Renouncing Religion

An article on the newspaper reported that about 2000 Hindus renouncing their religion and converted to Buddhism in a mass ceremony in Mumbai last Sunday. The fact is that these people are categorized as low-caste Hindus according to the traditional biased social system.

Apparently the main idea of this conversion does not imply that Buddhism teaching is more convincing but it has been used to abandon their "low-caste" status in Hindu society, of which being an obstacle in their living – education, job application, marriage etc. Pathetically religion has been abused / wrongly used to fight for human rights.

On 14-Jan-07, I have posted an article concerning a case of a Muslim renouncing Islam in Malaysia. Today the Federal Court dismissed her appeal to remove the wording "Islam" on her identity card. The Judge cited that this case should be handled and approved by Syariah Court instead.

Malaysia's constitution stated freedom of belief to the citizens, obviously this clause does not apply to Muslims. Should I be pleased to be granted this priceless spiritual "freedom"?

Dance With My Father

Came across this song of Luther Vandross… brought back too many memories…


Back when I was a child

Before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high
And dance with my mother and me and then
Spin me around till I fell asleep
Then up the stairs he would carry me
And I knew for sure I was loved

If I could get
Another chance
Another walk
Another dance with him
I'd play a song that would never ever end
How I'd love love love, to dance with my father again

When I and my mother would disagree
To get my way I would run from her to him
He'd make me laugh just to comfort me (yeah, yeah)
Then finally make me do just what my momma said
Later that night, when I was asleep
He left a dollar under my sheet
Never dreamed that he would be gone from me

If I could steal
One final glance
One final step
One final dance with him
I'd play a song that would never ever end
Cause I'd love love love to dance with my father again

Sometimes I'd listen outside her door
I'd hear how my mother cried for him
(x2) I'd pray for her even more than me

I know I'm praying for much too much
But could you send back the only man she loved
I know you don't do it usually
But dear Lord she's dying to dance with my father again

Every night I fall asleep
And this is all I ever dream

Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell

I must admit that this American TV series "Prison Break" obsess me greatly. It is one of the most wonderful series ever made.

I went shopping today in Sofia with 2 colleagues of mine. Unexpectedly I recognized this familiar face and voice of Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell (played by Robert Knepper). I couldn't be absolutely sure of him, and followed him walking into Nike outlet. He speaks American accent English, wearing a cap and carrying a little blond curly hair girl. My colleague suggested to approach and takes a photo with him. C'mon, we are already in our late 30's and it would be awkward to behave like little fans asking for autograph. We waited till he left the outlet and passed us by. Well, at last still we didn't confirm if he is really T-Bag. I think it couldn't be mistaken unless he has a twin brother looks identical to him.

Dean Koontz's Frankenstein – Book 1 Prodigal Son

Finally I finished reading this book after lying beside my bed for 2 months. The story is not exciting and the way how the author tells the story is dull. Not one character is lively. This is the book 1 of the author's trilogy. Guess I won't look for the next 2.

Sandstorm

Friends from Khartoum sent these photos of sandstorm alleged to be the strongest since decade. The fine sand/ dust is being carried along when the wind crossing Sahara Desert. The view of the storm approaching was extravagant, like the surreal movie scenes constructed by computer graphics. The dust enveloped the space, everything… air quality is seriously worsening and the visibility is adversely affected (click to enlarge the photos to sense the power of nature).

Weird Chat

Newly met a staff from Client today, had the following weird chat.
-----
Guy : Where are you from?
Me : Malaysia.
Guy : Why are you working here? There is no job in Malaysia?
-----
Me : (Pointing to my boss) We have been working together for 10 years for different projects.
Guy : You mean you cannot work without each other?
-----

Melting

Today's temperature is soaring high. Everyone predicts this coming summer would be very warm. The snow clad mountain in front of my window is melting much earlier this year… hmm… melting… just thinking of cheese Fondue. Colleague introduced this Swiss communal dish to me lately. Simple but delicious!

不适

上司近日身体非常不适，很担心。劝他回国做彻底检查再休养一段日子。他始终放不下工作，坚持在项目上了轨道之后再作安排。与他一起工作近十年了，很了解他的脾性，亦师亦友。与他一起工作是愉快的。

Black Sea

Travelled to the Black Sea with 2 colleagues last Saturday. The city, Burgas is not really attractive, though it is among the famous beaches during summer season. The chilly breeze is quite uncomfortable for sunbathing and swimming yet.


