Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Brains,Love... not Bullets


Recently I have been seeing ads on busses. The advertisement displayed two young young adult, one carrying a anti tank missile launcher while other carry a military chopper model.The advertisement said: are you the greater mind we seek?



I supose the puspose of the ad is to seek out intelligent mind out there and recruit them in their research programe on defence technology... another words of WAR TECHNOLOGY.


The first though of mine is:"Why would anyone wanted to attack Singapore?" . Well, even if there is some terrorist who may want to abort attack from their biggest target(US or England) and turn their target to one of the so many allied of US or UK, for instance Singapore, I am pretty sure that the current millitary asset of Singapore is more than enough to crush them if they come face to face. That is why the tactic of terrorism is bombed and hide, they don't come to you face to face.How is a group of people with AK-47 and little RPG could win the battle with a well trained military group with GI, cruise missile, tanks and battle ships on it?

So since you can't kill terrorist with just mere brutal weapon, what is the point seeking more powerful weapon?Well, someone would say the the developement of more powerful like "mother or father of all bombs" is to counter the treat from country, not terrorist. Lets look at the case of US:

The US had spend $10 billion per year on missle defence system. But a recent Pentagon briefing claims the threat from enemy missiles is growing and shows missiles in 20 countries. But all but two of those 20 countries - Iran and North Korea - are either friends, allies, or countries of US from which they have no missile threat, e.g. Israel, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, South Korea, Moldova, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc.

And, with the exception of Russia and China, none of those 20 countries - including Iran and North Korea - have missiles that can reach the United States anyway.
Something is defenitly went wrong here... where is the treat?

Okay, some would argued this with the initial success in toppling first the Taliban in Afghanistan and then Saddam Hussein in Iraq provide support for concepts. But the murderous chaos in Iraq, and the growing violence in southern Afghanistan, have shown that bombs is good at destroying targets, and bad at solving the problem.


Enough with the debating, lets look at the little research I have done on the net:


The cost of missile defence system:
10 billion usd per year

The cost of Trident submarine:
3 billion usd to build, 77 million usd each year for operating cost










The cost of upgrading a M-182 tanks :
5 million usd









The cost of a F22 plane:
150 million usd

The cost of a King George V battle ship(WWII)
£1,965,000







The cost to rehabilitate 13,000 public housing units:
150 million usd


The cost to upgrade the drainage system of a metropolitan city to prevent flood:
40million usd





Get my point?
If you are gifted with an intelligent mind, try to change the world with brain and love, not bullets. our history of mankind is already filled with wars and bloods. We can all make a difference.








Sunday, October 14, 2007

Importance of self control(summary)



Sometime people lose their cool and do unreasonable things which are not at their own best interest because of lacking self control, the ability to understand emotions and their impact then decides proper action. Self control is often regarded as one of the most important characteristic in the emotional intelligent because it has direct impact on our life. It may help children to have better achievement in their academic by help them remain patient, resist frustration arise from studies and temptation which would preclude them from studies. Moreover, self control is important for one’s career as the management of a company should acquired as they need to calm, clear and focus. In addition, emotional regulation may also help people in interpersonal relationship with their lover, families and others as good control of emotion reduces the chances of conflict which makes others feel bad and have negative recognition of that person regardless of the reason behind. Besides, self control also plays an important role in maintaining harmony in a community by cool our head down and let us think out of the box and help us free from misunderstanding other cultural or divergent of belief. Lastly self-control may also help us to overcome difficulties by help us to let go of the negative feeling which may avert us to solve our problem

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Movie Review--Click






Click" may look like a comedy and sound like a comedy. But this movie more than just a comedy.





The first half of the movie is about the fantasy about a suburban guy with a magic remote control and gone into darker and darker territory. It touches on areas of genuine unease for many men. And the premise is pure: What if you had a remote that actually controlled the universe?
Michael, an architect living in the suburbs finds it hard to balance between his duties as a husband to Donna, a father to little Ben and Samantha, and a grovelling minion to his boss. Due to his long hours at work in order to become a partner in the architecture firm owned by his boss, his family life begins to suffer. His work had him had to choose to spend time between family and work. This had made Michael treated his life as annoying chores -everything from sex, attending the kid's swim meets, spending time with them and holidays becomes a great burden. Then one night, his remote control for his television set went off service. Michael heads to the mall to find a universal remote control. He's tired of classifying each of them.






Michael then discovers the universal remote control he got is really a “universal” remote control which controls everything. He can fast-forward his dog through its nightly poop, mute his wife's neurotic friend and skip daily chores. However, he starts chapter-forwarding through parts of his life, leaping past family time to get to the pay off of job promotion, and soon the remote control becomes self functioning and had Michael passed all his time with his family. He had gained what he want, but losses his wife and his family.

The front half has all the gags, from Michael's petty revenges against the obnoxious kid next door to his boss.

However, come to think of it after the laugh; some of the humours associated with the remote control have a bad attitude. I mean, forwarding your wife who is making a complaint is not the way to solve the problem. Or making someone speaks in different languages i.e. Japanese or Latino, and then laugh at them seems quite racist.
However, what this movie really worth to watch is the conclusion: Life is not mean to be rushed through for money or promotions. We need to value the things that are important in our life such as our family and this means spending quality time with them. This is the lesson that Michael learns by the end of the movie, and needless to say he gets a second chance to change his life. I would say this movie combined the movie BACK TO THE FUTURE with A CHRISTMAS CAROL.

And another one inspired casting is his boss, played by David Hasslehoff. I think all of us would have the urge to punch him out. Don't get me wrong. I mean he successfully acted a **** boss.

