Gaza Protest at University of Warwick

UPDATED: 30 Jan 2009

Had wanted to blog about this earlier but somehow didn't know what to write.

Students here at the University of Warwick have taken over a lecture room (S0.21)in the Social Studies buildings in support of the victims of the conflict in Gaza. They are still there.

Their demands include:

1. Warwick University should suspend all relations with companies which supply the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This includes BAE Systems, MBDA, GE Aviation, QinetiQ and Rolls Royce.
2. That the University donate old computer equipment and textbooks to universities in Palestine, specifically those that were partially destroyed in Gaza during the current Israeli military operation.
3. That the University fund and provide logistical support for a series of talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The University authorities has since moved classes scheduled in the room to other alternative rooms.

Check out The Warwick Solidarity Sit-In site for more info.

There were several other protests here in the campus.

A few days back people going to the Library were shocked to see five student protesters covered in white burial shrouds and lying on the ground with red paint covering them. University security moved in and stopped the "theatrical protest" after someone complained. The five second year Theatre students viewed the event as a performance protest.

Israel has collectively punished the Palestinians in Gaza for the actions of the Hamas and left a Humanitarian crisis.

While I am happy that the bombings have stopped but wonder how long the shaky ceasefire in Gaza will last. The recent outbreak of violence is not the first and has been going on for more than 60 years now. Hamas is still there. Israel still hasn't lifted economic blockade.

It's easy for me to sit here in my comfortable chair writing this but I wonder how the people are faring there in concentration camp Gaza.

AIG and Turmoil in the Financial market

Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers yesterday, I was wondering whether the US Govt. would allow the same thing to happen to AIG, the country's biggest insurance company. Well today morning I learnt they didn't. I guess they couldn't.

When I learnt that US Federal Reserve was bailing out AIG with a $85bn (£48bn) rescue package this was something big. According to this 2 year deal, the US government will receive a 79.9% equity interest in AIG. A case of nationalisation of a financial body in Capitalist America.

I recall that during the Asian crisis, the US Government was against Government intervention and to let "market forces" rule. They were particularly angry when the then Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad defied the International Monetary Fund and put in controversial capital controls. I have often heard Western economists talking against Government intervention in the markets, of denationalisation of businesses as the only route to economic development. I agree to some extent but as this case shows, sometimes Governments have to intervene against market forces to protect the interest of the people. As the Board of the Federal Reserve mentions about the need to protect "the interests of the US government and taxpayers". It's quite interesting that they don't see it that way if similar events happen in other countries.

Looks like it is going to be a time of turmoil for the financial market as several companies go under or are bought over. JPMorganChase acquired Bear Stearns recently and Bank of America has announced that it would buy Merrill Lynch & Co.

Michael Moore to release new documentary on the web

Michael Moore, director of the controversial documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11", is set to release his latest film, "Slacker Uprising" on the web for free. It will be released on the 23rd of September.

This documentary is about Michael going round the country trying to convince young non-voters to vote. According to the Reuters' report, Moore was quoted as saying

"The only return any of us are hoping for is the largest turnout of young voters ever at the polls in November."

Sign up at Slackeruprising.comto download the movie for free when it is released.

This is his way of saying thanks to his fans.

Malaysian election results - my comments

Quite a number of people have asked me why I haven't blogged about the recently concluded general elections in Malaysia. This may not be entirely true as I did blog about Jeff Ooi getting elected. Even though I blog about issues I am not happy with from time to time, I prefer to keep politics out of my blog.

That is also the reason I am among the few Malaysian bloggers who you will not see jumping around with joy with the recent results. As I mentioned before, I am really interested to see how it will all work out.

Will the DAP and PAS, two parties with almost totally opposite agendas, get along within the opposition coalition?

How will UMNO and other BN component parties respond to this?

What role is Anwar Ibrahim going to play in this whole drama?

I would definitely like to see the opposition parties fulfilling the promises they made - namely that of eliminating corruption, nepotism and cronysm in the states they control. They have to. Everyone is looking up to them now.

