An account of the origin and progress of British influence in Malaya by Sir Frank Swettenham, K.C.M.G. that documents the history of British Malaya up to 1907.
https://britishmalaya.blogspot.com/2012/03/chapter-ii-malacca-early-history.html
Tuesday, April 23, 2019
Sunday, April 21, 2019
Musings of an Aging Adult.
Its Monday morning here in Bkt. Bruang,Melaka and the morning breakfast was a good one with sausages , bacon and eggs and my pick - me upper cup of Joe.(coffee); a cooling morning breeze is wafting the warm inviting smells of cooking (sambal and spices) from the neighbors houses, the birds are singing and the sun is shining its brilliant golden warm rays through the front doors of my house ....ALL IS WELL INDEED!Well, what can i say, it was a good morning until I turned on the INTERNET for my usual morning madness of local and global news. I for one am beginning to put my faith in the old adage, NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS!
It is very obvious in today's world and in today’s economy, we’re suffering from a loss of trust, caused by a lack of virtuous behaviour, which has not only damaged reputations, but also harden the hearts and minds of the youths and younger generation.
Believe me when I say, the old Buddhist sayings that goes something like this : We don't trust and are suspicious of others simply because that is how we are (inside) is a norm thats very true of this society today.
Humans are social animals, no doubt. And as social animals, humans form themselves into tribes – groups. We have a compulsion to divide the world into good guys and bad guys. Naturally, my group are the goodies but, unfortunately, your group are the baddies.
In truth, none of us is all good or all bad. All of us are good in some respects and bad in others. And psychologists tell us we’re all often guilty of hypocrisy – applying high standards in judging others’ behaviour while making excuses for our own.
Equally, much of what we do we do for mixed motives. Try this test (one I usually fail): when you’re giving money to charity, how do you answer when asked if you’d like your donation to remain anonymous?
It’s possible some of us do virtuous acts – or make statements in support of virtuous policies – without any genuine interest in the wellbeing of others. It’s possible, but I doubt it’s very common.
What’s much more likely is mixed motives: we’re genuine in our professed concern about others, but equally genuine in our desire to be seen by others as having such a concern. That’s not really hypocritical, just being human.
This rolls down to all aspects of our day to day life. Especially in Money Matters. Because money is everything in today's world we have been trained by our society to distrust the others.
But when we lost our trust, unfortunately, along with it we also lost our virtue.
My target matter and opinion in this matter is that as aging adults, we need our behaviour to be a lot more virtuous. In this case, our thoughts are our own worse enemies because thoughts turn to words and words turns to action.
Action in turn is how the younger generation sees the world and are molded. In truth, social psychology has found plenty of evidence for the existence of altruism. It’s associated with another truth: our success as a species is owed as much to co-operation as to competition.
So, we need to understand the steps to a better future lies with us. Especially those who are older amongst us.
We, the older generation have loss sense of our purpose in the world today.
Apart from learning to save our own soul, we were supposed to be the moral compass to the youths and help mould their future. Instead, we are still engrossed with the ways of the (working age) world even at 60!
We can change the world to be a better place and leave it as a better place than when we found it, if only we understand this TRUTH.
The main message we need to send is: you can trust me to deal with you honestly.
Research has proven this. It turns out humans are signaling animals. We’re always using what we do, what we say, the way we dress, to signal our virtues to others – including our conformity to the group’s norms of acceptable behavior.
Because we've evolved as group animals, all of us care deeply about what others think of us. We want to be accepted by the other members of the group. And we fear being excluded from the group. Like teenagers, we’re desperate to fit in. The more we look and act like the others, the more comfortable we feel.
Our virtuos conduct and words can change the future. Look at all the trouble in the world today and you will realise they started because the adults of that land forgot that they were the guardians of the morals of the younger generation.
It is my humble opinion that Virtuous Behaviour is our salvation. As that virtue is signalled/ acted out, others will join in and the group norm of acceptable behaviour will be restored.
Our actions do send signals to others because we are all visual animals.
We need to overcome our primary fears ( the distrust) because neither we nor others have enough hard information about the people we deal with and who deal with us on a daily basis .
We can only assume.......and you know what they say about assumption: (You make an ass of u and me!)
