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17 items tagged "politics"

June 05, 2011
1:59
Another year…
» ‎ Wanderer

People coming together can make a difference. 22 years on, we have the same story in the Middle East.
May 11, 2011
0:47
The marriage of convenience
» ‎ Wanderer

Every morning to work, I would listen to the radio on my way to work. LBC, short for London’s Biggest Conversation, is my usual channel. Prior going to Sicily, I got so bored of the dividing opinions over Libya and the Middle East etc etc. that I decided to switch off the radio completely to get some ease of mind. That is, however, until last Friday. I switched on my radio to my trust LBC Breakfast show with Nick Ferrari. Why? Because it was the day after our wonderful referendum – to which I didn’t bother voting. I wanted to hear about the utter failure of the Liberal Democrats which filled me with more joy than the news of Osama Bin Laden.

I have always told people that Nick Clegg is your perfect politician. He embodies what Politics in Britain and the west is about: lies, broken promises and failed expectations. Such a gloomy perspective on such a sunny day. Indeed, the beauty of democracy – a political system I am not particularly fond of – is that in extreme situation, the popular voice is heard. Yet, the downfall of democracy is that those who manage to trick the population into believing their lies gets to cling on the power like a child to his lollipop.

Disillusioned I may be. Yet, the joy of seeing the defeat on Nick Clegg’s face spread across most front pages and news channels on Friday morning meant that I felt the euphoria by the power of utilitarianism.

Why did the lib-dems choose the Conservatives I do not know; Some say it’s a marriage of convenience. If they were true to their words that – paraphrasing – “the people had decided that the Conservatives had more votes so they have the mandate to run the country”, then the Liberal Democrats should stand aside and let the Tories run the country with their minority government. Now, it just feels like those left voters had their votes stolen from them in the General Elections.

Yes, Nick, we are not very happy with you. That was one of the reasons why I really couldn’t be bothered to vote on the Referendum. Firstly, give us something more substantial to vote about; Electoral Reform is such a procedural issue to do with Westminster that frankly speaking I don’t care about it. I know about it, but I don’t care about it. Coupled with that fact, the only reason why we would want the AV is such that small parties which we genuinely believed could deliver change has more chance of getting elected into their seats. Well, Nick Clegg has totally killed that reason for the majority of us: University Tuition Fees, NHS reform, VAT rises – these are just some of the Tories policies actively promoted by the Liberal Democrat leader. What’s more? He talked about the need of keeping our Britishness in a speech today! Mr Deputy Prime Minister – you are the Europe-phile who wanted us to join the Euro and subscribe to European Laws. Let’s not talk about hypocrisy, isn’t Britishness what the Tories is about? David Cameron was anti-Europe from the beginning. Forget about Scottish Independence, give us a Referendum on Europe – something that actually matters!

I am so bored of petty Westminster politics.

Then again, I am of the personality type ENFP, my attention span is so short that I find most things boring after 5 minutes.
February 01, 2011
0:48
Revolution
» ‎ Wanderer

This is a long overdue blog post. I’ve been keeping an eye out on what is happening in the Middle East. First it was Tunisia, now is Egypt’s turn. It almost seem like a stack of domino blocks toppling the American puppet governments.

I fully support the voice of the people and I am always slightly buzzed when I hear people gather together and speak with one voice. It’s true that fear is a way to keep people in place. If you exert enough fear, you can keep a population in place. Such was the way of Mohsin Mubarak for three decades. There will always come a time when the people decide ‘enough is enough’.

Change should always come from within and not from with-out. George.W.Bush attacked Iraq in the name of ‘freedom’, I always wonder if Saddam Hussein was not hamstrung by the Americans, would Iraq now have the people strength to topple the dictator. Perhaps the loss of so many (innocent) life can be avoided.

Politics should not be about fear. The polis should follow the leader for his love for the population and not his love for power.
June 21, 2010
7:58
Identity and Indoctrination
» ‎ Wanderer

Yet another discourse about this issue. I was watching Revealed on CNN this morning - I couldn’t quite sleep for 2 days in a row now, first night was because I didn’t sleep until 4, today I just woke up at 3ish and felt really awake and now the sun has risen, I don’t really wanna go back to sleep - Anyway, this edition of revealed was about Amir Khan, the British Muslim boxer. It seems strange to me that CNN is really handpicking issues to highlight in their programmes. Last time they were reporting on the Muslim demographics in the British elections. Anyway, it got me thinking again on how to define my identity. Looking back at how far I’ve come from high school to university and now to working life, I see that I’ve progressed in the way I view the world and changed the way I relate to people. Certainly having the experience of Japan had made me more independent as an individual, and eventually coming face to face with my own faith, I’ve come to be a more happy person. Surely, I still get affected by people and such is the nature of men as we live in a social environment. However, I am slightly more clear as to what I want in life.

Being brought up in a “Muslim” household with a devout Muslim grandmother, a reform Muslim father and a Muslim-convert mother in a non-Mulsim country(or city), I have never been able to fully experience and appreciate the other side of me. Prior coming to the UK, I just considered myself a typical-ish Hong Konger because that was all I knew. I left Hong Kong with the mindset that I would learn more about my religion, knowing how UK especially London is a hub for western Islamic learning. However, things did not really turn out to plan. 9/11 happened a couple of years become coming to London. My identity as a Muslim was placed into great strained because Muslim became synonymous with terrorist or extremist and I am by no-means an extremist. In fact, my up-bringing allowed me to grow up with a diverse range of people from a wide range of faith. One of my great friends in college who I sat together on the bus going to school, going to class and so forth was a Jew, and for me he just examplifies the stereotype that Jews are smart, because I tell you, he was bloody smart and a really cool guy. It was the very fact that my life-view was formed in such a diversified group (including a rhode scholar) that I come to appreciate the common threads which makes us all human.

