Gone to flowers everyone.When will they ever learn ?

Young soldiers thrown into battles that they do not understand at all.

They wanted the silence of the lambs.

There Is A Time When Silence Is Purer Than Gold

I was born on 8 August 1957.

By the year 1969 I was a highly intellectual self acclaimed young man. I won many speech contests at the town level. I have a regular column in the Dolphin magazine catering to the needs of teenagers. I wrote many poems and short stories and they were pinned on the notice board in the school.

However my family needed me to make money even at the young age of 12 years old. My sister would buy all the rotten sea cucumbers and cuttle fish at a very cheap price from the market. My mother would then boil them for many hours using fire wood. Then the cooked sea cucumber and cuttle fish which had increased in weight would be resold at a higher price to the market vendors. The small profits that we made would be used to feed everybody in the big family of more than ten people. Thus we needed huge quantity of fire wood every day.

It was a hard time for the whole town population during those two decades. The Communist terrorists were trying to take over the state and the whole town was a war zone. The government practiced the segregation policy and all the village population was relocated to the slums of the town. There were many curfews lasting 12-24 hours from days to weeks to months. Most people had no jobs and no money. But everybody needed to cook and the saw mill waste wood had become a converted item.

The sawmills were the only industry that was active. When the logs were sawn into planks there would be a lot of waste wood. The native poor were never allowed to enter the sawmill because they would take the good quality planks for building their houses. The Chinese who had connections with the people inside would be allowed to enter to collect the waste wood. It would be sold to other small households and the money would be shared with the people inside the sawmill.

I was an errant boy for the soldiers who camped in small tents all over the town. It was because the terrorists would come as an ordinary man, woman or child to sabotage any part of town. The soldiers would be ready to shoot them down. During the off time they would drink Brandy to calm their nerves. I collected the Brandy bottles for sale to the low quality homemade liquor factories. Obviously there would be half-an inch of Brandy left inside. When you pour all these leftovers into one bottle you can make a good present for the guards at the sawmill. Thus I was allowed to enter the sawmill as one of the authorized collector of waste wood.

Then I had to face the challenge of the business. Every time I went into the sawmill, I could only come out with an armful of waste wood. I had to make around twenty trips before I could fill up my cart and pull it home. Many a times when I came out of the sawmill. I found that the natives had stolen away all my accumulated wood outside. The native understood only one law �- i.e. the Law of Parang. That�s the reason why so many human heads hung inside their long houses. I have to subject myself to that Law in order to survive those hard times. I had a parang tied to my back and I fought them coolly and calmly. I was prepared to die even at the young age of 12 years old. I did not have any other choice.

At many times there were more than 10 of them who were above 16 years old. How is it possible for me to win the fight? I had may scars on my head and body until this day. During those painful times i would come back to the house bleeding and black and blue all over. But I did not want to rub my pain onto those people I loved enough to lose my life to feed them.

There Is A Time When Silence Is Purer Than Gold.

The pain would go off after a few days. I had accepted it as a job hazard long long time ago. But if the people put the pain into my heart it would be there for a long time until this day i.e. 30 January 2009. The village spinster pastor would come cycling to my house and stay for dinner. Then she would say, � Look at this boy. He goes to Sunday school every Sunday and leads the singing and prayers. Now see what he had done. After school he goes to the sawmill and fight with the natives. And that�s is his hobby fighting and he does this everyday. He also even carries a parang to show that he is very powerful. I do not know how to advice him.�

I felt sad that God had created a pastor who did not have compassion for His sheep. You may notice that I am sceptical of many pastors until this day.

I hope all of you will learn about There Is A Time When Silence Is Purer Than Gold.

When your friends are in trouble, just stay around with them unless they ask you to go away. Please do not offer any advice for them because you do not know the extent of the pain in their heart, mind and soul. If you are of the same gender you may like to put your arm over his or her shoulder. If you are of the different gender you may like to put your palm over his or her palm as a gesture of support and compassion. If you are a father or mother figure to a much younger person you may like to lend your shoulder for him or her to cry on. Remember that you answer when you are posed with a question from the sad one. If it is physical pain you will have to bring them to the hospital. If it is the sorrow and pain of the heart mind and soul like the death of a loved one, an examination failure, broken relationship or a loss of a job, you know that there is no answer or solution. I would suggest that we just say, �The eternal love that God has for us and time will heal everything. Relax your heart, mind and soul now. God will take charge from now onwards.�

After that just keep silent, remember that this is the time when silence is purer than Gold.

They were never tempted with the apple of paradise.Because they were never there.

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself

Love Your Neighbour as Yourself

And one of the scribes came and heard them arguing, and recognizing that He had answered them well, asked Him, "What commandment is the foremost of all?" Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' "The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." (NAS, Mark 12:28-31)

All of us Christians will have eternal life with God after we have done our time on this earthly world. While we are on this world we have to obey the first commandments of absolute love to God. Then we have to obey the second greatest commandment of loving your neighbours as yourself.

