祝大家梦想成真

May all your dreams come true.

I write in my head all the time. Today while walking home and composing a birthday email to a friend, I signed off with this line, then I crossed it out. Because, well... my dreams just aren't big enough. So what if I get that dream car or that dream job or that dream person? When I finally settle down and grow old, wouldn't I rather be surprised by how blessed I am, than simply having everything I expected life to be?

So, to those who stop by here this CNY season, may you be continually surprised and overjoyed with everything life brings. God bless you!

Read More!

Should selling organs be legitimate?

It is somewhat worrying that neurologist Lee Wei Ling thinks that it is a good thing if people were allowed to sell their body parts. It makes me somewhat relieved that she is a doctor rather than a politician.

On 18 January 2007, The Straits Times reported that a straw poll on its interactive website indicated that the number who voted for and against the sale of organs is about equal. Sometimes my country is so utilitarian that it scares the bejibbers out of me.

I am against the sale of human body parts. The donation of body parts should only be done with altruistic motivation, not monetary. By putting a price on an organ, it creates a market for human organs.

A market! Gracious me. Do you know what a market for human organs means? It means that the rich will get a disproportionately larger share of body parts, the way the rich gets a disproportionately larger share of everything else that you can buy with money.

A poor family struggling with their day-to-day finances will be sorely tempted to sell a kidney, or a liver, or an eye to make ends meet. True, the rich man will live because of that poor man’s kidney, but at what expense?

When I was in the US, a quiet, reserved guy I played guitar with donated his kidney to another church member. He wasn't related to him or anything, he just did it out of Christian love. After they took out his kidney, he lost his appetite and so lost weight. It was a while before he regained his fitness. He's a hero.

When I was younger, Jamie Oliver and I were tempted to donate our eggs for a bit of hard cash. We weren’t doing anything with them anyway—not that I’m doing anything with mine right now—but the internet sites looked a little too dodgy. So we passed. I guess we weren't desperate enough.

Poor people take risks all the time with their health—some become prostitutes, some smuggle drugs into countries with capital punishment, most eat cheaply and poorly—but that is somehow different from selling parts of your body.

People don’t get paid for giving blood for the same reason. If there was money involved, people in the high-risk category may be more motivated to try to cheat and beat the system for a few extra dollars in the pocket.

I don’t know if it is possible to create a system that eliminates the ethical issues this raises. It may be possible, but I haven't seen it yet. I realize that you get very desperate when your own organ has failed. All of us will be willing to pay any price for a functioning one in such a situation. But sometimes money isn't everything.

Read More!

A simple life

The death of the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko from Polonoium-210 poisoning reads like something out of a thriller novel. The ex-spy was in the midst of investigating the murder of his compatriot Anna Politkovskaya -- Anna Politkovskaya was shot to death only last month -- when he himself was poisoned. The day he fell ill, he met two Russians and later in the day, his Italian friend at a sushi bar. Just before he died on 23 November 2006, he made a statement blaming Mr. Putin for his death.

I was following the story on the BBC news and I had to have some serious suspension of disbelief. A sushi bar, an uncommon radioactive substance that is not easily traced, a statement blaming the top man in Russia, what in the world is going on?

It reeked of the Cold War and the ubiquitous fear in the 80s that a nuclear bomb would take out the entire civilized world, except that this time, it was somebody else's problem. In a completely selfish way, it made me grateful for the simple life. It is enough when you can have the peace of mind to sleep at night and the composure to enjoy the little things in life.

The situation concerning powerful nations, policies and hidden agendas is so complicated that I don't even know what to hope for. The naive hope that the world will be a better and more ethical place? Perhaps. Because I don't know how else to articulate it.

Thanks to God for my Redeemer,
Thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory,
Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,
Thanks for dark and stormy fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten,
Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,
Thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered,
Thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,
Thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure,
Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside,
Thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,
Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,
Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,
Thanks through all eternity!

Believe it or not

Sept 11, 1978
A man in a bowler hat fires a pellet of ricin from an umbrella into the thigh of Georgi Markov. He dies four days later. An umbrella! That's like the The Penguin in Batman!

September 2004
Viktor Yushchenko, an Ukrainian opposition presidential candidate, is poisoned with dioxin, causing a drastic change in his appearance.

Read More!

I dream of bulldozers, do you?

On the way to work, I passed by the demolition of the temporary Newton Circus Food Centre. I saw this man in a digger machine hydraulic excavator scooping huge mental scraps into a large bin and crushing it with the back of the machine arm. He looked so little and frail inside the large and powerful machine, and at that moment, I wanted a bulldozer.

