Atheist campaign soon to appear in UK

I have put in bold the "relevant bits", taken from the BBC article "'No God' slogans for city's buses": Bendy-buses with the slogan "There's probably no God" could soon be running on the streets of London. The atheist posters are the idea of the British Humanist Association (BHA) and have been supported by prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins.
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I have a few things to point out about this article (see after my commentary). Or rather, the responses of the (religious) people interviewed.

The atheitical Prof Dawkins observes that religion is unreasonably given hidden benefits in society ("unearned respect"), and suggests that religion seeks to suppress rational thought, so he thinks these atheitical advertisements are a good break from the religious stranglehold.

Obviously it doesn't strike th\he same chord with some others... Our good ol' Christian pressure group friend makes a response that atheism is a danger to the public at large, and actually encourages someone to deface the advertisement. (quote "I should be surprised if a quasi-religious advertising campaign like this did not attract graffiti.")

Call yourself a Christian! He should be ashamed of himself. (Go and confess now!)
I would think many of my Christian friends would definitely not agree with his extremist view and his support and intent for criminal activity.

Meanwhile the Methodist Church decided to try the softly softly approach, desperately putting a positive spin on this by thanking Prof Dawkins for encouraging a "continued interest in God". This smacks of opportunism and desperation, and in trying to salvage something which didn't quite need their salvaging really exposed their real intentions. By saying things like this they are confirming the suspicion that they are/have been the actual culprits of religious misinformation. I could straightaway see through their intention to spin this to their advantage.

Their representative's subsequent words exposed very badly their actual stance. First she implies that this ad campaign needs to justify itself by making people think about life, when in fact this campaign only seeks to point out the fact that you don't necessarily have to be dependent on/fear a god to live your life with purpose - the world still spins around regardless - and highlights the fact that some people make, and have made, irresponsible statements for religion, and are actually allowed to get away with them ("This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life"), then insults the intelligence of millions of people who do ponder on life and meaning but do not attribute that cognitive process directly and/or solely to religion ("Christianity is for people who aren't afraid to think about life and meaning"). By saying that she further implies that christianity is superior and is for people who have deeper cognitive ability.

Utter irresponsibility. And the problem is we have such people rising to the top (in this case in religious organisations, though not limited to this field..)

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Bendy-buses with the slogan "There's probably no God" could soon be running on the streets of London.

The atheist posters are the idea of the British Humanist Association (BHA) and have been supported by prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins.

The BHA planned only to raise £5,500, which was to be matched by Professor Dawkins, but it has now raised more than £36,000 of its own accord.

It aims to have two sets of 30 buses carrying the signs for four weeks.

The complete slogan reads: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

As the campaign has raised more than anticipated, it will also have posters on the inside of buses as well.

The BHA is also considering extending the campaign to cities including Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Professor Dawkins said: "Religion is accustomed to getting a free ride - automatic tax breaks, unearned respect and the right not to be offended, the right to brainwash children.

"Even on the buses, nobody thinks twice when they see a religious slogan plastered across the side.

"This campaign to put alternative slogans on London buses will make people think - and thinking is anathema to religion."

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the BHA, said: "We see so many posters advertising salvation through Jesus or threatening us with eternal damnation, that I feel sure that a bus advert like this will be welcomed as a breath of fresh air.

"If it raises a smile as well as making people think, so much the better."

But Stephen Green of pressure group Christian Voice said: "Bendy-buses, like atheism, are a danger to the public at large.

"I should be surprised if a quasi-religious advertising campaign like this did not attract graffiti.

"People don't like being preached at. Sometimes it does them good, but they still don't like it."

However the Methodist Church said it thanked Professor Dawkins for encouraging a "continued interest in God".

Spirituality and discipleship officer Rev Jenny Ellis said: "This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life."

She added: "Christianity is for people who aren't afraid to think about life and meaning."

The buses with the slogans will run in Westminster from January.

Badminton season begins

These past few weeks have been rather eventful, and the trend looks like it is going to continue.

