Is Obtaining A Higher Standard of Living A Danger To The Society of Singapore

Singapore has seen many changes since it was founded in 1819. It has progressed from a third world country to a first world country. The government has managed to bring in many exciting events. Events that only developed countries can organize. For example, Formula One and The IMF World Bank Meeting. It has also created many interesting infrastructures like the Tunnel Expressway despite of our limited land space and the upcoming Integrated Resorts.

With all these many events and infrastructures being organized and created, many investors have flocked to the shores of Singapore to open up its businesses here. Expatriates come and work in Singapore. Some may start a family here. Standards of living have risen. In a bird eyes view, it is very good for the prosperity of Singapore. However, where there is a bright spot, there is also a dark spot. It is this dark spot at which I would want to write about and explain how this dark spot can become less dark. I will use the Formula One Event as a starting point.

It has been a very adrenaline rush weekend. First there was the Natinal Day Parade, second and at present running The Singapore Youth Olmpics 2010 and the next event to be held on the shores of Singapore is the Formula One. Now, the Formula One has brought excitement to the lives of many Singaporeans. Scores of foreigners have flocked to the shores of Singapore. Armed with cash, they have invaded our shopping centers. It has put Singapore on the world map. As mentioned in the above paragraph, this phenomenon has been good to the economy and it has contributed to the raising living standards of Singaporeans. Attending Formula One has now become one of the bench marks for Singaporeans to attend. There is now an F included in the 5 C’s that Singaporeans have always been trying to attend.

The dark spot I am referring to is the inevitable increasing strain of obtaining a high standard of living and the consequences of trying to obtain it. Obtaining a high standard of living may be out of reach to some Singaporeans. Two classes of people will be used to illustrate this phenomenon. They are the average working class and the youths in Singapore. I will use Robert K Merton theory on Anomie to explain.

He theorized that there are two kinds of structure in society. The first structure is culturally assigned goals and aspirations (Merton, 1938: 672). These are the things that all individuals should want and expect out of life. For example, obtaining a high paying job, earning a high salary, obtaining material goods and attending influential events like the Formula One.

The second aspect of the social structure defines the acceptable mode for achieving the goals and aspirations set by society (Merton, 1938:673). This is the appropriate way that people get what they want and expect out of life. Examples include obeying laws and societal norms, seeking an education and hard work. In order for society to maintain a normative function there must be a balance between aspirations and means in which to fulfill such aspirations (Merton, 1938:673-674).

According to Merton balance would occur as long as the individual felt that he was achieving the culturally desired goal by conforming to the “institutionally accepted mode of doing so” (Merton: 1938:674). In other words, there must be an intrinsic payoff, an internal satisfaction that one is playing by the rules and there must also be an extrinsic payoff, achieving their goals. It is also important that the culturally desired goals be achievable by legitimate means for all social classes. If goals are not equally achievable through an accepted mode, then illegitimate means might be used to achieve the same goal. There often times is a disparity between goals and means.

Too much emphasis is placed on the goal and not enough emphasis is placed on achieving it through acceptable means. For some citizens there is a lack of opportunity. This leads individuals to seek out the goal by whatever means necessary. According to Merton crime is bred through this process. Simply put, overemphasis on material success and lack of opportunity for such material success leads to crime.

For example, It is not common in Singapore for kids to learn that they have to obtain certain valuable items so that they would be deem influential. Parents may teach their kids that being influential is one factor that will help them achieve success in their goals. They may not teach their kids how to respect other people’s feelings. Therefore, a child may boast that he has the latest handphone in his/her school. This may bring about resentment among the children that can’t purchase the phone. A child may steal the handphone from the child.

In this case, there are two scenarios’ we can learn from the outcome of trying to become influential in society. One is due to the fact that the child had the best phone in order to be considered as an influential human being in society, other children become jealous of the child which resulted in the stealing of the phone. The second is that due to the fact that by having that phone makes one deem to be influential in society, the child stole the phone in order to meet society standards in order to be influential.

An average adult who may not earn enough to go and see the Formula One event may feel left out. As the media has place advertisements to promote the race, it will be become a common understanding that the press is creating an anxiety among Singaporeans to persuade them to go and purchase tickets to watch the race. Attending the Formula One race has become an essential activity that all Singaporeans should adopt. If they do not attend the race, then they are not part of the “Singaporean Society” . In such cases, those who cannot afford to go to watch the race will at first accept their situation. They will obey the law and find other legitimate ways to watch the race. For example, watching the race at home. However, they would not forget “the Singaporean Society” standard of watching the race and that is by actually buying the tickets and watching the race at it’s race venue. They will soon think of illegal ways of obtaining the tickets. For example, by stealing them. If in the long run, they still cannot get the tickets, they may form groups to campaign the abolition of the Formula Event.

Some of you reading this essay may think that these cases would never happen and are ridiculous. However, the feelings of people are not easy understood and observed. They are intangible. It may not happen here in Singapore as most Singaporeans are uncanny obedient and lawful but as Singaporeans prosperous, the income gap between the poor and the rich will widen. Resentments among between the rich and the poor may grow and such scenarios may happen in the future.

As more and more Singaporean become successful, there will be a minority that would always be trap in the poverty gap. It is a social phenomenon that happens in all capitalistic countries. The rich always get richer and the poor get poorer. For those who are successful, they must try to find a way to help those that are poor to climb out the poverty gap. However, some may say who am I to help the poor! Nobody touches my money!! However, you are called to be united in Singapore and one of the fundamental principles of being united is to help your fellow citizens. What I am suggesting may be an over idealistic idea but if only there is such thing as a utopian society, then what I have suggested may actually happen.

Some organisations may have employees who are obsessed with climbing the corporate ladder in order to earn more money and adopt a higher standard of living. They may indulge in scrupulous means without regarding the well of their fellow colleagues to obtain success. For example, they may indulging in backstabbing, insider trading and “robbing” other people’s project. Why should all these undesirable activities be happening? It is due to “Singapore’s” standard of living and the fact that more and more Singaporeans are meeting that “high” standard, it is not common to see Singaporeans trying to match up with their fellow Singaporeans eventhough they may not be able to achieve it. Again resentments will be felt with those who cannot achieve the “Standard” that Singaporeans have set in order to live “happily”.

To curb these scenarios’ from happening. Parents need to teach the right moral values to their kids. For example, they have to teach their children how to think for the unfortunate, help the weak, share their food, not to look down on those who are poor and to achieve their goals in the right way. If parents themselves do not practice good moral values, then their children would learn the wrong values.

If parents or maybe even advertisements teaches children that they have to obtain certain goods in order to be considered influential or that being number one is the most important thing in their lives and anything below that is unacceptable. In Singapore, where majority of Singaporeans are pretty influential ( just read the newspapers, there are more millionaires being sprung out ), the minority would definitely be left out and if parents do not teach their children to be considerate about people’s feelings, then there will be social anomie between the rich and the poor.

Therefore, we must always examine ourselves. Are we living happily? Are we trying to live a high life that we cannot achieve? In life there must always be a balance. At times we must accept that we cannot join the Jones and accept what we have. If we can’t, then there will be conflict in our lives. Yes, we can blame society for transforming who we are but in the words of Kar Marx, it is not the ideas that determine our lives but the lives that we live determine our ideas. Therefore it is up to us to live the way we want to.

The essence of being successful and it’s social consequences

Singapore celebrates it’s 45th year of independence in six days time. As the celebration draws near we are reminded of Singapore’s achievements and the importance of united as a community of citizens hence the one of the themes for this year’s National Day Parade is One Voice.

The reasons of why it is important to be united are as follows :-
· We will be proud to be Singaporeans
· We will defend the country together
· We will live in harmony
· We will share the achievement made in Singapore as a united community of citizens.

This essay is not to dispute the importance of being united in Singapore as one community but it is based on whether being successful in Singapore is important and it’s social consequences.
Nowadays, whenever I roam around beautiful Singapore and breath in the “fresh” air that Singapore has to offer , I cannot help to feel the word “ONE” being wrapped around me like a cocoon shell. I feel so “protected” by the word “ONE” because I know our police force strives to be number one but due to it’s over achievements, let a very dangerous terrorist escape.

Why do I feel this way? Well, it is because I often see the word “One” around me. For example, I have been coming across condominiums using the word one. For example : One Leicester, One Shenton and One Tree Hill One Forth. Even some organisations use the word “ONE” for their Dinner and Dance Party Team or for some related enrichment programs to educated their employees on forming a corporate culture.

Is being successful in everything important? After all, Singapore is a country that strives to be successful at all times and it has made great achievements in areas in transportation, financial sector and corporate governance whereas some countries could not. For example, Singapore has the best airport in the world, clean efficient government and a pretty good transport system.
Aiming to be successful is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a good thing but in everything that we do, there must be a balance. We cannot go around being successful at other people’s expense, putting people down, blackmailing other people and adopting scrupulous means to achieve our goals.

Singapore is a very competitive country. Nearly all of its citizens are caught in the rat race to succeed however one must not lose his or her moral values. Parents need to teach the right moral values to their kids. For example, they have to teach their children how to think for the unfortunate, help the weak, share their food, not to look down on those who are poor and to achieve their goals in the right way. If parents themselves do not practice good moral values, then their children would learn the wrong values.

It is not common in Singapore for kids to learn that they have to obtain certain valuable items so that they would been deem influential. Parents may teach their kids that being influential is one factor that will help them achieve success in their goals. They may not teach their kids how to respect other people’s feelings. Therefore, a child may boast that he has the latest handphone in his/her school. This may bring about resentment among the children that can’t purchase the phone. A child may steal the handphone from the child.

