¤ ~random thoughts~ ¤

My Apologies and Deepest Gratitude!

I just wanna say thankyou to all of you.. for stopping and dropping by at my blog... Thankyou too for the comments...  I appreciate it so much... But I declare HIATUS for now... I've been so lazy these days.. I really do need DISCIPLINE and CONTROL... two things that I lack...

I have a crowded mind right now... lolz... Review, work, web designing, blogging, Friendstertalk... argghhhh... Im enjoying it though...

Work...? naaahhh.. It's pretty tiring.. Good thing I've adjusted with the working atmosphere already...

Web Designing...? Not that much... Im only tweaking Friendster's blogs CSS... I have 4 coded layouts sitting at my pc right now. But I need to polish them... I'm also planning to open a website... for tutorials and layouts... O.o.... lolz... wannabee..? whatever... Also, I can't think of a layout/theme for the upcoming home..

Blogging...? hmn.. My two blogs: Random Thoughts and Paradigm looks dead.. lolz... Im not updating that much.. I'm not even replying to comments and tags.. Im just so dead lazy right now... Im sorry bloggers.... I know.. I'll be back in  blogging... I've learned to love this, so I'm sure I'll be back with blogging...

Friendstertalk..? Nothing... I'm just "so in to" the forum... O.o... Don't get it...? Me too.. lolz... Annoyed...? Maybe.. with those EPALs... amfufu... Can't you just shut up if you only have 0.0000000000000001% information in your small brain that is sitting inside your big head...? O.o... Whatever..

Review..? I'm excited with the review. It's just that, I can't study without a dermatograph pencil.. waahh.. I need to look for one... And only green will work for me...

Alright guys.. Hiatus mode... I need to be serious now.. For real.. lolz.. I'm not expecting you to constantly drop by in my page.. But can you please visit me 1year after reading this post...? Im sure, there will be updates at that time.. And I hope the new webshit will be opened at that time.. lolz... I'll mish you all...

BEST REGARDS FROM:

• Random Thoughts
• Paradigm

Your American Idol Season 7!

David Cook wins... ! Oooopps.. I know.. I'm late... It's not a hot news anymore... But dang it... I'm just so hooked up with this... I didn't watch the whole show coz I had to work on that night.. What I did was, go to my patient's room and watch the show in there... But it's impossible for me to watch the whole show.. And I'm straight nights duty so I didn't have time to surf YouTube.. Just now.. and just now.. straight from work, didn't sleep yet...
Did you watched the show..? Who was your bet...? Well, I'm not an American Idol fanatic, but I was just curious how these Davids sing... Well, here's my comments... OOOoooOppps.. I said MY comments...

• In terms of LOOKS

Cook just got the looks... He's a chick Magnet... Ruggedly handsome...  Brad Pitt style that you think will really rock your bed.. lolz... He is a Hottie Heartthrob.  He's got the charisma.. Am I saying Archie is not a good-looking guy...? Well, Archie has this Disney's appeal that can be compared to the Jonas Brothers. His cute, charming smile won the heart of teens and even the grannies of the younger ones... He is such a sweetheart...

• Crowd Control

Isn't it obvious...? Cook is one hell of a performer... He had been on many stage shows in his life.. A member of Axium Band, and still pursued his singing career even the band broke up..  And have you been on a Band concerts or Battle of the Bands.. Do you what they you usually do there..? You are retarded if won't join the jam.. Archie...? Dang it.. He just always do "Arigatou". A simple bow and a thankyou... He always stammer.. We can't blame him.. Looks like this 17 y.o. blooming sweetheart is starting shy.. He'll get over it.. lolz...

• Choice of Songs

Obviously, you have to pick a song that will match your voice.. Archie's songs are ballad.. A song everyone can listen.. Songs that will not only linger in your minds, but can also be carved in your hearts.. lolz.. what a word.. But as what Simon said, Archie always get down every time he changes the genre of the music.. Cook...? He can sing a variety of genre... That's what make him a great singer...

