Chinese New Year (CNY) has been and is still widely celebrated among the Chinese descendants all over the world. It has been a tradition which involves families reuniting together on the eve of CNY over a sumptuous meal and celebrating the new year over 15 days. During this time, the smaller towns in rural outskirts come to live as people travel back to their respective families' homes. The celebration includes visiting with relatives and friends, bringing gifts and greetings of blessings while the children eagerly waits on for the "ang pow" (literally translated as red packet) filled with cash distributed by the married couples. Feasting and laughter fills the homes and the skies are lit up with fireworks and loud noises and smoke surrounds the air as the firecrackers burst with loud bangs throughout the night and day. Lion and dragon dance performances will be held along the streets where businesses open up their shops for these dance rituals to be performed to rid of any evil spirits and to bring in prosperity for the new year.
However, over the last ten years, this scene is slowly but surely changing as many families have moved away from the small towns to the bigger cities and some others are taking the opportunity to go abroad during this festive season to spend a quiet moment with their immediate family or spouse. This noticeable trend in my personal opinion is jeopardizing the atmosphere and tradition of togetherness and relationship. Chinese and even the Asian culture has been admired by the Western counterparts for their community-based and family-oriented way of living. But in this day and age, where technology and internet plays a big part in the lives of many, we find the newer generation of Chinese and Asians in particular turning more anti-social as these city slickers depend on their gadgets of communication i.e. the iPhone, iPad, Android-based phones and tablets, netbooks, et cetera to convey and access information. The social skills of meeting and carrying out conversations are slowly deteriorating to just a face in the screen.
As much as I cherish technology and the internet, I do feel it would be a shame that we are eventually losing this part of the culture in our society over to the media gods. Just being in a family gathering recently, I cannot help but notice a group of young people seated at the living room, with their eyes glued to their PSP and iPhones... gone are the days where we would snack over the CNY tidbits and laugh over a conversation or make plans to do things together over the festive season.
There maybe many experiences and encounters of Chinese New Year, which may be tiring and sometimes having to meet relatives who seems to be overzealously concern over your life, which I don't really look forward to, but generally, the memories of the past brings a smile to my face just thinking how much we have enjoyed our childhood CNY days and just hoping that our next generation could experience as close an experience as we have had fostering relationship with family and friends but in their own unique ways and enjoy them.
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Singapore revisited and a new identity earned
What would one associate Singapore with? Shopping definitely tops the list, fines (Singapore is a "fine" city), Lee Kuan Yew, Marina Bay Sands, MRT, HDB housing... Just to name a few. But in my most recent trip, I must say the public library surely leaves a good impression on my list of to-dos.
Not that there isn't anything to do or places to go to in Singapore but with the high exchange rate, spending doesn't seem to appeal to my friend and I unless if it were the great Singapore Sale with 70% discounts. However, I realized having spent hours in the library, just indulging in the wide array of books of all kinds of genres from information to fiction, I truly am amazed and excited at this new found activity which I won't hesitate to pursue the next time I travel there. It is no wonder the library is packed on weekends as children and adults alike roam through the rows and rows of books to satisfy the desire to either pursue knowledge or set their imaginative minds and emotions alive as they engage themselves to the penmanship of the respective authors. And with that, Singapore government has received another plus point in my books for being effective in their pursuit to encourage its citizens and residents to read and to create a knowledge economy.
Well, we did have our fill of walking down Orchard Road and checking out the ever increasing number of malls in the vicinity. And at the same time, looking out for free wi-fi spots where we can check out mails or surf the net or even to update or comment on Facebook statuses! Call us cheapskate but since both of us are unemployed and are relying on our spouses who aren't millionaires to feed us, we don't have much luxury of enjoying the "tai-tai" life and spending with our eyes close... so every penny counts.
