Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri 2008




I would like to take this special opportunity to wish to all muslims friends, customers, business associates, investors and business partner, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! Maaf, Zahir dan Batin.
Staying safe on the road and enjoy this special day with your lovely family.



Book Review - Play Money : How I Quit My Day Job and Made Millions Trading Virtual Loot


This book probably wouldn’t have shown up on my radar had it not been for the fact that the author, Julian Dibbell, made it available as a virtual book inside Second Life. I bought the virtual edition for the equivalent of about US$2.50 — using in-game currency I had acquired simply by joining and having an account for several months — then I proceeded to read it within the virtual environment. There is a hardcover edition available if you like that sort of thing.

The book is about the real world business within virtual environments. It’s not about the business of games like Ultima Online, Everquest or World of Warcraft, it’s about the people and companies doing business inside these environments. Most WoW players would know them as “gold farmers”, though that doesn’t do justice to the range of commercial activities currently pursued.

The events in the book centre on one man’s quest to make virtual item trading his primary source of income. As such, they take place over the course of a single financial year, more or less. During this time Julian kept a blog. This blog forms the core of the book, with much of the rest of the content a sort of commentary on the blog entries, as well as a number of interviews (both traditional and basic chat logs).

I’m not sure if I enjoyed the content of the book as much as I enjoyed actually reading a whole book rendered within a virtual world — it’s hard to separate the two parts of the experience. As far as the core of the story goes, the book only reinforces the idea that you can only make significant amounts of money in a virtual world by breaking the rules, partially because of the economic effects of those who are willing to break the rules. There’s also some discussion on the nature of work and play, which I can’t say I warmed to greatly. However, the nature of the book itself, available in a virtual edition and based on blog entries, gives you some hope for the future of both publishing and commerce.

You can join Second Life here. If you want to buy the book in-game, you’ll need a credit card (or possibly PayPal, ick), you’ll need to purchase 750 Linden Dollars (less than US$3), and you’ll need to go to the shop referenced in the New World Notes article.

SwissCash Lesson

KUALA LUMPUR: Tony (not his real name) had a successful job as an broadcasting executive with a reputable firm and was preparing to tie the knot with his childhood sweetheart.

"In January 2006, a colleague of mine bought a brand-new BMW 740Li worth almost RM800,000.

"We were amazed at how he could afford it, given that we were all on more or less the same salary scale," Tony told the New Straits Times.

"When we asked him how he could afford to purchase the car, he took us out for a meal and proceeded to tell us about the Swisscash investment programme and how he had profited from it."

According to Tony, his colleague had been among the early birds who had signed up with the investment programme when it was introduced and thus been able to earn 20 per cent every month with the promise of 300 per cent returns after 450 days.

"After hearing him rave about Swisscash and the amazing returns he had enjoyed after signing up for a mere six months, it started me thinking.

"I was going to marry my childhood sweetheart in January 2007 after five years of courtship and dating. And I wanted to make our honeymoon especially memorable for the both of us.

"I started to do some homework on Swisscash and discovered they invested in securities and equities in foreign stock markets.

"It never occurred to me to check whether the company had been licensed by the authorities to operate.

"After several days of contemplation, I decided to put an initial investment of RM10,000 into Swisscash."

It was all good for the first four months as Tony received RM2,000 every month.

He then decided to put his returns back into Swisscash.

Two months later, Tony managed to persuade his fiancee to invest the RM50,000 they had set aside for their wedding, although she initially had reservations. She gave in as he wanted to make enough money to take her to Europe on their honeymoon.

In August 2006, Tony checked his Swisscash account and noted with satisfaction that 20 per cent of his total investment had been credited.

To celebrate, he took his fiancee for a romantic dinner.

The next month, the troubles began when a report was lodged with the Securities Commission. After a warning was jointly issued by the SC and Bank Negara Malaysia, Tony began to have doubts.

He issued instructions for the money in his Swisscash account to be transferred to his bank account and was told it would be done in a week. It was not.

After several weeks and attempts to get the money transferred, Tony's calls went unanswered and a visit to the company's office revealed it had been closed.

The couple were married in January last year. The lovebirds had to borrow money from their parents for the wedding and dinner.

When he learnt of the latest court order against the three defendants to compensate victims of the scam, Tony could only say: "This was a valuable lesson for me not to be greedy."

SWISSCASH SCAM: Success due to painstaking work


KUALA LUMPUR: Securities Commission investigators probing the Swisscash scam had spent two years painstakingly recording statements from victims and sifting through mountains of paperwork.

They even had to go overseas to carry out surveillance on the main suspects.

In the end, their diligent work paid off as the recent landmark court order against three people to compensate victims of the scam to the tune of US$83 million (RM286.17 million) showed.

The case began in mid-2006 when the SC received a complaint from a victim of the scam.

The report was referred to the SC Investor Affairs and Complaints Department.

Swisscash fund is an investment programme offered through the Internet and local agents.

It had neither been approved nor endorsed by the Securities Commission or Bank Negara Malaysia.

Investigators made site visits for intelligence gathering and also to ascertain if the proprietors had the proper documents and licences to operate.

At the same time, they also ascertained the main players involved in the business.

The initial stages of the probe revealed that Swisscash was offering fund management services, taking money from investors and promising to invest in various high yielding investment funds with up to 300 per cent returns.

However, the company was breaching security laws as it did not possess the proper documents or licences to operate.

Activities involving securities, equities or fund management come under the purview of the SC.

When investigations revealed that funds contributed by an undisclosed number of victims ran into millions of ringgit, the Investor Affairs and Complaints Department passed the case to the SC Prosecution and Investigation Department.

Investigators then began due diligence on the case.

They began interviewing various victims who had parted with their hard-earned cash.

They also ran background checks on the main players involved.

"Swiss Mutual Fund was not licensed or exempted from licensing by Bank Negara Malaysia to accept deposits, nor was it licensed by the Securities Commission to carry out asset management activities or investment advisory services in Malaysia," the source said.

"Many people were so swayed by greed and promises of lucrative returns that they did not do their own checks to ascertain if the company making such promises was actually authorised to conduct such activities."

Sources disclosed that investigators also made several trips abroad as part of surveillance operations and to monitor the actions of the main suspects and the flow of cash.

"Cash contributed by victims of the scam was being funnelled to bank accounts abroad and investigators had to sift through mountains of paperwork to trace the money.

"Cooperation was sought from various agencies abroad as it had become a transnational case with the main suspects constantly travelling and cash being transferred to foreign accounts."

In July last year, the SC obtained a worldwide Mareva injunction against persons involved in the Swisscash investment scam, preventing them from disposing assets in and outside Malaysia.

Seen as a milestone enforcement action against investment scams, the SC also announced that it had blocked access to two other websites offering illegal investment schemes.

The Mareva injunction restrains and prohibits the defendants from carrying on the business of Swisscash, targeting, soliciting and collecting funds from the public for investments in Swisscash or any other Internet investment scheme.

The defendants also cannot host or operate the Swisscash websites or operate any other such websites which solicit investments for Swisscash or any other Internet investment scheme.

In September last year, the SC won a court order to transfer RM35 million accumulated under the Swisscash scam back to Malaysia.

The money was being held in six bank accounts in Hong Kong and eight in Singapore.

"As Swisscash had turned out to be a worldwide scam that operated using the Internet, the SC worked closely with regulators from seven other countries to combat these illegal activities.

"The cross-jurisdictional collaboration between so many agencies also helped to unearth valuable information that has helped investigators in the course of their probe," the source said.

Now that the judgement has been delivered, the SC is liaising with authorities from other countries with different jurisdictions and legal processes, to trace and repatriate the monies back to Malaysia.

Monday, September 29, 2008

Empat Asas Membentuk Remaja Berakhlak Mulia

ZAMAN remaja adalah masa peralihan yang menghubungkan antara alam kanak-kanak yang tidak matang ke alam dewasa yang lebih matang. Corak peralihan pelbagai akan membawa pelbagai pengaruh kepada individu yang mengalaminya. Setiap remaja sewajarnya diasuh untuk mempersiapkan dirinya sebagai khalifah Allah. Tujuan hidup yang tidak bercanggah dengan kehendak Islam hendaklah disemai dalam diri seorang remaja sejak awal lagi supaya mereka berjaya dan maju sebagai generasi cemerlang dan diberkati.

Jika pembentukan remaja tidak berlaku dengan sempurna, maka pembangunan negara akan terjejas kerana golongan remajalah bakal menjadi pemimpin pada masa akan datang. Rasulullah bersabda yang bermaksud: "Setiap anak yang dilahirkan adalah putih bersih, maka terpulanglah kepada kedua ibu bapanya untuk menjadikannya Yahudi, Nasrani atau Majusi." - (Riwayat Bukhari).

Ketika ini, masalah sosial di kalangan remaja amat membimbangkan. Boleh dikatakan keruntuhan akhlak remaja bagaikan seiring dengan pembangunan negara. Ini dapat dilihat melalui pembangunan yang hampir ke kemuncaknya, akhlak remaja juga kian jatuh dan bagaikan tidak dapat dibendung lagi. Antara masalah sosial yang sering dilakukan remaja pada hari ini ialah seks bebas, lari dari rumah, pembuangan bayi, penagihan atau pengedaran dadah, ponteng sekolah, mengugut, menubuhkan kumpulan haram dan sebagainya.

Sesungguhnya, masalah sosial remaja pada hari ini disebabkan beberapa faktor. Antaranya persekitaran berubah secara mendadak terutama pengaruh media cetak dan elektronik yang saban hari memaparkan mengenai eksploitasi terhadap wanita serta kebebasan remaja yang keterlaluan dan banyak mempengaruhi pemikiran anak-anak terutama yang baru meningkat remaja.

Selain itu, faktor kurangnya didikan agama dan kasih sayang daripada ibu
bapa, perasaan mahu mencuba serta desakan atau pengaruh daripada rakan
sebaya. Sebenarnya, masalah remaja adalah masalah kita bersama. Oleh itu
gandingan yang mantap dan kerjasama erat antara ibu bapa, guru, rakan
sebaya dan anggota masyarakat amat diperlukan dalam menangani masalah
remaja.

1. Peranan Ibu bapa

Firman Allah yang bermaksud: "Wahai orang yang beriman! Selamatkan diri
kamu dan anggota keluarga kamu daripada api neraka." - (Surah At-Tahrim
ayat 6).
Anak-anak adalah amanah Allah kepada kita. Didikan awal kepada anak-anak
amat mustahak dalam kita merencanakan masa depan hidup mereka kerana
mengabaikannya bererti akan merosakkan ahli masyarakat seluruhnya.

Antara panduan keibubapaan yang digariskan Islam ialah:

- Ibu bapa menjadi model yang salih dengan menghayati dan mengamalkan
ajaran Islam sebenar. Ibu bapa salih adalah model terbaik untuk memberi pendidikan agama kepada anak-anak. Didik dan biasakanlah anak-anak dengan tingkah laku dan kegiatan yang baik sejak anak kecil.

- Mendisiplinkan anak dengan kasih sayang bukan kekerasan kerana ini
akan menjadikan mereka berasa senang hati dan gembira untuk melakukan
sesuatu perkara positif. Anak juga perlu dilatih membuat kebajikan dan pada masa yang sama menerima ganjaran atau pujian.

- Memenuhi masa lapang bersama anak seperti sembahyang berjemaah, makan,
membaca al-Quran dan bersukan. Hubungan akrab ibu bapa dan anak akan memudahkan anak taat perintah ibu bapa kerana sudah wujud perasaan saling hormat antara satu sama lain.

- Ibu bapa perlu bijak membaca setiap pergerakan anak. Simbol atau
isyarat tertentu boleh memberi gambaran tahap perkembangan anak.
Kemahiran ini perlu dipelajari ibu bapa dari semasa ke semasa.

- Kesabaran juga amat perlu dalam diri ibu bapa kerana tiap-tiap anak
walaupun dalam satu keluarga, mempunyai personaliti yang unik dan
berbeza antara satu sama lain.

2. Peranan Guru

Dalam proses pendidikan, kita seharusnya mengambil iktibar dengan
mencontohi asas pendidikan dilakukan Rasulullah.

Baginda bersabda yang bermaksud: "Salah satu cara terbaik untuk
membentuk akhlak mulia ini ialah dengan cara pendidikan."

Dalam hal ini, antara fungsi penting guru ialah:

- Menjadi 'Qudwah Hasanah' atau contoh teladan baik. Setiap tingkah laku
guru hendaklah dijaga kerana setiap inci pergerakan guru akan menjadi
ikutan.

- Memiliki sifat amanah, dedikasi, komited pada tugas, ikhlas, sanggup
berkorban masa dan tenaga.

- Mengamalkan sikap suka membantu serta membimbing dan berperanan
sebagai 'role model' kepada pelajar.

- Penampilan dan penerimaan guru terhadap konsep berilmu, beramal dan
berakhlak yang sebenar-benarnya.

- Bersedia bekerjasama dengan ibu bapa dalam usaha membentuk insan
Rabbani.



3. Peranan Rakan Sebaya

Dari sudut psikologi, peringkat remaja adalah peringkat paling
berpengaruh dalam kehidupan mereka. Pada peringkat inilah, pengaruh rakan sebaya paling kuat dan paling diterima. Mereka lebih rela menceritakan dan mencurahkan perasaan kepada rakan berbanding ibu bapa, guru atau orang dewasa lain.
Oleh itu, pendekatan logikal ialah menggunakan remaja untuk mempengaruhi
remaja lain. Program Pembimbing Rakan Sebaya (PRS) dapat memenuhi hasrat ini dengan
syarat mereka dilatih dan diselia dengan teratur. Oleh itu adalah disarankan supaya pemilihan dan perkembangan latihan ahli PRS hendaklah dipantau bersama kedua-dua pihak iaitu pihak sekolah dan juga ibu bapa.

4. Peranan Anggota Masyarakat
Dalam hal ini Allah berfirman yang bermaksud: "Dan berpegang teguhlah
kamu sekalian kepada tali Allah (agama Islam) dan janganlah kamu
bercerai berai." - (Surah Ali Imran, ayat 103).

Sabda Rasulullah yang bermaksud: "Hubungan orang mukmin dengan orang
mukmin lain adalah seperti sebuah bangunan yang menguatkan antara satu
sama lain." - (Riwayat at-Tabarani).

Ayat ini menjelaskan bahawa kerjasama anggota masyarakat amat penting
untuk menciptakan lingkungan yang baik bagi perkembangan dan pertumbuhan
remaja yang sihat.

Antara perkara yang boleh dilakukan masyarakat setempat ialah:

- Mewujudkan sebuah organisasi belia remaja yang dapat menentukan
peranan mereka dalam pelbagai bidang sebagai persediaan menentukan corak
pembangunan negara pada masa akan datang.

- Mengaktifkan peranan badan bukan kerajaan (NGO) tempatan untuk melatih
belia remaja aktif dalam berpersatuan.

Ia adalah jambatan yang menghubungkan mereka secara langsung dengan
masyarakat, sekali gus menghindarkan mereka dari melakukan kerja-kerja
yang tidak berfaedah.

- Wujudkan kerjasama dan persefahaman yang erat antara ahli dalam
sesuatu kariah melalui kegiatan gotong-royong dan seumpamanya supaya
anggota masyarakat setempat dapat saling mengenali antara satu sama lain
serta dapat mewujudkan perasaan mengasihi anak jiran seperti mana dia
mengasihi anaknya sendiri.

- Memartabatkan seluruh institusi keagamaan Islam (mahkamah atau
perundangan, pendidikan masjid, zakat dan badan dakwah dan NGO lain)
supaya peranan dan fungsi institusi berkaitan dapat direalisasikan
dengan berkesan.

- Menggesa sektor pekerjaan sama ada kerajaan, swasta atau korporat
untuk menzahirkan budaya kerja dan budaya hidup sihat di kalangan
pekerja mereka. Ia boleh dilakukan dengan mengambil kira faktor seperti penjadualan,
kegiatan kekeluargaan, hari kelepasan dan lain-lain. Walaupun usaha pelbagai pihak diperlukan bagi membendung gejala sosial di kalangan remaja, sesuatu yang pasti ialah memohon pertolongan dan petunjuk daripada Allah.

Ini kerana hidayah Allah juga faktor terpenting mempengaruhi pemulihan
dan kemurnian akhlak seseorang. Nabi Nuh gagal memujuk isteri dan anaknya memeluk Islam. Begitu juga Rasulullah gagal memujuk bapa saudaranya, Abu Talib kembali ke pangkuan Islam.

Allah berfirman yang bermaksud: "Sesungguhnya engkau (Wahai Muhammad)
tidak berkuasa memberi hidayah petunjuk kepada sesiapa yang engkau kasih
(supaya ia menerima Islam) tetapi Allah jua yang berkuasa memberi
hidayah petunjuk kepada sesiapa yang dikehendakinya, dan dialah jua yang
lebih mengetahui orang-orang yang mendapat hidayah petunjuk." - (Surah
Al-Qasas, ayat 56).

"Problem" Quotes Of The Day

"Understand that most problems are a good sign. Problems indicate that progress is being made, wheels are turning, you are moving toward your goals. Beware when you have no problems. Then you've really got a problem... Problems are like landmarks of progress." - Scott Alexander

"I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated." - Poul Anderson

"He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?." - Francis Bacon

"Well everybody in Casablanca has problems. Yours may work out." - Humphrey Bogart

"Let God's promises shine on your problems." - Corrie Ten Boom

"Brady's First Law of Problem Solving: When confronted by a difficult problem, you can solve it more easily by reducing it to the question: How would the Lone Ranger have handled this?" - Brady

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
Albert Einstein quotes (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955)


“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in, forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day, you shall begin it well and serenely...”
Ralph Waldo Emerson quotes (American Poet, Lecturer and Essayist, 1803-1882)


“Don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.”

“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny.”
Albert Ellis quotes (American Psychologist and Writer, b.1913)

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. quotes (American Baptist Minister and Civil-Rights Leader. 1929-1968)

“He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help.”
Abraham Lincoln quotes (American 16th US President (1861-65), who brought about the emancipation of the slaves. 1809-1865)


“It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.”
Douglas Adams quotes (British comic Writer, 1952-2001)


“My biggest problem is what to do about all the things I can't do anything about”
Ashleigh Brilliant quotes (English Author and Cartoonist, b.1933)

Singapore opposition stalwart JB Jeyaretnam dies

SINGAPORE: Veteran opposition politician J.B. Jeyaretam died of heart failure early on Tuesday morning. He was 82.

The pugnacious former head of the Workers’ Party, who recently formed the Reform Party, died at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, said his close friend and chairman of Mr Jeyaretnam’s new political party.

He leaves behind two sons, Kenneth and Philip.

He was the first opposition member to break the ruling People’s action Party’s grip on Parliament 27 years ago.

He was unable to contest the 2006 general election after he was made bankrupt in 2001 for failing to pay S$265,000 in defamation damages to then Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

He was discharged from bankruptcy in May last year.

Jeyaretnam made his final political comeback earlier this year.

He left the Workers’ Party after years at its helm and was succeeded by Mr Low Thia Khiang, who is now MP for Hougang.

When he broke the PAP’s 15-year monopoly of the Parliament in 1981, most of today’s young Singaporeans were not even born yet.

After losing his parliamentary seat in 1986 for making a false declaration of the WP accounts and being jailed for a month and fined S$5,000, he spent most of the last two decades battling outside the legislature.

Of the five General Elections since then, he has contested only once, in 1997.

He finished as top loser through the bruising Cheng San GRC bout, earning 45.2% of the valid votes.

That brought him back into the House as a Non-Constituency MP, a brief tenure that ended in 2001, when he was declared a bankrupt for failing to pay after losing a defamation suit against five Indian People’s Action Party MPs, among others.

When he left his 30-year-long WP vehicle in that same year, after accusing his successor Low of not helping him clear his debts, he was effectively banished to the margins of the opposition scene here. -- The Straits Times / ANN 300908

Starting A Small Business

So you are thinking of going into business. This can have advantages and disadvantages. Running a business of your own will bring a sense of independence, and a sense of accomplishment. You will be the boss, and you can't be fired, though there may be days when you would welcome it. Because you can pay yourself a salary and the profit or return on your investment will also be yours, you anticipate a good income once your business is established. You will experience a pride in ownership - such as you experience if you own your own home or your own automobile. You can derive great satisfaction from offering a product or service which is valued in the market place.

By being boss you can adopt new ideas quickly. Since your enterprise undoubtedly will be a small business - at least in the beginning - you will have no large, unwieldy organization to retrain, no board to get permission from, each time you wish to try something new. If the idea doesn't work you can drop it just as quickly. This opportunity for flexibility is one of small businesses greatest assets.

These are some of the advantages and pleasures of operating your own business. Now take a look at the other side. If you have employees, you must meet a payroll week after week. You must always have money to pay creditors - the man who sells you goods or materials, the dealer who furnishes fixtures and equipment, the landlord if you rent, the mortgage holder if you are buying your place of business, the publisher running your advertisements, the tax collector, and many others. All of these must be paid before you can consider the "profits" yours.

You must accept sole responsibility for all final decisions. A wrong judgment on your part can result in losses not only to yourself but, possibly, to your employees, creditors, and customers as well. Moreover, you must withstand, alone, adverse situations caused by circumstances frequently beyond your control, To overcome these business setbacks and keep your business profitable means long hours of hard work. It could very well not be the work you want to do. As someone else's employee you developed a skill. Now, starting a business of your own, you may expect to use that skill 40 or more hours a week. Instead, you must perform the management tasks as well. You must keep the books, analyze accounting records, sit back and do long range planning, jump and handle the expediting and, when everyone has gone home and you finally have caught up with the paper work, you may even have to sweep the floor.

As your business grows and you become more successful, you may not do some of these activities. As an owner-manager, however, you must - at least at first - give up the technical aspects you know and enjoy doing, and focus on the management aspects. To get your business off to a successful start, you must be a manager not an operator.

You will never be entirely your own boss.

No matter what you choose - manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing or service business - you must always satisfy your customers. If you don't give the customers what they want, they'll go somewhere else and you'll be out of business. So every customer, or even potential customer, is your boss. Your creditors will also dictate to you, and your competitors' actions may force you to make decisions you don't want to make. National and local government agencies will insist that you meet certain standards and follow certain regulations. The one thing you can decide yourself is how you will satisfy all of these bosses.

Are You the Type?

The first question you should answer after recognizing that there are two sides to the prospect of establishing your own business is "Am I the type?"

You will be your most important employee. It is more important that you rate yourself objectively than how you rate any prospective employee. Appraise your strengths and your weaknesses. As a prospective operator of your own business, acknowledge that you are weak in certain areas and cover the deficiency by either retraining yourself or hiring someone with the necessary skill.

Numerous studies have been made of small business managers over the years. Many look at traits and characteristics that appear common to most people who start their own businesses. Other studies focus on characteristics that seem to appear frequently in successful owner-managers.

First, consider those characteristics that seem to distinguish the person who opens a business from the person who works for someone else. These studies investigated successful and unsuccessful owners, some of whom went bankrupt several times. Some were successful only after the second or third try. The characteristics they share might almost be said to predispose a person into trying to start a business. Of course, not all of these characteristics appear in every small business owner-manager, but the following seem to be most predominate.

Strong Opinions and Attitudes

People who start their own business may be members of different political parties, feel differently about religion, economics and other issues. They are like everyone else. The difference is they usually feel and express themselves more strongly. This is consistent. If you are going to risk your money and time in your own business you must have a strong feeling that you will be successful. As you will see later, these strong feelings may also cause problems.


If you want to start your own business you probably have mixed feelings about authority. You know the manager must have authority to get things done, but you're not comfortable working under someone. This may also have been your attitude in a scholastic, family or other authority structure.

If you want to open you own business you are likely to have a strong "Need for Achievement". This "Need for Achievement" is a psychologist's term for motivation and is usually measured by tests. It can be an important factor in success.

The person who wouldn't think of starting a business, might call you a plunger, a gambler, a high risk taker. Yet you probably don't feel that about yourself. Studies have shown that very often the small business owner doesn't differ from anyone else in risk avoidance or aversion when measured on tests. At first thought this seems unreasonable since logic tells us that it is risky to open your own business. An Ohio State professor once explained this apparent contradiction very simply. "When a person starts and manages his own business he doesn't see risks; he sees only factors that he can control to his advantage."

If you possess these traits to some degree or other it doesn't mean you will be successful, only that you will very likely start your own business. Some of these characteristics in excess may actually hamper you if you are not careful.

The characteristics that appear most frequently among "successful" small business managers include drive, thinking ability, competence in human relations, communications skills and technical knowledge.


Drive, as defined in the study, is composed of responsibility, vigor, initiative, persistence and health. Thinking ability consists of original, creative, critical, and analytical thinking. Competency in human relations means emotional stability, sociability, good personal relations, consideration, cheerfulness, cooperation. and tactfulness. Important communications skills include verbal comprehension, and oral and written communications. Technical knowledge is the manager's comprehension of the physical process of producing goods or services, and the ability to use the information purposefully.

Motivation or drive has long been considered as having an important effect on performance. Psychologists now claim you can increase the motivation and the personal capacities that will improve your effectiveness and increase your chances for success. Much of the development of such achievement motivation depends on setting the right kind of goals for yourself.

What Business Should You Choose?

Many of you have already decided what business to choose. Others may still be seeking answers from counselors. Whether you have decided or not, you will find it helpful to continue your self-evaluation.

Begin by summarizing your background and experience. Include jobs. schooling, and hobbies. Then write down what you think you would like to do. Does what you would like to do match up with what you have done? It is helpful if your experience and training can be put to direct use in your new enterprise.

What are your prospective needs? What are your prospective customers' needs? You may make money doing something you don't like if people will pay for it. On the other hand, you will never make money if people don t need your product or service no matter how happy you are doing it. Experts have said more companies fail because they are in the wrong business than because they are "doing business wrong".


Read, listen to the experts, talk to business people, try to determine where growth will occur. Most new businesses can only get customers by taking them away from someone else, or by attracting new people entering the area. In other words, don't start a contracting business in a community where the population is decreasing even if you are a good contractor.

At this point, try to match your background and interests with what you see the needs to be. If they match, wonderful. Now all you have to do is discover how to offer the customers more for their money than do your competitors.

If the needs and your background don't match, don't despair. Get training by working in a company that provides a product or service that is needed. Find a job in a well managed, successful company of the kind you are contemplating. Then absorb as much management know-how as you can while learning the technical skills.

Education can help too. While there may be no educational requirements for starting your own business, the more schooling you have along the right lines the better equipped you should be.

(Some fields require licenses, certificates, even degrees in specific educational areas.) Certainly it is helpful if you have had courses in record keeping, sales and communication. These needn't be college or even high school courses. They can come from adult education programs and the like.

Is there a need for what you want to sell or do? Are you prepared to fill that need? Are you interested in the area? Can you learn what you need to? Will there be a continuing and growing need for your product or service?

Your Chances of Success

What are your chances of success if you go into business? New businesses are always being started. Almost as many are failing or being discontinued. A year of poor business conditions is likely to be followed by a greater than average number of failures or closings. A year of good business conditions tends to be followed by large increases in the total number of businesses. In general, the number of firms increases with increases in human population, total personal income and per capita income and since these factors have increased regularly, the total number of small businesses usually rises every year.

This growth is not free of growing pains, however. At the same time new businesses are being born other businesses are being discontinued. Some of these discontinuances are legally business failures; other owners give up to avoid or minimize losses and are not failures in the strict sense. Still others discontinue for reasons such as the death or retirement of the proprietor, the dissolution of a partnership, or the sale of the business to a new owner.

Younger businesses tend to discontinue first. Many do not make it through the first year. The discontinuation rate of those that survive this first year "burn-in" declines steadily until at the end of several years the rate has dropped dramatically. So, your chances of success improve the longer you stay in business.

Poor management is the largest single cause of business failure. Year after year, the lack of managerial experience and aptitude has accounted for around 90 percent of all failures analyzed by Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.

Many factors may adversely affect individual firms over which owners have little control. In such cases, the astute manager can often soften the blow or, sometimes, change adversity into an asset. Examples of factors over which the owner has little control are overall poor business conditions, relocations of highways, sudden style changes, the replacement of existing products by new ones, and local labor situations. While these factors may cause some businesses to close, they may represent opportunities for others. A local market place may decline in importance at the same time new shopping centers are developing. Sudden changes in style or the replacement of existing products may bring trouble to certain businesses but open doors for new ones. Adverse employment situations in some areas may be offset by favorable situations in others. Ingenuity in taking advantage of changing consumer desires and technological improvements will always be rewarded.

In the final analysis, it is up to you. Will your management be competent? Will you be able to judge, and then satisfy, your customers' wants? Can you do this accurately and quickly enough to more than compensate for risks due to factors beyond your control? Such accomplishment requires expert management.

Your Return on Investment

Will the rate of return on the money you invest in your business be greater than the rate you could receive if you invested your money elsewhere? While your decision to go into business for yourself may not depend entirely upon this, it is a factor which should interest you. Too frequently people invest money in their own businesses under the misapprehension that the financial return will be far greater than the return from other investments. Investigation of the average annual returns in the line of business in which you are interested may be worthy of your time.

Your decision to go into business may not depend entirely on financial rewards. The size of the potential return on your investment may be overshadowed by your desire for independence, the chance to do the type of work you would like to do, the opportunity to live in the part of the country or city you prefer, or the feeling that you can be more useful to the community than you would be if you continued working for someone else. Do not overlook such intangible considerations. But remember, you cannot keep your own business open unless you receive an adequate financial return on your investment.

Raja Munirah Gagal Batal Hukuman

PUTRAJAYA: Pelajar Malaysia, Raja Munirah Raja Iskandar, gagal dalam cubaan terakhirnya untuk membatalkan sabitan dan hukuman penjara bagi kesalahan cuba menyeludup syabu di Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Narita pada 2006.

Keputusan itu dibuat Mahkamah Agung Jepun pada 20 Mei selepas mendapati hujah yang dikemukakan oleh peguam bela Raja Munirah hanya berdasarkan dakwaan tidak mematuhi prosedur undang-undang yang bukan alasan kukuh membenarkan permohonan Raja Munirah mengemukakan rayuan ke Mahkamah Agung.

Peguam belanya, Rosal Azimin Ahmad, ketika dihubungi berkata, alasan betul yang terkandung dalam Fasal 405 Undang-undang Prosedur Jenayah Jepun ialah dakwaan bagi tidak mematuhi hak Perlembagaan.

Beliau berkata, Raja Munirah amat sedih dengan keputusan mahkamah itu tetapi menerimanya dengan tenang.

Rosal Azimin berkata, Raja Munirah mungkin memohon bagi parol tetapi dia perlu menghabiskan separuh daripada hukuman penjara itu.

Raja Munirah, 23, dihukum penjara tujuh tahun dan enam bulan serta didenda 1.5 juta yen (RM46,800) atau penjara 250 hari jika gagal membayar denda itu oleh Mahkamah Tinggi Jepun selepas mengaku bersalah terhadap kesalahan itu.

Hukuman itu berkuat kuasa dari tarikh dia ditangkap pada 20 Disember 2006. Bagaimanapun, dia diberikan pengurangan 270 hari dan dengan itu, hanya perlu menjalani hukuman penjara enam tahun sembilan bulan.

Rayuannya ke Mahkamah Tinggi Jepun bagi mengetepikan sabitan dan hukuman penjara juga gagal.

Sementara itu, Rosal Azimin merayu sumbangan daripada orang ramai untuk membayar denda bagi Raja Munirah supaya pelajar itu tidak perlu menjalani hukuman penjara 250 hari lagi.

Pada 20 Disember 2006, Raja Munirah ditahan di Lapangan Terbang Narita apabila satu bungkusan mengandungi syabu seberat 690.80 gram ditemui dalam begnya. � Bernama

Dia mendakwa beg itu dibeli rakannya, seorang warga Iran untuk diisi baju panasnya dan beg itu diserahkan kepadanya di Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur (KLIA) sejurus sebelum berlepas ke Tokyo.

Raja Munirah pergi ke Tokyo untuk menghadiri temu duga bagi jawatan pegawai perhubungan awam.

Dia sedang menjalani hukuman di pusat tahanan Tokyo di Kosuge. - BH, Bernama

What Is Blog?

A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual [1], with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketches (sketchblog), videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), which are part of a wider network of social media. Micro-blogging is another type of blogging, one which consists of blogs with very short posts. As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than 112 million blogs.[2] With the advent of video blogging, the word blog has taken on an even looser meaning — that of any bit of media wherein the subject expresses his opinion or simply talks about something.
There are many different types of blogs, differing not only in the type of content, but also in the way that content is delivered or written.
Personal Blogs
The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their blog posts, even if their blog is never read by anyone but them. Blogs often become more than a way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life or works of art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to fame and the mainstream, but some personal blogs quickly garner an extensive following. A type of personal blog is referred to as "microblogging," which is extremely detailed blogging as it seeks to capture a moment in time. Sites, such as Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings instantaneously with friends and family and is much faster than e-mailing or writing. This form of social media lends to an online generation already too busy to keep in touch.[3]
Corporate Blogs
A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs, either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or public relations purposes are called corporate blogs.
Question Blogging
is a type of blog that answers questions. Questions can be submitted in the form of a submittal form, or through email or other means such as telephone or VOIP. Qlogs can be used to display shownotes from podcasts[4] or the means of conveying information through the internet. Many question logs use syndication such as RSS as a means of conveying answers to questions.
By Media Type
A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog.[5] Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs.
A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog.[citation needed]
By Device
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called a moblog.[6] One early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance. Such journals have been used as evidence in legal matters.[citation needed]
By Genre
Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, house blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog.
House Blog
A house blog is a Blog created with the sole intent of using it to share and chronicle a home improvement or renovation process. Only in recent years has the concept of a house blog[7] come into being and become more popularized through communities[8]. The majority of house blogs are operated by homeowners who wish to share with the online community their remodeling projects from cost and materials to how it's impacted their family. Most house blogs are not created with the intention of earning revenue although some house blogs do sell advertising or are part of ad networks. The most significant reason for the popularity of house blogs is the cost. Using services such as Blogger and Wordpress, house bloggers can quickly and easily create a blog for free. In this way, the marketer can determine the viability of the selected niche before making a large investment of time and money.
Community and Cataloging
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The Blogosphere
The collective community of all blogs is known as the blogosphere. Since all blogs are on the internet by definition, they may be seen as interconnected and socially networked. Discussions "in the blogosphere" have been used by the media as a gauge of public opinion on various issues. A collection of local blogs is sometimes referred to as a bloghood.
Blog Search Engines
Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents, such as Bloglines, BlogScope, and Technorati. Technorati, which is among the most popular blog search engines, provides current information on both popular searches and tags used to categorize blog postings. Research community is working on going beyond simple keyword search, by inventing new ways to navigate through huge amounts of information present in the blogosphere, as demonstrated by projects like BlogScope.
Blogging Communities and Directories
Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers, including BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog.
Blogging and Advertising
It is common for blogs to feature advertisements either to financially benefit the blogger or to promote the blogger's favorite causes. The popularity of blogs has also given rise to "fake blogs" in which a company will create a fictional blog as a marketing tool to promote a product.
Popularity
Researchers have analyzed the dynamics of how blogs become popular. There are essentially two measures of this: popularity through citations, as well as popularity through affiliation (i.e. blogroll). The basic conclusion from studies of the structure of blogs is that while it takes time for a blog to become popular through blogrolls, permalinks can boost popularity more quickly, and are perhaps more indicative of popularity and authority than blogrolls, since they denote that people are actually reading the blog's content and deem it valuable or noteworthy in specific cases.[9]
The blogdex project was launched by researchers in the MIT Media Lab to crawl the Web and gather data from thousands of blogs in order to investigate their social properties. It gathered this information for over 4 years, and autonomously tracked the most contagious information spreading in the blog community, ranking it by recency and popularity. It can therefore be considered the first instantiation of a memetracker. The project is no longer active, but a similar function is now served by tailrank.com.
Blogs are given rankings by Technorati based on the number of incoming links and Alexa Internet based on the Web hits of Alexa Toolbar users. In August 2006, Technorati found that the most linked-to blog on the internet was that of Chinese actress Xu Jinglei.[10] Chinese media Xinhua reported that this blog received more than 50 million page views, claiming it to be the most popular blog in the world.[11] Technorati rated Boing Boing to be the most-read group-written blog.[10]
Gartner forecasts that blogging will peak in 2007, leveling off when the number of writers who maintain a personal Web site reaches 100 million. Gartner analysts expect that the novelty value of the medium will wear off as most people who are interested in the phenomenon have checked it out, and new bloggers will offset the number of writers who abandon their creation out of boredom. The firm estimates that there are more than 200 million former bloggers who have ceased posting to their online diaries, creating an exponential rise in the amount of "dotsam" and "netsam" — that is to say, unwanted objects on the Web (analogous to flotsam and jetsam).
Blurring with the Mass Media
Many bloggers, particularly those engaged in participatory journalism, differentiate themselves from the mainstream media, while others are members of that media working through a different channel. Some institutions see blogging as a means of "getting around the filter" and pushing messages directly to the public. Some critics worry that bloggers respect neither copyright nor the role of the mass media in presenting society with credible news. Bloggers and other contributors to user-generated content are behind Time magazine naming their 2006 person of the year as "you".
Many mainstream journalists, meanwhile, write their own blogs — well over 300, according to CyberJournalist.net's J-blog list. The first known use of a blog on a news site was in August 1998, when Jonathan Dube of The Charlotte Observer published one chronicling Hurricane Bonnie.[12]
Some bloggers have moved over to other media. The following bloggers (and others) have appeared on radio and television: Duncan Black (known widely by his pseudonym, Atrios), Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (Daily Kos), Alex Steffen (Worldchanging) and Ana Marie Cox (Wonkette). In counterpoint, Hugh Hewitt exemplifies a mass-media personality who has moved in the other direction, adding to his reach in "old media" by being an influential blogger. Equally many established authors, for example Mitzi Szereto have started using Blogs to not only update fans on their current works but also to expand into new areas of writing.
Blogs have also had an influence on minority languages, bringing together scattered speakers and learners; this is particularly so with blogs in Gaelic languages. Minority language publishing (which may lack economic feasibility) can find its audience through inexpensive blogging.
There are many examples of bloggers who have published books based on their blogs, e.g., Salam Pax, Ellen Simonetti, Jessica Cutler, ScrappleFace. Blog-based books have been given the name blook. A prize for the best blog-based book was initiated in 2005,[13] the Lulu Blooker Prize.[14] However, success has been elusive offline, with many of these books not selling as well as their blogs. Only blogger Tucker Max cracked the New York Times Bestseller List.[15]
Blogging Consequences
The emergence of blogging has brought a range of legal liabilities and other often unforeseen consequences.
Defamation or Liability
Several cases have been brought before the national courts against bloggers concerning issues of defamation or liability. The courts have returned with mixed verdicts. Internet Service Providers (ISPs), in general, are immune from liability for information that originates with third parties (U.S. Communications Decency Act and the EU Directive 2000/31/EC).
In John Doe v. Patrick Cahill, the Delaware Supreme Court held that stringent standards had to be met to unmask anonymous bloggers, and also took the unusual step of dismissing the libel case itself (as unfounded under American libel law) rather than referring it back to the trial court for reconsideration. In a bizarre twist, the Cahills were able to obtain the identity of John Doe, who turned out to be the person they suspected: the town's mayor, Councilman Cahill's political rival. The Cahills amended their original complaint, and the mayor settled the case rather than going to trial.[16]
In January 2007, two prominent Malaysian political bloggers, Jeff Ooi and Ahiruddin Attan were sued by pro-government newspaper, The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) Berhad, Kalimullah bin Masheerul Hassan, Hishamuddin bin Aun and Brenden John a/l John Pereira over an alleged defamation. The plaintiff was supported by the Malaysian government.[17] Following the suit, the Malaysian government proposed to "register" all bloggers in Malaysia in order to better control parties against their interest. [18] This is the first such legal case against bloggers in the country.

