Friday, January 11, 2013

Kisah makcik penjual tempe


Ada sebuah kampung di pedalaman Tanah Jawa. Di situ ada seorang perempuan tua yang sangat kuat beribadat. Pekerjaannya ialah membuat tempe dan menjualnya di pasar setiap hari. Ia merupakan satu-satunya sumber pendapatannya untuk menyara hidup. Tempe yang dijualnya merupakan tempe yang dibuatnya sendiri.

Pada suatu pagi, seperti biasa, ketika beliau sedang bersiap-siap untuk pergi menjual tempenya, tiba tiba dia tersedaryang tempenya yang diperbuat daripada kacang soya hari itu masih belum menjadi, separuh jadi.

Kebiasaannya tempe beliau telah masak sebelum bertolak. Diperiksanya beberapa bungkusan yang lain. Ternyatalah memang kesemuanya belum masak lagi.

Perempuan tua itu berasa amat sedih sebab tempe yang masih belum menjadi pastinya tidak akan laku dan tiadalah rezekinya pada hari itu. Dalam suasana hatinya yang sedih, dia yang memang kuat beribadah teringat akan firman Tuhan yang menyatakan bahawa Tuhan dapat melakukan perkara-perkara ajaib, bahawa bagi Tuhan tiada yang mustahil. Lalu diapun mengangkat kedua tangannya sambil berdoa , "Tuhan , aku memohon kepadaMu agar kacang soya ini menjadi tempe. Amin"

Begitulah doa ringkas yang dipanjatkan dengan sepenuh hatinya. Dia sangat yakin bahawa Tuhan pasti mengabulkan doanya. Dengan tenang perempuan tua itu menekan-nekan bungkusan bakal tempe dengan hujung jarinya dan dia pun membuka sikit bungkusan itu untuk menyaksikan keajaiban kacang soya itu menjadi tempe. Namun, dia termenung seketika sebab kacang tu masih tetap kacang soya.

Namun dia tidak putus asa, sebaliknya berfikir mungkin doanya kurang jelas didengar oleh Tuhan. Maka dia pun mengangkat kedua  tangannya semula dan berdoa lagi. "Tuhan, aku tahu bahawa tiada yang mustahil bagiMu. Bantulah aku supaya hari ini aku dapat menjual tempe kerana inilah mata pencarianku. Aku mohon agar jadikanlah kacang soyaku ini kepada tempe, Amin".
Dengan penuh harapan dan debaran dia pun sekali lagi membuka sedikit bungkusan tu. Apakah yang terjadi? Dia termangu dan hairan apabila tempenya masih tetap begitu!!

Sementara itu hari pun semakin meninggi sudah tentu pasar sudah mula didatangi ramai orang. Dia tetap tidak kecewa atas  doanya yang belum terkabul. Walaubagaimanapun kerana keyakinannya yg sangat tinggi dia bercadang untuk tetap pergi ke pasar membawa barang jualannya itu.
Perempuan tua itu pun berserah pada Tuhan dan meneruskan pemergian ke pasar sambil berdoa dengan harapan apabila sampai di pasar kesemua tempenya akan masak.

Dia berfikir mungkin keajaiban Tuhan akan terjadi semasa perjalanannya ke pasar. Sebelum keluar dari rumah, dia sempat mengangkat kedua tangannya untuk berdoa. "Tuhan, aku percaya, Engkau akan mengabulkan doaku. Sementara aku berjalan menuju ke pasar, Engkau kurniakanlah keajaiban ini buatku, jadikanlah tempe ini. Amin". Lalu dia pun berangkat. Di sepanjang perjalanan dia tetap tidak lupa membaca doa di dalam hatinya.

