Deforestation, commodities and the lives of South East Asians

The titles above seem to portray the concerns of Europe and the West over deforestation in Asia or specifically South East Asia. The focus is palm oil, the major crop and commodity of Malaysia and Indonesia that contributes a significant portion to their respective GDP.

I wonder if the parties against deforestation always had better solutions for eradicating poverty and improving living standard and lifestyle of the people in these palm oil producing countries. A primary responsibility of a government is creating jobs and providing means for earning a living for its citizens by utilizing available resources. If the resources are natural, then there is no escape, damage is certain.

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Spirituality: Attempting to see the other as you

Spiritual experience is a human experience. Religious or spiritual paths maybe the means for spiritual experience but it does not belong to any one of them in particular.

The question is who is experiencing. I would use this analogy. Let’s say a Christian, Hindu and Muslim are tasting some sugar right after their prayers. I’m sure each one would have tasted sweetness in his tongue. The tongue simply tasted the sweetness. It wasn’t Christian-sweetness for the Christian, it wasn’t Hindu-sweetness for the Hindu, and you get what I mean.

Similarly spiritual experience is ‘tasted’ by a human’s mind and ‘heart’. My argument is that it is the same for all humans in different spiritual paths. It’s the same sweetness. I wish everyone would come to understand this and unite as simple human beings without egos attached.

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A blockchain use case: Unlocking ‘Dead Capital’

Dead capital is made up of assets that are not recognized in the financial economy. It is an economic term used to describe property which has no legal recognition.

It is a world where the ownership of assets is difficult to trace
and validate. It is governed by no legally recognizable set of
rules; where the assets’ potentially useful economic attributes
have not been described or organized; where they cannot be used
to obtain surplus value through multiple transactions because
their unfixed nature and uncertainty leave too much room for
misunderstanding, faulty recollection and reversal of agreement.
Where most assets, in short, are dead capital.

Hernando De Soto, The Mystery of Capital

Agriculture is not just a food-producing industry. It is the backbone of the
rural livelihood system and a major source of employment. Moreover, smallholder farmers fill the major share of the global food production.

But, many rural farmers may not even have a savings account. They are located in remote areas and are not high income earners. Banks find it inconvenient and costly to provide services to those unbanked. Continue reading →

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Politics

The meaning of politics according to the Oxford dictionary.

 

  • The activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power.
  • The activities of governments concerning the political relations between states.
  • The academic study of government and the state.
  • A particular set of political beliefs or principles.
  • The principles relating to or inherent in a sphere or activity, especially when concerned with power and status.
  • Activities aimed at improving someone’s status or increasing power within an organization.

The keywords seem to be government, state, country, power, status, parties and political beliefs or principles. I find this shallow and merely technical. I would say that politics must be build upon the land and nature that sustains lives including humans. It must not be made for administrative borders and the well being of just humans.

If we don’t work to save and secure the environment and ecology, human survival will become uncertain and then politics will be futile. Continue reading →

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Sharing Economy

We know that people have been sharing and bartering since the earliest civilizations began. So, there is nothing innovative about farmers sharing their tools and we letting our friends to stay over at our place for a night or two. These have more to do with sharing and nothing in terms of business.

It’s different when people do similar things with strangers for a fee. Technology has delivered ease of use and convenience for organizing a wide range of peer-to-peer commercial exchange that has given birth to Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit and many more.

Uber and Lyft, for example, enable individuals to turn their own cars into taxis. These individuals have the liberty to decide when to drive and for how long. For some of them it’s a gig and for many others it’s the main source of income. Airbnb enables residential property owners to turn their properties into hotels and TaskRabbit is your errand boy. Continue reading →

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REIC: Real Estate Investment Cooperative

REIC is an example of how a community could take charge of its place and with that its culture and destiny. It is a community organized real estate investment fund where everybody from the community could invest and become a member-owner. It’s barn-raising 21st century style where all members have a vote in decision making. REIC is formed upon the belief that when none could do it alone, it could be done by leveraging contribution of a community. Continue reading →

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Opinion: Political Leader, Religious Leader

I despise political parties. I wish for the demise of them all. But then political parties and politicians are the norm of politics and state leadership in the present context.

Having accepted this bitter pill, in my opinion a political leader must never assert himself or herself as a religious leader. A political leader who takes up position in the administration of a state or nation must always discuss ideas and programs that would bring social and economic progress to the community he or she serves. This goes to all political parties too as a whole. Continue reading →

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Social Progress Index (SPI)

Social Progress Index (SPI) is a new framework used to measure the state of social progress of a country or a region. It has 52 measurement indicators defined within 3 major aspects, these are, Basic human needs, Foundations of well-being and Opportunity. It basically defines what it means and what it takes to be a good society. Continue reading →

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I Wish: Hybrid National Schools

Vernacular schools and English proficiency are two issues of Malaysian education system that crop up time and again. These topics have been and still are the juice for a cacophony of debates and discussions over the national media. I too have wondered long on these issues and now ready to add another string of complexity to this matter in tangles. Continue reading →

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