Just came back from Singapore. According to news yesterday, i understand that their civil servants are getting close to 2 months + 1 month bonus.
But here in Bolehland are going south... Mana boleh!


Thursday November 29, 2007
MYT 8:16:46 PM
The Star

Less pay, bonuses for employees next year

PETALING JAYA: Employees may not enjoy the same salary increase and bonuses they received this year come 2008.

This was revealed in the Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) Salary and Fringe Benefits Survey for Executives and Non-Executives 2007 here Thursday.

Speaking during a conference, MEF president Datuk Azman Shah said this was due to various uncertainties in the global market.

“Increasing oil prices and costs, coupled with business uncertainties in the global market, are making a huge impact.

“Our findings have forecast that both salary increase and bonuses for executives and non-executives may not match that of 2007,” said Azman.

The survey was carried out among 233 companies nationwide who are members of the MEF.

Azman said on average, employees were looking at a 5.74% (non-executive) and 5.69% (executive) salary increase next year compared to 6.25% and 5.77% respectively this year.

“Even the average forecast bonus in 2008 for non-executives and executives is lower by 0.26 months and 0.31 months respectively compared to 2007,” he said.

There was, however, some good news for employees in several industries.

The survey forecast that executives in the construction, banking, petroleum, electrical and diversified industries will receive a high salary increase, as will non-executives in diversified, wholesale, business services, electrical and petroleum industries.

Azman said the survey also found more companies adopting performance-linked wage systems, rather than just focusing on seniority.

However, he warned that a high monthly turnover of employees could be expected next year.

He attributed this to the tightening of markets, more professionals being snapped up by foreign firms and a surplus in foreign workers.

Azman later launched two MEF publications - The Analysis of Collective Agreements and Awards On Terms and Conditions of Employment 2006; and Leave and Absenteeism in Employment (Cases, Commentary and Materials).

It a jungle out there!

Email as forward to my mail box.

Damansara heights ... again (988 radio yesterday news : usj 8 &puchong also)

Dear all,

FYI


Please be careful!!!!

....another one.... and this time the car was just a "PROTON"!

An incident happened last night relating to my brother. He just finished
work at around 1 am and was on his way home. He stopped at a traffic light
and notice there were about 5 motorcycles (mat rempit) at the front.
Suddenly one of the guys came down and walk next to his car. Next thing you
know, he took out a rod and smash my brother's window (damaged as per. pic
attached) intending to injured him and rob him of his belonging.

He was going for a second attempt when my brother managed to step of the
accelerator and sped off. They did try to follow but gave up after a short
attempt. My brother was lucky that the rod narrowly missed his head and
avoided a serious or probably fatal injury.

This incident can happen to anyone...so please be extra careful especially
when you are driving alone late at night which happens quite often during
the upcoming peak.

Creativity = Pure "painful" funs

Now we known why TNB losing money... and why the needs to adjust power tariff.

One clear case of a privatized corporate but still behaving like a Malaysia government department.


Stolen TNB parts used in projects
By Marc Lourdesnews@nst.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Stolen Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) parts are being used in several public street lighting projects in Johor Baru.

Although only one such development has been positively identified so far, it is believed that between three and nine other such projects, each worth between RM100,000 and RM600,000, are also using the stolen parts.

The pilfered parts included concrete poles, insulator piecing connectors and cables.

The parts, installed by private contractors hired by the Johor Baru City Council (MBJB), clearly bear the TNB imprint and are believed to have been stolen from a TNB store in Johor Jaya.

The matter came to light few months ago when the local TNB branch noticed that the projects were using TNB materials.
Furthermore, electricity supply was being connected to the street lights without TNB's permission.

The utility officials wrote several letters to MBJB on the matter but never received any response.

Sources said TNB's investigation and intelligence unit began looking into the issue sometime in September.

Their investigation resulted in a police report being lodged against one of the projects in Skudai on Oct 10.

The report highlighted the use of 10 concrete poles belonging to TNB in the project.

It is understood TNB had purchased the items from a Nilai-based supplier in January last year and kept them in a company store in Johor Jaya.

It is believed that the poles were stolen from the store by a company employee and sold to the contractors through a middleman.

However, it is not immediately known when the 9m long poles disappeared from the company store.

