Where there are friends

Nor and her good friend Ivy

The beautiful view of the luscious greens from Nor's balcony, with the Shah Alam stadium in the background

The steamboat ingredients that Nor prepared

Mr and Mrs Teoh (Ethlyn) tucking in

Iskandar Lim, Nor's husband

Nor's healthy pot of basil

Nor's friends had wanted to take her out for lunch today to celebrate her birthday. But she declined and made lunch for her friends instead. Just like her!

Where there are friends, there is wealth.~ Titus Maccius Plautus

We actually did not see the sun at all for days

The haze keeps coming back around this time of the year. This morning when I drove to the city visibility was poor.

I remember the worst haze we experienced in 1997 when trans-boundary smoke blanketed our skies for days. I remember also at that time my colleagues and I were responsible for organizing an international conference of very senior officials from MENA countries, jointly financed by the government of Malaysia and the World Bank. I had a hard time explaining to our foreign guests that the dark skies they were experiencing was not the norm in our country. Infact all of them who came for the conference left the country without even seeing the sun. The irony of the situation was that my colleague who came back from a meeting in the neighbouring country where the smoke originated reported that he enjoyed clear blue skies and sunshine in that capital city!

We actually did not see the sun at all for days on end and that was a really gloomy, really awful feeling. When the haze finally improved a bit for the sun to be visible, my colleagues and I were thrilled. We came out of the office building during lunch time and literally took to the streets, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman to be exact, and just walked about to enjoy the sunshine... which we had taken for granted all the years.

To Be One With Each Other

Niece Farah's wedding reception on 5 June 2009

What greater thing is there for two human souls than to feel that they are joined together to strengthen each other in all labour, to minister to each other in all sorrow, to share with each other in all gladness, to be one with each other in the silent unspoken memories?

- George Eliot (1819-1880)

Sunrise at PCB Beach, Kota Bahru, Kelantan

Believe it or not! I actually witnessed sunrise only for the first time in my life - at the PCB Beach in Kota Bahru Kelantan. The first 4 pictures were recorded by me at about 6.50 am on 7 June. Then my battery went flat. The next 2 pictures were imported from my sister's camera who was watching the sunrise together with me, and believe it or not, also for the first time in her life!

"Watching a sunrise, we open ourselves up to the beauty that nature creates, knowing it will never repeat itself just like this again." ~ Jake Rajs

A happy family is an earlier heaven

Paid a short visit over the weekend to Brother Tai Keat's house in Kota Bahru, Kelantan, where he had stayed for the last 30 years, with his wife and 6 children. The pictures above are of his lovely house and the sprawling garden which he tends to personally, a testimony of the great delight he takes in his home and family.

A happy family is an earlier heaven- George Bernard Shaw

Laughter can be a powerful medicine

It seems recent research showed that laughter contributes to positve effects of heart health.

Two studies presented at the American College of Sports Medicine's annual meeting in Seattle recently found that laughter not only can reduce stress, which can damage the heart, it can lead to improved blood flow, which can help ward off high blood pressure.

On a study done on a small group of healthy adults it was found that those who watched a comedy displayed improved "arterial compliance", i.e. the amount of blood that moves through the arteries at a given time. In another group who also watched a comedy it was found that there was more dilation of blood vessels. In both studies, the beneficial effects of laughter lasted for 24 hours.

Read the article Laughter Can Boost Heart Health

We are just small persons in an ocean of so many other small persons

I was stuck in a traffic jam along Jalan Sultan Ismail today. Being stuck like that with nothing else to do but wait, I sometimes look around and wonder about the other people I see...those in the other cars...the pedestrians...the motorcyclists... who they are... what do they do... and where they are going? The more I wonder, the more I realize that I am just one small person in an ocean of so many other small persons who have no knowledge of one another. In fact some people say that the earth is just a speck of dust revolving around a small star somewhere in the the galaxy, which in turn is but one small galaxy in the wide universe. So we are merely little specks of dust living on a speck of dust? Humanity is but a speck of dust?

Can we trust the news media anymore?

News media these days are taking sides instead of just reporting. It may be the prerogative of news media and their owners to take sides but in doing so they are undermining the very basis for their existence, i.e. reporting. News media are supposed to inform readers about the issues and events, not sway their opinion.

Just look at our two mainstream newspapers- the way they present the news, they way they frame the headlines to favour the establishment, while giving an unfavourable slant to those they choose to slyly condemn. Then look at Malaysia's two popular alternative online media sites - these had been trying their best to paint the establishment in the worst possible light. In one of these sites, readers' comments which are pro-establishment are classified "lowly rated" and hidden from view.

