Monday, January 31, 2011

Hang Tuah - The Hero With A Thousand Faces

In my last post, A Very Familiar Plot, I've quoted at length the book by Joseph Campbell entitled 'The Hero With A Thousand Faces' its main thesis: that (familiar) plot encompassing all myths, legends, fairy tales and great stories of all time. Now I am curious, whether or not Hang Tuah is just another (our local) version of that Hero as uncovered by Joseph Campbell.


And so our journey begins...

PART 1: DEPARTURE (The hero leaves his everyday life, defeats a shadowy power & receives a charm)
 Hang Tuah became the Sultan's constant aide, accompanying the King... On one visit to Majapahit, Taming Sari, a famous Majapahit warrior, challenged Hang Tuah to a duel. After a brutal fight, Hang Tuah emerged as winner and the ruler of Majapahit bestowed upon him Taming Sari’s kris or weapon...purported to be magical, empowering its owner with invincibility... source of Hang Tuah’s alleged supernatural abilities.

PART 2: INITIATION (The hero faces challenges throughout his journey, with some magical aid, becomes triumphant, gains recognition/atonement)
 Rumours being circulated that Hang Tuah was having an illicit affair with one of the Sultan's stewardess dayang. The Sultan sentenced Hang Tuah to death without trial for the alleged offense. Believing that Hang Tuah was dead...Hang Jebat avenged his friend's death...wreaked havoc onto the royal court... The Bendahara then informed the Sultan that the only man able to stop Hang Jebat, Hang Tuah, was still alive.


PART 3: RETURN (The hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread and restores the world with the boon that he brings)
 The Bendahara recalled Hang Tuah from his hiding place and the warrior was given full amnesty by the Sultan and instructed to kill Hang Jebat. After seven gruelling days of fighting, Hang Tuah was able to kill Hang Jebat.
(source: Wikipedia) 

Saturday, January 29, 2011

A Very Familiar Plot

It pervades almost all fairy tales and heroic legends from time immemorial. Even in this 'modern-age', it is the very foundation of the most entertaining stories ever told in books, on film or television. It is the adventure of the 'Hero with a thousand faces', as Joseph Campbell would call him. And his story goes like this (from page 245 of that book):

The mythological hero, setting forth from his commonday hut or castle, is lured, carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure. There he encounters a shadow presence that guards the passage.  
The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark (brother-battle, dragon-battle; offering, charm), or be slain by the opponent and descend in death (dismemberment, crucifixion). 
Beyond the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him (tests), some of which give magical aid (helpers). 
When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward. The triumph may be represented as the hero’s sexual union with the goddess-mother of the world (sacred marriage), his recognition by the father-creator (father atonement), his own divination (apotheosis), or again - if the powers have remained unfriendly to him – his theft of the boon he came to gain (bride-theft, fire-theft); intrinsically it is an expansion of consciousness and therewith of being (illumination, transfiguration, freedom). 
The final work is that of return. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under their protection (emissary); if not, he flees and is pursued (transformation flight, obstacle flight). At the return threshold the transcendental powers must remain behind; the hero re-emerges from the kingdom of dread (return, resurrection).  
The boon that he brings restores the world (elixir).



Saturday, January 22, 2011

50 Book Challenge


‘The first step towards the attainment of real discovery was the humiliating confession of ignorance.' 
Sir Humphry Davy (1778 - 1829)


And so I humbly admit my ignorance. Even if I will fail to achieve the Romantic ethos of 'real discovery', I strongly hold that there is still much to learn from what others have already discovered. From Archimedes to Newton; Smith to Keynes; Cook to Armstrong; Hippocrates to Jenner. Great men and women have long toiled to unravel the mysteries, disprove false beliefs, and ultimately, enable us to understand a little more about our life and the Universe we live in.
  
I challenge myself to read 50 books this year - a tall order especially while studying medicine, but not impossible - hoping to understand what these great people have long did. Yes, I'm treading a road already taken by others - by merely absorbing second-hand knowledge. But to follow the steps of Sir Davy towards making a real discovery, I shall begin with a 'humiliating confession of ignorance.'

...
Find out the 10 best books I read in 2010.

MY KZ, UR BF

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Too Many Medical Graduates - Signs & Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

There will be too many doctors (too soon) in Malaysia, some people believe. As a medical student, I think I should be worried about the prospect of my medical career since it will get much more competitive in the near future. But I'm not. Maybe I'm still in denial of the 'issue', but I'm not concerned about it and I have good reasons for this (will talk about this in another post).

Now, if the surge of medical graduates is a 'symptom', I believe that most people have made the wrong diagnosis. Unfortunately, this may have lead us to 'write' the wrong prescriptions, which (may in turn) bore a poor prognosis for the country. 

Gaga concert analogy
Enough with the medical metaphors. It's time for a thought experiment: Let's assume 'medical degrees' to be concert tickets for a very popular act, say, Lady Gaga; and that there are 2 ways of getting the tickets: 

(1) [free] sponsored tickets in January
(2) [charged] purchasable tickets later in February

The Lady Gaga concert is in March. So, you could either get the (free) sponsored tickets in January, or buy one in February. 

If half of all tickets have already been distributed (for free) in January, what will be left for the others (fans of Gaga) are the tickets in February. However, because only half of the tickets is left, there will be a very high demand for the remaining seats. The organizer knows this, and as expected, they jack up (increase) the price of the February tickets.

And what do you think the organizer would do next? Hold more concerts, of course - until Gaga gets too tired to perform, or her fans get tired of her! 

My speculation
What follows is my speculation to use this Gaga concert metaphor in order to describe our 'too many doctors' issue in MalaysiaUsually, most bright students (not all) opt to study medicine when they apply for scholarship, and they get it. Fortunately for them, the competition for a medical degree sponsorship is greatly eased, because many equally bright students did not apply for scholarship as they are not eligible for it. 

