Environmental Protection - We are at a crisis point !

Environmental Protection

With regard to environmental protection, I feel that it is the top priority because at present we are all walking down the path of self-destruction at a progressively increasing and alarming rate. In the prologue, I mentioned my own weakness in mathematics. Now I have come to understand that knowledge in this discipline is indispensable in life. As regards the environment, the damages we have already done to date are growing according to an exponential function just like the over-population problem. As the famous physicist, Albert A. Bartlett wrote ;- “ The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. “ There was this legend about the inventor of the game of chess in ancient times who pleased the king so much with her interesting and challenging game that she was granted a wish for anything by his majesty. She only asked for two grains of wheat to be placed on the first square of the chess board and that the number be doubled progressively on each and everyone of all the remaining 63 squares. The king was tricked into granting this apparently insignificant wish. It turned out that 2 to the power of 63 represented more than all the wheat produced by human beings in the entire history of the world. The reader may recall that the total number of atoms in the whole universe is 10 to the power of 78. Applying the exponential amplification to environmental problems such as waste matters produced by a exponentially increasing population, it can easily be seen that there is no such thing as sustainable growth or sustainable exploitation of resources. There is a very interesting analogy between our brain and population growth. According to his book, The Mind, Anthony Smith noticed that the human brain has 15 billion nerve cells which is about three times the total world population. The brain cells also multiply by exponential amplification. It takes only 33 doubling of the first nerve cell to reach 15 billion. To attain half that number, it takes 32.

The lesson to be learned here is that all the previous doublings up to 32 seem insignificant. The problem of over-population and man-made waste is the same. When the problem really appears to be overwhelming such as when the world is half-full of people, it only takes one more doubling which will only require the same time cycle as each and everyone of the previous doubling up to the half-way mark ( much more quickly than you can imagine ) in terms of physical capacity to make a full house on our planet. Our minds work on a linear scale. Thus, we treat 33 as only 1 additional number from 32. We cannot visualize the exponential effect until we actually see the imminent result of the second last doubling which would be too late. Therefore, I consider environmental problems which very often work on exponential amplification as the most urgent of all human problems.

The second reason why I have, apart from mathematical reason, ranked environmental protection as the biggest of all human problems is the fact that it does not kill us immediately but will definitely do so in time and not in the too far distant future at the present rate of destruction. Damaging our precious environment is like taking slow poison. You would not feel the pain until it is too late. As the accumulated effect reaches the critical limit ( in the same sense as that used in the Theory of Chaos and Complexity ), one extra push no matter how insignificant it may seem will spell instant destruction of our Big Blue Marble and all living things in it. The worse part of it all is the frightening prospect that we might all perish out of ignorance and in the comfortably dead calm before the storm. In our ignorance and complacency, we have acquired very bad habits of carrying on ecologically unfriendly practices that cannot be easily changed ( such as the excessive and indiscriminate use of plastic bags ) due to the adverse conditioning of our brain. As such, we will inevitably pass on our bad habits to succeeding generations thus hastening the deterioration of the environment. We must wake up before it is too late. It is now the eleventh hour already. Let us all heed nature's warning signs such as abnornmal weather conditions and disastrous meteological phenomenon like the El Nino Efffects to muster a global effort in concert to stop and hopefully to reverse the damages while we still can.

The deforestation of the Amazon equatorial rain forest is a case in point. Out of greed, commercial enterprises in collusion with ill-advised governments have carried out indiscriminately, so-called sustainable exploitations of lumber and other minerals in this largest of all ecological systems in the world that can regulate the oxygen and carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere. Wholesale destruction of the forest in the size of a whole city is a daily routine in this region of precious natural resources. A conservative estimate put the extinction rates of scarce animal species including many rare insects at the hundreds and rarer still plants including many with disease healing potentials ( for killer disease such as AIDS ) at the thousands. Many of such rare species of animals and plants have not yet been studied or discovered by scientists but already they are lost to us forever. All these tragic events happened because of the lowest of all motives which is greed. All these wholesale exterminations of life for a few lousy bucks not a single cent of which we can take away when we leave this world. Such stupidity is compounded by the limited human capacity to enjoy earthly goods as explained in chapter (x) – What I believe – Of Money and Men. Furthrmore, it is very often just a number game for the greedy entrepreneurs who may be earning money for its own sake without even bordering to find the time to enjoy it notwithstanding their already limited capacity to enjoy earthly goods. It has frequently been argued by eloquent corporate custodians that their duty is to maximize the the investment return of their shareholders and this fact constitutes their sacred mandate to turn on their greed engine to maximum capacity in the senseless pursuit of profits no matter what. Their sacred duty is to make profit for their shareholders ? My foot ! It is all a matter of personal greed on the part of some corrupt corporate custodians to line up their own money belts and to fatten their piggy banks just as in the imfamous Eron case in USA. Why should the whole human race and all living organisms suffer such a miserable fate because of just a handful of these greedy and heartless crooks ?

All in all, the profit motive which is so very often glorified in the capitalistic system is nothiing but a senseless pursuit based on ignorance and selfishness that has led to this great catastrophy for the whole human race. Enough is enough. Let us put a stop to such madness here and now ! Just to give you a more graphic example of the deadly nature of our environmental problem. It can be compared to the deadly disease of liver cancer. This type of cancer is so deadly because it silently creeps upon the victim. Like all forms of cancer the definite cause has not been confirmed. However, it is most likely to be the result of faulty genes and it has a very high correlation ( not causation ) with hepatitis B and heavy alcohol abuse that will adversely affect our liver function. As hepatitis B is very common among the Southern Chinese population ( about one tenth of the population are carriers of the virus ), about one-third of the carriers of the virus have the chance of developing liver cancer at their old age. The most dreadful part of this kind of cancer is that it will not noticeably affect the liver functions and the organ can continue to work normally until about one-third of the liver cells have been contaminated by the cancerous cells so that there are no conspicuous warning signs unless under observation by ultrasound or CT scanning. Therefore, by the time the victim notices his or her own liver malfunction, the condition is likely to be terminal. It is the same with environmental pollution. When the noticeable signs are detected it may be too late to reverse the damages which multiply by exponential amplification.

The appropriate measures that should be taken in order to solve our progressing environmental disaster should be three fold. For the long-term, education is the appropriate tool to cultivate a new generation of environmentally conscious citizens. In the medium term, there must be effective enforcement of environmentally friendly laws and regulations to prevent and apprehend the greedy culprits who damage the environment to achieve their own selfish ends. In the short term, the more urgent problems such as green house gas emissions, deforestation and pollution of the oceans must be dealt with through immediate international co-operation and joint global efforts to stop the on going irreversible damages to the environment. Most importantly, all countries must put aside their political differences and selfish economic agenda to make a genuine effort towards the vital goal of environmental protection before it is too late. Admittedly, there have been international conferences such as the Kyoto Protocol to limit green house gas emissions but countries like the USA and Australia have refused to sign the treaty on the ground that it does not take into account their particular economic objectives and so-called special circumstances. Such excuses are untenable and must be done away with immediately to comply with the paramount global objective of environmental preservation which surpasses all other national goals. TOEL ( Theory of Everything in Life ) can be useful with regard to environmental protection because the principles of intergeneration education, a genuine sense of social responsibility and respect for all life and things are an integral part of TOEL as will be seen in greater detail in the final chapter of this book. ( Link to my book from which this note is extracted - " The Universe - A Personal View " -https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=F.a019e174-7abb-427e-b264-ecc7bdcc5fc3&hl=en  )

Joseph K.H. Cheng

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism by Lawrence Britt

The 14 Characteristics of Fascism by Lawrence Britt

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/fasci14chars.html

 

Political scientist Dr. Lawrence Britt recently wrote an article about fascism ("Fascism Anyone?," Free Inquiry, Spring 2003, page 20). Studying the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile), Dr. Britt found they all had 14 elements in common. He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy.