In this case, there are two scenarios’ we can learn from the outcome of trying to become influential in society. One is due to the fact that the child had the best phone in order to be considered as an influential human being in society, other children become jealous of the child which resulted in the stealing of the phone. The second is that due to the fact that by having that phone makes one deem to be influential in society, the child stole the phone in order to meet society standards in order to be influential.

These scenarios’ happen when parents or maybe even advertisements teaches children that they have to obtain certain goods in order to be considered influential or that being number one is the most important thing in their lives and anything below that is unacceptable. In Singapore, where majority of Singaporeans are pretty influential ( just read the newspapers, there are more millionaires being sprung out ), the minority would definitely be left out and if parents do not teach their children to be considerate about people’s feelings, then there will be social anomie between the rich and the poor.

In Singapore, our education system has been implemented by scholars who have reached the top of their ladder. They attribute the Singapore education system to their success. Since they had succeeded in the education system, they enhance it to suit the needs of the more intellectual students. The educational programs that they create only cater to middle class families and above. Why? Most of these programs may require personal computers, televison, notebooks to accomplish the tasks. What about those that cannot afford to have the latest technological equipment in their house? To they fail because they are poor? They may be intelligent but because they are poor and the way education programs are created, they may not succeed in the Singpoare's education sysyem and fall by the road side. It is a very sad situation but it is happening. Children who may not have the same intelligence capabilities as others struggle and have to play catch up. Some teachers find it tough to implement some schemes recommended by these scholars as the schemes that worked for them may not work on others. The teachers in turn are blamed for not implementing the schemes. What an unfair world we live in. Our educations system is designed in a way that only the smartest and the materially sound would be able to survive. So if being number one is so very important, what happen to those that that cannot survive in the Singapore education system in order to be the best?

Well those that cannot make it have to find other ways to climb the ladder and be successful in Singapore. For children that are materially sound parents, they would be able to have an overseas education. For those that are less fortunate, they have to find other material means or ways to be successful and survive in Singapore. Singapore is a country whereby the cost of living will always rise. Therefore, Singaporeans must be materially well off to survive. The Singapore government do not hand out “welfare benefits” like other countries do. The saying only the strong survives applies very strongly to Singapore’s society.

Parents may be too overtly obsessed on finding ways that would help their children to be successful in their education and would want them to score straight “A” throughout their school life. Unfortunately, in Singapore, obtaining straight “A” s is rather the norm. Those who can’t obtain good academic results are left behind. Some parents may use extreme methods to make their children succeed in school. For example, they will cane their children if they obtain a grade less than A in their school work, they are banned from going out with their friends, they cannot watch television and they are not allow to play their favourite computer games. These reasons are not exclusively exhaustive. As a result, their children rebel against their parents. They may join street gangs and indulging in some undesirable activities. For example, glue sniffing, fighting and pre-marital sex.

Therefore, are parents to be blame for their children becoming delinquent due to their relentless persuade for their children to obtain the best academic results? Yes and No. Yes, if they apply extreme pressure on their children without regarding their children’s well being. No, if their parents subscribe to societies, especially Singapore’s society, norms on the importance of success in order to survive. Parents inadvertly apply stress on themselves by comparing their children’s success with other children’s success. It becomes a rat race to see who can finish first and it is their children who suffer. It is very sad. Children come in different shapes and forms. They have different abilities. If parents are not blinded with the obsession of being successful, their eyes would be “opened” and they would recognise their children’s talents and weakness. They will be able to help their children capitalise their strengths and try to turn their weakness into their strengths or eradicate their weaknesses. They would also be able to provide their children with a more and balance wholesome life and that does not include taking their children on holiday every year just to compensate the stress they press on their children to succeed.

As more and more Singaporean become successful, there will be a minority that would always be trap in the poverty gap. It is a social phenomenon that happens in all capitalistic countries. The rich always get richer and the poor get poorer. For those who are successful, they must try to find a way to help those that are poor to climb out the poverty gap. However, some may say who am I to help the poor! Nobody touches my money!! However, you are called to be united in Singapore and one of the fundamental principles of being united is to help your fellow citizens. What I am suggesting may be an over idealistic idea but if only there is such thing as a utopian society, then what I have suggested may actually happen.

Some organisations may have employees who are obsessed with climbing the corporate ladder. They may indulge in scrupulous means without regarding the well of their fellow colleagues to obtain success. For example, they may indulging in backstabbing, insider trading and “robbing” other people’s project. Why should all these undesirable activities be happening if we are taught the right moral values in how to achieve our goals in life? Unfortunately, that is life. There is always the good and the bad. We can however reduce these undesirable activities but not totally eradicate them from happening by teaching our children that success is not the most important thing in life and they have to achieve their goals in a proper and justifiable manner that is deemed appropriate by society.

The next scenario may not be a normal situation in organisations but it does happen. It is unhealthy to have such problems in an organisation. Some departments in an organisation may be dedicated more “privilege jobs” with more value to the organisations than other departments. In most cases, these departments may be more recognised for their work then others and if they are more successful in their performance, they may cultivate elitism behavioural patterns among their fellow colleagues thus segregating themselves from other departments. For the very fact that they are to obsessed with success and being better than the rest, they may disregard the work processes of their other fellow colleagues in other departments and may want other departments to cater to their working needs first beyond all others.

Top management in organisations should share their profits with their employees. If they are selfish and do not want to share their successes with others, their employees may become disgruntled. Too farfetched? It may not happen in Singapore, however, in countries like Britain and France, due to having strong union ties, employees have risen up against their employees if they feel that they are not being treated fairly. Top management must realise that their success is due to their employees hardwork. They must provide funds to help their employees to upgrade. Those in need of funds would be those who are not capable to have the material means to upgrade themselves. Organisations or even governments should pay for their education, be it if they are studying in a private or public institution. A better educated workforce may help an organisation be more successful and earn more profits.

Therefore, being able to set for goals and achieving goals is a good habit that all should adopt. Parents should cultivate in their children the right values and ways to obtain success. They must not subscribe to society’s pressure, especially ours, to be obsessed with success. They may inadvertly cause harm to their children if they apply pressure on their children to succeed without regarding their well being. Organisations must share their successes among their employees. Employees must not be obsessed in being successful in the expense of their fellow employees. Departments must not create an elitism atmosphere in their organisations. If not, boundaries of work would be drawn between departments. It is not good to be obsess with being successful and obtaining the required success without regarding the well being of other people. We should have balance in our lives. After all, all work but no play makes Jack a dull boy. If you have the time, relook at your life and ask yourself whether you are living a good and well balanced life. Is being successful the only think you want to achieve in your life eventhough it may harm your well being? I leave you with this question to ponder upon. Happy National Day.

Different Religious Views On Death

Christianity

The three major monotheistic religions of the world – Christianity,Islam, and Judaism – all have definite theology related to issues of death and dying. Christianity is the largest of these and, in fact, the largest religion in the world. Although Christians may be divided in many ways over issues of theology, they do hold the same core values and beliefs. One of these is that there is an afterlife in which believers will spend eternity with God. Although there may be dissention over smaller matters, in issues of life and death, there tends to be more common ground. Sickness, suffering, and death are viewed by many Christians through their understanding of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross and his subsequent resurrection. Christians also believe that God participates in the affairs of humanity, another tenet that inform their views of death and dying. The New Testament teaches that one’s body is the temple of God, so most Christians believe that life is sacred, although not necessarily to be preserved at all costs. For example, in questions of withholding or with drawing treatment, the official position of the Roman Catholic Church is that there is a distinction between ordinary measures (i.e. those medical treatments that are intended to preserve life such as medicines, treatments, and operations that offer reasonable hope for preserving life and that can be obtained without excessive expense, pain, or other inconvenience) and extraordinary measures (i.e., medicines, treatments, and operations that do not offer reasonable hope of preserving life and which cannot be obtained without excessive expense, pain, or other inconvenience). There is, of course, no list of procedures that easily fall into one category or another; all such treatment needs to be made with informed consent on an individual basis by the patient or family. For example, a feeding tube or mechanical ventilation at one stage during the course of a disease or illness may provide sufficient time for other measures to take affect and enable the patient to life; given at another time, however, it may only preserve existence with no hope of recovery.

Islam

The second largest (and youngest) major monotheistic religion is Islam. Although Islam has legal rulings or fatawa (sg., fatwa) about life and death issues such as organ donation and euthanasia,there is not widespread agreement about these issues between Muslim jurists from different schools of Islamic law (Sachedina, 2005). In general, however, Islam teaches that death comes to us all and that how we die is of importance. According to Muslims, God is both the origin and destiny of life so that life is therefore sacred. According to the Qur’an, death does not occur except by God’s permission. Therefore, in Islam, it is necessary to do everything possible to prevent a premature death. The question of preserving life at any cost, however, is the subject of much debate within Islam. Although on the one hand there is the obligation to save or even prolong life, on the other hand there is the argument that one should limit life sustaining treatment if there is a lack of resources. Further, in Islam, the decision of life-prolonging treatment is not the decision of the individual alone. Islam emphasizes the link between the welfare of the individual and his/her family and community. Decisions about whether or not an aggressive or invasive treatment can prolong life without causing further harm, therefore, is a matter of concern not only for the individual but for all associated with him/her. Regarding pain, the approach of most Muslims is to act in such a way as to alleviate pain through actively removing its cause. As in Christianity, the human body is seen as a temple of God. Therefore, Islamic law does not recognize a patient’s right to die voluntarily (e.g., suicide, assisted suicide, or other types of active human intervention). There are, however, exceptions to this general principle depending on the circumstances: Specifically, the administration of medication to relieve physical and mental suffering in a terminal patient that has the side effect of shortening life or the withdrawal of futile treatment after informed consent (Sachedina, 2005).

