The Axes of Leadership by Henry Kissinger

Any society, whatever its political system, is perpetually in transit between a past that forms its memory and a vision of the future that inspires its evolution. Along this route, leadership is indispensable: decisions must be made, trust, earned, promises kept, and a way forward proposed. Within human institutions – states, religions, armies, companies, schools – leadership is needed to help people reach from where they are to where they have never been and, sometimes, can scarcely imagine going. 

Without leadership, institutions drift, and nations' courts grow irrelevance and, ultimately, disaster. Leaders think and act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the future; the second, between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead. Their first challenge is analysis, which begins with a realistic assessment of their society based on its history, mores (customs), and capacities. Then they must balance what they know, which is necessarily drawn from the past, with what they intuit about the future, which is inherently conjectural and uncertain. It is this intuitive grasp of direction that enables leaders to set objectives and lay down a strategy.

For strategies to inspire society, leaders must serve as educators – communicating objectives, assuaging doubts, and rallying support. While the state possesses by definition the monopoly of force, reliance on coercion is a symptom of inadequate leadership; good leaders elicit in their people a wish to walk alongside them. They must also inspire an immediate entourage to translate their thinking so that it bears upon the practical issues of the day. Such a dynamic surrounding team is the visible complement of the leader’s inner vitality; it provides support for the leader’s journey and ameliorates (makes better) the dilemmas of decision.

Leaders can be magnified – or diminished – by the qualities of those around them. The vital attributes of a leader in these tasks, and the bridge between the past and the future, are courage and character – courage to choose a direction among complex and difficult options, which requires the willingness to transcend the routine; and strength of character to sustain a course of action whose benefits and whose dangers can be only incompletely glimpsed at the moment of choice.

Courage summons virtue in the moment of decision; character reinforces fidelity to values over an extended period. Leadership is most essential during periods of transition when values and institutions are losing their relevance, and the outlines of a worthy future are in controversy. In such times, leaders are called upon to think creatively and diagnostically: what are the sources of the society’s well-being? Of its decay? Which inheritances from the past should be preserved, and which adapted or discarded? Which objectives deserve commitment, and which prospects must be rejected no matter how tempting? And, at the extreme, is one’s society sufficiently vital and confident to tolerate sacrifice as a waystation to a more fulfilling future?

from the book - LEADERSHIP - Six Studies in World Strategy

by Henry Kissinger

Henry Alfred Kissinger KCMG is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presidential administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

edited By 

Noor Mohamed

16/8/22

2.07am

Malay Proverbs

A refined Malay proverb says that if you remembered the place where you fall, you will never forget your playground. Places that bring bad memories are remembered and even more for places that give you joy and happiness. The Malay proverbs of the older generations were meant to guide the young with guiding words of wisdom. Malay proverbs found their way into everything that a Malay does. Its intended purpose is to make them think before doing anything that could put them into trouble. 

Malay proverbs are actually advice before making a decision or understanding the complexities of life itself. It is normally expressed in rhythmic prose and open with elliptical reference to nature or behavior or relevant things and the punch line contains all the wisdom kept in the mind of the older generation to serve as a reminder to young people especially when they are traveling abroad. Malay proverbs are full of age-old traditional values. In the past, wicked kings claimed heads in a lustful manner. 

Nowadays, spoilt children rule as little kings in their homes. Children are never satisfied with whatever you give them. Give them a ride on your shoulders, they will want to ride on your head next. These are Malay proverbs demonstrating age-old wisdom about brats and their desires to have more which is precisely the behavior of our millennial generation. Folks who are not in favor of administering the cane may opt to reason with the brats. While this is the prerogative of parents, we know it is not easy to get through to unresponsive ears.  

Sometimes it's like talking to a wall that only an electric drill can penetrate. Therefore, the Malay saying: “drilling words into the ear" illustrates advice given on a regular basis.  Another Malay proverb that means similar is: "Like pouring water on the yam's leaves". Yam leaves are extremely smooth and waxy, no drops of water will remain if you pour the liquid on them.  Fortunately, not everyone is a brat. It is possible to talk many people into performing tasks that they normally dislike. The right kind of persuasion is as powerful as great physical strength since “a sweet mouth breaks the bone." On the other hand, the very irresponsible way of using one's mouth is "the forked tongue of a monitor lizard". Famous in Malaysia when referring to capricious folks.

Here are some samples of the wise Malay Proverbs translated literally and with their English equivalent;

Sehari selembar benang, lama-lama menjadi kain-Everyday a thread, soon a cloth. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.

