One at All - Project

New president of France and the Europe Situation

noreply@blogger.com (Jock) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 13:45:00 +0000

As everybody know, a new president won the elections in France - Nicolas Sakozy. The "problem" is that he´s a lot conservative. Sarkozy writes in the preface to the U.S. edition of “Testimony,”:

“I have no intention of apologizing for feeling an affinity with the greatest democracy in the world.”

Opting more for Bushism than Gaullism, Sarkozy extols the transatlantic alliance with the United States “that enabled France and Western Europe to preserve their freedom.”
And his government will seems to affect the imigrant people that live on France. All Europe is going throught a big unemployment, and that´s a big problema related to the imigrants, thats works for a lower salary, taking away the job position from europeans.

What do you think about the new president and the actual Europe situation?

Corruption of the mind. ...and why not?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 09:19:00 +0000

Since we are trying out the free for all (I mean, the post-on-anything concept), let me kick it off with a big vent, on an issue not totally unrelated to corruption and gun control and suchlike. Its about the what we call in India 'bandh'-mentality. 'Bandh' in Hindi means closure. So, the concept is really quite simple. Let me illustrate with a few examples:

We are a group of traders, and we are against the law enforcement machinery carrying out the demolition of illegal construction in the markets in the city. So, we call for a 'bandh'. That is, we go out in the streets, forcing even those establishments which want to stay open, to close. Otherwise, we break and loot public (and private) properties, we beat up those who do not agree with us. Legality be damned. Why? - hey guess what. We are a mob. We are right. We have corrupt politicians on our side. And hey, everyone declares illegal bandhs, so why not us?

Or lets take another example. We are the moral force of the country. We are the guardians of the Indian culture. We are unemployed, uneducated hoodlums, (with neverthelss political ambitions), and we will force a bandh to protect our country. And what exactly is this protection against. Its against universty arts students. Its against the enemies of India who dare to disrupt our ancient culture, by having art exhibitions, which we might not even have seen. But, which we are convinced are immoral and degrading. So we will storm into a private university, force the art department to close down, beat up the student who dare make such paintings. We will burn effigies, we will break windows, we will close down the education institution. And what the heck, while we are at it, we will also declare a 'bandh' for all educational institutions in the city. Why? - hey guess what. We are a mob. We are right. We have corrupt politicians on our side, so why not. After all elections are not too far off.

And here is the latest one. We are a community which haven't been given our due. So we will demonstrate on the streets. Oh and Gandhi be damned. Peaceful protests don't get us anywhere, so we will gather in thousands with sticks, arms, weapons and massive stones, we will block national highways, we will burn tyres, shoot in the air and go around forcing the closure of the towns, schools, markets and railways. And while we are at it, we will burn transport buses and declare a 'bandh' unless the government (corrupt or not) is arm-twisted into giving-in to our issue. Obviously going around as armed mobs is the correct way forward. Otherwise who would care about us. We don't care about the crucial basic issues of long-term structural changes regarding access to resources. No. Do you know what we are fighting for. We are fighting to be declared 'backward'!! Yes siree, so we get our hands on the tempting honey-pot of 'reservation' that every other community seems to be getting a benefit of.

So dear readers, you are perhaps witnessing the first illegal community revolt, not for equality - but for preferential treatment: to be officially declared backward. Amazing but true. Illogical but true. Short-sighted but true.

Meanwhile, we plunder, we loot and we happily declare more bandhs.
And why? You guessed it....We are a mob. We are right. We have corrupt politicians on our side. So why not. Period.

Gun control and laws - Scotland

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:19:00 +0000

11 years ago Thomas Hamilton shot dead 16 young children aged five and six and their teacher in a primary school in Dunblane just 15 miles from where I live. This was labelled the Dunblane Massacre. At the time Hamilton had a gun licence and was perfectly within the law in keeping a hand gun. Dunblane is a white middle-class community on the edge of rural Scotland, a bastion of middle class respectability. The parents of the children shot dead were educated, vocal people who very quickly set about organising a campaign to have guns banned.

If this crime had happened in a poor working class estate in Birmingham or London it might not have had such an impact - a reflection on the attitudes of our society today, I'm ashamed to say.