Can we trust any of the "NEWS" anymore at face value ? I may be too naive to expect the news media to be impartial. Maybe this does not happen anywhere in the world.

Would they give away their wealth like Tun Sambanthan?

One of the first Ministers I had the great privilege of working for, almost 35 years ago, was the late Honourable Tun V.T. Sambanthan (1919-1979), the fifth President of the Malaysian Indian Congress (1955). My work station was a room near the entrance to the office building and he made it a habit to stop by almost everyday on his way home. We chatted about almost anything under the sun, from issues of national unity, to welfare of the estate Indians, to hobbies. One thing we shared in common was rose planting. I had followed him home, to his government quarters house located near the Parliament House, not far away from the office, to appreciate his rose garden which he tended to himself. Whenever he bought fertilizers, insecticides or growth hormones for his roses he would buy a similar set for me and I would do the same for him. He treated everyone in the office like his friend.

Tun Sambanthan, together with Malaysia's first PM Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Dr. Ismail and first Minister of Finance Tun Tan Siew Sin were Malaysia's pioneering political leaders who had worked together to attain the country's independence from the British in 1957.

Although Tun V.T. Sambanthan was born into a rich family he spent all his personal wealth on the MIC and the people who approached him for asistance. It is a well known fact that Tun Sambanthan gave up his fortune for his people.

That was Tun Sambanthan as I knew him, a simple man, a selfless politician, a towering Malaysian!

Can you imagine our politicians today giving away their wealth? The opposite would be more likely. In fact one was caught with his pants down, with his ill-gotten millions in his suitcase halfway around the world!

The self-serving politicians on both sides of the divide today, always conniving and plotting, accusing and counter accusing, spinning deceits and lies, really nauseate me.

Flowers on our walking trail

The Ixora is one of the best known garden shrubs in Malaysia. It loves the sun. In the Malay language the flower is known as Jejarum, which means Needle flower because the buds look like needles. It blooms all year round and comes in a variety of colors the most common being bright red.

Bird of paradise

Lobster Claw Heliconia. It is commonly known as Sepit Ketam in Malaysia.

Yellow flowers on a tree. Name unknown

White bougainvillea. The bougainvillea is a common ornamental garden plant in Malaysia. It seems there are over 250 species of bougainvilleas. It blooms throughout the year and the flowers come in many different colours.

Pink bougainvillea

Adenium, sometimes called the Japanese Frangipani

The Lantana is a shrub like plant. The flowers are in a cluster, shaped like an umbrella. They come in various colors though orange and yellow are the most popular. The plant's hairy thorny stems and rough leaves have a strong and sharp aroma that is almost pungent. It is known as Bunga Tahi Ayam in Malaysia, translated as chicken's droppings flower.

Morning glory

Hibiscus, Malaysia's national flower which comes in many colours, including, white, yellow, pink, bright red, deep red. Called the Bunga Raya in Malaysia. It seems there are 200 species of Hibiscus.

Orange and pink Bougainvillea

Ixora

Yellow Allamanda. The Malaysian names are Bunga Akar Kuning and Akar Chempaka Hutan. It seems that all parts of the plant, including its milky sap, are toxic.

I and Nor take a 1 hour brisk walk everyday, except on days when the weather does not permit. Today I decided to record the images of some of the glorious flowers that greet us on our brisk walking trail.

Whoever loves and understands a garden will find contentment within. - Chinese Proverb

Rest in peace, Maria Amelia Lopez

News about the death of the world's oldest blogger Maria Amelia Lopez (pic on the right), http://amis95.blogspot.com/, aged 97, was in the papers today. Her family left a final post, thanking readers for their support. I knew about her sometime back but unfortunately I did not have the privilege of reading her blog because she wrote in Spanish. Apparently after becoming a Blogger 2 years ago, she became a sensation and her fame even saw Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero drop in for a chat.

I did a little internet search on senior Bloggers and found an article Senior citizen bloggers defy stereotypes. It seems Web logs are gaining a foothold as a new leisure-time option for senior citizens. Joe Jenett, a Detroit-area Web designer who has been tracking the age of bloggers for a personal project called the Ageless Project, said he has noticed more older bloggers in the past two years. From the "Ageless Project" site I had picked several Blogs owned by senior Bloggers, which I found to be regularly updated, and added to my Blog List.

Where are the "Big Truths"?

