School Shooting - What makes a person kill

On 23rd September 2008, 10 students were shot dead by Matti Saari who then turned the gun on himself. (http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gmPkjy3Rc56YqQQ1LYm_OfXgW5VwD93DDESG0) Reading the article above made me reflect on what is becoming to the human race.

A quick search on Google on “school shooting” revealed 1,780,000 results. I clicked on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_shooting and I would not be lying when I say that my jaw dropped. I extracted the following:

Mind you, these are just the recent incidents for USA. There are many other documented cases that are listed at the website above. Reading these statistics really made me think whether by the time I have children, would it be safe for me to send my kids to schools?

While I take profound comfort at the strict gun control laws in Malaysia (probably the only reason why there aren’t any school shooting incidents in my country) I cannot but worry whether it will be safe for me to send my kids to school by the time they are of school going age. I cannot remember with absolute certainty but I do recall reading in the newspapers that students are getting more unruly and violent.

But what intrigued me most was what makes a person kill? I would like to quote Tapio Varmola, principal of Seinajoki University of Applied Sciences who commented on Matti Saari:

"I personally feel that maybe there are too many silent young boys in Finland who are alone. The parents, the schools and the healthcare system should do something together with young boys".
(http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/9/25/worldupdates/2008-09-24T233624Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-356358-1&sec=Worldupdates)

If silence can drive a person to kill, then I believe a possible solution to stop these killings would be to talk to as many people as possible. What do you think?

The corrective actions for us all is to play our part by reaching out to as many people as possible, regardless of gender, race, age and etc. What I mean is – START TALKING & START SAVING LIVES!

The truth about promises - how to keep them

Promises are like babies: easy to make, hard to deliver. ~Author Unknown

Half the promises people say were never kept, were never made. ~Edgar Watson Howe

The best way to keep one's word is not to give it. ~Napoleon Bonaparte

For every promise, there is price to pay. ~Jim Rohn

Promises are like crying babies in a theatre, they should be carried out at once. ~Norman Vincent Peale

We must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot. ~Abraham Lincoln

Promise is defined as (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=promises&sub=Search+WordNet&o2=&o0=1&o7=&o5=&o1=1&o6=&o4=&o3=&h=000000)
Noun
S: (n) promise (a verbal commitment by one person to another agreeing to do (or not to do) something in the future)
S: (n) promise, hope (grounds for feeling hopeful about the future) "there is little or no promise that he will recover"
Verb
S: (v) promise, assure (make a promise or commitment)
S: (v) promise (promise to undertake or give) "I promise you my best effort"
S: (v) predict, foretell, prognosticate, call, forebode, anticipate, promise (make a prediction about; tell in advance) "Call the outcome of an election"
S: (v) promise (give grounds for expectations) "The new results were promising"; "The results promised fame and glory"

In view of so many broken promises, especially in light of the recent financial market meltdown in USA, can we ever trust someone who has broken their promises? It has become a norm for companies to over promise but under deliver; they promised something that they know couldn’t be delivered. For me, I would think that promises should only be made after careful consideration and must be delivered at all costs instead of saying it for the sake of saying it resulting in the failure of delivering the promise. One of the most important lessons that I have learnt is to under promise but over deliver; it simply means giving more than what was promised. End of the day, everyone is selling something, be it a product or service (in the form of a promise; this product / service can do this and this and this etc).

Using the financial market meltdown in USA as an example, can you imagine how does the employees, who are laid off, feel now that they are jobless and that they retirement plans are wrecked due to the fact that the companies that they have been slogging for numerous years have filed for bankruptcy? With this image in mind, how important it is for us to keep our promises?

Of the promises that I listed above, I do not agree with Napoleon Bonaparte’s way of keeping a promise. I think the best way to keep promises is to understand the implications of being able to deliver them and the implications of not being able to deliver them.

What do you think?

The truth about values

Enron filed for bankruptcy 2nd December 2001 leading to the massive plunge of its share prices from a high of more than USD90.00 to USD0.50. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal)

The main reason for Enron’s fall is no doubt the Arthur Andersen accounting firm (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen)

The recent US financial meltdown is truly a déjà vu experience because history is repeating itself.

In the wake of the Enron scandal, we have the Bear Stearns fiasco (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns), Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and last but not least AIG. The massive losses posted by companies in the US financial market has directly prompted the Bush administration’s current proposal to spend USD700 billion capital injection to prop their financial market from crashing. At the same time, the FBI is investigating these firms for possible mortgage fraud (http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/23/news/companies/fbi_finance/index.htm?cnn=yes).

To the best of my knowledge, corporations / companies are inanimate entities. It is the employees that makes or breaks corporations / companies. This fact leads me to question myself: what is it that made the above giant corporations to suffer massive financial losses? Surely the answer cannot be luck (or lack of it) or they were at the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. I believe the answer for the above scandals is simple: the corporations failed mainly because of wrong values.

