Saturday, August 29, 2009

Breaking Fast

As a follow up, I decided to sedekah food and drinks to the family with son suffering from Polio. They were certainly happy to see me. Or maybe it was the food I brought that made them happy. In any case the joy was certainly there. I was also happy that the mother was wearing one of the shirt I donated. It fitted her pretty well. The shirt is new, never been worn. It looked good on her.

The son, Said, was on her arm. I introduces myself but she recognized me immediately. I told her I would like to sedekah these food for them to break their fast. She was delighted. The meeting was quick, we exchange pleasantry and then I was off. Afterward I was smiling all night. Whatever problems and turmoils I'm currently going through was nothing compare to theirs. Constantly trying to find food to feed the family and not knowing where the meal is coming from. This is a basic necessity.

Tonight my family will be hold a bertahlil for my late father. Told my family that I would like to pay for everything. I also told my sister to put aside some food as I would like to donate to another family living in poverty. She said she'll be tagging along this time.

The experience of giving to strangers, even though I've meet them before this, was satisfying. Though I know its not enough nor is it productive. I know they need to find away to get themself out of poverty and into a sustainable income. But at the moment I know they need it and I certainly have a lot of it, so why not give some away. This family I'm visiting tonight is also the family whose father I'll be giving a computer and printer. This is one of his wishes. He is a writer and he sells scripts, poems and other publication to RTB, Dewan Bahasa, and Production houses. He said if he has a computer then he is able to write more therefore able to earn more.

I've been lucky all my life, bless with the good parents and great siblings. I'm certainly grateful. These families are not so unfortunate. Life dealt them a lousy card. Though we sometime feel like we are dealt with the same card, but when compared ours is still a jack.

So please, in this approaching festive month, do remember that there are good people who need our helping hand. And they are certainly are good people with good hearts and good intention but with lousy circumstances. Face it, it could've been anyone of us... and it still can be if we are not careful.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Stand up and be counted

Last Sunday I was part of a group of volunteers visiting 6 families living in poverty. These families are living right under our noses. There are our neighbors and our people. The dire state they are living in was atrocious. In my mind was, how can anyone live like this? But apparently these people do. They face it every day. I now know that they have resign to the fact this is their fate, this is what was intended for them. Then we came. Bringing them food and other necessities. We bought them rice, washing liquid, clothes, sweets, and others. But what’s most important, more important than what physically bought was, hope. Hope that there are people out there who care for them, who genuinely want to help them. This is far more vital than any other necessitates that we could offer. Like a shining beacon in their otherwise darken lives.

The people of Sounds of Hope (SOH) need your support. We need to address these issues. There is a system set up to help people in poverty, but these people are stuck in a bureaucracy lop hole that their needs couldn’t be addressed. So we the people need to stand up and be counted. Owned up to our share of the responsibility. We need to rise up and heed the call of His Majesty to eradicate poverty from our country by the year 2035. We can do this. This is achievable.

I will be making a presentation of this sometime this week. One of many I hope to be doing. Hopefully I can recruit more people to join us. But more importantly, I hope to inspire more people in making a difference to other people’s lives. The greatest gift one can give is the unselfish help to others in need.

I’ll leave you with a few of the pictures taken through the day. See for yourself.













Thursday, August 20, 2009

Freedom is in the mind

I’ve been burying myself with books lately, reading them in search for inspiration and meaning. I’ve stop watching TV or playing my games until further notice. Every other things is put on hold. The common theme that seem to crop up in all these books are people need to take control of the mind, basically their thoughts. No one is truly free, until they can be the masters of their own mind. The mind is a great filter of negative thoughts; we just don’t choose to use it.

I’ve talk about being free and freedom in my other posts, but after reading these books, I realize no one is truly free. They are slaves to their own mind, their own thoughts, especially negatives ones. It controls them, steer them, convince them. These little influences can be harmful or inspirational. People can say something about you or suggest something unflattering and those thoughts sticks with you all day. Sometimes people unconsciously take on the role of what people say about them. It’s like a poison that creeps into ones head and infests the mind. Once infested, it can disrupt the person and they start to believe in it and even let it get to them, constantly thinking about it until one they either explode into rage or retreat back into depression resulting in being a recluse. Even though we are in a free society, true freedom can never be achieved until we become masters of their own mind. Don’t let anything negative over crowd it.

