Blog Action Day - Poverty

My tears just flows the moment I set eyes at them near the market in Yong Peng, Johore. My heart nearly collapsed & I was thinking to myself,

"What in the world had happen to him that caused him to be in such a state?"

I took a while for me to compose myself and to figure out my next spontaneous action, which is to give some money to these poor souls. My heart still aches as I walk away after dropping some money into the biscuit box next to him.

Then I thought to myself that I must take some pictures of them and post them on my blog for Blog Action Day's subject which is about poverty.

I walk back to my car to get my camera and walk over to the two gentlemen to get their pictures. However, I sense some uneasiness on their part and was thinking to myself, just a few shots and I am off. I do not wish to be in their way.

However, I witness some further uneasiness as the gentlemen was looking up to me and started to move away from there. I managed to speak to them and ask them where are they from. Both of them are from China. Their sudden departure had actually arose some suspect in me and my compassion had actually starts to turn to a little bit of disappointment and frustration.

I hope my gut feeling was wrong. A colleague of mine actually recognizes these two gentlemen as they had been doing their `trade' in Malacca for quite a while.

Now, why do I have such a strong & uneasy feeling that I've been had!! My true and sincere compassion for these two gentlemen had been taken advantage of but I feel that I should still blog about them to forewarned others.

http://blogactionday.org/js/a3e7846bd14761555d63cc608c6dcf6aa28ca1f4

RPK's Youngest & Most Ardent Supporter - Meet Yong Xiang

Everyone.. meet little Yong Xiang, RPK's youngest & most ardent supporter.

I was at the scheduled place to purchase the Support RPK T-shirts in Johore. There were a constant stream of the sweetest people who travel near and far in support of RPK.

Our T-shirt supplier, Mr.Ong was there to welcome the stream of RPK's supporters as scheduled. Although there are limited stock and choices to choose from, there's no stopping the constant stream of people to choose their favorite designs and colors made available to us.

The most significant supporter and fan of RPK must be little Yong Xiang. He's there to lend support to his father who had travel all the way from across the causeway to give us the chance to show our undying support to RPK.

I bought myself the black `I am with RPK' T-shirt as that's the only design available in my size. My friend was lucky to get the `No Holds Barred' design which I had actually opted for.

We hope that RPK will continue to remain strong for there are people all over the world who support you.

We love you, YM RPK.

Celebrating Hari Raya 2008

Hari Raya will not be complete without attending the Open House hosted by our Menteri Besar or TMJ. This year, we opted for the Menteri Besar's Open House at Saujana.

Crowds were already having a great time tasting all the various great cuisines available with the store concept. I guess some of them are pretty early as they are already a stream of people leaving the place by the time we arrived. I guess they are heading to more Open house fares at other places.

It's great to note the volunteers, who are mainly students, helping to clear the tables. It's pure hard work but we can sense the happiness and satisfaction in contributing their time to make this yearly event a success. The smile and enthusiasm on their faces says it all despite all the hard work of pulling the heavy rubbish all around.

Hmm.. from the pic, you can see the various delicious fares that we help ourselves to. But it's the true spirit of Hari Raya that we are looking forward to every year in our unique multi-racial & multi-cultural atmosphere. This is the time for peace & harmony to prevail.

But despite all the joy & festivities, there are some sad episodes that took place recently. The spirit of forgiveness, the integrity of freedom of expression, due respect for each other's culture seems to be heading the wrong direction.

It's especially sad to note of the recent ISA detentions and the vague justifications and reasons provided for their arrests. Do charge them in the court of Law if they have broken the laws of our country and all of them be given a chance to defend themselves in the court of Law.

In the true spirit and harmony that's so truly unique to our beloved country, we do hope and pray that the true spirit of peace and Muhibbah still prevails.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Malaysians!!