The most depressing....

Assalammualaikum,

I wanted to do a book review...


A book themed about psychology


But it's not a medical book...


It's entitled...

- BOKURANO -
english translation: - OURS -

In japan... yeahh... I think now you know its a manga...


I actually accidentally came across this manga on onemanga while searching something about mecha manga... came across Bokurano... didn't know what that means back then... went on reading the first chapter..

The drawing... not too bad... nothing special really... at least its not shoujo type... hey, what genre is this actually... owh, it's seinen... (info; shounen = for boys, shoujo = for girls , seinen = for adult)

I love good seinen manga... the other seinen manga I read is The Ravages of Time (Amazing historical manga about China), Bokko (great historical manga too) and Shekeisyu 042 (Sad + Inspiring story about an inmate)

Seinen manga are good because the storyline is deep as well as the message portrayed, really fits adult's mind who wants a reading that challenge their intelectual and perspective of life.

Ok.. back to Bokurano.. its a seinen manga... but, on chapter one... its just a bunch of kids... 15 kids given the power to control a robot to fight another robot invading earth...

duhh, typical fighting manga... robot vs robot... fighting for the earth bla bla bla...

Somehow I stick on reading it until after the first battle...

Yeah... they won...

oppss..

[Spoiler warning; those who want to read the manga should read it first before continuing]


i warned you...


ok.. so the first kid won... and then he accidentaly fell from the robot (very high) and died... because one of the 15 kids accidentaly pushed him...

ok... what's that about? Why does the main character just die like that?

wait... a 13 year old kid (all 14 of them are 13 y.old with one 9 y old) just killed another 13 year old kid.. accidentaly of course...

Not just that... in the battle between the two huge robot... the innocent normal people actually died... (not like ultraman.. where buildings were destroyed.. but you dont see any civilians died)

Ok, so this is a realistic battle manga...

Then, after the second battle (the second kid became the pilot)


He died as well... not killed... but just died...


That's went the truth was revealed...


Whoever controls the robot will be forced to use his life force and ended up dead after the battle...

Well, all 15 of them has been contracted to ride the robot, so that means... all of them will eventually die...

Can they quit??

If they lose a battle, or run away... then the other robot wins, and the whole earth will be destroyed....

So the choice is up to them, this 15 (13 now... 2 died) 13 y.old, they hold the power to save the earth...

What's so bad? They get to be a hero.. cool!!

No no no... this is what so great about this manga... its captures people's emotion... in a realistic point of view... DO THEY WANT TO SACRIFICE THEMSELVE TO SAVE THE EARTH?

Throughout the manga the question will be asked...
IS IT WORTH IT FOR ME TO DIE AND LET OTHER PEOPLE LIVE....
i) when my life ****** !!!
ii) when no one has ever treated me nicely
iii) when this world has caused my mother to commit suicide... why should this world live then?
iv) when i dont really care what happen to this world
v) when my parents dont even see that I exists
vii) When I'm just a kid... I deserve to live longer and follow my dreams...
viii) When... WHY ME????
ix) and many other reason....

All this 15 kids portray the different aspect of society nowadays.. each with their own story to tell.. some are very surprising and extreme... but definitely true...

And you got to remember these are just kids... their not adult who can think rationally or adult who can say it is our duty to protect the earth or our loved ones... just kids who know little about the world, and the fate of the whole earth depends on them... and they no longer have a future... they will die one by one... imagine the psychological impact on these small little childrens...

What about adults? How will everyone else reacts when their planet's fate depend on this kids? Also during the battles, thousands people died being stromped over and all... will the adults allow this?

For me, the most sad is that..

How will their parents act? If they say do not die.. then everyone will still die if they dont fight, so its a question of wether everyone die, or only their son/daughter die... like it or not, they'll have to lost their son... imagine how would the parents feel...

The family values showed in the manga... will definitely touch your hearts... from the ugliest of parents to the most caring of families...


You will visit the two extremes of human's emotion when faced with death...


And so the lyrics of the ending of the anime of this series: "We clung to our life with all our strength...
we never stop to see how DISGUSTING it was"

Throughout the whole manga... the story show no comprimise and keeps on hitting you with depression and more depression of what happen to the kids... I warn you, do not wish for part to smile...:)

The story also has some extremely sad part... I was nearly (nearly??) moved to tears during Daichi's (the 3rd pilot) death... it was so... so... cruel... its not fair (you'll say this a lot)... this is just at chapter 8 of the manga, not long.. if you can read until at least chapter 8, I'm sure you'll be stuck because of the intensity of emotions in the manga...

