I believe most of us have read about the news on muslim Vietnamese bride in Berita Harian lately. To most of us, this is nothing new. Interacial marriages are common. But what does this lately issue of matrimony has awaken? Is it a wakeup call for local girls, especially malay muslim women to `buck up' or `ship out'? Do you think such actions by lonely, shy and conservative individual is justifiable?

I read through the news with mixed feelings. One of joy for the person while the other was worrying. Worrying in a way that such action/news will only jeopardise the malay women status. As quoted by the individual, marrying local girls are expensive. It can come up to almost $20,000. After all the trouble of spending $13k or $15k, if I can recall correctly, the individual has made travels from village to village in Vietnam. The agency uses its experience to bring its customer to scan the girl of his dreams. After much spending and much travelling, the difference in terms of monetary expenses will be around 5 to 6 thousand dollars. To the individual, its worth the spending as he saves more in terms of date spending, dowry etc etc.

Has this become a trend? Should our society put a stop to this and save the local women stature? I believe however, that, in terms of dowry, there are families who do not put an expensive price tag onto their daughters. But on the other hand, however, in some families that look up upon monetary as a form of a guarantee for happiness and security, dowry is an important factor. Adding to this, the amount will also rise if such individuals have high post in the working world or is highly educated. I was once told by my fren that his mother in law, at the point of marriage, said that she is not selling her daughter to him. Whats more important is not the dowry but the responsibility of the husband to be in taking care of the wife till death do them apart.

Whichever it is, parents now should realise the negative effect of asking too much dowry. Still it is their choice but is it a must? Think upon it. Ponder if you have to. Lavish marriages when ended in divorce is such a waste. Likewise, divorce cases can happen to anyone but would it be important that the lavishness expenses can be saved for something more important like.....child matters?

How would you people think about this? What is your reaction? If you are single, you think this is good news? A lesson for the local women's parents? Or r u thinking the same like me? Cheerz.....:)

It seems that all the money that I invested in buying a bicycle has gone to waste. Let me tell you folks the breakdown of my expenses first in having a bike for travelling to and fro MRT before I start upon telling you all about the lost of my bike. The bike itself costs $40. Breakdown....

Others;

Bell -                                  $5

Bike Stand -                        $8
Child seat and foot rest -      $10

Front bike Carrier (basket) - $8
                                          ____
Total                                   $31
                                          ____

In total, overall expenditure is about $71 for a second hand refurbished bike. You see bloggers, travelling by bike has indeed cut my time spent on travelling to and fro mrt by a few minutes. It helps that I can even use it to go elsewhere should I need to run errands. However, tragedy (to me) struck. It was a day which I will regret for being forgetfull. I had left my bike overnight at the bicycle stand on that unfateful day. I had forgotten fully after I went back home by taxi to bring back a personal computer that I have bought from office, perhaps also due to my tiredness and sleepiness.

The next morning when I was up and ready to go to work, my heart started pounding fast as I began to realise that I had not taken my bike back from MRT. I sighed, regret and blame myself for being forgetfull. I told myself that my bike is a gonner. Any bike, as long as its not a kuceng kurap (old and rusty) one, will definitely be stolen overnight. True enough, when I reached the MRT, my bike was gone completely and that includes even the iron lock. It has been taken away during the quiet hours of after midnight when all lights of the MRT are off and the place becomes deserted.

I had told this lost incident to my neighbourhood friend who lives near Aljunied and he grinned. He had once lost his bike too near the mrt. He even told me that his bike is of good standard and was locked on both wheels to a metal post. But still, it was stolen. He had come to an accusation that the `foreigners' are into this work. Its good money when a bike sold in the black market can cost around $40. He related an incident where a Bangladeshi was whacked by a few people when caught trying to steal a bike. The Bangladeshi was later handed over to the police. I do not know whether this is true or not but the story probably has some truths in it especially when it comes to money gotten from the selling of stolen bikes. To us is a small amount but to them it's big.

What bothers me now is the fact that there are no security measures taken by the authorities with regards to bicycles parked near MRT. The notice board says it all. Park at own risk. Management not responsible for lost of bicycles in the area. I mean, we are paying extra money for rising transportation cost and even encouraged to use the MRT instead of driving own cars. The thing is, we need the bicycle park to be safe, thats all. My suggestion is to install 1 surveillance camera facing the park. The costs is not that much when all the profits got from commuters are in millions. Its like when you are abroad living in a hotel. Even before you step in, you will be greeted by the bellboy and the door is opened up for you. Your luggages will be taken care of when you have gotten your room. Can this be applied to commuters who use bikes to eventually ride the MRT? I dont see why it cant be done. If charges have to be applied, I wont mind paying knowing well that my property will be taken good care of.

Anybody listening???.......:)

I guess some of us would have probably heard of the term Autism. What does it mean in theory? Ok here it goes...By definition, Autism means disorders characterized by varying degrees of impairment in communication skills, social interactions, and restricted, repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior.

Perhaps a better understanding would be in the form of a movie titled `Rain Man'. Not many knew the severity of autistic victims and its characterisation or classification. If you are interested to know, here is the website to visit... http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/autism.cfm

The reason why I brought this issue up is because of appreciating ourselves. There are people or families who are completely healthy but are never satisfied with what they have. They become bolder, they think highly of themselves and so on so forth. Perhaps, I have seen much sufferings when I was a child. I have seen my distant relative who is an autistic individual sitting on a wheelchair unable to do anything but moaning, whining and crying out for attention to anyone who is around him. He is like a baby. His eyes are not functioning, his limbs are like jelly like and his body is ever so thin. For a newbie, this is a heartwrenching sight but my aunties and uncles are so used to taking care of him that there is not even a teardrop on their faces.

Every year, I will come to visit him and that is also during the Hari Raya. But now, it seems that God loved him more. He had passed away peacefully 3 years ago and is probably now in God's care..During his life, he was taken care of well by my 2nd grandma. But as soon as my 2nd grandma passed away, he followed suite, which to me the sadness is undescribable. Anyway, life goes on. And then, only a few months back, I saw in the MRT an incident which brings dejavu to the word autism. I was exiting the MRT and about to go down the escalator when my eye caught a view of a child pulling the mother's hair non-stop and making loud cries. It seems the mom knows only too well on how to handle her handicapped child. She simply let her hair be pulled by the child to accomodate his `needs'. For some individual, they might not understand it, OR they may even make a joke out of it. This is humanity.

I'm grateful to god for I have a perfectly happy family. All sickness and wealth comes from god. No matter what happens in the future, I am more resigned to going through it with a positive mind rather than be remorsefull...Insya-Allah....