Whipped for drinking but okay to smoke?

Our country, Malaysia is a liberal country... a multiracial community who lives together harmoniously...

We have the freedom to say what we like, eat what we want, dress how we like, do what we can, as long as it's within the law.

We have the freedom to decide who our life partner is, freedom to date.

We have the freedom to choose our religion. Sounds great right?

Nope! Not if you are born a Malay. The moment you are born to a Malay couple, you are a confirmed Muslim. Yes! No second choice. From young you will be taught to recite the Quran and observes strict Islamic rules.

You cannot eat what you like, only 'halal' food is allowed.

You cannot dress how you like, you must cover your 'aurat' (parts of your body that shouldn't be seen by the public e.g. your arms, legs)

Your life partner must be a Muslim and you cannot go on a romantic date with just your partner alone to places that do not have a third person's presence...they call this 'khalwat'.

And you cannot convert to another religion, once you are a Muslim you must die a Muslim!

If you are caught doing any of the forbidden acts, you'll be tried in the 'Syariah Court'. (Islamic Court) Nothing bad about these yes? They are for your own good!

Recently one Muslim lady model was caught drinking beer (forbidden food) and she was sentenced to be whipped 6 times! Plus a RM5000 fine! Wow! This court is really something. I've heard of criminals such as rapist, robbers, molesters, drug pushers being whipped but for drinking beer? Since when drinking beer has become a serious crime? If she drinks and drives and got someone hurt then I guess she deserves it but for just drinking it?

What about smoking then? Isn't smoking 'haram' too. Even though tobacco did not exist at the time of the revelation of the Quran (7th century A.D.), yet the Quran did state, "...he allows them as lawful what is good, and prohibits them from what is bad..." (Quran 7:157). Meaning? Whatever that is bad for your body is forbidden! It has been proven medically that smoking tobacco (cigarette) causes harm to ones body, therefore smoking is definitely 'haram'? Right?

Then why are Muslims allow to smoke in public and not be fined or whipped for doing so?
Just because the word 'cigarette/tobacco' is not clearly stated in the Quran? So it is just too bad that alcohol's existence is longer than tobacco?

For whatever reason, I surely think that being whipped 6 times for drinking beer is definitely too harsh a punishment for a lady! The honorable judge who passes this sentence might be thinking he's playing god? Cleansing the sins out of this lady? By inflicting pain?

Can't help thinking how lucky I am...

Poor Old Folks?

I read the news a couple of days ago, regarding old folks being abandoned by their children. Some are outraged by this situation and expressed anger over the children's decision and labeled them 'inhuman'?

Right, abandoning your aged parent is really not such a nice thing to do. Then how?

Imagine this : Your aged parent stays with you. They have absolutely no savings because they have used them all up on you! Now you are married, have a steady job of an average income and have a family to feed, your own young children to look after and to see them through school, college and university. You have to pay for your house, credit cards, car, utilities, etc. Wow! Seems like heavy burden! More so if you have ill stricken parents, their medical bill sky rockets and they don't have insurance coverage and thus drains you out financially. Wow 3x! An even heavier burden!

So your wife works to help support your financial needs, send the children to daycare centres. Your aged sick parent stayed at home alone and you call them a few times a day to make sure they are okay, your children call you a few times a day because they missed you? You rush home after work to pick up your wife (you only have one car) and then your children, and go get food for dinner. And you finally reached home to find your parent has soiled his pants and the sofa? Wow! This drains you physically.

And if you say something not so nice.....?

You are not a good child! You are not filial! You are not a good person!??? Yes? No?

Then your parents will be unhappy, you will be unhappy, your family will be unhappy. So sad...

Or....imagine this : Your old aged parents have got plenty of savings, medical insurance coverage up to the age of 80. They don't stay with you but they stayed very near to where you stayed. They are healthy. You don't have to give them monthly allowance, you don't have to pay their medical bills. You just have to take care of your own family. And you visit your parents every weekend and they cook up a sumptuous meal for your family at no cost to you!

You have nothing but only nice things to say to them, how lucky you are to have them as your parents and grandparents to your children!

Your parents are happy, you are happy, your family is happy! Happy ending...yes?

So, my conclusion to this issue is : If you're old and you have no money, then you're f@#ked!!!
Start saving money NOW! And if you're old try not to fall sick? It's better to just die then to get sick. Agree?

Don't put the blame on your children! Do not doubt your children's love for you! Of course they love you! If they have the capability, they will definitely care for you but their family is still their priority.

Therefore be good to yourself now, even if it means you have to be mean to your children. Take care of your own needs first. Do not use up your savings for your children! Do not mortgage your house to send them overseas! Do not finance their business! Sounds cruel?? It's reality!

Remember? You need the money for your old age!

Sorry seems to be the hardest word.

Caution! This is a totally boring post. Read at your own risk as it might bore you to death!

Why do people get upset? Do you get upset? Why?

Sometimes you did something or maybe you didn't do something and someone gets upset. It may be on purpose or not or you didn't even know?

