Arrested in Malaysia? Know your rights!

I’ve never been arrested before, although there have been times I thought I just might be.

With the police seemingly very keen to arrest all sorts of people who are merely embodying democratic principles, while completely ignoring or making excuses for people who should be locked up and the key thrown away, I think this publication is important.

If you can’t memorise it, keep it on your iPhone or whatever so you can refer to it quickly.
Ironically, 4 lawyers were detained briefly while distributing it at a mall - even though they had permission from the mall owners to do so. Read about this incredible story here.

Get your copy of the Red Book: Know Your Rights here.

Rezeki

Some years ago I began to be sensitive to the idea of ‘energy’. Perhaps Lyall Watson’s book ‘Gift of Unknown Things’ started it all rolling way back in 1986. My flatmate (well actually landlord though we seemed more to be flatmates than anything) had a copy of the book and I devoured it.

Then also ‘Supernature’ the book which really launched Lyall’s literary career while just about killing off his scientific one. I guess scientists who set out to find the link between mythology or superstition and science don’t get greeted too warmly in those academic circles.

One story in ‘Gift’ sticks in my mind till today. Well, a few do actually, but this one I have told and retold many times. If I remember correctly, Lyall spent a year in a small community in Indonesia, getting to know the people, their customs and so on. One festival - was it a harvest festival? - he gathered with the villagers in a rice field late one evening, waiting for the signal from the village headman to begin the festivities. The headman in turn waited for a signal from the ‘Ketua Adat’ or head of customs and traditions, who seemed to be listening to the heavens. Lyall concentrated hard and thought he eventually could hear the wash of the stars in that brilliant twinkling night.


Then, the Ketua Adat heard something, waved his arm and a big drum was sounded, signaling the start of the celebration. All through the night and for the next 24 hours, there was music and dancing and merriment. And that big drum. It sounded out its own rhythm, completely out of time from the music, yet consistent and regular. Lyall took a note of how many times the drum was sounded in an hour or so and thought no more of it until some years later when he was doing some reading on Resonance.

It seems the Earth has a heartbeat - every so often, there is a peak in all the vibrations and the Earth, as a complete entity, lets out a heartbeat as it were.

What was startling was that the frequency of that beat was exactly the same as the frequency of that big drum in the middle of that rice field in Indonesia.

Somehow, these simple folk could tap in to the rhythm of the Earth. It was that which the Ketua Adat was listening to that night.

I have never been sensitive to that beat, but in the last decade or so I have realised I am indeed sensitive to other things. I am completely uneducated in this area - despite the fact I once owned a holistic business which offered yoga classes, tarot and angel card readings sold ‘new age’ books and where I practiced as a hypnotherapist.

In the last few years though I have become more attuned to the ‘feel’ of a person or a place. Acting completely on instinct, I’ve become sensitised towards the energy of someone or someplace. People and places give off signals which I interpret in my own way - some people give off good ‘vibes’ and other don’t. Some places are great to work in, others to relax in and so on.

When Mei and I got married and moved to the flat we now occupy, it felt to be a great place to live. There was, and continues to have, a great sense of calm and warmth. Certainly I have never felt more loved or loving in any other place.

And yet, that energy changes - it is affected by people and things. Not long after we moved in, I felt a slight negativity I the air. I put up with it for some time as it really wasn’t a big deal. But eventually I figured it was time to develop other skills so we chose and bought a Singing Bowl - one we chose after testing quite a few. This one sounded just right - completely on instinct of course.

We made it peal and sing and did our own instinctive ‘space clearing’ and the flat felt so different after that.

More recently, I had a friend come over who just about swims in negativity - to her, everything had a ‘no’ or ‘but’ or ‘cannot’. Even with my positivity, I made no dent in that aura she insisted on carrying about her person.

The next day, I could feel remnants of it hanging about the place and so for the first time in months took the singing bowl off the shelf, walked around the flat and cleared the space.

And how that bowl sang that day! It was almost as if it was rising to the challenge with gusto.

‘Energy’ is an interesting idea. I’ve walked into flats and offices which have just felt so ‘dead’. And invariably these places are associated with problems, illness and so on. And yet, it can be so easy to make incremental changes.

One good way is to do what the Malay kampung folk have done for generations. Their kampung houses are closed up at night to prevent animals and other unwelcome guests from coming in. In the morning - and those are very early mornings indeed as people prepare for the Azan Subuh or early morning prayers - the wooden shutters are flung open to let in Rezeki or Good Fortune.

It isn’t just the quality of air in a kampung, for I get the same effect living in a flat in Singapore. You should try it too - fling open the windows of your flat early in the morning and stand there for a minute or two, breathing deeply. Make sure it’s early. Close your eyes if you want to. There’s a freshness in the air, the smell of grass or morning dew perhaps, which invigorates. And energises. It clears the head and sets the tone for a great day ahead.

Bucket List Part 2

Is your life just a short measure?

“You measure yourself by the people who measure themselves by you.”

I love this line. We often talk about measuring up to others, or being unfairly measured by some - usually our parents. Well, here is a way to work out if we lead lives that ultimately ‘Bring Joy To Others’.

Look at the people who look up to you. What sort of people are they? What values do they espouse? What, in the greater scheme of things, difference do they make to the world around them?

Come to think of it,
what difference do you make to the world around you?

I did a quick audit, had a brief check-through of my friends and family, ascertained (thankfully) that quite probably at least a few of them do indeed look up to me, and then tried to answer those few questions above.

Perhaps I have been lucky, or maybe I have indeed chosen wisely, for the people I have included in my list are on the whole, a bunch of people I would measure myself against most readily. I may not reach their heights, but I have certainly tried to emulate their integrity, their openness, their dedication to family and friends, their living commitment to those around them. I recognise too their frailties, just as I have begun to accept my own.

I think we would do well to occasionally look around us at the people who have chosen to be close to us and who see us as mentors or role models and try to see what it is within them that has drawn them to us. In there will be a tiny picture of ourselves and a good way to work out if we are indeed worthy of their measure.


