I am always amazed (but at times, disgusted) by the influential power the media has.
Whoever controls the media, is indirectly controlling the world, having the influence to lead the public into thinking the way they want the public thinking, or letting the public know only what they want the public know, hiding some ugly truth behind their reports.

I'm not planning to talk much about the influence of the media, the previous paragraph is only the intro to my post.

I always laughed (but most of the time, disgusted too) at the politics in Malaysia now. Politicians switching parties like changing clothes, accusations of one side to another, back-stabbing etc (oopss.. shdn't be saying a lot on this, i dont really know what happens, again i'm only informed by the media and comprehended the info using my own shallow mind)

Often, during the evening news, we'll be exposed to a lot of the "goodness" of the government and the "badness" and "inefficiency" of the opposition.
The media is bound to praise the government and downgrade the opposition, that is a known fact.
The newsreaders are bound to say sentences like, "keprihatinan kerajaan" or "kelemahan pihak pembangkang" or "kewibawaan pemimpin BN" etc etc...
I am not saying the news are totally wrong but, I believe we must have our own "filter" and judgement to differentiate the truth, the lies and the make-ups.

The oppositions have their own media as well, undeniably.
And it is undeniable that their media will potray their "goodness" and the "badness" and "corruption" of the government.
Again, there must always be personal filter to prevent us from being misled.

Anyhow, let's imagine for a while...
Imagine...just imagine that in the next General Election, the opposition wins and they rule Malaysia. Just imagine...


Now, what will the newsreaders read?
"BN yang masih tidak mahu mengaku kekalahan"
"Kerajaan baru yang tidak melupakan kepentingan rakyat"
etc etc...

What do you think?
Hahahahaha...

p/s: I'm not standing on any site of the fence. I'm underage and still cannot vote. Peace!

-AkMaR-
http://akmarr90.blogspot.com

8.53pm

Salam.
Nope, i'm not writing abt the normal-human-discovering-superhuman-abilities-on-themselves American tv series.
It's abt the REAL movie heroes.

My mum raised this point to me once, long-long time ago....
She said,

Like i predicted, the decision to limit SPM subjects taken by stdnts to 10 will be changed in a year's time. And it did, luckily.

But i dont really understand how it works this time. Because the news (The Star, Sat Dec 5 09) stated that stdnts are allowed to take Chinese or Tamil literature. So, what abt those science stream stdnts who intend to take Accountings or Economy etc?
Are they allowed to do so?

1. I believe everything that happened to us, is of reasons and logic. Whatever they are, they are the best for us, for now or for the future.

2. I don't believe there shd be any regrets in life. Only embarassments and shamefullness and sad feeling of the bad things we did in the past shd be there and also a promise not to do it again in the future.
But my definition of regret is to sulk over things we did in the past and feel sad abt it but did not go on with life. Merely sulking. (Imagine those men in movies being dumped by their lover in movies and they regretted treating @ trusting the girl and ended up having long thick beards due to lack in motivation to shave for months) =P

3. We are trained in every possible way in everything we did. A simple conversation with someone simple might be just the thing saving us in the future.
Ok, this is funny. I hv an example:

Last Sunday, i met my aunt. And she told me that my uncle laughed at her bcos she doesnt know how to switch his new VAIO laptop on. Why? Because the switch is at the side, not at the center of the laptop, like most other laptops. It was a totally simple conversation btw me and aunt, bcos we had nothing else to talk abt. Guess what? The vry nxt day, my bestfriend and her friend tried tricking me, asking me to switch a laptop on. And the "on" button isn't at the centre. HAHAHAHAHA..... Just if i didnt have the conversation with my aunt the day before, i wont be able to switch the laptop on as fast as i did that day. =)

4. Whatever i say now is what i think now. Ask me these very same things 5 yrs more, and i might or might not give the same statements.
5 yrs before this i told my mum i do not want to drive. Even after i start working (at that time i still has so many career ambitions, didnt know which to choose) no matter what profession it is, i wanted to take public transports. Only public transports. Reason? I'm scared of road traffic accidents. Been in RTAs so many times with my mums that i do not want to be in it especially when i'm the driver. 5 yrs on the road, i'm driving evryday to campus and an official family driver fetching and sending siblings to school, family members to supermarket etc etc.