We have also been exploring the foods in various hawker centers in different communities in Singapore and buffet japanese food too. Though many may say hawker foods in Singapore aren't as great as those in Malaysia, I would partially agree as it is very much dependent on what one eats but those which Malaysia has, Malaysia seems to have them better. (This will only be the one positive comment of Malaysia that I will proudly comment on)
In our every visit to Singapore, cycling at the East Coast Park has been our ritual to appease our bodies' need for some form of exercise and probably a psychological therapy to reduce the guilt of gluttony. Renting the bike for 3 hours for SGD$6 (Buy 1 hour, free 2 hours!!) was a good deal and we had reasonably new bikes too. And the day we chose to bike was rather cloudy but I soon realize that the sun was scorching hot when it gets its chance to peek through the clouds ... my shoulders were sunburned in the process.
This being my longest stay in Singapore, though I came in as a foreigner, I exited the country as a resident... I may not get to visit the Sands casino for free or get 5% discounts as tourist in selected shopping malls, but now that I have found a new "hang-out" and be able to borrow books from the library, I am more than excited.
Not that there isn't anything to do or places to go to in Singapore but with the high exchange rate, spending doesn't seem to appeal to my friend and I unless if it were the great Singapore Sale with 70% discounts. However, I realized having spent hours in the library, just indulging in the wide array of books of all kinds of genres from information to fiction, I truly am amazed and excited at this new found activity which I won't hesitate to pursue the next time I travel there. It is no wonder the library is packed on weekends as children and adults alike roam through the rows and rows of books to satisfy the desire to either pursue knowledge or set their imaginative minds and emotions alive as they engage themselves to the penmanship of the respective authors. And with that, Singapore government has received another plus point in my books for being effective in their pursuit to encourage its citizens and residents to read and to create a knowledge economy.
Well, we did have our fill of walking down Orchard Road and checking out the ever increasing number of malls in the vicinity. And at the same time, looking out for free wi-fi spots where we can check out mails or surf the net or even to update or comment on Facebook statuses! Call us cheapskate but since both of us are unemployed and are relying on our spouses who aren't millionaires to feed us, we don't have much luxury of enjoying the "tai-tai" life and spending with our eyes close... so every penny counts.
We have also been exploring the foods in various hawker centers in different communities in Singapore and buffet japanese food too. Though many may say hawker foods in Singapore aren't as great as those in Malaysia, I would partially agree as it is very much dependent on what one eats but those which Malaysia has, Malaysia seems to have them better. (This will only be the one positive comment of Malaysia that I will proudly comment on)
In our every visit to Singapore, cycling at the East Coast Park has been our ritual to appease our bodies' need for some form of exercise and probably a psychological therapy to reduce the guilt of gluttony. Renting the bike for 3 hours for SGD$6 (Buy 1 hour, free 2 hours!!) was a good deal and we had reasonably new bikes too. And the day we chose to bike was rather cloudy but I soon realize that the sun was scorching hot when it gets its chance to peek through the clouds ... my shoulders were sunburned in the process.
This being my longest stay in Singapore, though I came in as a foreigner, I exited the country as a resident... I may not get to visit the Sands casino for free or get 5% discounts as tourist in selected shopping malls, but now that I have found a new "hang-out" and be able to borrow books from the library, I am more than excited.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
"Malaysia Boleh" in action again
With the recent achievements of our athletes in Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, kuddos to them who worked hard and made it to podium finishings... a good sign of "Malaysia Boleh".
But whilst the athletes brought glory to the nation with its hard work and sheer determination to put Malaysia in the sporting limelight, our politicians continue to display or rather not display its short-sightedness and remains oblivious to the REAL NEED of the Rakyat (the people).
Our dear Prime Minister announced in his latest Budget 2011 claiming it as a budget BY the rakyat FOR the rakyat. But when the announcement was made, the budget isn't anything portraying the rakyat's wishes and needs. First and foremost, the most obvious dissatisfaction from the rakyat is the mega-project Warisan tower that supposedly will supercede all skyscrapers in this land. How does this benefit the rakyat? How would this improve the livelihood of the rakyat? How would this create a high-income generating rakyat? The only people who will benefit from this are those powerful "masked" individuals pre-deciding on who gets the job and those whom they favor. And because of the possible location which is in Chinatown, has anyone already noticed how congested traffic is in this part of town? But nothing was mentioned about improving the current infrastructures to ease traffic flow or improve public transportation in this part of town except connecting bridges and covered walkways between the train stations to some buildings.
