What do you do when your government does not take care of you - nay, even have policies carved in such as a way as to disadvantage you so that you do not have a chance?
You fight for an opportunity for yourself and your children.
You are not talking about fairness. You are talking about an opportunity - an opportunity to earn a living, an opportunity to work very hard, very very hard, even to the extent of having to do two or three people's work in order that you may have a chance to earn a living for yourself, taking only one of the lower or lowest of the two or three parts that you have earned.
It is only by sheer hard work, plus lots and lots of ingenuity can it be possible for a non-Bumiputra to irk out a decent living in Malaysia. By then, of course, the disparity has widened much much farther.
When the single simple opportunity in life that one is looking for just to survive does not even exist, because it is perceived that all the opportunities have been monopolised and that the wealth that has been amassed has been transformed into power of control and domination, you want regime change.
How does the minority cause a regime change of the majority in a democratic way?
By giving all its support to the opposite, the best that can be managed is 77:23.
This is the best that can be done at the moment.
But the message is clear. That the people who are unhappy can say register their dissatisfaction.
So far, the non-Bumiputra has made their stance. Now, among the Bumiputra, unfairness of unjust policies has also been taking place. If the discontent is intense, you can get a swing that can go to 40:60 (assuming half turned).
How do you prevent unfairness? Malaysia, and Sarawak, has gone way past the point of racial disparity. We are now entering the era of class inequality: the poor fighting against the rich, for survival. If the rich has gotten rich through plunder, then there is a limit to that plunder. We are reaching that limit. The whole country is down going into economic descent.
The only way forward is a conducive environment for investment, private investment. This is not the perfect solution, but this is the way that the modern world has learned to bear with. This world of private investment, will create with it the problems of worker welfare. This is the economic disparity. But at least, there is a way out by negotiating for better pay and conditions for workers.
At the moment, the problem is unemployment and rising cost of living. Dishing out cash handouts in "poverty-eradication" programmes is a short-term measure, important to prevent riots and buy time for better programmes to come in. It must be the encouragement of local private investments.
The whole nation should not be held back by one lone racist voice. We should fight racism and get the whole nation back to where it was in 1970, and start all over again. We have lost enough time. It is time to put excellence back into the nation, and take our rightful place in bright Asia.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sarawak Politics, Economics & Philosophy
Politics is about power.
The current political fight in Sarawak today is about the struggle for power. Whether it is the Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, both are now trying to convince the voters why they should vote for them and not the other group. So, what is the difference between the politics in Sarawak, and the politics elsewhere?
Between the politics in Sarawak and those in the Peninsular, the current arrangements on both sides of the water are similar - racial political parties conveniently come together to form groups each with a multi-racial front. In Sarawak, on the BN national front, there is PBB which is supposed to represent the Bumiputra which is odd because you also get in it other Dayak groups such as PRS and SPDP which are Bumiputra as well, in addition to SUPP which is generally taken to be predominantly Chinese. On the other Pakatan front, Keadilan is supposed to be a front runner but in reality DAP is the stronger and both are Peninsular-based parties. Appended is SNAP which is taken to have a Dayak dominance.
What you are now witnessing in Sarawak today, as well as in Peninsular, is racial politics at its best. You have grievances even among the Bumiputra where, in the Peninsular, the gripe is UNMO-putra, whereas in Sarawak the culprit is the one and only and his cohorts. Both probably come straight out of a leaf of the NEP. The Chinese and everybody else then see themselves as orphans in an unloved disorganised family with a greedy and roving-eyed father. In Sarawak, the opposition talks of the dilemma of ungrateful urban Chinese juxtaposed against the poverty-stricken rural natives or indigenous people, when the reality may simply be the everyday fight for survival, against poverty or fear of not having enough. There is poverty in the urban areas as well as in the rural. Remember that when the rural people come to town, they become the urban poor. In towns, when the parents did well, the NEP makes sure that they do not have new opportunities.
It is a terrible thing when an affirmative policy such as the NEP has become a racist policy that is used to deprive the majority for the benefit of a few. It is equally unacceptable for the alternative to champion the interests of the now-deprived Bumiputra or non-Bumiputra to the exclusion of Bumiputra. It is this racism in Malaysian politics as well as in Sarawak that is objectionable to rational-minded citizens of this country. For this reason, thereby, my contention is that the current battlelines are drawn at the wrong points by the opposition; it could be the result of the early stages of development in Malaysia as well as Sarawak.
In all countries everywhere and for all people in all countries, the greatest fear is economic survival with eyes being opened wide as a result of the internet where the whole world is collapsed into a picture frame made of plasma or pixels. We know of everything we want to know, and while we marvel at technology, we fear for ourselves and our children. In such a world of great nervousness, there is a great demand for reassurances and governments around the world guarantee it by printing money and getting into massive budget deficits. With massive budget deficits come inflation, now on a global scale, which means that it hits also the poor little indigenous people or the non-indigenous people on the wrong or better side of Borneo. Their home-grown output, be it the processing of local foods or the processing of local materials into tourist items called handicraft, however much they produce and sell is inadequate for them to enjoy a piece of the advances of modern technology as the terms of trade is wrack-smacked against them, thanks no doubt to the multi-award multi-year winning central bank that we have in keeping this country economically competitive while the people deprived.
