"Education"

I was reading the New York Times and I came across this article titled: The Other Education. The author David Brooks was referring to his second education that was beyond the written academics and involved his emotional quotient.

It all started with his first encounter with Bruce Springsteen's songs. And soon Springsteen became his Guru to this new second education. To quote the author:

...over the next few decades Springsteen would become one of the professors in my second education. In album after album he assigned a new course in my emotional curriculum.

He further explained how this emotional education differed from the regular college education. The regular classroom has its regular teacher covering the required modules and students act on the given material. However, this second education is indirect in its way of entering our minds. Brooks says,

...comes indirectly, seeping through the cracks of the windowpanes, from under the floorboards and through the vents. It’s generally a byproduct of the search for pleasure, and the learning is indirect and unconscious.

His second education began with Springsteen's. His lyrics, the way Springsteen touches on various subject matters, his perspective, etc. Finally Brooks ended saying,

I’m not claiming my second education has been exemplary or advanced. I’m describing it because I have only become aware of it retrospectively, and society pays too much attention to the first education and not enough to the second.

Ain't that true? Society pays so much attention to the number of diplomas awarded then to personality and character of an individual. A classmate of mine has nth number of degrees to his name, is currently doing his MBBS and he hates patient interaction. Actually, he hates anything that requires him to bend down and serve. Why medicine then? I would never know. He has a high IQ, EQ probably lies at negative 1, 083, 098 on a scale of positive 10 till negative infinity.

In fact, we all gather our own emotional faculty — artists, friends, family and teams. Each refines and develops the inner instrument with a million strings.

Find your balance in life with your comfortable emotional corner. As the author mentioned, it can be anything as long as it brings out the different sides of you that test papers set by our professors of multiple credentials have failed to perform.

With the Springsteen vibe in place, here is my favourite number of his. :) :)

- Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street Band - Point Blank -

The Wells have Dried Up

Playground school bell rings again
Rain clouds come to play again
Has no one told you she's not breathing?
Hello, I'm your mind giving you someone to talk to
Hello

If I smile and don't believe
Soon I know I'll wake from this dream
Don't try to fix me, I'm not broken
Hello, I'm the lie living for you so you can hide
Don't cry

Suddenly I know I'm not sleeping
Hello, I'm still here
All that's left of yesterday

- Hello - Evanescence -

Tears are no gauge of how one really feels. Do not judge.

Now you say it!

Singapore Medical Council has spoken. As of October 2009, they have decided to only recognise the post graduate medical degrees that are offered  to the local Chinese students and not the other medical programmes. These other programmes have a signigficant number of foreigners; quite a handful of Singpaoreans at that. And this change in rule, applies to the University I am currently enrolled in. It still puzzles me why they would allow us to do our internship there but just not employ us. Thank you Singapore, I really appreciate your move. I really do.

An Uneventful week

Always, no sometimes, think it's me, but you know I know when it's a dream.
I think I know I mean a 'Yes' but it's all wrong, that is I think I disagree.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry Fields forever.

 -Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles -

Another SuperTramp

The last time I talked about a particular Alexander SuperTramp who at the age of 22 donated the money in his education fund and took to exploring the world. That was some where in mid 90s. Now in this present era, there is one.

This fella goes by the name Lukas Baumann. he drove 36,000 km from Zurich Switzerland to Melbourne, Australia to cross the finish line for the Melbourne Cup. He was on the roads for 7 months with his 2nd hand Volvo for company. Before embarking on this journey, our dear friend quit his job as a businessman, sold his apartment and left Zurich sometime early this year.

Having come so far, I want them to let me drive over the finish line to make the trip complete.

The finishing line he was referring to was the finishing line for the Melbourne Cup. And so I went to check out what this Melbourne Cup was about. It turns out to be a Horse Racing event, where the competing horses race on a 3200 m track. What I don't understand is how he plans to drive to a finish line meant for horses. Whatever the reason was, he took to the challenge of traveling from one continent to another and that calls for an ovation.

At this point I am contemplating biking around Singapore. It's a good place to start with considering it's small size. OK, tiny.

In conversation

Over lunch the other day:

Sam: What is it that we can do if we have only a month to live?

Jan and Me: Rob a Bank!

Sam: Awesome!

We as medical students have officially lost our minds. Please do not look for us if a bank does get robbed in Shanghai.

Road to Hell

Before:

Three year old. Sitting in the back seat of a car. Metal Pipe.

Assumed:

Three year old. Gun.

Aftermath:
Dead Three year old. Mistaken Policeman.

