As we travel our lifetime in this universe, we pass through gorges while at the same time enjoy the breeze. I will live this life to the fullest while sharing my thoughts in this cyber world.
Docendo disco, scribendo cogito (I learn by teaching, think by writing)
This woman was seen standing outside her car, hitting her boyfriend in the groin repeatedly with her shoe, squeezing his balls; and he just took the hits without retaliating nor show any anger.
See! What a man! This is what we call a "Real Man with Balls".
Psychologist research study described such man as big, strong and friendly, and most of all, able to withstand punishments and are very forgiving. He still loves her, after all that.
Studies indicate men can withstand all kind of abuses from women, as long as he stills can ... (I forgot what's it ...)
BTW, that car driven by the lady is a Lexus. Is it okay to be punished by a Lexus girl? Tell me.
The brand new pastor and his wife, newly assigned to their first ministry, to reopen a church in suburban Brooklyn, arrived in early October excited about their opportunities. When they saw their church, it was very run down and needed much work. They set a goal to have everything done in time to have their first service on Christmas Eve.
They worked hard, repairing pews, plastering walls, painting, etc, and on December 18 were ahead of schedule and just about finished.
On December 19 a terrible tempest - a driving rainstorm hit the area and lasted for two days.
On the 21st, the pastor went over to the church. His heart sank when he saw that the roof had leaked, causing a large area of plaster about 20 feet by 8 feet to fall off the front wall of the sanctuary just behind the pulpit, beginning about head high.
The pastor cleaned up the mess on the floor, and not knowing what else to do but postpone the Christmas Eve service, headed home. On the way he noticed that a local business was having a flea market type sale for charity, so he stopped in. One of the items was a beautiful, handmade, ivory colored, crocheted tablecloth with exquisite work, fine colors and a Cross embroidered right in the center. It was just the right size to cover the hole in the front wall. He bought it and headed back to the church.
By this time it had started to snow. An older woman running from the opposite direction was trying to catch the bus. She missed it. The pastor invited her to wait in the warm church for the next bus 45 minutes later.
She sat in a pew and paid no attention to the pastor while he got a ladder, hangers, etc., to put up the tablecloth as a wall tapestry. The pastor could hardly believe how beautiful it looked and it covered up the entire problem area.
Then he noticed the woman walking down the center aisle. Her face was like a sheet. "Pastor," she asked, "where did you get that tablecloth?" The pastor explained. The woman asked him to check the lower right corner to see if the initials, EBG were crocheted into it there. They were. These were the initials of the woman, and she had made this tablecloth 35 years before, in Austria.
The woman could hardly believe it as the pastor told how he had just gotten "The Tablecloth". The woman explained that before the war she and her husband were well-to-do people in Austria.
When the Nazis came, she was forced to leave. Her husband was going to follow her the next week. He was captured, sent to prison and never saw her husband or her home again.
The pastor wanted to give her the tablecloth; but she made the pastor keep it for the church. The pastor insisted on driving her home. That was the least he could do. She lived on the other side of Staten Island and was only in Brooklyn for the day for a house cleaning job.
What a wonderful service they had on Christmas Eve. The church was almost full. The music and the spirit were great. At the end of the service, the pastor and his wife greeted everyone at the door and many said that they would return.
One older man, whom the pastor recognized from the neighborhood continued to sit in one of the pews and stare, and the pastor wondered why he wasn't leaving.
The man asked him where he got the tablecloth on the front wall because it was identical to one that his wife had made years ago when they lived in Austria before the war and how
could there be two tablecloths so much alike?
He told the pastor how the Nazis came, how he forced his wife to flee for her safety and he was supposed to follow her, but he was arrested and put in a prison. He never saw his wife or his home again all the 35 years between.
The pastor asked him if he would allow him to take him for a little ride. They drove to Staten Island and to the same house where the pastor had taken the woman three days earlier.
He helped the man climb the three flights of stairs to the woman's apartment, knocked on the door and ... she could ever imagine of - a gift for Christmas.
Keep Your Heads Up. Look Forward by C. Otto Scharmer
I was sixteen years old. I left school one morning, and by the time I got home, everything had changed.
That day in school, about halfway through the day, the principal called me out of my class and told me to go home. I asked why? She didn’t tell me why, but I noticed her eyes were slightly red, as if she had been crying.
