My Lunar New Year Eve Reunion Dinner

Homemade Yu Sheng (some kind of salad with raw salmon) for 16 adults.

 

All ingredients in, before the tug in

Tug in and toss the lo hei.

Reunion dinner this year was like the previous years. It was pot luck
style. Each family brought a dish and we have a good mix of dishes. We use
to have steamboat but found that it is too challenging to manage for a
family of 16 people. We would need 2 or 3 cookers, otherwise it takes too
long to wait for the food to get cooked. Not everyone like to test their
patience for food during a reunion dinner..

We started with the Yu sheng which is everybody’s favourite. Each of us
have our seconds and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Within twenty minutes we
have almost finished the big plate of Yu Sheng which took a couple of
hours to prepare.

  Next we proceeded with the rest of the food like curry chicken, the
infamous vegetarian dish, home-made char siew, each has a bowl of fish
maw soup, battered fried prawns and squid

Then we had jelly for dessert after which we gave out hong pows (red packets) to the all the niece and nephews.

City of Joy

 

Finished reading this marvelous book ... a masterpiece. In one of the poorest and most crowded slums of Calcutta rise great saints like Mother Teresa and also unknown ones like Stephen Kovalski who lived in a shack without light or ventilation, infested with rats and cockroaches. He made his home there to care for the poorest of the poor. His neighbors were a community of eunuchs, a leper colony, the local mafia head …

A Thought: Patience & Persistence.

The people who succeed in life are the people who are willing to do what they don’t feel like doing. The are not mastered by their moods, they are mastered by the Master, and they establish their goals and plans according to God’s will.

Chinese New Year - First Day

Chinese New Year fireworks will mark the beginning of the Chinese New Year festival which normally last for 15 days. The sound of firecrackers tells people the new year has arrived. People offer New Year's greetings to one another. The most popular greeting is Gong Xi Fa Chai   (Cantonese pronounces Gong Hay Fat Choy), which means "congratulations and may you make a great fortune." The firecrackers and such greetings are from the story of animal Nian. "Make a fortune" is to wish people rich, because Chinese love to talk about money.

Some Chinese family change the new clothes right after midnight or after the Rat hour in the Chinese New Year Eve. Then they choose the lucky hour from Chinese Farmer's Calendar to worship spirits and commemorate ancestors with candles, fruit, rice cake, tea, long noodle and candies. The purpose of this worship to tell spirits and ancestors the new year has arrived. At the end of the ceremony, they will open the door, select a lucky money direction to explode the firecrackers, which means to get rid of old bad stuff and welcome a new chapter of their life. Some Chinese families give the Red Envelope to children at this time before the children resigns to bed.

After dawn, it's time to say Chinese New Year greetings to neighbors, friends, coworkers, and relatives. Before the time of the telephone and various social networking apps, school teachers will go back to school to greet each other. Government employees will go back the office to say happy new year. Now many people say Gong Xi Fa Chai by phone or send the greeting by e-mail.

On the Chinese New Year day, the Chinese have the breakfast without meat from the New Year Eve leftover. At noon, they will proceed to worship the Spirit of The House with simple animal sacrifices, vegetables and rice. In the evening, they commemorate and worship family ancestors again with full dinner food.

In the morning, all the children are supposed to wear new clothes, pants, shoes, hat or jacket. Every family should prepare many different kinds of sweet candies in a tray for visitors. If a child goes with an adult to visit someone and says Gong Xi Fa Chai, he can receive a Red Envelope. In Taiwan, the president, city majors and temples will prepare many Red Envelopes for their supporters. Since the number of Red Envelopes is limited, people have to go earlier and wait in a long line in order to have a handshake and Red Envelope.

Chinese New Year day is closed to the early spring. That means it's a beginning of blossom season. The popular flowers for Chinese New Year are orchid, narcissuses, peach flower, chrysanthemum, kumquat, cherry blossoms, camellia and so on. So some people like to visit the flower gardens or attend flower expo to enjoy the sight of flowers or buy some flower pots home.

