How should we judge a government?

"No matter how noble the objectives of a government, if it blurs decency and kindness, cheapens human life and breeds ill will and suspicion – it is an evil government".

- Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind 1954

"Our government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other. "
“You are saying our problem is civil disobedience, but that is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. . . . Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while the grand thieves are running the country.”
-Howard Zinn

MyCen News

Saturday, March 03, 2012

The government cannot give to anybody anything...

that the government does not first take from somebody else. It would appear the Felda settlers will be taken for a ride, from being owners to become virtual tenants and minority shareholders with no say whatsoever in the management of the listed company.

According to Ariff Sabri, "It’s about the Felda FGV listing... Why should a loss making business entity, be allowed to do a reverse takeover of FELDA holdings? FGV owns 49% of FELDA Holdings which has been making money all the time. FGV hasn’t got a track record and has no standing at all to come out with this proposal in the first place."

More:
The future of FELDA after Listing
http://sakmongkol.blogspot.com/2012/03/future-of-felda-after-listing.html
Link

Care to adopt a terrorist?

A Canadian female libertarian wrote a lot of letters to the Canadian government, complaining about the treatment of captive insurgents (terrorists) being held in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities. She demanded a response to her letter correspondence.

She received the following reply:

National Defense Headquarters
M Gen George R. Pearkes Bldg., 15 NT
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa , ON K1A 0K2
Canada


Dear Concerned Citizen,

Thank you for your recent letter expressing your profound concern of treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists captured by Canadian Forces who were subsequently transferred to the Afghanistan Government and are currently being held by Afghan officials in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities.

Our administration takes these matters seriously and your opinions were heard loud and clear here in Ottawa. You will be pleased to learn, thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself, we are creating a new department here at the Department of National Defense, to be called 'Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers' program, or L.A.R.K. for short.

In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided to divert one terrorist and place him in your personal care.

Your personal detainee has been selected and is scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence in Toronto next Monday.

Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud (you can just call him Ahmed) is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of complaint!

It will likely be necessary for you to hire some assistant caretakers.

We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with those you so strongly recommended in your letter. Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his 'attitudinal problem' will help him overcome these character flaws.

Perhaps you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences.

We understand that you plan to offer counseling and home schooling. Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers. We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills at your next yoga group. Please advise any Jewish friends, neighbors or relatives about your house guest, as he might get agitated or even violent, but we are sure you can reason with him. He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless (in your opinion) this might offend him.

Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your daughters (except sexually) since he views females as a subhuman form of property thereby having no rights, including refusal of his sexual demands. This is a particularly sensitive subject for him and he has been known to show violent tendencies around women who fail to comply with the new dress code that he will "recommend" as more appropriate attire.

I'm sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity offered by the burka over time. Just remember that it is all part of 'respecting his culture and religious beliefs' as described in your letter.

Thanks again for your concern.

We truly appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job and care for our fellow man.

You take good care of Ahmed and remember we'll be watching.

Good luck and God bless you.

Cordially,
Gordon O'Connor

Minister of National Defense
Link

Friday, March 02, 2012

Hetty Koes's song brought back memories

Was at Amcorp Mall last Sunday with wife and daughter, browsing through what were on offer at the flea market stalls. Then I was on a level where a friend, Boey, used to play erhu, violin or lately, 'guitarlele' (a cross between guitar and ukulele: you play it like a guitar but it sounds like a ukulele), in accompaniment to a song. This time, I was attracted by a familiar tune, 'Kau yang sangat ku sayang' by Hetty Koes. It was in the 80s when I was given a cassette tape with Hetty's songs and I used to listen to it while driving from KL to BG and back. But this is the only song I am familiar with...


Kau yang sangat ku sayang
Kerna kau tak pernah manja
Anggun peribadi mu tenang diwajah mu
Tiadanya menandingimu

Kau yang sangat ku sayang
Kerna kau pria pendiam
Wajah mu yang tampan
Senyummu menawan
Hati ini mengagumimu

Ku menghayal bila saat nanti
Hidup bersama mu
Hanya engkau teman dalam duka
Penghibur derita
Kepadamu aku lah yang manja
Dengarkan lah sayang
Ku pandang potret mu
Didalam kamar tersenyum pada ku

Kau yang sangat ku sayang
Kerna kau pria pendiam
Wajah mu yang tampan
Senyummu menawan
Hati ini mengagumimu

Ku menghayal bila saat nanti
Hidup bersama mu
Hanya engkau teman dalam duka
Penghibur derita
Kepadamu aku lah yang manja
Dengarkan lah sayang
Ku pandang potret mu
Didalam kamar tersenyum pada ku

Ku menghayal bila saat nanti
Hidup bersama mu
Hanya engkau teman dalam duka
Penghibur derita
Kepadamu aku lah yang manja
Dengarkan lah sayang
Ku pandang potret mu
Didalam kamar tersenyum pada ku

Ku menghayal bila saat nanti
Hidup bersama mu
Hanya engkau teman dalam duka
Penghibur derita (fade)

Link

Some people have a problem with others' property

A well meaning friend forwarded to me the following news:

The middle-class vandal:

Suited thug caught damaging well-heeled neighbour's car on CCTV he set up after spate of attacks


Furious Haydn Jones took decisive action after watching a mystery attacker key cars and rip off wing mirrors outside his home in Islington, north London. The 43-year-old's Porsche Cayenne was among the vehicles damaged in the crime epidemic, prompting him to install a camera system outside his home to gather evidence against the attacker.

Closer to home, while he is relying on one (CCTV), I am relying on the One above.

A sign that our world will eventually be ruled by insects

Meet the spider so tough it eats SNAKES for breakfast...


A receptionist arrived at work in Bloemfontein, South Africa, to see this next to her desk - a snake caught in a spider's web with its predator moving in for a meal.

Astonishingly the snake was off the ground and tangled in the web. And the spider was making short work of tucking in to possibly its biggest meal ever.
Link