If you want to look younger then your age, then come and live in the tropic...Your physical body aged slowly here. It is because of the hot and humid environment in the topic....Well at least we have an atmosphere that is good for our health...Although it is hot and humid...It is indeed good for our health...It is also cheaper to live in the tropic for we need not have to heat our home during the winter, like those in the northern and southern atmosphere...I remember when I was living in Boston some years ago, we had to dress up just to get out of the house to throw our garbages...We do not have to do this anytime of the year in the tropic...The same type of dress could be use throughout the years...There is no need for special clothing for different part of the year...The differences is that we dress differently for occasion, like attending dinner, going for a wedding or just dress casual with just jean and t shirt for a casual days outing....At most wedding we put on our best national dress...That is the way but not those thick clothing to insulated oneself from the cold...That my friends is the way we live in the tropic....We wish for the snow like you all wish for the sunny beaches but then we can never have both world...We,like you all in the west had to travel to get snow/sunny beaches or the like....That is what makes our world interesting and live so colorful and beautiful, I love to travel and that had colored my life and I believe it has also done the same to you all...Friends let enjoy and be happy........

Today the twenty seven of January, is the sixty years anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz and the world remembered...The day....My condolence to all the families that lost their love one in the concentration camp and my prayer to all that suffered and departed...I am sure that those departed souls are in heaven now, May God bless their soul..Amen..........
A historical site of the camp, a picture published by the BBC on the internet..

I am just trying to blog everyday but sometime it takes time to just to start writing...I guess all writers have this problem...I wanted to write so many things that I think, but living in a country where the freedom of speech is not that free I would not be able to write everything that I thought especially on religion...I believe given the time or another period in our history, people in this country would be able to write everything they think, like that are happening in the USA and the European countries...I had never follow the main stream or the stereo type of thinking from the time I was a child growing up in a village in Kuantan, a place where I was born...I had always been the odd one and like to do different things from the other children of my age and because of this I often make friends only with a few that were able to 'communicate' with me...I guess that those that are unable to understand me just refused to accept that I am different...So as I grew up I began to start learning more then my other friends, I join the boy scout movement and it is one of the best organization where the young would have the chance to learn and experience news kind of living... The Boy Scout teaches you to be discipline, adventurous and of course it teaches you to be a good leader...I learn many aspect of leadership and later on when I start to work with the government most of this experience became handy when I dealt with youth...Organizing was peanut to be and I love to organize, as such when it come to bigger things, like organizing seminar for the department that I work...I was always entrusted with the leadership in organizing such events....And it always became a successful events, with everyone happy of the outcome... Well life have been good and I am thankful to all that makes life so beautiful...Families, friends and even stranger......I believe God give us life on this earth for us to be useful and to enjoy life.... Ken I think you agree with me on that... Enjoy...

It has been a hot and humid week...With the aircondition turn on it make the temperature to cool down, like the weather in the Mediterranean...Modern technology did just that, so that we could live in the cool comfort of our home in the tropic.... Got an email from my friend that live in the UK, He has not been well, in and out of hospital for medical check up.... At this age... He is much older then me...Anyhow he say that he is ok now and enjoying life as well...With his usual beer drinking session at the local pub...I guess it would not be a real life for those Brit if they did not frequent the bar...It has been their tradition and culture... Well Ken...That is life...The up and down of life...We who are in our golden age should not complain too much for we had been given a great life to live...And we are still breathing and I believe we should not waste the precious time to lament on the past or complain on things that we just do not like....We should live in the present and continue enjoying life...We have been a lucky generation...We saw the war and what it did to humankind and it is history now, we should not live on with memories of the past but live Now, it is in peace time except in some countries in the middle east...The world had never had that good...It could be better but then we human are never satisfied...That is one reason our species had managed to survived and progress this far....Like all those great scientists say we all are going places.. to places that no man had gone before...During this week alone our spaceship have landed on other planets in our solar system... It is indeed a great achievement for mankind and soon we would be able to fly and play a little in those huge plane built by Airbus, the A380..... In Kuala Lumpur it has been a hot and humid day...January was not like this before but then the weather has change a lot, with the recent Tsunami, the extra cold weather in Europe and North America.... We have to live on and try to enjoy life...now that we have air conditioning..., I believe the business on this would be great indeed...There is always the plus points on such happening, the airconditon business is sure to boom, good for them...Those that live in the cold temperature in North America and Europe want to be in the warm climate of the tropic, Malaysia welcome them all to have a great time on our beaches, where the sun shine all throughout the days...It might rain a little, but how do we appreciate the sun if there is no rain!!....Have a nice day.

