This is the third time I am taking the Carl Jung's and Myers-Briggs personality test. I have always been sceptical of its results as I believe one's command of the English language and individual interpretations of the vague question and answers is a big factor in influencing the results. However I am surprised that in all the three times I have taken this test, all with varying levels of detail in its questions, the results are the same - that I am a stubborn INTJ. I am surprised that I was labeled an introvert as I am not exactly reserved in social groups. I learned later that the actual defination of being introverted and extroverted is not the measure of one's love for chatty chats, but whether are you energised by mixing around in social groups or not. Thus, one can be a talkative introvert.

It says only 1.5% of the general population are INTJs...no wonder many think that I am such a weirdo!

But the part about multiple intelligence is not accurate though. How can they say that Logic / Mathematical intelligence is my forte when I never scored anything higher than a B for all 4 of my Engineering Mathematics course? I even failed one of them and had to resit the paper again. Which is why I always take overly simplified profiling tests with a pinch of salt. Besides, I believe I am too confused, or should I say too weird to be pigeon-holed or categorized as XYZ type person. I am who I am and who God made me to be - a very confused China-man having high respect for the Chinese language, culture and Asian culinary delights, but with highly developed Western taste in all things aesthetics and automotive related, plus a penchant for Black-men music...how much more screwed up and confused can anyone get?!

However there is a consolation to my depressive working hours. According to the results, I am in the right job - strategist. Right job, but maybe not so right company.

Highlights of some of the things said that caught my attention :

INTJs tend to seek occupations that allow them to change the status quo and to design models to express their vision creatively. They desire autonomy and room for growth. They prefer to work in a place in which the future can be planned and where they can work for change in an organized manner.

Anyone considered to be "slacking," including superiors, will lose their respect -- and will generally be made aware of this.

On the other hand, they do tend to be scrupulous and even-handed about recognizing the individual contributions that have gone into a project, and have a gift for seizing opportunities which others might not even notice.

That is definately my biggest problem in finding an ideal working environment! I don't mind working long and hard for smart bosses who have clear directions of what they want to do and where they want to take the team to. I just can't stand working under incompetent leaders, stupid people. It's not an ego issue as I am not the sort of person who needs to be given credit or to be in the limelight. I am quite happy playing the supporting role from behind. As mentioned; INTJs are natural leaders, although they usually choose to remain in the background until they see a real need to take over the lead. When they are in leadership roles, they are quite effective, because they are able to objectively see the reality of a situation, and are adaptable enough to change things which aren't working well. They are the supreme strategists - always scanning available ideas and concepts and weighing them against their current strategy, to plan for every conceivable contingency.

And...as an apology to my friends and people who have a hard time understanding me, below is my excuse...
To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise -- and INTJs can have several -- they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know.

Other people may have a difficult time understanding an INTJ. They may see them as aloof and reserved. Indeed, the INTJ is not overly demonstrative of their affections, and is likely to not give as much praise or positive support as others may need or desire. That doesn't mean that he or she doesn't truly have affection or regard for others, they simply do not typically feel the need to express it. Others may falsely perceive the INTJ as being rigid and set in their ways. Nothing could be further from the truth, because the INTJ is committed to always finding the objective best strategy to implement their ideas. The INTJ is usually quite open to hearing an alternative way of doing something

The internal form of the INTJ's thoughts and concepts is highly individualized, and is not readily translatable into a form that others will understand. However, the INTJ is driven to translate their ideas into a plan or system that is usually readily explainable, rather than to do a direct translation of their thoughts. They usually don't see the value of a direct transaction, and will also have difficulty expressing their ideas, which are non-linear. However, their extreme respect of knowledge and intelligence will motivate them to explain themselves to another person who they feel is deserving of the effort.

By nature, INTJs are independent individualists. They see their visions so clearly that they are often surprised when others do not see things the same way. INTJs are strong at critiquing and as a result tend to notice the negatives.

On the perception that I am bit of a rogue rebel, who sometimes challenges authority and social norms. Probably also the reason why I seem have problems with a more than one church / religious figure or authority :
INTJs are perfectionists, with a seemingly endless capacity for improving upon anything that takes their interest. What prevents them from becoming chronically bogged down in this pursuit of perfection is the pragmatism so characteristic of the type: INTJs apply (often ruthlessly) the criterion "Does it work?" to everything from their own research efforts to the prevailing social norms. This in turn produces an unusual independence of mind, freeing the INTJ from the constraints of authority, convention, or sentiment for its own sake.

But like I said earlier, to take personality tests or profiling in the right context. I have this slight concern that the proliferation of these overly-hyped psychological profiling is used by many individuals as an excuse for the weakness in certain areas or their less than ideal characters. I am a strong believer of the dynamicism, flexibility and adaptability of human mind. Never allow any overly-simplified 30 minute test to tell you that you can't be good at Math or languages just because some test reveals that you are an arty-music type of person. On second thoughts, what I have just said in the preceeding sentence further confirms my INTJ-ness; They are very determined people who trust their vision of the possibilities, regardless of what others think. They may even be considered the most independent of all of the sixteen personality types.

