A Rare Specie (and Nov29 Update).

Many, many years ago as a child of 7 or 8, and like the many of the same age in the early 1970's, my brothers and I did not have many toys to play with, and usually immersed ourselves with games and toys of our own. One of the games had Emi and Din put some planks together in a drain where it became our 'submarine'. That, off course, was the time when the TV series 'Voyage To The Bottom of the Sea' was a big hit. Over the short period after our 'submarine' was built, we had to scuttle it as the family moved from one house to another. But what a great time we had then. Kids, never let their mind go idle. And so it was with my 2 elder brothers who taught me quite a bit about games, as well as life.

There was a time when we went back to Melaka Pindah during one of the school holidays, and was bored like no other. Emi and Din, both who were very 'lively' children, found a new game for us to play with. They captured a dragonfly which they tied it with a thread to one of the wooden poles in the garden. They would then blow the dragonfly to make it fly. Fly it did, in all directions as it tried to escape from the naughty children there, who, like that cakapaje, stood with mouth agape, looking in wonder at the beauty of the insect. Cruel, yes. But we were children, and the dragonfly does look like a helicopter which we had never seen up close before. Many year later, I was reminded about the dragonfly epidose when, at Nursara's birthday (Emi's daughter), I spotted one which to my mind, may just be a rare specie.

Initially, I thought it was a wilting flower, but its shape and colour begs me to have a closer look, which I am glad I did.
The Dragonfly, was seeking shelter under the leaves of a small tree, from the heavy downpour which lasted quite a while. I was sitting on the ledge of a corridor, when I noticed something peculiar about the 'flower'; its shape and colour seem unnatural for the tree, and had a closer look at it. SubhanAllah! Never have I seen such a beautiful Dragonfly before. Its wings were in red, the head a top part of the body in purplish-red, and its bottom was black, as can be seen in picture below, where it later flew and perched itself atop a large plastic butterly.
As a child innocent to the ways of the world, dragonflies had me spellbound for quite a while. Later, when I learnt that beautiful creature is a predator who eats other small creatures and insects, I began to hate it. Off course, very much later as I grew into an adult, I've come to accept the natural world as it is. And this Dragonfly is by far, the most beautiful I have ever seen. A rare specie, perhaps. But since I am not a naturalist, I'll leave it as that. This, however, brings another rare subject to mind. Not a specie definitely, mind you. But something which can lead a growing concern.

A friend emailed me the below. At a glance, I did not think much about it. But when I remember the Crooked Bridge episode, I wonder if this could be a new trend in business. Rare as it may be, the tendency does seem to point towards the direction where the best way to make profit is by sueing the authorities for an abandoned project, quite like the Crooked Bridge affair.

The Star, Tuesday, Nov 4, 2008

Now, I am not jumping the gun here by blaming anyone in this suit. I, however, question the amount, and whether a contract had been signed by the 2 parties. If so, then had the department in question made a feasibility study on the issue beforehand, or are they merely being a yes man to some unseen hand. If cases such as this are left unchecked, then billions more of the rakyat's money will go down the drain for a project that never took off. Let's hope I am wrong and that this, and the Brooked Bridge scandal, are mere business rarity.

Oh! Did I forget to mention the scrapped Cougar as well?

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Nov29 Update:
The below have been invited either through comment box, or via text messages.

1. Rocky bru
2. Sam Harris (have noted the date and most likely come)
3. Datuk A Kadir Jasin
4. Shirzad Lifeboat
5. Faizal Mustafa (PKR)

Meditation

I can't find the singer to this song and have to make do with this video. Quite a shame, as this song reminds me of a time when I tried to run my own small business in Section 15, Subang Jaya, some many years back. With promises of business support from several quarters, I rented a small office as the promised business would need more people to do sales.

Soon after acquiring some secondhand office furniture, and prior to the promised support, I used the office as a place for meditation, or 'berkhalwat' as Muslims would prefer to call it. There, I read the Noble Al-Quran and meditate the greatness of Allah s.w.t. Off course, I could only do that in between my running around servicing my already existing clients.

Then, the first part of the promise materialised and I took one guy as my sale staff. Can't remember how I met him nor what really transpired, but the guy was down on his luck with a broken marriage and no place to go. With promise of providing me with certain related documents, I took him in and allowed him to use the office as his temporary refuge. No, I was not being kind as he had a need as do I.

After initial training, day by day I gave him pocket money to sustain himself, along with some traveling expenses meant for business purposes. Day by day, he came back empty handed till one day, he asked me for RM50 when just the previous day I had given him the same amount. Worse, his breath reeked of alcohol and he looked rather tipsy - at lunch time! He said he needed the money to entertain a potential client and even dragged me to the meeting place which was a pub! I would not have anything to do with it and just drove off.

The next day, I took back the office keys and chased him out. I promised to give back all his stuff if he can produce the documents he promised. But the guy could not and I never returned his personal stuff. By then, the business promised to me had evaporated when a mutual friend stepped in and promising a big cut to the first guy's pocket. And I by then had reached the tail-end of my funds and returned the office back to the owner. In the end, all parties involved suffered losses as the business could not take off. Then, the Short-Message-System involving web portals were still new and not many corporations wanted to invest advertising or broadcasting using the system. Last I heard, a major GLC bought over the business and absorbed it as a parcel of its services.

Don't mind sharing with you, it took quite a bit of my confidence. Perhaps, though wiser now, I can only look back at that part of my life as takdir. But one thing though, the meditation part was beautiful.