I think today hope was restored in many around the world when Barack was elected. Not simply because he was black, although if you read his acceptance speech the significance of a black man ascending to the White House did not escape him:

This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight’s about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing: Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons — because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin. And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America — the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can. At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can. When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs, a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

Yet above all that, he just represents a different kind of politics. Following his meteoric rise, from the keynote speech in Illinois that started it all, key speeches that shaped what we know of him - his “Call to Renewal“, an appeal to the religious right; his honest look at race relations in “A More Perfect Union“; the presidential debates, and of course the acceptance speech above that gave me shivers when listening to it - it simply seems to have been such a long time before we’ve seen such a politician.

Gracious as McCain’s concession speech may have been, it didn’t make up for the huge negativity and blatant lies told by his campaign - among the worst offenders being a campaign ad portraying Obama as the Anti-Christ, painting him as a terrorist attacks made 40 years ago.

Ridiculous as the accusations against Obama may sound, I had my fair share of friends and relatives who actually think he might be a secret Muslim or terrorist - I’m hoping I don’t hear any Anti-Christ references on Sunday.

It’ll be very hard for Obama to do as badly as Bush did, but I somehow just have the feeling that he’ll go beyond that, somehow. It’s change we can believe in :).

Popularity: 7% [?]

Somehow you elected Dubya into the White house not once but twice. Now people like Barack Obama don’t come around every decade, so do the right thing this time… please?

John McCain is just more of the same, more of the same - your run of the mill politician. But the real reason he’s going to lose imo is Palin. Nice going criticizing Obama for “not being tested” and then picking a running mate who only got her passport in 2006, and judging from a recent prank played on her by a Canadian radio station, doesn’t even know the name of the Canadian PM and is a complete bimbo.

Imagining her as the next President of the US (no matter what McCain’s doctors say, he IS still 72 and has undergone cancer treatment) gives me nightmares.

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Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.”This may be the best four minutes and twenty-eight seconds of your week.”, said the entry at Boing Boing. Well it’s only two days into it, but I’ve a pretty good feeling it will be.It’s basically a goofy dance done by Matt, “a 31-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut” - done in countries all over the world, most times with sporting locals. There’s really something magical about the whole thing.

From Matt’s site:

A few months into his trip, a travel buddy gave Matt an idea. They were standing around taking pictures in Hanoi, and his friend said “Hey, why don’t you stand over there and do that dance. I’ll record it.” He was referring to a particular dance Matt does. It’s actually the only dance Matt does. He does it badly. Anyway, this turned out to be a very good idea.

A couple years later, someone found the video online and passed it to someone else, who passed it to someone else, and so on. Now Matt is quasi-famous as “That guy who dances on the internet. No, not that guy. The other one. No, not him either. I’ll send you the link. It’s funny.”

The response to the first video brought Matt to the attention of the nice people at Stride gum. They asked Matt if he’d be interested in taking another trip around the world to make a new video. Matt asked if they’d be paying for it. They said yes. Matt thought this sounded like another very good idea.

…

Things settled down again, and then in 2007 Matt went back to Stride with another idea. He realized his bad dancing wasn’t actually all that interesting, and that other people were much better at being bad at it. He showed them his inbox, which, as a result of his semi-famousness, was overflowing with emails from all over the planet. He told them he wanted to travel around the world one more time and invite the people who’d written him to come out and dance too.

After you watch this I’m betting your first thought will be “Damn ima quit my job now!”.

And if you wondering, no Malaysia isn’t one of the countries he visited :((. Singapore’s in there somewhere though.

Popularity: 64% [?]

This week’s TIME had a piece on Norway’s Government Pension Fund-Global, Norway’s sovereign trust fund. Profits from their oil and gas resources are channeled into it and invested.

Highlights:
- Assets of USD 382 billion.
- Owns 1% of the entire European stock market
- Scored 100% in governance, accountability, and transparency in a study by the Peterson Institute. Singapore’s Investment Corp averaged 40% (Petronas ranked dead last in a 2006 Spanish study of oil companies)
- Pledges to press firms it invests in to improve protection of human rights.
- Dumped stakes in Boeing and British BAE because they manufactured nuclear weapons.
- Voted in a shareholder push for Exxon-Mobil to adopt emission-reduction goals.

Norway has never sent a man to the moon, they never had the tallest building in the world, and they don’t have a national car, but certainly Norge kan!

Popularity: 41% [?]

Robert Mugabe, the tyrant of Zimbabwe (and good friend of Dr. M), on his impending election loss:

“We fought for this country, and a lot of blood was shed,” Mr Mugabe told his supporters. “We are not going to give up our country because of a mere X. How can a ballpoint fight with a gun?”

