Gay Marriages In Malaysia???

We were outstation yesterday to meet an aquaintance who before our appointed meeting time, happened to be doing marriage counselling duties (as part of the extensive social work he does) at the state Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara. Can't give away location details for sake of anonymity. While waiting for him we noticed this:

It appeared to us that Picture B shows two women wanting to get registered in marriage. The "male" also has a rather female sounding Chinese name too. Our social worker aquaintance also could not shed any light on the matter. I wonder what the law is? Certainly it can't be, even in Bolehland. Imagine if in the situation of gay males...wouldn't it tantamount to legalizing (in Malaysia) asshole banditry?

Nevertheless, our friend the social worker must be doing some good. Please refer to Picture C.

But for all the successes, I wonder that if a marriage can arrive at this stage whether it is worth saving; bearing in mind that this counselling is "mandatory" after divorce proceedings have been instituted.

Perhaps legal gay marriages will bring down divorce stats in this country. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

Black and White; White and Black!

Nope! Not a chess game...just J.J.'s brand of humor!

But Prince Cheah is definitely more handsome in black and white, er...white and black!

KEVII Rugby on 10th October, 2008 Slideshow

More photos will be added in as more trigger happy attendees upload their collections. This event appears to be the beginning of more things to come.

Ridhwan's Rokiah

The long anticipated blood test results, after the 19 day B17 protocol came out yesterday. Rokiah is in good spirits and feels well. Quite apart from being frail after the regime, she is determined to be well.

The results remind me of HSC/STPM exam in those days; doing well in some subjects and disappointing in some that had been hoped to improve. As with HSC, it was a dilemma of whether to repeat it or settle for a less desirable option in university. Re-taking did not guarantee better results and another half year would be lost. But the difference here is not about careers; it is about life itself.

Yes, Rokiah's readings were mixed and a couple of markers did increase; one even doubled. Yet, some other markers have improved and her husband Ridhwan is in a quandary. The "form teacher" has analysed the results and has attributed the negative results as being due to the surgery and is confident a re-take will show better results.

Since chemotherapy cannot start yet for various reasons, Ridhwan is comtemplating the next move... these are difficult times.

Trying To Make Sense Of It All (Final?)

When a loved one dies, the pain of those left behind can be eased if they have an acceptable idea of death, from the perception of the soul.

Plato said; "Once free of the body, the soul is able to see truth clearly because it is more pure than before and recalls the pure ideas which it knew before"

Survivors must learn to function again without the physical presence of the person they loved by trusting the departed soul is still with them. Acceptance of loss comes one day at a time. Healing is a progression of mental steps that begins with having faith you are not truly alone.

We have a life contract we made in advance with the departed, and in order to complete this contract it is necessary to rejoin the rest of humanity as an active participant. We will see our love again soon enough.

Death only exchanges one reality for another in the long continuum of existence.

Trying To Make Sense Of It All (IV)

Destiny of Souls by Dr Michael Newton

I have a work in progress of summarizing Dr Newton's first book, "Journey of Souls" and I will finish the task in due course. Picking up his second book, "Destiny of Souls" I noticed the first chapter, "The Spirit World" does a great synopsis job of the previous book. I am therefore reproducing that chapter (without permission) here to serve as a good introduction to one hypothesis of life after death after life.


The Spirit World

At the moment of death, our soul rises out of its host body. If the soul is older and has experience from many former lives, it knows immediately it has been set free and is going home. These advanced souls need no one to greet them. However, most souls I work with are met by guides just outside Earth’s astral plane. A young soul, or a child who has died, may be a little disoriented until someone comes closer to ground level for them. There are souls who choose to remain at the scene of their death for a while. Most wish to leave at once. Time has no meaning in the spirit world. Discarnates who choose to comfort someone who is grieving, or have other reasons to stay near the place of their death for a while, experience no sense of time loss. This becomes now time for the soul as opposed to linear time.

As they move further away from Earth, souls experience an increasingly brilliant light around them. Some will briefly see a grayish darkness and will sense passing through a tunnel or portal. The differences between these two phenomena depend upon the exit speed of the soul, which in turn relates to their experience. The pulling sensation from our guides may be gentle or forceful depending upon the soul’s maturity and capacity for rapid change. In the early stages of their exit all souls encounter a “wispy cloudiness” around them that soon becomes clear, enabling them to look off into a vast distance. This is the moment when the average soul sees a ghostly form of energy coming toward them. This figure may be a loving soul mate or two, but more often than not it is our guide. In circumstances where we are met by a spouse or friend who has passed on before us, our guide is also close by so they can take over the transition process. In all my years of research, I have never had a single subject who was met by a major religious figure such as Jesus or Buddha. Still, the loving essence of the great teachers from Earth is within the personal guides who are assigned to us.

By the time souls become reoriented again to the place they call home, their earthliness has changed. They are no longer quite human in the way we think of a human being with a particular emotional, temperamental and physical makeup. For instance, they don’t grieve about their recent physical death in the way their loved ones will. It is our souls that make us human on earth, but without our bodies we are no longer homo sapiens. The soul has such majesty that it is beyond description. I tend to think of souls as intelligent light forms of energy. Right after death, souls suddenly feel different because they are no longer encumbered by a temporary host body with a brain and central nervous system. Some take longer to adjust than others.

The energy of the soul is able to divide into identical parts, similar to a hologram. It may live parallel lives in other bodies although this is much less common than we read about. However, because of the dual capability of all souls, part of our light energy always remains behind in the spirit world. Thus, it is possible to see your mother upon returning from a life even though she may have died thirty Earth years before and reincarnated again.

Orientation periods with our guides, which take place before joining our cluster group, vary between souls and between different lives for the same soul. This is a quiet time for counseling, with the opportunity to vent up frustrations we have about the life just ended. Orientation is intended to be an initial debriefing session with gentle probing by perceptive, caring teacher-guides.