Sesampai sahaja di pasar, segera dia meletakkan barang-barangnya. Hatinya betul-betul yakin yang tempenya sekarang mesti sudah menjadi. Dengan hati yang berdebar-debar dia pun membuka bakulnya dan menekan-nekan dengan jarinya setiap bungkusan tempe yang ada.
Perlahan-lahan dia membuka sedikit daun pembungkusnya dan melihat isinya.
Apa yang terjadi? Tempenya masih belum menjadi!!
Dia pun kaget seketika lalu menarik nafas dalam-dalam. Dalam hatinya sudah mula merasa sedikit kecewa dan putus asa kepada  Tuhan kerana doanya tidak dikabulkan. Dia berasakan Tuhan tidak adil. Tuhan tidak kasihan padanya, inilah satu-satunya punca rezekinya, hasil jualan tempe. Dia akhirnya Cuma duduk sahaja tanpa mempamerkan barang jualannya sebab dia berasakan bahawa tiada orang yang akan membeli tempe yang baru separuh menjadi.

Sementara itu hari pun semakin petang dan pasar sudah mulai sepi, para pembeli sudah mula kurang.

Dia meninjau-ninjau kawan-kawan sesama penjual tempe, tempe mereka sudah hampir habis. Dia tertunduk lesu seperti tidak
sanggup menghadapi kenyataan bahawa hari ini tiada hasil jualan yang boleh dibawa pulang. Namun jauh di sudut hatinya masih menaruh harapan terakhir kepada Tuhan, pasti Tuhan akan menolongnya. Walaupun dia tahu bahawa pada hari itu dia tidak akan dapat pendapatan langsung, namun dia tetap berdoa buat kali terakhir, "Tuhan, berikanlah penyelesaian terbaik terhadap tempeku yang belum menjadi ini."

Tiba-tiba dia dikejutkan dengan teguran seorang wanita.

"Maaf ya, saya ingin bertanya, Makcik ada tak menjual tempe yang belum menjadi? Dari tadi saya sudah pusing keliling pasar ini untuk mencarinya tapi masih belum berjumpa lagi."

Dia termenung dan terpinga-pinga seketika. Hatinya terkejut sebab sejak berpuluh tahun menjual tempe, tidak pernah seorang pun pelanggannya mencari tempe yang belum menjadi. Sebelum dia menjawab sapaan wanita di depannya itu, cepat-cepat dia berdoa di dalam hatinya.
"Tuhan, saat ini aku tidak mahu tempe ini menjadi lagi. Biarlah tempe ini seperti semula, Amin".

Sebelum dia menjawab pertanyaan wanita itu, dia membuka sedikit daun penutup tempenya. Alangkah seronoknya dia, ternyata memang benar tempenya masih  lum menjadi! Dia pun rasa gembira dalam hatinya dan bersyukur pada Tuhan.

Wanita itu pun memborong habis kesemua tempenya yang belum menjadi itu.
Sebelum wanita tu pergi, dia sempat bertanya wanita itu, "Mengapa hendak membeli temp e yang belum jadi?" Wanita itu menerangkan bahawa anaknya yang kini berada di England teringin makan tempe dari desa. Memandangkan tempe itu akan dikirimkan ke England, si ibu tadi kenalah membeli tempe yang belum jadi lagi supaya apabila sampai di England nanti akan menjadi tempe yang sempurna.
Kalau dikirimkan tempe yang sudah menjadi, nanti di sana tempe itu sudah tidak elok lagi dan rasanya pun kurang sedap.
Perempuan tua itu pun kehairanan dan berfikir rupa-rupanya doanya sudah pun dimakbulkan oleh Tuhan...

Moral:
Pertama: Kita sering memaksakan kehendak kita kepada Tuhan sewaktu berdoa, padahal sebenarnya Tuhan lebih mengetahui apa yang kita perlukan dan apa yang terbaik untuk diri kita.

Kedua:. Sentiasalah berdoa dalam menjalani kehidupan seharian kita sebagai hambaNya yang lemah. Jangan sekali-kali berputus asa terhadap apa yang dipinta. Percayalah bahawa Tuhan akan mengabulkan doa kita sesuai dengan
rancanganNya yang mungkin di luar jangkaan kita.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Sharing everything for love...


