Waters invading our homes

God promised that He will never again destroy this earth by water. (Gen 9:11) And He would put a rainbow up in the clouds each time after a heavy rain to remind us about His promise.

So do not blame God if flood waters invaded your homes, overflowed your bed, causing you to drown in your sleep. Blame yourselves for the rubbish you threw into the drains, blocking them. If you see flood waters chasing you down your street, your shaky legs could not overrun it, please do not vow you will not attend church the next Sunday. Blame yourselves for designing a poor drainage system. When the unexpected rain waters rushed down from the hill slopes, bringing mud and debris, your house disappeared from sight and you were nearly buried alive, don’t believe it is a natural disaster but the corrupted officers who approved the licence to develop the land and the irresponsible developer who is building a mansion up there.

Flood waters come in a flash and subside once the rain stops. I will always remember how it invaded our house early one morning. It charged down our street so fast we were caught unprepared. It entered through our front door without an invitation and out it went by the back door without apologizing for the damages it caused. Plants and flowers in our garden died a natural death. The cars parked in the streets choked and refused to start. The interior of the cars were in total mess. Whatever were kept in the cars were destroyed except those that were waterproof. Our furniture and certain items in our house were beyond repair. Then emerged the cockroaches from the septic manholes. They crawled up our walls, parked themselves there. Cleaning up was just as bad. We found stuff that did not belong to us in our compound. And ours mysteriously vanished and never found their way back.

As we drove around our neighborhood today, we observed many house owners have barricaded their front door. When rain decided to stay a little longer than it normally does, we would drive our cars to higher grounds. In fact, we lived in fear every time it rained.

This is possibly the nearest residential area near town, the most convenient place to live, the hub of night activities, a place to be seen, a neighborhood where almost everyone knows everyone but when it rains, houses that are affected by the floods have to be heavily insured against natural disaster.

It took me six months to not get use living there.

Rain the Harmless Hurricane

The beginning of 2007 has not been a good year for Rain. He was found jumping from one hot soup to another.

First, the American Tribute band for the Beatles had slapped him with a trademark infringement lawsuit over the use of his stage name ‘Rain’. Then came the disputes over ticket refunds and logistics problems in Honolulu. Next the cancellation of his Los Angeles concert two hours before his performance over electrical requirements by the city authorities. All his American concerts in Atlanta, San Francisco, New York City, Honolulu and Los Angeles did not materialize. America does not want him at all. But he vowed to come back again.

The journey to America is not as easy and smooth sailing as Rain perceived. It will be a rollercoaster ride into the land of golden opportunities. The road will be lined with unscrupulous businessmen, superficial friends and undesirable temptations. The eagles circling him are all out to sample him. There will be endless hurdles to cross before he can attain his dream of “I come, I see, I conquer America”.

He maybe an investor’s dream but some people are not pleased about it. His popularity is enviously challenging and some are afraid of that.

Rain needs a strong mind to accept their sneers and criticism, a big smile to wear them out, powerful shoulders to withstand the heavy load that is weighing him down and an open heart to conquer them all.

As long as he has the undiluted support from his faithful fans, a strong platform from his investors and his own inextinguishable spirit to succeed, he can penetrate the American market.

Why don’t the Americans want Rain at all? Maybe they have too many hurricanes to handle or perhaps they are afraid the volumes of water Rain brings to flood their homes with is beyond their means to conquer. America should give Rain a chance. He is just a harmless hurricane compared with Andrew. He is not here to destruct but to contribute.

After a heavy rain there is always a beautiful rainbow on the horizon. It is a harbinger of better things to come.

Thumbprint to prevent fraud

The Malaysia Nanban reported recently that “The government has no plans now to make the thumbprint mandatory on all legal documents relating to the transfer of property or land ownership.”

When my stepgrandmother was lying on her hospital bed, approaching her last breath, my uncle forced her thumbprints on all legal documents to “legally” transfer ownership of her house to his name. It was all very legal and he got his prize smoothly without any objections, any queries, any security checks by the land office. He is not even her son.

In another recent case, my cousin did the same to transfer all his mother’s bank accounts to his name by utilizing the thumbprint method. Thumbprint useful to prevent fraud? Nonsense, but it is a useful and easy way to get what you want.

Maybe I’ll try it on one of my family to see whether it works?

Broadband Services

It was a joy to read that 50% of our homes will receive broadband Internet access by 2010. The government will begin targeting the high-rise buildings first before spreading the benefits to the landed properties.

For the past month I have been experiencing poor connectivity. Each time I called up TM Net, I was informed their server is down. I woke up as early as 6 am to get connected but this has left me extremely frustrated and annoyed. It is so irritating when you want to have something done but not able to do so. If presently TM Net is incapable of running their system smoothly, I wonder how they are able to manage and broaden their services in future.

What have our children become?

The Star reported on 21/7/2007
Education Minister to investigate the slapping of 22 primary school pupils for failing to turn in their homework.

13 girls and 9 boys of year four were slapped by their headmistress for not submitting their homework. Wonder why these pupils did not finish their homework. Aren’t they suppose to do so? Why were their parents not monitoring their school work?

