Anwar brings back memories

 

Anwar Ibrahim being sworn in as Malaysia's PM reminds me half a century has passed since I left Kuala Lumpur where I spent my childhood and early teens to return to Singapore where I was born. 

Memories of my mother mentioning in worrisome tone about the rise of a radical Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement leader resurfaced.  Anwar was once detained for 20 months for leading a student demonstration against rural poverty and had led the Muslim Empowerment Movement against the ruling party. Naturally my mother was concerned as would any Chinese living in Malaysia then.

Anwar was a household name literally. So you can say I grew up and grow old with 'Anwar'. Not really appreciating the complexities of Malaysian politics I simply rejoiced at the news of Anwar becoming the 10th PM, partly because he represents the realisation of a dream, victory of a long drawn fight and hope for a brighter future for Malaysia. I was glad that my simplistic delight was echoed by the head waiter at my club's cafe, a Malaysian Indian who believes in Anwar's maxim of A Malaysia for ALL Malaysians and his vows of not compromising corruption.

So much has happened in Malaysia since I left half a century ago. Every time I visit Malaysia I empathise with the Malaysian Rakyat, I see the vast land and resources but so much has has been drained to private pockets and billions in GDP lost.

If my mother is alive, she would probably speak approvingly of Anwar being the PM. He has also changed of course. 

Hopefully, No Worries Ma.

Charity

 

Came across this term "Effective Altruism" (EA) in the media. It is the concept of donating charity in the most effective manner. It builds around the idea mooted by one philosopher named Peter Singer who advocates that giving must involve a balance between empathy and reasoning. Singer used the "child-in-pond" scenario to make his point. In his analogy a passer by wearing a pair of expensive shoes would not hesitate to save a drowning child at the expense of ruining his shoes. This arises from a direct empathetic encounter. However when invited to post a cheque to save a child suffering from starvation, half way across the globe, people will tend to toss the envelop away. Singer thinks ethically both scenarios are the same. 

To practice EA the giver must research and donate to the organisation that does the most good with every dollar. Carried to its extreme, a person who is a top income earner should spend his time earning big bucks and donating to such organisations instead of volunteering his service. Thus it is not surprising that EA societies attract math and tech nerds and entrepreneurs. Some EA fanatics are known to feel remorseful and terribly guilty when splurging on a "luxury" item out of impulse.

Fanatics aside there are some charitable people who are really quite admirable. Recently the Straits Times reported a retired businessman donating S$3 million to 6 charities. A couple of years ago in 2018 he also donated S$2.5m to charities. Curious about such generosity I read on and was amazed to note that the person is not super wealthy or has no family to bequeath his wealth to. Having sold his landed property and moved into a condo, he found he had excess money, so he up his donation. 

("I have already reached an old age and money to me is not important, so whatever excess I have, I will donate,” said the retiree, whose son and two daughters are married with their own children.")

What I really admire about this person is his non attachment, to material things and in particular to his family. ie. not hung up on providing the most comfortable life possible for his children and grandchildren. 

His action makes us reflect on true charity, EA or otherwise.

Give Some Slack

 If you watch Breaking Bad you may sometimes find yourself siding the 2 protagonists like I do, despite all the crime and evil deeds they commit. This is because the story traces their circumstantial moral descend; confronted with adversity to begin with and spiraling down a path of deepening evil to safeguard themselves and their family. Of course there is greed, hatred, cruelty involved but there is also the human side of love and loyalty. The moral dilemma comes on very strongly by the characters.

Watching this drama and reading about criminal acts in the media, I sometimes reflect on how circumstances and conditioning shape people's life and character. There has been lots of argument as to whether we are born amoral and need to be reined in, born as white slates to be conditioned or born gentle and kind but corrupted by the cruel inequality of society (as per Jean-Jacques Rosseau).

I do believe people are born with different personality traits partly in the genes and biological makeup. However I am fully convinced that nurture ie. the environment and conditioning plays a larger part in the shaping of a person's character. This also explains why people's character changes over time moulded by their experiential circumstances. 

If you just pause to ponder how uniquely varied a single person's past experiences is, you would appreciate the complexity involved in each character. For example think about road rage, why would an otherwise well behaved person finds it difficult to control his road rage? What has he come across in the past to trigger it? Is it a confluence of many factors?

At the end of the day it bears to pause a bit before passing judgement on others. That of course includes not judging your own self. Give yourself some slack, remember your weaknesses arise from a vast array of input and conditioning, some beyond your control.

Well, each and everyone on earth is just seeking his or own happiness or some form of meaning.

A Sad World?

 David Brooke wrote an article "The rising tide of global sadness". In it he quoted statistics from the Gallup survey that shows negative emotions on a rise over the years hitting a record high last year among an annual 150,000 people surveyed across 14 countries. Another research group which analysed 150,000 pop songs released between 1965 and 2015 found the appearance of the word "love" in the Top 100 hits roughly halved while words like "hate" rose sharply. Brooks also concluded that even for countries that have become much richer people surveyed there do not seem to feel happier.

