Friday, September 9, 2011

Why I should be Minister of Phynance (reprise)

"It is the artist/scientist/architect who is the mover of history. Under our present nation-state system, the artist/scientist/architect is enslaved in a world where the politicians are entropically concerned with their own fragmented power and wealth. The visionary is unemployed and finds it difficult to fit into the rigid educational system that is becoming more financially exclusive each semester." Libby Hubbard, paraphrasing Buckminster Fuller

"We find all the no-life-support-wealth-producing people going to their jobs in their cars or buses, spending trillions of dollars' worth of petroleum daily to get to their no-wealth-producing jobs. It doesn't take a computer to tell you that it will save both Universe and humanity trillions of dollars a day to pay them handsomely to stay at home." ~ Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path (1981)

First of all, I readily admit that I know next to nothing about money. The word “economics” leaves me cold. The concept of busyness (as in business) makes me yawn.

Second of all, if you look at the self-appointed phynancial wizards who have each claimed to be some sort of “foremost authority” in his field (and it’s still pretty much a male precinct; can’t think of any female economic advisors offhand) it’s obvious they have completely screwed up at every turn.

If these economic experts were worth their own weight in salt, would there be so many starving children in some countries – and so many obese ones in others?

Doesn’t take a degree in rocket science to figure out that these “economic strategists” are essentially a bunch of conmen who serve the narrow interests of a tiny elite cabal and not humanity as a whole.

The deep background to this out-of-whack state of affairs makes a fascinating study but I won’t delve into it here. Those interested are encouraged to do a bit of Googling on the Anunnaki colonization of Planet Earth and how they manufactured a slavish subspecies (Homo sapiens sapiens aka the Adama) to perform menial tasks - and inadvertently got genetically entangled with Adamic humanity’s evolution towards autonomy and spiritual consciousness.

Coming back to my appointment as Minister of Phynance, here are some good reasons why I feel I’m the best person for the job.

For a start, I’ve become expert at minimizing overheads. I quit my last full-time job on April 1st, 1977, and have managed to live modestly but comfortably since. In those 32 years I’ve acquired intimate knowledge of the true value of everything.

If you‘ve been trekking up and down several hills through the forest for four hours, you most certainly will appreciate what shelter means: to arrive finally at a cosy lodge with facilities for boiling water and making tea, and to be able to put your weary feet up and sip sweet black tea and listen to the jungle – that’s certainly an enriching experience. Moments like these, what’s a cup of tea worth to you? Or a warm bed to lie in? How about the company and conversation of a few good friends?

In the real world – and I don’t mean the dog-eat-dog “real world” cynically alluded to by moneyed folk and crime syndicates – where nature reigns supreme, our understanding of what constitutes wealth becomes grounded in tangible experience. For instance, if you find yourself lost in the desert and you’ve been trudging in circles up and down sand dunes under a blazing sun for hours on end, which would you rather stumble upon – a well containing potable water or a bag stuffed with currency notes or even uncut diamonds?


Our sense of values has become distorted over many generations with the introduction of money as a symbol of wealth. To a hungry man, a bunch of bananas and a pitcher of cool, sweet water are worth infinitely more than a gleaming new Porsche or a platinum credit card with unlimited access.

As Minister of Phynance I would shut down the stock exchange and turn it into a budget hostel for young travelers. It’s totally absurd that people think it’s okay to make money with money. It’s not okay, folks – because money isn’t real!

It’s just a puerile game wherein folks with surplus cash are lured into investing it in big corporations, thereby giving them sufficient financial clout to wreak total havoc with their endless expansion schemes. Giant corporations are an unhealthy phenomenon as they tend to grow and grow like a cancer, devouring everything of genuine value – especially natural ecosystems - in their path.

What do people with surplus cash do with the stuff then? Well, they can donate it to a community trust fund managed by a panel of respected citizens and this trust fund will supersede the parasitic insurance companies and the Employees Provident Fund. Anyone who requires financial support and funding for adventurous and worthwhile projects may apply for a grant from this fund. If they accrue a financial surplus from any of these projects, they are expected to donate it to the fund so others can benefit from it.

