BANGLASIA BY Namewee: where to donate

There are barely 7 more days left to the fundraising for the Internet Free Release of the movie BANGLASIA by the talented Namewee provided USD 500,000 is collected through Kickstarter.

The link is here https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1416624528/banglasia-movie-by-namewee/description

So far less than half of the funds needed have been pledged by backers. Do take a look at the plight of this movie which could not survive the censorship of the country where it was referring to and decide if USD5 is too much for you to support this project.

Unless a miracle donor buys up all the bigger spots in the next one week... Chances are this project may be buried forever.... Imagine it as a kitten that is shivering in the rain and may die of cold if no one help soon.. Won't you help to relieve the suffering just a little by providing shelter? In the name of art and entertainment and regardless of how we may hate or love Namewee he has made an impact to Malaysia's colourful landscape to be even more vibrant. ONE THING IS FOR SURE, Namewee is surely truly passionate about whatever he does and he has lost a lot of weight in his latest video. Regardless of what happens please don't bury the movie Namewee. Don't ever stop being yourself. 

The link again: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1416624528/banglasia-movie-by-namewee/description

UPDATE ON ABBY

JULY 4, 2015 (continuation from earlier blog post http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/2015/06/mid-year-crisis.html)

Today (July 3) is a glorious day ... after 10 nights in ICU (and the earlier 2 nights in a private hospital) our sister Abby is finally transferred out from ICU to a normal ward.

As she had fasciotomy performed to save her limb (left arm), her entire arm is of no use at the moment.. the doctor has not ascertained the exact extent of the dead muscles but we are told she still has enough muscles left to regain most use of her left arm, if not 100%... the road ahead will be a slow and painful one for her as she struggle with relearning how to move and use her left arm. She can barely clench her fingers now and she cannot unflex her grasp without the help of her right hand.

She still needs to be hospitalised as the doctor needed to perform further operations on her and they are leaving the wound open, mostly unstitched as that is usually what fasciotomy is and it shall be a few more weeks for her at the hospital and then some more weeks of medical leave until she is fit enough to go back to work.. driving will be a problem.. but she shall have us by her side at every juncture of the journey.

We are thankful for all prayers and well wishes from all. We truly are grateful and glad we still have Abby with us and most importantly she is going to live to celebrate her 30th birthday in August.

Her internal organs are out of danger (hence the transfer out from ICU) and her blood levels are back to normal, well, almost normal.

And yes.. her initial diagnosis was dengue fever which she has contracted the second time in 6 years and neither of the remedies worked... not papaya leaf juice.. young papaya fruit sap.. crabs soup and flesh... not frog with bitter gourd.. not this not that.. we have literally tried everything up till her platlets dropped to below critical to dangerously low below 15.

What helped were constant blood transfusion alternating with platelet transfusions and lots of prayer and positive thoughts sent her way. She was drifting in and out of consciousness as her organs were under attack, especially her liver, which caused her blood to not be like us normal people hence causing compartment syndrome.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2058838-overview

If you see the link above.. it must be performed within 6 hours of it happening yet Abby only had it done after 2 days as her blood works were not good enough for surgery or else she will risk excessive bleeding to death. Hence the death of her muscles. She is very lucky in the sense that they didn't have to sacrifice her arm in order to save her life, i.e. amputation after allowing the arm to die. She saw the scar this morning when they were doing dressing and it was depressing  but she quickly forced herself to accept the scar and the still open wound as part of her now. We are so proud of how brave she is.

Doctors said her condition was very critical where mortality rate is high especially with an almost definite mortality for the very young or very old... and we were right to fear her death. She fought and won and for that we are truly thankful.

If she is to get dengue the third time it will be even more dangerous. She is renting with her husband at a landed property, single storey terrace house now. My parents are persuading them to move to higher floors, i.e. condominiums when she is discharged but we shall cross the bridge when we come there.

Her husband also contracted dengue at the same time and recovered quickly within a week with lots of 100Plus and rest at home. No need for the remedies, etc. We were quite taken aback by some well wishes who vehemently preached certain remedies and implied that our mother had not tried hard enough to save her. God knows how much we tried and to what extent our dear mother has tried for her youngest daughter to the extent of begging for the ingredients from the gardens of strangers.

