White vs Brown

I know that they say modern Indian males (especially South Indians) are now less choosy when it comes to the skin colour of their wife-to-be, but, somehow, I still know of those who insist on marrying only those with fair complexion - despite the fact that they themselves aren't any brighter than the colour of my favourite American chocolate cake.

Why the bias and fuss, you ask?

I never knew and till today, I still find it puzzling that having 'fair skin' is among the top criteria for Indian men when seeking life partners.

Of course, some of my chauvinistic Indian male friends defend their preference which is ultimately colour-discrimination, by saying that they are only ensuring that their future generation looks better then them.

You want me to buy this story? Get out of here!

Beyond the pale?
By Naresh Puri
Source: www.bbc.co.uk

One of Bollywood's biggest film stars is being criticised by Asian campaigners for promoting a skin-lightening cream - a product that is now on the shelves of British shops.
The 40-second advertisement from India starts like so many others promoting razors or hair dye - but it's an ad with a very big difference.
There's a man who has no luck with the girls. He has markedly darker skin than his friends and the girl he is after. In a real song-and-dance Bollywood extravaganza, one of the biggest heart throbs of Indian cinema, Shahrukh Khan, hands over a cream to the hapless chap, along with some mild admonishment.
Within a few weeks, the young man has turned much lighter-skinned and confident. As he strides down the road like a modern-day answer to John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, the girls start flocking to him and chanting: "Hi handsome, hi handsome." Khan comes back into view with the product, Fair and Handsome.
The skin-lightening cream for men, along with its more feminine counterparts, has found its way into Asian supermarkets and stores in the UK.
While Khan's advert has not been shown yet in the UK, it too has made its way to British consumers via YouTube. And the product's success or failure in the British market place may say something about the nature of beauty and the politics of race.
Kiran Kaur - a Sikh human rights activist in west London, one of the epicentres of Asian cultural life in the UK - says the arrival of Fair and Handsome, with a Bollywood name in tow, is a step back in time.
'Age-old prejudices'
"The ad simply reinforces the idea that you've got to be fair to be anything in life," says Kiran. "It says that if you're fair and good looking, you'll be a wonderful daughter-in-law or husband, your skin colour determines how successful you'll be in life. The ad reinforces age-old prejudices."
The skin-lightening industry is worth at least £100m in India and the Fair-and-Handsome-for-Men range is the latest product from one of the market's big players.
Manufacturers say they are responding to a demand, but in recent years protests in India have seen at least one advert taken off air. Other lightening products targeted at black women have been on sale for years, some of them containing chemicals banned for years from British goods.
Actress Rani Moorthy knows first hand about the prejudice suffered by Asians with darker skin. She is currently touring the UK with her play that focuses on skin colour, Shades of Brown.
"When I was a child my grandmother took me to one side and said make sure you're good at something, no man will ever marry you for your looks," she says.
"I knew this was because I was dark skinned. It was treated as a disease and every Friday I had to have oil baths in an attempt to lighten my skin".
'A huge star'
She feels a major Bollywood star backing a skin-lightening cream will intensify the prejudice that already exists within the South Asian community, in which the darker skinned can find themselves looked down upon - just as it still happens in parts of India today.
"Deep within this 5,000-year-old culture is the thought that high ideals, nobility and high caste are associated with fair skin," she says. "Dark skin is regarded as low status and low caste."
But what chance do voices like Rani's stand against the screen presence of Shahrukh Khan? Perhaps the best measure of Khan's influence on British Asians is to look at the success of his films.
Dil Se, released in 1998, was the first Bollywood movie to make it into the British box office Top 10.
The film's key clips, including an exhilarating dance upon a moving train, have totted up more than one million hits on YouTube. Khan, a big enough brand to be known just as SRK, is the equivalent of Tom Cruise - and then some.
His Fair-and-Handsome advert won't be missed by British Asians as they follow every Bollywood move, says Sunny Hundal, the editor of Asians in Media, a website that charts the rise of British Asian culture.

