God’s Acre in Chelsea

My parents were Roman Catholic.  I myself gave my life to the Lord Jesus at an evangelical rally by a Brethren Assembly Church in Malaysia.  I spent the first few years of my Christian walk learning about the bible from friends from the Assembly of God churches.  Later as I moved around while pursuing my studies, I have attended i an Anglican High Church, a couple of Brethren Gospel Halls, a Charismatic Anglican Church, a Pentacostal church, a couple of Baptist Churches, another Brethren Church, a Moravian Church and a couple of non-denominational churches.  I have always made the conscious decision to attend and support the local church irrespective of denomination as long as they hold to the common belief that Jesus is our Risen Lord and Savior.

I believe that no church is perfect this side of heaven but each has its strengths and qualities which all contribute to the glory of and the service for Christ.  In the end, all churches are under the headship of Christ.

I remember on one occasion, I was deeply troubled about something and I sought God’s guidance in prayer on what to do .  As I read the bible, God directed me to a particular bible story which gave me an answer to my question.  However, it was not an answer that I wanted to listen to and I refused to accept it.  That weekend I attended the Sunday service at a Baptist Church and the Pastor spoke from the same bible passage.  Again not willing to accept this as the answer and not willing to obey God, the next Sunday I refused to go back to that church and went instead to a Moravian Church.  Guess what?  The Moravian Minister preached from exactly the same bible story.  Still stubborn and trying to run from God’s message, the next Sunday I followed a friend to a Pentecostal Church.  Well, I checked and the sermon definitely was not on that same bible story.  A successful dodge?  Well, no!  After the sermon, the pastor gave a few prophesies and one of them was exactly the same message again.

What could I do?  I had prayed and God had answered.  Obeying Him on this matter was extremely painful for me at that time but looking back now with the passage of time, I can clearly see God had only good things in mind for me.  But my main point of this tale is that God worked through each of these different churches to speak to me.  Our God is the God over all denominations.

Have you heard of the Moravian Church?  I attended their Fetter Lane Moravian Church when I was staying in Chelsea, London.  It was a small church but the congregation was very warm.  I  got invited to many a Sunday tea at homes of church members.  I was impressed by their very simple but warm worship service and the very real love and strong fellowship.  The congregation was a mix of Black and White united in brotherhood and there was no racial tension at all.  The service was a bit traditional by today’s standards but in simplicity there is beauty and a focus on God’s presence.  It remains one of the churches that I am most fond of and which was a great blessing to me when I was there.  Below are some photos that I took of the church when I re-visited it a few years ago after an interval of 25 years.

Unassuming Entrance to Fetter Lane Moravian Church

The Small Worship Sanctuary

The Simple, Humble Church Buildings

Tombstones Remembering Prominent Historical Moravian Church Leaders and Missionaries

God’s Acre

All Photos by LGS

Here are some interesting facts about the Moravian Church;

• The Moravian Church came out of the Hussite Movement (from the reformist teachings of John Hus) and was established in what is now the Czech Republic sometime in mid-15th century.
• It is possibly one of the earliest Protestant churches (ahead of Martin Luther by about 50 years)
• It underwent a renewal in t1727
• It then became the first Protestant Church to send missionaries around the world.
• It was the first church that reached out and had a ministry to slaves ( specifically in the Caribbean).
• It held strongly to the idea of a united church irrespective of traditions and denominations.
• It’s  motto is: “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; and in all things, love”
• In putting this into practice, the church sent out teams to work with other churches to build up and to encourage.
• It called its graveyards “God’s Acres” and these are characterized by simple and equal sized tombstones laid flat to the ground.  This was done to emphasised that all are equal and there is no distinction because of lineage, social status or wealth.
• John Wesley was a disgraced Anglican minister when he attended a Moravian service and had a personal experience of God.  He then went on with zeal to preach the gospel which later led to the founding of the Methodist churches.
• Today the church has some 850,000 members worldwide and is particularly strong in the Caribbean and in Tanzania.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

Hi guys and gals.  How are you?  I know that my last few posts were harping on things dark and negative and were real downers.  But fear not, there is light at the end of the tunnel.  I pledge to share more uplifting posts in the next little while …….. starting with this post.

