Month: November 2011

pIGs


Silvio’s peccadilloes? No one’s laughing or simply annoyed anymore. Italy‘s sovereign risk issues have triggered a Wall Street bloodbath overnight. Another plunge – this time just over 3% n the Dow and nearly 4 on the Nasdaq – means things continue to look really gloomy, even worse than the storms in Melbourne overnight. I wonder if Europe PIGS scenario can get any worse. I’m really glad I didn’t take the London option back in 2004. What will become of the economic scene, I wonder…

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Smoking Joe Dies


Joe Frazier – the other half of the Thriller in Manila, has died. Thanks for the memories, Smoking Joe…

Stupid is as BN-UMNO Does


I confess to not having kept up with Malaysian news for a long time now. I thought I should have a peek, seeing my current subscription to Malaysiakini still has a few months to run. I’m contemplating using the money to subscribe to something like the Sydney Institute instead, so it was refreshing to read in Malaysiakini, that more and more people are standing up to the idiotic mob pretending to be the government of Malaysia.

Khaled Nordin is apparently the Malaysian Education Minister. An academic has basically just called him stupid. Maybe it’d take a while before Khaled realises that. Abdul Aziz Bari is the academic and good on him for saying what so many have known for so long – that ministers in the BN-UMNO led sorry bunch that makes up the government, are there only for 1 or 2 reasons. There’re Ministers either because they’re Malays or they know the right Malays, or very likely both. No grey matter or industry required.

But enough of space given to an age old issue which hasn’t changed in over 30 years – Najib Razak and his bunch of intellectually challenged mob are just living up to expectations.

See offending story here:

Aziz Bari slams minister over quit call
S Pathmawathy
12:55PM Nov 7, 2011

Pointing out the law and the constitution to members of the public is not politicking, says law professor Abdul Aziz Bari, lashing out at criticism that he should quit the academia and become a politician.

“I was just talking about the law and the constitution, which is somehow difficult to be disentangled from politics.

“Furthermore, I was talking to the ordinary people, not to an academic audience. I believe they have every right to know about the constitution and how to make it able to deliver,” the Universiti Islam Antarabangsa (UIA) lecturer added.

Aziz was responding to the call by Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin that Aziz resigns as an academician if he insisted on “taking part in politics”.

Khaled’s statement, widely reported by the Malay language newspapers, came after Aziz took part in ceramah organised by the opposition PKR in the minister’s Pasir Gudang parliamentary constituency over the weekend.

Aziz said Khaled’s comments were in stark contrast to the position taken by Deputy Higher Education Minister Saifuddin Abdullah, who constantly encourages tertiary students to be involved in politics, in spite of laws that prohibit them from doing so.

“For one thing, his deputy, Saifuddin, has been saying that it is fine for students to take part in politics. I think academicians have an even greater right, or perhaps duties, to be in politics,” Aziz said.

Noting the Court of Appeal’s declaration last Monday that Section 15 of the Universities and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA) was unconstitutional, he added: “He (Khaled) also should be aware that university regulations are not laws, strictly speaking.

“As such, these are subject to the laws of the land, particularly to the constitution as the supreme law of the land.

‘Treat academicians as public intellectuals’

“If that (the talk) is seen as politics, then perhaps we should throw away the constitution and make this country a one-party or an authoritarian one.”

The Court of Appeal in a 2-1 landmark decision declared Section 15(5) (a) of the UUCA, which bars university students from being involved in politics, unconstitutional and as such, null and void.

Article 4 of the constitution states that the constitution is the supreme law of the federation and any law passed after Merdeka Day that is inconsistent with the constitution shall, to the extent of inconsistency, be void.

Rebuking Khaled (right) for his criticism, Aziz said if he had given the speech on an Umno platform, there would not be a problem.

The minister, he added, should explain the government’s stand on cases where academicians have been involved in party politics.

“Some academicians went around – as part of their lobbying for senior posts in the universities – saying publicly that (Opposition Leader) Anwar Ibrahim was guilty of sodomy. This is obviously a crime as the case is still on going in court. It is subjudice.

“What about those senior professors who took part in preparing the draft of the Umno president’s keynote address?

