Cowardly Offenders

Hands up, those who received fines and other warning letters from the authorities addressed to someone whom you have no idea existed or not. I see the entire audience responded.

Who are these irritating people? How is it possible that their fines are directed to others who are not even related to them in any way? From my understanding, vehicles are registered to the person following information from the identity card and other documents that you have to have the real addresses of residence like insurance and bank statements. If all these are true, how is it that the vehicle can be registered to another residence? Why didn’t JPJ check in detail? All these discrepancies will be automatically transferred to other authorities such as the municipal councils. Now, I am getting continuous letters concerning compounds from MBPJ about a certain offender who used my house address. These selfish people have put a lot of other poor victims through trouble. Imagine the look on your neighbors’ faces when the authorities come knocking on your door.

When a registered letter which looked like another fine came for this unknown person, I simply told the postman that there is no such person and this has been happening too many times. The good man graciously took back the letter and hopefully, he would alert the sender. It is high time the authorities look into these cases and start investigating. It can’t be that hard to investigate these details and consult the banks and insurance companies if is that easy to buy a car. And these offenders have committed the most transparent identity theft ever. Stop it now and face your own transgressions.

Government As A Corporation

“God gave us such a beautiful gift. Why are we destroying it?” - Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi.

The reason is, we lack people with the right qualifications and the right attitude in managing such cases. We need more people like Datuk Dr. Chua Soi Lek. He is a doctor and therefore, we have the confidence that he is most qualified to advise the nation on health issues. You might question his management skills. The PSD is then responsible to supply him with the proper personnel. For the record, he has done a marvelous job so far.

The point is the government must be run like a corporation. In the business world, once your performance is creating a setback in a department, you’d either be given a warning or you’d get fired. We need to revise the strict consideration of seniority for promotions. I have heard of some government servants slacking when they near the retirement date from their government servant colleagues themselves. We need to recognize that some young people have the better attitude and mind set that is needed. By being tough on performance, there is a 100% guarantee that government servants will immediately cut the slack and we would see a total change in the country inside out, ministers and politicians included.

Back to Sipadan. The prime minister has expressed anger at Chief Minister of Sabah for going ahead with the destructive club house project. In my opinion, there are enough reasons in this issue to severely reprimand him such as a fine, suspension or more severe punishments with immediate effect. He has caused the country substantial loss and in the corporate world, he would be labeled a liability. I urge the prime minister to get real tough on such cases, not only on environment issues but others such as public transport, finance, sports and so on.

It is high time we get the country’s management right once and for all. Let’s adhere to the saying: “When an employee has a problem, the company has a problem.”. Let us get rid of the problem now, before it’s too late.

Love Yourself As You Love Others

Takziah to the Sultan of Pahang and the royal family over the tragedy yesterday.

It must be realized that this sort of event has become more rampant in every strata of society. We need to check with ourselves again.

Everyone knows the saying: Love others as you love yourselves. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The problem arises when the “Love others” part overshadows the “love yourselves” section.

We care for one another; sibling to sibling, parents to children, spouse to spouse, bosses to employees, and many more. However, are we caring for others until we sideline ourselves? Most commonly, married working adults have a tendency to stop caring for themselves at a certain point. They have too many worries blanketing their lives that they don’t have time to spare for themselves. The work becomes mundane, family life becomes a routine, friends become just names written in the contact book, and they themselves become a machine just living out their lifespan.

Strangely, loving others doesn’t always mean having a happy time or having a compassionate moment. Sometimes it means that you care more about what others feel and think about you. In recent years, we hear of many suicide cases. We have no right to judge them, but there might be some element of inferiority complex and it seems that worrying about people’s perspective on one-self is one of the main causes of depression.

Life is too short to let those worries overcome you. We must try to look at things at a different perspective and of course, positively. Respect your responsibilities at work and when it becomes mundane, make it a fresh goal everyday to conquer your objective and reward yourself at the end of the day by doing yourself something nice like getting a warm cup of superb, thick Milo, lying lazily on the softest couch you can find and soak in a foam bath while letting go of everything on your mind. Even five minutes of pure release of your mind will do wonders. Keep your health in check. Look at your body as a home which you will be living in for the rest of your life. Don’t overeat or under eat when stressed or angry. Don’t take out anger on anyone. Everyone has their own set of problems and if you truly love them, don’t add more problems to them. And don’t ever take drugs. All these are masks and weapons that the devil uses against us to hide the truth and this is dangerous. Instead, find a reason not to get overcome by these negative emotions. Always find a positive side to every situation, with discretion.

Everyone is special with individual abilities. Look for it in yourself and unleash that potential. Make yourself happy and the happiness will radiate from the inside out. If you don’t love yourself, how are you going to love others?

Working on Marriage, the Positive Outlook

An episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” last year had discussed a point which struck me and had never left my mind. It featured Reese Witherspoon, a respected actress on-screen and an even more respected person as well as a devoted wife and mother off-screen. At such a young age, Reese and her husband had had understood the importance of constantly working on their marriage and they have been very open for counseling and going for therapy.

Reese made a point: “In what capacity is working on your marriage a bad thing?” . We have this perception that whenever a couple goes for therapy, they had to have problems. This has caused many people to avoid going for advice or getting some help just to avoid embarrassment. As a result, we have seen divorce rates rocketing sky high at alarming rates. We don’t have to wait until problems arise before getting help. We should in fact get advice on how to tackle problems or conflict before they even happen, should the need arise.

