Thursday, December 31, 2009

OUR DARLINGS

Syazwan gets it. He was offered to do a QS degree after completing three semesters of QS Diploma.

He was very excited thinking of graduating at the age of 22 as he accepted the offer.

Suddenly he was very busy getting things ready for the coming semester. At first he was told that he will have to stay outside campus and he was busy looking for a house. In fact he has even paid for the deposit.

Then his friend told him that he will remain in the college. Oh he is so very lucky.

Now he realizes how his co-curricular activities have helped him in this aspect.

Come 4 January he will be joining second semester QS Degree programme. He will have to move to Shah Alam Campus the next semester though. He is not worried about next semester as Acap, his close rugby buddy will be there this semester and is reserving a room for him then.

Acap will be doing Degree in Sports management over in Shah Alam. In Sri Iskandar, Kordi will be joining first semester Diploma in Interior Design.

It looks like them rugby chums will be successful academically after all. Who says rugby and studying do not mix?

Diyana is also ecstatic for she has just got her laptop and internet connection. We are very happy for her for now she gets what she has been aiming for - a legal post in PETRONAS.

Now she is a Legal Executive in Malaysian National Liquefied Gas Company. So very proud of her.

Syafiq has started work over in the KL Tower Pony Ride centre. Last few days he was bitten by a centipede and he had to receive an injection to stop the pain and swelling.

Amalia went to her school registration today. She will start her Form two this Sunday.

LEAVE THEM BIRDS BE

Tears nearly flowed out of my eyes as I saw two beautiful magpie robin dead bodies just outside the gate.

They have been catapulted to death by naughty kids. I was angry, very angry at this unnecessary killings of beautiful birds.

I think I know who the culprits were. I have seen them around a few times, with sling shots in their hands, under trees looking for birds to shoot at.

Once I saw they successfully shot an innocent yellow-vented bulbul. The bird fell down dead before it even knew what hit it. The boys picked the dead bird up and threw it into the drain, just like that, without any feeling of remorse or guilty.

Shooting birds was also my passion when I was a kid. But then I shot them to eat, but not to waste them like that. I choose what bird species to shoot at. I normally shot pink-necked pigeons for their sweet flesh. But I stopped shooting birds as I got into higher grades. I fell in love looking and admiring them instead!

So boys, please stop shooting birds with your sling shot. Stop killing just for the sake of killing. Birds too need to live in this beautiful world of ours.

MORINGA & A STRANGE SWEET-SMELLING FLOWER

My Moringa trees, that I had mercilessly cut last week, have been very busy sprouting new leaves. Now, out of the four-foot stems emerge new lives, very healthy looking leaves, all ready for the picking for making nutritious soup or omelettes!

They had been growing upwards like anything for the past year. They had reached a height of nearly thirty feet before I decided to rejuvenate them. Their leaves have been getting smaller and smaller in both size and density. So one evening, with a parang I went chopping them off.

Well, I have been very passionate about Moringa of late. I was very much saddened by the tragic demolition of nearly 5,000 Moringa trees just planted in Bukit Kajang by a group of marauding wild boars and monkeys.

First the wild boars came and only nibbled at the young shoots. Then they came again, this time they up-rooted all trees to get at the very succulent roots!

The monkeys added to the damage by also up-rooting them.

Back to my garden, last few nights we wre puzzled by a sweet romantic fragrance emanating from somewhere. My wife traced the aroma and much to her surprise she found a strange-looking flower coming out of a plant.

The plant has never borne a flower before and we also have never seen any of that plant flower before.

I will try to post the picture of the flower later.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

GET READY

Tomorrow will be the last day of 2009. What have we done in 2009 and what are we will be doing in 2010?

No, I don't mean workwise. Forget about work for a minute. Get work out of the system for a moment.

Think about yourself for a change. No, I never ask you to count how much money or material properties you have collected over the years. I am not asking you to list down your successes and failures either.

