Deep Thoughts Category Archives - ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery https://www.shaolintiger.com/category/deep-thoughts/ Craft Beer, Travel, Children & Much More. Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:23:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.3.1 Can You CONCENTRATE? Are We Getting Dumber? https://www.shaolintiger.com/2009/02/05/can-you-concentrate-are-we-getting-dumber/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2009/02/05/can-you-concentrate-are-we-getting-dumber/#comments Wed, 04 Feb 2009 19:23:21 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=1603 Sometimes I wonder, I wonder where the human race is going. Is it really evolving? Or is it actually devolving? It makes sense to me that people are getting stupider, society seems to embrace it even promote it. Dumbing down is becoming the norm, reading as a past-time is becoming obsolete (unless it’s trashy self-help […]

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Sometimes I wonder, I wonder where the human race is going. Is it really evolving? Or is it actually devolving?

It makes sense to me that people are getting stupider, society seems to embrace it even promote it. Dumbing down is becoming the norm, reading as a past-time is becoming obsolete (unless it’s trashy self-help books).

In a way, I think it’s because stupid people breed far more than smart people. It’s a fact, poor people fuck a lot without using any kind of protection, without thinking about their possible children education or future, without worrying about the consequence.

How many middle class or rich families do you know with more than 3-4 kids? I bet if you know many working class or poor families you’ll find they commonly have 5,6,7 or even 8+ kids.

You can say this works backwards to how evolution should, survival of the fittest? No, because the dumb ones breed a shit load more – so in the end even in a few win a Darwin Award and manage to kill themselves – they still net more kids than the smart people.

So eventually, those anal retentive middle class people who are so uptight they can’t even manage to get a boner long enough to procreate once are going to die out and the poor masses are going to out populate everyone.

A great example is Singapore, they are so uptight they no longer even want to fuck, they don’t want to marry each other, if they do they import wives from abroad. Even then they don’t have enough kids – their population is dwindling. They have INCENTIVES for having children, the more you have the bigger they get.

I guess living in a HDB unit you wouldn’t want too many though.

If you want to see a good example of this (albeit a little exaggerated) watch Idiocracy – the ironic part? The movie itself has been dumbed down and has some stupid narration to point out the ‘jokes’ because the average idiot wouldn’t understand it.

And what’s up with people and their attention spans?

I’ve been watching a lot of TV series lately, and I’ve started watching a few older ones more recently.

You know what I noticed, old series don’t have those annoying recaps at the start (well annoying for me because I have an attention span longer than a goldfish). I really love Dexter but the fucking recap is WAY too long, jeez I KNOW what happened in the last episode.

Can’t people even remember something they watched a week ago?

I’ve noticed recaps are getting longer and longer with the newer series, I’m pretty sure none of the old series I used to watch had recaps either.

It’s this new MTV generation where everything is packaged into bite sized infobubbles, ADD/ADHD is in the ‘in thing’ to have.

No one seems to be able to concentrate any more, kids rarely play RPG’s – they take too much patience. They like GTA, racing games, shoot em ups, things which don’t take prolonged concentration.

Old series used to end with dignity as well, the season wrapped up and left you feeling at peace – but looking forwards to the next one.

Modern series have to leave you kancheong with a cliff-hanger at the end of the episode and a super cliff-hanger at the end of the season to make all these attention deficit people bother to continue watching.

I think Lost is the worst of all for this, possibly followed by Prison Break.

I guess it’s related back to what I said at the top, reading teaches you patience and concentration. It teaches you imagination too and much more in the way of vocabulary, it helps you to express yourself more accurately with words and generally just improves your brain.

Watching TV, does quite the opposite – especially when you’re staring at a TV hooked up to a satellite or cable box with 100s of channels. There’s a reason why they call it the idiot box.

Anyway, did anyone manage to read all the way to the end of this post without drifting off? Just some thoughts that coagulated in my mind.

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Depressed?! https://www.shaolintiger.com/2008/12/01/depressed/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2008/12/01/depressed/#comments Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:00:30 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/?p=1421 Maybe I’m depressed, I kinda feel like I am. No mojo to blog, even watching Roy Chubby Brown didn’t make me laugh that much. Things haven’t really been going well for me lately, perhaps it’s karma? If it is – I don’t know what I did wrong. I hope they’ll get better anyway, I sincerely […]

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Maybe I’m depressed, I kinda feel like I am.

