I have always wondered if the constructing of The Petronas Twin Tower was necessary. Architecturally it is indeed a modern wonder of the world, at a time when Taiwan and India and the UAE were also planning to build the world's tallest structure. Generally the Asian countries were racing to show the industrial west which of them can built the tallest tower although their economy is merely famed as a toothpick capital of the world.
The 1990s was a period of abundance for Malaysia, thanks to a boom in property market which eventually led to a bust when all hell of the Asian capitalist world broke loose through the 1997 Fall of the Baht and the house of cards popularly known as the Tom Yam Effect.
Is the Petronas Twin Tower a symbol of sustainability and does it signify the aspiration of the poor of Malaysia? Or is it a semiotic of megalomania and grandiose the country had to suffer though ultimately; a sign and signifier of totalitarianism Asian styled?
Brings me to this question: for who/whom must architects serve?
Deeper than simple economics lies the question of power and the powerless, and the politics of under- representation. The Americans revolted against the British in the late 1770s under the banner ‘no taxation without representation’, symbolically registering their protest with the Boston Tea Party.
Essentially they revolted against intolerable laws set forth by the British - the 1765 Quartering Act and Stamp Act of 1765, Townshend Act 1967 and Coercive Acts 1774.
In our case, the answer lies in the ideology of Malaysia-style Oriental Despotism. The complex, dynamic, systematic, contradictory, sustaining, and consensual politics of the political-economy of a dependent communal-based capitalist state has made it possible for the use of the ISA to be rationalised and legitimised by arguments that touch merely on the symptoms of the breakdown of public order, rather that the root cause of the order in which the public need to be organised.
Had there been a sound developmentalist agenda from the onset of Independence - an agenda that retards the evolution of a corrupt corporate capitalist pluralist neo-feudalistic neo-colonialist capitalist state - we would have avoided or abandoned the use of the ISA and seen the evolution of a truly civil society that practises politics of inclusion.
To put it in simple words: we have made the wrong historical turn. We have to come back to where we began - back to the drawing board. This is the challenge - how do we undo hyper-modernisation and the politics of mistrust?
We are actually doomed as a nation. We need to get out of this quagmire if we are to save ourselves from total destruction in an age wherein the centre cannot hold, as the poet WB Yeats wrote.
How are we doomed? Why have we come to a point in which the ultimate keris - the ISA - is used to silence the voices asking the government to look into the plight of the oppressed and the desolate? Why is the voice of reason cast aside and force used instead? What might the consequence of this in an age of globalised, high speed, split-second information flow, consumption, and instantaneous revolution?
How do we evolve - or rise form the ashes of destruction brought about by internal contradictions that we have failed to resolve?
By the summer of 1934, the elderly German President, Paul von Hindenburg, lay close to death at his country estate in East Prussia. He had been in failing health for several months, thus giving Adolf Hitler and the Nazis ample opportunity to make plans to capitalize on his demise.
Reich Chancellor Hitler planned to use President Hindenburg's death as an opportunity to seize total power in Germany by elevating himself to the position of Führer, or absolute leader, of the German nation and its people.
On August 2, 1934, at 9 a.m., the long awaited death of 87 year old Hindenburg finally occurred. Within hours, Hitler and the Nazis announced the following law, dated as of August 1...
"The Reich Government has enacted the following law which is hereby promulgated.
Section 1. The office of Reich President will be combined with that of Reich Chancellor. The existing authority of the Reich President will consequently be transferred to the Führer and Reich Chancellor, Adolf Hitler. He will select his deputy. Section 2. This law is effective as of the time of the death of Reich President von Hindenburg."
Following the announcement of this (technically illegal) law, the German Officers' Corps and every individual in the German Army swore a personal oath of allegiance to Hitler.
A nationwide vote (plebiscite) was then scheduled to give the German people a chance to express their approval of Hitler's unprecedented new powers.
