Some people say "Blood Runs Thicker Than Water"....
Sometimes they are wrong - dead wrong. That's the reason why families have their own family feud. Because they let it happen. Especially when a wrong is not righted. Especially when the people who did wrong feels no remorse, no guilt at the hurt that they inflicted on those who supported them without any expectations in their whole life. Deep down, they know it is wrong. But they hide such Truths from themselves, afraid to face the fact that they have changed for the worse.
Maybe and only maybe when tradegy strikes, only they will realised how wrong they were before. But by then, it probably will be all too late.
How important it is never to assume that family will always be there, will always forgive even if you do something wrong, that they can sacrifice for you just because you deem yourself important to them.
Parents always readily suffer in silence, because their love for their children knows no boundaries. And some selfish children take this to their advantage, refuse to acknowledge the hurt that they cause - thinking that they have done right.
Forgetting the people who matters most - the people who supported us no matter what, picked us up when we fell, who sat up all night beside our hospital bed worried that we are uncomfortable or in pain, people who taught us about how to be a better and stronger person in life.
Sadly, some parents will still suffer in silence even until their passing. By then, no amounts of sorries would be good enough. Parents are not here forever.
Such people are big disappointments in life - to the people who love them and also mainly to themselves. Somehow they evolve to be someone who keeps making mistakes, who keeps hurting others. They become selfish, self centered, ignorant that pretense creates more hurt.
Harsh? The Truth unfortunately is usually Harsh and Very Ugly.
And the Truth cannot be changed. Today, I seeked the Truth. I had hoped that I was wrong. And that redemption was still possible. It isn't. That now is the Ugly Truth.
Monday 31 August 2009
Friday 28 August 2009
Self Reflections
I have this strong belief that we, as "decent" human beings should self measure ourselves every once in a while.
Reflect on ourselves, to see where we have come from, what we have achieved and become.
It's not about how much we make out of our careers, or how far we have climbed in the corporate ladder, or what car we have, or what house we have or how much we have in the bank account. Some will argue otherwise. I still believe that "SUCCESS" is the ability to do what one loves, and at the same time, touching other people's life the right and good way, protecting what is important in their lives - people that they love, and remembering and respecting their roots.
It saddens me when some people blinded by their own selfish needs in life, loses the bigger picture of what is important in life. And it saddens and angers me more to see other people who love them get hurt and taken for granted in the process.
We often don't realise how important it is in life to be "decent, honest, and self-sacrificing". And often, our selfishness tends to blind us in making the wrong decisions in life. When that veil of deception disappears, one can only hope that regrets are not too late. Some hurts cannot be absolved even with time. For one who lets it come to that stage, only god will at the end judge them. Harsh and grim as it sounds, I believe in Karma. Don't do to others what you won't want done to you.
Look in the mirror and ask yourself, is this the person that I want to become?
Reflect on ourselves, to see where we have come from, what we have achieved and become.
It's not about how much we make out of our careers, or how far we have climbed in the corporate ladder, or what car we have, or what house we have or how much we have in the bank account. Some will argue otherwise. I still believe that "SUCCESS" is the ability to do what one loves, and at the same time, touching other people's life the right and good way, protecting what is important in their lives - people that they love, and remembering and respecting their roots.
It saddens me when some people blinded by their own selfish needs in life, loses the bigger picture of what is important in life. And it saddens and angers me more to see other people who love them get hurt and taken for granted in the process.
We often don't realise how important it is in life to be "decent, honest, and self-sacrificing". And often, our selfishness tends to blind us in making the wrong decisions in life. When that veil of deception disappears, one can only hope that regrets are not too late. Some hurts cannot be absolved even with time. For one who lets it come to that stage, only god will at the end judge them. Harsh and grim as it sounds, I believe in Karma. Don't do to others what you won't want done to you.
Look in the mirror and ask yourself, is this the person that I want to become?