No mojo to blog, even watching Roy Chubby Brown didn’t make me laugh that much.

Things haven’t really been going well for me lately, perhaps it’s karma? If it is – I don’t know what I did wrong.

I hope they’ll get better anyway, I sincerely do.

Maybe copious amounts of alcohol will do the trick.

I feel like I should be writing pages of words expressing how I feel, but I just keep finding myself drifting off and staring at the blank corner of the monitor.

I guess I’ll sleep on it, hope the sun is shining tomorrow.

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Some of the Jobs I’ve Endured in My Life https://www.shaolintiger.com/2008/02/22/some-of-the-jobs-ive-endured-in-my-life/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2008/02/22/some-of-the-jobs-ive-endured-in-my-life/#comments Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:22:30 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/2008/02/22/some-of-the-jobs-ive-endured-in-my-life/ I’ve had an extremely long and rather colourful work history, starting a young age I had to learn to be self-sufficient. There was barely enough food to eat at home and definitely no money spare to buy anything considered remotely luxurious.. It all helped though and it helped me mature a lot, mainly in terms […]

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I’ve had an extremely long and rather colourful work history, starting a young age I had to learn to be self-sufficient. There was barely enough food to eat at home and definitely no money spare to buy anything considered remotely luxurious..

It all helped though and it helped me mature a lot, mainly in terms of finances it really taught me the value of money and that money isn’t easy to come by so don’t simple spend it frivolously. I won’t list all the jobs as I had as some were temp and lasted a few days or in some cases a few hours…I’ll mention those that I find interesting, or somehow relevant in my development.

I think it’s something Asian kids generally lack, working, earning money and learning some respect for the value of money. Kids here don’t have to contribute to their own studies or cars..they just get given money for free!

How many of you have had part time jobs? If you look at the catering industry here, or manual labour, security guards or factory workers and so on they are mostly foreign workers. All of these jobs are considered to ‘low’ for locals. You know what? In UK I’ve done ALL of those jobs.

Job 1 – Paper Round

This is a pretty typical ‘job’ for most kids in UK, any kid with a bike can do this job and there are two main types – Daily Rounds or Weekly Rounds.

Daily rounds consist of delivering local or national papers twice a day, either in the morning or in the afternoon (before or after school) and generally slightly older kids get these are they take a little more responsibility. I think it paid up to £15 a week if you did both morning and evening 7 days a week.

I started when I was 14 doing the once a week free local newspaper Berrow’s Worcester Journal. Which earned me about £3-7 a week depending on how many papers there were and how many advertisements..

The tough part was the paper and the ads came separate….so I had to stuff EACH newspaper which 1 of each of the flyers (up to 6-7 different flyers).

And the papers were pretty big so it was heavy..and I lived on a steep hill! Thankfully my Mom used to help me sometimes, epecially when it was bad weather – rain, shine or snow we still had to deliver.

Job 2 – Charity Books

This was similar to the newspaper delivery, but you knocked on the door and actually had to talk to people. The job was selling charity books.

The books sold for £3.50 and I got 50p I think for each one I sold…that was a tough job.

Job 3 – Computer Store Assistant

This was my first real job I think, how I would consider it anyway. Working in a retail store as an assistant, I got the job by being a complete geek and impressing the guy with my computer knowledge so he hired me on Saturdays to help out.

My first experience wearing a shirt and tie for work too, I just worked on Saturday and got paid £2.50 an hour or about £20 for a day of 8 hours.

It was a pretty fun job as I loved computers and lasted quite a while, I didn’t earn that much though as it was only one day a week. I was just about turning 15 when I had this job I think.

My first foray into what would end up as my final career too.

Job 4 – Door to Door Double Glazing Canvassing

I got this job immediately after finishing my GSCE’s at secondary school, the proper name is Canvassing as we weren’t actually selling, we were just setting up the sales appointments with the poor suckers customers.

This job was great fun, it didn’t pay well unless you were good a it – so you had to learn to be good at it. It helped a lot with my confidence as I was pretty nerdy and school, very tall and very skinny…so this job helped me get some confidence in myself and helped me become a lot more articulate.

It was a pretty tough time to be doing Double Glazing as the industry already had a terrible reputation from the 80’s from being extremely hard sell and very pushy.