Sources said the modus operandi of the thief was to remove the items from the company compound, and leave them outside, as if they were to be transported to a TNB project elsewhere.

He would then, gradually move the supplies to his middleman, who would sell it to the contractors.

There were suspicions that the theft could just be the tip of the iceberg as the middleman dealing with the sale had previously been arrested in connection with another case involving stolen TNB parts.

He was nabbed at Tanjung Pelepas late last year while trying to bribe an undercover ACA officer to turn a blind eye to his activities.

When contacted, the contractor involved said he had subcontracted the job to someone else, who in turn, had subcontracted it to somebody else.

"We did not know the items were stolen goods until informed by the TNB investigators.

"Only then, we found out that the second subcontractor previously had a bad record with TNB previously."

Seri Alam police, under whose jurisdiction the case falls, said the matter was being investigated and that those involved would soon be called for questioning.

MBJB assistant traffic director Mohd Rafi Jasman, when contacted, said his department was awaiting a report from TNB.



Mohd Rafi added that so far, the city council had only identified four projects with such problems.

Our beloved MP

Our beloved MP plays God in the parliament.

If a member of parliament cannot control his emotion and dictate proper wording, i think it is better for him to quit and stay back. It is a bad reflection of his mentality, up bringing and religion background.

Full report as reported in NST.

Wheelchair remark: Retract that statement

By : PETER TAN for Independent Living Programme for People with Disabilities Kuala Lumpur

AS a wheelchair user for the last 23 years, I am absolutely upset with Jerai member of parliament Datuk Badruddin Amiruldin for telling fellow-MP Karpal Singh that the latter's use of a wheelchair is a punishment from God ("Kar-pal: Lawyer wrote part of judgment for civil suit" -- NST, Oct 23).

Badruddin's remark is an affront to all wheelchair users, implying that our condition is a punishment and that we are all sinners.

I have been using a wheelchair long enough to have experienced many times such drivel from holier-than-thou people. People must be educated that being disabled is one of the things that can happen to anybody. People can become disabled. People can become afflicted with diseases. It is part of life.

Perhaps Badruddin seldom meets wheelchair users. As an MP, he should turun padang and meet his electorate to realise that they include disabled people, some of whom are wheelchair users.

He should be working towards empowering disabled people instead of insulting us. After all, he was elected to serve the people and not otherwise.
I call on Badruddin to retract that statement and apologise to all wheelchair users and the disabled community for such an insensitive remark. It does not matter if he was targeting Karpal.

His utterance smacked of insensitivity and ignorance and has insulted the dignity of all wheelchair users.

---

Uncalled for

THE Society of the Orthopaedically Disabled Malaysia is disappointed with the statement made by Badruddin that the disabled in wheelchairs have been punished by God. The statement was uncalled for.

By ASSOC PROF DR TIUN LING TAfor Society of the Orthopaedically Disabled

---

THE Malaysian Spinal Injuries Association is outraged at the offensive remark made by Badruddin during the parliamentary session on Oct 22. Referring to MP Karpal Singh, he said: "You are no better calling us (BN MPs) animals. You insult people. Now you are in a wheelchair. God has punished you."

Disability is not a punishment from God. Badruddin reveals his insensitivity and ignorance in making such a statement. The lack of dignity and decorum shown by several MPs during parliamentary debates recently is appalling.

Instead of abusive personal attacks on fellow MPs, they should focus on fulfilling their responsibilities to their electorate.

By BATHMAVATHI KRISHNAN for Malaysian Spinal Injuries Association

Lebanonwire, July 12, 2003

The Daily Star

Giving the Koran a history: Holy Book under scrutiny
Critical readings of the Muslim scripture offer alternative interpretations of well-known passages

