MAGICK RIVER

EVOLUTION BEGINS WITH EVE ~ a 1991 essay by Antares

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Sat, 18 May 2013 11:13:00 +0000

THE GENESIS MYTH yields a rich harvest of illuminating insights. Eve is blamed for the Fall. The Serpent directs his sales pitch at her and she takes the first bite of the Forbidden Fruit which endows her with sudden self-awareness. She offers the Fruit to Adam but as he sinks his teeth into it, God's voice comes booming out from concealed loudspeakers, causing the original attack of Fear and Guilt.

"Gulp!" bleats Adam with a chunk of "apple" stuck in his throat: "She made me do it!" What else can you expect? The scriptures were authored by MEN.

From the evolutionary viewpoint, however, the Serpent is a metaphor for the Vital Force (which yogis call kundalini); and Eve is the principle of curiosity, receptivity, adventurousness. In other words, the spirit of scientific research. What about Adam? He robotically obeys his programming until encouraged by Eve to experiment. But before he can swallow and digest the Experience, he goes into a total funk and tries to pass the buck.

Quite despicable and most unmanly (or should I say unwomanly?) - but fairly typical behavior in male-dominated power politics. To cover up their moral cowardice men perform assorted acts of physical bravado. As a child Saddam Hussein had his cheeks pinched by all his aunts and uncles, but just look at him now: SADDAM! Even his name sounds like the pounding of great big guns.

People used to call George Bush a sneaky little wimp. Not any more: BUSH! and there's a great big crater in the desert. Being extremely horny may be a nice macho feeling - but it's no excuse for rape.

I know two well-circulated feminist jokes. The first is about the astronaut who encounters God in deep space. On his return to Earth he's asked to describe God and he just laughs and says: "Boy, have I got a surprise for you. She's black!" The other joke has it that women are superior to men for the obvious reason that God is a perfectionist who learns from his mistakes; when God decided to create Woman he was a little more experienced.

Consider next the structure of the sex chromosome: females are double X-rated while males result from XY combinations. Geneticists say the Y chromosome is really just a deformed and undersized X chromosome. Sorry, guys, but facts is facts.

Did I hear Harry yell, "Traitor!" Hey, I'm not undergoing a sex change. I'm quite happily male, thank you, and the preceding polemic is essentially a scheme to improve my chances of getting laid. Seriously, though, I do have genetic memories (or at least vivid fantasies) of having lived female lives and I'm convinced that individuals often switch genders in the course of their earthly incarnations. They also tend to experiment with a variety of ethnic and geographic combinations - so let's all hurry up and outgrow racialistic-nationalistic nappy-rash jingoism. It's not so cute anymore.

And while we're at it, let's declare a general armistice in the Battle of the Sexes and put sexism to bed where it belongs. Here, you can wear the pants. I'm quite comfortable in my sarong.

Another aspect of the Feminine Principle that fascinates me is the dramatic transformation that Motherhood brings about: from lithe and slender flowerbud to bulbous huge ripe pear state is an awesome procedure. And when they spring right back to fantasizable size, it's another miracle all over.

I know the institution of Motherhood is sacrosanct (after all it's a vestige of Goddess worship) and it brooks no criticism - but I can't help noticing the psychological stranglehold that so many mothers seem to maintain on their children. Somehow the influence of the Father appears easier to shrug off.

Not in every case, I agree, but the number of middle-aged men and women who can be plunged into depression with just one Christmas phonecall to their dear Momsies far outweigh those who continue to recoil from their Daddy's wrath when they're 45 years old. I'm curious to know what the sons of Deng Xiao-ping or Lee Kuan Yew have to say about this. (Pardon me? Can't hear you, the tanks are too noisy...) which leads me to wonder if humans might not fair better reverting to oviparous reproduction ("Quick, Dicky, the egg's getting cold!"); even so I can picture how some mothers may suffocate rather than incubate their offspring.

Smothering beats mothering! ("Oh oh, here comes Mum with the pillow... mmmpfff!") I can't speak from personal experience on this - but does the pain of childbirth leave permanent scars on a mother's brain, causing her to be ambivalent thereafter about her kids? Perhaps our conventional approach to obstetrics should be thrown out with the bathwater: I have friends who have given birth in a tub of warm water with surprising ease and no complications. And no nightmarish fluorescent lights or forceps or masked strangers who rudely snip your cord and spank you for the crime of being born. Surely we're not all too busy being neurotic to think about a few fundamental issues of life-and-death importance?

Anyhow, I'm of the opinion that Motherhood is vastly overrated: it should be gently phased out soon after the child is weaned (yes, I'm all for breastfeeding but that's about as much mothering as anybody really needs, I think).

Have I shocked anyone? Don't misunderstand: every child thrives on tender loving care and lots of attention unstintingly given. And that must come from more than just one source - especially if that one source happens to take the role of Mother too seriously, too dutifully (and perhaps resentfully too, since she seems to have no choice whatsoever).

My real point is this: anyone of any gender can play the role of Mother for a while. Such a vital role demands a platoon of stand-ins; no one should insist on hogging it. Most clear-thinking and farsighted mothers will applaud this trend of thought. But first, we humans have to learn to let go. Insecurity makes us clingy and possessive. Kahlil Gibran said it best:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you,

And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,

For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls,

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which

you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth...

Get thee back to the grave, Confucius! Respect for our Youngers is what I preach, and I do try to practice it. Respect, in any case, has to be mutual and spontaneous. Or else it's pure intimidation.

Now, coming back to the idea of Woman as the manifestation of the Goddess. I happen to view ‘chastity’ and 'wantonness' as equally seductive attributes. The Virgin and the Prostitute. Surefire marketing concept, Ms Ciccone aka Madonna. Men, be honest and admit that you desire both these qualities in your women. Opposites aren't necessarily contradictory; usually they're complementary. Innocence and Experience attract each other. Virgins are still being sold to the highest bidder. Prostitutes work at union rates, negotiable on cold nights. Over here we have a loose woman with tight lips and over there an uptight one with loose lips. Take your pick, brother.

The Goddess is nurturer and destroyer in one. Before the birth of the Cosmos, there was the Cosmic Womb which the Egyptians called Nuit, goddess of Night. Others call it the Primordial Chaos. I call it the Matrix of Infinite Possibilities. Maria or Kali, Fairy Godmother or Wicked Witch: she can soothe and she can torment. Like the calm or raging sea, like life or death, the Goddess is not a static reality. She is not rigid with rationality, though she can be entirely reasonable or unreasonable as it pleases her.

The practice of automatically assigning God the masculine pronoun Him is disturbing, perhaps even dangerous. Our only chance of making it through these apocalyptic times is to restore the Feminine Principle in our religious reckonings; to acknowledge that the sphere of awareness implies a convex as well as a concave dimension, an inner and an outer form.

And most cogently, to realize that the two are an interchangeable oneness in perpetual dynamic equilibrium. Without this understanding, we shall continue to inherit a world governed by overgrown little boys with dangerous toys.

That's right. Don't you be fooled by that funny mustache. He's got a pea-shooter in his pants. And a hot date with Mae West. Or, as visionary historian William IrwinThompson puts it:

"Civilizations, like the penis, rise and fall, and when the towers and the battlements crumble into the earth, they return to the embrace of the Great Mother."

Pretty Oedipal, eh?

[Written 6 January 1991 and subsequently published in The Star - with thanks to Masturah Alatas for playing Muse.]

Najib doesn't need a new cabinet.

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Tue, 14 May 2013 11:31:00 +0000

What he needs is a gigantic CLOSET...

... to keep all of UMNO's skeletons in!

MALICE IN BOLEHLAND ~ IN GLORIOUS 3D!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:57:00 +0000

Tim Burton describes a scene to Mia Wasikowska who plays Alice

Ever since I saw Mars Attacks I've been partial to Tim Burton's distinctive approach to filmmaking. As far as I'm concerned, his most magnificent effort to date is Big Fish (starring Albert Finney, Ewan McGregor, Helena Bonham Carter and Jessica Lange), released in 2003. That's a movie hard to top, the wizardly way Burton mixed magical realism with sheer emotional punch, bringing out some exquisite performances from his cast.

A few days ago I got hold of a DVD of Tim Burton's latest project - a new spin on Alice in Wonderland with some of his favorite character actors (Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Christopher Lee) and featuring a fresh and luminous Aussie face named Mia Wasikowska as Alice.

Most of us grew up watching Walt Disney's 1951 animated version of Alice in Wonderland (I was a year old when it first came out) - so it formed the basis of (apart from John Tenniel's delightful illustrations) our visual reference for the unforgettable characters that popped up from the fertile mind of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (left) - better known by his nom de plume, Lewis Carroll - as he spun a wonderfully anarchic but mathematically coherent yarn to amuse his young muse, Alice Liddell.

Walt Disney studios contracted Tim Burton to direct a 21st century digitally sexed-up version of Alice in Wonderland sometime in 2007. It's interesting to hear what Burton has to say about his approach to remaking this greatly beloved classic: "It was always a girl wandering around from one crazy character to another, and I never really felt any real emotional connection." His goal with the new movie was to give the story "some framework of emotional grounding" and "to try and make Alice feel more like a story as opposed to a series of events." Burton focused on the Jabberwocky poem as part of his structure. [Source: Wikipedia]

I found Tim Burton's Alice enthralling - though hardly definitive. Indeed I view it as a cogent metaphor for the dysfunctional and absurd political reality we live in.

Under the Red Queen's demented and tyrannical rule, Wonderland becomes Underland - a subterranean dream/nightmare with surreal overtones, where the Jubjub Bird and the Frumious Bandersnatch and the Burbling Jabberwock serve as the Red Queen's law enforcement agencies. Meanwhile a riot squad of playing cards stands ready to quell rebellion with the Underlandish equivalent of tear gas and water cannons - and bloodhounds are blackmailed into the Knave of Hearts's secret service.

In Burton's movie, the helpful bloodhound is named Bayard - but in Malaysia he might as well be called Balasubramaniam.

It's fun trying to match each character in Alice with their symbolic equivalents in Malaysian politics. The Knave represents all the power-craving sleazebags who get off on the vicarious power and privilege of pretending to serve Evil (when, ultimately, all they care to serve is their own vanity). Let's toss out a few names and see how they fit the role. Hishammuddin Hussein? Abdul Gani Patail? Chandra Muzaffar? Zul Noordin? No shortage of knaves in our midst...

In the book and original Walt Disney animated film, the King of Hearts (left) is portrayed as fairly easygoing but totally henpecked by his irascible Queen. I thought the pink-lipped poltroon named Najib Razak would fit the role quite nicely - but, alas, in Tim Burton's version the King of Hearts has been despatched (actually, decapitated on the Red Queen's orders when she suspects he has the hots for her younger sister, the White Queen).

No prizes for matching the Red Queen with a notorious character in Malaysian politics - even though the big hair and big head are the only clues you get. Well, okay, she'd rather be feared than loved... having failed miserably at popularity contests.

The Mad Hatter (adeptly played by Johnny Depp) is a bit harder to match, as he is quite a protean character and cannot really be pinned down.

