cultivation of the heart

Life is this simple:

It is really a measure of your heart, either you are good or bad person.
Those with bad heart cannot be successful and must be endowed with more suffering. Failure to recognize this theory caused us to dwindle from day to day.
The worst human being in this world are those with a lot of money and came with bad heart. The most pitiful human being in this world are those with little money and came with a lot of resentment and hatred. If they can get rid of such negative energy, good things will follow.

For decades, people doubt such theories, mainly because everybody want to be god, everybody want to be more than themselves. They want to have more intelligence, more sex, more money and etc.

This is why one needs to make a vow in order to have a wish granted on their behalf.

In conclusion, cultivation of the heart is important.

以修心为本。

[hatifriends] Details of Brian's food collection you should know for your reference.

Dear All,
I hope this e-mail finds you all well.
As I have gotten a few enquiring emails over the week, I would like to list down the homes I collect for as a reference for you all. This list is NOT static but changes from time to time but this is as it stands now in June 2005.
This collection effort is a personal one and has been going on for the past 4/5 years. These organisations I collect for I know through my work in HIV/AIDS or through my company, TLC Sdn Bhd. It is done for free with the gracious support from people on my e-mail list of whom many have since become friends.

The collection works this way.
I send out an e-mail on odd months with a list of items. Hopefully then the items are delivered on even months with a 2 month supply.
Ideally people reply via e-mail and commit to the items they wish to contribute.
I send an updated list again.
I top up the items left with the financial help of a few long term friends/Supporters who provide the cash and the transport to buy the items.
When I reach the limit, I send out a note.

The above is the ideal, but due to my work and travel and urgent requests from the homes, there are sometimes changes in the schedule.
I also do not collect old clothes or fetch items as I do not have transport. HOWEVER, if you have items that you wish to donate (other than clothes), please do let me know and I will match you with the correct organisation that it can go to. Then you can liaise with the organisation directly. From time to time, I highlight requests from other NGOs/Communities.

Finally, if you have been put on this list accidentally, please let me know, and I will remove you at once.

Thank you all for your support. Please remember that this kind of work has to be a long term effort and ongoing THROUGH OUT the year and not JUST at the festive season. Also donor fatigue sadly means that the people who need help just get less or worse, nothing at all. If anyone out there has the interest to start a similar collection for other NGOs, please let me know how we can work together.


Warm regards and thanks again for taking time to read this.

Brian Lariche
Associate Partner
The Liaison Combination-TLC Sdn Bhd
www.liaison-combination.com
4, Dataran Tunku, Bukit Tunku
50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Office phone:6201 4240
Office Fax: 6201 0240
cell phone:+60122975613


LIST OF HOMES I COLLECT FOR!- some I supply everything from the list, a few just specific items they ask for.
1. WAO- women's shelter
P.O. Box 493, Jalan Sultan,
46760 Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Tel: 03-79563488
Fax: 03-79563237
Email: wao@po.jaring.my
Website: www.wao.org.my

2. Rumah Soleha
A shelter for HIV+ women and children in Cheras.
Address is a secret but they were featured many times in the News though address not made public.

3. Pelangi Community Foundation.
Contact Person: Rainer RotthoffTel: 03-4025 2820 or 019-743 7232Website: www.pelangifoundation.org
Presently located in Puchong but moving to Terengganu
I will be the Admin person based in KL who will collect donations and so on for PELANGI.

4. Rumah Ozanam- In the midst of a revamp
Home for HIV+ women and children48100 Batu ArangSelangor

5. Rumah Jaireh- New Home
Home for HIV+ women and children
Batu Arang

6. IKLHAS and KAWAN
drug drop in centre in Chow Kit and in Pudu

7. Food Not Bombs – Soup Kitchen
A group of young people who serve vegetarian food to the homeless outside St. John’s cathedral( Bukit Nenas) in KL on Thursdays and Sundays at 6 PM. All volunteers and an effort that deserves support.

[hatifriends] To help little Jacqueline Ng

Hi guys,

I'm dropping a word for 3-year-old Jacqueline Ng, who is suffering
from leukaemia.
She is in dire need of funds for her treatment spanning 2 years
which includes chemotherapy and injections. The amount needed is
estimated to be RM150,000.
A press interview has been conducted with the family and her appeal
will be carried out through a fund via MCA.
But I thought of spreading the message first, if anyone's interested
to help out.
Her father, Ng Chen Lian, a renovation contractor, is out of work
since the little girl fell ill. He ferries her to and fro from the
hospital.
Her mother is a stay-at-home mom to care for the family and other
sister Adeline, 6 yrs.

