Every one of us will endeavor to live the life we desire, but inevitably the fear of what others might presume about us will stamp out our dreams. Eventually, many of us end up being a slave to societal perceptions. It’s an agonizing pressure escalating within us to follow the flock which is against our will. I have heard the common phrase uttered frequently, “I’m sick of being a doormat”! I will just give them a cynical grin and feel sorry for them for not taking a control of their own life. The day God created us; we were manufactured with in-built operating manual to function according to our design. Then why do you allow external factor to drive your operating system (literally meaning your own life)? Those who fall into societal perceptions, tend to give in into the pressure of tyranny absolute dictatorship! And I totally loathe the idea of someone controlling our life. Hey com’on folks! This is not something you should give up on.
There are too many people that allow this thing to happen to them. You can avert yourself from being a slave by taking back control of your life. There are some essential steps that you need to take in order to completely take control of your life.
Here are the steps that will allow you to start feeling empowered and in control of your life again.
1. Voice up your displeasures - Don't just sit quietly and do what others ask you to do all the time. Being compliant all the time, will snatch away your freedom of life. If you don't want to or can't do something, then speak up and let them know. Tell them that you are willing to take their ideas once in a while, but not every time. You’re not obliged to commit their advice or ideas. It’s up to you to decide.
When people know that you can't be stepped on, they will respect your thoughts and daren’t infringe your private space too often. If they don't respect your convictions and still thinks they can dominate your life, then you may not want to be around that person anyway.
2. Be firm with your defined convictions – Be firm with your convictions, but in a very polite manner. Eventually, when you stand up for your principles, others will also adhere to it with respect. In other words, if you are always putting yourself down or vague about your own faith, then others will take you for a ride. Get rid master of slavery out of your life and start treating yourself with the respect that you deserve and others will follow suit.
3. Don't let others dictate your life - Being submissive, means that you are letting others tell you what to do and when to do it all the time. Fill up the gap where, others attempt to dictate your life by taking charge of your life. When others know you are in charge of your own life they won't be able to dictate you anymore.
I was fixated to write up this fascinating subject, out of excitement to share my true encounter with such extremely obsessed human characters. Domination is their ultimate motive to achieve their sadistic pleasure. I have come across several characters resembling the authoritarian behavior to master the life of others besides theirs. It’s pure obsession that makes them to take authority into their own hands and gives instruction to others. What’s even worse is, this type of character dominates other people’s life NOT for their wellbeing’s (literally meaning NOT for optimistic progress of the other party), instead to shun them from being successful or being a match up to them. But the real publicity stunt is, their overwhelming compassion deceives us into something I call a ‘lion’s den’. *ROLF*. Their pushy nature, eventually chuck us into a ditch kind of circumstances. The masquerade fades away when reality hits us, the hard way.
You might be wondering how I handled such culprits. Simple and downright direct on the face! Hahahaha…Nothing will teach them to keep their hands off other people’s affairs. Only tell them to buzz off from your life, will they ever shut their mouth. Even then, such culprits find it hard to accept their discontentment to further dictate. One thing for sure, they will not attempt to face you directly coz they never anticipated for someone to rebel against them. Then can go yakking about you at the back, but deep down, you will realize you made the right choice to stand up and put a stop to this.
Reflect on how you can prevent yourself from being taken advantage by them and help you start feeling better about yourself and you can feel more empowered. It is of no harm to be harsh with such characters to defend your rights. No one can question you.
Let us steer our life with all the values added to make it a distinct space of our own.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Traffic Woes in KL City
A ray of hope is something that we, city dwellers look forward on the horizon who crawl our way through the notorious Federal Highway jam daily (snail-drive, I name it). Sometimes I can see pedestrians are faster than motorists. Each time I hit the Federal Highway (highway is not an appropriate name for it anymore), I imagine a city centre without traffic jams. Not just during off- peak hours or public holidays but every day, where I don’t need to sit idle staring at the sea of cars, hearing impatient honking and looking at disgruntled drivers with frown all over their forehead. It’s a mere sight each day when we are battling to reach our destination, HOME after a hard day’s work. What sort of life do we have here in city? Now I began to realize why my parents love their small town, Ipoh and look forward to settle down post retirement.
