'Action comes out of thought'

"The intellectual should constantly disturb, should bear witness to the misery of the world, should be provocative by being independent, should rebel against all hidden and open pressures and manipulations, should be the chief doubter of systems ... and for this reason, an intellectual cannot fit into any role that might be assigned to him ... and essentially doesn't belong anywhere: he stands out as an irritant wherever he is." - Aung San Suu Kyi

Feb. 8, 2012
A Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

We are 39 days into this New Year of 2012. English writer Gilbert Chesterton said, "The object of the new year, ... is that we should have a new soul" -- a new beginning.

For the nearly 5 million Cambodians who live below the nation's poverty level, and the nearly half a million who have been forcibly evicted from their homes, a new beginning cannot come soon enough.

Human beings are creatures of habit. We think and act as we have always done. In time, our habits become fossilized and we are on auto-pilot. I am reminded of the saying, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got," and of Albert Einstein's oft-quoted definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

The quality of anything we do, and our future, are determined as much by how we think as by what we know. Individuals can store countless data in their heads, but how each person integrates that information -- the quality of one's thinking -- varies greatly from person to person. Still, the skill of engaging in quality thinking can be taught, can be learned.

Ingrained in quality thinking are: Creativity (assimilating and reframing information to develop concepts and patterns, goals and objectives) and criticality (assessing and evaluating how creative thought has, or hasn't, led to achievement of a goal).

Cambodians need to work together

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

Aug. 23, 2011
Written by A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
Pacific Daily News

A recent meeting I had with a former American foreign service officer and a retiree from a nonprofit, non-governmental organization had as its purpose to discuss Cambodia and change. But our discussions touched on many other issues, ranging from my column on China's overreach to the globalization of technology, and how today's young Cambodians have become adept with and immersed in modern technological tools.

It was the young Cambodians' wholehearted embrace of technology that nudged me and my NGO friend -- both of us well past 50 -- to raise concerns over the gradual decline in direct personal relationships among humans, relationships we both believe are essential to productive interaction.

As we spoke, some quotations I found in a PowerPoint and used in my column in this space five years ago popped back in my head: "We reached the moon and came back, but we find it troublesome to cross our own street and meet our neighbors. We have conquered outer space, but not our inner space." And: "We talk much, we love only a little, and we hate too much."

Having learned how values and principles historically have been guides for human beings, I write from time to time about Lord Gautama Buddha's ancient teachings 2,500 years ago, which seem to have relevance in today's Cambodia, where 95 percent of her 14 million citizens are Buddhists, where democrats are fighting for rights and freedom.

After our meeting, I received a note from my American friend, along with Foreign Policy magazine's special report, "Technology Will Take on a Life of Its Own." He suggested that perhaps we have been already bypassed by the new age and young Cambodians will have to come up with a new system of ethics aligned with the new technology.

Reactions of readers affirm goal

May 25, 2011
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

I hear, from time to time, from some in the Hun Sen regime, and though I disagree with their association and their work for the dictatorial government, I don't doubt some folks in Hun Sen's civilian administration and military sincerely love Cambodia and want the country to be free, independent and democratic, with justice and rights for the people. Those who are close to politics and the action every day may not be as happy as they seem.

First, my apologies for not having answered all emails: It's physically impossible. Second, to my friends on Guam: Thank you for seeing that what I write about Cambodia can be universally applied (my former comparative politics students at UOG can smile). Third, I wish to announce that beginning in July I will decrease my writing in this space from weekly to biweekly to have time to meet other obligations.

Reactions from readers, Cambodians and non-Cambodians, to what I write (and do not write) have been educational for me. I write to share what I know and to provoke thoughtful debate. So, the positive and negative reactions I received affirm that my goal is attained: I am able to shake the resting mind to ask questions. Most would agree that one who does not question is intellectually dead and cannot know how to proceed.

From what readers write, I am confident that "how" one thinks determines the kind of world in which one finds oneself. "What we think, we become," Gautama Buddha said 2,500 years ago. The concepts have been reiterated in different ways by many, including Mahatma Gandhi and Barack Obama's "Yes, we can!"

How one thinks does not mean shooting off one's mouth under the guise of protected free expression. A well-reflected thought is a far cry from a fleeting opinion. Among many things, to think involves using the mind to imagine, inquire, interpret, relate, evaluate, compare and analyze. A school of thought urges that we not be satisfied and settle for an answer, even if it is so clear and so logical, but to keep asking questions until we reach a horizon with a panorama of answers from which the best one can be chosen.

Words have power to hurt, haunt

April 13, 2011
A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

As you read this column today, Buddhists are celebrating the start of a new year, Year 2555 of the Buddhist Era. I wish each the blessings of a Happy Buddhist New Year.

As one who frequently writes about the importance of informed, critical thinking, I am pleased at the opportunity this reminder of Buddha offers to acknowledge Buddha's teaching that thought makes man, and with his thoughts man makes the world: "We are what we think."

Great teaching

An action is an outcome of thoughts and dreams, which are conveyed through words, written or spoken. The words we use are revealing of who and what we are, and even of the values we hold. A Khmer saying goes, "Samdei sar jiat," or "Words reveal a man's worth."