In the United Kingdom, a college lecturer contributed to a blog in which she referred to a politician (who had also expressed his views in the same blog) using various uncomplimentary names, including referring to him as a "Nazi". The politician found out the real name of the lecturer (she wrote under a pseudonym) via the ISP and successfully sued her for £10,000 in damages and £7,200 costs.[19]
In the United States, blogger Aaron Wall was sued by Traffic Power for defamation and publication of trade secrets in 2005.[20] According to Wired Magazine, Traffic Power had been "banned from Google for allegedly rigging search engine results."[21] Wall and other "white hat" search engine optimization consultants had exposed Traffic Power in what they claim was an effort to protect the public. The case was watched by many bloggers because it addressed the murky legal question of who's liable for comments posted on blogs.[22] The case was dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, and Traffic Power failed to appeal within the allowed time.[23][24][25][26]
Employment
In general, attempts at hiding the blogger's name and/or the place of employment in anonymity have proved ineffective at protecting the blogger.[27] Employees who blog about elements of their place of employment raise the issue of employee branding, since their activities can begin to affect the brand recognition of their employer.
In fall 2004, Ellen Simonetti was fired for what was deemed by her employer to be inappropriate material on her blog. She subsequently wrote a book based on her blog.Ellen Simonetti, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, was fired by the airline for photos of herself in uniform on an airplane and comments posted on her blog "Queen of Sky: Diary of a Flight Attendant" which her employer deemed inappropriate.[28][29] This case highlighted the issue of personal blogging and freedom of expression vs. employer rights and responsibilities, and so it received wide media attention. Simonetti took legal action against the airline for "wrongful termination, defamation of character and lost future wages".[30] The suit is postponed while Delta is in bankruptcy proceedings (court docket).
In the spring of 2006, Erik Ringmar, a tenured senior lecturer at the London School of Economics, was ordered by the convenor of his department to "take down and destroy" his blog in which he discussed the quality of education at the school.[31]
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was fined during the 2006 NBA playoffs for criticizing NBA officials on the court and in his blog.[32]
Mark Jen was terminated in 2005 after 10 days of employment as an Assistant Product Manager at Google for discussing corporate secrets on his personal blog, then called 99zeros and hosted on the Google-owned Blogger service.[33] He blogged about unreleased products and company finances a week before the company's earnings announcement. He was fired two days after he complied with his employer's request to remove the sensitive material from his blog. [34]
In India, blogger Gaurav Sabnis resigned from IBM after his posts exposing the false claims of a management school, IIPM, led to management of IIPM threatening to burn their IBM laptops as a sign of protest against him.[35]
Jessica Cutler, aka "The Washingtonienne", blogged about her sex life while employed as a congressional assistant. After the blog was discovered and she was fired,[36] she wrote a novel based on her experiences and blog: The Washingtonienne: A Novel. Cutler is presently being sued by one of her former lovers in a case that could establish the extent to which bloggers are obligated to protect the privacy of their real life associates.[37]
Catherine Sanderson, a.k.a. Petite Anglaise, lost her job in Paris at a British accountancy firm because of blogging.[38] Although given in the blog in a fairly anonymous manner, some of the descriptions of the firm and some of its people were less than flattering. Sanderson later won a compensation claim case against the British firm, however.[39]
On the other hand, Penelope Trunk, writing in the Globe in 2006, was one of the first to point out that a large portion of bloggers are professionals and that a well-written blog can actually help attract employers.
Political Dangers
Blogging can sometimes have unforeseen consequences in politically-sensitive areas. Blogs are much harder to control than broadcast or even print media. As a result, totalitarian and authoritarian regimes often seek to suppress blogs and/or to punish those who maintain them.
In Singapore, two ethnic Chinese were imprisoned under the country’s anti-sedition law for posting anti-Muslim remarks in their blogs.[40]
Egyptian blogger Kareem Amer was charged with insulting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and an Islamic institution through his online blog. It is the first time in the history of Egypt that a blogger was prosecuted. After a brief trial session that took place in Alexandria, the blogger was found guilty and sentenced to prison terms of three years for insulting Islam and inciting sedition, and one year for insulting Mubarak.[41]
Egyptian blogger Abdel Monem Mahmoud was arrested in April 2007 for anti-government writings in his blog. Monem is a member of the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
After expressing opinions in his personal blog about the state of the Sudanese armed forces, Jan Pronk, United Nations Special Representative for the Sudan, was given three days notice to leave Sudan. The Sudanese army had demanded his deportation.[42][43][44]
Personal Safety
One unfortunate consequence of blogging is the possibility of attacks or threats against the blogger, sometimes without apparent reason. Kathy Sierra, author of the innocuous blog Creating Passionate Users, was the target of such vicious threats and misogynistic insults that she canceled her keynote speech at a technology conference in San Diego, fearing for her safety.[45] While a blogger's anonymity is often tenuous, Internet trolls who would attack a blogger with threats or insults can be emboldened by anonymity. Sierra and supporters initiated an online discussion aimed at countering abusive online behavior[46] and developed a blogger's code of conduct.
Therapeutic Benefits
Scientists have long known the therapeutic benefits of writing about personal experiences. Blogs provide another convenient avenue for writing about personal experiences. Research shows that it improves memory and sleep, boosts immune cell activity and reduces viral load in AIDS patients and even speeds healing after surgery.[47]
History
Main article: History of blogging timeline
Main article: Online diary
The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger[48] on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May of 1999.[49][50][51] Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms.[52]
Origins
Before blogging became popular, digital communities took many forms, including Usenet, commercial online services such as GEnie, BiX and the early CompuServe, e-mail lists[53] and Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). In the 1990s, Internet forum software, such as WebEx, created running conversations with "threads." Threads are topical connections between messages on a metaphorical "corkboard."
The modern blog evolved from the online diary, where people would keep a running account of their personal lives. Most such writers called themselves diarists, journalists, or journalers. Justin Hall, who began personal blogging in 1994 while a student at Swarthmore College, is generally recognized as one of the earliest bloggers,[54] as is Jerry Pournelle.[citation needed] Dave Winer's Scripting News is also credited with being one of the oldest and longest running weblogs.[55][56] Another early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site in 1994. This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text was referred to as sousveillance, and such journals were also used as evidence in legal matters.
Dr. Glen Barry started publishing the first political blog -- the Forest Protection Blog (originally entitled "Gaia's Forest Conservation Archives") at http://forests.org/blog/ -- in 1993, both to campaign for forest protection and as his Ph.D. project[57]. It began using Gopher in 1993, and has been on the web continuously since Jan. 1995, making it possibly the web's first blog, and certainly the oldest continuously running web based blog. The work has since evolved into the world's largest environmental portals.
Early blogs were simply manually-updated components of common Web sites. However, the evolution of tools to facilitate the production and maintenance of Web articles posted in reverse chronological order made the publishing process feasible to a much larger, less technical, population. Ultimately, this resulted in the distinct class of online publishing that produces blogs we recognize today. For instance, the use of some sort of browser-based software is now a typical aspect of "blogging". Blogs can be hosted by dedicated blog hosting services, or they can be run using blog software, such as WordPress, Movable Type, Blogger or LiveJournal, or on regular web hosting services.
Rise in Popularity
After a slow start, blogging rapidly gained in popularity. Blog usage spread during 1999 and the years following, being further popularized by the near-simultaneous arrival of the first hosted blog tools:
Open Diary launched in October 1998, soon growing to thousands of online diaries. Open Diary innovated the reader comment, becoming the first blog community where readers could add comments to other writers' blog entries.
Brad Fitzpatrick, a well-known blogger started LiveJournal in March 1999.
Andrew Smales created Pitas.com in July 1999 as an easier alternative to maintaining a "news page" on a Web site, followed by Diaryland in September 1999, focusing more on a personal diary community.[58]
Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launched blogger.com in August 1999 (purchased by Google in February 2003)
Blogging Becomes a Political Force
This section does not cite any references or sources.
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See also: Political blog
Since 2002, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. The Iraq war saw bloggers taking measured and passionate points of view that go beyond the traditional left-right divide of the political spectrum.
On 6 December 2002, Josh Marshall's talkingpointsmemo.com blog called attention to U.S. Senator Lott's comments regarding Senator Thurmond. Senator Lott was eventually to resign over the matter.As an example of the rise of importance of blogs, in 2002, many blogs focused on comments by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. Senator Lott, at a party honoring U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond, praised Senator Thurmond by suggesting that the United States would have been better off had Thurmond been elected president. Lott's critics saw these comments as a tacit approval of racial segregation, a policy advocated by Thurmond's 1948 presidential campaign. This view was reinforced by documents and recorded interviews dug up by bloggers. (See Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo.) Though Lott's comments were made at a public event attended by the media, no major media organizations reported on his controversial comments until after blogs broke the story. Blogging helped to create a political crisis that forced Lott to step down as majority leader.
Similarly, blogs were among the driving forces behind the "Rathergate" scandal. To wit: (television journalist) Dan Rather presented documents (on the CBS show 60 Minutes) that conflicted with accepted accounts of President Bush's military service record. Bloggers declared the documents to be forgeries and presented evidence and arguments in support of that view. Consequently, CBS apologized for what it said were inadequate reporting techniques (see Little Green Footballs). Many bloggers view this scandal as the advent of blogs' acceptance by the mass media, both as a news source and opinion and as means of applying political pressure.
The impact of these stories gave greater credibility to blogs as a medium of news dissemination. Though often seen as partisan gossips, bloggers sometimes lead the way in bringing key information to public light, with mainstream media having to follow their lead. More often, however, news blogs tend to react to material already published by the mainstream media. Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts blogged, making blogs a source of in-depth analysis. (See Daniel Drezner and J. Bradford DeLong.)
Blogging Becomes Mainstream
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By 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services, and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Blogging was established by politicians and political candidates to express opinions on war and other issues and cemented blogs' role as a news source. (See Howard Dean and Wesley Clark.) Even politicians not actively campaigning, such as the UK's Labour Party's MP Tom Watson, began to blog to bond with constituents.
In January 2005, Fortune magazine listed eight bloggers that business people "could not ignore": Peter Rojas, Xeni Jardin, Ben Trott, Mena Trott, Jonathan Schwartz, Jason Goldman, Robert Scoble, and Jason Calacanis

Winner vs Loser

The winner is the man who refuses to surrender, show me a bad loser, and I'll show you the inner winner. A winner knows how to accelerate into the future and never ever look back, he could care less when persnickety malcontents attack. A winner knows he will win before the battle starts he sees it in his mind and can feel it in his heart.

He knows you must believe to achieve and it is the present and past where he creates his weave, understanding that the future depends on his strength of character and how it's perceived. If you want to emulate the winner and eminent achiever, you must demand of yourself, like no other. The secret to success is simple he will say; you must; "Make Lots of Friends, Work Smart, Work Hard, and Never give up!" if you wish to be standing at the end of the day.

Winning has never been easy, indeed, it never was, you work harder than everyone else, just because. Why, well you believe that you must do whatever it takes, work through the night to accomplish that goal to achieve. Winning is not for the weak of mind, it takes brawn and brains, as you work off your behind.

Adversity builds character and you'll need lots of that, but if you power through you'll always know where you are at. Sometimes you'll stumble and yes you will fall, but when you get up and dust yourself off, it will surprise them all. Because your made of tough stuff and refuse to quit, you'll keep on going when others say; Enough is enough. I want you to win because I know you can forget the losers, who say you can't.

Self Motivation

The true measure of success may be how much time you spend doing exactly what you want. Never mind the money, if you already have enough. How much of your time is spent doing that which either aggravates you or wastes your time? Even the very rich can find themselves caught up in stressful situations that cry out for a solution. Most of the time, eliminating them altogether is the best strategy.

The problem is one of habits. If you've always done things a certain way, you may be creating a problem that can be solved by a change in thinking, followed by a change in acting. Are you checking your email more than 5 times a day? More than 50? Why? Consider checking email twice a day, at the most. If you warn people that you only check email twice a day, you may find that those who depend on you to respond immediately change how they behave towards you.

Another consideration is negative influences. You may have a majority of customers that are a pleasure to deal with, and a few that are nasty, negative and chew up most of your time. Consider firing the troublemakers. That will make room for more good customers and make sure your attitude isn't negatively affected by dealing with people who delight in making you miserable.

Cut yourself off from the "news". Television and newspapers seldom serve up news that is actionable by you. When was the last time a public official or government agency contacted you regarding your take on the latest news bulletin? For that matter, when was the last time you missed something important in life that you didn't hear about from a friend or neighbor? If the world is about to blow up, I guarantee you'll find out about it without resorting to the media. Eliminate daily news briefings. You don't need the negative influence in your life.

Try outsourcing your chores. If you've automated your business so you can spend more time on yard work, housecleaning or maintenance, stop and think! How much will it cost you to pay someone to mop your floors, mow your lawn and clean your rain gutters? Unless you are a seasoned professional at such labor, you'll probably get a better result than if you keep doing it yourself. Even if you are a seasoned professional at such labor, isn't the reason you got into IM precisely to free yourself from daily drudgery?

Learn how to shut your mind tightly against negative thinking and the negative influence of other people. You can begin by practicing meditation, where you stop thinking about your thoughts and simply remain quiet, in your mind. With practice, you'll find it's easy and effortless to break a train of thought you do not wish to encourage. You'll also find it beneficial to cut out all the people who want to dump their problems on you. You don't have to be nasty or rude. Just stop allowing them to invade your life with the things that they, themselves, are unwilling to deal with. It is not your duty to hear other people whine about their life. There are troubles and duties we all must deal with. I'm not suggesting you drop your responsibilities and slack off on what you know you must do. Just take the time to question all of your assumptions regarding duty and responsibility. Figure out how much of your life is spent doing things that you really don't have to be doing. Get rid of all the old, bad habits that cause unnecessary aggravation and eliminate them from your life.

Histeria Penyakit Psikiatri

KES histeria yang menyerang pelajar sekolah di beberapa negeri sejak awal tahun ini perlukan kajian terperinci kerana jumlah kes yang dicatatkan bertambah dan kerap berlaku berbanding tahun sebelumnya.

Profesor yang juga Dekan Fakulti Perubatan dan Sains Kesihatan, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Prof Dr Azhar Md Zain, berkata beliau berpendapat satu kajian khusus mengenai kes histeria di sekolah sejak kebelakangan ini perlu dibuat untuk menilai sama ada ia satu epidemik atau tidak selain melihat bagaimana ia boleh berlaku di sekolah.

Katanya, kajian juga perlu dibuat untuk melihat mengapa masih wujud kes histeria di sekolah walaupun masyarakat Malaysia kini semakin moden dan maju.

Beliau menjelaskan histeria berlaku di semua negara di seluruh dunia, termasuk di Barat. Namun, bilangan kes semakin berkurangan apabila sesebuah negara itu semakin maju.

Katanya, histeria adalah penyakit psikiatri yang dikenali sebagai ‘somatoform disorder’ dan dibahagikan kepada dua jenis iaitu ‘Conversion Disorder dan Dissociative Hysteria.

Conversion Disorder adalah keadaan yang mana mereka yang diserang histeria biasanya akan merasai gangguan fizikal seperti merasai badan lumpuh, buta, pekak dan bisu walaupun pada hakikatnya mereka tidak mengalami masalah berkenaan.

Kebiasaannya, histeria jenis Conversion Disorder ini berlaku kerana konflik dan trauma dengan satu-satu kejadian seperti melihat saudara dirogol, kemalangan dan kematian.

Dissociative Hysteria pula menyebabkan mereka yang terkena histeria akan meronta-ronta, meracau dan menjerit-jerit. Malah, ia kerap berlaku kepada kanak-kanak dan remaja akibat konflik yang tidak dapat dikawal.

Prof Azhar berkata, Dissociative Hysteria kerap berlaku dalam masyarakat di Malaysia dan biasanya membabitkan pelajar sekolah rendah dan menengah, penuntut di institusi pengajian tinggi (IPT) dan pekerja wanita di kilang manakala di Barat membabitkan histeria jenis Conversion Disorder .

Beliau menjelaskan kira-kira 20 tahun lalu kes histeria dilaporkan banyak berlaku di negara ini dengan kes tertinggi di sekolah berasrama, kilang dan kem motivasi serta minggu orientasi. Namun, ia mulai berkurangan dan menjadi kes terpencil dalam 1990-an.

Beliau menjelaskan berdasarkan kajian terdahulu, kebanyakan kes histeria berlaku ketika musim peperiksaan di sekolah berasrama dan minggu orientasi di IPT. Dalam kes di asrama sekolah, didapati berlaku dalam minggu orientasi yang mana pelajar baru didedahkan dengan pelbagai aktiviti yang meletihkan hingga mengganggu masa tidur dan rehat pelajar.

Selain itu, kes histeria berkait rapat dengan kepercayaan seseorang individu terhadap perkara mistik dan karut marut seperti pelajar baru sering dimomokkan dengan cerita karut seperti ada hantu dan perkara mistik lain.

“Pelajar asrama juga mudah terkena histeria kerana mereka tidak dapat mengawal konflik seperti terpaksa mengikut disiplin yang ketat di asrama selain kerinduan kepada keluarga. Dalam 1980-an, kebanyakan kes histeria berlaku di sekolah agama yang mana disiplinnya lebih tinggi berbanding sekolah biasa,” katanya.

Kes membabitkan pekerja kilang, biasanya berlaku pada waktu malam. Ia dipercayai berlaku kerana pekerja keletihan tidak cukup tidur selain faktor ketakutan kerana sering mendengar cerita mengenai hantu. Kebanyakan kes membabitkan wanita kerana tahap ketakutan mereka lebih tinggi berbanding pekerja lelaki.

Prof Azhar berkata, histeria sebenarnya berlaku kerana konflik dan tekanan yang tidak dapat dibendung dan dikawal oleh individu itu dan cara mengawalnya adalah dengan memberikan bantuan bukan tekanan kepada mereka yang ada masalah atau lemah.

“Mereka yang terkena histeria adalah individu yang memerlukan bantuan. Oleh itu, cara merawatnya adalah dengan memberikan bantuan kepada mereka. Cara terbaik adalah sesi kaunseling. Bagi mengelakkan ia berjangkit dan menjadi epidemik, mereka yang diserang terkena histeria diasingkan dengan orang lain,” katanya.

Beliau berkata, bagi orang Islam, biasanya pengawal perubatan Islam akan memberi rawatan untuk menenangkan pesakit dengan bacaan ayat al-Quran. Begitu juga dengan agama lain, yang mana mungkin orang yang arif dalam agama mereka akan memberikan rawatan mengikut kepercayaan masing-masing.

Namun, seeloknya selepas rawatan berkenaan pesakit diberikan keyakinan untuk mengawal diri dan selepas pulih pesakit diberikan sokongan seperti bertanyakan masalah dihadapi mereka.

Sementara itu, pengamal perubatan Islam, Fauzi Mustaffa, berkata histeria mengikut perspektif Islam adalah merujuk kepada keadaan yang mana manusia tidak sedar, dirasuk dan hilang ingatan akibat gangguan emosi yang tidak terkawal dan tekanan perasaan akibat masalah peribadi, rumah tangga dan kepincangan masyarakat.

Katanya. ia boleh berlaku apabila seseorang itu tidak sedar diri dan syaitan mula menguasai akal fikiran mereka sehingga menyebabkan ada yang meracau, menjerit dan melakukan perkara di luar batasan manusia normal serta hilang ingatan.

“Ia juga berpunca daripada gangguan emosi yang tidak terkawal yang berpunca daripada tekanan hidup, masalah rumah tangga, kepincangan masyarakat dipendam melampaui fikiran yang mana ketika itu syaitan mengambil tempat dan menyerang otak manusia. Ketika itu otak lemah dan jadi histeria,” katanya ditemui baru-baru ini.

Beliau yang kerap dipanggil membantu sekolah yang menghadapi histeria, berkata, mengikut pengalamannya kebanyakan histeria berlaku menjelang musim peperiksaan.

Ia berlaku kerana pelajar tertekan kerana mengulang kaji pelajaran selain tiada sokongan sebaliknya tekanan ibu bapa yang meletakkan harapan tinggi kepada mereka.

“Kerisauan dan kebimbangan ibu bapa menjadi tekanan yang akhirnya menyebabkan otak menjadi lemah dan syaitan mula menguasai sehingga berlaku gangguan. Selain tekanan ibu bapa, pada minggu peperiksaan biasanya pelajar tidur lewat kerana mengulang kaji pelajaran. Apabila kurang tidur mata mengantuk dan badan keletihan dan ada yang kurang makan menjadikan badan lemah yang membuka ruang untuk syaitan dan makhluk halus menguasai fikiran,” katanya.

Beliau juga tidak menolak kemungkinan, histeria berlaku kerana manusia mengganggu tempat tinggal atau kawasan makhluk halus yang menyebabkan makhluk berkenaan ‘bertindak balas’ termasuk merasuk manusia.

Imbas kembali

Kronologi kes histeria di seluruh negara tahun ini

28 Ogos 2008

KUANTAN: Kejadian histeria berulang di Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Tanjung Lumpur membabitkan lapan pelajar perempuan selepas tiga hari sesi persekolahan bermula.

8 Ogos 2008

KUCHING: Seramai 15 pelajar Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Bekenu, termasuk dua lelaki, diserang histeria ketika belajar di dalam kelas bermula jam 8 pagi.

KUANTAN: Kejadian histeria berulang semula di Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tanjung Lumpur, membabitkan 11 pelajar sehingga menyebabkan sesi pembelajaran terganggu.

7 Ogos 2008

SUBANG JAYA: Pelajar perempuan Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan USJ 23, diserang histeria selepas dua hari kejadian yang sama berlaku di sekolah itu.

4 Ogos 2008

TELUK INTAN: Seramai 12 pelajar, termasuk empat lelaki, Sekolah Menengah Seri Kandi, histeria ketika mengikuti perkhemahan motivasi dan ceramah.

24 Julai 2008

KUANTAN: Sebilangan pelajar Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tanjung Lumpur, diserang histeria dan sakit sendi hampir setiap hari, terutama menjelang tengah hari.

Setiap hari hampir empat hingga lima pelajar diserang kejadian misteri itu dan mengikut laporan akhbar seramai 35 pelajar terbabit.

17 Julai 2008

NIBONG TEBAL: Seramai 10 pelajar tingkatan satu Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Batu Kawan (SMKBK) diserang histeria di dalam kelas apabila mahu memulakan pembelajaran selepas tamat waktu rehat.

19 Jun 2008

CHERAS: Hampir 30 pelajar lelaki dan perempuan tingkatan lima di Sekolah Menengah Sains Selangor diserang histeria apabila tiba-tiba meracau, menjerit serta melukakan diri sendiri, dipercayai dirasuk makhluk halus.

24 April 2008

TAIPING: Pelajar dan guru sebuah sekolah menengah di Bukit Gantang, gempar apabila 13 pelajar diserang histeria sekembali daripada menziarahi jenazah seorang guru wanita.

Pelajar tingkatan tiga dan lima itu menjerit-jerit seperti orang gila ketika mengikuti pembelajaran di kelas pada jam 11.30 pagi.

14 April 2008

SEREMBAN: Kira-kira 15 pelajar dan seorang guru perempuan sebuah sekolah menengah, dekat Sikamat, diserang histeria.

31 Januari 2008

DUNGUN: Hampir 200 pelajar perempuan dan lelaki Sekolah Menengah Sains Dungun, alami histeria menyebabkan sesi persekolahan di sekolah berasrama penuh itu terpaksa ditutup empat hari. Kejadian dipercayai bermula jam 9.30 pagi selepas seorang pelajar tingkatan dua mula menjerit sebaik tamat perhimpunan.

Indonesia Dah Lancar Roket Sendiri Ke Angkasa

Tahniah kepada agensi angkasa lepas Indonesia , Lembaga Penerbangan dan Antariksa Nasional (LAPAN) yang telah mencipta , menguji dan melancarkan beberapa roket dalam usaha untuk membangunkan program angkasa lepas mereka samada untuk meletakkan satelit di orbit angkasa atau menghantar angkasawan ke angkasa lepas.

China sudah menghantar angkasawan mereka ke angkasa lepas dengan roket dan kapal angkasa mereka sendiri. Indonesia pula dalam proses pembikinan. Malaysia yang begitu bangga menumpangkan angkasawan negara dengan roket dan kapal angkasa milik Rusia bila lagi ?

Bukan itu sahaja , malah LAPAN membuka peluang kepada rakyat mereka untuk mempelajari cara-cara membuat roket untuk dijadikan sebagai aktiviti serta hobi yang bermanafaat. Akan tetapi pelajar dan remaja kita di Malaysia hanya seronok main roket bunga api yang dihasilkan dan diseludup dari negara jiran , lebih-lebih lagi apabila menyambut perayaan kebesaran Islam.

Sumber : http://ikam-space.blogspot.com/2008/09/indonesia-lancar-roket-untuk-program.html

Lapan kembali melakukan uji terbang roket hasil penelitian dan pengembangannya. Setelah berhasil uji statik terhadap motor roket bertipe RX-320, Tim Peroketan Lapan melanjutkan dengan tahapan uji terbang pada Senin (19/05) di Stasiun Uji Terbang Pameungpeuk, Garut, Jawa Barat. Roket dengan tipe RX-3228.02.01 sebagai roket terbesar buatan Lapan selama ini, berhasil meluncur mulus. Keberhasilan ini sebagai tanda program pembuatan Roket Pengorbit Satelit memasuki tahap awal.

Roket diluncurkan dengan tujuan uji rancang bangun. Roket ini berspesifikasi panjang 4736 mm, diameter 320 mm, dan berat total 532 kg. Pukul 06.15 WIB, roket berhasil meluncur sesuai prediksi jarak jangkau yakni sekurangnya 42 km. Hal ini ditunjukkan oleh data Global Positioning System (GPS) yang dipasang pada roket. “Data terakhir yang bisa dipantau menunjukkan angka 42,1 km. Ini pun posisi roket masih terbang di atas laut,” imbuh Ka Pustekwagan.

Sumber : LAPAN http://langitselatan.com/2008/05/22/uji-terbang-rx-320-milik-lapan/

Success For Everybody


Success is available to everybody. Nobody was born successful.

Success is all a matter of what you want in life and how desperate you are to get it; you and you alone are responsible for your own achievements and success in life.

Success starts with an idea or dream of what you want to become or achieve. This idea or dream must be a desire or passion within you then you stand a good chance of achieving what you want and thereby being successful, other peoples ideas won't necessarily mean that you will be successful.

To be successful you must be motivated and be clear and specific in what it is that you want to achieve. There are certain steps that you need to follow, nothing will just happen and give you the desired results;

You must have a goal.

-You must put in writing what it is that you want (be specific).
-Write down when you want to achieve it (date).
-Write down how you want to achieve it (resources that's needed).
-What are you prepared to sacrifice to achieve your goal?
-Repetition (Read and re-read daily).
-Educate yourself.
-How are you going to share your success?

Now let's look at each of these points by themselves;

1.Formulate a goal.
Every idea or dream will stay just that unless it is put down as something definite that
you want to achieve. Unless you work on your idea or dream and put it down as a definite goal the chances of achieving it is very slim, because with the first obstacle a person encounters the chances of saying it is to hard, become very relevant or I've tried my best.

2.Put goal in Writing.
When it is in writing you will be able to see a month or year from now what it is that you
really wanted to achieve. Ensure that it is realistic and achievable. Very unlikely that any human being can stay under water like a fish for days on end without breathing apparatus. With a goal in writing one can regularly check and see if you are still on track and if it is perhaps necessary to put in more effort or work harder to achieve your goal. Unless it is in writing it will remain an idea or dream and can change as circumstances change.

3.When will the goal be achieved.
Unless a specific date is recorded it will remain as an unfulfilled dream. The date must be realistic and achievable. Ensure that the date allow time for unforeseen circumstances.

4.How the goal will be achieved.
What resources are needed? What assistance is required and where will it be obtained? If physical equipment is required like books, buy it from the outset as it will mean commitment.

5.What will be sacrificed?
If the goal involves studying, then parties and socials must come second to the studies. The goal must be more important than TV or other games. Don't neglect physical activities as a fit body means a fit mind. Don't ignore important people like loved ones or family. Don't push yourself to the point of a burnout.

6.Repetition.
Read your goal at least twice daily and then once aloud, convince your inner self that this is what you want, therefore read with the right emotion. By continually reading your goal you will stay focused. Reading the goal will immediately highlight if any diversions is sidetracking you.

7.Educate yourself.
It is necessary to read relevant information to keep you inspired. You might need some specific information. Books or manuals might be informative as to other people's achievements. Watch informative videos or screen shots. You might even need to join a library, depending on your goal.

8.Sharing success.
Who will you share your success with? Who will benefit from your success? How will you live with this success?

Belief in yourself, hard work and perseverance is some of the key elements of success.
Look at the achievements of any great name in history or just the achievements of any Olympics athlete.

Your success depends on yourself.

My Secret Of Millionaire Mind

Do you believe that you create your life or are you a victim what has happened to you? Set aside your spiritual beliefs for just a moment. I say this because I hear so many people say, "If God (or whatever they believe in) wants me to be rich, I will be rich." I do not necessarily believe this is absolutely correct. I believe that if you are meant to be rich, you will be given opportunities act upon to be rich and prosper. Anyway, back to what I am talking about.

I was recently reading Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker, and came across a quote that I had forgotten about over the years: "If you want to create wealth, it is imperative that you believe that you are at the steering wheel of your life, especially your financial life. If you don't believe this, then you must inherently believe that you have little or no control over your life, and therefore, you have little or no control over your financial success. This is not a rich attitude." Which do you believe in? Do you believe that you create your life, or do you believe that life just happens to you and you can't do anything about where you're going?

You have to take control of your life! I don't care if you were born in a drug house in a big city or if you've had a silver spoon in your mouth your entire life. You have to decide where you want to go. Do you want to be a millionaire some day? Then take action steps TODAY to do that. What is the next step for you to create massive wealth for yourself? Will you do it by having a job or running your own business? (Hint: a job probably won't get you there J) If you already own your own business, what should you do today to create more money for yourself?

I get so frustrated when people give me a "woe-is-me story." Frankly, I usually don't let them finish. Every time I hear somebody start to complain about the "bad hand" they've been dealt, I want to shake them and say, "Well why don't you do something about it?!" When you talk to most people with wealth, would they tell you that life just happened to put money in their bank account, or will they start to tell you all the things they did to create that money?

It starts with a decision. So make your decision today. Do you want to be wealthy or poor? Do you want your family prosper or suffer? Once you make your decision, do something about it! Take action steps (unless of course you choose to suffer...then you can just go back to work like normal tomorrow) to create massive wealth for yourself.

Decide, act, and be committed. I guarantee that if you put forth the necessary effort in whatever path you decide to create wealth, it will come to you.

Azizan MdNor
Rich Mindset Training

Sunday, September 28, 2008

BEFORE YOU QUIT YOUR JOB - R. KIYOSAKI


If you have been contemplating long and hard to become an entrepreneur and have taken some steps in preparation for the journey (like attending a course) this book is a must read for you. Both Robert and co-writer Sharon are both experienced entrepreneurs who have experienced both failures and success and shares with us 10 valuable lessons an entrepreneur should know in setting up a successful business. Robert credited Sharon as the 'A' student CPA and her businesses are more successful than his.After reading this book, the main lessons I have identified are:

-Employee Vs Entrepreneur: The differences in the thought process and behaviour of each are illustrated.

-The B-I Triangle: Rich Dad taught Robert the importance of building a business using the B-I Triangle. The five main factors that need to be considered are Product, Legal, Systems, Communications, and Cashflow. If one or many of the factors are weak, the company will be weak, the management needs to be aware of this weakness and strengthen them. Encompassing the five factors are Leadership, Team and Mission.

-Mission: The Company with the stronger mission and everybody in that company working for the same mission will succeed. Robert gave a compelling narration of his stint in Vietnam during the Vietnam War where the North Vietnamese who had a stronger sense of mission had more hunger to fulfill their mission. The Americans fought alongside the South Vietnamese against the North Vietnamese (Vietcong) which we all know suffered heavy losses.

-Building a team: A good entrepreneur knows it is impossible to be good in all aspects of operating a business. They need to surround themselves with people who are smarter than them to fulfill the other roles of creating a profitable business. These people can come in the form of employees or partners.

-Making mistakes: Entrepreneurs are supposed to make mistakes and learn from them. Employees dislike making mistakes as it affects their morale and performance appraisal.

-Know your customers: It is wise to retain your good customers and fire your bad customers. You have to let go those customers who always look for cheap bargains and do not know the true value of your goods. In order to find good customers, you need to match the product and the price to suit the customer's needs, wants and ego. In numerous cases, it's the customer's ego that take precedence over wants and needs. So before you quit your job, this book is a must read for all you would-be entrepreneur. The lessons in this book are invaluable and will help you to avoid the costly mistakes which 95% of all new entrepreneurs will make. Hurry, run to your nearest bookstore and get it now!

Book Summary : Think And Grow Rich

Even if it is 70 years since the book Think and Grow Rich was written, it is still a highly respected and read book. It has sold millions of copies and is a “Bible” for people who are searching financial freedom. The essence of the book is Napoleon Hill’s famous statement: “Everything your mind can conceive, you can achieve” The title says the same, in different words: Think and Grow Rich

The book teaches “The thirteen steps to riches” according to Napoleon Hill.