Traffic inch is all over routes in KL and Selangor. Both directions of road are filled with engine fumes and impatient drivers. Let it be, you’re exiting the city or reaching towards city, it makes no DIFFERENCE. And worse still, the traffic congestion is unpredictable! Regardless of public holidays or school holidays makes it even ghastly. Obviously, this is a daily anguish for all of us which there are no end to it, unless the authority does something about it ASAP!
Let us have a quick look into what is the root cause for the never-ending traffic brawl in the city. The focal reason for traffic congestion in the city was due to the substantial increase in the number of single occupancy vehicles coming into the city. It will still be zilch efficiency anywhere in the world even if the PWD authority escalates the number of new routes or roads, or expand roads to keep pace with the rapid increase in passenger cars. Why is this happening? Isn’t the public transportation sufficient to cater the public to commute from work to home and vice versa? One reason the public still chose to use their own vehicles was because the public transportation system was still inadequate and did not fulfill the demands of users especially in accessibility, continuity and being on time. There is no way the current road system can take in more cars; the only solution is for an alternative mode of transport – improvisation of public transportation.
I believe, a comprehensive and integrated plan should be put into place by the Government to solve the erratic traffic woes in the city. Integrated public transportation system should be established and not become a near reality, a distant future or just a pipe-dream. This is a serious matter and should not be looked at being unrealistic. The on-hand public transportation exclusively the LRT/commuter should be innovated to greater heights and channeled to various destination especially offices, factories, hospitals, and shopping malls via underground or amid the skyline. The rail transit will be the most effective mode of transportation for a quick and safer travelling. This included expanding LRT services, improving the quality of commuter trains and increasing the number of buses and their stops.
It comes of no surprise that almost most big cities in the world experience this sort of predicament. But the authority comes up with innovative ways of dealing with this problem. I.e. car pool, limit the cars on the road, improve the services of public transportation with better comfortable trains and reliable LRTs and also a combination of cycle-park and taking the train. In most developed countries, 60% of the people use public transport but in our country, it is about 20%, so we are way below the world average. So this is why we are still struggling with traffic anguish.
There must be nationwide campaign to get all the people including the company’s directors, bosses and political leaders to take the public transport at least once/twice a week. After all this is about leadership by example and walking their talk.
This is not something out of the ordinary, since even in USA, their Vice President Joe Biden commutes by metro.
My greatest doubt is how PWD and government streamlined the physical criteria’s of roads in KL and survey the traffic conditions prior to developing the infrastructure for traffic systems? The elevated roads are constructed for routes that only a handful motorist uses it. Why? The peak-hour traffic congestion on the highway which is one of the city's main arteries should be scrutinized and given a paramount importance for improvisation of roads.
Another immediate suggestion is to come up with a proper management scheme to control the flow of traffic on the highway. The traffic controller can play a major role by making their presence felt and worthy especially during peak hrs all throughout the day (from dawn till dusk) irrespective of the weather conditions. A holistic solution was definitely considered necessary to solve traffic problems in the city for the next two to three decades.
It is time to give it a big boost as we make Kuala Lumpur city to be even better and greater.
Traffic inch is all over routes in KL and Selangor. Both directions of road are filled with engine fumes and impatient drivers. Let it be, you’re exiting the city or reaching towards city, it makes no DIFFERENCE. And worse still, the traffic congestion is unpredictable! Regardless of public holidays or school holidays makes it even ghastly. Obviously, this is a daily anguish for all of us which there are no end to it, unless the authority does something about it ASAP!
Let us have a quick look into what is the root cause for the never-ending traffic brawl in the city. The focal reason for traffic congestion in the city was due to the substantial increase in the number of single occupancy vehicles coming into the city. It will still be zilch efficiency anywhere in the world even if the PWD authority escalates the number of new routes or roads, or expand roads to keep pace with the rapid increase in passenger cars. Why is this happening? Isn’t the public transportation sufficient to cater the public to commute from work to home and vice versa? One reason the public still chose to use their own vehicles was because the public transportation system was still inadequate and did not fulfill the demands of users especially in accessibility, continuity and being on time. There is no way the current road system can take in more cars; the only solution is for an alternative mode of transport – improvisation of public transportation.
