40 and 4 kids

There must be something about turning 40 and having 4 kids. Two politician, Ruth Kelly in the UK and our very own Katherine Rich decided to "put family first" after 4 and 9 years in frontline politics, respectively.

It must be a hard decision. To go against the contemporary view of able to "do it all".

IR655

I was far too little to remember what happened in 1988.

With a retrospectoscope, it seems like fear, is why the commander of the US warship decided to shoot the airbus down.

Dare I suggest that it is fear that is behind most people's irrational behaviour/arguement.

72 hours

As I continue to reflect and wonder, I now realize that as
a physician I am merely a shepherd guiding others through
this convoluted, confusing, and forever-changing thing we
call life. And in time, with time, things will be okay—they
will be as they must.

72 hours

The measure of a Man

Listening to Skulls

A great show

There is no doubt that the upcoming US election is much more fascinating then our kiwi election later this year. To compare the two, as some commentator had, is nonsense. It´s not even comparing apple to orange but more like apple to banana.



Cognition vs emotion. Which domain really direct human behaviour? We shall see.



These two speeches of course, are quite different from the timeless-ness of this following one.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

Simon

A blog a of a 28 year old kiwi with metastatic melanoma.

http://cancerblog.easyjournal.com/

Racism and Prejudice

Do you know about the Japanese Internment in America in the 1940s? I don't, until very recently.

Shame on the then US Administration for this racially motivated mass incarceration of their citizens of Japanese descent. Shame on the then Japanese Government for starting WW2 of course but that's another story.

"Yes we can" for Obama?

The Rt Hon. The Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC

A few days ago, the world was told that Margaret Thatcher has dementia.

When I was six, she signed the Sino-British Declaration that saw HK eventually coming under Chinese rule again. To me, she was THE British PM. She set the mark.

It is therefore rather sad to learn that she now suffers from dementia. A illness so cruel that it erode away one's mind.

My prayers are with her and her family.

friends have come from afar, how happy we are

In a few hours we have the closing cermony of the 29th Olympic games of the modern era. Confucius said "frends have come from afar, how happy we are" 2500 years ago. It has never been more apt for China till now.




Some, like Prof Xu, thinks it has the capacity to bring a major social change. Reading one of the review, it certainly looks promising.



I was reading a bit about the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages, and bumped into this site, interesting.

laws, morals, virtues, and ethics

So Boobs on Bikes will go ahead, Judge Mathers said the decision was made by considering the law not morals. Also she said "some councillors may deem the parade to be offensive" but she did not agree, even if it was tacky.

Yes, laws need not to be morals. The struggle for abolition of slavery comes to mind.

Primary school principal Mrs Armstrong is struggling too, she said "reports of increasingly violent and unacceptable behaviour in primary schools were indicative of a society losing its moral base and leaving schools to deal with the result."

Yup, we've heard that one before. Yes, Auckland Mayor John Banks said something similar a while ago as well. He said he is against the Boobs on Bikes. Yet the laws, or the system, is structured such that as a Mayor, he can't really do much about the parade either. What a shame.

Elsewhere, the headline reads "Doctor facing charges of sex with patient". The Health and Disability Commissioner found that under certain circumstance, even if sex was mostly consensual, a relationship can be deem unethical.

The current "go easy", generally "non-confrontational", libral, "it's-ok-as-long-as-it-suits-you" culture in the society is rampant.

Medical advances, as with most things, can be a two way sword. One example is the pill. FDA approved in the 50s and highly effective as a mean of contraception. In human history, never before had sexual activity been so divorced from reproduction. Morals aside, the social consequences of pre-martial sex and promiscuity is probably beyond the imagination of those who developed the pill in the first place. It's interesting to know Japan didn't approve the use of the pill till 1999.

Experience

Wikipedia says "experience" is "a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event. The history of the word experience aligns it closely with the concept of experiment."

It also says that, "experience" is partly derived from observation and the company of those who are already wise.

Somethings one would love to experience - the experience of a majestic sunrise for example. Somethings, you would rather like to avoid, a big car crash for example.

I believe most people won't learn their lessons until they experience certain failures. This thinking, however, is fundamentally flaw given what I've said above.

So, what is the best way to let others know of your experience?