Overkill of Bersih and Ambiga

The way our PM, Home Minister and the Police handled the proposed Bersih march on July 9 so far, reminds me of this management lesson...

Management Lesson:

'Be sure there is a problem in the first place before working hard to solve one.'

One fine day, a bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus, and drove off along the route. No problems for the first few stops - a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well.

At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight,built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, 'Big John doesn't pay!' and sat down at the back.

Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically meek? Well, he was. Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't happy about it. The next day the same thing happened - Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the next.

This grated on the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff.

By the end of the summer, he had become quite strong; what's more, he felt really good about himself. So on the next Monday, when Big John once again got on the bus and said, 'Big John doesn't pay!'

The driver stood up, glared back at the passenger, and screamed, 'And why not?'

With a surprised look on his face, Big John replied, 'Big John has a bus pass.'

After all the posturings by the Home Minister and the Police, what is clear can be summed up by the following comment...

One comment in Malaysiakini:

"Quigonbond: Who is threatening bloodshed? Not Bersih, but Perkasa and Pemuda Umno. For us to get from peaceful assembly (Bersih's stated aim since more than a month ago) to Ambiga being accused of potentially causing loss of life, is simply mind boggling.

BN is effectively saying - you are causing us unease, we will react violently, and it will be your fault, even if you're peaceful. If one takes that further and ask - why are you uneasy, Ali Rustam will answer - because only BN has the right to run this country.

BN has not said it, but it is implied in their action to demonise a movement calling for free and fair elections, because they are like school bully who can't stand being defeated on a level-playing field."

Other selected comments in Malaysiakini:

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/168750

After what happened, can we still believe PM when he said government will use powers wisely in dealing with illegal assemblies?

http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/26405-najib-govt-will-use-powers-wisely-in-dealing-with-illegal-assemblies.html

Why make them the proposed march and Bersih illegal in the first place?

'Najib also reiterated that elections in the country were clean and that if this was not the case, the opposition could not have won 82 seats in Parliament and deny the Barisan Nasional two-thirds majority, besides winning five states.

"If we had been manipulating elections, this could not have happened and obviously Kelantan would not have been in PAS' hands for 21 years," he added.'

What Najib said can be turned around by this comment:

"DannyLoHH: If the election is free and fair then how could Najib explain the overwhelming number of seats won by BN with just a little over 50% of popular votes?

It is already an established fact that the elections are not fair and heavily in favour of BN due to gerrymandering, abuse of state and federal machinery, tainted electoral roll, rigged postal votes and a bias Election Commission."

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More transparency...

thanks to WikiLeaks, we now have LocalLeaks and HackerLeaks.

To some, transparency means this...

But, seriously...

A subgroup of the Anonymous hacker group has launched two WikiLeaks-type Web sites where insiders and other hackers can expose sensitive information from governments and corporations.
The LocalLeaks.tk site is for information related to corruption and wrongdoing at a local level, while the HackerLeaks.tk site is for any other stolen data.

"Hackers helping hackers to leak material of interest," says the HackerLeaks site, which does not specify what "of interest" means. "You Download it, We'll disclose it for you."

The LocalLeaks site, which launched in January, offers a way for people to submit information anonymously that is related to police brutality, corruption, government wrongdoing, or workplace harassment, according to the site.

"Our first priority is to provide a safe, secure - and anonymous way for local government or corporate employees to disclose sensitive information," the site says. The site says it screens submissions to make sure there is no evidence of the submitter's identity and works with media outlets to expose the data.

"Commander X," who serves as the "editor in chief" of the two sites, told Forbes that the sites are legal. "We don't obtain this material," he said. "We merely publish it. This violates no sane law anywhere."

More where that came from:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20076261-245/anonymous-group-creates-whistleblower-sites/

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What if Bersih calls off its march?

I think even if Bersih were to heed the call by the Home Minister and Police, it would have already served its original purpose to a certain extent. What we have seen so far: the online polls in The Star website, the numerous articles and comments, mostly in favour; the overreaction by PM, Home Minister and Police, aided by other government bodies like Election Commission, MCMC and so on; have shown to the general public and those elsewhere watching, that Bersih has become immensely powerful in its influence at the coming general elections.

