This modern human lifestyle, is as cruel as the ancient world. Well, we may have the technology, but the financial system drags us to a whole lot of busy-ness. And everyday, we shall be facing unnecessary stress and agony in the workplace, (even in college), while at the same time complaining without relating the roots of our problem.
And therefore you see everyone of you walking around in circles, while being clueless on what you should do.
You see, I feel troubled to see the people around me are like that.
And thus, this fire sparks within me. But sometimes the wind is too powerful that it blows that fire off. But eventually the smaller winds tend to spread it.
I believe some of you are worried of this fact, don't you? :)
Anyway, this is the latest Medal of Honor game trailer that features Linkin Park's "The Catalyst". And I'm kinda happy with the new song from them. Looks like MOH is going to compete against the other modern warfare FPS stories, like Infinity Ward/ Treyarch's COD Blackops and Electronic Arts' Battlefield Bad Company 2. Of all, I feel that the Call of Duty series are the best. "God bless us everyone. We're broken people living under loaded gun." Indeed.
Anyway, this is Linkin Park's new album.
Taken from Google Images =) So far I had listened to The Catalyst and Burning in The Skies. They are not so different than the ones from their previous album. But I'm sure, Linkin Park still has the edge to keep up with the current music trend.
Yet, I still prefer their songs from Hybrid Theory and Meteora!:) I missed the Linkin Park with rock and hip-hop.
If the first video of the previous post is not enough to provoke your thoughts, I would like to share another video for you on democracy. :)
This video is produced in Indonesia, and it's really creative for the producer himself to show how society thinks about democracy.
Well, a common nation has its people so diversified with different ideologies and understandings from occupational, religious, and social backgrounds. And thus, under a social system imposed on them, people are indoctrinated indirectly to chase their own dreams and goals in their life, thus people are segregated by their own cravings and achievements, which we call "self-interests". And it's impossible people will have unity as a whole.
Note: All pictures below are accredited to the short film above. =) I really salute Indonesia for being the only South East Asian nation to be the winner of this contest of democracy.
Here, the writes shows the examples of what made up the ignorant masses in the classroom. We have:
An activist: He doesn't smile much, as activists tend to be sceptic on the mainstream media due to the social injustice around him - his quest of truth.
An entrepreneur: Businessmen tend to prioritize profits (self-interest) and not caring much about social concerns more. You may argue that corporations are having corporate social responsibilities (CSR) to the community, but all of these are for publicity purposes.
A law enforcer: Every nation has law enforcement, people who were given the mandate to uphold the law and the constitution of the country he/she is serving. But what if they only serve the ones in power and NOT the people? What if a country becomes a police state?
A farmer: A perfect example that represents the working class of a nation. He's like any other workers of labours in any nation.
A doctor and an engineer: It's no difference when the producer decides to put an architect and an accountant together, these people are specialized in their own professional fields, and thus, they have no common grounds and will not sit and talk to each other.
The celebrity and the media: The entertainment industry has brainwashed the masses with many fictional nonsense the media can think and present of. Well, they tell you to dress like this, act like that, who is to be worshipped, who is to be hated, etc. When they say Justin Bieber, all the 13 year old girls will come shouting his name like mad, agree?
A politician (Member of Parliament): This is an important character that represents the politicians. Well, they tend to talk and claim a lot about something, rather than giving a straightforward solution to serve the people, don't they?
And so, the producer slowly portrays the way how these characters act with one another.
Here, you can see what if the entrepreneur sits with the politician. You can see a Rupiah note on the MP's mouth, isn't it? Usually, we call this bribing.
Silencing the public eh? The case is this, when the farmer wants to answer the democracy question, he was stopped by the police who sat beside him. Freedom of speech?
And then, comes a prominent, highlighted character.
President Soekarno of Indonesia once said, "Give me a thousand old men, and I will move a mountain. Give me a thousand young men, and I will shake the world."
The youngster is a person who is self-seeking, lively, expressive and outgoing in person. However, they (I'm also a youngster for now) can be also ignorant in mind if not being educated well. That is why you can see many young activists in the West in demonstrations and volunteer campaigns. That is also why Christian organizations are active. We are capable of making a change.
However, democracy, to us youngsters is a hard word to be defined, as long as we are living under a sick, self-centered society. It's therefore up to us to find out the true meaning of democracy.
And thus, the title, Democracy is Yet To Learn (Masih Belajar). Take a good look on how the way the others treat the youngster. The ignorant masses only wanted to see what is his answer without reflecting about it, but at the same time, they are throwing stuffs at him - it's all about the sickness of society due to diversity and various understandings (yeah, that include bigotry, stereotypes, and discriminations).
