Authentic Malaysian Satay with Gravy, 'Pulut', Cucumber & Onions
Whether you eat to live
Or live to eat
Come & eat
Healthy & be fit!
(Dine-in or takeaway)
Announcing to all students & staff at Murdoch University, Murdoch College, residents from Bullcreek, Murdoch. Winthrop, Booragoon, Kardinya & places near or far to this new “boutique” Malaysian Chinese restaurant in South Street, cnr. of Gilbertson Road next to Chicken Treat. It’s affordable, good value for money, & the choicest authentic Malaysian Chinese cuisine.
I am no cuisine writer & a professional will surely do a greater justice to the proprietress Irene & her son Andrew Ng – to give you a better description & a taste of what menu they have to offer. However, they say the test is in the eating. We sure know a good thing when we taste it!
Customer Daniel (L from Malaysia) with Peggy & friend Raymond
Our closely-knit senior group of over 55 have been going round for lunches in Perth & the suburbs. We’ve been virtually everywhere it’s good – you name it we’ve tried it!
Proprietress Irene Seated Middle
Yesterday we found this new eating place & we vowed that we would be there more often now for our gathering & fellowship . . .
Food’s good
Price’s fair
Service’s excellent
Friendliness fills the air.
This is one restaurant with a difference . . . & the difference grows & shows with your unfailing patronage.
For the Karaoke lovers & enthusiasts, you’d be interested to know that Proprietress Irene is a true professional singer, rendering Mandarin songs with her rich melodious voice in easy sweet refrain. She sings English too.
Opening Hours:
Everyday: 11 am – 9 pm
Monday Closed
Phone: (08) 9314 2828
Address: No 17/19, South Street, Kardinya Square, Kardinya 6163
The concept of “Too big To Fail” proves to be otherwise
as shown by the collapse of General Motors & AIG.
When at the top, the only other direction, is down.
The bigger you are the greater the fall!
The old proverbial wisdom says: “Pride comes before a fall.”
The American Dream is dimming as in the wake of a wink. Historically, America couldn’t have a worst time than the decade that is going by. There’s been a series of one disaster or catastrophe after another . . . a decade of debacle chiefly 9/11 to financial wipe-out (2001 – 2009). This is the most dispirited & disillusioning decade the Americans ever lived through! Call it “The Decade of Broken Dreams”?, “The Decade from Hell”?,“The Decade of Reckoning”? Or “The Lost Decade”? . . . you’d soon run out of the superlatives!
General Motors Collapse
Could this be just a glitch or false alarm? The dreaded millennial meltdown never happened? No major wars were fought, yet thousands died – 9/11, Iraq & Afghanistan – both victims & soldiers, not counting the innocent dead & millions of displaced refugees.
Has God been conspiring & most unkind? God certainly forbids the falsehood & lies about the invasion. God has also been thrown out of every aspect of American life! God’s been forgotten but is God forgiving?
Perhaps all these catastrophes are signs from Heaven – one after another – two market crashes — one at each end of the decade. You might recall the first Wall Street crash, when swooning tech stocks tanked the market from 2000 to 2001, not long after the Nasdaq hit an all-time high of 5049 on March 10, 2000. (Recent levels: 2150-2200.)
This was followed by the defining moment of the decade, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which redefined & impacted global politics for at least a generation and caused US to question the continental security which they rarely worried about. US waged war in Afghanistan that drags on for eight years now and today it is deadlier than ever. Then came the fiasco in Iraq. Don’t forget the anthrax letters and later the Washington, D.C., snipers and the wave of Wall Street scandals highlighted by Enron and WorldCom.
Hurricane Katrina which occurred right in the midst of the decade 2005 (August 29) in Southern Louisiana killing more than 1,500 & causing $100 billion in damage. This is the single largest natural disaster in US history – problems of which have largely been unsolved.
A housing bubble fuelled by the availability of cheap money and excessive borrowing set ablaze by derivatives, so-called financial weapons of mass destruction, put the economy on the brink of collapse. The Americans will be sorting through the damage for years. Meanwhile, the living, breathing symbol of this economic sordidness, the great con artist. Bernie Madoff, rots away in a N.C. jail cell, doing 150 years for orchestrating the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of humanity.
