Not in your backyard, then in whose backyard?

Recently, there are voices against converting an unused school into dormitory for foreign workers. It is a real concern. However, by voicing against it won't do the whole situation better. I think some of the more fundamental issues are:

• Uneven prosperity among nations.
• Employees wholesome care is not catered for.
• Reluctant to embrace changes and others.

First one is very ... fundamental, and everyone recognizes it. However, because of its unlikelihood to be achieved withing one career lifetime, most office bearers would not spend much efforts and resources into it. It is a typical case of important but not urgent tasks that people tend to ignore.

The second point is about the current employment arrangement. I think the concept of employee is quite modern, around the time of the industrial revolution. Traditionally, family as a unit is very important, and I notice it in the Oriental culture that I am from. For e.g., it is crucial for maid to made public that she does not intend to get married because it is obvious that being a maid means one cannot afford to be a wife and a mother. The recent developments in the past few decades gave the illusion that it could be done, but it couldn't. Another example, in some Korean drama I watched, stories depict that in the last generations, the boss will house the whole family of the domestic helper within their own house. Basically, to view a person as just a person is fundamentally wrong. Family should be the unit within employment arrangement. Thus, the foreign workers' families must be taken into consideration when arranging for one or some of them to work here.

The third point can also be termed as plain selfishness. By pushing a problem away doesn't solve or make it better, but only make those who managed to push it away better. Especially here, the government have policies to ensure a mix of races in each public housing block. Now, if we ignore the importance of mixing foreign workers into our community, then those conflicts we only watch in the news in other neighboring countries will soon start to appear here.

Nevertheless, there are real concerns that triggered the petition against the move by the residents. However, the concerns should trigger solutions and ways to improve or manage the new arrangement instead of just simply asking for the problem to go to somebody else backyard.

Look deeper

Recently there is a study and the focus is on Indians are ignorant about sex till age 15. From the western perspective, this is a problem, but is it?

If a kid body temperature is found to be 37.8 degrees Celsius, it is an issue from the western medicine perspective, but is it? During the SARS in 2003, guidelines were given to disallowed children with fever to go to school. However, there were a number of kids were being kept away from school for many days because their daily temperature ranges much higher than the "normal" 37 degrees. Later, it was recognized that ... although their measured temperatures were higher than 37 degrees, they are not having fever nor feeling unwell.

So, what's going on? We should not just look at numbers and forget about the context. The normal 37 degrees is an average derived from observations, but not based on theory. For a person who is not similar to those being observed, or even for an individual among those observed, we shouldn't insist that the person normal temperature be that average.

Another example, if there were a study on general knowledge regarding winter, I am quite sure that Singaporeans will have extremely low scores. However, this will not be a worry because such knowledge is not relevant in Singapore, unless the weather changes drastically. Put it another way, it is not that Singaporeans have failed to acquire winter knowledge or Singapore education system has overlooked this area, but the circumstances here doesn't require us to know so much about winter.

So, what does the result Indians are ignorant about sex till age 15 suggest? Does it suggest that Indians are in danger because of this ignorant? Does it mean the India education system is behind time? I seriously don't think so. It should reflect that in India, most people do not need to worry about these knowledge because they are relatively much safer than the western world as they are not too affected by the bad influences from the sexual revolution since the 60's [yet].

Thus, the alarm is that how could we delay or avoid the influence of the terrible sexual revolution?

Purpose of rules

When each rule is being formalized, it has clear purpose during the time that they were being set. However, circumstances change, and usually more rules are added, or rules are being enhanced to tackle these changes. Similarly, some rules may become obsolete, or doesn't correctly achieve the original purpose. However, due to less urgency to look into obsolete rules, many of these remain and create unnecessary restrictions.

E.g. the 1955 rules about no cycling on pedestrian paths here. Firstly, 1955 is more than half a century ago. Secondly, this nation was underdeveloped then and has been a developed nation for about a decade. Thirdly, the meaning of pedestrian path in 1955 is different from now in many new towns where pedestrian paths are much wider.

Many a times, ... in order not to have these restrictions, the regulatory bodies ignore such obsolete rules, but this gives the wrong impression that the regulatory bodies are powerless or all rules can be ignored.

