This Attack On Non-Fiction Book Is Maddening!!!

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

I received an e-mail a few days ago notifying me that I\’ve received a comment for my Goodreads book review. I clicked on the link to see who has responded to my review for \”Heroin of the Desert\” by Donya Al-Nahi.

This was an old book I bought nearly 5 years ago. I gave this book a 4 star. It\’s about a woman who help saves kids and reunite them with their mothers. Donya helps non-Arabic mothers who are separated from their husbands after divorce in getting back their kids.

It is a common scenario in the Middle East where the children are being separated from their mothers (especially from Western ladies who got married to Middle Eastern men). I have read a similar story from Carmen Bin Laden who was married to one of the men from Bin Laden\’s family and struggled very hard to get her two daughters back.

Getting back to the comment I received, I saw someone leaving negative review about the book and urging everyone single person who reviewed the book to read the news that appeared in this link. I tried to check the person\’s profile page and it appeared to be that he or she has never reviewed any other books before this.

When someone questioned the credibility of the news, this person started arguing. I noticed that this profile doesn\’t exist on Goodreads today too.

Henry Hoel oh so you kno donya personally I\’m guessing. is that right? so you would kno about all the poor mothers she ripped off right? click the links. all the mothers are there with their stores on how donya al nahi ripped them off! lied to them and stole their money !!

Being an avid Middle East story fan, I could relate to this kind of attack on books where the author reveals stories about people being mistreated. My favourite writer in this genre is Jean Sasson and you can read about how her books are being greatly boycotted by anonymous people all over the world.

A quote from Jean Sasson from her website.

For anyone who is considering writing a book, you might want to read my personal account of what it is like to be stalked, and, for that stalker to find attorneys willing to file a frivolous lawsuit. — Jean

It is pretty intimidating to write and expose crimes but I guess that\’s what makes life worth living! Living for a cause.

I welcome your thoughts and views ! 😀 Thank you for your feedback

Bloody Stupid Burglars!

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

https://i0.wp.com/www.villageofworth.com/Police/Crime%20Prevention/burglary3.gif

Finally it’s my house they targeted

So finally it’s my house they targeted to break into. This robbery happened on Monday morning around 8 am (+8 GMT) as estimated by my neighbours. I’m feeling bad for the robbers who went away empty handed. The only issue that is bothering us the fact that they took one of our car keys along with them, so now we have to change key and alarm for our car and that has incurred extra expenditure. Just imagine when you reach home early in the morning from the place you went to have a good holiday time together with family, just to see your house has been thoroughly ransacked!

It was festive season over here in Malaysia last week and I bet most Malaysians would have been away from home for celebration and holidays. The situation in Malaysia has gone from bad to worse now following MANY gunshot incidents here. Since April 12 2013 there were 31 gunshot murders and incidents in Malaysia. Firearms are now available at very cheap price and almost anyone can own a gun now and shoot anybody he or she feels like killing. This is the new trend here and most of the victims were killed when they stop their cars or bikes at traffic lights. So the next time you are in Malaysia and you stop at a traffic light, beware as you could be the next target for no particular reason.

Where is Malaysia really heading to now? With our economy going worse from day to day, increasing crime rate has been very worrying. The recent general election has caused great turmoil in Malaysian politics and uneven opportunities among people of different races has forced many skilled workers to emigrate and look for a better life. I could safely say that most of the students studying abroad would never return to Malaysia for a living and this is why you could see more foreigners here working as labours and even skilled workers because our own people had enough with what’s happening.

If you think I’m hugely deviating from my post about the robbery by linking it with the current political scenario, you are absolutely wrong! I feel both issues are greatly interconnected as failure to handle crime while it could still be controlled with great ease. Now as problems have gone out of hand, we are struggling to offset to the situation.

