibilities while staying in a community where everyone ought to look after each other. No, i just stood there and did nothing. What's the difference of me compared to those people who like to babble about what they've seen but not what they've done? Where is my conscience? I really hate myself..

Thanks to james, the building is fine now

Racial Discrimination

My mind is filled with this topic after watching “The Pianist”. It is a great movie, which describes a talented Polish pianist who suffered through the Nazi occupation during World War 2. Apparently it is a true story and his book is available in the market, maybe I should have a look on it.

It is really depressing when the movie shows how the Jews are being tortured and segregated by the authority. They are innocent, yet they are labeled as second class and their lives lie in the hand of the military. I am truly glad that human civilization has improved in such a way that no one will acknowledge barbaric behaviour as superiority nowadays. However racial discrimination still exists, as long as there are more than 2 races staying on a same piece of land.

Racial equality is everyone’s dream, to be precise the majority, because the beneficiary races constitute the minority. Thus I’m not really optimistic regarding to this issue, though there are so many organizations and activists are fighting for it. As a modern civilian, we live in a multiracial, multicultural society, and we are so proud to tell the foreigners that this is one of the uniqueness of our country. Yet, racial issue sometimes can be classified as sensitive issue, which always confuses me. When it comes to sensitive issue, the best way to combat it is silence… (so I shall not continue to elaborate more because it is sensitive, and I don’t want to get ‘rashes’)

I totally understand that it is not an easy job to bring racial equality to a particular community, therefore tolerance among the civilian is the best solution of all. To all the people who are suffering from discrimination or prejudice, be patient and wait for justice. At the same time, be thankful that your condition isn’t as bad as the Jews several decades ago.

Proud to be short

Hooray, I just found an interesting article in Reader’s Digest, apparently being tall is not a good thing after all, read the extract below:

Scientists have discovered the first gene that helps explain height differences in humans: HMGA2. Eventually, it may also provide insight into diseases such as cancer. “Even though improved nutrition means each generation is getting taller,” says study leader Dr Tim Frayling of Peninsula Medical School in the UK, “variation in height is almost entirely influenced by our genes,” That makes HMGA2 a model trait to study for its influence on disease risk. Among other things, it may explain why taller people have a slightly increased risk of certain cancer. ~RD, December 2007~

To all my fellow friends who have short stature and always being teased or bullied by those ‘tall’ people, don’t bother to revenge as they will live no longer, muahahaha….

Social Norms vs The Truth

Believe it or not, all of us are brain washed by social norms everyday. Every single thought, gesture, language, manner and perceptions, all of these are being regulated by social norms. So what is social norms? Who created it and why is it so powerful?

Social norms, of course is created by the society members, who use it to distinguish between majority and minority. It varies from community to community. I believe all human beings never intent to create such thing at the beginning, but don’t know why and how social norms slowly, progressively seeding in everyone’s mind and exerting its action, till now.

The truth, nobody can define it, because the definition that you may try to come up with might not be the truth. Everybody loves the truth, without any reason or purpose. Truth, changes with time. In the ancient days, people thought that God is the ultimate truth, thus by following the priests’ words, you would find Him and The Truth eventually. For example before the Renaissance, civilians were told that if they buy the Letter of Indulgence from the priest, the God would erase their sins. That’s obviously wrong even in the eyes of atheist. But in the modern days now, with the aid of sciences and logical thinking, The Truth has became vague and beyond our understanding. For example last time scientists thought that the sperm contained a small baby which will only grow in the womb of a lady. And now it is proven that’s no such ‘little, tiny baby’ hiding inside the head of sperm except genetic materials and nutrition. The theories proposed nowadays are really convincing, but would it change in the future when newer advanced technology is being invented?

As a modern civilian, we are always bounded by social norms and the truth. Besides, the relationship between social norms and the truth is quite fascinating. Firstly, social norms will tell you current truth, and the truth may explain the current social norms. Secondly, the truth can alter the social norms as well as the social norms can bend the truth. Wow, really need to kill more brain cells to comprehend these statements.

If you are asked to choose one side, social norms and the truth, which side do you want? If you choose social norms, your life will be ordinary and forgettable. The challenge that you have to face is to keep up with the trend, and that’s not easy. You need to have good observation, be an obedient follower, and able to change when necessary. The advantage would be acceptance by the majority, no harsh life. But if you choose the truth, let’s just say you are digging your own grave. The challenge is uncountable and unbearable. Do you still remember Galileo? What was his outcome just to prove that the earth travels around the sun? Yea, death sentence in the name of heaven. See, when social norms and the truth fight against each other, social norms will be the winner most of the time. Well, people are getting more civilized and they won’t kill you just because you say something different. But the mentality still persists. The good thing of choosing the truth, you will be remembered and your life is meaningful.

To tackle social norms, we say ‘dare to be different’, but seriously how many people willing to become the minority? Do we really like stereotyping? People, seek for the truth and stop living in ignorance.

