Famous Atheists: Steve Wozniak
I haven't written about any famous atheists for a while. Not that there aren't any worthy candidates to write about, but I didn't want to write about anyone until I know more about them - their achievements, their philosophy, their attitudes toward life, etc. So, not too long ago, I finally read Steve Wozniak's autobiography - iWoz
. It was an interesting read, but I think if you are not an electronics/computer engineer you'll find some parts difficult to understand. We all know Woz as Apple's co-founder. He is the guy who single-handedly built the Apple I and II computers, which are the predecessors to all modern personal computers. So we really owe what we have today, to his technical wizardry.
After reading the book, you sense that Woz is really just a simple, fun-loving and honest guy. He's the guy with a big heart. For example, he wrote about how, in the early days, he felt everyone who contributed to Apple's success (even those who're not employees) should be allowed to own shares in the company and so he sold them his own shares really cheap. He also wrote about how he and Steve Jobs continued to become friends before they started Apple, even though he found out Steve cheated him off some money on some designs he did for Steve. Imagine, if Woz had gotten angry and never spoke to Steve again, there would be no Apple, no iMacs, no iPods and no iPhones!
On a personal level, Woz says he's been an atheist all his life. A lot of it has to do with his non-religious upbringing. Woz advocates thinking independently and differently.
Technorati tags iWoz, atheist , Steve Wozniak
posted by Meursault @ 3:24 PM
13 Comments:
List of racial discriminations in Malaysia, practiced by government as well as government agencies. This list is an open secret. Best verified by government itself because it got the statistics.
This list is not in the order of importance, that means the first one on the list is not the most important and the last one on the list does not mean least important.
This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially those non-malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, Tamils, etc) who were being racially discriminated.
Figures in this list are estimates only and please take it as a guide only. Government of Malaysia has the most correct figures. Is government of Malaysia too ashamed to publish their racist acts by publishing racial statistics?
This list cover a period of about 50 years since independence (1957).
List of racial discriminations (Malaysia):
(1) Out of all the 5 major banks, only one bank is multi-racial, the rest are controlled by malays
(2) 99% of Petronas directors are malays
(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese
(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by malays
(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be bumis status
(6) 0% of non-malay staffs is legally required in malay companies. But there must be 30% malay staffs in Chinese companies
(7) 5% of all new intake for government army, nurses, polices, is non-malays
(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), drop from 40% in 1960
(9) 2% is the percentage of non-malay government servants in Putrajaya. But malays make up 98%
(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the whole government (in 2004), drop from 30% in 1960
(11) 95% of government contracts are given to malays
(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by malay government e.g. Approved Permits, Taxi Permits, etc
(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to malay controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is make difficult for Chinese rice millers
(14) 100 big companies set up, managed and owned by Chinese Malaysians were taken over by government, and later managed by malays since 1970s e.g. MISC, UMBC, UTC, etc
(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia, throughout 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other malay transport companies due to rejection by malay authority to Chinese application for bus routes and rejection for their application for new buses
(16) 2 Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and 3 are Chinese in October 2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given
(17) 0 non-malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus station (November 2004)
(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled to malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA, privatisation of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP over 34 years period
(19) 48 Chinese primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000
(20) 144 Indian primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000
(21) 2637 malay primary schools built since 1968 - 2000
(22) 2.5% is government budget for Chinese primary schools. Indian schools got only 1%, malay schools got 96.5%
(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get school-text-book-loan, a malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible
(24) 10 all public universities vice chancellors are malays
(25) 5% - the government universities lecturers of non-malay origins had been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to only 5% in 2004
(26) Only 5% is given to non-malays for government scholarships over 40 years
(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under "Look East Policy"
(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course that they aspired e.g. Medicine (in 2004)
(29) 10% place for non-bumi students for MARA science schools beginning from year 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was 100% malays
(30) 50 cases whereby Chinese and Indian Malaysians, are beaten up in the National Service program in 2003
(31) 25% is Malaysian Chinese population in 2004, drop from 45% in 1957
(32) 7% is the present Malaysian Indians population (2004), a drop from 12% in 1957
(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians had emigrated to overseas since 40 years ago
(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians had emigrated to overseas
(35) 3 million Indonesians had migrated into Malaysia and became Malaysian citizens with bumis status
(36) 600000 are the Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC and were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship for 40 years. Perhaps 60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism of how easily Indonesians got their citizenship compare with the Chinese and Indians
(37) 5% - 15% discount for a malay to buy a house, regardless whether the malay is poor or rich
(38) 2% is what Chinese new villages get compare with 98% of what malay villages got for rural development budget
(39) 50 road names (at least) had been changed from Chinese names to other names
(40) 1 Dewan Gan Boon Leong (in Malacca) was altered to other name (e.g. Dewan Serbaguna or sort) when it was being officially used for a few days. Government try to shun Chinese names. This racism happened in around year 2000 or sort