I walked as quickly as I could to the train station, and from there I called home, but no one answered – the line was dead. I had no idea what might have happened, but by then I knew that it probably wasn’t good. I boarded the train, and after the usual 45-minutes ride, I took a cab rather than wait for the bus to take me the last few miles home. It was the first time I’d ever taken a cab.
Long before I arrived, I saw it. Huge grey-black clouds of smoke were rising into the air. The long chestnut-lined driveway that led to the farm was choked with hundreds of neighbors, fire-fighters, policemen and gawkers. I jumped from the cab and ran the last half mile.
When I reached the courtyard, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The huge 350-year-old farmhouse, where my family had lived for the past 200 years and where I’d lived all my life, was gone. As I stood there, I saw that there was nothing – absolutely nothing – left but the smoldering ruins. As the reality of what was before my eyes sank in, I felt as if somebody had removed the ground from under my feet. The place of my birth, childhood, and youth was gone. Everything that I had was gone.
As my gaze sank deeper into the flames, the flames also seemed to sink into me. I felt time slowing down. Only in that moment did I realize how attached I had been to all the things destroyed by the fire. Everything I was and had been intimately connected to had dissolved into nothing. But no – I realized not everything was gone; there was still a tiny little element of myself that was gone with the fire. I was still there watching – I, the seer, I suddenly realized that there was another whole dimension of my self that I hadn’t been aware of, a dimension that didn’t relate to my past, to the world that had just dissolved.
At that moment, time slowed to complete stillness and I felt drawn in a direction above my physical body and began watching the whole scene from that other place. I felt my mind expanding to a moment of unparalleled clarity of awareness.
I realized that I was not the person I thought I was. My real self was not attached to the tones of stuff now smoldering inside the ruins. I suddenly knew that I, my true self, was still alive, more awake, more acutely present than ever before.
I now realized how much all the material things that I’d become attached to over the years, without ever noticing it, had weighted me down. At that moment, with everything gone, I suddenly felt released and free to encounter that other part of my self, the part that drew me into the future – into my future – and into a world that I might bring into reality with my life.
The next day my grandfather arrived. He was 87- years old and had lived on the farm all his life. He had left the house a week before to go to the hospital for medical treatments.
Summoning all the energy he had left, my grandfather got out of the car and walked straight to where my father was still working on the cleanup. He didn’t even turn his head towards the smoking ruins of the place where he’d spent his entire life. He simply went straight up to my father, took his hand, and said, “Keep your head up, my boy. Look forward.” (“Kopf boch, mein Junge. Blick nach vorn.”)
Turning around, he walked directly back to the waiting car and left. A few days later, he died quietly.
Even after all these years, this moves me still - that little scene of my grandfather walking by, ignoring the ruins of his home, and focusing all his remaining life energy on shifting my father’s attention from reacting to the past to opening up to what might emerge from the future.
It also evoked a question in me that still remains: “What does it take to connect to that other stream of time, the one that gently pulls me toward my future possibility?
It was a question that eventually prompted me to leave Germany to do my postdoctoral research at MIT several year ago.
And that question that draws me still, right to this very moment.
*************************************************** SOURCE: Presence: Exploring Profound Change in People, Organization and Society Author: Peter Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2005
Born in 1918 in a tribal village in the Eastern Cape and educated as a lawyer, Nelson Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC), the movement for black rights, beginning a long struggle against apartheid, the system that fostered separation of the races in South Africa.
Apartheid - literally "apartness" - had been established in 1948 by Afrikaner nationalists with the goal of securing white supremacy and ensuring Afrikaner control of political power. Under apartheid, South Africa was divided into ersatz Bantu nations, or "locations" - Africans-only settlements for a rural labor force working in gold and diamond mines. A non-white community, Bantu nations were a pretense for restricting the movement and autonomy of the black African labor force..
South Africa had always been rich in natural resources - in addition to gold and diamonds, it produced more than one-third of Africa's goods and services and nearly 40% of Africa's manufacturing output with only 7% of the African continent's population and 4% of its total land area. But it had been torn by centuries of racial conflict.
In 1944, with close friends Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu, Mandela formed the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), becoming its president in 1950.
In 1953, banned by the apartheid regime from speaking in public for 2 years, he was forced to officially resign from the ANC. He concentrated on the law practice he had started with Tambo - the first black law firm in South Africa.
