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Monday, July 6, 2020

Christopher Columbus statue toppled by US protesters

Protesters raise their fists as they stand on the base of a statue of Christopher Columbus in front of City Hall during an "International March for Black Lives" protest against police brutality in downtown Columbus, Ohio. - Protests continue across the nation over police brutality and systemic racism have taken place following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month. (Photo by SETH HERALD / AFP)

https://youtu.be/TdomoLSwoqc


WASHINGTON: Protesters in the US city of Baltimore pulled down a statue of Christopher Columbus on Saturday, local media reported, the latest monument to be toppled in anti-racism demonstrations.

Statues of figures connected to colonialism and slavery have been ripped from their plinths in the United States and around the world since Black Lives Matter protests were sparked by the killing of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May.

Footage published by the Baltimore Sun showed protesters using ropes to pull down the statue of Columbus – the Italian navigator who reached the Americas in 1492 – near the city's Little Italy district and rolling it into the Inner Harbor on the night of July 4.

Long hailed as the so-called discoverer of "The New World," Columbus is considered by many to have spurred years of genocide against indigenous groups in the Americas. He is regularly denounced in a similar way to Civil War generals of the pro-slavery South.

President Donald Trump earlier mentioned the sailor in his speech to mark the July 4 holiday, when Americans typically celebrate their 1776 declaration of independence from Britain.

"Together, we will fight for the American dream, and we will defend, protect, and preserve the American way of life which began in 1492 when Columbus discovered America," he said in an address in which he railed against protesters demanding racial justice.

"We are now in the process of defeating the radical left, the anarchists, the agitators, the looters, and the people who, in many instances, have absolutely no clue what they are doing," he said.

"We will never allow an angry mob to tear down our statues, erase our history, indoctrinate our children."

The president last month signed an executive order pledging to enforce prosecution for protesters who vandalise public memorials, promising "long prison terms" for "lawless acts against our Great Country!"

A statue of Columbus was taken down in San Francisco last month because the explorer's actions "do not deserve to be venerated," city officials said, and another was removed from California's state capital Sacramento.

Elsewhere, a statue of Belgium's King Leopold II – who ruled over a brutal regime in Africa – was removed in the port city of Antwerp and a monument to slave trader Edward Colston was ripped down in Bristol in the United Kingdom. - AFP


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Sunday, July 5, 2020

The start-up economy

THE global start-up economy generates nearly US$3 trillion in value, similar to the gross domestic product of a G7 economy.


Seven of the Top 10 largest companies in the world are in technology. This is the highest concentration of any industry sector among the top global companies and 2019 saw close to Us$300bil in venture capital investments.

Silicon Valley remains in the top spot for start-up ecosystems, followed by New York, London, Beijing and Boston.

This was revealed in the Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 (GSER2020) report by Startup Genome. It was based on data from one million companies across 150 cities worldwide.

By the end of 2019, things were getting less rosy and the Covid-19 pandemic battered it further. This caused start-ups to experience a drop in consumer demand and venture capital funding that resulted in a wave of layoffs. Tech giants like Wework and the stable of unicorns funded by Softbank began to falter.

Every crisis creates opportunities. During the Great Recession of 2007-2009, 50 unicorns including Facebook, Linkedin, Palantir and Dropbox were created.

A major beneficiary of this democratisation of tech is the Asia-pacific region, which has gone from having 20% of top ecosystems in 2012 to 30%, the report said.

Of the 11 new ecosystems, six are from the Asia-pacific region.

The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) has partnered with Startup Genome to benchmark Kuala Lumpur’s performance versus 250 ecosystems globally.

Kuala Lumpur is ranked in the Top 10 emerging ecosystems in performance, and top 20 emerging ecosystems in talent.

Malaysia has positioned itself as an ideal locale for start-ups, with low costs, high quality of living and talent, fasttracked visas and government support, according to MDEC.