Some Chinese would like to take the whole family to the countryside to enjoy the beautiful scenery. Some like to go to temples to see the crowd and pray for good luck for the new year. Today, more young people go to department stores to spend their Red Envelope money and shop for the New Year special bargains or go to the movies with friends. And there are some who like to sit by the Mah-Jong ( a game using tiles shown below) table to earn money.

Lion dancing or dragon dancing are welcomed activites in most of the modern city street. Some people have to go to national culture streets to see the Chinese New Year traditional activities. Over there, people can see lion dance, the god of money, parade, open theater opera, puppet show, etc. They also can buy different traditional candies, their zodiac animal symbols, food, gifts from the culture stores.

The Chinese has kept the lion dancing custom because they think the lion image can expel the evil spirits away. The Chinese believe that the dragon is in charge of rain. Hence, dragon dancing is praying for appropriate rain to grow the more crops during the farmer society. Also, the dragon is an auspicious and notable symbol which can bring people good luck.

The unique style of music for Chinese New Year can be hear at Chinese New Year Music. You can hear those music from department stores, radio stations, TV stations, and during the lion dancing or dragon dancing on the street.



There are some taboo on the Chinese New Year Day.

Since everybody is in a festival mood under a joyful and hilarious atmosphere, people shouldn't argue with each other. Also parents shouldn't scold or punish the children. Otherwise, you will have more argument in the new year.

Women shouldn't use a knife or shear in the kitchen, which indicates evil, anger, danger and cutting out one's luck. As such, women do not cook new dishes on this day, people eat leftover meals.

Breaking any dishes, bowls or cups means bad luck would come. In case you break anything, then  put all broken pieces in a round container until the next trash day.

A married women shouldn't go back to her mother's home, otherwise her mother's family will get poorer.

To sweep the floor or dump the trash will take away the wealth and luck from the house.

Don't have a lunch nap at noon, otherwise people will be lazy year long.

To wash your hair will wash your good luck away.

Don't wear black or white to visit friends, because black and white are the funeral colors in China

One shouldn't visit a friend's house, if they have a family member who just past away.

Don't eat rice porridge for breakfast, otherwise you won't get rich because only poor people eat rice porridge in the past.

Don't eat meat in the morning breakfast, because many gods who are vegetarians arrive New Year Day festival in the morning.

Don't eat unnecessary medicine during the day, otherwise you will become unhealthy this year.

Don't wash clothes, because New Year Day is the birthday of  the god of Water.

If someone owes you money, do not ask for the money back on this day. Otherwise, you will be asking for money for the rest of the year.

Here's wishing all a Blessed Lunar New Year !!

Chinese New Year Eve

Chinese New Year is a very grand occasion for the Chinese all over the world. Here is an account of some of the beliefs practised by many but with modernization, many of these practices are no longer followed.

Chinese New Year Eve usually is on 30th lunar day of 12th lunar month. However, a lunar month might have only 29 days. In this case, the Chinese New Year Eve becomes on 29th day of 12th lunar month. The next day will be a new moon day, which is the Chinese New Year Day.

In Chinese, Chinese New Year Eve is called Chu-Xi  or Guo-Nian . Chu  means removal. Xi  means night. Guo  means passing. Nian  means year.

The original meaning of Nian  is related to afarmer's harvest. Chinese farmers celebrate their harvest for the past year, they appreciate the gracious reward given from the gods, and prayed for the same luck for the coming year.

Nobody knows when the legendary story about Nian began. Nian was a ferocious and carnivorous beast. It had lion-type head with elephant-type body. As the legend goes, Nian couldn't find its food in the cold winter months because many animals were hibernating in the mountains. So Nian was forced to go down from the mountain to the lowlands where the villages were to look for livestock. Later, Nian became a man-eater.