The United States of America has failed to lead by example. Its dollar value is collapsing, its economy is faltering, its unemployment hits double-digits, the list just go on & on. Has Western capitalism seen the end of its road? Is America, its citizens known famously as “the ugly Americans” now becoming old & weary . . . no longer having the zeal & zest to dictate?
They say that if you want to strike it rich, you’ve got to know exactly where to be — and when. The Economist notes that many of today’s top businessmen and investors now believe that “alternative energy will be the basis of a boom bigger than information technology.”
Bill Gates, Microsoft Founder, is undoubtedly the pioneer investor in computer technology. He recognised the PC would revolutionise information technology and built unprecedented wealth for those who got in early. Now he sees the same thing happening with wind energy.
Another great astute investor to follow would be Warren Buffett whose patented methodology of growing shareholder value to a T . . . is also quick on the trail of wind energy. Warren Buffett, who has always preached, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
You’ve just got to know what the megatrend is . . . who’s got the visionary management . . . and who’s in the right place at the right time . . .
On the technological front, General Electric, an iconic brand, sold $8 billion worth of wind turbines this year. And it would, more or less, have to pack on another$170 billion just for its shares — and your investment dollars — to double in value.
Close-up of Wind Turbine
In the US, according to the Department of Energy, North Dakota, known as “The Saudi Arabia of Wind”, alone has enough wind capacity to generate over a quarter of US electricity needs.No wonder North Dakota’s wind-generation capacity has soared from a mere 0.5 megawatts in 2004 to over 345 megawatts today. That’s almost a 70,000% increase. Governor John Hoeven recently announced that, all told, capacity will soon hit 2,500 megawatts “with more on the way.”
Forward-thinking investors should not be wary about the obscurity of the technology nor of the companies. Great strides have been made in the field going beyond efficiency & maintenance of wind turbines. Below are examples of some pretty obscure companies which were the top ten performing stocks from 1998 – 2007:
Celgene
Quality Systems
Southwestern Energy
Deckers Outdoor
Green Mountain Coffee
Roasters
Amedisys
Hansen Natural
Almost Family
Clean Harbors
FTI Consulting
Over those 10 years, they earned forward-thinking investors anywhere between a fortune-making 2,623% and an absolutely mind-blowing 7,064%.
BTM Consult — the world’s foremost wind-energy experts — report that since 2004, China’s wind market has grown at a mind-blowing 93%-per-year clip, and that China is making remarkable progress in building up its own wind industry.
Wind Prospect
As part of its “5-Year Plan” for economic development, the Chinese government recently earmarked $65 billion for investment in the country’s medium voltage electricity network.
And China’s Ministry of Machinery has very strict regulations that require all the medium voltage transformers in public buildings to be made of cast resin. Not to mention cast-resin transformers require only a fraction of the maintenance and upkeep of their oil-based predecessors.
“Capitalism creates a rational frame of mind which, having destroyed the moral authority of so many other institutions, in the end turns against its own.” – Joseph A. Schumpet
Japanese toymaker Bandai has released paper-thin bath soap that looks like the American 100-dollar bill.(Xinhua/AFP Photo)
Environmental experts recently called toilet paper
“one of the greatest excesses of our age.”
Once the pride & might
Its collapse is now in sight!
This is not just theory. It’s the real thing! Let’s hear from the experts:
US billionaire & investment guru, Jim Rogers, influential former partner of financier George Soros (The World Today Dec 3, 2009) is advising investors to desert the greenback and put their money into commodities. He says the US dollar is a flawed currency that has no future.
Or as Dr. Ron Paul, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, recently noted about the rampant, unprecedented money creation going on, “If we continue doing what we are doing right now, we will literally destroy the dollar.”
The first dramatic debt growth spurt of US debt-based approach financing system occurred with the Civil War. The debt was just $65 million in 1860, but passed $1 billion in 1863 and had reached $2.7 billion following the war, slowly fluctuating for the rest of the century, finally growing steadily in the 1910s and early 1920s to roughly $22 billion as the country paid for involvement in one war after another – wars which they never did win.
Major foreign investors such as China are quickly catching on to the hard reality of US insolvency. Inescapably, they’re concluding that the “only way Washington can keep its Ponzi finance going is by running the monetary printing presses non-stop.”
