There is a Chinese saying that goes "The past can still be used in the present."
My interpretation goes beyond the literal that says traditions should be still practised in modern days. My thoughts are that the powerful at present make use of the dead to keep themselves in power.Whether their bodies are mummified or even their mere picture inspires blind obedience,the dead can be powerful tools to be used by the present to serve their purpose.Can the dead ever rest in peace ? when can they be let go of?
the pharoahs wanted to extend their power from the afterlife,the dead leader is preserved forever,the dead is immortalised or expected to enrich the present?
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
asus computers are lousy
I bought an asus laptop and the pc model sucks.The screen black out within less than 24 hours and when it was supposedly repaired with a torture test done .I took it back to the shop at Kendo,and the next day the screeen went black although it was on direct current.I took 7 videos on my instant camera and I'm going to send it back to asus to show their poor quality control in terms of manufacturing.Manufacturers who don't improve should not expect repeat customers or any customer loyalty.I have no faith in products that don't work after 24 hours. Period.My acer has been consistently more reliable when my boy has used his for 5 years with no problems at all.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
technocracy
Technocracy would utilize specialists in the field to solve problems on a public scale.
Presumably it assumes that technology can resolve many complex economic,scientific problems but some issues have multiple effects on ethics,moral,environment,humanism.Some problems have effects that would be apparent only after a long time.
Quality of life would be better if the population growth is manageable based on the resources available to sustain a decent life.Unfortunately ,since reproduction is a human right,then how would governments deal with balancing population growth with economic growth?
A parliamentary system has elected representatives based on geographic locality .How about one that is based on diverse age groups,ethnic groups,occupational representation with workers and employers each having equal representation?
Despite all that rhetoric ,at the end of the day the real power behind the throne is still money talks.
If technology replaces human labour,then who would be the consumers of goods and services produced by technological advancement? What would be the consequence on society if human labour is redundant? Work adds meaning and purposeto life and if one doesn't,then why are humans here on earth?
Presumably it assumes that technology can resolve many complex economic,scientific problems but some issues have multiple effects on ethics,moral,environment,humanism.Some problems have effects that would be apparent only after a long time.
Quality of life would be better if the population growth is manageable based on the resources available to sustain a decent life.Unfortunately ,since reproduction is a human right,then how would governments deal with balancing population growth with economic growth?
A parliamentary system has elected representatives based on geographic locality .How about one that is based on diverse age groups,ethnic groups,occupational representation with workers and employers each having equal representation?
Despite all that rhetoric ,at the end of the day the real power behind the throne is still money talks.
If technology replaces human labour,then who would be the consumers of goods and services produced by technological advancement? What would be the consequence on society if human labour is redundant? Work adds meaning and purposeto life and if one doesn't,then why are humans here on earth?
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
where is Msian ranking in PISA
PISA is a test that measures the average performance across the population for 15 year old secondary school students.
Tests are set by the OECD nations and even includes countries in eastern europe.
Surprised to see that the average scores for maths,science and reading as conducted in 2009 across 65 countries.
1. Shanghai
2. Hong Kong
3. Finland
4. Singapore
5. Korea
6. Japan
9. Taipei
43. Isreal
Malaysia did not participate in the survey.
What does this speak of the international ranking of our public schools,the quality of education when it comes to international benchmarking on a global scale?
Tests are set by the OECD nations and even includes countries in eastern europe.
Surprised to see that the average scores for maths,science and reading as conducted in 2009 across 65 countries.
1. Shanghai
2. Hong Kong
3. Finland
4. Singapore
5. Korea
6. Japan
9. Taipei
43. Isreal
Malaysia did not participate in the survey.
What does this speak of the international ranking of our public schools,the quality of education when it comes to international benchmarking on a global scale?
Monday, October 31, 2011
steel mountains and concrete banked rivers
It's quite a paradox to see us levelling high mountains and damming rivers ,then cutting down huge swathes of natural forests in the name of development and progress.Then we ask architects and engineers to build artificial steel mountains,recreate the very landscape we've destroyed by putting in artifical rivers and reconstruct metallic trees.
We destroy that which took millions of years to evolve and rebuild it according to our own interpretation of "nature".
As we move from the agragrian economy,with its dependence on the natural cycle of the seasons to the built environment,what have we gained and what have we given up?
As a small nation,should it be like a sapling protected by growing beneath the mammoth tree or a parasitic plant that draws its life force by a symbiotic relationship with the mammoth tree?
We destroy that which took millions of years to evolve and rebuild it according to our own interpretation of "nature".
