LawMan's Thoughts

Stupid Assholes

2009-03-01T15:30:00.003+08:00

Enough said.

Mistake in gazette, Christians still can’t use ‘Allah’

KOTA KINABALU: A Feb 16 government gazette lifting a ban on Christian publications to use the word “Allah” will be rescinded.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar said a gazette would be issued as early as tomorrow to cancel the earlier gazette.

He told reporters here yesterday that there were mistakes made in the drafting of the Feb 16 gazette which stated that Christian publications could use the word “Allah” provided the words “For Christians” were clearly printed on the front cover.

“The government’s stand on the ban has not changed.

“There is also a judicial review challenging the ban,” Syed Hamid said.

He said the government had no intention of pre-empting any decision of the courts on the judicial review brought by the Malaysian Catholic church publication, the Catholic Herald.

Acknowledging that more care should have been taken, he said since mistakes were made “we will now have to correct them.”

Syed Hamid said a gazette to cancel the Feb 16 gazette is needed to clear any misunderstanding over the matter.

Apart from the word “Allah”, the ban for the Christian publications also covered the words “Kaabah,” “Solat” and “Baitullah”.

The ban on these words are not aimed at preventing other religions from being practised.

It is just that the government wants to avoid any confusion, Syed Hamid added.

Geert Wilder should not have been banned from the UK

2009-02-13T00:52:00.004+08:00

Now, this is ridiculous.

Is the UK for "free speech" or not? Exactly what are the boundaries? Looking at my last post, I think it's pretty obvious that there are some pretty woolly thinkers in the powers-that-be that regulate free speech in the UK (yes, oh come on, "free" speech is regulated everywhere).

Wilder's video, as I have said in earlier posts, doesn't actually contain any fabrications or lies.

It contains statements and multimedia equivalents (ie. videoclips) taken out of context. Wilder has not invented statements from the Koran; he's merely extracted them for his own purposes.

Similarly, the videoclips were not staged for Wilder's camera; so, unlike the proverbial fire in the cinema, cited by a "brilliant" minister of Her Majesty's august government (Mr Miliband also said: "We have profound commitment to freedom of speech but there is no freedom to cry 'fire' in a crowded theatre and there is no freedom to stir up hate, religious and racial hatred, according to the laws of the land.") - as an example of a situation where the UK government would not allow the freedom of speech to prevail, there IS repeat IS a fire here - there is no lie in that sense. The statements Wilder actually made in Fitna are "true" - no fabrications.

The only dispute is over what you, the listener, make of that fire - is it the kind of fire that makes you run for the exit, ie. you agree with Wilder, or the kind of fire you will simply stand on to put out, ie. Wilder is exaggerating or otherwise putting the wrong spin on the observable facts.

In other words, the proper response was to allow plenty of equal time for Wilder's opponents to justify their stand.

Banning him shouts one thing loud and clear: there is no effective or proper logical response to Wilder that will appeal to the listener's good sense; Wilder is essentially correct in what he says, and therefore the only way to win the argument with Wilder is to shut him up and deny him the right to put his views across instead of replying him point for point.

Let's put my point another way, linking back to my earlier post: if saying God Doesn't Exist is not a violation of norms where freedom of speech in the UK is concerned, what exactly is wrong with saying that the Muslim God is a God of Violence? I mean, in neither case is anyone saying: Kill All the God-Believers, or, Kill All the Muslims, although that may or may not be an implication from the statement. It is merely another opinion, no? Why allow one and ban the other? Is the lobby group against Wilder more powerful than the lobby group against Atheists, and therefore more successful? Is this the real truth behind the matter, Mr Miliband? Is the deciding factor exactly who and how many you think might be offended by the statement rather than the quality of the statement itself?

Why the Atheist anti-God campaign is so offensive.

2009-01-17T11:38:00.001+08:00

I was intrigued by this which I saw on the BBC website:

Man refuses to drive 'No God' bus

"A Christian bus driver has refused to drive a bus with an atheist slogan proclaiming "There's probably no God".

... The advertising campaign is backed by the British Humanist Association and prominent atheist, Professor Richard Dawkins.

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, said: "I have difficulty understanding why people with particular religious beliefs find the expression of a different sort of beliefs to be offensive.

"I can't understand why some people seem to have a different attitude when it comes to atheists."

I thought it would be pretty obvious why such a campaign would always be offensive. In a way I'm surprised it was allowed, because Britain does have hate speech legislation. It all depends on HOW you express your "different sort of beliefs" - and if it's just a BELIEF, ie. a normative rather than a positive statement (ie. one that can be proven true or false by reference to facts you can objectively measure), then you really shouldn't be surprised if those of a different belief group decide they aren't going to cooperate with you or be nice to you.

What would happen if I decided I was going to pay for an ad campaign to run on buses that said: "Cina Balik Tongsan" (Chinese Go Home) - in the Malaysian or Singaporean context - or, taking a religious (NOT ethnic) example: "Jews / Muslims /Hindus / Buddhists / Have Got it All Wrong, It PROBABLY Ain't Kosher - Come to Church on Sunday", or, perhaps, "The Law is an Ass - **Don't** Follow Law"??

The only reason why this British Humanist Association statement, which I found quite silly, was made: "some people seem to have a different attitude when it comes to atheists" - is because the atheist concerned doesn't consider religion to be an important part of a person's character or life makeup. It's a typical, insensitive, one-angled, not well thought-through kind of attack on other belief systems.

It's not different, in my view, from wondering why slagging the law off would offend lawyers, or slagging Chinese off would offend people who are Chinese, or slagging Judaism off would offend Jews.

Maybe the ad is some kind of joke, or half-joke - in which case, and this wouldn't be new, one person's joke is simply another's insult.

For instance, I'll always remember the year Andrew Leci performed at the Bar Council's Annual Dinner. His act was FULL of lawyer jokes, and by the time the end of the show was reached nobody was laughing, even politely.

I also remember Al Gore's Reformasi speech - in KL, as an invited guest of the Malaysian government, at APEC - when he was still the vice president.

Maybe Al thought he wasn't offending anybody except corrupt power-abusing politicians, but a lot of ordinary Malaysians got mighty upset and I recall personally writing and circulating a long email post "gor-ing" Gore on this, back then. One prominent Malaysian intellectual even took out a full-page advertisement in the newspapers on his own account to condemn our "good friend" Al from America.

Australian researchers claim breakthrough on dengue fever

2009-01-02T21:50:00.003+08:00

Now why is it that a Malaysian or Singaporean research team didn't do this?

Was it just lack of money, or something deeper, more fundamental? Was it just luck, or some cultural or intellectual impediment? I'm thinking, did someone perhaps NOT think out of the box here? Because it seems to have not been a difficult thing to speculate that this could be a solution to the problem, and yet it had to be tested in Australia, a country only partially tropical, and certainly not under as big a threat from dengue as Malaysia and Singapore.

"SYDNEY : Australian researchers funded by US billionaire Bill Gates Friday claimed a breakthrough which could help in the fight against dengue fever by stopping the often deadly disease in its tracks.

University of Queensland researchers said they have successfully infected the mosquito which spreads the tropical disease with a bacterium which halves its 30-day lifespan, thereby reducing its ability to transmit dengue to humans.

Scientists hope their work will help halt the spread of the painful and debilitating disease which affects millions of people each year.

"The key is that really only very old mosquitos are the only ones that are able to transmit the disease," said researcher Professor Scott O'Neill.

"What we've done is put this naturally occurring bacteria into the mosquitos that actually halves their adult lifespan so they don't live long enough to be able to transmit the virus."

The research published Friday in the journal Science is the result of injecting 10,000 mosquito embryos with a bacterium that occurs naturally in fruit flies but has never been detected in dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

O'Neill said the test was designed to see whether the bacterium reduced the lifespan of the insects without killing them or preventing them from breeding and was able to be passed on to offspring.

He said while the laboratory tests, which involved researchers allowing the bacteria-infected mosquitoes to bite their arms because the species needs human blood to breed, had been successful, it would be several years before the technique would be tested in the wild.

"It's really a preventative strategy for preventing dengue fever outbreaks and what we've done is show that it's possible to be done in a laboratory," he told AFP."

HERALD MERAYU TERHADAP KEPUTUSAN KERAJAAN YANG BODOH LAGI BERMAHARAJALELA MELARANG PENGGUNAAN BAHASA KEBANGSAAN

2009-01-02T21:41:00.004+08:00

"Herald appeals Bahasa ruling
KUALA LUMPUR: A Catholic newspaper said on Friday it might take the Malaysian Government to court for allegedly violating the rights of religious minorities by refusing to let the publication use Bahasa Malaysia.
The Herald, the main Roman Catholic weekly in Malaysia, received a letter from the Home Ministry on Tuesday restricting it to English, Mandarin and Tamil for its multi-lingual editions. The newspaper typically uses four languages including Malay.
Rev. Lawrence Andrew, editor of the Herald, said the newspaper sent a letter to the ministry Friday to appeal the order. If there is no response in seven days or the decision is not retracted, the Herald will consider legal action against the government, Andrew said.
The Herald has sought a court order to challenge the government’s ban last year on its use of “Allah.’’ A hearing is scheduled for next month. - AP"

And so it seems the assault on religious freedom by the bigots within the "Islamist" establishment continues. Come on folks, what is it you idiotic schizophrenics want? Is Bahasa Malaysia the language of the country, the national language, the official language, the one All Malaysians should be proud to speak, and NOT just Muslim Malaysians, and Malay Muslim Malaysians at that, never mind the Indian, Chinese and other non-Malay ethnic-origin Malaysian Muslims, OR NOT????

Malaysians, Christians or otherwise, Catholic or otherwise, Unite!!! We have to fight this now! Before it gets to THIS stage! and the so-called Muslims who are NOT really genuine Muslims but only power-hungry bigots who CLAIM to be Muslim, take power completely! We have to stop all the little Maharajalelas before they get out of hand and do a JWW Birch on the Malaysia that we know!

The FITNA video: Why Wilder is RIGHT and ALL Muslims are WRONG

2008-04-01T13:50:00.014+08:00

Mr Wilder's DEFAMATORY (Fitna, that's the correct meaning of the word, borrowed from the Arabic into Malay) video, above, is a collection of still pictures and movies which can be found publicly available elsewhere, combined with real, actual, factually correct snippets of text from the Quran.

Like all truly polemical works, the worst possible selections from Muslim scripture have been made and taken out of context to "prove" Mr Wilder's point: that Islam is a religion to be viewed with great suspicion if not fear and outright hostility as its core values are the opposite of any modern Western-style (not necessarily just Western) liberal (and often not-so-liberal) democracy. In fact, it could be argued that the video is not defamatory at all, as it is a fair opinion to arrive at, based on facts which have been disclosed together with the allegedly defamatory opinion. "Fair comment on matter of public importance" and its variations are of course valid defences to allegations of defamation. But I am going off on a real tangent here; there is of course no real "defamation" as the term is understood in law, since no particular individual person still alive has been targeted, just Muslims as a community, and we all know that defamation of an entire community is not legally actionable in "defamation" as such, as opposed to defamation against known individuals. The proper course of action could be sedition, or violation of other specific statutory prohibitions on hate speech, but not defamation as such.

Back to Mr Wilder: My worry here is that the video has been met with calls like that of Mahathir, who haven't even bothered to reply to Mr Wilder point for point and more importantly, have not really stepped forward to denounce the abuses showcased in Mr Wilder's video. As Douglas Farah has pointed out, those abuses pictured really happened - nothing was doctored - and the Quranic verses, they DO exist, Mr Wilder didn't actually lie, he simply took those aspects of the truth that best fitted in with his views of Islam. Mahathir hasn't even bothered to step right out and take concrete action to call for the active, actual, legal and physical suppression of those who perpetrate the abuses shown in the video in the name of Islam, he's simply called for a boycott as if Mr Wilders has fabricated a complete lie, which of course he has not.

The furthest Mahathir has gone is to say that “They will continue to do this until we show to them Islam is a good religion, that we are not violent people, that we don’t tell lies to people...but this must be shown in practice by the Muslim community,” - but of course, talk is cheap. He's been moving for the Prime Minister to resign, will he put the same kind of energy towards punishing people such as the "Muslims" pictured in Wilder's video?

1st Priority: Reign in the Civil Servants

2008-03-09T23:51:00.003+08:00

... and moving on from Election Day, the first priority of our Opposition State governments and the now very substantial Opposition bloc in the Federal Parliament, is to REIGN IN the Civil Service - with particular emphasis on the POLICE who must be brought to task, reformed, re-engineered, re-trained and otherwise re-organised to reduce the country's crime rate.

Corrupt and inefficient officers interested only in bullying HINDRAF lawyers and booking cars with Singapore licence plates in the hope of earning a fast buck must be punished - in clear, certain and painful terms.

Forensics training, and the mastery of other types of basic evidence gathering, retention and delivery for the purposes of successful prosecution must be the order of the day. No more reliance only on informers, anonymous "tip-offs", and the extraction of doubtful confessions under torture.

Makkal Ossai, Makkal Shakti!!

Lawman

What Happens When You Try to Kill All the Lawyers

2008-03-09T22:05:00.016+08:00

The impossible has happened - the BN has lost its two-thirds majority for the first time since 1969, and the Opposition controls 5 states and all Parliamentary seats for the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (which is not a State).

The DAP, PAS and Keadilan will, operating as a loose coalition, form the State Governments of Penang, Kedah, Perak, and Selangor. In addition, PAS will rule Kelantan with a much stronger majority than it obtained in the last election in 2004.

As President Musharraf discovered much to his dismay when he decided to Kill All the Lawyers - figuratively speaking - Abdullah Badawi's BN has realised, too late, what happens in any functioning society which wants to maintain at least a semblance of democracy: when you find yourself trying to put down (well, at least ignore or denigrate) street protests mounted by lawyers, you are at the deep end of the pool and will drown in the next election.