Anti-intellectualism is troubling

Mar. 23, 2011
Written by A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

Man lives and man dies. Nations rise, nations fall. Territories expand, and territories contract. The fate of a nation is to some degree leader-dependent. A leader is the product of his or her thoughts, values, beliefs, all of which influence their actions and decision-making.

But great ideas live on. Today, we still discuss ideas of great philosophers and thinkers who lived hundreds of years before Christ.

For their nation's future, young Khmers should start learning Thomas Jefferson's ideas that all men are created equal with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and what Lord Buddha taught 2,500 years ago, to accept and live up to what agrees with reason and for "the good and benefit of one and all."

'One kilo of brain'

My "one kilo of brain" concept, which I picked up from a teacher in my primary school days, is an anecdote I have referenced here often. Many have felt a need to comment. I come to believe that the Khmers' future depends on how well the young Khmers of today use that one kilo. Progress will take courage and careful

thought.

Khmer future in hands of youths

Mar. 16, 2011
Written by A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

In the final analysis, the future of the Khmer nation rests in the hands of the young generation of Khmers who must decide and dictate which road to development and progress Cambodians need to take.

A quotation familiar to many -- "All that is needed for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" -- is attributed to Anglo-Irish statesmen Edmund Burke, who supported the cause of the American Revolution and criticized the French Revolution.

Another statement I have often quoted, "The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it," was offered by the Nobel Prize winning American physicist Albert Einstein.

And perhaps French playwright Moliere summed up best who's accountable: "It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do."

We are today in the year 2011. The world has changed and would be an unfamiliar place, indeed to the sages of centuries past. Yet French critic Alphonse Karr said long ago, "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" -- "The more things change, the more they stay the same."

Learn to use words, thoughts well

"You cannot push anyone up a ladder unless he is willing to climb it himself." - Andrew Carnegie

March 9, 2011
Written by A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

I write often that a thesis and antithesis come as a pair, they interact. Given time, a synthesis would result; this gives rise to a new thesis and new antitheses, similar to the two interdependent energies, the "yin" and the "yang," energies that cannot exist without one another as their interactions cause everything to happen.

Buddhists believe when there's life, there's death; when there's happiness, there's suffering. Thus night follows day and day follows night; happiness follows suffering; after death, there is rebirth. The Samsara wheel of life turns and turns. What goes around comes around.

Thesis-antithesis, yin-yang interactions can bring tension and conflict. People have different opinions, perceptions, beliefs. Disagreement is natural.

Disputes can be avoided by giving some space to humility -- consideration of others' views and feelings which is the foundation of many virtues -- and avoiding hotheaded, disagreeable reactions.

In my teaching career, I used the concept of individual actions influenced by experiences-values-beliefs-information; I taught students to reach for high principles and apply them.

Leaders followed, even into abyss

March 2, 2011
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

My article last week on the Khmer-Thai border gunfight over the Preah Vihear temple ruins was posted on the Khmer blog KI Media. Expectedly, it brought out a wave of Greek philosopher Plato's mythical Gyges ring wearers, with noisy anonymous comments that lashed out against the Thai "invaders."

Unsurprisingly, some placed me on the side of the Khmers' historical enemy, the Thai "thieves," because I mentioned the 4.6 square kilometers around the temple as the disputed area. The Khmer wife of an American friend branded me in an e-mail as a "crocodile losing his way in the lake" -- I am ungrateful to the land of my birth to side with the enemy.

There's no disputed area, my critics say, only Khmer land wanted by the Thais -- the party line. Premier Hun Sen should be happy; he wants the conflict on the western border to distract the people from the more significant encroachment by the Vietnamese on the eastern flank.

We need to learn how to learn

February 2, 2011By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

I learn from the words and wisdom of people who have walked paths I have never experienced. As a reminder to myself, I have tacked a note near my home workstation: "Don't compare your life with others.' You have no idea what their journey is all about."

The great Chinese teacher Confucius said if you want product in a year, grow grain; in 10 years, grow trees; in 100 years, grow people. Educate them to become intellectually and socially able citizens to play roles in society, the economy and the government to propel the country forward and better humankind.

Able citizens are the central core that moves a country forward. In a democracy, leaders are drawn from the citizenry. A French founding father of the European Union, Jean Monnet, said, "Nothing is possible without men; nothing is lasting without institutions."

So grow the best of men and women. They will have the capacity to create institutions that are lasting.

Inspiration to fight for freedom

January 19, 2011
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

"If man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression," the world's nations warned as they proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. "It is essential ... that human rights should be protected by the rule of law."

Tibetan Buddhist leader, the 14th Dalai Lama posited: "Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free," and "it is the inherent right of all beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity, and they have an equal right to achieve that."

The concept of equal rights to freedom, equality and dignity was what drew me to study the ideals of America's republicanism when I set foot on U.S. college campus almost 50 years ago: equal rights, equal opportunity, equal treatment.

I continue to be awed by the work of Presidnet Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the self-evident truths, "that all men are created equal ... with certain unalienable rights," and who envisioned an "Empire of Liberty" for America that would uphold republicanism to counter British imperialism. I wanted nothing less for myself, and thought my countrymen should not be denied those truths.

