Dong Zhi - 21st December 2008

Dong Zhi

Start:

Dec 21, '08

Wishing you and your family, A Happy Dong Zhi Day!

Singapore Property & Real Estate, Property in Singapore for Sale and Rent

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Register for free and create your property portfolio account to track the price changes in your property.

Back to the future

Back to the future

Ho Kwon Ping
The Straits Times, 10 December 2008

AS IF the demise of American-style capitalism was not enough, more bad news about 'the new declinism' of the American global order recently made the front page. The United States National Intelligence Council's (NIC's) periodic global trends report caused The Guardian to headline: '2025: the end of US dominance'.

The fact that it was the NIC that issued this prediction was probably more shocking than its conclusion. After all, the observation that 2025 would see 'a world in which the US plays a prominent role in global events, but is seen as one among many global actors' would be surprising only to the most die-hard advocates of the American Imperium. But because modern history has always been about the inexorable rise of Western civilisation, it has been difficult for many Westerners to conceive of a world where multiple civilisations co-existed.

History teaches us that we can look back to see the future: Around 150 years ago, an event of enormous significance occurred, but it passed without notice. 1852 was the year when, for the first time in human history, one of the world's major nations had more of its people living in cities than in the countryside. That country happened to be England.

Over the next 100 years, England rapidly advanced to become the world's pre-eminent imperial power. That it was the first and most urbanised nation in the world was a major contributor towards its dominance. The massive rural-tourban migration provided human fodder for Britain's factories, army and navy, as well as consumers for Britain's industrial revolution. The notion of a working class, which was to lead to the fierce ideological conflicts of the 20th century, was entirely a result of urbanisation.

What is the point of this historical anecdote? Well, the very same trend which propelled little England to become one of the world's most powerful empires is now playing out in the world's largest country, China.

Today, 40 per cent of China's population is already living in cities. When the Chinese Communist Party assumed power in 1949, only 12 per cent cent did. Every year now, from 25 million to 30 million Chinese villagers move to the cities. Within the next 10 years, 300 million to 500 million of them - more than the entire population of Western Europe - will have made that journey. By 2015, China will reach the same tipping point as England did in 1852.

The same is happening in India, though at a slightly slower pace. In 1950, marginally more Indians lived in cities than did Chinese - roughly 17 per cent compared to China's 12 per cent. But by 2015, when more than half of China will be urban, only one-third of Indians will live in cities. Only around 2050 will India reach the rural-urban tipping point.

Whether urbanisation is the cause or the consequence of powerful socio- economic trends - or whether urbanisation brings more social ills than progress - is not relevant. What is important is that urbanisation is a leading indicator of rapid, though not necessarily equitable, economic development.

This demographic trend is so inexorable, we will see not just the economic or political resurgence of Asia but a paradigm shift in civilisational relationships.

Civilisations are not just about geopolitical or economic power. They involve value systems and belief structures. The past 200 years have witnessed the dominance of Western civilisation, through a combination of military and technological prowess, backed by vibrant political and economic systems.

The weight of demographic evidence indicates the re-emergence of two ancient Asian civilisations to global prominence. Economic and political change occurs in short-wave cycles; civilisations rise and fall in very long-wave cycles. The decline of Asia took 200 years; its rise will be equally long.

What will the world look like then? There will be a re-balancing of economic and political power, obviously. But more fundamentally, Western cultural norms will no longer be the yardstick by which non-Western societies measure themselves. We will see a world with competing value systems, rather than the sanitised, homogeneous globalisation that Davos-philes imagined.

To glimpse what the world will look like in the next century, we have to ironically go back 300 years, to the 17th century. That was the last century when the world was not dominated by any single civilisation. Let's take a look at a random year - say 1652, exactly 200 years before the seminal year of 1852.

In 1652, Oliver Cromwell crowned himself protector of England. The Tokugawa shogunate in Japan celebrated its first 50 years of power. The Manchu dynasty in China, only 10 years old then, was still virile and innovative. The Taj Mahal had just been completed in India. Isaac Newton had yet to discover gravity and the Islamic and East Asian civilisations were more advanced in science than Europe. These four cultures - Chinese, Indian, Islamic and the Western - had contacts with one another but none was dominant.

Fast forward 100 years later to 1752. That year the British East India Company seized Bengal. A decade later the steam engine was patented and not long after the cotton gin was invented, launching the Industrial Revolution. The Age of Reason, leading to a most unreasonable Age of Imperialism, was about to dawn. Another 100 years later, England became the most urbanised nation in the world, which propelled it (and the West in general) to become the world's dominant economic, military and political power. Despite two devastating world wars in the last century, this dominance lasted another century, till the anti-colonial movements of the mid 20th century.

The 1652 world, when no civilisation was dominant, is a world that non-Western societies can easily handle, and perhaps even long for. To the West, such a world might seem slightly unnerving, perhaps even frightening.

Allow me at this point to be provocative. China, and to a lesser extent India, will be a major player in this re-ordering of world civilisations. Islam will be the other. Both are coming at it from totally different directions: Asia from outside the Western framework, and Islam, ironically, from within.

If there is a clash of civilisations, it will not occur in the Middle East. The most profound encounters between Islam and the West today is not occurring in Lebanon or Gaza. It is occurring in the immigrant enclaves in Birmingham in Britain or Detroit in the US - within the very heart of Western civilisation. The fact that recent terrorist arrests in Europe have involved native-born nationals is significant.

The challenges to Western civilisation are real. Whether they result in a 'clash of civilisations', as Samuel Huntington envisages, or a peaceful transition to a new world order with multiple centres of power, each governed by its own cultural norms, will depend on the willingness of the West to accommodate the new powers.

If the transition is to be peaceful, the Western world must acknowledge three basic mindset changes.

First, the fact that Western civilisation has dominated the globe for several hundred years, does not necessarily make it the natural order of things. One would think this is a no-brainer, but the speeches of some Western leaders suggest that concepts like 'manifest destiny' are still very much alive, especially among so-called neo-conservatives in the US.