It offers many questionnaires and practical exercises in addition to all the text. It gives you clear guide lines in how to set goals and reach them and how to make clear plans to follow. You are shown how you can realise your highest potential, and succeed in anything you set your mind to.

It also teaches you not to give up, and see all mistakes as learning opportunities. Napoleon Hill teaches that successful people never considers temporary failure as a permanent defeat.

Napoleon Hill used over 25 years to study over 500 of America's most successful business men in the start of this century. He took this assignment on from Andrew Carnegie in 1908. If you would like to know more about the life of Napoleon Hill, click Biography and bibliography of Napoleon Hill.

Andrew Carnegie was at the time the richest man in the world and had from being a Scottish immigrant with no money, worked himself the way to become a giant steel manufacturer. If you like to know more about the life of Andrew Carnegie click: Biography of Andrew Carnegie .

Carnegie believed that any one could achieve the same success as him and wanted his success formula passed on to the world. This became Napoleon Hill’s life task.

The success formula is as relevant and useable now as it was 100 years ago. Maybe it is even more relevant, since now people like me and you start to understand that it is not magic and lucky stars that make people rich. It starts with the way we are thinking.

The book teaches you to think differently, and if you are on your way to financial freedom, this one is a must.

The only drawback with the book is that it can be formal and repetitive in the language it is written. (Remember that it was written 70 years ago.)

Get Think and Grow Rich free ebook by send an email to me at tmxpert7@gmail.com

Book Review : Rich Dad Poor Dad


First, I want to give my comments for ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’ by Robert T Kiyosaki. I want to thank him for such a great book and has opened my mind to a whole new angle about financial freedom.

According to Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, he mentions about the Cash Flow Quadrant. The Cash Flow Quadrants are Employee Quadrant, Self-Employee Quadrant, Business Owner Quadrant and Investor Quadrant.

Most parents think that their kids need to go to college after finishing high school to achieve higher education in hoping to get a good job in a real life. This perception is not wrong but it’s just not perfectly guarantee that their kids will be rich or success after getting a good job. As long as you still working for a company, you still can not be richer than the owner of the company.

I also have a bad experience before. I worked for couple years in a start up company until I got laid off because the company was not doing very well. At that time, I thought that working with people can not guarantee me for life. Then, Robert Kiyosaki’s book changed my mind.

The book makes me realize that I had to move on and move to business quadrant or even investor quadrant. I want money works for me not me works for money.
Again, I am not selling Mr. Kiyosaki’s book here. I am just applying what he wrote in his book in my real life and I am starting to get the result now. And I am happy with it.

Now, you might asked me then how to make money works for us not vice versa. Well, one ways is that by creating a passive income. Passive income can be sustained by many ways, like Mr. Kiyosaki, he created passive income by dealing in the real estate business. He even joined Amway and he was focusing in this business for 5 years until know he must earned a lot of money from his passive income.

In conclusion, what I want to say is that again you have to open your mind not working with people for the rest of your life. You might need to work with a company for couple years to get enough investment for you to move to business owner quadrant or event moving to the highest level of the quadrant which is an investor quadrant.

The book is highly recommended.

Book Review : The E-myth Revisited


I was eager to see what Michael Gerber had to say because I had been in a management capacity for large and small corporations alike, and had my own ideas about what good management and management structure was.

So, with my pre-conceived in the back of my mind I dove into the book, eager to see what he would have to say. I figured it would be all about how to better manage people, and what a manager needs to do to motivate staff, and keep them towing the line.

What I found was really the opposite. The basic premise of The E-Myth Revisited is that it's not about me as a manager per say, nor is it about the people that work for me. It's really much more fundamental than that. Let me explain.

The Entrepreneur, Manager and Technician

Most start our careers learning our chosen profession working for someone else. There, we learn our craft, honing and refining our skills. If you stay in a given field long enough, chances are you are going to get pretty darn good at it.

Over time as you gain experience and become familiar with the management and all of the inner workings, and structure of the company you likely began to question the decisions made by your superiors, or questioned certain business practices.

This is inevitable I suppose; it's just human nature. But why do we begin questioning these things? Well, as Michael Gerber says, probably because we made this fatal assumption: "If you understand the technical work of a business, you understand a business that does that technical work".

You see most all of us are technicians. Regardless of what our job is. The carpenter, hairdresser, engineer, physician, and mechanic are all technicians. What most all of them believe is that by understanding the technical work of a business the are automatically highly qualified to run a business that does that king of work.

This fatal assumption is the cause of most small business failures. But, the answer to small business failure is more complicated than that. As Gerber says, "everyone who goes into business has three distinct people-in-one". The entrepreneur, manager and technician and these personalities all want to be boss, and are competing for control.

So what do you do? You start a company to get rid of your boss of course. And the conflict between your personalities begins!

The entrepreneur is the visionary in us. The dreamer and the energy sparked by imagination and creativity. Unfortunately for the manager and technician, the entrepreneur has a strong need for control.

The Entrepreneur lives in the future, dreaming and creating a vision of things as they could be. Because of the entrepreneur's need for change, they are always creating turmoil in the work place. To the entrepreneur, most people are problems that get in the way of the dreams.

The manager is the glue that holds thing together. Without the manager there would be no order or predictability. Where the entrepreneur lives in the future, the manager lives in the past. Where the entrepreneur must have control, the manager craves order.

The technician is the person who gets things done. "If you wants things done right, you have to do it yourself". The technician likes to tinker with things, taking them apart to see how they work. He likes the feel of accomplishment and getting tings done.

He is happiest when in control of the work, and as a result he mistrusts those he works for. They always try to get more work done than is possible or needed. To the technician, thinking isn't work. It gets in the way of work. For the technician, everything can be reduced to a methodology.

While the entrepreneur dreams and the manager worries, the technician ruminates. It's these vastly different "personalities" that are always at odds within use that are the cause of most small business failures. But there can be order in the midst of the chaos.

The E-Myth Revealed

If you are like most of us, you probably believe that the entrepreneur starts the majority of small businesses. That's what we have been told, right? They are the industry giants that who become legends in their own time.

According to Michael Gerber, the vast majority of people who start a small business are the technicians, not the entrepreneur. This myth runs very deep and the entrepreneur has gained heroic status as a result. Gerber says those folks area rare in today's world.

He also says that if the entrepreneur exists at all, it doesn't survive for long. "If the entrepreneur existed at all, it was only as a myth that grew out of a misunderstanding about who goes into business and why.

So, if we remove the hero status from the entrepreneur and give him only the credit he is due, then what we are left with are three distinct abilities or "personalities" are always competing for the spot light. The degree to which one dominates over the other will vary of course, but they are all still there.

The Turnkey Revolution: A New View Of Business

Realizing that there always will be this conflict between the "personalities", this question must be answered. How do you achieve success in business? The best answer for the average person may be in the business format franchise.

The franchise has three components that I have recognized are essential to any business venture.

First, the franchise provides a highly structured environment where every aspect of the business is dictated. This is an entire system for doing business. The advantages are in the structure itself. With everything spelled out with no ambiguity, everyone in the company knows what is expected of them.

The technician is free to be himself and execute the tasks that make him happy. The manager is no longer losing control of the business environment. There is structure an order to the work place. And the entrepreneur now has a channel through which his vision can be realized in the real world.

For me realizing that these different "personalities" exist within each of us was really an "ah ha" moment. When I reflected on each personality, I could begin to see which one was strongest. I also began to understand why I made some of the decisions in my past business career.

Second, the franchise model provides a mentor by virtue of the highly structured training. Typically franchisees attend rigorous training under the supervision of a seasoned veteran of the field. This is invaluable in learning and implementing the franchise models specific protocols and guidelines.

And third, the franchise model provides success early on and builds confidence. Not only the system, but in the franchisees ability to successfully implement the system.

While I don't think the franchise model is right for every one or every circumstance, but I do believe the principles Michael Gerber is advocating in the franchise model are sound. As long as the systems are in place, the personalities are free to do what they do best.

David Ruth is an Internet Marketing Coach, who works closely with small businesses showing them how to integrate Attraction and Web 2.0 marketing techniques.

Politik Di Malaysia Makin Gawat

Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat, Harakah

BELUM pernah saya melihat suasana politik negara yang segawat ini. Pelan peralihan kuasa yang ditetapkan oleh Perdana Menteri dan pernah dipersetujui oleh timbalan dan naib-naib presiden tidak dipersetujui pula oleh salah seorang Naib Presidennya.

Akhir-akhir ini, pendirian Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mula kelihatan disokong oleh Najib supaya tarikh peralihan kuasa ditentukan perwakilan.

2) Sedang Pak Lah melahirkan kekecewaan, Muhyiddin sering dikaitkan pula dengan Ku Li dalam penyediaan pelan alternatif demi memulihkan Umno atau menggantikan Presiden Parti.

Sementara itu, Pak Lah dikejutkan pula dengan hajat terbaru Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad untuk kembali semula ke pangkuan Umno.

Dalam keadaan Datuk Ahmad Ismail yang dilihat menyentuh perkara sensitif mengenai kaum, tiba-tiba tak semena-mena wartawan daripada Sin Chew Daily, Tan Hoon Cheng dan Ahli Parlimen Seputeh, Teresa Kok merangkap Exco Kerajaan Negeri Selangor ditahan di bawah ISA.

Selepas 24 jam dalam tahanan, Tan Hoon Cheng telah dilepaskan pula kerana mengikut Syed Hamid Albar, polis menahan beliau di bawah ISA kerana terdapat 'ancaman terhadap nyawa'(?)

Bukankah semua ini pelik namanya. Dalam keadaan kegawatan yang bertimpa-timpa, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim pula meletakkan jawatan.

Zaid meletak jawatan tetapi PM tidak mahu terima. Tanpa mengambil banyak masa, walaupun ditawar cuti dua minggu, Zaid tetap menolak dan mengisytiharkan peletakan jawatan beliau kerana tidak puas hati dengan penyalahgunaan ISA oleh kerajaan keesokan harinya.

Semakin menarik apabila semua akhbar 18 September memberitakan bahawa Zaid menyertai gerakan caucus yang dianggotai Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Khalid Ibrahim dan lain-lain untuk menentang ISA.

3) Di tengah-tengah keghairahan ugutan ISA yang seakan-akan memanjangkan tangannya ke batang tengkok Dato� Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Majlis Peguam yang disertai oleh 12,000 peguam telah membuat EGM Khas pada 20 September 2008; membantah keras ISA bahkan mendesak membatalkan Akta yang zalim ini.

Pada tahun 1998, Umno cuba memerangkap Anwar dengan tuduhan liwat. Walau terpaksa memunggah bantal dan tilam sambil mengutip rambut dan bulu untuk menegakkan pembuktian, Anwar telah ditumbuk dan ditendang ke lokap dan dipaksa menjalani enam tahun hukuman.

Anehnya, di hujung pertimbangan Anwar didapati tidak bersalah oleh Mahkamah. Tidak serik dengan pengalaman pahit ini, Umno sekali lagi dilihat cuba mengitar semula tuduhan liwat dalam pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh.

Belum didapati bersalahpun sekali lagi Anwar telah terpaksa melalui lorong ejekan untuk dicerca oleh media.

Ini yang saya katakan, keadaan negara yang sedang berada dalam sebuah krisis kepercayaan yang tenat. Hati saya sentiasa bertanya sama ada; politikkah ini atau kecelaruan?

Dalam kes tuduhan liwat ini, boleh dikatakan semua ahli ilmu yang ikhlas kerana Allah telah menegur kerajaan yang suka menuduh tanpa mengikut sistem pembuktian yang telah dilandaskan oleh Kitab Allah S.W.T.

Semua peraturan ini berada di dalam Hududullah. Adalah menjadi kewajipan bagi mana-mana pemerintah yang taklif yakni dibebankan dengan hukum untuk menanggung dan melaksanakan ketentuan Allah S.W.T.

Perintah Allah ini telah wujud sebelum wujudnya Umno dan sebelum wujudnya PAS.

Tuduh orang kerja mungkar

Menuduh orang sesuka hati adalah kerja semua kerja mungkar.

4) Sekarang, Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim pula kelihatan mengumpan rakyat Malaysia dengan tohmahan yang lain. Tanpa perlu menunggu lama, keesokan harinya Menteri Penerangan, Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek mendorong rakyat melihat Datuk Seri Anwar sebagai ancaman.

Ini diikuti pula oleh Tan Sri Muhammad Muhd. Taib selaku Ketua Penerangan Umno yang mencampur adukkan apa yang disebutkan oleh Rais dengan sentimen Cina dan India yang kononnya boleh mencetuskan keresahan kaum.

Sedangkan yang resah adalah Umno kerana kemaraan Anwar dengan 31 'penyokong baru' cukup berpotensi untuk meruntuhkan Umno/BN. Boleh dikatakan semua rakyat boleh berfikir bahawa Umno/BN yang sedang bercelaru.

Rakyat sedang tenang menjalani ibadat puasa, tadarus, Tarawih dan qiamullail pada bulan Ramadan ini. Demikian juga dengan masyarakat Cina dan India. Mereka cuma resah melihat pemimpin-pemimpin Umno yang gelisah.

Anwar bukan ancaman kepada keselamatan negara tetapi ancaman kepada survival Umno. Inilah yang menjadikan mereka kehilangan arah.

Sekali menuduh Anwar melakukan liwat. Sekali menuduh Anwar rasuah. Sekali menuduh Anwar agen asing. Sekali menuduh Anwar disokong oleh Amerika.

Sekali menuduh Anwar pengancam kepada ekonomi dan keselamatan negara. Dalam rekaan alasan yang berputar-putar itulah rakyat khuatirkan keselamatan Anwar. Sebab itu saya awal-awal lagi menyebutkan tentang kekhuatiran saya terhadap Anwar yang mungkin akan diISAkan.

ISA jadi alat

Walaupun hati saya lega apabila Datuk Seri Perdana Menteri seakan-akan mengeluarkan jaminan bahawa ISA tidak akan digunakan ke atas Anwar tetapi maklumat yang kononnya diperolehi oleh Menteri Luar bahawa Ketua Pembangkang sedang diperalatkan oleh US untuk menghuru harakan Malaysia (Utusan Malaysia 20 September 2008) cukup merisaukan saya semula.

Ingatlah bahawa di dalam Al-Quran sudah berapa banyak Maharaja yang ditolak ke neraka kerana suka menzalimi orang-orang yang baik. Firaun, Namrud dan Haman jauh lebih handal daripada pemimpin-pemimpin Malaysia.

Al-Quran merakamkan nasib mereka, "Maka Kami hukumlah Firaun dan bala tenteranya, lalu kami lemparkan mereka ke dalam laut.

Maka lihatlah bagaimana akibat orang-orang yang zalim dan Kami jadikan mereka pemimpin-pemimpin yang menyeru (manusia) ke neraka dan pada hari kiamat mereka tidak akan ditolong." (Surah A-Qashash: Ayat 40 dan 41).

5) Kita kena faham bahawa kita ini adalah makhluk yang dicipta. Atas belas ehsan Allah S.W.T. kita diberi kesempatan untuk hidup di muka bumi. Bumi ini adalah tempat ujian untuk kita membuktikan pengabdian kita kepada Allah S.W.T.

Setiap denyut jantung dan putaran darah yang memunggah masuk keluarnya oksigen dan karban dioksida dan hati selaras proses pembersihan buah pinggang untuk menyempurnakan pula penghadaman dan pembuangan melalui usus kecil dan usus besar adalah terjadi atas anugerah dan kudrat iradat Allah S.W.T.

Sama ada kita tidur atau berbaring, segala proses biologi yang mengambil tempat dalam tubuh kita setiap hari semuanya diatur rapi oleh Allah S.W.T. Semua nikmat yang telah disempurnakan ini untuk menguji setiap hamba sama ada mahu membuat maaruf atau mungkar.

Memfitnah orang ini sebenarnya sebuah kemungkaran. Sama seperti menuduh zina, menuduh Anwar tanpa bukti atau menuduh Anwar sebagai tali barut Amerika adalah kerja dosa.

Lebih zalimlah jika dalam keadaan bukti yang tiada, Anwar mahu disumbat sekali lagi ke sel menggunakan Akta ISA. Walaupun Rais Yatim menyatakan tentang adanya 'pihak tertentu' tetapi bolehkah rakyat diberitahu tentang siapakah mereka?

Insiden Memali

Sebenar manakah mereka? Saya masih tidak lupa betapa Dato� Seri Rais Yatim pernah terlibat dalam menjelaskan punca fenomena insiden Memali yang mengorbankan 14 syuhada pada tahun 1986.

Rais Yatim jugalah yang bersungguh-sungguh untuk menjelaskan kewajaran kepungan dan pembunuhan yang berkaitan. Walau bagaimanapun 24 tahun kemudian, belum ada lagi sebarang bukti bahawa mereka adalah ancaman terhadap keselamatan negara. Apakah kali ini Rais Yatim tidak akan silap?

6) Sibuk sangat khuatirkan Anwar yang kononnya boleh dijadikan 'pemimpin ke hadapan' yang akan dijadikan alat Amerika, sedangkan pada pengamatan saya, pemimpin Umno sejak dari awal penubuhannya lagi selalu memisahkan agama dengan politik.

Pegangan politik sekular ini sangat direstui oleh Amerika dan Yahudi. Ini yang pernah saya katakan bahawa Umno menjadi penyokong dan proksi kepada Amerika dan yahudi di negara ini sejak dahulu lagi.

Saya tidak membela Anwar Ibrahim dan melawan Datuk Seri Abdullah mengikut sentimen dan nafsu yang fujur semata-mata. Saya cuma mahu menjadi pembela kebenaran. InsyaAllah saya bersama-sama dengan 'Al haqqul mubim'.

7) Saya mengajak diri saya dan seluruh rakyat Malaysia, marilah kita sama-sama menghayati maksud Ayat Allah ini dalam Surah An Nisaa'. Ayat 105 yang bermaksud:

"Sesungguhnya Kami telah menurunkan Kitab kepadamu dengan membawa kebenaran, supaya kamu mengadili antara manusia dengan apa yang telah Allah wahyukan kepadamu, dan janganlah kamu menjadi penentang (orang-orang yang tidak bersalah), kerana (membela) orang-orang yang khianat."

Kunci kepada Ayat ini ialah "kamu jangan membela orang-orang yang jahat dengan memberi keadilan melalui wahyu Allah yang telah diturunkan kepada kamu."

8) Ramadan Karim. Ini bulan Ramadhan yang penuh dengan kemuliaan. Ingatlah. Tuhan Maha Berkuasa untuk menentukan segala sesuatu. Dalam kisah Nabi Allah Saleh Alaihissalam disebutkan begini:

"Lalu mereka mendustakannya dan menyembelih unta itu, maka Tuhan mereka membinasakan mereka disebabkan dosa mereka, lalu Allah menyamaratakan mereka (dengan tanah) dan Allah tidak takut terhadap akibat tindakanNya itu." (Surah Asy Syams : Ayat 14 dan 15).

Dari Ayat ini jelas bahawa "mereka dibinasakan di atas dosa-dosa mereka."

T HARV EKER'S "MILLIONAIRE MIND INTENSIVE" SEMINAR

T HARV EKER'S "MILLIONAIRE MIND INTENSIVE" SEMINAR

7-9TH NOVEMBER 2008, SINGAPORE EXPO HALL 2, Ticket RM 888 - RM 4888

A Seminar That You Could Not Miss!!!

"There is a secret psychology to money. Most people don't know about it, that's why most people never become financially successful. A lack of money is not the problem, it is merely a symptom of what's going on inside you.”
T. Harv Eker

Using the principles he teaches, T. Harv Eker went from zero to millionaire in only 2 1/2 years! He combines a unique brand of 'street-smarts with heart'. T. Harv Eker is the founder and president of Peak Potentials Training, the fastest growing personal development company in North America.

Eker's high-energy, 'cut-to-the-chase' style keeps his audience spellbound. T. Harv Eker's motto is "talk is cheap" and his unique ability is getting people to take "action" in the real world to produce real success.

Eker is the author of the best-selling books, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and SpeedWealth. He has also developed several highly-acclaimed courses such as The Millionaire Mind Intensive, Life Directions, Wizard Training and Train the Trainer. He is also the producer and trainer of the world-famous Enlightened Warrior Training.

T. Harv Eker is the son of European immigrants who came to North America with only thirty dollars to their name. He grew up in Toronto, but spent most of his adult years in the United States.

Money was scarce throughout his childhood, so at thirteen, Eker began his work career. As a teen he delivered newspapers, scooped ice cream, sold novelties at fairs, and suntan lotions at the beach. After a year at York University, he decided to take time off to pursue his dream of becoming a millionaire.

During his early adult years, he lived in five different cities, including Lake Tahoe and Ft. Lauderdale. He had a variety of jobs and started more than a dozen different businesses, but regardless of what he did, or how hard he worked, he just couldn't achieve success.

Finally after many years of frustration, Eker hit the jackpot. He opened one of the first retail fitness stores in North America and grew the business to ten stores in only two and a half years. He then sold part of the company to a Fortune 500 corporation.

With the sale, Eker reached his dream. He was finally a millionaire; however, in less than two years, the money was gone. Through a combination of poor investments and unchecked spending, Eker was back at his original net worth … again.

It was at that point that Eker began developing his theories about people's mental and emotional relationship to money. He realized that his “inner-money thermostat” was set for a specific amount of financial success, and that everyone else had a financial set point too. His most profound discovery was that this money blueprint could be changed. Using the principles and practices found in his book, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, Eker reset his own blueprint to not only create success, but to keep it and grow it, and become a multi-millionaire.

During his years of struggle, Eker vowed that should he ever get rich, he would help others do the same. He has kept his promise. Today, he is the president of Peak Potentials Training, one of the largest and fastest-growing seminar companies in the world. He has already touched the lives of over 500,000 people, helping them move closer to their goal of true financial freedom.

Over 500,000 participants have come from all over the world to attend T. Harv Eker's seminars. His events change people's lives!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Harv Eker is one of the most extraordinary speakers and trainers in the world today! Harv's experiential techniques are transformational and he creates amazing results every time he speaks!"
Mark Victor Hansen
Co-creator, #1 New York Times best-selling series Chicken Soup for the Soul®, Co-author, The One Minute Millionaire

"T. Harv Eker is an electrifying speaker! He has the ability to transfix an audience, motivate and enlighten them, and give them information in a way that they absorb it fully. I've seen and heard a lot of speakers, none are as dynamic as T. Harv Eker!"
Jay Conrad Levinson
Author, Guerrilla Marketing book series, over 14 million sold.

Special Offer for Rich Mindset Blogger reader - only rm 550 / person.
Offer valid until 10 October 2008. Email me at tmxpert7@gmail.com

Pirates Of Somalia Release Bunga Melati Lima

NAIROBI: Somali pirates have released the Malaysian tanker Bunga Melati Lima following the payment of a US$2 million (RM6.87 million) ransom.

However, they have seized a Greek chemical tanker in the notorious Gulf of Eden as well as an Ukrainian freighter carrying weaponry.

Somali pirates are now holding some 15 ships and are attacking further out to sea and on two fronts to evade international security, said Noel Choong, the head of the Kuala Lumpur-based International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre.

"Despite the increase in security patrols by the coalition forces in the Gulf of Aden, we are still receiving reports of attacks and hijacks," said Choong.

He warned ships to be on alert even if sailing in the security corridor patrolled by United States-led coalition forces.

A Malta-flagged Iranian oil tanker, a massive vessel the size of a football pitch, had a narrow escape after being pursued by pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades.



Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme said the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation Berhad-owned Bunga Melati Lima was released yesterday.

Malaysia sent three warships -- KD Lekiu, KD Inderapura and KD Mahawangsa to the area after the Bunga Melati Lima and its sister ship, the Bunga Melati Dua, were hijacked last month.

Mwangura also said that a Japanese ship had been released late on Friday.

The Japanese vessel, the Stella Maris, which was hijacked on July 20, had been loaded with lead and zinc and had some 20 Filipino crew members.

"The Somali pirates released the Japanese ship after they were paid a ransom of US$2 million," said Abdulkadir Muse Yusuf, a deputy minister in the breakaway Somali region of Puntland in the northeast.

"The ship sailed off safely from Garad coastal village where it had been held."

Also yesterday, the Mena news agency reported that an Egyptian ship with 25 crew members on board, which was hijacked earlier this month off Puntland, had been allowed to set sail on Friday.

Mena reported that the released vessel was in international waters on its way back to Egypt.

No details were available on whether a ransom was paid, although it was reported that Somali pirates had asked for one in negotiations with Egyptian intelligence officials.

The Greek chemical tanker hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, has 19 crew members on board, most of them Filipinos.

Choong said the tanker was hijacked on Friday while it was on its way to the Middle East from Europe.

"Somali pirates fired with machine guns before boarding the ship," he said.

The waters off Somalia -- which has not had an effective central government for more than 17 years and is plagued by insecurity -- are considered to be among the most dangerous in the world.

The Ukrainian freighter, the MV Faina, which is flying under a Belize flag and has a crew of 21 on board, including three Russians, was hijacked on Thursday as it neared the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

"The gunmen are demanding US$35 million to release the MV Faina and her crew members," said Mwangura.

The MV Faina is carrying a cargo of 33 T-72 battle tanks, grenade launchers, ammunition and spares for the Kenyan army, officials said.

The haul is a significant seizure in Somalia, where Islamist insurgents have been fighting the government and its Ethiopian military ally for nearly two years.

In response to the hijacking, Russia sent a warship to the region yesterday.

The Russian navy was sending the frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless) in response to "the rise in pirate attacks, including against Russian citizens", Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said on Friday.

The Ukrainian freighter was headed yesterday for the central coastal city of Harardhere, which is in an Islamist-controlled region, an official said.

Kenyan media reported that the pirates had warned against any rescue attempts.

"The pirates are heading towards (the port of) Hobyo and Haradhere and it seems that they are looking for chances to unload any light military supplies on board the ship," said Bile Mohamoud Qabow-sade, an adviser to the presidency of the semi-autonomous Puntland region.

"We are very much concerned over this incident which stirs insecurity if not stopped," he said.

"We are getting information that the pirates are 'getting ready to respond ' if attacked. They deployed more armed men into the waters."

Haradhere, about 410km north of Mogadishu, and Hobyo, about 120km north of Haradhere, are located in an area controlled by Somalia's Islamist movement, which launched an insurgency against the Somali government early last year.

The region is not a typical destination for Somali pirates, who usually take the vessels they seize to the Eyl region, further north about 800km from Mogadishu.

Somalia's coast has become extremely dangerous in recent years due to piracy as the Horn of Africa nation has been without an effective central authority since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre, which touched off a fierce power struggle.

The Yemeni Coast Guard has set up an anti-piracy unit to address the increasing numbers of armed pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.

The Yemen Observer, quoting Coast Guard officials, said the unit would deploy 1,600 specially-trained soldiers to fight the scourge.

It is also equipped with 16 high-speed patrol boats purchased from Australia.

"The aim of the deployment is to enhance the protection of ships and stop Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden and Bab Al Mandab Strait," a Coast Guard official was quoted by the newspaper as saying. -- Agencies 28-09-08

Learning Emotional Intelligent

Salam,

What is emotional intelligence?

Being emotionally intelligent involves tuning into emotions, understanding them and taking appropriate action.

Your mind is like a garden, which can be cultivated or neglected, and you are its master gardener. You can cultivate this garden, or you can ignore it and let it develop whatever way it will. But make no mistake: you will reap the harvest of your work or neglect.

" Your mind creates your reality. You can choose to accept this or not. You can be conscious of it and have your mind working fo ryou, or you can ignore it and allow it to work in ways that will hinder and hold you back. But your mind will always and forever be creating your reality."
John Kehoe

Things I have learnt :

We can improve the way we deal with our emotions, but certain things such as temperament, conditioning and emotional baggage will influence this. Temperament cannot be changed, pretty much everything else can.

Values are those things that mean the most to us.

Different levels of communication:

* Level 1: Talking about things and events.

* Level 2: Talking about concerns, feelings and emotions.

* Level 3: Talking about purpose, vision, values, beliefs, fears, hopes and aspiration.

Emotional literacy is the ability to understand your own emotions, to listen to others and to empathise with their emotions, the ability to express emotions productively.

Elements of emotional intelligence:

The main elements of emotional intelligence are:

* To be aware of our own emotions

* To understand our emotions

* To express our emotions in a mutually beneficially way

* To control emotions

* To be aware of emotions in others

* To understand emotions in others

* To use emotions in dealing with and relating to our world.

My results for Gardner’s 7 intelligences show I have intrapersonal intelligence meaning I know myself quite well, I understand my own feelings, thoughts and intuition. My second and third intelligence areas were logical and spatial intelligence. I think it is quite accurate.

Emotional hijacking:

I also learnt about emotional hijacking and I think this is something that I have experienced a few times in my life, I think most of us has. When a person is in a stressful position for a long time (such as an abusive marriage), a specifically stressful event can cause us to revert back to our primitive brains and put us into a flight, fight or freeze mode. That is why it is VERY important to take time to think about decisions in these stressful situations instead of just acting impulsively.

Leadership style:

I have a coaching leadership style. I also am at the mutuality mode in the ladder of emotional intelligence and psychological maturity meaning I associate with others that confirm my identity and focus on similiarity and confirmity.

Areas I need to work on:

Things I need to work on: finding my goal in life, I need to improve my understanding of how I feel about some people and situations and reach my physical, emotional and mental peak.

According to the Goleman model I need to work on emotional self-control, self-confidence and resolving conflict.

Choices:

We are responsible for the choices we make in life. The kind of decisions and conclusions we arrive at reflect how we process the events of our life and affect our level of self-esteem.

Almost every minute of our conscious life we are engaged in self-talk. If the self-talk is accurate and in touch with reality, we function well. If not, we experience stress and emotional disturbance.

Belief systems:

Our belief systems are filters that determine our perceptions and decisions in life. They impact on our attitudes, goals and priorities. When we change our beliefs, we can change our behaviour. Always ask yourself… am I thinking using facts? Can I achieve my short and long-term goals with what I am thinking? Can I maintain and protect my life and health with what I am thinking? Can I avoid conflict with myself, others and the environment with what I am thinking? Can I feel what I want to feel with what I am thinking?

If conflict can be avoided, do so. If not, find ways of dealing with it in constructive manners.

Positive thinking:

We watched a video called “Miracle Man” about a man who was in a plane crash and was a “vegetable”. Doctors told him he had no chance of recovery and will spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, unable to talk, eat or do anything. He walked out of the hospital 7 months after the accident. Everyone called him the miracle man. He refused to give up, he remained determined and steadfast and set goals for himself. His positive attitude kept him going. A positive attitude can help us achieve so much more in life.

Self-love:

Self-love is very important. We have to learn we are ok as we are. If you like yourself, change becomes easier. When you dislike yourself, change is difficult.

When we have in abundance, we can share it with others and get even more in this way.

"Love is the greatest of human values, a direct gift from God, the most powerful and potent life enhancing human energy, and possibly life’s only meaning. It, however, never dies a natural death. It dies from neglect and abandonment. It dies of blindness and indifference and of things being taken for granted."
Leo Buscaglia

Emotional Intelligent



Emotional Intelligence (EI), often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ), describes an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups. As a relatively new area of psychological research, the definition of EI is constantly changing.
Origins of the concept
The distal roots of EI can be traced back to Darwin ’s (1872/ 1965) early work on the importance of emotional expression for survival and adaptation[1]. In the 1900's, even though traditional definitions of intelligence emphasized cognitive aspects such as memory and problem-solving, several influential researchers in the intelligence field of study had begun to recognize the importance of the non-cognitive aspects. For instance, as early as 1920, E. L. Thorndike at Columbia University, used the term social intelligence to describe the skill of understanding and managing other people. [2]
Similarly, in 1940 David Wechsler described the influence of non-intellective factors on intelligent behavior, and further argued that our models of intelligence would not be complete until we can adequately describe these factors.[1] In 1975, Howard Gardner's Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences [3] introduced the idea of Multiple Intelligences which included both Interpersonal intelligence (the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people) and Intrapersonal intelligence (the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations). In Gardner's view, traditional types intelligence, such as IQ, fail to fully explain cognitive ability [4]. Thus, even though the names given to the concept varied, there was a common belief that traditional definitions of intelligence are lacking in ability to fully explain performance outcomes.
The first explicit application of the term "Emotional Intelligence" is mostly attributed to Wayne Payne's doctoral thesis, A study of emotion: Developing emotional intelligence from 1985 [5]. Payne, however, did not publish his theory, so the article published in 1990 by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer (1990) is generally regarded as the first systematic theoretical account of the construct. [6]
As a result of the growing acknowledgement of professionals for the importance and relevance of emotions to work outcomes [7], the research on the topic continued to gain momentum, but it wasn’t until the publication of Daniel Goleman's best seller Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ that the term became widely popularized. [8]. Nancy Gibbs' 1995 Time magazine article highlighted Goleman's book and was the first in a string of mainstream media interest in EI [9]. Thereafter, articles on EI began to appear with increasing frequency across a wide range of academic and popular outlets.
Defining emotional intelligence.
There are a lot of arguments about the definition of EI, arguments that regard both terminology and operationalizations. The first published attempt toward a definition was made by Salovey and Mayer (1990) who defined EI as “the ability to monitor one's own and others' feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one's thinking and actions” [10]
Despite this early definition, there has been confusion regarding the exact meaning of this construct. The definitions are so varied, and the field is growing so rapidly, that researchers are constantly amending even their own definitions of the construct. [11]. Up to the present day, there are three main models of EI:

The ability - based model
Mayer and Salovey's conception of EI strives to define EI within the confines of the standard criteria for a new intelligence. Following their continuing research, their initial definition of EI was revised to: "The ability to perceive emotion, integrate emotion to facilitate thought, understand emotions, and to regulate emotions to promote personal growth" [12].
The ability based model views emotions as useful sources of information that help one to make sense of and navigate the social environment [13]. The model proposes that individuals vary in their ability to process information of an emotional nature and in their ability to relate emotional processing to a wider cognition. This ability is seen to manifest itself in certain adaptive behaviors. The model proposes that EI includes 4 types of abilities: [12]
Perceiving emotions - the ability to detect and decipher emotions in faces, pictures, voices, and cultural artifacts- including the ability to identify one’s own emotions. Perceiving emotions represents a basic aspect of emotional intelligence, as it makes all other processing of emotional information possible.
Using emotions - the ability to harness emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem solving. The emotionally intelligent person can capitalize fully upon his or her changing moods in order to best fit the task at hand.
Understanding emotions - the ability to comprehend emotion language and to appreciate complicated relationships among emotions. For example, understanding emotions encompasses the ability to be sensitive to slight variations between emotions, and the ability to recognize and describe how emotions evolve over time.
Managing emotions - the ability to regulate emotions in both ourselves and in others. Therefore, the emotionally intelligent person can harness emotions, even negative ones, and manage them to achieve intended goals.
Measurement of the ability - based model
Different models of EI have led to the development of various instruments for the assessment of the construct. While some of these measures might overlap, most researchers agree that they tap slightly different constructs. The current measure of Mayer and Salovey’s model of EI, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) involves a series of emotion-based problem solving items[13]. Consistent with the model's notion of EI as a type of intelligence, the test is modeled off of ability-based IQ tests. By testing a person’s abilities on each of the four branches of emotional intelligence, it generates scores for each of the branches as well as a total score.
Central to the four-branch model is the idea that EI requires attunement to social norms. Therefore, the MSCEIT is scored in a consensus fashion, with higher scores indicating higher overlap between an individual’s answers and those provided by a world wide sample of thousands of respondents. The MSCEIT can also be expert scored, so that the amount of overlap is calculated between an individual’s answers and those provided by a group of 21 emotion researchers[13].
Although promoted as an ability test, the MSCEIT is most unlike standard IQ tests in that its items do not have objectively correct responses. Among other problems, the consensus scoring criterion means that it is impossible to create items (questions) that only a minority of respondents can solve, because, by definition, responses are deemed emotionally 'intelligent' only if the majority of the sample has endorsed them. This and other similar problems have led cognitive ability experts to question the definition of EI as a genuine intelligence
The Emotional Competencies (Goleman) model
The EI model introduced by Daniel Goleman [14] focuses on EI as a wide array of competencies and skills that drive managerial performance, measured by multi-rater assessment and self-assessment (Bradberry and Greaves, 2005). In Working with Emotional Intelligence (1998), Goleman explored the function of EI on the job, and claimed EI to be the largest single predictor of success in the workplace, with more recent confirmation of these findings on a worldwide sample seen in Bradberry and Greaves, "The Emotional Intelligence Quick Book" (2005)..
Goleman's model outlines four main EI constructs: [14]

Self-awareness - the ability to read one's emotions and recognize their impact while using gut feelings to guide decisions.
Self-management - involves controlling one's emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.
Social awareness - the ability to sense, understand, and react to other's emotions while comprehending social networks.
Relationship management - the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while managing conflict.