The power of one

Robert F. Kennedy recalled how in history the work of a single person had created great movements of thought and action that swept the world.

CAMBODIA: Buddhist thought for the New Year

FOR PUBLICATION
AHRC-ETC-002-2011
January 14, 2011

An article by Dr. Gaffar Peang-Meth published by the Asian Human Rights Commission

As we enter the fifteenth day of the New Year 2011, I would like begin this first article of the year for the Asian Human Rights Commission, with the words of Lord Gautama Buddha (563 B.C.-483 B.C.): "Everything changes, nothing remains without change".

Change is a constant. We can expect change in our lives and in our environment. Some changes will make us smile while others we wish never happened. But change there will be. Facing this inevitability, it behooves us to seek how to influence the change that we would like to see, because "yes, we can." Doing nothing increases the likelihood that we will not like the change that affects us.

"A New Soul"

We, humans, are creatures of habit, of reproductive thinking, of self-piloted, fossilized responses; and yet some wonder why they don't get different results. We are reminded, "When you do what you've always done, you will get what you've always got."

Yet, as many of us like to think of the New Year as new beginnings, an opportunity for a fresh new start, so English writer Gilbert K. Chesterton (1874-1936) wrote, with a new year "we should have a new soul."

Is a new soul possible if we continue patterned thoughts while the world changes?

Start the new year with new soul

January 12, 2011
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

My last column wrapped up 2010, with a recounting of a taxicab driver's "Law of the Garbage Truck." It compares some individuals to garbage trucks that run around full of garbage, full of anger and disappointment. As the garbage piles up, "they need a place to dump it and sometimes they dump it on you."

The cab driver's advice: Life is too short, don't spread your garbage to other people, and don't let the garbage trucks take over your day!

In that column, I quoted the great Chinese teacher, Confucius: "Do not do to others that which we do not want them to do to us." I suggested this is a good place to start as we conduct ourselves in the new year.

Then came an e-mailed greeting card that inspired me to write today's column.

New Year's a time for resolutions

December 29, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

In two days, the old year will cede its reign to the new one. The old is over, with its ups and downs, its glory and its pains. Nobody can change that. We can remember and draw lessons from the past.

But the New Year that is arriving is full of opportunities and promise. We have our New Year's resolutions that are made for those next 365 days.

It seems it is human nature to attach hopes and expectations to somewhat arbitrary milestones. Jan. 1 is, after all, just another day.

Even knowing that, each year most of us affirm an intention to be kinder, eat less, exercise more, read more, spend less time online. ... It is our natural urge to improve, to restore, to progress that makes man different from other living beings.

Whether our roots are in Eastern or Western cultures, this characteristic is one we share.

I have a propensity to pepper my columns with the words of others. Some may find it "cheating" that I rely on third parties to fill this space, to some degree. I happily point out, however, that I believe in recycling even shop-worn truisms from time to time if I find them relevant and well-said.

And so I will indulge that habit here. The upcoming new year prompts my own retrospective and anticipation of a year ahead that offers much promise.

West meets East

A Sanskrit (a South Asian language that dates back to 1,500 B.C.) poem reads: "Look to this day, for it is life, the very life of life. For yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision."

It continues, "Today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day. Such is the salutation to the dawn."

The West meets the East in thought.

Spiritual programs in the United States emphasize not yesterday, which is gone, nor tomorrow, which has not arrived, but today, which is here and now. "This moment is the only moment you have. Respect its possibilities. ... Regardless of what this day brings, thank God. An untouched day awaits you tomorrow."

American poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: "Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine."

"However good or bad a situation is, it will change," I referenced a powerpoint presentation in this space last week. And I often quote Lord Buddha's "Everything changes, nothing remains without change."

Buddha taught us, "No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path."

The serenity prayer, translated into many world languages, looks for "serenity to accept" the things that cannot be changed; "courage to change" the things that can; and "wisdom to know" the difference.

Here and now

A school of thought says the problem with the past is that people tend to ruminate and get stuck. This can render one dysfunctional. But by focusing on the future, we may miss an obvious choice point in the present. As Mother Theresa advised, do what is in front of you!

The Christians' Golden Rule, dubbed by Wikepedia as "the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights," has a corresponding measure in each of the world's great religions.

The great Chinese philosopher, Confucius, preached, "Do not do to others that which we do not want them to do to us." This is a good place to start as we think of how to conduct ourselves in the new year.

It has been posited: There are only two kinds of bad situations, those that can be solved and those that cannot. Thus, people can either "get busy" fixing the problems that can be solved or "get busy" accepting the predicaments they must live with -- using positive and interpretive thinking.

Story for the New Year

Last year, a friend e-mailed me the "Law of the Garbage Truck." What? I was glad my quick fingers didn't press the delete key.

A passenger is riding in a taxicab to the airport when a car cuts in front of the cab, causing the cab driver to slam on the brakes. The taxi screeches to a halt only inches from the car ahead. Whipping his head out the window, the driver in the car ahead yells at the cabbie. The cab driver smiles and waves. The passenger asks the cab driver how he has managed to stay so calm.