Meanwhile, Hindenburg's last will and testament surfaced. Contrary to Hitler's intentions, Hindenburg's last wishes included a desire for a return to a constitutional (Hohenzollern) monarchy. These last wishes were contained in the form of a personal letter from Hindenburg to Hitler.
Hitler simply ignored this and likely destroyed the letter, as it was not published and has never been found.
However, the Nazis did publish Hindenburg's alleged political testament giving an account of his years of service with complimentary references to Hitler. Although it was likely a forgery, it was used as part of the Nazi campaign to get a large "Yes" vote for Hitler in the coming plebiscite.
On August 19, about 95 percent of registered voters in Germany went to the poles and gave Hitler 38 million votes of approval (90 percent of the vote). Thus Adolf Hitler could claim he was Führer of the German nation by direct will of the people. Hitler now wielded absolute power in Germany, beyond that of any previous traditional head of state. He had become, in effect, the law unto himself.
The next day, August 20, mandatory loyalty oaths were introduced throughout the Reich...
"Article 1.
The public officials and the soldiers of the armed forces must take an oath of loyalty on entering service.
Article 2
1. The oath of loyalty of public officials will be:
'I swear: I shall be loyal and obedient to Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Reich and people, respect the laws, and fulfill my official duties conscientiously, so help me God.'
2. The oath of loyalty of the soldiers of the armed forces will be:
'I swear by God this sacred oath: I will render unconditional obedience to Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Reich and people, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and will be ready as a brave soldier to risk my life at any time for this oath.'
Article 3. Officials already in service must swear this oath without delay according to Article 2 number 1."
These oaths were pledged to Hitler personally, not the German state or constitution. And they were taken very seriously by members of the German Officers' Corps with their traditional minded codes of honor, which now elevated obedience to Hitler as a sacred duty and effectively placed the German armed forces in the position of being the personal instrument of Hitler.
(Years later, following the German defeat in World War Two, many German officers unsuccessfully attempted to use the oath as a defense against charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.)
In September, 1934, at the annual Nuremberg Nazi Party rallies, a euphoric Hitler proclaimed, "The German form of life is definitely determined for the next thousand years. The Age of Nerves of the nineteenth century has found its close with us. There will be no revolution in Germany for the next thousand years."
I have always find it a challenging and exciting academic and philosophical task to ponder upon the meaning of various interpretations on how to reach the Creator.
The practices of the Sadhus, the Zen Buddhists, the Voodoo practitioner, the Pagans, and the Scientologists of New York City are amongst those that exemplify some of the varieties of religious rites and rituals. Below is another one as seen in Indonesia, according to the video cataloger:
Genetic engineering has been presented by its proponents as a panacea for many of the ills of current agricultural practices. This is reminiscent of claims made about nuclear technology, that it would produce clean electricity, too cheap to meter.
It is clear however, that this is not a need driven technology, the impetus is profitability not the solving of agricultural problems. GE is a product of the proprietary science, which is driven by Intellectual Property Rights. Proprietary science is bad science it is secretive, not open to criticism, and distorted by the demands of corporate profit.
Currently the genetically engineered (GE) seed market is controlled by the five largest chemical corporations, Aventis (formerly AgrEvo and Rhone Poulenc), Monsanto, Novartis, Du-Pont and Astra-Zeneca. The most common application of GE in agriculture has been the creation of herbicide resistant crops. 71% of the area planted to transgenic seed in 1998 contained the herbicide resistance trait. Through the introduction of a gene conferring resistance, these crops can withstand contact with powerful broad-spectrum herbicides that will kill other plants.
Chemical companies have manufactured crops tolerant to their own herbicides, such as Monsanto’s "Roundup Ready" (glyphosate resistant) crops and AgrEvo’s "Liberty Link" (resistant to glufosinate ammonium). By allowing the application of higher dosages of herbicide on a wider range of crops at any time in the growing season, GE will increase applications of and residue levels in food.