Under trying localised circumstances, there is nothing but humanity for all citizens of Malaysia, and some say Sarawak, to argue for a level playing field economically at the very least for everybody, be that somebody a Muslim or non-Muslim, Bumiputra or non-Bumiputra. It is time we do away with racism of any guise.
In Sarawak, the two oldest multi-racial parties are the SUPP and SNAP, and their full names say so: the Sarawak United Peoples' Party and the Sarawak National Party. Fill these two parties with well-educated, well-intentioned young and energetic people of all races - if they can work well in other countries and survived, they can do likewise in Sarawak. Let them fight on the economic ground: between big businesses and the welfare of the people. There is much can has to be done to re-position Sarawak which for now, in economic policy terms, is nothing but an adjunct to Peninsular-centric economic (and political) policies. There is a need to refocus on Sarawak as an wholesome and self-sustaining unit rather than merely a supplier of energy to the Peninsular either in the form of oil and gas or hydroelectric power. There must be a way to retain these natural resources for use locally.
I find the current political fight in Sarawak boring on fundamental issues, though not for want of theatrics by masters in their defined fields. But the outcome on 16 April can be devastation of one kind or another.
The current political fight in Sarawak today is about the struggle for power. Whether it is the Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat, both are now trying to convince the voters why they should vote for them and not the other group. So, what is the difference between the politics in Sarawak, and the politics elsewhere?
Between the politics in Sarawak and those in the Peninsular, the current arrangements on both sides of the water are similar - racial political parties conveniently come together to form groups each with a multi-racial front. In Sarawak, on the BN national front, there is PBB which is supposed to represent the Bumiputra which is odd because you also get in it other Dayak groups such as PRS and SPDP which are Bumiputra as well, in addition to SUPP which is generally taken to be predominantly Chinese. On the other Pakatan front, Keadilan is supposed to be a front runner but in reality DAP is the stronger and both are Peninsular-based parties. Appended is SNAP which is taken to have a Dayak dominance.
What you are now witnessing in Sarawak today, as well as in Peninsular, is racial politics at its best. You have grievances even among the Bumiputra where, in the Peninsular, the gripe is UNMO-putra, whereas in Sarawak the culprit is the one and only and his cohorts. Both probably come straight out of a leaf of the NEP. The Chinese and everybody else then see themselves as orphans in an unloved disorganised family with a greedy and roving-eyed father. In Sarawak, the opposition talks of the dilemma of ungrateful urban Chinese juxtaposed against the poverty-stricken rural natives or indigenous people, when the reality may simply be the everyday fight for survival, against poverty or fear of not having enough. There is poverty in the urban areas as well as in the rural. Remember that when the rural people come to town, they become the urban poor. In towns, when the parents did well, the NEP makes sure that they do not have new opportunities.
It is a terrible thing when an affirmative policy such as the NEP has become a racist policy that is used to deprive the majority for the benefit of a few. It is equally unacceptable for the alternative to champion the interests of the now-deprived Bumiputra or non-Bumiputra to the exclusion of Bumiputra. It is this racism in Malaysian politics as well as in Sarawak that is objectionable to rational-minded citizens of this country. For this reason, thereby, my contention is that the current battlelines are drawn at the wrong points by the opposition; it could be the result of the early stages of development in Malaysia as well as Sarawak.
In all countries everywhere and for all people in all countries, the greatest fear is economic survival with eyes being opened wide as a result of the internet where the whole world is collapsed into a picture frame made of plasma or pixels. We know of everything we want to know, and while we marvel at technology, we fear for ourselves and our children. In such a world of great nervousness, there is a great demand for reassurances and governments around the world guarantee it by printing money and getting into massive budget deficits. With massive budget deficits come inflation, now on a global scale, which means that it hits also the poor little indigenous people or the non-indigenous people on the wrong or better side of Borneo. Their home-grown output, be it the processing of local foods or the processing of local materials into tourist items called handicraft, however much they produce and sell is inadequate for them to enjoy a piece of the advances of modern technology as the terms of trade is wrack-smacked against them, thanks no doubt to the multi-award multi-year winning central bank that we have in keeping this country economically competitive while the people deprived.
Under trying localised circumstances, there is nothing but humanity for all citizens of Malaysia, and some say Sarawak, to argue for a level playing field economically at the very least for everybody, be that somebody a Muslim or non-Muslim, Bumiputra or non-Bumiputra. It is time we do away with racism of any guise.
