I see the impotency of the United Nations to halt the current Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon as a proof that veto power within the United Nations Security Council needs to be abolished (tag). Abolition of the veto power granted to the five permanent members of the UNSC is crucial as part of effort to restructure the world body.

I'm convinced that if a vote were called today to send a peacekeeping team to unilaterally enforce a ceasefire in southern Lebanon, a majority within the UNSC - even in the General Assembly - would resoundingly say yes. Yet, realistically, it would be vetoed by the United States. United States of America is of course of one of the five permanent members of the UNSC with veto power. It's no brainer that the US is siding with Israel and prefer no ceasefire until Hezbollah and practically Lebanon is razed to the ground.

The ability to veto the voice of the majority goes against the spirit of democracy. It silences the will of the majority, benefiting the few; the few are imposing their will on the majority. The US, with its perchant to spread democracy, should've known better. For it to retain veto power is a hypocritical act, just like its support for Israel in the current Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Veto power is also another form of bureaucracy. With five veto powers, all resolutions need to satisfy the demand of the five, regardless whether the majority had already a say on it. A resolution passed by the majority will have to come back and forth from the masses to the five powers over and over again until total consensus is built - correction; consensus among the five permanent members is built.

The removal of veto privileges will democratize the UNSC. It's also the first step to cut red tape within the UN. More importantly, the crisis in Lebanon would have been averted if there were no veto power.

In a speech at the White House in 1962:

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States (tag).

Malaysian citizens are paying taxes to fund a lot of funky stuff. We already have moral police and moral court. Now, we are going to have flag police!

In the New Straits Times today:

Culture, Arts and Heritage Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said yesterday many rich and famous citizens had a lackadaisical attitude towards flying the Jalur Gemilang on special occasions like National Day.

"We're not saying they are unpatriotic, rather they take things for granted. It would be embarrassing if an officer of the law knocked on their door and asked them why they were not flying the flag..."

Maybe we should be flying Nazi flags instead.

Patriotism can't be forced upon. Dr Rais Yatim should realize that.

  

p/s - I've just realized that my photo is currently on the front page of Malay Wikipedia. It's the featured photo for July 2006. I'm honored especially given the fact that that photo of mine is the first photo to be picked to be on Malay Wikipedia's new Featured Pictures section.

Getting a photo into English Wikipedia's Featured Pictures however is much harder than Malay Wikipedia. Unlike the latter, the former Wikipedia is more established and there are a lot more photographers on it - amateurs and professionals. Thus, the requirement is far stricter. I myself nominated two of my photos (of which I thought were exceptional) for consideration but both efforts failed. But I'll try again and again and again...

Finally, the world restarts!

For the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League season, Ajax will play either FC Copenhagen or MyPa (tag). By reputation, FC Copenhagen should overcome MyPa. Regardless, I don't think Ajax will have too much problem in handling either team.

Too bad that AC Milan will be playing in this Champions League season. They should have been banned from participating in the tournament. That ban should have stood. I have a feeling that AC Milan bribed the judges...

Previously, skeptics of global warming pointed to a study that showed Antarctica is cooling down as a proof that global warming is a hoax (tag). They asked, if the Earth is really warming up, then why Antarctica is cooling down?

That's a legit concern and throughout my experience, that question was one of the hardest points to counter. I had never managed to rise up above that. Until today, that is.

In the New York Times today, the lead author of the study comes up and put this concern to rest:

Our study did find that 58 percent of Antarctica cooled from 1966 to 2000. But during that period, the rest of the continent was warming. And climate models created since our paper was published have suggested a link between the lack of significant warming in Antarctica and the ozone hole over that continent. These models, conspicuously missing from the warming-skeptic literature, suggest that as the ozone hole heals — thanks to worldwide bans on ozone-destroying chemicals — all of Antarctica is likely to warm with the rest of the planet. An inconvenient truth?

Global warming is real. The connection between the warming and human activities is real. The threat is real.

And yeah, just like the Brown's Da Vinci Code, Crichton's State of Fear is a work of fiction. If you really want to find out about global warming, you should read academic papers, not fiction.

  

p/s - erosion of free speech in apparent in Malaysia. With the Prime Minister's "advice" to stop discussion concerning freedom of religion and a government plan to gag free speech on the internet, I'd like to take back my opinion that under Badawi administration, there's more freedom.

That's bull. Completely bull.

The Badawi administration is starting to look like the previous one.

  

pp/s - I was browsing an article on the Constitution of Malaysia and this. Does Zaid Ibrahim edit Wikipedia?

The delta of Chao Phraya, from the air (tag):



The sea is of course the Gulf of Thailand.

This is from another angle with the attributes of the picture tweaked to make the paddy field plots more visible:



I wonder how the Mekong looks like...

Talks of inflation, interest rates, current account and other typical terms are propping up too often nowadays and I swear I'm going to puke the next time I hear these words. For all I know, these issues have been beaten to death and any more commentary is redundant. So, when I started to pick up a low murmur, I was overjoyed to find out that it concerns none of the above - this time, it's inequality (tag).

The conversations on inequality were prompted by Piketty-Saez data on income inequality (download the data here). For me, it started with Paul Krugman's Left Behind Economics (read it for free at Economist's View) and ends with Greg Mankiw's Inequality and Stochastic Human Capital. Mankiw managed to rationalize the idea of inequality in simple term rather creatively and I'm definitely attracted to his rationalization.

And heh, Prof. Mankiw has a blog. How cool is that?

By the way, just over two years ago, the Big Mac and manufacturing controversy came to surface and it was between Prof. Mankiw and Rep. Dingell.

  

p/s - PPS should ban those that spam by proxy. Somebody is circumventing PPS anti-multiping rule by having multiple blogs and then pinging those blogs.

  

pp/s - hail to the admin for deleting spam from PPS.

