#192 remembering…911

7 years flown yet…
it seemed surreal
when planes ran into the Twin Towers
pillars collapsed and thick black clouds emerged
on television screen!
I gasped and wondered – disbelieved.
 
3,000 civilians – brilliant and young – reduced
to ashes without warning
on that fateful day!
Dying in war zone is fair game
but those died that day…
they were not given
the chance to [...]

#160 the gulag

An avid reader, I have always loved reading the writings of  Russian authors (Turgenev, Tolstoy, to name a few)…although these were translated versions but the way the writers candidly sculptured life using words, especially those by Anton Chekhov.
However with the late Mr Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s writings, it was my interest in understanding the communist regime that led me to his [...]

#155 a bridge for peace

I do not understand why the Christian women in the ministry want to fight for the role of bishop in the Anglican Diocese. Surely, when the time is right for the women to assume, there will be unanimous chorus, but presently…this might be one cause of schism within the Anglican leadership in the world.
I’m saddened…about this [...]

#150 fertilizers

I hear that farmers in some parts of England are using human wastes as fertilizers for their crops.
Today, are farmers in developed countries resort to using human faeces or wastes to fertilize? By using such, they are producing organic foods.
In many Asian less developed countries, farmers used human faeces in producing vegetables for consumption. Vegetables taste sweeter and give better [...]

#141 leadership

Microsoft’s founder Bill Gates, at age 52, is moving away from the outfit he’d started to social enterprises (?) as he and his wife want the challenge to reducing poverty in practical ways in some parts of the world.
The difference between NGOs and one using one’s personal finances is ownership. I’m sure Bill & Miranda Gates will guard their interests [...]

#136 hand-crafted mementos

Whenever I travel to different countries especially Europe, I cannot find locally hand-crafted mementos these days. Instead I find lots and lots of ‘Made in China’ goods.
Sad indeed. If I had wanted to buy any ‘Made in China’ goods, I could get these in Asia. Strangely many items I found overseas are not found in major [...]

#135 love

Love is a feeling to be learnt…through self-discovery — not through seminars though!
There is pain in love. Sometimes, one feels gagged. Of course there is joy and elation…sunshine all day…
The best description found on love is from the Bible in 1 Corinthians 13.
Love is patient,
love is kind.
Love does not envy,
love does not boast,
love is not proud.
Love is [...]

#117 when earth shook

He cried when the earth shook
schools, hospitals and homes turn to rubble
burying the living
roads inaccessible.
In helplessness,
man dropped his differences and ego
to help the devastated.
Courage found in victims to start afresh…

He cried when his wife left him
the innocent 15-month-old son
a stamp of their short-gun marriage
causing a deeper earthquake
in life.

#116 rain

The sounds of rain…soothing…
‘Tis music shutting out noise
made by thoughtless young
in deep of night
consoling the awoken light sleeper.

No home to return?
Has loneliness drown you to love
hearing your voices?
Has loudness become your companion
in still of night?

#103 forces of nature

 Volcano eruption in Chile, South America.
 
 
 
Volcanic ash spilled over to neighboring Argentina (below)
 
 
 
 
 
Cyclone Nargis swept through Irrawaddy Delta, Myanmar on Saturday, 3rd 4th May leaving hundreds several thousands or tens of thousands? dead and tens or hundreds of thousands homeless…trees uprooted, roofs of building blown away, lamp posts fallen…no electricity and water.
Will this flood deepen rice grain [...]