Washington's Dog and Pony Show

Across Southeast Asia there is an ubiquitous feeling of repugnance that has replaced the overall malaise here as millions watched America's politicians in Washington sip champagne and celebrate the "victory" of adding another 2.4 trillion to the nation's debt.  Many here are perplexed to say the least, asking the simple question - "What is there to celebrate?"

America's talking heads in the media have all spoke about how the markets will rebound throughout the world on the good news, but that has not been the case nor the reality here on the ground.  Reflecting not only the mood here but the reality, the markets are down and so is the dollar with the bottom sadly no where in sight.  Expect the decline to continue.

Despite what some of our politicians might think, the debt crisis is not rocket science and Americans understand it clearly and so do our creditors overseas. It would be nice if Americans could just dictate to the bank what their credit limit would be but we can't.  Sure you might be able to run up a million dollar tab on a black American Express Centurion card, but you can be well rest assured that the good folks at American Express are going to be asking how you intend to pay your bill at the end of the month.

So how does one ever dig themselves out of a US14.29 trillion dollar hole?  That is the most pertinent question today that is on everyone's mind, the one that no one seems to be answering is perhaps one of the biggest reasons why the gloom in the markets and the dollar will remain until real change comes to America and to Washington. 

The mindless hope and change mantra that has been droning on from Washington for the last few years has become about as welcome here in Southeast Asia as a dengue mosquito.  Look around and you see millions here clamoring for Iphones and Ipads not for the right to  eat the rich or bugger each other with a government imprimatur.  Where are the priorities?

Faith in our nation and our economy will return when meritocracy rules rather than militant egalitarianism and when our nation's president is seen as a true leader and not the ringmaster of some macabre dog and pony show as we saw with the  handling of the nation's debt crisis.

Common sense dictates that when you are in a hole you stop digging and it is America's ingenuity unmolested by bureaucracy that will lift us from the abyss and not the government.   

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Upscale Budget Accommodation In Singapore

A recent article in the Jakarta Globe states that some backpacker hostels in Singapore are going upmarket, to cater to a rising number of backpackers with bigger budgets.   Well, this isn't entirely true.   It isn't just backpackers looking for reasonably priced place to stay but businessmen and tourists as well who have been looking for a decent place to stay without having to pay an arm and a leg.

If you are looking for a hotel room in Singapore expect to pay anywhere from S$200 (US$165) to S$600 (US$493) a night.  On the high end, Singapore has some of the finest and most luxurious hotels in Southeast Asia - if not the world, but on the low end, it can be the lowest of lows.  In other words, if your idea of an "accommodation experience" is a budget hotel with hourly rates, rubber mattresses and greasy sheets then a cheap room at Hotel 81 will be right up your alley.   Trying to find a clean decent budget hotel in Singapore that is below a US$100 a night is for the most part an exercise in futility and the this is the niche that the former backpacker hostels are now starting to exploit.

The competition between Singapore's hostels is booming with many offering crisp linens, hotel mattresses, air conditioning, free movies, wifi and in some places even a free breakfast.  Urban Hostel is one of those such places and in my opinion it's one of the best, it's located only a two minute walk from Aljunied MRT station which makes everything convenient and from Changi Airport the fare is just S$1.80 to Aljunied MRT station, so you can skip taking the taxi.   Urban Hostel has both dorm rooms and private rooms - with prices starting from just S$15.00 a night - bookable online - and later when you want see the city, just hop on the MRT and you can be at Orchard road is about ten minutes.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit's recently published Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2011, Singapore is now the 10th most expensive city to live in - in the world.  It can be cheaper though when you know your way around.   

Sleep on that.

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Across Southeast Asia Bin Laden Still Lives

Throughout Southeast Asia, the alleged killing of Osama Bin Laden coupled with the delay by the United States government in releasing any photographic evidence to the fact is giving birth to a flood of conspiracy theories, with many refusing to believe that Al Qaeda's leader is actually dead.

The conspiracy theories are varied - some saying this is simply a ploy by Barack Hussein Obama to help his popularity and others saying that this is a lie meant to draw Osama Bin Laden out  -  there is however one common denominator that all these conspiracy theories have, and that is that all this is nothing more than a ginned-up story from the United States and that Osama Bid Laden still lives.

"Where is the proof?" is the common response here in Southeast Asia whenever Osama Bin Laden's demise is mentioned.  

At this point the damage is done, the photographic evidence  and/or proof of Osama Bin Laden's death should have been released immediately without this charade of conflicting stories and  an agonizing delay that has and continues to give birth to a plethora of conspiracy theories overseas - many of them that fuel anti-american sentiment overseas particularly the theory that the photos need to be altered or brushed up before they are released to the public.  This is something that could have been avoided.

For a president who should have learned a thing or two about transparency in the past few months this reflects poorly.  Obama's indecisiveness and over-concern of Muslim sensitivities displays a weakness in character that invites aggression and fuels radicalization rather than suppressing it.  What could have been a win is now becoming a loss.  It is not Osama Bin Laden's death that is going to fuel anti-american sentiment  overseas but rather the secretive circumstances surrounding it.

So what if a photo is gory, as long as the photo is recognizable of Osama Bin Laden,  the message it sends to any young jihadi wannabe is that "this is what happens to your face when you listen to Al Qaeda".   The message it sends it is a powerful message that serves as a deterrent in the same way that the gory before and after photos of meth addicts acts a deterrent to those thinking about trying methamphetamines.

The brutal death of Osama Bin Laden at the hands of American commandos could have been both a  propaganda win and a strategic win in the war on terrorism if it was played out correctly instead it will serve as perhaps one of the biggest mistakes made in the war on terrorism.

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Poco Poco Boom Boom

"You put your bomb vest in. You take your bomb vest out. You put your bomb vest in and you shake it all about..."

Brought to you by BigCinBigB and Malaysia's Keystone Imams

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The Curse of Cassandra

"I think all Americans were quite taken with the fact that we were able, after the long history we've been through, that initial birth defect of slavery, that we've elected an African-American ... And that's enormously heartening for people in the country, but also people worldwide who still have trouble with differences." ~ Dr. Condoleeza Rice

Dr. Condoleeza Rice was opining shortly after the election of Barack Hussein Obama that his election "encouraged" people in the United States and around the world. It was an interesting choice of words from Dr. Rice, but perhaps a more fitting word would have been "emboldened".

Back in August of 2008 I wrote...