And in the end…


“When he died, his eyes were closed and his heart was open”

I think back to my father who died twenty-two years ago after an all-too-short struggle with lung cancer. I was there when we heard he had cancer but I wasn’t when he went through the gamut of emotions that are companions of one’s final journey. He died four months after we found out, and two months before I could defer my overseas studies to come home and spend some time with him.

It cut me up to not have been by his side, and more, to not have had the experience of a man-to-man relationship with him in my 21st year.

But I take away more than a slice of respect for the man I loved. A month or so after he’d finally realised there was no hope, he said to the parish priest who’d dropped by one day ‘You know, I am at peace, and I can go. Any time.’

This was a man who’d done much, and seen much. Not in a materialistic way though for that was not his way, just as it is not mine. The things he’d done connected him to nature and to people. Perhaps a little anecdote would explain the kind of man he was:

Dad used to take the boys on a drive to the East Coast every year or so when we were kids. In those days it was a 12-hour ride and we stopped frequently. Once, we took a little detour near the hilly Bentong Pass. This side trip took us down into a valley and bypassed the slow timber-lorry filled Bentong Pass, at least for a few miles.

We stopped by a road-side stall to buy some fruit and when I looked up at a hill nearby where the new highway was being built, I spied two men on scooters pointing down at our car. They mounted their bikes, roared off then reappeared some moments later on the little village road we were on. They came speeding up, stopped, jumped off and greeted my Dad warmly ‘Uncle Cheong!’. Here in the middle of the country, miles from any town, were two men who’d met my Dad, become friends and who rushed to meet him when they spied his green Peugeot 404 stopped by the road.

That was Dad - a simple chap who never made a pile of money, but made heaps of friends.

And when he died, yes, his eyes were closed but his heart was indeed open. It always had been.

So, after the movie ended and I’d wiped away my tears - yes, yes, I can be immensely sentimental and a real softie - I picked up my errr laptop and started on these two blog posts.

And a bucket list.

But this one’s different. No, I have no intention of dying anytime soon and this list is not for a dying man. This list is for a living man. To keep him on track and to make sure he lives a full, rewarding life. One that would help me answer ‘Yes’ if indeed I am asked
“Have you found joy in your life?
Has your life brought joy to others?”

Maybe you’d like to do the same?

Bucket List Part 1

My thoughts have drifted over the idea of death recently. I guess it started with that whole conversation we had in Johor when Johann, Joe, Brian and I went cycling there recently. This was where we talked about how great it would be to plan our own funeral.

My Facebook status message proclaiming the same attracted a fair amount of comment, some of which was surprising.

In the couple of weeks since, there have been the deaths of a senior minister in Singapore and the very tragic suicide of Tyler Clementi to occupy my thoughts.

Then last night, after my evening plans were disrupted and I chose to stay home for some quiet time on my own rather than join Mei and some friends for a birthday celebration, I decided to put on a DVD I’d bought some years ago but had never watched: The Bucket List, starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.


Maybe it was a touch predictable, but a movie starring either of these two cannot be anything but brimming with excellent acting. What more one with both of them? Nicholson’s edgy, just this side of over-the-top characterisation fit the role well and contrasted nicely with Freeman’s quieter, more understated style.

More importantly to me, the theme sat perfectly with my recent thoughts of mortality and the impermanence of life. There were a couple of stand-out moments in the movie for me, most notably these:

Is it really Egyptian?
The two questions you get asked when you reach Heaven’s Gate or wherever it is they believed you went to, that is.

“Have you found joy in your life?
Has your life brought joy to others?”

We’ve made our lives more and more complex. Our day-to-day is an amalgam of career (with its own intricate mix of goals, interaction, satisfaction, remuneration and so on), home, children, recreation, familial obligations and so on. We’ve long recognised we need to return to basics, to somehow rediscover the simple purity we had at childbirth, and to divest ourselves of the bits that bring us to the edge of stress-induced paroxysm of panic and nervous ruination.

We attach importance to so many things that really don’t matter in the greater scheme of things. Douglas Adams discussed it in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy when he described the perpetual human state of unhappiness:
“Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.”

How succinctly and well put.

To understand these two questions on a deeper level, I guess we’ll need to examine what actually ‘joy’ is. For the purpose of brevity and because this is my blog, I shall simply think of ‘joy’ as a state of pure contentment that is divorced from external causes and influences i.e. it isn’t showing the middle finger to the driver who cut you up, or bumping into your ex when you’re out with your new, drop-dead-gorgeous, ultra-rich, uber-sexy girlfriend. Nor is it winning the lottery or that multi-million dollar account you;ve been chasing for 6 months. OK, you get the idea of what it is NOT?

So what is it?

Well, I guess it’s different for everyone, but perhaps it can be described as that feeling you get the moment every part of your being connects simultaneously and completely with every part of the universe. That point when you suddenly understand who you are, and why you’re here in the first place. And that it has nothing to do with small green pieces of paper (heck in our currency that’s only five bucks), or the idiot in the Mercedes, or your ex.

It’s that moment when everything makes sense, and you can see and feel and understand that despite suffering that may be around you, or death, or destruction, that you are indeed one with everything you can see or hear or feel or touch or smell.

So, if we were to condense our life’s purpose into two questions, I guess these two would be it.
Many have said it, sang about it, led people towards it, even preached about it - and some in the process have moved many small green pieces of paper from other people’s pockets into their own - and indeed some of my favourite lines have been in Lennon’s songs and Richard Bach’s books and so on.

But at the end of the day, or perhaps at the end of our lives, what really matters is whether we, personally, can answer ‘Yes!’ to both.

Part 2 coming up soon…

It's my own funeral after all!

My Facebook status message about planning my own funeral elicited quite a few comments and I thought I would paste here some screen captures of them.

New element discovered!

I thought I'd share this little nugget with you. Had me rolling about for ages...

