Steely Wonders

Who will govern America?

2008-10-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

The dice is on the table and it is about to be cast. Who will inherit the mess left behind by the outgoing members of the ruling government?

Some media experts are tempted to say: it's too close to call! But we all know that America is in need of drastic changes, otherwise it's going to be a little bit more messier before the dust finally settles.

For a better part of eight years, USA has been faltering, stumbling and ambling along the fast-track highway of changes and precedents. The entire world is currently watching if Wall Street will implode.

Talk is rife that the US$700 billion bailout plan will eventually find its way to become law but at what cost? Many ordinary Joe in the street is aghast that so much has been put aside for Wall Street, instead of distributing it to the inhabitants of Main Street.

Naturally, there are apprehensions and misgivings. Who would want to sacrifice so much for thos corporate giants which have made a mess of their own institutions. Some are asking why are they accorded such massive financial privilegs when the very same institutions are extremely slow in sharing their well earned profits.

Nobody seems to have heard that banks and other loan-lending giants happily return a portion of their massive profits to the people who are their biggest supporters.

The financial infrastructure is already showing critical structural damage. The $700 billion plan is merely cement that will temporarily hold the cracks in the walls in place.

Who knows how long the cement can sustain the building? Meanwhile, the ordinary wage earner has to fend for himself and his loved ones. Will White House rush to the aid of the forgotten middle class and the derelicts of the no-class minority?

Who can forget the slowness in which aid arrived in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck? Who can forget the millions who have or will be losing their homes in the months to come?

Will there be another bill to save their ordinary homeowners? Aren't the people the nation as well?

In the next five weeks, a decision will be made as to who will step into the White House, the seat of power in which much has been achieved over the last century, and also of much that has not been done in recent memory.

The man and his party who will boldly stride into the august hallways of the White House, West Wing or Oval Office will realise that the subsequent four years will be crucial for all concerned.

It is not a holiday of billionaire proportions but rather a privilege to right all the wrongs that have come tumbling down the stairway of previsios administrations while the nation was sleeping.

If America has what it takes to hold on to its global reputation of having the brightest and the best and all those who have the right stuff, now's the time not only to prove it but also to show it.

America, you are clearly running out of time. Based on more than 200 years of wonderful and great achievements, this could be America's finest hour or its darkest. Be brave and walk into and through the Heart of Fear.

When you are too old to fight back

2008-09-24T02:02:00.000-07:00

A wise man once said: "When you are too old to fight back (probably against people who are bigger and nastier than you), then it's time to reconsider your priorities in life."

I would like to think that it's wise to wise up and not resort to physical measures to resolve issues. Some individuals who have misguided principles seem to think that seniority gives you the privilege to say anything you want and get away with it.

Believe me, it's not true. I am now heading towards the stadium where the finishing line is. I am not exactly in the stadium yet but if you catch me drift, I am about five kilometres from the last lap.

Chinese martial arts masters subscribed to this philosophy. Old age does not make you stronger and faster than a 20-year-old upstart but it should give you an advantage in being wiser, being more practical, higher tolerance and a propensity for not taking life too seriously.

In other words, mate, be a buddy and not punch your puny fist against the concrete wall. I have friends who do not hesitate to express their anger by hammering their knuckles against a solid wall to express their frustration.

Now, I ask you. Does the wall feel any pain? Does the concrete structure cry out for help? No sirree! It's you who are feeling the pain. It's your skin that tears and bleeds.

So when you are too old to fight back, simply understand that confrontation is not the way to go. You can either understand the situation and live with it, or you can simply walk away and let the other person think you are a chicken.

Better that person has a misinformed impression of you than you challenging him to a fight and if you are lucky beyond expression, you could actually knock him over. But what does that prove?

Simply, that he will lay in ambush for you one dark night and exact a revenge when you least expect it. If you are unlucky, he could be carrying a baseball bat.

With age must come wisdom, otherwise you have wasted some precious years of your life. What have you been doing while you were enjoying life as a mature adult?

It's only the young and brash who desire to resolve intangible issues with some hard knocks. The older generation just sigh, walk away and reconsider their aims in life. They know there are better things to do in life, other than to hit your head against the wall, and be unconscious for many long minutes.

The buzzword for longevity and some good years of harmony is patience. The Chinese have a healthy respect for seniority. They say the elders have consumed more salt than others who have consumed rice.

That's true on several levels. The young have a tendency to think with their bodies and fists. The older ones have no choice but to use their minds and other intangible assets like patiences, composure and kindness.

When you think about this, it sort of dawns on you: Why didn't I do that sooner?

Gustav cam a-knocking, Hana visits a-calling, then Ike just barges in

2008-09-13T23:30:00.000-07:00

They say if three "bags of wind" come a-calling at your doorsteps one after another, then, you best sit up and take notice or just leave town.

In the current case, Ike has not left the living room yet and he's creating a ruckus. Gustav broke some bits of your furniture.

What Gustav didn't do, Hana made a flying visit. You were lucky that time. I heard there are other guests with other colourful names lining up to jump onto the so-called Friendship wagon.

And don't the people living in the coastal areas know all about it. Nature like everything else on earth has limits to its patience. I guess before anybody says that is just a lot of hot air, you better spare a thought for that "hot air".

That's what causing all the problems. Tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, you ain't seen nothing yet. It's no laughing matter.

Residents who have to head for the hills in a hurry are no longer laughing. The politicians have having a headache. Now, they really have to work to earn their keep.

Earthquakes are so common these days, they are taken almost for granted except by those who are left under a big pile of debris.

Scientists of late have been holding emergency meetings to discuss matters that are beyond their control. Nevertheless it is nice of them to tell us that doomsday is just around the corner if we are not careful.

So much for science and the latest breakthroughs. Nothing like a wild gust of wind to bring everything down like a stack of cards.

The rallying cry is: It is still not too late! For many, the gameplan doesn't look that bright. Man vs Nature?! You got to be kidding. Whoever wants to fight a 9.5 richter scale quake?

There's hope yet even in the darkest clouds but the price is high. I guess Mother Earth doesn't mind losing a few hundred million of its inhabitants because there are some things better shown than talked about.

Mankind has run out of options. For too long, every builder on earth thinks he can have his way and get away with it. Time is no longer on our side.
It's a shame but nevertheless true. There won't be any last minute change in Mother Nature's plan. I think it is going to get much worse before it gets much better.

The air is polluted, the ice is melting, and the ground shaking. No dire signs? You have got to be joking. Time to make friends with Mother Earth. I think she has just lost her sense of humour.

Fortune telling is for the birds

2008-08-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

Over in Asia, there are those itinerant fortune tellers who lug along a bird cage with a little green bird in it.

I hardly see this person anymore but there was a time back about 30 years ago when the chances of bumping into one of these soothsayers were great.

I recall one neighbour actually paid for the fortune teller's services. He would sit down and carefully take out a deck of well worn cards and spread them out in front of the cage, much like a seasoned croupier.

When his "see-into-the-future" apparatus are lined up, he would unhinge the cage door and out pops the little bird. To our amazement, it does not fly away but merely hop along the row of cards, staring rather intently, and finally makes up its mind and picks one up with its beak.

Then, the bird dutifully hops over to its master and lays the card in front of him. The birdman picks up the bird and puts it back into the cage.

Again, what amazed me was not so much the deed of picking up the card by the bird but it does not fly away. What a strange bird. I said that to myself many times over the years.

The fortune teller then consults his oracle which is usually a book of unknown origin and studiously decipher the "message". The client is told of his or her fortune and usually it is not a bad one.

Who wants to pay for bad news? Even the birdman knows that. If he keeps giving the "truth", very soon he will run out of customers.

This man is certainly no bird-brain guy. He knows the economics of the situation.

The memory of the bird and its master has brought a big smile back to my face. People staying in places far away from the city tend to have simple pleasures in life. This was one of them.

These days, people gamble away their future even though they know their prospects are bright. Such are the fickle-mindedness of man and his shaky fortunes.

When everything seems to be collapsing....

2008-08-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

HAVE you ever encounter a day when everything seems to go the wrong way for you?
For example, your boss doesn't seem to like your work at all when previously he used to praise you sky high.

Then you go home, and your spouse picks a fight with you. Your children don't want to talk to you. Even the dog growls in your presence.

That sets you thinking: have I been over to the dark side without realising it? Have the Sith Lord cast a spell on me that makes me smell bad in the presence of househould pets?

Yes, it could be that and everything else. Now, here's my take on this kind of situation. When even a passing crow in the clear blue sky drops something it ate on your forehead, rest assured, it's not your fault.

Take it as a sign that you need to have your hair washed anyway. Nothing in this world is supposedly bad. Everything works in your favour or to your favour. Now, if a smart alec were to ask me at this juncture, how does a crow's poo supposed to be interpreted as good luck, my answer is: you are not dead, are you?

Our world is full of surprises. Things happen all the time. It doesn't mean you have joined the Jonah's World of Gloomy Happenings.

Your unfriendly boss could be the victim of some family squabble that he doesn't wish anyone to know about. But his raw feelings are very much exposed and he madly wants to let off some steam.

So what if you are within his firing range. Take it as a lesson in patience building if this kind of thing happens to you. I know you probably wants to thump him on the head first.

But initial emotional reaction is often not the right response. All of us want to thump someone on the head at least 200 times in our entire lives. But if we were to do that, this world will be filled with people with dented foreheads!

It is through my humble experience that I found out that people who are slow to react to unfavourable circumstances thrust on them, usually end up being better leaders.

For that matter, they lead more harmonious lives, too. Remember, everybody is grateful for a calm person in their midst when the situation seems critical.

Nothing is critical. It is only the human perception of a situation not following the norms. I know this is an irritating way of explaining a terrible situation but it is true.

You don't want to be the one who screams first but as you later tell your family, you just couldn't help it.

The art of being the "eye of the hurricane" can be cultivated. All it takes is practice, practice, practice. When you have done it often enough, or when you have practised this system of staying cool all the time despite the dire circumstances, it becomes second nature to you.

Next thing you know, everybody wants to be your friend. There's nothing more reassuring than a friend who just simply refuses to be rattled. We all know what it's like to be in the safe arms of our mummy or daddy when we were a toddler.

The effect you cast upon others under desperate circumstances are the same. They will gravitate towards you like moths towards a light bulb.

You be be their panic room. In other words, when everyone panics, they run to you. Soon, you will be that "bomb shelter" that so many people will brag about to their family, friends and colleagues.

Two things you need to know about life

2008-08-14T02:00:00.000-07:00

The first thing: You will die one of these days.

Second: You take nothing tangible with you when you go.

With these two thoughts you can hegin to live. Since you are going to expire in due course, you might as well live it up.

I don't mean going through life at breakneck speed. You are liable to break your neck first. And that would be a crying shame because there's so much more living to do.

The main premise is NOT to be overly concerned with temporal things. Buddha is right. All earthly desires bring pain and sorrow. I guess he was speaking from experience since he belonged to the royal household before he went roaming around the country.

So remember, your days on earth are numbered from the moment you emerge from your mother's womb.

There's no point trying to live up to 200 years old. Yes, you can live up to 90 easily through sensible living.

Just imagine if you live for a very long time and unfortunately for you, life isn't that great for you when you are about 81, thereby you have earned yourself another 19 years of misery.

Seriously, do you want that? Each year of great physical discomfort is worse than spending a month at the Abu Ghraib prison.

Therefore, it is imperative that you get your priorities right. Don't be too obsessed with looking young, being young and forever dwelling on earth. This earth is just a playground for all of us.

We have to play well, live well and when time's up, let's get out of here.

Now the second thing. Honestly, do you want to be a billionaire? I suppose everyone of us at one time or another did entertain the thought.

Better to be filthy rich than to be just filthy and downright poor. The latter is a horrible thought.

But billionaires, presidents and kings do not take anything with them when they die.

I haven't come across a single case where a famous figure had actually achieved the impossibe. That is, to take some of his earthly possessions to his grave and beyond.

I believe the first Emperor of China, Shi Huang Ti, really tried that. The terra cotta warriors was part of his celestial plan.

Well, we now can confirm that his masterplan was an exercise in futility.

So no matter how many cars you have got in your warehouse or billions stashed away in overseas unnumbered accounts, these will stay where they are in the event of your untimely demise.

Your surviving family members will of course thank you endlessly for making their lives so much more interesting.

What is the moral lesson of all this? It simply means you need not worry about your health too much and two, wealth is zilch in the final analysis.

The important thing is how much did you squeeze out of each day. Did you have the time of your life? Did you go to sleep with a smile on your face? Did you make a difference in a single person's life for the better at the end of the day?

If you have, you have truly lived, my friend!!!

One penny for the poor

2008-08-03T00:43:00.000-07:00

THE world says a dime is no longer worth much these days, let alone a single penny.

Well I say, if one per cent of the Internet population (about 1.47 billion) donate just a single cent or one penny to my favourite charity Medicins Sans Frontiers, this world will be a happier place.

It may not be a richer place. You know how it is with money and the number of worthy causes on the agenda but it will go a long way to alleviate some of the suffering around the around.

No, we are not going to debate on whether the people in these places truly deserve our help. All are equal in the eyes of God. That means whether they are good, bad, big, small, beautiful or ugly.

People are people. Born of flesh and blood and readily mortal from the day they are born.

But the generosity that comes from the hearts of men will touch the heart of God, and in helping others, no matter how small the contribution will be measured by the good intention behind every single cent donated.

Is the world brave enough to say "yes, you can have my penny!" One penny, folks. Stand in line to donate and watch miracles happen.

No need to say, "hey, please give me one-tenth of one penny because I need it to buy a hot dog. There are people who have not heard of a hot dog, let alone taste one.

This world of ours is full of good people but good people sometimes need to be reminded that goodness in their hearts are of little value to the hungry mouths around them.

Sure, you can say "I pray for these poor folks". May the good Lord deliver them from their endless misery but lip service ends right there - at the edge of your lips.

Better a single, not-so-grand good deed than a million kind thoughts. If only the hungry masses can survive on kind thoughts. A solitary good deed performs miracles.

I repeat, one penny for my favourite charity. How about it? Your call..........

All on the table at one throw of the dice

2008-07-27T01:40:00.000-07:00

HAVE you ever gone through life without risking it all with just one impulsive act?
If you haven't, then you must certainly be a rare human being.

Many of us, yours truly included, have experienced this wild moment of abandonment. It goes without saying that it was an insane moment but you didn't really care because the exhilaration was irresistible.

People risk it all sometimes over the silliest thing. They think they can gamble away everything they have earned on an impulse. This kind of human reaction takes place quite often at casinos.

That's why you have so many paupers and hobos walking and stalking the street. If you ask at this juncture, what's life without a little risk? You are both right and wrong.

If you have nothing else to lose, that's another story but if you have five dependents at home, waiting for you to come home safely and sit at the dinner table, then your impulsive act of foolishness has also jeopardised the livelihood of those five people you hold so dear.

Yes, there's a time for everything but not everything can be done at anytime. I guess many of us are guilty at one time or another for taking matters into our own hands.

We will invincible at times. We feel we can really do it. I am at two minds to tell that guy who wants to throw caution to the wind "yes, go for it!" At the same time, in my mind, I want to shout "but then, just in case, be careful, too."

When all else fails. That means you are not sure if success is guaranteed, then follow the rule of the thumb: Trust your gut instinct.

I have very often told friends, colleagues and family members. The human mind and heart have all the answers they need, if your faith is unshakeable, so will be the outcome.

This is what has been labelled over the ages: Do your best, and leave the rest to God.

Life is meant to be enjoyed. If you look back on your life 50 years from now, you would have wished, you could return back to the time when you "foolishly" risk it all on one throw of the dice.

There are times when there's no time to think. You don't have two weeks to think over it. You don't even have two minutes to ponder over the issue. The time to do it is NOW.

That's the time to LET GO and LET GOD.

It's never too late to be an author!

2008-07-20T00:00:00.000-07:00

OKAY, I have reached a stage in my life when I am beginning to feel an iresistible urge to leave some kind of literary contribution behind. You know what I mean. Every normal human being who has a tolerable reservoir of words in his head, thinks he can come up with a best seller.

I admit, that did cross my mind a few million times. But there can only be one J.K. Rowling, or one Agatha Christie.

Of course, there is plenty of room left for aspiring novelists. There are almost as many publishing companies on the lookout for potential Nobel Prize winner for literature as there are budding authors in existence.

The only catch is what you should write about, how long it will be and whether anybody even care to read it when it is finished.

The mental commitment is the first and easiest hurdle. The rest is a bit difficult. To start something like writing a fictional piece or a non-fiction work requires discipline.

That means writing, say maybe 10 pages a day, everyday until it is finished. For example, you will need to give facts and some credible evidence that you are not talking nonsense.

It is not hard to find some palatable facts in the library to be interwoven into your tale.

If you are writing fiction, all you need is a fertile imagination and an ability to talk till the cows come home, that it, if you have any cows at all.

Anybody can spin a tale but the trick is to make people listen to you. In this case, read what you have to say.

Personally, I have always entertained the idea of writing a lava-hot novel that will be turned into a Hollywood movie immediately. Therefore, I can enjoy instant fame, success and financial security for the rest of my natural life.

The problem is millions of writers are also on the same bandwagon, and there can only be one or two winners.

When I read about those writers who eventually make it big, I shudder to think of myself walking down the same path. It is a very long, and dusty road. Most of the time, it is a miserable existence.

For example, J.K. Rowling was practically surviving on hamburgers before the billions came her way.

And she's one of the very, very few lucky ones. Many more are still struggling in anonymity for ages.

Many uncountable ones have also given up and retired in utter frustration over their lack of literary success. That, my dear friends, is the whole painful truth.

Does that deter you from coming up with the last great novel. No way, man, you are wont to shout at the top of your lungs.

If writing is in your blood and you won't die an easy death unless you produce at least five books before you call it quits in this life, then go ahead.

Writing, as I was told by a true writer once, is to go on and on, even though you see nothing but misery ahead of you. It's a bit like walking in the Sahara desert. For as far as the eyes can see, there is nothing by heat, sand and sightless wind but you still plod on.

You are ever determined to continue even if it kills you. Then maybe, just maybe, you may make it.

Ultimately, it is the excruciating pain that is part and parcel of your arduous journey that makes you a better writer than all the others who will drop out. Dead men have got nothing to say, you catch my drift?

I have this gut feeling that my inchoate great novel is just around the corner of my mind. Watch out world! Here comes that supernova that burns so bright it will burn holes in the walls of the world's greatest libraries.

After that, I will retire gracefully and go fishing!

The world is full of accidental heroes

2008-07-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

Some years ago, I saw a movie called Accidental Hero starring Dustin Hoffman. He was a bit of a buffoon in the film but at heart he was a good man.
That story led me to believe that there are many such people in our midst. They are our fathers, our mothers and relatives with whom we grew up with.
You really don't need to save another person from a burning building to be labelled a hero. You can lend a person a couple of bucks so that he could have a decent meal on a particular day, and you will be seen as a hero by that hungry person.

You can help a blind man to walk a busy street, and in his "eyes" you are also a hero. Most of us think to be a hero we have to perform extraordinary deeds. Not necessarily.

Heroes are those who silently extend a helping hand to the stranger who needs a service that is urgent for that moment.

Many a time, we have lent a neighbour a shovel, a cup of suger or even a copy of the newspaper. These are simple deeds carried out under very ordinary circumstances.

Think about it. You are bored out of your skull and you forgot to buy the daily. You call out to your next door neighbour. He happily lends you his copy. And you can in touch with what is happening around you.

That simple act of kindness or consideration goes a long way. I call these people who extend a helping hand without any forethought as accidental heroes.

The world is full of accidental heroes. Because these people are almost never rewarded, they do not get the compliments that they so richly deserved. Good people often do good deeds without the knowledge of others.

The reason is because they are good people and they think nothing of what they have done. It is the most natural thing for them. Helping a friend, a neighbour or a stranger is as easy as breathing in and breathing out.

We all can learn to be accidental heroes. It will help our earthly existence be more pleasant. Besides, we also learn to be decent human beings if we are not too absorbed in ourselves.

Your time is NOW

2008-07-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

When I was 15, I looked forward to my 21st birthday. When I reached the highpoint in my life six years later, I set my sights on 24.
That, I thought, would be the age when I would be working and spending money that I had worked for. No more borrowing money from displeased parents or from other siblings who were equally broke as I was.
It was no fun growing up at times because the teen years came with a lot of limitations. You could just go anywhere you wanted because there were parents to contend with.
On top of that, there are places you can't go to. Worse still, those beautiful women you are eyeing are all older than you, and they don't like "kids".
Now, I am at an age, I can do almost anything legal and lawful I want to. On hindsight, I miss those days.
I know, I know, I am just being fickle and immature. With age comes wisdom. I wish I had the answers I have now, 25 years ago. The answer then as it is now, is to really enjoy the moment.
In other words, it is NOW. Not yesterday, not tomorrow but NOW, at this very moment. Our entire life consists of a hundred million nows. Now is the time to call your parents and tell them how much you love them.
They may think you are being weird but it's a nice kind of weirdness. They will get used to the new you.
Now is the time to eat that cholesterol-laden ice cream. Look, two scoops of ice cream won't kill you. Forget what those dietitians and doctors tell you. They don't know any better themselves.
Have you come across a whole roomful of 100-year-old doctors? Not recently? Or, ever. Now means happy for the moment. A moment in time, well lived lasts forever.
This may sound a little cryptic but truth prevails.
Hundreds of millions of ordinary people live lives of quiet desperation because they don't know any better. Not any more. I have told you so. The route is clear and wide.
Take a walk down that road to enlightenment. Don't wait till you have finally "made it" financially to start enjoying life. You can live it up even with empty pockets.
Do you need a million bucks to enjoy the splendour of the rising sun? Do you need Donald Trump's billions to relish the beauty of a stunning woman? Do you need anything to be kind?
Most of the best things in life are free. There have been songs written about this aspect of life. The Bible talks about it. Wise men have walked the earth for millennia, preaching about joys and happiness, all cost free.
And yet, we look back to yesterday for pleasantness, and look forward to tomorrow for brighter days.
Many of us out of a sense of misplaced urgency forgets about the Now and Today. This is the moment we are living in, breathing in, changing in. Every second that has passed is history. Every minute that is coming is future.
Both dimensions of occurrences cannot be replaced. The future can only be altered if the present is affected. That is simple logic.
So when you are in the zone, the present is your best bet.
Do it now, as someone once said. Do it here!
When someone tells you that your time has come, it means you can perform your best now; take your best shot now, give it your all now; live it up right now and NOW should become your only credo.
The world spins on the spindle that is labelled NOW. There's no tomorrow. The past is but a memory. Now is your ammo. Lock, load and shoot. There's no other time.
If you want further elaboration on NOW, look up the book The Power of NOW.

The world needs a hero!

2008-07-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

A hero, as a wise man once said, not necessarily be an individual. The hero could be a company, a nation, a group or a charity organisation.

But we all know that this world of ours desperately needs a hero. We had Nelson Mandela at a time when the world's conscience needed to be shaken over the veiled threads of apartheid that gripped not only one country but also shrouded parts of countries around the planet.

Newspapers and TV networks constantly broadcast the looming threats of conflicts in parts of the world. Presently, danger signals abound in Zimbabwe. The fighting in Sri Lanka has been going on for decades that people around the world are numbed by the bodies that strewn the streets after every suicide bombing.

We have sporadic instances of violence in Europe. Those breakaway republics of the former USSR are still trying to get back on their feet. Cuba is coming to terms with her aging leader, Fidel Castro.

North Korea has renounced its nuclear option. Iran is steadfast in her own nuclear policy.

We continue to hear the war drums. They are sometimes loud. At times, muffled but nevertheless, the sounds of those beating drums are there.

The soul of the world aches for solace. The conscience of the globe begs to be reminded of its more lofty ideals. Basically, what we all need is a genuine hero.

And who is the hero? He could be you, doing ordinary chores in an extraordinary way. The path must be infused with an ambience of love because it is only through love that all the keys to world peace and harmony are given.

Let our work begin right now.

The grass is not greener on the other side

2008-06-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

Human beings are fickle and they always remain so as long as they are citizens of planet Earth.

Take for example, some former office colleagues of mine. After spending several fruitful and uneventful years with their old employer (my current firm), they decided to get up and go.

Sure enough, they landed a job with a rival firm. Initially, things were very new to them. After a while, they realise that even though they got a small increase in remuneration, office atmospher in the new company wasn't much to shout about.

And if they were allowed to shout, they would probably complain. One brave soul admitted that our old employer was a much better place. The new place was too sterile and was definitely too regimented.

But it took a small salary increase and 12 months down a new avenue for the truth to surface. It is the scourge of most employees that they constantly entertain the thought that new jobs in new firms mean better working environment and excellent lifestyle.

It is seldom so. In fact, most of the time, it is a downhill race, unless the new place happens to be your own business. Yes, some people risk it all in a single throw of the dice to alter their fortunes.

Working for yourself simply translates into "no closing time". In other words, self-employment means doing all it takes to turn in a profit. Not many people are so lucky.

They can go into business for themselves but they probably won't see any meaningful profits until and unless they also have an enormous amount of luck.

Otherwise, it is just a long train journey down Worry-ville!

The saying "the grass is always greener on the other side" also applies to migration to another country, marrying another person and adopting a totally new lifestyle.

Of course, we all hope and pray that we are doing the right thing when we take this mighty leap.

For example, migrating to another country. A number of my friends who were married before they migrated, ended up losing their marriages as well when they struggled to adjust to life in a new nation.

Apparently, the stresses and strains that are part and parcel of adjusting to a foreign society and new environment took a heavy toll on matrimonial harmony. Not many spouses (man or woman) are so understanding when the odds are stacked against them.

So in the case of a broken marriage, especially in a foreign country, the grass is obviously not greener on the other side.

This goes for picking another life partner. One of the reasons for high divorce rates in some societies is because of the accessibility to divorce. Couples who feel they can have easy recourse to a bad marriage often opt for it the moment a quarrel surfaces.

Then months or a few short years later, they marry again. Hoping and keeping their fingers crossed that the marriage would work this time. While some second marriages do work, a large number of second marriages are doomed to fail the day after the "I do's" are said.

From then on, everything is "do not". The glitch in this case is not the marriage but the partner (either one). All marriages are okay but life partners who are immature or are flawed in personality traits will always take the easy way out when voices are raised beyond the level of reason.

Thus divorce always seems to be the better and easier option. Take a look at the grass on the other side next time. Take your time, it is actually the same colour as your side.

It's just that you THINK it's greener. It is the same. Not greener, not yellower, or even redder.

The solution lies with you and all the answers to your own problems in life are locked in your heart and mind. Sit down, reflect, don't expect much, mentally commit to be a better person, work hard to succeed no matter how hard the going gets and you will be all right.

Other than that, I can only say, squeeze in some personal happiness and joy while you are at it. Spread it around. Don't be selfish.

What I think of America?

2008-06-07T20:50:00.000-07:00

These past two decades have been trying times to the people of America. Asians generally see America and its people through movies. It's not fair and it's wrong but that's the way it is for a large number of people in Asia.

I may be generalising a bit here but there are some nuggets of truth. For those who have access to many sources of information, including periodic sojourns in USA, their perception of America and its people may be quite different.

For some of us, people like me, who have American friends and have friends or relatives who have stayed in America or are still staying in America, again our views are different.

Now what are the stereotyped views of Americans? For one thing, some people think Americans are "loud". Actually, I don't really know what they mean by that. I have heard it said before.
My understanding of the description is probably some Americans are very forward in expressing their opinions and they speak a bit louder than others. There are some of us who may perceive that as an overbearing level of confidence.

Others who may not think too kindly of Americans say it's just plain arrogance. My British friend told me once: "You know that's an American behind you when you hear 'Wilma, pass me that ketchup!"
I think she's was joking or pulling my leg but probably not by much.
Asia is a very big part of the world. Some countries that have unpleasant experiences of Americans really do not think too highly of the people from the Land of the Golden Eagle.
One of the reasons is because Americans (they actually mean GIs) are forever walking and talking as if they own the land. They know they are not going to stay permanently so they make sure they have a heck of a time before they leave.

When Asians think of America, they visualise big plans, great movies, hydrogen bombs, cruise missiles, and to a lesser extent Barack Obama. Not forgetting CNN. Now the US media has been at the forefront of almost every nation in Asia that has satellite TV.

How can anyone avoid America? Some of the most exciting and most watchable films in the world come from America. Many of us think American girls all look either like Charlize Theron (she's actually South African) or Angelina Jolie.

How silly we all are? But that's being human for you. But my own personal experience with America were those Peace Corps people who came over to parts of Asia in the 1960s.
We had many pleasant encounters with those volunteers. I think those Peace Corps people were the best representation of the big US of A. They are caring, humble, willing to teach as well as willing to learn.

Then there are the American navy personnel who make irregular visits to Asia throughout the year. Once when I was driving near a port, I spotted some plain clothes US navymen. I knew they were sailors because the USS Enterprise was in town.

You could tell that they were troopers because I overheard one of them said: "Port Klang is about three kliks away the other way." Nobody talks like that except the US soldiers who are social visits.
I also thought that they were rather short for US soldiers until a friend of mine who was more familiar with the US army enlightened me by saying: "US navymen don't have to be tall, only the Marines are tall. The Marines need to be of a certain height."

It is another misconception. Asians think all American men are 6ft and above. So when we come across one US soldier standing at Asian height, we think he's a short American!

We also believe Americans are some of the most generous people in the world. We got this impression from the various Aid shows held in America and all the fundraising events we see and read about on TV and in the foreign sections of the newspapers.
Oprah Winfrey gives us the impression that Americans are willing to drop everything and rush to the rescue of their troubled neighbours whenever the situation demands it.
I guess that's a good impression by any standards. It is only in recent years that some of us are beginning to know that in a nation of about 300 million people, American has probably one of the largest melting pot of races in the world.
There are the Italians, Irish, Greek, Jews, Cubans, Vietnamese, Scandanavians, etc who make up the demographic strata of the American society.

We also get the impression that Americans in general are not very good at picking leaders. For a better part of 30 years, one US president after another got a terrific bashing from his own people about one year into his presidency.
The US media would go on and on about his bad judgments, his less-than-holy private life and all the verbal foul-ups he committed.
Some of us wondered aloud: "How strange? First, they elect him then they proceed to persecute the poor guy. Didn't the majority pick up of their own free will?"

These are some of the reactions among Asians. Some of us just said: "Nobody is perfect, especially a President. He's just a plain old human." But then, American politics are very much beyond our Asian understanding. Heck, we have trouble understanding our own leaders.

In a way, I suppose as far as politics are concerned, it is about the same all over the world. There are leaders and then there are leaders.

But one thing's for sure, America and her people are never boring. They can be as loud as they want, so long as they make good movies and rush over their big naval vessels over to our shores whenever a major disaster strikes, they are OK by us on any God-given day.

