suriadin's profileDawn of HopePhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
9/19/2007 Think twice before votingThese days, Malaysia has abondoned all rights for religion and races other than that of the Muslims. This is illustrated in the pictures below which have been compiled from various sources depicting the level of tolerance adopted by Malaysian politicians. Perhaps the large majority of citizens (Malays) just choose to ignore what their politicians are saying because they will not be affected. So I ask them this... "Will you step up? Do you care so little for your fellow citizen? Are you that self-absorbed?" If the majority of your answers are "No", then perhaps you should question your right to exist as a human. We are all living under one sky and one sun. The sooner you realise that, the sooner we can all live in harmony.
8/24/2007 Pop stars pressured to cover up in MalaysiaKUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Some of the world’s top pop stars are facing growing pressure to keep skimpy outfits and steamy dance moves off the stage during their concerts in Muslim-majority Malaysia, event organizers said Wednesday, citing protests by conservative Islamic critics who believe such Western performers can corrupt youths. Gwen Stefani made what she called “a major sacrifice” by wearing clothes that revealed little at a Kuala Lumpur performance Tuesday. Muslim students and political activists had called for her concert to be scrapped because of her sexy reputation. Promoters have announced that Beyonce is scheduled to perform Nov. 1 in this Southeast Asian country — but with caveats. “We’ve informed Beyonce’s management about this issue of clothes, but it takes some of the fun out of it,” said Razlan Ahmad Razali, chairman of Pineapple Concerts, which is organizing Beyonce’s concert. “Beyonce won’t be able to do the kind of show here that she does elsewhere,” Razlan told The Associated Press. “She’s a fashion icon, and we know that she often wears miniskirts and clothes that expose her navel during her performances. It’s a pity to restrict her, because her costumes are all tasteful and glamorous.” Kanye West faced a different problem when he came to Kuala Lumpur in April because government officials said he should not perform one of his biggest hits, “Jesus Walks,” because of religious sensitivities about the title, Razlan said.
A Pussycat Dolls concert last year caused its Malaysian organizers to be fined ($2,857) after the group was accused of flouting decency regulations. Such concerns have made Malaysia less appealing to some stars. A concert promoter, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the hassle about clothes was one of the reasons that Christina Aguilera skipped Malaysia during a recent Asian tour that included neighboring Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, the country’s biggest political opposition group, which opposed Stefani’s appearance, says it will probably protest further if Beyonce or others like Justin Timberlake perform here. “Even with Gwen Stefani, we’re not satisfied just because she covered up at the concert,” said party official Kamarulzaman Mohamed. “Outside, she still wears sexy clothes and influences teenagers who idolize her. It’s bad to have immoral artists visiting Malaysia.” © 2007 The Associated Press.  8/1/2007 Gretel Gets A WackGretel Killeen of Big Brother Australia gets hit on the back of her head by a rubber chicken thrown from one of the contestants. This is some of the funniest shit I've seen in a long time. It's about time someone gave it to her. She's the WORST host in the world!! Just wished that it was a brick instead.
7/19/2007 Mama Don't Preach: Thoughts on Respecting Parenthood DecisionsI read this article on MSN the other day and found it to be astonishingly frank and earnest. The author's observations on parenthood mirrored that of mine. As such, I find great relief in the knowledge that I am not alone in my feelings. Too long have I endured the incessant questions of "when will I be a father," and then having to put up with people telling me that it's wrong that I don't want to be one.
Mama Don't Preach: Thoughts on Respecting Parenthood Decisions
Dumping the Parental Bandwagon
I just got off the phone with a customer service representative at my credit card company. I called to dispute a charge -- the hospital where I birthed a baby boy seven weeks ago made a billing mistake -- and the next thing I knew I was having an extended conversation about labor and delivery with the stranger on the other end of the line. She's due in a few months with her second child. She told me the birth story from her first: They overdid it on her drugs and she was totally numb up to her ears for hours. I told her mine: I had a c-section that didn't heal right and had to be (stop reading if you're squeamish) reopened, picked at, prodded, and allowed to just sit there as a gaping wound for weeks, healing gradually.
