Why it can only be very good, when a political party that has always been in power loses.

When a political outfit has been in power for a long time. Then its internal processes can only begin to calcify and eventually fossilize. Since all known resistance have been systematically crushed by the apparatus of the state. This political outfit will not experience any intellectual resistance. Without resistance, it will begin to degrade and grow flabby. The longer it is in this sedentary death zone, the more it will begin to mythologize its own origins along with legitimacy as to why it is to the common good of all that it and no other political party should be in power. Soon the hegemony of this political outfit will begin to ritualize their class politics and they might even develop a mentality of entitlement where they actually believe they have every right to high salaries, despite failing to show any compelling reason why they should deserve such consideration from hardworking taxpayers….but when a political outfit loses power. Then it can only transform from a flabby fatso into a very lean and mean machine. Since parvenus, carpetbaggers and good for nothings will not be able to bear the uncertainty of being out of power…they can only resign from politics. This condition of stress will weed out the men from the boys leaving only very serious men who are not afraid of either uncertainty or hardship. And since the political party that has unseated them will sue and put many of the displace politicians in power. Those that do not commit suicide in jail can only develop high risking taking appetite and a durable can do spirit……with such quality of men in power…a country can only become very strong, prosperous and great.

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‘No one just becomes strong! No one. So now that you know this…you know that to be strong is very unnatural. As most people are very comfortable and that means they are experiencing a sort of death in very small increments daily. That is why you must constantly be skeptical especially when funny people tell you they are the best that money can buy…chances are…they’re getting high on their own kool aid.

To be strong and capable one must be constantly threatened with the real and present threat of extinction! This is true of people, firms and even countries.

For example. People who are spoilt rotten by their rich and guilt ridden parents invariably end up as crazy rich Asians. They take to drugs like fish to water. That is because everything has come too easy for them. There’s no motivation to improve. They never have to be on toes when the water was rising. That incidentally is also the very same reason why you dont see half of the firms in the fortune 500 ten years ago. They have all died off because at some point in their life cycle instead of progressing they regressed and one reason why the tide turned the other way was because they lulled themselves into flabbiness and complacency.

If you look at Israel they are at the very top of the survival game. That is because all their neighbors want nothing better than to drive them to the sea! British MP’s rarely have to issue ‘my words were taken out of context’ to the press corps. As Westminster is perhaps the most open quorum in the world and their MP’s are forced to be prolific orators. Speaking well is not optional, its de riguer and jugular survival skill!

Just as all well respected and accomplished planters without exception first started off planting on land that everyone considered impossible to sustain agriculture. Usually they are forced into this…as land that no one wants is cheap. But thru their travails, these planters gain arcanum. Either that or they have to eat their shoes!

My point is there are no safety nets!

Skill of arms do not develop out of nothing or in a situational vacuum. Often if they come about it is a function or response to a real and imminent threat…..Like Africans say, one should always be mindful of men who have alot of deep scars.’

Peace talk

Tomorrow is my first round of ‘peace talks’ with the consortium of landowners. I already know what their agenda is…as I have a reliable spy in their camp.

Come tomorrow….they will be there at eight sharp…but I will not be there….I’ve gone fishing.

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Dogs & Kids

Tomato base spaghetti

I am still researching this recipe. As it is, I can make it and it is flavorful. The problem is I am not able to reproduce this dish with a high level of consistency. I still need time to figure out what’s missing….once I have sorted it out…I will post the recipe.

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Woman told me – when I find a man…I will be happy.

I told this woman that she can meet the best man in the world and yet she will never truly be happy….as providing you NEED someone else to make you complete….and since that need can never be satisfactorily fulfilled, not even by the best man in this world….you will always be craving and yearning for the unfulfilled.

The only person who can make you happy is YOURSELF! It all starts and end there.

One should always develop the wisdom to discover happiness and fulfillment in oneself BEFORE trying to find it others.

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‘If you examine very carefully the life of weighty men. You will find they all without exception embody one characteristic. They can all stand alone. That is to say they are not afraid of loneliness and being lonely is always their default position. You will never find weighty men clumping around the water cooler with other insecure souls gossiping and wasting their time. You will never find them indulging in silly things like trying to say and do things to seek the approval, respect and love of others. Instead they will always go their own way and this is why, these category of men can at times come across as proud and arrogant and insensitive.

