And Where Are You From?

 There are Jews who are so because of their focus on heritage and culture.

There are Israelis who are so mainly because they are Zionists.

I am Malaysian by background, culture and heritage, not by race.

Some in Australia incorrectly reckon I am Malay, just because I come from Malaysia. They mix up nationality with ethnic origin.

The age of colonisation from the 16th to 20th centuries have resulted in many individuals sharing the heritage of the Indigenous and the conquerors.  Think of South and Central America, Australia, India, the Phillippines,

Lebanon, the USA and Canada.

Across south-east Asia, migrants from India and China in the same recent five centuries have also married and set up families with the already diverse ethnic groups residing there.  Today their off spring are popularly referred to as Peranakan Indians and Straits Chinese.  

(Peranakan as one may know is the Malay word for "local born".)

Those who have family trees from both European and Asian sides, originating from the age of the rise of Euro sailing trading powers across Asia,  are popularly known as Eurasians.

There are Portuguese Eurasians ( think of Goa and Malacca), Dutch Eurasians, Anglo-Saxon Eurasians (reflect on Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore) and Spanish Eurasians (the Phillippines).

Their numbers have dwindled in Singapore and Malaysia, perhaps due to emigration.  However many young people across Australia, UK, USA, NZ and Canadia today are the new generation of Eurasians in the 21st century.

In societies that make citizens and residents hold an identity card by law, are Eurasians recognised as an independent ethnic group on their own?  Chindians in Singapore have to choose either Indian or Chinese to state in official papers.

For their own reasons, several political entities insist on identifying and compartmentalising the race and religion of their residents.  Others do not because it suggests discrimination.

So an Australian, British and Canadian need not necessarily be of Caucasian origin.

Residents of homogenous cultural nations can find it hard to accept that an Australian can be African in appearance, a Canadian is Indian and a Peruvian is of Japanese origin.

How much do emigrants settled in a new nation hold strong links back to the mother culture? 

There is strong emphasis by the Japanese on such things.

Indian women proudly adorn their traditional dresses.  Muslims are strongly bound by their religious convention.

Chinese tend to everyday wear contemporary Western styles in their adopted lands, bringing out the cultural wardrobes on festival dates.

Improved economic ability, easier air travel, technologically facilitated contacts and more physical interaction amongst the diverse demographics of the human species have also resulted in more intermixing of DNAs, genes and cultural richness.

The evolving development of an European union is also helped by increased marriages of people from the so many different cultures on the continent.

#yongkevthoughts

Universities Today

 There are 166 universities in the United Kingdom -  currently there are 3 Vice Chancellors in a British university with a South Asian background.

1.  Leceister Uni  - Nishan Canagarajah.

2.  Kings College London - Shitij Kapur.

3.  Canterbury Christ Church University  - Rama Thirunamachandran

The only VC in Britain with an East Asian background is Max Lu of the University of Surrey, who has recently been appointed by the University of Wollongong NSW in Australia as its new VC.

There are 43 universities in Australia.  No one with a South Indian background has been appointed a VC in this Antipodes nation.

No non ethnic Malays have served as VC of any university in Malaysia.

No non ethnic Chinese currently serve as a University VC in Singapore.

There are eight universities in New Zealand with no VCs of Asian origin.
Damon Salesa of Samoan origin is the current VC of the Auckland University of Technology.

In Canada, Mohamed Lachemi serves as VC of the Toronto Metropolitan Univsrsity.
Deep Saini is VC of McGill University and is of Punjabi origin.  There are around 100 universities across Canada.

Across the Australian university sector, there is an obvious under representation of females as Vice-Chancellors.

Are VC roles supposed to reflect the mores and uniqueness of each society?
Or are they increasingly chosen for abilities in corporate management, strategic leadership and financial
prowess, as higher educational instutitions become more of competitive
behemoths obsessed with research rankings, easy student revenues and corporate growth?

Universities do not pay tax and are inherently community entities to start with, originally meant to serve the ideals of education, inspiring thinking, academic growth and embedding benefits from society ideals.   They have now grown to be jaggernauts which can prioritise high level commercialisation over those of teaching, learning and student experience.

Universities are not accountable to shareholders and yet now operate like commercial entities.   The equivalent of a corporate Board can be in University Councils, whose members should be a broad based demographic but increasingly stacked with political aspirations and corporatised vibes.

There are universities burdened and yet enriched with historical traditions.   There are universities which carry the torch of enlightenment and innovativeness in ages of oppression, extremism and backwardness.   Universities are best when they develop the minds and behaviours of progress and reform for the larger society outside their campuses.
Our contemporary age has never seen so many numbers attending university.