The Ng family has spent RM30,000 so far and dad had to sell his car
to finance the bills. It should be able to last them about 3 weeks or
more the most.

If you are interested in lending a hand, do contact Ng at 012 211 4478.

Or, alternatively, feel free to drop me any queries. Thanks!

Cheers
Susan Tam

Food collection month June 2005

Dear All,
Thanks for the quick response for the food collection request last month. Here is the new list below.
DROP OFF POINT:
40,Lorong Maarof, Bangsar Park
59000 KL….

For those new to the list, I collect food stuff and other household items for a couple of NGOS that mainly have HIV+ clients and/or battered women and children. I prefer the items to be bought and sent to my house for redistribution so I have no issue of accounting for money to all. This formula has worked well in the last 5 years or so and I would like to stick to it. ALSO, I am happy to share this mode of working with NGOs with anyone else who would like to start it themselves.

Back to the food collection: PLEASE remember to buy generic brands if possible as it is value for money.
1. Rice- 100 Kilos
2. Mee Hoon - 20 Kilos
3. Biscuits- Cream Crackers and assorted As much as possible
4. Condensed milk-100 tins
5. Evaporated Milk- 20 tins
6. Powdered Milk- for coffee usually so generic brands fine.
7. Jam -30 bottles each collection – have 10 now
8. Peanut Butter- 10 bottles
9. Ribena 8 bottles
10. Insect repellent.- 8 tins Baygon or ridsect.
11. Maggi Mee-300 packets
12. Planta magarine ( must be TINNED )12 tins -large
13. Cordial-orange and rose syrup- 10 bottles of each ( large 2 litre ones are best)
14. Instant Coffee- 20 soft packs
15. Tea- bags and tea leaves
16. cooking Oil-15 bottles of 5 kgs
17. Green Peas- 50 tins
18. Baked beans- 50 tins
19. sardines- 100 tins
20. Tuna- 100 tins
21. Any other canned food including corn beef
NON FOOD/Household
ANTISEPTIC- 20 bottles. .
Dishwashing soap. 8 bottles if large ones or the tubs- 20
Shampoo- 30 Bottles large
Bathing soap- 100 pieces/bars
Baby diapers- large
Candles- for power cuts useful NOT decorative
Rubbish Bags- large and medium

Brian Lariche
Associate Partner
The Liaison Combination-TLC Sdn Bhd
http://www.liaison-combination.com/html/main.html
4, Dataran Tunku, Bukit Tunku
50480 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Office phone:6201 4240
Office Fax: 6201 0240

cell phone:+60122975613
Also, for those who can help, Please lend a hand to the deaf and sponsor one or more students, totally or partially for a deaf camp coming up.

Details are as follows
30TH ANNIVERSARY YMCA INTERNATIONAL DEAF YOUTH CAMP (HH Camp)
Theme: Be One
Venue: Kuala Lumpur/Penang, Malaysia
Dates: 29 JULY- 5 AUGUST, 2005
My suggestion is to sponsor 50-60% of the cost of 700RM per person and leave the rest to the student to come up with. So an investment in a deaf person’s life to the tune of 300-400 ringgit per person will give them an opportunity to meet with other deaf youth from around the world and learn and share with them. If you desire to sponsor more, please go ahead. Please do think about it and perhaps get together with a few people and sponsor or part sponsor one or more youth.

The details to contact Lucy is: Ms. Lucy Lim, Executive (YMCA Community Work) Tel : 03-2274 1439 ext 119, e-mail : lucylim@ymcakl.com

best friend wedding

Yesterday was a great day for me as I became the first ever best man for my best friend's wedding. It was church-going style and the experiences was really great. Bride Groom: Mr. Yap Wei Hong (Roromot) Bride : Ms. Rachel Pang Wei Kwan

The early struggle:

As excited as we were, the two of us, Wilson Puon (the water buffalo) and I were given priority task of being the chauffeur and best man respectively.

Make no mistake that it was all happy go lucky - we had to scramble from bed in the wee hour of 3:00 Am, put ourselves into proper attire and pretended that it was okay to leave home with leather shoe at 4:00Am in the morning. What the heck ?  - we then rushed to pick up another girl and subsequently gathered at Roromot's house at Puchong.