“What about those academicians and professors who have been regular speakers in Biro Tata Negara programmes or Islam Hadhari workshops (this is obviously political, as it is the policy of Umno),” Aziz asked.

Khaled, he added, should be mindful that universities “are not factories or nurseries” and that academicians should be treated as “public intellectuals”.

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Conrad Murray’s Mahathir Defence


“It was self-inflicted”. Conrad Murray‘s defense came down to a Mahathir-styled joke. Both mad doctors. If the jury fails to convict the doctor for killing Michael Jackson, it’s much more of a la-la land than you’d ever know.

That was the story I caught on the little monitor on the cross-training machine in the gym this morning. It’s good to be back in the gym, after over a week’s break. The niggling purine driven inflammation (yes, gout) was at it all week and it made for a miserable one.

So yesterday arvo I dragged out the juice machine and did some vege stuff, hoping to do something good to this deteriorating body. Partly driven by guilt as a result of feasting on a masala dosa in a new Indian restaurant just a couple of minutes from home, the juice was actually very good. Celery, granny smith and carrots. The juicer will remain on the benchtop for a few weeks yet, I think.

Sort of what’s needed to keep the doctors away. If you know what I mean.

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Bali Boy Family Cash Grab – What’s Wrong With That?


Family of Bali boy in quick cash grab – headlines to that effect in an online news portal seem to suggest it was a reprehensible act. Somehow, the opportunistic conduct of the family of the teenager arrested for buying drugs in Bali, was thought to be something many would tut-tut about.

It looks like no matter how much the society worships money, it still frowns on conduct which is self serving and opportunistic, especially when the community has backed the family up in providing moral support to the teenager and his family.

I must confess to being apprehensive about this family’s values and conduct. I have been guilty of thinking the parents must have in one way or another been involved in drugs themselves and that the conduct of the 14 year old probably reflects what has been going on in that household. That’s a prejudice one easily slips into, much as I dont want to find any excuse for my thoughts. I’m sure I’m not alone and many would try to rally to this young person’s cause and try and have this boy come home soon, to be spared of the emotional and mental trauma that he must have been going through.

So why then does the news headline imply impudence and invites sneers and even condemnation?

I suspect it is the apparent selfishness of the act – the abandonment of communal values as a price for self advancement and self improvement. Apparent apathy for how that conduct would sit with community expectation is probably what irks many. The world may turn its back on the cross and the selfless interest it represents, but it still wants behaviour which is sacrificial for the sake of upholding common values. I thought that was interesting.

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Remove the cause early


Reading to discover gems is often fun and stimulating. Sometimes it jolts a realisation of a need for action.

Re-reading early developments of Christology and events surrounding the Nicene and Chalcedonian creeds, Constantine’s statement had this effect on me. He said: “Disorder in the Church, I consider more fearful than any war”.

Like the loaded dog I loathe, I may well be the cause for such disorder – best to remove this cause and the earlier the better. I have drafted the necessary letter to be handed in for the next meeting.

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Kevin 07 – Revisited?


There are reports Rudd is considering a challenge against Gillard. I had to remind myself what some of the misgivings against Rudd were, back in Nov 2007. I had these thoughts then…

 

After midnight on 21/11, no electronic election campaign advertisements would be permitted. I don’t know if there is a similar blackout from the print media. On television and radio however, we would not hear anymore election campaign advertisements after tonight. Well, for the next 3 years anyway.
The last 3 Labour Prime Ministers have all been very flawed characters. By and large however, you knew who they were, before they became Prime Minister.
With Gough you knew his social agenda. It may have been the ideals of that time for state support nearing total state welfare which sounds repugnant to present thinking and his total, take no prisoner attitude as he steams ahead with his agenda may have seemed suicidal. For that he may have seemed irresponsible. He may have been an idealist, but irresponsible. Yet he made no bones about it. Everyone knew what he was on about. He didn’t try to manipulate anything to project a different image.