What constitutes a financial surplus? If we calculate the cost of supporting an adult human for a single day and multiply the amount by ten to make sure that his or her quality of life is at least ten times better than basic – anything above that amount would be considered as surplus.


For example, I estimate that an adult human can manage comfortably on a budget of RM50 or €10 a day. Ten times that is RM500 or €100. So in a month of 30 days an adult human would be more than comfortably supported on a income of RM15,000 or €3,000. If he or she lives frugally, at least half the monthly income can be saved in an interest-free account. This way, those who tend to be spendthrift will end up with hardly any surplus; whilst the thrifty ones will have plenty of surplus to donate to the community trust fund.

Those who donate their surplus to the community trust fund will acquire the status of community elders and therefore share the responsibility of governing their communities. By living well within their means and managing to accumulate a monthly or annual surplus, they would have demonstrated their maturity, inner discipline and freedom from self-indulgent habits and addictions.


Essentially, this will help resolve destabilizing imbalances resulting from generations of financial mismanagement at the hands of those who tend to be most extravagant and undisciplined in their misuse of energy. To be sure, they won’t be overjoyed about this – since this class of humans has traditionally set themselves up as the ruling elite by dint of the fact that they were descended from the Anunnaki creator gods – or were able to become leaders of armed gangs that routinely plundered the land, terrorized the populace, and proclaimed themselves overlords.


And where will the guaranteed income come from? It will accrue from harvesting free energy and effectively converting and rechanneling it for specific tasks. Back in the early 1970s, whole systems thinker Buckminster Fuller calculated that if we could efficiently tap the daily universal income of raw energy from our nearest star, Sol or Ra, and convert it to its monetary equivalent in US dollars – we would receive sufficient energy from the Sun alone to pay every living human on Spaceship Earth a daily wage of approximately USD400,000.


Now that is way beyond my recommended basic daily wage of RM500 or €100. Buckminster Fuller was merely stating a point in very broad terms. It’s unlikely that we could harvest 100% of the daily energy income we receive from the Sun. 60-70% would already be more than sufficient to provide a daily energy income to each human worth approximately USD280,000. And since each human will be guaranteed only RM500 (approximately USD142) per day, it means that at least USD279,858 per human would accrue to the planetary energy pool for infrastructural design, development and maintenance.

In effect, after deducting the basic daily cost of maintaining each adult human, there would still be an enormous amount held in reserve for large-scale operations like the building and maintenance of transport systems, ecosystem rehabilitation projects, educational networks and a state-of-the-art planetary communications grid.


Notice that I have omitted any mention of defence systems or military forces. We really don’t need these archaic institutions anymore. If we haven’t matured enough as a species to resolve our conceptual differences through philosophical engagement, interpersonal interaction and conflict resolution, then Homo sapiens sapiens truly deserves to become extinct. And the rest of the universe won’t shed a single tear to be rid of such a virulent and warlike lifeform.

In order to make such a planetary scale transformation possible, it would of course be much easier if there existed an enlightened planetary administrative body modeled after the United Nations – but minus the political bullying that currently makes the UN a mere symbolic gesture rather than an authoritative unifying and coordinating force.

Many of us are disturbed by talk of a New World Order or One World Government and rightly so – because the ones pushing this nefarious agenda are merely perpetuating the ancient caste system wherein the most aggressive egos form themselves into an overpowering elite cabal and systematically exploit and enslave the rest of humanity.

What I’m discussing here is the cosmically kosher counterforce to the Illuminati’s One World Order agenda. In effect, the most aggressive and immature egos will no longer be allowed to plunder the Earth for their own aggrandizement and the enslavement of the ignorant masses.

Instead, because of their lack of self-control, they will be allowed to do what they wish within the generous means granted them – but will have no say in the management of their communities, since that responsibility will be assigned only to those who have developed sufficient inner discipline and wisdom to accumulate a surplus and donate it to the community trust fund.