The old man placed an order for one burger, French fries and a drink. 
He unwrapped the plain burger and carefully cut it in half, placing one half in front of his wife. He then carefully counted out the French fries, dividing them into two piles and neatly placed one pile in front of his wife.
He took a sip of the drink, his wife took a sip and then set the cup down between them.
As he began to eat his few bites of burger, the people around them were looking over and whispering.

Obviously they were thinking, 'That poor old couple - all they can afford is one meal for the two of them.'
As the man began to eat his fries, a young man came to the table and politely offered to buy another meal for the old couple.
The old man said, they were just fine - they were used to sharing everything.
People closer to the table noticed the little old lady hadn't eaten a bite.
She sat there watching her husband eat and occasionally taking turns sipping the drink.
Again, the young man came over and begged them to let him buy another meal for them. 
This time the old woman said 'No, thank you, we are used to sharing everything.'
Finally, as the old man finished and was wiping his face neatly with the napkin, the young man again came over to the little old lady who had yet to eat a single bite of food and asked 'What is it you are waiting for?'
She answered: 'THE DENTURES.'


(This story was extracted from Facebook)

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Time to reflect...


Six terrific truths about "time" to reflect on:

 First:
 Nobody can manage time.
 But you can manage those things that take up your time.

Second:
Time is expensive.
As a matter of fact, 80 percent of our day is spent on those things or those people that only bring us two percent of our results.

Third:
Time is perishable.
It cannot be saved for later use.

Fourth:
Time is measurable.
Everybody has the same amount of time... pauper or king.
It is not how much time you have; it is how much you use.


Fifth:
Time is irreplaceable.
We never make back time once it is gone.

Sixth:
Time is a priority.
You have enough time for anything in the world, so long as it ranks high enough among your priorities.

Friday, January 06, 2012

What a teacher makes ...

A friend asked me to share this moving tale:

A school principal was speaking at a graduation dinner.
He said: "A doctor wants his child to become a doctor...
Engineer wants his child to become engineer......
Businessman wants his ward to become CEO.....
BUT a teacher also wants his child to become one of them..!!!!
Nobody wants to become a teacher by choice," he said.
"Very sad but that's the truth!," said the principal.
As the dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life, one man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education.
He argued: "What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?"
To stress his point he said to another guest;
"You're a teacher. Be honest. What do you make?"
The teacher, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness, replied:
"You want to know what I make?
(She paused for a second, then began...)
"Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could.
I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honour winner.
I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 minutes without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie rental.
You want to know what I make ?
(She paused again and looked at each and every person at the table)
I make kids wonder.
I make them question.
I make them apologize and mean it.
I make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions.
I teach them how to write and then I make them write.
Keyboarding isn't everything.
I make them read, read, read.
I make them show all their work in math.
They use their God given brain, not the man-made calculator.
I make my students from other countries learn everything they need to know about English while preserving their unique cultural identity.
I make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe.
Finally, I make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life
(The teacher paused one last time and then continued.)
Then, when people try to judge me by what I make, with me knowing money isn't everything, I can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant. You want to know what I make?
I MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN ALL YOUR LIVES, EDUCATING KIDS AND PREPARING THEM TO BECOME CEO's, DOCTORS AND ENGINEERS....
What do you make Mr. CEO?

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Guiding principles ...

Meeting in Bangkok to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), delegates adopted an ethical guidelines declaration for their work.

The declaration says:

"As the world and our region moves to more tumultuous times, as humanity faces growing financial and social problems, as we witness more conflicts and natural disasters and as the media world faces a huge shift, we, the delegates at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of OANA, gathered here in Bangkok, Thailand, from December 13th to the 15th, commemorating 50 years of our noble responsibility of upholding the fundamentals to our founding charter, to transcend all known barriers to the free flow of information necessary to securing lasting peace, the recognition of ethnic and cultural wealth beyond traditional borders, and the safeguarding of human rights and dignity, hereby declare our collective commitments to:

- Act responsibly in covering wars, conflicts, terrorism, violence and natural disasters bearing in mind the public interest in full, fair and accurate reporting, respect for privacy and universal human rights.

