MOTIVATING THE DEMOTIVATED

NOT A RELIGIOUS TREATISE

IF LIFE is a GAME, THESE are the RULES
 

The following entry is not inspired by any religious teaching. It is just a simple presentation by Dr. Cherie Carter-Scott in a book with the above title first published for export in 1999 by Broadway Books, New York. I bought it from Times bookshop in Kuala Lumpur and happened to come across it as I roamed around the Toeti Juairiah Library looking for books on motivation which I can present to my readers who are currently bogged down with all sorts of issues which are demotivating.

This blog submission, however, is not a substitute, far from it, for reading the book itself.

 

I take this initiative to present selected extracts of the book in response to what the author had to say before her piece of acknowledgement to those who assisted and inspired her. The author wrote:

 

If you come across the Rules for Being Human sometime during the last twenty-five years (since 1974) and photocopied them and passed them on to others; if you used the Rules for a retreat, class curriculum, brochure or Web site;  if you framed the Rules and put them on your wall, or tucked them in your drawer, or put them on the refrigerator door; if you read the Rules and smiled with recognition, then I dedicate this book to you and all seekers who have treasured the Rules for Being Human for these last twenty-five years. This book is to support you and those you love in your journey through Life. Use it as a primer for higher consciousness.

Blessings to you on your path.

It is therefore in the spirit of the author's wishes that I quote extensively from her book.

 

The following praises were made on this book by prominent authors on motivation:

 

"How wonderful it would be if we were all given Cherie Carter-Scott's ten rules the day we were born. Cherie has been teaching these rules for over twenty years. In her seminars, these rules have resonated with thousands of people. IF LIFE IS A GAME, THESE ARE THE RULES are universal truths that all of us can learn to live happier lives that are full of self-acceptance, understanding, love, success, and the inner knowing that we're all in this game together, on the same team. The door to a satisfying life lies within each of us, and Cherie's eternal inspiring message provides the key." - Jack Canfield, coauthor of CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL.
 

"The Ten Rules for Being Human are entertaining and fun - but more than that, they're TRUE." - Marianne Williamson, author of THE HEALING OF AMERICA and  A RETURN TO LOVE.

 

"IF LIFE IS A GAME, THESE ARE THE RULES will free you to wake up to your no-limit life." - Mark Victor Hansen, coauthor of CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL.

HERE ARE THE RULES:

KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA AT THE CONVOCATION CEREMONY OF IAIN AR-RANIRY BANDA ACEH 26^TH MARCH, 2005

Assalaa mu’alaikum warahmatullaa hi wabarakaa tuh

Bismillaa hir rahmaa nir rahiim. Alhamdulillaa hi rabbil ‘aalamin.

Wassalaa tu wassalaamu ‘ala asyrafil anbiya iwalmursaliin. Wa’ala aa lihi wasahbihi ajmaa’in

The Honorable Rector of IAIN Ar-Raniry,

The Academic and Administrative Staff of IAIN

Respected Officials,

Invited Guests,

Parents and Students,

Ladies and gentlemen,

FIRST CONVOCATION AFTER THE TSUNAMI

This is the first convocation after the “Aceh Tsunami 2004.’


Ini adalah wisuda pertama di Aceh setelah berlakunya bencana Tsunami di Aceh.

We are all here and therefore we are still around. That is, we still exist.

Kita semua berada di sini, ertinya kita masih ada, iaitu kita masih wujud.

Allah s.w.t. has blessed us with our continued existence.


Allah s.w.t. telah mencucuri kita dengan rahmat untuk terus menjalani penghidupan.

Bila saya diundang untuk menyampaikan pidato dalam majlis wisuda pada hari ini dua perkara telah mengganggu fikiran saya:

Pertama: Dalam bahasa apakah saya harus berbicara.

Jika saya berbicara dalam bahasa Inggeris ramai yang tidak memahaminya.


Oleh itu saya terpaksa menterjemah apa yang telah saya katakana.