The good part was driving all around the county from town to town, having plenty of cash and competing with a bunch of other lads. It was a very motivating environment, the managers were excellent in training and playing games etc to get everyone to perform better.

If we managed to book an appointment it was called a lead, so we competed each day to see who could get the most leads. If the lead turned into a quote we got paid £15 and if it was a sale we got paid a percentage (so for big sales it could be quite a lot of money).

The basic salary was around £70 a week, which was very low. But some of the best guys would earn over £1500 a week from all their leads and sales.

I think my best was about £300+ in a week, which was a huge amount of money for me back then!

The company I was at was Zenith Staybrite (Just Staybrite then) and our main compeition was Coldseal.

You can see the actual job here.

Job 5 – Waiting

During college I couldn’t keep a full-time job and I tried canvassing part-time for a while but it wasn’t pratical. I went back to Staybrite a couple of times during holidays but it wasn’t so fun so after that I changed direction a bit as waiting was one of the easiest jobs to get for short term, the staff turn-over rates were very high, it was hard work, quite fun and you could earn quite a lot if you got good tips.

If I remember correctly my first waiting job was in a independently owned Pizza place, the wages were atrocious and illegal as the boss ‘paid’ us with our tips (which was wrong) rather than paying us a basic salary and tips on top.

We used to get £35 a day or around £3.50 for a 10 hour day (which sometimes ran to 12 or more hours). We got to eat free pizza and pasta though…and although the boss was an idiot and the chef was a really cool Spanish guy.

I worked at this place for quite some time.

I had a whole string of waiting jobs after this from when I was 15 all the way until I was about 23. The longest I worked at one place was full time during my gap year at Cafe Rouge – I was there for about 9 months until Uni started. Before that I was doing telephone canvassing for double glazing, the same as I did previously but on the phone..I was team leader for an independent firm. Basic salary was £90 a week + commission. I stayed there for about 6 months until they went bust and disappeared without paying us! I also went out a couple of times to help fit the windows which was fun.

After the canvassing I joined Cafe Rouge and by the end I was bar manager, but left to go to Uni. My main purpose of the year out after college and before Uni was to save money…if not I couldn’t really afford to go and study as student loans were being introduced and straight grants were being cut back. I managed to save over £3000 that year!

I also did Silver Service waiting, this is banquet type waiting where people are having company dinners or events (Worcester Rugby Club or Racecourse) and you serve large tables from serving dishes.

I probably had more than 20 different waiting/bar jobs.

If you want to read a great blog about the life of a waiter try Waiter Rant.

During Uni

During University I used to work every time there was a holiday (summer break, easter and christmas being the main ones) to get extra money to support myself through my studies.

I did a whole variety of jobs during my 4 years of study as I joined up with a bunch of recruitment agencies, as that was the easiest way to get short term work. During some breaks I could have 5-6 different jobs in different industries.

I didn’t go for any waiting jobs as they didn’t pay so well as the nasty tough jobs which paid up to £7 per hour.

Some of the jobs I did were:

  • Factory Job at Cosworth making engine blocks (This was extremely hard work, very noisy and dirty and I got burned a few times). I operated the Shot Blaster.
  • Security Guard at a small supermarket (Most boring job EVER, not allowed to talk to anyone..and I knew the people stealing stuff – so I let them get away with it).
  • Building Site Labourer pulling huge electric cables in wet mud for the new Worcester University
  • Stuffing envelopes at Kays (graveyard shift Midnight-5am but paid well).
  • Selling mortgages, well re-mortgages to be exact. I had good experiences in telesales so I was pretty good at it.
  • At Bosch making water heaters and boilers, this was my favourite as it was walking distance from my house, the food was good and cheap and it paid well and had frequent over-time. It was tedious as hell though – screwing the same screw in the same position for 8-10 hours a day (Some of the guys had been there 20 years – imagine that).
  • Chinese food delivery driver – this was probably the easiest job, lots of food to eat, driving around all night and getting tips

I also had a couple of jobs during term-time, mostly computer related stuff as that was what I was studying.

There were some really nasty experiences from agencies too were people just hired an agency worker for 1 day because they had a job they didn’t want to do (like cleaning a deep-fat fryer appeared to have NEVER been cleaned – I just refused of course). I turned down a few, like working in an old-peoples hope cleaning up old peoples poo…

I continued the Chinese food delivery after I graduated and got a job as it was easy money and I could earn about £70 in a good night if it was raining and I got good tips. It was what helped me pay off my credit card so I could move over to Malaysia 🙂

You better be happy, a whole post about me!