Cheer up and have a nice day..... 

... Nostalgic!!....A mode of transport....Still in use today... Enjoy

It is another Saturday, the sky is carpeted with grey and white cloud, with dots of blue sky here and there, making it a sorts of hazy day and it is humid...I sat there with the laptop typing this on the kopitiam table at the patio in front of my humble home in Ampang Jaya, a suburban of Kuala Lumpur, Out there is the KLCC, the Kuala Lumpur twin tower, the symbol of the capital....A magnificent building indeed, that blended well with the other buildings in this city... The scene is that like you often see in a postcard. So my house is with a view of the KLCC, making it a valuable real estate...But I love this home and would surely not part with it...it is my home, a dream home of my own...As I write this my mind wonder to the wonder of the internet, that makes this all possible...It is the countries in the west that took the trouble to do research that eventually lead to the invention of the internet and with that came the tools for emailing, blogging and other means of communication via the net...It is a marvel of our age, that my generation, the generation of the thirties and the forties, never thoughts or ever dream that it would be possible to communicate with ease to any point on this planet...The internet makes it possible, thanks to those thinkers and great minds of west...I believe that we should continue to search for all the means of improving our quality of life and making our species more productive in all fields as we progress on...Let us not believe in the myth and superstitious that were told by those people whose thinking faculty have been block by traditional belief and refuse to open their mind, afraid that their belief would be eventually proven wrong, ....Before the internet we would not be able to read or hear information that the authority or the so called moral guardian found to be forbidden, thus deprived us of the great knowledge of the progress of our species, but today information are there in cyberspace and it just takes just a moment in time to retrieved it, thanks to the search engine like googles, yahoo, msn and the like, that makes it possible to get information with just a click of a button ... I think that cyberspace is the new information avenue for those people that live in countries that tried to prevent its population from gathering knowledge, and in the process get to the truth of all those things, that once was the privilege of a few, who with these knowledge managed to control the development of the thinking power of it citizen..The internet and cyberspace is actually the Pandora box of today...It is already opened and soon it would create a reform in the whole world unlike ever before....Mankind would be free to decide there own future......The freedom to express freely and share information for the benefit of everyone on this planet....The next fifty years or so would see many changes in all part of the world...Just because of the internet....

It is the twenty first of January two zero zero five and it is Friday...Today Moslem all over the world celebrate the Aidil Adha, the festival after the Haj...We went to the local mosque to pray and then back home to be with the children and the grandchildren to enjoy the feast....Happy Aidil Adha to all and my we all prosper and have a great life.....

Well it is the weekend again and tomorrow we would be celebrating the Aidil Adha or the Hari Raya Haji...The second most important festival for Moslem all over the world.. At this moment million of Moslem would be doing the final ritual of the Haj pilgrims in the Holy Land Macca... So this year the Aidil Adha would be celebrated on Friday...This mean that in the morning there would be the usual congregation prayer at the mosque and since the festival fall on Friday, there would be two congregation prayer as the usual Friday pray would be held at noon as usual...Normally after the prayer on the day of this festival the Korban or the slaying of the animal would be done just after the prayer,but because it is Friday and the Slaying of the animal would be done the next day at the mosque...The sacrifice of animals on this day is a ritual that had been going on since the time of the Prophet Abraham.....So the Aidil Adha is a sort of a festival that relate to the Haj as well as remembering the sacrificed by the Prophet Abraham......

