Thursday, March 31, 2011

Lesson to learn from Japan ( ext)


A letter from a Vietnamese policeman to a friend in Vietnam

Brother,

How are you and your family? These last few days, everything was in
chaos. When I close my eyes, I see dead bodies. When I open my eyes, I
also see dead bodies.

Each one of us must work 20 hours a day, yet I wish there were 48
hours in the day, so that we could continue helping and rescuing
folks.

We are without water and electricity, and food rations are near zero.
We barely manage to move refugees before there are new
orders to move them elsewhere.

I am currently in Fukushima , about 25 kilometers away from the nuclear
power plant. I have so much to tell you that if I could
write it all down, it would surely turn into a novel about human
relationships and behaviors during times of crisis.

People here remain calm - their sense of dignity and proper behavior
are very good - so things aren't as bad as they could
be. But given another week, I can't guarantee that things won't get
to a point where we can no longer provide proper protection
and order.

They are humans after all, and when hunger and thirst override
dignity, well, they will do whatever they have to do. The
government is trying to provide supplies by air, bringing in food and
medicine, but it's like dropping a little salt into the
ocean.

Brother, there was a really moving incident. It involves a little
Japanese boy who taught an adult like me a lesson on how to
behave like a human being.

Last night, I was sent to a little grammar school to help a charity
organization distribute food to the refugees. It was a long line that
snaked this way and that and I saw a little boy around 9 years old. He
was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.


It was getting very cold and the boy was at the very end of the line.
I was worried that by the time his turn came there wouldn't
be any food left. So I spoke to him. He said he was at school when the
earthquake happened. His father worked nearby and was
driving to the school. The boy was on the third floor balcony when he
saw the tsunami sweep his father's car away.

I asked him about his mother. He said his house is right by the beach
and that his mother and little sister probably didn't make
it. He turned his head and wiped his tears when I asked about his
relatives.

The boy was shivering so I took off my police jacket and put it on him.
That's when my bag of food ration fell out. I picked it
up and gave it to him. "When it comes to your turn, they might run
out of food. So here's my portion. I already ate. Why don't
you eat it?"

The boy took my food and bowed. I thought he would eat it right away,
but he didn't. He took the bag of food, went up to where
the line ended and put it where all the food was waiting to be
distributed.

I was shocked. I asked him why he didn't eat it and instead added it to
the food pile. He answered: "Because I see a lot more
people hungrier than I am. If I put it there, then they will
distribute the food equally."

When I heard that I turned away so that people wouldn't see me cry.


A society that can produce a 9-year-old who understands the concept of
sacrifice for the greater good must be a great
society, a great people.

Well, a few lines to send you and your family my warm wishes. The hours
of my shift have begun again.

Ha Minh Thanh

************ LESSON TO LEARN FROM JAPAN ***********
10 things to learn from Japan.

1. THE CALM
Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated.

2. THE DIGNITY
Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture.

3. THE ABILITY
The incredible architects, for instance. Buildings swayed but didn’t fall.

4. THE GRACE
People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something.

5. THE ORDER
No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding.

6. THE SACRIFICE
Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid?

7. THE TENDERNESS
Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak.

8. THE TRAINING
The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that.

9. THE MEDIA
They showed magnificent restraint in the bulletins. No silly reporters. Only calm reportage.

10. THE CONSCIENCE
When the power went off in a store, people put things back on the shelves and left quietly!

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

40 years of marriage.

A married couple in their early 60s was celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary in a quiet, romantic little restaurant.

Suddenly, a tiny yet beautiful fairy appeared on their table.  She said, 'For being such an exemplary married couple and for being loving to each other for all this time, I will grant you each a wish.'
                                             
The wife answered, 'Oh, I want to travel around the world with my darling husband
The fairy waved her magic wand and - poof! - two tickets for the Queen Mary II appeared in her hands.
The husband thought for a moment: 'Well, this is all very romantic, but an opportunity like this will never come again. I'm sorry my love, but my wish is to have a wife 30 years younger than me.
The wife, and the fairy, were deeply disappointed, but a wish is a wish.
                                                                                     
So the fairy waved her magic wand and poof!...the husband became 92 years old.
   
The moral of this story:
Men who are ungrateful bastards should remember fairies are female.....
                            
 SEND THIS TO A WOMAN WHO NEEDS A GOOD LAUGH, AND TO ANY MAN WHO CAN HANDLE IT!
  

  

Monday, March 28, 2011

Latest news on Japan's radiation leak (news)

Om shanti ( universal peace.

Radiation in seawater may be spreading in Japan
 Asia | Updated today at 06:00 AM
By AP

TOKYO - WORKERS at Japan's damaged nuclear plant raced to pump out contaminated water suspected of sending radioactivity levels soaring as officials warned on Monday that radiation seeping from the complex was spreading to seawater and soil.

The coastal power plant, located 220km north-east of Tokyo, has been leaking radiation since a magnitude-9.0 quake on March 11 triggered a tsunami that engulfed the complex. The wave knocked out power to the system that cools the dangerously hot nuclear fuel rods.

The frantic effort to get temperatures down and avert a widening disaster has been slowed and complicated by fires, explosions, leaks and dangerous spikes in radiation. Two workers were burned after wading into highly radioactive water, officials said.

On Monday, workers resumed the laborious yet urgent task of pumping out the hundreds of tons of radioactive water inside several buildings at the six-unit plant. The water must be removed and safely stored before work can continue to power up the plant's regular cooling system, nuclear safety officials said.

Contaminated water inside Unit 2 has tested at radiation levels some 100,000 times normal amounts, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said.

Workers also discovered radioactive water in the deep trenches outside three units, with the airborne radiation levels outside Unit 2 exceeding 1,000 millisieverts per hour - more than four times the amount that the government considers safe for workers, Tepco said on Monday.

Jokes - take a break when the day is done (ext)

 (1) DON'T LOOK AT NAKED LADY
Boy 1: Why do you run from a naked lady?
Boy 2: Becos my mum said that if I look at a naked lady, I'll
turn into  stone. A part of me is getting hard already!

(2) HOW INDIA GOT ITS NAME
This is how India got its name.....
The king was having sex with his mistress while thinking a name
of his country and his mistress ask him "is it In Dear?"...

(3) RESEARCH FINDING
Research shows men are fatter than women because every-night men
get fresh milk & 2 big papayas while women only get 1 banana, 2 peanuts & 1
tea-spoon of starch!

(4) ARAB MAN
An arab was being interviewed at a US checkpoint.
'Your name pls.'?
"Abdul Aziz "
"Sex? "
"Six times a week!! "
"No, no, I mean male or female! "
"Doesn't matters, sometimes even camel !"

(5) SERVICE
Sex is like a restaurant.
Sometimes you get full satisfactory service,
and sometimes you have to be satisfied with self-service"

(6) HAPPY MAN
What makes a happy man?
Daughter on the cover of cosmo.
Son on the cover of sports illustrated.
Mistress on the cover of playboy
and .. Wife on the cover of "missing persons"

(7) SWIMSUIT
Why was the 2-piece swimsuit invented?
To separate the HAIRY section from the DAIRY section.

(8) GOOD AMBITION
Teacher: What do you want to become?
Little Johnny: Doctor !!
Teacher: Why?
Little Johnny: Coz its the only profession where u can tell a
woman to take off her clothes and ask her husband to pay for it.

(9) DENTIST
Woman complaining to dentist: "It's so painful, I'll rather have
a baby than have a tooth removed."
Dentist: "Make up your mind soon, I'll adjust the chair
accordingly."

(10) VIRGIN
Old lady, 85, a virgin, about to die. wanted her tombstone to
ead : BORN A VIRGIN, LIVED A VIRGIN, DIED A VIRGIN.
The engraver shortened it to: " RETURNED UNOPENED "

(11) OLD MAN AND YOUNG GIRL
75 yr old man got married to a 15 yr girl.
On their first night both were crying - why???
Coz she didn't know anything, and
he had forgotten everything.

HaVe A NiCe DaY !
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

All souls day... what a mess.

Rain falls heavily on an early Sunday morning, a week before the real all souls day. The day before it was raining for the whole day. The rain stop after a short while and we pack to go for a visit to my mum and dad's urn site at one of the crematorium in Mount Eskine. A lot of the people choose an earlier date to avoid the massive jams on the next week end. The traffic was heavy and there was slight traffic jam here and there. But, on reaching the crematorium, the park lot was already a sea of mud and water.  To avoid waving through the slimy mud, I try to move my car to a spot nearer to the temple and in the end, the mud were flung all over my car and my family and I still have to wave through the river of mud.

