Singing Bee

Amazing Performance - Beijing 2008 Olympics

2008-08-10T12:29:00.000-07:00

Beijing 2008 Olympics Opening Ceremony.......amazing performances with spendour

Amazing Beijing 2008 - Olympics Opening Ceremony

2008-08-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

Olympic rings are first formed by fireworks then by lights which are raised into sparkling clusters to represent beauty and romance.

The globe transforms into a glowing golden Chinese lantern. The smiling faces projected around the rim of the stadium roof are pictures of 2,008 children from around the world, photographed over the last year by Beijing Olympic organisers

China is the love child of Chairman Mao and Lady Thatcher, so these Beijing Games will be a battle between Communist totalitarianism and freedom. This was the story the opening ceremony for the biggest and most momentous sporting event in history, as the last frontier of East-West suspicion was finally crossed. The age of Chinese power dawned in a spellbinding and futuristic curtain-lifter which featured 15,000 different types of costume and 14,000 performers, 9,000 of them on loan from the People's Liberation Army.

2,008 drummers from the People's Liberation Army beat drums in a tradition dating from 1600 BC

It was fitting that soldiers should play such a major role. They are everywhere here in Beijing, either to protect or intimidate the city's visitors, depending on your world view.
Bug-eyed with culture shock, we were sucked into the new Republic of Olympia - a £20billion world of majestic sporting architecture inside a giant compound, closed off from the rest of this vast and unknowable land. 'Welcome, World' ran the front-page headline in the China Daily and Confucius himself was rolled out to provide the main greeting: 'Friends have come from afar, how happy we are. All those within the four seas can be considered brothers.' This shameless rewriting of Chinese isolationism for a two-week carnival is all part of the hosts' wish to be an economic powerhouse while remaining a repressive one-party state. If you were a Beijing resident, you were either one of the lucky ones inside the 91,000-seat arena for an unveiling of startling beauty and drama, or cleared off the streets around the latticed structure where the cauldron for a new age was lit after the former gymnast Li Ning had run round the inside of the roof on a harness, and ignited a staircase of flame. It was a moment of sheer genius.

To say these Games would be a landmark in world politics was no idle claim. The ceremony proved it. Steven Spielberg had resigned as artistic director for opening night, but his dream-like visions were apparent in the brilliant orchestrations of the chief choreographer and acclaimed film director Zhang Yimou. Hollywood will study the DVD for years to come and plunder Beijing's visual tricks. Another sign, this, that China believes it can match any country in any department. This was a feast for the eyes cooked not from the books of ancient culture so much as the latest Microsoft manuals.

Sprays of fireworks shoot up from the roof of the stadium in a 20-second burst at the start of the ceremony The lustrous Silk Road unfurled on the floor of the Bird's Nest stadium in a dazzling series of light projections was intended to tell us that Chinese potency is rolling out across our world.

An anti-aircraft gun was trained on a night sky rendered infinitely more photogenic by nightfall. Smog, mist, call it what you will shows less embarrassingly in the dark. With a worldwide television audience estimated at 3billion, China's rulers were paranoid about portraying a poisoned city, suffocated by industrialisation. Representatives from London 2012 must have blanched at the scale of Chinese ambition. Will our high-stepping Pearly Kings and Queens match the gymnastic display by hundreds of Chinese squaddies in white silk outfits?
Can a modest Olympic Stadium at Stratford, East London, compete with the entrails-on-the-outside splendour of the Bird's Nest, which exploded with fireworks at 8.08pm on the eighth of the eighth, 2008? Over to Boris Johnson, when he arrives for the closing ceremony and London handover. Maybe the Tory back benches and a column in the Daily Telegraph were safer bets after all. The Princess Royal greeted members of Britain's 313-strong team, including the 14-year-old diver Tom Daley, set an ambitious target of 41 medals by a government desperate to recoup its £300million lottery investment. London will at least be less propaganda-ridden. The regeneration of the East End hardly equates to China trying to knock America off its perch as No 1 superpower. President Bush, who was present, finally joined the PR war with a belated appeal to the Chinese government to 'put its people first'.

Carnival of the academics: Scholars wearing the bamboo plumes and traditional gowns adopted by followers of Confucius perform movements reflecting his thoughts.

In a speech in favour of religious freedom, Bush voiced his 'firm opposition' to the arrest of dissidents. Quite a change in tune. Three months ago, America's leader said: 'I'm going to the Olympics. You got the Dalai Lama crowd, you've got global warming folks, you've got Darfur. And I just - I am not going to go and use the Olympics as an opportunity to express my opinions to the Chinese people in a public way.' The American hope has been that China would remain a docile market with cheap labour and an isolationist foreign policy. But even seasoned Beijing-watchers have been taken aback by its extravagance and chutzpah. Think of these Games as the world's most expensive TV ad. A small act of American retaliation was to appoint the Sudanese-born 1,500m runner Lopez Lomong as the U.S. flag-bearer. Abducted by rebels at the age of six, Lomong escaped to a Kenyan refugee camp before moving to the States in 2001.
As a member of the Team Darfur coalition who have so angered the hosts with their protests over Chinese policy in Sudan, Lomong was never likely to draw a wave from President Hu Jintao.

Chinese athlete Li Ning, the tiny figure pictured on the right, lights the Olympic flame

Amazing Peacock - A gorgeous appearance

2008-04-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

A peacock in full plumage is surely among the most beautiful and spectacular pheasants in the world. This gorgeous peacock is a larger, higher standing, and brighter bird with a long, straight crest.

Because of their gorgeous appearance, the peacock has long been famous outside of its native countries of Southern Asia and Malaysia, and was kept for centuries by people first in China and then in Europe. The Phoenicians brought the peacock to Egypt more than three thousand years ago. Peacock feathers are popularly used in unique crafts and decorations.