Einstein once said that the human mind is only used at 10% capacity. The other 90% have yet to be achieved. He said that if we are capable of reaching 100%, the wonders we could do would be unimaginable. The only limitation that human have is their body. Our body is the only thing that stopping us from flying, swimming under water, climbing mountains, interstellar travel and more. It’s because of our body that we aren’t able to match our imagination. Einstein predicts that if one day we could reach full capacity, we would not need our body. We would transcend into another consciousness.

The mind is a fragile thing. It can make you or break you. It can help you achieve greatness or reduce you to emotional anguish. It will also affect your body and soul. It can eat you up alive. Take really good care of your mind just like you take care of your body by exercising and your soul by praying. Only after that you can truly feel alive, free, achieve your dream and experience eternal peace.

Friday, August 14, 2009

Only at the precipice

Santosh recently commented on my one of post (see: Modern Money Mechanics or Modern Day Slavery). I’m very happy that I open someone’s eye and made aware. This is my intention to change one mind at a time, to wake people up. I thank you for your support and remarks. I wanted to comment back but decided to reply here.

In my other recent post (see: The future by design), I pointed that there are basically 2 ways to achieve this dream. To have a Resource Based Economy, we would need either a mass conversion or by force. We don’t want the latter. Violence is not the answer. It never is. But the system is the only workable solution we have. All the other systems; Market, Mixed, Communism will and has fail. Communism failure is well documented and Market economy is now on the brink of collapse. Additionally they all have one thing in common; Money. In a Resource Based Economy, money is obsolete. And any job that have anything to do with money; Accountants, Bankers, Stock Brokers, will also be obsolete. We are condition to think money is a resource. But it’s not, money DOESN’T make a car run, money DOESN’T make someone’s eyes see again, money DOESN’T make a bulb light up. This is all technological problems and was solve by technology, NOT money. It’s just unfortunate that money is in the current system. But we also inherit the various fault that comes with this monitory system; greed, profiteering, crime, poverty. When money is obsolete, poverty would cease to exist. Can you see the logic?

I’ve been able to bring this matter up into many of my conversion. Making people aware of such system. But whenever I mention it, it has two reactions; like it or hate it. Those that like usually consist of people who have a certain feelings all their lives that something is totally wrong, something is missing. But they don’t know what it is. They also are people who want to make changes, make a difference. They accept it and see the validity in the idea. Then there are those who oppose it. This people are usually materialistic, have money and are only interested in self preservation. Don’t get me wrong, they are not bad people but just like things the way it is. Usually it’s because they have it good in life. But I have it good in life and have been pretty lucky so far. But I can’t help but feel that there is a void in my life and money cannot fill it. I don’t know if others understand me but there is something that is totally wrong with the way to live, the way we interact, and the way go about our business. Its feels unnatural to me, don’t you people feel it too? And I’m NOT talking about the Matrix type thing.

The Resource Based Economy is not perfect by any means. But what it is is better. It’s better than the current one we have. In my opinion, way-way better. Poverty will be non existence for one and we will live in equilibrium with our environment, nature and animals.

I was once asked which I would rather help, animals or people? The person said animals because animals only receive kindness and people have minds that can help them. I of course said people. Because when you try to save animal, who are you saving them from?... People. And who is doing the savings?... People. The human race is the only species in this world that can truly make a difference. If we save the people i.e. embracing this Resource based Economy, we will inadvertently help the animals. And nature, and the world and therefore our future as a whole, the entire inhabitant of this world. Maybe things need to get worse, like really-really bad, and then maybe people would change. Only at the precipice.

Jacque said “It is not enough to criticize society without offering a workable alternative” and this is workable.