CSF Journals

When I was assaulted by 4 men, on 7th June 2008, who were operators of a bus company in Kuala Lumpur, I learnt about the fears in the streets of our community. (Refer to Familylane ) From the rude bus operators who behaved like gangsters in ushering passengers around, it was no wonder that after I was bashed up, I could not get anyone present there to be my witness of the incident. I personally appealed to them one by one, be it a young or old man and even a religious woman with her hair traditionally covered. None would nod their head to indicate a desire to assist me. My own boys in the bus of course were willing to help especially my youngest who was surprisingly calm and said he would be a willing witness. But when my oldest boy gave out a loud cry of trauma as I sought his help to translate to an older mandarin speaking man for his help, I knew the air was tensed with waves of anxiety and fear. I must add that coming out of the bus itself when I was finally allowed to, I must h...

See I have observed that fear is a big culprit of our subconscious minds. I’ve noted that fear can do one of two things to one who is conscious of the fear or has it hidden in the subconcious. First is that it can paralyze the person, making the person fear further in repeating an action or weakens the individual to feel it’s a waste of time to do anything to change the circumstances even if it involves carrying out a non-related action. Apathy is the result of what you get with fears in our subconscious minds. On the other hand, for more action orientated personalities, fear can invoke anger in these individuals which if not controlled by thought results in violence. Fear narrows the mind to a fight or flight mentality, thinking there are only two choices when there could be a third or more. That is why educated people, who in my opinion have had education gone through them instead of just having gone through education, will find themselves in a more optimal state to do something ...

Fear can be said to be part of an automated response system built into our being for a good purpose and generally that is to prevent Man from hurting himself when confronted with a situation where the body senses there is a danger. Faith on the other hand I perceive is not something that is part of an automated response system but involves a higher faculty of the mind, especially for adults. Why I say especially for adults is that for children, faith seems to come naturally when their higher faculties of the mind are not mature yet. Yet they seem to exercise childlike faith but that is attributed mainly to the fact that they are new in experiencing the world and in learning. Therefore they develop a natural faith to accept what is new with little knowledge or experience of fear. It is through time that fear develops as children personally experience danger or are conditioned by the parents to fear many things that they have not experienced personally yet so that they will be more care...

The last two decades have produced more research on the brain and more new brain technologies than all the discoveries of the past. Current research shows the brain is physically shaped by the interaction among genes, the environment and experience. The debate about whether a child’s brain is shaped by genes(nature) or by experience(nurture) is over. “It’s both. And the truth is in the interaction,” said neuroscientist Judy Cameron, a member of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (NSCDC), in the perspective “Stress, Neural Systems, and Genetic Code.” (2006) The NSCDC says, “The brain is composed of billions of highly integrated sets of neural circuits (i.e., connections among brain cells) that are ‘wired’ under the interactive influences of genetics, environment and experience.” (2007 Report) While brain circuits shaped through early experiences retain “plasticity” and “may adapt their architecture, at least partially, to experience in adulthood,” later interventio...

I was born a year after the independence of Malaysia. I was therefore nurtured in an environment where I enjoyed a freedom that was part of my life in Malaysia.  I had also traveled to other parts of what they call the 'free world'. In my teens in the winter of 1976, I had a chance to back pack in Europe, which was an eye opener. I took Aeroflot, a Russian airline which transited in Moscow in the then 'communist world' that we knew. It gave me a short glimpse of what the not so free world would be. After that mind opening trip to Europe, I would spend another 3 years in a land of nature and freedom of Australia for my tertiary education. After going home to raise a family and begin my professional career in the business world for the next 30 years where the United States was the key country of my visits besides doing business in busy Asia. I believe my accumulated experience gave me a good grounding of what it is like to be in the democratic and capitalist world. B...

(To auto scroll to the bottom, click here. ) The beauty in the basics of democracy is that there is mutual respect, ability to enjoy harmony in diversity and to agree to disagree. What is theory is of course not always the same in practice but in the case of Malaysia, I must say that the freedom I experienced living in what the world regards as a developing country is comparable even to some of the advanced democratic countries of the world. When I talk about freedom, I'm specifically referring to freedom of mind to believe what I choose to believe in, freedom to move around freely and safely in the country and with a freedom to chose my vocation and lifestyle with a choice of goods and services available in most other countries and perhaps even more. My feelings that the freedom I had experienced in Malaysia is comparable to America was shared in an early day post here.  I stated that perhaps the well-defined laws in the US created the environment of mutual respe...