... and you are one of them!
The ordeal... more on safety issues...
Self defend yourself here...
When Manal posted an entry in her blog about caning sentence for drug dealers, she included a link to a videoclip showing a drug dealer getting 20 rotan lashes on his buttom for the drug crime. I visited the site that hosted the video and in the website, a number of people (most of them were British since the site is hosted in the UK, I think...) had commented on the video. Some said it was cruelty to human beings while others supported it and even suggested such a punishment should be introduced in their country as well.Of all the comments, one had struck my interest. He said he used to live in Malaysia for many years and during his long stay in this country, he had never heard of young people attacking old folks or women and people really treated each other with respect. Therefore, he thought the caning sentence must have worked well in preventing crimes in Malaysia.At the time when I read it, I was thinking 'when did this guy leave Malaysia anyway, a zillion years ago?' We now have had gruesome cases, just as worse as what normally happens in the western countries. Cases like a 12-year old stabbing his tuition teacher's 10-year old daughter repeatedly to death; a 15-year old teenager joined his friends (friends huh?) to gang rape a 30-year old woman; women brutally raped and killed and some of them were elderly or pregnant; snatch cases that had resulted in the deaths of the victims; old folks (above 70 years old) beaten and strangled to death when they were robbed while they were alone in their houses; people killed by road bullies over minor accidents etc etc. As gruesome as they can be, sometimes we heard cases of similar nature, happening again within a short span of time. I was so compelled to reply to him by saying, 'Things have changed mate, we are no better than you guys or the States. We've had people who were killed so brutally, like they were animals.' But then, due to my patriotism that had kicked in, I didn't really want to defame my own country in the eyes of international people. Aug 20, 2007 was the day when an 8-year old Nurin Jazlin Jazimin left her house in Wangsa Maju alone at night to go to a nearby night market and went missing. It was reported that she was last seen being dragged into a white van by a man.According to her parents, they had never allowed their children (the eldest being 9 years old) to wander off by themselves unless in groups or at least in pairs. But on that fateful night, little did the mother know that when Nurin asked for money to buy hair clips, she had told her sister not to follow her as she wanted to go alone. Nurin's uncle also said it was common for children living in those 2-bedroom flat houses to venture outdoors due to the houses being rather small. I could imagine and understand why... When I was a bachelor, I too lived in such a house. Having three people living together is a full house already, let alone six people (Nurin had three other siblings).Weeks passed by but still no news of Nurin. Some organisations were willing to reward those who found and returned Nurin to her parents. The parents even gave their contact numbers but only to receive some prank calls. To add salt to injury, some people had the heart to ridicule and poke fun at the parents, making phone calls or sending sms'es to say Nurin, nicknamed "Kak Ngah", was with them, was dead and body in a river and scolded them for being negligent. Talk about some inconsiderate Malaysians huh..?Then came one Monday the 17th September which marked the day that had shocked the nation, especially the families of Nurin. An employee of a book distribution company found a sports bag at the bottom of a staircase of a shoplot in Petaling Utama and brought it into her workplace, thinking that it belonged to her boss. Her boss later opened the bag and discovered the naked body of a girl, in a foetal position in the brand new bag. The DNA of the dead girl stuffed in the sports bag matched that of Nurin's parents. Nurin’s dental records also matched with the body. Initially the parents refused to accept that the body was Nurin (they said they were convinced Nurin was still alive), probably due to the nature of her killing and that the body was so skinny. Understandably, any parents would be in denial their child would die in such a horrific way. Nurin was believed to have been killed 24 hours before her nude body was found. Bruise marks on her body suggesting that she was beaten. Post-mortem also revealed the murderer had inserted a brinjal and a cucumber in her private parts, forcing the rupture of her rectum and to be infected with bacteria, resulting in her gruesome death.Nurin was buried after the Friday prayer on 24 September. Many shed their tears, including me. The hunt for her abducter(s)/killer(s) continued, not only by the police but also the public. In time, justice will be served, and the criminal(s) will be punished - if not in front of a judge and before our very eyes, they will still have to face Allah, the ultimate judge of all, on Judgement Day....Al-Fatihah to you, Allahyarhamah Nurin Jazlin......You can read more about Nurin here.