Judaism

The smallest, albeit the oldest, of the major monotheistic religions is Judaism. As with Christianity and Islam, the Jewish religion holds that the body belongs to God. This means that human beings have the obligation to seek both preventative and curative medical treatment. However, as also with the other two religions, Judaism recognizes the fact that all human beings are mortal. Similarly, there is not widespread agreement across all Jewish traditions about how this is to be interpreted. In addition,
culture (in the form of country, generation, or family) may also affect the interpretation of these matters. Because the individual belongs to God, Judaism does not condone suicide or the enlistment of aid to end one’s life. Judaism has its own criteria for determining death. Traditionally, these have been the cessation of breathing and heartbeat (although sufficient time must be allowed before burial to determine that this is a permanent condition). After the development of the Harvard criteria for brain death, Conservative rabbis accepted these criteria as fulfilling the traditional requirements. Criteria for the acceptability of withholding life-sustaining treatment varies, with the strictest interpretation being the prognosis that the patient will die within 72 hours or less and more liberal interpretations allowing for withholding life-sustaining measures if the patient will live up to a year or more. However, most rabbis view artificial nutrition and hydration to be the equivalent of food and liquids required by everyone to live, and require them to be used even when other life-sustaining treatments are withdrawn. Regarding heroic measures, most view these as permissible as long as there is some hope of a cure; however, such measures are not required and the decision is to be made based on the risk/benefit ratio, the patient’s best interests, and the patient’s desires. Jews are allowed to sign advance directives for health care to specify their wishes in such cases should they not be able to communicate their desires at the time. Pain control, palliative care, and hospice programs in which the goal is to make the patient comfortable but not to cure are all acceptable under Jewish tenets.
Further, Jewish tradition holds it to be an obligation to visit the sick, treat them with respect, and pray for them. Ethical considerations continue even after death. Regarding autopsy and organ donation, the ruling principles are that the dead body should be honored as the property of God and that one has an obligation to save the lives of others. Because of the first principle, autopsies are not routinely performed unless required by civil law, three doctors agree that the cause of death cannot be otherwise ascertained, that the autopsy might helps save the lives of others with similar illnesses or that the results of the autopsy might be of benefit to surviving family members with a hereditary disease.
These criteria, however, are debated. Although the donation of cadavers to science or of organs to save others is permitted by most rabbis, there is also disagreement about the circumstances under which these actions are permissible.

Hinduism

Not every religion is monotheistic, however. In fact, the second largest religion of the world is Hinduism. Although this religion does not have an institutional framework or demand adherence to particular doctrines, most Hindus do hold certain tenets in common that apply to death and dying. Most Hindus believe that a living being (either human or animal) possesses a soul that moves on from one life to the next. In addition, most Hindus hold that there is a difference between a good death and a bad death. The former occurs in old age either on the banks of the sacred Ganges River or on the ground at home. (For this purpose, many Hindus keep a container of Ganges water to be offered to the dying person and placed on the lips of the corpse.) Hindus prepare all their lives for a good death and enter into it consciously and willingly. A good death requires the correct rituals in order to speed the soul on its way. Bad deaths, on the other hand, are premature, violent, or uncontrolled, happening at the wrong place and time (often signified by vomit, feces, urine, and an unpleasant expression). The worst type of death in Hinduism is suicide that happens for selfish reasons. There is a long tradition of voluntary death in Hinduism, typically where such an action is linked to a specific purpose such as gaining freedom. However, Hinduism makes a distinction between the willed death of an individual. Suicide for selfish reasons is considered to be morally wrong and cannot be sanctioned with the appropriate rites of death. Some Hindu authorities also argue that human beings should not take their own lives because of the karmic effect on the next life. In general, Hinduism stands strongly against involuntary euthanasia primarily because it goes against the principle of autonomy and can be easily abused. However, in all these matters, it is difficult to generalize the Hindu attitudes toward death and dying because they are highly correlated with education, class, and tradition.

Buddhism

Another major polytheistic religion (one, in fact, with more adherents than Judaism) is Buddhism. In this religion, the inevitability of death is recognized and emphasis is placed on the psychological preparation necessary to accept death with calmness and dignity. Buddhists place great value on mindfulness and mental clarity because they believe that it can affect the quality of their rebirth. This fact impacts their philosophy of dying. For example, some Buddhists may forego pain relieving drugs or sedatives sothat their mental facilities can be unimpaired. The Buddhist definition of death involves the loss of three criteria: vitality, heat, and sentiency. Although determining the loss of heat is a rather straightforward matter, determining the loss of the other two criteria is not, particularly given the tradition of yogic trance in which life signs may not be observable. On the other hand, there is no disagreement between Buddhist tradition and modern medicine on the status of patients in a persistent vegetative state: Individuals in this state are clearly alive according to both views. From the Buddhist perspective, irreversible damage to the neocortex is no different than damage to another organ when making ethical decisions regarding treatment. This typically means that unless there are secondary complications, the person should continue to be given nutrition and hydration. Further, Buddhists do not believe in taking a life. Therefore, they do not condone suicide or the incitement of someone to commit suicide. This prohibition also extends to assisted suicide and euthanasia, even though these actions might spare the person unnecessary pain. On the other hand, due to the Buddhist belief in the inevitability of death, Buddhists do not condone attempts to prolong life beyond its natural span through technology, but encourage adherents to prepare to accept death calmly when it comes. This, however, does not preclude hospice or other palliative care.

THE VIRUS WAR

Wars are fought by brave men but the virus war is fought by men who think they are intelligent but in actual fact copycats. Very unfortunately we are the victims of these wars. Unlike some wars, this war is unstoppable, no matter how much effort we put in to stop the war. The only thing that we can do is to prevent less damage from being done is by unpluging ourselves from our computers. Can we do that? The answer is obvious. Who is to be blame? Look in the mirror and you will find the person.

As technology advances, the virus wars will continue to escalate, with output poised to exceed that of 2003 – year of the worm. Original virus writers used to write viruses just for the joy of experimentation and not for the joy of destroying your hard disk. Unfortunately time has changed and so has the reasons for writing a virus. Virus writers come in four categories. They are writers who write for the thrill of it, students who do it for research, script kiddies who write to impress but unfortunately their coding sucks and their scripts are copied from other virus codes and finally cyber terrorists who write viruses for destruction. There is no real need of spending hours to learn how to write a virus. It can be written with only a few lines of codes. You can even learn how to write a virus by visiting a website that teaches you how to write a virus.

Script Kiddies have taken full advantage of it. They can even weave together existing attacks from codes available from community resources. That’s why I say that they think they are cool and intelligent but in actual fact copycats.

One of the main reasons why viruses are written in the 21 century is money. Keyloggers are able to be installed in computers to act as backdoors in order to track passwords, credit card numbers and other confidential information. The valuable information can be stolen and sold for profit. Hackers can also use these methods to blackmail a company. After all what is losing a few thousands dollars compared to losing your customers which would result in a loss of a few million dollars.

There has been some rivalry between virus writers like Bagel and Netsky. They are using huge pools of zombie machines adapting exploits left by others like MyDoom and So Big to spread new variants with code containing taunts. They are also trying to get a better of the anti virus industry as well. For example, the ability for virus to be spread through attachments. In response the anti-virus industry created their software to scan for zip files and extensions. Virus writers then used password protected zip files at which anti-virus could not decrypt the password. Anti – virus companies followed up by creating a new AV program that could parse an e-mail message for the password and store it in memory so that they could decrypt the message and scan for virus. In retaliation, the writes use a bitmap file instead of using passwords. Other current trends include self-propagating codes with tie-ins with spammers, networks of bots created by organised crime to use in extortion and codes shared with other writers

Virus writers will invent more tricks in the future. The virus MyDoom is spread through attachments. The user had only to click on the e-mail in order to spread the virus. As I type these stories, there are talks of creating multiplatform viruses that would infect icons, cursors, or media files or damage CD-ROM and DVD-ROM viruses. As of now, viruses attack software but not hardware so don’t worry too much. As for the future whether it would attack hardware, only time will tell. Due to the advancement of technology, the terrain for viruses to exploit have widen. Viruses now target instant messaging, peer-to-peer networks, voice mail systems, handheld devices, Microsoft Xboxes and other consoles, and mobile phones..

With all these viruses running around, have you asked yourself why there has not been a Big One ( a rapid spreading virus that would destroy a lot of data) yet? The answer is that a virus has to find a exploit first and that is not very easy to find. If it runs too soon, it will destroy it self. If it runs too late, the AV companies will stop it.

There is an increasing need for viruses to elude the AV software. One such kind of virus is the metamorphic virus. It rewrites itself each time it mutates. The AV scanners have to decrypt it and then scan it to find the underlying code.

UnFortunately there are now many of these kind of virus because most virus are written using Visual Basic which is easy to use. The writers are of course yours truly script kiddies. That’s why I shall re-enforce my statement by saying that they think they are intelligent and cool but they are not. You need a more complicated program to write a metamorphic virus. Those who have succeeded are the intelligent ones.

Some writers are even annoyed with script kiddies because they create virus to trick people to open attachments inorder for the viruses to activate. They don’t write viruses to exploit various OS weaknesses. For example, Netsky let users believe that the mail they received came from someone they knew, by extracting e-mail addresses from files in a certain way and this is possible when an e-mail is sent using SMTP to anyone from any address. I could send a mail under your address to your girlfriend saying something horrible and she’d think you wrote it to her. Alright I won’t do that. Don’t worry!!!!!