"...Like Barack Obama, I've lived in Southeast Asia, albeit a long longer than Obama did. But unlike Barack Obama I've never been subscriber to cultural or moral equivalency nor have I felt compelled to deride my own country in a a pathetic effort to establish that equivalency. I know that deriding my own country overseas only emboldens those who deny freedom and liberty to others. As an advocate of American exceptionalism, I've always felt myself compelled to spread the message of what is good about America rather than what is bad and for me that normally starts with steaming bowl of chili con carne and a plate of tacos."

One of only a few refuseniks I found myself overwhelmed and dumbfouned as I watched so many of my fellow Americans feverishly licking the Kool Aid straight from the sachet. The reality is though that throughout our world's history the message of hope and change has always trumped the ominous warnings of gloom and doom that I seemed to be purveying. For this I would suffer the curse of Cassandra.

Throughout history in times of frustration and turmoil people have found themselves drawn to either men of destiny or to the false prophets of hope and change.

So here we are now, a year later and despite having elected a prophet of hope and change, the reality is that we are still at war. Worse we have become as Bernard Lewis warned "harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend". Our enemies around the world have been emboldened by America's bumbling "Apologist in Chief" and our allies who have stood by us have been left abandoned and confounded.

After Barack Hussein Obama's speech at the United Nations, allies of ours here in Southeast Asia see Obama not only as "idealistic" and "weak" but now as an unreliable partner in the war on terrorism.

Captain Nathan Brittles would have had some advise for Barack Hussein Obama- "Never apologize Mister, it's a sign of weakness."

Islam's Battle for the White House

The Crossing of the Rubicon

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Britain's Archbishop of Panderbury

"Our modern western definition of humanity is clearly not working very well. There is something about western modernity which really does eat away at the soul." so says Britain's leading Islamophile and closet druid Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Hopelessly naive, if not anachronistic it seems almost predictable that Rowan Williams, a pagan druid, completely devoid of any moral compass would seem to revere the austere primitive purity of Rousseau's "noble savage". But William's 'conflict of conscience' is more founded in what Ratzinger referred to as a "pathological self-hatred" rather than his own misguided philosophical beliefs.

Joseph Ratzinger's 2004 essay entitled "If Europe Hates Itself" gives a glimpse into the source of a faithless Archbishop's torment when he states that "The West reveals here a hatred of itself, which is strange and can be only considered pathological; the West is laudably trying to open itself, full of understanding, to external values, but it no longer loves itself; in its own history, it now sees only what is deplorable and destructive, while it is no longer able to perceive what is great and pure."

The Constitutions of numerous nations, all with their emphasis on the principles of secularism, democracy, the rule of law and, above all, the equality of all human beings irrespective of caste, community, language or ethnicity are all derived from the British colonial legacy and Britain's gift to the world, the Magna Carta. There is a Commonwealth of Nations from Australia and New Zealand to India, Malaysia and Singapore who still value, cherish and respect their judiciary, legal system, bureaucracy and police. All cherished institutions, and all derived from British colonial administration.

There are millions of Singaporeans who see the statue of Sir Stamford Raffles on a daily basis as a warm reminder of their British colonial legacy. Millions of people around the globe who have been lifted from poverty to self-sustainability all thanks to the British. Having lived in Southeast Asia myself for over twenty years, the only thing that I think the British can justifiably be reviled for is their culinary legacy. Baked beans on toast and mushy peas. Vile and disgusting.

But as Joseph Ratzinger noted, none of this matters or is even seen by people like Rowan Williams, they are consumed with self-loathing and a "pathological self-hatred" and as Orwell stated in his 1941 essay entitled "England Your England", they are "unteachable", "only when their money and power are gone will the younger among them begin to grasp what century they are living in."

For Rowan Williams and the rest of his ilk, it is easy to place the blame on what they see to be an impersonal nation, they fail to realize that is not the nation, but themselves whom they hate. They hate themselves for what they have become. In Williams case, a faithless man of the cloth who has lost his way. This is not the first time Williams has found himself compelled to pee on the carpet and it won't be the last. Considering this, it should be obvious to all that William's would be best suited kicking around his misguided ideas on multiculturalism on some liberal university campus and not in his current position as the Archbishop of Canterbury.

In his book Millennium, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto writes, "I find it hard to believe that this generation will be able to muster the courage to fight for the sort of imperfect humanity which is willing to abort innocent lives while sanctifying those of criminals, or which undermines it's own principles by banning moral absolutes as politically incorrect."

In an environment that eschews moral absolutism and embraces cultural relativism and the "diversity of opinions", it is almost to be expected that someone like Rowan Williams' or his liberal cohorts would make the mindless suggestion that Islamic law be introduced as some sort of "supplementary jurisdiction". In what Burke warned us against, William's suggestion is tantamount to simply dismissing the "rule of law" as nothing more than some sort of abstract universalism in which all individual identity is lost, stripped as Burke said, and standing "in the nakedness and solitude of metaphysical abstraction." What happens when the laws overlap as they often do in countries like Malaysia? Which law would supersede the other? One of the central themes of this blog has been the dangers of diversity and multiculturalism. Hopefully, this incident will serve as an example of how cultural relativism inevitably drags moral relativism in it's wake. If what is wrong for one society can somehow be right for another, then what is wrong for one generation can justifiably be right for the next.

Rowan Williams' reckless comments will not soon be forgotten, they will be seen as a sign of weakness and will continue to embolden extremist groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir and others who wish to see Islamic laws implemented. Only in September of last year, Malaysia's Chief Justice made the push for reforms to introduce hardline Islamic law here in Malaysia. Ironically his justification for change was very similar to Rowan Williams reasons, and that is the "us versus them" dichotomy, the post entitled "The Clutches of Colonialism" can be read here.

To paraphrase Orwell, "The intellectuals who hope to see England Islamicized will be disappointed. The gentleness, the hypocrisy, the thoughtlessness, the reverence for law and the hatred of uniforms will remain, along with the suet puddings and the misty skies. It needs some very great disaster, such as prolonged subjugation by a foreign enemy, to destroy a national culture."

Subjugation by way of multiculturalism is already underway. Today was the first strike on England's reverence for law.

Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury must either resign or be removed from office.

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Defeating Islamic Extremism 101 - Part 2

Prior to 9/11, it wasn't totally uncommon to run across men from time to time in Southeast Asia fully decked out in their full Islamist regalia, what the locals over here would refer to as someone who is very "alim" (learned, religious). Back in the late 80's and 90's what would be uncommon to find though was a Caucasian who spoke the language, a sure sign that the individual had a lot of interaction with the Indonesian and Malay community or perhaps had a local girlfriend. Times were much different back then and the expatriate community was quite small. Looking back, I suppose it was pretty much a novelty for the locals to see a foreigner who converse with them in their own language.

