More than 3 dozen years ago, upon the discovery of a tomb in China, a team of archaeologists also uncovered an intact manuscript from the Warring States period buried in the tomb. It is believed to be the Lost Art of War written by Sun Tzu II, or Sun Bin - a lineal descendant of the master himself, Sun Tzu.
I've had this Lost Art of War on my shelves for more than 8 years, and it had been sitting diligently all that time bar the one occasion that I moved it when I moved house, 6 months back. I thought to myself, there must be a nugget in there I could use one day..
I did indeed pull one out quite recently, to use as my favourite quote on my profile: "One who leads with inadequate knowledge is conceited. One who leads with inadequate courage has an inflated ego. One who leads without knowing the way and does battle repeatedly without being satisfied is surviving on luck."
Of late, I have been attempting to watch the news on every conceivable channel and there were all these procrastinating politicians from all sides of the political spectrum with their loose tongues and heavy behinds melted into a comfortable chair speaking to the legion of adoring TV and print journalists.
Everyone it seems is talking to TV cameras, tape / digital recorders, and even telephones complete with the bluetooth, babbling rhetoric on re-building, re-doing, un-doing, re-shaping, re-forming, re-elect, re-group, re-unite, re-act.. Despite the nausea that was creeping up from the depths of my stomach, I carried on with my dinner amidst the monotonous drone that eventually turned into white noise and merged into the sound of the ceiling fan.. when I thought, hang on a minute - what the heck happened to RE-ALITY and RE-AL work?
Where the opposition and the folks that run the publicly elected offices share something in common is that I think they have lost their minds. Shut up already with all the "re-whatever" and get on with the RE-AL work-lah? Talk talk talk talk.. politicians endlessly crooning over the TV microphones, schmoozing up to the reporters, I am pretty sure that all that media courting should be considered obscene and ought to be censored by parents of children under 18.
Somebody PLEASE slap on a PG18 on Buletin Utama please! I just wanna know, when the hell is everyone gonna actually start working? On one side - Stop it already with the media courtship, "we will do this.. that.. " .. OK, fine, whatever. Question - when exactly will you start work, that is provided you can get off that comfy chair at the media conference?
On the other hand of the scale - there's one particular fella who's only apparent job right now - irrespective of his prolific resume and impressive catalogue of promises on undoing the wrong that had been done - is uploading endless videos on the internet.. right.. hmm.. are we NATO here? No Action Tape Only? or perhaps a combination of the WTO for PLO, Will Tape Only for Paid Leave & Overtime?I wonder who would fall under Sun Bin's list of destroyers:
- Self contradicting opportunists, pretenders who obscure the good and elevate the bad? or
- Those who put on the appearance of austerity and desirelessness in order to get something?
Sometimes, I wonder what would a Socialist do if he/she were thrown into the melee now? Mr. Castro, any suggestions? Bottom line.. just get to work already?sigh.. now that's off my chest.. now I can move on. thanks.
Sun Bin's Lost Art of War - http://www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/0062514059/105-4156338-6577264?SubscriptionId=0AM07842GGE1QVDN6KR2
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