Erumiou

I was reading in Macleans magazine that an estimated one in every nine women gets breast cancer. We all know people who have suffered from cancer and who are suffering from cancer. I’m sure that the fear of cancer has entertained all of our thoughts at least once. So what’s the point of this post? Well, since we all have a fair chance at suffering from this disease, I wanted to know, “what are we all doing to help fight against this war called ‘cancer’?“

We should all hope that research will one day be successful in finding a cure against this deadly and torturous disease, but just hope is not enough. We have to execute our hopes in the form of action.

Visit the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and find out how you can help out!

Ouch! I don’t pay much attention to whales, but man, that must have hurt… A LOT!!! It can only be estimated that the ship that collided with this whale must have suffered great damage as did the whale’s tongue. It is my prediction (so far) that this whale died from its tongue swelling…

WOW - what is the world coming to?

The ironic part of this whole issue is the fact that the fanatic who was encouraging people to do the suicidal bombings, himself was fleeing in a burka (the veil some Muslim women wear to cover their face and body) from the Mosque before the explosion. What a hypocritical coward. He was the one inciting them to give their lives up to enter paradise and yet here he was fleeing for his own. What happened there buddy, don’t wanna enter paradise yourself? Well good, cause I don’t think you’re going to be entering paradise anytime soon…

The very fact that he was running away from the death he was promoting in the name of Islam and Jihad (a term meaning “to struggle in the way of God” - there is a big misconception about this term, see my earlier post on “My turn on CBC - The National - A Possible Solution, Education”) shows that he was lying. If he believed in this as the true form of Jihad, then he wouldn’t have been running away from it himself. Instead, he should have been at the forefront of death.

It’s interesting to know that such a small component, the brain, is the most mysterious part of the human body. This awkward looking organ is the most important portion of our bodies; It helps regulate everything, but when there’s something wrong with itself, with not much being known about it even now in the 21st century, it means we’re in for a hell of a ride! (note: not a good one)

So, then people, “psychiatrists,” find the perfect opportunity to take a stand and start telling everyone else what is wrong with others based on observations. Based SOLELY on observations, no tests whatsoever, just observations leading to the conclusion of addictive antidepressants, which end up creating a drug addict within the law. (note: Chris Rock’s version on this is much more entertaining)

“Doctors have used diagnostic terms to stigmatize and control people.” (Dr. Thomas Szasz)

Yes, perhaps I’m being too cynical… Let’s take a look at some proper facts about the history of psychiatry:

1) Drapetomania: “When black slaves ran away in the South for freedom, it wasn’t that they wanted to be free; it was that they suffered from a disease called drapetomania, from drapetes, runaway slave, and mania. I am not making this up. This was a legitimate diagnosis just like Attention Deficit Disorder is.” (Dr. Thomas Szasz)

2) Hysteria: “Women, half the population of mankind, of course, if they were foolish to rebel against domination by man, well, then they had a serious disease called hysteria, which was due to their wandering womb.” (Dr. Thomas Szasz)

3) Spring Fever: “Spring fever is not a disease (speaking of in comparison to typhoid fever)” (Dr. Thomas Szasz).

Let’s take a look at what is spring fever “diagnosed” to be:

“feelings aroused by springtime: a feeling of restlessness, yearning, lust, or sometimes laziness, believed to be brought on by the coming of spring” (Microsoft® Encarta® Reference Library 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved).

Appears to be pretty pathetic, huh?

Thus, if someone is sick, “then there must be some objective science to it which can be diagnosed by physicians and objective tests.”

“Labeling a child as ‘mentally ill’ is stigmatization, not diagnosis. Giving a child a psychiatric drug is poisoning, not treatment.” (Dr. Thomas Szasz)

Another very good brief informative speech on this whole psychiatry fraud is given by Dr. Jeffrey Schaler.

I re-watched the movie a few days ago and realized that at the end of the movie when Will Smith (Chris Gardner) gets the job, he mentions that it was at that very moment in his life where he felt “happiness.”

Well, it is seen and observed, not only in the movie, but also in everyday life, that we are always in the pursuit of happiness, but it is hard to maintain it. We are moreover, always in the pursuit of finding and maintaining happiness… finding happiness is achievable, but only after a heck of a lot of persistence… maintaining it is even harder! I feel that humans are always unsatisfied, but that issue requires a whole new post!

Are we really always in the “pursuit” of happiness, or can it actually be found and kept!?

After watching that amazing movie based on a beautiful true story I began to ponder upon those words “in the pursuit of happyness”…

Though, at times, it does seem that we live in the presence of happiness… neh? isn’t what Will Smith (in the form of Chris Gardner) experienced at the end of the movie, when he finally got the job, happiness?

Hmmm…. interesting thought to ponder upon…

The first step I took into acknowledging that I’m a logical rationale being was as a child… when I accepted that I had to do something to make a difference in the lives of the poor. This thought of helping out the povern-stricken in the world grew as a cancer would within myself to the point where my sleep was disturbed at the thought that I’m living (breathing, eating, sleeping, etc.) such a luxurious life while there are millions that are dying from so many causes with the root to poverty.

There are countless times where I desire to go and bare an eye-witness account of how the people live in poverty only to truly be able to become a thankful being for what I have been granted. It is easy to drag on the list of endless desires, but it is hard to realize the uselessness of what one has if it cannot benefit oneself.

Materialism has reached to such an extent that I am saddened to see people finding “benefit” in buying something as the benefit lies within their own happiness. Fine, true, one should make oneself happy every now and then, but it is a sad fact to know that people are increasingly becoming more selfish with this same route of thoughts, that their happiness is within buying themselves products/services.

