A sad moment
Today we've lost a courageous and charismatic lady, who's inner passion was to bring democracy, liberalism, and tolerance to Pakistan. May her soul rest in peace and condolences to her close family and friends.
the naked truth
Last month, the ethnic Indians of Malaysia had done a great job to prove to the world that despite the so much hyped about "racial harmony" as the government says, the unity between this country's multi-racial people is gradually falling apart.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, as a Malaysian, I have witnessed and experienced many times, how the residents in this country are dissappointed with matters regarding to the race factor. If you ask randomly one question, "what is it that you are not happy with this country?", the famous answer would be the "education quota system".
It has been stated right under the country's constitution - the Bumiputera's (it means "prince of soil" which refers to the ethnic malay people) shall be granted many rewards and advantages apart from other races. One of the advantages will be placements in public / local universities. The most ironic part of this particular part of this constitution is that, many in this country are forgetting the most important factor in this country. People in this country are widely separated by the "Muslims" and the "Non-Muslims". Islam is indeed Malaysia's national religion, and everybody who is a citizen in Malaysia would by right admit the fact that this is an Islamic nation and should know their boundaries. Everybody has taken their oath on this, and if they can't accept this, then why be a Malaysian? Hence, most privileges will go to the Muslims. Favourism of the Malay race is backed by the reason of protecting the rights of the Muslims here. This country is ruled by the Muslims and our country has taken a lot of effort to ensure the Muslim residents deserve a decent, comfortable and peaceful life here.
If we compare Malaysia with other Islamic countries throughout the globe, we know that our country has been very lenient and practices religious tolerance. What i mean by this is that, people are allowed to have different faith and could have any ceremonies that are related to their respective religion as long as the people respect each others religion and live with harmony.
Other than that, this country is hugely affected with racial segregation, corruption, economic disparity... Each ethnic group in this country feels superior. Believe me or not, each one of Malaysian, would have condemned at least once about the other races or would have specific generalization of each one of the ethnic groups. Just enter any universities or schools in Malaysia, the most common thing that you could notice is that each race tends to stick to their ethnic group wherever they are - classroom, cafe, group discussions. This color factor has been the norm for a long time already.
Now coming back to the recent rally, i personally think that the Indians had done a big mistake in choosing the name of their group - "hindraf" . "hind" stands for hindu - and that's a religion - not a race. Anybody could be a hindu in this world, not specifically Indians. Instead of using "indraf", they have choosen "hindraf". I guess their leader needs to rethink of the impacts of using religion over matters of human rights. This is because in our country, the leading and national religion is of course Islam, and people are separated by Muslims and Non-Muslims. And, i guess the leader of the group would have obviously known that not all Indians in Malaysia are hindus, in fact a major percentage of them in this country are actually Muslims. So, this is like blatantly a not so smart start for the ethnic Indians to actually use the name of religion to fight for their rights. Race and religion is totally different and both are sensitive matters.
As i mentioned previously, this country has done a great help in ensuring peace among the multi-racial and multi-religious community in this country. Especially, to focus on hindus in this country - we have vernacular tamil schools, tamil based tv and radio programmes, tamil publications, indian stores, indian food restaurant, the freedom to celebrate religious celebration at home or in the public and they have temples too. What more could a person ask for in a Muslim country?
It's really a shame when people of my country still haven't captured the true essence of UNITY. Long gone were the times of racial segregation and double standards but why are we still living backwards?? We have made so much of contributions to "Malaysians for Peace" campaign, but we ourselves have yet to improve something that is tarnishing the identity of this country.
At the end of the day, we all Malaysians should never ever take for granted the peace that we have right now and be thankful to God Almighty.
Stand Up, Speak Up
While at work today, i came across yet another sad story that defy's women's rights. What didn't surprise me was that the story came from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
A Saudi lady who was gang raped last year (14 times by a group of 7 men) would have gone through nightmares and psychological trauma caused by the gang rape itself and now the country's law is giving her an unfair, bias judgement towards the woman's cry for help in public. According to Al-jazeera news today the arabian lady was sentenced to 6 months imprisonment and additional 200 lashes because of the lady's "attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media". in 2006 she was sentenced to 90 lashes due to "illegal mingling" which had led to her being raped. Have the men in Saudi Arabia lost their sense of sympathy?