After the 2-year ban ended, Mandela resumed his public role opposing apartheid. The state's relentless crackdown on the ANC, including widespread arrests, killing of demonstrators, and banning of meetings, eventually led Mandela to conclude that the ANC's policy of nonviolence was not working. He formed and led Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), or "Spear of the Nation", to move the struggle from peaceful resistance to armed reaction. Mandela was eventually captured and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964.
By the late 1980s, South Africa faced a changed post-cold-war global environment and a faltering domestic economy. The apartheid regime became a pariah around the world, with international pressure and sanctions exacerbating the economic slump.
Responding to international pressure, F.W. de Klerk, then head of the apartheid government, was ready to free Mandela - after 27 years in prison.
Mandela negotiated the timing of his release on his terms - the unbanning of the ANC and other anti-apartheid organizations on February 11, 1990.
After his release from prison Mandela quoted his well-known statement from the trial that resulted in his confinement:
"I have fought against white domination and I had fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities."
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pik Botha echoed this hope:
"We [South Africans] are like the zebra. It does not matter whether you put the bullet through the white stripe or the black stripe. If you hit the animal, it will die."
On March, 1990, Nelson Mandela was elected deputy president of the ANC's National Executive Committee.
South Africa held it's first-ever democratic elections in 1994. The ANC was victorious and Mandela was inaugurated in May as the country's first democratically elected president.
As the leader of the new South Africa Mandela had to walk a tightrope between addressing the pain and suffering that millions had experienced under decades of brutally enforced segregation, while fostering a spirit of reconciliation aimed at moving the country forward.
South Africa's black majority, having achieved civil rights after years of struggle, was impatient for economic advancement and the associated delivery of services. But many whites were now living in great fear as to how the past was going to be dealt with and what their future in the new South Africa would be.
Mandela's task was to shift the cycle of decline. Significant challenges stemmed from the legacy of apartheid, including economic inequality, suppression of information, and suspicion and anger of racial groups towards one another.
A 1994 report by ANC and economists detailed the extreme poverty of at least 17 million South Africans who lived below internationally accepted poverty level, including 12 million citizens who lack access to clean drinking water, 4.6 million adults who were illiterate, 4.3 million families without adequate housing and a majority of schools without electricity.
All level of confidence were depressed. Investor confidence had eroded and although the events leading up to Mandela's election had ended international economic sanctions against South Africa, there were the risk that continuing political tensions, including the threat of retaliations, could create economic and social instability.
Mandela had only 5 years to shift the cycle - that is, until the next election. He had announced that he would serve only one term - a remarkable gesture not only in Africa, a continent known for corrupt leaders who refuse to cede power, but also remarkable for someone who had waited so long and given so much to reach this position of power.
Many of the laws that restricted the flow of information had already been removed soon after Mandela was released from prison. Despite some progress, Mandela criticized the press establishment for not changing quickly. Mandela wanted more than just cosmetic change, more than just a few faces of a different color. Mandela was deeply committed to a free press and access to information by all South Africans. "It was the press that never forgot us," he said upon his release from prison.
As president, Mandela continued to champion freedom of the press, which he was as part and parcel of the liberation of the minds of South Africans:
"I don't want a mouthpiece of the ANC or government ... The press would be totally useless then. I want a mirror through which we can see ourselves," he said in 1996."
A freer press was just one way to open dialogue. The electoral process was designed to ensure widespread input. Beyond voting, the public was given direct voice in other significant issues.
Even before he became president, Mandela used his skill as a communicator to try to heal the country. On April 10, 1993, a year before Mandela's election, Chris Hani was shot dead in his home near Johannesburg. Hani was the most popular leader after Mandela, especially among black youth. An Afrikaner woman wrote doen the licence number of the assassin's getaway car and reported it to police. They soon captured the perpetrator, a Polish immigrant. The National Party, still officially in power, feared that all whites would be blamed, and that widespread violence would erupt, paralyzing the country.
Upon hearing the news, Mandela flew to SABC television studio (South African Broadcasting Corporation, the country's largest public broadcaster) in Johannesburg to broadcast a message - one that some recalled as the speech that saved South Africa from chaos. Mandela addressed an emotional country in a calm, deliberate manner:
"A white man full of prejudice and hate came to our country and committed a deed so foul that our whole nation now teeters on the brink of disaster. A white woman, of Afrikaner origin, risked her life so that we may know, and bring to justice this assassin."