The toddler was seated at the back seat of a car. The policeman went up to the car and fired through the window. The next thing he knew, he had mistaken a pipe for a gun. Though, CNN reports read no pipe or weapon was found at the crime scene. Another officer jumped out of the police van, grabbed the victim's uncle nearby pushed him to the ground and called him a suspect of a crime that had yet to be mentioned throughout the ordeal. The dead boy was later removed from the seat placed on the ground beside the ground waiting for a morgue van to arrive. The body laid there for 6 hours and the mother was not allowed to go near while the @%#^&^ police officer was sucking on a lollipop. The police must have been so frightened by the presence of the toddler and his life threatening device!

This is certainly not the change people, both Africans and the rest of the world, are looking forward to. Apparently this is not the first since the policy was implemented. A man and his mother were shot and this gets worse, the police were actually called in to settle a domestic fight!! A domestic fight! They killed the man and the mother was wounded. Police do not mean safety anymore. On another occasion a 30 year old female died in a van that was shot at 13 times cos the officials assumed it was hijacked! Many of these random killings were based on ASSUMPTIONS! And their instincts just suck! Africa is infamous for its crime rates and with such a law in place, it certainly does not make an outsider feel any safer in that country.

South Africa's Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation this to say: 

These incidents are not random events but reflect an overall breakdown of control over the use of lethal force within the SAPS [South Africa Police Service]. It is reasonable to believe that this breakdown of control is due to a climate of confusion which has been created by statements which have been made over the last year, and particularly in the last couple of months, by senior politicians and police leaders.

South Africa's government has implemented a Shoot to Kill Policy whereby the Police is allowed to kill suspected criminals without further interrogation. The top officer who suggested it and later got it approved by the government claims it is to ensure a safe South Africa for the 2010 Word Cup.

What the statistics have proven is the other way round. Compared to 51 people dying daily in South Africa its now 81!!  Instead of the existing criminals, it this random killing that is gonna keep tourism away from the nation. And the shootings are legal! Sighs!

While reading about Africa, I realised that perhaps Africa and Russia belong to the same damned boat after all. Similar to Africa's Shoot to Kill policy, Russia's secret security services in the name of "investigation" to root out rebels lay their hands on innocent victims. Many Russian families (especially from the area Ingushtia) have lost their young sons to such brutal behavior by the "secret" police. They barge into houses in the wee hours, they refuse to produce identification and instead demand you to produce a passport, drag the supposed suspect away together with his passport, he goes through a hell of a time and is later left to die.

Each week, according to Mutsolgov, young men are taken by the security services: 

They can be taken on suspicion of being a rebel, knowing a rebel or just having been seen with a suspected rebel." He adds that men are also taken in for appearing too overtly Muslim.

Mutsolgov works for a human rights Organisation called Mashr. According to Mashr's statistics: Since 2002, ever since the Russian forces took over the Southern Russian Area of Ingushetia, 1000 Russians have died and 175 have been missing.

Since, the killings are by authorised secret services called FSB, relations of victims are unable to make appeals or request for further investigation into the matter. In the attempt at trying to eradicate the nation of extremists, the Russian secret services have indirectly paved the way for grieving relations to join existing rebellions just to take revenge on the FSB.

Both these nations are need to revamp their policies. It is just not the right way to eliminate crime rates. I honestly do not see a difference between genocide and the current policies these countries have recently undertaken. Humans have gone berserk and Human Rights is down the drain.

I do, but not you.

My first attempt at 55 Fiction. 

Thoughts of the one he was leaving behind invaded his mind. He looked at his beautiful bride. Rita was beaming. He looked away, turning his gaze to his best man. His sister was getting married and his face suggested sense of loss.

"I Ronald Phillips, take Robert Adams to be my wife".

"My brother?".

And people send you this...

A forwarded mail I received quoted what people might have said against God and the aftermath. It gave me an impression of a threat mail. I ain't kidding. It was along the lines of "If you spite him, he will kill you". What was that about? "Sending God's message" is heavily misinterpreted in the current society. Instead of spreading God's message of love, they tell you to fear him and join in the demonstration. An inclination born outta fear.

Worse still was the content of the mail. It appeared kiddish to be quoting celebrities and their supposed words and affirming that wass what caused them their demise is just outta the world.

The mail had these...the ones in BOLD I wrote them, in case you assume the mail came with it :)


Title: Untimely Death!

Here are some men and women who mocked God:

John Lennon (Singer)
Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said "Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that. I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple, today we are more famous than Him" (1996). Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times. He later also clarified the statement once the churches started going after him. Sort of like a comparison to say how well their music has been received in the public.

Tancredo Neves (President of Brazil)
During the Presidential campaign, he said if he got 500,000 votes from his party, not even God would remove him from Presidency. Sure, he got the votes, but he got sick a day before being made President, then he died. He probably was sick before the elections. And again he was displaying his confidence. God prefers to stay away from politics.

