And you call me a hippie...

Remember reading Peter Pan and about the Little Lost Boys and the Indians?
[Ish. Why do they call them Indians when that was just because Columbus had a really bad sense of direction?]
Anyway, sidetracking. New photographs have emerged of previously undiscovered tribes in the Amazon.

Can be found at Survival International

It's just so foreign in this day and age. There are still people untouched by modernity!
And gosh, if you'd shown me personally I would've called it a spoof and a still from a movie.
I wonder what they were thinking as they saw the aircraft flying overhead?

A great bird?
An omen from the gods?

We'll never know because to tap into their minds would be to lose them as they are. The irony of conservation is sometimes the best thing you can do is nothing at all.

But still, there's a whole lot of world out there - even in this networked, international day and age.
Inspiration for the imagination.

Internet Superstars!

For a long time I thought that all MTV showed was tits, arse and utter rubbish.
Well, it is mostly rubbish, but for the first time in a long time, it was rubbish i liked!
They were showing the Top 40 Internet Superstars (gawd, i've degenerated [or evolved?] into such a geek. Aaron, i blame you)

Anyway, they had the staples of OK Go



The Chinese Backstreet Boys



The Diet Coke and Mentos fountains



But the one revelation from that program that i think is AWESOME is this 'little superstar'



Gosh that little fella really makes me smile. Hope it does for you too!
Poppin' to Summer Holiday. =)

Inescapable Fate...

This third voice was rather more prim than the first two. The owner of a voice like that would be the sort of person who, before making a plastic model kit, would not only separate and count all the parts before commencing, as per the instructions, but also paint the bits that needed painting first and leave them to dry properly prior to construction. All that separated this voice from chartered accountancy was a matter of time.

~ Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

p. 81 of Good Omens

Image from here

Heehee... I'm sorry my dear commerce friends. (Yes Tishy Poo, this means you) The funny thing is i read this quote out and before i finished my brother was saying 'Hey, that's me!' And then i said chartered accountant and he scowled while my mum let out a good chuckle.

Alright, I shall be the one to say it.
Genius. Pratchett and Gaiman is thy name.

And i am thoroughly enjoying reading Good Omens by the pair of them.

The Continuing Story of Male Chauvinist Malaysia...

So the last post was resolved somewhat happily.
1 article on how school uniforms are sexy blasted away happily by 2 articles the next day saying she was being 'close-minded' and essentially drawing stupid conclusions.

But then you know, you can always count on something else cropping up.

'Teach' Women Polygamy

Due to the high volume of divorce cases in the syariah courts, officials felt that something had to be done to reduce them. Not only would it mean faster processing times but of course we are always happy to have more satisfied marriages.

Noble.

However, I have a slight problem with the execution.

Ibrahim stood up to say that such cases would not stop happening as the population was increasing and divorces were taking place daily.

“Such problems happen because women cannot accept polygamy. From a preventive point of view, what about doing a big campaign so that women can accept polygamy?” he asked.

Ibrahim said women did not understand that when they were pregnant for nine months, or had “problems” when they hit their 50s, their men still wanted to “have fun”.

“So the man wants to marry again, and the wife gets jealous and asks for a divorce.”

Yeah. Divorces are happening all the time because wives are not accepting of polygamy. Why can't they understand their husbands' unlimited sex drive, right?

I'm only grateful that someone stood up in protest, saying a gender approach was very demeaning. And another person called Ibrahim a male chauvinist.

He got the name he deserved.
Except right after that he chuckled.

Asshole.

Forget your Japanese high school fantasies - the Malaysian uniform's coming to town!

Okay, i tried letting it go, but i really am INCREDULOUS that articles like this one are still appearing in our newspapers. And not as a joke, either.

School Uniform Sexy, says group

“The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement.

“It becomes a distraction to men, who are drawn to it, whether or not they like looking at it*,” she said, calling for a review of uniform policy so that it did not violate Islamic ideals.

Munirah said that “covering up” according to Islamic precepts was important to fend off social ills, including “rape, sexual harassment and even premarital sex.”

“This leads to babies born out of wedlock and, to an extent, even prostitution,” she said.

However, the girls themselves also came in for criticism, with the association saying that some used the white blouse to lure men.

“This is the source of the problem,where we can see that schoolgirls themselves are capable of using this to attract men to them,” Munirah said.