As we move from the agragrian economy,with its dependence on the natural cycle of the seasons to the built environment,what have we gained and what have we given up?
As a small nation,should it be like a sapling protected by growing beneath the mammoth tree or a parasitic plant that draws its life force by a symbiotic relationship with the mammoth tree?
Monday, October 24, 2011
humanoid
If the natural resources are finite,closed loop engineering would reduce insatiable exploration of resources that mar the landscape and pollutes the environment.
Can a human be implanted with a nanochip is his ear that receives information which is directly transferred to the brain and processed.
Will an external device like the mobile phone be replaced by such a smart chip implant but when it can be infiltrated by hackers,what would the humanoid be turned into? a remote controlled human?
Can a human be implanted with a nanochip is his ear that receives information which is directly transferred to the brain and processed.
Will an external device like the mobile phone be replaced by such a smart chip implant but when it can be infiltrated by hackers,what would the humanoid be turned into? a remote controlled human?
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
tony judt
A line struck as the history of modern europe unfurls
"We are consumers of goods and illusions"
We are voters of dreams and delusions
We are the masters of the universe
We are the slaves of our desires so diverse
We are the wheels that keep the economy humming
We are the strings stretched taunt that keep the guitar strumming
We are consumers of goods and illusions
We are voters of dreams and delusions
We are that which we dare
We are that which we care
We are consumers of goods and illusions
We are voters of dreams and delusions
"We are consumers of goods and illusions"
We are voters of dreams and delusions
We are the masters of the universe
We are the slaves of our desires so diverse
We are the wheels that keep the economy humming
We are the strings stretched taunt that keep the guitar strumming
We are consumers of goods and illusions
We are voters of dreams and delusions
We are that which we dare
We are that which we care
We are consumers of goods and illusions
We are voters of dreams and delusions
Thursday, September 22, 2011
a whole new meaning
How has IT changed the meaning of the word?
You know you're not from the 20th century when you find out:
I think that there's been a leak has nothing to do with that soggy patch at the front of the pants.
Have you zipped it or you unzip it has nothing to do with that contraption that unites the right side to the left side of the pants .
sh$%! it has crashed has nothing to do with the car or the stock market.
interface has nothing to do with how your mom looks before she puts on her foundation and after she has applied her make up.
the worm that has infested the Apple will make you reach out for the thrashbin to throw away those rotten applets or forget about it by getting a new tablet.
Can the disabled and visually challenged drive one day
A possibility if electric cars are equipped with special sensors that are voice activated and GPS on the dash board.The driver keys in his position and the destination.Lampposts could be equipped with sensors that pick up signals emitted by the electric vehicle and traffic lights have CCTV and sensors that tell the driver if he's on the right track by giving signals that can be transformed into voices.
Billboards should be huge interactive screens that enable a person to talk with the GPS sensor on the dashboard that enables one to find out where they are if they're lost.
In future billboards can be changed without the need to construct big boards that mar the scenic beauty of the landscape,function as mobile maps that tells you the nearst hotel,hospital and facilities
You know you're not from the 20th century when you find out:
I think that there's been a leak has nothing to do with that soggy patch at the front of the pants.
Have you zipped it or you unzip it has nothing to do with that contraption that unites the right side to the left side of the pants .
sh$%! it has crashed has nothing to do with the car or the stock market.
interface has nothing to do with how your mom looks before she puts on her foundation and after she has applied her make up.
the worm that has infested the Apple will make you reach out for the thrashbin to throw away those rotten applets or forget about it by getting a new tablet.
Can the disabled and visually challenged drive one day
A possibility if electric cars are equipped with special sensors that are voice activated and GPS on the dash board.The driver keys in his position and the destination.Lampposts could be equipped with sensors that pick up signals emitted by the electric vehicle and traffic lights have CCTV and sensors that tell the driver if he's on the right track by giving signals that can be transformed into voices.
Billboards should be huge interactive screens that enable a person to talk with the GPS sensor on the dashboard that enables one to find out where they are if they're lost.
In future billboards can be changed without the need to construct big boards that mar the scenic beauty of the landscape,function as mobile maps that tells you the nearst hotel,hospital and facilities
Friday, September 2, 2011
megacities
Is building megacities a sustainable way of life?
It concentrates resources in a very densely populated area ,sucking away water and other resources from the rural areas thus widening the gap between urban rural disparity in development and income.
Water is used for tourism projects that invariable includes swimming pools,water theme parks and landscaping of golf courses whilst water should be used for farming of fish or food production.