'Immoral'
"Shahrukh Khan is a huge star in India and his endorsement will no doubt raise the profile of this product," he says. "Impressionable young men will get the idea that if they want to be attractive like him, they should also use it."
"The cult of media personality, especially cricket or Bollywood stars, is a much bigger phenomena in India and so brands are much more partial to celebrity endorsements.
Khan is Bollywood's 'Tom Cruise'"But what SRK is essentially doing is confirming and promoting the condescending attitude that many Indians have towards dark-coloured skin. His endorsement is completely immoral."
Neither the manufacturers nor a spokesman for Khan would comment on his involvement in the campaign.
But Manish Shah, a distributor for Fair and Handsome says skin lightening creams are very important because "everybody wants to look really good".
"They're not bad for the skin," he says. "If people have an inferiority complex because of their skin colour, then this product will really help. It does what it says. It makes you fair and handsome. There's a lot of interest in this product and quite simply it makes people look really good."

Durveish Turns Nine

My second nephew, Durveish, turns nine today.

Happy birthday to Durveish:-)



Left to right: Big brother Avinaash & Durveish

Dead Body In Bag: It's Nurin

This is nothing short of a barbaric act committed upon an innocent soul, who must have been totally defenseless throughout her horrifying moments of torture.

I don't know her, I don't know her parents but my heart grieves...it's painful to see a complete stranger undergoing such harsh treatment - can you imagine what it would be like for her parents and loved ones?

If the dead is indeed Nurin, my deepest sympathy to her parents. May her soul rest in peace and may God see to it that the perpetrator is justly dealt with.

DNA tests: Body found in bag is Nurin

Source: www.thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: The police have said that DNA tests on the body found stuffed in a sports bag on Monday in Petaling Jaya show that it is that of missing girl Nurin Jazlin Jazimin.
Petaling Jaya OCPD ACP Arjunaidi Mohamed on Thursday said that DNA tests have so far indicated that the body found in a shophouse at Jalan PJS1, Petaling Jaya Utama is that of Nurin, 8, who had been missing since Aug 20.
At Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Nurin's father Jazimin Abdul Jalil, 33, a taxi driver still denied the body was that of his daughter, reports BERNAMA.
"I am Nurin's father ... I know my daughter better than anyone else. My heart is saying the body is not my daughter.
"If police ask me to take the body, I will accept, I will perform the funeral rites and bury it. But I want the police to pursue the search for Nurin because I know Nurin is still safe out there," he said, speaking to reporters outside the HKL mortuary.
Jazimin added that he was sure the body was not Nurin because of the teeth and the scar that Nurin had.
According to Jazimin, Nurin's teeth did not have gaps between them and she also had a scar on her thigh.
Nurin's mother Norazian Bistaman, 35, said she was ready to accept what the authorities tell her.
"What else can I say. The DNA test shows she is my daughter. I will accept the will of God.
"As a mother, I still hope the body is not my daughter's. Which mother will accept the reality that her daughter was raped and killed brutally.
"Only God knows the extent of my sadness and grief," she said in tears.
Norazian said this year's Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebrations would be the most joyous and meaningful in her life in the event Nurin was found safe and sound.
"In fact, we've already bought Nurin's Hari Raya dress and I will patiently wait for her return," she added.

Dirty, Dirty Males

Men are dirtier than women

Source:http://www.gulf-dailynews.com/story.aspArticle=194244&Sn=WORL&IssueID=30182

THE gender gap has widened when it comes to hygiene, according to the latest stakeout by the "hand washing police."
One-third of men did not bother to wash after using the bathroom, compared with 12 per cent of women, said researchers who spy on people in US public restrooms.
The study is based on observations last month of more than 6,000 people in four big American cities.
"Guys need to step up to the sink," said Brian Sansoni, spokesman for the Soap and Detergent Association, which co-sponsors the survey and related education campaigns.
Frequent hand washing is the single best thing people can do to avoid getting sick, from colds and the flu to germs lurking in food, doctors say.
Researchers for the American Society for Microbiology found that only 77pc people washed their hands, when it came to public restrooms.
Atlanta's Turner Field baseball stadium again was the worst. Only 57pc of guys there washed up, compared to 95pc of women.
In restrooms at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium and Museum of Science and Industry, 81pc of men and women combined washed their hands, compared to 79pc at New York's Penn and Grand Central train stations.

