People and their set ways - resetting is not easy

Bismillah

1.       Society is so badly fragmented these days, and any thoughts of leaving a permanent impact on positive change leaves such an immense sense of the gargantuan effort required. Take for example, brutal killing and murder of babies, for that is what they are. Try changing that, and immediately you get the sense of the hopelessness of change. Where is the hope? When people raise the moral code as a preventive measure, there is a general outcry deriding imposition of Islamic values on liberals and non-muslims. Yet, the initiatives of handing out condoms are seen as the panacea for rampant zina amongst teenagers. The general paralysis analysis is too great that any effort as those done by raudhatusakinah needs to be given fullest support. Cynicism must be dampened fo hope to flourish. The littlest contributions must be promoted to give hope that these efforts are not done in vain.

2.       Then you have Islamic finance – trying to build upon the ruins of a capitalist system that breeds unfettered greed. CDS, CDO, derivatives, arbitrage, etc – positive purpose of risk management offset by lack of regulations allowing speculators to build upon loopholes, seen as backed by the rigour of an intellectual analysis but in truth no more than gambling against uncontrolled circumstances. Islamic finance allows for the risk of participating in these transactions with an asset-backed capital as a solution, when you lose you lose your own pants, not as part of a leveraged debt now termed as OPM, the loss is somebody else’s. Obama chasing after the miscreants in Goldis is a fantastic piece of news of clear thinking. Let the investors shit in their pants. They have had it easy for far too long.

3.       NEM promoting innovation et al. Already cynics are moving out of the woodwork when this initiative should be supported and expanded where able. Such is the crisis that we have in Malaysia that a major crossroads such as this is being seen as mere sloganeering, but failure to execute could have dire implications. A slowing economy will leave powerful forces tugging at the fraying strands of social cohesion. IN a way, I agree with Dr Halili if the opinion he expresses are true. In this case, weaken the empty “sloganeering” opposition, and strengthen the forces to keep Malaysian society intact for as long as we can.

4.       Tech development isn’t easy. Tech transfer leakages are occurring where people see opportunities to benefit. The system needs to change. MOSTI are regulators, not beneficiaries.

5.       New neighbours seem to be a bit nosy too.