Hassan smiled and proceeded to heap accolades on me. "It's so nice to see an American who takes the time to learn our culture and language." I smiled and in response to his questions I confirmed that I did in fact have a Malay girlfriend that I liked very much. Hassan asked me if I had converted to Islam and I responded that I hadn't but that my girlfriend's mother spoke about it to me often. Hassan smiled and told me that if I was serious about this girl that I would eventually have to convert to Islam if I wished to marry her. Politely I told Hassan that is was a bit too early for that. Attempting to change the subject, I asked Hassan where he was from and what he was doing in Singapore. Hassan told me that he was from Malaysia and was in Singapore purchasing computer equipment for a madrassa and computer school that he ran in Malaysia. As I got up to leave the restaurant, Hassan scribbled his phone number in Malaysia on a napkin and asked me to stop up and visit sometime whenever I was in Kuala Lumpur.

A few months later I happened to be in Kuala Lumpur and being curious to see what a madrassa was like I decided to pay Hassan a visit. He wasn't exactly in Kuala Lumpur and in fact it was a bit of a drive and so I packed a few things in an overnight bag just in case I got too tired to drive back later. When I arrived at Hassan's madrassa I was bit taken aback at what I saw. The madrassa looked quite a bit rundown and all the students dressed in flowing white robes and turbans were standing outside when I drove in through the driveway to park my car in the back of the building. I walked around the building and spotted Hassan sitting with a few other gentlemen in the madrassa's canteen. Hassan stood up smiling and then introduced to me his "brothers" and then speaking in English, he told them that he had met me in Singapore, how I spoke Indonesian and Malay, that I had a Malay girlfriend and that I was interested in converting to Islam. Hassan's "brothers" smiled broadly and invited me to sit down and join them for a cup of tea. I noticed that Hassan's "brothers" were dressed slightly differently and then over a cup of tea, I came to learn that the "brothers" were in fact from Pakistan and were visiting in Malaysia for a few days before moving on to Indonesia. For the next couple hours we spoke mostly about Afghanistan and Islam and how the Taliban were transforming the country after the Russians had been defeated.

Looking back, what is interesting to note is how there was very little open animosity at the time the men were quite cordial with outsiders albeit their mannerisms made them seem crazier than shit house rats at times. In my attempts to be polite though I sat through the sales pitch that was now coming on strong and listened to the three of them go on about the beauty of Islam, how much it was a "way of life", one that united people around the world, how it was the fastest growing religion in the world and even of the audacious plans for an Islamic Caliphate that would encompass all of South and Southeast Asia. Hassan then took over, smiled at me and went on to explain to me how people's lives changed for the better once they had embraced Islam.

It was about this time that I noticed the students started assembling nearby. It was time to pray again. As the students came around I noticed something that struck me as disturbing, the students looked exhausted and tired, their eyes seemed listless and as they gathered around there seemed to be almost no deliberation in their movement. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something just wasn't right, and yet in this surreal setting I found myself almost overwhelmed with empathy. I wanted to do something. I wanted to help. I looked over at Hassan and asked "Do any of these children speak English?" Hassan frowned and told me that they didn't have an English teacher and then asked me "How would you like to help teach English here?" Without even giving it much thought, I agreed to help teach the students English.

to be continued....

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The Balkanization of America

I just visited Houston, Texas recently and was surprised (or rather shocked) to see that even the menus in restaurants such as IHOP are both in English and Spanish. I was even told that there are several restaurants in Houston where if you don't speak Spanish then you simply won't get any service. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the least bit xenophobic, it's just that the dramatic changes in my hometown caught me a bit off guard. You see it's been a few years since I was last in the United States and each time I return I find myself amazed at the sociopolitical changes.

On more than one occasion while I was there I didn't recognize what was being said around me and was actually a bit surprised at how many people were speaking Spanish in their dealings instead of English. I went to one store near the downtown area and found myself ignored by the Spanish speaking sales staff as they continued to help the Spanish speaking people around them. I stood there waiting and then eventually just gave up. But what was even more disturbing about the whole thing wasn't the Spanish speaking, it was that there seemed to be a sense of arrogance and what can perhaps best be described as an "ethnic chauvinism" among the Spanish speaking people that was never there before. It was as if they didn't care anymore or were not concerned to assimilate, to learn English or even to speak English, but even then, it was deeper than that, many seemed to harbor a sense of grievance that despite being nurtured by well-meaning federal policies of positive discrimination gave rise to an indescribable feeling of tension that seemed to be omnipresent everywhere I went.

For the first time in my life I felt like I was in a foreign country by returning home, but even that is not really accurate... You see if I would have went to Mexico instead of Texas, the Spanish speaking people there would have at least try to communicate with me and serve me. They would have smiled and made an honest effort to speak English and the banks and shops in Mexico would have gladly accepted my US passport as an ID. But in Texas this time things were disturbing different.

But overall, what I've found most disturbing is the Balkanization of the United States or as it is known by is politically correct euphemism "multiculturalism". You'll have to forgive me, but having lived overseas for as many years as I have, I never received the diversity is strength memo, and if I did, I would have promptly thrown it in the trash where it rightly belongs. There is no strength in diversity and I'm confounded at how Americans could have ever willingly bought into that nonsense. What did it take? Was it the the fear of being labeled an intolerant bigot or of being politically incorrect that somehow collectively coerced all of you into this accepting this mind-numbing mantra as gospel?

Take a cue from a country like Singapore who had to learn the hard way about the wondrous glories of diversity and multiculturalism. A country who was forced to adopt Draconian laws limiting freedom of speech just to ensure ethnic and religious harmony and who has spent countless millions over the years on government propaganda directed at their own citizens extolling nationalism and unity over diversity. Funny how there is no mention of how "diversity is strength" in this little ditty penned by Singapore's Ministry of Information, Communication & the Arts entitled "We are Singapore". Is this what we want for the United States?

How long will it be before these ethnic and racial enclaves that are being nurtured like unhatched chickens begin to poke their beaks through the shell? I fear it won't be long now. From having lived in a multicultural society, I can say from personal experience that rising ethnic chauvinism among immigrants both illegal or legal is not only a warning sign, but is is the ultimate destroyer of peace and harmony and when the winds shift it will get bloody. When that happens there will be two paths for Americans to take and both of them will be unpleasant. Either Americans will stand up and fight for liberty and freedom or they will have to accept certain restrictions to liberty and freedom in order to keep the peace.