"Many people are like the garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger and disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they dump it on you," he explains.

"Don't take it personally. ... Don't take their garbage and spread to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. Life is too short. Successful people don't let garbage trucks take over their day."

Happy New Year 2011 to all!

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Finding comfort in simple truths

Calvin & Hobbes

December 22, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

Merry Christmas to my Christian friends and readers, and happy holiday season to all! As usual, as the holiday season marks the end of another year and the new year is anticipated, some sweet memories are replayed in my mind -- some bring a  smile, and some are not so sweet, which I would rather leave "homeless."

With Thanksgiving still fresh when my loved ones gathered, I like to keep this holiday season as a time of joy, renewed hope and purposeful reflection.

Over the weekend, two of my grandchildren, ages 9 and 11, who told us we must need their help to put up this year's Christmas tree, spent the night at our house to do exactly that. They helped grandma cook dinner for the four of us, and watched an On Demand family Christmas movie before bedtime. I woke up Sunday morning to find my granddaughter, with a Calvin and Hobbes book in hand. She smiled and told me I should listen to her read episodes about Calvin's Machiavellian misdemeanors -- a precious time I added to my memory bank.

We thank the almighty for his grace and compassion for what we have.

I like to spend time during the waning days of the year to read inspirational words that uplift the spirit and boost morale, nudge me to move in the direction I want, assure me when feelings of doubt stare me in the eye, and move me away from being stuck and toward pursuing my passions.

I pulled out e-mails and links, from people I knew, others from those I didn't know, that I store on my computer. Recently a chain e-mail, "I Believe," that I received some time ago from overseas, reappeared, this time accompanied by beautiful photos sent from my high school alma mater in Ohio.

From there, I printed and posted as a reminder: "I believe ... That our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but, we are responsible for who we become," and "That it's taking me a long time to become the person that I want to be."

More often, I Google "Think_It_Over" to watch a slide show by inlibertyandfreedom.com, a link someone e-mailed me as we entered the new year 2005. Accompanied by music, 10 slides of color photos, each inscribed with simple truths, help me keep perspective.

"Today we have higher buildings and wider highways, but shorter temperaments and narrower points of view," read words on one slide.

"We have more knowledge, but less judgment. We have more medicines, but less health," read words on another.

"We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk much, we love only a little, and we hate too much."

"We reached the moon and came back, but we find it troublesome to cross our own street and meet our neighbors. We have conquered the outer space, but not our inner space."

"We have higher income, but less morals. ... These are times with more liberty, but less joy. ... With much more food, but less nutrition."

"These are days in which two salaries come home, but divorces increase. These are times of finer houses, but more broken homes."

Here's where the West meets the East in "Think_It_Over." Eastern thinkers generally counsel us to live well in goodness now, at this moment, today; "Think_It--Over" also counseled that from today onward, be mindful that "Every day, hour, and minute are special." Hence, don't keep anything for a special occasion, because every day is a special occasion. And stop talking about "One of these days," or "someday."

The slide show asserts boldly: "Life is a chain of moments of enjoyment; it isn't only survival."

"Just remember that 'one of these days' can be very far away, and you may not be there to see it." The words on the slide show's last photo -- of New York City where the Twin Towers are shown standing.

In 2009, several people e-mailed me a powerpoint presentation of 30 photos with words of wisdom entitled "Some Tips That May Bring You A Beautiful Life!" You can Google to see.

"No one is in charge of your happiness except you," words on one slide read. "However good or bad a situation is, it will change," read the words on another.

"Make peace with your past, so it won't mess up the present," one slide prods. "Life is too short to waste time hating anyone." "You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagreements." "Life isn't fair, but it's still good."

And I printed and posted the following to remind me:

"Don't compare your life with others'. You have no idea what their journey is all about."

"Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn, pass all your tests. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime."

I read and find comfort in those words -- platitudes, I suppose -- during the holiday season.

As they help me, I am sharing them and my thoughts with you and wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season!

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Apply skills to move forward in new year

A humorous view of new year resolution from Calvin and Hobbes

December 1, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

The new year will be upon us in 30 days. Some will reflect on the past. Sometimes such reflection helps us understand our present circumstances and may clarify next steps.

Still, those who understand human behavior warn against being endlessly mired in questions of why we are the way we are. It's easy to get stuck and be unable to move forward. Engaging your own creativity is a positive action that keeps you forward-focused.

In the new year, we can't repeat what we've always done and expect different outcomes. We need to strike a new path, look at old problems through a new lens. M.J. Ryan advises in her book, "This Year I Will ... " that we switch from "why" thinking to "what could be possible" thinking. Indeed, we're the change we want to see.

For most of us, life is hard in today's nasty financial and economic situation. Yet, food is not lacking, materials remain abundant, technology continues to thrive and bring change -- you can choose to ride, or not, in a vehicle that practically drives itself! There are people who live well; there are many who can't make ends meet.

On the world stage, national governments continue to compete for power, influence and prestige. The perennial clash between democracy activists and autocratic regimes that trample rights and freedom in the name of political stability and economic development raises many moral questions.

Constant struggle

Life is a constant struggle within ourselves and with pressures and temptations in the wider world.

