inflation erodes purchasing power

Food and necessities are getting more costly than the rise in wages.
When oil subside is removed and oil price is floated according to market rate,the price of electricity,food,public transport and medicine will sky rocket and msian common folk quality of life will drop.Then water tariff go up and price of food will go up again.We also suffer when ringgit is devalued and price of food imported increases.
          I dont understand why locally grown fruit ,vegetable and fish is more expensive than imported ones despite many goods needing an approved permit to be imported into the nation.Fish like saba from Japan is cheaper than the ikan kembong,salmon is cheaper than ikan kurau and razor clam imported from Holland cheaper than the sabah ones.
          With block chain logistics,the source of food can be traced and contamination can be prevented unlike local wet markets that have poor refrigeration and food spoilage high.
            Good health is essential for a happy lifestyle.We need to introduce food nutrition and preparation to schoolchildren so that they dont suffer from obesity or food poisoning.We often hear how people eating at food catered for public functions have food poisoning or lack training in food storage.

I love rainy days

The haze has gone and the rainy season is back.There is negative ion on the air and its so calming.I love the sound of rain pitter patter on the window,a cool breeze chills the niteand I curl up in my arm chair reading "convenience store woman" by sayaka murata and chuckling at her observation.
            "The baby started to cry.Mysister hurriedly picked him up and tried to soothe him.What a lot of hassle I thought.I looked at the small knife we"d used to cut te cake still lying there on the table:if it was just a matter of making him quiet,it would be easy enough.
                  I love understated humour.Sayaka murata was a closet novelist working at small jobs in convenience stores while she kept on writing her narratives.really the experiencebenefitted herwriting as thecattention to details is reaistic and meticulous.
                 I love Japanese novelists especially yoko ogawa.

appreciate the ordinary day

It's when we keep our mind and eyes focused on the distant future that we forget to look around and appreciate the ordinary day.
  There's the mad rush to go to work that I didnt notice the sky was blue with wisps of white clouds.What! there is  no grey,haze blocking the sun.it rained lightly.How refreshing the rain smells after the smell of smoke .The mock orange blossoms emits a sweet scent and the small red lanterns are blooming in the vine as a small sunbird starts chirping.That's why happiness come in small doses.
         It need not be an earth trembling event that should wake us to the frail beauty of life.We can walk past the same spot 5 years in a row and never see the yellow blossoms on a tree at the corner.Suddenly you open your eyes to the beauty of an ordinary day when a life changing event like a car accident,a tsunami,

a cancer risk or earthquake threatens to completely turn your life upside down.That's when we realize the beauty of an ordinary day

Keep Earth green and clean

In bali rampant use of nonbiodegradable plastic is hearttbreaking to see plastic rubbish floating.Bali needs a better waste management system before its scenic beauty is marred by waste pollution.
  Its so much an uplifting experience to see herds of wild dolphins happily leaping out of the ocean.But sad to see grossly obese monkeys fed on junk food.A huge obese monkey with a big fat belly was happily munching on salty potato chips given by irresponsible tourists.I saw many overweight, apes too lazy to climb up trees to forage for food and taking easy way out by begging for food.

     The time spent in nature is soothing and calming.The salty tangy sea air,the glorious sunsets ,waves lashing the shore are what makes one feel so alive.After parasailing,I tried ocean walking and love sensation of fish nibbling the bread from my hands;I was thrilled to see clown fish and sea anemone.An unforgetabble experience.No time for river rafting or trekking as distances are far and schedule tight.Incredible to view kecak dance with 1,900 visitors from all corners of the world.here in Bali cultural ritual is a part of daily life as we view a thanksgiving ritual by Bedugul lake.Little packs of flowers are placed at altars.

isolation from the global institutions is shooting oneself on the foot

China made a mistake in the past with its closed door policy to isolate itselffrom foreign influences.It to a decline in scientific and technological innovations and lower standard of living.
              Realising it had to compete at international level,it decided to become a global palyer under Deng Xiao Peng's economic liberalization experiments in the special economic zones.
                In the 1990s,China under the leadership of Zhu RongJi wasdetermined to get into the WTO.Zhu famously said."I've prepared 100 coffins,99 for corrupt official and one for myself." It's hard to think of a more courageous statement.Clinton despite all his fine rhetoric about keeping the world open couldnt match Zhu's courage.
                 The fundamental reason that China and America have been goingb on in opposite directions is because the Chinese triedthe isolated Middle Kingdom" approach.it failed It made China weak.China now wants to engage the world and its international organizations.
              The contrasting attitudes of America and China to international treaties and conventions and international organizations may surprise a lay reader.Much of the international fabric that provided the foundation for these treaties and organizations rested on ideas generated in theUS.Yet China has a better track record than America in the field of ratifying international treaties and conventions as well as joining international organizations.China has signed and ratified international agreements the US has refused to sign or ratify including the Biodiversity Convention,The Kyoto Protocol on Climate,the Hazardous Wastes Convention,and the law of the Sea treaty.By contrast,while China has been embracing the WTO and opening itself up to more international trade,American policymakers have progressively turned away from the WTO even though the WTO is essentially an American creation.It has not ratified the TPP which Obama had been pushing as a multilateral trading system and oushing for unilateralism.
             America suffers from three systemic challenges:groupthink,the erosion of individual responsibility and an inability to see how its abuse of power has contributed to many of the problems it now confronts abroad.many Americans are oblivious to the structural failures within their system of governance(dominated by special interests,(their social contract)-characterised by a widening gap between rich and poor and their response to globalisation (increased protectionism)Deep structural reforms are necessary in America to avert an inevitable failure.Tom Friedman states "Our country faces  a big choice right now.We can either have a hard decade or a bad century"
                                            The Great Convergence
                                            Author"Kishore Mahbubani