Despite industry claims of the safety of these modern herbicides, laboratory tests on glyphosate have found it causes genetic damage to human blood cells, is carcinogenous and causes adverse effects on reproduction. The US Environmental Protection Agency describes glyphosate as "extremely persistant". Aventis claims it’s glufosinate is environmentally benign because it is derived from a fungi molecule. Glufosinate is acutely toxic, especially to the nervous system. The use of glufosinate is expected to increase rapidly in the near future due to the marketing of GE resistant crops.
Total weed removal caused by the use of broad-spectrum herbicides on resistant crops will have adverse ecological effects. Weed diversity in and around crop fields has been documented to play important ecological roles such as enhancement of biological insect pest control, better soil cover reducing erosion, attracting beneficial insects and food for birds and small mammals.
Insidiously, the industry has tried to promote GE as a solution to world hunger, a tactic that has been likened to the blackmailing of consumers. Hunger is caused by inequalities in purchasing power and the lack of access to land rather than a global shortage of food. The promotion of GE crops in the poor nations of the south will exacerbate problems caused by the introduction of chemical industrial agriculture.
A statement by the delegates of all African countries (except South Africa) participating in the 5th extraordinary session of the Commission on Genetic Resources stated. "We...strongly object that the image of the poor and hungry from our countries is being used by giant multinational corporations to push a technology that is neither safe, environmentally friendly, nor economically beneficial to us... on the contrary, we think it will destroy the diversity, the local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural systems that our farmers have developed for millennia and that it will undermine our ability to feed ourselves."
Genetic engineering is not essentially the same process as conventional breeding. GE is totally new and allows for gene combinations that could not arise through clonal or reproduction based breeding. By creating different crops each bearing the same genetic sequences, GE will lead to a further loss of genetic diversity in crop species.
There is inherent uncertainty involved in the practice of GE. Geneticists cannot predict what disturbance will be caused by the introduction of a foreign gene into an organism. The inaccuracy of techniques for adding genes means that the new genes may end up anywhere in the genetic code. There is very little understanding of the complex interactions between genes and many examples of unpredictable consequences.
There are many serious dangers to ecosystems posed by GE crops. The genetic pollution caused when the new genes and combinations of genes created by the bio-engineers escape into the environment will be impossible to recall or contain. This pollution will spread, replicate and recombine creating totally unpredictable effects.
Foreign gene sequences will inevitably pass into conventional crops and populations of wild relatives of crop species through cross-pollination. With herbicide resistant crops this threatens the creation of multiple resistance to the most common herbicides in weeds and volunteers. GE plants designed to have competitive advantages could become a weed problem in themselves.
The novel genes will also be taken up by soil bacteria, that taken up and exchange genetic material. This means that even GE plants that do not release pollen can still spread genetic pollution. There is very little understanding about microbial populations, less than 1% of soil bacteria have been characterised to date.
There are many more unanswered questions about the serious risks of GE crops. There are multiple health risks including warnings that artificial gene transfer vectors constructed by genetic engineers could give rise to new pathogens.