Research has led to the discovery of the heaviest element yet known to science. The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from four days to four years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes. This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

Us and Them (With thanks to Pink Floyd)

My nephew who is studying law had his first encounter with overt racism just the other day. A lecturer made some pretty disparaging, but increasingly common, remarks about the Chinese going home.


Us and them
and after all we're only ordinary men
me and you
God only knows it's not what we would choose to do


One can’t help but reflect on the parlous state of affairs in Malaysia presently. Contrast this with my own positive outlook just 3 years ago when I went cycling to, as the New Straits Times put it ‘reaffirm my faith in Malaysia’. See some of my blog entries from that time.. When I just finished the Celebrate Malaysia! ride, and my articles in The Star here and here.

At that time, I declared the Malaysia of old still exists. Certainly there was evidence of this in my encounters with the rural or less-urban folk. It would seem, however, that the intervening years have conspired to undermine my optimism. The numerous cases in recent times of increased racial intolerance seem to be evidence of a rising tide that we would do well to be more than just wary of.

In many ways I am unmoved. I still hold out some hope that things will be resolved and that one day we will move away form the politics of division, suspicion and hate and back to the ideals my generation and the generations before me grew up with.

But it seems those clinging on to power (and its attendant benefits and rewards) have an opposing view, using every tool at their disposal to create wedges and divisions among the racial groups that once lived in harmony.


forward he cried from the rear
and the front rank died
and the General sat, and the lines on the map
moved from side to side


In a way, this is not unlike a war. One where the Generals sit, manipulating the armies through governmental policies, the insidious propagation of racial stereotypes and thus racism, the refusal to condemn (and thus implicitly supporting) racist groupings or individuals and the tight control over any attempt to express a contrary opinion.

As it was in the Great War, the infantry were the sacrificial lambs, expendable and indeed, expended in great numbers. The difference lies partly in the fact the sacrificial lambs are not losing their lives, though many are losing their livelihoods.

The main difference though lies in the fact the Generals today are not manoeuvring to gain an advantage in a just and honourable battle. This is an economic fight and the rewards are personal financial gains, no matter the cost to the pawns. I won’t discuss the strategies, the reasons and the benefits of this modern equivalent of the ‘divide and rule’ ideology. We know how it works. We know they’re trying to make it work. And we know that with each passing day, their hold on power is gradually slipping and like the desperate lunges of a drowning man, they cling ever harder to the only way they know how to rule.


Black and blue
and who knows which is which and who is who
up and down
and in the end it's only round and round and round


Amongst the pawns, there are those who know no better and thus we can begin to forgive them their racist transgressions. But when one encounters an educationist who spews ignorant, intolerant, reprehensible invective as has been the case with my nephew’s encounter or with the two recent cases reported in the press, one can’t help but feel some sense of alarm.


haven't you heard it's a battle of words
the poster bearer cried
listen, son, said the man with the gun
there's room for you inside


I encouraged my nephew to speak up the next time he has a similar experience. Being his first time, he was understandably nervous and caught off-guard. I am hoping he will not be the next time.


Down and out
it can't be helped but there's a lot of it about
with, without
and who'll deny it's what the fighting's all about


Silence and neutrality benefit the status quo. And the status quo right now is totally unacceptable. It is, in fact, abhorrent. As citizens of a democratic society it is our duty to speak up and to protest against the ignorance and intolerance that is insidiously seeping into every aspect of everyday life.


out of the way, it's a busy day
I've got things on my mind
for want of the price of tea and a slice
the old man died 


The foundation of how we operate as a society is based on certain tenets including respect for and acceptance of one another. Every society needs to engage within itself and without too, in order to grow and survive. Racism diminishes a society’s ability to prosper whether economically or culturally. Any government that chooses to allow racism to fester eventually corrodes from within and falls in on itself. History has enough examples of that.

Love after Love

In that iteration of me which is part counsellor and part coach, I have often observed or worked with people who exhibit a confident exterior only to reveal a sensitive, uncertain side of their personality under certain circumstances.

In actual fact I would not exclude myself from this category - and the more astute among you would note my attempt to disguise this side of my character in double-negatives phrasing.

Recently an old friend posted a few lines of a Derek Walcott poem and I had cause to read it through again and again.

I reproduce it here for no other reason that it struck a chord within me.

Love After Love
by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

IKEA sees the (LED) light!

I’ve been flogging LED lighting systems for a couple of years now. Some time ago I did a project that involved a large number of AC LEDs. Most LEDs run on 12 volt DC power but there are a couple of manufacturers who put out AC power LEDs, including the little MR16s we bought from Seoul Semiconductor - the Acriche LEDs.

The advantage is that they don’t require a separate transformer (or driver) and can be dimmed steplessly.

I grabbed one from the warehouse and after an hour or so of tinkering transformed my IKEA uplight’s spotlamp. This uplight has a branch which contains an E14 bulb - when it first came out, people used incandescent spotlamps which were tremendously hot. Soon after, they switched to cold cathode or compact fluorescents and I had a 7 watt unit in mine.

As the AC power MR16s have a GU10 base, I had to take apart the IKEA lamp and replace the E14 base with a GU10 one. This was done easily enough and even though I could not screw the new base into the lamp unit, the wire, when pulled and secured, keeps the base snug in the back of the spotlamp unit.

As the LEDs use 240 volt AC power but employ a GU10 base which can typically be for either 12 volt DC or 240 V AC, I thought it best to mark this clearly.

The Acriche 3W light gives a very good colour, not unlike that of the halogen it typically replaces, but cooler and flatter which is perfect for near use. Besides, I like how the bulb looks when seated in the lampholder - the fins of the heatsink make the whole look interesting when switched off.

Besides, I now enjoy a host of other LED light benefits including a lifespan 15 times that of halogens and 6 times that of cold cathode, power consumption of about a tenth of halogens and half of cold cathode, and also the feeling I've just done something rather clever.