(41) 0 churches/temples were built for each housing estate. But every housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built
(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout Malaysia since 1970. No churches, no temples are required to be built in housing estates
(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to be constructed. But told by malay authority that it must look like a factory and not look like a church. Still not yet approved in 2004
(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002)
(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors of non-malay origins
(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the bad guys had Chinese face, and the good guys had malay face. You can check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this tendency becomes less
(47) 10 times, at least, malays (especially Umno) had threatened to massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13 since 1969
(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the government to develop. Or these Chinese majority constituencies would be the last to be developed
(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racistly re-delineated so Chinese voters were diluted that Chinese candidates, particularly DAP candidates lost in election since 1970s
(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by Malaysia government since 1960
(51) 0 - elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human Rights) is not ratified by Malaysia government since 1960s
(52) 20 reported cases whereby malay ambulance attendances treated Chinese patients inhumanely, and malay government hospital staffs purposely delay attending to Chinese patients in 2003. Unreported cases may be 200
(53) 50 cases each year whereby Chinese, especially Chinese youths being beaten up by malay youths in public places. We may check at police reports provided the police took the report, otherwise there will be no record
(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally knocked down malays were seriously assaulted or killed by malays
(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposit is only about 3.5% per annum
There are hundreds more racial discriminations in Malaysia to add to this list of "colossal" racism. It is hope that the victims of racism will write in to expose racism.
Malaysia government should publish statistics showing how much malays had benefited from the "special rights" of malays and at the same time tell the statistics of how much other minority races are being discriminated.
Hence, the responsibility lies in the Malaysia government itself to publish unadulterated statistics of racial discrimination.
If the Malaysia government hides the statistics above, then there must be some evil doings, immoral doings, shameful doings and sinful doings, like the Nazi, going on onto the non-malays of Malaysia.
Civilized nation, unlike evil Nazi, must publish statistics to show its treatment on its minority races. This is what Malaysia must publish……….
We are asking for the publication of the statistics showing how "implementation of special rights of malays" had inflicted colossal racial discrimination onto non-malays.
i thought this site is about atheism. i didn't know it's also about anti-malay. i guess being a malay atheist is really hard as i always hated by malay(for religion) and non-malay(for goverment policy). maybe this country isn't a place for malay atheist after all.
Hi anonymous,
While this site is anti-religion, it is NOT anti-malay. Race isn't an issue here at all. At times the author may be critical of government policies and practices, but it is not because the author is of a different race. Race is simply a non-issue.
For humans book info, there are reaons why malays get their "special right" unless your too ignorant, Malaysia belong to Malays in the first place. The chinese, and indians were immigrant. Ofcz the Malays will get special rights. Its their country in the first place~. Not happy with my explanation?
go back to ur own country lah!
To anonymous:
That is the kind of thinking we want to get rid of. Malaysia doesn't belong to just the Malays. Malaysia belongs to ALL Malaysians! That was the agreement when we formed Malaysia in 1963.
Affirmative action i.e. special rights given to a large group of Malaysians is a major stumbling block to the economic progress of this country. History has already shown that. In this age of globalisation, we cannot afford to continue to do this. Other countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, China, India and Vietnam are forging ahead with or without us. We should not be fighting over our share of the economic pie, we should be working together to increase the size of the economic pie. That's the only way we can all win!
I'm confident the Opposition MPs and leaders will be pushing for this change.
To the one who written this statement, I think you just provoking and try to make a chaos in Malaysia. For your info (if you forgot to look into Malaysian Constitution Article number: 153)
l (1) It shall be the responsibility of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong to safeguard the special position of
the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and the legitimate interests of
other communities in accordance with the provisions of this Article.
l (2) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, but subject to the provisions of Article 40 and
of this Article, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall exercise his functions under this Constitution
and federal law in such manner as may be necessary to safeguard the special provision of the
Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak and to ensure the reservation for
Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak of such proportion as he may deem
reasonable of positions in the public service (other than the public service of a State) and of
scholarships, exhibitions and other similar educational or training privileges or special facilities
given or accorded by the Federal Government and, when any permit or licence for the operation
of any trade or business is required by federal law, then, subject to the provisions of that law and
this Article, of such permits and licences.
l (3) The Yang di-Pertuan Agong may, in order to ensure in accordance with Clause (2) the
reservation to Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak of positions in the
public service and of scholarships, exhibitions and other educational or training privileges or
special facilities, give such general directions as may be required for that purpose to any
Commission to which Part X applies or to any authority charged with responsibility for the grant
of such scholarships, exhibitions or other educational or training privileges or special facilities;
and the Commission or authority shall duly comply with the directions.