----------------------------------------------The End-------------------------
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Economic BIG BLOW WE HAVE YET TO SUFFER
GUNABALAN's Musing, and Travails Oh dear. The people have started complaining....loudly now.
Unfortunately, the effects of ECONOMIC DEFLATION as mentioned in my last few musings/ caution is still not really felt by the orang ramai yet.
It gets hotter later on; as the effects of lower investment in business due to higher caution and worry by business owners reduces jobs even more as the coming months will show.
Also, the fact that Globalisation and Exports are all tanking
(sedang merudum) is another BIG BLOW we have yet to suffer.Protectionism is now the key word that is causing the WEST to throw the baby out with the bath water.
A better world is struggling to emerge; if we understood it better it would emerge even faster. There is a systems change happening in this country lead by our new PRIME MINISTER AND FINANCE MINISTER. the problem is they and their media personnels are not communicating those plans and action agendas well enough for the kampung folks and working class of this country.
The people are thus, worried and scared.
Lets just HOPE & PRAY the powers that be do not mis-read the current situation.
You see, what's happening today in this country is.....The mouses (people) have turned and are now demanding equitable living systems from their governments.......they understand the power of the VOTE but do not yet understand that for all changes to actually succeed, you will need to change your EXPECTATIONS and needs
On the Economic Front, my opinion is that :
This Government needs to concentrate on how to increase the value of the ringgit.
You see, faltering growth in consumer demand in our countries is understood.
But how to combat that situation is not.
In a wholly traditional economic term: The story is that consumers are indebted and uncertain; and they lack confidence and want to rebuild their savings, so they refuse to spend.
Najib previously tried to peddle tax cuts as the universal panacea.
Like Pavlov’s dog, they thought consumers will flock back to the shops once they are emboldened by a tax cut.
They were half right.
Historically, it’s been proven that there would be some increase in consumer spending in following these previously successful financial modules, but as the recent Q.E. exercise in the US has shown, far less than there used to be.
More fundamental forces are holding back spending.
Giving BRIM aid and free money is no longer as successful as previously thought. There is a quest for meaning, aided and abetted by the knowledge and information revolutions, that is not answered by traditionally scale-produced goods and services.
Economist Tomas Sedlacek, who has won an international following for his book Economics of Good and Evil, insists that contemporary societies have become slaves to a defunct econometric view of the world.
When early modern societies were poorer, it was reasonable for Keynesian economics to focus on how to produce more stuff – that was what societies wanted.
Now, the question before us is more Aristotelian: how to live a happy life – or “humanomics”, as Sedlacek calls it. Yet most people today, says Sedlacek, work in jobs they do not much like, to buy goods they do not much value – the opposite of any idea of the good life, Aristotelian or otherwise.
What we want is purpose and a sense of continual self-betterment, which is not served by buying another iPhone, wardrobe or car.
Yet purpose and betterment need a social context : purpose is a shared endeavor and self-betterment is to act on the world better with others.
An individualistic society such as our own makes it much harder to find others with whom to make common cause.
Living in an unfair society is psychologically hurtful; air quality does matter; a workplace where you are respected counts; acting pre-emptively to stay healthy makes sense; life satisfaction is what it is all about.
A word of caution for our Leadership : In the New Malaysia, these are the categories we should measure and track.
These markers also reflect changes in the market. Big Governments and GLC’s that employ thousands of workers are not alone in facing these predicaments.
Going forward in this unchartered economic times ahead means Relearning how to empathize with the HUMAN in front of us.
The dynamic areas of the economy are in customized micro-production; caring/mentoring/teaching to enhance well being and capability; health; sustainability in its widest sense – all enabled by digitization.
This is not a world in which goods and services are produced at scale as conventionally measured, but a honeycomb economy of niches and information networks whose new dynamics we barely understand, even if we have a better grasp of its values.
They are deeply human. Kampung based,even.
Tuesday, April 2, 2019
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Shoryn is returning home today evening after a week spent with her friend in Melbourne ,Australia. This is a momentous occasion for my daughter as not only is this her first trip abroad alone for so many days, but is also the trip she herself planned for and saved for herself.
Something to be proud about!
Last week of March outings and dinner pictures
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| Lovely Evening sundown pictures from back of the house |
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| Mala & Malini paid mummy a visit this school holiday. Ah Yee tagged along as it was also her time off from tuition giving. |
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