Okay, I know some of you will be wondering where is the video blog or vlog that I promised I'd be doing. This is the 100th blog post on Thoughts and Views That Matter! A milestone to be remembered and cherished in my blogging journey! I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all my FABULOUS READERS who have been following my posts. Special thanks to a few FANTABULOUS readers who never fail to follow each and every post I write. I truly appreciate your feedback and I would like to thank everyone who has nominated me for blog awards and interviewed me on their blog! It is such an honour to be interviewed by bloggers and to be given a place to shine in spotlight for a while! Special thanks to The Glipho team as well for interviewing me for their Meet A Glipher project! That made me go WOW!
Why is this a special edition blog post? Is it just because it's the 100th blog post? NO! It is supposed to be even merrier with my video blog but really, right now, I look freaking terrible so I would keep that for upcoming posts! (I will do it). Today is the day I stepped into my working life! Friday, 15th November 2013. What have I learned today?
I am a Chemical Engineering graduate and I live in the world where everyone(every graduate) fights for a job that is said to be the best for them. Everyone wants to be in the Oil and Gas field just because it pays well. Little did we know that it is not a bed of roses. You will be physically challenged. You need to work under pressure and some graduates still do not find satisfaction in the job they do. That's merely because they are not sure what is best for themselves.
I joined my work today at a place where the business is really new. It is less than a year old. But, I am looking at the brighter opportunities that lie ahead of me and I am grabbing them as I could see opportunities better than disadvantages. I learned that as you try to get a stronger grip of life, that's when you loose more. When you let go of the need to have control over life, it surprises you with a lot of possibilities.
No matter what you do, you should have a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day. I am not saying my job would get merrier day by day, but doing what you love matters. I'm glad that 2013 has blessed me with soooo many good news. Way to go!!! Yeay!!!
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
Hello readers! Last week, I had two nominations for the lovely Liebster Award again! I would like to thank +A Long for nominating me on Blogger and +Dyane Forde for nominating me on Wordpress! Thank you both so much. Dyane, I appreciate that coming from you because I never really thought you knew what I am writing about on my blog! Thank you!
I will be relocated to a new place that's nearer to my working place soon. So, there won't be any new posts until I get a proper internet connection. I know I will somehow get it soon because you can't separate me from the internet connection. LOL. You will see me back in action soon.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank +ambarish kumar who has listed my blog under ''my suggestion'' section on his blog! Kumar is an ardent blogger who writes on everything you need to know about the internet and the effective ways to drive traffic to your website and earn money online! If you think your blog isn't doing well, it is time to read FREE tips he has on his blog and implement the suggestions so that you have better targeted traffic and low bounce rate.
There are two posts on my draft list right now! I will be working on that next but the next post is going to be my 100th post! So, let's see if that will be a video blog instead :))
Best regards,
Jas
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
This post is specially dedicated to +BV Bharati . I got the inspiration to write on this issue after reading her post about how the Nazis have been using this symbol which caused great amount of confusion among people of different cultures across the world. Do you know what differs the Nazi version of "Swastika" symbol from the Hindu version of it? I bet most of you do not know the difference and add me to the list too. I know that the difference exist but I wasn't sure until I google-searched about it today. The above image is how the Hindu Swastika looks like. And the image below is what the Nazis use.
The Nazi Swastika
So, back to the main issue here. Bharati posted this post on her blog. She was explaining about how a holy or sacred symbol became unholy due to the negative image portrayed by Hitler and Nazis. About two days ago, Manchester United apologizes over 'swastika' logo. Now, how sure are we that only the Nazis and people from other associations are involved in this propaganda?
About a couple of months back in Malaysia, the police force was seen in action when they arrested about 30-50 gangster groups with the respective leaders. Do you know that some of these gangs comprise of Hindus and they actually use Swastika as their symbol? They even tattoo this sign/symbol on their bodies. So when the police was looking for suspects, the public who had this symbol on their vehicles also got caught!
Isn't that sad to see our own people degrading the holy symbol? On top of that, I went out the other day with my favourite Lee Cooper T-shirt, a sleeveless one. The uncle who sells snacks stopped me and told me not to wear it anymore. I was puzzled. Later, he told me that my T-shirt had the number '08' printed on it and coincidentally it was the name of one of the gangs that were caught! There goes my favourite T-shirt! I'm not wearing it at public places for the time being.
I think, sometimes people dig their own graves by embarrassing their own kind at public! We do not need the Nazis now for this purpose!
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
While reading about breast cancer some day ago, I came across this website. I remember seeing this posts before from the same website but since it relates to my previous post about breast cancer, I thought of sharing this with you.
Coming to think of donations collected for the cancer patients, we may hesitate to donate when there are too many fake organisations around like Susan G. Komen foundation that is clearly failing to do what it needs to do in order to help the patients. But upon reading the posts on this website, I can feel how cancer can be very deadly. I lost my grandfather to this disease too and it was truly unexpected when we got to know that he is diagnosed with cancer.