I don’t believe that moving out of the place where we belonged to will guarantee a better life. If I can’t fight for what is rightfully mine in my own land, I don’t expect Americans, Australians or Canadians to help me out for a better life. If you can’t fight for yourself NOW, you can’t do that elsewhere. Malaysia’s top two richest men are non-Malays. In fact, the backbone of Malaysia’s economy is held by the Malaysian Chinese. I believe it is more of what you can make out of what you have right now and that is the true trait of the survival of the fittest.

Democracy Is Dying!!

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

Too frustrated to post this up now on the ”clean” Malaysian election. Wait for the updates!

Sorry. DEMOCRACY IS DEAD. Period.
Malaysians,
We are all mourning the death of democracy at our country. We are frustrated and deeply irritated with the fact that there were fraudulent during our election. Despite all these anger and outrages, what we have learned from GE 13 are:

1) We are UNITED
For some reason now, we are all united, we are against the ruling government not because of racial intolerance. We have stood together, Malay, Chinese and Indian, to VOICE our opinion out. That is the real victory.

2) We are GETTING there
We have come this far against the cronies. We have shown improvement for the a CHANGE. We broke the majority votes the ruling government had. Despite the Bangla illegal voters and frauds, we still did made a change!

3) Voice out for YOURSELVES
The government is not going to help you if you don’t help yourself. This election has waken up more citizens. 85% of people came out to cast their vote. This means the level of awareness has been drastically increased. YOU as an individual should make the CHANGE

4) Say NO to racism
We have learned to say no to racism! We have learned that we shouldn’t give in to the racial sparks. This is the real victory.

What we ~~can~~ should do more:

1) Check your voting STATUS
Many were fooled during last minute as they realised they were not listed among the voters list. My friend is one of them. He has voted before so he has not checked as his name should be registered, logically. So don’t give in to these act of fraudulent. Check your names against 6 months earlier at least.

2) Get everyone register as VOTERS
I’m not sure how much effect does this post of mine going to impose, some of you may remember, some of you not. The best thing to do for yourself and family is to get all your family members who are 21 and above to register as voters and vote

3) Don’t quit VOTING
My father and grandparents who were voters for so many years did not complain much or said they are not going to vote. So all the first time voters and young voters, continue voting. You will make the MAGIC one day!

4) Support the PROTEST
Support the NGO’s who are protesting against the EC for fair election and cleaner Malaysia as a whole. Show your support by educating people around you on what they are supposed to know.

5) Don’t be a FOOL
If you are someone who are afraid of voting against the government, this message goes to you. No one would catch you and put you behind the bars for exercising your rights. Stop being the world class fool!

6) Be EC Election Agents
For those who could do this, you ought to be the EC watching agents on the day of poll! I guess that would increase transparency. Have more people of all races join in for this.

Last but not least, life has to go on. This is our country. You can’t run away and live in other place when you can’t fight for your rights here, the place where you were born. I applaud the act of the public chasing the phantom voters away! That was mind-blowing!

Love you Malaysia!

Claim Your RIGHTS!!!

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

While the Malaysian election is going on now, the entire citizens of Malaysia are anxiously awaiting the results! Phantom voters and dirty electoral rolls are one of the main concerns for the people or ‘rakyat’ as majority of them want CHANGE to be implemented in the country. Updating these news as we are getting results in a few hours time! Pray for the best Malaysia!!

7/05 Pray? Does even praying helps now when things turned out so hideous? So yeah coming to the purpose of this entry, I went to collect my portion of money for transport expenses incurred to come home for voting from one of the government political party’s office on the day of election. What I found out was a bunch of ignorance society waiting over there for the same purpose too. As the election heat was still on during that day, people acted very concerned towards their rights all of a sudden.

What do you do when you approach a government office to claim something? I’m pretty sure you would bring your identification and relevant documents with you. On top of that, when something concerns money, you need to inform the ones in charge that you would be coming to collect your money so that they could make an arrangement for it. Why on earth are our Malaysian Indians living on ridiculous ignorance and blame the authorities for not granting them money as they fail to inform people in charge about it?!