I remember reading on Jac’s blog number 47 of 50 things to do in uni is to either find a religion or to loose it. For me, I think at least on many spiritual levels I have gone through cycles of loosing and gaining faith. I would certainly say I’ve actually lost it completely during those dark years except for maybe a couple of months in the 3rd year prior the summer holidays started when I started having philosophical/religious discourses regularly. In the recent years, being “more” involved in the Muslim community, I find that I hold very different views to a lot of them. Its a constant struggle I face as an individual to find a comfortable space to suspend my world-view in without infringing upon others views and at the same time not be affected by their views. Having said that, its very difficult to do. I am quite easily influenced when I am convinced on a morality level that something is right. I find more and more that I use this blog as a means to put across my thoughts. Do I think being more religious has made me a better person? On some level yes, on some level no. The thing with religion is it could be quite indoctrinating. It doesn’t matter which religion I suppose because I have seen similar traits in devout Christian friends. Just like Pope Urban II used the crusades for his own political ends, I think there are certain movements within the Islamic communities which is manipulating Muslims towards what the news would call ‘extremism’. I think for many young Muslims, ideologies propagated by these movements would appeal to them because it gives them a sense of empowerment in the wider society. I think the fact that Muslims who are brought up in conservative families, and Muslims are by nature conservative people because of their inclination towards religious practices, feels disenchanted in the wider liberal British society. Speaking purely from personal experience having gone to very white clubs such as lifesaving and talking to fell Muslim colleagues and friends, there is something which brings you out of your comfort zone when you sit together with them in a pub sipping away on their beer. Its something I cannot explain further because its purely a feeling. Without feeling totally integrated into the wider British community, some would seek to alter it by condemning their practices. Certainly, some school of Islamic thoughts would empower individuals to become advocate for this change - I know this claim would cause a large outcry in the wider Muslim community as its a taboo subject.

I am not sure if its an Asian/British thing because I have no problem with my European friends. Thinking about it, I have very few white-British friends (who I would call genuine friends) after coming to the UK for 6 years. Huh…Strange. After reading Randy’s blog, I think I understand what he meant when talking about dutch people - not saying that dutch people are bad or anything - but its the fact that I strive in a minority community where I am expected to be different rather than expected to be the same.

The world is changing, things are pushed politically to the right. You can say that it doesn’t concern you, but no matter what small things happen in the society, we are all affected. Looking at second world war when Hitler took over. Looking back, its easy to say what he did was wrong and evil. However, he did manage to mobilise the whole Germany, and pockets of Eruope to push his agenda across. Was it because all the Germans were evil? No. Hitler spoke some truths to people’s heart, and they believed it. It was a classic example of indoctrination. They say the best form of propaganda is the one where you don’t know you are being manipulated. Incidentally, I watched a documentary about US army’s involvement in hollywood blockbusters. If you were to see the heroic side to the American Army, you would be more likely to enscript. It was a way of glorifying war, and commiting your loyalty to the country. I could see that would be the case if I was an American who was taught to love America, and seeing these heroic service men and women out there fighting for freedom, I myself would enscript to the US Navy for the cause in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, how politicians use lies and speech to mobilise a nation is quite amazing.

Alright, enough blabbering for the day. Just in summary, human beings like to belong to a certain group. Individuals or elite in these groups have the ability to manipulate the actions of their members by empowering them. These actions performed by the members would be seen from the outside as being representative on the group. It makes me question…how free are we?
June 16, 2010
22:49
Am I European?
» ‎ Wanderer

I had an interesting conversation with Loic the other day regarding the EU. Interesting because it got me thinking, will UK ever become truly European? Perhaps I am the least qualified person to write about European politics, but lately with the economic crisis, the bailing out of Greece and the voting in of a Euro-skeptic government which is ‘in bed with’ Europhiles, this question of European-Imperialism (if I could coin it this way) seems to be a hot topic. I myself nearly benefitted from the the European Union title on my passport as I applied for a job in Brussels in 2008. The easiness to just cross over the channel means that I could be eating Fondu in Paris in a couple of hours without the need of a stamp on my passport. However, I would still need to think about exchange rate. Since the UK never joined the Euro, we have our own fiscal policies, economic regulations etc, which allow the UK to be independent on its own decision when it comes to devaluing the currency to favour exports and growth.

So, my French buddy Loic was trying to persuade me that UK should join the Euro and become a strong player in European politics. Whilst all the continental Eruopean countries embraced this brotherhood, the UK stayed well clear of loosing its say on its own affair. The devolution of power to Brussels was just not appealing. If we were to have a referendum tomorrow on this issue, I think it might be very likely we get out of the EU altogether. Maybe I am too anti-European, but hey, I am Asian. Instead of trying to bring about a balanced view on the pros and cons of joining the Euro, I am just going to defend my case as to why we shouldn’t. From my previous posts you can tell the only reason why I am in the UK now is because of the British Empire. From the Indian subcontinent to Africa to the coastal cities of China, the British held a large part of the world. HSBC is a very good example of the geographical potency of the British Empire. Therefore, unlike its neighbouring countries, the strength of UK lies with its historical allys : the commonwealth. UK has always been strong economically, and if you look at major trading currencies, USD, EUR, GBP and JPY are the default choices. In other words, the European currency with the whole of Europe put together is considered on par with the British Pounds. Forgive me, my European friends who sees the benefit of this European imperialism, I just don’t think its right for the UK to spend its money on other European countries such as Romania, Poland etc because we are right next door. Perhaps its quite a selfish thing to say. I do enjoy the company of my Polish colleagues at work, and I think it might be harder for them to come here to work if it wasn’t so easy (although since they are skilled, it might not be so difficult).

I asked Loic, so would you prefer to be called a European rather than French, and Loic said ‘French’. Which is quite surprising to me since most French people are very proud of their French-ness, more so during this time of the World Cup. This leads me to another point I want to make, which is not purely economical, is the fact that even with this European brotherhood, the dutch still hates the German and the French still refuses to speak in anything but French. Yes, the single currency makes it easier for trade but when push comes to shove, if the Germans have to bail out the Greeks because they use the same currency, most Germans would complain that their hard earn tax money is not spent in Germany but in Greece. The have already bailed out East Germany once when the Berlin Wall came down, most of them feel that they are doing it all over again. I don’t know, I am not a big fan of centralisation of government because at the end it creates more buraucracy, and you loose your identity.