There has been an increasing trend in the use of viruses to target specified groups like political ones to spread their messages. Viruses also have a great effect on businesses. If virus keep on increasing ( which they will do ), consumers’ confidence to do trading on the net will drop. Business could lose a lot of money. Isn’t it good to combat viruses and not to take for granted that you are save just because you have installed “ an out of date AV program”.

Yes, the signature engines for AV programs run out of date once they are shipped. It is our responsibility to update our virus engines once it is installed. We must not wait to update the engines only when we suffer a virus attack.

ISP can help us by protecting our incoming and outgoing e-mail but that does not mean we must rely on our ISP alone. We must develop a mult-tier protection concept. Some methods are protection from our ISP, protection from our updated AV program and last but not least encrypting all data in case if a hacker gains access to your data and files.

There are many encryption softwares in the market, like PGP. To describe their functions would be out of scope for this story. The good news is that Pacific Net and Singtel offer services to protect your e-mails but you have to pay for it. I think they should change this concept and provide it for free. After all protection of computer systems is every one’s effort.

AV companies now have more effective suites. The best suites are the ones combined with programs that monitor spam with AV and anti-spyware capabilities. They are aware that the technical challenges of neutralising viruses are shifting. They have to analyze what the entry points that virus could exploit and the speed at which viruses are spreading.

They have to change their mindset as well by creating reactive defenses and proactive defenses as well. Fortunately some companies have done that. For example, Cisco, Fotinet, Panda and others all have products that will detect threats and close down without interfering with the primary AV engine.

One strategy that has not been implemented yet is sandboxing. It creates a virtual OS so sophisticated that when a piece of code comes in, it’s fooled into operating on the virtual OS instead of on the actual one. The engine can then analyse what the code is trying to do and handle it without letting it ever reach the real OS. Other strategies could be to create all in one programs that address viruses, self-propagating e-mail worms, spyware and adware, the use of AV technology to track down virus writers or quarantine poorly managed networks; intrusion prevention integrated into firewalls to block malware at the border and systems that have security built – in rather that added on.

AV programs should be developed in such a way that it is user-friendly. There is an increase in less computer savvy people using computers. They should be skilled in the usage of AV programs. If they find that the AV program too troublesome to use, they will dread to use its functions.

We should not be too dependent on Microsoft OS and their applications. It is not easy to do away with Microsoft and it is also one of the reasons why we are easily attacked by viruses. We have become to predictable.

We must not target certain groups. Like Aids, we think only certain classes of people are prone to be infected by the deadly viruses. In reality, anyone of us is valuable to the disease if we are not careful so do not forget to wear a condom. AV programs must be created to protect all kinds of targets.

We must not be subjective and only scan certain files for virus. For example, we scan files that we are downloading from peer-to-peer networks for virus and not other files. Well maybe there are some that would scan every file that they have for virus but there are others who do not. I am the biggest culprit.

Finally we must question our moral judgement on creating viruses and using them for destruction, unauthorized entry of a computer system, stealing and tracking of information. For example, RIAA wanting access to hack into machines and send viruses to file shares. If we allow them to do that, we will open Pandora’s box. We will create a culture whereby anyone could write a virus program in order to hack somebody’s computer system. The best thing is that they would think it is a moral thing to do.

Therefore, let the wars continue because there is nothing much we can do but only prevent less damage from being done. So look forward to more viruses and new developments in the AV industry. It would be interesting to see how they combat the new viruses. The most important think is too stay alert and vigilant at all times. Don’t let our guard down as the virus will appear at an hour we would not expect.

How Does A Company or Department Kill Their Employees Self Development

Singapore is a country whereby one must work for a living. The Singapore government does not believe in giving out social welfare benefits to those that do not work. At most, they would give out a small amount of cash to those that really cannot work due to disability or for reasons that make them incapable to find any job. The government believes that one must work in order to enjoy the benefits that Singapore has to provide. Therefore, most Singaporeans have to work until they are not able to work anymore. From nine to five, Singaporeans are indulged in work that they may have to do for the rest of their lives. Well, there maybe a lucky few that may not need to work because their partners are able to bring the bread home. As for the majority of Singaporeans, they may have to keep on working because the wages that they are earning may be barely enough for them to survive. For those, that are able to upgrade and earn a bigger salary, they may be able to retire early. Whether one is able to upgrade while one is working is another matter altogether. This issue will be addressed later on in this essay.

We are caught in a repetitive cycle of work because most work processors in government organisations and in some private companies are standardized. Some questions come to mind at this juncture. If work is repetitious, do workers enjoy their work? Do they have a chance to indulge in self-development at their work place? Why do workers submit themselves to boring and “tortuous” work if they are not able to improve themselves in their work place?

Singapore, like all other capitalistic countries, is rationalistic in nature. What do I mean by rationalistic in nature? They are rationalistic in nature by means of following certain set of rules and regulations. This applies to organisations set up in Singapore and other parts of the world. These rules and regulations make companies bureaucratic. These rules and regulations are important because they help the Singapore government to govern Singapore properly and orderly. It also helps in the proper running of businesses. Singaporeans have to follow these sets of rules and regulations. If not, they would be breaking the law and have to face the consequences. The same goes to those that are working in the various and bureaucratic organisations set up in Singapore. What’s the big deal of having rules and organisation? Isn’t that something that is given when you run a company or country? How do these rules and regulations affect people’s behaviour and the way they work? The following paragraphs will elaborate on these issues.

Rules and regulations are usually formulated by the “professional people” who are running their respective countries or organisations. They create the “attractive procedures” that govern our behaviour and the way we carry out our work. Most Singaporeans are groomed to be obedient at a very young age and do not question whether these rules and regulations are detrimental to their well-being. In every social environment, there is always the good and the bad. Therefore there will be rules and regulations that will be beneficial to some and to others not.

The “Professional people” or specialist, who set up the work procedures in how certain work should be done, actually adopted these work procedures when they were studying. Universities usually teach students how certain work, for example, accounting, should be done. They are taught to apply the same work procedures when they go out in the world and work. Therefore, the standardization of work actually starts when we are in school. Even the government set the standardization of work in order for government bodies to carry out work uniformly. These can be seen in uniform organisations, statutory boards and civil – service organisations.

Workers are surrounded by rules and regulations. They follow proper work procedures to do our work. Day in day out, nine to five, they follow the same work procedures. As mention before, some of them endure their “boring & torturous” job because what they earn may be barely enough for them to survive. The work that they do will become repetitious. They may perform their job just like a robot. Eventually they will become bored and alienated from their work. For example, a cashier cashing in the goods that customers purchase at a supermarket. The process of cashing in the goods never change. The cashier internalizes the process. The tools that she uses to cash in the goods and herself become one. She becomes alienated from her work. Companies may form unions to persuade their workers that their work life is normal when it is actually detrimental to their well-being and there is no need for self development. A false consciousness is formed among the workers.

On the bright side, more companies nowadays recognise the need of self – development and encourage it. However, even when self-development programs are being developed, some workers especially clerical staff (non-graduates) will still be stuck in their repetitious work, due to the fact that their education level is low and are earning a small salary. They would not have much chance to change to a better job. The only option is to further their studies. However, they also may not have enough money to upgrade themselves unless their companies are willing to sponsor them or they themselves find other means to pay for their education.

In some companies, eventhough one may have the means to further their studies, their company rules may make it difficult for them to do so. This is especially so when the subject that they are learning is not relevant to their work. Some workers lose their moral in studying because studying and working is not easy and if they fail because they were not able to obtain leave in order to study for their exams, their moral will further slide down south. They may all together give up studying thus thrashing the hope of ever getting a better job or promotion. This also puts a halt on their self-development. Therefore, companies should encourage and support those that want to study eventhough what they are studying may not be relevant to their job.

Their companies should grant them study leave for them eventhough what they are studying is not relevant to their jobs.Supervisors must have a change of mindset if these were to happen. They must realise that we are now in a ever changing world where the power of knowledge helps one to develop their self-development and help them to work better. They must not have the notion that if their workers upgrade themselves, they will take over their jobs. The rules and regulations that govern the way employees work also make them feel like they are in an iron cage. Some employees may feel this constrictive effect. They may not be able to find ways to make their work more interesting and effective. If they do, their supervisors may not like it. This is especially so for employees whose supervisors go by the book. Those in the accountancy department are mostly to portray this kind of behaviour. However, I am not saying that all organisations do not have avenues for their employees to make suggestions about ways to improve their work and how they can upgrade themselves. Even if companies have avenues for suggestion making, supervisors must also have an open mindset to implement the suggestions that are valid and feasible to implement.

Therefore rules and regulations are a must for the smooth running of a company or country. These rules and regulations may make employees feel alienated from their work or make them feel like they are in an iron cage. In order to counter these negative effects that will affect workers performances, employees must have a say in the work processors. They must be able to suggest changes that can be made to their work processors so that they will be able to perform effectively. There must also be flexibility in a company. For example, employees should be granted study leave for the subjects that they are studying eventhough it may not be relevant to their jobs. Supervisors must adopt an open mindset and encourage their workers to study and upgrade themselves. Employees must be given a chance for job rotation because some employees may become bored of doing the same kind of job for many years or it may be due to the fact that the job that some employees indulge do not match in what they specialise in. For example, an employee specialising in mass communication but is doing finance work. He or she may feel better off doing work regarding about mass communication. Therefore he or she should be allowed to job rotate.

