Thousands of apologies for abandoning my blog just recently. Anyway, I don't know if I've blogged about this before. So I'm just gonna blog while I still remember what I want to say. A few months ago, I found out from my mum that my Uncle. My Godfather has been diagnosed with lung cancer and colon cancer.
Before all this I kinda knew [maybe all of us too] that he would somehow whine up being horribly ill. Cause from the amount of cigarettes he smoked in a day [even after his bypass] and from what my mum told me, he was very fond of alcohol when he was younger.
Now he's in his mid 70's. He looks like he hasn't been fed well. His hands and his face are turning into black coal. He can hardly talk cause his lips is so infested with blisters. The medication was too strong for him and his lips started to react. All this wouldn't have happened if he snapped into reality 50 years ago. He wouldn't have to leave painfully.
My Uncle goes to my mum's restaurant for lunch every other day. And when I get to see him. My heart suddenly sinks. And only then I start thinking about my friends who smoke and drink. My brothers,too, smoke. Only my elder brother doesn't drink nor smoke as often as my second brother.
I'm worried for them. I don't want them ending up like my Uncle. My second brother, Edmund, he's pretty much like my Uncle back in his younger days from what I understand. He drinks. He smokes. Just cause he can. But what will happen in 30 years?
So I checked my emails today & I saw that I've received a mail from NuffNang. And this one REALLY got my attention. That's why among all the posts I could've posted up to earn a little money, I'm gonna post THIS one up.
This girl, Charmaine, she's four and she's been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. So basically this disease has remote manifestations which can be confusing. Neurologic signs and symptoms such as opsoclonus (dancing eyes), ataxia, blindness, and cord paralysis may precede by several months the manifestations of the primary tumor in a distant site such as the abdomen.
About 50% of this disease attacks kids below 2 years old. If this keeps up, we would extinct in NO TIME. Imagine at the early age of 4, not having to experience things like crying with friends, laughing with friends, having stress & problems, telling them to you family and friends cause you've been diagnosed with Neuroblastoma.
Now Charmaine is going thru that, if she's to stay in Singapore for treatment, her chances of surviving are (10%-20%) and if each of us contributed a small amount of donations, she could be treated in US and her chances of living are (40% -50%). Sure she wouldn't know who had/had not helped. At least think of her family, THEY would be GRATEFUL. I mean THINK about it! They get to have her in their arms every other day because WE helped ! (:
Now I'm gonna help and donate too. Follow me and help Little Charmaine.
Click HERE to help Charmaine (: You're saving a life here
I was thinking today. About this blog. How is a girl that just blogs about horrible things happening around us is gonna help anyone? God knows how many people reads this blog ! God knows how many people come into this window because they REALLY cared !
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Recently I had this dilemma. Should I put up a chatbox? Or should I not. Hmmmm
Melissa cleared up her closet. And she's donating her old clothes to the orphans.
(:
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Every alternate Saturdays my younger brother has to attend a Science program in PetroScience,KLCC. So I'll tag along to kill boredom (: I'll head to the Bestest Bookstore in the world (: Kinokuniya. Mhm !
So yesterday I checked out this book about a father who had drugged his 24 year old daughter and locked her up in a sound proof basement and raped her everyday for the next 12 years.
First thing that came to my mind was "What a sick and twisted little wretch" I don't think the words I used were even close to what he was. Imagine. Raping your own daughter! Someone YOU have created. And you just ruined her. Doesn't matter if the authorities locked him up behind bars for LIFE or have given him a death sentence. How's the girl gonna spend every waking minute of everyday. Thinking how her own father had destroyed her. How could anyone live after that?
A picked up a few books and read the synopsis. There were a few that were about little girls being kidnapped and being sold into brothel and slavery. Some girls were sold into prostitution by their parents just so they can put food on their table. Girls as young as 5 years old were being sold.
It's just sickening I tell you. And most girls come from families who are uneducated and who are in poverty. I was kinda shocked when I read the books. I mean I HAVE heard of rape cases. But girls who are YOUNGER than I am, being sold? Everyday? I mean come on ! How are these girls gonna grow up knowing they've been prostitutes without knowing it in the first place !
And the worst part. Their parents were the ones who sold them. It's just stupid. No it's BEYOND stupid. No words in the dictionary, no words on Earth can describe the behaviour of these sick psychotic people !
NEW DELHI -- Meena discovered she had been sold by her boss while riding in an auto-rickshaw headed to New Delhi's red-light district.
The 12-year-old was working as a domestic servant in Kolkata when the homeowner told her about a well-paying job at his sister's house in India's capital. But instead, she was sold to a brothel owner and forced into prostitution for little more than a place to sleep and the occasional meal.
Her ordeal lasted four years and Meena, now 21, says it left her "a very angry person."