The meeting may be long or short depending upon the circumstances of what we did or did not accomplish with regard to our life contract. Special karmic issues are also reviewed, although they will be discussed later in minute detail within our soul cluster groups. The returning energy of some souls will not be sent back into their soul group right away. These are the souls who were contaminated by their physical bodies and became involved with evil acts. There is a difference between wrongdoing with no premeditated desire to hurt someone and intentional evil. The degrees of harm to others from mischief to malevolence are carefully evaluated.

Those souls who have been associated with evil are taken to special centers which some clients call “intensive care units.” Here, I am told, their energy is remodeled to make it whole again. Depending upon the nature of their transgressions, these souls could be rather quickly returned to Earth. They might well choose to serve as the victims of others’ evil acts in the next life. Still, if their actions were prolonged and especially cruel over a number of lives, this would denote a pattern of wrongful behavior. Such souls could spend a long while in a solitary spiritual existence, possibly over a thousand Earth years. A guiding principle in the spirit world is that wrongdoing, intentional or unintentional; on the part of all souls will need to be redressed in some form in a future life. This is not considered punishment or even penance as much as an opportunity for karmic growth. There is no hell for souls, except perhaps on Earth.

Some lives are so difficult that the soul arrives home very tired. Despite the energy rejuvenation process initiated by our guides who combine their energy with ours at the gateway, we may still have a depleted energy flow. In these cases, more rest and solitude may be called for rather than celebrations. Indeed, many souls who desire rest receive it before reunification with their groups. Our soul groups may be boisterous or subdued, but they are respectful of what we have gone through during an incarnation. All groups welcome back their friends in their own way with deep love and camaraderie.

Homecoming is a joyous interlude, especially following a physical life where there might not have been much karmic contact with our intimate soul mates. Most of my subjects tell me they are welcomed back with hugs, laughter and much humor, which I find to be a hallmark of life in the spirit world. The really effusive groups who have planned elaborate celebrations for the returning soul may suspend all their other activities. One subject of mine had this to say about his homecoming welcome:

After my last life, my group organized one hell of a party with music, wine, dancing and singing. They arranged everything to look like a classical Roman festival with marble halls, togas and all the exotic furnishings prevalent in our many lives together in the ancient world. Melissa (a primary soul mate) was waiting for me right up front, re-creating the age that I remember her best and looking as radiant as ever.

Soul groups range between three and twenty-five members, with the average having about fifteen. There are times when souls from nearby cluster groups may want to connect with each other. Often this activity involves older souls who have made many friends from other groups with whom they have been associated over hundreds of past lives. Some ten million viewers in the US saw the TV show Sightings, produced by Paramount in 1995, which aired a segment about my work. Those who watched this show about life after death may remember one of my clients, by the name of Colleen, who spoke about a session we had together. She described returning to the spirit world after a former life to find a spectacular seventeenth-century full dress ball in progress. My subject saw over a hundred people who came to celebrate her return. A time and place she had loved was lavishly reproduced so Colleen could begin the process of renewal in style.

Thus, homecoming can take place in two types of settings. A few souls might briefly meet a returning soul at the gateway and then leave in favor of a guide who takes them through some preliminary orientation. More commonly, the welcoming committee waits until the soul actually returns to their spirit group. This group may be isolated in a classroom, gathered around the steps of a temple, sitting in a garden, or the returning could encounter many groups in a study hall atmosphere. Souls who pass by other clusters on the way to their own berth often remark that other souls with whom they have been associated in past lives will look up and acknowledge their return with a smile or wave.

How a subject views their group cluster setting is based upon the soul’s state of advancement, although memories of a schoolroom atmosphere are always very clear. In the spirit world, educational placement depends on the level of soul development. Simple because a soul has been incarnating on Earth since the Stone Age is no guarantee of high attainment. In my lectures I often remark about a client who took 4,000 years of past lives finally to conquer jealousy. I can report he is not a jealous person today, yet he has made little progress with fighting his own intolerance. It takes some students longer to get through certain lessons, just as in earthly classrooms. On the other hand, all highly advanced souls are old souls in terms of both knowledge and experience.

In Journey of Souls, I broadly classified souls as beginner, intermediate and advanced and gave case examples of each while explaining there are fine nuances of development among these categories. Generally, the composition of a group of souls is made up of beings at about the same level of advancement, although they have their individual strengths and shortcomings. These attributes give the group balance. Souls assist one another with the cognitive aspects of absorbing information from life experiences as well as reviewing the way they handled the feelings and emotions of their host bodies directly related to those experiences. Every aspect of a life is dissected, even to the extent of reverse role playing in the group, to bring greater awareness. By the time souls reach the intermediate levels they begin to specialize in those major areas of interest where certain skills have been demonstrated. I will discuss these in more depth as we get further along in other chapters.

One very meaningful aspect of my research has been the discovery of energy colors displayed by souls in the spirit world. These colors relate to a soul’s state of advancement. This information, gathered slowly over many years, has been one indicator of progress during client assessments and also serves to identify other souls my subjects see around them while in a trance state. I found that typically, pure white denotes a younger soul and with advancement soul energy becomes more dense, moving into orange, yellow, green and finally the blue ranges. In addition to these center core auras, there are subtle mixtures of halo colors within every group that relate to the character aspects of each soul.

For want of a better system, I have classified soul development as moving from a level I beginner through various learning stages to that of a master at level VI. These greatly advanced souls are seen as having a deep indigo color. I have no doubt even higher levels exist, but my knowledge of them is restricted because I only receive reports from people who are still incarnating. Frankly, I am not fond of the term “level” to identify soul placement because this label clouds the diversity of development attained by souls at any particular stage. Despite these misgivings, it is my subjects who use “level” to describe where they are on the ladder of learning. They are also quite modest about accomplishments. Regardless of my assessment, no client is inclined to state they are an advanced soul. Once out of hypnosis, with a fully conscious self-gratifying mind in control, they are less reticent.

