DREAMS

"Dream the impossible because dreams do come true.
Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the chldren of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements"

Why He Disappeared ?

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Man with Hugh Penis Stopped at Airport

Frustrated with What You Are Born With


Do you ever feel frustrated with whatever you are born with,  your physical attributes, deficiencies or sometimes the excessive side of it.   I read this news  article yesterday from my local Star Newspaper about a man with hugh penis being stopped at airport,  so the heading of the article goes.

It must be embarrassing and frustrating experience but apparently, it was not the first time the Jonah Falcon encountered the unpleasant experience.   Jonah Falcon, 41 has an organ which is 9.5 inches long when flaccid and 13 inches erect, according to the Rolling Stone magazine as quoted.   Jonah was returning to New York from San Francisco on July 9 and was stopped by airport officials when they saw a bulge hanging down over his left upper thigh.   “They wanted to know if I had something in my pockets, and when I said no, they asked if I had some sort of growth.” Jonah said.  Jonah told them it was his penis, and they checked around his crotch, although not too closely.  He was delayed for 5 minutes.  It must have been embarrassing.

There are many people born with lots of deformities, sometime beyond our imaginations.  The above case is one.  When I read this, it brought back memories of my youngest daughter born with serious deformities that I recalled  that at that very moment, nothing  matters but the very life of the baby is more important.  I had to deal with the situation for 10 over years, accepting whatever physically and  mental defects and to live to be happy with the situation.   

So if you are one who happened to be the unfortunate one, born short of perfection,  do not begrudge and frustrated with what you are short off,   learn to be happy and accepting what you given to you.  An inspiring case is  Live Life  , you can read the detail by checking this out.

So be happy, and never be always complaining and frustrated about live.



Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Robin Gibb of Bee Gees Demise


Passing of my favorite  – Robin Gibb of the Legendary Bee Gees

Today,  the world over  is mourning the loss of yet another legendary singer who brought us so many sweet music and songs of the yesteryear.   Robin passed away at the age of 62 losing a battle with the cancer of colon and liver.  Bee Gee’s songs are favorites to many, and one of my favorite “Don’t forget to remember” probably rings familiar to many who were teenagers of the 70s,  the favorite pop group that fills the dance floor and disco tech  with the forever sounds of the Bee Gees disco beat.  The Trio had turned disco into a worldwide phenomenon with their disco beat and music, especially disco soundtrack Saturday Night Fever in 1977.

Fans flooded  the Twitter over passing of disco music legend headlines a local tabloid.  It is a sad year for musical legends,  with the recent passing of disco legend Donna Summer’s passing just last week.  The Bee Gees had  their 1st hit in 1963 with The Battle of the Blue and Grey.
Some years back,  Robin’s  brother  Maurice had died of similar illness in 2003 and Andy in 1988.  Reading in the news about what Robin said to the Tabloid,  I can imagine what goes on in Robin’s  mind,  as it brought back some memories to myself about some frustrations that probably lingers on his mind during his later days.  

He said “I sometimes wonder if all the tragedies my families has suffered – like Andy and Maurice dying so young  and everything that’s happened to me  recently – is a kind of karmic price we are paying for all the fame and fortune we’ve had.”     Such are the frustration that people harbor when in sufferings,  in hardship or in sickness.   I am sure the feelings of why , why me , why does this has to happen to me, keep flashing across his mind.

Some years back,  I was in similar situation where  within my family under one roof,  my family and I had to endure this pain and suffering,   of seeing and attending to 2 cases of chronic illness till the end.  My youngest daughter was born  with a extreme case of spinal bifida, resulting in my daughter bed-ridden, unable to live a normal life.  Several  years of in and out of hospital is like a chore.  As the doctor puts it plainly, it will be  like providing and caring for her with all the love we best can and waiting just for the final day to come. Along with this suddenly, my mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer.  A year of treatment and operations,  these 2 added tremendous strains to the family.
When the world collapse in front of you, how would you face it?  In the same manner,  my mind is full of frustration, starting to blame everything around.    Until when I came across a inspirations  on strengthening our faith in life that there were so many others in more worst off situation, yet can overcome to emerge victorious in life.
Only in faith that my wife and I find the solace and strength to thread/shoulder  on, to give the children and family what is best.   Probably like Robin’s mind,  it took some time and some soul searching before I accepted that reality and facts,  that It is indeed the karmic seeds that I  must have sowed in my previous life.   It took a long long time to get past the denial stage, to finally accept the reality.  Only when I accepted the reality, life takes on a new and different meaning. That everything we hold on to are only transient in nature,   and that during our lifetime,  we must do all the best that we can to improve the lot of ourselves as well as those others around us.  Only through good deeds and actions, we can sow the seeds for our future.   And hopefully bring this with us to the next lifetime with positive karmic manifestation. 