          Read part three.

Where were we?

Central Pier by the Chao Phraya in Bangkok, remember (tag)?

I was particularly excited to experience Chao Phraya. One reason I kept suggesting to my friend that we should go down to the river is because I've been familiar with the name Chao Phraya since childhood. You see, when I was in my early teenage, I had always been fascinated by history and geography. Every time I read history or geography, a feeling of "I-want-to-be-there" overwhelmed me; even now as an adult. That has enabled me, even as an elementary student, to name places my then peers and even adults had never even heard before. So, when I had the chance to personally be at the historic and important Chao Phraya, I grabbed it, just like how I had the chance to see the mighty Mississippi River some years ago. Now that I've grown up, you could say that traveling is my way of realizing my childhood dream. In fact, it's also one of the reasons why I spend excessive amount of time at Wikipedia but I'm not here at this moment to talk about Wikipedia, am I?

Anyway, at the river, we planned our next step - a boat ride to Tha Tien we waited for 15 minutes for the boat to depart from the pier. I was quietly ecstatic but it didn't last long before I - we - realized that we got on the wrong boat. Instead of moving upstream, we were crossing the river. Curses!

Once the boat got on the other side, everybody got off except the two of us and an European (I think). The three of us exchanged glances and shrugged our shoulders. We later approached the conductor, trying to confirm what we had already known. But the conductor couldn't converse in English, so it was useless though somehow, he (or she, I'm not quite sure of the conductor's gender...) could rely to us that we need to pay 60 baht (approximately MYR 0.60; roughly USD 0.17) for the to and fro service, even if it was an accident.

I don't mind that 60 baht but what made this experience regretful was the time wasted. Already we wasted 15 minutes getting on the wrong boat and now, we had to wait for another 15 minutes to get on the right side of the river. This was on top the fact that we made the mistake of starting our little adventure late in the morning. So, by the time we got to where we started, more than 30 minutes were wasted.

Now, we were up for a re-try and this time, we asked around. Accepting the fact that typical Thais on the street speak blasphemous English, we looked for white tourists to help us out. How messed up was that?

We, coming from a fellow ASEAN country, had to ask other tourists for direction! Embarrassing!

Embarrassing indeed but it was practical. Especially practical when we approached two girls. One of them smiled when I made a remark "thank god somebody speaks England". From their accent, they were probably from the US. So, taking direction from them was easy. This particular part of the journey was made easier because they were going to Tha Tien - our destination. So we happily tagged along.

On the boat ride, we started to tweak our so-called plan and decided from Tha Tien, we would take the boat back to Central Pier once we done with Tha Tien and its surrounding and then two trains all the way to Ratchadapisek to end the day. Things were not as simple as our simplistic plan as we would find out later in the day.

The river itself is large and lively. Though we are living in the 21st century, apparently, the river plays its role as a mode of transportation. It isn't just tourists that are utilizing the boats but also by the locals. It seems that the river itself is an expressway.

Bangkok's skyline is observable from the middle of the river. It's flat but that doesn't make it any less impressive. By the river, hotel buildings are arranged in such a way that reminds me of Miami, without the turquoise sea of course.



As we moving farther up north, the city somehow moved back into the past. Modern buildings vanished and replaced by more traditional structures influenced by Thai culture. One of the more important structures are Wat Arun:



We wanted to visit it but time was not so forgiving to us. Less than a kilometer from Wat Arun upriver is Tha Tien. When the two chicks got off the boat, we followed suit.

At first glance, Tha Tien doesn't look too special. It's a rundown pier with wooden shacks selling perhaps overpriced souvenirs. Just out of the piers are two rows of shophouse of colonial design with cobblestone road separating the two. It doesn't look British like those omnipresent in Peninsular Malaysian and Singapore. Considering Thai history, I'd think its French but I have no way to confirm it.

Beyond the two rows stands Wat Pho in all its glory. As we entered the complex, which its four sides are walled by the way, a huge structure that houses one of the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. It's ornamented with beautiful motives:



Everything here was touched by artisans' hands. Even the ceiling didn't escape the designer's attention:



Time however is not kind to Wat Pho. Any keen visitor would be able to spot damages the complex is suffering. Take a look at the ceiling in the following picture:



Despite that, it's comforting to know that preservation efforts are underway to protect the complex from further excessive damages. In the previous photo, you could see that some sort of protective shields have been installed the facade. Its doors are also protected by some sort of plastic glass:



And yeah, that's one of the few times that I have posted my one picture here.

I'm not sure how much time I spent at Wat Pho but I'm convinced that we managed see about everything except for one huge temple in the middle which was closed to the public. And so, it was time to move on.

  

p/s - a good read by Deva Mohd Ridzam, former Malaysian ambassador to several countries, in conjuction of tomorrow's Annual Ministerial Meeting (AMM) of Asean foreign ministers and the ASEAN Regional Forum the day after:

Of the dozen or so documents to be issued, two are seen as truly ground-breaking. They are the framework document on "Asean-US Enhanced Partnership" and the instrument of accession by France to the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation in Southeast Asia (TAC).

The moves by the US and France are expected to breathe new life, as it were, not only into their relations with Asean but also to the wider South Asian and East Asian regions. Taken together, they hold some promise of a gradual transition of Asia based on rule of force to one based on the rule of law. This is what TAC is all about.

Welcome to all fellow Aseanists!

  

pp/s - should ASEAN kick Myanmar out of the equation? Bangkok Post writes:

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has finally decided it has had enough of its rogue family member. Starting this week at the meeting of foreign ministers in Kuala Lumpur, Asean will stop trying to defend and make excuses for Burma. It is fitting that this action to kick the Rangoon junta out of the family nest and into the undoubtedly cold world is being led by Malaysia, the chairman of the meeting. Malaysia has long been one of the dependable protectors of Burma, leading the argument that everyone must have patience with this hard-line military dictatorship, in order to encourage good behaviour. That policy is being set aside.