Damn I hate these psycho-analysis!

One of my former schoolmates, a fellow Michaelian has just given birth to a baby boy. Ei Lynn and Adrian, welcome to at least 2 years of sleepless nights and poo-poo cleaning...Time sure flies. It takes some time to actually allow all these new developments to "sink" in my head; that my former CF president is now a mum. She had the luxury of having a doctor husband to "walk" her through the entire labor.

I guess such adjustments are only going to be more frequent.

In many of the developed nations, an increasing number of women are advocating home birth. The argument is that childbirth is a natural process, a sort of "coming of age" rite that has unfortunately being reduced by modern medicine to become nothing more than a clinical procedure to be gotten over with. Home birth advocates believed that it is best for mothers to give birth in a familiar environment, like the comfort of their homes, guided by their natural instincts and the skills of a mid-wife.

In the light of all these new Ob-Gyn "trends" in the First World, I can't help but contrast that to the experience of mothers in the Third World after I read this piece on BBC written by Stephanie Holmes.

Each year, more than 500,000 women die from treatable or preventable complications of pregnancy and childbirth. In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman’s risk of dying from such complications over the course of her lifetime is 1 in 16, compared to 1 in 3,800 in the developed world. - UNDP.

Under the United Nations Millenium Development Goal, there are 8 listed goals. Out of the 8, the fourth and fifth goal is to reduce infant mortality by 2/3 and maternal mortality by 1/3. Sadly, maternal and infant mortality are one of the key goals within the MDG that are still very much off-target.

In case you didn't know, the the Millenium Development Goal is a UN driven global partnership. It signed by world’s leaders of 189 countries in 2000, established 2015 as the deadline for achieving most of the Millennium Development Goals. The majority of MDG targets have a baseline of 1990, and are set to monitor achievements over the period 1990-2015.

You can download the MDG Report 2007 here.


The experience of Kalama, a 26-year-old Nepalese woman, is typical of many. She was brought to Panchthar District Hospital with labour complications. The hospital is a three-hour walk from her village, so she had to be carried on a stretcher. She was admitted with full dilation of the cervix. The labour was prolonged, and she did not have the energy to synchronise her efforts with contractions during labour. The baby had to be vacuum delivered, but had been asphyxiated and died. More here.

In a male dominated world, providing better pre and ante-natal care is not among the top 10 list of most important things to do. Expectant mothers are usually pushed aside by more pressing issues, such as those of African leaders exploiting oil-wealth or arming of Islamic Janjaweed militia in Sudan.

Ranking of countries by participation of women in decision making roles are led by Norway, Iceland, Australia, Ireland and Sweden. The exact ranking too applies for maternal mortality rates. There is a very clear link between maternal health and gender equality. You may get the complete list of MDG indicators here.



"The first and most important reason is a social issue: the low status of women. Leaders do not see the lives and health of women as a political priority, they invest in other sectors. Women most at risk are often the most marginalised and vulnerable, living in countries with undeveloped health systems or in conflict situations," Thoraya Obaid, chief of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

And by the way, in spite of the many gripes we Malaysian have against our public healthcare services, it should be noted that Malaysia has made dramatic strides in improving infant and maternal mortalities, which now stands at 20 per 100,000, comparable to that of many developed nations. In fact, the MDG report by UN Malaysia stated that maternal mortalities has dropped so low that it is difficult to make any further improvements. The nurses might be a bit nasty, as testified by my friend, but at least they know what they are doing.

My thoughts further flowed along these lines. People around the world are getting smarter than before, having better access to education and information. Despite of all the problems and the many rogue nations run by twisted dictators that dot our world, I still believed that as a whole, upward social mobility has never been this easy.

But despite all that education and technology, we have not reduced the number of critical problems that plague our world. But rather, our world seems more messed up than say, 300 years ago? Ok so we might have slavery, you could be paralysed by polio, stupid white men think they owned the world and the assorted problems. But that is understandable as people were much less sophisticated then. We now have the Internet, we built the MITs, the CalTechs, Stanfords and Harvards of our world. But none of these has translated into creating a better world. Instead we are seeing greater economic disparity between the haves and the have-nots. In our mighty stroke of genius, we decided to built enough nuclear warheads to blow our planet up many times over and over again.

Has education failed? I have come across Master degree and Doctorate holders who can be such a genius but at the same time behaving like the biggest dick around. Those who are nice are completely clueless of whats going on outside their tiny living sphere of academia. To date, none of my lecturers nor any holders of post-graduate degrees have impressed me like the La Sallian Brothers who served in my Alma Mater of St. Michael's Institution Ipoh. I guess the ones who truly understood the value of education, and knew what is means to be educated are those who gave up their comfortable lives of their home country to come a malaria infested backwaters of Malaya to setup a school providing free education, at a time when education is a preserve of the elite.

The late Brother Ultan Paul still remains the wisest educator and to a certain extent, the most educated person that I have ever come across.