Yet universities can be held captive by the overwhelming control of geopolitics.   Donations for such institutions are significantly important, whether in knowledge, finance or human effort.   Universities do not stand alone well by themselves, but are best to serve when they have a collective will and purpose to advance the course of continuing human civilisation.

#yongkevthoughts

The Titanic

 That Titanic sank in the North Atlantic more than 110 years ago in 1914.

Do ponder which contemporary entity, corporate, government, institution or so called leader may or surely flounder for the very same reasons the Titanic sank, after hitting the side of an iceberg.

1.   Touted as Unsinkable.
The over sensationalisation of an idea, product, agenda and promise should ring alarm bells like a canary in a coal mine.
Advertisements that shout,  social media clips that insists what we need to have and promises of remarkable returns on your money need to be treated with more than a grain of salt and reminder to protect our integrity and use our own confident intelligence.


2.    Speeding Irregardless of Risks in order to achieve a subjective important goal.
It has been said the tragic Titanic was on a secret agenda to arrive in New York a day earlier than scheduled, in a surprise move to impress and awe.  This over riding plan, hidden from passengers and crew, was an obsession with the powerful controlling individuals who were willing to do anything and take risks to achieve a rather unshared objective.

Have you encountered situations where any costs are to be expended just to attain one overriding purpose, whether as personally experienced or read in the annals of history?

Suicide missions by brainwashed individuals.   Customers treated as disposable numbers in the push to achieve pushy sales.  Financial claims to be minimised while collected premiums are maximised.    Prices to spike when customers are desperate.  Priorities to maximise share price and earnings at a specific time of reporting to the Board and key shareholders.


3.    Quality had not been maintained or ensured in the weakest spots.
The strength of anything, man made or in Nature, is truly in the weakest joints.
The Titanic had poorer quality iron in the parts that critically held its bottom.
It is not clear if this was due to a rush in its construction or because the funding was running out and corners had to be practicallly cut.

What are the obvious and hidden risks of a used business process?
Is government running on outsourced and expensively paid contracts, rather than on building a long lasting store of key experience and knowledge?
Is society's progress hindered by too much politicking rather than viable investment and steady implementation?
Is personal health hijacked by addictions, over commercialisation and dubious medication?
Are critical assets of a nation owned by foreigners?


4.      Burning fires within the hold was already happening, even if no iceberg was crashed into.
Were there already inherent problems brewing for some time within an entity before its inevitable collapse?
Is the product sold subject to temporary demand trends, a passing fad or on the basis of unsustainable logic?
Is the sentiment for a following dependent on other factors rather than on a solid reasoning or philosophy?
Is the market for a service built on fear, fool's logic or sheer fantasy?


5.    Tilting of the structure was so quick.
The Titanic did not take long to go under the ocean after it scrapped past a giant iceberg.   The cosmetics of the large cruising behemoth thoroughly hid the high dangers of collapse and breakage in an unexpected tragedy, as there was much smoke, glitter and hype on mostly unimportant diversions to paying passengers.

Would a pyramid like business structure hasten its collapse in a tragic economic event?
Is a political party carved out of a lack of relevant leadership long due to fall like a illusionary house of meaningless cards?
Is a construction company depending on too much debt, decreasing cash flows and falling ability to complete promised projects on time?

6.   The threat of the iceberg that broke the Titanic was not clearly seen in a possible mirage to the ship's crew.
A black swan event that breaks the so called camel's back is a risk scenario agreed upon as highly unlikely to happen, but when it eventuates in reality, no one is prepared to salvage from the disaster.
Unexpected cut off from supplies, dependent labour and breakout of trade wars all ravage anyone's capacity and ability to carry out viable operations.
A once in a hundred years of a climate disaster, a loss of a huge market due to unexpected geopolitical quakes and a war that was normally thought to not ever likely to occur.
A serious health issue that makes other problems not significant.


#yongkevthoughts

The Southern Hemisphere

 Living in the Antipodes has its quirks and pecularities.

Most of the action is dominated by the Northern Hemisphere.  South of the Equator seems to imply something less, suggestive of secondary.   We have lesser populations, especially across the Indian and Pacific Oceans.   Even our land masses are perceived to have just mountains and forests like in the Andes and in parts of Africa.  The mystery loved by adventurers hangs around thick and alluring in South America and Africa.   Two of the most risky capes to sail past in the age of colonialism were the Cape of Good Hope and the Tierra de Fuego.

Geopolitics, technology advances,
finance, trade, arnaments and medical fields can be dominated by the big players in the European Union, Russia, China and the United States.  All north of the Equator.  

