BREAKING NEWS: Powerful Earthquake Shocked Italy

Hi all!

It's been a long time since I last posted (nearly a year, to be exact!). So, I thought perhaps it's time for me to start writing again (though I've been writing for the past two months, albeit for another purpose). Anyway, when I was looking through all the online editions of global newspapers this morning, I came across a shocking news flashing on Times UK's frontpage.

A powerful earthquake (5.8 on the Richter scale) has shocked Italy and so far, nearly 20 people have died from this disaster. My prayers go out to Italy, to all Italians especially those directly affected by the earthquake. Official reports have said that the death toll will keep increasing as many people are still trapped. Some old buildings have collapsed and a road leading to one of the villages affected was blocked by these rubbles. Even some modern buildings were not spared.

It's sad to be greeted by such a gloomy news especially on a Monday morning and it's not helping at all now that it's also pouring incessantly at the moment. And with the current economic situation, nothing seems to be cheery. I just hope for a fast recovery.

Empty Cans Make The Most Noise!

Some empty cans just love to contribute to the already deafening sound of the local media and political drama!

I'm from Sarawak (and will always be a Sarawakian first, a Malaysian second) and no matter how proud I am of my state's rich natural heritage and its rainforests, I'm sure the proposed dam projects are all within the appropriate environmental limits. The people who have been making a lot of noise should do their research first and not start talking shit even before they know their facts. Sarawak is a land filled with rivers and therefore, it is most suitable to make dams. So, get your facts right first! I'm sure all rainforests will be preserved accordingly.

Just one thing though, to the loud mouths of the peninsula - you guys just love to make so much noise and yet do you know that all these dams are for your own good? Do you think Sarawakians need so many dams for our electricity? We have more than enough already now and the government know that! It's because we have to sacrifice our land to provide for you, that's why we have to build these dams. So, perhaps, just shut your mouth!

The Concept Of Class

It's quite sad really when you think that our world today is divided into many different classes. You've got the upper class who feels like they're everything in the world and then, there's the lower class where people is struggling everyday for their survival. If everyone can be like children and never have to think about the importance of race, creed, culture, class and religion, the world would be a much better place. When I was at the University of Hertfordshire, I attended a class called Human Space and Society. For the syllabus, we had to write a paper on the concept of class and its importance in today's society. The paragraphs that follow are my thoughts.

Mahatma Gandhi once said that “there is enough in this world for everyone’s need, but not for anyone’s greed.” This statement would have been true if not for the fact that the concept of class in today’s society has always been considered the utmost importance. People all over the world feel the need to be categorised in groups that share the same qualities. When social classification is in place, the upper class of any society in the world will not want to have anything to do with the middle and lower class of the society. Eventually, this will only lead to inequalities and discrimination among the citizens of a society. Revulsion and hatred will be considered a norm in society that feels the need to have such magnitude towards the concept of class.

In today’s world, the concept of class is a comprehensive perception that has a number of related dimensions and it can still be considered a useful categorisation in the following Marxist sense: “the history of capitalism is a history of the creation and reproduction of a social order.” Presently, the concept of class has three significant dimensions – economic, political and cultural. These dimensions can be measured in terms of indicators such as the wealth, income, status, power, lifestyle and levels of education of a particular individual. Matter-of-factly, the economic dimension is seen to be the most socially and sociologically important of the three. Throughout this article, the importance and the need for the concept of class in today’s world will be discussed. More importantly, the very basic division of sex and its consequences will also be presented in this paper.

The world has always perceived that in today’s modern age, men and women all over the world are equal in every aspect and the demeaning of women are a thing of the past. Nevertheless, in some societies all across the world, the inequalities between men and women are still very apparent. When men and women are treated differently and unequally on the basis of their sex, this produces a form of social stratification – the very basic concept of a two class model. For centuries, men have always been considered to be at the top of society while women belong to the other end of the spectrum. Many people all over the world believed the fact that developed countries are open-minded societies but the selection of their leaders are still very much limited to the much-believed stronger sex.

The presidents and prime ministers of many developed countries are men and this is evident in countries such as United States of America, Japan, Russia and France, just to name a few. The citizens of these countries still believe that men are leaders and women are followers. This social inequality occurs when ideology and power are combine to make men superior and women inferior. Eventually, this has led to the reflection of the importance of the concept of class in today’s society. In contrast, some developing countries that are considered to be ancient have championed the rights of women. Although this cannot be said of the majority of these countries, the people of Indonesia, the Philippines and Sri Lanka have made bold steps by choosing women to lead their countries. President Megawati Sukarnoputri and President Gloria Arroyo have showed the world that inequalities have not stopped them from success.