In Sarawak, the two oldest multi-racial parties are the SUPP and SNAP, and their full names say so: the Sarawak United Peoples' Party and the Sarawak National Party. Fill these two parties with well-educated, well-intentioned young and energetic people of all races - if they can work well in other countries and survived, they can do likewise in Sarawak. Let them fight on the economic ground: between big businesses and the welfare of the people. There is much can has to be done to re-position Sarawak which for now, in economic policy terms, is nothing but an adjunct to Peninsular-centric economic (and political) policies. There is a need to refocus on Sarawak as an wholesome and self-sustaining unit rather than merely a supplier of energy to the Peninsular either in the form of oil and gas or hydroelectric power. There must be a way to retain these natural resources for use locally.
I find the current political fight in Sarawak boring on fundamental issues, though not for want of theatrics by masters in their defined fields. But the outcome on 16 April can be devastation of one kind or another.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Capital: Control or Free Flow
It was not so long ago when economic theorists argue that it was OK for people and capital to flow freely around the world, in the belief that it would be favourable for economic growth as well as economic welfare. Economic growth because these people and capital have to work hard to find the extra gain from existing resources - meaning more output and more output. Economic welfare because these people and capital owners have income or extra income and that by things getting cheaper the welfare of the average consumer is improved.
With globalisation and the ICT whereby the flow of people and capital can be made almost instantaneously, the free flow of people and capital can be likened to the unfortunate but relevant image of the tsunami where an extraneous force comes strongly into the domestic system, and leaves just as quickly but in that quick second, the end result is devastation. No matter how strong or how stable, no man-made system can withstand such violent forces.
The unleashing of the manpower of the Chinese people from the grips of authoritarian control to one of a freedom to negotiate and trade has caused an explosion in the manufacturing world where there is little room for the less than competitive. Either you are competitive or not competitive. The export of competitively priced goods by China has made the Chinese people the sloggers for the whole world, with very little for themselves except for the opportunity to work. The capital owners were happy to make that extra cash and they continue to pour capital in enterprises in China. In the meantime, the costs of raw materials rise around the world because of the unprecedented prolonged of China and this is causing the cost of living to rise around the world including China. While the standard of living of Chinese workers can be adjusted by raising their nominal wages, workers in other parts of the world whose livelihoods have been devastated because of their lack of competitiveness have no choice but to look for new political leadership blaming their day-to-day difficulties on corruption of the ruling elite.
US, which has the unique privilege of unlimited printing of its paper money, solves its problem of lack of competitiveness by printing still more money. As China and other parts of Asia as well as some parts of Europe and Africa benefit from the slog of the Chinese workers, those who have managed to obtain the cash that the US is printing choose to invest for short-term gains in those investments without them sinking one cent into a real piece of machinery. These are the short-term capital investors, the investors of portfolios on the stock market. These are the ones that cause havoc on the foreign markets when they come in and out, on the stock market when they come in and out, on the property market when they come in and out.
Economists have long thought hard and long on what to do with these short-term capital flows. Most economists, if not all, have decided against them. How to prevent these short-term capital flows from having a bad impact on the local economy. Sterilisation - how to remove these short-term flows from the banking system. Rise in the reserve ratio of banks - so that banks can create less credit out of these short-term funds. Capital controls - these are the most drastic, how not to allow them to enter the economy at all.
In some countries in the past, Peru, I think - they even try to prevent the entry of long-term borrowings by private companies because eventually they will have to repay and they will chew up their foreign reserves and hence cause a decided deterioration in their exchange rate.
In Malaysia, there was an attempt to sterilise the short-term flows in the 1990s but failed because the central bank wanted to be nice and pay depositors their market deposit rates, and its attempt to recoup from the forex market failed. The second mistake was to use those short-term funds in the stock market for long-term investments. When the funds pulled out, the capital market collapsed. The third mistake was to capital controls to stop funds from getting out of the economy. This mistake was big. It removed all confidence investors has on the government to conduct policies properly. There is nothing wrong with capital controls. If you do not want funds to come in, don't let them in in the first place. If you let funds in in the first place, you cannot trap them and prevent them from leaving. There were other mistakes as well, such as taking the currency out of international trading and not understanding the sophisticated on the forex market. The short-selling that was pushing down the ringgit had to be covered later, and when that happened, the ringgit would have recovered to near its equilibrium which was fairly high because of the fundamental surplus on the trade balance. In any case, Malaysia screwed up and we have not properly recovered since.
The many discussions on the capital flows or controls are interesting but they are by no means simple. It is a sign of the times, that things have been cheapened by their apparent plentifulness - everywhere, things are piling all around us. The only thing we do not seem to have sufficient is green environment for healthy food for us to eat.
With globalisation and the ICT whereby the flow of people and capital can be made almost instantaneously, the free flow of people and capital can be likened to the unfortunate but relevant image of the tsunami where an extraneous force comes strongly into the domestic system, and leaves just as quickly but in that quick second, the end result is devastation. No matter how strong or how stable, no man-made system can withstand such violent forces.