It is just another day, the weather is good and sunny and as usual in the tropic, it is humid... I had planned to visit a former boss in hospital with another friend...We thought that it would be wise to get other things done before we visit the hospital, for it is not always that we take this road to the new hospital at Selayang, north of the city of Kuala Lumpur... Just after two I left the house and went to pick my friend and then proceed to the Land Office of Gombak to pay the land rent and then we proceed to visit our sick friend at this new hospital, a brand new one, all computerized, someone say that this is the first paperless hospital...On arriving at the hospital we check at the information counter and ask the nurses on duty there as to the where about of the person that we wanted to visit, well they look at the computer after getting the name of the patient...They look and look but just could not find the person we were looking and then a senior personal, I guess a staff nurse.., She look like an experienced one, came to assist while we wait, She was really good in doing her works and eventually manage to get the information...She told us that the patient that we were looking had discharged from the hospital a week or so ago and then she offer us some other information, we chat a while and after thanking them, we walk out and then got in touch with our sick friend on our cell phone...I am indeed impressed with the serviced provided at this new hospital, it look like that government hospital has change a lots since I went to one some years ago, it is now more professionally managed and the staff are friendly... We then wonder outside the hospital as to what to do next since the patient that we were supposed to visit had gone home....I pause for a while and my mind wonder.. As to this new hospital, my first visit make me real happy that this hospital the first Paperless and filmless Hospital in the world, that combine the Information Technology with Medical service is a reality and no more a dream...The Selayang Hospital ... I heard so much about this new hospital, many people talk about the service provided but I never new that my first visit to this hospital give me such a great impression of this hospital.., our first encounter with the staffs at the reception counter was indeed a first surprise and that it is friendly as well as informative...And it is for real..Those people that man the receptions counter really do take the trouble to help...And they did all in a really friendly way...Thanks you so much for a job well done..You all do really makes my day...We drove all the way to see a sick friend and found that the patient had been discharged...We were supposed to be disappointed or unhappy...But no we are not, simply because of those people at the reception counter, whose impressive services left us with a really happy mood...To the management of this hospital,...A Big Thanks You.. You are indeed doing the right thing and do keep it up...In the spirit of Malaysia Boleh...

Well it is good news today...I received an email from my friend who live in Bali saying that the Xmas card that I send had arrived...It took almost a month for the card to reach its destination, Bali...I posted the mail a week before Xmas, hoping that the card arrive just before Xmas, it was suppose to be a surprise...I did the card myself, a Special Xmas Card for a Special Friends, from us to our close friends in Bali...Well at last it arrived and we are happy indeed they have received the Card...Well a Christmas Card that is supposed not to make a story at all, to a sorts of a long story of the journey of a Christmas Card...In a way it makes a colorful story of Christmas in Bali...From the speed of email, to Airmail, to Seamail, to the Slow boat mail and now it went by Snailmail... What can we do, it has to be just that, to make this Xmas Card so interesting...Jerry and Marge, I am glad that you received the card... We are happy indeed...It makes an interesting story, an episode on our journey of life....Beautiful and colorful as ever...A great way to live and enjoy life...

I am glad that the weather has been fine all through the weeks... It brighten my days after the gloomy news of the Tsunami happening just two weeks ago.... It look like the world have come together to assist those that are effected by the disaster.... In every countries the public have started to donate money for the Relief Fund organized by the local authorities...This shows that we as a species are very concerned with life, no matter where and to whom it happen...It is the greatest virtue of our species....The year two zero zero four has been a challenging years for us all, the happening in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestine Israel conflict...Which look hopeless are beginning to see some hopes..There are no easy way to solved such massive problems, but then if one look back at the human history, one would realized that after the dark always comes light...Remember once the whole Asia was colonized, in one form or the others..It was indeed a dark period for all those Asian, they went through the period of colonization, war, fighting terrorist, racial disturbance that brought about by colonization..But because the people of these countries want a better life for themselves, they began to think more rationally and when the time of independence came, most of these countries began to understand the meaning of good governance and today Asia is doing well indeed and continue to be prosperous and heading toward becoming a develop countries like those countries in the west...One reason that most of the Asian countries managed to quantum leap to what it is today, is because all these countries are democratic countries....I believe that only democracy could bring countries to a new height, so for those countries in the Middle East to prosper then the first thing that had to change is the type of government, that manage these countries and that it should be Democratic government.... countries lead by leader elected by the people and served the people for a given period...That is the only way toward prosperity and a better quality of life for all...A total political reform in the Middle East.... .