Second, it is very likely that 100 years from now the world will again resemble the world of 1652, with no dominant civilisation. Whether there will be, as globalisation advocates predict, a single world culture, or competition between different but interconnected civilisations, remains to be seen - but we should not assume it will be the former.

Third, what happens in the next 10 years is likely to shape the future, as an increasingly assertive Asia finds itself blocked by a resistant West, and a disillusioned Muslim minority within the West rejects Western civilisational values.

What should responsible Western intellectuals and companies do? For a start, they can be the midwives, rather than the abortionists, of a new world order with several competing, broadly equal and constantly interacting civilisations.

And what we all need to do is remember that the greatest lesson of history is not that demographics is a great shaper of trends - which indeed it is - but that the cause of the downfall of every single civilisation since time immemorial has been hubris.

Hubris - that quality of believing what you want to believe of yourself; that singular lack of self-doubt which eventually clouds wisdom and overrides our better judgment - that is the greatest danger civilisations, East and West, face.

The writer is chairman of the board of trustees of the Singapore Management University. Think-tank is a weekly column rotated among eight leading figures in Singapore's tertiary and research institutions.

It is very likely that 100 years from now the world will again resemble the world of 1652, with no dominant civilisation. Whether there will be, as globalisation advocates predict, a single world culture, or competition between different but interconnected civilisations, remains to be seen - but we should not assume it will be the former.

Copyright 2008 Singapore Press Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Published by OneSource Information Services, Inc., December 2008

 

Banking on Neo-Confician Capitalism

Banking on Neo-Confician Capitalism

Ho Kwon Ping

The Straits Times, 5 September 2008

It's university graduation season again and invariably, many graduates I encounter want to become investment bankers.

In less than a year, financial stocks have plummeted by over 70 per cent in value. Millions of Americans and Britons have lost their homes. Countless millions more around the world have seen their net wealth drop precipitously, possibly never to recover within their working lives. Who to blame? Investment bankers, of course, who devised all those sub-prime mortgages and other cute "products" with long, exotic names.

As someone noted, never in history have so many people lost so much money

due to the actions of so few.

Why then would young graduates want to be investment bankers? Well, to begin with, because investment bankers reward themselves pretty well, regardless of how others are doing. Bonuses paid in London's financial district totalled f6 billion 6815.7 billion) this year, though the total losses of financial services companies were 10 times greater.

And in case you think that pay should correlate with performance, don't be naive. Last year, the CEO of a large private equity fund walked away with a US8350 million (SS499 million) bonus, though his just-listed company's share price had tanked by 37 per cent.

Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz recently noted that the Wall Street financial system "paid bankers to gamble. When things turned out well, they walked away with huge bonuses. When things go badly, as now, they do not share in the losses. Even if they lose their jobs, they walk away with huge sums".

To be fair to the maligned financial engineers, others also got rich during the good years. In 1994, the average American CEO was paid about 90 times more than the average blue-collar worker. Today, it is 180 times.

But it is still mainly bankers who buy the thousand-dollar wines and Bentley convertibles. In America's Fortune 1,000 industrial companies, CEOs make around

two to five times more than their immediate subordinates. In Wall Street, the top

dog earns around 20 to 40 times more than his immediate subordinates.

It's not surprising then that income inequality in the United States is at an all-time high. The share of the national wealth owned by the top 1 per cent of Americans has more than doubled – from 20 per cent in 1976 to more than 50 per cent today. Through changes to the tax system, an American private equity partner can today pay less taxes than the cleaning lady in his office, according to economist Paul Krugrnan.

How did all this happen with no one complaining? The simple answer is that in a period of continually rising asset prices – in this case, of houses – living standards became detached from income and tied to asset value. People simply borrowed more to finance their lifestyles, and this was possible because of the housing bubble.

When was the last time the US had nearly the same income inequality as today? Answer: 1929, the eve of the Great Depression. The 1920s was a decade of enormous wealth and booming prosperity for the very rich and, as one historian noted, it was fuelled by "the magic of leverage". Sound familiar?

Back then, it was through investment trusts sponsoring one after another in one huge financial house of cards. Today, it is home owners leveraging off ever-rising home values to borrow more than at any time in American history. It is private equity funds borrowing over 30 times their equity, to buy inflated assets and yet return stellar profits to investors.

The globalisation of capitalism in the past half-century has resulted in two major socio-cultural variants. The dominant variant – Anglo-American capitalism – was built on very high income inequality as the incentive for risk-taking and wealth creation and had all its flaws recently exposed.

The genteel conspiracy between Wall Street and its compliant multilateral- agency partners (read: International Monetary Fund) is now breaking down. The legitimacy of this collusion, once never questioned, has been frayed by blatant hypocrisies. As one observer noted, the sub-prime mortgage crisis and its aftermath have done to US leadership in financial markets what Guantanamo Bay has done to the US moral high ground in human rights.

The German President has even derided private equity fund managers as "locusts" and sub-prime peddlers as "monsters", and called for a return to what he called "a continental European banking culture".

However, the European model, influenced – "infected", Americans would say – by democratic socialist tendencies after World War 11, produced welfare capitalism with its stifling effect on individual initiative and entrepreneurship. It's not a particularly inspiring alternative to Wall Street.

Successive financial crises have proven one consistent point: Regulation by itself cannot prevent excessive speculation or collusive behaviour. Greed fuels speculative booms and aggravates busts, but it can only be reined in, not by regulation alone, but by a moral framework – the value system of the entire society, within which business is practised.

As East Asia emerges as a major economic region, it should not simply adopt the Anglo-American or European models, but create its own alternative. The common, recurring socio-ethical tradition of East Asia is its communitarian, family-focused webs of mutual obligations. This communitarianism can, if thoughtfully enhanced, nurtured and developed, replace the highly individualistic, Darwinian ethos of Anglo-American capitalism, or the state welfarism of Euro-capitalism.

