October 8, 2007
We Are In A Bad Fix
By Mathew Maavak of Panoptic World This is a planet in denial. While the existential question gets a red hot "apocalypse now" for an answer, our stock markets seem to have regained paradise lost. We are witnessing nothing less than...
March 2, 2007
An Explosively Penetrated Quagmire
By Mathew Maavak of Panoptic World The coalition of the willing is paving way for the unilateralism of the brave. Britain is whittling down its 7,100 servicemen in Iraq into a mid-term force of 5,000. That matches the number of...
February 7, 2007
Gaming for the Fiery Tomorrow
BY: Mathew Maavak of Panoptic World As the US-Iran standoff escalates toward its inevitable denouement, analysts are busily gaming scenarios that may lead to the commencement of hostilities. Only the naive take solace in the illusion of peace, for it...
September 12, 2006
A Pawn In The Game Of Chinese Checkers
By: Mathew Maavak One wonders why Seoul did not experience a seismic event last week. A million jaws should have clunked to the floor when one of the most meretricious arguments on the security of Northeast Asia was uttered in...
August 8, 2006
Pornography of violence
By: Mathew Maavak One of the first causalities in a conflict is the blurring of reality. As fighting intensifies in Lebanon, a concurrent battle for the global hearts and minds is being waged in any every possible fora, from the...
August 1, 2006
Along with Peak Oil, Peak Grain and Peak Water the world enters crisis overload
By: Mathew Maavak A deadly combination of heat and drought is slowly wreaking a trail of devastation across much of the globe, and the full extend of this scourge will only be felt as winter nears....
July 25, 2006
Steady game of brinkmanship in Lebanon
By: Mathew Maavak The relentless blunderbuss against Lebanese towns and villages continue through this week. Days and nights get more crimson, adding enough color to punditries that obfuscate the five sacrosanct Ws of journalism....
July 17, 2006
Globocops of energy security
By: Mathew Maavak Some of those oil-related doomsday scenarios will meet at a confluence this week. It includes an armed aggression against a sovereign state, terrorism, missile launches, weapons of massive destruction, and disturbing consumer, financial and trade data worldwide....
July 6, 2006
Oil and the four-lettered word
By: Mathew Maavak Oil prices are rising again, with analysts wondering if the all-time record of $75.35 per barrel notched on April 21 will be surpassed this week. All the usual earth-shattering parameters are missing in this latest episode. International...
June 27, 2006
FTA: Where rice can be used to save lives
BY: MATHEW MAAVAK One of the most intractable issues in the ongoing Korea-U.S. FTA talks pertains to agricultural products. A landmark agreement with immense ramifications for the mutual security of both Korea and the United States faces an insurmountable hurdle...
May 4, 2006
Games, Cock-Fights and Fandangos In The Persian Gulf
BY: Mathew Maavak The Fifa World Cup begins next month. It's a quadrennial event that grips the entire world in a month-long state of sustained frenzy. Football - or soccer as it is known in the United States - unites...
April 21, 2006
Peak Oil And The Politics Of Terrorism
BY: Mathew Maavak Crude oil has breached the $70 psychological barrier again. This time, however, it will not be a one-day seduction by the stormy Katrina. The causative culprits are aplenty. Terrorists have taken out 25 per cent of Nigeria's...
March 12, 2006
Game Theory...The Ball is rolling - Part 3
BY: Mathew Maavak Rice Extends Good Will to Latin Leftists Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday the United States has no quarrel with leftist leaders in Latin America and wants good relations with Bolivia under its new president, a...
Game Theory: The Ball is Rolling - Part 2
BY: Mathew Maavak "The United States has the power to cause harm and pain," said Ali Asghar Soltanieh, a senior Iranian delegate to the IAEA. "But the United States is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if that is...
March 9, 2006
Game Theory: The Ball is Rolling....
When a friend of mine felicitated me over a recent "energy geopolitics" article, I frankly admitted that I haven't read real news for months, perhaps a year. "I use game theory to forecast news," and would be ready with an...
March 2, 2006
The Brinksmanship of Energy Geopolitics
BY: Mathew Maavak "It is thus probably no overstatement to say that the Russian campaign has been won in the space of two weeks." - German Chief of General Staff Franz Halder, July 3, 1941 "The whole situation makes it...
February 7, 2006
Beware The Ides of March
BY MATHEW MAAVAK Soothsayer's warning before Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44BC. If Julius - regarded as one of the greatest Caesars - couldn't take note, the leader of the current superpower should. This March, his actions may spark off...
January 15, 2006
A World Lit By Energy Warfare
BY MATHEW MAAVAK & ROWAN WOLF President George W. Bush justifies the continued occupation of Iraq on the ridiculous premise that it might become a haven for Al Qaeda terrorists. Iraq is already a magnet for terrorist outfits and not...
December 30, 2005
Strip Searches, Media Farces and Agitprops
BY: MATHEW MAAVAK Author's Note: Mathew was mugged two nights back, half an hour before a political insider could get a sneak preview of this article. This happened in what should be the safest spot in Kuala Lumpur, a taxi...