An enquiry was mounted after the incident and handguns were made illegal in the UK even for people in gun clubs. It is legal to have a shotgun but you need a licence and there are very strict controls about this - regular police vetting and you must have a referee who can vouch for you. The licences are usually restricted to farmers or people involved in hunting and shooting (pheasants, grouse, deer).

The ban hasn't stopped the illegal possession of hand guns which will always exsist. In Britain our problem is with knife culture where the size of the knife you carry is a sign of your status in many urban areas. There are frequent deaths through stabbings usually in the cities of Glasgow, London or Birmingham. I don't know what the answer to this one is. I would just really hate to live in a gun owning culture.

Guns control and laws - Brazil

noreply@blogger.com (Jock) — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 19:47:00 +0000

Yes, everybody always look for someone to blame: a game, film, or any rock ´n roll band, etc, as they´re guilty of all the murders in the world. The church is one of the first to point the finger on this guys.
Brazil a lot of big problems, like big drug dealers, the corruption. A big percent of the guns that are on "bad guys" hads came from the policeman. Our police closes their eyes to a lot of thing that happend on the "favelas" and on the prisions.
People from the prision shouldn´t be able to use cellphone, but here the big drug dealers continues on commanding the traffic from insede the jail. I mean, how that guns goes inside there? Maybe by the police´s hands, or by the lawyers, who know. Everything is based on money.

Does this kind of corruption happens on any of your countries?

Guns control and laws - Germany

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:24:00 +0000

Germany and German people is always good in imitating the United States. So we had after Colombine also a few fortunatly quite smaller events, students with homicidal mania in schools. Anyway in Germany you cannot have guns and weaponry as easily as in the US. You have to get a special license to buy a weapon and usually you receive it after joining a gun club which are very traditional and aim to conserve hunting tradition in the countryside. However, each weapon is registered and can be identified with its owner. (Of course there are illegal guns here in Germany, but at least they are illegal.)
While the media was blaming music group and especially computer game ("Killerspiele") - note that Germany is one of the most liberal countries with one of the strictest laws against violence in any kind of media - there was almost none attention to the combination of gun clubs and these homocidal maniacs. Actually everyone was in a gun club and had comparable easy access to fire weapons - a deadly combination.
But German politicians - most come from the countryside - love all kind of clubs. They are in dozens and even more of them and this is where you gain your voters in the very beginning of your political careers. This is why there isn't even in Germany no pressure group for tighten the access to guns. So we'll wait till next time and some Counterstrike or Quake is blamed for being guilty.

Guns control and laws - Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 13:02:00 +0000

Wow.... It's been a while. I think we should just get the topic up instead of letting people write whatever they want. At least this way with fixed topic we know what to write and there will be constant update.

The case that happened at Virginia Tech was really crazy. So many innocents got killed. In Malaysia, not everyone can buy/own a gun. It's not easy to own a gun too. You must register all your firearms. Even if you are found with a bullet without a gun and without licence, you will also be charged. You must report to the police if you came across a bullet, even if it's empty. If you own a gun wihtout licence, you will be slapped with death penalty or jail.

Well, this is my limited knowledge that I have about our gun law. I tried to search in the Internet and couldn't find much details about our guns and weapons laws too.

Posted by Sweet Surrender

Guns control and laws - Brazil

noreply@blogger.com (Jock) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 00:22:00 +0000

As everybody knows, this week a crazy south korean guy killed 32 people in the Virginia Tech University. Some time ago, one of the options on our poll was this one "Gun control and gun laws". I think it´s a great time to discuss about it.

In Brazil we see that violence everyday. It happens a lot in Rio de Janeiro, for example. Here we had a plebiscite last year to ask the people if everybody should be able and free to buy and have guns. The answer of the majority was NO.

Our government made some actions to take the guns out of circulation, like paying something about $60 for each one that was delivered (with no penalty for those that wasn´t a legal one), just to get rid of them. This action is very interesting, except for one point: bad guys didn´t give up on their guns. So we weren´t disarming the bad guys.

I personally think that everybody should have the right to have a gun, but it should be a LEGAL one, and the person would have to have a license to have it.

What do you guys think?

Religions of my country - India

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 17:28:00 +0000

Religions in my country, are many, including many religions which were founded here, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism.

