Why MJ IS the King of Pop? See this.

AMAZING!!!

We are the World - Michael Jackson

There comes a time 

When we heed a certain call

When the world must come together as one 

There are people dying 

And it's time to lend a hand to life 

The greatest gift of all 

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We can't go on 

Pretending day by day 

That someone, somewhere will soon make a change 

We are all a part of God's great big family 

And the truth, you know love is all we need 

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[Chorus] 

We are the world 

We are the children 

We are the ones who make a brighter day 

So let's start giving 

There's a choice we're making 

We're saving our own lives 

It's true we'll make a better day 

Just you and me 

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Send them your heart 

So they'll know that someone cares 

And their lives will be stronger and free 

As God has shown us by turning stone to bread 

So we all must lend a helping hand

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When you're down and out 

There seems no hope at all 

But if you just believe 

There's no way we can fall 

Well, well, well, well, let us realize 

That a change will only come 

When we stand together as one 

Heal the World - Michael Jackson

"This is for the Children of the World"

- Michael Jackson

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

Bye Michael... Rest in Peace.

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)
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I was shocked when I heard the sad news this morning.

Despite being the King of Pop, Michael seemed to have a very unhappy and lonely life.

Apparently, Fame and Fortune did not bring lasting happiness for this pop Icon of our time.

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While people might regard him as a weirdo, child-molester etc... which are disputable.

We can never dispute that Michael is a musical genius who brought so much hope to people.

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I was especially sadden when Michael was trying to get back to life (Concerts in London in July, which will never happen anymore). I believe he was trying to make things right, but he was not given the chance. The tabloid had been tough on him.

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Everybody deserves a second chance.

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I like his music, especially

"Heal The World"

"We are the World"

"Man in the Mirror"

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Deep down inside,

Michael is a good man.

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Hope that he will find peace in another world.

Quotes

"Nothing that is violent is permanent"

- Proverb

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"Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors"

- African Proverb

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"Keep your face to the sunshine

and you cannot see the shadows."

- Helen Keller

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"I don't think of all the misery

but of all the beauty that remains"

- Anne Frank

'Yes mum, I'll fight monster' - Charmaine Lim

Some of you must have read about this little gal fighting cancer.
http://health.asiaone.com/Health/Women%2527s%2BMatters/Cancer%2BCentre/Story/A1Story20090614-148379.html
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Such cute and innocent 4 years-old child.

This is her blog:

http://ourfeistyprincess.blogspot.com/

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For Donation:

http://ourfeistyprincess.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-cash-donation-and-pay-pal.html

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Please give her the ammunition to fight the monster.

=)

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+++

The Child's mum is my good friend's cousin and my JC schoolmate.

I do not know her personally, but I know I had met her before (back in JC time).

It must be tough to see your child suffering, and yet feeling so helpless.

I could never imagine the intense pain and frustration.... and may be despair & desperation.

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I sent a note to some friends to spread the news for donation.

It is very heartening to know that quite alot of them responded.

(I am sure there are many more who donated, just that I am not aware)

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I believe that if we are in a position to help, we are already very fortunate and blessed.
We should rejoice about it.

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My friends' actions just made me really happy today.

It made me really proud of them.

It is these acts of kindness and compassion that makes the world so beautiful.

Life is beautiful!

=)

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+++

Side note: My happiness was dampened by a call when I was on my way home. I was angry and bothered by the call. After some pondering, why should I let someone who is unreasonable and unhappy to compromise my happiness? It is stupid and very unwise to be bothered by it.

My anger subsided slowly after rationalising it.

Now, I am not angry about the call anymore.

It will be foolish of me to be angry and allow that call to dampen my mood.

Stop thinking about the trivial bad things in life.

Focusing on the things that are more worthwhile.

=)

Reprieve by Tim Kreider

Another great article taken from:

http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/02/reprieve/?em

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Fourteen years ago I was stabbed in the throat. This is kind of a long story and it’s not the point of this essay. The point is that after my unsuccessful murder I wasn’t unhappy for an entire year.