When many seats in the medical course have been taken up by the sponsored students, there will be little left for non-sponsored ones. This ultimately results in an artificially higher 'demand' for the non-sponsored seats. Consequently, private medical schools are able to charge exorbitant fees - and new ones spring into existence with this alluring financial prospect. In other words, they 'hold more concerts'.

My proposal
So should we abolish government sponsorship for medical degree altogether? No!! What I propose is this: give out scholarship to those who cannot afford the fees (below a certain household income bracket) only AFTER they have been accepted by the medical schools. To get back to the Gaga concert analogy above, instead of distributing free/sponsored tickets in January, the sponsor should only pay for those who have competed for the tickets in February (along with everybody else) but could not afford to buy the tickets themselves.


...Of course, my analogies and proposals are far from perfect or foolproof. In the bigger picture, they might apply to other degree courses as well. Those looking for my 'diagnosis' of the issue might be disappointed - come again another time. As much as I'd like to discuss more about this, I think I should rest for now. To be continued...

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Medina Zara Ng


Spread your wings
and fly.
This world is a wild place
but don’t be discouraged to find
the love from others,
the wonders of Nature,
and your dreams fulfilled.
I’m thousands of miles away
from embracing you on your Birthday
but the news of your good health
brings endless joy to my heart!


Hakim J
...

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Top 10 Read of 2010

This is the list of the best books I have read in the year 2010.

[ 1 ] Guns, Germs & Steel - Jared Diamond

  This is simply the best book I have read so far. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this masterpiece endeavours to explain why the European societies were the ones to conquer the New World, instead of the other way around - an attempt by the author that was achieved using archaeology, geography; also, animal and plant biology!





[ 2 ] Fermat's Last Theorem - Simon Singh

  Receiving almost 120 5-star rating in amazon.co.uk, this book explores the exciting journey of mathematicians through the ages to prove Fermat's last theorem (a deceivingly easy-to-prove mathematical equation). With riveting stories of the personalities behind this journey, this book is a testimony of my conviction that since there are so many non-fiction tales to read, I haven't the time to read fiction. Of course, history is not without errors, as long as it's written by fallible historians. 


[ 3 ] The Unfolding of Language - Guy Deutscher

  Aren't you interested to learn why our language is so different from others, and how come - apart from the differences - there exist similarities (even between English, French & Malay! - e.g. Two, Deux, Dua) ? Well, look no further, this book tells us just that, and much more - like why the language of our forefathers seem so different from ours. 





[ 4 ] Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell

  It seems so easy to attribute success to pure talent - as books written about high achievers often allude to. However, Gladwell tries to prove just the opposite, that if it wasn't for their luck, these high achievers (read: outliers) might not have succeeded in whatever field they're in. And this includes billionaires Bill Gates & Steve Jobs (Mark Zuckerberg was not included probably because this was written two years ago), the Beatles & athletes. Of course, in almost all cases, hard work had accompanied seizing every good opportunity.


[ 5 ] Life Ascending - Nick Lane

  From the beginnings of life on Earth deep in the ocean, to the complex multicellular life on land able to trap energy from the sun (via photosynthesis), to sentient beings curious and intelligent enough to ponder on their own existence; this book brings elementary biology to a new level, attempting to explain the 'ten great inventions of evolution' using chemistry, biology, archaeology & common sense. 





[ 6 ] The Ascent of Money - Niall Ferguson

 British historian, turned Harvard professor, Niall Ferguson discusses the 'origin of money' - those colour-printed papers/copper we regard so dearly to. When many saw the recent financial crisis as the fall of capitalism - having researched and skilfully written the history of financial markets - the author had these words to conclude his book:

 '..far from being 'a monster that must be put back in its place', as the German president recently complained, financial markets are like the mirror of mankind, revealing every hour of every working day the way we value ourselves and the resources of the world around us.

  It is not the fault of the mirror if it reflects our blemishes as clearly as our beauty.'

-

[ 7 ] The Armchair Economist - Stephen Landsburg

 An interesting read about the economics of daily life. From why popcorns are so expensive at cinemas, to why the government must not charge high tariffs on imported cars. It was so interesting that I finish reading it in barely two days!







[ 8 ] The Blank Slate - Steven Pinker

  I have just finished reading this book over Christmas. A cognitive scientist goes head on with the nature vs nurture debate, from IQ to gender differences. Not for the faint-hearted, hardcore liberals or feminist/sexist. Otherwise, an insightful read!  Nature -1; Nurture - 0





[ 9 ] The Denial of Death - Ernest Becker


  This is the second Pulitzer prize winning book in my list. It is also the oldest one published among the others in my list. The late author explored, in this book, the philosophy of the denial of our inevitable demise: in our social life (loyalty to friendship circle), work (striving to build one's own legacy) and religion (the promise of an after life).




[ 10 ] Jews, God & History - Max I. Dimont

  Finally, as the number 10 book of the year, this is, as its name implies, a record of the history of the Jewish people and how their beliefs (hence, 'God' in the title) had influenced their progress and fated them to meet challenges through the ages. I agree with the author after reading this book, that the Jews have been important contributors to our history (including the non-Jews), from the Judeo-Christian-Islamic scriptures & faiths,  to our economic, philosophical, & scientific progress. 

  Although the author no longer professes the Jewish faith,  he has great respect for it especially for his Jewish father.  This book was not written to promote Zionism, argue for or against it. It does, however, discuss the history of the formation of Israel, wars & crises of the middle-east. 

About Me

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Medical practitioner. Amateur philosopher, pianist and composer.