Scholars draw techniques of textual criticism from those used to analyze Bible

Jim Quilty
Daily Star staff

Moncef Ben Abdeljelil is a small academic, presently pinned between two large journalists. Back to the wall, he is ruminating on alternative readings of the Koran.
“Details I will leave to future study,” says Abdeljelil. “But I think some of the different readings we find will affect the female condition, tolerance vis-a-vis Jews and Christians. Another will effect legislation …”
He reaches for his pipe, then puts it back in the ashtray.
“This is the exciting thing about these alternative readings. We need to rethink the whole legal aspect of what can be drawn from the Koran. I believe this critical edition will enlarge our thinking about women’s condition, religious tolerance, what we call human rights.”
A professor of literature and human science at Sousse University in Tunis, Abdeljelil heads a team of scholars compiling a critical edition of the Koran. The book will publish a number of alternative readings found in a collection of Koranic mashaf (mas-Haf, or manuscripts) ­ some dating from the first Islamic century ­ that had been stockpiled in the Grand Mosque in Sanaa and uncovered three decades ago.
Abdeljelil and his colleagues were in Beirut recently attending a Koranic studies workshop, Modernity and Islam, sponsored by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung ­ the foundation of the German-Christian Democratic Party. The conference brought together scholars from as far afield as Yemen and Germany and approaches ranging from the traditional to the radical ­ the latter potentially quite upsetting to devout Muslims.
The first tentative conclusions published by researchers with access to the Yemeni mashaf reveal that in several cases the organization of the text is different ­ the suras (chapters) sometimes in a different order ­ and that there are differences in the text itself. Because published findings are few, though, it is still impossible to say how wide is the divergence from the authoritative text.
Abdeljelil speculates that, were his small team bolstered with more scholars, the edition could be published in as soon as 10 years. He is cautiously enthusiastic about the project. He has good reason to be cautious.
Since its revelation, the central scripture of the Muslim community has been kept outside history in a way that has no equivalent in the Christian tradition. The Old and New Testaments have been scrutinized by textual critics since the 19th century ­ peeling back the several, often dissonant, voices from various eras that were cobbled together to form the Christian scripture.
For devout Muslims, treating the Koran in this manner is inconceivable. Where Christians generally concede that the Bible was written by men, the Koran is believed to have been handed down from God to the Prophet Mohammed, without human intervention, in Arabic ­ perfect, immutable in message, language, style, and form. The oneness of the Koran stands as a metaphor for Islam’s conception of the oneness of God.
By applying the same techniques of textual criticism that have been used with the Bible, Abdeljelil and his colleagues are giving the Koran a history.
Abdeljelil is quick to note that this project is not the first of its kind ­ European scholars have been looking at the Yemeni mashaf for years now. He would point out that within Islamic heritage there are different readings of the Koranic text. But the impact of the critical edition will be profound.
“In the Sanaa parchments we found a radically different method of transcription, a different way of reading the Koran.
“It could change some sharp interpretations of the text,” he says, “and will lead to another way of thinking about the Koran.
“In Islamic thought today you have fundamentalist projects, all of them fighting against new ways of rethinking Islam. They argue that the Koran doesn’t allow new approaches and interpretations. ‘We can’t change anything,’ they say.
“To fix the meanings of the discourse within the Koran forever is dangerous. This text is embedded in history and has to be reviewed in this light … This project is not only about editing the text but initiating new ways of re-interpreting the Koran.”
Contentious as it is, the Tunisian project was not the most controversial one discussed in Beirut.
Late in 2000 a small press in Germany published Die Syro-aramaeische Lesart des Koran (The Syro-Aramaic Reading of the Koran). The author, a philologist writing under the pseudonym Christoph Luxenberg, has proposed that the Koran as we know it today is a misreading.
Luxenberg asserts that Koranic Arabic is not Arabic at all, at least not in the sense assumed by the classical commentators. It is written, rather, in the dialect of the Prophet’s tribe, the Meccan Quraysh, and heavily influenced by Aramaic.
Luxenberg’s premise is that the Aramaic language ­ the lingua franca of the Prophet Mohammed, the language of culture and Christian liturgy ­ had a profound influence on the Koran. Extensive borrowing was necessary simply because at the time of the Prophet, Arabic was not yet sophisticated enough for scriptural composition.
Though his ideas were very much in play at the Beirut workshop, the man responsible for the most contentious thesis in Koranic studies today was absent. One of Luxenberg’s advocates is Michael Marx, a graduate student at the Free University of Berlin.
“If we understand that Arabic had no scriptural tradition before the Koran ­ rock inscriptions aside ­ if we imagine the Prophet living in a city where Christians and their scripture were present, it’s no wonder that certain liturgical terms ­ salat (prayer), zakat (religious charity) ­ seeped into Arabic from Syriac.
“Luxenberg suggests that even the word ‘Koran’ is Syriac, derived from qeryana, a term from the Christian liturgy that means ‘lectionary’ ­ a book of set liturgical readings. Luxenberg goes back in time to ask the question of what may have happened, why is the Koran as it is? Maybe he exaggerates in arguing that everything can be explained in term of Aramaic.
