Jessica’s Notes

Here are some of my newly read books. These are truly inspiring autobiographies: Amazingly illustrated, Soul Touching, Strongly Recommended!

My personal preference in descending order…

I recently got this book from one of the warehouse sales around. I would say it is one of the best and most realistic book that I’ve ever came across. Definitely worth a read. Most importantly it has opened-up my mind on many perspectives on various global slavery issues we thought could not have happenned in the 21st century, but unfortunately it still EXIST. The stories actually gets your heart pounding- imagining the severity of the victims’ situations, especially when the survivors tell shares their stories of non-stop tortures, rapes, close-to-death experiences, escapes, and finally FREEDOM.

Authored by David Batstone (a professor of ethics at the University of San Francisco), the book shared a few real life stories about survivors of slavery including:

• How girls at young age ended up in sex parlours and brothels in Cambodia and Thailand?
• How South Asians ended up being a bonded labourer for generations?
• How children at young age were abducted and trained to kill as a child soldier in Uganda?
• How Eastern European women were transported by the European sex syndicates from one country to another and end up in US, Middle East or Asia Pacific?
• How Peruvian children ended up in the sex market and controlled by pimps?
• How slavery take place in the modern-day America?

More info:

“Not For Sale is a campaign of students, entrepreneurs, artists, people of faith, athletes, law enforcement officers, politicians, social workers, skilled professionals, and all justice seekers, united to fight the global slave trade,” find out more about this campaign at http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

You can also read more on global slavery updates from the Not for Sale website, i.e: Human Trafficking by US military subcontractor in Baghdad, UK Unveils Plan for Sex Trade Crackdown,FBI: Local child-prostitution roundup snares more than 100 in Bay Area, Project Censored: Not For Sale Featured in Top 25 Censored Stories of 2009,How China has created a new slave empire in Africa,Uganda: Churches, bars cited in human trafficking, and many more.

In line with the fight against global warming, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called on Malaysians to switch off all non-used lights for an hour, from 8.30pm-9.30pm on March 28 (Earth Hour).

This campaign was initiated in 2007, Australia. In 2008, many countries including 35 official flagship cities and also 400 supporting cities have participated in this campaign.

As for Malaysia, I believe it would be the first to be held in big scale. As off today, many iconic landmarks such as KLTower, Angkasapuri, Sunway Pyramid, MidValley Megamall, etc., in Malaysia have pledged their commitments for the ‘Earth Hour’ campaign.

The benefits of this campaign is obvious - energy saving -> reduces CO2 released -> reduces global warming. The amount of energy saved just in 1 hour by switching the lights and non-used electricity off, is quite alarming. Here are some figures from various countries which have participated in this campaign before:

• “Toronto saved 900 megawatt-hours of electricity. 8.7% was saved if measured against a typical March.”
• “Ireland, as a whole, had a reduction in electricity use of about 1.5% for the evening.In the three-hour period between 18:30 and 21:30, there was a reduction of 50 megawatts, saving 150 megawatt-hours, or approximately 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide.”
• “In Dubai, where external lighting on several major city landmarks was turned off and street lighting in selected areas was dimmed by 50%, the Electricity and Water Authority reported savings of 100 megawatt-hours of electricity.”
• “The best result was from Christchurch, New Zealand. The city reported a drop of 13% in electricity demand.”
• “Melbourne, Australia saved 10.1% of electricity. Sydney, being the city that participated both 2007 and 2008 Earth Hour, cut 8.4% electricity consumption.”

So friends, what are you waiting for, let’s switch off our lights too.

For more info about Earth Hour:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Hour
http://www.earthhour.org/
http://thestar.com.my/

Wooo….hooo….Chinese New Year is around the corner again. Gong Xi Gong Xi!!!

Unlike previous years, instead of getting angpows, I’m giving out angpows. Those who are interested, feel free to come and visit me.

Anyway, I’m think you will definately agree with me if I say Chinese New Years isn’t about angpow alone. I’m sure a lot of you (my friends) will be leaving KL for your hometown (balik kampung) to celebrate this auspicious event with your family.

But before you go back, remember to keep all your doors and windows lock, your auto-timer lights switched on, your neighbours or security guards informed (if you trust them…hehe) that you are leaving house for a couple of days. In addition to that, perhaps there’s no harm taking an extra step by informing your local authorities too. SMS them:

 SMSPOLISKL<space>BK<space>YOUR ADDRESS<space>HOLIDAY DATE send it to 32728

One more very important info:

POLIS KL HOTLINE:  03-2115 9999 (remember to save this no. into your mobiles)

Other states Police Headquarters HOTLINE: http://www.rakancop.net/HubungiKami/tabid/100/Default.aspx

Lastly, have a safe journey home and may you have a happy and prosperous chinese new year friends!

SEND as E-Card, RECEIVE as PHYSICAL card…for FREE!!! @ Enveluv.com\

Yeah…while some people are bringing our offline (physical) products to the online (internet) marketplace, these group of creative people are integrating both processes, creating an ONLINE convenience for a OFFLINE consumption.