A tip for politicians in future elections: be careful how you treat the professional class. You start dumping them in jail, it's a good leading indicator that you will fare poorly at the next (honest) polls.

For a better idea of what I'm talking about, go here and here.

And of course, Mr Shakespeare's famous line about Killing All the Lawyers, which when read in context was actually a Major Compliment to the Legal Profession, can be found here (Act IV, Scene 2, Henry VI Part 2).

One compliment to the ruling party though; the Malaysian elections were by and large, free and fair, and allegations and fears of rigging were basically unfounded, going by all currently available evidence.

Unfortunately, as Musharraf discovered in Pakistan, if you rig the vote you lose the elections no matter what the official outcome may be, and if you don't rig the vote then you lose the elections fair and square - either way, you lose.

Like I said, don't put the lawyers down, or you are looking at losing the next polls.

Now, some will say the BN hasn't actually lost the polls, at least not in the way that Musharraf was wiped out in Pakistan. Musharraf wasn't actually up for election; his party lost big and lost all control of Pakistan whereas Badawi WAS up for election, and the BN managed to retain all of East Malaysia and the southern and eastern regions of Peninsular Malaysia. But I say the BN very obviously lost in the sense that despite having gerrymandered election seats over many years in its favour, lopsided media coverage, the devotion of massive resources to a PR campaign, and the detention without trial of its most extreme recent critics (Manoharan & company, of HINDRAF), the BN received an absolute whopping in states it had considered reasonably safe - Selangor, Perak, Kedah - and in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, previously divided between Opposition and BN but as of yesterday TOTALLY Opposition (bar 1 seat). AND the BN lost Penang, was wiped out in Kelantan, AND lost its 2/3 majority - the holy grail of Opposition politicians. The Barisan Nasional has NEVER been beaten so badly since Independence. In Malaysian terms, it counts as a certain defeat.

For the first time in all recorded history, we have 5 Opposition Menteris Besar - one each from Keadilan and the DAP, and 3 from PAS. My congratulations to them all. I just hope they don't waste the chance to Just Change It!

and, for good measure: MAKKAL SHAKTI!!!

- Lawman -

SHOOT THE MALAYSIAN POLICE NOW!!!

2007-06-14T23:58:00.000+08:00

Waylaid Couple Assaulted, Woman Gang-Raped

It's time to shoot the cops - publicly and immediately. Time to pull a few monkeys in the Royal Malaysian Police aside, try them for dereliction of duty, and have them shot in public and the bill sent to their families.

I want to ask our highly devoted and super-efficient ROYAL policemen exactly how much shit they expect the average Malaysian civilian to take before they will move their sorry little cholesterol-filled, corrupt, overpaid and underworked arses to actually do more than just stop people for driving with tinted windows and Singapore licence plates.

I am of course referring to that bit in the above article which states: "...the girl's brother who was driving around Taman Perling searching for his sister, chanced upon a police patrol car."

"...the policemen in the car listened to the girl's brother before driving off."

In other words, they did ABSOLUTELY nothing.

So the girl gets gang-raped by 4 men in Taman Tampoi Indah in front of her boyfriend, who is himself slashed in the legs with a parang.

The Chinese papers contain more information on how the police completely SLEPT with their eyes, ears, hands and legs wide open (begging to be assaulted, I suppose). It seems that the various police stations in the Johor Bahru area passed the complaint on from one to another, each station unwilling to actually take the report.

WHY are you afraid to act, hmmmm? Are these 4 men YOUR OWN perhaps?? I really want to know - but I'm sure I'll never find out, because short of yet another Commission of Inquiry - and how many of those do you our beloved men in blue actually want before anything changes in your sorry little decrepit excuse for a police force?? - YOU will never really investigate this "little" offence - your men are too busy taking RM100 bribes to settle RM300 compounds and shaking down honest businessmen for their money.

Is this an isolated incident? AM I over-reacting?

Weeeel, try the above article on for size - see the last bit which states: "The family called the police around 4am but Salima said a patrol car only arrived at her house about 7.30am. Kulim district police chief Superintendent Abdul Majid Hashim said he would look into the allegation that the police were slow in responding."

Yes, go ahead, look all you like. You won't find anything - because YOU are PART of the problem, not the solution.

Want to learn some real policing? Go see your neighbours down south. But that's not all, I think at least some of you require some brain surgery first. Radical brain surgery. Involving the complete physical separation of brain from body, in a clean-cut manner.

LMT.

Spiderman 3 and that Catholic Church Thing

2007-05-07T01:04:00.000+08:00

A Catholic church or cathedral (read: large church) (link connects to my best guess of which church that is) - is featured in Spiderman 3.

That's the place Spidey (ie. Peter Parker) goes when he realises his little Jazz-ballroom dance thingy-in-a-bar revenge show-up of Mary Jane using Gwen Stacy has gone a little too far, apparently for some quiet contemplation. Also featured in Spiderman 2.

This follows on from the Catholic church featured prominently in Daredevil (see the very first scene - same church, me-thinks...).

What is it with Hollywood and Catholic Churches? How come we don't see superheroes seeking contemplation, redemption and the odd property-destroying fight-scene in Orthodox or Anglican/Episcopal or - yeeks - Pentecostal Charismatic Evangelical warehouse-type churches? Or, perhaps, a Shinto temple or a Mosque?

Here's where Catholic churches, especially those of the traditional French Gothic design, have a couple of advantages.

Firstly, they're somewhat more familiar and "comfortable" to be in, to the West, and that includes the Anglophile East, even in today's widely-travelled, multi-religious, even somewhat irreligious, secular world, than Orthodox churches and buildings of other religions. Quite a few are architectural representatives of the cities they were built in.

Secondly, they use 3-D imagery (read: impressive (as in, makes a lasting impression!) architecture, interior design and icons) a lot - to convey the essential truths or values of the religion. Jesus crucified, the theme of sacrifice: see both our favourite blind lawyer and his arch-enemy Bullseye in Daredevil. Bell tolls for those who seek salvation: see Spiderman in Spiderman 3. High church spire: quiet contemplation; attaining peace through forgiveness, the double-edged sword of hate and revenge, etc - see both movies. So, if you want to use some kind of quasi-religious imagery to get your moral high point across, Catholics have an advantage over your average Hillsong-type concert hall or hotel ballroom Evangelical outfit.

All goes to show that Messrs Luther, Calvin, Melanchton, Zwingli & Co just got it all wrong when they decided to throw out and burn their icons in favour of the Word. It wasn't even right to call them "idols" when they were just icons. Talk about a senseless contribution to global warming, not to mention an overly optimistic view of literacy rates in Reformation Europe (the reason for Protestantism being restricted to just Northern and Western Europe perhaps?)

But oh, don't worry. I won't get into a "How to Find God in Spiderman 3" here. That's already been done, sort of, in a movie review here.

Cheers. And ignore the critics. Spidey 3 is a great movie; 'tis true that it won't win any Academy Awards, the pace is just waaay too fast for proper development, but it is a great movie nonetheless, with some great scenes and good acting, and a very good moral message for the viewer to boot. Well worth the RM11 per ticket + RM1 for a couple seat that Cathay Cinemas is charging...

LMT

Why Second Life is Just Not Ready - Yet

2007-05-05T22:43:00.000+08:00

SECOND LIFE PROTEST

Second Life Gambling Issue

The above will add further fuel to the fire of what I've been saying for a while (to anyone who asks, that is) - Second Life is more trouble than it's worth. Not only does the game suffer from massive lags, but there are bugs and plenty of unsavoury characters online, plus the educational institutions I've been to in SL seem to be ... underwhelmed ... with response from prospective or actual students and staff. Oftentimes I've been the only one there. Where's the kick in that?

I'll come back, say, next year, when things might be a little more settled.

Meanwhile I'll just stick to my first life.

Why I Hate Microsoft So

2007-04-23T23:31:00.000+08:00

You know what?

I don't really have anything against Microsoft as a company. I'm sure if I could, I would buy shares in this company as they would seem to be a good investment. I'm sure they treat their people well. But tonight, I got truly annoyed with Microsoft and it wouldn't be the first time. This company just has a knack for borderline misrepresentation, certainly withholding relevant information, and downright lousy customer care and software design practices from the viewpoint of the end-user.

A little while ago I installed Office 2007 - the edition purchased by my employer - onto my employer-issued laptop. This was encouraged. Better software all around, I was told. Use what your students are using, know what they see and experience, keep up with the people you are supposed to be teaching, and all that. Fine.

Only one problem - the old edition of MS Office on my laptop came with Outlook 2003 which I used to sync my handphone contacts - these are work contacts, mind you - and worked just fine. The new edition removed Outlook 2003 and didn't install any new Outlook in its place.

One teeny weeny question: why didn't the installation software tell me this? What could possibly be the benefit and how could it possibly be necessary to remove Outlook 2003 if Outlook 2007 wasn't a component of the 2007 edition purchased by my employer? Why program it into your software to remove a component for which an update does not exist in the selected bundle? My employer paid for Outlook 2003 didn't it? Why wasn't there even a warning that this might occur?

Now I have to cast around for options, eg. reinstalling Outlook 2003 somehow. I wish I'd tried a sync with my handphone immediately after installation - but who could possibly have guessed this might occur? It certainly wasn't something within the realm of logic (Microsoft might beg to differ, which would really not be a surprise, but then Microsoft simply **isn't** the end-user).

I wonder which universe Microsoft's beta testers come from that nobody seems to have picked this up and tagged it as an issue to be addressed. Am I supposed to believe that none of Microsoft's testers owns and syncs a PDA or smartphone regularly to Outlook? It seems to me that this issue was deliberately ignored. Just wipe it out, leave the user to find out on his own, make trouble for him. Yeah. That's the Microsoft Way.

I suppose I should count my blessings that my *.pst Outlook data file was still there on the laptop, intact. Now I only have to find a way to retrieve the data.

The above brings to mind other ugly experiences with Microsoft that I've had, over the many years that I've been - through necessity rather than choice - a MS user - ranging from having to dial long distance to activate multiple copies of software (what a real waste of time that was), to discovering the hard way, ie. through actual use, that essential functions such as mail-merge in newer versions of Office won't work properly with datafiles created using older versions, especially over the LAN. And, mind you, the network config wasn't Linux or anything exotic - it was Windows NT, Service Pack 6, serving a PC running Windows Millenium, at that time the latest MS OS, from Dell, running the latest version at that time of MS Office, which version came as part of the bundle from Dell. So it was all Microsoft software - and they didn't work properly with one another.

Sigh. The power of Monopoly to bring corporate prosperity in spite of technical mediocrity.

LMT

BUT of course, there're 2 sides to every story...

2007-03-12T13:41:00.000+08:00

Last Updated: Sunday, 19 October, 2003, 23:37 GMT 00:37 UK

Parents a moody lot say teens

Teenagers say they dislike the way they are portrayed
Teenagers say moody parents are their biggest headache.

And more than half of those responding to a BBC survey agreed they get "a bad press" - with only 13% agreeing that society values teenagers.

Almost one in five felt that this stereotyping was the hardest thing - above exam pressures, mood swings and boyfriend/girlfriend relationships.

The findings are from responses of more than 16,000 teenagers and 6,000 parents to an online survey done this summer.

LMT

The link is here.

Now we know why...

2007-03-12T13:36:00.000+08:00

Teenage mood swing hormone found

Teenage mood swings are known to be down to hormones, but scientists claim they have identified the specific one that makes adolescents so volatile.
A team from the State University of New York identified a hormone which normally acts to calm anxiety, but the effect is reversed in adolescence.

And they add the study should help parents and teachers understand teens.

A hormone called THP is normally released in response to stress.

It usually behaves like a tranquiliser, acting at sites in the brain that calm brain activity and, in adults and pre-pubescent children, helps someone cope with stress.

But a mouse study by the New York team shows THP actually increases anxiety at puberty.

'Things are harder for teenagers'

They found that the target for the hormone, a specific receptor, is more prevalent in the part of the brain which regulates emotion during puberty.

This appears to reverse the normal calming effect.

...

"As adults, we just deal with things, but it is harder for teenagers because of their biology. I think it's important for people to know that."

Heh Heh.

The full article at: TEEN HORMONES

Earthquake Hits Eastern Sumatra

2007-03-06T17:58:00.000+08:00

First time I'd ever been in a swinging (ok, make that swaying) building. Quite amusing, actually, to be honest, from a totally personal point of view. There I was typing away on the computer when the whole world started to shake a little around me. I thought I was giddy, perhaps insufficient sleep or stress from the upcoming meeting, but I hadn't suffered from stress-induced giddiness in, like, a million years, if ever, so there I was closing my eyes and quietly and slowly leaning back in my chair - thinking a few minutes' sleep would be enough to shake off the giddiness.

Then the chair started shaking and that was when I got REALLY worried - worried that I was seriously hallucinating, that is.

Thankfully there were other human beings around and they affirmed upon my enquiry that I was not going mad or suffering a serious loss of blood to the brain; in fact, they had initially looked at me like I was insane, since they were rushing to evacuate the building and there lay yours truly snoozing, to all intents and purposes, in his comfortable office chair.

Anyway the entire population of the office decamped to the field outside and then adjourned to the nearby (low-level) canteen for lunch as the earthquake passed.

After a while staff began to whip out their respective O2 XDA's, Palm TX's, and other similar devices to access the Internet in the hope of discovering more about what was obviously an earthquake, probably somewhere in Indonesia. Amazing isn't it, that nowadays we have come to expect so much of cellular telephone networks and broadband wireless Internet access. In the end the first word of the earthquake came from good old fashioned television. Channel News Asia reported the earthquake long before BBC News and AsiaOne picked it up. One day some bright young Channel 5 executive is going to create a screenplay based on this and call it The Evacuation of Shenton Way or something.

