Racist Fre@k

I know that this post will be a little controversial at times. Therefore, I would like to apologize to you or anyone whom I might have offended. Racist remarks can be very sensitive and harmful to a certain group of people. In order to limit any conflict between me and you or someone else, I will try to be cautious with my expressions.

In my opinion, a person can be racist to a certain level. Let's make an example of a racist meter. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 is non racist and 10 is pure racist. Now, where would you put yourself? In order to understand the definition of racism or racist, we need to look up in a dictionary.According to an online dictionary database, racism means a belief or doctrine that involves the idea of one's own race is far more better and has the right to rule the others. Moreover, racism also means hatred or intolerance of another race or races (www.dictionary.com).

I am not here to prove that everyone is racist or anything. I am here to provide some knowledge of my own experience of why a person can be racist to a certain meter point. Anyway, just keep in mind about your own racist meter scale for now while you are reading the rest of my blog. We will come back to it.

Now society seems to be very sensitive over racist remarks, especially the minority. Is it fear or just equality rights among races that drive us to be more sensitive over the issues of racism? If you were to ask me the question, I would not answer you at all. You see, racism's issues can be seen in a very different and complex perspectives. It's an entirely different issue for the black American communities and for some other Asian communities too. It's not on my behalf to say something for them because I am not black and I didn't even expose myself to the black communities or even to the KKK. The suppression of the black experience can only be expressed by them as they are exposed to racism in their own community. In other words, you have to understand something when you experience it personally. I was not there and I can't judge them. On the other hand, me as a Chinese, what do I think about the Japanese brutal invasion on my country during WWII? Again, I can't really touch on that issue as my life is seen mostly unaffected. I know that my ancestors would have hated them so much because they suffered and experienced the most violent and unthinkable memories.

Well, my story doesn't end here. At some point in our life, we might have changed our racist meter to a higher scale or a lower scale. I am sure there are reasons that reflect the change in our racist meter. Let me name a few for you: Media, Politics, Money, Colleagues, Your Neighbors, Robberies, Illegal immigrants, Education and even Football fanatics. Of course, education can be seen as something helpful to lower your racist meter but not necessarily true. Maybe a history study about the brutalities of Japanese Invasion during WWII would rather stir up some commotions between Chinese and Japanese learners. Again, I am not saying History is a bad thing. However, learning not to repeat the same old mistakes might be rather worthwhile to study History. Importantly, some historians (observers and writers) can be a little bias at times due to their past experiences over a racial matter. Therefore, you can see how the racist meter kicks in. Anyway, the question here is how are we going to repair the scars or any racial conflicts? To me, it's never an easy task. You probably need a revolutionary change in everyone's mindset. Maybe, great leaders like Gandhi, Martin Luther King or "Aliens" can make a huge impact on racial issues.

Great leaders will always have more power to provide good influences to the society. Their voices can make a great change and also lead to peaceful resolutions. Well! when I am talking great leaders, I am not talking about Hitler. I am talking about someone who can inspire others to join for a good cause. On the other hand, alien invasion might bring human beings together to fight for our lives, mankind existence and home. I believe communication and cooperation are also vital keys to improve racial tensions or other misunderstandings.

Well! Revolutionary change in everyone's mindset is a very huge thing to begin with. It must be done peacefully and simultaneously at the same time. When it is not done in a synchronized way, racial issues might not be solved in a systematic coordination, and racism might even get very serious and tensional among other racial groups. I will call this, such problem, a racial coordination failure. Coming back to the Japanese brutal invasion, the reason of not putting myself in the shoe my ancestors is that the past is gone. Obviously, I want to have a fresh mindset that is not heavily influenced by my ancestors' brutal experiences with the Japanese invasion. I am not telling you to give up about learning or knowing your grandparents'. I just believe a newer generation of a society should focus more on integrating ourselves with different types of people. Heavy influences from the corrupted, violent and unfair issues keep us within the circle of racist problems. Well! We can blame anyone for this and it will continue for the rest of our lives. Maybe, the governments, the religions, the family, the teachers and the list will go on. We will never put a full stop on this racial matter till the day earth dies. However, I do believe we can do something with our own hands to reduce, but not to eliminate, our racist meter scale.

It's easy, in words, to say what we can do something about racism. Let me put it this way, "to the new future ancestors, if you want your children to live in a world of racist-free earth, be a good non-racist influential leader".

So what is happening now? When one is being seen as a minority or being offended with racist remarks, he or she starts to complain or hate the other group of racist people or racial slurs. Eventually, one is so turned down that he or she becomes a over-reacted to the racist group and starts to be a little racist as well. This is how the racist meter kicks in. With more bad influences from friends, families and societies, things get worse and create a massive problem in racism. It's like a chain reaction among society. Well! not everyone will have this problem if he or she knows how to handle problems properly but when things get too extreme, I am sure noone will be able to withstand it. Sometimes, you don't realize that you are racist in a way, maybe not racist but certainly, some minor racial implications.

