Salam and good day
Visited our upgraded Mini Zoo yesterday with my grandson. Pleasantly surprised,I must say.
Apparently, it's the first hybrid zoo in Malaysia. Hybrid in that it combines both live animals and replicas of pre historic predators. Worth a visit. I'm just going to post pictures of the Mini Zoo... in mini packages.
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| entrance |
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| in Middle Earth now ... The Hobbit house |
close encounter of the third kind
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| blast from the past more pics in the next instalment of The Hybrid Zoo. |
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| Tongkat Warrant image from google |
These are not the refugees we are used to... These people are Europeans. These people are intelligent, they are educated people... This is not the refugee wave we have been used to, people we were not sure about their identity, people with unclear pasts, who could have been even terrorists ...
Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kirril Petkov
These are prosperous, middle class people. These are not obviously refugees trying to get away from areas in the Middle East ... in North Africa. They look like any European family that you would live next door to ...
Al Jazeera English, Television presenter
This isn't a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilised, relatively European - I have to choose those words carefully too - city where you wouldn't expect that, or hope it's going to happen.
Charlie D'Agata, CBS News senior correspondent
[Ukranian refugees] are prosperous, middle class people. These are obviously not refugees trying to get away from areas in the Middle East that are still in a big state of war.These are not people trying to get away from areas in North Africa. They look like any European family that you would live next door to.
Peter Dobbie, Al Jazeera English, anchor
Some European commentators on Western Media have described Ukrainian refugees as being 'civilised', 'middle-class' and 'prosperous' and different from those from 'third world nations'.
the conversation.com
and if that's not enough,
The New York Times reported that non-white people fleeing Ukraine were being blocked from leaving, in favour of white Ukrainians.
Wow. The blatant doubIe standard and racism makes me sick.
I don't mean to be negative, but
WTF!!!!!!!!!!
I feel for refugees from Asia and Africa, I really do.
This makes it very difficult for me to feel any sympathy for Ukrainians.
REFERENCES:
https://theconversation.com/ukrainian-refugees-are-welcomed-with-open-arms-not-so-with-people-fleeing-other-war-torn-countries-178491
https://www.dailyexcelsior.com/europe-welcomes-ukrainian-refugees-others-less-so/
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/why-are-some-refugees-more-welcome-than-others/
https://www.thestar.com/news/world/2022/03/17/europe-throws-open-its-doors-for-ukrainians-for-afghans-and-other-refugees-its-detention-and-even-beatings.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/world/europe/ukraine-refugees-poland-belarus.html
Happy New Year all.
Stay safe. Stay strong. Believe in yourself and keep passing the open windows.
video from youtube
Salam and good day I wish you on this cold and wet morning.
The monsoon is here... as expected. Cold, wet, windy ... the whole bloody lot. Mother nature is always reliable. It's pouring cats and dogs this morning. well, actually, it's been pouring since yesterday, and has gotten even worse today. Cats and dogs yesterday, cows and pigs today... LOL
Salam and good day.
55 today. Thank you Allah.
What can I say. It's been a long weary year. Covid is still lingering in the air and things are only halfway back to normal. Not sure whether we will be able to get back to pre-covid normal. A lot of people are taking the current situation as the new normal.
Well, new or old, I can't wait to retire... on this day next year, I will be free... for now... let's hope for a miracle...
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| photo from Pinterest |
Here I am again, ready to begin another semester. Seems like just yesterday I finished teaching the third semester.
This semester, instead of online teaching, (which I have sort of gotten used to by now), the university wants us to do hybrid lesson. Hybrid, meaning, a combination of online and face to face lesson., ie: 50% of each. Sounds simple enough. Well, it is anything but simple.
The 50% face to face and online only applies to students' learning time,
For the lecturers, its actually 100% face to face, but in the face to face class, only 50% of the students will be physically present and the remaining will have it as an online lesson. That's one scenario. I know. It's complicated.
Anyway, the hybrid lesson consists of six different scenarios based to the actual number of students who are physically on campus and those who are not. Therefore, if I have six sections to teach, and unluckily, have six different scenarios, well... chaos would be an understatement. I'm literally heading into a storm.
The bright side is this coming semester would be my second last before I'm off to my retirement. Sooo looking forward to it. I'm just too old for this mode of teaching.
Speaking of storm, it's October now, and we can expect a visit from our dear friend, the North East monsoon in a few weeks. Yes, Mr Monsoon will come with abundance of rain, leaving a trail of destruction in its path. That gives me an idea for a November poem. Hopefully, I will have the time to think about it, you know, with all the chaos.
But, for now, I need something soothing... here it is...
Despite, the title, My Melancholy Blues, This song is not at all depressing. It is the most peaceful and serene song ever.
related post : death-on-two-legs-dedicated-to.
I'm hanging onto the clouds
by my fingertips
I curse the wind
I curse the sea
I curse the moonlight
wishing they would stop mocking
and just let me be
I'm hanging onto the clouds
by my fingertips
way beneath I could see
a sea of smiling faces
thousands of helping hands
beckoning me
to come down
Still I hung onto the clouds
by the very end of my fingertips
and
When my strength grudgingly hands me over
to the grasping arms of gravity
and the earth gets to lay its hands on me
dare they be my safety net
or
would they
with a smile plastered on their faces
mutter...poor thing
and go on to talk about politics
so
I shall keep hanging onto the clouds
by the strength of my fingertips....
Salam and good day. It's the end of July/ early August, and my tuberose is blooming. Go figure. Despite its name, tuberose is not act...