Have any of you guys actually had any jobs before you graduated, other than ‘promoter’ in the shopping mall or something fairly mundane, clean and easy? Any of you had any nasty jobs?

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I Miss Those Crab Feasts… https://www.shaolintiger.com/2007/06/22/i-miss-those-crab-feasts/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2007/06/22/i-miss-those-crab-feasts/#comments Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:36:18 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/2007/06/22/i-miss-those-crab-feasts/ And a lot of others things too. I guess as life goes on things change and you tend to spend your time doing different things. For me it seems to be almost obsessive, I get totally absorbed by things and can’t stop it until I’ve gone to the highest level I can take it…which is […]

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And a lot of others things too.

I guess as life goes on things change and you tend to spend your time doing different things. For me it seems to be almost obsessive, I get totally absorbed by things and can’t stop it until I’ve gone to the highest level I can take it…which is usually pretty high.

It’s been a while since I’ve eaten crab over at that place we always used to go, it used to be a regular occasion.

Crab Feast

So did dinner together.

So did Asia Cafe before that.

So did Horus before that.

So did Diving before that.

Times do change, so do people – if it’s good or bad I’m not really sure.

I think I’ve changed too, I’m pretty sure I’m not as much of an asshole as I used to be…well at least I think so 🙂

Perhaps I’m getting old.

It’s odd how the dynamics of friendships change too when people get into relationships, especially serious ones. Or even when they move to a different area, groups of friends change, the way things are change.

Sometimes I do miss things, but then again I appreciate how things are now – I’ve found something I really love in Photography, a way to express myself again seen as though I’ve gotten bored of Hacking.

Career wise things have changed a lot too, definitely for the better.

The last company was eating me up, making me angry, burning my time, rotting my motivation – until I took back control.

I heard recently they haven’t paid the staff for the last 2 months, so it looks like I made the right decision.

Anyway my motivation is coming back and I’m starting to get things done, next thing on the list is to revamp this site…it’s underway already.

After that get my photography portfolio online, domain is already registered and the site is 50% developed, it should be coming soon..business cards are being printed for that too.

Perhaps this photography thing might lend a nice little side income.

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Porn up Rape Down! Malaysians Need MORE PORN https://www.shaolintiger.com/2007/01/23/porn-up-rape-down-malaysians-need-more-porn/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2007/01/23/porn-up-rape-down-malaysians-need-more-porn/#comments Tue, 23 Jan 2007 04:12:11 +0000 http://www.shaolintiger.com/2007/01/23/porn-up-rape-down-malaysians-need-more-porn/ With all this serious shite going on, I thought I’d better post something pseudo-politic and pretend that I know everything about everything like all those socio-politikus bloggers.. Anyway the point is a recent academic paper was published (this is not some tabloid crap article) that porn means less rape, I tend to agree. The incidence […]

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With all this serious shite going on, I thought I’d better post something pseudo-politic and pretend that I know everything about everything like all those socio-politikus bloggers..

Anyway the point is a recent academic paper was published (this is not some tabloid crap article) that porn means less rape, I tend to agree.

The incidence of rape in the United States has declined 85% in the past 25 years while access to pornography has become freely available to teenagers and adults. The Nixon and Reagan Commissions tried to show that exposure to pornographic materials produced social violence. The reverse may be true: that pornography has reduced social violence.

In laymans terms:

More porn = more wanking = more wanking = less horny feelings = less rape!

I’m a genius.

Funny enough the BBC also asked is porn good for society?

But frankly..this is a serious issue, the rape rates in Malaysia are terrible, I believe this is due to the closed nature of society and the religious state government which marks any close contact as haram.

This makes people sexually repressed, humans have to fuck, men need to have sex it’s a basic function that needs to be satisfied, if you don’t give them the societal freedom to satisfy their base urges…they will do what they have to do.

And rape someone, maybe it’s their daughter, or sister, or mother..or some stranger.

But it will happen, and it does happen…all the time.

Porn is closely linked to this, if you are horny watch some porn on TV and jerk off, don’t go and rape someone.

