Daily Lessons from Life 01 November 2014 - Dr M: Absolute equality between sexes a ''stupid idea''

1. "CASE to probe Sim Lim mobile shop after coin incident - AsiaOne 31 October 2014"

When I read such headlines, NOT for the 1st time, I get VERY agitated. It is quite obvious that some merchants, crooks would be the more appropriate term to described them given their behaviours, are TOTALLY oblivious, and holding in contempt, the laws of Singapore on honest trading and doing !!business!! Otherwise, how do you explain these ever present occurrence of such merchants fleecing customers in the same place repeatedly!!

Can't the laws provide a FASTER and EASIER prosecution process and a MUCH HEAVIER deterrent penalties to punish the perpetrators and warned off the would be perpetrators?

2.  "Mum 'too busy having sex' to care for son - The New Paper Nov 01, 2014"

From the photos, the couple looked young though this CAN NEVER be an excuse for neglecting the boy! It is VERY SICK. Glad that the boy was saved and reconstructing his life a year after being taken away and put in foster care. This happened in Adelaide, Australia!

3. "Dr M: Absolute equality between sexes a ''stupid idea'' - The Star/Asia News Network  Nov 01, 2014

PUTRAJAYA - Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad says absolute equality between men and women is a "stupid idea" as there are inherent differences among them.

"Today, Islam is faced with the idea that men and women should be equal.

"There are differences between men and women, physically and mentally, so it would be a stupid idea to suggest that all women do what men do and all men do what women do," he told the audience at the International Islamic Forum here on Friday.

Dr Mahathir said Muslims should be prepared to defend their stand that there is no such thing as absolute equality between the sexes.

"There can be equality when it comes to becoming the Prime Minister, but not in other matters," he said. Dr Mahathir had said on Thursday that there was no law to prohibit a woman from becoming PM. He also said that Malaysian men were becoming lazy as more women had successfully entered institutions of higher learning and earned higher salaries than their male counterparts. This had led to many women being forced to marry men with lesser qualifications than them, he was quoted as saying.""

Well, the man has spoken, and grabbing some news headlines again!

Lessons for me are:

a. he is a controversial figure for sure. Yet, due to his public profile, whatever he said carried some weight - regardless of the contents being 'right' or 'wrong' or 'misleading'! At least he speaks his mind. In this instance, his point of view is quite logical as he is talking about the 'physical attributes between males and females'!;

b. however, IF he is talking about other unspoken 'glass ceiling' or 'invisible wall' for women to have education, freedom of choice of marriage partner, etc we will have a problem. The women folks WON'T have it! I think he is NOT talking about these barriers. Which is great!;

c. it is NOT the first time he has chided the Malay men for being lazy and not working as hard as the women folks who had moved ahead in education. I still remembered his recent remarks about most of the young Malay men become 'Biker Gang' instead of getting some useful educational qualification!

For me, there is NO SUCH THING as a race is pre-disposed to being lazy and not moving ahead. EVERY RACE has some elements who, for whatever reasons, are NOT self-motivated to want to do the right things for themselves. Some with deep knowledge and awareness. Just that they CAN'T DO what they KNOW!

May Dr M's remarks at this International Islamic Forum inspire more of his own race to aspire for higher achievement.