Give this some serious thought and if you still think I don’t deserve to be appointed Minister of Phynance, I shall be forced to use the pschittapump on you.

-------
Literary footnote: The spelling of “finance” as “phynance” and the introduction of the pschittapump were inspired by the pataphsyical works of Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), originator of the infamous Ubu plays.


APPENDIX: Notes by Libby Hubbard

Wealth is defined by Buckminster Fuller as the "technological ability to protect, nurture, support, and accommodate all growth needs of life." The computer will show us that at least 70% of jobs in Western private-enterprise countries are work that creates no life support, therefore no real wealth. Examples of these jobs are: "inspectors of inspectors, reunderwriters of insurance reinsurers, Obnoxico promoters, spies and counterspies, military personnel, gunmakers, etc." It is more economical to pay these people to stay at home and not drive their cars to work since it cost "nature well over a million dollars to produce each gallon of petroleum."

The Sun does not make us pay for the energy the Earth imports. It wants to us succeed in the cosmic scheme by using what Fuller calls "cosmic costing accounts." Cosmic accounting can never go bankrupt, since the sun is always shining, accept when humans make the mistake of withdrawing our critical "capital" assets as we are doing presently with fossil fuels. So one can see how we are living in a bankrupt state of affairs, wasting our fossil fuels and burning fusion and fission nuclear energy which Fuller says is "burning our terrestrial production equipment," when we should be living syntropically by the sunlight being imported to Earth.

When we begin living in a syntropic way on a "cosmic-energy wealth income" by wind, wave, and solar power, big businesses will see no way for putting a meter on these forms of energy to run their bureaucracies and war machines. National governments and big business continue to use up "nature's energy savings account," that is, fossil fuels and by atomic energy which is what Fuller calls "Spaceship Earth's physical hull," even though scientists can find no solution to the problem of nuclear waste. (Fuller thinks we should rocket the waste back into the sun). But because of our intuitive wisdom strongly forming an anti-nuclear energy movement, the energy owners have turned back to the coal and shale mines to convert them into meterable and pipeable liquid fuels. Fuller writes: "This selfishly exploitable energy fuel strategy will inexorably destroy the atmosphere's capability of supporting biological life on planet Earth."
[First published 26 November 2009]



Thursday, September 8, 2011

A Course In Laughter: Special Discount for UMNO/BN Warlords!


Laughter and Humor Important? You Must Be Joking! Here's A Chance to Wake Up Laughing ... and Leave Laughter in Your Wake

"To be happy in life, you must be able to take a joke. And if you can leave a few, that's even better." ~ Swami Beyondananda

Dear Friends:

What with all the serious problems in the world, it might seem a stretch to take laughter and humor seriously. But what if healing laughter and "cosmic comic consciousness" provided the very tools we require in these evolutionary times?

Seriously.

At a time when our civilization needs to shift from a state of emergency to a state of emergent seeing, humor is a way to integrate the left and right brain, the intuitive and the linear. A transformational joke or phrase (what Swami calls "an irony supplement") can free the mind of obsolete beliefs, and hearty laughter puts us into the heart. Consider the irony that the most reliable take on the news nowadays comes via the Comedy Channel! Why? Because humor is a delivery system for information that simultaneously exposes the B.S., while the levity allows us to "rise above" the situation - to emerge from the limited thinking that created the problem in the first place - and "see" our way to an emergent solution.

Laughter has the power to break the cultural trances by making the insanity palpable. When enough people are laughing at an insane and crazy-making societal story, that story loses all power, and a new story becomes possible.

Even more important, what the Swami calls "self-facing humor" allows us to break our own personal trances and see our own shadow. In a moment of "fool realization," we laugh heartily and lovingly at our own foolishness... and become a wise fool in the process.

Starting this Thursday, September 8th, you'll have a chance to learn the secrets of transformational humor from a master - Steve Bhaerman aka Swami Beyondananda, who has been called "the Mark Twain of our generation" by author Marianne Williamson.

