Friday, October 23, 2009

Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunand



"
Hari ini mari kita lihat dan teliti sumbangan seorang tokoh yang hebat dalam bidang forensik dari Thailand. Beliau ialah Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunand, seorang wanita yang dilahirkan pada 21 Disember 1955. Seorang ahli pathologis forensik yang kerjanya membedah mayat orang dan mengenalpasti punca-punca kematian seseorang. Di negaranya sendiri beliau dikenali sebagai seorang wanita yang berani, seorang pakar dan seorang aktivis hak asasi manusia yang menyifatkan dirinya sebagai seorang yang berkhidmat untuk membela mayat yang tidak lagi boleh bercerita kepada kita tentang apa yang berlaku sehingga kepada detik kematiannya. Seorang isteri dan ibu ..selalu dilihat dengan fesyen rambut pelbagai warna..(bukan suruh tiru...wanita Islam kena tutup aurat )..jarang-jarang senyum...wanita hebat yang sesekali mencabar kerja-kerja polis dan pemimpin politik negaranya sendiri...dia mahsyur di negaranya sendiri dan kini mula dikenali di negara kita kerana penampilannya di mahkamah Malaysia baru-baru ini (saya tak campur hal politik dalam negeri ..saya lurus..saya objektif dan saya cuba berlaku adil ) kerana dia bekerja atas prinsip yang jelas untuk manusia dan kemanusaan.
Seringkali saya menulis dalam bahasa Melayu dan sekerap itu juga saya ingin memuatkan sebanyak mungkin artikel yang berguna yang berkaitan dengan tajuk yang saya pilih. Anda mungkin bertanya mengapa ya? jawapannya ialah kerana saya ingin sesuatu subjek yang saya pilih dilihat dan diamati secara menyeluruh..dunia ini bulat...akan tetapi dahulu kala orang mengatakan dunia ini mendatar (leper) hanya kerana masa orang itu mengeluarkan pendapat dan kenyataan ..dia hanya mengetahui setakat itu sahaja...jadi wahai teman....anda yang saya hormati...lihatlah dengan mata hati....kerana jarang sekali ia menipu...tapi sebelum itu bersihkanlah hati...kerana kalau hati tak bersih dan kotor....sama saja kita melihat dengan mata kasar....takkan nampak yang benar ....berfalsafah pulak saya..huhuhu....
Mungkin ada antara anda...akan bertanya " awat yang dia tak mau tulis sepenuhnya dalam bahasa Melayu atau terjemahkan saja dalam bahasa Melayu saja? kan senang nak baca..."mai sini cek nak habaq....byk artikel asal ditulis dalam bahasa Inggeris...kita kenalah hormat penulis asal....lagipun kalau saya nak tolong terjemah ..ia akan mengambil masa yang lama dan satu lagi ...maksud yang benar-benar nak disampaikan oleh penulis asal akan terpesong"....mai la kita belajaq baca dalam bahasa inggeris...bukan pasai bahasa ni hebat..tapi pasai sampai la ni...dalam internet banyak bahan ilmiah kita boleh dapat dengan senang di internet..lain la kalau satu hari nanti semua seluruh dunia berfokus ke Malaysia kerana Lembah Siberjaya kita jadi tempat utama orang mendapatkan ilmu dan menghasilkan ilmu....jadi masa itu insyaallah akan sampai juga....masa yang mana bahasa Melayu menjadi bahasa utama alam siber .....Insyallah...
Jom kita baca kisah hebat kerjaya seorang ahli pathologis forensik

THE SATURDAY PROFILE; On Death's Trail, a Detective Larger Than Life
By SETH MYDANS
Published: Saturday, April 13, 2002

THE SATURDAY PROFILE;
On Death's Trail, a Detective Larger Than Life","description":
"THE mild-mannered bank manager poked his head into the doorway, then quickly pulled it back. His wife was at work, and he did not want to look. He has never looked. He is afraid of corpses. If the body on the stainless steel table inside had somehow awakened for a moment, it might have jumped, too, with shock.
THE mild-mannered bank manager poked his head into the doorway, then quickly pulled it back. His wife was at work, and he did not want to look. He has never looked. He is afraid of corpses.
If the body on the stainless steel table inside had somehow awakened for a moment, it might have jumped, too, with shock.
Bending over it, with hungry fascination, was a woman whose head was covered with dark red spikes, whose lips were the color of dried blood, whose gloved fingernails, as she prepared to slice the body open, were encrusted with spangles.

Or perhaps the body would have said, as a dying accident victim once did, ''Oh, hello, Dr. Death.''
Once someone has seen Dr. Pornthip Rojanasunand, 47, the country's most famous pathologist, on television or on the cover of one of her best-selling books, it is impossible to forget her. She may be the strangest looking woman in Thailand.

Outlandish outfits. Platform shoes. Hair that seems to say, ''Surprise!'' in orange, rust, scarlet, mauve, chestnut. And, most unnerving, an absolutely straight face.
But Dr. Pornthip has earned her nickname not only through her flamboyance -- and this is not a nation of flamboyant people -- but also through her professional innovations and her straight talk about crime and social issues.

Almost single-handedly she has expanded the nearly nonexistent field of forensic pathology, has belatedly introduced DNA testing to Thailand and has brought some order to the procedures of her calling, detective work on the dead.

IN a country where power and status are something like a business-class ticket that offers special perks and comforts, Dr. Pornthip's candor about high-profile crimes has made her a real nuisance to the police and to those they protect.

It may seem surprising to find a pathologist on the front lines of social change, but Dr. Pornthip, in calling a bullet wound a bullet wound, is a leading voice in the struggle to replace the rule of privilege with the rule of law.

''The chief of police hates me,'' she said, ''because the police use a double standard and for me, everyone is equal. An unidentified body is the same as a powerful man to me.''
When the police quickly announced two years ago that the death of a member of Parliament had been a suicide, Dr. Pornthip received death threats when she told the press that photographs of the body made that seem unlikely.

The police revised their report.
When the police claimed in a sensational case last year that they had immediately identified the dismembered remains of the victim through DNA analysis, she pointed out that such tests take much more time. Again the police backed down.

Until her public criticisms brought a change in procedure two years ago, the police alone conducted autopsies on victims of police shootings or people who died in custody.
''How can such a system be allowed to exist?'' she said. ''How can the public be certain that autopsies conducted by the police forensic institute in cases of extrajudicial killings are not modified to help the police?''

Dr. Pornthip is a self-made specialist as well as a self-made celebrity. Much of what she knows about her field she taught herself from books; at the time she began, there were only a half-dozen forensic pathologists in Thailand.

She found, in the tales told by the dead, a way to discomfit the privileged. ''I didn't like powerful people to take advantage of others,'' she said. ''I thought I could do something about that.''
The relatives of one murdered man asked for her help when the police said, unconvincingly, that he had been killed by gangsters. Her autopsy found a bullet that provided evidence implicating the police themselves in the killing.

It is dramas like these that make her four books compulsive reading.
Her tales of her medical detective work, interspersed with how-to hints on dissection and bone-cutting, are told in chapters with irresistible titles like ''My First Corpse,'' ''Death by Tapeworm'' and ''I'm Not Scared of Ghosts, I'm Just Scared of the Smell.''


THE SATURDAY PROFILE; On Death's Trail, a Detective Larger Than Life
By SETH MYDANS
Published: Saturday, April 13, 2002
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On the cover of one book she is dressed in vestal white, cradling a skull. On the cover of her latest, titled ''Teaching With Corpses'' and published this year, she appears with her husband and daughter, all three of them in bright red outfits.
Dr. Pornthip is not, although she looks it, a person of the night.
Rather, she is a person of the predawn, when it is always darkest. She arrives most days at Ramathibodi Hospital by 5 a.m., and as the living world still sleeps, she is alone with her cold corpses, slicing, sawing and cracking bones.
From these swollen and discolored bodies she extracts the jewels of her craft, the liver, the heart, the kidney, the last dinner. Sliced and studied under an electron microscope, they reveal their secrets.

HER own secrets, hidden under her gaudy exterior, are harder to dislodge. Her parents, both scientists and teachers, tried, in vain, to steer her toward conformity, insisting that she study medicine rather than architecture.
Pathology attracted her, she said, because of the freedom and detective work involved and the chance to confront official hypocrisy.

Her artistic side found other outlets: drawing, cooking, homemaking, collecting popular music and the creation of her public image: long black dresses, leopard-skin tops, rainbow tunics, just about anything that no one else, not even rebellious kids, is wearing.

But she becomes suddenly colorless when asked the meaning of her visual statement. ''It cheers me up,'' she says, as if she had never given it a thought. Or, ''I think it makes me look younger.''
Special occasions hardly affect her look; perhaps a handful of glitter in her hair. ''I don't like going to parties,'' she said unexpectedly. ''I don't like a lot of people looking at me.''
If this is irony, it is seamless.

Her husband, Wichai, the bank manager, is her straight man, dry and low-key. For the first years of their marriage, he claims, he had no idea his wife worked with cadavers. ''I just thought she looked into a microscope and analyzed things.'' When at last he visited her workplace, he said, ''I ran.''

Their 9-year-old daughter, Nong Ten, seems to have a better idea of what her mother does than Dr. Pornthip's husband did at first. At school she has started drawing pictures of imaginary autopsy rooms and machines for extracting bones from bodies.
It is honorable work, her mother explains.
''I tell her that I have a duty to work with dead bodies to find out the truth about their death,'' Dr. Pornthip said. ''And if we do good, good will come back to us.''