At our most worrying and trying times, it got too much for our parents to even answer phone calls or reply to messages on whatsapp or even meet and talk with another person... each time they relate to an individual about our sister's condition, they will be sad and tears tend to fall.. imagine you have 100 enquiries and you need to cry 100 times... it was really emotionally taxing.. if your queries went unanswered during that period, we are truly sorry but for our sanity and to keep things together... we needed to shut out the world for awhile.

With Abby's life out of danger now, our family can now sleep soundly for the first time in nearly 2 weeks.

AGAIN, THANK YOU for your support and we believe every prayer counts in her recovery. With every worst scenario that was presented to us, many u-turns were provided that somehow our sister managed to scrap through with the slightest margin.. and we were met with much kindness, many sympathetic nurses and doctors, much support from every one, most who have never known Abby personally and many who donated blood to replenish the hospital's blood bank for the general good, and the many prayers and well wishes from everyone whom we may not be able to name one by one... from the bottom of our hearts.. thank you. We saw the true human spirit and have not lost hope with humanity. We are truly blessed. Thank you for the help and prayers rendered from people from multiracial and multireligious backgrounds or denominations. We saw religious tolerance at its best when it is a matter of life and death.

THERE IS STILL HOPE FOR HUMANITY.

THANK YOU.

p/s- Aedes mosquito breeding grounds must be eliminated... Dengue is very real and it really can kill.

I would not wish this upon anyone or for any family to go through the grief or heartache of this illness.. And there is still no medicine for this. Forget the traditional remedies.. seek treatment from the government hospital immediately and get your blood tests done. My sister was initially rejected a blood test from a 24 hour clinic near our are in Setapak, we are still contemplating if we should pursue further action with that clinic with two very sarcastic locum doctors (visited twice in two consecutive evenings). Go straight to a hospital if you display the symptoms of dengue which may include high or low grade fever with extreme pain on your bones and joints and a terrible splitting headache and lethargy.

May all beings be well and happy.

Sabbe Satta Bhavantu Sukhitatha.

What It Means to be Malaysian to Me

I promise this will be a shorter post compared to the long posts in my blog.

Happy Independence Day, Malaysia! Technically, it is Malaya who is 55 years old, Malaysia as a country is only 49 years old, formed by Sabah and Sarawak in Borneo, Singapore (who then left about two years later) and Malaya (now referred to as Peninsula Malaysia). Malaysia Day is celebrated on 16th September. :-)

I guess I need to write an essay on what it means to be Malaysian in my opinion.

Here goes.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE MALAYSIAN...

TO MY FAMILY: My late grandpa (who passed away at the age of 95 in 2007 a week before my weddding) always said: "Malaysia is a peaceful place. You can earn a living as long as you are hardworking." He came from China in the 1930s, when times are hard after the 1911 Chinese Revolution. He travelled with valid travel documents and settled down in Kuching, Sarawak, a state in Borneo, where he started his family and became part of the newly formed nation in 1963 through naturalisation - he was official "British" before 1963.

Same goes to my mom's parents, my parents' birth certificates showed "British" as their nationality as both my parents were born before 1963. British or no British, we are all Malaysians now. We are not even that state-centric anymore, we have relocated from Borneo to Peninsular Malaysia, my siblings and I have found non-Sarawakian
partners, we cannot afford to be state-centric anymore anyway!

TO FELLOW MALAYSIANS: Generally we young people (sweeping statement here, pardon me please) does not really bother about National's Day after we left mainstream education, where we had to line up and sing patriotic songs as well as the National anthem on a day before or after the actual public holiday in the spirit of Merdeka - in Bahasa Malaysia, the national language, Merdeka means - Independence (Free from Colonialism).

MY OWN TAKE:
The first time I was part of a National Day countdown was on August 30, 2005. I was still a reporter back then, I sat very close to the grand stand (main stage) where all the VIPs were at. By the time the countdown of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and MERDEKA! was shouted by everyone at Dataran Merdeka - the place where Malaya's Independence was first declared and shouted by the first Premier, Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj - I tell you, I actually felt a lump threatening to choke my throat, I was moved. The feeling was surreal. Here I was, at the same venue where our forefathers fought for independence and with everyone shouting "Merdeka", and I joined in as well, it beats watching a game at the Stadium or shouting for your idol anytime, the feeling is totally different! I blogged about it on Friendster but sadly, it has died a natural death, so I lost all data and pics of that night.

