When saving life is selfish

I was in a discussion today with my colleague today. His friend whose father is 66 and suffered a stroke. His life is 50-50. If he manages to recover, his chances of achieving functional (not normal) life would be nearer to 20% or less. In all likelihood he may be a living vegetable, dependent on the care of others. A mindless body.....or maybe even worse yet, a functional mind with a useless body.

Now that's scary.....

I don't fear death, as I believe it is a just one part or one end of a cycle. Sooner or later we have to move on and make way for the new to take over. And I embrace with a life that has little or no regrets that if I were to go tomorrow, I'd have done what I can up until that very moment to not look back and wonder about the what if's.

But worse than death is being part of a lifeless existence.

I imagine myself, if i were to be in the above mentioned situation. If I were to be dependent for existence.....not dependent for living.
-I crap whenever and wherever and people have to clean after me.
-I can't eat or feed so i have a tube that people have to refill.
-I can't turn around in bed so someone has to turn me every 4 hours so that I don't get a sore for sleeping in the same position.
-People talk to me and comfort me, and I can't even wink an acknowledgment back to comfort them.

I imagine the pain my caregivers have to endure to see my continuous existence in front of them. Giving them the false hope that I shall one day speak and be bubbly again. Seeing the tears welled in their eyes as they see the hopelessness of their effort through my hopeless eyes.

There's not an ounce of dignity left in me.

My continuous existence not only is a waste to my life, but the life of my caregivers. They will also lose their right to live and reduce them to an existence of tending to another lifeless existence.

For some reason these chain of thoughts affected me.

Hence I have decided that shall I ever be in a comatose state, or have poor medical recovery after 3 weeks of medical care (which I think with all the hyped up mumbo jumbo, 3 weeks is long enough) I shall in my will demand that all active intervention be witheld. Mind you this is not an act of euthanasia, which is a medical assisted suicide. I will give medical advancement a fair share of 3 weeks to come up with a solution, after which I think there's nothing worthwhile doing anymore and shall withold all active management.

Then it is a matter of leaving to a higher power that we see in God to determine if I may be able to sustain life on my own. Failure which then all viable organs will be harvested and life be given to other existence who stand a better chance. Why should I hold on to every part of my body if it will only serve as excess baggage to my family?

Yet this decision, not one that is easily accepted in Asian society. The body is deemed sacred and should not be mutilated before death. The general thought of a family allowing a member to withold treatment and go down without further fight is also a bitter pill to swallow. The resentment of the living towards the near dying person who wishes to prematurely end his existence to make up for the loss of life.

I will bear the resentment. I shall to my end remain selfish.

I shall still try to save a life.

Banking on Halal

It's unfortunate that my blogging streak shall decide to hit on commercial- link progress, but I do behave in a non-conventional manner so, again like the main purpose of this blog says, don't like it, don't read it......

My latest grouse....

Radio commercial..... (as close to the original to avoid copyright issues...no time to ask for permission to reproduce)

Wife: Sayang, I would like to have a new car.
Husband: But we do not have the money for it.
Wife: But I would really like to have a new car.... *(I'd get rid of her if she was THAT annoying)
Child: Mom....Dad.....Haven't you heard of ****Bank's "Simpan, Dapat Kereta" campaign?
Husband and wife in unison: ****Bank?
Child: Yes, just save 100 ringgit and you stand a chance to win a car.....

bla bla bla.....
Ends with everyone doing that stupid cliched laughter at the end of commercials.

Anyway here is the excerpt of the promotional campaign.

Additional info taken from their website and I quote

"Participation is automatically and be pool by system with just doing minimum saving increase of RM100 at every quarter. What interesting is, no form or slogan is needed to be fill by clients. By just adding minimum savings RM100 in every quarter, clients will qualify to have 1 chances of draw for that quarter.

For the first quarter of the year which is for January-March, prize offered is Perodua Myvi, whereas for second quarter (April-June), prize is enhanced to Toyota Hilux. For the third quarter of the year namely July-September, prize offered is Toyota Camry and for the fourth quarter of the year, which is the grand prize draw, Toyota Fortuner is offered to people. "

Alright....so the above was taken from the spokesperson making a media statement. First and foremost they should edit some of the grammatical errors, but that's not the whole point.

I'll break down the prizes' worth
Perodua Myvi is in the region of RM 40,000
Toyota Hulix in the region of RM 80,000
Toyota Camry is about RM 140,000
Toyota Fortuner is roughly RM 165,000

So let me get this straight....in a country that is so particular about Halal and Haram (please refer to previous blog entry for part 1).... we have a Bank promoting a savings scheme that:

1. Lets you win a car up to the value of RM 165,000 based on a RM 100 deposit.
2. That's a payout ratio of 1:1650
3. The process of winning is by pure random chance
4. No work is required at all. No forms to fill, no slogans to write even!!
5. Free personal accident insurance if provided too

Now I don't know, but in a country so hard up over the Halal issue, we have a bank that is allowed to run the kind of promotion as above.