Masuk kandang kambing mengembik, masuk kandang kerbau menguak-Enter a goat’s shed, you bleat; enter a buffalo’s shed, you moo. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Tanam lalang tak akan tumbuh padi. If you plant grass, you won’t get rice. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

Sambil Menyelam Minum Air-While diving, drink water. Killing two birds with one stone.

Seperti kera kena belacan-Like a monkey who eats chilly shrimp paste. Like a cat on hot bricks.

Sepandai-pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya jatuh ke tanah juga-No matter how clever the squirrel jumps, it will eventually fall onto the ground. Curses, like chickens, come home to roost.

Diam-diam ubi berisi, diam-diam besi berkarat-The Potato grows in silence, the iron corrodes in silence. Speech is silver, silence is golden.

Jika tidak dipecahkan ruyung, manakan dapat sagunya-You can’t get at the precious sago without first breaking the bark. You can’t make bricks without straw

By

Noor Mohamed

15/8/22

3.54am

Noble culture of the Malays - "merisik".

The word “merisik” in Bahasa Malaysia (Malay language) means- to whisper (eavesdropping) or to spy if translated literally but actually it means to investigate or inquire secretly and discretely. The Malay culture is full of very artful behavior if they intend to do something. Merisik is the first step to be undertaken by a man if he likes a woman. The man will get his parents to assemble a small private party like a family gang to go to the said woman's house and do the merisik ceremony. First, it is an inquiry and to tender intent from the man putting forward his intention towards the woman’s parents and family.

Then if the woman’s family consented, immediately or sometimes during a second visit there will be a discussion about the wedding date and venue. During the merisik, verbal communication will be in parables or pantun (in Malay). Pantun is the Malay version of the English sonnets. In its raw and basic format, these sonnets or pantun consist of verses or abab (in Malay) where in each line the ending rhyme with each other and it’s very delicate to the hearing. A novelty showing off the mastery in commanding the Malay language. The shortest pantun has two lines known as pantun dua kerat whereas the longest has sixteen lines or pantun enam belas kerat. It’s hard to translate into English because Malay and English have different language syntax and lexical meanings but here is a sample of Malay Merisik Pantun;   

 

Jika tidak kerana bintang

Tak mungkin bulan terbit tinggi

Jika tidak kerana sayang

Tak mungkin kami datang ke sini

If it’s not because of the stars high above

Would the moon risen so high in the sky

If it weren’t for you my love

Would we never venture nigh!

 

The Malays are a very cultured society. Whenever they want to say something especially if it’s related to birth, marriage, death, peace talks, or ceremonial matters, they are extremely cautious in order to avoid hurting anybody’s feelings. Such is the high standard of speech of the Malays that they resort to talking in sonnets and use proverbial sentences to convey their message. 

During the merisik both parties will decide on the wedding date and venue as well as discussion about mahar or mas kahwin and hantaran. Mahar or mas kahwin is dowry given from the man to the woman and it is a religious obligation required in Islam and cannot be taken back once given whereas hantaran is a cultural mannerism that literally means delivery but actually, it means elaborate wedding gifts which consist of money, jewelry, clothing’s, gifts (even handphones and tablets in these days), foodstuff, flowers and fruits wrapped in a very decorative and artistic manner.

By

Noor Mohamed

13/8/22

12.04am

Phenology

Success and failures are like two sides of the same coin. The fact that we are here shows that our ancestors who lived on this earth which already passed the age of 4.54 billion years mean the early homo sapiens managed to survive the harsh conditions they were in and their success to survive means we are their symbol of being successful in surviving to stay alive on this planet. 

How do they manage to survive? They thrive because of their deep understanding of phenology. What is phenology? Phenology is the study of plant and animal life cycle events, which are triggered by environmental changes, especially temperature. Wide ranges of phenomena are included, from the first openings of leaf and flower buds to insect hatchings and the return of birds. Each one gives a ready measure of the environment as viewed by the associated organism. 

Thus, phenological events are ideal indicators of the impact of local and global changes in weather and climate on the earth's biosphere. Assessing our changing world is a complex task that requires close cooperation from experts in biology, climatology, ecology, geography, oceanography, remote sensing, and other areas. Phenology (Greek phainesthai=to appear, logos=knowledge, teaching) is the study of natural phenomena that recur periodically in plants and animals and of the relationship of these phenomena to climate and changes in season. 