I believe, a comprehensive and integrated plan should be put into place by the Government to solve the erratic traffic woes in the city. Integrated public transportation system should be established and not become a near reality, a distant future or just a pipe-dream. This is a serious matter and should not be looked at being unrealistic. The on-hand public transportation exclusively the LRT/commuter should be innovated to greater heights and channeled to various destination especially offices, factories, hospitals, and shopping malls via underground or amid the skyline. The rail transit will be the most effective mode of transportation for a quick and safer travelling. This included expanding LRT services, improving the quality of commuter trains and increasing the number of buses and their stops.
It comes of no surprise that almost most big cities in the world experience this sort of predicament. But the authority comes up with innovative ways of dealing with this problem. I.e. car pool, limit the cars on the road, improve the services of public transportation with better comfortable trains and reliable LRTs and also a combination of cycle-park and taking the train. In most developed countries, 60% of the people use public transport but in our country, it is about 20%, so we are way below the world average. So this is why we are still struggling with traffic anguish.
There must be nationwide campaign to get all the people including the company’s directors, bosses and political leaders to take the public transport at least once/twice a week. After all this is about leadership by example and walking their talk.
This is not something out of the ordinary, since even in USA, their Vice President Joe Biden commutes by metro.
My greatest doubt is how PWD and government streamlined the physical criteria’s of roads in KL and survey the traffic conditions prior to developing the infrastructure for traffic systems? The elevated roads are constructed for routes that only a handful motorist uses it. Why? The peak-hour traffic congestion on the highway which is one of the city's main arteries should be scrutinized and given a paramount importance for improvisation of roads.
Another immediate suggestion is to come up with a proper management scheme to control the flow of traffic on the highway. The traffic controller can play a major role by making their presence felt and worthy especially during peak hrs all throughout the day (from dawn till dusk) irrespective of the weather conditions. A holistic solution was definitely considered necessary to solve traffic problems in the city for the next two to three decades.
It is time to give it a big boost as we make Kuala Lumpur city to be even better and greater.
Myriad Faces of Old Railway Station
Standing in pride at night
KL Railway station is a heritage that ought to be proud off and cherished for the future generation.
Glory of KL Railway Station
The Kuala Lumpur railway station building may be a shadow of its former glory but it is as majestic as ever from the outside. But when you step into the heritage walkway, things have been toned down a great deal. Ever since, KL Sentral took over its role as the main railway hub, the frenzy around the old pride has been stripped away.
Each time I happen to be there to send off my mother to Ipoh via railway transit, a surge of nostalgic memories comes gushing into my mind. The KL Train Station opened with much pomp and circumstance in 1911 to receive trains from Butterworth and Singapore. This wonderful confection of turrets and towers looks particularly impressive amid the blue sky. The soaring domes and arches were skillfully restored in the 1980s, to preserve heritage and serve as historical mileage. But the replacement of new hub by the new KL Sentral station in 2001, brought the glory of old station to a fading one. Today the platforms are only used for KTM Komuter trains to the suburbs. Although it's looking a bit disheveled these days, it's still worth coming here to imagine the glory days. There is something about this place that makes us feel heavenly sitting in the one of the oldest building in Malaysia.
My parents recall many fond memories of the station. “Every day, the platforms would be filled with working people, especially government servants, because they got vouchers to travel by train. According to them, the train fares then were affordable and everybody enjoyed that train ride.
Fortnight ago, I went to pick my aunt from KL station; I decided to venture around while waiting for her arrival. Inside the main building is a mini-museum featuring train models and other railway paraphernalia. There were one or two stalls selling snacks, newspapers, magazines, etc. It’s worthwhile exploring the whole place as it brings nostalgic memories looking at the black and white photographs depicting the heydays of railway station. All I wished for was to see the train station revived to restore its glory as it was built by the ancestors during British Empire.
The once upon a time glorifying station packed with people sharing the same platform to bid farewell or wish safe journey to their families, relatives and friends or meeting them on their arrivals. The station was filled with myriad emotions; tears, laughter, joy, and frenzied atmosphere packaged with whistles of the station master and blaring honk of the diesel-fired steam engines. The sight of the station master in his smart uniform was a formidable moment as he checks the final procedures before the departure of the train. Who can we forget the shiny copper bell being tolled followed by the loud whistle indicating the departure of train. The flagging off train by wave of a green flag completes the olden day procedures.