Of course, critics will argue that this neo-Confucian capitalism is compatible with crony capitalism, as the 1997 Asian financial crisis highlighted. They have a point. But the flaws of East Asian culture do not negate the need to develop a socio-cultural alternative to the Wall Street ethos. Indeed, they only make more urgent that East Asian thought leaders refine and redefine neo-Confucian values.

After all, the only long-term solution is to change a society's entire reward system, and this can be done only if society changes the ways it views itself.

US presidential hopeful Barack Obama got it right when he said the country has lost "its sense of shared prosperity". It is the shared sense of prosperity which is at the very heart of neo-Confucian capitalism, and which East Asia needs to rediscover as the root of its success and the inspiration for its future.

The writer is chairman of the board of trustees of the Singapore Management University.

Source:
www.straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/Review/Others/STIStory_272233.html

Rights:
Copyright © 2008 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co.

NUS talk on the Large Hadron Collider - CANCELLED

Start:

Dec 9, '08 6:00p

Good day to all my astro friends,

There will be a talk about the Large Hadron Collider at NUS, by a speaker from CERN! This is an event not to be missed.

The talk will be on 9th December 2008, 6pm, at LT27, NUS.

Please do not hesitate to invite anyone else who is interested (since the talk is free!). Hope to see you guys there!

Clear Skies!

Excavations of Fort Melaka Wall and Fredrick Hendrick Bastion, Melaka, Malaysia - November 2008

Travel Melaka 17-18th November 2008

The Forbidden City: Beyond Space and Time

http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org/FCBSTWeb/web/index.html
Virtual World

Singapore Grand Prix Formula 1 Night Race 28 September 2008

Winner - Fernando Alonso, Renault

Mid-Autumn Festival Poetry Recital & Moon Appreciation Gathering, September 14, 2008

Mid-Autumn Festival Poetry Recital & Moon Appreciation Gathering

Start:	Sep 14, '08 4:00p
End:	Sep 14, '08 8:00p

60 Bayshore Road
10-03 Bayshore Park
Singapore 469982

Time: 4pm (SHARP) to 8pm
Dresscode: Preferably pre-20th century (except for Jos who is expected to be in her lacey black and white french dress)

Paper lanterns will be provided.

We have Yongtaufu, curry chicken, shepherd's pie, some mysterious non-descript local dessert and of course, mooncakes washed down with chinese tea to loosen those vocal cords for the obligatory singing of odes to the moon.

Tentative attendance;

Moon <-- of course. Won't have anything to appreciate if she didn't turn up
MKY
Ur
ChinTeck + 2
Santha + Patrick
Gibson
1 Swede, 1 Norwegian and 1 Japanese
Raymond Tsui
Raymond Sim + family

Home Cantonese Soups

1. Watercrest Soup

2. Salted Vegetable Soup

3. Daikon Soup

4. Lotus Root Soup

5. Snowpeas Soup

6. Potato, Onion & Carrot Soup

7. Old Yellow Melon Soup

8. Herbal Soup

9. Black Chicken Herbal Soup

United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights

United Nations’
Universal Declaration of Human Rights

PREAMBLE

      Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

      Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

      Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

      Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

      Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

      Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

      Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, therefore, THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

      All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

      Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

      Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

      No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

      No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

      Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

      All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

      Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

      No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

      Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

      (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.

      (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

      No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

      (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.

      (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

      (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

      (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

      (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.

      (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

      (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

      (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

      (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

      (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.

      (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

      Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

      Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

      (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

      (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

      (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

      (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

      (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

      Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

      (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.

      (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.

      (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.

      (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

      Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

      (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.

      (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

      (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

      (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

      (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

      (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

      (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

      Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

      (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

      (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

      (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

      Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

Ancient Chinese warships and mines

Story of astonishingly large "floating fortresses" built by the ancient Chinese to cruise down river as a kind of "shock and awe" death-star platform.

Computer models shown of square barge-like Early Han Dynasty warship, Castle or Tower Ships (Lou Chuan) of the Han Dynasty, paddle wheel warships are explored, and Sung dynasty mine ships.

Then an investigation and demonstration of ancient Chinese anti-boat mines, nearly 1000 years before similarily effective ones were built and used in the West.

interviews with Dr. Stephen Davies, Dr. John Bevan, and Richard Windley, who re-creates the ancient Chinese mine technology, exploding some in a tank.

ASTRONOMY 2008

Start:	Aug 16, '08 10:00a
End:	Aug 16, '08 5:00p

Dear fellow astronomer,

On behalf of SINGASTRO, the largest online astronomy forum in
Singapore, I am pleased to invite you to attend ASTRONOMY 2008 which
is to be held at the Singapore Art Museum (The Glass Hall) in
Singapore on the 16th of August, 2008 (Saturday). ASTRONOMY 2008 is a
full-day astronomy event and open to public (free admission) from the
hours of 10AM to 5PM. This event will feature a series of astronomy
talks ranging from astrophysics theories to practical astronomy, and
even an interactive workshop on astronomy imaging. There will also be
poster exhibits that will enlighten attendees on astronomy topics such
as the Solar System, to Deep Sky objects. The attendees will also be
treated to a collection of original astronomy images captured by our
local budding astrophotographers and around South East Asia. Other
interesting activities include a documentary screening on cosmology,
instant lucky draws, sun-gazing (viewing of the Sun with specialized
telescope instruments in Hydrogen Alpha, expect to see flares and
prominences on the sun!), the opportunity to view the largest
private-based telescope in South East Asia (bigger than the one at the
Science Center Observatory!), and many more!

For more information on ASTRONOMY 2008, please visit:
www.celestialportraits.com/a2008

Contact Person:
Mr Remus Chua (HP: 82333798, EMAIL: remuscj@gmail.com)


This event is brought to you by SINGASTRO.

Event sponsors:
Singapore National Academy of Sciences,
Institute of Physics Singapore
SINGASTRO

Thank you for your time in reading.