So in life,  I have to take life as it comes,  suffer what is there to suffer and enjoy what is there to enjoy.   Life is like the 4 seasons,  when it comes to extreme cold in the winter,  we must be well prepared and persevere and in no time,  Spring time will come without fail.  So,  no matter how bad the situation is,  always know  better things will follow. 

And in life, it is not about the  fateful event  that happened to you that matters. More importantly, it is how you get on and out of it that matters most.   That is standing up again after you have fallen.  Let’s embrace life with this philosophy.
Dedicated to the legendary Robin Hugh Gibb – Rest in Peace.

Bee Gees,  Robin Gibb,  Bee Gees songs,  Robin death,  Bee Gees Group



Sunday, April 8, 2012

Selling Kidney for iphone

Frustration : Selling your kidney to buy iphone and ipad


What can we do if we are born into a world of sufferings, a world where everything is not right, where making a living is so though.

Today, I came across the news in World News section of the Star that reportedly in Changsha, China, a guy who finds life so tough that he has to sell part of his organ to indulge in the modern amenities – to get an iphone and an ipad.

Penniless and frustrated over gambling debts, he tried to get people to look for buyer for his kidney.5 persons including a surgeon were charged with intentional injury in Chenzhou city in Hunan province.

The defendant had asked another to look for donors through online chat rooms, and then lease an operating room from a local hospital urology department.

The surgeon from a provincial hospital conducted the kidney transplant from the 17 year old high school student to a recipient in April last year. The surgeon received about 220,00 yuan for the operation and he gave 22,000 yuan to the student, and shared the rest with few other medical staff involved in the transplant.

The student now suffers from renal insufficiency and his condition is deteriorating.

So pitiful for this poor boy? But why would this boy do such things. It is something that you and I will not understand, because for some of us, we live world apart from him, driven by different standards and concepts through our own eyes, brought on by our own education, and environment.



This case goes to show that given extreme situation, human will make sacrifices that one cannot imagine. Such situation as I recalled, also happened in India where the majority of the people lives in extreme poverty.

Under such circumstances, the expectations and perceptions we place around us is very much different. Where it seems sub-standard or unacceptable to many others, it would already be considered a luxury in the eyes of this very people.

Let’s hope that we would not be placed in such situation and be so quick as to be judge of the circumstances.

Posted by : Ivan

Thursday, April 5, 2012

The Apple Foxconn Controversy

Justice is done - is this so?

Starbiz 2nd April had a column about a Report from Boao, China as follows;

Foxconn Technology Group in recent report said that it will keep increasing workers salaries in China and cutting work hours according to press statement.

This came about after the company came under fire for poor working conditions for employees making App;le iPhones and iPads.

Apple and Foxconn agreed last week to tackle violations of conditions among the 1.2 million workers assembling iPhones and iPads in a landmark decision that could change the way Western companies do business in China.

According to another Reuters report,
“Foxconn said it would reduce working hours to 49 hours per week, including overtime, while keeping total compensation for workers at its current level. The FLA audit had found that during peak production times, workers in the three factories put in more than 60 hours per week on average.

To compensate for the reduced hours, Foxconn will hire tens of thousands of additional workers. It also said it would build more housing and canteens to accommodate that influx.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, who company critics hoped would usher in a more open, transparent era at Apple after he took over from the late Steve Jobs last year, has shown a willingness to tackle the global criticism head-on.”

The Foxconn Story


When I first heard about this, I checked out this Change.org web-site to try to put in my feeling about this, but could not find the way to lodge my feedback apart from having to sign for the petition. Today, uner 4th April, I see their Headline “How We Won”
Absolutely incredible. After more than a quarter million Apple customers from around the world united their voices and took a stand against one of the most profitable corporations in the world, we've won.
Following investigations by the Fair Labor Association, Apple has vowed to sharply curtail working hours to 49 hours per week and significantly increase wages inside their Chinese plants. The New York Times reports that: "the impact of Foxconn’s hour and wage reforms could signal a new, wide-reaching change in working conditions throughout China."
So thank you to everyone who signed the petition. It just goes to show that together, we can make real change.
Personally, I am not too sure whether this is fair pressure. Being an Asian myself, we are raised to work hard and put in long hours, yet if the working conditions are alright, we are still happy. Now that the West have managed to impose its own work standard on China, this may have long term ramifications.

