letting go...(sort of)

the girl has fended for herself for a period coming up to 4 months. yes, she had a really difficult time at the beginning, what with the new environment & people. the school work didn't make it any easier either.

but i believe she has weathered the storm & at the same time become mentally stronger. going thru an upheaval of this magnitude at an age not yet 16 is commendable - but perhaps that's a biased evaluation because i'm the father.

so when she asked me a few weeks ago if she could watch Chicago the musical at the Esplanade Theatre by herself, i couldn't really say no. she's been there with her classmates before & it was an afternoon matinee show that she had planned.

she said she needed a break & that's a good enough reason for me.

so when i spoke to her last nite, she was beaming with joy. she had enjoyed the musical thoroughly. i was glad i let her go - she may have been alone physically but her guardian angel was with her.

in military parlance, i think the commander would have said : the eagle has flown.

Even youths will become weak and tired,
and young men will fall in exhaustion.
But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.
isaiah 40:30,31

timing is everything!

my colleague really had a nice vacation in UK 2 weeks ago because....

1st, the british pound was at its lowest for ages;

2nd, the volcano in iceland has yet to erupt.

 
sometimes, we organise our holidays with military precision & scrutinise down to the minutest detail (i mean, who doesn't want total control?) but mother nature has a way of disrupting man-made plans.

home alone

the wife & son has gone away for the weekend church camp, which left me home alone. which also left me to fend for myself at meal times. which is not all bad because i can have food which the wife would never consider as a proper meal.

like a tuna sandwich.

not exactly what you'd find at subway or dave's deli, but still, it's what i want when i want it!!

i'm thinking 2 packs of curry-flavoured maggi mee for dinner tomorrow!! (slurp!)

all this free time has also given me a chance to test-drive a few prospects - now it's down to just a civic, altis or sylphy.

any tips, anyone??

i hate kids!!

managed to watch for the 1st time an episode of Mercy this week. one of the nurses' husband was trying to convince her to start a family but she said she preferred pets. she also said this as-a-matter-of factly :

"i hate kids! they fail maths, crash cars & do drugs!"

isn't this view a little extreme?

certainly not in the american context because kids actually do that (& more) over there. similarly, here, some people also expressedly hate kids, going by recent news reports of new-borns abandoned at various public & concealed places, & fathers splashing acid on their kids.

all these new & improved advances that science & technology has brought into our lives hasn't changed our character one bit. in this age of supersonic air travel, super-fast computers & super high-definition audio-visual equipment, can we not also be more caring, more concerned & more gracious to those around us?

we have instead become under-performing human beings. yoda may have predicted our tendency for evil when he said something like this : fear leads to anger, anger leads to hatred, & hatred to the dark side.

anyway, in a twist to the tale, the nurse in question in that medical drama somehow changed her mind & decided to start the family that her hubby desired.

perhaps, there's still some good left in this world.

rent a worker

the church camp has been slated for later this month. in an attempt to help students/youths attend, the church organised a rent-a-worker program where members can hire youths for tasks like gardening, cleaning house, washing car & even baby-sitting.

although i won't be able to make it to the camp, i offered my car for the task. so, this afternoon, 3 young men worked at a leisurely pace to wash, wax, leather-polish & vacuum the old banger. it hasn't looked this clean & shiny for years!!

it's good to instill a sense of responsibility in our youngsters, esp those who are thriving in a life of comfort & plenty, to let them have a taste of the real world - that there's no free lunch & very few rewards come without hard work.

so, baby-sitting for a good cause, anyone?

"If a man will not work, he shall not eat."  2Thess 3:10

be careful what you ask for

in a private hospital, everything costs money. consultation, investigation, medication, even the vomit bowl & urinal. if you have a fever, it's cheaper to get someone grab a couple of panadols from 7-eleven for you. seriously.

learn from this cautionary tale...

A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon's clinic.

As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest. After a moment or two, the vet shook his head and sadly said, "I'm sorry, your duck has passed away."