Which brings me to my next thought; women are more educated than ever, in fact I would say women are generally more educated than men. Women-folk have been making great strides in their relative standings in both social and corporate circles. But the thing that bothers me is, when women are highly educated and assume roles of high responsibilities, they behave no different from men! There is no reason for me to believe that socio-economic class based exploitations and chronic levels of self-centredness and consumerism will be any less if this world is run by women! Judging from their more relationship-based character, you would naturally expect for women-folk to continue to speak up for all that is right and just for their fellow women-folk in less fortunate environments. But unfortunately I am not seeing much of that. The sort of collective activism united together by their common gender, as shown by the bra burning Feminist movement that so characterised women of the 1950s is missing today.

Why is that so? I don't have an answer for that. I guess that is something for you women readers to take the lead. If you are reading this, you have the sufficient facilities, skills and knowledge to make a positive impact to the marginalised women that are all around you. Left on their own, male government leaders will turn their sights on other more pressing issues - like how to better "milk" this country of its wealth while I am here.

Random thoughts on the recent developments of Malaysian politics before I sleep :

1. Peaceful People's Gathering Organized by BERSIH
Much has been publicised about the "yellow filled" November 10 gathering organised by BERSIH, a coalition of opposition political parties and NGOs united by the common cause of pursuing a fair election.

Head over to Malaysia Today and BERSIH.ORG for more information.

The purpose of me bringing this up to my blog?

Sorry for pouring cold water over this, but I am very sceptical of any political reform lead by / involving a monarch. As mentioned by Farish Noor in his article Rakyat Itu Raja, If there is a lesson to be found in all this, it is that a democratic reform process can only begin from below, and never above. Kings and Monarchs do not good democrats make, for they are the first who need to be taught the value of citizenship and civic responsibility. Furthermore any democratic reform must take into account the will of the demos – the people themselves – and give voice to the masses and not the elite.

However, I am still supporting this cause initiated by Bersih and the calls from the new darling of the disgruntled Malaysian Internet users - Raja Petra. The reason is simple. Malaysia has some of the most complicated monarchy system in the world. We have so many sultans from so many different states, and to appease their egos, we have to rotate our kings periodically, every 5 years if am not wrong. They lead extremely lavish lifestlyes, funded by tax payers money while at the same time performing minimal nation-building roles. I see the recent developments of enlisting the king as an ally a way for the me to increase the value of my tax money. C'mon I am paying for these people's collection of Maybachs, Bentleys and the assorted wheels. All locked up in air-conditioned garages, away from the eyes of the people who truly appreciates these automotive works of art. Now that is what pisses me the most. But that's another story.

It is only right monarchs to now step out of their palaces and start heeding the calls of their subjects. We live in a different time and age now. If the monarchy fails maintain its relevance to the people, there will come upon a time, albeit a very distant probability, that they will removed of their roles.

2. Michael Backman
Other than Raja Petra, Michael Backman is another new found darling of the disgruntled Malaysian Internet users. He has written numerous articles on the sad state of affairs in Malaysia. His articles has been widely forwarded via e-mails and instant messengers. Many too have written to him personally, cheering him on.

Again, my cynical nature is cautioning me otherwise. Michael Backman is an Australian author and a self-proclaimed expert on matters related to Asian countries. If my memory didn't fail me, he did wrote many wrong conclusions during the Asian economic crisis of '97. His recent focus on Malaysia rather than say Thailand or Myanmar has led me to believe that this guy is cashing in on his newfound support from his Malaysian "fan-base."

Yes, I do agree that many of the things he has wrote about the current state of affairs in Malaysia should be applauded. He gave an international voice to many of the marginalizsed locals who have very limited means of venting their frustrations against the current administration regime of this country.

However, do bear in mind that Michael Backman is an Australian citizen living in London. He makes a living writting books and articles on Asia. Being typical of someone in the mass media, I would expect him to thrive on sensationalist issues and sentiments. I believe it is very naive of those who think that this is a white man who is championing our cause because he truly feels for the marginalized groups in Malaysia.

Political reforms in this country must be initiated and lead by the public, the grass root level. Not any foreign entity or elite monarch, and certainly not from a foreign white man. These are the very same people who are part of an economic system that exploits poor countries for labour and resources, and yet at the same time demand that affirmative actions must be taken on various issues ranging from human rights to global warming!

3. Opposition Parties
They all want to play the moral high ground. That they are righteous and they stand for all that is right and just. That they are on our side, against the corrupt ways of the current administration.

They always say that. But only when they are kept out of the system that allowed them to profit from plundering this country.

Our former deputy prime minister, who was sacked and later acquitted on sodomy charges was kicked out of UMNO. Now, we see that he is playing the role of a moral guardian to the source of the Lingam-gate video scandal.

But you've gota think, didn't all these corrupt practises existed when he was still in office? Why all the noise now?

I know. We still have to reduce BN's majority in the parliment. If that is the case then we are moving into the dangerous area of Machiavellian politics, where anything goes so long as you achieve your ultimate goal. Where do you draw the moral line then? Your cut-off point so to say.

Maybe I am too idealistic for politics. I favour an epidemic wiping out the entire human race. And let's start again on a clean sheet. This time, with me writting down the rules of engagement. Then again...maybe not. I am no saint...