Religion today

The abuse scandal which has been uncovered has been the headline of major newspapers. Some of them are in favour for and some are against the church. Those who are against have been relentlessly attacking how the Church is run and the personality of the Pope himself. In turn, the Vatican officials have expressed their discontent over the unfair coverage and exaggeration of the issue and the personal attack on the pontiff to undermine his credibility. But no, I am not going to condemn anyone here. I will discuss about how these 2 factors have a part in the declining christian adherents in Western World and compare the Church in Western world to the Church in Asia.

I dare say that separation of the State and Church has no effect whatsoever on religious life. It is the disappointment of people on their lives that causes them to believe in another gods (This happens in all religion surprisingly). More people than ever say that they are spiritual, but not religious. The irresponsible behaviour of clergies supplements the unwavering effort of atheist promoters; mix up this 2 factors and we will get groups of new atheist converts. The atheist followers are trying to convince people to free themselves from 'oppresive' God and to embrace freedom to the fullest.

In Western countries, most people are passive enough in their religious lives and hence, rendered the responsibility to the clergies. The priests are passive enough too, only a few of them try to reach out to encourage their people to be active. As a result, the clergies are the ones who keep religion alive whilst the 'followers' do not have faith in God, they only have faith in their priests. Once a clergy is fallen from grace, the religion is dead and God knows what these 'passive' followers will do next. This is evident in the recent sex abuse case: a priest is involved in all church related activity-he is convicted of abuse-the parish is dead and the followers denounce their religion.

Furthermore, secular media may provide biased coverage in favour of the writer's belief (This is why I do not fully believe any article about religion in newspaper). Misleading statement are enough to crumble one's weak faith. Today's media, only cares about readership and sponsorship are forgetting the very basic ethics of journalism. They love to expose saucy scandals which can attract readers to buy their bluff than to expose goodness which perhaps is jeered by some readers as a bluff.

Whereas, Church in developing countries enjoys such an active participation of its members. the laymen and laywomen are running church-related activity. They are responsible enough to ensure that their faith grows and trying to be active in their religious lives. Should their priest be convicted of crime, they may be disappointed for a while, but the will surely move on and cling on to their faith.

In conclusion, the main problem is not secularism or 'international conspiracy of sex abuse scandal' (some groups label it this way). Is it weak faith that make all religion-related 'problem' happen

Siloso Beach Countdown Party

I was so aghast when I saw the footage in Razor TV about a woman who was groped by 4, yes 4, men when dancing on a stage in Siloso Beach. But, I am more appalled at the responses given by a few people to the reporter.

To start with, I would like to express my dismay at the attitude of those men who seemed to savour every moment, groping the lady's, sorry, breast (ladies, no offense). They were all dancing gaily and then, this horrible creature start to behave maliciously; for the other 3 beasts, God knew what they'd done. The woman did not seem to enjoy when the men laid their hands on her body. She appeared to be struggling against the men.

It was a party, a party which I believe was full of alcohol. The men were certainly drunk; otherwise, they would not behave in such manner in public. The audience might not have been all drunk. No one helped the poor victim on stage. They was probably enjoying the whole show and thinking that the girl on stage loved it though she was certainly not. They could have done something to help the lady who had shown her discomfort. Male audience, where were you? You were to ignorant to see what happened at that time, no? Female audience, where were you? She was one of your kind, you surely could feel how was it like to be gang-banged in public. Where was the sisterhood solidarity?

party-case closed-

Next, the responses were various. Only ONE woman proclaimed that she would help the woman and reprimand the men if she was there. The responses from male and female interviewees were all similar: They do not care whether the woman was well. It is her own fault to be in such a party. She should have known the consequences of being at such event. She asked for it. Very repulsive, huh?