So sign up for A Course in Laughter now, and find out what God is laughing about! You'll laugh while you learn and learn while you laugh ... you'll wake up laughing, and leave laughter in your wake. Click here to find out more and to sign up.



Well, Muhyiddin... Nazri... Daim... Ibrahim Ali... all you hypocritical wankers in JAIS.... how about it? The 5-week course fee is only $147 (less than RM440) so no problem lah. I was only kidding about the discount. Heh heh.



Tuesday, September 6, 2011

CIVIL WAR BREAKS OUT ON WALL STREET



An explosive new report in Rolling Stone magazine exposes how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission destroyed records of thousands of investigations, whitewashing the files of some of the nation's largest banks and hedge funds, including AIG, Wells Fargo, Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and top Wall Street broker Bernard Madoff.

Last week, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said an agency whistleblower had sent him a letter detailing the unlawful destruction of records detailing more than 9,000 information investigations. Democracy Now! speaks with Matt Taibbi, the political reporter for Rolling Stone magazine who broke this story in his latest article, "Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?"

For the complete transcript, to download the podcast, or for more information about Democracy Now!, click here!

As Reality Finally Hits The Financial Elite, They Start Turning On Each Other



Friday, September 2, 2011

Meet the totally reformed MCA...



That's right, folks, from now on the only MCA I acknowledge is the Mutant Chinese Association, as beautifully represented by the talented team who created this catchy video inspired by BERSIH 2.0 (hence the 709 tag). Go to their Facebook page and give them a LIKE - at least!

I nominate Namewee for President of the Mutant Chinese Association :-)

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Solara to lead 10th Gate Activation in Chiapas, Mexico, on 11 September 2011



The Keynote of the Tenth Gate Activation is
LIVING TRUE LIVES AS TRUE ONES
by Solara

Tenth Gate opens the door to living our New, True Lives. This is possible because we are now emerging as True Ones. True Ones follow their Heart's Knowing at all times. They know that they are always in RIGHT TIME - RIGHT PLACE, even when it doesn't appear so. True Ones have released all expectations of how life should or shouldn't be. They embrace the Unknown. True Ones don't need to pretend anything and don't need to play games. True Ones living True Lives don't need to seduce and they don't need to hunt. They embody PURE HEART LOVE and emanate a natural authority. True Ones are real humans who live with honesty, integrity, openness, and Love. They are Masters of Service and once they fully emerge, they become genuine Keys.

Solara heralded the 11:11 Doorway and activated it on 11 January 1992


True Ones live in the Expanded HERE and NOW. We are the Silent Watchers who hold the worlds within worlds in balance. We bring the enhanced perspective of this vastness into the physical realm of our everyday lives and actions.This gives us the opportunity to birth the New and True and to access information, experiences, tools, insights and opportunities that we could not have accessed if we were only looking from the smaller part of ourselves.

Our New True Lives are not necessarily what we think they might be. They are a combination of our most personal dreams and desires merged with the fulfillment of our True Purpose. They are perfectly aligned with who we really are. They are stripped down and simplified. They are honest and real. They are fun and fulfilling. In our True Lives, we relate to others in an honest, true way with mutual respect. Our New True Lives are already within us, waiting to be activated.


Tenth Gate will definitely activate something huge from the depths of our hearts. It will immeasurably strengthen our Trueness. At the same time, it will unmask all that is false. We can't pretend to be True Ones anymore. We have to walk the talk and actually live our Trueness. That's what is so exciting (and perhaps challenging for some.) Once we Choose our Direction and get on our right track, everything unfolds perfectly. We don't so much click into position, as slide smoothly into position.

A strong component of living a True Life as a True One is putting the basic real components of Love, Compassion, Honesty and Trueness first; for they will be the key that unlocks the practical, physical gifts of our New True Lives.