As even if they are with another person who shares their life…they are still very much part of loneliness. As elementally they were all forged in furnace loneliness. Always remember loneliness is their default position…because only in this domain where angels fear to thread is the road to self discovery.

You can never complete such a man or woman because even before you came into this person’s life he is already complete and he or she requires absolutely nothing from you….because this person is not searching for anything you might have to complete him or her. As I said, he or she is already complete and even if you are with this person. You will sense a deep under current of loneliness in this person….as that is their natural rest point – it is these type of person that you should aspire to be BEFORE searching for your mate and if you are such a person…you should restrict your search for a mate to only these type of people as well.

The people which you must be careful of are those who are fearful of loneliness. Fear compels them to search for people who they believe will complete their incomplete lives….so in their mind. They already have a shopping list, a story comprising of what they believe can and will make them happy and fulfilled and since this list is in the external realm…in the hands of someone else…it is not something that they can search and cultivate within themselves.

These are very dangerous people to themselves and those who are unfortunate enough to be associated with them. As since they are always searching externally and not internally for happiness and fulfillment…they can only be disappointed and suffer.

Even should they discover happiness it will only be chimeric and fleeting as it is not grounded on a solid foundation of sustainability.

Many people do not know this. This is why they get married only to discover a big fat nothing and end up divorcing and blaming the other person for destroying their life. This is why the divorce rate is so high in Singapore.

Know only this. No one can make you happy and complete in this world and even if there exist such a person. It may not be wise to give another such overwhelming powers over you….only you can make yourself sad or happy.

To know the truth is to accept full responsibility for your life and mental well being. Many do not want to accept the truth. Because they are addicted to playing the victim. Playing the victim buys them sympathy votes. Playing the victim shifts the blame to others be it governments to everything ranging from global warming to imagined enemies.

But by playing victim these denialist do not realise they have inadvertently empowered their oppressors by breathing life into a lifeless statute!

I am responsible for my own welfare.

I am completely responsible for both my happiness and sadness.

I never once gave any person least of all Jane or government any dominion over my life! The moment people make it impossible for me to turn the wheel of life here. I will get on my bike and head off to the Ukraine and present my passport to the ministry of agriculture and livestock. They will all be so happy that they will declare a public holiday. As over there they know the difference between real and fake jobs…they know the difference between people who are just fudging around and serious men who can put in a hard day’s labor seven days a week and go right back to do the same the week after. So they dont want stock brokers…farmers on the otherhand are good to go and I happen to be an iron cross with oak leaves and diamonds farmer…I will get the super deluxe treatment, they will give me prime land. Or I will go elsewhere. May even give me a round quiet woman who can cook and fix the tractor. Over there I will grow wheat. If not there North Korea. I can grow sorghum over there and make decent hooch on the side. Over in those countries people venerate farmers. They’re heroes.

My point is I will never ever just give anyone or institution power over my life…it is all in the palm of my hands…it has always been only there.’

First move…

My first move is to demand for the eastern portion of lands that border my own lands. When the rest of the landowners asked why I should have a right to these lands….I told them all…it is only natural and right that I should have the right to farm these lands.

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‘It is very natural for a bunch of insecure folk to gang up inorder to write the rules of how to play the game of life. This is because they are too weak minded to stand alone and by forming into a gang it is the lazy boy’s way to monopolize power and to exercise control over others along with bullying them.

When faced with such a situation.

Never respond aggresively. Never fight directly. Instead allow your enemies to believe they are in absolute and total control. Feign submission wherever possible….and bide for time.

Meanwhile secretly degrade your enemies ability to exercise command and control. Ensure three operational criterias are in place – it is expensive to command and control, labor intensive in terms of men and material and where possible force your enemy to plough resources in maintaining this iron curtain. Try to make so much trouble that this survelliance structure can only grow and grow like a monster organization.

Once you see divisions and arguments brewing in the enemy camp. Make your move when they are distracted and weak.’

Pissing off China is a big big mistake for the new Malaysia

It’s always a big mistake to piss off the closest superpower in the neighborhood.

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‘There can be no such thing as an uneventful ascent of China. To expect it is simply to be unhinged from reality. Whenever a new superpower emerges it will always be tumultous, controversial and in some cases violent.

What holds back the new Malaysia from being really new & improved…

It is not policies…if that were really the case. All that needs to be done is plan and roll out thoughtful policies and this would be sufficient to effect change that can produce good for people and country.