Well yesterday I received an unexpected call from my friend who work in Bali, Indonesia...Guess what...He is in Kuala Lumpur and makes the call from no other place then our KLCC [ the twin tower of Kuala Lumpur ] When I received the call I thought that He was joking and He said that He is in Kuala Lumpur for a day or so.. On a sort of a tour organized by a new Airline, the Star....And I told him that I would meet him, for the KLCC is just a few minutes away for my home, it just take five minutes to get there, but he say that he is part of a group, and that they would be leaving for the resort of Genting Highland and could not find the time to meet, well it is like that sometime, so near and yet so far....I wish him luck for there is a casino there... And I believe that would surely visit this casino, for what would be a visit to Genting Highland without a visit to the casino..The Genting Highland casino is the only one in this part of the world...It is also a great place to spend the weekend with families for it has one of the largest family entertainment facilities for enjoyment of all member the families..There are both the outdoor and indoor facilities...And moreover it is cool and most of the time it is enclosed by clouds...What a place to be in the humid tropical climate.....Genting Highland is actually a dream of a great Malaysian Chinaman who took upon himself to makes it a reality....Genting Highland Resort.... Have a nice day...

Whether we like it or not the happening of September Eleven two zero zero one change the world and I believe every countries on this planet should take stock of the changing political environment. When the American was attacked at Pearl harbor by the Japanese, the world political culture change for the good and I hope that the events that follows that change the American Foreign Policy would change the world for the better...Malaysia a successful country in Asia should develop a pragmatic foreign policy in order to fit in with the new world political culture...One way is to correct the wrong understanding of Islam by the western world.. I believe we should talk less about Islam but instead practice more of the positive value of Islam, like teaching the population to be good person and the Malay Moslem to accept that there are other people in this country and out there that believe in other religions and respect their believe and that most of the countries in the west practice more Islamic value than the so called Moslem countries in the world especially the countries in the Middle East...For that matter non of the Moslem countries in the Middle East are democratic and that human right is questionable... To me personally talking about being a Moslem and Islam alone do make a person or the country good...It is practicing the good value and respecting human right that is more important. I believe that Malaysia should decide whether the county want to remain a secular country of otherwise...To me for a country to prosper, the state and religion should not mix..The experiences of the west where once the church and the state were one, they were never at peace with themselves and only when there were clear separation of the Church and the state that countries in the west began to prosper and people continue to live in harmony and as years goes by the quality of life became better..I believe that we should leave religion to the individual and that the state should not be involved in religion. Anyhow whatever value and norms that religion introduce should be incorporated into the society as a common value and norms.., Being a good person to the society, respect for the law and live in harmony with all the sector of the society should be the prime goal of the individual...By that the society would be a happy society and would in the long run create a productive society and in turn the society would be more prosperous and living a high quality of life....Our world is getting smaller day by day, so let us all work together to makes it a better place to live and enjoy living.....

They say that when you drink from a cup, do not forget that the water come from a stream somewhere....[ An old Chinese saying ] 

..[The Malay Songkok]....The Malay gentlemen use to wear Songkok [headgear] but now for wanting to be seen as more Islamic,some Malay have throw away this traditional headgear for the skull cap, a cap use by the Arab, perhaps they want to look more pious I just do not know, or they, without realizing just wear the skull cap and eventually over time, more and more Malay start using this cap...I also got carried away and wore the skull cap but now realizing it I have start to wear the Songkok on Friday when I went for the congregation prayer...Some even start to wear the Arab clothing, the Jubah, the turban, spot beard and mustache, without realizing that this jubah is just an Arab attire and not Islam...There are time, when they wear the Baju Melayu..A Malay traditional dress, they would put on this skull cap, making them look real funny....Malay gentlemen look better wearing the songkok when they put on the Baju Melayu and the songket sampin [hand woven brocade sarong worn together as part of the traditional dress], .But now for wanting to be seen as more pious, they throw away their traditional songkok and put on the skull cap, what a shame...By adapting other culture especially that of the middle eastern people, the Malay are beginning to loose their Malayness. The Malay cultural area are far flung and rich in traditions and culture and yet some Malay want to arabnised the Malay, without realizing that the Malay culture is older and more advance then the Middle eastern culture, The Malay were civilized long before the people of the middle east became to be civilized, look at what our forefather did in the monumental projects like Angka Watt, the Barabador,the management of water in Java, the Majapahit empire, the Acheh adventurer, the great seafarer and adventurer of the Bugis, the arts and works of arts of such high quality that is still use today, the creation of the Kriss [Malay weapon used by Malay warrior and now use as a symbol of power by the King] and other silver and wood crafts..., once the Malay houses on the east coast of peninsular Malaysia were intricately built and the wood carving were of high quality, now there are no more there, because some so called preacher say it is unislamic...There are more example of other advance projects of great value all over these great civilizations in the Malay archipelagoes, that we Malay should be proud of...I do not believe we should ape any thing others, for our culture is more refine and advance, we should go forward and popularized our own traditions and culture instead accepting culture from a less develop people... We are a democratic people, they are not, as such they do not understand what freedom means, the freedom to learn, create new works of art and to enjoy the creations for a better quality of life...I am told by the former head of the local Museum of Art, that less Malay buy works of arts, like the painting then the other Malaysian, so where have thing gone wrong, I believe it is the so called preachers that got the Malay astray and if this kind of thinking are not corrected, the Malay would eventually be lost in their own world....