The need for the world to classify everyone and everything into specific groups and classifications has shut out the possibilities for women to be in the same level as men. For example, majority of children today will take quite awhile to answer this particular question – “A doctor and a nurse are trapped in a deserted island. A year later, a baby was born. Neither the doctor is the father nor is the nurse the mother of the baby. Why?” In schools all over the world, children are taught to believe that only men can be doctors and nurses are always women. This has resulted in confused children when told that the doctor is the mother of the baby and the nurse is the father. It is a simple and harmless question and answer but because of the concept of class, it has turned out to be a complicated matter for children.

Many people have speculated the relevance of two classes in today’s society but truthfully, the society today still feels the need for three classes even though it is already the 21st century. Nevertheless, according to Wright in 1997, the world today can be seen as a society of two main opposing classes – “the ruling class which controls all the power and wealth, and the working class which the rulers exploit to maintain this.” The upper or ruling class of the world are considered to be the people who are of power and status. Kings, presidents, prime ministers, politicians and directors of companies are among the groups of people that fall within this frameset. Essentially, the upper class of today’s society is no different than the upper class of the society of the past. These people who are in the so-called upper class are those that imposed work and instructions on the rest of the communities that are from the middle and lower class.

As mentioned earlier, wealth and levels of education are also taken into consideration for social stratification. Ultimately, only power, status and wealth plays vital importance. This is due to the fact that a well-learned individual is not always a person of power, stature or wealth. The majority of the world’s population belongs to the middle class of the social stratification. Many poor countries have most of their citizens belonging to the lower class. The communities from these countries usually have to suffer for the rest of their lives and there will be no chances for advancement and even if it exists, the possibilities are limited. Nonetheless, the communities from developing countries have a brighter future and the opportunities for betterment are always attainable.

The concept of class in today’s society is still as important as oxygen is to the survival of the human race. Without the existence of middle and lower class, the upper class will never survive because with every single person belonging to the same group, there will be no one wanting to be the follower. The competition to the top among the upper class communities are always in existence and the concept of the survival of the fittest are a norm in these societies. The race to be the best can be considered the indispensable part of the concept of class in today’s society. Wealth, power, stature and education are the four utmost weapons in attaining the membership of the upper class. With none of these available, citizens from poor countries can only hope for enough money to buy food to live for another day.

By looking at the countries of the world, the world’s population can also be classified according to their countries of origins. Developed nations can be considered to be the upper class, developing and poor countries are the middle and lower class respectively. It is very obvious that developed nations used their power and wealth to exploit the communities from developing and poor nations with the promise of a better life. Major companies from countries like the United States of America, United Kingdom and Russia set up huge factories and plants in developing countries like India, China and Malaysia because the citizens in these countries need the work and money. Discriminations and exploitations are common due to the fact that most of these workers have very low level of education as compared to their Western neighbours.

One good example is the disaster that happened in Bhopal, India more than a decade ago. Until today, the chief executive officer of the company responsible for this calamity never went back to India where he is charged for first degree murder. The company knew the defects and problems that the plant in Bhopal had after the annual maintenance. Nevertheless, the parent company in the United States of America decided to ignore the problem and the warnings from engineers. With the belief that the problem will go away in due time, the company also deemed that even though a catastrophe is about to strike, it will not be life threatening. Not only did a catastrophe happen, it left behind a lifetime of suffering for the workers of the plant and the people of Bhopal.

Since decades ago, the concept of class has always been seen as a way of self-identification for people across the globe. The upper class identified themselves as the powerful and the rich, the middle class knew themselves as the working force of the communities while the lower class thrived to be a part of the world. Being in the middle and lower class has encouraged people to liberate themselves for advancement and betterment into the future. People from the middle and lower class have worked hard to ensure a better life for generations to come. The middle and lower class communities have the opportunities to move from one class to another. This concept of self-identification have made these people to be more independent and determined in their common struggle towards success.

With more people getting better education by the day, the number of people categorised as those that belong to the lower class will also reduce. Many people believed that in the future, the lower class of society will be totally wiped out. This may be possible but it is completely wrong to consider that the world’s population will only be made up of those that belong to the upper and middle class. The lower class of society will always be present even with the increase of levels of education. This is because the acceptable standard of the world will also rise. Moreover, levels of education are not considered to be essential in the classification of society as compared to wealth, power and stature. If the world is only made up of citizens from upper and middle class, then it has to depend on robots to do works that used to be done by people from the lower class. It is still a long way to go before the world can assume such status of technological advancement.

