The controversies of our modern day and age resulting from differences of opinion in matters of religion have compelled me to sit down and write this article. There is much conflict and intolerance in places ranging from Iraq to Saudi Arabia to the USA and certainly Malaysia. I wish to make the case that for peace and harmony between people and nations, religions should be left out of state hands and by extension, the constitution and law. The state must be secular. At most, states should merely act to prevent harm caused by excessive religiosity. And since my limited knowledge applies only to my home of Malaysia, that will be the bounds of my theoretical discussion even though I will use other countries as examples.
“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.”
-Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec. 6, 1813.
Have you ever known a deeply religious country that was prosperous, free and powerful? I doubt it, for there were none. I will refrain from using examples of ancient kingdoms and sultanates for they are irrelevant to our discussion since a monarchy is no longer a viable system of government. Instead we see that in contemporary society, wherever religious fervour runs deep, so too does blood.
I will illustrate the perils of a religious government with two examples.
I begin with Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the pre-eminent poster child for religious conflict. Outwardly it presents itself as a territorial dispute because Palestinians want an independent nation. That obscures the fact that Israelis and Palestinians are essentially the same people, be it historically, genetically or culturally. The only difference between them is religion. The Jewish state that was promised after World War 2 by Britain could not be authentically Jewish if large groups of Palestinians were allowed to obtain Israeli citizenship, hence the problem of stateless Palestinians. This is surely the most severe case of religious bigotry in our modern human history.
The mental image that we have of Sri Lanka is surely a mild one. It is not a place we associate with religious conflict and oppression, but that is precisely what is experienced on a daily basis by a very large minority of Sri Lankans. In 1983, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam began their deadly 23 year war that has killed over 60,000 people. The ultimate reasons for this sorry state of affairs is the institutional racial and religious discrimination practiced by the ruling Sinhalese majority government. Even today, the constitution gives Buddhism a “foremost position” but with respect for the practice of different beliefs. This respect was inconsistent though, and in many instances, courts have ruled against minority religions where the Sinhalese Buddhist majority were perceived to be susceptible to conversion to other religions.
In an all too brief two paragraphs, I’ve given legitimate examples to demonstrate that a religious government can do more harm than good.
However, examples by themselves do not make a case. There is the small matter of logic to contend with.
I would venture to suggest that religion by its very nature is static. Religious texts do not promote social or political change. They only prescribe an old moral code that we are expected to follow and obey. This is anathema to progress. Human societies haven’t progressed because of religion, they have progressed in spite of it. We have not abolished slavery, adopted universal suffrage and given education to our women because an old book says so, rather it is the exact opposite.
I hope this essay gives pause to those who would clamour for more religiosity in our lives. Religion may be comforting or inspiring, but it is not and never will be a good basis for government. I hope we can all recognize that.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Muar Madness!
I felt I just had to share this. Its good to know I can feel so close to home even though I'm in Singapore. (Ok its not strictly home but Muar is pretty darn close to JB)
Guns, Germs and Steel: intermission
Sorry everyone, I've been totally and irreparably defeated by the sheer scale of the task that I originally set out to do. Even by my own rather dismal standards, giving up at this point marks a new low. Fortunately I've little ego and even less shame so I can do as I please. Damn society's judgment.
I'm putting this project officially on hold and will only resume writing the summary after my exams and when I muster enough fresh motivation.
In the meantime I will turn my attention to the inane and the quirky. This serves a dual purpose. First I get to take my weary mind off of my exams and secondly everybody gets entertained. Its a win-win situation.
All right then, till next post.
I'm putting this project officially on hold and will only resume writing the summary after my exams and when I muster enough fresh motivation.
In the meantime I will turn my attention to the inane and the quirky. This serves a dual purpose. First I get to take my weary mind off of my exams and secondly everybody gets entertained. Its a win-win situation.
All right then, till next post.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Guns, Germs and Steel: ch 3: Collision at Cajamarca
I'll be brief. This chapter is essentially just telling the story of how the Incan emperor Atahuallpa, at the zenith of his glory and power, came to be captured in Atahuallpa's own capital city Cajamarca and consequently killed by the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizzaro.