Last week we played our first Mens B game and lost terribly. It didn't help that we had a last-minute player crisis (had to draft two non-club players to help play for us), but I had played with Teck Kang before so it doesn't make sense how we could have played so badly. Then again I think my choice of switching to a defensive racket for the 2nd set of the second game and the third games didn't help as we had to be the ones attacking.

Today my "regular partner" Jamie, who was out last week due to food poisoning, and I took on our top Mens B pair for some proper training matches. We beat them 21-17, 21-19 which was a really good result. Just need to sustain that momentum and intensity for the entire duration of matches if we were to translate these performances to competition.

My November is looking extremely tight - my parents and brother might be coming, I might go for Nottingham Malaysian Games, and I have 4 matches in a week, while one player is confirmed out of 3 matches (and I might not be able to make it to a couple). So we might seriously be short of players again.

Anyway. Enough sports talk for now.

a little birthday surprise

Oh, and happy birthday to Teck Kang!

We had a great time, first by surprising him in his room with two cakes, then by making him finish the alcoholic drinks, finally by doing a manual edition of the singing birthday card. Every time he opened it we started singing "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to.." That was fun!!

He was red as a lobster (from the drinks) and I asked him to make sure he gave me a wakeup call tomorrow! We are playing badminton in the afternoon!!

I am starting to feel I got back a sense of belonging to Cardiff now by having these new (and a couple of old) Malaysian friends, people who are up for a laugh or up for some events. Also the bunch of guys at badminton. It would be a bit of a pity if I were to leave, but I need to be mindful of the grand scheme of things. There will be Malaysians no matter where I go...

Footloose, Otello

After a frustratingly difficult search for anyone interested to watch an opera with me (Shu Li was close to coming but decided sitting near the back on the upper circle was too far), I was resigned to going it alone (yes I'd resolved to go), when on the way back from badminton today (having tested out my newly-strung racket, whose BG66 strings I got from China was indicated to me to have appeared slightly dodgy) I ran into Alan. And by jolly, he was up for it!

As soon as I got home I called the Millennium Centre Box Office and booked the last two tickets in the centre block, all the way up at the back row of the Upper Circle. This was Verdi's famous opera Otello, based on Shakespeare's great tragedy, and was sung in Italian with English subtitles. Extremely interesting, and I am glad Alan also enjoyed it (our first classic opera). I am looking forward to the Marriage of Figaro some time next year.

I also watched Footloose (musical) at the New Theatre yesterday with Chetan, and we met up with Itoro at Happy Gathering for some chinese dinner. They had a "resident pianist" (actually a student) so the atmosphere was pretty good, except she spilled her drink... Somehow I had expected that to happen. One thing that made my day was when she played Forbidden Love from the Love 2000 Japanese drama soundtrack, a series I like very much.

Other upcoming performances of note are West Side Story, Evita, and Mary Poppins, all of which I will probably watch. And some ballet (maybe Stravinsky?).

mugger, you!

Kevin was on msn with me the other day. From the things we talked about I remember this one sentence.
"Not many people can outmug you."
I went, "Really?"

If only he knew I hadn't properly studied for years....
Not that I minded mugging or that it would sound uncool (it being a more condescending way of describing a studious person in my opinion. Of course being a mugger implies - to me at least - that the person furiously studying the book and trying to memorise everything, as opposed to understanding, is slightly lacking in real intelligence. However good ol' Kev wasn't meaning any malice when he used the term "to mug".

Not that I think I am that intelligent either, but I did get through without much mugging, and some say am doing fine these days. But what it could have been if I did dive into the books and never come out, much like the first year at Oldham Hall when I could miss all the interesting LD*s like Jurassic Park, Anna & the King.. etc. Just to obey the daily "study time", which was NOT in force on those Friday evenings. Then again, I properly studied maybe for an hour or two at the most. With not much homework (I would have done some in class) I would just be reading the future chapters of the science textbook of whatnot.

If only?!

*yes we watched the massive laser discs those days

Huzir Sulaiman. Playwright. Commentator.

Aha! I found out where the excellent Malaysian Political Oscars article had come from.

