i beg to differ...

Do you agree or disagree with the message in the picture above? ;)

I bet most of you are familiar with the picture above. Let me guess... You've seen it from your facebook newsfeed shared by your friends or acquaintances, right? Or you might be one of them who had shared it?  Oh-ho! No offense, peeps. The first time I saw this picture, I didn't give it much thoughts. Was being oblivious to it back then. However, when I kept seeing this post on facebook, I began to spare a thought for the message in this picture. This picture is depicting that the big supermarket owners do not need your money as much as the fruit sellers on the street. How true is this notion?

It may be true in certain cases but not all. To me, this picture is spreading a generalized notion. And generalization is usually unfair. 

Back in my hometown, my neighbour is a fruit seller at the market - and he is not as pathetic as depicted on the picture above. He can afford to buy a car without government loan (unlike my parents who needed it) and his income exceeded RM3000 permonth. Yes, I am aware that he can afford to live this way because a lot of people buy from his stall. Hence, another reason that this picture is not needed - consumers need not have picture like this to tell them where they should shop for their groceries. If you sell something of quality, I do not think the consumers would prefer to buy second class quality from the supermarket with just a few ringgits or cents difference over your goods. I know I am using only one example but if you have a background check on the fruit sellers around, you might be surprised to find out the actual amount of money they earned. Oh, and don't get me wrong... I am not asking you guys to boycott the street sellers in reverse -  I am just pointing out that the message in this picture is unfair and generalized. 

"Hey, we need income too!" -->  the voices of the supermarket workers were silenced in the previous message picture.

 

Let's put it this way. If you want to boycott the big supermarket just because you want to channel your money as 'charity' to the needy as reckoned in the first picture above, you are being ignorant too because your act of charity may defeat its own purpose. Just so you know, the big supermarkets are the sources of incomes for the supermarkets' workers. These workers, I can assure you they are the neediest of all. Most of them do not own a farm, orchard, garden or even a backyard to plant the fruits and veggies like most of the fruit sellers do. They depend wholly on the supermarket to earn a living. So, just imagine... what will the future holds for them if you start boycotting the supermarket to help the street sellers? They could be sacked to save the company's budget! They will have to find a new job, or left on the streets - but without fruits and veggies to sell!

And another thing - what's up with the statement 'they spend their money on cars and trips abroad?' Sounds like an overstatement to me. Have it ever occur to you (this question is for the person who came up with the message) that the trips abroad are for business purposes, and not just merely for luxurious lifestyle? Well, I know, the rich and famous always spend a lot of money, but isn't it better that way than for them to keep that money to themselves and stop the cycle of money? Oh I know this previous statement is irrelevant to the issue at hand but.. Okay. Another question: What makes you think that these supermarket owners do not donate or contribute to any charitable organization? I do not deny the possibility of these people to spend their money unwisely, but not each and everyone of the rich businessman are like that. The thing is... I want to point out the generalized notion in the message of this first picture. The message in this picture is just too shallow for me to follow.

And most importantly, we are free to choose where our money goes. It's consumer's democracy no?

Vecause it's significant...

Happy Valentine's day peeps! 

Funny but true, a simple wish like this could actually trigger different kinds of reactions from people.

 Some will be happy and wishes it back.

Some will say "We can always show our love everyday, not only on Valentine's day." 

 Some will say "I'm having a forever alone Valentine's day."

Okay peeps, these are all just general typical examples - I am not pointing fingers and if you kinda think that you fit in any of those category, well it's a coincidence really. ;) 

There are a lot more examples which I am too lazy to mention, because my focus is on the 2nd example, which is this one. 

The most typical comment.

  "We can show our love everyday, not only on Valentine's day." 

Yeah, that's absolutely true, but how I wish the people who said that actually did that. Sometimes I think they are saying it just because:

1) They are foreveralone like me.

2) They are not the romantic type.

3) They want to save on the budget.

4) They are the Grinch of Valentine.

5) All of the above

6) None of the above

Erm.. Just a curious question here: what's wrong with making Valentine's day more special than usual? Yeah, I know, you can show your love to your partner everyday, but what's wrong with being significant on a special day? 

You can show your love everyday, every single day, every second of your life to your partner, but to make today special, I do not expect you to NOT show your love to your partner on every other day. 

Show your love everyday, just make it more SIGNIFICANT today. How hard is that? 

However, I do not force you to celebrate it, but why be so sarcastic about those who's celebrating it or become a Valentine's Grinch by telling your partner "Ah, I don't want to buy you anything today because I do not believe in showing love on Valentine's day, I love you everyday not only on Valentine's." 