Electricity is pumped into lighting of high rise buildings day and night,air conditioning ,lighting of highways etc whereas in the rural areas there is less usage of electricity.
Natural resources are finite so how can we reduce use of it?
As the economics of overconsumption comes about,what will be the end result?
The mass media draws up the illusions that drives consumption that in the long term is detrimental to sustainable growth.
It concentrates resources in a very densely populated area ,sucking away water and other resources from the rural areas thus widening the gap between urban rural disparity in development and income.
Water is used for tourism projects that invariable includes swimming pools,water theme parks and landscaping of golf courses whilst water should be used for farming of fish or food production.
Electricity is pumped into lighting of high rise buildings day and night,air conditioning ,lighting of highways etc whereas in the rural areas there is less usage of electricity.
Natural resources are finite so how can we reduce use of it?
As the economics of overconsumption comes about,what will be the end result?
The mass media draws up the illusions that drives consumption that in the long term is detrimental to sustainable growth.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
songs remix
21st century breakdown
My generation is zero
I never made it as a working class hero
21st century breakdown
I once was lost but never was found
I think I'm losing what's left of my mind to the 21st century deadline
As we live a life of ease
Everyone of us has all we need
(one of us,has all we need)
sky of blue,sea of green
in our yellow submarine
in our yellow submarine
maybe you'll get a replacement
there's plenty of me to be found
mongrels who ain't got a penny
sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground
So goodbye yellow brick road
where the dogs of society howl
you can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough
My generation is zero
I never made it as a working class hero
21st century breakdown
I once was lost but never was found
I think I'm losing what's left of my mind to the 21st century deadline
As we live a life of ease
Everyone of us has all we need
(one of us,has all we need)
sky of blue,sea of green
in our yellow submarine
in our yellow submarine
maybe you'll get a replacement
there's plenty of me to be found
mongrels who ain't got a penny
sniffing for tidbits like you on the ground
So goodbye yellow brick road
where the dogs of society howl
you can't plant me in your penthouse
I'm going back to my plough
Friday, May 6, 2011
food insecurity
the prices of food is going up so fast.10 years ago, a whole chicken can be bought for RM 8.Now RM 4 can buy only a slice of chicken breast.The price of petrol is going up so fast.My country is now turning into a high cost,low income country.
How can they depend on domestic demand to incrase economic growth when the price of food,the price of houses and petrol goes up and up but the salaries are not adjusted for inflation.
With interest rates going up,car and house motagage also go up again.
So what is happpening to the economic transference plan? transfer from the pocket of people to who?
Worse,the young are leaving so what we have is an export of brainoower and import the low skill pnes.So if the young stay and find out that know who matters more than know how to get up the career ladder,who would be so "loyal" to stay when they can hardly buy a house,pay off a car and now eat out?Soon Vietnam and Indonesia would catch uo'
Then we don't teach the youths current world geography and world history and they cannot compete in the international arena as they lack simple general knowledge.
Like the game of snake and ladder,we're sliding down the ladder
How can they depend on domestic demand to incrase economic growth when the price of food,the price of houses and petrol goes up and up but the salaries are not adjusted for inflation.
With interest rates going up,car and house motagage also go up again.
So what is happpening to the economic transference plan? transfer from the pocket of people to who?
Worse,the young are leaving so what we have is an export of brainoower and import the low skill pnes.So if the young stay and find out that know who matters more than know how to get up the career ladder,who would be so "loyal" to stay when they can hardly buy a house,pay off a car and now eat out?Soon Vietnam and Indonesia would catch uo'
Then we don't teach the youths current world geography and world history and they cannot compete in the international arena as they lack simple general knowledge.
Like the game of snake and ladder,we're sliding down the ladder
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The unconquerable world -reliving
I'm rereading Jonathan Schell's book "The unconquerable world" -clear,concise and well argued.Hope to be able to get hold of his other writings "The unfinished twentieth century and the Fate of the earth." I had just finished reading Murakami's "After the quake" when the catalysmic disaster struck.How ominous,a case of Life imitating Art.But even if there is a sliver of hope,let's learn something from it.
