See, I’m currently extremely restless and frustrated.

I need to figure a couple of things out but I’m nowhere near the answer(s). But that’s nothing new.

I need a pillar, something sturdy to lean on. But it seems quite elusive.

So I guess I have to go it on my own. As always.

Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. In the end, it’s just me and myself.

Maybe I’m selfish. Maybe I need to grow up. Maybe I need a kick in the butt. Maybe I should’ve done that. Maybe I should’ve done this. But the maybes never end, do they?

Great… back to square one.

Duh.

I was thinking…

Since we’re such a multi-racial, multi-religious country (as what our so-called leaders claim), how come pork is not served at public functions but beef is? I mean, if we respect one religion by not serving pork, why do we not respect other religions by not serving beef? Isn’t that a double standard?

I was thinking about this last week, when the project team organized a lunch the day before puasa started. One of my colleagues (a Buddhist) doesn’t consume beef for religious reasons so during the lunch, which was catered, one of our Muslim project team members mentioned to her that one of the dishes is beef, so she would know. See, if I were in a really generous mood, I’d say that the Muslim colleague was being nice to inform my Buddhist colleague. But in reality, I felt it’s a bit unfair that beef was even served because if we were to cater for lunch or have a lunch outing, if we had even one Muslim colleague in our group, we would go to a halal restaurant or cater halal food. But it’s not the same treatment vice versa.

That lunch observation brought to mind another comment made by my Moral teacher back in high school. She’s a Hindu. During one of our lessons on “Kehormatan”, she was telling us that she’d attended a function once and there was beef in one of the dishes served. Her Muslim friend told her to just remove the beef and eat the rest of the dish, and she found that extremely insulting and disrespectful, as any normal person would. I mean, a non-Muslim would never tell a Muslim to remove the pork bits from a dish and eat the rest of the dish. So why would that differ for other religions?

This post is not about religion per se, but more on how we respect each religion. I am merely just wondering why some religions are proffered more respect than others, if we are in this multi-racial, multi-religious society that we claim to be.

Maybe I am just naive to think that equal treatment can be offered to all religions, especially in a country that has Islam as its official religion. But this is only because it has been drummed into my head in the print media, TV news and TVCs, billboards, practically everywhere, that we are a multi-racial and multi-religious country that respects all races and religions.

Or is this all just lip service? Because I am not seeing it in reality. Just look around you. And need you be reminded of that incident where cows were slaughtered at the Parliament grounds in conjunction with the PM’s wedding. Forget the fact that the Parliament represents all M’sians, all races, and all religions. If they can slaughter cows there, can pigs be slaughtered there as well?

Afternote : I am semi-veggie, NOT for religious reasons, and am ok with people eating meat around me. As long as it is not the meat of endangered/exotic animals and you don’t bug me to eat the meat. Just so you know :p

Welcome back!!! How was South Africa??? Tell tell!!!

Blurgh… I didn’t realize that it is possible to have a clear but confused state of mind. But that seems to be case right now.

o_O

Got this via SMS this morning.

~~~~~

SPCA Action Alert : Handover of Memorandum by SPCA, PETPOSITIVE, and ROAR to stop dog catching competition and establish proactive measures.

Date : Tuesday, 11th Sept 2007
Time : 10:00am
Venue : Majlis Perbandarang Selayang

Come show your support please.

~~~~~

Will try and see if I can get half day off on Tuesday to go for this. But I doubt that the person that I will now be reporting to will approve of my leave on such short notice.

But will try anyway.

It’s amazing what can happen in 48 hours.

I was in training, so I wasn’t at work.

I managed to get sick at about the 36th hour.

And I found out that my boss (MB) had resigned, with immediate effect.

This organization has more drama than your daytime soap opera, I tell you.

To cut a long and political story short, she resigned due to circumstances that were not due to any fault of hers but rather, due to others’ agendas and she decided there’s no point in continuing in this situation.

It’s sad to see how political some organizations, especially the large ones, can get. You know, the way this place runs, it reminds me of a mini M’sian govt. Hah. Everyone only cares about him/herself and they are all busy covering their own asses and looking for scapegoats, at the expense of truth, honesty, and integrity.