With the metamorphed railway hub in KL Sentral, the loss of charm of the old station is saddening. Gone were the days of people entering the railway platform to bid farewell. At KL Sentral, well-wishers are not allowed on the platform. The precious memories of yesteryears faded away. I wish the government will do something about bringing back the glory of old station. The station be livened up by conducting official tours, exhibitions and passing on its history and all the culture and heritage it contained to the future generations. I believe it has a huge meaning in every Malaysian life. Never forget that Malaysia’s railways are the connection between our past and our future.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Battle is on! Yay man!
The battle is on! And i am geared up for all the nonsense the MORONS is about to bring it on if they think they are RITE? First of all, they shud be ashamed to stupidly being defensive! Their big loud, rotten mouth member of their family should be taught basic ethics and moral values at old age. And stop acting like pseudo-smart telling rotten things abt others when their own behavior portrayed like uneducated fools. Next thing is dont write long emails to someone over the sea, to condemn about every single details about other members of the family. Simply coz only fools leave behind their mistakes as a solid proof to go against you. This backfired the subject above i was referring. At least i put up a post on f/book without specifying the names but some FOOLS rush in to write email putting in the names. Basic common sense, they cant understand, but they can keep calling others 'less educated'. Stupidity speaks by itself here!! Tell me about it! So i believe those fellas trying to cover up their family member's mistakes, think hundred times before making a fool of themselves. Black & white proof put their faces behind their back only. If they are so educated and thinks internet as platform to use smartly, WHY BOTHER POKING YOUR BUSYBODY NOSE INTO OTHER PPL's F/B profile, photos and notes and comment! Dont bother if you have better things to do! By the way, IF THEY are so smart to do productive things, BASIC ETHICS is dont talk about others behind their back and condemn in emails to others. You 're the one telling me you got better things to do! Go and do your 'better things'. So define better things here?
The subject matter has been so busy working their productive schedule to condemn others, that they forgot to sit back and ponder their self-roots. The high profile portfolio of mouth politicking is the 'BEST ATTRIBUTE'. This person should be given a medal for being so good in doing bad stuffs! Hats off to whoever wanted publicity. By the the subject matter is a sensational celebrity from those days. Maybe notorious is the right word here. Im sure you ppl can imagine it.
I continued the game that the subject matter initiated. The game started years back. I knw what in the world they can condemn abt others, they will go to that extent. I have been living with a pinch of tolerance for several years. And it keeps coming back to us. The past couple of months, we became the hottest topic. I have been putting aside my anger. But it could not take any longer. It exploded yesterday. Enough is enough! The bloody mouth must be taught a lesson. They dragged us into the picture when we living peacefully without bothering abt others. And then one idiot can tell me not to break the family. Doesnt he realise, his big mouth family member has been causing mayhem and made the family shattered! Ask anyone, the subject matter has a bad reputation from the past and cant run away from the fact! The subject matter has been cursed by many. Hahahaha..
If the fools wanna defend stupidity, defend coz ur bonded to fight for your own blood. The blood that runs in their body is so polluted. I guess its in their genes to talk abt others, as we all know gansterism gene has been detected. This polluted gene made them as such! Cant help them! Its a degenerative disorder. Only GOD can their decide their fate. If they fear for GOD, first thing they willl NEVER TALK about others. And if they are pure souls, I am surprised that many have confronted the subject matter for many havoc created! If this is defined for innocent people, I have no words to further comment. Wasting my time on unwanted nonsense! BUT I have made my stand here, DONT MESS WITH ME and TALK ABT MY FAMILY! This is it!
Some whiff came by saying one bloody jerk is jumping up and down saying he will teach me a lesson for talking abt his family member! Ooopsss. Im scared! Very afraid for his warnings. Hahahahaha....He ought to teach a basic ethic lesson for his family member on their demeanor before teaching others. If he keeps giving warning from far, He is headed to disaster. he has the same rotten mouth like his family member. Now u see, it runs in their polluted blood. He was known to cause friction with his huge juiciest gossips few years back. he escaped coz he is seeking god's shelter. What a pity? God dont help those who are jerks. He and his cheesy punch dialogue will never make its way. I have so much of backing here after the uproar! We will get into the battle.
Before talking abt others, turn and look at their back to see the amount of shit behind them before pointing fingers on others! WHAT A DISGRACE, everyone is talking abt them not for their goodness but for their ugly attitude! Not one or two people, but many! HHAHAHAHAHAHA..Biggest laughter for me. Im enjoying the drama!