On reaching the crematorium, we assembled at the place of rest for my parent and we offer food and burn joss sticks to them.  My eldest brother was near by and we invite him to join the feast with my parent. My dad have been dead for 20 years, my mum for 12 years and my eldest brother for already 8 years. Ow! time flies ( I have used this phrase many times). Every year, we have been making a regular trip to visit them. This is the custom of the Chinese. Actually, the festival is created to bring all the family together apart from the Chinese New Year re-union dinner. So, twice a year, we will meet our parent together. My sisters and her family  coming back from Kuala Lumpur for this occasion. It was nice meeting them and resume our relationship.  Without such culture or beliefs, our life will be like a blank piece of paper and living in a rat race and a routine.

My parent never age as they still look young in the pictures but all of us have grown older or aged much. This is an occasion to reflect on our life as we are looking at where we will be. Who knows when.  It strikes me start at the picture each time I am there with fond memories of my younger days.  My mother love me dearly and I regret that I do not spend enough of quality time with her. My advise to all who is living to value the people besides you and within your eye sight. Don't take each  occasion for granted. Treat each occasion as if it is possibly the last and go all out to have an enjoyable time with them.

When people takes time and great pain to be with us, we take it for granted and focus on making friends with strangers. What an irony?  As I written an article, we always hurt the people who love us most. This is a natural feeling that when we have too much of a thing, we do not treasure it.  Little means  much. For some wise people, they stay far to watch our love ones and give them ample space to grow.  The young ones have to learn things themselves and words is no meaning to them. When they are hurt they learn and they become better people.

There is a wise saying " In youth, we learn, In age , we understand" , this is a natural and logical circle of life. If we prevent them from learning when they are young, they will not understand when they grow old. These are beautiful words of wisdom. So, go forth and learn.

Om Shanti.

When the day's work is done.

When we step out of our office at the end of each day's work, we should not talk about work at all if possible. Some people bring their work home and to their family and consider that this is part of the daily communication between the spouses. My wife is one of them and she will continue to talk about her office work when we are going home in the same car.  We work  in the same organization and we are in different divisions and this is the time, we catch up with the progress in our work or project. This is not unusual as many working couples also behave in the similar way. Unfortunately, this is very stressful and this takes time away from family matters or personal matters.  We should stop talking about office matters when the day's work is done.

In one of  Ajahn Brahm session , he gave the example of  a renovation of  his monastery in Australia. One day, a guest visited him in his monastery and the hall of the temple was only half renovated and when he was asked by the guest how is the renovation  of his monastery,  he replied that it was done. The guest was very surprise with the answer , how can it be done when it is only half finish ? What Ajahn mend is that the work for the day was done and finish.  This is a very good philosophy because we are able to differentiate between working and private time. This is part of the balance of life concept which is now the trend.

Unfortunately, with the hi-tech gadget's today, the Iphone, Ipad and the laptop, there is no differentiation whether you are in the office or at home. We have to look at our incoming mails on the Iphone even when we are in the toilet doing our private business and at time, we have to spend time looking at our in-mails for urgent message which requires our response. We are working 7 x 24 if we are over committed to our jobs. Hence, we have to be discipline and organize our time.  We only answer very important mails and not to have the habit or urge to answer all incoming request as if we are working. It is good to have a clear cut policy to determine that the day's is done and not to reply every request or messages on the spot and the objective of these gadgets is to encourage immediate response. We hope our bosses will share our aspirations and need of private moments.

To be effective as a person or as a worker, there should be enough rest and time for personal matters which otherwise, will cause alot of social ills , unhappiness and family break ups. Working continuously is also a stressor which caused illness and mental depressions. So, for the good of us and our family, we should be firm in our wisdom and understanding that we need to keep work out of our family life before it is too late.

If we have a healthy mind and a strong body, we will be able to focus in our job and be aware of our condition and surroundings. If we are a better person, we will have a happy family and a better world.

Om Shanti.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

I can see clearly now.....

For many years, I have been caught in the rain. It happens on Saturday when I was having my morning walk at the dam. The sky was dark when I reach the dam but it has no rain yet.  As usual, I wanted to finish the walking before the rain start and at the mid way through my walk, the rain just fell heavily on me. There was no shelter and both sides of the road have only small plants. I was completely exposed and at the mercy of the rain.  I was fully trenched and I just turn and walk back to my car which was about 1km away. The rain was hitting against my head and body and the cold wind stop. When it stop the sky was clear and my vision was clearer.  I was completely relax and  cold , It was like a bucket of water been splashed on my body from head to toe.. It cleears my mind and give me focus.

Most of the time, we are in a routine and we  emerged ourself in the  routine and been carried along with the flow. If we have the chance to break the routine, there could be a certain freshness. We can have a new way of looking at things or have a different way of solving a problem. We hold on to our thoughts or problem and we keep pushing our fixing mind to provide a solution for it. We repeated the same procedures or the same methods  many times and make our self very tired. We keep doing the same way to solve a problem and expect a different results. This makes us very tired and restless. If we take a break from the routine and relax our mind and body or do something different, we will have an idea out of the box or out of the norm.

There is a story of a young wood cutter who join a lumbering company.  He was the young one and he thinks that he will out perform the old lumberjacks in the company. On his first day at work, he notice that the old lumberjacks taking breaks during the process of cutting down trees. He told himself that if he do not take breaks, he could finished cutting more trees at the end of the day. surprisingly, the old lumberjacks out perform him and he trys to work harder and faster  yet he could not beat the daily production record of the old lumberjacks. So, one day, he follow the old lumberjacks to take a breakand he realised that during the break, the old lumberjacks grind their axes. The lesson in this article is that we must take breaks to refresh our selves and we must acquire knowledge to be sharper and to handle our job. clever

We are creature of conformity and habits. Old habits dies hard and it is difficult for us to break from a pattern or a habit. If we did the same thing for a thousand times or a million times, we believe that we are doing the right way or the most proficient way. We are not sceptical to new ideas or suggestions from another human beings. How can a new person be better than us ?  This thinking is wrong and of course, it is difficult to accept because of our big ego.  Often than not, a fresh pair of eyes can see things clearer.  Hence, for us to survive and continue to survive, we have to kick the old habits and break the big ego and accept new suggestions and new thoughts. If we want changes ,we have to be part of the change.

Om Shanti Om....

Friday, March 25, 2011

Come what may, let it pass.

In life, there is a lot of ups and downs , happiness or sad incidents, good and bad people and we need to learn to let it go. These are the facts of life. But, there is an in-built mechanism which makes us have short memory of the past. This is a good thing. So, there is a basic understanding that time will heal or time will solve all problems. Based on my experience, I have many such experiences especially unhappy memories. Although, we can cannot totally ease it from our memory, it is getting less memorable as time goes on. However, once awhile, these memories will surface and prick us or pull our heart strings.

Some of us have use this tool to sit out the problem especially emotional problems which have no solutions. When come to emotions, the outcome cannot be managed. It is not a simple problem like one plus one is equal to two.  This human problem could have multiple or varying outcome.  The outcome could be deadly if not managed properly. When we punch it hard, it bounced back with an equal intensity. A strong action will result in a stronger re-action. Hence, we have to be patient and let the events play it out . We watch it go by and without taking any actions. Fixing it will give rise to other problems or nothing at all.

In our journey through life, we often meet difficult people who can influence our lives. They could  be our parents, peers , boss or customers. If we directly confront them, it could be damaging to our relationship with them and  we could invite troubles in our life or they could make our life difficult and unpleasant. If we do nothing, these people will abuse and take advantage of us and we will suffer in silent. In these situations, both options could end up unpleasant and nasty. The outcome is unpredictable and the best solution is to wait it out.

Waiting it out could be against our nature or against our fixing  mind. We have to control our emotions , stressed up or suffer in silence. To avoid these negative impacts, we have to change our mind-sets and thinking. We have to re-act to these situation like water. You cannot catch water, cut it and cannot hold on to it. The water will flow according to the contours. If these people act foolish, we act stupid or if they  throw punches, we move away or if difficult people act abusively, we will treat them as mentally disturbed. The best option is to act foolishly to survived and we must believe that we are managing idiots and we are a better person then them to confront their foolish acts.

To be able to have a mind that is tolerance, understanding and patience, there is a need to train our mind and gain wisdom to have a thorough understanding of life. Everything is impermanence and everything will pass with time whether there is a solution to it or not. Not doing anything is doing something  and it could be a solution itself.

The message above is not to encourage evil acts and it has to be used in appropriate situations.  There is a saying " Evil gets stronger when the good do nothing ". If there is a solution or if it is clearly black or white, we should act appropriately especially if it is a matter of one plus one equals to two.

So live well and there is no problem which cannot be resolved.  Our friend, TIME is with us.

Namaste.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Is it love or control ?

Honey, where are you ? Have you eaten your dinner ? Who are you with ?  Don't come home so late ,huh ? " Mum or dad, I am old enough to take care of myself.  Please do not control me and let me be independent ", cried their 18 years old daughter. "How can I take care of myself, when you are not around. Don't you know what I want". How do you think the parents will feel?  Liberated ? or  Heart ache? If we have a sense of appreciation, we should think carefully and do not take love and care as a control over your freedom and just shoot from the hip and screw up our thinking.

