Back in the village

Am spending the final days of 2007 at the village I was born...
The padi fields are still a little greenish and on the verge of turning to gold...
But I shall not have the privilege of seeing them harvested due to my short stay...

Spent five days at Mabul Island off Semporna in Sabah...
The resort we stayed at was just as pretty as in 2003 when we first went there...

The diving at Sipadan was very satisfying...
Baraccudas... jacks... hundreds of them tornado-ing around us...
Each of the baraccudas measured a meter or more...
Turtles... everywhere...

Diving the walls is actually an amazing feeling...
The sea floor purportedly drops to about 600 meters...

Meanwhile, saw the pygmy seahorse for the first time while diving at Mabul...
The pinkish creature was about one centimeter in length...
There is an orange colored one as well, the size even smaller...
But the currents... wooh, for the first time, my tank went almost empty...

Shall certainly be back for more...

When words become treasures...

One of my favorite songs till this day is that BeeGees number, 'Words'...

As Lita, a former student of mine, illustrated on 8th May 2007...

Dear Prof. Lrong Lim,
How are you, Sir?
It was my great pleasure to have met you again in Kagawa!
You looked a little bit tired but actually younger than 2yrs ago!
I believe your passion for your job is making you getting brighter as time goes by.
Hereby attaching one picture we took together~
You look nice on the shot.
Pls send yours in your free time!
Looking forward to seeing you again,
B.Wishes,
Lita

And, similarly, her words turned to treasure on 19th August 2007...

Dear Sir,
Well rcvd the photos with many thanks!
How are you these days? How was your job in Hawai??
It's too hot to go out recently! Crazy hot, hot, hot weather!!>_<
Take special care of yourself in this hard season~!
Looking forward to seeing you soon,
B.Rgds,
Lita

Had been weeping since I received the news yesterday afternoon...
Lita had passed away in early November...

She had apparently taken her own life...

Why Lita, I ask...
My door is always opened...
Why Lita, didn't you send me a note...
I would have caressed you with kind words... words that might heal your pains and troubles...
Why Lita... did you give up on life...

For all my young friends who happen to come across this post...
Please, do not give up on life...

Life is too precious...
For it is not only you who is living that life...
The folks around you, the friends around you... they live that 'life' along with you...

Please... don't ever give up...

Meanwhile... my eyes weep...
My heart pains...

My soul bleeds... for Lita...

Challenged... these days

These days, life is somewhat... exhausting...

This morning, when the alarm bells hit five, I could hardly reach out to touch the off-button...

I literally had to boot myself out of the warm futon, as there is work to do, even on a Saturday...

But still, life is wonderful...

I am saying this as I sit at my desk, listening to some amazing songs on the radio...

Ahhh... so agreeable to the senses...

But yes, life is indeed challenging...

Or, as Malaysians would know by now... very 'chabar-ing'...

‘Pantang’ or otherwise, as a faculty member in a university, I am perennially chabar-ed by my students...

At the outset, I can't be feeding them half-past six lectures, as it would eventually boomerang back to my face...

On an equally significant front, I am presently being chabar-ed by my superiors to do something that go against what I believe in...

But thank god, here at my office, I have the humble radio to offer me solace...

Life is indeed, my dear friends... very chabar-ing...

Japan fingerprints foreigners

Have been a law-abiding resident in Japan for the past 20 years or so...

It has been a pleasure thus far...

But on this day, I can’t help but to feel that Japan is embarking on something that is not very ‘polite’ for long-term foreign residents...

Why? Because as Asahi Newspaper puts it, ‘In Japan, people are not fingerprinted against their will unless they are processed as part of a criminal case.’

So, starting today, Japan shall fingerprint and photograph every foreign ‘visitor’ aged above 16 (some exceptions apply) upon entry into Japan...

And the rationale... fighting terrorism...

See the following articles...
Fingerprinting of foreign arrivals starts (a balanced view from Asahi)
Starting today, 'gaijin' formally known as prints (anti-view)
Watching them watching us 'Fingerprint Day' adds insult to injury for Japan's foreign community (anti-view)
Use fingerprints, photos to boost security (pro-view)

The only other country doing this is the US... the difference is, long-term residents are exempted...

I recall a prolonged debate I had with my buddies when the US invaded Iraq...

One of us said, ‘no use debating as the invasion has got nothing to do with us...’

I immediately countered, saying that he could not be more wrong...

Now, we all have gone through the stringent checks before embarking that plane... and more than once, we were told to surrender our water bottles...

Actually, fingerprinting is not really a big deal to Malaysians... we all carry identity cards that house our thumbprints...

However, in this case, as succinctly highlighted by Asahi Newspaper, Japan seems to be risking the goodwill of legally entrenched, law abiding, long-term foreign residents...

Thieving in Japan

Had returned from Malaysia to my ‘cave’ here in Japan in early September, and of course, was overwhelmed by the mountain of piled-up work...

So, there I was, slugging through that mountain on that Saturday and Sunday wondering whether this was the punishment for being away for a vacation...

On the following Monday at 0840 hours, was surprised to see my cap outside my office door...

And became more perplexed when I found the door to be unlocked as I keyed in...

Didn’t take a minute to realize that a thief had broken into my office...

Ooh, 21 years of continuous residence in Japan and this was the first experience of being robbed...

Called my staff members who then rushed to my office...

About half an hour later, three policemen came...

The thief had entered through the ventilation window, which I had left partially open...

The police combed my untidy room for fingerprints and shoeprints...

One of them asked... is this room always like this? Messy?

Me: Yes...

Policeman: How then, do you know if something is stolen?

Me: Of course I know!!

That rascal of a thief wore gloves, apparently... and he seemed like he knew what he wanted...

The loot included the Nikon D70 digital camera (oooh, this is painful...)

He knew what he wanted because he took the dedicated D70 battery from one of my drawers... and the battery was actually inside a pouch...

Plus, the battery charger... funny he pulled off the cord and took just the unit...

And, 3 pieces of 1 gigabit compact flash cards...

Plus, a video/CD player and an Epson Projector...　grrrr...

Still, odd that the idiot did not take the cables for these either...

Anyway, two more policemen came... and took pictures of the scene while requesting yours truly to point to the spots where the goods were removed...

I must say that they were pretty professional and prompt...

One stayed back to write the report on my behalf and had me verified and signed it...

At 1115 hours, I was able to resume my banging at that mountain of work again...

Back home that evening over dinner, my missus decreed, nose held high, and both arms on hips... ‘Now, no more buying of cameras, ok?’

Grrrr...