I finished reading the manga quite long ago, but just finished the anime yesterday.. (why I'm writing this now..)

Anime vs Manga...

Definitely choose the manga for this story, the anime cuts too many part and the ending is not the same... the manga definitely dive deeper into human emotions, makes it more worthwhile...


So if you want to read something to stir up your emotions...

BOKURANO is the story for you.. find it at www.onemanga.com



Oh yeah... the chapter where they reveal why it is called BOKURANO (ours)... is so... so... meaningful, find it for yourself~ :) Why this sad, depressing manga has such a inspirational name... Bokurano... Ours...

The Holiday that was at UNSW...

Assalammualaikum wbt..

Tomorrow's gonna be class... arghhh... holiday's ended...

Didn't really move away from my house this holiday... just stuck at UNSW the whole week...

Why??

Bcoz of...

Islamic Awareness Week 2009!!


My first ever experience working with international muslims!! What an eye-opener!!


The aim of this week is to spread the message of Islam, especially in removing myths and falsehood about Islam. We set up stalls everyday from Monday to Friday in front of the library lawn, we OWNED that walkway for the whole week, yeah!! (*some even say we owned the Christ Week that was coincidentally on the same week as ours)

I came on Monday carrying my 24" lcd monitor that they want to use, arrived at Library Lawn... and... wow!! What a beautiful stall~ with the banners all around~ MasyaAllah...

Basically, the main thing is to entertain any questions people will have about Islam at our stall either from muslims, non-muslims or atheist. Different kind of people dropped by our stall, some really interested to learn... some just came to say Assalammualaikum... some came just to slam us and satisfy their ego (but we manage to defend ourselves..)

Not just people coming to our stall, some of the brothers (and sisters) even go to the Christ Week stalls and attacked them!! Not physically, but using words and evidences from Quran and rational thinking to compare Islam and Christianity~ and they did it well!!

In addition, some of the sisters actually went to the people hanging around the library lawn and giving them da'wah materials without even feeling shy about it (tak malu-malu kucing pon bak kate org melayu), MasyaAllah... they really have no fear in spreading the truth, despite having to do it places where the majority are non-muslims.

Me? Even in Malaysia where the majority are muslims, still am kinda of shy + afraid to spread the truth bravely to non-muslims (or muslims).

I didn't really get much "customer" the whole week, maybe 3 that I really have a chance to talk to.. most of the time, when I greet someone, another brother step in and snatch them away.. haha.. not that I mind though, I totally agree that the other brother are way more experienced and knowledgeable then me~ but I'm hoping to get some experience this year, Alhamdulillah I still get some.. especially on Friday~

All the lectures during the week were awesome!! The number of non-muslim attending the lectures slowly but steadily increases from Monday to Friday, especially during Sharia' Law and the debate.

We also had BBQ on Tuesday handled by brothers, and the atmosphere at that time was MasyaAllah very beautiful, I suddenly see a lot of muslims and non-muslims getting together eating happily around the BBQ area... wonderful~ Thanks to TJ for sponsoring us!!

On Wednesday we had Falafel Lunch handled by sisters, which is also a great success~ Food is always a major attraction for people~


The final Day:

On friday, the final event was the Great Debate: Does God Exist? by Brother Uthman Badar(muslims) versus Alan Zaino (atheist), the turnout by both muslims and non-muslims was Alhamdulillah very good!! We filled the whole lecture theater... The debate however...

On the Muslims side it was marvellous, brother did a very good job presenting his points especially since he used a rational thinking side to deal with atheist, not focusing much on the Quran (since they dont believe in the Quran)

The atheist side was however pretty dissapointing, he didn't really prepared well for his topic, and decided not to have a rebuttal session with brother Uthman... which really... sort of makes the debate strange...

However, during the Q&A session, questions were raining down on both side, and Alhamdulillah brother Uthman managed handled it well~ Ending it with something for the atheist to think about (if they are really open-minded as they claim they are)


The rainy night:

As I leave the lecture hall that night, it was raining... not really a depressing rain, but it gives off a really nice atmosphere to end our Islamic Awareness Week...

It got me thinking...