Inwardly, the "I, me, mine" rule lives -- a source of greedy consumption that Lord Buddha saw as a source of "suffering." Outwardly, the same "I, me, mine" gives rise to a need to control, intensifying the just-unjust conflict.

Yet, humans everywhere basically want similar things: To be in good health; to enjoy a level of contentment in life; to be able to meet the basic necessities of life.

A democracy seeks to ensure that people live well. An autocracy seeks to remain in power by beating its people to obey and submit.

Focus on intelligence

Those who are schooled in the social sciences tell us it's not how much we know, but how we think, that determines our future. Some, however, mistake their opinions for analytical thought and knowledge. Opinions are based in our emotions.

Analytical thinking evolves from knowledge, from one's capacity to observe, wonder, imagine, inquire, interpret, evaluate, compare, relate, analyze, calculate and innovate. Our brains can be trained and taught to think better.

According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 85 percent of Americans say they are happy. Yet, those millions who are happy want to be happier still. People want more.

But look around. People live longer, eat better, have more things, but still many are stressed and depressed. The traffic is heavy, grocery lines are long, services are slow, people are rude, etc.

Lord Buddha saw man's insatiable consumption as a source of unhappiness and suffering that ends only through elimination of the need for more.

Positive thinking

A person with a "can do" attitude sees difficulties as opportunities; his or her questioning mind produces a panorama of alternatives to choose from. A person with a "can't do" attitude moves nowhere.

Whether in family life, at work, in the community, or in the world, positive thinking, backed by the power of one's imagination, energizes a person to engage in sustained assaults on problems and predicaments. Problems can be solved; predicaments addressed. It's about keeping things in perspective. Through sorrow we appreciate joy; through war we understand peace; through the negatives, we innovate and create new ways.

As we approach the new year, Khmer democrats should apply their capacity to imagine, relate and innovate to fight the dictatorship under which they live.

In earlier columns, I have connected several useful concepts. In traditional teaching, Khmer elders have urged us to waste nothing: curved wood can make a wheel, straight wood can make a spoke, and crooked wood can make firewood.

Psychologist-consultant Dr. Linda V. Berens identified four temperaments in humans: the theorist values competence, uses strategic analysis; the catalyst idealizes a vision, advocates, and brings people together toward self-actualization; the improviser seizes the moment and varies actions to get things done with what's available; and the stabilizer maintains order and stability through structures, and prevents institutional fragmentation.

An education leader of one of America's most successful public school systems, Jerry D. Weast, described as a leader's "toughest job, ... to move from strategy to execution." That requires the help of the "people who do the work" every day in their unsung roles in the office, the streets or field. They are the "heroes" moving the institution forward, he said.

A results-oriented human resources executive, Katharine Giacalone, says it's important to know who is on your team in order to maximize its effectiveness -- the peacemaker who wants every member to be included; the organizer, who wants everyone to line up and count off; the revolutionary who hates routine and prefers to adapt to the moment; or the smart and opinionated steamroller who handles opposite views and floats ideas at 30,000 feet.

Who is on your team and how can each member be most effective?

Be ready for the new year!

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Do complaints serve a purpose?

KI-Media Note: Due to the tragic event in Koh Pich, we were unable to publish this article by Dr. Peang-Meth on time. We apologize for this delay.

November 24, 2010

By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth

PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

Tomorrow, Thanksgiving Day, is a day of thanks. Tomorrow, 21 years ago, I sat at the dining room table with my family for the first time in a long time, eating a turkey meal, having arrived a few days earlier from the nationalist Khmer resistance zone at the Khmer-Thai border.

No one in the family, nor I, believed I would be at the table; my border friends and colleagues moved on with the United Nations Authority on Cambodia in a "national reconciliation" journey in Phnom Penh. I didn't think UNTAC's sky could protect my unwavering embrace of individuality, criticality and innovation. I saw an inhospitable environment; wisdom teaches when to fold one's tent.

My men at the nationalist Joint Military Command would confirm my motto: "A dead hero is no good for the cause: Stay alive, the morrows await a new fight!" This didn't endear me to Cambodians ready to die for a cause.

My Thanksgiving

Re-entry into normal family life after nine years of conditioning in the Khmer resistance was hard work for my family and for me. I found people around me weird; my loved ones found me a stranger in their home. Days in and days out we struggled. There was much for me to unlearn and relearn.

My life on Guam helped with my transition: The salt water of Ypao that I enjoyed for 13 years helped cleanse my baggage and my discomfort; the sunrises and sunsets calmed me; the coconut trees, the red flame trees, plumeria and bougainvillea danced to the tune of my hopes and dreams.

With my family's help, I slowly re-entered the world different from that which I had known. Yet, the discomforts of close quarters, the noise of explosions and gunfire, the recollection of illness still haunt me today.

Questioning minds

I don't know if my persistent complaints about life in Cambodia's dictatorship under Premier Hun Sen serve a useful purpose. Sure, it serves to remind, but as the Chinese say, "Talk doesn't cook rice."

An e-mail to me from one of Sen's officers said, "Dogs continue to bark, the oxcart continues its journey forward."