Jika saya berbicara dalam bahasa Malaysia yang dikatakan sama dengan bahasa Indonesia, mungkin apa yang saya katakan menggunakan perkataan yang sama tetapi membawa erti yang berlainan.

Jika saya berbicara dalam bahasa Aceh, orang Aceh sendiri pun mungkin ada yang tidak memahami sepenuhnya.

Saya pilih untuk berbicara dalam bahasa Aceh kerana jika ada yang tidak memahaminya pun bolehlah mendengarnya seperti ibu dan bapa mendengar lagu Hindia yang enak didengar walau pun maknanya tidak bapa dan ibu ketahui.

Oleh itu pidato ini saya tulis di dalam bahasa Inggeris dan Melayu tetapi disampaikan dalam bahasa Aceh yang kaya raya.

Perkara kedua yang mengganggu pikiran saya ialah:

Kerana terdapat terlalu banyak buku dan pidato oleh seniman-seniman dakwah, termasuk lagu dan nyanyian yang disampaikan oleh penghibur terkenal, yang menggambarkan orang-orang Aceh itu terlalu banyak dosanya sehingga dihukum Allah s.w.t. dengan bencana Tsunami.

If it is true that the Acehnese have committed so much sins as to deserve such punishment it means that the death caused by the Tsunami attack are due to recent sins and not due to pre-destiny which was decided even before the dead were born.

Children could not have been punished because of the sins of their fathers and mothers. It is kinder, and more correct, to think of their death as predestined.

FORTUNATE VICTIMS

INSTITUSI WALI DI ACEH

HARI BERSEJARAH BAGI ACEH

Pada hari Isnin  16hb Disember, 2013 yang lalu, mulai pukul 9.00 pagi telah diadakan satu majlis pengukuhan perlantikan Paduka Yang Mulia Teungku Malik Mahmud Al Haytar sebagai Wali ke 9 bagi Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam di Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah Aceh.
 

Dari kenyataan dalam akhbar tindakan pengukuhan ini belum mendapat persetujuan pemerintah pusat.

PENDIRIAN PEMERINTAH REPUBLIK INDONESIA

Walau bagaimana pun Menteri Aparatur Negara (Menpan) Republik Indonesia Bapak Azwar Abu Bakar telah turut memberi kata-kata aluan dalam upacara rasmi itu. Tanpa menyentuh pendirian rasmi pemerintah pusat Bapak Menteri Azwar telah menyatakan bahawa Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sedia menunggu Paduka Yang Mulia Teungku Malik Mahmud Al Haytar di Jakarta. Pegawai tinggi dalam pemerintahan pusat Republik Indonesia telah menepis apa jua sentuhan mengenai pendirian Jakarta dengan hanya menyebutkan bahawa kehadiran mereka adalah sebagai menghormati jemputan.

 

Keputusan untuk mengukuhkan atau mengkonfirmasikan jawatan Wali ini adalah satu tindakan yang tepat pada masanya kerana waktunya ialah 10 hari sebelum ulangtahun ke 9 peristiwa Tsunami yang melanda Aceh pada 26hb Disember, 2004.
 

TSUNAMI

 

Peristiwa Tsunami ini adalah satu takdir dari Allah s.w.t. yang menjadi pendorong besar ke arah menentukan masa depan Aceh yang damai. Tanpa keinsafan yang timbul dari peristiwa Tsunami ini tidak mungkin pihak TNI dan GAM akan puas dengan korban yang menimpa satu pihak, dan pihak yang lain, secara perbandingan dengan korban yang menimpa kedua pihak, dalam peristiwa berdarah sepanjang 30 tahun sebelum itu..

 

Penglibatan Finland dalam usaha perdamaian yang berhasil itu adalah satu kebetulan yang wujud kerana ketepatan memandangkan kerana ianya juga pasti dapat dijayakan oleh pihak lain, yang terdahulu, jika telah berlaku Tsunami di waktu mereka menjadi penaja rundingan damai.
 

