Missing out on Murakami

Discovering Murakami is one of the good things that happened to me this Christmas. The last time I was totally hooked by a book was when I bought The Name of the Rose. That was a good 20 years ago, while on a trip to Sweden.

While Eco's book is absorbing by its sheer richness of prose, reading Murakami is like getting in and out of a dream while fully awake. The emotions just well up and you don't know where the next punch is coming from.

It is very stimulating in a strange kind of way, maybe surreal is how to put it. Camus or Kafka may get one to get to view life from new and unexpected angles and make us see psychedelic colours in our mind, but with Murakami it is like being in the centre of things as they explode or come into being.

Some 5 years ago I met a lady who was deep with Deepak Chopra. I cannot quite recall what or how exactly she said it; it was something to do with practicing detachment - I was so moved by it that there was some deep rearrangement of the contents of my memory. I mean, how else can you explain it, the next time I went to the ATM machine I could not remember the six digit PIN I have been using for the past six years or so.

The book with me is Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, which has won the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY FRIENDS

Death by Medicine

The most stunning statistic.

(By Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD;
Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD)

The American medical system is the leading cause of death and injury in the US. The total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is an astounding 783,936 per year.

By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251.5


Read the entire page at here

Musa Qala: Is this Afghanistan’s Fallujah?

December 10th, 2007
By Media Workers Against the War

From: Media Workers Against the War
Just as the immediate threat of war on Iran appears to be receding, the full horror of the “war on terror” is being unleashed on the town of Musa Qala in Afghanistan – and is in danger of being grossly mis-reported by the British media.

This is, according to British officers quoted in the Sunday Times, one of the biggest British military operations since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, involving as many as 3,000 British troops – almost half the British forces in the country.

Read on at: http://www.ukwatch.net/article/musa_qala_is_this_afghanistan_s_fallujah

Why Good Things Happen to Good People

By S. Post & J. Neimark in Happiness on October 11th, 2007


I have one simple message to offer and it’s this: giving is the most potent force on the planet. Giving is the one kind of love you can count on, because you can always choose it: it’s always within your power to give. Giving will protect you your whole life long.

These scientists are discovering the deep, remarkable impact of benevolent behavior on mental and physical health. Personally, I am now convinced that giving is the answer to the malaise that corrodes many lives today, a malaise born of too much “bowling alone,” as the sociologist Robert Putnam describes our fragmented lives.

You wish to be happy? Loved? Safe? Secure? You want to turn to others in tough times and count on them? You want the warmth of true connection? You’d like to walk into the world each day knowing that this is a place of benevolence and hope? Then I have one answer: give. Give daily, in small ways, and you will be happier. Give and you will be healthier. Give, and you will even live longer.

Generous behavior shines a protective light over the entire life span. The startling findings from our many studies demonstrate that if you engage in helping activities as a teen, you will still be reaping health benefits sixty or seventy years later. And no matter when you adopt a giving lifestyle, your well-being will improve, even late in life. Generous behavior is closely associated with reduced risk of illness and mortality and lower rates of depression. Even more remarkable, giving is linked to traits that undergird a successful life, such as social competence, empathy, and positive emotion. By learning to give, you become more effective at living itself.

As psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger wrote, “Love cures - both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.”

Giving is a great equalizer. Whatever your background–privileged or impoverished, blessed or difficult - the starting place for a life of greater love is within your reach. I think of the life of Susie Valdez, nicknamed the “Queen of the Dumps.” Valdez was born in the slums of Mexico, dropped out of school in the tenth grade, and had four babies in quick succession. Packing just a few possessions, she moved with her children to El Paso, Texas, and spent the next forty years caring for dirt-poor Mexicans. Valdez founded a mission, raised funds for two medical centers, mobilized prominent politicians, subsidized schools, and fed as many as three thousand poor people a day. Many who have met her marvel at her charismatic radiance in the face of so much suffering.

Copyright © 2007 Stephen Post, Ph.D., and Jill Neimark. From the book Why Good Things Happen to Good People by Stephen Post, Ph.D. and Jill Neimark, published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

Words to Live By

“ There is a tide in the affairs of men

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat,

And we must take the current when it serves,

Or lose our ventures. ”

William Shakespeare. (Julius Caesar, IV.ii.269-276)

now, where in the world is Jose

Enthusiasm and talent are qualities a person must have to be successful. I don't know him and I haven't met him. so let us just say I am joking when I say McLaren has zero talent and the most enthusiastic England coach ever. Some might not see it as a joke.

A lot of people point to the dearth of English players playing in the EPL as being the cause of England's sorry standing. Each team in the English premier league has about 20 percent of them, which translates to 60 to 80 players to chose from. That's more than enough beef there for Jose (we are not talking of the real Jose yet) to chose from. And there are a lot more where they come from.. the MU academy etc. I say England has more than enough players.