The point here is, we should get advice on spicing up marriages and relationships as well as proper financial and family planning for the better of the future. This is the positive perspective of the term “working on your marriage”. Reese also stressed that “marriage is like a journey”, a spiritual journey where two people come together, stay together and grow together in love, respect, compassion, and support for one another. We can’t profess that we are perfect persons, having perfect relationships, think that everything will work out and we don’t have to do anything about it because inevitably, there will be the ups and downs of life. But with good values instilled with the help of effective counseling and advice; we can avoid conflicts and other complications. Better still, we should have in fact understood what having a life partner means before even getting a life partner.

We don’t have to be power earners to pay psychologists exorbitant fees for advice. We could simply talk and discuss with family members, friends, and pastors, go to free marriage clinics organized by many religious organizations like churches where sometimes psychologists do take part in, or even start by opening up ourselves to our spouses. Open up your heart and mind, and do not let the views of the world affect you. You are doing yourselves a righteous thing and there is definitely nothing wrong and shameful in doing so. Ignore the jeers and gossips; these are from the people who do not have to courage to improve on themselves.

Let us end the existence of the word “divorce” once and for all. Therefore, start the healthy practice of constantly working on your marriage and relationships right now.

Notice

For the record to readers, contents written to blog.thestar.com.my by drinkingcocoa is from me, Jien Han of drinkingcocoa.blogspot.com . Thank you . =)

Problem

We have a problem

Condolences to the tsunami victims and their families in Java. Killer waves strike again, even though they are of a smaller scale. The question is, what happened to the alrm system? Many countries had pledged to install the system which is vital to Indonesia which is sitting on a huge fault line? The reported reason was they had not enough funds to install more bouys. And the two bouys in service are now destroyed. This is an issue of laziness and half-heartedness of man. We think that lightning couldn't strike the same place twice. We must realise that the world is changing, no matter what we think. Monsoons are getting erratic, lightning is killing people at an abnormal rate, hurricanes are getting wilder, earth plates are moving faster, and some migratory animals have shown some disturbances. It looks like we are too comfortable with the knowledge that we have the technologu to survive anything. That is the biggest mistake. Do you think that the movie "The Day After Tommorow" is just for creating hype? It is made to be a public awakening. Scientists have been monitoring the North Atlantic Current. It has been proven that the Ice Age of the Nothern Hemisphere is going to happen if the current shuts down. Subtle things like this causes great disasters. And when it happens we blame our Mother Nature for being cruel. The truth is, She is trying to get earth to stabilise and heal itself again. We are supposed to be guardians of the earth. And yet, there are some countries which still refuses to sign the Kyoto Agreement just because of the threat to their economy. They said," no petrol, no money.". And they are the ones with alternative fuel technology which they are unwilling release for furthur improvement. Come to think of it, why punish Microsoft when the impact of these misdeeds are life threatening?

Back to Indonesia. All those who offered help, please walk the talk. By not doing so, it is basically manslaughter because it is intentionally witholding available and necessary help to avoid death of human beings. However, Indonesia must not keep quiet too. They should put foward requests and also try to figure out other plans for the sake of it's people. Is it about money and profits? What is money but pieces of paper if it's not used. It's time we look at each other as just variations of a single race which dominates the planet and realise that we are the only ones who have the power to change everything for the better.

Think about that.

We're Not That Poor.

MYR490 million.

What can we do with it? Let's see, build better ports, furthur improve the public transport, give more scholarships to students, national financial investments, improve on electricity production equipment, repair dilipadet schools, repair hospitals, upgrade police equipment, build rubbish incinerators, build alternative fuel research and production facilities, clean up beaches, conserve nature, build proper roads and safer bridges, expand telephone coverage natiowide, canvas the nationwith broadband connections, give much-needed bonuses to government servants, build or import alternative fuel vehicles technology, start a social security system, upgrade social health, proper geriatric care, get more improved and up to date equipment for hospitals, improve RTM, improve Astro, solve flash flood problems, and solve KLIA's taxi problems.

How about a sports center in London? Do we NEED it? Think about it. History will repeat itself: Remember, remember, the E-Village disaster.

Super Man

A Nerve of Steel

Image from: eclipsemagazine.com

hmm, is Superman supposed to be the upholder of morality in the world? He is supposed to be a role model to every living soul who has seen his movies and read his stories. But now, after 5 years of leaving Lois, he is a father. And Lois? She is married to another guy, and she is a mom. A mom to......Superman's son! A child born out of wedlock? Is he an irresposible father? Why didn't they use protection? Why didn't Lois tell him about her pregnancy? And she is angry with him for not saying goodbye? These are questions to be answered by yourself (chuckle). Sometimes we need a little complications in relationships to sell the movie. But with children watching this, I can imagine them asking,"Mommy, why did Superman have a baby and he didn't know? Was I like that?". Can't blame them, children live the movies. Careful.

Complain, complain...arrr

Victims of Circumstances

There are numerous fines which are meted out against offenders like speeding and not paying parking fees. Ok, maybe not paying your parking fees is not harming anyone. But speeding? Those people should be jailed after a certain amount of fines. Come to think of it, those who can speed are those who can afford to pay the fines. Moreover, I haven't heard of their licences getting revoked. What happened to the so-called point system by JPJ? Speeding should be classified as 15kph above speed limit. 10kph above the limit is a little tight for overtaking slow cars. Ah, talking about slow vehicles. They put others in danger also. They don't seem to care about their surrounding. They don't look lost and certainly they are not pressing on the gas enough. Ironically 50% of these vehicles are the ones with exhaust pipes big enough for a python to crawl in. Big sound but minute power. Show offs. Motorcyclists? We respect their presence on the road. And the rule of thumb is to treat them as a car. But sometimes, they crawl slower than a heavy laden lorry on a straight stretch! Worse still, they are in the middle of the lane and sometimes to the right of the slower lane. How do they expect us to overtake them without grazing them? And when we do, it's always our fault...