One of the most wonderful thing I witnessed this week (and during Ramadhan) is that how just because we are muslims... you can see another muslims came and helped out with all using 100% their capabilities even though we have never met each other before and they are not in the IAW committee... some of them are not even from UNSW, some came from McQuarie Uni, we never met them, but they are MasyaAllah such a great helper...

I saw... how the brotherhood in Islam is not restricted to any boundaries... strangers became best of friends in an instant~

Then, I reflected back on how...

I met a lot of new brothers from different backgrounds throughout this week...

I learned a lot from them on how to give Da'wah...

I now know more on how other people see religion and life...

I now am more confident to spread the truth of this beautiful way of life~

What's left is to improve myself to increase my iman and knowledge~!!!



The preparation for this week took months... its pointless to ask the question:

"was it all worth it?"


Alhamdulillah~

All the preparations... all for this week & nationalisme... one ummah?

Assalammualaikum wbt

This week... is a holiday for the faculty of medicine @ unsw... but I cant really go anywhere this whole week... why? bcoz there's....

Click here to find out more

I dont really know how I got involved in this, I was like sleeping in the UNSW musolla after Asar prayer... then Huzaifah came to me and asked me if I'm free... and suddenly I'm at the meeting... and Sabir (the president of ISOC - Islamic Society on Campus) told me; "get all the Malaysians that I see 8 out of 10 hours I'm at uni everyday to get involved.." and he put me on the food commitee..

Well, time passed by... we have meetings every week.. the one thing that we really have shortage is ironically manpower... ironic because... there's a lot of muslims on campus... there's like 500 from Saudi's and Malaysian I think easily surpasses 200++, not to mention from Pakistan, India, and other muslims countries...

Yeah, people's been busy with uni life and all...

But, there was this one meeting where one of the brother has test the hour after that, but he still went to the meeting... and participate well... even though he has test the next hour... MasyaAllah... even for me I've been making a lot of excuses to myself to avoid doing some jobs or stuffs... I'm really far left behind them in terms of jihad... and I thought I have it...

Trying to organize an event this big where trying to spread da'wah to especially to the non-muslims is very very hard... its really sad yet inspiring seeing the brothers and sisters really struggling hard to get this done... they have to skip classes, go all around uni to meet people, call up people, photocopying, pasting posters... and many more... at times I wonder... how can they still have the spirit to do this? If I were them... I'd probably given up...

It was because of this that I felt... its wrong for me to leave them alone... as a muslims whom Allah has opened my eyes to witness them.. how could I pretended nothing happened? And I'm just like one monkey's leg away from uni (sekangkang kera)... monkey? monkey d. luffy!!

Anyway, they sacrificed a lot of their time to do this... in fact 3 of the commitee members are doing medicine 3rd and 4th year!! There's law student, petroleum, business, econs... you name it man.. almost all faculty has a representatives...so if I say I'm too busy that I cannot help them?? yeah right... Alhamdulillah, most of the time Allah swt get rid of all the excuses and helped carry my lazy self from the bed to help them...

Ali, one of the brothers said to me "the best thing of getting involve in IAW, is you get to meet new friends..."

Well said brother...

All the brothers in the IAW commitee, if I weren't here, I would not even know them!! (even though one of the brothers is actually a 4th year med student). MasyaAllah, all of them are very good muslims, they are not afraid, nor care-free or even lazy to propagate Islam.

"Let's go to a CBS (Campus Bible Studies) meeting, and tell them to learn about Islam and come to IAW" , "yeah, I'll do it!" a brother said without any hesitation. if it was Me... going into a christian club and saying come to islamic event... ???

"let's put out a poster stating Jesus was (actually is..) a Muslim!" <-- and we really did print out this posters... if it were me, i wouldn't even dare...

These are some of the normal conversation you hear from them... showing how they are really serious to spread Islam... and how far behind I am...


someone told me...


"islam akan naik kembali dari Nusantara..."


hmmm.....



Anyway... I'm really really grateful that Allah swt fated for me to be involved in this... this is just another blessings from Him, for me to learn more about Islam from the international brothers... there's a lot I can learn from them~!! and hopefully someday I'll be able to become someone as inspiring as them...


