Where'd all the love go to?

As in seen in the news on 3rd August 2011, it says that a Ukraine Zookeeper plans to spend 5 weeks inside a lions' cage in an effort to raise money for new buildings.

ARE YOU OUTTA YOUR DAMN MIND?

Five weeks? With lions? You must drinking some nasty stuff that's all gotten into your head. But then my eyes glance back at the title:

TO RAISE MONEY?

Why in the world you gotta be risking your life and well being just to raise money for buildings? Something is very wrong here. It seems that a man has to risk his life in order to get people to have the initiative to donate money.

I ask myself: why in the world does it have to be this way?

Why do people not donate money when organizations need funds in order to support a greater cost such as for building infrastructure for the masses or caring for the poor and disabled? Does a person need to saw off his head then will he be able to raise money?

I've seen numerous charity shows. And they usually depict celebrities experiencing "near-death" situations or a torture. All while mimicking the shape of a phone with their hands and asking you to call in.

What would be running through his or her head then:

"Oh my god, I'm dangling above sharp rocks just by a single piece of thread! Call the hotline now or I would be doing this for nothing!"

OR

"I really feel for those helpless old folks right now, hope you people call the hotline to help them in some way-which still does not explain why I could die at any moment"

The truth that many of us would like to deny with is that people don't want to donate money unless they feel that they would be getting their money's worth. Let's say if Ren Ci Hospital were just to announce that they are accepting donations in large amounts during this period of time, would anyone donate and raise the 2 million dollars they usually get from these charity shows?

NO.

Where'd all the love go? Where is the sincerity that comes along with a donation. We often fool ourselves into thinking that we call to help the old folks.

We do not. We only call because we enjoyed a certain performance.

Why? Shouldn't a donation come from the bottom of your heart and not just because of some Ninja-warrior stunts they pull? That is the problem with many now. We just are not fully willing to let go of what we have in order to truly help that person without getting anything in return.

Giving $2 to the disabled man playing the erhu does not count. You actually think $2 is what he needs? What can $2 buy? A roll of cotton candy? What he needs is a companion. Someone that can actually help him financially so that he does not have to wheel himself all about the place playing the same old tunes on his erhu everyday. We do it just to console ourselves that we are not bad people.

If everyone around the world can show a little more love to everything around them, the world would be a much better place.

The innocent, can never last

Perfect world?

Everybody has their own ideal world in their minds, their own ideal version of how everything should be and the ideal occupation that they would like to take up. Is this perfect world utopia? No it is not. In fact, it is far from it. A perfect world for you is a place in which everything is what you truly want. It is not just a perfect world, it is heaven on earth, and yet the word heaven ain't even enough to describe how awesome it is.

Yes. It is that awesome.

But these thoughts only remain in our minds, our perfect little island getaway from the hustle and bustle of this huge competition that we are constantly in. Whenever a huge pile of work presents itself, the scent of freshly mashed wood pulp bleached and dried wafts into your gaping nostrils, you immediately lapse into your getaway, imagining how wonderful life would be if it actually turned out like that. Don't try to deny it, we all know this happens to you.

By now, you might be expecting this post to be about how this perfect world would be impossible. And the thing is,

You're right.

A perfect world is indeed impossible. No one can possibly hope that the entire world would just change for us when we wake up in the morning. The only thing that we can change, is our mindset.

Right now, our world is not perfect because we have a different expectation or "vision" for our perfect world. We do not find reality appealing in any way is because a different version of perfect is in your head. This is why nothing is perfect. We want to live a world where we're rich, but in reality, we could be the richest that we will ever be, with a steady job and a great family.

Why don't we try to morph the perfect vision of a world in our heads, into something that is more concurrent to reality? Only when we believe we live in paradise, then will you truly live everyday like paradise. Stop wishing for more and more and more and more. Try to see the beauty all around us. Make reality perfect.

We are always bombarded with one question: What is your aim in life?

I say "to be happy".

If you'd ever say I didn't understand the question, I'd say you don't understand life. What is the use of anything if you are not happy?