It's a fascinating story, but is more of an appetizer meant to whet the reader's appetite for the real substance that is to come later in the book. The author implores us to consider the reasons for the Spanish superiority in terms of technology, written language and so forth that allowed them to make the long journey to the Incan empire, then capture and kill the one man the Incans revered as a god. Why was it not the case that the Incans developed sea-faring ships, metallurgy and sailed to Spain to capture King Charles I of Spain?
Indeed, answering the question above is the entire point of this book, thus making this chapter seem a bit redundant, nonetheless, this chapter still makes for engaging reading.
It's a fascinating story, but is more of an appetizer meant to whet the reader's appetite for the real substance that is to come later in the book. The author implores us to consider the reasons for the Spanish superiority in terms of technology, written language and so forth that allowed them to make the long journey to the Incan empire, then capture and kill the one man the Incans revered as a god. Why was it not the case that the Incans developed sea-faring ships, metallurgy and sailed to Spain to capture King Charles I of Spain?
Indeed, answering the question above is the entire point of this book, thus making this chapter seem a bit redundant, nonetheless, this chapter still makes for engaging reading.
Guns, Germs and Steel: ch 2: A Natural Experiment of History
In order to prove his premise that societies develop in their own unique way based on the pre-existing conditions of the environment, the author provides the example of the Polynesian islands located to the East of Australia and New Zealand. These islands are small, numerous and extremely varied in terms of "climate, geological type, marine resources, area, terrain fragmentation and isolation". These, the author claims, are major determinants of the degree of human development on each island.
All Polynesians trace their ancestry to a small band of colonists who made their way to the region from continental Eurasia. This implies that the Polynesian islands were colonised around the same time, hence there wasn't any particular island that had a head start in terms duration of human occupation.
Islands that had climate and soil suitable for agriculture were able to sustain high population density, which in turn led to complex social hierarchies and specialist craftsmen such as soldiers, builders, bureaucrats and chiefs who did not participate in food production. These claims are proven by historical records and journals whether from indigenous historians, artifacts or logs of European explorers who came and recorded their experiences.
The clearest examples of the kind of variation in the complexity of human society that established itself in Polynesia were the Hawaiian islands, the southern part of New Zealand's Southern Island as well as the subantarctic region where Chatham Island is located.
From the Polynesian islands, we can conclude that the factors mentioned above:
are probably responsible for the even greater variation that we observe in the world at large.
I think this chapter is absolutely fascinating. I think there isn't a person who wouldn't agree that environmental conditions play a large part in determining the development of the human race. Its so simple and yet such a powerful explanation I'm compelled to question why we never thought of it sooner. I guess it says something about human ignorance or arrogance that the idea that Europeans were more 'evolved' was given so much credit in colonial times even though an equally if not more plausible explanation was staring you quite literally in the face in the form of the surrounding environment.
All Polynesians trace their ancestry to a small band of colonists who made their way to the region from continental Eurasia. This implies that the Polynesian islands were colonised around the same time, hence there wasn't any particular island that had a head start in terms duration of human occupation.
Islands that had climate and soil suitable for agriculture were able to sustain high population density, which in turn led to complex social hierarchies and specialist craftsmen such as soldiers, builders, bureaucrats and chiefs who did not participate in food production. These claims are proven by historical records and journals whether from indigenous historians, artifacts or logs of European explorers who came and recorded their experiences.
The clearest examples of the kind of variation in the complexity of human society that established itself in Polynesia were the Hawaiian islands, the southern part of New Zealand's Southern Island as well as the subantarctic region where Chatham Island is located.
From the Polynesian islands, we can conclude that the factors mentioned above:
- climate
- geological type
- marine resources
- area
- terrain fragmentation
- isolation
are probably responsible for the even greater variation that we observe in the world at large.
I think this chapter is absolutely fascinating. I think there isn't a person who wouldn't agree that environmental conditions play a large part in determining the development of the human race. Its so simple and yet such a powerful explanation I'm compelled to question why we never thought of it sooner. I guess it says something about human ignorance or arrogance that the idea that Europeans were more 'evolved' was given so much credit in colonial times even though an equally if not more plausible explanation was staring you quite literally in the face in the form of the surrounding environment.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Guns, Germs and Steel: ch 1: Up to the starting line
The first chapter is a brief history of the human race from our appearance on the planet Earth as an offshoot of a species of apes in Africa to the cusp of our most glorious era, starting about 13,000 years ago after the end of the last ice age.'