Disposable income

Growth will be driven by domestic demand in future in China.Chart by OECD countries in 2017 compares a few industrialised nations middle class disposable incomes in 2017.Standing out is China's urban cities at more that 6.5 compared to Japan at  0.8,Germany at 1.7,the US at 2.3,the UK at negative0.2.The Chinese statistic between 2015 and 2030 sees a drastic rise by 2xin disposable incomes of the elite upper class from 3 to 7,the upper middle class and the middle class.Poverty in the low class is reduced a lot too.So growth can still be consumer driven in China.
           In developed nations,student loan,mortagage and car repayment and high medical burden cuts away the reserve of liquidity and disposable incomes of the middle class.
          The demand for electronic and cars will skyrocket when disposable incomes in rural regions of China increase.There is still inequality in distribution in urban areas like Shanghai,Beijing,Zhejiang and Guangzhou surpassing areas in Yunnan,Guishou and etc.
    Still there is need to look at household indebtedness figures before any conclusion can be made.

movies

There seems to be a lot of superhero movies being churned out.Is that a sign that when reality sucks,people turn to fantasy for a feelgood factor.But I still prefer indie movies or documentaries.Movies from India are so entertaining so it's not the big names or fancy CGI that counts but the plot and characterisation.
            Although the clothing,and lifestyle are distinctively Indian but the human angle in the story can be easily identifiable by all of usThe themes of struggles,challenging the status quo,love of family and etc are so relatable to us.
          When we are laughing at the characters,we are also holding a mirror to ourselves and being able to laugh at our own faults and weakness is a sign of a healthy and self confident personality who is not ashame to admit his or her flaws for that is what makes us humans.
       Sometimes,when i take a step back and meditate,the journey of self discovery is so enlightening.I'm a louder than life person and make no apologies for talking and laughing loudly.Im not a shy violet or wallflower.But when I hear my son trying to hush me down by saying "don't talk or laugh so loudly mom,people are looking!" "Sonny, let them look all they want.I must have been a laugh out loud comedian in my past life".Just walk 10 steps behind and pretend you don't know me.
            It had been a hell of a ride to be your mom.I've done the mummy thing and now it's time for me to try new experiences.just dont expect me to be your free nanny to your kids and call me only if your kids answer you back or break your curfew rules.Then I'll pass some tips to you.
         