The abducter(s)/killer(s) of Nurin is a really really sick man. To equalise him as animals would be an understatement, coz he is worse than iblis (mother of all devils). Why did he keep Nurin for so long, subjecting her to such tortures, for what, to satisfy his sexual needs (if any)? What kind of pleasures did he get by stuffing brinjal and cucumber into her intestines? Why did he keep Nurin for so long despite her parents' pleading, did he really 'love' or 'hate' Nurin so much? What outcome did he expect would come out of his actions; that Nurin would survive and live long enough to probably forgive him and that he would escape from his heinous acts? Where did he put his brain, mind and soul - down the toilet?Apparently, Nurin's case was not the first to happen in this country. There were other young Malaysian girls who suffered just as worse as Nurin. They were sodomised, raped, had objects shoved into their private parts, strangulated and killed, only to be found hours or days later in conditions that evoked our sadness and anger. Is this the kind of society that we can be proud of as we march to become a 'developed' nation? I strongly feel that Islamic (i.e. hudud) elements should be introduced into our laws. It has been shown that countries which practise them have very low crime rates. Heck, their shop owners can leave their shops/stalls unattended during prayer times, not having to worry about thieves for there are hardly any around. Imagine doing the same here? You wish...Raising children nowadays proved to be far more challenging than what our grandparents experienced. If they are daughters, we fear for their safety and if they are sons, we fear they would inflict harm on other people, especially women, Na'uzubillah.....Now, let's not even go to the many other countless bad influences out there....Ya Allah, semoga keluarga Nurin diberi ketabahan oleh Mu Ya Allah. Lindungilah kami semua dari hasad dengki dan kekejaman manusia, dan hindarilah kami dari berhasad dengki dan berlaku kejam kepada manusia yang lain, Aaaaamiinnnn.....(Translation) Ya Allah, may you give strength to Nurin's family during such hardship. Protect us from the cruelty of other human beings, and prevent us from inflicting any harm towards other humans Ya Allah, Aaaaamiinnnn.....
P/S: I value my families, close and far, just as much as I value this country. In case you haven't noticed, I had removed 'old' postings that I deem unnecessary to be published in this blog.Labels: Life, Nurin Jazlin, Safety issues
Favourite song 3 - Ikhwan's Song
Baby's Songs - Watch more amazing videos hereWould you agree that a particular melody had given births to a few songs for children such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Ba Ba Black Sheep and A B C. Their lyrics go like these:
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, how I wonder what you are...
Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky..
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, how I wonder what you are...
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Ba Ba Black Sheep, Have you any wool, Yes sir, Yes sir, Three bags full..
One for the master, and one for the dame. And one for the little boy, who lives on the lane...
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Now I know my ABC, Next time won't you sing with me?
In another Ikhwan's video (edited), he is laughing his heart out as I sing my heart out to him. I had also written him a song based on that same melody. The lyrics to 'Ikhwan Rasydan' song (in Malay and with English translation) goes like this: Ikhwan Rasydan Bin Abdun Nizar. Nama Ibu Nor Hariza. Ikhwan budak lelaki, belum lagi tumbuh gigi. Ikhwan Rasydan sudah minum susu. Lepas ini baca buku... (the English version may not rhyme due to it being directly translated): Ikhwan Rasydan Bin Abdun Nizar. Ibu's name is Nor Hariza.Ikhwan is a baby boy, who still doesn't have teeth. Ikhwan Rasydan had already been fed. After this it's time to read...I also sang Twinkle Twinkle Little Star towards the end of the video but pardon me for my mistake, 'coz I sang 'where you are' instead of 'what you are', hehee...In case the above video link doesn't work, you can click here to view. Enjoy it folks... :-)P/S: My family and I just want to wish Happy Ramadhan al-Mubarak to all Muslim readers out there... Labels: My Children, My Videos, Songs and Nursery Rhymes
Safety issues...
Safety Issue 1:
The day it became front page news, I was down with fever and recuperating (or should I say sleeping) was pretty much the main activitiy of the day. Although my wife's long extended maternity leaves were still not over yet at that time, she was too occupied with baby Ikhwan. So, we didn't buy any newspapers that day and neither did we watch the news on tv.
We both learned about the tragedy only the next day. The tragedy that tore our hearts out, after seeing the photo of the bus with the roof completely torn off. The bus that had plunged into a 5-metre ravine, killing 21 people (including the driver himself) after the driver had lost control of the machine.
