As part of my assignment for my MA (Phil), I asked the question why do we search for the meaning of life; and proposed the following conclusions, that in regards to life,
1) it is a fundamental existential reality in the sense that we all experience life before we have other experiences
2) it is the context of existential reality [...]
As some of you may know, JR and I bought a house at Taman Bukit this year. After a long and painful process of negotiation and loan application, beginning October 2009, we finally received our keys somewhere at the end of March this year.
Although we toyed with the idea of getting a property of our [...]
“Mandate” is a powerful word, but it is also a popular word today. My best friend Joshua, who is reading theology at Trinity Theological College told me once that a mega-church in Singapore is “hot on cultural mandate”. And one of its pastors, when asked what did the church mean when talking about “cultural mandate”, [...]
I was invited to be an international observer during the 2010 Philippines Election; it was really a learning experience. I was in the Philippines, Manila, Quezon City, Negros Occidental from 6-15 May.
There were mixed feelings of excitement and fear; excitement because although I was involved, directly and indirectly with 10 elections/by-elections in Malaysia, this was [...]
In my philosophy class in USM, my teacher has been expounding the concept of universals, in particular Plato’s theory of Ideas.
The problem with the presentation is the usage of the word “ideas”; while we have come to understand an idea as a thought in the mind, Plato meant for it to be something outside the [...]
This article was originally published here: Malaysiakini
What is the most resilient parasite? A bacteria? A virus? An intestinal worm? An idea. Resilient, highly contagious. Once an idea has taken hold of the brain it’s almost impossible to eradicate. An idea that is fully formed, fully understood. That sticks, right in there somewhere. [Points to his [...]
After experiencing the notorious Jakarta traffic congestion! After breakfast, I was in for a two hours’ waiting at the airport, then two hours’ flight to Soekarno-Hatta International Airport. I reached Jakarta about 3pm Malaysia time and from the airport, it took me slightly more than four hours to arrive at my hotel at Kemang. The [...]
In my MA thesis, I proposed that the question about meaning of life is actually one about the coherence of the story we tell about life. Recall I wrote once, that,
“Naturally however, human beings are drawn to experience coherence and unity. For e.g. we see shapes rather than mere dots and lines, our brain with [...]
I had a short discussion over lunch with a friend of JR about spiritualism vs. religion.
It all began with him saying he is a vegan due to spiritual and health concerns when I asked him whether he is a vegan because of health or religion?
My accidental lunch mate went on to say that there is [...]
I just finished reading a very lengthy article from the Atlantic Magazine titled The End of Men.
The apocalyptic title does not do justice to the chill one felt at the end of the article.
I for one felt dreadful, not because women are being empowered but because the quest for gender equality should not end up at [...]
I know I have been missing from this blogging business. My blog was down, again, for a while and the discontinuity took a toll on my writing here. I am actually looking for a new server to host this site. Any good service to recommend, one with a reasonable price?
The reason I am writing this is [...]
My friend ET, who is a real top notch pastry chef, offered to teach me how to make cupcakes today afternoon. I was trying to decide between two conference papers I had to write of which the abstract is due this weekends and spending the afternoon learning from a master (trust me on this one!).
It [...]
JR has been quite fascinated with Oscar Wilde ever since she watched Dorian Gray. Not only did she write two blog posts about the movie (here and here), but she is now able to give a Wilde-quote for any situation we are in.
The movie was based on Wilde’s only published novel The Picture of Dorian [...]
After about 3 weeks, the first phase of no.12 is finally completed. To recap, JR and I have a to-do list which I published some time back:
1. enlarging the living room2. re-tiling certain portion of the house3. building a new fence and gate4. fixing a new automated gate and a new glass door5. putting up [...]
I am a true-blood Penang "kia" (son of Penang) who love everything about my beautiful home-state, well, almost everything. :)
Formerly I served as the Special Assistant to the Penang State Executive Councillor (State-level ministerial post) in charge of Youth and Sports. I am now pursuing an MA in Philosophy at a local university.
I am also the Executive Secretary of the Network of Social Democracy in Asia (www.socdem.asia) and sit on the committee of the State-sponsored Good Governance and Gender Equality Society (3Gs). Since 2007, I also served in various capacities in the office of the Hon' Madam Chong Eng, a leading Malaysian woman Parliamentarian.
Politically, I had the privilege to help manage four successful political campaigns since 2007 and was involved in planning, campaigning and monitoring of eight state and federal level elections in Malaysia.
I am engaged with the love of my life, Jorin. Both of us worship at the Bukit Mertajam Gospel Centre.