In an Islamic point of view, an unmarried woman involved in sexual behavior voluntarily would have been severely punished based on Islamic Religious Law (Syaria Law).
Involuntary sexual acts done by married women and in this case a "rape", the Islamic Law does not rule out that a victim should be punished too. Meeting a man in the car is not associated with sexual behavior from any point of view. I'm so curious, i wonder were there any eye-witness who saw the victim and the man that she had a "rendezvous" with in the car doing some lewd acts? It wasn't mentioned it the news.... how could just meeting a man be so "illegal" or a "crime"? I'm baffled ...would any sane arabian lady throw herself to a group of "hungry" men just so that they get satisfaction and she gets nothing at all?
Islamic rules & regulations has always been very protective of women in Islam. There are tremendous amount of rules and specifications on how an Islamic woman should appear and each of them are actually good if it is given deep thoughts to it. But when rules tends to be overprotective, Islamic women especially in middle east countries face horrible suppression by the law and this brings more harm than good. The truth is, in Saudi Arabia it's really not the Islamic rules that they follow, it's actually their tradition itself which is far too backwards from modern day civilization. I'm talking about giving the arabian ladies liberty to express themselves with acceptable restrictions.
Now just imagine what happens to the rape victim after this...
First of all, psychological pain and lost of privacy caused by the global mass media. (she has already attempted suicide)
Secondly, her family would either support her and condone her or maybe they would actually detest her for bringing shame.
Next, the big question of her virginity would prevail since it's a middle east country, what are the chances of her getting a decent proposal from an arabian man to get married? (in Saudi Arabia, men need their wifes chastity to remain intact before marriage)
Then she has to go through several medical examinations just to make sure she's not pregnant or having any sexually transmitted disease.
and last but not least, 6 months jail term and 200 lashes.
How much more could a rape victim handle??
Today, women in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the middle eastern region should really take note of this matter and start learning how to stand up and speak up of their rights. Isn't it such a shame to see foreign interruption appearing to defend the rights of women in the middle east but none from middle eastern countries itself. This kind of situation has actually allowed Women’s rights as a western foreign policy objective in the Middle East. I wonder will there ever be a revolutionary change for a better life for these arabic women or when will their plight be ever heard? Would a lady with authority give this kind of verdict to a rape victim? Take note, Saudi women are not allowed to be legislators too. I feel pity to these arabian women, day by day they are trapped by life's disappointing realities. Arabian women needs to find a solution on defending themselves, change the tradition and stop running away or ignoring what's happening to them.While i've heard many positive news such as the first Saudi woman who became a pilot or 60% of successful Saudi University graduates are women, lots of things Saudi women need to catch up. The most important thing is they need to be heard and treated equally with men. They need to unite to overcome the tight rules made by male chauvinists and sexist in their country.
It's time to wake up ladies, and show them that you are bravehearts and make history.
The Faking Business
Monday, 7;30am
Women. There's a simple basic fact that would never change across time -- men can't live without sex and women can't live without makeup. While many women tend to be moderate in making beautifying themselves, there is a certain percentage of women who just loves exaggeration and here I have some thoughtful insights on what I actually mean.
There are two groups of women; the naturals & the fakers. The naturals are women who are not just naturally beautiful ( which is a gift of God ) they also posses a strong personality that men would define as, "women for keeps". A classic example would be Audrey Hepburn. Look closer to her facial characteristics and you can right away recognizer that smile on her face proves that her beauty and simplicity comes from within. On the other hand, the fakers are women who I would classify as not only fakes beauty (physical appearance) but also fakes their character and personality tremendously. Two words -- Pam Anderson.
All my life I've came across many types of women -- sexy, brilliant, vulnerable, headstrong, loud, quiet, funny, simple, soft-spoken, weird, emotional, vibrant, dull and the list goes on. Believe me or not, I've met more fake women that natural ones. Well, rare pearls are so precious, they are worth digging for right?. A real man would certainly know how to differentiate between the natural and the fake one. Usually most ordinary men are just suckers for the fake ones most probably the cause is sex, sex and just sex.