However, some Americans may be beginning to get a little fed up being bashed up either in foreign newspapers or in foreign TV. There are a lot of things that have been misunderstood.
America may be a great nation but it is as human as the rest of us around the world. The only thing that separates America and the rest of the globe is that they have Disneyland and Hollywood, and we have our tropical jungles and exotic settings.

Heck, you can't have it all, you know.
Because of regional conflicts around the globe and the evergrowing presence of US naval vessels, Asians in general think that US is one big bully. At the same time, some of us wish you are not that far away.
You never know when you need a helping hand. People are greedy and are seldom satisfied with their needs, demands and requests. It's just that America is an easy target.
If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you may be inclined to say "it's America's fault!" for absolutely no good reason at all. It is just convenient.
That's the price you pay for being a big, rich nation that drowns everybody and every culture out with those bright neon lights and humungous looking burgers.
By the way, a friend of mine who make regular visits to US, love to tell me the size of burgers and plates of food in US. "Three people can share one plate!" she would say.
And no wonder Americans in general are so big. Actually, fat is the word but most Asians are just too polite. What a lucky bunch of people. Eat till you drop. Now, that's not a very pretty picture but some of the skinny ones among us would love to have such a "problem".
That's my five-cents worth of comment on America today. Hope you like it and say a prayer for world peace and unity among the various races fighting among themselves in all parts of this silly world.

Congratulations to Obama and America

2008-06-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

THERE have been moments in the past months while monitoring the progress of the democratic battle for nomination between Obama and Hillary Clinton that I have been pessimistic about the process of election.

However, today after Obama's victory for nomination has been sealed, I began to understand that beneath all that bravado that sometimes is erroneously projected to outsiders, lies a hidden strength that personifies America as a nation of great souls.

Yes, it has been a hard fought battle by Obama and Hillary but victory goes to the people of America. Twenty years ago, it would have been almost unthinkable for any African-American to aspire to occupy the Oval Office.

Today in 2008, Barack Obama has broken all the stereotyped notions of the Land of Milk and Honey by peoples living on the opposite sides of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

I am glad that America has taken this brave step forward. If foreigners had misgivings about US involvement in Iraq, Somalia, and other troubled spots around the world, it is because America as a superpower had not always been able to do its best under the worst circumstances.

Nevertheless it tries despite the adverse publicity and its noble intentions. The lives of its own people is its gift to the rest of the world. I can't speak for the other nations, so I will speak for myself.

I for one appreciate the trouble taken by US to lay down the lives of its own men and women in foreign lands so that others may live in freedom. Time will soon eclipse all sad and bad memories of engagements abroard but the fallen soldiers symbolic of what is good about America will not be forgotten. It cannot be.

We who live so far away of the US shores have always been appreciative of the fact that whenever a major natural disaster strikes, US is constantly among the first to extend a helping hand.

Sometimes we forget our manners. In our sorrow and our grief, we forget to thank our benefactors and our rescuers, many of whom wear the US flag on their lapels and uniforms.

But as a person from a land not unaccustomed to the US Peace Corps, let me say with pride as well as with humility that all the good America has done all over the world and over the decades have not been forgotten.

One day when America needs help from the rest of the world, I am sure there will be many among us who will jump at the opportunity to help an old friend.

Once again, congratulations America!

Standing up for Planet Earth

2008-06-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

This is the same old story about people trying to save this precious planet. Actually, we are living on a puny, little speck of dust in the wide array of galaxies on the highway of eternity.

By right, we should be worried about the soil beneath our feet. Unfortunately, most of us couldn't care less. It's a crying shame. Crying because lots of people are going to suffer before the dust is settled.

Shame because we should know better. We are living in the Age of Information Overload and yet we are only concerned, among others, about the next blockbuster that's going to hit the nearest cinema near us.

I could say "well you guys deserve it when the roof comes crashing down on your heads" or "watch out for that nasty tornado that's gonna wake you up anytime soon" but that would be infantile.

Face it, this is the only planet you will have first hand experience of because very, very few of us are cut out to be astronauts. We don't have the pleasure of using US$19 million toilets in outer space.

The ground is our final resting place and the starry skies for many of us are the roofs above our heads.

Now we have to make the decision. This is your time, this is your planet. You either take care of it or it takes matters into its own hands.

From the weather reports that have been coming in daily, Mother Nature is not smiling at us anymore. I dare say she's more than peeved with her little tenants.

Now she's practically telling us, "you take care of your own mess!" That's partly why we are having those horrible cyclones, hurricanes and earthquakes.

By the way, did I tell you that the hurricane season has just started. From the indications, it going to be a whopper.

If you think that's funny, think again. If you think you are safe in some million-dollar resort, take out your science books and browse through them again. You are in for some ride, that is, if you survive.

Ciao! Be seeing you.

Escalating oil prices, food shortage, crazy weather

2008-05-29T01:19:00.000-07:00

Are you getting the same feeling that many of us in different parts of the world are getting?

For one thing, the ridiculous crude price that keeps on yo-yoing these past few weeks and the records it has set. Non-economists like the rest of us mortals are wondering where does all this leads to?

One thing we do know and it is that the rest of our lives is going to be quite different if something is not done to control the upward spiralling price of crude oil.

Almost everything and anything that is linked to oil price will see a quantum leap in price. That means transport charges leading to essential food items, prices of cars, cost of living.

To make a long story short, you and I are edging closer and closer to an economic precipice. Looming large over the horizon is the shortage of rice. Several Asian countries have put a stop to exports.

The prices of the various grades of rice have never been so high. It is actually quite ridiculous. The poor are beginning to feel the brunt of it. The upper middle class as well as the upper class don't really feel the heat yet.

The well-to-do normally have got plenty to spare so if a 10kg bag of rice were to go up by 100 per cent, it translates to just a few dollars more for these wealthy humans.

The lower income and the hardcore poor are the ones who are suffering, and they are no longer silent sufferes. Already in several countries, there are reports of street protests and up fledging uprisings over the food prices.

As if matters are not bad enough, there are bizarre weather conditions in different parts of the globe, all happening at the same time.

A short while after that cyclone disaster in Burma's Irrawaddy delta, China's Sichuan province and the Chengdu area were hit by a massive earthquake. In Burma, the death toll is estimated at more than 80,000 and the figure is rising.

In China, the latest death toll is 68,000 and still increasing. Numerous dams are in danger of cracking up in view of the unstable conditions.

If we all think, it's safe to come out, let me assure you that at its current stage, the world is quite different from the one we were born into years ago.

This brave new angry earth is sort of playing hard ball with the rest of our lives.
Some economic experts are already touting the premise that it could be a "perfect storm".

This means bad things on a global scale can take place if they are not brought under under control soon.

With skyhigh oil prices, growing food shortage and very severe weather, the earth could spin out of control. Right now, there are about 6.7 billion habitants on Earth. We must ask ourselves whether we can allow our lives to be snuffed out just like that.

Looking on the bright side, perhaps it's time to engage in a paradigm shit as far as fossil fuel is concerned. For once, scientists are thinking that perhaps oil may not be the way to go in the next three years.

We all need transport. That's why the idea to invent or create transportation vehicles in the quickest wasy possible is the only way to go.

Perhaps in a short few years, oil may become obsolete. When shove comes to push, humans have the zeal to change every to his favour. Otherwise, he will just be lazy and fat.

On the other end of the spectrum, rice has long been deemed as the staple food for every body. These days, there are lots of people who are switching to other forms of food.

Maybe they are thinking of corn, water and other refrigerated item.

I remember the lesson of World War II when rubber became a very scarce commodity. Scientists then found the answer to natural rubber. They invented synthetic rubber. Today the rubber industry in those major rubber producing countries is at a very low point.

Same went for tin. When backed into a global corner, scientists simply found a better way, maybe even a cheaper and a more efficient way.

However, if solutions are not found fast enough, the world will be right in the path of a perfect storm. It will be an amalgam of severe weather, escalating food prices and an insane oil price.

All these will lead the world down the tubes. Conflicts are the easy way out for the weaker nations. Some of us who have alternatives may return to the land to be farmers.

Those who produce their own food in bad economic times are more likely to survive better in horrendous economic times.

For the rest of us, it's every man for himself, unless there is an orderly systme in which everyone benefits. Never in the modern history of mankind has the world stood so close to the edge of a very steep cliff.

It's one thing to be optimistic and quite another to be prepared. My take on this is: Be prepared. There's no time to lose.

But do not panic. Solutions will and can be found. Desperate times often brings out the best in many of us.

Perhaps for once in so many hundred years, man will find his way back to the right path and steer the rest of mankind to better and brighter days ahead.

One moment at a time, instead of one day

2008-05-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

OK, you are alive and are reading this but what will you do for the rest of the day. Have you made peace with your enemies? If you have none, then I wish to speak to you.

If you, like billions othes, then perhaps you can spare two minutes.
Many a time in our mundance existence, we look forward to tomorrow, even though we don't know what it will bring.

All we know is, perhaps it will be better than today and greater than yesterday. But little do we know that this moment is all we have. When tomorrow comes, today becomes yesterday and tomorrow has been tranformed to today.

It is always this moment that people miss. What are you doing THIS MOMENT? What will you do THIS MOMENT? Are you happy THIS MOMENT?

If you intend to tell a friend how much you enjoyed his company at yesterday's lunch, call him and tell him NOW. If you feel you miss hearing your mum's voice after weeks of separation from her, phone her NOW and tell her.
This is call LIVING IN THE MOMENT. Frankly, you may freak her out but if you tell her nicely that you simply wish to hear her voice, you will have gladden her heart. Better than giving her a thousand bucks tomorrow.

Too many people want to do great things. Too many people want to be rich and famous. Very few people desire to do the simple things in a great way.
Tell your friends what a great time you have with them during an all-boys gathering. Show your affection for your wife and children TODAY, not tomorrow or at your birthday party.
Honestly, the way things are going, you may not be at your own birthday, or worse some of your loved ones may not be there too. And all those kind words that you wish to share with them are a little too late.

It's all about living in the moment. So like I say, one moment at a time, and soon your life won't be the same again.

When was the last time you were kind?

2008-05-17T23:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I think being kind, good or just plain honest is getting out of style.
Have you noticed how some people will immediately deny that they are being kind or honest.

"No, no, I am just an ordinary guy who has no intention of being a saint", or "Please,you are embarrassing me" when you praise him or her for being a good person.

Why are people so afraid of being good? There's nothing wrong in doing a good deed or doing something nice for others. And yet, modern society seems to think random acts of kindness are passe.

We need to return to the basics, and that is the very core of human nature is goodness. Yes, we are all born good. Nobody is born bad. That is not logical or rational.

What's wrong in giving in to kindness, honesty, compassion and most of all love? What is it that triggers off those negative responses in being labelled as a good person?

Strange as it may seems but a lot of people are afraid that they may be described as hypocrites if they simply say thank you when you praise them.

If you do it honestly and without fear, sooner or later they know that it is just your nature that prompts it so.

So be kind, be honest, be full of mercy because the world needs more people like that.

For heaven's sake, don't dwell too much on what a nice person you are too. If you are obsessed with your own "greatness", that's a sure way of going to hell!

The distant thunder

2008-05-06T23:46:00.000-07:00

Is is any wonder that cyclones, tornadoes and hurricanes have become more frequent and violent of late?

The polar caps are melting at a very dramatic rate. High pressure areas around the globe are beginning to experience greater intensity in unnatural rumblings.

Earthquakes are taking place in the most unlikely places around the world. Snow has fallen in places where its very existence is unnatural.

The world has suddenly awakened to see a new facet in Mother Nature's personality. How shall we cope with these climatic changes that are altering people's lives even as these words are being typed out?

The upheavals that shake and rock planet Earth are beginning to take their toll on man's little blue speck of a planet. In time to come, dramatic changes will alter the demographic makeup of many nations around the world.

It's impossible to escape all these unexpected changes as they unfold within our lifetime. What are our alternatives? Man has the intelligence to find the solutions bt will we have the wisdom to see this dramatic period as a golden opportunity to change ourselves and our planet for the better?

As the superpowered nations awakened to see a different dawn, the affected people in some continents around the world are beginning to struggle with the changes.

We shall have to put our differences aside if we want to save our planet and ourselves.

The world is one second away from a new age

2008-04-04T00:44:00.000-07:00

In terms of millennium timeline, a minute is like 10,000 years. So a second... you do your own math.
Unless you have been spending the last few years on planet Uranus, you would have known that there's something funny going on terra firma as well as in the atmosphere.
You don't need to have a degree in meteorological science to feel it in your guts that something is not quite right. Not that Al Gore hasn't influenced you in some great way.
Al Gore is right about the dramatic changes that have been plaguing Earth for the past 12 years. It is disconcerting how many leaders around the world still have their heads in the ground, much like the famous feathered creature we know about.
Are these people not concerned? I have a hunch that they feel by the time, the game is at set point, they won't be around to feel the full impact of Nature's fury.
So what are we to do? Those of us who are now in our 20s will probably live to see all the earth-shaking changes that will alter Earth's geographical direction.
There are some things we can do to alleviate future aftershocks but it is only with a willingness to change that we can buy future generations some time.
This is not going to be the end of the world. This is going to be the end of the world as we now know it. How future earth will look like is anyone's guess. It won't look the same though in 2020, as it is now in 2008.
From now up till 2020 is 12 short years. I was thinking of last year's Christmas celebrations because the memories are still fresh in my mind, and already I am sniffing at the threshold of April. That's four months ago.
Everything changes in time and with time. The Earth is a living organism. As with any living form, if conditions are conducive, it will grow stronger, prettier and brighter.
Poor conditions will lead to it withering, being in a sad state and lead it down the road to a premature destruction. If we were to apply these conditions to Earth as a living planet, the conclusion is as clear as the morning sky on a cloudless day.
The choice is yours as well as mine. We really have no time to lose.

Political leaders - where are the good ones?

2008-02-15T00:49:00.000-08:00

Many countries around the world suffer from a dearth of good leaders, let alone great ones.

It seems to be a global issue that many troubled nations are governed by people who shouldn't be at the helm in the first place. The question that is foremost in most politically conscious people's minds is "where have all the good leaders gone?"

Sometimes, we are tempted to proclaim that those countries have trouble with their leaders have only themselves to blame. Here, I am referring to those countries that dutifully hold elections once every five years.

If the majority pick the wrong leader, or so it seem, who do the people have to blame? But looking at the issue with some depth, sometimes the matter is not as simple as it seems.

For example, in some countries that have known nothing but military regimes for decades, this can be a problem. One fine example is Burma or Myanmar. This blessed country has been under the military yoke for as long as my young memory can remember.

As a result of the army's iron fist, quite a number of its people have gone overseas to eke out a decent living. Perhaps there's a moral to it all, but right now it escapes me.

Good or bad, all national leaders shall one day be compelled to step down, either due to old age or poor health. Nobody lives forever and that is the universal truth.

The popular phrase: And this too shall pass... has been applied to many circumstances in the history book of mankind. Civilisations that stretch from North POle to South Pole have their ups and downs but we humans have very limited life spans.

For most of us, 70 years of earthly existence is about it. But the basic truth to any nation's destiny is that the future is in the hands of its people. We alone will decide who shall lead us.

But people's memories are short. In many instances, politicians prefer to tell us that they are the only ones who can decide our future. Never has there been a bigger lie.

Ordinary people need to be told and reminded that their future and the country's future SHOULD be decided by themselves!

And if the people pick the wrong guy, they can always throw him out in the next election. Everything that goes around comes around. If the people pick the wrong candidate, they shall have to put up with the joker's antics for the next five years.

That is why it is very important to have an educated population, or as many people as possible being aware of the choices that they have. And there's also the right to choose.

Choose wisely then, my friends.

Why Obama is good for America

2008-02-05T00:39:00.001-08:00

Before you read any further, let me tell you that this is a biased piece and nothing is based on facts, and everything on emotion and intuition.

Barack Obama is probably the first African-American since the American Independence to stand a realistic chance of entering the White House. He talks like JFK, has shades of Abe Lincoln in him and occasionally rises to the occasion with a reverberating tempo of Martin Luther King Jr.

Does that vocal prowess make him the perfect president? Realistically no. But he sure has a lot going for him at this point. For one thing, Obama has a certain naivety that's charming.

He's obviously widely read and fairly intelligent. Intelligence is not THE quality that makes a great president. Take for example Ronald Reagan. Everybody knows that he's not the brightest of the lot but many people remember him for his warmth, his likeability and his ability to rouse a nation to their feet with a few well chosen phrases.

Sure, he might have borrowed some of those lines from his Hollywood past, but who cares, they worked!

Obama comes from a background of mixed races. He's under 50, still has that twinkle in his eyes and a little bounce on his feet. America needs someone like him to remind the nation that it's not all about foreign policy and oneupmanship.

Sometimes, the best qualities of a president are not found in his resume. It's how he relates to people. It's how he touches their hearts and brings out the best in all of them.

Can someone with an IQ of 190 inspire 270 people to do their best for the country's future and for themselves? Probably not, if all he has to offer are some well thought out solutions to complicated global issues that may have little bearing on America's future.

In a way, Obama's limited experience with political administration is an advantage. He doesn't know that much about buttering up to those with shady motives. He's not quite aware yet of the intricacies that come with huge campaign funds and moguls who perpectually like returns on their financial investments.

Obama's greatest asset right now is that he has managed to awaken the spirit in the young of America. He has managed to convince a large number of these young people that they can do something about their future.

He has urged them to believe in themselves. He has talked them out of a political stupor. Obama's speeches have brought back a certain pride in being called an American.

Right now, America is not in a very good place. No nation can be perpectually in the right place or good place after two centuries. There will be challenging times. There exist confusing times. There will be time for reconciliation.

Obama seems to stand for all these and a little bit more. Can America survive without Obama? Most certainly, it could. Does America need a person like Obama now? Most definitely, it does.

Seasoned politicians are all good at spewing rhetoric but at the end of the day, that's all there is - words. What counts is what happens after the speeches have been delivered. Will there be action? Will there be a momentum that is created by a man's inspiring words?

This man who has come of age exists now to bring America back to her feet and stand proudly to face the rest of the world, and say: "We are Americans and we represent the best there is in our nation, and in our success, we will strive that all our allies will share in our glory and our wealth, so help us God!"

Obama or Hillary?

2008-01-23T00:11:00.000-08:00

It is not a secret that the two frontrunners in the present Democract race to the White House are Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

From available statistics, Hillary as of now has a slight edge over Obama. The question is who wins if Obama loses? Or, should it be, who loses if Hillary wins?

Again, according to statistics, a lot of Americans are not really concerned about who gets to the White House first. The issue paramount in their minds right now is whether USA can withstand the tsunami of a recession that has already entered their front doors.

The credit crunch crisis, pluning global markets and escalating oil price all contribute to the real and imagined fears of a worldwide population.

If American slips into recession, as it already has (according to some economic experts), the rest of the world which trade with America will get the jitters.

What does that all entails? The scenario is not of catastrophic proportions but prolonged economic frustrations that could drag on for years. It simply slows down the engines of growth in Asia and in turn kickstart an economic chain-reaction that will rock the nations of lesser endowed economies.

Desperate countries with powerful armies may resort to desperate measures. Your guess is as good as mine.

For too long some industrialised nations have been recklessly managing their own economies. In a way, they can beat the clock, as most grand chessmasters are wont to do.

There are some things that can only be resolved through sheer hardwork, diligence and an overpowering sense of conventional wisdom and sacrifice.

But before all this economic ill wind blows over, there will be plenty more people making the streets their home. The years of plenty are fast coming to an end.

Frankly, most people really never learn. I guess the hard way is simply the best teacher.

Rain gently sweeps over the land

2008-01-23T00:08:00.000-08:00

Soft sheets of water drops
Wind buffets the distant trees
Air circulates through the halls
Campus activities on hold

The Wealth Trap

2008-01-15T22:24:00.000-08:00

Sometimes being wealth is such a pain. The fear of losing your millions never leaves your side.

You can't differentiate between friends, relatives and swindlers. You feel you have to keep up with appearances.

You can leave your home without being followed by cameras and news hounds. Life becomes a pain when your children think they own the world. Worse, your wife you owe her and not vice versa.

Nothing is a challenge anymore. You can buy most things. Even diamonds and cars lose their lustre. Who cares about automobiles when you have 50 in the humungous garage.

Colleagues and friends become too fawning and ingratiating. Who's the real friend? Poverty brings out the truth in all of us. Wealth blurs the lines of friendship. It is the harbinger of sad trails and even more sorrowful tales.

Fame is that elusive companion who keeps dogging you for all the wrong reasons. There's only so much you can accumulate without being de-sensitised and de-sanitised about living's truer paths and meaning.

If money is the arbiter of happiness, then only tycoons and moguls will be the only ones who have the key to peace of mind. Unfortunately, life plays jokes on all of us.

Wealth is not legal tender in the happy ranch. There's no currency but simplicity, honesty and integrity in the land of contentment.

Millionaires beware! The money trap buys not satisfaction but only a sense of well-being which, if allowed to fallow, leads to distraction and subtraction.

2008 may prove to be a year that dreams fall apart. So in a way, the playing field where joy is found will be levelled before long. Thus, we will find that at the end of life's journey, wealth is but another test that could make or break us.

Many rich people die unhappy. In fact, a large number of them are the saddest people in the world. If there's but one lesson we can learn from them, it is that true wealth like true happiness cannot be bought.

The real treasure is embedded in all our hearts and many of us wander all over the place and around the world looking for it when all the time, it is within us.

Oh dear! It's raining cats and dogs outside

2008-01-04T01:48:00.000-08:00

It is now 6pm, Equatorial time. Here I am, fresh from a tea session at the office cafeteria, with nothing to kill but time.

Already, the distant sounds of the rolling thunder have penetrated the confines of this thick-walled office. Thoughts meandered like an ox-box lake in the labyrinth of my mind.

My spirit has already left for home even though the body is still here. Truly, our thoughts travel faster than our bodies. As if you don't know that!

It is Jan 4, 2008. We are now eight years into the 21st century. The world has nothing much to show except regional conflicts, blizzards, sporadic violence in the African continent, nuclear uncertainty in North Korea and Iran, and the race to the White House is gathering momentum.

If you are an ordinary Joe like me, you really can't spare a thought for these global concerns. The only one that has held my attention for some time is global warming and all its unnatural consequences.

It is a bit late in the evening to think of what we can do. The scientists are trying to rationalise that the situation is not as serious as Al Gore made it out to be, even though some eggheads are genuinely concerned.

As in the past, the world will only wake up when the earthquakes have shaken their homes to their very foundations or when the lava has reached their front doors.

Otherwise, nobody is really bothered. So much for the progress of manking. We are often too busy with our little and pathetic selves. Thank God for some really conscientious people who battle for all mankind against great odds.

What would we do without these good people? The thunderstorms that shake the trees and sometimes break the sound barriers portend an interesting time ahead (for want of a better word).

Humans on the whole are always Johnnys-come-lately. We never really learn until the last minute of our lives.

I have always had a morbid fascination for dark clouds, thunder-and-lightning and flash floods. One of the reasons is because I have been caught in the maelstrom of these natural occurrences once too often.

Like they say, if you have been staring at the eyeballs of adversity too many times, you begin to develop an unusual fascination, not fear, for Nature's angry brother.

I like to believe that one day when the earth has released all its pent-up fury, we can all begin to rebuild our lives and our homes. It's all part of the celestial game plan.

Good luck to us all. We really need it.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

2007-12-31T19:24:00.000-08:00

I know I have been a bit on the lazy side these past weeks, but hey, I have recovered. It's January 1, 2008 and from the first few hours, things are looking good.

I wish to to be sanguine about the whole thing. Why kick off the new year with dark clouds hovering over one's head. That's not very mature, as they say.

Last night, I was among tens of thousands watching double fireworks displays in my neighbourhood. Where did those organisers find the cash to bankroll these pyrotechnics, I asked myself.

Before I could answer myself, I was caught up in the maelstrom of exploding technicolour lights in the dark sky.

People were milling about in their pajamas. Yes, nobody wanted to miss anything. Afterall, such entertainment that comes once a year is free!

If you wish to make any new year resolution like all of us normal full-of-flaws earthlings do, make one that you think you got a chance to succeed. No point telling yourself rather foolishly that you want to have a million bucks in your bank account by July.

Your girlfriend may want to believe you but members of your family will certainly laugh you out of the house. This year, 2008, will be a great year for you if you want it to be so.

Don't think nothing is unachievable. Everything, short of the ridiculous, incredible and downright nonsensical, can be attained if you put your heart, mind and soul into it.

About six months ago, I told myself that I wanted a digital DSLR and a high-end compact camera. By last month (December 2007), I had both. I am not boasting but merely telling you that somethings can be obtained, bought and possessed if the spirit is in full gear.

Now, what do you want? Seriously, what do you really want? Don't be wishy-washy about the whole thing. Nobody, particularly yourself, is going to believe you if the core of your own being rebel against such a thought.

Set your standards high, and your dreams higher and watch yourself soar. If this sounds like another one of those high-priced management seminar talk, it isn't. I am merely stating an age-long secret.

Those who know what they want, just go ahead and get them. Put no time frame to your targets. Just focus on them and plunge ahead.

Dream beautiful dreams. Think great and positive thoughts. Believe it or not, you deserve them. Don't think of trampling on your nasty neighbourhoods flower garden. Those kind of thoughts produce a bad karma.

Positive thinking is multi-fold. It generates wonderful consequences for yourself and for others. Why bother to plan another person's downfall when you could use the same energy to get great gifts for yourself.

The world does not need another tyrant or dictator. We are drastically short of Mother Teresas, Pope John Paul II and a few more selfless people working perpectually for the good of others.

The pain you feel throughout last year was probably a result of your own actions. Not a very nice thought but nevertheless true. So before you repeat the unpleasant consequents of 2007, change direction and be kind in thought, word and deed.

In the aftermath of such a decision, watch the flowers bloom in the garden of humanity. And be astounded by the effects of your own selfless actions and kind thoughts.

Nobody is asking you to be a saint but do the right thing and the rest will follow.

Movies are of great therapeutic value

2007-11-22T05:01:00.000-08:00

I have been watching movies for as long as I can remember. For the billions who have watched movies since their teenage years, films have doubled up as a marvellous form of de-stressors.
There are movies that inspire us to do great things. There are movies that touched the core of our souls. There are movies that so easily draw the tears. These are the creations of great film makers who unwittingly or deliberately make us think positively, feel deeply and forgive easily.

We live this life now so that we can be better individuals. We like to think that we are capable of greater things in life. Indeed, we can but our fears and lack of self-confidence create obstacles to our own progress.

I have credited classic movies for providing the impetus for me to strive for things that I could otherwise have not attained. Hours spent in cinemas intermittently throughout my growing years and then later in adulthood have reaped long term benefits.

I am ever grateful to those great stories that have been portrayed so well by good actors and their screen lives and experiences have acted as engines of encouragement to me to emulate my imagined heroes.

Every body needs a hero. He who says he doesn't is probably lying to himself and probably doesn't know it. Films like It's A Wonderful Life and Life Is Beautiful have inspired me to follow life's paths that look so mundane in the past but they are ever so fruitful when treaded upon.

I really couldn't imagine what my life could have been, if not for those enjoyable and yet inspiring movies that have crossed paths with me.

Looking beyond November

2007-11-01T00:51:00.000-07:00

November to me means December is just around the corner. So what's so great about November? Well, personally, it means one year has almost over and I look back and assess my life's journey.
People say if you are having a great time, the months fly swiftly by. If that's the criterion then I must be having a grand time. The journey thus far has been exciting, eventful and truly a chronicle of memorable happenings.
It's not true to say I have an Indiana Jones-type of life but every individual, depending on his preferences, needs and priorities, has his own life chart.
On looking back, I am glad to sad my regrets are few, if any I care to remember. There have been some hilarious moments and there have been some very happy occasions. I try to keep the anxious times to as few as I can count on one hand.
Who wants to remember bad times? Unless you are a glutton for self torture, you really shouldn't dwell over unhappy times. It is not a healthy habit and it is downright depressing.
That's my policy anyway. Why flog yourself unnecessarily when there are other better, more exciting things to do in life.

I don't know about you but I am always on the lookout for some fun things to do. I tell myself every day that I don't have time to be sad or wallow in misery. Why do to the grave crying and moaning?
Surely, life is bigger than all that. All of us will eventually slide into the grave. We are all biodegradable life forms. Let's face it, if you don't want to be happy, there are billions of others (six billion at last count) who would be more than happy to put a smile on their own face.

It's coming to December for heaven's sake. Cheer up and sing!

What's going on, Mother Earth?

2007-10-25T02:11:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Katrina caused havoc in New Orleans and Lousiana in 2005. Hundreds of thousands of people were affected. Damage control came late and life has not exactly returned to normal even now - two years later.

Since February this year, tornadoes have been appearing in various parts of North America, namely Florida, Lousiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Okhlahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Illinois, New York and the MidWest. Fatalities from these outbreaks of tornadoes or twisters are numbered about 60.

Currently, we have fires sweeping across Southern California. That's water, wind and fire. Are these some of the side-effects of global warming, or these natural disasters portend something more terrible is on the way?

Frankly, I don't know the answers. Can someone enlighten me?

How do you sleep at night?

2007-10-10T00:55:00.000-07:00

The above question is not asked in the vein that you may be a party to an unknown crime committed recently but in the normal sense as how do you actually slip into oblivion for a better part of an eight-hour stretch?

Most of us at one time or another have trouble sleeping like a baby. Honestly, those who sleep like a baby are the babies themselves. Nature is on their side. Nature however seems to have abandoned us on the wrong side of the bed by the side we skip past the 30-year mark.

Then there are those who brag that they sleep moments after their heads hit the pillow. If only all of us were so lucky. If you are too tired, you may have trouble sleeping.
If you worry too much, again sleep will continue to play hide-and-seek with you. Of course, there are techniques to usher a person into the land of REM (rapid eye movement). Frankly, I am not even sure I know the exact meanign of REM.
My guess is that when a person is in a state of REM, he is supposed to be in deep sleep. It is said that a baby spends about 80 per cent of his sleep time in REM land, whereas adults only experience about 20 to 25 per cent of his sleep in REM.
Now, I sometimes brag that I truly sleep like a baby because I kick the blanket aside during the course of the night. That of course doesn't create a bountiful amount of goodwill from my partner next to me.
Short of slugging me with the bolster, she just turns over to the other side and slip into her own never-neverland.
People who suffer from insomnia receive much sympathy from me because it is one of the worse punishments that a human being can receive. Insomniacs also suffer from intense bouts of worry.
What does a person to do when the body wants to rest but the mind refuses to let go. In the ensuing desperate moments of non-repose, the human condition careens into the zone of imagined fears.
When you can't sleep, there will come a time when you begin to think your time on earth is up. Simply put, the spectre of death seems quite real. Death itself may start tickling the feet of your mind. Here's the rub: you can't scratch the itchy spots in your cerebrum.
My answer to an overactive mind and a body that resists oblivion is to engage in a series of pleasant thoughts. The argument is simple: if you can't sleep, at least you have a pleasant time dreaming of some of the nicest things that could happen to you.
After a while, your body begins to relax because of the steady flow of endorphin (the feel-good biological chemical in the body).
Deep breathing helps too. But don't be too enthusiastic, otherwise you may end up gasping as if you are drowning. Now, we don't want that, do we?
Wear loose clothes. Go naked if you so wish but don't catch a chill. Tight clothing tends to be detrimental to a good night's sleep. And also, breathe with your stomach.
Watch a sleeping baby very carefully. His tummy rises and falls very gently. That is the correct way to breathe. If you breathe right, everything else follows the correct path.
If only an infant can be eloquent, how much we adults can learn from the toddler.
It's true to say that money doesn't buy sleep, it just buys you a bed.
Good night then.

