Microsoft made me a millionaire ?

Wow.... Microsoft just made me a millionaire ? I received a email purportedly from Microsoft, the mail claimed that I "WON £1,350,000.00 (ONE MILLIONTHREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND GREAT BRITAIN POUNDS)". For the past 2 years, I had been receiving a lot of nonsense "jackpot" emails, mostly originating from Africa with prize money ranging from USD500K to USD 10 Millions. I guess, I would have become a Billionaire by now by just collecting the prizes........... LOL.

Bravo, bravo, bravo.... Every minute, a con man is born into this world... and so is a sucker !!!! I shake my head....

====================================================

The email I received....

"....... CONGRATULATIONS! CONGRATULATIONS!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

DEAR WINNER,

.......OUR SPECIAL THANKS AND GRATITUDE TO BILL GATES AND HIS ASSOCIATES.WE WISH YOU THE BEST OF LUCK AS YOU SPEND YOUR GOOD FORTUNE IN THIS SEASON.

.......... AS ONE OF THE 5 JACKPOT WINNERS IN THIS DRAW. YOU HAVE THEREFORE WON THE ENTIRE WINNING SUM OF £1,350,000.00 (ONE MILLIONTHREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND GREAT BRITAIN POUNDS)...................THESE DRAWS ARE COMMEMORATIVE AND AS SUCH SPECIAL.

......................TO FILE YOUR CLAIMS,YOU ARE TO MAKE CONTACT WITH YOUR DESIGNATED AGENT WHO SHALL BY DUTY GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE PROCESS TO FACILITATE THE RELEASE OF YOUR PRIZE. TO FILE FOR YOUR CLAIM PLEASE CONTACT YOUR AFRICAN FUDICIARY AGENT IN SOUTH AFRICA WITH THE CONTACT INFORMATION BELOW: ..........

MRS. LINDA ROSE.
MICROSOFT PROMOTION TEAM
VICE PRESIDENT
MicrosoftMSN
......."

Digital Culture

A special one-second moment.

What were you doing during this special "02:03:04 05/06/07" one-second moment ? Sleeping ? Too bad, you missed this once in a life time numerical sequence. This perfect ascending sequence of numbers will not happened again in another 100 years.

A home divided...

Raimah Bibi Noordin, 40, is an ethnic Indian who was adopted and raised by an Indian Muslim family. She married P. Marimuthu, 47, a Hindu, according to Hindu rites 20 years ago. Their marriage was not formally registered. They have 7 children, 4 boys and 3 girls, from age 4 to 14. According to Marimuthu, Raimah and their children are practicing Hindu.

Religious officials from the Selangor Islamic Religious Department (JAIS) said Raiman is a Muslim, detained her together with 5 of her children, and taken them away from their home in Batang kali on April 2nd 2007. As a progressive country with Muslims as majority, If I understand it correctly, in Malaysia, a Muslim is only allowed to marry another Muslim. For a Muslim to seek conversion into non-Muslim is not a practical approach. Non-Muslim who want to marry a Muslim must be converted to Muslim first.

Marimuthu filed a habeas corpus application against JAIS claiming that JAIS unlawfully detained his wife and 5 children.

In a settlement on May 3rd 2007, Raimah Bibi filed an affidavit stating that she left her husband's home on her own accord. And, Marimuthu agreed that his wife was not unlawfully detained by JAIS. Raiman also agreed to continue to be a Muslim, and be separated from her non Muslim husband. She also agreed to allow custody of their children to Marimuthu to be brought up according to Hindu tradition.

A happy ending for all concerned parties ? Personally, I do felt very sad for this "religiously divided" family. Not wanting to be heartless, but to be practical, I guess Marimuthu should annulled his marriage and divorce Raiman. He should find a non-Muslim wife to take care of his 7 children. Or alternatively, he and his 7 children should convert into Islam and reunite with Raiman. Either way, due considerations must be given to the future welfares of the children.

Honestly, does God really care what religion we practise ? I can't speak for other religions, but as a Buddhist, I know, the compassionate Buddha teaches its followers to accept and respect presentational diversities to the Almighty. Every individual is welcome to embrace Buddhism, and every Buddhist is also free to leave the door of Buddhism - No compulsion and no imposition.

I do sincerely believe, religion and faith should always be a personal choice and a domestic matter. In a civil society, individual's rights to practise any religion should alway be respected, and no interferences should be imposed by other parties. I have a simple belief that, everybody should mind their own businesses and should not meddle into others' personal religious preferences. As much as we want our rights to be protected and respected, we should have the basic decency to have fair eyes and rational minds to respect the rights of others.

God, please forgive those ignorance souls, for they do not know what they are doing.

Om Mani Padme Hum. Om Namo Amithaba Buddha.