December 11, 2005
Arizona, I Remember You
BY: MATHEW MAAVAK "Tell me what Zero hour is?" The voice from Tokyo replied softly: "Zero hour is December 8" - December 7 in the United States - "at Pearl Harbor." That US Signal Corps intercept of Nov 29, 1941...
November 27, 2005
Peak Oil and the Redelineation of Global Power
Please comment, and make suggestions. I am working on this as part of a research proposal. Thanks, Mathew INTRODUCTION: This research will analyze the ramifications of the growing energy crisis, and the possible restructuring of the present geopolitical and economic...
November 18, 2005
Rules of Engagement
By: Mathew Maavak If you want to know anything with a degree of certainty, engage directly. Tragedy and fatal mistakes befall the person who doesn't realize that in this panoptic world, what goes around comes around. If you want a...
November 9, 2005
"I Don't Count': A Minority Report On The French Riots
By: Mathew Maavak I have been literally disconnected the past few weeks. I no longer surf from home, as my dial-up service bill amounts to four times as much as a 24-hour broadband service. Problem is, despite Malaysia's over-hyped boondoggle...
October 8, 2005
Dobson can mix Christianity with Belial
By: Mathew Maavak President George W. Bush not long ago made a claim that God urged him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. I suppose God specifically also warned him to avoid capturing Osama bin Laden, coz it might make Santa...
September 26, 2005
Bush In A Bottle
By: John Chuckman There have been rumors of Bush taking to the bottle again. Since alcoholics are never cured, this is possible. The stress of having his ineptitude so publicly displayed as it was in New Orleans and of having...
September 18, 2005
Malaysian Bloggers Under Attack: An Online Psyops?
By: Mathew Maavak It was only a matter of time before the ruling powers in Kuala Lumpur began their assault on the only public domain in Malaysia - the Internet. While all kinds of dissent, opinions and rants are taken...
September 10, 2005
9/11 Revisited: The US A Victim and A Testbed?
By: Mathew Maavak I am a product of 9/11. I landed at Heathrow airport that morning and my world would never be the same again. By 2pm, my cousin in London woke me up with the news that the Twin...
August 28, 2005
Sickly Haze, Intellectuals and Pat Robertson
By: Mathew Maavak of Panoptic World Malaysians recently celebrated a cynically-described Haze Festival. During this annual affair, Peninsula Malaysia, and often neighboring nations, gets shrouded with a sickly air redolent of burning wood. Wood, or forest tracts, were indeed being...
July 24, 2005
Some Views, News and Juice
By: Mathew Maavak It seems the Gush Katif imbroglio seems more than a settlers' intrasigence in holding on to other people's lands. Th IDF has already signalled its willingness to shoot settlers as a last resort, something I haven't really...
May 20, 2005
Panoptic Games
BY: Mathew Maavak On Tuesday, I finally decided to write a piece on the oil-for-food scam and its correlation with political subversion and terrorism across the Seven Seas. Days and months passed and I waited in vain for a newshound...
February 23, 2005
Shutter Control: Ground Zero
By: Mathew Maavak When I typed out "Internet origins, wikipedia" into Google on Feb 22 (1.25pm Malaysian time), this what I saw: We're currently recovering servers from a power failure in our colocation facility. This means backing up 170gb of...
Shutter Control: Creating Gooks
By Mathew Maavak The mysterious disappearance of data on the admin page of my site this morning was a touch of class. I was linking up two MSNBC articles on my Panopticon admin page and to my horror found that...
January 31, 2005
The Power, Military, and Covert Dimensions of a Disaster
By: Mathew Maavak On Sept 1, 1923, a 36-feet high tsunami rose up in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan. This time the tsunami wasn't the major killer in a tragedy that took 140,000 lives. Two thirds...
January 25, 2005
Tsunamic Calamity -- Media and Individual Disconnectivity
By: Mathew Maavak It was a resplendent afternoon in Goa on Dec 26. Tourists were tripping towards the famed Calangute-Baga beach when fellow vacationer Ashwin Sivakumar stumbled upon the news of a tsunami disaster at a net cafe. Goa, on...
December 29, 2004
Tsunamic Calamity - A Natural Selection of Victims
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] It was my last afternoon in Goa when fellow vacationer Ashwin Sivakumar -- who swapped an arctic Helsinki for family and sunshine -- stumbled...
October 22, 2004
Brothers' Keepers - Part II
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] I had to make the decision to destroy more life, so we continue to destroy life – George W. Bush during the second Presidential...
October 20, 2004
Brothers' Keepers - Part I
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] I had to make the decision to destroy more life, so we continue to destroy life – George W. Bush during the second Presidential...
August 18, 2004
Power Plays
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] Were you surprised at the turn of events these past few weeks? Speculations over the imminent capture of High Value Targets (HVTs) sometime around...