One man show

When my only colleague changed from teaching to another profession,I was left high and dry as a one woman show.But I began to appreciate the freedom to teach four classes using my own methodology.The international syllabus gave me freedom to vary my coursework evaluation so that I could introduce poetry writing and reading,writing of storyboard and scripts,project work of short movies and documentaries,review of feature films,making collage as representation of themes.I believe in educating and teaching of diverse characters from different socioeconomic backgrounds so that there is no one size fits all solution.
            I've to observe student behaviour,get feedback and devise lessons that will scaffold step by step towards instilling attitudes and building up skills in editing software,improvisation etc so that they learn to build teamwork and trust.With standardised lessons,we have uniformity in pace of teaching among the four classes but people don't learn in the same way and at the same rate.For the restless class,I devise movement exercises ,for the competitive class,quizzes and contests,for the weaker classes,remedial work to reinforce basic skills.So to make all classes being taught in the same way and the same pace assumes that learners absorb information in same way and so a cookie cutter approach makes lessons dull and repetitive.I like being a maverick teacher and buckle the trend
             My approach is to work on social skills as well as EQ.In this I feel drama and play with movement is important because after 4 straight hours of sitting still,the brains suffer a mental shutdown and I'm teaching zombies with brains somewhere in outerspace.
            As a language class,I prefer an interactive,noisy,participative class rather than a quiet,passive one.Sometimes there should be jokes and laughter,another time the excitement of running to the finishing line to complete a task,sometimes there is singing and sometimes there is heated debate.
          I'm a firm believer in role play and understanding current affairs to make a well rounded person.Sue Jennings work on neuro-dramatic play is really relevant in resolving a lot of emotional problems in teenagers.The creative arts has been neglected in schools when neuro dramatic play and embodiment projection role are as Sue Jennnings put it important in developing core competencies like: "establish healthy attachments,develop trust,creates confidence in the body self,facilitates growth of empathy,encourage resilience and maintains emotional literacy."
           These are life skills important in mental health so that the child or teenagers knows how to seek help to pull themselves out of depression and mental disorders at a period of hormonal challenges and trying to find self identity.
         It would be great if I can access her reading references here.The book I'm dying to read is Gerhardt,A,et al(2014) Why Love Matters .Hove:Routledge and Jennings,S(2013) Activities for Managing Challenging Behaviour.Buckingham:Hinton House.
            We can never really understand someone until we've walked a mile in their shoes.
So when we see a student struggling with schoolwork,I believe we should befriend them so that they see that we are not punitive and hostile but really care for their emotional and social development.To bar teachers from interacting with students outside the classroom limits our ability to intervene nd help students with challenging issues.It's through sports activities,drama activities or class trips that we can establish trust and rapport with the students.We should never take over the parental role but acts as an extra support system to these kids.
       My first school was a fully residential school in which all activities and tuition was preplanned and decision making taken out of the kids hands.They would grow up with no initiative and have an "self entitlement" attitude.My second school had students from different socio economic backgrounds and races.I empower the kids to initiate projects,seek their own funding and carry out activities without constant monitoring by me.i only step in if they are in serious trouble.The kids in this environment are resourceful and self reliant besides taking initiative without being prompted.
       When we did folk dancing and lacked a stage,wooden tables with wobbly legs or slightly damagedones  were used by kemahiran students to be recycled into a stage.Legs were sawn off to the same height,cheap planks placed on the table tops and covered with old carpets to became a make do stage.Of course with tap dancing,you can get away with noise.
    Some kids came from rural backgrounds.I  found out the Malay student who skipped classes did so because he had to guard the durian trees of his grandparent orchard by staying in a hut so that no one would steal the durians that dropped in the nite.In those days,durians were costly and had only one harvest a year. I didnt have the heart to reprimand him but gave him coffee in the morning to stay awake.He gave me a whole basket of durians after he passed his high school exam.
     Some students ,I did home visit and went to Pulau Ketam to stay for the weekend.Theirfamilies were fishermen who depended on the sea to make a living.The kids took me to the kelong to see how the fish like garopa were reared in cages.They took me to the seafood processing plant and the stench of drying salted fish is unbearable.The place was previously a mangrove swamp so all houses are built on stilts with no cars allowed.
 So kids who are not overprotected and oversheltered by parents are more hardy,resilient and resourceful and adaptable.
             One of my students was determined to enter the medical line although he took arts subject in high school.He was so determined that he took extra tuition in science subjects to catch up.He used to ge up at 5am in the morning and drive across town to reach the college and slept in the car park until classes started.I told him to open a gap in case he had carbon monoxide poisoning.He got into the medical course through sheer hard workThe gal i was teaching came from a single parent family with two younger siblings.She has been working part time to pay for her tuition fee and even saved enough to be an exchange student in the UK and describing the thrill of watching Shakespeare play live in a theatre.She changes two MRT lines to reach for 9am class although she works past midnite at her part time job.Kids like that will do well in life because they have the right EQ.
                 The education system that does everything for a child will grroom adults who will  not have the mental strength to face the ups and downs in life.I tell the kids all the time,if you are not ready to learn in school,I'll let Life teach you as experience is the best teacher.There's no one to guide you ,to tell you right from wrong or what to do,Life is a tough teacher and you will have to learn on your own.The other thing I won't do is lower my expectation of an A grade.Getting an A from me is like squeezing blood from a stone so when Claire Chew and Choo See Yuan got A at international examsthey know they have reached the global standard of achievement.
    
           

Scapegoat others when looking at the mirror to self reflect can identify solutions

Japan Then, China Now

May 27, 2019 STEPHEN S. ROACHBack in the 1980s, Japan was portrayed as the greatest economic threat to the United States, and allegations of intellectual property theft were only part of Americans' vilification. Thirty years later, Americans have made China the villain, when, just like three decades ago, they should be looking squarely in the mirror.

NEW HAVEN – “When governments permit counterfeiting or copying of American products, it is stealing our future, and it is no longer free trade.” So said US President Ronald Reagan, commenting on Japan after the Plaza Accord was concluded in September 1985. Today resembles, in many respects, a remake of this 1980s movie, but with a reality-television star replacing a Hollywood film star in the presidential leading role – and with a new villain in place of Japan.

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Back in the 1980s, Japan was portrayed as America’s greatest economic threat – not only because of allegations of intellectual property theft, but also because of concerns about currency manipulation, state-sponsored industrial policy, a hollowing out of US manufacturing, and an outsize bilateral trade deficit. In its standoff with the US, Japan ultimately blinked, but it paid a steep price for doing so – nearly three “lost” decades of economic stagnation and deflation. Today, the same plot features China.

Notwithstanding both countries’ objectionable mercantilism, Japan and China had something else in common: They became victims of America’s unfortunate habit of making others the scapegoat for its own economic problems. Like Japan bashing in the 1980s, China bashing today is an outgrowth of America’s increasingly insidious macroeconomic imbalances. In both cases, a dramatic shortfall in US domestic saving spawned large current-account and trade deficits, setting the stage for battles, 30 years apart, with Asia’s two economic giants.

When Reagan took office in January 1981, the net domestic saving rate stood at 7.8% of national income, and the current account was basically balanced. Within two and a half years, courtesy of Reagan’s wildly popular tax cuts, the domestic saving rate had plunged to 3.7%, and the current account and the merchandise trade balances swung into perpetual deficit. In this important respect, America’s so-called trade problem was very much of its own making.

Yet the Reagan administration was in denial. There was little or no appreciation of the link between saving and trade imbalances. Instead, the blame was pinned on Japan, which accounted for 42%of US goods trade deficits in the first half of the 1980s. Japan bashing then took on a life of its own with a wide range of grievances over unfair and illegal trade practices. Leading the charge back then was a young Deputy US Trade Representative named Robert Lighthizer.