The unleashing of the manpower of the Chinese people from the grips of authoritarian control to one of a freedom to negotiate and trade has caused an explosion in the manufacturing world where there is little room for the less than competitive. Either you are competitive or not competitive. The export of competitively priced goods by China has made the Chinese people the sloggers for the whole world, with very little for themselves except for the opportunity to work. The capital owners were happy to make that extra cash and they continue to pour capital in enterprises in China. In the meantime, the costs of raw materials rise around the world because of the unprecedented prolonged of China and this is causing the cost of living to rise around the world including China. While the standard of living of Chinese workers can be adjusted by raising their nominal wages, workers in other parts of the world whose livelihoods have been devastated because of their lack of competitiveness have no choice but to look for new political leadership blaming their day-to-day difficulties on corruption of the ruling elite.
US, which has the unique privilege of unlimited printing of its paper money, solves its problem of lack of competitiveness by printing still more money. As China and other parts of Asia as well as some parts of Europe and Africa benefit from the slog of the Chinese workers, those who have managed to obtain the cash that the US is printing choose to invest for short-term gains in those investments without them sinking one cent into a real piece of machinery. These are the short-term capital investors, the investors of portfolios on the stock market. These are the ones that cause havoc on the foreign markets when they come in and out, on the stock market when they come in and out, on the property market when they come in and out.
Economists have long thought hard and long on what to do with these short-term capital flows. Most economists, if not all, have decided against them. How to prevent these short-term capital flows from having a bad impact on the local economy. Sterilisation - how to remove these short-term flows from the banking system. Rise in the reserve ratio of banks - so that banks can create less credit out of these short-term funds. Capital controls - these are the most drastic, how not to allow them to enter the economy at all.
In some countries in the past, Peru, I think - they even try to prevent the entry of long-term borrowings by private companies because eventually they will have to repay and they will chew up their foreign reserves and hence cause a decided deterioration in their exchange rate.
In Malaysia, there was an attempt to sterilise the short-term flows in the 1990s but failed because the central bank wanted to be nice and pay depositors their market deposit rates, and its attempt to recoup from the forex market failed. The second mistake was to use those short-term funds in the stock market for long-term investments. When the funds pulled out, the capital market collapsed. The third mistake was to capital controls to stop funds from getting out of the economy. This mistake was big. It removed all confidence investors has on the government to conduct policies properly. There is nothing wrong with capital controls. If you do not want funds to come in, don't let them in in the first place. If you let funds in in the first place, you cannot trap them and prevent them from leaving. There were other mistakes as well, such as taking the currency out of international trading and not understanding the sophisticated on the forex market. The short-selling that was pushing down the ringgit had to be covered later, and when that happened, the ringgit would have recovered to near its equilibrium which was fairly high because of the fundamental surplus on the trade balance. In any case, Malaysia screwed up and we have not properly recovered since.
The many discussions on the capital flows or controls are interesting but they are by no means simple. It is a sign of the times, that things have been cheapened by their apparent plentifulness - everywhere, things are piling all around us. The only thing we do not seem to have sufficient is green environment for healthy food for us to eat.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
International Monetary Troubles
Meeting tomorrow on Thursday 31st March 2011 in Nanjing, when finance ministers and central bankers from the G20 will meet to discuss about all issues except the elephant in the bath tub.
The central problem today with the international monetary system is the balancing of the flow of international trade and the international flow of money. In theory, surplus demand and surplus supplies will adjust so that a balance is always established in the end. Again, this is in theory. In the real world, none of this automatic adjustment exists except possibly in the commodity markets where specific commodities are produced with much competition from substitutes and where supply and demand conditions are fairly easy to predict as they are slow to adjust. Hence, a few traders can corner the commodity markets and hold the poor of the world to ransom, and the only adjustment the poor can make is to starve themselves.
The problem with international monetary imbalance is that, like the poor, deficit countries are under the greatest pressure to adjust only because they run out of credit to spend themselves out of their problems. What do you do when a poor uncle or a poor friend, dying of old age and dwindling income generating capability ask for help - once, twice and we imagine if we allow it, ad infinitum. We answer ashamedly, "I think I have helped you enough" while planning for our next vacation abroad.
One way that an international agency can step in to help the deficit country is to give it some credit when all other conventional lenders refuse to continue to give. The IMF tries to behave like the global central bank with the authority its own currency called the SDR (special drawing right) with funds from the deposits of central banks as "customers". The SDR is constructed like an index number and then its exchange rate determined based on that basket, and translated into the needed currencies like the US dollar for actual transaction purposes. In this way, the IMF steps in to ease the temporary "financial" problems of deficit countries while programmes are put into place the solve the "real" problems.