The subject matter has been so busy working their productive schedule to condemn others, that they forgot to sit back and ponder their self-roots. The high profile portfolio of mouth politicking is the 'BEST ATTRIBUTE'. This person should be given a medal for being so good in doing bad stuffs! Hats off to whoever wanted publicity. By the the subject matter is a sensational celebrity from those days. Maybe notorious is the right word here. Im sure you ppl can imagine it.
I continued the game that the subject matter initiated. The game started years back. I knw what in the world they can condemn abt others, they will go to that extent. I have been living with a pinch of tolerance for several years. And it keeps coming back to us. The past couple of months, we became the hottest topic. I have been putting aside my anger. But it could not take any longer. It exploded yesterday. Enough is enough! The bloody mouth must be taught a lesson. They dragged us into the picture when we living peacefully without bothering abt others. And then one idiot can tell me not to break the family. Doesnt he realise, his big mouth family member has been causing mayhem and made the family shattered! Ask anyone, the subject matter has a bad reputation from the past and cant run away from the fact! The subject matter has been cursed by many. Hahahaha..
If the fools wanna defend stupidity, defend coz ur bonded to fight for your own blood. The blood that runs in their body is so polluted. I guess its in their genes to talk abt others, as we all know gansterism gene has been detected. This polluted gene made them as such! Cant help them! Its a degenerative disorder. Only GOD can their decide their fate. If they fear for GOD, first thing they willl NEVER TALK about others. And if they are pure souls, I am surprised that many have confronted the subject matter for many havoc created! If this is defined for innocent people, I have no words to further comment. Wasting my time on unwanted nonsense! BUT I have made my stand here, DONT MESS WITH ME and TALK ABT MY FAMILY! This is it!
Some whiff came by saying one bloody jerk is jumping up and down saying he will teach me a lesson for talking abt his family member! Ooopsss. Im scared! Very afraid for his warnings. Hahahahaha....He ought to teach a basic ethic lesson for his family member on their demeanor before teaching others. If he keeps giving warning from far, He is headed to disaster. he has the same rotten mouth like his family member. Now u see, it runs in their polluted blood. He was known to cause friction with his huge juiciest gossips few years back. he escaped coz he is seeking god's shelter. What a pity? God dont help those who are jerks. He and his cheesy punch dialogue will never make its way. I have so much of backing here after the uproar! We will get into the battle.
Before talking abt others, turn and look at their back to see the amount of shit behind them before pointing fingers on others! WHAT A DISGRACE, everyone is talking abt them not for their goodness but for their ugly attitude! Not one or two people, but many! HHAHAHAHAHAHA..Biggest laughter for me. Im enjoying the drama!
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Soccer Kick-off (Episode 2)
The much awaited South Africa WC indeed a sensational event of the year. This time, the kick off was unique where South Africa is the all black host! There has been a lot said and written about Bafana Bafana, the South African national team, ahead of the World Cup. Given that the event is taking place there, this is not surprising. It would be interesting to see Bafana Bafana sail into the semifinals at least if not till finals! A great twist for this year world cup.
Friday's (11th June 2010) games showcased everything that makes international soccer maddening for worldwide to watch: dreadful officiating, lack of scoring, and annoyingly conservative strategy. To make things worse, the annoying vuvuzela noise which resembles like millions bees buzzing creates unconducive atmosphere for the players as well as spectators. I am rather disappointed on how most teams played in WC.When the footballers run onto the field, I don't see the fiery spirit in them. They were like, being told to win or to lose.I hope they could have played from their heart. . .and play for their countries and for the fans in reality.
Most of the countries started off their game nervously except Germany who brushed away Australia with a 4-0 win. Germany got down into the field like good ol' soldiers with resilience wrapped up in their sleeves which has their sights set on taking the trophy! Their spirit sends out alarming signal to the rest of the competitors. BEWARE, HERE WE COME!
Australia were brought down with a huge thud! I think they deserved to be taught a lesson for being big-mouth!I just hope they have learnt a lesson and What they should do is to start looking into their performance and brush up their skills and not their EGO. Australians by nature are not humble people, and maybe that is why I have no sympathy for them in this embarrassing defeat.