I'd prefer to keep Myanmar in as I feel engagement is better than isolation. Moreover, I'd like to see a strong ASEAN influence within the country and in effect, a stronger grouping. If ASEAN calls it a quit, the People's Republic of China and perhaps even India would have a free hand to exercise excessive influence in Southeast Asia. Even currently, the two regional powers are asserting their interests in Myanmar.

Despite that, I do agree that ASEAN should move forward, regardless of Myanmar's situation. It's unfair to chain nine other state members to the ground just because Myanmar refuses to cooperate.

          See also [839] Of critique of opposition to free will.

Imagine slaves and a master. The master owns the slaves and the slaves have no hope of gaining freedom. The slaves are traded like common chickens at a typical wet market; many are bought into the lowest class while many others are born into it. Suffice to say, the slaves are properties of the master, just like cattle to ranchers.

The relationship between the slaves and the master is essentially a bond; a contract. A slave and the master agree to come into a bond and take their appropriate roles willingly, given rational possibilities. Any breach of bond will bring in repercussion. Perhaps death is the best incentive to discourage any side from breaking away from the contract.

Regardless, the presence of free will alone makes the relationship between the master and the slave palatable; however despicable slavery is, no matter how disproportionate the punishment is (tag).

What's not palatable is when a person enters a bond without him knowing it. One of such instances is being born into slavery. For a newborn, how is it possible to the newborn to enter a slave-master relationship without knowing it?

In this case, the newborn isn't given a chance to choose. It seems that the fate of the newborn has been predetermined and is doomed to be a slave all his life. As he grows up, he is bounded by an agreement that he didn't choose to get into in the first place. How is that fair?

He isn't free to determine his own path. He's a prisoner. He's a slave. He's a victim of an unfair arrangement; an arrangement that he had no say. How is that fair?

          See also [840] Of critique of opposition to free will II.

Imagine there are countless of clubs out there. Let's make it simple and say that these clubs are soccer clubs. Many players are born into it while many others choose to join in through free will (tag). And it was all happy and well until one day, somebody from one club decides that he doesn't believe in that one club anymore. He wants to move on and join another club. He was born into the club but it doesn't matter if he was born into it or joined it by free will because all he wants to do now is to leave his current club. So, he comes up to the club management and say, "I want to move on. I want to leave."

Unfortunately, his the management doesn't allow him to leave. The club has a policy that states a person may join but the person can never leave. If a person leaves the club, then the person is punishable by death. So, his club tells him, "You will die if you leave", says the club.

For leaving a soccer club, death sounds extremely harsh but hey, Andres Escobar was shot because he scored an own goal in 1994 World Cup. He died. So, maybe it isn't too outlandish after all.

Anyway, he gave it a second thought and said, "Maybe this isn't worth it. I don't want to die."

So, he stays. Unwillingly.

Previously, he had been performing well for the top. He was the top scorers and the most precious player within the team. He was even called to the national squad for his performance. After being prevented to leave however, his performance started to plummet. He doesn't give his best anymore for team. He doesn't love the team and so, why should he work for the team?

He has even lost his spot in the national team and is sliding into oblivion.

The motivation is lost. He hates the club and he wants to leave but he can't. Why should he fights for the club that he no longer believes in?

No later, he even loses his spot in the top eleven. In the end, both the player and the club make losses. It would have been beneficial for both sides if the player had left. The club didn't have to pay him and the player would continue to grow.

Yet, the club won't let him go and continue to make a loss.

          Read part 2 at [841] Of the second day in Bangkok, Thailand.

I've been to a number of huge cities in the world and my current favorite is San Francisco. After visiting Bangkok, I came very close to reevaluate my preference. While Bangkok failed to unseat San Francisco, I'm content to put Bangkok within my top five major cities that I've visited and I love list (tag).

By the time my airplane approached Bangkok, the sun had already set. In the horizon, darkness was fought by light and I could see light everywhere as far as the window by side allowed me to. The sensation reminded me of my approach to Los Angeles. While Bangkok is not as large as Los Angeles, it was an impressive show nonetheless. Upon landing at Don Mueang, I was pumped up as I'm usually do whenever I get to a new place, ever ready to explore new culture and open up my mind to new things.

The airport isn't as imposing as the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and it does look old. I'm not sure how the old airport is coming up against the traffic but since the new Suvarnabhumi International Airport due to open up this year, I dare say Don Muang facilities are being exhausted to the limit.

After my friends and I had gathered all our stuff, we headed straight to our place at Ratchadapisek by cab. It didn't take too long to drive from the airport to Ratchadapisek (it was cheap too). I was caught by surpise to see how busy the streets at the airport are. The airport is located quite near to the city - much nearer than how former international airport at Subang was to Kuala Lumpur. And since it was dark, all I could see is the highway and pretty much similar to those within the Klang Valley. So, the journey to our hotel was uneventful.

Once we got to the hotel, we did the usual stuff - unpacking. Things were made a tad harder since some of my travelling mates brought their golf sets. I pity the porter.

Our rooms were alright; nothing to shout of except for the fact that there is a glass shield separating the bedroom with the bathroom. If I were with a girl, I probably wouldn't mind with that see-through effect. But there was no member of the opposite sex and exposing myself to people of the same gender is not my idea of fun. Thank goodness for the wooden shader!

There were five of us and we had two rooms side by side for us. The connecting door between the two rooms were opened and so, it was, for me at least, felt like an upscale dorm - that just brings up old memory.