Bersih, in its noble quest, has been met with an unreasonable government out to stop their march for fear of its huge success which could be detrimental to their chances at the next election. Again, if they have what it takes, they should have nothing to fear. But we are not having a reasonable response but leaders who are out to create havoc and conveniently blame it on the organizers which include opposition leaders. The worst case scenario could be declaration of emergency after some provocations and natural reactions, with the top opposition leaders arrested under the notorious ISA. If this happened, many people would look back and say that the opposition leaders walked into a trap. On the other hand, if Bersih calls off its march, which I would consider it as being gentlemanly (sorry for being sexist), then you can bet BN leaders, Perkasa and Umno Youth will declare victory and said there were poor response! But let them feel good for now. The message would have gotten through to the voters.

To avoid expected public disturbance on July 9, it may be wise to call off the march. Bersih can continue its efforts towards getting the EC to improve the electoral system, with the public already better informed and able to keep an eye on BN leaders. We have seen how they have not been able to honour what they have pledged or insisting that the system had always been perfect. The voters can quietly vote overwhelming against the BN, in such numbers that any form of manipulation would not be able to cover.

Why not have a virtual march on July 9? If we can create a foolproof way to conduct a poll, then we can show everyone how many people wish for a change in the electoral system. The online poll could include NRIC numbers to make each vote exclusive to a citizen.

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All of us have latent cancers...

but our good immune system controls them while we are physically and mentally healthy.

Much have been studied, researched and written about cancer, with no definitive answers. Now and again, we come across some articles backed by scientific studies which convinced us to a certain extent, like this one, by Frank Shallenberger, for example...

All men get prostate cancer: what are you going to do about it?

Excerpt:

Everyone Older Than 60 Has Cancer

Doctors are finally realizing that most people have cancer in their body. But it’s latent — or hidden — cancer. Latent cancers are so well contained by the immune system that they never get large enough to cause problems. As a result, doctors rarely discover them, unless they discover them by accident. Most of the cancers they discovered in this autopsy study were latent cancers. And, as you can see, they are very common.

Autopsy studies on women, for example, show that by the time a woman is 40 years old, the chance of her having a latent breast cancer is 40 percent.

That sounds terrible, doesn’t it? It’s really not terrible. In fact, the existence of latent cancers is very reassuring. They clearly demonstrate how effective a healthy immune system can be in stopping cancer.

It’s so effective that the great majority of latent cancers never go on to become full-blown cancers. That’s good news. When you start to add up all of the various autopsy studies that are published, you soon realize that every single one of us over the age of 60 has cancer. Actually, we have at least two of these cancers already living in our bodies. But the really important thing about latent cancers is that they can teach us a lot.

The first thing they teach us is that by maintaining a healthy immune system, we can dramatically decrease our chances of dying from cancer.

Take me, for example. I’m 64 years old. Therefore, I have at least two cancers in my body. They are not diagnosed, but they are there. They might be in my colon, my prostate, my lung, wherever. I don’t know where they are because, right now, they are latent. My immune system is covering them.

But what will happen to me if my immune system stops working as well as it has been? What if I start stressing a lot? Or what if I suddenly decide to stop exercising or to abandon a healthy diet? What if, as I get older, I become deficient in the hormones that are so important for optimal immune system function? Or what if I develop a serious injury, a bad dental infection or some other immune-depleting problem? What then?

It’s pretty obvious. If that were to happen, I shouldn’t be too surprised if one of those latent cancers were to progress to a clinically detectable cancer within a few years.

So here’s what the whole idea of latent cancers tells me: It emphasizes the importance of maintaining a lifestyle that optimizes my immune system as best as I can. It also emphasizes the importance of discovering a latent cancer that’s breaking out into a full-blown tumor as early as possible. That way I can get a handle on it before it gets too far down the road.

More where that came from:

http://www.easyhealthoptions.com/alternative-medicine/all-men-get-prostate-cancer-what-are-you-going-do-about-it/

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Maybe we can learn something about the materials used...

in the making of these Japanese arches:

Nagasaki in 1945 after atomic bomb(top); and in 2011 after earthquake and tsunami (bottom)...

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