I was young before  and I have my dad and mum, who show their love to me until the day they die. I remembered once I was crazy about playing the guitar and  my neighbour was a good guitar player and every night, he will play his guitar in his room / At that time, the popular guitar music was played by " The shadows". I love to learn the guitar from my neighbour and neglect my studies. One day while watching the band practicing their piece, my father came and pull me by the ear and took me home for a good scolding and caning.  I did nothing wrong as I love music. But, to my parents , they think that playing music is a useless hobby and I have been neglecting my studies. They are right as a good education and qualification was very important to me. The neighbour , the guitar player was only a carpenter. So, my dad think that I should not follow his foot steps.

There was nother time, my brother secretly took me out one night to play in a badminton competition.  I was going for my exam the next day.  After the competition, when I reach home, my mother caned me bad and I was jumping around with pain and avoiding the cane landing on my backside.  Yes, she wsa very hurt because I neglect my studies and exam and her objective is to ensure that I have a good education and a good job.  Yes, she mend good and she is not restricting or controlling me.

There was a chinese saying " when we groom our children for 100 years and we worry about them for 99 years ". We want the best for our children and we worry that we children walk  the wrong path  and connect with the wrong people. We want to teach them to fish instead of buying them fish so that they can have a skill for living and do not depend on people to catch fish for them. This is in the heart of every parent, they want the best for their children.

One more feature of parent and child, there is no over night hatred. Any querrel between the parent and the child, the love will never change for the child, even how hurt it can be. The parent is always understanding to the child. Every often the child takes things for granted and look for love outside their family. When we have too much of certain things , it has lost its special meaning and we are blind to their existence. Everything is taken for granted that it is there. So, many youngsters can titilate with their friends  of the same generatons about anything under the sun  but can hardly talk to their parents. Any expression of concern and care is an infringement of their freedom and exercisng control over them.  This is rubbish. I like my parent to scold me or take care of me or express their concern over me.  If I have their attention than I would be thankful. Someone is rooting for me and taking care of me.  I will appreciate them and a long for their attention   for me. Why do the youngsters deem this concern or care  as something bad  , ie  like exercising control.  If we look through another prospect, we can see and sense it as love and care.

When we want to see beautiful things , we cannot see it with our eyes , we can only see it with our heart.  But, our heart of no eyes , so how can we see ?  The answer is that if you have a heart , you can feel the warmth and the love.  When you want to see beautiful things, see it with your heart.

There is a chinese saying , " appreciate the people your eyes can see". Open your eyes and heart to feel their presence. When they are gone, you will feel the difference.  There is a wise word " I am invincible because other people  choose not to see me".  Don't behave in such a arrogant way but open your heart , mind and eyes to see , to see the beautiful things of people around you. You don't have to go far to look for new frieinds, those people who love you is very near to you and they are always there for you, it is you who choose not to see them. The grass is greener on the other side. Is it really ?

Namaste.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Life's 10 commandments (anonymous)

 Someone has written these beautiful words. One must read and try to understand the deep meanings in them. They are like the Ten Commandments to follow in life all the time.
 
 
1] Prayer is not a "spare wheel" that you pull out when in trouble; it is a "steering wheel" that directs us in the right path throughout life.
 
2] Do you know why a car's WINDSHIELD is so large & the rear view mirror is so small? Because our PAST is not as important as our FUTURE. So, look ahead and move on.
 
3] Friendship is like a BOOK. It takes few seconds to burn, but it takes years to write.
 
4] All things in life are temporary.  If going well enjoy it, they will not last forever. If going wrong don’t worry, they can't last long either.
 
5] Old friends are like Gold! New friends are Diamonds! If you get a Diamond, don't forget the Gold! Because to hold a Diamond, you always need a base of Gold!
 
6]  Often when we lose hope and think this is the end, GOD smiles from above and says, "Relax, sweetheart, it's just a bend, not the end!
 
7] When GOD solves your problems, you have faith in HIS abilities; when GOD doesn't solve your problems HE has faith in your abilities.
 
8] A blind person asked St. Anthony: "Can there be anything  worse than losing eye sight?" He replied: "Yes, losing your vision."
 
9] When you pray for others, God listens to you and blesses them; and sometimes, when you are safe                    and happy, remember that someone has prayed for you.

10] Worrying does not take away tomorrow's TROUBLES; it takes away today's PEACE.

My mind is not at peace with myself

Just woke up suddenly and find myself unduly disturbed with my problem at work. Trying to make peace but my mind starts jumping here and there, leaving a trail in my disturb mind. What can I do now even if I have the solution to my problem in hand? It is not within my control to put the necessary actions in place now. Now,my fixing mind is restless and egar to put out the fire.  I keep making peace with my jumpy and fixing mind by relaxing through the yoga breathing technique. It helps for awhile but my eyes remained wide open. Ok, might as well wake up and talk to myself and you through the net.

You might be sleeping very sound now and maybe wondering in your sweet dreams.  Yeah, I can understand as I have plentiful of those sweet dreams. Now, the night is deep and it is dead quiet out there. The weather is very cooling as it has been raining the past few nights. I am now hiding under a blanket to belt out my thoughts through the net without disturbing my wife. She has  been very tired lately because of her work. Anyway, who is not tired after a hard days work.

Well, my mind is slowing down and my eyes is abit heavy. Writing out my thoughts is a big relief for me and it helps to give me focus to make peace with myself.  I remembered the famous Guru, Maharaji say that Happiness is from within ourself and we are the one to determine whether we are happy or not. The choice is ours. Yeah, I try to meditate on this piece of wisdom to find peace. I have told my mind to sent the necessary signals to shut down all my thoughts and relax all my bodily functions. But, they are not responding as quick as I like it to me.

Frankly, if we want to be the master of our own mind. It needs a lot of practice and training. We cannot just sit up and order it to obey our command. This ability have been lost through many generations. It is the reverse now, we are the slave to our undiscipline mind.  In order to become the master, we have to start training it again and it has to be a gradual process. If we have an active body and tired mind, we cannot sleep  as it is not synchronized and if we have a tired body and active mind, it is again off balance. To have an orderly sleep, we should have a tired body and relax mind. With this harmony, then we can sleep well. Some people is very lucky to have this natural  switch off ability even if  body-mind is not in harmony.

Now, my eyes is getting heavier and after spelling out my thoughts, I have make peace with my mind. So, Fellas, when you wake up and read this peace , it would be the next day. Please use my experience to comtemplate and enhance your wisdom. Is it good morning or good night ?  It is better to say good night so as to close the day and catch some sleep.

Namaste.

Cher - You Haven't Seen The Last Of Me [HQ NEW SONG]

Burlesque : Last of me

I have heard about this movie but I did not have the chance to see it until I was on the plane to Dhaka.  It was in the in-flight movie. I saw Cher in the movie after so many years. She must be over sixty by now but she looks the same as in the past when she duet with Sonny. The magic of cosmetics and plastic surgery. Their singing signature was Sonny and Cher. They have a huge repertoire and have perform on TV for many seasons.

The movie was about a night spot known as Burlesque and the owner , Cher was in deep financial trouble because her partner's evil plan to force her to sell the night spot for a housing estate. Starring in this movie was another mega star, Christina Aquilera whole play a young novice singer with a powerful voice. In the movie , she help Cher to hold on her club and also bought out her evil partner.

In movie, when Cher was financially in trouble and was down and out , she sang the song " You haven't  seen the last of me". Her powerful voice coupled with the meaningful wordings was uplifting and inspiring. The message was that she was down but not out. At this time of trouble in Japan, the message was meaningful for the survivors of the quake. They are down but not out. It is belief that the recovery process will make Japan much stronger.

The movie also talks about the love affair between Christina and her boyfriend who works in the bar and also a part time song writer. In the end, her boyfriend complete a song for her to sing and the title of the song is " Get it up". Another message of the movie is to make an American dream come true. A novice, Christina finally became a star in her own rights. She sing and dance beautifully  and she acted great.

The movie is a triumph of good over evil. People's relationship is complicated and there is always a tendency to compete with each other. To outshine each other to be the star .  Life is full of jostling , back stabbing, pushing , knocking  and punching which caused our body and mind to be bruise and hurt. Why can't we live for the sake of living and swallow our ego. That will bring more joy and happiness to our life. Bravo to the producer and the director for making us realize that we are mortal and we have to endure a lot of pain and hurts in our journey of life.

Namaste.

What it mend to be clever.