Actually, the reason that triggered me to write this post is a recent interaction with PayPerPost. My post, Yummy citrus-marinated flame-grilled chicken, was first rejected due to their suspicion that the post before it, Accountable advertising is a sponsored post. Later, they give me the benefit of doubt on my statement that the latter post is not a sponsored post. However, I re-dated the post, which was a remedy action I queried about together in my statement to them, and they didn't warn me that it was not allowed. Sadly, that yummy post was rejected due to this.

I respect their rules, and their need to enforce it by rejecting my post. However, I believe it is clear that I do not have any intention to try to do something that the rule is there to prevent, which I've yet to figure out. I also believe that there isn't any harm done to anyone during the short period when my post was re-dated and again re-dated back to the original date.

This post is triggered by the above incident, but it is not directed to PayPerPost. Rules are good because there are clear and many of them can be enforced by computer. Yet, we are humans. We create rules for us to have guidelines, but not to absolutely follow them. When applying rules, we need to exercise our wisdom, which the computer still lack behind us a lot, to decide if an act is rightfully against the purpose of a certain rule.

PS: A realisation from this. PayPerPost's Customer Love really loves their customers, and bloggers/posties are not their customers, but suppliers.

Expenses vs Investment

I read with interest this article dated back in July 2006 about the cost of remodeling your house. Differentiating between an expense and an investment is tricky. Is buying a house an investment, or an expense? We have to know is the house an asset, or not. An asset will bring in revenues. The post talk about renovation of an existing house and Forbes reported that most remodeling and renovations did not bring in profit, or even recover its full cost.

In essence, I think the author put it clearly and nicely here:
"Real renovation investments involve cheap improvements to the house that make it look good, right before a sale. You generally try to spend as little as possible to make the house look a lot better than it [currently] actually is." (I don't think we should cheat to make it look better than actual.)

Especially in my country, I heard that renovation is not considered when a home is being valuated because the assumption is that most buyers will re-do it to their likings.

Post Sponsored by Free The Drones Personal Finance Blog.

Conservative

The first definition found through Google search for conservative is "resistant to change"

In this modern world, I suppose most are not resistant to change. However, that doesn't mean they welcome any change. Change by itself is neutral. Thus, to label someone as conservative or liberal is too simplistic.

Wait a minute. What does liberal mean? Google search returns:

broad: showing or characterized by broad-mindedness; "a broad political stance"; "generous and broad sympathies"; "a liberal newspaper"; "tolerant ...
tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition

Wow! Reading these, I wonder how many would still consider himself/herself as a conservative person?

Are those being careful in deciding before making changes conservative? I think they aren't resistant to change by being careful.
Do liberals accept any kind of changes, regardless of if its consequence is obviously bad?

The World is Flat

What a coincidence! I just started reading an E-book "The World is Flat" that talks about globalizations 1.0, 2.0 and now, 3.0. It was talking about how the Internet has virtually allowed anything digitizable to be processed anywhere in the world. I guess natural face to face communication is very much a digitizable event.

Here, I bump into LifeSize. It provides an affordable high definition (HD not only for TV shows) video communications solution that uses advanced technology to deliver a true and natural telepresence experience. LifeSize uses existing broadband connection avoid high cost of special infrastructure setup.

For further featured products such as the LifeSize Room, allow up to six participants to connect in high definition please visit their Video Conference Equipment site.

It says "Do more. Travel less. Be present." I say, "Do more. Travel less for work but more for play. Be present." Reminds me of my dream of living in the wild nature but still able to providing services to anywhere in the world. It is realizing now, with communications already here. Remote power supply is still an issue, but the alternative of self-generating power is feasible for small equipments that require little power such as smart phone and PDA.

Post Sponsored by LifeSize.

Loving thy neighbors

If it were expected that soon a neighbor apartment will suffer from construction defects, such as leakage from pipes, intermittent electricity supply, tiles cracking, walls shaking, etc..

Would caring neighbors assist them by showing them ways to be minimally affected by these defects, and how to live in such conditions?

How about inviting them to our place until another suitable permanent place is found?