Part fool, part sage, part shaman, part showman, part salesman, part magician, part politician - the Hatter represents everyone who dreams of overthrowing oppressive rule and tyranny. The Mad Hatter is the voice of the artist-poet-philosopher who embodies our collective dream of freedom and joy and whose inspiring performance of the head-spinning, knee-wobbling Futterwacken dance signifies that all is well in Underland as it is in Heaven - and hopefully on Earth too.

In other words, the Mad Hatter is all of us - bloggers, blog readers, regular commenters on Malaysiakini, candlelight vigilers, anti-ISA campaigners, human rights activists, civil society movers and shakers, former political detainees, wearers of Bersih T-shirts, rabble rousers, impassioned changers of punctured tubes and replacers of blown bulbs... and if there is one person I can name who already plays the role of the Mad Hatter - and does so with flamboyant relish - it has to be Hishamuddin Rais.

The Jabberwock (given voice by Christopher Lee) is depicted as a scary manifestation of primordial evil - a ruthless and indomitable foe that can only be slain by the Vorpal Sword. You could say this nightmarish creature symbolizes a primeval will to wield power over others, to subjugate and dominate through fear and terror. It is a monster kept as a pet by the narcissistic Red Queen who rules Underland with whimsical cruelty and surrounds herself with hypocrites, sycophants and parasites.

To me the Jabberwock represents the mindless brute force of jingoistic demagoguery - the sort of chest-thumping bigotry and provincialism characteristic of so many Umno warlords who have risen to power by fanning the xenophobic flames of racial and religious fanaticism. "Beware the Jabberwock!" is constantly invoked by political shit-stirrers like Ibrahim Ali, Ahmad Ismail, Ezam Mohd Nor, Ali Rustam, Nasir Safar, and Mahathir Mohamad. In effect, Malaysia's version of the Jabberwock is called the Specter of May 13.

It was the bloody beast unleashed shortly after the general election of May 1969 and kept penned up and well-fed by each succeeding Umno regime as a warning to anyone audacious enough to even question Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy) - or the necessity of maintaining nine royal households in obscene luxury.

Incredibly, Alice succeeds in lopping off the Jabberwock's head with the Vorpal Sword she retrieves from the lair of the Frumious Bandersnatch (who succumbs to Alice's charms and transforms into an oversized pit bull on which she rides into battle against the Jabberwock).

I take this as an indication that the Royal Malaysian Police may yet be redeemable and restored to proper functioning once a bunch of oversized dickheads roll. Indeed, we the people might even discover that a large majority of the police force is only too happy to help us overthrow the absolutely rotten Umno/BN regime so they can regain their professional pride as police officers and keepers of the law.

As some film critics point out, Mia Wasikowska plays Alice as a mythic heroine in her rite of passage who faces challenges, overcomes obstacles, and emerges triumphant and victorious as a mature woman ready to step out into a larger world. Other reviewers have bemoaned the political incorrectness of Alice Kingsleigh's decision to embark on an entrepreneurial career in China (this was around the period when British business interests introduced opium to the Chinese peasantry to weaken them, before attempting to colonize the country; in the end they settled for a lucrative 99-year lease on Hong Kong).

Yet we have no idea what further adventures may have befallen Alice Kingsleigh as a young woman. Perhaps she bumped into a dashing bloke during a brief stopover in Singapore and ended up as a colonial officer's wife in Selangor; or she might have changed her mind about China and headed to Australia instead, settling in the Northern Territory as the mistress of an aboriginal chief and having a small town, Alice Springs, named in her honor.

Who do I see as Alice in the Malaysian political context? Does she represent a new generation of empowered voters, awakened from political apathy? Is Alice the voice of an assertive educated middle class that chased a white rabbit down an optic-fiber wormhole and gained mind-expanding access to hitherto suppressed information?

For sure Alice is all of this - but I would like to link Alice with a political icon who comes close to being a mythic heroine in real life - Nurul Izzah, daughter of Wan Azizah and Anwar Ibrahim. At 18 Izzah found herself up to her arched eyebrows in political intrigue when prime minister Mahathir arrested her father (the deputy PM) under the jubjubian ISA, accused him of sodomy, and tried to finish him off with a 15-year jail sentence. His daughter sprouted wings and championed her father's cause in the International Court of Public Opinion. At 27 Izzah won an important parliamentary seat on her very first attempt and now serves as the clear, intelligent, compassionate voice of Malaysia's promising future.

Few believed her father would survive this cruel and wretched political exile. However, Anwar was released after 6 years and returned to the political fray with a vengeance, leading a loose coalition of opposition parties to a stunning electoral victory on 8 March 2008 - which should have won them control of the federal government instead of just five states - were it not for massive gerrymandering, last-minute postal votes, and the habitual support of less well-informed voters in Sabah and Sarawak.

Alice Kingsleigh, we learn at the start of Burton's film, is a daughter after her father's heart. As she faces the fearsome Jabberwock alone, she recalls that her father, Charles Kingsleigh, was a visionary who made a habit of believing as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Listing the impossible things she had encountered since her arrival in Underland, Alice arrives at the sixth - "I believe I'm going to slay the Jabberwock!" - whereupon it actually happens.

The Jabberwock's hideous head tumbles down the steps and with the monster's death, the Red Queen loses control of Underland. The White Queen regains power and banishes her wicked sister to the Outlands (because her vows do not permit her to deliberately deprive anyone of life). The Mad Hatter performs his magical Futterwacken dance, initiating the restoration of joy and freedom throughout Underland - and invites Alice to stay on, but she is resolute about returning to her own world where she has unfinished business to attend to - like saying no to an upper-class twit who wishes to marry her.

Tim Burton's White Queen (enchantingly played by Anne Hathaway) is benign, eccentric and greatly beloved. With a touch of black lipstick and some face powder, we could turn Wan Azizah into a Malaysian White Queen.

Tweedledum and Tweedledee (superbly portrayed by Matt Lucas) are truly a classic pair and serve as a symbol for so many apparently dichotomous situations. For me they represent the cacophony of political pundits on both sides of the left-right divide who serve mainly as comic relief.

Nivens McTwisp, the White Rabbit who leads Alice down the rabbit-hole to Underland, reminds me of our civil service: he keeps an eye on the passage of time and performs bureaucratic service to whomsoever happens to be in power.

The Cheshire Cat and Absolem (the hookah-smoking caterpillar) represent the two most prominent aspects of Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) - a Houdini-like evaporizer who eludes capture and categorization with ease, as well as a pontificating pundit of hardnosed political gossip.

Both play a very important role in the unfolding of the plot. The Mad Hatter is saved from the executioner's ax by the timely intervention of the Cheshire Cat; and Alice is forced to look within herself to find her true destiny whenever she confronts Absolem.

Her last encounter with Absolem the caterpillar occurs just before he metamorphoses into a pupa; but she recognizes him instantly when he alights momentarily on her in his glorious butterfly form.

Taking a cue from Charles Kingsleigh, Alice's visionary father, let's believe in six impossible things before breakfast - and transform our beloved Bolehland into a veritable Wonderland for all.

ALICE VS THE JABBERWOCKY

[First published 8 July 2010]

THIS IS THE LAST STRAW, BN... GET THE FUCK OUT OF OUR WAY!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:23:00 +0000

Rally @ Kelana Jaya Stadium, 8 May 2013, to demand that Najib concede to Pakatan Rakyat's electoral victory

Malaysians In Black to mourn the death of clean & fair elections - the only democratic process
available to Malaysians once every five years, and yet they keep cheating!

Overview of the traffic jam at the Kelana Jaya toll

People Power in action. We're thoroughly fed up of BN's misrule by fear & misrule by law!

A carload of "racist Chinese" waving a PAS flag on the way to the rally

This is what the Body Politic looks like on the ground - a bunch of decent humans who value justice

Anwar Ibrahim, icon of Reformasi, hitches a ride to the stadium

Like day & night, the difference between Pakatan Rakyat & Barisan Nazional.
Nobody was paid to attend, no food was served, people freely donated.

This is where Najib Razak belongs.

[Photos courtesy of Curi-Curi Wang Malaysia]

LAIN KALI LAH? NO FUCKING WAY!
WE WANT THE CROOKS
OUT OF PUTRAKAYA!

Okay, Dr M, you have 5 weeks to plan your escape.
If you stop denying, denying, denying
& indulging in gutter politics...
you might even get another 5 months.

Oy, Najib! Is this how you plan to rule the country?

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Tue, 07 May 2013 08:24:00 +0000

AT GUNPOINT.....?

How long before your hand gets tired?

You won't get any sleep at night...

You'll be much too stressed to service your voracious wife.

She'll soon be sending for some toy boys...

Isn't this a much nicer and healthier option? You have enough cash stashed away to live in the lap of luxury the rest of your lives... far, far from your political foes in Malaysia!

[First published 16 March 2009]

Wishing you the best birthday ever, dear Altantuya!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Sun, 05 May 2013 16:21:00 +0000

Originally published 26 April 2008

Altantuya's Murder:
The Orang Asli Factor

It should have been the perfect cover-up. Troublesome Mongolian woman is "arrested" by plainclothes policemen outside the gates of Abdul Razak Baginda's residence where she had been causing embarrassment to the political analyst, defence consultant, speechwriter and personal friend of Najib Razak, Malaysia's defence minister and deputy PM. The Mongolian woman believes the Malaysian police will take her to the station, interrogate and intimidate her, and then forcibly deport her.

Nobody knows exactly what happened to Altantuya Shaariibuu between the time she was seen entering the Unit Tindakan Khas (Special Action Squad) officer's car and the time her body was blasted to tiny fragments with C4 explosives. Was she taken to Bukit Aman? Or driven to a secret location and toyed with before getting shot twice in the head (according to some reports)? Did her police abductors treat her with courtesy - or was she humiliated, tortured and raped before they killed her? Will we ever find out? The two UTK officers who have been charged with the hideous crime - Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar and Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri - were personal bodyguards to defence minister Najib Razak. So under whose specific orders were they acting?

In any case, the only reason Altantuya's body was blown up in the jungle was so that it would never be found - at least not in one piece. Somebody extremely powerful had instructed an immigration officer to delete all computer records of Altantuya Shaariibuu's arrivals and departures from Malaysia. When her cousin lodged a police report that Altantuya had disappeared, a massive search would have been initiated. After which a government spokesman would have told the media that the immigration department had no record of the Mongolian woman arriving in Malaysia. There would be insinuations that Altantuya Shaariibuu did not, in fact, exist - and that her "cousin" was perhaps mentally unsound, possibly paranoiac, and had concocted the story of Altantuya's vanishing act in order to attract attention.

So why did the gruesome story make the front pages on local dailies nearly three weeks after the fictitious Mongolian woman was murdered? Who would have known about the jungle explosion in the middle of the night in the middle of literally nowhere?

I was told by a friend with connections to the legal fraternity that it was an Orang Asli family that reported the blast between October 19 and 20. Altantuya's killers must have killed her and then taken her body to a spot well-known to Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri (who had boasted to Abdul Razak Baginda that he had terminated at least six people "in the line of duty"). Nobody was supposed to hear the explosion that would remove all evidence of Altantuya Shaariibuu's earthly existence. Apparently, unbeknownst to the killers, a few Orang Asli were encamped in the vicinity and were startled by the blast. They investigated the next morning and, realizing that a crime had been committed, lodged a report at the nearest Balai Polis. Thus far I have found no way to confirm this detail. After Googling the case for hours, not one single reference to the Orang Asli factor. If anybody can confirm this, will you please contact me or leave a comment below this post?