Related Posts

One Last Drink of Hemlock

America: Eyes Wide Shut on Muslim Integration

Alien Nation

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Burma: Epitomizing ASEAN's Insignificance

Singapore, one of Burma's biggest foreign investors, urged the country's military rulers on Thursday to exercise restraint in dealing with anti-government protests and to seek United Nations mediation.

Singapore's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was "deeply troubled" by the violent suppression of demonstrations in Yangon and called on the junta that has run the country for 45 years to seek a peaceful resolution through the world body.

"We hope that the Myanmar authorities and all other parties in Myanmar will appreciate the broader implications of their actions on the region as a whole and act accordingly," the ministry said.

As Burma's military junta once again attempts to brutally suppress the peaceful calls for democracy, these lofty proclamations eminating from Singapore the current chair of ASEAN would seem to substantiate the accusations not only of ASEAN's insignificance, but of ASEAN's inability to live up to their own charter. As a geopolitical and economic organization who's aims and objectives supposedly include the acceleration of economic growth, social progress, and the promotion of regional peace, it would be expected that ASEAN currently led by Singapore would be willing to lead the initiative to help resolve the crisis in Burma rather than contributing 'lip service' to the crisis and expecting the United Nations to intervene in the matter. Considering that Singapore is one of Burma's largest trading partners and a beneficiary of ill-gotten gains by way of the monthly shopping trips and medical visits of Burma's military elites it's anyone's wonder how Singapore thinks that Malawi and Norway might lend a hand in helping to mediate the crisis.

After ten years it should have become painfully clear to ASEAN that the policy of non-intervention with Burma's recalcitrant regime has failed miserably. The events of the last several days have made it clear that Burma's military junta has no intention to loosen its grip on power and move the country towards democracy. The time for "constructive engagement" with General Than Shwe has long since passed. If ASEAN fails to act immediately and decisively in the matter then a "coalition of the willing" will be forced to handle the crisis.

Now that blood has been spilled, it is not just Burma who's international reputation will suffer, but the entire region of Southeast Asia.

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Islam's Mythical Moderates

My first interaction with Islam and with Muslims would be in the late 80's when I would find myself, a single American expatriate living and working in Singapore. Often traveling on business in the region to Indonesia and Malaysia I would slowly begin to pick up the language out of necessity, and familiarize myself with the local customs. Looking back, and despite the warnings from those fellow expatriates that had traveled the path before me, I eventually committed the cardinal sin of the "matt salleh" and found myself dating my Malay secretary.

Stunningly beautiful and English speaking with flowing black hair, long slender legs and a short business skirt, she seemed so contemporary and so modern compared to the many of the other Indonesians and Malays that I had seen throughout my travels. Professing herself to be devout in her faith, she saw herself as a contemporary Muslim as opposed to an anachronism. It's interesting to imagine how she might have reacted back then in being labeled a "moderate", a word that seems to have a veiled and pejorative implication that she was not a "complete Muslim". Would an outward display of ethnic and religious chauvinism, perhaps electing to don a tudung make her more complete in the eyes of her accusers? Perhaps refusing to date someone outside of her religion? Or would it require something more extreme? Looking back, the ambition, the confidence and the intelligence of this girl seemed in many ways to delineate for me the black and white verities of an inchoate religion riddled with contradictions and riven by internal feuds over just how to define itself.

Ironically, provocative parallels exist between the ideology of the today's advocate of Islamic extremism and that of the moral relativist, with many of the so-called extremists often adopting an authoritative and yet cavalier attitude towards their own religion by cherry-picking what they themselves consider to be inerrant passages from the Sunnah and Hadith.

But while Islam struggles on how to define itself, the West has found themselves struggling as well, struggling to define Islam and Muslims by hastily adopting the terms "moderate" and "extremist" in what history might one day recognize as nothing more than a sophomoric attempt to differentiate the good Muslim from the bad Muslim. Despite their ambiguity, these divisive, imprecise and superficial terms have nonetheless become the lexicon of a post 9/11 world. There is an inherent power in words, often times we fail to understand exactly just how powerful communication is, and in a increasingly globalized world we need to not only be conscious of not just what we say, but in how our communication is interpreted, perceived and ultimately understood. In a recent post, I would attempt to delve deeper into the subject and it is worth reading.

We are engaged in a ideological struggle with a human anamoly, not so much an extremist, but with an anachronism who has found themselves perpetually trapped in time and sentenced in their own minds to pace a "trodden path" for eternity. An anachronism who can only achieve victory by turning back the hands of time. Our allies are not moderates willing to subject themselves to this regression in any measure of the term, and to call them such is nothing more than a travesty. They are contemporaries, contemporary Muslims not moderates.

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Britain's Judicial Legacy in Southeast Asia

For many, the use of corporal punishment in Southeast Asia represents a clash of civilizations between Asian values and an ever changing view of what defines human rights that is all too common in liberal western cultures. Ironically though, the use of corporal punishment in Southeast Asia today has it's origins in British Common Law. It's an anachronism alright, it's just not Islamic.

When the Straits Settlements, comprising the three predominantly Chinese-populated port cities of Singapore, Melaka (Malacca) and Penang (George Town), was formed as a British colony in 1826, the criminal law of England was applied. Corporal punishment was imposed for such offenses as begging, pornography, treason, garroting, and robbery with violence.

In 1871, the common law was replaced with the Straits Settlements Penal Code Ordinance IV. It was based on the Indian Penal Code, which had been enacted in 1860 to unify the criminal laws of the various provinces in India.

Offenses punishable by whipping in the Penal Code were robbery, aggravated forms of theft, house trespass or house breaking, assault with intent to outrage modesty, and a second or subsequent offense of rape, or a second or subsequent offense relating to prostitution or living on or trading in prostitution.

This list of "whipping offenses" is broadly similar to that of England and Wales at the time.

Corporal punishment as a judicial penalty was abolished in England, Wales and Scotland in 1948, and in India in 1955. In all parts of Malaya, however, as in Hong Kong, caning has been retained as a primary penal sanction.

The six minute video entitled "Malaysian Caning Judicial Corporal Punishment" along with photos can be seen here.

My rough translation of the video is as follows:

Officer: Your number and full name.