Tuesday 11 August 2009
One of the Many Things Bothering Me - H1N1 in Malaysia
One would think that I would feel at peace coming home to my beloved homeland.
So far, apart from great home cooking, and good company, its been less than desirable. 38 deaths in Malaysia itself due to H1N1. Did you know that under Wikipedia, we are the 11th country with the highest confirmed death rate?
And in the Star, there's an article entitled "Govt to launch large-scale H1N1 awareness campaign". Is that all the Government is doing? Other than ordering anti-viral medicine? Local clinics and public hospitals are reportedly unable to handle so many suspected cases, hence turning patients back home for home quarantine. Effective? Again I doubt it. It feels so much that Malaysia has been caught unprepared. And worst still, seemingly unable to control the situation.
Probably, too much politicking has been happening lately. Everyone has been so focused on the political nature of winning citizens hearts, that certain critical things seemed to have been not been given the focus. H1N1 wasn't given the appropriate attention in a timely manner that should have been:- It's a a deadly threat to not only Malaysians but the whole world. H1N1 awareness campaign??? Is that all we can do? What happened to controlling the borders? Checking people with temperatures, quarantining them at a proper healthcare facility? Awareness campaign?!!!!!! Just scream 38 deaths and 11th highest confirmed death rate in the world on every local newspaper headline, that should be enough for an awareness campaign. So much lip service, but seemingly so little action.
God help us. I fear for our future as a Country and as Malaysians in many ways. So much that I just posted my comment to The Star Online. I certainly hope so that someone in the authorities will sit up and do something "Real" and something "More" about it.
Please read on, H1N1 affects us as a world community.
My Comments:- "H1N1: Social Responsibility is Over-rated!"
Reading the newspapers these days has gotten me worried. A person can have H1N1 without even knowing it. How does one differentiate a normal flu from H1N1. Looks like a normal flu, talks like a normal flu.
It deeply concerns me that it looked as if H1N1 is only headlined when someone dies. It takes a life or many lifes in this case to be taken, in order to have somewhat of an attention given to it. Prevention is better than cure. I believe the government will need to take a more active role in dealing with this H1N1 instead of just passing it on as a social responsibility to the community. Unfortunately, it looks as if our government has acted too slowly in this case, and H1N1 spreading like wildfire. Home quarantined? One must surely wonder if this is really effective. What real actions is taken to prevent less people from bringing this desease in?
I was just at the airport a few days ago taking the MH378 flight back to Malaysia from Beijing. Out of curiosity, I especially noted the measures being taken on this H1N1 issues.
I had only noted TWO obvious measure. ONLY TWO. And they mostly only screamed out "social responsibility" to me.
The FIRST measure:- A declaration form prepared at the check in counter which detailed your particulars, seat number, and declaration of whether you've been to any H1N1 listed areas by the WHO. (Unfortunately, if one has not been reading the news or checking up on WHO's website, they would not know where those listed areas would be. The declaration form had no such listing, and assumed that passengers would know.) This declaration form had to be given to an officer waiting at one walkway of the area before catching the aerotrain. I assume was either from KLIA or from the government health department. Numerous people were not even aware that the form was mandatory. Effective? Obviously not.
The SECOND measure:- Distributing of pamplets entitled "Patient Home Care Advice" and "Health Alert Card" which in part advised the seeking of medical care when "you have difficulty breathing, or you're coughing out blood" among others. Now this really bothers me...I would have probably be very seriously ill before seeking medical attention. Effective? Again, screaming "CURE is the only way that we have. Forget prevention!"
If the pamplet was suppose to spread awareness, it would probably already be too late. From my observation, I was probably was the only few passengers who was using a facemask during my flight and when I was at both Beijing airport & KLIA and the number of passengers wearing masks at the airport were probably less than 1%. Again, I ask, "Is social responsibility the effective way? Or we not over-relying on this?"
ONE FINAL thing that really bothered me was that when I arrived in KLIA, there was no temperature check done at all. We left the plane easily AS USUAL.