Fast-forward some 30 years and the similarities are painfully evident. Unlike Reagan, President Donald Trump did not inherit a US economy with an ample reservoir of saving. When Trump took office in January 2017, the net domestic saving rate was just 3%, well below half the rate at the onset of the Reagan era. But, like his predecessor, who waxed eloquently of a new “morning in America,” Trump also opted for large tax cuts – this time to “make America great again.”

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The result was a predictable widening of the federal budget deficit, which more than offset the cyclical surge in private saving that normally accompanies a maturing economic expansion. As a result, the net domestic saving rate actually edged down to 2.8% of national income by late 2018, keeping America’s international balances deep in the red – with the current-account deficit at 2.6% of GDP and the merchandise trade gap at 4.5% in late 2018.

And that’s where China assumes the role that Japan played in the 1980s. On the surface, the threat seems more dire. After all, China accounted for 48% of the US merchandise trade deficit in 2018, compared to Japan’s 42% share in the first half of the 1980s. But the comparison is distorted by global supply chains, which basically didn’t exist in the 1980s. Data from the OECD and the World Trade Organization suggestthat about 35-40% of the bilateral US-China trade deficit reflects inputs made outside of China but assembled and shipped to the US from China. That means the made-in-China portion of today’s US trade deficit is actually smaller than Japan’s share of the 1980s.

Like the Japan bashing of the 1980s, today’s outbreak of China bashing has been conveniently excised from America’s broader macroeconomic context. That is a serious mistake. Without raising national saving – highly unlikely under the current US budget trajectory – trade will simply be shifted away from China to America’s other trading partners. With this trade diversion likely to migrate to higher-cost platforms around the world, American consumers will be hit with the functional equivalent of a tax hike.

Ironically, Trump has summoned the same Robert Lighthizer, veteran of the Japan trade battles of the 1980s, to lead the charge against China. Unfortunately, Lighthizer seems as clueless about the macro argument today as he was back then.

In both episodes, the US was in denial, bordering on delusion. Basking in the warm glow of untested supply-side economics – especially the theory that tax cuts would be self-financing – the Reagan administration failed to appreciate the links between mounting budget and trade deficits. Today, the seductive power of low interest rates, coupled with the latest strain of voodoo economics – Modern Monetary Theory – is equally alluring for the Trump administration and a bipartisan consensus of China bashers in the US Congress.

The tough macroeconomic constraints facing a saving-short US economy are ignored for good reason: there is no US political constituency for reducing trade deficits by cutting budget deficits and thereby boosting domestic saving. America wants to have its cake and eat it, with a health-care system that swallows 18% of its GDP, defense spending that exceeds the combined sum of the world’s next seven largest military budgets, and tax cuts that have reduced federal government revenue to 16.5% of GDP, well below the 17.4% average of the past 50 years.

This remake of an old movie is disconcerting, to say the least. Once again, the US has found it far easier to bash others – Japan then, China now – than to live within its means. This time, however, the movie might have a very different ending.

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STEPHEN S. ROACH

Writing for PS since 2011 
103 Commentaries

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Stephen S. Roach, former Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia and the firm's chief economist, is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institu

far sighted visionary

Our PM is educated in science and empirical facts.He also understands human nature and the dynamics of power in politics.So because he is well read and keeps abreast with latest knowledge,he understands two things.The importance of a national currency backed by the intrinsic value of gold as it has historically been acknowledge as a valuable asset.When  money is printed and circulated and used as a foreign reserve currency by national treasury all over the world,that currency if backed by petrodollars is dangerous because nationals are switching to green energy and the value of money backed by petrodollars will eventually devalue.Secondly if some nation overproduces oil and gas output,the price of fossil fuel will drop and national banks that use it as foreign reserve currency will find that its national assets will devalue with it.So to moot for an Asian currency backed by gold reserves is a rational move. for citizens  would not want a case of hyperinflation decreasing their purchasing power and lowering standard of living.
       The Other bold move is to set up the EAEC after the EU move to integrate economic development so cooperation to lower tariffs and trade barrier to speed up faster movement of goods and services across borders.Our PM is far sighted to look at regional cooperation instead of only national development as globalization interlinks markets

It's not either or but both

There's a dichotomy in thinking that leads to a split personality.If i take care of my body but not my mind,the stress and anxiety of mental conflicts affects the health of the body eventually like sleep disruption,heart problems or digestive upsets.If I take care of my mind but neglect my body,obesity and poor health lowers immunity and causes flu,sickness.So one should take a holistic approach and take care of both.
           So the thinking of if you're not with me,you're my enemy takes a dichotomy approach in thinking that leads to forcing partisan politics and leave no room for compromise and negotiation.I would prefer leadership that has a broader vision and a long term worldview.Hey all of us are in the same boat and if any end of the boat has been destroyed,all passengers and captain will sink to the bottom.
         The issue has been sidetracked into nationalistic jingo which appeals to the emotional and irrational blind loyalty.Our concerns should be on broader issues like disruption due to technological changes,the ethics remaking humans and ageing through human-machine interface,the plastic creeping into our foodchain and the devastation of  a nuclear war.
             We are now in the Anthrocene Age and species extinction is real.The bio,cyber,environmental catastrophes changes are irreversible.