~Because life is dynamic~

-AkMaR-
http://akmarr90.blogspot.com

Assalammualaikum.
I hv been wearing up to 3 layers of clothes to IMU for the past few days.
Why? Because i spend a lot of time in the library and the library is very very cold that even my fingers went cramped.
Even the auditorium is comparable to the famous snow house in Genting Highland.
But i couldn't understand how some of my batchmates can stand being in the auditorium with mini skirts and spaghetti straps.
To say that they have enough cellulites as heat insulator embedded under their cutaneous tissue, is ridiculous. Most of them are slim and skinny.
So how can they?

My mother told me once, women in the west have been fighting for women's right since early nineteenth and twentieth century.
And the rights they have been claiming for includes abortion right, voting right, maternity leave, equal pay, and so on and so forth.
Some of the claims are even ridiculous for me.
Man can lift heavy things, be a hardwork labour, and women can't.
Just accept that fact. Why must women fight for equity? The right to be the same as men? Let men do the hard, though, heavy jobs.
If women want to have the same rights as men have, then no man will be a gentleman. No man will offer to carry a woman's heavy bag, no man will give way to woman in a long queue and no man will pay for a meal because the woman is just as capable as he is!
And there will also be no "Ladies first" in the world.
Although there will still be "First Lady".

She also pointed out that there is one aspect these feminists forgot to fight for.
And that is the right to have proper attire.
The west have made it in such a way that only half naked women are considered women, and the fully covered ladies are freaks.
The world now is having such a view that ladies must show what they've got. The quote "Dare to Bare" is almost everywhere.

In a ball, ladies will be expected to wear a gown, a dress.
And the gown must be bareback, the shoulders should be seen, and a cleavage is a must.
If the skirt is long, some legs are expected.
If it's not long, short skirt will be favoured.
For what?
For display.
To feel nice.
To feel good.
To get attention.
To be like others.

In fact, this is actually a major abuse of women's right.
What do men wear for official ceremonies?
What do men wear when women are exposing half of their bodies?
How does a formal attire for a man look like?
How does it compare with a formal attire for a woman?



A man wears a long shirt, necktie and long pants.
The man must also wear a pair of covered shoes, together with the socks.
Who now, suffers more?
Who now, more susceptible to cold?
Who now, is actually being exploited?







I'm not saying men must also wear barebacks, shorts or singlets to official functions. No!!!
What men wears now is smart and cool enough.
But to girls out there, who like to expose what u have, to feel proud of it, to get attention out of it, just remember, "This is an exploitation of women".
Women are supposed to be respected, not for display.


Attention we get for exposing our "posessions" are cheap attention, temporary ones.
The real attention is who we are (cewah).

So, let's reduce the exposure!
=)

p/s: i bet some readers will say "Ala, Akmar is jealous because she cant display expose anything"....
My reply: Hahahahaha... Say whatever u want, i know what i think and how i feel.

-AkMaR-
Because life is a test...

http://akmar90.blogspot.com

Assalammualaikum.

There's a saying in Malay, "buang yang keruh, ambil yang jernih" which literally means "leave the dirty one, and take the clear one". But i found another saying in English, with almost similar meaning, "Take the Snake's Precious Skin and Leave the Rest".

I hv been thinking of this Malay proverb for a long time.
And is amused by the big implications of it in life and also the great wisdom behind this simple proverb.

To take only the good ones and leave the bad ones is exactly what we should do in life.
Nobody deserves to be our role model in this world except our beloved prophet.

My previous post on Dr M must have made some of the readers to think that i'm a huge fan of his therefore i'm pro government.
But, that's not the case.
I admired Dr M for his contribution to the nation, his 22 years of serving the country has been proved to be the most successful period of Malaysia.
Malaysia became known with a lot of projects; KLCC, KLIA, Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and Malaysia evolved from an agricultural based country to an industrialised country. And, he is a doctor.

