In the modern era, the rights of human beings are celebrated, promoted and debated more than ever before. It goes hand in hand with the rise of humanism, a philosophy that crowned human being as an eminent and central reality in this world. In the West, this elevation of human is position is preceded by…
Pervez Hoodbhoy, a Pakistani nuclear physicist, once lamented in his book, Islam and Science – Religious Orthodoxy and the Battle for Rationality that “numerous charlatans and sycophants…had seized the reins of society and set for themselves the task of ‘Islamizing’ everything in sight, including science.” These words may be harsh, but they came immediately to mind when…
The answer is too obvious, for those who know the real one, and to know the real one it is assumed that they know what knowledge is. But misconceptions about knowledge are so rampant today, and one of those misconceptions is the belief that ‘knowledge’ is actually just an ‘opinion’. In other words, there is…
For those who study demography, the term “pyramid population” strikes a familiar chord. It is used to explain the age structure of a society. The pyramid shape which has a wide base and narrow top that vanishes into a point is an indication that the age structure of a population is predominantly youthful and only…
The theme of the up and coming BioBorneo 2015 Conference and Exhibition to be held on the 20-21st April in Kota Kinabalu is “Bio-Based Technologies for Wealth Creation”. This conference is undoubtedly a major event in the biotechnological industry and biotech landscape in Malaysia as it provides, in the words of the organisers “The best…
The term ‘ulama’ (plural for alim) is an Islamic term, which literally means ‘the men of knowledge’. The literal meaning itself is already too obvious, so there is no need to ask who they are unless the person asking does not know what knowledge is. If that is the case, what he should be asking then is: what is…
The topic about university excellence rises again as a response to the initiative of the government and the Ministry of Education in particular to propose the new higher education plan following the recent Malaysia Education Blueprint for School Level. In principle, the Malaysian Higher Education Plan aims at producing holistic and integrated learned values-driven talent…
For students who recently received their SPM and STPM results, it signified the end of a phase in their lives and the beginning of a new chapter. They would now leave behind their schooling years, and those who did well would proceed to further their studies in their chosen fields based on the results that…
To this very day, the ruthless actions of IS have been dominating global headlines. Political theories and outright conspiracy theories were brought into the public domain to fully comprehend its existence, political motives, mission; and to justify the rationale behind its heinous crimes; if there is even any. To one’s dismay, amidst the confusion of…
For the last two consecutive months, Malaysians have been enjoying lower fuel costs due to the drop in global oil prices. According to the World Bank, the price of the commodity will remain low in the next two years hovering around US$53 to US$60 per barrel. For average consumers, this is good news to them…