The apes of ancient Africa split into 3 different groups 7 million years ago. These groups were the ancestors of modern gorillas, modern chimpanzees and modern humans. About 4.5 million years ago, our ancestors began standing in an upright posture, and 2 million years ago, human brain size relative to body increased close to the proportions of humans today. Human beings first moved out of Africa (probably) about a million years ago. We spread to all corners of the earth except the Australian and American continents. The reason for this is that Australia was separated from the Eurasian landmass by sea and primitive humans had no boats. The reason for not reaching the American continent was that it was separated from the Eurasian continent by the Bering strait, which was inaccessible because primitive humans had yet to discover warm clothing to help them cope with the cold climate.
Around 500,000 years ago, our close ancestor homo erectus appeared. He would learn to make tools of stone and also discover fire.
Around 50,000 years ago, our human ancestors really got started. This was the time of the Cro-Magnon Man. Cro-Magnon man was physically and behavorially similar to modern humans. Cro-Magnon Man made relatively complex stone tools with multiple pieces and specialised functions. Human beings around this time learned to make clothes, art, culture, boats, developed language. Our ancestors began to colonize the previously unreachable Australian continent as well as the American continent. In our ancestors' expansion efforts, their near human cousins were displaced and eventually were eliminated. These near human cousins were Neanderthals and also some indigenous Chinese and Indonesian species. It is interesting to read that some anthropologists have found physical similarities between modern Chinese and these ancient Chinese humans. This disputes the account that Cro-Magnon Man evolved and displaced all other near human species, as it did to the Neanderthals from Europe. Instead the evidence suggests that at least some of the cousins of Cro-Magnon Man co-evolved or interbred with him to bring about modern humans. The issue is disputed and evidence not wholly conclusive.
An interesting observation the writer made is that at around this period of 50,000 years ago, that he calls the Great Leap Forward, large mammals or megafauna began to become extinct at an astonishingly fast rate. Modern Australia doesn't have native large mammals with sizes on the scale of elephants, giraffes or even bears. However, fossil evidence indicates that pre-historic Australia did have giant kangaroos, rhino-like marsupials, a marsupial leopard and some huge reptiles.
The author ends the chapter by considering the states of human development in each continent at slightly after the beginning of the Great Leap Forward. Each continent seemed to have certain favourable conditions for why it would become the site of rapid human development. Even though we know in the end Eurasia won this race, we still need to explore why and now we have the groundwork.
I have 2 interesting thoughts about chapter 1. The first is about Megafauna. I just love that name. Think of how cool it sounds. It reminds me of strange science fiction fluff from old saturday morning cartoons. Aahhhh... nostalgia. Also, it's a perfect candidate to help you break the news to an obese friend of yours with low self-esteem. "You aren't fat, you're just born in the wrong era. Once you and your kind, large and majestic, roamed the land with the Megafauna!"
The second thought that came to mind as I read chapter 1 is also related to Megafauna. The Great Leap Forward marked the first time humans really were responsible for mass extinctions. This is truly amazing! Our ancestors were eliminating entire species before they even had guns. I didn't know any species went extinct because of us before the Mauritian Dodo. This, of course, is nothing to be proud of. I think too many of us still believe the world so large, our needs so small that we can't really have a significant effect on the Earth. The best example of this would be our relative inaction towards global warming. If with clubs and axes we could wipe out the Megafauna from Earth, how much more damagae could be done by altering the global temperature? Yet we continue to live our lives as if nothing was happening. I shudder at the thought.
The apes of ancient Africa split into 3 different groups 7 million years ago. These groups were the ancestors of modern gorillas, modern chimpanzees and modern humans. About 4.5 million years ago, our ancestors began standing in an upright posture, and 2 million years ago, human brain size relative to body increased close to the proportions of humans today. Human beings first moved out of Africa (probably) about a million years ago. We spread to all corners of the earth except the Australian and American continents. The reason for this is that Australia was separated from the Eurasian landmass by sea and primitive humans had no boats. The reason for not reaching the American continent was that it was separated from the Eurasian continent by the Bering strait, which was inaccessible because primitive humans had yet to discover warm clothing to help them cope with the cold climate.
Around 500,000 years ago, our close ancestor homo erectus appeared. He would learn to make tools of stone and also discover fire.