However, I am not sure they can actually do anything about the inflation and rising prices of goods, one of the reasons why a number of people voted for the opposition. This is a Worldwide phenomenon and people here in the UK are complaining about it as well. The already high fuel prices are set to increase even further.

So, I am adopting the "wait and see" policy.

Peace Tag

I got tagged again, this time by Baizurah of Prozak Nation. Didn't really know what to write.

Rules:

1. If you get tagged or not (and want to play along), take some minutes to meditate about love and peace, pray for countries that are facing troubles, for those people you love and those you don’t.
2. Write a post with links to blogs that you think would like to participate
3. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme

Looking at the times we live in - with the fear of terrorism everywhere we go, wars in various corners of the Earth, hatred and mistrust, it is very easy to be pessimistic about the future our kids will inherit.

But we must not give up hope. Let's pray for peace and love on the Earth - not only for ourselves, or for our kids but for everyone. I hope for a future where people won't have to keep guns in their houses to protect themselves, where people won't have to blow themselves up for any issue, an end to never ending "an eye for an eye" cycle of violence and differences of language, skin colour, religion and region won't matter.

I tag anyone who's interested to further spread this message.

Overpriced rentals in Coventry

Last Saturday, I went to pick up my wife from her friend's house in Nottingham. They live in a 4 bedroom terrace house. It even has a basement. I was so shocked when I learnt that they paid the same monthly rental like us - only£400/ pcm. It's a great location - just opposite a play ground and walking distance from a school and shops.

For the same amount, our friends Mozard and Nana's were able to rent a much bigger house in Birmingham.

Our house is a 3 bedroom house, but now after we have converted one of the small rooms into a walk-in closet and another into a study/ guest room, so in the end, we technically only have one bedroom we use. Yes! The kids sleep with us. I guess the only plus point of our house is the huge backyard at the back - the biggest among all our friends.

Our backyard last Winter.

Of course house rentals depends on the furnishings, presence of garden, parking facilities and of course the location. The thing is that here in Coventry, our house rent is considered cheap. The average for a 3 bedroom fully furnished house is £500 upwards depending on location. All our colleagues tell us that we got ours cheap. However, I should point out that most of them live either in Leamington Spa where rental for a single room is around £300.

I simply can't understand why house rentals are so high here in Coventry. Logically, it should be lower than in Birmingham, which is the 2nd largest city in the UK. Nottingham, even though Coventry has a slightly higher population, is far more prosperous. Probably the population has something to do with it. Going back to basic economics principle of demand and supply and their relation to price.

Of course there are exceptions and some guys did get lucky, like one of our friends who was able to get a 3 bedroom, newly renovated fully furnished house in Foleshill for only £380/ pcm.

Anyone here from Coventry who thinks that house rentals are overpriced?

Pregnant schoolgirls

I was quite shocked to read a report in the newspapers today which stated that one in 50 schoolgirls (aged between 13 and 15) in some parts of England and Wales, fall pregnant.

According to critics, this indicates that instead of helping, "more sex education and freely available contraception was backfiring".

I don't think that it's that simple. There are a number of possible other reasons I can think of including the breakdown of the family system, binge drinking, peer pressure, etc.

Guess this is something that the authorities in Malaysia and other countries should think about before they implement "enhanced" sex education and distribution of contraceptives to school children.

Read the Metro report: Schools where 1 in 50 girls fall pregnant

Are foreigners taking away British jobs?

The Labour government is beginning to sound more and more like the Conservatives.

Previously they claimed that 54% of the total 2.1 million jobs created in the last 10 years since 1997, had gone to foreigners. However, there was a lot of commotion when the Statistics Commission revealed that results of a study that showed that in fact, the proportion of new jobs going to foreigners was as high as 81% out of a lower estimated total jobs created (1.7 million).