These words were aired repeatedly. Mandela had provided crucial direction to South Africans on how to react to the tragic loss of Hani in a way that would not undermine the very thing Hani had also fought for - liberation and democratic elections.
When he became president, Mandela knew that before he could move the country forward as a new South Africa, he would have to reverse the victim culture of anger and blame that stemmed from the legacy of the past. To Mandela, the South African people must take responsibility for their own actions and confess their mistakes, without provoking acts of revenge and hatred that would tear the country apart.
Parliament passed the Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act in 1995. Mandela's administration shepherded a program of accountability without rancor, in the form of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). The new minister of Justice, Dullah Omar echoed:
"We need understanding, not vengeance, we need reparation, not retaliation, and we need ubuntu [humanity], not victimization."
Mandela emphasized:
"We must regard the healing of the South African Nation as a process, not an event ... it helps us move away from the past to concentrate on the present and the future."
Mandela had begun the process of accountability, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
The structure of Mandela's government signaled inclusiveness and collaboration across political parties. His executive branch had members not only from the winning ANC, but also from the opposition National Party (the previous ruling apartheid govt) and Inkatha Freedom Party, both of which became a part of the Government of National Unity.
Beginning at a press conference soon after his release from prision, and continuing throughout his presidency, Mandela emphasized that:
"Whites are fellow South Africans and we want them to feel safe and to know that we appreciate the contribution that they have made towards the development of this country."
He urges whites to stay in South Africa and pointed out that they, too were a part of the nation.
He told a crowd in the shantytown of Khayalitsha, "Those that do not know how useful whites are know nothing about their own country."
Mandela understood that a strong economy involved active initiative to build new enterprises and upgrade community infrastructures. So, in May 1994, Mandela announced a Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP) that aimed to tackle the issues at the very heart of poverty and economic opportunity, such as health, housing and education. He reassured international investors that the plan would be financed via cuts and adjustments in government's existing budget. As a symbol of commitment to the process, and setting a personal example of sacrifice, Mandela, together with senior government officials, accepted salary cuts of between 10% and 20% to contribute to social reconstruction.
At the opening of the South African Parliament in February 1996, Mandela issued a call to action:
"We can neither heal nor build with the victims of past injustices merely forgiving and the beneficiaries merely content in gratitude."
Moving poor people from helplessness to hope and enabling them to take the initiative to improve their circumstances was impossible without education. Under the RDP, free compulsory education was phased in for all children, along with a school lunch program aimed at providing at least one full meal per day to children whose families lived below the poverty level.
Opening opportunities meant addressing the racial basis of economic disparities. In October 1998, Mandela signed into law the Employment Equity Act, the goal of which was to eliminate historic race and gender-based discrimination and facilitate a move towardachieving a workplace representative of the country's demographics. Gradually, a new black middle-class began to emerge. A new generation of black business leaders became captains of industry. Great inroads were made in the delivery of essential services. Progress was also occurring in education, with literacy levels increasing across all age and gender group.
Overall, large numbers of people who previously enjoyed no control over their economic circumstances and had to struggle for survival found more opportunities and tools to improve their life situations. Mandela did not guarantee jos or higher incomes, nor shower gravy-trains flooded with free-wealth, equity/shares, licence or schemes to get-rich-quick for the black communities. His Administration created the circumstances to give all the people more capacity to move out of poverty, and to give the more affluent the confidence to invest in growing the South African economy as entrepreneurs or business leaders.
As with all his actions, Mandela was inclusive and practical. He did not want black empowerment to be accompanied by white flight, which would drain the country of capital and talent.
At his inauguration in 1994, Mandela indicated that he would serve only one term as president. On June 16, 1999, nearly 50,000 people from around the world gathered on the lawns of the Union Buildings in Pretoria to witness a historic occasion: the first transition of power in a democratic South Africa. Millions more watched on television.
It was unimaginable, for historically, very few revolutionaries have voluntarily handed over power and Mandela's act was unique for Africa - a peaceful transition of power in a continent torn by violence, and in a country surrounded by neighbors with entrenched and corrupt leadership.
When the incoming president, Thabo Mbeki, stepped forward to take the oath of office, he offered a poignant tribute to his predecessor: Mbeki clasped Mandela's hand and raised it, commenting that the day was a "Salute for a generation that pulled the country out of the abyss and placed it on the pedestal of hope on which it rests today."
Much had been done, and much was still to be done.