A Khmer asked why I "hate" Sen so much. Hate is too strong a word for me personally, as I believe no one is "all evil" and no one is "all saint."

Another asked why I "criticized" opposition leader Sam Rainsy. Ah, what lack of understanding of the word "criticality," which only means assessment, evaluation of what has been done, so we can move forward.

It was Pol Pot who wanted an unquestioning mind!

Some readers may recall a Khmer folktale about a clever boy, A Chey.

By order of the king, soldiers brought a boy named A Chey, by boat, to the king to be punished for some misdeed. To escape, the imaginative A Chey persuaded the soldiers that it would be far easier to allow him to fall into the river, where he would surely drown, than to transport him all the way to the royal palace. The soldiers quickly agreed.

At A Chey's urging, they cheered as he jumped into the river -- and quickly swam away to safety. The moral of the story: A creative mind will take one far. Lacking it, one may cheer at unfolding trouble.

Sure, I hate autocracy at any level that crushes individuality, imagination and innovation that block improvement. Sen is one of those autocrats. Yet, I don't confuse process -- Sen, the king baby, insults, tramples rights and orders jail, which can change -- and substance -- Sen's autocracy destroys the country. This must end.

Meanwhile, images and videos on Google can inform us about the lives of the poor and of the wealthy in Cambodia. Last week, a rare scene was on YouTube, showing an SUV and a standing red motorcycle facing it. A man in a pale blue jacket wearing a helmet was talking to the SUV driver, then the SUV moved forward, ran over the motorcycle and drove off with the red motorcycle dragging under the SUV into traffic.

Draw your conclusion. The video showed the lawlessness under a regime awarded with a billion dollars a year in development aid by the world community.

I take off my hat to Royal University of Phnom Penh philosophy faculty Heng Sreang. His article "Justice in Cambodia: A short reflection ..." introduced Cambodia as "notable for widespread of corruption, poverty, and violation of human rights." He cited as "major obstacles that impede the implementation of justice," the common "first choice" use of "coercion and explicit/implicit threat" by the rich and powerful to deal with problems.

Many spend money to obtain titles ("excellency") or car license plates ("state car," "royal armed forces," "police officer") that bring them prestige and security, and make them untouchable, opening a door to misbehavior and mischief.

Another obstacle, Cambodians' preference for the Khmer "traditional forms of 'peaceful' compromise" in dispute-solving, rather than "solutions within legal framework," may justify corruption and reinforce the use of "power/coercion" in conflict resolution.

Sreang wrote, "Those higher up the hierarchy -- the rich and those with strong connections -- are virtually untouchable. The system is deeply authoritarian."

Happy Thanksgiving!

Since my first Thanksgiving at home again in 1989, every day has been my day of thanks.

I wish readers a happy Thanksgiving Day! A Jewish proverb is an appropriate reminder: "I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet."

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

People must take power against oppressors

November 17, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS (Guam)

Eighteen years ago, Elie Wiesel, a Jew from Romania and survivor of Auschwitz, told Boston University graduates in a commencement address that as he walked in the footsteps of those who lived before him, he is "the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you."

Wiesel's assertion that the graduates, too, are the sum total of experiences and quests of the many great men and women before them is a humbling and inspirational reminder. "The knowledge that I have must not remain imprisoned in my brain," Wiesel declared, "I need to pay back what was given to me. Call it gratitude."

Learning that inspires

Call me "fresh from the boat."

When I enrolled as a college freshman in 1963 in an American college, with very little English and no knowledge of the history of the United States, I had 19 years of acculturation in a society, Cambodia, that valued listening, obeying, respecting, following our elders and those in authority. The idea that the goal of education is to develop in students a capacity to think critically was never in my head.

I came from a society that extolled the class-rank-role relationships and leader-follower, superior-inferior, master-servant, patron-client concepts. To me, the assigned reading in the required English literature course on American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson was text that was close to heresy.

I can't remember when, but the light bulb in my brain began to illuminate, then fade and then illuminate again. In my English class I began to discover Emerson, who wrote essays in which he developed ideas of individuality, freedom and humans' ability to achieve. At a time when America was greatly influenced by Europe, Emerson presented what was later called "a visionary philosophical framework" in America's history, for escaping "from under (Europe's) iron lids" to build a new and distinct American cultural identity. Emerson's "The American Scholar" speech at Harvard was hailed as America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence."

To me, this was extraordinarily thought-provoking. Later, Emerson's "Our best thoughts come from others" quotation took me to Wiesel's "sum total." As a college undergraduate, I found myself learning to wonder, imagine, inquire, interpret, analyze and calculate.

Years later, even several times while at death's door during my involvement in the Khmer resistance, I reminded myself the Almighty had created me for a reason, He wasn't done with me. So I told death: "I'm not done."

It brought me to today. Yesterday, with its glory and mistakes, was gone. I know what I want for tomorrow, but what do I know about tomorrow? I have today.

Inspiring me are Mother Theresa's words, "Do the thing in front of you."

Fighting dictatorships

"Freedom is not free" -- words chiseled on beautiful marble were what I photographed at the Korean War memorial. And "Freedom is not free" was what I extracted from Dr. Gene Sharp's "From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation." You have "to learn how to take that freedom" yourself, Sharp asserted.