While in a superconscious state during deep hypnosis, my subjects tell me that in the spirit world no soul is looked down upon as having less value than any other soul. We are all in a process of transformation to something greater than our current state of enlightenment. Each of us is considered uniquely qualified to make some contribution toward the whole, no matter how hard we are struggling with our lessons. If this were not true we would not have been created in the first place.

In my discussions of colors of advancement, levels of development, classrooms, teachers and students it would be easy to assume the ambiance of the spirit world is one of hierarchy. This conclusion would be quite wrong, according to all my clients. If anything, the spirit world is hierarchical in mental awareness. We tend to think of organizational authority on Earth as represented by power struggles, turf wars and the controlling use of a rigid set of rules within structure. There certainly is compassion, harmony, ethics and morality far beyond what we practice on Earth. In my experience the spirit world also has a far-reaching centralized personnel department for soul assignments. Yet there is a value system here of overwhelming kindness, tolerance, patience and absolute love. When reporting to me about such things, my subjects are humbled by the process.

I have an old college friend in Tucson who is an iconoclast and has resisted authority all his life, which is an attitude I can empathize with myself. My friend suspects the souls of my clients have been “brainwashed” into believing they have control over their destiny. He believes authority of any kind- even spiritual authority- cannot exist without corruption and the abuse of privilege. My research reveals too much order upstairs, which is not to his liking.

Nevertheless, all my subjects believe they have had a multitude of choices in their past and that this will continue into the future. Advancement through the taking of personal responsibility does not involve dominance or status ranking but rather recognition of potential. They see integrity and personal freedom everywhere in their life between lives.

In the spirit world we are not forced to reincarnate or participate in group projects. If souls want solitude they can have it. If they don’t want to advance in their assignments, this too is honored. One subject told me, “I have skated through many easy lives and I like it that way because I haven’t really wanted to work hard. Now that’s going to change. My guide says, ‘we are ready when you are.’” In fact, there is so much free will that if we are not ready to leave Earth’s astral plane after death, for a variety of personal reasons, our guides will allow us to stay around until such time as we are prepared to go home.

I hope this book will show that we have many choices both in and out of the spirit world. What is very evident to me about these choices is the intense desire of most souls to prove themselves worthy of the trust placed in them. We are expected to make mistakes in this process. The effort of moving toward a greater goodness and a conjunction with the Source that created us is the prime motivator of souls. Souls have feelings of humility at having been given the opportunity to incarnate in physical form.

I have been asked many times if my subjects see the Source of Creation during their sessions. In my introduction I said I could go only so far upriver toward the Source because of the limitations of working with people who are still incarnating. Advanced subjects talk about the time of conjunction when they will join the “Most Sacred Ones.” In this sphere of dense purple light there is an all-knowing Presence. What all this means I cannot say, but I do know a Presence is felt when we go before our council of Elders. Once or twice between lives we visit this group of higher beings who are a step or two above our teacher-guides. With this book, I will go into greater detail about or visitations with those masters who are as close as I can come to the Creator. This is because it is here where and even higher source of divine knowledge is experienced by the soul. My clients call this energy force “the Presence.”

The council is not a tribunal of judges nor a courtroom where souls appear to be tried and sentenced for wrongdoing, although I must admit that once in a while someone will tell me they feel going in front of the council is like being sent to the principal’s office in school. Members of the council want to talk to us about our mistakes and what we can do to correct negative behaviour in the next life.

This is the place where considerations for the right body in our next life begin. As the time approaches for rebirth, we go to a space where a number of bodies are reviewed that might meet our goals. We have a chance to look into the future here and actually test out different bodies before making a choice. Souls voluntarily select less than perfect bodies and difficult lives to address karmic debts or to work on different aspects of a lesson they have had trouble with in the past. Most souls accept the bodies offered to them in the selection room but a soul can reject what is offered and even delay reincarnating. Then, too, a soul might ask to go to a physical planet other than Earth for awhile. If we accept the new assignment, we are often sent to a preparation class to remind us of certain signposts and clues in the life to come, especially at those moments when primary soulmates come into our lives.

Finally, when the time comes for our return, we say a temporary goodbye to our friends and are escorted to the space of embarkation for the trip to earth. Souls join their assigned hosts in the womb of a baby’s mother sometime after the third month of pregnancy so they will have a sufficiently evolved brain to work with before term. As part of the fetal state they are still able to think as immortal souls while they get used to brain circuitry and the alter ego of their host. After birth, an amnesiac memory block sets in and souls meld their immortal character with the temporary human mind to produce a combination of traits for a new personality.

I use a systematic approach to reach the soul mind by employing a series of exercises for people in the early stages of hypnotic regression. This procedure is designed to gradually sharpen my subject’s memories of their past and prepare them to analyze critically the images they will see of life in the spirit world. After the usual intake interview, I place the client in hypnosis very quickly. It is the deepening that is my secret. Over long periods of experimentation, I have come to realize that having a client in the normal alpha state of hypnosis is not adequate enough to reach the superconscious state of the soul mind. For this I must take the subject into deeper theta ranges of hypnosis.

In terms of methodology, I may spend up to an hour with long visualizations of forest or seashore images. Then I take the subject into their childhood years. I ask detailed questions about such things as the furniture in their house at age twelve, their favorite article of clothing at age ten, the toy they loved most at age seven and their earliest memories as a child between ages three and two. We do all this before I take the client down into their mother’s womb for more questions and then into the most immediate past life for a short review. By the time the client has passed through the death scene of that life and reached the gateway to the spirit world, my bridge is complete. Continual hypnosis, deepening over the first hour, enhances the subject’s disengagement from their earthly environment. They have also been conditioned to respond in detail to an intensive question and answer interview of their spiritual life. This will take us another two hours.

