Enter the Year of Dragon

Fortune-telling is a big business nowadays and if you’re at a bookstore you will see all sorts of magazines and books on astrology, horoscope, feng-shui, Tarot and so on. People regardless of race or religion seem to be very concern about predictions and their impacts on every scope of their lives.

In the past many years, I had read a lot of such books at the beginning of a lunar year just to have some insights into some information that is crucial to me over the next 12 months. I was particularly interested in the auspicious months that showing good sign for wealth so that I can try my luck on the lottery. Well, my experience taught me that those predictions from the feng-shui books were mostly far from accurate. There are 7 billion people in this world and how could it be only 12 Chinese zodiac or 12 horoscopes to predict the future of the astronomical number of the people.

Each of us is walking our own path and if you believe in horoscope, is the Scorpions like me who was born in Malaysia, sharing the same fate as those born in Africa, India, Indonesia, China, America or Europe? Geneticists will tell you that all of us are made of different set of genes and there will be no two individual that is sharing the identical DNA and how could 7 billion people be generally categorized into 12 zodiacs sharing the same fate?     

Life is unpredictable, every moment the clock is clicking, a completely new thing might just crop up and there is no way to predict it. Do you believe in the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar that 2012 marks the end of the world? Well, we have to wait for another 12 months to see if it actually happens. Could there be more natural disasters such as typhoons, earthquakes, wars occurring in the year of dragon? There are so many predictions by so many experts but whether these predictions are really going to happen or not only time will tell.  

One thing is for sure, there will be more Chinese couples getting married in 2012 in hoping to give birth to the dragon babies and such phenomenon are recurring every 12 years as Chinese no matter in the past or present, seem to like the dragon although this mystical creature could only be the fictional one. To me, that’s nothing wrong in reading into the predictions, the good one will make us happy and for the bad one, just take it lightly or take it as a precaution and doing things more carefully so as to avoid the bad one from happening. 

Lee Chong Wei makes us proud

It is surely a good beginning for the year of Dragon for our badminton player Lee Chong Wei after winning back-to-back victory in Korea and Malaysian Open. More importantly, he defeated two of his closest rivals for the Olympics Gold, Lin Dan in the final of Korea Open and Chen Long in the semifinal of Malaysian Open. It is also a bountiful Chinese New Year for Chong Wei too as the combined prize money was US 105,000.00. It was reported in the China Press that the stadium was full of Chong Wei’s supporters during the final on last Sunday, ended up the car park in Bukit Jalil was all full and even reporters were not able to park their cars close to the stadium. Such was the support given by the Malaysian fans to a hero that really makes up proud.

US 105,000 over a short period of 2 weeks is certainly a very good income but I guess nobody in this world will ever question whether Chong Wei deserves it. Indeed, he truly deserves it, for all the sweat, discipline and long hours he put in training and continuously improving his mental strength even defeat after defeat to Lin Dan and Chen Long and single-handedly carrying our flag in the international sports arena. He deserves it; he is the best sportsman that we have.

On the other hand, after the Auditor General exposing the “mess” of National Feedlot Corporation (NFC), and the opposition leaders digging deep into the so-called “messes”, we then know that the Chairman of NFC, who is the husband of our Women, Family and Community Development Minister, is drawing RM 100,000 a month. Their 31-year old son as the Executive Director is drawing RM 45,000 a month, another 27-year old son as the Managing Director is drawing RM 35,000 a month and another daughter aged 25 years old is drawing RM 35,000. The whole family is drawing RM 215,000.00 a month from the NFC and do these people contribute anything to the people?

Chong Wei makes us proud, he sweats and fights for his glory and for the country and we are proud to be supporting him as he possesses the finest quality of a sportsman, never say never to defeat and despite of fatigue, countless injuries and tremendous pressure on him, he stays on and never let his supporters down, and as a sole flag bearer, he boldly project the image of a fighter from Malaysia. Unlike the so-called “parasites” that are sucking bloods of the people, Lee Chong Wei stands tall in all occasions, in or out the court.

Steel-minded Kak Wan

Finally, Anwar was acquitted and the Justice had said that after going through all the evidence, the court could not be 100% certain the integrity of the DNA samples were not compromised and the court could not rely on the “so-called” victim’s testimony which was uncorroborated to convict Anwar. So this is the end of Sodomy II but we are not sure what will come up next, the sex scandal video maybe.