I sms my dear niece EJ and asked how is she and she text me back that she has got the SPM result. On further enquiry, she was so happy that she gets 8As. Ow, what a marvellous achievement. So, I told  my friend about her achievement but to my surprise, she told me that it is a norm now to get a complete of As. She told me that if I throw a stone among the students, I can easily hit a complete A student. Why is it so simple ?  If a perfect set of As is the norm, then what about those without As ? Have the standard of our education drop so much ? Yes, I have heard about our Universities not making it to the top 100 places in the world. Previously, we have one or two. This is really scary.

How can we judge whether our children is average or intelligent if all of them have As ? Yes, if they choose to pursue their higher education overseas or in private colleges affiliated to overseas institutions,then we can see the difference. Why are these bright students with so many As struggling in good oversea Universities or in professional exams ie in Accountancy or Law. This is  a dilemma that we will need to face.

It is indeed painful to see how our education standard have drop so much. Just pay attention to the standard of the languages of this generation of students. Some of the graduates cannot even speak or write in English.
Nowadays, it is very common to sent our children to overseas to have a  better education. But, why can't we have a good education in Malaysia ? What is wrong with our education system ? Going down the ranks ?

It is a chicken and egg story. If we set our standard too high, we have a high failure rate and the students will be discourage and many will drop out. However, we will instill the challenges and make our graduates strong and good.  If we set our education standard too low, we have half past six graduates which is not proficient to handle their jobs. Challenges and meritocracy will build a strong pool of intelligent youth and weakness breed weakness.

At the end of the day, the world is flat and the people are mobile. The good graduates demand high income but they are treated as among the mediocre, they will find the place which will recognize their talent. That is the main reason for the brain drain in Malaysia and now, the Establishment is realizing that this weakness  but it will take time to revise the trend.   

Sorry, all the A-grade students. Where are you among the masses? Raise your hands if you are one. If you are good wherever you are or whatever you are doing, you should shine and raise above the others.

Namaste.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Sex can kill : US study (news)

Yes, sex can kill you, US study shows.

CHICAGO - SUDDEN bursts of moderate to intense physical activity - such as jogging or having sex - significantly increase the risk of having a heart attack, especially in people who do not get regular exercise, US researchers said on Tuesday.

Doctors have long known that physical activity can cause serious heart problems, but the new study helps to quantify that risk, Dr Issa Dahabreh of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The team analysed data from 14 studies looking at the link between exercise, sex and the risk of heart attacks or sudden cardiac death - a lethal heart rhythm that causes the heart to stop circulating blood. They found people are 3.5 times more likely to get a heart attack or have sudden cardiac death when they are exercising compared to when they are not.

And they are 2.7 times more likely to get a heart attack when they are having sex or immediately afterwards compared with when they are not. (These findings do not apply to sudden cardiac death because there were no studies looking at the link between sex and cardiac death.) Dr Jessica Paulus, another Tufts researcher who worked on the study, said the risk is fairly high as such studies go. But the period of increased risk is brief.

'These elevated risks are only for a short period of time (1 to 2 hours) during and after the physical or sexual activity,' Dr Paulus said in a telephone interview. Because of that, the risk to individuals over the course of a year is still quite small, she said. 'If you take 10,000 people, each individual session of physical or sexual activity per week can be associated with an increase of 1 to 2 cases of heart attack or sudden cardiac death per year.'

She said it is important to balance the findings with other studies showing that regular physical activity reduces the risk of heart attacks and sudden cardiac death by 30 per cent. 'What we really don't want to do is for the public to walk away from this and think exercise is bad,' she said. What it does mean is that people who do not exercise regularly need to start any exercise programme slowly, gradually increasing the intensity of the workout over time.

Burlesque: you haven't not seen the last of me.

Feeling broken
Barely holding on
But there's just something so strong
Somewhere inside me
And I am down but I'll get up again
Don't count me out just yet

I've been brought down to my knees
And I've been pushed way past the point of breaking
But I can take it
I'll be back
Back on my feet
This is far from over
You haven't seen the last of me
You haven't seen the last of me

They can say that
I won't stay around
But I'm gonna stand my ground
You're not gonna stop me
You don't know me
You don't know who I am
Don't count me out so fast

I've been brought down to my knees
And I've been pushed way past the point of breaking
But I can take it
I'll be back
Back on my feet
This is far from over
You haven't seen the last of me

There will be no fade out
This is not the end
I'm down now
But i'll be standing tall again
Times are hard but
I was built tough
I'm gonna show you all what I'm made of

I've been brought down to my knees
And I've been pushed way past the point of breaking
But I can take it
I'll be back
Back on my feet
This is far from over
I am far from over
You haven't seen the last of me

No no
I'm not going nowhere
I'm staying right here
Oh no
You won't see me begging
I'm not taking my bow
Can't stop me
It's not the end
You haven't seen the last of me
Oh no
You haven't seen the last of me
You haven't seen the last of me

Last Sunday's experience

Hi, PK, it is a long time since I met you ? Where have you been?  This was part of my conversation with an old time friend, whom I have lost contact for past 5 years.
His reply was " I am staying in the Pangkor Road apartment  but  I am not in Penang most of the time.  I shuttle between my condo in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.Three weeks in KL and two weeks in  Penang lah ".
I continued to press for more information from him. " What have you been doing after your retirement 10 years ago?". " I read alot and I read very thing that I can get my hands on. I make myself busy doing the computer surfing" came the answer.

Yeah, looking at him, he has aged alot. He works for a big bank during his prime years and now he wearing a simple singlet and a short pant with a dangling bag by his side. Wondering in the Pulau Tikus market during his spare time. I wonder why do we dress down when we get old. The image of him wearing a long sleeve shirt, a long working pants and a smart tie with a well comb hair came to my mind. It was a totally different image. His hair now is silver white and he has aged so much. Am I looking at my reflection in the near future after my retirement ? Yes, I believe so but I will dress up a bit better. I promised myself that I will look better.

After seeing him, my thoughts is troubling me. How many ten years do I have ? How many times I will meet him again before resting for good ?

" Hi, keep in contact with me. Call me when you are in KL ? We should meet up again" he insisted.  I took down his handphone number and I promised myself to call him.  We bid each other goodbye and we walk away in opposite directions. I have experience many times with my friends and each time , the same conversation arises. " We will call each other  or keep in contact , man " was the few favorite parting words. But, it often finished this way and that is the end of it.  If we ever meet again, we will greet each other and the same promise to keep in contact will be the same parting words.

Life is an irony, why are we so busy to have contacts with our friends ? Is the foundation of friendship so shallow and can only bond by monetary gain or when we seek help. There no free lunch and it is true. Most of the time there is a motive. Can be make our life simple and reach out to touch real friendship instead of an agenda to to benefit our self.  Think again, lets have good honest free lunches to enjoy each other's time and friendship. It it all within us.

Namaste.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Something light for the day (ext)

Everyone in the wedding ceremony was watching the radiant bride as her
father escorted her down the aisle to give away to the groom. They reached
the altar and the waiting groom; the bride kissed her father and placed
some thing in his hand. Everyone in the room was wondering what was given
to the father by the bride.

The father could feel the suspense in the air and all eyes were on him to
divulge the secret and say something. So he announced "Ladies and
Gentlemen today is the luckiest day of my life." Then he raised his
hands with what his daughter gave him and continued, "My daughter finally,
finally returned my credit card to me."
The whole audience including the priest erupted in laughter..........
all except the poor Groom!!


Enjoy your day,

Lets give hope to the living and pray for the dead.

It must be the bad karma of Japan and that is why there is so much disasters in the country especially after the 2nd world war. Japan is a very mountainous and lack of mineral resources. The torturous terrains have force the people to struggle for survival and became adventurous and resourceful.  What they don't have , they make it up by creativity and development. The hardship and the toughen  spirit have make the country a world economic power.  The Japanese corporations have expanded out of Japan into many continents and countries.  The country became an advance country in term of export earnings, world class infra structure and high living standards.

The country is lying in the axis of fire  which have many earthquakes  and tremors.  In past, the country have suffered several severe earthquakes and tsunami and the country manage to recover and improve. This time the earthquake in Sandai bring along a very special consequences, the damaged nuclear facilities at Fukushima. According to the latest news, more than 20,000 people either die or missing. Based on the experience Acheh, those missing must probably have been suck in by the tsunami and could not be found again. Although, about three hundred engineers have re-connect the power line but they might need time to confirm that the facilities is still operational. The bad news is that there is already radiation leak which have contaminated the vegetables and milk. As days goes by, the radiation leak will get more and more severe. Although, the Japanese Government have said that the radiation have no deadly effect on human beings, there is a suspicion that the Japanese Government have not told the public of the whole truth. There is a lack of transparency and this is the worrying point.