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Winston Churchill’s quote about the exhilaration of being shot at without result is verifiably true. I was reminded of an old Ray Bradbury story, “The Lost City of Mars,” in which a man finds a miraculous machine that enables him to experience his own violent death over and over again, as many times as he likes — in locomotive collisions, race car crashes, exploding rockets — until he emerges flayed of all his free-floating guilt and unconscious longing for death, forgiven and free, finally alive.

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I’m not claiming I was continuously euphoric the whole time; it’s just that, during that grace period, nothing much could bother me or get me down. The sort of horrible thing that I’d always dreaded was going to happen to me had finally happened. I figured I was off the hook for a while. In a parallel universe only two millimeters away from this one (the distance between the stiletto and my carotid), I had been flown home in the cargo hold instead of in coach. Everything in this one, as far as I was concerned, was gravy.

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My friends immediately mocked me out of my self-consciousness about the nerve damage that had left me with a lopsided smile. I started brewing my own dandelion wine in a big Amish crock. I listened to old pop songs too stupid to name in print. And I developed a strange new laugh that’s stayed with me to this day — a loud, raucous, barking thing that comes from deep in the diaphragm and makes people in bars or restaurants look over at me for a second to make sure I’m not about to open up on the crowd with a weapon.

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I wish I could recommend this experience to everyone. It’s a cliché that this is why people enjoy thrill-seeking pastimes ranging from harmless adrenaline fixes like roller coasters to suicide attempts with safety nets, like bungee jumping. The catch is that to get the full effect you have to be genuinely uncertain that you’re going to survive. The best approximation would be to hire an incompetent hit man to assassinate you.

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It’s one of the maddening perversities of human psychology that we only notice we’re alive when we’re reminded we’re going to die, sort of the same way some of us only appreciate our girlfriends after they’re exes. I saw the same thing happen, in a more profound and lasting way, to my father when he was terminally ill, and then to my mother after he died; an almost literal lightening, a flippant indifference to the silly, quotidian nonsense that preoccupies most of us and ruins so much of our lives. A neighbor was suing my father for some reason or other during his illness, but if you tried to talk to him about such “serious” matters he’d just sing you old songs like “A Bird In a Gilded Cage” in a high, quavering old-man falsetto. When my mother, who’s now a leader in her church, sees people squabbling over minutiae or personal politics, she reminds them, diplomatically I’m sure, to focus on the larger context.

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It didn’t last, of course. You can’t feel grateful to be alive your whole life any more than you can stay passionately in love forever — or grieve forever, for that matter. Time forces us all to betray ourselves and get back to the busywork of living in the world. Before a year had gone by the same dumb everyday anxieties and frustrations began creeping back. I’d be disgusted to catch myself yelling in traffic, pounding on my computer, lying awake at night wondering what was going to become of me.

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Once a year on my stabbiversary I remind myself that this is still my bonus life, a free round. But now that I’m back down in the messy, tedious slog of everyday emotional life, I have to struggle to keep things in what I still insist is their true perspective. I know intellectually that all the urgent, pressing items on our mental lists — taxes, car repairs, our careers, the headlines — are so much idiot noise, and that what matters is spending time with people you love. It’s just hard to bear in mind when the hard drive crashes.

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I was not cheered, a few years ago, to read about psychological studies suggesting that most people inevitably return to a certain emotional baseline after circumstantial highs and lows. You’d like to think that nearly getting killed would be a major, permanently life-altering experience, but in truth it was less painful, and occasioned less serious reflection, than certain breakups I’ve gone through. If anything, it only reinforced the illusion that in the story of my life only supporting characters would die, while I, its protagonist and first-person narrator, would survive. I’ve demonstrated an impressive resilience in the face of valuable life lessons, and the main thing I seem to have learned from this one is that I am capable of learning nothing from almost any experience.