The paper is located here

BTW please do comment on my blog more, I know loads of people are reading..I thrive on comments, more comments = more motivation to post..I like things to be interactive

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Testing Drugs on Indias Poor – Is it Ethical? https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/12/19/testing-drugs-on-indias-poor-is-it-ethical/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/12/19/testing-drugs-on-indias-poor-is-it-ethical/#comments Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:48:07 +0000 Now this is an interesting moral issue indeed, having previously discussed morality briefly, with the issue of Universal Morality (does it exist?)[/url] lets have a look at this. Wired[/url] is reporting that a lot of medical research firms are using India’s poor as a hot test bed. From the article: So is this legal, or […]

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Now this is an interesting moral issue indeed, having previously discussed morality briefly, with the issue of Universal Morality (does it exist?)[/url] lets have a look at this.

Wired[/url] is reporting that a lot of medical research firms are using India’s poor as a hot test bed.

From the article:

The sudden influx of drug companies to India resembles the gold rush frontier, according to Sean Philpott, managing editor of The American Journal of Bioethics.

‘Not only are research costs low, but there is a skilled work force to conduct the trials,’ he said. In the rush to reap profits, Philpott cautions that drug companies may not be sensitive to how poverty can undermine the spirit of informed consent. ‘Individuals who participate in Indian clinical trials usually won’t be educated. Offering $100 may be undue enticement; they may not even realize that they are being coerced,’ he said.

By 2010, total spending on outsourcing clinical trials to India could top $2 billion, according to Ashish Singh, vice president of Bain & Co., a consulting firm that reports on the health-care industry.

Regardless of where clinical trials are performed, the FDA requires the same evidence showing that a drug is safe and effective before it will approve any drug, according to a written comment from Ken Johnson, senior vice president of The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Foundation.

So is this legal, or ethical?

You can look at it from various perspectives..

Are the big companies exploiting the poor by moving to a country with a weaker economy and offering less incentive for testing?

Do these uneducated people really comprehend the risks they are taking during clinical trials?

I know in Europe it’s quite common for students to do drug testing and it pays a lot, according to the risk and duration. I never considered it though, I mean just because it works as intended on a rat, who knows what it’s going to do to me.

Nevertheless, even before the anti-generic rules were enacted, companies performing clinical trials in India saw their share of problems. In 2004, two India-based pharmaceutical companies, Shantha Biotech in Hyderabad and Biocon in Bangalore, came under scrutiny for conducting illegal clinical trials that led to eight deaths.

I would imagine the insurance costs for such trials in Europe are MUCH higher aswell, perhaps they don’t even bother insuring the atendees in India as their lives are worth less?

Third World lives are worth much less than the European lives. That is what colonialism was all about,” said Srirupa Prasad, a visiting assistant professor of medical history and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

This seems to be a fact.

Or are they just saving costs to develop better, safer and cheaper pharmaceuticals for the rest of the world?

Would you conduct in a clinical trial?

Is $100USD fair for you?

Source of quotes: Wired.com

Discussion on Slashdot

I thought this one was pretty funny.

So first they took away our call centers… Then they took away our IT jobs… Now they’re taking our priviledge to test dangerous drugs on the poor and destitute?

Damn you trained and abled Indian workforce!

It is a serious matter however..thoughts?

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Dawn Yang. https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/11/14/dawn-yang/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/11/14/dawn-yang/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2005 02:09:42 +0000 Is it? Discuss. *Yes this is my shortest post ever by far*

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Is it? Discuss.

*Yes this is my shortest post ever by far*

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Is there such a thing as universal morality? https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/11/11/is-there-such-a-thing-as-universal-morality/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/11/11/is-there-such-a-thing-as-universal-morality/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2005 03:30:44 +0000 This is VERY interesting topic which was raised in one of my posts recently[/url] by a very good commenter ‘Tom’, which I skirted over briefly, it’s actually a very deep and intense topic. IS there really such a thing as universal morality? Are there certain ‘things’ that are morally right and wrong across all cultures/societies/races […]

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This is VERY interesting topic which was raised in one of my posts recently[/url] by a very good commenter ‘Tom’, which I skirted over briefly, it’s actually a very deep and intense topic.

The term “morality” can be used either

1. descriptively to refer to a code of conduct put forward by a society or,
a. some other group, such as a religion, or
b. accepted by an individual for her own behavior or
2. normatively to refer to a code of conduct that, given specified conditions, would be put forward by all rational persons.

IS there really such a thing as universal morality? Are there certain ‘things’ that are morally right and wrong across all cultures/societies/races and religions?