Todays.. the last day of preparation, we went postering and chalking almost the whole uni so that on monday the people will only see UNSW... and today I was again impressed by the spirits of the brothers and sisters... totally totally impressed... I was at many time saying... "cmon man that's enough..." but they're like keep on going... I still have a lot to learn~


Anyway, it was really tiring for all of us... but what came to my mind is... it would definitely be easier if there were a lot of people helping... like I said earlier... we're really short on manpower... but Alhamdulillah, we've done our target after working from 10.00am to 4.00pm.. some of them even stayed longer since there's more work to do... Hopefully next year, we'll have more people helping out with the next IAW... and hopefully by then me myself will not be saying "owh I'm busy with assignments/projects/exams/other programs etc..." Bcoz there's brothers out there that's doing someting very good and is very near to us and really really hoping to get some help from us...


I overheard a brother's conversation..

"If we can't even get this done, forget about Palestine man..." <-- he's actually referring about the Friday's prayers problem at UNSW, but I just think its also relevant here, if I cant even help this brother who's so close to me, why am I even dreaming of helping Palestine?


And we wonder how come Palestine is still not free... bcoz no one will really helped them unless they're there in Palestine (generally speaking... no offense), some do.. yeah


So that's its for preparation, Alhamdulillah for all the stuffs that Allah's enabled us to do... and hopefully it will be a very successfull week, hopefully people will come to our events, hopefully we get to see some people converting to Islam.. InsyaAllah...

I myself been really lazy with the preparations, hopefully Allah will forgive me for that... and hopefully I gained a lot from this


I came home today feeling tired and all... well actually I played football after the preparations... and my ears heard...


"Best siot macam party bile dekat nak abeh..." humm...


"Islam akan naik dari Nusantara.......kah?"


***mode kecewa ngan diri sendiri***

do forgive me~

*sorry la post ne serabut sket, x brape pandai luahkan perasaan...

Ad-Duha.. A meaningful Khutbah, beautiful Iftar and wonderful Ramadhan

It was the last Friday of Ramadhan, the day starts off at Masjid Zetland, eating sahur there... and then went home and went to Anatomy prac~ (fell asleep 3/4 of it..)

So the Khutbah starts...
The 1st was about Syukur~ Sykur Illah.

I was so tired, so I kinda dozed off a little bit at the beginning of the Khutbah. I thought it was just a normal khutbah about syukur... until the khatib recited a verse;

وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثْ
(And proclaim the grace of your Lord)

I heard that verse before... hey... its surah Ad-Duha.. the final verse. This is one of my favorite verse, I liked it since I heard one of my friend reciting it very beautifully in prayers when I was in form 4. It's also one of the first surah I've memorized besides the common surah (well... I guess this can be considered common too...)

Anyway... the khatib explained how this Surah related to syukur. I first read about the tafsir of this Surah in form 5, alone in the night... and I cried because it is so beautiful...

*the following was reffered to Tafsir Ibn Khatir (www.qtafsir.com)

وَالضُّحَى - وَالَّيْلِ إِذَا سَجَى - مَا وَدَّعَكَ رَبُّكَ وَمَا قَلَى
1.By the forenoon.) (2. By the night when it darkens.) (3. Your Lord has neither forsaken you nor hates you.)

This surah was revealed to Muhammad saw after the revelation from Allah swt has "halted" for a quite long period of time, and Muhammad became sad since he hasn't heard anything from Allah swt. Then a woman came and said, `O Muhammad! I think that your devil has finally left you.' and the idolators said 'His Lord has abandoned him and hates him'. So Allah revealed this surah to Muhammad saw to tell him, Allah has neither forsaken you nor hates you.

Imagine how our beloved Muhammad saw felt when these verses came down to him... to calm him, to tell him that Allah swt is always there, and has never abandoned Muhammad saw. Same goes with us, no matter how hard or how cruel life can be, and we felt lonely or empty... know that; (3. Your Lord has neither forsaken you nor hates you)

That was the one part I understood in form 5 until the khutbah, I never really fully understood the later part of the surah. The khatib explained well to me that the later part is about Shukur.

أَلَمْ يَجِدْكَ يَتِيماً فَآوَى - وَوَجَدَكَ ضَآلاًّ فَهَدَى - وَوَجَدَكَ عَآئِلاً فَأَغْنَى

(6. Did He not find you an orphan and gave you a refuge) (7. And He found you unaware and guided you) (8. And He found you poor and made you rich)

These verses really relate a lot to me.. and I'm sure to most of us too. (6. Did He not find you an orphan and gave you refuge), in terms of Muhammad saw, he was an orphan as we all know, but Allah swt always gave Muhammad saw protection, eg. Abdul Mutalib after Aminah died, then followed by Abu Talib, then after he died, and kuffars started to attack the muslims, Allah swt will's it that Hijrah happen and gave Madinah as a refuge for Muhammad saw and the muslims.

