Today, I attended a talk on the upcoming U.S. presidential elections at the HELP College of Arts and Technology at Fraser Business Park, KL. The title of the talk was "Road to the White House: Candidates and Issues in 2012." This talk was sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Malaysia, and the speaker is David Yepsen, who is currently the Executive Director at the Paul Simon Institute of Public Policy at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. You can see his bio here. David Yepsen had been a journalist for most of his career and specialised in political reporting.
Unfortunately, due to a miscommunication, I arrived late at the talk, and the speaker was already fielding questions from the audience. One of the interesting things he said was "Politics is not about 'what you did for me' but 'what you are going to do for me?'" This is something politicians need to give serious thought to. He notes that when an incumbent does something right, it is expected of him/her.
An audience member asked him what a primary and caucus is. A primary, or rather primary election, is basically an election to choose a candidate from within a party for another bigger contest. An example would be the U.S. Republican Party presidential primaries to choose a candidate to challenge Barack Obama for the presidency.
A caucus is a meeting of supporters and members of a political party or movement, kind of like a town hall meeting of members. One of the suggested origins of the word "caucus" is from an Algonquian (a Native American tribe) word meaning counsel.
He also talked about the growing political polarisation in the U.S. due to the existing power structure and gerrymandering. (The word "gerrymandering" was named after a 19th century former Massachusetts governor named Elbridge Gerry. Mitt Romney is also a former Massachusetts governor.) Growing political polarisation is also becoming more evident in many countries.
Other audience members asked about the U.S.-Russia arms race and the what he thinks the U.S. would do to influence the dynamics of the relationship between China and Southeast Asia. This is in view of the current spat between China and the Philippines. He cleverly noted that it is in the U.S.'s interest to have China buy their goods to boost their economy; so they have no reason to cheese off China. Also, the great pressure and peacemaker for any national leader is to ensure economic growth. He felt that Obama and Romney would have the same foreign policy outlook where this is concerned.
Yepsen also stated that while campaigning, candidates can make all sorts of promises, but once they are in power, their ability and influence will become more limited. They are likely to adopt more centrist views, rather than those that are closer to their election promises. Considering the power of the various special interests groups and of Congress itself, that seems pretty close to the mark. Overall, I felt that the talk got good response, with many students asking questions. But I also noted (at least the time I was there) that it was the foreign students who were more interested in asking questions.
After the talk, I had a chat with Franklin Morais, the head of the department in HELP that hosted this lecture. He mentioned some of the things Mr. Yepsen said that I had missed out. Yepsen mentioned that today, 53% of U.S. voters are women and they are a very powerful voting bloc. But at this point in time, compared to men, they are still way below men in terms of social influence. For example, women only make up 17% of the U.S. Congress. The shifting demographics (the white people are a minority in the U.S. now) will also play a influential role in the elections.
Too bad I missed the talk; I'd imagine it would have been really interesting. I thought he handled the Q&A really well.
Here's a video of him talking about the Iowa Caucus.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
"me against the world" by Charles Bukowski
I recently came across this poem, "me against the world", by Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) in the Best American Poetry 1994 compilation (Touchstone, 1994):
when I was a kid
one of the questions asked was,
would you rather eat a bucket of shit
or drink a bucket of piss?
I thought that was easy.
"that's easy," I said, "I'll take the
piss."
"maybe we'll make you do both,"
they told me.
I was the new kid in the
neighborhood.
"oh yeah," I said.
"yeah!" they said.
there were 4 of them.
"yeah," I said, "you and whose
army?"
"we won't need no army," the
biggest one said.
I slammed my fist into his
stomach.
then all 5 of us were down on
the ground fighting.
they got in each other's way
but there were still too many
of them.
I broke free and started
running.
"sissy! sissy!" they yelled.
"going home to mama?"
I kept running.
they were right.
I ran all the way to my house,
up the driveway and onto the
porch and into the
house
where my father was beating
my mother.
she was screaming.
things were broken on the floor.
I charged my father and started swinging.
I reached up but he was too tall,
all I could hit were his
legs.
then there was a flash of red and
purple and green
and I was on the floor.