Mega-investor Warren Buffett recently admitted publicly that the frantic spending and money creation underway right now will trigger a currency-destroying inflation that will be much more severe than in the 1970s.
Big-time investment gurus such as Jim Rogers dispatched a strongly worded email offering this sobering assessment:
“The world at large does seem to understand innately that governments are bankrupting themselves and destroying paper currency.”
The sheer havoc unleashed by a dollar crisis will be nationally jolting on a par with Pearl Harbour, John F. Kennedy’s assassination and 9/11. And yes, the bottom could drop out in just a single harrowing day.
The coming dollar collapse will wreak economic and social havoc far beyond skyrocketing prices. Widespread fuel and food shortages, relentless crime waves and the government’s endless socialistic machinations will devastate the American way of life like a giant tornado.
US – Greatest Debtor Nati
With US main creditors & all the global supporters pulling out,
there will be a catastrophic tsunami unimaginable.
Just this week, US Fed Chief Ben Bernanke declared the US economy is facing “formidable headwinds” & effectively vowed to continue its relentless printing paper dollars.
China’s Andy Xie, recently named by BusinessWeek as one of China’s most influential economists, quickly reacted with the accusation that Bernanke was “poisoning” the US economy by keeping interest rates near zero & creating a tidal wave of newly printed paper dollars. He warned that the next global crisis will be driven by asset inflation . . . which is exactly the present scenario.
Incidentally, toilet roll goes off very quickly towards its end!
Being at the top is not good, there is only one
way to go from there – down.
Much has been written about this famous painting. Nat “King” Cole sang & endeared her to the hearts of music lovers. It’s that mystic smile of Mona Lisa that captured the hearts & imagination of art & music lovers alike. She’s so famous almost every country wants to lay hands on her. But they all look at her with different perspectives . . . and look at the ways she appears & displays herself according to the customs & traditions of the various countries!
As portrayed below, different people look at Mona Lisa differently. When I first saw it way back in 1959 at the Lourve in Paris, I was told that her eyes would follow me with that matching mystic smile as I moved around to fathom her enigmatic look. Now, what happen when we move her across the world . . . ?
In Moroccoin Londonin TehranIn IndiaIn Palestinein EgyptIn DubaiIn KuwaitIn SyriaIn Afghanistan
Which do you like best? As for me, Mona Lisa in Paris is still the best!
By Paul Chong Sunday, 29 November 2009 A Chinese By Descent, An Australian By Consent
President Hu Expounds China’s Views On Development
China can boast of its silk and tea culture long before any other country in the world. Even the technological plough was first discovered in China. By and large, all discoveries were directed towards peaceful use and the enrichment of life and culture, as with the gun powder. Now the world is witnessing an unprecedented quantum growth in China – all within one generation!
China Foreign Reserve World No. 1
China Oil Consumption World No. 2
China Trade Value World No. 3
China Economic Output World No. 4
Latest: China is the richest nation in the world.
‘Xiang Qian Zou’ – The Road To Riches
The Road To Riches – A Nation of Bicycles To Motor Vehicles
Of the nations in the world today, China stands out progressively tall and strong. It is as though a sleeping dragon is finally awakened. This appears to be the fear of the West. Though an economically strong China is good commercially for all the trading nations in the West, politically China poses a great threat. It is feared that “once China stands up, it won’t topple or be toppled.” That was why precisely Napoleon in his wisdom decided to let China be and not to rouse her.
In retrospect, China is undoubtedly the world’s greatest civilised nation over a continuous period of thousands of years – a civilisation undiminished and unbroken, unlike past civilisations like Egypt, Greece, or the Romans. By any reckoning, China should have by now be far more superior than the rest of the world. Why not?
Map of the “Middle Kingdom”
Of the many reasons why China did not progress beyond its initial lead in technology and discovery, the main cause of which can largely be attributed to its inward looking policy . . . viewing all territories outside the Great Wall of China and its boundaries as barbaric in nature. This nationalistic pride and closed door policy led to its seclusion, totally depriving itself from the inter-change of ideas and exposure to new scientific developments and industrial growth. While China lavished in its culture, philosophy and essentially non-materialistic form of development, it began to lag behind the West in terms of economic industrial growth. In preserving its civilisation from being tainted by corruption, disruption and deterioration, it never knew new growth, development and discoveries elsewhere in the whole wide world. The “Middle Kingdom” realised too late the encroachment of other nations upon its shores and territories. Countries like Britain, Portugal, Japan were making inroads into China through modern superior arms of war instead of its age-old “kung-fu”.