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I don’t know why we take our worst moods so much more seriously than our best ones, crediting depression with more clarity than euphoria. It’s easy now to dismiss that year as nothing more than the same sort of shaky, hysterical high you’d experience after being clipped by a taxi. But you could also try to think of it as a glimpse of grace. It’s like the revelation I had when I was a kid the first time I ever flew in an airplane: when you break through the cloud cover you realize that above the passing squalls and doldrums there is a realm of eternal sunlight, so keen and brilliant you have to squint against it, a vision to hold onto and take back with you when you descend once more beneath the clouds, under the oppressive, petty jurisdiction of the local weather.

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+++

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"Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live"
- Tuesday with Morrie

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Quote

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover."

~ Mark Twain, 19th century US author

Birthday

Today is my birthday.
I never had a huge birthday party,
because it is just not me.
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But,
I kept most of the gifts and cards.
That's me.
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When I received a birthday sms from a friend,
I would take time to think about my relationship with that friend.
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There is nothing significant for me to celebrate my birthdate.
It is not important at all.
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A simple sms from friend/family is a call for celebration.
I celebrate that I have good family and friends.
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I am very grateful for that.
That's worth celebrating.
Thank You.
=)

Title: Brotherhood

(Taken in 2005, Outside Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet)
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This picture reminds me of Friendship & Family Relationship.

=)

The Joy of Less by Pico Iyer

Taken from New York Times:

http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/the-joy-of-less/

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“The beat of my heart has grown deeper, more active, and yet more peaceful, and it is as if I were all the time storing up inner riches…My [life] is one long sequence of inner miracles.” The young Dutchwoman Etty Hillesum wrote that in a Nazi transit camp in 1943, on her way to her death at Auschwitz two months later. Towards the end of his life, Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen,” though by then he had already lost his father when he was 7, his first wife when she was 20 and his first son, aged 5. In Japan, the late 18th-century poet Issa is celebrated for his delighted, almost child-like celebrations of the natural world. Issa saw four children die in infancy, his wife die in childbirth, and his own body partially paralyzed.

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I’m not sure I knew the details of all these lives when I was 29, but I did begin to guess that happiness lies less in our circumstances than in what we make of them, in every sense. “There is nothing either good or bad,” I had heard in high school, from Hamlet, “but thinking makes it so.” I had been lucky enough at that point to stumble into the life I might have dreamed of as a boy: a great job writing on world affairs for Time magazine, an apartment (officially at least) on Park Avenue, enough time and money to take vacations in Burma, Morocco, El Salvador. But every time I went to one of those places, I noticed that the people I met there, mired in difficulty and often warfare, seemed to have more energy and even optimism than the friends I’d grown up with in privileged, peaceful Santa Barbara, Calif., many of whom were on their fourth marriages and seeing a therapist every day. Though I knew that poverty certainly didn’t buy happiness, I wasn’t convinced that money did either.

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So — as post-1960s cliché decreed — I left my comfortable job and life to live for a year in a temple on the backstreets of Kyoto. My high-minded year lasted all of a week, by which time I’d noticed that the depthless contemplation of the moon and composition of haiku I’d imagined from afar was really more a matter of cleaning, sweeping and then cleaning some more. But today, more than 21 years later, I still live in the vicinity of Kyoto, in a two-room apartment that makes my old monastic cell look almost luxurious by comparison. I have no bicycle, no car, no television I can understand, no media — and the days seem to stretch into eternities, and I can’t think of a single thing I lack.

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I’m no Buddhist monk, and I can’t say I’m in love with renunciation in itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I’ve written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn’t want or need, not all I did. And it seemed quite useful to take a clear, hard look at what really led to peace of mind or absorption (the closest I’ve come to understanding happiness). Not having a car gives me volumes not to think or worry about, and makes walks around the neighborhood a daily adventure. Lacking a cell phone and high-speed Internet, I have time to play ping-pong every evening, to write long letters to old friends and to go shopping for my sweetheart (or to track down old baubles for two kids who are now out in the world).