I would like to know for certain that it was indeed the Orang Asli who blew the lid on this macabre and malevolent affair. It would be the ultimate irony, if this was true, that the "highest and mightiest" in the land would ultimately be brought down by the humblest of the humble.

WHAT MY HEART TRULY DESIRES

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Sun, 05 May 2013 01:21:00 +0000

1. That Joy and Freedom and Love and Abundance be restored as the keynote features of Life on Earth - and throughout the Cosmos.

2. That my family, my friends and I shall effortlessly draw to ourselves a neverending flow of material and spiritual well-being; and nevermore be in need, nor suffer scarcity.

3. That good health and unbounded wealth, in every form, be ours to enjoy - and that prosperity will continue to increase and facilitate great happiness and pleasure, benefiting an ever widening circle of other beings.

4. That the Love of My Life will blossom into my Twin Flame as she yields to the inevitability and undeniability of our boundless passion for one another; that she will love me as deeply as I love her, and be inspired to evolve to hitherto unknown levels of awareness, intelligence, power and wisdom.

5. That I will be inspired, motivated, and ably assisted each day to be a conduit of Beauty, Truth and Wisdom in all the things I do - which I shall do with utmost pleasure, joy and masterful ease.

6. That all souls - incarnate and disincarnate - will successfully fulfil their evolutionary potential and destiny, and participate gratefully in perpetual celebration of Life... Life in all its endless mystery, wonder, and exquisite beauty.

7. That all previous conflicts be experienced as Dynamic Tensions necessary to the completion of the Human Experience; and that henceforth all sentient souls shall awaken to the Infinite Glory and Absolute Perfection of Creation in all its multidimensional and kaleidoscopic variety.

I unearthed this memo I wrote to myself several years ago and decided to share it with everybody as a blogpost.

Malaysia is blessed that our 7th prime minister will NOT be from Umno!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Fri, 03 May 2013 17:11:00 +0000

Things are happening fast and thick. In a matter of days Malaysia will most likely be granted a new lease of life when Pakatan Rakyat takes over the federal government and Anwar Ibrahim is appointed prime minister.

Why am I so convinced this will take place? Very simple - dishonesty can never triumph over honesty, just as cowardice will never gain traction over courage. In the same way, a political coalition founded on lies, arrogance, avarice, abuse of power and deception will eventually collapse under the weight of its own negative karma. It is absolutely inevitable - and I reckon 5 May 2013 marks the moment when Umno/BN will be forced to concede that Pakatan Rakyat has won the hearts and minds of an overwhelming majority of Malaysian voters.

Not even a million phantoms or airfreighted instant citizens can save Umno/BN now. It's too late, guys, the rakyat is on to your game. Just put down your toy guns, hold up your hands, and walk slowly out the door. We promise we'll be understanding and lenient with you - so long as you fully cooperate and return whatever you've stolen from us and apologize profusely. We'll give you a chance to shout "Reformasi!"... after you've rid yourselves of the entire corrupt and cynical Old Guard.

Over the past 5 years since Umno/BN lost its precious 2/3 parliamentary majority, instead of looking deeply and honestly into their own conscience, they chose to spend hundreds of millions in a propaganda war - thinking it's all a matter of perception. It's like a bunch of robbers dashing into a nearby tailor shop when the burglar alarm goes off - and emerging minutes later looking like respectable captains of industry in the hope that the cops will be fooled and immediately offer to escort them wherever they wish to go. Well, you can fool some cops some of the time; but some time some cop will turn out to be honest and smart - and he will blow his whistle and reinforcements will arrive and frogmarch the whole lot of these impostors to jail.

Malaysian Spring: neutralizing the Barisan Nasional blues (Lai Seng Sin/AP)

A few weeks ago I had a surprise visit from an old acquaintance who has a habit of showing up unexpectedly once every four or five years. This time he had brought a few friends along - two guys and a pretty young woman whose aura of mystery was particularly appealing. Turns out she was marketing specialized communications and surveillance equipment - and her biggest client was the Malaysian Secret Police.

I should have guessed as much when she declared she had no issue with a Pakatan Rakyat federal government - but she was dead set against the idea of Anwar Ibrahim becoming prime minister.

Anwar Ibrahim: true reformers are always persecuted (The Malaysian Insider)

That jolted me to full alertness. Nobody gets away with slagging off Anwar without my attempting to turn them around or deleting them from my virtual contacts. To me, Anwar Ibrahim isn't merely less obnoxious compared to Mahathir and Najib; to me, Anwar was destined to play a very important and necessary role in the ongoing evolution of Malaysia as a young nation.

Anwar Ibrahim: brains, ideals & charisma

I didn't always feel this way about Anwar. My interest in him as a political figure really began on 2 September 1998 - the day he was fired as deputy prime minister and finance minister - and also kicked out of Umno. That was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to him.

Coming back to my friend the Malaysian "Altantuya" who hobnobs with secret policemen. I asked her why she had such a negative impression of Anwar; did she know him personally and for how long? Her answer was no, she had never met the man - but she had heard enough from her secret police contacts to convince her that Anwar was a very dangerous man.

Dangerous? How so? Anwar has close ties with the Zionist Illuminati, she said. If he becomes PM he will sell Malaysia to the Ashkenazi Jew banking bloodlines like the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds. That's right... that's exactly what Mahathir and Daim Zainuddin told the Umno Supreme Council back in 1997 when Anwar, as finance minister, proposed that Malaysia abide by IMF guidelines and allow mismanaged corporations to go belly up. It so happens that all the bankrupt enterprises were the direct result of Razak Hussein's infamous New Economic Policy - an excuse to create a new breed of instant Bumiputra millionaires (there were probably no billionaires in Malaysia back in the early 1970s).

Umno mafia don: former finance minister Daim Zainuddin

And every single Bumiputra enterprise was in the hands of either Mahathir's sons or Daim's wheeler-dealer protégés like Halim Saad, Tajuddin Ramli, Wan Azmi Wan Hamzah, and the like, who wholeheartedly embraced the opulent lifestyle of corporate high-flyers without ever acquiring the inner discipline, farsighted vision and sheer perseverance it takes to pilot such colossal enterprises as Renong, Perwaja Steel, Time Engineering and United Engineers Malaysia.

I bet she had no idea Taib Mahmud's insane ambition to convert Borneo's 120-million-year old rainforests into cold cash, camouflaged as a long-term plan to construct 20 dams in Sarawak ("to bring development to the natives") is being underwritten by Goldman Sachs - who are as Zionist Illuminati as they come.

As far as I'm concerned every political figure with the potential to become a national leader is closely watched by the Archons. They're always on the lookout for new blood, these vampire bloodlines. Lee Kuan Yew has been on the guest list at Bilderberg Conferences at least once. And so has Mahathir. Maybe in the case of Mahathir they quickly sussed that he wasn't worth inviting back.

Anunnaki Tree of Life: it all began in E.din

Those who delve deeper beneath and beyond the headlines invariably discover that the game of geopolitics is far more complex and multidmensional than most journalists are programmed to comprehend. At the very highest echelons of power there are no national boundaries and few tribal prejudices, if any. It's mostly about genetics. In the old days the qualities deemed worth cultivating were cold-blooded calculation, ruthless ambition, sophisticated guile, and a ferociously competitive ego. These days, the younger Archons have begun to appreciate the value of what they call "emotional intelligence" and the ability to cooperate and harmonize.

What catalyzed this radical change in approach and perspectives was their realization that unless they clear up the karmic mess their predecessors left behind, they themselves were doomed to go around in ever narrowing circles ad infinitum - until at some point they would simply cease to exist. There was absolutely no way out of this superlabyrinth - except through activating the heart chakra and attaining Christ-like compassion and Buddha-like wisdom. That's right, folks - they would have to recalibrate their own spiritual consciousness and realign it with universal values of compassion, empathy and all-inclusive love. Only then could they achieve their own redemption and reintegration with the whole of existence.

Malaysian Special Branch commandos in Sabah

The Malaysian Secret Police desperately need to update their training manuals, which mostly date back to the Cold War when Communism was the biggest bogeyman. In any case, it was obvious that this attractive but impressionable young woman had been fed a diet of Mahathirist propaganda by her buddies in the Special Branch - who had, in turn, been brainwashed by the Evil Mamak himself (although how he achieved this I would really like to know).

Pink-lipped poltroon

Well, folks, we are indeed fortunate to be living in these times of mind-boggling quantum shifts when everything we inherited as ancestral knowledge will suddenly become irrelevant and meaningless. Many ancient traditions will reincarnate as fresh ways of quickly attaining social cohesion and an inclusive worldview. The idea of exclusivity - and the prestige that accompanies it - will soon be revealed as utter nonsense. Those who cling to ambitions of becoming VVIPs will find themselves laughing stocks. Their accumulated loot will turn worthless overnight. Notions of centralized power and authoritarian control (such as tinpot despots are prone to embrace with megalomaniacal fervor) will be discredited and become ineffectual.

Whether we label it Big Brotherism or Mahathirism or the New World Order, it's going to rapidly unravel and be exposed as just another banal manifestation of myopic evil. The real value is to be found in the fully conscious individual. The state will exist for one purpose only, that is to serve, nurture, cultivate and celebrate the glory and magnificence of every self-realized Individual - whether human or more-than-human.

How long is this process expected to take? I don't know - and I doubt it's useful to attempt to put a time frame around it. However, I have a feeling it has already happened - but inertia and force of habit prevent us from noticing. Bear in mind that evolutionary quantum shifts don't occur overnight. This one has been in the making for at least 26,000 years.

Galactic events: Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy being consumed by our own (PennStateScience)

AN OPEN LETTER TO MALAYSIANS FROM RAFIZI RAMLI

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:30:00 +0000

My fellow Malaysians

I was born in a small wooden house surrounded by rubber trees about 36 years ago. My first recollection of life was that of a water well because my house did not have a running water supply until much later.

Like many kampung Malay kids, I grew up not having much of anything. My worldview was shaped by my surroundings. Since some of my elderly cousins became teachers, I wanted to go one step ahead of them – so I started my young life wanting to be a university lecturer (which was the coolest job I could think of when I was eight years old).

Although life was difficult and we were always conscious that we wouldn’t have enough to go around, I grew up full of pride. My parents raised us not to be apologetic about anything. From a very young age, I learnt that a man’s mortal enemy is his own self pity.

Thus, I grew up in a family environment that was full of energy and positivity. Living a dignified honest life on my own terms becomes an objective that I pursued doggedly from a young age.

We are, after all, the masters of our own fate and fortune.

It is this belief that forms the bedrock of my conviction that for Malaysia to progress, we must heal from the self-inflicted wound of mistrust, mediocrity and mismanagement.

After four decades of divisive policies that favour only the well connected elites of the society, the cancerous downside effects on the society’s morale and self-confidence are all too apparent. The very prerequisite that can make this country great again – pride in ourselves – diminishes by the day.

The Umno elites predictably resort to scaremongering and running down the very group they claim to protect i.e. the Malays.