This story you can find it this link is about a man who loved loves his wife so much and lost her to cancer. He is now running a non-profit organisation as a tribute to his late wife. He is also a photographer so he captured the moments, the last few moments he shared with his wife together. The loss of his wife may not be significant to this Earth that is already losing so many people within a day. But to him, it means a lot.
We are having holiday season here as the Festival of Lights; Deepavali (Diwali) is approaching soon. My mom has advised me to donate my hard-earned money to an orphanage we have here. It is a feeling that is very rewarding when you share what you have with the less-fortunate!
I will be posting about the Swastika and how it has been misused here by various groups soon. +BV Bharati , I'm keeping this on mind :)
A citation from Wikipedia about Swastika: The swastika is recognized as a Hindu symbol in most parts of the world. In Hinduism, the swastika is at times in certain sects considered a symbolic representation of Ganesha. In Hindu rites, Ganesha is offered first offerings in every pooja. The swastika is made with Sindoor during Hindu religious rites.
Till then, take care and have a great week ahead. Happy Diwali to all Hindus across the world!
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
Internet Security Is An Issue You Should Be Bothered About
Have you ever wished to have a unique name for yourself? How many people do you exactly know having the same name as yours?
If you think you have come across more than 5 people sharing your first name and if you are not happy, I will tell you why I, for the first time ever, felt bad for having a unique name. Before I start blogging this year, there wasn't anything much about myself on the internet. Even after I started blogging, I don't remember finding anything much on Google when I 'google' myself. I did not know my blogging activity can take off so fast and I quickly became addicted to it. I found awesome people via blogging and I am going places now.
I tried 'googling' for my name a couple of days before and I was horrified to know that Google actually knows a lot more about myself than I thought it could ever know. First issue here is my name. It can be easily googled since there aren't many with the same name as mine. I never knew using real name can cause a big effect towards my privacy in the virtual world.
I used to register for new websites using my name because I don't need to think a lot about the suitable nickname and it will be easier to deal with mailing and billing (although I don't really buy things from internet). The search engines will actually locate your activities online easily with your details. I found almost everything when I tried searching for my name. This include the blog I have commented on before, the websites I have registered using my real name and there was also a website by the name of meetme.com. I was taken aback when I saw that as I can't recall when I have registered on that website!!
Yes, Google actually knows a lot about you! Have you realised that you need to use your 'real' name now when you are creating an account on Google +? I am having a G+ email and that particular G+ account is not the one I use for socialising. So upon knowing the ugly fact about Google, I have deleted that account but my gmail remained active. The next day when I logged in to check my mail, Google asked me to fill up my real name and put up a profile picture. I tried faking my name but it keeps saying invalid name and it even says that there wasn't any face detected on my profile picture I newly uploaded (as it was an illustration). Now, are we obliged to have an account on all Google products when we are using even only one of its product?
It is so obvious that google is trying to take over the world with the amount of information it stores about each and every individual who are browsing online. There is no privacy at all and their 'dynamic' privacy policy which keeps changing is also another way to completely rip our personal life off.
I found everything and everyone's images when I googled for my name. All those lovely bloggers who used to comment on my blog, their pictures appear in the search result because I am somehow associated to them. Isn't that scary? Today I made the first move to modify the existing accounts under my real name as I don't feel safe anymore about my online presence.
I think with your details on the internet, people can easily stalk you and find information about you within a blink of an eye. Apart from that, scammers are everywhere! They are waiting to steal your information. If you find that you are having an account on some strange looking websites, don't be surprised. After all, how safe can our details be although giant companies claim that they are keeping all details secured. Be sure about what you post online too and do not expose your pictures online as anyone can grab them, edit them and use for their own business purposes. I think you would have heard about pictures of girls being misused etc.
Apart from that, I think nobody really bothers and should no bother to do know about my details if I were to appear under a pen name. I personally do not care if you know my name. Writing using our own name has always earned the user a better credibility and audience tend to trust them more. I acknowledge that fact but at the same time, we have many other awesome blogs and blog writers using nicknames to hide their real identity from the public. What do you have to say about this? Do you care for the content of the blog or website or are you placing an emphasis on the background of the writer or founder of the website?
I would love to hear from you!
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I was working on T.L Scott's book trailer for the past one week. It was a fun learning process as this time, I hired a voice over artist to provide voice over for the trailer. So you might want to watch the trailer and let me know what you think about it overall. I welcome your honest critique that is constructive!
I read his book before coming up with ideas for the trailer so I thought I would post my honest opinion on the book.
Note: This review is purely based on my opinion and my preference and taste when it comes to books. My thoughts and views may be entirely different from yours if you were to read the book. This review is written constructively so that the author of the book could find better inspiration and idea for his writing journey.
A Life Worth Living's blurb :
Dave and Debbie are a typical middle class family. They work hard to provide for their two children. They have made sacrifices to provide a good home and a good life for each other and the children they love. Somewhere along the way to making a good life they have lost sight of each other.
When tragedy strikes they have to decide if they can make theirs a life worth living.