Yes, it hurt. More than labor, in fact. I was in the hospital for a week and a visiting nurse came to tend to me twice a day for more than a month after that, at which time my husband was charged with latex-gloving up and ministering to my slit midsection on a daily basis. Sexy? I think not.
Sharing Stories, Not Sentiments Though my childbirth scenario was a bit heavy on the pain and hers a bit too light, we both agreed that actually having the baby was completely amazing. True, we'd suffered, but we'd each been rewarded with a big prize -- a healthy, delicious child.
"I cried for three weeks afterward every time I looked at her," she shared.
"Yes," I agreed, having dampened many a onesie with tears of both the gently rolling and the sobby gulping variety. "I've done a lot of that, too. The whole thing is pretty emotionally intense."
Then she said, "I don't understand how anyone can not have children. They're missing out on the best thing in life."
At that point, I got off the phone. Because you know what? Thrilled as I am to be a mother and to hang with this astoundingly adorable little person sprung from within, I refuse to jump on this particular parental bandwagon, the one packed with proselytizers peddling their baby-centric life view.
Meant-to-Be Moms? If you're living a child-free life, you probably know what I'm talking about: People who start out celebrating their own decision to have kids and end up casting aspersion on your choice not to -- or at least not to have them just yet. They'll carry on -- with great concern about your ticking biological clock, of course -- about how their lives before children were (and implicitly, your life without them is) empty, lonely, devoid of meaning, even downright selfish.
These procreation proponents stepped up a few years ago, revved up by Sylvia Ann Hewlett's Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children, in which the author declares that women today are in a "crisis of childlessness." Wait too long, she warns the ladies, and you may suddenly wake up seized with regret and unable to conceive.
I'm past 30 and a brand-new parent. At this point in my life, though not before, having a baby feels completely, euphorically right for me. I'm deliriously happy with my decision to spawn. But who am I -- or who is anyone else -- to say that having a baby is the best thing for everyone?
They Say No -- and That's Okay Not only do I not think that the only meaningful life is one that includes children, but I'd also go so far as to say that there are people in the world who should not have children.
I'm not talking about people who are, say, prone to abuse. Those people are givens. I'm talking about perfectly nice, everyday folk who don't really want children. People who are happy with their lives as they are and are uninterested in turning them upside down to meet the needs and whims of a growing child.
Like marriage only more so, having children is an irrational act, a total leap of faith for all who attempt it. If you worked up a cost-benefit analysis of childbearing and -rearing, the cost side would be filled with real sacrifices -- financial, physical, emotional -- and the benefit side would feature things like "When my baby smiles at me, I go all gooey inside."
Ugly Sides of Parenthood: Body Woes Having a baby and raising a child pushes you to your physical and emotional limits...and way, way beyond. You need that fire-in-the-belly thing to light your way through the dark patches: the exhaustion from middle-of-the-night feedings, the incessant worry over every random cough and snurfle, the physical strain of hefting an infant who refuses to be put down, the constant suspicion that you and your spouse simply don't know enough to be parents. It's an emotional labyrinth, and you can really get lost in there.
Particularly if you happen to be a woman.
New Mommy Body The physical consequences of pregnancy and childbirth alone can be unpleasant and ongoing. I have friends (at least two of them in my immediate circle) who are doomed to lives of maxi pad wearing because, since giving birth, they can't sneeze or cough without a little pee leakage.
I have another friend who, more than a year after her son was born, still consistently endures nether-regional pain -- mild on a good day, not so mild on a bad one. Another buddy recently told me that, since the doctor stitched her up "a little too enthusiastically" after the birth of her first baby, sex has been downright unpleasant.