Nian was very strong and took many innocent lives. Every winter night, the villages stayed inside their houses to protect themselves from this ferocious animal. With time, the villages found that Nian was afraid of red, fire and noisy sounds. Hence the villages cut red-color peach wood to hang on the doors, and made a campfire in the front of the main door as well. When Nian approached the villages, the people put the bamboo into an open fire and burn them to make a loud cracking sound. They also beat the metal kitchen and farming utensils to make noisy sound to scare Nian away.

The villages survived the long ordeal, celebrated and congratulated each other. They felt like a restarting anew, a new chapter to mark the passing of the disaster. And so, they called Guo-Nian (passing Nian)  the day before the new starting day.

House cleaning should be ready on or before the day Chinese New Year eve. But most Chinese families are still very busy on this day doing last minute preparations. Early morning, someone has to go to the flower-market to buy flowers for worship events and new year day decorations. Red is the auspicious color in China. The pink peach flowesr and Japanese sakura are very popular choices for the flower arrangement.

The first event on Chinese New Year Eve is to worship the Jade Emperor with flowers and fruits without animal sacrifices (top ranking gods are vegetarian). This is normally done in the early morning to give thanks for the gracious protection from the god of heaven in the past year and pray for safety, harmonious and good fortune for the coming year.

Many families probably would still be working on the final decoration of their homes. They will decorate the doors and windows. Chinese calligraphers write New Year's poetry on the red color paper and it is customary for people to paste them on the top and both of sides of main-entry door. They believe this custom comes from the story of man-eater Nian animal, which was afraid of red color. There are occasions  where people drew The God of the Door images on red-color peach tree wooden blocks and hang them on the door to scare the devil spirit away. Later, the Chinese use red color paper instead. There is a even simpler way is to write a single character on the diamond-shape red paper and paste on the doors, windows, containers, posts, storages and money safety boxes. The popular characters are Spring, Luck, Full, Money, Happiness, Wealth, Safety or Prosperity. Some are posted upside down, because the sound of upside-down in Chinese is similar to the word of come. So the upside-down MONEY poster means money comes. The upside-down LUCK poster means the luck comes.

Long ago, the Chinese paste the New Year paper-cutting arts on the windows. It's hard to find people doing this today, because it required experience, skill and lots of patience to create those art works. It's also time-consuming to put the arts on the windows.

In the afternoon around 2 or 3 P.M., Chinese would say good-bye to the current year by serving the gods and ancestors at their family Buddhist altar with Nian-Gao (sweet rice cake, picture below), Fa-Gao (steamed rice cake), animal sacrifices (pork, duck, chicken or fish), fruit, drink, candy with big red candles. Long ago, one important and special item is to put a hundred of coins tied with red thread with the hope for good luck and longevity to 100 years. Today, people put cash as much as you can instead.

After saying goodbye to gods and ancestors, women begin to prepare the reunion dinner. The main dish sitting on the center of the table is Hot-Pot. The traditional Hot-Pot is a big metal (alumni) bowel and has a hollow tube in the center. Chinese put hot bone soup in the bowel and cook different kind of sliced meat, seafood, vegetable, meat balls and seafood balls during the dinner. They put hot-rock or hot-coal inside the hollow tube to keep food warm. So they can eat the reunion dinner each for hours.

Chinese New Year day usually is close to spring, but it's very often that the weather is still cold. In ancient China, in order to eat the warm food, Chinese had to sit around the cooking stove for New Year Eve dinner. That's why this dinner is also called Wei-Lu , which means "surrounding the stove".

There are many dishes on the dinner table. Every dish has an auspicious meaning behind it. It's connected to longevity, reunion, perfection, good luck, health, diligence, satisfaction or promotion based on the homophone of the dish's name. Family members are supposed to have some from every dish. So they can eat and chat for longer time and share love and care during this time. However, Chinese don't touch fish on the table. This is because the homophone of fish is remainder, which means they have  surplus or extra saving in the end of the year. In the other hand, they need leftover for Chinese New Year Day - nobody cooks at home.

