Over the Top?

Now everyone's sensitivities and feelings are being hurt!
What is the solution?











HOW RIDICULOUS!

What an insult!

It is an insult to our intelligience and common sense.

Some cartoons (if you are easily offended, please don't go surf the net for it) created calamity, confusion and casualties! It also caused deaths!

The West is not consistent in its free speech and being responsible while part of the Islamic world has gone over the top in reactions.

Where will it lead us?

--- addendum

aisehman.org presents a malaysian muslim viewpoint and found this cartoon reasonable...

it has very fine reasoning but...will hotheads from both side agree?
it does not matter how fine the reasoning when blinkered and violent people does not reason... and yet, i still beileve, that the pen is mightier than the sword, in the long haul.

Hotel California?

'Relax' said the nightman, We are programed to recieve.
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave

---

Does this not remind you of what is happening to those who chose to convert for whatever reason into Islam? I pity those who did not convert but is born into it. They can never leave!

Construction Site

I have created a construction site for those who are interested in the progress of our new home. Go there, as more pictures can be posted.

This blog will continue to exist for the occasional ramblings on matters that interest me and when time permits. Cheers

Called Off

No leh, not the construction on the house
but the vigil regarding the funeral that caused so much anxiety.

Read this for some further thoughts.

2nd Day

2nd Day sees the lower level platform earth work being prepared and quite a few old trees have to give way for the piling and construction work to be carried out. Don,t worry, there are plenty more on the land below.


The view from the bottom in June 05

Now with some of the trees making way.

Just one day

This was in the morning when the earth was still about 3 feet above road level

Within a day the top level has been cleared!

When it moves, it moves.

Now the lower level earth platform need to be set up so that the surveyors can mark the piling points. Should be completed next week and piling done before Chinese New Year, hopefully!

Starting At Last!

I started this blog way back in June 05 to let some friends know about our new house being built on our land. That was six months ago.






Now at long last earthwork on the land has begun. Haiya (sigh)... blame the delay on the engineers, contractors and rain over the period.





Nevermind at last it has started.










Watch this space for updates! :D

Funeral for the living

Funerals are for the living not the dead. The dead is just a body, it knows nothing, feels nothing and sees nothing. The dead is but a memory in the hearts and minds of the living and funerals are for the sake of the living to help them grieve properly.

Whether you are an atheist or a believer that we are more than a physical being, that fact remains.

For an atheist, it does not matter two hoots what we do with the body when one draws the last breath. A life becomes dust and nothing!

For a believer in the judeo-christian-islamic strand, there is the soul which will not die . The Eastern beliefs with roots in Hinduism, Buddhism and Chinese traditional beliefs, too has a belief of a soul.

What happens to the soul depends on what you believe in.

So why is there such a big hoohah about one funeral that caused so much anxieties in Malaysia? Legally it caused so much contention because the living has no right to a dead body and has no recourse to a rule of law, whether it is flawed or not! Will justice be served under such a system?

The authorities might now have the right to the body under the much debated constitution vs syariah system, but did it have the right for the soul?

The payment of RM100,000 and posthumous promotion for the deceased might be 10 silver coins to salve the conscience of the authorities but it is no recompense to the agony of the widow who was not allowed to grieve in a proper manner.

Afterall, funerals are for the living.

Look here, here, and here for a wider context, debates and background information.

addendum
more links : this one discuss conversions with further links regarding issues on conversion in and out of islam.

This article talks about the state of mind of the deceased.

Latest
from christain perspective

Magnetic Cures?

I have a thing about much hyped cures, not that I totally trust western medicine either but when multi-leveled, complementary therapy and medicines are pushed into your face, I tend to react.... so there, check this out when some one pushes magnets and claimed that it will cure ailments from arthritis to cancer.

Too good to be true right?

Detox?

Do you try to detox after all the excess of the season?

Don't bother!


It is a waste of time and money! So says this BBC report : click

School reopens

Back to the routine...
tearful first time children to school,




early morning traffic jams,













and anxious parents over all things about their children's schooling!











How do we as parents cope with this annual event?

Argggggghhhhhhhh

It is amazing how God gave us the patience and ability to overcome them and we are more than conquerors! Yeah










Rom 8:35 What will separate us from the love Christ has for us? Can trouble, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, danger, or violent death separate us from his love?
Rom 8:36 As Scripture says: "We are being killed all day long because of you. We are thought of as sheep to be slaughtered."
Rom 8:37 The one who loves us gives us an overwhelming victory in all these difficulties.
Rom 8:38 I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love which Christ Jesus our Lord shows us. We can't be separated by death or life, by angels or rulers, by anything in the present or anything in the future, by forces
Rom 8:39 or powers in the world above or in the world below, or by anything else in creation.