All I am asking is what have you done for yourself? Where are you going, finally?

Are you ready for that day? Have you done enough for yourself to make sure that you get there and not the other place?

Well, I know all these while you are the man as far as deadlines are concerned. You are always on time as far as assignments are concerned.

But what about that day and the hereafter? Have you packed enough goodness for you to be able to enter the place?

Look into yourself tonight. How many more days you have? 5, 10, 15, 20 more years? How many more do you have on Earth?

You are no immortal, like Ben Richards of the Immortal series.

You are getting old. You are getting frailer by the second.

You are going to die any day now. May be not today, tomorrow or the day after..but for sure you are...

You will leave all that you have gathered behind...You will bring along nothing except your good and bad deeds...and may be your good children who will pray for you...your properties that you have donated sincerely...your knowledge that you have passed on...

Get ready! Do not say that I have not warned you...

A SALUTE TO YAYASAN TERENGGANU

Terengganu students are very lucky. They are given monetary assistance (RM750 for a Diploma student and RM1000 for degree) before they register.

Yayasan Terengganu is given the responsibility to do so. They do it very well.

Yesterday I went there for a second time, to get the money for Syazwan. All you have to do to get the money is to fill in the pink form (easily available at YT outlets), get your are's Pengerusi JKKK and ADUN/MP signatures, photo copies of the student's birth certificate and ic's of the student and the parents and University's offer letter.

Parents must be Terengganu folks, of course.

Syazwan received his money twice, once when he was registering for his sDiploma and now for his degree.

What amazed me was the way YT handled the crowd. For me, I just had to wait 40 minutes before Syazwan received his money, in cash!

YT is so brave to keep that much cash in the desk of the financial officer!

A hat off to both YT and Terengganu government!

Monday, December 28, 2009

SDARA 2009 ANNUAL DINNER

What a memorable occassion it was, the 2009 Sdara Annual Dinner. It was held in Puspanitapuri, Putrajaya Presinct 10.

The entire family plus Rohana (my sister in-law and her son) stayed in Diyana's flat for the occassion. Diyana's housemate was on leave, so we made ourselves at home in the house.

My wife and I arrived ten minutes before eight. There was already a big crowd of Sdaras and spouses waiting.

The first person I met was Dato' Rani (retired Brigadier General) who said," Finally I met Dr Azahar in person...all these whiles I just heard or read about you..."

Then Syed Jaafar, our ex-principal arrived. He was still very healthy looking, with matching grey beard and all. Soon he was surrounded by his many ex-students.

Then I met the forever beaming and young 'Ustaz' Saifullah...He came alone.
I did not know what his secret was, but really he looked stunningly young for his age - 55.

Pity my wife, she had to bear standing in one corner as I mingled with my long lost friends.

After getting my name tag, Dr Khairun Nazar, had put Dato' in front of my name...I felt very uneasy for this, really, I meant it.

I brought my wife into the ballroom, my wife to table 12 and myself table 13. Already at the table were Hamidin, Zamri, Hamzah, Wan Shariff, Agil, and Ramli. Then Zawawi, Omrin, Abd Rahman aka Computer, Rahalim made their way to table 15.

Colonel (retired) Razak was the MC for the night. Then YABhg Tun Mahathir and Tun Hasmah arrived. It was very gracious of them two to accept our invitation.

Then came Fisol Abdul, the Doa leader. Fisol, one year my junior, was my very close friend. We have never met since leaving SDAR...

The first person to speak was non-other than Dato' Dr Latiff, our YDP. It was very daring of him to have invited Tun M. You know the political scenario...

Tun M gave a very casual but deep talk. He talked about how Malaysians became what we are now through education...

The night was not to listen to speeches...there will be other fora for them. The night was for us Sdaras to mix around.

With us Sdaras were the Wind Orchestra and Under-15 rugby teams who were this year's national champions. The WO played Gelora as the starter for the night.

Then was Colonel Razak's daughter singing Kuda Hitam....