The critical air links and shipping routes all compete more in the Mediterranean, Red Sea, Malacca Straits, South China Sea, Panama Canal, the Carribean, the Baltic and the North Atlantic.   The vastness and large distances of the South Pacific between Chile and New Zealand already prove to be barriers.   And I dare not reflect the  challenges in the wide ocean between Perth and Durban - I can only think of the secret USA military base at Diego Garcia.

South America in the past 100 years gives me the perception and impression of being a hotbed of revolution, dictatorship and violent change of ruling governments. I must not generalise, for each society and its history do have circumstances and conditions that create their own geopolitical path.

South Africa was strongly condemned by the United Nations as an apartheid state before the arrival of Mandela.   Australia has a whites first policy before it was dismantled by Gough Whitlam. 

The vast waters in the Southern Hemisphere  do provide so much for sea creatures, weather patterns and romanticised cruise travel.   On the negative side, the South Pacific attracted French government nuclear testing - as did the Australian mainland, by British and USA interests.

Time differences are not caused by being in the south or north.  These human measurement systems agreed internationally to bring order to the human world do mean that while London is starting a new day, Sydney is going to bed.  Events in the USA happen a day before New Zealand regarding calendar date.   However, Cape Town is the same time zone as Berlin - and Rio is only an hour ahead of New York.

Air routes tend to be more over oceans, rather than land, when you venture below the Equator.   There are more islands as you cross over the Indonesian Archipelago.  There is more emptiness seemingly as you fly over the oceans.   On the other hand, one can be captivated by the dry deserts over Australia, the lush forests or grasslands of Africa and the high peaks of the Andes.

Institutions of higher education below the Equator are generally ranked below the top universities sited above that geographical line.

The Indigenous of Southern lands and waters have had tumultous historical times since the arrival of the sailing ships from Europe.   Almost the whole non- European world was colonised in rapid succession from the 16th to 20th centuries ( exceptions were Japan, huge parts of inland China, Thailand and Ethopia).  The Australian continental island with around 200 Aboriginal nations was declared "terra nullius" by the first British stepping foot at Sydney Cove.

The Maoris in Aotearoa fought back against the colonists in a most vehement manner.   Natives across southern Africa were challenged by the technical superiority, agricultural transformations and better weaponry of the European arrivals.  The allure of gold, a falling Inca Empire and the resources in South America spurred on the Spanish conquerors.

The lands of the Southern Hemisphere all had gold mining rushes, echoing the richness of its topography which can still provide hidden resources.  European dictated agricultural practices were imposed in Australia to the disregard of native traditions.

People from Europe brought infections and diseases to the Southern Hemisphere in the period of colonisation.  

Flora and fauna come foremost to mind in the Southern Hemisphere. A striking example is the variety as studied by Joseph Banks as he sailed on the Cook voyages.

The ways of best managing the environment  in the Antipodes were challenged by the mindset of the colonisers to bring and implement their previous template and practices to their new world.  Australia, New Zealand and Argentina were strongly viewed to serve aa food growing resources.  Foreign plants and animals were introduced with short sighted reasons

The Koala population is strongly decimated in Nww South Wales.  

Quietness, especially at night, can bring forth a rather special charm when one is in the country areas outside cities and towns across the Southern Hemisphere.  I reckon this can be experienced as well in the depths of the Eurasian continent, the Canadian Tundra and in the forests of Europe.

So far, the horror of war conflict, civillian collateral damage and destructive arnaments has not been as much as in the Northern Hemisphere - bar around the South Pacific in the 1940s, where the USA navy gained stature in Australian eyes.  New Guinea was also a scene of intense physically close fighting between the troops of the Japanese Imperial Army and those of the Allies.  South America was spared much of the horrors of the two World Wars in the 20th century - but then became the refuge of Nazi escapees from war torn Europe.

Clearer skies at night are a delight and privilege in the Southern Hemisphere.
Due to less population and fewer of bright cities, it is easier to see a passing comet or let our eyes better appreciate the millions of sparkling stars of the Universe.
The atmosphere can be more refreshingly felt due to less pollution and more natural winds.

When societal disruption broke out in the Northern Hemisphere, due to war, discrimination and displacements of people, South America, Australia and New Zealand became places of refuge and attraction to start a life all over again.
Such migrants brought their unique cultures, philosophies, culinary and systems to their newly adopted countries.

Australia seems to still be a land where her migrants of various religions and background come from over 200 separate foreign nations.  Her Indigenous are also the world's oldest continuing civilisation.