This is a story of love, loss, and ultimately redemption.
My review:
I find this book interesting when I got to know a few things about this book. This book is about a man who is workaholic and finds himself spending too much time on his office work. Dave is a hardworking man who equally loves his family. But Debbie, his wife is getting frustrated about his workaholic ways.
The story uncovers the fact or reality of life as it evolves. It is about the good and bad we face in life. The family faces numerous tragedies in this story. I like the story and the way Scott has planned about the suspense elements in his book. One of it was very shocking to me too when I was reading. If you like stories that is based on family bonding, sacrifices and loss of family members as well as the emotions behind these incidents, then you may like the story of this book. I find it easy to finish reading the book within one to two days.
Some of the aspects that could have been improved in this book are the writing style, paraphrasing and narration.
I thought it would have been better if the narration of the story sticks with the first person's point of view and specifically Dave. When Dave is away from home, the narration is being made from Debbie's point of view, so when the word "I .... " comes, I find it a little bit difficult to figure out who is telling the story this time round. There were also some sentences that need to use certain punctuation marks especially dialogues.
I saw a few repetitions in the book. I found sentences being repeated not word by word but they are actually telling the same thing. This can be distracting.
I also thought the blurb should be changed because it doesn't seem to be as enticing as the story.
These are purely based on my thoughts and I can be wrong. Another person may not find these aspects of the book giving issues to their reading experience. Different reviewers will find different thoughts on the book.
so I suggest you to read the book and Scott is looking for reviewers, so if you are interested you can let me know and I will help you with that.
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I bet you noticed the ''typo'' on my title. But you are wrong unfortunately! Read on!
I just realised that it is the breast cancer awareness month they have yearly! Thank you to Joker from Glipho (a brand new blogging platform, if you haven't check it out, please do so!!) as his post indirectly made me aware that the this month is all about the pink ribbon. Well, Joker's post with the title "Every Woman On The Planet Needs To Read This!" was also very informative. That's when I knew some ugly truth behind the Susan G. Komen foundation. We will get back to this at the later part of my post.
I knew that breast cancer awareness is a serious issue and it has to be given a lot of serious focus as MANY women out there still do not know how to check if they have lumps on their breast or even go for annual mammogram. The lack of seriousness and vigilance are the main reasons why breast cancer take the lives of women away!
I never really had the urge to write a post on this until... I found something on Facebook and I knew I had to write something about it. Watch this video below!
Even if you don't want to watch it is fine because they are using this video to gain more ''donation''. So the more people watch this, the more views they will earn!!
This got to be the most awful method of fundraising I have ever seen or heard off in my life! What is the whole fuss about, if you ask, this ''funraising'' campaign was started by a YouTube channel, Simple Pickup. They think they should incorporate some ''fun'' while fundraising because apparently ''we all love boobs''. What they do is to go to some random women ask if they could ''motorboat'' them (which is to stick their faces in a pair of boobs and then simulate a seizure) and promised to donate $20 for every pair of boobs they got up on.
They managed to get about $2080 and they planned to donate $100 for every hundred thousand views they get on the video.
Okay so you may say that this is just the fun way of doing things and the women gave their consent to motorboat them so what's the fuss now right? Wrong!! I do have a problem with this.
If people can do anything they want in the name of fundraising(or funraising), will the allow funraisers to dare people go naked on the street and taaa.. daaaa.. you get $100? After all, it is teh fun way of doing things. So can we expect this in the future?
If people can do anything as long as they give absolute consent for what is being asked for in a campaign, then they should have the rights to do what they feel like doing in the public too. Why must we show so much objection towards the Femen movement? They walk or march naked on streets for a good cause too, which is to fight for equality and feminism. They have their own reasons too and nobody is forcing anyone to go nude.
If people's voice and consent matter as a whole in a group of fundraisers or campaigners, then their personal voice should matter too. After, we are living in a world where every country is trying to become the champion of human rights, right? So, if I feel like having a nude walk today out there in the street, that will be and should be completely acceptable!!
If you say, ''hey, at least they get some money and raised the level of awareness'', wait a minute!!
Money? Okay, so coming back to the post that Joker has shared on his blog, Susan G. Komen foundation is supposed to be helping the pink ribbon month and raising donation for breast cancer! But guess what we found? Not every campaign has 100% transparency! Nancy Brinker is letting the foundation suffer economically while she making about a million dollars every year. The foundation has failed to continue a few campaigns initially planned for the year 2014 too.
So, the real question is, where is the money going?
And raising the level of awareness? How on earth do you think this video above is going to be educational is any way, for women or the public to get their check up for breast cancer done?I just feel that this ''campaign'' is just another marketing method to promote whatever hell they are running on the internet. Well, if the YouTube video gets more views, then they will eventually get more money via AdSense too! Of course, they can't say, ''hey,can I motorboat you and I will 'donate' $100 for Simple Pickup?'' or simply ''hey, can you donate some money for our site?". These marketing method have been failing over the years.