The distressed woman wailed, "Are you sure?" 

"Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead," replied the vet.

"How can you be so sure?" she protested. "I  mean you haven't done any testing on him or anything. He might just be in a coma or something."

The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a black Labrador Retriever. As the duck's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.

The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room. A few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on  its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and strolled out of the room.

The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck."

The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman. The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill.

"$1000!" she cried, "$1000 just to tell me my duck is dead!"

The vet shrugged, "I'm sorry.... If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been $50, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it's now $1000."

dead & buried

when the party that claims to represent my interest is helmed by a scandal-tainted yes-man & an impatient power-hungry wannabe, my gut feeling is that it has gone down a very slippery slope into a political cess-pool.


& when the outspoken lone ranger, the only one currently with the courage to raise issues that matter, is unceremoniously dumped, again my gut feeling is that palms have been greased & pockets lined with ill-gotten gains the delegates did not vote by conscience.


whether it will go the same way as it's cousin in penang & be sidelined into irrelevance (or worse, oblivion) is left to be seen.

we all know gut feelings sometimes come true & i don't believe i am the only one in sack-cloth today.

PS. perhaps this phrase was specifically coined for politics : nice guys finish last.

squeezed

when i posted about trying to push off my car that has served faithfully for 120K km, Zewt commented that i've milked the cow dry. actually, as it turned out, that wasn't a one-off event.

my other faithful servant, a pair of nike, has seen better days - the colour looks jaded,

the canvas giving way &

part of the sole has come off.

the reason i kept exercising in them is because they remained comfortable. maybe it's because it's branded that it has lasted this long - over 2 years.

i've definitely squeezed this one as well, but then again, that's one value my parents inculcated in me - waste not, want not.

and currently, i have absolutely no very few wants.

(however, i have difficulty passing on that same value to my kids. i wonder why?)

the letter C

consider this:

Letters 'a', 'b', 'c' 'd' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 99,
(Letter 'd' comes for the first time in Hundred)


Letters 'a', 'b' 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999,
(Letter 'a' comes for the first time in Thousand)


Letters 'b' 'c' do not appear anywhere in the spellings of 1 to 999,999,999,
(Letter 'b' comes for the first time in Billion)
:
:
:
:
:and the letter 'c' does not appear anywhere in the spellings of entire English counting....
:
:
:
:except.......
:
:
:
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:
C ..for...CASH !!

i wonder if this is the reason why residents of a Little Red Dot are purportedly pre-occupied with the 5 C's:

Condominiums

Cars

Credit Cards

Country Clubs,

and, of course, Cash!


**thanks, Seng, for the email**

medical bills too expensive??

amidst spiralling medical bills, one private hospital has purportedly offered its patients more than one way to AVOID paying their medical bills by putting up this patient escape plan.

how about this to promote corporate social responsibility???

(email me if you want to know where you can get this private medical treatment for FREE!)

a true champion?

malaysia currently has only one true champion in sports, & that's nicol david. my criteria for a true champion is one who consistently wins at the highest level, doesn't let the victories (read: cash prizes) get into the head & continues to portray the country in good light, & nicol has admirably fulfilled all 3.

today, we have a new champion - all-england badminton champion lee chong wei. never mind the wrong line call that gave him the winning point in the final, he has played well thoughout to deserve this elusive title. all credit also to his unseeded japanese opponent, k tago, who took the premature defeat graciously.

it is now left to be seen if chong wei, aged 28, will go on to be a true champion that will make the country proud, or will he be confined to the scrap heap, a fate suffered by recent malaysian all-england champions.

in the music industry, they would be call one-hit wonders, or in malaysia, jaguh kampungs.

not meant to be?

it was a difficult decision.

a nurse colleague resigned from the hospital to work in saudi arabia, where she will be paid at least 5 times more than her last job. she is due to fly off this weekend. her husband had also resigned from his job so that he can look after the children.