The main religion followed in India, is Hinduism (around 78%) followed by Islam, and other religions, including Christianity, Sikhism, Buddhism, Jainism, and smaller segments of Zorastrianism, etc. Since the country is secular, in the terms that there is no state religion, one feature is that there are a multitude of holidays associated with various religions!! This is not so much fun, now, in 'grown-up work life' where holidays inevitabely merge into working days, but as kids going to school, it was fun to have some or the other festival to celebrate.

My personal best memories are associated with celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights, celebrating the return of the God Rama from exile. The parties and gifts associated with Santa and Christmas; and the fantastic cuisine during Eid celebrations.

Here are some images of places of worship, which I thought might be interesting to share:

Jama Masjid (Islam), Old Delhi

Akshardham Temple (Hinduism), New Delhi

Golden Temple (Sikhism), Amritsar

Free posts

noreply@blogger.com (Jock) — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:12:00 +0000

Hello One at All members,

As everybody can see, we´re not have discussions anymore. Maybe it´s because of the obligation to follow a subjetct, which some people don´t like!

My suggestion is that any member can post about any topic, and all the members that have interest on this one, just follow it. Everybody is free to post about anything.

What do you think?

One At All Badge

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:14:00 +0000

Hey guys, i created a simple link button for the project. it looks something like:

You can use the button but please download the image, please do not use the direct link. Let me know what you think about it

Wakey, wakey out there!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 09:08:00 +0000

What's happened to the initial enthusiasm for this project? Come on, everyone, please post. There are over 30 countries signed up now.

Religions in my country -- England

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 20:50:00 +0000

These are the results of a question on religion in the 2001 census (it covers Wales, as well as England, but it gives a reliable picture all the same).

Christian: 77.7% of the population said they were Christians.
Buddhist: 0.3%
Hindu: 1.2%
Jewish: 0.5%
Muslim: 3.2%
Sikh: 0.7%
Any other religion: 0.3%
No religion: 16.1%

We have laws to protect this diversity -- no-one can persecute anyone else for practising their religion. In the past various different groups have been persecuted in England and we are determined that this will not happen again. At present, certain groups of Muslims are seen as a security risk in this country, and every so often a few are arrested and questioned. Some people feel that

I don't know much about the minority religions, but having grown up in a Church of England tradition, I can tell you about that. The Church of England is a branch of Christianity. The ruler of England heads the church, and has the title 'Supreme Governor of the Church of England' in this capacity. The spiritual head of the Church of England is the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The church split off from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534 -- King Henry VIII wanted to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish princess. The Pope (the head of the Roman Catholic Church) refused under pressure from the Spanish royal family. Henry, not willing to let disapproval of God's mouthpiece on earth stop him, made himself head of the Church in England and got his annulment. Ever since then, England's religious affairs have been separate from Rome.

The Church of England is still very obvious in day-t0-day life for many people. The church buildings dominate villages and towns, and although Sunday congregations are dwindling, many people choose to get married in church, to christen their babies and to hold funerals in church.

Churches are often very beautiful, ancient buildings, many of them dating back 1,000 years. Sometimes they are added to over time and so display several different styles of architecture. We bury our dead in and around them. This means that they record people, as well as building styles. The walls inside are often decorated with carved stone or wooden plaques commemorating people who worshipped in the church.

Although the Church of England finances its buildings, they are often looked after by the community. It is these people who will, sometimes voluntarily or for little payment, keep the graveyard neat, decorate the interior with flowers, embroider cushions for the seats, polish the wood- and brasswork, raise money if it is needed for repairs or modernisation and a thousand and one other tasks.

Further reading: Wikipedia article on Church of England.

Religions in my country-- Lithuania

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 07:28:00 +0000

According to statistic, Lithuania is Catholic country. It is hard to imagine any more significant family event without attending a Church. Church towers are inseparable part of Lithuanian landscape. That looks nice, but what does it mean?
We can either believe in God and live by faith or involve into arithmetic- so to say, we can either to love or to talk about the love (we can either trust in God and rejoice at divine peace or to talk about the religions, but the last builds heavy walls of separation-not the unity.
The faith can be only personal. There isn't such thing as a faith of a country. It doesn't matter what language we pray and where we live in the concrete, or what happens around us. We pray to the same God. In other words, in case I meet somebody on around, I don't question him what he believes, but heartily welcome him because I am a believer and my fellow's joy is my joy and his problems are mine too.

