Thursday, November 30, 2006

The Pope in Turkey...

It is indeed great to see leaders meet and talk. This kind of meeting would surely give more toward peace however difficult the situation be. Leaders should to try to take advantage of any situation to bring peace and harmony in our world. I found this blog when visiting Lynn., my favorite blog on the other side of the globe, that I often visit. Well...!!

Monday, November 27, 2006

A lady from Sabah...

A young lady from Sabah, a close friend of our daughter visit us just a few days during the fasting month. She spend two nights at our home. During the two days whenever she is at our home and when the opportunity arise I sat to chat with her on various subjects that of interest to us. She is working with an NGO that is involved in some social engineering projects, that take her around the globe. Actually the reason she is here in Kuala Lumpur this few days is because she in on a transit to catch a flight to her another destination, Bangladesh.

It is fasting month and she been a Catholic did not fast and when it is the time to break fast, we invited her to join in at the dinner table. At time continue to chat on subjects that came to our mind. As usual with me at time before the breaking of the fast, I would chat with her on various subjects. Mostly on social engineering that I did in my youth. She is actually doing what I did before, transferring knowledge to the needy in the rural areas, both in her home state of Sabah and overseas as well.

Just before a meal the other day the subject went from the wonder of Sarawak and Sabah Beat Artifact that her people did to the subject of traditional medicine, the wonder of our past knowledge of healing the sick using the traditional means. In today's treatment of the sick, most patients are treated for their illness but at time it did not includes healing, whereas in traditional medicine the focus is in the healing with includes treatment as well. It is this differences that make traditional medicine or alternative medicine unique by itself. It heals the sick.

This subject which sometime people say is related to the supernatural actually it is not so. To me it is a science of a sorts. It has to do with the way our medicine man do their job in healing the sick. In actual fact it is because of the service of those medicine man [ in our culture it is call Dukun, Pawang, and the like ] who had provided all the means and ways of healing the sick before the coming of modern medicine, that our society had survived to this days. Had it not been for the service of those medicine man, a respected figure in any traditional society, I do not believe our species would have survived.

Modern medicine is actually a recent developments in the history of man, so had it not been for the great works of our traditional medicine man, sickness would have finished off our species, especially here in Asia. These traditional medicine man had been part of the Asian society for thousand of years and surely they had great knowledge and wisdom. Working hand in hand with modern medicine would surely be a great advantage to mankind.

In my chat with this young lady, we seem to agree on many aspects of the role of the Tradition and the Wisdom of the old in our society.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Nature's best...


Nature always gives its best. Look at this orchid. It is not white but white with green. I believe this is the end product of the research of our scientists and technologies, who with their ingenuity and patience, experiment with nature's own and eventually came out with this combination of color. The color of orchid, always pleasing to look and admire. Have a nice day.

Friday, November 24, 2006

Life is beautiful...

Actually I am not that sure what to write at this moment in times. So I just sat here listening to the beautiful song on my TV and enjoying the moments as its goes. My cell phone beep and it was a short beep and before I could get to answer it, it stop. I look at the caller's number and did not recognized it, so I did not call back. A while after the I got an SMS message in Malay which say 'can we be friend'. I replied that it is OK to be friend and send the message to that unknown number. So that is what just happen. Interesting Eh!. Life is like that.

Anyway just let me tell this story of my friend the elusive squirrel, the brown one that had been my friend of a sort for some years already. We had not really met but have seen each other. Still a stranger. It is like this, I know for sure that there is a family of squirrel living in front of our home as well as in the backyard. Since its always come and run around I decided to feed it with fruits like apple and almost every day I would cut a few piece of apple and place it on a plate. I then put the plate between some flower pots at the patio of my house. This particular squirrel would come and eat or take it home. At time I would notice it coming over and because it is rather shy I would not make any noise but watch it comes and goes. It is fun and I love this relationship as for me it is part of the equation of our lives on this planet, that we share.

Monday, November 20, 2006

The demise of a patriot..


Yesterday Mohd Khir Johari was call to the Lord and was accorded a state funeral. Part of the team that work toward getting the country independent from the British and later served in the first cabinet under the able leadership of the first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra. He was indeed a patriot that served the country well. Condolences to his spouse and the rest of the family. May God bless His soul and that He may find a place in heaven. Alfatihah, amen.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Of the Malay and business...

The debates and rhetoric at the Assembly has ended. As I had often said rhetoric alone would not solved problem but would create problem instead. The only way for the society especially the Malay to be successful in the economic fields especially in trade and commerce is to gain knowledge and with it put these knowledge into practice. We are a capitalist country and only those who think as capitalist would be successful in doing business. Successful businessmen not only help themselves but the country as well. They create jobs and opportunities for others, thus help the country as a whole to prosper.

In order to acquire knowledge especially in Business, one must have the ability to get it. And this could only be done by knowing and mastering a language of knowledge such as English and Mandarin. The Malay language [Bahasa Melayu] with due respect is yet to be a language of knowledge. There are hardly any books of knowledge in the Malay language. The Internet is full of knowledge but then the language of the Internet is also English. So to those who need to acquire knowledge and upgrade their know how especially on Business or on any subjects they need to know either the English or Mandarins or both. There are no other ways for any group of the Malaysian society to be smart except to acquire knowledge. It is through knowing what to do only would they be successful in Business, thus would help to contribute toward the percentage of their share in the Malaysian Economic Cake. Rhetoric alone would not help. I notice that in the recent Assembly no one talk about the need to learn English or Mandarin, which I felt is the basic thing that would help the Malay especially to acquire knowledge and from there would help them to be successful businessmen.

I agree with the thoughts of the writer of this article Race is not the issue and hope that the Malay would realized and stop those rhetoric but be more realistic in their approach in wanting to gain more percentage in the Economic cake of the country.

To Me the Malaysian society has no choice but to Master the English language first. And Mandarin if possible. With that the rest would be much easier. This is the real world and we all have to be realist about it. Nationalism in the world of globalization would not help us to prosper. Thinking and acting global would and for us to be successful in the local and global enterprise knowing one or more international languages is the only way toward success.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

A reflection...


I thought that I would just snap this for a change and it turn out to be a wonderful images of a reflection. Just take some times to ponder and enjoy this piece of floating pieces of orchids in a pool of water in a clay pot. When snapping this images I never thought that I would get to see the translucent roof of my patio with its wooden frame so clear in the reflection in this bowl of water. Well that is photography the invention that gives us the opportunity to immortalized such scene and share it with all to enjoy. At the same time appreciating what nature had to offer in this wonderful world of ours. Friends have a nice day. Have fun.