The biggest constraint that Malaysia faces is the attitude and outlooks of SOME people.

Unfortunately so many of these narrow minded, parochial and insular thinkers populated virtually every sector of Malaysian life making it virtually impossible to effect real and meaningful change.

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‘We all like to believe change comes from outside us. That is why whenever we are in a fix. We blame everyone except ourselves. Some peole like to blame politicians. Others like me much prefer to point the crooked finger at the abstraction of global warming….price of veggies going up! Global warming. Stock market heading south….global warming so more. Cannot shit also global warming.

But I thought long and hard over this matter of how do things really change…where does it all begin and where is it most meaningful?

At the end of years of research and obervations….I find real change can only come from the individual level.

It is pointless to talk about macro level changes when the raw material is not able to translate theory into reality.

The catalyst for real and meaningful change begins with the individual and at this personal level the agent for change works itself out from the person to the broader world at large.’

Why life cannot be just about winners like Atomic dog and ‘losers’ like autistic Rufus

In a world that constantly tells us all to treat those who appear weak and helpless as loss causes and to only fix our eyes on winners….it’s easy to put all our hopes and aspirations on winner dogs. That is why I have decided to call him Atomic dog. As everyone who has seen him has recounted to me that this is no ordinary Dobermann pup. Even at a young tender age, Atomic dog has begun to stake out his own turf…a sure sign of an alpha dog that has all the inbreed qualities of a natural leader.

While seeming ‘loser’ autistic dogs like Rufus seems to do very little everyday except to provoke comments from onlookers like ‘such a pity that he’s a weirdo as he looks so normal.’ To which Rufus can only respond with a mix of blankness and terminal indifference.

Atomic dog is purposeful. Rufus likes to cry no reason in the dark…..so much so that I have to let him in to calm him down. Atomic dog looks like one of those promising canines that can be groomed as a personal protection dog. Rufus on the otherhand just stands on my spot the whole transfixed on things that only he and he alone knows and cares about.

But despite the collective wisdom that says we should only rightly spend money on those who hold out promise, true practitioners of those who know how to lead a purpose driven life do the opposite. … They do this because in life it is not always about winning or trying to be the best all the time that matters all the time. Rather it is only when we invest in the knowledge to empower the weakest amongst us to wins in his or her own way, that we can really be real winners and claim to be the best.

People who leave others behind….they will always be losers even if they seem to win and insist they are the best.

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‘In the frontier it is not easy to hold on to one’s humanity. It only seems easy. But since you will experience first hand how wantonly fleeting life can be in the wild. And how only the strong reliably survive and the weak perish as they do under the aegis of the law of the jungle. Soon one can only become hard and implacable…this is how a man’s heart turns to stone.

And what is the use of having all the riches and influence in this world…when one’s own heart is so devoid of all humanity and empathy that it is like a desert? Might as well be poor and destitute and with a heart….that would at least make you more of a human.

So when we see life in those terms – winning cannot be an end by itself…it is only a means to an end. As the real goal in life is to craft a better person and its conceivable to connect and nourish our sense of what it means to be human…we have even do things which seem to take us away from winning. Such as slowing down so that the weakest climber can keep up, carrying part of his gear so that he can keep the pace…all these are the anti thesis of winning and being the best, but it is the raw material that keeps us gainfully human.

If I harbor such a thing as regret…it is that many today see me as a ruthless man. Even should I donate millions to schools and charities. They will still whisper behind my back…that man once did this and that…his heart is like a mountain of granite…he only knows revenge and delights in war. In the past. I took exceptional pride in pinning the blame on society for making me who I am…..if you all had given me one morsel of fairness and justice….I would never take up arms against you!….. But at some point I dont think it is possible for any man to run away from the truth.

Maybe if I had been less insistent that I was right…less opinionated….less of a bastard. Maybe people would see today me as a softer and more approachable fellow.’

What has raising an autistic dog & the movie Arrival have in common?

Rufus is a beautiful dog…..you just need a bit of time and patience and imagination to come to this realization.

In this planet that we all inhabit. Not everyone or for that matter canine is the same as anyone or any dog. People can say what they want….that’s their right. They can say so and so is like this or that. Or they can even declare this breed has this or that characteristics and temprament….but who really knows for sure? Definitely not the so called experts….that’s for sure.