Fashion - Ultra low hip-hugging jeans

2008-04-24T07:35:00.000-07:00

In the long and varied history of fashion, this may be the worst. But these ultra low-rise, crotch-clutching jeans are virtually guaranteed to provoke a stampede from the usual shameless Z-listers best known for flashing their derrieres in public and is worryingly reminiscent of the late-lamented g-string hitched above trousers fad, beloved of the style-free worldwide.

Frock horror: The low-rise jeans complete with bikini bottom are only for the very svelte. Most frightening of all, the ensemble is only held up by an elasticated thong or ribbon. It should come as no surprise that the clothing company behind the bikini jeans is based in Brazil, famed for its hordes of svelte, cellulite-free glamazons.

Unforgiving: The bikini bottoms are held up with ribbon ties at the sides and designers decided to introduce the designs as customers wanted very low trousers - but had difficulty keeping them up.

Travel & Places - The Salt Mines Of WIELICZKA

2008-04-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

Dig beneath the town of Krakow in Poland and you’ll find an incredible treasure.

The Wieliczka Mine is 135m underground and is decorated with hundreds of religious statues carved from the salt. There’s even a cathedral and, if you time it right, you can catch a concert in the Blessed Kinga chapel.

Fashion - Four-legged fashionist

2008-04-20T00:36:00.000-07:00

A fashion show is an event put on by a fashion designer to showcase his or her upcoming line of clothing. In a typical fashion show, models walk the catwalk dressed in the clothing created by the designer and occasionally, fashion shows take the form of installations, where the models are static, standing or sitting in a constructed environment
The catwalk becomes a dogwalk for shamelessly pampered pooches with fashion and jewellery designers creating a diamond dog-collar worth half a million pounds. The mind boggles.

Life – A time to pay respect

2008-04-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

The Chinese seem pretty convinced that what comes to us after life is more life, just like this life, only ghostlier.

They are keen both on ancestor worship, and on the Confucian idea of filial piety, roughly the parent-friendly notion that children owe unquestioning gratitude to their parents. These two ideas, ancestor worship and filial piety, falls on the day known as Qing Ming. It's got such a pretty name because it falls in spring, 107 days after the winter solstice, and 15 days after the spring solstice, usually around April 5th by the western calendar on which the Chinese visit the tombs of their ancestors to remember the dead; a time for the living to pay their respects to those family members who have preceded them into whatever it is, if anything at all, that comes to us after life.

On Qing Ming, they weed and sweep the tombs of their ancestors, pray to the dead, make graveside offerings of food, drink, flowers, and incense for the ancestors' ghostly pleasure, burn representations of bank notes, and paper images of houses, cars, servants, treasure chests to ensure the dead have all they need in the Other World.

The ancestors are given time to "eat" the food offerings, then the living family members gets a chance to tuck in. Qing Ming is also an occasion of having a picnic with the dead and it's just the right time for people to go outside and relax, indulge themselves in the blue sky, green trees, breezy grass and beautiful flowers.

People - Marilyn Monroe

2008-04-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

The most seductive woman of the past was named as Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe ( June 1, 1926 – August 5,1962 ), was a Golden Globe award winning American actress, singer, model, Hollywood icon, cultural icon, fashion icon, pop icon and sex symbol. She is known for her comedic acting roles and screen presence. Monroe became one of the most popular movie stars of the 1950s and early 1960s. During the later stages of her career, she worked towards serious roles and her fame surpassed that of many entertainers of her time.

Quotes by Monroe

I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated and talent is developed in privacy.

Hollywood is a place where they pay u a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul.

Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer. You're gay, you're sick, you're nervous or whatever.

I don't know who invented high heels, but all women owe him a lot.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they go right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart, so that better things can fall together.

I don't mind living in a man's world as long as I can be a woman in it.

Quotes about Monroe

Marilyn Monroe was late for everything – but much too early for death.

Everything Marilyn does is different from any other woman, strange and exciting, from the way she talks to the way she uses that magnificent torso.

She wasn't disciplined, and she was often late but there was a sort of magic about her which we all recognized at once.

Nobody discovered her, she earned her own way to stardom.

If it hadn't been for her friends she might still be alive.

I usually go to bed thinking about something I've learned in my day. Today I learned to never give up, and to always be confident, it helps you to grow stronger and with more and more beauty. But most of all, never sell yourself out because all it shows is a lack in confidence, strength and dignity.

Amazing Bird - It quacks like a duck

2008-04-19T15:40:00.000-07:00

Are you a duck or a drake? Some people use "duck" specifically for adult females and "drake" for adult males.

Duck is the common name for a number of species in the family of birds, are mostly aquatic birds, mostly smaller than their relatives the swans and geese and may be found in both fresh water and sea water.

Most ducks have a wide flat beak adapted for dredging. They exploit a variety of food sources such as grasses, aquatic plants, fish, insects, small amphibians and worms.

The expression "quacks like a duck" is sometimes a short form for "It looks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, it swims like a duck, so it's a duck." The truth is that a duck's quack does, in fact, echo; however, it may be difficult to hear.

Travel & Places - The wooden churches of Karielia

2008-04-19T14:33:00.000-07:00

The Church of the Transfiguration was built by the deeply spiritual residents of Karelia 300 years ago, built of wood without using nails.

The pogost of Kizhi is located on one of the many islands in Lake Onega, in Karelia. Two 18th-century wooden churches, and an octagonal clock tower, also in wood and built in 1862, can be seen there.

These unusual constructions, in which carpenters created a bold visionary architecture, perpetuate an ancient model of parish space and are in harmony with the surrounding landscape. Earlier it was called “subcapital Siberia”, a reference to this region of peaceful birds, blue lakes, bubbling rivers and innumerable islands overgrown with woods.

And it’s well worth taking a sleeper train from St Petersburg to get to see it, if it is winter, you can cross the frozen lake by snowmobile. Let's go.

