For more about me, please read this.
After much delay, ReMag 2 is out. Check it out.
The work on ReMag 3 has just started and we are looking for contribution. If you are a Malaysian student and are interested in contributing, email me at mnoorsha [at] umich [dot] edu. If you are not a Malaysian and are still interested in contributing, just email me. I will improvise; the rules are not written in stone.
It has been 35 years since the worst racial riot occurred in Malaysia. At least 184 Malaysians were found dead on that day. Wikipedia has a short description of what the May 13 Incident was all about.
Looking back in time, Malaysia has gone far in achieving racial harmony. I can’t deny this but I fear that racial harmony is not enough. The harmony in Malaysia actually depends on the suppression of free speech. This suppression does not solve the racial tension but it merely delays the day when it is supposed to explode.
Because of this, Malaysia actually depends on pseudo-harmony rather than a real harmony.
A real harmony lives without any kind of restriction. A real harmony does not need suppression of free speech. A real harmony does not need a law to impose harmony. A pseudo-harmony on the other hand does need an artificial mechanism to prevent racial tension.
With a mechanism to suppress free speech in place, the underlying reasons that continue to divide Malaysia along racial line will never be addressed properly. The inability to discuss the matter as it should be will be the undoing of the law that tries to impose this pseudo-harmony. Without the ability to discuss on the issue, distrust will always be there because a simple understanding between one and another is simply hard to reach. One cannot understand somebody when that somebody is being silenced.
With free speech, dialogues are possible and the real issues could be addressed without the fear of being detained for committing thought crime by the thought police. Without free speech, Malaysia would never reach a real kind of harmony. With this thought police around, free speech and freedom in general will always be a privilege instead of a right.
As long as free speech is not our right, a real harmony will always be out of any Malaysian in Malaysia grasp. And as long as we live in a pseudo-harmony, we will always recognize ourselves as Malay, Chinese, Indian or God knows what else instead of as Malaysian.
Finally, as we will recognize ourselves along racial line, the next May 13 is bound to happen all over again. It is just a matter of when.
Earlier, some time around January or February this year, the USD exchange rate took a nose dive and became very weak. A weak USD should, would or could increase export because a weak USD means local goods are made cheaper relative to foreign goods. This would make the local consumers to switch from foreign to local goods. Also, foreigners’ demand for local goods should rise. This directly means that import should fall and export should rise, resulting in lower/bigger trade deficit/surplus.
However, quite the contrary, instead of being reduced, the US trade deficit continues to grow. Currently, the trade deficit is at a record breaking $46 billion. According to an AFP report:
“It probably suggests the US dollar has not depreciated enough over the last couple of years to stabilize the external balances”
That is the easy explanation to why the trade deficit does not follow the marcoeconomics theory.
Economics is an easy science, isn’t it? When something doesn’t go with the theory, let’s assume we have a can opener.
But of course, despite the notorious term of ceteris paribus (a latin term which means all things equal), there are other reasons that need to be considered. Other then AFP, both CNN Money and Reuters state that the high crude oil price helps fuel the trade deficit.
This sounds a good explanation, I guess, because oil does seem to have a low elasticity of demand. A low elasticity of demand translates to the phrase “a huge increase price would not affect demand greatly”. I don’t see people quit driving their car despite seeing the rise in oil price.
This makes me wonder – how high does the oil price need to go until demand for oil actually falls substantially?
p/s – The US registers a budget surplus for April.
pp/s – propaganda against H2 via Seat of the Revolution.
ppp/s – for those of you who are interested in seeing the Nick Berg beheading video, it can be found here and here. Courtesy of Wikipedia. Be warned, it is graphic. I hope justice will get those bastards.
This piece of news confirms my sighting. The cicada invasion has begun.
The funny thing is, I saw only one of it, not thousands of them.
I’ve switched back to Haloscan. It turns out, Blogger’s new commenting system offers limited free service when compared to Haloscan.
And, just now at approximately 1800 hours, I think I saw a cicada. This is bad news. The invasion has begun.
It looks harmless but, Robin, to the Batmobile! Hurry! Gotham needs us! I mean, Annarbour needs us!