Cazuza (Bi-sexual Brazilian Composer, singer and poet)
During a show in Canecio (Rio de Janeiro), while smoking his cigarette, he puffed out some into the air and said "God, that's for you". He died at the age of 32 of LUNG CANCER in a horrible manner. Smoking Kills and it says on the packet itself. Don't blame God for this!

The man who built the Titanic
After the construction of Titanic, a reporter asked him how safe the Titanic would be. With an ironic tone he said, "Not even God can sink it". The result: I think you all know what happened. The captain crashed it into a MASSIVE ICEBERG!

Marilyn Monroe (Actress)
She was visited by Billy Graham during a presentation of a show. He said the Spirit of God had sent him to preach to her. After hearing what the Preacher had to say, she said"I don't need your Jesus". A week later, she was found dead in her aparment. Maybe she belonged to a different religion. Possible.

Bon Scott (Singer)
The ex-vocalist of the AC/DC. On one of his 1979 songs he sang"Don't stop me; I'm going down all the way, down the highway to hell". On the 19th February of 1980, Bon Scott was found dead, he had been choked by his own vomit. Vomit freaking hell choked him!

Campinas (2005)
In Campinas, Brazil, a group of friends, drunk went to pick up a friend...The mother accompanied her to the car and was worried about the drunkenness of her friends and she said to the daughter holding her hand, who was already seated in the car"My Daughter, Go with God and May He Protect You". She responded "Only if He (God) Travels in the trunk, cos inside here...it's already full. Hours later, news came by that they had been involved in a fatal accident, everyone had died, the car was could not be recognised what type of car it had been, but surprisingly, the trunk was intact...The police said there was no way the trunk could have been intact. To their surprise, inside the trunk was a crate of eggs, none was broken. The girl was freaking drunk!

Christian Hewitt (Jamaican Journalist and entertainer)
said the Bible (word of God) was the worst book ever written. In June 2006, she was found burnt beyond recognition in her motor vehicle. The way the opinion was worded sounds rather harsh, but aren't we suppose to question and learn? Not question and die.

(Followed by Bible verses....)

The content was not required! That is certainly not the way to invite people to join a community. Some of the people probably didn't even mean what they said. I mean seriously, there are many religious people who use phrases such as Even God can't stop me. It was suppose to convey their confidence. I believe it was a just a manner of speaking. How about devotees who are committed to visiting shrines, holy places and when faced with a failure go all out with God and start screaming at Him? I have heard people say God loves all regardless of what one is. Not, God kills depending on how one is.

And Death is almost always untimely! Duh! I am not in favour of this mail! :( :( :(

Exams...

...The kind where students hope the professors are abducted by an alien the night before. Together with the papers of course! And if that fails to materialize...

A woman writes to the IT support for Assistance

I received this as a forwarded email. No idea who the creative author is or...maybe it really did happen ; )

Dear Tech Support,

Last year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and I noticed a distinct slowdown in the overall system performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications, which operated flawlessly under Boyfriend 5.0.

In addition, Husband 1.0 uninstalled many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, and then installed undesirable programs such as! NEWS 5.0, MONEY 3.0 and CRICKET 4.1.

Conversation 8.0 no longer runs, and Housecleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system..

Please note that I have tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

What can I do?

Signed,

Reply

DEAR Madam,

First, keep ! in mind, Boyfriend 5.0 is an Entertainment Package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system.

Please enter command: ithoughtyoulovedme. vbs and try to download Tears 6.2 and do not forget to install the Guilt 3.0 update.

If that application works as designed, Husband1.0 should then automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.

However, remember, overuse of the above application can cause Husband 1.0 to default to Silence 2.5 or Beer 6.1.

Please note that Beer 6.1 is a very bad program that will download the Snoring Loudly Beta.

Whatever you do, DO NOT under any circumstances install Mother-In-Law 1.0 (it runs a virus in the background that will eventually seize control of all your system resources.)

In addition, please do not attempt to reinstall the Boyfriend 5.0 program. These are unsupported applications and will crash Husband 1.0.

In summary, Husband 1.0 is a great program, but it does have limited memory and cannot learn new applications quickly.

You might consider buying additional software to improve memory and performance.

We recommend! : Cooking 3..0 and Good Looks 7.7.

Good Luck Madam!

Brain Meltdown

Sternothyroid
Sternohyoid
Omohyoid
Thyrohyoid
Sternocleidomastoid
Platysma
Superficial Fascia
Parietal Synovial Sheath
Visceral Synovial Sheath
Mesotendon
Tendon of Flexor
Synovial Bursa
Coracoid Process
Glenoid Cavity
Acromion
Supraglenoid Tubercle
Subscapular Fossa
Trochlear Notch
.....And a whole lot more to be committed to memory.
The brain has melted and is oozing out my ears. Not a very interesting sight.
Amidst this mess I was listening to Sting. And so to share with you guys Sting - Russians.