Convict: 93245

Convict: Azman Bin Hassan

Officer: Azman, You are in jail for 10 years (5 years) and 20 strokes. Understand?

Officer: So this morning we are to give you 20 strokes. Do you understand?

Convict: Yes I Understand.

Officer: Turn around

Officer: "Dua Puluh Kali Se Batang!" -- 20 strokes of the cane

The rest is simply counting the strokes and is pretty much self-explanatory

It should be noted though that corporal punishment is carried out every day in the United Kingdom and throughout the United States -- the only difference is that outside of Southeast Asia, it is administered by lawless thugs and yobs to the old, the weak, and those who are helpless to fight back.

And on that note, Malaysia's Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow was justified in saying:

"Let's not be hypocritical about this. Look at the harm done to victims of drug pushers and drug users, and the increase in violent crime ... We must show more concern to the victims than to the convicts."

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America: Eyes Wide Shut on Muslim Integration

A recent report entitled "Muslim Integration Crucial to US" released Tuesday that was sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, says that greater U.S. Muslim involvement in the public square is crucial to the nation's security and well-being, and that Muslims are largely responsible for finding ways to make themselves heard.

The bulk of the report however tends to focus on the government and the media's responsibility and role in indoctrinating Americans about the positive aspects of Islam. What should alarm and concern Americans is that the report calls for numerous interventionist policies on behalf of the government that are clearly authoritarian in nature and go against our nation's principles. Needless to say, many of the interventionist policies called for in the report would require to the "assistance" of foreign funded organizations such as to CAIR.

Remember the "cultural sensitivity training", well the report thinks that Americans need more of it. The report also calls for more public statements by senior officials praising the glories of Islam and the Muslims in America and that pesky freedom of speech and the independent media, well they need to be taught "to eliminate or clarify language that conflates Islam or Muslims with fascism or terrorism" and while they are at it, they can "support the training of more Muslim American journalists".

The most heinous aspect of this report however is the implication and thinly veiled threat of what might possibly happen should the government and nation fail to implement the recommendations called for.

"The gathering climate of suspicion and mutual mistrust, exacerbated by the lack of engagement and dialogue, threatens to marginalize and alienate some Muslim Americans to the point where the danger of radicalization of a small minority could become a real possibility," the report says. "It would take only a single, significant act of terrorism in the United States involving Muslim Americans to cement the impression that rampant radicalism has taken root within the community."

Having read the report published by the "Chicago Council on Global Affairs" in it's entirety, I have have filed it under Bravo Sierra where it rightly belongs. I believe there is a better way that does not place an emphasis on the indoctrination of the American people or the placing of Muslim Americans in prominent positions of authority based on their religious beliefs instead of their qualifications.

Having spent the better part of twenty years in Southeast Asia, I have become well versed over the years on multiculturalism and diversity well before it became all the rage in America. Living in such an environment and experiencing it all firsthand as an American gives a clear perspective of what we are up against. It is that "on the ground" experience of mine that I would like to share and that I hope adds to the debate in America.

"Multiculturalism and diversity here are often heralded as the primary catalyst for development, growth and ingenuity both here and abroad. What many in the West fail to understand is that this perceived Utopian society that many in the West wish to emulate would never function without the authoritative measures needed to constantly behind the scenes defuse all the ethnic and religious time bombs present in such a multicultural society." ~ Multiculturalism versus Freedom

"Not unlike the countries in Southeast Asia, America and the West will seriously have to consider implementing further authoritative measures within our own societies in the near future to deal with the revanche of Islamic fundamentalism should we fail to address the political aspirations and aspects of Islam now." ~ The Crossing of the Rubicon

My conclusions were based on my experience and observations over here and that is that Western-Style Democracy combined with the multiculturalism over the "melting pot" approach is not conducive to Muslim integration.

Interestingly enough a speech given only Tuesday in Berlin and Singapore by Singapore's Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs would lend credence to and support my own conclusions. The speech is not only enlightening and interesting but full of euphemisms unique only to Singapore that require translation which I will be pleased to do in a follow-up to this post.

Further supportive, the decision of whether to support a melting-pot or multicultural approach has developed into an issue of much debate in the last year in both England and France. For example, the French and English governments are currently debating whether Islamic cultural practices and dress conflict with their attempts to form culturally unified countries.

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The Democrats Dilemma with Democracy

"Democrats today have a problem with democracy. We have lost our voice on the issue of promoting democracy abroad -- which means that what was once a core Democratic foreign policy idea is being ceded to the GOP." -- so writes Ronald D. Asmus in today's Washington Post.

The frustration and impotence expressed in Mr. Asmus' editorial on behalf of the nation's Democrats is understandable. What Mr. Asmus failed to grasp however is that the ideology held by the Democrats today has taken a sharp left turn since the days of John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech where Kennedy said "Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

The democrat leadership of today promotes an authoritarian government that will regulate and manage society through a cradle to grave agenda of redistributive caretaking, an imperfect society that is willing to abort innocent lives while sanctifying those of criminals and which undermines it's own principles by banning moral absolutes as politically incorrect.

These impetuous and rapid revolutions in values and principles combined with an ever growing dependency today on breakneck technology and globalization for economic progress is unsettling to most people overseas here in Southeast Asia and bewildering to many others.

The endless social engineering and the more recent tinkering with the basic foundations of civil society brought on by arbitrary governance has led many in Southeast Asia to question the merits of an American-style liberal democracy promoted by the Democrat leadership. The Asian-Style Democracy promoted by Singapore's Lee Kwan Yew has found new momentum in countries in Southeast Asia where political control is considered a necessity needed to provide social order during the disruptive period of economic development.

Further, the quality of America's Democrat leadership such as Hillary (Clinton Part 2 now with added Estrogen) and Obama (Half-black, Half-Muslim) has only strengthened the conviction of many in Southeast Asia that democracy and meritocracy are the desiderata of effective leadership as opposed to a popularity system designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

In closing, for a region that has experienced the horrors of of communism and totalitarianism firsthand, the path to socialism advocated by America's democrat leadership is not one that they are willing to take.

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The Making of an Al Qaeda Operative

On 11 September 2001, America came face to face with the reality of what 19 men could do by taking advantage of our nation's lack of resolve in enforcing our nation's immigration and visa policies. It would seem that in those six years we have learned nothing. Emboldened by our lack of resolve in enforcing our own nation's laws, the flood of illegal immigrants and invaders continues to this day unabated.