For all her experience with cadavers, Dr. Pornthip does not seem to have given a great deal of thought to the manner of her own death.
She has worked on a man who choked to death on a banana and a snake-handler who was strangled by one of his pets. She has dealt with epidemics of suicide by jumping, hanging or swallowing rat poison.

None of that seems to have inspired her fertile imagination.
Like just about everybody else, she said she would prefer to die in her sleep.

Pornthip Rojanasunand
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Khunying Pornthip Rojanasunand M.D. (Thai: พรทิพย์ โรจนสุนันท์, sometimes transliterated as Porntip Rojanasunan, RTGS: Phonthip Rotchanasunan; born: 21 December 1955) is a Thai forensic pathologist, author and human rights activist. She has repeatedly publicly stated that she has come across evidence of police abuses during her work.[citation needed]
Pornthip presently is Director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, Ministry of Justice, in Bangkok and introduced DNA evidence to Thailand.[citation needed]
Before her public criticism, autopsies of victims of alleged police abuse were carried out in the police's own forensic institute; this has since changed.[citation needed]
During the anti-drug campaign by the government of Thaksin Shinawatra in early 2003, more than 1,000 people vanished or were killed; Pornthip has shown that several of these deaths were caused by police.[citation needed]
She has written several books about her work. The most prominent pathologist in Thailand, she gets regular media coverage with her allegations of abuse, and by her own admission, her unorthodox appearance: punk-rock hair dyed purplish red,[1] eccentric clothing and glittery eye makeup, and platform shoes.[2] The Thai English-language newspaper The Nation chose Pornthip, along with Chuwit Kamolvisit and Chote Wattanachet, as persons of the year for 2003.[citation needed] She was honored by King Bhumibol Adulyadej with the title "Khunying".[citation needed]
In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, Pornthip took charge of the effort to identify victims of the tsunami in the Phang Nga region.[3] She and her team were widely praised for their hard work and dedication, but on January 13, 2005 Police General Nopadol Somboonsab complained that the police's identification centre in Phuket should have charge of all identification operations. Many commentators and Pornthip herself attributed the late intervention to Nopadol's personal vendetta against her.[4] Nopadol was ultimately successful, and the Phang Nga operation was closed down on February 3, 2005.[5]
The 2005 National Geographic documentary Crime Scene Bangkok (2004) tells her life story and covers her work in Phang Nga after the tsunami and her battle with the police.[6]
In June 2009, she was one of the pathologists investigating the death of actor David Carradine.[7]
In October 2009, she concluded that Malaysian Democratic Action Party employee Teoh Beng Hock, who had been detained by the Malaysian federal Government's Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission had an 80% probability of being murdered. [8]

Devoted doctor takes on her toughest challenge
She's trying to ID thousands of victims
Lynne O'Donnell, Chronicle Foreign Service
Wednesday, January 5, 2005


(01-05) 04:00 PDT Phang-Nga, Thailand -- Porntip Rojanasunan, Thailand's punky Doctor Death, strides around the courtyard of the Yan Yao Temple, a forensic superstar with spiked purple hair and glittering gold eye shadow now facing her sternest challenge.

Her fury and frustration pierce the throat-searing atmosphere of death that has encased this Buddhist temple since the Dec. 26 tsunami turned it into a morgue for 1,800 rotting corpses, many still unidentified.

"We have nothing here. What do we need? Everything," she says as clouds of eerie white vapor swirl up from blocks of dry ice thrown between black plastic body bags to slow the tropical rot. "We are not prepared for such a big disaster as this."

Dr. Porntip, as she is known in Thailand, has taken charge of the grim task of identifying, tagging and bagging the thousands of victims of the tsunami that engulfed the tourist mecca of southern Thailand. So far, around 5, 000 bodies have been found, and most of those yet to be buried or cremated are stored at three temples in Phang-Nga province, north of Phuket island, where the vast majority of victims died.

Yan Yao Temple has been transformed by necessity into Thailand's biggest morgue. Every minute, more bodies are brought through the arched temple gates, some in hastily knocked-together coffins stacked in trucks or on the back of tricycle rickshaws, some in plastic bags dragged in by volunteers wearing face masks against the stench.

The remains of the dead are laboriously unloaded onto the concrete courtyard, patrolled by young Thai volunteers wearing yellow rubber overalls and carrying backpacks of disinfectant that they constantly spray on the ground and on the unending flow of people who come to help or inquire about lost loved ones.

Refrigerated containers line the driveway, and former market stalls now distribute rubber gloves, rubber boots, face masks, bottles of mineral water and cups of instant noodles. The open-air prayer hall also offers free telephone and Internet services for the bereaved.
Dr. Porntip, 48, marches to and fro, calmly giving advice and support to the phalanx of foreign doctors and forensic experts -- Britons, Australians, New Zealanders, Belgians, Dutch, French, Israelis -- who have descended on Thailand to help identify the dead.

The multilingual Babel in the courtyard is evidence, Dr. Porntip says, that the recent tragedy has vindicated her criticism of the Thai government for not taking her profession seriously.
"We have only 50 forensic scientists in Thailand, no pathologists, no forensic anthropologists. We have no government official based here, and no manager to manage things. I am doing it all myself. And because we have never developed the quality of forensics, we cannot deal with the bodies in a thorough way," she said.

"The color of the skin and hair tells us if bodies are Thai or foreigners. We have tried to identify them completely, but because we lack staff, equipment and knowledge, we are just doing rough identification, by the face and clothes, and finally by DNA, which we have to send to China for analysis. '' As if to add emphasis to her complaints, 300 bodies, all Asian, had to be exhumed early last week after being wrongly identified before burial.

Over the past decade, the diminutive doctor, a devout Buddhist, has acquired superstar status in Thailand as a warrior for justice who stands up to police corruption and gangster intimidation. Unafraid of confronting a notoriously corrupt judicial system, she has risked personal danger by openly accusing police of torture and murder. She relentlessly badgered the government to set up an independent forensic laboratory until it established a Central Institute for Forensic Science a few years ago and appointed her deputy director.

"I think that goodness should protect me from danger from other people," she said. "So I believe that the spirits of the dead will protect me. It's the Buddhist way."

To stretch her meager state salary, she has become a best-selling author of books about the cases she has worked on, popularizing the image of modern detective work. Honored by the king with the title Khunying, equivalent to the British honorific Dame, Dr. Porntip says she hopes the tsunami will bring with it the lessons she has been trying to teach the Thai establishment.

"For seven years, I've been telling the government that Thailand needs a missing persons bureau because we have a thousand people every year who go unidentified. The police just throw the bodies in the river or burn them," she said. "I've been telling the ministers that when the police find an unidentified skull or other body parts, they must not destroy them, they must call me to come and get the body and do a DNA analysis. Now that we have this disaster on an international scale, and we cannot cope with it ourselves, I think finally the message will get through.''

While she is recognized wherever she goes and often mobbed by autograph hunters, Dr. Porntip has also earned enemies. Recently, she was sued by a regional police department after announcing that a young man accused of rape had been beaten to death during interrogation rather than by fellow prisoners, as police claimed.

Many of her detractors deride her wild hairstyle and casual dress, which contrast sharply with the accepted norms in conservative Thailand, and accuse her of being an attention-seeker. She brushes off criticism, saying her individual style aims "to make me happy, to compensate for the work, not to be an actress."

After Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's wife, Potjaman, visited the temple early last week to offer her help in identifying the dead, and was politely turned down, Dr. Porntip said: "Our prime minister is aware of economics but he does not understand justice. No one understands that I want to do this type of work to help people. I am very tired, but I feel happy and satisfied when I can identify someone for their families." Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/01/05/MNGPEALB211.DTL#ixzz0UlHOgeOZ

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Titanic: Crushing The Past






















Titanic - My Heart Will Go On Lyrics Album:
Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you

That is how I know you go on.

Far across the distance

and spaces between us
You have come to show you go on.

Near,

Far,

wherever you are,

I believe that the heart does go on.

Once more, you opened the door

And you're here in my heart,

and my heart will go on and on.

Love can touch us one time

and last for a lifetime

And never let go till we're gone.

Love was when I loved you,

one true time to hold on to

In my life we'll always go on.

Near, far, wherever you are,

I believe that the heart does go on.

Once more, you opened the door

And you're here in my heart,

and my heart will go on and on.

You're here, there's nothing I fear

And I know that my heart will go on.

We'll stay, forever this way

You are safe in my heart

and

my heart will go on and on.


First News of the Greatest Marine Disaster in History
THE TITANIC IN COLLISION, BUT EVERYBODY SAFE"-- ANOTHER TRIUMPH SET DOWN TO WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY-- THE WORLD GOES TO SLEEP PEACEFULLY--THE SAD AWAKENING.

LIKE a bolt out of a clear sky came the wireless message on Monday, April 15, 1912, that on Sunday night the great Titanic, on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic, had struck a gigantic iceberg, but that all the passengers were saved. The ship had signaled her distress and another victory was set down to wireless. Twenty-one hundred lives saved!
Additional news was soon received that the ship had collided with a mountain of ice in the North Atlantic, off Cape Race, Newfoundland, at 10.25 Sunday evening, April 14th. At 4.15 Monday morning the Canadian Government Marine Agency received a wireless message that the Titanic was sinking and that the steamers towing her were trying to get her into shoal water near Cape Race, for the purpose of beaching her.

Assalamuaalaikum dan selamat sejahtera semua ...

