Sunday, October 5, 2008
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Land mines kills...even long long after the wars have stopped....remove these past sins of war...
Landmines and unexploded ordnance are a significant barrier to economic and social development in many parts of the world, seriously affecting countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Afghanistan in this region. The current methods for mine clearance are essentially unchanged since the 1940's when advances in electronics provided portable metal detectors. An early scene from the popular film 'The English Patient' provides a graphic demonstration. The work is risky, labor-intensive and slow.
The UN lists 70 countries affected by mines, and experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere has shown that it takes many years to establish an effective demining program in a post-conflict situation. Current demining programs measure their progress in terms of a few square kilometers of cleared land each year. In Afghanistan, approximately 25 sq km of land is cleared annually by removing about 20,000 mines and many other kinds of unexploded ordnance . With an estimated 10,000,000 mines still in the ground, removing them may take 500 years.
Thinking about the number of mines is pointless when estimates range from a few million to 150 million. It is much more sensible to think in terms of the areas of land which are:
a) known to be affected by mines, and are important to local populations: homes, food producing land, roads, infrastructure (roads, canals, power lines, water supplies etc.)
b) believed to be affected by mines
c) known or believed to be affected by mines, but land is of no immediate importance.
Reliable forecasts are based on the estimated area of mine-affected land which needs to be cleared. About 320 sq. km of high priority land remains to be cleared in Afghanistan taking about twelve years at current rates of progress. Surveys suggest that a further 400 sq. km of lower priority land also needs clearance.
The time needed to clear land varies enormously depending on local conditions, but the number of mines hardly affects the time required. Destroying them is quick and safe once they are found and identified. It is finding them that takes the time.
What, then, are realistic objectives? Do we really know enough about the mine problem to design an appropriate world-wide action plan? Are there technologies which could dramatically reduce the cost of mine clearance? Unfortunately there are many 'myths' and misleading ideas on landmines and mine clearance now. We need to understand more about the real problems on the ground to see why well-meaning governments are wasting money, and why mine clearance is progressing so slowly.
The signing of the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel landmines was accompanied by an announcement by the USA of the '2010 Initiative' - to eliminate anti-personnel mines from the world by the year 2010. This commits the US Government to an effort to lift global spending on demining to $1bn/year, including existing classified military research and private contributions of $350m. However, the total pledged for mine clearance programs falls far short of the $33 billion which the UN estimates is needed to achieve this goal.
Current research suggests that demining costs can be effectively reduced by combining creative ideas with local innovation and participation. A modest increase in resources for mine clearance could provide far more beneficial results than relying on a solution derived from the by-products of military and other 'high technology' research.
The UN lists 70 countries affected by mines, and experience in Afghanistan and elsewhere has shown that it takes many years to establish an effective demining program in a post-conflict situation. Current demining programs measure their progress in terms of a few square kilometers of cleared land each year. In Afghanistan, approximately 25 sq km of land is cleared annually by removing about 20,000 mines and many other kinds of unexploded ordnance . With an estimated 10,000,000 mines still in the ground, removing them may take 500 years.
Thinking about the number of mines is pointless when estimates range from a few million to 150 million. It is much more sensible to think in terms of the areas of land which are:
a) known to be affected by mines, and are important to local populations: homes, food producing land, roads, infrastructure (roads, canals, power lines, water supplies etc.)
b) believed to be affected by mines
c) known or believed to be affected by mines, but land is of no immediate importance.
Reliable forecasts are based on the estimated area of mine-affected land which needs to be cleared. About 320 sq. km of high priority land remains to be cleared in Afghanistan taking about twelve years at current rates of progress. Surveys suggest that a further 400 sq. km of lower priority land also needs clearance.
The time needed to clear land varies enormously depending on local conditions, but the number of mines hardly affects the time required. Destroying them is quick and safe once they are found and identified. It is finding them that takes the time.
What, then, are realistic objectives? Do we really know enough about the mine problem to design an appropriate world-wide action plan? Are there technologies which could dramatically reduce the cost of mine clearance? Unfortunately there are many 'myths' and misleading ideas on landmines and mine clearance now. We need to understand more about the real problems on the ground to see why well-meaning governments are wasting money, and why mine clearance is progressing so slowly.
