14 April 2022

 

I am on the cusp of a five night, four day long weekend.  Most Anglo societies have a minimum number of public holidays in a calendar year. So with the full moon on Easter Sunday, this is a special time indeed.

The seeming endless barage of rainy weather has taken a hiatus as well.  The parade of congested traffic heading down the NSW South Coast has reemerged after two years.

The further removal of restrictions on air travel has seen Melbourne and Sydney Airports swamped with long queues for most of the past week.  Still, travel is tinged with uncertainty, Covid testing, compulsory insurance and ever changing details of rules.

The economy is springing back as pent up demand and spending has manifested itself.  Yet the mostly unspoken monster at the party is still swirling around in the community, dismissed by the promise of more booster vaccinations, veiled by self testing results and
downplayed by the authorities.

This year, the arrival of Catholic and Protestant Easter has not been accompanied by more nippy evenings, with daytime temperatures still clinging to that of summer days.  Orthodox Easter in 2022 falls on the weekend before ANZAC Day in New Zealand and Australia.  April has festivals of the Hindu New Year, Thai Songkran, the Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day, the end of Cherry Blossom viewing in Japan, the Jewish Passover and the Muslim Ramadan.

So the Earth keeps on spinning. Supply chains are under stress, globalisation has faced challenges from the latest pandemic and inflation has spiked.

Polarisation in politics has increased.   Information, hype, data and truth are getting murky.  Transparency has dipped, but corruption, division and manipulation have increased.  Are there more aggressive governments?   Are human societies thriving on what separates them instead of cherishing common and shared values?

Yet the story and saga of human beings continue.  Do we see an awakening of the individual mindset grow, instead of blindly following commandments?  Do we see grassroots community and individuals organising themselves, when those who govern us take more care of their selfish interests?  Do we sense a rising level of resilience in ourselves?

#yongkevthoughts

Verifying Your Existence

 

The question of verification has grown to be larger than life.

It used to be a preoccupation that documents submitted in an application had to be examined and witnessed by an authorised third party as true and authentic.

All officially sounding and in actual physical process.

The temptation of human forgers then jumped on to digital and electronic communication and representation.

Authenticity is no longer confined as significant to just art pieces, printed psssports and land title deeds.

We now question the
validity of identities purporting to be our financiers, government reps, medical consultants, bosses, employees, fans, suppliers - and even ourselves.

That may be because we are dealing more in faceless transactions interacting with low cost maintained robots, software and AI.

The screen is what we touch, talk and manage in not just entertainment, but also for other essential activities in the course of contemporary life.

Hackers intercept the vulnerable points in such processes.  They can create false websites, stir fear on their targeted victims and mislead customers to part with what they really want, be it useful personal details or false consent.

Even videos and photos of events on social media can be put on to our minds and faces out of context, unverified and hijacked for less savoury known and unknown agendas.

Our own images can be transformed to Avatars, replicas of our own beings or artificial reconstructs of our likeness, but existing only in different worlds.

When more things need to be verified, as uncertainty can strike when we least expect it, a climate of reluctance can arise.

Commerce can also give us no choice as they promote more self service, online purchasing and reduction of human contact in sales, delivery and payment.

When websites, apps and  media content get hacked, our personal data fall into the hands of dark forces for future use.

When we deal face on in person, we can gauge and interact in better confidence about the viability and reality of a transaction.  Most of us are just not equipped to verify things subject to hidden manipulation through technological hype and ability.

#yongkevthoughts

Continuing Change

 

Artificial software increasingly replaces human interface.

Real human experiences are sidelined by virtual ones.

The enjoyment of writing is downgraded by clicks and quick phrased audio instructions.

Creativity is reduced in the art and science of photography.

Truth and facts are suppressed by manipulation.

Durability is replaced by instant gratification.

Organic and natural benefits are deemphasised by chemical induced produce and products.

Greed overtakes civility and ethics.

Short term priorities overlooks the multiplier impact on the future.

Volume in turnover rewards business more than loyalty to customers and recognition to staff.

Getting away with exploitation continues.

The need for consumer goods and electronic devices are caught up in commercial churn.

So called denocracy has been hijacked behind doors and in our face.

Repairs of manufactured things are more costly than buying a new one.

The credibility of marketing and advertising fizzles out when we use more of our intelligence to respond to them.

The masses are continuing to be fed an addiction that I do not even realise in my self.

Customer focus is downgraded by emphasis on window dressing performance outcomes and need to have ever more sales.

We must not be distracted by temporal matters, but value what is eternal and more reliable.

Perhaps what is consistent is change, but below the hype of change, is our ability to recognise what continues to not change.

#yongkevthoughts

Behind Racist Impressions

 My experience living in Australia for more than 30 years does not synchronise with the news reports in America of Asians or Asian looking people suffering violence with racial suggestions as victims of robbery attacks.