Day six of the World Cup registered a couple of startling results, the most brazen being the tournament’s first real big shock: Spain’s defeat at the hands of Switzerland. No-one would have expected Swiss to win and maybe even the Swiss battalion itself were left surprised. Still the victory cant be snatched away from Switzerland. La Furia Roja flair worth mentioning this time around with simply scoring by a margin greater than a single goal throughout the game. Above all, they put Germany to shame at semifinals. Germany was subdued throughout and it might have been because of their Paul 's predictions! Spain rocked the stadium with their attacking skills and on the whole they displayed the best team effort to put other 'top guns' to shame!
Although Brazil's initial triumph in early matches were consistent, I was not convinced that is the Brazil team I used to watch in previous WCup tournament! Brazil always has something to prove and I rhought this World Cup will be no different. Strong contenders, stylish play and masterminds in terms of tactics. BUT will they make it to the final this time around? I dont see the 'fire' in the eyes of the 5 time WC champions! Not anymore. Even with the finesse of Maicon and Fabiano, its merely hopeless.Samba game that we eagerly anticipated, now remains as fantasy.
However, having said that,let us look at Argentina. This is an experienced squad with their mission as the focal point, even with distractions, they can still perform. Strong looking argentina displayed optimistic journey to victory. With the likes of Messi and Tevez, who I believe are truly outstanding players, it was disappointing to see how they perform against some of the stronger teams.The Argentines, who progressed from the group stage in fine style and were quickly installed by many as the favourites to win the World Cup, had no answer to the efficiency of a German team who have shown great composure in their last few games and must now fancy their chances of winning the coveted trophy for a fourth time. Argentina were knocked out of the World Cup by Germany, who put on a class act to reach the semi-finals. It was a huge disappointment for me since they were my favourite team!
The WC has brought upon many surprises . It was so difficult to determine the outcomes and I think the best victory is yet to come! Keep your fingers crossed for the first ever Spain who have shown they can do something at the greatest tournament of all; they have shown they ARE someone.Oranje has also made it to the finals for first time ever. One will lift the World Cup trophy for the first time and join the seven other nations to win a world championship.
Cant wait for the best to emerge! Waka Waka Eh eh! This time is Africa
It’s time for World Cup 2010 (Episode 1)
Once in four years, the entire world has the fever, the most hyped ‘Soccer fever’. It’s here. After 4 years of waiting, it’s finally here again. This time in Africa! Our Maxis commercial ad bringing two celebrated world players, Lionel Messi and Frank Lampard envisaged standing at your doorstep whilst earnestly pleading is more than a gentle reminder every time it flashes across our TV screen! So much so that all football enthusiast were geared up for the sensational event of the year!!
Friday, June 11, 2010 began with aplomb. Let’s welcome back the biggest, most exciting, anticipated and dramatic event in the world… FIFA World Cup 2010, the event we have been waiting for so eagerly with myriad of electrifying matches, players’ dexterity in battle field, golden player stealing the limelight with their excellent finesse, tactical fixture, dribbling style and line of attacks across 34 teams ranging from invisible team up to top ‘guns’ which leaves us gasping for more. Every nook and corner, we catch glimpse of jerseys various preferable teams for sale (as in Argentina, Brazil, Germany & England). Billboards carrying the official ambassadors of world cup tournament, and indisputably star stoppers as Lionel Messi. Cafes and restaurants are jam-packed with football aficionados alike with their mug of teh tarik, coffee and yelling at the top of their voice ‘goal!!!’ if a goal is scored or followed by huge roar of disappointment if Jabulani ball decide to take a huge diversion and cause anxiety to all..Wakawaka Wakawaka ( Even laughter has been glorified with soccer spirit). All the countdowns and whatnots seem like a universal carnival! At least, I can proudly claim that our hearts and spirits are united in this soccer platform! Voila!