The 14 characteristics are:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism
   Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
   
   
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights
   Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
   
   
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause
   The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
   
   
4. Supremacy of the Military
   Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
   
   
5. Rampant Sexism
   The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.
   
   
6. Controlled Mass Media
   Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
   
   
7. Obsession with National Security
   Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
   
   
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined
   Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.
   
   
9. Corporate Power is Protected
   The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
   
   
10. Labor Power is Suppressed
    Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed .
    
    
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts
    Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.
    
    
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment
    Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
    
    
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption
    Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
    
    
14. Fraudulent Elections
    Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Copyright © 2003 Free Inquiry magazine
Reprinted for Fair Use Only. 

This article was based upon the article "The Hallmarks of Fascist Regime" by Skip Stone, at www.hippy.com/php/article-226.html.

Albert Einstein - Essence of His Theory of Special Relativity

According to the reasoning of relativity, time slows down for the observer as he speeds up because everything is physically compressed more and more as the observer moves faster and faster. It is as if space and everything in it is elastic ( the same concept is working behind the formation of black holes when there is an ultra high concentration of mass ).  The essence of Einstein's discovery is that the relation between time-space is tied by the constant speed of light. Brian Greene summarizes this point in the most elegant way in his book " The Fabric of the Cosmos ( on page 49 - Penguin Books ) in the following manner :- " Special relativity declares a similar law for all motion : the combined speed of any object's motion through space and its motion through time is always precisely equal to the speed of light ....The key fact, Einstein discovered, is that these two kinds of motion are always complementary. When the parked car you were looking at speeds away, what really happens is that some of its light-speed motion is diverted from motion through time into motion through space, keeping their combined total unchanged. Such diversion unassailably means that the car's motion through time slows down. " 

( my personal notes : - when the car is parked it experiences all its motion through the time dimension. Light is peculiar in that it is massless and lives " its life " in the fast lane - it always travels at the fastest possible speed. From this fact, Einstein also concluded that mass is equivalent to energy - E=MC2 - because it will take an infinite amount of energy to accelerate anything with the slightest mass to the speed of light which is massless. Please note that the constant speed of light again ties the relation between E and M in nuclear reactions in the above most famous of all equations. Another profound conclusion from the above facts is that light ( or the quantum of light - the photon ) is timeless in the sense that for the photon time stands still. This can be seen in the modern version on the Double Slit experiment pioneered by Thomas Young in the 1800s. )

I may as well set out my other views on the concept of space-time. Light is the single most important entity in the universe as far as human beings are concerned. Without light no signals can be communicated and nothing can happen. Our feeling of time is based on events which are only made possible with the help of light. The light signals we receive must interact with our photo sensitive cells in our eyes to transmit signals to our brain that interprets these signals to make sense of the situation we are in. Our consciousness as expressed through our physiological systems then make events happen. Therefore, I totally agree with Sir Roger Penrose that we will not be able to completely understand all the basic concepts such as time-space until we understand more about our own consciousness. 

NOTE : For interested readers please read Chapter ( iv ) of my e-book on the detailed explanation of both Special and General Relativity from pages 73 to 84 at this link :-https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqa2hjbGlmZXN0eWxlfGd4OjM5NmM2NTViMjAzY2M5MTk

( The above account is my elaboration of Albert Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity on the official forum of the world's largest online scientific research project - Galaxy Zoo ( now part of the voluntary online research project - Zooniverse ) with over 1,000,000 members worldwide. I was lucky enough to have been the No.1 most prolific researcher in Galaxy Zoo 1 when it started on July 11, 2007. I had personally analysed and classified over 1.2 million galaxies images from the database of SDSS Sloan Digital Sky Survey camera sited at Apache Point in New Mexico, USA. This automated survey camera with an 8 feet diameter lens has taken over 80 million images and mapped over half of the visible universe. Please follow this link if you are interested to take part as a volunteer researcher : -https://sites.google.com/site/jkhclifestyle/Home/milky-way-over-hawaii/my-galaxy-zoo-images   )

Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 88 ) - Moral Code and The Law

Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 88 ) -  Moral Code and The Law

It is my humble opinion that a healthy moral code for society is the safety net for our legal system. If each and every bit of our daily routines is to be codified into the legal system, every country will become a totalitarian state. All citizens will be put into a legal straight jacket. Our legal system would become both costly and draconian to say the least. By having a healthy moral code for social behaviour everything would run more smoothly for society as a whole. The social atmosphere, so to speak, would be more amicable for everyone.

We need minimum standards in setting up our moral code. In support of my claim I would like to give you a real life example of a tragic incident which is not a crime in the legal sense but a totally disgusting and infuriating case of moral violation to an extremely despicable degree. I really regret to say that it happened in Hong Kong about 20 years ago. It concerned a traffic accident in which a private car caught fire in a less busy part of the city ( a place called Kowloon Tong ). A fire had broken out on the engine due to a major leak in its radiator resulting in the emptying of its coolant content. The driver was trapped inside the car on account of the malfunctioning of the door locks. A few pedestrians tried to stop a passing bus in an attempt to borrow a fire extinguisher which is a standard piece of safety equipment required by law to be installed on all public transports. To the disgust of the good samaritans, the driver of the bus refused to let them use the fire extinguisher to put out the fire. This unreasonable refusal to help a fellow citizen in grave danger resulted in the tragic death of the victim trapped inside the private car. The bus driver's ridiculous excuse for his refusal to save a life was that he did not want to undergo the trouble in filing a report to his bus company for utilizing the fire extinguisher on another vehicle which he felt might adversely affect his employment prospects. 

The bus driver was prosecuted for manslaughter in a court of law but was acquitted on the basis that he was not aware of the urgency of the situation and had no intention of causing the death of the victim. However, the judge presiding over the case specifically denounced the bus driver's behaviour as an affront to all civilized human morals and codes of decent behaviour. The judge further said that while he might not be guilty legally, he was guilty as hell morally in causing the death of the victim. This tragic example unambiguously highlighted the importance of a generally accepted moral code for society and everyone of its members. Without an effective and healthy moral code society would become a living hell ! Not every social issue or private dispute can be resolved through the legal system. It is simply impossible to legislate for compassion, generosity, good manners and a gracious personal disposition. A healthy and positive social and moral code is the right answer. 

Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 87 ) - A question of perspective

Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 87 ) -  A question of perspective

A Question of Perspective

There is no absolute truth only facts viewed from different perspectives. This calls to mind the telling fable of the four blind men expressing their views on an elephant they have never seen before they lost their vision. The one who touches the elephant's trunk says the elephant is like a garden hose. The other who feels the elephant's leg describes it as in the shape of a tree. Still another who is in contact with the elephant's tail calls it a rope. The fourth blind man who grabs the elephant's ear cries out loud to say that it is like a fan. All of them are partially correct but none is totally right about the appearance of the elephant. As for men with proper vision, they can always laugh their heads off because they can have a full view of the whole elephant. But if they were to be restricted to a stationary position within a distance of, say one foot from the huge beast how would the elephant look to them then ? 

Of course, at such a close distance, they could only have a partial view of the animal and could never make out the complete profile of the beast now. It is all a matter of perspective.

Going back to the olden days, men maintained that the earth was the centre of the universe because they saw the sun rising in the east and setting in the west everyday. From their perspective, they had concluded that our earth should be the centre of the universe. Only if our ancestors had deep space probes like ours to take a wider perspective of the solar system from deep space, then they could have got the real situation and realized our physical insignificance. May be then, there would have been fewer wars fought on this earth in an attempt to dominate this minute dot of a blue marble floating in an immense and dark sea of over 70 billion trillion stars like our sun in this unimaginably vast space known as the visible part of the universe. Only if we can put things in their proper perspectives and everything would be fine and peaceful for everyone. In the words of E.M. Forster again :- “ Only connect........” and you will see the world in a different light. I would boldly add the following appendix or extension - Only Connect and you will be human and have better foresight. To me, foresight ( looking forward – in time ) is another way of looking at things from a wider perspective by moving a few steps back at a farther distance ( in space ) to acquire a fuller picture of a given situation. According to Einstein's Special Relativity, space-time is one continuum or a continuous entity. Looking back far into space in astronomy is equivalent to looking back in time. Therefore, a telescope is, in a way, a kind of time machine capable of retrieving information from back in time, the past. Knowing the past better will help in predicting our future more accurately and hence better foresight. Furthermore, a higher dimensional perspective is also a wider and more comprehensive one. Take our maps for example. It is, in fact, a higher aerial view taken over the landscape and a wider perspective of the geographical region under surveillance. It is also a rule of physics that a conscious being at a higher dimensional level of existence will always have a better grasp of the reality than one existing at a lower spatial dimension. No one can argue with the fact that one sees further when standing on a mountain top than on level ground. This is the same with levels of our knowledge. Once you have attained a higher level of understanding, the simpler ideas will become clear as day. You can even easily correlate ( as I have learned in this present intellectual journey ) all the different seemingly unrelated pieces of the big puzzle ( that is the universe ) that you have previously found to be strange and incomprehensible to you. 

In a scientific novel full of satire called Flatland written by Edwin Abbott Abbott in 1884, this English headmaster and a Shakespearean scholar told a story of a two dimensional world inhabited by lines, triangles and squares of Euclidean ( plane ) geometry. These two dimensional inhabitants could not visualise what it was like to live in a three dimensional world which they had heard about. Then, in came the Sphere which is a three dimensional creature. This hero in the story taught the flatlanders a completely new perspective of what the world could be like in a higher dimension. The book had a very acute social angle that made fun of the rigid Victorian English morality. For example, it portrayed the female members of Flatland society as thin lines which were even more inferior to the slimmest of triangles ( accusing society of sex discrimination ) and it depicted the Priesthood ( the clergy ) as a fat circle implying their cravings for wealth in the form of donations from believers. The most important scientific aspect of the book was its allusion to extra dimensions. Such an idea was most revolutionary having regards to the fact that the book preceded H.G. Wells', The Time Machine ( dealing with the extra dimension of time ) by a whole decade. Whatever effect the Flatland had on scientific thoughts it remained a fact that the book had inspired many subsequent sequels in term of its subject matter. The latest creation was “ Flatterland – like Flatland, only more so” written by mathematical physicist, Ian Stewart in 2001 which deals with the possibilities of successively higher dimensions in our universe up to the tenth dimension. Despite all these latest developments, the principle that any beings or consciousness existing at a higher dimension can understand better and command a fuller view all of the lower dimensions but not vice versa always applies. The latest theory on the reality that we experience in our daily lives suggests that we are mere projections or images projected from a deeper or higher level of existence. Just like the shadows cast on the wall by our hands and fingers in the ever so familiar finger shadow game, we can create queer shapes of different animals without revealing the true appearance of our hands and fingers in the normal three dimensional format. The same could be true that our existing three dimensional appearance is a mere shadow projected from a deeper or higher level of existence. This is the speculation of the Holographic Model of the universe. 

 NOTE :  For readers interested in how I acquire my scientific views of the world you are cordially invited to browse my e-book " The Universe - A Personal View ". Please do not be intimidated by the massive 200,000 odd words. Go to the prologue where I have suggested short cuts of reading it and everything will be fine. Anyway, I did over 5 years of research and read over 250 popular science books starting with Stephen Hawking's classic - A Brief History of Time - and spent 18 months writing it. Do have a go in reading it and you will be amazed by this miraculous and mysterious world we live in. I have always held the view that one should try to understand more before we pass on. At least try to know the limit or ultimate boundary of our knowledge.The link :-    https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqa2hjbGlmZXN0eWxlfGd4OjM5NmM2NTViMjAzY2M5MTk 

世紀．Intellectuals﹕他，以及哈伯馬斯 專訪帕西奧利獎首位獲獎華人：汪暉

世紀．Intellectuals﹕他，以及哈伯馬斯
專訪帕西奧利獎首位獲獎華人：汪暉

汪 暉，1959年生，現為清華大學人文學院教授。曾先後在哈佛大學、加州大學、華盛頓大學、香港中文大學等大學和研究機構擔任研究員、訪問教授。主要著作 有：《反抗絕望：魯迅及其文學世界》（1990）、《無地徬徨：「五四」及其回聲》（1994）、《汪暉自選集》（1998）、《死火重溫》 （2000）、《現代中國思想的興起》（2005）等。汪暉曾在1996年至2007年擔任《讀書》雜誌主編，在其任內，《讀書》依然是內地最有影響力的 雜誌之一。

　編按：中國著名學者汪暉，與德國哲學家哈伯馬斯同獲2013年度盧卡‧帕西奧利獎（Luca Pacioli Award），汪暉成為第一位獲授此學術獎項的華人。本版記者致電汪暉訪問，談談他對中文學術書寫在國際的位置如何，展望中文學術在國際上的發展。

　 清華大學中文系教授汪暉，近日與德國哲學泰斗哈伯馬斯（Jürgen Habermas），共獲意大利威尼斯大學（Ca' Foscari University of Venice）頒發「盧卡．帕西奧利獎」（下稱「帕西奧利獎」），揚威國際學界；中國學術寫作，達到可與世界級哲學家比肩的程度。但對獲獎，汪暉在電話那 頭指出，這其實是中國愈來愈受到世界關注的結果，謙稱與他個人並無關係。

　中文學術書寫始受重視

　 帕西奧利獎由創立於1868年，由威尼斯大學創立，以文藝復興時期的「會計學之父」Luca Pacioli命名，旨在表彰運用跨學科方法做出創造性研究的國際著名學者。威尼斯大學亞洲及地中海非洲研究所所長李集雅讚揚汪暉「經過漫長的文學史和思 想史研究的旅程，他對傳統分析提出質疑，解構老一套的亞洲觀念，並提供了一種能夠超越歐洲及歐洲中心主義典型視角的敍述」。