We look forward to your attendence!

Things I've Learned.....

I've learned
that you cannot make someone love you.
All you can do is be someone who can be loved.
The rest is up to them.

I've learned-
that no matter how much I care,
some people just don't care back.

I've learned-
that it takes years to build up trust,
and only seconds to destroy it.

I've learned-
that it's not what you have in your life
but who you have in your life that counts.

I've learned-
that you can get by on charm for about
fifteen minutes.
After that, you'd better know something.

I've learned-
that you shouldn't compare
yourself to the best others can do.

I've learned-
that you can do something in an instant
that will give you heartache for life.

I've learned-
that it's taking me a long time
to become the person I want to be.

I've learned-
that you should always leave loved ones
with loving words. It may be the last
time you see them....

I've learned-
that you can keep going
long after you can't.

I've learned-
that we are responsible for what we do,
no matter how we feel.


I've learned-
that either you control your attitude
or it controls you.

I've learned-
that regardless of how hot and steamy
a relationship is at first, the passion fades
and there had better be something else to take
its place.

I've learned-
that heroes are the people
who do what has to be done
when it needs to be done,
regardless of the consequences.

I've learned
that money is a lousy way of keeping score..

I've learned-
that my best friend and I can do anything
or nothing and have the best time.

I've learned-
that sometimes the people you expect
to kick you when you're down
will be the ones to help you get back up.

I've learned-
that sometimes when I'm angry
I have the right to be angry,
but that doesn't give me
the right to be cruel.

I've learned-
that true friendship continues to grow,
even over the longest distance.
Same goes for true love.

I've learned-
that just because someone doesn't love
you the way you want them to doesn't
mean they don't love you with all they have.

I've learned-
that maturity has more to do with
what types of experiences you've had
and what you've learned from them
and less to do with how many
birthdays you've celebrated.

I've learned-
that you should never tell a child
their dreams are unlikely or outlandish.
Few things are more humiliating, and what
a tragedy it would be if they believed it.

I've learned-
that your family won't always be there for you.
It may seem funny, but people you aren't
related to can take care of you and love you
and teach you to trust people again. Families
aren't biological.

I've learned-
that no matter how good a friend is,
they're going to hurt you every once in a while
and you must forgive them for that.

I've learned-
that it isn't always enough to be forgiven by
others. Sometimes you are to learn to forgive
yourself.

I've learned-
that no matter how bad your heart is broken
the world doesn't stop for your grief.


I've learned-
that our background and circumstances
may have influenced who we are,
but we are responsible for who we
become.

I've learned-
that just because two people argue,
it doesn't mean they don't love each other
And just because they don't argue,
it doesn't mean they do.

I've learned-
that we don't have to change friends
if we understand that friends change.

I've learned-
that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a
secret. It could change your life forever.

I've learned-
that two people can look at the exact same thing
and see something totally different

I've learned-
that your life can be changed in a matter of
hours by people who don't even know you.

I've learned-
that even when you think you have no more
to give, when a friend cries out to you,
you will find the strength to help.

I've learned-
that credentials on the wall
do not make you a decent human being.

I've learned-
that the people you care about most in life
are taken from you too soon.

I've learned-
that it's hard to determine where to draw
the line between being nice and not hurting
people's feelings and standing up
for what you believe.

My Personality

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

3,500 years of the Sedition Act (Repost from Malaysiakini blog)

3,500 years of the Sedition Act
Sunday, 25 May 2008

It is clear that the Sedition Act can solve all our problems. The Sedition Act, properly and seriously implemented, would result in the entire world sharing just one religion. There would not be so many religions, which, today, are the source of most of the world’s problems.

NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin

There is an old law which many Malaysians do not realise still exists in this country. This law is called the Sedition Act. How old is this law, you may ask. Trust me, it is very, very old.

The Sedition Act was already around 3,000 or 3,500 years ago during the time of the Egyptian Pharaohs. At that time a man called Musa -- namesake of Musa Hitam, Musa Aman and Musa Hassan; who are all the exact opposite of the Musa of old Egypt -- received a message from God. And the message is that the Pharaoh is not God, as he believed he was, and Musa was to go tell him so.

Of course Musa was scared because he was aware of the Sedition Act and anyone who disputes that the Ruler of Egypt is God will be dealt with severely. So Musa asked God for permission to bring his brother along since his brother had the gift of the gab and was able to ‘spin’ just like the Bloggers of modern days. Knowing that a lot of spinning would be required to counter Pharaoh’s claim of divinity, God agreed and Musa and his brother then went and confronted the Pharaoh.

The Pharaoh asked Musa what are the credentials to become God. Musa then replied that God gives life and God takes life. The Pharaoh then sentenced Musa to death thereby ‘taking his life’. The Pharaoh then commuted the death sentence thereby ‘giving back’ Musa his life.

“So I have just taken life and given life,” argued the Pharaoh. “That means I am God.”

That was certainly a very smart move indeed. So what is the moral of this story? Simple. If the Internet and Blogs had been around 3,000 or 3,500 years ago, the Pharaoh would have been the King of Bloggers since he is the best spin-doctor in history.

But Musa insisted that the Pharaoh was not God and this resulted in the Pharaoh invoking the Sedition Act on him. Any act to make the people hate or turn against the Ruler is an act of sedition and punishable under the Sedition Act. However, Musa did not play fair. He skipped bail and escaped from Egypt and this resulted in the new nation of Israel being created. And, ever since, this has been the cause of great turmoil and countless deaths. If the Pharaoh has arrested Musa under the Sedition Act and had not allowed him bail then there would be no turmoil and chaos in this world today and we would all be living in a peaceful world, in particular in the Middle East.

Slightly over 2,000 years ago, another person by the name of Isa came along. This was Isa The Man not ISA the Internal Security Act. Isa too was seditious and he turned the people against the Rulers. Of course Isa was not really that successful because he only had about a dozen followers, not even enough to form an Umno branch, which requires more members than that. But the Ruler made the great mistake of making a martyr out of Isa and his support grew, until today where he has more than one billion followers.