Subjects who come out of trance after mentally returning home have a look of awe on their faces that is far more profound than if they had just experienced a straight past life regression. For example, a client told me, “The spirit has a diversity and complex fluid quality beyond my ability adequately to interpret.” Many former clients write me about how viewing their immortality changed their lives. Here is a sample of one letter:

I have gained an indescribable sense of joy and freedom from learning my true identity. The amazing thing is that this knowledge was in my mind all the time. Seeing my nonjudgmental master teachers left me in a glowing state, the insight that came to me was that the only thing of true importance in this material life is the way we live and how we treat other people. The circumstances of our life mean nothing compared to our compassion and acceptance of others. I now have a knowing rather than a feeling about why I am here and where I am going after death.

I present my findings involving the sixty-seven cases and numerous quotes in this book as a reporter and a messenger. Before I begin every lecture to the public, I explain to my audiences that what I have to say are my truths about our spiritual life. There are many doorways to the truth. My truths come from a cumulation of great wisdom from multitudes of people who have graced my life as clients over many years. If I make statements that go against your preconceptions, faith, or personal philosophy, please take what fits well for you and discard the rest.

Hobson's Choice?

A dear friend is cancer stricken. He was diagnosed a few weeks ago and the trauma for him is unimaginable. In order not to have to repeat himself this IT savvy buddy has opted to blog regularly about his condition.

As with Randolph’s Rokiah he was introduced to B17 and has undergone a full 19 days of the protocol. His first blood test results came out yesterday; he believes that the last two and a half weeks could have been futile. His cancer markers have gone up and he is seemingly between a rock and a very hard place. Time is of the essence and no one really knows how much sand is in the hour glass.

He went to see an oncologist today and chemotherapy is the obvious option since the tumor at the pancreas is too dangerous for surgical removal at this juncture.

So how does one advise him? We don’t actually. We can only give our opinion and all major decisions rightly belong to him. In the final analysis, they are all merely opinions…regardless that the opinions come from the heart or from years of medical practice. If this scourge were fully understood, it would not exist anyway. We would not be faced with so few options.

This dear friend is a perfectly rational man and sometimes I feel he is too rational. He would have considered all options available and weighed time against measures. No one can imagine what goes on in his mind and the perceptions that result. He has perceived that his decision slightly more than 19 days ago has not achieved his desired results, and has decided to try the other two options available i.e. chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Hopefully a radiation bombarded tumor will be reduced to make surgery a viable option. My fear is that his decision will shut the door to a more effective alternative treatment though I have no right to agree or disagree; I cannot fault him for his perceptions.

It is all so easy for me to be typing all this while he remains in his solitary world wrecked with uncertainty and urgency. Yet I have seen too much to want to leave him to himself and absolve myself of all moral responsibility. I have to offer him another perception.

The funny thing about perception is that it is personal-to-holder. I have always believed that justification drives all of us and how we perceive determines how we justify. My dear CK, allow me to show you another perspective.

and...NEVER GIVE UP!!!

SAUDARA ANWAR BIN IBRAHIM (II)

On Merdeka Day this year I blogged about Anwar Bin Ibrahim and the following post by Syed Akbar Ali in his blog OutSyed The Box has the same title. I think it is worth a read. Why do so many people say the same things about Saudara Anwar Bin Ibrahim?


Saudara Anwar Bin Ibrahim
By Syed Akbar Ali

Note to the supporters of Anwar Ibrahim : You may not fully agree with my comments here. Feel free to throw any brickbats at me. We are all fighting for the freedom of thought and speech, which seems to be a controlled item in this First World nation of ours. I will respect your right to free speech, so please do respect mine too. It is not wrong to have differences of opinion, it is wrong to impose our opinions on others. Thank you.

A few months ago I suffered the ignominy of having my name and faced splashed on the front pages of the newspapers. I had my '15 minutes of fame'. But after that event, I received phone calls and e mails from some old school friends whom I have not seen in over 30 years. So we met up and had a reunion and compared hairlines and waistlines. I also discovered that my friends were all strong supporters of Anwar Ibrahim - to a man.

One of them kept reminding me of September 16th - the promised date when Anwar would form the Government. Then Sept 16th came and went. Nothing happened. My friend Lim was disappointed. In fact thousands of people who were hoping for Anwar Ibrahim to change the Government were quite disappointed. Now Anwar says that the promised 'change of Government' was just a concept. To keep the embers burning he has promised to change the Government by the end of the year.

The reality of the situation indicates otherwise. With the announcement by Abdullah Badawi that he will not be running for the position of party president at the next UMNO Assembly, it seems that Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak is well on his way to becoming party president and also Prime Minister of the land. Many people (and not just UMNO members) would like to see the country getting organised and moving along. But the March 8th elections have thrown up uncertainty which will remain. Everyone is adrift in uncharted waters.

In practical terms, Najib's ascension implies that most of the BN members of Parliament will be staying put and not consider any offers to change horses midstream. Now the papers report talk about a Pakatan MP switching over to the BN. If the Najib-Muhyuddin team consolidates its position in UMNO quickly it will be that much more difficult for Anwar to get the coveted 31 MPs to switch sides. There is also the matter of Anwar's Court case which has to be resolved.

I first saw Saudara Anwar Ibrahim in December 1982 in Columbus, Ohio. I was about to start my freshman year at Purdue University in Indiana. The Malaysian Islamic Students Study Group or MISSG had organised their annual meeting in the United States. The MISSG was a pro ABIM outfit. ABIM was of course the Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia which had been founded by Sanusi Junid (of UMNO fame), Fadhil Noor the late president of PAS and Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar had been invited to address the assembly.

When Anwar addressed the crowd, two things struck me. Firstly, clearly he was an orator - he was able to mouth many words. To be an orator, volume is necessary. You must speak a lot.

Sarah Palin does not make much sense, but that should not preclude her from being labelled an orator. However she fails the 'volume' requirement too - she does not say much. If she becomes Vice President she will be just one heart beat away from becoming President of the United States.