Dinner was good...thanks to Fatah,the Sdara caterer. There were giant prawn, fish, chicken and beef...

After dinner, I left my table and roamed the ballroom looking for familiar faces and stopped for a chat.

First was Mamat Endut, a fellow Kemaman friend. He broke his hand during a fall.

Next was Hassan Basri, the PETRONAS lawyer and J Sham's cousin. He had offered much help to Diyana when she did her practicals in PETRONAS. I did not recognise him if not for the name tag. He changed a lot since his form one days when we first met many many years ago.

Then I met Sle...my first time in person though we had talked often in the cyber space, our yahoogroups.

Mansor Saat was next. He, and I with many others in the group were involved in a rather emotional and hyper debates or rather wranglings about hadiths...so much so that he was banned for life from the group...
He was sombre and said,'Argh that was a non-issue." the minute I brought up the matter to him...

Faisol now lived in Seremban...he had married a NS lady...In his table was a character that I knew even from afar...He was non-other than Yusuf Kodiang...He outshone others by his silver beard, his cowboy hat and blue jeans and boots...just like him...

Then came Jamal...he ran to me as soon as he recognised me from his table...

There was also Chot...Mansur...

DKN as always was with his camera...snapping here and snapping there...like a real pro photographer...

A junior, Jamaludin or better known as Sedih knew me too...he could still recall how I broke my leg during a high jump...

A long-haired Shuib Samah was very happy to have met me...he told me that he could not imagine how I looked like...we have talked a lot in the yahoogroups...in fact we are distant relative...saudara sesuku...suku Mungkah Bukit...from my father's side...

Rahman Meran nearly lost his temper when I failed to recognise him first time...he looked different from the last time I met him way back in the nineties in Malacca...

As usual, when Sdaras met, we can talk the entire night...we are very nostalgic group...

We left the dinner when it was over...at almost twelve midnight...

Diyana came to fetch us...

It was indeed a dinner worth attending...

Thursday, December 24, 2009

A RAT IN THE HOUSE

Out of no where and never before seen in and around the house, there it was, a rat in our kitchen.

My wife screamed as she first saw something bobbing in and out behind her newly bought stove.

"Aboh, come and see what is it behind the stove."

I ran to her and said, "May be a frog!"

I bent down and took a peek. Nothing. Then using a broom handle I probed into the space behind the stove.

Suddenly the rat jumped onto the stove and straight onto the windows, trying to get away.

It was Rattus tiomanicus, I think. For it was smaller than Rattus rattus, the city rat and bigger than the house mouse.

It quickly ran into the kitchen cabinet and cleverly hid in there. Even the presence of our Stocking did not force it to reveal itself to us.

Only after I left for work I was told that it quietly slipped through the kitchen door to freedom.

Indeed that was the first rat or mouse we have ever seen in the house!

GETTING MORE SILVERY (HAIR)

Yesterday I found a photo of me with jet black moustache and beard. I showed it to Amalia and she instantly said,"So young!".

Yes, just after 15 years all those black hair, moustache and beard are getting more and more silvery with the passage of time.

In fact now, I mean right now, there are more silver than black on my head and on my chin.

The moustache strangely still has more black hair though.

Some people asked me to put on hennae to get them all black again. I refused.

Why should I lie about my age?

Wish I am still here to see all my hair on the head and on the face are silver.

Now I have, once again sport a beard. Just could not take it any longer - the small cuts every morning after shaving.

I am trying to get it long enough so that I resemble more of a professor when I retire in a few months time and start lecturing...ha ha

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A BUSY WEEK

Diyana started her first day in PETRONAS MNLG on 21 December 2009. Her office or rather cubicle is in level 55 Tower 1. As excited as ever, she narrated her first day experience just as I arrived home after a very long day."I'll go for a technical familiarization visit to Bintulu early next year. You know, many things here in MNLG are Greek to me."