The advancing technologies of communication are helping us to be united as ONE planet, as we are advocating the true ideology of humanity to all. Throughout all the years, men have been praying and hoping for a state of utopia - a perfect world you and I wanted to live in.
Recently, Youtube had presented on its main page on the outcomes of a short film competition to challenge filmmakers around the world to redefine "democracy", where 6 out of 800 films were picked as winners of the contest. The contest was called Democracy Challenge.
This is the most meaningful video that I'd ever viewed and I would like to share this to all of you, to rethink democracy, and NOT about your own self-interests, for we are the members of this world.
"ATTN: Mr. Democrat"
Directed, edited, written and composed by Farbod Khashtinat (Iran)
Animation: Taraneh Galozar
Music: Shahim Pajoom
Dear Democratic President, I hope that you will read this someday. Perhaps a miracle will happen and your democratic attitude will change.
Democracy is NOT to screen the votes of a nation with the filter of your opinion.
Democracy is NOT taking what's others' for yours for your survival
Democracy is NOT choking the voices so that no harsh words could aggrieve your ears.
Democracy is NOT ruling a totalitarian regime under the name of a "Republic"
Democracy is NOT that the minority chains majority.
Democracy is NOT describing the sacred things as your own and charging anyone who says against you with heresy.
Democracy is NOT being a caring foster for other countries' people and being an unkind stepmother of your own.
Democracy is NOT play with words and to invent the truth and still discourse on freedom of speech.
Democracy is NOT that whatever we say is not democratic, and whatever you say is democratic.
Democracy IS what my brothers and sisters requested for and you shed their blood because of it.
But still,
We haven't given up on our dream.
You see, people, true democracy is UTOPIA- a place you and I wanted to live in with peace and harmony, collaboration, NOT competition. Share this to your friends, and spread the words of enlightenment to them.
I know my site here wasn't updated for 4 days, I think I better keep it alive for a while.
And indeed, I was hiatus due to this nice, smartly designed game. To those who recently ask me where and what is the #fm2010 trend in my Twitter, this is it.
Well, Football Manager 2010 is a more realistic simulation game to those who wants to experience the pressure and what its like to be a real football manager like Sir Alex Ferguson and Harry Redknapp, Jose Mourinho, and so on. Here, all you have to do is to create your manager character (you can even use your own pictures for the game!) and select your favourite team to play. Be warned, for the season, you're only able to have a low transfer budget (the money you use to buy players).
In the game you can even tweak the formations of the players, while instruct them on their movements, personally or as a team. This can be confusing, even if when the assistant manager helps you.
I'd been playing this since the World Cup month. The game begins in year 2009 and I started up with Tottenham Hotspurs and struggled against the top teams of the Premier League for 3 seasons before I won the League title in the 3rd season. Well, as for the transfers, I tend to surf the World Cup site a lot, searching for decent players to purchase. From the Tottenham Hotspurs of the real world, I brought in players like Khalid Boulahrouz, Angel di Maria, Micah Richards, Salomon Kalou and Mark Gonzalez to improve the team. Of course, I need to sell out some of the players. Sometimes, it's best if you train young talents if you want to save budget.
Currently on the 4th Premiership season and my 1st year with Manchester United, I got an extra $140 million budget, so I spent the money on stars like Arjen Robben and Edin Dzeko, as Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are already retired in the game. Well, these stars will eventually get older, but I managed to train some talents, which are fictional actually.
Looks like Wayne Rooney has to prove himself for the win. Dzeko keeps scoring in the Premiership games. While I was blogging this, my Man Utd draw with Arsenal 0-0. Gosh, wanted to get Cesc Fabregas but Arsenal wanted $81 million for him. Currently targeting Neymar of Brazil, Berbatov left the team when I was playing Tottenham.
Edin Dzeko seems to be the best striker I'd ever played with in the game. LOLS. In real life, he's from Wolfsburg. Both the scouts of Tottenham Hotspurs and Manchester United recommended him to be in the team. Yeah, you have scouts to help you, but you need to have sufficient knowledge of real life players in order to succeed. Otherwise, it's hard for you to get decent players.
Back to reality, when I found out that Everton almost managed to defeat Manchester United last Saturday during the second half full time, I was devastated. 2 sudden goals do hurt the whole team.
Anyway, Yakubu is one skilful forward. Haha. In the national games, I first played as Nigeria, then I jumped to Uruguay, which is a regret. It seems that Nigeria have better resources, while Uruguay only have the better attackers like Edinson Cavani, Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan.
Looks like I shall be downloading some players wallpaper soon. haha.