Information about genetic engineering on the web
The Rural Advancement Foundation International NGO that does the cutting edge research on biotechnology. www.rafi.org
Ag Biotech Infonet Extensive information, articles on GE from publications worldwide www.biotech-info.net
The Institute of Science in Society Opposing the science behind GE, writings of Dr. Mae-Wan Ho www.i-sis.org
Physicians and Scientists for the Responsible Application of Science and Technology Lots of articles on dangers posed by GE crops and foods www.psrast.org
gm-info.org: new site from Corporate Watch Interactive maps of where GMO's are being produced, handled and sold in England, Scotland and Wales. briefings on GM industry and corporations www.gm-info.or.uk
Genewatch UK Have a huge database of information on GM crops and food. www.genewatch.org
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azlyrahmanThe movie The Matrix might offer possibilities of our fate as spirits in a material world, digitized, reproduced, and left to choose poorly.less than 5 seconds agofrom web
azlyrahmanWas our Universe created and then left alone for Free Will to dictate the course of the beginning and ending of it? Chaos/Complexity Theory?less than 5 seconds agofrom web
azlyrahmanIs the world we inhabit a battleground of Good versus Evil, in which the latter will always triumph and Man is a hopeless being primarily?less than 5 seconds agofrom web
azlyrahmanBeen discussing with my students the nature of Nature and Ultimate Reality and how can we possibly know the truth about human existenceless than 5 seconds agofrom web
azlyrahmanAt the Guggenheim Museum in New York, I was fascinated by Frank Lloyd Wright's 1957 plan for a Greater Baghdad. FLY embodies Jeffersonianism10:19 AM Jul 27thfrom web
azlyrahmanWhen will the advisers to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Council resign? It's the most honorable thing to do.1:47 AM Jul 26thfrom web
azlyrahmanALL Malaysians and the Malay traditional rulers should abolish the Internal Security Act to help the country evolve out of totalitarianism.10:23 PM Jul 25thfrom web
azlyrahmanMan is born free but everywhere he is chains. He mutilates living things and fellow men through "civilizations" he create. Go back to Nature9:55 PM Jul 23rdfrom web
azlyrahmanAbolish all classes in society, all ancient and modern caste systems, all political attempts to reproduce these two. Reconstruct policies...9:52 PM Jul 23rdfrom web
azlyrahmanRace is an illusion, a construct, a convenient tool for political domination, a pseudo-scientific idea, and a path to false nationhood.9:50 PM Jul 23rdfrom web
azlyrahmanPEKIDA and ISA supporters-- you are all wrong. Malaysians want to abolish the ISA so that rights of ALL Malaysians will be protected.9:42 PM Jul 22ndfrom web
azlyrahmanThe younger generation of Malaysians want the ISA abolished. They will vote for a government that will close down Kamunting Camp. Abolish it9:34 PM Jul 22ndfrom web
azlyrahmanMalaysia's Internal Security Act is anti-religious, anti-intellectualism, and anti-human. Abolish it for a more secure and liberal future.9:04 PM Jul 22ndfrom web
azlyrahmanMalaysians, why defend the ISA -- the institutionalization of senility and amnesia? Liberate minds via intellectualism instead. Abolish ISA!9:02 PM Jul 22ndfrom web
Deputy ministers to be summoned for questioning Charles Ramendran
PETALING JAYA (Jan 22, 2009) : Police will call up two deputy ministers who were present at the Serdang Hospital mortuary during an incident where about 50 family members and friends of 22-year-old lock up detainee A.Kugan who died in police custody allegedly forced their way into the place to view his body late on Monday.
Selangor police chief DCP Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar said a police report was lodged with Sepang police by an official at the mortuary who alleged that several dozen people who turned up at the morgue had barged in and wheeled out Kugan's body of of the cold room.
The hospital official also alleged that the people had handled the body and took photos of it.
Khalid said police have classified and are probing the case as trespass with criminal intent and also for criminal intimidation.
He said it was wrong for anyone except for hospital officials to handle the body as a post mortem had yet to be conducted and there is an ongoing probe into the death of the man.
He said the hospital official had called the police and a police officer at the scene permitted only a family member to identify the body at the time of the incident but this was defied and the crowd rushed in.
Although he did not name the two deputy ministers, it is understood that they are Datuk S.K.Devamany and T.Murugiah, both who are with the Prime Minister's Department and were present at the hospital during the incident.
Khalid said a post mortem carried out out on the body of lock detainee A.Kugan showed that he had died of excessive fluid in his lungs.
He said the report also stated that the injuries found on the deceased's body was not the result of his death.
"However, I assure the family of Kugan that we will not spare anyone responsible for the injuries caused on him. We are probing and when we identify those involved and have gathered enough evidence, I will make sure justice is served."
"I give you my word that there will be no cover up as I do not cordone to such abuse of powers if that was the case.I urge the family members to be calm and not take the law into their own hands." he said.
