Links - 25th May 2016

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, Meet the author: Marina Lewycka - "In fiction, not as in real life, the author is in control. So things can happen: you can have an argument with your boss at work, you get a parking ticket. But if you're writing about them, you can turn them into something funny and something in which you're the person that has the power"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, 'There was no question that he was in charge' - "[On his class photo from 1983 with people of mixed ethnicity and religion]
There are more than 30 of us in this picture, and more than half of the people in this picture were either killed or had their family members killed.'
'One of the difficult things for you is that among those imprisoned with you were some of your old classmates, but also some of those classmates were themselves perpetrators.'
'Well some of my classmates were my prison guards. My high school teacher was my interrogator and my torturer. I knew most of the people who ran this place. And I didn't have a clue that I would end up in the same room. So when I saw him in there, I was shocked. Because you never expect your teacher to be in a place like that, cos, and especially this guy - we loved him. He was such a popular teacher. He was very nice to us. People were being taken out, tortured, killed. Women were raped and I could actually hear this happening just behind the wall of the room which I was kept. So it was a living hell. When I went back to Bosnia, 10 years after I was taken to the Omarska camp, I wanted to speak to him. I wanted to understand why him. At no point was he prepared to accept any responsibility for his involvement in those things, but ironically in a way he asked me to forgive him. And I couldn't forgive him at the time. I did forgive him after he died, I forgave all of them, but he died 2 years later so I never had the chance to talk to him again but today I work with his son'

Your inherited genes control your IQ and may affect how well you do at exams - "genes contribute to success in the full range of subjects from maths to art—and that the genetic influence stuck around even after they factored out the effects of intelligence. Other genetic, inherited traits might include mental health, personality, or motivation... A population that shows high levels of heritability can be interpreted as a sign of equality—the environment can't be radically different, or it would be the dominant influence. Take height as an example: people become taller or shorter adults because of a combination of their genes and various environmental factors, like nutrition in early childhood. In a country with high inequality, where some children receive adequate or excellent childhood nutrition and others starve, nutrition will play a very important role in how tall people are able to grow regardless of their genes—children with the genetic capacity to be very tall could be stunted by a poor environment. On the other hand, in a population where pretty much everyone is well-fed, the differences between people’s heights will be decided largely by genetics. The same goes for education: when everyone is receiving pretty much the same standard of education and has an equally good home life, their inherited traits and tendencies will play a more important role in their eventual results. When some people receive excellent education and others receive a much lower standard, educational “nutrition” will play an important role in the academic heights people can reach...For the authors, the most important result here is that intelligence isn’t the only heritable trait affecting results: echoing decades-old popular sentiment, they point to other traits like personality and motivation as important factors. They note that genes aren’t just a passive inheritance: genetic tendencies are likely to affect the choices made by teenagers and children, both selecting and interpreting their experiences of the world."

Testosterone Levels in Men Decline Over Past Two Decades, Study Shows - "The reasons for this decline are unclear; the study suggests that neither aging nor changes in certain health factors, such as obesity or smoking, can completely explain the phenomenon."

Cleveland Clinic says first uterus transplant in U.S. fails - "Other countries have tried womb transplants, and have reported some failures. Sweden reported the first successful birth in 2014, with a total of five healthy babies from nine transplants so far. The experimental technique is a new frontier that might one day offer women born without a uterus or who lost it to disease a chance at pregnancy, an alternative to adoption or surrogacy."

Why the Captain America: Civil War Movie Worked When the Comics Didn't
Maybe it's because the comics are fiendishly complicated and the movie universe, not so

Mom, I Love You, But Please Don’t Write Foreign Leaders Without Telling Me - "a letter from JFK to his mom, dated November 3, 1962. In it, the President tells his mother he has signed the copies of a photo he received from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, which Khruschchev apparently had previously autographed at the request of Mrs. Kennedy. He makes sure to tell her that he thinks the picture "is most interesting and will be highly regarded.""

It’s Time to Retire ‘Crap Circles’ - "These pernicious circles-and-arrows diagrams infest PowerPoint and other business presentations, purporting to clarify an idea while actually obscuring it."

Thick Fog Turns Dubai into a City Above the Clouds

DDB Brussels and Volkswagen introduce the "slowmercial". - "The slowmercial is an almost static TV commercial that works for both live- and fast-forwarded viewing. Live viewers will get to see the 30second ad showing the car slowly opening its roof, while being invited to VW's open door days. Meanwhile the voice-over taps into the difference between live- and delayed viewing. Those who watch the ad in fast-forward mode will also see the car for a couple of seconds, showing the message as it was a print ad. No matter how this commercial is viewed, it won't escape the viewers' attention."