For all these changes to take place, companies must adopt the correct working culture for their employees so that they would work effectively and not suffer from alienation from their work or even feel like they are in an iron cage. If workers feel alienated from their work or feel that they are in an iron cage, their self-esteem may dive south. The situation worsens if these employees are not given a chance to engage in self- development. Their thinking processors may fade and their brains may die a natural death. Ever wondered why at times you can see people doing things automatically without thinking. Most likely they are working in a government body or a company where it’s rules and regulations are rigid and non-flexible. They may not be able to improve themselves. I hope in the future all companies will become more flexible and allow their employees to indulge in self-development and upgrade themselves for better work opportunities and to earn higher salaries.

DEVELOPING INTELLIGENCE, PROBLEM SOLVING AND A THINKING NATION

We are in the 21st century and globalization is on the rise. Globalization brings about a wave of innovation, advancement in technology, more entrepreneurs setting up businesses and barriers in communication being broken down. There will be greater competition between countries and cities. It will be a no holds barred competition. Whichever country that retains its competitive advantage edge will survive.

Knowledge and innovation will be important. The recent development of a computer programme called Deep Blue which beat Gary Kasparov in chess was a great achievement in human innovation. Companies use the latest technology that is available to them to their advantage and organize themselves in a way that their workers can use their creativity in order to accomplish their task. In this way, they can be more competitive and survive for a long time.

Our future will be a changing one. There will be rapid changes. New technology will come and go at a blink of an eye. The cycle will continue until the world cease to exist. As these changes can be unpredictable we must prepare ourselves for the future.

An Education and training culture must be created for us to prepare for the future. How countries and communities will distinguish themselves from the rest will be how well their citizens can learn and adapt to changes. Therefore the main task of education is to provide the fundamental skills and knowledge for our youths to survive in the future. It is also to help them to cultivate the habit of learning and how to be more creative.

Some people are more creative than others. The same goes with intelligence. People with good imaging abilities tend to be more creative. In being creative, people can be good at solving problems. There are various ways in solving problems. One of the common ways in solving problems is by trial and error. In an era of high speed computers, many trial-and-error solutions are best left to machines.

Another way of problem solving is by understanding the problem. Even if one discover the general properties of a correct solution, it is still not enough to guide further action. It could be followed up with other methods of problem solving like trial and error methods.

Some people solve problems by recollecting pass solutions. They have insightful knowledge on how to solve the problem. Therefore the ability to remember is very important. One good way of developing a good memory is by doing mind mapping. By mind mapping the solution you will be able to recollect how to solve the problem in the future.

The saying easier said that done is quiet true when it comes to problem solving. Some people have problems in problem solving. The problems are due to emotional barriers, cultural barriers, learned barriers and perceptual barriers.

Emotion barriers are inhibition and fear of making a fool of one self, fear of making a mistake, inability to tolerate ambiguity, excessive self criticism. For example, an architect is afraid to try an unconventional design because he or she fears that other architects will think it is frivolous.

Some people hold certain values like being playful which is only meant for children. Pleasure and humour are bad or have no value in serious business planning. Therefore when a corporate manager wants to solve a business problem, he becomes stern and angry when members of his marketing team joke playfully about possible solutions.

Learned barriers. They are conventions about users, meanings, possibilities and taboos. A cook doesn’t have any clean mixing bowls and fails to see that he could use a frying pan as a bowl. Their thinking is fixed. They cannot find alternatives. This is bad for problem solving. There must always be alternatives to problem solving.

Some people have habits that lead to failure to identify elements of a problem. For Example : An artist concentrates on drawing a vase of flowers without seeing the empty spaces around the vase are part of the composition.

Children with high IQ are considered to be smart, socially matured and well –adjusted. They tend to be very successful in life. However, most do not make genius-level contributions because these depend on a combination of intelligence, creativity and motivation.

Some research emphasizes the role of training and hard work to achieve eminence, but many theorists are reluctant to dismiss the importance of innate talent.Even the brightest may make wrong decisions. This is due to his or her experience thinking rationally. Their emotional intelligence is low. Some people might be high in Intelligence quotient but low in emotional quotient.

Thinking schools need to be developed in order to educate these youths to be leaders and harness their intelligence. They must learn how to put their intelligence into good use.

To learn something and applying it to life are two different things. Schools must develop future generations of thinking and committed citizens, capable of making good decisions to keep their country vibrant and successful in future.

Schools must develop a curriculum where thinking skills and learning skills are more emphasized. Students and teachers must spent more time doing more projects in order to help them develop these skills.

Lessons must be taken beyond the class room. On the job training is required for the students to gain insightful experience. Getting good grades in school is one thing but if they graduate with good grades but are unable to think and make good decisions than they might as well not study. In reality we only use 15% of what we learn in school when working in the outside world. The rest is by gaining experience by making good decisions and on the job training. Thinking schools must encourage more innovation.

A country must be a learning nation in order to cultivate a learning culture in the country. It must go beyond schools and educational institutions.

Learning goes beyond simply maximizing an individual’s potential. A nation’s culture and its social environment will shape what learning means. Environment does play a part in developing one’s own intelligence.

The other part is heredity. Researches have done experiment on the intelligence on identical twins. They have discovered that identical twins that develop from the same egg have identical genetic inheritance. Therefore if IQ is influenced by genes than the identical pair should have similar IQ compared to fraternal twins.

Other experiments were done on twins that were reared with different backgrounds. One being looked after educated parents and the other being looked after the orphanage. It was discovered that the one who was looked after by educated parents had greater IQ than the other one. I would say that genes and environment both are responsible for one’s intelligence.

A learning nation must begin by recognizing that education is a continuum, starting with the early pre-school years and continuing throughout life. Research on brain development in the last decade indicates that the early years in a child’s life are critical for developing the foundations of future intellectual and social development. The nation must train parents to provide their children with rich experiences to help them develop during their initial pre-school years.

There must be innovation at every level of society. Companies need to encourage innovation.

If students are encouraged to innovate in schools and later join a company that encourages innovation, they can apply their knowledge in innovation. It is a win-win situation. We acquire more skills and the company prospers.

Governments must get companies to be more involve in the educations of the young as part of a total environment. Many of the leading American companies have invested significant amount of their professional employees’ time in educational outreach activities – taking students from schools and giving them hands-on experiences and interesting them in real world technologies.

In encouraging creative thinking, we can change our mindset that only the top should be thinking and the job of everyone else is to do as told. By applying creative thinking to our work, we can do our job better. We can always think of improvements and better ways to accomplish our jobs.

Therefore developing one’s own intelligence and thinking is very important. It would lead to innovation and we will be to able adapt with society better. We as humans are constantly learning. Our brain is continually developing and growing more neurons!

Intelligence and creativity can be developed. We need not have to be born with it but those are that born with, well, it is a blessing. With the right teaching policies we can develop our intelligence and creativity. Therefore I hope all of you out there will use your intelligence and creativity more often.

HACKED BY A USB THUMB DRIVE

Scenario

ABC company is a top-notch car-making manufacturer. Recently they came up with plans to create a car that can think, talk, jump over a truck and many more incredible feats that a normal car cannot do. They were on a blink of success and were ready to launch their super car in June 2004. Unfortunately a rival company, DEF, outsmarted them. They released the same kind of car that ABC had designed in May 2004.

Just imagine the look on the management staff when the car was released. All department heads were taken to task. The CEO shouted“ HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN TO US!!!! OUR DESIGN IS EXCLUSIVE!!!” HOW COULD ANYONE GET HOLD OF OUR BLUEBPRINT!!!”

Even the CIO was puzzled. He was wondering how such an unfortunate event could happen. They had a top-notch internal and external security system and they were right. ABC ranked no 1 in computer security and was the most difficult company to hack. They had a good and sound security policy. The CEO instructed the CIO to solve the problem and if he did not come out with an answer in two weeks, he would be FIRED!!!

Out of desperation he hired a detective to solve the problem. The detective managed to infiltrate the rival’s company ( how? I do not know, it’s their job anyway) and discovered that a former disgruntled employee of ABC had stolen the designs by storing them in five USB 2.0GB thumb drives!!!! Apparently he was the first person to design the blue print but it was given to somebody else to complete the job. He was not given the due recognition for his design.

Some organisations have no policy in place for detecting USB drivers or regulating their use. It is relatively easy for a visiting customer, technician, consultant, disgruntled employee, or anyone clever enough to gain access to a PC. Then they can plug a USB drive into any USB port and download dozens or hundreds of files at one go when nobody is watching. USB drives have surpassed 2GB of storage and are still growing. They are easy to hide as they are tiny. You can put it in your top pocket of your brand new shirt.

Another threat is that files infected with virus can easily be transmitted into networks through USB drives, completely bypassing anti-virus gateways or e-mail servers. Hackers can store a bevy of sophisticated tools on these tiny devices, including port scanners, spyware, password crackers, and keyword loggers.

A hacker can then use social engineering techniques to gain access the company and access a computer that has a USB drive to do all kinds of sinister attacks. Lastly, if any of these devices are lost by staff members, anyone who find it has easy access to all the stored files.

Preventions

1. Educate the staff on the proper and improper use of USB drives.

2.Have a good and sound security policy on the proper and improper use of USB drivers.

3.Permission needs to be asked first before the usage of USB drives

4.Store USB drives in a safe place.

5.Have a sign in and sigh out book for the USB drives.

6. Make sure all files store in the USB drives are encrypted. Therefore when any of the drivers are lost and found by someone else. The files would not be able to be accessed.

7. Make sure the screen-saver password-protect feature are implemented on all PCs. Locking out PCs when not in use after 3 to 5 minutes.

8. Set up anti-virus system to scan all drives and removable media for viruses and other malware. Confirm that the scanning takes place or run a manual scan before transferring files to the desktop.