Saya teringat satu peristiwa bersejarah dalam hidup saya .(1997)..antara hari-hari gemilang zaman bujang saya di Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang. Satu hari saya ke Pusat Komputer di kampus induk USM. Masa tu internet baru saja bermula di Malaysia...kekaguman saya terhadap teknologi ini telah membawa saya berjalan sorang-sorang sambil membawa satu beg galas ke pusat komputer tersebut semata-mata untuk membuka satu email untuk dihantar kepada kawan-kawan saya di Universiti Utara Malaysia.

Masa saya di pusat komputer tu ...kebanyakkan skrin komputer (wallpaper) dihiasi dengan poster filem Titanic...siap dengan gambar hero dan heroinnya dengan pakaian yang sesuai dengan latar masa kapal itu tenggelam. Apa yang menarik sangat tentang filem "Titanic" ini..getus saya yang bukan kaki wayang ?...khabarnya filem ini berjaya mencetuskan satu fenomena seluruh dunia yang mana semua orang mula bercakap tentang satu peristiwa sejarah yang sebenarnya sudah berlaku pada 14 April 1912. Di Malaysia...hampir semua akhbar memuatkan forum perbincangan para pembaca tentang pengajaran dari filem ini...hebatkan? jarang berlaku ....jom kita lihat apa yang mencetuskan fenomena ini....

Diarah oleh
James Ca meron
Penerbit
Jon LandauJames Cameron
Pengarang
James Cameron
Lakonan
Leonardo DiCaprioKate WinsletBilly ZaneFrances FisherKathy BatesGloria StuartBill Paxton
Muzik
James Horner
Sinematografi
Russell Carpenter
Suntingan
Conrad Buff IVJames CameronRichard A. Harris
Pengedar
-Antarabangsa-20th Century Fox-As/Kanada-Paramount Pictures
Mula tayangan
31 Oktober 1997 19 Disember 1997 23 Januari 1998
Tempoh tayangan
194 min.
Negara
Amerika Syarikat
Bahasa
Bahasa Inggeris
Perbelanjaan
AS$200,000,000[1]
Pulangan kasar
AS$1,845,034,188(seluruh dunia)


Titanic, kapal penumpang yang menjadi harapan ramai, pernah dianggap sebagai kapal paling selamat di dunia. Badan kapal itu sepanjang 850 kaki dengan 14 buah kompartmen kedap air. Beratnya 46,000 tan. Tiada siapa menyangka ia boleh karam. Kapal Titanic dianggap sangat kukuh dan mampu menghadapi apa jua keadaan di lautan.
Namun, kapal itu telah tenggelam, karam di dasar laut bersama-sama kapten dan 1,513 penumpang yang malang.

Peristiwa kapal Titanic memberi pengajaran tentang perlunya perubahan dalam organisasi, pendekatan perjuangan, hatta kepada pegangan orang perseorangan.

Bagi Victor S.L. Tan, peristiwa Titanic berpunca dari 3 kesilapan besar:
Kesilapan 1: Percaya akan kekebalan - Setelah Titanic melanggar tepi bongkah ais (iceberg) yang tajam bercerancang, Kapten Ernest Smith sedikit pun tidak bimbang, meskipun dia sedar bahagian badan kapal itu telah merekah. Malahan, para pegawainya bersorak dengan gembira kerana kapal itu dapat melepasi iceberg. Apa yang mereka tidak sedar ialah air sedang mengalir masuk melalui rekahan sepanjang 300 kaki. Kesudahannya, kapal itu tenggelam di Lautan Atlantik.

Kesilapan ke 2: Mengambil ringan ancaman persekitaran – Seramai 2,300 orang penumpang berada di dalam kapal, tetapi terdapat hanya 16 buah bot penyelamat untuk 1,250 orang sahaja, walhal kapal itu boleh dilengkapi dengan 48 buah bot penyelamat. Meskipun laporan tentang wujudnya iceberg di sekitar perairan yang akan dilalui diterima, kapten tidak mengarahkan supaya kelajuan kapal dikurangkan atau bertukar haluan. Isyarat wireless yang menunjukkan kapal itu sedang bergerak dengan kelajuan 22 knot sejam menuju ke arah iceberg, sedikitpun tidak dihiraukan.

Kesilapan ke 3: Sudah terhantuk baru tengadah – Menurut laporan, perlanggaran berlaku tepat pada pukul 11.40 malam. Selama 25 minit berikutnya, tiada apa yang dilakukan. Hanya sejurus 5 minit selepas waktu tengah malam, barulah arahan untuk mengeluarkan bot-bot penyelamat diberi. Tetapi ia telah terlambat…

Demikianlah secebis kisah tentang perlunya PERUBAHAN. Kita sebagai individu juga perlu berubah. Apatah lagi Islam mengajar supaya `hari ini lebih baik berbanding semalam dan esok lebih baik berbanding dengan hari ini’. Kerajaan juga boleh berubah. Maka marilah kita bersam-sama melakukan perubahan ke arah sesuatu yang diredhai Allah swt.

Time for Reflection and Reforms

SPEED AND LUXURY OVEREMPHASIZED--SPACE NEEDED FOR LIFE-BOATS DEVOTED TO SWIMMING POOLS AND SQUASH- COURTS--MANIA FOR SPEED RECORDS COMPELS USE OF DANGEROUS ROUTES AND PREVENTS PROPER CAUTION IN FOGGY WEATHER--LIFE MORE VALUABLE THAN LUXURY--SAFETY MORE IMPORTANT THAN SPEED--AN AROUSED PUBLIC OPINION NECESSARY--INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED-- ADEQUATE LIFE-SAVING EQUIPMENT SHOULD BE COMPULSORY--SPEED REGULATIONS IN BAD WEATHER-- COOPERATION IN ARRANGING SCHEDULES TO KEEP VESSELS WITHIN REACH OF EACH OTHER--LEGAL REGULATIONS

IT is a long time since any modern vessel of importance has gone down under Nature's attack, and in general the floating city of steel laughs at the wind and waves. She is not, however, proof against disaster. The danger lies in her own power--in the tens of thousands of horse power with which she may be driven into another ship or into an iceberg standing cold and unyielding as a wall of granite. In view of this fact it is of the utmost importance that present-day vessels should be thoroughly provided with the most efficient life-saving devices. These would seem more important than fireplaces, squash-courts and many other luxuries with which the Titanic was provided. The comparatively few survivors of the ill-fated Titanic were saved by the life-boats. The hundreds of others who went down with the vessel perished because there were no life-boats to carry them until rescue came.

SURVIVORS URGE REFORM

The survivors urge the need of reform. In a resolution drawn up after the disaster they said:
"We feel it our duty to call the attention of the public to what we consider the inadequate supply of life-saving appliances provided for the modern passenger steamships and recommend that immediate steps be taken to compel passenger steamers to carry sufficient boats to accommodate the maximum number of people carried on board. The following facts were observed and should be considered in this connection: The insufficiency of life-boats, rafts, etc.; lack of trained seamen to man same (stokers, stewards, etc., are not efficient boat handlers); not enough officers to carry out emergency orders on the bridge and superintend the launching and control of life-boats; the absence of search lights.

"The Board of Trade allows for entirely too many people in each boat to permit the same to be properly handled. On the Titanic the boat deck was about seventy-five feet from the water and consequently the passengers were required to embark before lowering the boats, thus endangering the operation and preventing the taking on of the maximum number the boats would hold. Boats at all times should be properly equipped with provisions, water, lamps, compasses, lights, etc. Life-saving boat drills should be more frequent and thoroughly carried out and officers should be armed at both drills. There should be greater reduction of speed in fog and ice, as damage if collision actually occurs is liable to be less.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE RECOMMENDED


"In conclusion we suggest that an international conference be called to recommend the passage of identical laws providing for the safety of all at sea, and we urge the United States Government to take the initiative as soon as possible."
That ocean liners take chances with their passengers, though known to the well informed, is newly revealed and comes with a shock of surprise and dismay to most people. If boats are unsinkable as well as fireproof there is no need of any life-boats at all. But no such steamship has ever been constructed.

That it is realized that life-boats may be necessary on the best and newest steamships is proved by the fact that they carry them even beyond the law's requirements. But if life-boats for one-third of those on the ship are necessary, life-boats for all on board are equally necessary. The law of the United States requires this, but the law and trade regulations of England do not, and these controlled the Titanic and caused the death of over sixteen hundred people.

True, a steamship is rarely crowded to her capacity, and ordinarily accommodations in life-boats for a full list would not be needed. But that is no argument against maximum safety facilities, for when disaster comes it comes unexpectedly, and it might come when every berth was occupied. So there must be life-boats for use in every possible emergency. Places must be found for them and methods for handling them promptly.

Suppose a vessel to be thus equipped, would safety be insured? In calm weather such as the Titanic had, yes, for all that would be needed would be to keep the small boats afloat until help came. The Titanic could have saved everyone aboard. In heavy weather, no. As at present arranged, if a vessel has a list, or, in non-nautical language, has tipped over on one side, only the boats upon the lower side can be dropped, for they must be swung clear of the vessel to be lowered from the davits.

So there is a problem which it is the duty of marine designers to solve. They have heretofore turned their attention to the invention of some new contrivance for comfort and luxury. Now let them grasp the far more important question of taking every soul from a sinking ship. They can do it, and while they are about it, it would be well to supplement life-boats with other methods.
We like to think and to say that nothing is impossible in these days of ceaseless and energetic progress. Certainly it is possible for the brains of marine designers to find a better way for rescue work. Lewis Nixon, ship-builder and designer for years, is sure that we can revolutionize safety appliances. He has had a plan for a long time for the construction of a considerable section of deck that could be detached and floated off like an immense raft. He figures that such a deck- raft could be made to carry the bulk of the passengers.

