Human extinction

Stupidity, arrogance and emotion must be the biggest enemies of humankind, which may lead its own extinction.

More and more powerful weapons are being used in warfare to cause maximum destruction – crumbling houses, killing enemies, polluting water supplies, damaging utilities, etc. These stupid people can create much more damage in an instance than the “climate change”.

After every natural disaster, be it volcanic eruption, tsunami, earth quake, flood, or bush fire, there are always new ways proposed to overcome future occurrence. A risk management student can tell us that we can deal with a risk by avoiding, neutralising, or facing it head-on. Unfortunately, the full destructive force of nature is far more powerful than human’s strengths, technology or inventions. Avoidance seems to be a better approach in handling natural destructive forces.

Many natural disaster victims are blinded by their arrogance and emotions, and rebuild knowingly their homes and lives in the same spot where last incident took place. These misgiving factors console and convince humans that they can do better next time or stop history from repeating, after the previous painful experiences.

Live wisely, you have only one life!

Advise other people's children as you would with your own

I've written on my Facebook wall about how happy I was being able to communicate with my nephews and nieces using the technology. I hope readers don’t mind my sharing my excitement with you what have taken place lately.

Incident 1 - email from my niece received on 25/11/2009
I still remember what you said to xxxx (sister's name given) and I when you taught us how to write our names in Chinese. Regardless whether you know Mandarin or not, you MUST know how to write your name in Chinese! See, your advice is etched in my mind after all these years. And I’ve passed on this advice to my girls. Am proud to say that even xxxxxxxx (daughter's name given) knows how to write her name in Chinese!

When did this happen and why?
It was over 30 years ago while my nieces were little angels. Why did I insist? Name is given normally at the beginning of one's life. It is not just words - it represents one's identity, hopefully for the rest of one's life. Since it is given from the start, it is the “Origin”. Given a "Chinese" name written in other language is not a real name in the eyes of a purist. Why do so many people still try to trace their roots, archaeologists dig to find remain of the past, the Big Bang theory, and so on? In short, it is all about the origin. Obviously, if one is given a Greek name at birth, the same rationale will apply.

Incident 2 – email received from my nephew on 4/12/2009
I really appreciate those conversations I had with you and the advice you shared with me during my stay in Melbourne. I think that really leads me to try out different areas that interest me and real estate is one of it.

When did this happen and why?
About 10 years ago, I took my nephew home over a cup of coffee, just after he had completed his study in Monash University and was ready to return to Malaysia. I always tell my audience that I wished there was an older and wiser “Sin Fong” around to advise me about life and livelihood when I was young and needed direction. There are many books around teaching one how to be successful, in dollars and cents, but not about “sense”. Very often, young people turn to their busy parents, who don’t even know how to handle themselves because they have no time for their children but have plenty for their boss and friends. These young people may try religion, but then they are not ready for it - and very often the concepts are not “relevant” to their situation. They can turn to their friends, but they are just as inexperience. Other option is to turn to seminars run by some Gurus, who never reveal how they become rich and famous by charging the bunnies mega bucks.

Don’t be afraid to advise other people’s children. However, you have to be prepared for the negative consequences – lose your relatives / friends, or sack from your “teaching” position. On the positive side, you will receive great news from these former “children”.

My beliefs

I am not a Christian, a Buddhist or a Muslim
I am just a multi-discipline student
I talk, but not preach
I have never attended a Bible Study, but enjoyed Christmas celebration.

In the late 70s and early 80s, I watched Rex Humbard and Robert Schuller on TV each week
Now, occasionally, I watch, or rather "listen" to late night (or early morning, say 3 am) TV sermons given by US pastors
I read books by Herbert Armstrong, Robert Schuller, Joyce Myer, Billy Graeme; Watch Towers from Jehova Witnesses
I listen to many Gospel songs, and watch many slide presentations. I have vinyl records of Rex Humbard's family, and slides on my computers and USB

I understand now why I prayed to Guangong before I sat for my Cambridge exam
I still kneel before the ancestral plaques, and statues
I burn joss sticks, and give offering in temples
I still love to tell stories about the various "gods" and their significance

