The Book Burners

This is Terry Jones, the Christian pastor who wanted to burn the Holy Quran in 2010, as he believed that certain text written in the Quran was responsible for the September 11 2001 tragedy and, therefore, it was justifiable for him to carry out his threat.  This started an international outburst with the then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and other senior officials in the White House, denouncing this act of lunacy.  A global petition, in which I was one of the signatories, received responses from thousands of people, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims, protesting against such a wanton act.  Without saying, our Muslim leaders in the government too sounded their utmost displeasure.

 

This is Ibrahim Ali, the man who initiated the "Burn The Bible" pesta.  According to him, the Bible has no right to contain the word 'Allah' and therefore needed to be burnt. Responses from the international community, the prime minister and the Christian leaders in the government ............ SILENCE.
To add insult to the injury, one UMNO Baru leader even had the audacity to say that the Bible was incorrectly printed and Ibrahim Ali's move to burn the Bible should be supported.

Let's take a lesson from History.  On May 10 1933, the Nazi party in Hitler's Germany ordered all books written by Jewish authors to be burnt.  According to them, such books would have a bad influence on the German society as the new order wished to promote a new way of life. They asserted the need to "purify" German language and literature.  They considered such books as 'entartet' (degenerate) and should not be read by decent Germans

Among those books burnt were those written by Heinrich Heine who said, “Dort, wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen" ["Where they burn books, they will in the end, also burn people."]

Book burning in Nazi Germany - May 10 1933

Monday Humour

A guy is browsing in a pet shop, and sees a parrot sitting on a little perch.
It doesn't have any feet or legs.
The guy says aloud, 'Jeesh, I wonder what happened to this parrot.?'
The parrot says, 'I was born this way.
I'm a defective parrot.'
'Holy crap,' the guy replies. 
'You actually understood and answered me. !'
'I got every word,' says the parrot.
'I happen to be a highly intelligent, and a thoroughly educated bird'
'Oh yeah?' the guy asks.
'Then answer this, how do you hang onto your perch, without any feet.?'
'Well,' the parrot says, 'this is very embarrassing, but since you asked, I wrap my weenie around this wooden bar, like a little hook.
You can't see it, because of my feathers.'
'Wow,' says the guy.
'You really can understand, and can speak English, can't you.?'
'Actually, I speak both Spanish and English, and I can converse with reasonable competence on almost any topic, politics, religion, sports, physics, philosophy.
I'm especially good at ornithology.
You really ought to buy me, I'd be a great companion.'
The guy looks at the $200.00 price tag.
'Sorry, but I just can't afford that.'
'Pssssssst,' says the parrot, 'I'm defective, so the truth is, nobody wants me, cause I don't have any feet.
You can probably get me for $20, just make the guy an offer.!'
The guy offers $20, and walks out with the parrot.

Weeks go by.
The parrot is sensational.
He has a great sense of humor, he's interesting, he's a great pal, he understands everything, he sympathizes, and he's insightful.
The guy is delighted.
One day the guy comes home from work, and the parrot goes, 'Psssssssssssst,' and motions him over with one wing.
'I don't know if I should tell you this or not, but it's about your wife, and the Austpost man.'
'What are you talking about,?' asks the guy.
'When he delivered a package today, your wife greeted him at the door, in a sheer black nightie.'
 'WHAT???' the guy asks incredulously.
'THEN what happened?'
'Well, he came into the house, and lifted up her nightie, and began petting her all over,' reported the parrot.
'NO!' he exclaims, 'and she let him.?'
 'Yes.
Then he continued taking off the nightie, got down on his knees, and began to kiss her all over.'
Then the frantic guy demands, 'THEN WHAT HAPPENED.?'

DUNNO?!? I got an erection, and fell off my perch.!'  
If this doesn't make you laugh, you're having a really bad day.
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John was in a bar looking very dejected.

His friend, Steve, walked over and asked,
"What's wrong?"

"It's my mother-in-law, " John replied,
While shaking his head sadly. "I have
A real problem with her."