And then I thought, "What do you want a bulldozer for, smartypants?" And I retorted, "Well, I could demolish stuff." And somewhere simmering in the backside of my Monday morning brain was this quote by Henry David Thoreau:

“I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. I would rather ride on earth in an ox cart, with a free circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion train and breathe a malaria all the way. … But lo! men have become the tools of their tools.”

Sometimes we are so empowered by our tools that we forget that by ourselves, we are really frail, naked and blind.

In any case, folly disregarding, these are the ten tools I could not do without:

1. Contact Lens/ Spectacles
   I would have fallen into a ditch and killed myself a long time ago without my glasses.
   
   
2. A powerful computer with internet access
   Because how else will I work and play?
   
   
3. A stove
   Hot food!
   
   
4. A camera
   Because I don't trust my memory.
   
   
5. Additional SD cards
   If you can't boost your brain, boost your devices.
   
   
6. Running shoes
   I'm not entirely sure about this one. Some people espouse the shoe-less method of running as more natural and hence better for the body. Right now, I have a sore ITB and my running shoes are the only thing between my knees and the concrete.
   
   
7. ATM card
   Because getting cash from the wall is so cool!
   
   
8. Aeroplanes
   Can't be helped, my sister lives in the US.
   
   
9. Nail Clipper or Scissors
   Self-explantory.
   
   
10. A bulldozer
    :)
    

So that's my list.

Read More!

Terry Schiavo has died

Terry Schiavo has died. BBC has a compilation of key quotes following her death. The comments from the Schiavo camp angers me most.

Mike's very upset. My sister's crying. It's very emotional. It's been a long,hard fight, but I believe she's happy. Terri's probably happy now to be free and not be shown all over TV. I would imagine if it was me I'd be very embarrassed, everybody looking at my picture lying there. John Centonze, brother of Jody Centonze, Michael Schiavo's fiancee

She's got all of her dignity back. She's now in heaven, she's now with God, and she's walking with grace. Scott Schiavo, Michael Schiavo's brother

What do you know about dignity? Sometimes I think it is the people who are healthy, well, intelligent, rich, and proud who are hung up about dignity and being embarrassed. Is there less dignity in a nursing home, and say, needing help to use the toilet? Within the confines of such a nursing home, isn't it just a normal, expected activity?

I agree that death is better than the process of dying. I agree that she is probably happier. But I disagree that she has more dignity now that she is dead. If dignity is conferred, I have never thought any less of her while her images were broadcasted all over the world. If dignity is intrinsic, she is still a child of God, whether on this side or the other.

There is grace for the weak that the strong cannot even begin to comprehend.

Read More!

Terry Schiavo

The legal tussle for Terry Schiavo's life has dominated the front pages of US papers this week. Some words are very emotive, like "starving to death", and "no chance of recovery". To me, it boils down to these questions:

1. Is Terry Schiavo alive?
Yes. The only thing that differentiates Schiavo and me is that one, she is unable to feed herself, and two, she is incapable of responding or relating to the outside world. The first problem does not mean she is any less of a human being - if I get to 90 I may need help with my food too. About the second, I think the human consciousness is over-rated. I think it is part of what it means to be human, but it is not the ONLY gauge of homo sapien life. Aren't there people with down syndrome who seem incapable of communicating with the world, but yet are given the same rights as everyone else?

2. Does a feed tube constitute ordinary care?
Yes, I think so, as food and drink is somehow different from being on an apparatus that helps you breathe, or your heart to beat.

3. Do we have the right to die?
I'm not sure. Personally, I will not use this right, but that is because of my own beliefs. As I did not choose to be born, I will not choose to die. As to whether society should confer to us the right to die is a whole different kettle of fish. I don't see why not, frankly, but at least in Schiavo's case, it is not proven without doubt that she would have chosen to die. Also, what is stopping her from changing her mind now? Maybe being in a vegetative state is not as we "non-vegetative states" perceive it to be?

4. What are the alternatives?
Really, we all have to die from something or other. If Schiavo does not get her feeding tube re-inserted, she will die from lack of food and drink. Otherwise, it may be pneumonia, or an infection, or something else. The tragedy is not her dying -- it was what happened ten years ago -- and I feel very sorry for the family that it had to stretch out for so long.

If I were her gaurdian, I would choose to continue the feeding tube, but not have any further extraordinary care, such as resuscitation or antibiotics etc. But who am I, or the court, or the politicians to say?

I pray for God's mercy on her and her family, that they will have relief.

Read More!