Can a chess grandmaster become the next russian president?

Gary Kasparov, the former world chess champion for close to 20 years, has hit the headlines again. This time, he had been arrested (and then released) for organising a banned anti-Kremlin rally in central Moscow a few days ago. Mr Kasparov, who formerly retired from active chess competitions in 2005 at the height of his career to join politics, has been mobilising rallies across Russia in protest against President Vladimir Putin's 'dictatorship' regime. He has been openly and regularly criticising President Putin for corruption and the country's slide to dictatorship. President Putin has to constitutionally step down in 2008 and pave way to a free election. Kasparov has claimed that there is no proper election in the past.

In a country where there are few opposition leaders, Kasparov is the only one with celebrity status that stands out. There is no real democracy with most of the population still attracted to authoritarian figures. Though more and more people are joining the movement headed by Kasparov, the number is still very small. His coalition called, The Other Russia, has a mixture of strange bedfellows including hardliner communists, liberals and nationalists, among others. In other words, sort of a left-to-right wing movement. Many people are afraid of joining the uprisings. They wanted freedom of speech and media but is worried about political instabilty. Thousands are being daily questioned by the FSB (formerly KGB) for political extremism and some are put behind bars. See my earlier posting regarding the past condition in Siberia for political dissidents as told by Nobel Prize winner, Solzhenitsyn.

His arrest has drawn worldwide condemnation, especially from the Western countries. Due to security reasons, he had sent his young family (he has a six month old daughter) to settle abroad, in New York. He has also written a new book called "How Life Imitates Chess" although he himself admitted that sometimes life is much more complicated than chess! He said that "if you want to be at the top, at the cutting edge, then you have to be very objective".

He certainly has been very objective and resilient, in organising, coordinating and centralising his rallies, very much like a game of chess! So the question often put forth is, how many more moves will it take to checkmate President Putin? Unfortunately, checkmate is not so easy to achieve. On the contrary, Kasparov said that it is more a game of survival - its like always being in danger of a one move checkmate and how to survive from it.

In this new era, where people are getting more and more intolerant of corruption by governments all over the world, here is a saying by Mahatma Gandhi, that is becoming very popular in the blogosphere. It was written during one of his non-violence movements, 77 years ago:

At first they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you,
then you win!

Though the stream is small, one day there may be many streams joining to become a big river!

Introducing the Cast

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It's just halfway through the show. I would like to briefly introduce you to all my brilliant stage actors and actresses, without whom this production would not be possible. Starting from left to right, they are Mr Hardware brush, Miss Blender, Miss 'Petal' Filbert, Mr Flat Shaderbrush, Sir Scriptliner, Mr and Mrs Fanbrush, and last but not least, our leading stage actress and the star of the show, Lady Oval Mopbrush. I consider myself fortunate to be able to convince Sir Scriptliner to postpone his retirement. Being a veteran, he has been instrumental in bringing out the finer details to the play, such as sticks, twigs and grass blades. Lady Oval has proven her worth in enabling me to paint the evergreens with such ease and joy. Oh yes, I must not leave out Mr and Mrs PaletteKnife Smith, both of whom are unable to make their appearance because they are busy rehearsing their next action plot backstage. These then are my trusted and loyal friends. And now, just before we continue with the show, we would like to present this to our readers:

Lady Daisy, our narrator, says, "May you be merry and cherry and happy all through the years!"

A Glimpse into the Future

Chinese lanscape art has the sort of depth and distance that stretches your imagination. Unlike the hyper-realistic art of some of the Western-style paintings, these are no longer representative of the visible world. In fact, it is an expression of the inner thoughts, an extension of the garden of the soul. This is my first attempt in Chinese art, after many years. I would love to do more of these when I have the time. Below, is a quotation from Lin Yutang, whose words have greatly inspired me:

Art is both creation and recreation.......I would rather have all school-children taught to model clay and all bank presidents and economic experts able to make their own Christmas cards, however ridiculous the attempt may be, than to have only a few artists who work at art as a profession. That is to say, I am for amateurism in all fields. .........every parent enjoys the amateur dramatics of his own children much more heartily than he enjoys a Shakespearean play......It is only when the spirit of play is kept that art can escape being commercialized.