Maybe we need to learn from our neighbouring countries, the sort of methods taken to detect possibly infected passengers. My parents were over in Beijing just a month ago on Airasia, and upon arrival, the Chinese officers actually check the temperature of each and every passenger on the plane itself, and not ONCE but TWICE. I waited for more than an hour for their disembarkation wondering what had happened. And it so happened that one passenger was detected with a fever, and the Chinese officers actually refused disembarkation to at least 5 or six rows of people around him. An ambulance came later to send these people to a special place for quarantine. Effective? Definately more so than just distributing pamplets & distribution forms.
I am really hoping that more emphasis will be equally put on PREVENTION rather than only just cure. Yes, we also need to emphasize on the CURE especially now, but not at the expense of PREVENTION. Here we are busy raising awareness on home quarantine and waiting for the anti-viral drugs to arrive, and on the other hand, very possibly more infected and unaware people are coming into the country. I very strongly disagree with the statement made by our Health Minister that "social distancing programmes and measures sufficed for now." Its simply NOT effective enough. Scarier still, it seems as if our private & public health sector is unable to deal with all these possible cases of H1N1.
38 deaths. How many more will have to die in order for someone to look seriously at PREVENTION and CURE in a more effective manner?
So far, apart from great home cooking, and good company, its been less than desirable. 38 deaths in Malaysia itself due to H1N1. Did you know that under Wikipedia, we are the 11th country with the highest confirmed death rate?
And in the Star, there's an article entitled "Govt to launch large-scale H1N1 awareness campaign". Is that all the Government is doing? Other than ordering anti-viral medicine? Local clinics and public hospitals are reportedly unable to handle so many suspected cases, hence turning patients back home for home quarantine. Effective? Again I doubt it. It feels so much that Malaysia has been caught unprepared. And worst still, seemingly unable to control the situation.
Probably, too much politicking has been happening lately. Everyone has been so focused on the political nature of winning citizens hearts, that certain critical things seemed to have been not been given the focus. H1N1 wasn't given the appropriate attention in a timely manner that should have been:- It's a a deadly threat to not only Malaysians but the whole world. H1N1 awareness campaign??? Is that all we can do? What happened to controlling the borders? Checking people with temperatures, quarantining them at a proper healthcare facility? Awareness campaign?!!!!!! Just scream 38 deaths and 11th highest confirmed death rate in the world on every local newspaper headline, that should be enough for an awareness campaign. So much lip service, but seemingly so little action.
God help us. I fear for our future as a Country and as Malaysians in many ways. So much that I just posted my comment to The Star Online. I certainly hope so that someone in the authorities will sit up and do something "Real" and something "More" about it.
Please read on, H1N1 affects us as a world community.
My Comments:- "H1N1: Social Responsibility is Over-rated!"
Reading the newspapers these days has gotten me worried. A person can have H1N1 without even knowing it. How does one differentiate a normal flu from H1N1. Looks like a normal flu, talks like a normal flu.
It deeply concerns me that it looked as if H1N1 is only headlined when someone dies. It takes a life or many lifes in this case to be taken, in order to have somewhat of an attention given to it. Prevention is better than cure. I believe the government will need to take a more active role in dealing with this H1N1 instead of just passing it on as a social responsibility to the community. Unfortunately, it looks as if our government has acted too slowly in this case, and H1N1 spreading like wildfire. Home quarantined? One must surely wonder if this is really effective. What real actions is taken to prevent less people from bringing this desease in?
I was just at the airport a few days ago taking the MH378 flight back to Malaysia from Beijing. Out of curiosity, I especially noted the measures being taken on this H1N1 issues.
I had only noted TWO obvious measure. ONLY TWO. And they mostly only screamed out "social responsibility" to me.