Here I would like to emphasize on my encounters of fake women during my times in the university. Basically the fakers would try their best to fake almost anything that comes to mind. First off, the make-over. If you want to indentify the faker, just take a good look at her face when she walks under the sunlight. The "glow" from the foundation that covers up her face including the thick layer of lipstick ( shocking red/pink shades )that makes her look as if she has just walked out of performing in a Chinese opera would scare you on the spot. I don't see no crime in putting soft lip-gloss on. But why in the world a woman puts on a solid red lipstick when she's aint going to a ball, or maybe some specific occasion that truly demands it. The fakers hide their real look beneath the heavy make up they have put on. Just imagine how does a cake really looks underneath thick glorious icing. If make up was mend for aesthetic values, it should be used moderately.
The skin. It's easy to distinguish women who wears a two-piece bikini at the beach (obviously for swimming purpose) and those who are daring to bare their skin unneccesarily at almost any occasions. The fake women are usually unsecured with how well their facial attributes could attract public attention especially men. So the easy solution would be to bare skin (plus the cleavage) as much as possible. I'm a woman so trust me, women always spend hours to dress up and make up all just for the sake of getting all eyes on them. Fact is, a women feels superior than those of the same gender when men sinfully admires each part of her body, it makes her feel like a queen. Perhaps its girl power. Once I asked a simple question to a woman who was sexually harassed by her guy buddy -- "why did you wear so sexy?" Check the answer -- "I don't know why all guys demands sex from me, I just love wearing sexy clothes, it's not that I wanna show off my body to men, I just feel good wearing em', it's my taste in fashion". At that instant I really felt she was thinking that I am a fool to believe in that ridiculous statement of hers. Women who are naturally beautiful could make men speechless and bedazzled with their radiance that comes from within. A true beauty does not need to cover her face with too much of make up, light make up would do or she doesn't need one anyway and her personality would be rich and powerful enough to make a man melt in her arms. She could be covered in loose fitting clothes, or wearing a full hijab (headscarf) with just exposing her face and hands but the impact she has on the way she talks using her brains and brings herself confidently will be a surefire a big turn on to men. The naked truth is that women who exposes too much of skin are just inconfident of their looks and personality. Skin is just an alternative of cheap publicity.
A fake women catches her prey (men of course) by pretending to act as if they have great friends, looking always happy and cheerful and on top of those gibberish sickening dramas they love to act as if they are naive inexperienced women. The fakers have set in their mind their long-term mission -- to get men and more men that she can keep in her pocket. They don't seem to comprehend the true meaning of love, what they actually know off is just lust. Lust seems to be love to them. A fake women could act as if no men has seen her naked before nor she has been touched by men. They date multiple men at once, go to bed with all the men and yet some could even confess that they have never seen how semen looks like.Does that mean they have been playing football or a game of hide and seek all night long? Nonsense. Their facial expressions could trick anyone as they are professionals in gaining trust of people around them. Faking an accent wouldn't be any problem too and not to forget wearing double padded bra for that glorious voluptuous full breast look.
Usually fake women would tell many blatant lies to their girlfriends, they always do. This is done purely to gain acceptance in a the cirle of friends and to make the girlfriends envy and feel jealous for their success in collecting men and luxury in their pathetic life. Fakers would make other believe they have it all-- love, money,great friends,great lifestyle. Sometimes they lie too much and when another person finds out the truth about the fakers activities, trusting them back would be just impossible. The question is what are the consequences of women that loves to fake it? Personally I guess in the long -run these fakers would loose their real identity, hell they would have forgotten who they really are. They keep lying to others and to themselves by creating many imaginary stories about themselves which in the end lead them to have a fake personality that is far from who they really are beneath the assumed identity they currently live with. They keep assuring to themselves that everything is fine when the fact is they runaway from the absolute truth about their true personality. This could lead to a bad psychological disorder that these fake women will never realize of having a disorder that could turn severe if left untreated. Inferiority complex and low self -esteem are one of the disorders. Fakers are so uncomfortable being themselves and assume someone will only like them if they are a mirror of the other person. Fakers are so insecure that they feel the overpowering need to feel accepted by everyone. This is a crisis because they'll never experience the satisfaction of just being "you' in any relationship that comes. The good part is most women would eventually grow out of it as they gain experiences which could boost their confidence in later years. On the other hand, sadly, some never do.