During my time, when given a piece of homework, I never failed to neglect mine. With my eyes hardly able to open, my mind in dreamland, I struggled on well past midnight to complete them. And there sitting on the chair besides me was my mother, urging me on “faster, faster, finished you can sleep”. No bed for me if I did not finish. No escaping either, I had to pass it up the next day.

How many mothers today ever practice this? Just a handful. Most leave it to the tuition teachers.

There is another report by The Star on 13/7/2007
Teacher to be suspended after student’s complaint

A student, aged 13 “claimed that a male teacher punched her twice on her face after she used vulgar words against him”. We, at no time ever spoke up against our teachers let alone used vulgarity in school. Children are different presently. They possess a mind of their own.

It is so hard to be a teacher today. Whatever you do is never right. Why? Today, parents are too irresponsible to ever care about the welfare of their children. Instead they tend to protect, defend and pamper their children too much. Parents just cannot manage nor control their children anymore than they can control themselves. Parents have set bad examples and their children have imitated them. I thought at home, parents are supposed to educate and discipline their children. When in school, teachers are supposed to educate and discipline them. If children misbehaved in school shouldn’t the educational system allow teachers to right their ways. At school, children are no longer afraid of their teachers, at home they no longer respect their parents. What have our children become?

Is our society telling our children that it is normal and acceptable for them to use bad language. That they need not worry, they will be protected by the law. Their teachers could not punish them anymore. If their teachers become violent, probably they could be sacked, suspended or they would be subjected to 'proper' treatment. What type of treatment? My guess is, psychiatric.

If parents have time to educate and discipline their children, children will not employ vulgarity in their speech. They will not run away from home. They will not abuse themselves on drugs. They will not kill another. They will not practice vandalism. They will not become victims of the sex trade. They will not loiter during school hours. They will not resort to extortion and bullying. They will not frequent undesirable websites. And they will not kill their own parents.

A teacher’s job at present is to teach. Let the parents discipline their children.

Salary Revision

I received my increment letter yesterday. It was a surprise as I was not asked to fill up the appraisal form. With the numerous complaints and discontented faces around, it is evidently no one is happy and satisfied with what was given. Some of us get as low as RM30.00 which is supposed to spur and motivate us further in our work. Instead it has cast us all into the realm of despair. Most of us feel unappreciated.

I will blog the first paragraph of our letter here to remind me in future of how the management can be very unfeeling and uncaring,

“Despite the fact that our company has made a loss last year, we have decided to revise your salary with the hope of motivating you to spare every effort to contribute to the future success of the organization.”

This is indeed a very chivalrous and gracious letter. Making a loss yet a revision of salary for all. But it is so deceiving.

Before taxation our company's audited accounts showed a nett profit of RM300,000.00 last year. The executive director took home a substantial fee. Its subsidiary did fairly well last year too.

I feel that the profits made was poorly distributed around. Greed and selfishness leads to the monopolization of the profits. Everyone has a share in contributing to the profits in the company. Everyone has the right to it. Everyone sweat to drill for sales. Everyone should be awarded for the effort.

Maybe World Vision should knock at my director’s door so that he will be blessed further IF he contributes.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I do not know why I bought this book. Perhaps it must be the challenge to possess a book that is cheaper than the “normal” price. The price difference of RM40.00 between the book sellers and the hypermarkets is remarkable. Knowing that this is the last of the series of Harry Potter’s books, this hardcover peddles at an exorbitant price of RM109.90 at the major book stalls while Tesco and Carrefour demand theirs merely at RM69.90. And the booksellers are ganging up to boycott “Harry Potter”.

Now, this keeps me wonder. Are booksellers overpricing books at their stalls? Penguin, the book distributor, claimed hypermarkets “would incur losses …that their purchase price was actually higher”. The book price is £17.99.

From my point of view, books in Malaysia are expensive. If they are not, why are books selling so cheap during the annual warehouse sales. Are booksellers making a loss then? No, I do not think so, it is just they are making less profit. Nobody sells at a loss unless he is bankrupt.

There are a total of 607 pages with 36 chapters plus one last chapter. And the first paragraph of the last chapter reads as follows:-

Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year. The morning of the first of September was crisp and golden as an apple, and as the little family bobbed across the rumbling road towards the great, sooty station, the fumes of car exhausts and the breath of pedestrians sparkled like cobwebs in the cold air. Two large cages rattled on top of the laden trolleys the parents were pushing; the owls inside them hooted indignantly, and the red-headed girl trailed tearfully behind her brothers, clutching her father’s arm.

And the conclusion of this book reads as:

The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.

Now I know why everyone is so crazy about Harry Potter. J.K. Rowlings has this literacy talent to catch her readers’ attention and persuasively impel them to continue reading further.

Whether who died or who did not, I will have to read my copy to find out. To figure out this last sentence, you will have to find out yourself.

When I bought mine at Carrefour, Subang Jaya, their staff were carefully arranging the books nicely at the book counter. I even got a FREE Disney Jiggly Light Up Pen! So cute and so appreciative.

Worth the effort of parking myself at their entrance before opening time. I got mine are you going to get yours too? I am excited.... to start my book.