One Mexican town finds more security by throwing out the police

Map of China with "translated" placenames (x-post from r/Mapporn) : China

Come Home, America - The New York Times - "World War II, and the relative impotence of the United Nations, convinced successive administrations that America had to fill the breach, and we did so, with great success. The world was far more secure in the second half of the 20th century than in the disastrous first half. The percentage of the globe’s population killed in conflicts between states fell in each decade after the Truman Doctrine. America experienced more wars (Korea, Vietnam, the two Iraq wars, Afghanistan) but the world, as a whole, experienced fewer. We were not so much an empire — the empire decried by the scholar and veteran Andrew J. Bacevich and celebrated by the conservative historian Niall Ferguson — as an umpire, one that stood for equal access by nation-states to political and economic gains; peaceful arbitration of international conflict; and transparency in trade and business... NATO’s first secretary general, Hastings Ismay, famously said the alliance existed “to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”"

Why We May Never Beat Stigma - "Dumbing down addiction to apply to any bad behavior gives jerks a free pass. But when the label loses its meaning, real addicts also lose credibility as people with a disease."

Journalists took secret money for critical pieces about Malaysian opposition candidate

McDonald's Four Shapes Of Chicken McNuggets - "the perfect McNugget needs a lot more than a well-aligned shape, according to McDonald's standards. The company tests flavor, breading texture, meat texture, bite firmness, color, coating, and a whole lot more. It's a strangely thorough process."

Gaming the System - The New York Times - "Inside Higher Ed had a fascinating article a couple days ago about some college students who unanimously boycotted their final exam and all got A’s under a grading curve loophole. It’s a great example of game theory at work."

Nigeria: Muslim cleric arrested for role in sparking murders of polio workers - "Today, Nigeria is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic, the others being Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Hmmm. What do those three have in common?"

More travel means better sex, says survey - "the romance and better sex enjoyed during travel lasts long after the trip is over."

Singapore’s outdated national security policies - "Singapore’s national security policies are outdated and in dire need of revision. These policies are heavily influenced by the paranoias of the 1960s, when a vulnerability fetish gave rise to a siege mentality amongst Singaporean leaders that persists today. But Singapore’s main security threats now are not other states but non-state actors, specifically pirates and terrorists... Singapore has become too important to the global economy. Some 80% of the world’s oil flows through Singapore. Singapore sits at the centre of global aviation and shipping routes. MNCs from China, Europe, India and the US have sizeable operations in Singapore. High-net worth individuals from every Asian country have second homes in Singapore. If Singapore were embroiled in a conflict, there would be an immediate and direct impact on many other countries in the region. As shipments of natural resources to China were halted, its economy might sputter to a halt. Peace in Singapore is a non-negotiable prerequisite for Asia’s stability. In other words, the biggest deterrent to would-be aggressors is not Singapore’s Armed Force; it is the Armed Forces of China and the US, hovering around the broader Asia-Pacific region...Singapore is possibly the only modern state that has never been embroiled in a major military conflict but still insists on maintaining a conscript army."

Reimagining the Singapore Armed Forces and National Service - "even if Singapore demilitarises as suggested here, we must always keep open the possibility of remilitarisation. This will not be a difficult or costly process. It might take a couple of years, just like it did in the mid 1960s. But our geopolitical considerations will not change suddenly overnight. They will do so gradually, if at all... is it really possible that hundreds of thousands of Singaporean men have shed blood, sweat and tears, toiling in the impossibly narrow slivers of rainforest on this tiny island, some losing their lives while fighting imaginary wars against phantom Muslim neighbours, led by Generals who have never stepped on a battlefield but will one day rise to a plum post in a government-linked company—by merit, of course—all because our country is still guided by the national security paranoias of fifty years ago?"

Bridging the Generation Gap, One Meal at a Time - The New York Times - "For some, a new social milieu means adopting a vegan diet or giving up carbohydrates, while others, like my brother-in-law, drink only Blue Bottle coffee made in a handblown Chemex coffee maker. My friend Barry Dale says the only thing tougher than telling his Southern parents he was gay was telling them he was gluten free. (He does not have celiac disease.)"