Toodles!

Hakuna Matata, what a wonderful phrase

Hakuna Matata, ain't no passing craze.

It means "no worries" for the rest of your days

Dreams......?

The topic of our lifetimes: Dreams.

Dreams are what propel us forward

Dreams are what define what we do.

Yet, dreams are what destroys us.

Ever since we were a young child, we would have dreams. We dream to be the heroic police or soldier we seen on TV, or maybe some of us would dream to be the teachers that educate and nurture us through our young years.

Then we move on to our teenage years. Some dream to be the superstar or actor seen on TV, or maybe some of us would dream to be the doctors and lawyers that earn so much and what we were told to be the best paying jobs through our adolescent years.

We have all these dreams in hand, we work feverishly towards them, hoping to one day, be able to achieve them. Some fulfill their dreams, having the time of their lives, but many many do not fulfill their lifelong dreams, living through their lives knowing that they will have no chance at living their dreams anymore.

Right now in our society, are there really that many vacancies for people to fill in for their "dream career"? Obviously people would want jobs that bring them fame and fortune, or just fortune, and not care less about the others. With about 5% of people achieving their dreams, what about the other 95%? What happens to them? They just try to find joy in whatever they have right now? Let's face it. No one can truly be happy with what they own. You may claim to be happy with what you own, but when we look deep down, we know that is not the case.

We write in essays, that happiness is to be satisfied with whatever you have right now. Damn right if I had a Ferrari! But yet again, no I don't. It's nearly impossible to be truly happy for what you own. You may be happy for a short period of time, but seeing someone with something better, you ain't happy anymore.

So what do we do? We fight. Since vacancies are limited, we rush for them. We struggle, we bite, we tear for every last bit that is ours. As they say, all's fair in love and war. You want a fair fight? You'll get it; right after I win. I'm not trying to say that we should cheat or anything, but to get a fair 'fight' in life is not going to happen. To get anywhere, any position, you need to get connections, play tricks, or simply have a head-start. Life is not a race. Life is survival.

Therefore, I'm trying to say that we must grab at every opportunity that comes to us, snatch anything that belongs to us and make sure that it stays ours. For if you want to call them dreams, they'll always stay a dream.

And again, another song to end this post, the motto,

(Some explicit language)

Your sympathy will get you left behind

Ourselves

Nowadays in our lives, everywhere we go, people encourage us to be different, people encourage us to display our own style and not to try too hard to fit in, changing ourselves dramatically during the process. However, with all the preaching of such a behaviour, do most of us actually achieve it? We see people trying to tell others to be themselves and not be under the influence to act like anybody but do they themselves really practice what they preach and truly be themselves?

In our society now, given the advances in our civilisation, we have a certain set of rules that would dictate how we would act, appear or do as a person. Everything we do now is according to what other people has told us how to do dress and act. Even those people that try to be "out of the ordinary" by dressing freakishly, are also following the norm that to be different, you have to dress like a total freakjob. Everyone tries to be different, tries to be themselves, but are never truly successful.

Not only people are affected in this mad race to comply. Take the music industry for example, we are seeing more and more young and rising artists storming into the music scene, ready to live their dreams and be the star that they always wanted to be. One problem exists though, and that is that music entertainment is an INDUSTRY, people running record labels want to make MONEY and therefore, the music they make has to be able to SELL. And if they want the music to sell, it has to follow the "formula" that allow current records to be able to sell as much. Therefore, with this requirement in mind, artistes are unable to fully let their creative juices flow and express their music in the way they want because they would be restricted to the tried and proven method to get people to listen to their music. This is why music sounds so much the same from each other now, this is my opinion of course. Take a look back into the 80s and 90s, when music is famed to be at its height, when artistes could really let it flow, that evolved great legends of various genres like Michael Jackson of pop and AC/DC of rock. This was a time where music had no "formula", when it was all for the love of music and fans.