Familiarity breeds contempt. The aftershock came around 2 hours later, when we had all returned to the office. This time we half-heartedly made it all the way to the lift column and then decided, en masse, to turn back for our all-important meeting. So nobody evacuated.

At the commencement of the meeting, our senior colleague stood up (the swaying had stopped, thankfully, it was starting to give me a headache) to announce that the building was safe, so long as we all stopped working whenever it was swaying. Somehow I found that very funny.

News of the earthquake can be found here: Earthquake News from the BBC

LMT

How To Get into Trouble With the Law in A Certain Country

2007-02-15T00:10:00.000+08:00

For those of you who wish to have a DIFFERENT kind of travel experience, go no further than A Certain Country. Make sure you are a FOREIGNER, this is essential, and bring your passport with you.

Make sure you enter the country from the SOUTH, again this is essential. Make sure you DRIVE in, and make sure you hand your passport over to Immigration for the usual endorsement as you come in.

Make sure you DO NOT CHECK that the said endorsement has been made before driving off, and I guarantee you a very pleasant stay at the pleasure of His Majesty the Yang Dipertuan Agong (Supreme Ruler) of A Certain Country, upon your attempt to exit the country after your tour.

Malaysia must be the only country in the civilized world (disfunctional regimes in Africa do not count) where Immigration has every right under the law to punish legitimate visitors to the country for the failure - whether deliberate or otherwise - of their OWN officers at valid entry checkpoints to the country to endorse visitors' passports with the appropriate rubberstamps.

Other countries would readily admit that it was THEIR problem if, upon presentation of valid passports, their OWN officers (whether by way of oversight or just a general dislike of foreigners in general and Singaporeans in particular) failed to endorse those passports when they should have.

But in Malaysia, NOOOOOO, they have to really put you through the dry-wringer when you attempt, of all things, to EXIT the country validly, as opposed to hopping on a fishing boat somewhere near Kukup for a midnight trip to Sumatra.

So we are put in this truly embarrassing position where bona fide visitors entering by bona fide means in to Malaysia are put in jail for mistakes committed by Immigration - and the only excuse Malaysia can give is that those visitors were, by law, obliged to check if Immigration officers had done the job for which they are paid by their own country's taxpayers. Obviously, we can all see who this law was designed for and enacted to protect.

"Berkhidmat Untuk Negara!!" - my A**.

LMT.

A Problem-Free Formula for Abuse of Power and Corruption in A Certain Country, 101

2007-02-05T22:50:00.000+08:00

Hello dear reader, and welcome to this introductory course, entitled as above.

The formula is very simple indeed, and may be stated as follows:-

1. Find a highly-placed friend or two in Government. But note: "Kulit" mesti "sama". Jika Kulit "tak sama", Lain Akibatnya.
2. The "A Certain Country" Government possesses a very strong propensity to engage in Muslim-centric, Keynesian, fiscal-policy, multiplier-effect, demand-side-economics expenditure. Often married to non-existent or perfunctory planning. Use this to your advantage.
3. Obtain a Government contract without open tender. In fact, do it without any track record, capital backing, relevant human resources, or objective evaluation of your ability to complete the project at all.
4. Ensure that the said contract consists of a long-term concession (at least 30 years) which confers upon you a monopoly on an area of economic activity which is essential to national productivity.
5. Can't find an area of economic activity which is essential to national productivity? Just create one, ask your friend to procure his friends in the rubberstamp Parliament of A Certain Country Government to legislate so as to create a monopoly, and have those friends grant the monopoly to you. For example, "all men are to shave and keep their heads bald by regular visits to any licensed barber shop in [ name your location ]. Penalty on default: 10 years jail - without any haircuts." This should be followed by the grant of one (1) licence only, for a barber shop in the said location, to you. All other barbers' licences are to be revoked immediately and without prior notice or explanation, whatsoever.
6. Next, ensure that the concession is bulletproofed against economic loss. You do this by persuading the Government to agree to guarantee your profits every year. For the entire period of the concession - say, at least 30 years.
7. Further, ensure that the tariffs charged to members of the public for the use of your services pursuant to the concession increase in accordance with a fixed formula every few years irrespective of actual surrounding economic and other conditions. In our example, have the barber fees start cheap, then rise sharply every few years for the entire duration of 30 years, so as to make you a billionaire many times over by the end of your concession.
8. Finally, continuing on with our example, find a genuine trained barber, wherever possible one of the "kulit tak sama" type, to actually perform the haircuts. That's because, of course, they actually know how to do the work, they just don't know how to make the money. At least not in A Certain Country. It's a consequence of Being Born Different. Pay him a tuppence, and keep the vast majority of the revenue from the haircut services for yourself as a reward for your brilliant "business" acumen. Oh, and by the way, said "kulit tak sama" barber should bear all startup and operating costs of the business, including all costs of the foregoing steps and your ongoing luxury car and extended overseas "business" trips costs.
9. If you should for any reason come under attack from journalists or sensible, ethical politicians for adopting the above business model, respond by saying that all "kulit sama" types must unite and face the world together, or the "kulit tak sama" types will "take advantage" of the situation to return all "kulit sama" types to the world they were in "before independence from 400 years of colonial domination" - or words to that effect.
10. Alternatively, threaten to shut down all "Kulit Tak Sama" businesses for the merest, most minor transgressions of the law in the name of "equal treatment for all law-breakers". Do so in a very implicit way, by means of quiet, brooding comments to the popular press.
11. As a last resort, announce that the concession agreements are strictly confidential and that their terms are not open to any question on any ground whatsoever, and have your friends arrest all who dare comment on such terms.
12. Repeat the above until you are sick of being insanely rich. Then retire and go into space on the back of a Russian rocket to test the dynamics of creating a proper good-tasting traditional Teh Tarik in a zero gravity environment.

LMT

‘Rocky’ Stallone back in church as new movie in theaters

2007-01-15T23:37:00.000+08:00

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=22474

I've always been a bit of an admirer of Sylvester Stallone. Suffered from Bell's Palsy, which affects the facial muscles and basically causes at least partial paralysis of the face. Father at 50. Played truant from the Vietnam War somewhere in Europe. Man behind Rocky and (urg urg) Rambo. Blazed the trail for Arnie and a whole generation of B-grade on-screen tough guys like Seagal and Norris and that quintessential Caucasian guy - Lundberg or Lundgren or something. Yeah.

But I never knew this guy was born Catholic. In fact I never thought of Rocky, Rambo Roman (Catholic) and Religion in the same sentence.

So this article came as a real eye-opener to me. I have extracted some bits of it for you, dear reader, to taste:-

"Stallone's shift back to church started when his daughter Sophia was "born sick," Stallone said in a Dec. 7 telephone interview from Dallas to promote his new movie, "Rocky Balboa."

In November 1996, at age 2 months, Sophia underwent open-heart surgery at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center.

The operation went well, and Sophia, now 10, is doing "great," Stallone said. "She's the No. 1 athlete in her class."

Stallone tried to find the words to describe what brought about his self-imposed exile from Catholicism.

"I don't know. Life," he said. "Your career is going, you're not communicating with your family."

The weight of celebrity was "very heavy," he added. "I didn't have any strong foundation behind me of people that would keep my feet on the ground. I was extremely seduced by the newfound freedom."

"When I got married everything changed," he said. "When my daughter was born sick, and I realized I really needed some help here, I started putting everything in God's hands, his omnipotence, his all-forgivingness."

If you're rolling your eyes at the prospect of a 60-year-old Stallone playing an aging boxer, that's OK with him.

"I actually embrace that, and the rolling of their eyes (is) a 100 percent natural valid reaction. I rolled my eyes when I thought of it," Stallone said. "You can't judge anything until you see it. When you see the film, it's about actually being able to listen to your heart and not so much your mind, following the guidance of someone much more powerful than you: Jesus.

"In 'Rocky I,' the first person we saw was Jesus," he said, referring to an opening scene of the boxing club where there is a big mural of Jesus on a back wall."

Full article: click on the link above.

LMT

Electronic Judiciary system launched

2007-01-11T23:43:00.000+08:00

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/1/11/nation/20070111191206&sec=nation

I remember a certain system called LAWNET. It was launched in Malaysia around maybe one or two years before Singapore launched its own Lawnet. The Malaysian Lawnet featured a search engine called EXCALIBUR. I organised talks on this for the Bar, of which I was then a member. Speakers were invited from Lawnet. Subscribers were welcomed. Proclamations from hilltops were proudly made that the system was way ahead of what any of Malaysia's neighbours had. Since basically all of Malaysia's neighbours had nothing close to Malaysia where government IT initiatives were concerned, save and except for the Little Red Dot down south, such proclamations had to be read as a taunt to Singapore.

Then the system died. And it remained quiet for many years before being re-launched - in a very limited form, lacking any search capacity whatsoever and featuring only legislation (no case law, commentary, digest or any other sources of law or value-add for lawyers).

Lawnet was (and still is) a project of a government owned company - Percetakan Nasional Malaysia Berhad or PNMB. This is the official government printers, "privatised" and hence a "private" entity, even if government-owned.

Now, Singapore's very own Crimson Logic (another "private" company, owned and run basically by the Singapore government) has had Lawnet for many years, and it features integrated law reports, digests, commentaries, scholarly articles, and legislation resources - all of which are searchable any number of ways.

About the only advantage Malaysia's Lawnet has over Singapore's Lawnet is that Malaysia's may be somewhat cheaper to subscribe to. And even on this point I am not very sure, since I have not enquired recently and Singapore is always looking at keeping costs down while for Malaysia costs can only go up (to the tune of some RM30 million bucks...).

Well. Good luck, "Malaysia". Boleh. U gonna need it.

LMT.

"PUTRAJAYA: After numerous delays, the initial phase of the Electronic Judiciary (E-Judiciary) system has been launched.

There will be smoother court processes to reduce the acute backlog of cases, numbering over 8,000.

Case Management System (CMS), Court Recording and Transcription System (CRT), and Common IT Infrastructure (CIT) are among the functions to be implemented in 11 courts involved in a pilot project in Kuala Lumpur and here.

The project, which began in Sept 2004,cost over RM27mil.

The system, which will enable Internet registration of cases and easy access to court records and past cases, will be eventually extended to the 410 courts nationwide.

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, who presided over a symbolic ceremony to signify the completion of the systemsaid the "Malaysian-made" system was more comprehensive than the electronic system in the US, UK, Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

"It would be good if this Malaysian product can be extended to other countries which do not have a system of their own," he told reporters on Thursday."

PAC: Get rid of 'agents' for NS transport service

2007-01-10T00:55:00.000+08:00

http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=16595

This is an example of what goes wrong when you allow a massive Ali Baba mentality to take root. It's been a real disease for decades in Malaysia - the government does not do the simplest thing by open tender, but instead hands all contracts out to people whose kulit is of a particular colour, and whose religion is of a certain type, and then those with the right kulit subcontract down the line to others with the right kulit , with the final subcontractor (the one who actually does the work) being not only of the wrong kulit but also the wrong religion, language and culture. For instance, that last subcontractor will actually know what he's doing, and be a hardworking fella who understands that you actually require technical skills and cost-control savvy to survive in a hard business world, whereas all the others above him have become experts at taking commissions and calling themselves great businessmen.

So now it has come down to bus services getting all mucked up because - basically - some commissions got stuck somewhere - or the commission-getters took the payments and forgot to actually get the bus drivers. O man, this is rich. Malaysia Boleh - semua pun boleh.

LMT

This is going to Kill MAS?

2007-01-04T22:16:00.000+08:00

Lately I've been hearing horror stories about MAS, in particular its standard of service. Seems that morale is very low, and employees are merely going through the motions. Was it like this before the sale of MAS to a certain (now former) cellphone tycoon a decade ago? I cannot remember, so it probably was not (I would remember bad service, not good service - that, I would take for granted).

Well, this is not going to make the folks at MAS jump for joy - it might make a few jump ship, or jump plane, at any rate jump airline, but if you owned shares in MAS you wouldn't be looking to add to your holdings right now.

For a first, I'm going to do both the link and the entire article - talk about unnecessary infringements of copyright - however, the source is named (BERNAMA):

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news_business.php?id=239622

"Business
January 04, 2007 21:21 PM
Malaysian Aviation Industry Takes A Quantum Leap
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian aviation industry is taking a quantum leap following the government's vision of making the country a regional hub, when it gave Fly Asian Express (FAX) the nod to divert from its normal domestic routes to offer budget long-haul services to Asia, Australia and Europe.

FAX is 50 per cent owned by AirAsia Bhd chief executive officer, Datuk Tony Fernandes, while the other two shareholders -- Kamarudin and Raja Mohd Azmi -- owned 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. It operates a rural air services in Sabah and Sarawak since Aug 1, 2006.

The move augurs well for Visit Malaysia Year 2007 in attracting more tourists, further boost the tourism industry and will have a spin-off effects on the economy.

It would also enable locals to travel abroad at much cheaper rates.

"Such efforts would promote travelling both inbound and outbound," said AmResearch Sdn Bhd head of research, Gan Kim Khoon.

Being the first business model of a budget long-haul service itself gives a sense of pride to the country as well as for operators, FAX and AirAsia Bhd.

However, for some it came as a surprise.

"It is a surprise. I feel a bit peculiar that AirAsia or FAX would depart from their original point-to-point destinations and test flights that are more than 3.5 hours," said Standard&Poors Equity Research airline analysts, Shukor Yusof.

FAX, together with Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup, the parent company of Britain's easyJet, is expected to announce tomorrow plans to offer long-haul low-cost services to the three continents.

Shukor said the market for long-haul flights was different from low-cost models or structures which were currently used by AirAsia and other low-cost carriers (LCCs) in the region.