“But languages don’t die after all,” he continues, “they leave traces. Imagine people learning these two languages ­ there will invariably be traces of one felt upon the other.
“Contemporary dialects of Arabic have many Aramaic substrata. But the languages are so close that the borrowings are unconscious.”
When an authoritative text of the Koran was finally set down ­ a task commanded by Uthman, the third caliph ­ it was done with neither the diacritical marks (the dots) that distinguish individual letters nor short vowels.
Luxenberg argues that by the time Muslim commentators got to interpreting the precise meaning of the text, two centuries after the Prophet’s death, the Aramaic loan words were mis-read as Arabic.
His method of inquiry is a complex one, but basically Luxenberg has read certain problematic passages of the Koran through an Aramaic lens. To a modern eye, his readings sometimes make more sense in the context of the sura. They often radically change the meaning.
One of Luxenberg’s more elegant re-readings comes during a difficult section of sura 19 (known as Surat Mariam, or Mary’s Sura). Mary has given birth to Jesus out of wedlock and, fearing people’s response, has fled her home. Then God reassures her:
“Then he called to her from beneath her: ‘Grieve not; thy Lord hath placed beneath thee a streamlet.’”
Luxenberg is not alone in being baffled by the meaning of this line. Re-translating the sentence as one with Aramaic loan words, he concludes that it should be read: “He called to her immediately after her laying-down (to give birth): ‘Grieve not; thy Lord has made your laying-down legitimate.’”
Another more contentious conclusion was picked up by journalists at the New York Times and the Guardian after Sept. 11, 2001, because it seems to have direct implications for the aspirations of those hijackers, and Muslim suicide bombers generally. It concerns the houris, the angels or virgins whom, it is written, await those who attain paradise.
Luxenberg argues that “hur” are not virgins but grapes or raisins, specifically white grapes ­ which were considered a great delicacy at the time.
Luxenberg’s restored version of the houris lines thus reads: “We will let them (the blessed in Paradise) be refreshed with white (grapes), (like) jewels (of crystal).”
It is a less sensual notion of everlasting life to be sure, but, given that the virgins have always been said to be female, a less patriarchal one as well.
For Marx the most important thing about Luxenberg’s book is that it raises certain questions that ­ for reason of historical circumstance alone ­ have become taboo. On one hand post-colonial cultural studies has come to be marked by political correctness. On the other hand the post-WWII era saw the decline of German as a language of scholarly inquiry outside Germany; since the philologists’ approach to Koranic studies was the forte of German-language scholarship, it has come to be considered old-fashioned.
“In the midst of this,” Marx says, “the question of what happened in the first two centuries of Islamic history was lost.
“These two centuries are a sort of dark age for us. Something happened in the 7th and 8th centuries, but we only know about it through texts from the late 8th through 10th centuries.
“It seems to me,” Marx remarks, “that there’s something questionable about the proposition that the Muslim oral tradition worked so perfectly.”
The Luxenberg thesis is quite separate from Abdeljelil’s critical work on the Koran. Luxenberg worked not with old mashaf but the 1923 Egyptian edition of the Koran. The Tunisians are skeptical of Luxenberg’s conclusions but they support his method.
“As an approach we are not bothered by what Luxenberg has proposed, nor with his premise that there are languages that had an impact upon Arabic. In fact we would go so far as to encourage it.”
Abdeljelil and his colleagues have problems with Luxenberg drawing conclusions drawn from the 1923 text rather than the mashaf. Also “you … have to consider the ‘oral text’ as well (as the written texts) … If you do not do so, you will be unable to make very critical conclusions.
“A third issue is that you cannot talk about … the Syriac origins of words, phrases and so forth, without considering other genres of literature. Arabic poetry for instance. The Koran is a genre of literature and you need to compare the genres to understand how the Syriac and the Arabic languages shared the culture at that time. This is lacking in Luxenberg.”
One thing the Luxenberg and Abdeljelil projects do have in common is that, though scholarly enterprises, they are implicitly political as well.
Indeed, as Marx points out, the issue of deciding upon the authoritative text of the Koran is inherently political.
“The idea of canonizing a text is to close it down. What’s before Uthman (ie before 640-650CE) is open to discussion. It’s a black box … The important thing is, Uthman wants Muslims in the newly conquered lands to be referring to the same text. This makes the political intent clear.”
Inevitably the issue of Koranic investigation too is political. One example of a Muslim response to the present line of Koranic research came in a 1987 paper Method Against Truth: Orientalism and Koranic Studies, an invective against Western Koranic scholarship by critic S. Parvez Manzoor.
“At the greatest hour of his worldly triumph,” he writes, “Western man, co-ordinating the powers of the State, Church and Academia, launched his most determined assault on the citadel of Muslim faith. All the aberrant streaks of his arrogant personality ­ its reckless rationalism, its world-domineering phantasy and its sectarian fanaticism ­ joined in an unholy conspiracy to dislodge the Muslim Scripture from its firmly entrenched position as the epitome of historic authenticity and moral unassailability. The ultimate trophy … was the Muslim mind itself.”