- Take great care about the quality and style of our stories that they do not encourage violence, spread fear, traumatise, damage the principles of equality and justice, degrade human dignity and foster discrimination.

- Refrain from publishing stories or visual material that will be deemed offensive and discriminatory on the basis of class, race, language, religion, gender, and region that will generate feelings of hostility among people.

- Accept the sanctity of human life and avoid running pictures or video footage that will hurt the dignity of victims and cause further suffering to their families and psychological distress in public.

- Respect the privacy of the individual and the dignity of the dead regardless of who they are.

- Exercise great judgement in distributing graphic pictures and videos of executions, close-up shots of dead or wounded people and mutilated bodies and limbs, degrading human dignity.

Acknowledging our inevitable responsibility to incorporate the above stated guidelines into our editorial principles, we pledge to work closely with one another in implementing this declaration."

Friday, November 25, 2011

Money is yours but ..

Something to ponder from the following email that I received today:

Germany is a highly industrialised country. It produces top brands like Benz, BMW, Simons etc.
The nuclear reactor pump is made in a small town in this country.
In such a country, many will think its people leads a luxurious life.
At least that was my impression before my study trip.
When I arrived at Hamburg, my colleagues who work in Hamburg arranged a welcome party
for me in a restaurant. As we walked into the restaurant, we noticed that a lot of tables were empty.
There was a table where a young couple was having their meal.
There were only two dishes and two cans of beer on the table.
I wondered if such simple meal could be romantic, and whether the girl will leave this stingy guy.
There were a few old ladies on another table. When a dish is served, the waiter would
distribute the food for them, and they would finish every bit of the food on their plates.
We did not pay much attention to them, as we were looking forward to the dishes we ordered.
As we were hungry, our local colleague ordered more food for us.
As the restaurant was quiet, the food came quite fast. Since there were other activities
arranged for us, we did not spend much time dining.
When we left, there were still about one third of unconsumed food on the table.
When we were leaving the restaurant, we heard someone calling us.
We noticed the old ladies in the restaurant were talking about us to the restaurant owner.
When they spoke to us in English, we understood that they were unhappy about us
wasting so much food. We immediately felt that they were really being too busybody.
"We paid for our food, it is none of your business how much food we left behind,"
my colleague Gui told the old ladies.
The old ladies were furious. One of them immediately took her handphone out and
made a call to someone.
After a while, a man in uniform claimed to be an officer from the Social Security organisation arrived.
Upon knowing what the dispute was, he issued us a 50 Mark fine.
We all kept quiet. The local colleague took out a 50 Mark note and repeatedly apologised to the officer.
The officer told us in a stern voice, "ORDER WHAT YOU CAN CONSUME, MONEY IS
YOURS, BUT RESOURCES BELONG TO THE SOCIETY.
THERE ARE MANY OTHERS IN THE WORLD WHO ARE FACING SHORTAGE OF RESOURCES. YOU HAVE NO REASON TO WASTE RESOURCES."
Our faces turned red. We all agreed with him in our hearts.
The mindset of people of this rich country put all of us to shame.
WE REALLY NEED TO REFLECT ON THIS. We are from country which is not very rich in resources.
To save face, we order large quantities and also waste food when we give others a treat.

THIS LESSON TAUGHT US TO THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT CHANGING OUR BAD HABITS.

My colleague photostated the fine ticket and gave a copy to each of us as a souvenir.
All of us kept it and pasted on our wall to remind us that we shall never be wasteful.

Friday, September 23, 2011

A father's love .....

