Quo vadis?

There is far too much violence in the world today. Each day we read in the news of massacres, murders committed during robberies, random shootings into crowds, deliberate mowing down of pedestrians and bullying perpetrated by students, which more often than not, ended in the death of the victims.

Two recent cases of fatal bullying within one month, led to an outpouring of grief and anger. The bullies have been arrested and are now facing murder charges which carry the mandatory death penalty. These bullies are teenagers and also in the twenty something age group.

Why is there so much anger and venomous hatred? The two victims were their schoolmates/university mates and were known to be non-aggressive and well-liked by their friends.

Why did the bullies pick on the vulnerable to beat and torture them to the extent that it could only lead to death? It has been opined that herd mentality drives the bullies to be more vicious and to revel in their power over the hapless victim.  It could be the sadistic and cruel streak that surfaces when they see their victim writhing in agony. 

Brutality seems to be the order of the day. Road rage, abusive adults who abuse their young charges mercilessly and beat them to death. Whatever is the world coming to? 

Have we come to the End Days? Where are we going? Will we be like the lemmings?

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A Toast To My Friends Whom I Value Dearly

From right, Nary, Faridah, Datuk Josie & I used to golf together

Two years ago, I wrote about the importance of having friends and keeping them in our lives. Friendships nurture us in many ways and contribute to our well-being.

My former Brinsford colleagues celebrate my 72nd birthday

Roslyn (center) from Australia visited in 2010. Nest to her is Grace Gan, a former colleague

With some of my class of '59 classmates in Kuala Lumpur

Some friends come and go, depending on the stage of life we’re at. Sometimes we outgrow the friendships that we have, sometimes we fall out and never get back together again, sometimes we lose friends because of death.

Celebrating Nary's birthday last year

Lunching at Mother India with Dr. Shelley

 While these are happening, we also make new friends.  New people come into our lives, whether at work, or through social networking or even through social media. So, we may have many Facebook friends. We see them only on Facebook as they are from different parts of the world and it is highly unlikely that we will meet in person.

Some of these friends are Joo Randal, Bobby Brooks, Stacey Adam, Darrel Tenter, Scott Allan, Ndeye Labadens, Gregory EK Goh,  Mimi Emmanuel, Gertrude Tai and many more.

My spouse standing next to Andrew, a good friend & my classmate Siew Khim

Despite the distance and different time zones, it is possible to build friendships with people we don’t know as Facebook brings many people together. Some of my former students whom I taught in the early ‘70s managed to locate me through FB and we had a great reunion in 2015 as they had returned from far flung places across the globe. 

With Former La Sallian Students of early '70s

 I would like to share pictures of my friends, former colleagues and former students here.

With Julia (standing) a former student who became Principal of La Salle School & Su Cheng

With my sister Doris & friends who paid a courtesy call to our past SWEPA president who is now the President of the Malaysia Friendship And trade Center Taipeh

With Datuk Adeline Leong, President of the Malaysia Friendship And Trade Center Taipeh

With some of my class '59 classmates in Kuala Lumpur

With Faridah & Jude

On the Left is Prof. Danny Wong, my former student from La Salle

Jennifer, Myself & Datin Yu Ling, former colleagues at La Salle

With Datin Yu Ling & Datin Carol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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