Gregor Meiering isn’t afraid of being accused of cultural imperialism. Meiering, the resident representative at the Near East regional office of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, was the animateur for the two-day workshop in Beirut.
“Although the Foundation has a program, convictions, and an agenda, we usually share this agenda, program and convictions with a local partner who works with us, is interested in the same topics, asks the same questions. They do not necessarily give the same answers but they are involved in a common enterprise.
“This is the case … whether promoting democracy or the rule of law or regional cooperation or in dealing with globalization, economic issues or, as now, cultural dialogue that can be but needn’t necessarily be linked to religion.
“You’ll find that not only are we doing things that other people are interested in ­ in Tunis, Yemen, Lebanon ­ but topics that have already been very high on the agenda in the past.
“There is more of a rediscovery of things in this than an inventing of an artificial Orient that, by consequence, would be dominated by people from outside this Orient.”
Meiering is an unabashed orientalist and a critic of the discipline’s best-known critic. “I very much reject the notion of Orientalism as used by Edward Said,” he says. “I do so openly.”
His main problem with Said is that he looks at the work of two 19th-century orientalists and implicates the entire literature in their shortcomings. He also faults Said for not examining German orientalist work.
“There is one structural weakness to Said’s argument,” Meiering continues, “… Orientalists, he says, produce an image of the east, place all orientals into it and then make it easily manipulable.
“But if it were all just invented, all imagined, why is it that all these peoples have become victims ­ if you would like to see it that way ­ of colonialism? If (orientalist) ideas were completely wrong, how have these countries come to control the peoples of the Orient? There must, then, have been something true in their assessment, something insightful in what they wrote.”
Though engaged in the political critique of his discipline, he regards the re-reading of the Koran to be a banal exercise.
“If you go back into the history of Islamic thought you’ll find that many arguments being raised by scholars today … have been raised by scholars of the Muslim tradition.
“You could qualify the entire effort to determine the genuine traditions of the Prophet from the invented ones as an historical-critical enterprise by Muslim scholars throughout the centuries. (Today’s orientalists) look at their own historical-critical methods as a prolongation of (older) techniques.
“Certainly the fact that there has been such a reluctance on the part of Muslims ­ Muslim scholars included ­ makes the project not only a philological one but a social and political one.”
When pressed to acknowledge that the enterprise has an inherently liberal agenda, Meiering is frank. “I can’t stress too much that the intellectual plays a role in politics and in society. The present situation in this region calls for a renewal of this role.”
Intellectuals, he says, serve a mediating role in society and in this regard (the foundation) refuses to be exclusive in the sorts of intellectuals it deals with.
“In past decades attempts have been made to make progress quicker and more thoroughly by sidelining what was called conservative elements and betting on technocrats and secular intellectuals ­ both by foreign agents and local regimes. No successes emerged.”
At the end of the day Meiering simply refuses to see East-West relations as a dialogue of the powerful and powerless.
“People see globalization as Westernization. But globalization hasn’t been Westernization since the 19th century. The Europeanization of the world is done. We are now living in an era in which the empire has, as it were, struck back ­ rai music and Indian restaurants.”
Devout Muslims might be forgiven if they do not see things in such benevolent terms. Indeed, it is difficult not to notice that, at this particular workshop at least, there was a curious correspondence between Luxenberg skeptics (Arabs) and Luxenberg advocates (generally Europeans).
Similarly the critical edition of the Koran is, so far, a wholly Tunisian venture, its scholars the product of the most westward-looking legal and education systems in the Arab world.
Marx sees the divided response to Luxenberg as less a political matter than an existential one. “Arab Muslim scholars grow up with a different perspective of the Koran because their upbringing with Arabic. I’m less emotionally attached to a given reading because I learned the language much later.
“Acquiring knowledge at a young age is very different from doing so later. It isn’t simply an intellectual matter, but emotional as well. It’s like telling a grownup that his parents aren’t really his parents.”
The scholars agree that their fiddling with the Koran will likely not be well received.
“The popular response will never be positive,” says Abdeljelil. “Even if our project were done by true Muslims in a very Islamic country, people would never accept it because the popular imagination is manipulated by different trends. The massive number of population … believe this text is a divine work that cannot be touched.”
Abdeljelil advocates a sort of intellectual trickle-down theory of Koranic criticism.
“I think this project should first be initiated within academic circles. After that you could bring it to workshops, theses and dissertations. Then, after 10 or 15 years, you can bring it to a broader segment of society.
“If you even talk about the distinction between the mashaf and the Koran, a very obvious idea, people will say ‘He is not a believer.’”
Abdeljelil takes up his pipe again. “Never mind the people. In our workshop in Beirut, a scholar asked us, ‘How can you make this distinction?’”