At about 2.30pm, Kugan's funeral took place at his house at Puchong Kinrara. Among the 200 people who attended it was MIC President Datuk Seri S.Samy Vellu.
Kugan was arrested on Jan 15 for suspected car theft and remanded till Wednesday. However,on Tuesday during interogation by police, he collapsed and died.
Police had said that they made a recovery of 15 stolen cars at a warehouse in Puchong following his arrest.
His family, Kapar MP S.Manikavasagam and Keadilan's Selangor Youth leader Khairul Anuar Ahmad Zainuddin have each lodged a police report alleging foulplay in Kugan's death and urged a thorough probe be conducted.
The refusal to teach Mathematics and Science in English is not just and ideological position but an idiotic one as well.
It is an attempt to self-fulfill a prophecy that the rural children especially the Malays, cannot be challenged and must continue to be given easy passes through social promotion.
The refusal to acknowledge that English is currently a language of scientific progress, more than Bahasa Melayu, is an example of the policymakers' and Malay language nationalist's hypocrisy in dealing with success.
Based on spurious research findings headed by a teacher training university, sanctioned by other public universities, the government has erred in its decision that will not only impact the future of Malaysian children in a continually globalised world where English is the lingua franca.
And this will open up avenues for the establishment of classes of schools, increasing the demand for the setting up of private schools that will emphasise the English language as a language of instruction and a rigorous curriculum that will prepare students for a competitive world.
The premise that Malay children cannot follow instructions in English and therefore not only standards should be lowered and subject matter made easier, but the teaching of Mathematics and Science itself must be reverted to the Malay Language points to this: that Malay children especially are presumed to be losers even before all avenues of success are provided.
Because in one study they voiced their concern over their inability to understand instructions, the future of a generation is sacrificed.
It is like saying that the more a child says that he/she does not like school, the less the teachers need to work to challenge them.
While children of the privileged in urban areas get first class education through private and international schools or even in high schools abroad and get master the English Language (so that they can be given places and sponsorship in English-speaking universities abroad), children of the rural poor are left to become victims of policies dictated by research findings that hardy make sense in the realm of educational futurism.
Retired professors , poet laureates, die-hard Malay nationalists who themselves are well-educated in the English language having tasted the successes and given national accolades become incoherent and hypocritical spokespersons to a government policy that will make the myth of the last native a reality.
'Strategically denying success to the poor'
These individuals do not understand changing times; that English is no longer a language of the colonials.
The colonies revolted against the colonials through the natives' mastery of the English language.
These individuals who are against the teaching of Science and Mathematics in English are giving wrong advice to the nation; mastering English does not mean challenging whatever status Bahasa Melayu has been accorded to.
The government is strategically denying success to the poor of all races, with this language policy reversal.
We are creating a nation at risk; incompetent in the language that will give them the chance to pursue their studies in good universities in the English-speaking world.
There is a specific process one needs to follow in order to gain access to Western education; especially in the fields of Science and Mathematics.
Many of the critical subjects are taught in English.
The multitude of English proficiency tests is evidence that one must understand English for specific purposes (especially in the Mathematics and Sciences) right up to being able to write a Bachelors, Masters, or even Doctoral and Post-doctoral dissertations in the English language - all these are stages one has to go through.
Especially for entry into American colleges where English proficiency
is given through tests ranging from the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) to the challenging GRE (Graduate Record Examination), which require consistent polishing of skills not only in English as a language but English taught in the content areas.
The government has blundered big time, succumbing to irrational voices disguised as those who care about the rural poor who are slow to master Mathematics and Science concepts in English.
Who said kampong kids can't learn?
There are enough success stories of children of the poor of all races coming from the rural areas slogging and struggling hard to master any language and to any subject matter and triumph to become world-class surgeons, engineers, lawyers, academicians, diplomats, musicians, and even culinary experts.