The scenic small old town Nesebar, built on an outcrop island, is located 40km northeast of Burgas. It's designated by Unesco as a World Heritage Site. The historical value of the Byzantine church ruins is the key attraction, but most of them are really small, empty or close for public. The influx of tourists makes this town expensive, over commercialized.


The adjacent Slanchev Bryag (Sunny Beach) is said among the best beaches in Bulgaria. In fact, I have been to some much better beaches. Small amount of rubbish dotted on the beach, and the water is partially choked with seaweed. The stretch of a few km beach is fully packed with hotels, bars and facilities catered to the summer tourists.


Sozopol is relatively much less quieter than Nesebar. The small town is serene, and as expected, most of the bars on the beaches are rushing for final touch up to welcome the summer tourists.

Movies

Watched these movies recently, though not exceptionally excellent but all worth the movie ticket.

The Pursuit of Happyness – A dramatized true story of Chris Gardner's struggle (Will Smith) before becoming a successful broker. The predictable storyline is no excitement. Will Smith and the kid actor deserve the credit, no overacting. The last scene when he deemed having pursued the happiness was contagious.

300 – A movie composed mainly by computer graphics. Naturally I tried to relate it with LOTR, but the latter is grander and the story is more solid. The comic-like movie is deviating far from sense and reality, largely served for visual entertainment, I could hardly recall it after 1 hr.

Blood Diamond – A piece of pink raw diamond triggered the greediness of everyone. Though I'm not a fan of Leonardo, I have to admit that he is a good actor. His African-English accent sounds familiar to me. The movie is trying to convince us the existence and brutality of children soldier in Africa. Curious if this is the real event, or just common dramatic exaggeration for "movie" sake.

Perfume: The Story of A Murderer – Another non-sensible story. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, a guy with extraordinary sense of smell and magical ability to produce best perfumes ever. To him, the natural body scent of the virgin young lady seems to be the best fragrance. The ultimate perfume possessed power to provoke love (and losing mind…) The ending was unpredictable.

Blogs Registration

The following article is extracted from Reporters Without Borders.

…… in order to prevent the spread of “negative or malicious content,” bloggers will soon have to register with the government.

While claiming they do not intend to censor bloggers, they have warned that bloggers are not above the law when they “disturb peace and harmony” in Malaysia.

“This measure could jeopardise online free expression,” Reporters Without Borders said. “It could push many bloggers to opt for anonymity or censor themselves out of fear of reprisals. The deputy minister’s statement once again demonstrates the government’s desire to exercise improper control over the online flow of information inside Malaysia. The obligatory registering of blogs is a measure that so far has only been adopted by countries such as China that violate Internet users’ rights.”

---

The government has expressed their worry over the freedom of public info distribution on the internet, citing that the irresponsible rumours on the net have caused unnecessary chaos aiming to shatter the social integrity / stability. Considering the major multimedia channels are controlled by the politicians, only the filtered info in favour to the concerned is published. Ordinary citizens were fed with decorated news and are discouraged to pursue the facts.

The progressive IT enables the information distributed efficiently and widely bypassing the conventional censorship board. I believe some accusations are not groundless. The bloggers are acting as watchdog to force greater transparency of the governmental operations. Sadly this term has been abused by our law enforcers (politicians) traditionally.

The recent governmental high level corruption issues are among the investigations triggered by the bloggers. The official response is ambiguous and intentionally noncommittal. How much do we expect our government would do to unearth the deep rooted issue, since the head of the Anti Corruption Agency is being accused of corrupted??!!

I M POSSIBLE

Received this message from someone today...

"Nothing in this world is IMPOSSIBLE... coz' the word IMPOSSIBLE itself says I M POSSIBLE."

Sirimongkon Maisuk

Under the Child Sponsorship Program, World Vision sent me the photo of my sponsored Thai kid – Sirimongkon Maisuk (age 10). The money donated is not given directly to him, but to be pooled with other sponsors for long term community project instead. Hope this trivial amount would help those people who wants to live their life bravely with vision.