Goleman includes a set of emotional competencies within each construct of EI. Emotional competencies are not innate talents, but rather learned capabilities that must be worked on and developed to achieve outstanding performance. Goleman posits that individuals are born with a general emotional intelligence that determines their potential for learning emotional competencies.[15]

Before and After Marriage

Before marriage....

He: Yes. At last. It was so hard to wait.

She: Do you want me to leave?

He: No! Don't even think about it.

She: Do you love me?

He: Of course! Over and over!

She: Have you ever cheated on me?

He: No! Why are you even asking?

She: Will you kiss me?

He: Every chance I get.

She: Will you hit me?

He: Are you crazy! I'm not that kind of person!

She: Can I trust you?

He: Yes.

She: Darling!

After marriage....

Simply read from bottom to top.

Money Is Not Important?





Every Now And Then - My Favourite Poet

Every now and then
There’s a time in one’s life
We feel lost and unsure
The path may seem dark
Every now and then
There’s a time in one’s life
You gain and lose
In the game of love
Every now and then
There’s a time in one’s life
The journey in life seem unworthy
You wish you hadn’t been born
Every now and then
There’s a time in one’s life
Where we should stop and rest
Before rest stops us

The Human Paradox

-----The Human Paradox-----

It is a very powerful fact that the vast majority of people in the
world today are failing to achieve their full potential, happiness,
wealth, health and desires through a complete lack of understanding
of the way in which the Universe operates in its immutable,
perfect, loving way.

When we choose to incarnate into the physical world we do so in
full knowledge of who our parents will be, what challenges in the
next physical life we will be faced with, and the determination to
realise, understand and to meet those challenges, thereby learning
vital lessons, to evolve Spiritually and to achieve total joy while
doing so. It is only in achieving these and other important
objectives can we be fully aligned with The Source, our Creator,
God.

We are all expressions of God, expressed in all spheres of
existence with Unconditional Love and natural, instinctive,
powerful desire to evolve, ultimately back to God as a perfected
aspect of God. This is indeed the absolute true meaning of all life
of which we are all inseparable aspects. We are all, each and every
one of us immortal, Spiritual, Divine Beings joyfully journeying
along the path back to God Who first gave us the precious gift of
Life.

Over the years however mankind has steadily, and increasingly
turned its back away from The Source, our Creator, God, and towards
an alternative existence involving gross materialism, dogma and
indoctrination, thereby becoming the slave of mammon. Most people
are influenced by such erroneous factors such as what is expected
of them by those around them, what other people think in the game
of conforming to society and the "way things are done", and above
all by the trappings of material desire, vanity and of the
individual ego.

It is only when an individual realises these truths and has the
courage, strength and determination, all of which will be fully
supported by the Universe, to face up to them can that individual
become truly free to fulfil his or her destiny with total joy,
meaning and purpose, and to attract anything and everything that
they can possibly desire into their lives.

In order to achieve this state of awareness it is necessary to
consciously become an open channel through which the Universe, The
Source, God can express in the physical world. This means always
being totally open to the Universe and acting accordingly in the
same direction. Most people today unfortunately do exactly the
opposite by always endeavouring to conform and live up to the
expectations of others, the pursuit of material gain, and forcing
things in a perceived direction by physical means. Instead of being
an open channel, a source of expression of God and of their
Higher-Self, they simply think about everything too much with a
desire to physically "do" things in an attempt to force things the
way they want them to go, which very often is totally contrary to
the flow of the Universe. Quite simply they have failed to "let go
and let God" and as a direct result people suffer, fail to reach
their full joyous potential and fail to evolve, thereby ensuring
yet another incarnation on Earth in order to return once again in
order to fulfil everything that was failed to be fulfilled in the
previous lifetime.

The vast majority of people incarnate on Earth today are within
this cycle of birth, Earth life and transition back to the Astral
worlds to review what has or has not been achieved before returning
to Earth again in order to correct the counter-productive actions
of the previous life, and of course to hopefully make progress
towards the ultimate objective on the path back to The Source, The
First Cause, God.

Of course at the same time every single human without exception has
to go through an evolutionary phase, often including hundreds of
lives on Earth over the course of many thousands of years. This is
a natural and necessary aspect of individual evolution. Without
many cycles of Earth life experience it will not be easily possible
to acquire the necessary level of Spiritual evolution and Energy
vibration to continue along the path back to God. However, this
cycle of the Earth human race has been and is being protracted by
many factors, including gross materialism, creed and dogma and the
"human paradox".

Unfortunately, even in the 21st century, society is still
operating a system that has been in operation for centuries,
thereby trapping people from a very young age in a cycle that
prevents happiness, fulfilment and evolution. From the first day a
child is born into what should be a glorious, joyful and fulfilling
existence they are indoctrinated into the trappings of the material
world. A child is taught to focus on the five physical senses, to
behave in a certain way that precludes maintaining their still
strong connections with the inner worlds from where they so
recently arrived, and they are taught to treasure material things
including toys representing what their parents hope they will
materially become later in Earth life.

Later children are told by parents, relatives and teachers that
they must go to school in order to get the qualifications required
in order to get a "job" so that they may work for the next 40 years
before retiring on a pension, but only after the physical body,
Mind and Spirit has often been traumatised to a high degree, and
where they can live the remainder of their lives in the hope of
surviving in a non-caring world for the most part.

From the moment of birth the Mind of most children is shaped by
parents based upon their own perception of what life "is all
about", and usually based upon their own current circumstances in
terms of type of job, type of street and house to live in and many
other factors, all based upon the situation and aspirations of
parents, relatives and others. Many children are taught that it is
wrong to aspire to a life that is outside of their "station in
life" and they should focus on the lifestyle that their parents
have always accepted.

The Mind of a child at both conscious and subconscious levels is
very impressionable, and it does not take many years of having the
ideals of parents repeatedly conveyed for them for the subconscious
of the child to accept it as reality, and from that point onwards
it will become the reality of the child just as it was for the
parents.

Finally, often sooner rather than later, old-age and failing health
finally takes its toll and the welcome release back to the
non-physical worlds once again takes place. Once the transition to
the Astral worlds has taken place during the process known
erroneously as "death", the Soul will have every opportunity to
reflect on what might have been for that most recent Earth life,
what was not accomplished and why, thereby eventually resolving to
return once again to Earth in order to achieve those same
objectives the next time around.

The Soul will then know that for their entire stay on Earth, rather
than conforming to the hopes, aspirations and expectations of
others based upon their own reality, they, as powerful Spiritual
beings with freewill could have created any reality at all
consistent with the lessons to be learned on Earth during physical
life, and that there is really nothing at all they cannot be, do or
have.

Humanity is currently stuck in this paradox, a cycle of often what
amounts to misery due to creating a reality that is not consistent
with the true mission of the Soul, and it is not until this cycle
is broken that everyone can find true joy, fulfilment and
happiness, and above all true evolution along the path back to God,
to Whom we all have the ultimate duty to return as perfected human
beings made in the true Spiritual image of our Divine creator.

The current system of education and society originated three
hundred or more years ago. It might well have worked back then but
with society still enforcing these principles, supported by creed
dogma and the indoctrination of parents, teachers and society
generally, mankind has actually failed to progress as the Universe
intends; people have failed to evolve with the joy and fulfilment
of Spirit.

Children are told to go to school, study certain subjects, achieve
certain qualifications, get a certain job, and then work in a
certain office, factory or other place of work in order to earn the
basic money required for material things in order to satisfy the
material and personal demands of the ego. The pressure to conform
and go through this routine is usually so strong that most people
quite simply cannot resist it, even if they knew the alternatives,
the real reason they are here.

People might say that money is necessary even to acquire the basics
of survival such as food, clothing and shelter. Yes of course this
is true, but the fact is we are here to attract and enjoy unlimited
wealth if desired, and not simply the very basics for survival in
the Earth life system. There is a very big difference however
between "wealth" and "money" and it is this distinction that has
led so many people astray, continues to do so today, and will
continue to do so until the Consciousness of mankind begins to
understand and live by these realities and, most importantly each
individual live their life accordingly.

The Universe has unlimited wealth, riches and abundance just
waiting to be delivered to each and every person. Ask and you shall
receive, every time, there are no exceptions to this. The Universe
does not recognise favouritism, luck, chance or any other such very
human notions often used as an excuse by people to blame their own
lack of progress on "other" factors that are perceived to be
outside of themselves, when in fact they are always an inseparable
aspect of such a person.

Many people however simply do not know how to ask or to receive,
and they therefore fail to achieve abundance, joy and happiness,
instead becoming a slave to society, family and above all to
themselves.

The vast majority of people in the world today are not taught how
to attract unlimited wealth, but rather how to "make money". It is
in the making of money that so much misery has been wrought upon
all of mankind, with the gross materialism driven on by the ego and
self-interest resulting in the misery we see today, being the
direct result of this desire to "make" ever more money for the
benefit of vanity, the ego and business profits, and to conform to
the demands and expectations of family, friends and others.

Very few people achieve true "money" freedom, and even those that
do are very often not at all happy, fulfilled or joyous about their
situation simply because they felt compelled to "make" their money
at a very physical level, often attracting much misery in the
process, both to themselves and to others. "Making money" is not
the same as "attracting wealth", abundance and the resultant true
emotional freedom, joy and fulfilment.

Only those who can fully understand how the Universe, The Source,
God channels abundance through His/Her expressions within the
physical world, through mankind, through each and every person, can
and will achieve as much abundance as they can possibly desire, and
most importantly with the true joy, happiness and emotional freedom
that goes with it.

This means throwing off the shackles of society, the creed, dogma
and indoctrination and the opinions and expectations of others in
order to become a true channel for abundance. Those who can do this
will answer those who may be critical by virtue of an extremely
joyous, happy, fulfilling life on Earth, and one in which all
desires are realised at will.

It has often been noted that those who physically seem to "work"
the hardest all of their lives seem to have the least money,
possessions and true happiness, whereas those who seem to "work"
the least often seem to enjoy unlimited abundance, joy and true
freedom. Many people will view such happy, joyous and fulfilled
people with envy, often accusing them of achieving their riches
through some sort of illicit means, or they might accuse them of
being "lucky", "fortunate", or "in the right place at the right
time" or of some other erroneous factor. The fact is these are mere
excuses to the people making these observations, a way of
justifying to themselves that it can never happen to them.

It is a very sad but true fact that many people still prefer to
make use of their time in seeking to find fault with others rather
than to celebrate their success and to be truly joyful that a
fellow brother or sister human being has discovered true joy,
happiness and fulfilment.

Unfortunately today many people instead look towards failure and
revel in the failure of others, a really terrible indictment on
humanity generally. The simple and powerful truth is that those who
have achieved such levels of true fulfilment have done so by
casting off the shackles of society and have become open channels
by which God can express fully in the physical world, thereby being
blessed with unlimited abundance, joy and happiness.

So the question is, how can anyone escape from the chains of modern
society to which they are currently bound in order to realise their
true potential? These questions and others will be fully dealt with
in the next chapters of this book. Suffice it to say that every
single person on the planet has the ability to attract unlimited
abundance, all they have to do is understand that fact and have
complete faith and gratitude while taking all of the necessary
actions for what can seem like an extremely rapid, joyous and very
real transition.

One of the most powerful and truest expressions of all is quite
simply Let go and let God. In China a philosopher known as
Lao-tsu said the following.

"In the practice of the Way every day something is dropped. Less
and less do you need to force things until you finally arrive at
non-action. When nothing is done nothing is left undone".

These are very powerful words indeed, and once they are fully
grasped will place you in a much better position to start
attracting the abundance, joy and fulfilment that you truly desire.
The fact is, mankind is currently so focused in the material world
that he is always "forcing" things by endeavouring to "do" things
all the time. If a person desires something they automatically
believe that a physical action is required in order to achieve it,
thereby "forcing" things in their direction. Such force might well
bring about the intended result, but nevertheless Universal laws
are immutable, and the force of that cause will always have a
corresponding effect; there are never any exceptions to this.

Whatever the person was forcing is not actually a "physical thing"
it is in reality Energy, the very same Energy from which all things
are made, and in forcing that Energy in a certain direction, a
direction that might not have been the natural direction of that
Energy, then a disharmony has occurred which the Universe will
always balance. The entire Universe is Energy, vibration and Mind,
and Energy is therefore guided by the Mind, not by the physical
effort of "doing".

Many people in the world today operate with the belief that the
only way to achieve anything is to take a physical action, often
motivated by greed, fear, uncertainty and other negative,
irrational and primitive human emotions. It is this desire to
physically "do" something in order to force a perceived objective
that often brings about the opposite effect. It is simply not
possible to "do" anything against the flow of the perfection of the
Universe and the immutable Laws in constant operation that are
responsible for the perfect order of the Universe. People are
therefore focused on "doing" instead of simply "Being". In order
to achieve anything it is first necessary to "be" rather then to
"do". It is therefore always the "being" that precedes the "doing",
there is not and cannot be any other way.

This is of course not to say that we should never "do" things.
Quite the contrary in fact; action is often necessary, but the
action must always be aligned completely with the flow of the
Universe; you first must "be" and then you can "do". It is by being
an open channel, always receptive to intuition, inspiration
messages from inner sources that the necessary Energy arrives
requiring an action that is in total alignment with that Energy.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Job - Ready Graduates

UNIVERSITY curriculum needs to keep up with today’s service-based economy.

In response to this, 11 Malaysian universities have adopted the Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME) initiative launched by the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry and IBM.

They are Universiti Sains Malaysia, Universiti Malaya, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Universiti Malaysia Pahang.

Also taking part are three private institutions, Multimedia University, Asia Pacific University College of Technology and Innovation, and INTI International University College.

SSME was first launched in North Carolina State University in the United States in 2006, and this is the first time universities in Malaysia are adopting the programme.

SSME is a multi-disciplinary research and academic effort aimed at helping students move from university to the workplace.

It is aimed at ensuring that students excel in the multi-disciplinary field of services management.

Minister Datuk Dr Maximus Ongkili launched the programme at an Innovation Forum held in Kuala Lumpur last Monday.

In his speech, Dr Ongkili said that innovation is one of the key factors of SSME.

“To innovate, you must be creative and know what is happening in the global scenario.”

He added that economies in the global markets are shifting towards being more service-based so businesses have to focus on service innovation to maintain profits.

Higher Education Department director-general Prof Datuk Dr Radin Umar Radin Sohadi represented Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin at the function.

At a press conference later, Prof Radin said that SSME was aimed at making students as ready as possible for the job.

“The government will continue to implement various programmes to create a trained and competitive workforce,” he said.

(The Star, 21 September 2008. ms E17, Campus)

The Entrepreneur Test

Do you have what it takes to succeed in starting a Small Business?
This interactive quiz will help you assess your Entrepreneurship and business skills

The Entrepreneur Test (For a Small Business Owner)

The first question you should answer when you are thinking of starting a business is "Am I the type?" You will be the most important employee in your small business. It is more important that you rate yourself objectively as the small business owner than how you rate any prospective employee. Appraise your strengths and your weaknesses. As a prospective operator of your own small business, acknowledge that you are weak in certain areas and cover the deficiency by either retraining yourself or hiring someone with the necessary skill. The questions in this test indicate to what extent you have the personal traits important to a business proprietor.

Instructions: Read each question and click on one of the suggested answers. Respond by marking the answer that most accurately describes your behavior, feeling or attitude as it actually is, not as you would like it to be, or think it should. You must be absolutely honest with yourself in order to get a valid score.

Go to the first question


1. Are You a Self-Starter?

a. If someone gets me started ,I keep going all right.

b. I do things my own way, Nobody needs to tell me to get going.

c. Easy does it. I don't put myself out until I have to.

......Go to the next question


2. How Do You Feel About Other People?

a. Most people bug me.

b. I like people. I can get along with just about anybody.

c. I have enough friends and I don't need anybody else.

.....Go to the next question

3. Can You Lead Others?

a. I can get people to do things if I drive them.

b. I can get most people to go along with me without much difficulty.

c. I usually let someone else get things moving.

....Go to the next question


4. Can You Take Responsibility?

a. I'll take over if I have to, but I'd rather let someone else be responsible.

b. There's always some eager beaver around waiting to show off. I say, let him.

c. I like to take charge of and see things through.

....Go to the next question


5. How Good An Organizer Are You?

a. I like to have a plan before I start. I'm usually the one who lines things up.

b. I do all right unless things get too complicated. Then I may cop out.

c. I just take things as they come.

.....Go to the next question


6. How Good a Worker Are You?

a. I can't see that hard work gets you anywhere.

b. I'll work hard for a time, but when I've had enough, that's it.

c. I can keep going as long as necessary. I don't mind working hard.

...Go to the next question


7. Can You Make Decisions?

a. I can if I have plenty of time. If I have to make up my mind fast, I usually regret it.

b. I can make up my mind in a hurry if necessary, and my decision is usually O.K.

c. I don't like to be the one who decides things. I'd probably blow it.

...Go to the next question


8. Can People Trust What You Say?

a. I try to be on the level, but sometimes I just say what's easiest.

b. They sure can. I don't say things I don't mean.

c. What's the sweat if the other fellow doesn't know the difference?

....Go to the next question


9. Can You Stick With It?

a. If I make up my mind to do something, I don't let anything stop me.

b. If a job doesn't go right, I turn off. Why beat your brains out?

c. I usually finish what I start.

.....Go to the next question


10. Can You Keep Records?

a. Records are not important. I know what's need to be known without keeping records.

b. I can, but it's more important to get the work out than to shuffle numbers.

c. Since they are needed I'll keep records even though I don't want to.

That's it ...


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grading

Score 100
Excellent. A perfect score. You are a born entrepreneur. If you are not presently running your own small business you should definitely start one -- the sooner the better. You are on the way to fame and riches.

Score 91 - 99
Very good. You definitely have what it takes to succeed in a small business of your own. Don't hesitate, your way to business success is wide open.

Score 72 - 90
Good. You have the qualities of a successful entrepreneur with some weak spots. Read the interpretation below to identify your deficiency. You should be able to cover that deficiency by either retraining yourself or hiring someone with the necessary skill.

Score 40 - 71
So so. The prospect of your success in a business of your own is questionable. You have some deficiencies that might out-shadow some good traits you have. If you still want to go on with it, be sure to call up all the persistence you can get. You are going to face some tough adversity on the way.

Score 40 and below
Unsatisfactory. Forget your dreams of being your own boss, it's not for you. You'd better keep your comfortable and secure job. Why bother with all the risks and hustles of starting a business.

Interpretation:
What Traits and Characteristics Make a Successful Small Business Manager
Numerous studies have been made of small business managers over the years. Many look at traits and characteristics that appear common to most people who start their own businesses. Other studies focus on characteristics that seem to appear frequently in successful owner-managers.

First, consider those characteristics that seem to distinguish the person who opens a business from the person who works for someone else. These studies investigated successful and unsuccessful owners, some of whom went bankrupt several times. Some were successful only after the second or third try. The characteristics they share might almost be said to predispose a person into trying to start a business. Of course, not all of these characteristics appear in every small business owner-manager, but the following seem to be most predominate.

People who start their own business may be members of different political parties, feel differently about religion, economics and other issues. They are like everyone else. The difference is they usually feel and express themselves more strongly. This is consistent. If you are going to risk your money and time in your own business you must have a strong feeling that you will be successful.

These strong feelings may also cause problems. If you want to start your own business you probably have mixed feelings about authority. You know the manager must have authority to get things done, but you're not comfortable working under someone. This may also have been your attitude in a scholastic, family or other authority structure.

If you want to open your own business you are likely to have a strong "Need for Achievement". This "Need for Achievement" is a psychologist's term for motivation and is usually measured by tests. It can be an important factor in success. The person who wouldn't think of starting a business, might call you a plunger, a gambler, a high risk taker. Yet you probably don't feel that about yourself.

Studies have shown that very often the small business owner doesn't differ from anyone else in risk avoidance or aversion when measured on tests. At first thought this seems unreasonable since logic tells us that it is risky to open your own business. A management expert once explained this apparent contradiction very simply. "When a person starts and manages his own business he doesn't see risks; he sees only factors that he can control to his advantage." If you possess these traits to some degree or other it doesn't mean you will be successful, only that you will very likely start your own business. Some of these characteristics in excess may actually hamper you if you are not careful.

The characteristics that appear most frequently among "successful" small business managers include drive, thinking ability, competence in human relations, communications skills and technical knowledge.

Drive, as defined in the study, is composed of responsibility, vigor, initiative, persistence and health.

Thinking ability consists of original, creative, critical, and analytical thinking.

Competency in human relations means emotional stability, sociability, good personal relations, consideration, cheerfulness, cooperation. and tactfulness.

Communications skills include verbal comprehension, and oral and written communications.

Technical knowledge is the manager's comprehension of the physical process of producing goods or services, and the ability to use the information purposefully.

Motivation or drive has long been considered as having an important effect on performance. Psychologists now claim you can increase the motivation and the personal capacities that will improve your effectiveness and increase your chances for success. Much of the development of such achievement motivation depends on setting the right kind of goals for yourself

Malaysia's 40 Richest - Forbes.com

Shiok, the Malay word for fantastic, is an apt word to describe the past 12 months for Malaysia's 40 Richest. It has been a remarkably good year for nearly everyone on our second annual list, thanks to the nation's thriving economy, which has been helped by recent government moves to reduce taxes. The stock market is up more than 20% to date, making it the third-best-performing market in Asia behind China and Vietnam. At least 75% of the public companies held by these tycoons are worth more than last year. (See table for ten big jumps.) The nation's 40 richest businesspeople are worth a collective $43 billion, up from $26 billion last year. Robert Kuok remains Malaysia's richest, worth $7.6 billion. Just $200 million behind him is No. 2 Ananda Krishnan, who made headlines in May when he announced plans to take his telecom company, Maxis, private in a $5 billion deal. Malaysia's ten richest still control the bulk of the list's wealth, worth $35 billion, up 63% from the previous year. But the individuals lower in the ranks are doing well, too. Last year a dozen people were worth less than $100 million; the minimum net worth was $65 million. This year no one is worth less than $127 million. Eight of the rich listers are newcomers, most put there by recent offerings or dramatic gains in public holdings. Mokhzani Mahathir, son of the former prime minister, joins the ranks after taking his energy company Kencana public in December. Seri Eleena Raja Azlan Shah becomes the list's second woman, thanks to her shareholding in thriving construction firm Gamuda, up 90% in the past year. The richest newcomer is Singapore resident Ong Beng Seng, the tireless dealmaker who just recently persuaded Formula One's Bernie Ecclestone to hold a Grand Prix-style race on the streets of Singapore, most probably at night, a world's first. Even most dropoffs from last year's rankings have little reason to pout. Former head of Multi-Purpose Holdings, Lim Thian Kiat, saw his net worth rise $31 million to $126 million. Not bad, but not enough to make the cut. For people with publicly traded fortunes, net worths were calculated using share prices and exchange rates from May 11. For privately held fortunes we estimated what companies and assets were worth if public. A special thanks to database company BRIS, which provided private company data.

1. Robert Kuok
$7.6 billion
84. Married, 8 children

Onetime rice and sugar trader heads multinational Kuok Group with interests ranging from shipping to real estate to media. Merging extensive Malaysian, Indonesian palm oil interests with Singapore's Wilmar International, already run by his nephew. Also has stake in Transmile Group, air cargo outfit that recently delayed filing its financial statements and announced special audit.

2. Ananda Krishnan
$7.4 billion
69. Divorced, 3 children

In May announced plans to pay $5 billion to take his telecom company, Maxis, private. Capped off already busy year: After delays his Measat launched its third satellite in December. His satellite TV provider Astro launched a joint venture with India's Sun TV Group in April. Also signed joint venture with A&E Television Network.

3. Lim Goh Tong
$4.3 billion
90. Married, 6 children

Former public works contractor built enormous gaming and resort empire. His First World Hotel has 6,200 rooms, earning it the Guinness World Record for world's largest hotel. Retired as chairman in 2003. Marked his 90th birthday this year with a 9-foot-tall granite statue at his Genting casino resort.

4. Lee Shin Cheng
$3.9 billion
68. Married, 6 children

Former plantation field supervisor now heads IOI Group, one of world's leading operators of palm oil plantations, refineries. His plants produce specialty oils, metallic stearates, fats used in soaps, detergents, cosmetics, food additives. Leading real estate developer also building townships, shopping malls, resorts in Malaysia.

5. Teh Hong Piow
$3.5 billion
77. Married, 4 children

Former bank clerk used profits from real estate deal to open bank in 1966. Today Public Bank has 13,400 employees, 240 branches, including 56 in Hong Kong, 1 in Shenzhen.

6. Quek Leng Chan
$3 billion
66. Married, 3 children

Heads Hong Leong Group Malaysia, conglomerate involved in banking, semiconductor manufacturing, ceramic tile manufacturing, motorcycle distribution. Expected to start introducing casinos in selected Thistle Hotels, the U.K. luxury chain it owns.

7. Syed Mokhtar AlBukhary
$2 billion
55. Married, 5 children

Former rice trader now controls Malaysia Mining Corporation (MMC); has stakes in Malaysia's Johor Port; country's largest independent power producer Malakoff; natural gas distributor Gas Malaysia. Donates to Islamic schools, mosques, arts.

8. Yeoh Tiong Lay
$1.8 billion
77. Widowed, 7 children

Founded YTL Corp., one of Malaysia's largest conglomerates, with interests in construction, utilities, hotels, property development and technology. Recently proposed building $2.3 billion bullet train that would cover 200-mile journey between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in 90 minutes. Son Francis runs YTL's daily operations.

9. Tiong Hiew King
$1.2 billion
71. Married, 3 children

His timber flagship, Rimbunan Hijau, celebrated 30th anniversary in 2006 by inaugurating 2 palm oil mills and 2 resorts in his native Sarawak and listing his Sarawak palm oil interests in Malaysia. Merging his three Chinese- language publishing firms in Malaysia (Nanyang Press Holdings and Sin Chew Media Corp.) and Hong Kong (Ming Pao Enterprises).

10. William Cheng
$650 million
64. Married

Runs the Lion group, which has interests in plantations, steel, property. Though nicknamed "Steel King," biggest source of wealth his stake in Chinese retailer Parkson Retail, which he chairs. Married to former Chinese pop singer. Also known as Cheng Heng Jem.

11. Azman Hashim
$600 million
67. Married, 5 children

Bought first bank 25 years ago. Last November agreed to sell 14% stake in banking group AMMB to Australia's ANZ for $350 million. Still has 19% stake as well as holdings in other financial service companies. Chairs Malaysian Investment Banking Association, Malaysia-Japan Economic Association. Has 10 grandchildren.

12. Ong Beng Seng
$580 million
62. Married, 2 children

Malaysian citizen known as OBS lives in Singapore, where he has many investments in luxury hotels, real estate, steel. Has joint venture with Giorgio Armani to double number of A/X shops worldwide. Longtime partner of Hard Rock, his office situated above a Hard Rock Cafe. Just closed deal to bring Formula One racing to the island nation. Wife, Christina, whose family made fortune in oil trading, often invests alongside him.

13. Yaw Teck Seng
$460 million
69. Married

Started out in logging in 1963. Later picked up three small forest concessions, which eventually became Samling (which means "three trees" in Mandarin) now one of the world's largest forestry groups. Turned over management to his son Chee Ming (No. 15).

14. Vincent Tan
$380 million
55. Married

Has run Berjaya, which means "success" in Malay, since 1984; interests in hotels, lotteries, real estate and financial services. Selling its stake in moneylosing U.S. eatery Roadhouse Grill; setting up a school in China. Last July went to Bosnia, reportedly to visit and fund the excavation of controversial "pyramids" that some say are proof of a lost civilization.

15. Yaw Chee Ming
$370 million
47.

Chief executive of Samling Global, founded by his father. M.B.A. from University of Southern California has helped professionalize group with new IT, accounting systems. Took it public on Hong Kong stock exchange earlier this year. Offering was subject of protests by human rights and environmental groups. Company denies any violations.

16. Vinod Sekhar
$350 million
38. Married, 2 children

Heads privately held Petra Group, named after his daughter. Group developed several technologies, including patented process called DeLink that devulcanizes used rubber so it can be recycled. Now negotiating with companies, governments to commercialize process. Forbes Vice Chairman Christopher Forbes is minor shareholder in group. Sekhar loves Cuban cigars; collects ties with Mickey Mouse motifs. His father, a former head of Malaysian government's rubber agency, died last September.

17. Jeffrey Cheah
$325 million
62. Married, 3 children

Accountant started a tin mining company in 1974. Later became Sunway Group, which develops properties, runs tolls, manages quarries. Stock of its property outfit, Sunway City, soaring.

18. Chong Chook Yew
$320 million
85. Widowed, 4 children

Columbia University grad, took over as chairperson of Selangor Properties after her husband, Wen Tien Kuang, Selangor's founder, died in 2000. Company got approval from Malaysian stock exchange in December to list its subsidiary, Help University College in Kuala Lumpur. Offering expected later this year.

19. Lim Kok Thay
$310 million
55. Married

Son of Lim Goh Tong (No. 3) took over as chairman of Genting Group in 2003. In December Genting won rights to gaming-and- entertainment resort on Singaporean island of Sentosa; plans include Universal Studios theme park. Reportedly pulled out of joint venture with Macau gaming tycoon Stanley Ho earlier this year. Also runs Star Cruises, world's third-largest cruise operator.

20. Lim Wee Chai
$300 million
49. Married, 2 children

Started company in 1991 with only three secondhand production facilities and turned his Top Glove into one of world's largest producers of rubber gloves. Last year the $285 million (sales) company announced plans to expand into rubber plantations. In March acquired controlling stake in Singapore rival Medi-Flex.

21. Kua Sian Kooi
$295 million
54. Married, 4 children

Started out as insurance salesman in 1974; now heads Kurnia Asia, one of Malaysia's biggest insurance companies, which he bought in 1991. In April acquired 80% stake in Indonesian insurance firm Aegis.

22. Tiah Thee Kian
$240 million
59. Married, 5 children

In 2002 stepped down as head of TA Enterprise, with sprawling interests in financial services, after being convicted of reporting irregularities on the Malaysia bourse. Wife Tan Kuay Fong has run show since, but Tiah is rumored to be returning now that his five-year ban against directing a public company is over.

23. Mustapha Kamal Abu Bakar
$235 million
58. Married, 4 children

Cofounded MK Land with Kasi K.L. Palaniappan (No. 40) in 1983. Together transformed it into one of country's largest property developers, with land bank of 6,800 acres. Stepped down as executive director in April, amid reports that he and Palaniappan clashed on management style; remains nonexecutive chairman.

24. Anthony Fernandes
$230 million
43. Married

Head of AirAsia, region's largest discount airline, now investing in new industries (see story, p. 30). Avid collector of baseball caps. Also a fan of Miles Davis, LL Cool J.

25. Seri Eleena Raja Azlan Shah
$228 million

Trained as lawyer in U.K. Set up her own firm in Malaysia in 1987. Her wealth comes from her being the largest individual shareholder in construction firm Gamuda.

26. Lee Oi Hian
$225 million
56. Married, 4 children

Son of late rubber baron Lee Loy Seng, heads chemicals company Batu Kawan and Kuala Lumpur Kepong, with interests in palm oil; owns retailer Crabtree & Evelyn. Chairs Malaysian Palm (nasdaq: PALM - news - people ) Oil Council.

27. Lee Hau Hian
$224 million
54. Married, 1 child

Managing director of Batu Kawan. Like brother Lee Oi Hian (above) has share in the group and Kuala Lumpur Kepong. Third brother Soo Hian doesn't appear to have own stakes so drops from list.

28. Mokhzani Mahathir
$220 million
46. Married, 5 children

Son of Malaysia's former prime minister Mohamad Mahathir. Petroleum engineer chairs energy company Kencana, which went public in December. Distributor of Porsche in Malaysia; personally owns four. Amateur race car driver also chairs a race track.

29. G. Gnanalingam
$215 million
62. Married, 3 children

Runs Westports, Malaysia's largest privately owned port, which he founded in 1994. Said to be making way for son Ruben to eventually take over. Also owns a stake in pencilmaker Pelikan and logistics firm Konsortium Logistiks.

30. Abdul Hamed Sepawi
$200 million
57. Married, 2 children

Has grown timber outfit, Ta Ann, from small trading firm to group with more than 3,000 employees. Benefiting from strong demand for plywood. Chairs property firm Naim Cendera, director of power company Sarawak Enterprise.

31. Kamarudin Meranun
$190 million
45. Married, 5 children

Cofounded AirAsia with Tony Fernandes (No. 24). Deputy group chief executive company's second-largest individual shareholder. Previously spent more than decade in financial services.

32. Lau Cho Kun
$185 million

Largest shareholder in Malaysian Mosaics, which makes tiles, and Hap Seng, a construction company. His holding company bought out Malaysian Mosaics' stake in Hap Seng. Lau holds no position at either company.

33. Ong Leong Huat
$175 million
63. Married, 5 children

Runs OSK group, which includes financial services firm OSK Holdings, OSK Property, OSK Ventures.

34. Lin Yun Ling
$160 million
52. Married, 2 children

Managing director of construction firm Gamuda. Has 30 years of experience in civil engineering and construction.

35. Liew Kee Sin
$155 million
48. Married, 4 children

Started career as banker. Joined real estate outfit SP Setia in 1996 as a director, later became chief executive. Recently sponsored free two-day musical concert for 80,000, with some of Malaysia's biggest pop stars, plus fireworks.

36. Lee Swee Eng
$150 million
Married

Engineer cofounded oil services and equipment company KNM in 2000. Fast growth being fueled by acquisitions and strong sales from dozens of clients including U.S. firm Halliburton (nyse: HAL - news - people ).

37. Ahmayuddin bin Ahmad
$140 million
50. Married, 4 children

Board member, along with colleague G. Gnanalingam (No. 29) of Westports, Malaysia's largest privately owned port. Also has stakes in pencilmaker Pelikan, logistics firm Konsortium Logistiks.

38. Hamdan Mohamad
$135 million
51. Married, 2 children

Runs infrastructure and engineering conglomerate Ranhill Group. Its Ranhill Utilities is one of the country's biggest water suppliers. More than half of Ranhill Group's sales are outside of Malaysia. Current projects include housing contract to build 10,000 apartments in Tripoli and hydropower plant in Pakistan. Avid polo player.

39. Khoo Kay Peng
$130 million

Through his MUI conglomerate has interests in about 10 public companies. Most valuable holding is British retailer Laura Ashley, which he chairs. MUI started out as maker of toothbrushes and household items in 1960.

40. Kasi K.L. Palaniappan
$127 million
49.

Former architect and university professor founded MK Land with Mustapha Kamal Abu Bakar. Took over as managing director and acting chief executive in April; share price subsequently doubled.

Additional reporting by Megha Bahree, Jennifer Ellson & Suzanne Nam.

Control of Your Finances: Invest in Your Future

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Kenapa Anda Lambat Dapat Jodoh?

Ramai diantara kita yang masih belum berkahwin dan masih tercari-cari. Mengapakah ini terjadi? Kenapakah tiada yang berminat dengan kita? Fakta-fakta yang akan dipaparkan dibawah agak brutal dan straight to the point. Sesiapa yang terasa dan tersinggung harap maaf. Tetapi inilah hakikatnya mengapa anda lambat JODOH, sama ada anda mahu terima atau tidak.