Life's on the slow lane

2007-09-19T22:42:00.000-07:00

MUCH has been said about being on the fast track. Modern conveniences inadvertently spell out to be Instant this, and Instant that. It seems so long ago that our forbears used to take their time walking from one cottage to the next and never count the distance or the time taken.
These days, we are always in a hurry. We rush from department meeting to board meeting. Most of the time, or rather half of the time, we forget what transpired at these meetings.
Some of us buy expensive PDAs (personal digital assistant) to help organise our thoughts. We all think it's pretty cool to have an iphone, a Blackberry and GPS cellphone.
Sometimes I wonder how our ancestors a century ago would have handle all these modern gadgets. Yes, no doubt if these ancestors were alive today, they would be flabbergasted.
Some of these modern devices still have not entered my front door, even though I have seen pictures of them or read about them on the Internet.
But how much do we really need to make our lives more exciting, more interesting and more convenient? A long time ago, when these conveniences didn't exist, life then continued nevertheless.
People nowadays seem to think that without some of these technological wonders, life will come to an instant end. Perhaps life is passing us by while we are considering what other new gadgets we want to add to our collection.
For many years now, I have deliberately learnt to slow down. Take for example, in congested city streets. The tendency among motorists is to be the first one off the block. Sometimes when the traffic lights are on the verge of bursting green, you can hear the roar of revving engines.
Everybody seem to be in a hurry. Frankly, what's 20 seconds in your life? Once, I was at a traffic junction, the light turned green, I was about to dash across to the other side when I hesitated, a mere three seconds.
Suddenly, like a bolt out of the blue, a speeding truck dashed in front of me. Obviously, that trucker had beaten the red lights by exactly three seconds. Now, if you were to ask me what had I learnt from that, my answer would be those precious few seconds separated me from crossing over to God's green acre.
When I amble along on life's slow lane, I find out that birds are actually quite beautiful. They chirp without a care in the world. And somewhere at a nearby tree, its mate returns Nature's call.
What a wonderful litte discovery. If I had moved my feet a bit faster, I would have missed all that. I also found out that trees rustle in rhythm to the winds. Yes, there are swaying palms on my side of the world. In fact, if you really close your eyes, you can imagine those palms whispering.
Thus that unforgotten song that has those words: "whispering palms..."
The Buddhist monks learnt this important tenet of life millennia ago. They call it mindfulness. If you take your time with your actions as well as study the movements of other life-forms around you with great deliberation, you will allow all your five senses to partake in a feast of recognition.
Leonardo Da Vinci practised this centuries ago. There's actually a book entitled Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci. It tells you that such deliberate actions will add volumes to your personal intelligence.
Life on the slow lane is not for those who exist, it's for those who live to love, study and appreciate and finally rejoice.

Much Ado About Eating

2007-09-11T02:12:00.000-07:00

We are all creatures of predictable dietary habits. Most of us have our favourite dishes, our preferred fast food and our little culinary secrets.
Some of these we share with others, and then there are a few we simply prefer to keep to ourselves. God knows why, but we do.
For example, we may like our hotdog from the street vendor sprinkled with deep-fried onion rings, mixed with Tabasco sauce. It may not be another person's favourite kind but we don't really care because it brings a silly grin to the one who loves it to death.
Who knows why certain kinds of food ring all the bells in our heads? Perhaps 30 years ago when we were in our pre-teen days, one rainy day an unknown hotdog seller was on the right side of the street, and someone's child happened to be there as well.
His best friend, the one who has lots of pocket money, treated him to the above-mentioned hotdog with a so-called secret recipe. What transpired was an undying love born of a teenage culinary love affair for a simple bun with a sausage and some sauce.
That's what makes up our personality. We all grow up developing certain tastes and refining them as we grow along. Sometimes we think we know all that is to be learnt about eating, but then as the years pass, we know better.
However, eating can be considered a cultivated art. It breaks my heart to see diner labouring over their food at fine restaurants. Other than humans, I can't think of any other life-forms that enjoy food as much as we do.
Enjoying a great meal comprising excellent dishes is a gift from God. We all want to live to eat. Woe be he who eat to live and abide by rule for the rest of his miserable life.
That is a punishment exacted by no other than the sufferer himself. Therefore, it is my credo that as long as our mouths can move, as long as our jaws can open and close and our teeth can bite, eating should be counted as a great blessing because it puts us in touch with some of the finest moments of human living.
On that note, I shall have to keep my date with a restaurant in an hour's time.

My new digital camera - Nikon D40

2007-08-29T02:17:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I wish to declare that I am new to the world of DSLR, or digital single lens reflex.

My camera-mad friends have urged me incessantly to upgrade my rotten old Kodak DX7630 to an DSLR because the prices have become quite competitive. So by chance, I came across one recently that I thought would fit my budget.

That included sacrificing several days of lunches plus some proper dinners. So here I am with a Nikon D40 which I thought was pretty cool. For a DSLR camera, the D40 is one of the most basic but friends have attested to its reliability and efficiency as befitting the sterling reputation of Nikon.

I have taken a number of shots with my new camera and the results are impressive. Now, I have been bombarded by persuasions to acquire a 70-300 lens. The one which has been "thrown" at my face is the Sigma APO DG model.

It has been alleged that this lens is reported to be more superior than Nikon lens. Another reason to acquire this lens is the steep price for a similar VR Nikon lens in a similar category.

So there you go, one camera later and my wallet is beginning to get the shakes! But photography can be as addictive as golf. The good thing is I don't play golf, or rather I haven't yet been bitten by the golf bug.

Right now, somewhere tucked away in my home drawer are two compact cameras. One is the ancient Panasonic LC20 2-mega pixel and the other is the Kodak DX7630. I have had and is still having a great time with both compact cameras.

But as digital cameras go, their efficiency level drops with the passing of time, or when technology supersedes it after a brief six months. But then, some of the world's best pictures are taken with ordinary cameras, so I really have no excuse here.

Now that I am truly and thoroughly bitten by the shutter bug, I have to plead guilty to having lascivious thoughts of acquiring new accessories for my new D40. And D40 is not even anywhere near those other coveted digital DSLRs that the professional pixmen often lug around.

If you were me, what do you do? Well, I tend to follow my gut instincts but also keep a sharp eye on the thickness of my wallet. No point going around shooting pictures and wearing tattered clothes.

Wish me luck with my new camera. May I win a prize sometime in the near future.

Why you need to act now!

2007-08-19T01:55:00.000-07:00

There's that much quoted line: Don't put off to tomorrow after you can do today. Let me rephrase that and say: "Don't put off what you can do NOW to the next hour!"

It's true. Have you ever wondered what you could have achieved if you have not hesitated a thousand times before? This applies to those good intentions that you secretly want to carry out but die a natural death because you pause and think about it for a couple of days.

By the time, you are ready and willing, the object of your desire or the subject of your intention has left the scene. Or, you yourself could be in a position where you no longer have the power to carry it out.

Now, isn't that a crying shame? The good deeds of tomorrow are acted upon NOW, not the next hour or the nex day.

Do it now. Don't hesitate. Just do it! Now, I am beginning to sound like a Nike ad. It may sound cornish to you but the long years I have spent gallivanting on earth have taught me one valuable lession - all good intentions remain just intentions if you merely dwell on them mentally.

The smallest good intention must be translated into action for it to achieve results. For example, if you plan to say something nice to your girlfriend, just say it the next time you meet her.

There's no such thing as timing. Just say it, for love's sake! If you want to buy your dad something that you know he loves. Don't hesitate till the fire in your belly dies out.

Just go out and buy it. The money in your wallet can be replaced. If something happens to your dad, I think you will be hard put to find a replacement.

If you think you stand a ghost of a chance of making a million dollar deal. Go ahead and try, you really have nothing to lose except the act of trying.

All attempts leads halfway to reality. Reality are dreams turned inside out. If you can imagine it, you can create it. If you can create it, it will come true.

That's what life's all about. Making dreams come true - for yourself and for others.
Why wait till you have the money to do this, do that and then act upon all the good intentions.

Do the things you can do first. Forget the money, or the timing, or even the stars to come out. Life's for the moment. Every moment counts. Every kind word uttered is action done.

Every charity performed is grace delivered. Every act of good deed is twice blessed. It blesses the one who receives as well as the one who gives.

If you are not sure, just ask William Shakespeare.

The cinema is now a Marvel Universe

2007-08-09T02:22:00.000-07:00

An office colleague sauntered up to me a couple of hours ago and said, "hey, they are making The God of Thunder". I replied: "You mean that Viking God in the comics?"

Yes, he responded. Then, there's The Watchmen. Apparently, it has been cooked and ready to be served, meaning the casting, budget and other million dollar details are in the pipeline.

So these two comic titles are being added on to the Hollywood conveyor belt. The last two or three years have seen an enormous output of comics type films. We had the Hulk, Daredevil, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Fantastic Four, Ghost Rider, Catwoman, X-Men and Elektra.

I have probably missed out on a few but who's counting? The big studio guys have suddenly realised that they have hit the motherlode as far as moviegoers' fascination is concerned.

Superheroes movies have struck a nerve and it leaves a lingering feel-good sensation that resonates with the tinseltown auditors and bankers. There's something to be said about comic books and mutants with superpowers.

There used to be a time when only children were fascinated with colour pages filled with out-of-this-world stories. Times have changed. These days everybody is involved. Who would have believed that in this day and age, movies about superheroes who have caught most of our fancy back three or four decades ago have all returned in the greatest CGI way.

After having said all that, I have to confess that I am a big time comic fan. I have not really left the world of Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, Valiant and what-have-you. There are also so many independent comic publishers these days that I have lost count.

But honestly, comics are also no longer a dime a dozen. Those were the good old days. These days, quality comics can actually make a kid cry with grief. Publishers blame it all on price of paper, escalating costs of expensive ink and the astronomical amount of money, successful comic writers and artists are demanding.

So what else is new? But coming back to the cinema or theatre, depending on which part of the world, you are from a cinema and theatre simply means the same thing. It's where ordinary people pay a few bucks to venture into the delightful world of escapism.

It's a place where anyone and everyone can be a superheroes. There are no barriers or boundaries in the realm of comics and superheroes. That's what so wonderful about the whole thing.

I know one day, this runaway comics cinema train will derail but till then, I am having the ride of my life. It's really fun. This is one train, any commuter regardless of age, can buy a ticket and get on board.

You can be like children again. Nobody in the darkened cinema is going to take notice of you because all of them are into their own world of marvels. Isn't that wonderful?

Truly, imagination is so stupendously wonderful. See ya at the cinema!

Learn to be angry

2007-08-07T03:06:00.000-07:00

Learn to be angry about injustice that is becoming increasingly common.

Learn to be angry over poverty because it is not in the nature of man to be poor.

Learn to be angry about the lack of love anywhere.

Learn to be angry because too many people are going to bed with emtpy stomachs.

Learn to be angry about corruption in the country.

Learn to be angry over irrational wars around the world.

Learn to be angry with yourself for not being enthusiastic over the most mundane matters.

Learn to be angry for not showing enough love for those you care for.

Learn to be angry that you sometimes lack the passion to better yourself in so many easy ways.

Learn to be angry for lacking the will power to exercise your own body, so that 30 years from now you do not have to fill your cupboard with medicines.

Learn to angry with yourself for not saying thank you to those who have helped you in the smallest way.

Learn to be angry for not saying prayers for others.

Learn to be angry over too much waste because as humans we really need very little to satisfy our basic needs.

Learn to be angry over your own shyness in not making the first move to make new friends.

Learn to be angry for being too lazy to learn new skills and new languages.

Learn to be angry for not showing interest in little children, for they are our second chances.

Learn to be angry for not being kind enough, gentle enough and compassionate enough.

Learn to be angry over senseless crimes in your neighbourhood.

Learn to be angry over eating too much when you know you are already full.

Learn to be angry for not learning enough from people who can teach you a lot.

Learn to be angry that you have not paid attention to the examples of great people who have gone before you.

Learn to be angry that you have but one chance in your life to do the greatest things in a thousand most memorable ways.

Learn to be angry that you have not heeded the inner voice that tells you everyday that you can be what you imagine if only you act upon it now.

Learn to be angry that you have not awakened from dreaming because that's the only way to make your own dreams come true.

Sometimes bad things do happen to good people

2007-08-02T01:14:00.000-07:00

I was just thinking about this after watching scenes of the Minneapolis bridge collapse on CNN this morning. About 20 cars plunged into the Mississippi river when sections of the bridge gave way.

Those who were at the scene and were caught in it must have suffered tremendously - physically and mentally.

This brings to mind the question: why do such things happen to innocent people? I have asked this question almost every time I witness a tragedy whether it be a natural disaster or a human tragedy.

There are many things we don't understand in this life but sometimes when least expected, disaster strikes. Families are caught in the maelstrom and a string of lives are altered forever.

There's actually no body to blame for such situations. All I know is those who have been stuck in situations like that usually recover after a while. The pain lingers for those who are immediate family members of the victims but somehow life marches bravely on.

In a way, there are lessons in everything that has happened and will happen. How well will it all play out? That remains to be seen.

We all hope and pray that life will be kind to us but we are never sure. Not every road we travel on is paved with rose petals. Sometimes, there are potholes, rusty nails and unseen bumps.

But we do take all that in stride. How can we not? We never really expected them in the first place.

Let it be known that all things, good and bad, happen to all at one time or another. There's no exception. Of course, some are luckier than others but to each, the problem comes to fit his situation.

We all learn to cope and we all learn to extend a helping hand in process. This is life and that is heaven's way of showing us that on the road of pain and sorrow, there are always little pleasant surprises.

Life is not that cruel as it is sometimes conjured to be.

Going potty over Potter

2007-07-20T00:43:00.000-07:00

OKAY, I must speak my piece or forever be silent over this one. But I can't be quiet anymore. The planets are in alignment; my mind won't stop racing and my fingers are itching.
Blame it on this Potter kid. The world knows him as Harry Potter. Apparently, by this time tomorrow, thousands of people, kids mainly, will be happily digesting J.K. Rowling's final Potter tome.
Something called Deathly Hallows. All this hype over Harry Potter has finally got my goat. I didn't want to say anything for years because I thought it was just a passing fancy among the younger generation but the phenomenon persisted for years.
Well, the straw that broke the camel's back has finally been placed on the earlier tonne of hay strapped to the Ship of the Desert. Honestly though, the blame for this unusual human response towards a book title, not even deemed as literature material, is rather disquieting.
I don't imagine William Shakespeare had encountered this kind of reaction even at the height of his fame. I placed the blame squarely on the media. Seven years into the 21st century, we have begun to witness the enormous influence exerted by the media for other parties' percuniary ends.
For months now, the media, with the fullest co-operation of film producers, book publishers and probably the tacit compliance of the writer herself, have been harping on the final chapter of the Harry Potter saga.
From Europe to Asia, book stores, book publishers, and other agents of the printed word have been knocking on the doors of all media avenues possible to broadcast the message that Potter will cast his final spell.
And what does the world do? It joined in the biggest media game ever played. I have just received word from someone who has just seen the movie. Verdict: nothing really earth-shattering, either here on this planet or in any other dimension.
As a person who have occasional encounters with all things media, I fully understand the implications and ramifications of this kind of literary phenomenon. Kudos to Rowling for having achieved such stupendous success with her Harry Potter series.
For a woman who used to survive on burgers while writing on then an obscure teenager called Harry Potter in a Hogwarts school of magic, Rowling has indeed journeyed a long way.
But this frenzy of activity on a global scale over Potter does indicate to sociologists and behavariousl scientists that something is amiss with modern society. Why are we not equally worked up over global warming, Polar caps meltdown, famine in Darful, starvation in North Korea and endless conflagrations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan?
Are those issues not of worldwide importance? Whither human society as far as crucial matters are concerned? Let it not be said a hundred years from now that inhabitants of this planet in the year 2007 were moronically preoccupied with issues of little consequence while Earth teeter on a precipice of biblical proportions.
I am not shocked by this inexplicable reaction by so many Potter fans but actually saddened by the masses who are not Potter fans, who are in fact equally nonchalant about other issues that would affect their grandchildren and descendants in the generations to come.
Here we are, standing on the threshold of some of the most phenomenal technological achievements in the history of science and yet we go ga-ga over a fictional character called Harry.
What does this say about us? What will the people of the future think about us? It will be a sad day indeed if our response right now is: "who cares? we won't be around a century from now anyway!"
Tomorrow's world is built on the foundation of today's concerns. The Now phenomenon is just as vital as the targets of till-then era, even if the aims are slightly blurry just now.
I lament the state of right-thinking humans, not all of them but many of them. Surely, we have not become numbed to things that matter most. Entertainment is fine. Escapism is negligible if its effects are fleeting but obsession with a product of someone's imagination does not bode well for modern thinking.
When I see public reaction over the latest Harry Potter book and little reaction from the same people over global hunger, disease, massive corruption and killings, sadness grips my heart. My mind is ill at ease.
Will not these same people show some compassion too to the hungry in their midst? Are they not also concerned by the negative influences faced by their growing children in college, at work and elsewhere?
Sometimes, I figure that the world has gone over the deep end to become indifferent to a suffering society and on a global scale, uncaring about the millions who may not survive in the next five years.
A hundred years from now, books on Harry Potter would most probably be still available but humankind may no longer be concerned about Harry then, as they would be about finding their next meal or seeking a safer clime for their families.

Ode to all blockheads, oops, I mean blog heads!

2007-07-17T00:27:00.000-07:00

A well meaning colleague slithered up to me the other day and muttered softly in my ear. Do you not want to earn a bit on the side with your blog?
I gave him a bemused look and added: "Meaning....?" Those little bits of advertisements that bloggers transplanted on their pages, my friend, said my colleague.
I gave it a 7-second thought and added: "But I didn't start off by wanting to earn money on the side." Anyway, I didn't want to sound too saintly by rejecting my kinds of material wealth, so I perked up my ears and said: "Details, please?"
For the next 45 minutes, I was an enraptured audience of one, listening to what could be an El Dorado situation for me. Frankly, I know there are more than a handful of very successful bloggers out there in the blue yonder who are happily raking in every bit of gold dust that floats onto their laps.
But I don't count myself as one of them. I don't mean I am not interested in getting rich but I actually give much weightage to my own personal satisfaction, and it is not founded on the soil of organised prosperity.
I don't know a better way of explaining this other than I prefer to just write whatever that strikes my fancy. Sometimes I actually become rather envious of those who seem to enjoy some kind of virtual world fame and benefit enormously from it all.
"How do they do it?" I ask all the time. Apparently, it begins with an enormous amount of Internet traffic that comes a blogger's way and the method he employs to cull the hits and bounce the signals off the financial wall.
If all these sounds too complicated, it's because I am a complete idiot in explaining a simple situation. For the life of me, I am really in the dark about the Get-Rich-Intelligently 101 procedure.
For one thing, I am happy that there are those who are financially secure due to their worldly wise ways. I guess not everybody is born to ride on that gravy train. To be honest though, I wish I am sitting in the coach section of that wagon right now but life apparently likes to play jokes on characters like me.
So right now, I am quite contented writing a bit of gibberish on the side and enjoying what I am writing even if nobody in this world of 6.5 billion people is interested in what I have to say.
I believe my situation has been described aptly as "spitting in the wind". Of course, everybody likes to wake up early in the morning, with nothing better to do than to logon and count the dollars pouring into some obscure bank account overseas.
I wish I could say "hey, that's me!" But I can't so I just humbly mutter (under my breath), "oh darn, back to shoveling coal down in the mine again!"
To all those who have succeed, please do not send me your secret formulas. I have enough of those, and they call come with a price tag. In case, nobody notices, block heads like me are actually not rich. Not even well off.
What we are, has been described by social behavourial scientists as drifting in the meandering tide of mediocrity. Right now, there must be about 150 million bloggers. An editor from England expounded some statistics that propounded that at last count (July 2006), there were about 50 million bloggers.
And this number doubles every six months! When I first learnt about this, I uttered: "Oh God! That's a whole lot of non-famous people." It was a very humbling revelation. At least, it was for me.
So for now, whenever I think and write I keep in mind that there are more than one hundred million bloggers out there who say and think practically the same things that crawl, slither, or slip through my mind.
Perhaps they don't say the same thing in the same way but generally the thoughts are all there. There's hardly any originality left. If anybody has any originality of thought, he would have been a millionaire yesterday.
But do not lose heart, dear chaps, we blockheads or bloggers (whichever strikes your fancy) have our own sanctuary that provides more than fresh air or money. We have the temerity to an indifferent world what we think of myriad situations. Most of the time, not based on facts or sound arguments but simply on impulse and gut feeling that we might be right during a fleeting minute in a single that of 24 hours.
There, I have said it all. Go and write and let your heart be contented.

An Unpleasant Truth

2007-06-20T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! All you earthlings of no particular significance. This is a pronouncement of great global importance. The reason being in the next 10 years, or may be sooner, the earth's climatic conditions will turn global environment and ecology as we know it now, topsy-turvey.
If your first question is: Why bother? Then perhaps now would be an appropriate time to remind you that with the drying up of rivers and hot lands becoming cold and vice versa, the world's economy will automatically go into a tail-spin.
For want of a better word: Be prepared. This is the credo of Scouts the world over. Never as the world of men is in such peril. If you are a senior member of the Cynical Club or a card-carrying member of the Sceptics Association, you may want to verify my dubious claims.
Follow your instinct, check with the latest UN report on global warming and then go on from there. I believe even as I speak, CNN today broadcast a worldwide warning, through its international correspondent Richard Quest, that alarming signs of repeat glacier melting is occurring in the Tibetan region, Himalayas and the effects on China's Yangtze River.
In fact, the famous rivers of the world, including the Thames of London, Ganges of India and the Nile are in throes of rapid changing climatic conditions. In a very short time, as earth knows it, this will lead to a irreversible chain of events that will literally floor the world.
Yes, there could be human casualties. In other words, the human toll may reach unimaginable levels. So your second question is: What can I, as an individual do? For a start, you can write to your Member of Parliament, or just about anyone who cares for this small third rock from the Sun.
Nothing drastic will probably take place in the next two years. After that, all bets are off. Perhaps you think this is another one of those alarmist goobledegook that pervades the Internet. I wish it were so, that would save my fingers from a lot of ache.
The catastrophic consequences of Earth's dramatic and perhaps even sudden changes will be felt by billions. Remember, we only have about 6.5 billion inhabitants on Earth right now.
Not that many, you say. Just think of the millions of flies crowding the carcass of a dead animal and then double that figure - you have a rough idea of how many people are milling around on this dusty, disturbed planet.
I have been staying on this planet for decades. I kinda love it after a while. Humans are generally a nice lot. I wish I was assigned to planet Pleisades, light years away but no, some wise guy handed me this earth assignment.
Frankly, I didn't ask to be here but since I have been mopping around the place for a while, I have got accustomed to a lot of unhappy and sad faces. I suspect there will be a lot more sorrowful looks before the whole biblical phenomenon is over.
But sometimes I ask myself and tell others as well: why bother. Mankind in general has a propensity to ignore the obvious, even when it hits them on their faces! Think back of World War I, World War II, Korean War, Iraq war, SARS, AIDS, Bird Flu and other potential calamities that could decimate the ranks of humankind in a blink of an eye.
Do we really care about ourselves or for ourselves. Frankly, most of us tend to shut our eyes to the earth-shaking events. We see on television everyday the dozens who are killed in suicide bombings in Iraq, killings in Gaza and West Bank and the starving millions in Sudan.
After a while, most of us become numbed and after a few months of watching the same painful event, our sensitivity becomes somewhat affected.
Woe be unto us all, I say. Actually, I have become a little sceptical of late too but the magnitude of THAT unpleasant truth can no longer ignored.
Why don't we call do something about this? Why let it overwhelm us? We should not meet it half-way, we should go all the way to encounter it at its source. That's the only way to solve the problem.

How to live life without trying to be too clever

2007-06-14T02:10:00.000-07:00

Most of us spent a large part of our lives trying to impress our families, parents, neighbours, office colleagues and strangers. By the time, we find out that it is simply a waste of time, it's almost too late.
By then, when wisdom finally sets in, we are in the evening of our lives. I too have been guilty of such a silly pursuit. If being classified as clever brings peace of mind and contentment, only clever people can be found in that happy state of mind.
Instead, so-called clever people are always miserable. They are miserable for all kinds of strange reasons. Some of which are "they are not fairly rewarded for their brainwork"; "not recognised for their special abilities"; "being unutilised much to the ignorance of the thespians"; and "everybody is just plain jealous".
If you haven't come across or experience any of the above, you are probably one of the most blessed persons on earth.
Seriously, a lot of us waste our precious time on earth trying to impress others. Why is this so? Even if others acknowledge that you are indeed the smartest of the whole lot, it doesn't really amount to much because nobody likes a smart alec.
A lot of us suffer from a drastic lack of humility. We just can't wait to get that special pat-in-the-back, either from loved ones or from our boss and colleagues.
If only we know that unintentional intelligence is one of the most welcomed traits around. Normally, we tend to shy away from those who openly profess to be clever. In other words, acting smarter than us and sometimes succeeding.
The definition of smartness is not anchored in just one situation. It is relative. Take for example, a resident of a big city who is wise to the ways of the streets. Take him away from his natural habitat, that is the city, he will be just as lost as the native who stays in the jungle and is now left to wander in a city.
I have tried on numerous silly occasions to blow my trumpet, blow my horn and generally sounded the drum so that others will notice that I am "oh-so-smart". The results I got were indifference, a look of disgust or just plain unimpressive looks from all round.
What does that then shows. It indicates that people who are really wise normally keep their trap shut and adopt a low profile. As my grandmother always say: Be smart by all means but don't act like a clever idiot!
Life's journey will be more eventful if others do not feel threatened by your alleged intelligence and overt genius. Why must there be this relentless need to show off?
Really clever people normally keep a very low profile. They are quiet, decent, humble and have a very down-to-earth outlook on life. If you try to be too clever, you normally end up being that unpopular person who will be struck off the invitational list of every person in the neighbourhood and office.
Generaly, nobody loves a big mouth, intelligent crook and an immodest, pompous food who likes nothing better than to bask in the sunshine of his own inflated ego.
If you are really clever, you will realise that it's better to act normal. If you are really wise, you will know that to make everybody comfortable, you mustn't try to beat them down with your level of intelligence.
Just be an ordinary Joe. If it's your time to shine, there's a purpose for you. Otherwise, be sincere, don't brag and remember that for every clever person who walks in the three, there are 30 others who can solve a mathematical problem faster than you.

Walking, Working, Wokking

2007-05-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

Those three words signify the times of my life and the passages of time that I have partook in and most of the time, revelled in.
When we were little, most of us would sometimes wonder when we were going to be all grown up and be independent. Afterall, did our parents not have a great, carefree life? Or, so we thought.
The years came and went, and in the midst of it all, we struggled through our teenage years. Those were heady days. Books, outings and partially successful exams. Sometimes, for those of us who are Catholics, we rushed to the school chapel to put in a plea of clemency from the Big Man upstairs.
Now, on looking back, it seems so funny but it wasn't so back then. Somehow, the exams didn't seem so important now as they were back in those almost forgotten, ancient days.
From school to college, from college to university. Each learning institution formed part of a passage from young adolescent to maturing adult. Yes, the years have passed.
We struggled as a toddler to stand and then to walk, rather gingerly though at first. When school days came, most of us, at least for me, it was walking all the time. There was no money for modern transportation.
Everywhere I needed to go, I walked. OK, sometimes I rode on the bicycle. But walking became as natural as breathing in and breathing out. Little did I know that all those years of walking was good for the heart. Now the doctors tell us so in their newspaper columns.
To think that these days, professionals pay a monthly fee to walk on the mechanised treadmills when we used to do all that and more for free. The scenery was rather great then, at that time.
Marriage came, children followed. As with most Asian families, there is always that ubiquitous wok in the kitchen. Wokking simply means food on the table. Which normal Asian family does not have a wok?
It is probably one of the most essential culinary tool ever invented. And so life proceeds.
These days those of us who live in modern suburbs, or city centres, are in constant pursuit of life's easy paths. We hardly ever walk anymore. Yes, we do walk from our bedroom to the bathroom and then to the dining hall and kitchen.
But really walk for kilometres? That couldn't be furthest from our minds. People hardly walk anymore, they commute. That means aircon cars, light rail transit or mass train transit.
Basically, our limbs are going to the dogs. Our humanly forms were built for exercise. Maybe not the kind Hercules is used to, but definitely a human body with its myriad sets of muscles should be subjected to the kind of activities that will hold it in good stead for a better part of eight decades.
In the old days, people work as a matter of course. These days, people are always thinking of retirement. The earlier the better, it seems.
See how a person's eyes widen when you tell him that so-and-so has retired and he's only in his mid-30s. Some of us even have friends like that. How we envy these people.
A life of partial inactivity spells atrophy or distrophy. These are words used by doctors and people in the medical profession. It also means that you have surrendered yourself to a life of useless inactivity.
To those who are presently contemplating on pursuing a life of leisure and other less stressful pursuits, let me remind you that you need not be a hobo to be happy. You can work. Perhaps not in the profession that you have become so familiar with but rather doing something that brings a smile to your face.
If you are sick and tired of working as a pen pusher. You can now make up your mind to pursue your hobby full time. It would be writing childrne's stories or doing carpentery work. Whatever gets your adrenaline pumping, man!
Life is meant to be lived to its fullest. Anything less than that is falling short of its target. Let it not be said of you and by you when your hair has turned all white or youl can no longer walk upright that your life is just a waster string of years.
You are your own master. Don't you forget it. If tomorrow is your last day on earth, then do all you can, with all your heart and touch the hem of a glorious life with that boundless spirit that's in you all this while.
Do not seek to understand the deeper aspects of life. Just wake up early every morning and proceed to enjoy life.
Nothing more is asked of you.