Religions in my country--United States

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:45:00 +0000

Well the break down can be seen HERE

I think the fact that 54 million Americans over the age of 18 do NOT believe in evolution says a lot about the religious majority in our country of which our president is a member.

Religions of my country: Scotland

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:05:00 +0000

The 2001 census showed that 65% of Scots identified themselves as Christian and 28% had no religion.

The two main religious groups in Scotland are Protestant (the majority) and Roman Catholic (a significant minority). The Protestant faith has many branches - chiefly Church of Scotland but there is also the Free Church of Scotland, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church.

Islam makes up the other biggest religious group with an estimated 50,000 followers. These are chiefly made up of people of Indian and Pakistani origin who make up the biggest immigrant group in Scotland mostly resident in the West of Scotland. Glasgow has its own mosque.

There are also significant Jewish, Seikh, Hindu and Buddhist communities.

Unfortunately I cannot say that Scotland is a tolerant society. Particularly in the west of Scotland there is a great deal of religious bigotry mostly between Protestants and Catholics. The two main football teams Rangers (traditionally Protestant) and Celtic (traditionally Catholic) encapsulate this. For years Rangers would never sign a Catholic player and vice versa. Though players of all demominations are now signed, bigotry remains among the fans and singing of sectarian (or anti-catholic) songs still happens at matches but is frowned upon officially. It makes me sad writing this to have to admit this happens in my country.

In schools we still have separate state-funded Catholic schools where children receive a certain amount of religious instruction (in Catholicism) at school. In other “non denominational" schools children are taught religious education – ie to understand and appreciate other religions – and hopefully to make them more tolerant and aware of others' beliefs.

Less and less people follow any sort of organised religion with church attendance dropping steeply in recent years. Many churches have been converted to flats, warehouses, a climbing wall (!) or even demolished completely.

We still respect several Christian festivals like Christmas and Easter though the meaning of these seems to be getting lost over time.

Religion is becoming a more personal thing and I think that many people would admit to being spiritual but not to following any type of organised religion. I have a couple of friends who are Buddhists but don’t really talk about their beliefs. From a personal viewpoint I was born a Protestant, went to Sunday school and church when I was a child but don’t follow any organised religion now. I do, however, have personal spiritual beliefs and believe in many of the concepts of Christianity (and other religions) like loving and forgiving my fellow human beings.

Religions of my country - Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:38:00 +0000

My country is known for its multi-racial community. Everyone lives in harmony and there is no racial tension even though our official religion is Islam. We, the non-muslims, are lucky to be able to practice and believe in our own faith openly. According the Malaysian constitution, the majority ethnic group, the Malays, are legally defined as Muslim. They constitute 58% of the population, with the remainder consisting mostly of Indians, who are generally Hindus, and Chinese, who are generally Buddhists or Christians. As for the natives in East Malaysia such as Iban, Bidayuh, Kadazan etc. are generally Christians.

Islam
Let's talk about Islam first as it's the offical religion of Malaysia. Majortiy of the believers are Malay. There are also other races that embrace Islam as their religion but all Malays are automatically Muslims. While there is no actual legal restraint against Muslims renouncing their faith in favour of another faith, in practice very few Muslims actually convert. This is partly due to the fact it is extremely difficult for Muslims to convert, as there are serious legal implications and Islam plays a major role in the Malay community for centuries thus resulting into very strong adherents.

The muslims prayers are aired on TV, radio and tru' PA system from the mosque 5 times everyday. They fast during Ramadhan and end their fast when Syawal is here which the celebration is widely known as Aidilfitri or Eid ul-Fitr. Be it the Muslim or non-muslims, everyone will be visiting friend that celebrate it. We share the celebration even we are non-muslims. We have fun mingling around with each other and are served with various yummylicious food. *DROOL* Something worth a mention here is that, when our muslims friends are fasting, usually we won't eat or drink in front of them to show our respect to them unless they told you that it's OK for us to drink and eat in front of them. However, for me, even if they said that it's OK, I will still avoid eating and drinking in front of them, I just don't feel it's right for me to do that.