THE RACIST METER SCALE CASE STUDIES

KuKlaxKlan didn't start off as a harmful group. Well! the early KKK's racist meter would be around just 1. First, it was just whole bunch of pranksters who enjoy riding horses while dressed in white sheets and pillowcase hoods. However, the Klan evolved to a bigger and more powerful clan that involved in multi-state terrorist activities such as frightening and killing emancipated slaves. Why did the group suddenly shoot up all the way to 9 or 10, killing the black American? Perhaps, during that period most members of the KKK society had lots of incentive of not giving up equal rights to other groups due political and economic factors. During that 1870s, most members were supported by the plantation owners and they did not want the human rights to be given to the people who worked in their plantations, especially black slaves. As a result, early Klan did its work through violent acts against the black society to ensure blacks would never get the benefits of equal rights. The racist meter was rather high with 8 to 9. Therefore, racism usually comes with a trigger of something. It can be revenge, economic benefits or just for the sake of "a certain (holy) land".

How did KKK eventually get weak with a reduction in racist meter? With WW2 coming and the idea of KKK was simply more or less like the idea of Hitler, it was then KKK started to lose its ground. More people, from black and white and other communities, were unified to participate in a war to stop Hitler, the so called racist maniac, who had killed many Jews. Indirectly, one can see that the war was a way of bringing people together to stop racist, violent and brutal wars.

It is just my weird thought that It would be less likely we would ever fight to eliminate racism anytime sooner. We would probably continue to eliminate terrorism, corruption, financial collapse, poverty and etc. Will it ever eliminate all that problems? Perhaps, we might need something bigger to stir everyone's mind to unite for a good reason to live lives. For instance, "The Alien Invasion".

There are tons of reasons to think how one's racist meter increases over time. To name a few, your colleague, a Mly, is very lazy at work. You hate him very much because you have to help him with his work. You might get very mad and start to hate other Mly people and often come out with a racist remarks within your friends but not in front of the Mly person.

England football fanatics can over excessively support their own national teams and start cursing other countries with racist remarks. Also, Yeah! If you remember Zidane's case too.

Your teacher hates a certain type of person and overly generalize about the person's race with racist remark. Your teacher even talks about it in front of his/her fellow students. Students also learn from the teacher.

An African government radio station intentionally starts to broadcast something violent and brutal to a certain group of tribe, creating heats of revenge and causing ethnic cleansing.

All in all, what is your meter scale by the way? Are you prepared to make a change to yourself? If you are a racist, it's fine to be one but at least you should learn how to reduce the effects. Don't be influenced! We'll never stop racism if we do not initiate to do something about it and foremost because of "Racial Coordination Failure".

What's next for a different meter scale problem? Sexism(Bisexual & Homosexual), Feminism and etc. Think?

My random thought
Societies, living in a very traditional norm, sometimes cannot accept the existence of other minorities, especially gender differences or other religious belief. In any way, we should learn to accept and respect each other differences.

3 Reasons To Hate Malaysian Taxi Drivers

Kuala Lumpur's public transportation system is still considered to be quite disastrous in some ways. The 3 most major transportation carriers are LRTs, Taxis, and Buses. I would like to touch on the disadvantages of hiring a taxi. The 3 reasons are non-meter drivers, foolish drivers and last but not least, on-their-own drivers.

Non-meter drivers prefer to charge foreigners who don't care much about what they pay. In other words, he/she will offer you a fixed rate or charge to your given destination. You can either bargain or just close the frickin' door and move on. Non-meter drivers are not here to help with transporting commuters. They are here to relax, smoke and wait. In other words, they want to do business fast and at the same time, they are humiliating the taxi industry in Malaysia, which is also voted as the worst taxi drivers in the world. Well, it's time to destroy the non-meter taxi drivers. Say no to non-meter taxis.

Foolish drivers fool around when they drive. It could be driving recklessly. However, they are not foolish but they make their customers look like a fool. Foolish drivers will either cheat on you by adjusting their taxi meter so that it ticks quicker than you count your heart beats or by driving you around with the most longest route. Given that the oil price is lowered, maybe driving on your own is preferred and you know these taxi drivers won't adjust the taxi charge rate back to where it's supposed to be. Seriously, if you know nothing about the location, please be sure to ask for some information about taking your taxi. Make your own judgements rather than telling the taxi drivers to do what they want. 9 out 10 taxi drivers are considered foolish drivers.

On-their-own drivers, who drive to places where they like most, do not help to ease the troubles of customers. The drivers only prefer to bring you to places where there are more opportunities of getting hired. Therefore, it's such a pain for customers who live far away or in a congested zone. Since when we are picked by taxi drivers? Customers pay for the ride and at the end of the day but, they are being treated unfairly. Yeah! Sometimes, you will encounter taxi drivers suddenly dump you on a road side because they act stupid in such a way that they don't know how to get there (out of sudden).