As Anwar was freed by the court, there were 3 explosions occurring outside the court complex, injuring a few and damaging some cars. It was so fortunate that no one was killed or else it will add another ugly incident to the more and more intense political development in the country. Who set up the explosives and why? Your guess is as good as mine but we may not even know who the actual culprits are. Just like Teoh Beng Hock’s suicide, was it really a suicide? Even the royal inquiry couldn’t tell us the truth, so be it, and your guess is as good as mine.

As Anwar was set free by the court, he thanked his wife Wan Azizah for standing by him and credited Karpal Singh as the intelligent defense counsel. In fact, Karpal before the court convicted Anwar, was so confident that he will walk a free man. As one of the experienced most lawyer in the country; he had probably found too many weakness or flaws on the prosecution side.

But Wan Azizah is such of an extraordinary woman. For so many years, she stands behind her husband despite all the humiliations of going through not other crimes but sodomy trials and all these years of sacrifices bring out the best of her strong character not normally seen on women politicians in this country. She reminded me of the Iron lady, Margaret Thatcher not for her political role but as a loving wife standing behind her husband.

When her husband Sir Denis Thatcher died in 1993, the Iron Lady had paid tribute to him in The Downing Street Years, writing "Being Prime Minister is a lonely job. In a sense, it ought to be: you cannot lead from the crowd. But with Denis there I was never alone. What a man. What a husband. What a friend". Perhaps Anwar should say the same thing; what a woman, what a wife, what a friend.  

That’s how to start a new year

It is good to start a new year just like the way Lee Chong Wei started his; smashing to such a morale-boosting victory over his nemesis Lin Dan in the final of the just concluded Korea Open. It was not all the way smooth sailing as our hero struggled in the first set, went down easily to Lin Dan which was more composed, 14-21, and after the first set, I was shaking my head and the usual “oh….not again?” feeling was back in my mind as our hero was staring at a defeat once again.

But Lee Chong Wei proved that his fitness and mental strength remained rock solid in the second set and with excellent court coverage and incredible returns that eventually wearing down his opponent Lin Dan, who was a year younger at 28. The second set was truly exciting to watch, a physically draining game for both of the players and a more even game so to speak and Lee Chong Wei eventually edging Lin Dan 21-18. The final game was a reverse of the first one as Lin Dan made far too many uncharacteristic mistakes and Lee Chong Wei was able to tame the tired and out-of-character Lin Dan.

The victory in Korea is not only a confidence booster for Lee Chong Wei but also a new budding hope for Malaysian fans that he is still capable of giving his best to land us a first ever Olympics gold medal. Lin Dan is no longer invincible but Chen long could be a serious threat though.

BAM should indeed seriously look into reducing the competitions Lee Chong Wei has to compete this year so that he can reserve his best for the Olympics. Lee can win 10 times the Super Series but without an Olympics Gold, his mission is not complete and will go into the history book of badminton as a second fiddle to Lin Dan who has won all the major competitions including the Olympics Gold.

Human can sometimes be inhumane

There were quite a number of child abuse cases reported of late and the more recent one being a boy aged 2 and his sister aged 6 were chained inside a bathroom of their house when their father was away from home working. Why would the man chained his children you may ask and he could have done it out of frustration as his boy was said to be very naughty and hyperactive and his Thai wife was not at home to take care of them. But chaining 2 and 6-year old kids in the bathroom while no adult were at home is still something that is out of the mind for many of us. We don’t even chain the dog unless it’s necessary.

 

It’s therefore back to the question of why a couple wants to have babies. If you think that you could not possibly take good care of your babies than it’s better not to have one. Human are worst than animal as we are giving out our love not unconditionally unlike the animals such as tiger or lion or birds or monkey or any other animals, raising up their babies unconditionally and sometimes fight for their lives to save the babies and never expect anything in return as their babies once grown up, will naturally leave the nest to start their own living and do they come back to take care of their parents?

 

That’s how it’s, if you decide to have babies just because you want someone to take care of you when you’re old, then you might as well drop that idea and save more money instead as with the money, you could afford yourself into luxurious old folk home and enjoying life until you die. But if you’re worry about not having any offspring and people will look at you differently then it’s better to drop the inferiority complex as well and don’t let the so called superiority complex of others affecting you. If you think that you want to share your unconditional love then you will be the ideal father or mother.

 

The point is a baby is a gift from the God, if you believe in god. Your God could be any gods you believe in. The thing is nowadays some youngsters seem to be enjoying sex without taking any contraception resulting in pregnancy by accident so to speak and a host of problem following suit, abortion, child abandonment, abuse and so forth.

Human can sometimes be inhumane.