So you think you understand the Chinese. China has its own problem, a different kind of problem that needs different solution. And you think you can solve China's problem through the Western eyes, drawing on western standards and western concepts.
I suggest you spend some time to listen to this TED Talk : Martin Jacques on Understanding the Rise of China.


Yes, wide-reaching change no doubt, Cost for sure will go up, at the expense of reduce profit. In the longer terms, this will be translated to other cost-cutting measures, or maybe making them less competitive and eventual relocation to other countries. In China, and for that matters many Asian countries, to be employed and earning a living is already a blessing, with so many mouth to feed. It is really not so much the longer hours or even some perceived setbacks that matters to these country folks. In this economies, it is more important to have more hands employed and more mouths fed at may be less favorable terms.

When factories become less competitive, and business goes somewhere else and more workers unable to find job, who then is at the losing end. One cannot impose one’s standard upon others without empathizing the others position.

Wait till the factory starts to close down because Apple moves somewhere else.


When the workers realizes that at the end, they are the ones losing out, people will become more frustrated. So the next time, we want to support a Good Cause, we have to think hard. After all, I am certain that most who supported the cause have not even step foot on China soil.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Frustrations on the Road

Road Rage on the Road

It is becoming more and more frequent that we encounter road rage reporting when we look at our newspapers headlines today. Traffic is getting worst and more chaotic with reports of ever increasing vehicle sales year on year.

What we see today is that people are taking their cars more to the road than taking public transport. Many reasons contributed to this, the poor state of affairs of the public transport systems, the inadequate planning and provision of public transports as new surburb, towns and cities are emerging.

Traffic jams are inadvertent, and this is not much help by the worsening attitude of the drivers on the road today. Today, we see many blatant disregard of the law, and I just hope the authorities can put all their heads together to work with the all the relevant authority to clamp on this. I still couldn't help reminiscing those moments when I rented a car at a foreign countries where the traffic was not so heavy, where it is the driver have the courtesy to stop and let the pedestrian cross.

How I hope that the school system can incorporate part of this road courtesy campaign as part of the curriculum. Simple concept of good road manners to inculcate from young is important;

a) Never hog a lane. This is probably one of the worst habits on the road that can drives people nut, and probably one big causes of big fights on the road. How stupid is it that one keeps hogging the road, and not switch to inner lane to make way. Some smart Alec argue that since he is driving within speed limit, it is fine. Need to knock some sense into such heads.

b) Give in to others to switch into your lane, especially those that have their indicator light turned on. Today's road traffic is chaotic, and many places, we see multiple lanes squeezing into few. In many instances, it is such situation that force the driver to come into your lane. How frequent I witness that the driver would not bulge but keeping close to prevent the car from coming in. In my years of driving, I have witness a case when both parties tried to move, and ended up scratching the incoming car. What happened next was 2 young men got down the car, brandishing a stick to hit the other car driver. Road bully as the newspaper would report such thing. If you do not want this to happen to you, be courteous.

c) Swerving abruptly into another lane is one act that will make the other driver very angry. This will definitely get the driver screaming and cursing the incoming car. A worst scenario is that the driver behind will then flashes the light and tail gate the car to show his displeasure.

d) Tail gating is sure one act that is very dangerous and many a times get both drivers into arguments and fights. While most driver will switch lane to give in, the younger ones may then try to slow down, to block the cars behind. I have personally witness again another incident where both the drivers came out and fight it over. Worst of all, I can see the wife and kid were in one of the car. What madness?

e) Enjoy the radio and the air-condition and ride, while you are stuck in the jam. Many of my friends told me that they will be very stress up during the morning and evening traffic jam. And this traffic jam also gets onto my wife's nerve. But for me, I would always say to them that working is tough and there isn't much time that I can sit back, relax and listen to the music, and with the other half. How frequent do we have the time to really sit down and have long talk. It is during such long hours of traffic jam that we can make use of to enjoy the music and to engage in your talk with the other half. It will actuall make a lot of goodness out of this so called traffic nightmare, that you are stuck with however in your car.