返老还童

常听说长者的情绪会返老还童，如小孩般需要别人的关注与呵护。最近察觉到有此现象。是否长者生活不够充实感觉无聊而胡思乱想？

South Thailand Insurgency

Murder cases in south Thailand's three Muslim dominant provinces - Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani (close to Malaysia border) are reported almost daily on local newspapers. Statistic shows more than 2000 people were killed in the past 3 years, mostly civilians, monks were not exempted. The Muslim insurgents blamed discrimination by the country's Buddhist majority. Thai government has no control over the escalating unrest to date. This insurgency has gradually transformed into religious conflict. The longer it drags, it would turn out to be another Gaza Strip. Probably this is the conspiracy of the separatists to attract attentions and aids from fanatic Islamic terrorist organizations, to achieve their independence goal eventually.

World Vision – Administrative Costs

World Vision Malaysia has pledged not to use more than 20% of all donated funds on administrative and overhead costs. In considering of this rather small organization and donation received (compared to UN campaigns), this percentage is acceptable.

Previously I used to have a misperception that UN related organizations are kind of voluntary parties to help those in needs and the workers are just collecting minimal wages. I’m utterly wrong. In fact the UN staffs are flying in and out in business class, accommodating in stars rated hotels, collecting above average income, enjoying various allowances and tax free status etc. I don’t see any reason to donate money to these so-called UN organizations who squandering tax payers’ money as such!

UN said they must pay lucrative wages to attract “highly qualified” people to execute the works / projects. I'd love to work with UN family too!

World Vision - Child Sponsorship

I raised the issue of sponsoring a child under World Vision with friends lately. Monthly contribution of MYR50 (Euro11) is all asked to be donated. Simon suggested adopting an orphan instead, but I’m afraid of excessive commitment in the future and it would do greater harm to the child if the sponsorship is terminated for whatever reason. Guess I’m too selfish (???)

Hand, Foot And Mouth Disease

My twin nephews caught “Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease” a few days ago. The elder was crying for days and lost his appetite due to the painful blisters inside the mouth. Other symptoms of the infection are short-lived fever and red spots/ blisters on the palms and on the soles of the feet.

The doctor said this particular type of Coxsackie virus is mild, unlike the lethal plague erupted years ago which cause instant pass-out.

Back To Work

This vacation was too short, quite reluctant to pack my luggage and fly back to Bulgaria again. Feeling tired and bored with the working environment, have been thinking over to settle down in Malaysia, but too many aspects need to be considered before making decision.

Phuket - 易装歌舞秀

看了一场免费的人妖歌舞表演，表演者卖力地呈现歌舞，对台下观众异样的眼光不知有何感想？我不喜欢‘人妖’这词，总觉得带有贬义与歧视。我们不了解他们的背景与辛酸，可知道当中有多少人身不由己？短暂的演艺生命不能赋予长期稳定的收入。他们专业的投入应报以热烈掌声，只有没文化的人才会给于嘲笑。

欣赏之际，我忽然想起程蝶衣唱过‘我本是男儿郎，又不是女娇娥’。。。又想起张国荣英年早逝。。。

Phuket - Diving

Just returned from 4-day trip to Phuket. The island once seriously rampaged by tsunami has recovered fully and the jubilant life is back to track again, at least from the eyes of tourists. The beaches are packed by sunbathers, and the bars are crowded with tourists.

I made a trip to Racha Yai for diving, I insisted for fun dives instead of having a refreshing course since I had no dive record in the past 3 years. The 1st dive was fairly good, but the 2nd dive was not satisfactory. The strong current drifted me away and I was acting like a fool to fight against it. I lost my control, I spent most of my time controlling buoyancy instead of appreciating the marine life.

Corruption

Had a casual chat with friend K, we talked about the politics and corruptions that commonly exist in the works. Unexpectedly he commented that I should take the chance if someone offers me “gift” for some favours, provided that it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Principally I despise such deal.

An ex-colleague once said, “Everyone has a price.” Would I lose my conscience if someone offers me a very attractive amount that permits me retiring soon? I couldn’t give the answer right now… I think this probably would not happen as those bosses in higher management are more enthusiastic to handle the deal themselves.