"you little prick!" my father said,
"you stay out of this!"
"don't you hit my boy!" my mother
screamed.
but I felt good because my father
was no longer hitting my
mother.
to make sure, I got up and charged
him again, swinging.
there was another flash of colors
and I was on the floor
again.
when I got up again
my father was sitting in one chair
and my mother was sitting in
another chair
and they both just sat there
looking at me.
I walked down the hall and into
my bedroom and sat on the
bed.
I listened to make sure there
weren't any more sounds of
beating or screaming
out there.
there weren't.
then I didn't know what to
do.
it wasn't any good outside
and it wasn't any good
inside.
so I just sat there.
then I saw a spider making a web
in the window.
I found a match, walked over,
lit it and burned the spider.
then I felt better.
much better.
I was moved and took a liking to it immediately (and there are other gems in this compilation). It would appear as if this poem was inspired by Bukowski's real-life experience. As a child, he was often physically and verbally abused by his father, who was largely unemployed in the 1930s. His mother did not do anything to stop those beatings.
As a result, Bukowski became a socially-withdrawn child, and at the age of 13, picked up drinking at the urging of a friend whose father was an alcoholic surgeon. He remained an alcoholic pretty much for the rest of his life. As a teenager, he was socially awkward and was often made fun of by his peers. When he was old enough, Bukowski moved to New York City and worked a variety of jobs before establishing himself as a major American poet.
The angst and despair of the child in the poem is a reflection of the troubles besetting children in troubled families, especially those trapped in poverty. And in this poem, the child draws comfort from killing a spider in a cruel way. (Bukowski was not known to be abusive to people or animals. If anything, he had numerous love affairs and trysts with women and have used these experiences to write poetry).
This poem is beautiful and melancholy.
when I was a kid
one of the questions asked was,
would you rather eat a bucket of shit
or drink a bucket of piss?
I thought that was easy.
"that's easy," I said, "I'll take the
piss."
"maybe we'll make you do both,"
they told me.
I was the new kid in the
neighborhood.
"oh yeah," I said.
"yeah!" they said.
there were 4 of them.
"yeah," I said, "you and whose
army?"
"we won't need no army," the
biggest one said.
I slammed my fist into his
stomach.
then all 5 of us were down on
the ground fighting.
they got in each other's way
but there were still too many
of them.
I broke free and started
running.
"sissy! sissy!" they yelled.
"going home to mama?"
I kept running.
they were right.
I ran all the way to my house,
up the driveway and onto the
porch and into the
house
where my father was beating
my mother.
she was screaming.
things were broken on the floor.
I charged my father and started swinging.
I reached up but he was too tall,
all I could hit were his
legs.
then there was a flash of red and
purple and green
and I was on the floor.
"you little prick!" my father said,
"you stay out of this!"
"don't you hit my boy!" my mother
screamed.
but I felt good because my father
was no longer hitting my
mother.
to make sure, I got up and charged
him again, swinging.
there was another flash of colors
and I was on the floor
again.
when I got up again
my father was sitting in one chair
and my mother was sitting in
another chair
and they both just sat there
looking at me.
I walked down the hall and into
my bedroom and sat on the
bed.
I listened to make sure there
weren't any more sounds of
beating or screaming
out there.
there weren't.
then I didn't know what to
do.
it wasn't any good outside
and it wasn't any good
inside.
so I just sat there.
then I saw a spider making a web
in the window.
I found a match, walked over,
lit it and burned the spider.
then I felt better.
much better.
I was moved and took a liking to it immediately (and there are other gems in this compilation). It would appear as if this poem was inspired by Bukowski's real-life experience. As a child, he was often physically and verbally abused by his father, who was largely unemployed in the 1930s. His mother did not do anything to stop those beatings.
As a result, Bukowski became a socially-withdrawn child, and at the age of 13, picked up drinking at the urging of a friend whose father was an alcoholic surgeon. He remained an alcoholic pretty much for the rest of his life. As a teenager, he was socially awkward and was often made fun of by his peers. When he was old enough, Bukowski moved to New York City and worked a variety of jobs before establishing himself as a major American poet.
