Have no-one to blame but myself

This evening, I found myself in a new place again, not knowing what will happen next. I feel like a complete mess hidden behind apparently calm surface. I feel excited, a little scared, a little happy, very tired and somewhat irritated. Why do I do this? Why do I always say that I want a routine in my life, and then pack up my things and move to a new, crazy, unreasonable adventure?

The other night, when I was falling asleep at my parents place in Estonia, in my old room, I was thinking of the thoughts I had there at different stages of my life. My new beginnings have been very different over the past 15 years, but the excitement, fear and hope have not changed.

I have moved to Oxford - here, I will stay for a few months doing a research project in Oxfam...

You've got to believe in conspiracy

There is only one bad thing about Malaysia, which every Malaysian will willingly admit, without arguing - the traffic jams - notorious, despicable, infuriating traffic jams. I am used to hearing excuses like: "oh, it's because of the Friday prayers, everybody's rushing", or "school holidays have started today", or "long weekend - people 'balik kampung' (go back to their villages)". These days, however, you catch yourself thinking more often than ever: "What could be the reason now? It's Monday night, and I'm stuck here forever."

In the country where new highways, mega-junctions and fly-overs are launched more often than it rains, constantly increasing traffic jams are suspicious, and that is put mildly. First, I suspected stupid road engineering and bad planning. Then, I experienced on my own skin that the barbaric traffic manners of Malaysian drivers have a big part to play in adding to the congestion. Today, I came to a firm conclusion - it is a conspiracy!

When I ended up in a merciless traffic jam not 2 minutes away from our house, risking to miss my appointment on the other side of the city, I found out with surprise that the traffic police had forgotten to remove a road block after an event 3 days ago, thus sending half of the cars on an unwanted detour.

It must be the conspiracy. It's like with any war industry - Malaysian traffic police must be engineering the jams to keep themselves employed. Even my Estonian friends, on their second day in KL, noticed that in the middle of each traffic jam in this city, there is a zealous policeman.

Should state justice prevent or punish?

As much as I disrespect Malaysian public media, I have to get my daily dose of news, so I have picked one of the less disturbing papers to go through in the mornings. You can judge the paper by its editorials, and the first editorial I read in the New Straits Times made me suspicious. But I stuck - when the choice is limited, even half-a-step closer to the truth is better than nothing.

Today's NST editorial made me speechless.

Malaysia is often criticised for its poor human rights record, particularly for the caning as legal punishment for more than 40 offences, not just violent offences, but sometimes non-criminal. Judicial caning is a brutal torture - picture flying flesh and blood, scars, which don't heal for moths. There is nothing human or fair in caning, nothing to make it justified as punishment.

Malaysian immigration law imposes caning as punishment for illegal employment, both to the workers and their employers. Whereas hapless foreigners are caned regularly and mercilessly, none of their Malaysian employers has ever been caned.

Can you guess what an idea could have crossed the mind of NST's editor to make caning more palatable and justify the practice in Malaysia? He suggested that if a few Malaysian employers of illegal labour were caned, the overall practice of caning would sure become more fair and just. Either the editor just missed the point that caning as punishment is despicable, by suggesting that caning everyone, indiscriminately of their legal status in Malaysia, will solve the problem of human rights violations, or he is a cruel bloodthirsty beast.

To be fair, the idea of the state justice being a preventive system, rather than official punishment machine, is difficult to digest even in the humanly more developed countries... but caning - isn't it just too much?

My other postings on caning:
Caning for drinking - June 15, 2005
Cane them - that's right! - June 16, 2005

and illegal immigration:
Legal ways of becoming illegal - March 8, 2005

My parents outgeeked me

I was looking forward to the news this morning. Estonia had its parliamentary elections yesterday and the news would be published today. This time, however, I was looking forward to the rest of the news as much as to the election results.

The thing is that we had our first online parliamentary voting, that is, of course, in addition to the regular ballot-casting at polling stations. The news reported that "about 30,000 used e-voting - one in 30 registered voters", including my parents.

Living in Malaysia, with the closest Estonian embassy thousands of miles away, I was looking forward to the e-voting part of these elections. Unfortunately, this time, I did not manage to make history and take part in the world's first ever parliamentary e-voting. I couldn't buy a smart card-reader. In Malaysia, apparently, this simple gadget is sold under strict government control, with all the implications.

" Incumbent 'wins Estonia election'' - March 5, 2007, BBC
" Estonia claims new e-voting first" - March 1, 2007, BBC

A Sunday breakfast thought

While reading morning papers after breakfast today, a random thought entered my head. I wonder if the way a nation is gaining its independence determines its future success.

To make it more visual. If a nation has to fight for its independence, not necessarily in a bloody war, but risking to be prosecuted and punished for the pro-independence movement, will it put more effort into proving later that the cause was worth the fight? On the contrary, if a nation gets its freedom on a silver plate with a golden rim, will it take the success for granted and be complacent about its further success?