Mandela sought power in order to distribute it rather than to use it to dominate others. He was the kind of leader who not only transforms, but elevates all those with whom he is involved.
Mandela said of himself:
"I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances."
When asked to comment about those unflattering verdict on his performance as a leader, Mandela simply smiled and replied:
"It helps to make you human."
***********************************
Reference/bibliography Mandela: A Long Walk To Freedom Rosabeth M. Kanter: Confidence
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak has called on Muslims and Malaysians to strengthen harmony and break down their prejudices for the sake of the future generation.
"Let's make use of occasions like this to restore and strengthen relations among Muslims and Malaysians," he said in his Hari Raya Aidilfitri message.
Najib said: "Unfortunately, there are certain quarters who peddle hatred and try to deny this. They try to sow seeds of ungratefulness in the minds of their people in their attempt to achieve their narrow objectives."
"Let's break down the walls of prejudice, hatred and apathy for the sake of our children's future."
He called on Muslims in Malaysia to carry the torch of unity and progress, saying that as the community which formed the majority, they not only had the rights, but more importantly, the responsibilities to shoulder.
Najib said Muslims in Malaysia had many reasons to be grateful, as they were living in a peaceful and prosperous country at a time when Muslims around the world were facing oppression, either politically or economically, or due to war.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak hailed the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia today for its role in representing the absolute interest of the Malays, but however, he also urged the newspaper to also voice out the rights of all Malaysians.
“Utusan is known for its trademark and its trademark is to voice the desire of the people, especially the Malay community,” he said in his speech during a breaking of fast function at Sri Utusan Printing Complex here.
However Datuk Seri Najib Razak warned that the media must not only report ethically but also responsibly.
“I hope that we will not only voice the rights of only the Malay community but for the other races as well. When we want to defend rights (of a community), we must also discuss about responsibility,” he said.
He also urged the media to play an important role to shape the nation into 1 Malaysia.
“Media has the responsibility to help in the journey travelled by Malaysia.
The journey which seeks common understanding, openness in thinking. The journey which will also test our struggle.
“If in this journey, we bring chaos and sentiments without looking at the bigger perspective then the journey will go through many difficulties,” he said.
Utusan Malaysia has been criticized for ratcheting up racial tensions.
The Umno-owned newspaper was responsible for running daily stories criticizing DAP as anti-Islam and implying Anwar Ibrahim as a Malay Traitor. It also publish many articles which we observe could provoke racial paranoia and raise racial tensions among the various communities.
The Government will embark on a new programme to rehabilitate illegal motorcyle racers or Mat Rempit to turn them into useful members of society instead of simply meting out punishment against them, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Najib said the pilot project to be launched next January as part of the Permata Negara programme.
He said the Government decided to use the softer approach after finding that putting the youths behind bars for “minor offences” had the potential of making the problem worse.
The aim is to find ways to rehabilitate them so they can become useful and successful members of the public.
The programme will focus on helping the Rempits improve their abilities in terms of leadership skills, social interaction, self-empowerment.
Let us Malaysians shower our compassion and generosity in helping those who are unfortunate and in distress.
There is a sweet girl by the name of Yvonne Foong. She is also a blogger and is only 22.
Yvonne Foong discovered she had a rare genetic disease at 16.
Doctors told her she had neurofibromatosis type 2 that causes benign tumours to grow in her brain, spine and along her peripheral nerves. The disease is incurable.
Yvonne has survived several surgeries to remove tumours - one on her spine and the rest on her brain. She is now semi-paralysed on her face, deaf, partially blind, has poor balance and a stiff right leg.
Yvonne who blogs (www.yvonnefoong.com) and is the author of I’m Not Sick, Just A Bit Unwell, (picture), has been raising money on her own to pay for her operations.
Right now she needs to undergo yet another surgery.
Yvonne is losing her eyesight. The operation is due in December and once again she needs to raise funds for it. The cost of the surgery is USD44,000 (RM154,770) and the cost of her hospital stay for two weeks is USD915 or RM3219.
"She has already raised RM10,000 of this but obviously still has a long way to go. She's hoping to raise the rest by republishing her book I'm Not Sick, Just A Little Bit Unwell in English and Chinese.The books are now available in Malaysian bookshops and from her website store. She is also selling T-shirts at bazaars and via her web site store. You can read about her surgery and donate to her fund here."
