passionate people, where are they?

"...as i listened to a climate scientist professor speak to less than half full auditorium at the State library, i gazed around and scanned the room in which, i saw wide eyes and bleakly, empty seats.

at the end, i left with shocked and one thing in my mind, a moral of the whole speak, a surreal message:

"the immediate future of our civilisation is threatened"

the earth, and everything on it will definitely change, by how much?
or but by how little? that would be determined with what we do now...

as i learn about the environment on a day to day basis in a classroom, at the end, on the street each of my newly gained knowledge felt radical and subversive

to the point where if i want to share it, it'd be confronting?

we see climate actions groups everywhere, on tv, newspaper everyday seemingly increasing.

but what has shrunk is the alarm and the understanding of climate change."

You, me and everyone else

"...people do not damage the ecosystem as a matter of course. Rather, they operate in an ideational context that motivates them to do so. People are not machines; they do not respond directly to situations. In the words of Harry Eckstein, people are moved by 'predispositions which pattern behavior.' In the language of social scienc, human behaviour is a matter of 'oriented action.' People process experience into action through general conceptions or interpretationsof the world. At the most general level, but also the most important, then, an important step toward protecting the earth is to change the way vast numbers of people understand the world. Even if it means to involving them to be persuaded to abandon their anti-ecological or non-ecological attitudes and practices, and to be concerned about the environmental well-being of the planet. In sher, it requires disseminating an ecological sensibility."

Excerp from Paul Wapner's Environmental Activism and World Civic Politics

*-*

Would God knows that his creations are not as perfect as God would be?

Stick

had an interesting week...
well i was put in a group for policy practice, and yes...out of 5, i'm the only guy in the group...
anyway, guess the girls seems to be pretty smart.

on the other note, i think i've increased my life expectancy,or at least gain back what i've lost when the paramedics gave me few doses of morphine last year. Why? well beetles had his 20th birthday on wednesday, and we went to tea place in the city. It was completely unplanned, I was just waiting for beetles and niko so we can catch train together, sher rang up and said she wants to come aswell, then i remember shin also finish at 3.30 so i called her up and told her to come wait with me and so she did, hail the RLOD...

I made sher walk all the way back to the traffic light because i thought we may run into her...sorry sher sher!!

so me, alex beetle, shin and sher all walked to niko's building and i got hungry so they watched me eat a whole meal by myself, then we walked passed the teastore and decided to buy some drink...then we changed our mind to stay in the store and have hot tea instead...plus the cold tea we wanted. We chose things randomly and the cashier girl was like wtf?

THE HOT TEA WAS SO YUM! theres taro and pearl and and and the tea was so milky...aarrr.
and Sher's drink was awesome! then we took some photos while we wait for matty. And i had shin and alex forcing sugar into my mouth...plus one of the waitress had the same shirt colour and pattern as me...

we were talking about what to do next, we had movies in mind but alex came with a brilliant idea:

PHOTOBOOTH!!

TKD LOVE

We're SO HOT RIGHT NOW [practically inside the booth was kinda hot..]

we all tried into fit into the fish eye = fail

Happy birthday alex beetle khun!!!!

the night endsed with us playing pool and air hockey at king pin melb central, but shin went dissappear somewhere. fun night that was...!

. . .

the person i like is going away...far away...for a long time...
in contrary, i'm not going anywhere fast... i dont have much time left.

Closer

...I feel so...unmotivated...

So many things have been happening,
Uni...as always: busy busy...never look forward to it, especially now ALL my subjects require me to be involved in group work...that means: more time outside class to meet up and work together...arrr fuck man...

Plus there alot of reading...so i actually have to read all bunch of stuff this time...and actually read them, not just look at the headings and the caption under pictures...zzz

Since its 2nd year, so the classes are more concentrated to Enviro and Planning students, last year they were more social science course mix. I feel so weird, unlike Soc Sci, these guys are...snobby? well at least when theyre talking to you they tend to not to try. Anyway, this year uni gonna be sucked.