Who said kampong kids cannot be challenged academically? There is enough evidence that if you provide them with dedicated teachers, a nurturing learning environment, a supporting home, and a challenging curriculum, and constant reminder of "yes you can" and "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" - kids will excel.
Down with those who are out to underestimate the ability of our children to succeed.
We must ignore bad advice and demand for success for all - urban and rural, Bumiputra or non-Bumiputra.
We must demand a radical restructuring of our schools so that the same standard and support is given to all schools and the commitment to a philosophy that however we want our own children to succeed, we want the children of others to achieve similarly as well.
Start early in teaching English. Put an end to any effort to make the myth of the lazy native a reality.
I have an idea on how to arrive at a long -term solution to Malaysia's problems in race relations. The idea that this or that race controls the economy is a perception grounded in the mismeasurement of human progress. The British colonials were skillful at giving the people of Malaya this idea; masking the reality of imperialism then and later of dying and diseased British colonialism. One needs to study the political economy of capitalist Malaysia to understand the nature of control and network of interlocking directorates of the race-based political parties to arrive at a sound awareness of the nature of pluralism in post-modern Malaya.
Back to the idea I had, drawn from some comments left in my earlier post.
I think we ought to start renaming this land -- to do justice to the future generations of Malaysians.
Bumi Malaysia is more inclusive and less divisive than Tanah Melayu.
If we now have the concept of OneMalaysia and we will no longer have the 30% quota for Bumiputra, we need to help the next generation re orientate itself into this new and more peaceful concept. Many names can now be changed. Over the decades, we have seen a few name changes.
-Malaysia Airlines is better than Melayu Airlines -Keretapi Tanah Melayu can be renamed Keretapi Rakyat Malaysia -Askar Melayu must be called Askar Rakyat Malaysia to attract all races -Bahasa Malaysia sounds better than the limited and less encompassing concept of Bahasa Melayu - Sejarah Tanah Melayu can be called Sejarah Bangsa Malaysia - Sejarah Melayu can be renamed as Kisah Dongengan Elit Zaman Melaka
There are so many possibilities of change in the way we can help truly bridge the gap between the races. If we can new cities Cyberjaya and Putrajaya and have our own Berjaya Times Square, why not engage in yet another level of namechange?
We can start asking the government to look into closing down institutions that breed hatred and constantly monitor other that may be used by political parties to cultivate hatred. We can demand one-race higher education institutions to undergo forced integration and implement a strict policy of affirmative action and meritocracy combined.
Desegregation must begin with our educational and cultural institutions, to pave way for a total dismantling of all race-based political parties that have brought more harm than good to the Malaysian society.
Children must be taught the idea of "bumi manusia" (Earth for Mankind) as a foundation of collaborative living.
These I believe is the beginning of a realization of OneMalaysia.
RELATED VIDEO ON THE LEGEND OF THE SINO-MELAKKANS, Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat
It is the year 2009, 40 years after the May 13 1969 tragedy.
Because we have agreed to become a country rooted in a social contract that ought to give equality, equity, and equal opportunity to all who have given up their natural rights in exchange for "citizenship" and the rights of the State to tax them (with or without representation), we must recognize that Malaysia is for Malaysians.
This will be the most humane perspective we ought to work towards in holding. What is needed is a system of check and balance that will ensure that each generation of Malaysians will progress without the trappings of mistrust, hatred, and institutionalized racism.
But first, we must all fight for the installation of this reality. Political will that will move this agenda of ethical liberalism must be harnessed and be made the driving force for social, cultural, educational, and psychological change.
The idea of "Tanah Melayu" must be reflected upon -- of its relevancy and whether it is a kind of ideological thinking that will help develop a culture of peace or help nurture inter-racial hatred.
Communal politics is an old school thinking that cannot survive the wave of cosmopolitanism; just like the any idea that could not survive the inevitability of historical change propelled by changes in material condition and consciousness.