As emerging True Ones, we have a finely tuned sense of what we know is right, what we know is true, and what we are meant to do on this planet-- this is our Heart's Knowing. If we are not living a True Life, we can feel this on a deep level. Living True Lives means knowing that we are always in Right Time – Right Place with the Right People. We are ready for anything and approach situations with openness and flexibility, always embodying PURE HEART LOVE. We know that things are often not as they appear.

Living a True Life means creating the New and True with clear, steady confidence. When we do this, we inspire those around us to live truer lives. Living a True Life requires leaving behind many of the old ways of doing things, old concepts and old behaviors -- which can be frightening. It requires taking giant leaps into the Unknown and letting go of how others perceive us and their judgments of what we are doing. Treading the path of the New requires constantly discovering new navigational skills because the energies are so fresh and new. It is about going Off the Map of the Known with the inner knowing that ALL WILL BE WELL.

Living a True Life is anchoring all we are, all we've learned so far, into our daily life. It’s a blank canvas upon which we can create a life anchored in the Ultra Greater Reality that is perfectly aligned with who we really are.


Our True Lives are accompanied by many synchronicities. These synchronicities are a result of living in RIGHT TIME - RIGHT PLACE. We begin to align with new people and places who feel very much on the same wavelength. Our True Lives involve more interaction with others and very much embody One Being in Action.

Tenth Gate is deeply aligned with the Fourth Gate Activation in 1999 which reconfigured our Evolutionary Labyrinth. To move to our New, True Lives, we shift onto a new life path aligned with the New Paradigm. During this time, many of us will change jobs, meet new kindred people, find the right relationship and move to new locations. We will step free of our old biological and karmic history. We will remove the masks of our old definitions and roles. We will learn to do things in totally new ways. We will recreate our lives to more perfectly reflect who we really are.

The momentous twenty year cycle of 11:11 Activations is almost over. Tenth Gate is the second to last 11:11 Gate Activation. And now we are finally ready to start living True Lives that are in perfect alignment with who we are.

Lancandanos, Chiapas (Arturo Andrade)


The Tenth Gate Master Cylinder will be located in the state of Chiapas, in Southern Mexico. Our week of Master Cylinder preparations will take place in the charming colonial city of San Cristóbal de las Casas.


Since the Keynote of Tenth Gate is LIVING TRUE LIVES AS TRUE ONES, this Master Cylinder will be unlike those before. We won't be staying in a luxurious resort, but instead will be staying in a more simple hotel in the city which will give us many opportunities to interact with the local inhabitants, including the Mayans. This will enable us to go out into the world as True Ones and help us maintain this state of being, not just in our preparatory sessions and Tenth Gate Activation Ceremony, but when we return to our lives.


Pyramid complex at Palenque, Chiapas
Our Tenth Gate Activation Ceremony will take place out in nature. And for the first time, we are honored to share our ceremony with the Mayans and Lacandons. This is part of the merger of ancient and new, of the ancient beginning with a new beginning or MUA.


For more than 400 years, this area in the south of Chiapas and north of Guatemala has been a refuge for descendants of Mayan people who did not want to get conquered by the Spaniards. These people are the Lancandons. They call themselves Hach Winik (The Real People) and they tried to stay true to themselves over centuries. So this is the perfect place for us to step as True Ones into our True Lives.

The Master Cylinder is always the key point of an 11:11 Activation. This is where the newest 11:11 energies first enter the planet. Having a strong and committed Tenth Gate Master Cylinder group of True Ones is vitally important as we will be opening the door to our New True Lives. Only those who are truly called to participate in the Master Cylinder should do so, for we cannot anchor and build on the New Foundations with anything less than our Full Beings that are firmly anchored in the Ultra Greater Reality.




The Tenth Gate Master Cylinder experience is going to be totally off the map, ultra real and intensely powerful with more LOVE than we can imagine. Participating in an 11:11 Master Cylinder is a deeply transformational experience that is absolutely life changing. There is absolutely nothing like it.