10 FAKTA BRUTAL KENAPA ANDA LAMBAT JODOH

- Anda ingat diri anda terlalu cun atau segak oleh itu anda selalu memilih dan menantikan kekasih hati dan teman yang cun dan menawan. Bila ada calon, tetapi tidak cun, anda menolak!!
- Anda sentiasa menunggu tanpa cuba berusaha memperluaskan lingkungan kenalan anda.
- Sikap anda yang prejudis terhadap golongan “opposite sex”
- Anda sudah putus harap kerana peristiwa silam yang lalu dan malas melayan kerenah lelaki atau perempuan lagi..fokus anda adalah pada karier anda sahaja!
- Jodoh anda sudah mati!
- Anda tersesat dalam hutan dan tiada siapa lagi di situ kecuali rakan anda yang sejenis dan anda bukanlah gay atau lesbian..hehe..
- Anda disihir supaya jodoh anda tidak lekat.
- Sikap anda yang kurang romantis dan membosankan.
- Badan anda berbau dan baju, rambut anda tidak terurus!
- Anda jarang keluar rumah dan terlalu malu untuk berkawan!
- Anda tak mau bermadu

Yang paling penting, jangan cuba-cuba mencari minyak pengasih, minyak dagu atau menggunakan ilmu hitam kerana semuanya itu adalah syirik.

p/s - dipetik dari syokkawin.com

The Qur’an guarantees Freedom of Expression, so Free Raja Petra and all ISA detainees


We read the statement issued by the Home Minister concerning the detention of Raja Petra Kamaruddin under the dreaded and inhumane Internal Security Act (ISA) with skepticism. According to the Home Minister, Raja Petra was detained because his articles ridiculed Islam. One is now left to wonder whether Islam itself allows such detention without trial in order to protect its sanctity from being ridiculed by people, the likes of Raja Petra.

We would like to stress the fact that there is ample evidence in the Qur’an which guarantees freedom of expression (hurriyat ar-ra’iy) that is generally accepted as a subset of freedom of speech (hurriyat al-qaul). Individuals should be able to accept or reject a particular faith or dogma on the basis of personal conviction, and that no amount of external pressure or compulsion should be permitted. The cardinal Qur’anic doctrine is that: “There shall be no coercion in matters of faith” [2:256]

Every single person has the right, guaranteed by the Qur’an, to freely follow and express his convictions, irrespective of whether he is right or wrong. By emphasizing people’s right to follow their conviction, the Qur’an reiterates a long standing position, which it traces back to one of the earliest known Prophets, Noah: “Said [Noah]: O my people! What do you think? If [it be true that] I am taking my stand on a clear evidence from my Sustainer, who has vouched safe unto me grace from himself – [a revelation] to which you have remained blind-: [if this be true] can we force it on you even though it be hateful to you?”[11:28]

The message of freedom of belief and conviction, and the call to religious tolerance is reiterated time and again through various Prophets,as it is quite apparent in the message of Prophet Shu’ayb to his people: “And if there be some among you who have come to believe in the message which I bear, while the others do not believe, then have patience in adversity till God shall judge between us [and them]: for He is the best of all judges!” [7:87]

Not only does the Qur’an recognise the individual’s right to freedom of conviction, but it also recognises his/her moral freedom to act on the basis of their conviction: “Say: O my [truth-denying] people! Do ye all that may be within your power, [whereas] I, behold, shall labour [in God’s way]: in time you will come to know who it is that shall be visited [in this world] by suffering which will cover him with ignominy, and upon whom long-lasting suffering shall alight [in the life to come]!” [39: 39-40].

Indeed, one cannot find in the Qur’an any support for the internment or incarceration for those who opted to follow their conscience, even though their convictions might be contrary to the mainstream idea, or even up to the level of “heretical” in nature. Using Islam as a “tool” to justify detention without trial is anathema to the basic principles of “adl” (just) and “ihsan” (benevolence) that formed the foundation of Islamic jurisprudence. Such cowardly act of invoking ISA every time when there were dissenting views against the authoritarian government and their despotic ulama’ will not augur well for the future of free and democratic Malaysia.

One is then left to speculate whether such actions were in reality meant to maintain the political hegemony of the ruling elite and that we are actually gravitating towards the creation of a police state instead.

If one were to look back into history,the reason the Islamic world flourished during the earlier period was an early emphasis on “freedom of speech”, as summarized by al-Hasyimi (a cousin of Caliph al-Ma’mun) in the following letter to one of the religious opponents he was attempting to convert through reason:

“Bring forward all the arguments you wish and say whatever you please and speak your mind freely. Now that you are safe and free to say whatever you please, appoint some arbitrator who will impartially judge between us and lean only towards the truth and be free from the slyness of passion and that arbitrator shall be Reason, whereby God makes us responsible for our own rewards and punishments. Herein I have dealt justly with you and have given you full security and am ready to accept whatever decision Reason may give for me or against me. For “There shall be no coercion in matters of faith” [2: 256] and I have only invited you to accept our faith willingly and of your own accord and have pointed out the hideousness of your present belief. Peace be with you and the blessings of God!”

We, from Muslim Professionals Forum, believe that this is the recourse that should be taken by the government in handling issues pertaining to Raja Petra in particular. By resorting to intellectual discourse, any differences in opinions or interpretations could be ironed out in a civilized manner. We therefore call upon the Prime Minister of Malaysia, to release Raja Petra unconditionally, and all the other ISA detainees for that matter. We also call upon the Prime Minister to abolish this draconian Act that clearly violates the basic human rights that were enshrined in the Qur’an ever since.

Dr Farouk Musa

Dr Sheik Johari Bux

Dr Jeffrey Hassan

Dr Musa Nordin

Dr Mazeni Alwi

Haji Ali Ghazali

Muslim Professionals Forum(MPF)

Movie Review - The Truman Show


The Truman Show is a 1998 fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Peter Weir and written by Andrew Niccol. The cast includes Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank, as well as Laura Linney, Noah Emmerich, Ed Harris and Natascha McElhone. The film chronicles the life of a man who does not know that he is living in a constructed reality soap opera, televised 24/7 to billions across the globe.

The genesis of The Truman Show started out as a spec script by Niccol. The original draft was more in tone of a science fiction thriller, with the story set in New York City. Scott Rudin purchased the script, and instantly set the project up at Paramount Pictures. Brian de Palma was in contention to direct before Weir took over, managing to make the film for $60 million against the estimated $80 million budget. Niccol rewrote the script simultaneously as the filmmakers were waiting for Carrey's schedule to be open for filming. The majority of filming took place at Seaside, Florida, a master-planned community located in the Florida Panhandle.

The film was a financial and critical success, and Paramount's marketing approach for the film was similar to Forrest Gump. The Truman Show earned numerous nominations at the 71st Academy Awards, 56th Golden Globe Awards, 52nd British Academy Film Awards and The Saturn Awards. The Truman Show has been analyzed as a thesis on Christianity, simulated reality and existentialism. Many have noted the film predicted the rise of reality television.

Plot
The film is set in a hypothetical world, called Seahaven, where an entire town is dedicated to a continually running television show. All of the participants are actors, except for Truman Burbank, who is unaware that he lives in a constructed reality for the entertainment of those outside. Central characters simulate friendship to Truman, and in the case of his "wife", bury their real feelings of disgust with the whole concept of the show.

Truman was chosen out of five unwanted babies to be a TV star, whereupon film producer Christof ordered built a gigantic studio to encapsulate Seahaven, the artificial town in which Truman lives, believing himself to be part of a genuine neighborhood. To prevent Truman from trying to escape, his father is "killed" in a staged boating incident so as to make Truman afraid of water. Because Seahaven appears to be an island, this fear removes Truman's every chance of escape. Despite Truman's staged relationship with his wife Meryl, he desires to meet and perhaps court the scene-extra called Sylvia, who was removed from the cast by the producers while trying to explain to Truman the true nature of his life. In the thirtieth year of his life, Truman begins to realize the unrealistic routine of his world and tries to escape Seahaven.

Along his path to truth and escape Truman encounters obstacles placed in his way, including choreographed traffic jams, the inability to arrange any trips, buying a bus ticket out of town where the bus suddenly breaks down, a long bridge to cross, a non-existent nuclear meltdown, and an artificially created hurricane on the "ocean". He finally reaches the edge of the constructed reality and exits via a door in the wall, cheered on by an audience of millions as he embarks on an unscripted and hopeful future. Sylvia, the actress who played Lauren Garland, is seen rushing out of her apartment. Executives cancel the show while audiences everywhere change the channel.


[edit] Cast
Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank: Chosen out of five unwanted pregnancies and the first child to be legally adopted by a corporation. He is unaware that his daily life is broadcast 24-hours-a-day around the world. He has a job in insurance business and a lovely wife, but eventually notices the environment is not what it usually seems. Robin Williams was considered for the role, but Weir cast Carrey after seeing him in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, because his performance reminded him of Charlie Chaplin.[1] Carrey took the opportunity to proclaim himself as a dramatic actor, rather than being typecast in comedic roles.[2] Carrey, who is normally paid $20 million per film, agreed to do The Truman Show for $12 million.[3] Carrey and Weir initially found working together on set difficult (Carrey's contract gave him the power to demand rewrites), but Weir was impressed with Carrey's improvisational skills, and the two became more interactive.[1] The scene wherein Truman declares "this planet Trumania of the Burbank galaxy" to the bathroom mirror was Carrey's idea.[4]
Laura Linney as Hannah Gill / Meryl Burbank: Truman's "wife", who holds a profession as a nurse at the local hospital. She daily expresses product placements, one of the many occurrences making Truman curious about his life. Her role is essentially to act the part of Truman's wife and ultimately to have a child by him, despite her reluctance to accomplish either. Linney explained that, "she was a child actress who never made it, and now she's really ambitious. Mostly she's into negotiating her contract. Every time she sleeps with Truman she gets an extra $10,000"[1]. Linney heavily studied Sears catalogs from the 1950s to develop her character's poses.[5]
Noah Emmerich as Louis Coltrane / Marlon: Truman's best friend since early childhood. Marlon is a vending machine operator for the company Goodies, who promises Truman he would never lie to him, despite the latest events in Truman's life. Emmerich felt, "My character is in a lot of pain. He feels really guilty about deceiving Truman. He's had a serious drug addiction for many years. Been in and out of rehab"[1].
Ed Harris as Christof: The creator of The Truman Show, who rarely feels any empathy or compassion for his star. Christof remains dedicated to the program at all costs, often overseeing and directing its course in person (rather than through aides), but at the climax/resolution spoke to Truman over a loudspeaker, revealing the nature of Truman's situation. Dennis Hopper was originally cast in the role, but he left in April 1997 (during filming) because of "creative differences". Harris was a last minute replacement.[3] A number of other actors had turned down the role after Hopper's departure.[4] Harris had an idea of making Christof a hunchback, but Weir did not like the idea.[1]
Natascha McElhone as Sylvia / Lauren Garland: A scene-extra who became romantically involved with Truman, and tried to reveal to him the truth about his life, but was arrested and thrown out of the show before she could tell him. Thereafter, she protests against The Truman Show, urging Christof to release its lead.
Brian Delate as Walter Moore / Kirk: An actor who portrays Truman's father. When Truman was a boy, he was killed off to instill a fear of water in his son that would prevent Truman from leaving the set; however, he sneaks back into the show when Truman is an adult, whereupon the writers are forced to write a plot in which Kirk had not drowned, but had suffered from amnesia.
Holland Taylor as Alanis Montclair / Angela Burbank: Truman's mother. Christof orders that she attempt to convince Truman to have children.
Harry Shearer cameos as Mike Michaelson, news anchor host of TruTalk, an affiliate of The Truman Show. Paul Giamatti, who was at the time a publicly unknown actor, plays a control room director. Peter Krause portrays Truman's boss at his office.


[edit] Production
The genesis of The Truman Show started out as a spec script by Andrew Niccol. The original draft was more in tone of a science fiction thriller, with the story set in New York City.[5] Niccol stated, "I think everyone questions the authenticity of their lives at certain points. It's like when kids ask if they're adopted."[6]. In the fall of 1993,[7] producer Scott Rudin purchased the script for slightly above $1 million.[8] Paramount Pictures instantly agreed to distribute. Part of the deal called for Niccol to have his directing debut, though Paramount felt the estimated $80 million budget would be too high for him.[9] In addition, Paramount wanted to go with an A-list director, paying Niccol extra money "to step aside". Brian de Palma was under negotiations to direct before he left United Talent Agency in March 1994.[7] Directors being considered after de Palma's departure included Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, Barry Sonnenfeld and Steven Spielberg before Peter Weir signed on in early-1995,[1] following a recommendation of Niccol.[6]

Paramount was cautious about The Truman Show, which they dubbed "the most expensive art film ever made" because of its $60 million budget. They wanted the film to be funnier and less dramatic.[1] Weir also shared this vision, feeling that Niccol's script was too dark, and declaring "where he [Niccol] had it depressing, I could make it light. It could convince audiences they could watch a show in this scope 24/7." Niccol wrote sixteen drafts of the script before Weir considered the script ready for filming. Later on in 1995, Jim Carrey signed to star,[5] but due to commitments with The Cable Guy and Liar Liar, he would not be ready to start filming for at least another year.[1] Weir felt Carrey was perfect for the role and opted to wait for another year rather than recast the role.[5] Niccol rewrote the script twelve times,[1] while Weir created a fictionalized book about the show's history. He envisioned backstories for the characters, and encouraged actors to do the same.[5]

Weir scouted locations in Eastern Florida, but was unsatisfied with the landscapes. Sound stages at Universal Studios were reserved for the story's setting of Seahaven before Weir's wife introduced him to Seaside, Florida, a master-planned community located in the Florida Panhandle. Pre-production offices were instantly opened in Seaside, where the majority of filming took place. Other scenes were shot at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California.[4] Norman Rockwell paintings and 1960s postcards were used as inspiration for the film's design.[10][11] Weir, Peter Biziou and Dennis Gassner researched surveillance techniques for certain shots.[10]

Weir saw The Truman Show as a chance to utilize the long-abandoned silent-era cinematic technique of vignetting the edges of the frame to emphasize the center. The overall look was influenced by television images, particularly commercials: many shots have characters leaning into the lens with their eyeballs wide open and the interior scenes are heavily lit, because Weir wanted to remind that "in this world, everything was for sale".[10] Those involved in visual effects work found the film somewhat difficult to make, because 1997 was the year many visual effects companies were trying to convert to computer-generated imagery.[11] CGI was used to create the upper halves of some of the larger buildings in the film's downtown set. Craig Barron, one of the effects supervisors, said that these digital models did not have to look as detailed and weathered as they normally would in a film because of the artificial look of the entire town, although they did imitate slight blemishes found in the physical buildings.[12]


[edit] Soundtrack
The Truman Show

Soundtrack by Burkhard Dallwitz
Phillip Glass
Released 1998
Genre Soundtrack
Length 56:32
Label Milan Records
Professional reviews
Score Reviews link

The original music for The Truman Show was composed by Burkhard Dallwitz. Dallwitz was hired after Peter Weir received a tape of his work while in Australia for the post-production.[13] Some parts of the soundtrack were composed by Philip Glass, including four pieces which appeared in his previous works (Powaqqatsi, Anima Mundi, and Mishima). Glass also appears very briefly in the film as one of the in-studio composer/performers.

Also featured in the film are Frederic Chopin's "Romance-Larghetto" from his first piano concerto, performed by Artur Rubinstein, Wojciech Kilar's "Father Kolbe's Preaching" performed by the Orchestra Philharmonique National de Pologne and "20th Century Boy" performed by Rockabilly band The Big Six.

[show]Track listing
"Trutalk" – 1:18
"It's a Life" – 1:30
"Aquaphobia" – 0:40
"Dreaming of Fiji" – 1:54
"Flashback" – 1:19
"Anthem - Part 2" – 3:50
"The Beginning" – 4:06
"Romance-Larghetto" – 10:42
"Drive" – 3:34
"Underground" – 0:56
"Do Something!" – 0:44
"Living Waters" – 3:48
"Reunion" – 2:26
"Truman Sleeps" – 1:51
"Truman Sets Sail" – 1:55
"Underground/Storm" – 3:37
"Raising the Sail" – 2:13
"Father Kolbe's Preaching" – 2:26
"Opening" – 2:14
"A New Life" – 1:58
"20th Century Boy" – 3:07



[edit] Themes
See also: Religious perspectives on Jesus, Simulated reality, Existentialism, and Allegory of the cave

[edit] Religious analogy
Benson Parkinson of Association for Mormon Letters noted that Christof represented Jesus as an "off-Christ" (Christ-off), or Antichrist. Parkinson further explained that Christof can be translated into Satan as megalomaniacal Hollywood producer. Truman and Sylvia are the only characters who use their real names on the show, which is to say their real names are also stage names.[14] Truman's search of evidence for the truth can be compared to a common man's opinion of life. Christof is willing to manipulate and use Truman for commercial gain, just like producers and directors are sometimes to use up their creative people, then discard them. A conversation between Truman and Marlon at the bridge was compared to one with Moses and God in the Bible.[14]


[edit] Media
"This was a dangerous film to make because it couldn't happen. How ironic."
—Director Peter Weir on The Truman Show predicting the rise of reality television[4]
In 2008, Popular Mechanics named The Truman Show as one of the ten most prophetic science fiction films. Journalist Erik Sofge argued the story reflects the falseness of reality television. "Truman simply lives, and the show's popularity is its straightforward voyeurism. And, like Big Brother, Survivor, and every other reality show on the air, none of his environment is actually real." While he deemed Big Brother debuting a year after the film's release an eerie coincidence, he also compared it to the 2003 program The Joe Schmo Show; "Unlike Truman, Matt Gould could see the cameras, but all of the other contestants were paid actors, playing the part of various reality-show stereotypes. While Matt eventually got all of the prizes in the rigged contest, the show's central running joke was in the same existential ballpark as The Truman Show."[15] Weir declared, "There has always been this question: is the audience getting dumber? Or are we film- makers patronizing them? Is this what they want? Or is this what we're giving them? But the public went to my film in large numbers. And that has to be encouraging."[6]

Ronald Bishop of Sage Journals Online felt The Truman Show showcased the power of the media. Truman's life inspires audiences around the world, meaning their lives are controlled by his. Bishop commented, "In the end, the power of the media is affirmed rather than challenged. In the spirit of Antonio Gramsci's concept of hegemony, these films and television programs co-opt our enchantment (and disenchantment) with the media and sell it back to us."[16]


[edit] Psychological interpretation
An essay published in the International Journal of Psychoanalysis analyzed Truman as a prototypical adolescent at the beginning of the movie. He feels trapped into a familial and social world to which he tries to conform while being unable to entirely identify with it, believing that he has no other choice (other than through the fantasy of fleeing to a deserted island). Eventually, Truman gains sufficient awareness of his condition to 'leave home' – developing a more mature and authentic identity as a man, leaving his child-self behind and becoming a True-man.[17]


[edit] Utopia
Parallels can be drawn from Thomas More's Utopia where he describes an island with only one way entrance and one exit. Also, only those who belonged to this island knew how to navigate their way through the treacherous opening safely and unharmed. This is similar to the The Truman Show because there are limited entryways into the world that Truman knows. Truman does not belong to this utopia which he has been implanted in and childhood trauma rendered him frightened at the prospect of ever leaving this small community. Utopian models of the past tended to be full of like minded individuals who had a lot in common, which is comparable to More's Utopia and real-life groups like the Shakers and the Oneida Community. It is clear that everyone in Truman's world is like minded in the fact that they were all working to keep him oblivious to what was really going on. It is important to notice the 1950s suburban "picket fence" appearance of the show's set, reminiscent of The "American Dream" of the 1950s when everyone who worked hard could enjoy their own home and have a family. The "American Dream" suburban concept in Truman's world serves two functions; keeping him happy and ignorant.[18]


[edit] Release

[edit] Reaction
The Truman Show's original theatrical release date was August 8, 1998, but Paramount Pictures considered pushing it back to around Christmas.[19] NBC purchased broadcast rights in December 1997, roughly eight months before the film's release.[20] In March 2000, Turner Broadcasting System purchased the rights and now often airs the film on TBS.[21]

Paramount's marketing approach for The Truman Show was similar to the one employed for Forrest Gump.[6] The film opened in the United States on June 5, 1998, earning $31,542,121 in its opening weekend. It eventually became a financial success, grossing $125,618,201 in North America, and $138,500,000 in foreign countries, coming at a total of $264,118,201.[22] The Truman Show was the eleventh-highest grossing film of 1998.[23]

Based on 83 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, The Truman Show received an average 95% overall approval rating;[24] with a unanimous and highly rare 100% with 17 critics in Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics" poll.[25] By comparison, Metacritic gave the film an average score of 90 from the 30 reviews collected.[26] Roger Ebert felt the film had a right balance of comedy and drama, comparing it to Forrest Gump. He was also impressed with Jim Carrey's dramatic performance.[27] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The Truman Show is emotionally involving without losing the ability to raise sharp satiric questions as well as get numerous laughs. The rare film that is disturbing despite working beautifully within standard industry norms."[28]

James Berardinelli liked the film's approach of "not being the casual summer blockbuster with special effects", and compared Carrey's performance to Tom Hanks and James Stewart.[29] Jonathan Rosenbaum of the Chicago Reader wrote, "Undeniably provocative and reasonably entertaining, The Truman Show is one of those high-concept movies whose concept is both clever and dumb."[30] Tom Meek of Film Threat said the film was not funny enough, but found "something rewarding in its quirky demeanor".[31] Fernando F. Croce of Slant Magazine described The Truman Show as highly "overrated, definitely not the-movie-of-the-decade as so many have claimed".[32]


[edit] Awards
At the 71st Academy Awards, The Truman Show was nominated for three categories, but failed to convert any of them into awards. Peter Weir received the nomination for Best Director while Ed Harris was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Andrew Niccol was nominated for Best Original Screenplay.[33] Many believed Carrey would be nominated for Best Actor, but this did not occur.[1] In contrast, the film was an outstanding success at the 56th Golden Globe Awards. Carrey (Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama), Harris (Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture) and Burkhard Dallwitz and Philip Glass (Best Original Score) all won their respective categories. In addition The Truman Show received the nomination for Best Motion Picture - Drama, while Weir (Director - Motion Picture) and Niccol (Screenplay) received nominations.[34]

At the 52nd British Academy Film Awards, Weir (Direction), Niccol (Original Screenplay) and Dennis Gassner (Production Design) received awards. In addition, the film was nominated for Best Film and Best Visual Effects. Harris was nominated for Best Supporting Actor while Peter Biziou was nominated for Best Cinematography.[35] The Truman Show was a success at The Saturn Awards with Best Fantasy Film and Best Writing (Niccol). Carrey (Best Actor), Harris (Best Supporting Actor) and Weir (Direction) received nominations.[36] The film won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.[37

Tabligh - Seruan Ke Jalan Yang Benar

Orang Tabligh,
Lari!!Larii! Orang Tabligh dtg,
Yg tadi ramai,sekelip mata je dah ilang,
Yg td segar bugar dah tido terlentang,
Yg sakit kaki pun bleh terjun tingkap lari lintang pukang,
Heh..betul la kata orang,
Nak ajak manusia pada Allah bukannya keje senang.

Orang Tabligh,
Ajak keluar khuruj,
bukannya nanti x pulang,
Yg baru dapat gaji pun kata xde duit,
nak bayar hutang,
Yg tadi sihat pun tiba2 migrain plak datang,
Yg menganggur pun buat2 sibuk bukan kepalang,
Heh, dakwah ni takat cakap je mmg la senang,
Cuba buat, mmg nak kena sabar,nak kena tenang,
Lain la kalau ajak pada dunia, bondong2 org dtg.

Orang Tabligh,
Lorong ke lorong,
hati ke hati,
pintu ke pintu,
Jumpe sumer orang tak pilih bulu,
Dari ustaz sampai le kutu,
Sume nak ditemu,
Nak diajak pd Allah yg satu.

Orang Tabligh,
Jalan bawak periuk belanga,
Dipandang org takat sebelah mata,
Dituduh jahil,tinggal dunia perkara biasa,
Walaupun kekadang pedih gak telinga,
Nabi dulu2 pun kan selalu kena,
Dituduh dusta, dipanggil gila,
Itu Nabi, apatah lagi kita,
Yg banyak salah,yg banyak dosa,
Takpe2, Allah kan ada,
Yg Maha Mengetahui,
yg mana intan, yg mana kaca.

Orang Tabligh,
Kekadang buat silap...adat la manusia,
Mmg tgh nak belajar2 tiru sahabat(r. anhum) yg dah terbukti berjaya,
Terpancung, terlaser..sori,bukannya sengaja,
Nak dapat hikmah dlm berdakwah mmg amik masa,
Kena keluar lagi dan lagi la nampaknya.

Orang Tabligh,
Ada kat mana2,Kat US, Afrika, kat Israel pun ada,
Dari petani, engineer, sampai la Raja,
Pelbagai adat, perangai beza2,
Tapi bleh makan dlm dulang yg sama,
Bila keluar jemaah sumer dilayan serupa,
Bila nak berpisah..isk2. .kluar plak air mata.

Orang Tabligh,
Nak hidupkan sunnah Nabi,
Janggut, jubah,seluar atas buku lali,
Kalau nak diikutkan, mmg ader byk lagi,
Kekadang tu kena gak perli,
"Kita skang kan di zaman IT""Tak main la sunnah2 nih!"
Jgn la mcm tu bang, kita kan nanti mati,
Kang menyesal esok, sapa yg rugi?Kan diri sendiri..

Orang Tabligh,
Manusia biasa, ada hati,
Sedih bila diperli,sakit bila dimaki,
Bila tinggalkan rumah, rindukan famili,
Kalau nak ikutkan hati, mmg nak dok rumah,
bergurau dgn bini,Or ajak anak main lari2,
Or layan PS2 sampai pagi,
Tapi untuk mengejar kebahagiaan abadi,
Kena korban lagi dan lagi,
Yela..hidup ni kan cuma sekali,
Kalau sekang tak buat jyunbi(persiapan) ,
bila lagi?

Orang Tabligh,
Malam2 doa hidayat,
Fikir risau,camne nak selamatkan umat,
Supaya di akhirat suk semua selamat,
Orang skang ingat hidayat bleh senang2 dapat,
Tak perlu susah2,tak perlu keringat,
N tak mau plak jumpe masyarakat,
Just bz buat ibadat,
Kalau camtu xde la kita ni "The Best Ummat".

Orang Tabligh,
"Apsal la ulama India yg jadik ikutan??
"Mmmm...kan Nabi dulu dah pesan,
Sape saja yg bawak kebenaran,
Tak kisah la orang Arab ke bukan,
Sume kena bagi sokongan,
Yg Allah pandang bukan luaran tapi kan Iman,
Bab mazhab jgn bimbang still sendiri punye pegangan,
So x jadik masalah la kan?

Orang Tabligh,
Ajak keluar 3 hari,"I can't go..sorry!"
Yg dah kawin tak nak berenggang dgn isteri,
Yg si isteri mati2 tak nak suami dia pergi,
Berderai2 air mata keluar mcm air pili,
"Kalau abg nak gi jugak, antar saya blik kampung esok pagi!!
"Heh, org laki mmg lemah bab air mata nih,
Si suami pun letak balik beg,tak jadik pergi,
Yg td josh(bersemangat) tak ingat pon,
jadik lemah seluruh sendi,
Kes2 camni mmg byk terjadi,
Bleh tgk dgn mata kepala sendiri,
Tp kalau bab dunia(cth:kursus naik pangkat),"
"no prob.,anytime kamiready!
"Si isteri lambai pemergian suami dgn wajah berseri2,
Hey, of course la, nanti husband I dpt naik gaji,
Wife mana la yg tak happy,
Heh..ni la realiti,Bab dunia,
tak yah diajak pun semua pakat2 reti,
Bab akhirat, masing2 buat x kesah,x amik peduli,
Ya Allah selamatkan lah kami!

Orang Tabligh,
Bukan nak takhta,
harta, ataupun kuasa,
Atau nak berlagak mcm dah tera,
Tak jugak nak kafirkan sape2,
Atau sibuk2 pergi mintak derma,
Cuma nak amalkan agama yg sempurna,
Dgn korbankan sendiri punya diri,duit dan masa,
Nak selamatkan manusia kesemuanya,
Dari kena masuk neraka,
Nak supaya Allah redha,
masukkan kita dlm syurgaNya,Itu saja...

Orang tabligh,
Seluruh dunia...naik kapalterbang. ..pakai selipar jepun sahaje...
Ikhlas,..no sponsor....no subsidy.....passport penuh cop many countries..
Ade yang kerja tukang kebun sahaja...nak tanya nafkah batin?
Balik dari keluar, macam pengantin baru...
sama seperti balik dari fardhu haji........ ..
Sayangkan bini tingal-tinggalkan. ..
sayangkan anak...rotan digantungkan. .....
sunnah nabi...bukan untuk mendera...
speed limit sahaja...
kenapa sibuk dakwah orang..
keluarga, anak isteri belum betul lagi..
Nabi Nuh A.S. , anak isteri tak mau ikut...
kalau Nabi Nuh ikut teoritersebut,
tak naik bahteralah jadiknye...
Abu Jahal bapa saudara Nabi Muhammad SAW tak mau ikut..
Kalau Nabi Muhammad SAW ikut teori tersebut...
tak buat dakwahlah Nabi....
tak sampailah Islam ke M'sia ni...

Orang Tabligh,
Selekehkah, tak de ilmu,compang camping kah, berbaulah..
itu mungkin segelintir & cerita lama agaknya.
You can't blame the teachers.
You have to blame the distortions andignorance of their followers.
Balighuanni walau ayah...
Saidina Abu Bakarreceived the first kalimat terus buat dakwah...
if he waits tunggu complete ilmu,
he will not be top performers after Nabi Muhammad SAW.
Global politic & economy with no borders & chauvinism,
M'sian, New Yorkers & Palestinians
duduk makan satu talam in Nizamuddin.. ...

Prison Break - My Favourite TV Drama



Prison Break is an American serial drama television series that premiered on the Fox Broadcasting Company on August 29 2005. The story revolves around a man who was sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit and his brother's elaborate plan to help him escape his death sentence. Created by Paul Scheuring, the show is produced by Adelstein-Parouse Productions in association with Original Television and 20th Century Fox Television. The current executive producers are Paul Scheuring, Matt Olmstead, Kevin Hooks, Marty Adelstein, Dawn Parouse, Neal Moritz and Brett Ratner.[1] Its theme music is composed by Ramin Djawadi, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2006.[2]

The show, currently in its third season, was originally only planned to run for two seasons. [3] The uniqueness of Prison Break is attributed to its serialized story structure, a similar format used by Lost and 24, and to its setting, as very few television series were primarily set and filmed in a prison. [4] Its success and recognition as a prison drama revived interest in the genre.[5]


Production

Conception
The original concept of Prison Break—a man deliberately getting himself sent to prison in order to help someone else escape—was suggested to Paul Scheuring by producer Dawn Parouse, who wanted to produce an action-oriented series. Although Scheuring thought it was a good idea, he was initially stumped as to why someone would embark on such a mission or how he could develop it into a viable television show. He came up with the story of the wrongfully accused brother, and began working on the plot outline and devising the characters. In 2003, he pitched the idea to the Fox Broadcasting Company but was turned down as Fox felt nervous about the long-term possibilities of such a series. He subsequently showed the concept to other channels but was also turned down as it was thought to be more suited for a film project than a television series.[6] Prison Break was later considered as a possible 14-part miniseries, which drew the interest of Steven Spielberg before his departure due to his involvement with War of the Worlds. Thus, the miniseries never materialized. Following the huge popularity of serialized prime time television series such as Lost and 24, the Fox Network had a change of heart and backed the production in 2004.[7] The pilot episode was filmed a year after Scheuring wrote the script and five months later, the show was picked up as a series.[8]


Casting
The premiere had eight major speaking roles with star billing. The casting process for the role of Michael Scofield, one of the series' protagonists, began several weeks before production. In an interview, Paul Scheuring recalled that most of the actors who tested for the role "would come in playing mysterious, but it was so cheesy and false."[9] A week before the start of production, Wentworth Miller auditioned for the role and impressed Scheuring with his performance; he was cast the following day.[10]

Dominic Purcell was cast three days before the start of production and consequently, he was the last actor to join the original cast.[10] Purcell auditioned for the role of Lincoln Burrows, a death-row inmate and the brother of Michael Scofield, while he had a recurring role as Tommy Ravetto on North Shore. Since working on John Doe, Purcell has had an amiable relationship with Fox. Hence, he was sent the pilot script of Prison Break.[6] At first, Scheuring thought Purcell was "too much of a pretty boy" after he went to the audition with his hair styled and a tan. However, Purcell won the role and arrived on the set on the first day of filming with a shaved head, which amazed Scheuring with the physical likeness of the series' two leading actors.[9]

Upon receiving the pilot script, Amaury Nolasco's first thought was that it was "one of those failed pilots that the network didn't really want" since most of the series pilots would have started production by that time. Admitting that he doesn't like to read, Nolasco was amazed that the script was a "huge page-turner". Prior to his last audition for the role of Fernando Sucre, Nolasco recalled his nervousness, which grew when Paul Scheuring told him that he was their favourite choice. Subsequently, he was cast in the role.[11]

After reading the pilot script, Wade Williams initially did not want to portray the role of Brad Bellick because the character was "horrible and despicable". His reluctance stemmed from being the father of a four-year-old daughter. However, his manager persuaded him to audition for the role and Williams landed the role of Bellick. He has received many plaudits for his on screen performances.

Sarah Wayne Callies was the first actress the producers saw at the audition for the role of Sara Tancredi[10] and was also the first to become a principal cast member.[12] After her final audition at the 20th Century Fox lot, Callies came back outside to find that she had left her keys in the ignition inside her locked car. While she waited for the AAA to arrive, she received a call from her agent that she had been cast.[11]

The remaining original cast included Robin Tunney, Marshall Allman, and Peter Stormare, who were cast as Veronica Donovan, L. J. Burrows, and John Abruzzi respectively.


Music
The theme music of Prison Break and the incidental music of each episode are composed by Ramin Djawadi. In France, rapper Faf Larage's song, "Pas Le Temps" is used by television network M6 to replace the show's original theme music in the title sequence, which generated publicity and helped to localize the show.[13] Similarly, "Ich Glaub an Dich (Prison Break Anthem)" (performed by Azad and Adel Tawil) and "Prison Break Anthem" (performed by Kaye Styles) are used in the title sequence in Germany and Belgium respectively.


Broadcast history
The first season of Prison Break premiered on the Fox Network in the United States on August 29 2005 at 9:00 pm ET and went on hiatus on November 28 2005. After the show resumed on March 20 2006, it was moved to an earlier timeslot to 8:00 pm ET, followed by 24. Season 1 reached its completion on May 15 2006. The second season was aired from August 21, 2006 to April 2 2007 while retaining its Monday 8:00 pm ET timeslot. The first 17 minutes of the season three premiere was made available online for streaming by Fox on August 24 2007 and was subsequently posted on various television media websites. [14] The third season premiered on September 17 2007 and airs in its previous Monday 8:00 pm ET timeslot on Fox. Season one initially premiered in the UK on Channel 4, but due to poor viewer ratings the programme rights were sold to Five who repeated the series from the very start. As its popularity grew, in the fall of 2007 Five sold the viewing rights to Sky One for a reported £1,000,000. Season 3 started on Monday 17th September 2007.[15]


Filming locations
The majority of the first season of Prison Break was filmed on location in Chicago.[16] After it was closed down in 2002, Joliet Prison became the set of Prison Break in 2005, and was immortalized as Fox River State Penitentiary on screen. Scenes set in Lincoln's cell, the infirmary and the prison yard were all shot on location at the prison.[17] Lincoln's cell is the same one that John Wayne Gacy was incarcerated in. Most of the production crew refused to enter the cell, thinking that it was haunted.[16] The cells that housed the general prison population were specially built with three tiers whereas the actual cells located in Joliet Prison only had two tiers and were smaller.[17] Exterior scenes were filmed in areas around Chicago, Woodstock, and Joliet in Illinois. Other locations included O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and Toronto, Ontario in Canada. Prison Break spent $2 million per episode in the state of Illinois, which cost them a total of $24 million in 2005.[16]

Renewed for a second season, Prison Break resumed filming on June 15 2006 in Dallas, Texas due to the close proximity of rural and urban settings.[18] Locations within a 30-minute radius of Dallas were chosen which included Little Elm, Decatur and Mineral Wells.[19] Many of these locations were used to represent various American towns.[20] For the final three episodes of the second season, filming took place in Pensacola, Florida to represent Panama.[21] Each episode takes eight days to film and approximately $1.4 million goes to the local economy per episode.[22] The show is expected to spend in excess of $50 million in Dallas.[23]


Plot
Main article: List of Prison Break episodes
Promotional photo of Michael Scofield and Lincoln Burrows.Season 1 consists of 22 episodes. Lincoln Burrows is accused of the murder of Terrence Steadman, who is the brother of the Vice President of the United States. With strong evidence supporting the charges of first degree murder and aggravated discharge of a firearm against him, Lincoln is sentenced to death and is sent to the Fox River State Penitentiary to await his execution. Lincoln's brother, Michael Scofield, is convinced of Lincoln's innocence and hatches an escape plan. After installing himself at Fox River, time works against Michael as he must overcome various obstacles and make the right connections among the inmates and prison staff to be successful in breaking out his brother. The protagonists are aided by their lifelong friend Veronica Donovan, who begins to investigate the conspiracy that put Lincoln in jail. However, they are hindered by covert agents, who belong to an organization known as The Company.