I can see I haven’t made much strong arguments in this post, but do let me know what you think if you care enough about the European unity.
June 06, 2010
12:00
On Injustice and Environment
» ‎ Wanderer

So much has happened in the world in the last couple of weeks. Where should I begin? Lets start on Israel. Well, its not the first time I blogged about Gaza, and I have a feeling this would not be the last as well. 9 Turkish activists including one holding US citizenship were gunned down in a floatilla which tried to deliver humanitarian aid to the blockaded area of Gaza. 30 shots were shot, a few people were shot at the back of the head. Israeli soldiers did it out of self-defense claiming that they were facing death threat from terrorists who tried to kill them. Again, how do we define ‘Terrorism’? Israel has been living under constant rocket attacks from Hamas inside the Gaza strip. That was why the blockade was placed, in which collective punishment on the thousands of Gazans living in what can only be described as a ghetto. Watching the news, I found out that chocolate is a commodity which is forbidden. On facebook, my American friend Zac wrote on this status, “I’m just catching up on this developing story again, but now it looks like 19 civilians were killed by the Israeli Defense Forces, which is more than the number of Israelis who have been killed by those makeshift rockets in the past 10 years @_@”. End of 2008, early 2009, Israeli forces moved into Gaza with their tanks and helicopters bombing what they claimed to be terrorist cells. Yet, an UN school was hit, thousands of people’s homes were demolished. Walls were errected around the parameters of the strip, sea blockade extends a few miles off the Gaza shorelines. Any further than that you enter Israeli military zone in which you would be killed. UN aids have been allowed into Gaza in limited supplies. Everything must be done in Israeli permission. This time, as the ship with over 40 nationalities on board left for Gaza, the Israeli response on these humanitarians, or as BBC like to call them - Pro-Palestinian activists, were shot at, I ask the question: how much longer will the world remain silent on this issue?

I was not at High Street Kensington these couple of weekends as thousands of protesters line the High street outside the Israeli embassy. I don’t see the point. I guess there are many layers of expressing our concerns over this issue. For me, its through blogging and possibly facebook, although I haven’t been very vocal on both of them. Perhaps a part of me has already grown numb to Israel’s treatment on Gaza. More so after I saw pictures after pictures of dead children being pushed into ill-equipped hospital. Perhaps I should be on that floatilla heading towards Gaza.

Another major developing story: BP’s attempt to stop the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. A silent confession was that I was secretly glad that this was happening in the US. Of course, I sense the hypocrisy of my sentiment as I myself is guilty of driving a gas-guzzler (not that guzzling I suppose given its around 43MPG) around 50 miles a day. The reason I am secretly glad is because after all this rhetoric of “Drill-Baby-Drill” business, they are finally getting a taste of their own medicine. Don’t get me wrong, seeing the birds, dolphins, turtles etc covered in oil does break my heart, but at least now they would push towards to more greener, less carbon-reliant economy. Bad news for the economy of Gulf in the middle east, but good news for the environment. As you can see on my facebook, I am quite vocal about my disappointment in Obama.

As the world lives another day, we all learn another lesson. Yet, history is never a lesson learnt. Just as money corrupts, power corrupts. I guess even someone who talks so highly of morality as Obama could be corrupted by power (by his seemingly over cover-my-back attitude towards this oil spill), what hope do we have?
February 23, 2010
1:13
Political musing
» ‎ Wanderer

Aristotle called Politics purely as things concerning the polis. When I look at politics I am often reminded of the scene when Socrates is at the centre of Athens waiting for judgement from the public about the fate of his life over the killing of a man. Of course he was convicted although it was told to us that Socrates was indeed an innocent man. I remember reading this story in one of John Locke’s collection in the school library as part of my musing about in the philosophy section, my favourite isle by far. After reading this, I always question what role does utilitarianism play in our democratic society.

I was watching my usual round of newsnight before bedtime, but frankly I couldn’t watch it anymore as world politics become more and more depressing. Well, I guess that is not news. My friend asked us in the car today at lunchtime what we thought about this whole Gordan Brown bullying incident. I do have my views on it, and although I have to say I am a conservative thinktank myself, I really don’t like David Cameron nor the way modern-Tories work in this country. Perhaps Labour politics have moved a long way since the days of the co-orperatives and unions, but I do believe the UK (without looking at British foreign policies) has progressed a lot under the labour government. The society has become more fair and accepting. Gone are the days when people are called Pakis or Chinks on the street of London, but rather the diversity is celebrated. The problem we face in this country is that we lack a charismatic leader (Brown) and those who are charismatic such as Cameron appears to me as some power-hogging Netanyahu who would deal in dark politics to get his way (e.g. smearing an opponent). This of course is a purely personal view. So, todays news of a bullying prime minister from a convervative backing charity makes me somewhat sinister about British poltics. Channel 4 tries to make it more colourful by asking women in spas down in Swindon who they would vote. I am again confronted with this ailing pain of the thought of a failed democracy. See, this is the problem I have with democracy as I’ve pointed out before in the Martin Lee’s post -> democracy is only a political model and in my opinion not a very strong one either. Also on the car we discussed how Rupert Murdoch’s influence in this supposedly deocratic western world. Here is the deal, the only way we will ever get any information about the world we live in is from the media. If you have control over the media in what we call Western civilisation you have control over people’s minds. When you have control over people’s minds, you control the political map. Once you control the political map, you control pretty much everything. Alright, I am quite a knowledge searching person when it comes to politics and I have been trained to cross examine sources before adopting any stance, so I watch BBC, Al-Jazeera, CNN, Channel 4 news and so forth to get my sources about what is going on in the world. Yet, I can’t help but conclude we live in a world where we have an illusion of choice. Where if women in spas (I’m generalising here) can have the same political say as an educated politics student from Cambridge university lets say (in terms of voting power), we are living in a fundamentally flawed system - because if newspaper starts to endorse a certain political party (e.g. Sun for the conservatives) apart from those page 3 girls, you would be subconsciously indoctrinated. What makes me laugh at the world even more today is the fact that Americans is increasing their national deficit on a trillion dollars defense budget trying to fight ideology in Afghanistan by military might when in the home ground people are indoctrinated by Hollywood everyday. I can’t help but think something is wrong…don’t you?