At the end of the day it all comes down to how YOU choose to fellowship with those who may be different from you….only dont be surprised if at the end of that long journey…providing you have the wisdom, sagacity and patience to bear it out. You’ll realize that – you are not so different from them.

We all live, work and play in this planet….we are one….that may seem straightfoward. But unfortunately, it isnt.

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‘Maybe its not poignant to you…but to me, it certainly was…the moment in the sci fi movie Arrival. When the main protagonist. Dr. Louise Banks recounts to her daughter why she got divorced.

“He said I made the wrong choice,”

I guess what I am trying to say in a round about way is that is exactly what every parent who has to raise an autistic child says to him or herself. Privately. In the dark when the house resonates only with the sound of sleep…when there is no one looking or hearing.

“He said I made the wrong choice,”

As a child I once heard my parents saying the same thing….i remember the rustles of the leafs. The way the crimillion rays of light made wavy patterns on the dark brown kitchen tiles.

It’s an easy line to overlook.. especially when movies these days is laced with so much CGI and mind boggling plots and sub plots.

The viewer in the movie is taken thru the narrative not in a linear manner. Rather the story unfolds thru the jumble of past, present and future of Louise’s life experience.

“He said I made the wrong choice,’

Louise like the viewer is experiencing kooky time, like maybe what I term autistic time, because in her frevent efforts to connect the dots of alien language. She herself has to go thru a sort of mental reincarnation – where she can only see the world differently from everyone else…that if you notice is when she starts to piss off everyone. And that incidentally is also what happens when an autistic person tries to function in the ‘normal’ world. All that this person can do is provoke mistrust, anger and emnity…in very much the way the good intentions of the aliens are.

The movie Arrival was not a movie to me. It was a symbol of how much of me is so alien from everyone else that I often found myself identifying with the aliens and Dr Louise. I could understand the collective frustrations of wanting to understand the incomprehensible….about how exasperating language can be and above all how so much of what we…the human species terms as cooperations is predicated not on real deep spirited undetstanding. Rather its based on a collective assumption of what we all consider as normal, sane and reasonable.

It has been many many years since I recalled the words….he said, I made the wrong choice….in a sense like the main protagonist Dr Louise. If i had to do it again – i wouldn’t change a thing. I am glad Rufus the autistic dog came to my life. As I can only be gladden that throughout my life so many tried and failed to fit me into their square hole. I am not just taking a militant position against the world. No! Rather I accept it. The rapidity of others to judge and pigeon hole me etc etc. I bear no grudges against the world. None whatsoever. I absorb it all and it all goes thru me like a pane of glass. Just as I care very little whether world may understand Rufus or how we have so much fun together or how Rufus can only add and never actually subtract from the idea of living a purpose driven life. Like I said alot of time have passed under the bridge of time for me to make my peace with my condition and the world that is. Along with burying the memories of many cruel words and people who onced wished me dead.

But all that can never change the fact that since the moment of my youth. I have always believed that I have super powers.

I am after all…the greastest farmer who ever lived…..I can even plant strawberries on the moon given half a chance. I wish sometimes I can share my vision of farming with the masses….perhaps one day I will.

Sometimes one must believe…..especially when no one seems too….in a beautiful dog called Rufus that is.

The moral of the story is life can be beautiful even when it seems everything is wrong from the word go….humans can do this, see the good in bad, turn a curse into a blessing, truimph over adversity and even carve a sliver of heaven in a pile of shit! They can. Ants and armadillos cannot do this, but we humans can!’

Why not everyone is happy with the New Malaysia

There is much more to the whole business of statecraft, than just playing police and thief.

No one denies Najib & Co was corrupt and there were certainly wrongs that needed righting. But that endeavor is only a small part of what government is all about…again…I am afraid there is much more to the whole business of statecraft, than just playing police and thief.

There is the economic dimension – like what is the economic blueprint going to be? How is Malaysia going to continue to attract much needed foreign investment, when Mahathir seems to do very little except piss off the Chinese…there are so many questions that remain unanswered.

One year will go by very fast…another will follow and soon the day of reckoning will be on the doorstep of the new Malaysia.