　 汪暉說，他是在旅途中獲得威尼斯大學的電郵，得知自己獲獎，當下並沒有什麼特別感覺：「我個人沒有特別想過得獎這個問題。」他指出，獲獎對學者來說不是件 特別重要的事，因學術工作是日積月累的，尤其人文學科，有很多工作很冷門，不獲獎也不代表不重要。他認為獲獎值得高興的只是受到來自「另一個世界」的關 注。

　「我主要是以中文寫作，絕大多數都是翻譯。我自己的著作現在大概有十 幾種被翻譯成外文，英文的、日文的、韓文的、意大利文的、西班牙文的、俄文的……這對我來講還是有意義的，因為中文的寫作，尤其是學術寫作，得到國際承認 的概率很低很低，幾乎沒有出現過。中文學術在今天，有這個可能性獲得更廣泛的閱讀對象。」他說，自己從20多年前就開始閱讀哈伯馬斯：「我讀西方的理論著 作比較多。但中國學者的著作，除非你用英文寫作，才能在西方世界得到承認，說實在的也不多。現在中文學術寫作，也一定程度上被西方重視。發獎表示中文寫作 本身是有被閱讀的可能性的，寫作的目的是為了探索，歷史和未來。」

　「我只能代表我自己」

　 汪暉注意到，西方學者學術著作研究的是西方社會，但卻有那麼多中國讀者閱讀，大抵是因為西方社會轉型對中國有參考價值，「反過來講，對中國社會自身的探 索，對其他社會有沒有意義？這是其他世界關心的主要地方。我們讀西方學者的著作，他們都是研究他們自己的社會。比如哈伯馬斯研究公共領域，他研究的是德 國，討論的宗教，也主要是針對基督教社會。可是他們的書一出版，全世界的人好像都看。我們也看，這麼多年我們從當中學到不少。怎麼理解中國這麼一個漫長的 文明，這麼豐富的文明，20世紀以來這麼大的變遷。我們自己詮釋這些變遷，這對中國人有意義，對全世界恐怕也有意義」。

　 生於1959年的汪暉比哈伯馬斯小30歲，今次共同獲獎，自然很感榮幸。他們是舊相識，下月去意大利領獎，又能碰面。汪暉覺得，此次威尼斯大學把獎項頒給 二人，有促進東西方文明對話的意圖。他認為西方把中國看作另外的「世界」愈來愈重視：「不是因為我，而是這個世界本身變得重要。」

　學術中國才上路

　 一直被認為是中國學術界「新左派」代表人物的汪暉，如何看待這一標籤？他說：「學術工作、思想工作，當然有不同的傾向這是確實的，我不否認。但要把所有的 學術工作，都簡單歸類到某個門派裏頭，這未免太簡化問題了。」他以自己的研究廣泛為例：「我自己的研究裏，涉及古代的、晚清的，怎麼分『新左派』、『新右 派』呢？社會思潮是存在的，但是把思想、學術工作純粹用名目罩起來，我覺得沒什麼意思。」

　 同時，汪暉也謙稱不能代表任何人：「在思想領域什麼叫『代表』，我只能代表我自己，做我自己的事，我不能代表誰。在今天，我覺得反覆重複這些概念已經沒有 什麼意義了。因為這麼複雜的社會變遷，你從任何一個方向都可以有些不同的解釋出來。如果硬要把所有問題都用貼標籤的方式，這還怎麼思考呢？別人可以把你歸 類，但我個人思考的時候，我不會考慮這些概念。我們關心的是到底有什麼問題，我們怎樣解釋今天中國的變遷。歷史隨着現實的變化，也不斷發生變化，你要通過 研究作出解釋。」

　隨着中國的國力愈來愈強大，中國變成一個無法迴避的問題，這不隨任何人的意志轉移。應該說，給予研究、討論、爭鳴以更多的自由與空間，是必要的。歷史上，沒有一個不允許人說話的真正強國。中國才上路，詮釋剛開始，樂觀還太早。

　[文．許驥 編輯﹕袁兆昌 mpcentury@mingpao.com]

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Of Youth and Youngsters

The following is an essay written by me about our younger generation which has been extracted from my book - The Universe - A Personal View ( page 169 to 174 )

Link to my book :-  https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqa2hjbGlmZXN0eWxlfGd4OjM5NmM2NTViMjAzY2M5MTk



Of Youth and Youngsters

I had doubts in discussing this topic here because I am quite sure that youngsters will not read my book. My feeling in this regard is similar to the scenario of a priest giving a sermon in a Sunday church service denouncing those who do not observe Sunday services. Those listening to the scolding are the good guys while the bad ones will never undergo such an ordeal. However, I have still decided to go ahead with this issue because there is a faint hope that if my arguments are succinct enough the parents of youngster who are my readers will pass on my message to their kids. Worst come to worst, the current generation of youngsters will read it when they are mature enough. I always hold a stubborn attitude when it comes to principles and the one involved here is our obligation to give guidance to our younger generation. Here also lies the beauty in writing a book. It can endure the test of time if it does have some genuine and sobering messages to deliver. Better late than never is a sound piece of advice. Just like the goal of education, faith, hope and perseverance are the orders of the day in delivering one's message.
Youth is a gift. It is a mandate to enjoy oneself to excessive limits and to be able to be reckless at times. It is a time for adventure and acquisition of experience of all sorts. It is a time to exercise one's rights without having to bear the related obligations. On the other hand, it can also be hazardous to the well being of those who are fortunate enough to possess it. So much so that their precious life could be tragically cut short in extreme scenarios. It is all a matter of perspective as dictated by Einstein's Relativity. To the highly complex and chaotic nature of human affairs, common sense cannot always be applied in a straight forward manner. Take the question of old age, for example. Common sense cannot straightly apply. If I am 65, I can normally be considered an old man. But if I had the blessing ( or curse depending on how you look at it ) of staying alive until 100, I could still be considered as a middle-aged man. On the contrary, if I were 18 and were to meet with a fatal traffic accident at 21, then I could have been considered to be a very old man at 18 on hindsight. The question of age or ageing is all a matter of the heart. I sincerely believe in the wonderful idea of being young at heart. You may think that I am

