Lynas Issue (Comments in Nanyang Siang Pau)

The Kuantan/Pahang/Malaysian people want to stop Lynas’s operation in Malaysia, period. But the government keeps harping on looking for a “suitable” way or place to dispose the waste! So, will there be a win-win situation eventually? We need not gaze into a crystal ball, writing is on the wall…

Frustrated and anxious Malaysians await the outcome of this whole intriguing saga with bated breath. Meanwhile, let’s just see things from a more international or “interesting” perspective…as expressed by a columnist/political commentator in the Nanyang Siang Pau 2012-03-05 17:06

BTW, this column is named慢又不准, literally translated into “Slow and yet Inaccurate” J A little tongue-in-cheek…

The following is my own translation, as Google’s master piece is, as usual, simply incomprehensible!  

The West applauds Malaysia for the production of rare earth ● Wong

Deng Xiaoping once said: there is oil in the Middle East, there is rare earth in China. (GSL: 20/20 foresight!)

The importance of rare earth in today’s advanced technology cannot be overstated. The value of rare earth will continue to skyrocket in the many years to come.

Since the nineties, the price of rare earth has risen at least tenfold, but this is just the beginning. Advertisements on the Internet abound that rare earth price is really rock-bottom right now, almost like the low pricing of pork a decade or two ago. I am sure in time to come, it will be better to invest in rare earth rather than in gold or stocks! So, come, come, let’s jump on the bandwagon, and invest in rare earth now! There are experts to help you. You do not have to hoard rare earth in your backyard, just swipe your plastic card, and voila! The experts will do the rest. You can just watch online how the value of your investment soar day after day, and year after year, while you sit back, relax and collect interest or dividend……....

No production of rare earth, therefore no waste

Years ago, both the US and France mined rare earth. However, such activity has been discontinued because their mining and production technologies, so said pundits, have since lagged behind those of China, the newcomer. Although the US is said to still have a rare earth capacity of 13 million tons, accounting for 13% of the total rare earth stock worldwide, their production is now zero. The Malaysian Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Mustafa remarked recently that if the Malaysian government cancels Linus's license, it will be the joke of the international industry. Well, maybe it’s true. But to say that the US disposes their rare earth plant waste directly into the sewage drains is a bigger joke - the US is not even producing rare earth, where does the waste come from?

Going back to Deng Xiaoping’s famous words about rare earth in China, one can see that the Chinese people over the past years have been acting like the Arabs. The Arabs were once sitting blissfully on their oil wells, not knowing how to manipulate oil prices to their advantage. But everything changed after the oil crisis of the 1970s….. God’s gift of black gold is no longer cheap these days, as oil prices have since soared from a few US dollars a barrel to hundreds today. The Yankees crank their printing press for endless supply of green notes, but rare earth, like oil, will definitely be exhausted one day. Exchanging a limited resource for unlimited green notes? How can anyone continue to foolishly sell rare earth cheap?

China’s big rare earth reserve

Right now, China’s 36% of the world’s rare earth stock is monopolizing more than 90% of the world market. Countries in the West like the US (13%), Russia (19%) and Australia (5%) have zero output. Are they just hoarding and waiting for a better time in the future?

Other than the high cost of production and the wait for a “better time”, zero production may well be a calculated move to avert mass destruction of their environment and jeopardizing their citizens’ precious health and lives. If Third World factories are sweatshops, rare earth plants definitely involve more than sweat, there are tears and blood! (GSL: ...if not lives!)

After thirty to forty years of “blood, sweat and tears”, China has made some money. They no longer need to foolishly trade 8 tahils of work without getting back half a kati of reward. Look at the West, Apple is a shining example of trading one tahil of effort for tens of thousands of gold in return! (GSL: So is the Third World’s pirated software trade that unforgivable?) Now the well-fed Chinese can see all this quite clearly, even with their drunken eyes. Rare earth can no longer be sold cheap. 

Don’t even think about polluting the Australian Environment

The Chinese want to up rare earth price, the rest of the world can’t say no. So, what’s the way out? Break China's monopoly! But, who would do it?  

The Yankees and the Russians are not budging, so this leaves Australia to play hero. Australia has the rare earth to mine, but is averse to polluting their environment. So, FDI-hungry 1Malayisa and even hungrier Pahang are their ideal partners, or targets!   