Orchid in my garden, its always brighten my day looking and admiring at this gift of nature... Enjoy...

The election in the Palestine state is over and Mahmood Abas won...A democracy in action in the Middle, the first of its kind in this part of the world and I hope that this would be the beginning of a sort of a change in the middle east...Those people in the middle east have never been free before, this is a start...Lets keep the fire burning and let it spread across the middle east and hope that in the next ten years or so more and more countries in this part of the world became democratic countries. The United Nations should play a greater role in getting the process of democracy burning in the middle east...It would be good for those people of the middle east and the world as well...This is the only solution for a better future of all people on this planet of ours....

Yesterday I did not write anything about the Tsunami disaster for I wanted to focus on something else, the reason being that I sense that I am becoming emotionally involved in this tragedy...I became sad and emotional whenever I watch the news...Like I had said a few days ago, the calamity was too much for me to stomach, I thought I should focus my thought away from this misery and wrote about other subjects the are close to my heart at that time...But this morning I got an email from a friend who live in the California desert, who watch all those events that unfold on the TV screen, and like me she felt sick and sad and hope that such events would not happen again...She is much older then me and as such saw the second world war much clearer then me and understood the meaning of misery of such disaster but yet when it comes to this disaster, she, like me was just unprepared to accept the reality of such calamity...So today despite being somewhat emotionally involved and sad about the whole episode I felt that I should comment the good works done by our Malaysian who went to Acheh to help at the first hour of the disaster...They were the first relief group that arrived in Banda Acheh and have indeed done a great job there, some have returned to be replaced by others...The organizations are the Mercy Malaysia and the Malaysia SMART team, the doctors and paramedic from the General Hospital Kuala Lumpur team and other individual that went to help...They have done the country and the people of Malaysia proud ...Mercy Malaysia

In reply to an email from my friend who live in the California desert I wrote this...

.....M..., thanks, we were the first country to be there to give aid, Mercy Malaysia and other Malaysian relief group arrived there just after the happening and there are still there, yesterday Malaysian Police, 200 of them left for Banda Acheh, and now three of our international airport are open to all, Penang, Langkawi and the Subang airport at KL, A supply hub for food has just open at KL Airport to supply regular food to Bandar Acheh.... Million of dollars keep pouring to the Malaysian Relief Fund, we can now send donations in many way includes by SMS.... We speak the same language with those people in Acheh, so it is much easier for us to help...We are going for the long run, after the 'honeymoon' period most of assistance would be gone, we would stay to rebuilt....I wrote my thoughts in my blog 'in passing - Malaysian' , hope you get the time to read it, bye for now and take care.

Friends, my friend M live in the California desert and has just move house, in the process she lost my blogsite..I have send the link so that she can keep following my thoughts from time to time like before....Have a nice day.