The real problem is finding coaching talent. McLaren put his talent to the test for all the world to judge by by fielding his weaker goalie against Croatia. The continued failure of English coaches is emblematic of a deeper problem. That problem lies in the heart of the English psyche, its nature being the predilection to want to rule the world, with just the bully's arsenal of a few nuclear bombs in his cupboard. Bombs and prayers don't win hearts, least of all win a football game.

That's stretching it a bit far of course. What's clear is that everybody is in the dark about this coach thing. Can we say that Germany, or France, or Brazil has more players than do England. What rubbish! The system of English football has simply failed to produce good coaches.

What Mega Means

The new Dubai skyline

"Somewhere between 15 to 25 percent of the 125,000 construction cranes currently operating in the world today are located in Dubai," writes Morgan Stanley chief economist Stephen Roach. (Thanks to Brad Setser for the tip.)

The cranes of Dubai are emblematic of a much deeper point: We need to update our thinking about the Gulf economy -- especially insofar as its internal development efforts are concerned, but also with respect to its role in world financial markets. It was only a little over 33 years ago when rising oil prices first came into play. Since then, the economic development of Middle East oil producers has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Dubai underscores a critical difference between then and now. Even if it ends up being a bubble, I suspect there will be no turning back for the new Middle East. In a world where the globalization debate is dominated by China, it is high time to broaden our horizons.

Posted by Andrew Leonard at http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2007/02/26/dubai_cranes/index.html

From Sleepy Fishing Village to the World's Most Exciting Place

Dubai Strategic Plan 2015
www.gulfnews.com/ Dec 4, 2007

Had it come from any other source, the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 would have sounded like an impossible dream. But when it is said by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, there is an air of expectation that these dreams will be fulfilled. For it is well to remember, as Shaikh Mohammad once poignantly said, "the impossible does not exist in [the UAE's] dictionary".

From the outset, when laying out his plans for the next eight years, Shaikh Mohammad demonstrated there is no harm in setting ambitious goals for Dubai because they have been achieved in the past. Vision 2010, spelt out in 2000, envisaged the course he wanted Dubai to take over the forthcoming decade. Such was the phenomenal growth of the emirate that the targets, set seven years ago for 10 years, were achieved in half the time. But, as Shaikh Mohammad pointed out on Saturday: "With these achievements comes new hurdles, responsibilities and challenges."
Vision 2010 was very much orientated towards developing the economy and all that is related to it to entice investment from abroad and encourage local industry to receive the benefits of the burgeoning financial infrastructure. Now, the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 embraces a far wider dimension, reaching into the livelihood and social condition of all residents, be they Emiratis or expatriates. This new plan demonstrates a high level of caring by Shaikh Mohammad and the Dubai Government. For it was not hurriedly produced in an effort to take advantage of any particular circumstance, as finance ministers in other countries may tend to do. On the contrary, in consultation with over 300 officials, businessmen and academics, an elaborate and considered plan was produced.

The most significant aspect of the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 is that five areas have been identified whereby change is inevitable and ultimately will be made to accord with the times and targets for the future. These are: Economic Development; Social Development; Infrastructure, Land and Environment; Safety, Security and Justice; and Public Sector Excellence. The advantage of sectionising these departments means that while each is working under a master plan towards a specific target, the departments can also work autonomously and, to some extent, in competition with each other to attain their established objectives while maintaining the high standards expected of them.

Up Up and Away. Let's Fly Balloons

China and India are like 2 big balloons on either side of Malaysia. If we really want to, we can be the kite master, that is, before Singapore beat us to it.

With a combined population of more than 2 billion (China est. 1,321,851,888 (July 2007 est. http://wikitravel.org/en/China, and India 1,129,866,154 (July 2007 est.) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/print/in.html ) and economies taking to the skies, flying balloons can take a whole new dimension.

We are busy launching a lot of industrial clusters (or development corridors, as we call it), but that does not make so much sense anymore. Of course the guy who started it all off, the venerable Harvard don, Professor Porter has a perpetual grin knowing the world has really cottoned to his theory.

Regional economic clusters make sense for a large country like the US, as they can set off synergies from vast resources they have. Remember, they have more of the most important resources of all - the capacity of its people for innovation and invention.

If Singapore was running Malaysia, I think this is what they'll do: become trend-setters in art and fashion, become the region's financial, medical and academic hub. And tourism - well, we haven't even scratched the surface yet.

Why do you think we are slow in recognising emerging trends? Because we are not producing enough brains. Our U's are languishing in the quagmire of mediocrity. It is the worst type of vicious circle.

We must tap the best available brains of the world. We must get the best advice in planning beyond 2020. Improving the performance of our educational institutions must take primacy. Then we have to have specific plans for infrastructural development. Let the standards of our buildings and roads and other infrastructural facilities match (dare I say surpass?) world standards. We have to stand out.

We must dare dream of great things for our future.