The TEN most popular Chinese actresses

Well, another Top Ten again ? What else can I say ? I am sucker for the best, the sexy, the most beautiful, etc..... These are the top ten most popular Chinese actressess - they are beautiful and talented ! Believe it or not, I love oriental beauties, and I love all of them.... I guess at this hour of the night, I am entitled to my deluded and perverted fantasies. Om.... namo... namo....namo..... I have a vision now, I see Gong Li waving her hand to me..... lai lah, lei lah... wor tang kan leh ah... fai ti lah.... And Zhang ZiYi is also eyes signalling me, and.... I am so confused now.... there are 10 of them to pick from... wor ai ter ni yah, wor ai ter ni, ni chai na li yah, ni chai na li.......... What the heck, ini mini maini mooooo...... Good NiteZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz,

01 Gong Li

02 Zhang ziyi

03 Zhang Jingchu

04 Zhao Wei

05 Liu Yifei

06 Huang ShengYi

07 Zhou Xun

08 Zhang Baizhi

09 Xu XiYuan ( aka Big Ass ?)

10 Xu XiDi ( aka Small Ass ?)

The ugly Malaysians

He came to Malaysia in august 2006 with the hope of making a decent income to improve the economic well being of his family in India. But yesterday, he was sent back in a 3 1/2 hours flight out of Kuala Lumpur International Airport to India in box, DEAD. His name is R Ganesh, a 28 years old migrant worker from Kumbakonam village in India.

He was allegedly tortured and starved by his Malaysian employer who operate a sauce making business. Since started working with his employer in August 2006, he was forced to worked from 8 am to midnight everyday without any day off and proper foods. He was also tortured, scalded with hot water, chained, and locked in dark room. It was alleged that his employer, after starved him without foods for several days, bundled him in a car and dumped him to die in a secondary jungle in Gurun, Kedah on April 23ed 2007. A group of villagers found Ganesh lying in the bushes badly bruised and emaciated, and brought him to the hospital. He died of severe malnutrition and dehydration as a result of starvation.

A day before he died, Ganesh highlighted his plights and sufferings - "They hit me with sticks, rubber hose and iron rod. I was also deprived of food and water. They chained my hands and legs before locking me up in a dark room in their house every night."

Oh Malaysians, what have we became ? With our new found wealths and slightly better economic status, evil became us. We became the inhumane slave master. We are now the pariah Tuan that behaved like barbarians. A poor man who pawned everything to travel thousand of miles to seek a better life for himself and his family was inhumanely abused, tortured, and starved to death by Malaysians. What has he done to deserve this unfair and inhumane treatments ? Is Malaysia a caring and civil society ? My impression is, we are pretty good at speaking words that are inconsistent with our actions. Aren't we ? I guess, I am indeed ashamed to be a Malaysian !

A sad ending for Ganesh. May the Almighty bless his soul and may he rest in peace.

For R Ganesh and his family members, with sincerity and sadness, I would like to dedicate this text from SALLA SUTTA ( The Arrow ) :

"Unindicated and unknown is the length of life of those subject to death. Life is difficult and brief and bound up with suffering. There is no means by which those who are born will not die. Having reached old age, there is death. This is the natural course for a living being. With ripe fruits there is the constant danger that they will fall. In the same way, for those born and subject to death, there is always the fear of dying. Just as the pots made by a potter all end by being broken, so death is (the breaking up) of life. The young and old, the foolish and the wise, all are stopped short by the power of death, all finally end in death. Of those overcome by death and passing to another world, a father cannot hold back his son, nor relatives a relation. See! While the relatives are looking on and weeping, one by one each mortal is led away like an ox to slaughter. In this manner the world is afflicted by death and decay. But the wise do not grieve, having realized the nature of the world. You do not know the path by which they came or departed. Not seeing either end you lament in vain. If any benefit is gained by lamenting, the wise would do it. Only a fool would harm himself. Yet through weeping and sorrowing the mind does not become calm, but still more suffering is produced, the body is harmed and one becomes lean and pale, one merely hurts oneself. One cannot protect a departed one (peta) by that means. To grieve is in vain. By not abandoning sorrow a being simply undergoes more suffering. Bewailing the dead he comes under the sway of sorrow. See other men faring according to their deeds! Hence beings tremble here with fear when they come into the power of death. Whatever they imagine, it (turns out) quite different from that. This is the sort of disappointment that exists. Look at the nature of the world! If a man lives for a hundred years, or even more, finally, he is separated from his circle of relatives and gives up his life in the end. Therefore, having listened to the arahant, one should give up lamenting. Seeing a dead body, one should know, "He will not be met by me again." As the fire in a burning house is extinguished with water, so a wise, discriminating, learned and sensible man should quickly drive away the sorrow that arises, as the wind (blows off) a piece of cotton. He who seeks happiness should withdraw the arrow: his own lamentations, longings and grief. With the arrow withdrawn, unattached, he would attain to peace of mind; and when all sorrow has been transcended he is sorrow-free and has realized Nibbana."

Om namo amithaba Buddha