Secondly when Anwar spoke I saw graduate students with wives and children in tow standing up on tables and shouting 'Allahu Akbar'. Now 26 years later when I watch my favorite History Channel and see black and white World War 2 reruns of mesmerized masses, it connects with what I observed in Ohio 26 years ago : that the human voice indeed has the power to move the masses.

The second time I saw Anwar was much closer - at his house in Damansara in the early 90s. He was beginning his rapid rise in UMNO. It was a buka puasa function and I had driven my old friend Dr Kassim Ahmad there. By this time I had been a banker for sometime and had also become quite aware of Anwar Ibrahim's religious credentials (I always use the word Islam very carefully).

By this time Anwar had been over ten years in UMNO. He had served in the Ministry of Sports, Ministry of Agriculture, as Minister of Education, Minister of Finance and finally Deputy Prime Minister. I recall that during his tenure in the Sports Ministry there was a strike by some football players when they were told that they would have to wear long track bottoms. Since it was not recommended for Malay men to wear shorts which exposed the knees, there was a move to get Malay sportsmen to wear ankle length track bottoms. This was not a practical idea and hence was not well received.

Then when Anwar was Minister of Agriculture I recall there was a small crisis involving fishermen and the payment of their subsidies. When he was Minister of Education the school holidays were changed, school children were burdened with carrying heavy school bags and something called KBSR was introduced in our schools. I cannot explain these things because I never understood them. But I am qualified to comment on this because my sons entered Primary School in 1995 and 1997.

During Anwar's time a new language was also introduced in Malaysia. It was called Bahasa Baku. Fortunately Bahasa Baku was only spoken in some parts of the country mainly in the studios of TV3. Bahasa Baku became extinct about a year after the dinosaur movie 'The Lost World : Jurassic Park' was screened in 1997.

I remember Anwar's Cheshire grin on TV when British Premier Margaret Thatcher proclaimed him 'the best Finance Minister in the world' during her visit here in the mid 90s. To this day I am trying to decipher why a fully briefed British Premier would say that.

And over 1997-98, I personally witnessed Anwar's famed acumen as Finance Minister. The Asian Financial Crisis was sinking countries around the region, including us. Anwar's remedy was to listen to the IMF formula which none of the Europeans and Americans are following now to get out of their present crisis.

I was a banker at that time and winced with horror when overnite interest rates climbed into the double digits and our Ringgit kept sinking. My borrowing clients were being choked out of their businesses. A friend of mine, who is a highly successful businessman now, collapsed physically under the weight of high interest rates and the plunging Ringgit at that time. Many people just cannot understand how close our country came to disaster and possible chaos and street riots.

I was the only columnist who wrote a strong criticism against the high interest rate policy in The Sun newspaper, which was rewarded by a curt phone call from Bank Negara to Dato Ahmad Rejal Arbee, my editor at The Sun at that time. Then Dr Mahathir's currency and capital controls came into being which managed the economic transition (menangani perubahan) without chaos or bloodshed.

To my reckoning, even from before (Ohio 1982) until now, Anwar has never espoused a vision, a dream, an economic policy or a way forward for the nation. I just cannot identify any policy or grand idea with him. I believe the simplest reason for this is because he never had one.

A person who aspires to become a leader must have ideas. And in our so very complicated country with its jurang perbezaan Malays, fast forward Chinese, fractured Indians and so many others, we need really good ideas and brave leadership to move everyone forward. Rolling the Rs (kerrrrrrrupshen), mouthing arabic sounds (madani, insani, etc) will just not cut the cake.

Anwar, or any other aspiring leader, must have useful and practical ideas that work. (Decision making over allocation of Government projects cannot be counted as a leadership skill). And for a person to have useful and practical ideas he must be knowledgeable. He must read, absorb and take notes. Reading Shakespeare may not achieve that.

Last year Anwar Ibrahim was invited to give a talk at a hotel in Petaling Jaya. The topic was the Malaysian economy. I went quite eagerly with a friend to listen to what he had to say. We came away quite disapppointed. Other than rolling his Rs (again kerrrrrrrupshen) he did not have any grand ideas at all for the Malaysian economy.

Of course putting a stop to the corruption and being more transparent are good things to do from the day before yesterday. This is a major cancer that is choking our country and it must be excised out completely. But is Anwar really the man who can tackle this job? But that alone is just not enough. We need a new blueprint to replace our obviously failed system. The systemic failure is becoming manifest now but Anwar Ibrahim has suffered a lack of ideas for the past 25 years.

Devoid of grand ideas, Anwar has had no choice but to jump on whatever bandwagon was or is current. In his student days it was starvation even though there were no recorded cases of anyone having died of starvation in Malaysia in a long time.

Then in the years after the Iranian Revolution it was ABIM and religion. While he was in Government, this continued for a time into 'masyarakat madani', 'insan kamil' and so on. There was the period of fraternity with the hicks and rednecks from the Yew-nited States, Dame Ironbottom and others. Finally there was the charge of the Light Brigade against kronyism and kerrrrrrrupshen. And of course Reformasi.

I listened to Anwar campaigning during the March 8th Elections. A lawyer friend of mine said that Anwar was now a changed man. But the one glaring absence in Anwar's platform was and still is a coherent, well thought and well articulated scheme of things for the future of the country. The way forward for all of us Malaysians - without leaving anyone out of the equation.

A road map. A blue print. Good and practical ideas that will reassure the Malays and bumiputras and elevate them, which will also give the Chinese the space they so need to do what they are capable of achieving and which will elevate the poorer Indians to an equal footing with everyone else in the country, which will get that young girl with the terribly yellow teeth in that restaurant in Semporna a life - and maybe an education too. There is none forthcoming from Anwar Ibrahim.

But the terrible truth is, so far no one else from the Government or the Opposition has any good ideas either about how to move the country forward quickly. If the Government were doing a great job, they would not have lost five States and the two thirds majority. It is really time to hear the alarm clock ringing.When there are no real ideas people will ultimately see through the oratory. It may be a long time coming but it will eventually happen. Sometimes it can happen like a 'Kodak moment'.