TKD:
Well, now I know why being president of a club isnt all that easy...ok I've figured out how to send money to my friend in Indo in regards of the shirts, so thats all good. I just gotta try get both hoodie and shirt done before Joyce leaves, so she can keep them as, souvenir i guess?

We have to appeal to this fine from Sport and rec because we didnt attend a festival at Bundoora...I swear, and i think none of us know about this fine, if we do,we would have arranged some people to go. I could have gone because i had the day off, but because it such a short notice when we were told the night before about the fine, things went out of our hands really. So I heard Joyce was volunteering to go, so I asked her if she wants to go with me to Bundoora, but she said she has appointment at1pm, making it impossible for us to be at Bundoora before hand at the scheduled time of 12 - 2, said she'll let me know in the morning. She also said she might be able to drive us there, so i thought well thats settled then, but in the morning she said she couldnt push the appointment at later time and said its much more important so no date for us.

Well i did hope for us to go so we could get to know each other more, but it was never meant to be. So then Quang was like pretty much blaming us for not going, and since he's planning to buy EBPs, he'd blame us for getting the fine and losing our budget to buy those equipments. Now we have to come up with excuses to appeal the 10% fine...i cbf already.

Hana and Frank broke up, Frank kicked hana out of his house, hana is depressed and we decided not to have further involvement with those two. We cant pick sides really, they both our friends, Hana wants to quit TKD because she doesnt want to see Frank. Speaking of quitting Shin also decides to go to Monash tkd instead because our club sucks. We havent seen the likes of Duy, Andrew, Chris mono and co and few others. Fun is no more.

On the other hand, our club now have high influx of noobs, which is fun fun. But since our room is pretty small, we;re kinda gotten abit overcrowded, so i tend to come only tuesdays these days, due to assignmenst aswell actually. Then apparently Quang opened up a club at LaTrobe uni, and asked us to do another demo there. First thing i thought: Why the fuck would he open up another club when he cant even manage the current one? and Why the fuck would we do demo for other uni? we'll be fighting them at competitions!!!! FUCK! out of the questions!! Then there's the interversity comp, most likely at bundoora gym...cbf too far now.

So i'm feeling unomotivated, at the moment i still drag myself into doing uni work, when 'you-know-who' leaves, i can see myself having no soul, just empty, no point doing this and that, no point in that and this, no point about this and that. pretty going with the flow really. Maybe at the moment, i already am? I cbf making the trips to the city and back already, i might aswell ditch sunday spar training, but i cant because i got the keys, yay fun, i might ditch still by sleeping while everyone else train.

Ah well, speaking of sleeping, i feel like going to bed now.

until then
zzz

Surrender

hmm, relationship is like a radio communication, either with friends, families, lovers or anything, if you want to get along, you have to communicate, talk in the same frequency, if not, they cant understand you.

Is God real, is religion a waste of time?
I'd like to say, God is real, but how do we know?
How can we believe something we can't see?
I thought of that too my friends.

My friend, once lectured me about faith and Islam in which i was struck by lightning with nearly every sentence he said,

"You can't see God with eyes full of sin, who are you who has no faith in God, is able to see God? You cant go and find something, when you are actually growing apart from it, instead, grow closer, pray and ask for guidance."

Is God real? the evidence is right infront of your eyes, think about it this way, you have a program in your computer, called a software. Softwares dont exist just like that, people make those softwares and they work accordingly to what theyre suppose to. This software is like our planet.

Something has a creator, right now human can make things because we have the knowledge, science and scientists, labs, research. Human can biologically create other living things, but hey, like cooking, where do you get the ingredients from? they dont just show in your fridge and cupboard.

the Qur'an (Koran) reveals everything, it's got all the evidence, the literature explains about big bang theory, even up to the conflict in Gaza.

Muhammad is the last prophet, because he was succesful in (continuing) development of Islam, prior to that the other prophets some have failed. Like i think it was Moses who ended up developing Judaism etc etc.