The warning came a day after he declared: “We are ready to go to war.” Evidence, say observers, of mounting concerns that he may not have done enough to secure the vote.

What causes men to act like this? Ego? A hunger for power? Mental illness? Or is the man just plain evil? I just hope Zimbabwe has a future.

I wonder what Dr. M has to say about all this. Would he still invite Mugabe to retire here?

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We are certainly lucky to be Malaysian.

And no, it’s because we are so muhibbah, or because we are an independent nation, or even because we have oil. It’s because natural disasters are rare here. In the floods of Dec 2006 for example, “only” six people died. Not that I am belittling anyone else’s suffering, but we just don’t see chaos like some countries face daily.

I’m talking of course of Cyclone Nargis which has left well over 100,000 dead and many more homeless in Myanmar. These pictures, taken from a satellite [source], sum up the destruction:

The Irrawaddy delta which is Myanmar’s main source of rice was also largely destroyed, making the situation even worse.

But what is really disgusting about the whole thing is how Myanmar’s military-controlled government is actually using the disaster to exploit their people. They are stubbornly refusing outside help, turning away volunteers and denying press coverage. The regime is even denying how critical the situation is!:

The junta, however, told visiting Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej on Wednesday it is in control of the relief operations and doesn’t need foreign experts.

“They have their own team to cope with the situation,” Samak said after returning from Yangon.

He said the junta gave him a “guarantee” that there was no starvation or disease outbreaks among survivors. In Yangon, Samak visited a government relief center.

“From what I have seen, I am impressed with their management,” Samak said.

Instead of putting aside their differences to help the people, the junta is instead busy relabelling boxes of supplies donated by international organizations with names of generals. Unconfirmed reports even state that the military is diverting supplies for itself, or swapping out the food!

A longtime foreign resident in Yangon told the AP in Bangkok that angry government officials have complained to him about the misappropriation of the aid by the military.

He said the officials told him that quantities of the high-energy biscuits rushed into Myanmar by the WFP on its first flights were sent to a military warehouse.

They were exchanged by what the officials said were “tasteless and low quality” biscuits produced by the Industry Ministry to be handed out to cyclone victims, the foreign resident said.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because revealing his identity would jeopardize his safety.

Suddenly our gomen looks like a choir of angels huh? A few people even told me that the US should invade Myanmar to “force” the aid in!

Regardless, this should not stop us from contributing what we can.  A blogger from Burma said it well: “I would hate to see the aids stopping because of this. Let’s say $100 is donated, and let’s say, $50 is not received, but the other $50 will still go there, so it’s better than $0.”.

You can donate to the people of Myanmar here.

Popularity: 38% [?]

Last week’s TIME had an article about the diary of Rutka Laskier, a Polish Jew whose diary had been found and kept by a friend for 60 years. It outlines four months in 1943, before Rutka and her family were sent to Auschwitz and killed.

If you’ve read the diary of Anne Frank, you’ll find haunting parallels between their lives: the innocence, the despair, the first glimpses of romance.

People were thirsty, and there was not a single drop of water around … Then … it started pouring. The rain didn’t stop. At 3 o’clock Kuczynsky arrived and the selection started. “1″ meant returning home, “1a” meant going to labor, which was even worse than deportation, “2″ meant going for further inspection, and “3″ meant deportation, in other words, death.

Then I saw what disaster meant. We reported for selection at 4 o’clock. Mom, Dad and my little brother were sent to group 1, and I was sent to 1a. I walked as if I were stunned … The weirdest thing was that we didn’t cry at all, AT ALL … Later on, I saw many more disasters. I can’t put it in words. Little children were lying on the wet grass, the storm raging above our heads. The policemen beat them ferociously and also shot them.

I sat there until 1 o’clock at night. Then I ran away. My heart pounded. I jumped out of a window from the first floor of a small building, and nothing happened to me. Only my lips were bitten so bad that they bled … When I was already on the street, I ran into someone “in uniform,” and I felt that I couldn’t take it anymore. My head was spinning. I was pretty sure he was going to beat me … but apparently he was drunk and didn’t see the “yellow star,” and he let me go.

Around me it was dark like in a closed cabin. From time to time flashes of lightning lightened the sky … and it thundered. The journey that normally takes me half an hour I did in 10 minutes. Everybody was at home except Grandma, whom Dad released and brought home the next day …

Oh, I forgot the most important thing. I saw how a soldier tore a baby, who was only a few months old, out of its mother’s hands and bashed his head against an electric pylon. The baby’s brain splashed on the wood. The mother went crazy.