Ultimately, the concept of class is still very important in today’s world. However, no matter how important it is, this concept is not essential and should be demolished from the mindset of the people of the world. It should be killed and this concept can only die with the capitalism of which it is a part. Discriminations and exploitations have always been the result from the enforcement of the concept of class in today’s society. Throughout this paper, it has been shown that women are considered to be weak and passive because of the age-old concept of class that men are leaders and strong. Besides that, the middle and lower class have also been used extensively by the people from the upper class for various purposes. Conclusively, the upper class can not survive without the middle and lower class and the middle and lower class can not survive without the upper class.

No matter how open-minded the society today is, this concept of class will always exist to recognise the general situation that draws the attention of the world. However, it can be seen as a perception that allows the citizens of the world to liberate themselves from the obligatory commonality of the collective life sentence to hard labour. More importantly, this concept of class should be seen as a guiding principle of diversity within which the people of the world can realise their potential in so many different ways. Lara Dutta, Miss Universe 2000 once said – “every man dies, but very few really live.” Every human being should live life to the fullest and social stratification should never be a deterrent for anyone to succeed. It may be an important concept in today’s society but it should not be a way of life.

May Buddha Bless Everyone

Peoples, join me in honouring and remembering all the victims and their families of the Myanmar cyclone and China earthquake. May Lord Buddha bless everyone in these difficult times!

Sustainable Development And Its Consequences

Have you ever wondered how come suddenly the world seemed so interested in our environment and everywhere you go, you'd hear people talking about global warming, greenhouse gases and sustainable development? Well, I'm glad that people are actually starting to worry themselves about the state of our planet. Nevertheless, it's a little upsetting to know that Malaysia is still not doing enough to protect our environment. However, it's comforting to know that we've actually signed the Kyoto Protocol. That is a start and should be looked as a little encouragement. Anyway, the following essay that follows is a paper I wrote during my time at the University of Hertfordshire. Enjoy reading!

In recent years, many people across the world have started to realise the importance of conserving the natural environment of the Earth. Nevertheless, many parts of the world today still seem a little unfazed about the environment and its chronic conditions. Most people consider it to be somewhat of a trivial issue – something that does not need our attention just yet. However, environmentalists and conservationists beg to differ and argued that it is about time the world starts paying attention because in the years to come, this crisis will be worsening if there is nothing done to prevent it.

Indisputably, there are many factors to the deterioration of the world’s environment but of all these factors, human activities and the exploitations of nature seems to be the utmost factor. Fundamentally, this has resulted in a worldwide concept known as sustainable development. Sustainable development has become an important phrase within the environmental community as well as world citizens alike. Briefly stated, it means that in order to protect the Earth and its environment from destruction of its resources, we need to learn to live so that we can sustain our environment as we forged ahead for development.

In 1987, The Brundtland Commission defined it as the ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ A global concept that it is, sustainable development encompasses all aspects of life, requiring the participation of everyone. Most importantly, the issue that involves every nation today is human overpopulation. Single-handedly, this issue has brought upon countless impacts to the world and its environment.

This global calamity of human overpopulation is inevitable. In this essay, this issue will be discussed along with its effects towards the Earth and its environment. Noticeably, the concept of sustainable development has evolved around this issue due to the fact that many impacts of human overpopulation are interrelated. The need for the world to sustain the natural resources that are, in recent years, becoming less is almost an issue on its own. Nevertheless, with the increase of the world’s population, pollutions are unavoidable and this only adds to the weight of the current worsening situation. The biggest challenge of sustainable development is the need for the world to find a new way forward.

The world’s population only reached one billion in 1830 and this took all of recorded history to happen. Today, the world has an approximate population of 6.4 billion people with the three most populated countries being China, India and United States. The concept of sustainable development calls for the need to stabilise the world’s population in regards to its carrying capacity. Common knowledge states that the world has a limited ability to accommodate the number of inhabitants in this planet. Unfortunately, the world population figure is increasing by the day.

According to a research conducted by the United Nations Population Fund, the current figure will grow by an estimated 100 million people every single year. As mentioned earlier, this issue is the root of so many problems especially those that are environmentally-related. Unbelievably enough, to sustain the needs of six billion people actually means that the world is losing an estimated 70,000 species of plants and animals each year. The world is faced with a problem of mass extinction in which the human population is held responsible.