After dinner, that's a exciting time for the children. They are waiting for New Year's Hong Bao , which is a Red Envelope containing the brand-new money. Adult or parents will hand out the Red Envelopes to children, unmarried immediate family and their parents before going to the bed. Children will put all Red Envelopes under the pillow when sleeping. They said children can sleep well without bad dream and become richer next year. The family expense increase sharply during Chinese New Year period. Usually, Chinese receive year-end bonus about one or two month salary pay. (The lucky one can even have one year salary) from the company before Chinese New Year holiday. Therefore most family can afford a better food, clothing and decoration for Chinese New Year. Banks will prepare many brand new bills for people to exchange. That's why all the lucky money in the Red Envelope are brand-new.

The last event is the vigil to wait for new year coming. One main reason is this can extend parents lifespan. The sound of Sleepiness in Chinese is similar to Trouble. Sleepless means no trouble for the coming year. How can Chinese keep them awake? It's simple. They watch TV shows for Chinese New Year special. The other way is gambling - playing Mah-Jong. It's required lots of skill, memorization, calculation, strategy and luck to win the money. Since the fully concentration, you will feel the time pass quickly. Usually, they will play Mah-Jong all night long, because the loser wouldn't quit.

Many people will gather outside the temple after reunion dinner, everyone wants to be the first person of the year to be blessed by the God. There is the first incense stick race at many temples every year. One the first second of Rat hour, 11 P.M., as soon as the temple's main gate is opened, people will dash into the temple to insert the incense stick into the incense container. The winner will win a big Red-Envelope from the temple. But the most important thing is the winner will be very lucky in the coming year.

After receiving the Red Envelopes, young people like to go outside for the vigil of the year. Before midnight, they gather with friends or relatives around park, riverside or tall buildings to wait for the Chinese New Year fireworks.

Singapore - Breathtaking Double-Helix Bridge

If you are in Singapore, don't miss this Double Helix Bridge.  This pedestrian bridge stretches across the head of the Singapore River and connects the city's new Bayfront District and its Central Business District. I would recommend to go down in the evening to see the awesome night view with glittering lights and enjoy the cool sea breeze.

The Helix Bridge is the winning proposal for Singapore's international design competition which beat out 36 other selected designs. A collaborative project between architecture firms Cox Architects and Architecture 61, the design was originally one long fluid curve that contrasted a nearby vehicular bridge but then evolved into that of a double helix form; becoming the only double helix bridge in the world.

Due to the unique design, the elegant curve remains while a sleek canopy of glass and steel panels now hangs overhead. There are four pod like structures that cantilever off of it to allow pedestrian observation points. These come in especially useful during festivals and other celebrations that take place on the river. At night, the bridge is lit up by a number of LEDs that run its entire length of almost 920 ft. It uses less steel than if it were a more conventional, boxier bridge and is constructed entirely out of stainless steel. Breathtaking, isn't it?

Read more here.

Social Media - Too much time in it?

Many of us spend too much time on social media, do you - well, i do at times. It can be to the point of excessive. Sometimes unknowingly we have send several hours a day on facebook, twitter and watching those youtube vids. We ask ourselves, is there a better way to spend my time.

I'm not saying that we should not use social media. The question is - is it becoming too excessive that it becomes a hindrance to other more productive things we like to do, like reading a book, or going out to help someone in need or learning a new language.

Here's something I found rather interesting. In order to entice more people to read, rather than spend time on social media and the Internet, Milwaukee Public Library launched an interesting advertisement campaign that puts a funny twist on the famous social media logos we've all grown to love. Specifically, they've put a clever spin on the Facebook, YouTube and Twitter logos, giving people a friendly reminder that we should be spending more time reading than checking status updates, watching videos or tweeting our thoughts.

Steps to Stillness

    "When you lose touch with inner stillness, 

you lose touch with yourself. 

When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world."