Every day, the Malays are being fed with a concoction of lies that they cannot survive on their own without the government’s protection. The good Malays were systematically replaced by the mediocre Malays in every sphere when the Umno-led BN government ditched meritocracy in exchange for mediocracy – it was no longer skills, qualifications or business acumen that got you a big break, it was which Umno or BN ministers you know.

The unintended consequences of such selfishness and shortsightedness were devastating to nation-building efforts. A culture of mediocrity and mistrust perpetuated by the Umno-led BN government finally allowed for mismanagement of the nation’s wealth to go unchecked.

I have always advocated that a change to a needs-based policy (from race-based) is not only morally right to ensure fairness to all, more importantly it is a necessity to instill pride and goodwill in every single Malaysian so that we can move on confidently.

It is not fair to burden the young Malaysians with the baggage of the past.

They have every right to grow up believing that they can achieve their fullest potentials under the Malaysian sun if they are morally upright, honest, industrious and smart. They deserve a society that can feel good about itself, without the bitterness of mistrust and racial connotations. They need to have the confidence that the government will take care of the most vulnerable groups in the society regardless of background and affiliations.

Our young Malaysians deserve to grow up in a positive environment that thrives on the utmost confidence we have in ourselves and our capabilities, only then we can break free from the ghosts of the past which inhibited Malaysia’s potential all this while.

We have a lot of work to do if we hope to accomplish this. We need to fix the schools because fixing the schools means we fix the society. We have to ensure that the good ones in the society are given the best opportunity to soar to the sky while we build a net to catch those less fortunate so that no one is left behind.

Malaysians have to look at each other differently. Instead of looking at our differences, we are better off cherishing the common fondness that binds us together – our colourful food does more justice as a testimony to our ability to appreciate each other than we ever dare to give credit to ourselves.

A lot of my friends said that I am a foolish dreamer. They taunt me that there is a fine line between idealism and foolishness. Yet each time detractors belittle my dream of a better Malaysia for all, I am constantly reminded of the beautiful words of a song from the past:

“You are still so young to travel so far, Old enough to know who you are, Wise enough to carry the scar, Without any blame..”

Malaysia is a young nation. It has gone through a lot and the experience accelerated its maturity. It may have erred in the past, but its future is the brightest on this side of the horizon. Let us look forward to that future and leave the past behind without any blame.

Looking back, I am ever grateful that I was able to cast off my inferiority earlier on in my life. I could because I had a good support system and a good education.

The future of our society lies in our classrooms and with our young people. I am glad that while I may have pursued a different professional career, the yearning for teaching and knowledge never dies. Deep inside I have always been a student and a teacher that allowed me to go through a journey of humility to see life from different perspectives.

We must ensure that education reforms become an obsession of our next government because every child deserves a chance to cast away his/her inferiority and inhibitions earlier on in life, so that they can do wonders later on.

As we go to the polling station this Sunday, I hope my fellow Malaysians hold our heads high and look to a brighter future. The days when we are put down by our own government shall be over. We shall be the masters of our nation’s destiny and fortune.

I may be relatively young, foolish and naïve to hope for better things for Malaysia. I don’t pretend to know what my fellow Malaysians want, but I offer my youth, energy and undying love to make it a better home for everyone.

Because we owe it to our young people and ourselves to put Malaysia where she deserves.

Rafizi Ramli
5th May 2013

[Cartoons courtesy of Lat]

GE13: VOTE FOR DEMOCRATIC CHANGE ~ by Dr Ronald S. McCoy

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Thu, 02 May 2013 16:21:00 +0000

The Kuala Lumpur skyline in 2013 (courtesy of mydestination.com)

Malaysia is at a critical crossroads, after fifty-six years of independence. Its historical struggle for freedom from British colonial rule has now morphed into a growing struggle to be free of the Barisan Nasional government, a neocolonial-like construct of racially structured political parties, cleverly dividing and ruling a nation.

Reeking with corruption, its abuse of power has gone on for too long. It has lost its way in a political jungle of its own creation by incessantly amending the Constitution; pushing through dubious laws to reinforce its power; crushing judicial independence; permitting arbitrary arrest and detention without trial; disregarding police brutality and custodial deaths; encouraging corrupt crony capitalism; allowing the flight of illicit money; ignoring the serious economic consequences of a ballooning national debt; and stifling dissent, freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and other fundamental human rights. Yes, the country needs a change of government. It’s the only way to genuine reform, rule of law and democratic governance.

It was not always so in the first twelve years of independence, when the then Alliance coalition government was made up of the “Merdeka generation” of leaders who had a broad, inclusive nation-state view and a value system, so different from the current ethnocentric Barisan Nasional regime.

Barisan Nasional turned its scales of justice logo into a symbol of unbridled greed (courtesy of Aliran)

Malaysia is predominantly Malay, but it has one of the most diverse societies in the world. This ethnic diversity has enriched its cultural and social fabric and strengthened its economic footing. And yet, its very diversity has generated serious ethnic tensions and divided the population, owing to unfair policies. The Barisan Nasional (BN) government has increasingly infused ethnicity into national politics, based on an elastic interpretation of the meaning and status of the inter-ethnic “social contract” which emerged in 1957 when Malaysia became independent.

Umno supporters throwing a public tantrum

Dominated by the United Malay National Organisation (UMNO), the BN government continues to shore up its support among the Malay majority by implementing affirmative action for the Malays and insisting that the social contract and Ketuanan Melayu (Malay dominance) are immutable and literally carved in stone. In practice, this has translated into systemic corruption, nepotism and cronyism, which has enriched only the anointed few in UMNO.

Such ethnocentric politics has polarised a multicultural society and subverted nation building. It has now reached a tipping point. The time has come to dismantle racial politics by voting out Barisan Nasional at the ballot box and eliminating outdated political pygmies, before the country is irreparably damaged politically, economically and environmentally.

The status quo must give way to twenty-first century political thinking and nation-building that will embrace a Malaysian Malaysia, free of ethnic bias, religious bigotry and impenetrable mindsets. Such an opportunity for nation-building will present itself on 5th May 2013 when the nation holds its thirteenth general elections, arguably the most anticipated and contentious elections ever.

Nation-building requires a strong constitutional foundation which will support the many pillars of democracy: free and fair elections; judicial independence; the rule of just law; separation of powers; commitment to human rights, equity and social justice; honest, efficient, transparent and accountable governance; a free press; an ecologically sustainable economy; universal, equitable, quality health care; and a sound, progressive education system.

Malaysia is a federation of fourteen states, with a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy. The Constitution was designed to embody the supreme power of the land and provide for the rule of law and a judiciary, separate from and independent of control by parliament and the executive. It aims to limit arbitrary, excessive use of power by the temporary holders of political office and wielders of power. But the BN government has for decades subverted the Constitution by repeatedly amending it at will to serve its own political ends, exploiting its two-thirds majority in parliament.

Queen Elizabeth greets Najib Razak in Bersih yellow on 14 July 2011

The benefits of elections are not always assured. Elections can strengthen democracy or undermine it. Credibility and legitimacy in elections will depend on whether they are conducted in a clean and fair manner on a level playing field. Opposition parties must be free to organise and campaign without fear. Politicians, election officials, the bureaucracy and institutions must be held accountable to the voting public. Voters must feel safe from intimidation and be confident that the ballot is secret. Only then will they enjoy equal opportunity to participate in and influence the democratic process. Only then will the result of the elections be accepted without protest. But if protests are made, they must be peaceful.

There is no doubt that political donations, particularly from corporate entities, will undermine and corrupt the electoral process. And yet in the period building up to the elections, the BN government and the Prime Minister himself, in desperation, have blatantly resorted to handouts to various groups, on the incredibly flimsy excuse that this represents government aid for the poor and needy, not bribery. Poverty and need have suddenly become more visible to the government just before a general election! The prime ministerial bargain, “You help me … I help you,” deserves a place in our history books!

250,000 Malaysians rallied to demand clean & fair elections on 28 April 2012.
They were violently dispersed with nearly 1,000 canisters of tear gas, water cannon &
Umno thugs disguised as policemen.

Bersih, a coalition of concerned civil society groups, has made legitimate demands of the Elections Commission to secure clean and fair elections. The response has not been very encouraging, confirming the general perception that the Commission is manipulative and pro-government. The national mood before the impending general elections is understandably sombre and anxious, reflecting fears and suspicions that the electoral process leading up to the polls has not been clean or fair, following reliable reports of irregularities, such as gerrymandering and the illegal registration of unqualified voters, including foreign workers and other phantom voters.

In almost every country, people distrust their governments and are eager for change. The 2012 Trust Barometer study by Edelman, one of the world’s largest independent public relations companies, has pointed to a severe breakdown in government trust globally. In Europe, less than 50% of citizens in Ireland, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, Poland, Italy, France and Spain trust their governments. Only 52% of Malaysians trust the Barisan Nasional government.

Imperious couple: Najib & Rosmah

The study also shows that there is a growing public conviction worldwide that elected representatives have grown too remote, too arrogant, too corrupt and too closely associated with corporate interests to serve the common good. It confirms that incestuous cronyism between government and private enterprise increasingly raises suspicions of corruption.

People in most countries are increasingly aware of corrupt practices involving private enterprise and state bureaucracies. In its 2012 assessment of 176 countries, based on a new upgraded methodology, where the new Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) scores range from 0 to 100 (0 being most corruption and 100 being corruption-free), Transparency International indicated that Malaysia’s score was 49 with a country ranking of 54, together with Czech Republic, Latvia and Turkey. One very telling indicator of corruption was the result of a question asked of companies in Malaysia: “During the last 12 months, do you think that your company has failed to win a contract or gain new business because a competitor has paid a bribe?” Fifty per cent answered “Yes”, the highest score among the 30 countries surveyed.

Transparency International Malaysia expressed the view that a 50% response may indicate that corruption in the public sector is systemic and in some areas institutionalised. It also indicated the need to reform the political arena to reduce monetisation of politics, strengthen law enforcement institutions, uphold the rule of law, overhaul the Official Secrets Act, introduce a Freedom of Information Act, enforce transparency and accountability in public procurement, and improve whistleblower legislation.

Underemployed semi-literate youth called Mat Rempits

The BN government has politicised education and penalised and handicapped generations of schoolchildren because of their poor grasp of the English language, now a global language. Meritocracy has been abandoned and mediocrity or worse floods the country. The ambitious and talented flee across the causeway and Singapore thrives on our brain drain.

Medical education has been hijacked by the Ministry of Higher Education and farmed out to third rate medical schools in distant lands. Such medical graduates frequently fail to qualify for professional registration, but will swell the ranks of government medical services. The profession of medicine has been betrayed by the government’s policy of privatising health care. Medicine is a vocation. When government policy makes medicine a business, doctors will be forced to become businessmen.

There is widespread discontent across the country, deep concern for the future, and a strong desire for change. The political bottom line is that the people of Malaysia can no longer tolerate a government that first serves itself and its cronies and is incapable of mustering the necessary political will to reform itself.

The rakyat wants change. Business as usual and political accommodation are no longer acceptable options. A fat, corrupt and arrogant Barisan Nasional government is eminently replaceable. Let’s do it.