Not surprising to us, Roromot was already in full fledged stamina as well as in full suit. Sooner or later, we were joined by a legion of bachelors heading towards Melaka to take the bride away from her beloved parents.

So hit the highway and it was like 1 hour and half and I was like half awaken and half dreaming. Then we finally reached a humble place somewhere in Melaka, and the whole bunch of us got out. Then waited and waited, the bride was not ready yet... sigh, we were supposed to leave Melaka for K.L to attend the church reception.

Negotiation:

The whole legion swamped the house and moved upstairs where the bride was protected by few less-muscular young ladies : the sisterhood of Tarcian. The chief negotiator at the bride side was a familiar face to us, she is always a sleek, silver-tongue talker and she has the guts. Since our job was to penetrate that door with diplomatic behaviour, we had to comply with anything.

The first question to Roromot: "What was the sweetest memory you had with the bride according to her opinion ?"

--> Roromot said he cheated her that he had a flat tire and then walked from K.L to Melaka ? wow, did he said that?, well I don't remember but it is something to do with flat tire.. The chief negotiator said "Wrong answer", and we were punished with two glasses of sweet soya bean. I being the lucky one, was supposed to drink it on behalf of Roromot. Then the episode followed by another 4 questions which I don't remembered the questions and answers, but we were supposed to consume the following delicacies to remind Roromot of the kind of romantic experiences:

• 3 fresh lemon - sour time
• 3 bitter melon - bitter time
• Many Cili Padi sandwich- hot time
• milk-shake - Tongkat Ali buatan Melaka (for the bride groom only).

I told you I was lucky right?

ok, the Roromot and chief negotiator talked about money and settled, they wanted USD 9999.99 and we gave them 100111000 Japenese Yen (Japanese Yen is stronger than USD now). The door opened and it was a moment of muah-muah and sob sob... (u know) I wasn't overwhelmed yet. The couple did french kisses and we won (the guys won!), we got the girl,hooray!

Then went downstairs for tea ceremony and photo sessions and we were ready to rock K.L

Everyone got into a vehicle and trailed behind the main car, it was a Toyota Harrier and we hit the highway again. We were driving at comfortable speed, the decoration to the car attracted by-passers and some even "Gong xi, Gong xi" us.

Moment of Truth:

We reached the FGA church at Kuchai Lama, Old Klang Road,1 and half hours later, accompanied by even bigger legion of people. It was also my big time as I had a lot of tasks to be carried out.

Everyone unloaded and went upstairs to the main hall, the church guys were already hard on their preparations. As times went on, invited guess soon filled the hall and then the bride appeared and that was it, we have to start.

The MC, Mr. Joshua Lim got everyone to stand up for the march in. Me and Roromot moved to the front side waiting for the bride to be escorted from the back. Two young girls followed by a page-boy and then the bride's maid took the lead. My first task was to receive the rings from the page-boy.

Then everybody seated automatically (they shouldn't actually), the bride and groom remained standing until MC announced worshiping via means of songs. Then walked up the stage was Uncle Sam (hui) and his team. Together they rock the house with five holy yet hippie songs. One of them goes like this "For rest ...." and the last song was "Magnificent" where I was supposed to move chairs to accommodate the couple for the next session;message from the Pastor.

The pastor talked about God as our strength, we must think of no one but God at times of trouble because he is our true father. It is the intention of God for us to get marry and etc. He ended by saying "Children is God's richest heritage", that is why you must married lar (u know what i mean ?).

Then came the solemnization and registration part. I was to go up the stage with the bride and groom along with bride's maid. This is the time where they exchanged vows and I was supposed to hand over the rings to bride and groom respectively. Then the registration part followed by highlight of the day.. The slide show.

The Slide Show:

The show brought us down memory lane looking at Roromot's and Rachel's childhood to adulthood and then on how they met each other. It had series of nice photos and music. The parents of the bride and groom were the greatest. I could see the expression from their faces when baby photos of each being displayed, it was full of happiness. and I got to tell you, I was overwhelmed as well - i just did, and not sure why.

Perhaps I reckon that it is a great thing for two separate people from different town to meet up and be married. What most admired me is that they took up the courage to bring us such a day, I know the effort was enormous as I haven't even started dating. The crowd laughed flat out when the photo of Rachel's mimicking tomb raider being displayed.