Christmas in April

2007-04-03T03:19:00.000-07:00

This morning while I was having breakfast in front of the TV, I came upon a movie that still had about 15 minutes of screening time left.
It was about a single parent (woman) who has a son but refuses to acknowledge an elderly but very rich man is her biological father.
It is Yuletide and the bitterness and hardship that she and her family had endured through the decades had been assimilated into her persona.
Even after that man had openly admitted that he was her father, she refuses to accept him. She blames him for those "missing years" and how she and her mum had lived in poverty all those times.
The rich man who now had now adopted a new approach to life now craves for a family that he does not have. It is a tale not uncommon in any society. Secretly during the last decade or so, he had been playing the role of "secret Santa" come Christmas time.
A handsome reporter was sent to track the "secret Santa" and eventually gets involved in the family complication that involves the woman, her son and the eccentric rich man.
By the time, the movie unfolds its last chapter, it is revealed that he had actually opened a shelter for the homeless and orphans dedicated to the memory of his daughter's stepfather.
It seemed that the stepfather named McManus was sent packing to poverty lane by this rich man decades ago after some bad financial advice. The wealthy man blamed himself, so did the woman who bore him his daughter.
It was only before the death of the woman, did she discover that the rich man had made amends by establishing the shelter under her husband's name. She forgave him. The daughter didn't realise this until the very end.
The story brought tears to my eyes even as the morning sun began to peek over the rooftops outside my house. The day was cloudy, the atmosphere was slightly dull, as befits the season. Afterall, it was April and they were showing a Christmas movie in telly.
Somehow it was appropriate. The TV story made me think of my parents who had passed away about 10 years ago. My mum died a year before my dad. I guess the story made me miss them and the tears came easily.
The moral of the TV tale lies in forgiveness and second chances in life. Nobody is ever born with a flawless family background or a life devoid of weaknesses and errors. If ever there's such a case, then what's there to learn on earth.
All of us, without exception, are born with a purpose. It could be that we are here to help others, to learn from others or to help one another or all of the above.
Money is important but it's not everything as the cliche goes. All too true. Having lived on earth past five decades, I have discovered that wealth does not bring happiness. It is a means to purchase conveniences.
Happiness has to be earned and has to be pursued. Even if in our dying breath, we find out the truth about life and its wonderful secrets, our life would have been well lived.
This is the story, at least for me, of Christmas in April. Afterall, we have just embarked on the front end of the month. I welcome TV movies like that in the morning. It helps to re-align my life's bearings.
I am happy I have a close encounter with this movie, of which I don't even know the title because I only caught the last 15 minutes of it. But the lesson has been effective and I am grateful.
Truly, I tell you. God works in so many wonderful ways to speak to us. I am glad he decided to visit me one Christmas morning in April.

An inconvenient truth for all of us!

2007-03-25T01:16:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was watching the Oscars night and naturally, I saw Al Gore receiving an Oscar for his documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
While there may be many among us who don't really think too much of Al's "truth", we cannot ignore the enormous climatic changes that are taking place around us.
In most developed and developing nations around the globe, as well as in faraway places that few of us have heard of, the radical changes that are affecting the land are now becoming news items.
Take for example, the fires in Australis, the blizzards in Europe, earthquakes in Asia and the tsunami of 2004.
While, it is a little premature to pronounce the end of the world, it would be prudent to pay heed to the signals provided by Mother Nature. It should make sense for us to interpret these conditions, sometimes violent, as signs that there is something seriously wrong with our planet.
Now, what can we do about this? To begin with, we need to consult the people who know best about this kind of phenomenon. Then, we can proceed to the next level where we will have to study the ecological cycles and attain a near complete understanding of the climatic changes that are affecting all our lives.
Once we know exactly what is happening around us, we can proceed to find ways to arrest the decline in normal weather and seek remedies to alleviate our unexpected suffering.
This world of ours is a living organism. It is on a global scale but when you look at it as just like life form, you will begin to understand that like all other life forms, it will adapt and survive according to the laws it knows best.
Our time on earth if finite, so will be the lives of our children and grandchildren. Our duty, first to our family and then to the rest of the others around the earth is to ensure that the planet is safe or in better condition as when we first occupy it.
The inconvenient truth for most people is that they have to exert some efforts to bring about a better planet. Few ever care that that small piece of paper or plastic cover is ever going to change the fate of the world.
Translate that act of throwing a plastic bag into the bush by a few hundred million times, you will begin to grasp the bigger picture. That is the inconvenient truth that we hardly are able to bring ourselves to see.
Frankly, this planet is all we have. If we do not know how to cherish it, the owner, Mother Earth, is going to be rather unpleasant about her recalcitrant tenants.
Mother Earth has many ways of making us see and experience our mistakes. For a start, she can call upon her other siblings named typhoon, hurricane and tornadoes to give us a big nudge.
Failing which, Mother Earth can put in a trunk call to her bigger brother, earthquake and to add in more muscle, she can enlist her elder sister volcano to really wake us up.
For time immemorial, human beings have had the times of their lives. We didn't have to pay any rent of importance to Mother Earth for staying in her premises. In the last 50 years, we have been quite irresponsible and have been up to no good.
The roof of the world is "leaking". In other words, the ozone layer has been punctured by our misuse and abuse of gases of all kinds.
It is no longer a joke because the polar caps are melting at a dramatic rate. Soon, if this goes unchecked, the icebergs will start drifting in our directions, wherever we are staying.
In the worst case scenario, the earth axis may shift and all of us will experience an earth-shattering phenomenon called Absolute Zero. In other words, the temperature will drop to about minus 275 degress Centigrade in certain areas and all life forms will be rendered impossible in a matter of days or hours.
Sounds ridiculous but theoretically, it can happen, and you know what theories can do when the right conditions are in place.
Al Gore is right on several counts. If we continue to ignore what is blatant before our eyes, soon all of us will be blind. Yes, life is cheap for some people and not much to look forward to for others, but let's not forget that we homo sapiens have survived greater disasters before.
It will be insulting our own intelligence to parlay with Mother Nature. The time for "negotiations" is near over. Mother Nature is no longer amused. Neither is Mother Earth. Together they form a formidable pair. And they can really make us suffer.
In the "best case" scenario, we will all die suddenly. In the bad case scenario, death will be slow in coming, but nevertheless the outcome is still the same.
Strange it seems that it took Hollywood to highlight one of the most important and phenomenal changes taking place on earth. Perhaps it is for the better.
It's only via the cinema that people will gain a better understanding of some of the biggest challenges ever to be faced by man.
Now it's time to get off your knees and get out to work to fight for Mother Earth. Only through her safety and well being, can we ensure our own.

Hobbies maketh a man

2007-02-22T00:20:00.000-08:00

For a better part of 40 years, I have had one hobby or several hobbies going on in my life. When I was still in school, I kept Siamese fighting fish in individual bottles under my bed.
Apparently, in the darkness that prevailed beneath my bed, brought out the best and the brightest colours in those Siamese fighting fish. I believe it has something to do with Nature overcompensating for the gloom in the watery environs.
Then years later, I graduated to flying kites. My neighbourhood chums and I bought special glue and pounded light bulbs to extract the powdery substance that is actually minute glass shards.
The glass powder was used to coat the kite string which would prove to be deadly against rival kites in the air. It was one of those thrilling times in a child's life when conquering another kite was one of the best feelings that one could experience.
Then, it was marbles in all colours and shapes. Next came the spiders, fighting ones, that it. If the animal and insect protection society was in existence then, all of us little guilty ones would have had been given a long lecture.
But back in those carefree, guiltless days, almost anything goes. If I must add, nothing unlawful took place.
What I am trying to say is hobbies are great for sanity, for learning and for just plain self-entertainment. When you are just a kiddo, and you don't have too many nickels to your name, you just have to invent your own game.
Luckily for me, I had plenty of those. Now on looking back, I almost pity the modern children. Most of their games are computer-related or electronic in nature. What a pity that they don't have to using their grey matter. I am not saying that we were smarter than them but if you have to source for your own infotainment and entertainment, you tend to learn a bit more, in a positive way.
Even now, as I roam the perimeters of an adult world, I still have my hobbies. Of course, over the decades, much has evolved. My hobbies are different from the time when I was still in shorts.

Nevertheless, the hobbies are there. A little bit more sophisticated, costing a little more maybe but the fun and passion for them are still there. I have been collecting First Day Covers for at least three decades.

I get much enjoyment out of this simple hobby. In fact, I have a standing order at the main Post Office regarding the regular issuance of First Day Covers. It is a great hobby.

It won't make me rich but it definitely make me smile. These days, for some people there are hardly any reason to smile. I smile all the time, partly because I have so many hobbies.

My wife is always saying that a man of my age with so many hobbies is a bit unusual. I took that as a compliment. Can you imagine coming home after a hard day's work at the office and returning to your study room with nothing much in mind except the worry that you have been unable to unload in the office?

That has surely got to be one of the saddest things that can descend on a decent, working man.

People like to say "get a life". I prefer the line, "get a hobby". You will never know where that may lead you. But certainly, it will keep you from dwelling on issues that you have absolutely no control over.

If there were no place on earth for hobbies, God would not have put that in our heads, as I have always said. So get a hobby and then you will naturally get a life.

Why I love my mother

2007-02-01T00:04:00.000-08:00

My mother has passed away 11 years ago. Now that I am a father of two grown-up children, I am getting a better perspective of being a parent myself.
On looking back and thinking about my mum who had long completed her journey on earth, I think of all those unspoken and often forgotten things she had done for me while she was alive.

I am reminded of the times when I would have my hair washed by her in the kitchen sink because she felt my hair was long overdue for a thorough rinsing. She would dip my hair and gave my little head a complete scrubbing.

I remember those days when I was in university and was home for holiday when she would dip into her purse to give me a few extra dollars so that I could go out and have a good time.
What made that motherly deed extra special was the knowledge that she didn't have much to get by herself, and yet like all great mothers, she willing sacrifice her financial portion so that I could have a few good moments myself.

I recall those nights when I was still a pre-teen when I was ill and was moaning and groaning like all overgrown babies. She would apply ointment onto the affected parts of my body and lulled me to sleep with her soft voice, singing a ballad that was foreign to my ears.

I think fondly of those evenings when my mother would cook my favourite dishes because she knew I was home from college and would love them. There was no other reason than the fact that she just knew the dishes were my favourite.

I remember most vividly those nights when she went down on her knees to pray for me because she knew I was taking my exam the next day. She knelt down and prayed everyday of her life so that for the rest of my life, I will have easier days than hers.

And when I lamented the lack of transportation in my campus life, she forked out a significant portion of her savings to buy me a bike so that my mobility would improve by two quantum leaps.

I now realise with much love that in my growing years, she had never really scolded me because I was one of her favourites in the family. I don't remember doing anything special for her but every mother knows her boy because she had given birth to me and saw me till her last breath on deathbed.

It is with much nostalgia, I think back of the times when she held my little hands as we walked across the busy streets of my hometown and how she would softly sing praises of behind my back to our neighbours.

All of us have mothers. Very few of us ever hated our mothers. As with the others, I too love my mother with an intensity that only a good son will understand and feel. Now whenever, I see a mother fawning over her children, I think back of my own mother who had long left this plane of existence.

I think of the opportunities I had to please her and of the lost opportunities that I had not taken up to make her life a little happier.

Mothers were given to us all for a reason, just as we came into their lives for a reason. It is a dual carriageway of human relationship that would only be beneficial if we know how to travel on it.

I hope I have not been reckless on that highway which my mother and I had travelled on. It is with some consolation that I know I have done my best as a son. And I know that my mother had done her best and her best is good enough for me.

Working on a Sunday

2007-01-27T21:16:00.000-08:00

I wonder how many know what a delight it is to work on a Sunday. There will of course be a nationful of people who will try to shout me down. "Down with that fool who works on Sundays. Down with that spanner-in-the-works who buck the system!"
In my line of work, it actually pays to work on a Sunday. First, it is very quiet at my workplace because three quarters of the editorial staff are away, either still sleeping at 1pm or somewhere window-shopping with their families.
Sundays for most people are sacrosanct. That means it should be left undisturbed, and untouched by management hands.
I prefer to work on Sundays because there is a general absence of distraction. I get work done much faster. I am in a peaceful state of mind. The loudest noise I hear within ear-shot is the click-clacking of computer keyboards. And there is not much of that going on right now.
Very unsurprisingly, I am more alerted in the office on Sundays. The hours passed by much faster and I get to go home that much earlier. The day seems shorter too.
To me, any day is just a matter of light and darkness. However, Sundays can be alluded to being in a ashram retreat. The wind is silently brushing its way across the tree tops, the air is serenly still and the earth seems at peace with itself.
I usually gain a lot from Sunday at work. I think better. I am a much calmer person and I get to email some people who I would otherwise would have forgotten on the weekdays.
Yes, Sundays can also be a time reserved for the family. I am not giving up that time because the hours after I have returned home are enough to take care of the leisure and pleasure activities.
So I calculate along these lines. I work a five-day week. I work on a Sunday which seems to be like a half-day, so in actual fact, I end up working a four and a half-day week. It is a win-win situation.
This evening, I am going mall-crawling with my family. My daughter is attending her friend's wedding at his particular shopping complex. The opportunity arises for me to window-shopping and buy things I generally don't need.
Isn't life great? Not all of us get to derive pleasure from a five-star holiday at Barbados, Seychelles or Maldives. The rest of us ordinary mortals have to make do with very ordinary, mundane activities.
The quality of leisure pleasure, as I would like to phrase it, is often relative. Sure, you can sunbathe on the shores of a mediterannean country, or even ski on the slopes of Aspen but your pleasure and happiness could just be as intense if you are having a marvellous time at the neighbourhood mall.
Now, as I gaze across the wide expanse of my office floor, I see empty tables and empty chairs. I also detect a distinct flavour of tranquillity that's conspicuously absent during the weekdays.
Praise be to Sundays, I say. May some of you realise what you are missing in life. Life can be long or short but what really matters is what you squeeze out of every second of every minute of every hour and everyday.
Think about it. Forget about being unable to be a millionaire at 30 or still smarting over the notion that you have lost your opportunity at being a famous movie star.
There are bigger and more important things in life than these trivia of no significance.

The Floods are here again!

2007-01-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

Even as I write these lines, more than 100,000 of my fellow countrymen are languishing down south of Peninsular Malaysia, specifically Johor.
The floods have been merciless this season. Perhaps for the first time in almost a century, the State of Johor is at the mercy of the elements.
Nobody knows when the weather and climate will let up. But right now, what we do know is that tens of thousands of families are staying in evacuation centres. Their homes have been washed out in many instances.
Children are unable to go to school. Workers have forgotten about employment for the time being and local authorities are up to their eyeballs in rescue efforts.
This phenomenon is repeated throughout the world. In other countries, the unpredictable weather comes in the form of blizzards, especially in parts of America.
Over in western Australia, fires recently wiped out thousands of acres of trees. Japan recently experienced earthquakes and mini tsunamis. All these natural happenings do not portend good things ahead.
Perhaps Mother Earth is finally awakening to the fact that man has too long been given free play of her backyard and she's no longer amused. When Earth is viewed as a living entity just like the rest of us, then perhaps the bigger picture can be seen.
There's only so much a planet can take from prolonged periods of abuse and misuse of her resources. Thus, the big quakes, the mounting sea waves, the heat and the blizzards.
Over in Malaysia, we are luckier than most countries. We don't really experience the really big nasty weather reactions. But that doesn't mean we should be smug about the whole situation.
Ultimately, nobody is really isolated from Earth's violent reaction to global heating. And heating up is what it is. The Polar caps are melting at an alarming rate.
The Ozone layer is widening and naturally, when things go amiss there's a chain of events that don't conform to peaceful co-existence between man and nature. These are the beginning of reminders to us all that no matter what we do on earth, we have to be mindful that our basic sciences tell us that there's always a cause and effect.
We have been forewarned in the past. We took no heed. Mother Nature is no longer playing the nice guy.

Here Comes Christmas Again

2006-12-17T22:31:00.000-08:00

Two thousand years ago, give or take a few years, a man and his wife, found their way into Bethlehem. As the story goes and it has been well told for 2,000 years, the couple was turned down by every innkeeper in town.
So the new born child found his new home on earth in a manger for animals. However, his birth was marked by the Star of David which shines on earth forevermore.
He was the messiah as promised by the prophets and as foretold in the Bible. But he brought no army with him, and raised none. In his wake, as a man around 30 years old, he brought forth another message.
It was a message of peace unto mankind and forgiveness for enemies. On top of that, he says all men are brothers, and that includes the women as well. So it came to pass, that his end should come at the cross where he was crucified and nailed.
It was a death, he foresaw and shuddered but as all righteousness shalt be fufilled, he walked steadily to meet destiny and the future of mankind.
Now in the third millennia of civilisation of mankind, the symbol of the cross has spread across the world, across the lands where he had never walked. But the message is the same: love thy neighbour, forgive your enemies and walk in the light of the Almighty.
It is now the evening of the year 2006, and we are standing on the threshold of the dawning of 2007. But before all that, Christmas is upon us again. As citizens of this modern world, quite unlike that which was Nazareth, Jerusalem and Bethlehem of the days of yore, we celebrate Christmas in bright lights, good food and family dinners.
The carpentar who came, saw, preached and died, left his teachings in books and elsewhere in printed form for all of us to remember and learn. This Christmas as in all the past Christmases, we strive to remember others, even as we can't forget ourselves.
Christmas in its true spirit is all about caring for others. Afterall, God has already taken good care of us. The others have not been forgotten by God because we have forgotten them.
The little acts of kindness that we remind ourselves that we must do have been forgotten in the loud cheers of a spirited pub or boisterous restaurant. How many more die quietly and perish in hunger thousands of miles away without our knowledge.
It is Christmas for them, too but where are we? It is time we remember these brothers and sisters of ours in faraway lands. These are the people we have not met and probably won't meet for the rest of our lives.
Modern media have brought their plight to our living rooms. As we partake in our God given festivities and blessings, we should strive to say prayers for our fallen brethern. These are the women, children and the infirm who can't fend for themselves.
Their prayers, if they know how to pray, seemingly go unanswered. But their prayers have been heard by God and now it is our turn as fellow members of this human race to do all we can for them, as much as we can, and as long as we can.
There have been thousands of Christmases over the ages. Each year when the occasion comes, most of us fortunate ones end up partying till the wee hours of the night and into the early hours of the morning.
Even though enjoyment is not a sin itself, perhaps somewhere along the way, we have forgotten what the true spirit of Christmas is all about.
Do we remember the troubled and hungry people of Darfur, do we care for the angry inhabitants of Gaza and West Bank, do we spare a thought for our brethern in North Korea, in every land that has been struck by natural disasters of magnitudes that easily claim lives?
The message by the Nazarene has been the same for two millennia, and it is we must look after our own kind, no matter where they are on earth. Only when these "lost sheep" have been found and cared for, will our own woes begone.
Our future is tied to their worrisome present. Christmas is not so much about celebrating the arrival of the Messiah. He has come and gone. He has done his job and is now back with his Father. We are still on earth, and our duties are not over.
Perhaps it may be unfair to ask each man to do the job of world leaders, perhaps it is too colossel a task for most of us to venture forth and extend a helping hand to all troubled souls in every corner of this earth.
But it won't be difficult to help our next door neighbour who may be unhappy for reasons known only to himself. If we can't help him in a concrete manner, we can extend a ever ready listening ear to his litany of woes.
Help comes in all forms. It is helping an aged citizen to cross a busy road; it is that smile that is unexpected by the stranger; it is the unannounced gift for someone who needs it badly; it is the voice that speaks up for the meek; it is those legs that help seek succour for others too tired to walk: and above all it is that willingness to help total strangers in every way possible.
This is the Light, the Way and the Truth that have been spoken and echoed for ages. We do not belong to the Legion of the Deaf. Why do we not hear? We are not members of the Army of the Blind, why do we not see the misery of others?
The spirit of Christmas is once again sweeping across the world. It is supposed to lighten the burden of our hearts and lift that weight off our minds, and yet we do not do anything to help ourselves.
As we help others, we alleviate our own load. Blessed are they who help others more than they help themselves, for they are the true children of God.
The road to kindness is narrow and winding. The highway to the pursuit of happiness is long and wide. The road to love and compassion is obscure and untarred. The highway to avarice is a dual carriageway.
It's time to rebuild the smaller and much neglected roads because they are the highways to heaven. Unless we get back on the right road, we will forever wander in darkness and in sorrow.
Christmas descends on us once more so that we remember that we are a race of superbeings. That we can do better, because we are better. The light has always been in us. It is part of us, and it is us. Yes, the Star of David shines in perpectuity, but the light in us shines for eternity.
Merry Christmas to all you good folks.

Death takes a friend

2006-12-01T00:51:00.000-08:00

Recently, I lost another friend to terminal illness. Death comes these days on swift wings. Earlier this year, a former boss of mine also lost his battle with cancer. He died at 61. My former office colleague died at the age of 51.
It is true to some degree what some people are saying. They are saying that people are dying at younger ages these days. Is it because they pile pressure upon themselves.
Actually, very few people like to discuss the subject of death. Why be so morbid, they would say. It is as if, none of us really dies. I mean if you say a person has passed away, that doesn't mean he's still around.
What's the difference between "died" and "passed away". Whatever term you use, it doesn't change the fact that his lifespan has ended.
We all know Death will be knocking on our doors one of these days, so why wait for it with great anxiety?
I sometimes tell friends that I learn more about Death then from people who think they can outlive others. What's so great about living up to 120? By then, most of your friends are dead and gone.
Children have parents who live up to a ripe old age, are often overheard grumbling that it is becoming an increasing burden to maintain an aged parent or two. Asians normally just bring their aged parents under their roof until it's time for time to die a natural death.

Sometimes, I tell others and myself: "Have we learnt nothing from death?" We are born, we study, we work, we marry and then we die." Surely, life is more than all these.
Well true. Those who live life to the fullest know life is slipping away from them by the minute but they are often too busy to notice. It's fine to live up to 200 years old, provided there's a divine mission in there somewhere.

I have heard someone grumbled once: "I am losing more and more of my friends to death and old age." My reply was "make new friends." Actually, if we can live life as if we will die tomorrow, we will have truly live.
Unfortunately, many of us try our level best to beat Father Time and the man with the hood and sickle. It's when we try too hard to extend our longevity that we lose sight of life's objectives.

Allow me to put it in simpler terms: if you are too preoccupied with eating vitamin supplements and dieting, you will have no time to have fun with your family, go fishing, watching great movies or just plain reading marvellous books.

Every time, a friend of mine dies, a relative checks out of Planet Earth, or just hops on to that one-way celestial flight 101, I ask myself: "So now what have you been doing to make your life and other people's lives better and happier?"
You will be surprised at what I found out. I actually find out that I have been neglecting doing some of the more meaningful things in life. And what are these?
Would you believe taking an early morning walk, breathing in the fresh air and listening to the magpies sing in the trees a great pastime? Or, riding a motorcycle with no special purpose in mind other than feeling the cool wind against your cheeks, another great thing to do?
Well, these are really fun things to do. A friend of mine just stopped by at my desk about a minute ago and said something about making money. I told him, one doesn't have to be rich to be happy. He said something about not many people are in the state of zen.
Actually, we don't have to take the "long route" but if we just simplify our lives and cut down on unnecessary chores, we will carry far less burden on our shoulders.
When you tell some people this, they may inadvertently think you are preaching to them. And yet there are people who actually saunter up to your house or living room and want a conversation about life and its priorities.
I have spent a number of decades on earth. I am no genius. I am no philosopher but there are some things I know from other people's experiences. Surprise of surprises, I learn a lot when I hear or read about the death of colleagues, relatives and others.
What's so terrifying about death? People think of death in the wrong terms. They think when they die, they will have not spent enough of money to enjoy themselves to the fullest. They believe that if they can't live an extra 10 years, they have not fulfilled their destiny. They are firmly convinced that if they have not visited the 10 most visited holiday resorts around the world, they would have failed as human beings.

Pity them? No. Just lead a useful, productive life, and you will know the true meaning of personal fulfilment. The happiness that you generate for others will be the happiness given unto you. The love that you give and share with others is the love that will surround your life.

When people ask me what is the secret of true happiness, I tell them to look at the simple things in life. What are these simple things? Well, for a start, family. If you have a happy family and much of the happiness under your roof comes from your kindness and compassion and selfless acts of charity, then you would be considered to have seen the brighter side of simplicity.

The other simple thing is food. Do not try to eat everything on the table. You only have one mouth and one stomach. When you have had enough, please stop. That's not rocket science. That's commonsense.

If you can't visit Barbados this year, try not to cry yourself to sleep. Take a drive to a small town, sit in a rundown coffeeshop and make conversation with strangers, you may find it being more beneficial than sunbathing with strangers who really don't want to talk to you at all.

Again, we come back to the subject of life and death. If you don't have a stretch limousine, don't be blue. Billions of people on earth don't have stretch limos. Big cars don't bring happiness, they just take up more parking space and become a target for car thieves.

When you are trying too hard to earn an extra million or two, stop and ponder over the fact that God may call you home early tomorrow morning. Then, where will all your earthly possessions take you?

You leave them all behind, you dope! You take nothing with you. You take with you the intangibles, like love, memories, kindness, prayers and sincerity. All these that are given freely by you, will in turn be freely be given unto you.

The gates of heaven are only open to those who have no earthly baggage. God's house only admits the things that he recognises. The peace, harmony and happiness that you have created or generated while you were on earth will be accounted for in the treasury of heaven.

All that is done in His good name will be checked in at heaven's gate. Death is the final arbiter of your time on earth. Being good at making money on earth simply means just that - you are only good for making money on earth. Heaven wants no part of that because money is not legal tender in heaven.

Next time, you come face to face with Death, stare at him straight in the face, he may be trying to tell you something.

Taking blue skies for granted

2006-11-03T21:21:00.000-08:00

We human beings are always taking the good things in life for granted. Take for example, the blue sky that greets you every morning when you walk out of the front door.

I have been expecting and receiving blue skies for decades,until recently when the haze from a nearby country swept into our region (Southeast Asia). For weeks, the sky was grayish and was definitely dirty.
Breathing became laboured for most of us who travel daily on the road. For a while back there, it was depressing. Nature which used to grant us all kinds of favours was not amused anymore.
The shifting cultivators in Kalimantan, Sumatra and other Indonesian islands were burning up patches of the jungle and forest indiscriminately. At one point, satellites spotted close to 900 hot spots from the orbit.
Suddenly, the entire situation became quite grim. Doctors were doing good business. Bronchial problems became common. I developed a cold that wouldn't leave me for about seven days. Normally, the flu bug normally takes up residence in my body for only 24 hours before I give it the heave-ho!
Today, I read in the newspapers that the depletion of the ozone layer over earth's atmosphere is alarmingly large. Just about a week ago, Tony Blair (British PM) had one of his environment experts pronouncing dire warnings about global warming.
It's all coming together, if you know what I mean. If the earth thinks it can survive very well without some positive contribution to the well being of a living planet, it is becoming quite apparent that the planet will strike back.
It bears logic that if you don't after your backyard, it is not going to grant your the favours that you deserve. In many industrialised countries and in continents where manufacturing and other industrial activities are taking place, signs are seen on the ground and in the sky that all's not well.
Soon, and here we are talking about perhaps a decade or two, the process will become hazardous to our health. Yes, we probably have to go into damage control when the alarm bells ring. However, by then, the death toll will indicate that once again, man has committed another colossel error in managing earth.
It is so strange that while we are making so much fuss over wars, potential regional conflicts and life-threatening diseases, we are also neglecting with impunity the planet we call home.
It is like setting the roof of your home on fire and still have meals in the dining room. It really makes no sense. Where are all the so-called intelligent people on earth? Have they left for another planet?
At this rate, we really don't have to worry too much about AIDS, cancer or bad food because we are going to die while jogging on our tracks. The tragedy of it all is that death will come in instalments.
It won't be that funny once the process starts. Scientists will as usual have their two-cent worth of expert advice. There will be as many expert views as there are researchers who are willing to give their opinions.
World leaders will call for summits, conferences and seminars to address these pressing issues. Some people are of the opinion that we can stop worrying about nuclear bombs and uranium enrichment programmes because the badly abused environment will smack us right in the face.
As an individual I have taken so many good things in life for granted, starting with the blue sky that I mentioned in the beginning of this passage.
If all the so-called clever scientists in the world can find the moral courage to get together to plead their case in front of their governments, perhaps there might still be some hope for the people on earth. Otherwise, it is going to be a long road to hell.
I wish there was someone out there brave enough to call me an alarmist. It's probably a little too late. The signs are all out there for everybody to see. If we are blind, that's fine. We have other things to worry about but for the rest of the 6.5 billion on earth, it's not going to be rock and roll.
This line: "Life is not what it used to be" is going to be heard more often now. I wish I have more reassuring words for the younger generation but the only thing I can say to them right now is "sorry, the adults have really fouled things up this time."
Life is no longer going to be a bed of roses because the roses are dying. Environment neglect and land abuse are gateways to touching base with death. I guess we have touched that once too often. Now, Death is knocking at our door, regardless where we are residing on earth.
It's no longer funny. Notice, I am not laughing anymore.

The road to personal happiness

2006-10-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

This question has been asked countless times in the course of the history of mankind. The great, the powerful, the ignorant and the ordinary have asked for the roadmap to happiness.
Some have been given the answer. Some have found the answer themselves. But as always, the answer is never outside their heart and mind.
Happiness is a decision. For example, if you are unhappy because you are poor then you must tell yourself that certain material possessions are necessary but they are not essential to the creation of happiness.
Happiness is also a state of mind. You can be roasting in the middle of a desert in the middle of Africa but if you decide to be happy amid the miserable surroundings, you can be so.
It is a crazy thought but it's true. For example, your wife leaves you for another man, your children hate you, you have just been sacked, your house is burned down and you have no more friends left.
You have every reason in the world to cry and wallow in self-pity but if you so wish, you can just walk up to the mirror or just stare into the blue beyond and tell yourself that despite all that has happened to you, you WILL be happy because you are a child of God and being a child of God, everything works in your favour eventually.
Again, this may seem impossible but are you wise enough to see that everything in this life is an illusion. Consider the possibility that if tomorrow, half of the world is wiped out by a series of unnatural disasters, those victims won't have anything to worry about anymore.
As long as you have breath in your body, you can be happy. Happiness, as I have said, is your right. Tell yourself the next time when everything is working against you that you will be happy regardless of the circumstances.
Believe it or not, people are unhappy because they have decided that they have earned the right to be unhappy. They want to be unhappy and they will themselves to be sad.
The path to everlasting happiness is to know that everything and anything that happens on earth and to you, are divinely engineered for your eternal happiness. It sounds idiotic, I know but it's true.
Once you understand the concept al All There Is, you have nothing to fear. You need not marry the most beautiful person in the world. You need not be a billionaire nor do you have to rule a country to find that elusive state of mind called happiness.
You can be happy whoever you are, wherever you are and whatever you will be. It is simply a decision based on the divine understanding withe God that you are part of him and no matter what happens, happiness is built into your life.

