Hannibal Lecter’s Whore: Blog Of

“The world is nearing the end of a 500-year cycle of Western-dominated history that began with European colonization. The end of the cold war “unfroze” historical forces, but most Americans remain unaware that major changes are imminent.“

Kishore Mahbubani is well-known for his books,and has addressed many major conferences in many parts of the world. Yet, who really is Kishore Mahbubani?

Mahbubani claims himself as a civil servant and a career diplomat. He received the President’s Scholarship in 1967, which was his stepping stone towards his undergraduate studies in philosophy at the University of Singapore, now the National University of Singapore. He also obtained his Master’s Degree, which is also in philosophy, from Dalhousie University in Canada. He also spend time at the Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Truly, Mahbubani is a man who values education.

He has also been with the Singapore Foreign Service since 1971. He was previously Permanent Secretary (Policy) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was also the first dean of the Civil Service College in Singapore, and has served several leading institutes in Singapore such as the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,the Institute of Policy Studies, the Lee Kuan Yew Exchange Fellowship, and the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies. Currently, he is the ambassador of Singapore to the United Nations.

Mahbubani caught even more attention when his book Can Asian’s Think? Understanding the Divide Between East and West. was released. Actually, he has lots of books and articles which are to be considered so influential and eye-openers. But I would like to examine his ideologies and views through the book Can Asians Think? Understanding the Divide Between East and West. Ambassador Mahbubani’s life has taken him on a journey which traverses both East and West, and it is this experience which informs his thoughts in these essays. His views represent a rare combination of imagination, extraordinary vitality, and an intellectual rigor which we all admire.

Samuel P. Huntington, the author of The Clash of Civilizations commented that: “This book is a collection of absolutely first-rate essays, elegantly written and intellectually provocative…. This book will make Asians and everyone else think better than they have.”

One of the biggest misunderstandings about this book, he emphasized, is the perception that he wrote about the superiority of Asian values over Western values. He clarified that no one in Asia, and certainly not him, believes that Asian values are superior. He further explained that if Asian values were superior, then Asian civilizations should not have fell back for hundreds of years.

Mahbubani believe that the Western mind is a huge world, but in the real sense, you are actually trapped in a mental box. For him, those who live in the West assume that they can understand the world just by looking at it through Western perspectives, which could only give a limited view of the world. He summarised world history that for most of the past 200 years, western populations have been subjects of world history while the rest of the world have been objects.

Personally, I believe that one could not blame why those from the West have this kind of perspective. Now we could see the West dominating in many other areas: in universities, in research and development, in Nobel prizes for science, in release of new technology. Virtually all the cutting edge work in any field of science, perhaps even in social sciences, is done in the West. Even myself, I see the Western civilization with a high regard, and with what Mahbubani had stressed, I have every reason to think that I am absolutely wrong.

It is his belief that the world will be a much richer place when Western minds stop assuming that Western civilization represents the only universal civilization. It was with these thoughts in mind that Ambassador Mahbubani directs his first questions to his fellow Asians and challenges them to look inward to ask why they have slipped so far behind European societies whom they once outstripped at the end of the last millennium. As Ambassador Mahbubani stresses, the future lies in the fusion of civilizations, not in their divide.

He also cited that one of the key insights Marx left with us was that one of main drivers of world is economic change. Mahbubani believed that if only Marx is alive today, he would be amazed by the scope and speed of economic changes that we are all witnessing today.

This then leads us to the scope of modernization. Normally, we would equate modernization with the West. From this I remember Huntington saying that these two are separate entities, and so, a country could be modernized without being westernized. Furthermore, he said that the positive effects of modernization should not be ignored for it has helped mankind in many ways. Though it could sometimes be disadvantageous, still, merit should be given to it since a lot of scientific and idustrial breakthroughs brought upon by modernization have helped man in one way or another.

Today, as we enter a world that is much different from what it is centuries ago, the essays presented in his book are perhaps even more relevant. Ambassador Mahbubani’s work provides a foundation for a far-reaching discourse between East and West, and, to paraphrase him, may even call attention to the possibility that contributions of other civilizations have influenced the development and growth of mankind.

For Mahbubani, the relevant question here is: Can the population of the West carry the burden of the world on its shoulders? Personally, I believe that this is not possible. Thus, I see Mahbubani’s idea on this as the most appropriate thing to do. He said that we need to have burden-sharing between the West and other civilizations to have stability. “We need a fusion of civilizations rather than a clash of civilizations”.

Optimistic, he can see the fusion of civilizations taking place across the Pacific with East Asia and the United States cooperating in economics, politics and culture. However, he still haven’t been able to see how we are going to fuse the Islam and Western civilizations, and with that he believed that is where the problems will lie in the world to come.

