Monthly Archives: May 2008

A friend shared on his blog this presentation file about the Sichuan disaster.

The last slide breaks my heart:

“This baby, after being buried over 24 hours, miraculously, was rescued unscratched. He is about 3-4 months old, and his mother kneeled down, pinned her head and hands on the ground to shielded him from the falling concrete, and milked him. His mother did not make it out. A rescue worker found his mom’s cell phone in his wrapper. It had a text message left by his mother: “Dear child, if you survive, please remember, Mom loves you forever…”

You can download the presentation here. Please do your part, if you have not done so.

How do you even begin to articulate the sense of loss from a disaster of this scale? How do you convey the heartfelt pain as cries of help echoed long after all hopes for survivors dimmed in the aftermath that was the biggest natural disaster in recent human history?

My heart swells with pain as, day after day, pictures and news of the grieving nation flooded the media. The people of Sichuan lost an entire generation of youths who potentially be their only way out of poverty.

For the Chinese parents, it was particularly painful given the one-child policy in China. Many have lost their only child when the rubbles came down.

So when I saw two elderly volunteers holding up donation box and blown-up photos of the disaster outside Ang Mo Kio MRT station, I approached them with my wallet open.

When the toothless Chinese man saw I was pulling out ten-dollar notes, he bowed deeply, waist down, just like the Japanese.

Had my heart not been touched by their selfless act, I would have found the situation hilarious. Here I was struggling to put my donation into the box, the man bowed so deeply that the box moved with him, away from my outstretched hand.

As I moved away from them, I saw many people from all walks of life came forward, hands clutching notes and coins, doing their part to help.

I always think, it is in the time of disaster that the human race shows their real nature – that they are compassionate and kind.

The attention has shifted from the dead to the living. So must you and I. Do your part, too.

Please.

(Photo Credit)

P.S.: I was looking for a particular photo to accompany this posting – of this young man dressed in a jacket and tracksuit, holding a drip for his friend buried in rubbles, his arms extended towards the camera as if asking for the photographer to come forward and help. Anyone knows where to find this photo?

Update: Found it!

And so it is one week after I returned from the ONE DAY KL TRIP that I managed to sit down, sort through my photos and write a post on the awesomely delicious adventure.

Did I say delicious? Ah well, if you are part of the Fabulous Eight you will be delicious too! The photos here will tell you a lot.

I particularly enjoyed the trip because I got to know my friends better, both good and not-so-good. And of course the many wonderful laughter, drunken moments and silly antics will stay in my mind of a long time.

So here’s a shout out to Eileen (I know you had a fabulous time, birthday girl!), Sean (my delicious roommate!), Mak (thanks for inviting me, dude!), Ian, Raffy, Lenz and Eugene. Thanks for the wonderful trip!

At least we didn’t come back from KL with long faces. LOL.

This is the second time you walked out of my life.

I am perplexed. All I did was to be friendly, matching you tone-for-tone. I didn’t realise you might somehow interpret it differently.

It’s disheartening. But I guess you must have your own reasons.

No matter what, I still regard as you a friend. And when the time is right, do regard me as your friend again.

Hey people,

I am looking to hire a web 2.0 architect. Basically this person will be responsible for the development and implementation on my company’s website business in Singapore. The job scope will be about 50% development work, 40% liaising with external vendors and HQ IT team, and 10% office network support.

He or she should be proficient in programming on ASP and/or PHP platform, knowledge on APIs (Yahoo, Google, Facebook), and AJAX. Prior experience in developing/maintaining web 2.0 websites and applications will be absolutely fantastic, though not a must.

Discussion on the business background, work location, and most importantly, remuneration, will take place later on. If you fit the bill, or know person who can, do send the resume and contact info to razlanmanjaji@gmail.com

This requisition is confidential at the moment hence the lack of company information.

I love how some ads come with catchy theme and powerful idea, yet delivers a smile to your face and drive home the advertiser’s message.

In this case, Discovery Channel’s latest ad is a great example. I love the idea about loving the world as it is, and how different people see things different, yet unified with the same catchy love-theme song.

From one marketer to another – bravo!