a few days ago, he developed a bleed in his brain. it was huge & was removed in an emergency surgery. he is still unconscious & things don't look good. if he were still employed, he would have received benefits that would have covered his medical expenses but that's academic now. he may have to be transferred to a govt hospital due to the escalating costs.

sometimes, life deals us a cruel twist. one day, all is hunky-dory & the next, our whole world seems to collapse right before our very eyes. what is one to do in such dire circumstances?

i don't have the answer. but i imagine her job in saudi would have to be put on hold until her husband's outcome can be determined. if it includes rehabilitation, it could stretch to months or even years, & recovery may still not be complete. besides, the children need taking care of.

it's common for us to organise things & make good plans that will benefit the family & possibly others. but if these don't fit into the Great Scheme of Things, they will not materialise, for reasons our mortal minds cannot comprehend. no matter how hard we strive to make it happen.

because some things are just not meant to be.

i pray for my colleague to have the mental strength to go through this ordeal & hope that a greater good will come out of this unfortunate event.

a dream

just seen the late news. i thought i heard the PM had, amidst applause, announced the immediate abolishment of import tax for cars.

actually, he was at a golf event & he meant GOLF BUGGIES. the reason he gave was that this would lead to improvement of quality of services at golf courses.

i'm sure that brought relief to the thousands of golfers & their respective golf clubs.

or, could he have done better by actually abolishing import taxes for cars which would certainly bring cheers to millions of motorists? then perhaps the retailing of petrol without subsidy would be more readily acceptable?

i don't know. i'm not the finance minister. but i have a dream that a fair price for a honda civic 1.8 should be around rm70k. heh heh!

we care, we serve?

my son's piano teacher was admitted to hospital on thursday after falling unconscious. a CT scan revealed generalised bleeding in the brain, most likely from abnormal blood vessel(s). She underwent emergency surgery to relieve the pressure building up within the skull. As she required further investigation & surgery not readily available at the hospital, she was referred to a prominent private medical centre in PJ today. this evening, her husband called me to bemoan the poor service rendered thus far.

1st, the medication ordered by the surgeon to lower the blood pressure was not served until after 2 hours, & that only when he asked why it wasn't served. apparently, there was a breakdown in communication between the ward and pharmacy.

2nd, the nurses looking after her weren't sure about some of the critical nursing procedures, & that's because she was lodged at the neonatal intensive care unit(!!!) as the adult ICU was fully occupied. last time i checked, neonates are babies up to 1 month old.

3rd, what aggravated the situation was that he was asked to put up a deposit of RM50K(!!!), & this is even before any investigation or surgery had been planned, today being a sunday. but he has no choice because he's in a desparate situation.

i checked up the medical centre's website & apparently, the group's corporate motto is :

we care, we serve.

i hope & pray all goes well because i think he has only scraped the surface.

how to lose money

count the ways.....

(1) gamble at a casino;

(2) invest recklessly in stock market;

(3) exchange with black money;

(4) join a dubious pyramid scheme.

you get the point. do any of the above & you would have mockery & jeer showered upon you for not being clever with your hard-earned money.

however, i think the most legitimate way to lose some, if ever there were one, without incurring any ridicule is to buy a car. any car. because the public transport system is so appalling, any worse it would be non-existent. therefore, buying a car is a justifiable exercise, even when it loses at least 10% of its value the moment it leaves the showroom.

in my case, i'm losing 80% of the car's original value after 9 years. the wife is flabbergasted at the depreciation. however, i'm ok with that because i relish those years of reliable work-horse-like service. without pricking on the conscience, i dare say it is a good investment. up & down the country in almost 120,000km of pleasurable driving in comfort & safety - 10-disc CD player, ABS, airbags & all.

only thing it's not, is a babe magnet. heh heh!


so, bernie madoff, eat your heart out!

the dent - a final straw?

i've been thinking of getting a smaller capacity car for some time. i'm not too enthusiastic about driving long-distance anymore, my reflexes have slowed down & i think my sense of awareness of space & distance has definitely gone downhill. this nasty dent i acquired today while trying to slot into a parking space large enough for a truck proves the point......

the boy witnessed the incident & after examining the damage, pronounced his judgment : papa, you need a new car.

correction, my dear son - papa needs a smaller car!

