WORLD'S BEST UNDERWATER PHOTOGRAPHY 9

"Thanks to Keri" by Michele Davino - a juvenile flying fish in Raja Ampat, Indonesia

AS PROMISED, THE ABOVE PHOTO IS ANOTHER GREAT PIECE FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT.

Life as Finally explained... I have not seen this version before - I knew of the monkey, donkey and the lion!!‏

On the first day, God created the dog and said:
 'Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past… For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.'

The dog said: 'That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?'
So God Agreed.

On the second day, God created the monkey and said:
'Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span.'
The monkey said: 'Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the Dog did?'
And God agreed.

On the third day, God created the cow and said:
'You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.'
The cow said: 'That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?'
And God agreed again.

On the fourth day, God created humans and said:
'Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years.'
But the human said: 'Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?'
'Okay,' said God, 'You asked for it.'

So that is why for our first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone…

Life has now been explained to you… There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I'm doing it as a public service

ANOTHER WAKE UP CALL FROM PULAU JEREJAK

A very happy day! Everyone,

Recently, there was so much publicity on Jerejak Island, not far from Penang Island, but for wrong reasons. Its fiasco involving RM 30 millions, become our daily conversation topic everywhere be it in coffee shops, shopping malls or hawker centers. It becomes the norm of the ordinary people's life. These series of scandals seem to never end, the figure involved can surpass previous records from time to time. As usual, no one will take responsibility and the blaming culture is widely spread. This phenomenal leadership crisis occurred and requires prompt attention. 

This topic has somehow arrested my attention because it involves my home town. As such, I spent some time to read this article, titled "BE MAN ENOUGH TO TAKE THE BLAME" on Sunday Star, January 23, 2011 written by Dato' Wong Chun Wai. 

I am grateful to the author for enlightening me of its significant historical value, which I would otherwise not know of. It really put me in shame as I have grown up there and even visited that island once, couple of years back. At that time, I found nothing much interesting or exciting other than lots of greens. At last, I decided to rent few bicycles and cycled, with my kids, to explore the place further. 

However, after reading the above article, it had changed my perspective after discovering its significant historical values detailed as below:-

a) it once served as maximum security prison and was shut down in 1993;

b) was the first stop of Captain Francis Light's (Founder of Penang) during his voyage to Penang island in 1786;

c) became the site of a health quarantine centre when immigrants swamped Penang;

d) a leper asylum was built in the late 19th century;

e) was a site of German submarine base and a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients.

As such, I am determined to pen down my thoughts on this issue and look at it from other perspectives hoping that it can be restored back to its former glory as "The Oriental Garden". Here, we have lots of "catch up" game to do. No time and effort to be wasted and hope the present state government can learn from this grave mistake and work together with those who have the passion of working toward this objective. Let us be honest to ourselves, "If we don't care, who else will ?" We can't afford to neglect it any further. If we are not careful, more talents will drain out from this state as in the past. 

I can still recall that lots of visitors came to Penang island during my childhood times because it has so much to offer throughout the year and I could even feel its glory was diminishing before I moved down to other state. Lots of younger generations, like me, have no other alternative but also moved out as the state was losing its glory. It is very heart sickening to see all these happened. Sad to say there are insufficient attentions and efforts to address this long overdue issues despite it has been richly blessed with lots of resources such as its beautiful beaches; food paradise, sound educational and financial institutions, numerous heritage buildings, which are more than 200 years old and etc. 

Recently, I am very glad to hear that numerous building was classified as heritage buildings by the UNESCO. These should be the impetus for us to drive towards achieving its former glory. No doubts, it is a difficult task, but not impossible in line with our slogan "Malaysia Boleh" (Can do spirit). 

In this connection, I strongly believe that there is so much room for us to do, rather than wasting our effort in arguing for the sake of arguing. Here, we have to put missions, and slogans again, but to get the job done so as to prove ourselves. We need to walk our talk to show our loyalty to the nation.

As a blogger, I am more than happy to chip in to serve in anyway we can - as an independent platform for the people to voice out their ideas, thoughts and opinions. Together, we stand united and work as one force to bring betterment for the above state and Malaysia as a whole. Hence, I shall continue to write more articles in this context so as to promote it as the way I did in the past.

Please click some of the advertisement so as to generate some income for us. Thanks

Thank you for using your precious time to read this article.


James Oh