Zhejiang – Economic Zone
To grow, to progress is to change. Sentiment must give way to progress. There is no room for inhibition to changes. Change needs to take place before growth and progress can be attained. It’s attitude more than aptitude that scales the altitude. Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the great former prime minister of Singapore, is credited for the great strides achieved by the City State. His visionary ideas have no room for inhibition or sentiment to change or any hindrance.
Now, what a change has come about as a result of Deng Xiao Ping’s visionary concept of “Xiang Qian Zou”. In Mandarin, it means “Forward Move”, but by replacing the middle word with the similar pronunciation, it becomes “Moving Forward With Money”. This started a great frenzy for the Chinese striving for monetary progress in all spheres of work and life. China has made a quantum leap – a country virtually with no phone to the modern technology of mobile phones! But capitalistic way of life does have its price. A single generation can witness the most remarkable change & progress. Transformation just sweeps aside all inhibition, resistance and sentiment.
Greed always breed a profound loss of goodness in mankind. Simple honesty, truth, kindness and compassion are lost in the process. The dollar sign is etched prominently on the foreheads of goal-getters. It is evident to an outside observer that the whole civilisation is transformed overnight. China, in its forward economic stride, has done away with its traditional large families, and its door is wide open to the corrupt western way of life. There is a price to be paid, for consequential results cannot be avoided.
Like most economies in the world, the road to riches often affect those who are involved, largely the urban folks, leaving behind a vast majority of the rural peasants. Even then great disparity may result among the urbanites. Encouraged by the concept of “Xiang Qian Zou” and ‘you’ve got to be in it to benefit it’, waves and tides of migrating movement are emptying the youth from the rural and pastoral areas. China is vast country where hundreds of millions of the peasant still labour and toil and are poor by comparison with the urban rich. No doubt, this is creating a set of social chaos unknown before.
Hong Kong, for instance, is a magnetic attraction for mainland Chinese. Tens of thousands cross the border which still has the immigration formality with number restrictions. In 2002 this number has been lifted and the hours of opening has even extended to 12 mid-night. This is largely due to the fact that the constant stream of exchange of people movement just keep on going growing bigger and bigger. The benefits work both ways. The affluent mainland Chinese pour money into Hong Kong, and the Hongkees likewise do the same in respect of investing in cheaper and more attractive housing in Mainland China.
On the more positive & human well being aspects, China has done itself proud by alleviating poverty for the great mass of the population. Consider this report by World Bank: “China has maintained a high growth rate for more than 30 years since the beginning of economic reform in 1978 and this growth has generated a huge increase in average living standards.
China’s sustained growth fueled historically unprecedented poverty reduction. Based on household surveys by the World Bank, the poverty rate in China in 1981 was 63% of the population. This rate declined to 10% in 2004, indicating that about 500 million people have climbed out of poverty during this period.’
Update & in a lighter vein:
China, now second largest economy in the world, has 19% of the world’s population, but consumes
. . . 53% of the world’s cement
. . . 48% of the world’s iron ore
. . . 47% of the world’s coal
. . . and the majority of just about every major commodity.
In 2010, China produced 11 times more steel than the United States.
New World Record: China made and sold 18 million vehicles in 2010.
China currently has the world’s fastest train and the world’s largest high-speed rail network.
China is currently the number one producer in the world of wind and solar power.
China currently controls more than 90% of the total global supply of rare earth elements.
In the past 15 years, China has moved from 14th place to 2nd place in the world in published scientific research articles.
China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire globe.
As at the end of March 2011, China has accumulated US$3.04 trillion in foreign currency reserves- the largest stockpile on the entire globe.
Chinese consume 50,000 cigarettes every second …Not an enviable record though …
And here is the secret to the Chinese miracle: There are more pigs in China than in the next 43 pork producing nations combined.
So it is PORK that is driving China !! ENJOY YOUR PORK !
Now . . . you know why we eat “bak kut the” to be one in spirit with our China cousins.
Comments
Your comments are invited.
What problems do you envisage for China in this economic crisis?
How would the rest of the world, particularly US, react or act towards China?