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When the phone does ring — once a week — I’m thrilled, as I never was when the phone rang in my overcrowded office in Rockefeller Center. And when I return to the United States every three months or so and pick up a newspaper, I find I haven’t missed much at all. While I’ve been rereading P.G. Wodehouse, or “Walden,” the crazily accelerating roller-coaster of the 24/7 news cycle has propelled people up and down and down and up and then left them pretty much where they started. “I call that man rich,” Henry James’s Ralph Touchett observes in “Portrait of a Lady,” “who can satisfy the requirements of his imagination.” Living in the future tense never did that for me.

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I certainly wouldn’t recommend my life to most people — and my heart goes out to those who have recently been condemned to a simplicity they never needed or wanted. But I’m not sure how much outward details or accomplishments ever really make us happy deep down. The millionaires I know seem desperate to become multimillionaires, and spend more time with their lawyers and their bankers than with their friends (whose motivations they are no longer sure of). And I remember how, in the corporate world, I always knew there was some higher position I could attain, which meant that, like Zeno’s arrow, I was guaranteed never to arrive and always to remain dissatisfied.

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Being self-employed will always make for a precarious life; these days, it is more uncertain than ever, especially since my tools of choice, written words, are coming to seem like accessories to images. Like almost everyone I know, I’ve lost much of my savings in the past few months. I even went through a dress-rehearsal for our enforced austerity when my family home in Santa Barbara burned to the ground some years ago, leaving me with nothing but the toothbrush I bought from an all-night supermarket that night. And yet my two-room apartment in nowhere Japan seems more abundant than the big house that burned down. I have time to read the new John le Carre, while nibbling at sweet tangerines in the sun. When a Sigur Ros album comes out, it fills my days and nights, resplendent. And then it seems that happiness, like peace or passion, comes most freely when it isn’t pursued.

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If you’re the kind of person who prefers freedom to security, who feels more comfortable in a small room than a large one and who finds that happiness comes from matching your wants to your needs, then running to stand still isn’t where your joy lies. In New York, a part of me was always somewhere else, thinking of what a simple life in Japan might be like. Now I’m there, I find that I almost never think of Rockefeller Center or Park Avenue at all.

+++

Very well-written.

=)

Quote

"Since the flames of anger arise within, they must be extinguished within."

- Stonepeace

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"Nobody can make you angry except yourself.

Nobody can make you jealous except yourself.

Nobody can make you inferior except yourself."

- Boon

Travel: Timor-Leste May 2009

Just created a travel-blog for my short biz trip to Timor-Leste.

http://boon-timor09.blogspot.com

Little Pleasures in life

My 15 months-old niece refusing to let me take her photo.

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Just now, my sister, my brother-in-law and my mum were coaxing my little niece to drink finish her milk. As usual, she would only finish half a bottle of milk and refuse to drink anymore. When the 3 adults tried their luck to "force" (coax) her to drink, my stubborn niece protested by crying very loudly.

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My father came to her rescue and carried her.

He asked my little niece "Who is bullying you?"

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Everybody was looking at each other wondering what would her response be?

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She just said in the cutest and most innocent voice

"Milk! Milk!"

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And everybody burst out into laughter!!!

hahaha...

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She gave the most politically correct answer without offending anybody.

So smart! =)

++++

These are little pleasures in life that i enjoyed.

everyday she would do something new which never fails to amuse us.

those moments are so very enjoyable and priceless...

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Alot of great things in life are free.

Just takes abit of love and care.

=)

Random Pics from my old Phone

Recently, I just changed my phone and uploaded the photos onto my laptop.

Below photos are some of memorable moments taken by the old phone during the past 2 years.

Just want to share:

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1st Row: Grand Mosque in New Delhi, Bodhi Tree where Buddha attained enlightenment, Plain of Bagan in Myanmar, The Bund in Shanghai.

2nd Row: Work in Shanghai, Lunch prepared by a good friend before he left for Tokyo, my niece when she was born, Darjeeling @ the foothill of Himalayas.