Racism can be a two edged sword.  It may not just be articulated by individuals or groups representing so called mainstream society on minorities - but can also occur the other way.  Racism can be subtle or covert, especially when the law or public policy is to ban it, or overt, as in societies like Malaysia, Sri Lanka, South Africa, India, Fiji and Myanmar.    Is it better to be able to read racism openly or do we have to put up with it in various shades like career progress ceilings, restricted admissions to prime universities, unspoken loops or barriers and moves behind your back?  I would rather be physically attacked than be discriminated in subtle and gradual ways.   Talking of individuals who commit violence on the streets of New York, Sydney, London or Perth, there may be unknown factors behind the video clips of such attacks.   Is it economic, with no racial intentions at all, or is it an unstable mental health manifestation?   Can one be in the wrong place at the wrong time in crime hidden areas?  African-Americans and Asian-Americans can come together being discriminated by whites, but Blacks are seen to attack Asians and Asians are heard to look down on Blacks.  Maybe we cannot interpret everything through an ethnic identification lens.

As the population of minority groups come to dominate the flavour and flow of certain suburbs in Western nations, the phenomenon of a perceived safety in numbers seems to manifest itself.  Increasing numbers of suburbs across Greater Sydney are populated more and more by people who are not Caucasian in background.   The so called white Aussie, on visiting such suburbs, can not be blamed to feel possibly left out, as if they have been pushed out of such suburbs by creeping economic, educational and business disparities. 

The demographics in regional Australia can be different.  I reckon one of the root causes of racism anywhere, even in Malaysia, is the unwillingness of so called racists to reach out half way to better understand the so called other side.   Attacks we see by people who seem racist also indicate that  that they often have no social connections with people of another ethnic background.

China nationals have arrived in significant numbers to reside in Australia in the so many years before Covid ravaged 2020.   They entered residency through higher education, the better purchasing power of a rising middle class back in China and have made business and trading more dynamic in Australian capital cities. 

The social habits of China nationals however can be very different from Malaysian migrants who have benefitted from growing up in a multi-racial and more diverse society.   Those who migrate from Malaysia tend to mix better with all racial groups in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane.   China migrants tend to stick together amongst themselves, perhaps due to their increased reluctance to speak English and always proud to articulate primarily in Mandarin (unless they have no choice).   Malaysian migrants like to try a diversity of the wonderful culinary dishes available in contemporary Australia, while most migrants from China I am told, rightly or wrongly, tend to stick to their hot pots, Ma La Tang (spicy hot soups) and niche dishes.   The opportunity of Caucasians to know China migrants better is limited to working with them or marrying one of them.   When more numbers of a specific ethnic community congregate in certain suburbs, they find they can go through a viable life pattern in Australia without  necessarily making social networks with other races.   This reality can also apply to migrants of Korean, Thai, Latin American, Polynesian and Turkish  origin across Australia, often not out of their choice.

On the other hand, Indian migrants tend to be expressive, are comfortable speaking English and have a more gregarious personality.

The chances and risks of getting beaten up by anyone increases when one has no choice but to be out on the streets and lanes when thugs, unstable people and petty criminals tend to hang about.   If I have to do a second job at a fast food joint that closes late at night, I can increase my chances of meeting violence while I transverse a lonely park or busy drug peddler's lane on the way home.   If I have to take public transport, I increase my chances of  coming across a person who already has addiction, alcohol and mental health issues.   Such violent individuals can really beat up anyone in their path - and their social intelligence and experience are so depraved.  Many recent migrants anywhere lead a battler's life making ends meet, especially in these Covid ravaged  .

Timely Reminders

 

The resurgence of conflict, flooding, politicking and other trends in local media coverage in the past 2 weeks has given me a few good reminders.

1.   Train connections can be more important than super road highways, even in the 21st century.

2.    Having a bomb protection shelter in your home or nearby can still be relevant.

3.     Freedom to voice out our personal views can increasingly be snubbed out, despite the apparent gushing flow of "information".

4.      More people we place in positions of public and social responsibility continue to react to rather than prevent problems - and seem to behave as if only pledging or throwing public money after the fact will resolve the problem.

5.     All that water can help nurture the Earth - but like so many things, can be a two edged sword.

6.    Describing things as a one in a ten or hundred year event is losing its credibility.

7.   Sharpening my observation ability works - I switch off obvious and overwhelming propaganda,
I notice prices paid can remain the same but the package is smaller and it really does matter more on what authorities do not tell us (not so much what they continue to endlessly harp about).

8.     Human societies continue to be preoccupied more on what divides than unites them.

9.     There can only be a limited time when we no longer can take being fooled about.

10.     The rain shall pass.  The hype will become tiring.  Always think and act in a manner that there is another way.

#yongkevthoughts