Coffee Talk

 I came to the line in Robert Ferrigno’s novel The Wake Up where the character said ‘There’s no better way to ruin the walls than from within’, and I got reminded of an illustration a DJ shared over the radio some years ago.   

It was about a man troubled by a mouse in his house.  He wondered why, of all the other houses, the mouse had to pick on him.  He calculated how much cheese it had cost him.   

That mouse was detestable. 

By hook or by crook, he must get rid of it.  Why didn’t it fall for the traps?  And why didn’t the cat cooperate? 

Soon, he found himself thinking more and more about it, and less of anything else.    

He finally burned his house down just for the satisfaction of destroying the mouse. 

It’s only an illustration, but carries a lot of wisdom nontheless.  The greatest enemy often lies within.  It is a person’s own fear, pride, struggle, anger or unforgiveness, and destructive thoughts, that defeat and consume him.

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 Brazilian Cielo Filho Cesar, having won the gold medal for the men’s 50m freestyle, was overjoyed, proud, relieved, overwhelmed, dignified, triumphant, glorified, all at the same time. * youtube link below, watch how he broke down on stage 

Such a moving interplay of emotions!

The video clip started me thinking and marveling over this very capacity we have as humans.  The more I ponder, the more convinced I am that we did not evolve into such a state.

Darwin supporters believe that living organisms are products of long drawn, trial and error processes.  Each species evolves physically to adapt to physical environments, or to overcome threats.   

Such arguments are overly simplistic.  They may explain how our physical senses came to being (namely for threat detection), but do they also explain human beings’ abstract emotions?   

It is more likely that we are a clever masterpiece of an all-knowing Creator – a God who can and does create far greater varieties than man’s limited comprehension of materials in the form of solids, liquids and gases.   

Light is an example.  So are emotions. 

And as if a menu of emotions is just not good enough for us, His pet creation, God also designed awesome concoctions of emotions to, say, add cheer to special moments we celebrate.

That emotions exist points to a deeper truth yet - a truth that science often fail to acknowledge - and that, again, is:  Things do exist which are neither tangible, nor are structures of atoms, molecules, or cells. 

Want another example of such ‘things’? 

Well, God reveals in the Bible that He made man to consist of body, soul and spirit.   

This should make a piece of good news to Darwin supporters.  There are really much more to themselves than the latest version of evolved collection of perishable tissues that they think they are. 

* link to youtube

Tags: Christian, religion and philosophy, Food for thought // Add Comment »

 China’s casting of the cuter Lin Miaoke as ‘the face’ to the rendition of ‘Ode to the Motherland’ by another girl, Yang Peiyi, during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics triggered a chorus of criticisms from the world over. 

Critics decried it as ‘a step too far in China’s obsession with a perfect Olympics Games’. * link to story below 

Why shouldn’t China be so determined, I ask, after all the ‘noise’ it had to put up with?

Tags: news, Commentary // 1 Comment »

 A page turner - that’s what the book A Dangerous Weakness is.  For it marks a turning point for 93-year-old Lorna Page.   

Think of what it takes to write a novel: 

The twists and turns of the plot, researches into finer details for credibility, wit and humor, and convincing portrayal of the different personalities the characters assume - to name a few. 

It should help the author, too, if aspects like romance and power struggle feature regularly in her real life.  Well, perhaps they do, but Lorna Page was 90 when she worked on A Dangerous Weakness. 

Yet, writing was only the easy part.   

What is more remarkable is that Lorna Page managed to secure the publishers’ attention! That, to many aspiring writers, is a dream come true. 

The irony is that Lorna Page wasn’t even looking to have her work published.  In fact, she had forgotten all about it till her daughter-in-law stumbled upon it.

I’d say it could very well be the absence of the need to accomplish that worked for her.  Struggling, anxiety and worry usually do nothing for a breakthrough in any given situation. 

* link to news

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 Air-conditioned food courts may be a sign of modernization and prosperity, but their spreading like wild fire is bad news for me. 

It is an understatement to say that I dislike the food odor staining my clothes and hair for hours after a meal in such an establishment.  There is also the layer of grease that condenses onto the skin. 

I prefer the good old coffee shops, especially airy ones.  These days, however, no thanks to Singapore’s latest regulation that eatery proprietors must reserve areas for the benefit of non-smokers, the breeziest spots at coffee shops are often designated for smokers. 

I thought I was alone in my distaste for lingering food odor, but now, London’s Picturehouse Cinema chain is planning to ban consumption of popcorn in their 19 cinemas across Britain. 

Picturehouse Cinema is not alone.  Mr Daniel Broch, owner of Everyman cinema in London’s Hampstead district, said he too, will ‘de-popcorn’ every new venue he acquires.