Around 50,000 years ago, our human ancestors really got started. This was the time of the Cro-Magnon Man. Cro-Magnon man was physically and behavorially similar to modern humans. Cro-Magnon Man made relatively complex stone tools with multiple pieces and specialised functions. Human beings around this time learned to make clothes, art, culture, boats, developed language. Our ancestors began to colonize the previously unreachable Australian continent as well as the American continent. In our ancestors' expansion efforts, their near human cousins were displaced and eventually were eliminated. These near human cousins were Neanderthals and also some indigenous Chinese and Indonesian species. It is interesting to read that some anthropologists have found physical similarities between modern Chinese and these ancient Chinese humans. This disputes the account that Cro-Magnon Man evolved and displaced all other near human species, as it did to the Neanderthals from Europe. Instead the evidence suggests that at least some of the cousins of Cro-Magnon Man co-evolved or interbred with him to bring about modern humans. The issue is disputed and evidence not wholly conclusive.
An interesting observation the writer made is that at around this period of 50,000 years ago, that he calls the Great Leap Forward, large mammals or megafauna began to become extinct at an astonishingly fast rate. Modern Australia doesn't have native large mammals with sizes on the scale of elephants, giraffes or even bears. However, fossil evidence indicates that pre-historic Australia did have giant kangaroos, rhino-like marsupials, a marsupial leopard and some huge reptiles.
The author ends the chapter by considering the states of human development in each continent at slightly after the beginning of the Great Leap Forward. Each continent seemed to have certain favourable conditions for why it would become the site of rapid human development. Even though we know in the end Eurasia won this race, we still need to explore why and now we have the groundwork.
I have 2 interesting thoughts about chapter 1. The first is about Megafauna. I just love that name. Think of how cool it sounds. It reminds me of strange science fiction fluff from old saturday morning cartoons. Aahhhh... nostalgia. Also, it's a perfect candidate to help you break the news to an obese friend of yours with low self-esteem. "You aren't fat, you're just born in the wrong era. Once you and your kind, large and majestic, roamed the land with the Megafauna!"
The second thought that came to mind as I read chapter 1 is also related to Megafauna. The Great Leap Forward marked the first time humans really were responsible for mass extinctions. This is truly amazing! Our ancestors were eliminating entire species before they even had guns. I didn't know any species went extinct because of us before the Mauritian Dodo. This, of course, is nothing to be proud of. I think too many of us still believe the world so large, our needs so small that we can't really have a significant effect on the Earth. The best example of this would be our relative inaction towards global warming. If with clubs and axes we could wipe out the Megafauna from Earth, how much more damagae could be done by altering the global temperature? Yet we continue to live our lives as if nothing was happening. I shudder at the thought.
Holiday Plan
My holidays have just begun. I say this even though its been a good week or so since my last exam paper, which is technically when the holidays begin. This is because I have only now began to carry out my grand holiday plan. My super grand uber cool ultimate holiday plan is to... *drumroll please* READ! This may sound trivial but I found that even though I think I read well, I was a little surprised that I really don't remember that much of what I read say, a day after I read it. This may not seem like such a big deal until you consider that students of all types, myself included, need a modicum of reading skill that is not customarily taught in schools.
To this end, I dusted off a book by British memory guru Tony Buzan that had been lying around my home and began to pry at the secrets of reading. Eventually, people come to the realization that all truly good advice is to a good degree just plain common sense. That was the case with Tony Buzan's reading tips too. In summary, he advises to read faster, concentrate harder, use our fingers as pointing aids and drink lots of coffee. I may or may not have made the last 2 up, make up your own mind about that. Now doesn't that make you feel like an indignant consumer who's been cheated of good money? When we pay money for books, CDs, seminars etc that purportedly teach us how to be successful, beautiful, confident, motivated, make money, the list goes on, how much of it is truly useful, in the way that the first typewriter was to an writer. My guess would be none. All good information passes through the human population rapidly, like gossip. You need only consider the first time you learned to fold a paper crane. You passed it on to a friend, and in no time at all, the whole school was teeming with paper birds.
What is the point of all this, you rightly ask. The point is this, if you already knew and agreed with what I just wrote above, you have proven that information of the good sort passes quickly indeed. The question then becomes, why do we even pay for books by people like Tony Buzan?
I don't honestly know right now, though I'll be sure to post something on that if and when I get one.
PS. About my holiday plan, I still intend to read and practice to read more effectively too. My first book will be "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond which I will serialize into a series of summary posts with my humble thoughts on the subject.