In other words, it is the study of the annual sequence of plant development. Its aim is to describe the causes of variation in the timing of developmental events by seeking correlations between weather indices and the dates of particular growth events and the intervals between them. Phenology investigates a plant’s reaction to the environment and attempts to predict its behavior in new environments. In viticulture, phenology is mainly concerned with the timing of specific stages of growth and development in the annual cycle. Our ancestors understood phenology perfectly without having to consult any expert only from meticulous observation and the close relationship they had with nature.   

The Walk Out of Africa

 Our early ancestors use their five sensors and observation skills to the extreme for the sake of surviving the harsh conditions they are subjected to while living on this planet. They develop skill sets very early and this showed in the oldest cave painting discovered in France. The cave drawings in the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, France is the oldest animal paintings on Earth. The red and black cave drawings contained in the cave are more than 30,000 years old, according to a radiocarbon dating study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.  The cave is located in Vallon-Pont d'Arc, Ardeche, and was classified as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site in 2014, 20 years after it was first discovered. The act and ability to draw what early humans saw in their environment is proof that shows they understood the idea of visual documentation of experiences which may help them to survive. This shows a very modern behavior of observation which gave rise to their acute understanding of phenology. The early humans developed this ability as a result of converting obstacles into power generators where they have to pass down all the knowledge of phenology that one generation developed to the next generation and the most suitable ways of recordings vital memories are through wall paintings. The challenges they faced made them more creative in developing all kinds of tools, agriculture techniques, animal husbandry, languages, writing skills as well as phenology. I believe that we the modern humans if were transported back in time to the stone Age with all our scientific knowledge, we can’t survive as our ancestors survived in facing the challenges they faced then. Our ancestors make the conscious decision to walk out of Africa on foot 150’000 years ago for the sake of survival and looking for better habitation. Scientists, Alex Timmerman and Tobias Fredric suggest the answer lies in climate change — not the human-caused variety, but rather change induced by 21,000-year-long wobbles in the Earth’s axis. Those wobbles mean that, from time to time, northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula would get a bit less sun and a bit more rainfall, creating greener and wetter landscapes. When our early ancestors observe the long-term difficulties, they will face if they remained in the same place hence that caused them to decide to move out of Africa for the sake of survival. According to Smithsonian Magazine dated July 2008, “in the 1980’s new tools completely change the kinds of questions that scientists could answer about the past. By analyzing DNA in living human populations, geneticists could trace lineages backward in time. These analyses have provided key support for the out of Africa theory. Homo sapiens, this new evidence has repeatedly shown, evolved in Africa, probably around 200’000 years ago. At that point in human history, which scientists have calculated to be about 200,000 years ago, a woman existed whose mitochondrial DNA was the source of the mitochondrial DNA in every person alive today. That is, all of us are her descendants. Scientists call her “Eve”.    

Collapse of Civilizations

 According to World Economic Forum, Senior writer, Rosamund Hutt, when she wrote an article which was posted on the World Economic Forum website dated 17^th March 2016 on the subject “why do civilizations collapse” among others, herein are her findings;

“From the collapse of ancient Rome to the fall of the Mayan empire, evidence from archaeology suggests that five factors have almost invariably been involved in the loss of civilizations: uncontrollable population movements; new epidemic diseases; failing states leading to increased warfare; the collapse of trade routes leading to famine; and climate change”.

To my irony, these are variables that lead to the collapse of civilizations but the underlying factor above all is the loss of principle-centered leadership and when people start to abandon moral values which caused society to be corrupted and start to exhibit immoral behaviors which eventually gave rise to uncontrollable population movements; new epidemic diseases; failing states leading to increased warfare; the collapse of trade routes leading to famine; and climate change”.

Islam

The impact of Islamic civilization left its historical mark across the board overall field of knowledge and studies. Islam inspired the western Renaissance as many of the writings of  Muslim scientists like Ibnu Sina, Ibnu Rushd, Al-Khwarizmi, Al Kindhi, Al Farabi, Ibnu Sirin, Ibnu Al-Haytham, Al-Biruni, Ibnu Tufail, Ibnu Khaldun, and many others were translated into Latin and after which were translated into many other European languages. 

These were medieval Muslim great scholars of astronomy, astrology, biology, neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, alchemy, economic and social science, geography, mathematics, physics, engineering, and earth sciences.  In the field of civil engineering, there are many monumental buildings scattered all over the world in the form of mosques, housing estates, mausoleums, hanging gardens, museums, universities, and tombs built by Muslim architects and builders. 