Many people, it seems, find the smell of popcorn distinctive, disgusting and overwhelming, among other adjectives.  * news link below 

Strangely enough, I am ok with popcorn.  Perhaps it is the absence of grease, or so I imagine.

Nevertheless, the news is significant to me.  It’s good to know that I am not that weird after all. 

* link to news 

P.S.  The City of Seattle is also planning to ban popcorn, though for a different reason.  Read Seattle case here.

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 It turns out for poor Manji Yamada (read yesterday’s posting) that the surrogate mother also does not want to keep her.  It could be due to finances – that was her motivation to carry someone else’s baby in the first place. 

Still, that she is void of emotional attachment to the child she was pregnant with – and of her own egg, too – is upsetting.   

Her reaction makes the rationale for keeping a surrogate mother and the eventual parents apart (which is to prevent immediate or longer term tussles over custody of the child) irrelevant.

It also highlights just how purely monetary the transaction is.  Not that we don’t already appreciate the fact. 

Professor Noriko Mizino of Tohuko University offers yet another perspective of the transaction.  He said ‘it’s sad that a Japanese (referring to Manji’s father) should be taking part in this exploitation of a woman living in poverty’. 

There is only one conclusion.  Whichever angle you choose to view it, renting a womb is simply not the ethical means to usher in the stork.

* link to news article

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 I empathize with couples desperate to conceive their own children.  I really do, though I may not fully appreciate the agony they suffer.  But to resort to surrogate means, or ‘renting a womb’ as harsher critics have it, is quite another story. 

From a conservative point of view, the procedure goes against the ways of nature.  It’s not how God had intended for things to be.   

That aside, I personally believe that much of the bonding in a parent-child relationship was established way back during the pregnancy. This sounds unfair to parents of adopted children, but I can testify as a father that I do experience ‘surges of love’ for the individual child from time to time whenever I flash back those days when my wife was expecting.  To this point, surrogate mothers and the eventual parents are generally kept apart from one another, both physically and in identity. 

It is common for a surrogate mother to also contribute the egg to be fertilized by the biological father’s sperms.  In such cases, the eventual mother has neither the biological link nor the pregnancy process to help her bond with the child.   

Case in point:  A Japanese couple who hired the service of an Indian surrogate mother got divorced before the baby was born.  Two-week-old Manji Yamada is now categorized as an orphan because Indian law does not allow the now-single man to adopt Manji.   

And sadly, the ex-wife wants nothing to do with her.  After all, there are no strings attached.  (* link to news article below)

read more thoughts on the issue

* link to news article

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 Computer game addicts execute one another in the virtual world without a qualm.  These are daily routines – there is no right or wrong to any action, it’s only a game. 

By and by, gamers develop immunity towards the gruesome effects of their actions.  That’s where the danger lies with violent computer games.  Comics and movies, too, for that matter. 

Last week, an 18-year-old murdered a cab driver in Bangkok.  He wanted to find out if it was as easy in real life to rob a taxi as it was in the computer game Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV). (^* link to ref article below) 

In response, Thailand bans GTA IV. 

GTA IV’s distributor will remove it from the shelves, and will not import the next title in the series.  And, listen to this, it ‘also advised people to be careful about the types of computer games they buy and urged friends and relatives of gamers to watch their behaviour closely when playing.’  How convenient! To paraphrase that: It’s your (the gamers’) prerogative.  Your friends and relatives are responsible, too. 

To bring us back to those familiar debates we used to have on cigarettes, who among the addict, his family and the tobacco company, is more to blame? 

^* link to ref article

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 Talk about dubious honors.  (another one here) 

Dr S. Blair Hedges, the US biologist who discovered the world’s tiniest snake, has named it leptotyphlops carlae after his wife, Dr Carla Ann Hass. 

Dr Carla herself is a herpetologist, ie she specializes in a branch of zoology that deals with reptiles and amphibians.

Nevertheless, the christening makes you wonder what their marriage is like.  Or what Dr Hedges thinks of his wife. 

Full-grown leptotyphlops carlae are less than 10cm long.  They can fit within the footprint of a US quarter when curled up.  ^* more on the snake

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 They had either meant it as an honor, or a dubious one, when they named a soon-to-be-launched notebook i-Dola after Malaysia’s PM Abdullah Badawi (Dola, short for Abdullah), and a PC Jean-i after his wife. (^*ref article below) 

When functioning properly, the garbage-in-garbage-out machines are subject to control by others, namely the users.  Otherwise, they slow down or hang at their whims and fancies, and so have to be re-booted. 

PC and notebook models get obsolete rather quickly, too. Such is the situation with Abdullah, the way politics is shaping in Malaysia. 

Contenders for that top post are Najib Razak (who is implicated in the murder of a Mongolian model), and Anwar Ibrahim (who is accused for sodomizing his former aide).

So, naming the follow on computer model should be a breeze.  Just call it i-didn’t-do-it.

 * link to ref article

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