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On The State of the Union

For as long as I can remember, I have been an Americophile (yes, apparently it’s a real word!) No surprises there, I suppose – having been born in the United States (both my parents were studying in Louisiana at the time), I have always had sentimental attachment to the USA, even if my own personal memories of my time there as a child was limited to a handful of photographs of my being a toddler.

Growing up in the Reagan era of the 1980s, it was very difficult not to look at America with a sense of admiration. Coca Cola and McDonald’s and Superman were icons that loomed large in our childhood, and the idea of the American Dream was not yet besmirched by the grime of cynicism and disappointment that has been the American legacy of the post-9/11 era.

I grew up reading Spiderman, watching Batman and Superman on the silver screen, and I remember spending my mornings doing my homework while CNN was playing on the morning television broadcast, watching the entire might of the mighty American military being brought down like a sledgehammer onto Saddam Hussein’s Iraq after the latter’s invasion of Kuwait. America was the almighty behemoth of the world, and once the Berlin Wall had fallen, the USA bestrode the globe as an unchallenged colossus – the one and only superpower of the late 20th century.

Going to college, I fell into student politics, and political biographies became my preferred vein of reading material ever since. I came to know FDR and Truman and Eisenhower and Kennedy through McCullough and Schlesinger and many other scholars of American politics. And when Barack Obama ran for the presidency, my abiding interest for American politics kicked up another notch: I started watching Meet The Press on the weekends, trawled through RealClearPolitics and the New York Times and other news portals to read the tea leaves of the unfolding campaign. Obama becoming President will probably be the high watermark of American esteem and prestige in my lifetime, and I soaked every moment of his time in office. His speeches at Selma and Berlin and Egypt. His announcement of the capture of Osama bin Laden. Those speeches at the White House Correspondents’ Dinners.

And, of course, the State of the Union – that spectacle of American power and pageantry. Ostensibly a report card to be laid open for the American people, but really an annual statement of intent – a manifesto of a president in office and in power.

Biden might not have that same soaring oratory that marked Obama’s time as President. But for this State of the Union address, you will find me eager as always, watching and learning, basking in the theatre of American politics – still, so far, the hub and core of global power in my lifetime.

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On New Beginnings

We often celebrate pivotal moments in our lives – birthdays, holidays, new year’s days – as hinges in history, natural moments in which one page of life ends and another opens anew. Sometimes we are seduced into thinking that change can only happen when such hinges unfold themselves. Not quite realising, of course, that Change can happen at any moment of our choosing – as long as we are ready for that Transformation to sweep in and take us off into new and unexpected adventures.

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Today’s 3 Things III – Tech Layoffs, Employer Spyware, Private Market Valuations

  1. Tech companies doing mass layoffs is no longer surprising, but it is jarring to see employers resort to the axe when there is so much evidence out that that points to massive erosion in goodwill, trust and morale when employees are summarily dismissed. And the human cost of it, is so painful and unnecessary. There is always a better way to do this – but too many employers are too scared, or too lazy, to do the right thing.
  2. So… there’s this thing called employer spyware now, where employers would install software of company computers that would monitor your work activities, figure out if you’ve been spending too much time on Twitter (or, like in my case right now, blogging haha), even monitor your keystrokes. You can even get dismissed from work, with Big Brother software bearing witness against you and lazy-ass ways. Creepy. Should we all be worried now?
  3. In Warren Buffett’s memorable phrasing, when the tide finally goes out is when you know who has been swimming naked. This has certainly been the case in the past few months, as central banks ratchet up interest rates and companies find it increasingly harder to raise funds. More scrutiny is now being brought to bear in private markets, especially when it comes to asset valuations in PE and VC portfolios. This is not new, of course, but the “funding winter” is certainly shining a light on how real the purported overperformance in private markets really is.
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Today’s 3 Things II – Population Decline, Slow Productivity, and Political Financing