I just scratch the surface about Buddhism's the Four Noble Truths
I watch program / video of seminars given by Buddhist monks, and Gurus
I have hypothesis about reincarnation
I know I can be a Buddha, too

I can explain why some churches do better than the others
I can see why Christianity grows at such great pace in Korea
I can also see why some Westerners yearn for Buddhism teaching
I can see how wrong people are to think that Muslim women lack status in Islam

I take on the best of all these teachings, and make myself a better member of this planet
I go to churches, Buddhist temples, Hindu temples without any concern of religious conflict within
I can debate on Creationism, Big Bang Theory, Darwinian Evolution
I have reservation about Dalai Lama's actions, and Fa Lun Gong's demonstartions

I treasure my time on this planet, the past and the present
I am not concerned about after life, for I don't have any clue about what's going to happen in the next second
I believe in making this a better world now
I can still go on, and on, and on

When the day comes, I won't be saying "I wish I have done that!"

Why do we have states in Australia?

Posted to ABC QandA on 12 Oct 2009 1:00:40am
Commenting on "Why do we have states?"

The Australians did not invent the compass. Without those states such as NT, WA, SA, NSW, Australia will lose its bearings. I always wonder why Central Australia was never a state.

The missing of Eastern Australia may be the reason for the early settlers who lost their direction and populated the east coast with much higher density.

God created Male and Female - I wonder

Posted to ABC QandA on 12 Oct 2009 12:39:00am
Commenting on "Germaine Greer Excells"

Why did God create Adam and Eve, not Adam1 and Adam2, or Eve1 and Eve2?

If human race was meant to populate via laboratory means, was either Adam or Eve a scientist? Was glass test tube created then?

Let's all enjoy the fruits from the Garden of Eden, especially the apple. Life would be so boring without dating and marriage!

BTW, Excell is a brand name of a battery

Why do we put ideology/theology before humanity?

Posted to ABC Q&A on 18/8/2009
Humanity, ideology and theology are all manmade words like morality.

Don't human beings imprison animals in cages/farms, shoot them in the name of sports, eat them for food, capture them and use them for laboratory experiments?

Does humanity stop at human race only?

Celebrate life when one's alive

MJ is dead and gone now! Millions of people have woken up to this fact and "celebrated his life". To all my friends, love the people you love now, tell them you love them, tell them how beautiful they are. These people include your parents, children, siblings, relations, friends, bosses, colleagues, neighbours, family doctors, etc. Celebrate life when one's alive not when one's laying flat in a coffin.

Will the next JFK stand up, please?

Our world needs leader like late J F Kennedy - not Rudd, Obama, Brown, etc. JFK had vision, inspirational, and set a seemingly unachieveable goal for the Americans in 1962 - to land Man on the moon by the end of the decade! The Yanks did it 40 years ago! Our world is still confronted with problems of poverty, hunger, pollution, wars, etc. Will the next JFK stand up, please?

Do it NOW or forever regret!

Live happily each day as though it is the last day of one's existence! What one wants to do, do it now if possible or ASAP, for it will be too late for one to say "I wish I have done that" at one's deathbed.

Make No Excuses for Coming Late

24 May 2009

I started teaching a 5-week hospitality management subject since last Saturday. The class is 8 hours long, with a total of 1 hour break in between. I proposed to my Manager that it should start at 9 am, but was advised that the students would not able to make it to class by that time.

It seemed my Manager was right - only 3 out of 5 students arrived at 10 am on week one and 2 students Sue and Betty (names have been changed for privacy reason) decided not to come at all.

All the students rely on train to get to school. Sue and Betty live in the west suburbs about 25 km and 30 km respectively, the furthest compared with the others. Despite several phone calls to them last week before and after the commencement of class, they chose to stay at home.

To my surprise, Sue and Betty turned up this week around noon, when the class was in recess. After the class resumed, I wanted an explanation from them. As expected, their excuses were they lived far away and the class started too early.

I told them that those were very poor excuses and I had a better “story” for them. When I first came to Australia, I had to take two trams to school. During those torturous cold, dark winter mornings, I was at the tram stop by 6.15 am waiting for the first tram to Melbourne City to arrive. Arriving in the City, I had to change to another tram to my high school. Around 7.30 am, I and two other very studious female students would be waiting at the school gate for the school caretaker to open it. We then dashed up to the library and waited outside for another quarter to half an hour for the librarians to arrive. We were there early to reserve some overnight loan physics reference books.