Will Durant the historian who wrote the Lessons from History and The Story of Civilization said
 "You can't fool all the people all the time,but you can fool enough of them to rule a large country."


He postulated
1.Humans are unequal by nature,fighting that would mean giving up freedom.
2.The evolution of humans was a social one,not a biological one.
3.War is a more natural state than peace.

Something that we the masses have to hold leaders accountable for their actions that impact the future.We are all in the same boat eventually.We only see the 15% visible issues but the 85% of issues not visible to us make up the bigger picture.Therein lies the fate of the planet and the inhabitants

Martin Jacques

I havent had time to buy Martin Jacques book on the rise of China as a global power but I listened to his talk and seem to see a remarkable transformation in short span of half a century.When Deng Xiao Peng started on opening up China,special economic zones were opened up in the eastern coastal areas in  the 1970s when China's GDP was less than the African states.It projected by 2030,China's GDP will make up 34% of world GDP,followed by India at 18%,US at 15%,EU at 13% and so on.That remarkable leap in GDP is due to its export of electronic goods,its base as a contract manufacturer and push into heavy in dustries like ship building,drone building and intermediate manufacturing goods.Its rise is also based on the meritocracy system of competitive education system.
           A member of the audience posed the question that since it is a patriarchal system of governance,what would be the unequal status of females.Looking at it,indirectly the one child policy to control population boom had benefited the female's status in society.Whereas in the past the males would have the best of educational and career opportunities,with the one child policy,Chinese females had the chance of education and career opportunities in which previously marriage was the only means of economic advancement for a Chinese female.The number of female Chinese entrepeuneurs and billionaires in China far outweigh those from countries like Japan,Korea or India.
        It seemed a blessing in disguise when the reproductive rights of females was limited to one  child because mothers could have more time and energy to devote to small businesses and contribute to the household income ,thus giving them a bigger chance to be decision makers in the family as they had a louder voice unlike the past.I feel that statistically the college admissions of females could have outnumbered the males as trends in education show the female applicants are more focused and less distracted.In many ways even in the US,females reproductive rights are curtailed by the religious right's  control over planned parenthood which doesn't give females as much freedom as in China which is basically agnostic.
       It's only in the field of politics that women haven't reached the representation that  they should hold or in the legislative arena.But so too ,that was the low representation of women in the US until recently.
      The 21st century might see the emergence of female participation in the political and legislative arena and it would impact on how global policies would change to a more inclusive priority on education,healthcare,food policies,access to basics of sewage,water and electricity and etc.

Quiet as a mouse

In Asian society,females are expected to be submissive,docile,passive and quiet as a mouse.So Western men who can't handle the dominant Western female counterpart has a fetish forAsian females cause they can "lord" over them and  be flattered and served hand and foot.
            Unfortunately,our sisters in the West gave us a wake up call to fight for gender equal rights and not to take harrassment sitting down.So Korean women would expect to have a say over their own reproductive rightsand lobbying for laws to change.They are at forefront marching for laws to ban upskirting and punishment for perverts  who make spycam porn and publish them on the net.
     Time that japanese women stand up when laws  say if you don't fight aggressively against the rapist,it's a sign of consent.So children raped by parent should be more severely pun ished than that by a stranger because the victim has been psychologically emotionally abused by the very person who gave her life.Disgusting animal parents.
  Indian women are going down to the streets condemning the brutal gang rapists that rape and kill the victims to silence them forever.
         When the Western women are assertive in pushing for laws to personal safety and privacy,they start a ripple that grows into a bigger and bigger circle all over the world.They raise awareness that to remain silent allows perpetrators to act with impugnity that they can get away with their perverse actions and act above the law.
     No wonder mail order brides areassociated with Philippino women or Child sex actors with Cambodian females.Time that gender rights be taught in primary schools so that females won't be exploited.

Laughter is the best medicine

A kid wrote in his farewell note to me that he would miss the fun he had in my class and my louder than life laughter.Yeah ,there will be days when it's so dark and you are so down and we shouldn't take life and ourselves too seriously.The lighthearted moments remind us to enjoy the simple things like jokes,food,dance,nature and music.If I can make 30 kids laugh until their bellies ache,then I would have done my job better than to drill 1,000byte of facts into their zombie dazed brain.
      If they become more compassionate to the less fortunate like refugees or donate to help the homeless and put aside stereotypical views to listen to a poet with Rafstafarian locks or the guy who dressed as Juliet or a gangsta in a student video,then I have done my job.I'm mighty proud of the guy who changed course from a career in accountancy to follow his passion in music and Spanish guitar,or the student whom I attended his performance in a choir and sings opera songs for hobby  or the Indian students studying engineering who published a book of poems and wrote a novel or the archiectect who became a celebrity youtube star and a celebrity comedian host on national TV,the students who directed and put up a dancevideo and do other creative passions.
                 Does a Finger Fing?
                        by Nedra Newkirk Lamar