That may seem a bit chimerical to laymen, but Nixon is no layman. His ideas are worthy of every consideration. Certain it is that something radical must be done, and that the maritime nations must get together, not only in the way of providing more life-saving facilities, but in agreeing upon navigation routes and methods.

Captain William S. Sims, of the United States Navy, who is in a position to know what he is talking about, has made some very pointed comments on the subject. He says:
"The truth of the matter is that in case any large passenger steamship sinks, by reason of collision or other fatal damage to her flotability, more than half of her passengers are doomed to death, even in fair weather, and in case there is a bit of a sea running none of the loaded boats can long remain afloat, even if they succeed in getting safely away from the side, and one more will be added to the long list of `the ships that never return.'

"Most people accept this condition as one of the inevitable perils of the sea, but I believe it can be shown that the terrible loss of life occasioned by such disasters as overtook the Bourgogne and the Titanic and many other ships can be avoided or at least greatly minimized. Moreover, it can be shown that the steamship owners are fully aware of the danger to their passengers; that the laws on the subject of life-saving appliances are wholly inadequate; that the steamship companies comply with the law, though they oppose any changes therein, and that they decline to adopt improved appliances; because there is no public demand for them, the demand being for high schedule speed and luxurious conditions of travel.

"In addition to installing efficient life-saving appliances, if the great steamship lines should come to an agreement to fix a maximum speed for their vessels of various classes and fix their dates and hours of steaming so that they would cross the ocean in pairs within supporting distances of each other, on routes clear of ice, all danger of ocean travel would practically be eliminated.
"The shortest course between New York and the English Channel lies across Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Consequently the shortest water route is over seas where navigation is dangerous by reason of fog and ice. It is a notorious fact that the transatlantic steamships are not navigated with due regard to safety; that they steam at practically full speed in the densest fogs. But the companies cannot properly be blamed for this practice, because if the `blue liners' slow down in a fog or take a safe route, clear of ice, the public will take passage on the `green liners,' which take the shortest route, and keep up their schedule time; regardless of the risks indicated."

PROMPT REFORMS

The terrible sacrifice of the Titanic, however, is to have its fruit in safety for the future. The official announcement is
{illust. caption = A diagrammatic map showing how...}
made by the International Mercantile Marine that all its ships will be equipped with sufficient life-boats and rafts for every passenger and every member of the crew, without regard to the regulations in this country and England or Belgium. One of the German liners already had this complement of life-boats, though the German marine as a whole is sufficiently deficient at this point to induce the Reichstag to order an investigation.

Prompt, immediate and gratifying reform marks this action of the International Mercantile Marine. It is doubtless true that this precaution ought to have been taken without waiting for a loss of life such as makes all previous marine disasters seem trivial. But the public itself has been inert. For thirty years, since Plimsoll's day, every intelligent passenger knew that every British vessel was deficient in life- boats, but neither public opinion nor the public press took this matter up. There were no questions in Parliament and no measures introduced in Congress. Even the legislation by which the United States permitted English vessels reaching American ports to avoid the legal requirements of American statute law (which requires a seat in the life-boats for every passenger and every member of the crew) attracted no public attention, and occasional references to the subject by those better informed did nothing to awake action.

But this is past. Those who died bravely without complaint and with sacrificing regard for others did not lose their lives in vain. The safety of all travelers for all times to come under every civilized flag is to be greater through their sac- rifice. Under modern conditions life can be made as safe at sea as on the land. It is heartrending to stop and think that thirty-two more life-boats, costing only about $16,000, which could have been stowed away without being noticed on the broad decks of the Titanic, would have saved every man, woman and child on the steamer. There has never been so great a disaster in the history of civilization due to the neglect of so small an expenditure.

It would be idle to think that this was due simply to parsimony. It was really due to the false and vicious notion that life at sea must be made showy, sumptuous and magnificent. The absence of life-boats was not due to their cost, but to the demand for a great promenade deck, with ample space to look out on the sea with which a continuous row of life-boats would have interfered, and to the general tendency to lavish money on the luxuries of a voyage instead of first insuring its safety.
Did You Know?

The band played "Nearer My God To Thee" as the ship was sinking. The Titanic cost 7.5 million dollars (1912 dollars) to build.
The Titanic was a monstrous 882.5 feet in length and weighed a whopping 52,310 long tons!
The Titanic's final resting place is 12,500 feet below the ocean surface, 350 miles southeast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The Titanic was just one of three ships conceived by the White Star Line that would be at the height of comfort and speed. The White Star Line called the other two ships The Olympic and The Britannic.
Because of the immenseness of the ship, the Titanic's maiden voyage was delayed from March 20 to April 10, 1912.
There were three real smokestacks, the fourth being a "dummy" stack to add to its size. The fourth stack also was used to vent smoke from the ships many galleys.
The ship was able to sustain 3,500 passengers. On its maiden voyage it had 2,228 passengers, yet only had lifeboat capacity for 1,178 people.
The third class, or steerage, cabins boasted indoor toilet facilities that some of the steerage passengers had not enjoyed in their own homes!
The ship had not one, but two full musical ensembles, a squash court, swimming pool and gymnasium.
The ship cruised at 22 knots (around 25 miles per hour).
The day the Titanic sunk, it received its sixth ice warning by wireless telegraph.
Out of the 2,228 people on the Titanic, only 710 people survived.
After the ship sank, 337 bodies were found in the wreckage, 128 bodies were buried at sea, and many others were buried in Halifax, Canada.
Sir Arthur Rostron, Captain of the RMS Carpathia, was given a medal of honor for sailing through 58 miles of packed ice to pick up survivors of the Titanic.
As many as 549 out of 1,518 people who died on the Titanic were from Southampton, UK.
The iceberg struck the Titanic on its starboard side (front and right side).
The hull was divided into 16 watertight compartments, making the builders sure that she was "unsinkable."
The Titanic was rediscovered in two pieces on September 1, 1985.
On the night that the Titanic sank the seawater was a frigid -2 degrees celsius.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Cerita Manusia dan Kemanusiaan 4
























Assalamualaikum....kembali bertemu dan bertamu di blog ini.


Hari ini saya ingin membawakan satu kisah yang terpencil yang berlalu di Dubai ..sebuah kota metropolitan dan sebuah kota yang menjanjikan 1000 impian dan harapan bagi setiap warga luar yang bertamu di situ. Teringat saya pada satu perkataan iaitu "fatamorgana"...atau selalu saya terjemahkan sebagai kekeliruan penglihatan...sesuatu yang kita lihat dengan mata tidak semestinya benar sebagaimana yang ia seharusnya difahami. Asal usulnya mungkin dipetik dari cerita seorang pengembara (macam saya juga) yang mengembara di tengah-tengah padang pasir yang panas dan kering kontang dengan rasa kehausan yang teramat sangat....sedang ia berjalan...tiba-tiba ia melihat jauh di hadapan satu kilauan keemasan yang seakan-akan sebuah oasis...apa lagi bersemangatlah pengembara itu untuk meneruskan perjalanannya...langkahnya dipercepatkan....sehinggalah ia sampai ke tempat yang ditujui....tiba-tiba saja yang dilihatnya bukanlah kolam air atau oasis..tetapi hanyalah longgokan atau timbunan bukit pasir yang kering kontang....

dunia ini memang begini..ia tidak menipu...jadi salahkan mata sendiri kalau apa yang anda lihat bukan hakikat....oleh itu pandanglah dengan mata hati..kerana mata hati tidak sebegitu....

Jom kita baca satu cerita tentang kisah seorang warga bangladesh yang datang ke Dubai dengan 1000 impian ..tetapi mengalami penderitaan demi penderitaan ....sedangkan jauh di kampungya di Bangladesh,

sanak saudara dan keluarganya menanti dengan dengan penuh harapan akan kemewahan hidup saudaranya di Dubai dan impian yang menggunung tinggi kenikmatan hidup yang bakal mereka kecapi bersama di bumi Bangladesh....

The dark side of Dubai

Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging. Johann Hari reports
Tuesday, 7 April 2009


III. Hidden in plain view

Every evening, the hundreds of thousands of young men who build Dubai are bussed from their sites to a vast concrete wasteland an hour out of town, where they are quarantined away. Until a few years ago they were shuttled back and forth on cattle trucks, but the expats complained this was unsightly, so now they are shunted on small metal buses that function like greenhouses in the desert heat. They sweat like sponges being slowly wrung out.

Sonapur is a rubble-strewn patchwork of miles and miles of identical concrete buildings. Some 300,000 men live piled up here, in a place whose name in Hindi means "City of Gold". In the first camp I stop at – riven with the smell of sewage and sweat – the men huddle around, eager to tell someone, anyone, what is happening to them.

Sahinal Monir, a slim 24-year-old from the deltas of Bangladesh. "To get you here, they tell you Dubai is heaven. Then you get here and realise it is hell," he says. Four years ago, an employment agent arrived in Sahinal's village in Southern Bangladesh. He told the men of the village that there was a place where they could earn 40,000 takka a month (£400) just for working nine-to-five on construction projects. It was a place where they would be given great accommodation, great food, and treated well. All they had to do was pay an up-front fee of 220,000 takka (£2,300) for the work visa – a fee they'd pay off in the first six months, easy. So Sahinal sold his family land, and took out a loan from the local lender, to head to this paradise.
As soon as he arrived at Dubai airport, his passport was taken from him by his construction company. He has not seen it since. He was told brusquely that from now on he would be working 14-hour days in the desert heat – where western tourists are advised not to stay outside for even five minutes in summer, when it hits 55 degrees – for 500 dirhams a month (£90), less than a quarter of the wage he was promised. If you don't like it, the company told him, go home. "But how can I go home? You have my passport, and I have no money for the ticket," he said. "Well, then you'd better get to work," they replied.

