'lol' is no laughing matter when you gaffed!

Mobile phone and internet (with its social networking sites) have revolutionized communication in the way we express ourselves by using abbreviations and initials. While older generation folks are still coping with jargons like uploading/downloading, delete, copy and paste, many have got onto 'textcronyms' being used by the younger generation.

Below is an example which we must avoid, so please make sure you know your textcronyms before using them...


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Confucius says no confusion...

Just kidding because they sound quite alike. In the internet there are many quotes attributed to Confucius or Buddha, but I am sure not all are true. Just a convenient way of quoting something that could have been said by either of them. They were no longer around, so there is no way to know, unless you are a true scholar of Chinese Studies and the like. A number of friends forwarded the following 'wise saying' or rather wise crack to me, presumably for me to post it.

Fair or not

Woman asks:
If I sleep with 3 men, everyone calls me a slut. But when a man sleeps with 10 girls,
everyone calls him a real man. How come?

Man replies:
It's very simple. Confucius says 'When one lock can be opened by 3 different keys, it's a bad lock. But when one key can open 10 different locks, we call it a master key!
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A Bangladeshi's lament of discrimination in Malaysia

Excerpt:

I do not remember life before permanent residency, but I do remember how much of a pain it was to be as a Permanent Resident (PR), a seemingly unknown status within Malaysia, one where I had to keep explaining my right to exist over and over again. What made it even worse was that I was a Bangladeshi, a supposedly "dirty illegal"; never mind that my parents were educated middle-class and that my father was brought in as a civil engineer.

No child should ever have to be told by their teachers to "go back to your country". No child should ever have to explain the news reports that claimed that Bangladeshis were robbing houses and stealing women (only to be told upon protest that I should "grow thicker skin"). I had teachers tell my classmates, in front of my face, "don’t let the Bangla girl do better than you". Even my art skills came under scrutiny, with teachers mocking me during exams saying "my six-year-old could do better". The students copied the teachers in their mockery of me. It didn’t matter that I won tons of awards every year, that I was the best English language student the whole time I was there—their perception of my race invalidated any good thing I tried to do or achieved.

No one stood up for me. Instead, when I attempted suicide in the prayer room at age 11, the only other person there said "God will send you to hell". I begged my parents to send me elsewhere, even overseas, but a combination of their overprotective paranoia plus the fact that as a PR I am meant to be in a government-run school (ironic, given the fact that my school kept trying to expel me every other year claiming I didn’t have a "student visa") had me staying in the local school system for 11 years. Not that secondary school was much better—a little less overt in their racism, perhaps, but you notice it when the Malay prefects and the non-Malay prefects hold separate meetings on why the other group should not field a candidate for Head Prefect, or when you’re sitting in assembly and one of the admins suddenly announces that no permanent residents will be accepted as prefects — when everyone knows you’re the only permanent resident there anyway.

The last day of SPM was like a release from jail.

The questions asked of me were inane enough ("Write 150 words on the importance of National Day!") but the most galling part involved sitting in the interview room, being asked what my most important responsibility and contribution was as a new citizen…only to be told by the interviewers that the right answer is to vote for the ruling party, because they were the ones who gave me the "gift" of permanent residency.

Source:

http://www.loyarburok.com/the-system/why-do-you-want-to-be-a-malaysian-citizen/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Loyarburok+%28LoyarBurok%29

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Singapore walks the talk on Meritocracy

The following is stale news by now but nonetheless noteworthy for those who have yet to know about it:

Brigadier-General Singh (left) will take over from Major-General Chan (right) as Singapore's Chief of Army.

By Krishna Singh

Singapore: The appointment of Brigadier-General Ravinder Singh, a Sikh, as the next chief of the Singapore Army is the culmination of a long tradition of the community serving in uniform, both as policemen and in the armed forces, in the city-state.

Their role in Singapore belies their small number: There are only an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 Sikhs in Singapore, a nation of five million people.

Their number is small even when compared to 100,000 Sikhs living in Malaysia. Sikhs came to this part of Southeast Asia as soldiers and policemen during the British era.

Brig. Gen. Singh will replace Major-General Chan Chun Sing as army chief March 25.

Singh, 46, currently deputy secretary (technology) in the defence ministry, was previously commanding officer, 3rd Signal Battalion; commander, 2nd Singapore Infantry Brigade and assistant chief of general staff (plans); head joint communications and information systems department.

He has also held the posts of head joint plans and transformation department; commander 6th Division and chief of staff - joint staff.

Singh holds a Master of Arts (Engineering Science) from the University of Oxford, Britain. He also holds a Master of Science (Management of Technology) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US.

He joined the Singapore Armed Forces in December 1982. Brig Gen Singh is also the first non-Chinese Chief of Army in nearly 30 years.

Colonel Mancharan Singh Gill was the first ever when he took up the post in 1982, the report said.

At the end of such an article, inevitably the question that comes to mind to any Malaysian reader is, 'Will it happen in Malaysia?' and I think the likely response from the likes of Perkasa would be 'Bantah' Singh instead!
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A song suitable for a recent court case...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxpYN-NK54Y

When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman

When you're in love with a beautiful woman
It's hard .
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
You know it's hard .
Everybody wants her
Everybody loves her
Everybody wants to take your baby home .
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
You watch your friends
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
It never ends .
You know that it's crazy
You want to trust her
then somebody hangs up when you answer the 'phone .
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
You go it alone .
Maybe it's just that ego problem .
Problem is I've been fooled before
My fair weatherfriends
and faint hearted lovers
but every time it happens
it just convinces me more .
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
you watch your eyes .
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
You look for lies .
Everybody tempts her
Everybody tells her
She's the most beautiful woman they know .
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
You go it alone
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
You watch your friends
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
It never ends .
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
you watch your eyes .
When you're in love with a beautiful woman
Keep lookin' for lies .

Words & Music by Even Stevens
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