Endoh’s Dungeon

I think the World has been right in being pessimistic, and indeed Myanmar has turned a full 180^o in criticism of aid countries barely after a week. Perhaps, it was a show specially performed for United Nations Secretary General - Mr Ban Ki-moon. They ran a similar show afterall, when “organized relief camps” were being displayed to diplomats.

We have heard it all too many times, that Myanmar is fully capable of managing the disaster. I finally understood what the Junta leaders actually meant when New Light of Myanmar (owned by Myanmar Government) said, “Myanmar people can easily get fish for dishes by just fishing in the fields and ditches. In the early monsoon, large edible frogs are abundant.”

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The Western society probably find it hard to comprehend and embrace the rise of Asia in modern days, to the point where we are seen as a threat to their “stability”. Singapore’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Kishore Mahbubani, was grilled on BBC’s Hardtalk recently which led to the bombardment of the Singapore’s system. (You can view Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 here.)

After watching the full show more than 3 times, I can’t exactly agree with everything Kishore said. Yet, I can’t also agree with what the host, Stephen Sackur, was trying to point out. In that sense, Stephen seemed to consider Singapore the “culprit” in Asia when there are many more countries that should be credited with the Asia boom.

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It’s always entertaining to read about what Dr. Mahathir says about Singapore. I am beginning to suspect if he is secretly hiding his adoration of Singapore, given the countless occasions that he cited this little red dot as one of the influential factors on Malaysia’s internal politics.

For an average man on the ground like me, I can’t help but feel sorry for Dr. Mahathir sometimes. His recent resignation from UMNO and the subsequent lack of supporting members in his call for more resignations, made him look like a train running out of steam. Hanging the word “Singapore” by his lips in almost every other criticism against Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Abdullah Badawi, looks convincing of a man depleted of bullets. The descriptive term of “falling from grace” keep surfacing in my head.

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I was literally shocked to read such a piece of news, in which a 7-month-old baby was put up on Ebay auction. I am not going to parrot the words in the news report though. It kinda struck me with some thoughts after Xizor wrote about his thoughts after attending a wake.

I wonder if “the joke” was really “a joke”, or was it an excuse to buy themselves out of any prosecution. I must say this is a really bad joke to crack at a time where countless countries are cracking down on child prostitution or child trafficking. Can the pressure of being a parent really be that great until one has to seek that little bit of laughter through such a method?

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When I said “protest”, I actually meant physical planting of an individual or a group of like-minded people at a certain venue for the causes they are standing up for. This has been a question on my mind for a long time, because protesting in such a manner seemed like an old-fashioned move to get a message across. So how effective is protesting seriously?

The most recent protests that I can bring upon this post, is the worldwide protest against China and the price hike protest in Indonesia. Both, contained a certain element of violence in the process, which kinda swayed my sympathy towards China even though I do not agree with their policies towards Tibet. Whether the violence was planned, or a natural degrading of the cause to riots, I cannot say for sure.

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