civilisationReview

Merry Christmas, not, 'Happy Holidays', or 'Happy Break from Work and sleep till noon'. A Merry, 'Love thy Neighbour as thyself' Day that serves as a resolution for the countdown to the next Christmas that might, hence, make that a day where we celebrate our being a living illustration of that Ideal. It's a celebration of an Ideal, as espoused in Christ's 13th Commandment, 'Love thy Neighbour as thyself'.  It's a celebration of the birthday of the one who was born out of, and for, Love, for humanity, with empathy, and with humility - which makes it just about one of the most significant of Socialist statements in human history.  It matters not whether you believe He is the 'Son of God', or 'just a Prophet', or 'just a bloke'.  It matters not if you believe that it was an Immaculate Conception, or if God exists, of if the birth of Christ was on the 25th of December or January the 6th.  What matters, as I stated, is th...

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I was watching Jeeves and Wooster last night (one of my favourite shows) and there was a scene where 'Wooster' exclaims, 'Blasted!' and all the women present, including Aunt Agatha, took great exception to it (see video below - "Bertie! Kindly restrain your language!"...which can be paraphrased with, "Kindly restrain your passion/opposition").

 Now, literally, there is nothing vulgar about 'Blast' - unless, of course, it was to be expressed through one's rear end in a crowded restaurant during the main course, and within earshot of all present. But i suppose it is the expression of passion and and vigour that might at times seem vulgar to the relatively dispassionate.

  I suppose the curtailment of passion does, in a way, vasectomise and ligate the population into political and perspectival impotence, whilst rendering them objective enough to do their best to put up with a bad situation with a cool head instead of attempting to get rid ...

(part of the following was placed as a comment beneath the ‘Mashable’ article, ‘ Why Women Make Excellent Entrepreneurs in the Digital Age ’) The positive ‘traditional’ traits of women become negative ones when such traits are molded to fit and succeed in a patriarchal/capitalist status quo. One can say that, ‘boobs are the new balls’ That is when women, previously being more empathetic and detailed within the family unit, in the present, becomes, ‘being able to know people profoundly enough to exploit them better’. That, in a sense, can make them ‘better’ than men….or worse human beings. And men being unable to own women as they unfortunately did in the past, will be more easily subjugated, in return for favours from a smile to a date, to sex, to marriage, and hence, be easily led by these women-turned-men. Women will be setting the new ideal for ‘manhood’ by presenting traits that men would eventually have to take on to be considered equals.  One can say that, ‘boobs are the ne...

On the basis of reason, I refuse to subscribe to the belief and faith in the 'bi-polar' condition. It makes people think that this is an internal/mental/psychological condition as opposed to a situational/environmental one. That entrenches them in this condition which can become a self-fulfilling prophecy where one can actually expect to have mood swings instead of realising that one's situation and a failure to formulate correct strategies is the true cause of their mood swings.  For instance, when a person is in a good/objective mood, that person who also believes that s/he is ‘bi-polar’ can actually expect this ‘good mood’ status to change to a ‘bad/depressive/anxious’ mood.  This belief itself can cause it to happen as it will lead one to expect the end of a ‘good mood’ and simultaneously lead one to begin focusing on information/memories of how one felt when in a bad mood previously/physical sensations like high heart-rate/etc that eventually brings it about - hence, t...

Sometimes, it is what we buy into today that determines what innovations are left out tomorrow That's about the size of it.  When people started buying the Ipod Nano - which basically gave you less space for more money - I knew that this didn't bode well for the 'innovations' of the morrow.  That basically slowed down technological progress or else we would have seen large storage spaces in smaller sizes today, and the larger storage spaces that are available in smaller sizes today much earlier. You could say that Apple is one of the greatest evils of our times, and Jobs, one of the greatest of the devil's minions, not because it is evil per se, but because it's products are popular enough to be used as a medium to compromise the objective sense and sensibilities of many. Profit is paramount in capitalism.  That is why, as there is no immediate profit from feeding the hungry or poverty-stricken areas, 4000 children die every day in certain parts of the world...

Alright.  Those amongst us whom aren’t self-absorbed ignoramuses know that some dictators, knowing that they are going to be under attack by western imperialists, surround their place of refuge with civilians in the hope that the attack would be thwarted by the alleged ‘humanity’ of the western elite. So the western-led media keeps banging on about how this or that dictator, from Saddam to Gaddafi, use ‘human shields’ to absolve themselves from the explosive consequence of their actions.  So this ‘human shield’ thing is usually used by the savages outside of the western world right? Bollocks. The west use ‘human shields’ all the time.  In fact, they use them every day, 24/7.  More so than any non-western dictator of this medieval age.  It’s a simple formula actually.  S/he who goes about pissing off others for their own interests knows full well that if or when those they pissed off retaliate, its probably going to hit their civilians since places of govern...

'Singlish' It is an amalgam of words from various languages.  Yes.  But what is ignored is that most of the non-Chinese words in the language was included in the past - 70s, 80s, and not the present.  The Singlish of today has a greater Chinese-English mix than Malay-indian-Chinese mix. The Singlish that is supposed to be evidence of a fusion between cultures is actually an accommodation of Chinese styles of thought and speech even though it contains words from different languages. This can be seen clearly in the transliteration of mandarin-to-singlish terms.  Here’s an example - ‘where got?’, meaning, ‘who said so’, or serves as a denial.  It is actually a direct  transliteration of the mandarin, ‘na li you’, or ‘where have’.  Or, ‘how come like this/that’ is a direct translation of ‘wei she me zhe yang’.  Whilst it is said in English, or ‘Singlish’, and used by all ‘Singlish’ proponents and practioners, it is actually a transliteration of Manda...

When I first came across this sign about a year ago - and to which I've alluded to in this site intermittently - I was thoroughly taken aback. I kept silent and directed a couple of local Chinese mates whom were with me to take a look at it. After they had read through it, I asked them what they thought about it and if they saw anything amiss. They looked at me as if wondering why I would ask such a question. I smiled, and asked, "What place is this?" "Little India", they responded. "And the information here is about whom?" After a few seconds, as the British would say, 'the pin dropped', and they got it. I've often said a decade ago, that the other ethnic groups became persona non grata the moment the government stated that singapore must always have a Chinese majority. With the SAP school system, the 'speak mandarin it's cool' and 'appreciate chinese culture' campaigns, the Chingay festival amongst others that...