TO THE WORLD:
The people globally usually refer to Malaysia as only Peninsular Malaysia and shorten our citizens' name to the MALAYS. That is from the olden pre-Independent days where Malaya was called Tanah Melayu, the Land of Malays. Paintings of South East Asia map labelled Peninsular Malaysia as Malay. Even when I went to Hong Kong and mainland China, they referred to us as Malays. Fine.

RACES/SOCIETY IN MALAYSIA
For the record, Malaysia is a multi-racial country with Muslim as the official religion while non-Malays can profess any religion of their choice. Malay is the majority, with about 60% of the population, the rest are the Chinese (Chinese descent, not China-Chinese), Indian (Indian descent from India, but not India-Indian), the indegenious people in Peninsular Malaysia like Sakai, Jakun, and also 26 ethnic groups in the state of Sarawak in Borneo (Iban is the majority) and 27 ethnic groups in the state of Sabah in Borneo (Kadazan is the majority) - the two states in Borneo comprises East Malaysia, separated by South China Sea from Peninsular Malaysia.

Inter-racial marriages, and even inter-religious marriages had turned Malaysians into a colourful potpourri. I promised a short blog post, so for more information, feel free to google up Malaysia.

One thing synonymous with Malaysians are its food.

FOOD, FOOD, oh glorious food.

It doesn't matter what style of cooking it is, the Malays will cook Halal (ALMOST equivalent of 'kosher') food, but in Chinese or Indian style, we will have Malay style Chinese Fried Rice, or Indian style Fried noodles, and even the uniquely 'Mamak' or 'peranakan' cooking which is the result of racial integration of mixed marriages. Oh, don't get me started on the food for rest of the ethnicities in Sabah and Sarawak, my homeland of Borneo.

Pix shows some traditional cooking (meat in bamboo over the fire) by my friend's mom during Gawai Harvest Festival in mid-year in Sarawak.


I will not be telling the whole truth if I say we are truly tolerant with each other. However, let me remind you that even in a close-knit family, there will be squabbles and disagreements, what more to say in such a diverse community like what we have in Malaysia? Whoever we vote for, be it pro-Government or pro-Opposition, we are all just Malaysian voters exercising our rights. At the end of the day, we eat the same food, breathe in the same air, stay in the same country.

We are far from Utopia but generally, Malaysians are peace-loving people and once you get to know us and we overcome our initial 'shyness', we are always ready with a smile and will render any help we can. Just don't provoke us or call us names as we pride ourselves in our rich heritage and languages.

Selamat Hari Merdeka to all Malaysians! *Peace be unto all of us*

You may be interested to read more: http://suesanctuary.blogspot.com/search/label/1Malaysia

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Happy Eid) to all Muslims!

Malaysia is a multi-racial & multi-religious country despite its Constitution stating that it is a Muslim country with Islam as the official religion. We are free to believe and adopt any faith we choose.

I love the practice of asking for forgiveness on a New Year for the Muslims (the first day of the Muslim Calendar Month of Syawal). Happy Eid and I apologise for all my wrongdoings and trespassings in the past one year.

Kepada sahabat Muslim sekalian, Selamat Hari Raya Puasa, Maaf Zahir dan Batin!

I will make up for the food when I return from my China trip. Been scheduling my posts for the past few days as I am away till after the first two days of Raya (Eid!). My Muslim friends told me the celebration lasts the whole 30 days, a whole month, so I will feast on the delicious food when I return!!! Ketupat, Rendang, ayam masak merah, soto, etc... you can google them up for the mouth-watering images. *craving mode*

Some cute pix of a sales brochure of a hypermarket. They illustrations are just so adorable! Have a great celebration!!!

Where is the love? Humans do bicker and blame others, when can thefinger-pointing stop?