I only recommend this game to the football fanatics, as you need a lot of knowledge to play such a game.
This is actually the continuation of my previous post. :)
One of my readers had told me that today the Quran burning plans have been cancelled, which is a very good news to all the citizens of the world. But then, there could be side effects. The damage has been done.
Even though I'm half a world away from America, I can deeply feel how angry and disappointed I am as a Christian myself to Pastor Terry Jones, who has been deceived with hatred as he proposes that the Quran is to be burned in conjunction of the mosque issue on the 9/11 site.
Here's what Jesus said to us 2,000 years ago.
'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." [Mark 12:31]
'Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecutes you.' [Matthew 5:44]
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. [Matthew 7:12]
And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins." [Mark 11:25]
Four verses aren't enough for you, isn't it?
Freedom of speech? Ask yourself, are you practising it responsibly? You led your sheep astray as you teach them to HATE. Think about that, dear brother-in-Christ. Instead of focusing that unnecessary hatred against the Muslims, why not think about saving more blind, materialistic, ignorant souls by bringing them to Christ? You better think like a smart person, instead of practising freedom of speech, you blatantly use that freedom to promote hate.
Please, our religion doesn't teach us to HATE.
To the lost sheep who are dragged into this hate event, please consider why your United States government had approved the plans of building the mosque on that tragedy site.
They have the power to reject the plans, but why they still insisted on it?
Why in the Western media, terrorism is so strongly linked to Islam while it is a religion of peace?
Why after the 9/11 events, your American troops were led to Afghanistan and Iraq?
President Obama promised to take out the troops completely from the Middle Eastern places, why your army is still there? Even if there are terror over there, why can't they just train the local soldiers to deal with counter-terrorism as they go back?
Why are they so many flaws in your government's 9/11 official report? Why are there so many conspiracy theories about Sept 11?
Turn off your mainstream channels. And view alternative news such as Alex Jones' >click here< or check out the 9/11 Truth Movement >site<
In conclusion, it isn't Islam to be blamed, it's your government's mistakes that cause such hatred.
Shame on you! Are you being called by God to do such hatred stuffs? You are a pastor, an advocate of peace, and you're leading a church! To the Diocese of that church, please look into this matter closely. Thank you.
P.S - I don't know if this is true. But the Evil ones may plan this stage.
Excerpts from Albert Pike (freemason)'s letter to Manzini in describing his visions of Three World Wars.
"The Third World Warmust be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the "agentur" of the "Illuminati" between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other.
St. Paul says, "Be careful of wolves among sheep". Don't say I didn't warn you. Don't you see how much the name of Islam is attacked in this age?
And so after Gadoh, I managed to watch this 36 minutes documentary made by Pusat KOMAS. While Gadoh is all about racism and the flaws of the current social system, Selepas Tsunami describes the changes the Opposition made after they took over the 4 states liberated from Barisan Nasional in the 2008 March 8 elections.
It's happy for me to know that what Pakatan Rakyat really did was to practice a more socialist and democratic system where they implemented open tender and transparency in their governing system, thus establishing a more fair system despite the struggle of financial budgets and their conflicts against the current federal government (BN). If they continue not to be corrupted, while putting their policies in line with the people's needs, then I will not doubt that Malaysia will have a more liberal reformation soon.
I am not a strong believer in politics, for it is hard for me to trust both BN and PR, but what I saw in the documentary is enlightening. Real politics in true democracy should be where the parties involved are NOT in a competitive mode, instead they have to collaborate for the people. They have to realize that the government SERVES and SPEAKS for the people, as we are the ones that choose them. Politicians are only people who are after self-interest. But the government doesn't.
Meanwhile, I had change my mind to vote, BUT with a doubt - what if the election system is flawed? I remembered in my Malaysian Studies course, that the SPR Commission is not actually an independent body, as the committee members are selected by the King under the advice of the Prime Minister, who is also affiliated to a party. This same process also applies to the appointment of the Attourney-General and so on. Where's the fair game, though? The SPR should be pressured to play their roles RESPONSIBLY, otherwise instead of voting for democracy, we are only voting under fascism, like what the American government is facing (according to Alex Jones' Prisonplanet.com). Nobody likes that, doesn't it?
Anyway, what's important here is we are approaching a more liberal Malaysia. We have to evolve ourselves from race-based politics into a more welfare-based nation. We can do this! :)
As for the film, it is truly an eye-opening film for Malaysians. I am not opposing or siding any political parties, I am just a person advocating for a more welfare-based world.
NOTE: This isn't a religious post, as this only shows the recent photos I took. Pics are under 16:9 aspect, taken by the Sony NEX5 with super light editings.