Not to mention the new sags, bumps, lines and wrinkles that will keep your body from ever looking the same. "The new normal" is what my husband calls it, but he's just being nice, considerably nicer than I am to myself when I work up the courage to look in the mirror. Factor in the toll that sleepless nights and random bouts of worry -- or out-and-out fear -- take on your skin and other odd corporal goings-on and, well, sister, you ain't no nubile teenager anymore.
Ugly Sides of Parenthood: Worries Galore
And that's just the physical side of things. A friend of mine who just had a textbook vaginal delivery told me she felt so traumatized by the exigencies of labor and delivery that she's planning to start therapy just to come to terms with the emotions it all stirred up. Another friend has been coping with postpartum depression so debilitating she has been unable to return to work as planned.
Even in the best new-baby scenarios -- mine, for instance, if you discount the abdominal-wound factor -- there are moments of severe self-doubt and self-pity in the midst of the baby bliss. Is the baby nursing enough? Is he nursing too much? Why won't he go to sleep? Will he ever go to sleep? Is it my fault he won't go to sleep? You have to summon all your own inner strength -- and the help of your partner (if you're lucky enough to have one), family and friends -- to pull through the first few hormonally rocky, sleep-deprived weeks.
Get past them and you're hardly in the clear. The need to make a living can feel, as a friend who went back to work last week, leaving her 14-week-old daughter at home, put it, "like some kind of primal wrong."
Think the trouble's all in her head? Try in her breasts, swollen beyond belief with milk her baby is not around to drink on her normal schedule. Pumping only goes so far when your baby goes on a hunger strike, refusing a bottle and crying incessantly until you get home to feed her from your own body, only to wake you up every two hours all night long because she's starved from her milk-free day. But have fun explaining that to a boss who doesn't understand why you never work past 5:00 anymore or why you're too tired to take on extra work the way you used to.
See you on the mommy track, girlfriend.
The Way We Were
And while we're doggedly running round and round it, we can talk about all the things we miss from our old lives. Like going to movies or the theater or the ballet. Like enjoying a leisurely meal at a restaurant. Like getting up in the morning and going to the gym without first negotiating with your spouse for your 40-minute parental leave.
I'm not complaining. I wanted to be here, gazing into my newborn's eyes instead of, say, getting all dressed up and going to the spate of black-tie shindigs I get invited to each spring. The little fella may not say much yet, but he's already a better conversationalist than most of the tablemates I've been compelled to chat with at such events over the years.
Taking a Stand
But parenthood as panacea? I'm not buying it, and neither should anyone who's not really into the idea of being a mom or pop.
I'm here as a new parent to stand up for all those nonparents out there -- the ones who haven't yet made up their minds about kids and the ones who definitely have -- and proclaim that there is nothing wrong with not having children. I did it for more than three decades and led what I'd consider a pretty rich life, filled with learning, love, travel, adventure, laughter...and other people's children. You're not being selfish. Your life won't be empty. And you're certainly not destined for a sad, lonely end. People can find meaning in their lives in ways that don't include progeny.
So the next time some well-intentioned parent harasses you about your decision not to have kids -- or at least not to have them yet -- just let yourself off society's hook, go out and live the life you've chosen with no regrets. Find fulfillment by climbing a mountain, jumping out of an airplane, taking a job in Asia or, hell, reading the Sunday paper without interruption. Then tell us breeders about it. And feel free to gloat.