Season 2 consists of 22 episodes and directly follows from the first season finale. It begins eight hours after the prison escape from Fox River State Penitentiary, focusing mainly on the escapees. New characters are introduced, including federal agent Alexander Mahone, who is assigned to track down and capture the eight escapees. Series creator Paul Scheuring describes the second season as "The Fugitive times eight" and likens it to the "second half of The Great Escape".[23] The fugitives journey to locations across America with the authorities close behind them as they each pursue their individual goals. The secondary plot involving the political conspiracy develops as The Company continues their plan to locate and eliminate Lincoln Burrows and others who get in their way. Though on the surface much of the storyline concerning the conspiracy concludes by the season finale, there are indications that both the role of The Company and that of Michael Scofield are far more complicated and interrelated than it appears.

Series creator Paul Scheuring has commented that the overall theme of Season 3 will be "redemption".[6] The plot will continue from the second season finale, where most of the main characters have ended up in Panama. Although the conspiracy storyline has not finished, the third season's plot will be "as different in tone as Season 2 was from Season 1". While Lincoln is exonerated from his alleged crimes, Michael is imprisoned at Sona Federal Prison facing a homicide charge. He is supposed to break out to free another convict, James Whistler.[1]


Characters
Main article: List of Prison Break characters
Prison Break maintains an ensemble cast of ten or more actors for each season along with many recurring guest stars. The first season's regularly appearing characters include characters that were based in Chicago or at Fox River State Penitentiary. The second season contains most of the first season's cast with the inclusion of a new major character, an FBI agent whose job is to track down the eight escaped prisoners from Fox River. The third season, which is set in Panama, introduces four new characters; two of whom are prisoners at Penitenciaría Federal de Sona (Sona Federal Penitentiary). Most of the changes in the cast have been due to character deaths. Series creator, Paul Scheuring, explains that killing off major characters "makes the audience that much more fearful for our protagonists" and that "it actually does help us in terms of reducing story lines".[24]

Season 1 promotional photograph of the Prison Break cast.
Principal characters
The series' protagonists are Lincoln Burrows (played by Dominic Purcell) and Michael Scofield (played by Wentworth Miller). Lincoln is a high school dropout and a convicted felon, who is wrongfully accused of and charged with the murder of the Vice President of the United States's brother. Michael is Lincoln's brother and worked as a structural engineer before devoting full-time to his brother's case. In order to save his brother's life, Michael creates an elaborate plan to help his brother escape from prison. Over the course of the series, Michael and Lincoln are shown to be protective of each other. They are the only characters to have appeared in every episode to date.

Veronica Donovan (played by Robin Tunney) is Michael and Lincoln's childhood friend and decides to review Lincoln's case at Michael's insistence. She becomes Lincoln's lawyer and appears as a major character in the first season and a minor character in the second season.

L. J. Burrows (played by Marshall Allman) is the teenage son of Lincoln Burrows and is greatly affected by his father's death sentence. He is forced into hiding after he becomes the target of the people who want Lincoln dead.

The two most prominently featured prisoners who Michael meets at Fox River State Penitentiary are Fernando Sucre (played by Amaury Nolasco) and Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell (played by Robert Knepper). Sucre is Michael's cell-mate and provides comic relief to the show. His character's story focuses mainly on his wish to reunite with his girlfriend. Sucre develops a friendship with Michael and Lincoln, and becomes their ally. On the other hand, T-Bag is mainly seen as a villain in the series, due to his murderous ways and for blackmailing Michael to be included in the escape.

After he was incarcerated, John Abruzzi (played by Peter Stormare) became a prominent figure at Fox River State Penitentiary due to his role as the leader of a Chicago mafia. He agrees to provide an escape plane for Michael in exchange for the location of the eyewitness to his crimes, Otto Fibonacci. He appears regularly in the first half of the first season and makes selected appearances towards the end of the first season and the beginning of the second season. Benjamin Miles "C-Note" Franklin (played by Rockmond Dunbar) is introduced as a Fox River prisoner, who becomes suspicious of Michael. He later forces Michael to include him in the escape. Along with T-Bag, C-Note is seen as Michael's opponent in the first season, although he is a more sympathetic and likable character than T-Bag.

As well as other prisoners, Michael meets the captain of Fox River's correctional officers, Brad Bellick (played by Wade Williams) and the prison doctor, Sara Tancredi (played by Sarah Wayne Callies). Bellick dislikes Michael and causes trouble for him throughout the series. Sara is Michael's love interest. As their relationship develops over the course of the series, her role is also increased in the storyline.

Although Paul Kellerman (played by Paul Adelstein) was introduced as a Secret Service agent working for the Vice President to make sure that the execution of Lincoln Burrows goes smoothly, his character has alternated between a villain and an ally to Michael and Lincoln.

Season 2 introduces a new major character, FBI Special Agent Alexander Mahone (played by William Fichtner), who is assigned to locate the fugitives. Mahone is intellectually matched with Michael and his background unfolds as the series progresses.

Season 3 sees the addition of four major characters: Lechero (played by Robert Wisdom), James Whistler (played by Chris Vance), Susan B. Anthony (played by Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) and Sofia Lugo (played by Danay Garcia). Lechero is a prisoner at Sona and a Panamanian drug kingpin while "Susan B. Anthony" is an operative for the Company. Sofia is the girlfriend of Whistler, who is incarcerated in the same prison as Michael.

Season 4
premiered on September 1, 2008 and follows on from Season 3. Michael seeks revenge for Sara's death and finds out that she is alive and that the head given to Lincoln was someone else. Michael also learns the truth about Whistler, that he has secretly been working alongside Mahone to take down the Company. Whistler's life is taken shortly after this by a Company Operative. It is learned that the inmates rioted at Sona and Bellick, T-Bag and Sucre escaped during the chaos. Donald Self (Michael Rapaport), a Department of Homeland Security agent, recruits Michael and Lincoln as well as Sucre, Bellick (Wade Williams) and Mahone for their help to bring down the Company in exchange for their freedom. Also joining the group are Sara, who escaped from Gretchen which resulted in Gretchen's own captivity by the Company, having failed to secure a valuable item, and Roland (James Hiroyuki Liao), a hacker who was assigned to help them after getting arrested for identity theft. Together, they devise a plan to retrieve data from the Company that will help to destroy the Company. In the meantime, Wyatt (Cress Williams), an agent from the Company, attempts to track Michael and Lincoln down and T-Bag heads North to the US with the "Birds" book in his possesion. He is in the process of stealing Whistler's plan.

Global Warming - Global Warning


Global warming is the increase in the average measured temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century, and its projected continuation.

The average global air temperature near the Earth's surface increased 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 100 years ending in 2005.[1] The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic (man-made) greenhouse gas concentrations"[1] via an enhanced greenhouse effect. Natural phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect from 1950 onward.[2][3]

These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science,[4] including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.[5][6][7] While individual scientists have voiced disagreement with some findings of the IPCC,[8] the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC's main conclusions.[9][10]

Climate model projections summarized by the IPCC indicate that average global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the twenty-first century.[1] This range of values results from the use of differing scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions as well as models with differing climate sensitivity. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming and sea level rise are expected to continue for more than a thousand years even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilized. The delay in reaching equilibrium is a result of the large heat capacity of the oceans.[1]

Increasing global temperature is expected to cause sea levels to rise, an increase in the intensity of extreme weather events, and significant changes to the amount and pattern of precipitation, likely leading to an expanse of tropical areas and increased pace of desertification. Other expected effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, modifications of trade routes, glacier retreat, mass species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.

Remaining scientific uncertainties include the amount of warming expected in the future, and how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there is ongoing political and public debate worldwide regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences

Causes

Components of the current radiative forcing as estimated by the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report.Main articles: Attribution of recent climate change and Scientific opinion on climate change
The Earth's climate changes in response to external forcing, including variations in its orbit around the Sun (orbital forcing),[15][16][17] changes in solar luminosity, volcanic eruptions,[18] and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The detailed causes of the recent warming remain an active field of research, but the scientific consensus[19][20] is that the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases due to human activity caused most of the warming observed since the start of the industrial era. This attribution is clearest for the most recent 50 years, for which the most detailed data are available. Some other hypotheses departing from the consensus view have been suggested to explain most of the temperature increase. One such hypothesis proposes that warming may be the result of variations in solar activity.[21][22][23]

None of the effects of forcing are instantaneous. The thermal inertia of the Earth's oceans and slow responses of other indirect effects mean that the Earth's current climate is not in equilibrium with the forcing imposed. Climate commitment studies indicate that even if greenhouse gases were stabilized at 2000 levels, a further warming of about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) would still occur.[24]


Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere
Main articles: Greenhouse gas and Greenhouse effect
The greenhouse effect was discovered by Joseph Fourier in 1824 and was first investigated quantitatively by Svante Arrhenius in 1896. It is the process by which absorption and emission of infrared radiation by atmospheric gases warm a planet's lower atmosphere and surface.


Recent increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). The monthly CO2 measurements display small seasonal oscillations in an overall yearly uptrend; each year's maximum is reached during the Northern Hemisphere's late spring, and declines during the Northern Hemisphere growing season as plants remove some CO2 from the atmosphere.Existence of the greenhouse effect as such is not disputed. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases have a mean warming effect of about 33 °C (59 °F), without which Earth would be uninhabitable.[25][26] On Earth, the major greenhouse gases are water vapor, which causes about 36–70 percent of the greenhouse effect (not including clouds); carbon dioxide (CO2), which causes 9–26 percent; methane (CH4), which causes 4–9 percent; and ozone, which causes 3–7 percent.[27][28] The issue is how the strength of the greenhouse effect changes when human activity increases the atmospheric concentrations of some greenhouse gases.

Human activity since the industrial revolution has increased the concentration of various greenhouse gases, leading to increased radiative forcing from CO2, methane, tropospheric ozone, CFCs and nitrous oxide. Molecule for molecule, methane is a more effective greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, but its concentration is much smaller so that its total radiative forcing is only about a fourth of that from carbon dioxide. Some other naturally occurring gases contribute small fractions of the greenhouse effect; one of these, nitrous oxide (N2O), is increasing in concentration owing to human activity such as agriculture. The atmospheric concentrations of CO2 and CH4 have increased by 31% and 149% respectively since the beginning of the industrial revolution in the mid-1700s. These levels are considerably higher than at any time during the last 650,000 years, the period for which reliable data has been extracted from ice cores.[29] From less direct geological evidence it is believed that CO2 values this high were last attained 20 million years ago.[30] Fossil fuel burning has produced approximately three-quarters of the increase in CO2 from human activity over the past 20 years. Most of the rest is due to land-use change, in particular deforestation.[31]

The present atmospheric concentration of CO2 is about 385 parts per million (ppm) by volume.[32] Future CO2 levels are expected to rise due to ongoing burning of fossil fuels and land-use change. The rate of rise will depend on uncertain economic, sociological, technological, and natural developments, but may be ultimately limited by the availability of fossil fuels. The IPCC Special Report on Emissions Scenarios gives a wide range of future CO2 scenarios, ranging from 541 to 970 ppm by the year 2100.[33] Fossil fuel reserves are sufficient to reach this level and continue emissions past 2100, if coal, tar sands or methane clathrates are extensively used.[34]


Feedbacks
Main article: Effects of global warming
The effects of forcing agents on the climate are complicated by various feedback processes.

One of the most pronounced feedback effects relates to the evaporation of water. Warming by the addition of long-lived greenhouse gases such as CO2 will cause more water to evaporate into the atmosphere. Since water vapor is a greenhouse gas, the atmosphere warms further; this warming causes more water vapor to evaporate (a positive feedback), and so on until other processes stop the feedback loop. The result is a much larger greenhouse effect than that due to CO2 alone. Although this feedback process causes an increase in the absolute moisture content of the air, the relative humidity stays nearly constant or even decreases slightly because the air is warmer.[35] This feedback effect can only be reversed slowly as CO2 has a long average atmospheric lifetime.

Feedback effects due to clouds are an area of ongoing research. Seen from below, clouds emit infrared radiation back to the surface, and so exert a warming effect; seen from above, clouds reflect sunlight and emit infrared radiation to space, and so exert a cooling effect. Whether the net effect is warming or cooling depends on details such as the type and altitude of the cloud. These details are difficult to represent in climate models, in part because clouds are much smaller than the spacing between points on the computational grids of climate models.[35]


Northern Hemisphere ice trends


Southern Hemisphere ice trends.A subtler feedback process relates to changes in the lapse rate as the atmosphere warms. The atmosphere's temperature decreases with height in the troposphere. Since emission of infrared radiation varies with the fourth power of temperature, longwave radiation emitted from the upper atmosphere is less than that emitted from the lower atmosphere. Most of the radiation emitted from the upper atmosphere escapes to space, while most of the radiation emitted from the lower atmosphere is re-absorbed by the surface or the atmosphere. Thus, the strength of the greenhouse effect depends on the atmosphere's rate of temperature decrease with height: if the rate of temperature decrease is greater the greenhouse effect will be stronger, and if the rate of temperature decrease is smaller then the greenhouse effect will be weaker. Both theory and climate models indicate that warming will reduce the decrease of temperature with height, producing a negative lapse rate feedback that weakens the greenhouse effect. Measurements of the rate of temperature change with height are very sensitive to small errors in observations, making it difficult to establish whether the models agree with observations.[36]

Another important feedback process is ice-albedo feedback.[37] When global temperatures increase, ice near the poles melts at an increasing rate. As the ice melts, land or open water takes its place. Both land and open water are on average less reflective than ice, and thus absorb more solar radiation. This causes more warming, which in turn causes more melting, and this cycle continues.

Positive feedback due to release of CO2 and CH4 from thawing permafrost, such as the frozen peat bogs in Siberia, is an additional mechanism that could contribute to warming.[38] Similarly a massive release of CH4 from methane clathrates in the ocean could cause rapid warming, according to the clathrate gun hypothesis.

The ocean's ability to sequester carbon is expected to decline as it warms. This is because the resulting low nutrient levels of the mesopelagic zone (about 200 to 1000 m depth) limits the growth of diatoms in favor of smaller phytoplankton that are poorer biological pumps of carbon.[39]


Solar variation

Solar variation over the last thirty years.Main article: Solar variation
A few papers suggest that the Sun's contribution may have been underestimated. Two researchers at Duke University, Bruce West and Nicola Scafetta, have estimated that the Sun may have contributed about 45–50 percent of the increase in the average global surface temperature over the period 1900–2000, and about 25–35 percent between 1980 and 2000.[40] A paper by Peter Stott and other researchers suggests that climate models overestimate the relative effect of greenhouse gases compared to solar forcing; they also suggest that the cooling effects of volcanic dust and sulfate aerosols have been underestimated.[41] They nevertheless conclude that even with an enhanced climate sensitivity to solar forcing, most of the warming since the mid-20th century is likely attributable to the increases in greenhouse gases.

A different hypothesis is that variations in solar output, possibly amplified by cloud seeding via galactic cosmic rays, may have contributed to recent warming.[42] It suggests magnetic activity of the sun is a crucial factor which deflects cosmic rays that may influence the generation of cloud condensation nuclei and thereby affect the climate.[43]

One predicted effect of an increase in solar activity would be a warming of most of the stratosphere, whereas an increase in greenhouse gases should produce cooling there.[44] The observed trend since at least 1960 has been a cooling of the lower stratosphere.[45] Reduction of stratospheric ozone also has a cooling influence, but substantial ozone depletion did not occur until the late 1970s.[46] Solar variation combined with changes in volcanic activity probably did have a warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950, but a cooling effect since.[1] In 2006, Peter Foukal and other researchers from the United States, Germany, and Switzerland found no net increase of solar brightness over the last 1,000 years. Solar cycles led to a small increase of 0.07 percent in brightness over the last 30 years. This effect is too small to contribute significantly to global warming.[47][48] One paper by Mike Lockwood and Claus Fröhlich found no relation between global warming and solar radiation since 1985, whether through variations in solar output or variations in cosmic rays.[49] Henrik Svensmark and Eigil Friis-Christensen, the main proponents of cloud seeding by galactic cosmic rays, disputed this criticism of their hypothesis.[50] A 2007 paper found that in the last 20 years there has been no significant link between changes in cosmic rays coming to Earth and cloudiness and temperature.[51][52][53]


Temperature changes
Main article: Temperature record

Recent

Two millennia of mean surface temperatures according to different reconstructions, each smoothed on a decadal scale. The unsmoothed, annual value for 2004 is also plotted for reference.Global temperatures have increased by 0.75 °C (1.35 °F) relative to the period 1860–1900, according to the instrumental temperature record. This measured temperature increase is not significantly affected by the urban heat island effect.[54] Since 1979, land temperatures have increased about twice as fast as ocean temperatures (0.25 °C per decade against 0.13 °C per decade).[55] Temperatures in the lower troposphere have increased between 0.12 and 0.22 °C (0.22 and 0.4 °F) per decade since 1979, according to satellite temperature measurements. Temperature is believed to have been relatively stable over the one or two thousand years before 1850, with possibly regional fluctuations such as the Medieval Warm Period or the Little Ice Age.[citation needed]

Sea temperatures increase more slowly than those on land both because of the larger effective heat capacity of the oceans and because the ocean can lose heat by evaporation more readily than the land.[56] The Northern Hemisphere has more land than the Southern Hemisphere, so it warms faster. The Northern Hemisphere also has extensive areas of seasonal snow and sea-ice cover subject to the ice-albedo feedback. More greenhouse gases are emitted in the Northern than Southern Hemisphere, but this does not contribute to the difference in warming because the major greenhouse gases persist long enough to mix between hemispheres.[57]

Based on estimates by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2005 was the warmest year since reliable, widespread instrumental measurements became available in the late 1800s, exceeding the previous record set in 1998 by a few hundredths of a degree.[58] Estimates prepared by the World Meteorological Organization and the Climatic Research Unit concluded that 2005 was the second warmest year, behind 1998.[59][60] Temperatures in 1998 were unusually warm because the strongest El Niño-Southern Oscillation in the past century occurred during that year.[61]

Anthropogenic emissions of other pollutants—notably sulfate aerosols—can exert a cooling effect by increasing the reflection of incoming sunlight. This partially accounts for the cooling seen in the temperature record in the middle of the twentieth century,[62] though the cooling may also be due in part to natural variability. James Hansen and colleagues have proposed that the effects of the products of fossil fuel combustion—CO2 and aerosols—have largely offset one another, so that warming in recent decades has been driven mainly by non-CO2 greenhouse gases.

Duit - Karaoke




Kelebihan Poligami Dalam Islam

Islam mengharuskan seorang lelaki berkahwin lebih daripada seorang untuk menambahkan zuriat dan mengelakkan daripadanya berlaku perbuatan maksiat
Had untuk seorang suami menambahkan bilangan isteri hanya empat orang saja.

Firman Allah S.W.T


( Surah an-Nisak : Ayat 3 )
Maksudnya : ….Maka kahwinlah mana-mana perempuan yang kamu berkenan, dua, tiga atau empat orang.Jika kamu takut tidak berlaku adil, maka kahwinilah seorang saja….
Kebenaran berpoligami bukanlah satu peluang yang baik kepada kaum lelaki tetapi merupakan satu tanggungjawab yang besar sekiranya diamalkan.

Seseorang yang hendak berpoligami hendaklah mengikut peraturan-peraturan yang telah ditetapkan oleh syarak supaya perkara-perkara yang tidak diingini tidak berlaku.

Poligami yang diamalkan dengan baik dan mengikut syariat Allah akan mendapat berkat dan bahagia di dunia dan di akhirat. Poligami yang mengikut hawa nafsu akan dilaknat dan dimurkai oleh Allah.

Hikmah poligami

Dapat melahirkan zuriat terhadap pasangan yang tidak dapat melahirkan anak kerana mandul, sakit dan lain-lain

Poligami adalah satu cara untuk melindungi kaum wanita yang tidak mempunyai suami atau kehilangan suami seperti meninggal dunia di medan perang dan sebagainya.

Mengelakkan kaum lelaki daripada terjerumus ke lembah maksiat, kerana nafsu lelaki tidak pernah kurang. Sedangkan nafsu perempuan semakin berkurang dengan bertambahnya usia.

Untuk mengurangkan jumlah kaum wanita yang semakin ramai bilangannya daripada kaum lelaki.

Mengekalkan kerukunan rumahtangga akibat permusuhan antara suami dan isteri terutamanya tentang masalah seks. Dengan adanya kebenaran poligami , keadaan suami kembali aman dan pergaduhan dapat dielakkan.

Menambahkan zuriat umat manusia di muka bumi Allah melalui cara yang halal.

Syarat2 :

Lelaki yang hendak berpoligami mestilah beriman dan taat kepada perintah Allah. Lelaki yang beragama akan menghayati konsep poligami yang sebenar dan mengamalkannya terhadap isteri-isterinya.
Lelaki tersebut hendaklah berlaku adil terhadap isteri-isterinya, sama ada mengenai nafkah zahir atau nafkah batin.
Lelaki tersebut mestilah mempunyai tubuh badan yang sihat supaya dapat menyempurnakan segala tanggungjawab terhadap isteri-isteri dan anak-anaknya.
Hendaklah mempunyai sumber kewangan yang cukup dan teguh untuk menampung keperluan isteri-isteri dan anak-anaknya. Sumber kewangan yang tidak cukup akan membawa kesan yang tidak baik kepada sesebuah keluarga.
Sabda Rasulullah S.A.W

( Riwayat Abu Daud dan at-Tarmizi )
Maksudnya: Daripada Abu Hurairah r.a bahawa Nabi S.A.W telah bersabda, sesiapa yang mempunyai dua orang isteri lalu memberi kepada seorang daripada kedua-duanya, dia akan dibangkitkan di hari kiamat kelak dengan bahunya berat sebelah.
Akibat poligami yang tidak mengikut syariat Allah:

Menimbulkan permusuhan dalam keluarga khususnya terhadap isteri-isterinya.
Menimbulkan masalah kepada anak-anak yang tidak cukup perbelanjaan dan memaksa mereka melakukan perbuatan-perbuatan yang tidak baik.
Pembawa kepada penganiayaan terhadap kaum wanita.
Mewujudkan masyarakat yang tidak aman.
Sabda Rasulullah S.A.W

( Riwayat Aby Daud,Tarmizi, Nasai Ibnu Majah )
Maksudnya : Daripada Aisyah r.a telah berkata: Sesungguhnya Rasulullah S.A.W membahagikan giliran sesama isterinya dengan adil dan baginda berdoa: “ Ya Allah! Ini bahagian aku yang dapat aku laksanakan kerana itu janganlah Engkau cela aku tentang apa-apa yang Engkau kuasai sedangkan akut tidak menguasainya “. Berkata Abu Daud : maksudnya ialah ‘hati’

Sasaran Lahir 200 Usahawan Bumiputera

BERA 13 Jan (Utusan Malaysia) - Kerajaan menetapkan sasaran untuk melahirkan seramai 200 usahawan bumiputera menerusi program keusahawanan Pusat Giat Mara pada tahun ini.

Menteri Pembangunan Usahawan dan Koperasi, Datuk Seri Mohd. Khaled Nordin berkata, pihaknya memperuntukkan sebanyak RM10 juta bagi tujuan itu di lima negeri iaitu Pahang, Kedah, Pulau Pinang, Kelantan dan Perak.

‘‘Setiap negeri terbabit menerima bantuan sebanyak RM2 juta untuk melaksanakan program yang kita sasarkan kepada bumiputera yang tidak berkemampuan,” katanya.

Beliau berkata demikian kepada pemberita selepas majlis pelancaran Majlis Pembangunan Usahawan Daerah (MPUD) peringkat daerah di sini hari ini.

Hadir sama Ahli Parlimen Bera, Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

Pada majlis tersebut, seramai 44 pelatih Giat Mara menerima geran bantuan sebanyak 1.7 juta daripada Mohd. Khaled.

Menurut beliau, geran bantuan tersebut disalurkan bagi meningkatkan bidang keusahawanan dan francais yang dijalankan oleh pelatih terbabit dalam usaha melahirkan lebih ramai usahawan bumiputera terlatih dan berdaya saing.

‘‘Setiap pelatih terbabit menerima antara RM30,000 hingga RM35,000 seorang bagi tujuan tersebut,” jelasnya.

Secara keseluruhannya, beliau memberitahu, Kerajaan Pusat memperuntukkan sebanyak RM3.3 bilion bagi melaksanakan pelbagai program di bawah kementeriannya.

Daripada jumlah itu, katanya, sebanyak RM1.6 bilion diperuntukkan kepada Majlis Amanah Rakyat (Mara) manakala RM1.6 bilion lagi kepada koperasi-koperasi di seluruh negara.

‘‘Sebanyak RM25 juta diperuntukkan untuk membina lebih banyak Pusat Giat Mara bertujuan melahirkan lebih ramai pelatih bumiputera yang akan mengisi peluang pekerjaan dan perniagaan,” katanya.

Mengulas penubuhan MPUD, tambahnya, sehingga kini, sebanyak 92 majlis seumpama itu ditubuhkan di seluruh negara.

‘‘Kita menyasarkan semua daerah akan mempunyai MPUD di negara ini menjelang akhir tahun ini,” katanya sambil menambah sebanyak RM10 juta diperuntukkan bagi tujuan itu.

Ditanya mengenai kerugian yang dialami usahawan dalam kejadian banjir baru-baru ini, Mohd. Khaled mengarahkan semua agensi kementeriannya mengemukakan laporan penuh bagi menilai kerugian sebenar.

Setakat ini, beliau menjelaskan, pihaknya belum menerima laporan penuh daripada agensi-agensi di bawah kementeriannya.

Beliau bagaimanapun, yakin tidak ramai usahawan mengalami kerugian besar dalam bencana tersebut kerana mereka masih mampu menjelaskan bayaran hutang pinjaman setiap bulan.

Pengembaraan Ibnu Batutah

Siapa Ibnu Batutah? Beliau adalah seorang pengembara yang hebat.. Lahir di Tangier 17 Rajab 703 H/ 25 Februari 1304. Nama lengkapnya ialah Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ibrahim At-Tanji, bergelar Syamsuddin bin Battutah. Sejak kecil, Ibnu Batutah dibesarkan dalam keluarga Islam yang taat beragama. Ibnu Batutah begitu tertarik untuk mendalami ilmu-ilmu fikih, sastera dan syair Arab. Semasa remajanya, ketika itu dunia Islam terpecah-pecah kepada beberapa kerajaan dan dinasti.


Namun beliau sempat mengalami zaman kejayaan Bani Marrin yang berkuasa di Moroko pada abad ke-13 dan 14 M. Latar belakang Ibnu Batutah begitu jauh berbeza bila dibandingkan Marco Polo seorang peniaga dan Columbus yang juga pengembara. Di samping memiliki sifat-sifat begitu, Ibnu Batutah juga adalah seorang teologis, sasterawan puisi dan cendekiawan, serta humanis, ertinya melebihi kehebatan dua sejarawan tadi. Dikatakan juga hasil pencapaian Ibnu Batutah yang luar biasa itu, konon telah dirampas dan disembunyikan Kerajaan Perancis semasa menjajah benua Afrika dulu.


‘Kehebatan Ibnu Batutah hanya dapat dibandingkan dengan pelancong terkemuka Eropah, Marcopolo (1254 M -1324 M)..” Demikian ujar sejarawan Brockelmann mengagumi ketangguhan pengembara Muslim itu.


‘Aku tinggalkan Tangier, kampung halamanku, pada Khamis 2 Rajab 725 H/ 14 Jun 1325 M. Saat itu usiaku baru 21 tahun empat bulan. Tujuanku adalah menunaikan ibadah haji ke Tanah Suci di Makkah dan berziarah ke makam Rasulullah SAW di Madinah.’ Antara tulisan dalam buku catatannya ‘Rihlah’.


Di situlah mulanya detik perjalanan beliau.


‘Selama hampir 30 tahun, dia telah mengunjungi tiga benua mulai dari Afrika Utara, Afrika Barat, Eropah Selatan, Eropah Timur, Timur Tengah, India, Asia Tengah, Asia Tenggara, dan Cina. Perjalanan panjang dan pengembaraannya mengelilingi dunia itu mencapai 73 ribu mil atau sejauh 117 ribu kilometer. Tak heran, bila kehebatannya mampu melampaui sejumlah penjelajah Eropah yang diagung-agungkan Barat seperti Christopher Columbus, Vasco de Gama, dan Magellan yang mulai berlayar 125 tahun setelah Ibnu Batutah.


Sejarawan Barat, George Sarton, mencatat jarak perjalanan yang ditempuh Ibnu Batutah melebihi pencapaian Marco Polo. Tak heran, bila Sarton geleng-geleng kepala dan mengkagumi ketangguhan seorang Ibnu Batutah yang mampu mengarungi lautan dan menjelajahi daratan sepanjang 73 ribu mil itu. Sebuah pencapaian yang tak ada duanya di masa itu.’ Lihat Republika oleh Heri Ruslan ‘Ibnu Batutah, Kisah Sang Pengembara’ yang disiarkan semula web. www.Kebun Hikmah.Com. Khamis, Mei15 2008.


Panjang ceritanya. Ringkasnya, mari kita lihat bagaimana beliau membuat liputan ketika terdampar di Samudera Pasai Asia Tenggara, semasa kerajaan Islam pertama di Nusantara pada abad ke-13M, iaitu di bumi Aceh Serambi Mekah selama 15 hari pada tahun 1345.


Ibnu Batutah melukiskan Samudera Pasai dengan begitu indah… ‘Negeri yang hijau dengan kota pelabuhannya yang besar dan indah.’


Beliau disambut oleh pemimpin Daulasah, Qadi Syarif Amir Sayyir al-Syirazi, Tajudin al-Ashbahani dan ahli fiqih kesultanan. Menurut Ibnu Batutah, masa itu Samudera Pasai telah menjelma sebagai pusat studi Islam di Asia Tenggara.


“Sultan Mahmud Malik Al-Zahir adalah seorang pemimpin yang sangat mengkedepankan hukum Islam. Peribadinya sangat rendah hati. Ia berangkat ke masjid untuk sholat Jumaat dengan berjalan kaki. Selesai sholat, sultan dan rombongan biasa berkeliling kota untuk melihat keadaan rakyatnya.” Cerita beliau.


Menurut Ibnu Batutah, penguasa Samudera Pasai itu memiliki ghirah belajar yang tinggi untuk menuntut ilmu-ilmu Islam kepada ulama. Dia juga mencatat, pusat studi Islam yang dibangun di lingkungan kerajaan menjadi tempat diskusi antara ulama dan elit kerajaan. Selama berpetualang mengelilingi dunia dan menjejakkan kakinya di 44 negara, dalam kitab yang berjudul ‘Tuhfat al-Nazhar’, Ibnu Batutah telah bertemu dengan tujuh raja yang memiliki kelebihan yang luar biasa.


Ketujuh raja yang dikagumi Ibnu Battuta itu antara lain..


i...Raja Iraq yang dinilainya berbudi bahasa;
ii..Raja Hindustani yang disebutnya sangat ramah;
iii.Raja Yaman yang dianggapnya berakhlak mulia;
iv.Raja Turki dikaguminya kerana gagah perkasa;
v..Raja Romawi yang sangat pemaaf;
vi.Raja Melayu Malik Al-Zahir yang dinilainya berilmu pengetahuan luas dan mendalam.
vii.Raja Turkistan.


Beliau mengakhiri catitan perjalanannya dengan sebuah kalimat, ''Akhirnya aku sampai juga di kota Fez (Moroko).'' Di situ dia menuliskan hasil pengembaraannya, dan meninggal dunia di Maroko pada pada tahun 1377 M. Ibnu Batutah telah memberitahu bahawa pada abad pertengahan, peradaban telah tumbuh dan berkembang di bumi Nusantara, sejajar dengan raja-raja lain di dunia.


Di situlah antara rahsia yang tersirat di sebalik banyak ayat-ayat Al-Quran memerintah umatnya mengembara dan menjelajah mukabumi seperti Ibnu Batutah itu. Antaranya Surah Ar-Rum: ayat 9, An-Nahl: Ayat 36 dan banyak lagi.

Isu Disebalik Pengajaran Sains dan Matematik Dalam Bahasa Inggeris

Dalam Utusan Malaysia hari ni dilaporkan tentang calon UPSR tahun ni yg merupakan penanda aras keberkesanan program pengajaran matematik sains dalam bahasa inggeris. Isu ni telah ramai yg membincangkannya semenjak kali pertama ianya di bincangkan untuk dilaksanakan pada 5 tahun yg lepas. Saya benar2 sedih dengan langkah ini. Peggunaan Matematik Sains dalam bahasa inggeris idea sapelah agaknye yg karut ni.. atas dasar apalahhhh diorang pandai2 je buat dasar tanpa mengambil kira pendapat cerdik pandai yg terbanyak bukan cerdik pandai yg rasuah !!

PUTRAJAYA 9 Sept. – Seramai 518,616 murid yang menduduki Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) hari ini akan menjadi penanda aras kepada kelangsungan dasar Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris (PPSMI). Ketua Pengarah Pelajaran, Datuk Alimuddin Mohd Dom berkata, mereka adalah kumpulan pertama murid-murid yang mempelajari Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris sejak Tahun Satu setelah PPSMI diperkenalkan pada 2003. - Utusan Malaysia online


Isu PPSMI ini sebenarnya ada rahsia yg tersembunyi yg ramai tak tahu. Kenapalah begitu beria kerajaan nak laksanakan pengajaran dua subjek ini dlm Bahasa Inggeris? Adakah untuk menyediakan para pelajar kita… generasi kita .. agar boleh bersaing diperingkat global dgn lebih baik lagi? Benarkah begitu? Adakah rakyat Jepun yg diajar fully bahasa Jepun tu … bukan bahasa Inggeris tak boleh bersaing diperingkat Global? Bagaimana juga dgn bangsa Italy, Peranchis, German, Thailand, dan banyakkkk lagi negara2 maju lain yg terbukti amat maju yg tidak menggunakan bahasa inggerispun didalam sistem pendidikan mereka?

Saya masih ingat sewaktu saya transit kejap di Prague dulu tahun 2002… saya bercakap dlm Bahasa Inggeris tanya diorang restoren kat mana.. diorang wat derkkk je… tapi bila saya ckp dlm Bahasa Malaysia walaupun diorang tak paham tapi diorang beriya2 nak tolong. Betapa mereka bangga dgn bahasa ibunda mereka.
Sebenarnya pada pendapat saya kerajaan laksanakan PPSMI ni hanya lah satu tujuannya iaitu UNTUK JUAL LCD PROJECTOR DAN LAPTOP semata-mata. Pernah tak sesiapa semak nama pembekal yg mengaut keuntungan besar dlm 5 tahun ni melalui pembekalan sistem ICT ke sekolah2 seluruh Malaysia bagi membantu PPSMI ni? Berbilion ringgit habis kat situ. Itu aje tujuannya. Ceritanya begini.. Bermula pada tahun 1989 .. masa tu ekonomi Malaysia amat baik dan pada tahun 1992 kita antara yg terbaik di rantau ini. Pada masa tu kerajaan Malaysia menghantar ramai pelajar ke luar negara. Banyak twinning program yg dilancarkan seperti AAD (Amercican Associate Degree, International Bachalaurette, A-Level, Australian Matriculation dsbg.). Pelajar yg dapat SPM sederhanapun ada yg dapat offer program ni maka ramailah yg berpeluang ke luar negara.
Di tempat kursus persediaan ini antaranya ialah di MARA Community College Kuantan yg dahulunya dikenali sebagai Maktab Sains Mara, Kolej MARA Banting, PPP Shah Alam, Kolej MARA Seremban, Trolak dan banyak lagilah…di tempat2 inilah anak2 malaysia berkumpul untuk belajar bahasa asing dan buat persediaan untuk ke luar negara. Ramai gilerrr masa tu termasuklah Ally Iskandar dan Suami pelakon sitcom Puteri yg baru bercerai tu (Anak Ramli Ngah Talib).
Sebenarnya ada dua kategori pelajar yg dihantar ke luar negara pada masa tu. Pertama pelajar tajaan MARA, JPA dan Petronas. Yg ni yg cream. Yg ni power giler result SPM terutama tajaan Petronas dan JPA. Tapi ada satu lagi group tajaan FAMA (Father and Mother). Yang ni private student. Haaaaa… disinilah punca segalanya. Private student ni kebanyakkannya buat kurus degree in TESL atau Degree in English. Biasanya anak orang miskin takkan buat or apply degree in TESL or ENGLISH sebab bagi orang miskin nanti keluar nak kejer apa… tambahan pulak rata2 anak orang miskin tak berapa padai Bahasa Inggeris sebab datang dari kampung. Anak orang kaya ni lain… Bahasa Ingeris dah power dah.. mak bapakpun dh speaking dah dari kecik… Lagi satu anak2 orang kaya bukannya terror sangat Math, Fizik, Add Math dll subjek penting tu. So mcm mana nak buat engineering ke, Accounting ke or kursus2 kritikal lain?