3rd & 4th Row: Temple near my old office, walking on the street of SH, Self-portraits etc...

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It has been great.

Grateful to be alive to see and experience so many things.

=)

Book: Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

This is the second book that I bought this year (and I still have not started reading those books that I bought long time ago).

It was good to spend 2 weeks in reservist, as I had lotsa time to read books & magazines. I finished reading this book easily and glad that I purchased it.

http://www.leavingmicrosoftbook.com/

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In summary, John Wood was a high-achiever in Microsoft. He went to Nepal for a trekking trip, while during the trip, he kinda found his calling – to provide education opportunity for kids in developing countries. He struggled between answering this calling and the “bread & butter” needs. He took the plunge (dwindling savings account, breaking up with his girlfriend who thinks differently, uncertain future outlook, long long working hours etc...). It was very heartening to know that there is such passionate, smart & capable person, willing to devote all his time to charity work.

The world is lucky to have such people around.

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A trivial: He ran Boston Marathon with a Timing of 3hrs 4mins despite his heavy schedule as a top executive in Microsoft.

(Respect! Respect!)

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These are some quotes from the book:

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“...How many millions of kids will not have the opportunities I have in life, simply because they were denied an education at a young age? It’s almost like there is this ‘lottery of life’. At a young age, children are arbitrarily deemed to be winners or losers, based upon where they were born.... It is not fair. I think it is in our power to do something about it” – John Wood

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“... I then rationalized to myself, what good are savings if you can’t use them to fund your dream.” – John Wood

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“...We tell the parents, especially those with girls – don’t let your daughters become prostitutes or drop out of school.” – One of the Volunteers

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“... these Kids do not get a second chance..” – John Wood

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“Each of these acts (charity work) is symbolic of the best that exist inside all of us...” – John Wood

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Below was written in the context of leaving his job & dwindling savings, so much so that he could not afford to buy any properties, he had to beg frequent-flier miles from friends etc...

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“...Yes, there were trade-offs, but there always will be in life.... I feel lucky to know who I am, what I want to focus on, and the yardsticks by which i will measure myself.” – John Wood.
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++++

Another Inspiration!

Do visit http://www.roomtoread.org/

Let’s see if we could just do our bit to make this world a better place.

=)

Count my Blessings

Recently, out of the blue, this incident surfaced in mind.

It was end of May 2005. I was on my graduation trip - travelling in China and Tibet. I wanted to go back to Langmusi (A paradise), so I had to spend one night in transit @ Lanzhou – one of the cities along the route of the ancient Silk Road. Lanzhou is the capital city of Gansu Province (one of the poorest province in China - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanzhou), despite its long history, there was really nothing much in the city.

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(Random pictures taken on May 2005 @ Lanzhou)

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As I was travelling alone for that leg, I spent my evening walking aimlessly around the city, trying local food prepared by the Muslim-Chinese, and surfing Internet. I stepped into “an internet cafe” – (well, you know the Chinese standard, it is not the Starbucks kinda cafe), anyway, I checked my email and found that my University last semester result was out.

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I was excited and nervous. I put in a lot of effort during the last semester (despite the fact that I really hated and didn’t see the point in studying anymore – other than getting the college degree). I clicked the result button and I was shocked with what I saw – C+ for my FYP!!! My first C+ for my university result, and it was given to the most important module – FINAL YEAR PROJECT.

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I was devastated and extremely frustrated. I knew I pissed my professor off by challenging him, by going to useful business seminars instead of staying in lab to do experiment etc... But there was no way I deserve a C+. The examiner was commenting that I did a good job during my thesis presentation. I was fuming with rage and felt that it was so UNFAIR.

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I worked really hard for the last semester. In fact, I have no life other than study. While most of my peers were doing 16MCs for their last semester, I was doing 32MCs (and required special permission from the Dean). I wanted to graduate in 4 years like my peers, despite spending 1 full-year in US. I thought of the weekday nights and weekends that I spent in my university lab to study and do this FYP. I spent so much effort, yet, my result was miserable. I was disappointed and very very angry that I was trembling with rage (I think that was my first time).