At the same time, the surplus countries are under no pressure to adjust at all, just like the rich who will only get richer because they have found a strategic advantage to benefit from the rest of the world. That strategic advantage for China may simply be sheer hard and intelligent work for minimal pay, very much reduced consumption and still have surplus to keep. It is simply a question of lifestyle, of a way of life. The poor may not be the destitute but simply those who have sufficient and who overspend. It is still lifestyle and bad habits. Do we then discipline the hardworking and be lenient with the spendthrift. It is not exactly that the US is poor and China is super-rich. Intra-China, there is also an imbalance where the rural poor worked hard for the urban capital-rich for the enjoyment of the deficit US consumers who pay for things with computer digits.
So, what are the adjustments or what are the "real" problems. Is it an exchange rate problem? It was OK before, but now it is not OK. If a people have worked so hard and so long to enjoy a bit of luxury, do you then ask them to adjust their currency so that they will have a work harder and enjoy less. Do you not ask the deficit country people to find new ways of doing things and produce new stuff so that they may have a fighting chance with selling their wares. Or do we allow specialisation of countries where countries like China, Japan and India produces real stuff while European economies produce financial crises.
Or, do we think that surplus countries will translate all their foreign reserves into domestic currency and flush the economy with cash in the real estate and the stock market. Or, do we not think that they will use the US dollar to buy US assets in the US - which the Japanese did in the eighties.
Or, are the issues to be discussed at the G20 really more about strategic issues such as not letting the East conquers the West just like the way the West had previously conquered the East. Is it not really about fearing the huge immigrant population in the US and Europe will forsake those countries and the productive but fluid labour force will float to the most competitive countries in the world and reforce the success.
Against such fundamental issues, we will find that the G20 could just be a meeting to air some issues "of global monetary importance" and then return home to placate the population that something has been done and things will take time to happen. In the meantime, adjustment is a slow cook.
The central problem today with the international monetary system is the balancing of the flow of international trade and the international flow of money. In theory, surplus demand and surplus supplies will adjust so that a balance is always established in the end. Again, this is in theory. In the real world, none of this automatic adjustment exists except possibly in the commodity markets where specific commodities are produced with much competition from substitutes and where supply and demand conditions are fairly easy to predict as they are slow to adjust. Hence, a few traders can corner the commodity markets and hold the poor of the world to ransom, and the only adjustment the poor can make is to starve themselves.
The problem with international monetary imbalance is that, like the poor, deficit countries are under the greatest pressure to adjust only because they run out of credit to spend themselves out of their problems. What do you do when a poor uncle or a poor friend, dying of old age and dwindling income generating capability ask for help - once, twice and we imagine if we allow it, ad infinitum. We answer ashamedly, "I think I have helped you enough" while planning for our next vacation abroad.
One way that an international agency can step in to help the deficit country is to give it some credit when all other conventional lenders refuse to continue to give. The IMF tries to behave like the global central bank with the authority its own currency called the SDR (special drawing right) with funds from the deposits of central banks as "customers". The SDR is constructed like an index number and then its exchange rate determined based on that basket, and translated into the needed currencies like the US dollar for actual transaction purposes. In this way, the IMF steps in to ease the temporary "financial" problems of deficit countries while programmes are put into place the solve the "real" problems.
At the same time, the surplus countries are under no pressure to adjust at all, just like the rich who will only get richer because they have found a strategic advantage to benefit from the rest of the world. That strategic advantage for China may simply be sheer hard and intelligent work for minimal pay, very much reduced consumption and still have surplus to keep. It is simply a question of lifestyle, of a way of life. The poor may not be the destitute but simply those who have sufficient and who overspend. It is still lifestyle and bad habits. Do we then discipline the hardworking and be lenient with the spendthrift. It is not exactly that the US is poor and China is super-rich. Intra-China, there is also an imbalance where the rural poor worked hard for the urban capital-rich for the enjoyment of the deficit US consumers who pay for things with computer digits.
So, what are the adjustments or what are the "real" problems. Is it an exchange rate problem? It was OK before, but now it is not OK. If a people have worked so hard and so long to enjoy a bit of luxury, do you then ask them to adjust their currency so that they will have a work harder and enjoy less. Do you not ask the deficit country people to find new ways of doing things and produce new stuff so that they may have a fighting chance with selling their wares. Or do we allow specialisation of countries where countries like China, Japan and India produces real stuff while European economies produce financial crises.
Or, do we think that surplus countries will translate all their foreign reserves into domestic currency and flush the economy with cash in the real estate and the stock market. Or, do we not think that they will use the US dollar to buy US assets in the US - which the Japanese did in the eighties.
Or, are the issues to be discussed at the G20 really more about strategic issues such as not letting the East conquers the West just like the way the West had previously conquered the East. Is it not really about fearing the huge immigrant population in the US and Europe will forsake those countries and the productive but fluid labour force will float to the most competitive countries in the world and reforce the success.