There are too many of them, I will just cover those common religions. The followings are not in particular order. :

Christianity
The major Christian denominations in Malaysia include the Charismatic churches, Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church and Methodists. Churches are allowed in Malaysia though there are some restrictions on construction of new churches. No pre-existing churches have been closed down by the government and no standing congregations have been disbanded. It has been the practice of the church in Malaysia to not actively proselytize to the Muslim community. Christian literature are required by law to carry a caption "for non-muslims only". Actual modes of worship such as the liturgy used and the sermons are not actively censored or controlled by the government. Occasional surveillance of worship by clandestine operatives does occur. Christians celebrate Christmas and Good Friday.

Buddhism
As a religion without a supreme head to direct its development in Malaysia, Buddhism is practised in various forms, which, although rarely in open conflict, can sometimes lead to confusion among Buddhists. Buddhism has often been described as a gentle religion which does not carry out an active program to seek converts. They celebrate Wesak Day, a holiday commemorating the birth of the Buddha. The common rituals you will come across are chanting of sutras, lamps lit, flowers offered, jossticks burning, heaven or hell money burning etc.

Hinduism
Approximately nine percent of the population of Malaysia are Tamil Indians, of whom close to 95 percent are practicing Hindus. Malaysian Hinduism is diverse, with large urban temples dedicated to specific deities, and smaller temples located on estates. The estate temples generally follow the tradition of the Indian region from which the temples' worshippers originate. The hindus celebrate Deepavali.

No matter what is our belives, we celebrate and share them together, we respect each other religion's practice. Thank goodness Christmas, Deepavali, Wesak are not banned unlike some countries that banned people from celebrating Christmas because they said that it's a disrespect to other people of other religions. Believe it or not? Even in Malaysia we are from different religions, we still wish each other wishes like "Merry Christmas", "Happy Deepavali","Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri"(Happy Eid ul-Fitr) etc. even though we might not be celebrating it.

It's no big deal ok? There's nothing wrong in sharing the celebrations. I really don't understand how some people think that if you are not belong to certain religion, you cannot share the joy of the celebration. We should share the joy and happiness with those around you. If only everyone is open in accepting each other differences, the world would be a better place to live. Well... I'm not saying that Malaysia is perfect, there are of course little tensions here and there among races but it's very minimal as we are just human. However, when it comes to celebration, all those little tensions will lossen up and everyone will join in the fun and so far we had not heard of anything like people spoiling others' celebrations. The 13th May 1969 incident is a lesson for us to learn and we don't want to have that happen again.

Peace to everybody!

~Posted by Sweet Surrender~

Religions of my country - Germany

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 19:33:00 +0000

I guess everyone assumes that Germany as a western European country has a strongly Christian-based religious foundation. And it's true - but this is the country of Martin Luther who tried to smash the hegemony of the catholic church in Rome and divided Germany for hundreds of years in two oppposite camps including some of most brutal religious wars ever fought out 30-Years' War) which wiped out over 50% of the population in some areas.
A lot changed since then - fortunately. Anyway the latest elections showed that region where since the 17th century are more catholic tend to vote for the conservatives while regions that are more evangelic since then vote social democratic. That is even more suprising since in Eastern (former GDR) Germany there is a great loss of faith and an enormous rise of atheism. So much for the Christianity.
The Jews in Germany were over centuries part of the German culture and often before the Holocaust victims of organised violence. While over 6 million European Jews were killed by the Nazi system, it is assumed that "only" 200.000 were Germans. In the 1930s there were about 500.000-600.000 Jews in Germany, today again a rising amount (from the former Soviet Union) of 200.000 are living in Germany.
Quite new religions in Germany are espescially those from the European foreign countries that were brought here by people who came for work during the Wirtschaftswunder. For instance, 3.2 million muslims are living in Germany nowadays and also a lot of Orthodox Christians.
31% Catholics, 31% Protestants, 31% Atheists, 5% Muslims are living in Germany. However, the attendance rate of going to the curch services are particularly low - and even lower in evangelic regions.

Religions of my country

noreply@blogger.com (Jock) — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 20:52:00 +0000

We live in a big mix of culture in our planet - and that´s our magic! We´re still learning to live with all the differences: colors, foods, costumes, customs, religio, etc.

The point now is: what are the Religions of your country?