"The anger comes suddenly," said Meena, who asked that her full name not be used because of the stigma associated with her past.
Beneath the surface of India's rapid economic development lies a problem rooted in the persistent poverty of hundreds of millions of Indians. Rights activists say thousands of poor women and girls are forced into prostitution every year after being lured from villages to cities on false promises of jobs or marriages.
Much of the attention on human trafficking focuses on the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people -- about 80 percent of them women or girls -- who are trafficked across international borders every year. In many cases, they are forced to work as prostitutes or virtual slaves who perform menial tasks.
But those numbers don't include victims trafficked within their own countries -- a problem that has long plagued India, a country large and diverse enough that traffickers can take victims from one place to another hundreds of miles away where a different language is spoken and there's little chance of the women finding their way back home.
"This is a challenge to India's contention that it is both democratic and modern," said Ruchira Gupta, founder of the anti-trafficking group Apne Aap, meaning On Our Own. "In this day and age, when democracy is supposed to exist in India . . . we have so many slaves."
The secrecy of the underground business makes it difficult to track, and estimates for the number of India's victims each year vary widely.
But this much is known: The government estimates there are 3 million sex workers in India, at least 40 percent of them children. And thousands of them are believed to have been unwittingly lured into the work by traffickers, rights activists say.
Most of the girls come from India's poorer states. A family member or friend approaches the girl's parents about a well-paying job in the city or the chance for marriage with little or no need to pay a dowry.
In some cases, parents sell the girls directly. Prices range from several hundred to several thousand dollars.
I saw my uncle today. He's my Godfather,really. And just a few months back we've just learned that he's been diagnosed with lung and colon cancer. We thought he could go for some treatment to get rid of it. But during the check up, even before, it's already too late. He was at the final stage of cancer. All he's doing now is waiting. Waiting patiently for his time.
When I saw him, he looked so ill. So upset. So soft. So helpless. He was so thin. He looked so fragile. He carries cane with him now. His shirt looked like an XL on him now. When I walked over to say hi, he manage to say hi and smiled back.
I don't know how his kids would take things into their hands once he leaves us. Since they're still young. All I can offer now are prayers. Pray he'll be in a better place. Happier, in fact. I'm sure gonna miss his jokes.
One of my biggest role model is THAT GUY. I must confess, I've never grown up listening to his songs or watching his videos. But if there's one thing about Michael that I knew was that he holds Guinness World Record. They called him The Charity King. He's moon walked through many lives. Donating,caring and loving for others. He's one of the MOST humble and selfless human being.
Sure he's changed people's perspective about racism. About African-Americans. Sure he's inspired modern dance choreography. But the HUGEST impact, I would think, he has made was giving SO MUCH to unfortunate people all around the world. I think people should take a break from reminiscing about the days who Moon Walked on stage or Crotch Clutched or the money he would make in a year and how much he would lose after making that chunk of money and instead take a step back and look at the work he's done.
The messages he had left for us long before he left us. He's reached out to people who are in need, but there's only so much one can do. He's written songs as a message to us. His actions [donating. his music videos] tell us so much.
As the world continues to mourn the loss of a great artist, the Guinness World Record book remembers Michael Jackson instead as the king of charity. See these are the things that are IMPORTANT. I've nothing against his life as a performer, I'm just saying that we should realize about the times he traveled to the poorest countries to help.
The Millennium issue listed the music legend under Most Charities Supported By A Pop Star, with a staggering 39 internationalorganizations including the Make-A-Wish Foundation and the American Cancer Society. Those are only the known ones however, as Jackson was also prone to giving away impulsively and anonymously.
Jackson had been known to hand over the proceeds from concerts to local charities and hospitals as he did with the History tour in Bombay, or donate personal items for auction to organisations like UNESCO. It’s been estimated he may have given up to $500 million to charity in his lifetime.
In addition to his charity work, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, had more Guinness world records than any other artist, including Most Successful Concert Series and Biggest Selling Album for Thriller
It's just hard for me to accept that the Charity King's gone too.
I whine and whine about having an irritating nose leak and my body aches every now and then. While children in Africa are having AIDS.
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Two-thirds of all people living with HIV are found in sub-Saharan Africa, although this region contains little more than 10% of the world’s population. AIDS has caused immense human suffering in the continent. The most obvious effect of this crisis has been illness and death, but the impact of the epidemic has certainly not been confined to the health sector; households, schools, workplaces and economies have also been badly affected.
During 2007 alone, an estimated 1.5 million adults and children died as a result of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the beginning of the epidemic more than 15 million Africans have died from AIDS.