That was certainly not a very smart move indeed. So what is the moral of this story? Simple. Never make a martyr of someone who commits the crime of sedition, as then his or her following will grow beyond controllable proportions.

1,400 years or so ago, another man came along. This man was called Muhammad (but he had only one Muhammad in his name, not like today where we have people with two Muhammads in their name). For ten years he tried turning the people against the Rulers of the tiny state called Mekah. Finally, the Mekah government could stand it no longer and they tried arresting Muhammad under the Sedition Act.

But Muhammad managed to escape to another small village called Medina. Within 12 years this village grew into a city and they managed to build a large army and then went back to Mekah to topple the government.

That was certainly a very smart move indeed. So what is the moral of this story? Simple. Never allow anyone who commits the crime of sedition to escape to another country, as he or she can then build up a large army and come back to topple the government.

These examples of Musa, Isa and Muhammad have taught the world a thing or two. Firstly, never allow anyone to commit the crime of sedition. Secondly, sedition is not about punishing someone for lying. Sedition is about punishing someone who tells the truth. And that was demonstrated in Penang not too long ago when Marina Yusoff was found guilty of sedition for telling the truth -- yes, she proved that she had told the truth and had not lied. Marina Yusoff wrongly thought that if she could prove she was telling the truth she would escape punishment. Little did she realise that the Sedition Act does not punish you for lying. It punishes you for telling the truth. And Musa, Isa and Muhammad too told the truth so they are all rightfully guilty of sedition.

600 years or so ago, the English King decided to make it illegal to speak against the Ruler. God appoints Rulers as Rulers, argued the King, and to oppose the Ruler or speak ill of the Ruler is seditious and you can be arrested and your ears will be cut off. So many people who did not bodek the King were arrested and punished under the Sedition Act.

62 years ago, Malayans too started opposing the British Monarchy. They did not like the British proposal to form the Malayan Union. The Malays then got together and formed an amalgamation of the many Malay movements, societies and associations, which they called Umno. And through Umno the Malays began to make seditious statements in their many road-shows that criss-crossed the length and breadth of Malaya.

As the movement gained momentum and Umno started winning the support of the Malayan population, in 1948 the British introduced the Sedition Act, more than 500 years after it was introduced in England. That was of course 60 years ago but the Sedition Act did not achieve its purpose. Finally, in 1957, Malaya managed to gain independence from Britain in spite of the Sedition Act.

Today, the Sedition Act that was introduced to punish Malayans who speak against the British still remains. But there is no longer a British Colonial government ruling Malaya. Today, Malaya is Merdeka and is now called Malaysia. But the law that makes it a crime to speak ill of the British still remains even though no one speaks bad about the British any longer other than Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was Prime Minister of Malaysia for 22 years and who managed to get Margaret Thatcher’s knickers all twisted into knots.

Sigh….if the Pharaoh had been serious about the Sedition Act then there would be no Jews today. And if there were no Jews then there would be no Isa; so there would be no Christianity. And if the Mekah government too had been serious about the Sedition Act there would be no Islam today. And since there would be no Jews, Christians and Muslims, then all 26 million Malaysians would today still be Hindus, like they were more than 500 years ago. And since we would all be Hindus there would be no problems and therefore no need for Hindraf. And as there would be no Hindraf then Barisan Nasional would not have done so badly in the 8 March 2008 general election.

It is clear that the Sedition Act can solve all our problems. The Sedition Act, properly and seriously implemented, would result in the entire world sharing just one religion. There would not be so many religions, which, today, are the source of most of the world’s problems.

Malaysians must be able to look at the Sedition Act in this light. Against the backdrop of the Sedition Act being able to prevent the growth of new religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- which would result in world peace -- then the Sedition Act is good. But because the Rulers since 3,500 years ago failed to ensure that no one escapes the Sedition Act, today we have so many religions and that has divided the world and created a lot of conflicts that has resulted in so many deaths.

And remember, the Sedition Act is used to punish those who tell the truth, not those who lie. If they lie then there are so many other laws we can use against them.

Tung Chung Qing Dynasty Fort, Lantau Island, Hong Kong SAR

Tung Chung Fort, located on the northwestern part of Lantau island, was first built in the Song dynasty Shun Hei era (1174 - 1189) to combat pirates. The fort however, fell into disused and was used as a pirate's liar right by notable pirates such as Cheung Po Tsai, right up to its recovery and refurbishment by the Qing dynasyt. The current structure dates to the Qing dynasty. It was the naval headquarters of the Right Battalion of Dapeng. A carved granite slab above the entrance dates the Fort to 1832. The Qing abandoned the fort in 1898 when the New Territories was leased to Britain.

Travel Hong Kong - 16th - 19th May, 2008

Papa's Birthday '08 (PRIVATE)

Mummy's Birthday 31st March 2008 (PRIVATE FAMILY)

Your Calculations The Easy Way - CalcMe.com

http://calcme.com/

Motor Asia 2008

7 Amazing Holes

The sheer scale of these holes reminds you of just how tiny you are.

1 Kimberley Big Hole, South Africa
Apparently the largest ever hand-dug excavation in the world, this 1097 metre deep mine yielded over 3 tons of diamonds before being closed in 1914. The amount of earth removed by workers is estimated to total 22.5 million tons.

2.Glory Hole, Monticello Dam, USA
A glory hole is used when a dam is at full capacity and water needs to be drained from the reservoir. This is the glory hole belonging to Monticello dam in California and it's the largest in the world, its size enabling it to consume 14400 cubic feet of water every second. The hole can be seen at the top left of the photo above. If you were to jump in for some reason your slightly damp body would shoot out near the bottom of the dam.

3. Bingham Canyon Mine, Utah, USA
This is supposedly the largest man-made excavation on earth. Extraction began in 1863 and still continues today, the pit increasing in size constantly. In its current state the hole is 3/4 mile deep and 2.5 miles wide.