Still, sometimes you got to be careful cause the light might just make you realise how bad things are in the tunnel.

 

 

P.S.  One of my all time favorite sayings is “Beware!  The light at the end of the tunnel is probably a speeding train!”  Ba-da-bing!

Sadness

And so Malaysia’s 13th General Elections came to and end on Sunday the 5th May 2013.  The day started early for LGS and many Malaysians as they went early to polling stations and queued to go in to vote.  The polling stations were open from 8 am until 5 pm.  After that, many of us stayed glued to our TVs or followed the counting of the votes and the announcements of the results on the internet news sites, social media and also from reports tweeted, sms-ed or whatsapp-ed on our smartphones.  And the results did come in slowly through the night and into the next morning.

When all the smoke had cleared, it seemed that the ruling Government Coalition (Barisan National or BN) had retained power for another time (they have ruled since independence in 1957).  They won 133 parlimentary seats as compared to 89 won by the Opposition coalition (PR).  This result would seem rather surprising if one surveys the sentiment shown and support given by the vast majority of Malaysian on the internet.

The result also did not reflect that the PR opposition had garnered 52% of the popular vote.

So how would you describe the Malaysian 13th General Election?

How would you describe an election in which………..

• through gerrymandering the ruling party needs far less than 50% of the popular vote to form Government.?
• little effort was made to ensure the integrity of the electoral roll?  ( a survey of the electoral roll reveals a) cases where scores of voters are registered to the same house but clearly don’t live there and never had, b) some voters are named after vegetables and fruits and c) some people who have never registered to vote already have their names on the list)
• postal and early voting votes uniformly show support for the government candidates with a ratios like 8 to 2 even though the general voting show more support for the opposition?
• people are openly offered between USD 15 – USD 300 to vote for the ruling party and as high as USD 500 in certain key constituencies?
• the indelible ink meant to mark the fingers of those who have voted so that they cannot vote more than once was found to be not indelible and the Election Commission’s explanation is that the ink may not have been as strong as those used in other countries because it had to be “halal” for Muslim voters?
• many foreign migrant workers were given special, limited period,  citizen identity cards which enabled then to vote?
• buses of foreign migrant workers appear close to the end of the voting at key polling stations and try to get them into the polling stations….often under police escort and protection?
• local residents caught many voters  who cannot speak our national language, cannot sing our national anthem and cannot even name our Prime Minister?
• Election Commission staff do some strange things like trying to get independent observers to leave the polling station, illegally copying down lists of those who had already voted and not checking the identity of the voters?
• unexplained additional ballot boxes arrive hidden in government vehicles and on one occasion in a taxi after the votes have already been counted but before any official results are announced (some were stopped by local residents but others got through with police escort)?
• a number of vote counting stations at key constituencies all suffered power blackouts in the midst of the counting?
• a PR victory with a majority of over 1,000 votes in a key constituency is overturned when the BN candidate asked for a recount and giving the BN candidate a majority of several hundred even though an immediate vote recount is not allowed under election regulations?
• when the Election Commission announces that the government BN coalition had won control of one of the states even though the final total votes announced contradicts the simple addition of votes from individual polling stations which indicate the Opposition had won? (after this was pointed out, the Election Commission still has made no comment even after 4 days).
• some constituencies won by the BN party recorded as much as 30% new voters which is so much more than the national average of 11%?
• some constituencies won by the BN party recorded as much as 99% voter participation?

 

So how would you describe such and election?

The answer : “the Stolen Election“

 

LGS will willingly accept commiserations for Malaysia.

 

Shootout : Gun Control Legislation Out-Gunned in Senate

Just under a month ago, I posted about the proposed gun control legislation being proposed in the USA  (Shoot) and how support for it has dwindled from a peak after the Newtown massacre.  Many were predicting that it would not be passed by the Congress and indeed a bill to expand background checks to gun shows and online sales has failed to even pass through the Senate. President Obama was furious with the Senate for not following the wishes of 90% of Americans who supported such minimal and common sense measures.  Yet the latest poll released yesterday indicated that only 47% of respondents indicated that they were angry or disappointed with the Senate.