• Voice Quality

A whole lot different between these two Davids.. Ballad and Rock... Archie's voice is great one.. It's amazing... He can really sing.. His voice is a clear one, can hit high notes, though sometimes he has off keys.. And he is still 17.. Hello...? He's voice is still young.. I'm pretty sure it'll be more developed while he's growing up.. Cook...? I think his voice is the choice of the present generation and present music of the times... Its just different... Too much effort in controlling voice and breath.. Bon Jovi quality style.. A masculine, husky, rock quality type of voice.. It's a great voice too...

• My Comment..?

I always know it'll be Cook that will win.. Archie is purely talent... Cook...? Talent plus experience made him get the title.... But dang it.. I love Archie's voice and songs... :(  I'm  no rocker...  though I love alternatives and light rock, but ballad songs just never gets old... coz they are always old... lolz.. And does Cook really need to look dirty..? I mean rugged.. lolz... That's why I prefer Keanu Reeves than Brad Pitt... lolz.. so farout... Well, Cook is not bad.. His appeal is an "Idol material" which reall fits the title.. He is a hottie  for sure.. But I'm sure, if Archie can't sing rock, Cook will sound aweful horrible in ballad.. lolz...

Archie can really sing.. He is such a talent.. But Cook's mature performance, husky voice, plus sexy look just knocked out Archie.... He is such a performer... I think Cook gave his best on the finals... Archie...? I know he can do more than what he did....

By the way, here are my fave songs of the two Davids... Dream Big for Cook and In this Moment for Archie:

Realms Of Possibility

New post again after my very long vacation in blogging... (looks like I'm on vacation all the time).. My laziness is really getting worse... By the way, just wanna share something to you.. I got it from my "Spirit of Caregiving" class...

When you come across the word Possibility, what comes in your mind? Do you have unfulfilled dreams...? Broken hearts...? Unmend relationships...? And how long do you plan to stay in that pit..? It couldn't be forever... Your life is not stagnant. You have to keep on moving. And you will never exeperience relief until you won't let go of the burden that you've been carrying...

• Hakuna Matata

"It means no worries, for the rest of your days.. It's a problem free... Philosophy... Hakuna Matata..." Quoted from the very famous Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa' s Hakuna Matata. Such way of life looks very tempting. You don't have to worry about tomorrow or think about your past. All you have to do is live what is in the present. Living a simple life. But do you think they have future..? Of course, they have future.. But what kind of tomorrow..? Where is thier direction...? One day you will wake up in the streets, without food nor water. Can you still smile and say "Hakuna Matata" for that...? Taking responsibilities in life is one of the most difficult tasks to do. But you are responsible for your own life. You are the master of your destiny. You are accountable for every actions and decisions that you will made. It is your choice: whether to be successful or stagnant!

• Living in your past!

Are you living in your yesterdays..? One barrier to success is being stucked at the past. You can't move on from your bleeding past. May I ask you something.. Does past exist..? Exist means you can hold it and touch it... But can embrace the past..? A big NO for that. Therefore, past does not exist. It did, but it does not. Where are you headed in your life..? Are you taking steps forward or backwards..? You can never change your past. It'll take time to heal wounds. But it won't heal of you won't take care of it. It won't heal, if you yourself is preventing it from healing. There are just moments in our life that we need to accept, let go and start a new beginning.

• Lay your cards!

Set a goal! And don't forget the time and location set for your goal. Plan and work for it. Make it as your possibility. And made it possible.

• Play the Game!

Do you ever wonder why the backrow sits always get filled first than the front rows..?  Any reasons...? hmn.. Coz you can see everyone. You can talk about their acts huh..? Or is it because it is near the exit..? For emergency reasons ayt..? lolz to that... Let us put this way, when you go to a ballgame of your fave team, or concert of your fave band/singer, where do you wanna sit..? Do you wanna sit at the back..? Of course not! You wanna sit at the front and what..? When you sit at the back, you only come to watch and not to participate. Be the lead of your life. Take the lead in pursuing your dreams and goals.

• Failures

It is always part of our lives. Don't count the number of fall you have, istead count the number of times you got up from your downfalls. Learn from it rather than being stucked with it.

Keep moving. Time is in constant changed. And your life depends on how you manage your time. Set up your goals and start reaching it.  Leave your past and learn from it. Think positive and get inspired! Make a possibility in your life, and made it possible. Fulfill your dreams and keep on sailing..

Blog Tips!