Sahinal was in a panic. His family back home – his son, daughter, wife and parents – were waiting for money, excited that their boy had finally made it. But he was going to have to work for more than two years just to pay for the cost of getting here – and all to earn less than he did in Bangladesh.

He shows me his room. It is a tiny, poky, concrete cell with triple-decker bunk-beds, where he lives with 11 other men. All his belongings are piled onto his bunk: three shirts, a spare pair of trousers, and a cellphone. The room stinks, because the lavatories in the corner of the camp – holes in the ground – are backed up with excrement and clouds of black flies. There is no air conditioning or fans, so the heat is "unbearable. You cannot sleep. All you do is sweat and scratch all night." At the height of summer, people sleep on the floor, on the roof, anywhere where they can pray for a moment of breeze.

The water delivered to the camp in huge white containers isn't properly desalinated: it tastes of salt. "It makes us sick, but we have nothing else to drink," he says.
The work is "the worst in the world," he says. "You have to carry 50kg bricks and blocks of cement in the worst heat imaginable ... This heat – it is like nothing else. You sweat so much you can't pee, not for days or weeks. It's like all the liquid comes out through your skin and you stink. You become dizzy and sick but you aren't allowed to stop, except for an hour in the afternoon. You know if you drop anything or slip, you could die. If you take time off sick, your wages are docked, and you are trapped here even longer."

He is currently working on the 67th floor of a shiny new tower, where he builds upwards, into the sky, into the heat. He doesn't know its name. In his four years here, he has never seen the Dubai of tourist-fame, except as he constructs it floor-by-floor.
Is he angry? He is quiet for a long time. "Here, nobody shows their anger. You can't. You get put in jail for a long time, then deported." Last year, some workers went on strike after they were not given their wages for four months. The Dubai police surrounded their camps with razor-wire and water-cannons and blasted them out and back to work.

The "ringleaders" were imprisoned. I try a different question: does Sohinal regret coming? All the men look down, awkwardly. "How can we think about that? We are trapped. If we start to think about regrets..." He lets the sentence trail off. Eventually, another worker breaks the silence by adding: "I miss my country, my family and my land. We can grow food in Bangladesh. Here, nothing grows. Just oil and buildings."

Since the recession hit, they say, the electricity has been cut off in dozens of the camps, and the men have not been paid for months. Their companies have disappeared with their passports and their pay. "We have been robbed of everything. Even if somehow we get back to Bangladesh, the loan sharks will demand we repay our loans immediately, and when we can't, we'll be sent to prison."

This is all supposed to be illegal. Employers are meant to pay on time, never take your passport, give you breaks in the heat – but I met nobody who said it happens. Not one. These men are conned into coming and trapped into staying, with the complicity of the Dubai authorities.
Sahinal could well die out here. A British man who used to work on construction projects told me: "There's a huge number of suicides in the camps and on the construction sites, but they're not reported. They're described as 'accidents'." Even then, their families aren't free: they simply inherit the debts. A Human Rights Watch study found there is a "cover-up of the true extent" of deaths from heat exhaustion, overwork and suicide, but the Indian consulate registered 971 deaths of their nationals in 2005 alone. After this figure was leaked, the consulates were told to stop counting.

At night, in the dusk, I sit in the camp with Sohinal and his friends as they scrape together what they have left to buy a cheap bottle of spirits. They down it in one ferocious gulp. "It helps you to feel numb", Sohinal says through a stinging throat. In the distance, the glistening Dubai skyline
he built stands, oblivious.







Friday, October 16, 2009

Cerita Manusia dan Kemanusiaan 3






Assalamualaikum dan selamat bercuti di hujung minggu kepada semua yang membaca blog ini.

Hari ini saya ingin membawakan satu pandangan dan pendapat dari seorang anak perempuan kepada pasangan mat salleh australia. Sengaja saya cari dan kutip semua ini untuk hidangan anak saya yang bernama hafiz dan adik-adiknya yang masih kecil dalam usia 8, 6 dan 4 tahun yang belum lagi berpeluang untuk akses ke blog ini.

Kita semua sedia maklum yang setiap dari kita juka ditakdirkan mempunyai anak tentunya kita mahu anak-anak kita jadi lebih berjaya dan bahagia daripada apa yang kita lalui dan nikmati hari ini.

Atas sebab itulah maka sebelum saya berkahwin lagi...saya yang pilih ibu mereka...dan sebelum mereka dilahirkan lagi saya dan isteri dah mula memilih nama-nama yang baik dan perbincangan kami biasanya mengambil masa berbulan-bulan lamanya. Kedua-dua kami akan selalu membaca surah-surah dan ayat yang dianjurkan dalam amalan sebagai bakal ibu dan bapa..semuanya berlalu serupa sehinggalah anak kami yang bongsu yang berusia 4 tahun itu.

Banyak lagilah perkara yang kami buat sehingga kekadang ditegur oleh ibu dan bapa kami...tetapi atas dasar sikap terbuka kami terhadap sebarang perkara yang positif maka kami memilih untuk menulis skrip kehidupan berumahtangga dan membesarkan anak-anak dengan cara yang tersendiri. Antaranya yang menjadi keluh kesah di kalangan ahli keluarga ialah tidak seorang pun anak kami yang membesar melalui proses buaian. Ini berdasarkan nasihat seorang doktor perubatan yang mengatakan anak-anak masa kecil tak patut digoyang kerana proses ini akan menjejaskan kecemerlangan kognitif anak itu. Alhamdulillah semuanya berjalan lancar sehinggalah adik saya kata anak-anak saudaranya sebagai anak-anak MILLENIUM.

Begitu juga masa nak mencari pengasuh anak-anak kami...saya nampak pada hari pertama anak saya yang sulung dibawa ke rumah pengasuh...air mata isteri saya bercucuran gugur..saya sebagai bapa tak pula rasa nak menangis kerana pada saya inikan salah satu dari cabaran dalam membesarkan anak-anak kerana kami suami isteri bekerja. Akhirnya kami diberikan Allah seorang pengasuh yang baik dan hari tugasnya telah pun selesai dengan kehadiran Aidil Fitri baru saja berlalu..anak saya dah mula bersekolah di taman asuhan kanak-kanak bersama abangnya. Terima kasih yang tak terhingga kami lafazkan kepada pengasuh dan keluarganya yang telah mengasuh dan mendidik anak kami seperti ahli keluarga mereka sendiri. Sebagai penghargaan saya dan isteri telah menghadiahkan pengasuh anak kami sebentuk cincin emas..saya sedar walaupun budi dan jasanya tak boleh dibalas dengan wang ringgit dan harta tetapi atas kerendahan hatinya melaksanakan yang terbaik ..kami menyanjung tinggi sumbangannya yang amat besar itu.

Bersama ini saya bawakan bersama satu cerita manusia dan kemanusiaan dari sudut pandangan seorang anak perempuan yang melihat dirinya dan pandangan ibubapa terhadapnya dengan hati yang terbuka....jom kita baca....

Crush your children's spirits early

Page: Print Mandy Sayer October 16, 2009
Article from: The Australian

KIDS these days have too much self-esteem. After crashing her yacht into a tanker only hours into her solo journey around the world, 16-year-old Jessica Watson returns to the family home, sticks on a Band Aid, and sets off yet again, waving to the cameras.

A couple of years ago, teenager Corey Worthington invited hundreds of strangers to his party, trashed the family home, terrorised his neighbours, and refused to apologise or even admit he might have inconvenienced a few people. And only two weeks ago at a Brisbane party, I met a teenage girl who was boasting about the fact that she drives around all the time, despite not having a licence.

"Isn't that dangerous?" I inquired, staring at her nose rings.

She smirked and drained her Jim Beam and Coke. "Only if you get caught," she replied, crushing the can into an hourglass.

I hesitate to suggest this, but most of this over-confidence is probably due to the way these kids have been raised, with parents reassuring their little Joshuas and Chloes that they can grow up to do or be anything.

My parents, on the other hand, got it right immediately, and a lot of their parenting had to do with good old humiliation. At seven, after my petite older sister began studying classical ballet, I asked my mother if I, too, could study dance. My mother merely laughed and shook her head. "You'll never be a ballerina, Mandy. You're too fat!"

A few months later both my mother and father sat me down for a solemn talk about my future. They were concerned about my clumsiness and my absent-minded nature, which had been growing worse. They'd already seen me walking into a telegraph pole on the way to school, dropping plates while washing up, and tripping over, repeatedly, on the back step. I was expecting them to tell me that they wanted to take me to a doctor, or to a specialist, or that they were going to give me medicine to make my awkwardness go away, but all they said was, "Promise us just one thing. When you grow up, never learn to drive. Because if you don't kill yourself, you'll kill somebody else."

So there's the answer, folks, crush your childrens' spirits early, if not for their own good, then for the benefit of society. I know it certainly worked for me: I am now a grown woman who has never learned to drive and who has never become a ballerina - well, not yet, anyway.