Hey. You said you have to show love everyday but why not today? Valentine's day is also one of the 365 or 366 days in a year so why purposely NOT showing love today? Ah. Just admit it. You're not romantic. :P

Let me ask you, we become one day older every single day, so why not we celebrate our birthday every single day? Why we only acknowledge we are older during our birthday but not on other days? I could be 23 years 11 month old but I still see myself as 23 years old and only acknowledge that I am 24 when my birthday arrives. 

Why? Simple. Because it's significant. 

Why do we celebrate Teachers' day on 16th May every year? Why we need celebrate it although we can be good student to our teacher every other day of the year? 

Why? Simple. Because it's significant. 

Why we celebrate Mother's day, Father's day on one day when we can show our love to our parents on any other day? 

Why? Simple. Because it's significant.

So, if you celebrate any of the days above but when it comes to Valentine's you give me reason like "We can show our love everyday," "Ah, no point lah" or any of these type of comments, you are a hypocrite. 

Because the real reason you're not celebrating it is something else and not because "you can always show love on any other day." *rolls eyes*

And as human, yes, we can love everyday, we can show our appreciation everyday, but most of the times we tend to take it for granted and we always need to be reminded. 

So special day like this is one way to remind us how special or significant someone is in our lives.

As humans, sometimes we always need to be reminded, so Valentine's day is a day for you to reflect back and remind yourself about those you love and you should use this opportunity to tell them how much they mean to you.  

Last but not least,

Happy Valentine's day again! ;)

Of Honesty and Hypocrisy

When you say 'I don't care what happens'

People will say 'you're selfish and ignorant.'

 "When you say 'no comment',

People will say 'you are scared to take a stand.'

When you say 'No, this so wrong. He/she should not do this, I disagree with this,'

People will say 'You're damn judgmental.'

When you say 'Chill, relax, let him/her do what she wants. It's his/her life,'

People will say 'You're damn open-minded, you are an apostate, you're strayed, just like this damn person.'

 Don't you notice that no matter which stand you take, people will make negative assumption about it?

(Words of lamehood, 2011)

Well, the social issue that I was referring to was the confession made by Adindaevans who confessed in her blog that she is no longer a virgin. This issue was talked about because Adindaevans is just fourteen.

The reaction of Malaysians regarding this issue was of course - typical, there are so many people who bashed her, made fun of her, etc. Some backed her up, some made excuses for her.

I was surprised that people were acting like this thing was new and unbelievable when in reality this free sex issues happened among teenagers waaayyy longer before this girl made that confession.  

Back when I was in high school, I heard a lot of cases like these happening to my schoolmates, some to the extend of getting pregnant, but only now you guys started to make a fuss about it? 

What? Did Malaysians not know that things like this happened among teenagers for so long already? It was as if this issue was less important before because of the minimal attention than it is now.

On second thought, maybe the blessing in disguise for the fuss about this issue is that the education system and the family institution will take a more serious action in tackling and handling this issue when people start looking and watching.

Some Malaysians said that they are ashamed of her and at the same time judging her. Okay, so you are ashamed that the Malaysian teenagers are acting this way, but then, you are not ashamed to judge, to take the place of God, which do not belong to you?

Don't you have any humility in you?

At first, I could not care less about this issue, but to see the way people judge her, I felt so angry at these 'holier than thou' people. People like these exist everywhere. In fact, these people are the cause that social issues are getting worst. They are the person who made the youths felt that they are not worthy to turn over a new leaf. For you people who like to judge but do not have any eligibility (because obviously you did not graduate from law school to become a judge), guess what, your action of judging only lead to more harm than good. Do you think people will turn over a new leaf when you tell them

"You are not good. You are bringing shame to the country, etc, etc. Tak tau malu, etc."

Your act of judging will only make them more defensive and rebellious. 

And here's another question.

When people asked this girl to keep to herself about losing her virginity,

I wonder,

Does it make someone more virtuous by keeping quiet when losing virginity than the person who lose virginity but confess about it? 

Losing virginity is still the same, and keeping quiet about it doesn't make you any better than this girl we are talking about. 

And nope, don't get me wrong, I am not justifying her action, nor am I condemning her, but I am questioning those people who bashed and slammed her. My focus here is on the people who wanted to become the jury, or the judge, when in fact, they are not in the place or position to be so.