(mind you....i think its a wonderful promotion......4 different cars to win!! But what about the morality and faith of its customers....they would be affected)

Note the similarity if one were to "invest" in a casino's one arm bandit.
1. Your have a high winning ratio based on a low capital investment
2. Process is by pure random chance
3 A little work is required to pull the arm, or these days to press a button

Isn't It Haram To Exploit Halal...?

For those who do not know the meaning or the concept of Halal and Haram, kindly do your own research on google.com because it'll take too long for me to type and explain, and frankly coz I'm lazy. But still wanna share my 2 cents worth.

But if you already know then we shall proceed.

In my country, the Halal linked industry is undergoing a major boom. The government is putting such emphasis in making the country a Halal hub for food and other products so that the global market can be tapped. This is because in the Muslim community, the importance of consuming Halal products or Halal certified products is gaining more and more attention as they try to keep their faith intact and strong by not contaminating it with sources which are Haram (or forbidden).

I won't even go into the concept of how can food or product sway one's faith, but anyway.....

What bothered me ALOT last week was when I did my rounds in the hospital, I noticed a box of gloves. Disposable rubber gloves which carried a tagline that read something like this..

"The World's FIRST Halal Rubber Gloves"

I was stunned....

Now I'm not a genius with the process of rubber glove manufacturing, but I really doubt there is anything that may have caused it to be Haram in the first place. But just for academic sake and for backing up myself in case and issue is raised, I checked the manufacturing process. Nothing in the manufacturing line, would have otherwise jeapordised the rubber gloves to turn into a Haram entity. There is no filtration process by porcine (pigs)..... There is not QC done by dogs.... In fact, throughout the whole process the only Haram that may occur is the work process of the PEOPLE who manufacture it and not the raw materials or the actual process of making the gloves.

So what in the world are Halal gloves????

No muslim is going to eat the gloves....
No muslim is going to don the gloves and lose their faith....
In fact those gloves are going to protect them from contamination....

How can anyone label something as Halal when there is no Haram to begin with to make a distinction?

It is like saying, how can GOOD be defined if there was no EVIL to contradict it?

Anyway....my take is that those gloves are now CERTIFIED "Halal" and hence have a so called upper edge in securing government approval for mass purchase. And because it is "Halal" and there were certain precautionary methods and manufacturing process that were complied with to achieve the "Halal" status, it would have caused the cost of manufacturing to be significantly higher and hence the end product would cost slightly more than the "Non-Halal" gloves.

So the manufacturer would be getting paid MORE for "Halal" gloves against a world of manufacturers who do not produce "Haram" gloves, but merely NOT "Halal" certified gloves.

So that is exploitation of the term "Halal" to make a profit....

Isn't exploitation for profit Haram? Think about it....

You Hear, But Do You Listen?

"DO YOU HEAR ME????"

"Yeah I hear you, I just choose not to listen....."


The art of listening is never synonymous with the sensation of hearing. I have experienced both spectrum of the above example and I'm sure many of us would have to in some point of our life, be it as a conscious or unconscious effort.

The skill of listening is also an art that needs to be cultivated, which many people do not realise and hence do not make an effort to improve on it. When I was much younger, I would be subjected to periodic sermons from the Father and mind you, some are very long. The personal record was closer to 5 hours than 4 1/2. During which, the painful audio amplitude and frequency would disturb my wakeful slumber and hence in the alternating drift between reality and the unconscious, I would pretend to listen so as to not offend him while in actual time my mind is just in ignore mode.

Through time and luck, people change. At least I've changed.

It is said that when you listen, you often learn something new.

(actually that was what my fortune cookie says today)

But from that little biscuit with a note in it........(hmmmm the note smells like biscuit too....i wonder if......mmmmmm)..... Anyway.... as silly as writing on fortunes from a cookie may sound, it does hold some amount of wisdom to it and upon reflection.

More often, people have a silent obligation to speak more than they should talk. And if the fortune cookie is right....that means these compulsive speakers would have something to share with us that may be remotely important if we so choose to accept it. Soooo.... that's where we will have to apply the skill of listening to only the important ones and processing it.

I was surprised that I could actually learn something from even the most insect-like perceived person. All I had to do was listen.

But like a two edge sword, there are times too when there is a reversal of roles, and I become that idiotic compulsive speaker and want to share more than my 2 cents worth..... then comes the second part of the problem.....who is going to listen to me???

Yeah sure I can catch anyone and force them to hear me out.....but to listen, to analyse and give constructive comments or critique my contents, thats what make a conversation alive and interesting.....

Someone who will listen to you uninterrupted with no spot opinions or suggestions.
Someone who will critique you when you're wrong not matter how close they are to you.
Someone who will advice you not because they think its best for you but how the situation fits.
Someone who will not change their perception of you because of what you said.

In my life I've only met a few people who can truly do that. Of them, only two whom I will ever listen to. Of the two, only one I will ever love whole heartedly.

To whom I am referring to. I hope you've been "listening" well. Thank you for everything.

Sinful prayer

"Dear God......forgive those who have sinned as a reaction to my trespasses......I am your servant, your sheep who has gone astray......."

"Open your gates of heaven but lower me to Your abysmal flame of hell..... Show me your bright light that has always shone the path for me, and bring me away from it as how I have spent my eternity withdrawing from You...."

"Dear God......forgive them whom I have sinned against."