Dr R.S. McCoy was born in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, in 1930. He received his primary education at Pasar Road School, Kuala Lumpur, and continued his secondary education at the Victoria Institution, Kuala Lumpur. He was among the first group of students to be admitted to the University of Malaya in Singapore when it was founded in 1949. After his graduation, he worked at the General Hospital, Kuala Lumpur, for ten years, during which time he obtained his Membership of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London in 1963. In 1965, he joined the Assunta Hospital as a consultant and nine years later continued his work at Pantai Medical Centre, Kuala Lumpur. He retired from practice in February 1996.

Dr McCoy is married to Susheila and has two sons, Stephen and David, and a daughter, Ruth. A life member of the Malaysian Medical Association who served as its president in 1995, Dr McCoy is a founder member of Malaysian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (MPPNW) and founder president of its successor organisation, Malaysian Physicians for Social Responsibility (MPSR). He is also a founder member of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a federation of 62 national physicians' groups and has been its chairman since 1989. He was Co-President of International Physicians for the Preventive of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a federation of 62 national physicians' groups representing 200,000 doctors world wide and dedicated to the elimination of nuclear weapons. Dr McCoy was a member of the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, a group of seventeen distinguished and eminent persons from 12 countries appointed by former Australian Prime Minister, Paul Keating to propose practical measures for the elimination of nuclear weapons.

Winds of Change ~ excellent article by Mark Baker in 'The Age'

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Wed, 01 May 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Anwar Ibrahim addresses a crowd (estimated at 200,000) at Stadium Merdeka on 12 January 2013 (Vincent Thian)

In January last year, Anwar returned to the austere chambers of Kuala Lumpur's High Court for the conclusion of his second trial on charges of sexual misconduct. He arrived to find the court registrar and her deputy in tears. "We will pray for you, sir," they whispered to him. The women, like many of Anwar's supporters, were convinced the charges were politically motivated and that his conviction was inevitable. The accusation that Anwar had had sex with a former male aide was raised just months after the opposition scored big gains in the 2008 national elections and as Anwar prepared to return to parliament in a by-election.

Before the mutiny : Anwar plays Fletcher Christian to Mahathir's Captain Bligh (AFP, 1997)

The relationship between Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister and his deputy fell apart in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian financial crisis. As finance minister, Anwar had committed to austerity measures suggested by the International Monetary Fund to rescue the battered Malaysian economy. But Mahathir claimed the cause of the problem was a conspiracy by global financiers and backed a slew of lavish bailouts for failing Malaysian corporations, including his son's shipping company. Anwar also upset Mahathir by moving to tackle widespread corruption in the government and embracing political and social reform, as many Malaysians cheered the unrest that brought down the Suharto regime in Indonesia in May 1998.

Mahathir abruptly sacked Anwar that September. Three days later, police used tear gas and water cannon to break up the biggest protest rally in Malaysia's history as more than 50,000 people took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur in support of Anwar. Malaysia's reformasi movement was born.

Read this well-researched and highly instructive report by Mark Baker here.

A mini-festival of pre-election videos to get you in the mood to vote...

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 16:12:00 +0000

EXCERPT FROM THE CRUMBLING EMPIRE STRIKES BACK!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 21:00:00 +0000

Things that resemble overfed maggots have been stirring within Umno. The hidden hand of Mahathir can be seen behind fractious factional splits (he’s not exactly a subtle despot). He is rumored to be quietly funding ultra-rightwing Malay rights groups like Perkasa. Indeed, the Malaysian billionaires’ club has rallied behind Brand Najis, mainly to protect their own vested interests.

In our jubilation at the prospect of seeing a Pakatan Rakyat government with Anwar Ibrahim as PM, we have overlooked a particularly influential segment of society – the moneyed, privileged class (in effect, the Sadduccees, for those biblically inclined).

These are the ones who live comfortably insulated from the nitty-gritty world in their gated cities and superluxury condos. Most have benefited from lucrative contracts or clever investments made during the Mahathir era – so they were never too bothered about silly things like the ISA, OSA, police harassment, tear gas and water cannons.

So why should they bother now? One despot behaves pretty much like another – whether his name is Herod Antipas, Constantine, Napoleon Bonaparte, Mahathir Mohamad, Saddam Hussein, George Bush, or Najib Razak. In any case, despots are known to throw lavish parties – they’re certainly funkier hosts than semi-ascetic leftwingers like Nik Aziz, Karpal Singh and Lim Kit Siang. As Hindraf co-founder P. Waythamoorthy recently declared: "It doesn't matter whether Rama or Ravana rules, so long as Indians get a fair share of the money."

Most despots have blood on their hands (or they wouldn’t qualify as despots, would they?)

You and I may rankle and rant at the idea of a moral degenerate ascending to power as PM – but morality, as the privileged class knows full well, is all so very... relative, isn’t it? No vegetarian, non-violent contemplator-of-navels ever attained the world-conquering status of a Genghis Khan, as far as I know. So why make such a big fuss about a few billion ringgit vanishing into this or that offshore account, a few troublesome mistresses snuffed, a dozen greasy Indian heads bashed in by police truncheons, and a few hundred loudmouths locked away in dungeons of iniquity?

Well, I see these turbulent days as the build-up to a quantum shift into a whole new octave of being wherein our hardwired survival programs and reptilian fear conditioning will no longer apply. If you’re a devout Muslim or Christian you’ll probably call it Khiamat or Judgement Day. A Hindu might think of it as the end of the Kali yuga and the arrival of Maha Avatar Kalki (or perhaps the conclusion of the 7th manvantara); while a Buddhist may anticipate a Maitreya incarnation that will facilitate planetary enlightenment.

The more eclectic and esoterically inclined will call it the dawning of the Aquarian Age, the advent of the Water-Bearer - who symbolizes dissemination of true knowledge, leading to the decentralization and democratization of sovereignty and power.

In short, Ketuanan Rakyat as preached by Anwar Ibrahim.

Astrologer Stella Woods reports that Pluto moved into Capricorn on January 26th, 2008 – and will remain there until 2024. She believes “there will be a backlash and rebellion against [authoritarian] control, with people refusing to conform, leaving the system and insisting on the ethical use of power.

Scandals and corruption in government and large corporations will come to light and the reputation of many of our cherished institutions will be tarnished. In fact many old forms of government and ways of doing business are likely to disappear altogether.”

Go on, Pluto, move your ass, good dog!

[First published 22 October 2008]

THE MANY HUES OF MALAYSIAN POLITICS (revisited)

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:12:00 +0000

GREEN is for the Islamic Party, PAS, whose politics are founded on religion. A dangerous mix indeed. Politics concern the outer world and religion the inner. Ideally the inner and outer ought to be aligned and in dynamic balance. But who determines the parameters of inner space, the dimensions of belief and faith? A panel of ulamas (spiritual leaders)? But green is also the color associated with the heart chakra - and with healing - suggesting that wholeness (which is the same as holiness and health) begins with an open, loving heart.

There have been many theocratic nations that have lasted hundreds, even thousands of years. Ancient Egypt flourished for millennia and it was a civilization built around the concept of the Pharaoh as a divine manifestation. Tibet was for centuries essentially a lamacracy ruled by lamas with the Dalai Lama as titular head. Constantine and, later Charlemagne, tried to establish a Holy Roman Empire with Roman Catholicism at its core. Salah ad-Dīn Yusuf ibn Ayyub aka Saladin had the same vision of conquering the world for Islam. America under the Neocons may be said to have been the reincarnation and modern manifestation of a 4,000-year-old dream of a Unified Judeo-Christian World.

RED & WHITE represent courage and purity, and it's probable that the Democratic Action Party (DAP) chose these colors as a nod to its early ideological links with Lee Kuan Yew's People's Action Party (PAP).

RED is also the color most frequently associated with Communism and Socialism as it's a martial color symbolizing passion, heroism, and victory and prosperity through sacrifice and struggle. The Chinese national flag is RED. Singapore's is RED & WHITE. So are the Canadian and Swiss flags - though the Canadians and Swiss are hardly into socialism in a big way.

Nor is UMNO whose official colors, interestingly, also happen to be red and white - making it an energetic match for the DAP. However, the UMNO logo is in blood red, indicative of strong racialism and an atavistic propensity to resolve disputes through brute force. Ominously, the Umno crest features two crossed kerises, reminiscent of the Nazi swastika.

DARK BLUE is the color of Barisan Nasional and policemen's pants. Nobody (except perhaps a policewoman in heat) likes to be forced to look at policemen's pants closeup.

BN achieved a measure of popular support for many decades by putting the "development" agenda at the forefront at a time when people were eager to embrace modernity and prosper. Alas, internal weaknesses - mainly unfettered corruption, blatant cronyism and nepotism, and heavy-handed abuse of power - brought the ruling party into disrepute and it was shown the massive disfavor of voters in the last general election.

Panicked by the imminent prospect of losing power after more than 50 years, BN swung violently to the right by muscling the hopelessly tainted Najib Razak into the post of crime minister.

Clinging desperately to the status quo through flat-footed police intimidation and high-priced image consultants, BN's dark blue banner with the archaic scale symbol has come to represent endless despair to young Malaysians who dream of a harmonious, joyful and wealthy nation managed by brilliant and talented individuals untainted by generations in power. However, almost all the brilliant and talented ones have long left BN or were never part of the defective and deficient government.

SKY BLUE, WHITE & RED constitute the colors of Parti KeADILan Rakyat (PKR). The contrast between the light pastel blue of PKR and the dark blue of BN is like the difference between the clear sky of freedom - and the interior of a policeman's pants. The red represents Parti Rakyat Malaysia which formally merged with Parti KeADILan Nasional on 5 July 2002. Parti Rakyat means the People's Party, suggesting a strong leaning towards socialist ideals. Keadilan means Justice - so together PKR represents Social Justice.

The blue and green fields of PKR and PAS appear to complement each other reasonably well. But red and green are either complementary or conflicting colors, hence the friction and frequent tensions that arise between the secular DAP and the religious PAS.

Now if the red and green polarities could learn to appreciate the workings of the chromatic spectrum, they would quickly discover that their differences are merely superficial. No deeper than the skin and tattoos of cultural imprints, really.

I never get tired of seeing photos of PAS spiritual leader Tuan Guru Nik Aziz and DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang sitting together at ceramahs. Ever since the Permatang Pauh by-election in August 2008 these two seem to have become firm friends. The Fearless General and the Foxy Ustaz: what a formidable partnership they form when they work together, united by a common dream we all share...

The dream of a glorious New Dawn for Malaysia where all the colors of Pakatan Rakyat combine to form a perfect picture of loving abundance for everyone under the sun. PAS can be the moral foundation, representing the aspirations of the grassroots and the humble folk who live close to the earth. PKR, a party founded on social justice - and the rejection of cruelty, inhumanity and injustice - can ensure that democratic rights and universal principles of freedom and truth are well defended against the power-hungry. And DAP, with its ambition to see the nation's wealth fairly distributed and wisely managed, will be the engine that thrusts Malaysia boldly into the future.

So hang in there, folks! Don't get up and leave just because the band hit a couple of wrong notes. The REAL party hasn't even begun...