The angst and despair of the child in the poem is a reflection of the troubles besetting children in troubled families, especially those trapped in poverty. And in this poem, the child draws comfort from killing a spider in a cruel way. (Bukowski was not known to be abusive to people or animals. If anything, he had numerous love affairs and trysts with women and have used these experiences to write poetry).
This poem is beautiful and melancholy.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
The Wave
I got a second-hand copy of Todd Strasser's The Wave, and last night, I decided to read it. And guess what? I finished it that very night itself. While the book itself is only over 140 pages, the story was so arresting that I somehow wanted to finish it in one night - something no book has made me done in a long time. I first heard about this book while reading The Freedom Writers Diary.
The Wave is a young adult novel published in 1981, and this book was based on a telemovie, which you can see below in its entirety:
The story is set in Gordon High School, in 1969, where Ben Ross, the main character teaches history. During one lesson on the atrocities of Nazi Germany, his students asked him how could those horrible things happen in an advanced society. They were upset, and Mr. Ross wasn't sure how he could answer them.
So he devised an experiment to show that fascism can exist in a democratic society. He begins to "indoctrinate" the students in his history class and have them perform acts of discipline and shout slogans in order to bolster "unity" among the students. He then formed a group called "The Wave" in order to strengthen their solidarity further. "The Wave" even has a symbol, and members greet each other with a particular hand movement...does this sound eerily familiar?
At first "The Wave" receives praise from the school community, as it successfully instils discipline and a sense of community in students who are largely lackadaisical. Even the "class creep", Robert Billings becomes more socially acceptable through his participation in "The Wave". But as the "The Wave" expands, things change.
The thing is, this book is actually based on a real high school experiment that was carried out in 1967 in Palo Alto, California. The teacher, Rob Jones, wanted to prove that the ideals of fascism appealed even in a democracy. On the fourth day of the experiment, Ron Jones terminated the experiment as he felt it was getting out of control. He wrote about this experience some nine years after the original experiment, in this lengthy essay.
This book has also inspired the German movie Die Welle (The Wave), whose trailer follows:
If you can find this book, I highly recommend you read it. It is an interesting study on how people in a supposedly democratic society can be influenced to behave in conformist manners, even destructive ones.
The Wave is a young adult novel published in 1981, and this book was based on a telemovie, which you can see below in its entirety:
The story is set in Gordon High School, in 1969, where Ben Ross, the main character teaches history. During one lesson on the atrocities of Nazi Germany, his students asked him how could those horrible things happen in an advanced society. They were upset, and Mr. Ross wasn't sure how he could answer them.
So he devised an experiment to show that fascism can exist in a democratic society. He begins to "indoctrinate" the students in his history class and have them perform acts of discipline and shout slogans in order to bolster "unity" among the students. He then formed a group called "The Wave" in order to strengthen their solidarity further. "The Wave" even has a symbol, and members greet each other with a particular hand movement...does this sound eerily familiar?
At first "The Wave" receives praise from the school community, as it successfully instils discipline and a sense of community in students who are largely lackadaisical. Even the "class creep", Robert Billings becomes more socially acceptable through his participation in "The Wave". But as the "The Wave" expands, things change.
The thing is, this book is actually based on a real high school experiment that was carried out in 1967 in Palo Alto, California. The teacher, Rob Jones, wanted to prove that the ideals of fascism appealed even in a democracy. On the fourth day of the experiment, Ron Jones terminated the experiment as he felt it was getting out of control. He wrote about this experience some nine years after the original experiment, in this lengthy essay.
This book has also inspired the German movie Die Welle (The Wave), whose trailer follows:
If you can find this book, I highly recommend you read it. It is an interesting study on how people in a supposedly democratic society can be influenced to behave in conformist manners, even destructive ones.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Colman McCarthy - Teaching Peace
This is a really inspiring talk by Colman McCarthy about peace and the need for peace education in schools.
He started off righly by saying that all of us got to where we are due to the effort and help given by others. And the best way to repay those debts of gratitude is to become a peacemaker.