In simplest terms, we could see Mahbubani’s message: in his own words, “The world will be a much richer place when Western minds stop assuming that Western civilization represents the universal civilization.” The rest of the west may therefore see the creation of a new civilization which will truly integrate the best from all streams of mankind.

Personally, I see Mahbubani’s opinions on the fusion of civilizations as a Utopian view. But nevertheless, I still believe that it is the best that we could hope for, the best solution that is more or less tangible. I fear that this will never be a reality for as far as I could observe, there is always the hierarchy of civilizations at the back of our minds. I still believe that the Westerns see themselves as the “model” civilization. It is not that I am sounding so pessimistic. Deep inside me, I am hoping that years from now, there will no longer be the “us-versus-them” and the “West-and-the-rest” syndrome for I fear that Huntington’s postulate may come true. I am keeping my fingers crossed that Mahbubani’s visions will be realized. Who knows, few decades from now we will witness a world that is one, a world that is not divided.

Beowulf and Sohráb are two known heroic figures who, in both cases, demonstrate likeness and disparity. The two are both great warriors that are known throughout their respective land as courageous men who perform great deeds of valor. Beowulf also portrays the common hero that is almost mythological because of his special strength, which is quite similar to Sohráb, though the latter’s special qualities are more elaborated (in a single month he had grown a year; taller than other boys of his age, etc.). Both also are firm and determined to their purposes (Beowulf to help others and be known as the best warrior, and Sohráb to go to war to meet his father). There stories also end with their death, and their respective states declined eventually.

On the other side, their characters also exhibit differences. For one, Beowulf’s character is static and Sohráb’s is not. Beowulf remains as a hero killing to help everyone all throughout the story. Sohráb’s character, on the other hand, is developed since he is depicted from his childhood up to the time of his death. Their intentions in battling are also different: Sohráb joins the war in his pursuit to seek his father, while Beowulf kills his enemies because he needs to in order to maintain harmony within their place. Beowulf’s enemies are also mythological creatures, which does not happen in Sohráb’s case.

Sappho’s “To an Army Wife, in Sardis” stresses how powerful love can be. For some, cavalry or infantry corps, or the oars of the fleet are the finest sights, but the author argues that whatever one loves, is the most beautiful sight of all. Sappho presented Helen as an example of how a man’s views and priorities (that is, Paris’) can change all because of love. The poem mainly talks about the persona’s longing to Anactoria, and the love for her that goes beyond limits.
    “On the day of death, when my bier is on the move” by Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (under Arabic and Persian poetry) talks about the paradox of death. The persona is trying to say that there is still life after death – a life that is far more ideal than the life that we have in this physical world. The persona believes that the grave is just a shroud over the place of eternal bliss, and that though a tomb seems to be a prison, it is actually a freedom of the soul. In author’s own words, “What seed ever went down to into the earth which did not grow? What bucket of water ever went down and came out not full?” Truly, the author presented statements in the poem that seem contrary to common sense yet may perhaps be true.
    Bertran de Born’s “I love the joyful time of Easter” (of Provençal poetry) talks mainly about war and violence. The persona in the poem feels great pleasure when he sees armed knights and horses. He attains great joy from violence; it pleases him when the skirmishers make people run away, when castles are seized, etc. De Born also presented a stern perception that a man is better dead, than alive yet beaten. He described chaotic scenes wherein neighing unfastened horse wander over the wounded and the dead, and of little and great men alike fall in the flanks of corpses, yet seemed to derive pleasure from these. The author here, simply put, portrays violence like an ordinary subject matter, and at the end of the poem diverges from war to love.
    Analyzing the themes, we can observe that these three poems exhibit universal human emotions, yet did a little twist. Yes, Sappho’s “To an Army Wife, in Sardis” talks about love – a universal emotion, yet the poem is about her attraction to a woman (Anactoria). Sappho’s depiction of passionate love therefore, is not the typical heterosexual love, but a homosexual one, particularly woman-to-woman love. This theme may have created a shock in her time, but now, such theme is already accepted by modern literature readers.
    On the other hand, Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī’s “On the day of death, when my bier is on the move” also did a little twist on our notion of death – a very general theme. For most of us, it may mean end of life and of everything. Yet the author presented the persona having no pain at leaving this physical world. Yes, the idea of a paradise after death is a Utopist thought, but the author presented it in a way that is swaying to the readers. Personally, I see this work as being influences by the dominant philosophy Sufism, in which everything has a meaning that is in relation with God. I believe that the idea of a “god” has been presented indirectly in the poem, but is reflected in the author’s notion of an after-life, of a paradise, and in his own words, of “union and encounter”.
    Provençal poetry, on the other hand, is primarily devoted to the subject of love, hence it is also called as courtly love poetry. However, Bertran de Born’s “I love the joyful time of Easter” is shockingly cruel for it talks about war and violence. Personally, I see this as somewhat similar to a known saying that man is a beast for the poem seems to portray human nature and his inclination to liking violence. The author depicts the violence of men versus men, which is but a universal scenario. What is even more shocking is that at the end of the poem, the theme abruptly changes into love – still the identity of Provençal poems.