[First published 3 July 2009]

Happy Birthday, Teoh Beng Hock ~ Happy Nomination Day, Malaysia!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:44:00 +0000

Teoh Er Jia, born 22 February 2010

Today, 20 April, is Teoh Beng Hock's birthday and if he were alive today, he would be happily celebrating his 34th birthday with his wife and 3 year old son, Teoh Er Jia. But his life was rudely and violently snatched away from him under dark and suspicious circumstances. We need to know the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. [Source: Malaysia For All]

Lim Kit Siang with Beng Hock's baby

Today also happens to be Nomination Day for Malaysia's 13th general election. On 5 May 2013, voters will decide who they wish to form the next government - which we pray will be the People's Government. The results of GE13 will be known after midnight, that is 6 May 2013 - which, incidentally, marks the day Altantuya Shaariibuu was born. Isn't it ironic that the fate of those responsible for the murders of Teoh Beng Hock and Altantuya Shaariibuu will be decided between these two birthdays?

Bruce Lee in 'Justice for Teoh Beng Hock!'

Brilliantly edited and scripted series from Nasi Lemak Productions. A big bravo to those involved in this excellent project. Time to wake up and reclaim your beloved land from cruel, arrogant, greedy, dishonest, incompetent, braindead and heartless tyrants!

Additional Reading

A Heartfelt Tribute to Teoh Beng Hock

Haunted by the Specter of Teoh Beng Hock

Blood On Their Hands

English Translation of Mystery Letter from

Anonymous MACC Officers

Absolutely fascinating... the behavior of a hecatonicosachoron in 4D/3D space!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 19:13:00 +0000

[Source: American Kabuki: A CELESTIAL MYSTERY SOLVED ~ The Secret to an Unknown Human Power by GW Hardin]

Hecatonicosachoron rotating in 3 Dimensions

Hecatonicosachoron inner cell rotation in 3 dimensions

PARALLEL LIVES REVISITED ~ AND HEALED!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:21:00 +0000

MANY TIMES I’ve experimented with breathing exercises - only to find that, like Bill Clinton, I had trouble inhaling. Years ago when I was practising pranayama, a yogic breath control technique, I had to give up after a few weeks because my nostrils kept getting blocked.

Recently I came across a powerful Spherical Breathing Technique to activate the Light Body (taught by Drunvalo Melchizedek in his ‘Flower of Life’ Seminars): once again I was frustrated by the difficulty I had trying to breathe rhythmically. How was I ever going to master the didgeridoo - not to mention quickening my Merkaba vehicle of Ascension (by which means one may achieve full mobility through all the dimensions)?

And not too long ago a holistic healer friend had given me a deep massage, after which she had diagnosed a congestion in my diaphragm area possibly linked to a "past life" trauma. So you can understand why I was very keen to see if Pritamo* could help. She was staying at a mutual friend’s apartment, having just arrived from her native Italy via Pune, India - where she had trained for years at the Osho International Academy of Healing Arts.

Pritamo showed me a computer-generated leaflet listing the various therapies she was practising, and my attention was instantly drawn to a section headed: “HYPNOSIS FOR SELF-HEALING - a soft technique that induces deep relaxation, so that you can access your own unconscious.” Among the benefits of this particular therapy, Pritamo mentioned “exploring and healing past lives to improve this present life.”

Ha! This was precisely what I had been seeking for some time. Being the “new healer in town” Pritamo was only too willing to barter a 90-minute session for a fair report to anyone interested. Not that I minded paying the RM90 (US$25) fee, which I thought totally reasonable.

The next morning I showed up, prepared for anything. Pritamo said we would begin with a 45-minute Chakra Breathing exercise to open up and relax my cellular and etheric bodies. The vigorous process would also serve to clear my memory circuits of last week’s or last year’s debris. She put on a cassette and a quiet, authoritative voice requested that I focus attention on my Root Chakra while hyperventilating through the mouth.

"Don’t be inhibited," Pritamo advised, "and make as much noise as you like. Just keep your feet comfortably apart and grounded, freeing the rest of your body to move with the energy currents."

The dervish-like rhythms and calm, friendly voice guided me through each Chakra, as Pritamo accompanied me in the exercise. At the end of 45 minutes we had completed three Chakra Breathing cycles. I felt totally relaxed, even euphoric, open to and trusting of whatever would happen next.

After a short rest Pritamo settled me comfortably on a mattress, and proceeded to ease me into even deeper relaxation with her voice. In effect she guided me through a visualization wherein I “saw” myself lying peacefully in a pleasant meadow. Soon, she suggested, a beautiful, ethereal Guide will appear and beckon me to follow her on a journey down the corridors of incarnate time...

THROUGH A GOLDEN ARCHWAY we strolled, my Angelic Guide and I, along a paved path that stretched on indefinitely ahead. I could hear Pritamo’s gentle, accented voice, saying: “Keep walking until something appears, then pause and let the image form more clearly. Trust that it will have a special message for you, to help you accept and release whatever feelings arise.” Or something to that effect.

Without any effort the first image shifted into focus: I was looking at a very old and frustrated English gentleman, bent over in his rocking chair, experiencing the last moments of his life. A dull, heavy sensation hung over his chest: was it bronchial congestion? Or sheer heavy-heartedness, the fatigue of a soul worn out by struggle? I could feel his profound bitterness and pain, his terrible sense of despair and futility; above all, his sense of utter failure and isolation.

Details flitted in and out of my mind’s purview: he had been a swashbuckling, dashing Colonial Officer in British Malaya, a veritable Tuan in every respect. He had lived like a king and felt like a mythical hero. But then something had gone very wrong, and he found himself recalled to England in his prime: end of illustrious career, end of glorious freedom and unfettered adventure. He was treated with coldblooded, efficient formality and forced to retire with a handsome pension.

He could write his memoirs - and he did, but it left him dissatisfied and hollow. He had been so close to some incredible breakthrough... so very close to cracking the Mystery of the Ages and returning home in triumph, exalted and divine. His domestic life was a tragic farce. Friends and family had drifted further and further away - till at this final hour he felt completely bereft of warmth or hope or even the faintest memory of happiness. True, he had been a stalwart member of a Masonic Lodge - a lot of good that did him now. Nothing had value or meaning, nothing whatsoever, not even the prospect of oblivion.

My chest was heaving with the effort of dying. My angel gently put her hand in mine and led me further down the corridor of ghostly memories.

“Where are you now?” I heard Pritamo as from a great distance. “What do you see?”

“I’m a little girl of three or four. European, I think. Alone in a room, holding a toy. No one knows my thoughts. I am dying of a disease, I don’t know what. Asthma? Tuberculosis? There’s a light in my heart region. I feel totally calm and self-contained. Not sad, no self-pity. I know things other people don’t. I know I shall soon be free again, there’s great power and wisdom in my spirit self...”

My angelic guide and I move on, leaving the little girl with her dreamy thoughts and her very brief span on earth.

I see a white-haired, portly gentleman at the kitchen table, puffing on his pipe. Retired merchant, Italian, living somewhere in Greece. He has outlived his wife, and two of his five children. The others are living far abroad. He isn’t sad or afraid of death, which he knows is approaching very soon. He’s had a good life, good friends, good meals, and satisfactory family bonds. But somehow he feels cheated, disillusioned, abandoned by God. His private life as a mystic and scholar is known only to his colleagues in a secret fraternity. He has seen the group splinter into bitter factions, torn asunder by petty ambitions and betrayals. All the lofty principles of the ancient creed, the solemn oaths of loyal and faithful service to humanity... what a load of crap!

Is there hope for human beings on this earth? Probably not, but what the hell, que sera, sera and so on. Still, it’s very hurtful that life can play such dirty tricks on us benighted souls. What is left? Not much. A favorite pipe, dusty shelves of once so-precious books in a concealed library no one will inherit. Hello, Big G... where the hell are YOU?. He sighs and feels a black hole where his heart once was.

MY HEART! I can feel Pritamo’s energy soothing my etheric body as my chest convulses into a tight knot. Heart attack? Can’t breathe. A sour taste... no, a bilious, horrid, shattering sense of deep betrayal and broken dreams. I’m seated on my throne, clutching my belly in acute agony.

They have poisoned me. How? It can’t be... impossible! My queen, could she...? NO! Death, take me swiftly upon thy wings... I can see the carved pillars of my palace, barely a few years old, the patterns on the polished tiles. Pharaoh of the New Aeon, you have failed in your mission. What can save us now? Ha, I’m out of the crumpled fleshly body in my ka - my etheric double - floating above the earth, where my vision penetrates the future... please, 0 Great Ones, spare me this dreary sight! The darkness stretches before me without end: age upon age of tragedy and horror, a ceaseless nightmare of evil piled on evil. Massacres, famines, plagues, catastrophe... no light at the tunnel’s end! Spare me this accursed foresight... WHY? WHY?? WHY???

My ka has swooned with the impact of the ugly truth revealed: no Golden Dawn for humanity, not yet, not for a very, very, very long time. Hundreds, possibly thousands of years from now, perhaps... but two golden, shining beings have come to take me to a distant sanctuary, where my soul can heal. This place is not on planet Earth.

MY EYES SNAP OPEN in surprise. Pritamo waves her hands over my face, whispering that I should keep my eyes closed for a while longer - as my angelic guide takes me back along the corridor, past the events shown before, through the golden archway, and back into the green, sunny meadow where my physical body lies.

“Count after me,” Pritamo murmurs, “Ten-a, nine-a, eight-a, seven-a, six-a...” By the time I get to “one” she’s already up and out the door. “You take-a your time-a,” she says. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Thank you, Pritamo,” I say quietly, as we give each other a long, strong hug. The healing is accomplished. But it may take some time to filter through the molecular levels of my being.

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*The name Pritamo means 'Beloved.' Pritamo is a healer and therapist at the Osho Ashram in Pune, India.

NOTE: I prefer the term "parallel lives" to "past lives" since the linearity of time is essentially illusory. I'm more inclined to view "flashbacks" and "flashforwards" as crosstalk from different time-tracks occurring simultaneously and accessible from the core of one's being.

[First published in the New Straits Times, July 9, 1996]

Where Malaysia is headed (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 18:00:00 +0000

Somebody pointedly asked a few days ago: WHERE IS MALAYSIA HEADING? My response is: if Umno/BN continue to hog the political stage (not to mention the public purse and the police force), we're headed straight for unmitigated disaster.

Rather than waste more energy whacking those scaly-skinned troglodytes (or tempurung dwellers) who cling like overfed, bloated ticks to power, I decided to start jotting down my thoughts on where I'd like to see this country headed.

It's going to be a many-layered, multidimensional, non-linear exercise in visionary thinking and there's no way I can cover sufficient ground with just one blogpost. So I'll make this the first of a series, to be written and uploaded as and when inspiration strikes. In between I shall be posting other material, including other people's work, whenever I stumble upon something that says more or less what's on my mind.

The most essential human quality that's grotesquely lacking in Malaysia appears to be HONESTY.

We would like our public servants to be honest - whether they happen to be a minister, an office clerk, or just a police constable. But how honest are we? I mean, really...

I have dear friends who are for the most part truly decent folk and as honest as humanly possible - yet they conceal trivial things from their parents.

One, for instance, has never smoked in front of his parents - though he's been a regular smoker for more than 40 years. Other friends never once revealed their own sexual preferences to their parents for fear of shocking them. So the old folks died wondering why their offspring never reproduced.