Money - 6 Ways to Eat Better for Less

2008-04-18T22:37:00.000-07:00

Times are bad and food prices are rising. How can we cook for less? People are moving away from steak and using ground beef. They're moving away from salmon and looking to tilapia, a cheaper fish. Recipes for less-expensive dishes, such as casseroles and chili, have also surged in popularity.

Those cooking trends reflect the fact that food prices are rising faster than a cheese soufflé. But cooking experts say that with the right ingredients and recipes, affordable and tasty meals are just a grocery list away. They offer these six tips:

Plan ahead - Shopping with specific meals in mind for the week ahead makes it easier to buy in bulk and repurpose ingredients, turning Sunday night's roast chicken into Monday night's enchiladas. A lot of folks get in trouble when they don't plan ahead. The day takes longer than expected, and they're ordering out or reaching for ready-made meals, and those are very expensive, The more you can cook from scratch, the further your dollar can stretch.

Do it yourself - Instead of buying a package of grated cheese, buy a chunk and grate it yourself, We pay for the convenience of all these things. Same goes for other ingredients.

Rediscover eggs and beans - Even though the price of eggs has gone up, they're still cheap compared with meat, On the same note, a simple dinner of black beans and rice—plus chopped onion, olive oil, seasonings, and shredded cheese can make dinner for two for under $5.

Go meatless - Cooking vegetarian meals often is a good way to save money. Spaghetti and Indian-style chickpeas recipe are packed with flavour without relying on meat.

Reinvent leftovers - Extra rice can go into a fried rice dish the following night, "That's one of my favorite cheap and good meals, just add celery, bell peppers, shallots.
Certain dishes, such as lasagna, chili, and soups, also are easily made in large quantities that can be frozen or eaten throughout the week.

Use what's in the fridge - Home cooks stuck with extra eggplant or flounder can avoid wasting food by using websites to search for dishes based on the ingredients they have at home. Favourite inexpensive recipe, spaghetti carbonara uses eggs, pasta, garlic, bacon, and other ingredients that are often on hand. "It has lots of flavour, and it's easy to make.

Travel & Places - The Lost Temple of BOROBUDUR

2008-04-18T05:34:00.000-07:00

Amazing, this is one of the place to visit, Borobudur is a ninth century Mahayana Buddhist monument in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha sutras A main dome is located at the center of the top platform, and is surrounded by seventy-two Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupa.

For a truly undiscovered temple you need to skip the well-trodden Inca Trail or Angkor Wat and head into the rainforests of Java in Indonesia.
Borobudur lay buried under volcanic ash until the early 1800s but now the huge pyramid-shaped temple rises high above the jungle canopy in a series of stepped layers.
Each is alive with intricately carved stone panels. Upper layers boast beehive domes and kneeling statues of Buddha inside. Climb it at sunrise for spectacular views.

Amazing Beauty - Flower power

2008-04-18T00:19:00.000-07:00

Flowers have an expression of countenance as much as men and animals. Some seem to smile; some have a sad expression; some are pensive and diffident; others again are plain, honest and upright, like the broad-faced sunflower and the hollyhock. Flowers are words which even a babe may understand, so pathetic in their beauty, frail as the clouds, and in their colouring as gorgeous as the heavens, had through thousands of years been the heritage of children honoured as the jewellery of God only by them. Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of the character.
Alina Kabaeva, a 24 year old beautiful Russian gymnast then moved into modelling, appeared in an action movie, become an MP and soon preparing to marry Putin, the President of Russia posing with a variety of beautiful flowers.

Health - Should we change our diet?

2008-04-17T00:28:00.000-07:00

People are dying because of the global food shortages, which has sparked a sudden surge in food prices. World Food Programme officials say 33 countries in Asia and Africa face political instability as the urban poor struggle to feed their families. The world food situation is very serious due to the global food price increase and shortages.

Are we growing too little food to feed the world? World food supplies are further damaged by climate change, a large amount is being diverted to make biofuels to make car greener which is a crime against humanity, grains used to feed animals for the world's passion for meat which is a very inefficient way of producing food. It takes 8kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef, and large tracts of forest have been cleared for grazing land that might have been used to grow crops. Chicken is more efficient to produce, it takes 2kg of feed to produce 1kg of meat. To maximise food production, it is best to be vegetarian.

Soceities in the developing world are getting wealthier are behind the soaring food demands. Food export controls are imposed by Russia, China, India, Vietnam, Argentina and Serbia in response to the crisis and demand are growing not only over energy, but now over food.
In many countries meat is regarded as a relish, with the bulk of the meal coming from carbohydrates such as corn, rice, pasta or potatoes and vegetables and get used to thinking of meat as a treat to save the world's poor from starvation.

Should we be trying to cut out meat to help save the world's poor from starvation?

Some say yes because...
- Producing meat is less efficient than growing grain, it takes 8kg of corn to produce 1kg of beef
- Growing crops to feed animals means there is less land on which to grow crops for humans
- Shortage of grain for human consumption, and global food prices have leapt by 57% in a year

Some say no because....
- It is not realistic to expect people to switch to a vegan diet of vegetables, pulses, fruit and nuts
- Developing countries should not be denied a better diet as they grow wealthier
- An alternative way is to reverse the policy of diverting grain to make biofuels

So, what say you?

Fashion - Brief Encounters

2008-04-16T22:35:00.000-07:00

UNDIES SO SEXY YOU WONT WANT TO GET DRESSED

Help yourself get in the mood for those warm, balmy nights, and the luxury lingerie will leave you thinking it’s way too good to cover up.

Wearing gorgeous and sexy set of undies is also a way to turn on your partner in bed. Have fun.

Health - Hello...Hello

2008-04-16T17:03:00.000-07:00

Mobile phones are more dangerous than smoking. Young people are at particular risk from exposure to radiation.