Copyright©Daily Star

Cops on lookout for paedophile

By The Star Online.

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian enforcement agencies have been alerted to prevent Canadian paedophile Christopher Paul Neil, who was photographed sexually abusing young children in Vietnam and Cambodia, from crossing the border from Thailand.

Interpol spokesman Kristin Kvigne said Neil, 32, was seen entering Thailand last Thursday.

She said anyone who spots the suspect or has any information that could help investigators should contact the local police or Interpol.

Global alert: An undated photo of Neil taken from the Interpol website on Tuesday. He was seen entering Thailand last Thursday. — Reuters

On Oct 8, Interpol issued an alert worldwide after the agency successfully unscrambled an original photograph of the suspect, nicknamed Vico, that had been digitally manipulated to disguise his face.

“Within three days of the appeal, working with its National Central Bureaus around the world, Interpol had established the suspect’s name, nationality, date of birth, passport number, and current and previous places of work,” Interpol Secretary General Ronald K. Noble said in a statement.

He said the information provided to Interpol came from five different sources in three continents.

“Intense investigative support from authorities in South Korea and Thailand documented the suspect’s arrival in Bangkok International Airport last Thursday from Seoul.”

He said security cameras at the airport immigration captured the suspect’s arrival and his photograph had been made public.

Neil is believed to have fled Thailand after several Thai newspapers published his photograph that was posted on the Interpol website.

Interpol spokesman Michael Morran said the man taught in international schools where the sexual offences took place.

“We have not ruled out the possibility that he may have sexually abused other boys in South Korea and here.

“That is why we have asked our counterparts in South-east Asia including Malaysia to be on the look-out for the man and to bring him in for questioning,” he told reporters covering the Euro-Asian Police Cooperation symposium in Bangkok yesterday.

The news can also be viewed at http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/10/17/nation/19188016&sec=nation

Just Be Real

A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage. They were a loving couple and the boy was the gem of their eyes. When the boy was around two years old, one morning the husband saw a medicine bottle open.

He was late for office so he asked his wife to cap the bottle and keep it in the cupboard. His wife,
preoccupied in the kitchen totally forgot the matter.

The boy saw the bottle and playfully went to the bottle fascinated by its colour and drank it all.
It happened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages. When the child collapsed the mother hurried him to the hospital. He died.
The mother was stunned. She was terrified how she was going to face her husband.

When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and uttered just five words.