"It really depends on what FAX or AirAsia hopes to achieve in the new venture because they have to price it differently. But then again pricing alone is not the only factor in the business," he said.

He said a passenger's decision to fly is not purely based on pricing alone but a combination of factors including connectivity, services and route selection.

"Hence, the model would be flawed if the company decides to design the long-haul budget business based on pricing structure alone.

"The model will be flawed if it is going to be based on pricing alone as long-haul flights need certain number of business class passengers who are able to pay more compared with casual travellers or backpackers.

"You got to fill your flights everyday. If you don't have enough people using your aircraft to go abroad, long distance flying becomes insignificant and your cost will rise and margins eroded," he said.

Asked on the impact on the aviation industry in Malaysia given that this would be the longest LCC route, Shukor said there would not be much in the near future.

He said this could very well serve the company and country in the long run.

Reports, quoting sources, said if the FAX-easyJet-Virgin alliance decides to fly to London as well, they could also use the Luton airport as a hub because Virgin already operates a rail link from there to central London.

The alliance would also give Virgin and easyJet an access to Kuala Lumpur's LCC terminal, the gateway to a dream Asian hub for their Europe to Australia routes.

Shukor was optimistic this local venture could be successful if there was a bigger market for such services.

Asked on Malaysia's aim to become the aviation hub for the region, both Shukor and Gan agreed there was a possibility of it being realised.

Both believed it was important to have substantial inter-connectivity and bigger volume of airlines flying in and out of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA).

"Arguably, Malaysia does not really have prominent inter-connectivity, which is a fact," said Gan.

"But should FAX pull off this feat, it would entice more airlines to touch base with KLIA," said Shukor.

On a more personal note, he said, this was the beginning of an even more adventurous journey for Fernandes and company.

"He has proven pundits wrong when he started AirAsia, which is currently the most successful and profitable low-cost airline in the region," he said."
-- BERNAMA

Gift Laptops from Microsoft

2007-01-04T22:01:00.000+08:00

Gift laptops from Microsoft ignite 'blogosphere' controversy

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/249835/1/.html

Darn, and I didn't get one ! :-))

LMT

Back from Holiday: Just Discovered Picasa Web Albums

2007-01-03T22:39:00.000+08:00

Ok, ok, so I'm a little slow on the technology uptake. But I've finally found a web album site I can call home, and I've set up shop on the Internet where photographs are concerned.

Right now my photos are private so strangers won't see anything.

To readers - go try Picasa Web Albums now, as long as you have a broadband connection you'll love it. More good stuff from the fellows who "Do No Evil" is always going to be welcome!

LMT.

Genting Gets the Singapore I.R. - Smart Political Move

2006-12-09T14:11:00.000+08:00

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/246100/1/.html

Oh I'm sure Genting got the Sentosa IR on merit, everything in its proposal having been tried, tested and nothing too weird, but the political benefits couldn't have hurt.

All along I'd been saying in face-to-face though not online that Kerzner's "robotic fish" would be too... robotic... heh, and Eighth Wonder's Harry's Island was just too "tacky"; not to mention too kiss-a&*@ - given that Lee Kuan Yew is also known as Harry Lee. Lots of Singaporeans must have winced at the obvious sucker-u**er connotations of the name.

But the clincher - I speculate - and this this is never admitted in the official grounds of decision - is that a failure to award to Genting would have resulted in intense, totally unfriendly and uncertain competition with the region's most established (by far) resorts operator. Genting's operations in Australia (Perth - Burswood), the Phillipines and finally in Malaysia where the casino is a prosperous national landmark in a majority-Muslim country clearly viewable from Kuala Lumpur (more than a hundred kilometres away) - on a good day - gave it a location-specific performance record nobody else could match, least of all the angmolang from Las Vegas.

Giving it to Genting totally killed the idea of a Universal theme park in Southern Johor (in consideration since 1998, when Renong still ran Nusajaya), co-opted Genting into making the resort work together with all its other operations and not in do-or-die competition against them, and was tightly worded enough to minimise any risk that Genting would try a typical Microsoft "buy-it-to-kill-it" strategy. As for political risk vis-a-vis Malaysia (always a difficult relationship where Singapore is concerned), Lim Goh Tong & Co owe nothing to the Malay-dominated government of Malaysia; Malaysia is fortunate to have received what it did (and is, to receive what it still does) by way of tax revenues and other tourism-related benefits from the Genting group and if Goh Tong had to he'd leave Malaysia with his whole family and business in a flash, say, if PAS came to power in the Federal government.

All in, the correct decision to make, which is nothing less than what I would expect of the world's best civil service.

LMT

2006-12-02T14:21:00.000+08:00

TODAY'S EDITORIAL
November 29, 2006

Defenders of the six outraged imams removed from a Minneapolis flight last week want people to think that airline officials overreacted by removing them from the plane -- that all the imams were doing was trying to pray. But listen to what they did. It wasn't just praying.
The imams left their assigned seats shortly before takeoff in violation of the rules -- and then formed the same seating pattern that al Qaeda uses to test in-flight security. They switched "to a pattern associated with the September 11 terrorist attacks and also found in probes of U.S. security since the attacks -- two in the front row first-class, two in the middle of the plane on the exit aisle and two in the rear of the cabin," Audrey Hudson reported in yesterday's editions of The Washington Times. In the course of this episode they prayed loudly -- this is the part the imams are now focusing on -- shouting in voices that even the gate agents outside the plane heard. But the praying isn't the issue.
The provocative seat-switching is. Now, there's a chance that it wasn't a deliberately provocative act. There's also a chance that pigs might fly, or that beer might fall from the heavens. We've never heard of a Muslim religious tenet that requires worshippers to occupy the entry and exit routes of an airliner. That's because there isn't any.
Was this an orchestrated ploy to intimidate airlines -- to exploit American civil-rights law? We can't peer inside the hearts and minds of these six men. But considering the details unearthed this week, that's where the evidence points.
To hear these imams' defenders, you would think that the freedom to pray is the issue. Here's Mohammed Abu Hannoud of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country's largest Islamic advocacy group: "I think we should be smart enough to distinguish between peaceful Muslims and terrorists."
The imams should be smart enough -- we certainly think that they are smart enough -- to know that if they engage in seating maneuvers that mimic al Qaeda's, they will be under immediate suspicion and will be removed from the airplane.
There is no civil right to disobey airline seating rules, occupy the exits and entries of an airplane and shout loudly. Not for Muslims or Christians or anyone else.

OK OK I know : infringement of copyright here. Material reproduced without any permission whatsoever from the Washington Times. Lack of a profit (or a profit motive) and clear attribution are not a carte blanche to infringe. But I just couldn't resist. If you want to, visit the Washington Times yourself for more.

LMT

2006-11-30T18:18:00.000+08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061121/ts_nm/religion_iran_azerbaijan_dc_1

This is the reason for my extreme displeasure. Whatever happened to Islam being a religion of peace and tolerance? The clerics - the ones who (one would hope) would be the best equipped to reply in a rational manner - word for word, point for point, intellectual to intellectual, concept to concept, fact for fact - have instead called for death.

All this fellow did, like Salman Rushdie, was to write. He did not kill or incite anyone to kill anyone, Muslim or otherwise. But his detractors haven't bothered to meet him on the battleground of ideas; instead, they have decided that he should be silenced with extreme prejudice.

This makes me wonder: perhaps they want him killed because their own ideas are intellectually and morally bankrupt, perhaps his views are more valid than theirs, and they know that they cannot prove otherwise. Therefore their reaction is to kill him, so as to preserve their own monopoly on spiritual knowledge and prevent any better view from gaining the upper hand. A sort of "If you can't beat him, then kill him" approach.

I wonder when they'll issue a fatwa against me?

LMT

The Pope's Visit to Turkey

2006-11-29T00:47:00.000+08:00

Pope Benedict XVI is visiting Turkey. Today. Or, well, yesterday, since it is already 1am local time.

This is going to be interesting to watch.

The Pope will fight for the rights of religious minorities in Muslim countries.

He will confront Muslim thinkers about that arm of their religion that genuinely believes that violence against non-believers (and of course, for this particular arm the category of "non-believers" is very wide) is sanctioned by God.

He may attempt a closer relationship (a reconciliation?) between the Greek and Latin Churches, a schism which predates the Protestant Reformation.

I for one am happy to see a Pope who doesn't mince his words, doesn't toe the politically correct line, and who says what needs to be said.

Where fighting for minority rights is concerned, he is not advocating some fresh Crusade, nor does he support religious bigotry. Instead, he is simply being honest about the experience that Christians and other non-Muslims have living in modern-day Muslim-majority countries (we are not talking history here, just modern-day reality). He is asking the Muslim majority-countries for the kind of treatment towards their non-Muslim minorities that Muslims in the minority in the secular West have received and come to take for granted, nay, demand, from their host governments. He is not afraid to annoy and offend, he is only concerned to speak the truth. That's the way it should be.

Where violence by Muslims who explicitly justify their actions by reference to their God is concerned, the Pope, I hope, will be asking some very hard questions of the "Ulama" (term used very loosely here) who wrote that letter explaining the Islamic position to him after he made his now famous (or notorious, of course, depending on your point of view) speech at Regensburg. Why is it that such a significant number of Muslims - perhaps a majority of the total "Umah" in some countries - do NOT behave as might be expected if, as the Muslim scholars claimed, Islam is essentially a peaceful and tolerant religion? Why did these Muslims - followers of a peace-loving religion, it is claimed - feel entitled to commit murder, arson, and vandalism in the name of protecting the "dignity" of their religion, when all that the Pope did was to make a speech in a faraway land where a majority of the population are no longer really Christian, nor anti-Muslim? Did Christians burn their mosques, kill their women and children, destroy their livelihoods on the basis and as a consequence of the Regensburg address?

And finally - on the issue of reconciliation with the Greeks - it is good that the various denominations are finding common ground, as there are bigger fish to fry. It is time for Christians of all stripes, pre- and post- Reformation, to unite and confront the Islamic extremist - both the out-in-the-open Al Qaeda/Taliban variety and the more insidious "quiet Islamist" attempting to slowly drive currently secular countries such as Malaysia into becoming "Islamic" kingdoms or republics. It is time to "fight the good fight" - the Christian JIHAD - by which I mean "STRUGGLE, NOT WAR" which may be "NON-VIOLENT as well as violent" - yep, I can borrow from the Muslim lexicon as well as anyone - to show that non-Muslims are not, for the sake of political correctness, going to back down in the face of increasingly arrogant and unreasonable demands from their Muslim compatriots.

LMT

New Line Cinema ("The Lord of the Rings") releases "The Nativity". Read all about it here...

2006-11-29T00:30:00.000+08:00

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=22127

By "here", of course, I mean the above link. It's an article about the genesis of the movie. Here's an extract, to show you the tone or style of the article; Christian readers will agree that there really is something for everyone in this show...

"Genesis of a script

“The Nativity Story” was written by Mike Rich, a former radio news announcer in Portland, Ore. His previous medium-budget films, “Finding Forrester” (2000), “The Rookie” (2002) and “Radio” (2003), had all done well at the box office, but Rich wanted to move outside the sports genre for his next feature. “As a screenwriter, I love stories about ordinary people who do extraordinary things; this is my consistent theme as a cinematic storyteller. And I had always wanted to write ‘The Nativity Story,’ which is about ordinary people who did extraordinary things,” he told me in an interview.

In December 2004, both Newsweek and Time ran cover articles about Christ’s birth. This sparked Rich’s interest in taking a different approach to the Christmas story. Early in 2005, his father, Jack, passed away at the age of 67. This event, said Rich, made him feel that he could take on a subject of such magnitude “to write more spiritually about things that matter, because my father was always a strong supporter of my writing and the stories I was trying to tell. He was a great father, who held a very special place in his heart for the Christmas season.”

Rich belongs to the Southwest Bible Church near Portland. His wife, Grace, and their three children, Jessica, Caitlan and Michael, are Catholics and active members of St. Cecilia Parish in Beaverton, Ore.

When Rich began researching his topic, he knew that the primary source material was very limited, mostly chapters 1 and 2 of the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Over the 11 months he prepared to write the script, what he calls the “nuts and bolts” phase of screenwriting, he consulted the works of Jewish scholars, as well as books by Raymond Brown (Birth of the Messiah), Peter Richardson (Herod: King of the Jews and Friend of the Romans) and John Meier (A Marginal Jew), all Catholic biblical scholars.

“I felt a little trepidation as I approached the actual writing,” Rich admitted. “If I kept only to the gospels, I would have a 20-minute movie. So I decided to tell the story of Mary’s journey from the perspective of character. I realized it would take some speculation and visualization to do this, and at the same time I was committed to staying completely true to the story and faithful to its tone.”

“I wanted to write during the Advent season so I could be immersed in its spirit,” Rich said. “Shortly after Thanksgiving in 2005, I made my way through my home office – there is barely a path to get from the door to my desk because it is surrounded with research and junk,” he said with a laugh – “with a sense of peace and purpose. This is not always the case, because scripts are difficult to write. But I began each day by playing Amy Grant’s song ‘Breath of Heaven,’ what she calls ‘Mary’s Song,’ about Mary contemplating the wondrous thing that had happened to her. I also surrounded myself with figurines from the crèche to visualize what I wanted to write.”

Rich typically writes no more than five hours a day. He spends the rest of the day formulating the next day’s scenes. He takes a very disciplined approach to writing. Many people are surprised to learn that most screenwriters write no more than four pages a day – four minutes in film time. A two-hour movie is based on a 120-page script."

Readers will find the background to the movie fascinating - I hadn't heard anyone describe herself as a "Texas Presbyterian" before (Catherine Hardwicke, the director); Keisha Castle-Hughes, who plays Mary, is pregnant at the age of 16 and unmarried. She claims she is "free" but her "grandparents are Catholic". The only American actor in the movie is Oscar Isaac, who plays "the most silent man in sacred scripture" - Joseph, the husband of Mary, (NOT he of Arimathea) a.k.a. Jesus' "father".