Maka anak orang kaya nipun masukla ketempat2 persediaan ni dgn tajaan sendiri buat kursus Bed(TESL) atau BA(English)… lepas dapat result bagus di kursus persediaan ni mereka semua boleh apply loan MARA untuk further studies ke overseas…

Maka ramailah anak Malaysia pergi ke luar negara bermula pada tahun 1990 kalau taksilap sampailah ekonomi Malaysia merudum tahun 1998 kerajaan stop dah beberapa program dan limit jumlah pelajar yg dihantar ke luar negara.
Disinilah bermula segala masalah. Anak2 menteri, anak kroni, anak2 orang kaya yg buat degree in TESL dan degree in English ni bila balik M’sia diorang takkan nak jadi cikgu bahasa inggeris?? Eh… tak masuk akal langsung… so diorang pakai kabel mak bapak diorang apply PTD. So diorang lah yg jadi pegawai2 penggubal dasar kat kementerian-kementerian kerajaan tu. Apa lagi dioranglah yang cadangkan agar Math Sains diajar dlm Bahasa Inggeris… kononya agar anak Malaysia akan jadi lebih cekap berbahasa Inggeris dan boleh bersaing diperingkat global. Sakittnya hati Ya ALLAHHH… dan kerana cadangan diorang tulah maka beratus juta duit rakyat dihabiskan beli LCD Projector dan Laptop yg rata2 cikgu kitapun tak reti dan tak selesa nak guna.
Banyak IPT, cendikiawan, research telah dibuat, dibincangkan dan diterbitkan bahawa pengajaran Math Sains dlm Bahasa Inggeris ini tidak membantu meninkatkan pencapaian Bahasa Ingeris. Antaranya kajian yg dibuat di Universiti Malaya dan kajian oleh Prof. Dr. Jusoh dari UiTM. Negara Jepun, Italy, Peranchis , Jerman tak ajar dlm Bahasa Inggerispun jauh lebih maju… Malah pengajaran dlm bahasa Ingerislah puna anak Malaysia semakin lemah dlm pelajaran… yg paling teruk anak melayu laaahhhh…
Kalau iapun nak ajar dlm Bahasa Inggeris kenapa tak mulakan di MRSM dan SM Sains ke dulu… biar budak2 yg selected tu dulu yg jadi pengasas..lepas tu tengok and check keberkesanannya… Bila pembangkang dan masyarakat terutama cendikiawan dan ahli akademik yg genuine yg tidak rasuah marah dgn isu PPSMI ini maka setiap kali ujian UPSR ke PMR ke SPM ke soalan dipermudahkan. Kalau takpun cara marking dipermudahkan. Melihat skima pemarkahan peperiksaan setiap tahun aku sedih la… ada tu asalkan ada je satu perkataan tu dah dikira betul dah dapat markah. Begitu terdesaknya kerajaan nak tunjukkan bahawa rakyat Malaysia boleh follow la sistem PPSMI ni… hakikatnya rakyat Malaysia sendiri yg dibangangkan… kawan2 kat sekolah jenis kebangsaan cina kata diorang disekolah cina tak pernah patuh pada PPSMI.. diorang tetap ajar guna bahasa cina… sebab pelajar lebih mudah paham…
Akhirnya bila keputusan peperiksaan diumumkan memanglah menunjukkan yg subjek Math Sains tu semuanya ok.. dah soalan dipermudahkan… dan marking juga dipermudahkan… memanglaa result keseluruhan nampak gempak tapi sedar tak bahawa semua ni sandiwara yang akhirnya kena tanggung oleh kita semua rakyat Malaysia. Dahtu lama pulak tu kena menanggung…
Masa konvensyen kecemerlangan IPT di Sri Iskandar baru2 ni… ramai pensyarah IPT seluruh Malaysia bengang dengan PPSMI sebab yg masuk U nipun bukannya pandai sangat. Result SPM bagus tapi Y=mX + C pun tak tahu apa punya equation. Inilah jadinya bila kerajaan berniaga menggunakan rakyat. Inilah jadinya bila sesuatu itu dilakukan demi kepentingan politik dan bukan kepetingan agama, bangsa dan negara. Selepas 5 tahun barulah nak revise balik dan nak tengok balik keberkesanannya. Alaahhh… keberkesanan tu boleh dibuat… boleh direka… buat soalan senang… arangkan unit peperiksaa kementerian pendidikan buat soalan senang pastu marking juga senang. Contohnya soalan sains Rainbow consist of how many strips?? Buatlah sistem pemarkahan tu asalkan ada perkataan SEVEN je terus betul jawapannya tak kiralah seventy ke , seventeen ke… itulah hakikat yg terjadi semenjak PPSMI ni dilaksanakan.

Bila budak yg tak sepatutnya layak masuk IPT tiba2 dapat result bagus dan masuk IPT maka sistem IPT pulak bercelaru… sampailah masuk alam pekerjaan… habisss semuanya bercelaru… nanti akan keluarlah makin ramai engineer yg corrupt, doktor yg careless dsbg. Makin banyaklah jambatan yg runtuh… makin banykla tuala yg ertinggal dlm perut lepas pembedahan… semuanya gara2 satu tindakan yg bodoh

Kisah Tiga Mamat

Ini kesah Tiga Mamat. Ingat atau tidak – kita ada Mat Sentul yang membuat filem Mat Bond. Kita ada Mat Toyol juga dilakonkan oleh Mat Sentul. Kita ada film Mat Lanun. Kita ada filem Mat Tiga Suku dan Mat Karong Guni yang juga dilakonkan olih Mat Sentul. Semua ini termasuk dalam genre filem lawak bodoh yang menyeramkan.

Bila saya tulis tentang filem-filem lawak bodoh ini pasti pembaca tertanya-tanya – betul ke ada filem ini. Nampak sangat saya ini ‘oltie’ mendewasa di zaman Latifah Omar dan Nordin Ahmad. Jangan risau dan jangan gundah – semua filem-filem ini wujud. Saya tidak klentong.

Tetapi disini bukan tentang filem yang hendak saya tulis tetapi satu teater lawak seram lagi bodoh yang sedang dipentaskan untuk hiburan kita semua. Teater ini bukan arahan atau lakonan Mat Sentul tetapi lebih sewel dari Mat Sentul lebih bodoh dari semua lawak-lawak bodoh dari zaman Cathy Keris dan Jalan Ampas. Lebih tiga suku dari Mat Tiga Suku. Lebih karong dari Mat Karong Guni.

Mamat Pertama dalam teater lawak seram ini ialah Mat Segaran Pillai ( bukan peguam DSAI dan tidak ada talian keluarga arwah M.G.G Pillai). Mamat ini bercita-cita besar. Lebih besar dari tayar kerusi roda Eye of Kuala Lumpur. Dia bukan berNgo untuk rakyat Malaysia. Bukan juga berNgo untuk rakyat Asia. Bukan juga untuk rakyat Asia, Afrika dan Latin Amerika tetapi berNgo untuk rakyat Dunia. Ciss… hebat lawak si Mamat ini tetapi Bantang Berjuntai pun dia belum pernah sampai untuk berjuntai-berjuntai.

Kadang-kadang saya sedih sambil ketawa apabila diberitahu bahawa Ngo yang dikepali oleh si Mamat ini yang hanya ada tiga orang ahli. Bayangkan tiga orang ahli cuba membawa Keadilan Untuk Dunia. Ngo ini kalau di terjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Jambi ialah Just World – jangan silap-silap ini bukan nama kelab judi di 43rd Street di New York – yang kelab judi itu Just World Trust.

Kak kah kah…. isteri dia, anak dia dan Dia…. kah kah kah – tiga orang ahli. Macam mana tiga orang ini hendak membawa Keadilan Dunia saya pun bingong lagi malap.

Lalu soalan Chepu Emas muncul – mungkinkah Ngo Keadilan Untuk Dunia ini ditubuh sebagai cara untuk mendapat dana dari luar negara kot? Ha ha ha. Trick ini semua kaki-kaki Ngo tahu. Jadi saya tidak perlu cerita panjang. Atau Ngo yang tidak ada sesiapa pun pernah dengar namanya di Malaysia ini hanyalah sebagai cara agar Mat Segaran ini dapat ditemu ramah oleh Mama Juwie dari Mingguan Malaysia.Kah kah kah.

Biar saya bersurah sikit agar anak-anak muda tahu siapa Segaran ini. Mamat Segaran ini pada satu ketika dahulu pernah bertanding untuk menjadi MP. Hebat angan-angan si Mamat ini. Tetapi sayangnya warga Bandar Tun Razak tidak kenal dia ini siapa. Pengundi Melayu ingat dia warga India. Pengundi India ingat dia Benggali Roti. Pengundi Cina ingat dia Ghurkha dari Nepal. Hasilnya si Mamat ini di gudam oleh warga Bandar Tun Razak.

Kerana ini saya menyokong kuat cadangan Sultan Johor agar sesiapa yang beralih-alih tuhan ini tidak patut nama mereka beralih-alih sama. Lihat apa sudah jadi kepada warga Bandar Tun Razak, kacau bilau, mereka hampir tertipu kerana tidak tahu asal usul Segaran Pillai.

Keadaan ini bertambah celaru kerana satu ketika dulu si Segaran ini bercakap tentang keadilan tetapi apabila Parti Keadilan Rakyat hendak mengambil kuasa dia terbalik kot. Dia terkentut di mulut menyokong gerombolan United Malays National Organisation. Kah kah kah.

Ini tidak menghairankan beb… nama pun dia ditukar-tukar untuk mengabui mata Orang Melayu. Tuhan pun dia tukar-tukar apa lagi dasar perjuaangan. Si Mamat ini lebih hodoh dari si Tenggang. Dia lupa terus asal usulnya. Dia melupakan meruku dan thosainya. Ini bukan fitnah saya. Kalau tidak percaya tanya Hindraf dan Aliran. Kah kah kah.

Mamat Kedua dalam teater ini bernama Mamat Kurapan. Mamat ini tidak ada sangkut paut dengan satu jenis penyakit kulit, harap maklum. Kendati pun kita masih tidak mengetahui asal usulnya. Justeru, kita jangan tersalah orang. Mamat Kurapan ini tidak ada juga kena mengena dengan Pemimpn Agung MIC. Perbezaan si Mamat Kurapan ini dengan Pemimpin Agung MIC cukup jelas. Mamat Kurapan ini ada rambut dan tidak memakai tupee seperti Pemimpin Agung MIC.

Mamat ini cukup sangap. Sama seperti Mamat Segaran dia memiliki cita-cita politik yang amat besar. Tetapi Mamat ini masih setia dengan merukunya. Cita-citanya tidaklah sebesar Segaran Pillai yang ingin menjaga Keadilan Dunia. Si Kurapan hanya bercita-cita untuk menjadi Pemimpin Agung masyarakat India di seluruh Malaysia. Rasa saya cita-cita Mamat ini cukup murni.

Si Kurapan telah menubuhkan Malaysian Indian United Party (MIUP). Macam mana parti ini dapat lesen pertubuhan dalam masa 3 hari saya pun tidak tahu. Walhal ada parti politik yang telah menunggu sampai sepuluh tahun untuk mendapat lesen. Tetapi ini cerita lain.

Tidak menjadi satu kesalahan untuk menubuhkan parti politik. Malah ini adalah cara yang paling senang untuk menjadi Presiden sesebuah parti politik. Tanpa pertandingan di cawangan atau di bahagian si Kurapan ini terus menjadi Presiden MIUP. Ini samalah macam Mahathir Muhamad menubuhkan gerombolan United Malays Nastional Organisation dahulu. Mahathir terus melantik dirinya sebagai presiden. Khalas.

Si Kurapan ini betul-betul sangap politik. Dia menjemput Najib Razak untuk merasmikan penubuhan MIUP. Si Kurapan pasti membuat perhitungan bahawa satu kurun lagi Najib Razak akan menjadi PM Malaysia. Kalau sekarang dia sudah ‘parking’ di sebelah Najib pasti dia dapat menyikat rambut Najib untuk mendapatkan lesen kasino. Hebat. Antara Rosmah dengan Kurapan siapa agaknya yang akan dipilih oleh Najib? Jawabnya pastilah Saiful Bukhari. Bijak Mamat Kurapan ini.

Tetapi sebenarnya Mamat Kurapan ini cukup bebal. MIUP telah dilancarkan oleh Najib pada hari HINDRAF mengadakan demo di Kuala Lumpur. Dia langsung tidak tahu sentimen masyarakat India. Kurang arif saya bagaimana si Kurapan ini mahu menjadi pemimpin semua orang India kalau program penting masyarakat India pun dia tidak tahu. Akhirnya dewan pesidangan kosong. Habuk orang India pun tidak ada dalam dewan. Nasi dan lauk pauh tinggal bersepah untuk dimakan kucing. Hasilnya yang mendengar ucapan Najib hanya si Kurapan. Majlis akhirnya menjadi pesta kucing kurap.

Pelawak Ketiga dalam teater lawak bodoh ini tidak lain dan tidak bukan ialah Mat Ezam. Seperti tulisan saya minggu lalu Mat Ezam ini telah dihinggapi oleh penyakit KKS – kurang kaseh sayang. Akhir-akhir ini dari apa yang saya difahamkan penyakit Mat Ezam ini kini telah bertambah teruk. Dia sekarang bukan sahaja diserang olih KKS tetapi telah dijangkiti pula oleh TB.

Tanda-tanda awal KKS ini telah dapat kita lihat agak lama dahulu. Riak-riak penyakit TB ini baru muncul dalam bulan Ferbuari/March yang lalu. Kita jangan lupa Mat Ezam ini telah ke hulu ke hilir awal tahun ini. Dia menziarah Kelantan, dia melawat opis Pas di Jalan Raja Laut ( jangan ketawa Mat Ezam masuk ikut pintu depan bukan pintu belakang ). Semua ini adalah riak-riak, tanda-tanda dan simptom penyakit TB.

Serangan TB kali pertama terhadap Mat Ezam sampai pada awal March. Serangan TB ini cukup hebat. Semput Mat Ezam terutama apabila keputusan piliharaya memperlihatkan banyak kerusi telah di menangi olih PKR.

Kerana serangan TB ini bagitu hebat Mat Ezam menjadi jaki apabila melihat PKR kini menjadi parti yang kukuh lagi berpengaruh. Mat Ezam tidak boleh tahan lagi lalu memasuki gerombolan United Malays National Organistaion.

Satu minggu sesudah memasuki gerombolan itu Mat Ezam telah diserang sekali lagi oleh TB. Kali ini serangan datang bertalu-talu. Semput sekali lagi Mat Ezam kerana serangan TB ini. Penyakit jenis TB ini amat merbahaya terutama kepada sesiapa sahaja yang suka bersumpah, suka mencabar dan cakap bergegar-gegar.

Lawak penyakit Mat Ezam ini menjadi bodoh lagi menyeramkan. Berita paling terakhir yang saya terima cukup sedih lagi pilu. Mat Ezam telah cukup bodek agar dia tidak lagi diserang oleh penyakit TB. Sayang, Mat Ezam di serang lagi. Kali ini dia hampir hilang nafas. Mat Ezam sedih lagi kecewa. Malah dia hampir tidak percaya kenapa penyakit TB – Tidak Bertanding - ini terus menerus menyerang walhal dia telah cukup bodek.

Banyangkan bulan March lalu Mat Ezam Tidak Bertanding kerana tidak ada parti politik yang hendak beri laluan untuk Gerak. Kemudian Mat Ezam berangan-angan hendak mejadi Ketua Pemuda gerombolan United Malays National Organisation tetapi dilarang lalu Tidak Bertanding. Akhirnya Mat Ezam berharap sangat dia akan di pilih di Permatang Pauh. Tetapi sekali lagi dia diketepikan lalu Tidak Bertanding.

Penyakit TB ini telah menyebabkan Mat Ezam menjadi Gila Talak ke hulu ke hilir membebel untuk memburuk-burukkan Pakatan Rakyat. Sedih cerita lawak bodoh ini. Nampaknya Gila Talak ini juga telah menjangkiti Mat Segaran Pillai dan Mat Kurapan.

Demikianlah kesah lawak bodoh Tiga Mamat yang sedang di hinggapi oleh penyakit Gila Talak. Ubat gila talak ini hanyalah suntikan 3P – Permatang Pauh, Parlimen dan Putrajaya.

DARI JELEBU

Hishamuddin Rais

Mara Is Progress Not Facism

Mara means "to advance (forward)". It is the opposite of "retreat" and the declaration of defeat. It does not mean Undur.

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) must live up to its name. So must its younger brother Maktab Rendah Sains MARA. It is in the interest of the public to suggest good ideas for reform - and to advance.

In my lifetime I have been affiliated with both organisations. I taught in the former institution and I was schooled in the latter. Whether a product of historical accident or not, I am proud of my experiences in both. There is a reason for things to happen. I came from a poor family and was given the chance to have an education I wish many more Malaysians, my parents included.

But I wish to share my view on this troubling phenomenon that is plaguing a certain segment of the Malays. My argument will be largely linguistic.

What is the Malay view of the recent protest of UiTM student - of those young "men-in-black" whose are mourning and calling for the death of reason and rationality and for critical sensibility?

I think Malays in general are angry at the protesters. I think they are embarrassed that those few thousands of Malay students were displaying their ignorance of what Universiti Mara means.

While other universities have advanced (sudah mara ke hadapan) and are proud that they are embracing diversity and sharing resources for the benefit of deserving children of all races, those protesting UiTM students are experiencing the opposite.

They are yelling with pride the word "defeat" and "retreat". Instead of Ayuh Mara they are actually saying Jom Undur. While thinking needs to advance, these students are saying that they need to digress (Ayuh… mari mundur ke belakang). Mundur is the derivative word.

Should a university embody the philosophy of mundur rather than mara? Should it even be proud of being and embodiment of that philosophy? I doubt it. Only a misguided leader will be proud of being a guide to 'defeat and retreat' while the world around 'advances' and moves.

But these students are not entirely at fault. It is the ideology and perpetrators of the ideology of undur itself that's at fault. It is the leaders implementing the retrogressive ideology that are at fault.

It is the systematic indoctrination programme of ketuanan Melayu run over the decades that are advancing this UiTM philosophy of retreat.

It is an overdose of the work of government-sponsored Biro Tata Negara (BTN) that is making the mass retreat and defeat possible. It is the work of Malay-dominated agencies like these that are imprisoning the minds of the Malays. This is an anti-Malay-progress establishment that is using deformed arguments on race and ethnicity to pursue an educational ideology that has gone bankrupt.http://www.malaysiawaves.com/2008/07/umnos-latest-psy-war-materials-exposed.html

Docile Malay intended

This is an anti-Malaysian mode of thinking that is still allowed to shackle the mind of the Malays. The idea is simple: make the Malay mind docile and afraid to think and you will divide and conquer them.

UiTM students need to instead protest against the continuing oppression they are experiencing through the work of their own institution and through BTN. They should demand that multiculturalism instead of blind nationalism be made the foundation of their college experience. UiTM students are more intelligent than those who protested against the suggestion.

In the 1980s UiTM's (then ITM) orientation programme used to be conducted using the tactics of sheer humiliation and stupidity; meant to stupefy the young, bright Malay minds.

The ROTU (Reserve Officers Training Unit then) was part of the week-long organisers of the orientation to create an awareness of how ITM students must learn to live in a tough and challenging environment.

Senior students would prey upon the incoming freshmen to make them 'tough' through humiliation – name-calling, physical threats, psychological abuse, etc. Minggu Orientasi (Orientation Week) is a week for the seniors to have control over the mind of the Malays; oftentimes in a gangsterish way.

Of course, it is also the time for the senior boys to show toughness to the young girls in this 'big brother-little sister' game of tough love. Many of them fell involved with each other in this 'Master-Slave' relationship. Even senior girls prey upon young boys, acting rough and tough on them. Pathetic paternalistic philosophy in progress.

At times the freshmen would be roughened up by students in army boots and told to just follow instructions if they are to survive in ITM. They will be screamed at for trying to speak up. This is the ideology of ketuanan Melayu at work; how to enslave the mind of the young Malays and continue to do so through the hidden curriculum designed by those who wish to have control over the mind of the bright young and eager-to-learn Malays.

Instead of teaching the in-coming students how to take good notes, listen to lectures, speak up in public, pay extra attention to English Language, and be open to new ideas, respect each other, and learn from other cultures, the Malay students are subjected to humiliation in a place that called itself a university.


Retrogressive ideologies

In MRSM as well, a predominantly Malay-elite secondary institution for the best and brightest young Malays, similar things have been happening since the 1980s as well. Kursus Kesedaran (Self Awareness Courses) are conducted to instill the questionable idea of Ketuanan Melayu, making the children afraid of "Malaysian boogeymen and boogeywomen" and their own shadows.

Open-mindedness is rarely encouraged and students take control over each others' lives transplanting retrogressive ideologies into each other's head, with the help of ultra-nationalist and anti-multiculturalist teachers.

Even if these children survive the ideological ordeal and experience 'tough love' and go on to get their degrees from top American and British universities, they will still be Malays with a shallow understanding of multiculturalism or become more sophisticated Malays with more complex arguments on Ketuanan Melayu. http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/2008/02/155-malay-view-of-ketuanan-melayu.html

They will then design policies to affect the needed sustenance of ideology in order to protect the interests of the few. Neo-feudalistic cybernetic Malays are then new creation of the political-economic ruling class. They run the country and many are now running it down.

As an educator wishing to see Malays progress alongside in peace and prosperity with other races, I call upon us all to put a stop to all forms of indoctrination held especially by the BTN; an organisation that is of no value to the advancement of the Malays they claim to want to liberate.

It should be taken over by progressive Malaysians and replaced with a systematic effort to promote not only racial understanding through teaching respect and deep reflection on the cultures of the peoples of Malaysia, but also teach conflict resolution and mediation through cross-cultural perspectives. All must question the presence of BTN on campuses. All must reject BTN's programme for indoctrination.

Let us no longer allow any government body of that sort to set foot on our campuses or our schools. As Malaysians we have to demand an end to the further dissemination of racist ideologies.

Open up, not only UiTM and MRSM but also Umno to more cultures. We will have a great celebration of diversity and respect for human dignity in decades to come. I speak as a silent reproduction and capitalised human of both MRSM and UiTM; a product of the human capital revolution of the Mahathir era.

MARA means progress. Malays are now sick of contradictions and doublespeak. They do not wish to Undur. Let us all protest against the stupefication of the Malays. Let us dismantle racist institutions.

Dr Azly Rahman
Republic of Virtue

BN - The Deterioration Of English In Malaysia

Dear Friends,
Within a span of 30 odd years the command of English among our students has deteriorated to such an extent that intelligent young graduates have trouble getting their ideas across in languages other than their own. Even our local lawyers are of poor quality for lack of English.

I have been teaching English in secondary schools and tuition centres for 41 years in Kuantan and most of my Form 5 and Form 6 students can neither speak nor write proper English. Almost every sentence has to be corrected.

Surprisingly, some of them could even score an A or a strong credit in the SPM Examination. The same answers would most likely earn them an E or a F during my time. There is quality in the English Question Papers but the passing mark has been manipulated in such a way that even the undeserving students manage to score an A for English. This speaks volumes for our education system.

Various reasons have been given for the decline in the English standard but so far, nobody has honestly pointed out that the root cause is the short-sightedness of the Barisan National leaders and education ministers.

They lack foresight and zealously enhance the national language at the expense of English.

Had they thought over the education policy soberly with their head instead of emotionally with their heart, they would have enhanced the national language without diluting the English language.



Parents and teachers have expressed their concern over reports that the Education Ministry may be thinking of reverting to teaching Science and Mathematics in Bahasa Malaysia. Don’t our leaders ever learn from past mistakes? Have they not done enough damage in the field of education?

I pray that our Prime Minister and his Education Minister have the political will to act swiftly to contain the rot.

I hope they will take measures to produce students who can cope with the pressures and competition of this fast changing world and be able to keep abreast of discoveries through the English language, even to the extent of bringing back English schools.

This move will not only strengthen our children’s command of English but also do away with the system that favours the elites in the form of private and international schools.

The Barisan National’s electoral setbacks should prompt the BN leaders to pull up their socks.

The rakyat nowadays demand progressive leaders who can deliver and run the country.

IBRAHIM ZAKARIA,


Kuantan.

The Peak Oil Theory


Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline. The concept is based on the observed production rates of individual oil wells, and the combined production rate of a field of related oil wells. The aggregate production rate from an oil field over time appears to grow exponentially until the rate peaks and then declines, sometimes rapidly, until the field is depleted. It has been shown to be applicable to the sum of a nation’s domestic production rate, and is similarly applied to the global rate of petroleum production. It is important to note that peak oil is not about running out of oil, but the peaking and subsequent decline of the production rate of oil.

M. King Hubbert created and first used this theory in 1956 to accurately predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970.[1] His logistic model, now called Hubbert peak theory, and its variants have been shown to be descriptive with reasonable accuracy of the peak and decline of production from oil wells, fields, regions, and countries,[2] and has also proved useful in other limited-resource production-domains. According to the Hubbert model, the production rate of a limited resource will follow a roughly symmetrical bell-shaped curve based on the limits of exploitability and market pressures. Various modified versions of his original logistic model are used, using more complex functions to allow for real world factors. While each version is applied to a specific domain, the central features of the Hubbert curve (that production stops rising, flattens and then declines) remain unchanged, albeit with different profiles.

Some observers, such as petroleum industry experts Kenneth S. Deffeyes and Matthew Simmons, believe the high dependence of most modern industrial transport, agricultural and industrial systems on the relative low cost and high availability of oil will cause the post-peak production decline and possible severe increases in the price of oil to have negative implications for the global economy. Predictions vary greatly as to what exactly these negative effects would be.

If political and economic changes only occur in reaction to high prices and shortages rather than in reaction to the threat of a peak, then the degree of economic damage to importing countries will largely depend on how rapidly oil imports decline post-peak. According to the Export Land Model, oil exports drop much more quickly than production drops due to domestic consumption increases in exporting countries. Supply shortfalls would cause extreme price inflation, unless demand is mitigated with planned conservation measures and use of alternatives.[3]

Optimistic estimations of peak production forecast the global decline will begin by 2020 or later, and assume major investments in alternatives will occur before a crisis, without requiring major changes in the lifestyle of heavily oil-consuming nations. These models show the price of oil at first escalating and then retreating as other types of fuel and energy sources are used.[4]

Pessimistic predictions of future oil production operate on the thesis that either the peak has already occurred,[5][6][7] we are on the cusp of the peak, or that it will occur shortly[8] and, as proactive mitigation may no longer be an option, predict a global depression, perhaps even initiating a chain reaction of the various feedback mechanisms in the global market which might stimulate a collapse of global industrial civilization, potentially leading to large population declines within a short period. Throughout the first two quarters of 2008, there were signs that a possible US recession was being made worse by a series of record oil prices.

The demand side of Peak oil is concerned with the consumption over time, and the growth of this demand. World crude oil demand grew an average of 1.76% per year from 1994 to 2006, with a high of 3.4% in 2003-2004. World demand for oil is projected to increase 37% over 2006 levels by 2030 (118 million barrels per day (18.8×106 m3/d) from 86 million barrels (13.7×106 m3)), due in large part to increases in demand from the transportation sector.[10][11]

Energy demand is distributed amongst four broad sectors: transportation, residential, commercial, and industrial.[12][13] In terms of oil use, transportation is the largest sector and the one that has seen the largest growth in demand in recent decades. This growth has largely come from new demand for personal-use vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.[14] This sector also has the highest consumption rates, accounting for approximately 68.9% of the oil used in the United States in 2006,[15] and 55% of oil use worldwide as documented in the Hirsch report. Transportation is therefore of particular interest to those seeking to mitigate the effects of Peak oil.


United States oil production peaked in 1970. By 2005 imports were twice the production.Although demand growth is highest in the developing world,[16] the United States is the world's largest consumer of petroleum. Between 1995 and 2005, US consumption grew from 17.7 million barrels a day to 20.7 million barrels a day, a 3 million barrel a day increase. China, by comparison, increased consumption from 3.4 million barrels a day to 7 million barrels a day, an increase of 3.6 million barrels a day, in the same time frame.[17]

As countries develop, industry, rapid urbanization and higher living standards drive up energy use, most often of oil. Thriving economies such as China and India are quickly becoming large oil consumers.[18] China has seen oil consumption grow by 8% yearly since 2002, doubling from 1996-2006,[16] In 2008, auto sales in China were expected to grow by as much as 15-20 percent, resulting in part from economic growth rates of over 10 percent for 5 years in a row.[19] Although swift continued growth in China is often predicted, others predict that China's export dominated economy will not continue such growth trends due to wage and price inflation and reduced demand from the US.[20] India's oil imports are expected to more than triple from 2005 levels by 2020, rising to 5 million barrels per day (790×103 m3/d).[21]


Population

World populationAnother significant factor on petroleum demand has been human population growth. Oil production per capita peaked in the 1970s.[22] The world’s population in 2030 is expected to be double that of 1980.[23] Author Matt Savinar predicts that oil production in 2030 will have declined back to 1980 levels as worldwide demand for oil significantly out-paces production.[24][25] Physicist Albert Bartlett claims that the rate of oil production per capita is falling, and that the decline has gone undiscussed because a politically incorrect form of population control may be implied by mitigation.[26] Oil production per capita has declined from 5.26 barrels per year (0.836 m³/a) in 1980 to 4.44 barrels per year (0.706 m³/a) in 1993,[27][23] but then increased to 4.79 barrels per year (0.762 m³/a) in 2005.[27][23] In 2006, the world oil production took a downturn from 84.631 to 84.597 million barrels per day (13.4553×106 to 13.4498×106 m3/d) although population has continued to increase. This has caused the oil production per capita to drop again to 4.73 barrels per year (0.752 m³/a).[27][23]

One factor that has so far helped ameliorate the effect of population growth on demand is the decline of population growth rate since the 1970s, although this is offset to a degree by increasing average longevity in developed nations. In 1970, the population grew at 2.1%. By 2007, the growth rate had declined to 1.167%.[28] However, oil production is still outpacing population growth to meet demand. World population grew by 6.2% from 6.07 billion in 2000 to 6.45 billion in 2005,[23] whereas according to BP, global oil production during that same period increased from 74.9 to 81.1 million barrels (11.91×106 to 12.89×106 m3), or by 8.2%.[29] or according to EIA, from 77.762 to 84.631 million barrels (12.3632×106 to 13.4553×106 m3), or by 8.8%.[27]


Agriculture and population limits
Further information: Agricultural effects of peak oil, Food vs fuel and 2007–2008 world food price crisis
Because supplies of oil and gas are essential to modern agriculture techniques, a fall in global oil supplies could cause spiking food prices and unprecedented famine in the coming decades.[30][note 1] Geologist Dale Allen Pfeiffer contends that current population levels are unsustainable, and that to achieve a sustainable economy and avert disaster the United States population would have to be reduced by at least one-third, and world population by two-thirds.[31] The largest consumer of fossil fuels in modern agriculture is fertilizer production via the Haber process, which is essential to high perennial corn yields. If a sustainable non-petroleum source of electricity is developed, this process can be accomplished without fossil fuels using methods such as electrolysis

The Government is merely a Servant, We are The Boss

Does the government have the prerogative to decide what is right and wrong for the society? Shouldn't we, the people i.e. People Power, decide what is just and patriotic and it is the responsibility of the government to obey the command of the people rather than have it imposing it's will upon us?

The ISA defies logic and humanity. It is wielded in the guise of promoting public safety but utilized to instil fear. That is the hypocrisy of our government. And now the government is talking about Race Relations. Another power tool for the government?

People Power has to be awakened rather than waiting for our shining knight to fight our battle. Our own inaction and abeyance creates the atmosphere that prevails in our society without realizing the damage that we are doing to ourselves and to society at large.

Wake up, my Dear Malaysians! You can't change the world let alone Malaysia if you do nothing. In order to make a difference we must ACT! We cannot be a slave forever to a system that dictates our lives. We need to start a system that is humane and real - for the betterment of our society.

The moral hazards that we have to deal with in our day to day life have reached their limit. We need to create an environment that is truly sustainable to create a truly Malaysian nation irrespective of our origins.

People are not born racist. It is taught. A child will not know the difference between black & white, or race & religion, unless we instil that into them.

Until and unless we utilize People Power, humanity, passion, and feelings for one another will be sidelined. Let's wake up and do something in our own miniscule way to enhance society rather than creeping and brooding about our own individual needs. When people start caring for one another, our own individual lives will be so much more enhanced.

Anwar vs Najib - Who Will Win?


KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 — By a small margin, Malaysians think opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim would make a better prime minister compared with Datuk Seri Najib Razak, according to a survey conducted recently by the independent Merdeka Centre.

In the same survey, Malaysians also appear more divided than ever over their support for the country's political leadership.

There are also sharp differences in preferences between the different races, with a majority of non-Malays supporting Anwar, while more Malays preferred Najib.

Between Sept 11 and 22, Merdeka Centre carried out a leadership performance perception on a cross section of 1,002 people of voting age from the three main ethnic communities in the country.

Among the questions asked was: "Between Najib Razak and Anwar Ibrahim, who do you think makes a better prime minister?"

Najib garnered a 33.8 per cent average total support among the three major races. Anwar edged him by a margin of less than six per cent — he garnered an average total of 39.3 per cent.

The difference is more conspicuous when the show of support is broken down according to the ethnicity of those polled.

The split was apparent among racial lines, with Najib drawing as much as 47.3 per cent support from the Malay community. Anwar trailed with just 32.5 per cent.

The opposition leader gained greater support among non-Malays, receiving the support of 37.4 per cent of Chinese voters and a whopping 85 per cent from the Indians.

In comparison, Najib only won the approval of 18.4 per cent of Chinese voters and just five per cent of Indians thought he would make a better prime minister.

Of note was the high percentage of voters who remained non-commital. More than 40 per cent of Chinese voters polled expressed no preference.

Based on the poll results, Malay support for Najib is significantly stronger than that for Anwar.

Political analyst Tricia Yeoh says the party factor is a very strong featuring factor with the non-Malay communities.

"It is possible they view Najib as continuing to perpetuate the same kind of politics that has plagued Malaysia through Umno," she said.

"Anwar will need to fight for Malay support most prominently since Najib may continue to be seen as the final bastion of support for the Malay position," she added.

Another political analyst, Khoo Kay Peng, sees it differently.

"No doubt Najib commands higher support among the Malay community because of the status of Umno as a Malay party. It has been representing the Malays for a long time. But at 47.3 per cent, the support is not really very high for Najib. It's not much off Abdullah's support," he said.

Based on the same Merdeka Centre report, Abdullah still enjoys 50.7 per cent support from the Malays.

"The key is that Najib does not get much support from the Chinese and Indians. Najib is still seen as a Malay leader.

"If you want to be the prime minister, you must have support from across the board," he said.

"Anwar stands a much better chance because he gets support from over 30 per cent of the Chinese and the Indians, predominantly from the Indians, which is consistent with past reports," he pointed out.

In a toss up between who will become the next prime minister, he felt it would definitely be Anwar.

But for Khalid Samad, the Pas MP for Shah Alam and an ally of Anwar, the results are frightening for the Pakatan Rakyat alliance.

He said the results of the survey showed government media propaganda still held sway, especially among the rural Malays.

He is concerned that much of the Malay media has portrayed a negative impression of Anwar as being an "immoral guy" and being a stooge of the United States.

"Basically, Umno-Barisan Nasional has been quite successful in conning Malays into believing that Anwar is selling out the Malays and that is the reason for the low percentage of support for Anwar," said Khalid.

"These are not very encouraging results if it is representative of the entire population. It means there is a problem. Anwar will have to work harder.

"It's important he should have at least a 50-50 situation among Malays. That would suffice," he stressed.

But he does not think that the sample poll is a true reflection of the voting populace.

"I don't think that Anwar in the actual situation is that far behind Najib. I would expect 47 per cent for Najib and 45 per cent for Anwar.

"The difference, almost 15 per cent difference in support from Malays, gives the impression that if Pakatan Rakyat comes to power, the position of the Malays will be jeopardised.