Although, there is a certain resentments against what the Japanese have did in the second world war, the common people have no fault. When disasters like the tsunami in Sandai happens, we will realized the world is connected and several charity organizations have started their activities to collect funds for the victims. Funds are coming in from all over the world and this illustrate the connectedness of the people  in this world. The scenes of the disaster area and of the suffering of the people was shown in the media and so many people of different fate and religion start to pray for the dead  and pray for the hope of discovering more people alive. The affected area will take many years to recover especially those in the path of the radiation. 

So much for now while the danger persisted.  So, we have to gather today to pray for the dead to rest in peace and pray for the people who is missing and lying in suffering while hoping to be found. Everything is fated and what is going to happen , will happen.  If you don't go out in the open , you have any equal chance of dying against people who is always going in the open.  Where you are is not the issue but what is destine will happen.  Don't let this worry stops you for living your life and be happy.  We may grief for the dead but we have to accept that it has happen.  When a big storm struck at night, there would be many type of leaves on the floor the next morning.  The old and the young and beautiful leaves  while the old and weak is still clinging on the branches. Whose turn to go is destined.

Namaste.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Reminder of a new day

     “We have been given a gift that is really, really precious. It’s simple. It isn’t going to get us anything. It isn’t there to augment anything. It’s there for us to be able to experience something that is within ourselves. It is not there to change our religions, our practices, our daily lives. But it is only there for one reason, for one reason alone. Simple happiness. Simple joy.”

Maharaji

Saturday, March 19, 2011

The value of family

To realize
the value of a sister/brother
ask someone
who doesn't have one.

To realize
the value of ten years:
ask a newly
divorced couple.

To realize
the value of four years:
ask a graduate.

To realize
the value of one year:
ask a student who
has failed a final exam.

To realize
the value of nine months:
ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn.

To realize
the value of one month:
ask a mother
who has given birth to a premature  baby..

To realize
the value of one minute:
ask a person
who has missed the train, bus or plane.

To realize
the value of one-second:
ask a person
who has survived an accident.

Time waits for no one.
treasure every moment you have.

You will treasure it even more when
you can share it with someone special.

To realize the value of a friend or family member:
LOSE ONE.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Light moments in life

In an office:
TOILET OUT OF ORDER...... PLEASE USE FLOOR BELOW

In a Laundromat:
AUTOMATIC WASHING MACHINES: PLEASE REMOVE ALL YOUR CLOTHES WHEN THE LIGHT
GOES OUT

In a London department store:
BARGAIN BASEMENT UPSTAIRS

In an office:
WOULD THE PERSON WHO TOOK THE STEP LADDER YESTERDAY PLEASE BRING IT BACK
OR FURTHER STEPS WILL BE TAKEN

In an office:
AFTER TEA BREAK STAFF SHOULD EMPTY THE TEAPOT AND STAND UPSIDE DOWN ON THE
DRAINING BOARD

Outside a secondhand shop:
WE EXCHANGE ANYTHING - BICYCLES, WASHING MACHINES, ETC. WHY NOT BRING YOUR
WIFE ALONG AND GET A WONDERFUL BARGAIN?

Notice in health food shop window:
CLOSED DUE TO ILLNESS

Spotted in a safari park:
ELEPHANTS PLEASE STAY IN YOUR CAR

Seen during a conference:
FOR ANYONE WHO HAS CHILDREN AND DOESN'T KNOW IT, THERE IS A DAY CARE ON
THE 1ST FLOOR

Notice in a farmer's field:
THE FARMER ALLOWS WALKERS TO CROSS THE FIELD FOR FREE, BUT THE BULL
CHARGES.

On a repair shop door:
WE CAN REPAIR ANYTHING. (PLEASE KNOCK HARD ON THE DOOR - THE BELL DOESN'T
WORK)

Sex - a fatherly advise

When we mention the word "sex", almost everybody sit up and listen.  It is a magic word for many and this add spices to their life. In Buddhism, it is only a moment of pleasure and a life time of regrets if  it is not done within the confinement of the law. Pre-marital sex is forbidden in Christianity , Islam and many other religions.
However, it is good to have sex education to the young ones and for those maturing adults.

A person's value is a like a good painting and sometimes, a moment of desire will add a spot on the painting. Just imagine what would the effect on the value of the painting with a tiny spot. Of course, its value will drop sharply. So, it is better to control yourself and be selective of the partners.

In the liberated world, there are diseases which is carried by this lustful acts. For example, venereal disease, Hepatitis, HIV, herpes, etc.  Some of these disease have a life time impact on the health of the individuals. So, if you cannot control yourself , please take safety measures to protect yourself and be very selective with your partners. Don't ever take the risk of exposure for some additional pleasure.

To avoid unwanted pregnancy, please take the appropriate birth control pills to avoid such unfortunate incidences. You have to be responsible for your action and it is bad karma to kill unwanted babies. If you want to enjoy the pleasure, you should also be responsible to yourself and your off-springs. If you want to do it, you have to be responsible. There is no such thing of exercising a choice but you deny the responsibility.

For those ignorant and unaware youngsters, the legal age of having consensual sex is above 18 years old. Consensual sex means that both parties in the act have a mutual agreement when they are conscious and aware of their rights and liabilities. Any act committed under the influence of alcohol or drugs or undress and with the use of force, is a violation of an individual's right and this amount to rape.  Rape is a very serious crime and it could result in a life time jail sentence with several strokes of caning.  Any sex with a minor, an individual who is below 18 years old is also punishable with the same offence and jail sentence.

With today's advance technology, there are many instances of youngsters and adults who takes video of this sexual act for their own consumption or for fun but it often been circulated in the Internet or through hand phones. Take the example of the long forgotten Edison Chen's sex exploit with famous film actress in Hong Kong. It rock the world and change the lives of those film stars and I believe this episode have been haunting those actress who  is involved for the rest of their life.  It all started with the fun of video taping their sex acts.  When you are in love, there is often a complete trust on each individual and often it is very disappointing.  My advise to my readers is that you should keep some reservation and avoid be exploited after falling out of love.

This article is special written for a group of youngsters who is studying in college including my daughter, May. As I watch them grow up, the puberty sets in and there is a tendency to hunt or be hunted. What we can do is to advise them and watch them from a distance. The choice is theirs and they have to take responsibility for it. Before that, we can advise them of the consequences and their rights.  Bless them all.

Namaste.

ID ten T error ? - smart Alec.

As we older folks know, sometimes we have trouble with our computers.

I had a problem yesterday, so I called Eric, the 13 year old next door, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control, and asked him to come over.

Eric clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem.

As he was walking away, I called after him, 'So, what was wrong?

He replied, 'It was an ID ten T error.'
I didn't want to appear stupid, but nonetheless inquired,

'An, ID ten T error? What's that? In case I need to fix it again.'
Eric grinned.... 'Haven't you ever heard of an ID ten T error before?
'No,' I replied.

'Write it down,' he said, 'and I think you'll figure it out.'

So I wrote down:


ID10T

I used to like Eric, the little bastard.

Giving is the most difficult part of life - this is real (ext)


The United Way realized that it had never received a donation from the city's most successful lawyer. So a United Way volunteer paid the lawyer a visit in his lavish office.

The volunteer opened the meeting by saying, 'Our research shows that even though your annual income is over two million dollars, you don't give a penny to charity. Wouldn't you like to give something back to your community through the United Way ?'

The lawyer thinks for a minute and says, 'First, did your research also show you that my mother is dying after a long, painful illness and she has huge medical bills that are far beyond her ability to pay?'

Embarrassed, the United Way rep mumbles, 'Uh . . . no, I didn't know that.'
 
'Secondly,' says the lawyer, 'did it show that my brother, a disabled veteran, is blind and confined to a wheelchair and is unable to support his wife and six children?'
'The stricken United Way rep begins to stammer an apology, but is cut off again.

'Thirdly, did your research also show you that my sister's husband died in dreadful car accident, leaving her penniless with a mortgage and three children, one of whom is disabled and another that has learning disabilities requiring an array of private tutors?'

The humiliated United Way rep, completely beaten, says, 'I'm so sorry, I had no idea.'


And the lawyer says, 'So . . . if I didn't give any money to them, what makes you think I'd give any to you?

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Able to sleep well is a bliss

The flight was leaving Dhaka at 2.00 am Malaysian time and it was full flight. Rather suffocating and feeling of jam pack. Try to catch some sleep but could not close my eyes despite the tiredness. Switch on the flight TV programme and watch the movie " Reign of the assassin". Have watch the movie before but in a different version. The actress was trying to escape from her assassins by undergoing plastic surgery. Funny that this technique was available during ancient China.  Unbelievable things happen.

Anyway, I had a little bit of intermittent sleep and the plane arrived in Singapore at 6.30am and the connecting flight to Penang was at 8.00am and reaching Penang at 9.30am and it was impossible to have a proper sleep during the trip. Upon reaching home, I was completely drained and flat out. I went straight to bed and my mechanism just shut down and I sleep for hours to let my body repair the damages which I have suffered during the trip.