To this end, I dusted off a book by British memory guru Tony Buzan that had been lying around my home and began to pry at the secrets of reading. Eventually, people come to the realization that all truly good advice is to a good degree just plain common sense. That was the case with Tony Buzan's reading tips too. In summary, he advises to read faster, concentrate harder, use our fingers as pointing aids and drink lots of coffee. I may or may not have made the last 2 up, make up your own mind about that. Now doesn't that make you feel like an indignant consumer who's been cheated of good money? When we pay money for books, CDs, seminars etc that purportedly teach us how to be successful, beautiful, confident, motivated, make money, the list goes on, how much of it is truly useful, in the way that the first typewriter was to an writer. My guess would be none. All good information passes through the human population rapidly, like gossip. You need only consider the first time you learned to fold a paper crane. You passed it on to a friend, and in no time at all, the whole school was teeming with paper birds.
What is the point of all this, you rightly ask. The point is this, if you already knew and agreed with what I just wrote above, you have proven that information of the good sort passes quickly indeed. The question then becomes, why do we even pay for books by people like Tony Buzan?
I don't honestly know right now, though I'll be sure to post something on that if and when I get one.
PS. About my holiday plan, I still intend to read and practice to read more effectively too. My first book will be "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond which I will serialize into a series of summary posts with my humble thoughts on the subject.
Friday, December 01, 2006
Funniest Economics video ever!
I was reading through Steven Levitt's blog today when I came across this link to a student video project at Columbia University's Business School. It's a hilarious take on a student's dissatisfaction with the appointment of Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve. For the non-economists, the Federal Reserve is the US' version of our Bank Negara or Singapore's MAS.
The same video can be viewed here.
The video is doubly funny for me because the textbook that the lead singer discredits is the same textbook that I used for my Macroeconomics I module last semester.
Here reproduced for your convenience.
To be fair, I didn't think the textbook was as bad as the singer in the video made it out to be. Its actually pretty good, considering that an average student like myself can understand it without too much mind-numbing effort and concentration.Is there a lesson to be learned from all this? yes. Econs textbooks are so uncool that even fake music videos make fun of them. What is an econs major to do?
The solution?
An elegant, comprehensive and final one.
The same video can be viewed here.
The video is doubly funny for me because the textbook that the lead singer discredits is the same textbook that I used for my Macroeconomics I module last semester.
Here reproduced for your convenience.
To be fair, I didn't think the textbook was as bad as the singer in the video made it out to be. Its actually pretty good, considering that an average student like myself can understand it without too much mind-numbing effort and concentration.Is there a lesson to be learned from all this? yes. Econs textbooks are so uncool that even fake music videos make fun of them. What is an econs major to do?
The solution?
An elegant, comprehensive and final one.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Singapore: History Revised & Condensed
This is a hilarious short history of Singapore. Its better than learning it from the books. Somebody even made a music video version. Its available here. I recommend it.
I like the way Singaporeans satirise their politics and history. Malaysians take their politics way too seriously sometimes, but thats a blog post for another day. Enjoy the comic relief.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Racial humour & hypersensitivity?
Being Malaysian, I always accepted without question the idea that people shouldn't talk about racial issues openly, loudly because inevitably, some race comes off worse in the discussion. This can lead to all sorts of problems.
are sure to get you into hot water no matter how funny you are and how many times you rehearsed your delivery. People say jokes like that are in bad taste, as though Malay, Chinese and Indian were ice cream flavours. Weird.
Now that i've presented myself as a self-centred racist bigot, take a moment to ponder why. We stereotype and make fun of ah gua, bondan, or more accurately, transsexuals on television quite openly. Why is it not permissible for the same people to satirise a particular race?
I think I must now make something very clear. I am not advocating we abuse each other racially. I am wondering aloud why we don't talk about racial issues in an open, honest manner. Talking about race, acknowledging the differences and even finding the humour in it is surely a way to reconcile differences, bring everyone together and make real progress towards solving issues. Scott Adams goes so far as to say " You haven’t achieved equality until you’re a legitimate target for humor." I totally agree with that. I think we (both singapore and malaysia) are unequal societies.
In the context of Malaysia, with which i am most familiar, any mention of race triggers alarm bells in our collective consciousness. Mention racial issues in the public sphere and you're liable to get shouted down. This is an impediment to real progress in this area.