Have you ever imagine how troublesome and expensive it is to send a physical greeting card? Not only that you got to buy a card from some gift stores, you got to stuff it into an envelope, you got to get some stamps from the post office, and you got to drop it into a post box. At the end of the day, you might say, “Hey, forget about greeting cards. It is so troublesome…”

But guess what guys, now, everything is done by A CLICK AWAY…and most importantly, it’s F. O. C.

It doesn’t sound believable to you? Well…I’ve tested it on my own. After about a week, my darling’s card arrived…

Being one of the oldest and most common surgical procedures known, perhaps the term Male Circumcision (surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis) is not uncommon to us. Normally this procedure was undertaken due to cultural, religious and social reasons. But with the advancement of the medical studies, male circumcision is now strongly encouraged by WHO as scientific evidence have tied the benefits of this procedure to the reducing possibility of sexually transmitted disease including the most serious type of STD: HIV.

HOWEVER, do you know that while male circumcision is strongly encouraged, female circumcision on the other hand is strictly opposed?

Female Circumcision, is also known as female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) (surgical removal of all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs). Similar to male circumcision, this practice is conducted in regards to traditional, cultural, and religious procedures.

Unfortunately, on the contrary to male circumcision, female circumcision practice that happens frequently in Africa, is extremely controversial due to 2 reasons: (a) issue of consent and (b) safety and consequences of the procedure.

(a) Issue of Consent - Most of the time, the procedure is normally carried out when child is between the ages of 4 to 8, in which it means that the child are still at innocent age to determine if they want the procedure or not. Decisions were being made merely by parents.

(b) Safety and consequences of the procedure - Due to the banned of this procedure, superstitions that persist have led to illegal/underground circumcision practices. Female circumcision performed by under the lack of medical training, anesthetics, sterilization and use of proper medical instruments have caused: death through shock from immense pain, excessive bleeding, infections, urinary and reproductive tract infections, menstrual flow blocked, scarring, infertility, infibulated women, increase risk of infant death during delivery, and many more side effects.

Horror of Female Circumcision

The issue of female circumcision is therefore still hot debate as the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has stated that [the] practice violates the basic rights of women and girls, [...]” and “[...] female genital mutilation or cutting is not required by any religion.”

References:

http://www.unaids.org/en/PolicyAndPractice/Prevention/MaleCircumcision/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_genital_cutting

“Life and Death in Shanghai” by Nien Chang, is one of the best autobiographies I’ve ever read.

Nien Chang who worked for Shell in Shanghai was accused of being a British spy during China’s Cultural Revolution. She was imprisoned in the 1st detention house at that time for 6.5 years. Her daughter was killed by the Red Guards when she refuse to denounce her mother. Even after she was released, she still suffered from continuous harassment and intimidation from the people around her.

Not only that the author has fantastic English, her ability to re-exposed and describe every little detail of her tragic experience during the Cultural Revolution in China, has taught me a lot about the history of China. Her strong will for survival to prove her innocence is something we should learn from.

Life and Death in Shanghai - A MUST READ BOOK!!!

My and my hubby have just collected our pre-wedding photos and video. We went to RedBliss @ SS2. We really enjoyed the photo session, and the photos and videos turn up satisfiable too. Staffs service are undeniably at an excellent level. A strongly recommended wedding gallery I would say.

We’ve already uploaded those to our wedding page. You can check it out at: www.mywedding.com/sunnyandjessica. Feel free to leave us your wedding blessings at our guestbook. Enjoy…

Photo Montage

Behind the Scene - MTV (highly recomended…haha)

When I was shopping at Sg. Wang Plaza, K.L few weekends back, I happened to come across some cute little decorationss. I did not realized that those were displayed items until I took a second glance. My goodness… they were merely cakes and sushi made of TOWEL. They looked so real. Price range was rather cheap too (RM20-RM70). If you’re looking for something special for birthdays, perhaps you should check this out!!!

Couple of months back, my little puppy, ‘Icy’ (White Miniature Schnauzer ) was sick.  She discharges blood during urination. The problem lasted for a month until the second visit to the doctor suspected that it could be urinary tract infection. However, since it has been quite some time, we decided to bring her to the animal hospital in UPM. Upon X-Ray confirmation showing existence of a few stones in her bladder, we were directed to a private vet hospital in Brickfields (due to hospital bed were full for another 2 weeks).

We admitted her there for 3 days. The surgery was a success and the vet removed 4 big stones from her bladder. But, the cost is not cheap - about RM1k.

The stones removed from her bladder

Anyway, we’re glad she’s back home safely. She’s a little weak for the first couple of weeks though. But now, she’s definitely as active as she was before this.

Doctor had advice us take good care of Icy’s diet. Now, we have to avoid giving her any sort of doggy tit-bits (because it is extremely salty) and any human food except fruits. According to the some scientific source, small breed dogs such as (miniature schnauzer, pug, pekingese, yorkshire terrier) are more prone to bladder stones. So those of you my friends who have been keeping small breed dogs, remember to not give salty food to your puppies. Give them more water and encourage them to do lots of exercises. May your beloved puppies always stay healthy too.