In my many years as an American citizen living overseas I have come across countless immigration scams designed to get foreign nationals in the United States. Many for the sole purpose of conducting criminal activity with much of it related to either drugs or prostitution. Many of the scams are quite sophisticated in nature, but what they all share in common is that they take advantage of loopholes and/or the lack of enforcement in our nation's own immigration policies to achieve their objectives.

The most common scams involve bogus marriages or various visa scams, such as the use of supporting documents from American companies or American owned businesses overseas that are used to obtain visas under false pretenses. It needs to be noted though that all of these scams, regardless of their type, require the assistance of American citizens. Without the assistance of compliant Americans none of these scams would ever come to fruition.

In the course of conducting business overseas, it is not uncommon at times for Americans and other Westerners to find themselves the recipients of various unsolicited offers and pleas of assistance in obtaining visas, and some might even find themselves induced into committing what they consider to be a victimless crime in the course of trying to help a foreigner get a visa to the United States. Being duped or induced though is one thing, but even more disturbing is that over the last several years, there seems to be a dangerously increasing number of Americans who have taken it upon themselves to justify their actions by viewing at our nation's laws through the 'lens of subjectivity'.

When our nation's own leadership chooses to embrace the subjectivity of arbitrary governance over the rule of law is it any wonder that a large portion of our own population might follow suite and come to their own conclusion that the rule of law implies with it no objectivity?

Rarely will our adversaries overseas masterminding the infiltration of our borders reveal their real intentions or the circumstances involving their human cargo and will instead attempt to gauge the patriotism of the individual by asking seemingly benign and innocuous questions like "Do you support Bush?" or if you agree with your nation's foreign policies. The purpose of this line of questioning is to determine whether or not you would be willing to betray your own country and the challenge for our adversaries is to see whether or not you can be duped into doing it unknowingly. If it's found that your ideological standing leans to the left and it is emotion and subjectivity view of the law rather than logic and reason which compels you, then the play on your sympathies begins in earnest. Needless to say, a moonbat suffering from "Bush Derangement Syndrome" who believes that 9/11 was an inside job and that the United States is the source of all the world's ills is a prime candidate overseas for this type of psychological subversion.

Two years ago I happened to meet a fellow American in a hotel lounge in Singapore. New to Southeast Asia, the poor fellow had discovered "oree-enul wimmin" and was now suffering from a particularly bad Thai strain of yellow fever. Anyone familiar with the pathology of this dreaded disease knows full well the high probability that you might end up going bankrupt before you finally manage to discover the cure. Sitting at the bar and drowning in his own lamentation, I offered to buy Steve a beer. The advanced stages of yellow fever had taken their toll on Steve and despite the fact that he had lost his wife back home, he was still upbeat and told me how the month before he had made US30,000 just by helping a few Pakistani guys get some visas so they could travel overseas to inspect some textile machinery.

When I asked Steve why these guys didn't get their own visas and why they were willing to pay him for his help he jumped and went into a long winded rant about George Bush, Guantanamo, racism and that "9/11 thing". Over another beer, Steve would ask me if I saw the movie Fahrenheit 911 and then proceeded to explain to me how Bush and Blair were bombing non-white countries. These people that Steve was helping were honest businessmen who had been victimized by the foreign policies of Bush and Blair, their only crime according to Steve was that they were non-white. It was no point arguing with Steve, he had convinced himself that his actions were not only moral but justified.

Over the next few months, I would come to learn that Steve had become much more than just a "useful idiot", he became an instrumental player in something much more insidious, a highly sophisticated human smuggling ring with terrorist connections in Pakistan and a web that extends from Southeast Asia and the Middle East to Central and South America.

My attempts later to bring information regarding this human smuggling network to the attention of State department officials in the region would be met with disdain and indifference. One official told me point blank "That is not within our jurisdiction, there is nothing we can do.", a visit to our embassy would have me subjected to a body search and "vetted out" by a haughty pimply faced twenty something "security official" in country for no more than three months who was more concerned with my motives than with the information I held. In fact, he wasn't concerned or even interested in the information at all. Disgusted and humiliated, I left without saying anything and wondered to myself why the hell I had even bothered to take time off from work.

That same year, Pakistanis would represent a staggering figure of over 50% of the individuals caught at our border who came from nations where terrorism thrives. A total of 101 Pakistanis would be caught by border patrol agents attempting to cross our southern border from Mexico. And that is just the ones we caught. Estimates are that only ten percent ever caught putting the figure who managed to infiltrate our border in one year alone at over 1000 Pakistanis.

Al Qaeda and the world know fully well of our porous land border and the lack of resolve we have in securing it and our day of reckoning is coming soon. This time around we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

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Gates Misguided On The Roots of Terrorism

Last week in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was asked point blank whether or not the United States and it's partners were winning in global war on terrorism. Gates chose not to answer and stated "I think we are still early in this contest". Citing progress made in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Gates then went on to say,

"On the negative side of the ledger, I think we have not made enough progress in trying to address some of the root causes of terrorism in some of these societies, whether it is economic deprivation or despotism that leads to alienation."

Robert Gates would moments later in the conference contradict his own analysis by saying:

"One of the disturbing things about many of the terrorists that have been caught is that these are not ignorant, poor people," he said. "These are educated people, often from professional families. So dealing with poverty and those issues is not going to eliminate the problem, but it certainly can reduce the pool of people prepared to give their lives for this cause."

Despite the fact that it fails to fit the data model, Gates contradicts his first statement and then seems to drift towards the opinion that somehow only the poverty stricken are willing to give their lives for their cause. Gates is not alone is his confusion and his propensity to indentify poverty as one of the root causes of terrorism. Former CIA director Bill Christison and various other State Department officials have been equally misguided into believing that poverty lies in the root causes of terrorism. Ironically, the authoritative governments of many of these countries are the ones misguiding our own nation's officals on how to combat terrorism.

Since 9/11 Americans have been completely overwhelmed with the desire to indentify the "root causes" of Islamic terrorism in a futile effort to somehow be able to explain the inexplicable. An inability to explain why affluent and educated young men from Saudi Arabia would sacrifice their own lives to kill thousands leads fuels this desperation and then leads us to the next question that Americans feel compelled to ask themselves "Why do they hate us?".

Seemingly oblivious to our own patronization of our adversaries, we carefully avoid the real sources and blame it on the usual suspects of "poverty," "injustice," "exploitation," and "frustration", and in a bizarre twist of fate, we ironically make our adversaries out to be the victims and ourselves to be the aggressors which does nothing but further fuel the anger.