My advice to all the real women out there, be proud of who you really are and be yourself and to all those fake ones, you girls are just pathetic!
examinations vs experiences
--Examination is a fundamental approach in knowing student’s level of understanding in their studies but it’s impossible to predict their career success by using their examination results. However, lifetime experiences determine a person’s career success.
Universities are normally accepted as a higher learning institute that will provide its students with a certificate that would create their path to a successful career in their future. Basically it is understood that examinations are done in order to evaluate a student’s level of knowledge for the subjects studied in the university. In reality, this belief is unfortunately wrong. To rephrase, examinations are only a temporary evaluation of a student’s brain capacity to memorize what they have studied from their textbooks.
First of all we look at the format of examination usually done in universities. The basic format would be to have multiple choice questions, true or false, short essays or structured questions and lastly long essays. The first two formats are indeed just exactly testing a student’s ability to memorize facts taught by their lecturers. The structured and long essays would, in a minor percentage, predict a student’s logical thinking ability or how creative their mind thinks. However the predictability level is limited. This is because the questions are mostly asking about the subjects being learned and not about career development. Most students forget what they have learned for their examinations even after the semester break itself. This is because most of them never grab the essence of what is learned, they merely just memorize and answer. It’s undeniable that these questions could foresee the level of understanding in a certain area of their subjects but to predict their success in career it is quite impossible. Fact is there is no any other possible way to predict a student’s success in their career.
Career happens to be a lifelong experience. When graduates starts their career life, they need in depth understanding of what the particular job demands from them, plus they need lots of experience in order to constantly improve the quality of job. Actually a person needs to constantly collect experiences from the period they begin studying and working. As we can see here the keyword seems to be experience.Some people say life is the best teacher and often it is true. Actually the more older a person gets, the more expected and unexpected things would happens throughout their life in order for them to reach that desired wisdom at a certain point of age. Likely there is a theory called empiricism that means the view that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of knowledge. Now this is a theory to ponder in this argument. So if we think for a second we can analyze that when we work it is impossible that we apply 100% of what we have learned in school and universities. Most probably we would apply 50% or less of it. Going to school or university is all about learning and getting to know the basics and details of something while the amount of experiences gained throughout the period a person starts to build their path to a successful career is priceless. Many people learn from mistakes in life that makes them to strive to make a difference and improve their value of job they have in their hand.
A classic example would be Abraham Lincoln, the 16th American President of the United States of America. During his time, Lincoln knew how to read and write but he never pursued learning in a higher institution nor did he ever sit for an examination. The man was a self –educated person and was smart enough to use his ability and ambitious character to rise rapidly in his political career.
As we can see a person can get promoted way faster with that experience they hold rather than the first class certificate they have obtained. Anyone can make big money with experience that teaches them great techniques of money making, but with the same certificate, you just get to have a nice roof on top of your head. Many fresh first class graduates are most of the time jobless or unable to look for a job position that suits their previous field of studies. Funny, but it's true.
To conclude, we should understand that examination is fundamental but experiences brings out the better person in anybody, turns people to be mature in decision making, develops a person’s structure and leads to a promising future.However knowledge from lifetime experiences would be a good teacher to oneself most of the time and even if it is communicable to others, only those who has experienced something learns the most from their own experience. Experiences are not read, it is felt by all senses of the human body.
so now come to think of it, can we just go to learning institutes, attend lectures & tutorials, educate ourselves, get a degree but minus the exams? ;)
what can we learn from the infamous Zidane "headbutt"
What happens when a sports superstar decides to make a bad move during a match? Most of the time, the outcome of a negative behavior would spark furious comments from thousands that have been watching from the stands and possibly millions more from home. Many incidents like this would normally be ended with public apology by the sullen athletes and most probably they would be punished by the games federation. Throughout the last century cases of professional athletes showing their rage during game has been increasing. For example footballer Francesco Totti has spat Christian Paulsen in the face, in America Tennessee Titans defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth had stomped on another player's head, the famous Eric Cantona had ‘karate kicked’ his fan in 1995. Recently the world was shocked once again when star French Midfielder Zinedine Zidane was sent off for ‘headbutting’ Italian, Marco Materazzi in the chest in an off the ball incident during the 110th minute of the 2006 World Cup final match in Germany.