Nativity plays are common in Catholic (and some other denominations') Christmas celebrations. "New Evangelicals" in particular, might want to google for further information on Nativity plays before watching the movie.

LMT

Kidnap of 150 at Baghdad institution

2006-11-14T21:58:00.000+08:00

http://f332.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.rand=fneqh61op28e6
http://article.wn.com/view/2006/10/01/Gunmen_Kidnap_26_Workers_in_Baghdad_s/

This must be the saddest thing. Academics - who could be more harmless? And yet, this war is all about ideas. The ideas of an unenlightened, Dark Ages mentality attempting to return the entire Arab and Muslim (including sizable non-Muslim population - but since they are something less than human it's ok to ignore them) world to some mythical Golden Age that never existed, against the ideas of modern day 20th Century nations (including sizable - yes, very sizable - non-Anglo-Saxon, non-Caucasian populations. I don't see your average ethnic Tamil, Japanese or Chinese looking very "Whitey", do you?

Removal from the human gene pool in a violent, permanent and highly prejudicial manner appears now to be the only practical solution for the kidnappers and their ilk, once caught. We can hope for neuron-synapse-brain-wave-altering technology, but the current state of the art in this area just isn't there yet.

LMT.

ATTENTION ALL SNOBS: good wine comes cheap

2006-11-06T23:02:00.000+08:00

This is just here to rub the noses in. Aristocratic, well-bred noses, that is. Every once in a while I do obtain some satisfaction out of puncturing balloons.

BBC News Online is on the web at bbc.co.uk/news
Sun, 5 November, 2006, 14:07 GMT Supermarket fizz sparkles in test Some supermarket own-brand champagnes are as good or better than some of the more well-known names, according to food critic Egon Ronay. He hailed as "excellent" three bottles of supermarket bubbly priced between £14 and £18 a bottle. The judgement on the drinks - one from Marks and Spencer and two from Sainsbury's - comes as UK supermarkets grab a bigger slice of the market. They took 64% of all sales in the year to October, from 59% a year ago. 'Wonderful thing' After trying 30 different types of supermarket champagne, Mr Ronay said that the range and quality was "a revelation". "It would certainly be a mistake to buy the well-known brands just because of the name on the label when some of the supermarket champagnes stand up to them very well," he said. His favourites were M&S Champagne de St Gall Premier Cru Brut, Sainsbury's Vintage 1999 Blanc de Blancs Brut and Sainsbury's Blanc de Noirs Brut. "Those which were in the first three are as good or better than some of the best," Mr Ronay said. "Psychologically, because they are lower in price, people may think they are not as good - which would be a mistake. "It is a wonderful thing that some of these excellent champagnes cost so little." According to research firm AC Nielsen, UK customers spent £301.64m on champagne from shops, supermarkets and off-licences over the past year. Of that amount, £192.73m was spent in the major supermarkets and the likes of M&S and Lidl. BBC News Online is on the web at bbc.co.uk/news

There is No Compulsion in Religion. Amen.

2006-11-06T22:52:00.000+08:00

.... and so, it is ok to create a reasonable apprehension of violence to Indian children about to take their first Holy Communion. I guess we should all look on the bright side: the police, for once, were on the side of the good guys, the ones with any sense at all in this, and the Pious, God-fearing, Self Righteous, "We-Shall-Be- Saved-and-You-Shall-Burn" Muslim Heroes of Ipoh attempting to save their fellow co-religionists from Apostasy by, if necessary, violence, and against those co-religionists' free will to boot, were taught a lesson in humility, not to mention actually getting their basic facts right.

The Star Online: Print Edition < Previous | Home | Print Edition | Next > Monday November 6, 2006 Cops to probe baptism SMS By CHAN LI LEEN IPOH: The police are investigating a rumour which spread like wildfire through SMS, claiming that a group of Muslims will be baptised at a church here. As a result, a large crowd gathered at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in Silibin from 7.30am yesterday to protest against the alleged baptism only to find out that it was actually the first Holy Communion for 98 Indian children. State police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Aziz Bulat said the police would verify how the SMS had started. “There could be some people out there who have a personal agenda to create disharmony among the races,” he said when met at the church. DCP Aziz said the police had also received the text message and had, therefore, placed the Federal Reserve Unit on standby since 7am. He advised the public to be wary of such messages. “Don't accept everything you read or hear as total truth,” he said, adding that he would call on all involved parties to help with the investigation. The protesters, who included members of opposition parties and non-governmental organisations, gathered for some four hours and refused to disperse initially despite warnings from the police. They finally started to leave at 11.20am after Deputy OCPD (II) Supt Lai Yong Heng issued a stern warning. Perak Religious Department director Datuk Jamry Sury, who was present to monitor the situation, said the department would also investigate the incident. “We will take action against the culprit,” he added. Perak Pusat Khidmat Islam secretary Mohd Nazri Sahad said he was there to check if there was any truth to the message. The police were still on standby at the church last night. Father Fabian Dicom, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Penang, which covers Perak, said the church was extremely concerned that a group of people had been sowing ill-will through rumours. “We are concerned as to how others have come to believe these rumours,” he added. He noted that the incident had also infringed on the church members' right to worship. “The Catholic Church has always believed that dialogue is the best platform to resolve issues and as such is extremely disappointed that there was no attempt whatsoever for dialogue,” he said. < Previous | Home | Print Edition | Next > Copyright 1995-2006 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd

Chinese NOT marginalized in Malaysia: and here's the proof

2006-11-06T22:47:00.000+08:00

Look carefully at the text in bold: So, err, when exactly is he coming back to Malaysia? Again?

The Star Online: Print Edition < Previous | Home | Print Edition | Next > Monday November 6, 2006 Malaysian wins Rhodes Scholarship MELBOURNE: A Malaysian student who teaches debating at an Islamic college here and performs stand-up comedy in his spare time, has won the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. Lee Hann Leng, a final year student at University of Melbourne who is pursuing double degrees in law and commerce, will go to Britain next year to start his PhD programme in Economic Geography at Oxford University. An outstanding student, keen sportsman and community volunteer, Lee, 25, was also a runner-up in the 2006 Campus Comedy State Final. At Oxford, the Malacca-born Lee will research geographical patterns of economic growth in China and the Asia-Pacific region. “China is very important to Australia and the Asia-Pacific region in general, so a greater understanding of economic changes and outlook in that country are really important. “On returning to Australia, I would like to work in foreign policy or maybe in politics. I'm hoping a few jokes along the way will help,” he quipped. On his off-campus work, Lee said: “I provide drama lessons and homework support for young people within the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association). “A lot of our students are recent migrants from the Horn of Africa. Their English skills are limited, so I think it is especially important that the system caters for their needs.” He also coaches students in debating at the East Preston Islamic College where there are many Malaysian students. Lee said he owed a lot to his parents Lee Song Wa and Lan Fong who were a great source of inspiration. The two-year Rhodes Scholarship is one of the most prestigious awards offered to students and selection is based on excellent academic, sporting and community service records. Past Australian Rhodes scholars include former prime minister Bob Hawke, former governor-general Sir Zelman Cowen and current Opposition Leader Kim Beazley. – Bernama < Previous | Home | Print Edition | Next > Copyright 1995-2006 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd

Victor Davis Hanson, and veiled Muslim women in Britain

2006-10-31T19:55:00.000+08:00

http://www.victorhanson.com/

Readers should go to the above.

The book is Culture and Carnage by Victor Davis Hanson. Let's just say it is not politically correct. But brutally honest. Moderate, rational Muslims should take a look. And those of us who are thinking of giving the radical Muslim an even break should seriously consider breaking a few radical Muslim bones in defence of the freedoms all of us including moderate Muslims seem to take for granted.

Veiled Muslim Women in Britain.

I could not believe the recent controversy in the British media over veiled Muslim women. The short of it is, if you want to wear the veil, in all locations at all times and under all circumstances, go back to wherever obviously and radically less enlightened place it is you came from. Wearing the veil gives you a psychological advantage; you can see me, all of me, my body language and facial expressions all in, whereas depending on the precise shape or form of your full-length clothing I will have difficulty deciphering your body language and it will be impossible to decipher your face (it will be covered). Religion is irrelevant here. You are gaining an advantage that could be critical in some situations of social interaction. To deny it is to deny plain and simple, observable fact.

Does the average veiled Muslim woman in Europe, railing against various European politicians' recent pronouncements on the issue, realise that the Malaysian civil service absolutely bans its civil servants from wearing veils in the performance of duties? And that all Malaysians, good Muslim women included, carry identity cards that - in the case of Muslim women - contain the photograph unveiled of the woman whose identity is stated on the card?

It is a silly argument to use labels such as insensitive, racist or over-simplification. **Totally** stupid if you ask me. Time to wake up to reality. You are living in Britain. One of the world's greatest countries. You could be living in Somalia. Count your blessings.

LMT

The Old Man Must Learn to Let Go

2006-10-31T00:38:00.000+08:00

The Old Man has to learn that his time is past. When he was PM he created a culture of fear. Operation Lallang was his doing. Anwar's sodomy trial and related actions were his doing. Twas he who sacked Tun Salleh Abbas. So Malaysia is no less an oppressed society now than when he was at the helm.

The Old Man can be praised for doing great things. I won't go through the list of his achievements here. No space. Suffice to say that when Al Gore came to KL and insulted the entire nation at a dinner at which he was the guest of honour and we were the host, I felt sufficiently annoyed to register an email address in the Old Man's name for myself and to circulate a non-anonymous email to all my friends at that time, denouncing Al Gore's lack of any grasp whatsoever of the subject matter of his speech. I thought it was a defining moment of the Old Man's career when, irregardless of who he may have annoyed, the entire nation stepped back and gave him its full backing against what was an obviously unwarranted attack by a rude, arrogant guest. Hopefully the guest has learned something in the intervening decade. He has, after all lost a US Presidential election in the meantime.

Anyway, back to the core of this post: whatever great things the Old Man did, his time is past. He did it to himself; no one else. So to now try to do a Jesus or a Lazarus (come back from the political dead) is downright bad taste. Let go. Your time is over, Old Man. You retired. It was your choice. Now stay retired so the rest of us can get on with our lives.

LMT.

Freedom of Speech

2006-10-05T21:05:00.001+08:00

I have always thought that it is important not to give in to bullies.

When someone wants to shut off all debate on an issue because of some perceived or alleged (meaning it has not actually happened) threat to society's general wellbeing, I get a little worried. I cannot help but suspect that the rush to shut the debate down before it has even begun is happening not so much because of any threat to society but because of a threat to the establishment and the established order, and vested interests who do not wish things to change - not for any high moral reason, but because they are gaining too much from the status quo.

IN other words, killing debate in many instances serves the bullies who are in power and who know that their position cannot be defended by rational argument. Rather than be proven wrong on the level playing field of rational debate, they decide to strong-arm a solution from a position of physical strength.

In recent history this has included certain American politicians trying to employ the war on terror as a flag to kill off proper and important debate on the limitations to individual freedoms; and the Hindu religious chauvinists mentioned in this article from the Sun,Malaysia, below.

LMT.

--- Article Information ---
This article was printed from Welcome to Sun2Surf
Article's URL: http://www.sun2surf.com/article.cfm?id=15714
---------------------------

Preserve the right to free expression
By: Jacqueline Ann Surin (Thu, 05 Oct 2006)

The UK's Daily Telegraph recently ran an article headlined "Hindus threaten cinemas over film exposing plight of India's 'City of Widows'."

The film is Indian-born director Deepa Mehta's Water which highlights the cruel Hindu tradition of treating widows as social outcasts. According to this tradition, it is a widow's bad karma that caused her husband's demise.

As a result, many of India's 40 million widows are cast out of family and society, and have to fend for themselves. They are forced to shave their heads and dress in white.

About 10,000 seek sanctuary in Vrindavan - the City of Widows - a holy town in northern India where they rely on charity. Those not fortunate enough are forced into prostitution and begging.

The film is being nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film, but it is not being nominated by India, but by Mehta's adopted homeland, Canada.

See, Mehta has received death threats for her film and had to finish making it abroad. Protesting mobs attacked her film set and no cinema in India will show her film for fear of reprisals.

Hindu nationalist groups have accused the filmmaker of "insulting" Hindu culture, and of a "conspiracy to tarnish India's image".

The Daily Telegraph quotes World Hindu Council national convenor Prakash Sharma as declaring, "We will not tolerate a screening under any circumstances. We will attack cinemas if necessary."

The furore over Mehta and her film in India should resonate in Malaysia.

Sure, the context and actors may be different, but it wasn't too long ago when protesting mobs tried to prevent two Article 11 forums on Malaysians' constitutional rights from proceeding. Unfortunately, with the government ban on any other Article 11 forum, the use of threats and mob rule has proven highly effective in Malaysia.

And, wasn't it just last month that death threats against Muslim lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar circulated on the Internet, purportedly in the name of defending Islam - a great religion that seeks peace and justice, and that has a rich tradition of diversity and consultation.

Groups like Sisters in Islam and public intellectuals such as Farish Noor, who speak out against unjust practices committed in the name of religion, are also constantly accused of "belittling" and "insulting" Islam. They, too, have been labelled and threatened in attempts to suppress and silence.

Freedom of expression is a necessary prerequisite of any thinking, thriving democracy. Freedom of expression ensures that different voices, representing a plurality of interests that is inevitable in any human society, have the space to be heard and the opportunity to engage in public discourse.

It ensures that injustices such as the inhumane ostracisation of Hindu widows can be highlighted and addressed, rather than left to perpetuate and fester.

We know that it's not just in religion that strong threats against freedom of expression exist in Malaysia.