What In The World...

is happening in our country? Have we really become so inhumane and senseless?

Child found sexually assaulted and killed
By RASHITHA A. HAMID
Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.aspfile=/2007/9/18/nation/18914532&sec=nation
PETALING JAYA: She was just a little girl. But that did not stop some sick monster from killing her after sexually assaulting her.
Her naked body was stuffed into a sports bag and left at the staircase of a shop lot in PJS1/48 Petaling Utama yesterday.
There were bruises on her neck, suggesting that she may have been strangled. There were also bruises on her hands.
The girl, said to be between six and nine, was initially feared to be eight-year-old Nurin Jazlin Jazimin who has been reported missing. But Nurin Jazlin’s parents, who rushed to the Hospital Kuala Lumpur mortuary, said it was not their daughter.
A supervisor with a book distributing company Cheng Yan Fang, 32, found the black-and-blue sports bag at 8.30am outside the premises. She thought the bag belonged to her employer who had just returned from Singapore.
Jack Yeoh Huat Lip, 51, the general manager of the company came in 30 minutes later and said the bag was not his.
When he opened it, he was horrified to see a pair of legs. He immediately called the police.
“Saturday was a half day and the office was closed yesterday,” Yeoh said, adding that the supervisor who left the office at 1pm on Saturday did not see anything near the staircase then.
Petaling Jaya police chief Asst Comm Arjunaidi Mohd confirmed a post mortem report that the killer had placed a cucumber and a brinjal in the girl’s private parts.
“She must have endured so much pain before she died,” he said.
Police believe the girl, whose identity has not been ascertained, had been dead for more than six hours before her body was found.
Police are appealing to those with missing daughters to call the district police headquarters here at 03-79562222. No arrest has been made yet.

Hit repeatedly for recording proceedings
By MARIAM THANY
Source:http://www.mmail.com.my/Current_News/mm/Monday/Frontpage/20070917090805/Article/index_html

“A SELAYANG Municipal Council representative knocked me on the head with a book,” claimed animal lover Lim Ann Nee, who was among those who attended a meeting with the council on the dog-catching competition at its offi ce, last Friday.
The meeting was attended by Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Malaysian Animal Assisted Therapy Association (PetPositve), Malaysian Animal Rights and Welfare Society (Roar), Malaysian Association for Responsible Pet Ownership (Marpo) and the Coalition of Animal Lovers Malaysia (Calm).
“I was standing outside the MPS building with other animal lovers, waiting for the meeting to be over.
“When PetPositive representatives Anthony Thanasayan and Roar president N. Surendran (Surin) came out from the conference, we were surprised and started to speculate as to what could have happened.
“I started to film what was happening with my camcorder, including the directors leaving the office,” she said.
“I was not aware that a man was staring at me. He shouted ‘Apa you tangkap?’ (What are you recording?) “I switched off my camcorder but when he started to walk towards me, I knew something bad was going to happen and quickly switched it back on to record everything.
“The man realised that I was recording him, and he hit my camcorder.”

She claimed that her alleged assailant used a booklet he was holding and hit her for almost 10 minutes.
“He wanted to hit my head but failed because I was leaning and moving back to protect myself.
“Before he left, he shouted at me ‘Awak stupid and semua sini pergi mampus’ (You’re an idiot and all of you can go ahead and die),” said Lim.
Lim lodged a report at the Sentul police station the same day.
The Malay Mail contacted MPS president Zainal Abidin Azim on the matter, but he refused to comment.
“Since it’s already a police case, I leave it to them to investigate,” he said.
Zainal also denied knowing the alleged assailant and why he was at the meeting.
Calm representative Natasha Fernz, when contacted, said she witnessed the incident.
She also claimed that the man had also disrupted the meeting when they (the NGOs) complained that the meeting room, located on the second floor of MPS’s old building, was not conducive for Thanasayan, who is wheelchair bound.
They requested that the venue be changed to another room in MPS’s new building, which was better-equipped with facilities for the disabled.
She claimed that when the request was made, Lim’s alleged assailant and several other council representatives made snide remarks.
Natasha said after they moved to the new meeting room, they asked the council if the dog-catching competition would be cancelled.
She said that when State Assemblyman Datuk Tang See Hang replied that the competition would not be cancelled, all the NGOs except for representative from the SPCA, decided to walk out.
“Some of the MPS representatives started to shout at us, asking us to sit down. This was when Lim’s alleged attacker tried to stop Thanasayan from leaving, but he was held back by several people.
He even threatened to hit Thanasayan,” claimed Natasha.
She added that the incident continued outside when she saw the man hitting Lim.
She said Thanasayan and Surin had also lodged a police report on the incident.