My colleague Neville emailed me this touching story:

My dad only had one eye. I hated him... He was such an embarrassment.
He cooked for students and teachers to support the family.
There was this one day during elementary school where my dad came to say hello to me.
I was so embarrassed.
How could he do this to me?
I ignored him, threw him a hateful look and ran out.
The next day at school one of my classmates said, "EEEE, your dad only has one eye!"
I wanted to bury myself
I also wanted my dad to just disappear.
I confronted him that day and said: " If you're only gonna make me a laughing stock, why don't you just die?"
My dad did not respond....
I didn't even stop to think for a second about what I had said, because I was full of anger.
I was oblivious to his feelings.
I wanted out of that house, and have nothing to do with him.
So I studied real hard, got a chance to go abroad to study.
Then, I got married.
I bought a house of my own.
I had kids of my own.
I was happy with my life, my kids and the comforts, Then one day, my father came to visit me.
He hadn't seen me in years and he didn't even meet his grandchildren.
When he stood by the door, my children laughed at him, and I yelled at him for coming over uninvited.
I screamed at him, "How dare you come to my house and scare my children!"
GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!"
And to this, my father quietly answered, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address,"
And he disappeared out of sight.
One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house..
So I lied to my wife that I was going on a business trip.
After the reunion, I went to the old shack just out of curiosity.
My neighbours said that he died.
I did not shed a single tear.
They handed me a letter that he had wanted me to have.

"My dearest son,
I think of you all the time. I'm sorry that I came to your house and scared your children.
I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion.
But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you.
I'm sorry that I was a constant embarrassment to you when you were growing up.
You see........when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye.
As a father, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with one eye.
So I gave you mine.
I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye.

With all my love to you,
Your father
. "


P/S: Always tell someone that you love them because you never know what day will be their last, or your own.
Always seek to resolve your problems or disagreements with loved ones
Because if either of you should pass on before, the one who is left alive will have the rest of their life to ponder those unresolved feelings but will never find closure. And closure usually brings Peace...

Sunday, July 03, 2011

Alluring Mongolia ...

After spending the last eight years in Dubai, Filipino engineer Dennis Pimentel has turned to Mongolia to join the exodus of expatriate hands to magnetic Oyu Tolgoi mine.
"I like the place the locals call it OT just like UB for Ulan Bator because it's cold and the people are warm...they are very hospitable."

As we bumped into each other at Seoul airport (I was returning to KL from UB while he was going to UB), Pimentel said he needed the job to support his wife and the couple's two sons, aged 12 and 16, in Manila.
"I design roads in OT (Oyu Tolgoi) but I don't know when the project will end, it's a contract," said the 37-year-old who has been in Mongolia over the past five months.
OT is the world's largest undeveloped copper-gold project and is located in the South Gobi region of Mongolia, approximately 550km south of the capital Ulan Bator (locals call it Ulaanbaatar) and 80km north of the Mongolia-China border.
Pimentel has grown fond of Mongolia which has only 2.9 million people, almost half of them living in the capital built for 500,000.
"Despite the mineral rich status, the Mongolians are environmental-conscious and want to preserve the Gobi desert," he said.
Mongolian Prime Minister S. Batbold said, the mining industry had been intensively developing the country and a massive work on putting such world class deposits as OT copper mine and Tavan Togoi coal deposit into economic turnover have been actively conducted, attracting the interest of many countries.
"Mongolia finds itself among countries with relatively high rates of economic growth," he told the Organisation of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA)Executive Board Meeting (EBM) here last Tuesday.
"If in 2010, our economy enjoyed six per cent growth rate, in the first
quarter of 2011, it increased to 9.7 per cent," he said.
Construction of high-rise buildings could be seen everywhere in the capital.
The OT mine or Turquoise Hill is a combined open pit and underground mining
project in Khanbogd sum within the south Gobi Desert.
It is developed as a joint venture involving the Ivanhoe Mines of Canada,
Australia's Rio Tinto and the Mongolian Government.
The production is scheduled to begin in 2013.
The OT mining project is the largest financial undertaking in Mongolia's history and is expected, upon completion, to account for more than 30 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.
Last year, the number of processing factories in the country increased by 10
per cent.
Noting the intense speed in growth of the trade and services sector, Batbold
said Mongolia was also proud of the robust penetration of information technologies.
"A historic contribution of our nomadic ancestors to the world's culture was
the communication system of 'morin urtuu's' or horse relay station that the Mongolians had organised in 13th-14th centuries to link China, Mongolia, Russia
and Europe," he said.
Mongolian National News Agency (Montsame) General Director T. Baasansuren said the economic future of Mongolia looked bright.
"The government has identified 17 large deposits of oil, copper, fluorite, molybdenum, gold, uranium, etc...
"Bilateral and multilateral talks on joint exploration of these deposits have been going on intensively," he said, expressing confidence that the development of mining would completely change the structure of Mongolia's economy.
"According to estimates of the international investment bank, JP Morgan, Mongolia's GDP will grow not less than by 15 per cent between 2011 and 2015.
"Hence in 2016, Mongolia's GDP per capita will increase from the current USD$2,000 to USD$8,000.
"When the Oyu Tolgoi copper deposit which attracted large international attention is put into exploration in 2013, Mongolia will supply between three
and five per cent of the world's copper," said Baasansuren.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

