Legalised Exploitation.

Exploitation does exist! The worse thing is not the fact of its existence, but the fact that legal systems, dominated by those exploiting and tacitly approving exploitation, legalised such exploitation.

One clear example is pornography - exploitation of women. Just take a look at any pornographic magazines and it makes me wanna puke. Once I saw a pornographic show on a friend's PC and I wanted to cry. Women are being exploited to satisfy the sexual desires of men, and the claim that it is 'art' is bullshit! No man, yes, I can assure you, no man buys Playboy or Penthouse, or watches a pornographic show for artistic purposes or enchancement of their artistic skills, but to fulfill their sexual desires!

You know what is the saddest part? The women can't see it.

The exploiters argued that this is a form of consensual exploitation, that the women are being exploited wilfully and willingly. 'Nobody is forcing them to do that!', they claimed.

But the exploiters are smart. Yes, they are. They used various tricks and economic incentives to draw women to enter into the world of porn, and programmed their minds to think that it is not exploitation and that it is all right to show your boobs or even worse, have sexual intercourse with an anonymus man in front of the camera and the TV. These exploiters made sure that thier act of exploitation is legalised, so that the exploitation continues.

Initially, women were pressured to have 90% of their skin exposed in the streets, some even became the prey of anorexia, and they did all sorts of treatment and surgeries, to make themselves acceptable to men. Legalised exploitation means that these acts were insufficiently challenged. And the acts have, with the passage of time, became a norm in the society. The exploiters are laughing their heads off.

Exploitation can be of many forms. Another example is in the cosmetics world. Just take a look at one shampoo ad on TV. A girl opens the door, and a guy carrying a bouquet of red roses was standing there, intending to ask her out. But the moment he saw her hair, which was frizzy and not so straight, he was disappointed and shocked, and the red roses died on the spot! The next day, ding dong, the girl opens the door again, but this time, the guy beamed and grinned, and they went out on a date. All because the girl used some XYZ shampoo and has straight, long, black, silky hair now.

Ridiculous? It does seem so to me. Women, if you claim that the cosmetics make you feel prettier and more confident, I tell you, it is bullshit(again)! It is because the exploiters tell you it makes you prettier, that is why you think it maks you prettier. Trust me, confidence and beauty comes from within. Even if I have the best make-up artist does my make-up and the best hair stylist does my hair, even if all the people around me says I look gorgeous after that, I am only gorgous after all that process!! I am not gorgeous because I am who I am, but because of the make-up, blah blah blah.... and even if all the people around me says I am gorgeous after all that transforming process, but if deep down in my heart I still feel low and inconfident, I would disagree with them all.

The other day I went window shopping with a friend of mine who was looking for a skin whitening cream. Well, I stood beside her and just listened to the sales girl do her talking and explanation. When she mentioned, 'See? The cream doesn't make you feel sticky too!' And then I remembered... once upon a time, I bought a lotion, and the sales girl said th exact same sentence. Somehow, at that moment, the lotion does really seemed not sticky. But after I reached home and used it for the first time, yikes!!... it is sticky!

Women, you are the one to end the exploitation. Take your stand. Respect yourself as you are. Don't listen to the exploiters!!

I thought I lost You.

It helps to be aware of your personality type, but don’t envy someone else’s to the point that you apologize for who you are. God created all types, so it’s all right to be you!

For the past week, a friend of mine had been really irritatingly hyper about life and wonders God has done in college.

For a split second, I asked myself why is she so extremely happy about? And then I realised something was wrong with me. If my walk with Him had been a close one, and a right one, I would have felt the same way as my friend... irritatingly hyper. In fact I would just be hyper, minus the irritating part.

So there I was, finding out that the passion in my heart for God had somehow died down a bit. When I looked back to what I did for the past few weeks, I realised then that I have grieven the Holy Spirit with many things I have done. I made it happen...I allowed myself to be distant from God.

For a while, I prayed fervently for Him to bring me back to Him, to feel that closeness again, that love and hope. I thought I lost Him.

But I was wrong.

Through this incident, I found out that we will never lose Him unless me deliberately reject Him and His existence in this place, in our hearts. He hears our cries. Well, He definitely heard mine :)

I thought I lost You...But You found me again.

I love You.