And then, there was a public transport strike one morning. I did not have the money to take a taxi, but instead I spent 3 hours walking to school. I did not get my reference book that day, because I arrived 1 hour after commencement of the first class!

My stories illustrated that there are people like me, could make it to school much earlier using public transport, and still made it without any transport! That 5-minute deliberation was unlikely to have long last impact on their thinking. They may be, for some reasons, reluctant to go to school. Furthermore, they could not see the benefit for coming early due to past experience.

To this end, I presented two other examples to show them the importance of punctuality:

Example 1
Soon they will be working in the hospitality industry. What can happen if breakfast is served at 7 am and they turn up to work at 9 am? Will the employer and guests be so accommodating to allow this to happen?

Example 2
They invite some friends to come home for dinner at 7 pm and two friends turn up late at 9 pm. The rest of the friends get very hungry, and foods get cold or overcooked. How will they feel as hostesses?

Finally, I quoted what my mother used to say to her children, “you may not fully realise my intention of what I am doing to you now, until you become a parent yourself”.

No others teachers would have the patience or dare to challenge the students this way - probably they do not have similar personal experience or any plausible arguments to overcome such “objections”; they may be indifferent towards the life wellbeing of the students, thinking that they are just someone else’s children; they may think that the students are already mature enough to understand life.

All I am asking for is that my students turn up at 9 am, so that they can get the maximum benefit from my teaching – for the subject as well as about life experience.

I hope to Sue, Betty, and the rest of the students come to class on time next week! I also hope that they will convey my simple stories to other people to make this a better world!

Good Luck, Madonna

5/4/2009

I hardly know anything about Madonna’s stardom or singing, but her recent news on adopting another child from Malawi aroused my interest.

Madonna, a soon-to-be a single mother of three, with great wealth, wants to adopt a second child from poverty-stricken nation is admirable, and indeed shows her humanity of the highest degree. While many philanthropic millionaires are prepared to part with their money supporting charitable organisations or programs, Madonna goes one step further by sharing her love with the orphans. Whether she is going to raise the child personally or employing a nanny to do it on her behalf, the adopted child will no longer have to suffer the torture of nature’s elements, be fed, clothed, educated and medically looked after.

Short-sighted public will view that her action of adoption as selfish and against human rights. People who can afford food to fill their stomachs do not understand what real hunger is. They might go on 40-hour fasting campaign just to experience the suffering, but after which hunger is just another word. Continuous hunger and poverty do not give much hope and dignity to the sufferers. What can these do-gooders do to help alleviate such reality?

Madonna has fame and wealth. Her sincere action is not for publicity; she was greatly saddened by the decision of being knocked back by the Malawi’s High Court in adopting the second child. Her facial expression revealed her disappointment and sadness from within. She wanted this girl, Mercy, to be a sister to the first adopted child David, both are three years old.

What she has done and hopefully continues to do may be considered as an act of “pay-forward”. I do not believe she will ask for any financial return from her adopted children, but I do believe her goodwill will probably influence many more people with good intention to follow her footsteps. Further, when these adopted children grow up, they may do a better job than Madonna in helping more needy people, in Malawi or anywhere else in the world.

This is not the end of her journey to adopt Mercy. While Malawi’s High Court’s concern that the case could open the flood gate for trafficking children seems legitimate, Madonna’s previous adoption has set a precedence and thus provides a good hearing of her appeal.

Financial support does not necessary express love and humanity. Nothing is more comforting, fulfilling and getting a greater sense of security than a cuddle from another human, especially that from a mother.

My regular visit to an aged care home

The events are real, but the names of the characters have been changed for privacy reason - 1/4/2009

I am a community health visitor. The people I visit are my known as clients, not patients. Not all of them are frail, bed-bound or wheelchair-bound; some choose not to live alone after their spouses have passed away. My role is simple – just to chat with them!

I used to visit late Tim, a 92 years old gentleman, living in an aged care home. Normally I spent an hour or so chatting with him in his room, a confined area, which at times the air was filled with strong scent of medicated oil. Later, I decided to accompany him to the dining room where he had his lunch with the other residents. Since then, I got to know some other dinners.