The signing of the Ottawa treaty banning anti-personnel landmines was accompanied by an announcement by the USA of the '2010 Initiative' - to eliminate anti-personnel mines from the world by the year 2010. This commits the US Government to an effort to lift global spending on demining to $1bn/year, including existing classified military research and private contributions of $350m. However, the total pledged for mine clearance programs falls far short of the $33 billion which the UN estimates is needed to achieve this goal.
Current research suggests that demining costs can be effectively reduced by combining creative ideas with local innovation and participation. A modest increase in resources for mine clearance could provide far more beneficial results than relying on a solution derived from the by-products of military and other 'high technology' research.
Friday, October 3, 2008
What does it mean to lock yourself in a prison without walls ?
As on today 3.10.2008 a small percentage of the 6.5 billion human population are locked in prisons all over the world.They are not able to do what they wanted to do in life because the four solid brick walls restricted their movements.
Unfortunately a big percentage of adult men and women have locked themselves in virtual prisons without walls.They are not able to do what they wanted in their lives because they cocooned themselves with hundreds of layers of protective walls around themselves.Most of the layers are just trival narrow unbased opinions of next door somebodies who have no business in their lives.They are never be able to enjoy,pursue and achieve their deepest heart's desires and wildest dreams in their maybe very long or maybe very short lives.
In this world,we just need to follow God's Laws, the Countrie's Laws and the basic cultural Laws of your born race.As for the remainder of the big big big world,it is for you and your loved ones to enjoy within the limits of your time,energy and available money.
Here are some lyrics from my heart felt song,
Follow the words and seep into the deepest feelings of my heart,
Born free, as free as the wind blows,
As free as the grass grows,
Born free to follow your heart,
Live free and beauty surrounds you,
The world still astounds you,
Each time you look at a star,
Stay free,where no walls divide you,
You are free as the roaring tide
So there is no need to hide..
Born free,and life is worth living,
But only worth living,
Because you re born free,
Stay free where no walls divide you,
You are free as the roaring tide,
So there is no need to hide,
Born free and life is worth living
But only worth living
Because you are born free...
Life is worth living....but only worth living...
Because you are born free...
When I was a poor little boy I enjoyed the sunrise,sunset,rainbows,moon and stars from tree tops during the days and cool nights and from my small hut windows during the stormy nights.
As I grew up to be a corporate man there I enjoyed the same marvels from skyscraper windows throughout the world,
I also managed to enjoy these same marvels from the historical settings of The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Many human beings have shared my heart's feelings at these marvels of God's Creation from these Seven Ancient Wonders throughout the ages.
They have all returned to the dust now.....I will also return to the dust some day...But while life blood still flows in me..I want to shout to skies,mountains and oceans " I am born free,I will stay free,I will die free....for nothing can bond me....
Unfortunately a big percentage of adult men and women have locked themselves in virtual prisons without walls.They are not able to do what they wanted in their lives because they cocooned themselves with hundreds of layers of protective walls around themselves.Most of the layers are just trival narrow unbased opinions of next door somebodies who have no business in their lives.They are never be able to enjoy,pursue and achieve their deepest heart's desires and wildest dreams in their maybe very long or maybe very short lives.
In this world,we just need to follow God's Laws, the Countrie's Laws and the basic cultural Laws of your born race.As for the remainder of the big big big world,it is for you and your loved ones to enjoy within the limits of your time,energy and available money.
Here are some lyrics from my heart felt song,
Follow the words and seep into the deepest feelings of my heart,
Born free, as free as the wind blows,
As free as the grass grows,
Born free to follow your heart,
Live free and beauty surrounds you,
The world still astounds you,
Each time you look at a star,
Stay free,where no walls divide you,
You are free as the roaring tide
So there is no need to hide..
Born free,and life is worth living,
But only worth living,
Because you re born free,
Stay free where no walls divide you,
You are free as the roaring tide,
So there is no need to hide,
Born free and life is worth living
But only worth living
Because you are born free...
Life is worth living....but only worth living...
Because you are born free...
When I was a poor little boy I enjoyed the sunrise,sunset,rainbows,moon and stars from tree tops during the days and cool nights and from my small hut windows during the stormy nights.