Two Opposites

On one paradise island in the world:


Scores killed in Thai plane crash
Source: www.bbc.co.uk

At least 88 people have been confirmed killed in a plane crash in the tourist resort of Phuket in southern Thailand.
The aircraft skidded off the runway after landing in heavy rain and exploded into flames.
It was carrying 123 passengers - most of them foreigners - and seven crew.

About 40 people escaped the burning wreckage and were taken to hospital.
Flight OG 269, operated by airline One-Two-Go, had flown to Phuket from the Thai capital, Bangkok.
More than 80 bodies have been recovered and are now lying in a makeshift morgue at Phuket airport.
Survivor
A French tourist aboard a plane behind the one that crashed told AFP news agency she saw the accident happen.
"When the plane landed it caught fire," she said. "We could see the fire coming out of it."
Survivors crawled out of the wreckage through thick smoke, many of them badly burned.
Passenger Parinwit Chusaeng told Thai TV: "I saw passengers engulfed in fire as I stepped over them on the way out of the plane.
"I was afraid that the airplane was going to explode, so I ran away."
Aborted landing?
Phuket Deputy Governor Worapot Ratthaseema said 42 people had been taken to hospital. Five are said to be in critical condition.
Those injured included nationals from Australia, Britain, France, Iran, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
At least 70 of the passengers were foreigners, officials said.
Both the pilot and co-pilot of the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 are among those who escaped.
Survivors say the pilot circled the area hoping for the weather to clear before making his final disastrous approach.
The flight was approaching the airport when the pilot asked to abort the landing, an aviation official told Thai television.
"The control tower allowed it but the aircraft fell to the runway and the body broke," he said.
One-Two-Go is one of Thailand's first budget airlines.
It was set up in December 2003 as a subsidiary of Orient Thai Airways, and services domestic routes.
This is Thailand's deadliest aviation accident since December 1998, when 101 people were killed after a Thai Airways crashed on landing near another southern resort.

And on the other side of the globe, in Down Under:


Australia navy in breast op row
Source: www.bbc.co.uk

The navy said breast implants were not to make sailors "look sexy"Australia's opposition Labor Party has questioned the need for female sailors to be given breast enlargements paid for with public money.
An armed forces spokesman defended the operations, saying they were carried out for psychological reasons, not to make sailors "look sexy".
Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said the "holistic needs" of service personnel were considered under defence policy.
But he said breast augmentations were not routinely funded by the military.
"We do consider the broader needs of our people, both physical and psychological," Brig Nikolic said.
"But that is a long way from saying that if someone doesn't like their appearance, Defence will fund things like breast augmentation as a matter of routine - that is just not correct."
He was speaking after one plastic surgeon said he had carried out breast enlargements on two sailors, aged 25 and 32, for A$10,000 (£4,200) each.
Brig Nikolic said such operations were only recommended after a medical evaluation.
But the opposition Labor Party said it wanted details on the cases.
"On the face of it, taxpayer-funded breast enhancement is a questionable practice," said Labor defence spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon.
"I have to say [it] smacks of a government out of touch."

Chocoholism

By admission under no duress - yes, I'm a chocolate lover but no addict.

But when I take a deeper look, I think I find it very hard to resist chocolate and anything chocolaty.

You know, ranging from edible cocoa chocolate to chocolate cakes to chocolate ice cream to chocolate chip cookies to chocolate milk to oh...just about anything remotely laced with chocolate, almost everything on this list gets my taste buds aroused and I mean it.