The sun is up after a twelve-hour stay of those rains. It is such a happy sight, with its rays making love to the dews on the leaves. Yet it fails to lift my spirits up. I am feeling blue even if I want to paint the mountains red.

A hollow, unexplainable thing haunts me now. A void is eating me up, and this unknown force steers me towards crying, but I just can’t. It is starting to become a big part of me. It seems to have a life of its own; it is sometimes asleep yet most of the time, it is awake.

Maybe the world started it all. I never wanted to be born in this bitter world. God knows how I clung to my mother’s uterus as birth started to push me outside this dark niche. But a doctor pulled me out, slightly deforming me, giving me this hideous appearance: UGLY. Maybe that is why I hate doctors. The world is full of bullshit and I hate it even more.

My insides grew hollower every millisecond. My eyes showed dark circles of being haunted with grief, depression, or maybe, mental regression. Whatever. The thing is, it is eating me up piece by piece.

Inside this filthy room, I sit stiff like a life-size voodoo doll. In moments like this, I seem to have this intense desire of having a gun. What would it sound like? Would I hear it and smell the powder? Would it still register in my brain cells before it spurt out of my head? If I’ll be able to think of nothing, maybe, I could fool God.

It has always been said that language is “a medium of thought and a tool for conveying meaning”. Yet other than that, it can also tell something about the speaker – who and what kind of person he is – as revealed in the way he/she uses language.

 

As I lined up to pay at the cashier of National Bookstore, I notice a young lady talking to another woman beside her at the counter. The store was fully-packed; shoppers are rushing in and out of the store hastily. The line was quite long and the cashier, who happens to be a trainee, was moving like a snail. Beside her was their manager giving instructions to the trainee as she accommodated the busy customers.

 

As I eavesdrop her conversation with the novice, I observed the manager with emphasis on the way she uses language. One could say that the manager is educated by her manner of speaking – her accent is good so with her diction. Her articulation also is fluent and erudite. When she talks to the trainee, she used plain bisaya, as opposed to her use of the Tagalog language when talking to the customers. It was a “broken Tagalog“, the one that is exercised here in Davao. I believe this could be attributed to a concept in Sociolinguistics called Social Dialect – a certain dialect or a language has, in some ways, gained a prestige over another dialect or language. The use of these languages differs when put into different contexts; the language of higher prestige is used in a more formal set-up as opposed to the one of lower prestige. Here in Davao, the “broken Tagalog” has achieved a certain stature that is why the manager used it when conversing with the clienteles. On the other hand, she used plain bisaya, a language of lower prestige, when talking with the trainee. The application of social dialects, of course, is context-based.

 

What is really fascinating with communication is that it is not only limited in words. Here comes in the concept of non-verbal communication which also expresses ideas as effective as words. These nonverbal cues transmit meanings that need not be spoken orally. This is true when applied to the manager, in which her nonverbal gestures speak more of her too. Through her facial expressions (e.g. frowning, raising of eyebrows, dropping of the jaw) convey that she is not satisfied with the performance of the apprentice. Even her eye behavior shows that she is distracted with the going in and out of customers. Under kinesics (the study of body movements) is posture, which is mainly involuntary but can send out significant social signals. The manager’s posture shows superiority over the trainee. The manager’s physical appearance also communicates information. Furthermore, her clothing and make-up provide clues to her age, personality, attitudes, and status information. By just looking at her, I speculated that she is in her early twenties, single, sophisticated. I also concluded that she is a stylish, classy lady who likes to go out a lot.

 

It is important to take note that of the two kinds of communication – nonverbal and verbal – context and culture really matter. Culture suggests our interpretation to both nonverbal and verbal communication, that is why interpretation differs in accordance to the kind of society such communication was applied.

There is one occasion i missed for a lifetime — UPMin Graduation Ceremonies last April 16, 2008. Seeing their pictures now made me feel bad for not seeing their smiles in person. I was not there in one of their most cherished events. I was not their to give my warmest congratulations.

Seeing it from an ‘outsider’s’ point of view (be being already a graduate), I concur with the others who said that in graduation ceremonies, the graduates are most beautiful. Yes, my friends and my used-to-schoolmates were the prettiest and most handsome that time. Them, and their sablay. I wish  I was there to say that personally.