Thursday, October 15, 2009

Cerita Manusia dan Kemanusiaan 2



Ketika saya melayari internet dan membaca akhbar The New York Times, saya terbaca satu artikel menarik yang ditulis oleh seorang bekas tentera Amerika yang pernah berkhidmat di Iraq dan pada hari ini telahpun meninggalkan kerjayanya dalam tentera kerana beberapa perkara yang dilaluinya sepanjang hidup. Kisah ini menarik sekali untuk kita kongsikan bersama...ia mengisahkan tentang kehilangan dan satu harapan baru bagi membina semula kehidupan dan menghargai apa yang masih tinggal....

Selamat membaca .....

The Distance Between
By Lee Kelley

Courtesy of Lee Kelley

The author in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2006.In retrospect, my 11 months and two weeks in Ramadi, Iraq, felt stretched to their absolute fullest length across the continuum of time. Now I recall them in thousands of digital photographs or by the folded flag in a wooden case here, in my living room, some three years later. I have made major changes both personally and professionally since getting home, and it is kind of strange now to look at that person in the photos. Hard to think about what was really going on behind my own eyes, my phony smile.

Looking back, I still I cannot explain why my experience of war did not include being physically injured, or taking another human life. I also cannot explain why my year in Iraq brought the deepest anguish and loss I had experienced so far in my 35 years. Why was it so bad? Suffice it to say that halfway through my tour, I lost my mom to breast cancer and my seven-year marriage absolutely fell apart.

I didn’t allow myself to grieve or complain at the time. I had work to do, soldiers that depended on me, and I guess I was afraid to let those flood gates loose. Instead, I inventoried all of those swirling emotions, performed an internal recon and secured them in a mental footlocker to be dealt with at a later date. For the rest of my tour, the footlocker strained to hold it all in. I made it home in the summer of 2006 and the life I came home to felt utterly different than the one I had left. I was granted full custody of my two young children, and I was also promoted to captain and given a company command. I opened up the footlocker and started to rebuild.



Courtesy of Lee Kelley

On vacation in Tybee Island, Ga.Because I am unwilling to leave the kids again, I ended a promising military career and created a new path for myself. Specifically, I started my own writing company, and I’ve been going strong for two years now (more about that in a later post). I won’t say it’s all been easy or that I liked having to wake the kids up at 5 a.m. for almost two years so that I could get them ready and off to day care before my morning commute, not picking them back up until after 6 p.m. And I won’t say that I enjoyed the transition back into “normal” life, working through grief, anger, frustration, resentment, loneliness and confusion while still getting used to being a single parent. I won’t say that it was easy for my kids to adjust to the divorce and all the changes associated with it. Finally, I won’t say that it was easy to leave the medical benefits and predictable paychecks of being an Army captain behind, especially in this economy.

But I will say this: In the last couple of years, so much has changed and healed. No regrets. Joy has manifested in every aspect of my life, and I have never felt more content and grateful towards life, love, parenting, and the pursuit of financial freedom. I’m not sure what I would have done without the unconditional love and support of my family and friends. That, truly, has made all the difference.

Now my days are filled with the unending complexity and welcome challenge of raising two creative, energetic, and intelligent kids who know of no other way to live than to rise each day with the subconscious desire to find the boundaries of their little worlds and lean up against them. O.K. … they find the boundaries and then jump back and forth across them whenever I’m not watching!

Not long ago a recruiter for an overseas contracting company called me. He found an old resume of mine on Monster.com and offered me $165,000 to go to Baghdad for one year as a civilian public affairs representative working alongside Army personnel. I know that my kids feel safe and protected and free to just enjoy the variety of their lives without fear of abandonment. They know I won’t leave them again. I can see it in their eyes, feel it in their hugs, and hear it in their uncontrollable laughter. I’ve been to Iraq, and for my little family once will just have to be enough. I called the recruiter back and graciously told him no thank you.

First and Fourth grade just started. I’m not going anywhere.

Waktu gempa di Padang menyamai 3 nas al-Quran





Saturday, October 10, 2009
Waktu gempa di Padang menyamai 3 nas al-Quran

Kejadian suatu kebetulan yang perlu direnungi, insafkan umat ingkar suruhan Ilahi

SEGALA kejadian di muka bumi ini adalah ketetapan Allah SWT. Demikian pula dengan musibah gempa yang berlaku di Padang, Sumatera. Kebetulan juga waktu terjadi musibah itu dengan kaitan surah dan ayat yang ada hubungannya dalam kitab suci al-Quran al Karim.

Cuba perhatikan gempa di Padang pada jam 17.16 petang, kemudian susulan gempa pada jam 17.58 petang dan esoknya terjadi gempa di Jambi pada jam 08.52 (waktu antarabangsa).


Jam 17.16 (iaitu surah ke-17, al-Israk, ayat 16) bermaksud: Dan jika Kami hendak membinasakan suatu negeri, maka Kami perintahkan kepada orang yang hidup mewah di negeri itu (supaya mentaati Allah), tetapi mereka melakukan kederhakaan dalam negeri itu, maka sudah sepantasnya berlaku terhadapnya perkataan (ketentuan Kami), kemudian Kami hancurkan negeri itu sehancur-hancurnya.

Jam 17.58 (surah ke-17, al-Israk, ayat 58) bermaksud: Tidak ada suatu negeri pun (yang derhaka penduduknya), melainkan Kami membinasakannya sebelum kiamat atau Kami azab (penduduknya) dengan azab yang sangat keras. Yang demikian itu sudah tertulis di dalam kitab (Luh Mahfuz).

Jam 08.52 (surah ke-8, al-Anfal, ayat 52) bermaksud: (keadaan mereka) seperti Firaun dan pengikutnya serta orang sebelumnya. Mereka mengingkari ayat Allah, maka Allah menyeksa mereka disebabkan dosanya. Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Kuat lagi Amat Keras seksaan-Nya.

Tiga ayat Allah SWT di atas, yang ditunjukkan tepat dalam waktu kejadian tiga gempa di Sumatera. Mengenai azab Allah kehancuran dan kematian serta kaitannya dengan hidup mewah dan derhaka.

Dengan pelbagai kebetulan yang Allah SWT sampaikan ketika musibah itu, Allah jelas hendak mengingatkan kita. Apakah ia sekadar kebetulan di sebalik rahsia kejadian tanpa mengandungi pengajaran? Apakah mesej Allah itu akan mengubah kita agar lebih berhati-hati dan taat perintah dan menjauhi larangan-Nya? Mungkin kita tidak peduli atau mentertawakan seperti kaum Musyrikin Quraisy mempersendakan risalah disampaikan kepada Rasulullah SAW? Semua terpulang kepada kita.

Manusia bukan makhluk tunggal di muka bumi ini. Manusia bersama makhluk lain yang juga memiliki hak sama untuk dapat hidup mengikut sunnatullah yang ditetapkan Allah SWT. Walaupun alam dengan isinya mungkin ditundukkan oleh manusia dengan ilmu pengetahuan, tidak bererti alam harus tunduk kepada manusia.

Alam tetap patuh dan pasrah (Islam) kepada Allah. Alam dengan segala isinya memiliki kehidupan sendiri. Harus disedari, kita dan alam memiliki hak yang sama untuk mengabdikan kepada Allah, tentu saja dengan cara sendiri. Sebenarnya sesama makhluk Allah, kita harus dapat harmonikan kehidupan dengan alam. Jika tidak, berlaku ketegangan, pertembungan dan saling menghancurkan.

Antara yang perlu kita perhatikan disebut al-Quran tasbih bumi iaitu bumi juga makhluk Allah yang sentiasa bertasbih kepada Allah. Orang bertasbih menyucikan Allah daripada segala perbuatan yang tidak sewajarnya.

Kata Subhanallah yang selalu kita lafazkan selepas solat bererti Maha Suci Allah dengan segala sifat dan perbuatan-Nya. Ilmuwan Muslim, Zaghlul an-Najjar, dalam bukunya Shuarun min Tasbih al-Kainaat Lillah (Ketika Alam Bertasbih) menyatakan: Al-Quran menegaskan langit dan bumi dapat berbicara, menangis dan berasa sakit serta pedih.

Riwayat daripada Nabi SAW yang menjelaskan makna Surah al-Zalzalah, ayat 3, yang mengatakan: Pada hari itu bumi menceritakan. Baginda bertanya: Tahukah kamu beritanya? Mereka menjawab: Allah dan Rasul-Nya lebih tahu.' Baginda berkata: Sesungguhnya berita ia (bumi) bersaksi atas hamba atau umat yang berada di atasnya. Ia (bumi) berkata, melakukan ini pada hari ini, begini dan begitu. (Riwayat at-Tirmizi).

Amat mengelirukan jika kita menganggap bumi sebagai benda mati yang tidak memberi reaksi terhadap apa yang dilakukan manusia di muka bumi ini. Jelas bahawa bumi tempat kita berpijak selalu bertasbih dan berdialog kepada Allah SWT.

Bumi menyucikan Allah dan memuji-Nya dengan cara yang tidak kita ketahui. Apakah akan terjadi jika manusia yang hidup di muka bumi ini tidak bertasbih kepada Allah. Betapa seksanya bumi menampung manusia kufur, berdosa, bermaksiat dan melupakan Allah. Bumi berasa berat dan menanggung beban yang tidak tertahan kerana dipijak manusia yang derhaka dan berdosa.