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The Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2020 - Startup Genome

Saturday, July 4, 2020

Deleted memories and masked conversations by the West and Hong Kongers

Hong Kongers and the West have forgotten that Hong Kong was a forced ‘concession’ territory from China at gunpoint. The colonial history books that Hong Kongers want to preserve portray China as corrupt, evil and oppressive, as if Britain occupied Hong Kong for democratic purposes.

  https://youtu.be/WIcP7pNtmmA

What you should know about China's new national security law for Hong Kong


https://youtu.be/_kVfsXQM01k

https://youtu.be/mrqOHpP5524

Has Democracy ever existed in HK under British colonial rule?英国学者:回归前的香港有民主吗?Martin Jacques

https://youtu.be/L7BEGpfuVi8


STATUES represent memories of the past, both glory and shame. With Bristol taking down the statue of slave trader, later philanthropist Edward Colston (1636-1721), US protestors have started taking down statues of Civil War or slave-tainted personalities. Law and order President Trump want to protect statues against desecration.

Who is right?

History contains more icons of past glories and few memories of bad losses. One of the worst defeats in British military history is remembered in the comic phrase “up the Khyber Pass” when in 1842 British forces retreated out of Afghanistan and lost 16,000 troops and civilians, with only one survivor. Up the Khyber Pass means today an expletive project without an exit strategy, blunders both the Russians and Americans repeated in Afghanistan.

The prestigious magazine Foreign Affairs devoted a whole issue in January/february 2018 on how countries have grappled with their past brutality. Museums and public education help explain why these events occur and how we should deal with them as a community. Remembering is painful, discussion is difficult and blaming deepens the divide.

All individuals, families and nations have blunders, tragedies and scandals that they prefer to forget. They deal with these in their own way.

Some forget, others hide their shame, a few atone for their past crimes by engaging in philanthropy or doing good deeds, and smart ones hire PR firms to make them look good. But memories and instant history that we watch unfold today are over-whelming. Today’s eight billion smartphone/cameras record all events real-time.

Reducing complex events and trends as tweets and soundbites paint the world as false binaries of black and white, good versus evil. Instead of finding solutions to the mess we are in, quasi-religious emotion over-rides rational process. So we delete or cancel what we do not like or blame them on someone else. Such emotion is understandable at a time of pandemic, shock and trauma. New York Times columnist David Brooks identified what America is going through as five epic crises all at once - bungling the pandemic; dealing with racism; political polarisation; quasi-religious struggle; and economic depression. From this side of the Pacific, it looks more like America going through her own “cultural revolution” – a rite of passage for every community in times of profound change.

Since July 1997, Hong Kong is still going through her painful cultural revolution.

Under the One Country Two Systems philosophy, no colonial statues or street names were changed. But Hong Kongers and the West have forgotten that Hong Kong was a forced “concession” territory from China at gunpoint.

The colonial history books that Hong Kongers want to preserve portray China as corrupt, evil and oppressive, as if Britain occupied Hong Kong for democratic purposes. Today, Britain is haunted also by her slavery history, just as Australian aborigines, New Zealand Maoris and Canadian native Americans bear the brunt of post-colonial injustices, with serious social problems that the elites have ignored for years.

How can Americans condemn others’ human right abuses, when America has the highest number of people in jail, of which the majority are African Americans and Hispanics? None of us are so clean of sins that we can morally judge others.

In other words, if your memory of what happened is very different from my memory, how can we communicate with each? And if I delete what you consider an important statue that represents to you very important values and meaning, who judges who is right?

Behind this deep social divide is the debate over the use of face masks. Throughout East Asia, there are few cultural taboos against wearing masks when the pandemic started.

Indeed, East Asians avoided much of the pandemic spread because most people instinctively wore masks because they understood the dual benefits of protecting self and others.

In the US, however, there is aversion to wearing masks, beginning with US President Trump as if it is a challenge to individual ego and right against any state interference in individual freedom.

The pandemic and the economic lockdown have put this conflict between individual “good” or right that leads to public harm. Individual freedoms or rights are not absolute at the expense of others.

As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof says in “Refusing to Wear a Mask is like Driving Drunk”: it is “reckless, selfish behaviour that imperils the economy and can kill or endanger innocent people.”

You get double whammy of hurting the economy and lives at the same time.

In “Covid-19 and the End of Individualism”, Cambridge economist Diane Coyle reminded us that humans are social beings whose every decision affects other people.

To monitor and evaluate this interactive and interdependent risk requires the state to monitor where the communal risks lie, using tools such as contact tracing apps.

But these apps can also be used for commercial or national security purposes.