Values is defined as (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=values)
S: (n) values (beliefs of a person or social group in which they have an emotional investment (either for or against something)) "he has very conservatives values"

The basis for the massive financial market meltdown is US is largely blamed on the subprime mortgage crisis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subprime_mortgage_crisis). In my opinion, that is not the real reason. The real reason behind the US financial market meltdown is the values of the employees in the corporations have ‘evolved’ drastically to the extent that they are no longer recognizable. Now why in the world would I say that?

Let me ask a simple question: who wouldn’t want lots of money? As corporations are inanimate entities, the financial health of corporations falls into the jurisdiction of the company’s board of directors. I think I would not be wrong to say that the word ‘directors’ was derived from ‘direct’ as in to provide directions. The biggest pre-requisite for directors should be the values that they subscribe to. If the directions provided by a director does not have good values embedded in it, chances are the outcome would be disastrous, as is evident in the financial meltdown in U.S.

Coming back to my earlier question: who wouldn’t want lots of money? Making lots of money isn’t difficult at all, that is if a person doesn’t subscribe to good values. Plenty of career options available for people who subscribe to dishonesty, selfishness and blatant disregard to rules / laws. But most end up behind bars. The truth about values is simple: good values will prevail over bad values. For a person who subscribe to honesty, selflessness and abides by rules / laws, it may be prove to take a longer time to accumulate lots of money but at the very least, the chances of them ending up behind bars are very low.

The corrective action = please educate and instil good values in children, relatives, friends, community, colleagues and everyone that you know in order to prevent any undesirable circumstances.

The truth about logic

Logic is defined as (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=logic)
S: (n) logic (the branch of philosophy that analyzes inference)
S: (n) logic (reasoned and reasonable judgment) "it made a certain kind of logic"
S: (n) logic (the principles that guide reasoning within a given field or situation) "economic logic requires it"; "by the logic of war"
S: (n) logic (the system of operations performed by a computer that underlies the machine's representation of logical operations)
S: (n) logic, logical system, system of logic (a system of reasoning)

With the vast increase in literacy rates since 1900, it is logical to assume that people are getting more educated. With more people getting more educated, it is logical to assume that the world should be having less issues / crises. What defies logic is the fact that instead of progressing forward, I suspect that the human civilization is actually regressing backwards (http://correctiveactions.blogspot.com/2008/08/truth-about-humans-are-we-evolving-or.html). How so? I met E.T’s (http://correctiveactions.blogspot.com/2008/07/are-you-et.html) who are highly educated but do not behave as a highly educated person. We proudly call ourselves civilized (human civilization) but we conveniently forget our civilities when it comes to discussion on corrective actions.

If it is logical for humans to live together in peace, why have we not achieved world peace? As the number of educated people increases, how is it logical that the chances for world peace actually diminishes instead of being increased? The hostilities that are happening world wide are mainly due to misunderstanding arising from ignorance of political, religious or cultural differences from one another. I have yet to come across a country who can proudly claim that their country’s politics are not marred by dirt / grime / mud). Surely that is illogical because politics are meant to be clean but how is it that politicians end up becoming dirty?

All of the religions in the world preached about living together in harmony. Is it logical that we end up killing one another to uphold the good name of our religions? What if one day an alien race were to come in peace but they do not practice any of our religions? Do we tell them “I am sorry but I have to exterminate you because you are a pagan?”. I find such thinking highly illogical befitting a civilized person.

Cultural differences have sparked many deaths as well. I read that in India, where banned caste systems are still being practiced, young couples are executed by their own family members because they tried to marry some1 from a lower caste. Human race has 6,000 years of recorded history, despite all these years, is it logical for us to continue to behave how we had behaved?

One of the definitions for crazy is doing the same thing over and over again BUT expecting different results. Taking into consideration that human race is behaving the same way but expecting world peace without making the extra effort to do so is tantamount to crazy. Is this a logical assumption?

The corrective action for us to progress forward is to adopt a logical approach in whatever we do. What do you think?

The Truth About Superstitions

“Break a mirror and risk 7 years of bad luck” was something that I read in one of the many The Adventures of Tintin comic book series (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin) during my younger days.

I remember vividly when I showed the comic to my father and asked him “Why seven years, not more or less”?. He replied that it was an old belief by the Westerners.

Growing up, I discovered that for most of the superstitions, when I asked around, nobody knew the reason for such beliefs. Superstition is defined as (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=superstition) :

S: (n) superstition, superstitious notion (an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear)

For a more elaborate definition on superstition, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstition

As superstition is defined as an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear, since knowledge was limited to the wealthy or nobility since ancient times, it makes sense that with the literacy rates increasing, the number of superstitions would slowly vanish. The main reason why superstitions would not vanish is because adults continue to emphasize it to their young. Some of the more common ones include (http://www.oldsuperstitions.com/) :
* An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
* All wishes on shooting stars come true.
* Friday the 13th.
* Walking under a ladder.
* 4 leaf clover / horseshoe
The list goes on and on.

