Lessons we can learn from Japan

 Read this beautiful Information about Japan

1 - Did you know that Japanese children clean their schools every day for a quarter of an hour with teachers, which... led to the emergence of a Japanese generation who is modest and keen on cleanliness.

2 - Did you know that any Japanese citizen who has a dog must carry bag and special bags to pick up dog droppings. Hygiene and their eagerness to address cleanliness is part of Japanese ethics.

3 - Did you know that hygiene worker in Japan is called "health engineer" and can command salary of USD 5000 to 8000 per month, and a cleaner is subjected to written and oral tests!!

4 - Did you know that Japan does not have any natural resources, and they are exposed to hundreds of earthquakes a year but do not prevent her from becoming the second largest economy in the world? -

5 - Did you know that Hiroshima returned to what it was economically vibrant before the fall of the atomic bomb in just ten years?

6 - Did you know that Japan prevents the use of mobile in trains, restaurants and indoor

 

7 - Did you know that in Japan students from the first to sixth primary year must learn ethics in dealing with people -

8 - Did you know that the Japanese even though one of the richest people in the world but they do not have servants. The parents are responsible for the house and children -

9 - Did you know that there is no examination from the first to the third primary level; because the goal of education is to instill concepts and character building, not just examination and indoctrination. -

10 - Did you know that if you go to a buffet restaurant in Japan you will notice people only eat as much as they need without any waste. No wasteful food.

11 - Did you know that the rate of delayed trains in Japan is about 7 seconds per year!! They appreciate the value of time, very punctual to minutes and seconds

12 -. Did you know that children in schools brush their teeth (sterile) and clean their teeth after a meal at school; They maintain their health from an early age -

13 - Did you know that students take half an hour to finish their meals to ensure right digestion When asked about this concern, they said: These students are the future of Japan

Generation who refuse to grow up: No mortgage. No marriage. No children. No career plan. Like so many 30-somethings, Marianne Power admits she's one of them...

The other day I had lunch with my father, who was in London on business. He took me to his favourite pub and somewhere between the tomato soup and the mains he started a conversation that he has, until now — miraculously — avoided.

He glanced nervously at the waiter and sank his glass of wine before launching in, asking me what my plans are for life: Did I see myself settling down and starting a family? Am I saving up to buy a house? What is going to be the next step in my career?

There was a pause as I looked at him blankly and shrugged, before muttering that immortal phrase, loved by teenagers across the land: ‘I dunno.’

Except I’m not a teenager. I am 34.

Refusing to grow up: Those adults who do not acknowledge responsibilities like marriage, children and their career have been dubbed 'the Peter Pan generation'

When he was my age, my father was putting my six-year-old sister and eight-year-old me through prep school, and had another three-year-old daughter at home. He had been running a business for ten years, owned a house and had a pension.

In short, all the usual trappings and responsibilities of a middle-class man of that generation.

I, on the other hand, live in a rented flat with my youngest sister and have few savings to speak of. I certainly don’t have a pension.

As for the idea of marriage and children, well, it’s exactly that: just an idea — it’s no closer to being a reality than it was when I was 23.

My ‘life plan’ as my father so sweetly called it, goes as far as this weekend.

‘Don’t you think you should start thinking about these things?’ he asked. ‘You do know you’re not 20 any more, don’t you?’

I’m not sure that I do.

While I am a fully paid up member of adult society in many ways — I pay taxes, cast my vote and give money to charity — in other ways, I am in hopeless denial about my age.

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Media Statement: THE BODHGAYA SACRILEGE

Dear Friend,

Peace.

Please see below the latest media statement from Dr. Chandra Muzaffar:-

Media Statement:

THE BODHGAYA  SACRILEGE

10 days after a series of blasts at the famous Bodhgaya temple complex in Bihar, India, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has yet to come up with any lead on who was responsible for the dastardly deed. All that it has produced so far is a sketch of a person moving suspiciously in the area before the 7^th July incident.

Indian authorities should expedite investigations and nail down the culprit or culprits in the shortest possible time.  As long as their identity is not known and the motives for the heinous act are not established clearly, rumours and suspicions will continue to gain currency. They will poison relations between Buddhists and people of other faiths not only in India but also in other parts of the world.

All places of worship should be protected and respected.  This is why in 2002 the International Movement for a Just World (JUST) launched a worldwide campaign to protect all places of worship. A Convention was drafted for this purpose. Though a number of prominent personalities such as Nobel Peace Laureates, Desmond Tutu and Mairead Maguire, and renowned faith based organisations from all major traditions, endorsed the Convention its impact was limited.