To a lot of people morality = religion, which to be is not a good thing, no no, not good at all.

Let’s start with an extreme example..

Let’s take 2 men, one Muslim Fundementalist (Ahmad) who isn’t too fond of pink people and one Bush Supporting Redneck American (Billy-Bob) (who isn’t too fond of brown people.

Ahmad would like to halt the westerisation of his middle-eastern region and on a bad day he’d quite like to destroy the west. Especially his American opressors who are destroying his culture and country for the sake of a few barrels of oil. He hasn’t really mixed with anyone who wasn’t from his country, he only knows what he’s seen on TV.

Billy-Bob likes to string niggers from trees and talk about how he would blow up all the brown people in the world if he was president of the united states. He hates the Indian store owner in his small back-water and has never really mixed with anyone who wasn’t related to him (including his wife).

Now for Ahmad, the destruction of the twin towers in America was an act of God, an act of solidarity, a great move to halt western oppression. It was a power play, the final resort, very extreme action, it shows how strongly people can feel about something, for him it was morally correct to do this to make a point, irregardless of the innocent people that died.

As for Billy-Bob, it was one of the worst days ever, he hated the Indian shop keeper even more and fire bombed the shop destroying the mans livelihood (which to Billy-Bob and his friends was also morally correct).

Now depending on your race, your religion and where you were born/brought up you would see each one as wrong/right, where as someone else could see if differently just like Ahmad and Billy-Bob.

Is there some strain in the human race though that tells each one of us when we are kids, don’t steal? Don’t hurt the other kids? Or is it instilled in us by our parents and society?

It’s an interesting subject that’s for sure.

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My Car Was Vandalised Today. https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/10/30/my-car-was-vandalised-today/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/10/30/my-car-was-vandalised-today/#comments Sun, 30 Oct 2005 04:45:34 +0000 Yes indeed it was. I was confronted with this, this afternoon when I went to my car to fetch something I’d left inside…Not a nice sight for a Sunday afternoon right? At first I thought this was a case of bad parking, my neighbour perhaps going back to home town early in the morning, made […]

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Yes indeed it was. I was confronted with this, this afternoon when I went to my car to fetch something I’d left inside…Not a nice sight for a Sunday afternoon right?

At first I thought this was a case of bad parking, my neighbour perhaps going back to home town early in the morning, made a slip on the steering wheel and rendered a dent on my beautiful car, but he would have left a note right?

But then I looked closer at the dent, the direction of the scratches and the black substance there..

It doesn’t seem to be black paint, it seems to be plastic or rubber, like that found on the bumper of a car, or on steering locks..or SHOES.

Then when I was considering the damage…what did I notice? A whole bunch of footprints on my bonnet..

Yes, those are all footprints, like this one

That’s when I got a little worried, and wondered what the hell I’d done wrong.

This was done inside my appt complex, whilst my car was parking in MY lot, overnight.

IF (and that’s a HUGE IF), this is action taken over what I’ve written on my blog, then this has massive implications for everyone.

This has entered real life.

This has cost me money.

This has really made me question.

Are people really that ignorant to take physical action against someone voicing their opinion and standing up for their rights?

The problem is, I can’t assume anything, I can’t assume to know why this happened.

Maybe it’s only because I’m white

Maybe someone saw me eating during fasting hours

Maybe I cut up some mat rempit on the road and they took revenge with their helmet on my car

Maybe I offended the burger guy when I said his chilli sauce was a little sweet

Maybe I offended my neighbour by playing Gwen Stefani too loud

Maybe I offended someone else by parking out front for 10 minutes in someone elses lot

Maybe I offended someone by writing about racism in Malaysia

Maybe I offended someone by defending KL

Maybe I offended someone by sticking up for Peter and Kimberly

So many Maybes.

At least they should have left a note, give me a clue what I did wrong. Now I have NO IDEA at all.

I wish they could just confront me directly, and we could handle this like men, not act like some fucking pussy and kick my car then run away like some sewer rat.

This action hasn’t made a difference to anything, it’s just left me feeling confused.

It won’t change my views or opinions on anything, but at least if I knew what it was about I could consider my perspective..

I am going to make a police report now, this does worry me, and I hope whatever ‘it’ is, it stops right here right now.

Hopefully it will end here, no one else will get hurt, nothing else will get damaged and we can all move on with our lives.