It just makes me sick to the gut. And yet we still have people talking about how Westerners are corrupting our values. Hey, no need to look so far! Just look in your own backyard! You want to criticize other people’s values? You have no right to unless you fix your own first.

Whether one is a manager, senior manager, general manager, or even CEO, when one stoops low enough to display such lack of integrity, well, my respect for them just flies out the window.

But then again, this turn of events makes my next decision all the more clearer.

Like I normally believe, things happen for a reason. It’s up to us to look for the silver lining amidst all those clouds.

Oh my gawd!!! I just paid 45 bucks to get the battery of my Tag replaced!!!!

I’ve never paid this much for a replacement battery before but apparently, according to the person at the shop (Watatime), they use Swiss batteries and 45 bucks is the standard price. Sigh… maybe coz it’s also in KLCC, that’s why it’s so pricey?

But I dare not go to those generic watch shops after HE told me that his friend caught them messing with the mechanism of his watch when he went to get a battery replaced at one of those shops. Unless I’m a regular at the shop, that is. But I dun buy watches regularly so I dun have a regular watch shop so I guess that’s why I have to fork out 45 bucks for a battery replacement

~~~~~

I detest the smell of cigars. There’s someone around me smoking a cigar (I can’t see who) and the sickly sweet smell is just making me… sick. Bleh…

~~~~~

Today’s training made me realize that I am holding on to my problems. Before this, I thought that my problems were latching on to me. But I now realize that I’m the one holding on to them. And now I have to learn to let go, coz apparently, problems will find their own solutions.

That takes a lot of getting used to. Focusing on the problem and its solution but NOT WORRYING about it.

:-/

So basically, we all should PURGE our thoughts and emotions when we face problems, in order to free our mind to have better receptors to come up with solutions.

Or something like that.

Am on my lunch break from this 2-day training. The things the trainer talked about, it’s mostly common sense. And the method used to face and address problems, it’s basically what I already do, it’s just put into a written, organized model on paper.

But let’s face it. How many of us even have the time to actually sit down and go thru the steps one-by-one to solve each and every problem we face, whether at work or in our own lives?

We just trudge on, doing the best we can and hopefully we’ll bump into the correct solution.

Oh… wait… I’m supposed to look at problems positively.

Hhmm… will get back to this later. My lunch has arrived

Received via email today from the Animal Network.

~~~~~

Dear All,

Majlis Perbandaran Selayang has openly called for a witch hunt on all stray dogs at its website.

To add insult to injury they are also offering RM15,000 as first prize for capturing alive, presumably for the most number of dogs followed by equally lucrative second and third prizes.

I suppose in this free for all blood sport, maiming, injuring, using any sort of weapon is perfectly fine as long as the dog is still breathing and photographed for “auditing” purposes. They might as well hand out clubs, batons, metal chains and encourage participants to smear their faces with the blood of these dogs as this country has surely slipped into the barbaric ages.

Shocking! Outrageous! Was this barbaric competition something an educated, fairly sane human being actually thought of? Wow! If this is the yardstick of the intelligence of an official in the municipal council, I seriously dread the future of Malaysia.

I appeal to the  public to please bombard the newsdesk of the Malaysian Media with emails and phone calls expressing disgust at this outrage. 

Below are the email addresses you can write to:
editor@thestar.com.my
letters@nstp.com.my
newsdesk@thesundaily.com
editor@malaysiakini.com
editorial@sinchew.com.my
bhnews@bharian.com.my

Also  please sign the petition online to show your support against such inhumane act at this site:

Thank you.
~~~~~

To the municipal council official(s) who came up with this “bright” idea, I wish you to the deepest pits of hell and hope you suffer multiple times what these animals will suffer at the hands of your ignorance and stupidity.

What is the point of claiming that you are oh-so-good-and-pious Muslims/Christians/Buddhists/etc. when you can inflict such cruelty towards God’s creatures?

There are other more humane and proven methods of stray population control if only you bother to do some research and come up with a proper long-term plan. But no, as usual, take the shortcut and butcher them all.

Yup, to the pits of hell to you.