Now, the real question is, how can they ever sexualise breast cancer? Is it something they can play around with? Or take advantage of? If fun is the main underlying reason why this campaign is even taking place, then women love your balls too guys!! I would love to see if they are ever going to come up with similar campaign where women get to fiddle around with their balls too at public! After all, it is for a noble cause! I have also read about arguments on this issue where some say they should have been doing this too men as even men get breast cancer. And how come we don't see old grandmothers here?
If breast cancer awareness is really important to them, people would just donate whatever amount they could if they approach them genuinely! If you think you should donate, you will somehow donate without any ''perks''.
While looking up for information about this, I found that it is just not me, but there is another website ranting on the same video. Here is the link.
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
While child rape cases and teen pregnancies are on the rise today, it is sad to know that the society has not taken enough care to educate the young teenage girls the right way. This post is not about us being ignorant of the news on the latest beauty pageant or the earthquake in Philippines that took more than 100 lives away today. (Yes, there was an earthquake today, if you don't know about it yet, you can click on the link above. See, I am nice enough to update you with world news from CNN ;) ).
I am deeply saddened with child rapes and I used to put myself in their shoes. How would it actually feel? Any child at the age of 5 will not know what has happened to her. She won't even know that she has been exploited barbarically by the Satan just to satiate his sexual needs. Can you imagine what would or should the mother tell the child if she asks what has happened to her? How will the family cope with the torture of seeing the child growing up in trauma? A child, being raped at 5, growing up and understanding that she has been violated without her knowing it would most likely feel like she has been cheated to no surmountable amount! It is not just her dignity that has been taken away, but her poor soul too that has been ripped off!
Girls are exposed to sexual education later than boys and this scenario is prevalent in countries in the East. I am not sure how it is at other places but if you take countries in the Middle East, the girls are basically treated like house-arrests! How can the girls learn about the dangerous world out there if they are constantly being kept at home and without proper guidance from their parents about self-protection? I don't see how treating boys differently than girls is justified when it comes to exposure about issues like sexual education.
Majority of girls in the East get to know about sex through their friends, that too if they are allowed to go to school! What if they are denied the rights to attend school or if they are being constantly watched over? Can you see why the younger generation is being mislead easily by the media? Because there is no proper guidance from the right person. Pornography is being so popular now because it is believed to be the source where kids could learn about sex. This situation has been taken to an advantage by the unscrupulous business people to market porn video!
It is sad to know that many parents still regard this subject a taboo and do not provide proper guidance to their girls! In a way, it is their fault why kids are not able to defend themselves. The next door uncle is not someone who your girl can 'play' with when you are away and in fact you should let them know that anyone can harm them anytime and no 'uncle' is safe or good enough to be a company or a friend! I have seen how parents teach their children to be obedient by asking them to treat anyone who is older to them very politely. Do these people really deserved to be respected in the first place? That is something they should think about first!
Educate your girls!!!
The martial arts classes and Kung Fu skills are not going to be handy if your girl doesn't know how to defend her emotions from being violated. Anyone can sweet-talk her and she would still be a victim! Teach your child what she needs to know at the right age, and the right age is no longer ten or eleven, but as young as four or five! You are responsible for your child's safety!
I have been a book trailer designer on a freelancing site for the past five months now. I thought of doing freelance jobs ever since the beginning of this year. I was still in the university back then and it was my very last semester (now graduated)! Yeay!! :) I had a bad time the previous year and coincidentally started blogging and venting out my feelings on social issues. That is exactly when I started to make friends with authors and writers all over the world who are SUPER SUPPORTIVE! My life has changed tremendously from that point and I never looked back! While I discovered writing as a passion of mine ( I never thought I could write and make sense at the same time, I am so glad I actually started writing), I wanted to channel my attention to other activities that are worth the time and energy, so I decided to freelance as that is the best option for anyone who doesn't want to be committed to difficult part time job. All you need is your lap top and your work can be done easily!
I have been learning about Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation lately (I know my post doesn't cater to SEO needs, how lazy I am when in fact I provide SEO articles for bloggers!!). These skills apply to promote authors too and I have been enjoying creating trailers. I made the very first step to expand my work and thus created a website. It is still under construction but the basic info is already up there! I will also get a domain name for it soon! I have created a Wordpress blog for the site and Google + page too. My YouTube site has been renamed and revamped to accomodate samples of the videos I made before. The starting price is $30 for a 1 min trailer and the trailer will have purchased copyrighted pictures and musics.
I will have a lot of work to be done about the website before it gets established and may be devoting some time in a day will help. Stay tuned for the updates! :)
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I am back as promised! Why writing can be suicidal? Well, if you are a fiction writer and you are writing about something doesn't exist in reality, that is completely fine because it involves nobody in the real world. But what if you are writing about something that is happening around you? About social issues and politics or even about your own thoughts and views on certain people or politicians? Now could you smell the possible danger arousing due to this?