Me, my dad passed away when I was 14 years old, and my family situations has been kinda rough since then, espacially financially... but, now that I look at this verse, I realized that despite losing a father, Allah swt gave me refuge without me noticing it, eg. he wills it for me to enter hostel in form 4, which really allows me to survive without having a lot of money, as well as a platform for me to strive during my days at SMART. So indeed... he found me an orphan, and gave me refuge. Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah.


(7. And He found you unaware and guided you), this verse relates to the fact that Allah swt sent down guidance to Muhammad saw throughout his phrophethood, which guided him and the rest of the human being towards the straight path. Me, I was once living in "dark ages", I was reallyastrayed from the right path, I didnt even perform the basic compulsary ibadah. I was really unaware of how "kufr" I was... Now as I look to the past, little by litte, starting from when I entered hostel, the guidance came from Allah swt... slowly guiding me back into the straight path... The most amazing fact is, I never actually prayed to be guided, but still, His guidance came for this lowly servants of His... not everyone is as lucky as I am to still be guided even though I was really bad... indeed, he found me unaware, and guided me. Alhamdulillah.

(8. And he found you poor and made you rich). this is not really related to money. Muhammad saw said;

"Wealth is not determined by abundance of possessions, but wealth is the richness of the soul" narrated from Abu Hurairah. Sahih.

According to Ibn Khatir, `you were poor having dependents', so Allah made you wealthy and independent of all others besides Allah swt. As I said before, financially Allah swt has really helped me and even now blessing me with this scholarship. But, most important of all, is that with Allah swt guidance, I can feel that my soul is richer then what it used to be, compared to when I didn't care about Islam. Alhamdulillah.

And so the khatib concluded this sura with the final verse;

وَأَمَّا بِنِعْمَةِ رَبِّكَ فَحَدِّثْ
(And proclaim the grace of your Lord.)

With all the blessings and bouties Allah swt has given us, we should spread it, we should tell others about it, share it with people. We should not keep it to ourselves. That is the sign of being Shukur according to this verse. However, spread it without being proud or riya'. Muhammad saw said that a proud man is those who belittles others and denied the truth. That's why in accordance with being Shukur for all the blessings in my life, I've decided to share this (to those who have a lot of free time to read this...). Wallahu'alam.

UNSW Big Iftar.

I went home after Khutbah at 2.00pm, and supposed to be back at UNSW by 3.00pm to help prepare the big iftar. Did some stuff at at 2.50pm decided to lie down for a while. Then, I blacked out because of the tiredness and woke up at 3.30pm.... aaaaa.........??? That time, I was so lazy and sleepy that I decided to just skip being helpers.... but, Alhamdulillah, Allah swt helped me against my lazyness, and I went to UNSW.

I was so glad that I went, the preparation was very tiring, handling the Iftar was extremely exhausiting... but when you see muslims from all races together, combined with good food, and wonderful environments, it was worth it. The night was filled with the beauty of brotherhood in Islam... MasyaAllah... this is one of the blessings of Allah swt to muslims.

Pictures of the iftar:
http://picasaweb.google.com/isocunswau/AnnualIftar2009#

By the end of the iftar, after tarawikh... it finally struck to me...

This is the last night of Ramadhan...

The prophet saw and his companions cried when Ramadhan almost left them...It's the 29th night, and my heart really feels heavy that time. I really wasted a lot of this Ramadhan by not making the most of it. And now the month of blessings will leave me... I pray I will not be among those who gained nothing from Ramadhan...

This is my first Ramadhan in Australia, and certainly was a very wonderful one. Many things happen when I review my Ramadhan that I'm grateful off. My assignments that I did last minute and I thought I really blew it up, turns up great~ My trip to newcastle during the holidays was really meaningful especially during their Iftar at masjid~ and also during this Ramadhan, I get to meet many new brothers not just from Malaysia, which really.. makes me feel great~

Despite the me that didn't pull off 100% efforts in Ramadhan, the blessings still come. Alhamdulillah

And now Ramadhan will end...