I still have to modify the uplight section and might use some MR16s there as well. I’ve run out of Acriche ones so may try an array of Revolite ones or perhaps some LED modules. Will keep you posted.

Incidentally we have another of the same lights in the hall and I will likely switch that to an on/off foot switch rather than a dimmer and use the same E27 fittings that are in place. I’ve got some non-dimmable E27s sitting in the warehouse which I can use.

Recipe for an Eco-Friendly Household Cleaner

We’ve stopped buying Cif and Bang as I’ve been making our own eco-friendly and completely bio--degradable spray cleaner. I mixed this up and poured it into an old spray bottle and we’ve been using it to clean sinks, bathrooms, the kitchen and even my MacBook’s white keyboard.

For the last, I prefer it to the sudsy Bang (which, I must admit cleans remarkably) and it doesn’t leave any residue like Cif.

As most spray bottles are about 500ml, you might do well to mix up a quarter portion at a time. And remember - the mix separates if it’s been sitting too long so shake it well before use.

With a bit of experimenting, I’ve also found that a little more baking soda makes it even more effective.


INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup baking soda
2 litre water
half a lemon

TO PREPARE
Mix up the vinegar, baking soda and water. Squeeze in the lemon, taking out any seeds that may fall in as you do so. Pour into a spray bottle.

Make sure you let the foaming stop and the mixture subside before you screw back the cap of the spray bottle or it'll bulge out under pressure.

You'll have to shake it up before use as the mix starts to separate when left to stand.

It settles when left standing, so shake it well before use!

TO USE
Use this as you would any spray cleaner. A wipe with the mix then another with a damp cloth makes a whizz of most household cleaning jobs.

To clean your computer keyboard, spray a little on a soft cloth and wipe down the keyboard. I think it is best when the laptop is shut down, but if you use a very absorbent cloth, you can attack the keys while the computer is on - just open a text file so the key presses don't screw up whatever you're doing.

The tricky keys are the function ones as they make all sorts of weird things happen.

Note that we're so used to seeing sudsy and foamy cleaners that this may not appear to be working but trust me, it does.

Happy cleaning!

Some friendships are best kept distant

Call me naive, but I have only recently learnt that there are some friendships which work best when you don’t see each other that often.

I have a smallish circle of friends, preferring close friends rather than many friends. In part this is due to circumstance - having studied and lived abroad at key times of my life means I don’t have the advantage of being close geographically to my alma maters and, thus, the alumni and the network that accords.

I do, however, also naturally prefer close rather than superficial relationships and if there is one regret I have when it comes to friends is that I have lost touch with one or two very good friends with whom I shared the  experiences of some of my crucial growing years.

That regret is balanced out by the warm, accepting, unconditional and at times intense friendships with a select few with whom I’ve spent long hours, days, weeks together, sharing meals, work and in some cases, homes, with.

So it’s taken me awhile to understand what I think many people instinctively know and that this doesn’t always work. My natural sledgehammer approach to life, where I insist on banging things into the shape I want them to be, has once again caused me to have a protracted learning curve in this instance.

But like all things else, it is a valuable lesson. I have begun to understand that there are some friends who will drift into your life every other year or so, cause a stir, then meld back into the mists of time only to reappear again some years later. And I now see that this is actually a healthy thing and it’s just one more life-lesson I am grateful for the opportunity to have learnt through experience.

Now if only someone could link me up again with my erstwhile best-buddy from Secondary School days, Ng Kien Hoon. Last I found he worked with Pinsent Masons in Hong Kong and I think he was also with Project Orbis. Anyone have any clues?

What NOT to do as a good parent

This was a song I first heard in the 80s and when I became a father for the first time, it guided my actions and decisions.

I like to think I’ve done a reasonable father’s job and I think the bits I’ve done well are due in no small measure to the idea of being there for your kids. The bits I’ve sucked at are another matter entirely…
Meanwhile, I think it would be good to remember Harry Chapin’s wise words on what NOT to do:

Cat’s in The Cradle
by Sandy and Harry Chapin

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew
He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad
You know I'm gonna be like you"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home dad?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

My son turned ten just the other day
He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play
Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today
I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok"
And he walked away but his smile never dimmed
And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah
You know I'm gonna be like him"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

Well, he came home from college just the other day
So much like a man I just had to say
"Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?"
He shook his head and said with a smile
"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys
See you later, can I have them please?"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then son
You know we'll have a good time then

I've long since retired, my son's moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"
He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu
But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad
It's been sure nice talking to you"

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He'd grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon
Little boy blue and the man on the moon
When you comin' home son?
I don't know when, but we'll get together then Dad
You know we'll have a good time then

Don't wait too late! Five Regrets of the Dying

These words weren't mine, but I find they just make so much sense, hence I'd like to share them with you.

Recently I've been contemplating the topics of childbirth and additions to the world with two good friends soon to be parents - one for the first time and one for the second, and another who became a parent for the first time some months ago.

It's made me reflect on my own fatherhood, my successes and my failings and it has also made me look hard at a philosophy I've espoused for years:
Forget about life after death. It's Life before death that we should all be focussed on.

I've tried to live this way, with varying degrees of success and some extremely painful consequences. The regrets I have in my life are all from not living true to these tenets.

I hope you never have to have those regrets.


Five Regrets of the Dying
By Bronnie Ware, Platinum Quality Author

For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives.


People grow a lot when they are faced with their own mortality. I learned never to underestimate someone's capacity for growth. Some changes were phenomenal. Each experienced a variety of emotions, as expected, denial, fear, anger, remorse, more denial and eventually acceptance. Every single patient found their peace before they departed though, every one of them.

When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently, common themes surfaced again and again. Here are the most common five:


1. I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.

It is very important to try and honour at least some of your dreams along the way. From the moment that you lose your health, it is too late. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.

2. I wish I didn't work so hard.This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children's youth and their partner's companionship. Women also spoke of this regret. But as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.

