Live Life With No Regrets!

World peace. Yes that elusive desire spoken of by thousands of beauty pageant contendors world wide.

What can we do to create world peace? I propose a dramatic solution to world peace. My solution is so radical, it will make you wonder, "Why didn't I think of that?"

My solution is that half of the world should be insurance agents. Yes, you heard it right, insurance agents. Not religion, not peace talks, but the humble insurance agent.

When people become insurance agents, they become nicer people. They call you at least once a year to see how you're doing. They remember your birthday. They are intensely interested in your family developments, when you get married, when you have kids, which college your kids are interested in going to.

When insurance agents meet up, they will almost always offer to buy you lunch or dinner. They will be on time for appointments. They are kind and courteous.

If these are the things that happen when people become insurance agents, wouldn't that be the solution to world peace?

Posted by Nico at 1:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think that we can learn from the way zookeepers handle animals in a zoo. Good zookeepers understand that animals have needs and that they need to be handled differently, each with a different environment suited for them, feeding times, diet, etc.

Some animals are social and kept in groups, some are territorial and need to be separated. Some will get bored without any activity, some get stressed if there is too much distraction. There are signs outside an aquarium that say "Please don't tap the glass. It stresses the fish".

The same goes for humans. They get stressed too. They need social interaction too. They get bored. They are territorial.

I think we must strive that humans, no matter what we expect them to do (like "exceed expectations" on their performance review) are still animals too.

Humans are humans, not superhuman. In the wild concrete jungle, we've seemed to forgotten that. We see other humans as things, robots, resources to serve our own needs. Perhaps that is one aspect of the human animal, they tend to become selfish and egocentric.

I am starting to think if we view each person more than just a self-directed moral being, but also having the nature of a creature, an animal in the sense of needs, territory, interaction, etc, we can learn to treat each other better.

If only humans could have signs outside their cubicles that said "Don't overload with work. It stresses them out." Or "Please feed with encouragement and praise."

Posted by Nico at 7:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

What I really hate about politics is that politicians have this habit of mixing up religion, race and nationality accidentally (or perhaps conveniently?)

When a terrorist leader like Osama wants to criticize Christianity, he mixes it up with government policies. He will criticize Danish protection of free speech as a Christian institution, when free speech has nothing to do with Christianity.

Or when Malay politicians use Islam and the Malay race to protect their interests. Aren't all people born in Malaysia, Malaysians?

Posted by Nico at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think that the disabled, the helpless, they are not useless. They do have a purpose.

Unlike the Nazis who considered the handicapped and disabled as ones who needed to be disposed of because they are a burden to a country's resources, they serve a purpose that money cannot buy.

They show our humanity.

By caring for them, we show that economic production, power, and pleasure are far lesser goals than the one that fills our souls. The need to love.

Posted by Nico at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A writer writes by observing people. He sees people and what they do. He contemplates the meaning behind things, why do they do what they do?

He is a thinker and philosopher.

He sees in his mind beauty, imagining things that could be, that is and that was.

The words are the means of communicating this with others. It is the medium of transference of what sees with the mind's eye to another sentient human being.

Posted by Nico at 6:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Victory for the opposition, but what now?

Malaysia is set for change, but can the opposition deliver? We just hope so. And perhaps in the next election, can the opposition win the majority and create the government? Can Article 153 and 160 be amended?

Posted by Nico at 12:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The oft reason not to raise issues related to race, like Article 153 in the Malaysian constitution which is a racist policy, is that it is a "sensitive issue" and will stir up conflict.

But if we consider that a group of people is also akin to an organism, i.e. a body, with some people functioning as the brain (the government), some the hands (the uniformed forces), some the legs (the economic workforce), then these "sensitive issues" is akin to that nagging conscience.

When a government orders its people not to stir up "sensitive issues", it is like a person refusing to listen to the voice of reason and conscience in his mind. Like a drug addict or alcoholic who refuses to acknowledge that what he is doing is wrong, or perhaps in milder cases, a debtor refusing to look at his state of accounts.

Malaysia is unique as a country which has a racist and straightforwardly unfair laws. Imagine the United States decreeing all Irish to be Catholics, or Britain defining all English to be Protestants or Thailand that all Thais be Buddhists. Yet Malaysia is a country that actually defines Malays to be Muslims in the constitution.

Unless Malaysia realizes the moral morass that racist and bigoted policies create, it will continue to have racial and religious tension in the country. It will be tough, because like the alcoholic going through the 12-step program, the first thing he has to do is to admit that he has a problem. Until the ruling government acknowledges it, it will never be cured.

If only there were such things for countries as there are for alcoholics, I can only imagine the following to happen...

RACIST COUNTRIES ANONYMOUS
Gathered in the room are South Africa, United States, Germany, England.

South Africa: ...and I've been sober since 1994 when I abolished apartheid.

Enter Malaysia

Malaysia: Hi, my name is Malaysia, and I'm a racist country.
All: Hi Malaysia!

....

Posted by Nico at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How could this happen? In safe secure Singapore, an island only 30km high by 40km wide, he still hasn't been caught yet.

This is a place where the government can know exactly where you were driving last year on Christmas day or what you were eating for breakfast.

Did they allow him to watch too many Prison Break episodes? Are there such things called SG Marshalls? Is there a Tommy Lee Jones in the Singapore police?

What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints go up at fifteen miles. Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble Mas Selamat Kastari. Go get him.

In the meantime, while we're wondering, what about Osama Bin Laden? Morgan Spurlock goes to Afghanistan to look for another elusive fugitive the US Government has been looking for in a long time.

Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden?

Posted by Nico at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)