*sigh*

If you’re a fourth year student busy with paperwork and school stuff, then stop reading this article. I did not intend to steal some time from your busy schedule just for this worthless piece of crap. This is written for that freshman who commented that UP Mindanao is nothing but a mediocrity of the entire UP system.
    I have nothing against you freshie, for it’s your opinion and I respect it the way I want to be respected in return. But please, never say something as rude as that over a place as public as Admin building’s comfort room. Why are you studying here in the first place?! If you did pass UPCAT, well, good for you. But that doesn’t mean you’re way ahead all Up Min students, because the truth is, YOU’RE NOT!
    Yes, you were right when you said that the buildings are not as impressive as in “other” schools. The facilities are not enough, but to tell you, because of that, students here learned to be resourceful. Besides, where in earth can you find an Administration Building which resembles Power Rangers’ station?  And have you seen a dormitory built like the infamous Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas? And to tell you, we got the widest parking lot ever (because basically you could park anywhere). The problem is, we do not have cars to park.
    You were boasting over your pal in the next cubicle that your brother studies in UP Diliman (was it your brother or your sister?). Well, I don’t care either. If you think that UP Min is your backdoor entrance to Diliman (or any other UP campus), don’t feel so invigorated.  You need to gain a certain average, young lady. Meaning, you need to prove you got something between your ears.
    If you think that UP Min is the mediocre campus, then tell that to the Board of Trustees of the U.P. System and to the persons who crafted RA 7889. Tell that to the pioneering professors who first came into the boondocks of Bago Oshiro. Tell that to the first batch who graduated from UP Min’s humble beginnings.  Tell that to all the “upperclassmen” who have squirted their brains out just to get a 3.0.
    I intentionally delayed writing this piece because I waited until I have sufficiently calmed down (yes lady, this is calm enough for me). Next time, young freshie, never underestimate UP Min students. You’ll never know that the time you were busy making rude remarks about the school, a little devil bumming around the Admin building might overhear you.
    UP Min sucks? Of course not! If you and your bogus colegiala accent say so, then get out of here! If you’re from the school of Obviously Trying, then find another school where your coño talk could not annoy anybody.
    UP Min doesn’t need students like you. Besides, I think you’ll look better wearing that driver-yaya-tandem uniform.

I feel that I am really missing a lot being the youngest in the family.

- I haven’t tried going to the market alone.
- I haven’t had my own room just because they feel that I am too young to have my own.
- I haven’t tried cooking because my older brothers can do that (and way better than me of course)
- I haven’t tried these tips for toilet training boys.
- I haven’t gone to one party with no chaperon.
- I haven’t done the laundry yet.
- I haven’t cleaned the entire house, nor the backyard.
- I haven’t climbed up the roof just for the heck of it.
- I haven’t done my own budgeting.
- etcetera, etcetera…

and of course the list goes on. *sigh*. of course there’s always the good part of being the youngest. Only that sometimes, your missing a lot of things — petty things actually, but isn’t it that it’s what petty things that make life unexpected?

 

• why do i always forget the scientific explanation for the “blueness” of the sky?

• What would the world look like if the sky was green?

• Would trees still be green if the sky is green?

• My mom is thinking of sending me to a skilled nursing facility this summer..

• if you don’t know what a skilled nursing facility is then its good for me..

• really, skilled nursing facilities is just another name for rehabs and home for old people..

• Nursing facilities are just like trust funds, its made to make you look like you care! (if you don’t get my drift then stay uninformed, i hate elaborating)

• if were sending so many people to rehabs and nursing homes, shouldn’t there be reviews of skilled nursing facilities in our country? I mean just to make sure they’re doing there job right?

• What is life?

• What is the purpose of our existence?

• Have we been created by an all knowing, all powerful and benevolent God or are we just some random cosmic anomaly? An accident?

• Why do we love?

• What is love?

• Can my thoughts be any more stupid?

• Yes, my thoughts tend to get more stupid the longer i stay thinking!

• I should stop thinking now, if i think another thought, ill go crazy, which is a bad think ’cause my mom will have another excuse to send me to a “skilled nursing facility”

 

I have one (silly) confession to make: I am quite worried with my hair loss. And what worries me most is the fact that I know that this problem is genetic – my mom has it, so with a couple of my uncles and aunts in my mother’s side. As they always say, “it runs in the family”.

I’ve shared the ’secret’ with my cousins abroad and they all told me the same thing: go to a hair expert. I have considered that, too, really. It has been said that your hair is your crowning glory. Oh well, I don’t wanna lose my ‘crowning glory’ (if it had ever been as such).

They are suggesting this hair doctor in philadelphia who is really known for his expertise. I think the name is Dr. Pistone, and they said that he is highly recommended by distinguished organizations like The American Hair Loss Association and The International Alliance of Hair Restoration Surgeon. Oh well, this might be my hope.