By simplifying your lifestyle and making conscious choices along the way, it is possible to not need the income that you think you do. And by creating more space in your life, you become happier and more open to new opportunities, ones more suited to your new lifestyle.

3. I wish I'd had the courage to express my feelings.Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.

We cannot control the reactions of others. However, people may initially react when you change the way you are by speaking honestly, but in the end it raises the relationship to a whole new and healthier level. Either that or it releases the unhealthy relationship from your life. Either way, you win.

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.

It is common for anyone in a busy lifestyle to let friendships slip.  But when you are faced with your approaching death, the physical details of life fall away. People do want to get their financial affairs in order if possible. But it is not money or status that holds the true importance for them. They want to get things in order more for the benefit of those they love. Usually though, they are too ill and weary to ever manage this task. It is all comes down to love and relationships in the end. That is all that remains in the final weeks, love and relationships.

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called 'comfort' of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to themselves, that they were content.  When deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.

When you are on your deathbed, what others think of you is a long way from your mind. How wonderful to be able to let go and smile again, long before you are dying.

Life is a choice. It is YOUR life. Choose consciously, choose wisely, choose honestly.

Choose happiness.

If they were Singaporean, no more would die.

I don’t care for the Singapore Minister of Transport. I find him arrogant and ineffectual.

And in the next couple of posts I’m going to lay into the good Mr Raymond Lim and provide some suggestions he and his team may wish to consider. Well, perhaps they will then actually do some work.

Let’s start with one area where I think the Ministry of Transport has failed abysmally -  protecting the safety of migrant/foreign workers on their way to and from work.

Currently Singapore is one of the few, if not the only developed country, which allows the transport of general workers in the back of trucks normally meant for carrying cargo. Besides the obvious safety issues, these poor guys are often exposed to the elements and I’ve frequently seen them huddling together under a tarpaulin or canvas sheet when being ferried somewhere in the rain.

A couple of years ago, Mei and I witnessed a truly horrific accident on the Pan-Island Expressway. Early that morning, we were going to our car which was parked at the multi-storey carpark adjacent to to our apartment block. This carpark is just a few metres from the PIE and as we walked to the car I heard a short screech of locked wheels then a series of bumps. Having followed motor rallies in Malaysia, I immediately recognised this as the sound of a vehicle turning over and we rushed to the side to look onto the highway. I shall never forget what we saw: a car was stopped on the slow lane, facing the wrong way while a few metres up the road, a 14-foot truck lay upside-down across two lanes. In its wake was scattered a trail of debris. And bodies.

Then I noticed some of these bodies were still moving and one was crawling on his hands and knees. I heard a keening cry ‘boss! boss!’ and then another person wailing in pain. I urged Mei not to look and called for an ambulance, screaming at the call centre operator in frustration when he insisted on taking down my name and phone number ‘There are bodies on the highway. Stop wasting time and send ambulances NOW!!!’ I think he realised something was up because I spied some of my neighbours on the phone too - the switchboard must have suddenly lit up. Not too long after, the emergency vehicles did indeed arrive en masse.

We later found out one of the workers had died. Considering the carnage we saw, this was a miracle. Not, I’m sure, to his grieving relative who was interviewed at the hospital where he lamented ‘I brought him here to get a better life. What am I to tell his family now?’

This accident was discussed quite a lot over the next few days and a friend summed it up best for all of us when he said ‘This has been going on for too long, but sadly nothing much is going to change unless a Singaporean family dies’. We all agreed cynically, but correctly as it turned out.

Two years later and check out these stories:
4 die after lorry hits trailer
Lorry was overcrowded
and so on.

In the intervening time, the Land Transport Authority hasn’t exactly done nothing. They did introduce some new laws. Essentially, trucks can still carry passengers in the back/cargo deck, but the seats in the cab must first be filled. Then, the occupants at the back must sit with the tops of their heads no more than 1.1 metres from the base of the cargo deck.

OK, firstly, why make things so complicated? I’ve seen a traffic cop walk up to inspect a passenger-laden lorry armed with a tape measure. A tape measure for heaven’s sake!

If I had drafted this law, I would have made it at-a-glance simple: Passengers at the back to sit on the floor of the truck and to have their elbow line below the level of the side rails/body panel. Simple. Easy to spot when an offence is committed. No need for tape measures and so on.

That is to say IF I agreed with the idea of trucks being used to ferry workers which I utterly and completely DO NOT.

And take a look at the regulations to come:
More Stringent Measures To Enhance Safety Of Workers Transported On Lorries

By 2012, all that need be done is to install higher railings. Also, workers will have additional space around them, effectively reducing the number of workers allowed on the cargo deck of each truck.

THAT’S ALL??? And it’s going to take two whole years to do this?

Look, here’s a picture of a truck. 

 It is meant for carrying goods and cargo.

These are a couple of pictures of buses.

They are meant for carrying people.

Can you not grasp the difference between the two?

Cannot? OK, then sit down, yes sit right down Mr multi-million-dollar minister, and let me help you understand it a little better…

Why trucks are not safe for carrying passengers:
1.    Trucks when carrying little in the back are very nose-heavy leading to higher chance of rear-wheel skidding. People weigh little. So, when a truck is only carrying people, it has a higher chance of skidding than if it carried cargo.

2.    Trucks have more primitive suspension systems. These are meant to withstand the weight of heavy loads and as a consequence are not as pliant as say, the suspension of a bus. As a direct consequence of this, trucks, when unladen, are not as stable as buses.

3.    Trucks have no seats. Therefore no seat belts. Even if the truck doesn’t turn turtle in an accident, there’s no way a person seated at the back is going to be able to hold on in the event of an accident. Ever been on a roller-coaster? You know why those things have harnesses or seat belts? Because you’d fall right out otherwise, right? Well, would it surprise you to know that the force a passenger feels in an accident is greater than that on the average rollercoaster? So, without a seat and a belt, how on earth do you expect a human body not to be flung right out onto the road when the truck he is traveling in slams on its brakes, or worse, slams into something else, decelerating from 50 km/h to 0 in a split-second?