The world’s population of six billion people is not sustainable because the living community cannot indefinitely sustain the loss of 70,000 species a year. As the number of people grows, the number of extinctions will also increase. This has become an eerily scary statistic and there is nothing appropriately enough that can be done to curb this problem. World leaders are faced with the difficulty of deciding on which is better – controlling the number of children their citizens should have or controlling the amount of resources their countries should use or maybe even both. Conclusively, the world’s population will never have to be a problem that bothers everyone if there were unlimited land, resources and water.

The Earth that we live in now is a very rich one albeit unevenly spread. There are so many natural resources that the human population can use for further development. Abundant amounts of petroleum, coal and metals, just to name a few, are found easily all over the world. Nevertheless, fossil fuels that are petroleum and natural gas are running out in the years to come and if nothing is done to maintain its availability, it will just perish even before the end of this century.

As it evolves around the issue of human overpopulation, the concept of sustainable development is also closely related to sustaining the world’s natural resources. Unquestionably, sustaining and stabilising the world’s population as well as the natural resources is a complicated matter. The more number of people essentially means the need for more natural resources being exploited. This is due to the fact that more people will definitely consume more resources. Sustainable development has influenced the rise of alternative energy sources lately. This appropriate consequence from the interpretation of this concept has resulted in a more manageable and acceptable exploitation of the Earth’s resources.

Many countries across the world have now stopped using coal as their main energy source for their power plants and have instead turn to cleaner sources like nuclear, water, wind and solar. Nevertheless, the mention of nuclear power plants will certainly spark a debate on its safety but this is another topic altogether. The vital point is that everyone is responsible for understanding the need to sustain the natural resources that is becoming less by the day.

The study of the Earth’s natural resources has made it possible for everyone in the world to truly appreciate what the Earth can provide us. Nonetheless, it is the study of sustaining the Earth’s natural resources that is far more superior in today’s world. The over usage of these natural resources would result in a severe threat to global society in the near future.

The outcome of this serious predicament actually means that the future generation might not have the resources that are needed for further development. Apparently, this illustrates the importance of sustainable development in today’s world even more. It is so imperative to respect the limits of the world’s environment. Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘there is enough in this world for everyone’s needs but not for anyone’s greed’.

Moving on, the significance of respecting the limits of the world’s environment conjures up another issue – pollution. This issue can be considered an age-old dispute in today’s society. Seriously enough, the rapid population growth only contributes to an even more chronic situation. Both air and water pollution as well as other forms of pollution continues to be a severe crisis. World leaders across the world have worked closely with their respective governments to enact tighter laws and regulations to counteract with these catastrophic conditions. One of the first pollution regulations dates back to the fourteenth century when King Edward I banned the burning of sea coal in lime kilns. Nonetheless, despite all these efforts, pollution is still a serious local and worldwide problem.

One of the principles of sustainable development that was set up by many nations all over the world is to make the parties involved in pollution pay for what they have done to relentlessly threaten the environment. Environmental pollution and social depletion happens because those accountable are not those who bear the aftermath. If the polluter or the consumer is made to pay for these costs, in essence, this can actually reduce the devastation of pollution. Ultimately, this will mean that the world’s inhabitants, at large, will not have to bear this burden alone. Nevertheless, ensuring that this principle actually works is a difficult task. At all costs, precautionary actions should be considered. With the full cooperation of all the parties involved, only then this particular principle of sustainable development can be achieved.

The world depends on its human population to flourish into the next generation. Unfortunately, it is this population of people that might bring about the fall of the Earth. Sustainable development is one concept that was set up to ensure that this disastrous consequence will never happen. It is a dynamic progression that enables everyone to realise their full potential and to improve their quality of life along the way.

Nevertheless, this enhancement can only be successfully achieved with the assurance of simultaneously protecting and improving the Earth’s life support systems. Millions of dollars are spent each year on sustainable development across the globe. If a balance can be maintained between sustainability and the development of the world, many experts actually agree that in the future, the world can achieve economic, social and environmental objectives at the same time.

Time Person Of The Year 2007

I read about this in the newspaper quite awhile ago.

Anyway, I just bought the magazine today. I feel that I have just got to write something about this here because I was glad to know that Al Gore and J.K. Rowling are the runners-up in this year's list.

After winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and now the runner-up position of Person Of The Year, I guess what Al Gore has done so far for the world and the environment is finally achieving fruitful results. Anyway, I will be writing more about this because it is kinda late now and I just thought of sharing this news with all of you.

By the way, the Person Of The Year is the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. If it were according to me, I would have awarded this year's title to either Al Gore or J.K. Rowling. But since it is not, well, I will just have to live with it and perhaps agree as well.