Did You Know?

i) The earth has two holes at the top and bottom.
ii) Viewed from on top in Google Earth, it looks like a giant eyeball.

lol. Apparently they clip the sat images at both poles. So all that's displayed there is a BIG black hole.


Behold the eye-ball.

Letting the Yes mean Yes and the No mean No

There was a time when a man said yes, he meant yes. When a man said he would do something, he did it unless there were circumstances totally beyond his control. Those were times when honor actually meant something. Those are times that no longer exist.

I don't know about the rest of you. But a man who can stand by his honor is a man worth having as a friend. Friends are honest, and friends are not hypocritical.

Honestly I tell you, there is more to a man than success of the material type. There is also the trustworthiness of his word, the meaning of his name and the change that he brings to the world.

Facelift required!

This blog needs a facelift and I'm too busy. LOL. Anyone want to offer their services?

Renumeration :

1. Lots of my love and care (preferably offered only to female applicants.)
2. Eternal gratitude
3. Dinner on me

Bid here... ;)

The Arrogance of the Educated

Demos-kratos : People/Mob – Power/ Rule. Rule for the people, by the people.

[Too lazy to polish this post. What you see is the raw product of a session of the thought war. Logical links not included. Go figure.]

There is a basic problem with that phrase. It emphasizes the right of the people to choose their own path. It says nothing about the rightness or wrongness of the choice.

However, do people have the ability to make rational decisions? Yes, No? Irrational herd mentality. Emotions influence decisions. Pull the right heart strings and you get them on your side.

When it comes down to the question of who knows best how to rule or what is the best path forward, all that can be heard is the chorus of “Me! Me!”

It is one thing to say that the rural folk are unenlightened and uneducated, another to deprive them of their rights. Doing so would be the imposition of your opinion and believes upon them. In no way is that compatible with the spirit of democracy. Or do we believe in the idea that a selective democracy can exist? Do we have a right to choose who is the demos of this demos-kratos?

Fact is that the demands and concerns of the rural population differ from that of the urban. Who should determine the party that has the right to rule and who should determine by what measure this right is attained? We do have historical precedent, the Communist party within the Soviet Union and even now the Communist party in China. They believed that the power should be held by a few who were enlightened. The party knows best. This was and is the ultimate form of arrogance in government. In much the same way, we’ve the urban aristocracy. What about in Thailand? The removal of Thaksin was supported and engineered by the urban population without the support of the majority of the population that lives in rural areas.

Populist measures ? Have been in practice since the beginning of human government. Bread and Circuses, first popularized in Satire X of Juvenal. To give an acceptable veneer to the masses. By and large, we know that the vox populi is not always the best. The fact that most people agree to choose government over anarchy is that we realize that the vox populi is not always consistent and doesn’t always make the best decision. This is due to the fact that the populi has to feed themselves and get on with daily life. So we think it a safer bet that we’ve someone who can take care of our interests at the top. This returns to the original problem of a divided populi of which different sectors have different needs and wants in life.

A reminder, not all education is equal. The worse type of education is the type that makes you think you know everything (exactly what is taught in Malaysian Unis) . The best type is summed up by the phrase “The wisest person knows that he knows nothing.” In other words, an educated person is always open to new debate and synthesis of ideas. See two sides of the coin to everything.

Propose a solution to the problem.

How do we handle this? Education of the correct type, education which more important than imparting facts, imparts a thought process, that teaches to make the division between cause and effect, that encourages curiousity.

Education reform. Languages in which it is taught is not the ultimate barrier. The symbol is changeable, the intent is not. Misinterpretation is the danger to be guarded against.

• Single unified language of education. Reduce chances for misinterpretation. Reduce differences between sections of society in communication. Different languages only serve to reinforce classes and restrict social mobility.
• Revision to the history syllabus. No longer the dead subjects which serve no purpose but to glorify now insignificant actions but rather the intercourse between nations, the motivations for these actions and a discussion of the implications of history. It is not something which is static for the lessons that history teaches are many. Remember there is more to be learnt from our mistakes than our successes.
• Teaching of economics. Economics examines the allocation of scarce resources among competing needs and wants. Defined too as study of the means by which society uses human and natural resources in the pursuit of human welfare. As such, economics extends beyond the boundaries of a single organisation and is inextricably linked to both the environmental and social elements of sustainable development.
• Ethical training at secondary level. Exposure at an early age ensures the development of interest and also helps in the development of critical thought processes able to comprehend multiple factors and perform weighted selection.