It's somehow programmed in my mind that chocolate must equal to good taste and great satisfaction! Of course I don't have a problem in keeping my chocolate intake under close watch due to health reasons but then again, chocolates never fail to melt me to my knees (and I don't think I'm alone in this!).

And being such a sucker of chocolates and anything chocolaty - or shall I just say being such a chocoholic - I try so hard to keep up with this global argument about whether chocolate is good for health and it seems to me like this is beginning to be like this 'now it's good and now it's not' kinda thing.

Oh well, the truth be told, its not like any amount of literature on how bad chocolate is for your health has ever stopped me from taking my next bite...and now, after reading the article below, I so agree with the fact that we continue lusting (at least me!) after chocolate due to its 'naughty but nice' appeal.

Chocolate cravings come out of the box
By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News, York
Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Our love of chocolate knows no bounds.
We think about it, dream about it, and probably - just sometimes - eat a bit too much of it. Some people even go so far as to claim to be addicted to it.
But what drives our cravings for chocolate?
Some believe it contains mind-bending ingredients that can enhance our moods.
bite, they maintain, and chocolate's psychoactive compounds cause warm and fuzzy feelings to wash over us, making us want more and more.
But Peter Rogers, professor of biological psychology from Bristol University who is speaking at the BA Festival of Science in York, has carried out research that suggests this is not the case.
Not the culprit
To test chocolate's feel-good power, he gave volunteers some tasteless capsules to swallow.
Some contained cocoa powder, which, because it contains a higher concentration of these mood-enhancing chemicals, should cause a marked effect on the volunteers' disposition; other capsules contained nothing but starch.
Professor Rogers said: "We tested how they were feeling afterwards - did they feel a buzz or an elevated mood after eating the cocoa?
"The volunteers did say that they felt a bit more alert and stimulated - but not euphoric. We think any slight stimulation is (down to) the caffeine."
He said that other research had also suggested chocolate's chemical make-up was not the culprit for our lust for the stuff.
"It doesn't stack up," he said.
"A lot of those substances are in other foods that do not have the same appeal as chocolate. Also, the concentration seems too low for them to be having an effect, especially in the UK's favourite type, milk chocolate."
Instead, he suggested that chocoholics were chocoholics because their favourite food was often deemed "naughty but nice".
He explained: "The nice bit is its sweet taste, lovely melt-in-the-mouth texture, and our associations that we have in our food culture - we use it as a gift, a reward and as something to treat ourselves with - which gives it extra appeal.
"On the negative side, it is something we shouldn't eat too much of, it's not a staple food in our diet, it is relatively high in fat and sugar, and therefore potentially unhealthy."
Different strokes
It is this that makes us want it so much. We are wrestling with the desire to eat it because it is so nice; but we restrain ourselves, because we perceive eating it as being naughty.
And this unfulfilled desire, said Professor Rogers, was experienced as a craving, which in turn is attributed to addiction.
Attitudes towards chocolate around the world also backed up this idea that our want for chocolate stems from the values we place upon it, he added.
In the US, he said, a survey of women showed that they mostly craved chocolate at certain points in their menstrual cycle, while in Spain, women said they wanted to eat it most after dinner.
"It is explained by culture and not chemistry," he added.
Tricking the brain
But how can we escape from this chocolate lust that may be all in the mind?
One way, said Professor Rogers, was to try thinking about a piece of fruit each time you thought about chocolate, in the hope that your cravings might transfer to the healthier option.
More realistically though, he suggested that if chocolate consumption was modest, trying to enjoy the experience of eating it rather than feeling bad about it could break the naughty-but-nice cycle.
if this doesn't work and your hankerings for chocolate feel just too overwhelming, then perhaps some other research presented at the BA science festival may bring a little cheer.
Roger Corder, professor of experimental therapeutics at Queen Mary, University of London, has found that eating chocolate can aid a healthy heart.
But not just any old stuff - there is chocolate, and then there is chocolate.
Fresh cocoa beans are a rich source of a type of chemical called a flavinoid, and these molecules have been shown to protect cardiovascular systems.
But by the time cocoa beans find their way into chocolate bars, only a tiny proportion of flavinoids are left. Some are lost through the manufacturing process; and in any case, many products contain relatively little cocoa and relatively large amounts of sugar and fat.
To get optimum heart-boosting effects, the chocolate needs to contain about 75-85% cocoa solids, and about 25g should be eaten a day, the scientist said.
Professor Corder is about to embark on a clinical trial to test chocolate eating's effect on the heart.
He may just find recruiting volunteers for this trial a little easier than normal.