  1. China’s population on the decline! India might overtake China as most populous country! – one could worry about implications of declining populations on national productivity, pension liabilities, and whatnot. But maybe, just maybe, it might simply be a lagging indicator to show that things are… good?
  2. “Slow productivity” is a thing, now. The past 20 years have been a whirlwind of emails and SMS and BBM pings and Slack and Whatsapp and Zoom calls – and it’s all getting a bit too much. The revolution is nigh.
  3. For as long as we don’t solve the problem of political financing and lobbying transparency in Malaysia, we will never truly fix the dysfunctionality of our contemporary politics. Some might say, eleh US pun sama je. Yes, lobbying and jockeying for influence will always be there – indeed, it is a core function of the political process! But the American approach of making political financing more transparent has its benefits – it makes public policy-making more transparent and more accountable, and reduces the likelihood of corrupt behaviour in doing under-the-table deals for private advantage.
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Today’s 3 Things – SingTel, Nurul Izzah, Zahid Hamidi

  1. I was reading this news report about SingTel being recently majority-controlled by private equity firms, and thought, oh wow, a positive piece on PE ownership that does not demonise private equity ownership as heartless asset-stripping capitalists! Then I realised – oh, it’s a news report from a stock investing app. Figures hahah.
  2. So, prominent economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram says, on the issue of Anwar’s daughter being appointed as an advisor to the Finance Minister: “I am also not keen on the prime minister being the finance minister. I am also not keen on this (Nurul Izzah’s) appointment. But all things considered the reaction to her appointment is unwarranted.” And then goes on to enumerate the ways in which appointed the PM’s daughter as an advisor might bring advantages. Fair enough. Nuanced, right? But then, you will notice that the headline simply says: “Jomo: Nurul Izzah’s new appointment not a liability”. Nice.
  3. “Saya mesti berusaha bukan saya benci, tidak ada satu zarah, satu molekul rasa benci kepada mana-mana individu, tetapi parti mesti diselamatkan,” kata seorang Presiden parti politik yang memalitkan najis rasuah pada wajah partinya sendiri, mencantas pemimpin tempatan yang membawa kepada kekalahan partinya dalam negeri-negeri yang sebelum ini menjadi kubu kuat partinya, menjadi bebanan utama bagi para pemimpin muda parti beliau sendiri, membelakangkan keputusan partinya sendiri untuk tidak bersama pemimpin dan parti lawan tertentu, dan menyanggupi parti tunjang negara menjadi pelakon tambahan dalam pentas politik tanahair. Siapa yang perlu diselamatkan, ya?

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Book Review I (2023): Suttree by Cormac McCarthy

I’ve been on a Cormac McCarthy binge in the past few months, having read Blood Meridian (his most celebrated work, and probably his best), and also having finished his most recently-published books, the literary duet of The Passenger and Stella Maris. These books, like the rest of Cormac McCarthy’s oeuvre, carry within them a heady concoction of stoic characters, cinematic vistas, Faulknerian complexity, biblical cadences, and elemental violence. So, I suppose it was natural that I would move on next to reading Suttree.

Some of his fans think of Suttree as his best work. I would probably beg to differ, but Suttree is certainly McCarthy’s funniest book that I have read so far, and probably the most merciless in the way that McCarthy puts his main character through the most harrowing episodes: that bit with typhoid fever had me shaking my head in pity and disbelief.

Suttree tells of the adventures and travails of Cornelius Suttree, who makes a living as a fisherman on the outskirts of Knoxville, Tennessee. Throughout the novel, Suttree makes his way through life amidst poverty and squalor, as we meet the vagabonds, ne’er-do-wells and po’ folk that make up his community. The writer hints at an educated man who chooses this hard life, descending down into the Hades of the American South to swim with the flotsam and jetsam of humanity. He makes many bad choices, but is ultimately saved by the constancy with which he keeps faith with the friends that he surrounds himself with, and the wry amusement with which he views the world and its happenings . 

As always with McCarthy, the joy is in his inimitable style of writing: frequently cinematic, sometimes ethereal, often garrulous, and never shrinking from the bare-knuckled truths of human existence. 

It is often said that Suttree is the most autobiographical of his novels, and I can only surmise, after having read Suttree, that most of this book must have been written from personal experience, for it to be so searing and achingly painful. The violence and drama is often leavened by humour – mainly from the capers of the memorable Harrogate – but for the most part, this is not a book to be read while you are holidaying by the beach. 

I would give this book a 4-star rating: the writing is muscular and also beautiful in the way that only Cormac McCarthy can make it, but also painfully merciless, that by the end, the reader is almost glad that Suttree’s suffering would hopefully come to an end. 