It is human nature to blame, justify and give excuses as it is comparatively easier, and safer, than to investigate the actual reason. For an example, Friday the 13th is nothing more than an observation that a series of natural and man-made disasters taking place on Friday the 13th. It doesn’t make sense to me because every single day, there is a disaster, be it natural or man-made. I believe that births are a celebration of life and every single day thousands of new babies are born across the globe. This being the case, how can Friday the 13th be classified as a ‘bad’ day?

The 4 leaf clover / horseshoe are ancient beliefs symbolizing good luck – but how much research has been conducted on it to prove that they really do bring good luck? The truth about superstition is that if you believe in them, they will become manifest in your subconscious mind and the law of attraction will attract the necessary forces in the universe to make your belief come true. But where do you draw the line? Do you believe in all of them or only in the ones that you choose that you want to believe in? For me, I choose to believe in facts, not fiction. The corrective action would be for parents to stop disseminating such false beliefs to their children. I came across the following saying:

There is no cure for stupidity but there is a remedy for ignorance; it is called learning.

Superstition is a way of the past – in this era of Knowledge Economy, there is no room for ignorance.

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The truth about being tactful

In this modern day of nanotechnology, it is strange to see that humans are evolving (or are we devolving) (http://correctiveactions.blogspot.com/2008/08/truth-about-humans-are-we-evolving-or.html) into something more primitive when it comes to manners and tactfulness.

I come from a contact centre background and I am surprised that instead of becoming more tactful, people are becoming less tactful. In fact, consumers are capitalizing on any given opportunities to yell, scream and holler at customer service agents over the phone simply because they think they can. Many people think that the reason for them to behave in such a manner is because they were influenced by the media. I beg to differ.

In the movie “The Dark Knight”, Michael Caine played the role of Alfred PennyWorth. Rachel Dawes, Bruce Wayne’s long time girlfriend, handed an unsealed note to Alfred to be handed to Bruce. Rachel meant to tell Bruce that she has chosen Harvey Dent and that she will be marrying Harvey. Bruce was in a daze when he found out that he couldn’t save Rachel, the one woman he truly loves, and he muttered “she was going to wait for me”. Alfred, being tactful, decided that Bruce should be spared from the pain that was written in Rachel’s note and decided to burn the note. Throughout the movie, Alfred is the epitome of tactfulness.

Tactfulness is defined as the following: (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=tactful)
*S: (adj) tactful (having or showing a sense of what is fitting and considerate in dealing with others) "she was tactful enough not to shatter his illusion"; "a tactful remark eased her embarrassment"
*S: (adj) tactful, kid-glove (showing skill and sensitivity in dealing with people) "by diplomatic conduct he avoided antagonizing anyone"; "a tactful way of correcting someone"; "the agency got the kid-glove treatment on Capitol Hill"

In my opinion, tactfulness can only be applied when one is in control of one’s emotions; my MALT concept (http://correctiveactions.blogspot.com/2008/07/truth-about-mind-does-mind-exist.html) was derived specifically to emphasize how important it is for us to retain full control of our thinking faculties instead of subjecting ourselves to be emotionally hijacked into becoming an E.T. (http://correctiveactions.blogspot.com/2008/07/are-you-et.html)
Do share your thoughts.

The truth about humans - are we evolving or devolving?

What are the distinct characteristics that define a human? Is the human race evolving or devolving? In line with the saying ‘you reap what you sow’, I believe that in our race for evolution, we have successfully sowed the seeds of devolution. With the possible exception of the African continent, I believe that obesity is a major health concern faced by countless nations across the globe. Obese people have higher risks of being afflicted with:
* Cardiovascular diseases due to high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels.
* Diabetes
* Osteoarthritis
* Cancer

While it is true that the average lifespan for humans has increased tremendously from 47.3 years in 1900 to 77.8 in 2004 (from U.S. Statistics http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus07.pdf#027) mainly due to the advancement of medical sciences, advancement in general technology has led humans to lead a more comfortable live due to less physical exertion. It is because of less physical exertion that is directly contributing to the ‘devolution’ of the human race. Are these diseases a result of evolution of devolution?

In line with the saying ‘what goes up must come down’, isn’t it possible that by reaching the peak of evolution, the human race must face devolution? Surely after 6,000 years of recorded human civilization, the human race has evolved near peak levels? Take for an example in the Beijing Olympics 2008, where Michael Fred Phelps (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Phelps) won the most number of gold medals at a single Olympics, a total of eight. In terms of human physique, if this is not an indication that the human race has evolved to near peak levels, I do not know what this is.