What role do you think that China is likely to play on the world stage?
Do you think that China would follow the path of US & change its basic peaceful co-existence policy?
Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (b. 1813, d. 1855), philosopher, theologian & psychologist, was a profound and prolific writer in the Danish “golden age” of intellectual and artistic activity. He said: “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” Thus, if not for any other reasons, this fact alone is sufficient for us to dwell on history in order to understand the present & serves as a guide towards the future.
Until about 400 years ago, Western Europe was largely a feudal society – one that valued service & chivalry. The turning point in history arrived with the discovery of a new hierarchy of values. Feudalism was then replaced by capitalism – an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market. Wealth became the measure of success, and everyone was set in a frenzy for cash. The cult of money replaced all other values, including religious.
Capitalism turned the western world topsy-turvy. Making money was the be all and end all of objectives. This system turned out to be extremely efficient in terms of production of goods, services, and comfort. America benefited from the system the most, and decided that the rest of the world has to adopt it as well. Underdeveloped countries, if unable to appreciate the benefits of capitalism, would even be forced to do so.
However, after all the glories & excesses of high living, America is now facing the collapse of the illusion – the illusion of power & might, of conquest & dominance, of grandeur & sheer luxuries. In a word the collapse of capitalism.
We are either fortunate or unfortunate to be living in an era witnessing the unfolding of the old & the making of new history. We are on the threshold in time to see an unprecedented event that will transform the global geopolitical landscape.
This transformation will be in transition – slowly, steadily & most certainly. Philosophers & economic analysts maintain that capitalism is driven mainly by the striving for hard cold cash & the consumption of these goods. It’s this obsession that breeds greed, avarice & the inherent covetous nature of man that is the root of all the present day problems.
There is a lack of spirit in the power mind of the capitalist. There is no soul. A society that was built on the premise of “In God We Trust” is now doing away with God, throwing Him out of the schools, institutions & public places – forbidding the preaching & practice of anything religious.
With moral degradation setting in, a near collapse & breakdown in its economy, an unemployment of the highest in excess of 10%, a dollar currency that’s steadily losing its value & hallmark, America is now further faced with the dilemma of the emerging power in the East.
American’s values are exhibiting flaws, and the appeal to adopt them would be madness considering that the system is in crisis. Pragmatic Americans will soon realise they are no longer “boss” of the world to continue to impose its will upon billions of other nationalities, where traditional values & spirit are held in high esteem.
Globally, people are amazed by the economic miracles & achievements of China. Nations are flocking to learn of its wonders & adopting its system of development.
Signs are everywhere that Obama & his administration is shifting in the US policies bringing about changes that are possibly hard to believe:
From confrontation to negotiation & mitigation in its approaches to Iran & North Korea
Obama’s decision not to build the Missile Defence System in Poland & the Czech republic
Obama’s acceptance of his controversial Nobel Prize Peace Award as a “call to action”
Obama’s bowing gesture to the Saudi King & Emperor Akihito of Japan.
Has America, the bulwark of capitalism, grown tired of imposing its rules on others? Is America feeling the importance of friendship with other nations – rich or poor? Does it need to dominate to subjugate? Perhaps, as evidenced by the above actions, America is finally convinced that there are more to pursue than just power & money. If this be the case, we will soon be witnessing another turning point in world history with US embracing more elements of socialism.
“Capitalism creates a rational frame of mind which, having destroyed the moral authority of so many other institutions, in the end turns against its own.” – Joseph A. Schumpeter
A friend of mine Mary from Malaysia emailed me this beautiful story “Take My Son” & suggested that I might adopt it in my blog. No doubt many of you may have read the story, but a good story such as this is well worth repeating.
A Chinese proverb has this to say: “Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I might remember. Involve me and I will understand.”
This beautiful but sad story will involve you & awaken your understanding like “a picture that paints a thousand words.” Remember how at times something hits you hard & strong upon later reflection. “Life” as said by Soren Kierkegaad, “can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
Here goes the story: (Source: Unknown)
Take My Son
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael . They would often sit together and admire the great works of art.
When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas,there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands.
He said, ‘Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.’ The young man held out this package. ‘I know this isn’t much. I’m not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.’
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.. ‘Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It’s a gift.’
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected.
The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings. Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection.