4.    Truck cargo areas have no bodywork. Even after those new regulations kick in in 2012, they will still have no bodywork. In case it has also escaped you, railings have gaps in them. Bodywork does not. In an accident, even if the railings kept his body within the truck, his arms, legs and (shudder) head may stick out. I once saw a video of former world champ Carlos Sainz rolling his Toyota Celica rally car in the Rally of Australia in 1991. As it tumbled at speed, I saw Carlos’ head stick out through the open window. It was a miracle he didn’t lose it. A foreign worker in a truck may not be so lucky in the event of an accident - even if the truck didn’t turn over.

Do I need to go on?

OK, here’s the rub. Trucks are not safe for transporting workers. Buses are. Simple as that.
Outlaw the use of trucks for the purpose of ferrying people. And guess what? You can be credited with creating a whole new industry - that of general worker transport. I can just see Comfort, Prime, SMRT and a string of other taxi companies jumping onto the bandwagon of bidding for bus COEs, and setting up bus chartering services for the thousands of factories and construction companies around.

Oh! A thought suddenly occurred to me. Perhaps the reason you've been reluctant to implement this is the fact that a certain neighbour to the north has indeed been doing this rather successfully. For oh, maybe 30 years or so? Yes, Malaysia has indeed had a thriving ‘Bas Kilang’ (factory bus) industry for many many years. Heck, if you take a look at the queue of traffic coming into and going out of Singapore every day, you’d see maybe hundreds of blue Bas Kilang.

But I guess that would be real hard to swallow wouldn’t it? Admitting that maybe you had something to learn from Malaysia.

Note: All pics downloaded from the web. Some cannot be credited. Thanks to all for helping make the point that workers must not be ferried on the cargo decks of trucks.

Next:

The complete and utterly despicable ignoring of Bicycles as a form of public transport, and the safety and wellbeing of cyclists.

Oil and Water

I've been following the BP Oil Spill - wait a bit: it isn't a spill so can we stop calling it that? - saga with some interest. Not just because of the scale of devastation it is causing, nor because of how it highlights our over-reliance on fossil fuels, but also for how stupid some Americans can be in blaming Obama for this and asking him to step in and take charge.

I think these guys should just stop watching Bruce Willis movies and think for a bit:
What could the navy/coast guard/army/airforce/GI Joe/Obama do that BP can't? Besides cleaning up that is, which is already being done. Yeah, well, nothing is just about the right answer. In this instant-gratification age, we all just seem to live in a kind of la-la-land where titanium-clad space shuttles and leaping moon rovers exist, and where a bit of bravado, machismo and derring-do always saves the day and the hunk always gets the girl.

Well, sorry guys, it doesn't work that way in real life.

The crisis in the Gulf of Mexico is bad. In fact it's worse than just about any other environmental disaster ever. But there's no quick solution, no 'you're the disease and I'm the cure' (OK that's Stallone, not Willis) speedy fix. The best guys to do the job are, ironically and much as we all might hate it, the guys who caused it in the first place. So let's quit with the posturing, OK? It's beginning to grate on this non-American's ears.

Now on to something quite different - I thought I'd throw something into the mix. Water. Yeah, yeah water and oil and all that...

I came across a couple of really good books recently. Green Design, ISBN 978-1-55643-836-3 is a really cool book with all sorts of green solutions and ideas.

Coincidentally, I was sent a link to a TED talk on clean water which showcased the Lifesaver water filter which is a remarkable device that can alter the way we approach the care of the victims of natural disasters like the 2004 Asian Tsunami or Hurricane Katrina. In both cases, and almost all like them, water becomes a scarce necessity. Or I should say 'clean and safe drinking water' becomes scarce. The Lifesaver filter is one such solution which is remarkable as it has also been scaled up to provide water for a family unit rather than an individual.

Watch the TED talk here:


I immediately recalled a similar personal device in the Green Design book and dug up this info on the Lifestraw. A truly remarkable device shaped like a straw and through which you suck up clean, safe drinking water from virtually any water source including muddy puddles and standing water.


Read about it and even watch a video demo here:
Lifestraw: A $5 water filter
Or check out the site of the organisation that made it possible:
Vestergaard Frandsen

There are heaps of other great ideas in the book too - including a water drum that makes fetching water from miles away a much simpler, safer and less arduous task. There are also some beautiful designs for lights, seats, interiors and much more. You can buy the Green Design book online:

Oi, Najis!

On the matter of the recent Sibu buy-election and the failed blatant bribery attempt by the PM, this is what I have to say to you, Najis Razak:
Pffffffffffffffffffftttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

Revolution of the mind, yeah!

I've been checking out the Jom Bangkit! song entries and kinda like this one. What do you think?

Who's calling me 'Dummy'?

If you read the ‘alternative media’ in Singapore, e.g. The Online Citizen, Temasek Review and so on, you’ll find that a whole heap of Singaporeans have quite a bit to say on the subject of ‘the elites’. I can’t even bring myself to capitalise the ‘e’…

These are essentially the so called ‘men in white’ - thus named for the preferred uniform of the PAP politicians. The elites is a grouping that covers these ‘men in white’ as well as others in the civil service who have the distinction of having been government scholars and/or are in charge of prominent bodies, government-linked companies or statutory boards.

These elites have been getting a fair bit of stick recently for their dismissive and self-congratulatory tone. Dismissive of the general populace that is.

All too often recently, however, quite a fair few have been making real boo-boos. The Minister of Education recently implied that the problem of many students’ stress in learning their mother tongue would be dealt with by a reduction in the weightage or importance of the language in the overall assessment. Now he says he didn’t imply that at all and that he was misunderstood. However, the telling point is that it took many days before he claimed that, and then only in conjunction with an official announcement that mother tongue would not be less important at all. Yeah, right, Mr Minister.