After the slide show, they lighted the candles and then came the final worship and then they became husband and wife, when two become one. Then march-out and photo session.

ok, my job was almost done. We all went one stair below for refreshment. The food was ok and some people thought that I was the bride groom (because I was also wearing black suit.) Anyway, who cares, still have to eat right!

Dinner:

The dinner was held at Mines Resort city (from Sungai Besi toll, take left turning and reach a round-about, then take 2 o'clock and into the highway. Then pass on toll and turn left. At traffic light turn left again and then you should be there..)

A great place it was, with an artificial beach and nice architecture. Wilson and I were given a room and the moment we hit the bed, we flat-out until 6PM. We got ourselves ready and moved to the restaurant. As we got in, Uncle Sam(hui) was already there.. doing a finger or two on the organ for rehearsing, waiters were his audience then.

I kept myself busy as facilitator, trying to get things organized. As the crowds built up, things got more fun. Then at 8:20, the dinner officially began and everybody was up and standing to cheer the march in again. I got myself seated at table 8 with Wilson, Ah Tong (Tarcian), Eric How (CHS), Sue Eng(CHS), Jing Yi, Mei Yoke, and 4 girls from Melaka(Yong Yong, Janet, Teo and Swee) and also Yong's boyfriend; Lenny.

Then uncle sam started doing:

"十个女子，九个认小，明明是老，她说不是。。。。。" (in Cantonese please)

The following are the dishes:
1. Four season hot plate.
2. Shark Fin.
3. Lemon Chicken. (not lemon again...)
4. Fish
5. Mushroom and brocoli.
6. Friend rice.
7. Desert.

Don't ask me anything because I was treated with special meal for each - Vegetarian.

We had a series of entertainment and some games and then the toss; and  then it was finally completed.

We had chance to talk to the Melaka girls and found that they have nothing in common with Parameswara. Nevertheless, my opinion is that country girls are more "less-stress" and happier. City girls are stressed and ehm.... stressed. Both also pretty. (that is right.. that is right) But country girls don't smoke, that is good thing.

Nobody was really that drunk .. you know. So there was no drunken master display at the end of it. Orderly, people started to leave and came the nite.

It was a great day for everyone.

下文：The one thing I like about attending wedding is that everyone gets to be equal. The people around you sitting at the same table might be your business competitor or enemy, yet because of the wedding, you would get a chance to square off for a moment and just to enjoy the wine.

For relatives, it is a great time for gathering and resolve differences. For friends, it is a good opportunity to see how each other had progressed in life.

Most importantly, everybody was treated equally and with lots of love.

Capital is rushing into Malaysia ..

KLCI was on a gradual rise during the start of 2005 to a seven year high until recently it dropped to a record low. Analyst say is due to investor selling based on marginal facilities, meaning they are selling because it is thought to be at the highest rates now. It was at those time which we hear people talking about the Ringgit being unpeg from the USD. These strong words are taken seriously by investor all over, spread of month behave in the speed of lighting, we soon witnessed movement of foreign funds into the market especially towards the blue chips. Sadly, no one even care that the word “high possibility” is missing from the syntax.

Driver could be due to the fact that investor are seeing a negative trend coming when government decided not to remove the Ringgit peg against dollar.

So, market sentiment is as real as you would assume. Due to the fact that nobody is able to have a overall picture of what is happening, scare rumors and news would spawn wonderful effects when no one has the time to justify thoroughly reality-potential of informations.

According to analyst:
1.When the Ringgit is unpeg, real estate's prices will drop because the Ringgit is now stronger compare to other currencies. Recently, high-end housing in K.L up 20%.
2.The case for Peg are:

• Since Malaysia are exports of oil and gas, which is priced in USD it will suffer revenue lost when it revalues the ringgit. Mean less sales because of higher cost. (Japanese Yen and other currency are higher against the USD now)
• Malaysia is also competing with China for foreign direct investment. Thus, if the ringgit is stronger, less investment coming in.

Some analyst feels that the reluctant of government to withdraw the peg is holding back the economy as it gives rise to inflation for imported goods and slowing down imports activities.

During 1998, Mahathir capital control is aiming at preventing foreign investor from cashing out. Little money(any currencies) can be transported from Malaysia at one go. The good thing was that it kept the Ringgit supply low and maintained its value at that time.

Now it is the opposite as everyone is waiting to cash out after the peg is removed. Thus if there is no specific deadline given for unpeg, the possibility of cash out is unknown.