So lately I’ve been troubled by this apparent link between materialism (including money) and happiness. I just don’t buy it. Item number 2 on Newsnight at which I just couldn’t watch anymore was about Goldman Sachs. They talked about how they made money over the bailout of AIG, the ailing economy of Greece and so forth. I cannot understand till today, how bankers make money, drinking their champagnes and wine off people’s neccessary income. Can someone just explain that to me? There is so much moral injustice in this world I cannot bare to look at it sometimes. I guess my salvation is the fact that I believe in God and the afterlife, and that brings me peace and comfort - to think that justice will come ultimately. However, how do we tell right from wrong when an investment banker believes he is earning hard-earned money from a 7am-11pm job for his family, but he doesn’t know the full damage he creates to society? I guess with technology and different distractions its very easy to become desensitised and looses the big picture.

Finally, on religion and state. Lately there has been a row over Halal-only Quick outlets in France (6 out of 250 in the country). Its basically a French equivalent of McDonalds. Some French politicians has called it ‘a discrimiation against non-Muslims’ - that non-Muslim didn’t have choice to eat pork at their local Quick outlet. This leads me to think about the state-religion separation which is a European movement for around 200 years and is on-going (in my opinion becoming a world-wide phenomenon). Immanuel Kant is definitely one example I could think of in 1800s Germany who claimed that religion is a way to stop people from further enlightenment because it is a contract which meant that generations were not allow to think in a more progressive way. If we understand this struggle to separate Christianity from the state (hence now we have secular state) we can understand why France is so wary about this “Islamification of Europe”. After understanding this point, I finally understand what is happening in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan. Fatah is a secular government in Palestine for crying out loud. Before I thought this only contribution to this is Islamophobea but now I am starting to join the dots. Fear leads to control - as we could clearly see from the example of SARS in Hong Kong in 2003. Everyone listened to the government. Its by implanting fear in people’s mind that they get control over the population. Its also the fear of being politically incorrect that we sometimes fail to point out what is right, but instead go for what is popular. Today I’m challenging this notion of popular culture - this dumbing down of people - to make us like sheeps so we don’t think for ourselves.

Anyway, its getting late…time for bed, and by the way don’t be surprised if I get a mysterious heart attack.
December 28, 2009
21:21
When a word’s meaning is lost in its usage…
» ‎ Wanderer

I have come to noticed more and more from media that the word ‘Terrorist’ is used very lightly on everyone who goes against the norm in which violence is used. However, when it is committed by a political ally against a population, it is called a war against terrorism, defencing their own country from ‘terror’ attacks. I got a little annoyed after watching many hours of Al-Jazeera and it was on and on about what happened in Gaza a year ago. I remember I was in Sri Lanka last year doing the same thing, lying there on the sofa watching Al Jazeera in the hotel reporting on the war in Gaza. Sometimes you feel so helpless. However, I just watched this particular documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UChWtlMGBJ0. You can watch it on the embedded objects below as well. I urge you very strongly to watch this. I think it is an obligation as human to do something somehow for them:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Today is the first time Karachi where I visited at the age of 9 is bombed. Finally…the south of Pakistan is also attacked. I think if we are to use the word ‘terrorists’ for suicide bombers…which I do believe they are. Then anyone who terrorise people’s lives irregardless of whether they are part of a government or not should be called acts of terrorism.
September 11, 2009
23:55
Joke of the day
» ‎ Wanderer

I knew about this particular protest last week when my friend told us about it. He said the Imam had ordered specifically not to hold a counter protest because its not Islamic to do that. Well, Fascist groups who refused to be called left wing stage a protest outside a mosque in Central London today. I couldn’t help but laugh at the report. Fascist group protesting against Islamification of Europe, Anti Fascist groups (who aren’t Muslims) protecting the mosque, fighting the Fascists and the Muslims praying quietly and peacefully inside the Mosque. We don’t even know what we did wrong to be honest. Sometimes you just got to appreciate the jokes and have a few laughs.
September 08, 2009
23:54
War of God
» ‎ Wanderer

The question I am begging today is whether or not war is justifiable when its done on religious grounds. No, I’m not talking about terrorist attacks or freedom fighting by Muslims, but rather a Zionist movement backed by the orthodox Jewish community. I was shown this article yesterday, and I watched the programme today. First started off with a cliche debate of terrorism in the UK then went off to talk about how Rabbis took up weapons in the Israeli Army to fight the rather horrifying war last year in Gaza. I am not going to say whether that war on Gaza was fair or not but rather whether it is alright to fight a religious war in this day and age - and what is the repercussions of mixing religion, politics and war.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that wars nowadays are not religiously motivated. What is shocking to me watching this programme is not the fact that a war was religiously motivated, but rather it is encouraged on religious grounds. Inevitably, the scale of the atrocities committed enlarges significantly when you truly believe that there are no moral consequences for your actions since its sanctioned by God. By rights, in a religious context, moral absoluteness originates from God almighty. Therefore, in a true holy war, when you die, you die a martyr and you go to paradise. Believing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a replay of the Biblical conquest is saddening. To me its not a replay of Biblical Zionism - the wanting of returning to the holy land given by Elohim (the lord in Hebrew - not going to use the ‘Y’ word since in Judaism is not respectful), rather is a replay of the crusades who thought they were fighting God’s war when in fact they were fighting Pope’s war. The same thing here, rabbis are encouraging people to fight the ’sons of darkness’ (the Palestinians) - when it clearly states in Genesis that ALL MEN are created in the image of God. So what’s going on? Forget about St Thomas Aquinas’ just war theory since that was an add-on for Christians, but what is the religious justification for taking machine guns into civilians home killing the innocent? Its all over my head.