The real problem is that the public good versus individual privacy and rights issue is extremely controversial with few good answers. Increasingly, we become aware that an individual or virus can take down an entire economy, supply chain or defense system. The marginal costs of such a viral attack is very small compared to the ensuing disaster. This pandemic alone cost US$10 trillion this year and perhaps US$30 trillion to 2023. Deleted memories that interrupt our social discussion on how to cope with the post-covid world is far more complex than we could have imagined. What civilisational model fits an individual and the communal good in this age of climate change, social inequality, disruptive technology and intense geopolitical rivalry?

This civilisational conversation is only just beginning. Every family, community and nation engage in their internal conversation in different ways, because all have painful memories to resolve. Some do it through mega-phones, shouting slogans at each other, others do it quietly below the radar screen.

Our conversations with our loved ones, parents, spouses, partners, friends, are often conducted through silences rather than outright open quarrels.

But if we are to remain a family, community or nation, that conversation must be conducted, however painful and difficult.

We must find the common threads that bind us, or else they will break us.

Andrew Shengby Andrew Sheng


Views expressed here are solely that of the writer’s writer’s.

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WhatsApp Tips: How to clear WhatsApp cache when you are running low on phone memory


HIGHLIGHTS

  • Media files received on WhatsApp can occupy a lot of memory on our smartphones.

  • Deleting media files from WhatsApp’s memory also erases them from your phone memory.

  • However, this trick can be used only on Android smartphones.
WhatsApp is arguably one of the most popular social messaging apps in the world. Every day millions of users exchange messages on WhatsApp in the form of text, videos, voice recordings, GIFs, stickers, location, documents and more. These files often end up taking a lot of space on our smartphones. And if you use the Facebook-owned social messaging app frequently and are actively involved in a number of groups, it can also lead to WhatsApp media files and documents increasingly filling up your phone memory.

This problem can be exacerbated if you are already running low on phone memory. Thankfully, WhatsApp offers you an easy technique using which you can delete media files and messages from not just the app's memory but also from the phone memory. This can help you free a lot of space on your smartphone, particularly, if you are running low on phone memory.

But here is a thing. This trick only works in case of Android smartphones and it won't work if you are using an iPhone. So, while you can free app space and iCloud space, you will have to manually delete the videos and messages from the Photos app of your iPhone, if you want to free your iPhone memory.

If you own an Android phone, here are steps you need to follow to clear WhatsApp media cache:

- Tap on three dots on the top right corner of the app.

- Tap on the Settings option.

- Now tap on Storage Usage option.

- Now you will see all your WhatsApp contacts in the order of the memory that they consume on your smartphone.

- Tap on a contact then tap on Free Up Space option.

- Now you will see a breakdown of files that you have shared with that contact along with the space that the contact is consuming.

- Select the data like images, videos and voice messages that you want to delete.

- Tap on Delete Items option.

- Tap on Clear Messages to confirm.

The videos and messages will automatically be deleted from the gallery.

ALSO READ: | WhatsApp tips: How to backup and restore WhatsApp chats in Android

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Friday, July 3, 2020

Malaysian universities ready to reopen

Star-studded study group: Sunway University students studying at the communal areas on their campus accompanied by cardboard cutouts of celebrities like Nicol David and Ed Sheeran. — ART CHEN/The Star

Colleges and universities take own initiative to make campus safer


It’s all systems go for the country’s higher education institutions as they wait to welcome students again after face-to-face learning came to a halt when the movement control order (MCO) was announced on March 18.

Both private higher educational institutions (IPTS) and public higher educational institutions (IPTA) have taken the necessary safety precautions and made arrangements for the return of their students.

They are now waiting for the related standard operating procedure (SOP) from the Higher Education Ministry, which is expected to be released soon.

“We have prepared the documents. They are currently pending approval from the Prime Minister’s Office to be released,” a ministry official told The Star yesterday.

Malaysian Association of Private Colleges and Universities (Mapcu) president Datuk Dr Parmjit Singh said its members had taken precautionary measures to maintain the safety standards of its campuses and facilities since the start of the pandemic.

“We are fully prepared to open and are just waiting for an official announcement to see how operations will be managed because so much depends on the ministry’s SOP,” he said in response to Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s announcement on Wednesday that the National Security Council has approved the ministry’s proposal to reopen the institutions.