After settling down, it was time for dinner. We wanted to eat at somewhere near and cheap and so we got a cab and told the drive just what we wanted - near and cheap. I'm not sure what that Thais think and near and cheap but the ride felt like an hour and we ended up eating a BHT 4,000 dinner. That my friend is MYR 400; approximately USD 115. We could have cheaper dinner at a hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur for crying out loud! That asides, The tom yam was superb and dinner as a whole was delicious. Painfully delicious. Bottomline is that we were probably screwed by the driver. A friend of my told us that we shouldn't be too trustful of Thais in certain industries but his advice came a little bit too late. But it's a lesson to remember. We spent the time back cursing the driver. But it was late and it wasn't long before we had some shut eyes.

I only woke up around 10 in the morning. In retrospect, I wish I had woken up earlier. This is because I only left my room at Ratchadapisek after 11 and later discovered I really hadn't too much time to spend at Bangkok. But I did go out and took a ride to downtown Bangkok via its trains.

Anyway, three left for a golf game at 11 while the two - me and a friend - decided to treat ourselves with Bangkok. I still don't understand why people play a game as lame as golf. Even cricket, that boring game, has some excitement in it. Golf? Why? Only the devil knows.

Back to our main story, Bangkok's transit system is somewhat better than Kuala Lumpur though it didn't look as extensive as the latter. I said somewhat better because the train is wider than the widest carriage available within the KL transit system. Still, just like KL, their system isn't too integrated, just like ours.

This is how their "skytrain" looks like:



Since this was our first time in Bangkok, we really had no idea where we wanted to go. I suggested that we go to Menam Chao Phraya and see what needed to be done over there. There was some more discussion among us as we further improvised our already improvised plan. But that wasn't until we met a cute - I mean, really god damn cute! - girl trying to help us with cute accent and helplessly broken English. As she was trying to explain to us how to get to a place we wanted to go, I didn't hear anything she was saying. I was simply entralled by her cute. She spoke terrible English anyway and I probably wouldn't get anything for her instruction. I'm not sure if my friend really was paying attention to the girl instruction too but regardless of that, we did survive our journey rather well on our own.

Apart from cute, I'm impressed at how she was really went out of her way to help us despite having trouble conversing in English. She was really sincerely trying to help us. I soon found out that Thais in general are helpful and extremely polite to strangers. Or at least to tourists.

Alrighty. Enough about the girl. Let's rewind a bit and start over.

The adventure started just after 11 in the morning at Ratchadapisek - obviously - and we rode two trains to get to a place called Siam in the middle of Bangkok. Once we got off the train, we were still pretty much clueless though it did seem that Siam was Kuala Lumpur's Bukit Bintang, Singapore's Orchard Road, Chicago's Michigan Avenue or New York's 5th Avenue. But we were uninterested in shopping and were more into sightseeing. I personally was more interested in improving photography skill. So, from there, we walked to the National Stadium, something to see something interesting. I, at least did witness the city's notorious congestion.

Realizing that there was nothing attractive - save the angels! - along this stretch of road and still clueless, we reached for a map and went straight to the great Menam Chao Phraya, one of the greatest rivers in Southeast Asia. The train didn't stop immediate by the river but rather, we had to walk from Saphan Taksin station to the river.

Like I said earlier, Bangkok is a dirty city. One of the reasons why I say Bangkok is a dirty city is the fact that many of its canals or khlongs are being left uncared for. The water in it is stangant and murky; cholera is probably common enough occurance to the unwary. In spite of that, there were people fishing!

This is one of the khlongs in Bangkok though it isn't exactly the khlong I'm referring to:



Nevertheless, this particular klong is still unsightly. I like the effect of still water but I wouldn't take a dip in that thing.

The walk from the station to the river was a short one. The Central Pier greeted us upon arrival. I wasn't impress by the condition of the pier but neither had I expected anything grand. Once Menam Chao Phraya was before us, we decided to go up and down the river by boat. And so, we hastily got on a boat without asking anybody, ignoring any notice board hung somewhere, if it had existed. If it were written in English.

A week ago, I was in Bangkok and I'm missing it greatly (tag). The last time I felt like this was when I had to leave the Sierra Nevada behind for Los Angeles and eventually Ann Arbor. Minus a dose of "I'm famish", definitely.

While Bangkok is dirty and congested, the city impressed me greatly. The city is blessed with eye-pleasing structures unique to this part of the world. Not to forget, walking angels too!

If I were a god and Bangkok was built to please me, I'd be a satisfied supreme being. I'd live in Bangkok and leave heaven behind in shamble.

One of the places that I'm so much in love with is Wat Pho. I love it so much because I had never seen anything like it with my naked eyes. Its halls, its stupas, its doors, its floor and ceiling, everything - I'm lost for words to describe it. A picture worth a thousand word and so, I'll stop writing and show you Thai's gift to the world instead:



That's one of the main spires at Wat Pho. Works on Wat Pho itself was initiated by Rama III over 200 years ago, in 1788. The complex itself is huge and I wish I had spent more than a day there. I wanted to scrutinize every little bit of it but alas, time was of an essence; an unfortunately rare commodity. This is a map of the whole complex:



Since it's a working Buddhist temple, there are lots of statues all over the complex. There's a huge reclining Buddha there but I didn't take a peek at it. Instead, I saw this:



Majestic, isn't it?

I'm sure some intolerent conservative Muslims would disagree. I've no doubt that some far rightists here in Malaysia would like to torn it down to pieces and sell them as scrap metals. Barbarians know nothing of art; they value art pieces like monkeys value flowers. Still, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

  

p/s - Viacom to buy The Onion:

It almost sounds like one of The Onion's made-up news items: Variety is reporting — without even mentioning sources, much less identifying them — that Viacom may acquire The Onion, the satirical newspaper and Web site whose headlines made "Area Man" into a minor celebrity. Other sources, including the Huffington Post, Paidcontent.org and Gawker, have also reported on a potential Viacom-Onion connection, even as they played up the speculative nature of the story.

Ha ha ha...?