(perhaps a green car like a hybrid?)

one task too many

i was driving home on the expressway this evening & the wife was relating some new personal problems arising on her side of the family. i must have been quite engrossed because before i realised anything, i have already missed the exit by a good 10km!!

yeah, you're right - it was a personal problem of such severity that BOTH of us missed out on the exit!! but then as i reflected upon myself, i realised what they said about men is quite true - they....er...i meant, we can't do 2 things at a time.

ah ha, no wonder i couldn't talk to a patient & do an examination at the same time, neither could i watch TV & surf the net simultaneously. & it just dawned on me why i normally don't talk when i drive. good thing it's just an exit i missed. those recent fatal crashes into the back on stationary vehicles on the hard shoulder of the expressway.....could the drivers be talking on their mobile, or changing CDs, or just munching on potato chips?

obviously, the word "multi-tasking" doesn't exist in our vocabulary & (sigh) i am living proof of that.

this is also why i avoid talking to my surgeon friend when he is operating - how many medical litigations have we heard of, or read in the media already??

R.O.C

it stands for Reality Outside Classrooms. it's part of an enrichment program that the school organises for the secondary students, the objectives of which include providing learning experiences with global perspectives, building team spirit by working with students from different classes & integrating learning across the disciplines and across domains.

i saw it as an expensive a unique overseas study trip.

she's elected to go to cambodia (phnom penh & siem reap) where the students will interact with under-privileged kids at orphanages, carry out community service in villages & learn of the rich & somewhat ugly history of the country. remember the killing fields?

in a way, i am glad. after all those years tagging with us wherever we went, she's finally braved herself to travel with her peers. she's prepared to fly on her own. i wonder if Isaiah had this in mind when he wrote:

but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
(40:31)

here we go again.....

another bird-brained unique idea is hatched....

the education minister just announced on TV (also read here) that a new english curriculum will be tried out on our guinea-pig students implemented next year, with emphasis on language arts & phonics.

who is going to teach the new curriculum? our local teachers, a large proportion of whom can't string together a decent sentence in english;

& who is going to train our local teachers to teach in english? overseas masters teachers, whose payroll will be expensive & who remain a stop-gap measure, & local retired teachers.

will our students and teachers be ready for this, esp when they collectively didn't take english in maths & science too well?

yes, i hear you moan : oh no! here we go again....

the real killer?

we've always thought, & been taught, that heart disease is caused by stress, high blood pressure & high cholesterol. it seems that it's only part of the story.


ladies & gentlemen, we have a NEW killer. well, actually it's not new but it maybe the REAL killer.

news reports are just filtering through that arteries are narrowed as a result of inflammation &, amongst other causes, the main culprit could be sugar in the blood. read here for a quick overview & here and here for more comprehensive reports.

closer to home, sugar-sweetened soft drinks may be implicated as a cause of pancreatic cancer. (read here)

although these reports have not been validated by peer-reviewed medical journals, perhaps these could be taken as cautionary tales. consider this as you down that can or packet of the sugary stuff this festive season.

blessed new year!


But the fruit of the Spirit is .......... self-control. Against such things there is no law. gal 5:22,23

dive! dive!

i guess it's a matter of time before a problem cropped up on our 1st submarine (read here). it seems that the diving mechanism is faulty & now it can't safely submerge. the service contractor has been summoned to fix the fault which will take weeks.

i would suggest a quicker solution - call in the masters of diving.....

starting with cristiano ronaldo...