Everybody knows that a tongue twister is something that twists the tongue,and a skyscraper is something that scrapes the sky,but is an evesdropper someone who drops eaves?A thinker is someone who thinks but is a tinker someone who tinks?Is a clabber someone who goes around clabbing?
       Somewhere along the way we all must have had an English teacher who gave us the fascinating information that words that end in ER mean something or somebody who does something,like trapper,designer,or stopper.
      A  stinger is something that stings,but is a finger something that fings/Fing fang fung.Today I fing.Yesterday I Fang.day before yesterday I had Already fung.
       You'd expect eyes,then,to be called seers and ears to be hearers.We'd wear our shoes on our walkers and our sleeves on our reachers.But we don't.The only parts of the body that sound as if they might indicate what they're supposed to do are our fingers,which we've already counted out,our livers,and our shoulders.And they don't do what they sound as if they might.At least,I've never seen anyone use his shoulders for shoulding.You shoulder your way through a crowd,but you don't should your way.It's only in slang that we follow the pattern,when we smell with our smellers and kiss with our kissers.
     Sometimes occupational names do reveal what the worker does,though.Manufacturers manufacture,miners mine,adjusters adjust-or at least try to.But does a grocer groce?Does a fruiterer fruiter?Does a butler buttle?
          No,you can't just trust the English language.You can love it because it's your mother tongue.You can take pride in it because it's the language Shakespeare was dramatic in.You can thrill to it becaise it's the language Browning and Tennyson were poetic in.You can have fun with it because it's the language Dickens and Mark Twain and Lewis Carroll were funny in. You can revere it because it's the language Milton was majestic in.You can be grateful to it because it's the language the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence were expressed in.
         But you just can't trust it!

imagine the future

I've been showing the kids some documentaries about lifestyles of the future.
One would be smart clthing that can monitor heat,body temperature,heart rate,sweat or caps that monitor brain waves so with that a user could receive timely updates on his health condition,if he has potential heat cramps,a stroke coming or imminent cardiac arrest,it would notify emergency unit of hospitals.Even smart toilet bowls can do urine analysis or detect piles.
      I think fridge doors should act as interactive display screens of recipes by looking at the contents of veg and meat in our fridge and advising the best recipes and cooking methods to us to achieve optimum health.
    Floor tiles that have vibrators embedded could do foot reflexology or sofas with rollers embedded at the back for back rub.A smart installation at the balcony could have hydroponic vegetables like lettuce and herbs growing with an automatic greenhouse glass enclosure to shield from strong light and regulate UV light, with automatic sprinklers that deliver liquid fertilisers at designated times.
        Robots that have dual function as a refrigerator and oven and slow cooker means that if I'm at the office,I can activate remote control devices that would switch from fridge mode to defrost mode the marinated chicken or meat and roast or grill or stew ingredients I've put into its central holder.Best would be if i pour in detergent,it would clean itself.Yipee,Then the robot can transfer food to s serving dish and put it on the table when I want hot,piping meal.Now that robot is called MOM.She can be moody and so the recipes turn out with different taste everytime according to her whims and fancies.When all measurements are digitised and so on we just put the ingredients on a serving dish and the robot selects and weighs exact amount of spices and sauces.
     Appliance makers like Haier are moving offshore productions to be nearer to source of raw materials,cheaper labour and mass markets in Africa.There is  synergy
as R and D could be done to suit local needs of consumers.

Some novels are so comical

It's easier to write a tear jerker than a comedy.Somehow sob stories are a dime a dozen but witty writing tickles the funny bone.I was giggling reading Will Hodgkinson's novel The house is full of Yogis".He has a far from boring childhood with such eccentric parents.His dad was a madcap overindulgent parent who never really mature-did things equally childish as his kids like setting out ridiculous fireworks.
   His mom was a radical feminist,not your stereotypical housewife-they looked like from the era of the flower power people,mary Quant and bell bottoms and platform shoes.The counter culture people who rebelled against conventional behavioursInvasion of the yogis into their household turned routine topsy turvy.A dad who taught a pet gerbil to meditate with him

This is a light hearted easy going novel -good to look at botchedup childhood.This novel would make a hilarious movie with melodramatic parents -a father who lights unique fireworks that ran haywire and shooting off in all directions,causing the dinner guests in the garden to run for cover and a control freak mom who insisted she knew how to captain a houseboat and lands up in the river.What a crazy family!Makes Home Alone a relatively tame movie by comparison.
    If I had lots of money,I would finance a coming of age movie from this novel.I nearly choked on my breakfast ,spewing out hot earl grey tea,chuckling out loudly when I was reading at the dining table about the crazy nature camp Will was sent to where they had to learn how to simplify their lives and live without modern conveniences like dishwashers but the BEST part was the primitive hole in the ground toilet.They were asked to save paper and be environmentally friendly by using water to wash their bum which he described in freezing cold weather as "the bottom water torture" and while he was squatting on two filmsy planks placed above a smelly poo filled pit,he was praying not to make ONE false move or he wouldn't wish to live any longer."Ha Ha ha,reminds me of a PIT Stop we did in a rural village in Szechuan in which there were no toilet doors and we squatted between two planks ,trying not to off balance,which could send us plunging into the cesspit of human manure and excreta,excreta,excreta. ETC.But the melodrama didnt end there,just when he thought things couldnt get worse,a five year old girl came upon him doing his "private thing" and wouldnt leave him in peace by asking awkward questions and staring at him.He shouted at her to get lost and go back to the camp,whereupon she stumbled and pulled down the cloth screen tied between two poles .He heard howls of laughter as the whole team of guys and gals were exposed to him squatting down with pants pulled down to his ankles.It was a Show time" for the whole camp but He had to continue what he had started.The scene was so hilarious that I lost my appetite to eat breakfast and packed it up.Now if you see this novel at Book Excess ,Buy it.You can die laughing!!!!!