Lack of sleep is a serious matter and I have experienced living in a zombie stage.  My focus and judgement was out of tune and my energy level was low. While we are in this stage, it is very dangerous to drive and if we do, we will experience near misses from accidents or our parking will be out of the mark. You will realized that at some moments you are in a daze as if you are drugged.  The whole body, mind and body mechanism will be in a bloody mess. Your control of your bodily functions is out of sync.

One of my friend, SW told me that when he was a junior trainee at a auditing firm. He used to work late in the night and only sleep for 3 hours.  His hard work in the late nights won him many promotions in his jobs and when he became the partner in his firm, he also continue the late night trend  until he became old and near retirement, he told me that he barely sleep for  3 hours a day. His body mechanism has been "fixed" and he could not sleep an additional hour.  He will automatically wake up at a particular hour in the night. He could not slow down and to spend the morning hours when other people is enjoying their sweet dreams, he will go for meditation at his meditation center to slow down his active mind.

Medically, it has been found that our body needs an average of 7 hours of sleep a day. When we are sleeping, our body and mind have the time to repair itself.  This is nature's way of recuperation.  In another aspect, good sleep is an enjoyable rest. Simply, sleep is a joy. But, too much of it makes us inactive and  lazy. Too much sleep is like long hours of meditation and if we are caught in the loop, we will tend to stay in that dream world. Well, I keep reminding myself that we should have a balanced life and follow Buddha's teaching of following the "middle path".  Extremes are damaging to our health and our life.

It is not how long we live but how well we live. My advise to all my readers is that live a balance life and do away with extremes and obsessions.  If we sleep well, our body is in a balance and every bodily functions will also fall into the same balance.  This will make our life a wonderful experience.

Namaste.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

All by myself after midnight

On my way back from Bangladesh and sitting here at the Dhaka airport all by myself. I was tired after a busy day but able to catch some power nap in the afternoon. The short nap help me to sustain me for the rest of the day including entertaining some bankers in the evening. The trip to the airport was a bliss as Bangladesh is battling with West Indies in the World Cricket Championship. Bangladesh will go into the quarter –finals if they beat West Indies. Now it is cricket fever in Chittagong and Dhaka. I am not sure whether the people celebrate outside the two main cities. Anyway, most of the population is busy making a living for themselves.
On my way to the airport while waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, there was a knock on the window screen . It was not the first time I hear the familiar knock. I try not to turn my head towards the window but I failed and I took a peep. I saw an old women face and she look sad and worn out and is begging for some money.. I don’t mind giving but the thought of supporting a begging life style stops me from giving. I have been to going to Bangladesh since twenty years ago and each time, the beggars are getting less. I notice this change and definitely the Country have progress. I do no want to see the old Bangladesh. I was told by my friend , Islam that 30 years ago, the people can only afford to eat one or twice a day and in the current times, most people are getting three meals a day. The poverty rate have fallen a lot. With these thoughts in mind, I have to look the other way to avoid the sad face of the women beggar.
Now, it is approaching 1am Malaysian time and my flight is taking off from 2am. My eyes are getting heavy as I continue to write this article. Meanwhile, I got the news that the radiation leak in Japan is getting worst and it is spreading to Asia and based on the wind pattern, it will hit the Philippines and the rest of Asia. I don’t how much true as suddenly, there are so many experts on this matter and each is giving their own version of the consequences. Maybe, the SMS in Dhaka about radiation reaching the capital could be true after all.
My guest at the dinner table talks about the potentiality of more business with my Company. I told them that we are very cautious people and will only take small steps before making a bigger step. This has been our guiding strategy. However, my guest told me that after the radiation fear , the price of steel will soar sky high because steel is in demand for the rebuilding the housing needs in the disaster area in Japan. Yes, this is true and this keep the price of property on the firmer note. Well, another chance to make more money.
Well , going back the discussion I have had with my friend , SW. He is thinking of an early retirement as he has make his due. His words of advise to have more time to ourselves kept ringing in my ear.. What is the different in leaving behind Ringgit 1million or 10 million. The additional "0" have not meanings. The future generations will not remember you. People have short memories. Well, we cannot be doing nothing and we have to keep our focus to control our monkey mind. A single thought or a single action is the best way to discipline the mind. I could not agree more with the wisdom of SW and it is the truth. But, apart from money, we have to do something which is passionate for us. I coming to Bangladesh to build a new frontier and this has been my life work. On Monday, when the project I have worked so hard to support , start their soft opening and I feel good after so many years of hard work and missed chances.
I could not explain the feeling of seeing the machines start their operation after the soft opening. It will grow and I know it will grow into something bigger. I could have the sense of fulfillment.
Yes, I am tired and now it is almost 1.15am Malaysian time. My eyes are tired and my body sinks with sweat and there are so many mosquitoes flying around me. I could hitting at least one with one swing of my hand. In Buddhism, we refrain from killing but it will take a highly ordain monk to be bitten without any response. I have not achieve the level of enlightenment, so excuse my , folks. I have to protect myself. So, good night and sweet dreams to all of you.

Namaste.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

After the happening, the hurt stays

I am overseas in Bangladesh on business after the earthquake and the tsunami hit Japan on last Friday. During the weekend before my travel, the news of the disaster in Japan rolls in in with more deaths and the extensiveness of the damage in Japan. The most worrying factor is the meltdown of the nuclear facilities in Fukushima and the radiation have reach a harmful level.  Several people have been contaminated with radiation and the radiation is spreading to 30 km around the facilities towards  Tokyo.

The radiation is released into the air as the explosion in one of the nuclear facilities and the Government is evacuating the people around the infected area or advise people to stay home and do not let their skin to be in contact with the radiation. The result of the radiation can lead to kidney failure, blood cancer, failure of the immunization system which can lead to all type of diseases,etc. More people will leave the infected zone.

Apart from this physical damages and health issue, there will be a mental hurt. Over the past few days, there have been so much news on the disaster over the TV and the film of the disaster is played over and over and the message is drumming into all of us repeated. This news and image will stay in us and will become part of us. In the future, any news or occurrence of the disaster will generate panic and fear and -we will over re-act or re-act irrationally.  Some of the news also carry the sound of people crying for help and people near dying giving out their last cry.  There is so much commercialization and drama in the edited films.  Personally, I think this incident  is over played and over reported which caused the disaster to be magnified so many times.

In modern times, with the improvement in the electronic communications, the news are more updated and more transparent and this business have become  a big business as well. Whoever can report the incident fastest and more extensively will capture the people's attention which means more business and profit. More dramas and fear will keep the people glue to news.  Sorry to say that it has become a festive reporting and so much talking and it starts to hurt the ears.

As I have mentioned, the negative psychological impact on the people will last for a long ,long time. It also generate so many rumours and news which painted a picture of a global disaster and there is a also a SMS circulating in Bangladesh to ask people to take precaution when it rain and do not let contaminated rain water touch our body.  This is getting  ridiculous as this incident is now only confine to Japan. \\

However, the incident have shown the negative side of technology advancements. In Bangladesh, there is so much natural disasters and each time, it gets over it quietly and the people remained calm and happy. When there is no fuel, they used their natural transport that is using their own two feet to walk while in Japan, if there is no electricity, the impact is serious with the stoppage of all the public transports and logistic systems while leads to people running out of food and water.  People is getting use to the fact that food and aids will come to them while in Bangladesh, the people go out to get their food.  This will be another irony to life.

One of the tsunami survivor said that the whole whole is like our body, when our finger is hurt , it will hurt the whole body and the whole body will focus on the pain in the finger and will divert help and assistance to cure the hurting finger. This consciousness is important for the global survival. There are two sides to incident , the good and the bad like a two edge sword which cuts both ways. Every curse have a blessing. But, we should stop the over reporting to make the world a happy place.

Namaste.

Monday, March 14, 2011

When it is better to be dead than alive

It is really an irony coming from survivors from a disaster like the tsunami in Japan. But, if we look at their perspective and options after the tsunami swept away all their belongs and immediately family members, perhaps, we can understand their feeling and why they choose dead over living. The Creator have chosen to save them but they feel that may not be the best for them.

In this materialistic world, we need money and love to survive. If we do not have both of these resources, it will be difficult to live Some people lead very simple lives and in a very narrow and small world. If that small world collapse, they do not know how to survive and it would be better to be dead than alive. Some people cannot survive on charity and humiliations. Their pride to live on their own and be useful is so strong that without it , it is better to be dead.

Just imagine when the disaster took away all your family members and you are left alone, the whole world will collapse. The feeling of love and being loved is gone and their memory of them will haunt us for the rest of our life. The continuous torture of the loving memory is so painful and hurtful that it is better to be dead. As I have said before that there is a saying , " only dead people can die straight but the living cannot stand straight ". 