As Usual…

As usual, all the good news and bad news happened in the past year were pouring in, to keep me informed of the life changed in my family and relatives. I’m trying to avoid the bad news, because it won’t make me feel good and I’m helpless sometimes…

As usual, money seems to be a crucial element in life. Sisters are working hard to strive for higher earning for family sake. Glad to know that their babies give them more pleasure than anything else. This commitment will be too stressful to me…

As usual, mom and sis again plan to introduce girlfriends to me, the “target” is a Japanese lady this time.

As usual, I feel bored to stay at home… start planning where to escape for a couple of days… Beach? Diving? National park?...

14-Feb-07 Scenes at Skopje’s Alexander The Great Airport

- A small boy was screaming loud when the airport security instructed the mother to remove the toy pistol from his baby knapsack.

- A mother with 3 young kids came to the waiting hall. She broke down and wept, barely caught anyone else attention. From her muddy PVC shoes, simple hairdo and inexpensive clothing, I could figure out her living background. The eldest daughter has a bunch of beautiful curly long blond hair and the 2 younger sons are wearing energetic handsome boyish look with big blue eyes. Their shirts are clean and the nails are tidy. They behaved well and never upset other passengers. I stared at the blue eyes, was thinking possibly my kids would have the same if I marry a Caucasian?

p/s: It’s Valentine’s Day but found no one on the plane to flirt with.

Hectic

Hectic work occupied the full past week, tried the utmost to clear off some pending issues and handed over some tasks to my colleagues. I should have delegated the assignments earlier for them to have more hands-on practice with my supervision. Quite doubtful if they could handle the assignments well.

The secretary would probably lose my support during my coming 3-week vacation, hope this pressure would give her good experience to be more independent.

Going Home Soon

Will be travelling back home next Wednesday for Chinese New Year. It has been almost a year since last playing with my chubby twin-nephews. To my family and friends, I’m just like a tourist visiting them routinely, tops 3 weeks a year. While I see the baby faces metamorphose yearly, probably they would in return observe more grey hair is growing wild on my skull. I’m grateful to my brother sisters for taking care of the family, so to lift my worry while working abroad.

落叶归根

一套不该错过的影片。虽然欠缺一些逻辑性，人情味有点儿泛滥但不煽情。特喜欢赵本山与宋丹丹和午马这两段戏。

Oral Surgical Plan

Had another sleepless night, the pain was torturing. I almost couldn’t recognize me in the mirror, the upper lip was heavily swollen (the moral of this case is that if I will ever consider performing plastic surgery, lips thickening definitely won’t make me looking good).

The very first thing done in this morning was to rush for x-ray screening, it shows serious infection on my front tooth where root canal was done 25 yrs ago, fractures and spots of pus were seen. The dentist extracted 5ml pus from the gum without anaesthetic - PAIN PAIN PAIN! The pulsing made me weak. He lays out an operation plan for me... quite simple - remove the 2 crowns of both front teeth (because the roots are broken), then root-canal 2 teeth on the left and right side respectively. ONLY 6 teeth are involved. It is hair pricking to hear this plan... cost around Euro 500. Well, money has to be paid anyway, but the procedure would take weeks... imagine the pain to suffer…

Based on the distinct smell, I judged the clinic was well disinfected. But I could see a layer of dust rest on the tray and dental chair. If this basic cleanliness is not taken care of, how could I expect the dentist would look into very fine details of his works?

North Korea's Dictator

The newspaper reported recently that North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il‘s eldest son – Kim Jong Nam has for the past three years lived in Macau. He has been seen staying in the 5-star hotel, gambling in casinos and dining in restaurants. His lifestyle is extremely luxurious compared to the poor economy of the last communist country on earth. Yet we heard the news of famine and starvation occasionally suffered by its people while President Kim thinks nuclear weapon would lead North Korea to achieve better development. Idiot!

His dictatorship is only benefiting himself. He isolates the country from the world. If the public has access to the free info available on the internet, this government will for sure be toppled.

Toothache

The toothache bothered me since yesterday, two at the same time – front tooth and a molar. The pain killer could barely relieve the pain for a couple of hours, and the irritating pain creeping back again and again. It’s persisting though not extreme, but kept me awake throughout the night and distracted my concentration.

The dentist said I’m having gum infection, but he wouldn’t do anything before examining the x-ray film. I have to rush for an x-ray screening early tomorrow. Guess tonight would be another sleepless night.