It is tough to feel happy really. I turn on the bedroom TV when I wake up every morning while washing up. The main topics featured other than breaking news include Ukraine War, Adverse Impact of Climate Change, Threats be it economic or territorial from US, China and Russia, Covid, rising cost, stock market tumble etc etc. The bad news never stops coming and one is made never to rule out the unimaginable from happening in this world. It seems like the world is topsy turvy and the leaders turned crazy. 

Perhaps the world always had various challenges over the centuries. Just that now we are so well informed by media, we are aware of all the woes in different parts of the globe in any single moment. A research suggests that almost half the UK population avoids the news.

Maybe I should stop the habit of tuning to news first thing in the morning. But isn't that some form of denial? Well maybe not, one doesn't have to be so well informed really.  I guess personal accounts of people in distress affect me most and I should try to avoid watching such coverage. As for impact of climate change, instead of thinking about what the future beholds it is better to resolve to do my part for the day. If I am fretting over the market turmoil, I must remember Warren Buffet calls it the ''market noise". I must also remind myself that all media love to sensationalize. Didn't every era see its fair share of mad or ruthless kings and leaders over past thousands of years, so what's new? Of course if the news for the day is really bad or distressing I should spend some time on activities to rebalance my negative world view, like reading the section on travels and entertainment in the newspaper, watching some funny video on pets and children, admiring my plants and paying attention to the birds' call in the garden. 

I should also always remember the phrase "Ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows". Acknowledging each as they come and go.

What he loved and what he could do well

 

My aunty from Hong Kong just texted me the sad news of my uncle's passing away from cancer at 90. He was a designer and spent his retirement years engaging in artistic pursuits including painting, photography, making video, writing poetry and calligraphy.

In addition to the usual condolence messages I added in my simplistic Chinese:

三叔生前很爱艺术。过着有趣的生活。应该死而无憾☘️

My aunty replied:

是的，他很亨受生活，他說這一生都无憾了

Reflecting on her words I can recall how his eyes would sparkle when relating his passionate pursuits. He strikes me as someone who was fully engaged with whatever he was doing.

It must have been fiery passion that drove him to uproot from Singapore to pursue college education in China in the 1950s to realise his ideals that Communism was the best political system for mankind. Towards the end of the Cultural Revolution realising how the system had fallen short of his 'utopian dream' he managed to leave for Hong Kong setting up from scratch his design shop starting with logo and labels before moving on to bigger things.

When relating his life history however he spoke not of regrets but only of experiences. He strikes me as someone who looked forward all the time, took things in his stride and followed his heart to maximise life. 

On a telephone call when my aunty was describing his health condition detailing the physical care she was rendering, he chipped in to say cheekily 我有个好老婆

When I read my aunty's words "他很亨受生活，他說這一生都无憾了" a word crossed my mind -"Ikigai". 

The following is the definition:

'Ikigai is a Japanese concept that means your ‘reason for being.’ ‘Iki’ in Japanese means ‘life,’ and ‘gai’ describes value or worth. Your ikigai is your life purpose or your bliss. It’s what brings you joy and inspires you to get out of bed every day'.

三叔 knew indeed what he loved and what he could do well.

A Good Reminder

 

"Remember that in life you ought to behave as at a banquet. Suppose that something is carried round and is opposite to you. Stretch out your hand and take a portion with decency. Suppose that it passes by you do not detain it. Suppose that it is not yet come to you do not send your desire forward to you, but wait till it is opposite you"- Greek stoic philosopher Epictetus

I find this quote humorous and serves as a good reminder for moderation, avoidance of FOMO and anxiety/greed.

A Better Future?

 Our senior minister Tharman in a talk used the phrases "global fragility" and "perfect long storm" to describe the challenges our world is facing on climate change, geopolitical conflicts, poverty in some under developed countries, food insecurity, energy crisis and stagflation. In a survey carried out in advanced countries less than 27% of parents think that their children would be better than them financially.

We the baby boomers inherit our parents' inter generation commitment to make life easier for their offspring. Since we met our parents' expectations and achieved a higher standard of living than theirs we naturally expect our children to have a better future than ourselves. However the world circumstances do not seem to point in that direction and we are disturbed because we have worked hard to provide for our kids. So it's natural to feel a bit bewildered and sad as well for not fulfilling this inter generation commitment. On top of that we may feel responsible for bringing about the various types of insecurities our children are facing. For instance, we are accused of leaving behind a 'society revolving around profit rather than sustainability.'

Perhaps we must think through what a 'better life' means. Our perception of a better life may actually differ from that of our children. Our children no longer abide the conventional paths of 'success'  that we have taken preferring to redefine what constitutes a 'life well lived' which aligns with their values.

In the end we can only hope for a more stable world so that our children can live with less uncertainties and that this 'global fragility' will regain its strength and that the "perfect long storm" be blown over sooner.