This 'upset' thingy, is it contagious? Can it spread like the A H1N1 virus? Can it spread from one person to another? e.g. You get upset because you think your friend is upset because she thought you were upset when you are actually NOT? Wah! This is so complicated!

'FEELINGS', such a strange thing to understand. Getting upset at one another can be tiring, waste of time, bad for your health, wears you down mentally or maybe even physically?

And why am I saying all these? Because one of my friends say that I'm upset over nothing and I didn't agree. I'm NOT upset! Why? "Because it's written all over your face girl!" Well, okay, I am really not upset over anything more so anyone, sometimes I'm just tired and I like to keep quiet or stay quiet for awhile. I like to sit idle for awhile? Maybe age is catching up with me and menopause is creeping up on me? Is this so hard to accept? That a person cannot sit in silence for some time except during bedtime? And you have to get upset with me because I did this 'abnormal' thingy? Hey, need to meditate meh?

So, can I say this? I won't get upset over nothing or little things or anything which doesn't make sense. I'm quite a sensible person, I think. Just stay cool...when it's over it's over. Not worth it! Just move on!

If I have to say sorry for something that I didn't do...I WILL say it, if it makes everybody happy? It's really not a hard thing to do, much easier than dieting!

I just cannot agree with this song....

Yasmin Ahmad

If you know Yasmin Ahmad like some do, you probably will be very sad that she has left us.

No, I don't know her personally but her work. I think she is not only talented but bold. She voiced out things that most of us are afraid to, in her films. Differences that could pull us together or tear us apart in this multi-racial country of ours.

If you have watched her films, you would probably know what I am talking about. In her films you can sense that she is trying all she can to unite our people, irregardless of your background, status, race or gender to be the truly '1 Malaysia'. No promises though, not like some of our politicians (hypocrites). Just a message. A very clear and strong message for us to decide for ourselves, for our future generation.

I'm not going to write her profile here, if you want to know just google it. In case you really haven't watch any of her work, here is one for you.






I wonder if there's anyone out there who could continue what she's been doing? Someone with her kind of dedication, compassion and high spirit that might pull our nation together? She's indeed our National Treasure! It's just so sad that we have to lose her so soon!

Yasmin, may you rest in peace!

Childhood Friendship.

If you bumped into your childhood friend after 20 years? How would you react? Excited? Disbelief? Happy? Out of this world? Or you have never thought about this?

It happened to me last week, when I accidentally bumped into my childhood friend.

My first reaction? My jaw dropped (I think) in disbelief and then 3 words kept appearing in my mind...OMG! Wanted to hug her but couldn't coz she was holding her child!

Wow! Felt excited since we haven't met for about 20 years! (since she moved to HK) So many things I wanted to ask her. So many things that I wanted to know. Couldn't do so coz she's with a large group of her family members (reunion meal I guessed).

So we exchanged phone numbers and I went ahead to arrange for our own reunion...with other childhood friends that have stayed in touch.

And on that night, a lot of information were exchanged and updated, lots of laughter! The most used word on that night is "remember". Yes, remember this? Remember that?

A wonderful night indeed, wonderful memories. Is this what childhood friendship is all about? Being able to share sweet and happy memories together? I think yes. It's that time of our life when we have no worries and grouches? How wonderful...after 20 years our friendship remains!

Reminds me of the word we used to pen autographs during schooldays : F.R.A.N.C.E. ( Friendship Remains And Never Can End )
LoL!

Revenge of The Fallen

Transformers 2 - Revenge of The Fallen. Wanted to watch this movie sometime last week but didn't get to. Heard about it, read the previews and wondered what's its gonna be like?

Finally watched it today and....ummm...

Okay, I couldn't figure out from the cinema screen who is who? Or is it which is which?
The storyline is okay, well it's sci-fiction! What do you expect! Actions all the way with some comedy thrown in along the way and some sad moments and not forgetting the love scenes (mild ones).

I've watched the first movie and this one is not much different. Just more robots and a little more action. If you like robots and machines, this is a good combination of both. And of course there's Megan Fox! Is she hot or what!

As for Shia LaBeouf (Sam Witwicky), he acts okay but not my type of guy.

I prefer Josh Duhamel (Major Lennox), like this guy. I watched him more often in 'Las Vegas'. He's handsome!

Go watch it if you haven't. This is one show that I don't mind watching again. Maybe I can understand it better if I did?

The Best Prescription?

This was posted by a friend on FB and I thought it was funny but right to the point!



LoL!

Why Maths and Science in Bahasa Malaysia again?

When our government decided to change our education medium to Bahasa Malaysia (BM) about 30 over years ago, they must have thought since we're an independent country we should teach our children using our national language. Okay, so all subjects (except English Language) were translated to BM and all students were taught in BM. I'm sure all teachers and students at that time struggled but somehow they managed.

But then, the standard of English in our country has deteriorate since. Going from bad to worse. And then suddenly after 30 years someone realised that they had made a mistake. And they decided to change, not all but 2 subjects to English medium. Mathematics and Science. Somehow they see these two subjects as 'the important ones' that need to be in English. Okay, not everyone is happy with this decision but many agreed. So let's give it a try?

