Mozart's Piano Concerto No 23: II Adagio

The first time this Adagio truly moved me was after watching the movie Amadeus in my early twenties. I bought the cassette tape and played it in my small student dormitory. As I looked out at the bleak London winter, tears began to flow. I wept, unsure if it was out of sadness for Mozart’s tragic life or a deep yearning for my home in Malaysia. 

Perhaps it was both. At 23 years old, I felt like an ordinary mortal, far from his genius. Yet, I realized that even if I possessed such a gift, the cruel vicissitudes of this world would have crushed me just the same. That's why Milos Forman's comedic biopic was more tragic than inspiring.

This piece, especially played by the outstanding Hélène Grimaud, stills moves me today. Someone wrote that Mozart composed for the angels but Bach wrote for God. I prefer to say that Mozart's eyes were on the stars that fell to earth while Bach remained in awe of the constellations.

The America- China Conundrum: Wake Up, We The People!

Many people in Asia are blindsided into thinking about the U.S.-China geopolitical dilemma in one of two ways:

1. They're so impressed by China's rapid rise in material wealth and manufacturing prowess—powering every tech gadget in our daily lives—that they side (consciously or unconsciously) with the economic giant of the past two decades.

2. They view the U.S. as having botched its post-WWII role as global policeman while exploiting its reserve currency advantage (which is fair criticism). Yet they overlook this: the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights form the greatest foolproof model for any thriving nation's political and business success—debt bubble and fiat currency woes notwithstanding.

The American system is constructed around the needs, the rights and the free choice of the citizen to cherish liberty, rule of justice and life. Material wealth or national legacy are by products of a morally sound nation. China under the CCP envisions a different world based on control and survival of the state apparatus.              So, neither China's state-controlled model, Europe's welfare state, nor the Middle East's theocratic systems can foster the intellectual and spiritual health of their citizens. Even a future system based on Blockchain decentralisation or AI can't replace human ingeniuty and conscience in safeguarding our well-being either.

But the knee-jerk retort is: What about President Trump? Bully, megalomaniac, or die-hard patriot—he's a strategic turning point in world history. Some dismiss him as a pawn of wealthy elites, but he's an unpredictable queen on the board: upending strategies to confound the opponent. 

Seeing him this way reveals the big picture, with him as a key piece on the chessboard. What's at stake isn't zero-sum—it's life or death for how we, the people, are governed in this tech-powered, ideologically polarized era.

Conclusion: Asia's nations, take sides today—urgently! If not for yourselves, then for your children and future generations. Ignore the naive debates from analysts and leaders. America is a mess, yes. But it's the last bastion against a dystopian future ruled by spiritually hollow elites.

A Message to the People of Iran

Prophetic word received by Amanda Grace on March 2, 2026 and released on her broadcast on March 3, 2026:

People of Iran, I want you to listen to me for a moment from the Lord:

The underground church in Iran, you have a very important role to play in this. You need to get anointing oil and begin to anoint and saturate the ground of Iran, and tear down these altars that have been stoked for forty-seven years. Church of Iran, this is your time. Take the oil, rise up, anoint your land. Let it go into the soil and tear down these altars, because Almighty God has given you a window to do this.

The Church of Iran, spiritually, is playing such an important role. You are a royal priesthood. You are a Gideon of this time, and the first thing God had Gideon do was go and tear down the altar of Baal and build an altar to Almighty God.

You have been commissioned, church of Iran and people of Iran, to anoint the ground, to dedicate it to Almighty God, to tear down the altar of Baal that they tried to establish, to tear down these wicked altars that they established during the Islamic revolution. Tear them down. Anoint your land. Dedicate it to the Lord. Come to know Jesus Christ in this hour as your Lord and Savior.

But the underground church of Iran needs to do this. God has given you a window to do this, and you need to take the oil, and you need to saturate the ground, and you need to dedicate it to the Lord and tear down these altars that have been stoked by wicked men and principalities for decades, because now is your hour to do so. This is the word of the Lord going forth for the church of Iran.

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PRAY... Iran is in Revival🔥THE IRANIAN REVIVAL THE MEDIA WON’T TALK ABOUT.

Multiple research groups and faith organizations report that more than one million Iranians have converted to Christianity ⛪

These estimates suggest that Iran may now have the fastest-growing Christian community in the world, despite laws that restrict religious conversion from Islam.

Behind closed doors… behind veils… behind some of the strictest religious laws on earth… Jesus is moving.

Over one million Muslims in Iran have quietly given their lives to Christ — not because Christianity is “allowed,” but because the Holy Spirit refuses to be stopped.

Women are encountering Jesus in dreams. Men are hearing the Gospel through underground networks. Families are meeting Christ in secret house churches the government can’t find.

While the regime tightens its grip, Heaven is breaking chains. While the world sees oppression, God is raising up a church the gates of hell cannot silence.