Gempa adalah reaksi bumi. Kita memerlukan pendekatan teologi dan spritual. Gempa membuat manusia sedar bahawa selain manusia, langit dan bumi berserta apa yang ada di dalamnya juga makhluk Allah yang memiliki hukum dan kehidupannya sendiri. Bumi agak marah kepada manusia yang tidak pernah tersedar, kufur, dan ingkar kepada Allah.

Firman Allah bermaksud: Apabila bumi digoncangkan dengan goncangan (yang dahsyat), dan bumi telah mengeluarkan beban (yang dikandungnya), dan manusia bertanya: Mengapa bumi (menjadi begini?) (Surah al-Zalzalah : 1-3)


oleh: ibrahim abdullah

artikel ini saya petik dari http://lhakim-suarahati.blogspot.com/2009/10/waktu-gempa-di-padang-menyamai-3-nas-al.html

Terima kasih.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Cerita manusia dan kemanusiaan









Lokasi: Padang, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia.

Hari ini mari kita lihat satu kisah manusia dan kemanusiaan yang berlaku semasa berlakunya gempabumi di Padang, Sumatera Barat, Indonesia. Ini kisah manusia dan kemanusiaan, satu rentetan perjalanan hidup, suka dan duka dan cerita ketabahan hati warga Padang menghadapi malapetaka yang merupakan ujian dari Allah SWT ke atas umat manusia. Untuk itu saya memetik satu kisah yang ditulis olegh seorang mangsa gempabumi yang saya petik dari akhbar The Jakarta Post...Semoga apa yang dipaparkan di sini mampu mengajak kita menjengok penderitaan kehidupan orang lain dan pada masa yang sama mengajak kita menilai sejenak betapa bertuahnya kita sebagai rakyat Malaysia yang hidup dan bernafas di bumi bertuah yang bernama Malaysia ini. Suka juga saya menarik perhatian anda bahawa saya sama sekali tidak terlibat dalam politik dalam negeri, masih lagi mampu menilai mana yang baik dan mana yang buruk dan sama sekali tidak akan membiarkan diri saya menjadi mangsa kepada mana-mana pihak yang tidak adil dalam tindakan mereka.

Marjohan (not verified), Batusangkar — Tue, 10/06/2009 - 5:37pm

My Mother Trapped and Saved from Sumatran Earth Quake
By. Marjohan M.Ed SMA Negeri 3 Batusangkar Sumatra Barat

I was at home with family in Batusangkar. Suddenly on September 30, 2009, Wednesday at 17.16 pm, the great earth quake rocked my house and all people stomped outside of their house, picking their kids and cried fearfully. The neighbors were gathering to talk and to calm down each other, as well as sharing experiences how to confront the hard times. One said that the uncontrolled emotion makes him or her forget with danger- let the fired stove lit, or hit the heavy material and injured them. Everybody was curiosity on the impact of earth quake, I tuned radio and listened the earth quake was very great, it was 7.6 Richter scale. It damaged Padang and Pariaman region. Several offices and luxurious hotels collapsed and as well the people houses. The worse things happened that some young students in learning trapped in three floors building collapsed at once, and as well as some people being in conference trapped under the collapsed of Ambacang Hotel.

I remembered then, my home town is Lubuk Alung- Pariaman, and how are my mother, my sister, other families and relatives. I contacted every body and as well other people of my family. Nevertheless there was no single response. The sudden quake interrupted the channel of telephone network. Few minute then came a single short message service- SMS from my brother, he said “our house is totally damaged at home…..”, and then I could not contact every body outside else. . My brother from Payakumbuh rushed toward Lubuk Alung. I did not know how he could reach my home. All roads nearby the hills toward Padang and Pariaman were buried by land slides. Heavy rocks and tumbling trees scattered everywhere. He told me that he went home earlier by rental car through Singkarak Lake, Solok and Padang. From Padang he walked with heavy knapsack on the back home. He collected energy under the sun shine and perspiration body. He tried to catch taxi or motorist but all refused. Fuel was scarce dan difficult to be obtained. The city was full with ambulances glaring serine, delivering the dead and wounded people who trapped under the collapsed buildings- offices, hotels and super markets. Then, intercepted with the speed of rescue teams truck and cars. .

Padang has been a collapsed city. Electric and water were running out. Media informed that the great supermarket where the young citizen used to visit, Plaza Andalas, also collapsed. A great number of visitors- probably students and teenagers as the loyal visitors trapped inside. The greatest university in West Sumatra province- Andalas University and Padang State University” were in damaged. Many schools were in great damaged, too. All students were ordered to go to their hometown- Bengkulu, Jambi, Pekanbaru, Medan and several towns in Sumatra and West Sumatra. They caught and hiked buses or droved motorbike. The city felt as the site of mass wild road race. Hundred thousand of people had exodus outside of Padang and also ten thousands of people who were afraid loosing their children and family rushed toward this city for verification. They rushed on road on contra direction. They passed on narrow roads and they were caught in landslide altogether. The traffic in suburb areas became totally jam for several hours and the length of it was 90 km on the road of Padang and Bukittinggi. Passengers and the road users were totally panic. Yes, it was true that the traffic was really difficult.

The local radio in Batusangkar then informed that the road toward Padang could be accessed. I was in hurry because of desire to see my home town. There was an event in my family, my brother wanted to handle his wedding party at one of convention halls in Padang. His planning must be delayed or cancelled since the natural disaster and the site has been changed as the rescue place for alive victims. More homeless people stayed there. I did not know if my brother could conduct his wedding party at other place even in a humble situation. I picked few casual wear and rushed toward Padang. The bus drove normally and I sat at the back seat. There were no many busses brave to move and there were more bad mood passengers- worried their relatives and family safety in Padang. Entering the road of Silaing- the region of Anai Valley near Padang Panjang, the totally traffic jam happened, more and more buses, cars, trucks and motor bikes came and moving bumping in bumping. The air was full with carbon smoke emitted by thousand of car’s exhaust. Babies and young kids were really stressed. They cried and their parents were panic to soothe them down. The rescue team passed bye in difficult situation. The great machines cleared the road from natural materials, the heavy rocks and falling trees. I was stressed, too and I disliked to talk with my seat mate in the bus. I looked out of the car’s window, stared at river, green forest and the ocean of people. I tried to forget my frustrated. After trapped in the traffic jam for six hours, my bus reached the end of bad road in Sub-district of Sicincin, part of Pariaman. I was relaxed because the bus could move normally.

From the village Sicincin I began to see the effect of earth quake. I saw many damaged road with cracked asphalt, cracked wall and totally collapsing houses. Many people with emptied sight were standing or stayed in their emergency tents set before their house. I only saw the damaged building along the road and of course there are ten thousand families loosing their places at the remote places or inland sites. Almost 300 person or more buried together with their house in the village or Kecamatan Pertamuan, Gunung Tigo on the side of Tandikek Mountain. A lot of houses which are built on the coatal line ruined, worse than the rest of places. Since they are closer to the epicenter of earth quake on offshore of West Sumatra. What Padangnese fear recently is truly come. They were feared of great quake and tsunami. Fearing phenomenon among people grow after tsunami and heavy tremor in Aceh in 2004 and several other earthquakes in Sumatra and Java, Padangnese were feared of natural disaster then the scientific predicting that one day great tsunami also happens on offshore near Mentawai or near Padang, that many people moved to highland such as in Indarung and abandoned their home on the west coat of Padang. Government responded and designed the evacuation passage whenever the heavy quake with great tsunami happening. But no one knows when the exact disaster come and that was the great earth quake happened in sudden that afternoon. Anyhow this was still ok. Imagine if the earth quake with 7.6 Richter scale happened at night, possibly millions of people will die and trapped or buried in their homes.

After almost one day, on normally day it took us only two hours, I arrived in Lubuk Alung and got rented motorbike. Generally people look confused, no motivation and had no any activities. Some only stayed inside the emergency tents with broken house behind. I imagine on how was my mother “died or alive”. I walked the path toward direction where my mother stays. The situation was very lonely, I saw none except one or two young kids played themselves. I found my house (mother’s house) with broken wall and collapsed roof. I called her in humble voice “mother…., mother…..!!”. No answering, then I listened my old aged mother, walked difficulty with a wooden stick. “Hi….you come. I almost die. I did not that it was quake”. Yes a young man with muscle body entered the ruined house. He found mother flanked between wall and ceiling. It was lucky that the house was not consisting of heavy material. He picked mother’s body outside. Then he listened another crying “help… help, my head is bloody”. As the quake happen my niece run toward kitchen instead of outside and the wood of roof broke and drop on her head side. Her head was hurt. The night seemed very long and dark and we had poor food. There was no kitchen and stove to cook and fuel to lit the kerosene lamp, except two pieces of candles. I sat by my mother side and listened to her endless talk- she needed sympathy and then I shared sympathy. I was afraid with mother’s healthy- she was spook and walk bending because of osteoporosis. Being alone or live with a young grand daughter that she could not consume good and healthy food. I shared food that I took from Batusangkar with other relatives. I slept on the rough plastic mat and could not sleep. Mosquito flew severely around my side and ears. I could not contact other through my cell phone- no battery and no phone coverage. I remember my friends in Padang. They work as government civil servant. I contacted them and I until know I do not know whether they are alive or dead. Then I walked to my older sister and other relatives’ house “We have no house to live in and we live in the hut with old roof”. I do not know what to do, they do not need any advices or sermon. What they need is a slice of bread, a glass of water, a piece of tablet for her fever”. If not poor situation and poor sanitation will send diseases for my big family and the babies and young kids may get serious/ severe ilnesss But what I can do is showing my sympathy and empathy or I return out side and take my money, even it is not very much, that I have saved for several months. Send us a praying and hope for a better life again.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri dan Maaf Zahir dan Batin buat semua











Agak tidak terlalu lewat rasanya bagi saya untuk mengucapkan selamat hari raya aidil fitri dan maaf zahir dan batin kepada semua rakan dan ahli keluarga jauh dan dekat....