History repeating? Teachers and students struggled but this time I think the teachers struggled more. Imagine if the teacher were born 30 years ago and had studied every subject in BM during his/her primary, secondary, college and university education, how is he/she going to teach our children in English? So these teachers are allowed to teach using 2 languages, BM and English mixed...???

Can you imagine the situation in the classrooms? What is the purpose of changing the medium to English when it will still be taught in BM or worse mixed languages. Thus the children suffered especially those in the rural areas. Probably they didn't take extra tuition classes. Results were not too good and the parents of these children were not happy.

Not happy? Okay, we change! Back to BM! Yes, for your own good! After 13 years! Can you imagine now, what will happened to those children who had studied Maths and Science in BM for 3 years (the project started in year 2002, for Year 1, Form 1 and Form 6 students. Those in Year 4 till 6 UPSR remain in BM), then in English for 3 years (PMR, presently) and then suddenly they have to do them in BM again (SPM)? And then back to English in Form 6? What kind of game is this? What is our government trying to prove? That our children are highly adaptable geniuses?

I'm really not against using BM as our education medium. I'm sure many countries did the same thing. Countries such as Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, Myanmar, German, France, and many others did not use English for their education system and yet they can excel. The only thing they lack is communication skills in English which is deem as the international language.

I agree that we should raise the standard of English in our country, but indeed there are many many ways to do it. We could have more English lessons and activities in English. Instead of only 3 - 4 hours a week, maybe 6 hours or more? Most of all, train more English speaking teachers?

I think once you are able to understand, speak, read and write well in English applying it to other subjects should not be a problem at all.

Just by changing our Maths and Science medium to English is not the solution to a better standard of English. Changing it back and forth makes matter worse! Why? Why make things worse?

My say, "Do it once and for all or do nothing at all".

To strip or not to strip?

Miss Singapore 2009, Rachel Kum is in hot sooup! Yes, it all happened with a few photos she posted on her blog.


She bit off the top of this cake. I'm not posting that photo here. Sorry.

Source : GutterUncensored.com

Now it's irreversible even after she retracted them. Too late! I wonder why didn't she thought of it earlier? That it will tarnish her sweet, decent, innocent image? Or maybe she didn't even think about it? Yah, just a few harmless, playful, fun photos. Girls just wanna have fun? Right?

Well, not you girl. You are the icon of your country! Just too bad huh? That you could no longer have fun like you used to. Hang out with your buddies and do crazy things together. Now, everything you do reflects your country, its people, culture and image. Yes, fame and glamour come in a package. Didn't they warn you before?

Now the decent, strong morale Singaporeans are asking the pageant organizer to strip her off her title. Too bad...so sad... What do you think? Should she be stripped off her title of not?

Whatever it is, I wish her good luck! And I hope she learnt something out of this and make the most out of it.

Mr Khir Toyo, are you kidding!

I know I'm a bit late commenting about this. Actually I do not want to but I can't help it!

This mansion cost only RM3.5mil? Huh??? You believe it? Or you have to because the YB says so! YB? Oh, ex-YB? Who? The one that think we are all 'Yang Bodoh'!

No, he has documents to prove his claims. A property valuation, the S&P agreement and loan document from HSBC. Interesting!

Property valuation from Rahim & Co. The next time you want to get your property valuated remember, NOT TO use them. You'll be losing out Millions$$$! And I think a picture of the house would be nice to support this PV. For those house or mansion owners in Shah Alam, good luck to you! Your property's value now will be sky rocketing downwards!

Okay, if this is true, who on earth would sell a property at such rock bottom price. Is this a special arrangement of some kind? It's like someone selling an original Rolex watch to a 'special person' for RM1,000 instead of the original price of maybe RM30,000? You get what I mean? Either way is not right.

The renovation cost RM600,000. I want to know the contractor! Please can I have his phone number?

Well, there you have it. Another unbelievable story from our Bolehland! I need to go now, need to drop everything I'm doing to go...

....study. To be a dentist, don't care if I'm already 40. In another 6 - 8 years I will be earning RM60,000 a month and by the time I reach my retirement age 55 or 56 (10 years time) I would have at least Rm5mil in my bank! Wow!

Busy week

It has been a busy week. Two events starting one day after the other.
This means preparation work doubled so workload also doubled! Which I liked! More work should mean more income! Right? I hope!

One of the events is the Skate Malaysia 2009 competition which is being held in Sunway Pyramid Ice. Well this is the only place in Malaysia with an ice skating rink so where else can you have it?

Happy skaters

This event is open to all figure skaters and this year they came from Bandung, Hong Kong, Macau, Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Bangkok and Manila. Somehow this year's turn out is not as good as previous years. Probably due to A H1N1 ?

Anyway, I got to meet up with few of my old friends and managed to make a few new ones and at the same time make a few bucks!

My booth.




My collegue and me

Products

Old and new friends, from left Chrisha, Connie, me and Irene.