Now, all the rhetoric articulated above has stormed in and expected to last at least till the finals on 12th July 2010. I do like football but I am not really so obsessive till I stay up late night for all the matches. If there are real world cup fanatics, my apologies! Go ahead! Enjoy your World Cup. But frankly speaking, I have metamorphed into an ardent ethusiast of soccer! By no means, will I ever fail to keep informed on the up-to-the-minute information on soccer results, happenings in South Africa and what’s being said by officials, coaches and catch up with the players’ excerpt in media. And not to forget the show stopper, Paul the Octopus aka Oracle of Oberhausen for his famous predictions! Hahaha..Although I don’t have faith in such superstitions in this century, yet, it was fun to wait and find out the probability of Paul’s prediction! On top of it, it’s very silly for some fans to get mad at the poor cephalopod with caveat of making a dish out of it! Very amusing to me though it only reflects nothing but absurdity. Com’on folks, leave the mollusc alone. It was just picking its food, not a team to taste victory even though they are known as intelligent creature. Don’t corrupt them too for god sake! To me the oracle’s divination is bizarre but personally I feel soccer is becoming too superstitious these days. Soccer should not be admixed with ridiculous convictions and ruin the true fortitude.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Protecting Intellectual Property
The importance of patents is a requisite for an inventor or else, there would be no such thing as invention! This is because without IP, inventors would have no way of supporting themselves and making money. What is IP? These are the exclusive rights granted to the creator who invented novel piece of work. Its purpose is to prevent other people from marketing it without paying royalties to the inventor.
For an invention to be patented, it must be something novel, not an obvious extension of present knowledge, and you cannot patent a mere discovery. It has to have a practical use. The patent system has evolved over centuries around products of industry like mechanical inventions, science processes and various fields.
Up to about 1980, products of nature were normally excluded. You couldn't patent a plant, say. But once biotechnology began to discover ways of modifying living organisms, first bacteria and then plants and animals, pressure mounted to allow patents on these. Genetic research is expensive and it often takes years from discovery to market. In a competitive world, companies say they have a legitimate need to know they have a chance to protect their large research investment with a patent. The question is how far should this be taken? The EU Directive has aroused widespread criticism that it has bowed to the demands of industry to the point that basic public values were simply overridden.
One of the hottest issue lately is 'Should we allow patents on living organisms, and naturally occuring genes?' About 2 months ago, Myriad Genetics Inc. lost a U.S. court ruling over its patents for a way to detect inherited breast cancer in a decision that may lead to other challenges to gene-related patents. The patent was declared invalid my the US court on the grounds against law of nature. Now all naturally occurring gene patents are invalid by the reasoning of this opinion. This is really a sea change for patents in life sciences.
The added concern is that patenting genetic discoveries implies an attitude of "winner takes all" over knowledge. Logically, this would bring an end to the notion of discovery and mean that anything could commercialised. Therefore, the patent lawyers should install a proper system which looks into ethical assessment to all kinds of invention while its patent is being assessed, to enable society to decide whether it wants it to be marketed or not.
This issue urgently needs to be addressed, if this vital area of science is to remain accountable to the public and not driven by commercial interests alone.
For an invention to be patented, it must be something novel, not an obvious extension of present knowledge, and you cannot patent a mere discovery. It has to have a practical use. The patent system has evolved over centuries around products of industry like mechanical inventions, science processes and various fields.
Up to about 1980, products of nature were normally excluded. You couldn't patent a plant, say. But once biotechnology began to discover ways of modifying living organisms, first bacteria and then plants and animals, pressure mounted to allow patents on these. Genetic research is expensive and it often takes years from discovery to market. In a competitive world, companies say they have a legitimate need to know they have a chance to protect their large research investment with a patent. The question is how far should this be taken? The EU Directive has aroused widespread criticism that it has bowed to the demands of industry to the point that basic public values were simply overridden.
One of the hottest issue lately is 'Should we allow patents on living organisms, and naturally occuring genes?' About 2 months ago, Myriad Genetics Inc. lost a U.S. court ruling over its patents for a way to detect inherited breast cancer in a decision that may lead to other challenges to gene-related patents. The patent was declared invalid my the US court on the grounds against law of nature. Now all naturally occurring gene patents are invalid by the reasoning of this opinion. This is really a sea change for patents in life sciences.
The added concern is that patenting genetic discoveries implies an attitude of "winner takes all" over knowledge. Logically, this would bring an end to the notion of discovery and mean that anything could commercialised. Therefore, the patent lawyers should install a proper system which looks into ethical assessment to all kinds of invention while its patent is being assessed, to enable society to decide whether it wants it to be marketed or not.
This issue urgently needs to be addressed, if this vital area of science is to remain accountable to the public and not driven by commercial interests alone.
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