A Kodak moment refers to a sudden event or situation which is also perfect to be photographed. For example, imagine tourists riding in a boat with their cameras ready to shoot. Suddenly a huge sea eagle swoops out of the sky and catches a fish, almost slow motion style, right in front of their cameras. Everyone gets the perfect picture. That would be a Kodak moment. Unexpected and momentous - a revelation.

Quite sadly my old schoolfriend Lim and many other supporters of Anwar Ibrahim, had a 'Kodak moment' on September 16th. Then again another one on September 26th. Nothing happened on those two days. Things just went on at their normal boring pace. The Saviour was not come. They would have to wait another day for the Mahdi.

The DAP and PAS were not too carried away by Anwar's oratory over this one. However they too faced credibility issues with their own supporters over the 'no change' in Government. Just like Sarah Palin's comment about Russia's proximity to Alaska making her an expert on foreign affairs, this is another event they would sooner put on the backburner. The DAP and PAS tread lightly now when it comes to talk of changing the Government.

Postponing issues have become trademark Anwar. And perhaps there will also be other 'Kodak moments'. It would appear that Anwar is also running out of identifiable enemies. Abdullah Badawi has never been targeted by Anwar as his enemy. In any case Badawi is exiting the scene.

There is much public support for Anwar as a future leader. But this support is more derived from exasperation with the endemic corruption and bigotry which infests the country. The push factors are significant.

If Anwar, or any other aspiring leader, hopes to make real changes in the country then they must have a clear and simple idea about how to make this country a first rate, First World nation in double quick time. And everyone must have a stake in this dream. The reality is that it can be done and well within a space of ten years.

But suggestions like opening up the membership rolls of political parties, unity Governments and such expose the simplicity of the thought processes in the country. There is a feeling that if we can do just this, then everything will be hunky dory fine.

But how can multi racial membership rolls in political parties or unity Governments put an extra RM200 every month in the pockets of the ordinary man without increasing inflation in the country? But the simple fact is, this can be achieved almost overnite if we abolish APs for the import of cars (or sell APs for a nominal RM1.00 from the Sports Toto outlets).

The resulting lower car prices will save at least RM200.00 from monthly car instalments. Considering that even a university graduate (bumiputra) earns a starting salary of about RM1000 - RM1200 a month, that is adding 16%-20% to his disposable income. Where is the political will or the common sense to do this? If not done soon, it will eventually be prompted by the ballot.

Other suggestions like making the nation a full fledged meritocracy overnite may end up burning down the barn and the farm. In the present circumstances such ideas are simplistic too. But prolonging unworkable ideas like the New Economic Policy will not put out the embers that are smouldering. A practical workable balance must be achieved. So far Anwar Ibrahim does not show this promise.

The Amazing Unfolding Continues...

I posted earlier a short narration about a sick woman who was in a hopeless situation until fate intervened. Rokiah is having 4th stage colon cancer and today (since 1st October) is still undergoing a 19 day treatment protocol using Vitamin B17 as the main ingredient. I had wanted to wait until after the 19 days to blog details about this heartwarming story but since her husband Randolph @ Ridhwan has a blog, he is documenting the "amazing unfolding" as it is happening now. This is from Ridhwan:


Its Called B17
October 10, 2008 by randolph

I know a lot about B17 and its controversial past. I have heard about the Oasis of Hope hospital in Mexico. I know who Dr. Ernesto Contreras was. But I never expected B17 to be available in Malaysia. That was until I met Cheah, totally by accident, one lonely night in the hospital.

B17 has very likely saved a life.

I am a rational, educated individual. I do not believe in magical cures. I do not believe in voodoo, black or white magic or using helmets to knock the devil out of one’s head. I do not think too highly of bomohs or any medicine man promising a quick cure.

But I believe in B17 because I have personally witnessed, on a day-to-day basis, the almost magical improvement in the health of a person suffering from stage 4 colon cancer.

http://www.worldwithoutcancer.org.uk/
http://www.oasisofhope.com/


The Taxing Timeline
October 10, 2008 by randolph

The Ordeal Begins…..

September 4: The long journey from Johor Baru to the hospital near Subang.September 5: Major colon surgery carried out.
September 13: Discharged from hospital.
September 19: Re-admitted, because of wound infection - fluids discharging from wound.
September 20: 2nd operation in a month to re-stitch the wound.
September 25: Developed breathing problems, doctors are concerned. Returned to ICU and will remain there for another 3 1/2 days. Heart rate: 128-130. Oxygen level (with oxygen aid): 96%
September 28: Back to a normal ward, breathing only slightly improved.
September 29: Doctors express grave concern over her continued gasping for air. One even opined that if the breathing gets worse, everybody should be prepared for the worst.
September 30: With almost no medical options left should the breathing become worse, I made a decision, with the approval of her three doctors, to start B17.

There’s Always Another Option…..

October 1: Hari Raya. Started 19-day B17 protocol/regime.
October 2: Breathing improves. Respiratory doctor expresses surprise at her recovery.
October 3: Heart rate drops from 130 to 110. Swelling in arms disappears.
October 4: Breathing without any oxygen aid. Heart rate: 105, oxygen (on her own steam): 98%.
October 5: All tubes removed except urinal tube (drip tube, oxygen tube, intravenous feeding tube).
October 6: Last tube removed (urinal tube). Stand-by surgeon writes “miracle” in medical log.
October 7: Heart rate: 100, oxygen 98-100%. Starts to walk, with assistance.
October 8: Swollen legs (from Sept 1) subsides completely. Continues with walking exercises.
October 9: Primary surgeon says she can be discharged by October 11. I chose to let her stay one more day in hospital, so that the physio can continue with the walking exercises.
October 12: Discharged.