Syafiq tore his ankle ligament as he fell down the horse and got his leg dangling on the stirrup. A tour bus driver honked his bus and this caused the horse Syafiq was riding to free-wheel. The driver laughed as Syafiq fell down.

This angered Syafiq who walked to him and gave him a piece of his mind. Luckily a Policeman was there to stop a possible brawl between them two.

Syafiq's foot was put on plaster of Paris and he was given a 6-day medical leave. He then took the next day's bus to Kuantan.

Over in Ipoh, Syazwan was frustrated or rather fed up with his Pahang rugby team's management. He just could not believe how Bulat had changed, from an understanding and motivational coach just a week before, to a dictatorial, blaming and demotivating coach.

The team lost all except against Perlis where he tried the second try. It was expected, he said. What could be expected of a team who had just two days of centralized training and that kind of mismanagement?

The mismanagement started with the way they travelled to Ipoh. There was no bus or van arranged. They had to travel there by private cars!

Then the hotel they were staying. They stayed in a budget and unknown hotel in Medan Gopeng and to make things worst, food was on their own!

As for me, the milk-disposing fiasco was a stressful episode. I had to put on two different hats, the state's and the department's hat. Of course I had to defend the farm's action, but at the same time not to blemish the department's name.

All in all that was one of the busiest week for us.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

WHEN BUDAK SDAR MEETS ANOTHER BUDAK SDAR

Yesterday I received a call from Ismail aka Mak Minah, a long-lost friend from SDAR.

He was in De Rhu Resort for a three-day seminar.

After visiting FIDAF for that pour-the-milk-into-the-drain drama and ECER's Runchang sheep farm, I drove straight to the hotel.

It was strange that it was there too a couple of years back that I re-met another fellow budak SDAR, Zain Rais.

Ismail was almost the same save for his balding head and the belly. Hamzah aka Mejoh Pak Badol was there too. Ismail is the headmaster whereas Mejoh was a teacher.

Mejoh failed his LCE, but through grit and determinat budak SDAR is famous for, he managed to climb the ladder and got himself into a teacher's training college and the rest was history.

We then drove to a restaurant nearby for a late afternoon tea of roti canai and hot nescafe.

We were just like other budak SDAR when we meet. Talking in budak SDAR fashion and calling each other nicknames that we used when we were in SDAR.

Mejoh was a bit excessive in this matter. He reminded me of stories of how I evaded myself from being bullied by seniors. Stories that I could not recall, but to him they were still crystal clear.

Ismail was a wee bit reserved, gentlemanly like.

Mejoh too was planning to take the 56-year old retirement next year.

At 7.00 we departed and I drove back to our Villa Syakirin.

LOVE OUR OWN PRODUCTS

Yesterday FIDAF threw away 13,500 still-good milk down a hurriedly-dug earth drain.

I could not bear to see the product of high investment and hard-work by the management and workers of FIDAF went into the drain like that. I just shied away from the site and let the responsibility of creating awareness among us to love our own product through that special drama to FIDAF MD and staffs.

I know many of us were surprised by the act, but to tell you the truth, it is part and parcel of dairying in Malysia. I have seen in many times when I was in Terengganu, Perak and Malacca. They threw away milk down the drain many a times.

It is business, so they say. But, there is a big but here.

We all talk about patriotism, love our country. Do we really? To be patriotic does not only involve hoisting the Jalur Gemilang on certain days, but also love our very own products, including our milk!

Everyone in the milk industry, be it the great consumers, the industrialists, the milk processors and everyone should have a heart to our own milk.

We all should take pride of our own over and above other countries' milk!

Give due attention to what we drink. Take a look at milk cartons, bottles or other types of packaging and see what is the % of milk inside our own product.

Insist on our own product. Don't just because of profit, we accept foreign products over own own.

Why should we give priority to foreign milk over our own? It does not matter what the contract says. Accept our own milk first. It is sad to know that the opposite happens everytime we send our milk to milk factories. They came up with all sorts of excuses to reject our own product.