I saw them all blaming the lady for not giving them transport money. When the lady clarified the situation and told the people that they are responsible to notify about it earlier to ease preparation and arrangement, the public rebelled and said they DON’T KNOW about the procedures before hand. Does that even counted as a valid reason?

I abhor the I DON’T KNOW statement here! Ignorance is not always BLISS people!

Your I DON’T KNOW means:

1) You are escaping from further questions on your knowledge or credibility to exercise your rights the correct way.

2) You are a pathetic opportunist to dig your invalid share on public money.

3) You expect people to work for you all the time and for the information come knocking your door.

4) You are not steadfast and do not educate yourself on exercising your rights the fair way.

People, be fair when it comes to claiming your rights! Know what you are supposed to do and how to do it before you even think of stepping at people’s door and start speaking for yourselves. That’s a better identity of educated people and citizen! Don’t shame yourself!

People’s Power: GE13 Malaysia

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

Fellow Malaysians,

It’s time to vote again!!! As the election fever is on everywhere in Malaysia, I would like to urge all of you who have registered as voters, to move you ass and VOTE! Each vote counts! I have gone to vote today at my polling station and the crowd was overwhelming. Things to note on:

1)Be extra cautious and vigilant when you take your ballot paper as the damn ink doesn’t dry at all and it can cause your vote to be counted as spoiled vote if you smear the ink on your ballot paper!! I checked the ballot papers if it is free from any markings!! ANY small markings will render you vote void so ask for a new ballot paper. You have the rights to do so.

2)Check your voting booth’s number and this will make you move faster to the polling both! I have learned that the polling booth #3 and #4 are for the young voters. So if you are a young voter, go to these lines to make your voting process faster.

3)Look around for phantom voters. You know how they look like. Don’t tell me you can’t identify fellow Malaysians. 🙂

4)I have no idea why we are given pen instead of pencil this time round but anyhow there are extra 10% ballot papers, so if in case you accidentally make a mistake, you could ask for new ones.

5)Keep your mobile phones in silent mode especially when you are already at the pooling booth.

6)You may want to print your registration slip which can be obtained from http://www.spr.gov.my if at all there is a chaos saying you have voted before or you have not been registered.

Remember, today, we all heroes for a day! Our VOTE counts!! You guys rock!!

Boston Bombing: News Coverage Adds Value To Death?

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

I have been called to write my thoughts on this issue as I have been seeing some articles around in the internet by some people who have different opinions on the recent incident of Boston bombing. While some of us feel bad for the horrible act of terrorism in Boston, regardless of what race the victims belong to, some others feel that the world is not considering the death of hundreds others in other part of the world as severely as the three victims who died in Boston bombing especially in the Muslim world and this fact has caused an uproar in the society.

Who to blame for? What stand should the society take when it comes to terrorism?

While I was organising my thoughts to write on this entry, I have got a G+ notification from +Shanique Roca in the morning for a post in G+ that closely relates to my discussion that I felt so motivated to write on it.

When I browsed through the post, I never felt like reading any comment as I know it has somehow turned into a racial issue and the comments for the thread kept coming for people choose to talk for their own people. Much to my dismay, I feel the community in Google+ has failed to identify the MESSAGE that the picture in the post was trying to convey. I felt the Syrian community, while trying to say that they too encounter similar situation, is also extending their condolences for Boston. I’m still figuring out what went wrong until the post has caused an uproar among the G+ community itself.

1) 3 Vs. 300 or even 3000

It is saddening that terrorism is not getting an even media coverage worldwide. The world of media and news are more focused on issues pertaining developed countries like the States and this has caused uneasiness among people from Third World Country on the fact that their voices aren’t heard off as much as people in Boston or just anywhere else in the world where news about their country reaches the entire world within a couple of of hours. I feel this is the root cause of all ill thoughts bedevilling all societies. I feel the amount of death shouldn’t be the sole measure of how worthy life is. People fail to realise that even when Boston gets the attention of media, someone somewhere else in the same country is being discriminated, is being killed just like the way the Syrians are getting killed and it’s NOT in the cover of any newspaper. While some issues come to limelight, some still remains undiscovered. Syria is one of the example, but there are so many countries sharing the same fate such as Sri Lanka on the issue of brutal mass murder of Indians in Sri Lanka.