In the recent tsunami, there was report that several ships and trains just disappeared among the waters. We cannot imagine that people in the train or ships which have been suck into the deep water and die by drowning or on impact. Everything is gone is a second and among many others.  No memory and just like switching off the electric main. Vanish in seconds while the lucky or unlucky ones have to struggle and survive to find out that they have lost everything. Many people fell into that category where they do not keep any money or have any other means of survival.

It will also be even worst if the nuclear radiation affects you and this will threaten your life and the thoughts of living in poor health or sickness, it is really frustrating and desperate.  What is the use of living as a sick person or in a coma or poor health? It might be better to be gone rather to be a burden on your surviving family members or living in welfare.

It is never easy to understand the wish of those lucky or unlucky ones unless we go into their world. Looking in from outside is never accurate or judging a person from a different perspective. But , as a piece of advise, we should meditate on this issue and we will get the wisdom from understanding the issue. Nothing is permanent and everything is evolving and changing. Lucky or unlucky pends on your perspective in life.

Namaste.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Tsunami in Japan - some memories never die

In Japan, an earthquake of 8.9 hit Sandai and was followed by a tsunami of 10 meters high. One thousand people dead and the number is climbing. The strongest earthquake in its 140 years history.  One oil refinery catches fire,a nuclear reactor is suspected leaking and massive damages to roads, rails, cars and ships. One ship ferrying 100 people was swallow up by the tsunami.  About 45,000 people is now hiding in the shelters. Massive rescue efforts and relief funds is on the way.

My memory flashes back to 2006. The tsunami in Penang Island. I was having lunch in Penang Swimming Club and there was a commotion outside the restaurant and people start standing up and look out of the windows in the restaurant. We also get up and watch and I saw the sea was churning and roaring as if God's hand is in the water stirring it up. It was a strange sight and as we walk out of the restaurant, we could see the sea level have risen and far out in the sea, the waves were roaring and I could see a fishing boat in the sea tossing around by the wave and in a movement, the boat capsized and disappear into the water. We notice the strange happening and we were not aware of the tsunami.

So, after leaving the restaurant, we noticed there was very few traffic on the road and as I drive towards the city on my way home, I notice the concrete dividers have been swept aside and there was debris everywhere along the road. There were people crying as they walk away from the beach front. On reaching home, I was told by my wife that tsunami have hit Penang and some people was wash off to the sea and drown. On later that day, more bad news came over the TV and for a continuous few days , bad news was reported from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and India.  More than 100,000 people have die and in Penang, it was more than 16 people was swept away and drown. Some of the bodies could not be found. For sometime, the people in Penang stay away from the beaches. But, people have short memories and the locals and tourist flock back ot the beaches after a few months.

After hearing today's news, my friend PH told me that God must be angry because of too much corruptions in the world. He said that God may want to make a better world and he reminded me of the Doom's Day prophecy in 2012. When I don't believe it will happen and I told him that there will not be any regrets that everybody is gone at the same time. What is there to regret if there is nobody around. It will be a good way to go.

Coming back to the tsunami yesterday, the renewed incident will linger for a long while and people will struggle to live with it. When the tsunami siren rings, our heart will jump out from our mouth. I have a friend, Christine who stays near the beach front. She told me that if the tsunami siren sounds, she will start to worry until the siren is off even in event of false alarm. I told her  that if it happens, there is no way to avoid it.  Even if you stay on the hills, there could be a landslide and if you are destined to go, you will go with it.  Nevertheless, lets take a few minutes to pray for the dead and offer our condolence to the surviving family members.

There are two sad occasions in our life, that is when we are alive, we have to leave our family for some purpose and on death, we depart. Time will heal and memory is short.

Namaste.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Count our blessings and be good

Good day to all of you. I have to quote a brief paragraph from the book , The Secret to enlighten all of you the power of positive thinking. It is as simple as if you think good about yourself , you feel good. As I have said before, you are what you think and similarly, there is a favorite saying , you are what you eat. Our body and mind response to our thinking. If you think you are beautiful , why not ? Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

In the book, The Secret, there was this example of a lady who woke up everyday and before she do anything. She thank the creator for giving her an extra day. She was also thankful for being able to walk and able to brush her teeth and look at her self in the mirror. By this way, she psyche herself up for  the day. There is nothing wrong by being thankful. She is counting her blessings and if she have a problem, there are more blessings than the problem.  If we can think, walk, eat , smell ,see and excrete properly, we should be thankful and not taking these things for granted.  Yes, these are basic things but every important things in life. There are many people without these perfections.

When we age, all these bodily functions would deteriorate  and that is where we wake up and value them. It maybe too late then, so you have to thankful if you still have all these basic functions supporting your life. If there are regrets, we cannot turn back the time clock and live again.

Most of the time, we take things for granted. Yeah, tomorrow will be another day or I am going on a holiday in a few week's time. Don't be so certain and count your blessings by the day. Some of my readers might say, Hey, why are you so gray ? I  have been talking about positive thinking in my earlier paragraphs and now, I am feeling scare. No, my message is that we would trigger our mind every second to remind us of our existence and not to based on HOPE so much. If you are thinking of having or doing things in the future, why not?  But , keep the sense of the present.  Bite your lips or pinch your self so that you don't lost your self in the dreams and hope, so that you can enjoy the blessings you have now.  The past is gone, the future is yet to come but now is the present.

Yes, this is early morning but  I treasure the moments of writing or been able to write and express my thoughts  and I am thankful that all of you is reading my blog.  So, a good morning to all of you and have a nice and good. day. Start counting your blessings  and live well.

Namaste.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Bless you all

I am tired after visiting my FIL, Johnny in the hospital today.  He was admitted to check whether he is strong enough for an operation to remove his cancerous colon. Yes, I was told colon cancer is the slowest form of the disease because the colon is the longest organ in our body. He was in high spirit despite his weak outlook. I believe he will be able to pull through and survive a few good years.

While I was coming out of the hospital, I could see a lot of patients waiting at the lobby  but mostly old folks. Yeah, age and disease comes together. When we are old, our resistance level will weaken  and there is where all the sickness will come. Take an analogy of a car. When a car is old, the parts will give way and we have to get new parts to replace all worn out parts. This is the process of rejuvenation until the rust will eat into the engine block and make it irreparable. That will be the end of the car.

Among my SIL, they have discuss what is the best way to treat Johnny. The doctors recommended chemo but due to his advance age, another doctor recommended herbal treatment. While there is a split in their decisions , Johnny have preferred herbal treatments. Whatever, the choice is best left to Johnny because he knows his body well and this is his life. Who are we to decide for him if he is still alert enough to make the decision himself ? It is very difficult to say who is right and who is wrong but we must respect his decision because he going to bare all the consequences of his decision.  I have always maintain that whoever make the decision, he or she must bear the responsibility. There is no such thing as " decision without responsibility ". That would be cheap talking.

I remembered  the book " chasing daylight " and  I have written an article in late last year when I started this block. This is about people who has terminal disease chasing for the extra time to live out their dreams or to  make closures. Making closures are very important because this is to clear all the misunderstanding, hatred, or any unfulfilled wishes, vows and dreams. This process will make us at peace with ourselves and our family members, friends and foes so that we can RIP or rest in peace. This process will put a smile on our face when we passed on.

It is a funny observation. When we have the time, we are busy for something else but our personal affairs. When are short of time, we start to chase for the extra moments to arrange our personal affairs. This is the irony of life. I kept telling my wife that it is very important to spend time with Johnny when he is alive and it makes no sense to visit his grave frequently when he is no longer around. Such actions will  only make us feel better. There is no sense in this action.

Yes. While we still have time, we have to be fair to ourselves and give priority to our personal affairs and spend time with our family members and close friends. We should start the process of reconciliation and closure as tomorrow is never guaranteed if we want the smile on our face. Start now and bless you.

Namaste.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Love is blue, love is blind

This is a fatherly advise to all youngsters who believe they are in love. Love is blue, love is blind. Why is love so blue ? Yes, it is like singing the blues. There is alot of heartaches when you are in love. So, the color of  blue is the color of sadness.  Have you heard how a blue singer sings, it is full of soul.  It touches on your nerves and  emotions. Soul voice is full of  emotions. You cannot control your emotions when you fall in love. Your vision is blur and you lost your directions.

So, in the end, love is blind. What you can see is just an image of the person that you think you love. You love to be wanted , you feel important and you feel touched. You can only see the goodness and you are bias in what you see. You only see the good side of the thing but his or her negative  character can be excused.  You only see what you want to see and all other points are not important. You have fallen into a trap. An emotional trap which wired you up and not letting you go or get your senses back.
Those people in the love net cannot think properly and believe that they know what is good for them. They don't listen to their friends or family member. Their friends are the ones who is looking from outside in and knows the situation clearer.