l (4) In exercising his functions under this Constitution and federal law in accordance with Clauses
(1) to (3) the Yang di-Pertuan Agong shall not deprive any person of any public office held by
him or of the continuance of any scholarship, exhibition or other educational or training
privileges or special facilities enjoyed by him.
l (5) This Article does not derogate from the provisions of Article 136.
l (6) Where by existing federal law a permit or licence is required for the operation of any trade or
business the Yang di-Pertuan Agong may exercise his functions under that law in such manner,
or give such general directions to any authority charged under that law with the grant of such
permits or licences, as may be required to ensure the reservation of such proportion of such
permits or licences for Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak as the Yang
di-Pertuan Agong may deem reasonable, and the authority shall duly comply with the directions.
l (7) Nothing in this Article shall operate to deprive or authorise the deprivation of any person of
any right, privilege, permit or licence accrued to or enjoyed or held by him or to authorised a
refusal to renew to any person any such permit or licence or a refusal to grant to the heirs,
successors or assigns of a person any permit or licence when the renewal or grant might
reasonably be expected in the ordinary course of events.
l (8) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, where by any federal law any permit or licence
is required for the operation of any trade or business, that law may provide for the reservation of
a proportion of such permits or licences for Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and
Sarawak; but no such law shall for the purpose of ensuring such a reservationm
(a) deprive or authorise the deprivation of any person of any right, privilege, permit or
licence accrued to or enjoyed or held by him;
m (b) authorise a refusal to renew to any person any such permit or licence or a refusal to
grant to the heirs, successors or assigns of any person any permit or licence when the
renewal or grant might in accordance with he other provisions of the law reasonably be
expected in the ordinary course of events, or prevent any person from transferring together
with his business any transferable licence to operate that business; or
m (c) where no permit or licence was previously required for the operation of the trade or
business, authorise a refusal to grant a permit or licence to any person for the operation of
any trade or business which immediately before the coming into force of the law he had
been bona fide carrying on, or authorise a refusal subsequently to renew to any such
person any permit or licence, or a refusal to grant to the heirs, successors or assigns of any
such person any such permit or licence when the renewal or grant might in accordance
with the other provisions of that law reasonably be expected in the ordinary course of
events.
l (8A) Notwithstanding anything in this Constitution, where in any University, College and other
educational institution providing education after Malaysian Certificate of Education or its
equivalent, the number of places offered by the authority responsible for the management of the
University, College or such educational institution to candidates for any course of study is less
than the number of candidates qualified for such places, it shall be lawful for the Yang di-Pertuan
Agong by virtue of this Article to give such directions to the authority as may be required to
ensure the reservation of such proportion of such places for Malays and natives of any of the
States of Sabah and Sarawak as the Yank di-Pertuan Agong may deem reasonable, and the
authority shall duly comply with the directions.
l (9) Noting in this Article shall empower Parliament to restrict business or trade solely for the
purpose of reservations for Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak.
l (9A) In this Article the expression "natives" in relation to the State of Sabah or Sarawak shall
have the meaning assigned to it in Article 161A.
l (10) The Constitution of the State of any Ruler may make provision corresponding (with the
necessary modifications) to the provisions of this Article.
The way I look at it, you just pointing out what is bad but you never mentioned what is good. You are being double standard before you made your statement.
For your information, I am Malay, I went to public school and never get any scholarships and never use any of the privileges before. I work in a Chinese company who MANAGED AND OWNED by the Chinese and there are only 3 of Malays (including me) out of 30+. Does it reached 30%? You can do your own calculation.
When you say that Malaysia government being racist but you never look what is going on real life. There are a lot of Malays out there were treated double standard also. If you look into TELCO sector, you can see almost 100% is a Chinese company but did we Malay complaining about this. NO.
If in the event that government open such quota for non-bumi's to work for government, you think the Chinese will work for the government???
NO because they cannot be surrounded with Malays.
I have spoken to a few people non-Malay about this. i asked them if they were to send their children to university, will they send them to Government University??
The answer is NO because it is not an International standard.
I think before you made any statement, please do your own research and statistics based on real life.
Even Americans are being double standard. If they are not, why there are still people under-privileged even though they are consider Americans???
Please put your feet on the ground. Racist happens everywhere in the world. You are so lucky you are in Malaysia and get a lot of opportunities.
Open your eyes and think.
I think what we need to remind ourselves is why in the first place this country called Malaysia??? What ever it is, we are govern by Sultan's approval and the Sultan is Malay. That is why only Malays become Chief Minister for every state. I wonder what it is called if chinese ruled Malaysia?? Is it called Cinasia??? They already got a road sign in Chinese in Penang. Maybe they forgot about 13 MAY 1969.