I have been a member of Global Voice and I am very excited about it because it helps me lend bloggers and social media users a louder voice to highlight what they are saying collectively! Let's take the issue or news about who has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize recently. I'm sure many people across the world will be talking about this and voicing their opinion about the result. Some would or may say that Malala should have been awarded instead of the OPCW. What authors of Global Voices do is to summarise what people are saying about a particular issue.
Now, being an author on GV is as risky as being a blogger. While people may support the good deed of exposing the truth, abolishing crime and terrorism; the ugly truth is nothing guarantees that we will be safe being a whistle blower. I will tell you why people don't get involved in social work that is 'risky' like this or may be sometimes it is a better option to just keep quiet and mind our own business.
Sometime ago, we had a case in Malaysia where someone was shot while he stopped at a traffic light. He is in charge of the My Watch movement which basically works as a whistle blower. R. Sanjeevan was a young man who was inspired to do something beneficial and transform the corrupted society into a better community. My Watch is about ten months old and has successfully revealed a few corrupted authorities. Guess what he got as the prize of it? He was shot after getting several threats by people and luckily survived but still suffering from the aftermath. Sanjeevan shared his story with a reporter lately that the movement is now dying as there is nobody to protect him or to support his fight for Malaysia. In fact, he also told that he has lost many friends after this incident as they were afraid of their own lives.
While I was reading this issue, I came across another updated blog post on one of the most popular blogs in Malaysia. It is written by someone with a blog name of ''The Raged Indian". As I was reading this, I learned that he stayed away from blogging for quite sometime as he has received threats from some people as well since he writes a lot about social issues and influences thousands of Malaysian Indians particularly. He raised a very good question in his post too that made me think he was right. After all, if something happens to him, who will be at lost and who will come to defend him? It is still an unanswerable question isn't it?
Today, I came to know that Malala's book is out. It has been written by Malala with Christina Lamb as the contributor. She is an advocate for women and she got shot by the Talibans. When you do good in the public, you will be scrutinised heavily and then discriminated!. She was expected by some to win the Nobel Peace Prize but it was awarded to OPCW. I got goosebump while watching one of her interviews today and it made me feel so proud of her! It also explains the power we have as an individual and this is what I like the most. I think Malala's life has changed to reveal the real potential she acquires.
I feel that one doesn't need to be an activist in a global level. Anyone who is able to instill changes in another person's life is an activist. As we live in a dangerous world, it is better to start from below and act like the termites. Termites are small and eats your wood from within silently and you will only know when everything is totally destroyed; when the entire furniture comes crashing down on your head! Any social activist should be working like that so that you don't alert people in authority who is capable of bringing you down.
Like +BV Bharati said, it can be dangerous exposing the activities of people especially politicians. She has written an article about it earlier which can be viewed via this link. On the other hand, if you have not heard about author Jean Sasson, you can check it out here and see for yourself how she got into trouble by stalkers who file cases against her! She shares her experience with her reader at her website. She writes about life in the Middle East and I love reading her work!
Sharing what Jean says here: For anyone who is considering writing a book, you might want to read my personal account of what it is like to be stalked, and, for that stalker to find attorneys willing to file a frivolous lawsuit. -- Jean
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I know I took a looooong break and I think it has been about two weeks since I wrote anything new here on my blog BUT I have a lot to post and will never forget what I need to write as I'm having a checklist for my blog!
So where have I been and what was I doing? I was busy with my graduation celebration last week and it was one of the most momentous events in my life! We had to travel far and get things ready for graduation and travelling back to where I live has been very time consuming and tiring! Nevertheless, it was fun and enjoyable!
I have promised +BV Bharati that I will be writing a post soon about why writing and exposing truths can be deadly and I haven't forgotten my promise yet. In fact, it is one of the posts I am having on my checklist. Now that I am back, I will get that done soon.
On the other hand, guess what I found? I saw a story that was covered in the front page of the local newspaper! It is about child marriage in Malaysia and I was completely shocked with the appalling number of child marriages happening in Malaysia. I never knew this issue could be so bad here and I will cover this issues under Child Marriage chapter of my book.
You will be so surprised to know what is happening across the world when you start researching facts and I think I love what I am doing for my book!
I'll be back real soon with consistent posts!
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I can't help it but to story you this agonizing act from Unilever's AXE. But before that, let me tell you what made me 'like' AXE Malaysia's page first and foremost. Well, AXE Malaysia had a contest to search for the next Malaysian astronaut and a Malaysian Indian lady was among the top 5 selected to contest for the final round. When I got to know about this, I was so excited and I told my mom and we were showing our support to the girl by voting for her every hour. The contest is now over and the official winner will be announced coming 24th. I spread the news to some of my friends on Facebook and guess what, not many actually replied or showed support. This is pretty much why I feel like not having Facebook because people are there just to stalk you and gossip behind your back but acts like they never knew you when you approach them on FB. Okay, let's just stop ranting about social media, which is not very social actually.