As I grew up to be a corporate man there I enjoyed the same marvels from skyscraper windows throughout the world,
I also managed to enjoy these same marvels from the historical settings of The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Many human beings have shared my heart's feelings at these marvels of God's Creation from these Seven Ancient Wonders throughout the ages.
They have all returned to the dust now.....I will also return to the dust some day...But while life blood still flows in me..I want to shout to skies,mountains and oceans " I am born free,I will stay free,I will die free....for nothing can bond me....
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Born in the slums but free to soar high into the skies.
Inspite of my lowly birth circumstances my mind was flying without wings high, high,high in the skies at all times,,,,
Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother
The Ten Commandments say, “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 5:16
Our God never says, “Honor only model fathers and model mothers.” The verse above means that we must honor all our fathers and mothers in spite of their different lives.
We were born into a poor farming family in Sungei Bidut in the late 1950s. In order to escape the fierce fighting between the communist terrorists and the security forces, we moved to a slum area in Sibu town. My mother planted some vegetables at the road side and washed clothes for the neighborhood bachelor laborers. My father was lame from childhood polio and he went to town everyday early in the morning to look for work. Sometimes he was successful and came back with some “ikan bilis” and groundnuts. But at many other times he came back with only some old paperback English books and some old toys for us. He would say, “I have found work and money and decide to buy these for you.” We kept quiet as we all know that he had not found any work and had gone through the dustbins to bring the items to us. He wanted to maintain his role as the family provider.
One afternoon while I was searching for empty bottles among the rubbish dumps, I saw a dog running frantically down the road with a piece of pork in its jaws. There was a limping man with a stick chasing after it. The mother dog with long sagging breasts had obviously stolen the piece of pork from the butcher and she was bringing it home to its puppies. The man was my father and that night we had pork for dinner for the first time since we moved to the town.
One memorable day, a neighbor came to call me from my secondary school. My father had been run over by a big lorry. I went to pull his body out from underneath the lorry with the help of several firemen. He had a three feet tall old teddy bear in his arms and he was smiling from cheek to cheek even in death. I knew what the last thought was in his mind. It must be, “I am going to make my youngest little girl Jenny happy tonight. She has always wanted a big teddy bear.”
How are we as children going to judge this man? According to the standards of the world, he was a born loser. He lied to his wife and kids almost every day. He was not able to get work and earn money but substituted it with some rubbish from the dustbins. The female dog stole the piece of pork from the butcher. He stole the piece of pork from the female dog. He was worse than dogs and he pretended to be a good family provider.
But we didn’t judge him that way in spite of what other people said about him. He was an unlucky man within the circumstances of his time but he loved us. His little girl Jenny became a famed clinical psychologist in one of the top hospitals through scholarships. She had the blood stained teddy bear in her office at all times. Whenever her patient is a troubled adolescent who cannot accept his parents, she would tell him the story behind the teddy bear. Many a times the patient would break down and cry and went back home to make peace with his parents. My father’s love for his little girl which was manifested in the teddy bear had not been in vain.
What about you my brothers and sisters in Christ? Are you in talking terms with your parents? And are you holding any grudge against them? Do you hate them for what they have done in this world? Are you praying for them every day to come to our ultimate Heavenly Father God Himself?
Please do not judge them by your personal standards and the standards of this world. Not everybody is lucky in this world. Many poor men and women went to the prisons for stealing milk powder from the supermarkets. They didn’t consume the milk powder themselves. It was meant for their little children back home. They had to pay the price of stealing by spending time in the prisons according to the laws of the country. Their children should not condemn them as thieves and convicted felons when they came out to rejoin society. Let God judge them when they meet Him on the Judgment Day.
Do not insult your parents by breaking into their unhappy worlds. Every parent wants to appear capable in front of their spouse and children. Give them every privilege to fulfill their God given natural instinct. Keep your mouth shut even if you know their darkest secrets. Let them live their world and you build your own world out of their ruins. If you know that your parents are doing illegal business to provide for you PhD studies in USA, do not query and condemn them on your graduation day. Pray for God’s power to change them to law-abiding good businessman. If they ask you for help to get themselves out of trouble, do it whole heartedly as a filial child. Do not ask those questions that will incriminate them as crooks in the eyes of God, their beloved families and their standing in the society. God allows us to repent and come back to Him anytime, anywhere under any circumstances without the need of spilling all the beans for the judgment of everyone in the world.