I don't pretend to know or have answers to everything. But I have learned from my own life experiences and from those I have met along the way. I have concluded that every Leviathan has feet of clay, and no freedom and rights fighter is condemned to remain feeble always. All dictators are cheaters with blood-stained hands, who beat the most essential source of power, the population, into obedience and submission.

High quality education remains the best weapon to fight dictatorships.

Drawing board

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

Khmers say, "Samki chea kamlaing," and Khmers of my generation have learned since elementary school, "L'union fait la force," or "Unity makes strength." The most durable and effective unity is around ideals and concept. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reportedly counseled visiting Khmer democrats at the American ambassador's residence to unite around a common comprehensive political platform, rather than a particular leader, in the fight against ruling dictators.

A citizenry united behind a foundational idea, no longer acquiescing in traditional unquestioning obedience to authority, is empowered. Empowered citizens deny the dictator a basis for his power.

Suong Sophorn (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Housing rights activist Suong Sophorn, with blood-stained clothes, beaten unconscious by Premier Hun Sen's security forces for leading 30 Beng Kak residents who faced eviction from their homes for development, to hand a protest letter to visiting United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, was a model of resistance.

If enough people, determined to stop injustice, are willing to endure repression and brutality as Sophorn did, the authority and rule of the Leviathan would crumble. A defiant people will remain defiant: It's Newton's first law of motion.

A determined resistance willing to endure repression must come from within the country. It would draw the world's attention, stir its compassion and sympathy, and, eventually, its support. A liberation struggle from dictatorship requires self-reliance, said one engaged in such a struggle in the 19th century. Knowing history is useful, but the knowledge must be applied to be useful.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Good ideas can inspire action

November 10, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS (Guam)

"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history." - Mahatma Ghandi

Some people seem to be able to recall a million facts and bits of data. The harder job of intellect is to do something with those bits. Imagine, wonder, inquire, interpret, compare, relate, analyze, assess, calculate.

The bits of data are information, not knowledge. Learning is limitless, but learning can also require "unlearning."

Importance of thought

People naturally engage in patterned behavior and reproductive thought with little energy or effort.

Patterned behavior and reproductive thought imprison men in a vicious circle: To do the same thing over and over, with a predictable outcome.

Breaking away means entering a new mode of behavior and productive thinking: Do what has not been done before; think critically with the goal to understand, relate, determine alternatives and select the best option; and think creatively through imagining and generating new ideas, improving on them and generating still newer ideas, until a "breakthrough change" occurs.

In reproductive thinking, the intellect is asleep. In productive thinking, the intellect is alive and active.

The great thing about the human brain is it can be taught to think better. Some would say that in today's world, what we know is less important than how we think.

Power of thinking

Positive thinking helps render life better in the family, at work, in the community and in the world. A positive mind makes us strong spiritually and physically, opens doors to new things and different views, and provides opportunities where a negative mind sees only difficulties.

The Dec. 5, 2008, British Medical Journal reported a study that showed happiness is contagious -- more contagious than unhappiness. Your own actions, behaviors and thoughts can make you happy, but your chances to be happy are increased by 15 percent through connections to happy people!

Recall the saying, "Live with cow, sleep like cow; live with parrot, fly like parrot."

The world can be a stressful place. International economic conditions have brought hardship to many. Though we live longer, eat better and have more material things, many people are basically unhappy. A positive attitude, backed by better thinking and imagination, can help us deal with life's problems, which can be solved, and deal with life's predicaments, which can be coped with.

Those who respond to a difficult challenge with an offhand comment -- "pigs can't fly" or "a hyena does not give birth to a lion" -- do not inspire fighting dictatorships. Think instead of Nelson Mandela's determination not to be broken when he was in jail: "I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul"; and a 13th century England warrior, whose motto was: "Rise and rise again until lambs become lions."

Words on a poster in my college dorm room more than 40 years ago read: "You can blindfold me, you can gag me, you can close my ears, you can chain my hands, but you cannot prevent me from thinking." That's positive, better thinking!

The 'Monkey Master'

The 14th-century Chinese fable, the "Monkey Master," cited in Dr. Gene Sharp's "From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation," is worth retelling.

An old man used monkeys to pick fruit from the mountains. One-tenth of each monkey's harvest had to be given to the old man, or the monkey would face a hard flogging. The monkeys dared not protest.

One day, a small monkey got other monkeys to talk. All monkeys agreed -- the old man didn't plant the fruit trees, hence, the fruits didn't belong to him. The monkeys could take the fruits for themselves; there was no reason why monkeys must serve the old man!

So the monkeys tore down and destroyed their place of confinement, took all the fruits in the old man's storage, took off for the woods and never returned. The old man died of starvation.

The moral of the story: When monkeys were enlightened and awakened to the nature of the old man's injustice and ruthlessness, the old man's rule ended. Likewise, a people enlightened and awakened can end dictators' rule.

Power of ideas

Just as a rock thrown into a pond of still water produces a ripple that expands into larger and larger circles, a good idea, however small, can inspire people, who will inspire still others, into action. The first rock and the first person can make a difference.