United against copyright ...

The Organisation of Asia Pacific News Agencies (OANA) will have to collectively fight the copyright issue instead of letting members to deal with it on their own, said OANA president Hilmi Bengi.
Wrapping-up a two-day OANA Executive Board meeting in Ulan Bator today (Wednesday), Bengi said the problem had greatly affected income of news agencies operating on commercial basis.

"The Internet news aggregators gather our output and give them out for free," said Bengi, adding that he hoped that OANA could have a separate meeting to discuss the issue.
He said as the meeting was for the executive board, its participation and issues raised were rather restricted.
However Bengi said country reports presented by every board member were useful as they could share experience especially in new products like television service.
Members also picked out winners for a photo contest held on the sidelines of the meeting. Kyodo won the grand award and special prize for its submission on tsunami, Anadolu for best picture while the other special prize went to Montsame.
The board members later met Mongolian Parliament Speaker D.Demberel at Parliament House.
The 11-member board comprises of Anadolu of Turkey as president, four vice-presidents, namely Bernama (Malaysia), Antara (Indonesia), Itar-TASS (Russia) and IRNA (Iran). The remaining members are Yonhap South Korea, Press Trust of India (PTI), Azertaj (Azerbaijan), Australian Associated Press (AAP), Xinhua (China) and Montsame (Mongolia).
Formed in 1961 to encourage the free flow of news and information exchange among news agencies in Asia-Pacific, the 43-strong OANA will celebrate its 50th anniversary at its birth place Bangkok in December.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Bangkok anniversary bash for OANA

A special event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) will be held in December at its birthplace -- Bangkok.

OANA President Hilmi Bengi made the announcement at the start of the organization's 33rd executive board meeting in Ulan Bator today (Tuesday).
He thanked the Thai News Agency (TNA) for agreeing to host the celebration,
which Bengi described as "the most important event".
OANA was formed with the backing of UNESCO in December 1961, as an effort to facilitate a free flow of news and information in Asia and the Pacific.
TNA Editor-in-Chief for Asean News Division Noraphon Pacharoen said the Thai
agency has slated Dec 7 to 9, for the OANA event.
Mongolian Prime Minister S.Batbold who addressed the meeting, said the role, significance, prestige and influence of the organization that unifies the region's news agencies was high.
"News agencies have always been playing important roles in countries' history. Their importance remained unchanged today," he said.
The meeting approved National News Agency (NNA)of Lebanon's application for membership, boosting the number to 43 news agencies from 34 countries.
It also reviewed decisions made at the last OANA General Assembly in Istanbul (November) and was briefed by Anadolu of Turkey on the new OANA website.
The 11-member board comprised Anadolu of Turkey as president, four vice-presidents, namely Bernama (Malaysia), Antara (Indonesia), Itar-TASS(Russia) and IRNA (Iran).
The remaining members are Yonhap South Korea, Press Trust of India(PTI), Azertaj (Azerbaijan), Australian Associated Press (AAP), Xinhua (China) and Montsame (Mongolia).