Pray for Iran. Pray for these brave new believers.

And remember: no amount of darkness can extinguish the Light of Christ. 🙏

 

How Six Master Writers View The Nature of Evil

In my reading of past writers, I asked AI (perplexity) what the views of six renown writers about the nature are of evil. Here is the answer:

Among Hemingway, Hesse, Camus, Voltaire, Tolstoy, and Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy and Albert Camus stand out as having the most profound and comprehensive analyses of evil in the world, though their approaches differ distinctly.

Tolstoy’s humane spiritual response: Tolstoy's exploration of evil is deeply moral and spiritual. His works, such as "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina," depict evil as part of human nature, intertwined with suffering, moral failure, and redemption. Tolstoy critically examines social evils, war, and personal anguish, emphasizing the possibility of spiritual growth and the triumph of compassion and forgiveness.

Albert Camus’s personal existential response: Camus, on the other hand, provides an existential and philosophical analysis of evil centered around the absurdity of life and the human confrontation with meaningless suffering. In works like "The Stranger" and "The Myth of Sisyphus," Camus examines evil as a condition linked to the absurd and rebellion, insisting on creating meaning through personal revolt and ethical action despite the world's inherent indifference.

Ernest Hemingway’s might-versus-might response: While Hemingway portrays evil often as a brutal, external force experienced through violence and moral resignation, his analysis is relatively narrower and more situational than the philosophical depth of Camus or the moral-spiritual breadth of Tolstoy.

Herman Hesse’s duality & self-transformation response: Hesse reflects on evil in the context of duality in human nature and self-realization, but with more focus on psychological and spiritual transformation rather than a broad social critique.

Voltaire’s institutional reform response: Voltaire famously attacked institutional evil, particularly through satire and critique of religious and political hypocrisy (e.g., "Candide"), but his work is more targeted than comprehensive.

William Shakespeare’s self-destruction of evil response: Shakespeare presents multifaceted portrayals of evil through characters and dramatic conflicts. In the final outcomes of his depiction of evil in terms of lust for power, pride and jealousy, he shows that evil ultimately destroys the people who are overtaken by it. The plays generally conclude with the wicked being vanquished and harmony being re-established, though often at a terrible price.

In sum, Tolstoy offers a profoundly comprehensive moral and spiritual analysis of evil within human life and society, while Camus provides a philosophically rigorous and existential exploration of evil linked to absurdity and rebellion.

Hemingway's analysis is poignant but more focused on the individual's confrontation with violence and moral ambiguity. A comparative appreciation favors Tolstoy and Camus as the most profound and comprehensive analyzers of evil among these literary giants, with subtle distinctions in emphasis and worldview.

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Return to The City of Whispers & Ancient Stones

I lived in Paris with my parents, in the Cité des Arts. My father was an artist; his paintings were strange, dreamlike, like things you see in a half-remembered story.  I went to primary school for two years. My classmates were younger - three years younger - because I had to learn French fast, even though I was already ten.

After a tough first year, Paris grew on me, though I stayed only two years, when I was ten and eleven.  I still see the sunset over the Seine and Notre-Dame, glowing across the river like a quiet promise.

The first year was hard. The French school was strict, much more than English schools, and I had to catch up. The next year we moved to a better apartment in a quiet neighborhood in front of the iconic river Seine.

I changed schools, and a kind, elderly teacher helped me find my step. I believed God sent her so I would not carry a bitter memory of the French. Every morning I walked half a kilometer, past the busy Rue de Rivoli, by the Arab spice shop and a small church with a red door in Saint-Paul.

At the Cite de Arts, I made friends - a Jewish boy Avril from next door, and a long haired Chilean boy Sebastian, older than me by three years. One day I saw him from my window, standing by the traffic lights at the Seine, wearing dark glasses and holding a white cane. He wasn’t blind. He was playing a game, pretending, waiting at the red light to be helped across. He laughed when I told him I saw. I wondered if his mother knew.

In late ‘73, the spike in oil prices broke the country. The boom was finished. It was called the Trente Glorieuses, 30 years of robust post-war economic growth. The paintings did not sell in Paris. There was too much art for sale. So we went back to Malaysia, and my father took work as a designer for his brother’s business.

Epilogue

After 50 years, I return to this city for a 5-day trip on 1st October 2025. I expected to be disappointed after reading how the place has changed for the worse with petty thieves, riots and illegal immigrants. But after going to the Louvre with my wife, Paris remains a city with grandeur in its stones, wide spaces and chilly air.   

We stayed at a wonderful, cosy apartment on Boulevard de Clichy with a street view on the 6th floor. The owner was an established screen writer who has tons of books on his bookshelf, including ones on Kubrick, Leonard Cohen and other French film directors. The one book that I read was a fantastic short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer called Gimpel the Fool.  

