Mother abuse

International evidence suggests that in advanced welfare states the abuse of parents, most particularly mothers, by their (most frequently male) adolescent children is increasingly prevalent. In the United Kingdom, however, child-to-mother abuse remains one of the most under-acknowledged and under-researched forms of family violence.

source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20726145/

Covid-19

I have not been in the right mood to make any blog entry for almost a month.  The whole world is in a state of despair.  The world will never be the same again.

Malaysia announced its first Covid-19 cases on Jan 25 involving three China tourists who had entered Malaysia via Johor from Singapore on Jan 23. The number of cases then rose to 22 by Feb 16, representing a first wave of cases. A second wave of cases began on Feb 27 and since then the number of people affected by the coronavirus has risen to more than 1,000.

To stem the number of new cases, the government imposed a two week Movement Control Order starting March 18 to March 31.  The MCO was then extended twice, with current phase to end on April 28.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/03/23/covid-19-current-situation-in-malaysia-updated-daily#cxrecs_s

Today the situation in the country is as follows:

Date

Total cases

New cases

Total deaths

Total recovered

19-April

5389

84

89

3197

Blocked from FB?

"Like I said above, I HAD to block my MIL who WAS a FB friend, but she was looking at my families FBs thru my account and commenting to me openly on their pics and all, because they apparently had their settings to friends of friends, but she was literally doing nothing else all day long but stalking people on FB". I copied the above from someone's entry online. I hope I am not in that category.

The most common but under-reported subject area in the field of psychology

Abuse of parents by their children is one of the most common but under-reported and under-researched subject areas in the field of psychology. Parents are quite often subject to levels of childhood aggression in excess of normal childhood aggressive outbursts, typically in the form of verbal or physical abuse. Parents feel a sense of shame and humiliation to have that problem, so they rarely seek help and there is usually little or no help available anyway.

…abuse may appear in one or a combination of five forms; physical, verbal, psychological, emotional, and financial. Bobic mentioned only four of the five listed abuses; verbal abuse was not included in her 2004 article, Adolescent Violence Towards Parents.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_abuse_by_children

Parents are deserving of kindness

“And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him.  And that you be dutiful to your parents.  If one of them or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of disrespect, nor shout at them but address them in terms of honour.” (Quran 17:23).

God continues this verse by reminding us that parents are deserving of kindness because they raised their children with gentleness and often made great sacrifices for their wellbeing.

Prophet Muhammad reinforced the duty to be kind to parents.  A companion of the Prophet once asked him which of the many good deeds a man can do is the most loved by God.  Prophet Muhammad answered him by saying, “To offer the prayer in its proper time”.  The companion then asked, “And what is next?” to which Prophet Muhammad replied, “To be good and dutiful to your parents…”[1].  The responsibility to be kind and good to parents comes right after the greatest duty in Islam, the prayer.

Source: https://www.islamreligion.com/articles/1624/kindness-to-parents-part-1/

 

 

The pain

"The end of a marriage has got to be one of the saddest events one can experience. I've heard that the pain [of divorce] is second only to an actual death in the family, and that sounds about right." —Danica McKellar

 

This too shall pass

One of my favorite sayings is “this too shall pass.” It has indeed served me well through life’s ups and downs.

“This too shall pass” is relevant in good times and in bad. When things are going your way, enjoy it because there will come a time when this changes. And when you’re going through a rough patch it would not hurt forever for you’ll eventually get through it and overcome the emotional upheavals over time, sooner than you realize.

 

So true!

The Innocence of War

Turkish photojournalist Osman Sagirli took this picture of four-year-old Hudea, a Syrian child who escaped with her mother and two siblings when fighting broke out near her home in Hama. When he simply pointed the camera at her, she raised her hands as sign of surrender. The image moved people all around the world.

 

Source: The-innocence-of-war

Newborn baby flushed down the toilet like a piece of waste

I watched this several times.  This has really shaken me to my core.  So glad baby had a happy ending.  God, please help him grow into a good person.

Child labor had dramatically increased in Syria

Child labour isn’t a new phenomenon in Dera’a, in southern Syria, but it has dramatically increased in recent times as families have lost breadwinners due to bombing or clashes. They now look to children to provide support to make ends meet.