__________________________________________
Results of the poll:

Religions of my country 37%
Bad words from my country 26%
If I could, I'd like be the born again in XXX, because... 16%
Gun control and gun laws 11%
The democracy in my country 11%

The invention I would like to be created is - Lithuania

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 23:33:00 +0000

I am so happy for you and so sorry for my weak English.

My post may look like having nothing in common with what I would dream to be created, but I would like we all would stay in a hug of mutual understanding and love. Isn't humanity not the family? One huge family. We all should recognize ourselves as children of the light who walk under the same heaven.

The artists are renaming the byways into the highways and don’t stop wondering at the absence of the traffic there. In other words, we encounter the reality where the toys of lovely fairy tales of our childhood awake only in midnights… the toys wonder, why people, who talk about spiritual oneness of the humanity, cluster into the striving between groups for to express their faith aloud.
I would name the artists the priests of the light that refreshes all who seek for her…and even those who don’t bother for any meaning. However if I name a knife the daily bread, would you understand me?
And thus the artists become the disabled, who are too weak to live in a town and fight themselves.

Thank you for reading my post. You became the inseparable part of my heart.

Extra Topic

noreply@blogger.com (Jock) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:13:00 +0000

Hello everybody!

I was wondering that all the members from One at All Project could make a conference by Skype, or any other VoIP system, and maybe get to talk a little bit, know a little bit more about each other, anda have a nice talking!

Would it be possible and interesting?

The invention I would like to be created is - Brazil

noreply@blogger.com (Jock) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 12:08:00 +0000

Well, I was wondring, and I have dozens of inventions that I´d like to be created. ut I think that one of them could solve all the problems: a time machine. So we can come back, and maybe change a lot of things that happened , so we could change the present.

What do you think about this one?

The invention I would like to be created is - Malaysia

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:09:00 +0000

It took me so long to come out with any idea. It's tough. Finally, I guess what we need now is the cure for those diseases that are uncurable such as AIDS.

~~~Posted by Sweet Surrender ~~~

The invention I would like to be created is - Venezuela

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 22:38:00 +0000

After reading inventions like cure for AIDS (or ME) or Harry Potter's transport device, my idea may seem shallow... actually it's not mine, I read about it somewhere and I thought it'd be awfully cool, so there it goes:

Some kind of tattoo that can change its shape according to our taste. It'd be made of nano machines inserted under our skin that can communicate with our computer and take the form of any drawing we want, pretty much like printing a sheet of paper. That way, if you break up with your girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse your new partner don't have to see your ex's name every time you shower together... Or if your favorite band suddenly starts making crappy music, you can switch to your new favorite band. Not very faithful but at least is convenient.

I know, I know... there are more important things in the world, but looking cool while we solve the rest of the problems is not that bad, is it?

The invention that I would like to be created is... Philippines

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:23:00 +0000

You guys might think I"m either crazy or backward, but I've been thinking, and really, I don't suppose we do need any more inventions.

Most of us are too technically-wired as it is (including you and me, and the rest of the blogging community), and even then, our highly technological society is stressed enough and overloaded enough trying to juggle all these new inventions that pop out a- hundred new ones-a minute.

I was thinking of an excerpt from Antoine de Saint Exupery's "The Little Prince" and the Little Prince was being offered a pill that allowed you not to drink water for a day or so. It saved you a certain number of minutes in a whole year, just by not going to a well/a ref/a water dispenser to drink water to quench your thirst.

The Little Prince was curious about this "new" pill. But then he asked, what will I do with the minutes I'm saving by not drinking water?

The man selling the non-thirsty pill answered that eh could do so many things...

The Little Prince replied that if he had a few minutes to spare in his lifetime, he would use it to slowly walk to a well/a ref, a water dispenser, and slowly drink in that cool, refreshing glass of pure water.

With that analogy, I too personally think that "the drink of cool refreshing water" is what we all really need. Not the "pill" but the water.

The invention that I would like to be created is... (Singapore)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 06:23:00 +0000

a device that allows us to apparate (just like in Harry Potter).

With a device like that, we will be able to transport ourselves to our destinations within seconds, especially during peak hours when public transports are usually packed to the brim. I really hate having to squeeze with the crowd. Also, apparating saves time and we can use the time that is normally used for travelling to do other stuffs.