The challenge is now, �How am I going to love my neighbours as myself?�

The next time when you are overseas, I plead with you to visit the memorial halls for people who have passed on from this world. Usually there is an urn containing the ashes in a small cubicle in the wall. In front of it you would see the photograph of the deceased, the name, the date of birth and the date of death. You would see people whose age from less than a month to more than a 100 years old. You would be surprised that many of these people are babies, children, youths, beautiful young ladies and handsome young men who were in the prime of their lives when they left this world. There were also grandfathers and grandmothers who lived more than 90 years old when they left this world.

The first question is, �Did they experience love from their neighbours while they were in this world?�

The second question is, �Did they give love to their neighbours while they were in this world?�

The final question is, �Did all of you give love to these neighbours of yours while they were in this world?�

I am going to write on two parts about loving your neighbours as yourself.

The first part is about putting out your hands to show love to them. And the second part is about holding back your hands in showing love to them.

For most of the Asian people our life philosophy follows the teaching of Confucius. He taught us to show love and respect in the family. He taught us to show love and concern to other members of the society. If all of us do our part we would have a strong country which in turn will give us happiness, peace and prosperity.

In the year 1963, I opened my eyes to the world and I found out I was at the 18th level of Hell. My parents were divorced and my father disappeared from the town. My mother had a difficult bleeding pregnancy and was spending most of her time in bed. When she was able to sit up, she would glue paper bags for sale to the village sundry shops. So I spent most of my time going through the rubbish dumps to pick up papers for her. The people surrounding me were all from hell itself. There were youngsters and old people standing by the roadside. They were all waiting and hoping that some small sub contractor will pick them up for a day job. Whenever a small lorry comes up, there would be a big pushing and jostling to get the attention of the small boss. There were girls and women aged between sixteen and sixty. They all put on cheap makeup and hairdos. They would cut their long dresses short so that the soldier boys can have a good look at their sexy legs. They were all hoping that the soldiers would pick them up for a short time and money would exchange hands.

I have two friends, Annie and Jenny. They were all aged between three and four. We played together games of stones, sand and water. Indeed we were the best of friends. One afternoon at 3 pm, the nice and cordial friendship ended abruptly.

There was a new man in town. And he decided to cycle to our slums and sell ice creams from a thermos flask. At 2.30pm , he stopped in front of three of us and shouted," Nice cold and sweet ice creams! For children! Only 5 cents a cup!" Annie and Jenny ran back to their parents to get a 5 cents coin each but I stayed immobile with a few stones in my little hands. I didn't ran back to my mother because I knew that she had nothing in the tin beneath her bed.

Then Annie asked me," Why didn't you go to your mother and get 5 cents to buy the ice cream? Don't you like ice cream too?" I just shook my head because my answer would insult my mother. After a while, both Annie and Jenny had got a cup of ice cream in their hands. They said," Since you are our good friend, you can have one lick at each of our ice creams." I shook my head because if I did that the two licks would insult myself, my dignity, my pride and my family for life.

After 5 minutes, the two little girls realized that they have touched a raw nerve. Even at three years old, they were wise little girls and they quickly ran far far away to enjoy their ice creams. They never mentioned the incident afterward.

As for me, I feel that it is a pain and a burden to hang around with "Rich little Annie and Jenny who have 5 cents each to buy an ice cream cup". They may enjoy the luxury every afternoon and it would be a difficult time for their little hearts and my poor soul. I never played with them again for the rest of my life. That is how the childhood friendship ended.

During that incident, we were watched by around twenty men waiting for day jobs and fifteen women waiting for a short time with the soldiers. I'm sure they can read the pain in the little heart of mine. Nobody would open their mouth or point their fingers and say," Ah, that little boy cannot even get 5 cents from his mother. He is crying in his heart and watering in his mouth to see his two little girlfriends licking their ice creams." I guess for those thirty over miserable men and women have more severe pains in their hearts, minds and soul. Even if their hearts are much bigger than mine, we are beating with the same beat and frequency.

Their silence, understanding and compassion are what I meant by Lover your neighbours as yourself. Love doesn't mean that you must give time and energy to help your neighbors. That would be a short term that wouldn't solve their long term life problems. But the real love that they need in this case is the love to let them climb up of their poverty at their own time.God has a plan for them. Let God work his plan for them. Let then succeed in God's plans. Do not throw in a comment which may break their hearts.

This is a real story by me. I met Jenny and Annie many years afterwards, married with many children, washing clothes for people beside the stream. At many a times I would buy two boxes of offer Walls' ice cream and give it to them. I parked my car far far away because I do not want them to know I drive an air conditioned car while they are still riding on bicycles. I do not want to break their hearts. The two boxes of ice cream is a gesture that I returned to them out of gratitude that they showed to me many years ago. They understand me even though our friendship lasted less than three months at the age of three years old. They just smiled at me and accepted the two boxes of ice cream.

God Bless you. Love your neighbours as yourself. It is because God loves you and God created your neighbours for you to show God's love on Earth.

There are not born in paradise.But they have to survive serpents bites everyday.

Why should they throw young men from the heavens of their loved families to wreck the curses of hell to other people on earth ..????