2nd opinion

when we go shopping for, say, an electrical appliance, it's customary to go to a few shops & enquire about the price, free gifts, delivery date, after-sales service, etc. because naturally we want the best deal. or, to put it in another way, we desire more for less. that's understandable.

it's the same with doctors. if you are not particularly familiar with any physician, you'll probably go from one clinic to another to get the best price for the treatment, the most patient & understanding doctor whose clinic nurses are the most polite & the medical centre with convenient & preferably free parking. that's perfectly understandable, too.

sometimes there is a twist. let's say you have chosen your doctor & has been receiving treatment in hospital. after some time, you think, whether correctly or not, that you're not getting the right treatment. then you ask for a 2nd opinion, which is absolutely within your right. as it turns out, this 2nd doctor is much younger, less experienced but certainly more energetic with lots of new ideas.

unfortunately, his treatment runs counter to the 1st doctor's.

sometimes patients put us in a difficult position, although they don't realise it. there's no right or wrong answer to this predicament because medicine is not an exact science & many grey areas exist. what are the 2 doctors to do? more importantly, how will this arrangement benefit & not disadvantage the patient?

again, i fear there are no right or wrong answers

yet another U-turn

isn't it typical?

last year, science/maths in english, then in bahasa.

muslims can't attend black eyed peas concert, then allowed.

planned to filter internet, then backtracked under public pressure.

last week, government doctors service to extend 5 - 10 years, then announced tonite maybe it'll be reduced to 4 years?

we malaysians are a confused lot, aren't we? no wonder we're not only not going forward, we've even regressed!

worlds apart

poor kid.

this 18-yr-old student, riding pillion on the way home from tuition, fell from the motorbike & broke his leg. we struggled with him in the OT the whole afternoon yesterday - fixed the fracture & stitched up other parts as well, but not before losing over a litre of blood.

he's not a pretty sight. which is quite ironic because he reminds me of P, who could well be a figment of my fertile imagination. 

riding pillion on a bike is not something P would relish. pampered from young & used to having her way, not for her are the sun-baked nor rain-drenched travel on vehicles having less than 4 wheels. you're more likely to find her sipping designer lattes in air-con comfort & dreaming of porsches. P's probably smart, so she studies in a private college & doesn't need tuition in the 1st place.

oh yes, a flame-red ferrari would do nicely as well, thank you very much, even better with the top down.

for every student lying in a hospital bed from a road traffic accident, i wonder if there exists someone like P in a parallel universe?


give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.
prov 30: 8,

the student becomes the teacher

虎

the coming lunar year of the tiger is heavily promoted on tv. so when this chinese character came on-screen today, i tested the boy & asked what the character was. nonchalantly, he said, "hu."

i said it should be pronounced "fu", since i remembered from young that the tiger was called lao fu. hmm, i thought, his school must be teaching him wrongly. he insisted that he was right & i insisted i was. so we checked the dictionary, & guess what?

i stand corrected & that's when i realised all these years i've been calling the tiger by the wrong name. i shook his hand & congratulated him for doing well.

& that's when i ate humble pie  the student became the teacher.

catching up in s'pore

30 days is a long time.

so, we spent the weekend at The Little Red Dot to catch up with the girl. besides Add Maths, dull hostel food, & over-emphasis on co-curricular points, i think she's just about getting the hang of things.

had dinner at newton...

attended church at acts centre, a branch of st andrew's, in bkt merah. the pastor's son led worship.

got a couple of packs of wine at NTUC......

yes, packs that look like shampoo refills. it pours from a tap.....

& would certainly make great presents.

**thanks keropok man for the tip**

oh, yes, traffic was so smooth, i must have missed this signboard....

lazarus (yet again)

the guy has been dead for 4 days when Jesus called him to rise up from the cave.

in modern times, it's rare for anyone to survive without water for more than a week in tropical climate. so, it's remarkable that they managed to pull out a teenager alive after being buried for 15 days in the aftermath of the haitian earthquake (read here).

it's been said that, as a rough guide, you can't live 3 minutes without oxygen, 3 days without water & 3 weeks without food. without oxygen, the brain cells just die off & the brain suffers irreparable damage. without food, the body initially breaks down fat & later muscles for energy.

but, without water, the wastes that the kidneys normally excrete remain in the body & very soon becomes toxic to all the vital internal organs, including brain, heart & the kidneys themselves.

hence, it's nothing short of a miracle that the girl is alive - even more amazing is that she was reported to have said "thank you" on being saved.

when was the last time someone said that when you opened the door for them at the office??