I'm not a pro-blogger, and I'm not that expert in web designing, but as I've been staying on this community, I've learned something and bumped up at few problems...

• Flashy layout

What..? Yup! Flashy! Putting animated images can attract viewers, but please don't make it as the main image of your layout. That was one of my mistakes. I used animated polkadots on my previous layout, and one reader left a message in the tagboard that the background is givingn her a headache. And don't flood your blog with lots of animated stuffs, especially in the banner.

• Container Background:

What I mean is the background image where your entries are written. If you can't make it to plain (no texture or brushes on it), please make the textures/brushes lighter to make your entries readable.

• Fonts

Can you read the fonts that I'm using now...? I bet you can't.. lolz... It's grey, not black; and its 10px.  What I don't like is using sTickYcaPs and ALLCAPS! It's hard to read it. And please use readable fonts like Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, Century Gothic, Tahoma, Comic Sans will do. But the Tempus sans ITC..? I'm not sure with you guys, but I can't read a paragraph written in Tempus Sans. And please dont use Script styles in your entries. And write in correct spelling..

• Colors

Practice uniformity in colors of your layouts. Well, at most have three colors as main theme.

• Navigation

If you have tons of navigation links in your site, please organize it. Especially those who are using mapped layouts. If you have a big site, it is recommended that you have to put sitemap in your site.

• Music

Arggghhh.. Please don't hide the controls for your music box, and just leaving the music alone. There are few  people, like me, who leave their speakers ON. So eventually, when a new playlist is open on the other window, we have to choose what music are we gonna listen to.. What if we don't like your music...? And we want to turn your music OFF..? What are we gonna do if you set the height and width of your playlist to 0px? Basically, others will just turn off the speakers, OR will just leave your site.

• Links

Please organize your friend links. In short, make it as close to uniform and put it in alphabetical manner. I just hate it when it's not alphabetical.

• Pop-ups

If you are using advertisements, it's fine. But too much pop-ups...? It'll make your site down. It's just so disgusting.

• Marquees

I don't have a problem with marquees as long as: The speed is not over fast and it stops on hover...

• Advertisement/Directory Banners

I know it'll promote your site, but please organize your ads. If possible, put them in uniform size, in a particular place, and in good spacing. Alignment and presentation of your ads must look neat if possible.

• Page Loading

Wahhh.. It should be dial-up friendly. Don't make your images too big in size. If you are using map layouts, please slice your images. And Optimize any big size images.

• Message Alerts

I'm annoyed with it. The welcome and goodbye alerts. Why..? They keep on alerting me everytime I click a post, category, archives, and comments. It's so annoying!

• Rip and Steal alerts

Especially on welcome and right click alerts, please don't put these words : "RIPPERS, STEAL, COPYCAT".. It's kinda insulting for those who doesn't intend to do those things.

• Trackers

Trackers look cool.. Especially when you see your visitors name in there.. But trust me, it'll decrease page views. If you have visible tracker it'll be more cool if it will record unique visits. For me, hiding your tracker is better. Trust me, I have tons of tracker in this blog.. *kiddin*... (my other blog has visible tracker.. :D )

• Whole Layout

I don't know what you want, but I want neat ones. Scrap layouts are cool, but sometimes it makes my eyes bleed. For me, everthing rely on the banner. Make your banner as attractive as you can, then leave the body simple and neat as you can. And I don't care how your banner looks messy, just don't make the body messy. Don't make your blog layout same with the ones in socializing networks. It's completely different! Coz socializing networks doesn't have that much content to be read than in blogs.

• You Comment, I follow!

What type of blogger are you..? Are you one of those "thick faces" who keep on asking and begging for comments, and didn't even drop a comment in the blogger that they asked too...? That is one of the things I really hate. Well, commenting back is really not expected. BUT!!!! If you asked for it, can you, at least drop a short comment in the blogger that you asked..? Let us just practice blogging etiquettes here..

That's all for now. You can add and react if you want to. Just don't tell me to change the size of my font. Happy blogging!

IE or FF..?