I am going to pointing out the hypocritical or confused state this world is operating in. Since Israel is a legitimate state in the eyes of the western powers, religious leaders are suddenly given pardons for war crimes but if it were imams and sheiks taking up guns and WMD we’ll have a hot debate on whether or not Islam condone violence. Trust me though, if they did, Muslims - knowledgeable ones who know their religion - would be the first to come out to condemn it. Of course, reading this you too might recognise the biased in my message. Indeed, there are many Jews who voice their concerns over rabbis picking up guns. Surely we have to be careful when invoking God’s name in a war, especially religious leaders since they are all we have to look up to. For those who believe in a true salvation that we will have the final day of judgment, be very worried when making something lawful when its not because its God who would have the final say.

I’m still practicing my patience although the last few days had been challenging and I’ve been failing at it. I blame lawyers! What is the law without compassion? - I shall examine that later.
July 11, 2009
1:56
The Xinjiang crisis
» ‎ Wanderer

People have been asking me about my views on this crisis. I hold a rather moderate view. I guess I am in a rather peculiar position because I am a Muslim who was born and bred in China. Having said that, the environment in which I was groomed in was rather western. Sure, I would go across the border to have Xinjiang cuisine once in a while, but that hardly classify me as someone with the legitamacy and experience to have an objective view of this (on a first hand source). My criticism is rather a more outwardly one to the wider Islamic ummah (community).

The Ottoman (Islamic) empire had once conquered most of the world from Cordoba in Spain to the far reach of China. Following my former post on Islam in China, I will continue my discussion into this issue. By no means is this a new phenomenon in China, the clashes between Uighers and Chinese. Most of my Chinese friends would tell me of stories where there were fights in school during their school days between ‘Muslims’ and ‘Han’ Chinese. This is in mainland China. I did a long thesis back at A-Levels discussing whether it is religion, namely Islam, which is to be blamed for the various outbreak of ‘wars’ in the world. I concluded that it was more to do with the people than the religion. Perhaps one which my colleague had answered but I failed to understand until I write this post now. Even though Islam preaches peace, there are times when the condition in which jihad or struggle becomes obligatory - that is when you feel that your religious rights and freedom is being threatened. It is said in the Hadith that when you pray and someone walks in front of you, you should try to stop them, but when they continue to walk through it is obligatory to fight them for they must be satanic. However, in a land such as China it has become difficult to speak out when your religious rights are being threatened. For example, the closure of the tens and hundreds of mosques in Uramqi closed for Jummah (Friday) prayers be considered a breach of religious freedom in many places, but with such curfew in place, would one dare to speak out against the government?

Communist China overthrew the Qing Dynasty back in the 40s, it is strange to think such a diverse land of constant war and peace as China being able to accomodate such a diversed mixed of culture and religions. It is rather strange to talk about the accomodation of religions in a communist and marxist regime, because by Marx’s definition, religion is the opium of the people and by definition a Marxist state is one which does not tolerate religion. But yet, Islam is ingrained in the culture of so many people belonging to minority groups in China. I was watching a documentary on BBC I-Player the other day. It was about Deng Xiao Ping and the economic reformation of China. How one person, as Deng, was able to combine Marxist principles with that of Capitalism. Deng had created special economic zones in China such as Shenzhen and Xiamen in the 90s for foreign investments to be able to take base. But it wasn’t until early this year when the first Airbus was created in China. This particular reform was slowly being spreaded across the country. Obviously, these places selected for their stretegic geographical location were dominated by the ‘Han’ people. Well, traditionally speaking, there were only 2 mainstream categories of people in Chinese history books - the ‘Han’ and the ‘Moon’ - The hans being more characteristic Chinese as we know today and the moons being more characteristic Mongolian and Russian. But when these ‘han’ Chinese were imported around the country for economic reforms, the other original inhabitants who had their own cultures and religious practices were being diluted. I’m sure most of you reading my blog would have come across a Chinese person and understand how proud they feel to be Chinese. So it is not very difficult to imagine what was going on in Xinjiang when Uighers were practicing Islam, praying 5 times a day, eating Halal without pork in their dishes - it was different, and ultimately there would be conflicts. Having said that, Chinese people through a lot of Chinese philosophical thinking had developed a rather peaceful approach in dealing with people. So it is always difficult when it comes to violence because Chinese usually doesn’t condone it. I have often told people who asked me whether they think China is suppressing Islam, I would respond by telling them I see this particular conflict as being more a conflict between minorities. There are many Islamic communities which thrive in China. If you take religion out of the picture, and look at it from a purely psychological and economical angle, you could understand why the Uighers would be frustrated. Whether or not there is a real crave for a separate state (Xinjiang), I don’t believe this is as much a wish as of Tibet. Islam had always been able to adapt to the local political and cultural environment and had thrived in many places.

Back to my criticism on this issue. Firstly I would like the criticise the media for over-exaggerating this issue. Perhaps many people would be surprised by this point. Ok listen me out here, yes, this is a news worth reporting and I am grateful that the world had finally opened their eyes to this issue. This is a very normal scene in Xinjiang in a way that if you talked to a mainland Chinese, they would tell you this is rather old news. The difference is, this time the Chinese government had taken an over-reaction over the situation. Randy told me that Wendy said 150 for China is a small number, and I couldn’t agree with Wendy more because why moblise 1000s of soilders to bring a city to a standstill over such a relatively small incident. I guess for the press what is interesting this time is the first time its seeing the effect of the global economic crisis taking a toll on the political stability in China. Hu Jingtao had to cancel his G8 summit in Italy to go back to Beijing for this issue. Secondly, I am appaulled by the suppression in a military form. China had always pride itself in having 56 minorities living harmoniously under one country and using 1 common language (Mandarin) - although each area in China has its own unidentifiable dialect. Why then when there is a clash between minorities do they lock everyone up instead of talking to one another resolving the issue. I have many Chinese friends and they are very accomodating to my religious requests, so I do not think religion is too much of a problem here. Rather, why is the news agency in China blackening the Uighers and painting the Hans as the victims when obviously both people are victims - its doing things which are not helping with cultural harmony, rather inciting hatred.