Aidil fitri kali ini datang bersama sedikit perubahan dalam jadual hidup saya ....antaranya kehadiran sebegitu banyak sms yang mengucapkan ucapan hari raya dari rakan-rakan lama, ahli-ahli keluarga yang jauh dan dekat , para pelajar dan bekas pelajar. Ini menjadikan saya merasa cukup terharu atas penerimaan mereka terhadap kehadiran saya . Oleh kerana ketibaan sms itu agak banyak dan saya sendiri mempunyai banyak perkara yang hendak dilakukan pada hari sebelum raya , hari raya dan hari selepasnya, maka saya cuba membalas setiap sms itu sedikit demi sedikit pada lewat malam. Walau bagaimanapun seandainya ada sms anda yang tidak terbalas maka saya dengan ini memohon maaf atas ketidakmampuan saya untuk membalasnya.

Satu daripada keistimewaan aidilfiri kali ini ialah kesempatan bagi saya sekeluarga untuk berkumpul, berjumpa dan beramah mesra dengan semua ahli keluarga yang jauh dan dekat. Peluang seperti ini agak jarang ditemui kerana kesibukan tugas saya dan isteri saya pada setiap hari dalam sepanjang tahun. Dulu saya fikir kalau jadi guru tak lah sesibuk sekarang ..tapi tanggapan saya nampaknya meleset dan salah....meningkatnya usia dan tempoh perkhidmatan saya sebagai seorang guru (begitu juga dengan isteri saya) menjadikan tempoh 24 jam kami dalam satu hari dipenuhi dengan banyak agenda kerja berbanding dengan agenda keluarga dan peribadi. Peluang kali ini juga saya gunakan untuk mengemaskini maklumat tentang ahli-ahli keluarga, beramah mesra dan yang lebih bermakna ialah semuanya diajak ke kedai gambar dan bergambar bersama.

Suatu perbandingan yang agak ketara yang saya dapat perhatikan di antara sambutan hari raya pada masa dulu dengan masa sekarang ialah kalau dulu sambutan hari raya lebih kepada pada hari raya pertama , kedua dan ketiga saja dan sambutannya dibuat secara sederhana dengan hidangan ketupat, lemang, rendang dan kueh mueh....tetapi sambutan hari raya pada masa sekarang nampaknya lebih lama (sampai sebulan) dari dulu-dulu dan kewujudan trend membuat rumah terbuka pada hari-hari terluang terutamanya pada hujung minggu. Inilah bezanya antara cara kita menyambut hari raya dulu dan sekarang....dan pastinya bila ada rumah terbuka, hanya tetamu yang diundang sahaja yang boleh hadir....tak macam dulu-dulu yang mana...mana-mana rumah pun yang ada di kampung yang membuka pintunya kepada tetamu ..kita boleh singgah dan masuk....

Pada saya semuanya baik dan setiap sesuatu perkara yang berlaku biasanya dilakukan dengan alasan-alasan yang tertentu....

...tapi mohon izin saya menegur segelintir masyarakat di kawasan perumahan yang kerapkali menjemput rakan sekerja dan ahli keluarga ke rumah terbuka mereka sampai kereta memenuhi satu kawasan perumahan ...TETAPI...mereka tak jemput pun jiran yang terdekat dalam kawasan perumahan yang sama....tak elokla macam tu....Islam tak menyuruh kita buat macam tu...kenapa dalam masa kita bergembira bersama orang-orang yang kita suka dan sayangi ..dan dalam masa yang sama kita telah mengecewakan dan merosakkan hubungan antara jiran terdekat....kita bukan budak-budak ..kalau budak-budak bolehla kita kata "saya nak kawan dengan awak...saya tak mau kawan dengan A, B dan C"...kita orang dewasa...tindakan kita juga haruslah bersikap dewasa juga...kalau rasa-rasa budget lari dengan menjemput jiran terdekat ...eloklah tangguhkan saja majlis rumah terbuka tu ...tunggu sampai duit cukup baru buat...jangan kita rosakkan hubungan dengan jiran-jiran yang diam dan menilai tindakan kita setiap masa....hehehe...banyaklah perkara kalau saya nak tegur pasal perangai jiran-jiran di kawasan perumahan yang mewah ...antaranya kalau kita buat kenduri...nak pergi jemput mereka pun rasa bersalah...kerana yang keluar adalah isterinya saja..suami tak keluar pun ...akhir cerita kenduri berjalan...cumanya jiran yang kita jemput tadi tak nampak batang hidungpun...nak kata tak ada di rumah ...ada...kereta ada...lampu di rumah terpasang....hehehe..banyakla alasan kau....

akhirnya rosli dan isterinya siti mahaya membuat satu ketetapan ...kami jarang-jarang nak buat kenduri kerana.....
.. kesukaran nak ajak jiran terdekat datang ke rumah (bukan semua)....
..anak-anak kami yang semuanya lelaki belum cukup bersedia menerima tetamu yang ramai dalam tempoh masa yang panjang....(banyak kerenah)

kami juga membuat ketetapan bahawa:
..seboleh-bolehnya kami akan cuba hadir pada setiap kali dijemput ke majlis kenduri atau rumah terbuka oleh jiran terdekat atau jauh (menghargai keramahan dan sikap terbuka jiran untuk menjemput kami sekeluarga)...

Buatlah 1000 kebaikan di hari yang mulia ini tapi dalam pada itu cubalah elakkan satu kesilapan yang mungkin berlaku hanya kerana kealpaan kita menghalusi hati dan perasaan jiran....jom kita pi rumah terbuka.....

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri dan Maaf Zahir dan Batin buat semua.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

pengajaran dan pembelajaran cemerlang mengikut pandangan jemaah nazir sekolah
















ISU PENGAJARAN DAN PEMBELAJARAN: RUMUSAN DAPATAN DAN CADANGAN JEMAAH NAZIR SEKOLAH

Berikut ialah beberapa perkara yang perlu diberi perhatian oleh seorang guru:

-pedagogi berpusatkan guru VS BERPUSATKAN MURID (Bagi peluang murid berkongsi dengan murid lain)

-guru banyak berceloteh/bercakap VS GURU SEBAGAI PEMBIMBING
-alat bantu mengajar kurang digunakan atau ada yang tak sesuai VS PERBANYAKKAN DAN MANFAATKAN PENGGUNAAN ABM/BBM

-pendekatan yang kurang pelbagai, banyak "chalk and talk" VS KEPELBAGAIAN.
-tidak mengambilkira kepelbagaian potensi individu VS KEPELBAGAIAN

-soalan harus mengikut pelbagai aras untuk kembali kepada pencapaian objektif-murid kurang diberi peluang mencungkil pendapat.
-kurang menegaskan kemahiran berfikir. tingkatkan soft skill...seperti kemahiran bercakap.


- murid kurang diberi latihan VS PERBANYAKKAN LATIHAN
SEORANG GURU DINILAI DARI 3 ASPEK UTAMA
A. SAHSIAH
B.KETRAMPILAN
C. ILMU

gempabumi di padang, sumatera barat, indonesia
















bencana dari Allah buat manusia...nak cerita sikit..boleh.?..


jun 2009..saya sekeluarga berada di padang dan bukittinggi..kali pertama sampai ke Indonesia...bila melihat keramahan penduduknya yang 95% Islam tu saya rasa macam berada bersama dengan saudara sendiri seperti di Malaysia...buminya aman...mereka tak jual arak..tak ada kelab malam ..tak ada karaoke...semuanya nampak patuh pada Islam...cuma satu ja...saya dan keluarga mendapat petanda seperti ada sesuatu yang tak kena bakal terjadi..bas dari perlis ke lcct..bocor sepanjang malam ..air dari bumbung...lepas tu sampai kat sana pun naik bas ..bocor lagi.saya dan isteri tertanya-tanya..apalah petandanya ini...lama juga kami fikir selepas balik ke malaysia ..


.tiba-tiba pada petang 30 sept 09..
persoalan itu terjawab...bumi padang yang diancam oleh gunung berapi hidup dan tsunami dari lautan hindi itu buat pertama kalinya dilanda gempabumi pada 7.6 skala richter...dan hotel ambacang tempat kami bermalam pada malam terakhir sebelum balik ..runtuh..200 orang terperangkap...dan berita sedih..semuanya mati...salahnya hotel tu...mereka curi-curi jual arak kat dalam peti sejuk di penginapan tetamu....satu masjid juga kubahnya rosak..kata kawan-kawan saya (yg wanita) ..bahagian tandas wanita ..masa kami singgah sembahyang dulu...tak berpintu...susah sikit nak jaga aurat masa di situ walaupun semua penggunanya wanita (tentulah)...inilah petanda ..inilah besarnya kuasa Allah...buat kita renungkan dan ambil iktibar...sedangkan penduduknya orang baik-baik....miskin lagi...dan tak termasuk orang-orang yang mencaci maki negara kita semasa tarian pendet tu......


semua yang kita lihat, hidu...rasa...adalah ayat-ayat Allah....lihatlah dengan mata hati....hulurkan bantuan....ini masa mereka.....semoga kita dijauhi dari malapetaka seperti ini....amin.