Community Isn't All It's Cracked Up To Be - "I was spending more time on the travel blogger group than I was on my own Facebook page or my own blog.
I was getting sucked into arguments that didn’t mean anything.
I was letting myself get agitated over things that shouldn’t have mattered.
I was answering questions from people who didn’t bother to take 5 seconds to do a Google search to find basic information. They wanted everything handed to them.
I didn’t know most of the people in the forum. They were part of the “community” but they weren’t my friends. I’ve never spoken to most of these people nor had they ever introduced themselves to me."

Sticks and Stones

Lucas Lynch - Donald Trump has said derogatory things about...

"Donald Trump has said derogatory things about Muslims, which the left fears will lead to hate and crime against Muslims and recruitment for ISIS.

Hillary Clinton's decisions and counsel as a Senator and Secretary of State have lead to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Muslims. This same faction of the left loves her.

Donald Trump wants to put a *supposedly* temporary ban on all Muslim immigration into the United States, particularly among Syrian refugees, which the left is horrified by in wanting to help desperate people.

Hillary Clinton's decisions and counsel as a Senator and Secretary of State helped make them refugees and desperate people *in the first place*, but this same faction of the left loves her.

So you get to choose between a man who is verbally unkind to Muslims and wants to keep them out, or someone who is verbally kind to them but whose death toll in this regard beats Donald Trump by the order of *hundreds of thousands*.

For those people who actually *do* consistently care about the plight of the innocent in the middle east, you are screwed in November."

Links - 24th May 2016

Anti-Semitic statements of 'joy and peace' selfie star - "The iconic picture above has been widely shared on social media over the last few days and reported on by BBC Trending and a host of other news outlets around the world. Many who saw it were charmed by Ms Belkhiri's stunt which seemed to use humour to defuse a potentially awkward confrontation outside a Muslim lifestyle exhibition in Belgium. Photos of the event showed that even some of the placard-carrying demonstrators from the far right Vlaams Belang group seemed to find it funny... since then a series of deeply disturbing anti-Semitic statements made by Ms Belkhiri on social media have come to light. In one tweet dating from November 2012, she wrote: "Hitler didn't kill all the Jews, he left some. So we know why he was killing them." And in another Facebook post from March 2014, she used an expletive to describe Jews before adding: "I hate them so much." After these and other statements emerged, Ms Belkhiri deleted all her social media accounts"
If the BBC says the same thing as Breitbart, is Breitbart still wrong?
If anti-Semitic people justify their anti-Semitism by claiming it's just anti-Zionism, does it suggest that much purported anti-Zionism is really anti-Semitism?

Former President of Mexico Compares Bernie Sanders to Hugo Chávez - ""In Latin America, we have a century of experience of suffering from messianic, populist leaders that have broken our economies, that have brought poverty into all of Latin America," he said in response to a question about Sanders during an interview with Mother Jones this week. "Yes, I'm talking here about the Hugo Chávezes, the Evo Moraleses, the Kirchners in Argentina, the Peróns in Argentina, and so many of those populists that we've had in Latin America"... Sanders' popularity, he said, shows that the United States is "moving towards extreme left, extreme populism, extreme demagoguery"... "These are two false prophets that are going to take you to the desert. They are going to take you nowhere. So for the first time now, Latin America can speak with the voice of experience. We have experienced the Bernie Sanders, many of them throughout Latin America. We have experienced the Trumps, many throughout Latin America in the 20th century. So please, America, don't listen to these false prophets.""

Activist roasted on Facebook for slamming Kho Jabing’s execution - "A Singaporean anti-death penalty activist earned a drubbing on Facebook after she wrote an emotional tribute about Kho Jabing, the Sarawakian who was executed in the island state yesterday for the murder of a Chinese national. Angered by the hero treatment they claimed Kirsten Han had given the convicted killer, Facebook users flooded her timeline with comments, many angrily telling the activist to pay the same respect to the murdered Cao Ruyin. “If Kirsten wants to make the murderer the victim and martyr and the victim anonymous, I have very serious doubts about her own personal values.
Just because I am against Amos Yee being prosecuted doesn't mean I lionise him as some sort of hero. What more this?