PARTAI ACEH DAN PARTAI DEMOKRAT

 

Ketepatan masa pengukuhan perlantikan Wali juga jelas sekali kerana sekarang ini kerajaan Aceh masih diperintah oleh Partai Aceh yang dipimpin dan dianggotai oleh ahli dan pendukung Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM). Pemerintah Republik Indonesia, di bawah pimpinan Presiden Susiso Bambang Yudhoyono dari Partai Demokrat juga bertanggungjawab menandatangani, bererti menyetujui, perjanjian Helsinki atau Helsinki Accord yang membawa kepada kedamaian di Aceh.

 

SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO

 

Pada 20hb Oktober, 2014 yang akan datang Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudoyono akan tamat tempoh perkhidmatannya sebagai Presiden Republik Indonesia dan tokoh yang akan dipilih untuk menjadi Presiden nanti, kecuali jika Jusuf Kalla turut bertanding dan menang, sudah tentu dari kalangan yang tidak terlibat dalam sumbangan perdamaian di Aceh.

 

Sementara Partai Aceh dan Partai Demokrat boleh berbangga dengan terciptanya keamanan di Aceh di bawah pimpinan tokoh-tokoh mereka sesiapa saja yang dipilih untuk menjadi Presiden Indonesia nanti akan lebih tidak serius untuk menjayakan perjanjian Helsinki jika ianya gagal dipatuhi di waktu yang mencipta keamanan itu masih dalam pemerintahan.

 

SYARAT UNTUK MENGEKALKAN KEAMANAN
 

Pada pandangan saya perdamaian di Aceh ini mempunyai masa depan yang cukup cerah bergantung kepada tiga faktor yang penting, iaitu:
 

SYARI'AT, JANJI DAN PERPADUAN

 

1. Pengekalan Aceh sebagai Nanggroe yang berpegang kepada Syariat Islam, dan

 

2. Kepatuhan semua pihak kepada janji yang terkandung dalam Perjanjian Helsinki atau Helsinki Accord.

3. Usaha yang berterusan untuk menyatupadukan pemimpin dan rakyat, antara sesama pemimpin dan sesama rakyat, dengan sikap kepimpinan yang telus, toleransi, amanah, berani, disiplin, rajin dan patriotik.
 

IN MEMORY OF ARIEL SHARON

FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM

I reproduce herewith a letter from Dr. Ang Swee Chai, the author of the book From Beirut to Jerusalem which was sent to Mr. Michael Young, The Editor of the Daily Star Beirut on 12th January, 2014.

 

As most of my readers will not have access to the Daily Star Beirut, where the letter is supposed to be published, and in the spirit of the freedom of expression I provide the following title to the letter -
 

THE REINCARDINATION OF DER FUHRER

Mr. Michael Young,
The Editor,
Daily Star Beirut.

Dear Mr. Young.

The passing of Ariel Sharon brought back the memories of the horrors of the Sabra Shatilla massacre of September, '82. I arrived in August that year as a volunteer surgeon to help the war victims of Lebanon.

 

The people in Lebanon were wounded, made homeless and lost precious friends and families as a result of ten weeks of ruthless bombardment.

 

That was the operation Peace for Galilee launched by Sharon who was then the Defense Minister of Israel in June, 1982.

 

No one knew how many was killed as the result of that offensive - the London newspapers estimated at thirty thousand with many times more made homeless. When a ceasefire was agreed with the evacuation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Sharon broke that ceasefire and drove tanks under air-cover launching a land invasion into Lebanon's capitol Beirut.

 

Part of the tanks sealed Sabra Shatilla and prevented the helpless civilian victims from escaping, while sending in Israel's allies into the camps to carry out the most brutal massacre of defenceless women, children and old people under Israel's watch.

 

The blame was quickly and deliberately shifted to the Lebanese as perpetrators of the massacres, so that today no one can mention that massacre without blaming the Lebanese Phalange, yet forgetting the Israeli organizers of that event.

 

I worked in Gaza hospital in Sabra Shatilla during the massacre trying to save the lives of a few dozen people, but outside the hospital hundreds were killed.