There are many cases of choosing the wrong partners and it often end in sad endings if you are emotional in your choice. If you want to enter into a relationship, you have to go in with your eyes open wide.  You have to maintain your objectivity and keep your senses.  You must keep an open mind and accept what you see is wrong as wrong.  Sweet words can only last you a few seconds but hurts can last a life time.  When you make a choice , you must accept the responsibility and bear the consequences. Stop blaming fate and escape the responsibility which arise from your choice.

Don't fall in love to get emotional support. It is not a game or a challenge. When you are down and out , don't look for love because that is your weakest moment and you will fell for the sweet words. If you are smart , you observe closely for hypocrisy and false pretence. Don't tolerate the abuse and restriction on you and mistaken it as love. The flaw in a person's character can be seen with an open eye.

Keep your senses and give yourself space and time to think and observe. Don't excessively engage yourself and fill yourself  with "magic" like Alice in wonderland. Come out of the dream or your relationship  and give yourself sufficient breaks to think and judge. Mix around and compare with other choices. Breath in fresh air and instead of moving in the same circles without giving yourself a choice. Take a step back and you will see more clearly.

In the end. Listen , listen to your friends besides you .Listen to the people who have fallen in love before. Open your eyes and look at the choices you can have. Breath away and give yourself ample space to breath in fresh air and take a good look at the relationship. Mix around and enjoy life as there are many more beautiful things to come.  No hurry. Why tie down yourself to one tree when there is many better trees around. Why rush into a relationship, when there is so much things to enjoy.

I can only pray for all of you. It is you who make the choice and be responsible for it. Don't blame it on fate but your own blindness and your deafness to other people's advise.  So, listen and open your eyes to choose the right path to a good life.

Namaste.

55 years ago. Ow! Time flies....

Remember this picture ? Apollo spaceship landing on the moon. It was an amazing moment. Totally, speechless and taking my breath away. Louise Armstrong. It was like yesterday. Ow! how time flies ? Now, the space shuttle , Discovery can fly in and out of space with minimum damages. In the beginning, we have Apollo series of rockets. Apollo 13 was the blown to pieces on take off. So, many lives have been sacrifice to complete the mission of capturing the space and the moon.

When I was small, I was told by my mother that I cannot point my finger at the moon, otherwise, one of the ears will be gone. On moon cake festival day, we will look towards the moon where the fairy will meet his lover on the moon. The lover will walk from the rainbow to the moon and they will united for just that nite.  The legend was kind of sweet but the moon cakes were sweeter. Lanterns in the different shapes and some is like the moon shape with the image of the fairy dancing in the lanterns. It was fun. But, as we grew up and when Apollo landed on the moon, the myth disappear from that moment.  Back to a white sheet of paper,  However, the song has die but the music carrys on.  There are still people who pray to the moon fairy for blessing.  It is all in our mind and make belief.

This morning, I meet a former neighbour and I was told that his son is now 21 years old and studying in Japan. Again, it was like yesterday as my memory bring back to the time of his son running in his garden shouting and making an awful lot of noise. Ow ! 21 years already.  Ow! Apollo landed on the moon 50 years ago.  A quantum leap. In no time, our time is up like so many people before us.

By the way, we are mortals. So, live like one and behave like one.  The earlier we see it and realize it , the more contented we will become. There is a mandarin song which carry this message : " Our life is like a dream" . Yes, it \is as short as a dream. Each day is like minutes and each month is like an hour and when we wake up and if we wake up, everything is a dream.

Namaste.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Be fair to yourself

Who is the tallest of it all ? You, me or someone else.
Do a good day's job. Let it be done for the day. Take a rest and treat yourself fairly.  Do not over exert yourself until you are sick. Mentally or physically.  You are a dumb fool if you do that.  You are paid to do a  job and you don't have to exchange your life for it.  There is a saying "a life long job will take a life time to do it". Pace yourself and work smart.  Never put everything on yourself. Spread out the responsibility  and manage it from a distance.

Don't be scare of failures. Pick up the pieces and re-construct the pieces and carry on from there.  When you fall down, pick yourself up.  It is never  a shame to admit your mistakes or failures.  Failure is the mother of success. If you don't understand, ask questions and it is a sin not to ask questions or admit that you don't know. Don't let your ego control you. Kill the ego and be humble. Ask and you will learn.

You should learn to forget and forgive. Through this wisdom, it  will make you strong and firm.  Make a strong foundation for yourself , then your strength resting on the foundation will be strong. There is a saying " if the top structure is weak, the foundation will be crooked". Be a strong leader and be righteous. Only then, you will be a good leader.

Have good relationship with others. Then, you will get the support and assistance. One person cannot do all the task. The more supporters you have , the lighter is the job and the easier to complete the task. Spend time with people, walk around and talk to people. You will not know who will help you in the end. Sometimes, your close friend is your enemy but a stranger will save you.  Be prepared for all eventualities.

Never be angry. When you are angry, do not do anything or say anything. Just keep quiet and the anger will pass.  Anger is  hurting oneself over other people's imperfection. Anger is like a fire, it burns everything down.  If you can manage anger, you will be top of all men. You will also be convincing and gain the support of  peers, colleagues and friends.

Never accept rewards which is belong to others. Acknowledge the contribution and merit of others and share the reward and honor with them. Don't take the ideas of other people, let them build on it and you give the assistance if possible. If you cannot help, don't hurt others. Just keep a distance to see it grow. If you are honorable, step in to give good advise.

In the end, you can never win it all. Have a balance life. Work hard and play hard. Spread good karma and gain good merits. What you give, the rewards  will come back to you in many folds.

Spread good wisdom and practice them. Lead the way to guide the fated ones to the righteous path. You may not be God but a good messenger. Showing and leading the way and give reminders when it is needed.

Finally, be fair to yourself. Acknowledge the good you have  done, take merits for the good work done, accept the honor of your achievements and manage a balance and fruitful life. When you make money, you should enjoy and when you have excess, you have to learn to give. For giving is happiness.

Namaste.

t

Live like you never live before - you only live once

Age is just a number (LOL) - laugh out loud !!!


 Age is just a number.
Nothing stops you from being young.
Nobody stops you from dancing.
Nobody bothers what you wear. 
It is only your imagination and prohibition.
You are what you are and you are what you think you are. 
Love yourself more and be fair to your needs and desires.
You do not need to change for others.
Don't make others change for you. 
Live happily and all is within you and the choice is yours. 
Learn to dance in the rain.

Namaste

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Can we afford to retire ?


Chasing the daylight in the twilight years .
 Before we can retire . we have to be absolute sure that we can live a comfortable life. Inflation and  the cost of living is rapidly eating into our savings and the value of money is depreciating. Another factor is that our medical health expenses will rise sharply if in the event of  our poor health.

For the working class, many countries have increased their retirement age. Recently, Malaysia have increase retirement age to 60 but other countries like USA, France, China , Japan and Hong Kong ,etc have increase it to 65 or more. The various countries have acknowledged that they will not been able to support an increasing aging population especially in providing medical benefits.

In Malaysia, it is tougher for the future generation to save enough for their retirement benefits when their pay scale is not increasing fast enough. While Malaysian Companies have to compete internationally, the salary and wages have to remain low unless the companies have to go for high end products and shift their reliance on labor intensive and low tech products for survival. If the base do not change, the salary level remained the same while inflation and cost of living continue to creep upwards.

For those people who have been working for a long period  of time, we can notice that there are not much changes to the salary level.  A graduate earn RM1.500 per month 20 years ago and now a graduate earn RM2,300 per month on their first day at work. Based on an average annual inflation of 3%  and compound the impact , it would easily be more than a 100% cost up in our cost of living. How could they manage if their earnings falls behind their cost of living?  Their earnings will buy less things or their purchasing power have fallen.

Apart from  the cost of living factor, the property prices have been spiralling to absurd level with the price increasing 10 to 20 % per year. A terrace house  especially Penang  cost more than RM1 million while Condo of 2000 square feet cost more than RM500,000 in an average location and more than RM700.000 in a high end area and their monthly maintenance is about RM500 per month. For the low cost flats and apartments, it is not within the entitlement of the middle class workers or salary man. Furthermore, the price of property is also fast catching up in the main land.

This is a pressing problem faced by the new and old  generations of  the working class . For the old people, they have to work longer years to make their ends meet while the younger generation,who are still young and mobile, they will migrate or look for work in fast developing  neighbouring countries and to earn US$ and remit back to save for their retirement or they have the option to select the countries of their choice to live.

Looking at the scenario, things are not moving as fast as it should be and this brain drain or mobility of the  young and able workforce will shift in the name of survival. This is inevitable as the choice is limited for the working class.

We should be behave like an ostrich and pull our head in the sand while the changes in the working environment or the condition of living is changing rapidly. This is finding trouble for ourselves.  For the young, they have to think hard and face the problem while the old have to keep themselves healthy and prepare for long working years.

The world is changing and be part of the change.

Namaste.



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