For those who like to judge - Start investigating your own sister, brother, kids. Just because they didn't confess or blog about it doesn't mean that they are still virgins.

You better think about it. #sarcasm#

If You Really Knew Me...

If you really knew me, you would know that ....... (fill in the blank)

If you were to utter those words out, what would you fill in the blank?

This is a phrase adapted from a programme called 'Challenge Day' , a workshop which was conducted  by an organization (Challenge Day Org) at high schools around USA. I first knew about this programme through  the Oprah Winfrey Show, oh yeah my favourite talk show of all time. Now it is aired on MTV with the title 'If you really knew me'. 

"On March 5, 2001 at 9:20 a.m., 15-year-old Charles Andrew Williams pulled a .22 caliber pistol from his book bag at Santana High School in Santee, California and fired more than 30 shots into a crowd of students in and around the boys’ restroom." (source: here, a report prepared by Richard D. Reo, Jr.)

"According to The 2003 National School Climate Survey, more than 800,000 students are verbally harassed every year in American high schools because of their race. "Last year we had a whole bunch of fights between black people and white people," says Dorian, a junior at Monroe. "They had the police at the school." (source: here, regarding Monroe High School and the other high schools in USA)

Challenge Day programme was created to curb high school killings (which involved shooting), suicide,students' depression, bully and racial tension. To curb this,  the wall that separated  the students through the typical labels such as 'popular clique', 'class clowns', 'athletes', 'nerds,' and  'emo kids' has to be broken.

So have you ever bullied someone, hated someone, or loathed someone just because he or she is different from you? Have you ever teased, made fun of someone merely because of the way he or she looks?

photo source: here

  The picture depicting students from different cliques opening up to each other.. ;) 

So if you think you have done the things above, you should watch this programme. It is aired on MTV, but you can also watch the video online at this link or know it briefly through this video..

The effectiveness of this programme to change the students can be found here.

the BIG sacrifice..

Written on Friday night, but due to the poor internet connection, I only get to publish them now.

The date was 23rd October 2009...

I was messaging my sister just now whether we are going to tomorrow's night Mass or on Sunday and she told me we are going for tomorrow's night Mass, but we will go earlier, like 11 am in the morning because she & the gang already rented a car to go for a karaoke and round-round and this will be our last big gathering before the exam. I was like, WHAT? I just promised my roommate to go to the library with her to have our own little study group around 10 am till noon. Hmmph~! The moral of the story is - DON'T GIVE ME SUCH A SHORT NOTICE - ESPECIALLY IF IT IS SOMETHING SPECIAL LIKE THIS. DON'T TAKE FOR GRANTED I AM FREE ON WEEKEND.

FEELING SUPER KEMPUNAN NOW. (T__T ) I wanted to go, but it's inappropriate for me to just cancel my date with my roommate just because I found something which is more tempting to do. (correction: anything can be more tempting than studying, e.g: sleeping) It's like principle versus desire. And principle had to win. And besides, I sayang my roommate very much, I don't want to let her down.

*recovering mode*

Now, talking about sacrifice and suffering, it reminds me of another thing which has nothing to do with the former situation. Well, maybe a little, cause I can start comparing here. Me being kempunan over not going to karaoke with my sisters and the gang (it feels hurt to say this again and again) is nothing compared to the suffering of the children in Sudan, or let's take somewhere nearer, like the Phillipines, and even in the rural area of our own beloved country Malaysia. Why did I suddenly brought this up? Well, it has everything to do with the CUS gathering that I went to yesterday.

We always take for granted our comfortable life. Even little thing such as walking to the top of hostel daily (ahem) could be a difficult task. Washing our own clothes felt damn torturing. But how about those who doesn't have feet, legs and even hands to even do these simple tasks? And how about those people who lived in the area where they do not have enough water supply for drinking, let alone bathing and washing their clothes? Let's take Labuan, for example. From this gathering, I began to feel the suffering of the people there because of the insufficient water supply. And yes, the people I mentioned here refer mainly to the students who might be our peers or even younger than us. What we took for granted in our daily lives here is such a big necessity for others. So, don't waste water. How not to waste water? Hehe. Easy. A piece of cake. Here's a few way:

1) Don't wash your clothes everyday. (This is the easiest among the tips, I suppose). Just wash it like, hmm, once in three days. Don't let the water tap run when you are still washing the clothes because usually the water would keep pouring out from the bucket when overloaded.