Just a few days ago, at a store where I use to buy things for the house, a young lady look at me and say Hi uncle, did you remember me, a friend of your daughter Lin!, for a second I just could not recollect, the memory bank of people of our age works a bit slow then when we were young....I did recollect, it is the young lady architect, that visited our house with her spouse sometime ago, a charming lady indeed...As usual we talk and she say that her daughter knows our grandson, they happen to be at the same school...Well it is an encounter like this that makes life so beautiful, exchanging notes and talking about the good things in life, makes me really happy....They are still in their youth and I am in my golden years....I have always advice young people to acquire knowledge and enjoy life especially in their youth,for it is in this period of life that one is full of energy and imaginations, the period youth just come but once in our journey of life, so they should Makes hay while the sun shine...I have gone through life, for that matter we, my wife and me, had a wonderful youth, we were married at just early twenty in ninety sixty two...We parties together, we travel together and as we move on on our journey of life, we continue to enjoy life and socialized well with other people of our age group, on the way we acquire knowledge that we would otherwise would not find, had we just stayed at home and be contented with life just like that,life would not be that interesting... And when we retired we would travel all over the country and overseas, to enjoy the freedom of the free world....For the whole wide world is ours to explore...I found that some people do not want to venture further in their travel overseas, they would just do the little Haj or the Umrah to the Holy land after they have done the Haj, some even visit the holy land for the Umrah every years. I personally think this is not a wise thing to do, they should just do one Umrah and then venture on to see for themselves other countries on this planet. By doing so it would enrich their knowledge and understanding, that there are other people with different culture and religion out there living a high quality of life and enjoying life as they journey on....We have travel a lots and found that in has enriched our life and understand of the meaning of living. To all those young, like this charming lady that I met, you are the Now people, so enjoy and when you come to my age, you would not only have knowledge but wisdom as well thus would be able to pass on those knowledge to your children and grandchildren, at the same time would be able to tell them the great story of your adventure in your journey of life. The people especially the young should open up their mind and improve their knowledge of the world and not to be just like a Malay saying 'Katak dibawah tempurong' translated into English..Like a frog under the coconut shell...But instead open up their mind as wide as possible and accumulate as much knowledge as possible and only then they would be progressive like the others in the country, as well as those in other countries...We all can only succeed in this competitive world if we have knowledge and determination.. To the Malay youth my advice is to be careful and weary of the so called preacher who always talks about the negativeness of life, who whenever give talk on religion thence to talk more of the negativeness of life, rhetoric after rhetoric and most of the time the talk contain very little substance...Sometime youth who listen to such talk got emotionally involved and carried away and became extremists and then refuse to acquire more knowledge...Without knowledge and skill these youth would not be able to fend for themselves or get jobs...Without jobs they would withdrawal from the society at large, some would resort to drug to escape the reality of today's world and some became extremists who are against anything good that the establishment do.. Youth could be an asset as well as liability to a nation...Without knowledge and an open mind youth would be a liability not only to the race but the nation as well...So do not have a closed mind, be more open and mix well with all the sector of the society...And only with an open mind without prejudice would a youth succeed in life and became an asset to the country, if not it would just be a liability to the country...The race itself would loose in the long run...So to the youth once again I repeat that the period youth come but once in our journey of life...Do make use of this short period and accumulate knowledge and enjoy life...

How can you not cry for all the lost in the Tsunami disaster, the death are in the hundred of thousand and so are the injured, the lost to properties would be in billions of dollar, we just could not comprehend the misery of those people that are effect by this calamity... I cried and felt the lost like I never did before...I am in my golden age, a person who have gone through life, being born in the late thirty, I have seen the second world war, where the atrocities of the Japanese in Malaya was at its worst and then the war of terror of the communist that last for twelve years from nineteen forty eight to ninety sixty one...I thought that the horror of the war and the misery of life during all those years was bad enough but what happen to those in the effected areas of this Tsunami disaster just became beyond my understanding of misery....It was just terrible....The death, the injured, the sick, the trauma. If I am in my youth I would have gone there to help in whatever way I could, but then at this age, I would just became a liability if I were to go there, instead an asset that could be used in this time of needs...But I want to help in whatever way I could... I would eventually find a way to help, that I believe I could, in a small way and my way.... I pray for those lost soul wherever and whoever they are and offer then the rich and powerful recitation of the Surah versus of the Koran, in the first Surah, the Alfatihah and the thirty sixth Surah, the Yassin.... Reciting these surah I felt good. I pray and hope that all those departed are given a place in heaven and those that are alive and suffered, stay strong and never to give up living, and continue to appreciate being alive, for this is part of living on this beautiful planet of ours that we call the Earth....Amen....