You can also help by sending on this meme. If you do, please follow these meme rules:
1. Create a blog entry titled "Meme: Save Yvonne's Sight"
2. List three things you love to see. Add in the picture of Yvonne's book cover. The URL is http://www.yvonnefoong.com/images/banner/my-story.jpg
3. End with the line, "Yvonne Foong is in danger of losing her eyesight thanks to neurofibromatosis (NF). Please find out how you can help her by visiting her blog at http://www.yvonnefoong.com."
4. Tag 5 blog friends. Be sure to copy the rules, OK?
5. If you have a Facebook account, please check out Ellen's new invention, a "feme" pronounced FEEM, a meme designed for Facebook.
I'm tagging the following blogger friends to ask them to help out:
For those of you who are interested to understand the probable reasons of the structural failures of the Stadium Gong Badak you can read about it at: ktstadium.wordpress.com.
This analysis was written by a Professor in Structural Engineering, a man who is an expert in this area. The writings are intended for engineers' dissertation and layman may have difficulty to understand the jargon's used.
You can also read another of his blog at vox.com which is a blog dedicated to share his vast expertise and knowledge in Structural Engineering, case studies of structural defects and failures. These two blogs are a "Must Read" for civil engineers.
Phone rang at 3am, she answered; & it was wrong number !
It rang again at 3.15am; wrong number !
3rd time at 3.30am, in her sleepy hollow she shout: "You stupid number .... you got the wrong idiot again!"
*******************************
Paris Hilton’s wisdom immortalized in Oxford Book of Quotations
SYDNEY, Sept 12 – Words of wisdom from Paris Hilton are to be immortalized alongside remarks by some of the greatest thinkers of all time in the latest edition of the Oxford Book of Quotations.
Her contribution? “Dress cute wherever you go, life is too short to blend in.”
There was another quote by her:
‘"What's Wal-Mart? Do they sell, like wall stuff?"
(This quote was not added in the Oxford Book)
Another new entry in the seventh edition of the Oxford University Press publication is Sarah Palin.
The former vice-presidential candidate makes the cut for her most famous quip:
“What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull? Lipstick.”
MIC president S Samy Vellu today said the Indian community voted against the Barisan Nasional because they were fed up with the ruling coalition, and not him.
The election results proved he was absolutely right.
Datuk Seri Samy Vellu said the loss of Indian support for Barisan Nasional (BN) was because the community had been neglected by the Government for too long and not because he had become unpopular.
“Many are blaming (me), saying people are fed up with me but they are fed up with BN, not me. I can directly say this because I am not afraid of anybody.”
He acknowledged that he has been accused of staying in power for too long but said that under his leadership, since 1979, the party had won 10 general elections.
He pointed out that Tun Dr Mahathir, too, had stayed in power for 22 years and asked if he could say that the Indians abandoned BN because he (Dr Mahathir) had stayed too long.
When asked what he thought about Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s initiatives for the community he said: “It’s a bit late but still good
“The moment I say I am going there will be gangsters who will enter the hall and disrupt the party,” Samy said.
If Samy goes, the gangsters and mobs will take over!!!
Samy Vellu labelled Utusan Malaysia as a 'racist' publication which went against the 1Malaysia concept espoused by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
"I don't know how much of Umno's intervention is involved. But it is usual for Utusan to act like the big brother and hit everyone flat and they feel happy about it...," said Samy Vellu.
"I don't know if this Umno leadership would stoop down to this level (of masterminding such a report)... in any case, whatever Utusan has done is not going to disturb us," he added.
Samy Vellu stressed that MIC members and the Indian community do not believe the news that appear in the daily.
"I give you an example, the cow-head incident, we all condemned the demonstration thinking that it will bring about racial misunderstanding and brew trouble in the country
"But that news, they don't carry. They carry news in support of the cow-head demonstration, they are determined to do something that is detrimental to others rather than what is true," he said.
"Secondly, as and when you give them some news, the news must be to their taste and not the truth, then only they will publish.
"Nowadays, I don't call their reporters anymore because we feel it is sort of a very racial paper which does not contribute to national interests," he added.
Samy Vellu also lashed out at Mahathir. He said it was Mahathir who excelled in the art of 'destroying deputies'.
Samy Vellu said while he had one deputy for 25 years, Mahathir had four during his 22-year tenure.