Islamic architecture fully utilized geometrical motives and its design centered on symmetry and balance. Examples of these Islamic architectural landmarks among others were the Taj Mahal and Red Mosque in Delhi, India, Top Kapi Mosque in Turkey, the majestic Al-Hambra in Spain, and the Timbuktu Mosque in Africa which has a natural air-conditioning system using natural airflow.

The second caliph of Islam, Saidina Umar Al-Khattab (r.a) once said –

“Sometimes the people with the worst past create the best future”.

Civilizations

If we were to analyze all the great ancient civilizations of the old world like the Indus valley civilization of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa in India, Hwang Ho civilization in China, the great Greek civilization of Athens and Sparta, the great Egyptian civilization with its majestic pyramid of Giza known as the Nile River valley cities of Pharaohs, Babylonian civilization at the rivers Tigris and Euphrates and not forget the Mayans civilization with its own pyramid in South America and other similar majestic civilizations scattered around the ancient world, we will see a pattern of a kind of devotion in building monumental structures based on advance method of civil engineering feats so stupendous that it puzzled the modern archaeologists and architects alike as to how these structures were built without any modern heavy engineering equipment’s.

The civil engineering feats these civilizations exhibit among others are one of the main achievements apart from developing written languages, legal codes, advance agricultural methods, military conquest, political and philosophical theories as well as development of major religions can all be traced back originating from these civilizations. 

Apart from these ancient civilizations not to forget the sudden burst onto the scene from obscure desert dwellers within a span of 20 years after the death of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Islamic civilization races across the globe empowering old civilizations back to its glorified days from the Middle East it spread like wild fire to Granada and Andalusia in Spain, to India further north even to China as well as reaching the Malay Archipelago in South East Asia.

Alvin Eugene Toffler -(1928-2016)

 Alvin Eugene Toffler is an American futurologist (born Oct. 4, 1928, New York, N.Y.—died June 27, 2016, Los Angeles, Calif.), who wrote the immensely influential best-selling books Future Shock (1970) and The Third Wave (1980), in which he attempted to prognosticate and describe the economic and societal changes that were likely to take place in the rapidly materializing post-industrial age. 

He correctly foretold the changes that advanced technology would make in the workplace and also accurately predicted transitions in family structure (including the acceptance of same-sex marriage) and the advent of a disorienting proliferation of choices in almost every area of life. Toffler was sought after as an adviser by government officials and corporate CEOs, and his works were particularly admired and studied in China. 

He graduated (1950) from New York University and moved to Cleveland, where he engaged in assembly-line work and also became a welder. In 1954 Toffler became a reporter for the trade newspaper Labor’s Daily, and in 1959 he was hired by Fortune magazine as a labor writer and editor. He left that job in 1962 in favor of freelance writing, and he won praise for a 1964 interview of Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov that was published by Playboy magazine. Toffler’s other notable works include Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century (1991) and Creating a New Civilization: The Politics of the Third Wave (1995; with his wife, Heidi).

Islam & Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)

 Thomas Carlyle in his series of lectures given in May of 1840 under the title Heroes and Heroes Worship on Islam and the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

A silent great soul; he (Prophet Muhammad-peace be upon him) was one of those who cannot but be in earnest; whom Nature herself has appointed to be sincere. While others walk in formulas and hearsays, contented enough to dwell there, this man could not screen himself in formulas; he was alone with his own soul and the reality of things. The great Mystery of Existence, as I said, glared in upon him, with its terrors, with its splendors; no hearsays could hide that unspeakable fact, “Here am I!” Such sincerity, as we named it, has in very truth something of divine. The word of such a man is a Voice direct from Nature’s own Heart. Men do and must listen to that as to nothing else; —all else is wind in comparison. From of old, a thousand thoughts, in his pilgrimages and wanderings, had been in this man: What am I? What is this unfathomable Thing I live in, which men name Universe? What is Life; what is Death?

What am I to believe? What am I to do?... That by the unspeakable special favor of Heaven he had now found it all out; was in doubt and darkness no longer, but saw it all. That all these Idols and Formulas were nothing, miserable bits of wood; that there was One God in and over all; and we must leave all Idols, and look to Him.