It was more upsetting to heard that all interviewees, apart from the brave woman who would take an action, would not bother to help. They said that it was plain over-emotional to help and they would not over-react to such incident. Most of the respondents said that they did not want to meddle in this incident and let they solved it themselves. One said that he was afraid nobody backed him if he was to help, and chose to wait for other people to pioneer the heroic action. even explain his reason not to help in a simple phrase," We're Singaporean."(My Singaporean friends, no offense-again.). The phrase does not imply that all Singaporean will behave in that way, but it conveys how ignorant a person be when he won't gain anything.

It, however, reminds me of one Straits Times's report a few months back. The setting was this: a man yelled at a woman, and he was about to abuse her physically. The actors played this scenes in crowded areas, where lots of people can see. No one tried to separate them, apart from two Caucasian men, a group of foreign tourist and a Singaporean man who has been abroad for some time.

Funny isn't it, that no one bother to care. We are still the same homo socius, are we not?

The media will guide our way.

How much influence does media has to our youth?

Have you wondered why girls adore svelte figure? Have you pondered upon the reason why boys tend to be aggressive? Have you had any idea why youngsters nowadays are more inclined towards sexual freedom than the youths in the ‘60s? Hormones may not have the answer, but the media certainly has it.

Almost all magazines for teenagers, especially the ones crafted for girls, include shopping section which portrays the latest fashion trend around the globe. The writer of this section may teach the readers how to shop smartly by making full use of credit cards’ endless promotion and loyalty rewards, purchasing at the end of holiday season to get further price reduction and registering as member of some shops and department stores. As for the Martians, their magazines market the latest gizmos, gaming consoles and sporting equipments which should not be overlooked if they do not want to be classified as the mediocre guys. Surely, they do not fathom the purpose of these columns which is to convert them into new shopaholics. Girls are supposed to be the ahead of style, and that can be achieved by buying whatever in season. Boys, in order to be socially accepted by their peers, should be able to play the freshest online game available in the net.

Moreover, Hollywood films which spread a new culture that dictates our boys to be ultra sporty if they want to earn everything they want: popularity amongst girls, girls, girls to do their homework, etc. In the other hand, Venusians must uphold their slenderness and sexiness to attract the Martians. They go on exceptional diet regime and consume cocktail of drugs to obtain the ideal body shape which is portrayed by our world’s top models for being fat is a grave sin. A few years back, a young lady from the USA committed suicide after being told in a social networking site that she is fat and thus, no one would not want to be her boyfriend though she seemed to have a proportional body (in her photo which was released to the newspaper).

There are still so much that can happen to youth if they let the media penetrate into their mind without any boundaries.

Electricity crisis. How dire is the consequences?

Some provinces of Indonesia are experiencing electricity shortage at the moment. The long postponed 10000 MW power generator project has not been kick-started, millions of household across the archipelago are not using electricity efficiently and corruption is rampant in the National Electricity Company (PLN). Thus, PLN introduces scheduled electricity breakdown for all.

As a result, manufacturing industries are suffering from millions of dollars losses. In recent case, Daihatsu plant in Jakarta reported that 10 cars which were being assembled at the time of the breakdown, were not functioning properly; they became a mountain of scrap metal. This incident worries domestic and foreign investors who want to expand their business here. Moreover, domestic textile factories are complaining to the government that electricity shortage will put them at the disadvantage side in global market for they have to pay penalty when unable to ship on time.

In addition to that, electricity shortage prevents foreign investors to invest their money. They prefer to invest in countries which have better infrastructure for they want factories to give maximum output. Therefore, with ailing infrastructure and poor domestic investment, there is no enough job opportunity for Indonesia’s 60 millions productive workforce, which contributes to the increasing numbers of employment over the years.

As this country is becoming more relied to tax than ever, unemployment means unexploited potential source of income. With limited budget to build and revitalized infrastructure, infrastructure growth will not balance the demand for industrialisation. Moreover, unemployment will lead to high crime rate in cities which will prevent investors to venture because of safely reason. Hence, the loss is exponential.

In conclusion, the crisis will definitely be a serious problem for further economic development and social cohesion. The widening income gap will cause dissatisfaction amongst people and radicalisation may triumph. Something has to be done immediately.