I came to learn recently that the “Big Lie” is a propaganda technique developed by Josef Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda, and Adolph Hitler in the 1920’s.

Hitler in his autobiography "Mein Kampf" (MY Struggle) defined the Big Lie as a lie which is so BIG that no one would believe that anybody would distort the truth "so infamously". It seems that Hitler was a master of manipulating the minds of large numbers of people. Hitler believed that if you tell a simple lie, people who know the truth will easily reject it. But if you tell a huge, huge BIG lie that is absurdly false people will believe it because it would be too absurd or impossible for you to have told such a BIG lie!

It seems the only way to counter a Big Lie propaganda is to tell the Big Truth many more times than your opponents can tell the Big Lies. Someone told me there are many Big Lies recently in the politically motivated alternative media, but I am still waiting for the Big Truths which should counter the Big Lies.

What are men like?

Men are like ... Weather. Nothing can be done to change them.
Men are like ... Blenders. You need one, but you're not quite sure why.
Men are like ... Commercials. You can't believe a word they say.
Men are like ... Government Bonds. They take so long to mature.
Men are like ... Horoscopes. They always tell you what to do and are usually wrong.
Men are like ... Mascara. They usually run at the first sign of emotion.
Men are like ... Lava Lamps. Fun to look at, but not very bright.
Men are like ... Parking Spots. All the good ones are taken and the rest are handicapped.

Source: http://www.todaysseniors.com/pages/Clean_Jokes_Stories1.html

Nothing much, just thinking aloud on the first anniversary of activegoldengirls.blogspot

When I first started this blog in May 2008, it was done out of curiosity, i.e. my curiosity about the technicalities involved in maintaining a blog. Well...by now I think I already know some of the basics.

When I started making entries I had no planned themes in mind. But slowly I posted items that interest me, like issues involving the elderly since I belong to this age group; cases of child abuse for which I feel a very deep sense of disgust and always wish "if only there is something I could do"; jokes and anything amusing since I love to have a good laugh and tend to google for humour quite often and also my own personal feelings about some everyday encounters or something I happen to recollect from the past.

There are many blogs with political overtones and I enjoy reading them. As a student of History and International Relations, and having been involved in the public service for over 30 years, I have my own views, some leftist, some rightist, some in between. I had been tempted many times to post my comments and opinion on the current political scene, but I think I will keep those as "saved drafts" for the time being. I will keep this blog a light hearted one where I can retreat to whenever I feel like taking a short break from my other activities.

Confucius on old age

Old age, believe me, is a good and pleasant thing. It is true you are gently shouldered off the stage, but then you are given such a comfortable front stall as spectator -Confucius

My personal recollections of May 13

Today is May 13, the 40th anniversary of Malaysia's racial riots tragedy of 13 May 1969. The riots led to a declaration of a state of national emergency, suspension of parliament by the Malaysian government, and the establishment of the National Operations Council to govern the country between 1969 and 1971.

I was in University then. In fact just 3 days before emergency was declared, on 10 May 1969, to earn some extra pocket money, I was working as a polling clerk in a polling station in Brickfields Kuala Lumpur for the Elections Commission. The racial riots happened after the fateful 10 May general election. Infact when I was at the polling station there were whispers that trouble could be brewing in Kuala Lumpur. The polling station supervisor told all his polling clerks to go back home straight away after work and not to linger around. In fact, my Father came around to the polling station on his way back from work and we went home together.

When the curfew was imposed and we were all confined to the house, the exception was my Father who was taken to work by the police in the police 4 wheel drive everyday early in the morning, coming back only very late in the evening. I remember my Mother was always very worried. I remember asking my father what work he had to do. He told me that he was taken by the police to some Chinese areas where he had to explain the situation to the Chinese community. I think probably the police used my Father's services as a translator to reach out to the community in an effort to restore confidence and law and order.

When finally the curfew was lifted and I went back to lectures, even in the University, the Malay and the Chinese students became wary of one another. The normally noisy faculty canteen was unusually quiet for quite a few days. My best friend then was a Malay girl who I had been close to since secondary school days. Even she and me were avoiding each other for a while. I also heard that my friend, Ruby lost her elder brother in the riots and a few weeks after that Ruby stopped attending lectures as her whole family migrated to Canada.

What prompted the worst racial riots in Malaysia's history? I don't think the Malays hated the Chinese neither did the Chinese hate the Malays. Many of us have good friends from different races. The Malays and Chinese could not have suddenly decided to fight. I don't think it was like that. I blame it all on politics and the politicians.