Tiananmen Square: the long shadow — FT.com - "He is more optimistic about the desire of young Chinese to learn the truth of 1989 – a taboo in China – from what he hears from his mainland students in Taiwan. “Many of them are eager to know the truth … what happened 25 years ago,” he says, explaining that when they arrive in Taiwan, many go straight to Facebook, which is banned in China, to learn about Tiananmen. “They still have curiosity and are eager to know, that is very important.” But he thinks the current generation will fight differently – using the internet as a potent tool – and for a slightly different cause than the protesters who filled Tiananmen Square in 1989. “Our generation fight for the benefit of the country or the state. Democracy for us is for China,” says Mr Wang. “For the young generation, the post-90s generation, sooner or later they will stand up to fight, but maybe fight for their own benefit, for the freedom of themselves”... The rescue of Tiananmen Square student leaders began just days after the tanks rolled in and the government published its most wanted list of “counter-revolutionaries”. It was called Operation Yellow Bird after a Chinese proverb: “The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the yellow bird behind.” Its goal was to smuggle prominent members of the movement to safety in the west. The operation was extremely successful. It brought together an unlikely mix of ordinary Chinese citizens, sympathetic Communist officials, Hong Kong activists, western intelligence agencies, diplomats and Hong Kong triad gangsters... The extraction missions, aided by MI6, the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, and the CIA, according to many accounts, had scrambler devices, infrared signallers, night-vision goggles and weapons. Sympathisers helped student leaders travel more than 2,000km from Beijing to the Hong Kong border by bus, boat, train, car, donkey cart and in storage tanks."

Fictitious Dishes: Elegant and Imaginative Photographs of Meals from Famous Literature

Worst passwords of 2013: 'Password' is no longer the top choice - but what is? - "In news that will have computer security experts celebrating and shaking their heads, it seems that the most popular password is no longer ‘password’. It’s ‘123456’... security experts recommend that instead of trying to memorise a random jumble of letters and numbers such as ‘d73h58fjk’ we pick phrase passwords – combinations of known words such as ‘monkeysteeplefacejacket’ that tend to stick in the memory.ecurity experts recommend that instead of trying to memorise a random jumble of letters and numbers such as ‘d73h58fjk’ we pick phrase passwords – combinations of known words such as ‘monkeysteeplefacejacket’ that tend to stick in the memory."

How Could Disney Do This To Maleficent? - "Maleficent's plan is to keep the Prince alive and well, until he's too old for Aurora. To let him sit in misery for 100 years until she releases him as an old man. Prince Philip would be able to save his beloved, only to have her wake to a shriveled, 100-year-old stranger. That is rough. It's chillingly cruel, but astoundingly brilliant. You had to admire this monster for her creativity. This is where I depart from the new, live-action origin story. She's just not that clever. Every act in Maleficent's life is completely reactionary and pretty hasty... The original movie offers zero explanation for why Aurora would meet the sharp end of a spinning wheel and fall asleep. Were they all really into spinning wheels at some point? Is that a metaphor for women being constantly attacked by little pricks all the time? Who knows? But finding out that the reason Maleficent cursed Aurora with a spinning wheel was because it was TO THE LEFT of the King was disappointing to say the least. The significance was entirely arbitrary; it could have been an old sock, a pile of leaves or a raccoon skeleton they found in the basement. It makes no sense. In a way it's like a metaphor for this movie: Why should we make a Maleficent movie? For no reason at all... at the very end it's revealed that Princess Aurora is the movie's narrator. So it's no wonder this story doesn't make any sense, because it's being told by an idiot"

Are 'Tiger Moms' Better Than Cool Moms? - "They found both parenting styles can be effective; the key is in how the child views his or her relationship with the mother. In Asian-American culture, children are often expected to rely on their families, but European-American families tend to value and encourage independence. Parental pressure provokes different reactions in each culture: Asian-American students said they felt like parent involvement in their lives is a form of support, while European-American children resented the pressure to perform."

Genius man used one first class airplane ticket to eat free for a year - "He booked a first class ticket on China Eastern Airlines and went to the VIP airport lounge at the Xi'an airport in Shaanxi, China and ate a delicious meal before his flight. Just like any first class traveler would. Except he never takes the flight. After he finished eating, the man changed his flight's departure for another day and went back home. Until tomorrow. Armed with a brand new first class ticket for a new day, he comes back to the airport lounge, eats another fantastic free meal and after he finishes up, yep, pushes his flight back again. Lather. Eat. Repeat. For free... The best part though? When China Eastern Airlines started investigating this heroic man for changing his flights too many times, he simply canceled his airplane ticket and got a full refund"