10TH GATE ACTIVATION IN MALAYSIA

Those who feel a subsurface tingling when you read about the 11:11 are encouraged to research more about bringing together the celestial and terrestrial realms through our own physical forms at the following sites:

11  Gates of the 11:11 Doorway

11:11 WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

With Solara at the 9th Gate
I have served as 11:11 Anchor in Malaysia since 1992. In October 2010 I was part of the Master Cylinder for the 9th Gate Activation in Tanah Lot, Bali. Around 115 people representing 33 countries participated. Although I was urged by Solara to attend the 10th Gate Activation on 11 September 2011 in Chiapas, Mexico, I opted to stay put in Malaysia to anchor the energy shift where it's very urgently needed.

On Sunday, 11 September 2011 (which coincides with the 10th anniversary of the abominable 9/11 event orchestrated by diehard power factions still playing control-freak games on this planet), those who feel so prompted are cordially invited to join us at Magick River - specifically, at #21 Kampung Pertak, located off the Fraser's Hill road at the far end of the Selangor Dam Lake, about 15 minutes past Kuala Kubu Bharu.

It will be an informal gathering of conscious and awakening souls from 11:11am - 11:11pm (symbolically). Bring along some food, wear ceremonial white with rainbow ornaments (if you like),wear some flowers as an offering to the river, pack your favorite crystal (if you own any), and a musical instrument (if you're musical).

If you wish to overnight, throw in a sleeping bag and/or a tent.

To contact me, please email or send a text message to +60102007346.


Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Hearty Congratulations, Namewee! You da Man! :-)



Folks, you just have to hand it to Namewee. He's got follow-through, stamina, and genuine inspiration - not to mention a whole lot of talent. Well done, young man, we're proud of you!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Amusing Images from Vietnam

The Bersih Biker would be declared illegal in Malaysia!
Uh... where are we? Brasilia?
The Hanoi Times's itinerant columnist?
Underaged Vietnamese idolater commits reverse pedophilia?
[Courtesy of V. Cornelius]


Saturday, August 27, 2011

A Latter-Day Aphrodite Unveiled in Chicago...

Toe polish touch-up... or worshiping at the feet of the Goddess?
Shadiest spot on a blistering summer day
Making sure she's wearing clean knickers
Spray-painting a sex symbol
The Sacred Bride prepares for her public unveiling
Gasps of admiration and awe
Anyone know who the sculptor is?
A significant new landmark on Chicago's Magnificent Mile


Last month a 26-foot monument to the memory of Hollywood goddess Marilyn Monroe was unveiled in the commercial heart of Chicago.

Marilyn Monroe (pronounced /mÉ’nˈroÊŠ/ or /mÉ™nˈroÊŠ/, born Norma Jeane Mortenson but baptized and raised as Norma Jeane Baker (June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress, singer and model. After spending much of her childhood in foster homes, Monroe began a career as a model, which led to a film contract in 1946. Her early film appearances were minor, but her performances in The Asphalt Jungle and All About Eve (both 1950) were well received. By 1953, Monroe had progressed to leading roles. Her "dumb blonde" persona was used to comedic effect in such films as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) and The Seven Year Itch (1955).

Limited by typecasting, Monroe studied at the Actors Studio to broaden her range, and her dramatic performance in Bus Stop (1956) was hailed by critics, and she received a Golden Globe nomination. Her production company, Marilyn Monroe Productions, released The Prince and the Showgirl (1957), for which she received a BAFTA Award nomination and won a David di Donatello award. She received a Golden Globe Award for her performance in Some Like It Hot (1959).

The final years of Monroe's life were marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to work with. The circumstances of her death, from an overdose of barbiturates, have been the subject of conjecture. Though officially classified as a "probable suicide," the possibility of an accidental overdose, as well as the possibility of homicide, have not been ruled out.

In 1999, Monroe was ranked as the sixth greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. In the years and decades following her death, Monroe has often been cited as a pop and cultural icon as well as an eminent American sex symbol. [Source: Wikipedia]

There's so much we'll never know about Marilyn's glamorous but tragic life. Small consolation but, at least, she wasn't shot twice in the head and blown to bits with military-grade plastic explosives.