By Amy Reiter
Amy Reiter is a writer and editor at Salon. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
7/10/2007 Talking about PM: Find out grouses of those wanting to leave IslamNow, instead of making any effort to try and catch converts, they actually want them to turn themselves in to save them the trouble. How lazy and stupid can the Malaysian government be?! They must think that the population of converts are actually idiots!! As for the PM saying that he had not "heard of people being tortured at religious rehabilitation centres", well, OBVIOUSLY! Which member of his staff is going to tell him that that is what actually happens? It's called "plausible deniability" dumb-ass! And if you don't know what that means, then go look it up (if you actually know where to look). As for the “suddenly these things seem to be coming out one after another" statement, all I can say is, "crawl out from under the rock you've been hiding under!!!" There is nothing sudden about people wanting to leave an oppresive, subjugating, penal faith that punishes you for looking the wrong way. PUTRAJAYA: The Prime Minister wants the religious authorities to find out the grouses of Muslims who renounce Islam. Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said he had repeatedly told the religious officers to listen to their problems, to learn why they want to leave the faith, and in the case of converts, why they wish to return to their former religion. “Find out what they are disappointed with, why a Muslim convert would return to her earlier religion after the death of her husband,” he told newsmen after opening the 18th Conference of International Islamic FIQH Academy here yesterday. The Prime Minister, who was asked to comment on the spate of court cases involving people seeking to leave the faith, admitted that he did not know why “suddenly these things seem to be coming out one after another.” He recognised, however, that there was a problem and wanted to know the reasons why Muslims were leaving Islam. He also said he had not heard of people being tortured at religious rehabilitation centres, and brushed off such claims as wild allegations. Ref: theStar Online, http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/7/10/nation/18259290&sec=nation 6/13/2007 Lina Joy loses appealThis sounds like an easy way to get out of making a big decision for the Federal Court. It seems obvious that they are willing to let the Syariah court rule their decisions in matters of religion. Maybe Malaysians chould concede to removing the "right to freedom of religion" from the constitution altogether. There doesn't seem to be any reason for us to keep it in there. My advise to all non-muslims living there, "get out while you still can." The government has already started tagging us through our Identity Card, and it won't be long before they start telling you what you can or cannot believe. For those that decide or have no choice but to stay, I say, "bleed the country of all its natural resources and leave nothing for the oppressive, fascist, ruling party." Good luck and God bless. PUTRAJAYA: Lina Joy lost her final round of appeal when the Federal Court dismissed on Wednesday her appeal against a ruling that the National Registration Department was right not to allow her to remove the word "Islam" from her identity card. Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim and Federal Court judge Justice Alauddin Mohd Sheriff delivered the majority decision dismissing her appeal. Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Justice Richard Malanjum dissented. On Sept 19, 2005, the Court of Appeal decided that the NRD director-general was right in refusing her application to drop her religious status from her IC on the grounds that the Syariah Court and other Islamic religious authorities did not confirm Linas renunciation of Islam. Quote http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/5/30/nation/20070530115251&sec=nation 6/9/2007 PARIS HILTON GOES BACK TO JAIL! Exclusive videoSaw on YouTube and thought it was hilarious!! Check it out.
Talking about Hilton will 'serve the remainder of her sentence'It's about time that these celebs get their "just deserves." If she gets time off, it just proves that the judicial system is a major joke. Personally, I have no sympathy for her because she seems to think that she's above the law. Normally I wouldn't even bother giving her the time of day, but for once, it's good to see that the law is taking appropriate action on this "wannabe princess." Quote Hilton will 'serve the remainder of her sentence' 6/2/2007 Making Flash files from videoI found this today whilst researching how to convert video files into Flash format. Very useful for noobs like me.
Check out WWW FAQs: How do I add video to my web site? on Boutell.Com's web site. Smart Americans?You would think that with the vast amount and availability of information that there is on the internet, that people would put that to some good use and broaden their minds beyond the borders of their "little island", but it seems that some people are still content in living in their own delusional world. It just begs the question, "WTF did you learn in school?"
5/17/2007 Apostasy in MalaysiaThis is another ongoing battle that's occuring in Malaysia currently. Many people I know have said that they are surprised that the Malaysian government allowed the screening of this program on pay tv, seeing as how they control all media. However, if you look at the victims, you will see that they are of Indian ethinicity. The government will only ban the program if a Malay person was the victim. Well, such is the discrimination in this country.