The Impact on Households
The toll of HIV and AIDS on households can be very severe. Although no part of the population is unaffected by HIV, it is often the poorest sectors of society that are most vulnerable to the epidemic and for whom the consequences are most severe. In many cases, the presence of AIDS causes the household to dissolve, as parents die and children are sent to relatives for care and upbringing. A study in rural South Africa suggested that households in which an adult had died from AIDS were four times more likely to dissolve than those in which no deaths had occurred.
The Impact on Children
It is hard to over emphasise the trauma and hardship that children affected by HIV and AIDS are forced to bear. The epidemic not only causes children to lose their parents or guardians, but sometimes their childhood as well.
As parents and family members become ill, children take on more responsibility to earn an income, produce food and care for family members. It is harder for these children to access adequate nutrition,basic health care, housing and clothing. Fewer families have the money to send their children to school.
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Just a quick story:
I was a very inconsiderate girl. Seriously. When people approached me and start talking about poverty,AIDS and all, I would be like,"Oh Gosh. Poor things!". That's about the most I would offer to those people who are in need. Just my sympathy. I was more like the,"there are so many people around the world. What difference would I make?" type of person.
Then I thought. What if the percentage of people who possesses the same attitude as I did was higher than the people who had dedicated their time reaching out to others for help and the ones who are doing charity work and traveling to different places everyday not worrying they'll get infected by some disease JUST to help those under privileged ones
My mum. Is one of those people who tries her best to help those who are in need. She visited a stroke centre once. She even got a T-Shirt for helping one of them patients (: She came home and told me about it and it changed my perspective of helping those who really needs a hand.
Just think about. You can make a difference too (:
Crazy Hot this afternoon, weyh ! Could'a cried in my mum's car when I got in after lunch T_T. Melissa'sawuss! Anyway. Whenever it's hot, I think, nothing can top an afternoon in your room with the A/C turned on a cup of iced tea/milo/[right now I'm having..]Fresh Aloe' with Honey (: Or, a cup of chilled water would do just fine,too no?
Meh. But right, being a stupid-moronic-idiot I am, I take more than what I usually can consume. Usually my cup would be full and I would only finish HALF of it. This morning, I filled my water bottle with water. Brought to school but I didn't drink much. [I don't know why either T_T] And a few times I kept staring at my bottle and thought about the kids that DON'T have enough of water. And thinking how far they would go to have that much of water from my bottle everyday. Just one would do for them. And here I am, pouring it into my kitchen sink after school.
Key Challenges
The greatest challenge lies in building competent, efficient, business-like, and service-oriented institutions. Sustainable service provision is only possible where customers themselves cover the costs of operation and maintenance; capital cost recovery is not always possible, but often requires predictable public subsidies.
More than 1.1 billion people lack access to safe water, and 2.6 billion lack access to basic sanitation.Millenium Development Goals(MDGs) include a target to halve the fraction of the world’s population without access to water and sanitation by 2015. The world is roughly on course to reach the target for water supply, but will fall short by half a billion people in sanitation.
Finance is short: estimated investment towards the WSS MDGs, at $15 billion a year, is only half what is needed to meet the MDG targets, even without sewage treatment. Other major constraints on expanding access include political instability, corruption, social dislocation through urban migration, and population growth. For example, the number of people with access to basic sanitation grew by half from 1990 to 2004, but the number without sanitation remained essentially the same, because of population growth.
Hey you guys (: Hmm. Just wanna start out by saying ,"Yay!". You actually came here (: shows you care (: I really do hope that this blog would help you see things clearer. (:
Okay so today I went to this website where they tell you how you can do something about poverty. These were my favourites:
Check your closet and make sure that anything you have not used last winter is taken to a charitable organization. Ask your friends and neighbors and volunteer to pick up the clothes, launder them and deliver them to those organizations. They will do no good in your closet and a world of good to someone in need.
Have a “sponsor me” day. Donate money to a poverty relief cause for everyone who leaves a comment on your blog that day.
I think in order to stop poverty is to give what the people really need, not just giving it away for the sake of ‘being kind’
Eat meatless meals 2x a week. Donate that grocery money to a local food bank.
Be homeless for a day/night.
"The crisis in the south of the country has been caused by a drought and a plague of locusts which destroyed much of last year's harvest.
Aid agency World Vision warns that 10% of the children in the worst affected areas could die. They say the international community has reacted too late to the crisis. Niger is a vast desert country and one of the poorest on earth. Millions of people, a third of the population, face food shortages. Families are roaming the parched desert looking for help. One family we came across did not even know where they were going.
"I'm wandering like a madman," the father said. "I'm afraid we'll all starve."
They were hundreds of miles from the nearest food distribution point. Aid agencies estimate that tens of thousands of children are in the advanced stages of starvation. Children are dying daily in the few feeding centres there are, where their place in the queue could make the difference between life and death."