Movies, most recently Lelaki Komunis Terakhir, numerous publications and theatre performances are repeatedly and arbitrarily banned or censored in Malaysia.

Academics and students, meanwhile, are effectively prevented from speaking up publicly, for example, through the media, by the Universities and University Colleges Act and the Aku Janji pledge.

Those who would want to silence the people who speak out against the wrongs in our society - be they cultural or religious practices or in institutions like universities - are asking us to acquiesce to ongoing injustices.

You can usually tell when that happens from the arguments that they use, whether they be in India, Malaysia or any other part of the world.

To speak out is to "tarnish", "insult", "attack", "disparage" or "undermine" the sanctity of a religion, an institution, "Asian values" or whatever notion of social harmony is being promoted.

We would all do well to remember these arguments. It's usually an effective test to discern if freedom of expression is being suppressed to our collective detriment.

LAST month, to commemorate International Right to Know Day on Sept 28, the Freedom of Information (FOI) Coalition launched a campaign to advocate for a FOI Act in Malaysia.

The call for "No More Secrets" is long overdue, and the 10 principles for the FOI campaign (see www.cijmalaysia.org/info_cafe) are crucial and commendable.

What was highly disappointing, however, was the poor turnout at the launch.

Although the FOI Coalition comprises more than 32 organisations, none of their representatives, except for the Centre for Independent Journalism, turned up.

No political party representative or MP turned up either, despite being invited. In fact, only 10 people turned up, two of whom were foreigners.

"People must like their secrets very much," one foreign observer remarked.

It was hard to dispute that especially since coalition members themselves could not be present to show support for a campaign they want the public to embrace.

Jacqueline Ann Surin believes that you cannot be neutral on a moving train. She is an assistant news editor at theSun. Comments: feedback@thesundaily.com

--- end ---

What Goh Chok Tong said in response to Mahathir

2006-09-28T22:00:00.000+08:00

For those who may be wondering what it was Goh said exactly (I referred to it in my last post):-

South China Morning Post
January 26, 2001
IAN STEWART in Kuala Lumpur

RELATED:
Meritocracy comes under attack
Book fuels mistrust of meritocracy

A NEW row between Malaysia and Singapore has underscored the racial tensions that have adversely affected relations between the Chinese-run island republic and its predominantly Malay neighbour since they became independent.

Singapore's Prime Minister, Goh Chok Tong, has angered Malaysian leaders by saying that Malays in his country do better educationally on a percentage basis than Malays in Malaysia, where they are aided by affirmative action programmes.

He also said a higher percentage of Singapore Malays held administrative and managerial positions, although Malaysia proportionately had more Malay doctors, lawyers and millionaires.

Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, head of the youth wing of the United Malays National Organisation (Umno), the dominant government party, accused the Singapore leader of "undermining, intentionally or otherwise" the achievements of Malays in Malaysia.

Other Umno officials said it was unfair to compare Malays in Singapore with Malaysian Malays because the island republic was small and had a higher per capita income than Malaysia.

Mr Goh's assertion, which was based on a government survey, goes to the heart of the different political ideologies of Singapore, which espouses meritocracy, and Malaysia, which rejects it.

He was responding to charges by Malays in both countries that their race was marginalised in Singapore.

Mr Goh said a book on the subject by a Singapore Malay writer "provided the excuse for Malaysian media interest in the fate of Malay Singaporeans".

Malaysian commentators said the book, Singapore Dilemma, by Lily Zubaidah Rahim, shattered the myth of meritocracy and vindicated Kuala Lumpur's policy of giving special privileges to Malays.

Mr Goh said that in Singapore, where admission into universities and polytechnics was on the basis of merit, the Malay community had made significant improvements in the number of passes at all levels.

He said that last year, 25 per cent of the Singapore Malay workforce had upper secondary or higher qualifications. In 1998, the latest year for which Malaysian statistics were available, the equivalent figure for Malaysian Malays was 14 per cent. The figures for Malays holding administrative and managerial or professional and technical positions in Singapore and Malaysia were 23 per cent and 16 per cent.

The affirmative action issue has recently been a hot topic in Malaysia, with the Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, blasting members of a Chinese community group as "extremists" for suggesting Malay privileges be abolished. But he also has scolded Malays for not doing as well as Chinese in schools and universities.

Non Malays marginalised in Malaysia and Indonesia: why is this news now?

2006-09-28T21:22:00.000+08:00

Lee Kuan Yew's comments about Singapore having to adopt (in effect) a "kiasu" stance towards Malaysia and Indonesia because these 2 countries systematically marginalise their Chinese communities have - it seems - caused a real ruckus in Malaysia.

This comes hot on the heels of Badawi's son in law's obviously bigoted, ignorant, racist, politically opportunist and completely non-factual anti-Chinese comments, for which he has not apologised and shown absolutely no intention of apologising.

Malaysia has asked Singapore's high commissioner to offer an explanation for Lee Kuan Yew's comments (reported on Channel News Asia, tonight 28/9/06 at about 9.20pm). Malaysia has further stated that Lee's comments count as interference in Malaysia's affairs and could incite racial trouble. Malaysia's foreign minister has said he wants an apology.

I'm surprised.

Lee Kuan Yew's fight for a Malaysian Malaysia is why (among other things, admittedly) Singapore had to leave the Federation. Lee has for the past more than 4 decades that he has been active in politics strongly opposed the idea of affirmative action for the majority ethnic group in this region. He has never minced his words about Malay rights as the concept is understood in Malaysia. Why is he being called to apologise or explain now?

It is **precisely** because of this - what Lee referred to as systematic marginalisation - that so many of my relatives and secondary school and other childhood friends have declined to join the civil service, or even to stay in Malaysia, and opted instead to live and work overseas, principally in Singapore and Hongkong / China, with Australia and Canada/US/UK coming close behind.

Many English-educated Malaysian Chinese now have PR in Australia, Canada or some other country, as an escape route for in case things get really ugly in Malaysia. Why do our great beloved leaders think they feel so insecure in what is, like it or not, their own country, the land of their birth?

When you have fantastic bigots like Khairy spouting anti-Chinese comments without being properly penalised, what do you expect those who are observing you to think?

Heck, Mahathir has never minced his words about Singapore either, come to think of it. Singapore has never asked Mahathir to apologise for anything he said about, for instance, the Malays' position in Singapore, even when what he said was manifestly inaccurate. Remember Goh Chok Tong's speech in reply to allegations by Mahathir that the Malays had been marginalised in Singapore? Yep, Singapore had fewer Malay doctors and lawyers, Goh said, but on almost every other measure of material and vocational wellbeing the Malays in Singapore were better off than their compatriots in Malaysia. The fact that Malays in Singapore are on average richer than Malays in Malaysia and have full and satisfying careers - after 4 decades of independence - should have given our beloved leaders in the good ol' Malaysian hinterland pause for thought, but hey, these guys are, going by their appearances, not interested in thinking. They're interested in politics, which in Malaysia is of course a whole different thing from actual, rational, thinking (and announcing it).

I say Lee Kuan Yew was right to say what he did, that he should continue saying it, and that Malaysian leaders who demand some sort of apology should be shown their own past record of misdeeds and asked to apologise first. Say sorry for denying hardworking non-Malays their due in Malaysia. Say sorry for dispossessing many of them of a disproportionate share of their wealth, to squander (ie. mis-spend, NOT just spend per se) on the majority ethnic group. Say sorry for the various racist slurs made by top Malay politicians in the ruling coalition over time - starting with the late Dato Harun of Selangor, and ending with the not-so-late Khairy J. Say sorry for mismanagement on a massive scale, measured both temporally as well as materially. Say sorry for everything. Then Lee can offer an apology in return, for telling the truth - it hurts, so I'm sorry, but it's true, and for that there can be no apology.

LMT.

Offensive cartoon on Al Jazeera SAYS IT ALL

2006-09-20T22:05:00.000+08:00

This from the Al Jazeera website.

ERA OF THE NEW VATICAN- 17/09/2006
Shujaat

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

So, it appears that your friendly average Arab Muslim media rep is unwilling to make peace. Appears to me that even Al Jazeera is illiterate, and the entire staff of the Arab world's most popular Satellite TV station cannot comprehend the Pope's Regensburg address. Typical!

LMT.

Pope must NOT apologize, Part II

2006-09-20T21:17:00.000+08:00

So the intimidation, violence, and other forms of suppression of freedom of speech, life and liberty, continue. Such are conditions in majority Muslim communities for minority Christians. Sadly. Many Muslims are simply NOT interested in what the Pope actually said. They will read it their way no matter what is said or done. There is nothing we can do about it. We just stick to our line, and whether or not they choose to use their God-given brains to receive it is really entirely up to them.

Lawman.

Note: my own comments and asterisks added to the following:-

Catholic Palestinians downplay Muslim attacks on Christian churches
By Judith Sudilovsky
9/19/2006

Catholic News Service
JERUSALEM (CNS) – Christian Palestinians tried to downplay the significance of Muslim attacks on seven Christian churches in the West Bank and Gaza in protest of Pope Benedict XVI's remarks on Islam in Germany.

Just after the Sept. 16 shooting attack on St. John the Baptist Church in Nablus, West Bank, Melkite Father Youssef Saadeh, the parish priest, told a journalist Christians were no longer safe and would not be able to live in Nablus if the situation continued. The church's door was set afire in the attack.

However, in a Sept. 18 telephone interview, Father Saadeh made light of the situation, saying things were quiet, although it was impossible to know what would happen.

Father Saadeh skirted a question about fear that the attacks had instilled in the Christian community and instead pointed out that Muslim religious leaders and municipal leaders had visited Christian churches to signify solidarity.

No arrest had been made in connection with the attacks aimed at four Nablus churches, he said.

"Now we want to be strong and quiet," said Father Saadeh. "We don't know how it will be in the future, but like all people Muslims and Christians hope (the problems) are finished here."

His daughter, Rita Saadeh, who was at the church during the incident, was shaken up by the attacks and spoke out more strongly.

"When we saw the fire and smoke at the door we were afraid. The inside of the church is wood and we didn't have the key. We had no way to put out the fire," Saadeh, 33, said in a telephone interview. She described how the gunmen tried to kick down the door and ignited it with gasoline, then shot bullets into the church as she and her brother watched in terror.

She said she was not sure whether the violence had ended.

*** She added that the Muslim reaction was "very wrong" and carried out without having knowledge of what the pope actually said. ***

In an address Sept. 12 to scholars in Regensburg, Germany, Pope Benedict quoted a medieval text, a historical criticism of Islam, which he later said did not reflect his personal opinion.

*** "Why if the pope ... says this ... must we pay? We are angry at what has happened here. It is not clear until now what the pope said. He was comparing knowledge and faith in religion," she said. "If (Muslims) say anything about the church we don't do anything (to them.) They also say we are terrorists, but we never react in the same way." ***

She said she was more relaxed two days after the attack and was able to go to work, where Muslim colleagues tried to put her at ease and reassure her.

Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh condemned the attacks.

Church officials were careful in their wording about the incidents, and no official condemnation was issued against the attackers.

Christians make up less than 2 percent of the population of about 3 million in the Palestinian territories and generally talk of unity and brotherhood. However, privately some Christians complain about tensions between the two groups.

A group of Muslims also meant to attack Holy Family Catholic Church in Nablus, said the parish priest, Father Jalil Awwad, but mistook a nearby door as the church's entrance and threw firebombs at it instead. (o my goodness, these guys can't even pick the correct door to attack. Talk about dumb and dumber...)

Anglican and Greek Orthodox churches in Nablus also were attacked, as were Greek Orthodox churches in Gaza, and Tulkarm and Tubas in the West Bank. No attacks on churches were reported in Israel.

"It is not scary, they didn't hurt anybody; they did only damage to material things," said Father Awwad. "Nobody agrees with these actions, not even Muslims."

He said there has been more security around churches following the attacks.

Latin-rite Patriarch Michel Sabbah of Jerusalem, accompanied by Lutheran and Anglican bishops, attended a prayer service at a Nablus Anglican church Sept. 17.

In a Sept. 15 statement, the patriarch said Pope Benedict used the quote by Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologus to "explore the question of faith and the mind."

The pope's remarks were only partially quoted, Patriarch Sabbah added, and whoever brought the remarks to the attention of the Arabic press may have had the intention of bringing strife between the Muslim and Christian communities.

"Our reaction (to the comments) must be according to the concepts of the lecture (which) was only about faith and mind and not about Islam," he said.

In the statement Patriarch Sabbah expressed hope that the recent shock waves through Islamic communities would serve as a catalyst to put Christian-Muslim dialogue on a new track and would lead to greater understanding on both sides.

Father Majdi al-Siryani, director of the patriarchate schools, said area Christians were "not frightened ... even if a couple of incidents happened here or there."

"There are bad people and good people," he said. "The bad people are a very small minority. When we talk to our people we are not happy about it, and the large majority of Palestinian Muslims and Christians are not happy with what was said (or with) what the reaction has been."

"I know this is not what the pope meant. When he commits a mistake we (forgive) him. He is a human being after all. It happened but he was humble enough to apologize," said Father al-Siryani. "He won't be a politician. He will be a Christian and we will find a way to mend it."

He said several processions honoring Mary in largely Muslim villages Sept. 16-17 were not disturbed.