 

My patients and I knew that Sharon and his officers were in control, and without them the massacre would not be possible. The residents of Sabra Shatilla could at least have escaped.

 

Now, more than 30 years later, we know that the killers were brought in by Israel armoured cars and tanks, obeyed Israeli commands, their paths lit by Israeli military flares, and some of them also wore Israeli uniforms.

 

The mutilated bodies of the victims were thrown into mass graves by Israeli bulldozers.

 

This Sharon continued on to be Israeli Prime Minister, and built the Wall which imprisoned the Palestinians in the West Bank.

 

Sharon's Wall cut through their lands, separating people from their homes, children from their schools, farmers from their orchards, patients from hospitals, husbands from wives, and children from parents

 

He marched into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 2000 with fully armed Israeli soldiers and tried to have the West believe that his intention was for peace.

 

He was responsible for other massacres such as in Jenin, Qibya and Khan Yunis just to name a few.

 

The older generation in Khan Yunis in Gaza remembers that he killed all the grown men in the massacres of 1956 and left only the women and children to bury the dead.

 

I thought these facts should be publicized. Those who eulogize Sharon in his role of building Israel should also remember that he built his nation over the dead bodies of the Palestinian people, and the continued dispossession of those who are still alive.
 

Dr. Ang Swee Chai
Author of From Beirut to Jeruselem
12 January, 2014.

Dear Readers,

I have only this to say. Hitler appears like a student when compared to Sharon the master.

HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

Assalaamua'alaikum Warahmatullaahi Wabarakaatuh



Dear Readers,



I am sure you are bored with lengthy articles that I have entered in my blog. Besides narrating my experiences and thoughts on the subjects that I wrote, I have often entered articles from other sources which I thought might be of interest to readers. Some issues that crop up from time to time appears deceptively new and so I have entered old speeches and writings on those subjects for readers to ponder as those issues have been discussed, and sometimes solved in the past.



Hopefully, we do not waste too much time, trying to rediscover pythagorous theorem, in trying to find ways of solving problems which could be solved as it was done before.

In the recent past we had been focusing our attention on the following subjects:



1. Whether the ashes of the cremated communist terrorist Chin Peng should be buried in Malaysia.

2. Whether the Maoist Aishah should come back to Malaysia.

3. Whether the Christians should be allowed to use the word 'Allah'.

4. Whether Mat Sabu is a Syiah or a Sunni Muslim.

5. Whether demonstrations are meant to overthrow the BN or PR governments or just to protest against rising costs of living. 

Chin Peng is dead and Aisyah is said to have refused to come home. The issues are therefore settled without anybody being able to claim credit for them.

There are many more.

THE PARIS AIR SHOW

FROM THE PARIS AIR SHOW (PAS) TO LANGKAWI INTERNATIONAL MARITIME AND AEROSPACE EXHIBITION (LIMA).



PRIVILEGE OF CABINET MINISTERS



1. During the period I was in the Cabinet all Cabinet Ministers were allowed to have one month leave every year and the privilege of travelling overseas for a fare equivalent of 2 MAS first class tickets for the Minister and spouse and 3 full economy fares for adult children for a Kuala Lumpur - London return tickets. There was no ruling as to which airline one travels or how many people travel on which class so long as the sum total of all fares do not exceed the provision. The Kuala Lumpur - London fare was just a criteria in memory of our nation being once ruled from London where our founding fathers had their education.



2. I took advantage of this privilege by travelling to distant places for the benefit of our seven children. By all of us travelling on economy class the fare provision was enough for us to roam the world.

 
DISNEYLAND
 

3. One of our favourite destination was Disneyland in Anaheim, California where we went twice. Then we went to Disney World in Florida. We were in Chiba Disney World, in Japan during the first week of its opening. And of course we would not miss the Disneyland in Paris, particularly when the French was at the beginning not too happy with it. Culture being the reason.

4. We were informed that there were more German and foreign visitors to the Paris Disneyland than the French when it was first opened. Certainly during out visit. I knew of this because I too was educated in Germany and could understand their language.

PARIS