Welcome Goat, may you goad us to greater heights 2015!

The sheep really gets my goat

The Horse is about to gallop off and in comes the Sheep ... or is it the Goat? Which is better?

THIS is the Year of the Yang. That’s the word in Mandarin for “a ruminant mammal, generally with horns on its head”. ( In Chinese, the goat is a homophone of yang and so represents the solar, masculine principle; it also signifies peace and the good)

To the Chinese, yang can refer to either sheep (mianyang) or goat (shanyang), so therein lies the confusion as to what animal is the eighth in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac. To the Japanese, it’s the Year of the Sheep, to the Vietnamese, it’s the Goat, for the Koreans, it’s the Ram. The Chinese don’t mind either one.

But after a tumultuous Year of a runaway wild Horse, which would be a better animal for the year ahead? Let’s take a look at the characteristics of both cud-chewing critters, starting with the sheep.

According to David Murray in his essay, 12 Characteristics of Sheep, this is one stupid animal.

“I don’t know what sheep would score in an animal IQ, but I think they would be close to the bottom of the scale. They seem to only know how to do one thing well – eat grass (and produce more grass-eating sheep).

“It’s possible to know little, yet not be foolish; but not if you are a sheep. They are so irrational. You watch them as they pause in front of a stream. They know they can’t jump it or swim it. So what do they do? They jump in any way!” writes Murray, a pastor who got to know the animal well after 12 years in the sheep-infested Scottish Highlands.

Another characteristic is being slow to learn. Murray cites the example of a sheep getting caught in barbed wire while trying to break through a fence. Instead of learning from that painful lesson, it will do it again and again. That’s why sheep are dependent creatures, requiring close supervision by their shepherd, he adds.

Granted, scientists say new research shows sheep to be as intelligent as monkeys. But it will take a great deal more to change the long-held perception of this creature as being not just woolly on the body but in the head, too.

After all, we think “sheep” when it comes to mindlessly following the crowd, or for imitating what others do without understanding why.

Murray describes their behaviour thus: “When one sheep decides to start running, they all decide to start running. If you were able to ask one, ‘Why did you start running?’ it would say, ‘Well, because he started running.’ The next would say the same. And the next one. And when you got to the last sheep he would just say, ‘I dunno’.”

Goats, on the other hand, are described by animals.pawnation.com as “independent, intelligent and tolerant of interaction in general”. In other words, they don’t spook easily and don’t bunch together to graze.

The goat is also seen as a nimble, agile animal who can take on hilly terrain with ease. It’s even associated with determination for its ability to climb mountains and trees.

Because they are curious creatures, goats will try out new things and explore the unfamiliar – usually with their hyper-sensitive lips and tongue – and often end up chewing and eating strange stuff.

While the male goat is a symbol of virility and stamina, the female goat is a symbol for nurturing and nourishment. Which is why someone entrusted with looking after young children is called a nanny, which is a female goat.

After all that, which animal would you prefer for the Year of the Yang? My pick is the goat, for all the reasons I have listed.

We have enough of sheep-like behaviour from people who are spooked easily by certain groups and individuals using loud and intimidating tactics. What’s more, after being spooked, these people blindly and unquestioningly accept those noisy pronouncements and exhortations.

We also don’t need people who, like sheep, stick to their own kind, or harbour irrational fears and suspicions against their fellow citizens. Being more goat-like by mixing around and interacting with others is what we need more of in our society.

Neither can we afford any sheep-like slowness to learn and respond to the ever-changing socio-economic environment within and without the nation.

We can’t forever depend on a super shepherd (aka the Government) to think for and look after us. That has led to what we know as the crutch or subsidy mentality.

Of course Billy Goat has his critics too. Among Christians, being a sheep is preferable to a goat as the latter is depicted as devious and insincere in the famous parable about separating sheep from goats in favour of the sheep. There is also the view that goats are too independent and unpredictable to be good followers, unlike the mild and meek sheep.

Indeed, a citizenry can happily be meek and mild if there is a good shepherd who takes care of all its needs.

But this is not the time for meekness and mildness, but rather for fearlessness and fortitude.

We need to have both qualities if we as a nation are to hold fast against forces bent on tearing apart our multiracial, multicultural and multi-religious fabric. And if we are to compete on the global economic front, we need the goat-like sense of inquisitiveness and boldness to be innovative and explore new possibilities and ventures.

Critically, in such challenging times, we need leaders who are like mountain goats who can nimbly guide us on the rocky path ahead, and not silly sheep that jump into water without knowing how to swim.

All this will require a lot of ram-like determination and stamina – if not virility – from leaders and citizens. So I say “Welcome, Goat”, and may you goad us to greater heights!