 That God is great; and that there is nothing else great! He is the Reality. Wooden Idols are not real; He is real. He made us at first, sustains us yet; we and all things are but the shadow of Him; a transitory garment veiling the Eternal Splendour. “Allah Hu Akbar, God is great;”—and then also “Islam,” That we must submit to God. That our whole strength lies in resigned submission to Him, whatsoever He does to us. For this world, and for the other! The thing He sends to us, was it death and worse than death, shall be good, shall be best; we resign ourselves to God. —” If this is Islam,” says Goethe, “do we, not all live in Islam?” Yes, all of us that have any moral life; all live so. It has ever been held the highest wisdom for a man not merely to submit to Necessity, —Necessity will make him submit, —but to know and believe well that the stern thing which Necessity had ordered was the wisest, the best, the thing wanted there. To cease his frantic pretension of scanning this great God’s-World in his small fraction of a brain; to know that it had verily, though deep beyond his soundings, a Just Law, that the soul of it was Good; — that his part in it was to conform to the Law of the Whole, and in devout silence follow that; not questioning it, obeying it as unquestionable. I say this is yet the only true morality known. A man is right and invincible, virtuous and on the road towards sure conquest, precisely while he joins himself to the great deep Law of the World, in spite of all superficial laws, temporary appearances, profit-and-loss calculations; he is victorious while he co-operates with that great central Law, not victorious otherwise: —and surely his first chance of co-operating with it, or getting into the course of it, is to know with his whole soul that it is; that it is good, and alone good!  This is the soul of Islam. Islam means in its way Denial of Self, Annihilation of Self. This is yet the highest Wisdom that Heaven has revealed to our Earth. Such light had come, as it could, to illuminate the darkness of this wild Arab soul. A confused dazzling splendor as of life and Heaven, in the great darkness which threatened to be death: he called it a revelation and the angel Gabriel; —who of us yet can know what to call it? It is the “inspiration of the Almighty” that giveth us understanding. To know; to get into the truth of anything, is ever a mystic act, —of which the best Logics can but babble on the surface. “Is not Belief the true god-announcing Miracle?” says Novalis. —That Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) whole soul, set in flame with this grand Truth vouchsafed him, should feel as if it were important and the only important thing, was very natural.

God is Near

 Abu Huraira (may God be please with him) reported that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said that God, the Exalted and Glorious said:

“I am near to the thought of My servant as he thinks about Me, and I am with him as he remembers Me. And if he remembers Me in his heart, I also remember him and if he remembers Me in assembly, I remember him in assembly, better than his (remembrance), and if he draws near Me by the span of a palm, I draw near him by the cubit, and if he draws near me by the cubit, I draw near him by the space (covered by) two hands. And if he walks towards Me, I rush towards him.” [Sahih Muslim]

Thomas Carlyle on the Ka'abah

 Thomas Carlyle the British famous philosopher in his series of lectures given in May of 1840 under the title Heroes and Heroes Worship, mentioned profoundly the Kaabah in these words;

“Diodorus Siculus mentions this Kaabah in a way not to be mistaken, as the oldest, most honored temple in his time; that is, some half-century before our Era. Silvestre de Sacy says there is some likelihood that the Black Stone is an aerolite. In that case, some man might see it fall out of Heaven! It stands now beside the Well Zamzam; the Kaabah is built over both. A Well is in all places a beautiful affecting object, gushing out like life from the hard earth;—still more so in those hot dry countries, where it is the first condition of being. The Well Zamzam has its name from the bubbling sound of the waters, Zamzam; they think it is the Well which Hagar found with her little Ishmael in the wilderness: the aerolite and it have been sacred now, and had a Kaabah over them, for thousands of years.  A curious object, that Kaabah! There it stands at this hour, in the black cloth-covering the Sultan sends it yearly; “twenty-seven cubits high;” with the circuit, with the double circuit of pillars, with festoon-rows of lamps and quaint ornaments: the lamps will be lighted again this night,—to glitter again under the stars. An authentic fragment of the oldest Past. It is the Kiblah (direction of prayer)  of all Muslims: from Delhi, all onwards to Morocco, the eyes of innumerable praying men are turned towards it, five times, this day and all days: one of the most notable centers in the Habitation of Men. It had been from the sacredness attached to this Kaabah Stone and Hagar’s Well, from the pilgrimages of all tribes of Arabs thither, that Mecca took its rise as a town”.

Ideas on Napkin

This narrative was written in an American journal and later on made its way into a book on how Steve Jobs designed and deliver his Apple presentation written by Carmine Gallo.