Is Marvel Intentionally Sabotaging Its Relationship With Fox? - "It's not enough for Fox to have an underperforming movie: the logic behind these moves could be that if Marvel stays silent, the Marvel fans that guide the word-of-mouth will keep Josh Trank's upcoming The Fantastic Four from being profitable, leading to Fox surrendering the rights to Marvel... one of the unusual nuggets that Marvel keeps from Fox and Sony are the merchandising rights. If any other studio owned the merchandising rights to someone else's blockbuster, they'd start churning out toys immediately. Instead, you can't go to the store to find a single toy or gizmo tied to X-Men: Days Of Future Past because Marvel flat-out didn't make them... It's looking more and more like Marvel is being seduced by the movies, and surrendering their legacy as a result, one issue at a time"

Plastic Legacy: Humankind's Trash Is Now a New Rock - "Melted plastic trash on beaches can sometimes mix with sediment, basaltic lava fragments and organic debris (such as shells) to produce a new type of rock material"

How great would Sweden’s proposed six-hour workday be? This great. - "Studies have shown that there appears to be an inverse relationship between the number of hours worked by OECD countries and how efficient they are (though the United States is an outlier here, working both long and hard). Unfortunately, of course, life is not quite that simple. The Swedish town of Kiruna actually gave up its six-hour working days in 2005 after finding that the increased intensity of work was not a positive. "People have seen there that the intensity of the job increases significantly, with negative effects on health as a consequence," Carina Bildt at the National Institute for Working Life told the Swedish press at the time. "It has certainly helped to improve productivity, but sickness has also increased.""

Artillery shell casings from Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral to be given to individuals, organisations
I rather have hairs from his head; if this violation of the Arms and Explosives Act is unproblematic it's no wonder 377A isn't either

How Muslim Governments Impose Ignorance - The New York Times - "Even the Bible, the world’s best seller, is banned in Saudi Arabia — no matter that the Quran praises it. In Egypt, under the iron fist of President Abdelfattah al-Sisi, a range of literary works can be outlawed. Last month, a novelist was sentenced to two years in prison for “violating public modesty.”... When Muslim minds aren’t challenged by “dangerous” ideas they cannot develop the sophistication needed to articulate their own... Today, many Muslims, including those who censor books or punish “heretics,” long for that “golden age of Islam” and lament that our civilization is no longer great. Few seem to realize, however, that the greatness of Islam was made possible thanks to its openness to foreign cultures and ideas"

French woman aged 91 gets PhD after 30 years - "“It took a bit of time to write because I took breaks,” Bourlier said, explaining the decades it took her to complete her work."

80% of Americans Support Mandatory Labels on "Food Containing DNA" - "A survey by the Oklahoma State University Department of Agricultural Economics finds that over 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA,” about the same number as support mandatory labeling of GMO foods “produced with genetic engineering... A 2012 National Science Foundation survey even found that about 25% of Americans don’t know that the Earth revolves around the sun, rather than vice versa... It would be a mistake to assume that widespread political and scientific ignorance are the result of “the stupidity of the American voter,” as Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber put it. Political ignorance is not primarily the result of stupidity. For most people, it is a rational reaction to the enormous size and complexity of government and the reality that the chance that their vote will have an impact on electoral outcomes is extremely low. The same is true of much scientific ignorance"

BBC Radio 4 - Best of Today, 'I was accused of abusing my own children' - "She never thought it would go as far as this, because she's used the false allegation tactic before and nothing ever happens to her. Very very few women end up in court accused of making false accusations... It's such a common tactic used... It's affected my mental health. I was diagnosed with stress. It affects your reputation, damages your reputation. People think there's no smoke without fire. And obviously it affects your children. I don't know what my ex-wife says to them but at the end of the day they will know that their dad has been accused of being a criminal, when that's not the case"

The Malay Ideals: lndolence Perpetuated (On Malays Being Lazy)

[In contrast to the Chinese and Indians] The Malays on the other hand when forced to work for the benefit of the colonialists made a silent protest by doing as little as possible and resisted following instructions. This perpetuated the notion of the lazy native or the stupid. native. The English constantly foisted the idea that they were the most excellent and honourable while the natives were the worst kind of people. Over decades, the Malays began to believe in this propaganda and thought themselves of being incapable of doing even the easiest job on the face of this earth...