Huzir Sulaiman, playwright and regular (maybe "former" now) Sunday Star columnist wrote it - see his newly set-up blog at http://huzirsulaiman.blogspot.com/. His article apparently came up to some opposition and he decided to set up the blog.

Other articles worth reading (on the sidebarr, posted in Sept) are Why Do Our Ministers Never Resign? (first published in the Sunday Star in July this year) and Singapore-Malaysia Ties: When Words Get In The Way (first published in The Straits Times in 2005).

He is a good writer; I think I am a fan already! Maybe I should pick up his book Eight Plays when I am next back home.

new blood?

I didn't intend to cover Brown's latest cabinet reshuffle, where he surprised many by recalling Peter Mandelson to the Cabinet.

Just wanted to quote something from the article which I thought was quite witty. Attributed to Liberal Democrat MP Danny Alexander.

"Resurrecting ex-ministers from the political graveyard is not going to breathe new life into Gordon Brown's zombie government."

The perfect mix of words.

"S'pore opposition icon J. B. Jeyaretnam dies fighting"

Article taken fromm todayonline.com, a Singaporean paper (surprise, surprise).
Emphasis mine, in case you don't happen to understand about Singaporean politics.

I wish his family peace and may they reap the rewards of his struggles in due course. Singapore has just lost another champion of real, inclusive democracy.

http://www.todayonline.com/articles/278836.asp

Veteran Singapore opposition leader J.B. Jeyaretnam, who died Tuesday, waged a long and lonely campaign for greater political freedom in the tightly governed city-state.

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He was attempting a fresh political comeback when he succumbed to heart failure.

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The 82-year-old British-trained lawyer and former MP was the nemesis of Singapore’s iron-fisted founding leader Lee Kuan Yew, 85, whose People’s Action Party (PAP) will celebrate 50 uninterrupted years in power in 2009.

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“I haven’t got very many more years,” Jeyaretnam said in July at the launch of f the new Reform Party, which was to be his vehicle for a comeback after years in the political wilderness.

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Jeyaretnam, remembered by many Singaporeans for his old-school lambchop sideburns and a gravelly voice that thrilled audiences in court, parliament and street rallies, said he feared “no one except God”.

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Born Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam in 1926 during a family visit to what is now Sri Lanka, he was often a solitary voice in largely ethnic Chinese Singapore, a prosperous financial centre where protests are restricted and government critics complain of limited access to the media.

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Despite being driven to financial ruin by costly defamation suits mounted by PAP leaders, and sidelined by younger opposition figures, Jeyaretnam was still plotting a return to parliament when he died.

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Elections are not due until 2011 after the PAP won a fresh five-year mandate in 2006 by sweeping all but two of the 84 elected seats.

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“He’s such a man who never gives up... fighting all the way,” long-time political ally Ng Teck Siong said on radio station 938Live after news of Jeyaretnam’s death was carried by the city-state’s pro-government media.

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Singapore leaders maintain that the Western-style democracy Jeyaretnam championed could ruin a tiny republic with no natural resources and surrounded by far bigger neighbours, an argument Jeyaretnam never bought.

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He made political history in 1981 when he broke the monopoly of the PAP in parliament. Reelected in 1984, he lost his seat two years later after being found guilty of misstating the accounts of the Workers’ Party, which he led at the time.

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During his career, Jeyaretnam spent more than US$900,000 paying off damages awarded to PAP leaders and had to sell off his house in Singapore, settling in his later years in the neighbouring Malaysian city of Johor Bahru.

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PAP leaders have often been criticised for suing political opponents and media organisations for defamation, but they maintain that they must protect their reputations against unfounded attacks.

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Lee, who ruled for three decades and still serves in the cabinet of his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, never concealed his deep hatred of Jeyaretnam, calling him a “thoroughly destructive force” who was “all sound and fury.”

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Even during his darkest days, Jeyaretnam soldiered on.

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He helped support his cause by selling books on the sidewalks of Singapore, and managed to clear his debts to pave the way for a fresh stab at public office.

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“I get my strength from somewhere else, if you know what I mean,” he said in an interview with AFP in 2006. “I refuse to conform to the world.”