Many people are preparing for eid... feeling happy and all...

Its not bad to feel happy for eid, we are actually told by the phrophet to be happy on it, to celebrate it!! of course within the guidelines of Islam. (beware of getting close to maksiat my brothers & sisters, the temptations is very high high on eid)



But, I woke up this morning... the last day of Ramadhan... feeling really2 weird... will I be able to once again feel the blessings during Ramadhan next year?







What I'm feeling now...


Let's leave the joy of eid for tommorow...

Let's make the most of Ramadhan today~



Berkata Wathilah, Aku bertemu Rasulullah s.a.w pada hari raya dan aku katakan pada baginda "taqabballahu minna wa minka", baginda menjawab : Ya, taqabbalallahu minna wa minka"

May Allah swt accpets the deeds (in Ramadhan) of you and me.

Islamic Awareness Week

ISOC invites you to Islamic Awareness Week 2009. This year, IAW will take place in week 10 (28 September - 2 October 2009), and is set to be an exciting but intense week of dawah to primarily non-Muslims in a "get-to-know Islam and Muslims" campaign.



This year's theme is The Qur'an: A guidance for mankind, and aims to bring about awareness of the Holy Qur'an to non-Muslims around campus and explain to them it's importance, why we believe in it and what it has to offer them. We have a great line-up of talks and events that are set to engage non-Muslims and to raise awareness of Islam's teachings and principles. Further details will be released shortly.


Want to help out?



So far, a group of dedicated brothers and sisters have been working tirelessly to get the plans for this week to the final stages. However, there's still a lot of work that needs to be done and there's room for anyone who wants to be part of the most anticipated ISOC event for the year!



We will be having a meeting on this Thursday 10 September at 11am as a recap of what we have done so far, and also discuss the final stage of our preparations in the lead up to IAW. The meeting will start off with a discussion about what da'wah is from a panel of speakers, and following dhuhr salaah we will discuss the specific plans for IAW. Everyone who wishes to help with IAW is requested to attend - it's midsession break so we hope you should be free inshaAllah!



The least you can do



The aim of this week is to inform people about Islam, and particularly the Qur'an. If you are unable to help out, we request that you invite your friends to attend every single event - Muslim or non-Muslim!



We want the impact of this week to be felt all throughout the university, and as Muslims studying in all faculties, we have the ability to reach the whole of UNSW! We would love your help in the week, but if you are busy or unable, tell your friends to attend the events and find time to attend yourself.



If you are interested in helping out, please attend the meeting on Thursday 10 September from 11am. If you think you might be late or are unable to attend but want to help out, send us an email at iaw@isoc-unsw.org.au



We also ask that you make dua that the event is a success.



Wassalaam,
IAW Team

A very ALCOHOLic day...

Assalammualaikum wbt

Today is Monday... a new day after a great weekend... arghh~ just finished killing zombies in Resident Evil 5 with Muhaimin and went cycling from my home to central to paddy's and back home with Ratap.

Well, today like any other Monday... so lazy to go to lecture... woke up late... came to lecture late like at 9.30am (lecture start at 9.00am)


Little did I suspect, today was going to be a very alcoholic day... jeng jeng jeng...


LECTURE: Alcohol Plenary

It's the first day of a new plenary.. last plenary was about Obesity. I came late to the lecture but the lecturer suddenly said something about Malaysia. Malaysia? He said something about he went there to do some research and all...

Then he said:
"The chinese in Malaysia drink alcohol, but not until they get drunk, or only during occasions such as Chinese New Year
The malays in Malaysia do not drink alcohol, as they are muslims
But.. the malays said the indians are very bad..." he said. Then the audience laugh, and he moved on..

I was like... did he met some racists malay or what... and he just made a conclusion based on that comment? Well, if he asked me I would say the indians are not really that bad when it comes to alcohol comsumption, personal experience, I never have any indian friends that is an alcoholic... so which malay made that comment and for that lecturer to take that comment and to make a conclusion and presenting it to the lecture hall.... somehow pissed me off.

It's as if he dont want to accept the fact that Malaysian (not just malays) has lower alcohol consumption then them. Okay okay, malaysian do drinks and even some muslims (sadly) drinks too... but I'm sure its not as bad as the western country (even for the non-muslims).

Then he moved on... into prevention of alcohol...

