In this post, I am not going to write anything about my life but I would like to rebuke on a recent claim by the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on Islam and all the other existing religions in the world. He brazenly claimed that Islam is the only universal religion; adding that it was a mistake to believe that Christianity is the universal religion alongside Islam. He said that all Africans, Asians, Europe and Americans have nothing to do with Christianity except Israelis; making that claim as though as Islam is the only true religion which we must indulge ourselves in while portraying other religions as deviant and false. What infuriates me is that he proclaimed that all those who do not follow the Islamic teachings are losers as Islam is the only true religion in the world. This is a preposterous claim as he has no right to say that Islam is the only religion which everyone must follow. Everyone has their right to believe in their own religion as long as their religion encourage them to instil great virtue and do good deeds in their life. There is no evidence to prove which religion is true and their God truly exists and created this world as these religions were formed a long time ago and their only proof of their existence are by words from people and transcripts in religious books. I as a Buddhist believe that there are no Gods in this world and the only way we can free ourselves from sufferings is to achieve the state of Nirvana. Most of my relatives believe that there are Gods and Goddesses which bless our life and control our fates. They also believe in demons, ghosts and the hereafter. However, I have little belief in such things as I only believe in what I can see. I don’t believe in superstitions such as feng shui and all those ritual ceremonies to bring good luck. In my opinion, most of the religious beliefs and superstitions originate from animism whereby people in ancient times have little understanding in the natural phenomena such as storms, volcanic eruption and droughts, hence causing them to believe that there are supernatural forces behind all those phenomena. Now, most people harbour strong beliefs in Gods because they want to have something they could depend on which provides hopes when they encounter problems. It also acts as guidance for them to be virtuous and do good deeds in life, and prevent themselves from doing anything which are wrong and could hurt others. A person does not need to be guided by a religion to do good deeds if he truly cares for others and loves every living thing in this world. What Gaddafi said in his recent statement was nothing but religious discrimination and baseless which is akin to what Pope Benedict has said recently on the mass media which only differs in the type of religion they are advocating. Earlier, the latter said that a society without Christian conscience will lose their directions in life, and ends up empty and bankrupt. I don’t think this statement is true as I have saw and met many people are successful in life and yet they are not Christians or other religion believers. I have also seen people who are religion believers, yet they are the scumbags in the society. Both of them should retract their statements and apologize to the public. If they still insist on thinking that way, they would end up provoking the public and creating havoc and polemic all over the world especially Gaddafi who also refuted the history of christianity by saying it is wrong to believe that Jesus had been crucified and killed because another man resembling Jesus was crucified in his place, and all those who are not followers of the Islamic teachings are losers. If that obnoxious toad had made these statements in front of the public in a country where other religions reign over the place, he will surely be beaten to death before he could iterate another outrageous statement. He is not suited at all to be a leader. By making such a statement in front of the media, he risks compromising the international ties between Libyan and other countries. This could jeopardise business opportunities and the tourism industry. A leader should be more open-minded and has a wide perspective; placing the aim to improve the country ahead of his own senseless pride.
Yesssss, finally my horrible ordeal has finally come to end. I have just recuperated from my chicken pox infection. But something is really peculiar about my recent chicken pox infection. According to what I learnt in Biology and the rumours I heard from elder people is that there won’t be any recurrence if you have been infected once. Once our bodies have developed immunity against the chicken pox infection, the virus will be eliminated from our body system and remain dormant in our ganglion which is located at our spinal cord. In rare cases, the virus might reactivate if our immunity systems are compromised. The recurrence of chicken pox will lead to the eruption of shingles which forms painful blisters instead of itchy ones during the first infection. However, I remembered that I was infected once when I was in Standard Four. So, this was supposed to be my second time of infection but my condition was not deplorable. I was infected by my friend Jian Shi who came to our tuition class even though he hasn’t recovered from his chicken pox infection. At first, I have only a few blisters which I thought was mosquito or insect bites. After a few days, the blisters boomed and spread all over my body. Even my head scalp and mouth have blisters too. It was an ordeal when I was eating my food. There were so many restrictions which I have to abide when I chose my meal. I was not allowed to eat any meat, and was told to eat more fruits and vegetables. The blisters at my tongue were painful especially when I ate salty food because most of the blisters are at the sides of my tongue which are sensitive to any salty food. The situation was aggravated when my parents ate ‘sweet and sour pork’ in front of me. The smell of that delicacy was so tempting that I couldn’t resist it anymore. I decided not to follow the restriction and started to follow my normal diet. I opine that it wouldn’t cause any harm just to eat some meat. I just couldn’t consume vegetables and fruits as my meal. My meal would be tasteless and dull if that happens. Life was torture when I endured a week of torment when I had chicken pox. My body was covered with blisters filled with fluids. They were so itchy that I couldn’t restrain myself from scratching the blisters and ending up bursting them even though my parents told me no to do so as I would get scars all over my body. The blisters were so itchy that I felt like scraping them off. After few days after the blisters appeared, they turned yellowish. Some of the blisters grew so big and hideous that I burst it purposely. At that time, I looked so hideous like a monster. I think if anyone saw me during those days, they would certainly run away. ~Sigh~. Consequently, I couldn’t go anywhere during my holidays because of the risk of infecting other people with chicken pox virus. I have planned to go to Sungei Wang to search for delicacies or watch some movies but all that planning was in vain and I have to stay indoors until I have fully recovered. Most of the time I would be sleeping to restrain the itchiness of my blisters. I also couldn’t go to Kah Meng’s house to play games together with my chums via LAN. How I wish I could obliterate them in the game Unreal Tournament 2004. Worst of all, I couldn’t even take my exam during the last day of the test. Of all the days, why must the chicken pox aggravate on my last day of exam? I shouldn’t be sulking over such trivial matters because there was an advantage for me too. On the positive side, I have a week for me to revise my Physics and Additional Mathematics before sitting for the exam. This proves to be beneficial to me because I got the same marks as the smart alec in our class, Liew Hui in Physics. In fact, I almost got 1 mark higher than him but it was because I left out the word ‘one’ in my answer which caused one of my answers to lose mark. Noooooo. Surpassing him in any academic test would be an honourable achievement in my life. I don’t care I surpass him by how many marks. Even by 0.1 marks, I would be proud. This reminds me of how I surpassed him in the English test we took last year. I was able to surpass him by 0.8 marks. Yessssssss. There is also another person whom I would like to surpass in Account, Pei Wen. She is always excels in any subject that involves calculation. She is very good in Accounts and would be an excellent rival to compete with. Unfortunately, the first test comprised of the 3rd chapter in Account which I haven’t learned at my tuition class. In addition, the Head of Department of Account seemed to be busy. So, we won’t be able to sit for the exam this time even if I have learnt the chapter. Therefore, I am anticipating the next mid-year exam to sit for the Account test and surpass her in the test.