"But no one race will lose out under Pakatan leadership," he said.

- The Malaysian Insider

Brand New Honda City 1.5 i-VTEC





A new set of photos of the new 2009 Honda City have been released, this time a left hand drive version as a preview to the car’s official European unveiling at the Istanbul Motor Show this October 2008.

The European market Honda City will be fitted with a 100 PS 1.5 liter i-VTEC engine mated to a 5-speed transmission, and apparently the new City - like its European Jazz and Civic hatch siblings - will feature a 6-speed i-SHIFT automated manual transmission with steering-mounted paddle shifts will serve those who do not want to bother with a manual clutch on a daily basis.

The 5-speed manual transmission has been improved over the previous version, now featuring a carbon synchromesh for smoother gear changes as well a new set of gear ratios optimised for the new engine.

Other than the left hand drive interior, something new shown with this new set of photos is the fact that the car features an automatic climate control system with digital display instead of the three-knob manual air conditioning controls that were shown in the previous set of photos. The exterior also looks a little different, with some extra side strips somehow giving the car a more stout look. Frankly I prefer the Asian version’s exterior.

USM gets apex status

By SIMRIT KAUR and KAREN CHAPMAN

PUTRAJAYA: Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) has been granted apex status. With it, USM can expect hundreds of millions of ringgit in additional funding to transform it into Malaysia's first world-class university.

Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said that quantitative and qualitative criteria were used to select USM under the accelerated programme for excellence (apex).

“The selection committee evaluated each university's state of readiness, transformation plan and preparedness for change.

“After a thorough evaluation, the committee decided that only one university truly met all the criteria, namely USM,'' he told a press conference yesterday.

The Cabinet had agreed to USM being given the apex status on Aug 27.

The university that is given apex status is one that has the greatest potential among Malaysian universities to be world-class, and as such, would be given additional assistance to compete with top-ranked global institutions, added Khaled.

He said with apex status, USM will be expected to move up the World University Rankings with a target of top 200 in five years' and top 100, if not top 50, by 2020.

In last year’s Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings, Universiti Malaya (UM) was the highest ranked Malaysian university at 246, followed by USM (307), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (309) and Universiti Putra Malaysia (364).

A selection committee headed by former Universiti Malaysia Sarawak vice-chancellor Prof Emeritus Datuk Dr Mohamad Zawawi Ismail short-listed USM, UM, UKM and UPM.

USM's transformation plan, entitled “Transforming Higher Education for a Sustainable Tomorrow” focussed, among other things, on diagnostics, medical biotechnology, waste management, pharmaceuticals, nano-technology, membrane technology and vaccines.

Asked why UM was not selected, Khaled said: “I hope the apex status will spur other universities to strive for excellence, too. It's not about selecting the oldest university but choosing one with a doable plan that can help us transform our higher education.”

The other universities that applied for apex status were International Islamic University Malaysia, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Universiti Teknologi Petronas and Universiti Tenaga Nasional.

(The Star, 4 September 2008, Nation)

BMW to offer double-clutch autobox for 335i




BMW will soon offer drivers of the 335i Coupé and 335i Convertible the option of a new sports automatic transmission with a double clutch, a replacement for the previous 6-speed Steptronic gearbox. The new 7-speed transmission is said to permit faster acceleration than the 6-speeder manual, reduce fuel consumption and emissions and can be controlled via the gear selector or steering wheel-mounted shift paddles.

The newly-designed shift lever is clearly differentiated from a conventional automatic transmission selector lever by its shape and its integrated display for the selected shift program. There is no mechanical linkage as the driver’s inputs are communicated electronically. The shift layout is the same as that of a regular automatic transmission, though the lever always returns to its original position after performing a selection. The shift program in use or gear position is shown on the shift lever display and is repeated on the instrument panel.

The new transmission was developed for the BMW 335i Coupé and 335i Convertible and is able to handle the output of the powerful and high-revving engines fitted to these vehicles, eg 225 kW and 400 Nm of torque.



The key benefit of the new transmission is that drive torque to the rear wheels is not interrupted during the gear shifting phase as in conventional manual transmissions, meaning acceleration is constant and seamless, just like a conventional automatic. A full gear change now takes place in the time a conventional manual transmission would take merely to disengage the clutch.

In the case of the 335i Coupé fitted with the new transmission, claimed 0 to 100 km/h acceleration time is now just 5.4 seconds – 0.1 second quicker than the model fitted as standard with a 6-speed manual transmission, and 0.3 seconds faster than the 335i Coupé with the previously available 6-speed automatic transmission.

Enthusiastic acceleration goes hand in hand with outstanding shift comfort especially in day-to-day stop-start traffic. The swift, slick change of gears makes for sublime acceleration. The load change reactions associated with conventional transmission systems are completely eliminated. Even when accessing the maximum dynamic performance available, a level of comfort is achieved, which was not feasible previously, says BMW.

Book Review : The Road Ahead by Bill Gates


The Road Ahead, a book written by Bill Gates, Nathan Myhrvold and Peter Rinearson and published in November 1995, summarized the implications of the personal computing revolution and described a future profoundly changed by the arrival of a global interactive network. The hardback edition, which was top of the New York Times bestseller list for seven weeks in late 1995 and early 1996, did not foresee that the then-nascent Internet would evolve into the interactive network that Gates would later predict. Indeed, Microsoft intended that MSN would become the dominant network. After the book was written, but before it hit bookstores, Gates recognized that the Internet was gaining the critical mass needed to drive it to dominance, and on December 7, 1995 — just weeks after the release of the book — he redirected Microsoft to become an Internet-focused company. Then he and coauthor Rinearson spent several months revising the book, making it 20,000 words longer and focused on the Internet. The revised edition was published in October 1996 as a trade paperback.[1] Both editions came with a CD-ROM that contained the text of the book and supplemental information. The hardback was published by Viking, and the paperback by Penguin, an affiliate of Viking. Numerous publishers around the world produced translated versions of the book, which was particularly popular among university students in China. One of Gates' coauthors, Nathan Myhrvold, was a computer scientist and Microsoft vice president who for a time oversaw Microsoft's research efforts and later co-founded Intellectual Ventures, an intellectual property company. The other co-author, Peter Rinearson, was a Pulitzer Prize winner and entrepreneur who would later found and sell an Internet company and become a Microsoft vice president.

Quotes by Bill Gates :-

- 640K ought to be enough for anybody.

- As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.

- Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

- I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

- If you can't make it good, at least make it look good.

- If you think your teacher is tough, wait until you get a boss. He doesn't have tenure.

- In this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone.

- Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.

- It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.

- Life is not fair; get used to it.

- People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.

- Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

- Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.

- The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.

- This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50.

- We've got to put a lot of money into changing behavior.

- Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

Free Raja Petra Kamaruddin ASAP

To: The Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar

The Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi

The Government of Malaysia


As a concerned citizen of the free world, I take exception to your
fascist use of an unjust law to shut up dissent and exposes of the
wrong doings in your Government today. Take notice that I have
forwarded this email to similar citizens of the free world and human
rights champions throughout the world.

A detention order illegally signed without the citizen concerned
having any legal or judicial review is a BLATANT IMMORAL ACT of
fascism against a citizen of your country and is an affront to every
free citizen of the world. My condoning your actions will invite my
own government to do the same and this cannot be accepted for the
sake of my family and myself.


Thank you,
Azizan Md Nor
CEO & President - Rich Mindset Training
A subdiary of Team Xpert Global Entrepreneur

Friday, September 26, 2008

Alzheimer Penyebab Nyanyuk






PENYAKIT Alzheimer ialah bentuk penyakit nyanyuk (dementia) paling umum yang dialami oleh manusia berusia 65 tahun dan ke atas. Ini bukan sebahagian daripada proses penuaan normal, tetapi penyakit yang menyebabkan kehilangan progresif sel saraf otak. Memandangkan sel saraf ini penting untuk pemikiran normal, daya ingatan dan fungsi otak, mereka yang menghidap penyakit Alzheimer mengalami kemerosotan fungsi otak yang mengganggu kegiatan harian normal mereka.

Secara beransur-ansur, pesakit Alzheimer hilang keupayaan mereka untuk melakukan kegiatan harian paling asas seperti memberus gigi, memakai pakaian, mandi dan lain-lain. Pada akhirnya, keupayaan mereka untuk berjalan dan bercakap juga mungkin terjejas atau hilang sama sekali.

Dikenali sebagai penyakit 'The Long Goodbye', penyakit ini lazimnya meliputi tempoh lebih sepuluh hingga 20 tahun. Walaupun penyelidikan intensif dijalankan kebelakangan ini, penyakit Alzheimer masih belum difahami sepenuhnya dan tiada penawar yang diketahui, lantas pengesanan dan rawatan awal merupakan satu-satunya pilihan untuk menguruskan penyakit dengan berkesan.

Menurut Pakar Runding Geriatrik Pusat Perubatan Universiti Malaya, Prof Dr Philip Poi Jun Hua, Alzheimer sejenis penyakit otak degeneratif yang dialami oleh kira-kira 24 juta orang di seluruh dunia.

"Perkara yang sering dikhuatiri ialah kepatuhan pengambilan ubat kerana penyakit Alzheimer menjejaskan daya ingatan seseorang. Pesakit mungkin lupa mengambil ubat atau terlupa mereka telah mengambil dos.

"Maklum balas daripada para penjaga pesakit menunjukkan bahawa sering kali, pesakit enggan mengambil ubat kerana berpendapat mereka tidak menghidap sebarang penyakit. Kaedah pemberian ubat baru ini memberikan pilihan tambahan yang amat dihargai kepada kira-kira 50,000 rakyat Malaysia lanjut usia yang menghidap penyakit ini," katanya ketika majlis pelancaran rawatan transdermal penyakit Alzheimer's, Exelon Patch.

Sementara itu, Ketua Perubatan, Novartis Corporation (Malaysia), Dr Premila Paranchothy, memberitahu, rawatan ini menawarkan manfaat terapeutik yang unik dengan mengekalkan kandungan ubat yang sama dalam aliran darah, lantas mengurangkan kesan sampingan gastrousus seperti loya dan muntah.

"Keupayaan memberi pesakit rawatan yang berkesan menerusi tampalan yang mudah dan senang digunakan merupakan satu kemajuan besar. Bagi penjaga, tampalan ini memberikan jaminan yang nyata bahawa pesakit telah mengambil ubat, jadi mereka tidak perlu lagi bimbang tentang perkara ini," katanya.

Dalam pada itu, Dr. Philip memberitahu, Alzheimer sekarang menjadi masalah kesihatan umum utama yang semakin serius dihadapi oleh golongan warga emas dan memerlukan penjagaan keluarga mereka.

"Alzheimer merupakan penyakit nyanyuk yang biasa menyerang warga emas. Mengikut statistik Asia Pasifik, penghidap penyakit ini telah mencecah 18 juta orang. Lebih kurang 60,000 orang di Malaysia merupakan penghidap Alzheimer. Dijangka pada tahun 2020, angka ini akan berganda kepada 120,000 orang," katanya.

Tambah Dr. Philip, berkorban masa dan tenaga menjaga warga emas yang menghidap penyakit Alzheimer atau nyanyuk bukanlah satu perkara mudah.

"Penyakit Alzheimer bukan hanya nyanyuk yang disebabkan proses penuaan. Sebaliknya, ia adalah sejenis masalah kesihatan yang memerlukan perhatian daripada keluarga pesakit. Ia menyebabkan keupayaan fungsi otak menurun dan memusnahkan kemahiran daya ingatan dan pemikiran seseorang," jelasnya.

Risiko untuk menghidap Alzheimer, penyakit yang sinonim dengan warga tua ini, meningkat seiring dengan pertambahan usia.

Menurut Dr. Philip, simptom dementia yang paling awal adalah menjadi pelupa terutama mengenai perkara penting dan dilakukan setiap hari. Mereka perlu dibawa berjumpa doktor bagi menjalani pemeriksaan bagi mengesahkannya.

Jelasnya, sebaik sahaja menusia mencecah 20 tahu, proses kematian sel-sel di dalam otak mula berlaku dan menyebabkan otak mengecut. Kemusnahan sel-sel otak secara berterusan menyebabkan kualiti daya ingatan semakin berkurangan.

Dr. Philip memberitahu, dementia merujuk kepada sekumpulan gejala yang berkaitan dengan hilang ingatan, berlaku secara perlahan-lahan tanpa disedari tetapi akhirnya boleh menjadi bertambah teruk.

Akibatnya, seseorang sukar mengingat sesuatu dan menjejaskan keupayaannya untuk berfikir dengan baik hingga boleh mengganggu aktiviti normal dan rutin seperti makan dan menguruskan kebersihan diri.

"Selain kemerosotan pemikiran, pesakit turut mengalami perubahan dari segi personaliti dan tingkah laku serta perasaan mereka.

Menurutnya, sekiranya pesakit mendapat rawatan pada peringkat awal, ia sekali gus mampu mengurangkan masalah penjagaan yang membebankan ahli keluarga.

"Mengesan gejala Alzheimer pada peringkat awal merupakan satu kelebihan. Doktor boleh memberi panduan tentang tanda-tanda awal demetia. Jika pesakit benar-benar disahkan mengidap Alzheimer, keluarga pesakit mempunyai lebih masa untuk membuat rancangan pada masa depan. Rawatan boleh dilakukan awal dan ia lebih efektif," katanya.

Dr. Philip menjelaskan, ketika diagnosis dijalankan, doktor memerlukan maklumat pesakit daripada keluarga dan kawan-kawan, ujian fizikal dan neurologikal serta ujian makmal. Selain itu, doktor akan melakukan ujian neuropsikologikal di samping melakukan imbasan imej menggunakan CT atau Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Katanya, imbasan PET merupakan langkah utama untuk mendapatkan maklumat.

Mengimbas sejarah Alzheimer, penyakit ini ditemui oleh Dr. Alois Alzheimer pada 1907 ini, dinamakan Alzheimer, bersempena nama beliau. Dementia boleh dibahagikan kepada dua, pertama dementia berbalik (reversable) yang boleh dikawal dan kedua tidak berbalik iaitu kekal. Hasil daripada bedah siasat terhadap seorang wanita, Dr. Alzheimer mendapati otak wanita tersebut bukan saja mengecut malah, dipenuhi dengan gumpalan protein yang luar biasa yang dipanggil plak amiloid dan serat yang berbelit-belit (neuro fibrillary).

Individu yang berisiko untuk mendapat penyakit ini ialah seseorang yang menghidap hipertensi apabila mencecah usia 40 tahun ke atas, penghidap diabetes, kurang melakukan senaman, paras kolesterol yang tinggi dan faktor keturunan iaitu mempunyai ahli keluarga yang menghidap penyakit ini pada usia lingkungan 50-an.

Antara simptom lain dementia ialah lupa perkara yang sering dilakukan, cepat penat, sukar membezakan masa, tempat dan orang, hilang daya logik, pelupa, tidak mapu melakukan kegiatan harian dan menyiapkan diri sendiri, tidak boleh menumpukan perhatian, susah mengingat perkataan ketika bercakap dan sukar menamakan objek.

Selain itu, pesakit Alzheimer sering tertekan, merepek, tidak sabar, sukar membezakan masa dan yang paling teruk ialah mereka gagal mengawal ketika membuang air kecil atau besar, tidak mampu berfikir, bercakap dan bergerak malah terdapat juga penghidap Alzheimer hilang sifat malu dan bercakap mengenai hal yang boleh memalukan keluarga atau bertelanjang di tempat umum.

Current Political Scenario In Malaysia





The Richest MAN in The World - Bill Gate


Cofounder and chairman, Microsoft Corporation

Born: October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington.

Education: Attended Harvard University, 1973–1975.

Family: Son of William Henry Gates II (attorney) and Mary Maxwell (teacher); married Melinda French (Microsoft manager), January 1, 1994; children: three.

Career: Lakeside Programming Group, 1968–1969, founder; Traf-O-Data, 1970–1973, founder; Microsoft Corporation, 1975–, founder and chairman; 1975–2000, CEO; 1992–1998, president.

Awards: U.S. National Medal of Technology, 1993; Chief Executive of the Year, Chief Executive, 1994; President's Medal of Leadership Award, New York Institute of Technology, 1995; Louis Braille Gold Medal, Canadian National Institute for the Blind, 2002; Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 2004.

Publications: The Road Ahead (with Nathan Myhrvold and Peter Rinearson), 1995; Business @ the Speed of Thought, 1999.

Address: Microsoft Corporation, 1 Microsoft Way, Building 8, North O, Redmond, Washington 98052-6399; http://www.microsoft.com.

William Henry Gates III cofounded the Microsoft Corporation in 1975, built his software company into the one of the most successful businesses in the world, and established himself in the process as the world's richest man. Although Bill Gates started Microsoft as a small business based on a single innovative software program that he had helped to develop, his real genius was his business acumen. As the long-time CEO of Microsoft, Gates was able to borrow and integrate other computer programmers' innovations and sell them to a new and rapidly expanding home computer market. In 1985, 10 years after Microsoft was founded, it had $140 million in revenue, which grew to $28 billion by 2002. One of the pioneers of home computing, Gates proved himself to be a technological visionary and software applications guru. According to industry analysts, he also demonstrated that he was a shrewd marketing strategist as well as an aggressive corporate leader.

A Precocious Pioneer

Gates grew up in a prosperous area of Seattle, Washington, with his parents and two sisters. The son of a lawyer and a schoolteacher, Gates attended a public grade school and then the Lakeside School, a private college preparatory institution. It was at Lakeside that he first became interested in the relatively new field of computer programming, met his friend and future business partner Paul Allen, and developed his first computer software program at the age of 13.

In 1968 the Lakeside School was still purchasing computer time on a machine owned by General Electric, as computers were extremely expensive in the late 1960s. Gates and his friends from Lakeside became fascinated with the machines and formed the Lakeside Programmers Group to try to make money in the computer field. The Programmers Group primarily earned its founders free computing time on machines owned by a company in Seattle. Gates and Allen then formed a company that they called Traf-O-Data. They put together a small computer for measuring traffic flow and made about $20,000. The company remained in business until Gates and Allen graduated from high school. Although Gates was interested in computers, he enrolled at Harvard University with the intention of becoming a lawyer like his father. By the time he was a sophomore in 1975, however, Gates was more interested in computers and electronics than in his pre-law studies.

What became the Microsoft Corporation grew out of two college undergraduates' bluff and bravado. Gates's old friend Allen showed him an advertisement for a kit to build a home computer. The two called the computer's manufacturer, MITS, saying that Gates had taken a primary computer language called BASIC and adapted it for the machine. When MITS expressed interest, Gates and Allen ignored their studies and spent the next four weeks frantically working on turning their boast into reality. In an interview in Money, Gates later recalled, "One little mistake would have meant the program wouldn't have run. The first time we tried it was at MITS, and it came home without a glitch" (July 1986).

Having written the first computer language for a personal computer, Gates and Allen established the Microsoft Corporation in 1975. The name "Microsoft" was formed from the words "microcomputer" and "software." Gates then dropped out of Harvard in 1976 and focused on building the new business. He believed that there was a market for computer software and that the market was going to expand rapidly as affordable computers were developed for home use.

Right Place—right Time

Although Gates rightfully earned credit for building one of the fastest-growing and most profitable companies ever established, Microsoft started out on a shaky foundation. Gates and Allen had sold their first commercially developed software for $3,000 and royalties. Before long, however, Microsoft found itself unable to cover its overhead. Even though Gates and Allen received royalties, their software was also pirated by computer hackers. This piracy led Gates to write an "Open Letter to Hobbyists," which said that computer software should not be copied by the then relatively small computer community without the developer's permission. Gates also recognized at this point in time that the future of computer software lay in owning a standard software package to be used on most computers.

By the late 1970s the computing giant IBM had plans for marketing a personal computer for home use. They approached Microsoft to develop the standard operating system for their home computer models. Gates and Allen then went out and purchased for $50,000 an operating system called Q-Dos, which had been developed by Seattle Computer. Q-Dos was compatible with the Intel processor that IBM intended to use. The two then adapted the Q-Dos system and presented it to IBM. Money magazine quoted Gates as recalling, "We bet all our resources on that system" (July 1986).

Gates had learned well his early lessons in the software business. He insisted that IBM make Microsoft the exclusive software licensee for their home computers, meaning that all IBM products would have Microsoft operating systems. Furthermore, Gates negotiated a contract that allowed Microsoft to retain the right to manufacture and license the software, which he and Allen had named MS-DOS, to other manufacturers. Because there were three other operating systems for microprocessors at that time, Gates didn't own the sole industry standard. But he was well on his way. He and Allen made MS-DOS the most attractive system to computer manufacturers because Microsoft offered a flat-fee license rather than a per-unit contract. Gates and Allen also encouraged software developers to create programs that would broaden their system's capabilities. Their strategy was a huge success because manufacturers initially saved money. In addition, the software developers had an easier job designing such single applications as word processing for use on computers made by other manufacturers.

These negotiations demonstrated that Gates was willing to defer immediate earnings for much greater future profits. His plan was based on building a mass of users for Microsoft products, which would mean the company would own the industry standard. Once Gates's company owned the standard, it could then revert to selling its software at per-unit prices rather than general licenses.

While the contract with IBM placed Microsoft on its way to legendary business growth, it also established a precedent for what some considered Gates's unsavory business practices. When he and Allen had approached Seattle Computer, the software's original developer, they omitted to mention that they were in negotiations with IBM to develop their operating system. Seattle Computer later sued Microsoft on the grounds that it had hidden its relationship with IBM in order to purchase Seattle's system at what turned out to be a bargain-basement price. The two companies came to an out-of-court settlement without Gates or Microsoft admitting to any guilt or duplicity in the original purchase.

Marketing Trumps Challengers

Paul Allen, who had been serving as Microsoft's head of research and new product development, left the company in 1982 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. The following year, Gates faced a major challenge to Microsoft's domination of operating systems for home computers when a company called VisiCorp developed a mouse-driven computer system with a user interface based on graphics rather than the keyboard-based and text-driven system of MS-DOS. Gates quickly recognized that VisiCorp's system would be the wave of the future because it was much easier for technologically unsophisticated people to use. Even though Microsoft did not have such a system in the works at that point, Gates started an advertising campaign with an announcement at the Plaza Hotel in New York City that a new Microsoft operating system with graphical user interface (GUI) would soon be marketed. This next-generation system was to be called "Windows."

Gates's announcement was a bluff; the truth was that Microsoft was nowhere near developing such a system. But the marketing ploy worked because people preferred to wait for a system designed to be compatible with their existing Microsoft products rather than undergo the trouble and expense of installing an entirely new operating system. Furthermore, Windows allowed users to avoid buying new software applications to replace the DOS-compatible programs they currently owned. Windows 1.0 was finally released in 1985. That same year Microsoft reported $140 million in revenue, including $46.6 million from overseas users.

Microsoft's growth continued to be relatively smooth in spite of several challenges, in part because the fiscally conservative Gates had financed most of the company's expansion entirely from its earnings. This cautious approach to financing, however, did not reflect an unwillingness to take risks. In January 1986 Gates launched an ambitious long-term project to develop a new data storage system based on a compact disk, or CD-ROM, that could hold any type of computer file, including music and visual files. In March of that same year, he took the company public. His 40 percent ownership of Microsoft shares made his net worth $390 million by June 1986.

Gates had effectively cornered the market for operating software for the vast majority of personal computers (PCs) as well as developing a wide range of other popular programs. He effectively became a billionaire in March 1987, when his company's stock rose to $90.75 per share, up from $21.50 per share when the company went public. Brian O'Reilly commented a few months later in Fortune, "[Gates] apparently has made more money than anyone else his age, ever, in any business" (October 12, 1987).

Gates Switches Gears

Industry analysts had praised Gates for guiding his company on a path of growth that saw its revenue stream increasing by more than 50 percent per year in a extremely competitive, even cutthroat, market. They credited much of this success to Gates's ability to capitalize early and effectively on industry trends and his willingness to take risks on such fledgling technologies as Microsoft's CD-ROM-based software packages, which became industry standards. Furthermore, Gates had organized the company's structure so that it worked concurrently on all phases of a software product's business cycle from development to distribution. Larry Michels, an early software developer, told Mary Jo Foley of Electronic Business, "Other software vendors have modeled themselves after the hardware business. Microsoft created its own model of how to do business" (August 15, 1988).

Although Gates had established himself as a visionary, he did not always hit the mark. For years he had paid little attention to the business potential of the Internet, which led him to say later that he regretted not having focused more closely on Microsoft's capabilities for e-mail and networking. In 1995, however, he did an about-face and began to redirect the company's efforts in this area. His success was measured by the fact that Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser had become the industry leader by 2000. Gates's success in developing a competitive Internet browser, as well as coming out on top of the desktop-database and office-suite wars of the 1990s, proved that he had formed a company nimble enough to jump into a market that others were developing and take the lead away from the competition.

In 1998 Gates announced a new phase in Microsoft's expansion that would allow him to concentrate his energies on strategy and product development. At the same time the company funneled larger amounts of money into improving customer support and feedback. Gates planned to direct the company's work in such areas as intelligent telephones and television, as well as the integration of such new computer input techniques as speech, vision, and handwriting. Although Windows had already gone through several upgrades, Gates wanted to continue improving its ease of use and reliability. To free himself up for this work, he stepped down as president, a position he had held since 1992, but remained Microsoft's chairman and CEO.

Showdown With the Government

Microsoft earned $19.75 billion in revenue during the fiscal year 1999. Bill Gates had become an icon not only in the computer and business worlds but also in the eyes of the general public. His ghostwritten book The Road Ahead, which outlined his vision of the future, topped many best-seller lists for more than three months. In spite of Gates's financial and literary success, however, he found himself facing his biggest challenge yet as the 1990s came to an end.

The challenge came this time from the United States government rather than from Microsoft's competitors. Gates and Microsoft had come under increasing scrutiny for unfair business practices from the time of the court case that followed Microsoft's purchase of the Q-Dos operating system from Seattle Computer in 1980. In 1993 the U.S. Justice Department began an investigation into Microsoft's contracts with other computer manufacturers that led to an agreement from Gates in 1994 to eliminate some of Microsoft's restrictions on the use of its products by other software makers. In 1997, however, the Justice Department sued Microsoft for forcing computer makers to sell its Internet browser as a condition of using the Windows system—a de facto violation of the 1994 consent decree. In December 1997 a U.S. district judge issued a preliminary injunction forcing Microsoft to temporarily stop requiring manufactures who sold Windows 95 "or any successor [program]" to install its Internet Explorer.

Microsoft appealed the injunction, but the following year the Justice Department and 20 state attorneys general sued Microsoft, charging that it illegally thwarted competition to protect and extend its software monopoly. Although Microsoft won its initial appeal in 1998 to reverse the 1997 decision, Gates soon found himself being questioned for 30 hours over a three-day period in a videotaped deposition for the upcoming antitrust trial. The government finally rested its case on January 13, 1999, and the Microsoft defense team ended its case on February 26. The final oral arguments from each side were presented on September 21, 1999.

After the judge presented his findings of fact on the case on November 5, Gates issued a response disagreeing with many of the findings that went against Microsoft. In a statement released to the press as reported by Court TV Online, Gates noted, "Microsoft competes vigorously and fairly. Microsoft is committed to resolving this case in a fair and a factual manner, while ensuring that the principles of consumer benefits and innovation are protected" (November 6, 1999).

U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled in June 2000 that Microsoft was a monopoly which had illegally exploited the dominance of Windows, at that point installed on over 95 percent of the world's personal computers. Judge Jackson then ordered Microsoft to be broken up into several smaller companies. It was the most severe antitrust ruling since the breakup of AT&T in 1984. Jackson's decision was reversed on appeal, however, and the company received a far less severe punishment directed toward restricting some of its business practices. In spite of this relatively favorable outcome, however, Gates continued to battle competitors in American courtrooms over Microsoft's business practices. In addition, he found himself subjected to litigation in Europe, where Microsoft was once again accused of exploiting its monopoly of Windows to control other computer-related industries, including media-player and server software companies.

Despite the controversy over whether Gates had created a company that used its dominance of the desktop computer system to obtain unfair control of newer computer-related markets, Microsoft continued to prosper. Gates stepped down as CEO in 2000 but kept his position as chairman of Microsoft as well as its chief software architect. In 2004 he doubled the company's research and development budget to $6.8 billion and began pushing a new Windows personal computer operating system code-named Longhorn.

Management Style: Workaholic

Although Gates was long known as a "boy wonder" in the computer and business worlds, his management style was anything but immature. As was noted in a BBC News article, "Gates has come to be known for his aggressive business tactics and confrontational style of management" (January 26, 2004). Although he was considered a charismatic leader within his own company, he was also extremely tough—he fired Microsoft's first company president after only 11 months on the job.

An intense businessman who typically put in 16-hour days and took only two three-day vacations in the first five years after establishing the corporation, Gates was demanding and strong-willed about implementing his vision. Coworkers, clients, and industry analysts also remarked, however, that he did not surround himself with yes-sayers but was more than willing to change his mind if someone convinced him of a better alternative. Analysts also observed that one of the keys to Gates's success was his ability to focus on the fundamentals of the business while keeping office politics or his own ego from getting in the way. "Most of what I do is leading," Gates once said in Electronic Business. "Managing applies to the people who work directly for me" (August 15, 1988).

Gates was known from the beginning of his career as the epitome of a hard-driving businessman respected by his allies and feared by his competitors. It was his vision that guided Microsoft's immense success. In addition, Gates had an uncanny ability to tackle both the managerial and technical sides of Microsoft's operations. He was especially noted for his success as a marketing strategist who priced his products for the mass market rather than computer specialists. In 1999 the Journal of Business Strategy listed Gates among a handful of people who had the greatest influence on business strategy over the last century.

Gates also had his fair share of critics. In addition to accusations of predatory and possibly illegal business practices, some analysts remarked that Gates did not really foster in-house product innovation but tended to focus his attention instead on blocking advances by other companies.

On the other hand, supporters of Gates's managerial style and business acumen pointed out that Microsoft continued to prosper even in the midst of the 2002 information technology slump, growing at 20 percent each quarter and posting a phenomenal 35 percent after-tax profit margin. Despite all his financial success, however, Gates remained a fiscal conservative. He was renowned for his penny-pinching traveling habits, demanding that his schedule be filled for the entire day when he was on the road promoting his company.

No Time to Rest

Gates was still the world's wealthiest person in early 2004, with a personal fortune estimated at $60.56 billion. He remained a hands-on leader at Microsoft, however, maintaining an active work schedule as the company's chairman and chief software architect. As noted by Ron Anderson in Network Computer, "… no doubt his presence [at the company] will make itself known well into the decades ahead" (October 2, 2000).

In addition to extending Microsoft's success, Gates also turned his attention to philanthropy, including the establishment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates and his wife endowed the foundation with $24 billion to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of global health and learning. For example, Gates made plans in February 2004 to donate $82.9 million for research to develop a new vaccine against tuberculosis. In addition to his duties at Microsoft and his efforts in philanthropy, Gates sat on the board of ICOS, a company that specialized in protein-based and small-molecule therapeutics.

Did You know Tony Robbins?

Anthony Robbins was born in 1960 on February 29th. This is the day of the leap year, which makes his birth day only come once every four years. His mother jumped from one guy to another during his childhood and he felt as if he had several fathers over this amount of time. His family was quite poor and they were offered many charity giving especially around holidays.

Tony Robbins is a big goal oriented type of person and always has been. Even in his later teen years he had found himself studying things like Nero Linguistic Programming or NLP. He did this with a man named John Grinder, who was a founder of NLP. There was a type of pure determination in Tony that allowed him to convince John to show him the skills of NLP. Still not even twenty years of age and he had already began to help others with their fears and phobias.

His big break came in Canada, when he went on a radio show and said that he could cure anybody of their phobia or fear rather quickly. A local Physiologist took this challenge with a patient that he had been working with for many years and was unable to cure. It all started at a hotel on stage when Robbins and this Physiologist had their dual. This lady was afraid of snakes and nothing had helped to cure her fear in the past. Anthony Robbins used his skills with NLP and some good entertainment and within minutes the lady was thrilled to have snakes around her.

This event sent his career into overdrive. Everybody wanted a taste of his incredible knowledge and wanted his help with conquering their fears. It only took Anthony Robbins one year to amass millions and become the king of his own castle in California. Every book he wrote started at the top of the best sellers list and all of his tapes became tops sellers as well.

He has helped many celebrities and very successful people earn the status they have today. Even with some of his fans becoming upset when he and his wife divorced he still has gone on to become the Anthony Robbins we all know today. He is now in his forties, sleeps only a few hours per day, and still gives some of the best motivational talks out there, even though they often last to early hours of the morning.

It's My Life - Bon Jovi



This ain't a song for the broken-hearted
No silent prayer for the faith-departed
I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd
You're gonna hear my voice
When I shout it out loud

[Chorus:]
It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just wanna live while I'm alive
It's my life

This is for the ones who stood their ground
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
Tomorrow's getting harder make no mistake
Luck ain't even lucky
Got to make your own breaks

[Chorus:]
It's my life
And it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life

Better stand tall when they're calling you out
Don't bend, don't break, baby, don't back down

[Chorus:]
It's my life
And it's now or never
'Cause I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive

[Chorus:]
It's my life
And it's now or never
'Cause I ain't gonna live forever
I just want to live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said
I did it my way
I just want to live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life!

You Want Freedom or Security?


In a day and age where everyone is always raving about personal power, individualism, our right to make our own decisions, and how unfair it is for the government to take so much control in our lives, it's hard to understand why, if personal freedom is a mass desire, so few people have chosen, this is 100% CHOICE, to claim theirs.
Saying you want to be free from your boss, or the government in your business, or having to spend 60% of your life at a meaningless, menial job is great rhetoric, but most people are not willing to do the work to get to that level of freedom. Yes, it's nice to talk about being able to take entire summer vacations with your family, own your own business, and spend your time doing what you want without ever worrying about money again, but the truth is, MOST PEOPLE WILL NEVER ACHIEVE THIS!
That's right. I'm going out on a limb and telling you what all the "gurus" in the world won't; bunches and bunches of people will continue to talk from here to Kingdom Come about living free and taking charge. A full 98+% of them will still be talking, without one iota of progress, a year from now.
WHY???
Because TALKING about it is not ACTING on it!
Let's be honest with one another. Sometimes it feels really GOOD to just complain about things. Really! It feels good to get the attention of others, to build camaraderie with people (who, if they're complaining too, are wallowing in the self-pity pool choosing to be Losers), take pity on ourselves and say,
"See, this isn't my fault. I'm not the reason I'm like this! My situation is too difficult...I don't make enough money to start my own business. I don't have the connections, or any family support, or it's hard where I come from, or..."
See my point here? The reason people do this is because it's really EASY to blame someone else for the failures, mistakes, missteps, and lack of progression in our lives. It takes real courage to evaluate our selves, stand up and say...
"I know some things have happened to me in my life that were beyond my control. However, I accept that my current station in life is directly due to my actions AND my reactions to the circumstances and problems that have taken place in my life."
The Key to Change
Owning up to your responsibility in your life can be a painful process. It won't be easy when you start taking control! You'll still have issues, things you need to improve, habits to break, phobias to overcome. Some people who aren't ready to see you change may leave your life as you grow & improve. And then, there's the most dreaded outcome of all...
PROBLEMS!!!
When you become financially free, for instance, you won't worry about paying your rent or how to put food on the table. Instead, you'll worry about what investments to put your money in, or how to deal with an under-performing employee. See the difference?
The important thing to remember is problems are a sign of life. The only people without them are the ones without a pulse...so, if you have none, you should start to worry!
Why You SHOULD Embrace Problems?
Problems are meant to challenge us; to help us learn and grow. Facing a challenge encourages us to think creatively, to fully engage in our lives, and to strengthen ourselves in order to continue thriving in the face of resistance.
When was the last time you were challenged in your life? When was the last time your adrenaline was so high that it opened up your entire thought process to a new solution? Does your work challenge you?
Are you doing something lucrative that will propel you toward your ultimate goals? If not, why? There's no time like the present to redirect your energies and become the person you are meant to be.
Don't wait another moment to get started! Make that first step: Take responsibility. Right now. ACTION EXERCISE: Stop reading, think about the circumstances in your life, accept them as they are, then say out loud:
"I take full responsibility for my life - past, present, & future. Starting today, I will act in a way that serves my ultimate goals & purpose. I can't change the past, but the future is in my hands...Today, I choose to change my life!"

Hello World!!!

Hello world!
Welcome to my 3rd blog!
Nice to meet you - anybody around the globe.
Thanks