"Many of the children who left school have done so because of the harsh conditions in Syria right now. Often it’s because schools were destroyed in shelling and clashes, and I know one child who was forced to work when the family’s breadwinner was killed. The child had to work to pay for a home for him and his family,” Fatima, a teacher at a primary school in the countryside east of Dera’a, told Middle East Eye.

Children who are working take on enormous responsibilities, working long hours, sometimes more than 12 hours per day, and often doing work adults can’t or won’t. 
 
Source:  Child-labour-rise-destitute-southern-Syria

 

168 million child laborers globally

According to the International Labor Office, there are about 168 million child laborers globally, which accounts for approximately one in 10 of the world’s children. Albeit a one-third reduction since 2000, the problem remains acute. An estimated 13 million children work in India alone, despite laws prohibiting child labor and mandating school attendance.  About four percent of child laborers are in forced or bonded labor, prostitution, or fighting in armed conflict. The remainder of the world’s child laborers work in family businesses or on family farms, where they often toil as much as 27 hours per week and are, like the child tobacco laborers, exposed to a variety of dangerous chemicals and pesticides.

Source: http://www.counterpunch.org

Paulo Henrique Felix da Silveira, aged 9, collects recyclable materials by wading into the Arruda Canal near the Saramandaia slum in Recife, Brazil. According to a 2010 census, 3.6% of the 20,166 people who collect items for recycling in Pernambuco State were aged 10-17 - Reuters

Rustam,10, works at an aluminium factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where about 25 children were employed, 

many of them working for 12 hours a day - Reuters

Source of photographs: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk

Unwanted!

1.  January 2005-January 2011

517 cases of baby dumping

Boys 203; girls 164; undetermined gender 150 (too decomposed to determine)

Found alive 230; found dead 287

2. January-March 2014

26 cases of baby dumping

3. Recent cases that happened in September 2014

Baby boy dumped in monsoon drain 

A body of baby boy believed to be just weeks old was found dumped in a monsoon drain at Taman Wilayah .  Several workers carrying out grass cutting by the road shoulder made the grisly find.  Sentul police chief said the child whose umbilical cord was still intact was clad in pink clothing.

http://www.thesundaily.my/news/1170851

 

Newborn found dead at waste disposal site

A scrap dealer who was looking for items at a waste disposal site in Kampung Tanjung in Johor stumbled upon a dead baby wrapped in a plastic this morning.  The newborn was found in a plastic bag with its unmbilical cord intact. The baby had been born in the last 24 hours.

http://www.nst.com.my/node/33606

 

Baby found dead in trash

 

In Mersing, Johor, a baby with his umbilical cord still intact was found dead among a pile of trash. It was wrapped in newspaper and put into a plastic bag.
http://www.thestar.com.my/News/Nation/2014/09/15/Crime-baby-dead-trash 

MH 17 - our people come home

Malaysians woke up this morning to the National Flag being hoisted at half-mast  to honour the victims of the MH 17 crash, which killed all 298 persons on board, including 43 Malaysians on July 17.    
 
What must have been an agonizing wait for the next-of-kin of 20 of the 43 Malaysian victims came to an end with the arrival of their remains, 37 days after the downing of MH 17, that shocked us all, especially so close following the tragic disappearance of MH 370 hardly 4 months before on 8 March 2014.  

To whoever shot down the plane, do you know how many lives are destroyed foreever?  You not only killed 298 persons but brought so much grief to all those who love them, all those who depend on them and all those who are supposed to grow up with them and spend the future with them.  

Please read more at http://www.thestar.com.my/

The scene along the busy Federal Highway at 10.55 am today when all Malaysians,
including motorists, observed 1 minute of silence for the victims of MH17  

Into the winter's gray delight,
Into the summer's golden dream,
Holy and high and impartial,
Death, the mother of Life,
Mingles all men for ever.
~William Ernest Henley, "XIV: Ave, Caesar!", In Hospital

What gives them the right to play God?

Malaysian, Tan Sook Theng, mourning the loss of her close friend, Elaine Teoh on MH 17 which crashed in Ukraine from a missile attack said:


"People have all the basic necessities to live; life isn't really all that complicated, but people make it so. The only thing that's making this world sick is that people are feeding their ego. What makes them so superior than the rest to play God?"


