2008 New Year Wishes
1) Peace
2) Happiness
3) Health
4) Quality of life
5) Prosperity for all
6) Integrity
7) Spiritual well being
8) Co-operation
9) Less corruption
10) Inter-faith harmony
Dec
31
Man of Integrity
How would you feel when your leader tells you that he is going to do this and that, but in the end nothing gets done?
How would you rate an individual who wears a badge saying “I am anti-corruption!” and on the other hand asking for financial reward to let a violator of law go scot-free without further action?
How would you rate an executive who covers up problems and is caught by the superior for lying or cheating?
How do you feel when a religious leader says something and do another?
How does a student feel when he passes an examination without having to study hard simply because there are other short-cuts in life?
All the issues above have something to do with personal integrity. It is difficult to establish the value of integrity, but without which a person is not trustworthy and lose the respect from others.
Due to the lack of integrity, sometimes it is difficult for the recipient of information to differentiate between truth, half-truth and lies. When a society is full of men without integrity, then it is difficult to trust anybody at all.
The society on the whole has been advancing but not necessarily progressing for the better. It all depends on how much we value integrity and the eventual social standing. It is not easy to maintain one’s integrity when the society value material well being rather than moral and spiritual attainments.
What price integrity?
Dec
28
The Part Time Taximan and his policeman brother
A taximan was in a conversation with his passenger and began to explain why he had to work extra hard for a living. He works in a hospital as a medical assistant but cannot make ends meet trying to bring up his children. As a good Muslim he believes in the teachings and live by them. He works at the hospital in the day time and at night he becomes a part time taxi driver just to earn the extra money. There is no visible signs of happiness in his face because he is probably tired and stressed. Once he talks about his family and children, you can begin to realize that he is really in contentment. He is satisfied with life especially when 5 of his 6 children are university graduates, and one more daughter is an undergraduate. The children are doing well within their limits and constraints, and God fearing.
The part time taximan’s colleague who is staying in the same neighbourhood is doing a lot better by involving in insurance claim as a part time business. The colleague is rich by helping patients at the hospital to lodge the insurance claim and making a hefty sum for each case. The man has surpluses in cash and has a number of properties. The problem begins when the patients realize that they are getting let money than him, because they have been short changed. The man and his family cannot live peacefully or sleep well at night. He is now having many unhappy and angry “clients” who want their remaining insurance money back. He is living in fear. The children are not doing well in life because life has been easy for them and there is no need for them to work hard for their own future.
To drive home the God fearing life, the part time taximan talks about his policeman brother and the miserable life he is having. The policeman cannot say no to corruption simply because it is part of the organisation. All his children are hot temper, bad manners and school drop-outs. When the two brothers meet, they tend to benchmark and analyse the discrepancies. The policeman concludes that the corruption has taken the toll on his family and realize that the only for him to have a better life is to opt for an early retirement so that he can be away from the corrupted environment. No doubt it is never too late to mend, but he regrets that the children’s future is not so bright. He pays the price for going again the Islamic religion that corruption is a very big sin.
In life, we always have the choices and it is up to us to make a wise decision. Do we want to be a clean and honest medical assistant cum part time taximan, medical assistant cum insurance “adjuster” or a corrupted policeman. The Muslims believe in punishment after death. The Buddhists believe in re-incarnation. The Hindus believe in Karma.
Our future is in our hands.
Dec
27
Openness and transparency: The virtues of life
By: Sunnysoul5
When a child is born to this world, it is generally believed that he or she is kind and sincere. However, given time he or she may be corrupted if the environment is as such. When he or she begins the education and try to be open and transparent, sooner or later he or she will begin to hide some truth and eventually can be totally closed if life is being threatened.
Some of us may be reading about the impact of the genes, DNA, mother’s lifestyle and habits, oh yes Karma (if you are a believer), reincarnation, and many more things that can be bundled with the newborn. This means a typical child is no longer pure when he or she comes into life. How many of us have he time and pleasure to try to establish the co-relation between the past, present and future, so that at least we can be more cautious of what we say, do and behave in real life.
Do we really have a soul? Some prayers acknowledge the presence of holy spirits and ghosts so to speak. Many of us may experience unusual super natural beings directly and indirectly in life.
In life sometimes it is not easy to practice openness and transparency if we are afraid of the truth being revealed. The need to hide the very truth could subject to compromises.
This is like the dramas in the Godfather series where the endings are typically very sad and heart breaking. The problem is that the Godfather cannot be open and transparent since certain truth is best kept to himself for fear of betrayals.
If we want to be open and transparent, we must make sure that we have nothing to hide. The episodes of the PM’s and President’s of Japan and Korea are very good examples of the fact that the scandals and malpractices cannot be covered up simply because the society has reached maturity in a truly democratic system of government. Singapore is proud of being open and transparent, with due credit given to the Minister Mentor Mr. Lee Kuan Yew whose previous authoritarian rule with the conviction of a clean government and society pays off very well.
It is easy to criticize others but it is a lot more effective to begin with ourselves. Look into the mirror and reach out to our heart, and ask ourselves why it is so difficult to be open and transparent.
Some of us believe in the previous life, some think the current life is more critical and some are very concerned about the after life. We can ignore all of these factors and live life to the fullest with whatever we have, and the million-dollar question is whether it does matter about our past, present and future. If we do not care about these at all, then we can do whatever we like and take life as it comes.
At the end of the day, TRUTH PREVAILS!
Dec
27
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