All in all, I have been living in KL for quite some times. I have scolded taxi drivers more than anyone else. The government should monitor and change the identity of our taxi industry. It's a shame to the country, Malaysia. The taxi industry is about to defame the Malaysian Tourism sector. Forget about the local. We are about to buy cars. It's okay to pay for parking fees and high gas price rather than waiting for 30 minutes for a taxi or being fooled like a stupid foreigner. One thing for sure, consumers are smarter than taxi drivers after all. It's no point of offering side business like selling drinks or cigs. It's better they learn to behave like a real taxi driver. Giving an extra opportunities to sell craps means giving them another way to scam customers. Yeah! Keep up the good work of giving out more taxi licenses so that the market turns saturated, hopefully driving down the price of taxi rate. As far as I am concerned, buses and LRTs are craps. I will touch on LRTs in my next post.

Human Capital vs Foreign Human Capital (UNEMPLOYMENT)

I am sorry if my post gets a little complicated or boring because I thought of writing this in my 30 minutes of blog's brainstorming. As an economist, especially in the field of economic development, I have tremendous amounts of issues and ideas to say. Today, I am going to touch on the human capital side. Human capital is basically employees or work force. In some countries, one can find human capital to be a little expensive or efficient than the others'

In developing countries, the cost of human capital is relatively cheap, especially in the manufacturing industries. Moreover, technology is scarce and human capital remains relative abundant. More importantly, population is higher and education is lower.


In other cases, one can find an influx of foreign workers, working in rich countries. Local workers, in rich countries, with better education or priorities would not pick up hard labor works due to personal reasons. Importantly, most rich countries have high technology capital to increase their production with less human involvement. However, of course we do see countries that require foreign workers for certain manufacturing or hard labor business such as constructions. As a result, foreign workers are needed from overseas to support local rich and labor-intensive required companies. Their pays for such workers are much more higher and better than other developing countries'.

For instance, one would live in Johor Bahru (the tip of western Malaysian peninsular) and work in Singapore. Why? Currency advantage, better pay and more opportunities.

Well! If you look at it with a different angle, there can be a disadvantage. Seriously, I don't want to talk about social impact like leaving your family and friends behind while you work abroad. I want to focus on economic terms. Yeah! Forget about living standards too. I think everyone knows about it. We all know Johor(e) is one of worst cities in Malaysia.

The advantage might be better off for some particular people but not necessarily to others. With better wages in a developed country, workers are expect to work harder, given with the competitive outcome. High wages attract more cheap labors from abroad. Noone would deny to work in those companies with given high pays. On the other hand, companies in developing countries might offer lower wage, which also means that they can hire more workers. In other words, we can see two different competitive environments. First one, one must work for harder. Second, abundant labor is around. In developing countries, abundant labor is always around whereas in developed countries, labor is not that a lot but companies can always hire cheap labors from abroad with their attractive high wages. So what is the disadvantage? Foreign workers in developing countries will face higher risks of losing more jobs when there is a downturn in economics.

Governments usually play the priority to protect their own citizen, especially in providing jobs. Again, most multinational companies are more likely to cut employment in developed countries due to high cost of running the business in developed countries. Well! during crisis like recession, companies will lay off workers. However, the chances of getting laid off is higher in developed countries, especially to those foreign workers from abroad. For example, it takes $1000 to hire 4 workers in China but it takes $1000 to hire 1 worker in Singapore. Assume the worker's efficiency is different, the 4 workers in China can produce 2 products and 1 worker in Singapore can produce 1 product. If the company needs to cut down cost of $500, it will go for a retrenchment in its company in Singapore so that the output is now 2.5 products. If the company were to cut in China, the output would be 2.0 products. Therefore, the risks are there.

All in all, this just my random thought about the human capital in developing countries and developed countries. I am sure there are more things to talk about but again I am tired now. You can definitely ask me questions about it. It's just a discussion. Expect more of these issues to come. Now banking & insurance industries cut things based on sales. It seems everything shrinks. More to cuts in commercial flights too.

Companies Jobs Gone
Rolls-Royce 2,000 Jobs
AIG unknown
CityBank 52,000 Jobs
HSBC 500 Jobs
DBS 900 Jobs
RBS 3,000 Jobs
Deutsche 900 Jobs
Boeing 800 Jobs
NOL 1,000 Jobs
Suzuki 1,400 Jobs
Toyota* 12o Jobs for now
Pepsi 750 in America (plant)
BT 10,000
Fidelity 1,300
Lehman brothers' jobs are all gone

The Lost Violence of Holevent Town (Pt.3)

I know most of you have been waiting for this. I hope it won't let you down. Anyway for those who have not read part 1 and 2 of this short story, please feel free to do so. Sorry for the long wait. Nowadays, I am struggling to write something. Yeah! there are lots of errors here. Fix it later....