I'm extremely disappointed with the US support for Israel in the current crisis in Lebanon though such support is expected (tag). My disappointment originates from the Bush administration penchant to talk about democracy in the Mideast while their actions substantially differ from their words.

In the previous Palestinian election, Hamas won fair and square but the United States and Israel - and even the European Union - refused to accept the decision of the Palestinians. In the US and Israel's mind, democracy is only democracy if the winner is the one favorable to them. We know however that that is not democracy but rather, hypocrisy instead.

In Lebanon, while the country is trying to build a working democracy, there comes Israel to wreck everything into pieces. How do we expect a fledging nation that just got out of a civil war to build a working democracy while its neighbor illegally exercises military might on Lebanese soil?

The situation is even more hypocritical considering how the US acted during the Rafik Hariri case. When the initial clues implicated Syria, the US was fast to criticize Syria and sided with Lebanon, citing democracy was under threat. However, when Israel clearly violated Lebanese ground, the US lends support to Israel instead, citing Israel has a right to exist while in fact, it's Lebanon that is being threatened, not the former. Israel is threatening Lebanon's right to security and thus, Israel is threatening a "startup" democracy. It's awfully clear that the US is uninterested in nurturing democratic principles in the Middle East.

In the end, the situation in the Mideast is a catch-22 scenario. The US keeps pounding on its chest, yelling the only way is democracy but at the same time, it prevents democracy from prevailing. Every time a country in the Middle East makes progress in democracy, here comes the US and Israel to undo it.

If this illegal Israeli incursion into Lebanon does not stop soon, pure nationalistic thoughts will appeal to the oppressed masses. This might lead to fascism later, especially so when natural democratic progresses - not forced democracy as the one in Iraq - are being curtailed. This Israeli actions and US support will only encourage nominally democratic nations in the Mideast to regress back to autocracy.

If the regression to autocracy does occur, then Israel could declare to the world that it's the only democracy in the region. Israel will of course ignore the fact that it contributed to containment of democratic thoughts and progresses in the Mideast in the first place.

  

p/s - in the New York Times today:

Is this the price we pay for aspiring to build our democratic institutions?

Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora.

Vajiravudh College at Dusit, Bangkok has some impressive structures (tag). The most prominent are these two structures; the main hall:



And it's main classroom block:



From the style of the main hall, it does show how similar the Thai and the Malay designs are. It probably it reflects the fact that the Thai had strong influence over the Malay - in particular northern Malay - in some part of history.

There are several other interesting buildings; this is one of their hostels, which is one of my favorite photos from my Bangkok set:



All the structures are old but well-maintained, which makes it all the more amazing.

There is another photo of around the College ground a couple of entries back.

Within Southeast Asia, I get the feeling that Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila have notorious traffic congestion. I know Kuala Lumpur experiences very bad jams during rush hours despite the fact that compared to the three regional giants, Kuala Lumpur has only about two million people living in the city proper; approximately four million within metropolitan area. Well, just last week, I had the opportunity to compare Bangkok with Kuala Lumpur and all other cities that I've been to (tag). If you think Kuala Lumpur has terrible traffic jams, wait till you see how it is like in Bangkok, the city of more than eight million (as of 1990):



I saw this between Skytrain stations at Siam and the National Stadium. Be mindful that this was not taken during rush hour.

One of the many things why I like Bangkok is the fact that they have seemingly extensive elevated walkways for pedestarians, at least around the city center. Those utilizing the walkways are partially protected from the elements and that makes the city a little bit more pedestarians-friendly compared to Kuala Lumpur:



But then, Bangkok has limited real sidewalks unlike Kuala Lumpur. And no thanks to Bangkok's traffic, crossing the road amounts to suicide, especially for first timers like me.

Given the congestion, if there were a race between a driver trapped in Bangkok and this one snail...



...I'd bet the snail would win. Unless of course if the snail got distracted by angels.

The snail was seen wandering at the steps of Golden Mount, a huge temple on top of an artificial hill constructed in the 19th century.

  

p/s - Some liberty-conscious people will attend a court case here in Kuala Lumpur:

*No to Moral Policing : Call for Support*

The All Women's Action Society (AWAM) calls for a show of support from NGOs and concerned individuals for the hearing of the "moral policing" case concerning Ooi Kean Thong and Siow Ai Wei, who will face charges of indecent behaviour for holding hands at KLCC Park. Please attend the hearing – details are as below:

*Date*: Tuesday and Wednesday, 18-19 July 2006
*Time*: 9:00am
*Venue*: Kuala Lumpur Municipal Court

Background

This case first came to media attention in 2003 when Ooi Kean Thong and Siow Ai Wei were issued a summons by two City Hall assistant enforcement officers for alleged "indecent behaviour" - kissing and hugging - at KLCC Park. Ooi and Siow both alleged that they were given a summons because they refused to bribe the officers, and maintained they were only holding hands. The officers concerned pleaded not guilty to corruption charges in the Sessions Court in January 2005 and their case is pending.

In April 2006, the Federal Court ruled that local authorities had the power to enact by-laws to prosecute anyone for "disorderly behaviour" in public; and that Section 8 (1) of the Park By-Laws, the section invoked by the Datuk Bandar to punish persons caught behaving indecently in public, was constitutional.

Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim then made comments as to whether kissing and hugging were "acceptable to Malaysian citizens" and conformed to the "to the morality of the Asian people", for which he was much criticised. However, the Federal Court itself "did not make any finding of fact on the merit or the demerit of the allegations", as asserted by Justice Richard Malanjum, only on the validity of Section 8 (1) of the Park By-Laws.

Ooi Kean Thong and Siow Ai Wei will now have to defend themselves against charges of "indecent behaviour" at the KL Municipal Court. Both have pleaded not guilty.

I wish I could be there to lend moral support.

