OutSyed The Box |
- Languages Of Knowledge
- DAP To "Cut Off" Kambing Hitam's Head
- Saturday Lite : Arab Prophecy
- Saturday Lite : Investment Guru's Advice
| Posted: 14 Dec 2012 11:00 PM PST I like to begin this by asking a question. Can the Orang Asli languages or the languages of the aboriginal peoples become languages of science and knowledge? Why not? Of course they can. But it will take time and huge amounts of effort by the Orang Asli community. There are many hurdles which they will have to overcome. They are a simple people with not a very complex culture. One hurdle for them will be recognising modern time. The Orang Asli have no concept of time that the rest of us have come to understand. They have no need to keep track of the years. They dont care if this is 2012 or if there is such a thing as December 21, 2012. I doubt they have any idea of a seven day week. I am certain (from my own experience) that they have no idea of a 24 hour day. It is just not in their culture, traditions or language. You cannot tell an Orang Asli who lives in the jungle "Lets meet on Wednesday at 3 pm". They would not understand what it is. So imagine a worldview (weltenschaung) which is quite devoid of any serious reference to time. Can the Orang Asli develop as a commercial, business or scientific community without sufficient references to time in their language? I think it will be very, very difficult. It can be done but it will take humongous effort and humongous changes to the Orang Asli culture, traditions and way of life. And it will take a long, long time. The shortcut for the Orang Asli would be to learn another language which will quickly put them in a position to go the next step up - a language which has a larger vocabulary and provides them greater access to new knowledge. The keyword here is access to knowledge. Some clever people at the German Goethe Institute in Germany have said the following : "Science and scholarship are inconceivable without language. Language is a central instrument of scientific endeavour and offers access to a world of knowledge and ideas, publications, teaching and research, and academic exchange." This is a precise, concise and very German observation of the importance of language to ACCESS knowledge. However NO ONE language can claim a permanent mantle as the language of knowledge. In the past it was NOT the language itself that generated new knowledge. It was the people who spoke the languages who developed habits and cultures that gave birth to innovation, knowledge and success. As a result their languages developed as they themselves developed. However in the modern age this may not be true anymore because we have such a thing as world languages - or languages that are spoken widely around the world by many people of diverse ethnicities and cultures. Due to the colonial history of the world, these are usually the European languages like English, Spanish, French, Portugese etc. These languages were all spoken by world powers at some point in history. However speaking the 'modern' European languages does not generate automatic success. There still are poor countries in "Spanish speaking" South America. And in a turn of events Portugese speaking Brazil may be more economically advanced than Portugal - the colonial mother land. But without the Spanish language, the native South Americans may be even poorer. Their native languages would be even more hard pressed to create a modern, scientific and knowledge based society. Similarly without the Portugese language it is unlikely the Brazilians will be where they are today. I think Portugese has helped Brazil move up the knowledge curve much faster. Ancient Greek A long time ago, the Greek language held a pre-eminent position in the history of the West and Christianity. There was a reason behind the rise of the Greek language. The Greeks ruled the world. Athens was the home of democracy and the Olympics. Alexander the Macedonian led a Greek army to conquer the world. And who has not heard of Greek philosophy - the Platonic dialogues and Aristotle? Greek was the language of intellectual discourse and knowledge for a very, very long time. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was written in Greek. Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world. And even as late as the Roman Byzantine Empire, Greek was their official language. Greek roots were used to coin new words for other languages, especially in the sciences and medicine. Over fifty thousand English words are said to be derived from the Greek language. Then the Greeks lost it. They also became carried away by religion. Today Greek is spoken only among the 13 million people in near bankrupt Greece. The Greeks fell behind modernism. They became less modern, less scientific. The Latin Language Latin was spoken in Ancient Rome. It originated on the Italian peninsula. It is now a dead language but at one time there was little new knowledge without Latin. Until today students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak it fluently. Latin used to be standard study in Cambridge, Oxford and other universities. Why did Latin become so eminent? Because of the Italian people and the Roman Empire. Latin developed along with the mighty Roman Empire. The Romans were conquerors, builders, mighty engineers and brought law and order to the lands they conquered. With the decline of the Roman Empire, Latin also declined. But the influence of Latin was so great that it was used as the language of international communication, scholarship and science until well into the 18th