Increasing salary for the civil servants! By what merit do they deserve this wage increase? Just walk in to any government departments and you will see the long queues but unmanned counters. Where are they? pergi tandas, minum kopi, sistem offline, bos pergi seminar... these are the frequent and most common excuses they will tell us. Oh.. I just remembered, those deciding on this budget are themselves civil servants... hence is this their idea of generating high-income society?
Malaysia recently has been trying to reduce their deficits by reducing subsidies for petrol. Thus, rakyat suffers again with higher cost of living and no significant wage increase. A bowl of noodle now stands at RM4 on average in Klang Valley, Myvi petrol cost weekly is around RM70 but for a junior level executive who earns RM1700 a month with basic personal insurance expense of RM200 a month and needing to contribute to the family and an education loan debt to pay-off, how far can his or her dollar stretch to enable this people to survive. This is simple calculation and if the leaders of this nation can't even see this, how can we entrust the whole nation to them to manage. What the rakyat needs is a minimum wage policy.... this is not a new topic.
Have you read recently, top Malaysian law student in Cambridge university.... (wow!! Malaysia Boleh!) ....will be joining Singapore legal service in January! This is the mock of town... am I mocking and saying that the Malaysian student is a traitor? NO! Singapore offered him an ASEAN scholarship while Malaysia was probably still checking it's quota system and playing it's race cards to see if he can be given a placement in University Malaya (not even a scholarship). Also, Sabah-borned Penny Wong, the first Asian minister in Australia ... where would she be if she were still in Malaysia?
If the governing leaders put away their Malay-sovereignty spirit for just a while and allow every race equal opportunity to play its role and contribute to the economy, social and political development of the nation, we would already be 90% closer to being a developed nation. Look at our neighbour down south... though they may be small and lacking of natural resources, but they have abundant talents and skills to manage and regenerate their own resources without much help from other nations... look at their NUwater project and urban planning to name a few... they are all planned, developed and managed by Singaporeans. This is because they are far-sighted and they know knowledge is power. Hence, they pull the brightest talents and give them opportunity to pursue their dreams without discriminating them based on race or religion.
The problem in Malaysia is the politics of this nation that will be the cause of disgrace and downfall of this nation. 1Malaysia will not be 1Malaysia if politicians continue to play their race cards. Put aside this petty issue and look into the REAL NEEDS of the people
But whilst the athletes brought glory to the nation with its hard work and sheer determination to put Malaysia in the sporting limelight, our politicians continue to display or rather not display its short-sightedness and remains oblivious to the REAL NEED of the Rakyat (the people).
Our dear Prime Minister announced in his latest Budget 2011 claiming it as a budget BY the rakyat FOR the rakyat. But when the announcement was made, the budget isn't anything portraying the rakyat's wishes and needs. First and foremost, the most obvious dissatisfaction from the rakyat is the mega-project Warisan tower that supposedly will supercede all skyscrapers in this land. How does this benefit the rakyat? How would this improve the livelihood of the rakyat? How would this create a high-income generating rakyat? The only people who will benefit from this are those powerful "masked" individuals pre-deciding on who gets the job and those whom they favor. And because of the possible location which is in Chinatown, has anyone already noticed how congested traffic is in this part of town? But nothing was mentioned about improving the current infrastructures to ease traffic flow or improve public transportation in this part of town except connecting bridges and covered walkways between the train stations to some buildings.
Increasing salary for the civil servants! By what merit do they deserve this wage increase? Just walk in to any government departments and you will see the long queues but unmanned counters. Where are they? pergi tandas, minum kopi, sistem offline, bos pergi seminar... these are the frequent and most common excuses they will tell us. Oh.. I just remembered, those deciding on this budget are themselves civil servants... hence is this their idea of generating high-income society?