Most of them were taken from my church :) And thus, the theme is this. lols
Admiring this picture a lot. :) The last picture is the one that I'd edited twice. The first one was seen by Ju Mei once. :) But now, I'd added a second layer of flare in this picture. By looking at the pictures, I tend to look at the rants and wishes of the people around me, as well as our hopes and fears of the future. Life is hard, like it or not, we have to move, while waiting for a change.
Photography is back! But this time I continue this with a book review. Haha, I have more spare time for now as I'm currently in my holidays.
The reason why I titled the picture above as "Change Towards Humanity" is this book maybe a guideline for a more humane world. Well, do we realize that the world is getting more and more humane than ever? Well, in the past, our ancestors condemned the criminals blindly while they were sentenced to death, or being put to torture in public. Today, we say "No!" to capital punishment. Even the methods of killing a victim is subjected to the idea of punishing someone with a "painless" death.
To begin with, I began noticing this book, from one of Youtube's most popular talk clip, by one of Europe's finest philosophers, Slavoj Zizek. He included this book as his source for one of his talks called "First As Tragedy, Then As Farce". Well, Mr. Zizek was meant to criticize the idea of charity in today's world, but then I will be talking about this fact later.
But first, do spare some time to view his clip, if you want to.
Now, all I wanted to say is, it's kinda surprisingly that this book, even though was published in the end of the 19th century, has the contents that is still relevant to the present world today. (NOTE: I am not a socialist, in ideological terms I'm for The Zeitgeist Movement's moneyless resouce-based economy (RBE). What this book generally wanted to highlight is the slavery mentality of people who are in a capitalistic world.
With the abolition of private property, then, we shall have true, beautiful, healthy Individualism. Nobody will waste his life in accumulating things, and the symbols for things. One will live. To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.
Well, capitalism is a productivity-based ideology that focuses on supplying the demands, and thus social stratification is encouraged within a society that practices it. In Marxism, Karl Marx divided and identify 2 types of classes in a capitalist world - first is the bourgeoisie (the ruling class/corporate and business owners), and the proletariats (the working class). To survive in such a world, one has to be a capitalist - a person who is capable to capitalize both men and machine to generate profits. In nation building, the same thing happens as the dominant party capitalizes all of its corporations and working class into competing against other nation-states.
And thus, this system can be exploitative. Hence I will move on to:
Part 1: The System Doesn't Care A Damn About You.
I once mentioned this in my Facebook status. "One who votes and supports capitalism or any form of right-wing politics are people who are programmed to be SLAVES, a slave that works under a system that doesn't really care a damn about them".
Indeed, we're living under a system that treats us as if we're under a human resource factory. You were born, registered as a citizen, being sent into the education system where you were told to follow the syllabus from the age of 7 to 18, and then you get your college degree and you enter the workforce. In your "career", you were told to go to work and face unnecessary stress and traffic jams from 8 am to 5 pm every weekdays just for a devaluing thing called "money". Now, with things getting busier and busier over time while the financial system continues to break down, tell me, if your life happier when you know you have to get up in time to work and face stress in the office?
The books quotes
In a community like ours, where property confers immense distinction, social position, honour, respect, titles and other pleasant things of its kind, man can naturally be ambitious, makes it his aim to accumulate this property and goes on wearily and tediously accumulating it long after he has got far more than he wants, or can use, or enjoy or perhaps even know of. MAN, will kill himself by overwork in order to secure property...
True, isn't it? I remembered I'd entered a direct-selling group meeting, seeing a group of people having some ambitions of wanting to achieve statuses and titles, to be rich, etc. And the sense of motivation over there was so strong that it makes me sick to think about other people saying that "I want to achieve this", "I want to achieve that" with a smile on their face. I don't say that it's wrong, but then I can feel that social disease of people. Maybe I have a strong Christianity background that makes me anti-materialism. I am able to foresee the bright future of direct-selling business like Amway, Elken, AMC, etc, but for me to interact with people who are too obsessed with materialistic goals, sorry.
That doesn't just happen on direct-selling members, the career world also faces that. But in an office, things can be shallow and sinister. You can't feel it in a part-time job, but when you're going full time, that is another story.
And what if technology grows in capitalism. The incentives for men helped humanity to create more modern machines which will eventually take over human labour, which brings us to...
Part 2: The Rise of Automated Labour.
"Human Slavery Is Wrong, Insecure and Demoralising." - Oscar Wilde.
Up to the present, man has been, to a certain extent, the slave of machinery, and there is something tragic in the fact that as soon man had invented a machine to do his work he began to starve.