So, sholdnt i be taking that good quality of his?
Or should i shut all his contribution to the country because (ppl claim) that he did nasty things during his reign?
I dont even know if he really did nasty things so i'm not in the position to claim that.
Of course i'm not saying that he didnt do anything bad at all.
From what I read from his blog, he complained a lot about the government administration during Pak Lah's reign but these things that he complained abt has been there even during is time in the office as the PM. I'm not sure why isn't he doing anything abt it but complaining abt it when it is under other people's responsibility.
So, whatever it is, let's take the good side of him and leave the rest.

Same goes for western civilisation (if it can be called civilisation. Some of them are still barbarians. Watch WWF for a solid proof).
My previous post on the difference between western and eastern teachings revealed my opinion on how bad western teachings are.
But really, it is not only that.
Not ALL western teachings are bad as well as not all eastern teachings are good.
Not ALL the westerners should be blamed for the bad things many westerners did neither can all easterners be praised for the good things some easterners did.

I watched "Night at The Museum 2" with my family last week and my mother mentioned that the western countries had their civilisation for not even 500 years but they are having a lot of heroes.
They brought and praised and tell good stories abt their prominent figures and made it as if the world is full of good western heroes.
Franklin Roosevelt took office less than 100 years ago, same goes for Theodore Roosevelt, most of their heroes for example Amelia Earheart, Wright Brothers, Alexander G. Bell, and a lot other scientists made their breakthrough less than 100 years ago, or perhaps 150 years ago the most.
Yet, the westerners are praising, bringing their names up as if they had started their contribution 1000 years ago.

At the same time, the easterners (my mother was actually specifically talking abt the condition in Malaysia) tried to bring down anyone who dared to speak up and make changes.
We have always oppressed those who stood up, that's why we are not progressing much. We should not be jealous when other people is having the limelight. We should be a supportive nation, not an-always-finding-people's-mistake nation.

So i'd say that keeping prominent figures "alive" in people's heart is a good value of the westerners that i can take.

In the process of making her research in children literature, my mother found out that some of the children storybooks writers do not have clean and healthy background. Some of them killed themselves, some have depression, some have mental illness but it's not their bad side that have been made public, it's their contribution, the stories that they wrote had been made public. I dont think we should reject their artwork because they did badly in their lives. I think we should take the good things from them and leave the rest.

Islam has taught me not to talk bad abt other ppl.
And to think good things abt others.
And not to listen to news from uncertain sources.
And not to engage in any conversation that might lead to fitnah (false accusations).
And most important, Islam taught me to hate what the person did, than hating the person himself.

That means, (I'm taking Dr M as an example) if somebody came to me and told me that Dr M just abused his power to get rid of one of his colleagues, i should not be believing the story until the case is being justified and truth has been revealed. I shd be thinking good things abt him unless it is obvious that he's doing a wrong thing. eg: If i see him drinking in bar (which i did not) i should not jump to the conclusion that he's drinking alcohol but rather think that he's drinking carbonated drinks or any other drinks than alcohol unless, i really see him pouring the alcohol into his glass. I should also not engage myself to any pointless conversation that discuss only abt his bad behaviours for the sake of gossipping.

And lastly, i should also not hate him if i found out that he did bad things, instead i shd be hating his bad behaviors, not the person.
Why?
Because in Islam, there's a thing called repentance.
And if he repented after doing the bad thing, that means the reason for me hating him is no longer there.
But if i were to hate him as a person, even if he repented, he is still the Dr M whom i shd be hating because i'm hating the person, not the attitude.

That brings me back to Michael Jackson.
As the world know, he was accused and was brought to trial for a few children sex abuse cases.
I'm not sure whether he did that or not but, even if he did, i'm supposed to only hate that attitude of his. I'm not supposed to hate him, and go against him for everything he does.

And, he reverted to Islam.

What does that mean?
That means his sins were forgiven.
Even the woman who killed Saidina Hamzah and took out his heart and eat it, a woman called Hindun bt Atabah who was in the "List to be Killed" when Rasulullah SAW entered Makkah in the year 8H was given freedom and forgiveness because she accepted Islam.
Not only her, Ikrimah b. Abu Jahal and Abdullah b. Saad were also forgiven because they accepted Islam.