QUESTIONS:

1. What were the five words ?
2. What is the implication of this story?

Scroll down to read....

ANSWER :

The husband just said "I am with you Darling" The husband's totally unexpected reaction is
a proactive behaviour. The child is dead. He can never be brought
back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the wife. Besides, if only he had taken time to
keep the bottle away, this would not have happened.

No one is to be blamed. She had also lost her only child. What she needed at that moment
was consolation and sympathy from the husband. That is what he gave her. If everyone can look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be much fewer problems in the world.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Take off all your envies, jealousies,
unforgiveness, selfishness, and fears. And you will find things are actually not as difficult as you think.

MORAL OF THE STORY
This story is really worth reading. Sometimes we spend time in asking who is responsible or whom to blame, whether in a relationship, in a job orwith the people we know. By this way we miss out some warmth in human relationship.


Author: Unknown.

Do i know you?

AFTER LIVING in our house for four years we were moving out of state. My husband had backed the truck up to our garage door so we could start loading all of the boxes. Just then one of our neighbors came walking across the lawn, carrying a plate full of muffins. "Isn't that thoughtful," my husband said to me. "They must have realized we packed our kitchen stuff." The neighbor stuck out his hand and boomed, "Welcome to the neighborhood!"

--Contributed to "Life in These United States" by Gwen Moser

Excuse Me

I ran into a stranger as he passed by,
"Oh excuse me please" was my reply.

He said, "Please excuse me too;
I wasn't watching for you."

We were very polite, this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said goodbye.

But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.

Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My son stood beside me very still.

When I turned, I nearly knocked him down.
"Move out of the way," I said with a frown.

He walked away, his little heart broken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.

While I lay awake in bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,

"While dealing with a stranger,
common courtesy you use,
but the family you love, you seem to abuse.

Go and look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.

Those are the flowers he brought for you.
He picked them himself: pink, yellow and blue.

He stood very quietly not to spoil the surprise,
you never saw the tears that filled his little eyes."

By this time, I felt very small,
And now my tears began to fall.

I quietly went and knelt by his bed;
"Wake up, little one, wake up," I said.

"Are these the flowers you picked for me?"
He smiled, "I found 'em, out by the tree.

I picked 'em because they're pretty like you.
I knew you'd like 'em, especially the blue."

I said, "Son, I'm very sorry for the way I acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way."
He said, "Oh, Mum, that's okay.
I love you anyway."

I said, "Son, I love you too,
and I do like the flowers, especially the blue."

FAMILY
Are you aware that if we died tomorrow, the company
that we are working for could easily replace us in
a matter of days.
But the family we left behind will feel the loss
for the rest of their lives.

And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more
into work than into our own family,
an unwise investment indeed,
don't you think?
So what is behind the story?

Author: Unknown. Please alert me if you known the source or original author.
_________

You, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who brag about the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? Romans 2:21-23

Look around us

The Fern and the Bamboo

One day I decided to quit.... I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality.... I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.

"God, " I said. "Can you give me one good reason not to quit?"

His answer surprised me...

"Look around ," He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"
"Yes , " I replied.

"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo."

"In the second year, the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful. And again, nothing came from the bamboo seed. But I did not quit on the bamboo".

He said, "In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit. In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the bamboo seed. But I would not quit."

He said, "Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant. But just 6 months later the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."

He said to me, "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots. I would not quit on the bamboo. I will never quit on you. Don't compare yourself to others."

He said, "The bamboo had a different purpose than the fern, yet, they both make the forest beautiful."

"Your time will come," God said to me. "You will rise high!"

"How high should I rise?" I asked.

"How high will the bamboo rise?",He asked in return.

"As high as it can?" I questioned.

"Yes." He said, "Give Me glory by rising as high as you can."
I left the forest and brought back this story.
I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you........

Never regret a day in your life.

Good days give you Happiness.
Sad days give you Experiences.
Both are essential to life.
Keep going...
Happiness keeps you Sweet,
Trials keep you Strong,
Sorrows keep you Human,
Failures keep you Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing,
But Only God keeps You Going!
God is so big He can cover the whole world with His love
And so small He can curl up inside your heart.


Author: Unknown. Please alert me, if you known the original author.