I really dont have much problem in IE, since I'm using IE7 and my speed is fast, it's just that, sometimes my browser hanged if I open too many tabs. Well, I think my pc is obsolete.. hehehe.. Anyway, I have FF and IE now. But I don't think so I'll shift to FF 100%. for some reasons, I just don't feel using FF all the time... Why..? The font is different, I almost can't read it. And all my layouts sucks in FF.. Sometimes I have two scrollbars. Well, I'm not a great coder, so I don't know how to fix it in FF. That's all I don't like in FF: The layout and the fonts looks horrible..  One thing, FF can't have colored scrollbars.. I don't like it!

But on the other side, FF loads page faster than IE. It has this restore thing, and when I do blog hopping, especially sending tags..? FF is the best... I don't have to type all the words again. It also has this spelling check.. Great isn't it, especially writing articles and formal stuffs.

Tab browsing..? Tab browsing is one of the best feature in FF, but I really don't have any problem with that in IE, since IE7 has tab browsing already.

Anyway, how about you..? IE or FF..? wanna share why you love to use that browser..? For me, I'm using the two browsers, but most of the time..? I used IE.. coz its not hurting my eyes..

Sayonara!

Yeah.. As what the title says.. Im leaving.. Maybe just temporarily only.. I may can still update my blogs but I already decided to be inactive in Friendstertalk. It had been awhile since I joined the forum, and leaving is so hard coz it had been a part of my life already. Though I might have only few friends, but I really met true friends even online only...

Why of all..? Why leave Ftalk..? For some reasons... Since I joined this forum, I have never been productive in my life coz all I do is sit in front of the pc, tweak my friendster, learn html, tweak my blog, and make blog layies. Yeah.. That forum is kinda addicting.. Why..? coz it is really fun in there... And you will learn almost everything.. from graphics to html.. and you will have friends there...

Why am I leaving...? I have priorities in life. I don't wanna reach my next bday unlicensed... I can feel now that I'm losing all my knowledge that I learn in college... argghh.. It's a bad sign... I can only explain simple process of diseases like DM and HPN.. but nothing more than that.. And it is really frustrating me.

What am I gonna do now...? Withdraw myself from the pc, and try to make a time budget. My online time is only for messages with my friends, and maybe update post in my blog.. lolz.. I need a break.. Not read always... but why not visit Ftalk..? coz its my weakness.. I have to pass my application at BON at California, and starts to review to be prepared for the exam... Yes and Oh Yes! Im determined to pass NCLEX in just one try. And my mind is now set to review and be prepared for the exam...

I'll ask for your prayers guyz.. and not luck...

To all Ftalkers:I will surely miss you... Please don't forget me. I'll always treasure my memories with you.. I'll be back, it might take a long time, but for sure I'll be back..

(Image credit to Joebz)

Bb. Plipinas, Ms. World!

We don't have TFC in here, so I didn't see the Bb. Pilipinas.. Gossh.. I'm so late with the gossips.. I just bumped this video at a forum..

What can you say about Bb. Pilipinas, Ms. World....?.

Question: What role did your family play with you as candidate to Bb. Pilipinas?

Answer: (I spell it the way I hear it)

"Well, my family's role for me is so important.

Because, der was da... dey r , dey was da one..

whose'... very... haha... Oh I'm so sorry...

Ahm.. My Pamily.. My family... Oh my God...

Im.. ok.. Im so sorry.. I told you that I'm so confident...

eto.. ahmn.. wait... "ahahha..." ahmn..

Sorry guys because this was really my pirst pageant ever...

Because.. I'm only 17 yo..  and.. ahh..

I did not expect that I came from,

I came from one of the taf ten.. So.. But I said dat..

My family is the most important persons in my life.. ty.."

My comment: We all can see how she answer the question right..?

Grammar and pronuounciation problems and she used tagalog...

But my question is, Why did she win....?

I mean, not the way she answered, but the "answer" itself...

Did she able to answer the question...? I really don't get it... She should have said a reason why her family is important to her... I really don't get why she won... The answer is so blank... argh.. Maybe the audience impact is 90% and 10% for poise...

Did she say she's confident...? It doesn't look like it.. It seems that she has a mental block at that time...