4. Great Blue Hole , Belize
Situated 60 miles off the mainland of Belize is this incredible. Geographical phenomenon known as a blue hole. There are numerous blue holes around the world but none as stunning. A surface level, the near perfectly circular hole is 1/4 mile wide, the depth in the middle reaching 145 metres. Obviously the hole is a huge hit with divers.

5. Mirny Diamond Mine , Serbia
It is an absolute beast and holds the title of largest open diamond mine in the world. At 525 metres deep with a top diameter of 1200 metres there's even a no-fly zone above the hole due to a few helicopters being sucked in. The red arrow in the photo is pointing to a huge truck.

6. Diavik Mine, Canada
This incredible mine can be found 300km northeast of Yellowknife in Canada . The mine is so huge and the area so remote that it even has its own airport with a runway large enough to accommodate a Boeing 737. It also looks equally as cool when the surrounding water is frozen.

7. Sinkhole , Guatemala
A sinkhole is caused when water (usually rainwater or sewage) is soaked up by the earth on a large scale, resulting in the ground collapsing. These photos are of a sinkhole which occurred early this year in Guatemala . The hole swallowed a dozen homes and killed at least 3 people. Officials blamed the monster of a hole on a ruptured sewage pipe.

Malaysia's 2008 General Elections

Penang, Perak, Kedah, Kelantan, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur are now in Opposition hands!

Malaysian voters have backbone!

I'm now very, very curious as to who will take over the Chief Minister post for Perak.  DAP chief has already taken the Penang CM post.  PKR chief has already taken Selangor CM post.  Kelantan and Kedah are under PAS.  This leaves Perak.  

DAP is the opposition party with the largest minority to form the Perak State government.   Will we see for the first time in history a non-Malay as the CM of a Malay majority state (and one with a Malay Sultan to boot)?  Interesting to see how that pans out now especially since after so many decades, the ceremonies and procedures between the CM and the State Royal houses have, because they've always been in Malay hands, become steeped in Islamic practices and rituals.  Throwing a non-Malay CM into the works will now be interesting to see.

With Penang, Perak and Selangor, the three richest states in Malaysia and all next to each other in one continuous strip in opposition hands, gives the opposition for the first time in history a chance to really do something.  They can't be isolated like Kelantan anymore.  Add in Kedah and Kelantan sharing borders with Penang and Perak in the north creates even more interconnectivity between opposition states.  These 5 states together have the resources, money and connectivity to practically go their own way without the need to beg the central government for funds everytime the want to do something, a bane of isolated opposition wards since time immemorial.  Together, Penang, Perak and Selangor hold 50% of the population and 50% of the country's economy.

More significantly, the government has been denied their 2/3 majority.  This means the ruling party now needs to debate policies and constitutional changes in parliament with the opposition parties.  They can no longer change the constitution at will.

"We’ve lost, we’ve lost" - Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, 4.12am 09/03/08

Earth and Moon Viewer

http://www.fourmilab.ch/earthview/vplanet.html

Their Deepest, Darkest Discovery (The beginning of "Star Trek" Cloaking Device?)

Their Deepest, Darkest Discovery
Scientists Create a Black That Erases Virtually All Light

By Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 20, 2008; A01

Black is getting blacker.

Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a
paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits
it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made -- about 30 times
as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black.

The material, made of hollow fibers, is a Roach Motel for photons --
light checks in, but it never checks out. By voraciously sucking up
all surrounding illumination, it can give those who gaze on it a
dizzying sensation of nothingness.

"It's very deep, like in a forest on the darkest night," said Shawn-Yu
Lin, a scientist who helped create the material at Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. "Nothing comes back to you. It's
very, very, very dark."

But scientists are not satisfied. Using other new materials, some are
trying to manufacture rudimentary Harry Potter-like cloaks that make
objects inside of them literally invisible under the right conditions
-- the pinnacle of stealthy technology.

Both advances reflect researchers' growing ability to manipulate
light, the fleetest and most evanescent of nature's offerings. The
nascent invisibility cloak now being tested, for example, is made of a
material that bends light rays "backward," a weird phenomenon thought
to be impossible just a few years ago.

Known as transformation optics, the phenomenon compels some
wavelengths of light to flow around an object like water around a
stone. As a result, things behind the object become visible while the
object itself disappears from view.

"Cloaking is just the tip of the iceberg," said Vladimir Shalaev, a
professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University
and an expert in the fledgling field. "With transformation optics you
can do many other tricks," perhaps including making things appear to
be located where they are not and focusing massive amounts of energy
on microscopic spots.

U.S. military and intelligence agencies have funded the cloaking
research "for obvious reasons," said David Schurig, a physicist and
electrical engineer at North Carolina State University who recently
designed and helped test a cloaking device. In that experiment, a
shielded object a little smaller than a hockey puck was made invisible
to a detector that uses microwaves to "see."

The first working cloaks will be limited that way, he said -- able to
steer just a limited part of the light spectrum around objects -- and
it could be years before scientists make cloaks that work for all
wavelengths, including the visible spectrum used by the human eye.

But even cloaks that work on just a few key wavelengths could offer
huge benefits, making objects invisible to laser beams used for
weapons targeting, for example, or rendering an enemy's night goggles
useless because objects would be invisible to the infrared rays those
devices use.

The Defense Department did not fund development of the new blacker-
than-black material, created by Lin and his colleagues. But military
officials were among the first to call after a description of the work
appeared in this month's issue of the journal Nano Letters, Lin said
in an interview.

Substances that absorb every smidgeon of incoming visible light could
complement existing stealth coatings that absorb radar waves, Lin
said. He and others emphasized, however, that there are also peaceful
and more immediate applications for the blackest stuff on Earth.

Solar panels coated with it would be much more efficient than those
coated with conventional black paint, which reflects 5 percent or more
of incoming light. Telescopes lined with it would sop up random flecks
of incidental light, providing a blacker background to detect faint
stars.