In Malaysia, the days of communal politics is numbered, however well it is packaged and propagandized. Multiculturalism, and in fact radical multiculturalism, or better still, radical marhaenism is the next wave. Institutions that promote racism must be deconstructed and abolished; institutions that are funded by the ruling regime to ensure the hegemony of this or that race. Dismantle them before they become yet another layer of complexity in our consciousness; a layer that hides the structural violence inherent in a system of racism and false consciousness called "nationalistic history".
The only permanent thing is change, as the Chinese philosopher and mystic Lao Tzu said. Man has no nature, what he has is history, said the Spanish philosopher Ortega Gasset.
And there will be beauty in this change if we know how to destroy the beast within.
Hadith Resources (Muslim Students Association, University of Buffalo, New York)
Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas (translated by A'isha 'Abdarahaman al-Tarjumana & Ya'qub Johnson ; via Muslim Students Association, University of Southern California, Los Angeles)
Sahih al-Bukhari (translated by M. Muhsin Khan ; via Muslim Students Association, University of Southern California, Los Angeles)
Sahih Muslim: partial translation (Abdul Hamid Siddiqui ; via Muslim Students Association, University of Southern California, Los Angeles)
Search the Hadith Database (Muslim Students Association, University of Southern California, Los Angeles)
Islam and the Question of violence (Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Al-Serat: a journal of Islamic studies. ; via Ahlul Bayt Digital Islamic Library Project, UK)
Islam in Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa (February 2006) A bibliography compiled by Paul Schrijver. Library, Documentation, and Information Department. (Afrikastudiecentrum = African Studies Centre, University of Leiden, The Netherlands)
The site features: a dictionary of Islamic philosophy; an extensive list of major philosophers, their thought, and their works; tables of contents for The Journal of Islamic Philosophy; and related web links.
Islamic Studies: A Bibliography, 2003 (Patrick S. O'Donnell, Santa Barbara City College, California ; via Columbia University Libraries) [.pdf file]
Une entrée biographique du fondateur de la confrérie et celles de ses sucusseurs, avec quelques oeuvres litteraires choisies, et des autres pertinentes informations.
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azlyrahmanThe Malaysian Indian Congress must now perform its hijrah/mass exodus out of the eternal samsara of existing in the world of neo-duryodhanasless than 5 seconds agofrom web
azlyrahmanThe Malaysian Chinese Association must now perform its hijrah/mass exodus out of the Old Regime; history will be kinder to the marginalizedless than 5 seconds agofrom web
azlyrahmanMalaysians work hard to abolish your Internal Security Act; that neo-colonial tool of repression used by totalitarian regimes.4 minutes agofrom web
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azlyrahmanA just government installed will lead us to the truth of Teoh Beng Hock's death while the media spins out of control, Race matters, surely.less than 5 seconds agofrom web
azlyrahmanWhat line of questioning, what style of investigating, brought Teoh Beng Hock' life to such a sad and devastating ending?about 23 hours agofrom web
azlyrahmanToo many unexplained deaths in Malaysia, too many calls for Royal Commissions of Inquiry that have been ignored times too many. Wake up now!about 23 hours agofrom web
azlyrahmanTeoh Beng Hock -- May you rest in peace while Malaysians find the truth in all these6:30 PM Jul 16thfrom web
Layton, Julia. "How Police Interrogation Works." 18 May 2006. HowStuffWorks.com. 17 July 2009. Inside this Article
1. Introduction to How Police Interrogation Works 2. Common Interrogation Techniques 3. A Real Interrogation 4. Controversy 5. Lots More Information 6. See all Law Enforcement articles
Police interrogators are highly trained in psychological tactics. There are "Law & Order" addicts everywhere who think they could get a perp to confess. A little glaring, some getting in the guy's face, a revelation that his fingerprints are all over the murder weapon and voilà! He's recounting his crime. In real life, police interrogation requires more than confidence and creativity (although those qualities do help) -- interrogators are highly trained in the psychological tactics of social influence.