God is fair, if you think you're having a shit time, you'd then pray, you dont pray for better, you thank God for what you've been given. Because God will soon give you a better luck, its the x factor in my opinion. On the other hand, when there's up there's down, when you have everything, you have everything to lose.

You can just put your hands up and beg to God for stuff, that's just not gonna happen, without your own effort, you wont get anything. God will, (insya Allah) give you strength to continue in what you're trying to achieve. Remember to always thank God for whatever at the end of the day. Because God is everywhere with the Angels on your shoulder, writing down all your deeds, bad and good.

I, personally now pray everyday, just before I leave to Uni - for my safety on the way there, for my mind and inner strength in classes and lectures, for my way back home and before, during and after reviewing day;s work. I thank God at the end of the day, everytime when i lay down on my bed just before i go to sleep.

Socially, it hurts me, especially in a non Muslim dominant country Australia. Even if only a few, it still hurts me when Islam is portrayed in a negative way. Will's article about religion dont kill people, touches my heart...there's so many positive things about religion, but how come only the negatives that's being portrayed...?

There are people who misused, using the name of religion to do harmful stuff, in Islam we do not encourage negative things. the 5 pillars of islam:

• Shahadah: God is one

• Salah: Pray to God

• Zakat: Help and share wealth - the practice of giving based on accumulated wealth, and is obligatory for all Muslims who can afford it. A fixed portion is spent to help the poor or needy, and also to assist the spread of Islam

• Sawm: Fasting in the month of Ramadhan - dont eat or drink from dusk to dawn also other sinful things, emotionally too, like swearing etc. This way you feel closer to God, and thanking him with what you have and helps you feel what the poor and needy experiences.

• Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca, if muslims can afford it at least once in their lifetime.

I dont see any killings and violence in those pillars...I see them as disciplines, socially, Muslim may not have good image at the moment, but never...ever...bring religion and faith into any other topic.

I learnt, in my social study last year (modern australian society) we had a few muslims in my class, and we were asked the question: 'if you;re a female muslim, dress in a muslim dressing code and were stopped by a cop and you got an unfair treatment because the officer discriminate you, how would you feel?'

The initial thought I had was, 'why the f*** would the officer, screw it, ANYONE in general would bring religion in the first f***ing place? Religion and faith is a business between YOU AND YOUR GOD it does not concern any one else!!!'

well obviously i cant say that bluntly, so i just said, why would you be afraid, you;ve done nothing wrong in choosing islam as your faith, this is a materialistic world what matters if after you dead. So what if youre being discriminated, you can stand up, so go on, it does change social standings, but then again, its the materialistic world at the end its pretty much the same.

Women in islam is also being talked about. Officially, the Al-Qur'an allows a muslim man to have more than one wife, 4 is max infact for infertility reason...and as long as the man looks after them equally. Why do women in Islam is wearing a dress like Ninja? well the reason is apparently, we men (and most human) leaves marks on women, like marks from marriage etc. So why do women seems so weak, why are they praying behind the men? because we men are supposed to protect women, we should put our lives for women. Al Qur'an also explained, God created Adam, then God created Eve (Hawa) by taking a rib out of Adam's chest.

I dont feel Islam as a political system or ideology, it shouldnt be. A government can be influenced by a certain faith, yes we have to spread the teaching of Islam, but its also people's own choice not to adopt it. There are things that Islam might encourage, allows or forbids and that people cant go on with it, say population control, resource management etc etc. So it might not apply to everyone or suits their condition.

I'm looking at Islam in my own personal view, to me, i see it as a way to discipline myself, i have to be hard on myself because if someones being hard on me it wont be as hard ;]. But most of all, if theres a reason to put my faith, it has to be for God...i've doubted God before, now i'm going back to the path. I've officially stop on alcoholic drinks and try to avoid anything with pig product.

Anyway, I shall re-learn the praying and post up an article about pig product - why we try to avoid it. Until then, may God bless you all...