I am reminded of a story my friend Matthieu told me about France. He said that all government offices in France never ask for your race in any way for any service. The problem with this is that the government has no statistics on racial disparity in schools and are blind to the segregation of communities. We in Malaysia are marginally better in this respect. We can actually see the white err... multi-coloured elephant in the room. We just refuse to deal with it.
My suggestion as a first step to bringing about the kind of openness about these issues that society needs is to tell racist jokes. Why not? There are genuinely funny race jokes out there. I don't mean those unfunny, derogatory pseudo-jokes that pass for humour in some parlia... i mean parties. I mean race jokes the way comedians like Russell Peters and Chris Rock do it. Local comedians are funny too, but none of them have the cojones to do a proper race joke routine. Imagine the benefits a proper race comedy would have. Children to college students to old pensioners would have something to share and chat about with their multi-racial neighbours without worrying about appearing racist or bigoted.
Think about it. The next time you're in an awkward situation with a friend of a different race, break the tension with a funny, tasteful witticism about race. You could start a revolution in the way people think about race.
Statements like:
- Malays are lazy, so lazy they won't even read this blog to berate the racist bigot who wrote this.
- Chinese businessmen are blood-sucking mosquitoes, just harder to swat than your average sized mosquito.
- Indians are so stupid, they literally believe they can swat the blood-sucking bigot mosquito who wrote this.
are sure to get you into hot water no matter how funny you are and how many times you rehearsed your delivery. People say jokes like that are in bad taste, as though Malay, Chinese and Indian were ice cream flavours. Weird.
Now that i've presented myself as a self-centred racist bigot, take a moment to ponder why. We stereotype and make fun of ah gua, bondan, or more accurately, transsexuals on television quite openly. Why is it not permissible for the same people to satirise a particular race?
I think I must now make something very clear. I am not advocating we abuse each other racially. I am wondering aloud why we don't talk about racial issues in an open, honest manner. Talking about race, acknowledging the differences and even finding the humour in it is surely a way to reconcile differences, bring everyone together and make real progress towards solving issues. Scott Adams goes so far as to say " You haven’t achieved equality until you’re a legitimate target for humor." I totally agree with that. I think we (both singapore and malaysia) are unequal societies.
In the context of Malaysia, with which i am most familiar, any mention of race triggers alarm bells in our collective consciousness. Mention racial issues in the public sphere and you're liable to get shouted down. This is an impediment to real progress in this area.
I am reminded of a story my friend Matthieu told me about France. He said that all government offices in France never ask for your race in any way for any service. The problem with this is that the government has no statistics on racial disparity in schools and are blind to the segregation of communities. We in Malaysia are marginally better in this respect. We can actually see the white err... multi-coloured elephant in the room. We just refuse to deal with it.
My suggestion as a first step to bringing about the kind of openness about these issues that society needs is to tell racist jokes. Why not? There are genuinely funny race jokes out there. I don't mean those unfunny, derogatory pseudo-jokes that pass for humour in some parlia... i mean parties. I mean race jokes the way comedians like Russell Peters and Chris Rock do it. Local comedians are funny too, but none of them have the cojones to do a proper race joke routine. Imagine the benefits a proper race comedy would have. Children to college students to old pensioners would have something to share and chat about with their multi-racial neighbours without worrying about appearing racist or bigoted.
Think about it. The next time you're in an awkward situation with a friend of a different race, break the tension with a funny, tasteful witticism about race. You could start a revolution in the way people think about race.
After my long hiatus from the blogging scene, during which Singapore had elections and hosted the IMF and World Bank, Pluto got downgraded and Grameen Bank (yes, a bank) won the Nobel Peace Prize, I am now back.
Apologies to my legions of adoring fans for my extended leave.
As a small measure of atonement for my grievous sin, I will now link everyone to a magical video that has amazed me no end for the past few days.
Ronaldinho Show - video powered by Metacafe
Now after my exams I got to find time to try that out. (hopefully without breaking my back in the process)
Apologies to my legions of adoring fans for my extended leave.
As a small measure of atonement for my grievous sin, I will now link everyone to a magical video that has amazed me no end for the past few days.
Ronaldinho Show - video powered by Metacafe
Now after my exams I got to find time to try that out. (hopefully without breaking my back in the process)
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