"Cheer up," Steve said. "Everyone has
Problems with their mother-in-law. "

"Yeah," John answered. "But I got mine pregnant."

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A woman and her ten-year-old son were riding in a taxi in the city. It was raining and all the prostitutes were standing under the awnings.

 

"Mom," said the boy, "what are all those women doing?"

 

"They're waiting for their husbands to get off work," she replied.

 

The taxi driver turns around and says, "Geez lady, why don't you tell him the truth? They're hookers, boy! They have sex with men for money.."

 

The little boy's eyes get wide and he says, "Is that true, Mom?"

 

His mother, glaring hard at the driver, answers in affirmative. After a few minutes, the kid asks, "Mom, what happens to the babies those women have?"

 

"Most of them become taxi drivers," she said.

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To all Grandpas and Grandmas, make sure that you understand the question first....
 
We are all reaching that stage where we need to keep the wax out
of our ears and keep the hearing aids tuned up.

What Is Couple Sex?

An 8-year-old girl went to her grandfather, who was working in the
yard and asked him, "Grandpa, what is a couple sex?

The grandfather was surprised that she would ask such a question,
but decided that if she's old enough to know to ask the question then
she's old enough to get a straight answer.

Steeling himself to leave nothing out, he proceeded to tell her
all about human reproduction and the joys and responsibilities that go along
with it.

When he finished explaining, the little girl was looking at him
with her mouth hanging open, eyes wide in amazement. Seeing the look on her
face, the grandfather asked her, "Why did you ask this question, honey?

The little girl replied, "Well, Grandma says to tell you that
dinner will be ready in just a couple secs.

My alma mater - GONE!!!!!

For those who were schooled in SMK Jalan Cochrane, the one along the main road of Jalan Cochrane and not the present one straddling over Jalan Shahbandar and Jalan Mentri in Jalan Peel, sad news, the entire school is gone - in the name of progress.  My 5 years of memories (1961-1965) of our time spent there, totally wiped clean, demolished.

Then,

Now,

The new MRT terminal will be built here, where the school used to stand

The blogger, wife Heidi and grand kids infront of the famous Cochranean Owl, now relocated at the new premise.

 

May the spirit of the Cochranean live on

Happy Birthday, Nelson Mandela!

Today marks Nelson Mandela’s 95th birthday. Mandela served 27 years in prison. He came out - rooted and grounded in hope - w...ith a smile on his face, preaching peace and togetherness. Today, the world wishes Nelson Mandela a Happy Birthday or imini emandi kuwe in his native Xhosa language.

Here are are few quotations for your reflection.

- During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for. But, my lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

- I had no epiphany, no singular revelation, no moment of truth, but a steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities and a thousand unremembered moments produced in me an anger, a rebelliousness, a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people. There was no particular day on which I said, Henceforth I will devote myself to the liberation of my people; instead, I simply found myself doing so, and could not do otherwise.

- You will achieve more in this world through acts of mercy than you will through acts of retribution.

- The first thing is to be honest with yourself. You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself… Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.

- No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

- I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

- Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.

- We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.

- If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

Painting | Nelson Mandela Original Acrylic Portrait Painting by Artist Derek Russell 

Would our UMNO leaders, Hasan Ali, Ibrahim Ali, Zulkifli Nordin and Ridhuan Tee have said the same thing that Malala Yousafzai said

The following is an extract from John Dean's article, "Malala's message to Malaysia".

And if there’s one contemporary symbol and personification of such daring, it is Malala Yousafzai, the young Muslim girl who was shot by the Taliban last October for the “crime” of attending school.

In her recent address to the United Nations General Assembly on the occasion of her 16th birthday, Malala put the advocates and supporters of warring sectarian “truths” to shame by speaking of “the compassion I have learned from Muhammad, the prophet of mercy, Jesus Christ and Lord Buddha... the legacy of change I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela (right) and Mohammad Ali Jinnah... (and) the philosophy of non-violence that I have learned from Gandhi, Bacha Khan and Mother Theresa.”