Yuval Noah harari

Yuval shares some traits of Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins in that they challenge the centrality of fictitious narratives in controlling mass behaviour.
   "We cannot search for truth and for the way out of suffering without the freedom to think,investigate, and experimentSecular people cherish freedom,and refrain from investing supreme authority in any text,institution or leader as the ultimate judge of what's true and what's right.Humans should always retain the freedom to doubt,to check again,to hear a second opinion,to try a different path.Secular people admire Galileo who dared to question if the earth really sits motionless at the centre of the universe;they admire the masses of commoners who stormed the Bastille in 1789 and brought down the despotic regime of Loius XV1 and they admire Rosa paerks who had the courage to sit down on a seat reserved for white passengers only.
          It takes courage to admit ignorance and venture into the unknown.Secular education teaches us that if we don't know something,we shouldn't be afraid of doubting our opinions and checking ourselves again.People throughout history worried that unless we put all our faith in some set of absolute answers,human society will crumble.In fact.modern history has shown that a society of courageous people willing to admit ignorance and raise difficult questions is usually not just more porsperous but also more peaceful than societies in which everyone must unquestioningly accept a single answer.Questions you cannot answer are usually far better for you than answers you cannot question."
   So when everyone believes that AI and robotics lead to the betterment of society,what would be its dehumanizing effect when we create something that surpasses its creator?
As Harari postulated"Biotechnology and artificial intelligence now seek to change the very meaning of humanity.If we are committed to the right to life,does that imply we should use biotechnology to overcome death?If we are committed to the right to liberty,should we empower algorithms that decipher and fulfil our hidden desires?If all humans enjoy equal human rights,do superhumans enjoy super rights?

Education as the change maker

When the four tiger economies of Taiwan,Singapore,Hong Kong and South Korea rose to catch up with the developed economies in term of GDP ,they were able to raise the living standard of the people through a strong work ethic,a competitive spirit and the stress on an education system that was rigorously based on meritocracy.
 What all of them shared was a culture based on Confucian ethics of teamwork,strong work ethic and meritocracy.People got to the top not through connections or elite family background but in achieving good performance in a standardized exam.That explains the  stressful environment of academic studies in these Asian families as it was the yardstick to measure success in career and ability to get into the civil service or highly paid jobs in the private sector.
     For many are the unseen sacrifices of parents coaching children in their homework or long hours spent sacrificing personal pleasures to send children for music ,art,dance or tuition classes.Many migrant families that left their motherland to seek greener pastures in foreign countries were trying to escape war,food famines and natural disasters in their villages.Being illiterate or with very little educational opportunities,they remembered that perseverance and hard work ethic,pooling of financial resources from relative and community and mutual co dependence pulled themselves up the socio-economic ladder not through government handouts or special privileges but through sheer meritocracy and hard work.So when they made their fortune,they gave back to the community through setting up welfare institutes to aid the old,sick and poor.many tycoons pooled resources to set up hospitals,banks and even schools and university.Tan Kah Kee donated a lot to setting up Nanyang University and in his native XiaMen.
    I think the same mentality exist in Japanese migrants who migrated to Hawaii and the Latin American countries due to hardship in their motherland.The same ethic of adaptability,resilience and hard work ethic is passed on through the generations.
Education became the tool for upward socio-economic mobility not possible in their own motherland due to overpopulation and famines.

movies that tell a good story

Special effects or whatnot  3D effects are just the trimmings as what is important in a movie is the story itself.
 it should have the right tension between the characters,realistic dialogue and be entertaining-meaning it has to capture my attention.
        Indian movies are entertaining and has universal appeal despite the foreign language and the context of foreign lifestyle.Watching both Pad man and Toilet overtwo weekends shows the skill of the filmmaker to take a topic of social ills of society and spin it  into a humorous ,entertaining movie.the appeal of Bollywood movies has spread to four corners of the globe and are the most widely seen movies all over the world from China,Russia,the Middle East,SouthEast Asia ,Britain and Africa.Fans from diverse cultural and social worlds have a liking for popular Indian movies.
   Bollywood movies are value for money as it allows plain folks 3 long hours of entertainment with everything all thrown in. There are no distinct genres  but mixes several genres and themes simultaneously in an orgy of visual and sound.This makes Bollywood movies different as multi genre movies are termed "the masala film" like curry cooked with different spices or masala,the Indian movie serves a potporri of flavours.
  A famous choreographer says"What is saving Indian cinema from being overwhelmed by Hollywood is our song and dance routines,because they just can't imitate that." ( That's why I enjoy my Sunday dance sessions at the park as our guru teaches us Bollywood moves like her Masala Bhangra last Sunday saw us wriggling hipsand sliding our necks to hot bhangra music).
 Their movies are full of hope,showingthat good inevitably triumphs,people live modern westernised lives and still respect traditional Indian values,the hero always beat the villain and the dark side of life is banished forever.As Amitabh Bachchan sums it 'Hindi movies provide poetic justice in just three hours-a feat that none of us can achieve in a lifetime."
  I like movies that deal with socio-cultural issues in society and that I get from independent movies not manufactured for mass consumption.They deal with family issues or society concerns in which the movies from China starting from Zhang YiMo ,Feng Xiao gang and that generation of directors did not follow the mould of Hong Kong movies that were entertaining but lack critique of socio-cultural norms.Now China movies have zoomed way ahead with use of animation and dipping into new genres like sci-fi.I wanna watch The Wandering Earth when it comes as it had raving reviews.Horror and romance movies are so common in Asian movies that they lack creativity.Good to watch how science fiction is interpreted through an Asian director and Chinese writer-they are getting bolder in film making.Interesting development.Technical skills can be learnt but not the creativity of the story telling-that is an inborn talent and with a pool of billions,there are bound to be a few who will rise to the top of the profession if they are nurtured with access to diverse reading,viewing and acting opportunities.