Of recent, I have visited a number of blogs written by senior Malaysian like me..I am indeed glad that there are more and more senior Malaysian have taken to blogging...I personally believe we senior have knowledge to contribute to the society, not only in this country, Malaysia but the world as well...With blogging we now have the opportunity to write our thoughts and share it with the world, before that there are no such avenue for people like us to share our thoughts with others. We may have written to the local newspapers from time to time, but the space provided in local newspapers are limited, as such not much of our thoughts get printed, so the coming of the blog, is indeed a Godsend media for us to write, for cyberspace is wide indeed and reach more people then any other media, so to me blogging would help to disseminate information far and wide....After a year of blogging, I find that it has improve my writing skill, as well as being able to put my thoughts in writing...From time to time I get visitors to my Blog giving great comments, as well as asking for information, I have replied to all those that contact me and in doing that have increase the number of cyber friends from all over the world...These cyber friends eventually came in contact with me personally when they visit Malaysia and today we continued to be friends by exchanging email from time to time...In has improve the quality of my life and I am happy that I have manage to contribute in a small way in making the lives of others more meaningful as well... Our world is not perfect but it is ours to share and as human, our species have never had it so good, despite the up and down of our civilization, like the recent events, the Tsunami, we human are gifted with love and compassion and are able to works together for our common goods despite our difference in religion, race or nationalities...The happening in Iraq and for that matter in the whole of the middle east is frustrating at time and as an optimist, I thence to look to the positive side of things...For nothing comes easy and I personally believe that everything are possible to a willing mind...The happening in Iraq and Palestine look rather bleak now but if we continue to work diligently toward a better future for those people, I believe that we would see a better middle east in the not too distance future....Democracy do not develop over night, in the pain of its birth I believe that great happening awaits the future of the middle east and its people who had never really live in a democratic countries before...As I had often said before, Democracy is contagious and once it take roots in Iraq and the Palestine...It would spread like while fire to the rest of the middle east...And then only we would see the quality of life in these part of the world improving and with that we would have more peace on this blue planet of ours...It is our world to share and we shall share it in harmony... The happenings of the Tsunami though a tragedy, I believe would in the long run bring greater changes to this part of the world...I always believe that if we fall, then only we would understood the meaning of standing up...The tragedy is as sorts of a 'fall'..At this juncture of our history a great meeting of the minds of our leaders are happening in Jakarta and I believe that this is the beginning of a better world to come....Event like the Tsunami just do not happen for nothing, it has a reason, for once it jolted the human consciences to the reality of sharing this world of ours and that we all had to help each others if we want to make this world of ours a better place to live for us now, for our children and our grandchildren later on.... We have a great future in front of us....Lets all of us work toward achieving this goal....The Meeting in Jakarta today could be the beginning of a better tomorrow....

My cell phone rang at five in the morning, getting a phone call that early in the morning means that it is not an ordinary call, true enough our niece call from Kuantan saying that a cousin sister of mine has just passed away...It was not an unexpected call for she had been sick for sometimes already...We have been seeing her from time to time in hospital and she had not gotten better...Well I believe it is old age, for she is now seventy years old...Her time is up and she had been called to the Lord....Half an hour later, another cousin, her brother call and I told him that I already got the news and that I myself had not been real well and would not be able to come for the funeral...I would get to Kuantan later...In the mean time I call those relatives that I know to inform them of the news of parted relative.... Well friends that is life, just a day ago we heard hundred of thousand had died in the Tsunami tragedy...And now a relative just parted....Life is like that for we all are just passing and when the time comes, there are no waiting and we had to go, for that is how things works on this planet of ours, being born and die is part of the system and it includes our species....I pray for her parted soul and I believe that she would have a place in heaven....Al Fatihah [the first surah in the Koran] to her, .... Amen....