Wisdom

Sumatra: Second Quake Hits

My prayers to those who perished in yet another earthquake in Indonesia and deepest sympathy to the others who are suffering due to Mother Nature's violent way of venting her fury.

Second strong quake hits Sumatra

Source: www.bbc.co.uk

Another powerful earthquake has hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a day after the world's strongest tremor so far this year caused extensive damage.
At least nine people were killed and many buildings damaged. But the full scale of the impact has yet to emerge.
Tsunami warnings were repeatedly issued and lifted, as many people ran inland fearing a repeat of the 2004 tsunami.
Thursday's magnitude-7.8 quake hit the same area in southern Sumatra as the tremor of 8.4 on Wednesday.
The second quake struck at 0649 on Thursday (2349 GMT on Wednesday), about 10km (six miles) under the sea, some 185km (115 miles) south-east of the city of Padang, the US Geological Survey says.
It came some 12 hours after the main tremor, about 30km (18 miles) under the sea, 130km (80 miles) south-west of the city of Bengkulu.
At least 40 people have been injured and hundreds of buildings damaged, officials say.
"Many buildings collapsed after this morning's [Thursday's] quake. We're still trying to find out about victims," Padang Mayor Fauzi Bahar told a local radio station.
Casualties appear to be lower than first feared, but officials warn that bad communications may be hiding the scale of the impact.
Health officials in the capital Jakarta say teams carrying food and medicine are travelling to the area, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered an emergency team from the army and police.
The United Nations said its was also heading for Sumatra.
Fleeing inland
Wednesday's quake sparked warnings across the Indian Ocean, but only a small wave surge of about 1m (3ft) hit Sumatra, causing little damage.
But about two hours after the quake, Indonesia's meteorology agency said the danger of a serious tsunami had passed. India and Sri Lanka also called off tsunami warnings.
At least a dozen aftershocks were felt later and four tsunami warnings briefly declared and then lifted, the BBC's Lucy Williamson reports from Jakarta.
People have been told to leave their homes on the coast and move inland.
Thousands of people were reported to have spent the night sleeping in the open air in the areas of Benkulu and Padang after the previous quake left them terrified.
Fearful memories
Wednesday's earthquake was one of the most powerful in Indonesia since the tremor that caused the Asian tsunami in 2004.
That measured 8.9 and struck under the sea near the northern Sumatran province of Aceh, triggering a tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people around the rim of the Indian Ocean.
Our correspondent says quakes on this scale are rare and memories of 2004 have made the country terrified of a repeat.
Indonesia, part of the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire", is frequently shaken by earth tremors.

Sex Day: Russian Style To Boost Birth

Ain't this cool?

If you are among those couples planning to have a junior soon - in nine months exactly - then this plan will make you smile.

Better off, if you're a Russion living in Ulyanovsk, you've got more reasons to cheer.

As for the rest, you can keep having a fat hope that something remotely close to this will ever happen here, in our soil, anytime soon.

Read below:

Russian 'sex day' to boost births
Source: www.bbc.co.uk

The governor of Ulyanovsk region in Russia is offering prizes to couples who have babies in exactly nine months - on Russia's national day on 12 June.
Sergei Morozov wants couples to take the day off work to have sex. If a baby is born on national day, they will receive cars, TVs or other prizes.
Mr Morozov has declared Wednesday "family contact day" as part of efforts to fight Russia's demographic crisis.
The population has sharply declined since the Soviet Union collapsed.
This is the third year that Ulyanovsk, in central Russia, is offering prizes for babies born on 12 June.
This year, a couple won the grand prize of a sports utility vehicle (SUV).
The initiative seems to be paying off, as the region's birth rate has risen by 4.5% over the last year.
"If there's a good, healthy atmosphere at home within the family, if the husband and wife both love each other and their child, they will be in good spirits... so there'll be a healthy atmosphere throughout the country," Mr Morozov told the Associated Press news agency.
Demographers estimate that Russia could lose 40 million people - almost a third of its current population - by the middle of the century.
A combination of falling birth rates, emigration and an ailing healthcare system has led to the decline.
President Vladimir Putin has introduced a scheme to encourage more children.
Women who have a second or third child are eligible to receive $9,000, which can be used to pay for education or home purchases.

Interesting Conversation

An atheist professor of philosophy speaks to his class on the problem science has with God, The Almighty.

He asks one of his new Muslim students to stand and.....

Professor: You are a Muslim, aren't you, son?

Student: Yes, sir.

Prof: So you believe in God?

Student: Absolutely, sir.

Prof: Is God good?

Student: Sure.

Prof: Is God all-powerful?

Student: Yes.

Prof: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to God to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But God didn't. How is this God good then?

Hmm?(Student is silent.)

Prof: You can't answer, can you? Let's start again, young fella. Is God good?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Is Satan good?

Student: No.

Prof: Where does Satan come from?

Student: From...God...

Prof: That's right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?

Student: Yes.

Prof: Evil is everywhere, isn't it? And God did make everything. Correct?

Student : Yes.

Prof: So who created evil?

(Student does not answer.)

Prof: Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don't they?

Student: Yes, sir.

Prof: So, who created them?

(Student has no answer.)

Prof: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around you. Tell me, son...Have you ever seen God?

Student:No, sir.

Prof: Tell us if you have ever heard your God?

Student: No, sir.

Prof: Have you ever felt your God, tasted your God, smelt your God? Have you ever had any sensory perception of God for that matter?
Student : No, sir. I'm afraid I haven't.

Prof: Yet you still believe in Him?

Student: Yes.

Prof: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn't exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student : Nothing. I only have my faith.

Prof: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem science has.

Student : Professor, is there such a thing as heat?

Prof: Yes.

Student: And is there such a thing as cold?

Prof: Yes.

Student: No sir. There isn't.

(The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with this turn of events.)

Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, superheat, mega heat, white heat, a little heat or no heat. But we don't have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but not any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.

(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre.)

Student: What about darkness, Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?

Prof: Yes. What is night if there isn't darkness?

Student: You're wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it's called darkness, isn't it? In reality, darkness isn't. If it were you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn't you?

Prof: So what is the point you are making, young man?

Student : Sir, my point is your philosophical premise is flawed.

Prof: Flawed? Can you explain how?

Student : Sir, you are working on the premise of duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure. Sir, science can't even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?

Prof: If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, yes, of course, I do.

Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?

(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argument is going.)Student: Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an on-going endeavour, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher?

(The class is in uproar.)

Student : Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the Professor's brain?

(The class breaks out into laughter.)

Student : Is there anyone here who has ever heard the Professor's brain, felt it, touched or smelt it?.....No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, sir. With all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir?

(The room is silent. The professor stares at the student, his face unfathomable.)

Prof: I guess you'll have to take them on faith, son.

Student: That is it sir. The link between man & god is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving & alive.

Grandma In Court

Got this via email from a friend and it was too good not to be shared.

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Lawyers should never ask grandmas a question if they aren't prepared for the answer.

In a trial, a small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, an elderly grandmother to the stand.

He approached her and asked; "Mrs.. Jones, do you know me?"

She responded, "Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a young boy, and frankly, you're a big disappointment to me. You lie, cheat on your wife, manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot when you haven't the brains to realize you never will amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you."

The lawyer was stunned!

Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, "Mrs.. Jones, do you know the defense attorney?"

She again replied, "Why, yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster. He's lazy, bigoted and has a drinking problem. He can't build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the worst in the state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women. One of them was your wife. Yes I know him."

The defense attorney almost died.

The judge asked both lawyers to approach the bench and in a quiet voice said: "If either of you rascals asks her if she knows me, I'll send you to the electric chair."