Spring Garden

I'm catching the spring fever. The above is a painting of peony flowers in full bloom, done by an unknown artist (at least, unknown to me!). In China, there is a true appreciation of such art, as can be seen in many homes and restaurants. As a tourist walking in a crowded street or eating in a restaurant, you may be approached by peddlars selling paintings.

How do you translate the untranslatable? This is the main problem for Chinese scholars and literature critics when they come across words or phrases that are just impossible to convert to English. This is especially so when trying to translate their aesthetic feelings on art and nature.

All art elements, including poetry and paintings, since the time of ancient China, are based on two aesthetic notions: the present mood and the scenery. The Chinese believed that any form of philosophy that is inhuman or antithetical to nature or natural human sentiment and inclination has gone astray. Similarly, a person who is detached and aloof is said to be wuch'ing or 'to have no heart'. Concerning scenery, it is closely related to human mood. For example, the artist feels the spirit of autumn coming when the there is a chill in the air and the leaves turn golden. Similarly, there is the spirit of early spring when the flowers are budding. It is said that nature, when seen through a painting or a story or even a reflective thought, is more beautiful than the reality itself.

This is the first part of a series where I will try to reveal the secrets of nature, in Chinese vocabulary, as related to the four seasons. I will carry this through, especially based on the book 'The Importance of Living - A Lyrical Philosophy' by the late Prof Lin Yutang.

Some of the beauty characteristics of spring are as follows:

brightness (ming): as in a bright moon or brightly dressed woman. This is different from clever, as we would like to say in English, like a bright student.

gorgeously beautiful (yen): as in peony flowers (see in the above painting). Don't they look dazzling and gorgeous to you?

vitality (ling): If you noticed their paintings, they are not tight or compact. A painting is said to have vitality or looks alive when there is abundant use of empty space.

graceful, delicate, slender (hsiu): Bamboo trees have this kind of delicate beauty. I am sure you have watched the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I liked it so much, I saw it several times. Not long ago, people used to make movies in China that way. I will always remember the part where the actors were springing from one bamboo tree to another and flying on rooftops. Now, that's delicate!

Forest Canopies

The world is indeed fragmented. Many souls are broken. If you read the daily news, it may get even more depressing. 10% of all my walk-in patients have some form of chronic anxiety or deep-seated depression. Throughout my postings, I try to present the positive aspects of life, and to put things in balance. The world is completely out of balance, out of sync with the flow of spirituality. We have to connect with the divine to be able to overcome the stress in our lives. I try to do this by engaging the right brain with images so that the left brain, which deals with logic and words can better understand what it already knew subconsciously. It's a bit difficult to understand my friend, but my main purpose, even as I am treating your ailment with medication, is to try to bring peace to your heart and soul, with my pen (my keyboard, to be exact) and brush. We can overcome all our adversity if we learn to bring into harmony the right and left brain thought processes. Frankly speaking, apart from divine intervention, this is one of the best ways to bring about this theme of balance in life.

That Icing on the Cake

About the painting

Yup, its another cold, cold scenery. Brrr! I felt like having to wear winter clothing while doing this. I just love to paint in the snow. Perhaps I should join the bakery one day!

Some advice on physical exercises

Do you feel you need a new resolution on dieting after indulging in some heavy meals during the recent long holidays? Do you go to a gym? Do you exercise at all? Some people tend to put on weight if they don't exercise or cut down on their food after 2 weeks.