Janina's message to her critics:

My comment: She's 17 and she'll learn more as what she have said... She must practice her grammar and try to smoothen her tongue when speaking english.. She must enroll in speech classes... She needs to listen on talking dictionaries and try to read and practice dictionaries with APA... And she needs to review the use of verbs, present tense and past tense.. verbs to use in plural and sigular... such as these "was, were, came, to".. I meanBut if she think she can express herself in tagalog, she should bring an interpreter with her on the upcoming Ms. World event... lolz.. yaay.. Do you want to see Ms. Phil speaking filipino language on Ms. World...? Using english is a plus point..

In fairness to her, she's pretty and funny.... I heart her height... And she has the guts to face the cameras... Goodluck to her and happy practicing... I wanna watch her on Ms. World... lolz...

We don't have TFC in here, so I didn't see the Bb. Pilipinas.. Gossh.. I'm so late with the gossips.. I just bumped this video at a forum..

What can you say about Bb. Pilipinas, Ms. World....?.

Question: What role did your family play with you as candidate to Bb. Pilipinas?

Answer: (I spell it the way I hear it)

"Well, my family's role for me is so important.

Because, der was da... dey r , dey was da one..

whose'... very... haha... Oh I'm so sorry...

Ahm.. My Pamily.. My family... Oh my God...

Im.. ok.. Im so sorry.. I told you that I'm so confident...

eto.. ahmn.. wait... "ahahha..." ahmn..

Sorry guys because this was really my pirst pageant ever...

Because.. I'm only 17 yo..  and.. ahh..

I did not expect that I came from,

I came from one of the taf ten.. So.. But I said dat..

My family is the most important persons in my life.. ty.."

My comment: We all can see how she answer the question right..?

Grammar and pronuounciation problems and she used tagalog...

But my question is, Why did she win....?

I mean, not the way she answered, but the "answer" itself...

Did she able to answer the question...? I really don't get it... She should have said a reason why her family is important to her... I really don't get why she won... The answer is so blank... argh.. Maybe the audience impact is 90% and 10% for poise...

Did she say she's confident...? It doesn't look like it.. It seems that she has a mental block at that time...

Janina's message to her critics:

My comment: She's 17 and she'll learn more as what she have said... She must practice her grammar and try to smoothen her tongue when speaking english.. She must enroll in speech classes... She needs to listen on talking dictionaries and try to read and practice dictionaries with APA... And she needs to review the use of verbs, present tense and past tense.. verbs to use in plural and sigular... such as these "was, were, came, to".. I meanBut if she think she can express herself in tagalog, she should bring an interpreter with her on the upcoming Ms. World event... lolz.. yaay.. Do you want to see Ms. Phil speaking filipino language on Ms. World...? Using english is a plus point..

In fairness to her, she's pretty and funny.... I heart her height... And she has the guts to face the cameras... Goodluck to her and happy practicing... I wanna watch her on Ms. World... lolz...

Dreamer!

I just don't go to sleep coz' I'm tired, I go to  sleep coz' I am really excited with my dreams. I know this sounds really funny but I'm a dreamer; whether I'm sleeping or not... But have you ever wonder what is the meaning of your dream...? There is no absolute interpretation of dreams, but theories have been proposed throughout the history.

SIGMUND FREUD: Do u know him..? the Maniac Thoerist.... lolz... He believed that nothing we did occured by chance; every action and thought is motivated by our unconscious at some level; he described dreams as the "royal road" to unconsciousness.

• Wish fulfillment. Sometimes, we tend to repress our urges and impulses but this thoery stated that our repressed thoughts have their own way of revealing in a disguise form.

ALFRED ADLER: views dreams as an open pathway toward aour true thoughts, emtions, and actions; way of overcompensating for your shortcomings.

• The will to power. The main driving force in our life was to overcome our insecurities, inferiorities, and imperfections; the desire for power is wat drives each person. Dreams are way of addressing our insecurities.

CARL GUSTAV JUNG: Dreams were a way to reveal and acquiant ourselves with the unconscious; dreams served as a guide in a waking life.

• Archetypal associations. Using powerful symbols related to mythology and religion.

FREDRICK PERS: Believed that dreams contain the rejected, disowned parts of the self.

• Gestalt Approach. Every character and every object in a dream represents an aspect of yourself.

Now, with these thoeries, can u try to analyze your own dream..? For example:

• CASE # 1: You just hate this person so much, then suddenly he appeared in your dream one night. It's not a bad dream after all, coz you just visioned him kissing you...

