ONI WAT...

Let me be bluntly honest, fasting during lent was a huge mystery to me as I grew up. It was not actually until I was young adult that basically I got the idea of what fasting is like for a Catholic. I’d like to share my experience as a Sarawakian Catholic who had to go through lent in a place where it is; for the vast majority of people…do not realize that fasting and abstinence is part of being Catholic. But to some extent, even fellow Catholics I know are unaware of what actually is meant by fasting and abstinence. Here’s a reference I made from http://www.aboutcatholics.com/beliefs/lent-in-the-catholic-church/ regarding fasting and abstinence. “Fasting means to limit food to one full meal a day with the possibility of two smaller meals (not adding up to a full meal) as needed. Abstinence means not eating meat, although fish is allowed.” Now, the requirements in terms of food intake seem to be simple enough, but there is another aspect of lent that is also very important, whi...

Oniwat otto siraru nai pilihan de salah? It is easy to fall into a state of hating someone; it’s just human nature to do so. As it has always been, it is human nature to sin ever since Adam and Eve ate those damned apples. So if that is the cause of why we humans are condemned to the high probability of going to hell, then those apples had better be worth it. Actually, I feel that it is not the case to ‘to sin is to be human’. It’s more accurate to say it as: "It is the ability to choose which makes us human." - Madeleine L'Engle We choose to either succumb to the devil’s wishes or God’s wishes. Believe it or not, it is as simple as that. Therefore, every single day of our ordinary lives is about making that choice. It’s not a multiple choice question like UPSR or the recently defunct PMR…it’s simply choice (A) Satan or (B) God. What we always forget in making these decisions at every juncture is the knowledge, awareness and judgment of what God actually expec...

Oniwat nyaa dang sirita itih tapod nai wat itih? Just earlier today in the office, the serenity of my workstation was compounded by the laughter of people from the pantry. Out of plain curiosity, I pretended I was going to make coffee by taking a sachet of 3 in 1 coffee-mix and huddled to the pantry door as if I was looking for my ‘lost’ coffee mug. I covertly blended in the environment of aunties’ gossip and it was then and there that I heard of this story from one of the aunties. The story goes like this: There was a guy who worked in oil and gas, quite senior in terms of experience and position; that had a wife and kids in Miri. He had a great family and great family relationship even though he had to work months at a time and to be far away from his family. One day, he told his wife that from the coming month onwards; he needed to work 3 months straight and then is only allowed 1 month leave. Basically, it means that he’s only around with his family for 4 months in a year....

Oniwat otto agak senasib duoh Proton? Yeah, yeah, I know…it’s really nothing new talking about how people are earning very little and spending more. If you have any kind of social media profiles at all, I think that every time the numbskulls at our federal government start tinkering with taxes and oil prices, some dude is already getting his pirated Adobe Photoshop to start creating the newest memes of our beloved ministers (Hey, we voted them to warm the seats in parliament, so that means we love ‘em, right?). There’s absolutely nothing to cheer about so far in terms of economic outlook for 2015. The fact of life for the average middle age to young working adult is that: We can never buy houses. We’re forced to buy small compact cars for the rest of our lives. Eating out at an ordinary café is now a luxury. I feel that anybody that’s born in the 80s feel like there is some sort of black cloud that keeps following them around, turning everything they touch in ash...