And so I repeat what I asked in my former post;

“Am I naive?  Will it hurt so much to give up assault rifles, magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition or armour piercing rounds?  Armour piercing rounds?  Why do you need that in a civilized society?  To hunt well equipped rabbits?  Would it really be too much to give those up?  For me, the sound of children laughing and playing without fear is worth any price.”

At that time, I received a comment from Mark, The Walking Man.  He lives pretty much on the frontlines of the debate in the gun infested streets of Detroit and is therefore in a good position to answer my confusion.   This is his reply;

“The reason is easy enough to figure out LGS. The gun manufacturers and arms producers via the NRA (which spent 32 million in 2012) use fear to foment the wide proliferation of guns. They are the strongest lobbying group in DC and spend voraciously buying votes in both chambers. Americans will go to war now after Iraq’s invasion without even a clear reason or sense of aggression towards the nation because we fear the world is out to destroy us externally and we fear that there are so many criminals and thugs who are just waiting in the night to come in and rape, rob and murder us that we need a gun in every corner of every room as well as the one under the pillow.

Fear is a great tool for moving masses and numbers, reality has nothing to do with it. Over 1500 people have died by gun violence since Sandy Hook elementary and what that incident sis was to spur arms sales even beyond the point they were at because we have a Black president”who is coming for our guns” even though the reality is he loosened gun control laws by making it legal to bring your handgun and open carry in national parks—but the fear is that he has secretly declared open season on White people.

(6% of guns are held in the hands of white suburban dwellers who are afraid that the urban vermin are out for them. Why? Because Colt, Remington and the rest need to sell more weapons of mass destruction. You do know that america supplies 93% of the world with weapons right? Multi billion dollar business at home and abroad.

Background checks? 97% want thorough background checks but the NRA who pays the bills does not so, ever in need of campaign money most legislators will vote against their constituents because the constituents en masse can not equal one NRA contribution.

Listen to our National anthem Calvin, it is the only one in the word that I know of that glorifies war. Look at the rulings over decades of the Supreme Court on the 2nd amendment to the constitution, though they can not change the wording they have, through decisions gutted the intent of it.

And so we have come to the age where we have more legally owned guns than we do have population, normal people get brave with a gun in their hand and just in general do stupid things with them. show them, caress them love the feel of them and know they can deliver death at their whim. It is an emboldening thing except they ignore the statistics that more handgun owners are shot by their own weapons in a robbery. They practice and practice until they can kill a paper target but when the danger comes they freeze or go insane.

Last week a 74 year old grandmother in MI was convicted of murdering her grandson. He and she had an argument over a failed drug test, she shot him once, he went to the washroom to check the wound and when he came out, instead of running to a neighbor or calling 911 she capped him 5 more times. They are trying to convince ME that a more armed society is a safer society but statistically speaking the more weapons available in any culture the more death that culture experiences.

I won’t bullshit you, I own two shotguns, a 16 and a 12. I will kill with them if I can not subdue or intimidate an intruder. But then I have taken every precaution to not allow an intruder in. A 70 pound Rottweiler/Pit Bull being the first line of defense. But I do not cling to my guns, I do not play with them or clean and oil them to shiny godhood. I have lived in the on aggregate the most violent American city my entire life, I have faced guns and walked away, unrobbd and intact, every time but there has been a sea change in American youth that is a direct result of our lack of gun control.

Teenagers today will pull the trigger because to them they are not just looking to rob but to get peer respect and odd as it is, most guns used in street crimes are legally owned by a family member who did not control it.

There is no answer until we get saturation overload and what cost $700 to purchase only brings $50 on the resale market. Until then we will continue to be free of everything but debt and fear.”

Capture the Flag

I woke up last Sunday to a wonderful sight in my neighborhood.  A local traffic roundabout had been transformed into a beautiful sea of color and motion by the planting of some 18,000 little flags by local residents.  Landscape architect, Ng Sek San, came up with the idea of a “Malaysian Spring” campaign for political change.