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just being difficult and cunning with my arguments and that the foregoing scenarios are merely hypothetical cases. But mind you, I did have a relative whose son was killed in a tragic crash on his graduation day from a famous west coast college in USA in a new speeding sports car given to him by his father as a graduation present. He was 21 and his father later died of a broken heart. So, youth is not equivalent to invinciblity. On the contrary, It could be a one way passport to thy kingdom come. Then, I had another friend whose 12 year old son has an inborn problem of a deformed pocket of blood vessels in his brain. If these delicate blood vessels are broken through a heavy blow on the head in an accident, it can cause a massive haemorrhage that could kill him. Therefore, my friend is gravely disturbed by his son's unfortunate inborn defect in his brain. However, this defect has also caused his son to be more mature and cautious in his physical activities. My friend used to be a bit relieved at least temporarily when I told him the above sad story and he accepted my suggestion that his son's conditions may have been a blessing in disguise and better things may result from his conditions. At least one thing is clear so far, his son has already gained an advantage in the earlier maturity of his mental faculties. He has already developed a sense of responsibility toward himself at such an early age which may very well see him to his ripe old age. The universe very often works in strange ways. Or, if you are religious, God's ways are sometimes mysterious, subtle and benevolent. I know for sure that some of the readers will challenge me on this issue but without asking them to commit themselves to the idea of the existence of an almighty deity, I will set out my eccentric ideas on this particular issue later in this chapter. But for now, let us move on to the behaviour of teenagers.
How often do teenagers kid themselves into thinking that an extra cigarette a day will not hurt them. Or one more drink before they hit the road is harmless for those with sharp reflexes. Youngsters are strange but lovely creatures. They cannot tolerate the monotony of a few minutes of wise but boring counselling from their seniors and yet they can accept smoking and drink driving that can surely kill them in due course without the blink of an eye. Are they really that silly or are there any explanations for their apparently irrational behaviour ? Let us think for a moment about the possibilities. I for one can think of some scientific support for such behaviour in the Theory of Chaos and the Science of Networks. As far as the former theory is concerned, the human brain including young brains are without a doubt classical chaotic systems that are most sensitive to even very slight changes in their initial positions. Even identical twins with almost identical genetic dispositions will grow up to be completely different in personality and character although their physical appearance remains very similar to each other. This is the obvious result of nature and nurture coupled with the chaotic working of the brain. Even twins can conceivably be subject to different cultural and social conditioning in terms of different subjects taken in their education process and different careers being pursued. Once the initial inputs into their brains differ even very slightly the resultant conditioning may vary considerably due to the multi-lateral interactions between various aspects of their mental faculties. This is the peculiar way in which chaotic systems function. In more practical terms, young brains can be more unpredictable because the normally chaotic working of the brain may be substantially amplified on account of the still developing intellect which does not possess the more established and, therefore, more stable mental and moral principles or ideas as in the case of mature persons. There can be considerable changes of moods and emotions on account of hormonal changes in the biological maturing
process.
This being the case, young people are generally more susceptible to the Cascades Effect and Coercive Externalities as defined in the Science of Networks. In short, they are very much open to peer pressure because of their social needs to be accepted by their friends. Such desparate need which is their perceived reality (PR) will cause them to give in to such pressure regardless of whether or not the so-called accepted behaviour for the moment among their group is right or wrong. That is why teenagers can easily acquire bad habits such as chain smoking or bin drinking which are considered to be “ cool “ among the younger generation. This distorted images of a “ cool “ life style can in turn be traced to undesirable effects produced by socially unhealthy T.V. programs and the mass media. In this regard, teenagers can engage in the most bizzare and even painful practices such as body piercing to wear ornamental rings in even the

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most intimate parts of their young bodies that can result in permanent injuries and other health problems. Putting irremovable tattoos on their body is yet another one of such seemingly bizzare practices among youngsters.
So far, I have only dealt with the negative aspects of teenage behaviour. On the other hand, young people can be lovely creatures if they are correctly motivated. I have previously mentioned the voluntary social work projects I had experienced in Hong Kong where the participants are almost entirely young people. Therefore, as can be seen from my past experience and other similar situations, the Casades Effect and Coercive Externalities can be made to work positively in the service of the community. Again, the importance of education is the key. Young people have a lot of energy and, sometimes, have an excessive supply of it in the sense that they tend to engage in naughty and even destructive activities if they are not given a proper outlet to vent this overflowing energetic urge to express themselves. This, as I mentioned, can be utilized to their great advantage. The obvious outlet is sporting activities. That was why we were engaged in a dispute with the school authorities in our own education project in China over sporting equipments which we saw as being vital to the education of the children while the authorities looked at them as an opportunity to fatten their own pockets instead. Besides putting their physical energy to healthy use, sports have yet another more subtle function of building up the self- confidence of young people. As our mind and character require the proper conditioning through experience to achieve maturity, sports are ideal for the training of the juvenile mind. While adults have had the benefit of social and their daily experiences over the years to shape their character, young people are not yet seasoned in this respect. The ideal and safest way to go about this mental training is through participation in sports. Where else can young people learn from their mistakes both physically and mentally without paying the ultimate price of life and limb and other emotional trauma to prepare themselves for their later lives except in sporting activities. That is why there is a lot of benefits to be reaped by the young in playing games. The traditional Chinese thinking that encourages young people to spend more of their time in academic curriculum rather than games ( including sports ) is not a sound policy. Traditional over-emphasis on pure knowledge without corresponding healthy sporting activities to improve physical fitness during the pre-modern era had caused great suffering to China and her citizens in terms of their inferior physique. The lack of encouragement to the younger generation to develop interest in physical activities and practical knowledge had also contributed to the slow progress in science and technology in China. Their curiosity and creative spirit have not been properly motivated. This unfortunate situation had ultimately made Chinese citizens victims of many unequal treaties in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. On a positive note, sports also provide definite objectives for teenagers to direct their efforts. Success in sports is undoubtedly a source of great satifaction for young people and a good foundation for building self-confidence.
At this juncture, I wish to make a few suggestions and propose some guidelines for our younger generation to develop their self-confidence which is absolutely essential for success in all aspects of their lives as they mature. Firstly, you must know your rightful position ( have a correct perspective of yourself ) in life. At the family level, your main duty is to get yourself a good education. Therefore, your studies are the top priority. Your parents are working like a dog to support your education. So the least you can do is to show them some good results as a sign of appreciation for their hardship they undergo on your account. Help out around the house to show that you are aware of your obligations as well as your rights to a good education and the basic daily needs which you are getting for free. Never take anything for granted. No one is entitled to any favours from any other person as a matter of course, not even between parents and their children. Assume the right mentality and try out this approach at home. You will begin to develop a harmonious relationship with other family members instantly. At school, you should mind your manners towards your teachers and fellow students. Respect is something mutual. You cannot demand respect. You just have to earn it. One very sensible policy is respect begets respect. So, take the initiative by showing your respect for others, not just through your manners but also through your tolerance of the beliefs and opinions of others. This is the first and foremost principle in a democratic society. The famous French writer of the eighteenth century Voltaire wrote about democracy in the following manner :-” I disapprove