Expert warns of huge rise in tumours and calls on industry to take immediate steps to reduce radiation. Mobile phones could kill far more people than smoking or asbestos, a study by an award-winning cancer expert has concluded. He says people should avoid using them wherever possible and that governments and the mobile phone industry must take "immediate steps" to reduce exposure to their radiation.

The use of mobile handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Cancers take at least a decade to develop. Mobiles can save lives in emergencies, but concludes that "there is a significant and increasing body of evidence for a link between mobile phone usage and certain brain tumours".

It is anticipated that this danger has far broader public health ramifications than smoking, with more than three billion people now use the phones worldwide, three times as many as smokers which smoking alone kills some five million worldwide each year.

Amazing shots - You can catch the sun

2008-04-16T16:14:00.000-07:00

It's April, it's Spring and the days are getting longer, the weather should be getting milder ... there isn't going to be much sun around. However, here's a chance to cheer yourself up , a new internet fad involves thousands of people from around the world posting pictures of themselves "holding" the sun.

I love the one with the cactus holding the sun.

Amazing Bettle - Volkswagen on a plate

2008-04-16T15:42:00.000-07:00

The Volkswagen more commonly known as the Beetle or Bug, is a car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen in 1938. Although the names "Beetle" and "Bug" were quickly adopted by the public, it was not until August of 1967 that VW itself began using the name Beetle in marketing materials in the US. In Britain VW never used the name Beetle officially.

The Beetle outlasted most other automobiles which had copied the classic rear air-cooled engine layout. The Beetle is also one of the most commonly reproduced cars as a toy or model of all sizes. Even the sighting of a Volkswagen Beetle is cause for violent fun in the car-sighting game known as "Slug-Bug" or Punch Buggy.

Amazing Insect - Mad about a bee

2008-04-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

Everybody knows that bees have stings in their tails, are meticulous in constructing their homes, dance to communicate with each other and do all they need to do in life in about six weeks. Do you know that bees have an acute sense of smell. are good navigators and can remember where they last had a meal.

Bees are the Rolls Royce of the insect world due to their amazing brain which is the size of a sesame seed but is 20 times the size of a fruit fly. The bees' brains rely on a small range of compounds to sort floral scents and their odour receptors can detect even the smallest scent molecule in the air. They can distinguish between hundreds of different aromas and also tell whether a flower is carrying pollen or nectar by sniffing its scent from metres away. They navigate by smell, colour and distance.

The scent triggers navigational memories of where to go and what the colour of the flower will be.... a bit like a whiff of cologne might remind you of someone you knew a long time ago.

Yes..... I know the smell of my darling....do you?

Amazing Worshipper - A dog's prayer

2008-04-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

Buddhists clasped their palms to pray for enlightenment, but Conan, a chihuahua appears to have more worldly motivations. Conan....started to pose in prayer like us whenever he wanted treats. The dog, a two year old male with long black hair and a brown collar become a popular attraction at a Japanese temple after learning to imitate the worshippers around him. He sits in front of the altar and looks right up at the statue of the Buddhist deity and when the priest starts chanting and raises his clasped hand, Conan also raises his paws and joins them at the tip of his nose. He become a star when visitors flock to take pictures with him while praying at the temple.

Journey in Life - Are you Happy?

2008-04-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

Through the power of truth there is wealth, and through the power of peace there is health. Together they give happiness. Happiness is earned by those whose actions, attitude, and attributes are pure and selfless.

Paradise, Heaven, the Garden of Eden and the Golden Age are names by which a world of peace, purity, and prosperity has been remembered. In such a place, each human being is like a flower, a country like a bouquet of flowers, and the world like a garden of flowers. The sun, the sustainer, shines upon the garden with golden rays, flooding it with newness and nobility. The Gate of Happiness stands open, welcoming the human family to the Golden Garden. In the past, the world was such a garden. It will become that again. Simply to have that faith is cause for celebration.

At present, many question the purpose of life. Some are tired of living, others have lost hope. Some make effort to earn wealth, believing that will bring happiness. Some who have wealth may not have health, and that causes unhappiness. Some choose certain professions, believing that will give happiness. Others seek happiness through relationships. Yet, however much happiness such measures may bring, they are temporary and limited sources of the material world, and in many instances, they bring equal amounts of sorrow and unhappiness. Such inability to hold onto pure and lasting happiness results from bankruptcy of spiritual values and powers. Awareness and application of spiritual truths provide the true source of happiness.

Through the power of truth there is wealth, and through the power of peace there is health. Together they give happiness. Like a tonic, spiritual knowledge makes the hopeless ones hopeful. Pure happiness returns to anyone who seeks such new and hopeful horizons. Important things forgotten are remembered. The feeling can be compared to returning home - as you see the trees and smell the breeze, you know you are nearing something close to your heart! The warmth and comfort of happiness is hidden within the self. When individuals turn within and take strength from the internal powers of peace and silence, they revive their virtues and allow the mercury of happiness to rise. The soul becomes open to the secrets of how to live in an interdependent way without becoming a victim of the material world which by its very nature robs people of their happiness. The vault of spiritual knowledge holds treasures on how to live and act with truth. True actions are pure, and purity is the mother of happiness and comfort. True actions bring strength and happiness to the self and pleasure to others. Spiritual treasures include guidelines on how to reform character and activity. For many, self-progress and personal transformation are keys that unlock the Gate of Happiness.

People speak of peace of mind. Happiness of mind is a state of peace in which there is no upheaval or violence. Peace within the self creates faith in the intellect. The flute of happiness plays softly and constantly in the minds of those who have such faith. No matter how adverse or challenging a situation may be, there is fearlessness, for the power of faith gives the guarantee of ultimate victory. As the intellect becomes enlightened by spiritual wisdom, there are less mood swings and doubts in the heart. An individual becomes better able to pay off debts of pain and sorrow while maintaining a healthy account of happiness. In a world where all relationships have accounts of happiness and sorrow, the greatest lesson to be learned about being happy is: " Give happiness and take happiness, don't give sorrow and take sorrow. " Happiness is prosperity which comes from self-sovereignty. Self- sovereignty means being master over the mind, intellect, personality traits, and physical senses of the body; being complete with all powers and virtues; and attaining a perfect balance between masculine and feminine characteristics. There is that state of perfection within each human soul. On the spiritual quest in search of such perfection, the intellect goes through a process of discovering its divine nature.