The sole reason is a person's sins made during his@her pre-Islam period are cancelled off once he@she accepted Islam.
Means the revert is now clean of sins, like a baby.
And is only responsible for the sins made after the conversion.



So, wont MJ's sins being cancelled off?
Who are we to say that he still sins, and do not deserve our forgiveness when he acquired Almighty God's?

-AkMaR-
http://akmarr90.blogspot.com

Assalammualaikum.
Well, I think the whole world knew abt this, the superstar Michael Jackson is dead.

To begin with, i got to know MJ since i was a little girl.
My mum had been his fan long long time ago, until now.
I remembered MJ did a concert in Malaysia and that time, i was 6.
My mum didnt go or the concert of course, she wasnt that fanatic to spend hundreds to watch a concert.

Then, as i grow up i got to know more abt MJ. I got to know that he "changed" his skin from black to white. Then, few years after that i read news abt him abusing children sexually.
I remembered my mum was disappointed with the news.
She said the media is really really punishing MJ.
She said that just because MJ is a black (an undeniable fact), the media is bombarding him so that he can never make a comeback.

We dont know abt the truth, whether or not he really did abuse the children because in this world today, framing someone sounds so very easy. News abt somebody being accused of something and the person denied saying he@she had been framed, appear almost everyday.
We dont have to look far, just look at the politics in Malaysia. Politicians are framing or being framed (that's what they say, i'll nvr know the truth) everyday.

Hence, my mum always feel pity for MJ.
She even said that but Elvis Presley did not lead a good and healthy life either.
And he was still praised and died with a "clean" name (at least cleaner than MJ).
It's because he's white. And i began to agree with her.
Whether i'm correct or not, i'm not sure.
Nobody is, in fact. Unless i talk to MJ myself (which is impossible).

Then, i heard that MJ is converting into Islam.
I felt so relieved. My mum said, "Islam do not discriminate" hence it is not impossible that MJ found peace in Islam. In addition, his brother is also a Muslim.
But my uncle turned a blind eye to this news.
He said it can be just a propaganda, like Akon admitting he's a Muslim.
Well, that's a fact. The singer Akon is a Muslim.
Though we dont actually know to what extent is he practising it.
And my uncle did not see any reason for me to be sure and happy that MJ is also a muslim now.
I dared not go against him, as i couldnt find any fact to back me up.
So, for a period of time, i kept my fingers crossed, not sure of whether MJ is a muslim or not.
Until i read an extract of news saying that MJ is now Mikail, a Muslim.
I felt happy again.

Then, last Friday, the very same uncle told me that MJ is dead. He died of cardiac arrest.
I was so shocked. I text-ed my mum and she said she knew it earlier that morning and she included a sad smiley symbol =( in the msg.
When i got home, my mum said the media had done MJ an injustice.
He didnt get a chance to make a comeback.
His name was being "dirtied" even up to his death.

As a normal human being, a citizen who relied mostly on newspapers and media to know abt things happening in the world, i can never be sure whether or not MJ committed the crime.
Neither can i be sure if he's a good man or not.
But, it will be painful if i think that he's a bad man, abusing child.
So, why not I think good things abt him, he might be framed, he might had been done injustice, and he turned to Islam because Islam brings peace, and he died a Muslim. Doesnt that sound nicer? And happier?
It made the world looks like a better place to live in.

It was a lovely night.

One question: What is extrimism?

With the name of Allah The Most Forgiving, The Sustainer

Assalammualaikum.
Ok, as i told earlier, i went to an interfaith forum.
The topic of discussion was whether religion and science conflicts with each other or not.

The speaker representing Islam was Mr Shah Kirit (one of my fav), Uncle Vijaya representing Buddhism, Dr Living Lee representing Christianity while Prof (i'm truly sorry i cant remember the name, pls do inform me if u know the name) representing Hinduism.