This is why in response to Linus setting up a plant here in Malaysia, we have the hopping-mad Himpunan Hijau 2.0, but the contrasting Western media’s loud applause! Yes, applause for Malaysia’s sacrifice of its environment and national health, to break the Chinese monopoly! 

The Chua-Lim Debate on 19 Feb 2012

There are many different formats for a debate, but the different formats do have many features in common. For starters, all debates are formal contests of argumentation between two teams or individuals. Debate requires more than mere verbal or performance skills, as it embodies the ideals of reasoned argument, tolerance and some semblance of respect for divergent points of view. Above all, it is a platform for those who hold opposing views to discuss controversial issues without descending to personal attacks or insults. So, did the much publicized debate between Dr Chua Soi Lek and Mr Lim Guan Eng last Sunday meet these basic criteria? Sadly, IMHO, probably not …...

As is common knowledge, in a typical debate, the two positions taken by the two individuals or teams are the affirmative (pro) and the negative (con). The "pro" side in a debate argues in favor of something while the negative or "con" side argues against something. Given that the debate topic is “Will a two-party system in Malaysia become a two-race system?” there is no clear cut way of assuming a pro or con positions. This being the case, each side should simply present his views as to why it will be “yes” or “no”, and substantiate them with logical arguments, existing or future party/government policies. For instance, one might argue that the two-party system will NOT become a two-race system if BN continues to be the government, but will if Pakatan rules, and then go on to state why. If Chua and Lim have both argued along these lines, it would have been a real debate enlightening all of us about what the stances and policies of BN or Pakatan are in steering a healthy two-party system away from an undesirable two-race system. Unfortunately, the debate ran off on a tangent, with little reference or relevance to the debate topic at hand. The debate literally morphed into a forum with the two speakers merely delivering speeches.    

What is most disappointing and perhaps damaging to the spirit of a healthy debate is the beginning or constructive speech by Chua. It certainly set the wrong tone for the ensuing debate. Not only did he NOT present the basic construct of his argument with regard to the given topic, he stunned me and perhaps many others by a direct personal attack on Lim, almost too early in his opening speech! In the rest of the so-called debate after that, both parties more or less traded barbs, with Chua even taking an unwarranted swipe at his arch rival Ong Tee Kiat who is from  his own political party! There was no winner in this debate, but Chua definitely won hands down for the number of personal attacks he fired. However, criticism aside, both parties must be commended for their proficiency in Mandarin and their courage in using this language in the debate, given that both are supposedly English educated.

Needless to say, I cringed in my seat throughout most parts of the “debate”. I did find some gems, one of which worthy of a special mention came from the moderator Mr Tan Ah Chye, who said the following for noise/audience control: “We must not only have the courage to speak our minds, we must have the grace to listen to others”, or something to this effect, translated from Mandarin. Yes, the audience was quite boisterous at times, and some of them were overly emotional and even belligerent during questioning time, embarking on personal attacks of the two debaters. In this respect, one particular woman must take the cake. I heard that by lambasting Guan Eng and his policies in Penang, she gained “infamy” of sorts on FACEBOOK almost overnight, and was conferred the moniker 拖车姐, roughly translated as “tow truck woman”. It seems she even had to shut down her FB account for a while, presumably due to overwhelming number of expletives and brickbats hurled at her. It is anybody’s guess now if  she will still be fielded as a BN/MCA candidate in the upcoming GE13, as has been widely speculated earlier in the MCA circle.

Now that the dust of the “debate” has settled down, my fervent hope is that all Malaysian politicians participating in future debates – and I heard many are in the pipeline -- will take a lesson from this first one. BTW, it is definitely NOT too late for some of them to view or review a recording of the last US presidential debate, a copy of which should be readily available in the Lincoln Resource Center of the US Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.  

Getting forgetful? Read on....