Happiness does not carry a price tag. It cannot be bought, sold, or bargained for. Happiness is earned by those whose actions, attitude, and attributes are pure and selfless. In other words, the quality of the consciousness and activities of individuals determines the richness of life. The road to happiness is paved with golden opportunities. Each footstep taken on this journey is guaranteed a return of multimillions. The actions performed along the way become the pen to draw the lines of fortune. There is a greater share of happiness when individuals walk the path together, and through collective actions, draw the lines of fortune on the living landscape of the world. Be happy.

Change - Everything change except change won't change?

2008-04-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

Do you want to change?

Before and after the Malaysian 12th GE, everywhere we go, we hear citizens rallying for change. Change for the better or change for the worst. All the while my opinion is everything change except change won't change. But I was wrong......... watch the video to witness that change does change.

Journey in Life - 10 year old left alone

2008-04-13T13:30:00.000-07:00

Boy dumped by mum lives alone in trash-filled flat

GEORGE TOWN: Most 10-year-olds are showered with love and care, happily playing with friends without a care in the world. But not J.H. Yeap.
He cuts a forlorn figure as he sits in his Feringghi Mutiara Apartment, surrounded by a mound of stinking rubbish which covers every centimetre of the floor around him.Yeap's mother left him 18 months ago and he has no one to take care of him. He comes from a broken family and only had his mother.He does not even know if he has siblings.
To him, his brothers and sisters are the pigeons that have made the drying yard of the apartment their home."I do not know who my father is and the last time I saw my mother, she gave me an ATM (automated teller machine) card and said she would deposit RM30 a week for my expenses," said Yeap.His mother stopped depositing the RM30 into the bank account two weeks ago."I panicked when I ran out of money and began loitering in the neighbourhood to seek help. I always hoped that she would visit me but there's no news of her. I want to see her," he said in between tears.Thankfully, a good Samaritan has provided him with food for the past two weeks."He was starving so I took care of his needs," said the woman, who wished to be identified only as Lau.Asked whether she had seen Yeap's mother, Lau said: "I have not seen her. I think she has some problems, otherwise she would not have left the boy alone ."Lau has informed the state Welfare Services Department of Yeap's situation.

Journey in Life - Anwar Ibrahim's Trial

2008-04-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

The Sinister Campaign on Anwar Ibrahim

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Do you believe in Karma? I do.

Journey in Life - Hunger for success destroy her?

2008-04-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

Until a week ago, her instinct was always the same: any time she was away from home, Halimahton Yusof would scan the streets, hoping to catch a glimpse of her daughter's face.
"I always looked for her. For the past few years I didn't even know whether she was alive," she says, her eyes moist with tears.
"Every time there was a story on the news about an accident, or a death, I feared the worst. I just wanted to know she was alive."
Scroll down for more...
Child genius and now prostitute: Sufiah Yusof attended Oxford University at just age 13
Then, last weekend, she got the confirmation she desperately craved — although in an unimaginably sad way.
Halimahton, a devout Muslim, was confronted by graphic Sunday newspaper pictures of her daughter selling sex from the dingy basement of a Salford flat.
Styling herself "Shilpa Lee", it emerged 23-year-old Sufiah Yusof was advertising her services on the internet as a £130-a-time prostitute. It would be a distressing discovery for any mother, but for Mrs Yusof it is all the more heart-wrenching.
Ten years ago, the girl she still calls "Sufi" was admitted to Oxford University to study maths, at the age of 13 the youngest undergraduate to do so at the time.
Brilliant and determined, she seemed destined for great things — expectations that were brutally dashed when she ran away at the age of 15 and asked to be admitted into the care of social services.
In a bitter email to her elder sister Aisha, she accused her father Farooq of making her childhood a "living hell" by "hothousing" her in pursuit of academic success.
There have been many more twists and turns to Sufiah's story since then, too.
Just three years ago, aged 20, she was back living at the family home, apparently reconciled with her father.
Yet within weeks, a bitter argument over something minor — the family don't know what — led her to flee again, and she has not seen her mother or siblings since.
Until their discovery last weekend, none of them knew where she was or what she was doing.
Nor is this the only unsettling development.
Just a week before Sufiah was unmasked on Sunday, her father Farooq was jailed for 18 months after pleading guilty at Coventry Crown Court to two charges of sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls.

Seeds of despair: Sufiah in 1997 on her first day at Oxford with her father Farooq and sister Aisha
Halimahton is in the process of divorcing Farooq, her pride having finally forced her to act against the man with whom she shared her life for more than 30 years.
She has had to ask herself difficult questions about whether she could have done more to safeguard Sufiah from the expectations of the domineering Farooq.
"I was shaking when I found out what had become of her," she says in her first interview since her daughter's lifestyle was exposed.
"No mother expects that, and part of me is haunted by the notion we had driven her to that.
"I have no idea what is going on in her mind, but I refuse to judge her and I want her to know my door is always open, that I am here for her.
"We have been through so much, but I have to believe that at some point in the future we can become a family again."
All week she has been trying to reach her daughter, but Sufiah's old mobile number has been ringing unanswered.
Halimahton says: "I haven't seen the pictures in the papers, and I don't want to see them. My sons have told me it's not good for my heart. I want to think of her as I remember her.
"I have no idea why she's doing this, whether she's trying to make her father angry or whether it's just desperation.
"I only wish I knew her state of mind but she asked me to let go of her and I did.
"I asked my solicitor if there is anything I can do to help her, but she's an adult and beyond my reach. I can only pray that she comes to her senses.
"My friends are shocked but they remember our relationship, how close we were and they have told me she needs help."
So does she lay the blame at her husband's door?
"I'm not the blaming kind. There's no use trying to point the finger. All I can hope is Farooq and Sufi look at themselves and sort out the issues they have. Deep in her heart, Sufi is a kind and gentle girl and I just hope she finds her true self again."
One comfort is that with the exception of Sufiah and now Farooq, the family remain close.
Three of Halimahton's other children — Abraham, 26, Iskander, 21, and 14-year-old Zuleika — live at the comfortable five-bedroom family home on the outskirts of Coventry, while her eldest daughter Aisha, 25, lives nearby with her husband and visits regularly.
All fiercely intelligent — Iskander attended Warwick University from the age of 12, and Aisha at the age of 15 — they seem to have escaped the tortured circumstances their sister finds herself in, and do not seem a dysfunctional clan.