9. Disable USB ports. You can do so via the system BIOS settings, which can be password protected.

10. A keep text file with the user name and phone number should be kept on the USB drives. This file need not be encrypted. To be access by anyone who has found a USB drive and return it to a appropriate owner. Extra information Third party utilities are available for locking a desktop.

They are :

1 TopLang Software’s Desktop Lock

2. Ixis’s PC Lockup

3. Spytech Software’s SpyLock

4. Tomorroware’s StayOut.

Provide users with secure USB drives. Media JumpDrive Secure is a USB flash drive with built-in password protection. SanDisk offers CruzerLock software with its USB flash drives, letting you password-protect and encrypt individual files. Sony offer products with fingerprint authentication.

SecureWave’S SecureNT lets you control end-user access to any number of I/O devices including USB flash drives, by using an access control list of company-approved devices, deny access to devices not on the list, and monitor the use of all such devices.

The uses of slang terms

The uses of slang terms in society have been common since modern man began speaking. The usage of slang terms have been so common that it has been taken for granted. The degradation of one has been ignored when a slang term is used to describe or narrate one’s activity in life. For example, the use of the word Niger to describe a person of black ethnicity used to be an offending word. It is now more acceptable among the younger generation but the older generation still finds the word offending. During the apartheid days, blacks were separated from the whites. Lines were drawn to designate where blacks could or could not roam. The most common slang term to describe them was Niger. It was used by the whites to discriminate against the blacks.

The use of slang terms also describes whether one is a minority or a majority in society. In this instance, those that seldom use slang terms are thought to be educated and refined. The opposite is also true. For example the use of the word "pop” to describe a birth process. The word pop means to appear suddenly. It hardly describes the giving birth process of a human being. To the blacks, this word may be offending as it describe them as being of low class and hence giving birth out of wedlock. To some it is offending because to have a baby involves an intimate human activity and child is a symbol of love so therefore to use the word popped to describe the birth of the child means that their child was unplanned or it could have been conceived out of wedlock. One may argue, that some births are conceived out of wedlock, however, as humans we must always respect the integrity of the birth process of a human being.

Seldom do we notice slang terms in the press. Even if it use, it is in inverted commas. It is to indicate that slang terms is no part of the English Language. Journalist and Editors stand ten poles away from slang terms because by using them it would degrade their status. One of the main objectives of the press is to protect those that own the means of producing news and the media industry on the whole. Even governments fear the use of slang terms. In Singapore, there was a trend to use slang terms after Gurmit Singh, actor from the sitcom Puah Choo Kang popularized it. Instantly, our Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew mentioned the disadvantages of using slang terms as it would degrade the status of oneself and one country. However, Gurmit Singh was defended as being a person in having the right to use slang words because he was educated. The underline meaning of the defense comes in two folds. One is to protect the image of the media industry which is under the control of the government and to minimize the degradation of the status of an educated person if he accidently uses a slang terms. The non – educated is however not protected at all. The government knows that the eradication of the usage of slang terms in Singapore is totally impossible. So in order to minimize any damage, it is better to protect the elite than the non – educated Singaporeans. First impression last.

The use of slang terms is acceptable if it used appropriately. We must however use our discretion in using them. Some words may be insulting to different people of different races, religion and ethnicity. Some Governments use the power of language to protect the status quo through the power of the press. I do hope that Singaporeans do continue using “Singlish” but do so with restraint. Take care and have a good day.

My Eating Habits

If anyone knows me, they would know that I love eating hence the reason why I am plump. Eating has always been my favourite pass time. If I have the time and sufficient expenses to spare, I indulge in occasional fine dining. Yet there was a time that I refuse to eat. Surprise? This essay will be on how I developed my eating habits.

When I was around six years old, my parents realized I had a difficulty in eating. I refused to have lunch or dinner. Even during breakfast time, I would try to hide my bread or throw it away. Whenever I was caught red-handed, they would either scold or cane me.

However, it came to a point that they realized that I had an eating problem. Therefore they made an appointment for me to meet with a psychiatrist to solve my problem. On the day of the appointment, they did not tell me that they were going to bring me to see a psychiatrist. One reason is that I was always afraid of hospitals. I viewed them as morbid institutions associated with death and sufferings.

After I was aware where I was going. I started crying and began to throw tantrums in the car. My dad shouted at me and at once I kept quiet. We walked silently towards the psychiatric clinic. In the meantime, my imagination was going wild. I thought my parents were going to abandon me. Tears flowed down but my mother comforted me and wiped away my tears. Somehow I always felt safe in my mother’s arms. I did not like the psychiatrist. He looked very stern. He is someone who you would not want to meet in a dark alley.

The psychiatrist just wished me good morning and told me to follow him. I looked at him in a daze. I refused to move an inch. My parents decided to follow me. I walked very slowly with my parents beside me. I felt like a condemned man meeting his end. The psychiatrist brought me to a children’s ward. The children looked very under nourished, like they were from some refugee camp. I was shivering with fear. The psychiatrist then spoke. I said to myself “Oh WOW!!! He could speak!!!!”. He told me that if I continued not to eat my meals I would have to stay in the ward for sometime. At once the thought of staying in this ward scared the hell out of me. I told my parents that I would start eating. This was the define moment that started my love for food.

I went home and started eating my meals. However, the meals that I ate were hawker food and I began to love them!! My parents thought that I would love eating hawker food like hokkien mee, fried kway teow, chicken rice, kway chap, fried rice and etc. They were not wrong. I grew very fond of this kind of food. My weight started to increase. My mother use to take me to hawker centres to eat hokkien mee and kway chap. These dishes were her favourite as well. My dad took me out to eat wanton mee, fried kway teow and chicken rice mostly. My dad and I also started an eating competition whereby we would see who could eat the most food. My mom did not like the idea and always chided my dad for initiating the competition. Therefore, everytime I went out with him I ended up eating more then one kind of food. However, there were consequences.

As one problem was solved, another one was created. I began to dislike eating home cook food. I only liked hawker food. Even at weddings or parties, I did not like to eat the food that was prepared. I began to reject the food my mother was cooking also. Some of you may be surprised that I would reject my mother’s cooking as my mother is rather known to be a good cook herself. To rectify the problem, I was prohibited from eating hawker food for two months. I hated it. I would sulk during lunch and dinner. The only thing that made me eat the food was the fear of being caned. Gradually I began to like home cook food and started to appreciate it. My parents were delighted and my mother always made a point to cook the food that I like.

I am going to side track a bit and write about how I got to like durians. At first, I hated them because of their smell. However, one fine day in Malacca, my dad forced me to eat a durian seed. Up till today, he considered what he did as one of his biggest mistake in life. Why? Well because I got to like it so much that at every durian season I would demand for durians.

My appetite kept on improving but I still stayed away from fast food as I only liked to eat Chinese hawker food. I only began eating fast food when I was in secondary one. I presumed I was getting more matured and was getting less fussy with food. As time went on, I became more adventurous in trying various kinds of food. I began to look forward towards going out with friends and relatives to try various kinds of food cuisines. For example, I love going to out to eat seafood with my food eating kakis. One of the best seafood restaurant I have been is Jumbo and for western food Morton’s gets my vote.

My favourite food cuisines are Chinese, French, Japanese, Indonesian, Korean, Indian, Eurasian and Brazilian. I will give a write up on the various kinds of restaurants I have visited and the various kinds of food that they serve in my next post. I do not intend to give my food tasting adventurous so for the meantime to all food lovers out there, be merry and keep on eating. Of course look after your health and weight also. Pot calling the kettle black.

The Plight of The Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church has for decades been rocked with scandals of sexual abuse. It has been faced with criminal law suits. These scandals have deeply damaged the creditability of the church. However, as an open institution the Roman Catholic will always be open to scrutiny. It has to maintain it’s creditability as a Holy Place of Worship. Most scandals relating to the Roman Catholic Church were sexual abuse cases against minors.

Here is a list of sexual abuse cases committed by Priests around the world. The list is not exhaustive.

1. May 2009 – There was a report that priests abused children for decades in Catholic run Institutions.

2. Nov 2009 – There was a report on child abuse cases in Dublin from 1995 to 2004. The Church Authorities covered up the cases of child abuses until the mid 1990’s.

3. Feb 2004 – Independent researchers said 10,667 people accused US priests of child sex abuse from 1950 to 2002. More than 17% of accusers had siblings that were abused.

4. Germany – More than 250 people in Germany were abused at church – run schools in past decades.

5. Switzerland – The Diocese of Chur in Eastern Switzerland was investigating around 10 complaints of abuse cases committed by at least 3 monks. No action was taken.

6. Netherlands – 3 priests from Salesian order abused pupils decades ago at a boarding school near Dutch – German border.

7. Austria – A wave of reports of child sexual abuses were reported in Austrian Catholic Institution. The arch – abbot of Salzburg’s St Peter’s monastery in March admitted to sexually a boy 40 years ago.

8. Mexico – Legionaries Of Christ founder was discovered to be a sexual molester. He fathered atleast a child with his mistress.

Some of these cases were unreported to the civil authorities. Some of the offenders were reassigned to other locations at which they again had contact with minors. Psychiatrists believed that people with pedophile behavior can be cured through counseling.The Church has compensated in monetary terms to those that were abused. The Vatican have asked the Church in US to Institute reforms to check on the backgrounds of priests, church employers and volunteers.

These reforms should have been implemented along time ago so that child sexual abuses might not have occurred. It has been very unfortunate that the Church has to face such scandals. However, I think these scandals are not only confined to the Church. It can happen at any organization. There have been cases of sexual abuses at child care centers as well. However, as the Roman Catholic Church is a symbol of place of Worship, the impact face by the church would be greater than other organizations.

