“The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts”.
Rene Descartes
Perhaps you may have heard about a 12-year-old girl on Twitter who is battling stage 4 cancer and looking for 100,000 followers by the end of this year?
Many people have pressed the follow button to become followers of this little girl. Now she has already amassed more than 112,000 followers, including attention-seeking celebrities expressing themselves with tweets of a “How wonderful it is to be part of this” nature.
As for me, it brought certain questions to mind: “Are they sincere?” “Are they doing this to make the poor girl feel better OR to make themselves feel better?” When it comes to celebrities, most issues are related to publicity. Public image. Although there are a small number of celebrities who have made generous donations to worthy causes, would the majority ever think of sharing a small amount of their millions to help this girl to get the best treatment? We all know the answer to that one.
It would, no doubt, be hard to make a 12-year-old understand that collecting 100,000 followers is not, in essence, a true achievement or indication of support. It does not bring actual benefit to have 100,000 virtual people on her followers’ list. They would not be there, in the flesh, if she wanted their help. It is immensely tragic that she may believe by having so many Twitter followers it makes her feel loved or cared for.
I would not follow her because I do not want to deceive her or myself. I live so far away from her and I believe no amount of tweets in the world would benefit her. All I can do is pray for her to get better and stronger, both physically and emotionally.
It is painful to see celebrities seeking publicity through other people’s suffering, whatever justifications they may deceive themselves and other with. From her photo, the girl looks happy and that is wonderful. But that manifestation of happiness brings about a sad realisation: would those 112,000 followers (many of them appear to be adults) have followed her if she had been well?
I sincerely hope her family, friends and those who are close spend as much time as possible to her give her all the love, care and support she needs to warm her little heart. May God remove her from this plight by curing her and giving her a bright future ahead. 🙂
The famous detective character created by Agatha Christie is no ordinary man. Unlike other fictional characters, his methods of using ‘the little grey cells’ can be applied outside the world of television. Perhaps not to solve a murder case, mon ami, but just to reflect on the stage called life.
Let us for a moment utilise his way of thinking:
1. Doubt
Never believe what you see until you’ve had time to study it. A situation may occur in such a way to confuse or mislead you. Some people want you to see things the way they decide them to be.
2. Observe
Take time to observe, not from one angle, but many.
3. Details
People make mistakes. Look for details left unnoticed or overlooked before they disappear.
4. Stay in the Middle
Listen to everyone. Hear what they have to say. Don’t be biased, but don’t forget, sometimes the culprit acts the victim.
5. Reflect Upon the Order of Events
Be meticulous in reflecting upon the order of events and clues. And watch the truth unfold before you. Voila!
Hercule Poirot may indeed just be a fictional character with an extraordinary manner of thinking. But if you look beyond his inflated ego, his ability to discover things unnoticed by most is outstanding.
“You have the mistaken idea implanted in your head that a detective is necessarily a man who puts on a false beard and hides behind a pillar! The false beard, it is vieux jeu, and shadowing is only done by the lowest branch of my profession. The Hercule Poirot, my friend, need only to sit back in a chair and think.” – Hercule Poirot.
One of beautiful things we have here, apart from the river and the jungle at the back of the house, is a stable with eight horses. They are always out for a trot in the morning and the afternoon. My daughter always asks me to take her to the stable to see a foal there 🙂
To most people it is only a stable, a place to keep horses, but they do not know the story behind it.
The stable owner told us that these horses used to be race horses. He brought them here to be saved from being put down.
I never knew before that is what awaits race horses after their racing days. It is truly heartbreaking. Just because they have outlived their usefulness they are considered ‘worthless’? How much does mankind owe these lovely creatures, from being forced to take part in their wars in the past, to transportation, to helping them in the fields…
Horses used to be depicted as noble creatures in paintings and poetry. Time passes by and horses have now been reduced by certain people motivated by greed into money-making machines. How ungrateful can they be?
It is always good to see kindness. It radiates around and bathes you in it. It is wonderful to see those horses no longer used as tools for gambling, but being taken care of by people who love them. I really hope there will be more places like this in future so that race horses can live out their days happy and contented. They may not race anymore, but one thing is for sure: they never fail to make children smile!
[Stalker : a person who closely follows and watches another person for a long period of time in a way that is threatening, dangerous, etc.]