Now Malaysia is gearing up for its 13th General Election in the first week of May.  Since independence, there has only been one ruling coalition in government, Barisan Nasional, but with increasing discontent over a spate of corruption scandals, it is believed that this election will be a close one.  There has been also a lot of concern about fairness in the electoral process which had led to a number of mass demonstrations for electoral reform in the last few years and there has been a push for polling agents to monitor the elections to prevent fraud.

And so, last Sunday, there were blue flags, white flags, red flags and yellow flags.  The blue and white colors represented one of the main partners of the Opposition coalition while red was the color of another opposition coalition member.  Finally, the yellow represented the BERSIH campaign for fair and just elections.  Together they formed a riot of color.  It was amazing.

Colorful roundabout

The Incumbent Opposition MP with the Man with the idea for “Malaysian Spring”

However, late on Sunday evening, just before dusk, officers from City Hall came in a van and started to pull out the flags. Local residents came out and asked them what they were doing. The officers said that the flags were illegal and a danger to motorists. The residents challenged this noting that political posters were allowed legally in the run up to an election. The officer in charge then claimed that the flags were not political posters but put up illegally by an NGO.  However, the resident’s were able to furnish proof that the flag campaign was protected under the auspices of one of the opposition political parties.  All this time, the city hall officers were pulling and removing the flags.

But then, they came to take away the flags

When confronted with the fact that the flags were part of a political election campaign and therefore protected by law, the officer then tried to argue that it contravened instructions on how political posters were to be put up. He said, “Rule 1 – it cannot be on lamp posts; Rule 2 – it cannot be on trees….” Immediately the residents pointed out that the ruling government election posters were all clearly on trees and demanded that those be removed first. The residents continued to argue that the flags should not be confiscated and that if there was to be a fine for planting the flags then they would gladly pay the fine. By this time, more people have started to arrive and join the protest. At the same time, passing motorists were also blowing their horns in support.

Finally, the city hall officers relented and allowed the crowd to retrieve the confiscated flags.  The crowd then helped to replant the flags and celebrate their victory in the fight for their flags.

Taking back the flags

Coming together to replant the flags

Flying high again

Sweet Victory

What can I say! I am so proud of my neighborhood.  I used to be disappointed by Malaysians’ apathy in the face of political and social injustice and corruption.  But it seems that time has passed.  I am proud of Malaysians again even for the small victory at the Battle of Flag Roundabout for it showed a unity and integrity that crossed race and religion and is a sense that we are one people who love our country.

(Photo Credit: Ng Sek San)

Surviving Thatcher

This week we heard news of the passing of Baroness Thatcher – Britain’s first and so far only female former Prime Minister.  Even as Britain prepares to hold a state funeral to honor her, opinions have been mixed.  For as many have heaped praises on Margaret Thatcher and her time in office, just as many celebrated her passing with gladness as they still harbored bitterness against her and her policies.

I am not British but I did experience Thatcher’s Britain as I was a student there at that time.  So what is my opinion of her?   Well, I generally follow the adage “don’t speak ill of the dead” but recently, a fellow blogger did point out that to do that would really be an act of hypocrisy.  So here goes.

At a personal level, Margaret Thatcher and her policies made life difficult for me.  To start with, my University tuition fees would go up by as much as 300% and made my life difficult.  I was very upset too when I arrived at my college in the University of London and was told on that first day that my college was being forced to merge with two other colleges.  I chose my college carefully for its strengths and character and felt let down by this merger.  Furthermore, this merger was being carried out on the basis of consolidation and weeding out the weaker economic performers.  Yet my college which was both financially sound and visionary was sacrificed to pay off the debts of a more prestigious college – a bastion of the aristocratic classes.

But as i said, I am not British and so Thatcher’s impact on me may not be of much consequence to the average Briton.  But I did see many consequences of Thatcher’s actions.  Many of my fellow students lacked adequate housing.  I had friends who ended up squatting in council housing that had been condemned.  Many were stressed by the need to repay study loans.

I was there when the city streets of Brixton erupted into race related riots.  I remember listening in on police radio transmissions and the panicked voices of police dispatchers as they tried to keep contact with their various police cruisers and units in the midst of the ebb and tides of the running street battles.  You could hear the fear in the voices when one or another of the units failed to respond to the radio calls.  I had friends who lived in those battlefield streets.