“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves, and you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it” -Tuesday with Morrie

Glasses and Contact Lens

People who wear contact lens definitely will have a pair of glasses somewhere in the room; but people who wear glasses may not own a pair of contact lens. Two different objects, which serve the same purpose, but being held by a unique relationship, really amazed me.

I have both of them, and of course it must be started with glasses. Before my eyes started losing its ability to see far, I always admired those people who wear glasses because it looked cool, especially those poster model. Cool, in the mentality of a childish kid, it simply meant special than others. So I kept on dreaming when would I have the chance to wear glasses. Finally, ‘dream’ came true. I am short-sighted and I need to wear glasses. I still remembered the first time when I wore on the glasses, it felt like a make-over, as if I had changed into another person. I enjoyed putting this extra’ accessory’ on my face, made sure it was with me all the time. At that moment, I was so contented and I felt that I could see the world more clearly. However, this feeling didn’t last long till I found out that glasses also could give me some inconvenience. Friends no longer took it as a criterion of coolness, but love making fun of it. I started to hate wearing glasses, but I had no choice, I had to wear or my vision would go blur.

Then contact lens came across my mind. After years of wearing glasses, I thought I am mature enough to wear contact lens, so I leave my glasses inside my house most of the time, sometimes even ignore it. By wearing the contact lens, I can hide my disability of my eyes, as well as get rid of the funny glasses. I am totally exalted with it. Furthermore, not many people afford to own a pair of contact lens, and it makes me feel more special. However, there must be a fall after a rise. Sooner I find out that contact lens actually is a high maintenance for me, it is consider as a luxury. Every night I have to dip it with multipurpose solution, rub it with extra care because if it is too soft, I can’t cleanse away the dirt and if it is too hard, I could tear it apart. Not only that, I can’t wear it for too long, I can’t sleep with it, I can’t go near to fire, I can’t…. Why would I give myself so much trouble? What would I get in return? Look awesome? I doubt so.

Lying on my table is the poor glasses that I had abandoned for quite sometimes. Both glasses and contact lens serve the same purpose, why should I have preference over them? It’s unfair, cruel and unreasonable. I do understand both objects have certain limitation and flaws, but when I need the aid to see the world, both of them never fail to function.

Anyway, it would be great if I have perfect vision, then problems like this won’t arise.

The One

I try to resist myself from entering cinema recently, because my mind keeps on reminding me that there are approximately 10Gbs of movie in my laptop are waiting for me to watch. I know I should watch them as soon as possible so that I can have more free memory space, but I don’t know why I just don’t have the heart to finish all of them. Thus, I end up watching series and continue keeping them.

Most of the movies that I downloaded are old movies, which I didn’t get the chance to watch when it was first released, or some weird movies that posted on the China website that I found it interesting just by its title. For instance, a French movie called ‘La Vie Rose’, it is a half musical half drama movie, very unique and inspiring. And another award winning China movie entitled ‘Fury of Glory’ 光荣的愤怒，sounds very interesting but after watching it, I still don’t really get what the whole movie is all about. Maybe it’s just not my thing.

Then here it comes, my favorite movie that I will not hesitate to keep it inside my external hard disc, which is the trilogy of Matrix. Yes, the old movies that released at 1999(Matrix), early 2002 (Reloaded) and end of 2002 (Revolution) respectively. It is so embarrassed to tell people that I never watch Matrix before, as they were considered as pioneer of action movie with ridiculous special effects. I still remember I watch the first one right after Repro exam, and I was so amazed and overwhelmed by the movie. I like the concept, the effects, the actors, script… and almost everything. Speaking of the script, it was so philosophical that I have to pause the movie for awhile so that I can understand what are they trying to imply. I wish I could be as creative as the movie directors…

When we talk about Matrix(of course the movie, not mathematic), our attention will automatically focus around the main character, which is Neo aka Mr. Anderson aka ‘The One’. He is the super hero who saves the world and wins the beauty’s heart, even though when he is not in the scene, we would wander when will he appear again. In another word, we can say that The One is somebody that people look up to, centre of attention, or people that we care of. Back to the reality, we also recognized somebody as The One in our lives, maybe politician, community leader, celebrity, big shot or even your lover. They are the one who grab your attention unintentionally, make you to follow their order when they request, and people that you are looking for when you attend any function in the society.

What I am trying to say is, while you are gazing widely onto The One of yours, do you notice that actually there are so many insignificant people around you that you never lay your eyes on them? Do you know how they feel? What do you feel if you never get any attention from anyone? How’s their life? What do they feel when they meet The One? What do they do to balance up this psychological torment? What would they do if they desperately hunger for attention?

I don’t have the answer for all the questions above, but Aaron and I are trying to grasp the essence of this concept so that we can film our next video. I don’t know how it will turn out, but hopefully we can figure it out soon, like next week, oh gosh….

By the way, feel free to share with me who is The One in your life.