As a place of worship and sacred site, the Bodhgaya temple that houses the holy bodhi tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, and the massive Mahabodhi statue of the Buddha, has an exalted status in Buddhism. It is highly revered by Buddhists all over the world. UNESCO had named it as a World Heritage site in 2002.

It is a shame that whenever the sanctity of a place of worship or a sacred site is violated, not many organisations or personalities from other religious backgrounds openly condemn the sacrilege. Most of the time, we appear to be concerned with only our own community and its symbols and institutions.  This is an attitude that should change.

To paraphrase the illustrious 13^th century Muslim poet-philosopher, Shaikh Saadi, it is only when we feel for the suffering of the other that we can call ourselves human.

Dr. Chandra Muzaffar,

President,

International Movement for a Just World (JUST).

Malaysia.

17 July 2013.

Edward Snowden speaks

What I Have Done Is Costly, But It Was The Right Thing To Do

By Edward Snowden

13 July, 2013

@ Countercurrents.org

NSA Whistleblower asks for support from international community and human rights campaigners

Edward Snowden along with Sarah Harrison of WikiLeaks (left) at a meeting with human rights campaigners in Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow today where he released the following statement. (Photograph: Tanya Lokshina/Human Rights Watch)

Hello. My name is Ed Snowden. A little over one month ago, I had family, a home in paradise, and I lived in great comfort. I also had the capability without any warrant to search for, seize, and read your communications. Anyone’s communications at any time. That is the power to change people’s fates.

It is also a serious violation of the law. The 4th and 5th Amendments to the Constitution of my country, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and numerous statutes and treaties forbid such systems of massive, pervasive surveillance. While the US Constitution marks these programs as illegal, my government argues that secret court rulings, which the world is not permitted to see, somehow legitimize an illegal affair. These rulings simply corrupt the most basic notion of justice – that it must be seen to be done. The immoral cannot be made moral through the use of secret law.

I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: "Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."

Accordingly, I did what I believed right and began a campaign to correct this wrongdoing. I did not seek to enrich myself. I did not seek to sell US secrets. I did not partner with any foreign government to guarantee my safety. Instead, I took what I knew to the public, so what affects all of us can be discussed by all of us in the light of day, and I asked the world for justice.

That moral decision to tell the public about spying that affects all of us has been costly, but it was the right thing to do and I have no regrets.

Since that time, the government and intelligence services of the United States of America have attempted to make an example of me, a warning to all others who might speak out as I have. I have been made stateless and hounded for my act of political expression. The United States Government has placed me on no-fly lists. It demanded Hong Kong return me outside of the framework of its laws, in direct violation of the principle of non-refoulement – the Law of Nations. It has threatened with sanctions countries who would stand up for my human rights and the UN asylum system. It has even taken the unprecedented step of ordering military allies to ground a Latin American president’s plane in search for a political refugee. These dangerous escalations represent a threat not just to the dignity of Latin America, but to the basic rights shared by every person, every nation, to live free from persecution, and to seek and enjoy asylum.

Yet even in the face of this historically disproportionate aggression, countries around the world have offered support and asylum. These nations, including Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador have my gratitude and respect for being the first to stand against human rights violations carried out by the powerful rather than the powerless. By refusing to compromise their principles in the face of intimidation, they have earned the respect of the world. It is my intention to travel to each of these countries to extend my personal thanks to their people and leaders.

I announce today my formal acceptance of all offers of support or asylum I have been extended and all others that may be offered in the future. With, for example, the grant of asylum provided by Venezuela’s President Maduro, my asylee status is now formal, and no state has a basis by which to limit or interfere with my right to enjoy that asylum. As we have seen, however, some governments in Western European and North American states have demonstrated a willingness to act outside the law, and this behavior persists today. This unlawful threat makes it impossible for me to travel to Latin America and enjoy the asylum granted there in accordance with our shared rights.

This willingness by powerful states to act extra-legally represents a threat to all of us, and must not be allowed to succeed. Accordingly, I ask for your assistance in requesting guarantees of safe passage from the relevant nations in securing my travel to Latin America, as well as requesting asylum in Russia until such time as these states accede to law and my legal travel is permitted. I will be submitting my request to Russia today, and hope it will be accepted favorably.

If you have any questions, I will answer what I can.

Thank you.

Whistleblower Edward Joseph Snowden is a US former technical contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee who leaked details of top-secret US and British government mass surveillance programs to the press.

An administration riddled with failings by Karim Raslan - The STAR

Morsi bungled badly: Egypt’s economy stagnated, the trading volume of its stock market fell in the first five months of 2013. Its budget deficit currently stands at about US$29.2bil while unemployment is at 12.5%.