The world tottering on the precipice of horror

2006-10-15T00:02:00.000-07:00

I was having my breakfast this morning when I saw the headline flashed across the TV screen.
North Korea has practically spit in the face of the United Nations Security Council. It was a 15-0 vote for sanctions against North Korea. However, the Communist nation has taken the vote as an indication that it could be pushed into war footing.
Barring against all unforeseen circumstances, we the non-politicians can only expect the North Korea-against-the-world situation to get progressively worse.
For a long time now, Pyongyang has been simmering with irrational belligerance against other developed countries.
Japan has raised its alert level. So has South Korea. It is not a pleasant situation. Nobody in Asia desires to see the situation deteriorate beyond the point of no-return.
Sometimes, situations like what is going on beyond the 38th Parallel cannot be accurately assessed or predicted. But what is guaranteed at this point is that the art of brinkmanship has been played many times before in the past.
This time however, nobody is prepared to lose. The world can actually do with one less high conflict level situation.
We won't go into an unnecessary debate about why North Korea is behaving as it is doing right now. Perhaps its condition could be attributed in part to the new Secretary-General of the UN, South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon. Stranger things have happened before.
It is my wish and hope the peace and sanity will prevail before long. I am getting a little tired from worrying about hurricanes, typhoons, regional haze, and then have to worry some more about conflagration somewhere in the Pacific region.
Some of us still have horrendous memories of what happened during the Korean War of the early 50s. It wasn't a pleasant situation then. It certainly won't be any less painful if the unthinkable happens again.
You would have thought that after half a century, leaders of the then participating countries would have learnt a couple of valuable lessons. I hope the world does not have to be taught another painful and bitter lesson in order for other members of the human race to progress admirably in the 21st century.
With Middle East on the boil, and now North Korea furiously engaging in some sabre-rattling act, it is a bit difficult to get a good night's sleep. I know that once a big conflict begins, the political, socio-economical repercussions will ripple across the world, much like a tsunami that we all not want to experience.
Will mankind be able to save itself again as it did, many times in the past? We all pray that it can and it will.

Joy is having a good lunch

2006-09-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

This is an inane subject of innocuous proportions. Having a good lunch? Plenty of us do. We eat and then we are back at work and we quickly forget what we have just eaten.
Well I just had a great lunch. What made it even more memorable was the fact that I shared a table with two other colleagues and we partook in a great lunch conversation.
Some of the nicest things that happen to us on a daily basis is lunch and how we go through it. We think eating is compulsory in maintaining life. Well, it's true to a small extent. Man can actually survive for quite a long spell without eating.
But since we belong to that lucky group of people who get to eat three square meals a day, we should be slightly thankful that we can afford to eat and have meals to eat several times a day on a daily basis.
I have had hundreds of thousands of lunches in my lifetime. I have had many forgettable lunches but as time passes by, I realise that I have taken a lot of important things for granted.
No longer so. These days, I anticipated each meal with some happiness and joy. Am I crazy? Absolutely not. Eating is a blessing. Just think of all those who want to eat, and eat joyously but can't. It could be due to ill health, it could be due to a lack of good teeth, and it could also be due to a constant lack of appetite.
Thus, having a good lunch is one of those blessings that come upon many of us without prior notice, and it often taken for granted by the best of us for many a good year.
Hence, I would like to conclude by announcing to all and sundry that you all must no longer look upon lunches as some kind of a chore but as a privilege and a gift from heaven.
Just imagine the scenario where you could no longer have lunches or can't afford to have one regulary. Surely, that must be one of life's greatest punishments if I ever hear one.
Enjoy your lunch and I mean it!

Forgive, Forget and Move on

2006-09-01T02:31:00.000-07:00

There's a saying that goes: Forgive and forget, life's too short. Actually, that's one of the most practical piece of advice I have ever come across.
Most of us don't really think about that until we find a very good reason to dislike a particular person. It gets worse when our hostility is amply justified. Can you imagine forgiving someone whom you dislike intensely, and then in the same breath, proclaim that you will not forget that incident.
A philosophy of that kind is simply unacceptable. To forgive means to forget as well. When you say that you will forgive but will not forget, you are in actual act, saying that you will get married but will also continue to lead the life of a single person.
Through personal experience, I have found out that forgive, forget and move on is the best antidote to all painful experiences that sometimes come unexpectedly. I know of a couple of people who can't forgive, never forget and vow not to move on until the other chap drops dead.
It is a monumental waste of energy and time. If that person whom you dislike intensely does not know that you have such strong feelings towards him or her, then it doesn't affect him. Only you have that hostility all bottled in your frail body.
The body cannot contain too much of this kind of strong feeling because too much of aggression, hostility and frustration will be manifested in illnesses and transformed into all kinds of unhealthy stress-related abnormalies.
One of the most powerful factors for sectarian conflicts in many parts of the world is this unusual propensity to destroy another community, simply for the sake of killing someone.
The consequence of taking another person's life is to trigger a chain of events that will lead to more destruction. The more the feeling is allowed expression through murderous means, the more it will gather momentum.
So if you caught in this tragic cycle of runaway emotions, you must immediately break the momentum by forgiving, forgetting and moving on. I know it is very difficult but it sure beats getting yourself killed as well as trying to kill others.
All the great religious teachers who have come before us eons ago have promulgated the philosophy of loving your neighbour and doing good unto others as you would want them to do unto you.
The teaching is rather simple but humans have this sad inclination of learning simple things.
If you think you have a long life ahead of you, and you can stop hating after 50 years of existence on earth, you may be in for a deep shock. The reason is because your life may come to an abrupt end at 40 years.
Not quite the 50 years that you have expected. There's no prize for wanting to hate others until they retire in the cemetery. You will join them there too, soon enough.
The idea is to make your passage on earth as smooth as silk. Why indulge in all these meaningless and physically exhausting feelings that will bring you no good at all.
Don't wait till you are at death's door before you suddenly realise that all those bad feelings which have been kept under lock and key in your heart and mind have been a terrible waste of time all those decades.
Think about it!!

How to Write a Book Without Really Trying

2006-08-12T23:07:00.000-07:00

RECENTLY, I suddenly discovered the easiest way to getting my first book published is to NOT think about it too seriously. The idea is to just go out there and write something - anything!
Once your mental wheels begin to grind, there is a sense of motion. Who cares what is being written. Write anything that you fancy. Write something that has caught your interest.
Do you know that there are literally millions of people out there who are thinking of writing their first novel? Only a handful of them actually get down to doing it. Of course the number of successful ones can be numbered in single digits but the important thing is are you one of them?
I have been blogging for God knows how long. There's no monetary reward in doing it other than having the satisfaction of penning my thoughts in mostly random fashion.
My intention is to galvanise my writing apparatus. Writing is like swimming or any activity that may be deemed important to an individual. If you want to be good at poker, you play everyday or practise playing everyday, much like tennis, golf or baseball.
If you practise long enough and hard enough, one day you will be better than average.
Same goes for writing and publishing a book. Many people harbour the wrong intention of trying to impress other people, or worse their book publisher. Nobody wants to be reminded of your ego.
Do you have a story to tell? Even if it is a simple tale but it is well told, it will be well received.
Look at Mark Twain or perhaps further down the road, Ernest Hemingway. Both men wrote simple and yet powerful stories. They didn't bombast their way to success. They just told a good story in the simplest way they knew how.
When a story is well told, in a way that captures the imagination of the reader and holds it there for long minutes, you may just have a winner there. Some of the most successful writers on this planet are not the most intelligent people around. They are just some of the most passionate writers you have come across.
If you ever ask God for one writing gift - ask for the great, insatiable passion to tell a great tale in the grandest manner possible. And you will have publishers breaking down your door to get to you.
Yes, you can begin by blogging. So what if nobody cares a hoot as to what you have to say. You care, that's the most important thing. Once you start writing, don't stop. Just go on and on. Keep lighting that flame. Keep it alive, fuel it, fan it and never let it simmer down to become ashes.
Life is too short and too important to left go of your kite of ambition. Let it fly, let it soar. I recall once reading these inspiring words - A kite flies higher against the winds of adversity!"
Let then this be your credo. If you are an aspiring writer like me, write and throw caution to the wind.
One day when you look back you will be surprised what you will discover. You will be glad to realise that you have trudged many a mile down the road to your first published work.
You will realise that it all began with a simple entry in an ordinary blog. Champions are not born overnight, nor great writers created by a single novel. These are the unnamed people, strangers in fact, who continue to work and toil long after the sun has set and the ordinary blokes have returned to their families.
These super achievers continue to produce, create and invent new things, new works and write great lines so that the many others who follow after them will one day be inspired by the lines they have left behind.
Perhaps you would like to be among such people. Never give up. Don't be discourage. Never let the small people get to you. You are not one of those little people. You are born for great things. You are special. If you not born, then you probably don't need to hear these words.
But you are here. You exist, therefore you are. You are one of God's people. You are indeed entitled to greatness just like all the other great people who have populated the earth before your time.
Remember that always, up till the day you call it a day on earth.

Better Than Ever

2006-08-03T02:29:00.000-07:00

Almost every morning when I step into the office, I inadvertently bump into someone or somebody who will ask "hello, how are you?" My reply, standard and sincere is "better than ever".

If that sounds a bit corny, it's because very few people actually say that and mean it. Most of the time, they will say "could be better" or "one day at a time."
I use to say "one day at a time, brother." But I no longer say that. These days, I am more upbeat. One day, I woke up and realised that life can be as good as it gets, if you allow it to be.
Too many people are cautiously optimistic or pessimistic for no reason. Why should we be sad and gloomy. We are not dead. We are not sick. And we are living a good life. The fact that we are not recuperating in a hospital somewhere shows that fate has been kind to us.

I have been working for almost 30 years. There have been good years and there have been sad years. In all those years, I have never been really down. Yes, there were a few instances when I might have commented "it could have been better."
I no longer indulge in that kind of thinking. There are too many people beating me to the door of gloom. Simply put, I am tired of being sad, gloomy and angry. Why waste time on useless emotions?
When you can eat, sleep and walk around unaided, it should be considered a blessing. The trouble with humans is that we are always envying others. We envy Donald Trump. We are slightly jealous of Hugh Hefner and all his Bunny girls. We are unhappy that we are not born with Brad Pitt looks.
Why are we always looking over our neighbour's fences? Aren't we all satisfied with our own things, or physical attributes?
Happiness is a state of mind. It is actually a decision. At this very minute, when you tell yourself, "I am happy" - then you will be. Peace of mind is also reflective of one's own soul.
A life that has 80 years in it may not be such a great life. Chronologically, it is just an accumulation of years. Some people live only 30 years but what a life they had led.
Life must not be sipped but gulped down with great gusto. Life is to be lived to the fullest. A man has not lived to his fullest potential unless he has tried his darnest to be the greatest version of the grandest vision of himself.
What does it profit a man if he makes 10 billion dollars and sits alone in his own mansion wondering if he could go out without telling one of his 20 bodyguards.
What kind of life is it if a man has to walk with 10 bodyguards keeping a close watch on his physical form and his family as well.
Very often, I comment to my friends that if I have to live the life of a recluse because of my enormous wealth, then I don't want it. Freedom is a privilege. Most of us throw that away and opt for wealth.
If a man cannot live free then all the money is the world is meaningless.
Everything that happens to us is of our own making. I wasn't convinced of this until the day I decided that I shall always be "stronger, faster, tougher, kinder and gentler" everyday in everyway.
Never, never, never let anybody get you down. Happiness is your right. Make up your mind to be kind, to be peaceful in every way, be at peace with everybody, not to be impressed by our own ego, and instead of finding love, give it, show it, and bring it to others. Then watch the amazing process of your own life transforming right before your eyes.
Be happy, brothers and sisters. You and I will not live forever but we can choose to be happy all the time, every minute of every hour of everyday for the rest of our lives. Now, isn't that wonderful?

A long, long time ago, in a place where I once roamed....

2006-07-24T03:00:00.000-07:00

Actually, I am talking about my growing up years, if you are wondering about my heading for this topic.
All of us have our own childhood experiences. Some of you may wish that the memories be best buried. Not me, though. I had a whale of a time when I was young. My childhood friends were a motley crew of youngsters like me who came from varied backgrounds.
There was one Indian boy by the name of Peter who took me fishing at a nearby river. It was actually located in some rarely visited part of our terrain. A bit wild, plenty of leeches and a fast-flowing river.
Now that I think of it, it was a bit dangerous for a young chap like me who could drown faster than I could swim. But nevertheless I had some fond memories of seeing a guy who caught fish by planting short stakes with a short line and a hook with a worm attached to it at the edges of the river.
The procedure was to check out the numerous stakes at the various points of the river the next day. There was a good chance that his hard work had produced a fish or two. It was a bit primitive (method) but at that age then, I thought it was certainly one of the most exciting things I had come across.
Then there were the Malay kids who taught me how to make glassed string by smashing blown-out bulbs into powder form. We misec the powdered glass with boiled glue in an used tin can and later run the big coil of string through the concoction.
The idea was to have this slightly stiffened ball of string that would "deadly" in the battle of kites. Even back then, when the windy season came, children my age gathered at the nearest field to fly our kites.
The unwritten rule was to challenge other kids' kites high in the sky. Those who were unfortunate enough to lose their kites in the air due to the "sharper" string (maybe ours) would have to give up their kites.
The other low-tech activity was to collect spiders from faraway environs. At that time, "fighting spiders" was a favourite hobby among semi-rural children. There was a particular species of spider that fights another one of its kind on sight.
We used to fan out into the furthest parts of the neighbourhood to search for these prized specimens. Occasionally, we wandered off further than we should but in the end, we come home, heavily tanned but none the worse for wear, other than being slightly tired but exhilarated for bagging a couple of "great spiders.
We kept our spiders in metal cigarette boxes and fed the spiders with houseflies. I don't see this kind of activity among children of the present generation. What a pity. They would have a great time.
Growing up also meant having a wild time with our imaginations. There was always the popular subject of ghosts. Children all over the world love what they cannot understand and fear what they cannot see.
As adults, I have found out, the rules have not changed since those early years. However, I recall that the older children loved making our hair stand on end by telling us exaggerated tales of ghostly sightings.
The fact that we told these stories late at night only added to the excitement of the occasion. Hearing ghost stories was one of our favourite and most feared pastimes. Imagine a young child whose strongest asset was an unbridled imagination of borderless proportions.
Now visualise the surroundings: wind blowing gently, perhaps an owl hooting at a faraway distance, shadows dancing on walls and rooftops of houses, insects' sounds in the bushes, and a bunch of kids doing what they did best, that is, trying to frighten one another to death.
It was a wild, scary pastime. We loved it. We would not want to repeat it every night but it was fun while it lasted.
Now on looking back, I miss those years. Those experiences didn't warp our personalities. We grew up more or less normal. We matured a fair bit along the way and we now feel sorry for our own children for not sharing the kind of games we used to play.
The world has changed so much while I was growing up.

My heart bleeds for the holy land

2006-07-19T01:19:00.000-07:00

IT HAS long been the sore point for all those who value their lives and staying in countries like Egypt, Jordan to Syria and Iran for ages. The heart of all that is holy should be the point of contention for people whose ancestors who shared land stretching from ancient Judea down the river of Babylon.
Even as I write these words, I wonder what's really the point of fighting over plots of dirt. I am sorry if I have trivialised this issue of territory but there's really no way to put it in simplistic terms.
Just think of it, two thousand years ago when that man from Nazareth walked the streets of Jerusalem and preached the urgency of love for our neighbour, a lot of people believed in the wisdom of his words.
For a while, the numbers of people practising what he had preached were heartening. His principles of a life-worthing-living spread across the continents and over the millennia.
But now, two thousand years have gone by. Millions had died in the march of time but lessons from the past have been forgotten. Jews and Arabs, people of flesh and blood, are fighting with each other over land that they will eventually be buried under.
I ask you what does it profit a man if all he gains is just dirt that will eventually be his resting ground? Nobody, I mean, nobody is going to take with him any of the land he so vehemently fights for and over.
The Jews or Israelis have called their present nation their home since the time Moses led them out of Egypt. The Jews have a very long and troubled history. Their descendants have scattered all over West Asia and the European continent for ages. The word "diaspora" has an exclusive reference to the dispersed descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel.
It is a fascinating story of how a "chosen race" has gone to the ends of the world, struggled and later returned to their beloved homeland. It took them 2,000 years. Those of us who have left our original homelands understand only too well the feelings of the Jews.
Then on the other hand are the other communities who have occupied the Middle East for eons. They too have as much right to be there. The question we ask ourselves is who has more right to be there.
The answer is always none has as much right as the other, for no one created that land. It was there before man first planted his feet on earth. What then is the answer? Actually, in this case, it is the question of what lessons are there to be learnt from this contentious issue?
When mankind finally learns how to answer the question correctly, then he finally deserves the peace he so desperately craves. Seek the answer in the deeper regions of your heart. Know that in the end, our life is limited in its length. In eternity, a lifetime of 70 years or even 120 years is but a blink of an eye.
What do you do with your life is more important than how many years you have spent on earth? People tend to equate longevity with good fortune. How wrong most of us are.
If a man lives for 33 years, like Jesus did, and the fruits of his labour are enjoyed by generations thereafter forever, then his life has got more meaning than a life span of 500 years.
In the holy land now, the battle rages on for pieces of land that is subjected to the hot desert sun for untold ages. The word holy may no longer be applicable to territory that has seen so much battles and experienced so much sorrow.
If Middle East wants the peace it seeks, the people who are fighting each other now must recognise the fact that bullets and missiles can solve nothing. These weapons of destruction can only spark off more incidents of woe and suffering.
Are we courageous enough to see the face of our brother in a stranger? Are we wise enough to embrace our sworn enemy, knowing full well that an embrace could lead to our death? Fear is our enemy.
Fear then is our greatest foe. We fear that we will lose all if we trust too much and share all that we have. It may be a cliche but we must conquer fear and invite back love into our lives. Without that, we will have nothing but fear and fear leads to hatred and hatred leads to hostility.
From then on, it is but a short path to war and from war, the gates of hell will be opened to all who partake in it.
Sometime and somewhere along the journey of life, man whether he be Jew or Arab must realise that all his beliefs will come to nought if peace and happiness will not be part of his rewards before his life ends.
For a better part of 2,000 years, the people who had occupied and are still occupying what was once called the holy land had bickered and quarrelled over the fleeting and the intangible.
The God that they pray to must be saddened by the ways of these people. We shall pray for the eternal wisdom that must surely be ours before we know everlasting peace.
Amen to you, my brothers and sisters.

Coming to terms with Today

2006-07-07T02:09:00.000-07:00

All of us without exception think of life in terms of tomorrow. If there's even one among you out there who says 'no' then you are not being true to yourself.
Perhaps you have understand the concept of Now and Today. If you have, then you will know what I am talking about. Without going into the philosophical arguments of what constitutes 'tomorrow', let me just say that if you are thinking of the good that is going to come out of tomorrow, then I will tell you to just forget it.
Tomorrow metaphorically never comes. When tomorrow comes, it will identify itself as Today. Yesterday just waves at you from a distance. In fact, it is like greeting a familiar face from across the river.
Greeting Yesterday is like seeing somebody you know but the chances of shaking hands or hugging each other is nil. That's Yesterday for you. So what is the best among the three: Yesterday, Today or Tomorrow?
Naturally, it is Today. Today, you can do anything you like and you can see the immediate results. If you were to buy somebody lunch today, you will hear the verbal expression of gratitude, or you will receive the words "Thank you very much."
Today basically is all you have. You don't have Yesterday because it has left the building. You can't get hold of tomorrow because it hasn't shown up. What's the use of pining for something that may or may not turn up?
Forget about Yesterday. You don't possess it. At best, you can learn from the past. At its worst, you are chasing after a dream. It's like trying to catch the mist.
Tomorrow is somebody else's dream. It doesn't really take shape. It holds the promise of Today when it comes. By the time, it appears before you, it would have transformed itself into Today.
So your best friend is actually Today. If you wish you could or would say something nice to your wife, children or parents, say it Today and be done with it.
Why wait till tomorrow. Before the day ends today, you could be diverted from your personal intention. Or worse, you could end up in sick bay. There goes your chance if that happens.
The opportunities of Today are only good enough for the day while it lasts. Now is all the time you have. You can feel it, you can revel in it and you can do anything and everything with it - only for Today.
Today, yes my friends, if only you realise that your best chances of success are embedded into Today's soil. If you plant a small seed of greatness in the ground of Today, tomorrow it will begin to grow. All that happens if you do it Today, not yesterday or tomorrow. Do it now, do it today and be happy with Today's deed.
Time is forever an illusion. It is made for our convenience and for planning our dreams. We really do not implement anything great or small tomorrow. We do all that Today.
For today is the day we take that first step. The journey of a million miles begins now, if you take the first step.
Many of us grow old wondering what we have done after seven or eight decades of living on earth. We reflect on the missed opportunities and the what-could-have-beens. Very few of us actually bask in the satisfaction of what have been achieved.
We can have that feeling, that kind of experience, if we stop wondering about it long enough to work our dreams.
Dreams will remain dreams forever if we don't wake up and do it. Once, many years ago, I came across this saying: "The best dream can only be achieved once you wake up!"
That is so true. People, human beings, are different from animals. A lot of animals survive by instinct. Man is the only member of the animal kingdom who has the luxury of dreaming. The secret that makes man great is that what we can dream, we can do. But we have to do it Today.
Today then is the key. It is the solution that leads to future successes. Once we implement our objectives today, we await tomorrow. When tomorrow shows up, we continue with our unfinished work today.
And so on it goes. We are constantly working - TODAY. We never work yesterday or we can't work tomorrow. It is today, today and forever today.
Once you understand the power of Today, you won't shed tears for Yesterday or harbour the ache of waiting for Tomorrow. For Today holds the master key to all the Time Vault.
Today is all you have. There's no other time. Make use of it before it slips away from you and is transformed into Yesterday. Yesterday and Tomorrow are distant cousins. They keep in touch but they never meet.
Today is your constant companion. It greets you every morning when you open your eyes. It follows you to work. It keeps you company in your loneliest moments. It joins in when you celebrate a major personal success. It is there for you. Frankly, you and Today are inseparable. You two are not twins. You two are one.
Realise that and you will never in want of anything for the rest of your natural life on earth.

Speaking from the heart

2006-06-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

HOW many times have you wanted to say something heart-warming to somebody but at the last minute, decide to abort the mission? Many times, am I right?

Yes, I too have experienced that kind of emotional situation. Why do we postpone or cancel feel-good moments like that? My guess is that we feel we will become embarrassed or the other party may feel embarrassed, and consequently there may be a long silence of embarrassed feelings.

About 35 years ago, on the last day of my high school, I decided to throw all caution out to the wind. The story went back about a year before that. A friend whom I had come to respect and like very much, did something that I thought was too much for my ego, so I ended our friendship.

It went on for more than a year, until that last day of school when all of us would go separate ways. Technically, we had reached the end of the road. The road further travelled would be done without the company of classmates, because that was when we started to plan for university and beyond.

I really like this guy because we had lots of things in common, so on that day, something happened. It was as if an angel had whispered in my ear and said: "This is your last chance to repair the broken friendship. Shake hands and be done with it."

So after some careful consideration, I walked up to this classmate and said: "I know when we haven't been friends for some time now but I like to be friends again and let bygones be bygones."

The look on this classmate's face was worth a million bucks. His facial expression revealed that he was so relieved that I had said it first although that was what he had in mind all the time but lacked the courage to carry it through. And so a friendship was saved.

We are still great friends today even though we had gone separate ways and led separate lives.

This is what I am driving at. Sometimes, there come opportunities to say things direct from the heart. These are some of the most precious moments in life. You will never know how much it will mean to the other person and how those kind words of yours will change his or her life for the better.

My advice to all those who hesitate: DON'T. Say it and be done with it. Don't let 20 years pass you by and then meet again when you two are in the twilight of your lives and then realise how you have missed that golden opportunity.

Yesterday, I gave my daughter the same advice when she asked me if she should buy her friend who's going overseas to study, a present. I told her that if she cannot afford to buy a gift for this friend, then thank her verbally for all those nice things her friend had done for her.

I said: "There are many times in your life when kind and sincere words are worth more than gold. These are treasured for a lifetime. More than that present which you have spent on. Tangible gifts are soon forgotten but not gifts from the heart, because these are stored in the heart and they will remain fresh forevermore."

Remembering my father on Father's Day

2006-06-18T03:10:00.000-07:00

My father died about nine years ago. He had led an interesting life, even though there were hard times for him as well as for us, his children. However, God has always been with us, and we survived and became stronger.

Now that I too am a father, I recall what all fathers may sometimes care to remember, that my children, our children, will walk down the same path all fathers will walk down.

It is not a difficult road if you don't make such a big deal out of it. It is easiest to travel when your heart is full of joy and you perform your fatherly duties out of love more than anything else.

I have been a father for about 25 years. It wasn't really difficult, I can now admit. In fact, it has been rather pleasant because I never consider it a chore. I took it in stride.

All of us men will one day be a father with the exception of a few who choose not to be fathers themselves. But it is a marvellous role - to be a father. Your children will make it all worthwhile.

There's nothing like having your offsprings remembering you in their own special ways. Life is like that. You teach them and at the same time you learn from them. One of the secrets of wonderful living,you learn as you teach.

There is no exception. Living and learning is a dual highway. It transcends all ages and make exceptions for none.

Today's Father's Day will be celebrated in a way by all fathers who have brought up their children to be better than themselves. It is a hope that I harbour, that my children will live their own lives beautifully and magnificently.

If I can help them to move faster along that road, so much the better. If not, may other experiences help to shape their character for the better. Being a man and then a father is a privilege. It took me a long time to realise that.

Now that I understand its message, the children become special to me, just as I am precious to them.

A Happy Father's Day to all fathers who are reading this.

Losing track of time

2006-06-01T00:52:00.000-07:00

According to my el-cheapo but reliable watch, it is now 3.50pm. I believe it is fast by one or two minutes but it's all right, I can live with that.
I have been in the office since 10am. The hours have flown swiftly past without me realising too much of the "lost" time. Anyway, life slips by you pretty quickly if you are busy doing your daily chores.
My daily routine comprises running around having tea breaks, lunch and chit-chat sessions with office colleagues. If I have the time, I will sit down and do some work for the organisation. Kidding!
Anyway, I told someone the other day that I was slightly surprised that it was June already. I could still recall Christmas celebrations with great clarity. Has it been six months since? Where has it all gone to?
As I have always maintained, Time is just a figment of man's imagination. Time was originally created to bring some semblance of order to man's life. Time or the watch or clock was invented and designed so that a person's life and work can be organised in the most intelligent manner conceivable.
There is such a thing as "losing track of time". Such a situation arises when an individual is too busy doing something else. It means that you are so engrossed in performing the "now" activities that you completely forgot to look at your watch and thus forgotten you are operating in your own time zone.
A person who knows about the value of time and also knows how to purposely "lose" time is the captain of his own fate. In other words, time has got no hold on you because you choose whether to recognise its importance or not take note of it to your own advantage.
Time, at the end of the day, can be an ally or a foe. It depends on how you use it. Having said all that, I have to admit I love wearing watches. It just helps me to organise my tasks which I set for myself throughout the day. Then, on the other hand, I also ignore my watch when the occasion calls for it.
There is really no point being "tied to time" when losing track of it will be to your greatest advantage.
Remember where all of us will end up eventually, time does not reign. So now you understand its overstated significance.

Worrying about when it's going to get you

2006-05-27T23:23:00.000-07:00

RIGHT now I am experiencing something that is very common among people. Ordinary folks like you and I. All of us are worried about something at some stage in our lives.

A few of us practically excel in the art of worrying. We are all creatures of habit and emotions. We feel like we are going to die, or will have this unshakeable forboding sensation of impending doom.

Most of time, this nagging feeling doesn't seem to want to leave us. We think long and gloomily about it just before we go to sleep. We allow it to plague our mind the whole day and the very next morning we jump onto this bandwagon of detestable load called Worries.

I was like that once until I got so mad with myself that I almost shouted "to hell with it all! Bring it on!" That doesn't to be the permanent solution. What happened was I delved into a lot of those books that discuss life hereafter.

I suppose my quest was so persisting that soon enough the right answers begin to flow in like the Missippi River waters. The light at the end of the tunnel became to be like the flood lights in a football stadium.

When the glare of the light shone on the darkened corners of my mind, all the fears taht were hiding there begin to evaporate. Of course, I still harbour a bit of worry here and there but that creature named Worry which was Godzilla-size in the past has become a little pygmy. It no longer poses any threat to me.

Don't let worry worry you too much. In a way, worry serves a little purpose but if you pamper it too much, it climbs on your head, clutches your heart and squeezes your stomach. Consequently, you can't eat, you have a headache and you feel as if your heart is going to explode.

If you but understand that all of us are creatures of spirit, without exception, then you will have the everlasting assurance that in the end, all will be well. Nothing bad can happen to you in the long run. It is simply impossible.

Life on earth is meant to be one huge adventure. Why waste time worrying about things you cannot change. Be happy for all those little unexpected occurrences that can only make your life that much more exciting.

Worry?! Bah, let it pass you in the daytime as well as in the night time like a gust of wind that slips past your body and vanishes into thin air. You, my friend, are a spirit that has been bestowed with the finest of virtues to make this life of yours right now the happiest and most exciting at any time.

Believe that you are going to have a great time on earth and you will.

What's up with the weather?

2006-05-16T22:52:00.000-07:00

Cyclone heading towards Hong Kong and south China. Volcano erupting in Java, Indonesia. Floods in European cities. Tornadoes and Hurricanes in North America. Drought in North Korea. Dramatic ice reduction at the polar caps.

If I take these phenomena, which I do, I would conclude that the whole world is in for one hell of a time. Read the signs, as it is always said. Well, now we better look at the weather conditions.

A relative who just returned from vacation in Brisbane, and Sydney, Australia told me that it was sunny one day and next day wintry conditions in the cities. Bizarre was the word she used.

Not recently, the river Danude overflowed its banks and caused massive floodings in several European countries. It was the worst in more than half a century. In December 2004, tsunami affected about 12 nations in the Asian region. By the time, the bodies were found and later buried, the death toll surpassed 300,000.

Volcanoes are suddenly active. Smog covers a large part of the Southeast Asian region. One word again, global-warming. Global warming is so serious that even Hollywood is starting to make movies about it. For example, Day After Tomorrow.