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SO UNFAIR!!!!

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When I stepped out of the internet cafe, the sky was already dark. I was quite depressed and angry. Then, I saw road-repair works on the side of the road. There was this young guy that caught my attention – he should be around my age or slightly younger. He was perspiring, working hard, shovelling the soil...and his clothes was soiled and torn. It was very clear that he was having a tough time.

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My angry and frustration vanished immediately.

Who am I to talk about fairness?

Has life really treated me badly?

Has life been fair for the young hardworking chap?

On one hand, I felt very blessed to be born in a loving family in Singapore, on the other hand, I felt sad for the young guy. I felt it strongly as I was at the stage of life where i was excited about future, I had lotsa dreams, I just came out of university, I was enjoying my 44-days graduation trip, I already had a job offer from a US MNC etc..

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Then, there was this young chap (around my age) – who was shovelling and working hard at night, seemingly devoid of opportunities and education... It was a sad reality. I hope he would be fine – hardworking people deserve a good life.

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I had been fortunate. Comparing to him, I have nothing to complain about.

My anger was gone instantly.

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It was amazing that perception and emotion could change instantly.

Learn to count my blessing is a great tool to find peace and happiness.

=)

Story about invisible cracks in a glass

(Ajahn Brahm - the monk on the left)

Recently, I went to a talk by Ajahn Brahm again. I have become a fan of his. He never failed to impress me with his wisdom and kindness. Below is my recollection of a story about an invisible crack in a glass told by him.

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There are invisible cracks in every glass.

These cracks are so small and microscopic that they are naked to the eyes.

Some chose to believe it (“Believer”); while some chose to ignore or not to believe it (“Ignorance”).

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For the believer, because they are aware that there are invisible cracks in the glass, hence, they took good care of the glass and making sure that the glass was not placed in a compromised position where it could be broken easily. Because of his care, the believer is able to use and enjoy the glass longer. At the same time, the believer is aware that the glass would eventually be broken, just like any other things in life.

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On the other hand, the “Ignorance” felt that the glass can be used forever and will be there forever. Hence, the “Ignorance” did not treasure or take care of the glass, and abuse it at times. Naturally, the lifespan of the glass shorten and was broken. Inevitably, the “Ignorance” was devastated, as he assumed that the glass is there forever.

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When the glass is broken, just let it go.

Nothing in this world is permanent.

Have the wisdom to let it go.

Be glad that you have treasured it.
=)

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Apply this to your life, your health, your relationship and everything in life.

If you are alive, treasure it while it last.

If you are in a good relationship, treasure it while it last.

If you are in a good health, treasure it while it last.

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When these things in life are gone, have the wisdom to smile – knowing that you have treasured them (That's the best effort), as nothing is permanent.

Learn to let go and make peace.

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One of my favourite quotes:

"Don't Cry When It Is Over
Smile That It Happened"

=)

Mas Selamat

While I rejoice like more Singaporean on the capture of Mas Selamat.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/427691/1/.html
I was surprised that I sympathise him while I was reading the news report. I am definitely no supportor of terrorism.
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To me, it was kinda sad that he harboured so hatred towards non-muslims. Jihad - the idea the holy war - has created more segregations and hatred.
It is encouraging exclusion, and not inclusion.
How Holy can it get?
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While Mas Selamat and his fundametalist JI team felt that they are the holy warrior and protector of Islam, inevitably, they had created hatred in their hearts.
Having Hatred is like sowing the seed of evil.
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They must be thinking how to kill, how to destroy... 24/7
I am really skeptical if they could sleep peacefully at night.
They have no peace in their lives.
It is quite sad to lead a life driven by hatred.
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Peace is priceless.
Peace is a part of Freedom.
They are trapped in their cage of hatred.
How can they be truly happy?
That's why I feel sorry for them.