Source:  Woman-recalls-friends-a-loving-couple-to-the-end-onboard-mh17-bernama


298 lives as well as the lives of their loved ones were changed forever when tragedy struck when MH17, a Boeing 777-200, was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, shot down by a surface-to-air missile in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk.   A senseless act.  The murderers must not go unpunished.

I mourn for all the lives lost and for the lost of the future they could have had.

    

He passed away less than 10 hours after his wedding

Published on Jun 18, 2014 (source: youtube)

Early this year, Rowden and Leizl decided to get married on July 8, 2014, Rowden's 30th birthday. Together with their adorable 2-year-old daughter, they already had a perfect family.

Then a twist of fate, Rowden got diagnosed with stage IV liver cancer in late May. His last request was to marry his one true love. After 12 hours of preparations, his dream was fulfilled. Unable to take him outside the hospital, we brought the church to him. It was like a heartbreaking fairy tale.

Rowden Go, at the age of 29-years-old, passed away on June 11, 2014. Less than 10 hours after he said his vows. He is survived by his wife Leizel May, daughter Zakiah Rowzel, mother Lorelei, and brothers Hasset & Hisham.

I cried a bucket

I cried a bucket when I viewed this video.

Let's hope he recovers fully. 

May God give them strength

A British satellite company, Inmarsat,  guided by a principle of physics called the Doppler effect, analyzed tiny shifts in the frequency of the plane’s signals to infer MH370's flight path and likely final location, concluded that MH370 ended its journey in the middle of the southern Indian Ocean.

Based on this conclusion the Malaysian PM announced to the world 4 days ago on Monday 24 March that Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean and no one is believed to have survived the flight. 

As the days passed since the plane's disappearance on 8 March we had all been reeling in disbelief and sadness over the fate of the 239 passengers and crew members. I find that I could not pull myself away from surfing the web or watching the news channels, hoping for some good news, and now it had come to that.  I can't imagine how agonizing and traumatic it must have been for the 239 passengers and crew members.  For the relatives they leave behind, as they deal with their huge grief, for which there is no short cut, may God give them strength.

Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace?

People displaced by fighting between rival militias seeking shelter under an old broken airplane at the airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, on Saturday. French soldiers were cheered by residents as they began patrolling densely populated neighbourhoods of Bangui, which has been rocked by waves of killings between Muslim and Christian communities. – Reuters pic, December 9, 2013.

Syrian people flee from Syria after clashes between Syrian rebels and government soldiers in Rasulayn region Photo: EPA 09 December 2013.  More than 2.5 million people have been internally displaced in Syria as a result of the civil war.  As the fighting in Syria spreads, leaving almost no city unscathed, millions of people have snatched what possessions they can carry and fled their homes in search of a safer hideout inside the country. A spokesperson of the UNHCR said that 2.5 million is only a conservative estimate!

Internally displaced Sri Lankan people wait behind barbed wire at Menik Farm refugee camp in Cheddikulam Photo: AFP/GETTY 17 May 2009

One of the many displacement camps in Mogadishu.  Somalia 2011 © Yann Libessart / MSF.  Ravaged by 20 years of civil war, Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, experienced an influx of displaced persons . Providing aid to people who have fled hunger and fighting is a constant challenge in this chaotic urban setting. More than 150,000 Somalis have left the provinces of the country's central region—Bay, Bakool, Hiran, Lower and Middle Shabelle—to seek refuge in Mogadishu.

"We have all taken risks in the making of war. Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace?"  (J. Ramsay MacDonald)

The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive

A family close to me lost their eldest grandson, aged 21, yesterday to the rat bacteria, known as LEPTOSPIRA interrogans.  He was admitted to hospital last Thursday,  put in the ICU on Saturday and passed away yesterday (Wednesday) morning.  Damage to his organs had spread very fast and he could not respond to antibiotics. The family is so devastated and I feel their pain.   

http://www.hmetro.com.my/articles/Meracautahanderita/Article

The death of someone we know always reminds us that we are still alive - perhaps for some purpose which we ought to re-examine. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960