Ok, I am going to start a new paragraph for my last criticism: The wider Muslim communities in the world. As I mentioned earlier on, the Ottoman empire spreaded across the world. Obviously there is a break in the Islamic Ummah (community) nowadays. Back in the golden age, when Islamic empire was the pioneer of scientific advancement (instead of being accused of being backwards and medieval now) and Baghdad was a center of elite learning(instead of being the center of terrorism now), the Islamic community was very strong. However, looking at the Muslims now - Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan in ruins because of the remaining ideologies left from the Americans trying to fight off the Soviets (resulting in the Taliban), Kurds being gassed by Saddam Hussein during the gulf war, Shiites being bombed by Sunnis and vice versa in parts of Iraq and Iran - it just seems like the golden ages are far behind us. When you can have Egypt giving Israel almost free gas, whereas Palestinians in Gaza are suffering from lack of food. When Dubai is the playground of the riches of the west - when they can have free champaign bars in a country where citizens don’t drink - I see something seriously wrong. Terry was sponsoring a child in China who was a Muslim through World Vision which is a Christian organisation, but there was no mention of the Uigher crisis on Muslim Aid’s website, I feel a little disheartened. The 3rd pillar in Islam: Zakat - charity. Yet, the muslim community are all concentrating their energy in finding justice against Israel and fighting the American ideals but fail to help a dying brothers and sisters, I really don’t know what to say. There is a disease within the Muslim community. I leave you now with a news article from Al-Jazeera on this crisis. http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/07/20097725217198672.html

By the way, if you have time, please have a watch of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urd5Rf8QIOY&feature=channel. You will understand why I prefer Al-Jazeera to BBC and CNN.
February 11, 2009
20:10
Islam in China
» ‎ Wanderer

It all started by me reading up wiki for my Secondary school in Hong Kong. Apparently they now added an extra house (the house system where you belong to a house for competitions like swimming gala etc) and used the alphabet ‘Z’. Each of our houses back in Shatin College was named after an explorer, so this Z was named after Zhang He, one of the famous Chinese explorers in the past. So I read up on Zhang He and found that he was a Muslim.

That was when I got hooked reading up more on Islam in China on wiki+more. As most of you know there are 54 minority groups in China. One of the majority as Livia pointed out many months ago was ‘Hui’. The hui in modern China refered to the Chinese (who have the same culture as Han people) who lived in Mainland China and practiced Islam. In fact, one of the 5 stars on the Chinese flags is dedicated to the Hui people, which means its dedicated to the Muslims in China. I find that very cool.In fact, Prophet Muhammed (SAW) sent his companions all the way to China to preach Islam back in 7th Century, and 2 of them are buried in Lingshan. After 18 years after the prophet’s death, the 3rd Calliph sent another delegation headed by the prophet’s uncle - and this is according to BBC - to China, that was when they built the great mosque of Canton. I don’t know where I was, its been so close to home and I never knew this! To this day, the mosque still stands after 14 centuries. When I go back next time I think will make a semi-pilgrimage up there. I would also like to see the great mosque of Xian. Perhaps one day I will go back packing in China to find out the Islamic history in China.

Its all very facinating to me. I spent the whole day today on and off reading articles on Islam in China.This leads me to the criticism of how ‘behind’ Hong Kong is in its religious tolerance. Thinking about the fact that many locals actually refused to let Muslims build a mosque in Sheung Shui after the government actually approved the land is a living example of the backwardness in religious tolerance in the Asia’s world city. Perhaps this is a reminder to myself to up-hold the values of ancesters before me - that perhaps my ancesters are not fully from China, but that there was an umah (community) in China long before today, and for centuries we have always managed to live harmoniously (until the Qing Dynasty that is) with other religions. Being a semi-Chinese - at least a person born and bred in China - it is something worthwhile taking away with me today: Religious tolerance and religious pluralism.
February 10, 2009
19:39
The Shah
» ‎ Wanderer

Its strange to see my surname being broadcasted around BBC as the world marks the 30th anniversary of the Iranian or Islamic Revolution and the overthrowing of the Shah’s. I had always known that my surname related to some royalty somewhere in the Islamic world, whether it was the empire being overthrown by the mullahs of Iran or the emperor who built the Taj Mahal for his beloved wife. Shah had always carried with it a great significance in the history of the world.

However, as the world marks the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, I went out to read about it as a way to find out more about the world we live in. I watch Persepolis on the plane on one of my journey somewhere, and for the first time I was aware of the power the name “Shah” had.

The idea of overthrowing of the Shah and creation of an Islamic state, in my opinion, is a good idea - idea in an ideological sense. That a state where religious law governs people’s life, whether in a personal or a political sense: That the corruption of western and secular ideas is to be fought. In a way this makes me realise the challenge of modernity which Muslims face today around the world. The fact that people do not realise we are not fighting people but an ideology: Something which cannot be achieved throught military and political means. We can only achieve through education and judging people on a personal level.

I think terrorism has become a cancer within Islam. No one really likes it or condone it, but its there. The result? It hurts everyone who carries the name Islam in their life. Non-Muslims are worried they’ll get blown up, Muslims are worried that they’ll be misinterpreted by non-Muslims as Terrorists and we forget that we are all just human beings. Another thing is the anti-semetic rhetorics I noticed. The rise of Israel, the defeat in 1948, everything makes Muslims point their fingers to the Jews, but yet they probably don’t know anything about Judaism.