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Today’s Read XV – Personal Branding, Open Tenders, and Global Conflict

  1. “To reduce ourselves to brands… is to do violence to our personhood.” – another reminder of why we must resist this current madness for “influencing” and performative broadcasting: our very Humanity is at stake.
  2. An Umno politician waxing lyrical about the advantages of open tender for public projects – will wonders never cease?
  3. Our own Andrew Sheng co-writes an intriguing analysis of East/West and North/South divides in contemporary international affairs, and points out the obvious: “everyone loses In a fractured world.” And yet – surely we are headed nowhere but towards increasing conflict and probably even outright war, soon enough.
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Today’s Reads XIV – Layoffs, Manchester United, UMNO

  1. Termination via email is yet another reminder that good leadership is really just about being a good human being. Look people in the eye, answer questions fairly, and show sympathy for the travails of others. Is that really so hard to do?
  2. Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United is a salutary lesson in the inimitable power of good leadership. After the disappointments of Moyes, Van Gaal and Mourinho, the fleeting mirage of the Solskjaer years, the failed experiment with Rangnick, we finally have a manager with the grit and dedication to put together a winning team!
  3. UMNO gaya Orwell: bila Presiden yang terpalit rasuah menuduh orang lain yang menjadi punca “sabotaj” – bila prestasi parti merudum dan kepimpinan enggan mengambil tanggungjawab – bila Presiden sendiri melanggar konsensus “No Anwar No DAP” tapi orang lain dituduh pengkhianat – bila “pembersihan” dijadikan label untuk mencantas lawan!
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Grieve

  1. It is a strange thing to grieve for. A herd of like-minded people. A vehicle for pursuing, seeking, maintaining political power and domination. A collective of similarly-faced, similarly-named, similarly-garbed humanity, named and marked and made intelligible with insignia and flag and song and creed. 
  2. But also a community of people who understand one another. Who band together to yoke the human powers of a young nation, its sinews and hopes and grit, into sprawling roads and gleaming spires. 
  3. “Keramat”. Hallowed. Noble. Dignified. A rather pompous word to describe a seething mass of ambition and belief and camaraderie and struggle. But deeply felt. More than just a name on a card or an official form. Not merely an annual general meeting of the believers and the strivers and the schemers. A movement. A people within a people. 
  4. To remember a glorious past. Demonstration. Mobilisation. Negotiation.  Declamation. A young people claiming their right to exist. To govern themselves. To give deed to promises made. To forge a nation out of the disparate and messy strands of migration and immigration – the grime of lives made and remade. Deeds now hallowed in history books.
  5. Deeds now made into shallow and mocking echos, mouthed by a mongrel mob. Thin and hollow and blasted – these are the calling cards of an army of pygmies, claiming the mantle of past glories with which to cloak their cowardice. 
  6. The emperor is clothed in lies and deceit and self-deception, but the imperium marches on, wilfully blind and mute and dumb. Ever onwards, ever loyal, ever grieving. 

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ChatGPT: An Exciting New Horizon in Technology

AI technologies are rapidly advancing, and ChatGPT is at the forefront of this exciting new horizon in technology. For those unfamiliar with ChatGPT, it is a large language model trained by OpenAI that can generate human-like text and engage in conversation with users.

While ChatGPT and other AI technologies offer exciting possibilities and have the potential to revolutionize many industries, they also raise concerns about the future of human employment. As AI technologies become more sophisticated, they may replace or augment human labor in a wide range of tasks. This could lead to job displacement and income inequality, and it is important that we address these issues as we integrate AI technologies into society.

However, it is important to recognize that AI technologies are here to stay, and we need to find ways to integrate them in ways that enhance, rather than harm, human lives. This may require finding ways to retrain and upskill workers, as well as implementing policies to mitigate the negative impacts of job displacement.

One way to do this is to focus on using AI technologies to augment rather than replace human labor. For example, rather than replacing customer service representatives with chatbots, companies could use chatbots to handle routine inquiries, freeing up human representatives to handle more complex or nuanced interactions. This would allow workers to use their unique skills and expertise, while also leveraging the efficiency and speed of AI technologies.

Ultimately, ChatGPT and other AI technologies offer an exciting new horizon in technology, but they also present challenges that we must address. By finding ways to integrate these technologies in ways that enhance, rather than harm, human lives, we can ensure that they are a positive force for society.

(And yes, I wrote this essay using ChatGPT. Naturally).