The FIRST measure:- A declaration form prepared at the check in counter which detailed your particulars, seat number, and declaration of whether you've been to any H1N1 listed areas by the WHO. (Unfortunately, if one has not been reading the news or checking up on WHO's website, they would not know where those listed areas would be. The declaration form had no such listing, and assumed that passengers would know.) This declaration form had to be given to an officer waiting at one walkway of the area before catching the aerotrain. I assume was either from KLIA or from the government health department. Numerous people were not even aware that the form was mandatory. Effective? Obviously not.
The SECOND measure:- Distributing of pamplets entitled "Patient Home Care Advice" and "Health Alert Card" which in part advised the seeking of medical care when "you have difficulty breathing, or you're coughing out blood" among others. Now this really bothers me...I would have probably be very seriously ill before seeking medical attention. Effective? Again, screaming "CURE is the only way that we have. Forget prevention!"
If the pamplet was suppose to spread awareness, it would probably already be too late. From my observation, I was probably was the only few passengers who was using a facemask during my flight and when I was at both Beijing airport & KLIA and the number of passengers wearing masks at the airport were probably less than 1%. Again, I ask, "Is social responsibility the effective way? Or we not over-relying on this?"
ONE FINAL thing that really bothered me was that when I arrived in KLIA, there was no temperature check done at all. We left the plane easily AS USUAL.
Maybe we need to learn from our neighbouring countries, the sort of methods taken to detect possibly infected passengers. My parents were over in Beijing just a month ago on Airasia, and upon arrival, the Chinese officers actually check the temperature of each and every passenger on the plane itself, and not ONCE but TWICE. I waited for more than an hour for their disembarkation wondering what had happened. And it so happened that one passenger was detected with a fever, and the Chinese officers actually refused disembarkation to at least 5 or six rows of people around him. An ambulance came later to send these people to a special place for quarantine. Effective? Definately more so than just distributing pamplets & distribution forms.
I am really hoping that more emphasis will be equally put on PREVENTION rather than only just cure. Yes, we also need to emphasize on the CURE especially now, but not at the expense of PREVENTION. Here we are busy raising awareness on home quarantine and waiting for the anti-viral drugs to arrive, and on the other hand, very possibly more infected and unaware people are coming into the country. I very strongly disagree with the statement made by our Health Minister that "social distancing programmes and measures sufficed for now." Its simply NOT effective enough. Scarier still, it seems as if our private & public health sector is unable to deal with all these possible cases of H1N1.
38 deaths. How many more will have to die in order for someone to look seriously at PREVENTION and CURE in a more effective manner?
Saturday 8 August 2009
Leaving on a JetPlane....or rather MAS airlines! =P
Yes, its my last nine hours in Beijing, and the clock is ticking.
How do I feel? Well oh, right now, my panicking feeling is masking all my sadness. The fear of excess baggage is great.... so great..... Oh wells, me and my ridiculous love for a new sport... (It comprises the most of my luggage - 15kgs. One single item alone. ha ha ha. hey, its the accountant part in me...most things produced in China are way much cheaper than anywhere else....it should be well worth it!)
Am leaving at least half of what I initially brought here, which is not much... but indicates that I will be back in the near near future. Unfortunately, not anytime early this year...so it means that I'll be home bound for at least another half year, which is not so bad... (am reasoning with myself...haha) ...of course, already there are many things that I look forward to back home....family & friends, gatherings, SHWM, familiar but totally unhealthy cheap good local food in Malaysia, uncensored web usage (which I understand may change soon..but oh no, not another China in Malaysia...)
Ok, panicky feeling has gone down now.
Its been 5 marvelous months here. I was sitting in this very chair last night in the dark, lighted by just my table lamp as I watched the seconds on the clock go by, with the peaceful but familiar sound of nothingness in the apartment... I felt very sad. It was finally ending... and although I know that I will be back, but still.... It must be human nature to not want to leave somethings good in life.