Food and culture

A lot of cultural legacy is contained in how food is caught,prepared and passed down.
A lot of food history shows how cultures intermingle and assimilate another alien culture.It's also how families create memories as cooking and feasting is a celebration of life wedding,birth and good memories.
  i saw in the ancient Chinese manual of gastronomy from The Garden of Contentment how food recipes are created.I remember how uncle and granny bought soft shell turtle to make tonic soup or snakehead fish is filleted and how ferocious the survival of the fish thrashing on the floor.I remember the catfish with the poisonous sting barb in front but when cooked with black beans in claypot smelled awesome.
       A lot of cooking is a labour of love so nomatter how backbreaking or how hot and sweaty, alot of good memories come out of the kitchen.The frugality of our ancestors who lived through famine and starvation sees my late dad talking about eating rice mice as a delicacy or catching frogs from the rice fields for food.How pomelo skin is dried and cooked as a vegetable just as the Italians  use flowers of zucchini to stuff and deep fry or Japanese eating wild vegetables for health.
        This New Year I think of panfried dry prawns marinated in superior say sauce and caramelised with sugar,steam pomfret,stewed trotters with dried oysters and black moss,soya sauce chicken and steamed winter melon soup as the traditional new year food I miss the most.

How social media coins new words

The use of social networking sites has allowed  new vocabulary to be coined as users make up words to express a particular idea which will later be viralized and enter popular usage.

 Words like manhandle and blacklisted goes out of fashion with the rise of social trends like feminism and anti racism.So current lingo shows the creativeness of the inventor like blamegame or kickass.The young people go a step further in reducing words into acronyms like LOL or MILF or YOLO.
   Some words come and go very fast .Last year the word was milkshake duck to describe someone once highly regarded is found to be not true to character .In English we say that idols have feet of clay.Now the word of the year is "Me Too" in view of the anti discrimination of female victims and anther word that lost to it is Big Dick Energy,Deepfake and Single Use.How language evolves has to be understood in line with the socio-cultural context of the changes in society.I guess the dumb blonde and the dickhead has gone out of fashion .

Art of the Soul

Really would like to see the exhibition of China's artist Shao Fan in Malaysia.Next year some exciting cultural events like Ed Sheeran's concer and musical Phantom of The Opera performance in Malaysia.Need to save for these pricey events by eating home cooked meals or buy less novels.It's a hard choice-sigh.

X & Y or Y X?     Get more ZZZZZ
The Art of Soul or the Art of Life.

"Art for me is like a pearl," he says.

"I see the pearl as a result of self-healing after suffering harm from the outside world. Art has that same function-serving as a kind of enduring self-relief or self-comfort to cope with our feelings of helplessness." China's artist Shao Fan at exhibition 

The Art Of The Soul.

Doggone it

That's my favourite word.When my owner Cathy got a new baby poodle with curly white fluffy coat and sappy round eyes,she seem to have lost all interest in me.When  i rubbed against her leg,she would pick me up and tickle the top of head and smooched my face.Poor bobby, You miss me don't you but I told the kid next door to feed you everyday.Did he do it? Why are you getting so scrawny?
          Look what I bought you from my holiday in Australia.Here its a lovely green collar with a medallion of your name see Bob .
       Now she pushes me out of the room and her bed and she cuddles Fifi in her bed.When I see Fifi,I took an instant dislike to her fawning ways.I would hiss and snarl at her "Doggone it! What are you blinking at me for?"
         last night,she said Bob come you have to go to the vet.You need to go for your injections.Your knees must be giving you a lot of pain.She put me in the plastic carrier and carried it down the lift.Then she forgot the keys and rushed back up the lift,leaving me in the carrier.A sexy white bob tail peered inside.Hi you wanna join me for the great hunt today.She pushed the door lightly with her paws and whoa,it swung open.Cathy must have forgotten to latch it as she was in a hurry.
  Come on I'm Sasa ,don't be a pussy,come on out,We'll have so much fun.
  Well,I jumped at this chance,to be a free cat .Follow me,she beckoned and we dashed behind the huge black refuse bins.It reeked of fish bones and rotting vegetables.As Sasa leaped to the edge,she called,Quick you scaredy cat!Me scaredy,no way,