The house is warm and comfortable, strewn with the usual paraphernalia of family life.
2004: She marries Jonathan MarshallAt its centre, Halimahton clearly retains a close bond with her children. Yet it is within this same family that, as a teenager, Sufiah, in that angry email written after she had run away from Oxford, claimed she had been subjected to "years of physical and emotional abuse".
Her father, she said, bullied his children intellectually and physically, flying into fits of rage if he felt they were not working hard enough.
The routine was so effective that at 12 Sufiah had already passed three A-levels.
Today, her siblings agree their father could be difficult but insist he was not fundamentally violent.
"It was like he had something to prove, as if he wanted to use us to get back at the world," Iskander, a computer programmer, says.
"He would be fine but then he would scream and shout. It was the thought of it that scared us as much as it happening."
On occasions he smacked them.
For a woman clearly devoted to her children, it seems odd Halimahton did not intervene — but while she considered leaving, she felt trapped by financial worries and the belief that her husband, at heart, had good intentions.
Theirs was not the most conventional of romances.
Halimahton, 51, had arrived in this country from her native Malaysia as a 19-year-old to take up a sponsored study course at Oxford College of Further Education.
Within months she had met Farooq Yusof, also a student who was living in the same block of rented accommodation.
Both Muslim, the couple quickly married in a small ceremony in Oxford in 1975.
By the mid-Eighties, they had produced four children, who were all remarkably bright, but Sufiah particularly so.
"When she was barely 18 months she could sing whole nursery rhymes.
"She could recognise numbers and letters at ten months old, and do a 20-piece jigsaw upside down.
"Farooq said she was a little genius even when she was a baby."
Eventually all the children were home-schooled, after Sufiah had told her mother at the age of five: "I don't like it at school, I want you to teach me."
Her siblings apparently felt the same.
But life at home was under a dark cloud.
In 1989, Farooq had gone on the run, implicated in a £1.5million mortgage fraud, leaving Halimahton alone to rear four children.
"I didn't even have the energy to be angry with him," she says. "I was exhausted trying to make ends meet and look after the kids."
Three years later, in 1992, her husband was arrested on his return to this country and given a three-year prison sentence for obtaining mortgages by deception.
When he was released, there was inevitably a difficult period of occurred to me to separate, but I had this belief that children need both parents,' Halimahton says.
"In hindsight, I can see this was perhaps the wrong decision, but I kept asking myself: 'If I was one of the children, what would I want?'
"I was exhausted, and I had four children who I felt needed their father."
Within months of Farooq's return she had conceived again, later giving birth to daughter Zuleika, now 14.
"Farooq could be difficult and I would try to talk to him, but I would not have picked Sufi out as suffering — she was the one who got criticised least," she says.
"But I realise now she kept everything bottled up."
Nonetheless, it is not difficult to imagine the impact this pressured environment had on a clever adolescent mind.
So brilliant was Sufiah that by 12, she had been accepted to study maths at Oxford.
"Whenever we asked her, she was adamant she wanted to go," Halimahton says.
But the family did not take into account the fact that Sufiah was still a child — on the day she enrolled she chipped her front tooth while riding on a seesaw.
When asked how she was coping with her degree, Sufiah would maintain she was "fine".
In fact, she was struggling under what she felt was an increasing pressure to perform.
"My father found out she had not been doing as well as he hoped and he took it very badly," Iskander says.
"He became obsessed with her getting back on track. For Sufi it only exacerbated the pressure she put on herself. She felt she couldn't get away from him."
But any danger signals passed by largely unnoticed by the family until it was too late.
On June 22, 2000, the day she should have boarded a train home from Oxford after finishing her third year exams, Sufiah got on a train to the South Coast instead, leaving most of her possessions behind.
"I had spoken to her in the morning and she sounded flat, which I couldn't understand. I offered to pick her up and she said: 'I'm OK momma, I'll make my own way.'"
And she did, to Bournemouth, where she found work as a waitress, finding the time to send that bitter email to her parents.
When traced by the police three weeks later, she asked to be taken into foster care. It was a desperate time for her mother.
"I was deeply upset," she says. "I didn't understand why it had got to this, why she had not tried to talk to me.
"But I didn't want to fight her. I thought: 'If she's unhappy, let her go, let her do what she needs to do.'
"My main concern was that she was safe."
Halimahton's eyes fill with tears, her thoughts tormented by what might have been.
"Maybe this was a mistake. Perhaps if I had been firmer, then perhaps what has happened now, well …"
In fact, there was to be reconciliation: Sufiah was happy to allow her mother and siblings to visit her, but not her father.
"If I tried to talk to her about what had happened, she would say: “It's fine now, I don't want to upset you”, her mother recalls.
Sufiah seemed to be getting back on her feet.
She was studying again at the local college, and talked of going back to Oxford, returning aged 18 to take the final year of her four-year course.
There, shortly after arrival, she met Jonathan Marshall, a law student four years her senior.
He converted to Islam for the sake of his young girlfriend, and the couple married within months.
With her newfound happiness, Sufiah agreed to introduce her fiancé to her father after three years of estrangement.
"She was anxious, I could see, but it all unfolded very calmly," Halimahton remembers.
"Her father hugged her and she hugged him back."
All the family attended the civil wedding dinner in July 2004, and when, in the spring of 2005, Jonathan was posted to Singapore on a short-term job contract, Sufiah, who had been working for a building contractor in Oxford, moved back to the family home.
The events of the past, however, were clearly never far from her mind: her brother Iskander recalls how, during one emotional discussion, his sister demanded an apology from her father for his behaviour in the past.
"He said he was sorry, and she seemed happy with that, but I remember wondering if it was enough," he says.
It clearly wasn't. Within days, an argument was sparked between Sufiah and her father and she packed her bags and left the family home for good.
"They had a row and I heard Farooq tell her to shut up, then within minutes she had packed her bags and was out the door," Halimahton recalls.
"I rang her and she was getting a train to London. She said: 'I'm fed up with him, he needs psychiatric help.'"
Astonishingly, she has had no verbal contact with her daughter since.
Voicemails and emails passed unanswered, the only contact a terse email, sent in August 2005, in which Sufiah revealed that she and her husband Jonathan were separated.
She said she wanted no further contact with any member of her family under any circumstances.
"I felt numb," Halimahton says. "I didn't understand why she felt this way. I always thought her quarrel was with her father, not us.
"But I knew it was pointless to fight her, I had to respect her decision. I could only hope she would come back to us."
So far, of course, that hasn't happened.
Instead, Sufiah has gone down the most depressing path imaginable, reduced to selling her body to strangers — presumably to fund an economics course she is pursuing in London.
It seems the final desperate act of a profoundly troubled girl, who can only have been further distressed by news of her father's recent misdemeanors.
Halimahton is as bewildered by her husband's conviction as she is her daughter's behaviour.
"At first I thought there must have been a mistake," she says. "There was never anything to suggest..." she blinks.
"I thought these two girls weren't telling the truth. But after he pleaded guilty, I had to accept they were. I have to accept he has confessed."
His incarceration has, at least, encouraged Halimahton to divorce him.
And without Farooq in the house, Halimahton hopes Sufiah might feel able to return — and that she might finally be able to prise from her daughter quite how her upbringing came to wreak such psychological damage.
For now, however, it seems the brilliant little girl who could do jigsaw puzzles as a baby remains hopelessly incapable of pulling together the pieces of her own fractured life.

