I'm Online, I'm Immune

Note: This is sort of a continuation of the "no offense" post.


For some reasons, whenever someone writes some incendiary content and receive criticism, we always see claims which sound like this:

This is my blog, I have the right to write / do whatever I like. If you don't like it, just don't read it, shut up, and leave my blog!

This sort of defense is abundant in the blogosphere, people see it all the time in Xiaxue's blog (Disclaimer: NO, I don't read her blog), and some reader wrote it in defense of Kennysia's (in)famous article containing contentious photos of an accident.

Seriously, what gives these people such warped sense of ethics? What encourages bloggers to condemn criticism, and feel so righteous as to make the assumption of ethical immunity? Is it wrong at all to criticize one's public post at a public place? Is one's blog really one's personal sanctuary for one to bask in adulation and denounce criticism ethically?

In my humble opinion, such claims for moral immunity and the concept of "personal sanctuary" is totally unwarranted. A blog is as much public as it is personal - while it allows great freedom for authorship, it is also subject to public scrutiny as with any other publication material. Some people have a false sense of security while hiding behind the mask of anonymity, but as we increasingly integrate the virtual environment with our real lives, the maintenance of "it's all safe and sound when there are no sticks and brawns" is no longer valid. Your words and actions online are subject to as much examination and burden as your in-person conversation, speeches, gestures and charades.

So, it's best to be as tactful online as we would in real life.

Pride and Disgrace - Medicine in Malaysia

In the same week, we have this:

The previous Malaysian PM, Tun Mahathir Mohamad went in for his second coronary bypass operation today at the age of 82. The operation was done successfully and he's well at the moment. His operation was performed by local surgeons, Tan Sri Yahya Awang and Datuk Dr Razali Watooth with assistance of Dr Hartzell Schaff, the chief cardiac surgeon from Mayo Clinic.

And this:

Due to the negligence of specialists, little month-old Yok Shan got a screwed-up IV cannulation from a houseman (who isn't qualified to attend to an infant, but might have been under someone else's order), and ended up with an amputated, gangrenous arm.

I hope that we head towards the standard of the former and solve the underlying organizational weakness that contributed to Yok Shan's tragedy. We could really do better than another amputated arm or an ambulance without fuel.

A Military Conversation

Transcript of a US naval ship with Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland in October, 1995. This radio conversation was released by the Chief of Naval Operations on 10-10-95.

Americans: "Please divert your course 15 degrees to the North to avoid a collision."

Canadians: "Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision."

Americans: "This is the captain of a US Navy ship. I say again, divert YOUR course."

Canadians: "No, I say again, you divert YOUR course."

Americans: "THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE SECOND LARGEST SHIP IN THE UNITED STATES' ATLANTIC FLEET. WE ARE ACCOMPANIED BY THREE DESTROYERS, THREE CRUISERS AND NUMEROUS SUPPORT VESSELS. I DEMAND THAT YOU CHANGE YOUR COURSE 15 DEGREES NORTH. THAT'S ONE-FIVE DEGREES NORTH, OR COUNTER MEASURES WILL BE UNDERTAKEN TO ENSURE THE SAFETY OF THIS SHIP."

Canadians: "This is a lighthouse. Your call."

It's actually fake, but who cares. As long as it's funny.

A Golden Jubilee

Post moved to my other blog.

Unanswered Comments Suck

Do you expect replies when you write a comment on a blog? Are you pissed when nobody replies to your comment?

I am not sure whether people have been pissed by me, or I am being overly sensitive. My last few posts have only seen 0, 1, 2, or 3 comments, and the last 7 chatters in the chatterbox was from myself. I feel like I was only talking to myself. :P

It probably is due to my lack of replies in the comment section, I guessed. Or people just don't have much to say about what I wrote recently, especially since I write about boring hospital routines all the time. If you thought it's boring from my writing, it is 10 times more boring in real life.

Anyway I just realized that I last answered comments in May, and since then I have been neglecting the comment sections. I just found myself some break, and I have been writing replies one-by-one to every single comment. Every single comment is now replied to! :)

So guys, if you think I owed you an answer to any of your questions, do check out the original posts. :)

No Offense, But Everyone Reading This is an Idiot

I have always wondered why people believe in the power of the magic phrase "No Offense". People who write about a controversial issue often start the writing with the magic phrase. Fanatics launch their bigotry with the magic phrase. It's thought that by saying "no offense", people who take offense at whatever that follows are themselves responsible for feeling offended.

I see much wrong with the phrase "no offense".

Saying "no offense" does not exempt you from shouldering the consequences spawned by your words. Saying "no offense" does not turn a blatant fanaticism into a careless ignorance. Saying "no offense" before a spiteful tirade, doesn't make the tirade more tender and lovely. Saying "no offense" doesn't vindicate yourself when everything you say IS offensive. If it's offensive, it is; if it isn't, it isn't.

In my humble opinion, we should just scrap "no offense", or at least delegate its role to an interjection. It doesn't carry any weight, and people who use this phrase and reckon they are relieved of practising discretion in their words, are simply lazy.

You know what, basically, "no offense" means as much as "you know", "seriously" and "basically", seriously.


Update 27/07/07:
Anyway I might have gone too far by suggesting to drop the phrase altogether. Actually I am mostly irked by people who defend their offensive statements by claiming that "I have already said no offense, why are you angry wor..."

Click here to read more.

I guess it depends on what you mean when you say "no offense".

1. "I hope that you do not take offense with my words"
2. "I do not intend to offend you"
3. A cop-out. Or in other words, "See, I have already told you not to be offended, if you are still offended it's your own fault lehh!!"

I might be wrong, but I feel that many people mean 2 or 3 when they use the phrase. And those two usages were what I was referring to in my post.

In my opinion, usage 2, "I do not intend to offend you" doesn't mean much, because:

1. If you are aware that your words have a high chance of offending the listener but you still say it, then you are hoping for a cheap moral vindication when you say "I do not intend to offend you". It's almost like stabbing someone on the chest and say "I do not intend to hurt you too much".
2. If you are not sure whether it will offend, then it would be the case of usage 1, which I think is okay.
3. If you think it wouldn't offend others, then you wouldn't say it in the first place.
4. If you never thought whether your words would offend others or not, then saying "I do not intend to offend" is another cheap cop-out. It's like a guy wearing a shirt which says "Whatever I do, I do not intend to affect others", and mindlessly ramble, shout, kick, jump on the street without thinking of its consequences. Would you say this guy is acquitted of his behaviours since he never thought about the consequences, and that he put a disclaimer on his shirt beforehand?

For usage 3, I think it's pretty obvious that such defense is inadmissible. You are responsible for what you do, for example you can't expect to be acquitted of killing someone just because you said "sorry" before you do it.

For usage 1 though, I think it's okay, but with an important condition: You should pay attention to avoiding incendiary statements before you say it.

So I am basically condemning the usage 2b and 3. However, stripped to the barebone, my point is: "No Offense" doesn't take away your responsibility over your words. Even if you say "no offense" in any circumstance, the listeners still have the right to be offended or even claim for compensation, regardless of your intention. We should still practise discretion in any case.

Why 1/5 Americans Can't Locate US on a Map

"I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don't have maps. And uh, I believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and, uh, Iraq and everywhere, like, such as... and, I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S., should help the U.S. or should help South Africa, it should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we would be able to build up our future for our children." - Miss Teen South Carolina, Miss Teen USA 2007 Competition

Either she is fighting a tremendous stage fright, or she is part of that 1/5 population. :P