Now when I look back, one of the greatest days of my life was as a child, when it was born within me to find happiness with helping others. It is rare to find people that cherish the same definition of true happiness as I do. (this definition is just my personal opinion, obviously there are many variations of true happiness and there are also additions to this happiness, which I did not encompass within this post)

There are many documentaries and movies that have moved me to feel greater sympathy for the poor, to name a few:

Born into Brothels, Right to Play, Peace Propaganda and the Promised Land, In the Pursuit of Happyness, Swades, Akeela and the Bee…

I highly recommend that people watch these and many others to help build sympathy for the poor in more hearts and minds.

One thing I commend about the religion Islam is that every year the Muslims are required to fast in order to feel the hunger, thirst, dizziness and many other side-effects that are accompanied with the feelings of the poor. These actions grow feelings for the poor within their hearts and helps them be more thankful for what they have and eventually they learn to give more to the poor. Each day that an adult does not fast for a genuine reason, he has to pay for a poor person’s food for the day or feed one for the day. Islam also carries other applauding systems for helping out the poor such as sadaqa, etc.

It is even more saddening for me to learn that there are millions of poor people residing in countries like India, which are themselves are advancing forward as

…the world’s twelfth largest economy by market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power, India has made rapid economic progress in the last decade. Although the country’s standard of living is projected to rise sharply in the next half-century, it currently battles high levels of poverty, illiteracy, persistent malnutrition, and environmental degradation. In addition to being a pluralistic, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats and national parks. (Wikipedia)

Being of East Asian descent, I know for a fact that there are only two standards of living in countries like India: the rich, or the poor. There are no middle grounds in such countries. The middle category is very dim, hardly a sight… nearly impossible. The rich like the fact that they are wealthy and to stay wealthy means the poor have to be poor, many have to be poor. This isn’t a troubling fact to them, nor a troubling sight as poverty is seen EVERYWHERE in such countries and it doesn’t bother the rich at all. Moreover, this has been passed down with generations of the caste system of having everyone do the same job meaning, the poor stay poor and the rich stay rich. Instead of feeling sympathy, some of the rich enjoy that the poor live off begging them. The rich prefer to feed a whole poor village once in a blue moon than to teach them a skill so that they can “fish for life.”

True wealth is not found within one’s assets, but it is found within one’s heart. To be truly rich is to have enough space in one’s heart to find happiness is the smile of the hungry.

This is a documentary worth watching!

We are all after wanting to know the truth. Well, to know the truth about the sad forced situation of the former country Palestine, you will have to watch this 79 minute informative documentary that will totally change your perception of the media at large. It will show you how closely the media is linked with Public Relations efforts and the numerous filters a news report can go through when it’s about a touchy topic.

It is heartbreaking to see the conditions the people of Palestine are made to live in. The Israelis have taken over their land and are controling their lifestyles. There are borders up everywhere that make Palestinians beg to be allowed to travel short distances. They are being deprived of their needs and are forced to stay most of the year in house arrest. No one should be forced to live like this! It is awful to know that there are people who are willing to sacrifice others’ freedom and lives for their own happiness. It is even more sad to know that the Jews, that feel so strongly about their “right” to kick the people of Palestine out, have learned nothing about persecution from the holocaust.

For viewing of the documentary click here.

The Plant Wall at the University of Guelph-Humber is quite a charmer. It acts not only as a beautiful decoration that brightens the day of each student, but also as an air filter, clearing the air, and a vent, which circulates warm air during winter and cold air during summer.

The 1000 plants provide a relaxing environment that freshens the minds of the young minds at the university. One can only imagine the amount of thought and hard work that went into the creation of this wall. It is nice to know that there are people willing to care for the environment that students study in.

Students that have been blessed with the opportunity of learning in such educational facilities should always be thankful for their chance to learn and achieve as there are many who are only left with the desire to ‘learn and achieve’.

The wise saying of a saintly man was that “Nations cannot be reformed without the reformation of its youth” and we are bearing witness to this statement in our daily lives. After every little while it seems that there is a new shooting that takes place at some school that outdoes a previous school shooting.

The Virginia Tech Massacre, that occurred on April 16, 2007, marked the new worst school shooting in American history.

Why are there so many guns in the hands of wrong people? Why is power in the hands of wrong people? Well, both these questions are linked together. If nations will not focus on the reformation of its youth, how do they expect to reform themselves when the present and future also lies within the hands of their youth?

Today kids are roaming killing one another in schools for their own problems, tomorrow who knows what extent they will go to.

The Economist states:

The difference, as everyone knows but no one in authority was saying this week, is that in America such individuals have easy access to weapons of terrible destructive power. Cho killed his victims with two guns, one of them a Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a rapid-fire weapon that is available only to police in virtually every other country, but which can legally be bought over the counter in thousands of gun-shops in America. There are estimated to be some 240m guns in America, considerably more than there are adults, and around a third of them are handguns, easy to conceal and use. Had powerful guns not been available to him, the deranged Cho would have killed fewer people, and perhaps none at all.

More thought and effort should go into focusing on programs to keep the youth busy in intellectual activities rather than having them waste time thinking of how to hurt others. The amount of money that is being spent towards the wars in the Middle East should be put towards better use in helping further one’s own civilization rather than destroy it by not focusing on the youth. It is crucial for the betterment of society that we focus on the moral upbringing of our children.

Yes, 33 people were killed in the Virginia Tech massacre, but does anyone care to notice how many die each day in Iraq? Why would we? It’s a matter of proximity, right!? Well, regardless, they are also people, just like us and we should stand up to the cruelties they are having to deal with.