- - -

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Member of Catholic Press Association

What the Pope Actually Said

2006-09-20T00:36:00.000+08:00

For those of you who are wondering just what the Pope actually said and how, when and where he said it, the full text of the speech is here, republished without any permission whatsoever from the copyright holder:

APOSTOLIC JOURNEY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO MÜNCHEN, ALTÖTTING AND REGENSBURG
(SEPTEMBER 9-14, 2006)

MEETING WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES OF SCIENCE

LECTURE OF THE HOLY FATHER

Aula Magna of the University of Regensburg
Tuesday, 12 September 2006

Faith, Reason and the University
Memories and Reflections

Your Eminences, Your Magnificences, Your Excellencies,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a moving experience for me to be back again in the university and to be able once again to give a lecture at this podium. I think back to those years when, after a pleasant period at the Freisinger Hochschule, I began teaching at the University of Bonn. That was in 1959, in the days of the old university made up of ordinary professors. The various chairs had neither assistants nor secretaries, but in recompense there was much direct contact with students and in particular among the professors themselves. We would meet before and after lessons in the rooms of the teaching staff. There was a lively exchange with historians, philosophers, philologists and, naturally, between the two theological faculties. Once a semester there was a dies academicus, when professors from every faculty appeared before the students of the entire university, making possible a genuine experience of universitas - something that you too, Magnificent Rector, just mentioned - the experience, in other words, of the fact that despite our specializations which at times make it difficult to communicate with each other, we made up a whole, working in everything on the basis of a single rationality with its various aspects and sharing responsibility for the right use of reason - this reality became a lived experience. The university was also very proud of its two theological faculties. It was clear that, by inquiring about the reasonableness of faith, they too carried out a work which is necessarily part of the "whole" of the universitas scientiarum, even if not everyone could share the faith which theologians seek to correlate with reason as a whole. This profound sense of coherence within the universe of reason was not troubled, even when it was once reported that a colleague had said there was something odd about our university: it had two faculties devoted to something that did not exist: God. That even in the face of such radical scepticism it is still necessary and reasonable to raise the question of God through the use of reason, and to do so in the context of the tradition of the Christian faith: this, within the university as a whole, was accepted without question.
I was reminded of all this recently, when I read the edition by Professor Theodore Khoury (Münster) of part of the dialogue carried on - perhaps in 1391 in the winter barracks near Ankara - by the erudite Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an educated Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam, and the truth of both. It was presumably the emperor himself who set down this dialogue, during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402; and this would explain why his arguments are given in greater detail than those of his Persian interlocutor. The dialogue ranges widely over the structures of faith contained in the Bible and in the Qur'an, and deals especially with the image of God and of man, while necessarily returning repeatedly to the relationship between - as they were called - three "Laws" or "rules of life": the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Qur'an. It is not my intention to discuss this question in the present lecture; here I would like to discuss only one point - itself rather marginal to the dialogue as a whole - which, in the context of the issue of "faith and reason", I found interesting and which can serve as the starting-point for my reflections on this issue.

In the seventh conversation (διάλεξις - controversy) edited by Professor Khoury, the emperor touches on the theme of the holy war. The emperor must have known that surah 2, 256 reads: "There is no compulsion in religion". According to the experts, this is one of the suras of the early period, when Mohammed was still powerless and under threat. But naturally the emperor also knew the instructions, developed later and recorded in the Qur'an, concerning holy war. Without descending to details, such as the difference in treatment accorded to those who have the "Book" and the "infidels", he addresses his interlocutor with a startling brusqueness, a brusqueness which leaves us astounded, on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". The emperor, after having expressed himself so forcefully, goes on to explain in detail the reasons why spreading the faith through violence is something unreasonable. Violence is incompatible with the nature of God and the nature of the soul. "God", he says, "is not pleased by blood - and not acting reasonably (σὺν λόγω) is contrary to God's nature. Faith is born of the soul, not the body. Whoever would lead someone to faith needs the ability to speak well and to reason properly, without violence and threats... To convince a reasonable soul, one does not need a strong arm, or weapons of any kind, or any other means of threatening a person with death...".
The decisive statement in this argument against violent conversion is this: not to act in accordance with reason is contrary to God's nature. The editor, Theodore Khoury, observes: For the emperor, as a Byzantine shaped by Greek philosophy, this statement is self-evident. But for Muslim teaching, God is absolutely transcendent. His will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality. Here Khoury quotes a work of the noted French Islamist R. Arnaldez, who points out that Ibn Hazm went so far as to state that God is not bound even by his own word, and that nothing would oblige him to reveal the truth to us. Were it God's will, we would even have to practise idolatry.

At this point, as far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we are faced with an unavoidable dilemma. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God's nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true? I believe that here we can see the profound harmony between what is Greek in the best sense of the word and the biblical understanding of faith in God. Modifying the first verse of the Book of Genesis, the first verse of the whole Bible, John began the prologue of his Gospel with the words: "In the beginning was the λόγος". This is the very word used by the emperor: God acts, σὺν λόγω, with logos. Logos means both reason and word - a reason which is creative and capable of self-communication, precisely as reason. John thus spoke the final word on the biblical concept of God, and in this word all the often toilsome and tortuous threads of biblical faith find their culmination and synthesis. In the beginning was the logos, and the logos is God, says the Evangelist. The encounter between the Biblical message and Greek thought did not happen by chance. The vision of Saint Paul, who saw the roads to Asia barred and in a dream saw a Macedonian man plead with him: "Come over to Macedonia and help us!" (cf. Acts 16:6-10) - this vision can be interpreted as a "distillation" of the intrinsic necessity of a rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek inquiry.
In point of fact, this rapprochement had been going on for some time. The mysterious name of God, revealed from the burning bush, a name which separates this God from all other divinities with their many names and simply declares "I am", already presents a challenge to the notion of myth, to which Socrates' attempt to vanquish and transcend myth stands in close analogy. Within the Old Testament, the process which started at the burning bush came to new maturity at the time of the Exile, when the God of Israel, an Israel now deprived of its land and worship, was proclaimed as the God of heaven and earth and described in a simple formula which echoes the words uttered at the burning bush: "I am". This new understanding of God is accompanied by a kind of enlightenment, which finds stark expression in the mockery of gods who are merely the work of human hands (cf. Ps 115). Thus, despite the bitter conflict with those Hellenistic rulers who sought to accommodate it forcibly to the customs and idolatrous cult of the Greeks, biblical faith, in the Hellenistic period, encountered the best of Greek thought at a deep level, resulting in a mutual enrichment evident especially in the later wisdom literature. Today we know that the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced at Alexandria - the Septuagint - is more than a simple (and in that sense really less than satisfactory) translation of the Hebrew text: it is an independent textual witness and a distinct and important step in the history of revelation, one which brought about this encounter in a way that was decisive for the birth and spread of Christianity. A profound encounter of faith and reason is taking place here, an encounter between genuine enlightenment and religion. From the very heart of Christian faith and, at the same time, the heart of Greek thought now joined to faith, Manuel II was able to say: Not to act "with logos" is contrary to God's nature.

In all honesty, one must observe that in the late Middle Ages we find trends in theology which would sunder this synthesis between the Greek spirit and the Christian spirit. In contrast with the so-called intellectualism of Augustine and Thomas, there arose with Duns Scotus a voluntarism which, in its later developments, led to the claim that we can only know God's voluntas ordinata. Beyond this is the realm of God's freedom, in virtue of which he could have done the opposite of everything he has actually done. This gives rise to positions which clearly approach those of Ibn Hazm and might even lead to the image of a capricious God, who is not even bound to truth and goodness. God's transcendence and otherness are so exalted that our reason, our sense of the true and good, are no longer an authentic mirror of God, whose deepest possibilities remain eternally unattainable and hidden behind his actual decisions. As opposed to this, the faith of the Church has always insisted that between God and us, between his eternal Creator Spirit and our created reason there exists a real analogy, in which - as the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 stated - unlikeness remains infinitely greater than likeness, yet not to the point of abolishing analogy and its language. God does not become more divine when we push him away from us in a sheer, impenetrable voluntarism; rather, the truly divine God is the God who has revealed himself as logos and, as logos, has acted and continues to act lovingly on our behalf. Certainly, love, as Saint Paul says, "transcends" knowledge and is thereby capable of perceiving more than thought alone (cf. Eph 3:19); nonetheless it continues to be love of the God who is Logos. Consequently, Christian worship is, again to quote Paul - "λογικη λατρεία", worship in harmony with the eternal Word and with our reason (cf. Rom 12:1).
This inner rapprochement between Biblical faith and Greek philosophical inquiry was an event of decisive importance not only from the standpoint of the history of religions, but also from that of world history - it is an event which concerns us even today. Given this convergence, it is not surprising that Christianity, despite its origins and some significant developments in the East, finally took on its historically decisive character in Europe. We can also express this the other way around: this convergence, with the subsequent addition of the Roman heritage, created Europe and remains the foundation of what can rightly be called Europe.

The thesis that the critically purified Greek heritage forms an integral part of Christian faith has been countered by the call for a dehellenization of Christianity - a call which has more and more dominated theological discussions since the beginning of the modern age. Viewed more closely, three stages can be observed in the programme of dehellenization: although interconnected, they are clearly distinct from one another in their motivations and objectives.

Dehellenization first emerges in connection with the postulates of the Reformation in the sixteenth century. Looking at the tradition of scholastic theology, the Reformers thought they were confronted with a faith system totally conditioned by philosophy, that is to say an articulation of the faith based on an alien system of thought. As a result, faith no longer appeared as a living historical Word but as one element of an overarching philosophical system. The principle of sola scriptura, on the other hand, sought faith in its pure, primordial form, as originally found in the biblical Word. Metaphysics appeared as a premise derived from another source, from which faith had to be liberated in order to become once more fully itself. When Kant stated that he needed to set thinking aside in order to make room for faith, he carried this programme forward with a radicalism that the Reformers could never have foreseen. He thus anchored faith exclusively in practical reason, denying it access to reality as a whole.
The liberal theology of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ushered in a second stage in the process of dehellenization, with Adolf von Harnack as its outstanding representative. When I was a student, and in the early years of my teaching, this programme was highly influential in Catholic theology too. It took as its point of departure Pascal's distinction between the God of the philosophers and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In my inaugural lecture at Bonn in 1959, I tried to address the issue, and I do not intend to repeat here what I said on that occasion, but I would like to describe at least briefly what was new about this second stage of dehellenization. Harnack's central idea was to return simply to the man Jesus and to his simple message, underneath the accretions of theology and indeed of hellenization: this simple message was seen as the culmination of the religious development of humanity. Jesus was said to have put an end to worship in favour of morality. In the end he was presented as the father of a humanitarian moral message. Fundamentally, Harnack's goal was to bring Christianity back into harmony with modern reason, liberating it, that is to say, from seemingly philosophical and theological elements, such as faith in Christ's divinity and the triune God. In this sense, historical-critical exegesis of the New Testament, as he saw it, restored to theology its place within the university: theology, for Harnack, is something essentially historical and therefore strictly scientific. What it is able to say critically about Jesus is, so to speak, an expression of practical reason and consequently it can take its rightful place within the university. Behind this thinking lies the modern self-limitation of reason, classically expressed in Kant's "Critiques", but in the meantime further radicalized by the impact of the natural sciences. This modern concept of reason is based, to put it briefly, on a synthesis between Platonism (Cartesianism) and empiricism, a synthesis confirmed by the success of technology. On the one hand it presupposes the mathematical structure of matter, its intrinsic rationality, which makes it possible to understand how matter works and use it efficiently: this basic premise is, so to speak, the Platonic element in the modern understanding of nature. On the other hand, there is nature's capacity to be exploited for our purposes, and here only the possibility of verification or falsification through experimentation can yield ultimate certainty. The weight between the two poles can, depending on the circumstances, shift from one side to the other. As strongly positivistic a thinker as J. Monod has declared himself a convinced Platonist/Cartesian.

This gives rise to two principles which are crucial for the issue we have raised. First, only the kind of certainty resulting from the interplay of mathematical and empirical elements can be considered scientific. Anything that would claim to be science must be measured against this criterion. Hence the human sciences, such as history, psychology, sociology and philosophy, attempt to conform themselves to this canon of scientificity. A second point, which is important for our reflections, is that by its very nature this method excludes the question of God, making it appear an unscientific or pre-scientific question. Consequently, we are faced with a reduction of the radius of science and reason, one which needs to be questioned.
I will return to this problem later. In the meantime, it must be observed that from this standpoint any attempt to maintain theology's claim to be "scientific" would end up reducing Christianity to a mere fragment of its former self. But we must say more: if science as a whole is this and this alone, then it is man himself who ends up being reduced, for the specifically human questions about our origin and destiny, the questions raised by religion and ethics, then have no place within the purview of collective reason as defined by "science", so understood, and must thus be relegated to the realm of the subjective. The subject then decides, on the basis of his experiences, what he considers tenable in matters of religion, and the subjective "conscience" becomes the sole arbiter of what is ethical. In this way, though, ethics and religion lose their power to create a community and become a completely personal matter. This is a dangerous state of affairs for humanity, as we see from the disturbing pathologies of religion and reason which necessarily erupt when reason is so reduced that questions of religion and ethics no longer concern it. Attempts to construct an ethic from the rules of evolution or from psychology and sociology, end up being simply inadequate.

Before I draw the conclusions to which all this has been leading, I must briefly refer to the third stage of dehellenization, which is now in progress. In the light of our experience with cultural pluralism, it is often said nowadays that the synthesis with Hellenism achieved in the early Church was a preliminary inculturation which ought not to be binding on other cultures. The latter are said to have the right to return to the simple message of the New Testament prior to that inculturation, in order to inculturate it anew in their own particular milieux. This thesis is not only false; it is coarse and lacking in precision. The New Testament was written in Greek and bears the imprint of the Greek spirit, which had already come to maturity as the Old Testament developed. True, there are elements in the evolution of the early Church which do not have to be integrated into all cultures. Nonetheless, the fundamental decisions made about the relationship between faith and the use of human reason are part of the faith itself; they are developments consonant with the nature of faith itself.
And so I come to my conclusion. This attempt, painted with broad strokes, at a critique of modern reason from within has nothing to do with putting the clock back to the time before the Enlightenment and rejecting the insights of the modern age. The positive aspects of modernity are to be acknowledged unreservedly: we are all grateful for the marvellous possibilities that it has opened up for mankind and for the progress in humanity that has been granted to us. The scientific ethos, moreover, is - as you yourself mentioned, Magnificent Rector - the will to be obedient to the truth, and, as such, it embodies an attitude which belongs to the essential decisions of the Christian spirit. The intention here is not one of retrenchment or negative criticism, but of broadening our concept of reason and its application. While we rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanity, we also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them. We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way, if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons. In this sense theology rightly belongs in the university and within the wide-ranging dialogue of sciences, not merely as a historical discipline and one of the human sciences, but precisely as theology, as inquiry into the rationality of faith.