哀

前几天与朋友到mamak摊吃夜宵，忽然间我们谈到童年游戏，大家都兴高采烈地分享各自的回忆。 因为朋友们都是受英文教育长大，所以他们所玩的儿戏都与我的不同。当我正听着他们讲解一些游戏的乐趣时，好友忽然转过头来问我是否有玩过此游戏，我摇头，怎知好友也摇头说：‘你太华人了，不够西方化！’，接着就转回头继续谈天。我顿时呆了一下，与我同桌的每一个人都是华人，为何身为华人的我要因不够西方化而感到羞耻呢？为何不是他们因不够‘华人化’而感到羞耻呢？

不得否认，崇洋文化在华族里已达到难以制止的地步。在我就读的学校里，过半的华人都是香蕉人；英语能力差的更被视为二等学生。真悲哀啊！曾经听过一位香蕉友人说，当他在医院实习时，他最怕与华裔病人交谈，因为他怕该病人不会说英语而被逼要用马来语与他沟通。试想想，两个华人不能用华语或方言来沟通，更悲哀啊！真拜谢命运所赐，送我来到这间学校读书，让我体悟到华人文化在本土的危机。也因此，我开始学笛子，打太极，读华文哲学，但却换来朋友的冷嘲热讽，说我老土，与时代脱节。而我解释给他们，说身为炎黄子弟的我们，应该尽力捍卫我们的文化，不要让它白白的消失掉。结果呢，他们说我更印证了老土与脱节的一面。无奈极了！

前几个月，一位不谙华语的友人，兴孜勃勃地跟我说教育部肯定不再增建华小。我又呆了一下看着他，不知如何应对。大家都是华人，怎么搞到好像此事与他无关呢？他既不愤怒，反而还跟我说为何教育部需要作此决定。现在已摆明我们正被欺压着，为何还有人知道后无动于衷呢？难道他们不知道没了华文教育，就等于华人在这社会上失去了地位吗？ 又是一位在崇洋文化下被洗涤的华人，悲哀啊。。。如果照几十年前的拉萨报告书，减少各源流小学和增建国民型学校能促进人民团结，很明显此目标已告吹且不适于现代来增进国民团结。看看邻国印尼，在排华事件后，华人不敢以华文名来登记，更不用说有华文教育的存在。不错他们的政治醒觉在东南亚比较高，但结果多数的印尼华侨都在家里以印尼话与家人沟通，难道这不值得我们去省思吗？若要搞到各民族失去本身的母语和文化来达到所谓的国民团结，我无话可说。

好友能以华语沟通，但难以阅读与书写，说以后一定要让他的后代学华语和其方言， 但绝不送孩子到华小就读，因为他还认为要在社会立足必须懂得操一口流利的英文。说到此时，我也只能叹息。

但愿明天会更好。

Legalization of Euthanasia

This has been a highly debated topic since it was created, and we have no idea when will it end. We had already heard all the points in all discussions. But in the end, no conclusion can be made. What I am interested in, why there are so many countries still refuse to legalize euthanasia?

Legalizing an act doesn’t mean encouraging it. That’s something everyone should keep in their mind. For instance smoking, it is not wrong to smoke but the government always told us smoking is bad for health. Besides, the government sets up lot of rules for the smokers to obey, for example declare non smoking area, children are not allowed to smoke, high tax rate for cigarette companies and etc. And this lead to my second point, an act can be legalized with limitation and regulations. If euthanasia could be legalized, the government can also introduce other rules that accompany it, like only certain eligible people can perform euthanasia, criteria to undergo euthanasia and etc. To further elaborate this point, take a look at legalization of prostitution. In Singapore, prostitution is legal a few years ago, if I am not mistaken. But Singapore still looks as ‘clean’ as it was, because there are many rules behind this legal act. For instance, prostitutes must be above 18 years old, condom must be used in the ‘business’, prostitutes must apply a license and report to health center regularly and etc. We know it’s wrong to have prostitution in the community, but considering other consequences, like increasing numbers of AIDS patients, the government needs to do something. At least legalizing it can protect both prostitutes and the civilian.

Why people need euthanasia? The reason is simple, they need it to save them from torment. That’s their life and they have the right to take control of it. We do know life is precious, but when terminal illnesses and excruciating pain are over patients’ fragile body, shouldn’t we give them the dignity and relieve them from torturous tragedy? Since we already accept animal euthanasia, why should we reject human euthanasia?

There is a very young girl in China, who has congenital disorders that makes her sit on a wheelchair for the rest of her life. She is unable to take care of herself, so she is totally rely on her poor parents to sustain her life. However she still has the ability to type in front of a computer. She has a blog. In her blog, she begs China government to legalize euthanasia because she wishes to die after her parents pass away. Because without her parents, she has no more reason to stay in this world and she doesn’t have the ability to be independent. From the voice of a young girl, is euthanasia her salvation?

If one of our closest, dying family member wishes to take up euthanasia, I know it would be terribly hard to agree with them. To respect their choice, or to show them our love by letting them being tortured, it’s all up to you.