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(Taken in Eastern Tibet, 2005)

Could you sense the Happiness and Joy of this Tibetan herds-woman?

=)

Why am I a vegetarian (ie. Flexitarian)?

As absurd as it sounded, it started with a weird dream. The next day, I decided to be a vegetarian for a day, as meat reminded me of my vivid dream, which disgusted me. Ever since that day, I had becoming a flexitarian (Given a choice, I would definitely choose to be a vegetarian as long as it does not cause too much inconvenience to myself and people around me. )
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Upon reading more and more about vegetarian – I realised it makes a lot of sense for me and the world. It is a more conscientious way of living – be responsible for your actions.
There is enough information on the web about the benefits of being vegetarian (http://www.vegetarian-society.org/)
(http://www.meat.org/)
(http://www.ime.usp.br/~kon/vegetarian.html)

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Some friends used to me ask this:
Are you a vegetarian because you are a Buddhist or Animals’ Right activist?
My reply was whether I am a Buddhist or Animals’ Right activist is not important. These are just terms to categorise or stereotype people. Generally, I do not conform without rational and logical reasoning.

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Be it for Buddhism or Animals’ Right, the reason is the same.
Compassion for Animal.
We do not want to see animals to suffer.
I do not want to eat tasty meal at the expense of an innocent and helpless domesticated animal.

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My Colleague told me that animals are created to be eaten by man.
Based on my mortal and limited reasoning ability, I do not know about the purpose of creation of animals (That’s beyond my intellectual ability), but I do know that animals can experience pain and suffering. If the animals are meant to be food for human beings, why let them suffer? Why let them go through the pain? This is something that I could not comprehend and could not reconcile.

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Normally, the next question posted would be: How do you (vegetarian) know that plants are not suffering?

I really do not know if plants are suffering or not, but i know for sure that animals are suffering while kept in farms and are experiencing pain while being slaughtered.

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Then, the next thing posted to me would be:

You are not enjoying life – like enjoying the nice food etc... The typical “live to eat” mentality.
I take pleasure and joy in knowing that I am not part of the equation that causes animals to suffer. I believe in “eat to live” – life is not about eating good food, life is way beyond that!

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It has been more than 6 months since I became flexitarian. Not sure if I have the self-discipline and determination to become a Vegan. How long am I going to be vegetarian? I do not know either– may be as long as it makes sense to me.

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I was contemplating if I should upload this post, as it challenges some fundamental beliefs. I might get unnecessary negative feedbacks, but I believe that challenging ideas and beliefs is for the good of the progression of the mind and the society as a whole.

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If someone, after reading my post, decides to eat less meat. I have already achieved my objective of posting this entry. =)

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Some Quotes:

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"What is it that should trace the insuperable line? ...The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"

Jeremy Bentham, philosopher.

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"Our task must be to free ourselves . . . by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty." "Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."

Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel Prize 1921

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"People always tell me that it's useless to be a vegetarian. But, if I can save a single cow during my entire life, I'll be happy."
Bruna Angotti, student

Desaru - 100km Cycling Trip

Group Photo before setting off.

It was a good way to spend the Labour day.

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+++

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There was a point when I was cycling downhill,

the view of rolling green hills of palm trees was beautiful.

I decided to stop peddling.

Enjoying the wind

Enjoying the beautiful view

Enjoying the beauty of the world.

And Soaking-up that moment.

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Then that moment was spoilt,

when I heard a guy cyclist peddling besides me asking me to peddle harder (with good intention) to catch-up with the 2 ladies infront. (yup! that 2 ladies were pretty good, or should I say I am a bad cyclist. haha..)

Well, since "my moment" was spoilt, I decided to peddle hard to keep up.

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Well, sometimes in life,

we need to slow down.

Not because we are lazy or tired.

But Just to enjoy the moment, the present and the journey.

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While it was satisfying to complete 100km ride,

that moment was the highlight of the trip.

=)