Getting someone to confess to a crime is not a simple task, and the fact that detectives sometimes end up with confessions from the innocent testifies to their expertise in psychological manipulation. No two interrogations are alike, but most exploit certain weaknesses in human nature. These weaknesses typically rely on the stress that results when people experience contrasting extremes, like dominance and submission, control and dependence, and the maximization and minimization of consequences. Even the most hardened criminal can end up confessing if the interrogator can find the right combination of circumstances and techniques based on the suspect's personality and experiences. In the United States, scholars estimate that somewhere between 42 percent and 55 percent of suspects confess to a crime during interrogation.
Up Next
* How Brainwashing Works * How DNA Evidence Works * Discovery.com: Dutch Police
Police interrogations weren't always so complex. Until the early 1900s in the United States, physical abuse was an acceptable (if not legal) method of getting a confession. Confessions obtained by "third degree" techniques -- deprivation of food and water, bright lights, physical discomfort and long isolation, beating with rubber hoses and other instruments that don't leave marks -- were usually admissible in court as long as the suspect signed a waiver stating the confession was voluntary. Between the 1930s and 1960s, though, a crackdown on police tactics gradually changed the practice of interrogation.
While the Supreme Court had ruled as early as 1897 against involuntary confessions, it was in 1937 that things really started to change. In the case Brown v. Mississippi, the Supreme Court threw out a "voluntary" confession that was obtained after police officers repeatedly strung a suspect up in a tree and whipped him. The Court's decision was clear: Confessions obtained by force cannot be used as evidence at trial. By the 1950s, confessions were considered involuntary not only if police beat the suspect, but also if they held a suspect for an unnecessarily extended period of time, deprived him of sleep, food, water or bathroom facilities, promised some benefit if the suspect confessed or threatened some harm if he didn't.
When the case Miranda v. Arizona reached the Supreme Court in 1966, coercive police interrogation took another blow. Ernesto Miranda had confessed to rape and kidnapping after two hours of interrogation, and the appeal to the Supreme Court alleged that Miranda was not aware of his rights to remain silent (the Fifth Amendment) and to counsel (the Sixth Amendment). The Court ruled in favor of Miranda, and the decision instituted what we've come to know as the "Miranda Rights." To safeguard against a suspect falling into an involuntary confession because he thinks he has no choice but to speak, the police must expressly, clearly and completely advise any suspect of his rights to silence and counsel before beginning an interrogation or any other attempt to get a statement from a suspect. The Miranda decision attempts to eliminate suspect ignorance as a contributing factor to involuntary confessions.
In looking for a replacement for illegal forms of coercion, police turned to fairly basic psychological techniques like the time-honored "good cop bad cop" routine, in which one detective browbeats the suspect and the other pretends to be looking out for him. People tend to trust and talk to someone they perceive as their protector. Another basic technique is maximization, in which the police try to scare the suspect into talking by telling him all of the horrible things he'll face if he's convicted of the crime in a court of law. Fear tends to make people talk. For a while, police tried such things as polygraphs to determine if the suspect was being deceptive, but polygraphs and polygraph training are expensive, and the results are almost never admissible in court. But some polygraph analysts, including a man named John Reid, began noticing that subjects exhibited certain outward, consistent physical signs that coincided with the polygraph's determination of untruthfulness. Reid went on to develop a non-machine-based system of interrogation based on specific types of questions and answers that uncover weaknesses the interrogator can use against a suspect to obtain a confession. Reid's "Nine Steps" of psychological manipulation is one of the most popular interrogation systems in the United States today. In the next section, we'll find out about this system.
Confessions and the Constitution
The primary Constitutional Amendments referred to in Supreme Court decisions regarding the admissibility of confessions are the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees a person's right to not incriminate himself, the Sixth Amendement, which guarantees the right to a speedy trial, and the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees the right to due process. When the police hold and interrogate a suspect for three days without charging him with a crime, they've violated that suspect's right to due process. When the police string someone up in a tree and whip him until he confesses, they've violated that person's right not to incriminate himself (among other rights).
