Month: September 2013

This is interesting: rather than spending on educational/social programmes intended to compensate for poor parenting, maybe the real solution is to teach mothers and fathers to be better parents? At the same time, policy measures to eradicate inequality should be made top priority for all governments everywhere; this, more than anything else, can help to alleviate social inequality and reduce the problems of crime and poverty which are the hallmarks of great inequalities.

This is a good reminder of the timeless benefits of walking. Reminds me of all those scenes in The West Wing 😀

Assalamu Alaikum,

Have you read verse 131 of chapter 20. طه in the Holy Quran?

وَلا تَمُدَّنَّ عَينَيكَ إِلىٰ ما مَتَّعنا بِهِ أَزوٰجًا مِنهُم زَهرَةَ الحَيوٰةِ الدُّنيا لِنَفتِنَهُم فيهِ ۚ وَرِزقُ رَبِّكَ خَيرٌ وَأَبقىٰ

English-YusufAli translation
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Nor strain thine eyes in longing for the things We have given for enjoyment to parties of them, the splendour of the life of this world, through which We test them: but the provision of thy Lord is better and more enduring.

———-

It’s very hard to remind ourselves of the bigger perspective of this World and the Hereafter, especially when the reality of this World permeates our every sight and senses.

But the splendour of this World is but a pale imitation of the Eternal – and we must always live in remembrance of Him, so that the Ultimate Reality is always in sight, God-Willing!

This is clever: leveraging the powering the Internet to provide a robust and distributed platform for one-on-one advisory/support services. It has the potential to shake up hundreds – nay, thousands! – of local services, and empower many professional to finally unburden themselves of the shackles of the 9-to-5, and offer their services directly to the world! Trust Google to once again introduce massively disruptive innovation…

This is interesting: the power of satire to elicit insight on issues of the day.

This is powerful: how to measure the impact of employability and employer satisfaction of graduates, vs the cost that graduates have to pay to educational institutions. A “bang-for-buck” measure that Malaysian policy makers should seriously consider.

This is a very interesting article on the much-discussed “Millenial” generation, and their attitudes to public service (or, probably more accurately, political participation through elective office.)

In many ways, it confirms what I read and hear about many young people, in Malaysia too. There is deep frustration with the way elective politics is played, and profound sense of betrayal as young people observe the nitpicking and petty mud-slinging that makes up the charade of national politics in the modern age.

Perhaps this is just a phase, perhaps a down-cycle in the history of Malaysian politics. But the deep sense of disappointment, accompanied by the boldness with which young Malaysians express their views through social media, suggests that politicians may never recover the public esteem which the rakyat has long imbued them with.