And a wide array of heat detectors and energy-measuring devices,
including climate-tracking equipment on satellites, would become far
more accurate than they are today if they were coated with energy-
grabbing superblack.

That helps explain why Lin has been fielding queries from solar-energy
companies such as SolFocus of Mountain View, Calif., and the European
Space Agency.

"The more black the material the better," said Gerald Fraser, a
physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the
federal agency that specializes in fine measurements and industrial
standards.

That agency offers scientists a chemical mix it calls "standard
black," which for years has been the defining measure of blackness.
Photographers and printers use it to calibrate their gray scales.
Industrial radiologists use it to calibrate X-ray imaging systems that
detect radiation or hidden defects in building materials.

That black reflects about 1.4 percent of incoming visible light, and
in recent years it has become somewhat outmoded. In 2003, scientists
developed a substance made of nickel and phosphorus that reflected
just 0.17 percent of visible light, winning it a Guinness World
Records listing and kudos in Time magazine as one of that year's 300
"coolest inventions."

The newest black -- which when held next to something conventionally
black, such as a tuxedo jacket, is noticeably blacker -- reflects just
0.045 percent of visible light.

It is made of carbon nanotubes: microscopic, hollow fibers whose walls
are just one atom thick. Importantly, the fibers are widely spaced,
providing plenty of space to allow light in and almost no surfaces to
bounce it back out.

"There are a lot of materials that are very absorbing of light so that
once the light gets in, very little is reflected. That is not the big
issue," said John Pendry, a physics professor at Imperial College
London. "The big issue is persuading the light to go in there in the
first place" -- something the New York team accomplished by spacing
the nanotubes so widely.

While Lin and his colleagues, including Pulickel Ajayan, now at Rice
University, pursue applications for their superblack, Pendry and
others are hoping to go further by perfecting complete invisibility.
The big difference is that a superblack object, even if invisible to
the eye, still casts a shadow behind it, while an object shielded by
an invisibility cloak does not.

Pendry pioneered much of modern thinking about how to attain full
invisibility using "metamaterials" -- substances engineered to
manhandle light. Ordinary matter, such as glass or water, slows and
bends light as it passes through. Metamaterials contain bits of metal
or other substances embedded in precise patterns to make the light
bend in an opposite direction from normal paths.

"In a sense you have some negative space," Pendry said. "The light
appears to go backward in space."

The first generation, metamaterial "cloaks" are not thin and flexible
like Harry Potter's imagined version but are inches thick and solid,
resembling canisters, making them able to hide a stationary object but
not a moving person. But the science is progressing quickly, physicist
Schurig said.

To make a thin, flexible metamaterial cloak, Schurig said, "is
technically challenging but not fundamentally impossible." And
although no cloak can yet make objects fully invisible to the human
eye, he added, it may not be long before scientists can bend the
visible spectrum enough to make an object hard to see.

That object might be found "if you know what you are looking for,"
Schurig said. "But if you're just scanning, then partial invisibility
may allow something to go unnoticed."

There is a flip side to the emerging ability to manipulate light,
scientists say. "Think anti-cloaking," said Shalaev, the engineering
professor. "Instead of excluding light from an object, you can
concentrate light in a small area."

Normally, light cannot be squeezed into a space smaller than its own
wavelength, he said, but transformation optics create the possibility
of accomplishing just that -- packing loads of energy into a
vanishingly small space. Such beams could pack a destructive punch, or
could be tamed to serve as ultrasensitive needlelike probes, able to
detect even a single molecule of some substance of interest.

Pendry added a cautionary note about invisible cloaks, making a real-
life distinction from the stuff of fiction: People inside them will
not be able to see out. By definition, if no light is bouncing off
them, none can reach their eyes, either. "You'd have to use signals
other than light to communicate," Pendry said.

Asked for an example of what would work, he paused for a moment.

"You could always talk to them," he said.

Popular Hymns, Ballads and Songs of the Han (3rd century B.C. - 3rd century A.D.)

(My apologies but I don't have the original Chinese versions, just these translations by Anne Birrell.  Sadly, the tunes and Han-era pronunciations are lost to us and we are only left with the words.)


ONE - HYMN

We Have Chosen a Timely Day

We have chosen a timely day,
We wait with hope,
Burning fat and artemisia
To welcome the Four Direction.
Ninefold doors open
For the Gods journey forth,
They send down sweet grace,
Bounteous good fortune.
The chariot of the Gods
Is hitched to dark clouds,
Yoked to flying dragons,
Feather pennants amassed.

The coming down of the Gods
Is like wind-driven horses;
On the left turguoise dragon,
On the right white tiger.

The coming of the Gods
Is divine! what a drenching!
First bringing rain
Which spreads in sheets.

The arrival of the Gods
Is lucky shade withing shade.
All seems confused,
Making hearts tremble.

The Gods are now enthroned,
The Five Tones harmonise.
Happy till the dawn
We offer the Gods pleasure.

Cusps of ritual beasts swelling,
Vessels of millet sweet,
Goblets of cassia wine,
We host the Eight Quarters.

The Gods serenely linger,
We change "Green" and "Yellow".
All round meditate on this,
Gaze at the green jade hall.
A crowd of beauties gathers,
Refined, perfect loveliness:
Faces like flowering rush,
Rivals in dazzling glamour,
Wearing flowery patterns,
Interwoven misty silks,
With trains off white voile,
Girdles of pearl and jade.
They bear Blissful-night and Flag-orchid,
Iris and orchid perfumed.
Calm and peaceful
We offer up the blessed chalice.

Singapore A.D. 2010 - 2011

Looky look at all the nice shiny buildings!

Janie, Francois, Stephen, Andrew, Jim, Scott, Dave, Simon and all the rest... time to visit Singapore.

CNY Gathering @ MyPlace? (2nd attempt)

Start:	Feb 23, '08 4:00p
End:	Feb 23, '08 7:00p

Tit-bits (don't you just love this word?)
Movie/s (Warlord?)
Angbao (hmmm....)