DISCLAIMER: This is a general post on the most general level, being my first attempt at using the Blogger app for iPhone I just downloaded from the App Store. I am not personally lashing out at anyone but if you do feel the 'sting', maybe there's some 'truth' in what I saw and I hope you will give my points some thoughts. This isn't meant to disparage anyone and are all my personal opinion.

Now that we have done the 'disclaimer', since there are just so many 'sensitive' readers out there, who think the world revolves around them instead of them being a small part of the cosmic system, here goes.

I think in this topic, there are generally three types of people.

1. The ones who have opinions, let others know of their opinions and they don't accept others' opinions 'graciously', the keyword here is graciously - these people I'll call 'Always Right' - usually these people resort to putting down others or launch personal attacks or drama in their feeble attempt at 'defense'.

2. The ones who have opinions but keep their opinions to themselves, and they may or may not agree with others' opinion, these people I'd like to call the 'Passive Ones' - usually these people will be sitting on the fence but when it comes to choosing sides, they will surprise you by joining in the name-calling, albeit anonymously.

3. The ones who have their opinions and let others know about them yet at the same time allows for room to discuss and accept others' opinion on a professional level with minimal hassle - I'll refer to them as the 'Open Professionals' - enough said.

These are just terms I coin to easily refer to them in this blogpost. I think the Open professionals are the most ideal but that's just my opinion, don't take my word for it.

If you cannot agree with what I say, so be it. This is my blog and a place for me to post my opinion. If everyone in the world is entitled to their opinion - If you cannot accept others' opinion, why do you wish to impose your opinion on others in the first place? Do you like it when I impose on you? No? Then why do you do it to others' then? Are you a more superior human being that others need to listen to you and you only? You know there is a thin line between imposing, forcing and 'bullying'? I am 'talking' to the first group, the 'Always Right'.

To the second group, why are you so 'cowardly' and do not even own up to your own opinion and resort to 'anonymous chicken' comments, especially in the cyber world. You think you are 'safe' and anonymous, but trust me, there isn't such thing as privacy online, nothing is completely private unless you resort to totally not go online, erase all your records, change your name and live in a remote area.

Why act surprised when your information is easily dug up via a simple google or Facebook search? Then you usually will play the victim and use the words/phrases like 'I usually maintain a low profile', I didn't mean it that way, 'I didn't write that out of malice, I was drunk/insane/account hijacked/forced by my dog/__fill in the blank__ to write that comment. The point is they wish to have nothing to do or own up to their comments. I think the Passive Ones are even worse than the first group in the sense of taking ownership of their own actions, especially online. Usually the first and second groups - Always Right and Passive Ones are interchangeable, they may share some things in comment, that I call a lethal combination.

EXAMPLE: On fb, set on a 'public' privacy setting, one innocent picture of several young girls in their 20s who pose for a camwhoring session. They are just girls having fun with the camera.

I shall use Mr as a generic term and do not mean to disparage men in general, same principle as saying 'He' instead of bothering about the gender. I am all for gender equality BUT some form of literary uniformity is required here.

Mr Always Right 1: see what I found on fb! (shares picture by saving it and uploading it hence claiming it
His own)

Mr Passive One 1: How sexy. *expletive* (he is not using his real name when commenting)

Mr Always Right 1: yeah, *insert judgement* They are asking for it.

Mr Always Right 2: Oh, I see they are really asking for it, dressing up that way *insert expletive* hahaha

Mr Passive One 2: *insert some disparaging remarks and expletives*

Mr Always Right 3: *passes down more judgement in order to appear 'original' with his 'witty' comments on the 'topic' and in doing so, he put down the girls even more*

Mr Always Right 1: *tries to outdo everyone thus far and reminded everyone that it was him, the genius who first 'discovered' the girls and adds more disparaging remarks about the girls and suddenly it became a 'match' of who can come up with the most disparaging remarks about the girls*

Mr Passive One 3: *joins in the banter by giving his 'humble opinion' anonymously*

Mr Passive One 4: *overcame his 'shyness' and in a totally misguided sense of 'revenge' based on a personal rejection by a girl who turned him down back in high school YEARS AGO, lashed out on the girls and call them even worse names than those already mentioned before in the comments*