AXE is a brand by Unilever for men's hair care and body products. My question is, what are those women doing on AXE's advertisement when it is a product meant men. Of course they have one or two products for women too, but when it comes to men body spray, are we supposed to see men in the advertisement, aren't we? AXE has been using women, or I will say, exploiting women to promote their product and this has caused an uproar among the AXE Malaysia's Facebook page because we anticipating updates about the competition and all we get is their sexist,cheap promotional methods on Facebook page. I was one of the first ones to spark a debate about this on their page (hahaha :P). I saw many comments following that trashing AXE Malaysia. If you need to know what I'm talking about exactly, you need to go their page via this link and see for yourself.
Is That Picture Necessary?
By having videos and pictures like that, it simply sends a message that men has no brains and nothing much to attract women, so use good fragrances like this to get ladies. It doesn't matter how bad you smell from within, all you have to make sure is to smell good with AXE.
It also sends a message that indicates women are cheap and can be attracted with good fragrances. Watch this video.
Reaction From Potential Customers
What they expect out of their 'sexy' advert - Men and women going crazy about their products and keep giving them business. What is actually happening - They are losing more and more customers and probably because of people like me who is contributing to their loss, it will be even worse because due to the competition, many people all around the world are watching this page closely and their promotional method is suicidal now. People would be attracted to products and companies that have value and do good. Of course, in the business world, nothing is transparent but avoiding efforts to objectify women will save them in the long run.
Now, on the other hand, I think women who model for this product knowing that they are being objectified, are just plain dumb and have no social responsibilities at all. What are those employees for Unilever doing? Well, it is so sad to think we have to forgo social responsibilities at work because we are there just to earn money for living and not to argue for our values that we uphold.
I'm not saying women should be covered all the time or should not be given the choice to dress up. Bikini and modesty has very little correlation because we won't be able to change a man's mind to respect women just by changing our clothes. No, it is not that simple. Bikini is just a swimwear. You wear nightgown when you at bed and you do not roam around the city with that because that would be inappropriate. One should know his or her limits and behave accordingly. You will just know if what you are wearing is appropriate or not. What has to be changed is not bikinis but misusing them for advertisement purpose in a way that causes harm for women. Of course, for lingerie advertisements it will be fine.
Last but not least, if I ever have a boyfriend using AXE, I would be 'welcoming' him home with an axe. With that being said, ladies, you know what to do now ;)
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
It has been a week now since I last blogged. Today has been a fantastic day so far. I made it to the third round of interview after being interviewed by the director of GreenEnergy Worldwide for Malaysia. It feels good because I think it gives me a chance to be in an industry providing green energy solutions and eventually breaking the dependency on fossil fuel. I have also received a surprise e-mail today so it has been a great day so far and I'm thankful for that.
So getting back to the post today, I'm sure many of you are well-informed about the winner of Miss America 2013. Nina Davuluri was crowned as Miss America and she is the first Miss America from Indian descent. She is also the Miss New York 2013. America being one of the world's largest melting pot where people of different races and cultures embrace America as their home today took the world by surprise when some people made racist remarks on Twitter following her victory. What really amuses me is the fact that people have been calling her a Muslim and linking her with Al-Qaeda. Some people made themselves clowns by saying that she should have been chosen as Miss Africa. I think they must have missed their Geography lessons back in school, poor kids!
This social backlash reminded me about the popular TV show, Celebrity Big Brother where we had a participant, the late Jade Goody with two others bullying the well-known actress in India, Shilpa Shetty for being an Indian. I think, generally when you cross your own border, you are a refugee and you just don't belong to where you are fully because people do not welcome ''foreigners'' wholeheartedly.
Is it a crime being born with a dark complexion? What it really takes for a woman to become Miss America? Being blonde and white? I don't understand how people could choose Obama as their president and still be prejudicial. I am not referring to those who voted for Obama and choose to side Nina. I'm sure at least one out of those people who attacked Nina WOULD HAVE voted for Obama but when it comes an American Indian winning the pageant, they can't take it. I'm keen to know the probability of those people voting for a man different in race and heritage as their president. I think people react differently when it comes people who are successful and people who are about to unleash their talent. Before you actually achieve something solid and widely accepted, people would judge you based on colour, background and etc and discourage you every way they could. I don't understand how they could welcome Indians to come and work for Bill Gates but still deny their rights to contest in a beauty pageant. Those who made the ugly comments certainly forgot the fact that their place of birth is a colourful land with people from different roots contributing to its success today. In most countries today, majority of the citizens are not the native people. My ancestors were from India and they were brought to Malaysia during the British occupation. Our real native people are the Orang Asli which literally means "the native people" and America is no exception too.
As an approved contributor for Global Voices, (I haven't contributed anything YET, and I have posts up there as drafts because I thought it will be good to observe what others post and how to protect myself if someone from my ''awesome'' government were to read my posts and accuse me of being a ''threat'' to the national harmony and security. Malaysia is getting funnier day by day so it is good to know how to save my ass before doing something) I observed a post from an Indian citizen and I thought she has pointed out great issues and Tweets from other netizens.