Looking now at the music scene, everything just sounds similar, with that tried and never failed pattern and rhythm in order to become successful. While I'm not saying that music now is bad, its just that I don't see anything special that would blow my mind in today's music. Almost everything now is about love and relationships, break-ups and infatuation. Why? Because it is tested and proved that people like these kind of music. While we look at previous artistes like AC/DC, they write about almost everything under the sun and Michael Jackson has songs that talk about racial equality and many great things like world peace, a sharp contrast to all the love songs by everyone out there. This is what makes people to really understand and actually feel your passion for music rather than just making money.

While I used music as an example, I think that you would be able to get at what I'm trying to get at here, that people should try to be themselves, rid themselves of all influences that would change the kind of person that is inside of you, that would allow you to fully express yourself in the way you want to be.

So when you feel that no one likes you for who you are, and that you're covered in a shadow, don't fret, cause when there's a shadow, it simply means there's a light shining somewhere.

And with that, I leave you with a beautiful piece of music, perfect to end this post

I hope you have the time of your lives

The Earth is SHAKING

Yes. The earth is shaking. I am pretty sure that everyone here has already heard of the terrible and horrifying ordeal that has struck Japan. An 8.9 magnitude has struck Japan, leaving thousands dead and destroying vast areas of property. The earthquake triggered massive tsunamis that crash and destroy and crush and mangle and obliterate anything and everything in its path. The Earthquake has also caused the explosion of a nuclear reactor in Fukushima, sending radioactive material floating all around the twisted wreckage of Japan.

Japan is now struggling. Devastation, chaos and grief fills the radioactive air as people scramble to safety and for loved ones. The elements have struck mankind. The water has shown its might by leveling anything in the path of the fearsome tsunamis. The air strikes a dirty blow by spreading radioactive materials, contaminating food and water. The land deals the most damage by its terrible rumbles that send people scrambling for support and buildings totally destroyed.

Japan is now in ruins. People can only watch hopelessly as huge waves and crumbling earthquakes suck in monstrous buildings and fling cruise ships around like little rubber duckies. mother nature has issued a challenge. A price to pay for our ignorance at protecting her. People are left with broken homes, broken families and broken hearts. Japan's lush honeymoon feeling is now replaced with panic and distraught. Industries have shut down, businesses stopped and trade comes to a screeching halt. Japan is being hit from all different angles, economically, politically and socially.

Mother nature has struck a near-fatal blow to Japan

Countries are now trying to help save Japan from this insane crisis. Financial aid is pouring in, food and rations supply injected in to resuscitate the unconscious Japan. well-wishes come in torrents, keeping the spirits of affected Japanese afloat. It is only through a disaster like that then only would you know how many people actually care for you a great deal. The Japanese have shown great strength, rising out of the tides of this disaster and shining light in the face of the shadows of destruction. Youths volunteer to help with rationing and administration stuff in order to keep evacuation and refugee shelters running smoothly and comfortably. No one is shown to be exceptionally selfish, people still queue up properly to use phones and get food in spite of the monstrous catastrophe that has struck them. For this, I really admire their mental courage as well as the discipline that has been instilled into each and everyone of them from the very day they were born.

From this incident, we have witnessed how fragile human life can be. We may seem so strong, so smart, so powerful in this world, in the end, when your heart stops beating, there you go. Life is like a candle, burning so bright and strong, while the wax slowly drips down to the "deadline" The flame burns brighter in light breezes, but goes out immediately with a forceful blow. So we must always learn to treasure life. Live life to the fullest, live in the moment, and live like theres no tomorrow. Help others in need, cause you never know when you're gonna need some help yourself.

Sportsmanship much?

Being an athlete, I like sports to be engaging and entertaining. With the many sports competitions that have been organized, more and more students have opportunities to represent their schools in these games. Sports and games among schools are always competitive so as to instill the spirit of determination among the students to strive for victory. Of course, the students train hard for many days just to perform their best during the competition where the eventual aim is to be champion. However, in any game, there can only be one champion, and some participants have to contend with losing in the competition. While it is important to achieve best in the competitions, students have to be able to take losses in their stride, as no one would be able to stay at the top forever. Thus, sportsmanship among students is more important than the end result of the game.