5/2/2007 File hostingI've been desperately searching for a site to host my files for free. I've tried a few, but they're all a bit cumbersome. Filelodge was good, but there seems to be a problem with their site. I can't even access it now. As a result, all my files are missing and you're probably seeing a lot of blank spaces around my space. If someone could post a comment for me on their choice, it would be much appreciated. Thanks all. 4/1/2007 Ribena maker squashed after schoolgirl exposeHi all,
It's been a while since I've updated my space. Been busy looking for work and playing PS2 (Final Fantasy XII)!! So I thought that I'd bring your attention to this news article I was sent. All these years I've been drinking Ribena under the pretence that it was full of Vitamin-C. Little did I know that it was only coloured sugar water! Anyway, read the article and judge for yourself whether you want to carry on drinking it or not.
 WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The makers of one of the world's best known fruit cordials were fined by a New Zealand court on Tuesday after two schoolgirls exposed them for misleading consumers over vitamin C levels in their Ribena blackcurrant drink. High school students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo in 2004 tested the drink against advertising claims that "the blackcurrants in Ribena have four times the vitamin C of oranges". Instead, the pair found the syrup-based drink made by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) contained almost no trace of vitamin C, and one commercial orange juice brand contained almost four times more. GSK had paid little attention to the claims of Devathasan and Suo until their complaints reached the New Zealand's consumer watchdog Commerce Commission. But appearing in an Auckland court on 15 charges of breaching the New Zealand's Fair Trading Act, GSK pleaded guilty and admitted its ads may have left consumers with a wrong impression of the health benefits of Ribena. The judge fined the company a total NZ$227,500 (83,200 pounds) for misleading advertising. The Commerce Commission said GSK's behaviour was a "massive" breach of trust with the New Zealand public. "As a multinational company specialising in pharmaceuticals and health products, they should have had robust testing and quality assurance systems in place to ensure its product was delivering what it promised," Commission chair Paula Rebstock said in a statement. GSK told the court it had not deliberately set out to mislead consumers, and the fault lay with its testing methods. "The fact that some of our products had incorrect labelling is to us, unacceptable, and we sincerely regret any confusion caused to customers who feel they may have been misled," GSK said in a statement. The court also ordered the company to place advertisements in major metropolitan New Zealand newspapers to correct its mistakes. "We're just blown away that anything we could have started as a consumer could have blown up into something so huge," Devathasan told Radio New Zealand. Ribena, first made in the 1930s and distributed to British children during World War Two, is now sold in 22 countries. (c) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world. This article: http://news.scotsman.com/latest_odd.cfm?id=469632007 1/24/2007 Malaysia braces for ruling on Islam conversionHi all. I'm back from my holiday. I was doing some more research on Lina Joy, and came across this article. There were varied replies to the article from the website that posted. Interestingly, the majority of respondents were favourable to allowing muslims to make their own choices. We can only hope that this feeling propogates itself to the majority of muslims in this country. That would be the time when we can all say that we are proud to be Malaysians.