Through casual observation, Bangkok has a high density of beautiful people (tag). It was unusually hard for me to savor the architectural marvels of Bangkok when there were so many walking angels walking gracefully on the face of the earth.

Once on a train back to Ratchadapisek - where I was staying - from Siam, Bangkok, I found it extremely hard to remove my attention off a person of the fairer gender of immeasurable beauty. It was extreme delight to set my eyes upon her; she has the perception of sweet innocence. Too alluring in the most innocent sense. I had thought such creatures only dwelled the heaven above.

The only reason she didn't notice that I was having problem controlling my gaze is the fact that she was sleeping most of the time. But while her eyes weren't shut, smile her offered to commuters wrecked my sanity. When she was awake, I couldn't look at her direction - I felt so miserable whenever I couldn't keep her within my view; I had to be inconspicuous or else, it would have been an embarrassing moment for me. Mind you, it was already an embarrassing moment for me but letting her know was the last thing I wanted to do. Damned if I looked at her, damned if I didn't. Sigh...

I wish I could go back to Bangkok, get on that train over and over again, day and night until I get to meet her again. All I want right now is to see her again one more time, and maybe another.

But what I felt wasn't as bad as what my friend had gone through. Or at the very least, wasn't as physical. A friend and me were walking one of the busier streets in the city when a Thai girl caught my friend's eyes. His eyes were so attracted to the girl that he failed to watch his steps and unfortunately for him, he rammed into a huge Caucasian male. I could only bursted in laughter.

The next day, while at Vajiravudh on game day itself, the annual Vajiravudh College-Malay College rugby match, just like the city, there were countless angels roaming the College ground. I wish I could point my lens to every angel that I saw but that would take too much courage. Courage is one commodity of dire supply available to me, whenever I find myself in front of an angel, much less in front a cohort of them. But whenever the moments weren't as awkward as it was on the train, I grabbed the opportunity. One of them that God somehow let loose from heaven:



And here's a cute school girl that was supporting the wrong team. She's on the left side of your screen, nearest to the camera. And honestly, no dirty thought. Her mom was with her anyway:



And, Miss Thailand 2005. Really. No shit:



An alumnus of Vajiravudh College introduced her to us during tea time. Bless Vajiravudh!

Another shot of her:



I apologize for the quality of the pictures. The environment within the room was too harsh for my good ol' cam.

Most of the time when she was in the company of Malay College old boys, she looked uncomfortable. Some of the old boys were treating her as if she was an object instead of a person. I was rather offended - quitely and quietly - upon witnessing the lack of decency displayed by us. I shared my opinion with my friends who were sitting at the other end of hall later. After hearing my rambling, a friend of mine told me, she chose that path and nobody could say otherwise. Decency, in any case, is relative.

I was in Bangkok and had the opportunity to witness the 45th traditional rugby match between Malay College of Malaysia and Vajiravudh College of Thailand. Though MC fought valiantly, we lost 14 - 5.

VC made 3 kicks and one try while MC managed a try. The closest gap occurred in the first half; VC 6 - 5 MC. We could have taken the lead right after gaining that 5 points but the ball flew in the wrong direction and hence, we failed to garner 2 more points. Whatever it was, that one try was pure ecstasy. I shouted so hard that I lost my voice. More importantly, I believe for this particular match, just like others that watched the match on a cloudy Saturday evening, there is no shame in losing.

While there, I didn't pass on the chance to roam around the magnificent College. And the best thing is - especially for the students - it's situated about half an hour drive time away from the heart of Bangkok.



The goal was taken during the duration of the match. More pictures of Bangkok (and Thai chicks! LOL! I've changed my mind. I don't want to marry a tree any more. I prefer Thai girls to trees now!) to come throughout this week and probably the next.

There have been a couple of interesting rulings that are testing the very fabric of Malaysian society (tag). The latest concerns school attire:

PUTRAJAYA, July 12 (Bernama) -- Islam is not about turban and beard, said the Federal Court in dismissing the appeal of three pupils who were expelled from school for refusing to take off their 'serban' nine years ago.

I like to recognize myself as a libertarian and so, I disagree with the ruling due to its clash with libertarianism. However, there is a quotable quote as the ruling was read:

"As far as I can ascertain, the Al-Quran makes no mention about the wearing of turban. I accept that the Prophet wore a turban. But he also rode a camel, built his house and mosque with clay walls and roof of leaves of date palms and brushed his teeth with the twig of a plant.

"Does that make riding a camel a more pious deed than travelling in an aeroplane? Is it preferable to build houses and mosques using the same materials used by the Prophet and the same architecture adopted by him during his time?"

Discounting the ruling itself, this quote matches my stance on Arabized Malay; conservative Malays need to learn to differentiate Arabic culture and Islam. They need to be educated on it.

I'm back from Singapore. Unlike my last visit to the city state some months ago, I didn't have too much chance to roam the city and take shots. Still, I managed to get a decent picture out of my latest trip:



This is an alley by Jalan Sultan. It doesn't look too different from Kuala Lumpur.

For photos from my previous visit to Singapore, please go to [642] Of Singapore waterfront, [639] Of Singaporean old building and [632] Of Singapore pretty much...

From The Edge Daily, earlier this month, concerning cost and benefit of incineration vis-a-vis two other disposal methods (tag):



I apologize for the quality of the document. I scanned the table from the dead tree edition of The Edge

A joke told by one of my friends on one peaceful Friday afternoon, not verbatim:

A dog has a human being to feed it, bathe it, pat it and give it everything. So, the dog thinks, "Hey, my master must be a god!"

A cat has a human to feed it, bathe it, pat it and give it everything. So, the cat thinks, "Hey, I must be a god!"

Joke asides, are you a dog or a cat?