According to some scientists, the scenario in that movie can become reality should Mother Nature loses her temper. There is startling evidence that the polar caps are melting at a dramatic rate. If this continues, we really do have to shift further inland all over the world.

Thunderstorms are beginning to be more violent. Hailstones are no longer the subject of geography books. In America, hailstones caused some serious damage recently. CNN showed footages of hailstones as big as golf balls. Car windscreens were smashed and vehicles damaged by those hailstones.

The explanation for all these drastic atmospheric changes is found in the way the earth is being treated. Earth is afterall a living organism and anything that is a life form when subjected to averse conditions will switch to its self-preservation mode, as it is probably doing now.

Meanwhile, the latest AFP reports more than 180,000 people have been evacuated from the coastal areas of Guangdong province in the wake of Typhoon Chanchu which is heading its way.
On the same day (May 17, 2006), an earthquake measuring 6.4 shook the Indonesian island of Nias. Nias is also one of the islands that was devastated by the 2004 tsunami. On the island of Java, volcano Mt Merapi continues to spew poisonous gas and lava, as Code Red has been announced a couple of days ago.
Meanwhile, three northeastern states of America have declared a state of emergency as rains have hammered Massachussetts, New Hampshire and Maine for days, triggering floods.
Thousands in these States have been evacuated and hundreds of schools closed. Now as dark clouds loom over the horizon from East to West, fires and floods ravage the lands that humans have called home.

It has long past becoming a laughing issue. The question is: how serious are we in tackling these phenomena? Or, are we just waiting for the authorities to perform some miracles.

Frankly, we are just plain running out of time.

Here come the terrible twins - Success and Failure

2006-05-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

There have been times and there will be times ahead when you will encounter either of these two "brothers" called Success and Failure.

I have met them constantly in my regular travels along the journey of life. Success is a much more congenial companion because he's always someone you like as a walking companion. Success makes you laugh, makes you happy and makes you feel like a million bucks.

Failure on the other hand is a morose chap who's constantly moaning and groaning about you, and why you never think of him at all. In a way, Failure is right. We should think more about him because his presence will make us wiser people.

Failure has got important lessons for us all but we almost never appreciate his presence. We dislike his body odour. We resent his uninvited presence and his unexpected intrusion into our peaceful lives.

But we were to scrutinise this repulsive character named Failure, we will find out that this guy is actually trying to teach us some very valuable lessons in life. For one thing, Failure helps us to cultive empathy and sympathy for others who also have come across Failure.

Failure in his sullen ways enlightens us about his twin brother Success. He makes us more appreciative of Success and not take for granted the often limited time, Success spends with us.

It is from Failure that we learn that there are other ways to climb a steep hill, or to develop a skill, or even to be a better person.

Success and Failure are a pair of twins who seldom meet because they are so busy travelling around the world and across all strata of society quietly expounding knowledge and secrets that a lot of people need to learn.

We welcome Success but shun Failure. Those among us who are wise make friends with these twins because they know that all are worth knowing. Success helps us to further strengthen our positions. In other words, make us work harder so that we may not his friendship.

Failure by making us fear him, or sometimes run away from him, indirectly teaches us that into every dark corner we hide ourselves, we will eventually have to come out and face reality, the twins' cousin.

Failure looks at us in the eye but we do not see the knowledge he wants to impart. We see but our own fear reflected in Failure's eyes. Failure sincerely wants us to hold his hand, thereby know that he too is like us. Unless we dare to befriend him, we will never be able to fully appreciate the beautiful land that he has roamed since time immemorial.

The great teachers among us know these twins very well. They have been in their company for eons and realise that all is an illusion. They are but lesson couched in human form to help us understand, learn and celebrate the joy of living.

So next time, you are visited upon by either of the twins who called themselves Success and Failure, be sure to welcome them in your company and say thank you for coming. Put your hands around their shoulders and call them brother.

If you can do that and be not fearful or too glad, you will be given the key to everlasting happiness. It is a privilege that is seldom bestowed on citizens of the world except the few who would later become teachers.

Hobbies are what give your life that extra edge

2006-04-30T00:57:00.000-07:00

I HAVE had hobbies since the time I learnt to walk. When I was in junior school, I used to rear Siamese fighting fish in bottles and stashed them under my bed. Why under the bed?

The reason was that darkness helped add colours to the fighting fish's scales. This I found out from friends who also reared Siamese fighting fish as a hobby. We used to keep these fish in individual bottles because they would set upon each other if two of them were to find themselves in the same bottle.

The only time when fighting fish were put together in the same bottle was when a wager was on. Since we were mere kids who had practically no money in our pockets, we dispensed with that thought.

Later on in life, I reared fighting spiders. My friends and I used to trudged along little explored paths in secondary forest, scrounging for certain vegetation where spiders flourished.

One or two of us would have razor blades in our pockets. When we sighted a spider, the species which we would recognised, we would immediately cupped that particular section where the spider was and a friend would help slice the leaves. Then we took the "trapped" section out in the open and gently nudged the spider into the boxes which we had in our pockets.

The idea was to bring them out in the open and challenge our friend's "fighter king" to a match. This hobby went on for years, until I practically grew out of it. We used to feed the spiders with dead houseflies. But little did we know that when a spider had eatern, it would take days for it to recover because it would become too bloated and sluggish to engage another spider in a battle.

Next was catching birds. Not so much catching them but shooting them with a catapult. We used to take long walks in other people's back lanes and perked our ears keenly to hear the chirp of a distant bird on a tree.

My interest in this particular bloody sport when I actually shot and killed a sparrow. The sight of the dead bird and the wanton killing caused so much distress in me that I gave up shooting with catapults almost immediately.

One of the longest hobbies, I ever had and have is collecting First Day Covers. I started that hobby when I was about 17 years old. Today almost 30 years later, I am still at it. It is a great hobby of great learning proportions.

Every growing child should have a hobby of some kind. Be it reading, walking, or collecting theme cards, the hobby should be sustained for a number of years. Hobbies are great introductions to the world of knowledge and friendship.

It is through collecting First Day Covers that I established friendships with people I have not met overseas. It is through them that I managed to expand my collection of First Day Covers from other countries.

I also collect books. In my early years, I didn't have the financial means to acquire and sustain such a hobby, but today, decades later when the subject of money is no longer an issue, I have been able to expand on the hobby.

Reading, writing and collecting antiquarian books have given me some of the most pleasure times in my life. Its value cannot be gauged. It is the silent satisfaction. The knowledge that I have benefited in such a pervading way that gives me a great sense of worth.

Life should not be just about walking a think straight line but creating paths for others to walk as well. It is when we meet strangers, that we can become friends and after we have become friends, we will enrich each other's lives.

Hobby is a marvellous vehicle for making great journeys in this life of ours. We need travel on this well trodden path constantly and with great diligence. It is only when we do so that we can become teachers and students at the same time.

Hobbies do not need great investment. The most precious investment that we can make on a hobby is our time and a mental commitment to develop that hobby. A man without hobby is a dull man. A man who has hobbies brings that extra spark to his life and that extra lift to his walk.

Little children are reminders of heaven's innocence

2006-04-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

I guess for most of us childhood has receded so far back into our memory banks that it will be an almost impossible task to remember all that we should remember.

That is why there are always children criss-crossing our paths. They are there to remind us that only with a child-like temperament can we hope to regain some of our precious bearings which we have abandoned as soon as we entered adulthood.

Some people are lucky. They almost never lose their innocent traits. They may be 80 and look their age but when they talk to you, they have the zest and wide-eyed innocence of a six-year-old. No, they have not entered the domain of senility.

Nowadays whenever, I look into a child's eyes, I remember myself. I recall vividly all the fun and laughter that are part and parcel of growing up. Nothing is difficult when you are young. Problems were just "happenings". It's only when we "grow up", we begin to conform to the rules laid down by our senior peers.

Why should that be so? Why can't we treat life like it was when we were young. We can stare at so-called woes and laugh.

Notice how children will cry woefully and then be laughing the very next minute. That's the wonderful thing about being a chld. First you cry because you think your world has ended, then you laught before you know everything will be all right.

I like children, most of them anyway. They tend to give you that shy, sneaking smile and tend to peek at you from behind the sofa or behind their mother's legs. Every child thinks the whole world evolves around him, and he's right, too, in a way.

That early innocence can later mutate and transformed into a not-so-innocent attitude like "the whole world owes me a living".

When you are a child, a lot of people will forgive you for your misdemeaners. But don't try that again when you are a young adult.

I once told an expectant mother-to-be that children are our second chance at regaining the innocence of our childhood. Children tells us that it's all right to cry, to laugh and to love all over again even if we are rejected and spurned. There's no place in a child's heart for grudges.

If we can forgive and love like a child, then there's salvation for us yet. In the meantime, take time out to be a child. Observe how a child sleeps, and toss around in his cot. The baby does it most charmingly and innocently. He bawls when he wants to, and laughs aloud infectiously without any forethought or motive.

That's why he's such a child. That's how we must be too if we want to re-enter the kingdom of heaven.

What's the best time of the day for you?

2006-04-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

THE first thing I do early in the morning, around 7.30, when I wake up is to walk reluctantly down from upstairs to the living room below. First, have to wake up the body.

My mind is already up and running. It's just by body that is slow in responding to the dictates of the almighty brain. The sun is on the ascent. Its rays peep through the slightly opened curtains.

I can't really sleep too late because the brightness that comes with the awakening sky lights up my entire room. As it is with us homo sapiens, our biology cannot be denied. Once light filters through closed eyelids, the whole living form begins to move even though the body is still.

It is as if somebody has switched on all the lights in the house. How does one sleep after that?!

For the next 35 minutes, I go into a series of body movements. It is what the ancient ones called qigong.

It has been created and innovated through the centuries to harness the cosmic energy that is prevalent in the air, the world and the galaxy. If I have gone too far in my description, someone stop me, please.

Anyway, within two hours, I am in the office, trying to smoothen all the spurts and starts in the office machinery. It is not that difficult. After so many years, it has become one huge routine. I can almost do it on automation.

Lunch follows rather quickly. A quick chat session with some office colleagues and mental sparring on innocuous subjects that will certainly not change our lives in any significant way.

The problem with an Asian lunch is the sleepiness that follows about an hour later. Doctors explain this biological reaction in our body as blood rushing to the stomach to digest the food, thus drawing away vital supply of oxygen from our brain. A half-oxygenated brain equals drowsiness. Thus, walking is recommended because it forces your blood to circulate more evenly.

Ever saw a movie where the guy tells his friend to keep walking and not fall asleep in the snow? Well, it's about the same except if you do fall asleep at your workplace in the office, you won't die.

By 6pm, it's time to call it a working day in the office and rush home, or rather join the thousands of others TRYING to get home amid heavily clogged streets.

Now the best part of my day begins. I take a bath, relax and literally put up my feet and let the hidden accumulated stresses of the day slip away from my body and mind.

What do I do? Switch on the TV, of course. If there are any jokes which I think would interest my family, I share them. Nothing like a good laugh to pump some much needed endorphin into the system. Scientists have discovered that a sense of humour is much more valuable than a cabinet full of medicine.

From the time, my feet touched the floor of my house till my head hits the pillow on my bed, those are the best houses for me. The time allows me to re-align my bearings, reflect upon personal projects that need my attention and dream about things that will make me and others happy.

It is a time that is my own and I treasure that immensely.

Something's going on in my life!

2006-04-21T00:50:00.000-07:00

For a long time (about 30 years or so), I thought my life was dull, dull, dull. Then about 10 years ago, it suddenly hit me: you don't wait for things to happen, you actually have to go out and meet your destiny.
When people mention the word "destiny", they think it's something inevitable. It's some event or happening that cannot be avoided and there's nothing you can do about it.
Well, that has changed since I "met" destiny. I realised that destiny is when I go out without really planning and have a time of my life. Once, I was stuck in the house for months, doing nothing spectacular except waking up, eating, working and sleeping. All these were routine.
Then one day, I decided why not do something different, to break the monotony. So I got the whole family together and we shot off in the car to a coastal town. It wasn't a world class vacation resort but it certainly was different from my permanent neighbourhood.
It was actually the journey that turned out to be an eye-opener. Along the way to our destination, we bore witness to structures, ancient and modern and lifeforms, livestock and human, who live in habitats not common to us.
It was then, it dawned on me that all these years since the day I was born, I have been trudging along the path of other people had paved for me. If I am to become part of destiny, I have to chart my own path.
In other words, I have to hack my way through undergrowth (figuratively), and clear the bushes that stand in my way. In doing so, I leave a trail for others who are too timid to create their own destinies.
Why are they so many of us who are too ignorant to create control their own fates, thus make their own destiny and in doing so creating a future that fit their dreams and plans.
In the final analysis, it was so simple. If you really want, as I did and still do, I have to do something that I desire without fear or favour. Do I have to wait till the planets are in alignment before I act. No. A thousand times no. Everyman is his own chronicler. He writes his own history. He pens his own life lines. He walks down the avenue which he builds with his own hands and with his own effort and sweat.
Actually, it is not a daunting task. It is merely an assignment which is done freely, happily and with great determination.
That is what I mean by "something is going on in my life". I now know that nothing is beyond me. Nothing can be impossible, if only I desire it so. Life is full of infiite possibilities. It is like an exciting and unending chess game. One move determines the future of a thousand other future moves.
A change of heart will only open other possibilities. It is an exciting life. It is everybody's choice to make his or her life meaningful and filled with satisfactions and joy.
Do you want it now, or do you just want to think about it? Do it now because heaven is HERE, there is no other place. Heaven is is NOW, there is no other time.

How to win a girl's heart and not be labelled as a jerk!

2006-04-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

Rule No. 1 - a girl is another person with feelings. Memorise that and recite it to yourself everyday!
Girls are the feminine gender, in case you have forgotten, like to meet a gentleman in every aspect. In other words, when she's about to leave the car, please open the door for her.
It's old fashioned, I know, but girls just love it. When she comes over to your table, please stand up. That's the old protocol. Another silly old-fashioned habit but it works. It also means you stand up every time, a woman comes over to your table. She doesn't have to stand up for you, though.
Remember her birthday, and don't buy something meaningless. Get her a rare stalk of flower, maybe black tulip. If you can't find that, 24 of those velvet red coloured roses will do just fine.
Also, don't forget Valentine's Day. If she doesn't reciprocate, please don't kill yourself. Otherwise, if she changes her mind about you, you won't be at the receiving end.
Show some manners if and when you meet her family. That means try to be a real gentleman about everything, even if it kills you. Once you have made all the good habits part of your persona, any girl would be proud to take you home to meet her mummy.
Please, don't go dutch when sharing meals. Sure, you are broke but you are not a tight-wad, are you? Even if all you could afford is one meal, make sure it's hers. Tell her you have just had a hearty meal. Lie, my friend, lie. Of course, she will find out sooner or later. That's why she may just fall in love with you.
Be kind to children and be sincere about it. Girls will grow up to be women one day and later on in life be mothers as well. They admire men who display affection for the little ones. Remember, one day, you too will have children of your own. If you can't love other people's children, how much more will you love your own.
Every girl who is normal in every way will notice that great quality in you.
By all means be religious. Go to church. It won't kill you to sit in God's house once a while. Prayer enriches your life and lightens all burdens. Girls prefer boys who are spiritually inclined than those guys who are inclined to drink the spirits!
Dress decently. That is not compulsory but it helps. As you know, every little thing helps. No girl wants to be with a cruffy guy for long. He may just attract fleas, or worse, lice.
Whatever you do, give her the first preference. That means, you reserve the best seat in the house for her. Give her the best portion of the sirloin steak and save the last dance for her.
Always have a sense of humour. If she can laugh with you, she can live with you later on. A girl is wary of any guy who is remorse, taciturn and constantly moody. If he's like that during a relationship, think how dangerous or boring he would be when the wedding bells have died down.
There are only so many years in a person's life. Don't wait too long to tell her your true feelings for her. To waste time not saying all the right things means letting the heavenly feelings get away from both of you.
After you tell her, you love her, or are falling in love with her, there can only be two results. One, she said she doesn't share the same feelings as you. Fine, at least you know the truth. Two, you may just get lucky and hear from her that she also loves you like mad.
Of course, there's a third possibility. She may just laugh. If that happens, again, don't drown your sorrows in a crate of Guinness.

The Carefree Days of Youthful Exuberance

2006-04-10T22:46:00.000-07:00

IT seemed like only yesterday but I still remember quite vividly sleeping on the beach on an island together with two friends around the time we had finished our high school.
The days seemed constantly everlasting. We were on the threshold of adulthood. Still no responsibilities, no jobs, no girlfriends and hardly any worries. It was a wonderful time on earth.
A group of us, mainly school mates decided we would make a trip to this island called Pangkor. It is about 80 miles from our hometown. Pangkor island was an idyllic place. It is still a holiday resort after so many years.
I haven't been back to that island for more than 30 years. I heard from friends that it has developed beyond my recognition.
But on that day and night while I was there, it was like another planet. We dozed off on the sun-kissed, golden sands of Pangkor. At around midnight, we heard this awful noise. We opened our eyes and the waves of the high tide were lapping at our feet.
Needless to say, we headed for higher ground. Then at 4am when total darkness enveloped the place, the torrential rain began. The winds were howling and those of us who had earlier bragged that we wanted to be close to nature, sought shelter in the roofed canteen that was without walls. It had only long narrow benches and tables.
By then, I was very sleepy and tried to catch 40 winks on a narrow bench. For a fleeting moment, I dreamt of that soft, comfy mattress back home. But that was just for a moment. I was too young and reckless to care or to plan for the future, or even to think of the physical discomfort that came from living wild and free.
That was only one episode in my youthful days. I was also slightly addicted to that hobby called hitch-hiking. We who have little spare change in our pockets have resorted to using our thumbs to get free rides on the highway.
Yes, those were also the days when highway robberies were almost unheard of, like these more dangerous days. My father wasn't really worried about me. He too had his "living wild and free" days, so he understood my situation quite well.
Sometimes, I got lucky and didn't have to wait too long before a generous motorist stopped and took me to my destination. However, there were times when I stood for hours without a single soul casting a glance in my direction.
One thing I found out from those hiking days, the people who were most likely to stop and give me a lift were the truckers. For a long time, I wondered why only this particular type of individuals had any sympathy for us lonely hitch hikers. Then, one day I figured they were the ones who understood very well what it was like to be a lonely traveller on a very long highway. That was why they felt a kindred relationship with us young hikers.
From my numerous road trips, I learnt to understand the trucker's life and the kind of people who had made driving vehicles on the road for a living.
Youth also meant doing things on impulse like the time when I rode on my bicycle about 10 miles to a celebrated waterfall. The leader of the pack was a seminarian by the name of Charles. He was the one who told me: "Look, you are still young. Don't be afraid to try the unknown. If you don't know where a bus leads to, just hop on to it, ride it all the way to the end. The furthest it will go is the terminal. Then you can turn around and come back. Along the way, you have the pleasure of looking at the sights and listening to the sounds that the journey provides."
How right he was, too. The only drawback I experienced from my 10-mile bicycle trip was a severely cramped leg when I leapt into the water. Fortunately for me, the water wasn't tha deep so I still had one good leg to hop back to safety. But it was a lesson well learnt.
When you are at the overdrive of your life, you think nothing of sitting at the front row of a cinema. Your eyes are almost touching the screen. It was the cheapest seat I could afford and I couldn't afford much. There I was, trying to adjust my normal vision with the gigantic screen. After a while, it didn't really matter because I was too engrossed in the tale that was screened.
As one touches the veil of adulthood, one always think the world can wait for us. I had that experience. It was exhilarating. It was exciting and girls seemed so far away. We didn't have time for them. I didn't anyway.
Now as I glanced back over my shoulder to envision those wonderful, carefree days, a smile washes over my face. Yes, it was a great time. Then, I realise "hey, it's not over yet. As long as I have breath in my body, everyday can be another stupedously thrilling day."
And so my adventure begins again. This time on a different level..........

Remembering those who have passed on

2006-04-01T22:55:00.000-08:00

In my decades of wandering on planet Earth, I have had my fair share of losing friends. Not because we quarrelled but due to the fact that their time on earth had expired.
At the age of 21, I received news one day that a good friend Png Soo Keat had died in a tragic accident the previous day. At that age, one never thought a person can die at that age. Soo Keat was the same age as me.
We were almost as thick as thieves. We exchanged thoughts about the kind of girlfriends we would like to have and other nonsensical issues that occupied our less-than-adult minds.
Then one day, he was gone. Most of us attended Soo Keat's funeral. We carried his coffin and reminded ourselves that life in general as its shelf-life. The years went by and we forgot about the frailty of life, until the next time Death comes a-calling.
Those who I remember right now and are no longer with us are Raymond Nathan, Goh Keng Lee, Subintheran, Mah Swee Aun, Johnny Yap, Veera, John Pillai. Low Chee Wah, Barney, Long John, Jambo, Khairi, Ambrose, Mike Cannon, John Bagley, Peter Sullivan, Francis Chong, Jeffrey Ramayah, Laksana, David Thamyah, Noordin Soopiee, S.H.Tan and Maarop Noh.
I am sure there are others but I have forgotten them. Sometimes when we take our jobs too seriously, we should remember all those who have left us. Perhaps, according to our own perception, they left too soon. Death is a constant reminder that in everything we do, the good deeds are the things that linger on after we have quietly or noisily passed on.
Most of us would like to live long, have lots of money, buy anything we want, eat everything we want and wake up at anytime we want. The obituaries are signposts that tell us that in everything we do, we have to do them to the best of our abilities. That way, even if we should depart hastily, we won't have left a job half-done.
Nobody would like to enterain the thought of his actual day of passing. We all think we "can handle it" when the time comes.
In a way, Death is good for us all. It means we have shed all of our earthly burdens. The journey on the other side is one devoid of physical labour. Not that kind we see on earth.
I have read numerous books and articles about those who have had experienced Near Death Experiences (NDE). Not a single one complained that he has to do hard labour when he was on the other side.
Sometimes when I catch myself pondering over these ties I have had with the friends who have gone over to the other side, I realised how fleeting most relationships were.
We don't value time with friends as much as we should. We don't really think of them when they are not with us but some of these memories are very pleasant. Thus, it is prudent to value the time we spend with friends.
For example, about an hour ago, I had lunch with my former boss. He comes around and strenghten old ties with friends on a regular basis. Sometimes, I do wonder when he passes on, too that will I remember him with some fondness.
Most of us don't put a price on anything until we have lost it.And that includes humans. Have you ever heard of people saying "I was talking with him yesterday". Obviously, they are referring to someone whom they met and now is no longer with the among the living.
This friend with whom I had lunch said: "Nothing in life happens by accident. The fact that we are meeting now is a date kept by Destiny." I too subscribe to this kind of philosophy. Every encourter, whether with a friend or a stranger is a lesson, either for me or for the other party.
If we only realise how precious life is, and how wonderful it can be, we will waste no time in living from moment to moment. And if we are given the opportunity of creating excellence or doing the best we can, as long as we can, and as much as we can, we should do it.
Isn't that is our destiny? Our destiny is to be the greatest version of the grandest vision of ourselves. We can achieve such a phenomenon.
Life is a journey. The lessons are the people we met. Lessons are also found in failures. If we can inspire others and motivate the disheartened then our jobs on earth are half-done.

When colleagues leave for greener pastures

2006-03-30T18:53:00.000-08:00

Recently, a whole bunch of old friends and office colleagues took up a company offer to opt for early retirement. The whole thing came as a result of a downsizing exercise by the organisation.
A number of them received some hefty payouts, much to the envy of those who thought they too could use that kind of money. Anyway, several of them have already been head-hunted and have begun work elsewhere. So that sudden windfall by our generous benefactors was most welcome.
A close colleague of about 30 years couldn't believe his luck. He's only 51 and had been praying for a grand "retirement gift" for years. Well, this time he struck gold. He was so beside himself with joy that he threw two parties for all of us. It was his way of saying, let's help celebrate my fantastic luck.
Life is such that most of us are accustomed to our old colleagues and after a while, we are like members of the same family. I know I am going to miss a large number of these people.
I have experienced this part of ways before. Decades later when I bumped into them again, I am surprised that physically some of them have changed so much. I always think that I am the one who hasn't changed, but we do change in more ways than one.
Discomfort descends like an unexpected downpour when I forget the names of some of these dear, old colleagues. It's a bit embarrassing that we were once good friends and somehow at that moment in time, his or her name escapes me. Oh my God, I am sorry, I say quietly to myself.
Once, I actually had the fit of forgetfulness, and it was a good friend. It just turned out that her appearance had altered a bit. In fact, she looked better than before. Woman's intuition is always stronger than man's. She sensed that I had forgotten her name and asked, "do you remember my name".
Without missing a beat, I replied "YES!" Her name was at the tip of my tongue but I was too cowardly to say it, lest it was the wrong name. So I took the safe route. I asked: "Give me your latest calling card." Yes, it was her all right. What a relief.
That's what separation of years can do to a person's memories. Now, there's a technique of remembering names, even decades later. My personal memory technique is to pray for all my good friends and name them every day in my prayers.
Decades later, when I encounter them, their names pop up like the rays of the beautiful sunrise in the morning. They will of course express great surprise at my uncanny memory retention but not me because I know better. Wink. Wink.
Sometimes, I think every life is like a book. When we make friends, it's just like reading a book. If we like that book, we keep it and reread the chapters but the book is always with us. Either we carry it with us most of the time, or we leave it in the book shelf but it's there when we want it.
Friendship is a little like that. When we lose that book, we may forget it but years later, when we come across a book with the same title, the memories come rushing back.
Some people are of the opinion that sentimentality is reserved for the soft and weeny. I don't know what they actually mean by that but I love being sentimental. It is a comforting reminder that I have not forgotten those friends who mean a lot to me. It means that our friendship or relationship has not been a journey devoid of meaning.
Every encounter is a lesson benefiting both parties. I always benefit from an encounter, be it a strong friendship or a fleeting acquaintance. Even now, when I think back of my childhood days, I wonder about those friends who came into my life, as I had entered theirs, decades ago.
I try to visualise what they look like now; what they are doing, how do they look now. I can only conclude I won't be able to recognise them even if I come face to face with them. But if fate so decreed that we should meet again, somehow we will meet and we will remember. Such is life.
These days, I cherish all the good times I can muster. Moments like this when I reminisce about the writings in my dad's journal. There was one that I like so much that I had it committed to memory.
Here it is, fresh as the day when it was written. It is an evergreen like the leaves of a tropical forest.

Friendship cheers the faint and weary
Makes the timid spirit brave
Warns the erring, lights the dreary
Smooths the passage to the grave.

Hobbling along awkwardly with a barking dog on your tail

2006-03-24T00:40:00.000-08:00

SOME people swear by the vehicle they are driving. Usually it's either a MPV, SUV or EVO-8. Mine is just a plain, old 110CC Suzuki equipped with two wheels of suspect quality.
So one night, at about 2.30pm I was scootering home along some very dark and lonely roads, I suddenly experienced his sinking feeling. It was the air that escaped with a rush in my rear tyre.
"Great!" I told myself. "It's your lucky night!" I had actually meant that sarcastically as I entered the threshold of my neighbourhood. Near the guardhouse, there are usually five or six stray dogs parading in the vicinity. The animals normally couldn't give two barks about me but on that night, they were a little feisty.
Around the time when I discovered to my great horror that I was having a punctured tyre, the stray dogs decided to have some fun with me. They pranced out of the compound where they were prowling and headed towards me - post haste.
Being a man of limited courage, I stared Death in its face. Perhaps I exaggerate but at that moment in time, it seemed quite real. If you have not experienced or "enjoyed" the sight of about four or five dogs charging at you, you really don't know what you are missing.
There I was, gutless and riding on a crippled bike, thinking of my next life-altering decision. I gunned the throttle and prayed very hard. The punctured rear tyre is no fun to play with. It gained a little speed but it wasn't travelling at Formula One speed.
With seconds, the dogs with yelping at my legs. I kept on shoo-ing them. Not that it helped to any significant degree but it was a self-comforting act. My heart raced as fast as the dogs' legs. I prayed my bike wouldn't topple over all of a sudden. That would have been disastrous for me.
A fallen victim is supper for hungry dogs. Then by the grace of my guardian angel after about 25 yards, the dogs got tired of chasing me. My bike was bouncing up and down with great reluctance.
Have you ever tried to outrun dogs on a punctured tyre? Well, don't try. It's really not that exhilarating.
If I had any doubts about the divine protection and existence of guardian angels, they all vanished that night, very much like the mist in the morning. You just can't imagine how religious a person can get when the terrible twins, Death and Fear, jump on to your shoulders. Luckily for me, I am a praying man. There's no doubt about it after that night, I believe the Big Man Upstairs is looking out for me all the time.
I also learnt another very important lesson. Never neglect to service your mode of transportation, no matter how small it is. If the vehicle is in tip-top condition, it will have fewer chances of letting you down. Hallelujah!