Now, if some places on earth are expected to be very badly affected by global warming (or ice-age?? whatever..), shouldn't people move to better locations a wiser option than stubbornly sticking around?

Anyway, does anybody really owns any piece of land?

In the report, UN: Poor Need $86 Billion in Climate Aid,
"Half the cost, $44 billion, would go for "climate-proofing" developing nations' infrastructure while $40 billion would help the poor adapt how the live to cope with climate-related risks, says the panel's report. The other $2 billion would go to strengthening responses to natural disasters."

Humans usually adapt, but not always. The nomads way becomes applicable if a living environment would become too unsuitable for living.

Is it our fault?

Not all thinks global warming is due to human. Furthermore, is global warming a disaster to be or can be avoided? Or is it just natural changes? Have there been people who try to stop the temperature from rising during summer and vice-versa during winter?

Quoting from an article:

----------
But Dr Gray, whose annual forecasts of the number of tropical storms and hurricanes are widely publicised, said a natural cycle of ocean water temperatures - related to the amount of salt in ocean water - was responsible for the global warming that he acknowledges has taken place.

However, he said, that same cycle meant a period of cooling would begin soon and last for several years.

...

"The human impact on the atmosphere is simply too small to have a major effect on global temperatures," Dr Gray said.

He said his beliefs had made him an outsider in popular science.

"It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong," he said. "But they also know that they'd never get any grants if they spoke out. I don't care about grants."
----------

On matters about science, who would you listen more to, a scientist, or a politician's movie?

Can I buy lesser quantity?

Pay more can buy more, but can we pay less buy less?

There is some kind of lower bound, because raw-material costs is not the main factor. Long time ago ice-kachang can be sold at less than a dollar. The cost of water/ice, red beans and etc didn't change much. However, now it can cost $1.50 to $2.50, for a bowl of ice-kachang. Although the quantity is more. Same applies for many other things such as chicken rice, wantan noodle, and etc.

I think the reason was that the rental, labour and other non-material costs increases tremendously. So a way to increase profit is by increasing revenue. To increase sales would be harder compared to increase price. You can't ask a person to buy two bowl of ice-kachang at 1$ each, but you can put 2 original bowls quantity of of ice-kachang into a bowl and sell to one person at $2.50.

Combine this with a traditionally good habit of not wasting food, we gain weight :(

Global warming? Yes, but...

Recently watched a documentary "The Great Global Warming Swindle" that admits global warming as true, but disagree that it is man-made and/or CO2 caused. I think these few arguments, if correct, are significant:
1. CO2 produced by human is < 1%, while the main contributor is the ocean.
2. CO2 levels correlate with global temperature over millions of years, but lagging behind by few hundreds years, which implies that CO2 level is the affected by global temperature.
3. This is the most important but non-scientific reason: it has become politically correct not to go against the claim that Global warming is caused by man-made CO2.

[However, I should also point out that the producer may not be that trustworthy after checking him out on the wikipedia.]

In buddhism, there is this concept of wu-chang, meaning non-constant, or ever changing. To me, constant or without change is as if dead. Even our body temperature fluctuates. How would one expects global temperature to be constant? Thus, global warming is probably just as natural a phenomenon as the 4 seasons in a year, but not a problem to be prevented.

Another article I read suggested that as the river water level rises as the ice on top of high moutains melts, it will affect the communities residing in the vicinity, and cost them their land and homes. The time frame was reported as a "short" 40 years. It seems to me that human communities are assumed to be stupid to remain there for 40 years waiting to be drowned. It seems to say that human "owns" the land and therefore nature is wrong to take their "possessions" from them.

Nevertheless, I am not suggesting that we ignore all the good recommendation to reduce pollution, conserve resources, and etc. However, we should not go to the extreme to deny the poor africans and yet to developed regions to use electricity, and therefore cannot develop and remain having poor quality of life.