Malaysia recently has been trying to reduce their deficits by reducing subsidies for petrol. Thus, rakyat suffers again with higher cost of living and no significant wage increase. A bowl of noodle now stands at RM4 on average in Klang Valley, Myvi petrol cost weekly is around RM70 but for a junior level executive who earns RM1700 a month with basic personal insurance expense of RM200 a month and needing to contribute to the family and an education loan debt to pay-off, how far can his or her dollar stretch to enable this people to survive. This is simple calculation and if the leaders of this nation can't even see this, how can we entrust the whole nation to them to manage. What the rakyat needs is a minimum wage policy.... this is not a new topic.
Have you read recently, top Malaysian law student in Cambridge university.... (wow!! Malaysia Boleh!) ....will be joining Singapore legal service in January! This is the mock of town... am I mocking and saying that the Malaysian student is a traitor? NO! Singapore offered him an ASEAN scholarship while Malaysia was probably still checking it's quota system and playing it's race cards to see if he can be given a placement in University Malaya (not even a scholarship). Also, Sabah-borned Penny Wong, the first Asian minister in Australia ... where would she be if she were still in Malaysia?
If the governing leaders put away their Malay-sovereignty spirit for just a while and allow every race equal opportunity to play its role and contribute to the economy, social and political development of the nation, we would already be 90% closer to being a developed nation. Look at our neighbour down south... though they may be small and lacking of natural resources, but they have abundant talents and skills to manage and regenerate their own resources without much help from other nations... look at their NUwater project and urban planning to name a few... they are all planned, developed and managed by Singaporeans. This is because they are far-sighted and they know knowledge is power. Hence, they pull the brightest talents and give them opportunity to pursue their dreams without discriminating them based on race or religion.
The problem in Malaysia is the politics of this nation that will be the cause of disgrace and downfall of this nation. 1Malaysia will not be 1Malaysia if politicians continue to play their race cards. Put aside this petty issue and look into the REAL NEEDS of the people
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Everything I do, I do it for you
Sounds like a Bryan Adam's song? Yes.. indeed it is... but it wasn't the song that got me thinking of what to write here, but it was from reading an article "Let the Nations be Glad" from John Piper in the Pathways to Global Understanding that resounds within my spirit. Piper started off with this statement:
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. WORSHIP IS.
I couldn't help but to shout an "AMEN" to this. Many a times when we think of worship, the first thing that comes to mind is a picture of a band with great sounding musical arrangements and a charismatic song leader performing in the front of the congregation. True as it is that God demands our highest praise and that we praise Him with our instruments of harps, lyres and cymbals (at least in the days of David) but there needs to be a deeper embrace (and not just an understanding) of the meaning of true worship in the church today.
Till this day "worshipping God in Spirit and in truth", still makes me question God on what it truly means. For God is Spirit and only through His Holy Spirit can the true revelation and depth of understanding of this verse brings life and meaning to our very existence. What I know at this juncture is that God demands our worship and not sacrifice... He demands our hearts not only the act of worship.
Churches these days have been consumed in being bigger and better. What I mean is the church has become so focused in having spacious and latest hi-tech buildings, various programs and agendas and recruitment for the best speakers, best worship leaders, best children ministers and even sadly to say, the rich and powerful individuals to be apart of the church. I am not advocating to not have any of these but it is definitely not the outward appearance that God is interested... He is interested in the hearts of man... our motives... and our total obedience to the purpose and calling that He has for His church at this very point in time.
The church is not just a building, the church is the people... and we, who claim to be Christians, are the living stones, built up to serve His purposes. We are priesthood of believers serving together in God's purposes in our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria and the ends of the earth so that the kingdom of God will be established... where one day, every tribe and tongue and nation will bow down and worship YAHWEH, the true and living God and acknowledge the works of Christ on the cross. But without worship in our hearts, it is impossible to carry out the purposes of God for He is the one who gives us the power to obey Him and the desire to do the things that pleases Him.
When we truly embrace the meaning of worship in our lives, the doing will be a breeze. I am not saying that we will not face struggles and hardship in ministry for Christ Himself was persecuted to achieve God's purpose. But the grace of God is sufficient for us and His power is made perfect in our weakness ... and hence, the doing isn't burdensome when we know we are doing what God has called us to do rather than what the leaders of the church have asked us to do. We are doing because we embrace His call for our lives and it is out of the passion for our God and our desires to please Him, that draws us to follow His will.