A few other friends confessed that their parents don't know they're actually cohabiting with their boyfriends. I had a friend once who dated a guy for five years before finding out the fellow was already married with 3 or 4 kids. She immediately ditched him and married a man of dubious character who already had two or three other wives - but that's a whole different story.

I've made a lifelong study of why humans become dishonest and the conclusion I've reached is extremely straightforward:

Humans lie mostly to avoid punishment - or to save others from pain.

The only way we can unlearn this deeply ingrained survival mechanism is to disinvent the punitive god who punishes the disobedient (or mutinous) and rewards the docile (or hypocritical).

Imagine, instead, a completely simpatico deity who's more like a trusted confidant(e). One who is totally aware of your little quirks and shortcomings - and loves you all the same without harsh judgment. Such an intimate friend can be relied upon to stick with you through thick and thin. However, if you abuse this trust by doing something terribly stupid and shortsighted - let's say you cheat this dear friend or tell ugly untruths about him or her - the only consequence would be the loss, temporary or permanent, of your cherished friendship, and that would be punishment enough.

There are specific instances when being honest is countersurvival and universal laws are supended: for instance, if you're traveling in a train and bandits come aboard to rob the passengers. You wouldn't be labeled "dishonest" if you failed to hand over the diamonds hidden inside your boots. Nor would you be required to reveal to the bandits that you just saw your traveling companion stuff a thick wad of currency notes inside her brassiere.

In effect, the more accommodating our fellow humans become, the more likely we are to become truly honest.

Here are some imaginary scenarios that graphically illustrate the tremendous benefits of rejecting and disabling the punitive deity program hardwired in our DNA from countless generations of hand-me-down erroneous data.

Let's say your 16-year-old daughter goes to a friend's birthday party. She's supposed to come home before midnight but doesn't show up till way past two in the morning. As a worried father, the programmed response would be to interrogate her sternly and demand to know where she has been and what she has been doing and with whom. What if your daughter is innately honest and simply says: "I know I was supposed to get back at midnight, dad, I'm sorry to be so late. But I met a really goodlooking guy named Joe, he's about 20, and he suggested I go for a drive in his new car. We had such a great time talking and looking at the stars from the hilltop, neither of us remembered to look at our watches. Suddenly it was 2:00AM and he drove like the wind to deliver me safely back to my doorstep. He told me to apologize to my parents on his behalf for bringing me home so late, and he would really like to take me out again next Friday."

An enlightened father would take a deep breath, sigh, and smile. He might mutter: "Well, you got me really worried, you know. Next time you do something like this, at least send me an SMS before turning off your cellphone!" It's always a shock to realize your baby has grown up, and is ready to do adult things.

However, an unenlightened father would slap his daughter around and threaten her with the wrath of god, thereby forcing her to become a compulsive liar and a sneak. You can bet your last dollar all the lying politicians in our midst had fathers who were in the habit of slapping, caning or humiliating them for every minor transgression.

Let's see how problems easily resolve themselves as soon as HONESTY is brought to bear on the issue...

The biggest problem I can think of right now is that Malaysia is saddled with a crime minister instead of a prime minister.

Allow me to take on for a moment the role of God (I've had lots of practice and it comes natural to me). One morning, the crime minister gets up after a sleepless night in a cold sweat and decides to pray to me. Because I can sense he is sincere in pleading for some sound advice, I decide to manifest in human form in his bedroom.

The crime minister is stunned. "Dear G-g-g-god," he stutters. "Forgive me, please forgive me for never having actually believed in you... till NOW!"

"It's okay, Pink Lips, you aren't the only one!" I chuckle benignly, patting him on his bald pate. "If I had a dollar for every human who only pretends to believe in me, I'd be billionaire several times over. Not that I'd know what to do with all that cash."

The crime minister is silent and contrite. Obviously, he's unaccustomed to conversing with God.

"So... what's the problem, kiddo?" I enquire gently, though I already know what's troubling the poor rascal.

"I-I-I... I've been a very b=b-b-bad boy," he begins. "Done so many terrible things. I know I'm not f-f-f-fit to be leader of this country...."

"Well, it's a good start you're admitting to this. Where's that witchy wife of yours?"

"Oh, er... she's... she's in the bathroom.... stomach upset... be out in a minute, I think."

"Well, let's wait for her," I suggest, "since the worst of your really serious problems began when you met and mated with her."

The crime minister's wife emerges from the bathroom and screams.

"Who the hell is that?" she quizzes her trembling spouse more in anger than in shock.

"Er... er... you won't believe this, honey... but it's God... it's really God! I asked for help... but didn't expect him to show up so soon!"

"We don't need his help!" the witchy wife shrieks. "Tell him to leave at once or we'll get Musa to deal with him!"

"I don't know how he can live with someone as uncouth as you," I say quietly.

"Listen, you!" the witch shrills, approaching me with her chubby arms akimbo.

"Shut the fuck up, bitch, and plonk your fat arse on the bed... right now!" I order.

Her eyes widen in horror and for a moment she is struck dumb. Whimpering audibly, she obeys, casting an anxious glance at her husband who, at this moment, does not at all resemble a real crime minister. Indeed, he looks just like a fat choir boy who's been caught wanking behind the altar.

[to be continued...]

Time to boot out BN's Robber Barons! "Ketuanan Rakyat" ~ it's now or never!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 15:11:00 +0000

Money, sexuality, illumination and the double helix (reprise)

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 19:45:00 +0000

The dollar sign is indeed a subtle variation on the caduceus which can be traced right back to Sumerian images of Enki, whose clan symbol was the serpent (probably denoting his mother's indigenous Snake lineage).

Enki, for those as yet unacquainted with the Anunnaki pantheon, was a master scientist-wizard whose son, Ningishzidda (better known as the Egyptian god Thoth), grew up to be among the greatest healer-scientist-wizards in history. The caduceus reappears in connection with Hermes Trismegistos, the Greek incarnation of Thoth, who initiated Pythagoras into the Mysteries. The caduceus was adopted by the Hermeticists as their emblem, indicating spiritual descent from Enki.

Hippocrates (possibly a student of Pythagoras, have yet to check on this) is called the Father of Medicine - and his symbol was the caduceus. All doctors were obliged to take the Hippocratic oath (don't know if they still do so today), which explains why the Medical Association also has the caduceus as its emblem.

The serpent represents not just an ancient tradition of scientific wisdom originating on earth from Enki's work as a geneticist (it was Enki who engineered the Adamic race with a little bit of help from Ninhursag, his feisty medical officer and half-sister). There is thus the distinct possibility that the entwined serpents on the caduceus (yes, there are usually two) symbolize the double helix of our DNA.

Kundalini - that mysterious bioelectrical force that supposedly surges through our chakras along the spine - has traditionally been depicted as a coiled serpent at the base of the spine. When awakened, the serpent uncoils towards the crown chakra, facilitating enlightenment, It is therefore highly likely that the early Illuminati (Enlightened Ones) revered the image of the serpent(s) entwined around the tree (or spine). As in the Tolkien mythology, the Illumined Ones (aka Istari or Jedi, guardians of cosmic wisdom) were not immune to hubris, hence the occasional "fall from Grace" that produced renegade Illuminati (like Saruman or Annakin Skywalker). It is unfortunate that in our time, being labeled an Illuminatus is not necessarily a compliment.

Indeed, everyone assumes you're behind the New World Order Bushit!(This explains the moral ambiguity of secret mystical orders like the Templars, Freemasons, and so on. David Icke, for one, doesn't conceal his intense mistrust of the Great White Brotherhood and all the Ascended Masters - this is simply because the ones involved with manipulating human evolution are identified as the Archons of Destiny, what Susan Ferguson calls the Phantasmal Hierarchy in her 'Inanna' books.)

Tree of Knowledge by Martina Hoffman

Tantalizingly, the caduceus image is contained in the story of Adam and Eve as the Serpent on the Tree, representing the potential of kundalini arousal, which would result in tantric consciousness - spiritual adulthood, autonomy from the dictates of a paternalistic deity. (There are actually TWO trees - one called the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, the other the Tree of Immortal Life.)

It's easy to see why the caduceus was modified into the dollar sign - after all, money is a universal symbol of energy, it's a form of sexual currency or current - it triggers activity, propels industry, and secures material needs. Hence the money-fixation of our sexually-repressed species - which shows the many facets of activated kundalini, as creative as well as procreative impulses. When we lust after money, it's really the sublimation of an insatiable desire to fuck and be fucked. Perhaps that's why sexual abstinence is often linked with voluntary poverty.

Mr Kundalini by Nathan Hopkins

Modern notions of sexuality are inextricably linked with money. Pornstars don't do it so much for fun as for profit. Me, I'm old-fashioned and prefer to do it for fun. How about it, sexy, doing anything this weekend?

[From an email posted 2 March 2003 on the Magick River Network, first published 17 June 2012]

A VULTURE NAMED MAHATHIR (revisited)

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:33:00 +0000

Statement from Dr Munawar Anees posted on The Might Of The Pen, October 19, 2008...

As a student I knew of the horrors of the Holocaust and other human tragedies, but merely as a distant thunder: the violation of human rights and crimes against humanity were only an abstract notion.

That was all fated to change with my arrest under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) of Malaysia, which allows for indefinite detention without trial. My crime? I had known Anwar Ibrahim, the deputy prime minister and finance minister of Malaysia, as a close personal friend for many years. We shared and strove for a vision of life firmly rooted in human dignity. We struggled for building an intellectual and political milieu for free expression. Together, we subscribed to the idea of economic prosperity, gender and racial equality and a civil society.

Alas, the Malaysian dictator, Mahathir, under the growing burden of corruption and cronyism, conspired to halt the march of freedom. In order to build his fraudulent case against Anwar, Mahathir himself ordered my arrest.

My kidnapping and detention by the infamous Malaysian Special Branch taught me how it feels to be forcibly separated from one’s wife and children. How it feels to be searched and seized, disallowed to make phone calls, handcuffed, blindfolded, stripped naked, driven in an animal cage, shaven bald, endlessly interrogated, humiliated, drugged, deprived of sleep, physically abused. What it’s like to be threatened, blackmailed, tormented by police lawyers, brutalized to make a totally false confession, hospitalized for a consequent heart ailment, and treated as a psychiatric patient with symptoms of Stockholm syndrome.

Barely surviving on a meager diet of rancid rice and chicken along with 12 medicines a day, I spent nearly four months handcuffed around the clock to my hospital bed, under the watchful eyes of the prison guards.

Thereafter, my ability to speak, read and write took a considerable time to show signs of recovery. Short-term memory lapses were frequent. I existed in a fluid state in which suicidal tendencies, depression and despair were punctuated by fits of rage and indignation.

Weekly visits of less than an hour by my wife, Nadia, with our young children — Aisha and Omran — were my only contact with the outside world and the only inspiration to live on.

In collusion with the lawyer appointed on my behalf by the police, the Malaysian authorities refused the legal assistance of my choice, coercing me not to mount an appeal against the court verdict and threatening me with greater punishment under new charges if I didn’t co-operate.

Simultaneously, Nadia constantly endured police harassment, wiretapping and disruption of our e-mail and bank accounts. Some of our friends were met with the same fate and were compelled to abandon us when we needed them most.