Sunday, August 21, 2011

Scion of the Rothschilds: Redeemer or False Messiah?



Expedition leader David Mayer de Rothschild is the youngest heir to the infamous Rothschild banking fortune.

On 26 July 2011 he sailed into Sydney Harbor on the Plastiki - a catamaran partially constructed of recycled plastic bottles - after a 4-month voyage that began from San Francisco.

This 33-year-old "adventurer and environmentalist" is the friendliest face of what some consider the most evil conspiracy on earth - the Illuminati banking mafia controlled mainly by the Rothschild-Rockefeller families. Can you imagine being David de Rothschild? It can't be easy... but I hear he's currently dating Cameron Diaz (right)... so it can't be all bad either.

David has led a pretty colorful life thus far. He ranks among 42 humans who can claim to have visited both the North and South Poles. Let's hope he's acquired some skills in unifying polarities!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Two totally pertinent comments from 30 July 2008...

Anonymous said...
Chandra Muzaffar, rebel turned
rogue regime apologist
How naive can you be! Talk to Dr Chandra Muzaffar, Ezam and Nalla. Then you'll get a better understanding of what kind of person Anwar is. It is sad that most Malaysians are so easily deceived.
July 30, 2008 11:51:00 PM GMT+08:00

Antares said...
Nameless one, I measure a hero by his deeds and by his willingness to risk his neck for something he strongly believes in. Chandra Muzaffar qualified as a hero in the days when he got himself into trouble with USM and founded Aliran. Indeed, he was greatly admired and loved... until after his arrest and brief incarceration under Ops Lallang, when he suffered a subtle but insidious personality change.

I suspect Room 101 broke his fighting spirit and he went the way of Winston Smith in Orwell's 1984. Chandra was encouraged to establish his JUST Foundation and concentrate on global human rights issues. His criticisms of Mahathir became toned down and he reverted to being the brilliant academic he always had been. Well and good... but when Chandra allowed Umno to use his good name and intellectual credentials as a weapon against Anwar just before GE12, he fell from grace in my books.

Yes, I am unabashedly partisan in that I can never pretend to "objectivity." I trust my instincts and my nose... and Umno/BN stinks to high heaven! Anyone who values his soul integrity had better quit BN now before they go down with the Titanic. Even Dr M has quit Umno - but for all the wrong reasons.

As for Ezam and Nalla... they don't interest me one bit because they have no fresh political vision and are quite irrelevant to our nation's destiny. They did play their supporting roles ten years ago in 'Sodomee (Pt. One)' but, take away Anwar and these men are mere shadows.

Umno Senator Ezam Mohd Nor, political toxic waste
Most people I know who fear and hate Anwar are armchair pundits in denial of their own heroic potential. They pretend that working for reform within the system is the safest route... but the system is so toxic that once you're inside your psyche gets seriously contaminated, and then you begin to rationalize and spout platitudes about the wisdom of moderation and gradual, progressive reform.


That's zombie talk, brother, and I'm not going to waste time chatting with the walking dead. I'd rather be proven wrong about Anwar than tolerate Dr M's evil legacy an instant longer than it takes to flush away the shit. BN is running amok and it is armed with a dangerous weapon, a rogue police force.

For the sake of our children we have to grow instant balls and disable it permanently before our destiny as a free and happy nation is forever thwarted.
..................................................

Thought I'd repost these two comments from July 2008 as both remain completely pertinent after more than 3 years!

Anwar in an interview with the BBC's Robin Grant
The original post was titled ANWAR: A MAN OF EXTRAORDINARY DESTINY


DAN HIND ON THE UK RIOTS

EPA
Nothing 'mindless' about rioters
Dan Hind | Al Jazeera.net


Although riots are complex social phenomena, the recent unrest in England has inescapably political roots.