Indolence Perpetuated

The Malays were unfortunately well known for their indolence and laziness, unjustifiably so. This is primarily thought to have stemmed out from centuries of evolution. The Malays are from the Polynesian group of people who used to be nomads wondering over great distances in search of better living conditions when their group had grown larger. The Polynesians stretched over thousands of kilometres from Sumatra to the New Guinea and even as far as the South Pacific and Hawaii. Because the conditions of the land and the seas as well as the forests were so rich in the abundance at food. supply and resources, there was little need for innovation, exertion and hard persistent work. An hour’s toil would produce food for a week, it is said, and meanwhile, to fill their time, they would indulge in excessive entertainment and relaxation. This conduct is passed from one generation to another by way of culture and passive learning through observation and experience. In addition, the climate was swelteringly hot and humid which sapped their energies and strained the most industrious of the Malays, in which persistent hard work would be impossible, it is argued.

We however believe that this is a problem of values and observation. The Natives from all over the world, from the Aborigines of Australia, to the Eskimos of the Arctic; the Amazonians of South America to American Indians of North America; the Natives of Central America to the Natives of Africa, if anyone observes these peoples, who are hardly touched by industrialisation or the hectic metropolitan life, he will have perceived that they are somewhat "indolent" by Western standards. Western standards dictate that a person has to be seen of hoarding massive amounts of wealth in order to be classed as successful. Who works day and night to accumulate a mountain of money. Who has to stampede one another in the rush for more gold and glory. Who has to compete every single day to maintain his “successes” and to thwart any affronting competition. Always on the look out for fear that someone might shove him off his pedestal of achievement and take over his temporary kingship. This is the standard of success and industriousness of the West where greed has taken toll of their lives. Where wanting is not enough but wanting more and more is good.

With the Natives however, the above precepts are not yardsticks of success because materialism has not taken sway of their lives. They have not been touched by the so-called ”civilisation”. There has not been a population boom in their communities that necessitate a struggle for existence. They work with nature and relied upon it to replenish their sources of food. They do not destroy their environment. They allow nature to resuscitate itself. They take time in hunting and fishing. They take time in planting for their daily meal. Food is plenty for everyone if they do not try to plunder it. They seek self-sufficiency. There is no competition where one tramples upon another. There is humility and courteousness in the lives of natives. They are not puffed up with pride unlike the Westerners who think that they are the most knowledgeable and the noblest of mankind. The search for personal wealth seldom occurs with the natives "untouched" by civilisation. They do not compete, but they cooperate. They cooperate with people. They cooperate with nature. There are no losers. There are only winners. They do not horde gold but they share whatever little profit there is to share. They assist one another and mutually benefit one another in their own community. To the Westerners, this is laziness and indolence. To the Natives, the Westerners are just greedy, a classic difference of values.

Even so, a casual observer may note that when a Malay declines to undertake upon a task, whether it be a work or other ventures, when questioned, the Malay would usually give the reason that he or she is just "malas” (lazy). With the Malay person, there is a tendency to use the word universally for any excuse. The reason for not venturing with the task at hand is of course not laziness. However, the word is summoned at every occasion as an excuse. This is because the questioner would not ask any further upon hearing that answer. It is more of a reflex answer and a habitual response than a thoughtful and reasoned explanation of unwillingness to perform a particular act. The Malay person rarely ever gets lambasted for the frequent mentioning of the word. The use of the word is never censured in the Malay community either. Other communities only use the word ”lazy" as a last resort to justify their unwillingness to work. They would employ more reasoned explanations, such as "tiredness", “being unwell", "not in the mood" or "busy” and others. Understandably, the Malays frequent use of the word gives the impression to outsiders that the Malays are indeed a lazy people.

Nevertheless, there is an inherent danger of misusing the word "lazy". When the word "lazy" is summoned almost all of the time, the Malay society unconsciously and inherently tolerates laziness. This is achieved through constant, daily and widespread use of the word within the community. When other communities see indolence as a trait to be despised, the Malays unknowingly see it as acceptable. "Laziness" and its acceptability in the Malay community is promulgated through its constant reference by Malays themselves. This helps to spread the attribute in the Malay individual indirectly. Passiveness in selecting the proper word to explain the proper reason for inactivity is mirrored in the easy attitude that they take when working, which is a reflection of a mentality which prefers to take things easy, avoid hardships, which conjures up the picture of a people lacking in commitment. This could have resulted from the Malays' acceptance of laziness in their culture and attitude and the fact that this character (laziness) is something not to be feared but inadvertently embraced

--- The Malay Ideals / Asrul Zamani


Among other things, the author is saying that as per the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, Malays have become lazy