I am writing this as if nothing has happened. As if I were in an army experienced in cruelty. But I’m young, I’m 14, and I haven’t seen much in my life, and I’m already so indifferent. Now I am terrified when I see “uniforms.” I’m turning into an animal waiting to die …

Now to everyday matters: Janek came by this afternoon. We had to sit in the kitchen … I told him that I had given away all my photographs. He got very upset. We were joking around; we spoke about “Nica and the gang.” While we were talking he suddenly blurted out he’d like it very much if he could kiss me. I said “maybe” and continued the conversation. He was a bit confused; he thought I was Tusia or Hala Zelinger. I would have allowed [myself] to be kissed only by the person I loved, and I feel indifferent towards him.

Then Dad sent me to deal with something. I had to leave. Janek accompanied me. While going downstairs I asked him, is kissing such a pleasant thing? And then I told him that I had already kissed before, what a taste it has (that’s completely true). He burst out laughing. (He has a nice laugh, I must admit.) He said he was curious too. Maybe, but I won’t let him kiss me. I’m afraid it would destroy something beautiful, pure … I’m also afraid that I’ll be very disappointed.

Ahmadinejad should get a copy of her diary.

Six million Jews died in the Holocaust, a testament to how much ideology can shape humans. How could there have been soldiers willing enough to carry out those orders? It might be a bit twisted, but I’m glad to see the human race has come far enough that the thousands who have died in Iraq have a much louder voice. I hope that there will never again come a day where we lose sight of our conscience or take lightly a human life.

Popularity: 65% [?]

Any other politician would have taken the easy way out. Denounce all ties, slam the media, find some other way to put the opponent down. Maybe redefine the meaning of the word is.

That was what I thought Obama would do when a series of video snippets surfaced on Youtube of his pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright. In them, Wright slams the US, making racist, even unpatriotic remarks - “The US of KKK A” and “God damn America … for killing innocent people” among them, as well as claiming that 9/11 was retribution for America’s arrogance.

But what Obama did instead was to go home, put his children to sleep, and start writing a speech. TIME called it “the speech he’d been turning over in his mind for much of his adult life”. In it, he would finally touch on race, a topic he’d been conscious not to make the center of his campaign.

Transcript

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/18/america/18obamaspeech.php

Audio

[Obama’s speech - mp3, 96kbps, 37min, 25mb] (Ripped by yours truly!)

Video

He avoids dramatic gestures; never raises his voice. It’s all about what he has to say. He condemns his pastor’s rhetoric, but refuses to condemn him, instead challenging us to look beyond the words and realize that they stem from “the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect”.

The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change.

But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

I really really encourage you to read/listen/watch his speech for yourself and hear what he has to say. Most of you won’t be American but his words still ring true. With Bush, you know he’s either just too plain dumb to grasp the intricacies of leadership (did you read about how he described the Afghan conflict as romantic?). With Clinton, you know she’s pandering to the crowd to get elected. But with Barack Obama, you have the rare politician who is completely believable, who genuinely wants change and rebuild the bridges Bush burnt.

Maybe the tsunami from Malaysia will carry over to the US :P. There is hope for this world yet!

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For some reason, whenever Malaysia makes international headlines, it’s hardly for flattering reasons - last I checked, the first post on Google News under “Malaysia” is Beyonce cancelling her concert here because she’s too sexy for us.

In contrast, New Zealand recently turned heads for using wikis to gain feedback on the drafting of their new Police Act.

NZ Police Superintendent Hamish McCardle, the officer in charge of developing the new act, said the initiative had already been described as a “new frontier of democracy”.

“People are calling it ‘extreme democracy’ and perhaps it is,” he said.

“It’s a novel move but when it comes to the principles that go into policing, the person on the street has a good idea … as they are a customer,” he said.

…

“The wonderful thing about a wiki is we can open it up to people all around the world - other academics and constitutional commentators interested in legislation - and make the talent pool much wider,” he said.

This is exactly what a modern democracy should be like. The reference to the people as “customers” is just gold.

How about you? Can you think of any ways you would like to change our laws ? :)

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Just sharing a story that I’d read some time back but got Dugg today:
24 years on - The man who saved millions of lives (Another version here, or the wiki entry)

The uplifting part about the story is how a military officer refused to follow protocol, because it would have resulted in a war costing millions of lives. The sad part is how it was precisely this which caused him to be shunned and considered an unreliable military officer, eventually having a nervous breakdown and living the rest of his life in poverty.

Popularity: 36% [?]