     Is that really impossible...? Is it a dream or a nightmare...? That maybe really exaggerated but oftentimes it really happened. We just don't know why. Why of all people, it's him that you've dreamed of... You even end up cursing yourself. Or you have recurring dreams with your ex-partner.

     Well, can you call it "wish fulfillment"..? Bottomline: you have hidden desires... lolz..

• CASE # 2: You just found yourself one afternoon with teary eyes coz' your boss just whine at you. And since he's the boss, you can't utter a word to defend yourself. Then in your dream, you lash out your anger at your boss.
• CASE # 3: Falling dreams

To compensate with inferiority complex, one may use superiority complex. He will cover his inferiorities by pretending that he is superior that may occur in your dream. As Adler's theory, the will to power drives each person. As per falling dreams, it may indicate fear of failures whether in school, work, or in relationship.

• CASE # 4: You dreamed of serpent, bird, rat, and etc.

     Who was the theorist that proposed archetypal associations..? You're right.. It's Jung! Snake may indicate a power and deception; bird may indicate freedom; and rat may indicate feelings of doubt, fear, and envy.

     These are only theories. These are not facts. After reading interpretation and analysis of dreams, can you say that you can rely on it...? I even have weird dreams. I dreamn't of persons the least I expected to see, but can I say it's wish fulfillment? If you pay too much attention with your dream, it'll be either you will know yourself more or you will have a psychological trauma. Know yourself more in a way that you try to interprete your dreams and associate it with your life; you tried to accept the meaning of if no matter how it's hard for you to do so... And psychological trauma in a way that you interprete your dreams and it caused emotional disturbances to you; you tried to reject the interpretation, and internalize deeply the effect of the meaning. Well, I really don't care about what my dream means. I'm just excited with my dreams..

Reference: Here Be Dreams, MeaningOfDreams.Net

Links Around The World Tag & My New Home

Guyz... I'm having an Open House... Please visit my other Home. It talks about Philosophy and Religion. To my linkees, please add my New Home in your links and leave a message that you linked it already, then I'll add your link too in my new home... See you there! thannx..

This is the first tag that I posted in my blog as an entry. I am not really posting tags as blog entry, but since this the purpose of this tag is to tag links and building our community, I'll post it here to be fair with my fellow bloggers.

I've got tagged by Mommy Liz.. Here it goes:

Let us all help each other out by doing each and everyone a little favor… Building our Technorati ranks and probably our Google page rank! How? By doing this tag!

I am making this not only to build up my own blog, but of course, to build up yours as well! So tag along, and lend us your helping hands.

Disclosure: The image is from moreforkids.info

^_^ Start copying from here: ^_^

These are the Links Around The World Tag.

Instruction:
1. Place your link after the list. If you have more than 1 blog, feel free to add them all here!
2. After placing your blog’s address/es, you must tag 5 or more bloggers that is not yet in the list, this is to keep the ball rolling.
3. Here is the best part: Make sure to update your list every now and then, by getting the master list here. I’ll be updating the master list every day, or as soon as I see a new blog that’s been added to the list. ^_^

Links around the world tag
1. Momhood Moments 2. Business Mars 3. A Simple life 4. moms….. check nyo 5. Mommy’s Little Corner 6. Random Thoughts 7.Paradigm 8. See Me For What You Will 9. - Pamp's Blog Corner 10 - Pampered 11 - HappyHeart 12 - Qtcotzkie and Baby 13 -tragicseven 14 - Listen to the Beat! 15 -Twinkletoe I 16 - Twinkletoe II 17 - Kaye's Side 18 - out of the box 19 - Just Saying 20 - Tipsy Tips 21 - Different Angles 22 - Delicious Corner 23 - I Care 24 - Blog Blag Blog 25 - Daily List 26 - Life's Journey 27 -Cecil 28 -Ron & Cecil 29 - Frenchcess 30 -Trendy Momma 31 - Cherish 32 -Dha Maldita 33- Lovin’ Purple 34 - The Notebook 35 - Saranghaeyo 36 - Welcome to my Crib 37 - Hearts Desire 38 - Island Paradise 39 - Texas Life 40 - Long Journey 41 - D' Cooking Mudra 42- My life 43- Swept Away 44 - Winged Words 45 - Rainier and Katrina 46 - Life! Learn it. Live it. Love it. 47- Colour Our World 48 - pinkykei                              ^_^ End copying here ^_^

Tagging: Rose, Denzyl, Fei, Kei, Ashik, Navin, ChaLyza, Faith, Marc, Venu, Apple, Bunso, Twinkletoe, I Love Philippines Too, Anino, King, and Jemar...