The one that really got my goat however was Philip Imbecile Yeo, the Chairman of Spring Singapore who, in an interview, basically called people who buy all sorts of apps on Apple’s App Store ‘dummies’. Look, I have an iPhone 3GS which I love dearly and for which I’ve downloaded more than a few apps. I’ve paid for some but also have many free apps. Needless to say, I take great umbrage at his remarks.

One of the apps which may seem frivolous and which cost me $0.99 is Talking Carl. This would clearly fall into the category of being a ‘dumb’ purchase but let me tell you something, Philip Idiot Yeo, not only did Talking Carl provide endless hours of amusement during the recent Chinese New Year (and I have the family videos to show that) it also did something much more amazing.

My mother suffers from Parkinson’s and Dementia. I have written about this previously. She has her good moments and her less good ones. She still laughs at things she finds amusing and I have rarely seen her laugh as much as when I passed her the iPhone and Talking Carl. She tickled the cute character (it laughs uproariously), she poked it (it goes ‘Ouch’, “Ooh’ or ‘Ow!’), and she spoke to it (it repeats what you said in a squeaky voice). She spent many happy minutes playing with it, smiling broadly. I have rarely seen her as engrossed as when she played with Talking Carl.

So, Philip Nincompoop Yeo, what do you think now, eh? 

You want to know what I think? I think you’re too full of self-importance. You’ve been surrounded by sycophants for so long (and the reporter who conducted the interview clearly was one, judging by his laugh at your very unfunny comment) you’ve lost track of who normal people are. You think you can get away with your dismissive disdain. 

Well, the sad thing is that you probably can. Despite how abhorrent you are, Philip Cretin Yeo, nothing will probably ever happen because somehow, despite all the boo-hooing and gnashing of teeth, ranting and raving online, we all kinda suspect that when it comes time to make a difference, most Singaporeans become sheep who tick the ‘white’ boxes at the ballot. 

Perhaps Singaporeans really deserve the ‘dumb’ moniker after all.

Jom Bangkit!

I just can’t keep my mouth shut most times. Gets me in trouble sometimes, but it’s usually worth it.

So, if you’re a young Malaysian who also loves to mouth off sometimes, here’s an opportunity to do your bit for your country at the same time. I append the contents of an email announcing the Bangkit initiative. Go check it out yourself and then get off your arse and do something for the country.



Email sent to me:

Dear Blogger,
You will be aware that there are a number of youth-oriented programs in progress. Many of these are directly aimed at getting the youth to vote. And many of these are getting a lot of visible support from the online and offline communities.
Bangkit, the Youth Outreach initiative of Saya Anak Bangsa Malaysia is taking a less direct approach. We believe that youth tend to resist directives, simply because they have had it for most of their lives. Therefore, instead of telling the youth what they must do, we want to ask the youth to tell us what they are thinking about, what are their dreams and aspirations. We believe that, in the process of talking to us, they will engage with us and be primed to catch our underlying message to them - that their future is in their hands.
The Bangkit project talks to the youth in their favourite language - music. By keeping language/dialect and genre open, we are providing a channel for youth from all walks of life. The more talented can speak out to us through their music. Those less talented can tell us what they feel through the songs that they vote for. And, at the end of the day, we will have a Compilation CD that belongs to the Youth of Malaysia and continues to carry their message.
We need you to carry this message to the youth of Malaysia. Tell them about Bangkit.
Don't just publish a single article and expect them to remember Bangkit. That will only get us a spike in visits and then things will die out. If you truly support our initiative, then place a prominent link in your sidebar for the duration of the competition. We need people to keep coming back to catch updates and vote for incoming songs.
Song entries will be received until midnight of 15th May 2010.
Voting will remain open until midnight of 31st May 2010.
Our URLs are http://jombangkit.org or http://jombangkit.wordpress.com
Many suitable graphics are available from our website for your use to create a link. If you need it, the HTML code for the link is also provided. These are found under the "Tell The World" page.
Please help us to awaken our youth and urge them to arise. Jom Bangkit.

Vinegar vs Brasso. And the winner is...

I have a few curios I’ve picked up over the years including some brass stuff I bought from Melaka on whim. These include the whole Sireh (betel nut) consumption panoply.

Just the other day, I glanced at it and realised the shiny bronze colour had been replaced by a tarnished near-black patina. Determined to make it look good again, I resorted to a green technique I’d used before. One that eschews the artificial and environmentally-questionable chemicals that are so popular nowadays for something altogether more natural and completely biodegradable: vinegar.

The only vinegar we had was an old bottle of balsamic vinegar which Mei wanted to replace with a newer one (she reckons it didn’t taste so nice anymore but honestly I can’t tell) and rather than throwing it away, I conveniently grabbed it to do the dirty. Or rather the cleaning.

Balsamic vinegar is supposedly more acidic, so perhaps that would increase its cleaning prowess. Whatever, it did turn out to be particularly staining on the fingernails so I put on a pair of kitchen gloves. I soaked some of the smaller pieces in a thin layer of the vinegar then attacked it with an old toothbrush. It did help somewhat as you can tell from these pictures. I’m not sure why the metal took on a pinkish hue but this could be due to the quality of the metal itself. As I recall, this thing didn’t cost that much so perhaps the metal is of inferior quality. It did take on a used and weathered look which I find quite attractive.

At the supermarket a little later, I bought a cheap bottle of white vinegar and soaked some of the pieces overnight in this, then went at the pieces lightly with a scouring pad. It did wonders! See for yourself…

Just a bit of soaking and light brushing and see the difference. The cover on the left of the toothbrush head has been lightly cleaned while the one to the right has not.

See what a bit of soaking can do. This hasn't even been brushed yet!

And after some light scrubbing just look at the shine!

I’m now wondering what to do about the bigger pieces. I think I’ll soak a cloth in some vinegar and wrap it around the piece for a few hours.

All in all, I feel quite pleased with myself and am looking forward to trying this out on more pieces around the house. Come back here to check on updates to that.