century. Latin is still used in biological taxonomy. The Arab Language Perhaps the most important scientific language the world has known was (I say "was") the Arabic language. The Arabs simply burst on the scene out of nowhere and in 300 years (800AD - 1100AD) discovered so many things. Aljebra, algorithm, chemistry (al-kimia) and a million other things. Nearly all the stars in the sky which have names are Arabic names. Star names like Acamar, Acrab, Acubens, Aldebaran are all Arabic. The Arabs gave us our "Arabic numbers" without which we may not be able to count as well. Around the 10th -11th centuries the European intelligentsia travelled to Toledo in Arab Spain to study Arabic and science. Here is some history of Toledo under the Arabs : "After the Castilian conquest (1085 AD), Toledo continued to be a major cultural centre; its Arab libraries were not pillaged, and a tag-team translation centre was established in which books in Arabic would be translated from Arabic to Spanish by Muslim and Jewish scholars, and from Spanish to Latin by Castilian scholars, thus letting long-lost knowledge spread through Christian Europe again" So Arabic was the language of science and knowledge because the Arabs up to that time were a people of science and knowledge. They were a fantastic people. They had even named the stars in the sky. But when the Arabs declined, so did their language. There is extremely very little new knowledge or science in the Arabic language today. And it is declining even further. Today it would be a waste of time to study Arabic other than to understand the Quran directly. There is no other value to the Arabic language. English English is now the lingua franca supreme of the world. With the advent of the Internet, English is now seeing yet another rebirth. Since the 1990s English is growing more and more in importance all around the world. Firstly English became pre-eminent because of that small group of tenacious people who live in a place called England on the British Isles. They colonised the world (and destroyed civilisations as well), they built the first steam engines, the first steel mills, they were scientists, inventors, they had among the best laws and legal systems from a very early period plus a thousand other things. By any yardstick the English (and the British) were great achievers. They achieved many things. Their industry and their colonial enterprise spread the English language throughout the world. Then one of their colonies, English speaking America, sprang up and overtook the mother country as the greatest nation on the surface of the earth. This further boosted English as the lingua franca of the world - eclipsing French and Spanish completely. Now in the 21st century, the Internet is boosting English into the stratosphere again. The Internet connects human beings from the North Pole to the South Pole. The language of the Internet is again English. English is having its third or fourth continuous rebirth and boost as the language of knowledge, science, trade and international relations. It is also the language of Bangalore in India, the software capital of the world. The only language that can eclipse English is possibly Mandarin but that may take some time. Also English is now the fastest growing foreign language being spoken in China. China will soon have the most number of non-native English speaking people in the world. Why English, even in China? Well it saves time. It is much faster. Time is what we all do not have. English is the short cut to new knowledge, new science and hence the super highway to competitiveness, efficiency, and advancement. The world has really changed. The Internet is now changing the world again, quite permanently . The world is now more knowledge based than ever. To conclude let me quote the example of Bangalore again. Bangalore is the capital of the State of Karnataka in India. The people of Karnataka speak a native language called Kannada (pronounced Canada). Few people outside India even know this language exists. Bangalore is still the "software capital" of the world. Bangalore's software industry generates nearly all of India's RM200 billion sales of IT products every year. That is a lot of wealth. Here is a picture of modern Bangalore.  Yet the population of programmers in India is just over 2.0 million people. Considering that India has a population of 1.1 Billion people (the vast majority of whom CANNOT speak English) it means that less than 1% of their population generate the RM200 billion in IT revenue per year. And this 1% MUST speak English. As I mentioned, Karnataka has its own native language - the Kannada language which has a very long history. They have an unbroken literary history that goes back 1,500 years. This means they have literary works that are 1,500 years old. That is a very old language. Yet Kannada is NOT a language of science and knowledge in the same league as English, German or Latin (during its time). Imagine if the people of Karnataka and Bangalore had insisted that they will forego English and focus more on their own 1,500 year old native Kannada language, do you think that Bangalore will be the software capital of the world today? Do you think that they can generate RM200 billion in software sales a year and build all those skyscrapers that you see in the picture above? Somehow I dont think so. Most likely it would not have happened. In today's modern setting, not to understand English fluently will be quite suicidal - especially for societies which do not yet have their own knowledge base. Yes they can try to do it, even the Orang Asli can become a knowledge based society using their own languages. But their learning curve will be much slower. It will take a longer time. A very long time. It also means that they will remain poorer for a longer time.  |