Headline in Dots, Sunday Star (14 Jan 2012) screamed: Mental decline sets in at 45 not 60, says study. So, little wonder that you now begin to worry about your memory, or more precisely, the loss of it. Here’s news for you: Another research report published in the Daily Mail of UK – I read about it in the Sin Chew Daily -- has identified different degrees of forgetfulness:

Normal or slight forgetfulness

1.     Need a few minutes to remember where you have parked your car

2.     Momentarily forget the name of somebody or something

3.     Forget to return a phone call (or reply to an e-mail or sms)

4.     Can’t find something which you have just put away

5.     Forget something trivial that a friend told you 2 days ago

Moderate forgetfulness

1.     Forget the name of someone close to you

2.     Misplace things, or forget to remove the keys after unlocking a door

3.     Do not recognize faces

4.     Repeat questions you have just asked

5.     Change in personality

Serious forgetfulness

1.     Pour yourself a cup of tea, not realizing that you already have one

2.     Forget your grandchild’s name, but memory of your own childhood remains vivid 

3.     Don’t know how to do household chores, such as washing dishes

4.     Confused about relationships of family members

5.     Problems making  simple judgment, e.g. put on thick clothing on a hot day

6.     Don’t recognize family members  

So, don’t worry if your memory lapses are confined to those listed under normal or slight forgetfulness! Be happy……J

Planning for retirement? Read on....

If you are the proactive type like moi, you are probably planning for your retirement now. Here’s something I read in Sin Chew Daily last Sunday that may be helpful in decision-making: Malaysia is ranked No. 1 in Asia, and No. 4 in the whole world in the Retirement Index 2012 published by International Living Magazine, USA! If this index is indeed a reliable measure, I will have to rethink about retiring in China…L

Admittedly, we have our many and various gripes, we are unhappy with the present government etc., but by and large, Malaysia is a great place to live in, and retire to. For those obsessed with ranking, No. 4 in the world must be pretty good, though not as good as world No.1 in badminton men’s single player, and  No. 1 in squash ladies single player! (But it’s certainly a whole lot better than our universities' ranking!) Of course, these two games may not be as popular or glamorous like football, tennis or golf, but mind you, they are very popular in many parts of the world. Enough of my digression and rambling a la Malaysia Boleh….please read the full story at http://internationalliving.com/2011/12/the-worlds-top-retirement-havens-in-2012 and click on http://internationalliving.com/2011/12/the-scores-and-how-our-2012-retirement-index-works

to find out how the scores and index are worked out.... happy reading! J

A Tribute to Steve Jobs

Stay hungry, Stay foolish

Is Facebook infantilizing your mind?

Professor Greenfield of Oxford University: Facebook creating a generation hungry for constant attention

At last, I heard someone echoing my thought! Yes, FB serves some people’s purposes, but it certainly doesn’t serve mine. So, I didn’t have an FB account until 2009, and that was only because I needed to contact someone who is only accessible via FB! These days, I peek into my FB page occasionally, and do not have over 200 friends like the average Malaysian is said to have. I simply do not have the time to deal with such a big volume of almost constant exchanges….

According to a recent report by Reuters (London), Professor Greenfield of Oxford University has warned that Facebook is creating a generation of vain people with short attention span, who are self-obsessed, and behave almost like young children vying for constant attention and response from others. In fact, this was what she told Daily Mail way back in 2009: “My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment.” Although I think she was then not referring to Facebook specifically.

She went on to say that obsessed users of such social networking sites crave for approval from others, about everything big and small (trivial) happening in their daily lives. They suffer from a kind of "identity crisis", in that they are like toddlers and small children constantly vying for attention. It’s almost like they are crying out all the time: "Mom, look at me, I can do this…. I did this" etc. They want immediate gratification, and generally do not possess good oral communication skills, because they only need eyes or sight to “communicate” via keyboarding in the social networking sites on the Internet.

Greenfield said this is like living in a virtual world, where what is important is what other people think of you, or if they can “click”on you, or in Facebook lingo, “add” you or “like” you.

Currently, more than 7.5 billion people worldwide use Facebook, to share photos and videos, and regularly update ideas or information about themselves.

Latest News From the East-West Center:

Malaysia's Political Awakening: A Call for U.S. Leadership

Former U.S. Ambassador to Malaysia John R. Malott writes about the internal political changes unfolding within that country that culminated in the large "Bersih 2.0" democracy rally on July 9

http://www.eastwestcenter.org/publications/search-for-publications/browse-alphabetic-list-of-titles/?class_call=view&pub_ID=3906&mode=view