Meanwhile, if you’d like to try a greener way to clean metals and more, check these sites out: the Wikipedia page on vinegar and a site on the 1001 uses of Vinegar. I’m going to try the Scouring Cleaner they teach you how to make next! Oh and my friend Anand says Indian women have been using vinegar to keep their jewellery shiny for years. I wonder if that site listed this tip too...

More on Less Power

Working in a company that helps its clients reduce their power consumption has its benefits. One of which is I have at hand quite a few tools that I wouldn’t normally invest in. A year or so ago we came across the ETrack, a power monitor which was being manufactured and sold by Bridex Harwal. They’ve since stopped production and no longer support it, but we did pick up a few units for clients as well as for our own use.

One of these we mounted in a junction box and it’s our portable power meter which we use to demonstrate how efficient our LED lights or other solutions are. One of the problems the ETrack has is its inaccuracy when measuring very low wattages - we find that anything below about 10 watts doesn’t show accurately. This is a problem because the 6.5W MR16 bulb which we sell to replace 35 - 50W halogens hardly registers on the meter…

On a bit of a power-saving drive, I brought the meter home and started measuring all sorts of stuff around the house. And what I found was quite surprising.

My computer setup is a MacBook laptop with a 17” external monitor, a couple of external harddisks, a little Epson printer and an Epson scanner. I also have an Altec Lansing speaker system, a little box fan and some assorted chargers for camera batteries and so on. Not all the equipment is on all the time and I found that typically, the whole setup consumes about 100 watts when I’m working. The little box fan alone is responsible for about 35 of those watts so the rest of the gear isn’t consuming that much really.

Still, I use my computer sometimes 12-15 hours a day so that’s still a substantial amount of power over the course of a month. As a first step, I cut back on wastage through phantom power. Above my desk is a bank of switches - I’ve now started switching off at the plug devices or chargers that are not being used.

I’ve also changed my sleep mode settings. Now before I put the laptop to sleep, I disconnect and switch off the external monitor and other devices like hard disks. I also unplug the laptop charger and switch that off too so the only power that is being used comes from the battery. I’ll monitor this and update the power savings in a month or so.

The real shock, however, came when I plugged the power monitor in to the fridge. I have an old (about 10 years) Kelvinator which we bought before the advent of energy star stickers. I like the capaciousness of this fridge which comes not just from the large size, but also the adjustable shelves and the very open interior layout. It holds the rolls and rolls of film I have and the bottles of vodka friends insist on buying us quite comfortably alongside the frozen pizzas, tomato and chilli sauce, olives, medicine and other what-nots we insist on cold-storing.

We mounted the power meter in a junction box and use it to measure all sorts of stuff. Came in useful to leave next to the fridge.

As you can see, when the compressor is running, the fridge consumes about 140 watts.

I noted the fridge was consuming about 140 watts when the compressor was running and substantially less when it wasn’t. Then one night when I checked, the monitor showed the fridge was consuming almost 500 watts! It was then I realised the fridge probably had 3 cycles: normal running, compressor cycling, heater on. As I understand it at the back of every no-frost fridge is a heating element which melts the ice build-up. This turns into water which eventually evaporates. I’m not sure if 500 watts is normal for this cycle but it did seem quite a bit.

Even more telling, over the 70 hours I had the power monitor plugged in, the fridge consumed 10.784 kWh. This works out to an average of about 3.7 kWh per day or almost S$30 per month which is almost triple that of a modern fridge. This is roughly equivalent to the amount of power used to boil water in an electric jug. For 2 hours a day, every day...

As the old thing does need some attention (slightly leaking door seals, some minor water leaking and corrosion on the edges of the doors), we decided instead to get a new one and paid a visit to our favourite appliance store, Mega Discount Store and splashed out $1280 on a new Fisher & Paykel E442B which is 3-star rated at approximately 635 kWh annually or less than 1.8 kWh per day. At projected savings of $18 per month, it’ll take almost 6 years to pay it off just in electricity savings, but I suspect we’ll do better as there are only two of us at home (most times) so the fridge isn’t opened with the frequency a typical household would see. Additionally, the old unit is bound to need attention again soon.

The new fridge arrives on Friday and I’ll post the power readings in a month or so.

Meanwhile, if you want to measure the power usage around your house, check out the Kill A Watt meter. AS they say, knowledge is power. In this case, it's power-savings. 

Health and Wellness

I just got an email form my best friend, Gan, who lives in the US now. His Mum had a stroke and fell down in the bathroom in their PJ home. As I write this, I don’t have any more news than that.

Gan and I have been close for over a quarter of a century. His family, likewise, means a lot to me and I’m more than a little concerned about this.

In an email to him, I wrote about how we are, at 45, getting to the point where maladies are leaping form the pages of medical journals into our lives. Which brings me to something else that’s pissed me off recently.

I have Ankylosing Spondylitis, commonly called AS, which is not related to Spondylosis although they sound the same. AS is a form of arthritis which affects the spine and some other bone & joints in the body. I don’t have it especially bad and have become used to the pain and reduced mobility. It affects me painfully primarily in the back but also in the wrists and ankles. Though not painful, my hip movements are also limited.

A couple of years ago I took up a new Personal Accident insurance policy and declared AS as a pre-existing condition and to my dismay, AIA refused to cover any part of my spine.

Now, AS doesn’t reduce the strength or integrity of the spine. Yes, you get inflammation and pain and in the more extreme cases, some fusing of bones and the resultant loss of flexibility. All this, however, in no way affects you from getting on with life. My good friend, Ray, has AS that is much more severe than mine and it hasn’t stopped him cycling through Vietnam and Laos. More than once.

I presented this scenario to my agent: What if I was involved in a car accident and suffered whiplash? The AS would have virtually no medical bearing on the injury but I would receive no compensation for the whiplash injuries as it is an injury to the neck/spine.

Pisses me off but I already have a few battles on my plate and can’t be bothered to fight this one too.
Meanwhile, my thoughts are with Gan and his family.