“A picture is the most powerful method for conveying an idea. Instead of booting up your computer, take out a napkin. Some of the most successful business ideas have been sketched on the back of a napkin. One could argue that the napkin has been more important to the world of business ideas than PowerPoint. I used to think that “napkin stories” were just that—stories, from the imagination of journalists. That is until I met Richard Tait, the founder of Cranium. I prepared him for an interview on CNBC. He told me that during a cross-country flight from New York to Seattle, he took out a small cocktail napkin and sketched the idea of a board game in which everyone had a chance to excel in at least one category, a game that would give everyone a chance to shine. Cranium became a worldwide sensation and was later purchased by Hasbro. The original concept was simple enough to write on a tiny airline napkin. One of the most famous corporate napkin stories involves Southwest Airlines. A lawyer at the time, Herb Kelleher met with one of his clients, Rollin King, at the St. Anthony’s Club, in San Antonio. King owned a small charter airline. He wanted to start a low-cost commuter airline that avoided the major hubs and instead served Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. King sketched three circles, wrote the names of the cities inside, and connected the three—a strikingly simple vision. Kelleher understood immediately. Kelleher signed on as legal counsel (he later became CEO), and the two men founded Southwest Airlines in 1967. King and Kelleher would go on to reinvent airline travel in the United States and build a corporate culture that would earn Southwest’s place among the most admired companies in the world. Never underestimate the power of a vision so simple that it can fit on a napkin”!

Comments about Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

 I am fascinated by Charles Darwin who wrote in his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection that men originate from monkeys. Charles Darwin has got this very peculiar theory. John Gribbin has this to say about Darwin. 

“Born at Shrewsbury, Darwin came from an affluent family, descended from successful country doctors on one side and the Wedgwood family (of pottery fame) on the other. He intended to follow the family tradition of medicine, but couldn’t stand the bloody nature of the surgery, and seemed likely to become a wastrel. His father sent him to Cambridge to study theology with a view to turning him into a country parson, but Darwin became fascinated by geology and natural history, impressing his tutors so much that they recommended him for a vacancy that arose as an unpaid naturalist and companion for the Captain on the voyage of the Beagle. The round-the-world voyage lasted from 1831 to 1836, and gave Darwin a rare insight into the geology of different parts of the globe and the variety of life on Earth. 

This unproven theory from Darwin influenced the western thinkers, philosophers, and scientists who are atheists in nature that to do away with God they have to provide an explanation of the origin of this universe and species as a whole and one of the many incredible theories that Darwin came out with is this monkey business which was our ancestors. My firm belief is that there is no man among monkeys but among men, there are monkeys. We humans, if not given proper guidance and education from a very young age, will prove Darwin's theory is true where we walk and talk like humans but our behavior is that of a wild beast. 

Talking Plainly

My name is Noor Mohamed b Mohd Yousof

This blog is a platform where I post my personal views on varieties of matters. I am trying to be BIPARTISAN as much as possible but I have my own personal stand on issues. I don't wish to persuade anyone to agree or disagree with my views here. I am just sharing my two cents worth of opinions and talking plainly, please do disagree with me.

Whatever is posted here will have to go through some sort of factual standard. I might do some simple research and provide a basis for my arguments. I might change my mind.  I might even contradict myself and as I aged my opinions will go through lots of revisions and upgrade. I will try to write in simple English.

I am 50 years old. My educational background is nothing impressive but just completed a Bachelor's Degree in IT (Mobile Computing) from Open University Malaysia. 

I am from Penang. 

Penang is an Island and a state located in the northern part of Malaysia. In a letter from Captain Francis Light to the Government of India in Bengal in 1793 (seven years after the establishment of Penang), Francis Light described the main communities in Penang. He referred to 3,000 Chinese, who were involved in trades such as carpentry and masonry, and worked as shopkeepers and planters. They also adventured to surrounding countries in small vessels. The Malays, who formed the majority of the population, were described as being drawn primarily from Kedah, and to a smaller extent, other parts of the peninsula, Java, and Sumatra. They were largely wood-cutters and padi cultivators. Light also noted the presence of 100 Burmese and Siamese, and added that the Arabs, descendants of Arabs, and the Bugis were a part of Penang’s population. The Siamese was in Penang in 1786, when Captain Francis Light landed in Penang. They called the island Koh Maak((เกาะหมาก).

In the olden days, nobody knows where Malaysia is as we used to say the country above Singapore. Now and most recently thanks to the disappearance of MH370, everybody knows where is Malaysia. Even the word Penang has its origin somewhere as the Malays call it Pulau-Pinang which means The Island of the Areca Nut Palm in Latin Insula Areca Catehecu. I am from that island and I am proud to be a Penangite. 

That's about it folks.