"At present most of us do nothing. We look away. We remain calm. We are silent. We take refuge in the hope that the holocaust won’t happen, and turn back to our individual concerns. We deny the truth that is all around us. Indifferent to the future of our kind, we grow indifferent to one another. We drift apart. We grow cold. We drowse our way to the end of the world. But if once we shook off our lethargy and fatigue and began to act, the climate would change. Just as inertia produces despair—a despair often so deep it does not know itself as despair—arousal and action would give us access to hope, and life would start to mend: not just life in its entirety but daily life, every individual life. At that point we would begin to withdraw from our role as both the victims and the perpetrators. …
We would no longer be the destroyers of mankind, but rather, a gateway through which the future generations would enter the world. Then the passion and will that we need to save ourselves would flood into our lives. The walls of indifference, inertia, and coldness that now isolate each of us from others, and all of us from the past and future generations, would melt, like snow in spring. …"
—Jonathan Schell, The Fate of the Earth
"At present most of us do nothing. We look away. We remain calm. We are silent. We take refuge in the hope that the holocaust won’t happen, and turn back to our individual concerns. We deny the truth that is all around us. Indifferent to the future of our kind, we grow indifferent to one another. We drift apart. We grow cold. We drowse our way to the end of the world. But if once we shook off our lethargy and fatigue and began to act, the climate would change. Just as inertia produces despair—a despair often so deep it does not know itself as despair—arousal and action would give us access to hope, and life would start to mend: not just life in its entirety but daily life, every individual life. At that point we would begin to withdraw from our role as both the victims and the perpetrators. …
We would no longer be the destroyers of mankind, but rather, a gateway through which the future generations would enter the world. Then the passion and will that we need to save ourselves would flood into our lives. The walls of indifference, inertia, and coldness that now isolate each of us from others, and all of us from the past and future generations, would melt, like snow in spring. …"
—Jonathan Schell, The Fate of the Earth
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
when the dust has settled
When thedust has settled, how can we be sure that those supposed regulators are doing their jobs at not pulling the wool over our eyes? Couldn't robots be used in dangerous radioactive places to prevent endangerment of human lives? Shouldn't we ,the people living near nuclear plants be given automatic updates of radiation levels on mobile phones? What is the solution that can weaken construction materials so that rescue missions are made easier? When the dust has settled,what lesson can we get from this to move on with our lives?
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
www.go ogle.com
The seed of this story germinated whilst I was reading Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen and Yoko Ogawa's the Housekeeper and the professor.aaah the love that is unrequited
My friends call me Andy the Randy.Beats me. I sure ain't have no super idol face -just those red angry mini volcanoes called zits that pop up on the tip of my nose or forehead.
I've set up this secret website to earn me some extra moolah.My mom is sure a meanie-what she gives can hardly pay for my girl's night out at that smashing club ,Cool chick.FML.
They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.Nope they know nuts about raging hormones.You strike them where the most blood flows to-works everytime,I make big bucks secretly filming with my spy camera in toilets and changing rooms.Yeah,I'm going to hit Hollywood big time director like that Steven S. Look out ,Hollywood here I come from the school of hard ons to the school of hard knocks.
You know,when dad left us for that bit***,the private detective that mom hired was wow so high tech.You would never guess where and how they tape people doing their thing.I learnt atrick or two from them when I set up my cash trap. Ha ! Ha!You wouldn't know .
My friends call me Andy the Randy.Beats me. I sure ain't have no super idol face -just those red angry mini volcanoes called zits that pop up on the tip of my nose or forehead.
I've set up this secret website to earn me some extra moolah.My mom is sure a meanie-what she gives can hardly pay for my girl's night out at that smashing club ,Cool chick.FML.
They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.Nope they know nuts about raging hormones.You strike them where the most blood flows to-works everytime,I make big bucks secretly filming with my spy camera in toilets and changing rooms.Yeah,I'm going to hit Hollywood big time director like that Steven S. Look out ,Hollywood here I come from the school of hard ons to the school of hard knocks.
You know,when dad left us for that bit***,the private detective that mom hired was wow so high tech.You would never guess where and how they tape people doing their thing.I learnt atrick or two from them when I set up my cash trap. Ha ! Ha!You wouldn't know .
Monday, March 14, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
ordinary words
Ordinary words
coarse tea and plain rice
day in and day out
eat and shit
ordinary words
strip away the honeyed tongue
another dawn breaks out of the darkness
despair not
a new day has come
in hearts fire sears
on streets putrid flesh melts
exposing the skeletons
another life ripped out
a new day has come
the earth shakes
the people speak
ordinary words
coarse tea and plain rice
day in and day out
eat and shit
ordinary words
strip away the honeyed tongue
another dawn breaks out of the darkness
despair not
a new day has come
in hearts fire sears
on streets putrid flesh melts
exposing the skeletons
another life ripped out
a new day has come
the earth shakes
the people speak
ordinary words
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