The bus accident was reported to be the worst ever happened in the country (to me, cases with 20 deaths or 1 death are just as serious - precious lives are lost!). Apparently, this driver had 13 traffic-related fines and 2 arrest-warrants slapped against him, while the bus itself had 19 fines against it and was not 'fit' to be on the road in the first place. Not to bad-mouth the dead or anything, but I think for anyone with that many fines issued against them, we can imagine how badly those people drive.
Not long after the above accident happened, authorities launched their Ops Bersih, preventing (or arresting?) drivers with fines and warrants under their belts, and disallowing buses under poor conditions from operating.
I guess the Malay proverb that says 'sudah terhantuk, baru terngadah' exists for a reason, huh? I mean, knowing how most Malaysians are quick to jump/react/get angry when something untoward happens as a result of one's negligence but then we are also just as quick to cool off when it's no longer in the news. I wonder whether such Ops Bersih would be an ongoing one, or just this one?
I mean, drivers (buses and lorries alike) with bad traffic/criminal records of any kind shouldn't even be allowed to start the ignition or warm up the engine for someone else, let alone drive people/things around. They would probably consider their vehicles and other people as meaningless toys that could be tossed around and crushed as they pleased.
Safety Issue 2:
Speaking of toys, now how about this? A popular toy manufacturer, Fisher Price has issued a major recall of several lines of its popular toys, due to a risk of lead contamination in their products manufactured in China. This recall affects specific toys manufactured at a certain plant since May 1, 2007. The paint on these products could contain amounts of lead that are higher than normal. When ingested, lead can be toxic causing adverse health effects.
Gasp.... Imagine buying yourself a tin of lead paint and then put the tin right in front of your kids for them to smell and play with? Any parents with the right frame of mind would not even dream of doing that for sure.
Fisher Price and Mattel (Fisher Price is a division of Mattel) are cooperating fully with this recall, allowing consumers to check their websites for their recalled products (look for the links about product recalls), as well as telling them what to do if they discover they have the products.
According to Mattel, should the toy that we have bought be affected, we can send it back to them and they will send us a voucher for the retail value to allow us to purchase other Mattel or Fisher-Price products.
This is plain rude if you ask me. Obviously, the company doesn't want to be the losing end here and they still expect us to buy their other toys? Why can't they just reimburse us, full stop! Why should us, the consumers have to suffer? How can we know for certain the new toy that we buy using the voucher is not toxic and will not be recalled too in the future? I'm sure, taking another trip down to a toy store is the least thing that bother us parents. It's our children's health and well-being that we are more concerned about. Will they be willing to cover all medical costs that arise should our children get sick due to them sniffing, biting and playing with their toxic toys?
With the news on toxic toys is out, if you think now is safe to get your kids some new toys, think again... I wonder how come some of those affected products are still available in the shopping stores (like the one in the above photo). It's always possible there are those who are still not aware of the risk and end up buying the toys for their young loved ones.
I really don't have the answer to that question, at least not yet. But I intend to call up the Mattel Care Line in Malaysia soon. If you wish to do the same, get it here.
Meantime, if you are curious about which toys that (should) have been recalled off the shelves, you can view them here and here.
Conclusion:
In life, we are always exposed to risks, one way or another. While we cook or sleep at home, while we play, while walking to a grocery store, while driving etc etc. However, we can minimise or completely eliminate the risks by taking necessary steps like making sure all doors and windows are locked before we go to bed, doing some warm-ups before playing a sport etc etc and not to forget our do'a and tawakkal to Allah.
However, in some situations, with the exception of reciting our own do'a, we have to trust other people to take those other necessary steps. Like in the case of tavelling by express buses, we expect the companies who run them have made sure their buses are under optimum condition and the drivers are polite and have enough sleep before taking the wheels. We prefer to reach our destinations safe and sound and in one piece mind you.
Also, when we buy toys to help our children play, learn and grow, we expect the companies who make those toys have complied with all the safety standars available out there. The last thing we need is to be somewhat responsible for intoxicating our children.
Failure to ensure the safety of their clients will only make those companies look real bad and prove they are profit-oriented with no regard on the well-being of other people.
Labels: Life, My Families, Safety issues
Penguin Rush