Civil disturbances never have a single, simple meaning. When the Bastille was being stormed the thieves of Paris doubtless took advantage of the mayhem to rob houses and waylay unlucky revolutionaries. Sometimes the thieves were revolutionaries. Sometimes the revolutionaries were thieves. And it is reckless to start making confident claims about events that are spread across the country and that have many different elements. In Britain over the past few days there have been clashes between the police and young people. Crowds have set buildings, cars and buses on fire. Shops have been looted and passersby have been attacked. Only a fool would announce what it all means.


We can dispense with some mistakes, though. It is wrong to say that the riots are apolitical. The trouble began on Saturday night when protesters gathered at Tottenham police station to demand that the police explain the circumstances in which a local man, Mark Duggan, had been shot dead by the police. The death of a Londoner, another black Londoner, at the hands of the police has a gruesome significance. The police are employed to keep the peace and the police shot someone dead. This is a deeply political matter. Besides, it is conventional to say how much policing in London has changed since the Brixton riots of the early eighties - but not many people mouthing the conventional wisdom have much firsthand experience of being young and poor in Britain's inner cities.


More broadly, any breakdown of civil order is inescapably political. Quite large numbers of mostly young people have decided that, on balance, they want to take to the streets and attack the forces of law and order, damage property or steal goods. Their motives may differ - they are bound to differ. But their actions can only be understood adequately in political terms. While the recklessness of adrenaline has something to do with what is happening, the willingness to act is something to be explained. We should perhaps ask them what they were thinking before reaching for phrases like "mindless violence". We might actually learn something.

The fierce conflict remains ahead

The profusion of images that modern technology generates makes it even more difficult to impose a single meaning on a complex event. Those who live in terror of a feral underclass and those who are worried about the impact of fiscal austerity on vulnerable communities can find material online that confirms their world-view. There will be a fierce conflict in the weeks ahead as politicians, commentators and others seek to frame the events of the last few days in ways that serve their wider agenda. The police, for example, will call for increased budgets to deal with the increased risks of civil disorder. In this sense, too, riots are inescapably political events.

There are signs too that technology is allowing individuals to intervene in the process by which meaning is assigned to social events. When disorder broke out in France in 2005 in somewhat similar circumstances the political right was the major beneficiary. Sarkozy's rise from interior minister to president owed a great deal to his role in expressing the anxious aggression of a mass constituency that often lived far away from the burning cars and public buildings.

In London today people were on the streets tidying up the damage. The hashtag #riotcleanup on Twitter is being used by councils and residents to coordinate the work. The decision to act in this way, to make the streets a little more safe, to reclaim them for peaceful sociability, steps away from the temptation to condemn the violence or explain it in terms that inevitably simplify or distort it. Those who come together like this will be less likely to conclude that the country is on the verge of chaos, less likely to call for harsh measures and the further erosion of liberty in the name of security. It is the one shrewd thing one can do in present circumstances and it is to be celebrated.


So there is no single meaning in what is happening in London and elsewhere. But there are connections that we can make, and that we should make. We have a major problem with youth unemployment. There have already been cuts in services for young people. State education in poor areas is sometimes shockingly bad. Young people cannot afford adequate private housing and there is a shortage of council-built stock. Economic inequality has reached quite startling levels. All this is the consequence of decisions made by governments and there is little hope of rapid improvement. The same politicians now denouncing the mindless violence of the mob all supported a system of political economy that was as unstable as it was pernicious. They should have known that their policies would lead to disaster. They didn't know. Who then is more mindless?


The global economic crisis is at least as political as the riots we've seen in the last few days. It has lasted far longer and done far more damage. We need not draw a straight line from the decision to bail out the banks to what's going on now in London. But we must not lose sight of what both events tell us about our current condition. Those who want to see law and order restored must turn their attention to a menace that no amount of riot police will disperse; a social and political order that rewards vandalism and the looting of public property, so long as the perpetrators are sufficiently rich and powerful.

Dan Hind has worked in publishing since 1998 and is the author of two acclaimed books: The Return of the Public and The Threat to Reason. He is this year's winner of the Bristol Festival of Ideas Prize. Follow him on Twitter: @danhind