Now they are thinking of putting up a number of restrictions on immigrants entering the UK including limiting the number of months you can stay on in the UK on a tourist visa from 6 to 3 months. They are also planning to charge a flat levy on "non-domiciled'' residents.

The trouble is that when you say "foreigners", most locals automatically assume this to mean Africans and Asians.

I am not implying that the results of the study is wrong but I won't be surprised if majority of the "foreigners" were actually from EU countries and the East European countries in particular. A solution would be withdrawing from the EU and that is one possibility that is definitely not going to happen.

Another thing that is not clarified are the nature of the jobs created. One of my friends mentioned that the jobs that were taken over by foreigners were probably the menial and hard labour jobs like cleaners and jobs at odd hours, that locals are hesitant to take up. For professional positions, I know that for a foreigner to get a job here in the UK you would either have to be extremely highly qualified or work in a foreign owned company including the MNCs, which usually have a fair employment policy based on merit.

Of course the locals are concerned with the news and this in turn may have led to a negative perception towards foreigners.

One of our friends who's doing a PhD in Birmingham was recalling an incident where a colleague joked about "foreigners like you are taking my jobs".

"It's the opposite. I am actually subsidising your studies here", my friend retorted, which is kind of true in a way as British and EU students pay only about one third of what we foreign students pay for our studies.

Talking about employment, it not all that bad here in the UK as compared to some other countries around the World. In fact the total unemployment has fallen to 1.64 million, the lowest since 1975 (32 years).

Malaysian universities out of the World top 200 list

The Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) - Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings are really taken seriously by a lot of people. Thus the dropping of Malaysian Universities from the top 200 Universities list for the first time since it was first published in 2004, is indeed a big issue, especially among the Malaysian academic community.

The results are based on scores on 6 variables, namely, peer review (40%), employer review (10%), staff- student ratio (5%), citations per staff (20%), international staff (5%) and international students (5%).

Though I am not sure about the other variables, I am totally sure of two where Malaysian Universities will always have low scores: international staff and international student ratios. I guess it is related to the education policy there. Unlike universities in the US, UK or even Australia, majority of the Malaysian Universities are not profit orientated. They do not target foreign students for the undergraduate programmes. Most of the foreign students there are not in the Universities but rather in the various private colleges (many of them now with a unique Malaysian terminology - College Universities) scattered across the Klang Valley of Malaysia.

As for foreign academics, Malaysia is not exactly an attractive destination due to uncompetitive salaries and tough immigration laws. I know of some highly qualified academicians who had worked for more than 10 years in the country but were not given the permanent resident status, don't even talk about citizenship. Totally opposite of policies in the developed countries including Singapore.

Of course the most important factors are peer review followed by citations per staff. The universities definitely need to look at what's keeping the Malaysian academicians from publishing in top rated journals. However, I have no idea how they calculated the peer review thing, so I can't comment.

The report does mention a possible reason behind the fall:

But we suspect that some Malaysian and Singaporean institutions have lost out because of our increased rigour over voting for one’s own university, and there are no Malaysian universities in this top 200.

According to Ben Sowter, QS head of research, “nowhere has keener interest been taken than in Malaysia”.

"National shame" cries the opposition. It has become a political issue and I am sure that some heads will roll.

Read The Star's report: Whither rankings?

Is the institution of marriage dead?

According to a recent statistics published by the Office of National Statistics, here in the UK, more and more couples are living together without getting married - the number increasing by almost two thirds between 1996 and 2006. At the same time, number of married couple families has dropped.

This may be bad news for the entire society as not being married means that the chances of breaking up are higher. The ones suffering most of the time would be the kids that are the result of such relationships.

Read the full report "Cohabiting is fastest growing family type."

Rock stars likely to die young

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Epidemial Community Health, Rock stars in the US and the UK are two to three times more likely to die young than the rest of the population. The reason - drug and alcohol abuse.

This comprehensive study was carried out by the Researchers at the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University who analysed the survival statistics of 1,064 pop and rock stars who became famous between 1956 (Elvis Presley) and 1999 (Eminem) (Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com).