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‘This is conceivable. Don’t discount it out right. Because I am putting money into your pocket. Keep an open mind. Ready? Here goes – few days ago. Someone asked me why did I say Anwar is going to be elected PM of Malaysia, but he is not going to be the acting PM. The short answer to that question is by the time Mahathir & Co has had his run of the new Malaysia. No one in their right frame of mind will want more of PH…especially Malaysians. Because st the rate PH is proceeding. All I can say is that it is causing alot of people to suffer high blood pressure. No one for example can figure out their economic blueprint. Why? Because the minister of finance seems to be confused about whether his role should be economic planning or playing the chief police. Neither does there seem to be a coherent strategy on how to grow with China. As a consequence there is a real possibility the Chinese will cool down and show less interest in the future of Malaysia.

You mark my words it is October 2018. In three years time if they (PH) still cant get their act together and keep on putting aside unpopular policies such as consumption tax along with putting an end to fuel subsidies…sure…Anwar will be the PM, but he will be voted out. As every Malaysian will clamour for the return of the old Malaysia. Either that or the whole country will just go to the dogs.

The reasons are very simple. The rakyat (populace) cannot fill their stomachs with democracy and human rights. They can only do so with sound and coherent planning and policies that empower the populace to put food on the family table.

As it is…its amatuer hour lah!’

Sardine olio spaghetti lashed with vintage Chenin Blanc

I’ve just finished a marathon harvest under exceptionally wet conditions. I just want to get out of my wet clothes, take a hot shower, cook myself something really fast yet delicious. Relax a bit. Drink a bit and maybe turn in early tonite.

This took me about fifteen minutes to whip up and polish off.

90% of the flavor comes from the combination of olive oil and garlic…slow flame, never rush it. Or the oil will burn and taste bitter.

Once the garlic are bronzed. Add in pitted olives, cashew nut halves, chili flakes etc stir fry.

Open up a can of sardines. Lash with just a dash of Chenin Blanc….turn up the heat to reduce wine sauce and grate some parmesan into the mix to thicken.

Chenin Blanc brings an added dimension of the seas and completes this dish marvellously.

Scale of 1 to 10. This is like seriously 9.5 deliciooous!

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The strategy of blowing hot & cold

One of my business rivals expressed a willingness to sell his land for an unusually high price. I informed my lawyers to gather all the details concerning the land. Everyone was deliberately led to believe that I had every intention to buy this plot of land despite the extraordinary high asking price.

The last communication with my lawyers are as follows.

Lawyer: ‘Are you open to further price negotiations concerning the purchase of the land?’

Prospective seller: The price I am asking is reasonable.

There after I asked my lawyers to terminate all discussions abruptly….what follows thereafter is only nothingness.

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‘The blow hot and cold strategy hardly requires any elaboration to those who may have experience in dating. Conventional advice suggest this strategy has something to do with being emotionally stunted and immature. But I assure you nothing can be further from the truth. As what else can account for its capacity to endure along with its regularity of usage? It certainly may be an infantile and even immature strategy. However what cannot be elided is this strategy has long been used as a reliable tool of seduction to spike attraction and desire.

In today’s modern dating culture, there are many people who may employ this strategy to improve their bargaining power.

I have experienced this first hand and can sympathize with many who have been victimized by how frustrating this strategy can be.

This is also why I find elements of this strategy to be particularly effective in business – as since it plays on the feelings of the victim, specifically holding out offers a glimmer of hope for happiness, pleasure and perhaps advantage. It can force the date to make rash and emotional decisions which a cool headed adversary will never do.

Admittedly this is not a category of strategy that is likely to work with the adept practioner of warcraft. But nonetheless it is a strategy that is worthy of mention – research and practice it.’

On the subject of pain

In my opinion the Buddhist have got it all wrong. Since they believe all suffering arises from craving and yearning. Their solution is to cut it off…in other words they are no better than clever denialist. Neither are the Christians any better either. As they like to say, I have left it all to him….But pray tell who is he? You may leave to him, but that again is just another clever way to run away from taking responsibility.

No! These ways that I have mentioned above cannot be the right way for one to live a purpose driven life.

First pain can never be obliterated by cleverly denying it’s exitence. For one to remain mentally and spiritually steady. The trick is not to try separating yourself from a pain because the more you dedicate yourself to that strategy – the more painful it can only be. Running away from pain produces fear, fighting pain with positive thinking is adding salt to pain, willing yourself into courage is being scared.

Only the empty mind. The mind that accepts and even has the wisdom to embrace and smile at pain and permit it to canal thru one even if it ravages is truly at peace with the idea of pain….yes life can at times produce incredible pain….but suffering when one knows this secret can be optional.