                                                 

On the French habit of sitting in cafes and drinking in bars after work, the people seem to either take the beauty of the city for granted or live in it fully. I told a taxi driver that the French seem happy. He replied they may look happy, but that was not true: some cope with stress using cannabis or sometimes cocaine. That, he said with a smirk, was happiness for them. 

The Ascent

On the day of departure, I woke at five in the morning. It was the last day. I had to see the church, the Sacré-Cœur. It sat at the top of the Montmartre. The walk was twenty minutes and I climbed about two hundred steps to reach the summit at six am, breathing hard. The steps had done their work.

They built the church for penance. A debt owed to Christ. France had been beaten by Prussia with 143,000 dead. They said it was the country's moral decline that did it. Oddly, that decline - the old one, maybe the new one - had been on my mind the whole trip. I stood in the cold stone and looked out. The debt remained.

If I had to give one word to describe the French character, it would not be “bon vivant,” but a cool, contented indifference. Whatever happens - good or bad - they say, “Ça ne fait rien.” It doesn’t matter. Perhaps that philosophical mindset is the root cause of it's moral, political and economic decline. 

Emanuel Macron and men like him say war with Russia is near. It is a plan brewed by globalists and the little Napoleon. But for most French, tired of rhetoric and high prices, it means nothing. Until fine one day, soldiers march through the Arc de Triomphe like the Germans did long ago. Then the tears will turn into tearless mourning. And the sun will still shine bright over this city of whispers and ancient stones. 

The Know-It-All and The Know-Nothing Dilemma

The man who thinks he knows everything walks blind. He holds his head high, sure his view is clear. When the storm comes, when war comes, he is caught without a plan. The flood rises, the bombs fall, and he stumbles. His confidence is his ruin. He never saw the oncoming danger. 

I was told about this type of person - a shopkeeper in Madrid. He had read the papers and heard the talk about the civil war that was about to break out. He believed he understood politics and the war. But when the fighting came, he told his family it was nothing to fear. He kept his doors open, his shelves full, and his drink strong. When soldiers marched down the street and bombs fell close to his shop, he stood frozen in disbelief. His plans for the future unraveled before his eyes. His confidence was his undoing.

On the flip side, there is another type of character who is full of doubt. He knows he does not know enough. But this knowing does not help. It freezes him. He waits for others to move first. When the time comes, he stands still. The world crashes around him, and he stands still, powerless.        

In fact, I once heard of such a type. His name was Gonzalo, a quiet clerk in Barcelona. He lived in a small flat with a window that looked out onto empty streets. He had always doubted himself and everything else. When the war broke, he hesitated at every order to join the army. He feared acting wrong, saying wrong, moving wrong. When the city burned, he stayed inside, silent and waiting. He was powerless because he could not summon the will to act.

Both men met the war unprepared—one with bluster, the other with fear. Neither was ready to live or die well. Both men were caught by events that sneaked into their lives like a thief in the night. One was caught by pride, the other by fear. Neither was ready.

If you know your time can end at any moment, what then? You cannot know all. You cannot know nothing. You must stay awake. You must face the day with eyes open, steady and strong. Watch people and the world as it is. And with the fullness of wisdom at your disposal, do what is right. Act as if your destiny has prepared you for this moment.

This is survival. This is the truth.

The Great Reflation by Anthony Boeckh

Will the world enter into an era of deflation or inflation? This is the key question that will determine what type of investment portfolio will perform well. For the man-in-the-street who does not invest or have little interest in economics, the current global economic situation is of utmost importance to his well-being (economic and social) in the next five years.

Hence, Anthony Boeckh's new book The Great Reflation comes as a very timely read from an expert market economist who was the former editor/publisher of the widely admired Bank Credit Analyst reports. The first chapter of the book summarises well the inflation/deflation conundrum in simple language:

"..Inflation and deflation are both sides of the same coin. The more advanced an inflation, the greater the threat of deflation and debt defaults. In this chapter, we discussed how each bust triggers a political response and the authorities revert back to reflationary stimulus - easy money and fiscal deficits. ...Experience shows that it has taken increasing amounts of money, credit and fiscal deficits to generate each recovery. And then inflation, with a lag, accelerates once again."

Indeed, this is the credit boom and bust cycle we saw with the boom period between 2003-2007 and the bust period 2008-2009. Although the global and US economies have staged some recovery since the fourth quarter of 2009, the recovery was driven largely by (1) fiscal stimulus (2) inventory restocking which languished during the worst of the downturn in production.

Boeckh ends the chapter with these words:

"The Fed could easily tigthen too much too soon or it could do too little too late out of fear of triggering another bust in housing, stock prices and the economy. The reality is that the Fed has little room to maneuver because the underlying structure of the economy and financial system is rotten. The problem is too much debt..Debt got us into the crisis and has not come close to being sufficiently liquidated to avoid another one (crisis)."