He listed 10 things about how to reduce alcohol consumption... such as taxes, age limits etc... but then he said something that I will not let go easily... he said educations and campaigns are proven not effective and its just a waste of money! Educations and campaigns are not even in the top 10 lists.. he said...

Well, I beg to differ... In Malaysia we dont have laws that prohibits alcohol consumption and selling. Muslims can get access to alcohol 24/7 through 7/11 and no policeman will come and catch you. Although undeniably some Muslims do buy and drink alcohol, most of us dont... and what differs? Education... not just school education.. but education from parents, teachers, friends and scholars.. Education if done the right way.. is really2 effective... and for that lecturer to just say.. education and campaigns is a waste of money... I dont know what research in Malaysia he has done...

Well, I managed to get some of the dissatisfaction out during my Scenario Group session with my group members... then we get to see a very informative, sad and mind-opening video about aboriginal health regarding alcohol abuse

LONELY BOY RICHARD

It's a story mainly about Richard Wanambi, who lived in the northern territory, where his problem reflected the problem of alcohol abuse in the aborigines society. Alcohol was not introduced to them until the 1970 when a mining site was created at their territory, even though they fought against that. The elders at that time went to court to fight for their land, and to demand that pub (where alcohol will be sold) not to be established there. Well, they lost that case and as a result alcohol was made readily available for the people there. The elders knew at that time that alcohol will destroy their communnity, as so they were right.

It shows how richard's life was ruined by alcohol, how the society, the young ones, fathers, all getting drunk at night lost in the streets, how the community members have to work hard to help them, how the school principle is worried that the number of people going to school is dropping, how the policemen have to work night shift to help these people who got drunk at night... its all very very sad to see how a community sunk to the bottom of life values because of alcohol... How those elders who fought the establishment of the pub was right...

Richard went to Darwin for a court case about his marriage I think, but 2 days before his trial, in Darwin, he drunk so much and sexually assaulted a teenage girl there... making him facing the possibility of life sentence... the whole room was like... quiet for a while there... "damn..."

After the trial, the judge decided to give him 8 and a half year of prison, after taking into consideration the alcohol influence on his community... his lawyer asked him:
"How did you feel about going into prison?"
"good"
"why?"
"Because I did bad things" Richard replied... at that time I knew... I knew that if is it not because of alcohol influence... Richard is a very good guy... very good guy who believed in God...

Then they show this scene where his grandson (or is it his son, or his niece) saying goodbye to him, he wanted to touch his hand... and after that Richard cried... its the first time I see him cry... and that was a very touching scene...

What had happened at the community of these people because of alcohol is very very sad... If only the elders had won the case to prevent the establishment of the pub, if only people at the 1970's knew this would happened... I pray that Allah will help those people, give them a light of hope, and guide them towards the right path.

The one important message I get from watching that documentary is..

Alhamdulillah, Thank you Allah for not making me, my family, my close friend and a large portion of my community not addicted to alcohol... it is indeed a very very precious blessings that we all should be grateful off.

Hanging around with my Australian friend here talking about alcohol, I knew that they become addicted to alcohol mainly because of the social and peer pressure... which we (the Malaysians) is very fortunate not to have that kind of social pressure.

But now, our own community if falling down that path.. slowly more and more malaysian muslim is drinking alcohol, and we must make sure that we play our role to help reduce that... Do not turn our community into what happen to the Indigenous community in that video...

Lastly.. to all my Malaysian friends in Australia...

I realized one other thing from watching that video... that Australian Aborigines are just as human as us... we (perhaps not all) like to generalize them as dangerous and all... and I know at least one of us nearly (or has) become a victim from their assault... but why they act that way... probably because of those in the documentary.. maybe alcohol and other stuff... we must understand that they as a community is aware of that, and they have members of their community trying hard to change that... which is very very inspiring...

So one question I want to leave to you my brothers...

As a muslim, is it right for us to generalize them as a group of people on a level lower then us?

I am guilty of that... and I hope Allah will cleanse my heart of such thoughts... we have Islam... the solution.. show it to them.. dont hate them...


Everything written here is my personal opinion, in no way am I trying to offend anyone... Apologizes if anyone is offended~

Salam~

Video of peace around the world~

Assalammualaikum..

Found this great video while browsing the an optical illusion website... a very inspirational video.. very peaceful~ love it~ but Malaysia's not in there... cis!! haha...