[Recap: My car was broken. Having walked through the street, I saw places were heavily damaged. It was a very lonely night as I walked through the eerie forest, leading me to a hut. When the door opened itself, unfortunately I was terrified to.... ]

Unfortunately, I was terrified to see a back body of an army trying to stop himself from a heart-pain bleeding. The floor was flooded with a very thick layer of blood. Apparently, his arm was badly shot. I wouldn’t want to see him taking the awful pain. Later, I just realized what on earth would an injured army doing here, especially in a place where it wasn’t supposed to have a war and the outfit of the injured war veteran was like the late 40s’ stuff. I dared not to talk or move, but I slowly tried to stay away from him, out of my sight, by stepping away from the door. “Don’t move”, said the army. His rifle reloaded with a very fast-paced and click-cluck sound. “Who are you? What are you doing here?” asked the soldier with a very deep-toned voice with a southern accent from North Texas. I replied to his questions accordingly and with a hesitated emotion. He commanded me to turn around with my hands raised up. I did what he asked but I tightly closed my eyes and turned around. However, the army went speechless. It was a sudden silent for a moment, and I could only hear the army's suffocated breathing. Finally, I decided to open my eyes after taking a deep breath. That moment was like between death and hope. As I opened my eyes, he shouted, “Quick! Stay down”. Out of nowhere, the hut was in total darkness. It was very different from before. As the night continued to echo the lonely forest, I heard some foreign sound of voices. In no time, I realized it was German. As I moved closer to the injured army, I saw him wearing an American Flag's badge on his green uniform outfit. He whispered at me, “seat your ass down, you wanna get killed by the Nazis”. My heart and my mind dropped dead and stopped with an unbelievable response: WTF. “They are coming and we need to move away now”, said the American army.

Run.....

Halloween Party At Zouk

I would like to thank Nicky and his wonderful friends for making a scary and great Halloween club party at Zouk, Singapore. Having done my swimming teacher lesson on that night, I dashed myself with a taxi all the way to the party, and the crowd was infested with zombies, monsters, superheroes, lamers and weirdos. Luckily, I was quite attractive and smart to find my way and to cut across the lines of long queues. Finally, I managed to find my buddy, Nicky. He was tall and handsome enough to distinguish himself from others. I guess the attention was quite sharp for me to spot on him.

So the queue took more than an hour before i got to go in. However, that was me, waiting for more than an hour but my friends, they were waiting for at least 3 hours. Yeah! It was really crowded. Finally, we were inside and the place was rumbling with hot and spooky club music, especially with the sound effect of woman's screams and police's sirens. Yeah! every now and then, a sudden gust of smoothing air would jam the whole place, creating a hot, steamy and sexy environment for this Halloween dance party.

The real stuff was like dancers were wearing different types of costumes. Literally, you could find any superheroes or supermonsters there. So what did i put on? Yeah! A good friend of mine, Mr Ming, gave me a free costume of a patient who apparently suffered from SARS or insane disease. Well! Yeah Lots of people were taking pictures with me. Maybe more than 20 pics, which was quite fun. At one point, I was lost and could not find my friend, Nicky. LOL! Well! It wont happen again. I don't want to search people all night long.

So the excitement came when I was dancing on the deck and on the stairs. Girls were like WTF with my dancing moves. They would start to distract me a bit by touching my hair cover. LOL. Guys, who were not gay, danced with me or looked at me with a very weird reaction. Seriously, Maybe I was a bi !!! LOL. Kinda Cool. Anyway, there was the incident where I was dancing on the short stairs of few steps. This guy, with his gal, started to stare at my dancing moves as if I was gonna do something creepy and gloomy. And his gf was like oh cool! So, we came into a challenge of horror dancing show down. Anyway, he ended up taking a pic with me. I could see a sudden expression on his face. He was like this guy was insane in his creepy dancing. Lol! Yeah! Immediately after dancing with this guy in front of his gf, another guy, on the deck, came to approach me with his hands, trying to show me some signs of something. Maybe, my dance was way off the limit of hell's style. Lol. I appreciated his comments of my crazy and scary dancing moves.

The rest of the night, i was partying and drinking. Talking was a no no situation as the environment was bombarded with loud music. Before I went back home, I came to realize i had some many drinking coupons and decided to stop for a drink, my favorite bartender's rootbeer. What a great night to end my Halloween experience in Zouk. It was great but a little too crowded and the lineups were insane. I took a cab and went home with a slight dizziness in my head. Way to go for a good night sleep, but it went really bad during the rest of the early morning. Maybe the alcohol and the insane costumes haunted me throughout the night. Boo Boo!!! Suddenly, I turned into a creature freak.