I think Americans are way better because we will not see Nina Davuluri being crowned in the pageant if the organizers or judges were racists. It is just a part of the society that has a problem seeing an American-Indian winning the competition, may be because their favourite contestants lose the game! I think the issue is less severe in America than it is in India.
While reading the post from Global Voices, I realised that if Nina's parents chose to stay in India and raise their kids in India, Nina's chances of being crowned would have been a dream still. You can see the comments in the snapshot below and I feel it is true because we Indians(referring to the race) do not embrace our own people as we worship fair-skinned ladies and men more.
Global Voices
At least, Nina prides herself in becoming Miss New York and Miss America but what do we see in the Indian film industry today? Actress Nandita Das is a dark-skinned, beautiful young lady and I have always admired her so much. Her message for this year's Women's Day is "Stay UNfair, Stay Beautiful". She and her career has been affected due to her dark complexion and she campaigns for the movement called Dark Is Beautiful. You can read about her further at her blog (and let me know if you think she is beautiful ;))
We all have our own issues to deal with and raising awareness is not just about me blogging about this and you reading but also about correcting the way people think and behave around you and making a change. Do your part in educating the society. By writing this, I will never be able to reach out to those who made insulting comments about Nina but if we continue to pass the message around, hopefully we can see gradual changes.
Good night world!
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I got the inspiration to come up with this post after reading +Katie Cross 's recent post about weird words we find in English or weird alteration we make to an already existing word in English to be precise. I'm very excited to introduce Manglish to you guys! Malaysia is a multicultural nation where we have three different races living together just like Mauritius and some other countries. We have Indians, Chinese and Malays here and the multicultural society exists today because of British occupation about a century back where they bring labour forces from India and China. Our forefathers are basically from India and China. What happens when a group of multiracial society attempts to speak in English?
Watch the brief video to here how Malaysians speak in English(Manglish) and how we all speak English in the proper way. It's not that Malaysians learn the wrong way to speak English. We know the proper way to speak English but it is just a Malaysian-thing that you can't seem to avoid at all. ;)
If you are wondering what the lah doing at the end of every sentences, here is some explanation that can be helpful but I'm sure you won't be understanding the rule of using it the correct way. (Yes, we have rule to use it and if you attempt to use it without knowing how it works, you will seem to be a real clown as I'm very sure it will sound awkward and funny!! LOL)
some helpful explanation
While writing this, I remembered about the famous TV show "Mind Your Language" back in the 70's and 80's. I think it is one of the most wonderful TV show I have ever watched and I still watch some of the series today! We used to crack jokes when I was back in the university as my Plant Design group comprised of two Chinese boys, one Indian (myself) and two Malays. The Malay girl is my good friend and her boyfriend is from Yemen. I can still remember how hilarious it was when the Yemeni guy was arguing with my Chinese friend on the way he uses English.
Another video that explains Manglish from a foreigners point of view!!! :)
On another note, I thought of sharing with you about a sentence that shows unity among the three different races here which I came across lately. "Macha, you want to makan here or tapau?" which literally means "Buddy, you want to eat here or pack the food?" It's a combination of English, Tamil, Malay and Chinese.
I welcome you thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
Today, my mother and I went to the local supermarket nearby to buy some groceries. We headed to the food department where they sell sweets and other junk food. I was looking for something to eat and I thought it was good to buy some snacks. I got some Cloud Nine chocolates while my mother was searching for sweets and that's when I saw Hudson's sweets. I have never really seen Hudson's sweets in packets before so I picked one of it up and flipped the packet! Guess what I saw?!
Hudson's #1
"When your little son asks you to show him how to make his own babies... Hudson's soothes life's little irritation."
Hudson's #2
" When you wife asks you if she looks fat in her new dress... Hudson's soothes life's little irritations "
Hudson's #3
"When your boss asks your honest opinion about his new hairstyle... Hudson's soothes life's little irritations"
Hudson's at the Store
Hudson's and its nonsense!
Hudson's, you are not soothing life's little irritations, you are inducing frustration and irritations!
I just can't understand what makes Hudson's feel so cool about its promotion or marketing method by incorporating such rubbish at its packaging. Obviously, this is not the only product that promotes wrong messages and supports movements that don't benefit mankind. I feel one of ways to stop discrimination is by boycotting products and businesses. That would create stress in their business and eventually force them to do stop monopolizing the market with marketing that has negative impacts on people.
I stopped buying Gardenia bread we have over here when I knew it was taken over forcefully by some people using political influence. I will include Hudson's now in the list!
Updates: I sent them a feedback. Let's see what will their response be.
I welcome your thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I was unable to post recently as we were out for a short visit to my aunt's place where things changed the moment we arrived. I was handling job applications and I was called for a few interviews at once and all of them were scheduled just a few days after one another. I'm still thinking about a job offer I got today. I thought I should give serious consideration for job-hunting and I think I am already doing that.