*(emphasis added by me)

So let's get this straight.
Uniforms made of a thin material (why, how dare they in a tropical country?!) will attract attention, even from completely innocent men, therefore causing them to flock to these obviously promiscuous school girls and to rape, harass and seduce them into pre-marital sex.
Doh!
Why didn't i make the connection before?
Aish. Those prostitutes wouldn't be where they are now if they had only worn a thicker school uniform. (-_-")

I can see feminists all over the world jumping in their skins.
In my oh-so-modern, oh-so-civil country of Malaysia, I simply CANNOT believe that this kind of language is still being used.
And to make things worse, it was uttered by a WOMAN. How can you possibly lay all the blame on women tempting the men into sin? I honestly believed that we'd abandoned this stance ages ago.

Welcome to regression of the times.

Food for Thought

In Yingxiu, people who had lost everything kept trying to press food and water on
me. One old woman mourning her foster daughter had -- unbeknown to me-- told her husband to prepare me a bowl of noodles while I was interviewing her.

When he brought it over, I tried hard to refuse. Guilt about eating refugees' food was the last emotion I wanted to add to the mix that often threatened to engulf me.

But they were so insistent -- and worried I was rejecting the food because I thought it was dirty -- I felt I had no choice.

I wolfed the noodles down, embarrassed but grateful after 24 hours of biscuits and peanuts. I gave them some money in return, although there was nothing to buy and no one to buy it from.

~Emma Graham-Harrison, Reuters Press

Full story here

Hundreds of Chinese orphaned by the devastating 1976 Tangshan earthquake have offered to take care of victims of last week's devastating tremor in Sichuan, state media said on Thursday.

And more than 300 children orphaned in the Lijiang earthquake of 1996 have donated a year's pocket money.

~Nick Macfie, Reuters Press

Full story here

And here I am wondering about how to save money and splurge it on myself. Just to illustrate my point from the previous post.

Wrangling With Reality

So i engaged my brother in philosophical debate over lunch yesterday. I actually felt pretty good. Is that what being a teacher is like? When you make people think - like really think - about things they never pondered before?

The context: I have read and know of people who go travelling overseas to places that are somewhat remote and definitely not as modernised as the major cities. Many of these people get invited into strangers' homes for tea or a meal or just to chat. Alone. By themselves.

'How reckless!' brother says. 'It's so dangerous.'

Is it really? In our screwed up modernity, we are highly suspicious if someone offers us something. No strings attached.

There's no such thing as no catch, right? But in places where communal living is still a norm, (the few blessed places), i think there's more of a 'what's mine is yours' sentiment. What's wrong with being nice to someone you don't know? We do it all the time through that secure channel of charity. But when it's face-to-face kindness it's a bit more intimidating, isn't it?

This topic has come up before. People who live in the face of bombs and insecurity daily are unfazed by life-threatening explosions. They don't go around crying about how horrible everything is and call every few minutes to check if their loved ones are safe. You simply CANNOT function that way. Danger and risk is a fact of life, deal with it, move on.

We, in our ultra-sanitised, sparkling-white safe worlds have become caged in our own paranoia. What if the food isn't clean? Can i walk out of the house - traffic and kidnappings galore? Someone bearded is on the plane - is he about to blow the place up?

We're fearful of a fear that isn't even there. Meanwhile, people across the globe are thinking about the next meal, the next place to spend the night, the next time they'll be able to get the medicine that's saving their lives.
Doesn't that just put things into perspective?

Picture taken from this site. And i've uncovered a very interesting experiment which is worth checking out. Click here.

I woke up today feeling grateful to be alive. Children going to a normal day-like-every-other school day had no idea that the sky was literally going to fall on them. These children were all younger than me - they never got to experience the joy of uni, of falling in love, of even finishing school. Many of them were the brightest of their county - and they have futures that will remain unfulfilled.

I'm never going to ASSUME that i will live a long and healthy life (although my chances are higher than most) from now on. Life is SO very fragile and you just never know. So, do what you want to do as soon as you can. Don't wait until you've lost your chance.

There is this story where a rich man and a fisherman are out fishing one day. The rich man turns to his companion. 'I really envy you, getting to fish all day.' His companion replies, 'Well, why don't you?' The rich man says, 'I'm just too busy you know. I've got to earn money!' The fisherman asks, 'Why do you need to earn so much?'

The rich man ponders for a while, then answers: 'So that I can afford to relax and fish all day.'

If you're still reading and you know me then i hope you know that I love you! And if we haven't seen each other recently, then it's been too long. Take care, and do tell me if this is thought-provoking. I do so love feedback. =)

Little Boy Caught with Grubby Fingers

The thing about working in an NGO is that I get to monitor the news as part of my job.
But that also means I scrutinize situations.
And then I uncover some things that are just utterly disgusting.

Worse than that Mercedes driver who wove in and out of traffic like a motorcyclist - Bad driving etiquette on a good car. DISGUSTING.

