Holiday projects

“Do not unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their tastes may not be the same.”
-George Bernard Shaw
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For the moment:
Conquest Of The Irrational-Vadim
Les Champs-Elysees-Joe Dassin
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It is 6 am and I just got back from my group mates house. Our legal research paper is almost done. Spirits are high. Feeling good about it. After facing it for almost a year, I am of course not as passionate about it as I was before. A Case Study: Justification of Humanitarian Intervention.
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InsyaAllah by Wednesday, I will finally be in Singapore. I just had a good look at my passport (I had to because I couldn’t believe what I saw), the last time I was there was from 30 December 2006 till 1 Jan 2007. Short trip.
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Yes. Having a lucrative part time self-employed job has its down side. Since I don’t want it to interfere with my studies as much, I work weekends. As a result, I can’t leave town for the weekend. This trip is a big deal. Simply because I used to make a trip at least once every three months, if not more.
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As mentioned before I have lined up a few ‘projects’ to keep me occupied during the holidays in whatever way possible. Besides watching the tele, reading books, staring at the ceiling, I intend to write articles, that will one day (much later I reckon) be researched further and turned into a case study. But for now, at this time, my mood and my intellectual capacity only allows me to write a simple loosely based researched article.
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1. I want to look into the issue of the age of majority. In Malaysia, the age of majority is 18. As of 18 years old, you are conferred upon various rights and obligations. However, not everything is set at 18. For example, a male, if I’m not mistaken, can get married at the age of 16 or 18. You can only vote at 21. Is it because generally, that is when a citizen begins to pay taxes? You can drive at 17. But should only watch Friends at 18. You can’t vote (and drink in some countries) at 18 but can be sent to war. In the States, you can a huge discount for car rentals if you’re 25. The article I intend to write, looks at this benchmarks beyond the context of Malaysia. It will seek to question, who set these ages and what were their basis and why do they differ (ridiculously at times)?
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2. Hair dye issue. Is dying one’s hair brown a signal or white supremacy? Is there a difference in mentality, character, background, culture and behaviour between a person who dyes his/her hair brown compared to the other colours? Also what are the factors that differs from those who colour the whole hair or streaks or highlights. For the feasibility of this paper, I will chose to focus on non-white females per se. Or else it’ll be to wide and I’ll never get to it.
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3. The pros and cons of Malaysia’s development and contribution to its people and mankind after 50 years of independence. For the sake of fair comparison, other countries will be looked. Such as Ghana (also approaching 50 years), neighboring countries such as Singapore, Brunei, Indo, Thailand, former commonwealth countries, other constitutional monarchs, other muslim dominated but not Islamic countries and other countries that also comprise of a multi racial society. The main problem with this one is that I have to really sit down and narrow down my focus or else I will never get to it. Also if I take too long to do it, it might prove to be pointless because by then, Malaysia would be way pass 50 years old. Nevermind about others, even I wouldn’t be bothered to read it by then.
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4. Rome rose and fell. Alhambra rose and fell. United Kingdom rose and fell. That seems to be the pattern for all successful governments/civilizations. If each of them go through phases, which phase is the States in now? How far are they from rising to their full potential? And if they have already achieve that, how far are they from falling? What’s the estimated time frame? Decades? Centuries?
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I have a few more ideas that I thought of, but I forgot about it. My fault for not jotting it down as and when it popped.

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I of course recognize the fact that I am not an academic. I have not even completed my degree. Thus, I am not expecting to be taken with significant credibility. Nevertheless, I am sharing this with you, in view of either hoping that by reading it, some good may come of you one way or the other. Or, if you have any ideas of your own that you would like to share, by all means enlighten me. Or, most importantly, if you have anything you reckon I should add/subtract to my focus for any of the ideas mentioned above, do let me know. If you reckon it is going to make it better and/or easier, then I welcome it.