Nothing is by chance

...I realise that I didn't go into that café by chance; really important meetings are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other.

Generally speaking, these meetings occur when we reach a limit, when we need to die and be reborn emotionally. These meetings are waiting for us, but more often than not, we avoid them happening. If we are desperate, though, if we have nothing to lose, or if we are full of enthusiasm for life, then the unknown reveals itself, and our universe changes direction.

Eleven Minutes, Paulo Coelho

Read from here

Criterion

The criterion is how you treat the weak.

The measure of civilised behaviour is compassion.

-

Sandig al Mahdi

Of judging a caterpillar

There's nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly

-  Richard Buckminster Fuller

The Democratization of Influence

The Time 100 - 2011

On Wednesday, in the midst of election fever, I came across this magazine, attracted once again to the resilient profile of Aung San Suu Kyi. When I read the article from the Editor's Desk, it resounded so well especially so in the current political clime in my country.

Excerpt from The Time 100 - 2011 Editor's Desk:

Influence is impossible to measure. It's a little like what social scientists call the butterfly effect: the idea that a tiny change in one part of a system can yield gargantuan changes later on. But often this is a romantic illusion; large-scale changes occur only when great numbers of people become restive over time, just as people in the Middle East have been moved to shake off decades of authoritarian rule.

What social media have done is to make us all more aware of what's going on — and offer a new avenue to organize opposition. We like to think revolutions rise from below, but through most of human history, it's the elites who have caused and led revolutions. Now, because of social media, anyone can communicate with everyone. We're seeing that in the Middle East, Africa and China. The democratization of information may actually lead to real democracy.

Read the full article here:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066603_2066605,00.html

We might not be quite there yet, but we have seen a breakthrough that I believe catalysed from the democratization of information. Let's move on - onward, as one united people towards a more caring and compassionate society.

Majulah Singapura!