The Pianist in an Orchestra
October 10, 2008 by randolph

The B17 protocol/regime is much more complex than just swallowing apricot seeds. A pianist is usually the highest paid musician in an orchestra, the star of the ensemble. But without the other musicians in the orchestra, the music is not complete. While B17 is the star of the protocol, the treatment is strongly supported by a highly skilled “orchestra”, made up of 20-25 “musicians” - either a vitamin, supplement or nutrition. Together, they work together to finish off any cancer cell in the body.


The Proof is in the Blood
October 10, 2008 by randolph

How does one know whether the B17 protocol/regime works?

Simple, no rocket science here. Take a blood test before the treatment starts. Look out for the cancer markers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumor_marker). After the treatment, take another blood test. Compare the two. There are only three possible scenarios - situation has become worse, situation is unchanged and situation has improved.

Oh by the way, there’s a fourth scenario. All the markers are back to normal. And you know what that means.


“How did this happen?”
October 11, 2008 by randolph

There are three doctors (and two others with less major roles) who have been attending to Rokiah. The first is the primary surgeon who performed the colon operation. The second is the young surgeon who replaced the primary surgeon when he was on leave for 6 days. The third is the lady respiratory doctor.

It was the young surgeon who on September 30 pulled me aside and told me that Rokiah’s condition was very serious and that “she may not have much time left.” This same surgeon wrote in her medical log a few days later (after the B17 protocol started) that “its a miracle.”

Today, on the eve of her discharge, the doctors made what would be their last visit to Rokiah’s now too familiar hospital bed. The first, the lady doctor, came by when Rokiah was having her breakfast. Besides the usual “how are you today” greeting, she also smiled and knowingly remarked “It’s a miracle, you know.”

The second visitor was the primary surgeon. He came to the ward when the nurse was helping give Rokiah her 9am B17 “medication.” (The B17 regime starts at 7am and ends at 10pm - all in, a total of 9 feedings.) His remark? Nodding to the nurse, the surgeon said “Yes, give her more of that stuff!”

Is this really a miracle?

Time will tell.


Now Read This!
October 10, 2008 by randolph

From the Oasis of Hope hospital:

One of my favorite board games ever is Risk. The object of the game is to conquer the world. You place your armies strategically around the board trying to capture territories held by opposing players, all the while seeking to protect those that you already possess. On the surface, it is a fascinating game of strategy, timing, and quick thinking. Beneath the surface, however, is an even more fascinating game of alliances.

Much like the game of Monopoly, the game of Risk has a reputation for dragging on for days. This is due to the unseen aspect of the game I mentioned. As a player, I noticed that whenever an opponent began to gain momentum, gobbling up surrounding territories, an unspoken alliance was formed between the other players in an attempt to restore balance to the board. If your attempt to win was too heavy-handed, you were sure to face the combined efforts of the rest of the players. Needless to say, heavy-handed attempts to rule the world rarely won the game. Just ask Hitler.

Cancer is heavy-handed. There is nothing subtle at all about the presence of a malignant tumor in your kidney or lung. Cancer makes no attempt to veil its threat. It is a disease that gathers momentum quickly and attacks with frightening ferocity. Only a concerted and combined effort can repel such an attack. This is the principle behind the Metabolic Therapy my father pioneered.

My father believed that to defeat cancer, it was necessary to attack it from every possible angle. He understood the importance of both direct and indirect approaches. The foundation of the Metabolic Therapy is its multi-faceted approach. Yes, we do attack the tumor, but we also stimulate the immune system and address causal factors. Our total care approach requires the patient’s participation. Cancer treatment is not a spectator’s sport. The patient must be prepared for the fight. We go through a process of structuring a patient for success by providing the necessary resources to face the threat at the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels. There is no question that the alliance between body, mind, and spirit can even the playing field against cancer. In chapters that follow, I will take you through our newest therapies as well as mind/spirit medicine but let me begin with the foundational program my father designed to dismantle cancer’s strongholds. In this chapter, I will share how we can sensitize cancer to treatment, attack the tumor, cut off its supply lines, and take out cancer’s transportation system.

Let´s start with sensitizing the tumor. Did you know that cancer defends itself against attacks? Tumors can become resistant to chemotherapy, radiation or whatever else you throw at it. It would make sense that if you could dismantle cancer’s defenses, you could then take it out, right? What are the ways that cancer defends itself? One way is that tumors encapsulate themselves with blood vessels that are so restricted that antitumor agents can’t get through. Another way is that tumors amass high concentrations of a substance called glutathione. Glutathione is the element that makes tumors resistant to treatment. Is there a way to lower the levels of glutathione in tumors so that they would become sensitized to anticancer treatments? The answer is yes. For glutathione to be produced in the cells, it needs another substance called cysteine. Please continue with me on this trail that it took many years to identify by top researchers. Is there a way to lower the level of cysteine? Yes. Cyanide will deplete the supply of cysteine. But, isn’t cyanide a poison? Cyanide is toxic to our body but it will not make us sick in very low doses derived from a whole food source. You eat cyanide-rich food everyday if you eat apricots, pineapples, apples, or any of the other thousand cyanide-toting foods found in nature. The cyanide in these foods is present in a nutrient called amygdalin. Amygdalin can release cyanide in malignant cells resulting in depleting the supply of cysteine, thus diminishing the intracellular concentration of glutathione. This will sensitize the tumors to antitumor treatments including chemotherapy, Ozone therapy, and UV light.

We also use amygdalin to attack the tumor. The cyanide realeased by amygdalin is one of the best killers of malignant cells as well. Amygdalin has a double punch. It lowers cancers resistance to treatment and it releases cyanide to kill cancer cells directly. If you wish to read the technical explanation of how these two functions of amygdalin occur, please refer to appendices I and II and the end of the book.

If amygdalin can be so helpful, why aren’t more cancer treatment centers using it? The first argument is that it can be toxic because it contains cyanide. The second argument is that it doesn’t work.