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of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. “ This statement says a lot about the true spirit of the democratic principle. Strike a sensible balance between work and play. Only by active participation in class and school affairs can you get the best out of your education for which your parents have worked so hard. Get your best value from it which will surely be reflected in your future success in life to your own satisfaction and that of your family.
On a personal level, you should integrate into the social groups to which you belong before you can contribute to the groups and interact with other members to your mutual benefit. You must have various circles of social groupings of which you are a member. These may include your friends, relatives, schoolmates, religious organizations and other sports clubs or teams. At times you may find it difficult to feel at home among such groups. This is a sign of having integration problems. One common reason for such maladjustment may be attributable to the failure on your part to find your rightful position in the group. You will always feel comfortable among your close friends or mates ( in Australian terminology ) because you feel secured in the knowledge that they care and support your values, opinion and personal feelings. In short, they have identical value judgments as your own. But if you accept the democratic principle to respect the values and opinions of all people, there is no reason why you cannot have the same sense of security among various social groups in which you are a member. But it will take some training. This argument is true only on the assumption that you are aware of your rightful place in the group. Therefore, you must make an intellectual effort to find out. This will involve the initial step of knowing your own personal objectives and goals. Without these personal targets, you will be like a seafarer that sails the seven seas without a chart or destination. You are bound to get lost and never be able to reach the yonder shores. However, it is only fair to assume that at your tender age you may still be looking for your meaningful goals in life and rightly so. In this regard, I would venture to make the following recommendations. You can afford the time to seek your ultimate goal in life but there should always be an awareness on your part that this is the most important task in your life. While you are still undecided, try to make the task easier by classifying your goals into the short term, the medium term and the long term ones. By short term, here I mean by the week; and medium term by the month; and long term by the year. For example, short term goals may involve how to spend your mid- term school break. Time tables of targets activities such as home assignments and sports commitments are always of great help. This is called your time management skill or procedure which you must master in due course. There are, in fact, training classes for such skills which I would highly recommend. Medium term goals may deal with badly needed improvements in certain academic subjects and sports or other extracurricular activities. Long term goals will probably concern the academic position in your class you are aiming at by the end of the school year or which streams of studies ( the science or arts subjects ) you wish to major in next year. Professional counselling in your academic planning is appropriate in these circumstances and it may be available at your school. There is, in fact, the goal for the very long run which is your goal in life. No one should rush into these things which require prolonged personal experience and endless soul searching before a sensible decision can be reached. In my own case, I only decided on my career goal ( a long term goal ) during my matriculation level which was when I was about the age of 18. As mentioned in the prologue, I was not good in mathematics so I decided to change to the arts subjects which finally culminated in the more practical and job-friendly subjects of economics and accounting at the university because of the financial needs of my family. So, each one
must decide on one's own background, ability and interest.
As regards the goal for life which is one of the main themes in this
book. It would appear at first sight to be too distant for young people but, as a matter of fact, time simply flies by without your noticing it. Therefore, even teenagers should think about it once in a while before they enter their tertiary level of education. The sooner you can decide the better for two obvious reasons. Firstly, the earlier you decide the more time will there be for reaching that important goal. Secondly, an earlier start can give you ample time to change your mind and switch to another one should the initial decision be proven unworkable for you over a period of time. For example, if you find that the actual experience of becoming a medical practitioner is not your cup of tea, then you can switch

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to becoming a pharmacist or pathologist and may be a research micro-biologist. Before you make a final decision, make your curriculum of studies as flexible as possible to facilitate later changes should you so wish. But the general direction such as science and arts may have to be decided earlier. The accepted practice appears to be a general education that involves majoring in the sciences or the arts and having a minor credit in the other. This is a very sensible approach in view of the needs of a modern well-informed citizen to be able to make judgments on matters from different perspectives. Therefore, there is a basic need to be able to connect all aspects of one's daily life and society as a whole.
Returning to the buiding of self-confidence, Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of the US president during the Second World War ( Franklin D. Roosevelt ) had this to say :- “ No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” Thus, the key to self- confidence is to know your rightful position in any particular situation. This in turn requires knowledge applicable to that specific occasion. Therefore, a keen and inquesitive attitude is preferrable in combating the mortal sin of ignorance. If you have a general impression of the different aspects of reality ( i.e. the different types of realities- S,H,O,P and their particular natures ) and the working of your own consciousness ( and, in particular, the manner in which your brain works - by conditioning and reinforcement ), you will build up your self-confidence in no time at all. Take my personal experience for example. When I was working as a tax manager in an international CPA firm in Hong Kong at the start of my career, I was given the daunting task of attending a meeting of the board of directors of a very large public company in the place of my supervisor who was on leave. My task was to express our professional tax opinion on a huge real estate development project to be undertaken by the company. Present at the board meeting were the chairman, CEO, CFO, other directors and their legal counsels of the highest calibre. Such an array of seasoned experts is enough to deter the most experienced of tax consultants. On top of all these people, I was accompanied by a senior partner of my CPA firm who is supposed to monitor my performance at the presentation and to lend support if I was considered not to be up to the job. With such a watchful eye on my back and a demanding audience, I felt like I was taking my cut-throat public university entrance examination all over again. I started gingerly but I did put all my expertise in taxation to effective use. As the seconds ticked on I was able to catch everyone's full attention. I noticed that because the legal counsels as well as the CEO and CFO were raising queries in response to the finer points in my presentation of our firm's tax opinion. Then, my self-confidence sets in when I realized from the questions they asked that even the highpower legal counsels were not good at all in accounting principles as they were not supposed to be. There lies the key to my self- confidence. Nobody can be equally good in all areas of skill and knowledge. Do not let famous reputation intimidate you. Each person is an expert in his own way so long as he is well-informed ( i.e. not ignorant ) about his own area of expertise. As long as you put up sufficient effort and with some standard intelligence, anyone can become an expert if one so wishes. In the present example, my in-depth knowledge of my clients' project coupled with my expertise in taxation and a lot of preparation work had won over the day. As times went by, I became more confident and that had a snowball effect on the fluency of my presentation. All parties were completely satisfied by the end of my presentation. So much so that the senior partner had subsequently sent my supervisor an office memorandum that specifically cited my above memorable assignment as an example of the quality to be looked for in my replacement at the time I resigned to start up my own practice. This was a great compliment to me because my firm knew that I was resigning to compete against them in some minor ways. Furthermore, most of my clients had given my small sole proprietorship practice some jobs either for their own associates companies or their business associates as a token of their appreciation. I also remained as personal tax consultants to some of the chairmen of public companies and their close relatives for considerable periods of time even after my resignation from the international CPA firm. This was another great compliment to my abilities and led to further consolidation on my self-confidence.
The important lesson I have learned about self-confidence is that you have to work for it - no pain, no gain. It is a constant law of nature that no one can override. If you want to slim your waistline which is mass ( fat ), you have to burn it into