2) Prejudices

It is WRONG to judge every single Muslims you see on the road as a terrorist just because you have heard some of them have taken part in terrorism before. It is also wrong to judge that ALL Americans harbour resentment towards the Muslims and they do bad to the Muslims. I love reading stories from the Middle East and I feel the difficulties living life there and some stories of bold women inspire me a lot. The latest book I read on Middle East is the Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. It is a real life story portraying an American’s effort in building schools for girls in Pakistan in return of the favour the mountain villagers have done for him during his expedition to climb K4. This is an ongoing humanitarian work which received its resources from Americans. Greg was strongly opposed by some fellow countrymen and claimed his work as an act of betrayal to the country when 7/11 incident occurred. While some others applaud his effort and acknowledged the fact that only love can drive hatred away. So while humanitarian works are still being done by part of the Western countries to the ones on the other side of the world, it is not justified to judge a race based on an event alone.

Maybe someday the world would come the realisation that harbouring anger and revenge will not provide the eternal solutions to terrorism. Boston and Syria, you are in our prayers!

Vote! Voice Out!

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Jasveena R Prabhagaran

Why Vote?

Fellow Malaysians,

I choose to get my thoughts and views on this matter displayed as soon as possible even though there is one post in pending list. The General Election (GE13) of Malaysia is around the corner and the parliament is expected to be dissolved any time upon announcement from Prime Minister. Well, we all know that the upcoming election has become the latest sensation. While some of us are eagerly awaiting to exercise our rights, some others are not even registered as voters and have not decided to vote yet. Why vote?

1) Vote To Show What You Want

Some may be happy with what the government has done. You may feel that throughout the 5 years term, leaders have positively changed the lives of people in Malaysia and you feel this good-deeds has to be continued by the same leaders. Whereas, others may feel disappointed with what’s happening and they need a change and for that, they might feel candidates from other party deserve the chance to show what they can do for the country! So, how is the voice of Malaysia going to be heard? Vote!! You need to appreciate the government and want to see them ruling again? Vote! You don’t want to see them again for another 5 years? Vote!

If you are old enough to complain something isn’t working for you, then you are definitely old enough to VOTE. Recall your age! 21 and above? Move your lazy ass and get yourself registered and turn up during voting day! Don’t complain if you didn’t vote. You don’t reserve that rights!

2) Each Vote Counts!

Yes, each one of your vote, the MALAYSIAN reading this, counts!! You may think that one person not voting is not going to make any changes! Wrong! Each one of you need to go and vote as entire voice of Malaysia has to be heard and that’s what justice is. After all, one vote is all it takes to decide the next 5 years of Malaysia! You may never know the outcome. Exercise your voting rights and show your responsibility towards the place you have been residing since the day of your birth!

3) Fair Electoral Policies: Doesn’t Matter

While we are thriving to have a clean and fair election, it is important to remember not to get emotional into the issue by choosing not to vote unless a clean election is guaranteed! I say vote no matter if the fair electoral policies are being enforced or not! I have to make this clear as I read a status on Facebook sometimes back saying he/she is not voting as he/she has the rights to demand for fair election.

Remember, changes happened even without the fair election sometime back, and this only serves to prove that each vote counts. So to those of you under the same impression, stop bickering and vote!

4) All Parties Loot!

The reality is, like it or not, when someone is in power, apart from all the good things they do, they also take advantages of the position they are in. They will loot and sometimes get astray from their duties. It all happens. As the citizen, we have the power to also remind them that if they were to loot a little too much and do no good to people, then they will be toppled down next! Hence, the focus in serving the people and fulfilling the mandates will be ingrained in our leaders’ mind. With that, we could see the Malaysia we want to see!

Vote! You can make a difference!