 So Aunty, So What? by June H.L. Wong

 Aunty discovered that a possible explanation for the idiom, “really gets my/your goat”, which means something that really infuriates you, involves the olden-day practice of using goats as companions to racing horses to keep the latter calm. Hence, taking away the goat could upset the horse and affect its performance in a race! Feedback to junewong@thestar.com.my

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Abe’s strategy clearer after Japanese ISIS hostage crisis

The release of a video on Saturday showing a message that Haruna Yukawa, one of the Japanese hostages captured by Islamic State (IS) militants, had been slaughtered, shocked both Japanese society and its Western allies. Official institutions in both Japan and the US consider the video is likely to be authentic.

The IS claimed last Tuesday it had abducted two Japanese and gave the Japanese government 72 hours to pay $200 million in ransom for the captives. The Abe administration was put in a conundrum. In front of requests from the victims' families to save the hostages, the Japanese government vowed it would never give in to terrorism on one hand, on the other, it displayed a high-profile stance of striving to free the hostages. But it's believed that the Abe administration would be unlikely to carry out a dramatic rescue, which has already decided the fate of the hostages.

The brutality of the IS has become well-known. They kill hostages in a cold-blooded manner. Now that Japan has become a victim of global terrorism, Tokyo may reassess the challenges it faces. In the past few years, Japanese rightists portrayed China as Japan's major threat, despite the fact that China has never infringed upon Japan over the past century. It's instead Japan that invaded China and persecuted Chinese people again and again.

The death of the hostage also offers a new excuse for Abe to lift the ban on collective self-defense. Abe will face fewer hurdles now if he decides to cooperate with the US strategic deployment and strengthen Japan's military activities in the Middle East and its security deployment in East Asia.

Some claimed that Abe is more concerned about promoting rightist policies than rescuing hostages. For the good of peace in East Asia and the Japanese public, we hope such analysis is just speculative. Japan is not capable of playing an active role in the Middle East. East Asian countries are not supposed to be key targets of the atrocious IS. The Japanese hostage case sends a warning signal.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the US has spent great efforts in ensuring its domestic security. However, US allies such as European countries and Japan have been constantly targeted by terrorism. It's worthwhile studying the underlying reasons.

The attack on Charlie Hebdo seemingly unveiled the conflicts between the whole of European society and the Muslim community, but it was striking to see how the US tries to remain neutral over the issue.

Having a geopolitical advantage, Japan should be a country without enemies. However, the country is plagued with a terrible mess in its national strategy. It misperceives China as an imaginary enemy. Tokyo's ultimate goal is said to be getting rid of US control, however, it is forced to defer to the US due to its confrontation with China. The killing of the Japanese hostage is more or less the price that Japan has paid for its support to Washington.

We strongly condemn the brutal killing by the IS. In the meantime, we hope Japanese public opinion will take a clear-cut attitude against any terrorist attack launched on China. - Global Times

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We need local councillors who can do the job

I REFER to the article “Local govt polls may cause racial polarisation” ( Sunday Star, Jan 25) and would like to share my views on matters.

The core functions of local government is to look at matters that are closest to the people.

Both the state and federal governments are too far from the people for them to have good understanding of the needs of the people at the micro level. Today the local authority has become a government agency and the councillors have been a rubber stamp of the decisions made by the local authority. Many who were appointed to the post lacks quality and knowledge in functions and power of a councillor.

Appointed councillors are political party nominees. The council seats are shared according to an agreed ratio among the component parties. They are not independent. Appointments are given as part of political rewards to grassroot party leaders.

At times decisions made by the council are not in the best interest of the people as for the councillors, party interest comes first. There are clear professional conflicts of interest between political parties nominees and between those meeting the needs the people.

In my area, the appointed councillors do not understand their role as councillors. They have been turned into “complaint centre” for people to bring their issues to the local authority.

These councillors have been assigned certain zones and have been tasked to look after drainage, rubbish collection and grass cutting.

They have very poor knowledge of the local authority by-laws. They fail to function as a “Board of Directors” of the local authority and provide the much needed check and balance between addressing the needs of the people and the local authorities.

While we can accept the point of maintaining the current system but we cannot accept the fact that the powers-that-be failed to nominate “independent people with strong knowledge on the governance of local authority” as specified under Section 10(2) in Act 171.

The law says that the state authority must appoint councillors who have wide experience in local government affairs or have achieved distinction in any profession, commerce or industry, or are otherwise capable of representing the interests of their communities in the local authority area.

Unfortunately the state government appoints party members who are grassroot leaders who in most cases do not meet the requirement of the law.

In Petaling Jaya, the capable ones were removed as councillors and replaced with mediocre group of people. In Ampang, we have unemployed party members and people with poor education background serving as councillors. They do not meet the requirement of the Local Council Act.

The question remains which political parties in power will be the first to push forward the agenda that focuses on the people and not their respective parties.

By Dr Mohamed Fafick Khan Ampang The Star/Asia News Network

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