The media also gives extensive coverage on such cases. This aggravates the damage done to the Church’s reputation and creditability. One of the reasons why priests sexually abuse children is due to the strict code of celibacy observed my them. It is believed that Priest would be able to live a life celibacy through pray and the trust in the Lord, Jesus Christ. Though this practice sits well with most priests, there are some priests that may be exceptional to the course. Priests are after all human. The temptation of the flesh would definitely affect them. As many priests are assigned to orphanages and catholic run child care centers, young children are their easiest target to relieve their sexual attention.

Covering up of child sexual abuses by Priests that hold high ranking positions can occur just like in any organization. If this cover up goes undiscovered, it will be detrimental to the reputation and creditability to the Church. It is good that reforms have been implemented to curb sexual abuses from occurring but it will not eradicate the problem totally. Why? Because, humans are a difficult subject to study. We cannot know a person in a few days. It takes months and years to study a person’s behavior.

There is a substantial amount of people that are very angry with the church for covering up child sexual abuses for a very long time. Due their anger with the church, some have left the catholic faith or wish not to be associated with the Catholic Church. They have blame the way Bishops are appointed in the church as a factor to the occurrence of child sexual abuses.

As the Pope appoints who is to be a bishop, there is no check on the Bishop’s background and behaviour because he has been with the church for a good period of time. They feel that the public should vote the appointment of Bishops. However, would it solve the problem of eradicating child sexual abuses? I do not think so. How would you know that the Bishop chosen by the people is not a pedophile or a homosexual. Humans can easily hide their behaviors. For example, gays nowadays portray normal heterosexual behavior in public as not to be discriminated.

Some of the child sexual abuse offenses occurred long time ago. I feel it is because that the catholic community were not prepared to face such circumstances that they were greatly shocked when child sexual abuses were made known publicly. The fact that it is still occurring makes one lose further confidence with the church. The Catholic Community ask questions like how could the church let such offenses happen? Have they learnt their lesson and have measure been implemented to prevent these offenses from happening?

The Catholic Church is doing their best to stop these offenses from happening. They have implemented measures like doing background checks on their staff and volunteers, however, whether these measures are carried out is another question. There are so many Catholic Institutions around the word. Whoever is running these institutes must be responsible in implementing the measures passed down ny the Vatican. Integrity must be observed. It is like what is happening in China. The central government can pass laws and reforms but the country is so huge. It is up to the officials in the other states in China to carry out the laws and reforms properly. However, this is not done so.

Now is the time for us as Catholics to unite and preserve the good name of the Catholic Church and spread the Lord's word. We should not abandon the church just because of the set back's that it is facing. These set back's are just cause by a few rotten hats. In which organisation are there no rotten hats? Do you just abandon the church because of these set backs? Where is our faith and loyalty towards the Catholic Church? If Jesus was around, he would be very sad and he would all want us to support him in his grieve.

Let's look at the Catholic Church in totality. It has done more good than bad. The goodness that it has done outweighs the plight that it is now facing. I think Catholics can contest to that. We need to continue be good catholics and defend the name of the Catholic Church whenever we are called upon. I have made with so many good and warm friends at the Catholic organisations that I have joined. One of them is called Choice. By joining these Catholic Organisations, my faith has also grown. I do agree that asians tend to place greater importance towards their catholic religion then westerners. Just go to the Catholic Churches in Asian countries and compare it to the western catholic churches and you will know what I am talking about. The congregation at Asian Churchs are usually alot but in Western churches it is only a handful. Even so, I think we must never stop losing our faith and keep on defending the Catholic Church's name.

On this note, I wish for the lord the always look and shower his blessings upon you and you family.

How I Took up Sociology and How It Has Effected My Course of Life

I undertook my Sociology course at Sim University in the year 2006. It was divine intervention that made me take up Sociology.

Sociology has always been a subject close to my heart. I first cross roads with the subject when I was taking a Diploma in Economics in 2001 at Stansfield. At first, I was baffled with the subject. I did not understand anything that was going on. Even the debates that my fellow classmates were indulged in were Greek to me. I found myself in a Labyrinth.

I searched for somebody to help me understand the subject. I found help in a retired Sociologist lecturer. She opened my eyes to social happenings occurring in society that I had never noticed before. The seed of interest in Sociology was planted in me on that very day. However, I think the seed was planted long time ago but I never knew it, it was when I was around 6 years old. Whenever my dad took me out, he would always ask me to look around me and ask me to describe the behavior of people. I read my dad's psychology books. Actually, I preferred to looked at people’s behaviour collectively and not as an individual. I regarded studying an individual's behaviour to subjective.

I knew what I wanted to be in the future. Class did not become a bore anymore. On the record, I am the only one that passed the subject. I searched for a course that only catered to Sociology. Unfortunately, the only courses that catered to Sociology were conducted only at NUS and NTU. I was not eligible to go to these institutions.

Therefore, I gave up the idea of studying Sociology and took other courses. In 2005, my life hit a crises. I was at a total lost but the only person that made me carry on was Our Lady. Somehow she was making me live through my life eventhough I was facing many obstacles.

On one faithful Sunday, a course on being a youth leader was announced in church. At once something in me told me to join the course. I was very reluctant. However, a voice kept disturbing me by telling me to join the course. It went on for a week until I could not take it anymore and decided to join. Only then did the voice stop disturbing me.

I never regretted joining the course because it was at the course that I found my life back and the life I was suppose to lead. An aspiring and powerful priest helped me to find my life back. During the prays, God spoke to me. He told me that my purpose on earth was to make known the inequalities and sufferings that society was facing. I asked him how in heaven’s name am I suppose to accomplish the task he asked me to do.

The answer came to me when I went home. Strangely, a sociology textbook which I have not read for 4 years laid on my bed. I opened the book and started reading it. I could not put the book down. Suddenly, my interest in Sociology was rekindled. I knew how to go about accomplishing the task he asked me to do, however, there was another question. How am I going to specialize in Sociology? If anybody was to publish my writings, I needed to be somebody who had good Sociology credentials. I decided to search on the internet to see whether there were any schools that were conducting Sociology courses besides NUS and NTU. Truth behold, SIM University was going to conduct a degree course in Sociology. I instantly jumped at the opportunity.

It has already been three years since I have been studying the subject. I totally immersed myself in the subject as a result I have become the subject itself. It actually changed my life because nowadays whenever people speak to me or whenever I view my surroundings, I start to analyze and evaluate them. I wonder whether it is a blessing or a curse. I have yet to find the answer.

This behavior of mine has not met with favorable response. People have told me that I have stopped being a human. Not everything in life needs analyzing and evaluating. That I have to separate what I have been trained for in order to communicate with other people. That I always impose my will on others and never listen to them. I am trying to correct these problems but find it very difficult to do so because I cannot see the problems myself. For all I know, I do listen to people and try to understand where they are coming from and then I give my opinion. Maybe it is because I refuse to bulge from my opinion but then again I do give in also. I am really at a crossroads because I really do want to interact with people and improve relationships with them.

I am still not giving up hope in improving my relationships with others. I am also very determine to accomplish the task God set for me. I can only now pray to Our lady to help me have a better life and also help me to be more human and understanding. On this note, I wish everybody Happy Easter!!!

Karl Marx : Biographical Sketch ( A Tribute to Karl Marx – 127th death anniversary )

Karl Marx was born on the 5th of May, 1818 in Tier. Tier was a commercial city in Southwestern Germany Rhineland.

Marx’s father was a secularly educated lawyer so was Marx. When France ceded Rhineland to Prussia after defeating Napolean, Jews were faced with a repel of the civil rights granted under French Rule. In order to continue his practice, Marx’s father converted to Lutheranism in 1817.

Karl lived in a middle class home, he studied as a law student at the University of Bonn ( 1835 ) and at University of Berlin ( 1836 – 1838 ). He also studied history and philosophy.

In Berlin, Marx joined the Young Hegelians. It was a group of radical thinkers who followed the teachings of Georg W.F Hegal. They developed a powerful critique of Georg W.F Hegal. Georg W.F Hegal ( 1770 – 1831 ) was a dominant German Intellectual figure of day and one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century.
Marx constructed the basis of his theoretical system, historical materialism, by inverting Hegal’s philosophy of social change. In 1841, Marx earned a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Jena. However, Berlin Ministry of Education black listed him due to his radical views. As a result this circumstance, he could not continue his education.

Marx accepted an offer to write for the Rheinische Zeitang, a liberal newspaper published in Cologue. He became an editor of the newspaper. He wrote on the social conditions of Prussia. He criticized the government’s treatment of the poor and exposed the harsh conditions of peasants working in Moselle wine producing region.
However his reports brought censors and condemnation by the Prussia government. He was forced to resign from his post.

He married his childhood sweetheart, Jenny Von Westphalen ( daughter of a Prussian baron ). They moved to Paris during the fall of 1843. Paris was the centre of European Intellectual and Political movements.

Marx became acquainted with a number of leading socialist writers and revolutionaries. One of them was Heri de Saint – Simon. Heri de Saint – Simon ( 1760 – 1825 ) ideas lead to the creation of Christian Socialism.
Christian Socialism is a movement that sought to organize modern industrial society according to the social principles espoused by Christianity.

To counter the exploitation and egoistic competition that accompanied industrial capitalism, Saint – Simonians advocated that industry and commerce be guided according to an ethic of brotherhood and cooperation.

By instituting common ownership of society’s productivity forces and an end to rights of inheritance, they believed that the powers of science and industry can be marshaled to create a more just society free from poverty.

Adam Smith believed that any and all are free to enter and compete in the market place of goods and services. Under the guiding force of the “invisible hand”, the best products at the lowest price will prevail.