On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. ‘We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?’
There was silence.
Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, ‘We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one.’
But the auctioneer persisted. ‘Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?’
Another voice rang angrily. ‘We came to see the Van Gogh’s, the Rembrandts. Get on with the . . . (agitated words) Real bids!’
But still the auctioneer continued. ‘The son! The son! Who’ll take the son?’
Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the long-time gardener of the man and his son. ‘I’ll give $10 for the painting . . .’ Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
‘We have $10, who will bid $20?’
‘Give it to him for $10. Let’s see the masters.’
The crowd was becoming angry. They didn’t want the picture of the son.
They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.
The auctioneer pounded the gavel. ‘Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!’
A man sitting on the second row shouted, ‘Now let’s get on with the collection!’
The auctioneer laid down his gavel. ‘I’m sorry, the auction is over.’
‘What about the paintings?’
‘I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings.
The man who took the son gets everything!’
God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: ‘The son, the son, who’ll take the son?’
Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything.
“FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE . . .” (John 3:16) THAT’S LOVE!
It was love, not nails, that kept Jesus on the cross.
As a gesture of goodwill, just pass this on to two other friends & tell them to do likewise to only two others each. By sheer geometric progression, this message of salvation will outreach globally to every nook & corner.
It will soon be that time of the year when Christmas will be celebrated throughout every nook & corner of the world. What makes the occasion so grand is that even the non-Christians join in the celebrations. Greetings are sent & gifts are exchanged. Hundreds of millions will be following traditions, rejoicing in what is purportedly the birth of Christ. But is it?
Christmas Decorations
The notion that whatever that is celebrated by millions & millions of people throughout the world must be right cannot be taken for granted. With all this popularity, most people generally just follow along & never bother to investigate its root or origin. Most accept customs & traditions without questions – it’s the fashionable thing to do.
Nowhere is this fashionable practice further from the truth than Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween among other supposed Christian holidays. There is too much assumption without researching the truth – surely hundreds of millions down through the ages cannot be wrong! The vital fact is even churches preach & condone such popular practices.
The basic truth is revealed in the Bible & the pages of history. Truth is truth & fact is fact, and you must be willing to accept the findings. People have a tendency to doubt Biblical or historical truth if it contradicts cherished traditions & belief; or like believing in fiction & the media.
This is what 2 Timothy 3:16 has to say about the Bible: “All Scripture is God-breathed & is useful for teaching, rebuking, correction & training in righteousness . . .” In Hebrews 4:12 “For the Word of God is living & alive, sharper than any double-edged sword . . . “ We are reminded by Joshua 1:8 “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth . . . meditate . . . “
Haver an open mind in this. Rid yourself of any pre-conceived ideas or prejudices. You’d be the judge & jury basing your judgement on truth & evidences. That which can be proved by the Bible & history will stand as truth & withstand all the unholy practices & prejudices of mankind.
Nowhere can it be found that Christmas celebration is advocated in the Bible. All Christmas cards, gifts, Christmas trees & mistletoes are all fabricated by man, advertised & rampantly commercialised for business benefits. According to Encyclopedia Americana “Christmas . . . was not celebrated in the first centuries of the Christian church, since the Christian usage in general was to celebrate the death of remarkable persons rather than the birth . . . a feast was established in memory of this event of Christ’s birth in the fourth century.” “In the fifth century the western church ordered the feast to be celebrated on the day of the Mithrtaic rites of the birth of the sun & at the close of the SATURNALIA, as no certain knowledge of the day of Christ’s birth existed.”
In the Encyclopedia Britannica “In the Roman world the SATURNALIA (December 17) was a time of merrymaking & exchanging of gifts. December 25 was also regarded as the birth date of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness. On the Roman New year (January 1), houses were decorated with greenery & lights, & gifts were given to children & the poor. To these observances were added the German & Celtic Yule rites when the Teutonic tribes penetrated into Gaul, Britain, & central Europe. Food & good fellowship, the Yule log & Yule cakes, greenery & fir trees, gifts & greetings all commemorated different aspect of this festive season. Fires & lights, symbols of warmth & lasting life have always been associated with the winter festival, both pagan & Christian.” You can thus see that there is nothing to suggest celebrating the birth of Christ.