It comes as no surprise considering the fact that there will be at least one or two accidents in the news every month, involving a celebrity who was under the influence of drugs or alcohol. However, those who do go into rehab are those who realise that they have a problem and need to do something about it. I wonder how many are there who are addicted but simply refuse to accept the fact.

Neo-Nazis arrested in Israel

Gang member giving the Nazi salute (ynetnews.com)

In what has got to be one of the most amazing stories to come out of Israel is one about an Israeli neo-Nazi gang that had carried out attacks on religious Jews, gays and drug addicts.

These youths had "Nazi tattoos and allegedly celebrated Adolf Hitler’s birthday". Quite unbelievable considering that they would have been killed if Hitler was alive. They belonged to immigrants from Russia who had been allowed to become Israeli citizens under its law of return.

Read the full story in the Time site: Arrest of Israeli neo-Nazi gang shocks Jewish State and on the Associated press site: Police: Israeli Neo-Nazi Ring Busted and on ynetnews.com: Olmert on neo-Nazi gang: We failed as society

Dutch MP calls for Quran ban

Geert Wilders, an MP in the Dutch Parliament has called for the Qur'an, the holy book of the Muslims, to be banned in the Netherlands.

It's unbelievable how he describes it as a Fascist book, comparing it to Mein Kampf, Hitler's autobiography. It is obvious that he hasn't read the book or he's been reading some anti-Muslim literature without doing any further research. He's the one that ends up sounding like a fascist here. It's not surprising because I have found out that a lot of Europeans do not understand Islam. And as they say, "what you don't understand, you are scared of".

The situation is also not helped by some extremist Muslims who use violence in the name of Islam. I wish everyone would read all the religious books including Qur'an, Bible, Vedas, etc. and they will realise that all of them promotes love, peace and harmony.

My message to Mr. Wilders: Muslims do not worship Muhammad. He is a Prophet. As a leader, you should do some background research first before making any statement.

Read the article on Aljazeera

Some recent important World current affairs

1. Terrorism charges against Indian doctor in Australia dropped.
Terrorism charges against Indian born doctor Mohamed Haneef has been dropped and he was been freed from custody in Australia. The charges were linked to the failed bomb attacks in the UK. He is still under home detention until a decision is made regarding his immigration status.

The Premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie, called the Australian federal police, the "Keystone Cops". BBC report: Haneef terrorism charges dropped

2. India's first Woman President.
Pratibha Patil became the 13th and the first lady President of India on July 25, 2007 by the Chief Justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan. She succeeds Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. She was also previously the first female governor of the state of Rajasthan.
Read the reuters report: Pratibha Patil sworn in as India's first female president.

3. Israel frees 255 Palestinian prisoners
Those released include 11 minors and six women. None of them had been convicted of directly attacking Israelis. The release was definitely a gesture of support to Abbas against rival Hamas. Read The Guardian's report: Israel Hopes Inmate Release Boosts Abbas

However, more than 10,000 Palestinians including children still remain in Israeli prisons. Read 'Israel must release more prisoners, Fatah official says.'

The Arab league might finally recognise Israel. Read the article in Forbes 'Arab League in Jerusalem for 1st Time' and Arab envoys extend 'hand of peace' to Israel.

Are you racist?

Just answer the following 10 questions with a simple "Yes!" or "No!" and we will find out.

Group A.

1. Do you have a friend belonging to a different race/ ethnic group/ skin colour?
2. Have you had a guest belonging to a different race/ ethnic group/ skin colour in your house for a meal/ dinner in the past 6 months?
3. If you were in a position to hire someone, you would choose the candidate based on ability and qualifications rather than race/ ethnic group/ skin colour?
4. Do you feel offended when people make racist jokes about race/ ethnic group/ skin colour?
   

Group B.