We should help our own dairy farmers. Drink more milk produced by them.

Coming back to the big hurrahs last night, as soon as the thing came out on TV3 Bulletin utama calls kept on coming.



First it was from my DDG1. I was driving at the time. I told him what has happened at the PC. He was interrupted by MOA KSU's call...

Then the KSU himself called me what happened and asked me what to do next...

Just before I called it a night last night, Yani from TV3 called for a follow-up. I told her to wait. DVS is going to give a PC as soon as possible.

Monday, December 14, 2009

BRINGING DAD TO HOSPITAL

He had finished his hypertension and diabetes pills for sometimes now. I could not bring him to see doctor for his supply of medicines because there was no one strong enough to carry him.

Yesterday, we brought him to Kemaman Hospital. Syazwan was there to help carry his grandfather. He carried him with ease from the bed into the car and from the car into the hospital's wheelchair.

To my surprise, the registration counter's staff were extraordinarily complying to the boldly written hospital client's charter. Without me having to ask for my father to be given the priority, the two ladies called me and gave the next number to my father!

Soon after that my father's name was called to room 2. I immediately pushed him to the room.

A lady uttered words that made me nearly lost my temper. She mumbled something to her daughter complaining of my father's straight entry into room 2.

I just continue pushing my father into the room and twice gave her a look that was self-explanatory - "Shut up!"

My father's blood pressure was 184/77 and blood glucose was 8.4.

In room 5 my father was seen by a Assistant Medical Officer. We discussed my father's problem. He prescribed a three-month supply of hypertension and diabetes medication.

In the pharmacy unit, again my father was given the next number. Everything was completed before ten! The fastest that I have ever experienced. Congratulation Hospital Kemaman!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

WEIRD LAW-SUITS

The followings are some of the weirdest law-suits I have ever heard:

1. A surfer addict sued another surfer for stealing a gigantic wave in front of him - Judge decision - no go because there was no was to put a price on a wave!

2. A boy with a bad-smelling feet sued his school, his teacher for dismissing him. Judge decision - the school had to reinstate him and the judge asked the students and teachers to close their noses and bear with him

3. A man sued Michael Jordon for looking like him

4. A man sued a paper for calling him the master of sueing. He sued everything and everybody...even the eiffel tower, plato, Guiness book of records for labelling him as the man who sued the most

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

ARE WE ROBBING OUR CHILDREN'S CHILDHOOD?

What were the most memorable moments of your childhood life?

Don't tell me scoring all A's was one such moment! Or being the only one in the class scoring A in mathes!

No, no...we do not remember those moments...in fact we did not even bother to remember those things...

What we remember more were the day we became the school champions in 100 metre dash or we were members of the school rugby/soccer/netbal/hockey team that won the district/state championship or we took part in the school debates/public speaking/drama/singing competition or we went camping/mountain climbing, etc...

Yes, they were all those extra-curricular activities that had moulded us into what we are now, not the academic achievements.

True, you are salute and worshipped for your academic prowess...but for how long? The longest, may be for a week...then people forgot.

But if you were good in sports, people will talk about you for a very long time and everybody try to emulate you or even better your achievement!

I don't mean that we should not aim for a good academic achievement...what I want to stress or emphasise is never to put too much burden and stress on your children to score straight A's and as much A's as possible. It is and never will be necessary and the most important thing in your children's life.

Teach your children how to swim so that he/she will not drown in a very narrow stream. It is always sad to hear people drowned when they were just a few metres away from the shore/riverbank.

Teach your children how to survive in our jungle, what fruits are edible and what are toxic. Teach them how to climb trees, open up coconut to get its water and flesh so that they won't die of thirst or starve under coconut trees.

Teach them all the soft sciences...how to interact with people, how to get their attention and cooperation...how to respect people and how to sympathise and emphatise...

Strengthene their IQ, EQ and most important their SQ...so that they don't commit suicide when their girlfriend/boyfriend left them or over small worldly problems...