Sunday, August 13, 2006Malaysia braces for ruling on Islam conversionBy Jalil Hamid and Liau Y-Sing (Reuters) - Malaysia is expecting a court ruling any day now that could shake society to its foundations: does a Muslim have the right to convert to another faith? A Muslim by birth, Lina Joy decided to become a Christian, marry and raise a family. But in Malaysia, where Islam is the official religion, this is an affair of state, not conscience. The 42-year-old has asked the Federal Court, the country's highest civil judicial authority, to acknowledge her decision to convert to Christianity and is now awaiting a verdict. Whatever the outcome, the decision could pose a headache for a government that is trying to meet the demands of the majority Muslim population and the sizeable minority of non-Muslims. "The fundamental question in Lina's case is whether Muslims in this country can convert?" said political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda. It's a tricky legal question in multiracial, multi-religious Malaysia. Ethnic Malays, who make up just over half of Malaysia's 26 million people, are deemed Muslims from birth. Azlina Jailani was one of them. She was brought up as a Muslim but at the age of 26 she decided to become a Christian. In 1999, the National Registration Department allowed her to change the name in her identity card to Lina Joy but the ID entry for her religion remained as "Islam." Until the entry is deleted, she cannot legally marry outside the Muslim faith. The legal wrangling began when she took the department to court over the anomaly. Joy could not be reached for comment. Constitutionally, freedom of religion is guaranteed. But in reality, conversion out of Islam comes under the ambit of sharia or Islamic courts. And under sharia law, renouncing the Islamic faith is punishable by fines or jail. It isn't an option. 'POLITICAL DYNAMITE' Muslims who leave Islam end up in legal limbo, unable to register their new religious affiliations or to legally marry non-Muslims. Many keep quiet about their choice or emigrate. A court victory for Joy could be explosive. "It's political dynamite. It will create instability," Abdul Razak said. "For decades, the position of Malays and Muslims have been guaranteed. "It will open the floodgates. Now you see Malays are going to convert and the government sanctions that. Definitely there will be a huge backlash and PAS is going to town with it." Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), the country's biggest Islamic opposition party, agrees. "It will be a bad precedent," PAS deputy chief Nasharuddin Mat Isa told Reuters. "It will create some uneasiness in the Malay community. It could lead to demonstrations." The influential Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, the Muslim youth group once led by former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, wrote a letter asking the Federal Court to dismiss the appeal. "Allowing Malays to leave Islam automatically will erode the status, the rights and the privileges of Malays," it said. But a ruling against Joy could also inflame opinion among non-Muslims, who are already aggrieved over what they see as the gradual encroachment of Islamic law into civil society. "If they rule against Lina Joy, the whole question of religious liberty -- the freedom of conscience, choice, expression and thought of an individual -- will be greatly affected," said Wong Kim Kong, secretary-general of the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship Malaysia, which represents about two-thirds of Malaysia's roughly 4,000 churches. But he agreed that a court victory for Joy could spark a Muslim backlash. "This group may sow discord or even create public disorder that will result in greater polarisation of the races and religion in the country," Wong said. For Islamic scholars, Joy cannot win. "If Islam were to grant permission for Muslims to change religion at will, it would imply it has no dignity, no self-esteem," said Wan Azhar Wan Ahmad, senior fellow at Malaysia's Institute of Islamic Understanding. "And people may then question its completeness, truthfulness and perfection." 1/23/2007 Celeb Quotes"I'm an ocean, because I'm really deep. If you search deep enough you can find rare exotic treasures." Ref: © 1997- 2006 ninemsn Pty Ltd - All rights reserved 1/19/2007 Butt joke
12/15/2006 Going on holidayI'll be away on holiday for a while. I'm going snowboarding in Val D'Isere for 1 week, and I'll be in Switzerland for another week. I've never been to Val, so hopefully it'll be a good experience! I've heard lots of good things about it too. My family is going along too, and I'll be meeting up with my brother-in-law for the first time. Hopefully I'll have somewhere in the village to upload my pictures onto my space.
Hope you all have a good holiday season too. 11/6/2006 The Koala and the Little LizardA koala is sitting up a gumtree smoking a joint when a little lizard walks past and looks up and says, "Hey Koala ! what are you doing?" The koala says, "Smoking a joint, come up and have some.  So the little lizard climbs up and sits next to the koala and they have a few joints. After a while the little lizard says his mouth is 'dry' and is going to get a drink from the river.  But the little lizard is so stoned that he leans too far over and falls into the river. A crocodile sees this and swims over to the little lizard and helps him to the side, then asks the little lizard, "What's the matter with you?" The little lizard explains to the crocodile that he was sitting smoking a joint with the koala in the tree, got too stoned and then fell into the river while taking a drink.  The crocodile says he has to check this out and walks into the rain forest, finds the tree where the koala is sitting finishing a joint, and he looks up and says, "Hey you!" So the koala looks down at him and says, "Fucccccccccck dude.......how much water did you drink?!!"  10/2/2006 Husband & Wife being forgetful
10/1/2006 Forgetful
|
|
|