Consumers will dictate what will be produced and bought. In the process, the potentially destructive drive for selfishly bettering one’s lot is checked by a rationally controlled competition for markets.

A system of perfect liberty is thus created that both generates greater wealth and promotes the general well being of society.

Marx shared much of Smith’s analysis of economics but Marx insisted that from establishing a system of perfect liberty, private ownership of the means of production will bring about alienation of workers ( more on that later ).
David Ricardo ( 1772 – 1823 ) wrote on a number of subjects including the condition of wages, the source of value, taxation, and the production and distribution of goods.

A leading economists in his day, his writing’s were influential in shaping England’s economic policies. It was from his critique of these writers that Marx would develop his humanist philosophy and economists theories.

Marx also began what would become a lifelong collaboration and friendship with Friedrich Engel’s, whom he met while serving as an editor of the Zeitung.
Marx stay in France was short-lived as his journalism inherited the irked of the government. He was expelled in January 1845 from the country at the request of the Prussian government for his antiroyalist articles.

Unable to return, he renounced his Prussian citizenship and settled in Brussels with his family until 1848. Marx extended his ties to revolutionary working – class movements through associations with members if the League of the Just and the Communist League.

In Brussels Marx and Engles produced two of their most important early works, The German Ideology and the Communist Manifesto.

1848, workers and peasants began staging revolts throughout much of Europe. As the revolution spread, Marx and Engels left Brussels and headed to Cologue to serve as co-editors of the radical Neve Rheinische Zeitung, a paper devoted to furthering the revolutionary course.

For his part in the protests, Marx was charged with inciting rebellions and defaming the Prussian royal family. Marx was forced to leave the country. He returned to Paris but soon was pressured by the French government to leave the country as well.
Marx and his family moved to London in 1849. In London, Marx turned his attention more fully to the study of economics. Spending some 60 hours per week in British Museum. Marx produced a number of important works including ( 1867 ), considered a masterpiece critique of capitalist economic principles and their human cost.
From 1851 o 1862, he was a regular contributor to the New York Daily Tribune, writing on such issues as political upheavals in France, the Civil War in the United States, Britain colonization of India and the hidden causes of war.
In 1864, Marx helped found and direct International Working men’s association, a socialist movement committed to ending the inequalities and alienation or “loss of self” experienced under capitalism.

The foundation had branches across the European Continent and the United States and Marx’s popular writing and activism gave him an international audience for his ideas.
In 1876, the Foundation disintegrated. Marx could not support himself. His health worsen. His family health was also worsening. Marx’s wife died in 1881, his daughter died of starvation a year later and Marx himself died on March 14, 1883.

His Intellectual and Core Ideas

By mid19th century, the industrial revolution that began in Britain 100 years earlier was spreading throughout Western Europe. Technology advances in transportation, communication and manufacturing spurred an explosion in the commercial markets for goods.

It resulted in the birth of capitalism and the middle class owners, better known as the bourgeoisie, to economic and political power. The size of the manufacturing force soon rivaled and then surpassed those working in the agriculture industry.
The change from Agriculture to Industrial was more prominent in Manchester, England. In Manchester England, its population exploded to 1000%. The extremely growing fast rates meant that families had to live in make shift housing without heat or light and in dismal conditions that fueled the spread of diseases. Conditions in the mechanized factories were no better.

The factories were poorly ventilated and lit. The environment was hazardous to one’s well being and factor owners disciplined workers to monotonous rhythms of mass production.
A 70 hour work week was not common for men and women. Children as young as six often worked as much as 50 hours a week. Yet the wages earned by laborers left families on the blink of beggary. The appalling living and work standards lead Engels to describe Manchester as “ Hell On Earth”

It was in reaction to such dire consequences the Marx sought to forge a theoretical model intended not only to interpret the world but also to change it.
He centered his analysis on the middle class. For Marx, classes are group of individuals who share a common position in relation to the means or forces of production. These refer to the raw materials, technology, machines, factories and land that are necessary in the production of goods.

Each class is distinguished by what it owns with regard to the means of production. Wage labourers, capitalists and landowners constitute three big classes of modern society based on the capitalist mode of production.

Under capitalism, there are “ the owners merely of labour power, owners of capital and landowners where respective sources of income are wages, profit and gound-cent
While wage owners are free to quit or refuse a particular job , the nevertheless must sell their labour power to someone in the capitalist class in order to live. Labourers have only their ability to work to exchange for money that can be used to purchase the goods necessary for survival.

However, the salary earned is far exceeded by the profits reaped by those who control the productive forces. As a result, classes are pitted against each other in a struggle to control the means of production, the distribution of resources and the profits. For Marx, this class struggle is the catalyst for social change and the prime mover of history.

This is because any mode of production based on private property bears the seeds of its own destruction by igniting ongoing economic conflicts that inevitably will sweep away existing social arrangements and give birth to new classes of oppressors and the oppressed. Indeed, as Marx states in one of the most famous passages in “ The Communist Manifesto”, “The history of all hitherto existing society, is the history of class struggles.”

Marx developed his theory in reaction to lassie – faire capitalism, an economic system based on individual competitors fro markets. It emerged out of from the destruction of feudalism in which peasant agricultural production was based on subsistence standards in the service to lords and the collapse of merchant and craft guilds, where all aspects of commerce and industry were tightly controlled by monopolistic professional organistions.

Labourers sell not only their labour power but also their souls ( alienation ). They have no control over the product they are producing while their work is devoid of any redeeming human qualities.

Although capitalism produces self-betterment for owners of capital, it necessarily prevents workers from realizing their essential human capacity to engage in creative labour.

In highly mechanized factories, a worker’s task might be so mundane and repetitive that she seems to become part of the machine itself. Here is the concept of alienation.

For example, a student once said she worked in a job in which she had a scanner attached to her arm. Her job was simply to stand by a conveyer belt in which boxes of various sizes came by. She stuck her arm out and “read” the boxes with her scanner arm.

Her individual human potential was completely irrelevant to her job. She was just a “cog in a wheel” of mechanization. Marx maintained that when human actions are no different than those of a machine, the individual is dehumanized.

Capitalism is inherently exploitative. It is the labour power of workers that produces the products to be sold by the owners of businesses. Workers mine the raw materials, tend to the machines and assemble the products.

Yet, it is the owner who takes for himself the profits generated by the sale of goods. Meanwhile, worker salaries hover around subsistence levels, allowing them to purchase only the necessities sold at a profit by capitalists – that will ensure their return to work the next day.

From the point of view of the businesses owner, capitalism is a “dog eat dog” system in which business owners must always watch the “ bottom line” in order to compete for market dominance.

Business owners can never rest on their laurels – for someone can always come along and create either a better or newer product or the same product at a lower price.
Business owner must constantly think strategically and work to improve her product or reduce her costs. Cutting costs can increase a business owner’s profit either directly or in-directly. Directly ( as she keeps more money for herself ). Indirectly ( enabling the businesses owner to lower the price and sell more of her products ).

Competition between capitalist may lead to greater levels of productivity, it also results in a concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
One of the basic truths of capitalism is that it takes money to make money, and the more money a business owner has at his or her disposal, the more ability he or her has to generate profit-making schemes.

For instance, a wealthy capitalist might temporarily underprice his product in order to force his competitors out of business. Once the competition is eliminated and a monopoly is established, the product can be priced as high as the market will bear.
The business owners who are unable to compete successfully for a share of the market find themselves joining the swelling ranks of property less wage earners or the “proletariat”

This brings not only economic consequences such as those just mention, but political consequences as well. Marx points out that the former capitalists bring with them a level of education not possessed by typical wage labourers. This adds to the revolutionary potential of the working – class movement in two ways.

First, the proletariat is transformed into an overwhelming majority of the population, making it class interests an irresistible force for change.

Second, those former members of the bourgeois class translate their resentment into a radicalization of the proletariat by further educating the workers with regard to both the nature of capitalist accumulation and the workers’ role in overthrowing the system of their oppression.

He sought to generate class consciousness – an awareness of the part of the working class of their common relationship to the means of production. Marx felt that this awareness would be the first step in instituting social change. More specifically, the development of class consciousness was a vital key in the evolution of society toward an ultimate, utopian end : communism. He believed that the epoch of capitalism was a necessary stage in this evolution – and the last historical period rooted in class conflict.

The class antagonism between bourgeois capitalist and the wage earning, property – less proletariat would climax in a communist revolution that would transform the proletariat in to the ruling class.

Using the power of the state to further its own class interest, the proletariat would wrest control of society’s productive forces from the hands of the bourgeoisie and create a centralized, socialist economy.

Socialism, however, would be but a temporary phase, as classes and class conflict would soon disappear. Capitalism would create the capital and technology needed to sustain a communist society, the final stage in history.

In this utopian society, the production of goods will be controlled collectively and not by private business elites. Without the private ownership of the means of production, society would longer be divided along class lines; and without antagonistic class interests, the social conditions that produce conflict, exploitation and alienation would no longer exist. Finally, without class conflict, the fuel that ignites social change, the dialectical progression of human history comes to an end, leaving individuals to cultivate their natural talents and actualize their full potential.

Many consider Marx’s theory as obsolete as the internal contradictions of capitalism has been checked by a number of practices and ongoing government interventions in the economy. None other the less, Marx theory on communism still does spark interest various intellectuals and it still holds certain truths.

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a wonderful year and another great decade ahead!

~ From W & C

Happy Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone, from both of us! May your year be full of splendour, peace, joy, happiness, and those who have not found love find it, and those who have found love, may your relationships blossom and grow!

Have a wonderful 2010!