Perak Sivasubramaniam makes U turn

2008-03-31T04:15:00.000-07:00

From a DAP assemblyman...

resign and become and Independent.....

then makes a U turn...

Buntong assemblyman A. Sivasubramaniam, who earlier quit all posts in the DAP, has retracted his resignation.

He was scheduled to hold a press conference Monday evening to explain his about-turn.

Perak - Walking On A Tightrope

2008-03-30T23:21:00.000-07:00

Election results on 8.3.08 ( BN 28....BR 31 )

Buntong assemblyman quits DAP

PETALING JAYA: The Star....Buntong assemblyman A.Sivasubramaniam has quit DAP, leaving the DAP-PKR-PAS coalition government in Perak teetering on the brink of collapse.
Sivasubramaniam: 'I cannot accept the decision made by the Perak DAP'
In a letter to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng dated March 31, Sivasubramaniam said he had had lost confidence in the Perak DAP as it failed to fulfill its promise to appoint two Indian state executive council members.
He added the decision was a "big slap" in the face of Perak Indians and tantamount to deceiving the community.
"My victory in Buntong was a mandate given by the Indian community in the area, and therefore I cannot accept the decision made by the Perak DAP," he added.
Sivasubramanian could not be reached for further comment.
Of the 10 exco members sworn in on March 29, six were from DAP, including one Indian representative, Sungkai assemblyman A. Sivanesan.
In the March 8 general election, the Opposition coalition won 31 state seats in Perak - 18 seats went to DAP, seven to PKR, and six to PAS - while Barisan bagged 28 seats.

With Sivasubramaniam's resignation from DAP, the coalition is left with 30 assemblymen.

Do we have a good government?

2008-03-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Every people may establish what form of government they please, and change it as they please, the will of the nation being the only thing essential.

Government should be judged by how well it meets its legitimate objectives. Good government is that which most effectively secures the rights of the people and the fruits of their labor, promotes their happiness, and does their will.

The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government

The only orthodox object of the institution of government is to secure the greatest degree of happiness possible to the general mass of those associated under it.

The first object of human association is the full improvement of their condition.

The happiness and prosperity of our citizens... is the only legitimate object of government and the first duty of governors.

The energies of the nation... shall be reserved for improvement of the condition of man, not wasted in his destruction.

The freedom and happiness of man are the sole objects of all legitimate government.

To preserve the peace of our fellow citizens, promote their prosperity and happiness, reunite opinion, cultivate a spirit of candor, moderation, charity and forbearance toward one another, are objects calling for the efforts and sacrifices of every good man and patriot. Our religion enjoins it; our happiness demands it; and no sacrifice is requisite but of passions hostile to both.

All religions are equally independent here, our laws knowing no distinction of country, of classes among individuals and with nations, our creed is justice and reciprocity.

