Are We Too Soft?

I heard this on radio some time ago. Since it was in Cantonese I hope I got the story right. It went something like this:

A team-building expert from Hongkong was in Kuala Lumpur to train some of our local folk. He made our guys do really tough physical exercises. In one activity, they were to hold a particularly taxing position for as long as possible. Our Malaysian fellows cheered and clapped each other on their backs when they lasted one whole minute! The trainer looked them in the eyes and said the WORST team in China lasted 10 minutes!

Hence, my question: Have we become too soft?

Life here in Malaysia has always been much easier than in over-populated places like China. We have plenty of land and natural resources. The soil is rich. Vegetables and fruits abound. Famine is unheard of. We get lots of rain and don't worry about drought. No freezing winters to prepare for. No volcanoes, no earthquakes, no typhoons.

The culture is laid-back too. We are told to be sensitive with each other's feelings, not to push too hard, demand too much. We want quality family and leisure time. We want time to devote to religion. We set up lots of regulations to enhance health and safety. We need lots of permits and approvals before businesses can be set up. Etc.

Well, let's have a look at our competitors and see what's happening in their countries.

In Indonesia, you can open a food stall in front of your house and nobody will be bothered. You can build buildings without architects. You can convert a 3-storey house into a student hostel, with a single escape staircase leading down to the kitchen - the most likely place for a fire to start. You don't work, you don't eat. Simple as that.

In China, you can do piling at construction sites after midnight. You can work 24 hours 7 days a week on a building project smack in the middle of a city. You don't have to worry about racial sensitivities when you chew your workers out. You don't work, you don't eat. No illusions whatsoever.

I'm quite sure many people in China actually work longer hours than the legendary Japanese!

So where do we Malaysians stand in comparison? Are we full of tidak apathy? Have we become so worried about hurting our fellow countrymen that we wrap them in cotton wool? Have we set our standards and expectations much too low? Have we crippled ourselves with kindness? Can we still compete as a nation?

Troubling questions indeed.

Good Jews

When I was working as a trainee in Sydney, this black-clad Jew stepped into the office and nearly scared the bejesus out of me! He looked exactly like the people in the pictures below.

A Jew is basically someone who belongs to the religion called Judaism. According to the Old Testament of the Bible, they are God's Chosen People and will inherit eventually some place called the Promised Land, also known as Israel. They are different from Christians in that they are still waiting for the Messiah or saviour, while Christians accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah.

Bible-believing Christians tend to treat Jews with great respect as they are considered the apple of God's eye. Thus, when the Palestinians shoot a few home-made rockets at Israel, it's terrorist aggression, but when Israel slaughters 2000 Palestinians, it's noble self-defense. To devout Christians, Israel can do no wrong.

Hitler disposed of 6 million Jews during the Second World War. I think the Germans blamed the Jews for their defeat in the First World War, as Jews are good businesspeople and were apparently financing the British military effort against Germany - in exchange for a homeland in Palestine, which
was then in British control.

I have met Jews who consider themselves "white" and look down on the Palestinians. I like to remind them that it was the white Europeans who gassed them, and not the Muslims. Before someone accuses me of being anti-semitic, please note that I'm pro-Palestinian, who are Semites, just like the Jews.

The Europeans killed two birds with one stone when they transferred the Jewish problem from Europe to the Middle East. Firstly, they got rid of the ultra-competitive Jews and secondly they stuck a thorn in the side of their other competitors, the Arabs. Israel is the West's handy weapon to irritate the Muslims, just like Tibet is used to stir up China.


Zionism is basically an extremist racist political movement that uses past Jewish suffering to justify land-grab and merciless subjugation of the Palestinian people.

Fortunately, there are a few Jews who still possess a conscience. They know the dirty political games that are in play and are willing to speak up against them.

Enough said. Time for the photos to do the talking. Click on them for a larger view.

The Human Spirit

The Malay language has two words for "spirit" - roh and semangat, the first being an object, like an angel or ghost, and the second, an attitude or a state of mind, as in a "fighting spirit". I happen to think they are the same thing.

The most spiritual book I have ever read is - guess what? - not a religious book! (I also happen to think that spirituality and religion are two ENTIRELY different things.) It is a book about a kind of modern-day Robin Hood, called Simon Templar, also known as The Saint. What makes him different from other anti-heroes, what makes him extraordinary and trandscend above the rest, what makes him spiritual, is utterly simple. He smiles.

That's it! He doesn't pray. He doesn't do religious stuff. He doesn't try to be more holy than anybody else. In fact, he kills when it's called for. It's his approach to life and fear and danger that lifts him up and sets him apart. He refuses to allow his spirit to be crushed. And that, to me, is more spiritual that all the religious costumes and rituals in the world. For me, singing is spiritual. Laughing is spiritual. Doing the right thing is spiritual. Helping the weak is spiritual. Self sacrifice is spiritual.

Here are a few excerpts from the book The Saint's Getaway (1932) by Leslie Charteris, to help you get acquainted with Mr Simon Templar.

"Simon Templar drew a deep breath. Then he fired from his pocket. His gun, with a half-charged cartridge in the chamber, gave no more than an explosive little cough, which merged into the sharp smack of the bullet crashing home into the single electric light switch by the door; and the room was plunged into impenetrable darkness. The Saint hurled himself sideways. Right behind him he heard the dull plop of an efficiently silenced gun, but he was untouched. He twisted like an eel, and his hand brushed a pair of legs. They heard his grim chuckle in the darkness."

"And, knowing her man, she understood. The clear blue of the night was in his eyes, the georgeous madness that made him what he was thrilled in his touch. His words seemed to hold nothing absurd, nothing incongruous - only the devil-may-care attar of Saintliness that would have stopped to admire a view on the way to its own funeral."

"He came to his feet with the lithe swiftness of an animal, settling his belt with one hand and sweeping back the other over his smooth hair. The cold winds of incredulity and common sense flowed past his head like common zephyrs. He had his inspiration. The flame of unquenchable optimism in his eyes was electric, an irresistable resurgence of the old Saintly exhaltation that would always find a new power and hope in the darkest thunders of defeat. He laughed. The stillness had fallen from him like a cloak - fallen away as if it had never existed. He didn't care."

"Monty Hayward looked at him, and was amazed. The bleakness was still in the Saint's eyes, but suddenly there was a twinkle with it as if the sun had glinted over two chips of blue ice. There was the phantom of a smile on the Saint's lips - a smile that had still to reach the careless glory of pure Saintliness, but yet a smile that had not been there before. And the Saint spoke in a voice that showed his smile."

Footnote: Ever watched a baby laugh? (If you haven't, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCl9exidaUY ) My youngest was chuckling at 3 months. A baby cries when it feels pain or discomfort. But how does it know joy and happiness, when it doesn't know sorrow? The only logical reason to me is ... babies are born with human spirits. 10 Oct 2010.