If you still insist on chinese become one, please see Penang. Now they already put a sign board in chinese. Might become another Singapore. Ungrateful people!!! Very Kia Su!!!
Hmmm... I myself if Chinese.. of course there are no other 100 percent successful ways to overcome racism in Malaysia. Me too, sometime feel disappointed because I feel that the government abuse it power, not completely all government people are bad... but there are still bad guys in the country. Due to this guys, we from non-malay will suffer the discrimination. For example, from what I experience is police tend to summon chinese rather then Malays. I park my car, the police summon me, yet, another Malays guys park his car behind me, the police just ignore it... this incident really do make me sad, but the conclusion is we must look at the positive side. The positive side is I will work hard and become a rich man, surpasses all the people. Due to this special treatment for Malays, it eventually make other race become more hardworking. I do not discriminate any race, I just desire for a better place in Malaysia. Personally I feel that due to this special treatment (no offense), Malays are taking things too easy, and it might not motivate them to work hard to success. My father work as police, my father say that just as the all the people we recruit, they already think of easy ways to get money which is bribe. they discuss among themselves. As a conclusion, let us think in a positive manner and improve ourselves rather than complaining. ^^
1. Don't stereotype.
2. Not all Malays are racist, and not all Chinese are racist. Same thing goes to other races as well.
3. Racism will slowly fade because people who lived during those dark times in Malaya is still here(alive). Different era has different thoughts.
4. Whether the government is still standing strong, it depends on how they make good use and take good care of the people in the country. Just like a building, if u don not maintain the structure of the building, how is it going to stand strong in the future?
5. Never use racial issues when comes to criticizing politicians. The problem comes from character, not race.
This is so typical of chinese immigrants everywhere.(search about the problems they give in africa) Have any of you ever wondered why this type of writings and slanders were written by the chinese ? the malays love this country so much we dont want our life (you and me) here to end due to irrational writings like this.
THINK again!
Lots of qualified malays were denied of their priviliges already, most by the coalition rulers which by the way is a combination of malays, chinese and indians and other natives.
The rules are in good faith, the people who is in power are not. It really wont make a difference even if YOU are in power because you will try to reverse the situation(supposedly). And total discrimination to the majorities will occur and we will just sit down and watch ?
Maybe you should look closely who are the close friends of those Malays in power(doesnt matter if they are BN or PKR), yes its the Chinese clinging to them like roaches.
How about denying the opportunities for the malays in mnc's ? And whats with all that chinese dudes and unqualified women they have in those finance departments and HR departments ? They are there for a reason, to provide a stumbling block for any aspired malays wishing to break the deadlock that their corrupted leaders(and their chinese friends) have upon them.
Once, me and a few friends had a few drinks and playing pool at a bar and the police rushed the place, we're all taken into the police truck, then came a chinese guy talking the police in charge and after shaking hands, they brought us down and released all the chinese ... yes sir, the malay police released all the chinese and the rest of us goes right back into the truck.(Chinese bribes malay in power)
So, THINK again before making your allegations. Be FAIR, and accept the fact that we are in a give and take situations here.(Although its very clear the malays has been giving for decades .. maybe we should stop ?)
Ohh, maybe atheists are always smarter than the others ? so it may seems ...
Heard of Francis Collins? He's one of those smart and nice fellas responsible for the Human Genome Project... and he's a theist :D
Yeah, Francis Collins is a well-known scientist and also a theist. It is no surprise that theists can always point to someone who's a scientist and a theist at the same time to prove their point(s), whatever they may be. But the fact remains that science does not or should not presuppose a God. That is why people like Francis Collins are rare among the scientific community. Rare doesn't mean there aren't any of them, just less.
Any form of act of discrimination trigger from the emotion of fear.Fearing other taking advantage over another.Fear is an innate emotion in human because it is the result of selected trait of human evolution to ensure our survival as a species becuase fearing something increase the chance of survival.When our ancestor were hunter-gatherer,fear plays an important role for social cohesiveness in in-group by recognise the out-group as a possible threat.Also the same apply to nationalism,patriotism,sectarianism,religion,sexism and more-more over and in this context racism.But now,it's negative has outgrown it's benefit,as there is nothing to be afraid except when it come to survival of individual ie, if human need is not meet.People are so used to with their idea of self-identity which is a mere mirror to their society which manifesting the in-group mentality.The only way to overcome discrimination is to understand the very nature of emotion of fear then eliminate the cause that trigger it.To become part of civilised society the emotion of fear must be overcome by empathy to ensure our individual interest meet the societal interest,hence securing well-being of humanity.
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