With Hawke it was the same thing. He was a womaniser and boozer. Yet he did not pretend to be something else. Keating continues to dish out his tongue lashings and continues to speak his mind about anything he has a view on. You always knew he would do that. I liked both Hawke and Keating. It was Keating who made it cool to appreciate antique clocks. If not for him, whenever I stepped into the antique shop of my brother in law (Daniel Ching) I would not have stopped to stare at these clocks.

Rudd however, is a different animal altogether. His public image has been a carefully crafted one. Just over a year ago I read an interview with him where he quoted Dietrich Bonheoffer extensively. He claimed to be devout Christian. I watched him spar with Joe Hockey, then the Minister for Human Services (or some ministry like that) and thought he was such an articulate, sincere and likeable man.

My perception of Rudd has changed. I now see him as someone who is prepared to lie about anything to get what he wants. Integrity is not part of his vocabulary. He’d go to a strip club and claim he’d forgotten (because he was too drunk). When I get drunk I want to sleep or pick a fight, not go to a strip club. Maybe he got drunk in the strip club, who knows? He faked things on television. Before an audience of mainly Muslims, he would not affirm his belief in Christianity (would not say Jesus is the Son of God). How can someone hold such polarised stance? You cannot say you are a devout Christian and express agreement with Dietrich Bonheoffer’s theological writings and then cannot bring yourself to confess Jesus is the Son of God. He’d say things for years which he would not permit his team to say, if it meant being against the grain of the moment.

He appears to hold no views, sways according to popular opinion and would not tell you the truth. In fact he would lie, if that makes him look good or better. John Howard may appear to be like a grumpy old man at times and his “liberal” (read conservative a la Thatcher) views may not always be agreeable to the average wage earners (like me) but you knew where he stands. With Rudd, his true colours may only surface if/when he becomes Prime Minister. It may mean 3 disastrous years which would take a long time to fix.

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This was how it used to be


It’s November but it’s still single digit temperature in the morning and I’m still pulling on a jumper. Some old timers tell me this was the Melbourne they knew before. I spend a lot more time with old timers these days so I have had reasonable sampling sizes when I gauge how old timers feel.

Maybe that’s part of my current problems, few as they may be. In my office on a day like today when the population size increases by 33.3%, the average age is on the wrong side of 50’s. On days when there are just 3 this piece of statistic inches ever more to the wrong side and has a closer look-in on 60. I shudder to think what happens when we take into account the other occupants of this building. It wouldn’t do any harm to my sense that I spend a lot of time with old timers these days.  And they all tell me this was what the old Melbourne was like – cool Spring mornings, even in November.

It’s not just the cool mornings – it’s also the wet. It has been raining, in an almost English sense of the word i.e., the rain never truly stops but it doesn’t bucket down like a tropical torrential downpour either.

So November notwithstanding, summer-like conditions are still only a promise. A bit like the here-but-not-yet eschatological kingdom thingy.

I’ve been in this NFP role for 4 months now. My work is a mish-mash of activities. I go through all in-coming mail, check on rental, mortgage, farmstocks and loans programs on the revenue side and distributions and donations on the disbursements side as well as miscellaneous building and tenancy matters. I also have some legal stuff thrown in, although for the most part it was tax stuff and my contribution was muted at best. The Treasury came up with an “in-Australia” raft of amendments to the tax laws concerning charitable tax exempt status, to which organisations like us made annoyed (and worried) submissions. Then there was the new consumer credit licensing laws which we needed to look to, and which incidentally I had to front up to the Board  tonight to discuss a paper I put up recently. These legal stuff sort of made work a little bit more interesting but professional work satisfaction has long taken a remote back seat. I still get tickled into dipping my toes into possible legal work every now and then but it is still a remote back seat.

What my present work has done is to somehow, show up some sides of faith based organisations which tend to confirm some old prejudices. Maybe it is actually an Australian thing or maybe it is just the circle I have been moving in, but lately, I get this feeling that those who work in Christian organisations somehow are more relaxed and less intense in their day-to-day work activities. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we’re old just older and wiser and react less to day-to-day situations and take things more in stride. While this doesn’t explain the frequent absences and travels I notice it sort of show work is taken less seriously and people just want to spend more time on people – family especially – and activities they enjoy.

Maybe I’m getting to know a Melbourne that used to be, just like cool November mornings.

 

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