Our Arab Brothers

I got bored while waiting for my mom and bro at the hospital's lobby. The only available printed material is Newsweek. I don't read Newsweek! but I have no choice but to read it than sleep in the lobby. As usual, the topics are all about "War in Iraq". But an article really caught my attention.. It's all about Iraqi kids.. Since I can't bring the magazine here at home, I surf the net to get some statistics and for reference.

     Since the September 11 attack, terrorism issues flood the news and media. But did Iraq's war started only at that point..? War in Iraq is not only with other countries but  she is also suffering from the "inside war". It's between the Shiites (SHE-ites) and the Sunnis (SOO-knees). Not so familiar with it? I'll give you an overview and a brief history about it.

• Division of Islam/Origin of Sects

     Islam, one of the three major world religions, along with Judaism and Christianity, that profess monotheism, or belief in a single God. Around 600 A.D., Muhammad, the founding prohet of Islam began preaching the religion. Throughout the lifetime of Muhammad and few years afterwards, the religion stayed united in one faith.

     When Muhammad died at 632 A.D., the question "Who will be the successor?" arose. A small group of the community believed that the successor must be in the blood line of the deceased prophet and voted for Ali, who married Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter. Meanwhile, many arabs believed that the successor must be chosen by the elite society to lead the community. And this caused the splitting of the religion around 650 A.D. into two sects: Shiites and Sunnis. 

     Eventually, Ali was chosen as a Caliph but not before the violent war broke up. In 661 A.D., war errupted and Ali was killed in Iraq. Since that day, the war between the sects started: with the Shiites as the followers of Ali, and the Sunnis as the followers of Umayyad Mu'awiya who became a Caliph after Ali's death. And the rest is history...

• Countries in Crisis

     Not only Iraq, but the neighboring arab countries are suffering from the effects of war. Thier economic status is deteriorating. Same also with the education status of these countries.

     The school survey, released by the Iraq Ministry of Education, shows that one-third of all primary schools in Iraq lack any water supply and almost half are without any sanitation facilities. The school survey, released by the Iraq Ministry of Education, shows that one-third of all primary schools in Iraq lack any water supply and almost half are without any sanitation facilities. Another survey states that since March 2003, over 700 primary schools had been damaged by bombing – a third of those in Baghdad – with more than 200 burned and over 3,000 looted.

• Trauma for Iraqi children

     UsaToday released that in Baghdad— About 70% of primary school students in a Baghdad neighborhood suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress such as bed-wetting or stuttering, according to a survey by the Iraqi Ministry of Health. While these children are on their way to school, they can see corpse in the road sometimes they can even see thier relatives along with the dead bodies. Many of the children claimed that they witness a relative being shot. A five year old Hussain Haider stop speaking after seeing his father bleeding to death. Another 16 year old lad saw his bestfriend's dead body beheaded. He said that he puke upon seeing it, but along with it, swore revenge for his friend. Kidnappings and sectarian murder is very common in Iraq. Every mom has to watch their children and their neighbor's kids. Updating each other about the current state of their place.

     The population of young fighters in Iraq is now growing. At a very young age, these children know how to hold and use the gun not because they were forced by someone, but because they want to. They grew up seeing all gunshooting and sectarian murders. And with Jihad as one of their beliefs, you can't trace fear in their faces.

     Will this conflict in Middle East cease..? Will they ever attain peace...? A question that raises HOPE within us. The two Muslim sects can never be reunited. Conflict between arab countries and the West seems eternal. With this promise I doubt it:

Genesis 16:11 & 12----And the angel of the Lord said  unto her (Hagar), Behold, thou art with child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ish'ma-el; because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him: and he shall dwell in the presence of all his bretheren.

Sources: UsaToday.com, HistoryForKids.org, Encarta.Msn.com, NPR.org, Unicef.org

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