If I had told my poor father “You are a thief who steals a dirty piece of meat from the bitch. You gave that to your children for dinner? You cannot earn money and you ran through the dustbins to give us some rubbish in place of food?”
What do I gain? I may get my anger, hatred and frustrations released for a moment. But I still may not be able to break out from poverty with those few words. What do I lose? I would break the heart, confidence, life and the world of my poor father. I may not be confident enough to get married and be a father myself. I don’t have a lucky life too and I have done many shameful things to earn money for daily survival according to the standards of the world. What happen if one day my sons and daughters stand up and point their fingers at me and exclaimed, “My friend’s mother said that she knew you when you were a teenager. She said she threw a piece of overcooked “you char kueh” into the dustbin next to her roadside stall. You picked it up immediately and ate it. What a shameful scavenger we have discovered about you in your teenage life. We are all ashamed to have a father like you. How are we going to face the society as lawyers, doctors and accountants?” That would break my heart because I did not choose to be a scavenger. Instead I was forced into it by unfavorable life circumstances at that time. In the same way that I have shown respect and honor to my unfortunate father, I can extract the same respect and honor from my children by telling them the story “The father, the dog and the meat for dinner.”
King David is considered a father of the Jews up to this day. When they went to fight and die in battle they carried their national flag which bore the Star of David. But King David was a scheming murderer. He arranged for Uriah to be killed while he successfully schemed to covet his beautiful wife called Bathsheba. But our God still chose him to be the earthly forefather of Jesus Christ and the Jews up to this day revere him as their most illustrious King.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, give your fathers and mothers the most precious gift that they want from their children, The Gifts of love, respect and honor. It does not matter if they are a scavenger, rummaging through the dustbins everyday for empty cans or the President of USA. Respect them as parents and don’t judge them according to their life accomplishments or mistakes in the secular world. The President of United States Bill Clinton was not an angel too in spite of his high office but his children still love him as a father.
Lastly I hope my story would have touched you and improve the relationship between you and your parents. If I know that one child has approached his estranged father or mother and honored them anew my poor father’s short life on earth would not have been in vain.
God bless you and your beloved parents.
Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother
The Ten Commandments say, “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Deuteronomy 5:16
Our God never says, “Honor only model fathers and model mothers.” The verse above means that we must honor all our fathers and mothers in spite of their different lives.
We were born into a poor farming family in Sungei Bidut in the late 1950s. In order to escape the fierce fighting between the communist terrorists and the security forces, we moved to a slum area in Sibu town. My mother planted some vegetables at the road side and washed clothes for the neighborhood bachelor laborers. My father was lame from childhood polio and he went to town everyday early in the morning to look for work. Sometimes he was successful and came back with some “ikan bilis” and groundnuts. But at many other times he came back with only some old paperback English books and some old toys for us. He would say, “I have found work and money and decide to buy these for you.” We kept quiet as we all know that he had not found any work and had gone through the dustbins to bring the items to us. He wanted to maintain his role as the family provider.
One afternoon while I was searching for empty bottles among the rubbish dumps, I saw a dog running frantically down the road with a piece of pork in its jaws. There was a limping man with a stick chasing after it. The mother dog with long sagging breasts had obviously stolen the piece of pork from the butcher and she was bringing it home to its puppies. The man was my father and that night we had pork for dinner for the first time since we moved to the town.
One memorable day, a neighbor came to call me from my secondary school. My father had been run over by a big lorry. I went to pull his body out from underneath the lorry with the help of several firemen. He had a three feet tall old teddy bear in his arms and he was smiling from cheek to cheek even in death. I knew what the last thought was in his mind. It must be, “I am going to make my youngest little girl Jenny happy tonight. She has always wanted a big teddy bear.”
How are we as children going to judge this man? According to the standards of the world, he was a born loser. He lied to his wife and kids almost every day. He was not able to get work and earn money but substituted it with some rubbish from the dustbins. The female dog stole the piece of pork from the butcher. He stole the piece of pork from the female dog. He was worse than dogs and he pretended to be a good family provider.