What about the Christmas tree? Christmas tree long preceded Christianity. It’s from Egypt & its origin dates from a period long anterior to the Christian era. This is not referred to in the Bible – and plainly so as it is not from God. In Jeremiah 10:2 “Thus says the LORD, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven [the stars]; for the heathen are dismayed at them.”
God considers all things heathen in nature as abominable. To think that Churches, Christians & millions of others going about rejoicing in the way of the pagans is sheer insane!
The origins of the other cherished traditions like Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween among others all bear the paganish stigma. If you care enough about practising what’s right & holy to the LORD, all it takes is a little trouble in research.
All festivities are highly advertised & commercialised
Fading whatever justifications made to Christianize.
Basic science tells us that to every action there is an equal & opposing reaction. It follows with the natural law of phenomenon of cause & effect. So with solving any problem, consideration lies with the cause not the effect – treating the cause & not the effect is the only logical solution.
US Dollar Being Shot At! Greenspan?
Do you remember the 1970s era of the Pyramid Marketing Schemes as deviously ingeniously devised by the Americans, particularly from the home ground of Utah? There was this mushrooming of the “Get Rich Quick” concept with ‘Holiday Magic’ spearheading & exploding the marketplace. It adversely affected the pockets & lives of many a home & individual. It was banned in Singapore & became restricted, operating as a Multi-Level Marketing Scheme. There are still such Multi-Level Marketing companies around, and in reality all its productivities benefit largely the company itself – the distributors getting the crumbs & pittance. Calling a rose by any other name still makes it smell the same.
Unlike the conservative British, the Americans are undoubtedly the most innovative & progressive with propitious modern ideas of marketing. In a word, they are the greatest “wheelers-dealers”! They preach & practise this philosophy right to the extreme – with success objective at all costs. The underlying theory maybe sound, but in practice it’s invariably unsound, as individuals have differential capability & capacity.
The Americans are famous for their doomsday & catastrophic shows on the big screen. This time they really hit the real thing – from Wall Street to the Main Street. But it’s not confined or restricted just to the American scene – it’s so monumental that the global economy is reeling & hurting. The cause of the Pyramid practice has evolved & resulted into the Domino effect. Like in a masquerade ball, the Americans have been wearing those loose cloaks with masks to cover up their faces.
Who’s to be blamed? Bush then & now Obama administration would like to attribute the alleged root of this economic crisis to the market itself – speculators, hedge funds, greedy bankers & lax regulators. Passing the buck does not eradicate the fact that it’s one Monumental Policy Failure on the part of the US government.
We are witnessing history unfolding right before our eyes. Two monumental things are glaringly obvious:
1. A dangerous collapse or near breakdown of the capitalist financial system.
2. A massive outpouring of Free Money by the US government in bailing out the “Big Boys” who are the real culprits of this economic calamity. Hundreds of billions are spent in bailing out the key major players – not at all benefiting the average American & sending the budget deficits going through the roof.
This Monumental Policy Failure of expanding money supply & credit growth is fuelling the economy negatively. The economy is imploding within with the exploding of endless printing of paper money. These two colossal events of the past 24 months with the collapse of Wall Street in 2008 & the irrational response of Washington in the outpouring of free money & the Federal Reserve printing money without restraint.
What happened initially with the huge speculative real estate bubble, which not even Greenspan nor Bernanke would now deny, has triggered off the ramification of the banking problems & the recession.
Many of us to be sure must remember the worthlessness of the Japanese money during the Japanese Occupation in both Malaya & Singapore. The Japanese were also running their printing press overtime to finance their warfare & occupation. Now in the present era, just ask any Zimbabwean what a billion or million dollar note is worth in his country.
US dollar is not backed by anything, not gold or silver or any tangible commodities and with its paper money running off the press like crazy, what can you expect of its worthiness in the final analysis? The confidence of the world for its currency is at a critical point, and all it takes is 24 hours for all the other nations to drop its use as the currency reserve.
As said, US may well be destroyed from within & from without – the wrath & non-confidence of the world may be brought to bear down on US all within the hours before the wake of Wall Street.
One Nobel Prize winning economist predicts a run on the dollar as “Probably the kind of disorderly run that precipitates a global financial crisis . . . ” while other monetary experts now warn “We are in the terminal stages of the world’s most gigantic pyramid scheme.”
Paul Chong's Blog 