Against such fundamental issues, we will find that the G20 could just be a meeting to air some issues "of global monetary importance" and then return home to placate the population that something has been done and things will take time to happen. In the meantime, adjustment is a slow cook.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Self & Society
Those of us raised on Western philosophy are very clear about the right of the individual, how an individual like ourselves, no matter how basic or poor, is still a countable entity which has the liberty to exist in the best way that we each see fit so long as we personally do not become a nuisance to anybody. This idea of the autonomy of the individual comes from the idea of the existence of the self, where we each like a light bulb can glow quietly unperturbed in the intensity that we have the energy to dispense.
The exertion of the right of the individual self does not in any way automatically leads to the conclusion that the individual is selfish. To be aware of the self is very different from the inclination to always and only look after oneself. Selfishness is that narrowness derived from the unenlightened view that to stay alive is the raison detre for living. Staying alive is nothing but a fallback position when one has nothing else better to do in life. That is why there are individuals who climb rocks and tall buildings and high mountains, and others who dive into the deep dark oceans or float in the deep dark space. There are also others who simply walk into very dangerous places in order to get a job done to save other lives. It is this right of exertion to live or die or suffer in between that defines the character of individuals who under normal circumstances may live lives that others may not even notice. Heroes are born of individual selves who could have been selfish but instead rise above the consideration of the body and dedicate that body to an act that may just for a moment make ordinary life possible for ordinary people.
We have seen before our own eyes, and experienced an era of the destruction of whole societies by a few individuals for the benefit of the few individuals in the name of progress, rapid economic growth and full employment, as well fairness and equity. We have seen how new inequalities are being created out of policies which explicitly and purportedly tries to redress imbalances and injustices and only to find the ideals slipping through the fingers of those who try to command the earth to stop moving. These selfish individuals, nursing enormous egos, try to use sweet words intersperse with threats to cajole societies to dance to their tunes and in the process redirect the flow of the social efforts into their own pockets finding excuses in the shape of building monuments to themselves. These individuals are asking individual persons to sacrifice their lives so that these leaders can add greatness to their names, at the expense of the faceless toilers. That the powerful can enjoy opulence when the masses starve is the invisible hand that is redirecting scarce resources through the inflationary phenomenon.
At the Fukushima nuclear plant, volunteers were sought and obtained in experienced workers who willingly with eyes wide open go into the inner sanctum and be blessed with the light. By this single charitable act, they have vindicated themselves from all the sins that they have committed in words, thoughts and deeds in the past, and in the process salvaged their souls. They shall suffer and so shall their families, spouse and children, but they shall have pride for the rest of their days. It is in moments like this when we can reflect and realise how we in our little excuses are nothing but petty selfish individuals bent on lying to ourselves and those who will listen to us so that we may maintain our little arrogance deep in our hearts.
The exertion of the right of the individual self does not in any way automatically leads to the conclusion that the individual is selfish. To be aware of the self is very different from the inclination to always and only look after oneself. Selfishness is that narrowness derived from the unenlightened view that to stay alive is the raison detre for living. Staying alive is nothing but a fallback position when one has nothing else better to do in life. That is why there are individuals who climb rocks and tall buildings and high mountains, and others who dive into the deep dark oceans or float in the deep dark space. There are also others who simply walk into very dangerous places in order to get a job done to save other lives. It is this right of exertion to live or die or suffer in between that defines the character of individuals who under normal circumstances may live lives that others may not even notice. Heroes are born of individual selves who could have been selfish but instead rise above the consideration of the body and dedicate that body to an act that may just for a moment make ordinary life possible for ordinary people.
We have seen before our own eyes, and experienced an era of the destruction of whole societies by a few individuals for the benefit of the few individuals in the name of progress, rapid economic growth and full employment, as well fairness and equity. We have seen how new inequalities are being created out of policies which explicitly and purportedly tries to redress imbalances and injustices and only to find the ideals slipping through the fingers of those who try to command the earth to stop moving. These selfish individuals, nursing enormous egos, try to use sweet words intersperse with threats to cajole societies to dance to their tunes and in the process redirect the flow of the social efforts into their own pockets finding excuses in the shape of building monuments to themselves. These individuals are asking individual persons to sacrifice their lives so that these leaders can add greatness to their names, at the expense of the faceless toilers. That the powerful can enjoy opulence when the masses starve is the invisible hand that is redirecting scarce resources through the inflationary phenomenon.
At the Fukushima nuclear plant, volunteers were sought and obtained in experienced workers who willingly with eyes wide open go into the inner sanctum and be blessed with the light. By this single charitable act, they have vindicated themselves from all the sins that they have committed in words, thoughts and deeds in the past, and in the process salvaged their souls. They shall suffer and so shall their families, spouse and children, but they shall have pride for the rest of their days. It is in moments like this when we can reflect and realise how we in our little excuses are nothing but petty selfish individuals bent on lying to ourselves and those who will listen to us so that we may maintain our little arrogance deep in our hearts.