Just as it is in missions, it is not just a program. When the heart of God beats in our hearts as well, missions becomes a part of us. I am not saying we all have to go to the jungles and mountains to reach unreached people groups (unless God specifically asks you to). More so, even the people that surrounds us wherever we are, will see the gospel living in us... a true worshipper will live out the truth and emanate the light of God, which overcomes all darkness.
In everything we do, let's do it in the right attitude of worship as this pleases His heart.
Missions is not the ultimate goal of the Church. WORSHIP IS.
I couldn't help but to shout an "AMEN" to this. Many a times when we think of worship, the first thing that comes to mind is a picture of a band with great sounding musical arrangements and a charismatic song leader performing in the front of the congregation. True as it is that God demands our highest praise and that we praise Him with our instruments of harps, lyres and cymbals (at least in the days of David) but there needs to be a deeper embrace (and not just an understanding) of the meaning of true worship in the church today.
Till this day "worshipping God in Spirit and in truth", still makes me question God on what it truly means. For God is Spirit and only through His Holy Spirit can the true revelation and depth of understanding of this verse brings life and meaning to our very existence. What I know at this juncture is that God demands our worship and not sacrifice... He demands our hearts not only the act of worship.
Churches these days have been consumed in being bigger and better. What I mean is the church has become so focused in having spacious and latest hi-tech buildings, various programs and agendas and recruitment for the best speakers, best worship leaders, best children ministers and even sadly to say, the rich and powerful individuals to be apart of the church. I am not advocating to not have any of these but it is definitely not the outward appearance that God is interested... He is interested in the hearts of man... our motives... and our total obedience to the purpose and calling that He has for His church at this very point in time.
The church is not just a building, the church is the people... and we, who claim to be Christians, are the living stones, built up to serve His purposes. We are priesthood of believers serving together in God's purposes in our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria and the ends of the earth so that the kingdom of God will be established... where one day, every tribe and tongue and nation will bow down and worship YAHWEH, the true and living God and acknowledge the works of Christ on the cross. But without worship in our hearts, it is impossible to carry out the purposes of God for He is the one who gives us the power to obey Him and the desire to do the things that pleases Him.
Worship is the essence of why we are doing what we are doing. But many in the ministry are exhausted, burnt out and even suffering from depression not because the laborers are few and they are the only ones toiling the land. But it's because we are so engrossed in the "doing" that we forget how to "be"... that we are constantly sacrificing our time, our money, our efforts, our skills for the sake of ministry that we forget just to be still and wait upon the Lord, the author and perfecter of our faith.
When we truly embrace the meaning of worship in our lives, the doing will be a breeze. I am not saying that we will not face struggles and hardship in ministry for Christ Himself was persecuted to achieve God's purpose. But the grace of God is sufficient for us and His power is made perfect in our weakness ... and hence, the doing isn't burdensome when we know we are doing what God has called us to do rather than what the leaders of the church have asked us to do. We are doing because we embrace His call for our lives and it is out of the passion for our God and our desires to please Him, that draws us to follow His will.
Just as it is in missions, it is not just a program. When the heart of God beats in our hearts as well, missions becomes a part of us. I am not saying we all have to go to the jungles and mountains to reach unreached people groups (unless God specifically asks you to). More so, even the people that surrounds us wherever we are, will see the gospel living in us... a true worshipper will live out the truth and emanate the light of God, which overcomes all darkness.
In everything we do, let's do it in the right attitude of worship as this pleases His heart.
Friday, October 15, 2010
A New Look .. but the Same Person
I have been thinking much of my abandoned blog recently and while waiting for the Shanghai Masters Open 2010 to be shown on TV, I decided to see what I can do to this blog to refresh the page and be a bit more organized.
But most importantly, let's hope I get the encouragement to continue to update this blog more often... especially in the near future when changes starts setting in and pace picks up. What's happening? Well, just keep your eyes on this blog when I spring the surprise!
But most importantly, let's hope I get the encouragement to continue to update this blog more often... especially in the near future when changes starts setting in and pace picks up. What's happening? Well, just keep your eyes on this blog when I spring the surprise!
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