Forgotten

On Easter, few days ago, I wanted to blog about my first truly meaningful Easter celebration. But as I got online and typed a sentence, TY asked for my help in completing a report about human computer interaction that must be handed up to the lecturer the next day. So, I deleted the whole sentence, helped TY with his report, and went to bed. The blog posting was forgotten.

Few days later, here I am back in Penang, I wanted to retype the posting that is incomplete. But guess what? It had already been forgotten. And now... I can't remember what I wanted to blog about for the past few days. So forgotten.

Lesson learned: The next time I have an idea about what to blog about, do it right away or jot it down somewhere first, before it is forgotten.

Crap! I am againg at an alarming rate!

Oh, I Abhor You...

Hehe, to those who know the song 'I adore you', this is the total opposite :)

This morning, I managed to drag myself off bed at 7.15am, which is a great achievement for me :P, and joined my friend for a morning walk along Gurney Drive.

We were happily chatting and walking briskly. Every moment was pleasurable...until we were walking behind one uncle in his mid-50s, wearing a faded T-shirt whith maroon and beige stripes, light grey slacks, black shoes, holding a half cigarrette in his right hand.

What I will share from this moment onwards is not suitable to those with a weak stomach, and probably weak heart, so I advise you to stop reading now and go fly kite. But if you insist, you are reading at your own risk.

So, me and my friend were observing this uncle as he took a puff on the cigarrette, immediately after that, he fired a bullet so disgusting that I shrieked at the spot!

I thought the horror would end, but unfortunately, he proceed to gather force and momentum...and 'Ptooh!' There goes another bullet... "Ptooh!' and another..... "Ptooooooh!" and another. He did it multiple times!! Right in front of me and my friend who got so sick at what he was doing.

We picked up our pace to overtake that nightmare. Somehow, when we passed him, I couldn't help it but said out loud, "Disgusting!! Euughh!! Horrible!!" and my friend echoed, "Yeah!! So geli....". I added, "This was how SARS got spread to the public!!"

I guess we were loud enough, cos the uncle stared at us :)

Public Spitting.... I abhor you!!

Cheated by Plasters!

Few days ago, I went to Gurney Plaze for dinner with a friend. As we walked pass a stall selling mobile phones accessories, we stopped and I had a look on the dangling things you hang on the handphone, searching for one to replace my GSC black leather Elektra straps that broke last week.

As I was browsing through the straps hanging there, which made my eyes blur cos there are so many variety of colours and designs, I saw this particular one with a red cross on it, and I immediately thought it was a cross per se. It was attached to a round face, with a plastered head, and tongue sticking out. So I thought 'Cute!', but the main reason for my purchase was the CROSS. It was RM 4.90.

Fine, I bought it, cheerfully. But when I reached home, as I take a closer look at my new possession, I saw what was wrong with it. The red cross was no CROSS, but it was actually the plasters on the face's head, also red. Oh!!

Beh Tahan!

Each of us will meet people who we can't stand. No matter how much we try to like that person or to put the past behind, everytime we meet this person and talk to him or her, we just can't stand that person.

I met mine, about 4 years ago, when I stepped into my college for the first time. She can't seem to stop complaining about everything she sees! The first time I talked to her I got a shock in my life!! I thought, "Well, maybe she's having a bad day, or maybe it's me who took her attitude too seriously." So, I decided not to give the first impression that she gave to me about her a second thought and buried it deep down in my mind.

As the years go by, as I was involved in student society activities, inevitably, I had to deal with her numerous times. I thought I will be able to feel OK with her, but you know what? She's gotten worse! And she still complains about everything she sees. She even wiped the keyboard before she uses the PC in the student centre.

One thing I realised she likes to do very much is that she always compare what she thinks is bad to what she thinks is good. Hello?? In order to help students, they have to be encouraged and corrected, not criticised with words like 'Yeah, why so lousy?', 'Ha! How come so bad one?', 'Why is it so badly done? Didn't you see the notice done by the secretarial course society?' And, YES, I didn't see the notice. She has to say with a face like I-don't-believe-it, 'Huh? What do you mean you don't know about it?' Like...duh! I mean what I said. I didn't see the notice and therefore I don't know about the talk that is going to be held. Simple. I didn't say anything wrong. What is wrong if I didn't see the notice?

It makes me wonder if anyone actually told her of her problem.

beh ta han!