Only thus do we become capable of that genuine dialogue of cultures and religions so urgently needed today. In the Western world it is widely held that only positivistic reason and the forms of philosophy based on it are universally valid. Yet the world's profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion of the divine from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions. A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures. At the same time, as I have attempted to show, modern scientific reason with its intrinsically Platonic element bears within itself a question which points beyond itself and beyond the possibilities of its methodology. Modern scientific reason quite simply has to accept the rational structure of matter and the correspondence between our spirit and the prevailing rational structures of nature as a given, on which its methodology has to be based. Yet the question why this has to be so is a real question, and one which has to be remanded by the natural sciences to other modes and planes of thought - to philosophy and theology. For philosophy and, albeit in a different way, for theology, listening to the great experiences and insights of the religious traditions of humanity, and those of the Christian faith in particular, is a source of knowledge, and to ignore it would be an unacceptable restriction of our listening and responding. Here I am reminded of something Socrates said to Phaedo. In their earlier conversations, many false philosophical opinions had been raised, and so Socrates says: "It would be easily understandable if someone became so annoyed at all these false notions that for the rest of his life he despised and mocked all talk about being - but in this way he would be deprived of the truth of existence and would suffer a great loss". The West has long been endangered by this aversion to the questions which underlie its rationality, and can only suffer great harm thereby. The courage to engage the whole breadth of reason, and not the denial of its grandeur - this is the programme with which a theology grounded in Biblical faith enters into the debates of our time. "Not to act reasonably, not to act with logos, is contrary to the nature of God", said Manuel II, according to his Christian understanding of God, in response to his Persian interlocutor. It is to this great logos, to this breadth of reason, that we invite our partners in the dialogue of cultures. To rediscover it constantly is the great task of the university.

***

NOTE:

The Holy Father intends to supply a subsequent version of this text, complete with footnotes. The present text must therefore be considered provisional.

© Copyright 2006 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

The Pope should NOT apologize for his remarks

2006-09-16T11:23:00.000+08:00

There has apparently been a chorus of criticism of the Pope over what many in the popular press - especially the Middle-Eastern Islamic popular press - have been saying are "anti-Islamic" remarks.

The Pope should not apologize.

The reason is very simple indeed: his remarks have been totally taken out of context and mis-interpreted. And, going by the manner in which the out-of-context misinterpretations have been consistently performed especially in Islamic countries, quite deliberately so.

The Islamists have twisted the Pope's speech for their own ends; they WANT a "clash of (religious) civilizations" to develop; they WANT inter-religious strife and violence on the planet; and they KNOW that they will win in either one of two ways: if they can force an apology for what are essentially unprovocative remarks, they demonstrate their power to force unreasonable concessions from those who do not agree with them, and reduce their enemies' credibility; alternatively, they can hope to increase their standing as defenders of their faith against "aggressive", "unrepentant" infidels, where their more moderate colleagues have kept quiet and refused to respond to "provocation".

Since either way the Pope gains no ground, he should not apologize. He should simply clarify what he said, and repeat that clarification ad infinitum. Violence, subtle persecution, discrimination, and propaganda warfare against Christians in countries with majority Muslim populations is endemic. It has not disappeared and will not disappear until the Second Coming. The Islamists would have used something - anything - else, as an excuse to keep the anti-Christian bigotry burning even if the Pope had never made his speech.

It will not be a coincidence that the Islamists will always try to make comparisons between the spread of Islam by the sword and the spread of Christianity by the sword.

What the Islamists don't want to emphasize is that they picked up the sciences, much of their technology and some of their art from pagans and infidels. Essentially, a backward tribe in the desert conquered and appropriated Byzantine architecture as their own (that's why the domes and minarets look so similar in Moscow, Constantinople and Mecca); inherited the Greeks' knowledge of the sciences and mathematics - these fields of knowledge were not introduced to the world by Islam, but preserved and in some respects improved upon for the use of future generations - and failed to invent much that can be claimed as entirely their own that is of relevance to daily survival in the modern world.

Christian missionaries, at least, brought disease-fighting medicine and surgical techniques to the Third World, albeit on the back of what was admittedly much White Man's Burden racist prejudice. The Renaissance, the Enlightenment, basically all of the great social and scientific revolutions leading to the betterment of human society over the last 4 centuries - were Judeo-Christian, Euro- and North American-centric, not Islamic, in origin. These revolutions gave all of us residents of the modern world, Christian and non-Christian alike, such basic amenities as quick, motorized public transport and telecommunications, to name just 2 modern-day innovations that owe their existence to the very largely Christian, or at any rate non-Muslim, West. Now - this is going to sound inflammatory - but what has Islam given us modern-day Christians in return? I don't mean to bash, but it's time to stop making unfair comparisons. Christians took the Da Vinci Code reasonably well; it's time Muslims learnt to engage in rational debate and propaganda (as opposed to actual) warfare. It would do the world a whole lot of good.

END

Killing Time on my Time Off

2006-09-12T18:25:00.000+08:00

For the first time in a very long time, I am actually on leave without too much having to worry about what is going on in the office. Ahhh, the joys of a career change.. not a moment too soon, and if I'd known it was going to be this enjoyable I might have jumped sooner!

One week off and then it's a slow return to work - not because I don't want to work, but because the work will be slow once I get back to it. Students won't be back; they'll still be on inter-semester holidays, those who are not working on IAP or ITP that is. Will have to start organising my second round of ITP visits.. drop in on the students, see if they're being used or abused ;-))

Managed to clear all my stuff from the old BI house into large, solid plastic boxes with lids - including wedding speeches and a wedding MC's agenda from 2000 (A&K), many many cards (brought back memories - especially cards from people with whom I have lost touch - maybe it's time to renew old ties!) - and an entire box of 5.25 inch floppy disks! Man, where am I going to get a PC old enough to read them? Just to see what's on them! The labels seem to indicate nothing important but one never knows...

Downloaded the Ratatouille (aha! guess how it's pronounced) teaser to my Palm TX; this should be a good one when it finally hits the cinema screens.

Yikes, got to run. Fogging operations require an urgent window- and door-closure exercise...

Global Warming? Nope.

2006-09-07T23:34:00.000+08:00

This will not happen. I have faith in mankind's ability to terraform. Necessity is the mother of invention, and science will combine with technology and pressing need to produce a non-Doomsday scenario. Very many species may become extinct by the time action is taken and results are produced, and certainly nothing will ever be the same (were things ever "the same" to begin with, through time?) but Jurassic Park climatic conditions shall not return.

Global warming taking earth back to dinosaur era

Thu Sep 7, 2006 10:23 AM ET

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Top News
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By Jeremy Lovell

NORWICH (Reuters) - Global warming over the coming century could mean a return of temperatures last seen in the age of the dinosaur and lead to the extinction of up to half of all species, a scientist said on Thursday.

Not only will carbon dioxide levels be at the highest levels for 24 million years, but global average temperatures will be higher than for up to 10 million years, said Chris Thomas of the University of York.

Between 10 and 99 percent of species will be faced with atmospheric conditions that last existed before they evolved, and as a result from 10-50 percent of them could disappear.

"We may very well already be on the breaking edge of a wave of mass extinctions," Thomas told the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Scientists predict average global temperatures will rise by between two and six degrees centigrade by 2100, mainly as a result of the heat-trapping carbon dioxide being pumped into the air from burning fossil fuels for transport and power.

"If the most extreme warming predicted takes place we will be going back to global temperatures not seen since the age of the dinosaur," Thomas said.

"We are starting to put these things into a historical perspective. These are conditions not seen for millions of years, so none of the species will have been subjected to them before," he added.

Thomas said scientific observations had already found that -- as predicted by the climate models -- 80 percent of species had already begun moving their traditional territorial ranges in response to the changing climatic conditions.

"That is an amazingly high correlation. It is a clear signature of climate change," he said.

Not only had the animals, birds and insects started to react, but there was evidence vegetation was also on the move.

For example, climate-triggered fungal pathogen outbreaks had already led to the extinction of more than one percent of the planet's amphibian species, Thomas said.

Not only would some species simply find no suitable space to live anymore, but there would be confrontations with invasive species being forced to move their territory. This would produce not just wipe-outs but species' mixtures never seen before.

And the changes would all happen at a faster rate than ever before in evolution.

"In geological terms 100 years is effectively instantaneous," Thomas noted.

From THE SUN, Malaysia

2006-09-06T21:22:00.001+08:00

The SUN, Malaysia, is Malaysia's fastest growing English language newspaper. It is chasing up on The Star, still Malaysia's most popular English language newspaper, and both are leaving the New Straits Times to bite the dust.

The Sun is independently owned and managed, ie. (in this context) no political party owns it. Any bias is therefore likely to be "apolitical", in a manner of speaking.

The Star is owned by the MCA, but takes a somewhat independent line. Good on the MCA! They know what makes the press really tick.

The NST is essentially an UMNO-owned and run mouthpiece. The Editor is a party man and toes the party line when he has to, just like any MP.

No prizes for guessing why it's slipping in circulation ;-))

LMT.

Keep up the watchdog role

The congratulations that have been bestowed upon theSun are absolutely deserving, but it is the impact they have brought about that really matters.

theSun was able to expose the infractions of a state management that involved businessmen, politicians and the management of MBPJ, for the good of the public who being the stakeholders have given their trust to all the parties stated. It appears that theSun is committed to prove wrong the denials of the state administration.

Identifying, recognising and exposing the ills and malpractices of authorities is a task for one who has no fear or favour. theSun should continue its crusade without excuse to any quarter to spot and expose the violations of business ethics and help reduce the bureaucratic red tape in the public delivery system. theSun has exhibited this dedication and the public should rally behind it for their own good.

In relation to the billboard issue, we read with concern that no action will be taken against the officers involved in this fiasco. This is most improper and the MB can be construed as an accomplice to the violation of procedure. To create an atmosphere of fairness in the state administration, one in which rules and standards are equally applied, the principles of just cause and due process must operate.

Just cause requires that reasons directly linked with job performance be clearly established for disciplinary action or discharge.

Due process refers to fairness of the procedures an organisation uses to impose sanctions on employees. The state should uphold integrity of the due process and the MB should not influence the process or the outcome.

Let us all help Pak Lah with his National Integrity Plan and the state governments should be role models in executing actions to achieve this natio- nal agenda. Perhaps from time to time, Pak Lah should get the message across to his officers about integrity in the state administration.

Another brilliant score by theSun. Heartiest congratulations to Citizen Nades and his team.

Dr Zainal Abidin Abdul Majid
Director, Business Ethics Institute of Malaysia

Racist Malays

2006-09-06T21:07:00.000+08:00

Racist bigots claiming to be Malay are at it again... every time it is inconvenient to explain or take the blame or admit any wrongdoing, wave the MALAY UNITY banner cynically, manipulate emotions, play on the Malay community's deep-seated inferiority complex, a.k.a. fear of being marginalised in their own country even though they control the politics, the military, the police and very large portions of the economy, and shout THE CHINESE WILL RIP US OFF IF YOU KEEP CRITICISING ME, YOUR FELLOW MALAY!

The amazing thing is how successful this ploy is even after so many years, at diverting attention from one's own wrongdoing, actual or perceived.

From The Sun:

Hishammuddin urged to lead moderate UMNO youth
Pauline Puah

KUALA LUMPUR: The controversial remark by Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin that a non-Malay political party will take advantage of a weak Umno has not subsided.

Following the MCA annual general assembly last week during which Khairy was criticised, another BN coalition party Gerakan also expressed dissatisfaction over the matter.

At the party's 19th Wanita and Youth National Delegates Conference on Friday (1 Sept), Gerakan Youth chief Datuk Mah Siew Keong said although it is fair for someone to defend his own community, it should not hurt the feeling of other communities.

"If you want to play racial sentiments to gain political mileage, you are not a hero," he said, without naming names.

Khairy did not attend the convention. However, BN Youth and Umno Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein was seated on the stage with other Gerakan leaders.

In his speech, Mah also urged Hishammuddin to continue taking care of all communities regardless of ethincity.

"We should clap to encourage him to lead a more moderate Umno Youth and to face the pressure of racism he faces," he said, to a round of applause.

On the same note, Gerakan Wanita chief Tan Lian Hoe said one should not forget the needs and sentiments of others.

"Respecting each other should not only extend to Umno but to other BN component parties," she said.

She said the situation is likely to split the BN and encourage criticisms from the rakyat, thus giving the opposition the opportunity to gather votes.

She noted that leaders of the component parties and leaders should abandon selfishness to prevent conflict which may weaken the coalition.

In a press conference later, Hishammuddin reiterated the issue will be resolved within the BN.

"When the temperature is lower, it's for my deputy (Khairy) to explain what the misunderstanding is. I think that is not a problem," he said.

He said the most important thing is the relationship of the top leadership.

"Nobody can exploit short term publicity for short term gain, this applies to other issues also...We need wisdom in doing this," he said.

He said inciting racial sentiments to gain popularity at the respective community will not last long.

"Their future will be tainted by the (racist) perception. This applies to all BN Youth," he said.

LawMan Thoughts Introduction

2006-09-02T09:24:00.000+08:00

Randam Rants of a LawMan.