Love grenades

People find it amazing that I do not subscribe to satellite TV. It has become such as norm to have it until many household lists it as one of the main must have. In fact I believe there are more households in Malaysia that owns satellite TV (ASTRO) than a regular bread toaster.....

I just don't see the point of paying a monthly subscription for looped entertainment. When in fact the best entertainment come from real life events especially those in the political and social arena...... and that's just the local scene.

Valentine's Day is here and it is the dawn of a busy period for the religious enforcement team. Anyway one gives a crap about the local news or would love to have a good laugh would surely have come across many articles and topics regarding how the Islamic Council has declared an unofficial crusade against Valentine's Day. It has been interpreted by certain people in the council that Valentine's Day is unholy and promotes sin amongst people who celebrate it. V-day according to them is a teaching and practice of Christianity and by embracing it or celebrating it, one is as good as embracing a new faith.....

Oh come on.......are you really that weak in your own faith??

Anyway....just a quick one, the authorities have gone as far as to say they will arrest any muslims who are out celebrating it even by having dinner.....Their reason is that Islam does not promote a one particular day to express your love..... it should have been done everyday if one could.....

Food for thought.

If one were to celebrate love everyday....then why should one abstain from celebrating love on V-day?

If Valentine's Day is such a threat to the Islamic faith because it is a "Christian" practice.... then I believe public holidays such as Christmas, Chinese New Year, Thaipusam, Deepavali, Wesak Day, should not be enjoyed by these same people too. They should not be able to enjoy discounts on Sales in conjunction with the above days and they should pay full price. Their holidays should be revoked and they should stay in office and work, which could ease traffic congestion and increase national productivity. It may just work out to be a good thing for the country to tie over these economy bad times...

But for me and for many others alike.....we know we are blessed to live in a multi-racial and cross-cultural country in relative peace and harmony. We would like to keep it that way through tolerance and understanding. For those who have a problem with it, I do suggest they bring their grouses to the relevant complaint department to have it addressed. I hear in some countries the First Lady take complaints seriously and to a whole new level.  Check out the queue numbering system they use....

 

Blame It On Religion

I have an interesting account to share....

A man who runs a treatment center was ordered to shut down his operation because he has been running the business without a valid license. He was previously advised not to do so but he was adamant until he was given an official letter of order with a threat of half a million ringgit fine plus possible imprisonment.

*these days anything less than fifty thousand doesn't seen to catch the attention of offenders.....

Anyway in his moment of desperation he write an appeal letter to be given additional time to acquire the license and to plead for leniency. In his letter he stated a few interesting points....

1. He is part of a conglomerate of muslim entrepreneurs who run these particular treatment centers
2. He is a non-profit organisation catering to the needs of fellow muslims
3. He provides treatment the Islamic way
4. He pleads for leniency because it is his first attempt to dwell into a field of business that was previously dominated by non-muslims
5. He hopes by the will of Allah that his appeal be granted

Thank goodness my boss is not named Allah. His appeal was thrown out.

My boss made several counter remarks not in the presence of the entrepreneur.

1. When one operates a business without a license, all income is deemed as haram (illicit)
2. If one does an illicit undertaking under the name of religion, it is as good as commiting blasphemy
3. If the non-muslims "dominated" a field of business it is because of shrewd business acumen
4. Using religion to appeal will not make right an offence
5. She hopes that Allah will be kind towards him too.

Oh and my boss is a muslim too......

But it is shocking to learn that more and more people hide behind the veil of religion to justify any of their wrong doing. Their reason being they carried out an activity with the good intent to help people. They fail to see that even with such noble intentions, it does not justify one flaunting the law.

I dread shall the day come when one person can kill another and justify it by saying "He had a look on his face that says he is going to mock my sacred religion"

Digital Lomo

So Happy Chinese New Year folks.....

Again......long hiatus from the blogsphere.....getting lazy perhaps....that would justify more than just saying I'm busy all the time.

Anyway, it has been an interesting week. More so because suddenly everyone in my family are hopping onto the i-Revolution. Yeah....when my dad gets an iPhone4 I know I'm outdated. Haha. Its amusing to see him fumble with the touch screen and get use to the new environment from his previous symbian platform phones.

And then there's my baby sister who also has hopped on to the iPhone4 fad......well I think she deserved it considering she invested in a China made imitation and got a raw deal out of it. Marketing......they can be just as big a scumbag as lawyers themselves. She was convinced by a YouTube video of the iPhone imitation that it would have performed 95% as the original and when I saw the video myself, I was also quite convinced.... Alas, it was money down the drain and some happy Chinese company a lot more richer.

So there she goes showing off her new toy....and just to irk me with my film camera, she whips out her lomo app on the iPhone and start to snap pictures with retro-filters..... I must admit it is a very good filter and pictures came out very convincing as though it were film circa-1970s and 1980s. A real challenge to the renaissance of film photography I would say.

Below are some attached samples that I like best.....

Anyway, I'd still settle for film for its unpredictability and the suspense of waiting for an outcome that is not instantaneous. But hey.....no harm in joining the i-Revolution and snap a few digital lomo while we're at it right.. ;)

Film is not dead......it's still very misunderstood

My sister calls it weird. I call it perspective

Skipped one generation in the photo

Cross generation hobby

Gramps sez "P3aCe 0u+"