He rightly points out that "peace is the result of love, and if love was easy, we'd all be good at it." The great peacemakers that he has interviewed, like Mairead Corrigan, Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Yunus, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, always told him that in order to decrease violence, you need to go to where people are.
And thus, he started going to local high schools to "teach peace", and to introduce peace studies. He also mentioned that students today graduate from high school peace illiterate, and are therefore vulnerable to cycles of violence. "If we don't teach the children peace, unless we teach them peace, somebody else will teach them violence."
People would ask him. how would "peace" ever work? He cited examples where brutal dictatorships and social systems were brought down by peaceful, non-violent means. He cited Ferdinand Marcos, Augustus Pinochet, and how apartheid was demolished by non-violent means.
This talk, given at the University of California at Santa Barbara,under the auspices of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation headed by David Krieger.
I found it to be a very inspiring talk on how important it is to teach our children peace. The education system is working overtime to teach children "knowledge" and "skills", but not values that enable them to live the right path in life.
Peace studies, dialogue, conflict resolution are among some important studies that ought to be taught to students in the future, and soon.
He started off righly by saying that all of us got to where we are due to the effort and help given by others. And the best way to repay those debts of gratitude is to become a peacemaker.
He rightly points out that "peace is the result of love, and if love was easy, we'd all be good at it." The great peacemakers that he has interviewed, like Mairead Corrigan, Desmond Tutu, Muhammad Yunus, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, always told him that in order to decrease violence, you need to go to where people are.
And thus, he started going to local high schools to "teach peace", and to introduce peace studies. He also mentioned that students today graduate from high school peace illiterate, and are therefore vulnerable to cycles of violence. "If we don't teach the children peace, unless we teach them peace, somebody else will teach them violence."
People would ask him. how would "peace" ever work? He cited examples where brutal dictatorships and social systems were brought down by peaceful, non-violent means. He cited Ferdinand Marcos, Augustus Pinochet, and how apartheid was demolished by non-violent means.
This talk, given at the University of California at Santa Barbara,under the auspices of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation headed by David Krieger.
I found it to be a very inspiring talk on how important it is to teach our children peace. The education system is working overtime to teach children "knowledge" and "skills", but not values that enable them to live the right path in life.
Peace studies, dialogue, conflict resolution are among some important studies that ought to be taught to students in the future, and soon.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
The Future of Nuclear Weapons
Jayantha Dhanapala is the President of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and former United Nations Under-Secretary General for Disarmament. In this video, he talks to Steve Paikin of The Agenda on the future of nuclear weapons.
He says that today, "the greatest worries are that we could have a nuclear weapon being used, either by accident, or by design, and by state actors, who have nuclear weapons, or by non-state actors - terrorist groups. It's become much more diversified, much more complex, and much more dangerous than the cold war situation."
He also stressed that dialogue and negotiations are the way towards resolving our nuclear problem, not sanctions and pre-emptive strikes. He also called upon the major nuclear states to show leadership in reducing their nuclear arms. Eventually, nuclear weapons must be outlawed, and a nuclear weapons convention must exist.
He also pointed out the hypocrisy of major powers on allowing the peaceful use of nuclear power, saying that when a regime change occured, their attitudes suddenly changed. He also pointed out that it cannot be proven that nuclear deterrence and the "balance of terror" has helped kept the peace.
The host asked at the end, perhaps with some disbelief, "Is a world without nuclear weapons genuinely achievable? Mr. Dhanapala replied confidently that "It is achievable. We scaled many mountains in international relations. We though that slavery could not ba abolished because it was an institution that fed a lot of economies in the world - but it was abolished. We thought that women's right to vote would not be achievable, but it was achieved. We thought that apartheid was immutable, but it was destroyed finally. And so, I'm sure that we can, with the right political will and the part of countries, and the leadership of the right people like President Obama, achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons."