                                            by Eckhart Tolle


We all live very hurried lives. We rush from home to work and at work we rush from meetings to meetings. We run according to the datelines set for us. There is hardly time to take a deep breadth, to say hello to a colleague sincerely, to say Thanks or to wave to a friend. Life becomes so mechanical running the rat race.

At home, we still check our never ending string of emails. We read the news hurriedly. We respond to sms and before we finishing texting another sms comes.

So with such a life, how can we ever be still to reflect, to give thanks, to appreciate our self and our loved ones. Let me share with you the following steps to Stillness so that you can enjoy the blessedness of living a full life. Stillness will save and transform your life.

STEP 1: Physical Relaxation

Be relaxed, be comfortable.  So choose a comfortable position that will keep you awake and aware. Now, take several deep breaths and release them slowly. Let your body thoroughly unwind. Close your eyes and let yourself thoroughly relax.

STEP 2: Mental Stillness

The mind is naturally active – thoughts, worries, plans, fears and anxieties can all come rushing in. Tell your mind to "be still!" Pick a centering point: repeat a verse, listen to instrumental music, visualize a pleasant scene to refocus your thoughts when your mind begins to wander. If you find the other thoughts come into your mind, simply re-focus on your centering point. Then, when you feel relaxed and at peace, direct your thoughts to opening to the relationship you share with your Inner Spirit and begin:

STEP 3: Worship

Worship is simply giving thanks and appreciation for everything good in life that has been given as a gift. Offer your praise to God of everything true, beautiful, and good. What do you have to be thankful for? Everything! Life, love, family, friends, health. Recognize the hand of God in your life and simply acknowledge Spirit’s contribution.

STEP 4: Prayer

This is your time to talk to God. He is listening. What help do you need from God? Ask Him.  Remember, there is always a solution; everything is resolvable with Spirit’s help. If you do not know what to pray for, ask your Inner Spirit, “What do I need now to grow spiritually?” Also, spend a few moments praying for others – you say the prayer for them that they cannot say for themselves.

STEP 5: Silent Listening

Now is the time to listen within — What does your Inner Voice wish to say to you? Return to your centering point, tune your listening within and wait. You may not hear a booming voice telling you what to do, but you may begin to perceive that God is trying to talk to you from afar; the message may only be subtly and faintly discerned. You may even think you haven’t received anything at this time. But later, tomorrow, or in a few days suddenly an answer will flash into your mind, or someone may say the words you need to hear, or you might find them in a book. It takes a while sometimes for the Spirit Within to pierce through the static layers of consciousness. But rest assured, your Inner Voice will indeed respond.

STEP 6: Receive

Receive the love and guidance God has for you. By opening your heart and mind from the previous steps, it is now your time to just relax and receive. Envision and sense yourself in the most beautiful and loving situation you have ever experienced, and ask for Spirit to amplify that feeling in you. You will become refreshed and renewed from within. Your Divine Source is feeding you internally; this is your soul’s nourishment. The more you experience Divine Love, the more you accumulate the desire to be in that state. And the more God’s love and wisdom radiates within you, the more you take into the outer world. Life begins to unfold in faith and joy!

Melinda Gates Answers Your Questions

Ms. Gates, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, recently returned from a three-day trip to Bangladesh. She, along with Nick, agreed to answerreaders’ questions about development issues focusing on that part of the world. Here is the first installment of the Q&A session.


Read more here.

Summary of her thoughts:

1) It's not about how rich you are. Every little bit you can give helps. Don't under-estimate the power in numbers.

2) Real giving starts in caring about others and wanting to learn more.

3) Use your own network of friends to share the passion of helping others less fortunate.

I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words

So I’m thrilled for the release of I, Steve: Steve Jobs in His Own Words — a wonderful anthology of more than 200 quotes and excerpts from his many appearances in the media over the years.

