See the World

Ask any steward or stewardess of an airline, “Why did you join this industry?” I bet many would reply, “Because I want to see the world!”

No-frills airlines rely on many ingenious methods to cut cost. For example, an aircraft would fly from its “base airport” to a destination and return in shortest possible time, usually less than an hour. That way, not only can it make as many flights as possible in a single day, the airline also avoids paying for accommodation and food expenses of its crews.

But here is the thing that confounds me: If the cabin crews do not even have time to step out of the destination airport, how could they “see the world”???

I can think of two reasons why they join no-frills airlines:

1. They get discount tickets when off duty.
2. They use no-frills airlines as a stepping stone for joining first-tier, full service airlines.

Perhaps no-frills airlines need to work harder to retain their staffs.

The Legendary Khaosan Road

I think I must be of a rare breed. Most travelers to Thailand start and end their trips in Bangkok. Malaysians typically visit Southern Thailand or Bangkok. For me, I traveled to Northern Thailand in November 2002 and again in January 2007, bypassing Bangkok altogether. I live and work in a big city, so I prefer to escape to smaller towns when I am on vacation.

Finally, I decided to give City of Angel a try. On Jan 8, 2008, I touched down at Suvarnabhumi Airport. (Pronounced "Suvarnabhum"!) My first stop: the legendary Khaosan Road.

Khaosan Road is the heaven of backpackers. Here you will find accommodations at rock bottom price. My own room - with fan but no air-con, TV, phone and attached bathroom - cost just 150 Bath! (I did hope that the room had a window.)

Khaosan Road also appears in Leonardo diCaprio’s movie – The Beach. It’s in Khaosan the character played by diCaprio discovered a map which led him to a beach paradise.

Here you go, Khaosan Road…

In Khaosan Road, you will see more tourists than locals…

Fancy a Bob Marley hairstyle? You can have it done here…

Street vendors…

Waitresses of a bar and a tourist…

P/S For my other posts and photos of Thailand, click on the label THAILAND below.

Sins of Recycling – II

In one of my older posts, Sins of Recycling, I wrote that recycling might not be as green as many thought. An article, Where’s That Trash Going (IT14, The Star, December 4, 2007) provides more insight:

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While there are no precise figures, activists estimate that 50% to 80% of the 300,000 to 400,000 tons of electronics collected for recycling in the United States each year ends up overseas.

Workers in countries such as China, India and Nigeria then use hammers, gas burners and their bare hands to extract metals, glass and other recyclables, exposing themselves and the environment to a cocktail of toxic chemicals.

“It is being recycled, but it’s being recycled in the most horrific way you can imagine,” said Jim Puckettt of the Basel Action Network, the Seattle-based environmental group that tipped off Hong Kong authorities.

“We’re preserving our own environment, but contaminating the rest of the world.”

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The idea of recycling is noble, but actual implementation proves to be difficult. We should really reduce and reuse before we recycle.

星洲日报种族歧视

多年前在星洲日报看过一则新闻，标题是“非洲黑人洗黑钱”，涉及者是非洲尼日利亚人。为何该报不将标题写作“非洲人…”或“尼日利亚人…”，而要强调他们的肤色？我唯一的解释是：星洲日报歧视黑人！

罗马女神Venus 中文译名一般上是维纳斯。美国网球名将Venus Williams 却被星洲日报写作“薇奴丝”，或许和他是黑奴后代有关。另外，他和妹妹Serena 也被称为“黑珍珠”，星洲日报不忘提醒读者他们的肤色。

或许本地华人不觉这有何不妥。但我曾在美国工作，接触过许多不同种族的人。我已学会了不以有色眼光看待异族人士。星洲日报的用词，在美国会被视为“政治不正确” politically incorrect，我也不能接受。

Multilingualism

In the United States, the largest number of immigrants – legal or illegal – comes from Latin America. Known collectively as Hispanics, they surpassed African Americans to become the second largest ethnic groups in the country.

Hispanics typically speak Spanish. There is a growing concern that their refusal to abandon Spanish for English would divide Americans along language lines. Others point out that Hispanics may be more likely to work in the least desirable sectors, given their proficiency of English, or lack of it. I personally observed that majority of the workers in Southern California’s fast food outlets were Mexicans.

But Malaysians and Singaporeans probably would find these worries unwarranted. After all, most of us speak two or three languages. In Malaysia, Malay is the official language but English is the business language. Most minorities speak their mother tongues, e.g. Chinese and Tamil. English is the most widely used language in Singapore but the government encourages its people to study their mother tongues.

I recently spent the New Year’s Eve with my sister and parents in Singapore. My (younger) nephew – at the age of two and a half years – was already bilingual. He spoke Chinese (Mandarin) to my parents but spoke English to me, and he made the switch effortlessly. In addition to these, he could count from 1 to 10 in Malay and Tamil!

There is nothing wrong to be bilingual or trilingual. Just make sure that we start at young age, since our ability to learn another language goes south as we get older.

What Makes a Good Leader

On the first day of 2008, Malaysians, still in New Year mood, were shocked by a sex scandal involving Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek. He was widely criticized for being immoral, having cheated on his wife. He had since resigned.

Then, I received an e-mail from my sister, with the subject “What makes a good leader? Before judging - THINK”. I reproduce part of the e-mail here. Let’s see if we make the right judgment…

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It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts. Here are the facts about the three candidates. Who would you vote for?

Candidate A - Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologist He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 martinis a day.

Candidate B - He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whiskey every evening.

Candidate C - He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never cheated on his wife.

Which of these candidates would be our choice?

Decide first... no peeking, then scroll down for the response.

Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Candidate B is Winston Churchill.

Candidate C is Adolph Hitler.

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Another comparison:

Bill Clinton was also involved in a sex scandal, but I would choose him any time over the deeply religious George W. Bush.

My First Chinese Post

曾经在星洲日报的网页看过一篇文章。文中写的是一名大马少年因为没携带身份证而被判入狱。作者的名字在网页的下端，我只看了一半，便知道：“这肯定是郑丁贤所写。”

星洲日报的专栏作者，绝大多数是“亲中派”，看的书以中国入口的居多。中国的书怎会谈人权呢？因此，他们对于人权，消费人权益，隐私权等等课题，只有很模糊的概念。

郑丁贤是异数。他中西兼通，虽以中文写作，却也对西方价值观有很深的认识。在之前所提到，少年因没携带身份证而被逮捕的事件，他指出其中的人权及隐私权问题。这就是我能猜到文章作者的原因。

郑丁贤是我最欣赏的大马华裔作者之一。

Justice

In my post, Learning Ethics in the Classroom, I mentioned justice as a guideline in making decision when confronting a dilemma. Now I will elaborate on the concept of Justice. This post is based largely on my lecture notes.

According to ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, there are two distinct forms of justice – universal justice and particular justice. Universal justice deals with obeying laws and the relation of virtues to others. Particular justice can be further subdivided into following categories:

• Distributive justice – distribution of benefits and burdens
• Compensatory justice – compensating persons for wrongs done on them
• Retributive justice – punishment of wrongdoers

How are benefits distributed? Some recommended principles are:

• To each an equal share
• To each according to individual needs
• To each according to personal efforts
• To each according to social contribution
• To each according to merit

It is worth noting that when it comes to wealth distribution, Malaysian government’s policies are based on the principle of equal share, while Singapore government emphasizes merit of individuals. Neither approach is perfect. This splitting view was essentially the factor that caused the ouster of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965.