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Newspaper headlines this weekend (26-27 June 2010)
The newspaper headlines (The Star, especially) over this weekend have not had really good things to talk about. Today, were were greeted with news that foreign workers working on the spanking new Istana Negara had not been paid their wages:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/27/nation/6557795&sec=nation
Yesterday, it was this news about the rise of teenaged mothers in Malaysia:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/26/nation/6549733&sec=nation
It would be a shame indeed if the palace meant for our sovereign is built on what could turn out to be slave labour (how was the White House built originally?). In this country, we love to moralise about all sorts of stuff, but there is this RM 800 million behemoth being built in our capital, on prime land, fuelled by discrimination and suffering. It was particularly disturbing to read that one of the ladies, who lives in the kongsi on the construction site, had to hide in the nearby woods with her baby to avoid the authorities during raids. Sometimes, she had to spend the night there with her baby.
As for the case of teenaged mothers, we still have a long way to go in educating our youth on the consequences of sexual relationships and how to handle them responsibly. Simply demonising and condemning young people and pregnant teens obviously do not work. For those who become pregnant, yes, they may have made a mistake, but the last thing they need is to face humiliation and punishment. They are in enough pain already. What they need is counselling and support from society.
"Life is the most precious of all treasures", a Buddhist sage once wrote. Babies that are born out of wedlock are not guilty of any crime or sin.
Where both news are concerned, we must recognise that they involve human beings just like us. Simply applying labels like "illegal", "imigrants", "slut" and others will not help the situation. We must recognise their humanity too.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/27/nation/6557795&sec=nation
Yesterday, it was this news about the rise of teenaged mothers in Malaysia:
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/6/26/nation/6549733&sec=nation
It would be a shame indeed if the palace meant for our sovereign is built on what could turn out to be slave labour (how was the White House built originally?). In this country, we love to moralise about all sorts of stuff, but there is this RM 800 million behemoth being built in our capital, on prime land, fuelled by discrimination and suffering. It was particularly disturbing to read that one of the ladies, who lives in the kongsi on the construction site, had to hide in the nearby woods with her baby to avoid the authorities during raids. Sometimes, she had to spend the night there with her baby.
As for the case of teenaged mothers, we still have a long way to go in educating our youth on the consequences of sexual relationships and how to handle them responsibly. Simply demonising and condemning young people and pregnant teens obviously do not work. For those who become pregnant, yes, they may have made a mistake, but the last thing they need is to face humiliation and punishment. They are in enough pain already. What they need is counselling and support from society.
"Life is the most precious of all treasures", a Buddhist sage once wrote. Babies that are born out of wedlock are not guilty of any crime or sin.
Where both news are concerned, we must recognise that they involve human beings just like us. Simply applying labels like "illegal", "imigrants", "slut" and others will not help the situation. We must recognise their humanity too.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
What happens to human beings when a nuclear weapon explodes?
This is what happens to human beings and living beings when they get close enough to the epicentre of an atomic bomb blast.
The clip is from the 1983 Japanese anime, Barefoot Gen (Jpn: Hadashi no Gen). This anime is in turn based on a manga series of the same name by Keiji Nakazawa. The comic itself is loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing (commonly known as hibakusha in Japan).
The scenes, though just animation, was horrifying and cruel. Therefore, justifying the existence of nuclear weapons as "strategic" is nonsense indeed. The existence of nuclear weapons will always hang like a sword of Damocles over humanity. As it is, we already have enough nuclear weapons to annihilate all of humanity several times over.
Nuclear weapons are the ultimate threat to the dignity of all life. There is no other choice but for us to work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons.
The clip is from the 1983 Japanese anime, Barefoot Gen (Jpn: Hadashi no Gen). This anime is in turn based on a manga series of the same name by Keiji Nakazawa. The comic itself is loosely based on Nakazawa's own experiences as a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing (commonly known as hibakusha in Japan).
The scenes, though just animation, was horrifying and cruel. Therefore, justifying the existence of nuclear weapons as "strategic" is nonsense indeed. The existence of nuclear weapons will always hang like a sword of Damocles over humanity. As it is, we already have enough nuclear weapons to annihilate all of humanity several times over.
Nuclear weapons are the ultimate threat to the dignity of all life. There is no other choice but for us to work towards the abolition of nuclear weapons.
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