Recall Newton's first law of motion: "An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion, with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

Great painter Vincent van Gogh said, "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together."

When asked how she determined where to begin to help others as there's so much need and injustice in the world, Mother Theresa replied: "Do the thing in front of you."

So, do it now. This is the moment you have, your moment. Don't lament missed opportunities; tomorrow is yet to come.

Robert F. Kennedy explained how human history is shaped: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope." India's Mahatma Gandhi, pronounced: "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."

Then, you say, "Yes, we can!"

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.

Recognize source of state's power

"Rise and rise again until lambs become lions." - Robin Hood's father

October 13, 2010
By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth
PACIFIC DAILY NEWS

I had an uncle who liked to tell us kids, "To be interesting, you must be interested."

Years passed, and through college I began to make connections with things that had seemed incomprehensible before. Many of the thoughts I had been exposed to began to make sense.

I ignored my father's teaching for years: "Live with cow, sleep like cow; live with parrot, fly like parrot" -- until I learned about the political socialization process that molds man's behavior and his perceptions.

Learning, growing

Growing up can be not so simple. Some in their 50s and 60s are still struggling to grow up. Others have used life's experiences to chart new courses in life.

One can learn and grow. It can begin in small things.

Possessed, as my elementary school teacher told us, with one kilo of brain, I adopted my uncle's mantra: Learn and know about the world's simplicities and complexities and its many interdependent things and become interesting and relevant. Add your own capacity to analyze and evaluate and you can change yourself and your surroundings.

But you must have a bedrock belief that change is possible.

'Hyena and chicken'

Thanks to the freedoms we in the United States are guaranteed, we have opportunities to publicly disagree; many lands don't allow it. Disagreement is not a problem; being provocatively disagreeable and quarrelsome is.

Last week, I wrote that there is no "people power" -- a term en vogue -- until the people themselves understand -- and believe -- that the power is actually in their hands. I wrote that no power, force or barrier can withstand a people's determined efforts for rights and freedom.

Naturally, I expected anti-theses: A yin comes with a yang, just as day comes after night.

And so, one reader from Phnom Penh e-mailed, "Many thanks to you for having reminded people of their unalienable rights and power." Another reader wrote, "Hyena or chicken can't give birth to lion."

But we deal with humans. We know all human minds can be taught.

Power of the minds

Last June, I wrote about the movie "Invictus," about South Africa's black anti-apartheid activist-turned-president, Nelson Mandela, who condemned the white rugby team when he was in jail, then -- after he was released from prison -- successfully turned the white team into a national team for blacks and whites. The team won South Africa the third Rugby World Cup in 1995.

A recently released movie, "Robin Hood," tells the backstory of Robin Longstride, a veteran of the Third Crusade who traveled to 13th century England's Nottingham, where people suffered corruption, crippling taxation and the abuse of a tyrannical sheriff. Longstride became Robin the Hood, led an uprising against the crown and became the symbol of the people's freedom.

His father also led his people against tyranny when Robin was a boy. His father was executed by the royal sword. Hood's father's motto, inscribed on a hidden stone and on the handle of a sword, reads: "Rise and rise again until lambs become lions."

The words mean don't ever give up fighting for the cause of liberty -- persevere, rise and rise again, until lions are born out of docile lambs and liberty is achieved.

In the history of the Khmers, Khmer "lions" emerged and fought valiantly. As with the builders of Angkor, Khmer ingenuity is not unknown.

Nonviolent action

Political science professor emeritus Gene Sharp, holder of Oxford University's doctor of philosophy in political theory, founded the nonprofit Albert Einstein Institution in Boston in 1983 to promote research, policy studies and education on the strategic uses of nonviolent struggle in the face of dictatorship, war, genocide and oppression.

He wrote "From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation" in 1993, providing "guidelines to assist thought and planning" in liberation movements against dictatorship, based on 40 years of research and writing. It was written at the request of the late exiled Burmese democrat U Tin Maung Win, editor of Khit Pyaing (The New Era Journal). It was supposed to be used by the Burmese.

But many freedom fighters in the world found it useful. The book has been translated into 30 languages.

In Spring 2000, the International Republican Institute tapped retired U.S. Army Col. Robert Helvey, who has past experience in Burma, to conduct a workshop in Budapest, Hungary, on the nature and potential of nonviolent struggle. Some 20 young Serbs attended. Copies of Sharp's best-known book, "The Politics of Nonviolent Action," were distributed.

These young Serbs later led the Otpor (Resistance) movement's nonviolent struggle that brought down Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic.

Sharp's Concepts

Political power is derived from the "subjects of the state." The state uses specific institutions (police, courts, regulatory bodies) to extract subjects' obedience, based on sanctions (jail, fines) and rewards (titles, wealth, fame).

Since any power structure is based on the subjects' obedience to the orders of the ruler(s), if subjects do not obey, then leaders have no power. If subjects recognize they are the source of the state's power, they can refuse to obey and their leader(s) will be left without power.

So says Sharp. And so say many who have understood and acted on his theses.

Khmers can learn from that, like the young Serbs did.

A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at peangmeth@yahoo.com.