This has been my home for the last 5 months, a big big Thank You to my girlfriend for making it so. I more so feel reluctant to leave because of her. She has been more than my friend in my whole stay here. She has been part of my family. My experience here in China has been made available due to her. Am thankful, grateful that she's given me an opportunity to step out of my comfort box. Someday, hopefully... I will return the favour.
In the past week and more, I've been preparing to go back, saying my goodbyes to the ones still left in Beijing and to new friends made here. I have to say, I have multiple homes in my heart, but all these, I realised...are made homes because of the connections that we have made in life and the memories that we make. Of course, there are multiple things that I will miss about China (not so much the spitting and scary public toilets!), A21 ban, walking to school in the morning with my head in the clouds feeling at peace and happy everyday, cramping for exams in coffee shops, explicitly expressive moments in class, interesting drunk experiences at certain moments (haha, yes indeed it was interesting...), holidays in Southern Beijing with my parents, changing but tantalising fruit seasons, great coffee moments with great conversations, great scallop moments in the Wu, exhausting gym sessions with my gf followed by fresh homecooked food.... I could just go on and on...
Even so that I know that I will miss all those things above but I know that my "Adventures in Life" still has not ended but on the contrary, it just started. There's so much to life when you make up your mind to make it so. Am excited too about going home. Such conflicting feelings. ha ha. I guess thats what happens when the world slowly becomes your home.
For today, "Goodbye Beijing, Hello Malaysia..."
How do I feel? Well oh, right now, my panicking feeling is masking all my sadness. The fear of excess baggage is great.... so great..... Oh wells, me and my ridiculous love for a new sport... (It comprises the most of my luggage - 15kgs. One single item alone. ha ha ha. hey, its the accountant part in me...most things produced in China are way much cheaper than anywhere else....it should be well worth it!)
Am leaving at least half of what I initially brought here, which is not much... but indicates that I will be back in the near near future. Unfortunately, not anytime early this year...so it means that I'll be home bound for at least another half year, which is not so bad... (am reasoning with myself...haha) ...of course, already there are many things that I look forward to back home....family & friends, gatherings, SHWM, familiar but totally unhealthy cheap good local food in Malaysia, uncensored web usage (which I understand may change soon..but oh no, not another China in Malaysia...)
Ok, panicky feeling has gone down now.
Its been 5 marvelous months here. I was sitting in this very chair last night in the dark, lighted by just my table lamp as I watched the seconds on the clock go by, with the peaceful but familiar sound of nothingness in the apartment... I felt very sad. It was finally ending... and although I know that I will be back, but still.... It must be human nature to not want to leave somethings good in life.
This has been my home for the last 5 months, a big big Thank You to my girlfriend for making it so. I more so feel reluctant to leave because of her. She has been more than my friend in my whole stay here. She has been part of my family. My experience here in China has been made available due to her. Am thankful, grateful that she's given me an opportunity to step out of my comfort box. Someday, hopefully... I will return the favour.
In the past week and more, I've been preparing to go back, saying my goodbyes to the ones still left in Beijing and to new friends made here. I have to say, I have multiple homes in my heart, but all these, I realised...are made homes because of the connections that we have made in life and the memories that we make. Of course, there are multiple things that I will miss about China (not so much the spitting and scary public toilets!), A21 ban, walking to school in the morning with my head in the clouds feeling at peace and happy everyday, cramping for exams in coffee shops, explicitly expressive moments in class, interesting drunk experiences at certain moments (haha, yes indeed it was interesting...), holidays in Southern Beijing with my parents, changing but tantalising fruit seasons, great coffee moments with great conversations, great scallop moments in the Wu, exhausting gym sessions with my gf followed by fresh homecooked food.... I could just go on and on...
Even so that I know that I will miss all those things above but I know that my "Adventures in Life" still has not ended but on the contrary, it just started. There's so much to life when you make up your mind to make it so. Am excited too about going home. Such conflicting feelings. ha ha. I guess thats what happens when the world slowly becomes your home.
For today, "Goodbye Beijing, Hello Malaysia..."
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