1. Have you cracked a joke making fun of people belonging to a different race/ ethnic group/ skin colour in the past 6 months?
2. Do you think that your race/ ethnic group is genetically superior than others?
3. Do you think that your race/ ethnic group is superior to others because you were chosen by God?
4. Do you mind living in a neighbourhood made up of mixed ethnic groups / races?
5. Have you ever discriminated against someone based on their race/ ethnic group/ skin colour in the past 6 months?
6. Are you a member of any organization whose membership is restricted to a particular race/ ethnic group/ skin colour?

In Group A, a "Yes" earns 1 point and a "No" earns you 0 points.
In Group B, a "Yes" earns 0 point and a "No" earns you 1 points.

If you score between 5 and 3, you might be racist even though you don't realise it.
If you score 2 or less, YOU ARE RACIST.

Alan Johnston released

Put on the TV this morning to hear some wonderful news. BBC correspondent Alan Johnston has finally been released after being held in captivity in the Gaza strip for 114 days.

It is ironic but the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas was key in securing his release. 45 years old Johnston was the only remaining Western journalist in the Gaza strip and he was abducted on 12 March by the Army of Islam a militant group there.

Hamas took control in Gaza by force last month and they slowly closed down on the group. There was relief that Alan was released without any military action and he was unharmed.

I am happy that I can finally take down the button on my side bar calling for his release.



Related links:
- Johnston free after 'appalling' ordeal
- Hamas role in Johnston's release

Tags: alan johnston bbc gaza hamas palestinian

Doctors or killers

I was shocked when I learnt today that two of the suspected arrested by police over the latest terror attacks in the UK are doctors.

While Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, worked as a junior doctor at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, another doctor, Dr Bilal Abdulla, worked as a locum at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley.

Wonder what they were thinking when they took the Hippocratic Oath.

Never to do deliberate harm to anyone for anyone else's interest.

Or maybe they took the hypocrite oath.

Gay teletubbies

First it was the popular cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants, which was accused of being "pro-homosexual". Read 'Will Spongebob make you gay?' FYI, I am referring to the contemporary usage of the adjective, "gay" here.

Now, Poland's conservative government is planning to probe if Teletubbies are gay.

Teletubbies, is BBC's popular children's television series and my kids love it.

Ewa Sowinska, the spokesperson for the government appointed children rights was quoted as saying:

I noticed (Tinky Winky) has a lady's purse, but I didn't realize he's a boy.

These people are crazy.

Tags: gay SquareBob SpongePants Teletubbies

The Virginia Tech shootings

I was really shocked when I heard about the Virginia Tech shootings on the radio while driving back from the clinic on Tuesday evening.

Going through various blogs which posted about the tragedy, everybody seems to be asking "what drove the gunmen, Cho Seung-hui do it?"

Of course some are also asking why these shootings at educational institutions are so common in the US? It does not happen in any other country.

A lot of people are pointing their fingers at the lax gun control laws in the US and it's various states.

I am sure a lot of Americans who believe in the right to bear arms will disagree and say that " It's not guns that kill; its people who kill". This blog says that, "Once guns are banned, crime will explode". I totally disagree. You just need to look at the violent crime rate in countries that control guns and ones that don't. Just guess, which ones have lower rates.

The fact is that the US has the most heavily armed people and also the highest gun related deaths in the World. According to a Reuter's report, "there's an estimated 250 million privately owned guns in the United States, which has a population of about 300 million". In fact someone was telling me that a lot of Americans have automatic assault rifles in their homes. If that's for self-defense, that's really crazy.

To me, guns should be restricted to the armed forces, security forces and for certain purposes, namely hunting or for sports.

My sincere condolences to those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

Tags: Cho Seung-hui Guns Gun control Virginia Tech

Natural wonders under threat

Global warming is threatening natural wonders all over the World, according to a recent news release from the World Wide Fund for nature (WWF).

The natural wonders under threat include the Amazon, the Chihuahua Desert in Mexico and the US, wild salmon in the Bering Sea and melting glaciers in the Himalayas among others.

This report was released ahead of the International Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) Second Working Group Report.

Read the article here.