This movie also teaches us the important to allocating time to our tasks to be done, how to be multitasking without losing our mind, how to be present as a good parent.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Emotional Intelligence

Self-control is one of the important components in the emotional intelligent. It is because managing emotions has direct implication on our lives. It is not hard to prove the theory as with piles of self-help books on managing emotions being published every year. Self-control can improve our relationship with others. Firstly, it can help us keep our head cool when we encounter critical problem either in work or study. A person who cannot control his emotion often makes decision reflexively without thinking at the first place. This kind of person is often being described as hot-headed, rash or impatient. They always get carried away by the moment and do not act at their own best interest. This has caused them making unwise decisions under the pressure and sometimes spending their money poorly. Secondly, people with good control of emotion always have a better relationship with others than those with nothing. Impulse control (anger) is always the primary target to control. It is mainly because of the human nature of preferring to hear good things or feel good. Uncontrolled anger often makes people feel bad and have negative recognition of that person. However, positive emotion such as happiness is sometime being suppressed depends on the occasion. For example if one of friend gets low mark for the exam, the one with higher mark might need to suppress his happiness in order not to hurt him.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The meaning of life

“What is the meaning of life?” This is a very special question. People in any age and gender may think of this question. Same as the number of person asked this question, there are numerous answers to this question, with each of them claiming themselves to be the righteous explanation to the question.




Back in 1991, there was a little boy whose name is Chen Sin. Chen Sin was a boy who likes to learn how things work. Most of his toys, including the calculator and other electric devices in home had been dissembled then assembled by this naughty boy.


On afternoon in the school holiday, Chen Sin was doing another routine of dissemble and assemble. This time he was totally messed up, he can’t remember how to put the parts of this radio together. As usual, he put this “another victim” in the operation into his secret box hoping that grandma does not find out. He then lay on the floor, looked to the sky through the window and start thinking about what a little boy would think about. Just while his though was shifting from starwar to the born of an imaginary planet a question popped out in his mind, just like a sprout popped out from the earth. “How do I end up here? What is the purpose of me being here? What is the meaning of my life?”

He rushed into the kitchen and asked his grandmother those question come from nowhere. His grandmother replied: “You are here because of your father and mother love each other. Your purpose is to study hard, become a useful person, be dutiful to your parent and family and contribute to eh society.” He then rushed to his aunt who was busy doing accounting at the moment and asked the same question again. “If you have the time to think of this question, you should be on your homework! Look at your semester result, it’s too terrible to compare to mine when I was your age.”




After many consultation session with his relatives, Chen Sin was finally convinced that the meaning of life is, after you are born, be an obedient child, go to the school and study hard, get a good paying job, take good care of your parent, get married, raise some kid and rest in peace in the end. Do some charity work or deed if you got extra time and money. (Please note, I am not offending my family. I have learned a lot from them and I love them.)


*The Meaning of Life*


Luckily, this little boy’s intelligent does not stop growing as his age does. He soon realized that those meaning of life he used to know cannot convinced him anymore. “Something is not right; meaning of life should not be just like that.”

So the search of meaning of life began.

Newton once said “We are standing on the shoulders of the giants”. It means the knowledge we know nowadays is based on the experience of people in the past.

Chen Sin could not agree more with the idea. So he started to seek for others’ opinion and understanding about the meaning of life.



*"Oh great tree of wisdom, please tell me what is the meaning of life"*


Meaning of life? Enjoy as much food as you can. Life is short, but good food is unlimited. Enjoy while you can.” A cubby guy who sat behind him said, while eating junk food. “No wonder you have such a big stomach” said Chen Sin, looked a bit disappointed. Eating sure is one way to enjoy life, but it cannot be the meaning of life. “To be beautiful always!!”, “To conquer the world”, “To earn all the money!”, “To save the earth”, “To discover new knowledge!”, “Save the world from hunger and devastation”, “how do I know?”, “Never think of it”, “No time to chat, I
am busy..”…



“Am I the only one who can’t agree with everyone?” He started to think. He tried finding his hope in the internet. But tons of explanation had put him into more serious doubt.



Weeks later, it seemed that the goddess of luck waved her hand to him. One sunny afternoon, the weather is so hot that Chen Sin could not continue on his work. He went into the kitchen and tried to find something to chill him up.

“Mmm, I wonder how this orange’s taste is…Sweet or Sour?” he took an orange from the fridge.
“Urrgh..it’s sour!!(Yes you’re right I don’t like sour thing)

It came out from nowhere, a strange feeling suddenly appeared in his body. It felt like a scientist who just discovered a new phenomenon of science. Yes, he (or, I) had found the answer that he had been looking for.


The meaning of life cannot be explained by mere thinking. Just like an orange, one can never know the taste of an orange by holding it and guessing. (Unless he is a psychic) One must taste the orange in order to know what its taste is. Same with the meaning of life, one must experience his life in order to know what the true meaning of his life is. One can never tell another the true meaning of life is, because of the things and events that everyone in this world experience is different.

So if you ask me what the meaning of my life is, I can’t tell you. All I can tell is I am creating part of it, trying to make it as meaningful and special as I could. Target of life can be set; the meaning of life is what you achieved in the end. I would like to make it meaningful by trying different life style, experience variety of life and use my time on precious and important things that deserve attention(Like,helping others etc...). Perhapes when my life's chapter is coming to end, I then could know what my life means with all those things i have done.Hope that everyone can have a meaningful life in the end.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

1st Post!!


This is the first post of this blog, Problem of The Future, Today!

Look around us, problems around us now occur because of action we did before today.

Similarly, the problem in the future is much depends on what we do today.
Let's hope this is a good start :)