Mr Always Right 2: *came back online and saw that the other comments are saucier and more vicious than his previous comments, hence to boost his over inflated ego and in an attempt to 'win' the non-existent best commenter award of the thread, offered his two cents by adding in more expletives and self-righteous comments in his holier-than-thou comment*

Mr Passive One 5: *claps his virtual hands and joins in the name calling*

Mr Always Right 4: *saw that this topic is bumped a lot by the comments, hence he figured it is a 'place to be seen', hence he joined in the conversation with what he thinks is the 'best disparaging remark' and passed down judgement on the most superficial level*

Mr Always Right 5: *does not want to be left out from sharing his opinion on such a 'hot topic', and passed down his judgement by calling the girls in the picture even worse names, somehow he thought it will be clever to add in a dash of politics to the comment*

Mr Passive One 6: *obviously turned on and deliriously happy with the entire bantering and shared a personal anecdote of how these girls reminded him of the b*tch he used to date once - what we didn't know is that the date never happened beyond his imagination*

Mr Always Right 1: *not wanting to 'lose out' he topped the politics comment by Mr Always Right 5 and made a very racist and politically-fueled comment, linking the girls in the pix to 'those dirty politicians'

Mr Passive One 1: *returned online an saw how the topic has escalated to politics and joins in the excitement*

AND THE COMMENTS CONTINUED UNTIL MORE THAN 20 (or more) different people commented on it.

Somehow the 'sensational' platform which witnessed their extreme display of 'high' intellect resulted in the issue to go viral and the 'share' button on fb is put to good use.

Usually the girls in the pic don't even know what hit them. Ignorance is Bliss you say?

Totally random strangers and guys (including some fellow females) lashed out at them and judged them from head to toe, even an innocent smile is deemed improper and 'asking for it', etc. Many girls dress the same way they are dressed in the picture but somehow it is wrong just because they were target practice for over-inflated egos who love to share their 'brilliant' opinions.

I am getting all riled up here am I not? Okay, end of example 1.

DISCLAIMER OF THE EXAMPLE ABOVE: The above example is entirely fictional and created in the mind of the author and bears no resemblance to any living beings, humans or otherwise.

WHAT I FEEL SHOULD BE DONE:
The world needs more love. Love yourself, be comfortable in your own skin, solve your own insecurities and please don't lash out at strangers or even high profile personalities who do not even know your name. Everything starts from you, internally.

Those who judge are usually lacking something 'inside', hence they make up for it by passing on judgement about others and then feel 'good' about it, get a kick out of it and the vicious cycle continues.

It is true then when they say 'Big egos usually come together with self-esteem issues'. Enough said.

Some Chinese sayings/poem that my dad passed to me yesterday (Sunday), I don't read Chinese, never been to a Chinese school before, but what I can gather is - the title is "All if Good" - summary: Look at the Positive side of things, think positive, let positivity into your life:

Religious Tolerance - Quote From the Late Chief Reverend K Sri Dhammananda Nayaka Thera

A random search on my old blogs and this came up.

I actually paraphrased the quote I've heard in one of the talks I was fortunate enough to attend when the late Chief Reverend was still with us - the High Priest of Malaysia and Singapore has passed on five years ago on 31st August 2006.

"One thing that I have NOT done in my 54 years in Malaysia: I have NOT converted one person to Buddhism. If they are Christians and they came to me for advice/help, I ask them to go back to be better Christians, if they are Muslims or Hindus or Sikh or professed other religions, I ask them to go back and be better Muslims or Hindus or Sikh or practise their faith better. That is one thing which I have not done - to convert another to Buddhism" - Dr K. Sri Dhammananda.

With that, can't we all live with religious tolerance and continue to be happy without wanting others to 'conform' to our 'norms' because there is no such thing as the perfect 'norm'. Peace be unto you. :-)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._Sri_Dhammananda

DHAMMANANDA’S THOUGHTS

"Happy is he who has lofty and noble aspirations.
Happy is he who enriches the lives of others.
Happy is he who allows others to live in peace.
Happy is he who makes this world a better place to live in.
Happy is he whose work, chores and daily tasks are labours of love.
Happy is he who loves love".