Later in her eloquent and intelligent address, she criticised those who misuse Islam, “a religion of peace, humanity and brotherhood”, for their own personal benefit, before closing with the clarion call for the world to use education “to wage a glorious struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism.”

Remember Malala Yousafzai?

Malālah Yūsafzay, born 12 July 1997) is a Pakistani school pupil and education activist from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. She is known for her education and women's rights  activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban had at times banned girls from attending schools. In early 2009, at the age of 11–12, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley, and her views on promoting education for girls. The following summer, a New York Times documentary was filmed about her life as the Pakistani military intervened in the region, culminating in the Second Battle of Swat. Yousafzai began to rise in prominence, giving interviews in print and on television and taking a position as chairperson of the District Child Assembly Swat. She has since been nominated for the International Children's Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu and the Nobel Peace Prize, being the youngest nominee in history for the latter. She is the winner of Pakistan's first National Youth Peace Prize.

On 9 October 2012, Yousafzai was shot in the head and neck in an assassination attempt by Taliban gunmen while returning home on a school bus. In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to the  Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in the United Kingdom for intensive rehabilitation. On 12 October, a group of 50 Islamic clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwa against those who tried to kill her, but the Taliban reiterated its intent to kill Yousafzai and her father, Ziauddin.
Former British Prime Minister and current U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown launched a United Nations petition in Yousafzai's name, using the slogan "I am Malala" and demanding that all children worldwide be in school by the end of 2015. Brown said he would hand the petition to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardariin November. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has announced on 10 November that 12 July, the birthday of Malala Yousafzai will be celebrated as Malala Day.

In the 29 April 2013 issue of Time magazine, Malala was featured on the magazine's front cover and as one of "The 100 Most Influential People In The World". Her section was written by Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former US President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton.

Monday Humour

Here's something to think about. 

I recently picked a new G.P. doctor.

After two visits and exhaustive Lab tests, he said I was doing 'fairly well' for my age. (Yeh I just reached 65).

A little concerned about that comment, I couldn't resist asking him, 'Do you think I'll live to be 85?'

He asked, 'Do you smoke tobacco, or drink beer, wine or hard liquor?

'Oh not much grog these days and don't smoke' I replied. 'I'm not doing drugs, either!'

Then he asked, 'Do you eat rib-eye steaks, fatty roasts and barbecued Ribs?

'I said, 'Not much.... my former doctor said that all red meat is very unhealthy!'

'Do you spend a lot of time in the sun, like playing golf, boating, sailing, surfing, hiking, or bicycling?'

'No, I don't,' I said.

He asked, 'Do you gamble, drive fast cars, or have a lots of sex?'

'No,' I said....

He looked at me and said,.. 'Then, why in the world would you want to live to 85?

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AT A GAY WEDDING BETWEEN 2 MEN, THE PRIEST WAS CONFUSED AS TO HOW TO DECLARED THEM AS HUSBAND AND WIFE.

  

AFTER A LONG SILENCE HE SAID, "I PRONOUNCE YOU AS "MAN UNITED"

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What deep thinkers men are. I mowed the lawn today, and after doing so I sat down and had a cold beer. The day was really quite beautiful, and the drink facilitated some deep thinking. 

My wife walked by and asked me what I was doing and I said 'nothing'. The reason I said that instead of saying 'just thinking' is because she would have said 'about what'. 

At that point I would have to explain that men are deep thinkers about various topics which would lead to other questions. 

Finally I thought about an age old question: 

Is giving birth more painful than getting kicked in the nuts? 

Women always maintain that giving birth is way more painful than a guy getting kicked in the nuts. 

Well, after another beer, and some heavy deductive thinking, I have come up with the answer to that question. 

Getting kicked in the nuts is more painful than having a baby; and here is the reason for my conclusion. 

A year or so after giving birth, a woman will often say, "It might be nice to have another child." 

On the other hand, you never hear a guy say, "You know, I think I would like another kick in the nuts." 

I rest my case. Time for another beer.