My heroes in the Comics World

2006-03-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

At the top of my head, I can think of a few notables. They are Robert E.Howard (Conan), Frank Miller (Daredevil, Elektra), Alan Moore (Swamp Thing, Watchmen, Vendetta), Stan Lee (Superman, Hulk, Spiderman) and Jack Kirby (Fantastic Four, etc).
When I was growing up, I had almost no spare change in both my pockets. The only entertainment that is free for me were comics. I had to swallow my pride and sneaked a long peek inside the covers of my favourite comic titles at the various newsstands.
So I had to learn to read fast and absorb visually as quickly as possible all the juiciest bits in between the covers. Yes, those were days. My imagination was my playground and admission was free. In fact, it is still free.
As I entered my teenage years, I modelled my life after characters like Conan, Daredevil, Spiderman, King Kull and to a lesser extent, Silver Surfer. Back in those days when Ernie Chan and Buscema ruled Aquilonia (the land over which Conan would govern one day), comic heroes don't indulge in the petty sins like smoking and drinking. Well, Conan was an exception. As a result, I also didn't drink or smoke in keeping with the credos of my comic heroes.
Coincidentally, today I still don't smoke or drink. I guess after a while, when I became an adult, I realised the folly of being on the wrong side of cigarettes and alcohol. And so it came to pass that I adopted some of the finer virtues as propagated by writers like Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and some of the older guys.
Compared with today's comic writers and artists, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby could be said to be a "bit unpolished". However, when you are young, a comic book is a passageway to the world of wonders. In those worlds, every child is a hero himself. His mind is his universe and he makes all the rules.
If not for those comics which arrived on a regular basis to the neighbourhood newsstand, I would be a much duller boy. I had posters of Conan or some other muscular superhero pasted on my walls as a reminder that the only right physique was their kind of physique.
So for a while, I threw myself into a strict regime of strenuous exercises, building stamina and developing muscles. Happily, till today, I am still at it. Exercising regularly has become a way of life for me.
Frank Miller added a touch of adulthood in my growing years. He took Daredevil and fleshed him out as a character who had his fair share of relationship problems and personal battles. Miller gave a majority of his readers hope and inspiration. He taught readers like me that life's challenges are constant and irregular in magnitude. Fortunately, he also light the torch of hope brightly, so as to tell us that for every problem that exists, there is always a solution somewhere if we look hard enough.
Facing up to our own challenges is a way of growing up and maturing. I suppose that in a way, I have internalised all the good principles of leading a courageous life.
I am pretty happy to note that in recent years, Hollywood has given comics some special attention in their releases. So far, we have Superman, Daredevil, Elektra, Fantastic Four, Batman, Spiderman, The Hulk, V for Vendetta and somewhere in the pipeline is Ghost Rider and Ironman.
Why it took Hollywood so long to make movies out of comic characters is one phenomenon which I have been unable to fathom. But I am glad it did when it did. Now I know for sure that I have been on the right track all along.
From Alan Moore, I learnt that there dwell galaxies in our imagination. That everything can be seen in its own microcasm of life. Take for example, the original series of the Swamp Thing where its entire body holds possibilities that boggle the human imagination.
From Dr Strange, I found out that the realm of magic has no borders. Dr Strange, the Master of Magic introduced me to the concepts of eternity, chaos and interdimensional planes of existence.
Of course, they are all workings of an overactive mind of the writer but then, when you think about it, what we imagine may yet exist. Or, what we can conjure in our minds can be created, as evident in the structures and inventions that proliferate the world over.
In a big way, I am thankful that comics entered my world when it did. It filled my lonely hours with many great moments of infinite pleasure. I made some of those philosophies practised by the superheroes my own. It showed me the way to fulfil my own destiny.
Comics should be a part of a youngster's life. If not for comics, I probably would not have found childhood such a wonderful time in my life. It has helped me walk the journey of life with some sudden bursts of enthusiasm and also helped me to show others that we are the captains of our own souls and masters of our own fates.
Children must be taught and reminded that in the world of make-believe, there can be found nuggets of wisdom that they can pick up and make their own lives interesting.

What goes on at Chinese Wedding Dinners

2006-03-18T20:19:00.000-08:00

LAST night, I was sitting at one of the 32 tables at a neighbour's youngest daughter's wedding. Since I have known her since she was 18 (now 30), I felt it was almost obligatory to grace the occasion with my eminent presence.
As with all Chinese wedding dinners, on the invitation card, it says 7pm sharp. So I was there at that appointed time. Nothing happened for the next one and a half hours. I was just sitting there chatting with another neighbour who was actually quite relieved I had showed up because he doesn't know anybody there, including the bridegroom who earlier accosted him at the entrance because both did not know each other.
The matter was resolved when my friend said he's a friend of the bride's family. As with most modern Chinese wedding dinners, the normal run of things involves about eight to nine dishes. The last one is usually dessert.
The "four seasons" signaled the beginning of the wedding banquet, so to speak. It didn't stir anything in me. It was supposed to be a "cold dish" and it left my senses cold. Terribly unexciting, I thought.
Chinese folk are a demanding lot. When they show up for a wedding dinner, they have already harboured a preconceived notion of how the dishes would be like. So anything less than their expectations, the host and hostess will get a thumbs down verdict.
At this time immediately after the first course, our thumbs were pointing downwards. Apparently, the restaurant supervisor or captain did not synchronise the delivery of the dishes, thus the second dish almost didn't make it to our table.
I was thinking for a country golf club restaurant, the planning is pretty slipshod and the catering was substandard. Apparently, it didn't strike us that we were primarily there to celebrate the happy occasion with the newly-weds.
Most of us were there mainly for the food and if we can, have some fun with friend. That is if they are not sitting too far from our table.
Then, there is the mandatory "cheers" sessions. The wedded couple would go from table to table to greet the guests. Last night, in order to save everybody some trouble, the families, the newly-weds and their immediate relatives were on stage to bid everyone a big "yam seng". That's the Chinese style of saying "cheers", except that the Yam Seng toast involves a lot of loud shouting and prolonged train of voices from everybody until it ended in a gigantic climatic SENGGGGG!!!
One middle-aged guy at my table obviously had one too many and started to become quite boisterous. His sister came over to offer him some timely advice, in case he made a fool of himself. I know this chap. He's rather pleasant on most days when he's not drinking. In fact, he a quiet chap. Well, not last night. He started to lose his inhibitions after the three drink and began uncharacteristically friendly.
Most Chinese men can't hold their drink. Three glasses of liquor down the road, their faces looked as if they have been in the hot sun for about five hours. At Chinese wedding dinners, the prized drink is the brandy, of which the supply is plentiful - normally.
All of us know it's not good to consume too much of this potent drink on a single night but Chinese wedding guests are usually suicidal on grand occasions like last night. Their livers take a fantastic beating but they don't really care. What a strange community.
The music was a little too loud. My friend who was seated next to me, told the waiter to have the music toned down. He must have made his request at least three times to no avail. Later on, the choice of music slipped into the 80s tunes, much to our relief. We are no longer spring chickens anymore. Some of us can actually develop migraine in the face of relentlessly loud music.
As the night wore on, the dishes began to slip from table to our mouths. I found the dishes on a so-so level. Nothing much to write about to the folks back home and bragged about.
Women I know who normally don't wear dresses showed up in them. So I treated that phenomenon with great respect and delight. These days, working women like to wear their pants too much. Dresses are becoming passe.
The speeches by best friends from both parties, bride and groom, regaled the large crowd with unheard-of stories about their married colleagues in their younger days. It was nice to see these people were having the time of their lives.
However, the female MC was giggling endlessly like a little girl. I concluded after a while that she had one brandy too many because she was wandering all over the place verbally. Anyway, she was having a great time with the mike and her laughter was rather infectious. Most of us knew she was slightly tipsy.
I surprised the other guests at my table by confessing that I am a teetotaller. How strange, they thought. They had me figured out to be a world class boozer! And I was sipping Chinese tea the entire evening.
The dinner promptly came to an end around 11pm. Afterwards, the bridegroom promised everybody that the evening would proceed with a party, but we didn't want to proceed anymore. Our bellies were full, our ears were still ringing from the overly loud decibels from the mighty speakers and it was close to bedtime.
Thank God, my wedding is now just a distant memory and I don't remember creating half as much noise as the modern couple. As I walked out of the door to thank the hosts, I silently wish the newly-weds all the luck in the world. I recall about five years ago, I was at another wedding, enjoying the evening's programme.
That marriage didn't even last three years. Modern couples - they are good at organising interesting wedding dinners but some of them have apparently forgotten that they have to put in the same amount of effort, if not more, into their marriages to make them successful.

Listening to my father's songs

2006-03-17T00:23:00.000-08:00

When I was growing up, one of our family's prized possessions was a huge gramophone which incorporated a turntable on one side and a radio on the other. In between, there are shelves to keep the LPs and EPs.
My dad kept all his collection of his favourites in the shelves. Every other night after work, after dinner and while he was having his usual evening cigarette and lazing on his easy chair, he would put on Nat King Cole's Golden Hits or Chet Atkins Guitar Specials.
As children, there were five of us, it was a steady diet of the old evergreens. While we were upstairs doing our homework or just sitting around twiddling our thumbs, the strains of the songs like Rambling Rose, Autumn Leaves or even Johnny Horton's North To Alaska would be filtering through the rooms of the house.
This would go on for years. My dad has got a ear for good music. He liked them slow at times and jitter-bugging when he's in a dancing mood. After he left school at the age of 17, he was bumming around cabarets and pool rooms. He found friends in these places. One of them taught him tango and other classy moves of those days.
If I remember correctly, my dad was one of those of his generation who was greatly influenced by Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse and other great dancers of Hollywood.
My dad loved the night life and his zest for life was reflected in his taste for music. My sisters, brother and I absorbed a lot of Jim Reeves, Peggy Lee, Doris Day, Slim Whitman, The Pretenders, The Four Tops, The Drifters and some others whom I have forgotten.
Decades later whenever songs of those days reached my ears, I suddenly found myself standing in the hallway of my old house. I was that little kid again, looking out of the window, watching the rain fall in the distance and wishing that I was all grown up and earning money so that I won't have to ask for some spare change to buy ice-cream.
These days I find myself rather surprised that sometimes some Hollywood movies used those old songs as theme music for their films. I guess my dad got it right. Those were the good songs that never die.
Even my sisters like those songs. We hear them all over again and somehow those old, forgotten, familiar feelings keeping seeping back into our lives. Evergreens, they call them. Now I understand the true meaning of that phrase.
My dad has gone to God's little acre years ago. So has my mum. But the memories of those songs linger on in my mind, and roam the prairie of my heart. And I am glad all over again.

The Underdog coming in from behind

2006-03-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

I JUST read the results of an important school examination. Hundreds of students scored a lot of A's that would make their parents very proud. Asian parents, I believe, are like their counterparts in other parts of the world.
They are always worried about their children's scholastic achievements. So children are given every educational aid money can buy. Consequently, the number of top scorers is rising every year.
This year, the results look good. Of course, the newspapers published the pictures and the names of the superachievers. So far, there are only two known Top Guns. Both scored 15 A1s. That is the full and maximum score for all those have chosen 15 subjects for the exam.
During my time, my friends and I pondered deeply how many strong credits we will each have. That is, about a week before the results are released. These days, the emphasis is not passing but how many A1s, each student can score.
Looking and reading the remarkable results of my country's high school students, I feel as if my natural intelligence has suddenly been called into question. I told myself silently, "I must been a blinking idiot" compared to the present generation's super achievers.
Back in those days, we were aptly described as the "underdogs". We were the ones who usually have had a better time than all the others who achieved unnaturally superlative results. The Underdogs that we were gave us the freedom to make the world experience the unshackled joy in our hearts and limbs.
Often, after an important exam, we would organise parties or a trip to a resort beach or a holiday island. Life was for the taking for most of us. While the top scorers prepare for the next phase of their glittering academic life, the Underdogs (me included) just couldn't wait to take out our fishing rods and head for the nearest river.
Even if we catch no fish, we are not bothered. The point was to get out, get there and be there. Who cares what happens afterwards.
When I somehow made it to the university, I stayed with some science boys. The first thing I noticed about my overwhelmingly bespectacled colleagues was that they were almost never tired of studying. In fact, they studied more than they slept.
Morning, they squeezed in at least an hour and a half of book-learning. I had to fight my way out of my unmade bed and walked in half-daze to campus.
So it went on like that for several months until I got to know my science friends better. Eventually, I gathered enough courage to ask them: "How come you guys study so much?" They normally replied "casualty rate among science students is high".
Their remark is painfully true. Science is such an exact subject that if you can't get it right the first time, there's no second chance. Arts students keep writing and coming up with the most ridiculous arguments that sometimes the professors are confused and deliver a passing grade.
Once, I had the audacity to proclaim to my much aggrieved science friends that "arts graduates are generalists who end up becoming general managers who hire science graduates for their laboratories". How true. Of course, they are not amused by this revelation.
In the world of harsh realities, the Underdogs do get a break now and then. While it is not true that science graduates will end up working for arts grads all the time, the Underdogs tend to try harder and as a result score big when they hit the bull's eye.
The phrase that accompanies all Underdogs is "when you have nothing to lose, you tend to take bigger risks and consequently achieve bigger dreams than those who are secure in their own comfort zone of 15 A1s. Sounds like sour grapes? No, not really.
There's much to be said about being an Underdog and I have merely scratched the surface. If you read some of the biggest success stories ever told, you will discover that some of the greatest characters in human history are those who began life as an Underdog and then went on to conquer all their weaknesses.
Eventually, they mastered both the arts of Failure and Success, thus putting them on a level higher than those who are only familiar with either Success or just Failure.
So I say to you, fail if you must but learn from it. Success has its own reward but the lesson is incomplete.

The Joy of Collecting Postcards

2006-03-12T01:03:00.000-08:00

This hobby began about 25 years ago. One fine day, I found myself in Europe. Since I was a virgin visitor there, everything looked beautiful to me. From buildings to little children, they all projected a sense of wonder.
I had my trusty camera with me and I took pictures. But back in those days when digital camera was not even a phrase yet, the ordinary point-and-shoot roll-of-film camera was THE thing.
Among our tour group was a couple who were always buying postcards. Once a while, I told myself why did this couple waste their money on postcards when they had a camera.
It was only when I returned home that I found out that there were a lot of places or objects of interest that I had either forgotten to photograph or I just ran out of film at that time, or worse, my camera exposures were very much less than desirable.
That was when it hit me - postcards! Yes, postcards was a quick remedy for an afterthought, or a post-bad picture situation. Then, I discovered the wisdom of buying and collecting postcards on holidays.
The next time I went on vacation overseas I did not make the same mistake again. That was then. Now two decades later, I have a very nice collection of postcards. Yes, I still lug my camera around but postcards cover another aspect of my vacation that could not be filled by my camera.
I have since acquired a postcard album which was bought at a post office in London. It seems my own country does not sell postcard albums. Anyway, I got mine at last, and it came in handy for all those nice postcards which I bought brand new or acquired from flea markets overseas.
Some of my best postcards are the old ones. Those that have been sent from my country Malaysia to good old England. Some of them are more than 100 years old. It was another era and the writing on the postcards stirred memories of a time long past but had a charm of its own.
I love postcards like that. They conjured images of people from the Victorian time when their forebears came to colonised countries like Malaya, now Malaysia, to earn a living. These Brits from the days of the Raj, so to speak, built mansions reminiscent of those found in those own country in different parts of Malaya.
In Penang, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur (cities in my country), there are still standing those old colonial buildings left behind by the English gentlemen who used to call Malaya their home back about 100 years ago.
This is one of the reasons why I love and collect postcards. Postcards are like history lessons. They contain images of charming incidents that only our grandparents knew about.
Sometimes, when I am bored or have nothing better to do, I will extract my postcard album and look at all the pictures that hold special memories for me. The exercise is like a slideshow to me. Every image will kickstart a certain block in my memory blank and produce a chain of visual imagery that delights me no end.
Postcards, I love them. Still do.

Goodness gracious, am I that old?

2006-03-08T22:39:00.000-08:00

TIME seems to have a will of its own these days. I can almost swear I can hear the sound of laughter coming from my Fifth Form classroom where friends and colleagues were up to their latest antics.
I was studying in a La Salle Brothers school then. Now and then, the brother director would walk past and if we had been alerted about his arrival, there will be dead silence for about five minutes, then the ruckus began all over again.
Suddenly, I realise it has been 36 years ago. Some of my classmates must be grandfathers now. A number of us must be half-bald by now, and a lot of others are sporting grey hair.
Another indication that life has hopped on to the fasttrack is when we see school friends' children. The kids who used to be toddlers are adults now. Before you run to the nearest mirror to check out that familiar face, you indulge in some simple arithmetics and come to the quick conclusion that you are almost on the last leg of the retirement circuit.
Mentally, most of us are ageless. We never really grow old in our minds. We just become more experienced. Physically, our conditions depend on discipline and that zest of life. If you have been keeping fit, your body which is also your personal engine will be fine. It will have its occasional spurts and starts, otherwise, it still runs the course.
When you say someone is "old", what do you mean? Do you mean that person is now four score and something years, or do you mean he just looks haggard? Some people prefer to be called senior citizens. Others like be be described as being mature.
All that simply translates to you having spend more years on earth than a lot of other people who think they know more than you.
Personally, I like being where I am right now, and that is being on the half-century mark. I feel like I did 30 years ago. I have not lost that spark of life. I am keen on doing the unexpected and expecting the unanticipated. Life to me is like a long and winding road filled with little lessons and major experiences. All that take place so that my life will get better with time.
I think we should not be too concerned about being called "old." Being old is a great way of telling the world that you have been around and then some. But that does not mean that you are immune from being feeling pain, frustration, happiness and joy, just like that other six billion people on earth.
We are one big family and yet at the same time, different, unique individuals. As we advance in years, we tell ourselves we have had enough; that we are tired, we must now leave the "heavy" stuff to the younger chaps; that we can't do that anymore at our age; that we shouldn't enjoy life to the fullest because it may be bad for our hearts. To all that I say; HOGWASH!
Life is never meant to be slowed down. We just go on. Jumping, skipping, running, strolling, jogging, walking, resting, etc. It is a journey filled with different paces. So what if we stop for a while to look at the scenery. We need not convince ourselves that life is passing us by and we have to act our age.
Rubbish, I say again. I have friends who are in their 80s and they have so much vitality in their human forms that they put to shame three-quarters of those one-third their age.
You know you are old when you believe you should go slow and retire. Life belongs to those who want it, anyway they want it, how they want it and how much they demand of it.
As I add on the years, I get smarter, stronger, faster and tougher. Sounds like superman? Yes, in a way. I just couldn't resist yanking other people's chains whenever they come up to me with their long faces laden with forlorn hopes of something that they think is unattainable.
These are the people who have passed such heavy sentences on themselves. It is a living tragedy. What is the difference between those who have given up hope and those who are dead. Not much! Those who are dead can not do anything else anymore. Those who have given up hope, might as well be dead because there's not much hope for them anymore.
Next time, you feel the urge to be put to pasture, just tell yourself what you are going to do with the rest of the time, if you think you have 48 hours more to live. Of course, you would want to try anything, anywhere anytime because for you the last 48 hours are your last.
When you are in that state, you probably won't worry at all about cholesterol, being fat, being stingy with money (you won't be going anywhere with that extra cash), and worry about people who dislike you.
You will become slightly selfish because you won't want to such on the nectar of life. You want to soak in everything that brings a big smile to your face. YOu would want to tell everybody you love them because you don't relish the thought of anyone dancing on your coffin.
When you truly believe you are living out your last hours, everything that you thought were important suddenly become meaningless trivia.
Being so-called old gives you an added advantage. You realise that you don't need to prove anything anymore. You won't feel shy like before because it doesn't really matter anymore. You become more confident because a lot of people are now junior to you. You will feel as if you have a right to give them some advice. And also that the world sounds like it's ready to serve you.

Guardian Angels among Us

2006-03-02T23:13:00.000-08:00

The first time I heard the words "guardian angels" was when I was little boy and was studying in a Catholic Brothers school. The La Salle Brothers have a way of introducing "angels" into our lives that somehow stuck in our minds until we reach "the other side".
As we grow older and seemingly wiser, we tend to lose touch with guardian angels and apt to call anyone who does us a favour as a "guardian angel." As you move towards middle age, you will try to believe that there are real guardian angels because your life is sometimes so uncertain that you wish that someone else will take over the job of looking after your future.
These days, I am inclined to believe that there are actually angels walking and working among us. I would like to say "I have it on good authority that real angels from heaven are walking us." Unfortunately, such an outburst will only lead to my confinement at the nearest rehabilitation centre.
Well I have good news for you Doubting Thomases. There are actually guardian angels walking and talking to us on earth. How I know? I just know. Do you need proof?
Remember those times when you are so desperate, you suddenly turn religious and start bargaining with God about how you will not be such a cad anymore to your wife and kids?
Then out of the blue, your problem is solved by an unexpected turn of events and it usually due to someone doing something that may or may not be intended for your advantage. Nevertheless, your woes ended and you began to nurture a new one.
Somewhere out there, without your knowledge, your prayers were answered. And you thought it was due to your own courage, fortitude and perseverance. You had forgotten about that urgent prayer you "sent upstairs". It was answered and you didn't realise it.
All prayers uttered in sincerity are answered. If need be, angels will be sent forth to come to your aid. Baloney! you say?! Look where you are today. You are not pushing daisies somewhere out in the open field, are you? The fact that you are reading this indicates that you are among the living.
Angels have been assigned to all of us so that we will always be reminded that we are spirits from on high. There are things not of this earth that do not require any explanation nor do they need the approval and investigation of our most accomplished citizens.
They are governed by laws not made for us. However, they are here because they are part of us and will help us if your life and mine will be for the better with some assistance from them.
Have you ever experienced making a supposedly a wrong turn on your way home and unexpected encountered someone and something that shifted your fortune or someone else's fortune?
Who do you think "inspired" you to take that detour or make that sudden turn?
Before you pronounce that the subject of guardian angels is a topic for the demented and the slightly deranged, keep in mind this suggestion. The next time, you are caught in a jam (not traffic) but something that is more serious or even life-threatening, say a prayer and ask sincerely for your guardian angel to extend a helping hand, and then wait and watch.

Getting high on Hai Peng

2006-02-28T00:47:00.000-08:00

CHUKAI is a small town in Kemaman with seafood restaurants and the
highly-recommended Kedai Kopi Hai Peng which is famed for its coffee
creations.
AFTER a few hours of driving at a leisurely pace along the highway from
Kuala Lumpur, we spotted the signpost for Chukai. This little town is in
the Kemaman district of Terengganu.
I made a U-turn along the main road and curved into Chukai town. I
remembered the words of a colleague: "Don't forget to wind down your car
window and smell the coffee aroma coming from the Hai Peng Coffeeshop" or
"Kedai Kopi Hai Peng".
His remark was a bit of an exaggeration, of course. I did not detect
any such aroma; rather, I vaguely recalled the dust from the dry roads
and the exhaust fumes from cars and lorries.
It is worth noting that the first Customs department on the East Coast
was first set up in Chukai, which in Malay means "tax". It is an old town
with little to offer except for seafood. Naturally, there are several
seafood restaurants strategically located to entice visitors passing
through.
As I drove, I kept a sharp lookout for the famous Hai Peng Coffeeshop.
Just as I thought I had missed it, a three-storey building loomed into
sight with the name Hai Peng Coffeeshop proudly advertised on the front
of the building.
Located opposite a big car park at the end of Jalan Sulaimani, it was
an unmistakable landmark because the place was filled with customers who
even spilled out to the front and side of the shop. Rows of benches
revealed there were a lot of hungry people at high noon.
If I needed evidence of the popularity of the place, the large crowd
was solid proof. The car park was three-quarters full and there was nary
a table available for our party of four.
Being a nosey one, I took peeks at the occupied tables as I made my way
inside. Many customers had ordered iced coffee which, I believe, was
called "ice-blended Hai Peng coco lava". Anyway, it looked very inviting.
When we found a table, a waiter quickly produced the menu. I scanned
its contents and discovered that among the house specialties were hot
charcoal-toasted buns with kaya. For once, it was not slices of factory
produced bread. If it was, it would have spoilt the ambience. I had
expected better.
My son thought he saw some people eating nasi dagang bungkus, one of
Terengganu's favourite dishes. To our dismay, the waiter told us that
they were sold out on nasi dagang bungkus. It would have been a splendid
complement to our coffee, and it only cost RM1 a packet.
We decided to order the ice-blended Coco Lava. It sounded so exotic
that we couldn't resist it.
Other choices on the menu were Magnificent Fruit King, Coffee Breeze
and Pina Calada.
There were other home-made items like tuna sandwich, French toast,
Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich and Apple Pie a la Mode.
Earlier, I had been briefed by my Terengganu friend that the owners of
Hai Peng actually grew their own coffee beans and made their own special
brand of coffee. Hai Peng coffee is not sold outside Chukai.
The coffee is said to leave no aftertaste. When I was told about its
marvellous attributes, I had my doubts. Frankly, I am not a coffee lover.
I am more of a Milo or cocoa person.
But the friendly urgings of a most loyal supporter of Hai Peng
compelled me to test the waters, so to speak.
The ice-blended Hai Peng coco lava soon arrived with the freshly
charcoal-toasted kaya buns. We sank our teeth into the buns and took a
huge gulp of the coffee. It was love at first bite. Words were inadequate
to describe the unique taste of the coffee.
At RM4.50 a glass (large), the coco lava is certainly a bargain. Hai
Peng would definitely give Starbucks, Dome and Coffee Bean a run for
their money.
It had a certain home-grown superiority that seemed to put other coffee
beans in their place. There was really no bitter aftertaste. The coffee
hit the right spot, as coffee lovers would put it. It gave my culinary
senses a gentle but pleasant jolt. Even if you are not a coffee drinker,
Hai Peng may just turn you into a new convert.
The charcoal-toasted buns had a unique flavour. Freshly toasted and
immediately eaten, the buns are guaranteed to send you into a tailspin
into gastronomical paradise.
The satisfied looks on the faces of customers are ample testimony of
the fine quality of items on the menu. I wasn't sure if it was the charm
of old town Chukai or the sea breeze that gently swept across the land
but I certainly felt very relaxed and yes, quite happy. My family shared
my feelings.
At the cashier's counter, there were stacks and stacks of Hai Peng
coffee powder on sale.
Coffee in sachets, white coffee and black coffee powder, all on offer
to meet the discerning tastes of different customers.
Obviously, the present owners have adopted modern marketing strategies
to put their unique selling proposition in the best light.
From their appearances, the Chinese proprietors appear to be either
from the second generation or even the third.
The prices of the Hai Peng coffee were actually very reasonable and its
exclusivity made it a great bargain. I was actually glad that Terengganu
had so much to offer, even if it was just Hai Peng coffee, for a start.
I learned later on that if passing motorists were feeling rather
famished, they could sample the numerous seafood restaurants scattered
all over town. The baked crabs were quite delightful, according to those
who had tried them.
I still have some Hai Peng coffee powder in my larder. I save that for
special occasions when I have my favourite TV shows on. Almost
inevitably, the first taste revives pleasant memories of that stopover at
Chukai. A cup of Hai Peng coffee is best taken with hot water, and of
course, cream and sugar according to taste.
I still don't drink coffee as a matter of habit but with Hai Peng, it
becomes an exception because the flavour never fails to bring a smile to
my face and rekindle visions of a dear remembered place on the other side
of the peninsula.

Learning to say goodbye

2006-02-28T00:02:00.000-08:00

TODAY is one of those times when I have to say "goodbye" to a long list of friends. The company I am working in has decided to give 29 colleagues of mine a minor "golden handshake" in a downsizing exercise.
Some of these outgoing people have put in more than 30 years' service and I have known them for a better part of three decades. I wish there was an easier way to say "goodbye".
When you have known a person for more than one generation, there is a certain understanding that defies explanation or necessitates explanation. That outgoing person has become "family" a long time ago. Sometimes, they are even closer than family members.
I am one of those who is very slow in changing friends because I have always been slow in choosing one. But I like friends. I bear in mind that they are just like me with hopes, dreams, frustrations and ambitions born either of desperation or design.
These colleagues, some of them are nodding acquaintances, have been around for so long that all of us have taken one another for granted. Office relations are like that. We take each other for granted until we know we will lose sight of each other almost forever. We are not sure if we will see each other again and the moment of that realisation makes the friendship suddenly so precious.
Of course, I am sentimental. That what's makes me so human like the rest of the others. Sometimes, life is so fickle. One minute you see a person, the next day, you come upon an obituary of that person. In that one moment in time, you will have cross a gulf that separates this life and the afterlife.
I have had that kind of experience several times in my life. Each face is precious to me in its own perculiar way. I cherish the moments I share with my office colleagues, many of whom have become precious friends.
Occasionally, in hindsight, years later, I think of all the nice things I should have said to their face. Those were opportunities lost. How fragile is the thread of life. If only more of us know this, we will treat each encounter with our colleague as if it were our last, and one day it will.
Now, as I ponder the journey of life that stretches ever so long in front of me, I stare for long seconds at the people I know will leave the arena which has been our playing ground. It has been so long. The years of talking nonsense. The years of watching each other developed in our own unique ways.
Such is the ethereal nature of our existence. When all is faded and gone, we glance back and wonder if it had been all a dream. We think we exist merely for our own interests, and then we find out that it has been one big carousel. All of us interact as God intends it to be.
Each living friend a lesson to us, as it is we for them. It is an endless cycle.
The light that shines comes not from the distance in front of us but it comes from within us.

Internet - truly the Land of the Free

2006-02-23T21:03:00.000-08:00

The best and biggest happening of the 20th century may well be the Internet. About 20 years old when a student wants to look up something that is rather obscure, he would have to search the encyclopedia.
Today, all he has to do is to surf the Internet. It is true that not all information in the Net is reliable but there ways of finding out the real truth. These days, the dictionaries which I bought the last 10 years are fast becoming obsolete.
On the Internet, I can search scores of dictionaries simultaneously. Anything and everything I want to know, I have them at my fingertips. The Internet is the most awesome invention known to teenagers and members of the academia.
You can communicate instantly with a friend, a colleague or a loved on the other side of the world. It is a tool, a weapon, a balm and an oracle of infinite information.
If you are savvy enough, you can actually earn a comfortable income every month right there in your bedroom. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection, preferably with broadband.
The Internet has unclamped all the shackles put there by governments on their citizens. These days, you can hide anything anymore. So it is even foolish to try. There is almost no way you can block information from reaching the IT-savvy person. It's because the Internet has too many lanes of information.
Children are using Internet to do their school assignments. Of course, they cheat too, through the Internet but if they do, they will be found out eventually. But the awful truth is, they cheat themselves so it is a lose-lose situation for the cheaters.
Internet today helps the "woman in the house" to do her shopping on line. It helps the busy husband pay the bills via the banking online. It is convenience personified. As a result of the ease of paying bills made easy by online payment, banks are slowly downsizing their staff strength. It doesn't augur well for those firms that have to reduce their staff strength. But it is a necessary exercise.
The Internet has spread its wings so wide and so far that almost anything that can be conceived by the mind of man can be carried out on the Internet.
The benefits of Internet have made it possible for many to become entrepreneurs. The electronic SOHO (small office home office) has penetrated into many homes. Internet also requires very little capital to start with and sometimes, depending on the person, you don't even need capital to kickstart your career at home.
The clock speed of the Internet is getting faster by the month. High speed modems and broadband service have enabled many to download important stuff in a matter of minutes.
The signs are all there. You can obtain an education through the Internet. You can find your "soul mate" on the Net, and you can also lose the shirt on your back twoards Internet.
If an earthquakes takes place in Venezuela two minutes ago, before the clock loses another five minutes, the mattter will be broadcast within 30 minutes. No typhoon, hurricane or tremor will be undetected and be left uninformed so long as the Internet continues to function somewhere in the world.
The most amazing invention of the 20th century that has affected the social and political developments of all nations can be attributed to the Internet.
Today, tomorrow and the future, the Internet will serve as a platform for the underprivileged, the suppressed and the champions of all-that's-good to voice their grievances, advances their causes and help resolve issues.
It is such a powerful tool that authoritarian governments are beginning to feel helpless trying to muzzle their own people. Perhaps for once in a very long time, the playing field has been levelled to the advantage of no one.
The issue here is whether we want to use the Internet for the good or for our own detriment. The forces of good and evil are still in the arena but knowing man and his record of existence over the past 10,000 years, man will eventualy realise that its advantage has always been to move over to the "good side", otherwise everybody loses.