If you did kick my car, and you do read my blog, just let me know why, I don’t think that’s very likely, but well, there’s always a chance.

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Being Civic Minded and Caring for your Environment and Society https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/10/27/being-civic-minded-and-caring-for-your-environment-and-society/ https://www.shaolintiger.com/2005/10/27/being-civic-minded-and-caring-for-your-environment-and-society/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2005 01:11:35 +0000 Actually I wanted to post about this topic for quite some time, since I was involved in Project Aware[/url], but I never quite got prompted to do it. Since all this bullshit about handicapped toilets has come about, I think it’s time to address it. I do wish people would care more, people would stand […]

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Actually I wanted to post about this topic for quite some time, since I was involved in Project Aware[/url], but I never quite got prompted to do it.

Since all this bullshit about handicapped toilets has come about, I think it’s time to address it.

I do wish people would care more, people would stand up for their rights, stand up for what they believe in, look after their planet and have some civic conciousness.

Most people just stumble through life, wasting resources, totally ignorant to the fact they are destroying the planet, and in some cases society too.

One example is littering, during Project Aware[/url] we were picking up litter on the beach, why because dumbfuckers threw it there, instead of in the bin. Why oh why? There are bins everywhere, if not carry it till you see one, or put it in your pocket or something, don’t throw it on the floor.

I see some people throwing tissues out the car window or onto the floor, and they say..

“Oh but it’s bio-degradable”

Yeah no shit, I know that, you know that, but does the 6 year old kid that just saw you drop something on the floor instead of the bin know that?

I don’t think so.

Educate by example, lead by example, care about your environment and don’t just talk about it, if you see someone litter, say politely…

“Excuse me, but there’s a bin just over there”

Honestly some elderly lady said that to me once when I was a youngster in UK dropping litter, and it made a big impact on me, I never did it again.

That’s just a small example, other things are using more organic products, using environmentally friendly washing powder, using environmentally friendly fridges, rated for lower power consumption, and lacking of harmful CFC‘s.

I guess a lot of it comes from my mother, who truly leads by example, she saves all organic waste from our house and makes her own compost to fertilise the garden.

She recycles wherever possible, I’m glad to see in Malaysia more recycling facilities are appearing, the first place I saw segregated bins were in Ikano Power Center, which shows civic conciousness.

In UK now the rubbish collection service provides different coloured bags for plastics, paper and others, to make the sorting easier for them, and to make recycling more possible for everyone.

Another example is caring for society, not just the environment, if the state isn’t fixing something write to your MP.

If there is something wrong with the road, write to who is responsible for it.

If you got bad service in a resturant and were mis-treated, write to the management.

People might say we Brits are known for moaning, but I’d say we are standing up for our rights, that’s why in UK we get top-notch customer service and product quality, because if we don’t we kick up a shitstorm, unlike here, where people are rather lackadaisical and don’t really seem to care.

“Whatever la, it’s normal here”

Yeah but why should it be normal, can you not fight for better standards?

If something is wrong, I’ll write a letter about it, if I get bad service, I’ll fill in the comment card. The sad thing in Malaysia is that nothing happens. Like in UK if I’d filled in the terrible comments I did in the comment card in a Sushi place in the curve, I would have gotten a call next day and an invite back to the resturant for a free meal as maybe I just came at a bad time.

Word of mouth is powerful, that’s a fact.

If you think something is wrong, fight for change, don’t sit and accept it.

An example would be Kimberly[/url], she is a civic minded citizen, I have seen her letters published in The Star regarding various matters from the state of roads in Cheras to the intermittent water supply in the area. She was a responsible citizen before this boycotting campaign and she will be after, I don’t believe it’s a personal vendetta against XiaXue, to be honest she didn’t even mention XX. Those who say so in my mind are rather pathetic.

I personally support her, she is standing up for what she believes is right, more than I can say for most people who just go with the flow and nod their heads, then chastise when the tide changes.

Anyway the point I’m trying to make is people should start caring, they should stop gossiping about small things like XX, and how rude Peter Tan[/url] was and look at the bigger picture of WHY these people said what they said, what is WRONG about it, and HOW we can change it.

In all honestly these are small issues, there are many things that need to be corrected and we should focus our energies on those rather than endlessly pointing fingers at each other.

Make a difference, do something for someone ELSE for a change, for your future children, or the future generation.

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