Official Contributor of GV
On another hand, I was taken by surprise when I got an e-mail from Global Voices. I remember I applied to become one of the contributors long time ago and my application was accepted. They made me an official Author page and I can now write any issues related to Malaysia quoting from our bloggers and social media posts. Guess what, tomorrow is our National Day so it will be a good day to start. I wanted to highlight events in Malaysia for a larger audience and with this opportunity, I can now lend Malaysia a louder voice through my posts. Of course, I should be careful doing that too as the government doesn't seem to like people exercising freedom of speech nowadays. But, who cares because we need more citizens to voice out.
Today was another terrible day as my uncle passed away. Coincidentally, his daughter was supposed to get engaged today and it has been called off. Death teaches a lot of lessons. It shows how we should be humane enough to forgive the one who has died and I learnt this through my mum today. Death reveals the ugly faces of people and reunites souls in the name of humanity. It depends on what we choose to see.
It's is getting late here. I will get back to my usual routine soon.
I welcome you thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
I really feel that students, when they are as young as a 7 years old, should be encouraged to get involved in multiple activities. As an adult now, I am realizing the importance of extra co-curricular activities because it teaches students to be a good juggler.
Parents during my school time were giving too much importance for studies and all they want their child to be was the top student of the school and that was like getting a Noble Prize for excellence. I can only feel sorry for those kids who couldn't think for themselves and went on to listen to their parents advice because they are nothing but a bookworm. They can't work without reference and they need a user-manual for almost everything they do and this is the reason why the First Class students fail in their working life. Nobody wants to hire someone who can't stand pressure at work place and juggle numerous responsibilities at one time.
I'm not saying that you should be too hyperactive and get involved in every single event happening around you. Of course if that is what you do, you won't be able to focus well. But at the same time, you can't just devote your attention to one task. That shows how inefficient you are.
To end my random ramblings here, I will let you know what are those tasks I'm juggling with. I'm actively looking for a job and this week will be busy with an upcoming interview hopefully. I need to keep an eye on my email and apply for jobs online. I need to blog and empty my head space which gets occupied from time to time with issues to be discussed with all of you lovely readers. I need to get my book-writing going which is one of the top priorities now. I am also freelancing at the moment and reading books whenever I feel the urge to stay away from the computer. I spend time going to the mountain nearby for hiking at times and cleaning my house with my mother. I am also learning a few things about Social Psychology via Coursera. The next assignment is due first week of September so I can focus on other work first :)
If I have the chance, I wish to learn better German. I can say a few things in German and understand conversations to some extent. I need to also plan for my further education later.
I welcome you thoughts and views ! :D Thank you for your feedback
Thanking +Adrianna Joleigh for letting me know about this documentary on YouTube. As we know, India has been in the spotlight since December last year for rising rape cases throughout the nation. Women in India have come together to protest the sexual discrimination and endless violence they have to face on a daily basis. Ever since the Dehli Gang Rape case incident, more rape cases are discovered day by day and it doesn't seem to get any better.
India's image has been tarnished with world-wide accusations. Men in India are horny bastards. India is not a safe country for women. These are some of the statements that you can see in the comments for the video above. It is definitely a shameful issue for a country and its citizen. I'm feeling really sorry for the victims and I hope for a better future for women in India.
But the question is, how do you REALLY feel when you watch the video or while reading this post? Are you feeling disgusted about India? Did your subconscious voice just told you that these Indian men are horrible? If you are from a safer place where you have been protected from these violence all your life, do you really think you are safe? Can you assure that your children's safety is protected?
Indian men don't deserve their women. I said that in one of my older posts. But I have also mentioned that the same rule applies for all men regardless of their race or nationality. The huge misconception in our society when we come across any hideous news happening elsewhere in the world is to assume that we are in a safer part of the world and instantly feel thankful for it.
I wanted to make a snapshot of some of the comments under the video but when I came back a day later, it was flooded by hundreds of comments and I lost track of the earlier comments. From my observation, some Indians were admitting to the fact that the situation is getting worse in India for women when authorities are not taking proper measures to arrest the rising sexual violence and rape cases whereas some are trying to protect their shame by diverting the attention to countries like Saudi Arabia and Africa where women are treated like slaves with restrictions imposed in the name of religion.
Will their shame alleviate your shame, India? No. Are we still going to see more women being raped and subjected to brutality? Yes! Because if we are not going to admit that our men are terrible and the situation is getting out of hand, people would continue to protect the name of the nation and shame of the society by pin-pointing to what is happening all around the globe. I agree that countries like America, Australia and Canada are not safe either and you can't claim these countries to be safe as the suicide case of Rehtaeh Parsons serves as an evidence that no where on this earth is really safe.
The only way to handle this brutality is by acknowledging the issue and start implementing better rules and regulations on sexual violators so that we can see hope for women renewing itself with no expiration date. On the other hand, it is time to reflect this issue upon our own country and see where do we actually stand when it comes to crimes like sexual harassment and rapes. Just because the media caught one country for its shameful incident, we can't be taking it for granted and throwing wild accusations. May be our shame is being swept under the carpet and could be the next talk of the world when someone were to reveal it.
I welcome your thoughts and views ! Thank you for your feedback