Ideal is not ideal

Life is interesting because it is not straightforward. We want to be in the ideal state, but being in the ideal state is probably not ideal. It's like many phenomena in nature. Being in equilibrium is like being in the ideal state. When there is a pressure difference in the atmosphere, the air moves so as to reduce the pressure difference and we call this movement ‘wind’. However, if this equilibrium is maintained, then there will be no wind, which is not nice, or lifeless. If the pressure difference were allowed to build up, then the wind that is formed might be too strong and become an unfriendly wind. Thus, it is not about reaching and remaining at the ideal state but the gentle oscillations about the ideal state at comfortable amplitude of oscillations.

Generation gap

Was with a bunch of kids last Saturday. I wonder the term 'generation gap' is a modern term or not. Imagine during the ancient times when there is probably no changes in the lifestyle between the time a grandfather was 12 years old and the time his great grandson is 12 years old, did people then have any idea of this term 'generation gap'? May be, but surely not as intense as today. The world and culture is changing so fast. It is very easy for two persons of a age difference of 10 or 5 years to feel the gap between them. What about parents? Some parents tried to close the gap by becoming friends to their children. It is not easy, and I also wonder, when the parents became friend of the kids, who then is their parents? Any suggestions, people?
I am considering these:
- build good bonding between a group of families of different generations, then both the children and can learn from the slightly elder ones. Because some practical advices that work 5 years back could already have become outdated.
- the elder ones cannot assume that the younger are experiencing and growing in a similar way as them, and therefore cannot expect the younger to understand them by default. Thus the elder ones, other than trying to listen to the younger, also need to tell and explain to them what happened during their times. Because this background knowledge helps the younger to better understand the advices and instructions given by the elder ones.
- traditional and conservative practices may not be good or practical in the present times. However, many new concepts and ideas are also worse than the traditional and conservative practices. So, don't blindly follow any of the traditional, conservative, new concepts, new ideas. Study and analyze the various practices according to some fundamentally correct principles (the pure conscience in each one of us knows what's that) and adopt the right way.

Respond wisely to changes

Today there is a discussion on preparation for marriage with some friends. Basically, an important requirement for a successful marriage is the mature character of the couple. The maturity of a person is very much dependent on his/her up bringing. Then, I would say that parents should be the main role in preparing their children for marriage. It should be a life long process that start at the very begining of a child's life till his/her marriage, rather than through some kind of short pre-marriage courses provided by some organizations.

Actually, if a child lives with parents day in day out, in the ten over years during the up bringing of the child, quite surely that they must have talked and discussed about mature character and marriage and parents would have given their advices.

Quite often we heard the comment '...never in history, ... develops so fast...' with the focus on the benefits of the speedy developments. Not too much attention has been on the side or negative effects it has brought about that need to be resolved. Relating to the above discussion, the fast changes of family lifestyle in modern days had many children grew up without spending substantial quality time with parents. Thus, it is likely tht many of these children grew up without a good knowledge of what is maturity and how to build a successful marriage.

Therefore, we need to be aware of the side effects of modernization on us and respond to them wisely.

Changing is not necessarily improving

Yesterday, had a short conversation with a friend and mentioned the idea that everything has its pros and cons. Many time when we gave up on one thing to avoid the current problems and took up another, we ended up facing another set of problems.

For example, a friend who stopped being a research fellow and took up lecturer appointment. When he was a research fellow, he has all the time to concentrate on doing research work but do not have the authority to direct a research team. When he became a lecturer, he got the authority to direct research, but now most of the time he was occupied with administrative and teaching tasks.

In some situation, giving up is perceived as a bad choice, such as giving up building a marriage, i.e. divorce. Personally, I would like to say that giving up should not be a choice, but this seems too simple for our complicated world. Instead, I would want to highlight the attitude when we decided to give up on something. Before thinking about giving up, one should check if he/she has made sufficient efforts within ability to improve the situation.

When making the decision to give up, one should not feel relieved but feel sorry for the decision and learn from the event so as to prevent it from happening again or be more prepared if the same issues arrises again. After giving up and took up or enter another situation, still be constantly reminded about the event, the lesson learnt and keep a look out for any chance to resolve/overcome the issues that caused the event.

Thus, cherish and appreciate the present, recognize the pros and cons, respond accordingly to achieve the best results, don’t envy the seemingly greener grass on the other side but work on it to have greener grass on your territory.