But this, this is just gross.

Myanmar junta hands out aid boxes with generals' names

Myanmar's military regime distributed international aid Saturday but plastered the boxes with the names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise. The UN sent in three more planes and several trucks loaded with aid, though the junta took over its first two shipments. The government agreed to let a US cargo plane bring in supplies Monday, but foreign disaster experts were still being barred entry.

The Associated Press

Sorry for the altruistic crusade. But using the cyclone to pose for publicity photos? Handing out referendum ballots that have the YES box already ticked (nevermind that the referendum is being held during a major disaster)?

Little boy, you've failed in my eyes.

A boy and his dog

There once was a little boy who owned a dog. Now this little boy was very fond of his dog because the dog was a very smart dog, and he would do useful things, like bring in the newspapers and help him catch peasants. You could say he was a helpful kind of dog, and a very pretty one at that, too.

However, the little boy knew that keeping a dog was no easy task and that discipline was key. Also, when you have a very pretty dog, people will covet it and try to take it away from you. This led him to be quite protective of his dog, and he made sure that he knew all the dog's friends. Really though, he preferred if they would all just stay away and leave the two of them alone. So, the little boy mostly kept his dog in a kennel behind his house, where he could keep an eye on it because, as we are all aware, bad influences can come from anywhere at anytime.

One day, there was a heavy thunderstorm, and when the rain had stopped, the little boy found that a large tree had toppled on to the kennel and the dog was trapped underneath. The little boy was distraught.

'Whatever shall I do?' he asked himself.
'If I ask someone to come and help, my dog will know about the outside world where there is no discipline, and he might become a bad dog and not listen to me anymore. Or worse, someone will steal him from right under my nose.'

He thought of how he could help the dog himself, but being just a little boy, he did not know anything about saving dogs. And as he pondered all these things in his head, the dog's breaths were becoming more ragged...
and wheezier...
and wheezier.

A few passers-by heard about this dog who was pinned under a tree, and they felt very sorry for it. They thought that the little boy was quite silly indeed as the poor dog was near-death, so they offered to come in and help. In fact, it so happened that one of the passers-by was a vet! The little boy, tears welling in his eyes, was still so very sure that his dog would be badly-influenced.

"Pass me your medicine kit," he told the vet. "I don't trust you. And I can handle it myself."

So he did.
But even with the gauzes and the medicines, the little boy was still overwhelmed and it seemed like he would need the vet's help in the end. But he was also so very sure that the vet really wanted to take his dog away from him. And, what would the little boy say to the passers-by and his dog if he found out his fears had no basis?


What do you think the end of the story is? Honestly, I don't know either.
I've attempted a simple analogy from my readings in the past 4 days. Work has begun and one of the largest natural disasters since the tsunami has just struck. And could it have hit a less open country? I doubt so.

Cyclone Nargis is, as of today, estimated to claim 100,000 lives and leave over 1 million homeless. This is before taking into account losses from disease and famine (the area struck was once called Asia's ricebowl). And if not death, then think of the remnants of these largely agricultural lives. Most of their homes are still underwater.

All we can do at this point is hope that the Myanmar government will allow international aid to enter the country. The longer they delay it, the more people will suffer from hunger and disease. And help is literally just waiting at their doorstep.

Politics is possibly the most exasperating thing about our world.

Happy People = Good Things

I love how my high school friends still teach me important(?) things.

Headline 1: 'Sex pest' seal attacks penguin
A seal who has obviously not been getting some was seen squashing a penguin of undetermined sex and thrusting upon the poor creature for 45 minutes in an unsuccessful attempt to mate. It is the first documented incident of cross-species rape although it is quite common for animals to coerce females into sex.

Conclusion: It seems that aggressive (and disloyal, if you read the whole article) male animals are more prone to raping. Aiyer.

Headline 2: Japan worker in 780,000 porn hits
A local council employee in Japan was demoted after he sent his computer in to fix a virus and, upon checking his browser history, it appeared that he had accessed over 750,000 pornographic websites in 9 months. His addiction was at its peak in July when he surfed for porn over 177,000 times during office hours. That means:

• almost 10 000 pages a day
• more than 20 pages each minute at his desk

Conclusion: Unmonitored employees with high speed connection can be up to naughty things. Eeee...

There you go. Men seem to be up to no good when they are just not getting any. Therefore, i implore all loyal girlfriends (or boyfriends, whatever floats your boat). Make sure your men are getting some! Sexually frustrated males go around raping poor penguins or surfing for porn at work. Oh my. Too much!
Happy people = Good things

The moral of the story is, all you need is love.