Monday, March 28, 2011
The Uselessness of Predictions
Whole industries have sprung up over the centuries for the mere purpose of predicting the future, from the vestal virgins of Delphi and witches of Scotland to star gazers, face/palm/foot readers, statistical manipulators, scientific safeguarders, trend discerners and inspired third-sense charlatans.
When all potential faults and problems are properly identified and resolved, everything goes on so smoothly that it is presumed that that which have been hard at work and keeping everything in tip-top condition are but irritations because of their apparent presumed self-importance which is making the incompetents extremely insecure and jealous.
There is really no reward in forecasting except when one is making plans for one's own life journey. Even then, there are those who argue that there is no need for planning and everything will end up in the best of all possible worlds, so long as we accept whatever comes. For those who have no experiences of good things coming by themselves on their own accord, without effort on one's part, this is an uneasy and possibly traumatic attempt at relaxation. In an organisation or society, the politicians will always short-change the technical people in order to exert control over the experts. Under such repressive conditions, it is likely that the technical upkeep may just be a notch below the necessary as a form of sabotage in retaliation to presumed injustice. Such perverse behaviour may even be observed in children when they underperform in order to hurt their parents. First hand, I tend to try to identify potential problems long before they surface, so that easier milder remedial actions can be applied earlier, but have more often than not been labelled as a person who sees problems where none exist (for the moment). My standard response is this: "I hope I am wrong. If I am not, you are in deep trouble."
But there are things in life that are self-evident who do not need a rocket scientist to predict and which every sensible ordinary person with some common sense will tell you will happen, as a matter of fact: (1) You will die. (2) Human beings will disappear from earth, just as dinosaurs had. (3) You make bombs, bombs kill people. (4) Nuclear plants will blow up.
For natural phenomena such as (1) and (2), there is nothing much that one can do except to accept the inevitable, although most of us will still try to stretch things at the margin just a little more (just like home renovation). You find people popping pills (me included), exercise, and resorting to all kinds of activities of some sort, wasting time in the hope of gaining some, which is nothing but the swapping of young energetic time for a longer weak and frail condition.
Man-made phenomena such as (3) and (4) are simply the foolishness of human beings, of a small group of people harming the whole of mankind just because society at large allow a few foolish people to take control over the majority just because the few claims to have the right or sheer brute force to exert that power.
Will there ever be wisdom at the top, when the foolish thinks that status and position bestow upon them wisdom which they do not possess. The jostling for power and the scrambling for titles are things that foolish people do to feel self important. Even erstwhile perfectly good individuals when they are feeling ordinary and are wise seem to have lost their wits the moment they enter halls of "monumental historical importance." When they do not deserve the position, we will find that they generally will destroy the sacredness of the place through the corruption of its integrity.
Because of the foolishness of individuals, we can only allow each individual a short period of time of time to display their foolish the moment they step into power.
When all potential faults and problems are properly identified and resolved, everything goes on so smoothly that it is presumed that that which have been hard at work and keeping everything in tip-top condition are but irritations because of their apparent presumed self-importance which is making the incompetents extremely insecure and jealous.
There is really no reward in forecasting except when one is making plans for one's own life journey. Even then, there are those who argue that there is no need for planning and everything will end up in the best of all possible worlds, so long as we accept whatever comes. For those who have no experiences of good things coming by themselves on their own accord, without effort on one's part, this is an uneasy and possibly traumatic attempt at relaxation. In an organisation or society, the politicians will always short-change the technical people in order to exert control over the experts. Under such repressive conditions, it is likely that the technical upkeep may just be a notch below the necessary as a form of sabotage in retaliation to presumed injustice. Such perverse behaviour may even be observed in children when they underperform in order to hurt their parents. First hand, I tend to try to identify potential problems long before they surface, so that easier milder remedial actions can be applied earlier, but have more often than not been labelled as a person who sees problems where none exist (for the moment). My standard response is this: "I hope I am wrong. If I am not, you are in deep trouble."
But there are things in life that are self-evident who do not need a rocket scientist to predict and which every sensible ordinary person with some common sense will tell you will happen, as a matter of fact: (1) You will die. (2) Human beings will disappear from earth, just as dinosaurs had. (3) You make bombs, bombs kill people. (4) Nuclear plants will blow up.
For natural phenomena such as (1) and (2), there is nothing much that one can do except to accept the inevitable, although most of us will still try to stretch things at the margin just a little more (just like home renovation). You find people popping pills (me included), exercise, and resorting to all kinds of activities of some sort, wasting time in the hope of gaining some, which is nothing but the swapping of young energetic time for a longer weak and frail condition.
Man-made phenomena such as (3) and (4) are simply the foolishness of human beings, of a small group of people harming the whole of mankind just because society at large allow a few foolish people to take control over the majority just because the few claims to have the right or sheer brute force to exert that power.
