Child 'Witches' in Africa

Excerpt taken from here:

"Evangelical pastors are helping to create a terrible new campaign of violence against young Nigerians. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned, and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities." Watch this video.

I am overwhelmed and consumed by anguish and pain.

Lord have mercy upon us, all of us, sick and perverted human beings.

Lord... *speechless*

Can you feel their pain?

Why So Defensive?

I was so amused and confused by the reactive and sometimes illogical responses given by our Information Minister in an interview conducted by Al Jazeera (in regards to 10 Nov). Watch it for yourself.

Video of Plea

A recent video of plea by the family members of the Korean hostages to the people of Afghanistan. Very very heart-wrenching.

Updates: Korean Hostages in Afghanistan

Read here. Very distressing.

Second Chance to Live

4 slash wounds and 20 stab wounds.

A girl's life was abruptly and brutally ended after 11 years of living, committed by a boy who was only one year older than her.

As a result of his action, the boy paid 4 years of his adolescence behind bars at the pleasure of the King. 4 years later, the court reaffirmed the conviction that he was found guilty of the murder but freed him. Reason? There was no law that prescribes a sentence for a child convicted of murder.

Found guilty but freed?

The Bar Council of Malaysia describes the verdict as a failure of the criminal justice system.

The mother of the daughter is stunned and must be suffering from another severe emotional setback. The thought of the boy paying 4 years of imprisonment in exchange of her daughter's life is simply unbearable.

As for the rest of Malaysia, many must be feeling furious over the inability of the system and sympathizing over the family of the girl.

What about the boy? Having spent the best of his formative years behind bars, he will be suffering from the repercussions of the imprisonment for the rest of his life. More importantly, he will be haunted by his guilt and will experience rejection by the society. This is a more torturous punishment than capital punishment, which would have been his fate if not for Child Act 2001.

Undeniably, we see injustice from the perspective of the family of the victim. Yet perhaps, from the perspective of the family of the boy, we see the remorseful boy experiencing grace, given a second chance to live.

As If We Care

HOORAY! Soon we are going to enjoy "blazing fast" internet access. From the current 2 Mbps service, our beloved Telekom Malaysia is moving to provide 100 Mbps access to homes in the near future...

Ya right, as if we care.

If Telekom Malaysia is incapable of handling simple tasks such as this, this and this; what is the point of trying to be ambitious and painting such a promising prospect?

Uncommon Common Sense

"What is the point of keeping a person a Muslim if they no longer believed in the faith and made that publicly known?"

These were the words of Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, minister in the Prime Minister's Department who is also the de facto law minister, as he urged everyone to respect the decision made by the Federal Court in dismissing Lina Joy's appeal and not to speculate that Lina would not stand a chance in the Syariah Court.

Words of common sense but so uncommon in practice.

Read here for the full report. Read here for an interesting article in response to the Federal Court's decision. Read here and here for a compilation of reports from different sources.