2) Don't bath using bath tub. At least, use shower, or better yet, use a bucket to bath. Make sure you shampoo your head to toe then use one bucket (or maximum two buckets) of water to rinse yourself, and voila, you are all clean. Besides saving water, you are saving your time. ;)

3) Try not to sweat so much. No, I am not teaching you how to save the water from your body, but I am saying that with not much sweat, you can reuse your clothes for the second time before laundry, so this will save quite a lot on water. ;)

4) Try not to be that talkative. Talkative people tend to drink more water (to replace the saliva in their mouth, perhaps?) So, I am not trying to encourage all of you to drink less water, just that I am trying to convey that since water is our crucial necessity, and we should drink 8 to 9 glasses of water perday, try not to drink more than that cause I think talkative people would actually exceed the recommended quantity.

Guess these are what I can share with all at the moment - cause I am damn sleepy and I have to get some beauty sleep cause if I am beautiful with less pimple, I can save the water by not washing my face with facial products ~ ZZzz..

We Better Think About It Deeply..

Today, I had the intuition to attend the SHE lecture since my sister, seniors and me did not attend the Station of the Cross service today. The SHE lecture today (I can't believe I'm saying this) was more interesting than the previous SHE lectures that I attended. I am not in the position to compare it with the all the previous lectures because I've been skipping SHE lectures a lot.

Well, today's SHE lecture was more interactive. The lecturer (who happened to be doing lecture at KL right before lecturing at our university) asked us whether the SHE project that we've done really contribute in creating relation among ethnics? Well, honestly, of course not really. I mean, most of the title of the projects were like dancing, food (ahem), and we just need to know merely the identity. But we did not really done a research how the things can contribute in creating relation among races. Urm, excuse me on my previous statement, thinking back, I think that those things like dance and food stuff did create relation among races, but we did not see the process how the relations among races are done. I mean, yeah, how does Indian food (which my group is doing ) help to create relation among races? Okay, let's see. Non-Indian like Chinese and Malay do visit the Indian stall and Indian cafe due to they want to eat Indian food. By ordering and communicating with the cafe's owner and workers which are of course, Indians, then the interaction happened.

But by knowing all these things, the other more serious aspects concerning special rights (hak istimewa) and things like economical status would simply be tolerated just by knowing about other's culture which is not really relevant to solving the tension among ethnics? Yeah, I agree that by knowing about other's culture, we can understand the practise more. But the problem is that, the tension among races do not occur merely because we are different, but it's because we are treated differently. He said that "Sebenarnya kaum bukan Bumiputera tidak mempersoalkan tentang hak istimewa kaum Melayu, tetapi mereka mempersoalkan tentang hak mereka sendiri yang telah dijanjikan". He said that, of course, the hak istimewa thingy is not the real problem since the non-Bumiputera had agreed to that - it's just that the promise for their own rights which they are not satisfied with because the promise had not really been kept.

So, does the SHE project really help in creating relation among ethnics and races? Hmm, my answer is 30%. How bout you?

First Step to Stop Gangsterism

This is just the rough idea that I have on the method that we should practise to curb gangsterism. As they say, first thing first, we should use education as the first step to curb gangsterism. Nowadays, every young child goes to school. Moral values should be instilled in them at a very young age. The moral values in them should not be measured just by their scores in the Moral test but also practically. Their class teacher should be their Moral teacher because it is always the class teacher who knows the students' character best. Teachers play a vital role in instilling the Moral values in students because they are like the students' second parents. Since the teachers are playing a vital role in the students' lives, they should not be burdened with many works like collecting money, photostating exercises, and all those clerk's job look alike. These extra jobs is burdening the teachers and caused them to be moody while teaching, causing them to punish students easily or be annoyed easily causing the students to hate schools and therefore loitering around and finally got involved in gangsterism. The school should have a place like Jabatan Bendahari like it is in universities. Students pay their school fees to the clerk or receptionist in a computerised office. I don't see lecturers being burdened with the collecting money's job, right? In terms of measuring the students' moral behaviour, it should not be only the Moral's teacher evaluation on a particular student is counted. The other teachers have the right to discuss a student's particular quality because Moral in practical is very subjective. Then, the government should only allowed students to leave school after Form 6 and not Form 5 or below since most of the jobs with SPM qualifications does not pay well. People join gangsterism for money, because their academic achievement does not ensure good income. Besides that, the school-leavers especially men, should have a legal job within 6 months after graduating. If they failed to show their legal work's licence or permit, then they would be asked to do a job at another state or town. I know it's not easy to implement this, but let's start with the first step. Maybe, it can make a little difference, at least.