Zidane had announced before that he would retire from professional football after the 2006 World Cup and this event led him to receive the red card from the referee. It was an awful way to end his successful career. The chronology of the incident is believed to be when initially the two players exchanged words before Zidane began to walk away from him. Next Materazzi then said something to Zidane, who turned around, made a run-up and head-butted Materazzi in the chest, sending him to the ground. Later during the FIFA investigations, video footage suggested that Materazzi had provoked Zidane and newspapers had lip readers try to determine what Materazzi had said, coming up with a variety of insults. Zidane admitted to the press that Materazzi has repeatedly said harsh comments about his mother and sister. Materazzi admitted insulting Zidane, but said that Zidane's behavior had been very arrogant. He stressed that the insults had been trivial and denied that he insulted Zidane’s mother. Lip readers were hired to suggest what might have been said by both parties. Materazzi's alleged dialogue before the incident translated from the Italian language was most probably “hold on, wait, that one's not for a nigger like you. We all know you are the son of a terrorist whore. So just f*** off.” But at the end of the day no professional lip readers could prove the accuracy of what actually has been said by both parties. Both of them has been later fined and suspended by world governing body Fifa.
I believe that people deserve second chances, even these professional athletes too, but as we see, they are also human like us and they tend to make mistakes in live and learn by regretting their mistakes. A lot of other concerns would arise, primarily is the affect this type of behavior has on those impressionable young minds watching from the stands and at home as well. The negative impact would be a huge damage to kids around the world who has been a number one fan for that particular sports superstar.
Many different views arose since Zidane’s heatbutting incident happened. Many variety of reviews were made by people worldwide saying that his attitude was a shame and it has tarnished his awesome football career throughout his years. Oppositely some said that his behavior has been making him more as a real HERO. If someone insulted a person’s race or religion, he'd be as ready to attack that person, no matter what the circumstances. Zidane's action in a way has highlighted for the world the fact that the racial unity of France is more important than winning the World Cup title itself. Some suggested that rules should never be broken especially during a very important match like World Cup and that bad behavior in matches should mean stiffer penalties. It’s been clear that Zidane was provoked into behaving badly as any sane man would not have done something drastic as this during his last final match of his career. Despite the incident in the last ten minutes of the match, Zidane, a Muslim of Algerian parentage and proclaimed in France as an inspiration of multiculturalism, was voted the tournament's best player and received full support from the President of France, Jacques Chirac, Abdelaziz Boutelfika the President of Algeria and his ever loyal fans especially those of from France itself.
This incident has opened the eyes of people on the reality of what is happening in Europe itself nowadays. What we could observe between French and Italian team during the World Cup 2006 is that the French since World Cup 1998 had a line up of multi-cultural players and were even called the Black, Blanc, Beur which means black, white and Arab. However the Italian team line up comprised only pure Italians. Racial identity crisis is now becoming widespread in European countries such as France, Spain and Italy. Multiculturalism is not fully accepted by all citizens in these European countries. People still prefer on having their originals citizens to reside in these countries and don’t give a good treatment to some immigrants mainly from Africa and Arabic countries that live in their country. Terrorism that has tarnished the good name of the Arabic race has given some hard time to other innocent immigrants in European countries as condemnation to them slowly kills their self-esteem. The Europe’s identity crisis is something that should not be neglected, it should be inspected in 360 degrees and preventive and corrective measures are to be taken before this situation goes out of control. Conflict or the superiority of races should be abolished and Europeans and the societies in the world should look optimistically at the mass advantages of cross – cultural integration such as spoken language variability, improvement of economic conditions, increase in tourists, fusion of foods, better understanding of cultures and identities and transparency that breaks cultural barriers between different nations.
While the world is adapting and turning into globalization and cross-cultural integration, all the races should unite and try their best in understanding different cultures. Football on the other hand is a game played by humans and not robots, therefore, the game should be played professionally but like all other humans, footballer's makes mistakes too and they deserve to be forgiven when they do wrong.
s t a r e
~you are safe in my hands~