So the next time, you are stuck in the middle of this massive traffic jam, give this a Try, and see how you like it.

Posted by: Ivan

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Ills & Frustration of Social Networking

Advancement of telecommunication, computing and handheld devices have never made life so convenient and sometimes taken for granted. Along with it, the advent of the social networking and community have never made and foster friendship, constant keeping in contact of the events and happenings so quickly.

Many sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Bebo etc as such have grown exponentially as social habits and culture have now gravitated towards this phenomena of a whole new virtual world. While this brings about many good, it has also brought about much frustrations and social ills.

If not handle properly, this new craze is going to become increasingly more powerful and capable of keeping track and tab of all our doings and life. Some of the social ills well known includes;

- Excessive use leading towards some form of addiction towards the new culture that people are oblivious towards their own family and surrounding
- The new phenomena is creating a new form of communication media and language eg.texting , sms giving rise to its own unique language. This is now known to have cause many students to fare badly in their language

Already, this morning I was reading in the news that Facebook had exposed one man’s other wife as its headline. Apparently, this happened in Seattle where Facebooks’s automatic efforts to connect users through “friends” they may know each other have led two women there to find out they were married to the same man at the same time. God knows what this can lead to in future.

Just only last week, I remember reading in the newspaper that a husband divorced his wife barely 2 weeks of marriage when the new wife’s habit of spending so much time on the social networking got to the husband nerve. Unable to accept the neglect from his newly wedded wife, he had file for divorce.

It is not surprising that many of today’s technologies were meant to help and make our lives better. Despite so, we can see so many people are overwhelmed by such inventions. In the event, they ended up virtually becoming the slave in this new world order..

Take the case of a simple mobile phone. One can remember the days when telecommunication was so difficult when one is on the move. Today, we see almost 10 in 10 person carrying the mobile device. Instead of enabling the person’s life and others better, people have forgotten the meaning of convenience that these inventions bring. They have lost track of the situation when to use this. They do not switch them off or turn to silent mode when they go to theater, or go into meeting halls. Instead they let this phone rings and talk interrupting others. We can see so many of such inconsiderate person in our day to day interactions. What a frustrations all these inventions have brought upon us.

Posted by : Ivan

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Stress Too Far

Bad Days at Work

We all have bad days, whether at home or at work. If we think about it, we spend almost all the time (or at least critical time) at work, and so how we manage ourselves is important.

Coping with all the stress and pressure from work is tough, which is why periodical breaks and holidays aware from office is essential for the person to recharge and re-energise. Modern days office expectations and demands are unlike the past, akin to a battle field at worst, with seemingly good colleagues scheming against other.

That probably accounts for many cases that we read about in the News about people just losing sanity and control, many cases resulting in unwarranted destruction of properties and innocent lives. The more recent highlighted case being the Fort Hood massacre where a US Major Nidal
Malik Hasan went on a shooting spree that killed 13 people at an army base. Worst still, the shooter is himself an army psychiatrist and now remains to be seen whether there is more to this.

At this same time, Jason Rodriguez went on a shooting spree that killed one and wounded five at the firm that fired him for not having money.

MUST MANAGE MY STRESS LEVEL
Click Here!

I recently received recently a video clip from an Ex - colleague. It's like a silent movie of the Charlie Chaplin day, but I do hope you watch this, and not let it happens to you. It's title Bad Day At Work.. (BaddayatWork).


I can imagine how the stress must have built up over time, waiting for it to explode. If you look at the video clip, it must be something that the supervisor that must have said that trigger the man to snap. It looks like he is uncontrollable.

Over the years of working, I am aware of the situation. It is important that we recognise that we are stress up and therefore need to be aware to avoid this happening to us. But how ? as we see above that even an army psychiatrist can succumb to the same fate.

Let's us take the first step to recognise that stress do exist and affecting us, and let us start talking about it with our close one and see how best to control and minimise it. I have just recently taken a bold step, to resign from my job of 11 years, so called early retirement. But today, I'm without the job, without the stress, but still there are a new host of other issues that is boggling my mind.

Nevertheless, I am hoping for the best, and thinking forward to be better that where I left behind.

Posted by
Ivan