In the past, there are people working as lift operators, factory workers, traffic men (the ones who were then replaced by traffic lights). Today, these jobs are gone. Wanna know why? Technology has allow us to create machineries to overcome human labour. Machines are unlike human beings. They never complain, they no need any income, and they are more efficient than human. Today, we have this thing called "Artificial Intelligence". Slowly, technology will replace human labour, this is a fact. Our system has to change.
This is a good example for the modern world. The picture above is taken in 2007, where you are seeing the world's first automated restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany. Named's Baggers is the name. >link< More restaurants like this means more unemployment.
How about this? Automated robotic surgery? I'm not sure if our own National Heart Institute (IJN) of Malaysia has this machinery or not, but this is surely a state-of-the-art technology that may make millions of surgeons jobless in the future. >link<
Humans have to change the way we live. If we continue our capitalistic ways of living, more people will be jobless, homeless and all will enter poverty.
There is no doubt at all that this is the future of machinery....machinery will be doing all the unpleasant work.
Indeed, machines will set humans free of work nature.
Part 3: Instead of Charity, Why Not Redesign Our Culture?
You see, in the past, I hate Karl Marx and Communism, thanks to the history books. I thought Communism was a form of dictatorship that enslaves the people and cause the Communist nations to spread their ideology through violence (like during the Emergency 1948-1960). But, when we were taught about Marxism in college, I felt that Marx actually wanted to create Utopia, the perfect world you and I wanted to live in. What makes Communism corrupted is the greed of power. A Communist nation should be classless and property-less (also means, moneyless).
And thus, Oscar Wilde proposes an classless, non-capitalism individualism, for the rights of the individual.
During the Cold War, there is this battle of public opinion between capitalism and communism. And I can say is, both ideologies were corrupted by greed of power and profit. Today, communism went into socialism, while capitalism has evolved into a new form of itself called "Cultural Capitalism", according to philosopher, Zizek.
The capitalism we are in today encourages us to be an environmentalist. The Earth Day, the green policy of brands and corporations, and the donations organized and sponsored by them - all of them are categorized in charity. They make you wanted to give to society, help the needy, make the world greener, etc.
But here, according to the book, Wilde argues that....
The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exeggerated altruism. They found themselves surrounded by an hideous poverty, hideous ugliness, hideous starvations. It is inevitable that they should be strongly moved by all of this. The emotions of men are stirred more quickly than men's intelligence.....Thus, they very seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see. But their remedies do not cure the disease, they merely prolong it. Indeed, their remedies are PART of the disease..
Like the example of Zizek in the video above, when you enter a Starbucks shop and they tell you that part of the money you spent on them are used to ensure that the coffee bean owners get the fair shares in their business, do you really trust them? A few years ago, there is an airline company added a green surcharge to its passengers, telling that we are also responsible of air pollution while we were travelling by air. Tell me, are they using that excuse to gain extra profit? Think about it.
With all the encouragements by corporations, a.k.a, corporate social responsibility (CSR) going around, you can feel the sense of hypocrisy around them.
Why not redesign the world instead? Haiti wouldn't face much medical and resource crisis in a more socialist world, I believe.
So, in conclusion, this book, though published in 1891, is a very timeless advice for humanity, as we are working towards that now. We have the technology that unites man, with all the social networkings, blogs and instant messengers. People should read this book more, regardless any ideologies that you support. At the end of the day, it's all about humanity and empathy.
....Restore society to its proper condition of a thoroughly healthy organism, and insure the material well-being of each member of the community.
To Christians, Wilde also wanted to leave this message to you.
What Jesus meant was this. He said to a man, "You have a wonderful personality. Develop it. Be yourself. Don't imagine that your perfection lies in accumulating or possessing external things. your perfection is inside of you. If only you could realise that, you wouldn't want to be rich. Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man. REAL riches cannot.
Thanks for the patience of reading it. If you want to read the whole book, >click here< Have a nice day. =)
Do watch the whole movie, though I know it's a local one. What matters is the content in the movie, not the quality of it.
Anyway, Gadoh is about a group of students who fought because of racism issues. The film also discuss and highlight racism as the flaws of the social system that is not planned for the human well-being.
Malaysians should watch this, instead of going out to the community and follow their own respective stereotypes. In schools and college, we were told not to be racists, but then, what makes us one to a certain extent is the society - Bigotry, hatred, discrimination, competition - this is what we get from our environment.
Do watch, and enjoy =) We are towards a more liberal Malaysia, despite the social injustice that lingers around us. After all, it's the problems that unites us. We may complain, but some of them will cause you to think. It's the problems that generates idealists.