Many of my friends were studying nursing so I readily sided and supported those health workers striking against the closing of hospitals and cuts affecting the beloved National Health Service.

I was studying biomedical science and  I know many of us were appalled when she unilaterally dismissed the scientific council that gave advice to the government and replaced them with just one scientific appointee of her choice.  As I remember, this guy was an expert in geology or some earth science and he now gave advice of diverse scientific disciplines.  No wonder, he would wrongly advise that the CAT Scan would not be of much importance to medicine. This was a pattern that we would witness again and again; she would dismiss those whose opinions or advice were contrary to her own beliefs.  Her supporters say this showed her strength of conviction and confidence in her own beliefs.  I tend to look at it as arrogance and pride and the lack of respect for opposing opinions.

I did not really directly experience the life and death struggles of mining communities as Thatcher fought the power of the Unions , although the violent clashes between the miners and the police were very disturbing to see on TV.  However I recall that there was an overall sense of despondency amongst the general public.  My memory of Britain at that time was a country that was rich in history and tradition – a great place for a student like me to explore and enjoy but not a great place to live and to build a life.  Hope and optimism was on the wane.

Those are my own personal thoughts and memories about living in Thatcher’s Britain.   Her conviction that she was always right is perhaps what I thought was her greatest failing which led her to implement her beliefs in a most divisive manner.  Were those painful periods necessary to turn a declining Britain around?  I will leave that to the historians to decide.  As for me, I would not have voted for her then and I do not now.

Oh, and she did inspire a revival in political satire like the puppets of “Spitting Image”.

Shoot!

In a new CBS opinion poll released yesterday, that the ground swelling of support in the USA for gun control following the shooting and killing of 20 children and 6 teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut has dropped back to pre-incident levels;

“Currently, support for stricter gun control laws stands at 47 percent today, down from a high of 57 percent just after the shootings. Thirty-nine percent want those laws kept as they are, and another 11 percent want them made less strict. ” Partisans hold different views on gun control laws: 52 percent of Republicans want the laws kept as they are, while 66 percent of Democrats want stricter laws (down from 78 percent in February). Half of gun owners themselves want gun laws overall kept as they are, but a quarter call for stricter laws.”

 

America, most of the world just cannot understand why this is going on, why after all the outpouring of support for those touched by the tragedy at Newtown and all the outrage, nothing has changed.  The rest of the world sees a country whose infatuation with guns is being paid by the blood of their children.  Newtown is just one tragedy.  As many have pointed out, the tragedy continues in the streets of America’s cities like the case of 15 year old Hadiya Pendelton.  Just days after performing at the inauguration celebrations for President Obama, she ran into a shelter after school to avoid the rain and a gunman comes into the shelter and shot and killed her.  How many lights are being extinguished each year in the country that considers itself the best in the world?

I have read and listened to the debate on gun control.  However, the facts from around the world is clear – gun control saves lives and reduces loss of life.  Countries like Australia are good examples where gun control legislation has made a difference and have shown that it can be done.  Countries like Pakistan where guns are so readily available demonstrate the opposite result; its economic capital Karachi suffered more than 2,000 killed last year.

I realise that many Americans want to keep their firearms – for hunting, self protection or some other reason.  Charlton Heston, the influential Hollywood actor and well known former spokesperson for the NRA, once famously declared that gun control supporters would have to take his firearms away from his “cold dead hands.”  And I also recognise that many gun owners feel it is their right to bear arms.  But one person’s rights should not be promoted above and beyond the rights of others; like the right to go to school without fear.

Am I naive?  Will it hurt so much to give up assault rifles, magazines with more than 10 rounds of ammunition or armour piercing rounds?  Armour piercing rounds?  Why do you need that in a civilized society?  To hunt well equipped rabbits?  Would it really be too much to give those up?  For me, the sound of children laughing and playing without fear is worth any price.