Those who like reading other people’s profile pages please stand up. Yes, you.
TelI me something: if you pass someone’s house and they display a board of diary of themselves on the wall would it be wrong to read it? Would it be considered as nosing around? Or stalking?
In a place where you are visible to millions would you scream for privacy? Where you volunteer information about yourself and the things you do. Constant updates from waking up late in the morning to a spoilt dinner.
You stumble across a page, either your friend’s or a stranger’s. You read it. It says everything the owner of the page wants you to know about them. They put pictures with details, where and when they were taken (sometimes why as well).
Knowing what exactly that you crave is essential, as it would put you on the right spot that you deserve. If you crave attention, then go online, post your pictures, let everybody in as your ‘friends’ (on Facebook, this is) and try not to complain of being ‘stalked’ by other internet users – for accessing the information that you yourself flaunt in front of their eyes.
But if you crave privacy and want to be known at the same time, it would be brilliant to put less information and no pictures. And don’t forget the padlock too. Sorry to disappoint you to the fact that you are somehow still floating on the cyber world. You are not invisible.
It just dawned on me why people used to write a message in a bottle. Without a doubt it is the best way to tell the world what you want to say without being known by anyone. But why waste bottles if we can blog? Those who are ultra-sensitive would find a cave to be a palace of privacy for them. And when the urge to send updates about their lives comes, they can write them down and put them in a bottle, and send it to the recycling centre.
See the hypocrisy in it: The term ‘stalker’ only refers to people disliked by the page owner, while people they like or even strangers are merely ‘visitors’. Readers don’t necessarily stalk. Don’t be so quick to judge people, not everybody has ill intention towards you.
For a while I thought I hated Instagram but now I realise I’m just neutral about it. I wouldn’t blame its users either. Yes they are responsible for flooding social media with pictures of blurry coffee cups or awfully bright skateboards but they are just Instagram users.
I can see why it is hated though. Just like other people I am fed up of being dished out by pictures of coffee cups, doughnuts, flowers, all Instagrammed. Food will look like food. And flowers will always look like flowers.
On the other hand, Instagram users call ordinary pictures ‘boring’ because they look just as real, no imagination added. Perhaps the right word should be ‘normal’. Take a look at pictures taken by photographers, they are just amazing, NOT boring.
It is silly of them to call themselves ‘Instagram photographers’ really. But somehow it is understandable, when it comes from teenagers. Teenagers are children trapped in adults’ bodies; so if they see life though Instagram filters, let them be.
After all Instagram shouldn’t get all the blame for the unusual pictures. There are applications like PicYou,Streamzoo and so many others that offer retro effects. It is nice to add filters to our pictures now and again, I admit. But I suppose we are finally bored to see everything looks the same, tinted or blurred.
Growing up in the 80s when TV was full of interesting programmes like Voyagers! made my childhood full of dreams of time travel. My classmates and I used to dream of going back in time to take some pictures of Batavia (old name for Jakarta) and famous people in history.
I read theories written by Stephen Hawking but from what I understood he didn’t know what he was talking about. There is a book written by a Trinidadian that claims there are layers of time, using the story of Sleepers of the Cave as an example. They were preserved for a very long time because they were put in another dimension – which can only be made possible by God.
I can think of two places to go if it were possible. Places where my ancestors came from: Indonesia and Netherlands. I don’t fancy the thought of going back earlier than the 15th century though. And starting from the 16th century Indonesia was under Dutch occupation for 350 years. No thank you. As for Netherlands, the thought of winter in the old days frightens me.
So here I am. Time travel is not that exciting after all. There is no point running away from the present if it means struggling in the past. Just imagine the world back then, how clean and unpolluted the earth must have been. The beauty that we long for – seemingly preserved in history – is something that keeps deteriorating as we move along.
The trees, rivers and mountains will always be the same as they are portrayed in natural history books or story books if they aren’t decimated, that is. Sad but true, it is people that change the world, although in some ways it is still the same as it was hundreds or thousands of years ago. From those who called themselves ‘divine’ to the ones in suits and ties – it is just one oppressor after another.
Escapism is self-deception in my opinion. The world keeps moving and it drags us along with its problems, whether we like it or not. One nice thing about internet is we can share our thoughts and ideas with others, as well cheer each other up 😀 . Blogging is one form of therapeutic ‘treatment’ for everybody and it is FREE.