(And if you’re quick to write this off as a heartless exploitation of Jobs’ recent death, it turns out the publisher had the book in the works since last spring, set to publish in March 2012, but they moved it up after Jobs resigned as CEO in January.)

Edited by George Beahm, the volume is a wonderfully curated curtain-peeler that offers a singular look at Jobs’ mind as an entrepreneur, his heart as a passionate visionary, and Apple’s fundamental DNA. Here are a few of my favorite quotes:

On broad-based education:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country… I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me.” ~ Commencement address, Stanford University, June 12, 2005

(Be sure to watch his entire Stanford commencement address, it’s a piece of existential poetry.)

On the importance of broad life experiences:

A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. They don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions, without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better designs we will have.” ~ Wired, February, 1996

On being the best:

We’re not going to be the first to this party, but we’re going to be the best.” ~ Apple event for iPhone OS 4.0, April 8, 2010

On media monopoly and lowest-common-denominator content:

When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It’s the truth.” ~ Wired, February 1996

On Bill Gates:

I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He’d be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger.” ~ The New York Times, January 12, 1997

On the importance of saying “no”:

And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.” ~ Business Week, October 12, 1994

On selling out:

The problem with the Internet startup craze isn’t that too many people are starting companies; it’s that too many people aren’t sticking with it. That’s somewhat understandable, because there are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are. So when these people sell out, even though they get fabulously rich, they’re gypping themselves out of one of the potentially most rewarding experiences of their unfolding lives. Without it, they may never know their values or how to keep their newfound wealth in perspective.” ~ Fortune, January 24, 2000

On Apple’s existence:

What if Apple didn’t exist? Think about it. Time wouldn’t get published next week. Some 70% of the newspapers in the U.S. wouldn’t publish tomorrow morning. Some 60% of the kids wouldn’t have computers; 64% of the teachers wouldn’t have computers. More than half the Websites created on Macs wouldn’t exist. So there’s something worth saving here. See?” ~ Time, August 18, 1997

On computers:

What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.” ~ Memory & Imagination, 1990

On creativity and cross-pollination:

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.” ~Wired, February, 1996

On legacy:

Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” ~ The Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1993

What is the single best thing we can do for our health?

An enlightening video and great piece of advice !

Watch it and I hope you'll be challenged to do something. Many of us know what is right to do but fail to do it. We procrastinate .... saying there's always tomorrow. But one day, tomorrow may never come.

Here's to life !

The Optimist Creed

I like this creed from Optimist International. They are a volunteer organization that values all children and helps them develop to their full potential.

The aim to to set up Optimist Clubs all over the world which are dedicated to "Bringing Out the Best in Kids" and do their part through community service projects. Each Club is autonomous and run by members in their community, and so Optimists have the unique flexibility to serve the youth of their area in any way they see fit.

Optimist Clubs see a need in their community and react to it.

Here is the creed

The Optimist Creed

Promise Yourself ...
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best, and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

Hope it helps ...

The Great Dictator speech

I came across this great speech by accident. The Great Dictator Speech that was made by Charlie Chaplin in 1940 in the film The Great Dictator, and it a favorite speech of all time of many people. It's amazing after over 70 years how much of this is what we live with today.

Charlie Chaplin is said to have added his 4 1/2 minute final speech to The Great Dictator (1940) only after Hitler’s invasion of France. The speech both showcases the actor’s considerable dramatic gifts and makes a prescient, eloquent plea for human decency.



The speech is given below:


" I'm sorry but I don't want to be an Emperor, that's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.
The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.


Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate;
has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.


We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in:
machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical,
our cleverness hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little:
More than machinery we need humanity;
More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.


Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.


The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say "Do not despair".


The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish. . .


Soldiers: don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.


Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don't hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.


In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written:
"The kingdom of God is within man"
Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.


You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.


Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!


. . .


Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting, the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.


The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope, into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up."

If you are interested, you can actually watch the movie The Great Dictator here.

Indian Cities - Can they be more liveable, equitable and sustainable.