Moon + ET?
Centaur
Moose
Ur
Debbie?

Jim, you're bringing the beer.

Bumper Stickers I'd like to see

Jolie Good!

CNY Gathering @ MySpace?

Start:	Feb 16, '08 4:00p
End:	Feb 16, '08 7:00p

Food, movie and angpows?

Images of the Lunar New Year Wu Zi 4705 (February 7-21, 2008)

SETI@home

http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu

The end of 'the end of history'

Jan 25, 2008

The end of 'the end of history'
By Nathan Gardels


TAKING OFF: Customers in a Beijing department store. Some analysts believe the emerging economies, China in particular, can become the 'locomotive of the global economy the US once was'. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

IN DAVOS (SWITZERLAND) - AS THE global elite gather here to ponder how 'Collaborative Innovation' - this year's theme - might bring the world closer together, there is a set of deep and broad challenges that suggests the trend is moving in a very different, if not opposite, direction.

First, we are witnessing the end of 'the end of history' as a distinct pattern of 'non-Western modernisation' is beginning to take shape. Second, two decades after the defrosting of the Cold War order, the world is once again dividing into democratic and non-democratic camps. Third, it is increasingly clear that export-oriented emerging markets such as China and Brazil are achieving a sufficient level of domestic consumption that they can 'decouple' from the rich economies, continuing to grow even as the United States teeters towards recession.

The most prominent chronicler of non-Western modernisation is Professor Kishore Mahbubani, the irascible former envoy of Singapore to the United Nations and now dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

In his just-published book, The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift Of Global Power To The East, Prof Mahbubani writes: 'Many in the West want to believe that this current bout of anti-Americanism is just a passing phase caused by the harsh and insensitive policies of one administration. When Bush leaves, all will change and the world will go back to loving America. The West will be revered again. All will be well. This is a mirage.'

Where once the Chinese, the Muslims and the Indians 'happily borrowed Western lenses and Western cultural perspectives' to see the world, now 'with growing cultural self-confidence, their perceptions are growing further and further apart'.

As evidence of this shift, Prof Mahbubani not only marshals the well-known economic statistics about growth in India and China, but also cites the increasing quality and number of world-class Asian universities and the credible rise of the 'Chinese dream' as a model for the developing world. He notes as well the eclipse of the once-ubiquitous American I Love Lucy or Dallas-type TV entertainment by Qing dynasty dramas, wildly popular modern-day Korean soaps or Bollywood epics, which are attractive in the Muslim world because of 'the spirit of inclusiveness and tolerance' that pervades the Indian mindset.

While the West sees the world in black-and- white 'evil empire and axis of evil' terms, he writes, 'the Indian mind is able to see the world in many different colours', making Easterners more properly 'the custodians of human civilisation' than Westerners.

The road to this new East may well have been through the West, but now that the East has arrived at its destination, the future will be built on its own terms. In one of his most insightful passages, Prof Mahbubani writes: 'The great paradox about failed Western attempts to export democracy to other societies is that, in the broadest sense of the term, the West has actually succeeded in democratising the world.'

For this Singaporean diplomat, even China, which the West considers undemocratic, has empowered its citizens and made them 'masters of their own destiny' thanks to new economic liberties. Yet, instead of celebrating this 'democratisation of the human spirit', the West berates them 'for imperfect voting practices' because it fears the inevitable: Real democracy on a global scale would topple the West from its reigning perch.

Obviously, much turns here on the differences between liberal and illiberal democracy, but Prof Mahbubani is certainly right on the broader historical shift taking place.

Closely related to the new cultural self-assertion of the East is what former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright sees as 'the hardening of the cement between democratic and non-democratic worlds'.

'The phony democracies or autocracies of Putin and Chavez,' she lamented in a recent conversation, 'may point the way to the future rather than the likes of a Walesa, Havel or Mandela, who were harbingers of democracy in their time'.

For now, oil is the ingredient that is hardening the cement, but one wonders, as the futurist and writer Alvin Toffler did a few weeks ago on a visit to Moscow, how Russia can advance through centralising the state and restoring the nomenklatura in an information age where distributed power and decentralisation are the keys to success.

In any case, Mrs Albright's answer to stemming this new global rift is to reinvigorate US-European alliances in promoting democracy 'because we have the most in common'. For Russia and China, the whole point of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which now ties them together, is to stand firm against such initiatives by the fading hegemon and its formerly colonialist allies trying to hold on as power moves east.

Finally, anyone crying over his sorry portfolio returns from US versus international markets cannot but note the growing differential between slowdown and takeoff. The World Bank forecasts that growth in the high-income countries this year will be 2.2 per cent. Developing countries will grow by 7.1 per cent, South Asia by 7.9 per cent, East Asia by 9.7 per cent and China by 10.8 per cent.

Based on this data, several Hong Kong investment analysts argue that China has passed a critical threshold where it can 'decouple' its economic fate from the West's financial tribulations, sustaining its pace of growth and investment despite a looming recession in the United States.

Some go further, believing the emerging economies, China in particular, can become the 'locomotive of the global economy the US once was'. This new reality describes yet another tectonic plate shift as the 21st century unfolds.

None of this means globalisation is coming apart at the seams, though the seams are becoming ever more apparent culturally and politically as well as economically. Certainly, common action on global warming, which affects everyone, would not be precluded. But the world order we see emerging is a lot different than the one Davos Man, as Harvard's Sam Huntington famously labelled the globalising elite who attend the World Economic Forum each year, has been used to envisioning.

Nathan Gardels is the editor-in-chief of NPQ and Global Services of Tribune Media Services. His forthcoming book with Mike Medavoy is entitled The Global Battle For Hearts And Minds: Hollywood, Public Diplomacy And America's Image.

COPYRIGHT: GLOBAL VIEWPOINT

Underpinning the Fundamentals of Tomorrow's Singapore

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