OVERTHROWING a legitimately elected government is acoup d’etat – however you cut it. Being a democrat means taking the rough with the smooth.

The ouster of Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi and the ongoing crackdown on the Muslim Brother-hood will only lead to greater tragedies.

Certainly, the secular liberals cheering on the sidelines will regret their initial glee at Morsi’s reversal as truth, public trust and law and order become the biggest casualties of the sequence of events unfolding in Cairo.

Those who feel that “political Islam” should be halted by whatever means, legal or illegal, are wrong.

Once you subscribe to the ballot box you cannot turn back.

Political expedience brings short-term and unsustainable “solutions” that will in turn lead to greater injustices.

Indeed the Algerian experience back in 1990 when the army denied a clear electoral mandate, imprisoning and slaughtering thousands is a stark warning of what could lie in store for Egypt.

At the same, many Islamist parties across the globe – the spiritual heirs to Egypt’s Ikhwanul Muslimin – will feel that democracy, (one-man, one-vote) is not meant for them even though they often have the raw “numbers” to win elections.

Instead they will become increasingly convinced that a shadowy network of Americans, Europeans, liberals, financiers and “global Jewish forces” will intervene to seize power.

In short, whatever they do, they’ll always be victims of a determined conspiracy to deny them their legitimate place in the world.

This will mean, in turn that they don’t need to address their own failings in terms of corruption, poor administration and hard-headed ex-clusiveness.

Morsi’s administration was riddled with failings.

Many had great hopes for him when he took office back in June, 2012.

It seemed as if he would be able to project a moderate face after decades of former President Hosni Mubarak’s authoritarian rule.

Unfortunately, this was not to be.

Morsi bungled and badly: Egypt’s economy stagnated, the trading volume of its stock market fell 31.2% in the first five months of 2013.

Its budget deficit currently stands at about US$29.2bil (RM91.8bil), while official figures rather conservatively put unemployment at 12.5%.

At the same time, Morsi alienated both secular and liberal communities.

Moderates and Coptic Christians were upset enough to boycott the drafting of the December 2012 Constitution – which was criticised for lacking sufficient safeguards for freedom of religion and the rights of women – due to the administration’s perceived lack of consultation.

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Letter To The Editor - Preventive Detention: Not A Remedy by Dr. Chandra Muzaffar

The Malaysian public has been told that the first draft of a new special preventive law, similar to the Emergency Ordinance (EO) has been sent to the Attorney General’s Chambers for consideration.

Since ‘preventive detention’ appears to be at the crux of the proposed law, a number of concerned citizens have expressed their reservations--- and rightly so. To provide another avenue for preventive detention (it is still in our statute books) through this or any other law is a serious matter.

The public has to be convinced that the 2000 criminals released after the repeal of the EO in 2011 are responsible for the violent crimes that have occurred in the last two years. There is no hard evidence to show this. The USM study led by criminologist, Dr. P. Sundramoorthy --- as reported in the media--- which has become the basis for the shift in the Government’s position on the EO does not provide the statistical data nor the empirical analysis to support such a contention. Perhaps the entire study should be made available to the public.

In the absence of incontrovertible evidence, I am more inclined to believe psychologist and criminologist, Dr. Geshina Ayu Mat Saat, who says that “there is a very tenuous link between the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance (EO) and the recent spate of violent crime.” In fact, long-term observers of Malaysian society would argue that violent crimes have taken place for many, many years. We forget that the increasing crime rate --- dramatized by some violent ones --- was one of the major issues in the 2008 General Election, a good three years before the repeal of the EO.

What criminologists, the police and Malaysian society as a whole should focus upon are new and more innovative ways of dealing with some of the underlying causes of crime. Drug addiction which we have not been able to curb after more than four decades seems to be a recurring reason for thefts, robberies and burglaries. Widening social disparities, an oft cited explanation for crime, is yet another challenge that demands our collective attention.

At the same time, meticulous intelligence gathering, effective police surveillance, thorough investigations, capable prosecution and appropriate penalties would go a long way to reducing crime. A significant police presence in public places and housing areas would also have a deterrent effect upon the would-be criminal. In other words, the repeal of the EO is an opportunity for the police to enhance their competence and their professionalism.

Re-introducing preventive detention through the EO is not an option even if there are safeguards against abuse. It is a blemish upon the concept and practise of the rule of law--- one of the cardinal principles of the Rukunegara --- for the simple reason that the right to a fair trial is essential to the rule of law. And giving meaning and substance to the rule of law is the hallmark of a society that is committed to just governance.

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