Let’s talk about amygdalin’s toxicity first. We have used amygdalin with tens of thousands of patients since the early 1960s. You might say that we know a thing or two about amygdalin which is also known as laetrile and vitamin B17. The cyanide released by amygdalin does not reach toxic levels that can harm or even discomfort patients. But don’t accept my word as the only proof. A famous researcher named June de Spain conducted a laetrile toxicity study that was published in The Little Cyanide Cookbook (Am. Media). She took three groups of rats. Group one was fed white bread. Group two was fed whole wheat bread. Group three was fed laetrile. After three months, 75 percent of rats that were eating white bread were dead. The white bread survivors were at death’s door. The rats that were eating whole wheat bread were in good shape. The rats who were eating laetrile were all alive and in the best condition of the three groups. The conclusion of this FDA sponsored trial was that, “white bread is 70 times more toxic than laetrile.”

No, laetrile/amygdalin presents no risk of toxicity.

What about the argument that laetrile is not effective? We have conducted several prospective clinical trials that demonstrated that amygdalin is quite effective in the combined treatment of the most common and deadly cancers including inoperable lung cancer, advanced prostate cancer, stage IV breast cancer, and colon cancer with liver metastasis. We submitted these studies to several medical journals but they were rejected. Some editors cited that our studies did not have control groups. But it is scientifically valid to conduct a study and compare results with similar studies published in medical journals. That is what we did but we were still denied publication. Other editors stated that our study was not designed properly and that the conclusion was not definitive. Others were quite candid. They rejected the studies because the use of amygdalin was too controversial. I think the third group was honest and I appreciated getting a straight answer from them.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://oasisofhope.com/cancerhospital/dismantling-cancer/a-combined-effort.html


If You Can Treat It, Why Cure It?
September 21, 2008 by randolph

When someone close to me was diagnosed with colon cancer very recently, I started to research on cancer. I went to the world’s greatest library - the internet, to look up the current cancer treatments available, and more importantly, the alternative treatments/cures available. It is unfortunate that in this day and age, the obsession with making money has made it confusing for a person looking for a real solution to these illnesses. One can never be sure whether the offered “cure” is real or just another money-making venture.

One very disturbing fact I came across was that the giant pharmaceutical companies, sometimes hand-in-hand with the government, have gone to great extremes to block cures that are not only genuine, but tested to be effective. Why? Because these big companies cannot patent and make money from these cures, since the sources of these cures originate from what God, through nature, has given us.

One such cure originated from Germany and is called the Budwig Diet or Budwig Protocol. I will let the following article do the talking for me. The article was written by an individual who like me, also wanted to know more about Budwig and credit goes to this person for the research done.

If this article has helped someone you love, let me know!

Randolph

Read the article on Budwig Diet...

KEVII Rugby - 30 Years Of Memories

Yesterday, I was in Taiping for a reunion of former King Edward VII School rugby players from 1978 and later. It was an inaugural event held after 30 years of being one of the kingpins of schools rugby in Malaysia. The beginning was in 1978 it all boiled down to one man, Mr Yiew Siew Seng. Last night we honored coach Mr Yiew Siew Seng (1978 to 1986) and current coach Ahmad Din (since 1994).

I was part of the 1978 team and the small group that put together this reunion over a 4 week period. Led by Tiger Jalil, the rest of the guys are Tigers Tan Poh Hong, Cheng Sun Huat, Ramli, Mariappan and Hamdan Azmir. We knew from the initial response that it would be a success. At the dinner, the sight of more than one hundred and twenty Tigers dressed in similar jerseys with personalized jersey numbers, sharing great camaraderie and memories made all those late night planning meetings worthwhile.

There were some I had not met in 30 years! A few hundred photographs must have been taken as former teammates sought to relive old memories and create new ones. The spirit of the evening made me glad I agreed to be part of an effort that earlier, many must have only thought of but never acted upon.

The decision to have the 70s and early 80s jersey reproduced proved to be fantastic; wearing, and seeing everyone wearing one somehow rolled back the years! The personalized numbers on the back definitely added to the pride of belonging to an exclusive group of KEVII students. The game epitomized the school!

Mr Yiew shared his success formula in his speech. He said, in 1978 he knew he had material for the makings of a championship side but what the players lacked was belief! We all know so well how he went about instilling that belief. I am glad he confirmed what I posted earlier about my lesson learnt from rugby in school; "What did I learn from all the above? I learned one of life's valuable lessons: No matter what or who you are up against, prepare well and have confidence in your own abilities. Virtually nothing is impossible to those who believe!".

More photos will be put up here as soon as I receive them from owners of the many cameras last night! In the meantime, these are from my phone-cam:

An Amazing Unfolding...

I had heard of her about 3 weeks ago when I met her devoted husband in a hospital. I met her for the first time yesterday (7th October 2008) and the following pictures tell the story. Her husband's own words in italics blue:

Sept 18, R waiting for re-admission to hospital. After operation on Sept 5 and discharge on Sept 13, wound did not heal well. She went back to the operation theater for re-stitching of the wound on Sept 20.

Sept 20, After the re-stitching operation. 5 days later, things began to go wrong. While colon was healing and the re-stitched wound was healing (slowly), she started having breathing problems (very fast breathing). Went back to ICU for 3.5 days. Breathing did not get much better after transfer to normal ward on Sept 28. Doctors say she would not survive should breathing get worse. I decided to start her on XXX in hospital on first day of Hari Raya, October 1.

October 5, the fifth day of XXX. Her breathing had already returned to normal on Oct 3, the third day. You can see that all the tubes (oxygen tube, intravenous feeding tube) except urinal tube have been removed. Her oxygen level is now 97-100%, like you and me.

October 7, the seventh out of nineteen days XXX regime. Every tube removed from body. Self-explanatory.

This is an amazing story that is unfolding . I will not say much now but maybe in 2 weeks time.

Latest: 8th October. R is already on her feet and walking.