Appreciation of the environment

I dared to think that appreciation of the environment in Malaysia is low. We in Europe often say that developing countries should take good care of their forests, for example, yet we have cleared much of ours centuries ago. That is one of the reasons we enjoy the economic wealth they want to achieve now.

Therefore, we have no right to tell other countries what they should do with their environment unless we state the Earth, our global environment, belongs to everyone and to all of us altogether. But then how will we justify that we have stolen so much from THEM and turned it into OUR ‘well-being’?

Take a look at Alan's Traineeship in Finland

Beauty has no nationality

I've just come back from a classical music concert and it dawned on me during the first few moments that beauty has no nationality. Antonin Dvorak in Malaysian hands was profoundly touching...

And so I hope that tonight's Euro 2004 match Denmark - Czech Republic won't be lacking its beauty and charm regardless of which side will eventually make it into the semifinals.

Victims of poverty

My best friend fell victim to pickpockets in Delhi, India. His immediate reaction was understandably a desire to beat up the people around. I hope, however, in the long run this will turn into a desire to beat the cause of it all - the system and poverty it engenders.

"It is poverty that is regarded as a scandal, never wealth." Alastair Hulbert, The Gift Half Understood

Artists In Training

Madeleine L’Engle

I was trying to think about the concentration essential for all artists, and in the very little child I found the perfect example. The concentration of a small child at play is analogous to the concentration of the artist of any discipline. In real play, which is real concentration, the child is not only outside time, he is outside himself. He has thrown himself completely into whatever it is that he is doing. A child playing a game, building a sand castle, painting a picture, is completely in what he is doing. His self-consciousness is gone; his consciousness is wholly focused outside himself.

Source: Daily Dig

The best teacher ever called me an artist.

Making a difference

Scottish Churches House in Dunblane, Scotland


TBC in Bukit Mertajam, Malaysia

The difference is 1 year and a few thousand kilometres. It's also the weather, the experience, the people... and yet there are links.

Jitka, a close friend of mine, is just on the way to Dunblane. It's hard for me to grasp the meaning and won't elaborate on that now. I just feel obliged and extremely grateful.

Hodne stesti, Jito!

Stupid me

I promised I wouldn't lose my face and I haven't but I lost her heart she gave me.

Her name is Amelia and she is 6...

Child, Though I Take Your Hand

Jane Tyson Clement

Child, though I take your hand
and walk in the snow;
though we follow the track of the mouse together;
though we try to unlock together the mystery
of the printed word, and slowly discover
why two and three make five
always, in an uncertain world —

child, though I am meant to teach you much,
what is it, in the end,
except that together we are
meant to be children
of the same Father
and I must unlearn
all the adult structure
and the cumbering years

and you must teach me
to look at the earth and the heaven
with your fresh wonder.

Source: Daily Dig

Forever?

It's already 3 weeks since we moved in our new house which I adore so much. The address

99 Jalan Sentosa
14000 Bukit Mertajam
Penang, Malaysia

is an intriguing one. Apparently, number '99' means forever in Chinese culture and I've been toying with this idea of 'forever' ever since. Today familiar and yet unknown pictures put the idea into another perspective.


South Bohemia, (c) Roman Kybus

On criticism

I realized that when I lash out at people it’s not my courage or self-confidence which allows of it. It’s their open-mindedness and willingness to accept and learn from such feedback. Seldom would I criticize a thick person, that’s a waste of time.

I won't lose a single face

God put a smile upon my face

Last night I went to bed quite late and so it was hard this morning to get up. The desperate prospect of a tedious weekly journey to Alor Star didn’t add to it. Having moved out from the centre of the town I would need to change buses twice... (from our house to Bukit Mertajam to Butterworth to Alor Star). Nevertheless, I walked down to the bus stop only to realize the bus had just gone. Angry I was, swearing like a trooper, though it meant I would wait for just about another 15 minutes.

So I did. In the 15 minutes, however, the first bus which turned up was going straight to Butterworth. What is more, it took only 25 minutes to get there. I had known of this bus but didn’t know at all the timetable or anything else.

It was a touching experience. It was one of the numerous gifts I get along the way. I don’t know if everything which is going on in this world is good but I believe in this inherent goodness in my life. Everything has its purpose. I started to smile wondering how many gifts I have to receive to learn to get up every single morning with a smile on my face, unharmed, being reassured of the grace in the things to come.

Coldplay: God Put a Smile Upon Your Face

My girlfriend

(c) Winnie Phan, 8 years

BWSTW

In this world of acronyms, BWSTW or Beauty Will Save The World, an acronym for a quotation from Dostoevsky's Idiot coined by my dear friend Alastair Hulbert, is likely to be the most powerful one I have ever come across. Yet I have been asking for some time what kind of beauty it will be and at last, it dawned on me when I was looking at Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur.



We relentlessly pursue big things trying to get more, higher, further and beyond to please our ever-growing appetite. That is a nature of learning but beyond a certain point it might turn nothing but a form of escapism from the daily grind of our lives. Being a trainee in Malaysia I can see that from one point of view, working abroad is a challenge which spurs me on to learn and grow enormously. From another point of view, however, it is an escape from my own culture and family and a way to shrug off all the responsibilities I am called on to take.

Therefore, I think it is precisely the all too often unnoticed, subtle beauty of tiny little things, or our capability of perceiving this beauty, which stands a good chance to save this world. True, we must learn how to appreciate bigness in just a modicum of such a beauty and yes, I admit that to learn this we may need to experience the big things first.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Alastair - a Scotsman in his sixties who has travelled and worked around the world - when walking along the flowerbeds in the gardens of Scottish Churches House in Dunblane would stop every now and then, look at a flower and ask with such a deep affection: "Isn't it exquisite?"

Another view: Beauty Will Save the World