This is a fact: People are like sheeps. We are influenced by so many ideas out there that we no longer understand what it is in life we are living for, what it is we are dying for.

According to Wikipedia these are the factors which contributed to the fall of the Shah:

The unpopularity of the Shah’s regime: the perception that the Shah was beholden to - if not a puppet of - a non-Muslim Western power, (the United States), whose culture was contaminating that of Iran’s; that the Shah’s regime was oppressive, brutal, corrupt, and extravagant.

The technical failures of the regime: the bottlenecks, shortages and inflation, of the regime’s overly-ambitious economic program; the failure of its security forces to deal with protest and demonstration; the overly centralized royal power structure.

The growth of the Islamic revival that opposed Westernization and saw Ayatollah Khomeini as following in the footsteps of the beloved Shi’a Imam Husayn ibn Ali, and the Shah as a modern day version of Husayn’s foe, the hated tyrant Yazid I;
The underestimation of the Islamist movement of Ayatollah Khomeini by the Shah - who thought they were a minor threat - and by the anti-Shah secularists - who thought Khomeninists could be sidelined.

The Golden Age of the Islamic Empire had long been gone, the sun had finally set on the British Empire with the handover of Hong Kong. Perhaps this is the empire of Economy, with the monarchy of money - perhaps this analogy is stretching it, but if you think about the thousand of years of struggle within Europe can put their difference aside to join the EU - learning from the Shah’s, I wonder if we are replacing the evil of today (the investment banks) with something more evil…
October 04, 2008
2:33
Hope
» ‎ Wanderer

Never have I had a time since 9/11 have I felt so much hope. Hope that tomorrow will be a better day, for me, for my friends and family and for our next generation. The reason why I feel so much hope is that the American people will finally put a sensible person in the white house.

It is with some positivity I say this, and perhaps its contributed by a lot of surrounding factors in my life like finding a job (which is a rare thing you hear nowadays). However, if you were there listening to Joe Biden yesterday, you can really feel the sense that change is coming, and that leaders are finally talking sense. Yes, politicians are politicians at the end of the day. Their scripts were probably written and rehearsed a thousand times before entering the debate. Palin didn’t hide the fact that she remembered what she had to say without knowing what was coming out of her mouth. I mean, what was McCain thinking when he picked Palin?! - but lets come to that later. For a country which has not much history and so much power, it is very easy to see the immaturity and lack of experience shining out even from a 72 year old man who had been through so much.

I am biased - I have to be. I favour education and theoretical sociology more than life experience - and this is a clear fight between the book-smart and street-smart on the campaign trail. On one hand you have Obama who has gone up the education ladder like most of us, graduated from Harvard law school. Then you have McCain, the Maverick who fought in Vietnam (which was really the predecessor of the Iraq war - not the Gulf War - the Iraq War - which even till today I fail to see the moral justification for) who seems to me want to cling onto the “Its so great to fight for our nation, and we must fight fight fight and fight - and we must win.” I really want to grab McCain by the collar sometimes and tell him - Its ok to loose sometimes, and being able to crawl back up is where real victory lies. Going back to my point of favouring theoretical sociology, I mean it is important that a leader knows something about ideology. “Terrorism” as we know it today had been coined by George W. Bush. In effect, it can be seen as a new ideology - another page in our human history. Just like Maoism or Marxism - the fight against terrorism is another force which seems to be dominating the minds of millions, and we can see that we are all social lab rats running in a direction which is bound for the bridge to nowhere. It is important to understand with a clear mind, what has brought us here to this point in history, and how to proceed from here. We can follow this path to self destruction (military intervention aiming to alienate people) or we can follow a path to bridge people together, so to sit down and talk it out. Diplomacy is definitely a key to a better world. See…Iraq and Afghanistan is the ultimate example of the distortion in the meaning behind “an eye or an eye”.

Palin - what is she thinking?? Running the country like a big family in Alaska? See, I have not much taste for The Daily Show or Corbett Report. But I do keep up with the facts (or try to) about American Politics. Little should I care about them, but ultimately, just as we saw on Wall Street, the collapse of a great empire (in which case - today, America is the new British Empire) will ultimately cause instability in the world. We saw what happened to Palestine/Israel, Pakistan/India, Singapore/Malaysia etc. with the fall in British Empire. The ramifications are huge. Yes, as much as I hate American policies (especially Bush policies), I think its important they are in a good shape. Better yet, we have a leader who knows what the world needs and how America can play a role in it. Back to Palin. She obviously doesn’t know anything. I say this because she is really a hockey mom who has a great family and perhaps is a strong woman. Put her next to Hillary and immediately you see what a joke she is. Literally a joke. No foreign policy experience. No real understanding of economic issue (beyond tax cuts). No idea how Washington works (she said it herself in the debate!). Does she even know that Islam exists beyond Islamic Fundamentalism - a phrase which she uses synonymically to terrorism. How oh how oh how can you put that woman as the 2nd most important person in the world??

This is probably one of the most important elections in US history as Biden pointed out, and I hope that the Americans can be smart for once and stand up for themselves and have their reputations live up to the power they acquire. Seriously, may God bless America.
May 11, 2008
4:12
Age of Terror
» ‎ Wanderer

I watched most of all the episodes in this series by the BBC call the Age of Terror. The first episode I watched was actually the 3rd episode about the plot to take down le tour effiel in Paris. Now that I have watched all 4 episodes, my first reaction was that it is a series which is very pro-Jewish and anti-Islam.

Modern history is something of a great likings to me since I began reading a lot of philosophers from the 1800s who tried to pioneer the age of enlightenment back then. The days when science can provide answers for the unanswered questions of humanity, that we truly believe that Science is the epitomes of human intellect, that we can finally rule this life with rationales rather than irrational faith. More than 200 years had past, and today more than ever, we see clashes between faiths on a personal and a society level. In fact, we see that religions found no solutions to the face of politics and contrary to most of its teachings of peace we find that we are living in a evermore inexplicable world where people fight each other to be heard. We are truly living in the age of terror.