Physical and moral courage

2006-02-22T01:11:00.000-08:00

THERE comes a time or times in an individual's life when moral courage puts a person on at the crossroads. Bravery comes in several forms. There is the visually obvious physical courage like saving a person from drowning or rescuing a child from a burning building.
Then there is the "less obvious" phenomenon, much quieter form of courage called moral courage. Moral courage is drastically lacking in the modern world and I shout it from the rooftop.
A lack of moral courage is seen when a person refuses to stand up for his principles for fear of getting the sack, a dressing-down or possible ridicule from his peers.
Moral courage means standing up for something that you think is right. It demands a mental discipline of the first order. It does not call for a "stiff upper lip", just a mental resolve will do, thank you.
When you see your grandma standing up for you (when you were a child)against the neighbourhood bully and telling him or her off in her sternest voice, it's called moral courage. When your dad writes an angry letter to his state councillor, complaining about that gentleman's neglect of the neighbourhood and that matter will go up to the highest authority in the land, that is moral courage.
Moral courage is not seen the physical size of any person nor is it the monopoly of any gender. Moral courage can be displayed by a child of seven, just as it could easily be shown by a grandma of 80. It's what you have in your heart and soul.
There are lots of people with physical courage. It takes a bit of self-arrogance (maybe) and confidence in your own God-given abilities. Compared to moral courage, physical courage is in a different field.
Moral courage demands a higher price. It could meant incarceration. It could invite ostracisation. It could beg for a lifetime of isolation. Yes, the price for displaying moral courage can indeed be very high.
Who among us has not felt the weakness in our knees in instances when we had more to lose than to gain and all the situation calls for is a simple display of moral courage.
Today, the number of people who have moral courage is sadly lacking. If you want proof, just look read the newspapers. Wherever tyrants rule the roost, there's moral courage lacking in that land. Where's there's corruption, moral courage is absent in that nation or society.
The world cries out loud for moral courage among men everyday but where are these brave individuals when they are so sorely needed? Heaven helps us all. In the end, it begins with us. If one of us starts to show some signs of moral courage, it may help to strengthen the resolve of others who are standing on the sideline.
The time is now. The place is where you are. The occasion is everyday. We must do it for our future. Our very survival as human beings depends on our moral courage to live the way we want it, the best we can and the best we should be.

Turbulence in the solar system

2006-02-21T00:47:00.000-08:00

Are we still living in the Age of the Aquarius? I don't know. I only know we are definitely deep in the heartland of computers and tumbling towards the edge of chaos as far as winds, heat and water are concerned.
I will never thought I will live to see the day when our planet, the third rock from the sun, goes into thoes of finding climatic balance from month to month. Chunks of mountains come sliding down on unsuspecting villages and its sleeping residents. Giant walls of water rising from the ocean to reclaim land that it called its own millions of years ago.
In the event of this phenomenon, hundreds of thousands of human lives are washed away along with the debris in the horrible wake of a tsunami.
Over in the East, near the Equator, the sun scorches the earth. The wind seems to have gone into hibernation and the land becomes well cooked like a chicken in an oven.
What's troubling Mother Earth? Even the scientists are puzzled. They can only predict to some degree of accuracy where the hurricanes and typhoons will turn when they appear on satellite images.
Are all these natural phenomena? Ask God, say some people. Tell God, say others who swear by piety and all that's holy. But earth continues to spin out of control. Perhaps this is a tad exaggerating. However, there's no denying that with Nature taking its own revenge on people who have cursed the earth with their own insensitivity and recklessness.
There's definitely turbulence in the air. Troubled waters are flowing under many bridges. Men in general are beginning to stir with a concern that has laid dormant for generations. From Iceland to Australia, the ground on which men has built his home, has begin to stir.
What are these signs? What are they telling us? Climatologists, even if they really know what's going on, are not telling. But it is undeniable that something is amiss with Earth.
If Mother Nature wreaks havoc on the ground where she has many subjects, noe of us, including the animals, will have anywhere to hide. It is be vicious and swift for some. Others will have used their wits to survive a troubled earth.
The immortal line emerges: Are we living in the last days? Sure, some of the troubling signs are there but are they also should be accepted as gospel truth. The consolation is that man's will to live is the strongest at history's most crucial hour.
We will probably survive some major holocaust but how long can we hold up. The answers and solutions to earth's woes do not lie with the scientists and politicians but in the hearts of every individuals. We will have to change our mindsets if we want to rechange te world.
If we lost one-third of earth's populations in some global catalsymic upheavel, the history of mankind will careen off into another direction. We will have to take stock of our mistakes. For example, the damage done by man to Mother Earth.
There's really no point in debating which country is the bigger culprit when all you have are bodies to bury on the day after.
Perhaps I am too pessimistic but like many others around the world, I too am not blind to the danger signs blatantly exhibited by Earth and the solar system. The question is: are we too late?

The Day After I Retire

2006-02-17T22:42:00.000-08:00

FEW of us actually think of the days after we retire. The normal age for retirement around the world is 55. In more developed nations, the retirement age has been pushed up to 60. In other nations where the experience and contribution of the senior citizens are considered important, the retirement age is now 65.
But that is not what I want to talk about today. When a person retires, whether of his own free will, or whether it has been imposed on him by his organisation, his life takes on a different meaning.
I have a friend who is now about 65. He has been thinking of what he would do from the day he first started working at the age of about 19. He told me that his father gave him this advice: "Son, you should start thinking what you want to do the day you begin your first day of work."
Being an obedient son, he did just that. When he retired at the age of 55 from the same organisation I am working in, he was off to a flying start. He is constantly on the move. He is busy with his own projects because he has planned them about 40 years ago.
Today, he has not time to ponder over his future because he is already living it. Being his friend, I have learnt from his example except that I haven't been planning on what I should do after I retire.
Now, on the threshold of my "easy years", I look ahead and see infinite possibilities. Can a man run out of ideas of what he should or could do with his life after 55 or 65? Truthfully, I think not.
But like all human beings, we have a tendency to pick the easy way out. We want ot put our feet up and take a breather. The trouble is our "breather" can last anything from six months to the rest of our mortal life.
Relaxation is just another word of chickening out. The people who die with a smile on their face are usually the ones who are too busy with their daily lives to be contemplating on life ever after.
For me, I plan to write at least two books; go fishing at all my favourite spots and travel to at least three countries. If I plan it out well, I should be able to spend the next 20 years in an extremely happy mood. My wife is also keen to share my dreams.
Everything good begins with a dream. First, there must be a desire. Then, there has to be a commitment and finally, make a move to make it all come true. Many ordinary working people say "I will do this when I retire and have the time." This remark is so common, that it is no longer interesting or funny.
"After I retire" has become a bad phrase. Why wait till you retire. Why not do it soon, or better still, do it now? A lot of colleagues of mine have professed to do this and that, and then unexpectedly they die. Death is not shocking but it tends to spoil your plans.
We are all living from day to day because there exist circumstances that are beyond our control. I am already living part of my retirement plan. I just returned from venturing to a place that I have talked about but have never been. Well, now I can tell you that I have tasted the nectar from the tree of life.
The result is amazing. I feel better, even happy with myself that I have been there, seen it, done it!! I can now add that to my list of things to do. The people who are happiest with their current circumstances are those who act upon their dreams and dream of matters they will experience.
We constantly advise our friends and family members on what to do with their lives but we also frequently forget to follow our own advice. When we are asked about this, our standard reply is "Wait till the time is right." Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to tell you that there's no "right time". Anytime that you decide to do something is the right time.
One of my most irritating pieces of advice to myself is "I will read this book or that book when I have plenty of time". Consequently over the decades I have neglected to read some of the most beautiful books ever written. My private library has thousands of books. At least one-third of them have been left untouched by me.
But I have since begun to resolve this matter. The last couple of years have seen me digesting the contents of some of my favourite books. Each time I finish one, I will jot the title down as a reminder that I have taken another step in an adventure that I can call my very own.
I have begun to spend some hard earned money on some much desire stuff. Buddha has advised all his devotees that we do not place too much importance on impermanent things. How right he was. But as life is, we are in constant need of amusements.
Amuse yourself but don't be obsessed by it. I am still continuing on my journey and it has been proven to be quite exciting so far.

10 ordinary cures for boredom

2006-02-11T20:14:00.000-08:00

Individuals are constantly complaining of being bored. And this is apparently the perogrative of the younger generation. "Oh, I am simply bored out of my skull!" is one of those ubiquitous phrases.
"Is nothing happening out there!" clocks in as a close No. 2 on the famous boring remarks. Well, look no further than this page because there are simple cures for this common ailment if you are up to it.

1. Take out your address book and look for the number of the person who least expect you to call and phone him or her. If you are asked the reason for the call, just tell the truth - that you feel like doing it. You will be surprised how much mileage you can get out of a five-minute conversation. People normally don't time off to do ordinary, painless acts like phoning another person for no apparent reason at all. There are thousands of lonely souls out there, sometimes praying that somebody should call them. They too are as bored as you, then why not you take the initiative and watch how life plays out this Act.

2. Write a letter to your auntie, uncle, grandma or grandpa (they are still around). You know the older set likes to know that the world has not gone on by and forgotten all about them. I have done it a few times in the past and I received return calls telling me how much my letters are appreciated. The old folks live for moments like that - the sudden, unexpected letter showing up at their mailbox. Sometimes, they get an absolute thrill of knowing that somewhere across the country or maybe even in the next county, a relative thinks of them at the most unexpected moments. It doesn't matter if they are a roomful of money, they are still people. Money can't buy everything. Letters are free. Try it and experience the joy of bringing it to others.

3. Get a hobby. I have several. In fact at this stage in my life, my wife is astounded that I have so many hobbies and the younger generation seems to be so unadventurous. It is really up to you. Perhaps you develop a sudden interest in silent movies, or it could be a passion of a particular species of African flowers. Once you are fired up about something, you tend to read or try to find books on it and then subsequently venture out of the house to look for it or people who share the same interest as you.

4. Travel across the State for the day. Take out the car, motorcycle, or even bicycle and just go. Take out a map, find a remote area that has few visitors and go out there and see how people live out their lives in their own little corner. I have done it on many occasions and still am regularly surprised by the things I have learned. You are never too old to learn. Life is a series of very long adventures. All you have to do is to stop thinking of yourself and for once, try to mingle.

5. Learn meditation. It can be very fulfilling. If you are already into yoga, then there's little I need to tell you but if you are not into looking "into your own soul", perhaps it's time you do. Meditation is indeed the final frontier. The final frontier is not out there in the galaxies. Only Capt Kirk has that privilege. Your borderless world is inside you. If you can but take the first step, it may lead you to the other portals that will change your life.

6. Volunteer to do community work even if at the beginning you think it will "kill you". People seldom do community work unless the judge orders them to. There's a reason why the law commands you to be up close and personal with the less privileged. It is an excuse for you to find out that you don't have that many problems afterall. If you don't believe me, ask Angelina Jolie. I am sure she can come up with a hundred reasons why you should do so.

7. Read a challenging book. One of my favourite pastimes is to read. I normally read non-fiction stuff and reading such material has opened my eyes to world yet unseeen by innocent eyes like mine. I have found out that even the mighty have taken bitter pills of disappointment and that nobody is immune from sadness, pain and sorrow. Fortunately, I also learnt that happiness is your own right. Live for today and be the greatest that you can be.

I shall continue this another day because there's another adventure waiting for me that can't be delayed any longer...........

It's February 15, 2006 on my side of the world today. Now, where were we before I was rudely interrupted. Ah yes, I was suddenly yanked out of my house on an urgent errand.

8. Get your priorities right. Life's is not a six-lane, non-stop freeway. We as human beings are allowed to make pit-stops and take a respite as we journey along to wherever we are going. Boredom becomes fossilised when we are too stubborn to change our routine. Like me, you can actually get up from where you are sitting and do something that urgent needs your attention. There are no hard and fast rules in anybody's life. That's the wonderful part of living. You are permitted to change course, switch lanes and board a different vehicle if and when you wish it.

9. Pray to God and for others. Look, you are not meant to be alone on earth, from womb to tomb, from cradle to grave. There are six billion on this small dot of a planet. You are like a speck of dust in a gigantic playing field of dirt and grass. The reason why you are special is because you can interact with others living next to you, near you or a little further from you. Human interpersonal relationships are a great learning experience. We are all put here to learn. Everything that happens to you is a valuable lesson. Sometimes, you meet some stranger because he was destined to learn something from you, or perhaps you from him or her. Who has got time to get bored if we have our own schedules filled to the brim with beautiful, interesting experiences. Ah yes, don't forget to ask God for help if you are "lost". If you are an atheist or existentialist, then God help you, or better still, you help yourself.

10. Ultimately, we all live and die by our own hands. This is a metaphorical statement of insightful proportions. If you complain incessantly that you are forever bored, then you are bored by the very decision which you have undertaken. Nobody is bored by other people. You ALLOWED yourself to get bored. Boredom is not part of our earthly agenda.
Even if you are dead-broke, suffering from an incurable disease or facing Death at the turn of very corner, boredom is the last thing on your menu. If you are on the receiving end of all those things which I have mentioned, I think you can safely come to the conclusion that you are the last person on earth to be bored.
Don't sentence yourself to a life of boredom. Life is too great to be slowed down by a litany of incessant complaints and self-defeatism. You are not that type of person, are you? Now get up and go. Do something. Anything. Just don't break the law.

10

Why give celebrities so much attention?

2006-02-07T22:35:00.000-08:00

OKAY, this question has been begging to be answered for a very long time. Why do we ordinary people pay so much attention to celebrities? Who do we even treat them like they are demi-gods or something close to that status?
Surely, our own lives cannot be so mundane and boring that we need to know which actress has been putting on weight so that we have something to gossip about.
It seems as if a lot of us are unable to draw a line between reality and make-believe. It is enough that we pay to be entertained. Actors and actresses are handsomely paid for acting their parts in a storyline so that about two hours of our daily lives are given up for fantasy and escapism.
Sometimes I wonder if all that hype and media attention on the celebrities, not necessarily from the acting industry, reveal something about our own inadequate sociological and anthropological behaviour.
From the perspective of social sciences, I reckon it says that as human beings we are always envious of others who are the centre of attention. We too crave for that kind of reputation or status. Thus, we sort of worship others who are constantly in the limelight because secretly we want to be like them.
From hindsight, we should actually spend more time in fulfilling our own life ambitions. If some of us give as much attention as we are giving to the celebrities, we too will be able to achieve some enviable goals.
When celebrities are at their zenith, the media go into some kind of a feeding frenzy. We buy magazines, newspapers and see the TV to catch up on the latest developments in other people's lives. For example, the triangle love affair between Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston.
Does it make our lives any better if these three people change their eating habits or move out of Hollywood? Frankly, no but that does not stop us from wanting to know more.
Humans are such busybodies. We are always minding other people's business. On one hand, it is good to learn more about your neighbours and perhaps a little beyond that. But it is generally unhealthy to be obsessed by people who have totally no connection with us and will in no way be of any benefit to us or our lives, no matter how much we "worship" them.
However, certain industries like companies dealing with public relations, entertainment and advertising are familiar with the weaknesses of society as a whole. They make it seem as if it is worth our while to adore these idols to the point we have to collect their autographs, pictures, T-shirts with their faces on them, and other items that are closely associated with the famous people.
The bottom line is we are actually spending money for the upkeep of these people and the businesses that are linked to them.
If you sit down to analyse all these factors, you will come to the realisation that there is no greater fool than the one staring back at you in the mirror. Wouldn't it be better and more wonderful if we spend our hard-earned money on those people who get the most enjoyment out of our generosity.
Ever heard of the saying: Charity begins at home. Yes, those so-called people whom you sometimes acknowledge as relatives or brothers, sisters and parents. If only, we occasionally give others the benefit of our time and money. How much hope and joy would that generate.
Thus, it is not always wise to ogle at the celebrity who happens to breeze into town. I know it is sometimes difficult not to stare when everyone else is doing it. Look if you must but there's really no need to devote too much time and attention on someone who neither knows you are alive or cares.

When was the last time you cried?

2006-02-04T22:24:00.000-08:00

TEARS can either have a balming effect or a heart-wrenching act of contrition. Yes, I too have cried at certain points in my life. In Asia, tears are testimony's of an individual's unshakeable link to his humanity.
When we were born, we announce to the world our arrival by bawling our lungs out. It was an occasion to rejoice for the new parents. From that day on, it is all downhill.
Most of us henceforth from that moment on, cry for all the sad reasons. When we are upset, our faces turn red and maybe even sometimes black. Chances are we become slightly mad, or totally insane. Very few of us actually cry with anger. Men usually don't do that.
When men get angry they tend to plan their adversaries' downfall. When women get mad, they cry. When women are sad, they cry too. Thus, fewer women go to see doctors. Men just get angry, go mad and then proceed on to get heart attacks, develop stomach or liver ailments and then perhaps die. Not exactly, the best recourse but they are none the wiser.
Thus, in truth, it is good to have a good cry now and then. Forget about what your friends have to say about you being a cry-baby. You have a better chance at living longer than them. He who cries first gets to touch base with longevity.
In a way, I like women's method of solving personal problems. They let the tears soften the hard knocks of life and wash away the hurts that may come unannounced and suddenly. From my speech, you probably can tell that I am a man.
Man or woman, it really doesn't exempt anyone from shedding tears. Whether or not, you can actually cry, remains very much a personal decision. Some people cry very easily. They cry when their favourite football team wins. They cry when one of their children passes an important exam. They even cry when they bear witness to a magnificent sunset.
Tears from heaven, as they say. True. Tears are a gift from heaven except that we humans use our tear ducts for the wrong reasons. Tears are allowed during funerals, weddings and court verdicts. Tears are frowned upon when the occasion does not merit it, like your neighbour unintentionally chop down your favourite tree.
We all have tear ducts because it is nature's way of helping us to cope with distressful situations. The ultimate is of course fainting. That is nature's way of saying "okay, I am out of here!"
Otherwise, tears can either be a weapon or a shield. Just look at babies. They are always crying. Notice how often we take notice and give them their milk. Women shed tears to elicit sympathy from men. If you a normal man, and a woman cries because of something you have done to them, would you be able to proceed with your dastardly act? I doubt it. See, that is her weapon, and we get zonked by the act of shedding tears all the time.
On a personal basis, tears as a safety valve should be used sparingly. Use it too often, and the benefit will diminish in time. Use it rarely, and the rewards are great. For example, a period of self-healing and revitalisation. That is why when a dear loved one dies unexpectedly, we cry. With the tears, comes the easing of the burden that weighs heavily on your hearts.
Yes, we do miss our loved ones, our parents, our children and even our dear colleagues. That is what the tear ducts are made for. We cry under extraordinary circumstances, and the very act of crying help us to redeem our humanity in the face of traumatic calamity.
Cry if you have to. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Instead feeling sorry for those who forced themselved not cry. The pain of withholding the tears is must greater than the act of crying that is like releasing the flood waters of a bloated dam.
Human beings are creatures designed to cry. That sets us apart from our creatures roaming the earth. We know how to feel. It is a gift from heaven.

Get bitten by this!

Stay sharp with this forum

What it's in a name?

2006-02-02T00:30:00.000-08:00

Most of us have got "normal" names but there are a handful who were given unusual names that later become the bane of their lives in later years.
For example, back a decade or two, there was one man who was so obsessed with the Brazilian football team that he name his new-born son with all the names of the entire Brazilian football team.
Needless to say, I am still curious as to what his teachers in school call him in his schooling years.
My dad named me after his good buddy from his childhood. Fortunately, that friend's name is not Dumbo!
Generally, Christians name their children after the saints in heaven or in the Christian books. But these days, parents are becoming more sophisticated. They want society to give them due recognition due to their imaginative ways of naming their children.
No more "Michael", "John" or "Peter" for them. Nowadays, it's Tex, Dexter, Hanson, Ariel, Siegfried or Conan. While, some of us applaud the parents for wanting their children to be identified as unique individuals, we also at the same time sympathise with the child for carrying the burden of having names that can put them in an odd situation.
For example, some parents in the Far East have named their sons "Osama". That's fine but a poor attempt to drawing attention to the poor child. Then, you have a girl who may be named Hyacinth. That's a flower but it is so uncommon that her friends may actually shorten it to "Hayya" for convenience.
Parents should actually think carefully what names they should give their children. There are no prizes for being adults with the most fertile imagination.
So far I have not come across any child whose name is Godzilla but it wouldn't surprise me if I did. Some parents in their obsession to gather a reputation for themselves and unintentional everlasting torment for their child put in their birth records the most ridiculous names you can think of.
For example, how does it feel if you are too young to know better but you have just been named "Spiderman" by your dad who's crazy about the comic character. It could also be Spartacus or Taras Bublba.
I have not ruled out the possibility of a coffee-fanatic Italian father naming his son "cappuccino" instead of just plain "bambino". Just think of the boy's growing years whenever he passes by a coffee shop or happens to be in Starbucks with his friends. The hilarity of the occasion does not escape me.
We really have to be careful how our children are named because it could add a certain lustre to that child's future career or give him a terrible burden which he doesn't deserve.
So till the next Hercules comes along, may I not see another person named Wolverine coming my way!!

Good Golly, Not this!

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Looking ahead, leaving the past

2006-02-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

If you have been working non-stop for a better part of 25 years (excluding the holidays), there will come a time when you wonder to yourself whether you should review your priorities.
Well, I am - reassessing my life directions. All those worldly things which I had dreamt about while I was in my 20s or even in my teens, I have achieved and obtained. What else is there, you might ask.
Time to look elsewhere to achieve other loftier aims. For example, wandering further afield, as they say. In other words, taking longer holiday breaks. Better still, be a master of your own professional career.
That's what I want anyway at this stage in my life. I don't want to wake up at 7.30am anymore and prepare myself for work. It's really not that difficult to go through the routine but I certainly would relish the idea of waking at a later hour, like 9.30am or 10am.
My dream career from now on is having a very profitable personal business. For example, SOHO (small office home office). It's nice to know that there's a career that has a self-generating income. A friend of mine shares my sentiments.
We are constantly bouncing ideas off each other. He throws up a few ideas. I throw back a few of my own. We had a lot of fun imagining and dreaming of the life of comfort and luxury that is just around the corner for the both of us.
I am sure there are a whole bunch of people out there who are operating in the same mode as the both of us. The good news is we are actively working on those little gems of thought. It all begins with a single thought, and then it germinates and finally, hopefully, it grows and blossoms.
When you are past middle-age, your priorities change. You no longer want to marry a Miss World or Miss Universe. You tend to be more down-to-earth. You don't believe in acquiring one billion dollars. A cool ten million will do! In other words, you are not so greedy anymore.
I guess in entertaining these thoughts, I count myself as one of the "normal ones". All of us would like to live our dreams and not just dream of dreams when we are in the sleep mode. Living a dream, to me, means having a beautiful home facing the sea with a wide expanse of fantastic scenery and owning a second home on top of some mountain (not too high) when nature is very much part of the ambience.
Money won't be an issue anymore. My family and I can do anything we like. We shall not take anything for granted. I will be around to frequently remind them of the realities of life. I would like to think that other members of the family would also act as anchors to the ground of humility for me.
It is easy to behave foolishly and maybe even haughtily when life gets a bit too easy. I have seen actual examples of the nouveu riche who unwittingly make fools of themselves by unconsciously adopting the bourgouise persona that make everyone else cringe.
Money does not make a person any different than what he was before the millions came. If you are an overnight millionaire, it just means you have got more money to spend. It doesn't mean you have suddenly become faster, stronger, tougher and kinder. In most instances, if you are lacking in character, you can become a major pain-in-the-neck overnight.
These are some of the things I think about on my journey to the first 10 million. Did I tell you that I am also slightly ambitious. Look, if you have made up your mind to become a tycoon, don't be shy or embarrassed about having 8 or 9 zeroes to your account. It's just numbers.
Some millionaire once said: "After the first million, the rest are just academic." That remark somehow seems quite profound to me.
But the bottom line is life is not all about money. In fact, it seldom is. We are constantly being deceived by the media that money makes the man. Not true. Hard work and meaningful experiences build character.
Those moguls, tycoons and billionaires who came up the hard way know this. So the wisest among them usually don't flaunt their wealth. They know that they might not wake up from their bed tomorrow morning and what does that say about their achievements when that happens.
Still, it's our aim to live life as best as we could. We should be deliriously happy every day of the rest of your lives. It is our sacred duty to be ecstatic and joyful, and it is also our responsibility to help others feel the same way, too.
Life is meant to be enjoyed to its maximum effect. Where will we all be if not enjoying ourselves as we make our way through this life, short or long is not really the issue.
Most of us mistakenly think that we can buy happiness. That means the more money we have, the greater our chances of being happy. We can be poor and still be happy. The difficulty is to convince the majority of the population about this. He who proclaims this truth will probably be laughed out of town.
Back to my objectives in life: I can now safely say, to minimum embarrassment to myself, that I am in a better position to add enhancements to my own life for the betterment of my family than at any other time in my life.
When a person has fewer emcumbrances, it is easier to perform certain deeds. And what are these "emcumbrances"? They are a roof over one's head; a reasonably healthy bank account; a well-being that is the envy of others, and a life that is generally free of minor worries.
Sounds quite reasonable, isn't it? Come to think of it, when one has all the above in generous portions, one can be considered relatively well off. But still I would like to have my own dreams fulfilled in their grandest fashion possible. When they have been achieved and attained in the scheduled times, I shall be most satisfied.
When I have arrived at my destination, you will be the first to know and I will probably write a treatise on the journey to my destination as well. Wouldn't that be great?

Duh! No peeking!

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Chinese New Year - Best Excuse for Get-Togethers

2006-01-29T23:39:00.000-08:00

EVERY YEAR on the 1st and 2nd day of the new Chinese New Lunar Year or Spring Festival as it is called elsewhere around the world, hundreds of millions of Chinese families come together from far and wide to enjoy family meals and to share gossip and interests that may kickstart long-drawn conversations.
Today is the 2nd day of the new lunar year of the Dog (2006). The sun is shining very brightly as on most Chinese New Year days. It is so hot at times, like today, that most of Chinese make a hasty retreat into the cool confines of their own homes, but not before gobbling up another slew of CNY dishes at some relatives' homes or in their own homes.
Chinese New Year is also a time of giving. Say what you like about the money-grabbing Chinese and their inscrutable ways, the Chinese are familiar with the philosophy of giving. That is why ang pows are not only a must but also given with great generosity.
I just returned from visiting an old friend at the Cheshire Home. She has been there for more than 25 years. As on most CNY occasions, my wife and I dropped by to visit here. Also, like in previous CNYs, there are the unannounced arrivals of strangers who come to the Home to distribute CNY ang pows. They do not seek publicity not do they make a big fanfare about the purpose of their visit.
Basically, what they do is to come and distribute ang pows (red packets) to all the inmates and staff of the Cheshire Home. Today, I was fortunate enough to witness one such person. He was past middle-age. He came on a motorcycle and promptly on arrival, he took out a stack of ang pows to distribute to the residents.
On the sound of the ringing of a bell, the residents came rushing out from their rooms to wait in line for the ang pows which the quiet, unassuming man gave to one and all. It was a sight to behold. It wasn't like a presidential visit or anything even close to that but the sight of an individual who had sought no publicity and gave so much gladdened my heart and provided much hope to the handicapped people who will spend the rest of their days in quiet solitude and perhaps quiet desperation which most of us ordinary folks do not understand or want to understand.
Human beings are like that, so long as this kind of physical predicament is not ours to bear, we have a tendency to push it out of our mind and not entertain the thought of knowing that there are individuals somewhere out there who are a thousand times worse off than the rest of us who simply have no time to sympathise with this group of minority.
However, one single individual can sometimes do so much in so short a time. This middle-aged man after distributing the ang pows went on to sing a medley of Mandarin songs, much to the delight to a majority of the inmates at the home. His voice was powerful and it echoed across the hall and hallways of the Home.
We the unsuspecting curious-onlookers were simply impressed by his energy and enthusiasm exhibited by this man whose identity remained unknown to us all. Sometimes in our busy lives, we do not realise that there are some generous souls out there in the blue yonder carrying out generous acts of kindness which we often hear about or read about in magazines and newspapers. Perhaps, sometimes too we would want to carry out similar acts of compassion and generosity but somehow we find the excuses that we often gladly find not to do it.
And here today at this home, I bear witness to this man. His acts reminded me of the times when my grandest intentions of splendid human acts yet unperformed pale a thousand times in comparison to his small, ordinary acts of kindness and generosity.
There is much to learn from strangers like that on some days of our lives. We come across them at the most unexpected moments. For a while, we remind ourselves that we too are capable of carrying out similar acts but our courage often is found wanting.
Maybe after today, the thought will remain in my heart and mind so that I too will join this legion of do-gooders who want no rewards and expect none.

Life can only get better after this!

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Fear of that something around the corner

2006-01-26T01:03:00.000-08:00

EVER experience that fear of the unknown. For example, you have been working at an organisation for a major part of your life and one day, an opportunity pops up right before your eyes. You can't believe it. You have been working for God-knows-how-long and poof! it appears you - the door that you have been talking about with friends, family and colleagues for ages.
It is your golden key to greener pastures. It is expected that you dive and grab that key. But no, you hesitate. Not for two seconds, but for some very long minutes. What happens if I don't like it, you tell yourself. What happens if I fail and fall flat on my face, you ask yourself again.
While your friends and relatives are tearing their hair out and calling you all kinds of unkind names, you hesitate some more. Hey, where are your guts, you hear that question flying over your head.
Nobody is quite aware of the fact that you have not done anything like that before. You keep on postponing grabbing that holy grail. What holy grail, you ask yourself for the third time.
Human beings are not a race known for their relentless courage and entrepreneurial spirit. We are mostly chickens. Slightest disturbance and we fly to the rafters. So much for that invisible lion's courage.
I wonder sometimes, too. There's so much to learn if only we step around that corner. Life is not for the timid, nor it suffers gladly the squeamish. We tell ourselves we need to be a bit more adventuruous and a little less doubtful about our own abilities. Alas, we are often let down by our own lack of courage. Some of us are basically cowards, and we won't admit it. At least when one admits it, it is the first step towards solving the problem because we recognise there's a situation that needs a solution.
When you think of the number of years you may have left on earth, a lot of things suddenly don't look so awesome anymore. We think we can't leap over a wide drain. Of course not. There's no tiger 100 yards behind us. If we were to hear a tiger's roar and sense that it has caught our human scent and if we tally, we would soon be tiger's breakfast. I bet the speed record for running the 100 metres would quickly be perceived as reachable.
Life, it is said, is meant to be lived by grabbing its jugular. It's time to "lock and load", as they say. Tally not. Time is precious. Life is short and you can always find another job, that is, if you are not fussy or humble enough to do anything you like.
I am beginning to sense that level of adventurism rising in me. That adrenaline pumping huge amounts to prime me for that great leap across or into the unknown. As Nike has put it a long time ago - JUST DO IT!

Be the captain of your own fate!

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