The Tsunami...do our bits to help in whatever ways we could....and do cheer up

The Tsunami, relief efforts have start to reach the people effected by the disaster, It is indeed a monumental task to get those million of people back to normal life again..It look like once again humanity is at it best, every nations have came forward to do their bits to help those people that need helps...What a great thing this tragedy have brought unto us human....A sense of belonging to the species.....Many people in the region lost their life as well a large number of western tourist that were spending their holiday in this region, Sweden alone lost not less then three thousand of its citizen in Phuket, the actual number are yet to be known to date...My condolence to those families that lost their love one wherever they are...I pray that they all would stay strong in facing this calamity, for lives have to go on for the living, the departed are gone, lamenting our it would not bring them back... A prayer to those lost soul would be an appropriate things to do now,..May the lord place them all in heaven...We the living must understand that incident like this happen from time to time in our history, maybe we would be wiser after such an incident, for we human always would be able to find ways to progress further to improve the quality of live of our species on this planet.

It is evening on the second of January, and it is just difficult for us not to think of those happening in our neighborhood, Acheh and Phuket....The number of death keep increasing and I believe it would be soon total one hundred thousand in Acheh alone and then what happen to the living that lost everything...Malaysian was the first group of relief workers that arrived there, our team are small but then we had to help in whatever way we could, even a youth club[the four B] from Malacca has send a small team to find what they could contribute toward the rebuilding... On the home front, Langkawi, Penang and the coastal villages of Kedah and Perlis is back as usual after the clean up and some villagers from the coastal town in Kedah are been move to start a new live in a new area inland.... I call a friend in Langkawi to get some information and He say that things are all OK in Langkawi and that all planned programmed would go on as usual, in fact tourists have started to arrive on the island..., I need the information to relay it to a visitor to my Blogsite, who had enquire as to the real situation on the island, for she had planned to visit the island this month...I replied to her saying that things are all ok in Langkawi and hope that she would be able to make a final decision to proceed with her holiday in Langkawi...Langkawi is special to us Malaysian, for it is an island that was specially developed for tourism and it is different from Phuket, so for those tourists that want something different from those of Phuket, Langkawi is the place to be, it is indeed a paradise in sunny Malaysia,... Unlike Phuket it is not crowded and the coastal line is endless and the beach is clean and golden in color...The island is sheltered from the open sea by other smaller islands all around it, thus during this Tsunami disaster, the main island escape the brunt of the waves and except for some properties lost, Langkawi was spared from a major disaster...We went for a holiday to this enchanting island in August last year and as Malaysian we ourselves found this island a fascinating place to be...It is some thing different, there is the legend that is associated with Langkawi and the whole island is accessible by road and if one had the time, one could have a field days wondering around the island, walking along the beaches or just wonder into the tropical jungle nearby or take a ride to the top of the mountains by cable cars..In fact one would surely have a different kind of holiday on this island, one could choose to just sit at the Bar and enjoy their drinks with friends or visit Bon Ton, a special holiday resort with a difference away from the beach where one would be able to sample living in old Malay houses under swaying coconut palms....We visit this place in August and had lunch there, I love this place and enjoy the short visit...I told the Australian lady that own this place, that Her place is a Haven on earth...She smile and hope that I really enjoyed my short visit there.... In the enclave surrounded by traditional Malay houses is a swimming pool with clear blue water, making this place so special that I wish I had own it, to enjoy during my golden years... Friends if you are visiting Langkawi, do take your time to visit this enchanting creation on this tropical paradise..The Bon Ton site is BonTon

It is the first of January two zero zero five, a new year, normally last night there would be celebration all over the country where live entertainment shows are held where Malaysian enjoy to usher in the new year with pomp and splendor and with the bang of colorful fireworks, but last night there was non of those things, for Malaysian are not celebrating this year in respect of those that lost their lives in the disaster just a week ago...The Tsunami of the twenty six of December zero zero four.... It is evening when I continue to blog this, it seem that so far more then one hundred and fifty thousand perished in this disaster and just now there were an announcement of yet another earthquake at the same area, there are no report as yet of the scale of this second quake, I hope it is not a big one again, anyhow those that live in the effected areas must be warn as of the possibility of another Tsunami, but then this would create another panic, just like it just happen in Sri Lanka and the east coast of India... Well people must be educated of this subjects so that they would be better prepared, the next time such disaster happen..... Let us look forward for a better year, this year of two zero zero five.... Have a nice day.....