| DAP To "Cut Off" Kambing Hitam's Head Posted: 14 Dec 2012 06:19 PM PST I think this is what will happen at the DAP Convention in Penang today. Lets wait and see. Well actually they are going to cut off a chicken's head and it is happening in Bentong, Pahang. Here is the silly news: Village chief dares DAP to tell the truth
First things first ok - where are Suaram, Hari Ram, Gopal Ram and the other Rams? Isnt there anyone who can speak up for cruelty to animals? Cruelty because this is a political taunt. One DAP fellow is challenging another DAP fellow to "cut off a chicken's head" at a temple to prove something. I say kawan - can I suggest something? Why dont you all go and ask Haron Jin for a Fatwa first? Last time he said that fellow did not have to swear an oath in the mosque or on the Quran to prove that he was innocent of sodomy. Maybe this way you dont have to cut off a poor chicken's head. What did the chicken do to die like that? Kasi chan lah sama itu ayam. Lagi pun sekarang in Selangor sudah banyak ayam mah. Sana sini semua ayam. In Selangor all the ayam can live and prosper. In Bentong, Pahang the DAP wants to 'cut off their heads'. Here is the news : Mushrooming e-casinos and vice activities in Selangor worrying residents "PETALING JAYA: By day, they are typical business areas but at night, they turn into bustling gambling hubs where e-gambling is all the rage. For extra pleasure, there are nightclubs, pubs and places offering sex services. The lack of enforcement by the authorities has led to the mushrooming of these places in Selangor.." The PAS objected to the dancing girls performing on stage at the DAP fund raising dinner. May I suggest something else : just serve them the ayam lah. That should solve the problem. These are "religious" people remember.  |
| Posted: 14 Dec 2012 05:48 PM PST I have played this video twice before. This is the third time I am uploading it in my Blog. This video was taped in 2009 (so it says). The guy in the video, a writer Anwar Malek from Algeria, is being prophetic. He condemns the Arabs and their leaders as being good for nothing. Note that he says the following : "The Arab rulers are a reflection of the people. The Arab rulers did not come down from Mars or from the sun. They emerged from among the people and share the same beliefs. If you placed any Arab citizen in power..I challenge any Arab citizen who may become a ruler to do anything beyond what the current Arab rulers are doing. There is no difference between the Arab rulers and the Arab peoples." He is being 100% correct. In 2011 the Arab Spring happened. Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Yemen and (soon Syria) overthrew their leaders and installed new rulers. Egypt also has a new leader - a man from among themselves who looks like them, eats like them, thinks like them, dresses like them and talks like them. Here is his picture :  Anwar Malek says "there is no difference between the Arab people and the Arab rulers". He also says : "Look at how the Arabs live in the West. By Allah they are a bad example. If you hear about thieves they are always Arabs... All the negative moral values are to be found in the Arab individual.." This is an Arab speaking about ALL other Arabs. Ini bukan saya cakap. Jangan marah saya ok. But we see the same thing here in Malaysia. The PAS says they are the best people in the world. But their timbalan was caught BY THEM for khalwat. Then they let him go - on technical grounds. Banyak cantik. They say khalwat is not good morals tapi timbalan presiden sendiri ditangkap khalwat. They summoned a non-Muslim 16 year old Chinese boy and his female friend for khalwat who was just horsing around in a public park (not in a hotel room). How come no "technical grounds" for the Chinese boy? Then another fellow who is a peliwat and a penzina (caught on video tape) they promote as their 'ketua umum' pula. So what kind of morals do these people have? You shout to the whole world jangan zina, then your ketua pula berzina. You shout to the whole world jangan liwat, your ketua pula liwat. You shout to the whole world jangan khalwat, (even arresting non Muslims) your timbalan pula khalwat. So here is the soalan cepu mas : what is the common factor between the Arabs, the PAS and the people who dress like them, look like them, talk like them, think like them and smell like them? It is their own "religion". Their sendiri bikin "religion" makes them crazy. I am not referring to Islam. This has nothing to do with Islam. This is their own man made "religion" that makes them mad.  |
| Saturday Lite : Investment Guru's Advice Posted: 14 Dec 2012 02:00 PM PST Dr. Marc Faber, the investment guru, concluded his monthly bulletin with the following comments :  Dr. Marc Faber tells it how it is "The US government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China . If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer, it will go to India . If we purchase fruits and vegetables it will go to Mexico , Honduras and Guatemala . If we purchase a good car, it will go to Germany and Japan . If we purchase useless crap, it will go to Taiwan . In short, none of it will help the American economy. The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in the US . I've been doing my part....."  |
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