The Arms Race: Told You That Rabbits Are Dangerous! (Photo by LGS; shop display in Arrowtown, New Zealand)

 

(Jim Carrey did a spoof on gun control on CBS.  Many found the video offensive and left many negative comments including personal attacks on the comedienne, calls for him to leave the USA, and even one comment that reminded him that those who have guns out number those that do not – so watch out.  Click HERE to see the video)

 

 

Science – A Funny Old Thing

In the little spiel that I have “About Me” on the sidebar, I mention that I am a scientist.  Now some of you career skeptics have in the past questioned my scientific credentials.  How shocking! But at any rate, I have had to dazzle readers from time to time with my scientific knowledge just so as to dispel these awful allegations.  I assure you that I am a scientist; an absent-minded mad scientist in fact!

However, I realise that it has been sometime since my last scientific post.  So here it is.  I present to you the newly discovered element as reported on the internet………

 

 

 

 

Ah!  The Element of Surprise is evidence that science can be a funny old thing and that most scientific discoveries involve the element of surprise.

 

As Isaac Asimov  once quipped, “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not “Eureka” but “That’s funny…””.

 

Yay! Marshmallows!

I don’t watch TV obsessively but there have been a few television series that have grabbed my imagination.  For example, regular readers will know that I am a fan of series like Friends, X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly.  Friends was a very popular sitcom with a large mainstream fan base.  However, X-Files, Buffy and Firefly all had engendered a very cult like following amongst their fan base.  I think that this is because that they represented a very different and very fresh as well as powerful approach to story telling.  In all three, there was both episodic stories as well as larger story arcs spanning a season and even the whole series.  Their characters and heroes can be seen to develop substantially throughout the series and were not spared suffering or even loss; they were made to go through much suffering as consequences of the stands they make.

It is no coincidence that the mind behind two of them, Buffy and Firefly, was Joss Whedon who I feel is one of the best storytellers around today.  When Buffy the series came to an end after season 7, like many Whedon fans, I suffered withdrawal symptoms and desperately kept an eye out for new Joss Whedon projects.  But for awhile, there were none that could fill the void left by the end of Buffy.  Ironically, it was Whedon himself who directed me in the right direction when he himself sang praises of one new series, Veronica Mars by Rob Thomas.  I had a look and I was smitten with this petite powerhouse of a teenager struggling with growing up and making ends meet by doing some private investigation work..

 

However, like many Marshmallows, as the rabid fans of the series are called, I was crestfallen to learn that the series was not being extended beyond the 3rd season.  But a miracle has now happened.

Rob Thomas and series star, Kristin Bell, approached the executives and decision makers of Warner Brothers and managed to get their agreement to make  a Veronica Mars movie if they could prove that there was enough interest amongst the series fans.  The challenge was to raise at least USD 2 million within 30 days through a Kickstarter web campaign for donations. Well, the fans met the target in less than 10 hours into the internet campaign which is a new record for Kickstarter.  Wow! Impressive!

I look forward to the upcoming Veronica Mars Movie. Yay! Marshmallows.

Feet

My feet were close to perfect when I was newly born.  Two near perfectly formed, cute, pink feet.  It has been downhill since then.

Basketball accidents and a poorly executed Parkour move (an ill conceived jump down a flight of stairs) when I was a teenager resulted in weak ankles.  Badly fitting shoes led to deformed toenails.  I picked up a serious bunion on my right foot from a month of tramping  and backpacking across Europe one summer.  Scoliosis caused me to develop flat feet over time.  A combination of more bad shoes and years of working in wet and dirty environments gave me calluses, thick and cracked soles and the occasional bout of Athelete’s foot (which is a strange ailment to have for a non-atheletic couch potato).

My poor abused feet was looking pretty bad of late.  So bad in fact that my wife put her foot down and marched my resisting butt off to have a pedicure done at the local saloon.  And so, the Lone Grey Squirrel slides further down the slippery slope towards metrosexuality …..pushed along by his wife.  But to be honest, the experience was not as bad or as awkward as I had feared.  It was actually quite pleasant and my feet hasn’t looked or felt  so good in years.  But the look on the pedicurist’s face when she was first confronted with my “50 years of abuse” feet was very entertaining.  The poor thing……I left a big tip.

My Baby Feet

My feet after 50 years