Journey in Life - From Genius to Hooker.. Oh My

2008-03-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

Maths prodigy who won an Oxford place at 13 is now a £130-an-hour HOOKER
By Keith Gladdis
SHE was a child maths genius who won a place at Oxford University aged just 13—but now the only sums Sufiah Yusof is interested in are the ones she earns as a HOOKER.
For sad Sufiah the daily equation she has to solve is simply sex equals £130 as she sells her body to punters over the internet.
The gifted girl with the winning smile had the world at her feet ten years ago and should be a rich woman by now—but last week she was busy subtracting her underwear for our undercover reporter in her dingy back street flat.
"Would you like to start your half hour now?" said Sufiah, 23, as she danced on the bed, displaying her body for examination.
Then she listed all the sleazy plus points she would throw in for our man if he took up her offer.
Calling herself Shilpa Lee, the former child prodigy still juggles with figures on a hookers' website, describing herself as a "very pretty size 8, 32D bust and 5'5" tall—available for booking every day from 11am to 8pm."
She says she is a "sexy, smart student" who prefers "older gentlemen"— but a former pal who has witnessed her downfall told us: "It is all desperately heartbreaking.
"With her amazing brain she should be able to make money any way she wants. But instead her life has spiralled completely out of control."
Life has never quite added up for Sufiah. Her descent into prostitution in Salford, Manchester, is the latest in a long line of tragedies to have engulfed her since the sunny day when she posed with her university mortar board for the world's press outside prestigious St Hilda's College.
Our shock revelations today come in the week her domineering dad Farooq was jailed for sexually assaulting two 15-year-old girls as he home-tutored them in maths.
And he was always at the root of all her troubles— even as she passed the further maths A-Level she needed for entry to Oxford at the age of 12. In those days Sufia was a strict Muslim child who prayed five times a day and was subjected to her father's famous Accelerated Learning Technique.
Her days involved stretching and breathing exercises in freezing rooms to keep her brain attentive.
Sufiah would then study hard and be forced to play tennis with just as much intensity as fanatical Farooq drove her on. The routine was so effective Sufiah was seeded number eight in the country for under 21s.
But three years into Oxford, the 15-year-old sparked a massive police hunt after running away.
Abuse
At the time her father bizarrely claimed Sufiah had been kidnapped and brainwashed by an organisation seeking the key to her intelligence.
But Sufiah sent an email to her family describing her life under her father as a "living hell".
One message to her sister read: "I've finally had enough of 15 years of physical and emotional abuse. You know what I am talking about."
Sufiah was missing for two weeks before being found in an internet café in Bournemouth where she had been working as a hotel waitress.
She refused to go back to her parents and instead was taken into the care of social services.
It was then revealed that Farooq had been jailed for three years in 1992 for his part in a £1.5m mortgage swindle. Before that—at the age of 19—he had been sent to borstal for his role in a conspiracy involving £100,000.
Free from the spell of her father, Sufiah returned to Oxford to complete the final year of her Masters in Maths.
But she was now more concerned with enjoying herself—and failed to finish the course after meeting trainee lawyer Jonathan Marshall.
They were married in 2004 when Sufiah was just 19 and Jonathan 24. But the strains with her family were still there.
Despite being invited, Sufiah's parents and four brothers and sisters failed to turn up to the wedding.
Her dreams of a happy life with Jonathan were shattered when the couple divorced just a year later.
Now, in her sad little flat, she uses her body to pay the rent. Sufiah met our man, posing as a punter, at the entrance to her building wearing a tiny skirt, leather boots and a tight t-shirt. She was carrying three mobile phones.
She laughed and joked as she led him to her small apartment where a bed was already set out in the lounge.
She told him it was £130 an hour and offered him a glass of water before putting some music on to a cheap portable stereo and nervously stripping down to her red lace bra and knickers.
Sufiah then peeled off her underwear and danced on the bed. She told him she did full sex with a condom and oral sex without protection.
After our man had made his excuses, Sufiah kept him talking by telling him how she was studying for a Masters degree in Economics on a part-time two year course in London.
The former prodigy added: "I've got exams coming up and I'm thinking ‘Oh my God!'"
Once described by her parents as "naïve and unstreetwise", she works alone from her flat without any obvious physical security or protection.
She even admitted to our reporter: "It's always a surprise who you are going to meet."
Cheerful Sufiah gave no indication of any sadness at the jailing of her father the previous day. On Wednesday Farooq, 50, was sentenced to 18 months at Coventry Crown Court for touching two 15-year-old girls when he was home tutoring them at maths.
The court heard how in May last year Farooq arrived at one of the victim's home for a maths lesson.
He started whispering in her ear and kissing her hair and cheek. He also touched her breast and told her she was a genius and pretty before putting her hand on his upper thigh.
Destroyed
Farooq's defence lawyer Tim Hannam said: "He's been back in prison for over five months and knows there'll be no more teaching and any hope he had of gaining an income from the teaching method he had developed to a high degree of success is lost to him. His reputation is destroyed."
Now it's clear the daughter who fled his strict regime has almost been destroyed too.
Her friend said last night: "Sufiah has suffered so many knocks in her life. I just hope she can drag herself out this life she has got herself into.
"She is a good person and deserves a much better life than this. Her gift really has been a curse."

Newsoftheworld...30.03.2008

The journey of Life

2008-03-29T02:54:00.000-07:00

The journey of life begun

That fateful day I was born

My eyes opened up blissfully to the sun

My soul, heart and brain emerged as one

Behold my journey had begun!

This little child in time has grown

Yes! Time has flown, time has flown

A lot has been learnt on my very own

Life has been a mystifying journey

With every up and down

With tears and laughter

With hate and love

With stupidity and wisdom

With enemies and friends

But even in my journey of frustration

have found a means of celebration

In my toilsome exploration to my fateful destination

Tick tock, the clock goes on

Minute by minute, then hourly

Month by month then yearly

Tick tock, and in my journeyI have searched,

questioned and answered

Whilst walking painfully along many paths

Sometimes requesting protection

Seeking from above immunization

When hit by obstacles in locations

But I am still on this journey

Shaking hands with the sad and merry

My passion for life which was once raw

Is now confined within the Almighty’s law

For life's journey itself never ends

Once you have reached the end of each road

Uplifting off your entire cloggy load

Be it in a hot summer or a winter’s cold

Behold! A new journey will unfold