**image from Reuters**

go directly to jail

heard over the radio that the sentence service of govt doctors may be extended to 5, or even 10 years, from the current 3 years. no explanation was forthcoming but i suppose it's something to do with stemming the exodus of trained doctors/specialists into private practice.

instead of forcing compulsory service, doesn't it make more sense to provide conditions to make doctors WANT to stay in service?

like, specialist training for those interested, irrespective of background?

or, fair promotion across the board based solely on experience, qualification & ability?

or, higher financing & lower interest rates for cars & houses?

sounds like another ill-conceived bird-brained poor idea, not unlike the 1malaysia clinics. with the 20 or so local medical school producing thousands of doctors yearly, the hospitals will feel like prisons for the young ones.

a game of monopoly, anyone?

PS. however, it's true that remuneration has markedly improved over the years. a 1st year houseman takes home over RM4k a month, & a senior specialist up to RM20k, so this may not be the main contention for want-away doctors

back to school

remember many, many years ago the commercial for bata shoes - 1st to bata, then to school?

i've sort of gone back to school. but it's 1st to popular (book store) ....

then the book.....

then to school.

actually, it's self study. my daughter said add maths is tough. i tried to recall those days in form 4 but didn't think it was THAT difficult. anyway, i thought i'd just go thru the subject myself & try to put myself in her shoes. (definitely, not bata!)

i tried out quadratic equations last nite (for the 1st time in 30 years!) & it was still ok. it did come back to me eventually. i just have to tell her that it's a piece of cake  not that diffcult - those problems can be solved with practice & perhaps a little luck  perseverance.

for the record, i wasn't a distinction student for add maths.

the sun has finally set

when the british empire was at it's height in the early 1900s, it included over 20% of the world's land area - the largest empire ever in history. the phrase "the sun never sets on the british empire" was very close to the truth - because of its spread, some territory, somewhere, was always in daylight hours.

but not any more.....

amongst countries granted independence, hong kong went back to china...

manchester united and liverpool football clubs are owned by americans....

and chelsea by a russian....

lotus cars was sold to proton(m'sia), jaguar & land rover to tata(india)......

........and now........
:
:
:
:
:
:
:
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:

cadbury has ended a 6-month takeover battle by accepting a USD19.5bn bid from US (who else?) food giant kraft to create the world's largest maker of chocolate & sweets.

the loss of management control & possible future job losses aside, the damage to british pride of relinquishing a historic brand may be irreparable.

oh, yes, brace yourselves, the yankees are coming....!

a shepherd's heart

i'm really impressed with DL, a 15-year-old boy whose mother is my colleague. the youngest of 3 children, he's the only one in the family who attends church.

at last tuesday's prayer meet, in his capacity as Christian Fellowship leader in his school, he gave pastor a list of requests for the church to pray :

1) for S, his classmate who now believes in Christ & wants to be a light to the rest of his family;

2) for christians in national service that they may glorify God;

3) for his school's CF, that God will raise leaders & to increase each one's faith as they find their own way to God;

4) that God will unite the state's CFs under Christ, and;

5) for spiritual revival amongst the youths to accept God's challenge.

such noble intentions for someone so young! and so unselfish - because he even forgot to mention to pray for his own family's salvation.

definitely, one with a shepherd's heart!

Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. Jer 3:15

DVD weekend

i would assume that most people would buy DVDs of movies that they have not seen at the cinema. but not me - i would watch the movie at the cinema 1st & if i like it, i would buy the DVD version for keepsake, & to savour it at leisure later.

this weekend we were planning to visit the daughter but since she has school activities, we decided to stay put & visit another weekend. that's when i thought i'll have my own movie marathon with these 3 classics (well, 2 out of 3 isn't bad).

missing, however, are a home theatre system & some popcorn.

spare the rod

the boy is generally well-behaved at home. but at school, away from our watchful eyes, when he is with his friends, i suppose anything goes.

so, when someone snitched on him, telling the wife that he has been caned by the teacher, she asked the boy if he had been fighting or talking during lessons. with much reluctance, he said that it was because he didn't complete his homework but he was quick to point out that the caning wasn't painful.

now that this is out, it dawned on me that he has been portraying the "good boy in school" image. he may have been punished before but has been keeping his misdeeds from us. perhaps he wants to live up to his parents' expectations - to behave in school & study hard. maybe that's why he emphasized that the caning was not painful, as if to justify the insignificance of the misdeed & its punishment. but we shall give him the benefit of doubt. as long as he is punished for school-work related offenses, i say,"bring on the cane!!"

however, i would begin to worry if he starts fighting or stealing.

He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
prov 13:24

**Cartoon by Gado from THE DAILY NATION, Kenya**

lazarus #2: a system gone wrong

the family of the patient "lazarus" from the previous post has requested that he be transferred to a public hospital because the cost of private medical treatment is now a strain on their resources.

i don't blame them. private medical care has become so expensive the average man on the street would shun it solely because of this. no matter what the private hospitals promote about themselves, be it service from the heart or to make a difference in people's lives, they are mostly profit-driven organisations.

which means, money talks.

the final bill essentially consists of 2 portions, the hospital's charges & the doctors' fees. the latter are guided by a schedule sanctioned by the malaysian medical association & if any dispute concerning doctor's fees arose, this schedule would be used during arbitration. however, the hospital's portion is a lot more ambiguous & variable because its charges are guided by "market forces."

which means, anything goes.

that's just one side of the coin. why wouldn't the public avoid government hospitals if they can afford private healthcare? notwithstanding that some are fungus-infested & others have non-functioning operating theatres, public hospitals have always provided affordable (sometimes free) medical care to the masses but with a few drawbacks, like they double as training grounds for new doctors & nurses. sometimes, with minimal supervision.

which means, things are more likely to go wrong.

now, as the country realises its 2020 vision & attempts to achieve developed nation status, it is, amongst other ventures, churning out doctors like production lines in a factory, to attain that "magical" ratio of 1 doctor for every 600 population. a ratio that was taken out of context & now applied to this country. with a proliferation of public (9) & private (12) medical schools & a generation endeared to becoming healers, it's a recipe for a mismatch at best, & a disaster, at worst.

which means, doctors will very soon be a dime a dozen, & not all properly trained.

in a way, i'm sad for "lazarus" & at the same time fear for him. he may end up in one neglected corner of a general ward where he may be seen by a junior doctor just once a day, when instead he should be properly treated in intensive care, a setting where he was originally & miraculously resurrected.

any outcome other than for him to walk out of hospital alive would be a tragedy in a system that's gone wrong.

lazarus

When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go." John 11: 43, 44

this is perhaps the best known recorded back-to-life miracle that Jesus performed. the guy has been dead for 4 days & already buried in a cave. yet, the Lord resurrected him to life.

my patient whose life was hanging by a thread, & not much more, has by some inexplicable reason, recovered. from being comatosed, on life-support machine & numerous tubes stuck into him, he's now awake albeit a bit dazed, & about to have his 1st meal for days.

my colleagues are scratching their heads & trying to figure out what had happened. i could have told them it was divine intervention but....

from a grave prognosis (with one foot already in!), he's now back to life. let's just call him lazarus, shan't we?

a sobering start

i would like to have a good start - something nice, something happy to set an optimistic tone or mood for the rest of the year.

but it was not to be.

a patient i was watching over on new year's eve unfortunately developed serious complications & whose life now is hanging by a thread.

how precarious life is.....

& what thin line that separates the living from the dead......

but i have hope & assurance for the year & beyond....

because even though i journey through the valley of the shadow of death, His rod & His staff, they comfort me.....

and, His grace is sufficient for me.