Masturbation: An evolutionary advantage perhaps?

I have recently been following a discussion about men and masturbation. Well someone actually asked the question about whether masturbation is right, and if age predetermines the action, which actually prompted me to give this topic a careful thought.  What am I about to write next, might have already been published or discussed about, however if not, I think it’ll be a great topic for evolution/behavioral sociologists to study.

We know that testosterone is the one hormone in a male body that contributes a great deal to a man’s sexual thirst. If evolution is true, which I do believe so, then this is true across all species (for mammals at least). This is very well demonstrated in the wild. Look at the lions/tigers for example, when mating season comes, the alpha males, usually with a large population of lioness, will get into orgies. One, to ensure the continuity of his genetic materials which behaviour is genetically hotwired and two, to satisfy his testosterone which is obviously going bonkers! What about the non-alpha males? They steal and rape the lioness at every chance they get-which is a very well observed behaviour!

Now this leads me to bring behavior and evolution into the picture. If you believe in evolution like I do, then you will agree that two most important evolutionary advantages that us, Homo sapiens have are the ability to walk upright and have opposable thumbs. Well actually let me take that back, this statement can be partially true, simply because the lemurs had them first and walking upright did not occur until the Homo erectus came about, 1.8 million years ago. 

Let’s concentrate on the opposable thumbs. Now, we know with this evolutionary trait, our early ancestors have learned how to make stone tools, as demonstrated by the lower hominins, ofcourse that brought about the discovery of fire and cooked food! This in turn evolved into discoveries of much complex machineries to what we are today!

Putting that aside, let’s bring the lions back to the picture. Now let’s just pretend that humans have no idea what masturbation is all about. The question is, will we or will we (ie the males) NOT behave like the lions when our testosterone goes off the charts? The truth is, we cannot behave like lions, can we? The world will be a scary place to live… for the opposite sex at least and ofcourse the same sex…i mean whatever rings your bell.  Right??

What set us apart from the rest of the metazoans are our higher cognitive abilities. We can differentiate wrong from right – actually not everyone, but i’m not going to start on that! Perhaps sometime in the past couple of millions years or when monogamous relationships emerged; our higher primate ancestors realized it is actually bad to behave like hyper sexualized chimps! And thus by using the opposable thumbs to their advantage, which were not just valuable in making tools, they learned that by grabbing hold of certain appendages on a human body, one can satisfy oneself without much effort! Thus, rooting out the need to go on a raping rampage!

Thus, is masturbation a right thing to do? Of course! It may be wrong by some religious views but that’s an individual belief – a form of self-denial perhaps to attain a stronger chakra…or some sort. I will look into some studies regarding this topic and will post some findings that are interesting. Till then, wank and feel good about it after all it might just be an evolutionary advantage!!

Malaysian Education System – a joke part 2.

University Malaya or UM, in its humble beginings, started out as a medical school in Singapore in 1905. In 1961, the KL branch was established while the latter was renamed the National University of Singapore, NUS, a year later. During its early days of development, UM was very much a top ranked University globally, being headed by a few high profile academicians like James H.E. Griffiths one of the discoverers of ferromagnetic resonance, is definitely not small potatoes.

Unfortunately, ever since the split, UM has undergone lousy leadership the New Economic policy, NEP…and etc. Then, I believe in the 80s, the medium of teaching was switched from English to Bahasa Malaysia, BM. That marked the downfall of the institution and the entire education system as well. All these were the result of the works of some selfish “pencinta bahasa” who won’t stop harping about national unity and the virtues of Bahasa Kebangsaan. Fast forward 20 years today, the nation is more segregated than before, the new generation cannot understand basic english.

What  has the so called “bahasa Kebangsaan”, claimed to bring unity, done to us? Just look at NUS today. It is regarded as one of the top notched institute in the world! Boasting its world class research facilities in stem cell technology, bioengineering and quantum physics. As for Malaysia, 40 years later we are just begining to bicker about the mistake made 40 years ago!!

Don’t get me wrong. I am not trying to glorify the english language. My patriotism is still very intact! Patriotism is something one carries in the heart and the mind. One can speak flawless BM and still hates the country. It doesn’t matter whether or not we can speak BM well, because in the global eyes, we will still be identified as Malaysians. The only difference is whether or not the world view us as a nation filled with idiots that don’t speak a word of english or a progressive nation that embraces change/a nation whose people are well educated and are multi-lingual.

It is very unfortunate that the nation today is plagued by a host of political mockeries. Politicians, instead of working for the people, are working for their own vested interests. Well, at the least some minister did realize the need to switch the medium of teaching back to english. It’s a good thing. It’s long overdue. However, I do not think the nation is ready. Making english a mandatory to pass subject in the SPM is not going to help.

More work needs to be done to reverse the damage first before we test the waters. We need to start by recruiting good and qualified english teachers, reintroduce english medium schools and start teaching GRAMMAR again for the love of God!! You can’t take grammar away from english. It’s like leaving your home naked!

On another note, NUS ranks 30th in the THE-QS (Times Higher Education) top university rankings in 2008, just 13 spots under Stanford. Universiti Malaya, UM, was dropped from the top 200 spots!! What a shame!!

The education system in Malaysia – a joke!

Recently I’ve been following up with the debate about whether or not the english language paper be made a mandatory pass in the SPM. Click here. I suppose it’s been years since I sat for my SPM, i have forgotten much about its passing criteria. Regardless, SPM is the equivalent of the british Cambridge GCE O levels exam, a public examination that all students need to pass to graduate high shool.

I was appalled to learn that the english paper was in fact not a mandatory subject to pass. Where as the Bahasa Malaysia (malay language) is the paper required to pass in order to obtain the certificate. What a joke! Lets just put it this way. Out of curiosity I did a little research on the english language and I learned that according to wikipedia, it is a language spoken in 53 countries, UN, EU, NATO, NAFTA, Commenwealth of Nations bringing that to a whopping total of about 1.8 billion in population. As for the Malay language, I believe only the people in Malaysia and Singapore understand the language, also, maybe some in the southern thailand, myanmar, brunei. Even indonesia has a completely different version of that language.

It is obvious our education system is a complete buffoon! And the ministers are complaining about the country experiencing a brain drain and etc….What right do they have to complain when they’re sitting around “goyang kaki” and swindling the rakyat’s coffers! This move to make english a mandatory to pass subject is long overdue. Good gracious, has anyone seen some of the interviews by Al Jazeera with a few of the malaysian ministers? It’s a complete joke. They could not answer a simple basic question in english!! And we put these people to head the governmental ministries?!?!  Oh well…only in Malaysia…only in Malaysia.