Anyway, I'll be leaving for Singapore soon. A day after I'm done with that tiny island, I'll be leaving for Bangkok. Suffice to say, for the rest of the week, I won't be in Malaysia. So, unless I'm able to connect to the internet, my blog would be sparsely updated.

During the duration of the World Cup, my blog get little visitors. And now, I'm leaving my blog behind. I hate that. I want all my visitors back. You stole my visitors World Cup! Damn you! And Italy too!

By the way, nicely done Zidane! You're my hero!

  

p/s - the 11th anniversary of the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.

Earlier last week, I came upon a book and if I'm not mistaken, it was Eric Temple Bell's Men of Mathematics. In it written a story concerning an exchange between Euler and Diderot. Euler was of course that great Swiss mathematician that is still torturing students of science all over the world hundreds of years after his death. Diderot on the other hand was a French philosopher. The conversation between the two itself was about the existence of god.

As the story goes, Diderot - an atheist - was invited to Russia by Catherine the Great. Unfortunately for the Christian monarch, while in St. Petersburg of Russia, Diderot debated with many people and encouraged others to embrace atheism. Catherine the Great was annoyed with Diderot's effort and so she summoned Euler - a Calvinist - to deal with the atheist. Euler obliged and in the royal Russian court, he came up to Diderot and said "Sir, (a+b^n)/n = x; hence God exists, answer please!" It's alleged that Diderot was algebraic illiterate and thus, Diderot was unable to come up with a counterpoint. Petrified and embarrassed, the Frenchman left Russia immediately and Catherine was amused. If Diderot were able to read algebraic notation, he would have spotted the problem with Euler's argument and pushed Euler into a corner instead. On whether the story is fact or fiction, that's another issue.

The author of the book - if I've gotten the author and the work right - intended to illustrate the importance of mathematics. His work argues that mathematical knowledge is too important to be left in the hand of the few. Mathematical knowledge needs to be disseminated among the public for if mathematics were only known to a certain class, that class would manipulate the ignorant others.

To prove his point, the book points out that the priests of the past were the experts of the skies and stars, of seasons - experts of mathematics. Before the season changed, they predicted it and then the season changed. Before eclipses occurred, they predicted it. And there in the sky, eclipses. The class was the learned one. They understood what was going on through their mathematics and they exhibited their knowledge to those that comprehended nothing. More importantly, the priests' words affected the lives of the commoners, the public - the words of the priests had weight. As the priests developed a reputation as reliable soothsayers, the commoners came to trust the priests. The ignorant commoners became dependent of the priestly class. When the trust became unbreakable, these priests started to say things of no truth to the commoners but brought the priests' benefits. Lies became truth and the public was unable to discern the truth from lies because they lacked the knowledge to differentiate the two.

This is a disturbing hypothesis which has been proven by history countless of times. Alas, the author was expounding on the importance of mathematics while he could have stressed on the bigger picture - knowledge on general. Whenever the masses are ignorant, the educated few will be able to manipulate the masses. This manipulation might lead to populism.

Populism by itself is not necessarily bad or good; it's neutral. What makes populism normative is the cause of populism. The good kind of populism is the one mobilized through sound reasoning. Whenever populism is mobilized through emotion, then there's a high probability that it's a bad kind of populism - someone is manipulating the masses. The masses could only be manipulated if there's a lack of education and information and a monopoly of knowledge by some fraction. In vacuum of education or information, misinformation or disinformation has powerful adverse effect on uninformed masses. Misinformed masses will then profess loyalty to the manipulative few and ignore any voice of reason. For that, emotional populism is dangerous and like what I've written earlier, it can hard to counter with logical thinking.

In Malay, there's an idiom: melentur buluh biarlah dari rebungnya; tackle the issue at its root cause. One of the most effective ways to counter emotional populism is to make the masses insusceptible to manipulation and propaganda (remember Chua Soi Lek and sugar? Without education, some would fall for it). In order to so, the masses must be imbued with the ability to think for themselves. Education is the key to counter emotional populism.

If emotional populism could be eliminated and give way rational populism, then one of weaknesses of democracy could be eliminated (tag).

Unfortunately, the expansion of human knowledge is both an achievement and a tragedy. The sum of human knowledge is so vast that it is impossible to master all areas of knowledge. Some will always know more than the others.

This was taken some time last week from the 35th floor of the Tower 2, Petronas Twin Towers. The view looks slightly southeast. More to eastward rather than southward (tag).



Like the northeastern view, there aren't too many structures here. The best parts of the city could be seen between the south and northwestward directions.

I'm unhappy with the photo quality. It was edited with some software and not Adobe Photoshop - the software that I'm using currently is inferior to Adobe Photoshop. I still unable able to access my Photoshop since my desktop has yet to be repaired.

  

p/s - Ann Coulter is in trouble yet again:

NEW YORK Well, Ann Coulter may be "liberal" in one respect, anyway. The New York Post reported Sunday that author/columnist Coulter "cribbed liberally in her latest book" and also in several of her syndicated columns, according to a plagiarism expert.

John Barrie, creator of the iThenticate plagiarism-probing system, claimed he found at least three examples of what he called "textbook plagiarism" in the new Coulter book "Godless" after he ran its text through the program.

He also discovered verbatim copying in Coulter's weekly column, which is syndicated to more than 100 newspapers by Universal.

The headline in classic Post fashion: COPYCATTY COULTER PILFERS PROSE: PRO

After her ragheads remark not too long ago, I'm sure many conservatives are running away from Coulter. If they haven't yet, they better be.

I'm so happy that the Portuguese are finally out of the tournament. I'm so glad Ronaldo was jeered throughout the match, as he was booed during the English-Portuguese match. (tag)

It's just unfortunate that the France will be meeting the lame Italians. I wish it had been Germany instead of Italy. Why?

Italy makes the probability of the Final becoming a dull affair much higher.