New Year - New Look

Yup, look unto God!

from an email:

"Look unto Me." Isa 45 : 22A

NEW YEAR'S morning opens upon us, and we are still exposed to sorrow, Satan, and disappointment; sin lives in us; and athousand things are ready to distress us; but our God says,"LOOK UNTO ME."Look unto Me as the source of happiness, the giver of grace, and your Friend. Look unto Me in every trial, for all you want, and in every place.

Look unto Me TODAY, I have blessings to bestow.I am waiting to be gracious. I am your Father in Jesus.Believe that I am deeply interested in your present and eternal welfare; that all I have promised, I will perform; that I am withyou, purposely to bless you. I cannot be unconcerned about anything that affects you; and I pledge Myself to make all thingswork together for your good.

You have looked to self, to others,in times past; but you have only met with trouble and disappointment; now look unto Me ALONE, to Me FOR ALL.

Lift up the eye and the heart to Me today, and every day throughout the year; and walk before Me in peace and holiness.Prove Me hereby, if I will not thus make you holy, useful, and happy; try Me, and find My word of promise true; true to the very letter.

Look to Him, till His mighty love
Thy every thought control;
Its vast, constraining influence prove,
O'er body, spirit, soul.

Peter Crouch - An Unlikely Football Player

Liverpool Football Club's recent decent run in the EPL is due to great team work and Peter Crouch's fine link work has contributed to some scoring. But he is 6' 7" of a bean pole, an unlikely footballer as one can imagine! He has been given plenty of sticks in his short career. Click the link and see, its hilarious! :p

Look at him, scrawnily thin and awkward in appearance! A kick might just break him into two!

But he has been good so LFC need to urgently put him on a beefing up regime, diet and gym work should do the trick no? Just imagine him like this....














Frightening prospect to the opponents isn't it? :D

How can?

This must be on of the the biggest con in Corporate Malaysia! Check this out!

Proton sold investment Euro 70 mil for only Euro 1 (yes 1, satu, yit) after only one year! Who was the consultant who advised the investment? Where was the due diligence? I know the CEO was sacked, but is he liable.

I am not an investor in this company but through the Government's share, I am indirectly interested. Will shareholders sue?

Christmas/Boxing Day

All the gifts have been unwrapped and all the food (whatever we managed to eat) has been eaten. It has been ages since I update as busy has been my middle name, what with a few travels overseas in the last 2 months!

Anyway, have a Blessed Christmas (hey there are suppose to be 12 days of it) and a New Year full of hope!

Baby Escapes Train Death

Saw this news in the BBC. I thought sub-way trains have sensors when doors are not closed and the train cannot move! It was scary!

Sorry cannot link direct to the video,
look for the video story at the page,
hopefully it will not be displaced. It is sobering....

---

latest edit... the link no longer show the video...
too bad, it was frighthening to watch a woman
trying to push a baby pram into the subway train
as it was closing and the pram was stuck with baby
and woman outside. The train began to move!
Baby still in chair, woman frantically tried to get baby out,
another woman came and help and managed to release baby
who was thrown onto floor
but mother was stuck with pram and train continue to move....
with woman trapped and being pushed on the platform
apparently to her death but the train stopped just in time!
Phew...

Half Century at the Great Wall

Just celebrated my 50th birthday
at the Great Wall of China
and survived!
My lover
(Beijingers call their wives Ai-Ren)
and I chose an adventurous 10 km hike
at the not so touristy part
of the Great wall.
It is not the easy sight-seeing option,
but it was simply fantastic.




The reward
for the
challenging
5-hour hike
was a Beijing Duck dinner in Beijing
at the end
of the day!










50 years comes only once in a lifetime, afterall ... :D

Overall Beijing is a nice place for a visit. Food is good,
price is reasonable and affordable for Malaysians,
and shopping can be a bargain if you know how.

For more detail click wife's blog

Laughter means less medical insurance premium cost

It's official! A private health insurance firm has named the top ten comedy programmes that will prevent viewers from having to use its policies.

But this list of comedies are for old folks! Young people have no idea what those programmes are! Check it out!

Another Disaster

Suddenly the number of disasters seem to have increased. Tsunami, typhoon and now an 7.8 scale tremor earthquake.

4 millions made homeless and death estimated from 20,000 to 40,000 ! Can we get immuned to sufferings and get sympathy fatigue from too much TV and news report?

Pray not! Help in whatever way we can be it a prayer or make a donation to red cross or worldvision. or christian-aid.