Tumeric curry chicken

In the frontier. Life is simple. The meaning of life is just to be alive. It is so plain and so obvious and so utterly simple. Paradoxically, one can only see it here – meanwhile everybody rushes frantically here and there as if it were necessary to achieve something beyond themselves…..the reason why man is disconnected from his being along with how to live a sustainable life is not because he is not intelligent. Rather it is because he does not use his intelligence in a purposeful way that is able to produce clarity of vision and thought. One reason for this is due in part to the ceaseless programming of what it means to be a man and woman in modern society. Society has imprinted many nonsensical goals and aspirations into the mind and heart of man. As a result he can do very little except mimic a moth charging into a naked flame….the irony is that man is the only animal that does all these destructive things to himself willingly with a cheerful heart.

He knows no better as that is what invariably happens when man is content to leave the thinking and planning to others.

‘Cooking to me is a form of therapy that if I am forced to sit down and define….I probably say it closely resembles meditation. Not that I know a whole lot about meditation. It is the process of cooking itself that I find intensely edifying and nourishing to my bones…the care and attention one takes at each stage of the cooking process. The attention to detail and above all how one doesnt even think about how it would all come around when its finished…will it be tasty…too spicy…or not salty enough. All these questions that step foward from the present or past matters very little in cooking. What is important is now. The present. The moment when you’re dicing the onions, dividing the chicken, mixing the spices…the lesson of cooking is this – take care of only the present and the future and past will fall nicely into its rightful place.’

Growing Pains

They’re identical twin girl pups. Because I have so many dogs. I usually name them after their most distinctive physical feature. Both have aerodynamic heads like rockets. So I have named one F-5 after a sharp nosed jet fighter and the other I call Sharpie.

Since they were born. They have been fighting. In the beginning it was cute and relatively harmless. As how much damage can one pup do to another. But as they grow up. Their weapons systems are developing correspondingly as well. Doberman’s possess formidable killing arsenals. They are lean and on short burst can sprint faster than even the most versatile cars in plantation roads. They have a strong and stubborn bite and usually their instinct is to go for either the back of the neck or the jugular.

I was hoping in the ongoing fight. One would relent and the alpha would emerge. This is how power and politics is conducted in the dog world. But unfortunately, they both seem to be equally matched and neither seems to be interested in playing second fiddle. These days when F5 and Sharpie fight, its bloody.

In a few more months when they proceed to full blown puberty, if they still cannot settle their differences….it is very likely one will die.

Meanwhile i have tied one of them up at the back and the other remains upfront.

We shall see what happens….maybe I will have to give one of the dogs away just to keep the peace.

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‘In a classical power struggle. There exist only two possible outcomes. A decisive win where one fights and lives and vanquishes the other. Or where one party decides to flee leaving only the victor who remains…..there exist a third category. That is detente.

To establish detente both sides must have the capacity to destroy or inflict significant damage on the other…..there remains no other to guarantee peace. Any other form of arrangement would only lead to aggresion and eventually an escalation of hostilities.

When I was a small landowner. I acquired the reputation of being known as the Bismarck. Although numerically disadvantaged against larger and better networked adversaries. It was well known to all that the dreaded pocket ship Bismarck could very well deliver a surprise death blow. To make up for my lack. I deployed the strategy of surprise…deception and disinformation. This steered my business rivals into a state of engineered attrition that eventually forced them into an expensive and debilitating arms race.

When they were sufficiently weakened. I would strike. This is the karma of the small. The small be it the small time businessman or a small state like Monaco, Singspore et al cannot be bovine and just be content to stick its head in the sand and proclaim – this is what I should only think about and as for what is beyond my borders it is a matter of profound indifference. Because what happens externally will affect the small dramatically. Dont believe me, then ask any small businessmen whether Trump’s sanctions have had a big effect on their profit margin. Go ask cho cho train Kwan boon Kong whether the HSR has affected thousands of small businesses and investors in and around Jurong east. Go!

So my point is by virtue of size this negates choice. And lack of such a thing as a choice is what must shape strategy and responses.

If one would be foolish to adopt a dogmatic approach like, non interference and neutrality. That doesnt mean larger actors will do the same. It simply means you have lulled yourself in the false belief that it is possible to bubble wrap yourself in lexicons. So either way I do not see non interference as a sustainable strategy any more than I can expected to be left in peace to turn the wheel of life.