You are robbing their childhood by sending them to so many tuition classes hoping that they score as many A's as possible...

Remember childhood is something that they will cherish for long...give them their childhood that they will treasure and use to create their meaningful adulthood.

Look around you, how many of successful people that you know had scored all A's in their UPSR, PMR, SPM and how many of those who had scored less A's had become people who are much better off?

Please guide your children through their childhood, adolescence and adulthood properly. Allow them to choose their career wisely and never impose your unachieved ambition onto them.

Give them your tender loving care and never pamper them too much either.

Once in a while let them face hardship, though we do not want them taste what we had tasted before, so that they will appreciate what they have.

Monday, December 7, 2009

I REALLY HATE QUEUE CUTTERS

As I have said many times before the act of some people cutting queues always makes my blood boiling.

It is difficult for me to remain calm and cool everytime I see cars speeding on the emergency lane as if the road was his and he was the lone driver on the road.

Can you imagine here we were, the well-disciplined drivers, loyally and patiently queueing 4-5 kilometres when suddenly cars speeding on both the left and right lanes and then re-entered the main lane as they approached the bridge.

Because of the badly damaged road surfaces in many segments of the Kuantan-Chukai road, long queues were unavoidable, especially when the road neared bridges. In such cases, only one way traffic was alllowed to use the bridge at any one time resulting in rather long queues everywhere.

THEY PLAYED GUTSY RUGBY

They called themselves CRC...Circle Rugby Club. Why circle? It was their manager cum care-taker 'Bulat' who has graciously teken the six of them into his house, looked after their food, etc during their training and the games.

CRC was actually the spin-off of Salvo rugby team. The other spin-off team was the Bukit Ubi rugby club. All were trying their best to popularise rugby in Pahang, and of course to win too.

Four out of 12 players were ex-players from SMK Gunung Rapat, Ipoh. Like always, our Syazwan called in his rugby chums to play alongside him as soon as the team was thought of. They were Species Padang, Iqbal and Ali.

They all came running to his side to help and help they did when they played their best in the just-completed Pahang sevens open.

The Pahang Open was played in POLISAS ground. It was raining continuously throughout the first day.

The field was turned into a padi field, with majority of the field under water. In that condition, they won all their four games. They beat POLISAS under -19, ILP, UiTM Jengka and Unicorn, Keratong.

We missed the second day. They went to semi-final, but lost to the eventual champions, POLISAS A. It was very good considering they only had a one-week training as a team!

AS expected, Syazwan was also selected to play in the Pahang under-19 team for the Malaysian sevens open in Ipoh from 19-20 December. And from the look of things, he will also be playing for Pahang in SUKMA 2010 Melaka and most probably, SUKMA 2012 Pahang.

Friday, December 4, 2009

QUIET AGAIN

It is quiet again in Syakirin's Villa. With the rain things are quieter, much quieter than before.

Diyana is already in Petronas Training Centre in Bangi. She was excited when she saw the WELCOME PETRONAS EXECUTIVES welcoming banner when she visited the place the night before the training started.

Syafiq followed his sister to KL though he will only start work in his new hotel this 15 December.

Syazwan is now in Kuantan, busy training for the Pahang seven rugby open tomorrow. For now he and five of his rugby chums stay in his friends house in Kempadang. His senior from SMK Gunung Rapat aka Field species, arrived early this morning from Ipoh to strengthen the team.

So now there are only three of us in the house. Life is getting much slower...

Tomorrow, once again I will be the loyal supporter of Syazwan's team in Kemunting field. Hope (though very slim) it will not rain continuously tomorrow...

SHOULD CHIN PENG BE ALLOWED IN?

Being the eldest son of a Police Field Force sergeant, I have personal experience of seeing my father leaving the camp one or two days before Hari Raya to go on duty somewhere along Malaysian-Thai border, not once or twice but a couple of times!