It is power that forms the roots of terrorism and not poverty.

The source of their anger stems from a dualistic view of the world supported not so much by their religion but by the political ideology that it encompasses. Effectively combatting Islamic terrorism would require us to filet the political aspirations from it's host religion. The reality that we are confronted with however is that is that the parasite cannot be killed without killing the host. The aspects and dynamics of Islam whether they be political, religious or social are all conterminous and it is this symbiotic relationship that the West continuously fails to understand by thinking that one element supported by us, namely the political element can somehow effectively control and subdue the others. It's simply not possible.

A clear example of this is the nation of Pakistan. Since 9/11 Pakistan has received billions in financial aid which has done absolutely nothing to stem the growth of religious extremism. In fact, the billions in aid have actually contributed to the rapid growth of extremism in the country. Read carefully what Pervez Musharraf had to say only a few months ago when he threatened the West and ask yourself "Is this country really our ally?". There is a saying "Blood is thicker than water".

The only solution in defeating Islamic extremism therefore is not to embrace and nourish the host, but to isolate and starve it. In the end one will kill off the other and we'll be left with a single adversary. One that does not hide behind a nation or a government's veil of legitimacy.

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The Asian Secret to Longevity

While many of here in Asia were content to leave the rest of the world thinking that eating a diet of raw fish was the Asian secret to longevity, the guys at Asiapundit had to go an spill the beans.

Forget the raw fish, green tea and Ginkgo nuts and while you are at it, you can ditch that old copy of Time Magazine, as well. The real secret is now out!

The Asian secret to longevity is looking at photos of hot Asian and Latin women.

"Huang Chunyi, a 94-year-old from China's Taiwan Province, says looking at photos of beautiful women every day is the secret to his longevity..." Some of Huang Chuny's favorites are Cameron Diaz, Penélope Cruz and Taiwan model Chiling Lin. The original China Daily story here.

You might be familar with Cameron Diaz and Penélope Cruz well here is a photo of Chiling Lin.

You realize of course that this post was going to be useless without photos. Enjoy!
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America's Deadly Dance with Diversity

Mr. Lim picked me up at Changi Airport, that afternoon when I first arrived into Singapore and as soon as I was in the car, we exchanged greetings and were then off to see customers. It would be a long day, I wouldn't have time to check into my hotel on Scotts Road until almost 7pm that night. I checked into my room and then joined Lim downstairs at the Treetops lounge for a few drinks before going to bed.

The next day was Friday and another full work schedule from morning until evening. After our last appointment we headed to back to our office in Singapore so that I could send a telex back to Houston giving a full report on the day's events. Ahhh... finally finished. The next morning we had three more appointments but for now we had a night off.

When we got back to the hotel, Lim and a few other collegues including Mr. Chew Kok were waiting at the Treetops lounge and I was informed that we had a full evenings activities scheduled. After a few jugs of beer, we were off for more Tiger beer and chili crabs at a restaurant along the East Coast, after dinner and copious amounts of beer, we were off the karaoke lounge where I belted out my best rendition of "Green Green Grass of Home" while a young demure "guest relations officer" fed me peanuts with one hand and and gave me a raging erection with the other hand by gently stroking the inside of my thigh. Stumbling out of the karaoke lounge we were off to what I was told was the requisite visit to Geylang. Geylang was not exactly my cup of tea. I'm not sure what it was at this point, either the thick smell of Chinese incence that can be found in all of these Chinese flop houses or the garlicky breath of number 16 that turned me off, but I politely informed my hosts that I was not interested. Distraught, my hosts rushed me into one of the "health centres" at a 5-star hotel where I obliged and settled for a half-hearted massage followed up with a hygienic handjob from a bubblegum chewing college student.

I would leave Singapore another two weeks later and as the plane lifted off I was amazed at how a country that had banned Playboy magazine could be so sexually liberated beyond anything I could possibly have imagined. It would be several years later before I had a full understanding of the culture differences in play and how my initial perceptions on Singapore's sexual liberation were clouded.

A few months later, I learned that one of my collegues from Singapore would be visiting the United States for the first time. My boss asked to me to make all the arrangements for Mr. Lim and take care of him during his visit. Prior to Mr. Lim's arrival, I made all the arrangements for his visit, I arranged his hotel, his business schedule for the week and tried my best to arrange a few extracurricular activties for the evenings in an attempt to repay the favor for the hospitality that I had received during my previous business visits to Singapore.

Mr. Lim would call me one night a week before his arrival, excited about his first trip to the United States and asked me to arrange a girl with blond hair and blue eyes for him to "meet". The call left me a bit frustrated, The entertainment for men was nothing like the entertainment in Singapore as far as I knew. The best option I could think of was to take Mr. Lim to one of Houston's gentlemen's clubs where he could enjoy a twenty dollar lap dance sans the "happy ending".

Options for Lim's "happy ending" were basically limited, as far as I knew there were no "health centers" in the major hotels that offered a massage and a handjob from a blue-eyed blond college student nor were there any karaoke joints that I was familar with. Oh of course there were a few karaoke joints over on the Southwest side of town run by the Koreans and Japanese, but Lim wanted an "American experience" and he would not have been interested in buying a bottle of Chivas for US350 and having a creepy 40 year old Korean vamp licking his earlobes . I also had no idea where to arrange a prostitute. The only prostitutes I had ever seen were the nappy headed hos wearing neon tube tops and mini skirts who often trawled Telephone road in the evenings looking for "dates" and needless to say, this would not have suited Lim's expectations of bagging that All-American girl.

In the end, I explained to Lim that America was not like the East. I told him I would be happy to take him out for drinks someplace but as far as arranging women went, that he would be on his own. Lim's reaction was a bit puzzled, he found it hard to believe that the United States could be so prude after all that he had read about America and what he had seen on television and in the movies. How could a country that had introduced Playboy and Hustler magazine to the world be so straightlaced when it came to sex?

Thinking back, it is perhaps what I didn't tell Lim that played the most importance. The truth is that American women didn't really find someone like Lim attractive and for the most part Asian men don't have much success with Western women. Lim like many Asians had the typical features that many Western women find totally unattractive in a man. A small framed, hairless and effeminate body with slanted eyes.

I introduced Lim to a few attractive women at one of Houston's gentleman's clubs who were pleasant and nice, but made it painfully clear that Lim wasn't exactly their type. After a few drinks, I noticed Lim becoming angry and frustrated that the women would not respond to his overtures and it didn't help when women laughed at him. As Lim's expectations met with reality, I tried my best to calm him down and told him that maybe he was just trying to hard. The truth was something I couldn't bear to tell Lim.