But, in attempting to scare off and alienate my friends, how terribly mistaken were Malaysian autocrats in aping gross Gestapo tactics. How they underestimated the temper of freedom in so many places around the world, above all among friends in the West.

Floodgates of human compassion were opened when the futurist author Alvin Toffler, who Mahathir asked to advise him on a pet high-technology project, sent a message of protest to the Malaysian leader within 72 hours of my capture. In a major interview with the Western press, Mahathir even felt it necessary to make assurances — unfulfilled, of course — about my well being.

With every passing day, the rising tide of concern for my plight seemed to personify the words of Elie Wiesel:

“Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor. Never the victim. Never the tormented.”

Friends and strangers alike took a stand and support began to mushroom everywhere. Nadia related to me in the hospital how Amnesty International had declared me a “prisoner of conscience,” and how Pen International adopted me as a “writer in prison.” Against all odds, two prominent Malaysian lawyers, Manjeet Singh Dhillon and Balwant Singh Siddhu, offered their services unconditionally. To top it all, an international coalition — Friends of Dr. Anees — came into existence in defence of my rights. The core group of Naseer Ahmad, Baseer Hai, Safir Rammah, Jamal Mubarak, Anees Ahmad and Naeem Siddiqui mounted a media campaign with phenomenal success.

What touched my heart was that the person, Kamal Mubarak, who set up the Web site had never met me in person. From the depths of my confinement, I could see the magic of human compassion had begun to defeat oppression.

The pinnacle was reached after my release in the warm hug laced with watery eyes of an Amnesty friend in Toronto, Margaret John, who witnessed a pledge of solidarity between me and Devan Nair, the former president of Singapore, for we had come to share a similar fate.

My victimization at the hands of Mahathir’s “Asian values” has transformed me in another way. All my adult life, like so many in the Muslim world, I have suspected under every nook and cranny some conspiracy by the West to keep us down. Yet, in this seminal experience of my life, my friends in the West succeeded in saving me, while Mahathir, a Muslim, did everything to destroy me. And he is trying to do the same to Anwar again through his obliging courts on totally fabricated charges.

Mahathir has demonstrated that, though a proclaimed Muslim, his heart is blind to compassion. Tyranny is the hallmark of his bankrupt concept of “Asian values.”

My tragedy, and that of my friend Anwar, ought to make our fellow Muslims think very hard when they ponder the West and its role in the world. As we set out to shape our collective destiny in the 21st century, will the values of Mahathir or Jefferson serve us best? Mahathir himself made that choice for me. Sic semper tyrannis.*

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* Sic semper tyrannis is a Latin phrase meaning "thus, ever (or always), to tyrants." It is sometimes mistranslated as "Death to tyrants." The phrase is a shortened version of Sic semper evello mortem Tyrannis, which translated means "Thus always death comes to tyrants." (Wikipedia)

[First published 20 October 2008]

Slavery and the Eight Veils ~ by Don Harkins (revisited)

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 14:10:00 +0000

Over the last several years I have evolved and discarded several theories in an attempt to explain why it is that most people cannot see truth - even when it smacks them in the face. Those of us who can see "the conspiracy" have participated in countless conversations amongst ourselves that address the frustration of most peoples' inability to comprehend the extremely well-documented arguments which we use to describe the process of our collective enslavement and exploitation. The most common explanation to be arrived at is that most people just "don't want to see" what is really going on.

Extremely evil men and women who make up the world's power-elite have cleverly cultivated a virtual pasture so grass green that few people seldom, if ever, bother to look up from where they are grazing long enough to notice the brightly colored tags stapled to their ears.

The same people who cannot see their enslavement for the pasture grass have a tendency to view as insane "conspiracy theorists" those of us who can see the past the farm and into the parlor of his feudal lordship's castle.

Finally, I understand why.

It's not that those who don't see that their freedom is vanishing under the leadership of the power-elite "don't want to see it" - they simply can't see what is happening to them because of the unpierced veils that block their view.

All human endeavors are a filtration process. Sports is one of the best examples. We play specific sports until we get kicked off the playground. The pro athletes we pay big bucks to watch just never got kicked off the playground. Where millions of kids play little league each spring, they are filtered out until there are about 50 guys who go to the World Series in October.

Behind the first veil: There are over seven billion people on the planet. Most of them live and die without having seriously contemplated anything other than what it takes to keep their lives together. Ninety percent of all humanity will live and die without having pierced the first veil.

The first veil: Ten percent of us will pierce the first veil and find the world of politics. We will vote, be active and have an opinion. Our opinions are shaped by the physical world around us; we have a tendency to accept that government officials, network media personalities and other "experts" are voices of authority. Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die without having pierced the second veil.

The second veil: Ten percent of us will pierce the second veil to explore the world of history, the relationship between man and government and the meaning of self-government through constitutional and common law. Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die without having pierced the third veil.

The third veil: Ten percent of us will pierce the third veil to find that the resources of the world, including people, are controlled by extremely wealthy and powerful families whose incorporated old world assets have, with modern extortion strategies, become the foundation upon which the world's economy is currently indebted. Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die without having pierced the fourth veil.

The fourth veil: Ten percent of us will pierce the fourth veil to discover the Illuminati, Freemasonry and the other secret societies. These societies use symbols and perform ceremonies that perpetuate the generational transfers of arcane knowledge that is used to keep the ordinary people in political, economic and spiritual bondage to the oldest bloodlines on earth. Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die without having pierced the fifth veil.

The fifth veil: Ten percent of us will pierce the fifth veil to learn that the secret societies are so far advanced technologically that time travel and interstellar communications have no boundaries and controlling the actions of people is what their members do as offhandedly as we tell our children when they must go to bed. Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die without having pierced the sixth veil.

The sixth veil: Ten percent of us will pierce the sixth veil where the dragons and lizards and aliens we thought were the fictional monsters of childhood literature are real and are the controlling forces behind the secret societies. Ninety percent of the people in this group will live and die without piercing the seventh veil.

The seventh veil: I do not know what is behind the seventh veil. I think it is where your soul is evolved to the point you can exist on earth and be the man Gandhi was, or the woman Peace Pilgrim was - people so enlightened they brighten the world around them no matter what.

The eighth veil? Piercing the eighth veil probably reveals God and the pure energy that is the life force in all living things - which are, I think, one and the same.

If my math is accurate there are only about 70,000 people on the planet who have pierced the sixth veil. The irony here is too incredible: Those who are stuck behind veils one through five have little choice but to view the people who have pierced the veils beyond them as insane. With each veil pierced, exponentially shrinking numbers of increasingly enlightened people are deemed insane by exponentially increasing masses of decreasingly enlightened people.

Adding to the irony, the harder a "sixth or better veiler" tries to explain what he is able to see to those who can't, the more insane he appears to them.

Our enemy, the state

Behind the first two veils we find the great majority of people on the planet. They are tools of the state: Second veilers are the gullible voters whose ignorance justify the actions of politicians who send first veilers off to die in foreign lands as cannon fodder -- their combined stations in life are to believe that the self-serving machinations of the power-elite are matters of national security worth dying for.

Third, fourth, fifth and sixth veilers are of increasing liability to the state because of their decreasing ability to be used as tools to consolidate power and wealth of the many into the hands of the power-elite. It is common for these people to sacrifice more of their relationships with friends and family, their professional careers and personal freedom with each veil they pierce.

Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945), author of Our Enemy, the State (1935), explained what happens to those who find the seventh and eighth veils: "What was the best that the state could find to do with an actual Socrates and an actual Jesus when it had them? Merely to poison one and crucify the other, for no reason but that they were too intolerably embarrassing to be allowed to live any longer."

Conclusions

And so now we know that it's not that our countrymen are so committed to their lives that, "they don't want to see," the mechanisms of their enslavement and exploitation. They simply "can't see" it as surely as I cannot see what's on the other side of a closed curtain.

The purpose of this essay is threefold:

1. To help the handful of people in the latter veils to understand why the masses have little choice but to interpret their clarity as insanity;

2. To help people behind the first two veils understand that living, breathing and thinking are just the beginning and;

3. Show people that the greatest adventure of our life is behind the next veil because that is just one less veil between ourselves and God.

© The Idaho Observer

[First published on this blog 4 May 2007]

Two images from Easter 2013....

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 18:22:00 +0000

La Dompna del Aquae by Andrew Jones.

The expectant Mary Magdalene arriving in Provence, AD 44

Yeshua Panthera: fusion of body, mind and soul

Interviewed about mixed marriages for a children's book...

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 18:30:00 +0000

From my email archives, a request from Jim Holmes - author of a children's book on "mixed marriages" - for an interview that may never have seen the light of day...

Anoora, Ahau & Antares in Tanjong Malim, 1998

----- Original Message -----
From: jim@jimholmes.co.uk
Date: Tuesday, February 4, 2003 9:08 pm
Subject: Re: A Children's Book.

Dear Antares,

Here are the questions, think 12-year-olds. Can I call you by your old name, or should I call you Antares?

Antares applies as it has better exchange value.

There are no guarantees that the interview will be used, as we have 27 out of a possible requirement of 21.

Mine are not the kind of answers that questionnaires seek - not usually - but we'll give it a go.

1. What are your own ethnic roots, and what are those of your partner?

I was born to Chinese parents, but describe myself as primarily human. Anoora is from the indigenous Temuan tribe who live in the Malaysian rainforest.

2. Most people find a partner or get married within their own ethnic group, are there any social barriers to crossing ethnic boundaries in Malaysia?

The usual ones - but these barriers are beginning to disappear as TV brings more of the world into people's living rooms.

3. Do people think it strange that you did not find a partner from your own ethnic background? Does it make life difficult at times?

The raised eyebrows were not because I married outside my tribe - but because I wed someone perceived as socially inferior. My own mother, when shown a photo of Anoora, asked whose maid she was.

4. Can you communicate easily by language and do you find that your partner has different ideals and a differing set of social norms from your own?

Communication of abstract ideas is not even attempted, but feelings are easily understood and require no verbal language. Anoora is in the process of acquiring her own view of what or who she is. When I met her she was only a conduit for tribal customs and beliefs. Our worldviews couldn't be more different - like a dialogue between earth and sky.

5. Has being in a mixed marriage/relationship changed your way of looking at the world?

My way of looking at the world was already different from the norm. Living with Anoora has changed my way of looking at myself.

6. Do you think that mixing the races is one possible way forward for Malaysia?

There is a natural attraction between people of different skin color and perspectives. Over time I believe that at least one-third of humanity will be an exotic genetic mix.
However, in Malaysia, Islam is a bit of a barrier to intermarriage. Not many would willingly subject themselves to compulsory change of belief system, even for love. This is a pity, as intermarriage is perhaps the most effective way to outgrow ethnic prejudices that lead to political tension.

Why?

In a multi-ethnic community that views people as individuals rather than as racial stereotypes, the politics of ethnic divide-and-rule would soon become extinct. Diversity would be celebrated, not feared.

Anoora, Antares & Eugenie in August 2009 (photo by Robin Tan)

[Originally published 27 June 2012]

Taib Mahmud, the robber baron extraordinaire, must go!

noreply@blogger.com (Antares) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:23:00 +0000

It has become our moral duty to bring down Taib Mahmud and his ilk.