My dad had recently made contact with a famous British Muslim who was wrongly put into Guantanamo and released. He wrote a book: Enemy Combatant. His name is Moazzam Begg. There is a big part of me struggling to stay out of this whole worldly politics of right and wrongs, the west versus Islam, terrorists taking lives of innocent people on the tube business. I really am.

Having wrote a long thesis on terrorism and war in 2002 after September 11th, I have come to touch the surface of this long battle between faiths. In my Japanese orals, I had a long conversation with my Japanese teacher about faith and struggles. In response to my speech about the influence of religion, she asked me what I felt about the ongoing wars and fightings which instigated because of religion. I told her I didn’t believe that it was the problem of religion which caused it, but that it was really the struggle for power in the political sphere in which all of these fights happen.

It almost seem like the clock is ticking by the second. You never know what will happen. I always wondered what will happen if the Central line got struck. It runs right beneath my house. I think it has come to a point where people don’t really think for themselves anymore what it is that people are fighting for anymore. Yesterday it was antisemitism, today its anti-Americanism, what will tomorrow be?

Ever since July 7th bombing, there doesn’t seem to be much happening anymore. America and Al-Queda are fighting it out in Iraq. I want to ask 1 thing though, has the world really moved on from 2nd World War? I remembered Richard and I just standing there discussing how fragile the world really is. It hasn’t been long since the Czechs came out from the dark ages of communism, nor has it been since the Berlin Walls got torn down. Its been a merely 60 odd years, and Japan has already started moving away from the pacifist stance and traces of rise in Nationalism could echo through the air. Moscow again showing off its military power to the world last weekend. North Korea is developing nuclear power.

I find it more and more dangerous that we are living in a world where we do not know we are being controlled. It hasn’t been a new phenomenon and it will be a lasting one. Societies are being polarised, politics have been polarised like never before. People are talking about global warming, anti-terrorism, economy, freeing Tibet. Then there are those who believe that they are being oppressed by these ideas and try to build up an-anti-idea to counter it. Look at this whole issue of Tibet, and I believe we can clearly stand back and look at the world for what it is rather than what we make it out to be. There are those people who truly believe that Tibet should become independent, and then there are Chinese. So, BBC and CNN has been doing what it has always been doing…REPORTING A BIASED STORY. It hasn’t been a new phenomenon, and being biased doesn’t mean that its not reporting the truth. When things become close to heart, we become sensitive to it. Ok, Chinese people can go out to Westminster and protest and say that the BBC are being biased towards to Tibetans. The Pro-Tibet groups and individuals can go out pulling torches from the bearers. BUT WHAT IS WRONG WITH THAT??? Why can’t we be tolerant of each other’s views and have a truthful dialogue? We always go out to fight when it touches close to heart, but when it doesn’t concern us, we just go - “Those people are stupid”. That is why millions of people die and we just go on with our daily lives. I don’t know how many of us reading this blog really think about the mere scale of the catastrophe in Myanmar and put a human touch to it, i.e. think about the child who lost his parents?

There is no point blaming people for our misfortunes. Just like I don’t see any justification for the Chinese to boycott the French because a pro-Tibet individual tried to make a point by stealing the flame from a disabled Chinese bearer (would be such a different case if she wasn’t Chinese!) There is no moral justification for feeling oppressed when we ourselves are oppressing others, whether its the maid in your house or your subordinates.

I just wanna scream because of the on-going brainwashing we have gone through and there are so many of us who just don’t stop and think! For Goodness Sake!

See, the way I look at it is, what is happening to this world is a repercussion of all the wrongdoings of mankind. Yes, we may look at the way in which this series are filmed are pro-jewish and anti-Islam. However, can we say with our true hearts that when these events occur there wasn’t any trace of antisemitism? (One must acknowledge that the meaning of antisemitism has been transformed since the 2nd world war. It has always been around for thousands of years, just whether we acknowledge it.) True, it might not be justifiable that it is the Palestinians who have to take the price for the re-emergence of Israel through the Zionist movement, it should not be the Palestinians who should pay the debt of the Germans who are driving around in their Mercedes. But hey? Who can we blame? Allah? - For it was Him who granted the land to Abraham, but on which bloodline do we follow? Issac or Ishmael?

Just how…How can we justify what terrorism has transformed itself into? - Its no longer a political struggle but a fireworks display of human tragedy. How can we justify someone walking down the street one day and be blown into pieces or loose their sight forever. I cannot find it in my heart to justify that. I cannot find it in my heart to condone a cause for mass killings. Its enough. When will Iraq end? When will peace prevail? When will there be any happy news?
October 16, 2007
2:36
Hong Kong: Is democracy the way forward?
» ‎ Wanderer

Why this topic all of a sudden? Well, it was quite a sudden decision for me today to attend a special guest lecture in London School of Economics. The topic was “Democracy and Constitutional Development of Hong Kong” and was delivered by probably one of the most famous Barristers in Hong Kong: Martin Lee(李柱銘) and [...]
October 05, 2007
11:37
Burma: Humanitarian tregedy?
» ‎ Wanderer

Ok, I have been quite reluctant to blog about this for a long while now. Anyway, a couple of days ago, when I was walking with Sun back from the Science Museum, we picked up a free newspaper. On the 2nd page, there was a 1/2 page image showing a body of a monk thrown [...]

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17 items tagged "politics"

Another year…

The marriage of convenience

Revolution

Identity and Indoctrination

Am I European?

On Injustice and Environment

Political musing

When a word’s meaning is lost in its usage…

Joke of the day

War of God

The Xinjiang crisis

Islam in China

The Shah

Hope

Age of Terror

Hong Kong: Is democracy the way forward?

Burma: Humanitarian tregedy?