Ismail Sabri said the country’s Covid-19 outbreak had stabilised and the reopening of these institutions would include allowing foreign students to return.

National Association of Private Educational Institutions (Napei) president Assoc Prof Elajsolan Mohan said the IPTS had ensured that the learning environment was safe.

“We are ready and are following international best practices because we have many international partners. We already have measures in place. The security and safety of students will continue to be our top priority,” he said, adding that sanitation activities had been carried out.

He said the institutions had been looking forward to resuming classes because they were concerned about some “technologically disadvantaged” students who were unable to access certain online classes due to the lack of Internet connectivity. Its members will also allow staff to alternate between coming to campus and working from home while students can opt for blended learning (a mixture of face-to-face and online learning).

“One way to ensure crowd control on campus is to let students who have to commute and those in Sabah and Sarawak to use remote learning,” he said.

He added that institutions must address the issue of student assessment resulting from the difference in learning methods over the past four months.

Sunway Education Group’s chief executive officer Elizabeth Lee said students would be returning to the campus in stages this month.

And they will be greeted by some “fun social distancing companions” like Henry Golding, Datuk Lee Chong Wei, Datuk Nicol David, Chef Wan, Ed Sheeran, BTS’ Jungkook, Rowan Atkinson and Jack Ma – in the form of cardboard cutouts.

She said the “social distancing companions” placed on seats around campus would be effective in discouraging people from sitting too close to each other.

“Instead of the usual ‘X’, the cutouts of well-known personalities, which have been placed strategically at communal study areas, double up as fun photo props for students to take selfies with their favourite celebrities.”

Taylor’s University School of Food Studies and Gastronomy head Siti Ramadhaniatun Ismail said all of the the institution’s culinary arts students in semester one and finalyear students were allowed back on campus from Wednesday for their practical classes.

“They need to attend their practical classes to sharpen their practical skills component,” she said.

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) acting deputy vice-chancellor (academic and international) Prof Datuk Dr Ahmad Farhan Mohd Sadullah said the varsity had been quiet without students.

“We have precautionary measures in place and these take into account the many possible scenarios involving the movement control order (MCO).

“We have worked diligently to make sure our campus is a safe zone when the pandemic was at its worst.”

USM had initially planned to welcome students back next year, in accordance with the government’s earlier announcement that e-learning would continue until Dec 31.

“We will modify the current SOP to accommodate students who will be returning soon,” he said, adding that crowd control will not be a problem as USM will implement blended learning.

“We are only expecting students to return in early October as USM is almost finishing its second semester – students will soon be enjoying their holidays,” he said.

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) deputy vice-chancellor (academic and international) Prof Dr M. Iqbal Saripan said all its faculties were opened to research and certain final-year students on Wednesday.

He said UPM had implemented a system to track the movement of its staff and students using a QR code.

The “reopening process” will continue in phases until next February.

“Twenty-five percent of our student body is on campus now. We hope that we can increase the number gradually, especially for research students.

“We allow staff, who are in the high-risk group and have small children, to work alternate days from home. But it won’t be a problem if they all choose to come to work.

“Reopening of the higher educational institutions is good news, but we need to ensure international students who are still overseas can access the classes while the borders are still closed.”

Noting that students are eager to return to life on campus, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Hamdi Abd Shukor said the existing SOP would be revised once the new advisories and directives are announced.

UKM has been operating at capacity as of June 10.

“Working from home only applies to certain staff who are in high-risk groups or have medical conditions.

“Lectures were offered in sessions and with a limited number of students,” he said.

He added that students who feel uncomfortable returning to campus can continue with online learning.

Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) vice-chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi said final-year students who require facilities such as the laboratory, studio and workshops, as well as students who need to complete industrial training on campus, can already return.

“We are also planning to allow students who lack electrical gadgets and are facing Internet connectivity limitations to return to campus to continue with their lessons using campus facilities.

“However, this needs the ministry’s approval first. If approved, we will observe the SOP strictly whereby there will not be more than 25% of the student body on campus, and facility usage will not exceed 50% of its capacity,” he said in a press release.

He added that the university would monitor students who use the facilities through its “We Care” application, an online application which can track movement in realtime.

“New pre-university students will be allowed to come to campus in stages starting August, while new postgraduate students can start returning in October,” he said. full

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