Received this from one of my Indian friends in Chennai. This is their vision for Indian cities. As we work with our Indian counterparts, I truly look forward to the day when Indian cities will be more liveable, equitable and sustainable.

As the Indian economy grows, cities are expanding faster than ever before. Just look at Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata etc. The challenge is to provide top class urban living spaces in such cities as they grow. 

While the government is battling to renew the cities with funding under the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission, it can do little to stop the migration of people from the villages to the cities and the creation of new urban extensions. A ranking of Indian cities by a Ficci-Ernst & Young study, titled Indian Real Estate Report 2007: Growth and New Destinations, maps India’s most and least liveable cities on several counts. New Delhi, the Capital, tops the overall ranking.

Streets of Kolkata

Its steaming streets crammed with vendors, pedestrians, and iconic Ambassador taxis, the Indian city Kolkata throbs with some 16 million people—and more pour in every day from small towns. In 1975 only three cities worldwide topped ten million. Today 21 such mega cities exist, most in developing countries, where urban areas absorb much of the globe's rising population. Photo © Randy Olson/National Geographic

Indian cities today are over populated. In spite of that it is teeming with activities and vibrancy. Professor Ehrlich’s original population epiphany was triggered by a wild ride in a Delhi taxi which he described in the prologue to The Population Bomb:

I have understood the population explosion intellectually for a long time. I came to understand it emotionally one stinking hot night in Delhi a few years ago. My wife and daughter and I were returning to our hotel in an ancient taxi. The seats were hopping with fleas. The only functional gear was third. As we crawled through the city, we entered a crowded slum area. The temperature was well over 100, and the air was a haze of dust and smoke. The streets seemed alive with people. People eating, people washing, people sleeping. People visiting, arguing, and screaming. People thrusting their hands through the taxi window, begging. People defecating and urinating. People clinging to buses. People herding animals. People, people, people, people. As we moved slowly through the mob, hand horn squawking, the dust, noise, heat and cooking fires gave the scene a hellish aspect. Would we ever get to our hotel? All three of us were, frankly, frightened… since that night I’ve known the feel of overpopulation.

Far more people in India have access to a mobile phone than to a toilet, according to a United Nations study on how to improve sanitation levels globally.

India's mobile subscribers totalled 563.73 million at the last count, enough to serve nearly half of the country's 1.2 billion population.

But just 366 million people - around one-third of the population - had access to proper sanitation in 2008.

Poor sanitation is a major contributor to water-borne diseases, which in the past three years alone killed an estimated 4.5 million children under the age of five worldwide, according to the study.

Do you think we can transform Indian cities to be more liveable, equitable and sustainable ?

Visit this link for more information on liveable cities discussed at the World Cities Summit, 2to4 Jul 2012 in Singapore

Social media propaganda posters

Social media will play a much bigger role in the coming year. We have seen how it help Arab Spring gain momentum and spread.


After analyzing more than three million tweets, gigabytes of YouTube content and thousands of blog posts, a new study has concluded that the Arab Spring truly was fueled by social media.

"Our evidence suggests that social media carried a cascade of messages about freedom and democracy across North Africa and the Middle East, and helped raise expectations for the success of political uprising,” says Philip Howard, an associate professor in communication at the University of Washington.

"People who shared interest in democracy built extensive social networks and organized political action. Social media became a critical part of the toolkit for greater freedom."

During the week before Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, for example, the total rate of tweets about political change in Egypt ballooned ten-fold.

And videos featuring protest and political commentary went viral, with the top 23 receiving nearly five and a half million views. The amount of content produced online by opposition groups, in Facebook and political blogs, increased dramatically.

As for Egypt, in the two weeks after Mubarak’s resignation, there was an average of 2,400 tweets a day from people in neighboring countries about the political situation in Egypt. In Tunisia after Ben Ali’s resignation, there were about 2,200 tweets a day.

Watch an interesting video clip here, Social Media = Power to the People ?