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energy ( Einstein's law of mass and energy equivalence ) by physical exercise that will turn fat into heat energy, water vapour and carbon dioxide. Mass and energy are both conserved for always. They only change forms but can never be destroyed. Some people choose what they think is the easier way out in taking dubious drugs and undergoing other unproven proccesses without enduring the pain of doing exercise. Apart from possible ramifications on their health, such people have to pay expensively for these questionable treatments. Nevertheless, the financial costs they pay are also hard earned dollars obtained as a result of physical or mental efforts by themselves or someone close to them. There is no free lunch. Occasionally, you may think that you get one but it is only an illusion. Only someone else has paid for it and sometimes without your knowledge. In short, returns for efforts is one of those laws of nature that belongs to the category of objective realities (OR) that are rigid and unchanging phenomena from which no one is exempt. Therefore, be prepared in terms of knowledge and skill and with a bit of luck which is essential ( that is the Network view of history ) you will be on your way to a blooming career when the right chance comes along. Meanwhile, be patient and work on your knowledge which will inevitably breed self-confidence. It is a win-win situation as far as the knowledge acquiring process is concerned. Your knowledge is always conserved ( with you until your dying day ) so there is no wastage anyway. You may even pass it on to your off-springs like what I am doing here and now and that knowledge may be retained for an eternity if it is useful stuff. If you are not prepared, luck will simply be squandered and it will pass you by when it drops in to say hello !
As I have emphasized at the beginning of this section, youth is nature's gift. Young people have the built-in impeccable computer hardware in the form of an agile and sharp intellect ( your fine and marvelous brain ), it would be a sheer waste if you do not put in the all important software program ( that is exemplified by relevant and useful knowledge ) to run it and to beat the cardinal evil of ignorance. You are the future pillars of society and our hopes and dreams. So, youth of the world, whatever you do, never put your brain on hold. As previously mentioned, only about 10 % to 15% of the normal brain capacity is utilized. If you do not make use of it, you will be more foolish than a fool. Because a fool is not up to the task while you are more than capable of accomplishing the job of banishing ignorance from your life forever only if you are willing to try. You will also recall that the process of learning works on a geometric progression basis as I have personally experienced it in my present intellectual journey. It is always a difficult task to overcome the initial mental inertia to start the learning process. It took me some 3 months to read Stephen Hawking's book of A Brief History of Time which consists of only 185 pages. Once the breakthrough is achieved after reading about 30 books in my case ( it is definitely different for each individual depending on your previous training ), the Critical Threshold is attained in terms of the predictions of the theory of the Science of Networks and the Information Cascades take hold. From that point onwards, I never look back, so to speak, as far as the learning process goes. There is one more point of interest for young people. Efforts in learning, I have come to realize, also follow the first law of thermodynamics - the conservation of mass and energy. Whatever efforts you have expended on learning is conserved. The knowledge you have accumulated through your efforts remains with you throughout your life. It is a very fair deal. Besides, if you do not work hard for it when you are young and physically fit you will definitely pay for your neglect in terms of a hard life when you are old and gray. That is a frightening thought, isn't it ? So, it is a matter of sooner or later for making personal efforts. One way or another, you are going to pay for it ( in living your life ). There is no free lunch, remember ? Therefore, it is always better to be sooner rather than later that you acquire enough knowledge to take contorl of your own life. This equally applies to the well-to-do youngsters. Yes, you who have rich parents. Whatever you can expect from your family legacy it cannot sustain your life indefinitely without the protection of knowledge. Without the necessary know-how to manage your inherited wealth, you can lose it in a jiffy. So, the only sensible proposition is to start taking an interest in learning and making a genuine effort to input the software into your really exclusive PC that is your own brain here and now. The earlier you learn the more time you have to make use of the knowledge you have acquired to your own benefit and that of society and, possibly, the whole human race. Who knows? There could probably be a few young Einsteins among you. Never

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underestimate your own potentials. You are what you want yourselves to be. Once you are able to adopt such an attitude sky's the limit for you.
As my long term goal after my retirement, I have decided among other things on reading and writing about science and philosophy. This book hopefully is my first project and represents the results of 6 years of constant reading. You may ask to what purpose ? I can only answer it with another question. The same question that I asked in the preface of this book. Why do people risk life and limb to climb Mount Everest ? What can they gain through their blood, sweat and tears ? Probably, it is just this. I with a capital letter or yours truly have been there ! My learning experience in these past few years had been amazing in the sense that I have become even more confident in my self as a thinking and compassionate human being. I feel that I am at peace and in harmony with nature, my family, my friends and society in general. I sometimes even feel that I am a friend to the animals (our family dog can testify to that if it can speak but it does lie beside me when I am watching T.V. tobear witness to my claim ), the plants, the environment, the atoms, the stars and the galaxies and beyond....... Such is the soothing effects of knowing your rightful place in this universe. That is why I have no hesitatiion whatsoever in recommending such an intellectual journey that does not cost a lot in monetary terms to any mature person who can afford the time. But, be patient, young people of the world, wait until your turn comes along. Meanwhile, persevere in you short term, medium term and long term goals with the hopes and dreams that awaits you in the wings. 

Of Heroes and Housewives

The following is an essay written by me about different kinds of heroic deeds which has been extracted from my book - The Universe - A Personal View ( page 175 to 177 )

Link to my book :-  https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnxqa2hjbGlmZXN0eWxlfGd4OjM5NmM2NTViMjAzY2M5MTk


Of Heroes and Housewives

When we were young we all dreamed of becoming heroes after we grew up. The image of a hero changes with our age. For kids before the age of 10, Superman and Luke Skywalker of Star Wars fame are probably their idols. Then for the teenagers before 18, the image of a hero may have changed to sports megastars, movie idols and rock singers. After the age of 21, our image of a hero may have evolved yet again to cover successful business icons such as Bill Gates of the computer world or Rupert Murdoch of the mass media. Regardless of whom you consider to be a hero, there are certain essential traits that we can always find in such charismatic figures. These important qualities that make people heroes in the eyes of their fellow citizens include courage, generosity, compassion, perseverance, sense of justice, dedication to duty, unconditional sarcrifice and other less noble features such as fame and fortune or power and glamour. Standards for heroism also change through the different ages in human history and vary broadly according to cultural backgrounds. For example, some heroes in ancient history who died for their king in blind loyalty may now be considered as mere fools if they were alive today. The ethical standards may have been modified through the passage of time and changing circumstances. Take Alexander the Great as an illustration, he would have been branded a war monger by present day standards because of his ambition to conquer the world. Of course, he would still be praised for his support and contribution to development of knowledge and science.

Returning to real life heroes, I think they can be classified into the
following categories :- corporal, spiritual and intellectual. Lord Nelson of the Royal Navy who led his fleet to triumph in the defence of Britain at the Battle of Trafalgar but sacrificing his own life in the line of duty is a famous example of a hero of the corporal type. He gave up his life for his country. This category include all those who lost their lives in the defence of freedom and justice in the Great War, World War Two and all other bloody conflicts that involved the protection of innocent people, liberty and justice. The spiritual type of hero or heroine can be found in the outstanding example of the saintly personality of the Reverend Mother Teresa who devoted her entire life to helping the poor, the sick and the underprivileged people in the ghettos of Calcutta in India. Then the intellectual types are even more numerous. They include great scientists and thinkers such as Albert Einstein ( my favourite hero in this category ), Sir Issac Newton, Socrates of ancient Greece and Lao Tzu of ancient China. These intellectual heroes have shaped our minds and

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contributed tremendously to our understanding of the world and improved our standards of living through their ground breaking knowledge in science and technology. Apart from these giants of human history, there are, in fact, many unsung heroes and heroines among us who are less conspicuous but they deserve our respect to no lesser degree. I am referring to the dedicated policemen, fire fighters and the medical workers who make up the essential services of our society. Their dedication and personal sacrifice can be clearly seen during the outbreak of the bird flu epidemic in Hong Kong during 2003 when I was still working in that Special Administrative Region of China. The medical staff of all public hospitals there had to work around the clock during the epidemic to take care of the infected patients. Because of quarantine requirements, they were not allowed to go home to see their families months on end when the epidemic was at its height. Apart from the serious problem of physical and mental fatique, they were also emotionally deprived in missing their families who were also under the threat of the bird flu. The most heroic deed came to light when a young doctor died after contracting the disease at the early stages of the epidemic when not enough information was available to set up the necessary safety procedures to protect the medical staff. This young real life hero was known to have spent extra long hours beyond the call of duty in the hospital's intensive care unit to take care of his patients thus resulting in the weakening of his own immune system against the bird flu. As written in the New Testament of the Bible ( Gospel of St. John, 15 : 13 ) :-'' Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. “ The heroism exhibited by this young doctor is no less noble and courageous than the soldier who dies in combat in the defence of his country and freedom. Only in this case the young doctor was knowingly taking a risk on his own life in combating disease to defend the lives of his patience and paying the ultimate price for his noble mission.The fact that he faced no bullets or bombs but a silent enemy did not require less courage and dedication as the solder in the battle fields. Our hats off to the unsung heroes !