The contrast was almost comical, Lim was "dorky, timid and pushy" and no match for a liberated and sexually confident woman and his 'charm' needless to say was going no where.

It has been twenty years now since I first came to Asia and interestingly enough, it was the tragedy at Virginia Tech and Cho Seung-Hui that caused me to recollect my first experiences in Asia and the culture shock and the cultural differences that I faced at that time.

In the aftermath of this terrible tragedy, the authorities and the media ever ignorant of Occam's razor will continue their mental masturbation by investigating only what the dictates of political correctness allow them to investigate.

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The Pussification of a Nation

The other night I was invited to a stand up comedy routine here in Malaysia by a local artist named Jit Murad. I enjoyed the show quite a lot and in fact, standup comedy is one of the things that I sorely miss from the United States in my many years of living over here.

In the past there has not been much standup comedy here, and that is because nine times out of ten, someone is going to be offended and in a country like Malaysia or Singapore, offending the wrong person can quickly result in you being out of business or worse. I'll leave it to you imagination as to what the "worse" can be, but what you can be assured of is that both you life and your livelihood will be destroyed in the process.

Jit Murad is really a funny guy and brave one as well. An equal opportunity offender, he didn't spare anyone with his jokes. He made fun not only of the government, but of the Malays, the Chinese and Indians here. Jit is a Malay and interestingly enough, he received no backlash for his jokes about the other races. You see, Jit might be a Malay, but more importantly he is a Malaysian.

After the performance, I started thinking about how things are changing in the United States, how comedy seems to be changing, almost as if it is coming to the point where very little is funny anymore. How would the standup routines of Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy be received today?

Comedy in the United States is restricted based on what color your skin is. You see, only black people can make jokes about black people. If a white person attempts to make a joke about black people, he is automatically labeled a racist and more. But it wasn't always like that, years ago Joe Piscopo poked fun at Stevie Wonder on Saturday Night Live. I can't imagine that happening today.

There was a time when freedom of speech meant just that, you had freedom to say whatever you wanted as long as you didn't endanger the life of someone (Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theatre). There was no such thing as a "right to not be offended".

Now "being offended" seems to be growing into a big business in the United States, but the day is coming soon when Americans will come to realize that it will be impossible to protect a million special interest groups from being offended.

In many ways, America the self-proclaimed vanguard of freedom of speech seems to be becoming more and more like many authoritative countries such as Malaysia and Singapore with regards to freedom of speech.

It has been said that one never values freedom until they lose it.

Jit Murad and many others can tell you that once you lose the freedom, it is a lot harder to regain it.

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Hu is watching Yu

"In the ramifications of party doctrine she had not the faintest interest. Whenever he began to talk of the principles of Ingsoc, doublethink, the mutability of the past, and the denial of objective reality, and to use Newspeak words, she became bored and confused and said that she never paid any attention to that kind of thing. One knew that it was all rubbish, so why let oneself be worried by it? She knew when to cheer and when to boo, and that was all one needed."

George Orwell: 1984 ~ Part 2 - Chapter 5

All in the interest of "Letting the Winds of a Civilized Internet Blow", it could be said that perhaps the Chinese in China and Singapore must really enjoy getting it up the yingyang considering that the majority would not resist their government's efforts inducing them to spy on each other.

While this might be something we have come to expect from China where one might have to forfeit a kidney for listening to the wrong radio station, it is something that many of us thought Singapore was starting to rise above. In Singapore you get to keep your kidney and just forfeit your wallet instead.

The leadership of Singapore like to refer to their form of government by using the the euphemism "asian-style democracy". However, the idea of a government restricting freedom of speech and inducing or promoting it's citizens to spy on each other is not representative of a free democratic society respectful of human rights, rather it is the staple of an authoritative and at times totalitarian regime who is unwilling to embrace the principles of freedom or liberty.

Having failed to make the transition to a free democracy, the nation-state of Singapore it would seem has become nothing more than the epitome of the Kafkaesque nightmare.

And so as Hu watches Yu and Singapore continues to clamp down on freedom, we're left to ask ourselves whatever happened to "letting one thousand flowers bloom"?

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Multiculturalism versus Freedom

In the last few years both multiculturism and diversity have been all the rage in America, a deceptive ideology of "tolerance" peddled by America's whiffle-brained leftists and Lenin-loving Democrats.

This ongoing orgy of multiculturism and diversity at the expense of assimilation, equal rights and integration in the United States has given birth to Orwellian concepts like "corporate sensitivity training classes", and have led us to an era where our freedom is kept in check through the advent and implementation of both "thought and hate" crimes.

If you needed any proof that both multiculturism and diversity are in actuality nothing more than a pernicious form of relativism that culminates ironically into a new form of intolerance, an intolerance to both freedom and democracy, then you need to look no farther than the following thread of a Malaysian blogger "KennySia" who's post poking fun at political correctness in the United States backfired in a way he might not have ever imagined.

The thread starts off innocuous enough but then degenerates quite rapidly as the usual suspects in a multicultural and diverse society chime in, the appeasers, defenders, enforcers, reporters and of course, the offended victim or victims. In a post that follows entitled "Tolerance", Kenny then bravely attempts to explain his position, hoping that it might sooth and perhaps appease the supposed indignity of his adversaries. Only time will tell.

Many in the West in recent years have been enamoured and envious of the social stabilty and economic growth rates exhibited by countries in Southeast Asia such as Malaysia and Singapore. Multiculturism and diversity here are often heralded as the primary catalyst for development, growth and ingenuity both here and abroad. What many in the West fail to understand that is that this perceived utopian society that many in the West wish to emulate would never function without the authoritative measures needed to constantly behind the scenes defuse all the ethnic and religious timebombs present in such a multicultural society.

To maintain order and to ensure steady economic growth, stability both social and political, many are seemingly willing to initially forgo civil liberties in return for safetly and stability. It is the safety and security of the nation that comes first before the individual. Countries such as Malaysia and Singapore prize stability and consensus while at the same time eschewing what they see as Western-style democracy which they claim has an emphasis on political conflict and debate.

Failing to the address the destructive doctrine of multiculturism and diversity in our own society, will eventually lead to our own demise and yet we continue to chart our own destiny.

A culture that values freedom and reason is good; one that values oppression, self-censorship and ignorance is not.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

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