Towards the end of the forum, the moderator asked if the member of the floor have any question. And since the beginning of the forum, i had been wanting to ask but i dared not.
At last i plucked my courage and stood up to ask the questions that had been disturbing my mind.


Anyway, that is not what i want to draw my readers' attention to. The major issue here is the questions i asked.


Perhaps it was partly my fault that my nervous-ness somehow overshadowed my questions that the speakers did not catch what i really wanted to say.

The Muslim speaker said Islam do not accept theory, only scientific facts based on proofs.

The Christian speaker said it's rubbish that ppl denies the existence of God.

The Hindu speaker somehow agrees with the evolution (i think that's what he said). And he added, where we come from is not important. What important is where we ended.

The Buddhist speaker's answer wasnt very clear. But he said not only where we ended is important, but how we live now is more important than where we came from. So, live now (at least that was what he said)

For the 2nd question, Uncle Vijaya said religion does not have to change to accept these immoral act but rather it's ok if it is beneficial for u and me.
I really wanted to ask more, "does that mean religion cant accept free sex because the act transmits STDs around the world, but if free SAFE sex is applied, religion permits it? It doesnt harm u and me."
But since there was lack of time, the question was never asked.

From the little and limited knowledge i have, i know that Muslims believe that Adam was the first human in the world. He was sent down to Earth as a HUMAN. Not merely a single cell that somehow evolved randomly and became what we are now. Hence, this itself denies the theory of evolution completely. Christians will have the more or less same opinion, if not exactly the same.

But i really do not know what a Buddhist or a Hindu think of this theory of evolution. Where living beings actually came from a single cell.

Anybody will like to give any thought?
Or perhaps can join in this debate in another blog.

Salam.
Well, i had my Behavioural Science lecture this morning, regarding Personality..

There is an aspect of personality called "Locus of Control".
It basically means who or where someone put the control, responsibility and choice for the events in their lives.
And there are 2 locus of control; externally and internally.

External Locus of Control

This is when the person always "leave everything to destiny".
For example:

• "If i am destined to get cancer, whatever i do, i'll still get cancer. But if i'm not destined to get cancer, no matter what i did, i wont get cancer. So, what's the purpose of taking care of myself?

• "If i am destined to marry him@her, no matter how i ran from him@her, i'll still end up marrying him @ her"

Internal Locus of Control

This is exhibited by those who believes they have full control over themselves.
For example:

• "If i say i want to get all As for my A Level exams, and get into the Dean's list during my degree program, i'm going to get it provided i'm doing all the revisions i can"

The lecturer mentioned something about religion or personal belief which, in many ways affect someone's locus of control. Someone who is religious might fall into the first category, the external locus of control because the person believes that God is the controller of everything. As a human being, he had no control over his own life. It's all destined.

But that was only what the lecturer said.

I don't have to really agree, must i?

As a muslim, i put myself under Allah's control.
He set everything for me.
It's all written in my destiny on whatever is going to happen in my life.
Whether this post is going to get published, or being kept only as draft, he knew, and he decides.
But that doesnt mean i don't have to do anything for myself.
Why?
Because i will never know what is destined for me before i go through it.
I will never know if i am destined to meet someone this evening until i met that person.


It's even written in the Quran that Allah will not change the condition of somebody unless they change it themselves first.

Allah will not prevent cancer from striking somebody until they try to prevent it themselves first.

Allah will not prevent a driver from hitting the back of another car before the driver pressed the brake himself first.

Allah will not give us good lives, good families unless we try to set up our own ways to live first.

Allah will not allow me to get good grades in exams unless i studied hard first.

So, who's the controller now?
This examples show that we are the controller...
How come i can say that Muslims believe Allah is the controller?

Well, for an example,

I studied very very hard, and smart for my upcoming exam.
With this effort of mine, i am sure i can get good grades.
That's an example of me controlling my own effort.
But suddenly, i fell sick on the examination day.
Terribly ill that i cant even focus on the questions.
So, who is in control now?

Or perhaps, a worse case.
Something happened to any of my family members that i couldnt come for the exam.
Is that still under my control?

Hurm...