Exercising everyday is like increasing your computer processor raw speed and power (think Intel Dual Core) - more stamina and your heart pumps better. Its like putting an upgrade to the memory RAM and video graphic card (better mental well being and mobility of joints). Just like the latest upgrade to Microsoft Vista is said to provide more stability, exercising will reduce your chances of getting a nervous breakdown.

(Note: I'm not promoting Vista operating system. I think Windows XP is quite reliable for now, unless you are an addict gamer! It may give you a headache as some programmes may not run on Vista)

However, the analogy stops here. We cannot upgrade our body mechanism like a computer system. We can only slow down the aging process. If we do not learn to live a healthy lifestyle, we will fall prey to a multitude of irreversible disease processes many years later (for some, it may be sooner than you think!). Diseases that can cause your immune system to go haywire, clog up coronary arteries, induce abnormal cell growth - these are just the tip of the iceberg.

I run about 2 km everyday except Saturdays and public holidays. It takes just a mere 20 minutes effort or after listening to 6 songs, if you like! No point splashing on a massage chair or radiofrequency slimming programme. Not only does it make you lazier, you are slowly believing the advertisers' mantra that tells you there is no need for physical workout. Although the massage chair is evolving to become 'better and better' with all sorts of accompanying gadgets, the user is being led to believe that the cocoon of virtual relaxation reality is their ultimate salvation to health. The best form of rest is still sleep, and deep sleep you only get through some form of exercise.

Nature has a check and balance system as regards to our health. We do not gain better health and vitality by immersing in things that are antithetical to natural process. If we do not allow ourselves to do physical things, nature will determine a payback time at the end of the day.

Life holds no certainty. We are like foam froth, riding upon an infinite ocean. However, we have to make sure to take care of our God-given bodies and not to abuse them further. We just need to keep them in optimum good shape by regular exercises. Nothing more, nothing less and nothing else will do.

CAT scan, anyone?

Something I did during my free time in the clinic. Took me approximately 10 hours to complete.

PC Requirement:

Hardware -

Lots of memory ram. Minimum is 128 megs but from experience that is downright slow.
I upgraded my notebook to 256 megs a few years ago, and I think I'm doing OK but still slow (which explains the amount of time it took me to finish one piece of work). Many PCs nowadays offer at least 512 MB which should be just comfortable.

Also, don't run any other program as it will bog you down. Monitor resolution should preferably be higher than the usual 800 x 600. A good graphic card is esential.

You also need Wacom tablet and pen. I bought it for RM250 about 5 years ago and it has never given me any problem. I've test run it in a pilot project for medical record a few years back. I noticed a 'wow' reaction from some of my patients. Unfortunately, I have abandoned the project as I feel in the long run, it would just eat up too much space and processor power.

Software -

Corel Painter 6 (thankfully this registered version comes bundled with the Wacom purchase). Technology is advancing so fast that I think right now they have come up with version 10!

Some thoughts on digital art:

Digital art is the most forgiving form of art I've worked with as I can undo my work up to 10 strokes backwards, in case I mess things up. Of course I try not to do it often as I may develop a liking for it. I certainly can't do that in traditional painting! The closest resemblance of digital art to a traditional media is oil painting as one can blend colors continuously to one's heart's content, unlike an unforgiving media like watercolor and acrylic.

Corel Painter has literally hundreds of brushes and short cut functions to allow the user to work smoothly. One can rotate, transform, liquify and change the entire contour of the painting. There are many 'magic wand' special efects that one can play with. You need to be selective, though, and familiarize with your favourite brushes, palette, canvas texture etc, otherwise you could get way overboard with this fantastic painting software. For example, if I want to smear 2 colors together, I would just slide the resaturation scale to 0% and the bleed scale all the way to 100%.

Is digital art good for the soul? The answer is in the affirmative, depending on what you draw and paint. It is a very healing process for me. More than just peace of mind, it has drawn me closer to God. So go ahead and try it. You may get hooked on it.

Lastly, for all those already dabbling with digital art, happy painting!