Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Pulitzer Prize Winner's Speech

We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly
disguised as impossible situations.

This was a speech made by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Anna Quindlen at
the graduation ceremony of an American university where she was awarded an
Honorary PhD.

"I'm a novelist. My work is human nature. Real life is all I know. Don't
ever confuse the two, your life and your work. You will walk out of here
this afternoon with only one thing that no one else has. There will be
hundreds of people out there with your same degree: there will be
thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living. But you will
be the only
person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your
entire life. Not just your life at a desk or your life on a bus or in a
car or at the computer. Not just the life of your mind, but the life of
your heart. Not just your bank accounts but also your soul.

People don't talk about the soul very much anymore. It's so much easier
to write a resume than to craft a spirit. But a resume is cold comfort on
a
winter's night, or when you're sad, or broke, or lonely, or when you've
received your test results and they're not so good.

Here is my resume: I am a good mother to three children. I have tried
never to let my work stand in the way of being a good parent. I no longer
consider myself the centre of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try
to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage
vows mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends and them to me.
Without them, there would be nothing to say to you today, because I would
be a cardboard cut out. But I call them on the phone and I meet them
for lunch. I would be rotten, at best mediocre, at my job if those other
things were not true.

You cannot be really first rate at your work if your work is all you are.
So
here's what I wanted to tell you today: Get a life. A real life, not a
manic pursuit of the next promotion, the bigger pay cheque, the larger
house. Do you think you'd care so very much about those things if you
blew an aneurysm one afternoon or found a lump in your breast?

Get a life in which you notice the smell of salt water pushing itself on a
breeze at the seaside, a life in which you stop and watch how a red-tailed
hawk circles over the water, or the way a baby scowls with concentration
when she tries to pick up a sweet with her thumb and first finger.

Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love, and who love
you. And remember that love is not leisure, it is work. Pick up the phone.
Send an email. Write a letter. Get a life in which you are generous. And
realize that life is the best thing ever, and that you have no business
taking it for granted. Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to
spread it around. Take money you would have spent on beer and give it to
charity. Work in a soup kitchen. Be a big brother or sister. All of you
want to do well. But if you do not do good too, then doing well will
never be enough.

It is so easy to waste our lives, our days, our hours, and our minutes. It
is so easy to take for granted the colour of our kids' eyes, the way the
melody in a symphony rises and falls and disappears and rises again. It is
so easy to exist instead of to live.

I learned to live many years ago. I learned to love the journey, not the
destination. I learned that it is not a dress rehearsal, and that today is
the only guarantee you get. I learned to look at all the good in the world
and try to give some of it back because I believed in it, completely and
utterly. And I tried to do that, in part, by telling others what I had
learned. By telling them this: Consider the lilies of the field. Look at
the fuzz on a baby's ear. Read in the backyard with the sun on your face.

Learn to be happy. And think of life as a terminal illness, because if
you do, you will live it with joy and passion as it ought to be lived".


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Thursday, June 04, 2009

Zaid torches Utusan for stoking racial flames

Zaid torches Utusan for stoking racial flames
Jun 1, 09 7:00pm
Former Umno leader and minister Zaid Ibrahim has lashed out at Malay
daily Utusan Malaysia for playing up racial sentiments.

He said the articles which appeared in the daily's Sunday edition
reminded him of how far removed the paper is from the reality of life
in Malaysia.

"This is probably the reason why its readership is on the decline.
It's theme and main plot is race, race and race," he added in a blog
posting.

Zaid cited a particular article with the heading 'Melayu
dikhianati?' (Malays betrayed) penned by Awang Selamat.

In the article, the former Umno leader said, the writer lamented that
he is hurt by the demands, which reek of racism, of the non-Malays
since the last general election.

"In other words, Malaysians must not hurt the feelings of Awang
Selamat because when Awang Selamat is hurt, Umno is hurt and when Umno
is hurt, the Malays are hurt.

"This is the logic of Awang Selamat," he added.

Zaid said the writer made no mention of the 'extreme' demands made by
the non-Malays in his article.

"If they (the non-Malays) are asking about scholarships, land
allocation and employment opportunities, can't these questions be
addressed rationally and based on facts?

"Why get hurt so easily?" he asked.

Are all their demands baseless?

The former de facto law minister also questioned if all the demands of
the non-Malays, whose rights are enshrined under the Federal
Constitution, were baseless?

According to Awang Selamat, he said, this appears to be the case
because "50 years ago Umno and the Malays were generous enough to
offer citizenship to their (non-Malays) ancestors."

"Since Umno had been gracious in according them citizenship, their
descendants should never make any demands because they must always be
grateful to Umno," he added.

Zaid pointed out that this is the exact mindset which is no longer
viable and has been rejected by all races.

When a citizen, be it a Malay, Chinese or Indian, asks for something,
he said it is the duty of the government and the media to evaluate it
in order to grant the request.

"If the demand is excessive, explain but don't raise history to cover
up shortcomings. Do not get angry always, threaten and dish out pieces
of incomplete history for political mileage," he said.

Zaid also reminded that the country obtained independence because the
British agreed with the alliance on the terms. "When we agree, we must
honour the agreement," he said.

In view of this, he said there was no reason to state that "we were
being generous in granting citizenship to the Chinese and Indians."

"The fact is, that is the term we agreed to. At the time, it was
impossible for the British to relinquish Malaya if the issue of
citizenship for Chinese and Indians was not resolved.

"The British were strict on this issue and Umno agreed. That is the
price which the Alliance accepted with an open heart. Does Utusanhave
different historical facts?" he added.

Zaid said even if one went by the perception that Umno was generous in
giving citizenship to non-Malays, there is still no room for Awang
Selamat's 'feudalist mindset' in a modern nation.

Those with 'blind hearts'

Meanwhile, he said another article by senior writer Zulkiflee Bakar
had advised Utusan readers not to be 'historically blind'.

"I suppose Malays like myself are historically blind. But history is
not difficult to learn and I am interested in knowing more.

"However, the most unfortunate people are those whose hearts are
blind. When our hearts are blind, no amount of facts or knowledge can
fill the void," he added.

Zaid said instead of stoking racial sentiments, Utusan should help the
prime minister find ways to develop the economy via pragmatic and just
policies.

"To Utusan, the Malays fail because of the Chinese and Indians. Wake
up Utusan, non-Malays and Malays themselves can tell the difference
between the Malay race and Umno, they know that when an Umno policy is
criticised, it is not challenging the Malays but Umno.

"Much effort is being put into creating friction between the Malays
and Chinese. Believe me, racial flames will not burn as brightly as
before," he said.

"The Malay mindset has changed. They know the challenges that lie
ahead in the world and the changes which they must make. OnlyUtusan
has not realised this," he added.

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