I wouldn't give a damn about the Final if it had been a French-German game. But with Italy there, I just have to care. I wish France all the best. Barthez or no Barthez.

Aux armes citoyens! Formez vos bataillons, Marchons, marchons! Qu'un sang impur, Abreuve nos sillons.

Today, in the New Straits Times:

KUALA LUMPUR: The Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry plans to cut the number of sugar wholesalers to improve distribution of sugar.

"There are now 2,845 sugar wholesalers and we want to reduce the number to have better control of the distribution. We want to ensure that there is adequate sugar supply," said Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Mohd Shafie Apdal yesterday.

I want to stress that the current Malaysian sugar shortage crisis is caused by price differentials of sugar within the region; Malaysia has lower sugar prices compared to its neighbors (tag). This in turn causes distributive inefficiency within the country as sugar flows out of Malaysia. Hence, hoarding and smuggling are merely symptoms of that prices differential, not the root cause. Overconsumption is also not the cause - that's just some dishonest political manuevring.

Granted, by reducing he number of wholesalers, it will be easier for the Ministry to control sugar distribution. In a way, the government is trying to limit the effects of externality. But notice, the government is using more taxmoney to repair an already inefficient system. A reversion to a competitive market on the other hand will cost the government much less and close to nothing (discounting cost would be incurred by general unrest instigated by opportunistists and protectionists).

However, by reducing the number of competitors in the market, the government necessarily increase the wholesalers' market power - at least, power of the ones that will stay in the market. As a result, the market will move closer towards monopoly scenario and farther away from the ideals competitive market. A firm with sufficient market power will have the ability to increase price higher than competitive price. In fact, holding everything else constant, prices will increase while productions decrease from competitive price and production respectively as firms try to maximize profits.

Since government is able to control one more variable, there are two issues right now - first is price control which causes distributive inefficiency. Second is number of competitors (as explained, a reduction of competitors will pull the market toward monopoly scenario).

I'm not sure what the net effect is because it will depend on how well the government execute their monitoring and enforcement process to curb externalities. But there will be two extreme scenario to consider.

One is when the quantity of sugar produced under monopoly without price ceiling (or rather, oligopoly) scenario will be less than quantity produced in a market with only price ceiling. This, in no uncertain terms (Raja Petra really needs to stop using "in no uncertain terms" in his writings) will worsen the problem.

Two is when the quantity produced in the former state is greater than in the latter state. This will be no different than our status quo.

I'm too lazy to draw proper graphs to explain the whole thing graphically but I did draw them on a whiteboard and I did digitize them. This is one of them.



You'd probably need a little bit of economics to comprehend the badly drawn graphs. But the bottom line is, the final result will depend on which part has a great effect on the system. If the effect of price ceiling has a greater impact compared to price setting power, then the status quo would probably remain, ceteris paribus. If price setting power has greater impact vis-a-vis price ceiling, then we would probably experience a more severe sugar shortage.

Of course, I'm assuming that these wholesalers are competing against each other. By that, I mean, they aren't owned by an entity, i.e. the government. If they are owned by the government, then this whole entry would be irrelevant.

The Bangkok Post reported yesterday that southern Thai states of Satun and Pattani were covered with haze. From the sound of it, the haze is still there (tag):

Smog from forest fires in Indonesia has moved across the south now including Pattani on the Gulf of Thailand, Faisol Kasetkala, head of the provincial disaster prevention and mitigation office said Tuesday.

In another report by Bangkok Post suggests that the states have already been experiencing haze since July 2 or earlier:

Satun - Thailand's southern Andaman Sea coastal province of Satun on Sunday remained covered by a blanket of smog, believed to be caused by forest fires in nearby Indonesia.

The provincial public health authorities warned the public to suspend regular outdoor exercise to avoid excessive breathing of the toxins in the atmosphere.

Another report dated July 2 by Bangkok Post states that northern Malaysian states of Kedah and Perlis are suffering minor bout of haze too. And as you can see, Indonesia is the alleged culprit yet again.

As for Kuala Lumpur around 9:15 AM today, from the 35th floor of the Petronas Twin Towers, Tower 2:



I can't really say for certain if that is really haze since approximately two weeks ago, it was like this:



On a fairly good day, it should be something like this:



Most probably, in the first photo, that is just local smog. I don't want to see anything worse and I definitely hope that that is not a mere wishful thinking. Despite that, in 2005, I've said the haze will return. I had no reason to believe the governments of ASEAN were willing to do anything effective, especially when Indonesian government had proved to be very non-committal to the Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution of ASEAN. And so, here we are - possibly - again.

I hope, by the time haze hit Kuala Lumpur, I'd already be in Bangkok, Thailand.

Whatever it is, brace yourself!

  

p/s - a bad way to start the day. Italy defeated Germany to progress to the final match of the FIFA World Cup. Well, it's going to be a boring game, that's for sure.

  

pp/s - a victory for science:

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA gave the shuttle Discovery a majestic Fourth of July send-off and said early signs showed the spacecraft was in good shape, despite once again being struck by the flying foam that has plagued the program.

The first-ever Independence Day manned launch came after two weather delays and over objections from those within NASA who argued for more fuel-tank repairs.

This is the first launch since the Columbia tragedy in 2003.

The United States of America is the greatest civilization so far yet. No other nation has the ability to influence the world in the many ways - for better or for worse - though that might change in the near future.

History will judge the United States as history has judged so many others.

Leaving that at that, I wish my American friends (with deepest apologies to South and Central Americans), happy birthday. Happy birthday, America (fuck, yeah).

I'm in the process of writing a long entry, inspired by . As an introduction, I want to share the following quotation by John Kenneth Galbraith (tag):

In economics, the majority is always wrong.

Of course, Voltaire said:

A witty saying proves nothing.

Be right back, in a day or two... if there's nothing to blog about before I'm done with that long entry.