Can you imagine how we felt at the time? When others of our age were looking forward to spending happy times with our parents in celebrating Hari Raya, we were there in the rain sending our father off to some jungles to chase communist guerilla out of our country.

Why couldn't they wait after Hari Raya?

Then there was this tragic incident where Police Field Force men were ambushed by the commies near Kroh way back in 1967/68. At that time my father was also at the border, but I was unsure where exactly it was. Was my father involved in the ambush???

I immediately rushed back to the camp. As I reached the camp I saw a big crowd in the camp's main building. I saw some women were crying. As I approached the building I saw bullet-riddled bodies of men...

"Har...Your father was in Sarawak.." I heard a voice from the crowd. It was my mother. I ran to her and hugged her.

I was relieved. My father was not involved.

There were many other occassions where my father was involved in skirmishes with them communists.

Having recollected my experience with them communists, now let us look at the old man's request. Chin Peng wanted to come back, may be he want to die here.

There are hugh public protests over his request. "He should not be pardoned for his atrocities." "Never allow him back into the country." These were playing high in the print media of late.

Are we too emotional in this issue? Where is our sense of fair play? I remember well how we went all out to smuggle out Musa Ahmad, the then MCP Chairman, and his wife from China. Why the double standard?

If we say that Chin Peng had killed many, then what about the Japanese? They had killed much more and had caused much more sufferings to us, but why we are so friendly with Japan and even had that look east policy?

The Germans, they too had killed many in Europe, but everybody has forgiven them.

I never ask anyone to forgive him. All I say is to allow him to come in and die here. Just give the old man some time to come back...Nobody will feel or lose anything for his comeback....

FOOD, MORE WASTAGE THAN CONSUMED

It is strange that when many people in many countries are starving, we Malaysians are throwing away much of our good food.

Look at the numerous buffet meals that we have everyday, be it in hotels, in wedding parties or in government functions. People greedily collected as much food available on their plates thinking that they could finish everything.

At the end of it, so much good food, may be more that they consumed, are laid to waste.

Even in most homes here, food are still wasted. Just have a peek at domestic waste bins in the morning, you are sure to find much food wastage.

Everybody knows that Islam forbids wastage, even water from the river, and those practising wastage is equated as being friends to Satan, but everybody does not care.

Even in our recent animal sacrifice ritual, did you know that so much protein-rich food are wasted? The digestive tract was normally just thrown away for nobody wanted to clean them nowadays. The chore is just too cumbersome to most of us, but when they go to numerous food stalls, they really like tripe soup (sup perut!) and do not mind paying for it..

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

REMEMBERING SREBRINICA ETHNIC CLEANSING VICTIMS

I was shocked to see how people could kill people just because they were of different religious beliefs. I just could not believe how former neighbours and friends turned into blood-thirsty savages.

I am talking about the Srebrenica holocaust. For the past week I have been watching the Discovery programme over and over again just to try to grasp the mass killing.

Various huge graves were discovered all over the country by the UN investigating team. Hundreds of bodies were unearthed and identified. In the clothing of many they found miniature Qurans indicating that they were mostly Muslims.

From a surviving victim who had played dead and lived with the dead bodies for 48 hours in an abandoned factory, a grim mass killing was reported. The starving Bosnian Muslims were herded lke animals into the factory.

Then they fired grenades and machine guns into the sardine-packed Bosnians. Remains of blood drippings and human tissues were still there on the walls. When all were killed they used bulldozers to scoop up the dead bodies and brought to several graves to be buried.

The investigators found many of the long bones of the victims cut by the bulldozers. Concrete chips were also found among the dead bodies - vital evidence of the mass killing in the factory.

Sadly, US spy planes had caught the Serbs doing the horrendous war crimes on films but did nothing to stop it, till very late.

In Srebrenica mosques were destroyed and so were Muslims.

It was not only the Serbian military who did the killings, the police, the para-military and even some Serbian villagers, civilians were also involved in the brutal murders.