No! The forces that be will never allow me to turn the wheel of life peacefully. If there exist such a commodity known as peace it was fought tooth and nail by the millimeter at great expense! No one ever gave me peace. No one offered me a morsel of their forebearance, sagacity and human decency…if they ever did that, it was because they knew I had the power to demand that consideration from them.’

Will Mahathir hand over the PM seat to Anwar?

Yes he will….but Anwar will still not be the effective Prime Minister of Malaysia.

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‘The political landscape in Malaysia is akin to the fluid dynamic phenomenon know as soil liquefaction – in sort it means everything has the latent capacity to turn into a giant belly dancing wobbly jelly.

Because this is what is actually happening – in the front end, the PH coalition is holding. But backstage there is fast and furious horse trading that even makes the illicit coffeebean market in Zanzibar during August look like a game of monopoly…..but the slight of hand will occur and those who can predict the outcome accurately will stand to win.

Those who do not see it coming will lose.

So hang on tight!’

I am a superdog…I am here to save the world!

Dog legend has it that a dog once fought with a wolf at the dawn of time. In this epic fight, no one succeeded. In tribute for the bravery of the dog….the wolf gave a white streak of bravery to the dog.

This is no ordinary pup….it is a super dog. The canine phrophecy has come true.

Sardine spaghetti olio with sardine, cashews, pitted olives, cheese

I was very busy in the field today. It was raining the whole day and I am soaked right down to my socks. After a hot shower I decided to make myself something light and nice.

Cut a whole clove of garlic into very small pieces. Fried it in olive oil. This is the most crucial part. As 90% of this dish comes from this stage. Its crucial. Because if it is under fried, it will taste raw and over frying will give it a burnt flavor….the way to judge it – is to be mindful, when it starts to brown around the edges of the garlic….that’s it….X marks the spot.

Then add in – Chopped tomatoes, small can of sardine in olive oil, crushed cashew nuts, canned pitted black olives, Parmesan cheese….once it was all fragrant. Dont lower the heat. As you want to lock in the flavors…its like frying char keuh teow….the whole dish should be whipped up in less than five minutes flat.

After its fragrant. I added the al dente cooked spaghetti and mixed it all together.

I use half a can of pitted black olives. The rest I save for another similar meal. One rectangular tin of sardines in used for one meal. It is a very small serving of only 80 grammes of sardines….but it is just right and filling for one person.

If you want to cook for more than one person – do it in batches. You will get better results as the heat factor is very important in this dish.

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‘In cooking. One always needs to be versatile. You cant spend three hours on every meal. That is highly impractical. So there is always a need to master slow and fast meals. The definition of fast meals is it must be ready to serve within fifteen minutes. From preparation to cooking and serving.’

Knowing what is important from what is only worth forgetting

Man with autistic child told me he feels self conscious whenever he has to take his son out…..I asked why…he replied, because so many people around me are giving me disapproving looks.

Then I asked him. Who are these people? Did they give you money to finish your degree? Man said No. Then I asked again…did they give you anything at all? Man answered no again.

That was when I told him – then they are as important as the flies and pollen in this world to you….dont mind them. They are strangers. They are not important to you. But your child is. You brought him into this world…so you have to be mature and wise in your outlook.

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‘Do not be self conscious. You r not a mediacorp star. There is no need for drama. If you are, then there is an excuse to be self conscious.

As once you are self conscious. Then what it simply demonstrates is – you have not bothered to sit down and think about life.

Because if you have spent time deliberating on the stuff that really matter along with how to live a purpose driven life – then the opinions of others would mean very little to you. Only the opinion of those who you love should really matter to you.

When I was young. I would get infuriated when people did not give me the respect I believe I deserved. It was not unusual for me to humiliate these people who crossed me. This was easy. As I had an uncanny ability to look at something just once and there and then it would be in my head. Thereafter I would vomit it all out again and often this was confused as intelligence that frightened and intimidated people. At work, I would bully people by rattling reams of data and trip them up by pointing out their lack in their department while wearing a ‘I am very bored in my job….I think your job is more interesting…. I want your job now!…can I please have your job! Can I? can I?’ look. Usually when they saw me, they ran away.

Later on in life when I look back. That was stupid. As I could have saved all that effort and energy for those who I really love – maybe if I did that, I wouldnt have to work so hard today – after all, why even waste time and energy on people who you dont care about and they dont even care about you?

These days when people dont respect me….I just walk away. I dont even think about them. I dont even get angry.’