But we didn’t judge him that way in spite of what other people said about him. He was an unlucky man within the circumstances of his time but he loved us. His little girl Jenny became a famed clinical psychologist in one of the top hospitals through scholarships. She had the blood stained teddy bear in her office at all times. Whenever her patient is a troubled adolescent who cannot accept his parents, she would tell him the story behind the teddy bear. Many a times the patient would break down and cry and went back home to make peace with his parents. My father’s love for his little girl which was manifested in the teddy bear had not been in vain.
What about you my brothers and sisters in Christ? Are you in talking terms with your parents? And are you holding any grudge against them? Do you hate them for what they have done in this world? Are you praying for them every day to come to our ultimate Heavenly Father God Himself?
Please do not judge them by your personal standards and the standards of this world. Not everybody is lucky in this world. Many poor men and women went to the prisons for stealing milk powder from the supermarkets. They didn’t consume the milk powder themselves. It was meant for their little children back home. They had to pay the price of stealing by spending time in the prisons according to the laws of the country. Their children should not condemn them as thieves and convicted felons when they came out to rejoin society. Let God judge them when they meet Him on the Judgment Day.
Do not insult your parents by breaking into their unhappy worlds. Every parent wants to appear capable in front of their spouse and children. Give them every privilege to fulfill their God given natural instinct. Keep your mouth shut even if you know their darkest secrets. Let them live their world and you build your own world out of their ruins. If you know that your parents are doing illegal business to provide for you PhD studies in USA, do not query and condemn them on your graduation day. Pray for God’s power to change them to law-abiding good businessman. If they ask you for help to get themselves out of trouble, do it whole heartedly as a filial child. Do not ask those questions that will incriminate them as crooks in the eyes of God, their beloved families and their standing in the society. God allows us to repent and come back to Him anytime, anywhere under any circumstances without the need of spilling all the beans for the judgment of everyone in the world.
If I had told my poor father “You are a thief who steals a dirty piece of meat from the bitch. You gave that to your children for dinner? You cannot earn money and you ran through the dustbins to give us some rubbish in place of food?”
What do I gain? I may get my anger, hatred and frustrations released for a moment. But I still may not be able to break out from poverty with those few words. What do I lose? I would break the heart, confidence, life and the world of my poor father. I may not be confident enough to get married and be a father myself. I don’t have a lucky life too and I have done many shameful things to earn money for daily survival according to the standards of the world. What happen if one day my sons and daughters stand up and point their fingers at me and exclaimed, “My friend’s mother said that she knew you when you were a teenager. She said she threw a piece of overcooked “you char kueh” into the dustbin next to her roadside stall. You picked it up immediately and ate it. What a shameful scavenger we have discovered about you in your teenage life. We are all ashamed to have a father like you. How are we going to face the society as lawyers, doctors and accountants?” That would break my heart because I did not choose to be a scavenger. Instead I was forced into it by unfavorable life circumstances at that time. In the same way that I have shown respect and honor to my unfortunate father, I can extract the same respect and honor from my children by telling them the story “The father, the dog and the meat for dinner.”
King David is considered a father of the Jews up to this day. When they went to fight and die in battle they carried their national flag which bore the Star of David. But King David was a scheming murderer. He arranged for Uriah to be killed while he successfully schemed to covet his beautiful wife called Bathsheba. But our God still chose him to be the earthly forefather of Jesus Christ and the Jews up to this day revere him as their most illustrious King.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, give your fathers and mothers the most precious gift that they want from their children, The Gifts of love, respect and honor. It does not matter if they are a scavenger, rummaging through the dustbins everyday for empty cans or the President of USA. Respect them as parents and don’t judge them according to their life accomplishments or mistakes in the secular world. The President of United States Bill Clinton was not an angel too in spite of his high office but his children still love him as a father.
Lastly I hope my story would have touched you and improve the relationship between you and your parents. If I know that one child has approached his estranged father or mother and honored them anew my poor father’s short life on earth would not have been in vain.
God bless you and your beloved parents.
Life on this planet is never fair...
Look at these group of Phds holders. They have injected deadly viruses into this unfortunate ape.Now they withdrawing the his blood for tests in the most advanced laboratory machines.
Is this fair or unfair ?
Is this fair or unfair ?
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