#yongkevthoughts

Looking at War

 Which countries have always waged war for a long time now since the middle of the 20th century? 

The United States of America has chalked up the most in number of wars participated, starting with the Korean Peninsular War in the early 1950s.  An ironic fact is that such military episodes have never taken place on homesoil in mainland America. 

The USA military and government have mostly dabbled themselves and their arnaments in the Middle East - Libya, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Yemen and Lebanon come to mind.    The cauldron of aggression, conflict, geopolitical tensions and social disorder sparked off by the establishment of the state of Israel have seen fights with her neighbours.  And the USA government is a dominant supporter of Israel.

The Cold War turned out to be varying degrees of heightened tensions, a game of high stakes who will blink first  and almost shaving near close encounters of military outbreaks.   The main protagonists were the Soviet Union and the USA, with the circle of accompanying allies.

The break up of the Federation of Yugoslavia in the 1990s arose from long brewing domestic differences.  United Nations sent personnel to be involved in the intracacies and complexities, thereby causing foreign troops to step in a stage beset with the divide between Eastern and Western Europe.

The Falklands Isles in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean witnessed the determination of Margaret Thatcher and Britain to not let a strategic colonial outpost be lost.  The confrontation with Argentina could have been the last fought battle of the British Empire's military tradition.

New Zealand has not experienced military mayhem domestically since the wars of attrition between the Maoris and the British colonists in thd early 19th century, leading to the Treaty of Waitangi.

Contemporary India and Pakistan have had limited skirmishes - and so have India and China on the Himalayan border, plus that between Vietnam and China.  China's last major war participation has been in the Korean Peninsular in a proxy conflict between Communists and capitalists.

Which European nations have not gone into battle since the end of World War 2?
Amazingly, most of the European continent has undergone peaceful political processes under the advent of the EU.  The Ukraine question escalated in the third decade of the 21st century with still an unresolved and continuing military conflict.  Historical fears and sentiment still run through the instinctive geopolitics of the European continent.

Most continents have never been invaded by foreign powers since the end of the colonialism period.   " Invasion"  these days can be more in the form of commercialism, soft power, financial domination, technology advancement and trade prowess, rather than in physical military wars.  However, colonies, albeit of small size, still exist around the world - we reflect on the possesions by the French in the South Pacific.  On the other hand, large nations like Canada and Australia still have Governor-Generals representing the ultimate authority of the British Monarch over their lands.

Which contemporary nations have somehow retained their viable independence amidst the rolling waves of human tribal conflict and war?  Thailand and Ethopia were never colonised when most of the world were.

Which nation has often joined others in warfare, and in the name of the another country leading the war, despite of almost never being attacked before?  Australia, India, New Zealand and Canada had sacrificed many in the war effort led by Britain and the USA since the beginning of the 20th century.

Which region of the world has attracted the most invaders in modern times since 1945?   Perhaps it is the Middle East.
Evolving disorders have broken out domestically in societies there  as a consequence of dictatorships, religious based groups, people's revolutions and interference by foreign governments.

Central Africa had its share of turbulence
due to economic inequity, warlord dominancs, burgeoning populatons and claims over resources.   War has even been declared between El Salvador and Honduras in 1969 over the results of a football match in Central America.

All nations in South east Asia have been attacked and invaded by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War 2.  Which nations in present day ASEAN have managed to experience predominant lack of warfare since then?

Singapore, Brunei, the Phillippines, the Federation of Malaysia and Thailand have been fortunate to not have serious epispdes of warfare in recent history.   Indonesia had battles in Irian Jaya (western half of Papua New Guinea) and when fighting the Portuguese ruled Timor-Leste in the latter's war for independence.

Indo-China was quagmired in atrocious warfare as the Communists fought intense nationalistic struggles in Vietnam and Laos.  Kampuchea was taken over by a cruel regime under Pol Pot.  Myanmar continues under military rule and its central government fights the armies of several different ethnic groups in major portions of the country, apart from facing rebellions within the Burmese cohort.

What lies for the near future in the 21st century?   Will ideology continue to stir up the masses?  Are democratic styled elections a sham subject to manipulation, misinformation and huge monies controlled by a few individuals?  Will conflicts still arise because of significant fights over trade and resources?  Will the ideal human values overwhelm the human tribal instinct to fight?

The quality of specific leaders who hold the upper hand in world affairs can be so important.   Do politicians choose between the welfare of their human denizens and the tempting short term way to massive business opportunities and wealth?  The core generation of voters can decide the path but powerful people can pull the puppet strings.   War has always been waged by older politicians making use of younger people to do the actual fighting.

#yongkevthoughts