Will there ever be wisdom at the top, when the foolish thinks that status and position bestow upon them wisdom which they do not possess. The jostling for power and the scrambling for titles are things that foolish people do to feel self important. Even erstwhile perfectly good individuals when they are feeling ordinary and are wise seem to have lost their wits the moment they enter halls of "monumental historical importance." When they do not deserve the position, we will find that they generally will destroy the sacredness of the place through the corruption of its integrity.
Because of the foolishness of individuals, we can only allow each individual a short period of time of time to display their foolish the moment they step into power.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Zen & The Japanese
How do the simple teachings of the correct method of realigning one's psyche to the cosmos by a foreign teacher in a foreign land can so readily be accepted by the xenophobic Japanese who then made them distinctively their own? Is it because those teachings fit exactly into the Japanese shared experience of Earth and how Mother Nature can both be giving and neutral.
Zen is the end-result of the teachings of a 6th century master who went to China to correct the way for practicising Buddhism. There was much doggedness and flippancy, and the way out was flexibility and focus. That flexibility which juxtaposes prolonged silent sitting with controlled focused movement and the later gives rise to the famous Shaolin monks. The focus is made in all conscious efforts, whether it be sitting or moving, and the first trick is to understand and accept what comes without acting further to aggravate the situation, and the final trick is to understand that it is all in the mind and nothing else which could in modern science be simply called "neutral".
The big name in Chan is Huineng who was a butcher who left his poor old mother to the care of neighbours in order to work in the kitchen of the temple. Huineng demonstrated his understanding with a few lines on the wall scribbled in the middle of the night, whose handwriting the master recognised who then gave him the authority to be the next master and told to leave the temple immediately that very night so that the competitor could not kill him. From Huineng arose several schools of Chan, and it was the Linzi school which probably had had the biggest influence on the Japanese, who enunciated it as "Zen". I highlighted Linzi because it is the school which beats its disciples with a stick during meditation if the master finds the disciples to be drifting.
The Japanese make a big deal out of Zen because they are perfectionist. If they really want to be "truly unperturbed" they must make a real effort in a equal and opposite response to what must have been a terrible environment for them - the warlords, the serfdom, the fightings and wars, and servitude in addition to natural calamities such as volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis.
The extreme nature of Japanese stoic-ness could be a Malaysian perspective, as we tend to be soft and forgiving, not only to others but particularly to ourselves and our communities. Everything seems to be an excuse for a good giggle.
In Zen, the final lesson is this: In the face of even the most unpleasant external environment, the only response is not to respond. "Be a stone", as an ex-Japan resident used to tell me. Keep still, do not react, do not retaliate - not only in body, but also in mind and spirit and soul.
I think it was only with the deepest inability to contain his emotion when the Governor of Fukushima, Yuhei Sato, said on national television on 16th March 2011, "The worry and anger of the people of Fukushima has been pushed to the limit." This is very unZen-like, but how poignant.
Zen is the end-result of the teachings of a 6th century master who went to China to correct the way for practicising Buddhism. There was much doggedness and flippancy, and the way out was flexibility and focus. That flexibility which juxtaposes prolonged silent sitting with controlled focused movement and the later gives rise to the famous Shaolin monks. The focus is made in all conscious efforts, whether it be sitting or moving, and the first trick is to understand and accept what comes without acting further to aggravate the situation, and the final trick is to understand that it is all in the mind and nothing else which could in modern science be simply called "neutral".
The big name in Chan is Huineng who was a butcher who left his poor old mother to the care of neighbours in order to work in the kitchen of the temple. Huineng demonstrated his understanding with a few lines on the wall scribbled in the middle of the night, whose handwriting the master recognised who then gave him the authority to be the next master and told to leave the temple immediately that very night so that the competitor could not kill him. From Huineng arose several schools of Chan, and it was the Linzi school which probably had had the biggest influence on the Japanese, who enunciated it as "Zen". I highlighted Linzi because it is the school which beats its disciples with a stick during meditation if the master finds the disciples to be drifting.
The Japanese make a big deal out of Zen because they are perfectionist. If they really want to be "truly unperturbed" they must make a real effort in a equal and opposite response to what must have been a terrible environment for them - the warlords, the serfdom, the fightings and wars, and servitude in addition to natural calamities such as volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis.
The extreme nature of Japanese stoic-ness could be a Malaysian perspective, as we tend to be soft and forgiving, not only to others but particularly to ourselves and our communities. Everything seems to be an excuse for a good giggle.
In Zen, the final lesson is this: In the face of even the most unpleasant external environment, the only response is not to respond. "Be a stone", as an ex-Japan resident used to tell me. Keep still, do not react, do not retaliate - not only in body, but also in mind and spirit and soul.
I think it was only with the deepest inability to contain his emotion when the Governor of Fukushima, Yuhei Sato, said on national television on 16th March 2011, "The worry and anger of the people of Fukushima has been pushed to the limit." This is very unZen-like, but how poignant.
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