There is no doubt that it takes tremendous guts to go into battle to face the enemy in defence of justice and liberty. In this regard, I am very proud of the ANZAC tradition of my adopted country, Australia. Only briefly during the Second World War that Australia was threatened by the invasion of the evil military might of the then Empire of Japan when Darwin was bombed by the aircrafts from Japanese carriers in Feburary, 1942. Despite her relative safety due to her isolated location, Australian troops had always taken part in important conflicts first as a member of the British Empire and later as part of the British Commomwealth. They had also acted as a part of peace keeping forces under United Nation mandates on all occasions when freedom and the lives of innocent people were threatened. In this process, the precious lives of many Australian young men were sarcrificed for the noble ideals of justice and liberty. For these brave and noble souls, all Australians commemorate their deeds of heroism annually in the ANZAC Day parades. The inscriptions on the walls of the War Memorial in Melbourne- “ Lest we forget “ appropriately reflect the sense of honour and loss we bestowed on such heroes. When I first came to Australia in 1997, I was puzzled by the importance Australians place on the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey in 1915 which ended in the bloodiest defeat for the British and ANZAC troops. Later on, I realized that it was the sense of mateship and self- sacrifice made by many young ANZAC soldiers as young as 16 years of age in helping and caring for their fellow ranks and files that had won them the honour. In the course of their support for their wounded mates, those young heroes had to constantly move back and forth in the midst of flying bullets and shrapnals to bring the wounded medicines and supplies. Many paid the ultimate price in terms of their lives and limbs. This tragic and painful scenario lasted for a few months from August, 1915 to January, 1916 by which time more than 10,000 ANZAC troops were killed. It is not the war and fighting that the Gallipoli spirit is glorified. It is the selfless sacrifice made by these young heroes for their mates beyond the call of duty that had become the ANZAC spirit which is also the national spirits of Australia and New Zealand. While heroism can be used to motivate people especially the younger generation to do good, it can also be misused to lead people into committing hideous crimes. Japanese Militarism that ran rampant during the Second World War was misguided heroism. Furthermore, extremists groups the world over are still using misguided heroism as an effective tool to recruit young and innocent crusaders for their

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perverted cause. How absurd is the claim that killing innocent lives through terrorist acts will make a hero out of the participant and will bestow upon him the right to go to heaven. Heroism based on fame and fortune can also do a lot of damage to the younger generation in motivating them to becoming fanatic fans and supporters of their idols very often leading them to a total neglect of their studies which should be their top prority. As far as these famous idols are concerned, they can also suffer from the illusion of their own invincibility arising from their popularity among their supporters. Many idols of fame and fortune very often engage in risky habits ( such as drug abuse ) as well as dangerous activities ( such as speeding ) under the influence of their illusion of invincibility thus resulting in great personal tragedies. So, even heroes themselves must be level-headed and must be able to make a distinction between people's perceived reality (PR) ( that they are heroes ) and their own objective reality (OR) ( that they are nevertheless as human as their supporters ). Confusing the two types of realities is a recipe for personal disasters.

Then there is heroism of a completely different kind which is, more often than not, taken for granted and most unfairly overlooked. It also concerns huge sacrifice and total dedication. Most of us have got one such heroine at home. Yes, It is your wife, or your mother, the housewives who have the twenty-four seven duty of caring for everyone in the family. Their sense of self-sacrifice is aptly reflected in a song sung by the great country singer Glen Campbell called “ Dreams of the Everyday Housewife “. The lyrics goes like this :- “ Such are the dreams of the everyday housewife you see everywhere any time of the day. Everyday housewives who gave up the good life for me ! “ This description is so true to life and it epitomizes the constant nature of the dedication of motherhood. Mothers all over the world have always been praised for their loving and caring nature. But the finer points of their dedication can only be appreciated in the light of the day in and day out patience and perseverance that is borne out by the tedious and never ending routines of house work all year round. In the battle fields, it only requires enough courage at the right time to become a hero and everything will be over in a matters of seconds if you become a martyr and you will be glorified forever. On the contrary, it takes an eternity to become a good housewife and the process goes on until the day you die. That must surely require a lot of courage, perseverance and total self-sacrifice to achieve. In this sense, housewives are greatest of heroines almost comparable to the calibre of the saintly Mother Teresa. Therefore, everyone whether you are a child or the husband should pay your housewife heroine the respect that is so rightly due to her. You should do this not just by moral support but by taking up whatever duty you are capable of around the house to lighten her load. A duty roster for everyone in the house is not a bad idea. At the very least, you should not make her job any more difficult by having a good habit in using the household facilities. Household work is just one aspect of being a mother. I have and I am sure you must also have come across cases of heroism involving self-sacrificing mothers. I was so touched by a documentary I had seen on the T.V.in Hong Kong a few years back that I had decided there and then to praise and glorify the great virtue of motherhood whenever I had the chance. The case concerned a mother in her fifties who was a widow and had a son of some twenty-five years of age who was a deformed cripple at birth. The son had deformed legs so that he was wheel chair bound since childhood. Before being able to use the wheel chair, our heroine mother had to carry her son around on her back all the time. After he was old enough for the wheel chair the mother had to push his son to school everyday in the wheel chair and had to care for him around the clock. Since the public facilities for the handicapped in Hong Kong are not so well developed, the mother was seen in the documentary to have to carry her adult son on her back when she went shopping at supermarkets or when entering and existing some public transportation systems. It was a very moving scene and brought tears to your eyes. One of the main purposes of the documentary was to raise public awareness of the plight of the handicapped population. The mother was also given a chance to make a public appeal for help in her particular case. Her main concern was not for her own desperate situation but she was worried about not being able to take care of her son any more as she continued to age. Her expressed wish was that the good Lord would give her longer years and the physical fitness to take care of her son. This is really human sacrifice in the highest order and, in my opinion, it even surpasses the heroism in the battle fields. For this heroic

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mother, her battle is for life. In this particular case, her appeal was met with some enthusiastic financial supports from the public only to lighten her load for a while. Unfortunately, there are other personal aspects of her tragic situation that she must face alone. Life can be trying and, sometimes, cruel to some people. Only with the aid of the unrelenting human spirit can the odds be overcome and this particular example is an inspiration to us all. Heroes and housewives, your sense of self-less sarcrifice has provided us with some profound insights into one of human being's most noble attributes that has made the survival of the human race as a whole possible. This love and sacrifice which are the hallmarks of motherhood is a part of the working of the Natural Law that has enabled the cosmos to turn in unending cycles of regenerations of life and that is the reason why life can go on against all impossible odds !