In terms of scientific advancement, physicists have made many breakthroughs in quantum physics to the extent that even the smallest building block particle has been proven to exist. In fact, scientists are building a USD8 billion international physics laboratory called CERN (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9473392). In terms of economic activities, the numbers of billionaires are increasing annually. In terms of academic achievements, the students are continuously creating new academic records. In every single field of study, new records are being created. If these are not indications of human evolution are near peak levels, what are they?

To quote the following sayings:
* We have eyes but we choose not to see
* We have ears but we choose not to hear

* We have limbs but we choose not to act

What are the corrective actions for us to implement if the continuous evolution will mean devolution for the majority of the global populace? Perhaps we should research into making daily tasks more physically challenging? I have no answers, only more questions. Do share your thoughts.

The truth about babies

Most parents I come across end up telling me that babies are easy to take care. Little do they know that they are being taken care by the baby. You may think I am a lunatic but I have seen how a smile from a baby wipes away the frown on a parent’s face; mind you, that parent just lost his job and chances of him getting employed was bleak.

In this case, who is taking care of whom? Yes, the parent is taking care of the baby in terms of food, clothing and shelter but the baby ‘fed’ the parent’s emotional needs. Many adults sneer at me when I said that there are many things we can learn from babies; until I asked them whether it is true that babies ALWAYS stand up regardless of the number of times they fall down. I read in the newspapers that teens and adults commit suicide but have never come across an article of a baby committing suicide. How it is a baby can handle greater adversity than a teen or an adult? I believe the answer is simple: they are innocent (a polite term for ignorance), thus the saying “ignorance is bliss”.

I read somewhere children as young as 8 can master 5 different languages given the proper lessons. I am 30 but I dare not claim that I master a single language. It means that right from birth, babies never stop learning but as adults, somehow we decided that we can stop learning because we have hit a certain number in our age. What adults tend to brush off is that babies or young children is able to learn because they remain focused. After all, they have no bills to pay, no deadlines to hit, no social issues to deal with, no headaches to worry about who to vote for in the coming elections etc. Perhaps the stumbling block for adults to learn is how to remain focused despite surmounting issues?

Back to babies, there are babies who cry all the time and parents try different kind of tricks to get their babies to stop crying and in most cases, the parents will succeed in their mission. In the adult world, there are delinquents who misbehaves but do the rest of the adults try different kind of tricks to get them to behave? I have seen how one baby tries to calm another baby that is crying; mind you, these babies are total strangers to one another in a shopping mall. But I do not see adult strangers consoling one another if one of them cries.

Once the babies learn how to talk, it seems that nothing can stop them from talking. With the advancement of emails and SMS (text messaging), it seems that adults are talking less and less. The truth about babies: we have lots to learn from them.

The truth about learning - what is your learning quotient

There is no doubt about it – children learn things very quickly. Even the most powerful computer in the world has yet to rival a child’s learning capacity. I have come across terms such as IQ (intelligence quotient), EQ (emotional quotient) and SQ (spiritual quotient) but I when I tried to Google ‘learning quotient’ and found that there was no definition, I was truly shocked.

In my opinion, Learning Quotient (LQ) should be given immediate emphasis, adults and children alike, because it plays an important role in our daily lives. Why is this important? Because every individual has different inclinations, such as visual, audio, action oriented, arithmetic and etc, it is important for us to gauge the best way for the individual to learn. And I felt that this can be best demonstrated via LQ. Humans need to be taught, and in order to be taught, the students must be able to learn.

For teachers (or parents or bosses for that matter) to teach effectively, I would like to think that LQ would enable them to understand why some students (or children or employees) learn faster from the rest. A simple test could be the following scenario:

Scenario 1
A teacher writes “1 +1 = 2” on the blackboard

Scenario 2
A teacher says one plus one equals to two.

Scenario 3
A teacher gives all the students 2 peas each and explains why 1 + 1 = 2

Scenario 4
A teacher gets the students to come up with different examples of the concept.

All 4 scenarios involves a teacher trying to teach students simple mathematics via different methods:

Scenario 1 = visual learner
Scenario 2 = audio learner
Scenario 3 = action learner
Scenario 4 = reaction learner = learns more as they teach

It seems deceptively simple but I assure that in real life situation, many parents or bosses take for granted that their children or employees learn from only ONE of the above scenarios, usually audio. Which is the reason why we keep hearing “how many times must I say….” and “didn’t I tell you this 3 times before?”.

I have seen it happen many times in real life how sports coaches tried in vain to tell their players not to repeat certain moves. If only they take the trouble to record the actions on video and show it to their players, they may save themselves a lot of misery.

There are probably a lot more scenarios to LQ and it would be great if you could share more with me.