"Who really destroyed the deputies? He is a master in destroying his deputies. I don't destroy any deputies," he stressed.
Samy Vellu was also asked to comment on whether a MIC leader who came into power riding on the support of Umno would be subservient to that party and not be effective in defending the Indian community.
Training his guns on Subramaniam, the president said: "He is already subservient to Mahathir, I don't know to what extent he is subservient to Umno... he needs somebody to push him forward. He can't stand on his own legs."
"Is this the type of leadership that the Indian community needs... a community that is suffering from poverty and just attempting to come up... it needs a leader who can talk and bring about change," he added.
You need to be aware of what those others are doing, "applaud" their efforts, acknowledge their "successes", and "encourage" them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, "everybody" wins.
Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim has decided to shelve the temple relocation plan in Shah Alam following fierce objections from Section 23 residents at a two-hour public dialogue this morning.
“We should not be cowed by this group of people. Although this group will continue to be there, this will not stop us from finding the best solution for all, and we should not take this as a deterrent but as a challenge for us to prove them wrong,” said Abdul Khalid.
Section 23 residents' action committee chairperson Mahyuddin Manaf told reporters that the police should investigate both Khalid Samad and Rodziah for "posting seditious postings on their blogs". (read the article at: Malsysiakini: Vocal discontent, dissent and despair at temple talks
******************* Erh? what about the cow as khircow? Candle cannot? Cow can? What can and what cannot? Blur sotong!
A little boy got on the bus, sat next to a man reading a book, and noticed he had his collar on backwards. The little boy asked why he wore his collar backwards.
The man, who was a priest, said, 'I am a Father.'
The little boy replied, 'My Daddy doesn't wear his collar like that.'
The priest looked up from his book and answered, ''I am the Father of many.'
The boy said, ''My Dad has 4 boys, 4 girls and two grandchildren and he doesn't wear his collar that way!'
The priest, getting impatient, said 'I am the Father of hundreds', and went back to reading his book.
The little boy sat quietly thinking for a while, then leaned over and said, 'Maybe you should wear a condom and put your pants on backwards instead of your collar.'
"These people were apparently angry with DAP for insulting Islam (or what they perceived as DAP insulting Islam). And so these very good Muslims spent some money on banners and gathered to show their displeasure. All in the name of Allah and Islam of course. Very Islamic indeed."
"The Home Minister today defended and justified last Friday's cow-head demonstration after meeting with Malay-Muslim representatives of Shah Alam's Section 23 at his office here today. Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein pointed out that the residents felt victimized."
"He added that the residents only wanted their voices to be heard but it was unfortunate that “the publicity they received was negative because it was linked with racial and religious sentiments.”
Hishammuddin told reporters that the police allowed the demonstrators to proceed because the numbers of protestors were small.
“They said that they were very conscious and all that they wanted to do was to voice their unhappiness about the willingness of the state government to listen to their requests. I was told that even the Hindus there are not so passionate that it is built there (section 23),” he said.
“If I wanted to use the issue to create chaos in Selangor, I can but we didn’t take such actions,” Hishammuddin said.
"He tried to play down the cow-head incident by pointing out that there were previous incidents where a pig-head was used."
This is what was posted at Loyar Burok, a writing by Art Harun, in reference to that cow-head event: QUOTE:
And Prophet Muhammad - peace be upon him -, in his last sermon, said:
“People, hear that your Lord is One, and that your father is one. You must know that no Arab has superiority over a non-Arab, no non-Arab has superiority over an Arab, or a red man over a black man, or a black man over a red, except in terms of what each person has of piety. Have I delivered the message?”
Yes, all human beings are the same, regardless of whether they are Muslims or non-Muslims, Arab or non-Arab, Malay or Indian, section 23 residents or Kampung Buah Pala dwellers. The Prophet said so. And as if to ensure that his followers had understood what he had just said, he ended that message by asking, “have I delivered the message?”
Quite obviously, to some so called defenders of the faith - whose faith may be easily disturbed by some noises from some temples - the message has not been so clearly delivered.
And what about this:
“Revile not ye those whom they call upon besides Allah, lest they out of spite revile Allah in their ignorance. Thus have We made alluring to each people its own doings. In the end will they return to their Lord, and We shall then tell them the truth of all that they did.” (Translation by Yusuf Ali).
(Isn’t it an irony of sort that the above verse is from Surah Al-An’aam, which means “the Cattle”?).