Early last year, due to my returning to real estate profession, I could not make time to visit Tom for a few months, until the beginning of this year. By then, I was told, Tom had left his ill health and pain to a world where probably suffering was unknown. I continued to drop in because I had could chat with the dinners who shared the same table with Tim previously.

This afternoon was 30ºC, too hot and unbearable for my liking. I arrived at the aged care home around 12:25pm. By the time I reached the dining room, Bev had already finished her lunch and returned to her room. I greeted the usual residents, Bill, Paul, Jack and Ashton, whom I knew better than the others.

I sat between Paul on my left who was on his wheelchair at the head of the table, and Jack on my right. Ashton was directly across me. Before I got into the swing of things, Paul finished his meal and an assistant helped him back to his room.

I believe I am good telling stories not only to children, but also to adults – including my students at colleges. Besides story, I can turn boring and difficult subjects into something interesting and hair-raising at times. Today’s story was about how the “Tree Man” in Indonesia underwent numerous operations and treatments that brought him back to normality. The Tree Man looked very horrific, and as a child would say, he looked scary. Before he contracted the disease, he was as normal as the rest of the members in the family – parents, brother and even his children. However, there was no mention about his wife.

The Tree Man’s face was dotted with dark scales caused by some form of virus. The excessive growth covering the hands resembled tree branches, and the legs tree roots. An American medical professor had the opportunity to visit the Tree Man prior to the operation, and conducted biopsy on samples of the “growth” from various parts of the body. The results showed that warts caused the growth – the same type that could attack anyone. A normal person possesses immunity to destroy the warts, and prevents uncontrolled growth.

Jack and Ashton were really fascinated with the story. Jack added a few comments along the way, but the quiet one Ashton had his eyes wide opened, and jaw dropped. I went on describing how the surgeons used power tools to cut off the “branches” and “roots”, a total of more 6 kg. The Tree Man received chemotherapy and medical treatment to kill off the warts from within, and using the uninfected skin from his back to graft on badly affected area after numerous operations.

By the time I finished the story, the dining room was almost empty. Jack and Ashton were ready to return to them respective rooms. I walked Ashton to his door, and bid him goodbye.

Bridge over troubled water!

Far too often, politicians respond to public outcry when an unpopular incidence occurs. In fact, governments do kowtow to vocal group of people, whose voice can possibly tarnish their image and even lead to an election downfall.

The state government has decided, or rather brought forward spending money, on erecting barriers over the West Gate Bridge so that in future people will not jump over the bridge or throw their children over the same. I am not being cynical, but this move is nothing more than just to pacify the public and does not really make sense at all. If these crazy people can’t do it on the West Gate Bridge, they can use any other bridge, including pedestrian bridge, or bridge above the freeway. In addition, there are so many buildings with balconies, open roof tops and multi-storey public car parks with no enclosed walls on the sides overlooking the streets. There are also other means besides throwing a body from great height.

It is understandable that losing a life is more than just statistics. The fault does not lie on the design of the bridge, but on the people who are mentally unstable. The society cannot keep taking the blame, and feel sorry for injury inflicted or death sought by those who have the intention to do so at all cost. Spending precious taxpayers’ money without good justification is no less lunatic than those misusing the West Gate Bridge!

Students Living in Poverty

University or higher education is a privilege and not a right. Anyone who can make it should have planned carefully before enrolling and taking on the challenge. We cannot choose whatever societal system just to please our needs. We cannot expect everyone in the society to pick up the bills to educate us, or to clothe, feed or shelter us. Neither should we expect the society to raise our children! If this is what we expect or demand from the society, then we must go for a socialistic or communistic society, not a democratic and capitalistic one. Far too often, when graduates start to earn money, some may earn lots and lots of it, they will change their mind about supporting students living below the poverty line.

There is no rule to say at what age a student shall be attending university. The student should take responsibility of his/her destiny If one cannot make it by 19 years old then join the education train later, but works towards it with his/her strength and might. He/she may have to work 2 jobs or 3, 60 hours or 90, to save the necessary monies for university fees and expenses.

I had been a university student many times, but never expected handout. I worked hard for it!