July 24, 2004
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] You better watch out, as this is not St Nicholas I am talking about. It's too early for that and he will only start...
June 20, 2004
Quagmire of Blood, Oil, Sweat and Deceipt
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] The grand plan is panning out well indeed. The US will transfer “sovereignty” to the Iraqis in 10 days time amidst a worsening security...
May 31, 2004
Mission Creep: A Force for Global Stability
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] Our uncertainties are increasing. The war against Iraq is not abating, and the intensification of this bloodfest is destabilizing the region and the global...
May 20, 2004
Bursting Bubbles and the Economics of Domination
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] Volatility is spreading and now we have oil to make it more combustible. While those degrading images from Abu Ghraib transfixed us with horror...
May 15, 2004
Making Our Heads Turn
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] “It's going to get a good deal more terrible, I'm afraid.” - Donald Rumsfeld (AP, May 7) It just did. He knew...
May 8, 2004
Fall Guy Syndrome - Part III: Spinning Our Minds
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panoptic World] A few months before those eye-grabbing photos from Abu Ghraib were broadcast by CBS 60 Minutes II, here is what Brig Gen...
May 2, 2004
The Fall Guy Syndrome - Part 2
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.net. Or visit his site Panopticon] "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we do things in America. I didn't like...
May 1, 2004
The Fall Guy Syndrome
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.net.] President Bush has condemned the apparent mistreatment of some Iraqi prisoners, saying, "Their treatment does not reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the way we...
April 27, 2004
Nature, Its Challenges and Our Progress
By Guest Author Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.net. Everything has an origin. The Latin word for nature - natura - means “to be born”, signalling a beginning of life. Man literally came forth from...
March 29, 2004
Different Worlds- Different Glimpses - Part 6
The Perverts Paradise By Guest Author Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.com. He is a journalist and the founder of the new website Panoptic World ] (I decided to write this exactly the way I...
March 22, 2004
Opening the Gates of Hell
By Guest Author Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.net. He is a journalist and the founder of the new website Panoptic World ] The world has been set ablaze, and we are only beginning to...
March 21, 2004
The Irrational Game
By Guest Author Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.net. He is a journalist and the founder of the new website Panoptic World ] Madrid would have been in a state of ecstasy just before that...
March 19, 2004
An Open Letter to President George W. Bush
By Guest Author Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com or mathew@maavak.com. He is a journalist and the founder of the new website Panoptic World ] Dear Mr President, It's a great honor to declare my admiration for...
February 22, 2004
The Two Towers
Different Worlds, Different Glimpses- Part 5 - The Two Towers By Mathew Maavak - [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com] The skilled journalist doesn’t scrounge for news; he lets events be trusted upon him – Mathew Maavak Now, if...
January 15, 2004
DIFFERENT WORLDS, DIFFERENT GLIMPSES – Pt 4
DIFFERENT WORLDS, DIFFERENT GLIMPSES – Pt 4 Austin City Limits and US Complexes By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com] After reaching my cousin Joe’s apartment, our first outing was to a local Wal-Mart store to get...
December 21, 2003
Stacking the Iranian Deck: Developments since Saddam's Capture
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com] The deck is now almost complete with the capture of the Ace of Spades. The new White House concern would be that this house built on cards aka the Iraqi...
December 14, 2003
The Tu Quoque Trap - An early analysis of Saddam Hussein’s capture
By Mathew Maavak [Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com] It was pretty much of a shock to learn of Saddam capture so soon. Then again, come to think of it, no! George W. Bush’s popularity is dipping badly and...
December 8, 2003
Different Worlds - Different Glimpses: Part 3
By Mathew Maavak Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com This is the final part in a three part series. Here are the links to: Part 1 Different Worlds - Different Glimpses and Part 2 The Interrogation The Gun-Lined Highway...
November 18, 2003
Different Glimpses, Different Worlds - Part 2
The Interrogation By Mathew Maavak Mr. Maavak can be reached at qannai@hotmail.com (This part deals with my ordeal at the Forth Worth/Dallas airport. The racial profiling continues. This time, things weren’t funny. My reaction wasn’t either). As I boarded my...
November 8, 2003
Different Worlds, Different Glimpses – Part 1
DIFFERENT WORLDS, DIFFERENT GLIMPSES – PART 1 Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo – The Asian Express By Mathew Maavak Mathew Maavak is a journalist from the Far East and can be contacted at qannai@hotmail.com (This is the first part of a...
October 22, 2003
US and Britain - a Special Relationship?
By Mathew Maavak Mathew Maavak is a journalist from the Far East and can be contacted at qannai@hotmail.com. This article is published here at his request. The international charade continues, adhering as closely as possible to a Copernican path. Now,...
October 14, 2003
A GLOBAL VILLAGE OR A GHETTOIZED PLANET?
By Mathew Maavak This article was first posted at Online Journal, and Mr. Maavak has requested that it be posted here. I am reposting this article here because it is a quality analysis, and I feel that the readers of...