During the last US presidential election, the use of social media in political campaigns was revolutionized. The Obama campaign gathered followers through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Today, all candidates have learned the organizing power of social media. However, a “Like” on Facebook, a YouTube view or a re-blog on Tumblr may not directly affect the ballot box. Each campaign must answer an important question: How do we turn a digital following into real-world volunteers?

Enjoy these posters designed by Aaron Wood.

Kick Start 2012 -12 Insightful Questions

As we begin the New Year, some of us may be thinking of new year resolutions etc. To me it is important to reflect on some key lessons learnt last year and move on to set some goals for this year.


Here are 12 insightful questions to kick-start a transformative 2012.

1. What were the top three highlights of 2011 and why?

Perhaps it was a trip, an accomplishment or just an exciting moment that shines above the rest.

2. What’s working in your life right now?

It’s so easy to focus on the negative, yet there’s so much good all around you.  So what’s working right now?

3. What was your greatest lesson in 2011?

With every disappointment or hurt, comes a lesson. What was yours?

4. Who do you want to be in 2012?

HINT: If two friends were talking about you and you were the fly on the wall, what roles, qualities and personality traits would you be thrilled to have them say about you?

Oh that , he/she is so ________.

5. If you could change one thing about your life right now, what would it be and why?

Write down the first thing that comes to mind. Just imagine what else would magically fall into place if you gave the time and attention to change this one thing.

6. What do you keep making excuses for and why?

This could be the same as #5 or different. What we make excuses for is something we really want to look at because there’s usually a huge limiting belief tied to those excuses. And once the belief is identified and replaced with a more empowering belief… look out!

7. What activity would you like to do more of in 2012? Less of? Stop?

It’s all about choice. And ideally, your weekly calendar reflects your passions.

8. Who are the people you want to spend more time with? Less time?

You can name specific people or just the characteristics in new people you want to attract more of (e.g. fun, honest, adventuresome)

9. What would you like to be different about your life by this time next year?

That is, what is the one thing that you would be ecstatic to have mastered or made major progress on?

10. What are you prepared to do about it?

This is where rubber meets the road. Knowing our desires, talking about them, and even saying pretty affirmations doesn’t manifest them without inspired action. So, what are you prepared to do to make change that sticks? Develop a plan? Carve out time each day to take action? Clear space in your home for that passion? Sign up for that class? For now, just identify the first step.

11. What are your greatest gifts and strengths?

Yes, you are a rock star in your life. What makes you so amazing? P.S. if you can’t answer this, ask your favourite friends. They can shower you with answers.

12. How can you use your strengths to help with the change in #10?

If you are a great planner, develop a fantastic plan. But don’t stop there. Then get a coach or accountability partner to help you on the follow through.  That is, play to your strengths and find others to help with things that aren’t your natural ability.

2011 - The Year in Review

The year 2011 will be remembered as a seminal one of ground-shifting events throughout the world.

In Japan, the shift was quite literal: a giant magnitude-9.0 earthquake triggered a catastrophic tsunami. In the Arab world, the very foundation of long-standing regimes was shaken until a number of its totalitarian leaders fell, and are still falling.

There was the British Royal wedding, swells of anti-Communist Party sentiment in China, and the spread of the Occupy Movement from Wall Street to over 80 countries and counting. So, from revolution across the Arab world to a nuclear disaster in Japan, from the euro zone crisis to a tabloid phone hacking scandal, from Osama bin Laden to Wills and Kate, 2011 was a remarkable year.

See reuters site for more pictures.

And a multimedia showcase of some of 2011's top stories, including Japan's tragic earthquake, the Arab Spring, the demise of Osama bin Laden and Muammar Gaddafi, the shooting rampage in Norway, famine in Somalia and the Royal Wedding. Multimedia editing by Jillian Kitchener.



Here's CNN vidoes of 2011 - Part 1 and Part 2

And in Asia....

And very nice pictures from LIFE magazine.