Author: Hafiz Noor Shams
For more about me, please read this.
A finding that might affect housing policies (via):
Andrew Oswald, an economist at the University of Warwick, found that homeownership makes workers less mobile, which brakes economic growth and worsens unemployment, especially in areas blighted by the decline of locally dominant industries. Strictly speaking, whether this is a social problem is debatable. The costs of unemployment are borne mostly by the unemployed, not by others. Workers in company towns might be wise to spread their risk rather than sink their savings into a house close to the plant—but, you might argue, that is for them to decide. Yet Oswald argues that homeownership helps to calcify whole economies, which weakens the case for subsidy (and introduces the case for new taxes to discourage homeownership). [Housebound. Clive Crook. The Atlantic. December 2007]
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[1467] Of politics of fear
The government says it is taking a tough stand against street demonstrations because it fears they could lead to violence, but opposition parties say the government is merely using this fear as a pretext to clamp down on free speech and popular dissent. [Malaysian police halt human-rights day march. Reuters. December 9 2007]
And concurrently:
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Malaysian police detained 21 opposition members, lawyers and activists Sunday, including nine people who joined a banned human rights march, officials said, in a widening crackdown following a series of anti-government protests.
Twelve members of an opposition coalition were among those rounded up in nationwide raids for taking part in a banned rally on Nov. 10 demanding electoral reforms, coalition spokesman Syed Azman Syed Ahmad told The Associated Press. The coalition plans to hold a second demonstration on Tuesday outside Parliament.
The arrests are part of a growing crackdown on disgruntled Malaysians who have held a slew of anti-government protests and demonstrations, jolting the administration of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ahead of elections expected soon. [Malaysian police detain 21 people for illegal rallies. IHT. December 9 2007]
The crackdown on those that exercised liberty by the current administration occurs as the Human Rights Day approaches. Ironically, as highlighted by myAsylum, Malaysia sits on the United Nations Human Rights Council.
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[1466] Of random find
I am sleepy but this is too cool for me to be selfish: check out Wikisky.org.
Already it is December. My, oh my, how time flies. I woke up last Saturday to discover that it was already 12 hours into December. Around this time several years ago, I’d wake up in a very dark room, curtain blocking the sunlight from penetrating. I’d smile because I was thankful to be alive. I felt blessed. There was nothing more I would ask. These days however, I’m angry, disillusioned and tired. Whereas a smile came naturally then, it’s a chore now.
I wish I could turn back time, forever savoring that blissful moment again and again and again. I wish I could just stare at the ceiling for the whole morning, knowing full well that for that day at least, I was happy and nothing would bother me. I would breathe in cool fresh air filling my pair of lungs with sweetness and then slowly releasing the air. All worries would dissipate by mere breathing. By just breathing, I was satisfied. I would just lie on my bed, breathing, smiling and eyes wide opened, for hours. It was bliss that seems so distance now.
I could hear Haydn in the background. No, it was not on the radio. It was in my head and only I alone could hear it. I had listened to him too many a time the previous night. I had closed my eyes, concentrated to the music and fell asleep over it. If I may, there was an afterimage, an aftertaste that lingered in my consciousness. And I cried before I embarked on a journey to slumber, as I am right now. I cried not because of Haydn but because of that bliss, knowing that it wouldn’t last. And I cry now, for I have tasted the fruit and I long for it. No more could I hear Haydn in the background.
Suddenly a voice, “carpe diem!”
Realizing the sun would not wait for me, I would take a walk, enjoying my time in the sun. I would stroll along the river, enjoying the breeze with an empty mind. I would imagine that I was flying amid a field where the long grasses grew just over the hill away from the clumsy ducks. Before long, I would find myself staring into the blue sky, liberated, lying on the earth, again smiling to myself. And breathing, and satisfied.
That has past and I am growing increasingly bitter now. Each day provokes anger continuously without fail. Already the anger is saturating to a point that it begins to define the opposite of bliss. I dread waking up every day. I really do. I wish I would sleep and never to wake up. I wish for liberty from physical constraints.
Let others argue for I am tired. It is the same argument over and over again. It is the same polemics, the same flaws, the same rationale, the same answers. Enough.
p/s — the early edition of this article was first published at Bolehland.