Though school sports are much less competitive than international sporting events, students have a tendency to think only of winning the game, where sporting values such as sportsmanship and friendship are rarely observed. Such can be seen in this case, where the brawl has taken place between the two schools. It is because of the lack of the display of vital values such as sportsmanship that has cause an after match brawl to take place. The implications of the brawl would be disastrous, where students were injured and being an athlete, I wonder if the coaches have instilled a sense of sportsmanship within the players where it is not winning that counts, but the process in pursuing that victory. Often, morality is forgotten where the individual only cares about winning.

A brawl is just a demonstration of how coaches are failing to channel the correct mindsets into their athletes where losing a game is perfectly alright and the right thing to do would be to congratulate the other team and not bash them up. Such is the failures to promote healthy competition within our student athletes where the actual meaning of the competition is diluted.

Also, I am more concerned for the safety measures that the schools take in ensuring that no casualties arise from the competition. There are many incidents that reflect on the mistakes the schools have neglected to rectify such as a student injuring his head in a judo match, a rugby player was hospitalized after foul play during the match and the student that died after a fatal kick in a taekwando competition. After such disastrous accidents that happen, many people are now afraid to continue in that sport for fear of ending up In the same fate as the people. As an athlete, I would like to encourage more students to take part in sports, but if the safety measures are not properly taken care of, how can we expect our students or their parents to participate in that sport without the fear of getting injured? We want to promote sports, and not shun people away from these sports that will be safe after safety measures are taken.

Hence, I think that for the true spirit of competition and sports to be made clear and enjoyable, the spirit of sportsmanship have to be understood and displayed where safety is also another major contributing factor to the overall enjoyment of the sport.

Life

Wow. The amazing topic on life. Life means a lot of things in different contexts. Scientifically, life is the continuation of biological processes in your body that allows respiration to occur to keep your heart beating. Religiously, life is a gift from god who created people. However, life can be summarized in a few lines.

You are born

You spend your first years learning about everything around you

You spend the next 10 or so years studying

You work for the next phase of your life

You grow old and wait for the Grim Reaper to come and take you away.

And that's it. That's what everyone experiences. It is monotonous. Nothing ever changes for anybody. (Unless of course, if you drop out of school at a young age.) If not, nothing is ever anomalous. If we skip some lines in between the order, Life is simply a slow wait for death.

Why? I don't get it. We work so hard and go through so much pain, suffering and mindless gaining of knowledge all for it to just go down the drain when you die. Well of course, if you look at things scientifically its just the end of biological processes.

Life can be exciting or a torture for us human beings. Some of us study hard, earn money and then have fun, while some play hard, earn money, and wish they could have studied harder. Life goes through stage after stage, bringing upon new challenges and discoveries for us. life is magical. Life allows us to feel, to hear, to see and to communicate.

Nowadays in this rapidly developing world, we tend to lose ourselves. Life is now but a way of getting on with each passing day, fulfilling what necessary duties there are for the day and then we go to sleep, not-so-eagerly waiting for the next day to come while we do the same things. We often have aspirations. Let's say we meet that goal. So what? We now have to contend with the workload or duties that comes along with it. Life goes back to another endless cycle of working our hearts out for the hope of a better retirement. After working like slaves for almost a quarter of our lives, we are now retired. And then? we are now too old to have any sort of 'real' adrenaline pumping fun. The giant savings we have acquired over the years have now not much use to us, except maybe for our daily cup of coffee or tea. Going traveling is possible, but tiring, pulling about your old frail body like that around the romantic streets of Paris doesn't really hit the mark. Well, we could go back to working, but then it would be the same process we have gone through for the last part of our lives. And then, after many years of sitting in our houses and watching soap operas or taking care of children, we rest in peace in the holy sanctuaries. That's life.

Sometimes, I really think that Life is just lifeless.