My Writings. My Thoughts.
Quadcopter Project: Day 0
// 2010年01月26日 // 没有意见 »
So, our senior design project finally kick-started.
We got our quadcopter – the one done by previous senior design groups and they couldn’t make it fly. Our station in the senior design room is allocated, equipped with a digital oscilloscope, a signal generator and a multimeter. We were expecting a PC to join our equipment list too.
Our goal now, is to fly it, to finish what the previous groups had not accomplished. Pretty ambitious, we would say.
The blog for our quadcopter project is at http://scsuquadcopter2010.blogspot.com
Coexistence
// 2010年01月14日 // 没有意见 »
The picture above, with the symbols of Islam, Judaism and Christianity intertwined with the english word “coexist”, was designed by a Polish artist Piotr Młodożeniec for a competition organised by “The Museum on the Seam for Dialogue, Understanding and Coexistence” in Jerusalem and made famous by Bono from U2. It was painted in one of the exterior walls of Atwood Memorial Center, the student union building in our school, St. Cloud State University to remind passengers of the importance of toleration between religions, as well as cultures.
I couldn’t deny that I was stunned by the design when I first saw it. Too true. We now live in a world that we couldn’t ignore the existence of other cultures, and religions. It is increasingly important as well in the city of St. Cloud, having more than 90% German Catholics few decades ago.
I appreciate the hospitality of this city, the competence of this college in emphasizing the diversity of different cultures and religions. I feel special, for my cultural and religious background was well valued in this community.
Let’s shift our lenses back to my beloved home country Malaysia, what had happened over there? Despite the Ringgits that had put into publicizing the “1Malaysia” concept, intercultural and inter-religious relationships had not improved much since independences half a century ago. Recently, many Churches had been attacked since the Federal High Court had ruled that the term “Allah,” traditionally used to name the “Islamic God” exclusively, could be used to name the “Christian God” in the national language, Malay.
There are different voices on the rule. Both for and against it. On the arguments against the rule, mostly by Muslims, I could sadly conclude that our Muslim fellows in Malaysia are ignorant that in fact, the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims are worshipping the same ONE GOD. They are collectively known as “The Abrahamic Religions” for the three holy books agree on Abraham (Ibrahim in the Quran) as their common ancestor.
Much more, people who have a little understanding of the Arabic language will also know that the word “Allah” is a short form for “Al-ilah,” which consists of two parts: “Al” (The) and “ilah” (god, in general terms), so “Al-ilah,” or “Allah” in short, actually means “THE GOD.”
Off topic, the famous Arabic phrase:
لا إله إلا الله
Pronounced “La ilaha ilallah.” In English it means “There is no god but THE GOD.”
Even so, I appreciate that they were arguing the issue in a way that does not threaten any individual, community or even the national security. However, some groups have breached the bottom line. As a result, Churches were attacked. The security of the church personnels and church community was threatened. The federal government seems to acquiesce the attacks: Police forces, controlled by the federal government, were reacting slowly to the attacks. Not a single person committing the violence were arrested.
The Interior Minister even threatened to detain people who “dared to play fire” using the Internal Security Act (ISA). Under the ISA, individuals could be detained for a renewable two-year period without any trials. Nevertheless, many people feared that the opposition leaders, who strongly opposed the views of the government, would be the victims of the detention.
Malaysia is now in chaos. I couldn’t understand why a single word could be such a big issue. And for those arguments trying to get the word reserved for Islam exclusively, I see it as ignorant. Ignorant indeed.
Race and Religion are very controversial issues in Malaysia, and most of Malaysians are “educated” to keep their mouth shut on them. I don’t think it is very healthy for the mental growth of the people as well as the nation. I strongly believed that problems are solved by speaking out, not by keeping it under the carpet. We should be open minded and embrace diversity through our heart, not just some fancy vase to amaze tourists.
Sherbet Lemon
// 2010年01月9日 // 没有意见 »
This is Albus Dumbledore’s favorite, and I finally got a chance to taste it.
All I can say, it tastes great! Tastes like ice-cream without adding milk, thus, no milk-fat! Hehe…
Dumbledore really knew how to enjoy life!
我收藏的艺人
圣云天气
St. Cloud, MN-12 °C
(-12 °C)
